E-Mail #64
September 4th, 2012
Hello Family and Friends!
I hope you all have had a great Labor Day weekend. Mine was great, i did missionary work....pretty sweet right!?
Well this week was super tough, but super awesome at the same time. I think thats how it ALWAYS is in missionary work! But really its been pretty sweet, and STINKY. Well lets start with the stinky so then we can end with the MIRACLES that have happened!
STINKY: Tuesday night i did not sleep AT ALL.....why?!...because i am a BARNUM, and BARNUMS have BAD TEETH....At least they look pretty right?! Well i was up allllll night with a major tooth ache, the longest amount of sleep i got straight was one hour, the rest was just 20 minutes here and there that i would pass out and then wake back up in pain. I kept going into the bathroom to cry so i wouldnt wake up sister park, and i just kept praying that Heavenly Father would provide a way for me to get to the dentist the next day because i couldn't handle this for a couple days until a dentist had an opening. Well Heavenly Father ROCKS, so the next day i got up and started making calls to get to a dentist. THANKFULLY there is a dentist who is a member in Liberty that sister park served in his ward and he had me come in there. So we went in there and guess what?! I SPENT OVER 2 HOURS getting ONE tooth worked on!! YEP...ONE TOOTH....2 HOURS!!! Crazy right. So i told them what tooth it was and they took xrays and told me i already had a root canal on that one, so i was like WELL WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?! they said they need to re-treat the root canal. It turned out there was a curve at the end of the root that was super easy to miss and IT was infected!! So he had to drill and dig and drill and dig and DRILL and DIG!! Well this root was super crazy and curved way bad so he got to it, cleaned it out STRAIGHTENED the root and was about to finish up when he was looking at my xrays to make sure it was all fixed and he found a 3rd root in a tooth that NORMALLY only has 2....so then he was like uh-oh we need to look at this, so then he DRILLED and DIG and DRILLED and DIG....realized he couldn't get to the root so treated what he could and sent me on my merry little way. Needless to say it has not stopped hurting. Yesterday i asked for a healing blessing to get help with it, because if it doesn't heal he is going to have to pull the tooth, and i refuse that because it is in smile range and i dont want to smile and have a tooth missing. haha. Anyways, so that was the events of this week as far as the stinky parts go. But i survived and am slowly starting to feel better.
Now lets roll onto the MIRACLES!!!!!
Well this week we taught a guy that we have been teaching for a while, he has had SEVERAL missionaries and has been coming to church for 6 years since his wife converted, but has not done so himself. Well in our appointment this week he kept saying he wasn't going to argue with us (because he ususally does) and he was being humble and at one point in the lesson he said that he thinks God is going to tap him on the shoulder and say 'this is true' we asked him what he would do and he said 'i'll get baptized' both sister park and i were SHOCKED! Then at the end of our prayer at the end of the appointment we all got up and he said, ' i am going to get my answer this week' again sister park and i SHOCKED!! I shook his hand and said 'THATS FAITH!!' i know you will get your answer!!! so we are way excited to teach him thursday and see if he indeed got his answer! I pray he did because if he didn't oh man, i worry he will be resentful, but i have faith he will get his answer! Who knows after 6 years, this might finally be it, he might get baptized!
We also had another really great appointment with a couple we are teaching where the husband is not a member. We read the intro to the Book of Mormon together. It was great to be able to help him understand where it comes from and why its so important. It was such a spiritual appointment and i truely feel that it is his time to join Christs church. I know he is going to get his answer this week also when he prays. I know he will, so i am super excited about our appointment this week with him to see what happened in his prayers.
Another miracle, you know how in the Book of Mormon alma the younger is converted by and angel showing up and calling him to repentance. Well and angle didn't show up, but the same thing happened for a member. There is a member who is amazing who has had some personal struggles for a while, well he got a blessing this week and it was AMAZING!!! He is a completely new person. He literally had an experience like alma the younger where he felt Gods presence super strong and he had his struggles literally taken from him. We had dinner with him 2 days after this experience and he shared some super sacred and special things with us from his experience. And let me just say, i was speachless. Both sister park and i were so shocked and amazed to know how strong the spirit can work when it comes to an amazing son of God who i destined for great things! He is a changed person, and so amazing. I am so excited for him and his family and the changed that will happen in their home because of that blessing. Its pretty sweet!
Then we had another appointment this week with a couple we have been working with for a very long time. THey are SO AMAZING!! i mean AMAZING!! Its the couple that made our cool t-shirts and all the jazz. Well we went over and hadn't had dinner yet so they ordered us a pizza. We got to talk a lot about the different things. But my favorite part was just how strong the spirit was, you could just feel the presence of our Heavenly Father so STRONG. I mean he loves them so much and he continues to help them get more and more prepared spiritually to accept the Gospel. Well we didn't get to teach them any lesson once again, but it was still super amazing. Because they expressed some questions and concerns and we were able to promise them that what we teach will comfort them, provide peace and answers and as we told them that you could just see the spirit wash over them. I mean, it was just the best ever. I just never want to leave their house. Every time we go over she gives us a glass of lemonade which is always super yummy, they feed us if we are hungry, and this time she gave us money because the last time we left 'we left hungry' according to her even though we didn't she felt bad that she didn't feed us so she gave us money!! i mean this woman is an angel!! I love them so much! They both told us that they really do feel the spirit every time we are in their home. Which is the best compliment ANY missionary could get. It was pretty sweet!
ALRIGHTY now....THE MIRACLE....OF MIRACLES!!!
Alma 22: 16-18
But aaron(missionary) said unto him: If thou desirest this think, if thou wilt bow down before God, yea, if thou wilt repent of they sinds and will bow down before GOd, and call on his name in faith, believing that ye shall receive, then shalt thou recieve the hope which thou desirest
And it came to pass that when Aaron had said these words, the king did bow down before the Lord upon his knees; yea, even he did prostrate himself upon the earth, and cried mightily, saying:
O God, Aaron hath told me that there is a God; wilt thou make theyself known unto me, and I will give away all my sins to know thee, and that i may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day.....
Sunday night our plans fell through. I was not feeling well so i told sister park to follow the spirit on where we need to be because i was too out of it. So we decided to go to a less-actives home who we have been helping a lot lately. We got there and are chatting and then a few minutes later her son (13 years old) shows up. He lives with his grandparents but was coming over to spend the night with his mom. We are all talking and then he said to us, so what is the difference between baptist, christian, catholic, and mormons?! Well sister park and i were like SWEET, lets teach him the restoration. So we teach him. The spirit was super strong the whole time we were teaching, and the boy kept crying, but not totally just like getting emotional. We taught him about joseph smith, and about the role he played in restoring Chirst church to this earth. This young man started crying, and he got up and walked out of the room. We figured he went to go get tissues because he was crying. He was gone for a while, so we just waited for him to come back. He came back and told us he felt much better and then told us he prayed that his mom would stay on the right path and about the question we told him to pray about (if joseph smith really was a prophet) So both me a sister park SHOCKED ask him how he felt and he started CRYING again and told us he knew it was true. He told us he felt like a ton of bricks had been lifted off his chest and he knew it was true. So we invited him to get baptized in 2 week and he said YES!!! We continued to teach him about the Book of Mormon and other things and the rest of the lesson all of us were just super emotional, but especially him. He made a comment saying how if he hadn't have come over tonight he would have gone the rest of his life not knowing these things!!! and then he told us that sometimes he will be awake at night and just lay there thinking about those questions. I mean, this was the most amazing miracle i have ever seen. A little experience from the scripture i shared above. We all knelt in prayer before we left and i prayed and as i was praying he continued to just cry and cry. The spirit was amazing. This young man is amazing!!! Sister park and i were so excited the rest of the night. Sometime i cant help but feel how blessed i am to be a missionary. That experience had nothing to do with me, it was all between this young man and his Heavenly Father! We were just there to witness it. I love sharing the Gospel and i LOVE seeing people gain greater knowledge of the truth. Its just super awesome! So he will be getting baptized on sept 22nd!! WOOHOO!!!!!!
Also there is baptism tonight!! WOOHOO!!! A guy we have been teaching is getting baptized tonight! I will send some pictures next week of the baptism! It will be GREAT!!!
I am so thankful for my knowledge of the truth of this Gospel. I am so thankful to know that Christ's church really is on the earth, with HIS power and HIS authority to bless and watch over so many of HIS brothers and sisters. I know that because of the Savior we can return to our Father in Heaven. I know its a reality, its not just a nice thought, or a great goal, but it is TRUE, and it WILL HAPPEN as we live up to living in his presence here, we will be more than welcome when that day actually comes!!! I love serving as a missionary. I cant believe how fast it has gone, i feel as though i have taken advantage of it, but i am thankful for the time i have left to live it up, to serve whole heartdly and to show others the Light and Truth that comes from HIS GOSPEL!!!
Oh and another blessing, Missouri has had some relief from the drought. It rained for 2 days STRAIGHT and then another huge storm last night!! woohoo!!! BLESSINGS!!
(picture of me splashing in the puddle from the rain!)
I love you all!!!
Have a great week!!
Sister Barnum
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