E-Mail #61 I Know the Church is True...

E-Mail #61

August 13th, 2012

 

 

 

Hello everyone!

 

I hope you all had a great week! its been a pretty good week out here. We accomplished a lot this week, this is the first time that we accomplished all but like 2 of our goals, which is a way big deal, that like never happens in missionary work. AND we taught like 30 lessons this week and found 6 new people to teach! So its been pretty awesome!

 

Well to start off the week we went on exchanges, and i got to go work at the Visitors Center, for the first time in my mission!!!! It was way exciting to be a missionary at the Visitors Center for a day. A lot of the sisters couldn't help but laugh at me because i was a little confused puppy wandering around, but i had fun! I figure if i never serve in the VC, at least i got to work there once! haha. It was fun, i was with another sister that i actually go home with, she goes home the same day as me. She is a super stellar missionary! She is way strong and it was just awesome to work with her and to get a boost of energy to go to work, and work hard my last 4 months! While on exchanges we had a super awkward appointment, it was pretty funny actually. We talked with this lady and things are going good, so we tell her we like to pray before we teach and so sister S said the prayed and after the lady got like really awkward and told us she had to go back inside and it was just really confusing and really weird and she told us she likes to do her studies on her own and basically got up and walked away, we were both VERY confused, it was pretty strange, and funny.

 

Later this week we got to help out one of the members of our congregation that has some hoarding habits clean out her house some more. She is doing sooo good at getting ride of stuff. We took out 5 bags of clothes last week, and this week we took another bag of cloths, and then 5 or 6 boxes of other random stuff. It was pretty awesome, and she is making good progress. We had a mini missionary with us again this week, she is pretty excited to serve a mission and really contributed a lot to our lessons, it was very nice! We were out working and i had this thought to go to an area and go tracting so i told them (mini missionary and sis. park) so we went and basically EVERYONE who answered the door was nice to us! It was way cool and we got some return appointments. One guy in particular we were pretty excited about has been around members bascially his whole life, he has gone to the hill cumorah pagent, temple square, met with missionaries before, stuff like that! We are way excited to see where things go with that. But i was way excited that i followed that prompting. Its always nice when you know you did what your father wanted you to do. Sometimes i just get to nervous that i'm not acting on the promptings i should be. This week we have finally started to have some rain which is such a hug blessing to the drought out here. The corn fields are all just DEAD, its way sad, but its been good to get some rain. Because of the drought some towns around us have had their water lines BURST! Because the ground is so dry and its shifting because of it, and its causing them to break. So they have this HUGE boil order in affect in a town next to odessa because of all the gunk that go in the water pipes. Its way bad. Some people dont even have water pressure in their house, and cant take a shower or anything. Things are pretty bad, but the last week we have had some rain storms here and there, and we have had lots of overcast weather, and even BETTER it has been like hight 80s low 90's for a WEEK!!!!! SWEEEETTT RELIEF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love how cool it is, even this morning it was a little chilly! Oh man, such sweet relief. haha. I predict that winter is going to hit early this year. We will see what happens. I dont really know what else to write about. Its been a way good week. Its been cool to follow the spirit. Sister Park and i are trying to work on becoming more concecrated on the work, and making our prayers more sincere. So we pray individually for those we are teaching and wait to recieve inspiration on how to help them come closer to their Father in Heaven. Its been way awesome to recieve such great revelation on how to help those we are teaching. Makes our prayers super long, but what better thing to do?! Its been pretty awesome. Well i hope you all know that i love you lots. I am so thankful for all the support you all give me and cheer me on as i do my work as a missionary. Its been such an amazing experience. I cant believe how fast it is just going, its already the middle of august...time just flies. I know i will be home before i know it. I just pray that i can accomplish all that my Father needs me to before i leave!

 

 

I am so thankful for this week for the prompting i have recieved and acted on. For coming closer to my Father in Heaven as i do his work and for being led to his children that need to know he really is aware of them. I love doing missionary work! WAY AWESOME STUFF!!! I love you all!!! Have another GREAT WEEK!

 

 

Sister Barnum

 

 

 

E-Mail #60 The Book is Blue, the Church is True, God Loves You and I do TOO!!!

E-Mail #60

August 6th, 2012

 

 

 

Hello all!!

 

 

Well i hope you all have had a wonderful week! I know its been a pretty good week out here! This last week we took one of our investigators to the visitors center. It was actually pretty awesome because we had Rae, who just got baptized take us. Since she is a member now she can give us rides and she loves it! Well while we were at the VC she just blew our socks off, as we were taking the tour and answering questions about the saints and the trials they faced, our wonderful recent convert Rae makes a comment about how in the Book of Mormon it talks about how when the restoration happens that there will be many trials for the people, and goes on about that stuff. YEA!!! It was way awesome! She has such a strong testimony and she just GLOWS every time we see her, you can just feel the spirit and see how strong she feels about the church. Its way cool! Then the next day we were going to do service and dropped our groceries off at her house, and invited her to come do service with us, so she did. It was just fun to spend so much time with her! Seeing her strong testimony has just made mine even more strong. Its just way fun to see someone convert and to know that i really didn't have any part in it....she was just ready. Its probably the best feeling ever to know that you (as a missionary) didn't have any ROLE in this persons conversion, because they are THAT awesome and spiritually prepared! haha. This weekend in Odessa was one of the biggest Odessa events, puddle jumpers....its like peach days...but out here they call it puddle jumpers! It was quiet the couple days. They have all sorts of fun events, one of them that we helped our investigator prepare for was the bedraces. They have people put beds on wheels and race them. One person sitting in the bed and 4 pushing as they race down the road. We were going to go watch it but we had some appointments we had to go to. So that was a bummer, but still sounded like it was awesome, we hope to see pictures!

 

 

This week i decided to throw a surprise birthday party for my companion since she was so bummed about her birthday in July and how it was lame. So i locked her in our bedroom and set up the party. It was allll glow in the dark stuff. Swords, bracelets, rings, necklaces, and BALLOONS!! that's right, did you know they make LED balloons that glow in the dark?! They are pretty cool. So we partied to some popcorn bopping and just had lots of fun! I think she really enjoyed it, I'll attach some pictures.

 

 

This weekend we were eating at Wendy's which is in like the biggest truck stop i have ever seen. Well there was a bus of special needs people that were there eating also. As sister park got her food and came to sit down one of the guys stopped her and said hey i just want you to know that i think you are a beautiful lady. hee hee, well then after we were done eating and walking away he was yelling at us again, and was like HEY..HEY..HEY, so i turned around and he came up to me and said, i just want you to know i told her she was a beautiful lady and i think you are too. and then gave me a side hug! haha, it was so adorable. He was super funny and nice.

 

 

On Sunday we went down to a area in our ward that is in the middle of no where, but there were some people out there that had been given to us as referals and they are awesome! First we met a single mom with 2 kids that has been looking for a church she feels she belongs too. So we talked with her a ton and it was way cool. I am super excited to teach them some more and i think they really felt the spirit and noticed a difference in us being there. So i will keep you updated on how that goes. Then another one was a teenage girl 16 and we talked with her, and taught her about the restoration and invited her to be baptized and she said YES! Way cool! and she is going to prepare to get baptized on Sept 1st! So it was a way cool night, full of awesomeness!

 

 

Other than that cool stuff this week hasn't been very eventful. Its been good though. I am thankful for the time to serve her and to see the changes so many people are making already. Oh well there was one other thing that happened this week. We have been praying a lot about Eric who was supposed to get baptized this coming Saturday. We just kept feeling unsettled about him getting baptized and kinda felt like he didn't need to get baptized to be able to return to our father. So we prayed about it, and asked HF to provide an answer for us, how we can help him progress, or if he is not to get baptized, how do we tell him he is not. Well the next day we got a call from him telling us that he decided not to get baptized. It was still very sad, but sister park and i couldn't object because we knew that was the answer we needed. He still is a great kid, and maybe one day he will be ready to be baptized, but right now is not the time for him. So sometimes, HF answers our prayers in unexpected ways. But the answers are what needed to happen.

 

 

I hope you all have a great week!

 

 

I wouldn't mind if i got some letters in the mail, that'd be pretty cool! Solo Digo.

 

 

Sister Barnum

 

 

 

 

 

E-Mail #59 Baptism its our first covenant....being sealed another eternal covenant....my birthday, celebrated through eternity because i'm AWESOME!

E-Mail #59

July 30th, 2012

 

 

 

 

Hello everyone!!!

 

 

Hope you all have had a wonderful week, i sure have!!! ITS BEEN GREAT!!! well mostly this weekend has been great, everything else was average!! But a great weekend is all i ask for!

 

 

This week we got to help a less-active who has some hoarder tendencies clean her house, we are doing it phase by phase, we started with her living room, and made a great start, and she has continued to clean after we left which is even better! Also she is reading the Book of Mormon the first time through and racing me and sister park, she keeps pulling ahead of us, but we keep catching up! :) Its nice to help her get through it, she is continuing to get stronger and stronger spiritually! So that's always fun to see.

 

 

This week we also had interviews, i love meeting with our mission president, he is truly an inspired individual!! I was struggling the last week and asked him for a blessing and it was such a wonderful blessing!! I am so thankful for the priesthood that gives us so much comfort and enables us to stay strong and keep going. In the blessing i came to realize what my struggles have been since being here and its all related to anxiety! man that can get annoying, i just hadn't realized i was having so much anxiety, but during the blessing my father gave me the strength i need to keep going through the rest of my mission and to have that control over my anxiety. I have found it really interesting to realize how much anxiety i have had my whole life, i just never realized that was what was going on. So its pretty cool to continue to gain that self awareness to help me through those anxiety filled moments. But i have felt amazing, and hardly any anxiety since that blessing, its just so wonderful! I LOVE THE PRIESTHOOD!!!

 

 

 

Friday we had another mini missionary with us, which was fun. We also Friday had such a fun experience, we went to contact a part member family, the guy had voiced that he wanted to come back to church, we went to visit them and had such a wonderful spiritual experience! i love when that happens, when you know that our Father in Heaven just wants them to come closer to him, and he sends us as his way of reaching out to his children! I LOVE IT!! We also went and saw a couple we have been teaching, the Carters! They are super awesome, the husband is a graphic designer and made us t-shirts! I will send a picture of the shirts! He is so cool!!! Oh and his wife made a comment about how she is reading the bible, and then all the sudden said, and the Book of Mormon too! Both me and sister Parks mouth dropped open for i think AT LEAST 1 minute! We were so shocked, we both wanted to freatk out, but we kept calm and talked with her about it! This couple is so awesome, they are opening up and aksing questions and its just cool to see their knowledge grow and grow!
 

 

 

Now lets get to the best weekend ever!!!

 

 

SATURDAY!!!! We got up, i opened my way awesome birthday present that you all sent me! it was so fun to open all those balloons! Thank you for all your wonderful notes, i glued them in my journal! Then we were off to the temple!!!!! WOOHOO!! I was so excited to be in the temple, man it was such a wonderful experience, to be in there especially with all my junction city family! The dillons were just glowing the entire time they were in the temple! We also got to spend sooo much time in the celestial room. Between the endowment and sealing we all just spend time in the celestial room talking and oh man, it was just great to see all of them in their beautiful temple clothing, i for a moment pictured what it would be like in heaven, all of us together again, so happy to see each other, socializing, and hugging and catching up! Oh man, i know thats what it will be like! Then during their sealing, that is when i cried and cried. The spirit was so strong, to see them make that bond, to see how much they love each other. And to realize one day, thats where i will be! It was my first sealing ever to see and it was just sooo great! Then when their little girl came in, in her beautiful white dress, she was so darn cute!!! What a special day for them! Then it was lots of hugs goodbye and rushing back to odessa for a BAPTISM!!!!!
 

 

 

Oh man and the baptism, was super amazing!! I seriously love Rae, she is so wonderful, she is a very special daughter of God. She started to grow closer to him spiritually way before we even came into the picture, she started to make those changes way before we taught her, and it was just icing on the cake to see her make that convenant with her Father!! It was a very spiritual baptism. After we had some burgers and cupcakes(for my birthday) and blonde brownies(for sis parks late birthday) It was so fun, i have never been so full in my life, i think i was going to explode!! But in a good way. haha.

 

 

SUNDAY!!! Rae got confirmed a member of the chuch, again another glowing experience! She is just so amazing! I love seeing her make those changes. Then we went to an appointment with a woman we have been teaching her name is Julia, at first when we met her we didn't think things would go that far, but every time we met things got better and better. Well yesterday we were having such a wonderful spiritual appointment with her as we talked about the plan of salvation. As the spirit was so strong sister park knew we needed to invite her to be baptized, and she said YES, and is working toward the first weekend in september to be baptized!!! It was such a shocker, i love those moment when you know that Heavenly Father had a plan, and you didn't know what it was, but you just followed the spirit to do what he needed you to do! Julia has learned from a lot of missionaries and now its her time to make those changes and that promise with her Father in Heaven. Oh man! It was just so great to be with her and to have that experience!!

 

 

So yea, that is the highlights of the weekend of AWESOMENESS!!!! Its been such a great weekend and i am so thankful for the spirit being so strong this weekend! I am thankful to help others progress toward baptism! I love doing the lords work! Its such a awesome thing to do!!! I hope you all have a wonderful week!!!

 

 

LOVE YOU LOTS!!!

 

Sis. Barnum

 

 

 

E-Mail #58 Good Things Coming!!

E-Mail #58

July 23rd, 2012

 

 

 

Hello everyone!!

 

I hope you all have had a great week. Its been a pretty good week out here. A usual missionary week, full of good things and frustrating things, and happy moments and sad moments. We were able to find a new investigator this week, we also dropped that new investigator later this week. so that was fun. haha. We also had an appointment with another person we are teaching that we planned on dropping that she just wasn't showing full interest. Well then we got in there and were trying to see if we could get things to go somewhere and they did!! so that was a nice surprise!! I was super excited to realize that she is ready to be taught and that we were able to have such a wonderful experience with her and feel the spirit as we taught her. It was pretty cool because she was talking all about her beliefs and they are basically what we believe, i don't think she realizes that. Its kinda funny, so we told her that and asked her to let us teach her more and she was alright with it!

 

 

Later this week we went to the Visitors Center with Rae, who is getting baptized on Saturday! It was such a great visit. She is so strong and so ready for baptism its just way exciting! She has a wonderful spirit and has been making changes in her life to prepare her for baptism! The spirit was strong as we were at the visitors center together! I am so excited for Saturday to see her that wonderful day she gets baptized, i know she will be GLOWING!!! We also have been praying so hard that she would find a place to move into our area, because she lives like an hour away, and MIRACLES happen, she found a home, and she is going to be moving in this week before her baptism! haha. Last minute, but all that counts is she is in our area! haha.

 

 

 

 

We have had lots of good things happen this week! It has been great! I also found out a family that i was a part of teaching, the dillons in junction city are getting endowed and sealed on Saturday. So i called up Pres Keyes and asked his permission to go! He said he would think about it and get back to me, and then he gave me the go ahead! So Saturday is going to be the best birthday EVER!! I am going to see a wonderful amazing family get sealed in the temple, i am getting to go to the temple for the first time in over a year. and there will be a baptism! Just lots of AWESOME STUFF!!! I am just lucky my birthday is on a Saturday this year so i get to be so lucky to have all these things happen. haha.

 

 

 

Well i love you all lots! Hope you have a wonderful week!

 

 

Sister Barnum

 

 

 

E-Mail #57 Missionary Work...What else

E-Mail #57

July 16th, 2012

 

 

 

 

Hello everyone!!!

 

I hope you all are doing well! I hope my fam was able to move safely to Springville. I cant believe its official that we are all moved and i wont be home in hurricane anymore. But it will be good, i got charity, and Tiffany up there...and others too! built in friends in a new place....not a bad thing at all! :) Well i totally meant to email last week about my first day here. We went to eat out at the local Mexican restaurant....i call its el keepin it real....its really called el camino real....haha. Well as we are walking in, the headline on the newspaper stand is woman in wellington kills her father....yep....thats the area for you! CRAZY!! haha. We were laughing pretty hard when we saw that. Oh and then we were driving around, and we past the local...or one of the local baptist church and their marquee sign says.... 'you think it is hot now?'............haha, what the?!!? are they condemning us via marquee sign?! I prefer to use the scriptures for that kind of stuff, but we all have our own choices. lol.

 

Well this week has been good. We were able to meet some more with those that we are preparing for baptism. Eric, Rae and Tiffany. They are all so great. I am super excited for a birthday baptism! WAY LUCKY!! haha. We took Eric to the visitors center this last week. Oh man it was such a spiritual experience for him. He really is growing and learning it is true, despite different struggles he has, he is amazing. He has been listening to the book of Mormon on cd, and he wants to finish it before his baptism! So he has already gone through 3 cds, last i knew of, and he said he wanted to get through them faster and go through like 2 cds a day! He is way cool, and his family isn't really supportive, but he is just so strong! I know he will feel ready to get baptized when august 4th comes! We also were teaching Tiffany, this girl is HYSTERICAL!! She was talking about how she feels a part of the church already, but baptism....and she used an analogy, that baptism would be like making a relationship facebook official!! We were laughing so hard, so she said after her baptism she is going to put on facebook that she is in a relationship with Jesus! HAHAHA! This girl is super funny, we think it would be even more funny if her baptism program looked like the facebook format. all sorts of ideas! We also taught Rae again a couple times this week. Oh man i just LOVE HER!!! she is down right amazing. She has such a strong testimony already. She has been prepared for this day to accept the gospel for so long, and it is just the coolest thing to be a part of, and too see how she is just ready to dive in, to be a part of this. Every time we teach her the spirit is so strong, and i just love it!!

 

We are also teaching a guy names Bryan who is preparing for baptism the day before his birthday, he wants to start the last half of his life right. He has such a strong testimony also. He has been working on giving up coffee, so we had him get a blessing to help. Oh man, his blessing was so powerful, he really really is ready for the church, and HF has so much love and trust in him, and who he is, and who he will become. He was told he would have many leadership callings in the church, and that through his faith he can help others. It was just way cool. I am excited for that baptism as well!

We also had a mini missionary this weekend. A girl from a close by stake that wanted to come be with the missionaries for the weekend. So she came Friday morning and went home last night. She was super quiet, but way awesome. She is int he pictures. He name is Mary Ann. She was fun to have around. We will have another mini missionary the weekend of my birthday, so that will be fun also. Oh yea...my birthday....i don't need candy....or presents....maybe just a LETTER.....from EVERYONE!!!!

get it?
got it?
GOOD!!!

hee hee. Man oh man. I sure do love you all at home. I have enjoyed all the pictures of my families new home. It will be exciting to go home there. This last week, and since being here i feel like my relationship with my Father in Heaven has grown soooo much! When there are changes in our lives we either just go through it, or turn to our father for his help and guidance. I have turned to him for help. So much help. And every night as i pray i can feel his love and his awareness of me just take over! I love that feeling. I love talking with my Father. I have come to look forward to that end of the day prayer....for that time to bond with him, and talk about the day. To ask for help, and guidance. Man. I just am so thankful for the chance and opportunity and time we can take to pray. I am thankful for a loving Father who watches over me so carefully. Who cares for me, and protects me. Its been great. I hope that you all have a wonderful week! I sure do love you!

The pictures are of us with our mini missionary, and the little girls are 3 of the bishops family, which they have 10 kids!! yep..........10. These little girls are so adorable. Ones name is Mary, Sariah, Mirriam. They are just super adorable. I couldn't help but get pictures with them.

I love you all!!

Sister Barnum

E-Mail #56 Welcome to Odessa Missouri

E-Mail #56

July 9th, 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello all!

 

 

My new area is Odessa Missouri....yep....3rd area....and still in the middle of no-where. haha. Guess that's just how I'm meant to serve, in abandoned places. haha. My new companion is Sister Park. She is really great and we have a TON in common. She has her degree in social work, we like the same things...we get a long pretty well. So that's way nice.

 

 

Leaving Chilli last week was pretty sad, and tough. I hate having to leave those people that we have grown to love so much, just like leaving Junction City, you become so at home with everyone that you are around that it just stinks to leave. Although its kinda weird to think that this very possibly could be my last area. Considering the fact that i have been in area's for a minimum of 6 months, and i have less than that left. I doubt i stay here until the end, but you never know. So who knows what will happen. We had a fun Fourth of July. We had a BBQ with some members in Chilli for our last night. It was a blast to spend some time laughing and eating with them. Oh and last week we had our doughnut burgers!! and guess what...THEY ARE AMAZING!!! We are totally making those when i go home so everyone can witness how great they are! Its surprisingly great!

Honestly not much has happened the last week or so. I got transferred out here, and President Keyeys surprisingly didn't harass me about my luggage which was wayyy nice. OH but he did tell me that they will give me the title to the truck when i go home...haha. Because they closed chilli they had to decide where to send the truck, so what did they do....they sent it with me to chilli. President said if you can take a truck from one area it just becomes your truck, and claimed it as mine. haha. I APPROVE!!

 

So the sad part is that S. Park has been super sick, and the nurse told her to stay home as much as possible this weekend. So my first weekend in Odessa has consisted of being HOME! haha. Which is fine because transferring is the most exhausting thing, so i got to luckily take lots of naps myself. Even though we were told to rest we still went to a couple appointments and its been awesome! We have been lucky enough that just in this weekend to commit 2 people to baptism and both of them accepted! and BOTH were at church on Sunday!!

 

It was actually way cool. One of them we committed to be baptized yesterday. She has come to church for 2 Sundays now, and the first time she got taught was yesterday. She has been really good friends with a member down here, and has slowly been learning a lot about the church. She has been so spiritually prepared to receive the church. It reminds me a lot of Char, who just had so many things happen in her life to prepare her for the day to accept the church and go for it! She cried a couple times during the lesson, as we talked about Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ, and the spirit was so strong. We invited her to be baptized on July 28th and she accepted whole heartily!! I am so excited for her! She is such a strong person, and just excited to be a part of the church. So i am way excited to see her progress and help her continue to learn. I just got here, but the work here is awesome and i am way excited to give my part in the work. I don't really have much else to share, i know that sounds lame. But its true. Here is my new address.

 

319 S 4th St.

Odessa MO 64076

 

Keep that address close, my birthday is coming soon you know. ;) haha.

I love you all!!

Sister Barnum

 

 

 

 

 

E-Mail #55 Transfers Week...Here Comes Changes...Like Em or Not

E-Mail #55

July 2nd, 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello all!!!!

 

Welcome July....heat....humidity.....sun.....bugs.....new companion....new area....birthdays!

 

Just a few of the things that are to come this month! This week is transfer week and i know that president Keyes is closing Chilli.... :( which is a total stinker considering the amazing steps that Shawna has made the last week. But i know her testimony is strong and she will be protected until that day missionaries can help her continue to progress!! We find out tomorrow what President Keyes is going to do with us....what area we are going to next, and who the new companions will be! I am hoping that i dont get sent to the middle of no-where again. Because so far my entire mission i have been in the middle of no-where and when i meet other missionaries they always ask me if i am new because they dont know me! LAME! I hate that. haha.

 

Well lets get to the best appointments that we have had allll weeeekk!! Well last monday evening we had our appointment with Shawna, and Momma Sperry came with us! It was such a goooood appointment. We talked about the chapter we left for her to read, she had questions and we answered them and helped her understand more. She talked about how she learns more and more everytime we come over and how its such a good thing. So after talking about different things for a while, i finally asked her, if she knows that the church is true, and without hesitation she said YES. I KNOW!!! isn't that just AWESOME?!!? Sis Sperry got teary eyed and just said wow. It was so cool, the spirit was so strong. You could just feel that Shawna had gained that testimony and understanding. We talked some more about baptism and about her praying about how she can be in good standings with God to be baptized. I know she is so in tune with the spirit that she will know what to do to be in that good standing with God so she can be baptized! It was such a great appointment!!!

 

Tuesday wasn't what we expected it to be. It was still good though. We went and saw a wonderful older lady that lives in a retirment home, it was her birthday so we brought her some sugar free candy to celebrate! She is just so funny! Then we went to see the wonderful Shelton family! They are doing good. Mary Lou is struggling with medical things right now, and we are trying to help her keep her head up. I know she will be alright, especially when mike gets the priesthood that we have been helping him work toward. He is worthy of it, he just need to meet with president coleman ( a story to be continued later in the email. )

 

We went and saw the 2 little girls we are teaching. It was fun, we taught the restoration to them again, with grandma present. So she got to learn what we have been teaching them. Then later this week we went to visit them again, and they were just grumpy and not listening so we left and said we would come back the next day. When we did they were in a better mood. Which was way good, and grandma and grandpa sat in on the lesson! Which was way nice to have their support. We told them that we were leaving this week. They were pretty bummed but something way awesome happened. The grandparents invited us over for lunch tuesday(tomorrow) he is going to make us doughnut burgers!!! have you ever had those?! NOT ME!!! i'm excited to give them a try though! I will take pictures and give you feedback next week on them! :)

 

We had our usual dinner with the Hamiltons on tuesday that went pretty good! It was a lot more relaxed, and comfortable. Its been so nice to get to know them and help them grow! they are just a wonderful family!!! We saw neal on wednesday and he is doing great. Continuing to make small but good steps. He is so wonderful and i know he is open to the spirit, he just has to keep learning at his pace, but the best thing is that he is finally realizing that he needs to put in effort and he is!!!

 

We also got to see Jennifer who moved to brookfield and came back. We saw them a couple times this week. But we had such a spiritual experience as we talked to them about the family. Saying prayers together and having family night. We shared with them the family proclomation! It was such a good visit. I know they are willing to listen, i'm not sure how ready they are to change. But i know our visits with them are taking them closer to that day they can fully accept the gospel!

 

Oh man, now i have to tell you about this spiritually crazy appointment this week. We went to visit a member who has just been struggling and struggling. She got ahold of anit matirial, and has started to question the book of mormon and the church. Just all sorts of stuff, not good. Well we go visit her, her son first off is all over the place and trying to start fights with us (verbally) and just being super frustrating, and a spirit SQUASHER! Well we talk with his mom and she tells us how well she has been doing and how she has read for 2 hours the last 4 days and she has been walking like 4 miles a day to get in shape, and all sorts of good stuff. Then she starts to teach us about the 12 tribes that she learned about in the bible. It was such a positive conversation.....but.....me or s. larson did not feel good inside the whole time she was talking. Which was super confusing, because if a person is talking about the bible, you should feel the spirit. Well then it comes out that she has been reading a different version of the bible than what we use, King James Version. She told us how she cant understand the KJV, so we talked to her about the spirit and that the spirit is what helps us learn, and just the conversation took all sorts of twists and turns, and it just was the grossest feeling i had inside. I just felt gross and sad. Sad that she is not understanding what we are trying to tell her. Sad that she is questioning the book of mormon. Sad that this woman who was on FIRE a couple months ago, that me and s. larson wanted to find a way to get her to meet the prophet when he was here, was struggling SO MUCH....and did not have the spirit with her. All i could think is how Satan loves to imitate the spirit.....and that is what he was doing to her, and he is winning by confusing her!! S. Larson and i did all we could to help her understand and find out if the book of mormon is true, and how she can have questions answered. But she just wasn't listening. It was going in one ear and out the other. We both just wanted to cry after we left her home. Its just so sad to watch a child of God....so lost, and your trying so hard to fight for her spirit to hear you, and to come back....and she just isn't....she isn't coming back. Its heart wrenching to see all of this happening!

 

Well to a extremely happy note now! Part two of the shelton story from above. We go and see them saturday. Well we knock on the door and come in and the chair we sit on are all set up in the living room for us to talk. Mike saw us pull up and went and got the chairs for us! sooo sweet! he is a good guy. Well we get to talking, and then follow up to see if mike got his follow up appoinment with president coleman about the priesthood. Because mike had to stop drinking coffee, and he did, so all he had to do was be interviewed to get the priesthood. Well both him and mary lou just kinda brushed it off and said they would talk with him tomorrow(sunday) and get an appiontment. We were like WHAT?! call him tonight and get the appointment. They just blew us off....were just like, okay...whatever. Well then comes sunday morning! We are sitting in church. President Coleman gets up to handle branch business and asks Mike Shelton to stand. I think my heart skipped a couple beats and jumped out of my chest as he said that Mike Shelton had been interviewed and found worthy to recieve the Aaronic Priesthood! Sister Larson and i started to just cry! We both had our mouths just wide open in shock and tears just took over! President Coleman looked over and saw the both of us crying, and got all choked up himself and talked about how its a wonderful thing when a man gets the priesthood, but even better when its a recent convert. Oh man....it was just he coolest thing to see. As mike stood up to be sustained he was just GLOWING!!! GLOWING!!! It is an experience in my mission i will NEVER forget! We have been working SO HARD to help him understand how special the priesthood is, and how helpful it will be in his life! And there it was right there, a surprise to us!! he had been interviewed and was getting the priesthood!!!! Oh man, it was so great. So after church we got to be in the room when he was ordained. The spirit was so strong, and mike just kept glowing, he even was teary-eyed. Such a wonderful spiritual experience for our last sunday in Chilli!!!

 

Oh and Shawna came to church again yesterday. Her second week. She looked so cute too, she brought her 2 daughters and her daughters boyfriend came too, which was a surprise and way awesome. We saw her after church and were able to teach her daughter the restoration and shawna testified to her daughter about it being true...WAY COOL!! and her daughter said that she has seen such a difference in her mom since we have been talking with her, and other people that are around her mom have seen it also!! Man, the spirit is just so strong every time we are around her! She is so ready to be baptized, just a few hurdles to jump before! I know that the members, especially momma sperry will make sure she keeps coming to church and showing her some love! I am so thankful we got to teach her for the time we did. I am so grateful for the blessing it is to see someone we found, that doesn't already have members in the family gain a TRUE TESTIMONY!!! Someone we taught from bottom up, and she is so great! I just love that family and am so heartbroken that i wont be here to help her continue on, but her testimony is there!

 

Overall it was just a great week!! A great last week in Chilli!! I am going to miss this place a ton! Look forward to next week with the surprise of CHANGES!!!

 

Love you all so much! Thank you for always supporting me and praying for me. I am so thankful for family and friends that do so much for me! I know that serving a mission is the BEST thing i could have done with my life at this time. I know it is shaping me and molding me into the person i need to be for my Father in Heaven. Love you all!!

 

Sister Barnum