E-mail #6

 E-mail #6

July 11th, 2011

 

Well first off

HAPPY BIRTHDAY (YESTERDAY) MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wrote a list of things i wanted to tell everyone, so off i go. :)

Tell grandma that i got the jewelry she sent, and i LOVE it, and thanks so much! I hope she is enjoying being on the mountain. She probably didn't get the picture i mailed her, but that's okay, it will be waiting for them when they get home. This last Saturday was our first baptism!! WOHOOO!!! The boys name is Noah, him and his sister got baptized and it was great! They are 9 and 8. The husband was home from Iraq for his 2 weeks and was able to perform the baptism so it made that much more special!! I will attach a picture! We also met this guy named Ivan.....and oh man, great moments. We finally got an appointment with him after several fell through and soon after we started talking we realized he was trying to convert us!! HAHA!!! got--to--love--it!! He said we should come to his church, so we made a deal we would go to his if he would go to ours! but he didn't show up to our yesterday....what a shocker. lol. Oh and when we said an opening prayer for the lesson we taught him, he TOTALLY prayed over my companion! how weird huh!.....oh man, gotta love it. Oh and since you know, its my birthday and all coming up, let me make myself clear, I LOVE LETTERS!!! and we can listen to EFY and CES and Mormon Tab. choir music....so feel free to send some tunes. This week, tomorrow is my first Zone Conference, i am super excited to see elder hall who i went through the MTC with. I will also be meeting our new mission pres. so that is pretty exciting. Mom those bubble gum jar thingy's you sent me, i take them to primary on Sundays and give the kids treats for when they listen. Lol. i figure that works best, i wont really use it, and they will LOVE it. We go to the English and the Spanish church on Sundays. First is English, so we got to Sunday school and relief society and all that, but then after that is over, we have like 10 minutes to eat our packed lunch and we go to the Spanish branch, which is SUPER TINY.....so because its tiny we teach in primary. I adore those kids, they are super cute!!!! I don't ever know whats being said during sacrament, but its still fun! We teach the kids in English....because most of them only speak English.

We were sent by our bishop to find this elderly man, Hal Fuller.....and WHAT A CUTE OLD MAN!!!! since his wife died he has stopped going to church, which is way sad. But he is just so cute. So we are trying to get him to come to church to he can be sealed to his wife before he dies. He always says he doesn't have an excuse....and somehow that is his excuse, but he is super cute! Also, while we were trying to find places to go i discovered on the map, there are 3 pretty awesome streets here in junction city that i need to get a picture with before i possibly leave. they are......Wilma st....Brooke Bend....and Hurricane....HAHA!! HOW AWESOME IS THAT!??!

Anyways, things have been going good. We have a busy week ahead of us, tonight we make the 2 and a half hour drive to our zone conference for the morning, then we come back Tuesday afternoon, then Wednesday night we are doing (my first) exchanges, sister dent is leaving me, which makes me super nervous because i don't know this area well enough to find the houses, but i guess that's why they make maps. And then sister Dent will come back Thursday night. So we have a SUPER busy week. Hopefully we find new investigators and just work well!

Well i don't really have any funny stories for you this week. I'm sure if i really thought about it i could come up with some......but i don't really want to. So yea.

I hope everyone is doing good. Love you all

Sister Brookie Barnum.

pictures

E-mail #5

Email #5




July 5th, 2011

Well hello everyone.

Today's email might be a tad bit short. But that's okay. There are a few things, i made a list that i want to tell you all about.

First off!!! JUNCTION CITY DOES NOT HAVE STOP SIGNS!!! okay, well they do, but LITERALLY there are some places that just DON'T have stop signs, like you have to look at the intersection and see if any of them have stop signs so you don't get hit. HOW CRAZY IS THAT?!!? is that even LEGAL!?? yea.....crazy.

second! FIREFLIES ARE THE COOLEST THING EVER!!!! I MEAN EVER!!!! southern Utah is pretty great, but it could SERIOUSLY use some fireflies. I am telling you, THEY ARE AWESOME!!!

Third! I must brag, because i know those out there wont believe me, but i have been able to eat every meal at the members home, COMPLETELY! Who knew a picky eater like me could pull it off, but i have!

that's basically it on my list. So onto the missionary stuff. Things have gotten better the last couple days. I got a blessing on Sunday evening and things have gone WAY up from there! I know that i can make it the next 18 months! So that has been good. We met a new investigator this week, and on Friday i did my FIRST EVER BAPTISM COMMITMENT!!! WAHOOOO!!! it was awesome!! Oh and when we committed him to baptism, that was before we even gave him the first lesson, we were just doing a church tour. But it was pretty awesome! definitely spirit inspired. I am getting to know the members better, so that has been nice, its good to know who I'm meeting and who I'm talking to.

Oh i wanted to clarify the mail situation. Not ALL packages have to be sent USPS priority, if your sending them straight to my address in junction city, i don't think priority or not matters. But if you are sending it to the mission office address, they need it to be priority so they can forward it to me wherever I'm at in the mission. And then as far as the address. Transfers will happen the first week in august, and i will know if I'm staying or going somewhere else then. So don't send mail past the last week in July to this address until you know if I'm staying or not.....i hope that makes sense. I also want to thank Hopie for the pictures, they are AMAZING!!! OH MAN AMAZING!! i cant wait to show some of the army wives we work with. The ones of the airport i just cried looking at, then hid them after, cause they make me sad. Brittney and mom thanks for the package.....mom thanks for putting a letter in yours....Brittney, i want you to know packages SUCK without a letter. :) Its okay, i forgive you, your my sister and you have 3 boys, you could have easily forgotten.

So this last week, we were trying to decide if we were going to visit a family or not. We prayed and felt inspired to go visit them, but were super nervous because this family has had a lot of drama going on lately. Well so then the time came to go visit them. We knocked they weren't home. We weren't sure what to do because we knew we needed to be there. So we got in our car, drove around the corner and prayed about it, both of us felt we needed to wait for them to come home. So instead of waiting outside their house, we parked up the street so we could see their house. creepy right. lol, but it was HF inspired. So we waited for them to come home, and THEY DID.....so we waited for them to get in their house, then drove up and knocked, we knocked 3 times and they didn't answer! It was the weirdest things. So we left, we both were very confused and wondering what all that was about. But both of us felt like we did whatever HF wanted us to do. It was so cool to follow those promptings, even if that meant we didn't even talk to them. We knew we were where our heavenly father wanted us at that time.

So there is this sister, sister Vega in the Spanish branch, she is possibly the funniest person ever, i love being around her!!! She is super spicy and way tiny and just funny! We were talking to her on Sunday and she was wondering when her dinner was with us, because it had been a while, and sister dent told her because she canceled on them last time, and this was sister Vega's response.....'that's messed up' HAHA....who says that about themselves. I was laughing SO HARD! I know reading this it probably doesn't sound that funny, but it was HYSTERICAL!! So now i will always think of sister Vega when i hear, that's messed up!

Anyways. I love you all and i hope things are going well at home!!!
don't forget my birthday is at the end of the month. I WOULD LOVE TO GET MAIL. :)

Love you lots!
Sister Barnum

E-Mail #4

Sorry guys it has been a little while since we got this e-mail and life got crazy for all of us and didn't get it posted right away but here it is and also different family members got some fun pictures from her so we will scan those in next week for everyone to see...Enjoy!!!!

 

 

June 27th, 2011

Hi Family!!!

 

I don't even know where to start. I swear the first week is the LONGEST!! It was SOO long at the MTC, and SOO long here. I am not a fan of it!! Well i guess we'll start with my flight out here. I woke up at 335 Wednesday morning to say goodbye to my companions who left at 4 that morning. So it was a long day. The plane we rode was not very big at all, which kinda freaked me out. We also met on the plane Elder Hollands son, which was pretty cool. A sister on the plane passed a book of Mormon and gave the first lesson to the person she was sitting next to, that was pretty cool! I was fine on the flight until the landing, then i got really sick, basically the same way i feel when I'm car sick, and i HATED IT!!! We were greeted by our President VanKomen and his wife. Loaded our bags and off we went, which i hated because i was still sick, and the van we were in was making it WORSE!! i almost started bawling right there and then, but i had to suck it up because i was around a bunch of people i didn't know and i didn't want to be the baby. We stopped by the temple they are building in Kansas City? its way pretty, we got a few pictures. Then we went off to the mission presidents home. Super nice house. The sisters got to pick what rooms they were going to stay in, i got to stay in the 'general authority room' which was nice because i was by myself and had a big bed all to myself. HAPPY DAY!!! They gave us about 20-30 minutes down time to take a nap or whatever, and i was still feeling super sick and WAY overwhelmed with emotions, so i went and i prayed and prayed and prayed and then i slept for like 20 minutes. (at this point i will insert the funny story at the bottom of my email) We then went to meet with all the people who are in charge, i cant even remember their names. But they gave us this orientation and all that jazz. Oh, i also met sister and brother Hansen? they came to the mission home just to meet me, which i thought was nice, even though I'm not sure i remember them! lol. but they were super friendly so that made me feel better. So we also had our interview and got assigned where we would be for our first transfer.....and I'm in.....da da da da......JUNCTION CITY KANSAS!!! surprisingly its very pretty here. Its a town that has a TON of army in it because the base Fort Riley is right in town. So i'm working with a LOT of women who's husbands are deployed and so on. Which i love because if i cant help brittney, then I'm going to help these people. So the next morning we woke up bright and early, and were off to get on the bus to go to our destinations. We (as in ALL of the missionaries in this area) met at the stake center, and holy macarolie there were a lot of missionaries, people just kept hugging us and asking us the same questions, i just wanted to cry. I didn't want to leave elder Hall because he was the only thing that was familiar, i wanted to hug him and cling to him for dear life. lol. But....i couldn't, so off to Junction City....It was 1 1/2 hour bus drive, i slept the entire TIME, and then i met my companion Sister Dent, and we drove another 50 minutes to Junction City. Sister Dent is pretty cool, she again is super quiet and has a way quiet voice so I'm always saying 'HUH' She said she didn't want to be a trainer because she feels like she is always learning, and at times i don't feel like I'm being trained at all, which gets way overwhelming cause i just feel super emotional and confused a lot of the time. I want to be rude and snappy because i have so many pent up emotions but I'm trying to keep that under control. I would give anything to call you(mom) right now and just let it out. Sister Dent is a great person though, and i know i have a lot to learn from her. I just am struggling being away from home. Anyways, I'm going to stop being a baby because I'm totally crying in the library right now and that's just down right embarrassing.

 

So when i got to the area, right off to work we went. We met Sister Vega who is relief society president of the Spanish branch and she and sister dent and me were off to find some Spanish investigators. Its kinda fun to watch them do Spanish stuff and stand there confused. I feel like the days blurred since then. I have been trying to figure things out, get in the groove of how to be a missionary. I keep falling asleep during personal study time and then i get mad at myself because I'm just disappointing my Heavenly Father, i need to figure out what to do so i can stay awake. Studying that early in the morning just is not helpful. The bed i sleep on, ooohh it hurt my body so much, i feel like an 80 year old woman every time i get up.

 

On a spiritual side of things, i have felt myself continue to change in ways that i have never thought possible. It just amazes me how much my Heavenly Father is carrying me. I have never felt so weak and yet so strong at the same time. When I'm feeling down and like things are impossible i just pray and pray and pray and plead, and promise that if he helps me i will work my hardest, and I've felt that, I've felt him help me. And i have done my best to work my hardest (except the falling asleep during pst) I just know that I'm not going to make it these 18 months without his help. Which part of me struggles because i think i came here to give my Heavenly Father 18 months of me, and he's just carrying me non-stop, I'm never going to be able to re-pay him for all he's done in my life. I have felt my most home sick since being here, but i know i can push through. We have been teaching a few people and its just been great. I want to share a couple experiences to end.

 

1st, we were driving around, we stopped at someone we've been teaching and she wasn't' home. I felt prompted to go talk to this guy mowing his lawn. I wasn't sure what to do with it, so i told my companion and we decided to go talk to him. It ended up being a boy, not a guy mowing the lawn. Then his dad showed up.....we gave him a plan of salvation pamphlet. afterward i felt SO AMAZING i knew that what happened was guided by heavenly father!! It was great!! we haven't heard from this guy since, but it was so awesome to do that, maybe we planted the seed, maybe he'll call tomorrow.....you just never know, either way, it was awesome!

2nd, last night was the first commitment to baptism!! AHHH!! it was the BEST ENERGY RUSH EVER!!! I loved it, he didn't commit fully, but he didn't say know, he needs to keep learning for himself, but i KNOW he is going to be baptized!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited for him!!!!

 

So also, this is my address for this transfer. Now when i give you this address it is only temporary for about 5 weeks until i find out if I'm getting transferred or staying. So if you send mail here, keep in mind this is not the address for the entire 18 months, just for the next 5 weeks.

 

104 W 4th St #207

Junction City KS 66441

 

If your not sure where to send the mail, just send it to the mission office address. It will eventually get to me

~~Another mail note: If you send a package it needs to be sent Priority USPS, that is the only way they can forward it to me wherever i am located.

 

Next week Monday is the 4th, so we wont get to email until Tuesday. So I'll talk to you all again then. I found out i have an hour on the computer. so if i get emails, i might have enough time to read them, but i still prefer letters. (mom, please email me every week, your the only exception, i cant handle not hearing from you every week/day)

 

I miss everyone so much, and i cant wait until i get letters and so forth. Sending great big heartfelt missing home hugs to all of you!!!

 

Love you all

Sister Brookie Barnum

 

Funny story:

So i took that nap at the mission home and guess what?!!?? MY DOOR WOULDN'T OPEN!!! YES I WAS STUCK IN MY ROOM AT THE MISSION HOME!!!! I was starting to freak out because how embarrassing will it be when they discover I'm not downstairs and they come to find me and I'm STUCK!! Well thankfully i heard the sister in the room next to me come out, so i knocked and told her i was stuck, she tried getting me out but the door wouldn't open!!! I was seriously freaking out. Then all the sudden it just opened without a problem. I was so relieved, none of the elders, or the mission president, or even the other sisters knew about it. But now all of you do. We laughed about it the rest of the night!

 

PS: tell Nola thanks for the 'greenie' package!!! IT WAS SO GREAT!!!! it made me feel better to have something like that from her on such a high emotions day!!!!

Email #3

Hey all, I've been a little busy. I got this email from Sister Barnum on June 21st.
I am slow getting it on, but I'm sure you'll all enjoy it anyhow!!!!

June 21, 2011

Hello Family and Friends,

Well this week has been the most changing week i have had since being at the MTC, i couldn't have predicted the stuff to happen that did!! I honestly still cant believe it. I was going to try and type and the details, but that stupid red countdown is making me keep it short and sweet.

Last Tuesday my companion Sister Beutler got sick. She has extreme fears of getting sick. This led to her being really anxious and uptight (understandably) about it. I had some of our elders give her a blessing. Which was AMAZING. But the next day things were not getting better. So we went to the health clinic, which sent us to Urgent Care, which sent us back to the Doctors on campus. This all happened Wednesday. Thursday Sister Beutler had several appointments, she was gone most of the day and i was without a companion which was even more weird. By the end of Thursday both me and here were sitting in the District Presidents Secretary office crying, as the conclusion had been decided that she needed to go home on medical release. I was sooo heart broken, HEART BROKEN. But i know that Sister Beutler needed to go home to take care of her health and get on track, hopefully she can return to the mission field in a couple months. But we'll see!!

So needless to say that was an EMOTIONAL 3-4 days. I could not believe what was happening. And all the sudden I'm in a trio, with 3 of us as companions WHICH I HATE!! LOVE THE SISTERS, BUT HATE THE TRIO!!! So that has been quite the adjustment. The weekend went on. On Friday the day sister Beutler left i was struggling deeply with some emotions going on. I knew HF was teaching me some serious lesson, i just didn't know what to do with it. I wasn't even struggling with sister Beutler being gone, as much as i was struggling with myself and accepting what HF was telling me. Through the spirit's guidance i talked to our amazing teacher. Brother Kearns. I knew his words were guided by our HF, he said exactly what i needed to hear and i felt an instant peace. I knew it was going to be okay. The weekend went good. We had our last 2....3 HOUR classes on Saturday. I love our teachers so it was great. Our last class sat night was THE MOST SPIRITUAL THING EVER!!! ohhh the spirit was BOOMING out of that room and i LOVED IT!!!

Sunday was great, i had my last interview with President Seamons our Branch President, he expressed his confidence in me and i felt great. i also knew his words were guided by HF. I LOVE THE PRIESTHOOD!!!! Yesterday MONDAY was our In field training day. It was a overwhelming day, we were all going through all sorts of emotions, anxiety, fear, faith, crying, laughing, anxiety, laughing, crying, nauseous. It was great. lol. But the best part was Monday morning. We had our elders give us blessings before we all left. Elder Watson (my eternal BFF) gave me mine. Again I LOVE THE PRIESTHOOD. I felt his words so strong, and i know he is a great priesthood holding and going to be an AMAZING MISSIONARY!! The blessings really helped us all as sisters feel better, and feel that lift before we leave. Monday night at the end of our In Field training our Elder Stevens wasn't' there. I asked the elders where he was and they informed us that he was at the room packing, he was going home. I felt like i got HIT by a BUS!!! I struggled to believe that our district, the district everyone was like wow look at you, had 2 people go home. What an amazing change.

As sisters we all felt extremely overwhelmed, and emotional. Our great elders walked us to our room(building) last night to say goodbye. As the 2 elders i was closest with Elder Edmunds and Watson left way early this morning. Its so weird to say goodbye to them. And i cant wait for in 2 years to get those hugs we all wanted to give!!!

I've felt changes happen this last week that i never saw coming. I've felt myself HAVE to rely on my HF in ways i never thought. I thought i was relying on him enough, but he taught me quick that it wasn't enough. I pray every day and remind myself that HE is my strength, and HE is the one that is going to carry me through this 18 months. I thought i wouldn't change on my mission, I'd come out and I'd work and I'd go home. But something happens. The spirit makes you be a better person, and you never want to loose that. EVER! I cant imagine what changes i have yet to make, but i just know its going to keep happening. During my blessing Elder Watson reminded me to keep that relationship with my heavenly father, that he is my strength, and i KNOW THAT. I know he is going to carry me. And it is my goal that i never lose that. I want to always be humble enough to know that HE is my strength, i am NOTHING without it. What an amazing feeling i tell you. I know that as i live to his words, i follow his spirit and i let myself be HIS mouth piece that i CAN bring miracles to happen in lives of others. I KNOW that i can change lives, because i am HIM! I feel so many emotions towards leaving tomorrow, but i know that if i let myself be him, that i will be fine! I feel the spirit so strong and i don't ever want to let my heavenly father down, i want to hit Missouri running, i want to show people the gospel and i want to find those, that our heavenly father has prepared!! I love this gospel so much and I'm so thankful for this opportunity!!

Now that I'm done crying it all out. A few things.....
Do not write me on dear elder anymore, including today, because it usually doesn't print until the next day, and i wont be here tomorrow, i leave at 6 in the morning.
another thing, please write letters, i only have a half hour on email, and i don't want to be stuck reading emails and not be able to email. So if at all possible write more letters rather than email.
Send me mail, i have a feeling that once i get out of Utah the missing my family might hit a little harder! So i need to hear from you. I love that support and i need it. Plus it feels like Christmas every day i get a letter.
I want to thank everyone for their support through dear elder while I've been here. Its makes my day.

I am going to be sending my memory card home soon. So hopefully you can put up some pictures of me and my eternal BFF and the rest of the district of course. Oh and the one of me and Sister Snodgress, and Elder Anderson.

I cant believe i am leaving tomorrow. I haven't started packing and my time is almost up. So off i run.

I love and miss you all so much!!!!!!

Sister Brookie Barnum


End of the email joke.

In our VERY FIRST lesson we were teaching our teacher who was playing an investigator. Well, it was our first time teaching we are talking about Joseph Smith and when he read if any of you lack wisdom let him ask of god, and WE COULDN'T REMEMBER WHERE THE SCRIPTURE WAS!!! it was SOOO EMBARRASSING!!! the rest of my life i will KNOW that scripture!! HAHAHA. Oh that day Sister Beutler and i laughed at ourselves so hard. I guess that's what the MTC is for. :)

Sorry if that didn't make sense. and sorry i never spell check. I run out of time and don't care about spelling.

LOVE EVERYONE!!!!

Some fun things from Sister Barnum

We got a couple of fun pictures from Sister Barnum!!!!

This is one she took with her missionary name badge with the Provo Temple in the background!!! LOVE IT!!!!


And here is Brooke with Sister Pierce in their MTC sweats!!! Anyone who knows Brookie knows that she is probably LOVING those sweats and hoodie!!!



And then we have THIS...... a room inspection form from the MTC. When her mother got this in the mail, she KNEW it was not really Brooke's room. There's no way she was able to pass with flying colors!!!! hehehe!!!!!
I have another e-mail to add to the blog when I get a few minutes. She flew out to Missouri today from the MTC and she is so excited to get out there and start working!!! Don't send e-mails to dearelder.com anymore. In her e-mail she just sent, she also said to send her letters in the mail instead of e-mails. She is limited with the time she gets on the computer, so she would rather have letters sent in the mail. Her mission address is on the right side of the blog. She LOVES getting letters and looks forward to any she will get in the future. It is helping her a lot with being home sick.

I will post her e-mail later. Have a good day!!!!!

Hopie

Email #2

June 14, 2011

Hey everyone!!

Sorry for waiting until the afternoon to email, its been a busy morning, we rushed through laundry and then off to the temple. But i doooo loooove PDAYS, because i can email you!!!

I partially hate writing these emails because i have SO MUCH to say and i never remember all of it, and there are these evil numbers in the corner counting down my time to email you all!

Well this week, as both weeks so far has had its ups and downs, but i am hanging in there, and its had more ups than downs which is nice. We are teaching this lady named Hely in the TRC, its been a struggle to teach her, every other progressing 'investigator' (which are really actors) we have had me and sister Beutler have done well with, but Hely, its been a struggle. I do love her lots and i know her heavenly father loves her, and to be honest i think Hely is a real investigator, but i am not sure. I leave the MTC next Wednesday, we have to be to the travel office in the MTC on Wednesday morning at 6 in the morning, which means we will be getting up WAY early to pack and say goodbye to our roommates who have to be there at 4!! I am NOT READY to say goodbye to my district, i love these people SO MUCH, we are such a bonded family, and i don't know what to do without them. I am our travel group leader for the travel on the 22nd, so basically I'm in charge of everybody, INTIMIDATING!!! As long as they behave like missionaries i will be glad, but if i have to keep someone in line I'm going to be super annoyed, they are representing Christ, and they all know it, so they better be good. I am so nervous about getting in the field, i question if I'm ready, but i just have to have faith! My companion and i have gotten to know each other better this week and its been great, she balances me out very well, and i know heavenly father put us together for a reason!

This week we have learned a lot in our classes, we learned how to teach people not lessons, we learned the chastity talk, we learned about prayed and inviting the spirit, we learned about the holy ghost' and its influence in conversion. Its so fun to learn all these things and then to PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE them, we do LOTS of role plays. They tell us when we are playing an investigator to play like someone we know who is not a member. I always play Lacey and Danielle (if your reading this i hope you know i love you! and that's why i play you!) Our teacher brother Kearns tell us everyday we are his favorite district since he's been teaching at the MTC, none of us believed him, we thought he said that to everyone, but it has been confirmed, he doesn't and we really are his favorite!!! I love brother Kearns and i love his teaching methods. Our district was selected to be taught as other teachers watched and observed, I'm not really sure why, but it was pretty cool. AND we keep having teachers pop into our classroom and are always like, so your the district everyone is talking about. I guess we really are that great!! I don't know what we are doing to be so unique but i do know that i love our district and i think we are meant to be together!! We laugh and have fun, and we work hard, i think that's the best part! I still keep coming back to that i don't know what to do without them! IT MAKES ME WANT TO CRY!!

Side note: if you are sending a package, wait a couple days and just send it to my mission field, because i don't want to worry about getting stuff from here to there, and we leave in a week, so it'd just be easier if it goes there. ALSO......certs spearmint mints.....i love them!!! SO feel free to send me those, since we cant chew gum, basically any mind, but i really like spearmint.

I have taken lots of pictures and i cant wait for my camera card to get full so i can send it home and you all see the pictures I've taken. I did print some and will be mailing a few of them, to those select few! ;)

Ohhhh, what else to say, i feel like there is so much to remember, and yet i forget it all!!!!!
I'll just share how things have been for me, duh....well its been great, i really do love it here and i LOVE my district(as if i haven't said that a million times) I get super overwhelmed at times and feel very incapable of doing this, of being a missionary and being able to teach lessons, that i feel like i don't know, even though i do. I struggle with Satan getting me down, but i have great sisters who lift me up when I'm feeling down. I have asked elder Edmonds our district leader to give me a blessing before i leave for the field, that will probably happen on Sunday, i think a few of the sisters want a blessing. I am so excited to get a blessing from these elders who I've grown to love so dearly. I cant imagine saying goodbye to them and not being able to hug them. Me and elder Watson dream of the day 2 years from now when we can HUG!!!!! He has become my bff for the MTC. Other than the sisters of course. Sister pierce is like all of my family wrapped into one, i laugh SO HARD all the time when she is around, it makes me feel better, and less homesick. i wish you all could meet her. We plan on after the 18 months doing a switch-a-roo she's says at my house with my family, i stay with hers.

SO time for a funny story. So one day, we are getting ready to go to gym, i was running behind, i come out to go and sister F is missing, as we go to the door she JUMPS out of this HUGE laundry bin, i about said some bad things!! They got me good. So we decided to rush back from class before everyone else was coming back to the residents hall and she hid in the basket again. I pretended i was ironing, and sister pierce pretended like she was reading and we scared about 4 different companionships, its was AWESOME!!

Another side note, Sherrell Snogress, her classroom is 3 doors up from my class so we see each other every day, and her bedroom is 5 doors up from mine! I love seeing someone i know. Oh and elder Anderson, i see him every couple days during meal times, he's always speaking another language and confusing me, but its good to see him. There are a few people from hurricane here, Elder rich, one of Jody's boys is here, and and Elder Hinton, who i don't really know, but he knows Matt.

I honestly don't know what else to say, but I'll think of a hundred more things tonight when i cant get back on and add it.
Thank you to everyone who has been writing me so diligently, mail makes me SO HAPPY!! Don't forget once i leave the MTC dear elder wont work anymore so you'll have to still write me!
I love this gospel so much and I'm so thankful to be serving the lord for the next 18 months, it will be great!! My estimated(??) date to come home is December 19 2012. I don't know if that will change, but that's when I'll be coming home, around then. So it will be a great Christmas present for you guys. :)

Well i love you all so much and keep writing, its like Christmas when i get letters! NO LIE!!!!

Love you so much, thanks for all the prayers and the support you have been giving me, it really helps me want to serve the lord and be okay with being away from home. I cant believe how different things will be when i come home, but so will i, so i guess its not that bad! I honestly cant wait to meet up with my district in 2 years/18 months and be able to HUG EVERYONE!! I know i sound crazy talking about them so much, but they become your family when you're away from your family, and they are one great family!!

PS happy fathers day to all!!!! (I'll be putting cards in the mail today)
and another PS shoes were made by the DEVIL, my feet hurt so bad ALL THE TIME!!

Sister Brookie Barnum

In ending, i have an MTC pick up line for you 'is your name virtue, because you garnish my thoughts unceasingly!"

Oh and if you ever want entertainment watch a bunch of people in the MTC watch church movies, its HYSTERICAL!!

LOVE YOU!!!
BYE!