E-Mail #36

E-Mail #36

February 13Th, 2012

Hello everyone, guess what, its Feb 13Th and it finally snowed.....for real snow too!!!!! Who knew winter would ever come?!? i was starting to wonder what was going on. The snow is super pretty, and i am so thankful that we have a 4 wheel drive truck, because no-one has plowed the roads, so they look awful! but no problem for us, we have a nice new truck! :) The mission even sent out a message this morning grounding us from leaving the houses/apartments until 11am. But we made it out, and all is well.

Well this week has been super interesting.....its been one of those weeks, that you just don't want to have happen again. Wednesday and Thursday were pretty rough. To sum it all up shortly, we got DITCHED by an investigators appointment, oh and caught them ditching us, which makes it even better, then we got dropped by 2 investigators, we solidified the fact that we are disliked by some of the members of our branch(not on purpose) We were shut down by lots who didn't want to hear from us. OH and lets not forget a return to the crazy bug covered house!! ICING ON THE CAKE! Let just say....its been one of those weeks!

We had interviews with President Keyes on Thursday, so that was a nice break, he was able to give me and my companion some love and advice....and help us to just keep going! Wednesday night we had a few tears to let it out, just because we weren't sure what to do, we felt like all of our efforts were useless, and no one was understanding what we are trying to do out here. But after feeling down in the dumps about it, we decided to move on, and to make a change, so we refocused our efforts on what we need to be doing. Which is making our branch stronger, and helping their testimonies grow, and helping them become fully converted. We realized that even if we spent all our effort finding and preparing people, once they got to the branch it would all fall apart, we need to help the branch grow personally, so they can help the branch grow physically, by sharing the gospel.

After a very exhausting Wednesday and Thursday, we had a GREAT Friday. We went and did service at the salvation army on Friday, which we will start doing every Friday now. The lady we work with has a great and sad life story, she was so open in sharing it with us, i am excited to continue to get to know her every Friday. We also had an appointment with a Part-Member family, they are so great, but seem to wonder why we are there, so we spent our time trying to get to know them, and help them know we are not going to shove the gospel down their throat, but we just want to know them, and help support them, and help them become better. I felt like after Friday they realized that, that was all we want to do. So it was a nice appointment. After that we met up with a member team up at another investigators house and taught him, it was so nice to have the member we had with us, they have their work place in common, and spent most of the time talking. But we finally started talking about church related things, and it was so great, this guy had so many good questions about the book of Mormon, you can tell he is really trying to learn from it and grow, and that is so cool. He is worried about coming to church right now, but we know he will get there, especially as he keeps reading the book of Mormon.

And then we went to the best appointment yet with Justin and Carissa, our member team up came to that also. This was our first appointment with them after Independence and Liberty Jail, Because that night didn't end on such a happy note we were nervous to find out what was going to happen, even more so after having a bad week, of getting dropped and ditched by lots. We got into that appointment and we could feel a difference in their home. The spirit was there the strongest it has ever been. We had such a good discussion with them. We talked a lot about Jesus' power to heal those, and how they saw that Joseph Smith had to have used that same power, because Jesus was the only person who did that. It was so excited to see them connect those dots, and after that Carissa told us how she could see how Joseph Smiths life of rejection and torture leading up to his death was so similar to Jesus'.............i wanted to jump off the couch with excitement when she said that. It was such an exciting appointment. We could just tell that they are starting to not just question everything, but to truly seek what the answers are, and what the truth is. I was so excited to see that happen. It was a good day!

Saturday was even better, we went with a member out to a little town where they had someone they wanted us to teach, and this girl is amazing, she has already started to make so many changes in her life, and the gospel came just when she needed it, she was super touched as we taught her, and you could tell what we were sharing really meant something to her. I mostly was distracting her son, so sister Larson could teach her, but that was even fun, i showed him pictures of Jesus, and showed him how to fold his arms to pray. He was super cute! Best part of that appointment, as we ended with a prayer, its quiet, the one person is praying, and you hear this little 3 year old boy say......'are you looking at my butt?!' i held in my laughter, but inside i was laughing SO HARD!! That little kid is hysterical!

Yesterday was a great day! After church we went with the AOA missionaries, elder and sister banks, and they took us to AOA. They fed us a late lunch, and then took us on a tour of AOA. It was so beautiful to be on that ground, that land is amazing! We even went to preachers rock....which for those of you who don't know what that is, because i didn't until i got out here, it is 'possibly' the place that Joseph preached to people. Which being there, it would make sense if that is where he preached to people, its a perfect place to preach. I got a picture of me standing on the rock, preaching with my book of Mormon in hand. hahaha, i couldn't help myself, i AM a missionary! That evening ended with a fireside that featured....yours truly.........me and sister Larson. We spoke about how we ended up coming on a mission, and what experiences we have had since being on a mission. It was such a great night, we also found out that these firesides that they use to do every Sunday, that this was their last one in a couple months, and that they wont be going fireside's weekly, but just as occasion permits. So we were their final fireside, so that was even more special. We also sang them a song at the end, that was fun too! It was a great day all around. We were super tired by the time we got home.

But i was glad that the Sperry's are facebook friends with my mom, because we were able to take a picture and wish my dad happy birthday on facebook. Since this week has for sure been one of those weeks, it leaves you with lots of spiritual questions going through your head, our dinner Friday night with our member was awesome, the wife in the family is a convert, and she is so strong. She asked us what has been the most changing thing that happened to you since being on your mission. It was hard and easy to choose one. There are many things that have changed since I've been on my mission, but i talked to her about the fact that my desire to LIVE the gospel has changed. Before i was totally content with not doing much, i was baptized, i don't make awful choices, I'm not really going to hell, i might not make it to heaven, but the middle is all right. Well THAT HAS CHANGED COMPLETELY!!! I now know and understand the importance of not just being in the gospel of Jesus Christ, but LIVING the gospel of Jesus Christ. My heart has changed, and i know that i will never.....ever....let myself be less than living the gospel 100%. This desire has really touched me, it makes me want to be better, it makes me want to strive for the best, and it has helped me realize, that even if we are sacrificing more, like bad TV shows, or music, or friends.....or just bad habits, to live the gospel that we truly are MORE BLESSED!!! I wouldn't have ever thought that, until i experienced it, and being away from those worldly distracting things and helped me know what living the gospel means. That doesn't mean I'm going to come home and swear off TV, or music, and become Amish or something crazy. But i will not let anything distract me from living the gospel. Obviously this is something personal, that has helped me change. Helped me become better, but it has also changed my desire for those i love, members of my family, friends, all those people that I'm close to, that are great, and are not going out there killing people, but also are not experiencing the happiness and peace that comes from living the gospel fully and daily. I know with all my heart that one day i WILL return to my father in heaven and it WILL be the best greeting EVER. And i know, i will be heartbroken if i don't have every single member of my family and friends beside me when that day comes. Being away from everyone makes you love everyone that much more, and i love you all so much. I want to be with all of you forever. I want you all to realize how special the gospel is. And how happy it has made me, and how much it has changed me, and how it can do the same for you. I hope you don't read this and think, oh man stop being so preachy, I just love you all so dearly. And i hope you all understand that this comes from the heart, i may be on the other side of the computer and in Missouri, but i tell you this like I'm standing in front of you. I love you, and want you to know that i KNOW this is true, and i KNOW the closer i am to Heavenly Father, the closer i am to being in his presence again one day. I hope you all feel that same way!

I love all of you!!!

Sister Barnum

E-Mail #35

E-Mail #35

February 7th, 2012

 

 

 

 

Hello Everyone!

 

 

Can you believe February is here already?!?! i have a feeling this year is going to go by wayyy to fast! But at the same time i cant wait to give you all big hugs, cause i miss you all a ton this week. It has been a good week. I've had a few days of i miss my family. But other than that its been really great! This last week we found a few new investigators. Its really great, they are great people and we are excited to help them learn of their heavenly fathers love and to help them come closer to him and feel of the importance and blessings of being a part of his church today. Because we have so few miles and such a big area that we live in, we have had a lot of help from members with driving us places, like to our district meetings. They are such a great and willing help. I hope that as they help us, they will continue to feel motivated to share the gospel and talk with their friends and family that haven't learned about this before. Thursday was super cool, we were at a investigators house that we've been teaching and their friend was there also. So of course he sat in on the lesson, and the spirit was so strong, and he got teary eyed a few times. He is in a really rough situation and had a really bad week, like way bad. And he was praying for help, and then we were at the same place as him. We asked him if he felt like there was a reason we were there. And he said yes, it was for him. So we continued to share with him gods love for him, and how Christ's restored church today can only bless and strengthen him in his already growing faith. It was such a cool night. I love seeing how much our heavenly father loves his children that he will put us in their path, so he can show them that he is aware of them, and he does love them and want to help them. Its one thing i love about being a missionary, i know he truly does care about everyone SO VERY MUCH! i see it everyday. But, with every good experience, comes bad experiences.....right?!!? hahaha. Wellllll.......we went to a home to teach someone, we walk in and there are fruit knats everywhere, like you didn't want to breathe because you didn't want to suck one in.....gross right, well then we go into the living room and there are bugs on the walls, on the couch, on the floor, everywhere. I was FREAKING OUT!!!!!! thankful sister Larson is super good at not being distracted by those things, for myself, i cant say i was doing to well. The entire lesson when i wasn't talking all i kept saying in my head was 'we can pray for miracles, so heavenly father give me a miracle and DO NOT LET A BUG CRAWL ON ME' i am not even kidding, they were EVERYWHERE!!!! all i could think about is those other missionaries that are in 3rd world countries and who experience this daily, and i realized why heavenly father didn't send me to a place like that, because i would NOT be able to keep my composure!! oh my goodness, when we left that house i was freaking out, i was praying that i wouldn't go to change that night for bed and find there was a bug under my skirt or something. Oh man....it was a rough experience!!! But this person that we taught has lots of crazy views on Jesus Christ, which led me to look into some of the crazy things she was saying, which i was way happy about because i learned so much about how Christ is from the line of David, and how that whole thing works. It was way cool to learn that, and spend some time digging in the scriptures for answers. I loved it! I love learning more and more every day! its so great. Saturday was a GLORIOUS DAY.... we got our TRUCK!!!! yep, we finally got the truck!!! and it is SO BEAUTIFUL!! its a brand new 2012 Chevy Colorado, and it is AWESOME!!!! The elders drove it up to us, because of course they wanted a chance to drive it, so they so kindly brought it to us.....haha. But now its OURS TO CLAIM!!! So we got that Saturday night and its just so fun to drive it, we actually got it right in time, because of the rain we got for 2 days, the road out to our house has a little stream that runs through it, but when it rains and fills up, its tough to get through, so we had to use the 4 wheel drive to make sure we made it, which was perfect, and much needed, because our little car wasn't going to cut it! hahaha. Sister Larson is the driver for the truck, for now, she has experience driving trucks, so I'm letter her take control, and plus i don't know how to drive in snow.....not that its snowed....hahasoooo cooool!!! i loved it. I hope i get to serve in one of those places before i leave, just to see what it is like. But it was such a great day. We were gone from 11 in the morning until 6 at night. It was a long day, but they were such troopers and really enjoyed the day. So because of that adventure yesterday, we switched our pday to today. So we are going to get some shopping done, some emailing, and we are getting our hair cut! its so great! I LOVE PDAY!!! Well thats all i have for this week. But i love you all and hope you are having a great week!

 

 

Sister Barnum

 

 

 

 

 

E-Mail #34

E-Mail #34

January 30th, 2012

Hello from Missouri!!!

 

 

Hey everyone, i hope you all had a great last week of January. I know i did, we still haven't gotten SNOW!!!! OH YEA!!!! how about that for a Missouri winter?! I know, amazing right?!?! Well technically we got a little snow, but it was gone by the next day, so it didn't count as a Missouri snow storm. But i guess we will start my update for the week, i got lots to tell you! Last Monday after emailing and shopping we went with the member we live with to go to Jamesport, which is the local Amish community that is less than a half hour away. We went and looked around. we went to their grocery store and bought some stuff, i bought some home made jam, it was yummy, and we went to their furniture store, oh man....they make amazing furniture!!! So that was way cool. I loved seeing the Amish on their buggies, and in their cute clothes. Because lots of members here know Amish people i asked our member if there was a way i could get a Amish dress made, and i would pay them. She said she would ask the people she knows if they would do it. I am so excited to own and authentic Amish dress! it will be way cool! Tuesday was fun, during the day much didn't happen, but we had an amazing night. That evening we went to AOA.....(adam-ohndi-ahman) The missionaries had signed up to feed us out there. So we went out there, well we went early so we could look around AOA before dinner. We went out to tower hill, and took lots of cool pictures. It was amazing to be on AOA....AMAZING....you can literally feel that you are on sacred ground when you are there. I am so excited to go back and to really take it in. We rushed off to dinner after looking around. Elder and Sister Christensen of the 70 came to dinner, they watch over the AOA missionaries and come to dinner every other month, and have dinner with them, and then give a talk basically. So we got to meet them, and listen to the wonderful things they had to say. We were looking at the map of AOA and showed the missionaries where we went before dinner, and asked them if they knew where preachers rock was.....well it turns out we were at where preachers rock is.....but we didn't know it was just down the hill....so we were like 100 feet away from preachers rock and had NO IDEA!! I was totally bummed! but it was still cool. It was just cool all around to be on AOA. Wednesday we had to drive out the Cameron Missouri to go to our district meeting, which is an hour drive away. We get there and realize, well confirm the fact that we are the only sisters in the district. So there are 6 elders and 2 sisters.....we are super out numbered. 2 of the elders are greenies, they are super funny. i like greenies, they are hysterical. Wednesday was awesome also, because after district meeting when we got back to Chillicothe we went to work, and we found 3 new investigators that day. We were so excited to meet these people and are excited to continue to teach them and see what happens. Thursday was possibly the best day ever as far as commercial stuff goes.....so i have a story for YOU! Well....our dinner appointment was out in the middle of no-where. So we head to dinner and realize we are going to be earlier than expected, well in Missouri they have these big round hay bells, that like weigh a ton i believe. Sister Larson said how her previous companion had a picture on top of one and how she wanted one, so we pulled over, and went to these hay bells to get a picture. Well they are basically taller than you, so i had to help her up there, i let her use my hands as a step to climb up, so she gets up, gets her picture, good stuff. Well.....then its my turn! which is where things just start going wrong. First off, i was freaking out because i had no idea how i was going to get up on top of this hug hay bell. But sister Larson did the same thing and used her hands as a step up. The first time i freaked out so i didn't climb up, but we tried again. We were climbing up between this row of hay bells, so there was one on each side of me. Sister Larson pushes me up on top of them, and I'm straddling between the two hay bells, one knee and one and one on the other. I started screaming because i was stuck and didn't know how to get on top of the one so i could get a picture. She was laughing SUPER HARD, as I'm stuck there and laughing super hard. Finally she pushed me and helped me get on the hay bell. We got a picture and it was all good. So we get in the car....and this is where it gets good. She tells me how she hit her face on the hay when she pushed me up on the hay bell, and how it hurt. She kept touching her face for like a few minutes and i was like uhhhhhahahaha, i started laughing even harder, i had no idea a school bus drove by, because i wasn't facing the road......oh man, we were laughing pretty hard. We got to the members home, told them the story and asked if they had any itch cream for sister Larson's face from breaking out because of the hay. It was pretty much the best day ever since being out here, comedy wise. Friday wasn't nearly as funny, but we went to one of our members home for dinner Friday, and they are SO FUNNY!!! we were laughing the whole time. The father of the family is going to school for theater and stuff like that, so he basically is an actor anyways which just made it even funnier, and they were telling stories of their dating life, which was even better. We were pretty much laughing the whole night. Saturday things got interesting though. We went to an appointment with one of our investigators, and while we were there, she had to go outside to handle some stuff with her aunt, and she left for a minute and all the sudden her boyfriend comes in and he is bleeding from the neck!!! We were like, what the....what happened, he grabbed he phone and was like, i have to go to the hospital and left. Well so the lesson was over at the point. We called him later and made sure he was okay, and he was. So that was good. Sunday comes and he is the only one that comes to church for our investigators, the guy who stabbed himself in the face the day before comes to church, even in pain. So we found out what happened after church. He works at a frozen meat packing place, and they move these hugs things of meat, and you use two knifes to move it around, well he was working away, and one of the side of the meat slid off his knife, so the weight of it sliding off made the knife come up and jab him in the neck. he said to his co-workers, oh man, i think i got myself, because he didn't feel any pain yet, and he was like bleeding all over, they all were like, OH MAN....and like got him stuff to hold pressure on his neck until he got to the hospital. So he got stitches and all is well. But i couldn't believe he came to church, he is amazing! Last night we had dinner with our family that we live with, their son was in town with his kids and came to have dinner with them. It was so fun. During dinner i was sitting next to his daughter, and she told me how she had pins in her elbow because she broke it, i was like NO WAY, and showed her the scars on my arm, from breaking my arm, she thought that was pretty cool, then she was talking about how she is saving up money and she has 50 dollars, and she is saving to buy an American girl doll, i was like NO WAY...i love American girl dolls, and we talked about our favorite ones, and all that good stuff. I told her how we are twins and we just kept laughing, she was so cute. Then she saw my tow-mater pillow on my bed and told me how she LOVES mater too!!! So i found myself a 8 year old twin! She is way cute, she gave me like 4 hugs before she left and kept saying goodbye twin! It was so fun. But that basically ended my week. So it was good. I am excited for another fun filled week. We will see what crazy stuff happens now!

Love you all!!

Sister Barnum

 

 

PS feel free to write me.....solo diego!

 

 

PSS.....KRISTEN LYNN COX.....YOU STILL HAVE NOT WRITTEN ME!!!!!! STOP PLANNING A WEDDING AND WRITE ME!!!!!!

E-Mail #33

E-Mail #33

January 23rd, 2012

 

 

 

 

 

Hello all.....well i had to say GOODBYE to JUNCTION CITY.....and HELLO TO CHILLICOTHE MISSOURI!!!!

 

I am officially in my second area of my mission....yep 8 months into it, and i finally moved. And man oh man was it a SHOCKER when i found out i was leaving and they were white washing the area. We for sure figured i would stay since sister fie'eiki went home, but that just didn't happen. They put Elders in our area.....stinky! hee hee. But Tuesday night the call came in, i actually got a personal call from the AP's telling me i was leaving, i started crying, OF COURSE!!! It was a for sure bittersweet feeling, excitement to OPEN and new area, but total HEARTACHE to leave those i have grown to LOVE SO MUCH!!! So Wednesday was a CRAZY day, we had so much to do, because i didn't expect to move, i had so much stuff and NO WAY to move it. Let me tell you what, moving is no fun, especially when you are not prepared for it, so i know what my big purchase will be this transfer, a BIG suitcase.....because the mission president himself....may or may not have said 'sister Barnum, pack lighter' :( hahaha, totally embarrassed! Wednesday was so crazy though, we had so many people to say goodbye to, that i didn't want to say goodbye too. So many people to love and miss. And appointments on top of trying to pack, and trying to tell everyone what was happening, and trying to prep the area for new elders who have never been here. I have no idea how we did it, actually i do.....we stayed up way late and got up WAY early to make sure i was all done. On top of that we had to drive to independence from junction city and be there by 830 in the morning, so we left at 5 in the morning to do that, and we were up at 3 to finish packing and cleaning and yep, all that GREAT STUFF. Wednesday night was probably the hardest, we went to the church since that was where most of the members were, to tell them what was happening, to coordinate the hand off to new missionaries in the area. There were LOTS of tears, and LOTS of sad goodbyes. But now i have a LOT of people to write and to hear from, so that's nice, since i don't really get mail from Utah these days. ;-) So Thursday was possibly the longest day of my life. We left at 5 in the morning to get to independence, then i had to say goodbye to the wonderful sister Fie'eiki, who went home last week. :( Then of course came the part that led to the comment from my wonderful mission president about the packing. :( Well see, i thought we were going to be getting a truck, so when stuff BARELY fit into the car to get to independence, i thought, well that's okay, cause then i can throw it all in the back of the truck and all will be well.....man was i WRONG, we don't have the truck yet, we had to fit my stuff, which took up the entire car, and sister Larson's stuff in our tiny car.....President Keyes was trying to help us make it fit, but it wasn't happening. I felt so embarrassed. Well thanks to a blessing from heaven, there was a senior couple, Elder and Sister Wells who came to the rescue. They so wonderfully put some of my stuff in their truck and drove out to Chillicothe with us, which was a hour and a half drive, just to get our stuff out here. So i learned my lesson on packing, i will be sending LOTS of boxes home next week and will be getting rid of lots.......and then will buy a big suitcase before this transfer is over. So after the hour and a half drive out here to chillicothe, we finally made it out here. To the members home that we live in. The members name is the Sperry's They are great! so sweet, they had the room all prepared for us, they even had bedding on the beds for us, and pillows and all that good stuff. They are super great, So we attempted to unpack, didn't get very far, then we took a nap, because we were EXHAUSTED....then we continued to unpack, went to walmartall sorts of excited to get to know them more and continue to help this area grow. Me and my new companion have gotten along so well from day one, its been great, all she has said since day one is i remind her so much of her sister, and then she tells me about her sister and it feels like she is talking about me, so that's fun, we get along great! We have made some really great memories already. So thats been fun. We went out to eat at applebee's on Saturday.....haha, and when we came in EVERYONE was staring at us, and the WHOLE time we were there people were staring, it was funny. I give it 2 weeks max before people know who we are in this town. So its been great, we have really enjoyed it. We love this area and are so excited for the people we are going to be teaching and helping, we love them all so much already. Oh and yesterday on our way to church we saw 6 deep hoping across the road we drive on to get into town, and the day before that we saw like 2 coyote's running across the road.....we are for sure in the wilderness out here. Thankfully it hasn't really snowed out here yet, yesterday there was some ice, on our way to church we slide across a turn pretty nicely. And today there was some snow on the ground, but mainly just flurry's that stayed because it is so cold. Oh, and COLD.....yep it is FREEZING OUT HERE!!!! FREEZING!!! i am so cold ALL THE TIME!!! let the winter begin. haha. Well i love you all, and i hope you all enjoy the pictures!!!

 

Don't Forget to Mail me!!!

you can always write to the mission office

517 W Walnut

Independence MO 64050

 

or now my address is

6360 LIV 531

Chillicothe MO

64601

 

 

LOVE YOU ALL LOTS!!!

 

 

Sister Barnum!

 

 

 

 

 

E-Mail #32

E-Mail #32

January 17th, 2012



Hello everyone.


I hope you have had a good week! I know i have had one of the best weeks so far on my mission. It has been so great to be able to be in Junction City as long as i have. This week is another transfer week. So i find out tonight if i am going to be staying in junction city for the first half of my mission or not....CRAZY! Sister Fie'eiki is going home on Thursday morning. Its been so sad to see her prepare to go home. But i am so thankful for all she has done and for the time we have been companions. She most def. helped me through the hardest part of my mission, and i owe her so much for that! But the best part of Sister Fie'eiki last week is we got to see the FLIPPO's BAPTIZED!!!!! It was such an amazing week. We saw them 5 days out of 7 leading up to the baptism, we helped the boys prepare for the baptism interviews, taught chars hubby bill some more stuff. It was such a good week. It was fun though, in the middle of the week we got a surprise phone call from our mission president, and he was driving through Junction City and wanted to take us to lunch, so that was a fun surprise. We got to sit down and spend time with President and Sister Keyes, which is always great! So now back to the baptism, because that's pretty much all i want to talk about. Saturday morning the family came to the church to have their baptism interviews. It was so great to see Sean go into his interview. He is autistic, and was nervous about having to answer questions, so we got permission for his mom to go in with him, but when they got there he went in all by himself! We were all so proud of him, he is such a great kid. Then Nathan was up, he did so well, i know that kid knows the stuff we have taught him back and forth, he has an amazing memory. Then of course it was chars turn. It was fun while they were doing interviews we were playing basketball with the boys, and having fun. After all of that we went to do some work and came back to the church for a girl in our Spanish branch who was getting baptized. It was a fun service, the Spanish branch is so loving and were all there to support samaria. So we spent some time there, then we went to dinner, and came back for the Flippo baptism. The worst part of the baptism, is the plug in the font was not down all the way, so when we filled the water, it had slowly drained while we were at dinner, and the font was super empty, i felt so bad, it worked fine for the boys, but char had to go WAY down to make sure she went under the water. We also surprised char and she hadn't planned a musical number, so me and sister fie'eiki and the Manhattan sisters decided to sing, so we put it on the program and we sang the song 'when i am baptized' it was so great. The whole service was tear filled, from chars mother in law, to us, to char, to the members of the ward, basically everyone was crying. It was so great through. After there were lots of snacks so we all hung out and ate and had fun, and laughed. After everyone cleared out from that we all went to cracker barrel for another snack. haha. We had to make curfew, so we were only there for a half hour, but it was fun. When we went to leave we decided to sticky note the families cars that were there, so we put stickie notes all over their cars, and went on our merry little way. Then comes Sunday. First off, me and sister fie'eiki had to share our testimony in church, so that was a tear filled event, but it was good, and also Sunday the family got CONFIRMED MEMBERS and RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST!!! The best best best part of the confirmations was when Sean got confirmed and then it was Nathans turn, as they passed each other they gave each other this BIG HIGH FIVE!!! i wanted to just melt when i saw that, they were so cute, and it was a moment that will be in my memory the rest of my life! They are so great! They also had hunter, chars 3 year old get blessed on Sunday so he wouldn't feel left out from the family, that was so cute, he was so excited when he ran up to the front and sat int he chair. He was missing in action during most of the pictures, but we got 1 of him. haha. After church on Sunday we went to leave and our car was COVERED in stickie notes....yes COVERED!!! the members that we had done that too the night before got us back. It was so cute, i felt so loved! Anyways, so it has been a great week. This week is going to be crazy, i will be getting my 3rd companion since being in the mission, next transfer i will hit my half way mark....CRAZY!!! i just cant believe how fast things are going. I hope you all have a great week. Thanks for being so great!


Love
Sister Barnum

E-Mail #31

E-Mail #31

January 9th, 2012 

HELLO ALL!

 

 

Well. I hope everyone has had a great week. I know i have! I pretty much love missionary work, and hope it NEVER ENDS! The amazing flippo family that i have been teaching for about 5 months will be getting baptized on SATURDAY!!! WOOOHOOOO!!!! We started teaching her husband, who we call brother bill. The appointments we have had with him have been SO SPIRITUAL and total tear jerkers. But SOOO GREAT!!! More to come on that later though. This week we went to Great Bend to go on exchanges, but the best part was, on the way to great bend i met my cousins in SALINA!! It was so fun to see them, and to give them all hugs and talk to them for a few minutes. I am thankful they live in Kansas and that i can see them. Being in Great Bend was quite the experience, i wont go into details, but there were some mistakes mad, but thankfully no one got hurt! hahaha. We came back to junction city the next day, and had dinner with a new family in the ward, they are super cute and their kids are hysterical. I love all the little kids in our ward, they are so fun. We also got to go see our recent converts new born baby ray. He is SOO tiny and SOOO cute! I controlled myself and didn't hold him. We took a members daughter who is preparing for her mission on a team up one day, i think she kinda got freaked out, but we are going to keep taking her so she can get comfortable with missionary work. We saw the flippos like 3 times this last week, and we are going to see them everyday this week....lots to do before the baptism! Oh and we went to our new investigators which is an entire Spanish speaking family, we went there without a team up, so we had to have the daughter translate for us, but we just invited them to come to church and got to know them a little better, and the best part is....THEY CAME TO CHURCH!!! We were so excited to see them there, they are such a cute family. We taught one of their daughters in primary, and she goes to school with some of the other members kids, so she felt right at home with them. Friday Friday....oh dear Friday. What an eventful day that was.....for the stomach. We had so much food Friday i thought i was going to die. We ate a big lunch with our member that feeds us every Friday, and then we had 2 dinners....back to back. No time in between. The first dinner i had 2 hamburgers, why....because they made 2 for each of us. Then the next house we had chili....YUMMM!!! i thought i was going to die, i wanted to make myself throw up because i was so full. The food was good though. So that was nice. Yesterday was so fun. We went over to the GREAT. the AMAZING....the FLIPPOS for a bbq and there were 2 other amazing families with us. it was SUCH A BLAST!! We were all laughing and having a good time. They are such fun families to be with, i love them all! We also went to another families house where there was them and another family. So we were with a ton of our members yesterday. It was a blast, they are all so great, and its so fun to talk missionary work with them because they are ALL missionary minded people. I love it! Everyone in the church should be missionary minded, it is GREAT! There was a lot of funny stuff that happened this week, but i for some reason cant think of any of the stories to tell. So sorry that its kinda boring. But on a note to all who reads this, i just want you all to know....i don't like mail, so please stop sending me mail.....its annoying to have stuff in the mail EVERY DAY! oh wait....i haven't had mail for like over 2 weeks. COOL!! Don't worry though, all family has gotten the boot, the only pictures i have up on the wall in our bedroom is a picture of the prophet, and picture of missionaries, and a picture of the FLIPPO's....yep you all got the boot. The flippos are my family now. Speaking of them, and them being my family. This week is their baptism, they are getting baptized on Saturday, and we are SO EXCITED!!! Its going to be the worlds best baptism, Its going to be Char, Sean, and Nathan. Such cute kids! i love them! Its going to be such a great week, i cant wait. Its pretty much going to be a tear filled weekend, because they will get baptized on Saturday, get confirmed on Sunday, and that Sunday we have to speak....which really just share our testimonies, and its sister fie'eiki's last Sunday in the mission........so we will be crying ALL WEEKEND. Speaking of crying, we were crying yesterday, because the BEST thing happened! Sean Flippo, he got up and said his testimony in testimony meeting. he is only 9 and is so great. I started bawling, because when we teach the boys we teach them separate and he is the one i teach, and i worried sometimes that he wasn't understanding what i was teaching him, but after that i felt so excited because i knew he understood and that he really did have a testimony! I love him, and i love them! they are GREAT! Well i hope you all have a great week!

 

 

Love Sister Barnum

E-Mail #30

E-Mail #30

January 2nd, 2012

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a happy new year, and all were safe.....WELCOME TO 2012!!!!!!

I made a list of things to tell you all about from this week, so I'm going to fly right through that and tell you lots of good stories. I hope you ENJOY!!!

Well on Tuesday i went on exchanges to Manhattan, that was fun, i was with sister kavea, she is from AUSTRALIA!! She is super cool. Because so many people were gone for winter break at k-state we did LOTS of tracting. The first place that we went tracting, well we prayed of course to seek where we needed to go, we found a apartment complex and went to the top. I don't know what it is with the top floors, but you always start at the top and work your way down! But the first door we knocked on, no one was there, we knocked again, no answer, just as we were going to leave someone came up the stairs. It was a young Chinese girl. We asked her if we could talk to her about Jesus, and she said she didn't know much about Jesus. We of course told her that's okay, because we are here to teach people about Jesus. so she let us in. I have never taught someone who didn't have ANY christian basic knowledge, so it was a way cool experience. We ended up teaching her the plan of salvation. It went so well and the spirit was so strong. I'm excited to hear from the sisters how her appointment last Friday went. It was a miracle....i love doing the Lords WORK!!! So amongst the tracting, its not always miracles. We went to a apartment complex and if the person WAS home.....they REJECTED US!!! BAD!!! haha, the entire apartment complex....we were laughing pretty hard at our fail. Then we went to a house that was next to the apartment complex and the lady came out, and then saw my badge and was like NO...NO!!! i don't think so!! and closed the door....hahaha. Gotta love it! But also another great story with tracting, we were at ANOTHER apartment complex, and knocking doors, doing our thing. Well we knock on one door. and just picture it with me here. The door opens slowly, but there is no one standing in front of the door, so you cant see anyone opening it, and then the tv in the background does one of those scary movies...DA DA DA!!! noise....then the guy comes out from behind the door!! HAHAHAH!!! i started laughing SO HARD!!!! it freaked us out soooo bad!! i felt like we were about the be killed. The guy was super annoyed that we started laughing and was most def. not interested in hearing about Jesus. but even at that, it was a GREAT experience!! HAHAH!! Good times! the next morning we went and did service at the zoo, which is always fun. So some other good stories from the week of people we are working with. There is a less-active family that are working on getting back active and getting to the temple before he deploys and we went to visit them and found out her husband had not smoked for 11 days!!! we were so excited for them. Then we talked about the temple and all sorts of good stuff, they were all teary-eyed. the spirit was great, i cant wait for them to be in the temple and be a eternal family! Another adventure of the week, we went out to the famous Sister Hildabrand's farm. She is actually famous, hildabrand milk is the best stuff out here! She made us lunch and then gave us a personal tour of the farm and the way they take care of the milk, and bottle it, and we saw the cows, and the BABY COWS!!! It was great!!! We also went to on of our members daughters birthday party this week. We went over early and sister fie'eiki did her hair, and her moms hair while i did some paperwork stuff that we've been putting off for so long. The party was a Hannah montanna party, and just in case you didn't know SISTER FIE'EIKI LOVES HANNAH MONTANNA!!! haha, so it was fun. we got to see some other members and some non-members. We also got to see the GREAT Shaniqua again this week. We went to lunch with her and her mom, and had a really great conversation. She is learning so much about the gospel it is great, and she always gets right down to business and asks us her questions. I love that girl! After lunch we went to go decorate the door of someone who had their baby. The guy and girl that had their baby, he was our baptism over thanksgiving, and they had the baby! So we go over there, well OF COURSE family is in town seeing the baby, blah blah blah. Well we go to put the sign on the door and the door handle moved to be opened, so we RAN, and then we went around back of the apartment to go the other way to the door and 2 more times people came out, so we juts kept hiding. WELL THEN....we heard the dogs come out....and the new daddy talking to the dogs, and we knew he was coming our way, so we just FROZE.....it was hysterical, he was like, 'hey, what you doing?' we just yelled at him and told him to act like he didn't see us. hahaCHAR's husband came home this week, on the 29th, and we had dinner with them on the 29th. We didn't talk much about if he wanted to learn about the church, but char mentioned to him a few times that he was going to start the discussions soon, so we will see what happens. and he came to church yesterday, we didn't get a chance to find out what he thought, but we will be seeing them tonight! so we are way excited! and i also skipped what we did new years eve. We went to the potter family home, and the savin family was there and the whetten family was there and we ate lots of good Mexican food!!! it was a blast! THEN we went to the troncoso home, and the morgan family was there and the capron family was there, and the Hall family was there. so that was a blast, but i must admit we were the best dressed at the party. On our way from the potter's to the troncoso's we decided to go to our apartment and dress up all crazy. I will attach a picture, rather than try and explain the AWESOME-NESS THAT OCCURRED THAT EVENING!!!!

Well i think i managed to get through everything i wanted to share. This week is going to go by fast, we are heading out to great bend tomorrow after district meeting and will be out there for about a day. Then we will be back! Hopefully teaching people again now that the holidays are over!

I hope you all have a great week!

ROCK ON!!! 2012!!!!

Sister Barnum

oh and i forgot to mention my new years resolution....I'm going on a mission......TASK ACCOMPLISHED!!!

hee hee.

LOVE YOU!