HOLA!!!!!!
Hi my dear family!!! Man how i love getting e-mail... they always makeme laugh my face off and miss y'all just a little more. This has definitely been my most interesting week in the mission and honest pretty unproductive. We spent most of Monday packing up the old apartment which consisted of junk from years of missionaries... honestly there was globes, sombreros, car seats... who knows!! Then on Tuesday we spent the day unpacking and moving into the new apartment but I am not complaining because I HAVE HOT WATER!!! and we live in a complex with three other way cute couples from the ward so that has been fun... plus the manager LOVES us.. her name is JJ Jantz, she loves us but she hates the church. Kinda ironic. I guess one time one of the couples gave her a Finding Faith in Christ DVD and she gave it back to them. But she comes and visits us like everyday and asked us to pray for her daughter-in-law that has cancer so maybe we are making little steps with her. She really is a loud, crazy, texan though with the big hair and all and i love her!! On Wednesday we spent the day deep cleaning the old apartment which was pretty gross but we are breaking our lease so we didn't want to give them any excuse to do anything to the church... so that took some hours. Then we thought we were done for the week and Elder Hansen (from the mission office) told us we need to take our 2009 Malibu in for a Oil change and then he asked if we could drive into the office and drop off the keys to the old appartment. So we spent the day at Pep Boys and Dallas... Then we were so happy because we finally thought we could really get to work then Hermana Richardson got a bad cold!!! We still worked really hard this week don't get me wrong it was just so mixed up with "worldly" chores!! So on Sunday we got done at dinner (I made spaghetti!! aren't you proud of me!) and went out to work and it started pouring like cats and dogs and lightning and thundering but we went out anyway!! Then we got home at 9 PM and our building was the only one in the whole building that didn't have power!! We asked the neighbors what happened and I guess lightning struck the electrical pole RIGHT OUTSIDE our front door!! ha ha.. so pretty much we didn't get power till one in the morning our apartment was scorching.. but hey we had HOT WATER!! ha ha.. aren't we the luckiest hermanas you've ever heard of!!??? Another funny thing from this week... two weeks ago two Elder in our Zone got hit by cars while they were riding their bikes so for district meeting on Tuesday I made a better than #%* cake and brought it to them with a label on it saying "In honor of Elder Dalley and Elder Zobell... Better than "getting hit by a car" Cake" Everyone laughed so hard and the cake was SUPER good!! But on the spiritual stuff of the week!! The spanish ward is kind of falling apart with lots of less active families and even the long time members of the ward don't really GET the gospel. So we have been contacting a lot of less active families this week and it has been amazing to watch from the second you enter their house to when you leave... they feel the spirit and understand the need to come back... all of them have fifty million reason why not to or have been offended by something but none of them deny the truthfulness of this gospel and the power of the spirit. All they need is to feel the love and that they are missed.... it was amazing to watch two of the families walk into sacrament meeting on Sunday!!! I was so happy! i love the spanish branch though.. the President is amazing.. his name is Presidente Carasquillo and his wife Hermana Carasquillo went on her mission to Argentina and is American... they are so loving and truly care so much about the ward and about this missionary work. He took us to lunch at Chili's this week to discuss the new ward missionary leader and what the plan was going to be and my companion and I shared a chocolate moulton cake... at the end of the meeting he thanked us for coming and then looked at me and said, " It was an EXPERIENCE watching you eat that cake.. i never knew someone could love chocolate as much as my wife but i think i just found her!!" I was laughing so hard.. he always gives me such a hard time! But he is going to Vegas this week for work meetings and i gave him mom's cell number (the only one i could remember) and he should be calling y'all since he is going to be in "my neck of the woods" like he said... he is hilarious!
One of my goals this week has been to talk to everyone I see...even if it's awkward just talk to them... well we were coming out of an apartment and I saw a lady pushing a stroller a little ways off.. out of my way so I was not going to go talk to her since we were late for another appointment but then my goal popped in my mind so I went up and talked to her and got a return appointment for that Friday. We went back to teach her on Friday and her name is Nancy Adame and has the cutest little boy ever... she pretty much told US the Joseph Smith story.. She remembered it from when she lived in El Salvador when she was 14.. she said some young men used to come teach her and her friends at school but she hadn't seen missionaries since they were transfered out. We asked her how she felt and she said she knew it was true... she is so prepared!! Our next step like with every other hispanic is to get her a job that she doesn't work on Sunday so she can come to church and for her husband to give up his catholic tradition!! But i just thought it was amazing how much the Lord knows us and longs to help us accomplish our goals when we are willing to put in our work and effort!
We got a couple great english referrals this week from a couple that live in our same complex... They are the Hansen family and honestly theyare the cutest little family I have ever seen... Brother Hansen is going to the Chiropracter school her and Sister Hansen takes care of their two little boys... they are from somewhere in Utah. But they called us this week and left us a message about a referral they had for us. They preceeded to tell us that they had been having a picnic at the park and
gave a Book of Mormon and our number to a homeless lady that lived on the south side of a certain bridge... We haven't been able to find her yet! Then they called us and gave us another referral of a lady thatlives in our complex...they invited her to dinner with us and she said she didn't know if she had time because she had to take care of the complex's ducks... she feeds them, talks to them, and has named them! So pretty much we are getting some outstanding english referrals this week!! ha ha.. got to love the Hansens! We can't get ahold of Willie this week which is really weird... it is the same thing that happened with Eduardo in Iriving.. they are like GOLDEN!!! and then we can't find them for a week or a month... so I'm praying she comes back as prepared as Eduardo was!! We also met an amazing older man this week named Joseph Esters that we are going back to teach this week.. He is really really really smart in the Bible so our lessons are going to be interesting.. but he is caring for his wife and nephew right now who are in the hospital with cancer, plus his little granddaughter and still trying to work on top of that!! His wife used to be a preacher but stop because she realized her church was hypocritical... so we are really really excited to go teach him and hopefully his wife when she gets out of the hospital. We have one family in the spanish ward that is ready to get baptized but the wife has to get a divorce from her old husband in Mexico first who won't give her the divorce because she has the two boys.... but she has to get that first so she can marry her boyfriend she is living with now so they can all get baptized.. We almost set a date with another lady this week named Esperanza but she has to marry her boyfriend of ten years also because she can and he doesn't see the need to be married.. most of the time i feel more like a wedding planner than a missionary. but it will all work out in the Lord's time... please pray for them!
Well I feel like my letter is completely jumbled just like my mind this week... I guess I have really realized the importance of being set apart from the world while you are on your mission and focusing all your attention on the work!! I am excited for this week and know it is going to be AMAZING!!! Love you family!!
con amor-
Hermana Barber
Monday, July 27, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
CARROLLTON + HOT WATER = HAPPY KATIE!!
Hola familia y amigos!!
I want to start my letter today by wishing MY VERY OLD BROTHER WHO IS TURNING TWENTY FOUR AND NOT MARRIED a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! Love you Bubbie!! your card is in the mail.. I'm just sending it to the house! wish i could be there to celebrate... don't do anything too crazy! I can't believe Matt and Charlene just picked up and went to Hawaii.. super jealous.. and I heard matt is starting school in August.. so did he get into BYU or choose a different school? Stewart sounds like he growing healthy and Mike and Kara are having a riot being parents.. and I'm excited for Brandon Howick to get married.. please tell him i said CONGRATS!! mindy and tales are still ridicuously hopelessly romantic...enough said! Brad... still waiting for another e-mail from him.. as always! Brad.... did you ever make that phone call??
Well my week has been great! i have been in carrollton for two weeks now which means two weeks without a hot shower. But they have been dealing with this for over eight months now in that complex so we are breaking the lease and moving into a new apartment tomorrow that is really cute and in a way better part of town. So yes i have to pack all my stuff up again!! plus the rest of the apartment today!! super fun huh?? i am just excited for the HOT SHOWER!!! Plus in the complex is like four young couples going to Parker the Chiropracter school here and they are super excited for us to live close by... its like moving into the same complex as family... so i'm super excited and will feel super safe there!
We had zone conference this week in Frisco which was amazing as usual... my President and his wife are truly the sweetest most amazing, funniest couple ever!! Our whole conference was about getting investigators to church and then how to help them have the best experience possible once we get them there. We talked a lot about how each of our investigators don't just need someone to fellowship them but friendshipping.. not just being there becasue they are on assignment because they really care! We have been doing a lot of member training in hopes that our investigators will feel more welcome at church and stay... members really have a desire to help in the work but a lot of the time they have no clue what to do... so it has been fun getting to know the members more and do some little trainings on friendshiping our investigators. I always love zone conference because it is like a pep rally... we get all pumped for the work again and spiritually revived!! I talked to President and Sister smith after the conference and they gave me a little insight... we have one spanish sister coming in in two weeks so I really dont' know how transfers are going to go in two weeks we are praying that me and Hermana Richardson stay together and they seperate the threesome but that would mean they would probably double transfer someone back into
Iriving which doesn't really make sense since I know the area.. so it might be another shocker transfer.. but then we have three new sisters coming in in September and President said to me... just so you know all sisters that have over a month in the field will be training so I would study hard if i was you! with a little smile... then said most people don't get that much insight before such a big change!! i really am super nervous.. three transfers in the field.. four months in Texas and
training. Y'all better pray doubletime for me!! PLEASE!! Spanish work here in Carrollton in a lot more receptive and progressing then the english work here.. which shouldn't be a shocker! We have some fun families that are investigating but not progressing very fast for marriage problems or others... they are Familia Escalante, Familia Gonzales. We are also teaching older ladies named Elsy and Esperanza.. they are just kinda lazy and not willing to do the work to change. But really i have fallen in love with the hispanic culture and people. They are so warm and loving... plus they make good food! The english ward has some great families that I love.. one of the strongest families in the branch are actually converts from Sister Brundage... the Elmore Family and you should just meet them.. they are incredible and have such a desire to learn and grow in the gospel... Brother Elmore actually does his home teaching with a smile!! imagine that! It is amazing to see people come into the gospel after never having it in their lives and then I truly realize all the things I have taken for granted in my life always having the church...simple things like home teaching, visiting teaching, going to the temple... makes such a huge difference!! But the english work has really been suffering in this area there are lots of inactive families we have been trying to get back to church and we have been trying to find some solid english families and Man, has the lord blessed us! We got six new english investigators this week which is honestly unreal!! The first one is named Anne McDougal-Thompson and i'm not going ot lie is a bit of a nutcase. She loves world of warcraft and is a computer programmer that loves cats. She was in the former investigators pile from years ago and in her record it said she had an online boyfriend who was LDS. so my companion a couple weeks back went and knocked on her door and a guy answered the door and after they did their contacting spill thinking
anne didn't live there anymore he look at them and said, "I'm an Elder." So pretty much we went back and met Anne and she had married her online boyfriend, he moved away from his parents that were pushing him to break up with anne and go on a mission so he left... moved to Texas and they are married now. We found his records on the ward list and no one has EVER tried to visit him. So we started the lessons with Anne this week. She went to a lot of churches when she was younger and has some crazy
concepts of God... but we started teaching her and I stopped and had the impression to ask Zach how the gospel has blessed his life and his families. This was kinda a risky thing considering he hasn't come to church in over a year and I had no clue if he even had a testimony anymore. but the spirit poured into the room as he bore such a sweet testimony and was bawling as he talked about the power of the priesthood and other blessings. It was amazing... Anne still has crazy theories but at lease Zach is on his way of coming back to church! So then later in the week we got a media referral for a Bible for a person named Willie Owens... now usually when you get a referral for a Bible here in Texas they don't go anywhere.. or lead to bible bashing. But we decided to set up an appointment with Willie on Friday and we showed up to a older african american lady with a really strong and deep accent who loves the bible!! At first I honestly didn't think it was going to go anywhere.. we would share a quick scripture from the Bible and leave....then she started openning up to us and telling us about how her daughter had just died from cancer and she has gone from church to chruch trying to find something... so right then we knew we needed to share a first! She really related to Joseph Smith about going from church to church and wanting to know which of all of them were right. After the first vision she just looked at us and said with excited REALLY!!! well we committed her to pray about it and read and then set up an appointment for the next day. The next day we went back and we followed up if she had prayed and she said... you know i haven't slept since my daughter died and i prayed last night, felt complete peace, and slept like a rock until eleven in the afternoon. Then she continued to tell us how she had been praying that God would send someone to heal her broken heart and then we came along. She said she knew we wer from God. She is honestly golden and has such a caring, loving spirit about her. After we explained the steps to return to the celestial kingdom, faith,
repentance, baptism, gift of the holy ghost, and endure to the end. She said, "So do i need to get baptized again in your church?".... we explained proper authority and re-explained the apostasy but that is the PERFECT question that every missionary wants to hear! we have another appointment with her tonight... so wish us luck..well i guess you don't need luck as long as you've got the spirit!!
I am definitely seeing miracles here in Texas and God answers our prayers everyday even in small ways...even if it is just giving us hot showers again! ha ha.. but this the best work I could be doing right now in my life.. i'm in the business of saving souls and answering people's prayers... can't think of anything better to be doing with my time!
Thanks for all your love, prayers and support! My letters are starting to dwindle... DONT FORGET ABOUT ME!!!
love you all,
Hermana Barber
I want to start my letter today by wishing MY VERY OLD BROTHER WHO IS TURNING TWENTY FOUR AND NOT MARRIED a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! Love you Bubbie!! your card is in the mail.. I'm just sending it to the house! wish i could be there to celebrate... don't do anything too crazy! I can't believe Matt and Charlene just picked up and went to Hawaii.. super jealous.. and I heard matt is starting school in August.. so did he get into BYU or choose a different school? Stewart sounds like he growing healthy and Mike and Kara are having a riot being parents.. and I'm excited for Brandon Howick to get married.. please tell him i said CONGRATS!! mindy and tales are still ridicuously hopelessly romantic...enough said! Brad... still waiting for another e-mail from him.. as always! Brad.... did you ever make that phone call??
Well my week has been great! i have been in carrollton for two weeks now which means two weeks without a hot shower. But they have been dealing with this for over eight months now in that complex so we are breaking the lease and moving into a new apartment tomorrow that is really cute and in a way better part of town. So yes i have to pack all my stuff up again!! plus the rest of the apartment today!! super fun huh?? i am just excited for the HOT SHOWER!!! Plus in the complex is like four young couples going to Parker the Chiropracter school here and they are super excited for us to live close by... its like moving into the same complex as family... so i'm super excited and will feel super safe there!
We had zone conference this week in Frisco which was amazing as usual... my President and his wife are truly the sweetest most amazing, funniest couple ever!! Our whole conference was about getting investigators to church and then how to help them have the best experience possible once we get them there. We talked a lot about how each of our investigators don't just need someone to fellowship them but friendshipping.. not just being there becasue they are on assignment because they really care! We have been doing a lot of member training in hopes that our investigators will feel more welcome at church and stay... members really have a desire to help in the work but a lot of the time they have no clue what to do... so it has been fun getting to know the members more and do some little trainings on friendshiping our investigators. I always love zone conference because it is like a pep rally... we get all pumped for the work again and spiritually revived!! I talked to President and Sister smith after the conference and they gave me a little insight... we have one spanish sister coming in in two weeks so I really dont' know how transfers are going to go in two weeks we are praying that me and Hermana Richardson stay together and they seperate the threesome but that would mean they would probably double transfer someone back into
Iriving which doesn't really make sense since I know the area.. so it might be another shocker transfer.. but then we have three new sisters coming in in September and President said to me... just so you know all sisters that have over a month in the field will be training so I would study hard if i was you! with a little smile... then said most people don't get that much insight before such a big change!! i really am super nervous.. three transfers in the field.. four months in Texas and
training. Y'all better pray doubletime for me!! PLEASE!! Spanish work here in Carrollton in a lot more receptive and progressing then the english work here.. which shouldn't be a shocker! We have some fun families that are investigating but not progressing very fast for marriage problems or others... they are Familia Escalante, Familia Gonzales. We are also teaching older ladies named Elsy and Esperanza.. they are just kinda lazy and not willing to do the work to change. But really i have fallen in love with the hispanic culture and people. They are so warm and loving... plus they make good food! The english ward has some great families that I love.. one of the strongest families in the branch are actually converts from Sister Brundage... the Elmore Family and you should just meet them.. they are incredible and have such a desire to learn and grow in the gospel... Brother Elmore actually does his home teaching with a smile!! imagine that! It is amazing to see people come into the gospel after never having it in their lives and then I truly realize all the things I have taken for granted in my life always having the church...simple things like home teaching, visiting teaching, going to the temple... makes such a huge difference!! But the english work has really been suffering in this area there are lots of inactive families we have been trying to get back to church and we have been trying to find some solid english families and Man, has the lord blessed us! We got six new english investigators this week which is honestly unreal!! The first one is named Anne McDougal-Thompson and i'm not going ot lie is a bit of a nutcase. She loves world of warcraft and is a computer programmer that loves cats. She was in the former investigators pile from years ago and in her record it said she had an online boyfriend who was LDS. so my companion a couple weeks back went and knocked on her door and a guy answered the door and after they did their contacting spill thinking
anne didn't live there anymore he look at them and said, "I'm an Elder." So pretty much we went back and met Anne and she had married her online boyfriend, he moved away from his parents that were pushing him to break up with anne and go on a mission so he left... moved to Texas and they are married now. We found his records on the ward list and no one has EVER tried to visit him. So we started the lessons with Anne this week. She went to a lot of churches when she was younger and has some crazy
concepts of God... but we started teaching her and I stopped and had the impression to ask Zach how the gospel has blessed his life and his families. This was kinda a risky thing considering he hasn't come to church in over a year and I had no clue if he even had a testimony anymore. but the spirit poured into the room as he bore such a sweet testimony and was bawling as he talked about the power of the priesthood and other blessings. It was amazing... Anne still has crazy theories but at lease Zach is on his way of coming back to church! So then later in the week we got a media referral for a Bible for a person named Willie Owens... now usually when you get a referral for a Bible here in Texas they don't go anywhere.. or lead to bible bashing. But we decided to set up an appointment with Willie on Friday and we showed up to a older african american lady with a really strong and deep accent who loves the bible!! At first I honestly didn't think it was going to go anywhere.. we would share a quick scripture from the Bible and leave....then she started openning up to us and telling us about how her daughter had just died from cancer and she has gone from church to chruch trying to find something... so right then we knew we needed to share a first! She really related to Joseph Smith about going from church to church and wanting to know which of all of them were right. After the first vision she just looked at us and said with excited REALLY!!! well we committed her to pray about it and read and then set up an appointment for the next day. The next day we went back and we followed up if she had prayed and she said... you know i haven't slept since my daughter died and i prayed last night, felt complete peace, and slept like a rock until eleven in the afternoon. Then she continued to tell us how she had been praying that God would send someone to heal her broken heart and then we came along. She said she knew we wer from God. She is honestly golden and has such a caring, loving spirit about her. After we explained the steps to return to the celestial kingdom, faith,
repentance, baptism, gift of the holy ghost, and endure to the end. She said, "So do i need to get baptized again in your church?".... we explained proper authority and re-explained the apostasy but that is the PERFECT question that every missionary wants to hear! we have another appointment with her tonight... so wish us luck..well i guess you don't need luck as long as you've got the spirit!!
I am definitely seeing miracles here in Texas and God answers our prayers everyday even in small ways...even if it is just giving us hot showers again! ha ha.. but this the best work I could be doing right now in my life.. i'm in the business of saving souls and answering people's prayers... can't think of anything better to be doing with my time!
Thanks for all your love, prayers and support! My letters are starting to dwindle... DONT FORGET ABOUT ME!!!
love you all,
Hermana Barber
Monday, July 13, 2009
Hola from Carrollton, TX!
Hola from Carrollton, TX!
Well last monday after I got done writing my e-mail we got a phone call from the A.P.'s saying that since there are only 5 hermanas in the whole mission who speak spanish and one is going home in a transfer and we are getting four new ones...(which mean we are all probably going to have to train) he was changing us all around to prepare for that. So we got that phone call about one in the afternoon and we had to be out of our apartment and to District meeting the next day by 10:30 am. It was crazy night of visiting tons of members and getting addresses/pictures and telling them all to pray that I come back!! ha ha... it would be fun to go back there when i know spanish tonz better. We said goodbye to some of our investigators but i didn't get to say goodbye to Eduardo because he was in Missouri working so we just called him and luckily he has met the other elders and knows people in the ward so i think he is goign to be okay. It is funny how attached you get to complete strangers and how much you come to love them and they love you. I was so sad to leave but everything happens for a reason. I spent probably three hours working on the AREA BOOK for the Elders that talks about all our investigators and potential investigators so that no one would fall through the cracks, I wrote up all our appointments we had already scheduled for the week plus put a sticky note on everyones teaching records to let them know exactly what we were going to teach and their background so hopefully we don't loose anyone that would have progressed... but the elders in my other district are amazing and I made them promise me they would at least get Eduardo baptized.. and it was really funny 'cause when I called to say bye to Eduardo I told him i had already gotten permission to come back for his baptism... ha ha and he doesn't even have a date but all he said was okay! ha ha Well the next day I went to district meeting, then to eat with my district. hermana Medlyn went to Grand Praire which is in the same Zone, like 15 minutes away into a threesome with hermana Christensen and Hermana Schulte... then the Missionaries from the Mission office Sister and Elder Hansen came and picked me up and took me to the mission office to meet with my new companion.... There were like seven sister there at the mission office doing transfers also and I met up with Hermana Richardson and then we came out to Carrollton,TX.... it is about 15 minutes away from the mission home and the temple so i'm realy close to downtown dallas. We have a HUGE area and cover a small part english and then all of it is spanish. We have a English Ward Dallas 6th... then a Spanish Branch, Sunbeck. I have loved the members in the English ward so far because there is a Chiropractic school called Parker here in Dallas so a lot of the members of the ward are young couples that just came here from BYU and they are so sweet..it's kinda like eating with mike and Kara... it's really fun. I went to church in English yesterday for the first time in almost 5 months which was actually really weird! and now we have to trade off teaching in english and spanish and i really CAN'T pray in english!! Which is probably a good sign with my spanish! Well the area has a lot of eternal investigators and part member families that have been worked with for YEARS so this week is going to be a lot of tracting to find new investigators especially english work and cleaning out the old investigators that aren't going anywhere. It will be good especially since my new companion and I work so well together. her name is Hermana Heather Richardson and she is 24 and from Woods Cross, UT. She has onlybeen out 6 months earlier than me and kinda has had a hard time learning spanish because she is dislexic but she is definitely better than me and can get her point across. She actually helps me in door contacts and I actually feel pretty confinant walking into lesson which is definitely a good change. We are growing and learning together which is also fun! Sorry I don't have any amazing spiritual stories this week... its kinda just been a week of getting to know everyone and the area which is huge.. all of Carrollton, Addison, Lewisville, and Coppell and it's a lot more ritzy then Irving was.. i never realized I was in such a ghetto part of Dallas before.. i loved it! But this area will be great also and I'm excited to meet new people and grow to love them as much as i love the people in Irving! With my new address... maybe only send letters there this week because we don't have hot water in our apartment and they have been promising to fix it for 8 months so we are moving to a new apartment maybe this week.. not sure!
It was good to hear that everyone seems to be doing great at home! i can't believe Jules is Two.. and that TemeKula Riley is turning 5 this week!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEKE!!! i hear my little nephew stewart is cuter than ever and I hope he still lets me snuggle him when I get home. Brad is still trying to find a wife...you better not even think about getting married till i get home! Mindy and Tales are still in their mushy gushy newlywed stage. Mom and Dad ya'll sound like you are traveling the world to see your kids and grandkids! I love you all and miss you tons!! thanks for all your love and support... keep the letters coming PLEASE!!!
con amor-
Hermana Katie Barber
Well last monday after I got done writing my e-mail we got a phone call from the A.P.'s saying that since there are only 5 hermanas in the whole mission who speak spanish and one is going home in a transfer and we are getting four new ones...(which mean we are all probably going to have to train) he was changing us all around to prepare for that. So we got that phone call about one in the afternoon and we had to be out of our apartment and to District meeting the next day by 10:30 am. It was crazy night of visiting tons of members and getting addresses/pictures and telling them all to pray that I come back!! ha ha... it would be fun to go back there when i know spanish tonz better. We said goodbye to some of our investigators but i didn't get to say goodbye to Eduardo because he was in Missouri working so we just called him and luckily he has met the other elders and knows people in the ward so i think he is goign to be okay. It is funny how attached you get to complete strangers and how much you come to love them and they love you. I was so sad to leave but everything happens for a reason. I spent probably three hours working on the AREA BOOK for the Elders that talks about all our investigators and potential investigators so that no one would fall through the cracks, I wrote up all our appointments we had already scheduled for the week plus put a sticky note on everyones teaching records to let them know exactly what we were going to teach and their background so hopefully we don't loose anyone that would have progressed... but the elders in my other district are amazing and I made them promise me they would at least get Eduardo baptized.. and it was really funny 'cause when I called to say bye to Eduardo I told him i had already gotten permission to come back for his baptism... ha ha and he doesn't even have a date but all he said was okay! ha ha Well the next day I went to district meeting, then to eat with my district. hermana Medlyn went to Grand Praire which is in the same Zone, like 15 minutes away into a threesome with hermana Christensen and Hermana Schulte... then the Missionaries from the Mission office Sister and Elder Hansen came and picked me up and took me to the mission office to meet with my new companion.... There were like seven sister there at the mission office doing transfers also and I met up with Hermana Richardson and then we came out to Carrollton,TX.... it is about 15 minutes away from the mission home and the temple so i'm realy close to downtown dallas. We have a HUGE area and cover a small part english and then all of it is spanish. We have a English Ward Dallas 6th... then a Spanish Branch, Sunbeck. I have loved the members in the English ward so far because there is a Chiropractic school called Parker here in Dallas so a lot of the members of the ward are young couples that just came here from BYU and they are so sweet..it's kinda like eating with mike and Kara... it's really fun. I went to church in English yesterday for the first time in almost 5 months which was actually really weird! and now we have to trade off teaching in english and spanish and i really CAN'T pray in english!! Which is probably a good sign with my spanish! Well the area has a lot of eternal investigators and part member families that have been worked with for YEARS so this week is going to be a lot of tracting to find new investigators especially english work and cleaning out the old investigators that aren't going anywhere. It will be good especially since my new companion and I work so well together. her name is Hermana Heather Richardson and she is 24 and from Woods Cross, UT. She has onlybeen out 6 months earlier than me and kinda has had a hard time learning spanish because she is dislexic but she is definitely better than me and can get her point across. She actually helps me in door contacts and I actually feel pretty confinant walking into lesson which is definitely a good change. We are growing and learning together which is also fun! Sorry I don't have any amazing spiritual stories this week... its kinda just been a week of getting to know everyone and the area which is huge.. all of Carrollton, Addison, Lewisville, and Coppell and it's a lot more ritzy then Irving was.. i never realized I was in such a ghetto part of Dallas before.. i loved it! But this area will be great also and I'm excited to meet new people and grow to love them as much as i love the people in Irving! With my new address... maybe only send letters there this week because we don't have hot water in our apartment and they have been promising to fix it for 8 months so we are moving to a new apartment maybe this week.. not sure!
It was good to hear that everyone seems to be doing great at home! i can't believe Jules is Two.. and that TemeKula Riley is turning 5 this week!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEKE!!! i hear my little nephew stewart is cuter than ever and I hope he still lets me snuggle him when I get home. Brad is still trying to find a wife...you better not even think about getting married till i get home! Mindy and Tales are still in their mushy gushy newlywed stage. Mom and Dad ya'll sound like you are traveling the world to see your kids and grandkids! I love you all and miss you tons!! thanks for all your love and support... keep the letters coming PLEASE!!!
con amor-
Hermana Katie Barber
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Probably my BEST SUNDAY so far!!
Hi familia and amigos!!!
This has been a great week and I have tons of fun stories for you all!!..especially you Hermana Brundage.. you are going to DIE at these updates!! Well we spent the first part of the week just tracting and I thoguht I was going to die from tracting the same appartment complexes for six weeks straight then it was like as we started driving around new apartment complexes were popping out of no where. We have found some really good places to tract that are really densely populated with hispanics and haven't been knocked much... We met some really great families and my week this week is filled with appointment with them so I pray they go somewhere. We are teaching a recent convert named Stacy Martinez who didn't really know much when she was baptized but it is amazing everytime we teach her she gets more and more and longs to learn. this week we taught her an awesome lesson about the five steps in the gospel.. faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the holy ghost, and endure to the end and we centered it around the atonement. I have never felt the spirit so strong in a lesson and the light went on in her head... she talked about how pure she felt at her baptism and then when we explain the holy ghost she was like.. "oh that's what they is?" then told us amazing stories about feeling the holy ghost in her life. i was hoping she would come to church this week since she has been in the hospital with some sort of flu... kinda like swine flu but she didn't show up to church yesterday because her boyfriend was in town from San Antonia.. so I've gotta get her there next sunday.
Friday and Sunday were the best days of the week though!! On Friday we started the day off with a interviews with President Smith and Training from him, Sister Smith, and the Zone leaders which was amazing. My interview with President Smith was such a boost for me... he has such confidence in me and when I talk to him I feel like I can reach the potential he thinks I can.. it was really good but kinda confusing at the same time because I guess in Hermana Medlyn's interview he asked her how she felt about doing English work and talked about doing mid transfer changes because she had been praying about it or something and in my interview said that this "experience" might be even shorter than I expect... so who knows, but Hermana Medlyn and I are actually doing pretty okay now... we are starting to figure out how to work together and I have grown in the last two weeks in ways I wouldn't have without this situation so I am actually realy thankful for it! The training we had was more like our mission council training about focusing on getting member to help "friendship" our investigators and creating the best experience for them possible. I love trainings because I get new ideas and get to see areas i can improve as a missionary. I also told President and Sister smith all about Mark coming in and they were super excited!! He wasn't on their list yet or new missionaries but they should be getting an updated one in a couple weeks... President Smith also wanted to know if Mark and his family were related to Derek or Wayne Metcalf from up north.. I guess Wayne was President Smith's old mission companion and good friend...just wondering.. but they are super excited to meet him. I talked him up so he better get ready!!
Right after training I got permission to go the Dallas Temple to the sealing of a family in our ward named Familia Corona... they were inactive for a long time and their daughter was just baptized in February.. they got sealed without two of their kids but it was still beautiful and my first sealing with kids involved.... This family is known as the " Missionary Family" and has pictures of missionaries hanging all over their living room... like shrines of missionaries... ha ha well there were 16 missionaries in the sealing... it was crazy. Then they took us to dinner afterwards. It was amazing thought inside the temple how much I thought about our family, we never went through that experience because thankfully mom and dad have lived worthy of their convenants but it really hit me that we are get to live together FOREVER!!! I can't wait.. thanks mommy and daddy for being married in the temple, for being worthy so I can have that amazing gift!!
Sunday was an amazing day though... we had SIX investigators at church!!! Hermana Medlyn was playing the piano for Sacrament meeting so it was up to me to get them all settled.. i dont think i've ever been so stressed and nervous in my life. We started teaching a family again that Hermana Brundage and I dropped because she was too sick and would never keep our appointments... her names is Maria Rico.. her daughters name is Maria Rico and she brought her nephew Hector Rico. Hermana Rodriguez, the Relief Society President who is AMAZING, picked them up for church, sat by them during sacrament meeting, took the kids to their classes, introduce Maria to friends to take her to class and relief society.. I didnt' even have to worry about her.. that is what fellowshipping should be, I couldn't have been happier. After Church I asked her how she felt and she loved it.. her little girl ran up to me after primary so exicited she had met two new friends and proudly said, "I now know how to PRAY!!", the nephew told me about the stuff he learned about Jesus Christ... it was so cool!!!
The other investigator that came to church.. (ready to freak out Hermana Brundage!!!) was EDUARDO HERNANDEZ!!!! He is the miracle man that Hermana Brundage and I found over a month and a 1/2 ago and he disappeared and Hermana Brundage saw him again the week before she left while she was on exchanges... well we went and taught him on the Fourth of July (Dad Hispanics don't really ever need a reason to have parties.. so they party just because its a holiday more than the celebrate the actual holiday i think!! ha ha) and during his lesson we talked about the Plan of Salvations and the steps to reach the celestial kingdom... he told us that he wants to be baptized and has wanted to since he went to the baptism he just feels like he is on the step of faith right now.... and wants to feel it more in his heart before he gets baptized. So i commited him like twelve times to come to church and started my fast that night that he would recieve his strong anwswer at church the next day.
Well he showed up to church on Sunday and i was SOOOOOOOOO excited to see him walk in the door I focused all my attention on him and forgot I was suppose to be waiting for antoher investigator named Hugo Garcia. Well I sat Eduardo next to a younger man in the ward and was explaining about Fast and Testimony meeting when Hugo walks in with the other elders and they set him on the other side of the member!! I explained everything to Eduardo as we went through the meeting and cute little kids bore their testimonies and the other testimonies were perfect and not about Crazy doctrines which i was happy... we read scriptures during sacrament, sang all the songs and even during Gospel Principle class he was flipping to the scriptures, participating... it was amazing. He went to Priesthood then after Priesthood I invited him to this testimony meeting/dinner thing with all the single adults in the ward and the missionaries since we were going there for dinner... it started at five and I didn't think he would come but I invited him anyway...(to be continued)back to Sacrament meeting... Hugo came to Sacrament meeting and sat by the member and I had asked the member previously to explain the sacrament and everythign to him... well he wasn't and I thought Hugo was completely confused and didn't like sacrament and I was really stressed when he just walked out after Sacrament and didn't come talk to us... After Sacrament meeting Elder Kelly our Zone leader comes up to us is like.. "So I was standing in the foyer and all of a sudden this male model with muscles buldging is walking down the hall and walks up to me asking where Hermana Barbie (that is what everyone calls me) is... ha ha.. where do you Hermanas go tracting anyway??" I was laughing so hard.. it's not our fault if they are the only ones who will listen to us!!! But anyway we called Hugo after church to see where he went and why he ran off.. and he told us he thought it was over but loved it... then he asked how you tell the difference between missionarys and members they were all in white shirts and ties and skirts... so we explained... then we told him visitors are always welcome and he asked how he can become not a visitor so we gladly explained baptism.. he have two appointments with him this week!!
Back to Eduardo.. So we are sitting at the single adults testimony meeting and he wasn't there so I didn't think he was going to show up.. then he walks in the door about ten minutes after it started.. at the very end of the meeting the people on either side of him had already bore their testimony and so Eduardo was like, "Well i guess it is my turn!!" I was SHOCKED!!! since this was the first time he had come to church adn around these people.... well my state of shocked turned into panic as he went off for 15 mintues telling these people a story i didn't really understand but I did understand the words tomar (to drink), embarressado (pregnant), policia (police), and matar (to kill!!)... yep don't even worry about it.. I was FREAKING OUT IN MY SEAT!!! and on top of that he was bawling... I didnt know what to do. Then after he was done everyone in the meeting welcomed him and told him he was right where he needed to be and Hermano Magana shared a powerful scripture about Jesus Christ being the only way to overcome his pain.. I guess the story he told was about him changing his life from being an alcoholic, a lady he was dating that was pregnant then her ex-husband came adn killed her two kids and how much pain he has been through and how he is ready to change his life. Then at the end of the story he said he has gone to many churches and didn't like them and now he has finally found a place he likes and feels welcome. He then sat and ate with everyone and when we left he was still there making friends.. I feel like my fast was definitely answered!!! He is not only spiritually converted but also socially converted... and after that meeting Hermano Magana the first counselor came up to us and said... He's ready to be baptized!! and I agree... he is amazing. The Lord really prepares people for us and I am seeing mircales in this area sprout up left and right I am I have felt joy this week that I have NEVER experienced in my life... yes the work is hard, yes I am exhausted, but Sunday made everything I've gone through, sacrificed, or lack of sleep so worth it!!
I hope you are all happy.. I hope Jule's birthday was wonderful.. and Thanks mom for the shirts they all fit AMAZING... and they are so cute. You are so good at shopping for me now mom!! I am the most stylish missionary out here.. ha ha.. love you.. and dad about your new grill and BBQ.. i'm so jealous I keep looking for that amazing Texas BBQ everyone talks about and can't find anything better than yours!! love you all and miss you!! please keep writing me!!
Con amor,
Hermana Barber!!!
This has been a great week and I have tons of fun stories for you all!!..especially you Hermana Brundage.. you are going to DIE at these updates!! Well we spent the first part of the week just tracting and I thoguht I was going to die from tracting the same appartment complexes for six weeks straight then it was like as we started driving around new apartment complexes were popping out of no where. We have found some really good places to tract that are really densely populated with hispanics and haven't been knocked much... We met some really great families and my week this week is filled with appointment with them so I pray they go somewhere. We are teaching a recent convert named Stacy Martinez who didn't really know much when she was baptized but it is amazing everytime we teach her she gets more and more and longs to learn. this week we taught her an awesome lesson about the five steps in the gospel.. faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the holy ghost, and endure to the end and we centered it around the atonement. I have never felt the spirit so strong in a lesson and the light went on in her head... she talked about how pure she felt at her baptism and then when we explain the holy ghost she was like.. "oh that's what they is?" then told us amazing stories about feeling the holy ghost in her life. i was hoping she would come to church this week since she has been in the hospital with some sort of flu... kinda like swine flu but she didn't show up to church yesterday because her boyfriend was in town from San Antonia.. so I've gotta get her there next sunday.
Friday and Sunday were the best days of the week though!! On Friday we started the day off with a interviews with President Smith and Training from him, Sister Smith, and the Zone leaders which was amazing. My interview with President Smith was such a boost for me... he has such confidence in me and when I talk to him I feel like I can reach the potential he thinks I can.. it was really good but kinda confusing at the same time because I guess in Hermana Medlyn's interview he asked her how she felt about doing English work and talked about doing mid transfer changes because she had been praying about it or something and in my interview said that this "experience" might be even shorter than I expect... so who knows, but Hermana Medlyn and I are actually doing pretty okay now... we are starting to figure out how to work together and I have grown in the last two weeks in ways I wouldn't have without this situation so I am actually realy thankful for it! The training we had was more like our mission council training about focusing on getting member to help "friendship" our investigators and creating the best experience for them possible. I love trainings because I get new ideas and get to see areas i can improve as a missionary. I also told President and Sister smith all about Mark coming in and they were super excited!! He wasn't on their list yet or new missionaries but they should be getting an updated one in a couple weeks... President Smith also wanted to know if Mark and his family were related to Derek or Wayne Metcalf from up north.. I guess Wayne was President Smith's old mission companion and good friend...just wondering.. but they are super excited to meet him. I talked him up so he better get ready!!
Right after training I got permission to go the Dallas Temple to the sealing of a family in our ward named Familia Corona... they were inactive for a long time and their daughter was just baptized in February.. they got sealed without two of their kids but it was still beautiful and my first sealing with kids involved.... This family is known as the " Missionary Family" and has pictures of missionaries hanging all over their living room... like shrines of missionaries... ha ha well there were 16 missionaries in the sealing... it was crazy. Then they took us to dinner afterwards. It was amazing thought inside the temple how much I thought about our family, we never went through that experience because thankfully mom and dad have lived worthy of their convenants but it really hit me that we are get to live together FOREVER!!! I can't wait.. thanks mommy and daddy for being married in the temple, for being worthy so I can have that amazing gift!!
Sunday was an amazing day though... we had SIX investigators at church!!! Hermana Medlyn was playing the piano for Sacrament meeting so it was up to me to get them all settled.. i dont think i've ever been so stressed and nervous in my life. We started teaching a family again that Hermana Brundage and I dropped because she was too sick and would never keep our appointments... her names is Maria Rico.. her daughters name is Maria Rico and she brought her nephew Hector Rico. Hermana Rodriguez, the Relief Society President who is AMAZING, picked them up for church, sat by them during sacrament meeting, took the kids to their classes, introduce Maria to friends to take her to class and relief society.. I didnt' even have to worry about her.. that is what fellowshipping should be, I couldn't have been happier. After Church I asked her how she felt and she loved it.. her little girl ran up to me after primary so exicited she had met two new friends and proudly said, "I now know how to PRAY!!", the nephew told me about the stuff he learned about Jesus Christ... it was so cool!!!
The other investigator that came to church.. (ready to freak out Hermana Brundage!!!) was EDUARDO HERNANDEZ!!!! He is the miracle man that Hermana Brundage and I found over a month and a 1/2 ago and he disappeared and Hermana Brundage saw him again the week before she left while she was on exchanges... well we went and taught him on the Fourth of July (Dad Hispanics don't really ever need a reason to have parties.. so they party just because its a holiday more than the celebrate the actual holiday i think!! ha ha) and during his lesson we talked about the Plan of Salvations and the steps to reach the celestial kingdom... he told us that he wants to be baptized and has wanted to since he went to the baptism he just feels like he is on the step of faith right now.... and wants to feel it more in his heart before he gets baptized. So i commited him like twelve times to come to church and started my fast that night that he would recieve his strong anwswer at church the next day.
Well he showed up to church on Sunday and i was SOOOOOOOOO excited to see him walk in the door I focused all my attention on him and forgot I was suppose to be waiting for antoher investigator named Hugo Garcia. Well I sat Eduardo next to a younger man in the ward and was explaining about Fast and Testimony meeting when Hugo walks in with the other elders and they set him on the other side of the member!! I explained everything to Eduardo as we went through the meeting and cute little kids bore their testimonies and the other testimonies were perfect and not about Crazy doctrines which i was happy... we read scriptures during sacrament, sang all the songs and even during Gospel Principle class he was flipping to the scriptures, participating... it was amazing. He went to Priesthood then after Priesthood I invited him to this testimony meeting/dinner thing with all the single adults in the ward and the missionaries since we were going there for dinner... it started at five and I didn't think he would come but I invited him anyway...(to be continued)back to Sacrament meeting... Hugo came to Sacrament meeting and sat by the member and I had asked the member previously to explain the sacrament and everythign to him... well he wasn't and I thought Hugo was completely confused and didn't like sacrament and I was really stressed when he just walked out after Sacrament and didn't come talk to us... After Sacrament meeting Elder Kelly our Zone leader comes up to us is like.. "So I was standing in the foyer and all of a sudden this male model with muscles buldging is walking down the hall and walks up to me asking where Hermana Barbie (that is what everyone calls me) is... ha ha.. where do you Hermanas go tracting anyway??" I was laughing so hard.. it's not our fault if they are the only ones who will listen to us!!! But anyway we called Hugo after church to see where he went and why he ran off.. and he told us he thought it was over but loved it... then he asked how you tell the difference between missionarys and members they were all in white shirts and ties and skirts... so we explained... then we told him visitors are always welcome and he asked how he can become not a visitor so we gladly explained baptism.. he have two appointments with him this week!!
Back to Eduardo.. So we are sitting at the single adults testimony meeting and he wasn't there so I didn't think he was going to show up.. then he walks in the door about ten minutes after it started.. at the very end of the meeting the people on either side of him had already bore their testimony and so Eduardo was like, "Well i guess it is my turn!!" I was SHOCKED!!! since this was the first time he had come to church adn around these people.... well my state of shocked turned into panic as he went off for 15 mintues telling these people a story i didn't really understand but I did understand the words tomar (to drink), embarressado (pregnant), policia (police), and matar (to kill!!)... yep don't even worry about it.. I was FREAKING OUT IN MY SEAT!!! and on top of that he was bawling... I didnt know what to do. Then after he was done everyone in the meeting welcomed him and told him he was right where he needed to be and Hermano Magana shared a powerful scripture about Jesus Christ being the only way to overcome his pain.. I guess the story he told was about him changing his life from being an alcoholic, a lady he was dating that was pregnant then her ex-husband came adn killed her two kids and how much pain he has been through and how he is ready to change his life. Then at the end of the story he said he has gone to many churches and didn't like them and now he has finally found a place he likes and feels welcome. He then sat and ate with everyone and when we left he was still there making friends.. I feel like my fast was definitely answered!!! He is not only spiritually converted but also socially converted... and after that meeting Hermano Magana the first counselor came up to us and said... He's ready to be baptized!! and I agree... he is amazing. The Lord really prepares people for us and I am seeing mircales in this area sprout up left and right I am I have felt joy this week that I have NEVER experienced in my life... yes the work is hard, yes I am exhausted, but Sunday made everything I've gone through, sacrificed, or lack of sleep so worth it!!
I hope you are all happy.. I hope Jule's birthday was wonderful.. and Thanks mom for the shirts they all fit AMAZING... and they are so cute. You are so good at shopping for me now mom!! I am the most stylish missionary out here.. ha ha.. love you.. and dad about your new grill and BBQ.. i'm so jealous I keep looking for that amazing Texas BBQ everyone talks about and can't find anything better than yours!! love you all and miss you!! please keep writing me!!
Con amor,
Hermana Barber!!!
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