Leaving In Three!

Hola mi familia!! como estan? I am so good and so happy here at the MTC but very ready to leave! Thank you for all your letters and everyone sounds WONDERFUL!! Kara your belly is so cute and my nephew stewart is going to be the BOMB!! Happy Birthday and I'm sorry I missed it.. Mike said you had a great day though. Good luck putting together the stoller Mike and I better get a letter on your four week break!! Mindy and Tales I love you both and thanks for all yoru letters and support. Matt and Charlene.. WHAT ARE YOU HAVING!! when do you find out? Please give Jules a big kiss and hug for me and send me pictures when you get a chance I WOULD LOVE THEM!! Mom and Dad i'm so excited for you new gas stove I know you have always wanted one and that will be a nice up grade.. man do i miss your cooking!! I need to real food if anyone wants to pull some magic.. HINTHINT!! but i'm out of here in three weeks and I am eating to my hearts content at the airport. Dont worry about me anymore i finally went to the doctors after being sick for three weeks and the doctor got made at me cause i guess i had the starts of bronchitis or something.. but they gave me an
antibiotic and i feel like 100%... on Friday last week we taught our first lesson in pure espanol.. can you believe it?? i can't!! the spirit was so strong.. what we do is teach a volunteer the first lesson and they pretend to be an investigator.. well you can imagine how taken back we were when our PRETEND investigator started bawling so hard she couldn't talk.. our teach stopped our lesson and asked her if she was
okay.. well i guess everythign we shared with her made her think of when she was meeting with the sister missionaries and brough back tender feelings and tender moments.. and the cool things was that i had told my companions that mornign that i thought we needed to change the scripture we shared with her and it ended up being exactly what she needed.. man the spirit really guides you when you stop to listen!! The gift of tongues is so real when you have faith, listen to the investigator and
really listen to what they need. My companion Hermana Christensen has really been struggling with spanish and she only spoke a little but what she did say astounded me!! the gift of tongues is REAL.. the Lord helps us every step of the way. As long as I study my guts out and do all i can do he will help me in my hour of need. Another cool thing was on Sunday for Relief Society Sister Sheri Dew came to speak with us and brought along with her, her friend who is Elder Nelson's wife!! So i got
to meet them both. Sheri Dew is such a woman of power. She talked to us abou the need for purity and cleanliness.. she told us a couple cool stories one about how she was cleaning in the Bountiful Temple and they gave her a tiny brush and asked her to make sure there was NO DUST on the alters... she said as she rain this tinie brush on the alters she realized just as the temple gets maticulously cleaned every night we must do the same.. if we are pure we will stand out from the world. she told another story about VIP week at the Manhatten Temple open house and there was a well known journalist that went through and was talking to someone as he left asking why are your girls so much pretty then all the other girls in the world.. and the man just looked at him and said becasue they are pure and clean... it makes such a difference.. then she asked a question that i never thought about in my life.. she said, "what if it was your assignment to distract your fellow missionaries or to distract the next generation.. what would you do? Satan is so good at his job.. he tries to distract missionaries with the things of the world.... she said that he 1. tries to get us to forget who we are literal sons and daughters of god.. 2 forget the power of the atonement and what our savior did for us...3 tries to make it so we never realize how to obtain personal revelation.. NEVER FORGET ANY OF THOSE!! Monday some more elders left for Mexico and I lost another couple brothers... but I am getting better at saying goodbye. Tuesday in the Resource center where we call people about the stuff they ordered i sent out three missionaries with Book of Mormons.. then a lady called in named Tamara.. and i asked her why she felt prompted to call in and get the DVD finding Faith in Christ and she said that she just feels liek she need to COME UNTO CHRIST!! ha ha in my head I just laughed becasue here is an investigator stating my very missionary purpose in the front of Preach My Gospel.. INVITE OTHERS TO COME UNTO CHRIST!! she said in her own words that she FIERCELY needed the truth. I bore testimony to her about the hope and the answers the gospel brings in a troubles world and I asked her if i could send missionaries and the next day wasn't soon enough for her!! ha ha.. she asked me to call her back so I'll call her next week to make sure she is doing good.. there are such chosen people out there just SEARCHING for the truth all we have to do is open our mouths and the spirt will fill them... once you get someone to open up to you and start talking about there life you can ALWAYS find some reason they need the gospel. Well last night we had the opportunity to hear from Elder Craig Zwick and he dear wife... and it just brought me back to memories of Mindy's wedding and seeing him in white. something awesome that Sister Zwick said was a story about a people in mexico who still spoke an ancient dialect of Myan and when they greet each other translated they asked, "How is your heart?" then she had us do a self examination of our heart and talked about how we need to say , Lord her is my heart and my will!! let it be swallowed up in yours. I really feel like when i first got here the only thing keeping me was the will of the Lord but now I REALLY LOVE IT HERE!! I love what i'm doing.. i love what i'm learning.. don't get me wrong it is the hardest thing i've ever done.. but also the most rewarding.. I think of my dreams of someday getting married in the temple and having little kids and living together with my family forever... I am giving other people in Texas my dream!! Without the gospel they can't even dream the things i get to dream.. through this experience not only am i making it so i can be a better mom and wife.. i've giving other families the opportunity to have a better life!! awesome to think about!! Elder zwick gave an amazing talk but a couple things i loved from his talk was he said the lord will prepare you as you put your willing hand into his. he then said that so many times poeple fail to unwrap the gift of the holy ghost because they fail to listen. Another cool thing he said is when he quoted Elder Eyrings dad who was a well known scientist and a very smart man and he said, "I can learn something from everyone, they have all experienced soemthing i never have!" Man i found another weakness with his talk on LISTENING!! i talk to much.. everyone knows that but i have to learn to listen.. that is my goal! Also something cool about the fireside last night was that one of the counselors in the MTC Presidency's daughter was my relief society president in my BYU singles ward... sooooo my best friend/roommate from last sememster is one of her counselors her name is Lizzy Henderson.. well she came last night to the fireside so i got to see her!! I ran up after the fireside and gave her a HUGE hug and started bawling.. it was so nice to see a familiar face espeically a
face that other than Mindy's example was a huge example to get me here to serve!! Also this week Hermana Christensen and i talked out of differneces one on one and now she is actually turning into one of my best friends.. sometimes it just takes getting to know the other persons side.. Thanks for all yoru support and i love you all!! i miss you but I'm doing a great work.. so keep praying for my spanish!! miss you mommy and daddy and all my brothers and sisters and freinds.. but i am doing great so no worries about me!!
con amor!!
Hermana Barber