OVER THE ONE MONTH HUMP!!!

Hola!!!
So I love Wednesday's and getting fun family updates... especially want to give Brad a shout out for his effort!! ha ha... I loved your letter Brad.. you make my day! About getting anything to me well you know if you can think of a way to get me any kind of real food namely cafe rio pork salad black beans with only lettuce and chips i would owe you for the rest of my life!! I have lost over seven pounds in here in the last month just 'cause the food doesn't agree with me.. i'm a little picky.. okay a lot picky!! your weekend with Matt, Charlene, Jules and Branen sounds like a blast and i'm not gonna lie.. i'm super jealous. I heard it is amazing weather in St. George and it is cold and rainy up here. But i Love it! My week was full of ups and downs actually but for the most part AMAZING!! On Easter I woke up all by myself and openned the packages I had saved from Mom, Mindy, Lacee, and Tia!! I got a bunch of candy which is all very YUMMY and exciting so muchas gracias! And then i got the
cutest robe ever!! (nice work mom.. you're the best!) then i got nylons.. i never thought i would ever be so excited for nylons in my life but they made my day a whole lot better! Easter Sunday was kinda like every other sunday here... very spiritual and very focused on Christ.. we had another district leave for Mexico this Monday so of course i cried during testimony meeting.. one elder bore his testimony for 35 minutes and it was ridiculous actually. I am offically Coordinating Sister now so I got to go to Branch Council which was fun and there is a new district coming in tonight.. ten elders going to Mexico... It is hard mom to get to close to them and then say goodbye but I just remember they are about a greater work!! and they are all going to be amazing missionaries. Yesterday was one of my best days at the MTC so far! I was in the RC (call center) and call this man to see if he had his Book of Mormon delievered yet. His name was Arnold and he told me he has read it and
felt a feeling he had never felt before. I of course explain to him it was the holy ghost and asked him if he would like to learn more.. he said he was really depressed with the passing of his wife and didn't feel like talkign to anyone... it is so weird how the opportunties to share the gospel always arise... i bore testimony of the peace and faith and joy the gospel brings especially with the knowledge of where our loved ones have gone and testified he can live with his wife again through the gospel and told him how i longed for him to hear the message of the gospel... he accepted to talk to the missionaries and then i challenged him to continue to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know the truth.. then he said, "Oh there is no doubt in my mind it is true!!" GOLDEN!! ha ha it made my day! Then we had a day of studying and the last couple days i have been struggling. I have been really sick the past week and have gotten really frustrated with myself because i haven't been at the top of my game. My mind has felt blurry and like nothing in espanol is sticking. I honestly just wanted my mommy to care for me, my dad's chicken noodle soup, and to sit on the couch eating popsicles with grandma. Then on Monday night
i was laying in bed and just looking at the pictures i brought with me of my familiy and friends and i kept lookin gat my giant smile... and me being the whiner i am got n my knees and asked my Heavenly Father why he would take me from a life of such happiness to a place that is filled with such ups and downs... a place where my face is always plastered with a smile but not alwasy followed up by my heart and head!! then I got the most chastising answer i have ever received in my life. An anwser that trulyl humbled me... all i heard was, "Katie your life has been so selfish." It hurt to hear but then i looked at my life of ease.. mainly because of the love and sacrifices of my parents... i have done a lot of amazing things with my life and had amazing opportunity but every thing i have done has benefited me in somehow... even if for the good or the gospel. .. i have never served someone else 100 % of even a day!! Well then last night we had the amazing opportunity of hearing at our Tuesday night devotional from an apostle of the Lord... probably my favorite apostles if you are allowed to have favorites... Elder Jeffrey R. Holland and he spoke straight to me. I took pages of notes but i am going to try and address the most amazing parts of the talk... the part he said for me was, "You are his disciple and maybe for the first time in your life you're going to do somethign for someone else 24/7. you are disciples of Christ the second you open your eyes to the second you close them at night." Then he told us an amazing story about how on his way to speak with us he got a call from a couple who needed him to go bless their baby at the ICU at primary children's hospital.. he was so tender and he talk of the innocent babies suffering on tables and the morning parents.. all needed healing in somewya. Then he said... why are you here and what are you doing? He said, you have been called and sent to answer the prayers like the families in the ICU all over the world-in need and needing to be healds. yo uhave come to savior's on mount zion. yo uhave come to preach safety, hope and future to a world who doesn't have that. THE WHOLE WORLD IS A HOSPITAL: and we are sending you with first aid training- scout's knives, turnicates, and first-aid kits. You are not surgeons, bu tyou go in the name of the greatest, most seasoned surgeon. Go in his name- remember you were set apart by someone who was set apart by someone (etc.) who was set apart by the hands of God. You are called to save the world. You can't do it, but you can go with someone who can. Hit the ground running and run until they carry you home. You have never done anything as important as you are doing now. He continued to tell us that everythign good in his life has stemed from his mission ... it changed his life and his heart. He owes everything to his measely, homely GESTURE I gave to the Lord for 24 months and he has blessed my life forever. Don't miss it.. Don't miss nay of it.. good or bad! This is the great, grand right of passage for our church... lvoe every second of it snow rain, rejection, flat tire. Show God your growing up from a boy and a girl into men and women of god! I plead with you to stay a missionary the rest of your life...being a missionary is the closest thing to REAL LIFE. This isn't about you! This about God, Christ, angels, heavens, my grandchildren and your grandchildren. YOU OWE THIS.. you owe this to Heaven, you owe this to eternity, you owe genereation that come tha tyou will never meet. Be persistant- at least as persistant as an Avon lady- yo uare selling more than mascara!!(that is pretty persistant!! ha ha) .. then the last closing remark that I love tha the said was, "You will come to know Christ if you will venture into Gethsamane with him. The road to salvation ALWAYS goes through Gethsamane.. take a step or two to calvary.. I pray yo uwill feel what it feels to have a cross on your back and feel loneliness. You can not know him if you don't go to Gethsamane because tha tis where he is. He is still out there somewhere between Gethsamane adn Calvary working.. he won't be happy until all who will receive him have.!!" The talk was amazing and really changed my entire attitude and how I will serve this amazing gift I have been given to serve a mission.. This is not my time it is the Lord.. I am 100% his disciple... thank you for your prayers your support and especially mom and dad for raising me in this amazing, true gospel and helping me find my true father in Heaven and feel his love.. i owe everything to you!! i love you all!! pray for me and learning spanish!!
con amor- Hermana Barber