Happy Valentine's Day!!

We had a great week but Christmas hit Texas the week of Valentine's Day. We had record snow this week in Texas and had so much fun tracting in the snow, mud,and slush...ha ha my shoes are still drying!! Hermana Kleinman and I made a snowman with some of the Elders this week and it was a Missionary snowman with a tie, tag, suit coat, and even a Book of Mormon and the funnest part is that while we were making it some of our investigators, David and Dagoberto, walked by and helped us.
Monday night we had an appointment with the Bustos family where the dad wasn't present because he was sleeping but we watched the Restoration DVD, while drinking hot chocolate and animal crackers...they said they felt really good about everything and we had a BLAST with them. They are cutest family ever and I'm super excited to teach them more. We also got to teach Manuela which is always a highlight of my week.. she is so amazing and prepared.. she is already past Mosiah in the Book of Mormon.. and we got to start teaching her 8 year old son who she wants to get baptized. Teaching kids is always an adventure. We taught him the 10 commandmants using hand motions and thought he wasn't paying attention at all but surprised us by being abled to tell us them all when we asked him!!! I don't think he'll be ready to be baptized with his mom in a little over a week but we're going to try..
Tuesday we had an awesome lesson with this lady named Sandra who really wants to come to our church. She has a five week old baby and she told us that she told her baby this week, "We are going to go to the church of the hermanitas... I know what they're saying is true." (doesn't sound the same translated into english but she was super excited) but her husband decided that she can't go to church if it's not a catholic church so now we have an appointment to meet her husband... wish us luck!
That night we took our investigator Juan Garcia to a special fireside with Elder Evans fromt the seventy.. it was only for missionaries, recent converts, investigators and less-actives so it was pretty much amazing. He really hit hard the importance of the church the differences..and one of the funnest parts was that i got to see the Harkness family...they all said how much they miss me and I them..but they are still on to get baptized on the 21st so I'm excited to go back for that!
Wednesday we had our zone conference with Elder Evans which was very enlightening.. we did a bunch of role plays and he gave us tons of new challenges.. He also talked to us on a topic that is quite odd to talk to missionaries about but about marriage...He told us that one of the main reasons we were set to our mission was to learn and become close to our mission president and his wife. He said in the pre-exsistence we promised to serve together and that we had kept that promise. He then had us make a list on a board of the things we think about when we hear Presdient Smith or Sister Smith..they were two seperate lists... then he challenged us to find those characteristics in our future spouse or develop those in ourselves. It was a cool training and something to think about. I love my mission president and sister smith they truely are amazing and I'm grateful for the opportunity to get to know them!
Thursday was snowing really bad so at 7 pm we were told to go home for the night and stop driving but before that we went to teach Manuela and her husband actually sat down and talked to us which is a lot of improvement and she told us her daughter is meeting with the missionaries in Irving!!
Friday we taught alot of lessons trying to make up for canceled appointments on Thursday but my favorite lessons were with the Dominguez family who were less active when i got her but have gone to church three times now and her friends Elizabeth and her daughters Stephany and Ashley. We made Valentine's cupcakes with them then followed up on Elizabeth's reading... we committed her to come to church too!! She really is so darling and it has been such a blessing because Hermana Dominguez knows she has to be an example...We then got to teach a man named Antolin who is a very strong catholic but we asked about his reading and praying and he told us he has always KNOWN that the catholic church is the true church but now he is confused... good sign :)!! We then got to teach the Bustos again and this time their dad was there... we read with them out of the Book of Mormon and commited them to come to church after a long discussion with Alejandra, the mom, that a skirt will not make her look fat!! got to love girls!! They didn't end up calling..actually called to left us a message yesterday with a loud ambulance siren in the background so i couldn't understand but they confirmed out appointment for tonight so I hope everything is alright!
Saturday I got to go back to Carrollton on splits and Hermana Kleinman stayed her to go to all our appointments only for a couple hours though. Sophia Gomez got baptized and it was so awesome. Her mom and grandma who are completely less active were there and after the baptism her mom pulled me aside.. i've been teaching them since before October, and she just gave me a huge hug and thanked me for never giving up on her family. And promised to start bringing all her kids to church and change her life. I pray she really does it this time!! I talked to Sophia's sister Melissa at the baptism too and asked her when she was finally gonna go through with it and she said hopefully Feb.21st or March 7th!! Plus I got to see the Harkness family and Miguel who are all going through with their baptisms this coming sunday!! I can't wait!!! Carrollton will always have a huge part of my heart!!
Sunday we had 5 people at church... Juan came to the english ward in the morning because he had work during the spanish branch time but David, Emilio, Elizabeth and her daughters came to our branch. Elizabeth actually has five women that are her friends from the ward already and fit right in.. she told us her little daughter Ashley woke her up in them morning really early and asked her if it was time to go to church yet!! ha ha and she's super excited to come next week too.. With all the friends Elizabeth has in the ward it was really interesting that it took the less-active to invite her to take the lessons... there really are people all around us ready to hear the gospel or that need to hear the gospel we just have to have the courage to share our testimonies and invite them!!
I love this work and I'm loving Plano too!! thanks for all your prayers and love!!!
love your guts,
Hermana Katie Barber