HOLA!!!
Well today was such a fun day with e-mails and shocking updates from everyone!! First i want to wish my lovely little neice the happiest second birthday this week.. JULES BEVERLY BARBER I LOVE YOU AND HOPE YOU HAVE THE BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!!! I wish i was there to celebrate you entering your terrible two's.. good luck BEAN!! ha ha.. next I got a e-mail from aunt Lisseth asking if i was in her good friend's ward Veronica Salomon.. and as a matter of fact I AM!! Hermana Salomon feeds us like every week and has given us some good refferals.... such a small world.. but she is in Argentina for a couple months so I'll have to tell her hi when she gets back! ... I got a letter this week from a girl i went to High School with from her mission in Gionia Brazil and she didn't know I was on a mission but she saw a picture of me and Hermana Brundage that an Elder in her district got!! ha ha..(you know who that Elder is Hermana Jessica Brundage!!) once again what a small world!! THE CRAZIEST NEWS I GOT THIS WEEK WAS THAT KENNETH MARK METCALF GOT HIS MISSION CALL!!! which I am so excited about... but what is even crazier is that HE IS COMING TO DALLAS TEXAS WITH ME!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? I was so shocked!!! I am so excited for you Markus.. you are going to LOVE IT... and LOVE LOVE LOVE your mission president.. they are great! I will start spreading the news to all my English buddies that the greatest missionary from St.George is coming.. make sure you are studying up in your Bible and ready to BASH!! ha ha.. I mean.. don't bash that's bad!! ha ah..I really am so so so excited for you and it will be fun seeing you around!! well here is Texas wa sa week of changes... my trainer went home from her mission and it was a hard day for me.. i was crying during transfer meeting.. i'm a baby what can i say... I don't think you really understand how good you had it until they are gone... honestly she
became one of my best friends, was such an incredible missionary, and I could walk into any situation with her with confidence knowing even if i threw the lesson away she would save it!! Man do i miss her!! My new companion is Hermana Medlyn from Ely, Nevada and she only has two transfers left in the mission... we have had an interesting week and her and Hermana Brundage are probably the most opposite missionaries there could ever be!! I am striving to learn something new from her everyday and we are learning to teach together after a couple train wreck lessons.. it has been kinda frustrating but also a growing week because I have done most of the door contacts in spanish and our first night together I actually taught an entire lesson in s panish by myself as she just kinda sat there and helped me once in awhile with spanish words.. it was interesting but has been a really growing experience with my spanish because now i am being forced to use every ounce of spanish i know!! so it has been good. You probably all remember a story about the GOLDEN family that just showed up the church about a month ago... Familia Moreno.. well they went to Houston last week to visit her brother and we have just been waiting for themt o get back and teach them this week and we wanted to set a baptismal date with their family this week. Well on Friday we went to their house and only the husband was there, he told us they had decided to move to Houston and that the rest of the family just stayed and he had only come back to move all their stuff.. i guess Taco Bell laid off all the employees that didn't have their papers so since half of our teaching pool worked at Taco Bell... everyone is out of a job. I was so sad... but they said they already found the church in Houston and I got their address to send the missionaries there. The highlight of my week was Friday though. On Wednesday I got a phone call from the A.P.'s (Elder Erickson) and he invited me and my companion to come to Mission Council that Friday. Mission Council is just a meeting with the A.P.'s, President and Sister Smith, and only the zone
leaders from around the mission... then us. Here i was in a meeting from 9-3 with all the best missionaries in the mission... the spirit was so strong and I felt completely inadequate. President did a training on how fear keeps us from reaching our potential and interferes with this work... then we had a training on teaching memeber to FRIENDSHIP new investigators not just FELLOWSHIP... I have never learned so much and made so many goals on the kind of missionary i want to become.. i have a LONG way to go but every day I will try to develop my talents and skills to try to help reach the people here in Texas.. well at the end of the meeting there was a testimony meeting and everyone got up and bore their testimonies... and i have really never felt a spirit so strong in a testimony meetin gin my life... but during one of the testimonies an Elder got up and talked about how he was going home at the end of this transfer and was so depressed to go home and then make him take off his tag...I think it is then that it hit me that in August i only have a year left to make a difference here and the time is going to fly.. i am going to feel that same depression at the thought of not being a missionary.. I have a lot of work to do. I want to come home with no regrets and be the best missionary i can possibly be!! Please pray for me that i can develop the talents that i need to and speak the language how i must to reach the people here. Yesterday we were stopping by an appartment complex called Sandpebble to see why a new investigator didn't come to chruch.. he wasn't home so we were walking out and there was a man leaning against a railing on the second floor of this complex so of course i starting talking to him and he said," So what are you Elders' names?" I kinda started laughing and told him we were sisters from the church and as i rambled off our church's name in Spanish.. he FINISHED IT!! I was kinda shocked and asked him if he knew of the church before... then he said, "Yes I'm a member!!" Well i guess he joined the church seven years ago in Honduros but hasn't come to church since he moved to the USA four years ago.. so we got his information and he is going to come back to chruch and we are
goign to starts teaching his friends in the complex (Hermana Brundage.. do you remember Reine and Julio the guys we taught on their front sidewalk by Carlos's house??... kinda awkward... ya they are his friends!! ha ha!!) But everyday i see little stories like this that the Lord's hand is in the work.. that he puts us in the right place at the right time if we are willing to listen and follow the spirit!! I love you all please pray for me and especially pray for the people in this area that they will be willing to listen to our message! I love you all and pray for you daily.... please we safe... AND WRITE ME!!! once again HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUBEE!!!
con amor,
Hermana Katie Barber
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Almost Done With One Transfer!!
Hola from Irving, TX!! I can't believe I've almost been in Texas for 6 weeks and starting on my next transfer. My trainer who is amazing goes home in a week and I am super sad and super nervous for next transfer. I am guessing they are going to send another Hermana into this area with me instead of pulling me out... I would love to stay with all the members in this amazing ward but this area is really tough and that would make me the one familiar with the area which makes me really nervous.. but hey nada es imposible con Dios!! (Nothing is impossible with God!!) i know every situation just makes me stronger!! Just some quick notes... CONGRATS ON YOUR HANDSOME LITTLE GUY MIKE AND KARA!!! I am so happy he is healthy... y'all are going to be the best parents ever.. thanks for the pictures it made me feel a little closer
to you all!! Charlene and Matt??... how is everything in life?? how is everyone feeling? business? my cute little niece!! Mindy and Tales.. Hilton Head huh?? all you two do is have fun I swear!! Love you... And my little Brad... glad to be home huh?? WRITE ME!! Happy Birthday Nicole Kristan Anderson Mahoney... 21 TODAY!!! Wish I was there to party with you but I'm definitely there in spirit!! Kristan.... tell Chad I am so excited for him and I work with a couple people here from Honduras and they are so humble and amazing.. he is going to love it... start studying spanish now especially gospel words.. you will be happy you did once you get there.. maybe start reading a spanish Preach my Gospel with an english one.. it would help alot!! love you and can't wait to talk when we get back.. WRITE ME!! Whitney... i'm glad everything went amazing with the wedding and they are so happy!! About Travis!! AHHHHHH!!! i can't believe guys in his district got swine flu.. that was liek the running joke in the MTC that that place would be like an incubator if anyone got it.. i guess its not much of a joke now!! He has been there so long... I would like to write him a letter.. maybe brighten his spirits a little if you get a second to send me his e-mail!! I'll be praying for him!! my week has been a good week... most of our appointments weren't there when we got there so we spent a lot of time knocking doors.. and knocking wasn't even very sucessful this week but we had some fun things happen still.... Our miracle man for a couple weeks back Eduardo disappeared a couple weeks ago.. his number was changed, his truck was no where to be found, and no one answered his appartments.. we thought he had gotten deported and were super sad.. then this week were teaching a lesson at his apartment and he pulled in!! He found work in Missouri so he is there all week comes home on Friday night then leaves again Sunday morning. We haven't gotten the opportunity to teach him again but i'm happy that he is still around so we can in the future teach him.. he really is golden. The hardest thing about working with hispanics is there amazing work ethic though.. they are never home.. and it is so hard to try to have someone change their priorities from just trying to meet their needs to putting God first and having faith they will help them meet their needs. We are still meeting with the Moreno Family and they are also amazing.. they went to church last week and cub scouts plus we taught them twice and finally got the opportunity to teach the dad who was super receptive. The only problem with them is they come to church but at 2 instead of 1 because of her work and they miss sacrament meeting which means they technically aren't progressing!! So we have to talk to them about that this week! On Wednesday night we knocked some doors then were heading to a lesson with a new member named Stacy Martinez... as soon as we got in the car it started raining really hard, lightening, thundering, and the wind started blowing really hard... Hna. Brundage said if it was too bad for us to be working the office would call us so we just kept driving. Then we were parked at a stoplight at all of a sudden we see Palentaros (hispanic ice cream men here that walk around pushing like fridges and ringing bells.) running for cover and the sirens for tornado warning for the city started going off!! it was actually a really eiry sound/sight... but we just kept on driving to our appointment because we didnt' get any kind of phone call.. we got the members door and knocked.. and she anwsered in shock... ha ha.. then she told us there were tornadoes on the other side of the freeway from our area!! ha ha.. well no need to waste time so we taught her a lesson anyway.. it was actually a blessing in disguss because no one was around when the house is usally SUPER loud and distracting and it was the most important lesson we had to teach her... the spirit was so strong and she finally understood the magnitude of her baptismal covenant and the necessity to obey certain commandments.. it is amazing how the lord's tender mercies come!! By the time the lesson was done it wasn't even raining anymore and we drove home.. but then the storm came back and lasted for over 24 hours! nothing compares to texas storms! On Friday I actually had the opportunity to go on an exchange in a different area called Grand Praire.. and I actually went with Hermana Schulte the one I thought was going to be my trainer in the first place and Hermana Christensen came to Iriving.. It was weird to serve in a suceessful area for a day!! HA HA!! We had teaching appointments all day and we only knocked on doors for like 30 minutes. It was a fun exchange and I learned a lot of Hermana Schulte.. she is very knowledgable about the Bible and a great missionary. We did study time in our own areas and Hermana Schulte just called me the night before to tell me about the lessons we would be teaching kinda what i needed to study... i had no clue who the investigators were or what was goign on in their life... but i felt
impressed to study the need for the Book of Mormon and not just the Bible. That night we were sitting in a lesson with a man named Freddy who honestly knows the gospel is true just won't act on it.. we were reading in the Book of Mormon with him and he looked at us and said, "Why do I need the Book of Mormon even if it is the word of God I have the Bible that says pretty much the same thing." Eveything I had studied came back to me in that very moment... it was amazing.. and how if we listen to the spirit and stay worthy of the spirit.. he will guide us in every aspect of this work... We truly are instruments in the Lords hands!! This morning we went to get our hair cut by a lady in the ward and she ended up highlight Hermana Brundage's hair and cutting it... I even let her trim my hair.. then she gave us like all this nice shampoo and product when we told her NO and tried to pay her. She is a single mom, trying to support her and her little girl by being a hairdresser... super hard life....These people love us.. she looked at us and said the way we were goign to pay her back was by letting her and her little girl come to our weddings!! ha ha... way far off but I love these people already and want to stay close to them forever!! I am so happy i am serving here... Yes they are poor.. and all i see is ghetto, poor Texas but they are so humble, and so much more receptive then all other races here!!! I love it!! Thanks for all your support, love and prayers... Please continue to keep in touch!! love you!
con amor,
Hermana Katie Barber
to you all!! Charlene and Matt??... how is everything in life?? how is everyone feeling? business? my cute little niece!! Mindy and Tales.. Hilton Head huh?? all you two do is have fun I swear!! Love you... And my little Brad... glad to be home huh?? WRITE ME!! Happy Birthday Nicole Kristan Anderson Mahoney... 21 TODAY!!! Wish I was there to party with you but I'm definitely there in spirit!! Kristan.... tell Chad I am so excited for him and I work with a couple people here from Honduras and they are so humble and amazing.. he is going to love it... start studying spanish now especially gospel words.. you will be happy you did once you get there.. maybe start reading a spanish Preach my Gospel with an english one.. it would help alot!! love you and can't wait to talk when we get back.. WRITE ME!! Whitney... i'm glad everything went amazing with the wedding and they are so happy!! About Travis!! AHHHHHH!!! i can't believe guys in his district got swine flu.. that was liek the running joke in the MTC that that place would be like an incubator if anyone got it.. i guess its not much of a joke now!! He has been there so long... I would like to write him a letter.. maybe brighten his spirits a little if you get a second to send me his e-mail!! I'll be praying for him!! my week has been a good week... most of our appointments weren't there when we got there so we spent a lot of time knocking doors.. and knocking wasn't even very sucessful this week but we had some fun things happen still.... Our miracle man for a couple weeks back Eduardo disappeared a couple weeks ago.. his number was changed, his truck was no where to be found, and no one answered his appartments.. we thought he had gotten deported and were super sad.. then this week were teaching a lesson at his apartment and he pulled in!! He found work in Missouri so he is there all week comes home on Friday night then leaves again Sunday morning. We haven't gotten the opportunity to teach him again but i'm happy that he is still around so we can in the future teach him.. he really is golden. The hardest thing about working with hispanics is there amazing work ethic though.. they are never home.. and it is so hard to try to have someone change their priorities from just trying to meet their needs to putting God first and having faith they will help them meet their needs. We are still meeting with the Moreno Family and they are also amazing.. they went to church last week and cub scouts plus we taught them twice and finally got the opportunity to teach the dad who was super receptive. The only problem with them is they come to church but at 2 instead of 1 because of her work and they miss sacrament meeting which means they technically aren't progressing!! So we have to talk to them about that this week! On Wednesday night we knocked some doors then were heading to a lesson with a new member named Stacy Martinez... as soon as we got in the car it started raining really hard, lightening, thundering, and the wind started blowing really hard... Hna. Brundage said if it was too bad for us to be working the office would call us so we just kept driving. Then we were parked at a stoplight at all of a sudden we see Palentaros (hispanic ice cream men here that walk around pushing like fridges and ringing bells.) running for cover and the sirens for tornado warning for the city started going off!! it was actually a really eiry sound/sight... but we just kept on driving to our appointment because we didnt' get any kind of phone call.. we got the members door and knocked.. and she anwsered in shock... ha ha.. then she told us there were tornadoes on the other side of the freeway from our area!! ha ha.. well no need to waste time so we taught her a lesson anyway.. it was actually a blessing in disguss because no one was around when the house is usally SUPER loud and distracting and it was the most important lesson we had to teach her... the spirit was so strong and she finally understood the magnitude of her baptismal covenant and the necessity to obey certain commandments.. it is amazing how the lord's tender mercies come!! By the time the lesson was done it wasn't even raining anymore and we drove home.. but then the storm came back and lasted for over 24 hours! nothing compares to texas storms! On Friday I actually had the opportunity to go on an exchange in a different area called Grand Praire.. and I actually went with Hermana Schulte the one I thought was going to be my trainer in the first place and Hermana Christensen came to Iriving.. It was weird to serve in a suceessful area for a day!! HA HA!! We had teaching appointments all day and we only knocked on doors for like 30 minutes. It was a fun exchange and I learned a lot of Hermana Schulte.. she is very knowledgable about the Bible and a great missionary. We did study time in our own areas and Hermana Schulte just called me the night before to tell me about the lessons we would be teaching kinda what i needed to study... i had no clue who the investigators were or what was goign on in their life... but i felt
impressed to study the need for the Book of Mormon and not just the Bible. That night we were sitting in a lesson with a man named Freddy who honestly knows the gospel is true just won't act on it.. we were reading in the Book of Mormon with him and he looked at us and said, "Why do I need the Book of Mormon even if it is the word of God I have the Bible that says pretty much the same thing." Eveything I had studied came back to me in that very moment... it was amazing.. and how if we listen to the spirit and stay worthy of the spirit.. he will guide us in every aspect of this work... We truly are instruments in the Lords hands!! This morning we went to get our hair cut by a lady in the ward and she ended up highlight Hermana Brundage's hair and cutting it... I even let her trim my hair.. then she gave us like all this nice shampoo and product when we told her NO and tried to pay her. She is a single mom, trying to support her and her little girl by being a hairdresser... super hard life....These people love us.. she looked at us and said the way we were goign to pay her back was by letting her and her little girl come to our weddings!! ha ha... way far off but I love these people already and want to stay close to them forever!! I am so happy i am serving here... Yes they are poor.. and all i see is ghetto, poor Texas but they are so humble, and so much more receptive then all other races here!!! I love it!! Thanks for all your support, love and prayers... Please continue to keep in touch!! love you!
con amor,
Hermana Katie Barber
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
3 Semana
Hola!!!
Well this week has been jammed pack with goodness and fun!! I have seen the Lord's hand in every aspect of this work and I am amazed daily at the miracles here in Texas!! First off... Mom and Dad HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!I love you both so much and hope you are so happy!! thanks for being the best parents EVER!! And Amber Nicole Varley Every I hope you have the BEST 21st Birthday.. wish I was there! Landy Jane I'm still waiting for that long DETAILED letter but thanks for the little note so I know you are still alive. Lacee Lee I also got your letter (and e-mail.. he he he) I started your letter already so I'll send it out today.. Give Beck and Teme a HUGE hug for me! Did anyone go to logan and Dani's wedding?? If not Whitney please give them hugs for me and tell them I wish them all the happiness in the world and I'm so excited for them! P.S. whit how is Travis doing?? He should have just gotten to Mexico if I am thinking right! Mike and Kara I'm getting so excited for ya'll!! Three weeks and counting till little Stewart huh?? I bet your are so anxious... I can't wait to see pictures... give him a hug and a kiss for me and tell him his aunty Katie loves his face! Matt...BYU huh?? wow do I not deserve all the crap I got when I went there! How is the house searching going? How is my sweet little (tall) Jules? Bean how are you feeling with the little baby in your tummy?? Mindy and Tales.. i love you! Nothing sounds really new in your lives but I still pray for you daily. Bradley B...how is Chicago.. I was thinking about what to send you for your birthday the other day and then I saw this perfect sticker on the back of a truck and since i know you love stickers on your car i'm gonna find you one.. it says HIGH CLASS WHITE TRASH!! ha ha.. (love you!)mom thinks you need to get married she said and don't worry about it.. i found you a wife already and she comes home from her mission in four weeks!! Her name is Jessica Brundage and she is my AMAZING trainer... and plus she is already writing mom just to get on her good side (ha ha... she wants to kill me right now!! ha ha) But really on Saturday we go to the mailbox to get letters and I was so excited to see who I had letters from because you don't get some for a couple days and i open the mailbox and there is a letter from MY MOM.. to MY COMPANION!! thanks mom!! ha ha This week has been amazing I don't even know if I am going to be able to do it justice with this e-mail but I will try. So last week was a really really tough week then to make a great ending to the week we met with the Bishop of the spanish ward and he doesn' t like Hermana let's just say and kinda told us we were worthless for an hour and my trainer was crying.. i don't know how to speak spanish so I couldn't really do anything.. lets just say it was a rough day. So we decided that we were going to work our tails off this week so no matter what he said to us on Sunday we knew that we did our best and God knew we did our best. So Monday after P-day we had some appointments at these one appartments and one of our appointments weren't there so we went to visit some other families we know in the apartment complex. After visiting we started walking home and Hna. Brundage stopped us and said we should walk the other way... the long way.. so we did and right as we rounded the corner there was Eduardo sitting on his truck bed just smiling at us. We started talking to him and he is GOLDEN. We met him a week ago and we have already taught him twice and he came to a baptism on Saturday and we have already commited him to work towards baptism on June 20th...He is just searching for the truth and it is sooooo cool to hear him talk about how good he feels and how he doesn't feel alone for the first time in a long time. This gospel changes lives! But Satan is also so aware of the work we are doing.. Eduardo never works on Sunday and yesterday we called him to see where he was for church and he said they had all of a sudden called him into work. That is the hardest thing about teaching hispanics is they have the best work ethic ever.. always working which means they are never home for us to teach or can't come to church! That is the problem with another family we are teaching the Ibarra Family.. they are so cute and they read the scriptures everyday and pray as a family.. the only thing that is keeping them from becoming progressing investigators is the parents have work on Sunday and won't let there kids come with out them. They don't have the faith to quit and let God take care of them...To our appointments with the Ibarra's and Eduardo's we invited the Relief Society president Hermana Rodriguez who is so super cute. Well she showed up with her little girl also named Daniela who is 8! Daniela gets out of the truck with a FUTURE MISSIONARY tag on and her scripture case. During the lessons she said either the openning or closing prayer, read scriptures, and even bore her testimony. I have never felt the spirit so strong in a lesson ever! It is amazing how this church blesses families. Kids grow up with knowledge that practically no gown adult even knows about the love of their Heavenly Father, the power of the Atonement, and who they are meant to become! On Friday this week we went to visit a member (Claudia Moran) to talk to her about a referral she had given us and we showed up and she was surrounded by mounds of pictures so we offered to help her out for a little while. Which was good because we hadn't done a service activity for the week yet. But I was so humbled listening to her life. She told us of how she crossed the border, how her ex-husband is in jail, she can't get child support from him because he is not a citizen, she has been looking for work for months and finally got a job at Taco Bell, she is raising two little kids all on her own, and she just got into remission for Breast cancer... then to top all of it off she tells us she just qualified for food stamps and wanted to know what OUR favorite food was so she could get stuff we could eat... the members and really so loving and would give you the shirt off their back even if it was their last one. We of course assured her we had food and to spend them on her kids but really that type of love and charity is so humbling. Talking about member feeding us I had my favorite food ever this week at familia Segovia's... it was chicken tostada's and then for dessert we got BLUE BELL ice cream.. amazing.. and we never get dessert here because the hispanics give you a piece of fruit for dessert..!! not then I really feel like eating it much because i am so stuffed by the end of the meal! Another fun meal with members happened on Sunday. We went to the familia Orozco's house with the Segovia's and the other four spanish Elders. They were fixing dinner and we didn't think anything was up until they started setting up the video camera and I was super confused... then we had me and Hermana Brundage sit in certain seats... ha ha then they brought out our food and everything on my plate was dyed GREEN!! it was my GREENIE breakfast... green pancakes, eggs, milk, and orange juice.. it was so cute of them and I was laughing so hard. Then they brought out Hermana Brundage's food and it was all dyed RED since she is STOPPING her mission! They were so
cute and I love these families.. they loves us! Well Texas is really filled with such interesting people. I used to hate knocking doors and talking to random people but now I love it... honestly you never know what character will appear behind the next door especially since my area is not very densely hispanic populated I get all sorts of funny people that speak all sorts of fun languages... and yes Texan is the hardest to understand! ha ha... but while we are knocking doors I really try to listen to the phrases Hermana Brundage says then use them on the next doors. Well it was really hot, I was tired and obviously not really thinking and we walked up to this door and knocked I said we were missionaries, asked the ladies name, then said, "Soy la Hermana Brundage..." then Hermana Brundage looked at me and said, "Soy la Hermana Brundage tambien?" ha ha I was laughing so hard luckily the lady told us later she couldn't read but I think she was really confused! Other fun things about being in Texas is that we get to work with people from all different cultures.. mainly from Mexico and El Salvador but also Argentina, Honduras, Peru... it is fun! I get to try different foods and hear differend dialects. Just two more stories to show how much the Lord's hand is in this work... On Saturday night we were running to get gas right before we had to be home for the night... we weren't going to stop but we thought we should better be safe then sorry! Well we got gas and our reciept didn't print so we had to go inside to get it. We started talking to the lady behind the counter and of course she asked what our tags were for.. we told her the church name and said, "Oh are you the church that gives out free dvd's.." and we said yes and she continued to tell us how she had an appointment with missionaries to get her dvd and is really interested and the missionaries never came!! We gave her the dvd then got her information for the english elders.. but the Lord really puts people in our path constantly everyday ready to hear this message. Well at the beginning of the week we decided we wanted to find a familiy and bring them to church that Sunday so we drew a picture of them on our whiteboard at church and wrote familia desconocido..(family unknown).. so every prayer we prayed for this family to come to church and all week long knocking doors we would say okay.. this is our family and we never found a solid family to come to church on sunday but we still had faith we wouldn't find them even till Saturday night... well church came and we were a little disappointed because not even Eduardo showed up and we just said oh well... definitely next week. Then we are sitting in a combined Priesthood and Relief Society class with five minutes left and one of the other spanish elder's slide on the bench looks at me and whispers "Follow Me".. I was super confused but we did.. then we got into the lobby and all he said was "Go get 'em.. there is an investigator waiting for you outside." We walked out of the church to a family... Mom, Dad, and four kids talking to the Primary Presidency already... saying they were coming to mutaul on Tuesday. We made an appointment with them and found out they are friends with the Segovia Family so they already have a fellowship family too!! Heavenly Father brought our family to church.. an even better and bigger family then we had drawn on the board at our appartment. Familia desconocido's name is Familia Morano! Really faith and prayers bring about miracles in this work! God has prepared people just for us to reach and brought me to Texas at this specific time to meet specific people. I know this gospel is true and when we truly understand it and who we are and the power of the Atonement it can change any life! I am so happy to be here as a representative of Jesus Christ... and no it is not easy at all.. it is actually the hardest thing i've done in my life. But like Elder Holland said how can I expect to call myself a servant of Jesus Christ one of his soliders and not expect to go through even a little bit of what he went through! This is the most rewarding thing I have done.. It is a different kind of Joy... I've never been so happy to hear someone else pray, feel the love of Christ, or walk into the church an dfeel the power of the spirit! Please pray for my investigators... Eduardo, Familia Ibarra, and Familia Morano especially!! I love you all and appreciate your love, support and prayers!!
con amor-
Hermana Katie Barber
Well this week has been jammed pack with goodness and fun!! I have seen the Lord's hand in every aspect of this work and I am amazed daily at the miracles here in Texas!! First off... Mom and Dad HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!I love you both so much and hope you are so happy!! thanks for being the best parents EVER!! And Amber Nicole Varley Every I hope you have the BEST 21st Birthday.. wish I was there! Landy Jane I'm still waiting for that long DETAILED letter but thanks for the little note so I know you are still alive. Lacee Lee I also got your letter (and e-mail.. he he he) I started your letter already so I'll send it out today.. Give Beck and Teme a HUGE hug for me! Did anyone go to logan and Dani's wedding?? If not Whitney please give them hugs for me and tell them I wish them all the happiness in the world and I'm so excited for them! P.S. whit how is Travis doing?? He should have just gotten to Mexico if I am thinking right! Mike and Kara I'm getting so excited for ya'll!! Three weeks and counting till little Stewart huh?? I bet your are so anxious... I can't wait to see pictures... give him a hug and a kiss for me and tell him his aunty Katie loves his face! Matt...BYU huh?? wow do I not deserve all the crap I got when I went there! How is the house searching going? How is my sweet little (tall) Jules? Bean how are you feeling with the little baby in your tummy?? Mindy and Tales.. i love you! Nothing sounds really new in your lives but I still pray for you daily. Bradley B...how is Chicago.. I was thinking about what to send you for your birthday the other day and then I saw this perfect sticker on the back of a truck and since i know you love stickers on your car i'm gonna find you one.. it says HIGH CLASS WHITE TRASH!! ha ha.. (love you!)mom thinks you need to get married she said and don't worry about it.. i found you a wife already and she comes home from her mission in four weeks!! Her name is Jessica Brundage and she is my AMAZING trainer... and plus she is already writing mom just to get on her good side (ha ha... she wants to kill me right now!! ha ha) But really on Saturday we go to the mailbox to get letters and I was so excited to see who I had letters from because you don't get some for a couple days and i open the mailbox and there is a letter from MY MOM.. to MY COMPANION!! thanks mom!! ha ha This week has been amazing I don't even know if I am going to be able to do it justice with this e-mail but I will try. So last week was a really really tough week then to make a great ending to the week we met with the Bishop of the spanish ward and he doesn' t like Hermana let's just say and kinda told us we were worthless for an hour and my trainer was crying.. i don't know how to speak spanish so I couldn't really do anything.. lets just say it was a rough day. So we decided that we were going to work our tails off this week so no matter what he said to us on Sunday we knew that we did our best and God knew we did our best. So Monday after P-day we had some appointments at these one appartments and one of our appointments weren't there so we went to visit some other families we know in the apartment complex. After visiting we started walking home and Hna. Brundage stopped us and said we should walk the other way... the long way.. so we did and right as we rounded the corner there was Eduardo sitting on his truck bed just smiling at us. We started talking to him and he is GOLDEN. We met him a week ago and we have already taught him twice and he came to a baptism on Saturday and we have already commited him to work towards baptism on June 20th...He is just searching for the truth and it is sooooo cool to hear him talk about how good he feels and how he doesn't feel alone for the first time in a long time. This gospel changes lives! But Satan is also so aware of the work we are doing.. Eduardo never works on Sunday and yesterday we called him to see where he was for church and he said they had all of a sudden called him into work. That is the hardest thing about teaching hispanics is they have the best work ethic ever.. always working which means they are never home for us to teach or can't come to church! That is the problem with another family we are teaching the Ibarra Family.. they are so cute and they read the scriptures everyday and pray as a family.. the only thing that is keeping them from becoming progressing investigators is the parents have work on Sunday and won't let there kids come with out them. They don't have the faith to quit and let God take care of them...To our appointments with the Ibarra's and Eduardo's we invited the Relief Society president Hermana Rodriguez who is so super cute. Well she showed up with her little girl also named Daniela who is 8! Daniela gets out of the truck with a FUTURE MISSIONARY tag on and her scripture case. During the lessons she said either the openning or closing prayer, read scriptures, and even bore her testimony. I have never felt the spirit so strong in a lesson ever! It is amazing how this church blesses families. Kids grow up with knowledge that practically no gown adult even knows about the love of their Heavenly Father, the power of the Atonement, and who they are meant to become! On Friday this week we went to visit a member (Claudia Moran) to talk to her about a referral she had given us and we showed up and she was surrounded by mounds of pictures so we offered to help her out for a little while. Which was good because we hadn't done a service activity for the week yet. But I was so humbled listening to her life. She told us of how she crossed the border, how her ex-husband is in jail, she can't get child support from him because he is not a citizen, she has been looking for work for months and finally got a job at Taco Bell, she is raising two little kids all on her own, and she just got into remission for Breast cancer... then to top all of it off she tells us she just qualified for food stamps and wanted to know what OUR favorite food was so she could get stuff we could eat... the members and really so loving and would give you the shirt off their back even if it was their last one. We of course assured her we had food and to spend them on her kids but really that type of love and charity is so humbling. Talking about member feeding us I had my favorite food ever this week at familia Segovia's... it was chicken tostada's and then for dessert we got BLUE BELL ice cream.. amazing.. and we never get dessert here because the hispanics give you a piece of fruit for dessert..!! not then I really feel like eating it much because i am so stuffed by the end of the meal! Another fun meal with members happened on Sunday. We went to the familia Orozco's house with the Segovia's and the other four spanish Elders. They were fixing dinner and we didn't think anything was up until they started setting up the video camera and I was super confused... then we had me and Hermana Brundage sit in certain seats... ha ha then they brought out our food and everything on my plate was dyed GREEN!! it was my GREENIE breakfast... green pancakes, eggs, milk, and orange juice.. it was so cute of them and I was laughing so hard. Then they brought out Hermana Brundage's food and it was all dyed RED since she is STOPPING her mission! They were so
cute and I love these families.. they loves us! Well Texas is really filled with such interesting people. I used to hate knocking doors and talking to random people but now I love it... honestly you never know what character will appear behind the next door especially since my area is not very densely hispanic populated I get all sorts of funny people that speak all sorts of fun languages... and yes Texan is the hardest to understand! ha ha... but while we are knocking doors I really try to listen to the phrases Hermana Brundage says then use them on the next doors. Well it was really hot, I was tired and obviously not really thinking and we walked up to this door and knocked I said we were missionaries, asked the ladies name, then said, "Soy la Hermana Brundage..." then Hermana Brundage looked at me and said, "Soy la Hermana Brundage tambien?" ha ha I was laughing so hard luckily the lady told us later she couldn't read but I think she was really confused! Other fun things about being in Texas is that we get to work with people from all different cultures.. mainly from Mexico and El Salvador but also Argentina, Honduras, Peru... it is fun! I get to try different foods and hear differend dialects. Just two more stories to show how much the Lord's hand is in this work... On Saturday night we were running to get gas right before we had to be home for the night... we weren't going to stop but we thought we should better be safe then sorry! Well we got gas and our reciept didn't print so we had to go inside to get it. We started talking to the lady behind the counter and of course she asked what our tags were for.. we told her the church name and said, "Oh are you the church that gives out free dvd's.." and we said yes and she continued to tell us how she had an appointment with missionaries to get her dvd and is really interested and the missionaries never came!! We gave her the dvd then got her information for the english elders.. but the Lord really puts people in our path constantly everyday ready to hear this message. Well at the beginning of the week we decided we wanted to find a familiy and bring them to church that Sunday so we drew a picture of them on our whiteboard at church and wrote familia desconocido..(family unknown).. so every prayer we prayed for this family to come to church and all week long knocking doors we would say okay.. this is our family and we never found a solid family to come to church on sunday but we still had faith we wouldn't find them even till Saturday night... well church came and we were a little disappointed because not even Eduardo showed up and we just said oh well... definitely next week. Then we are sitting in a combined Priesthood and Relief Society class with five minutes left and one of the other spanish elder's slide on the bench looks at me and whispers "Follow Me".. I was super confused but we did.. then we got into the lobby and all he said was "Go get 'em.. there is an investigator waiting for you outside." We walked out of the church to a family... Mom, Dad, and four kids talking to the Primary Presidency already... saying they were coming to mutaul on Tuesday. We made an appointment with them and found out they are friends with the Segovia Family so they already have a fellowship family too!! Heavenly Father brought our family to church.. an even better and bigger family then we had drawn on the board at our appartment. Familia desconocido's name is Familia Morano! Really faith and prayers bring about miracles in this work! God has prepared people just for us to reach and brought me to Texas at this specific time to meet specific people. I know this gospel is true and when we truly understand it and who we are and the power of the Atonement it can change any life! I am so happy to be here as a representative of Jesus Christ... and no it is not easy at all.. it is actually the hardest thing i've done in my life. But like Elder Holland said how can I expect to call myself a servant of Jesus Christ one of his soliders and not expect to go through even a little bit of what he went through! This is the most rewarding thing I have done.. It is a different kind of Joy... I've never been so happy to hear someone else pray, feel the love of Christ, or walk into the church an dfeel the power of the spirit! Please pray for my investigators... Eduardo, Familia Ibarra, and Familia Morano especially!! I love you all and appreciate your love, support and prayers!!
con amor-
Hermana Katie Barber
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Hola From TX!!
Hola mi Familia,
It was so good to hear from you!!! I love getting your letters and hearing all the funny stories from home. Thanks for you letter Kristan Anderson... so good to hear from you and all the updates about my friends!! ha ha.. i can't believe everyone is getting married as soon as i left.. it's like they didn't want me at the weddings.. j/k! That is awesome about Kara's boards.. congrats Kara.. you are so smart!! now here come your little boy!! can't wait for you both you're going to be amazign parents.. how did your trip go? Matt and Charlene... found a house yet?? I love that jules is starting her terrible twos.. keep telling me all the fun stories about getting locked in the basement. Good luck Bradley B. on your training.. dad's said your trainign to be a Papa John's managers but i'm hoping it is still for Jimmy Johns... ha ha... Miny and Tales life sounds really really lovely for ya'll and like everythign is working out PERFECTLY!!! Mom and dad you're life sounds quiet as usual but like you're doing some traveling and not being completely alone will everyone stopping by all the time!! I'm happy that you are forwarding these e-mails to aunt kay!! i don't have tons of time to write letters but i'm gonna try to write her a little something within the next couple weeks.. but make sure she knows i love her!! THanks for your letter Janene.. they always make my dad reading your poems or hearing
updates from your family!! Thanks!! Thanks for all the support from everyone.. i really do love you all and miss you so much. Mom forwarded me a letter this week from a letter that got sent to our home and it was so funny... Mom did you know what that letter was even!! It was from one of mindy's old mission companions named Kimberly Inglish.. or something... she sent me a letter she found that she somehow had from Mindy's mission... So i got a letter from Mindy on her mission.. to me while on my mission... Kinda ironic but cool! The letter was from when she was in Franca with a really hairy companion and I was laughing the whole time because I could finally realy relate!! Well this week was a lot of hard work. We did a lot of tracting.. knocking on doors which is really hard because our area is SO mixed and alot of other areas in Texas aren't. and since we are only allowed to teach in espanol we give a lot of referrals to the English Elders. This is definitely the "Buckle" of the Bible Belt... everyone either has their church or doesn't really want a church so I'm not gonna lie it has been difficult finding people to listen but we just keep trucking along.. or i guess i could say knocking along! We get fed every day by the members here which they are great but they make us eat so much.. we don't want to offend them... one day this week it was raining really hard so i had wrapped all my scriptures up in plastic bags so they wouldn't get wet.. so at dinner with a member we were soooo full and she was in the other room so i took my scriptures out of one of the bags and put like 5 tomales in the bag and hid them in my back pack.. my companion was laughing so hard but i just couldn't eat anymore. It is so weird here because whenever we go to a members to eat they NEVER eat with us.. they always serve the whole time so it's hard to get to know all the members.. and we were talking to a lady after dinner one night and she had just fed 6 missionaries and found out her husband has been out of work for two months and they have like no money.. they are such generous people and have such faith i am constantly amazed! On Thursday we had the opportunity to have interviews and training with President Smith and Sister Smith. He is so funny I can't even explain it. He did our training on DONUTS.. ha ha says every town in Texas is not a town with out a donut shop, Sonic Drive through and a dollar store. He talked about how fattening and tempting donuts are and how they never fill you up and you always have to eat like a dozen to even attempt to feel full and you never are.. He said the donut is like the world..it will never fill you and always leave you wanting more. During my interview with President he was so nice and we talked about how amzing my trainer is and how she is my strength and her smile always pushes me forward even into uncomfortable situations... and he said well learn all you can because someday soon you will be that for another missionary.. He has such confidence in me.. i hope I can live up to what he thinks I can be... Then Sister SMith gave me a hug when we were leaving and said, "We are so happy we got you!! Sorry I didn't call you this week to see how you were doing but i knew you would be doing perfectly fine!!" THey are just such sweet people that radiate their love and all you can do is laugh when you're around them!! I really love them already... Well my spanish comes more and more everyday but I still can't say close to as much as a I want to!! Please pray for me and for this area that we can start finding more success and people to listen to us! Thanks for all your support and love!! Miss you all... and HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!!!
con amor-
Hermama Katie Barber
It was so good to hear from you!!! I love getting your letters and hearing all the funny stories from home. Thanks for you letter Kristan Anderson... so good to hear from you and all the updates about my friends!! ha ha.. i can't believe everyone is getting married as soon as i left.. it's like they didn't want me at the weddings.. j/k! That is awesome about Kara's boards.. congrats Kara.. you are so smart!! now here come your little boy!! can't wait for you both you're going to be amazign parents.. how did your trip go? Matt and Charlene... found a house yet?? I love that jules is starting her terrible twos.. keep telling me all the fun stories about getting locked in the basement. Good luck Bradley B. on your training.. dad's said your trainign to be a Papa John's managers but i'm hoping it is still for Jimmy Johns... ha ha... Miny and Tales life sounds really really lovely for ya'll and like everythign is working out PERFECTLY!!! Mom and dad you're life sounds quiet as usual but like you're doing some traveling and not being completely alone will everyone stopping by all the time!! I'm happy that you are forwarding these e-mails to aunt kay!! i don't have tons of time to write letters but i'm gonna try to write her a little something within the next couple weeks.. but make sure she knows i love her!! THanks for your letter Janene.. they always make my dad reading your poems or hearing
updates from your family!! Thanks!! Thanks for all the support from everyone.. i really do love you all and miss you so much. Mom forwarded me a letter this week from a letter that got sent to our home and it was so funny... Mom did you know what that letter was even!! It was from one of mindy's old mission companions named Kimberly Inglish.. or something... she sent me a letter she found that she somehow had from Mindy's mission... So i got a letter from Mindy on her mission.. to me while on my mission... Kinda ironic but cool! The letter was from when she was in Franca with a really hairy companion and I was laughing the whole time because I could finally realy relate!! Well this week was a lot of hard work. We did a lot of tracting.. knocking on doors which is really hard because our area is SO mixed and alot of other areas in Texas aren't. and since we are only allowed to teach in espanol we give a lot of referrals to the English Elders. This is definitely the "Buckle" of the Bible Belt... everyone either has their church or doesn't really want a church so I'm not gonna lie it has been difficult finding people to listen but we just keep trucking along.. or i guess i could say knocking along! We get fed every day by the members here which they are great but they make us eat so much.. we don't want to offend them... one day this week it was raining really hard so i had wrapped all my scriptures up in plastic bags so they wouldn't get wet.. so at dinner with a member we were soooo full and she was in the other room so i took my scriptures out of one of the bags and put like 5 tomales in the bag and hid them in my back pack.. my companion was laughing so hard but i just couldn't eat anymore. It is so weird here because whenever we go to a members to eat they NEVER eat with us.. they always serve the whole time so it's hard to get to know all the members.. and we were talking to a lady after dinner one night and she had just fed 6 missionaries and found out her husband has been out of work for two months and they have like no money.. they are such generous people and have such faith i am constantly amazed! On Thursday we had the opportunity to have interviews and training with President Smith and Sister Smith. He is so funny I can't even explain it. He did our training on DONUTS.. ha ha says every town in Texas is not a town with out a donut shop, Sonic Drive through and a dollar store. He talked about how fattening and tempting donuts are and how they never fill you up and you always have to eat like a dozen to even attempt to feel full and you never are.. He said the donut is like the world..it will never fill you and always leave you wanting more. During my interview with President he was so nice and we talked about how amzing my trainer is and how she is my strength and her smile always pushes me forward even into uncomfortable situations... and he said well learn all you can because someday soon you will be that for another missionary.. He has such confidence in me.. i hope I can live up to what he thinks I can be... Then Sister SMith gave me a hug when we were leaving and said, "We are so happy we got you!! Sorry I didn't call you this week to see how you were doing but i knew you would be doing perfectly fine!!" THey are just such sweet people that radiate their love and all you can do is laugh when you're around them!! I really love them already... Well my spanish comes more and more everyday but I still can't say close to as much as a I want to!! Please pray for me and for this area that we can start finding more success and people to listen to us! Thanks for all your support and love!! Miss you all... and HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!!!
con amor-
Hermama Katie Barber
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
FIRST WEEK IN TEXAS!
Hola mi familia,
como estan? Well this week has definitely been an adventure of a lifetime... one I will never forget in a million years. I flew into Dallas on Monday and it was so fun talking to mom and dad on the phone... hearing your voices made me miss you even more! Well as we looked at the window over Dallas as we were landing I had a peaceful
feeling as I looked at the COMPLETELY flat ground and all the green that i was suppose to be here... my home away from home for 16 more months... we walked out of the terminal into the baggage claim and there was my mission president President Barry Smith and his sweet wife with the AP's Elder Erickson and Elder Ford waiting to help us with our bags... Sister Smith ran up to us and gave us the biggest hugs and later in the testimony meeting said she had never got such enthusiatic and excited hugs before!! After that me and Hermana Christensen rode with President and Sister S mith to the mission office adn sincer there were only four of us that came in.. they said they had never had such a small group of missionaries come in before.. we had our orientation and lunch at the mission office. After the orientation we headed over to the mission home to write letters, get interviewed by President and the AP's, take pictures, have dinner, and had a quaint little testimony meeting. Then at six o'clock two sisters came and picked me and Hermana Christensen up to go out on two appointments with them that night. I actually wasnt' as overwhelmed with the language as I thoguht I would be, but didn't really say anything either! ha ha... but I was really really impressed by one of the sisters we went out with named Hermana Brundage who spoke spanish so well and used her PERSONALITY in spanish.... in my journal that night i wrote about how i want to be as powerful and loving as she is while also being able to speak spanish.. she was just so cute! Well that dropped us off that night and Hermana Christensen and I just hung out with Sister Smith and there 17 year old daughter Garnet then slept at the mission home which is really nice. My mission president and his wife are GREAT!! they are hilarious, down to earth, but you still knwo they mean business.. They are exactly the personality I needed. I am not exactly sure what he did.. but all I know is he sold his PLANE to come be a mission president so I don't think they are bad off! ha ha.. but really they are great and I love them already. The next day we got to sleep in till 7 and I was so grateful then we went to transfer meeting and had to sit on the stand waiting to see who our traniner was. I wasn't very nervous because I thought it was goign to be Sister Shulte the one I told you about in my last e-mail and Sister Smith had said how amazing she was so I wasn't too nervous... but then they called Hermana Christensen's name and announced her trainer as Hermana Shulte.. .I was completely confused!! Then I got the best surprise ever! They called my name then Hermana Brundage!!! I was so excited! her name is Jessice Brundage from Idaho Falls, she leaves at the end of this transfer and she is amazing... but i was still confused because she had told me the night before at our appointments that she
was gettign transfered out of Carolton... well you probably guessed it... We got double transfered.... I am whitewashing an area for my first area.. and I am the first person Hermana Brundage has ever trained. I am serving in Irving,TX in the Dallas Zone. It is on the border of the Fortworth mission and right outside of Dallas the city. My area i calld Shady Grove. We were both pretty anxious and nervous then we got into the appartment and saw that the Elder left us like NO investigators... and when we called the ones they did leave us... the investigators either didn't remember who the elders were or completely avoided a time to meet with us!! So pretty much we had no investigators. So we started by meeting all the members and after hearing fun stories from them we realized that the Elders president pulled out probably weren't the most obedient missionaries! So this week has been hard...to say the least... we are two missionaries that have no clue where we are, I don't speak spanish, and we had NO investigators, and knew no one!! Sound FUN?? ha ha.. it has been!! We have worked really hard, laughed alot, prayed our guts out, and put our complete trust in God! We started by contacting all the members, part-members, and less-active families which helped us get some references. My first member referral was from Claudia Moran and we went to the appartment of the referral and it was of a little chinese lady who wouldn't even open the appartment door for us!! ha ha.. no the right referral... We met a great partmember family named the Illades.. Reina the wife is not a member and we went by and met her then that night the relief Society president called us and she she wanted to feed us the next day. So we asked her if I couldn't come teach her the lessons to practice my spanish since i feel so comfortable with her and she said YES... she cross your fingers. I am in an all spanish area. Most of the areas in the mission you do both english and spanish work but i am consumed by spanish here. We actually have the
only spanish ward in the mission instead of just a branch. There are four other spanish elders in the ward with us so all six of us go to dinner at the members almost ever night together... I've had some yummy homemade tomalies (?) and tacos... Alot of the members here in Shady Grove are from Mexico or there are tons from El Salvador... we ate with a lady from Argentina last night... so I get a really wide range! They are so sweet and sometimes laugh at my spanish but I can take it! So
this week has been sun up to sun down exhaustion from working, praying, fasting, trying to find people that are interested in the gospel since we had no one to start with. It is so amazing how the Lord listened to our prayers and his hand is so in this work! We were contacting in an apartment complex this week and a man came out and waved us down... told us he was a worker at the complex and also a member.. he told us where all the hispanics lived! We had a guy cross the street the other day and just start talking to us! ha ha.. it is crazy how the Lord places people in our paths. On Saturday it was pouring rain here but we had planned another day full of tracting with some lessons at night... we threw on our raincoats, and put our hair in pony tails and got ready to go... we went to the apartment complex we were going to tract at and the first door we knocked on was Josefina's and she let us in and we taught her and her daughter the first lesson... they understood it all and were like GOLDEN investigators.. we will see how that works out this week.. Later that night we taught the cutest family that we got from a Media referral.. they saw the commercial for the Lamb of God and we brought it to her and taught her and her husband.. her name is Keydy (Katie) and Alex.. please pray for them we have another lesson with them on Wednesday. The biggest coincedince was that we made these little goodie bag things for the members with our phone numbers and asking for their help and we went and visited all of them. President Smith is really big on the missionaries making way good relationships and gaining the trustof the members so they can help us a little bit. Well we went to go seea member family and we were in the parking lot praying in our car andboth me and my companion peeked during the prayer and saw a young manstanding at the car right next to us. We got out and he was scraping asticker off his car and we offered him our help... he didn't want the
help but he was stuck so we took the opportunity to teach him... Hisname is Anothoy.. he is in his 20's and knows he needs to change hislife and is looking for God. Well we got an appointment for him tonightand then asked for his address and phone number.. he lives in appartment2025... wierd thing is his address is the exact address of the memberfamily we were suppose to be visiting but Anthony said he had beenliving there for 1 1/2 years and our ward directory is from a month ago.TheLord's hand truly is in this work and I see miracles everyday as wework hard and put our trust in him. So we started Tuesday with noinvestigators and after an exhausting week we have 8 investigators...two of which being families! Please pray for them... I think myspiritual highlight of the week was on Wednesday during our first lessonand I offered my first prayer in front of an investigator in spanish. I was so nervous, but afterwards my companion leaned over to me and said she felt the spirit the strongest during the lesson when I was offering that simple prayer in broken spanish. My spanish has come leaps and bounds though because i am constantly having to speak it and contact in it! I am doing good at the door approaches and last night I taught the first and second principles in the first lesson in complete spanish to a lady named Araseli! I was so happy and pray I get better ever day... I understand a lot but still look at people with blank stares or turn to my companion for translation but I know it will come!! Oh ya funny story!! so my Hermana Brundage and I were knocking doors for an hour or and we were so worn out that everythign was funny... so we were standing at this door and I turned to her and said, "Maybe they
will let us in if they think we are mental challenged cause they will feel bad for us..." So we started making funny faces and then i turn to my right only to see the person in the house looking at us through her blinds... needless to say... she didn't answer the door!! ha ha...It is so funny because the people like peek through the windows and think we can't see them and they don't come to the door but we just keep knocking... then they finally come and eventually slam the door in our faces but hey at least we tried right!! If i thought the MTC was a humbling experience I was so wrong... this has been one of the hardest weeks of my life, the most exhausting but i have worked harder than i ever have in my life, prayed most then i have ever prayed, and laughed longer than i have ever laughed!! Hermana Brundage is my strength and the best trainer ever.. we have so much fun but work so hard! I am so
thankful that President Smith and my Heavenly Father trusted me enough to put me in this area and in such circumstance because I have grown more than I could have even imagined was possible in a week... in my spanish, testimony, and who I am!!! I know this church is true with ever fiber of my being and if I only find one other person in Texas that accepts that and changes their life because of it it will be worth it... I'm gonna knock every door (probably literally) in this town of Irving (well in my area... shady grove north) until I find them!! Please pray for me and my amazing companion Hermana Brundage... we could use all the prayers we can get! I am so happy though.. honestly this decision to serve was the best i ever made! LOVE YOU!!!
con amor (with love)-
Hermana Katie Barber
como estan? Well this week has definitely been an adventure of a lifetime... one I will never forget in a million years. I flew into Dallas on Monday and it was so fun talking to mom and dad on the phone... hearing your voices made me miss you even more! Well as we looked at the window over Dallas as we were landing I had a peaceful
feeling as I looked at the COMPLETELY flat ground and all the green that i was suppose to be here... my home away from home for 16 more months... we walked out of the terminal into the baggage claim and there was my mission president President Barry Smith and his sweet wife with the AP's Elder Erickson and Elder Ford waiting to help us with our bags... Sister Smith ran up to us and gave us the biggest hugs and later in the testimony meeting said she had never got such enthusiatic and excited hugs before!! After that me and Hermana Christensen rode with President and Sister S mith to the mission office adn sincer there were only four of us that came in.. they said they had never had such a small group of missionaries come in before.. we had our orientation and lunch at the mission office. After the orientation we headed over to the mission home to write letters, get interviewed by President and the AP's, take pictures, have dinner, and had a quaint little testimony meeting. Then at six o'clock two sisters came and picked me and Hermana Christensen up to go out on two appointments with them that night. I actually wasnt' as overwhelmed with the language as I thoguht I would be, but didn't really say anything either! ha ha... but I was really really impressed by one of the sisters we went out with named Hermana Brundage who spoke spanish so well and used her PERSONALITY in spanish.... in my journal that night i wrote about how i want to be as powerful and loving as she is while also being able to speak spanish.. she was just so cute! Well that dropped us off that night and Hermana Christensen and I just hung out with Sister Smith and there 17 year old daughter Garnet then slept at the mission home which is really nice. My mission president and his wife are GREAT!! they are hilarious, down to earth, but you still knwo they mean business.. They are exactly the personality I needed. I am not exactly sure what he did.. but all I know is he sold his PLANE to come be a mission president so I don't think they are bad off! ha ha.. but really they are great and I love them already. The next day we got to sleep in till 7 and I was so grateful then we went to transfer meeting and had to sit on the stand waiting to see who our traniner was. I wasn't very nervous because I thought it was goign to be Sister Shulte the one I told you about in my last e-mail and Sister Smith had said how amazing she was so I wasn't too nervous... but then they called Hermana Christensen's name and announced her trainer as Hermana Shulte.. .I was completely confused!! Then I got the best surprise ever! They called my name then Hermana Brundage!!! I was so excited! her name is Jessice Brundage from Idaho Falls, she leaves at the end of this transfer and she is amazing... but i was still confused because she had told me the night before at our appointments that she
was gettign transfered out of Carolton... well you probably guessed it... We got double transfered.... I am whitewashing an area for my first area.. and I am the first person Hermana Brundage has ever trained. I am serving in Irving,TX in the Dallas Zone. It is on the border of the Fortworth mission and right outside of Dallas the city. My area i calld Shady Grove. We were both pretty anxious and nervous then we got into the appartment and saw that the Elder left us like NO investigators... and when we called the ones they did leave us... the investigators either didn't remember who the elders were or completely avoided a time to meet with us!! So pretty much we had no investigators. So we started by meeting all the members and after hearing fun stories from them we realized that the Elders president pulled out probably weren't the most obedient missionaries! So this week has been hard...to say the least... we are two missionaries that have no clue where we are, I don't speak spanish, and we had NO investigators, and knew no one!! Sound FUN?? ha ha.. it has been!! We have worked really hard, laughed alot, prayed our guts out, and put our complete trust in God! We started by contacting all the members, part-members, and less-active families which helped us get some references. My first member referral was from Claudia Moran and we went to the appartment of the referral and it was of a little chinese lady who wouldn't even open the appartment door for us!! ha ha.. no the right referral... We met a great partmember family named the Illades.. Reina the wife is not a member and we went by and met her then that night the relief Society president called us and she she wanted to feed us the next day. So we asked her if I couldn't come teach her the lessons to practice my spanish since i feel so comfortable with her and she said YES... she cross your fingers. I am in an all spanish area. Most of the areas in the mission you do both english and spanish work but i am consumed by spanish here. We actually have the
only spanish ward in the mission instead of just a branch. There are four other spanish elders in the ward with us so all six of us go to dinner at the members almost ever night together... I've had some yummy homemade tomalies (?) and tacos... Alot of the members here in Shady Grove are from Mexico or there are tons from El Salvador... we ate with a lady from Argentina last night... so I get a really wide range! They are so sweet and sometimes laugh at my spanish but I can take it! So
this week has been sun up to sun down exhaustion from working, praying, fasting, trying to find people that are interested in the gospel since we had no one to start with. It is so amazing how the Lord listened to our prayers and his hand is so in this work! We were contacting in an apartment complex this week and a man came out and waved us down... told us he was a worker at the complex and also a member.. he told us where all the hispanics lived! We had a guy cross the street the other day and just start talking to us! ha ha.. it is crazy how the Lord places people in our paths. On Saturday it was pouring rain here but we had planned another day full of tracting with some lessons at night... we threw on our raincoats, and put our hair in pony tails and got ready to go... we went to the apartment complex we were going to tract at and the first door we knocked on was Josefina's and she let us in and we taught her and her daughter the first lesson... they understood it all and were like GOLDEN investigators.. we will see how that works out this week.. Later that night we taught the cutest family that we got from a Media referral.. they saw the commercial for the Lamb of God and we brought it to her and taught her and her husband.. her name is Keydy (Katie) and Alex.. please pray for them we have another lesson with them on Wednesday. The biggest coincedince was that we made these little goodie bag things for the members with our phone numbers and asking for their help and we went and visited all of them. President Smith is really big on the missionaries making way good relationships and gaining the trustof the members so they can help us a little bit. Well we went to go seea member family and we were in the parking lot praying in our car andboth me and my companion peeked during the prayer and saw a young manstanding at the car right next to us. We got out and he was scraping asticker off his car and we offered him our help... he didn't want the
help but he was stuck so we took the opportunity to teach him... Hisname is Anothoy.. he is in his 20's and knows he needs to change hislife and is looking for God. Well we got an appointment for him tonightand then asked for his address and phone number.. he lives in appartment2025... wierd thing is his address is the exact address of the memberfamily we were suppose to be visiting but Anthony said he had beenliving there for 1 1/2 years and our ward directory is from a month ago.TheLord's hand truly is in this work and I see miracles everyday as wework hard and put our trust in him. So we started Tuesday with noinvestigators and after an exhausting week we have 8 investigators...two of which being families! Please pray for them... I think myspiritual highlight of the week was on Wednesday during our first lessonand I offered my first prayer in front of an investigator in spanish. I was so nervous, but afterwards my companion leaned over to me and said she felt the spirit the strongest during the lesson when I was offering that simple prayer in broken spanish. My spanish has come leaps and bounds though because i am constantly having to speak it and contact in it! I am doing good at the door approaches and last night I taught the first and second principles in the first lesson in complete spanish to a lady named Araseli! I was so happy and pray I get better ever day... I understand a lot but still look at people with blank stares or turn to my companion for translation but I know it will come!! Oh ya funny story!! so my Hermana Brundage and I were knocking doors for an hour or and we were so worn out that everythign was funny... so we were standing at this door and I turned to her and said, "Maybe they
will let us in if they think we are mental challenged cause they will feel bad for us..." So we started making funny faces and then i turn to my right only to see the person in the house looking at us through her blinds... needless to say... she didn't answer the door!! ha ha...It is so funny because the people like peek through the windows and think we can't see them and they don't come to the door but we just keep knocking... then they finally come and eventually slam the door in our faces but hey at least we tried right!! If i thought the MTC was a humbling experience I was so wrong... this has been one of the hardest weeks of my life, the most exhausting but i have worked harder than i ever have in my life, prayed most then i have ever prayed, and laughed longer than i have ever laughed!! Hermana Brundage is my strength and the best trainer ever.. we have so much fun but work so hard! I am so
thankful that President Smith and my Heavenly Father trusted me enough to put me in this area and in such circumstance because I have grown more than I could have even imagined was possible in a week... in my spanish, testimony, and who I am!!! I know this church is true with ever fiber of my being and if I only find one other person in Texas that accepts that and changes their life because of it it will be worth it... I'm gonna knock every door (probably literally) in this town of Irving (well in my area... shady grove north) until I find them!! Please pray for me and my amazing companion Hermana Brundage... we could use all the prayers we can get! I am so happy though.. honestly this decision to serve was the best i ever made! LOVE YOU!!!
con amor (with love)-
Hermana Katie Barber
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Last Email In The MTC!!
Hola Familia... como esta?? Well here is the last letter from my nine week stay in the MTC... i leave on Monday May 11th. I have to check into the travel office at 5 AM.. then we drive up to the airport.. check in and our flight leaves at 8:30 to DALLAS TEXAS!!! I don't know how long I will have to call but i'm guessing i will be calling by 7 i hope.. because i will have to board the flight at like 8!! so around then which should be before mom goes to work! Melissa's phone card she sent me should be plenty!! THANKS MELISSA!! you're the best!! I am the travel leader of four of us.. my companion Hermana Christensen and then two elders that came in three weeks ago going to dallas engligh. I am getting REALLY nervous... kinda excited. I just have to keep reminding myself that who the Lord calls he also qualifies! I am picking up spanish but the more i learn the more I realize i have TONS more to learn... but it will come. I'm excited to get out there and teach the people!! The MTC has been an amazing experience.. one I will always love and cherish.. I will never want to eat this food ever again in my life but I have learned so much here. I will miss my district when we leave on Monday. We at first thought that Hermana Christensen were going to leave on Mondy the 11th and the rest of our district wasn't leaving til the 12th but our flight plans changed and we all get to leave together. That is going to be the hardest part is saying goodbye to my MTC Family... we have done this all together.. work together, laughed together, struggled together, served together, and most importantly leared what true christ like love is together. I will forever have a place in my heart for Elder Dan Mosman, Elder Alma Benjamin King, Elder Brick Cory Petty, Elder Lance Ole Einerson, Hermana Kari Lyn Christensen, and Hermana Lachelle Crandell... I have learned more from these six people than i ever thought it was possible to learn from a group of people- i have learned love, patience, service, true diligence. It is going to be rough to leave but there are tons of people in Dallas ready to fill the void in my heart!! I CANT WAIT!! This week has been a good week just kinda filled with getting ready to go.. getting all my pictures devoloped, things bought, bags packed, trying to ready and study as much as possible. We got a new teacher this week and my girl teacher Hermana Evans got changed... They change teachers around after semesters are over... Well my new teachers name is Hermano anderson and he subbed for us once a couple weeks ago.. well funny story.. There was a random elder that came up to me in the MTC
like three weeks ago and was like hey are you going to Dallas Texas spanish and i was like SI... and he said oh my sister is going to be your trainer.. i asked him how he knew and he said that his sister wrote him and told him that President Smith (my mission president in Texas) told her she was training a new sister that looks like Lindsay Lohan.. so that must be me.. OF COURSE!! WOW!! well her name is sister Shulte.. Well Hermano Anderson found out that I was going to DAllas Texas and preceeds to tell us that he was going to marry a girl but she decided to go on a mission instead.. and guess who it was.. SISTER SHULTE!!. i told him my story and instantly.. he hated me!! YEP!! fun huh?? But i think he air is almost clear now considering i didn't do ANYTHING!! .. just a really really small world huh? Well that story was kinda pointless but here is a not so pointless story for you.. Last night I heard from another apostle.. can you believe it.. two months and i have heard from three apostles.. SUPER LUCKY!! Elder Ballard and his radiant wife came and spoke to us last night. The first think i noticed was when we were singing the opening song of called to serve and i watched him sing and it hit me.. here i am serving for only 16 months.. think how long he was truely called to serve. My measely amount of time means nothing. Well Elder Ballard talked to us about DESIRES.. that we must have a pure desire to serve God and that will be our motivation to find, teach and baptize as many people as we can while we are in the field. He siad they have done tons of studies as a church and the #1 factor for an investigator getting baptizeds is how they feel when they are in the presence of the missionary. You as missionaries are more important than the doctrince at the beginning.. it's what they feel not what they know in the beginning!! wow what a responsibility..Well even if i can't speak spanish maybe they can feel my spirit and just jump in the water.. that is what i'm counting on right now!! HA HA... he also said that we have to be the best teachers that the church has ever sent out. He said the world is immersed in sound bits, internet, texting, blogging and not slowing down long enough to think of who they are, where they came from, or even care about where they are going. We, as missionaries have to be able to penetrate all the clutter and pierce their hearts with that DESIRE to know the lords will for them in their lives. Another fun thing that he told us is that when ever he talks to ministers they always ask him how our church gets their youth to serve missions and asks how much they have to pay us.. when they find out we come voluntarily and pay our own way some how they are astonished... he said you wouldn't be here unless you knew it was true. He then left with us an blessing that we woudl have kindled in our hearts a deep, burning desire to find, teach adn baptize. He blessed us with health, strength, wisdom (know what is going on around us), increase in the gift of decerment and the Holy Ghost become our constand companions. At the very end he said, " In your next letter home tell your parents that you on behalf of the First Presidency and the Quorem of the Twelve.. So thanks mom and dad... thanks for letting me come and be here having this amazing experience i can't believe i have already been here for 9 weeks and only have 16 months left till i come home!! WIERD!!!! Matt and Charlene.. where are you moving to? I am going to come home and not even know where to find you.. Mike and Kara on the other hand i know exactly where to find you.. Mike will still have 20 years left of School!! ha ha!! I am so excited for stewart.. he is coming so soon and CONGRATS on graduating Kara.. Mindy and Tales.. I love you! And Brad please bring me my suit case... por favor!! GRACIAS!! thanks for your letter Lesseth.. and about swine fever.. I will be very careful.. they have banned us from even shaking hands in the MTC..so not only can we
not hug we can not shake hands.. plus we wash our hands every chance we get plus there are hand santitizers all over we use.. so hopefully i'll stay healthy but it would be just my luck since I have caught everything else!! Well i love you all and i can't wait to talk to you mom and dad in FIVE DAYS!! you are the best family!! And i love you my sweet friends also!! Write me!! I love hearing about all of your lives!
Con amor- Hermana Katie Barber
like three weeks ago and was like hey are you going to Dallas Texas spanish and i was like SI... and he said oh my sister is going to be your trainer.. i asked him how he knew and he said that his sister wrote him and told him that President Smith (my mission president in Texas) told her she was training a new sister that looks like Lindsay Lohan.. so that must be me.. OF COURSE!! WOW!! well her name is sister Shulte.. Well Hermano Anderson found out that I was going to DAllas Texas and preceeds to tell us that he was going to marry a girl but she decided to go on a mission instead.. and guess who it was.. SISTER SHULTE!!. i told him my story and instantly.. he hated me!! YEP!! fun huh?? But i think he air is almost clear now considering i didn't do ANYTHING!! .. just a really really small world huh? Well that story was kinda pointless but here is a not so pointless story for you.. Last night I heard from another apostle.. can you believe it.. two months and i have heard from three apostles.. SUPER LUCKY!! Elder Ballard and his radiant wife came and spoke to us last night. The first think i noticed was when we were singing the opening song of called to serve and i watched him sing and it hit me.. here i am serving for only 16 months.. think how long he was truely called to serve. My measely amount of time means nothing. Well Elder Ballard talked to us about DESIRES.. that we must have a pure desire to serve God and that will be our motivation to find, teach and baptize as many people as we can while we are in the field. He siad they have done tons of studies as a church and the #1 factor for an investigator getting baptizeds is how they feel when they are in the presence of the missionary. You as missionaries are more important than the doctrince at the beginning.. it's what they feel not what they know in the beginning!! wow what a responsibility..Well even if i can't speak spanish maybe they can feel my spirit and just jump in the water.. that is what i'm counting on right now!! HA HA... he also said that we have to be the best teachers that the church has ever sent out. He said the world is immersed in sound bits, internet, texting, blogging and not slowing down long enough to think of who they are, where they came from, or even care about where they are going. We, as missionaries have to be able to penetrate all the clutter and pierce their hearts with that DESIRE to know the lords will for them in their lives. Another fun thing that he told us is that when ever he talks to ministers they always ask him how our church gets their youth to serve missions and asks how much they have to pay us.. when they find out we come voluntarily and pay our own way some how they are astonished... he said you wouldn't be here unless you knew it was true. He then left with us an blessing that we woudl have kindled in our hearts a deep, burning desire to find, teach adn baptize. He blessed us with health, strength, wisdom (know what is going on around us), increase in the gift of decerment and the Holy Ghost become our constand companions. At the very end he said, " In your next letter home tell your parents that you on behalf of the First Presidency and the Quorem of the Twelve.. So thanks mom and dad... thanks for letting me come and be here having this amazing experience i can't believe i have already been here for 9 weeks and only have 16 months left till i come home!! WIERD!!!! Matt and Charlene.. where are you moving to? I am going to come home and not even know where to find you.. Mike and Kara on the other hand i know exactly where to find you.. Mike will still have 20 years left of School!! ha ha!! I am so excited for stewart.. he is coming so soon and CONGRATS on graduating Kara.. Mindy and Tales.. I love you! And Brad please bring me my suit case... por favor!! GRACIAS!! thanks for your letter Lesseth.. and about swine fever.. I will be very careful.. they have banned us from even shaking hands in the MTC..so not only can we
not hug we can not shake hands.. plus we wash our hands every chance we get plus there are hand santitizers all over we use.. so hopefully i'll stay healthy but it would be just my luck since I have caught everything else!! Well i love you all and i can't wait to talk to you mom and dad in FIVE DAYS!! you are the best family!! And i love you my sweet friends also!! Write me!! I love hearing about all of your lives!
Con amor- Hermana Katie Barber
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Only 1 and a 1/2 Weeks!!
Hola my amazing family!! I got so many fun updates today and everyone sounds like they are doing amazing!! First off... MATT AND CHARLENE ARE HAVING A BOY!!! I am so so so so excited!! I definitely agree with the name BONECRUSHER also... I can't wait... I also caught a hint that your MOVING?? did you guy finally find a house? Where? I still need pictures of Jules and I need pictures of you prego Charlene!!! Matt I'm excited for your MBA... When do you think you will start? So many fun changes in your life.. Kara congrats on graduating on Saturday.. i can't wait for
you.. how are you feeling with the baby and everything.. ready to be a mom?? Mike you decided to do more schooling huh?? that is amazing what your bishop said...how many more years of schooling would you be in? so i guess you won't be in Ogden by the time i get back.. Mindy and Tales.. how are you? i will keep praying that
everythign with Tales papers work out great! Brad.. what are you doing with you life?? Amber wrote me yesterday and said she saw you at the gym and you looked HUGE like all you do is go to the gym.. do you go to work?? and the most important question is are you going to school? She also said she saw you with Landrea.. how are the wedding plans coming between you two?? ha ha (love you both!! ) Melissa thanks so much for the calling card.. amazing!!! mom i don't know how long I will get to talk I should get my flight plans today... so i'll let you know! Lacee Lee... CAFE RIO would be amazing... pork salad black beans only lettuce and house dressing if you can figure out how to get it to me.. i will even pay you for it!! ha ha.. i have already started your letter so i will send it out today. Amber.. your long e-mail from dear elder never got to me so i had no clue you are moving and not going to byu anymore.. please send it again if you can.. i am also working on your letter. Mom and Dad I love you.. i'm so excited for your new stove and yes mom all the talk of homecooking did no good for me.. i miss it so bad!! and DAd be super safe flying to Michigan please and give Kara a hug and a huge congrats from me!! that is such an accomplishment... My week here at the MTC has actually been quite slow.. i think my whole district is really anxious to get in the field but still completely humbled by spanish!! We taught in total spanish again during our teaching appointment on friday and the pretend investigator was atheist.. and i am not going to lie.. it was REALLY HARD!! we walked out of the teaching appointment completely humbled.. but the spirit helped so much. There is no way to do this work without the spirit. Saturday was my longest day at the MTC so far.. I think the five minutes between 4:00-4:05 felt like a whole 'nother seven weeks at the MTC. Then Sunday was great as it always is... I love my branch presidency... Thatcher, Hanks, and Lindsey and since there are only three hermanas in our district now the wives are super close to us! I am definitely feeling way better and almost back up to 100% in health which is so nice.. i can actually concentrate on the language! On sunday night we had a devotional by Stephen Allen who is the directors of missionary work or something and it was a great talk.. he talked about how in Alma even Ammon the great missionary had feelings of disappointment and wanted to turn back but that God comforted him in his trials and tribulations.. i am definitely passed the point of wanted to come home but there are
still disappointments there and feelings of inadequacies that if we turn to the lord he will definitely strengthen and comfort us...One cool story i had this week was that as a companionship we decided we needed to have more investigator focused companion study.. so we took the teaching record for our pretend investigator for this Friday and studied for her.. on the teaching record it says she just lost her brother from cancer and got a divorce and is in mourning and grieving.. so we studied
scriptures and quotes together that you could use to console someone who is grieving of the passing of a loved one... well the next day we went to our service assignment and the girl that works there and tells us what we need to clean we found out her cousin was one of the two boys that were 18 and 19 that died in Ogden by getting T-boned by that car with the gang members runnign from the cops or something.. i don't know the whole story.. but it was amazing how everything we had studied came
back into play as I talked to this college aged girl who is actually from ST. George. If we study by the spirit and study with our investigators in mind i know that the Lord will direct us to the specific things we need to learn to bring others unto Christ.. even members!!! On Tuesday night we heard from a seventy named Lynn Robbins and he gave a really good talk about developing Christlike Attributes.. we have to not only have to do what Christ would do but we have to be what he would be...he said it would take a lot of DO's to get to one BE of christ but once you get the the BE stage you will do the DO's automatically!!! Then he said that this, the mission field, is the Lord's University... it is better schooling then oxford and harvard.. we are enrolled in classes such as Cleaning your room 101, Frugality 101,
Patience, and Diligence 502 (advanced course!), and Pre-marriage 504.. he said to pray for a difficult companion and you will really be enrolled in pre-marriage!! I think i have also been enrolled in selflessness 101, charity and love 207, and relying on Christ 357!!! I have learned so much here that i could have not learned anywhere else in my life. I am so thankful and grateful for this opportunity. Then just a little quote from Stephen Allen from Sunday nights devotional for all my sibilings.. he said that if you come home and call yourself a returned missionary then your service was a waste of time!!... during your mission you should become a disiciple of christ.. a calling you will never be released from!!! I just thought that was an amazing thought.. this experience is not just preparing me to teach the gospel for 18 months of my life.. but if i am truely converted i will share this
gospel the rest of my life!! I love you family and am so happy to be here!! Keep the letters coming.. they are like GOLD and make my day!!!
Love you and be safe!
con amor- Hermana Barber
you.. how are you feeling with the baby and everything.. ready to be a mom?? Mike you decided to do more schooling huh?? that is amazing what your bishop said...how many more years of schooling would you be in? so i guess you won't be in Ogden by the time i get back.. Mindy and Tales.. how are you? i will keep praying that
everythign with Tales papers work out great! Brad.. what are you doing with you life?? Amber wrote me yesterday and said she saw you at the gym and you looked HUGE like all you do is go to the gym.. do you go to work?? and the most important question is are you going to school? She also said she saw you with Landrea.. how are the wedding plans coming between you two?? ha ha (love you both!! ) Melissa thanks so much for the calling card.. amazing!!! mom i don't know how long I will get to talk I should get my flight plans today... so i'll let you know! Lacee Lee... CAFE RIO would be amazing... pork salad black beans only lettuce and house dressing if you can figure out how to get it to me.. i will even pay you for it!! ha ha.. i have already started your letter so i will send it out today. Amber.. your long e-mail from dear elder never got to me so i had no clue you are moving and not going to byu anymore.. please send it again if you can.. i am also working on your letter. Mom and Dad I love you.. i'm so excited for your new stove and yes mom all the talk of homecooking did no good for me.. i miss it so bad!! and DAd be super safe flying to Michigan please and give Kara a hug and a huge congrats from me!! that is such an accomplishment... My week here at the MTC has actually been quite slow.. i think my whole district is really anxious to get in the field but still completely humbled by spanish!! We taught in total spanish again during our teaching appointment on friday and the pretend investigator was atheist.. and i am not going to lie.. it was REALLY HARD!! we walked out of the teaching appointment completely humbled.. but the spirit helped so much. There is no way to do this work without the spirit. Saturday was my longest day at the MTC so far.. I think the five minutes between 4:00-4:05 felt like a whole 'nother seven weeks at the MTC. Then Sunday was great as it always is... I love my branch presidency... Thatcher, Hanks, and Lindsey and since there are only three hermanas in our district now the wives are super close to us! I am definitely feeling way better and almost back up to 100% in health which is so nice.. i can actually concentrate on the language! On sunday night we had a devotional by Stephen Allen who is the directors of missionary work or something and it was a great talk.. he talked about how in Alma even Ammon the great missionary had feelings of disappointment and wanted to turn back but that God comforted him in his trials and tribulations.. i am definitely passed the point of wanted to come home but there are
still disappointments there and feelings of inadequacies that if we turn to the lord he will definitely strengthen and comfort us...One cool story i had this week was that as a companionship we decided we needed to have more investigator focused companion study.. so we took the teaching record for our pretend investigator for this Friday and studied for her.. on the teaching record it says she just lost her brother from cancer and got a divorce and is in mourning and grieving.. so we studied
scriptures and quotes together that you could use to console someone who is grieving of the passing of a loved one... well the next day we went to our service assignment and the girl that works there and tells us what we need to clean we found out her cousin was one of the two boys that were 18 and 19 that died in Ogden by getting T-boned by that car with the gang members runnign from the cops or something.. i don't know the whole story.. but it was amazing how everything we had studied came
back into play as I talked to this college aged girl who is actually from ST. George. If we study by the spirit and study with our investigators in mind i know that the Lord will direct us to the specific things we need to learn to bring others unto Christ.. even members!!! On Tuesday night we heard from a seventy named Lynn Robbins and he gave a really good talk about developing Christlike Attributes.. we have to not only have to do what Christ would do but we have to be what he would be...he said it would take a lot of DO's to get to one BE of christ but once you get the the BE stage you will do the DO's automatically!!! Then he said that this, the mission field, is the Lord's University... it is better schooling then oxford and harvard.. we are enrolled in classes such as Cleaning your room 101, Frugality 101,
Patience, and Diligence 502 (advanced course!), and Pre-marriage 504.. he said to pray for a difficult companion and you will really be enrolled in pre-marriage!! I think i have also been enrolled in selflessness 101, charity and love 207, and relying on Christ 357!!! I have learned so much here that i could have not learned anywhere else in my life. I am so thankful and grateful for this opportunity. Then just a little quote from Stephen Allen from Sunday nights devotional for all my sibilings.. he said that if you come home and call yourself a returned missionary then your service was a waste of time!!... during your mission you should become a disiciple of christ.. a calling you will never be released from!!! I just thought that was an amazing thought.. this experience is not just preparing me to teach the gospel for 18 months of my life.. but if i am truely converted i will share this
gospel the rest of my life!! I love you family and am so happy to be here!! Keep the letters coming.. they are like GOLD and make my day!!!
Love you and be safe!
con amor- Hermana Barber
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