(From July 8)
Hello... I said
hello!!! All the way from AZ and you favorite missionary sister Barnes.
First of all thank
you so much for all of your letters, I loved them!!! And even though I don’t
know them, I love the red cast, so tell them I say Hello, I said hello!!! :).
I am so glad you get to be in Nauvoo
right now!!! You guys are so amazing; I wish every member could be as crazy
about missionary work as you are. Keep it up, be bold, and love everyone!!!
Ok here’s what’s up
with me... I am doing awesome!!!! It rains, like a Nauvoo rainstorm,
everyday!!! It is turning this desert of cactus and dirt into a jungle; it is
so nice to see the color green again. With the rain also comes bugs! You think
you have a lot of bugs, ok you do. But here in the desert these bugs are nasty.
Everything here wants to kill you. From the spiney plants to the scorpions and taranchulas,
yes I have seen a ton of both. Nasty! Except taranchulas are pretty cool. Also I
am sending a picture of the mountain, it looks like a mountain from Hawaii!!!
Also Sister Dente is from Hawaii, so I am learning a little bit of pigeon.
Arizona is pono (that means awesome). Along with that we met with a Hawaiian
family yesterday. They played Hawaiian music for us (it was appropriate) and
ate Hawaiian food. Sometimes I forget I am in dry old Arizona and not in beautiful
Hawaii. Or maybe Arizona is just becoming as beautiful as Hawaii to me. Either
way I love it!!!!
Happy Fourth of July!!!
I was thinking about you all a little too much, it is hard to be away from
family especially on holidays. But it made it way easier to have an awesome
companion who needed my love and support. We didn’t get to watch the fireworks
because we had to be in at 8. We partied and watched the Joseph Smith movie. So
ya, we have been doing a lot of Nauvooish kinds of things. For example we
always say the standard of truth before meetings, love it! We sang called to
serve, praise to the man, and with the rain, it smells like Nauvoo. I
love the gospel and the church so much!!! I feel like Alma again- Alma26.
Ok here is the
scope on the amazing people down here.
The V.
family is so awesome, I love them so much!!! They are less active and are progressing
every time we see them. The 16-year-old daughter is being a missionary to
everyone at work, which is so amazing. The12 year old unbaptized son is the
glue of the family. He loves the gospel and wants to be a part of it so bad. We
hope to get his family to be as excited as he is. He will be baptized with his
soon to be 8 year old brother in September!!! We had an amazing lesson with
them on the law of chastity; once we got past the awkward part we were able to
talk about keeping our thoughts words and actions clean. We then talked about
loving everyone. Sister Villalobos said she could feel that I loved everyone so
much and that I would be way fun to hang out with. It touched my heart, she is
so sweet! I love that family!
R. is an older lady from Germany who is married to a recent convert. She
has been taking the missionaries for like 30 years. But is making great
progress. She is slowly but surely striving to live more fully the WoW and we
had an amazing break through with her. We started talking about family history
and she said, "Why would anyone ever want to spend time doing that?"
We tried to explain but she just didn’t get it. But then miraculously she had a
package full of family history sitting on the table from like 12 years ago that
she had never opened. She opened and looked at it. As she looked, she couldn’t
look away, she was hooked. Then after like 10 minutes of going over it she said
that it was her time to do family history work and (in our eyes time to
be baptized). She is definitely getting closer! So cool, I love her so much and
it is great that she comes to church every Sunday!
M. is also a less active we are teaching. She is a little crazy and has some major
wow issues. Every time we go to her house we end of smelling smoke really bad
and then smelling like smoke after word. While on my mission I have never smelt
more like smoke or seen so much alcohol, it is kind of ironic and I love it, well
I love helping people change. Also I am so glad that I out grew throwing up every
time I smelled cigarettes that would have been bad. Anyway we went over to her
house for dinner, she kindly invited us. Before we went in we prayed fervently
that we would not smell the smoke and that the food would be eatable and wouldn’t
kill us. Both were answered, the food was pretty good. And the biggest miracle
was that after walking in we didn’t smell a single scent of smoke, even though
it was there. When we left we could smell the scent on our clothes, but we didn’t
while we were there, what a miracle!!! When changing into my jammies that night
I smelled my clothes and they stunk! But when I smelled my garments, there was
nothing. The power of the temple is real and I love it so much! I am grateful
we have a reminder of the temple everyday to protect us. SO COOL!!! We were
also able to teach her the plan of salvation, which really helped her, we were
going to teach wow but decided to change and it was perfect!!! I am glad the
spirit could guide us.
There is a ton of
other investigators that are amazing!!! I love
them All!!!!!!!! But I ran out of time and got to go. Just know that I love you
all so much!!!! My family, extended family, friends, framily, and even the
framily I don’t know yet :)!!! I love being a missionary, I invite you all to
go out and love the people so much that you can’t help but share the gospel
with them. I love my Savior and your Savior Jesus Christ, and I love my
Heavenly Father. I know they love us so much!!! I am learning, growing, and
changing in great ways. Set goals so you can too, because it is great.
Prayer is so powerful and so real!!! I love you!!! Love, Sister Barnes
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