God's Plan

Where to begin...... This week was a big testimony builder that God has a plan and knows exactly what we need. All throughout the week the spirit seemed to continually direct our lessons towards The Plan of Salvation. Each time that we taught this lesson to someone different a different aspect of the plan was emphasized and stood out. To one woman knowing that her imperfections and limitations will be gone after the resurrection helped her feel at peace and helped her understand how much God loves her. To another investigator, knowing that we lived with God before this life and that he knows us individually meant everything. Then last night we taught a teenage girl about how she can be forgiven because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The spirit filled the room as this young girl learned about the Plan that her Father in Heaven has for her. This repeated over and over with different parts of the plan. It really showed how every part of the plan was set because of how much God loves us! Everything that he does is because we are his children. Later on in the week our good Catholic Friend/neighbor passed away. Do you remember a few months ago when I told you about Bootsie? She was very particular about what scriptures we read to her and really didn't like when we tried to teach her but she sure loved feeling the spirit as we sang to her. Her favorite song was "Oh My Father". At the beginning of every visit we would sing that song together. The last time that we met with her I asked her if she understood what that song was about. It was the Plan of Salvation. She paused for a second and then read the words a little closer. I'm so grateful that the last lesson we taught my dear friend was a lesson about being a daughter of God and being able to return to live with him again. Knowing her love for that song brings so me so much peace and comfort. I know that the missionaries that are teaching her in the spirit world are singing that exact song and teaching her it's meaning. Right after we heard about Bootsie we went over to her house to visit the family and ask if we could do anything. Bootsie had told the family about us. They expressed so much gratitude to us and invited us to the funeral. We will be going to the funeral at the Catholic church this week! The daughter wants us to sing at the funeral but has to get approval from the rest of the family. OH BOY. Doing it for Bootsie! I don't know how I'm going to get permission but I'm planning on doing her work as soon as I can. That woman deserves the best! I have a testimony of the Gospel. I know that this life is the time to prepare to meet God. I know that Heavenly Father knows each and every one of us personally. He is there for us no matter what. Having that knowledge is the biggest blessing I could ever ask for. I love my family. I'm so grateful that I get to live with them for all eternity! If eternity with the Barton Family isn't pure happiness than I don't know what is! I know that God is a god of many mighty miracles. One of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon has become Mormon 9. Miracles haven't ceased. We get to be a part of miracles according to our faith. Looking back on my life God had his hand on every single second of it. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His ways are far greater than our ways. Isaiah 55. I love you all! Have the greatest week ever! September just started, right? I can't figure out why every tried to go trick or treating in August. Someone is messing with time! October went way too fast! -Sister Barton

Being Blonde Brings Miracles (Oct. 27)

This has been a week full of miracles! The first was when we went to visit a less active woman. She wasn't home but her elderly neighbor was outside smoking a cigar and drinking a beer. He was a soldier and has owned bars all over the US. Ted expressed how he has lost hope for this world and felt so sorry that we have to live and eventually raise kids in such a sad world. He doesn't believe in an after life and says there is no way there is a God because God would never let the world become so evil. We tried to testify of our loving Heavenly Father and his divine plan for us. With little success we asked him questions on his beliefs. We didn't make much progress but his care giver came out and graciously offered us chips and water. She told us that she isn't a member but her best friend is. We had to go to another appointment but we left her with out number and a pamphlet. Two days later we tried that less active again. Christina, the care giver, saw us from her window and came running out. She said we looked too tired to be outside any longer and forced us to come inside! Before we knew it we hate plates of food in front of us. Her member friend came over and ate lunch with us. After the meal we said, "Since you shared so much with us can we share a message with you?" She hesitated her friend accepted excitedly. We taught the first discussion. Her friend bore her testimony and the spirit filled the room! Christina said she was feeling different than she ever had before! It was amazing to witness. We asked her if the Hermanas could teach her mom and she said yes. As we were walking out her friend said that she had been running away from the missionaries every time that she had brought them over. It was neat to see how the spirit helped us develop a relationship of trust with Christina in order for us to be able to teach her. Since she speaks Spanish we gave her to the Hermanas but it was good to know that we got to be a part of this woman's plan. The second was on Friday. We had an appointment with one of our investigators named Sheila. After teaching her we had some time to spare until our next appointment so we decided to try a referral. Well we got the wrong trailer number. We were looking for a sad old lady but instead we found a happy 21 year old man who was more than willing to chat. We asked him questions about his belief and he said he didn't really know the purpose of life. He knew there was a God and that God expected him to be a good person but that was about it. We had a lesson about the Plan of Salvation and our purpose here on earth. He was blown away! We asked him if he had ever prayed to know if God was listening to his prayers. He hadn't but he said he would and that he wanted to learn more. He is YSA age so we had to give him to the elders..BUT once again it was cool to see the sparks starting to light in someone else. Third miracle is the Blondie one. Okay so I have my blonde moments but this one turned out to work in our favor. We went to meet a part member family. They are never home and I have yet to teach them. I knew the mom was a member and that dad wasn't. I thought their daughter was a member....So we went over and nobody was home. As we were leaving Taylor (senior in high school) pulled into the drive way. We got talking to her and she was just really cool. After a little while she started talking about how she loves hearing where missionaries are from because she was a lot of friends that are on missions all around the world. We started talking about missions and she made it sound like she was considering going...I invited her to come to lessons with us! We love taking less active girls to lessons because everyone benefits so much more! I thought this was a great opportunity. We got her information and then left. Taylor had mentioned she knew a girl in our ward so on Saturday we asked Mikayla to call and invite Taylor to church on Sunday. Taylor told Mikayla that she had never been invited to church before but would love to come! She had family over this week but next week Taylor will hopefully be there! At church Mikayla said she had been super nervous to invite Taylor because they hadn't talked in a long time. I asked her when Taylor had been to church last. That's when I found out Taylor isn't a member! Okay well I felt pretty dumb but at the same time it was a miracle to me. It was a neat experience for Mikayla and Taylor. Fourth miracle. Mario and an Investigator Shelbi bore their testimonies in church yesterday! It was fast Sunday because stake conference is next week. The spirit was so strong. They are both supposed to be in 7th ward but Mario likes 3rd ward and Shelbi likes 4th/being taught by sisters instead of elders. (We only cover 3rd and 4th) We have to give both of them to the elders and are working to get them to go where their priesthood leaders are. It's been fun teaching them as well! They are both excited to be baptized and are already glowing with the light of Christ. It's hard to not get to teach them because we love them so much but I know the 6th/7th ward elders will do a good job preparing them for baptism. This week was also zone conference! We got to watch "Meet the Mormons!" It was sooooo good! Have you all seen it yet? If not you should probably go and take your friends. It's wonderful. We were all so excited when President Passey told us we would be watching it and then Sister Passey came up to the stand and said, "Oh and while we are watching this movie we will be going out row by row to get flu shots." Okay cool. They got us all excited and then threw that at us. It was okay though I didn't pass out so I can't complain too much. I somehow have a little more time so I'll just describe Safford for you :) This week I was trying to figure out how to explain this town and this is all I can come up with- It's the town in foot loose. There are lots of cotton fields and a cute main street. Everyone here is either a farmer, a minor, or works at one of the many prisons. Sister Rhodes and I cover the area with the Catholic Church in it so pretty much most of the people that we talk to are Catholics. I'm learning a lot about the Catholic Church. It's actually not super different from our beliefs. There are a lot of similarities. When we meet Spanish women it almost always turns into the scene in the Grinch where he gets elected and all of a sudden we are being fed spicy/cheesie concoctions . I absolutely love it here and pretty much feel like I have lived here my whole life. My testimony has grown more than I could ever imagine. Yesterday a member of the Stake Presidency told us a story about how he was baptized at 17 and then wanted to badly to go on a mission. He filled out his papers but never turned them in because he lacked the faith that he would be able to handle it. He was really shy and couldn't imagine having to talk to people all day. Now he speaks in church at least once a month and told us how he knows that God gives us callings in order to make our weaknesses strengths. I have seen that time and time again. Heavenly Father knows us so much more than we know ourselves. I love this gospel and the joy and peace that it brings. -Sister Barton p.s. Have you read the talk 'Upon the tops of the Waters" by Jon Warner. You'll love it!

Teaching the Teachers

Missions are weird. That's what I have decided. As missionaries we get up at 6 am, work all day to study, teach, and talk to everyone, then we plan for the next day, and go to bed at 10:30. We repeat this routine everyday yet everyday is so different. We strive everyday to teach people about the restored Gospel and how it can bless their lives. We try so hard to understand peoples needs and concerns then teach them how they can overcome those challenges. All of this work is supposed to be helping everyone around us. I have tried so hard to be a light in other's lives. Yesterday we were driving to an appointment with a good friend. Her name is Amber. This girl is incredible. She has been going through a lot of hard things and just has a rock solid testimony of the Savior. We were talking about how she wants to be a criminal investigator because she wants to be a light in a dark situation. Right now she works at the prison and just loves everyone that she works with. As we were talking about what we wanted to be she said that her occupation only is going to help her to be what she wants to be then went on about what she wants to do with her life. OH boy! The spirit was so strong as she talked about God's plan for each of us and how much potential we don't even realize we have. I decided she needs to be a motivational speaker because she was pretty much preaching to us missionaries. We love taking her to lessons! The point of this story was thinking about how we spend everyday trying to help people overcome their fears and see their potential as sons and daughters of god yet at the end of the day I feel like I've learned way more than anyone that I teach has. In the scriptures it promises over and over that when we lose our selves in the work we will find a much better version of our own selves. I have found that to be so very true. I have a long way to go but with every sacrifice and trial I have discovered something new and amazing about myself and about my Heavenly Father and his son. Matthew 10:39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. Matthew 16:25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. Doctrine and Covenants 103:27 Let no man be afraid to lay down his life for my sake; for whoso layeth down his life for my sake shall find it again. Doctrine and Covenants 98:13 And whoso layeth down his life in my cause, for my name’s sake, shall find it again, even life eternal. Wow this email is going way off the path that my sticky notes had planned...okay this week we also got to work at a booth at the county fair...I didn't know I would ever feel culture shock in Safford Arizona but you should have see Sister Rhodes and I as we walking into that dark death trap of games, music, and fried food. I have never felt so our of place in my head I just kept singing "I know that my redeemer lives." We were on the opposite side of the fair than the live band which was good but it was crazy! We were there for 5 hours on Friday and 3 hours on Saturday. It was long and we didn't get to talk to a whole lot of people but we did meet a few referrals for the Hermanas and I talked to a real live cowboy who wanted to go to church! We taught him the restoration in 5 minutes and he loved it! We had to give her to the singles ward elders but I'm really excited to hear what happens with him! It doesn't matter who teaches him! Next miracle! Remember Amber from 2 paragraphs ago? Well she has a friend who works at the prison with her. His name is Mario. She started telling him about the church and at first he was super anti. Then after three months of asking questions he came to church 3 weeks ago. Then yesterday he just came up to us and said, "Okay. Every time that I come here I love it. Every time that I learn more I feel like it's catered to me. I need you two to help me get baptized!" WHAT!?!?! He has been so prepared and is so ready! He grew up in the ghetto of California and has had history in gangs and stuff but has completely changed his life around and is ready to take the next step! He isn't in our boundaries so I'm not sure if we get to teach him but I am so excited for him! He wants to be part of our ward so we'll see what happens! It's up to the stake president and bishops! I can't wait to witness Mario's baptism though! There is a lot more that I want to tell all of you because this week was just so great but I'm out of time so I will just have to tell you all later! Just know that I am so happy and so very very exhausted! Thank you for the support and love it is so desperately needed. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the true church. The Book of Mormon can bring an individual pure and everlasting joy. My very wise Aunt Kathy loves the word joy. This Gospel doesn't bring happiness. That just wouldn't be enough. It brings joy to all who allow it. I know that Joseph Smith saw God the Father and his son. I know that I can be with my family forever because of the priesthood authority that is on the earth today. I love being a missionary and seeing the light of Christ fill a room and fill people's hearts. I have learned more in the past 3 and 1/2 months than I ever thought possible! Have a great week everyone! ps. It's happened. My Canadian in Toronto is going to be mad but....I wore a winter coat in 70 degrees and was freezing....I'm sorry Sister Frodsham. Arizona has gotten to me.

We walking into the relief society presidents living room and she just started laughing at our new accessories.Thanks mom

Sister Rhodes didn't like the first one so here's this one.....i don't get the difference but whatever!

Conference and Such

Hello Everyone! I don't have a whole lot of time so this is going to be a quick one. First of all. Mom you're going to be proud! I ALMOST donated blood this week. :) Some elders told us about a blood drive that was going on and Sister Rhodes really wanted to do it but didn't want to do it alone. She used the companion unity guilt trip and the sick children guilt trip on me. The guilt trips worked so we ate everything in our kitchen that we thought had iron in it....so pretty much carrots and almonds then biked across town to get our blood taken from us! The whole bike ride I kept telling myself "Okay Sister Barton you're doing this for the children!" Well we got there and realized that we needed IDs in order to do it. We didn't have time to go to our duplex and get them so I dodged that bullet! Woof! The guy that thought drinking a lot of water would help his seed to grow? Well we have been teaching him a lot and he really understands a ton but he wasn't keeping commitments. On Wednesday we had a lesson with him and we tried to find out why he wasn't keeping commitments. The spirit was really strong as we retaught him the first vision and told him about how if he wanted to know the truth then he needed to study and pray for himself. We asked him if he would pray to know if the church was true and he just broke down. He told us that he wasn't willing to pray because he didn't want to know the truth. To him, knowing the truth would mean needing to change and he wasn't willing to do that. I couldn't believe what he had told us. It made me think a lot about our Heavenly Father's love for us and how he has asked us to do such simple things yet we don't do them because we don't realize how much they will bless us. One of my favorite parts about conference was Elder Jorg Klebingat's talk. I've always been a big fan of lists. I like having to do lists. Elder Klebingat and so many others gave us lists of how to improve ourselves, our testimonies, and our relationship with God. All of these lists were similar and simple. God isn't trying to make our lives complicated. This gospel is so simple. God has asked us to do small and simple things that make the biggest differences in our lives. I am grateful for conference. I love the Prophet and all that he stands for. All of the talks about sustaining our prophet were so true. It is our responsibility to sustain Thomas S. Monson as our prophet through our words, actions, and thoughts. I know this church is true. I know the Book of Mormon was given to us to bless us and teach us. How can it teach us if we don't open it constantly? I love this gospel! I love being a missionary. I love being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Have a good week everyone! I love you all so much! Happy Birthday Megan! You are an amazing example to me of a loving mother and amazing friend to everyone. I've always looked up to you for how hard you work and how willing you are to help everyone in need even when they don't ask. That's just who you are! You're an incredible example. I love you! Don't worry 25 is only halt way up the hill ;) -Sister Barton

Heading Into Transfer #3

Well this was a week of non-stop adventures and miracles for sure! I can't believe it's already been another transfer. Too weird. I'll be staying in Safford for another transfer with sweet Sister Rhodes! I had a feeling that I would be staying. I guess there are still people here that need me. I'm determined to do everything I can this transfer to do the Lords work. Tuesday was "the day" which is where the entire mission does a huge exchange. I went to St. David with Sister Hendricks who is a Sister Training Leader. She is really incredible! I loved getting to see what is happening in other areas and getting more ideas on how to be a better missionary. The St. David zone includes a town called Tombstone that I was really excited to get to go see!!! I guess there is some movie about it? I don't know but tombstone is awesome! I felt like I was in the Indiana Jones part of disneyland! We were teaching a lesson in a man's apartment lobby when all of a sudden a man dressing in a for reals sheriff costume comes walking down and says "It's my day off so it's time for a walk around town." Apparently when the people of tombstone are bored they go and walk around in costumes! IT WAS SO FUN! People from all over the world come. We met a ton of people from the east coast and even a family from France. There are some things that I just don't understand. "The day" was great though! I feel like I learned so much from Sister Hendricks and just couldn't get enough of her ideas. Some say that there is a ghetto of Safford but I don't really believe it. We didn't know where to go before calling it a day so we were just biking around the "ghetto" when a group of kinda sketchy looking people stopped to talk to us. One of them introduced himself and said that he had read the Book of Mormon in prison recently and wanted us to teach him more! YAY!! We were so excited! The stake president is a judge so we asked him about our new friend and he only said great things so I'm excited to start teaching him! We tried to go over later this week but he was busy so hopefully we will find a time this week to get some lessons started! I love being in a little town because of weekends like this one. They had a big Salsa Festival where everyone came to main street and judged which Mexican restaurant had the best salsa. We went during our lunch break for a little bit and got to explore. Sister Missionaries are really spoiled in Safford. People kept handing us kettle corn and cotton candy! It was a very sugar filled lunch break but we got to talk to quit a few people! We are planning to go visit them this week and so we'll see what happens there! Did you all get to see the Women's broadcast? I was in heaven! We had 2 investigators come and they both said they loved it! All of the speakers were perfect for them! Their messages were inspired and completely catered to their concerns and needs. I loved the umbrella analogy. Heavenly Father really is constantly raining down his blessings on us. It's our choice whether or not we put down our umbrellas in order to feel the blessings! It was my favorite part of the week by far! It made me that much more excited for conference weekend! The second best part of the week was teaching young womens on Sunday. I was a little nervous and not sure how the lesson would go but we talked about being in the world and not of the world. It was a little weird teaching them because I feel like I was in their shoes 2 seconds ago but that's what made it so fun! They all talked about some things that make it hard to have an eternal perspective and I could relate to them so well. I would be perfectly fine with teaching young womens for the rest of my life! haha Those girls just have the best spirits. I can't think of anything else that is worth sharing. We are working really hard and trying to find people that are open to our message. I know that this gospel changes lives if we let it. I know that Jesus Christ lives. I know that Heavenly Father loves us so much! My mission has taught me how important it is to completely trust in his plan for me. In fast and testimony meeting a woman said She know's God loves us too much to give us something we can't handle. I know that she is completely right. I can't wait to see what Heavenly Father has in store for me. Everyday I'm striving to let my mission change me Because to me that is exactly what Heavenly Father wants missions to do for his children. He wants us to wait out the storms in order to see how much those storms change us! I love him so much. I love you all so much! Thank you for the love and support. Your prayers are much needed! -Sister Barton Tombstone pictures:

I found Michael's old zone leader

Look! It's just like Corina Corina

A couple pits and a whole lot of peaks

I've always loved to ask people about the pit and the peaks of their weeks. That's what I've decided to do in this email because looking back on my week makes me realized that there were a whole lot of both! Pits (because nobody likes to end on a bad note) : Honestly I thought this week was never going to end. We had a lot of lessons fall through and I let myself get frustrated. The big pit of the week was for sure on Wednesday right after we had accomplished biking up to the top of the plateau in the mud and rain. I was feeling good about reaching the top when Brother Van Skoyk pulled over to tell us that an investigator was being taken to a rehabilitation center in Mesa. He had relapsed a week before his baptism. At first I was really upset and confused. I was beating myself up a bit and thinking that I didn't do enough. We didn't help him enough. Then I paused and put myself in Doug's shoes. That's when I realized that he is probably beating himself up and feeling awful and lost. That was hard. Sometimes I hate how much I love the people of Safford so much! It really started to rain hard and about 5 members called us telling us that we needed to duck and cover from the rain (rain in Arizona usually leads to flooding) so we went to the Beals' home. I was drenched and barely put together by the time we got there. Sister Beals had surgery this week so we did some house work for her while we waited for the storm to pass. Pit #2 don't worry this is not really a pit just kinda is. Sister Rhodes was once told that if you eat a hard boiled egg at midnight you will dream about someone handing you a glass of water. Apparently the person handing you the glass will be your future spouse. Please tell me I'm not the only one that rolled their eyes and said oh boy! Okay so I was a trooper and let her wake me up at midnight to eat a boiled egg and then dream about being given water. It doesn't work! She was pretty upset. I was pretty tired. It was a sad outcome haha! It any of you try this please tell me if it works. I was teasing her that it didn't work because she drank a glass of water with the egg so nobody needed to offer her water. She didn't appreciate that. Oh how I love Sister Rhodes! We have gotten so much closer! Peaks (don't worry there are some really good peaks) : We started teaching a new investigator this week. His family is all very strictly Catholic which is hard but he is willing to learn and loves when we come over. He doesn't speak very good English but he always seems to understand what we are trying to teach. We were teaching him about Faith from Alma 32. After reading the chapter and comparing faith to a seed we asked Willy what he thought were some good ways to help his seed grow....This is when the lesson went down hill. He started explaining to us that putting a seed in a vase is always a good idea because then you can move it when the sun is. Then the seed has to have manure- not the cheap kind but the kind that the cotton farmers use. Then he talked about giving it lots of water and digging the hole not too far.....okay yeah that's good. I tried to help him out by asking him about the seed of faith that he was planting in his heart. What can you do to grow that seed? That's when his eyes grew really big and said, "Well I better start drinking a lot of water so that the water can get to seeds that are in my heart!!" Needless to say we won't be using analogies anymore with Willy...I was dying! He is just too funny. Peak #2 I finally found someone who has the same laugh as me! The roommates would be proud! She is 14 years old and I love her! Minnie is a member of our ward who is a fellowshipper for one of the daughters of our investigators. We were talking to them the other day and Minnie burst out laughing! Pretty soon we were both on the floor dying. It was so funny/Scary! Peak #3 We have started teaching a man named Crippy. Yes Crippy. His real name is Chris but whatever! His wife just had a baby and is a very inactive member. His mother who also lives with them is Catholic. At first she hated us but the spirit changed her heart! Last night she asked us to pray for her son and told me that she thinks it's amazing that I know what I believe at such a young age. She got a little emotional and the spirit was so strong! I can't wait to keep teaching them. Crippy is really skeptical about how to receive an answer to prayer but we'll see what happens as he learns more! Peak#4 A BABY IS COMING TO THE BARTON FAMILY! WHAT?!?!?! I was at a stake meeting when the Zone Leaders gave me that package. Everyone was really confused when it was just one fortune cookie but Sister Aleman, Lunquist and I were freaking out when we read the cookie! Ahhhh I can't wait! It's another girl I just know it! I also got 2 other packages this week that just were the greatest! Thank you so much Mary! Those pictures are hanging right above my bed! :) I loved the hand prints! Sawyer and Graham are so big! Grandma good luck at those Ute games! They are pretty crazy! Okay I have to go now but I love you all and am just obsessed with the gospel. I hope you are all doing so great! I cannot wait for conference and can't believe that this transfer is already over. Have I really been in Safford for three months?!?! Crazy! -Sister Barton Scripture Assignment: Read 3 Nephi 19 you won't be disappointed :) Favorites of the week: 3 Nephi 5:13, Proverbs 16:20, Alma 5:26, Alma 13:28, John 6:35, 1 John 5:14-15, Jacob 6:12

Mornings are sometime hard. hahahah

I can't stop reading this!

Not my most attractive moment

This is the bishops daughter. She calls us the sistionaries! She's crazy but we love her

Nothing beats Arizona sunsets

September 15

Okay this is going to be a quick email so I hope it makes sense! Thank you Aunt Carrie for the package! It made my day! I used the candy in an object lesson! It was perfect! The temple was amazing as expected! It was really different to go through as a missionary. Everywhere that I looked I pictured my investigators as the temple workers and it was just incredible to realize the goal isn't baptism. The goal is the temple and enduring to the end. The peace that I felt in the temple was much needed! I really didn't want to leave. I could have sat in there forever but we didn't. Being able to go to the temple every four months is a huge blessing! It makes the biggest difference in the world. So many questions were answered that I needed. After two hours of pure peace we went straight back to working hard! This week we found two new investigators! The first one in Jaime (no not Jamie it sounds like himai). He is barber in town and is really excited and ready to learn which makes us excited and ready to teach! His first lesson was really awesome. At the end he asked us how we knew that the Book of Mormon was true. We both bore our testimonies on our personal conversions and the spirit just flooded in. He was really taken back and said "Well then I guess I better start reading this book. Do you think I could get it done in like a week?" WHAT?!?!? I was so excited and sang as we raced the whole way home to obey curfew! A member of our ward is stopped us last week at church and asked us if we would help her study the old testament. Yeah teaching her really showed me how much I don't know! It was so hard to understand what was happening. Hosea goes way over my head! I have made it a goal to study more of the new testament so I can somehow figure out what is going on. One of my favorite miracles of the week was when we were trying to contact some of our referrals. This week we were given so many referrals which is a huge blessing. The woman that we went to go see wasn't home and I just had a thought that we needed to go visit Sister Chacon who lived around the corner. We road over there and was at the door before we were! She was crying really hard and said she wasn't in the mood for company. I ignored her, gave her a hug, and asked her what was going on. She explained to us that her alcoholic son was just taken by the cops and had threatened to take her life. We sat with her for about an hour until she stopped crying. This woman lost her son three years ago to drugs and was horrified that she would have to bury another son for the same reason. I was so grateful that we had gone over. As soon as we left we called the relief society president and the bishop. Yesterday at church she told us that we were her angels. We had a similar experience where we decided to text a member of our ward and let her know we love her and are thinking of her. Two hours later we got text saying she had been having an awful day and felt so alone. That simple text meant way more to her than we intended. I love being a missionary! Every Saturday night all the missionaries try to do a sports night where we invite investigators, less actives, and pretty much anyone to come play some softball with us. This week was the first week where we had a really good turn out! Two of our investigators came and one less active family came! It was so fun to hang out with them for fun and not for a lesson. I think it's important to show people that we are real humans too! I hate when people call Utah missionaries "the robots from the factory" NO! We are real! Other than that I'm having trouble thinking of more stories. The rest of the week was super busy with lessons, lots of biking, and planning. This next week is full of appointments so I'm really excited! The weeks that we actually have appointments ahead of time are always better! Being a missionary is a lot of hard work but I'm loving ever second! Thank you all for the support! I love you so much and am grateful for every single one of you! Ryan- I made Sister Rhodes laugh this week by using some of your interpretive dance moves. I hope that makes you proud! Favorite Scriptures of the week: Ether 4:7, James 2:18, John 12:46, D&C 6:21 :) -Sister Barton

Changing day by day

Alright let's take care of Birthdays first! CLAIRE, NICOLE, TRENT, AND DADDIO I hope y'all had/will have the best birthdays ever! I love birthdays! I can't wait to hear about the party plans! Someone go eat sushi or something for me. :) Okay so this week was really really hard. Monday was awesome! We went up Mt. Graham for labor day. Why do we have labor day? Nobody knows. Anyway! It was great to be up in actual trees again! Us missionaries were to impatient to wait for the coals to heat up so we used the neighboring fire pit people's bbq and did a little missionary work. It was neat! One of them ended up being a less active in our ward that our Bishop had wanted us to go see. I don't believe in coincidence. Tuesday was probably to longest/hardest day of my mission so far. We biked all day trying to find people to teach. Everyone that we had appointments with canceled and nobody that we tried to drop in on was home. After biking all day long and getting 2 flat tires, I was really losing motivation. Around 7 at night we decided to try one of our investigators again. He doesn't have a cell phone so going up the hill to his house is the only options. He was home and completely high. Are you kidding me! Is was awful. We tried talking to him about being worthy to be baptized like he was working towards and he started screaming at us then ran off. After a little while of just sitting there not knowing what to do we biked to Brother Beals' house for correlation. All throughout the day I remember thinking "Oh no, this is going to be a bad week." or "Okay Sister Barton just make it to Sunday." After repeating that to myself all day long I woke up the next morning and decided that my attitude was ugly. After a lot of time on my knees I decided to make this week the best week of my mission. The week escalated from there! The rest of the week was full of speeding from one appointment to the other and trying our best to talk to everyone along the way. We had a lesson with 2 little girls the other day. We found them the first week of the transfer when Sister Rhodes got a flat tire. The mother had told us that she doesn't believe in organized religion but she wants her girls to know about God. She asked us to have scripture study with her girls. WE WERE STOKED! It was interesting how she didn't care who taught her daughters about God just as long as someone did. The girls had been going to the catholic church with an aunt. We taught them on Saturday about Having a Heavenly Father that loves them and wants to be part of his children's lives. I looked over half way through the lesson and saw Talia (the mother) crying! She was sitting in the doorway just weeping. The spirit spoke to her even when she was determined to not learn from us. I was so grateful! Then she told us about how her cousin has just passed away and they don't know how they are going to pay for the funeral. They are having a car wash to raise money and we volunteered to help out there! Since then we have had so many sister-in-laws, cousins, and other random relatives texting us. AHHHHH The church is true! This next paragraph is going to be a cheesy one so put on your seat belts! We were riding home the other night after a long day of biking and teaching. It was so night to actually be going down hill and to not be baking in the sun. While we were biking I started thinking about why I love being a missionary. I love teaching people and see the spirit change people. I love being able to see Heavenly Father help us every second of the day. I love learning about the gospel for myself. I love meeting new people. I love seeing myself change. But I also really really really love getting to do what my big brothers got to do. I really look up to my brothers and my dad so much. They are fantastic examples to me of the kind of missionary I want to be. We walked into a newly reactivated woman's house the other day and I saw a pack of cigarettes on her counter. I was scared of being bold because I really don't like nagging people. I want to be a bold missionary like by brothers were! One day I'm going to figure out how to be bold! Becoming is a slow process that I'm trying to get better at. This week we get to go to the temple! We are all super stoked for our temple trip on Thursday so that's a great thing to look forward to...Sister Rhodes and I promised each other to help each other stay awake. We'll see how that goes...Oh by the way- when i get home I'm going to be a nurse. Just so y'all know. :) Everything in the 801 sounds like a party! Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers! I can feel every single one of them all throughout the day. They are much needed and much appreciated. Have a good week! -Sister Barton Follow up- Sounds like so many people have good service findings! Keep up the good work! Service is important to our Heavenly Father so we better make it important to us. Assignments- The big Thatcher vs Safford game is this week! The whole valley treats this High School football game like the super bowl. For your assignment you can watch a mormon message about it :) It's called " Same Jersey" ENJOY! Favorite chapter of the week: Romans 12. Oh and there is a really good one in D&C 88...i can't remember what verse so just enjoy the whole thing :)

I'm Not the One Sleeping in Sunday School

Alright y'all I bet you are on the lake one last time for labor day! That's just too fun! Do something crazy for me! Okay so remember that habit of mine to fall asleep in random places and random positions? I think that curse is gone! I didn't fall asleep once this whole week! :) I hope you are proud because that is a big accomplishment. Instead it's Sister Rhodes turn. haha We were teaching a lesson the other day about Alma the younger when the less active woman's eyes got really big. At first I was thinking wow my explanation must be really good I should use this more often. Then I look over my shoulder and Sister Rhodes is asleep! The woman looked at me and said, "Is she alright." YIKES! haha That same thing happened in 3 other lessons and during all of both ward's sacrament meetings. I don't know how to help the poor thing so all I can do is laugh! I've started keeping a tally of how many times she falls asleep where I resist from laughing. I keep my cool during lessons but personal study is just too funny. Did you hear about the bomb in Safford?!?!?! Yeah, that was us...You know the show Hoarders? I lived that on Saturday. All of the missionaries helped a woman and her 14 dogs move from a trailer/storage compartment house thing to a small apartment. I've never held my breath for so long in my whole life. This woman had so much stuff! There was kinda sorta walk ways to get from one end to the other but that was about it. I've never seen so much dog hair and bugs and rodent poop and just junk! I was freaking out a little bit. Then the woman said her landlord had infested her dogs with lice and flees to try to get her to leave! AHHHHH! That's when I really started to freak out inside. After 5 hours of working we somewhat cleared out the big stuff and then we literally bombed the place. It was really awful to see what that woman was living like. Our little duplex has never felt more like home! We spoke in church this past Sunday! A ton of people when out of town for Labor Day so pretty much every missionary in the zone was asked to speak in church. I talked about choosing to become who God wants us to be. It was really fun to study a little bit for it Sunday morning. I was reading Matthew 14 this week and thought about Peter and how much faith he had to step out of the boat and walk through the storm towards Christ. I used this analogy in my talk. We need to step out of the "boat of the world", walk through "a few waves and storms of life", and eventually we will be able to return to Christ. Then I reread the whole story and thought about how Peter was able to get back to the boat. It just says that once Christ and Peter returned to the boat the storms stopped. It never explains how they got there. What do you think? I think the journey was still hard back to the boat. It's not like the boat was staying still. IT WAS IN A STORM! But I bet the journey back was a lot easier with Christ walking right next to Peter than it was a lot easier. I LOVE THE SCRIPTURES! AHHHHHH I had one of the most spiritually experiences of my mission this past week! Doug attended his first baptism. Unfortunately someone in the Spanish branch got baptized so it was kinda hard to understand everything. Most of it was in Span-glish so it wasn't too bad but Doug was confused. Afterwards we had a lesson on the baptismal covenants. Doug told us about how he hasn't received an answer to his prayers about the Book of Mormon yet he just feels like he is happier when he reads the chapters that we assign him every morning and how...I just sat there looking at him with the biggest grin on my face. Then I pointed out that his answers were those feelings of peace and joy that he has been feeling. We talked about his addictions and how much easier they have gotten since he has started meeting with us and reading the Book of Mormon. Doug knows that the Book of Mormon is true. He is slowly understanding how all of the things that have been able to change in his life are because he is letting the gospel be part of his life. Oh I love teaching that man so much. Every time that we see him he shines just a little bit more. TOOOOOO COOL. I saw the Beals yesterday and spent a good 10 minutes giggling with Sister Beals about Chloe! I am so glad you guys got to meet my Arizona parents. They heard about us riding our bikes at night and were appalled. Sister Beals said, "Sister Barton, I know your mother and she would not be okay with you riding around at night!" SO they gave us a ride down the hill and then Sister Rhodes told Brother Beals to kill my 2nd pet scorpion Demitery (I don't know how to spell it). It was really sad but I'll find a new one. While they were disposing of him I kept reminding them that killing him on a Sunday was breaking at least 2 commandments. Killing and not keeping the sabbath day holy. What were they thinking??!?!?! I am clean though :) Okay family and friends. I'm out of time. I love you all and can't wait to hear all about your crazy lives. Keep in tough and be crazy in the 801 for me! I'm going on a hike today and cannot wait to be back in at least a little bit of green. Arizona literally makes me feel like I'm living on the moon because there is not green! Follow up: how was the attributes of Christ assignment? Which ones did you choose to study? Assignment: This weeks assignment is way more than sitting down as a family and reading. Nope this week pray for someone to serve. Then go and do! I promise that when you really put your trust in Heavenly Father and have the attitude to do whatever he asks he will help you find someone who needs you. It can be something small like cheering someone up. Service comes in all shapes and sizes but try it. Everyone could use a hand. Favorites of the week: I studied my patriarchal blessing a lot this week! It was really good to break it down and see how I've already seen so much of it apply to so much of my life. Romans 12:2, D&C 135:6, and 1 Cor. 13! You're going to love them!

One Fantastic Week

Sorry for freaking you out mom. P-day is on Tuesday this week because we had a super awesome, super spiritual mission conference yesterday. I'm glad you get to meet the Beals and Sister Smyth! It's kinda weird to think that they are with you guys but hey it's whatever. My worlds are meshing :) Grandma I feel so bad I didn't thank you last week for the frog! I opened it at district meeting and the whole district thought it was so fun! It's on my desk. The box smelled like your Bear Lake store and I was just in heaven smelling it....kinda weird but hey that's the missionary life. OH by the way. We have a pet scorpion. His name is Joe Junior and we love him. He eats the cockroaches and glows in the dark. Pretty legit. He would be my mom's favorite pet because we really don't have to feed him or clean up after him. He has lasted 3 weeks on one cockroach. I'm getting attached. Yesterday, Elder Malm came from the 70. He is from Sweden and is just a very inspired man. He talked a lot about what it means to be a successful missionary. Throughout the 6 hour conference he would randomly select people to stand in front of everyone and give a talk on certain topics. SCARY! I was worried the entire time. Hermana Lunquest was one of the first ones to get called up. She was sitting right next to me. I was so happy that he picked the tall ginger hermana and not me :) Hermana Lunquest is fantastic. I've gotten really close with the Hermanas. We go on runs twice a week and they are so nice about giving us rides to all the zone meetings that are in Thatcher. Elder Malm also talked about using all the "tools in your tool box". He was referring to letting our talents be a part of our missionary work. I've been thinking a lot about that. The more I'm myself the better our lessons always go. I love getting to know people and showing them who I am. Everyone relates better to Sister Barton then they do a robot missionary. Alright so I know ya'll want to know about the new companion so here's the schpeal. Sister Rhodes is 19 years old and from Morgan, Utah. Everyone thinks I'm 15 and she is 21 which kinda is getting old but whatever I'll get over it. It's probably because she is way more mature than I am. In our lesson the other day someone told us that I am a type 1 and she is a type 2. If that helps anyone picture her then there ya go. She loves to sing and always wears the color pink. We are getting a ton better at teaching together. It's fun to see how differently she teaches than Sister Smyth did. Since I'm leading the area I've been leading a lot of the lessons until she gets the hang of where everyone is at. I LOVE it. I've decided to embrace this new responsibility. It's fun to be the one pointing out who lives where and who is who. I'm finally understanding what leading by the spirit means. This week we had 3 days in a row where everything went according to our plans. WHAT!?!? That is pretty much unheard of. It was cool though. Along with that we also had so many people tell us that they felt like our lessons were exactly what they needed to hear. I was in heaven! That was the greatest reward ever! We also have 5 new investigators! AHHHHHH All those prayers ya'll have been saying are coming in handy! One of the new investigators is named Derek. He is 14 years old and just super cool. He has been going to church with his grandma and told us we need to get him baptized as soon as possible.....okay we love this kid. Bikes: It feels so good to be back on bikes! Holy Cow! Sister Rhodes isn't used to the extra work and having to schedule in extra time for travel but she is getting the hang of it. On our 2nd day of bikes I decided it was time to show her the 4th ward hill :) Half of the 4th ward is up a pretty significant hill. It's not super steep but it sure is long. haha I have kinda grown to love the hill because it's fun to see how hard you can push yourself/work off the ice cream and jello that members are constantly feeding us. Sister Rhodes didn't like that hill very much but she'll get the hang of it. Once we got to the top we went right to an appointment....We were both drench and the woman that we had gone to visit wasn't home. Typical. After trying to find someone to teach up there Sister Rhodes got a flat tire. Also typical. We decided to use this as an opportunity to go to a less actives house. He was home and fixed our bikes for us. We taught him a little lesson and then he sent us on our marry way. THEN he was a church on Sunday for the first time since I've been here! Whaooo! That flat tire is also the reason we found one of our investigators. The lord works in mysterious ways. A girl named Cassady has been coming with us to lessons lately. She has been debating whether or not to go on a mission. She's 19 and has a missionary out right now. Wednesday was the first time she has ever joined us for a lesson. It was also our first lesson with Derek when he accepted the invitation to get baptized! Cassady was in shock and was clearly feeling the spirit. Since then she is always texting us questions and asking if she could do a mini mission with us for like a week or something! I'm so excited to see what she decides to do. It's really fun to take her to lessons. That's one thing that I really wish I had done before coming out. On Sunday we got to go to a fireside with Sister Stevens (General Relief Society Presidency). She talked a ton about dealing with the pressures of the world and how much stronger we are when we are spiritually full. After a little while of speaking she noticed Sister Rhodes and I with our missionary tags. She had us go up and talk about missionary work and the responsibilities that we all have as sisters to lift each other up. haha I can't even remember what I said but that happened and it was awesome. Super intimidating but awesome. I'm trying to think of what else happened this week but my mind is going blank. I hope you all are loving life and feeding your spirit daily! Follow up: (because what's an assignment without following up) How did ya'll like the last assignment. I know Heather enjoyed Peter. He is so awesome! Reading Assignment: Preach my Gospel page 126. It's kinda a big assignment so just pick one attribute that you want to work on and do it :) Other favorites of the week: Moroni 7:33 and 47-48, 2 Chronicles 20:17, Psalms 116:1-2 enjoy! It sounds like everyone is loving life and still doing the same old crazy stuff. Yesterday was my 2 month mark. So weird. I feel like I've been here forever yet i just got here. I love the everything about Safford! The members here have my heart. They are all so amazing. I have learned such beautiful things from all of them. Above all I love my savior. It's incredible how he understands my potential way more than I ever will. He keeps putting things in front of me that I can't do without his help and I'm grateful for that. My savior has become my very best friend and constant companion. I have definitely felt his impact in everything that I do. The more that I give to him the more he gives to me. It's amazing how much I've learned and grown in the past 2 months. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else! Thanks again for everything. I love you all! Your prayers are being felt. -Sister Barton

Back on Bikes Aug. 19

Biking season has come back quick...After a 10 day break we are back on bikes and ready to work. My week started in Sierra Vista (Is that where Natalie is from because I was looking for her around every corner ALL DAY). Nobody knows why we do exchanges so often but I guess every once in a while the whole Tucson mission does exchanges and they call it THE DAY! It's supposed to be a day dedicated to nothing but finding. Well...my companion Sister Peirce doesn't believe in the day so we just did whatever she wanted. Nobody warned me that Sierra Vista Sisters are on bikes so riding a bike without leggings was terrifying! I think all of Sierra Vista saw all of Sister Barton! Ahhh haha maybe don't put that in the blog. ANYWAYS!! The day taught me a lot about what kind of missionary I want to be. It was a really long and hard day. Sister Peirce and I got to learn from each other and see different ways of doing things. I learned a lot on the day. I gotta tell you about my neighbor Bootsie. The man who owns our duplex is a really great member named Brother Blake. He called us Wednesday morning and told us that our neighbors granddaughter had recently passed away. We decided to go over and see if she was okay. At first Bootsie was really stiff and cold towards us but she let us in anyways. As soon as we sat down she told us all about her life! She has been through some pretty crazy stuff in her 89 years of life. Then she looked at both of us and commented on our hair and how she misses having long hair. Before I new it she was playing with our hair and asking us to sing to her. We sang I know that my redeemer lives. She loved it! She's a very strict Roman Catholic. As soon as our song was done she got all emotional and started singing to us. After 5 songs we had to leave but she told us that we can come by and sing to her whenever we want! Missionary work comes in all different ways. It was soooo cool to feel the spirit with cute Bootsie through singing. By the end of this week I was getting really down on myself. I was looking back on the transfer and thinking, "Where are the fruits of our labors?" We try so hard to be exactly obedient. It had just been one of those days where nobody had time to talk to us. I prayed about it and oh boy were those prayers answered. The next day at church we had so many less actives show up to sacrament and most of them stayed all three hours! Then after church we had calls from 2 investigators asking us to come by as soon as we can. Okay. Yeah I learned pretty quickly that having lessons every single second and a baptism all the time doesn't measure your success. Then yesterday Sister Smyth and I spent the whole day saying goodbye to people. That right then was the fruit of our labors. I love so many people here. They have so much faith in me to keep the work going in their wards. They trust and love me. I feel so blessed to be here. This week I learned the definition of a broken home. We went and visited a less active woman who currently has some of her kids and 5 of her grandchildren living with her. Her son is involved in a lot of negative things which really caused a lot of contention and hard feeling in the home. The house was really really...broken. They currently don't have utilities or enough furniture so the kids sleep on the floor. Looking around that house made realized how luck I am. My parents took care of me. I always had a roof over my head. I never worried about if there would be food in the fridge or clothes in my closet. All of these are blessings that I so easily overlooked. Just having both of my parents be members of this church is huge! The kids didn't know how to pray or anything about religion so we taught each of them one by one how to talk to their Heavenly Father. The grandmother and kids were at church on Sunday. We were blown away at how much the kids likes church. As soon as we walked into the building we were attacked with hugs from 5 crazy kidos! I was in heaven. Now it's time to talk about companions. Yikes. Saying goodbye to Sister Smyth was an all week process. We went through all stages of denial, pep talks, crying, and then the final farewell. That girl really knows how to scatter sunshine. She is so awesome. Sister Smyth is another one of my big sisters. It was really hard for her to leave her mission. It was really hard to see her leave but I've got Sister Rhodes her to help me further the work! She is from Morgan, Utah and I met her a good hour ago. She has been on her mission for 12 whole weeks and seems really sweet. I'm excited to get to work and learn from her. Taking over the area is really intimidating because I still feel so new but Heavenly Father knew what he was doing when he put me here. This transfer I plan on completely relying on him to tell me what to do. If he has faith in me and everyone here has faith in me then it's time for me to have faith in myself! That's something that I've never been good at but that's what I'm going to do! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHAEL AND KALLI! I will try to get letters to you this week! I haven't been able to write a letter or go grocery shopping in 2 weeks (don't worry mom I've still had food) so be patient :) Love ya! Reading assignment. I'm glad last weeks went so well! This week read: 2 Peter 1, D&C 138 (that will blow ya'll away), Do things that make a difference by Elder Ballard, and D&C 98:1-3 ENJOY :) THANKS FOR THE PRAYERS AND KIND WORDS! YOU'RE THE BEST -Sister Barton

Getting lost in the lightening storms

Hello everyone! I have a lot to say so buckle down and grab some chips and salsa! Sister Smyth and I are growing closer and closer everyday! Now that we have a car we belt out hymns and church music as we RIDE from place to place! It's kinda awesome! Sister Smyth as also brought out her artsy side and has begun leaving me "shower art"! Have you ever made pictures on shower walls with super long hair? Yeah I was grossed out at first but then we started making a game out of it. I tried to get a picture but it just didn't do it justice. This week we also had to drive down to Tucson for a new missionary training thingy with President and Sister Passey. We love them! Sister Passey is so fun to learn from! I could read the Book of Mormon with her all day! After the training I pulled President Passey aside and got to talk with him about a few things that I've been struggling with. It was such a blessing to hear that so many other missionaries have come to him for the same reasons. He was able to give me amazing advice and I've been doing so much better ever since! While in Tucson the elders asked Hermana Smyth to take them to see an investigator that she had taught when she served here. I guess she hadn't been letting the elders in. As soon as we got to the apartment complex I saw a woman running out screaming "HERMANA HERMANA!" It was the investigator. The elders couldn't believe it. I sat awkwardly in the corner while the 3 other missionaries spoke Spanish. Every once in a while someone would say something in English and I could pick up on what was going on but mostly I just sat there feeling like an alien. At the end of the lesson I said my one sentence that I could remember in Spanish! Yo se que Jesu Christo viva! I felt a little dumb because it sounded way better in my head and I came out sounding like a robot. The investigator looked at me with huge eyes and started crying! Ahhh I didn't know what to do. Hermana Smyth elaborated in Spanish and the spirit was so strong! I had no clue what was going on but the spirit was there and I loved being a witness! Too cool. I can say one line in Spanish and I eat Mexican food on the daily. I guess you could say I'm pretty much Mexican :) Next great story! We are teaching an investigator named Salvador. We are 99% positive that he only listens to us because he is in love with Sister Smyth because he tried to cuddle with her and he won't let the real Hermanas talk to him. Yeah it was the funniest thing I've ever witnessed. We were teaching him how to use Mormon.org on his phone when he all of a sudden went in for the kill! HAHAHAHA Sister Smyth's face was pure terror. Too funny. I couldn't believe it. He also sends us pictures all the time of random memes. Yes. Salvador has a special place in our hearts! Having a car is awesome! I never realized how much time we spent getting from place to place. We fly to each appointment now! All of the women in our ward freak out when they see us in cars. They were about to go on protest to get us a car. It's pretty funny to see them more happy about our cute truck than we are. Exchanges were this week. Sister Shrader came and acted like my companion for 24 hours. She was super nice and it put me at ease a little bit to see how we worked together. It wasn't the same as with Sister Smyth but it was still great. We decided to go see a woman that I had never met before. We met with her and had an amazing lesson that you can read in my journal in 18 months because I'm running out of time! Ahh. After exchanges we had to ride an hour to Wilcox in a monsoon. It was the scariest moment of my life! Highways and monsoons don't mix. The lightning was like a firework show. I love Arizona lightning! It's incredible! On the way back Sister Smyth and I were paying way too much attention on the driving part and not on the direction part. We got lost for a bit but eventually found our way home after making a few calls! It was a fun little adventure. On Wednesday we had an appointment cancel after another dinner at El Charro's Mexican restaurant. We were close to one of our recent converts houses so we decided to give miss Mary a visit! Mary has been going through a really hard time with her daughter in the middle of Chemo. The stress got to her and she turned back to smoking to try to ease the stress. WE WERE HEART BROKEN! We had a super awesome lesson on prayer and how it is the key to dealing with stress. She told us she would work on it. Then we decided to ask her about preparing for the temple. She told us how badly she wants to go to the temple to be baptized for her mother. We were so happy! Mary is the only member of her family and all of her siblings are very apposed to the church. It was awesome to hear how much Mary wanted to get her mother to the temple. She has never seen the temple in real life so we will be taking her to the temple this week! The temple president has agreed to meeting us outside and talking to Mary about the blessings that come from being worthy to enter the temple. I'm really excited for that! Because of the set back we have to wait a little while but Mary is working towards it and that's all that matters. In the mean time we will be working on some family history! We started teaching a part member family called the Visconti's. The wife isn't a member but everyone else in the family have been less active for a long time. Grandma Visconti goes every once in a while but the rest of the family has kinda given up. The first lesson we taught them was about celestial marriage and getting the family sealed in the temple. Sister Visconti got super defensive and said there was no way she was going to be a Mormon. It was interesting to hear how badly the rest of the family wanted that though. It got a bit emotional. The spirit was for sure there. Last night we were driving from our appointment with Doug to our appointment with the Visconti's. We had planned to just read with them Ether 12. While I was driving Sister Smyth asked me if that still felt right. It didn't. That's when Mosiah 26 popped into my head. Neither of us knew what Mosiah 26 was about so she opened up and read a little bit. Okay Pause the story- open up to Mosiah 26 for me. Now picture reading that to a less active/investigator family that haven't exactly been living worthily. Okay back to the story. We were super intimidated to read it with them but the spirit said so. As we were reading I was holding my breath! I kept waiting for someone to get offended and get mad but that didn't happen. We talked about the story and how Alma was faced with a situation that we had never dealt with before. I asked Brother Visconti if he had ever been put in that kind of a situation as a parent. He got a little emotional and said he was dealing with that right now. HOLY MOLY! The spirit flooded in! We kept going and talked about how Alma when to God for help. Alma's question was answered but Alma still had to put in work in order to fix the problem. The family asked a lot of questions and we did our best to answer. During the entire lesson I was in shock of how the spirit knew exactly what this family needed. We were scared to death to read Mosiah 26 with this family. We did and it worked. The spirit was there and each of them committed to go to the Lord with a question this week. I love being a missionary because of moments like this! AHHHHH! I'm super out of time but I love you all and am so grateful for you! Nicole I'm so happy that you are going on a mission. You won't regret it! Stacy- YOU'RE MARRIED. WEIRD! Ahh oh and hubbard family I love your cousin. She's so cute! I'm so glad I spoke in church at a mission farewell because that's the only way they found me. SMALL WORLD! K BYE! READING ASSIGNMENT- THE FIRST GREAT COMMANDMENT it's a talk by Elder Holland

This week in pictures

"making bread"

"us and doug at fhe. Elder roper was a great warrior"

"sister smith's bread is so yummy!"

"The next is cute mary! LOVE HER SO MUCH! She's super sassy"

Our Tired Carl....

I think I say this every week...but how is it already Monday? I can barely remember what happened this week. I don't have a lot of time left so this has to be quick. We came up with a new term around here. We don't just baptize. We baptivate. About 90% of the work that we do is with less active families. It's hard but I really love it. It's cool to watch people remember why they wanted to be a part of the church when they were active. A lot of people grew up not really going to church so once they were married they kinda stopped. Another really common on is their spouse isn't a member. Whatever their situation is we are there for them. I love the people of this cotton/mining town. We had 2 less active families come to church this week! WHAOO! It's so fun to watch their testimonies light up again. One less active that we go visit is a super super old man. We know he still has a testimony because all that he likes to wear is his temple garments. It's so awkward to try to sit through a lesson with him. Grandpa Carbijol just doesn't like clothes I guess. Last night we finished all of our appointments and we didn't know where to go next. We said a prayer asking for guidance and an old couple came to my mind. We were close to their house so we made our way over there. Grandpa and Grandma Bingham (Everyone here has the same last names so don't get confused when I say Bingham's about 10 different people) were sitting on their porch waiting for us. We said we just wanted to chit chat with them for a bit and share a prayer and thought with them. They said that they had to hear "the new missionary" pray so I said it. When the prayer was over I looked up and saw that Grandpa Bingham was crying. He told us about how he feels like he has tried so hard to serve Heavenly Father his whole life. As he is getting old he is worried that his efforts weren't enough. He wanted to go back and try harder to do everything he can to serve. On the ride home Sister Smyth and I talked about how a mission is like a small little life of it's own. I'm freshly born and still learned one thing at a time. I'm figuring out what kind of missionary I'm going to be. She is almost done. As her mission life is coming to an end she doesn't want to look back and think, "Did I do enough?" WOW! That really got me thinking hard. When we are biking down the street I don't want to regret not talking to someone. You never know who is ready to hear what you have to say. I've been trying really hard to have faith that the Lord will direct me. Heavenly Father expects us to talk to all of his children. We made a goal at the beginning of the week to hand out at least 2 Books of Mormon a day (That doesn't sound like a lot but it is!) We almost made our goal. Half the time that someone accepted a book my heart leaped a little bit! Those people are blessings! We don't have a lot of investigators right now but we have a lot of friends who are starting to trust us and hopefully will eventually listen to what we have to say. One of those people is AJ. Oh man I love this guy. We go over like three times a week to clean motorcycles and talk about life. He LOVES the bible and knows that he has a Heavenly Father that loves him. His big concern is Joseph Smith which links to the Book of Mormon. That's kinda a big deal in our church. Right now we are starting off slow by praying with him and sharing a message with him everyday. We discuss similarities between the book of mormon and the bible. I'm seeing a light grow in that sweet old man. It's the coolest thing to watch. Sister Smyth and I have started waking up an hour earlier (5:15) in order to study more. I love personal study time. Getting an extra hour of it everyday is so worth missing out of a little bit of sleep. We are so tired everyday but so happy! It's amazing. Today we were told that we are getting a car. This might sound weird but Sister Smyth and I were so sad to hear that they might take our bikes away! I love those things! We eat way too much jello casserole to go without bikes! It's funny how all of our meals either have jello casserole or chips and salsa themes. Never before have a realized how many different kinds of jello casserole there are. Whenever we walk into dinner appointments I party a little bit in my head when I see salsa on the table! I'm becoming more and more Latino every day :) This small mining down of Safford Arizona is the greatest! Oh I almost forgot to tell ya'll! DOUG IS GETTING BAPTIZED! We can't set a date yet because of some legal stuff BUT he says he knows it's what he wants to do and that's good enough for me! Whaoo!! Okay I am pretty disappointed with how short this is because I know I'm going to log off and think of something I forgot to share but for now I'll just say I love you all so much and am grateful for your kind words and prayers. Mail is seriously heaven. You have no idea how great it is to know how many people are backing me up in this crazy adventure. I'm working hard and trying my best to do what Heavenly Father wants me to do. I'm nowhere near where I want to be but I will be as I stay obedient and diligent! LOVE YA! The power of prayer is real. I see blessings and miracles everyday that are the result of a lot of fasting and prayer. Do your scripture studies! That's important. Have a good week. Isn't someone's wedding this week? And Happy Late birthday Megan Meyer! We don't have enough time during the week to do all that the members want us to do with them so today we are playing with the ward members! Sister Smith is teaching us how to make bread, the Van Skoyks want to take us to lunch and shopping and Sister Carpenter has some surprise for us. It's going to be a crazy busy P-day!! Good reads of the week: Isaiah 41:10, Mosiah 5, Hebrew 11:6, 1 John 5:14-15 The picture I'm sending are pretty embarrassing but Sister Smyth somehow keeps getting pictures of me sleeping. Proof that I'm working hard! The family is the Huish family. I love those kids! I promise I only held the baby for the picture!

Has it really already been a month?

Hola Brothers, Sisters, Friends, Parents, and Strangers who want to read this! How is everybody? Aunt Kathy- Your package made my life! Thank you so much for the cute note and magnet. I loved it. Stacy- Your wedding invitations are so cute! Sister Smyth and I were dying/freaked out because marriage is just weird to think about. YIKES! I can't wait to see wedding pictures though! Mom- I haven't seen your package yet...... This was one FULL week! My tan lines have improved dramatically! The watch tan line and shoe tan line are my favorite but they are all great. A thousand bottles of sun screen couldn't stop those puppies from happening. Everyone keeps asking about the weather and the water so here's the deal. Arizona is hot. Really hot. But that's kinda awesome because then everyone feels bad for the tomatoes that are charging down the street so we get a lot of members and non-members stopping us and forcing us to come into their houses for some water and A.C.! K fine. I'll come into your house and teach you about Jesus. It's pretty cool. Most of them tell us they are already Catholic and don't care about the Book of Mormon. That's when we say great lets open up the Bible and say a prayer. Soon enough we are all friends! Fun announcement! I think I'm going granola. A sister in the ward gave us an essential oils schpeal last night when we couldn't go anywhere during the rain storm. I don't know how but that stuff can solve anything! My mind was blown! It sounds weird and sketchy but Sister Carpenter really knows how to make you feel good with some essential oils. :) Let's talk about the rain. The storms here are unreal! There is lightning like crazy and buckets just come down! We were at dinner the other night with a less active family that I love and it started hailing. Nobody knows how it can go from 104 degrees to 68 and hailing in 5 minutes but it did and it was so cool! Loved it! I'm very grateful that we have been inside every time that one of the crazy storms has hit. Last night, after the rain story Sister Smyth and I rode our bikes home and had to dodge frogs! FROGS! Like big fat ones. When it rains they just come out of their hiding places and attack the streets. When we saw the first one on the Carpenter's porch we were thinking they were so fun and cool. Then we got on our bikes and were screaming because it was so hard to see them in the street before running them over! I felt really bad. They covered the streets! ahh!!! Next crazy story. My first day in Safford I placed a Book of Mormon and was super stoked because the girls said they wanted to know more! We called them a few days later and didn't hear from them. Well this week the Jones' took us out to dinner and our waitress was one of the girls! BLESSINGS! Kathi told us she had been meaning to call us (alright Kathi come on) and so we set us an appointment right then and will start teacher her this next week! Awesome! Oh I got flight lessons! Trent would be proud to know that I made it to the Alaska Airport almost safely! I crashed at the end but it's only because a cruise ship distracted me at the very end. Brother Cornelison is the grumpiest/spunkiest man I've ever met. Him and his wife are less active so we went to teach him. During the lesson he kept giving one work answers and being a grump but then I asked him about his flight simulator and he was all giggly! Right after the lesson he forced me to have a flight lesson. K fine! It was so stressful but I loved it! It was so funny to see Brother Cornelison get all excited and piloty on us. We are officially friends and they were at church on Sunday! YAY! Sister Smyth and I developed a smirk. We will be getting ready so start a lesson and that's when the smirk comes out. The smirk means- okay Sister Barton teach these people about the gospel while I sit here and watch. SCARY! I know that's what a trainer is supposed to do and it will teach me how to teach but I don't like that smirk. We have a few investigators who want to be baptized but can't because of legal reasons. There are A TON of prisons around here so it's really common to teach people who just got released from prison and are ready to try to start over. SO MANY PEOPLE ARE READY! But there is stuff that we have to work on before we can take the next step and get baptized. My favorite investigator is Doug. He is the nicest guy I've ever met. . It kills me to see how hard he is on himself. He basically believes that he is worthless. We went around his house and wrote "I am a son of God" on all of his mirrors and made him promise to say it every time he looked in the mirror. It's amazing how much of a different the gospel can make in someone's like. Doug is a completely different person that who I met three weeks ago. Miracle time! The other day all of our appointments fell through and we really didn't know what to do. We had been biking for hours and were getting pretty tired. We decided to pray for guidance. As soon as the prayer was over a name popped into my head. This name didn't make sense to me because I knew that the family I was thinking of was out of town. We decided to head that direction anyway. Within 2 minutes of riding we got to meet Paul and Michelle. They had never heard of the church but wanted their kids to know about the bible and were interested in the Book of Mormon! I was in heaven! We have an appointment with them tomorrow! I cannot wait to get started! Going to the Beal's house didn't make any sense until we met that family! I love how the Holy Ghost works! We kept going toward the Beal's house and ran into 3 less active families! WHAT?!?! We couldn't believe it., On top of all that the Beal's were home. Please pray for Sister Beals! That woman is absolutely amazing! They forced us to go in a eat some lunch. I could chat with Brother and Sister Beals forever! The biggest lesson I've learned this week is to just do it. It don't matter if it makes sense or if it's scary. JUST DO IT! Don't be afraid to talk to the random gangster walking down the street. Don't be afraid to go a direction that isn't in your planner. Don't be afraid to tell someone that you need help understanding something! I'm grateful to have so many people here in Safford that take care of us. We have awesome ward members that force us to let them help us. I'm so grateful for a goofy companion that makes me laugh and pushes me to be a better teacher and disciple of Christ. I'm grateful for all ya'll and the support that you have given me! Thank you for being so awesome! I love you all!!!! Be safe and have a good week! Random good ones: Alma 7:20, D&C 24:12, Helaman 5:30, 2 Cor. 5:7 -Sister Barton

One month down....

We had a pizza study session when our dinner appointment cancels. Tide to go really saved us

My flight lessons! Seriously. That man is so grumpy but so funny. Flying is more stressful then missionary work

You can kinda see the hail in the background. Oh and you're supposed to be able to see mountains! Crazy!

It's a party in Arizona!

This was pretty much a better version on butlerville days. It made me a bit homesick though

This week FLEW by. I can't believe it's already P-day again. At the same time I have much to say. :) I didn't really like my letter last week so I hope this one is a little better. Okay so first off....THANK YOU FOR THE PACKAGES, LETTERS, SWEET EMAILS, AND PRAYERS. I don't know what I would do without it. Nicole- I opened your package in front of like 5 kids. Those jolly ranchers won me some major brownie points! haha thank you girlie! The work here in Safford is crazy! We work with a lot of less active members and we have 6 main investigators. On top of all of those we try really hard to build relationships with the ward members and talk to pretty much everyone who is lucky enough to be in our path. It's non-stop chit chatting, teaching, and praying. LOVE IT! We don't get to do workout videos anymore because Sister Smyth and I decided the Holy Ghost speaks Spanish too and so Jillian was kind of offensive. Instead we try to go running but it's kinda a struggle since it gets so hot so fast. If any of ya'll have a good workout routine you just let me know! Mary- we do ten minutes of torcher (abdominal workouts. Yeah we love that). Any brilliant ideas would be great though. Right now we just do random things up and down the church parking lot. This week I got to meet one of our investigators named Janice. The Barton girls would die if they met her! Let me tell you about her. She drives a prius but I try to ignore that part. She is a professional colorist. What the heck is that you might ask? Well she tells people what colors they are allowed to wear based on their skin tone, eyes, hair, and contrast. (I still don't really get the contrast part) Sister Smyth warned me that we have to look our best when we meet here so I put on my favorite outfit and we biked over there. By the time we got there we were sweaty tomatoes but that's unavoidable. As soon as the lesson was done she looks at us and said. Please step into my closet. This lady lives in a really nice trailer parks but her closet takes up half of trailer! It's HUGE! She then told me that my shirt does nothing for me and only Asian women could pull off horizontal blue stripes. Hmmm. Apparently Sister Smyth and I are both Spring Greens and Gold. Next time we go over there we have to impress her! Oh and apparently bags and shoes are supposed to compliment your hair color so I'm not supposed to wear black. oops. That's Janice for you! She has a hard time with women not having the priesthood because her sister is a priest in her church. That has been a little hard. Another awesome investigator is named Kenzie. She is 12 years old and loves personal progress the only hard part is her mom doesn't think she should get baptized until she is 18. We started teaching her parents this week so we are pretty hopeful the Holy Ghost will help us out with softening her parents. Whenever we start meeting with new investigators we have kinda spiritual DTRs. (determine the relationship) It's pretty much where we explain to them our purpose as missionaries and help them understand that baptism is the goal but it doesn't stop there. Being a part of this church lasts eternity. At first I thought DTRs were way too bold and scary but I led my first one last night with out investigator, Ralph. He is incredible! He wasn't freaked out when we asked him about baptism! He just doesn't understand why he has to get baptized again since he was baptized in his Catholic church. His priest told him it's really disrespectful of God to get baptized twice so we will be teaching him about the priesthood next time! He has only read the book of Mormon once but he loves it! He was marking every verse that we showed him because he wanted to be able to find it again. Wow I really love Ralph! He said the closing prayer and had to stop half way because he started to cry. It was cool to be able to explain to him what he was feeling! The Holy Ghost is the best teacher! Get out your bibles right now and turn to Philippians 4:11-13 just because it's great and I love it! I've become a girl of post-it notes. I feel like I'm always writing something on a post-it note. This week I wrote down everything that I wanted to write to you all on a post-it note and now I feel like I'm just throwing random information and stories at you! Sorry about that. I have no clue why but Safford Arizona makes a bigger deal out of Pioneer day than Utah does.....They made a whole 2 day event out of it a week early so that everyone could celebrate it twice! This Friday and Saturday they had a huge community talent show that the missionaries were asked to sing in. Our song was at the very end so we had to stay the whole time. It was kinda funny to watch all the missionaries try to sit through "worldly" songs. By the third song at least all of the sister missionaries were in the halls trying to get the music out of their ears. While Sister Smyth and I were walking around the halls we ran into two young men from London! They are staying in Safford to coach at a soccer camp. They are staying with a member family so had a ton a questions for us about this strange church that they were convinced only exists in Arizona. We didn't have time to teach them before they were flying to California but we gave them information for the church websites and ways to get a hold of the missionaries wherever they are. Your welcome London missionaries! Pioneer days also included volleyball and basketball tournaments, a 5k, pancake breakfast, a parade, and a bbq that ended with a firework show! It was awesome! A few missionaries got to be on some of the floats. Did you get the pictures that Sister Evans texted and that Judge Holt emailed? Sister Evans is pretty much my missionary mom and Judge Holt is our mission Grandpa. They both seriously look out for us and spoil us. Next item on my list that needs to be discussed. You can tell how long a missionary has been out based on how obsessed with the movie Frozen they are. If they been out too long to see it them they are absolutely obsessed and blast it in their cars. If they have seen it then they don't really care. The zone leaders came over to fix my bike seat earlier this week and made me tell them the entire story of frozen. I almost had to act out a couple parts but I got out of it. It was worth it in order to have a bike seat! Sister Smyth and I always feel bad asking for help because we don't want to be "those sisters". Yeah get me? But the zone leaders are super nice. The work here is going great! I've met so many people that I absolutely love and my testimony is getting stronger and stronger everyday! I love my Savior! He is my very best friend. I love getting to feel the Holy Ghost helping me everyday. This work is hard. So hard! I fell asleep during companionship prayer the other night and Sister Smyth about died of laughter. We are working so hard to help people understand what this gospel can do for them. It will change their lives IF they let it. I've seen it. I've seen huge changes in our investigators every time that they learn something new. I love being a missionary. -Sister Barton