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!