Week of Nov. 19- 19 going on 90

HELLO FAMILY AND FRIENDS! Remember me? I'll just introduce myself because it's what I do all day long. I'm Sister Barton. I'm a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Green Valley/Sahaurita, Arizona is currently my home. 98% of the population is retirement communities. Residents spend most of their time sleeping, doing puzzles, golfing, watching TV, and enjoying the beautiful warm weather. Driving past golf courses is one of my favorite things because it's the only green thing in Arizona! The work here is a little slower kinda like the people but that's okay! I have never seen so many Prius' in my whole life. The lord has a sense of humor. This week really has been great though! It's a completely different world from Safford but I'm learning to love it. Sister Call is probably one of the funniest people I've ever met. Half the time we don't know why we are laughing but we are! We cover a really big area mostly because each the 8 communities that we cover are all spread out so we do a lot of driving. During those drives is all laughing though. I've never cried so much from laughing in my whole life! Most of the people that retire here don't just retire from work they kinda retire from life. But the ones that do let us in sure love to tell us stories and for the most part don't realize that they are less active. The appointments that we do have seem so go a little long because old people love to talk about their "Golden Years". A lot of the people that we visit are just really lonely and have forgotten why the gospel is so important. I've met about a thousand Vietnam veterans. I had to stop telling them I went to Vietnam because then they always think I'm crazy. Since we don't have a ton of investigators and since most of our ward is in wheelchairs and walkers we do a lot of service which I love! It's really neat to be able to help people in a million different ways. The area book hasn't really been touched for a few months so we have a lot of former investigators and potential investigators that we have been trying to meet. A lot of the communities here are private so we have to be careful about who we talk on the streets and we aren't allowed to knock on just anyone's doors. It makes for a few interesting encounters with security/the cops but that's okay! I'm learning to have no fear and just go for it. One of the weirdest parts about Sahaurita is the evenings. We were trying a former investigator on Wednesday at 7:30. Sister Call had warned me that this place is a ghost town by 7 but I didn't believe her. We knock on the Woman's door and after a few minutes a random voice yells "Who is it" We told her it was the Sister Missionaries. A few seconds later the voice yells "It's the middle of the night are you girls crazy!".... YIKES! Nobody knows when 7:0 turned into the middle of the night but it's just weird. We try to do our meals as late as possible so that we get as much done before 7 as we can but after 7 it really does feel like we are the only ones in the world. We do have 3 investigators though! I've only met 2 of them and one of them we found this week! So please pray for our investigators! Thanks! I love you all and am loving my missionary life! It's by far the hardest thing I've ever done but I'm learning so much about my Savior and what he wants from his children. I know that this church is true. I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. I know that families can be together forever. I know that prayers are always answered. We might not get the answer that we were expected but the answer that we need will always come. I know that miracles come according to our faith. And I KNOW that God wants us to be happy. That full happiness can only be found through The Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you for all the love and prayers. It's very much needed and appreciated! :) Have a great week! -Sister Barton