Almost Conference- March 30

Another week in the cute middle of nowhere has happened. On Wednesday we went to district meeting. As soon as I walk in the door my district leader yelled, "Sister Barton, Do you know what day it is? HUMP DAY" I thought he was talking about how it's wednesday so the week was half over. After an hour of trying to figure out why he kept calling it MY day I realized I have been out nine months. We were in the MTC together so he was pretty stoked to tell me that it was my half way mark. Not going to lie it crushed me a whole lot more than anything else. How did that go by so fast???? I need time to slow way down! I've got too much to learn and do and no time to do it! I'm kinda waiting for President Monson so announce that girls are asked to stay out two years..."ask and ye shall receive" right??? :) It sounds like everything in the 801 is pretty much the same. I'm sad to say I don't have a whole lot to report this week either. The work is going better than it ever has before. Naomi and our new investigator, Tyler, will be getting baptized at the end of the month! Tyler is a pretty cool story. His girlfriend is in our ward. She has been bring him to church since last June. He has done a really good job at dodging missionaries! When I very first got here I was told that he didn't want to talk to missionaries and he has already heard the discussions. Then people always added that his girlfriend would be mad if we talked to him. That didn't make sense to me because if he's going to church every week then something had to be up! Finally we cornered him 2 weeks ago while he was running off to teach primary. (yes he's not a member yet and they asked him and his girlfriend to substitute in primary). We finally got him in time and asked if he wanted to hear the discussions. He accepted. Teaching him is so fun! The only time I've taught someone to close to my own age is on exchanges so it's a whole new ball game. It's really cool to be able to relate to him a whole lot quicker. This week has been super full of running from one appointment to the next which I am really grateful for. It always makes everything better when you have places to be. If we weren't teaching then we were helping people move. I am completely exhausted and loving every second of it. Sorry this email is really short and kinda lame. I just don't really know what to write about. I'm at a dead end... I know this church is true. I know that there is a divine power helping us every step of this mortal journey. I know that Heavenly Father loves us. I can't believe how much my mission has already changed me. I just got out here and Sister Barton is a completely different person. It's starting to warm right up in Arizona! It's about 90 degrees everyday. Can you believe it's already summer? People keep asking me if I'm nervous for the heat but I have a feeling the heat will be a whole lot easier the second time around. I wear a jacket in 80 degrees so 115 shouldn't be too bad. Right?? I love you all so much! Please keep Naomi, Tyler, Cassandra, Alexander, Rudy, Ronaldo, Kristina, and Karen in your prayers!

Brother Priest is letting us grow eggs in the spirit of easter! I am so excited to have baby chicks running all over our house!

Off With It's Head- March 23

I did it! I captured, be-headed, skinned, cooked, and ate a rattlesnake! Oh you better believe I was freaking out the whole time. We went to Tucson on Saturday with Ronaldo so that he could watch a baptism. When we went home for out lunch break we found the Priest family doing something in the front yard. I got out of the car and noticed Brother Priest had a pellot gun and was preparing to shoot a RATTLESNAKE! He shot it a few times which kinda just made it made then he made me help him pick it up with a big stick thingy and chop off it's head! Oh I was freaking out. Once the head was off he talked me into holding the body. NOBODY TOLD ME DEAD BODIES MOVE. The thing twitched and I was running for my life. After a little while I calmed down. The girls skinned it and 15 minutes later we were chowing down on a rattler. It was pretty incredible. I've been praying for miracles my whole mission. The one week I add adventures to my prayers we get this! It was the best. I will be sent the rattle home soon. :) Here's the scoop on my Spanish. Hermana Dominguez is determined to help me figure out the language so we read the Book of Mormon together in Spanish every morning. I can say the words right. The only problem is I have no clue what it's saying and my mouth gets really tired! It's a work in progress though. The work here is still going really well. Naomi, Ronaldo, and Kristina are the main progressing investigators right now. Naomi has a two year old that calls me Nana. The other night we got a phone call from him because he had to say Goodnight to the Nanas. It's the best! We've got the son and mom on board. Now we just need the father! It's interesting how in every lesson he sits close enough to hear but far away enough to be kept out of the lesson. Please pray that his heart will be softened! There is a member who brings her boyfriend to church about every other week. I'm not really sure why he hasn't been taught yet but we kinda cornered him yesterday and asked if he wanted to take the discussions. He said yes! Then we went off to help teach primary....so basically he is already a member. I'm really excited to start teaching him. Next miracle was yesterday as well. A few weeks ago a member had introduced us to her neighbor. She had been building up the courage to give her friend a book of mormon and finally decided to do it. We went with her and had a brief chat on the porch. We went back yesterday to follow up with her. She let us come inside and told us that she was Catholic and wasn't planning on changing but that she would love to chat and hang out any time. Right as we were getting ready to leave her husband came in the kitchen. He looked straight at me and say, "I read the stuff that you left. I've got lots of questions." Ahhhh we were pretty excited. He asked us a billion questions about the Book of Mormon and how to receive salvation. We will be teaching him this week. I couldn't be more grateful for sweet Sister Epperson for giving us the referral. We called her right after and she was thrilled. She was so excited to have been part of missionary work! I hope that it gives her a boost to do it again! That's pretty much it for the week. The work just keeps on keeping on. I know this gospel is true. Yesterday we had to opportunity to speak in church about the enabling power of the atonement. Everything in this gospel is centered around the atonement of Jesus Christ. I know he lives. I know we are all endowed with power to overcome everything that is put in our path because on the enabling power of the atonement. In my person study I have begun inserting the term Enabling power in place of the word grace. it has opened my eyes to the power that the atonement can have in our lives. I love you all! I'm stoked to get a cute addition to the family! Kenley is just about the cutest thing I've ever seen. Spoil her for me! -Sister Barton

I'll Make A Man Out Of You- Msrch 17

I'm really sorry but I feel like this email is probably going to be a lame on..This week was pretty much a blur. I'm staying in Rincon though! My new companion is Hermana Dominguez. I'm so excited to have a Spanish companion again! She has already pinky promised that she will help me with my sad sad Spanish. Next great news: two on my investigators in Sahuarita got baptized this past month. I about died when I heard! Oh I was too stoked. We went up to Tucson for a doctors appointment and Sister Hansen told me! It was incredible. I think the biggest miracles was on Tuesday. We had our second lesson with Naomi. As soon as we walked in the house she was really excited to show us that she did her homework and had a whole page of questions that she had written down after church. The she paused and said, "But what is this coffee thing that Google told me about?" Apparently the first thing Google says about Mormons is they don't drink coffee. She was in a panic. We explained the word of wisdom briefly. She took a second to think about it, shrugged and moved onto the next question. We taught her the plan of salvation and she was shocked at how similar it is to the Muslim beliefs....what?!?!?! She is from Minnesota where apparently a lot of her friends were Muslims. The next morning we got a text from her asking us to pray for her because she was going to go the whole day without coffee! That night we asked her how it went. She told us she was really tired but committed to see if she could do it for a week! She is still going strong! You know your investigators are amazing when they start testing out commandments before they have been taught about them! Have you ever heard of a leatherman? Well a ton of people out here are military men. We were in a lesson last night with a less active couple that we are helping get to the temple/ activate. We are sitting there talking when he paused and ran into the next room. He comes out with a leatherman and says He doesn't have a daughter but if he did and she was on a mission he would make sure she had one a leatherman. My face was probably pretty horrified/confused as this huge soldier tried to teach me how to use all the knives, screws, flame thrower, and whatever else that thing has on it. He made me promise that I would keep it with me for the rest of my mission. I thought that would be the most random gift I've ever been given until we went to the Bishops house for Sister Charles to say goodbye- We are sitting there when all of a sudden Bishop Lee asked his son to get the meat out of the freezer...His son comes back with a HUGE vacuum packed bag of ribs.....Our faces were priceless! When we got home that night the Priest family thought it was so funny. The ward is trying to man us up I guess! I'm really trying to think of other adventures that happened but I'm drawing a blank. It was a super full week of rushing from one place to the other. We helped a woman paint her new house. I think I've painted more houses on my mission they I have my whole life. It was cool to learn so much about this less active woman. I had only visited her once before but it was cool to see that as we served her she opened up a lot and we were able to have a much more productive lesson spiritually just by putting some paint brushes in our hands. Well family I love you and I don't know what else to talk about so I'm ending there! Have a good week and keep me posted on that cute baby! Hermana Dominguez and I will be keeping it real in good old Rincon :) Thank you for all you do! Have the best week ever. -Sister Barton

Working with the Mommies- March 9

Another week of miracles has made time fly by! First off- Ronaldo! I love that sweet man. He has a lot of family in the Phillipeans that are struggling. It's been cool to see his faith grow. He comes to church every week. He just barely got his citizenship approved so now Brother Franklin in the ward is getting him going on getting a job and the Family history group is getting him going on family history. He told us that when he is a mormon he is going to give everything he has to God so he wants to make sure he is really committed. We asked him about baptism and he says he wants to witness a baptism before he does it himself. There are no baptisms in our zone this month yet so we have to wait until the stake baptisms at the end of the month. Ronaldo should be getting baptized the week after general conference! :) The best feeling in the world was seeing Ronaldo break down and cry because he knows that this is an answer to his prayers. The first time that we went over he was very depressed and almost suicidal. Now that man is so confident and loves God so much! He is a miracle. We finish a lesson with Ronaldo to find that the young women's president had called us. We called her back and she old us that a women had just knocked on the church door during their presidency meeting asking what time church services are and how she can get a hold of missionaries!! What?!?!?! This women's name is Brittney. She is a young mom and has decided that she wants to "teach her daughter how to be a Mormon". The next morning we went and taught her the restoration. When we asked her if she would be baptized when she comes to know that these things are true she just looked at us all confused and said, "I already know that everything you just told me is true. I'll think about baptism and let you know next week. Okay?"....OKAY! It was really cool to hear her story about how the Lord has been preparing Brittney for years. She told us about how she has been doing family history for about 2 years and has been prompted to go to the new church for a few months but didn't want to stand out. Her husband isn't interested but Brittney is pretty confident in the power of being the wife. She is convinced that she can get him to church as well. Moments like that are pure heaven. As if that blessing wasn't enough...as soon as we get out of the lesson with Brittney our district leader called us. He told us a woman had requested a bible on LDS.org but she was in our area not theirs. He gave us the information and we set up an appointment to see the her the following day. As we taught her the restoration she told us a similar story. She has a two year old son and wants to raise him in a Christian church but doesn't know where to find trust. We taught her the restoration and once again she said, "Okay let me come to church this Sunday and then we'll talk about baptism. I just can't figure out why something keeps pushing me towards that church." We were on cloud nine by this point. Once again her husband didn't want to sit in on the lesson or come to church but as she does the small and simple things we are hoping he will see the change and follow. Lastly: Cassandra and Rudy. They are the young couple with the little girl. Rudy wasn't so sure about us at first but after teaching him the restoration and messing up a few football/prophet analogies we are best friends! We gave him a church tour on Wednesday which just so happened to be the day that the building was full of scouts, a relief society get together, and mutual. People were running around everywhere! We snuck away to a quiet classroom and taught the restoration. After the lesson Rudy came up with 516984 questions from temples to priesthood to the book of Mormon to polygamy, to baptism. He told us that he didn't feel like he could pray to know if these things are true because he has kinda given up on finding truth. The spirit filled the room as we promise and testified that this gospel will answer every question he could possible have. He has been kicked out of A LOT of churches for asking too many questions so this shocked him. He works every Sunday but is was neat to see how determined he was to get work off in two weeks! The first time we went over he was really proud that he worked on Sundays so he couldn't try out church. The spirit has already started changing that father and that family so much! Working with these three young families and other individuals has been an enormous blessing. I am grateful to be in this area. The work is going so well. I feel so blessed to know that God is trusting me with these people. Transfers are next week which is exciting! I am really excited for this next transfer. This area has so much potential! I can't wait to go to work even harder and see so many more miracles! I love you all! Keep me posted on my baby girl! Have we decided a name yet? I keep just calling her my baby. I need to be in on the loop with the whole name thing. I know this church is true. There is not better work than missionary work. Miracles happen all day long. It's our choice whether we see them. I know God loves us. He has a divine plan for us all. -Sister Barton

Stuck in the washes- March 2

Hello! Let's talk about life! Remember when I said I live in the middle of nowhere? I've got a story to prove it! On summery night we were completely out of people to try to see. The whole day had been spent trying to get a hold of people with not much luck. We stopped to pray and felt prompted to go try a referral one more time. We had tried them multiple times but they were never home. We finally got a hold of them and they said they weren't interested. We knew we were there for a reason so we looked at the ward list and saw that a part member family lived somewhere nearby. It was pitch black (the no street light thing) and we were driving down a main road. The thing about this area is there are like 4 main roads and them 51948541 hidden dirt roads. The biggest challenge is figuring out which are streets and which are washes. YIKES! We were up for the challenge though. After about 30 minutes of getting stuck in washes and then turning around to find a street with a dead end we were pretty ready to give up. While driving towards home we found one more random dirt road. We decided to try it out. Then, of course, we went over the hill to find mansions all over the place. K no it was like 5 huge houses but it was heaven for me! We finally found the house! We knocked on the door to find them home. We started getting to know them and come to find missionaries haven't stopped by in over 8 years. We got to know Brother and Sister S then their son walked in. After getting to know them for a little bit we shared Hel. 5:12 with them. Before we were done ready the verse I looked up to find the 20 year old son in tears. He explained how hard things have been for him lately. Recently he had finally prayed to ask God what we should do. A few days later we were at his door. I am so grateful that we didn't stop searching for that hidden house! Other then that there is not a whole lot to report on. Ronaldo came to church again this week and Cassandra (Kalli: this woman is your older twin) came! She's the one that we taught on the front porch because her husband wasn't too sure about us! Well we had her show him a mormon message called "Mountains to Climb" and now he will let us teach them! Oh how I love when the spirit softens hearts! Miracles are happening everyday and I feel so blessed to get to be a part of them. I love this area even if it is random and people are really good at hiding houses behind dark hills! I have been thinking a lot about how these people love living in darkness because they like their privacy. It's the same with our spiritual lights. Far too many people are content with being in the darkness because it seems so much easier. I have seen the light of the Gospel light up in so many people here. It's a slow process but the dim lights are starting to brighten. It's amazing to get to see. Thank you all for your love and prayers! I love you all soooooo much! You all are truly amazing. Now go be lights in the darkness! :)

Behind Closed Doors Feb. 23

Family! How's everything going? Everything in the 520 is going great. This week has been full of many tender mercies and miracles. On Saturday night we had an appointment cancel and none of our backups were available so we decided to try some potential investigators from our area book. We picked a random house that was close to where we already were. All that we knew is it was a girl named Kristina that the Elders had given a Book of Mormon to 6 months earlier. We fulled up to the house and were a little hesitant to knock because the lawn was completely covered in Catholic st. Statues and crosses. We knocked anyway and found a man that looked like santa clause. We asked if Kristina lived there. Suddenly there was a young woman inviting us in an asking us what took us so long....ugh. Apparently she was told that we were going to be sent in a few days not a few months. Whoops. Kristina was born in Russia (nobody knows why we teach so few Americans) and is just incredible. Her family is all very Catholic but she says she has always considered herself a Christian. We taught her about the restoration. She was taken back a little bit but was excited to learn more. It was another reminder that you never know who is behind the door until you try it. Next miracles! AJ and Ronaldo came to church! Ronaldo is the one from the Philipeans. He is the sweetest man in the world. In Sunday school we went around and introduced ourselves. When it came time for him the introduce himself her spent a good 10 minutes telling the class how the messages that we have shared with him have been a source of peace, hope, and joy for him. He was glowing by the end of church. He was terrified to come to church because he was embarrassed by his really heavy accent. Of course, every speaker in sacrament also had a pretty heavy accent from somewhere different. They all gave talks about reaching the potential that God wants you to have. It was amazing to see how Heavenly Father knew exactly what Ronaldo needed. Then in the next ward AJ came. This was his second time in Sacrament and first time in all three hours. In a lesson earlier this week AJ told us that if God tells him the church is true then he will be baptized. We invited him to come to church with a specific question in mind and see if it is answered. Put God to the test. We told him to keep it to himself so he knows we didn't do anything to make it happen. Every speaker in sacrament talked about Faith and the power that can have if we let it. The spirit was so strong! Before AJ left we asked him about his question. He didn't say much but told us that he had a lot to think about! I cannot wait for his next lesson this week! About half way through the week we went to visit a less active family. The father wasn't home and we had only briefly met the Mother before. We knew that she was very friendly and the sweetest lady. We both felt strongly that we needed to share a mormon message with her called "Wrong Roads". As soon as the video was over the Sister started to cry. She told all about things that she was struggling with. Things that I could never imagine having to endure. Because of these trials she no longer believed that God exists. She explained that if she was a daughter of God she wouldn't have to go through all of those hard things. I've been thinking about her so much ever since we left her home. I think the adversary's favorite thing to do is make people forget that they are children of God. As soon as someone forgets that they lose sight of their worth, their potential, and their purpose. They lose everything! All that this woman has had to endure is because of the people around her. It has nothing to do with God not being there. It gave me a whole new perspective of why the two plans in heaven were hard to choose from. Agency is the reason we have trials. Not the lack of God. I hope more people would realize this. I am grateful for this Gospel. I'm grateful for the peace and purpose that is brings to my life. I love sharing this message with others. I love knowing that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are real. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know that if we trust in the spirit we will never be lead astray. Listening is the hard part. I love you all and am very grateful for you. The amount of support and love that I receive from home is overwhelming. Thank you. I hope you all have the greatest week ever and never forget how special your Heavenly Father knows that you are. -Sister Barton

A woman that we visit has a pet pig. Is sleeps in between her and her husband every night. His name is moo and he almost attacked me on while taking the picture. I bent down to get all cuddly and close......he thought I was trying to steal his lucky charms...kinda ironic

Week of Love Feb. 17

Okay so I honestly don't have much to report for this past week. We were just doing out missionary thing! In the spirit of Valentines day I decided in addition to spreading the word I was going to do everything that I can to love everyone to death. Sometimes that meant killing with kindness, other times it meant using every free second to call and check up on someone. If we weren't in an appointment than I was on the phone chatting with someone! It was actually a lot of fun. I've noticed a difference in the work. I've always loved the people that we teach and that I've worked with but this week I made it a point to tell everyone how much they are loved. Peggy- we are teaching a woman who loves the gospel! She knows it's true but she won't progress without her husband. He doesn't want anything to do with us which is really hard on Peggy. This week I decided to kill him with kindness and see where that takes us. So every day we would call Peggy and ask her about how the kids book fair went and how her pta meetings are going and just heart attacked her on valentines day. We tried to show her husband in every single way that we want to teach her family because we love them not because we want recruits. It's been amazing to see his heart soften. In so many other situations I've seen love change people. This work and this gospel is all about showing people that you care about them. You want them to read the Book of Mormon because you care about them. You want them to come to church because you want them to feel peace and joy. You want them to pray to their Heavenly Father because feeling his love is the greatest feeling in the world. It all comes back to love. Valentines day showed me how important it is to never let anyone forget how much you love them. I'm grateful to be a missionary because it means I can randomly call or show up to anyone's house for no reason and just love them. This name tag gives me so much courage to talk to everyone in our path because I know how much heavenly father loves them. Ah I love you all so much! I'm grateful for all you do! Thank you for all the sweet packages and mail. I am overwhelmed with how much love and support everyone has given me while I've been in my own little world of Tucson Arizona. Fun Facts about Tucson: -All of the animals are either deadly or they are chickens -Don't touch the plants -The sunsets are incredible -They don't let anyone have street lights because they want to be able to see the starts (blessing and a curse) -1/2 the streets are on dirt roads no matter how fancy to houses are -House numbers aren't a thing. If you want to be a mail man stay away from arizona!

Feb. 9

Hello family! I have quite a lot to tell you about so put on your seat belts and listen up! This week was awesome! I got to go on exchanges with HERMANA HUBERT. She went to Lone Peak High School...Kalli do you know Rachel Hubert? Rachel she said she knows you. We spent the entire day trying to figure out how we knew each other before this missionary life. Drum roll please.....we went to EFY together 6 years ago!! What?!?! Yeah we were pretty stoked when we figured it out. It only took 24 hours but we figured it all out :) For the exchange I went to their area which was in southern Tucson. (Pretty much the ghetto) My day with Hermana Hubert started off with my first run in 4 months aka heaven! Then she converted me to smoothies with rice crispy cereal in it. Okay it sounds weird but it's bomb. Once a week a few missionaries meet up for a Spanish/ASL class. First the ASL elders were teaching us how to street contact. One of the elders knew I spoke Sign Language so when we broke up into different levels I ended up teaching one of the classes! They claim they are going to talk to President Passey and get me to be an ASL missionary for the rest of my mission...There haven't been ASL sisters in 6 years so we'll see how that goes. My day of Spanish reminded me that I really need to work on my Spanish. It's a little rough. Hermana Hubert and I are pretty much twins though. We were laughing the whole day! Most of the lessons that day were in English so I got to help teach! At one lesson the woman made me pray in Spanish. I had no clue what to do but I kinda spoke spanglish and apparently it worked! My new goal is saying all of my personal prayers in Spanish. GO FIGHT WIN! I forgot my list of things that I wanted to talk about so this letter is going down hill fast. This week was amazing! We got 5 new investigators which is pretty much unheard of. All of them were member referrals which is even more unheard of. Two of them is a young couple who have a 5 year old girl. The mother is very concerned about raising her daughter in a scary world. They weren't home when we went over for our appointment on Saturday. Last night we went by to try them again. The mother was home and told us about how her husband doesn't want to be Mormon. She quickly asked us to give us a little bit of information about our beliefs so that she can talk her husband into letting us come by. Her husband came home while we were talking on the front porch. Before we knew if they were both asking all sorts of questions about The Plan of Salvation. She went inside, grabbed her daughters princess table and we laid out the entire Plan of Salvation. By the end of the lesson the husband began to really open up. He shared his story about going through a lot of challenges in his young adult life. He tried to commit suicide twice. One time his phone went off which woke up his mother and the second time the bullet got stuck inside of the gun. It is a miracle that he is here today. Those experiences taught him that there is a purpose for why he is here. It was incredible to see how much the spirit softened his heart. I feel blessed to have been able to meet them. We have a return appointment that I can hardly wait for! A Few Things I know For Sure I do not understand all the things in this life I do not understand what causes us strife What causes us sadness, what causes us gloom Or the way the flowers begin to bloom You feel so little and small sometimes Not knowing the world and what makes a clock chime You come to me sick and I know not a cure But there are a few things that I know for sure

I know that God loves me and He knows my name In fact He loves you exactly the same He knows what I need and He knows how I feel He knows my desires, my dreams and my wills Above all of that I know for a fact As I trust in Him, He’s got my back So knowing it all, it doesn’t matter to me For God knows it all, and in Him I believe. Have a good week! I love you all! -Sister Barton