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