April 20- They Call Me Sister Mama Barton

Lot's to discuss but let's get the not so spiritual out of the way first...OUR BABY CHICKS HATCHED! We spent our whole lunch break watching Gwen, Sophie, Jessi, and Patricia kick out of their shells! THEY ARE SOOO FLUFFY! Oh chickens are a must when I get home. They are so cute I can't handle it. :) The Priest Family now calls me Sister Mama Barton. I just love them! Next, while Naomi was in her baptism interview Mama Barton came out one more time! We were left to entertain my main man Malcolm! (2 years old) As soon as his mom left the room he finally got all chit chatty and was our very best friend! I was in heaven for the whole half hour. We were running around the church flipping ever light switch me saw and just having the best time ever. That kid kills me! Picture an elder, two sisters, and Malcolm giggling like crazy while Naomi was being interviewed. Oh the joys of missionary work! We still stopped and told him about Jesus and taught him how to say Amen so don't worry! I also showed him a picture of Chloe and we had a serious talk about the temple. It was fantastic :) This week we had a zone meeting. The biggest thing we talked about was having a vision set up for every person that we teach. What does a converted so and so look like? What are the steps to getting them there? What do we need to do to make that happen? It was incredible. The whole week we have been really trying to make sure people understand the vision that we want them to have for themselves. It was been really cool to talk to people about their potential in this gospel it really helps me understand how much our Heavenly Father really does want to bless us. He wants us to have to much more than we expect for ourselves. Speaking of blessings.....We got to go to the temple with Rachel and Bishop Lee this week! Rachel went through for the first time! It's incredible how big of a difference the temple can make. I went in feeling pretty stressed about a lot of things. SOOO many questions were answered and so much weight was taken off my shoulders. It's incredible how perfect the Lord's timing is. That temple trip couldn't have been on a better day. I love being able to find so much peace in the house of the Lord. We had a super awesome last lesson with Tyler this week. Our Bishop asked us to get him going to YSA. It was really hard to hand him off to other missionaries but YSA is where he needs to be. For the last lesson we taught the last of the commandments and then we had a little bit of a testimony meeting. At the end we asked Tyler why he is so willing to keep all of the commandments?-because they know he will bless him. If he believed that the Book of Mormon is the word of God?-yes If Joseph Smith really did restore Christ's church back to the earth?-yes Is this church the one true church on the earth today?-yes Then what the next step is for him! We set a baptismal date and then handed him right to the YSA sisters. I'm praying that I'm staying here for another transfer then going on exchanges so I can teach him again! haha it's kinda a stretch but prayers work! Tyler was well prepared before we ever started teaching him. On Saturday we got to help at a "missionary boot camp". The Rincon stake put on a mini mtc for the youth. It was so fun to talk to the girls about deciding whether or not they should go on a mission or not. Being in their shoes was the worst thing in the world but there is no way any of them will regret going a mission. I've grown really close to a few girls in our ward. I finally just told them that I didn't understand why they were debating because I've already told the bishop they are all going so they should probably pack their bags! I'm so excited to see them on their missions! We try to take them to lessons as much as we can hoping that they will feel how amazing the blessings of being a missionary are! It is impossible to regret going on a mission! Transfers are this next week and I couldn't be more stressed. I want to stay here so badly. Being transferred right now would just about crush me. Naomi's husband asked her to wait two more weeks before being baptized. If she waits two weeks then he promised to give the church a chance, be in the front row at the baptism and start taking the lessons. I couldn't be more grateful for Heavenly Father's ability to soften hearts. This whole week was blessing after blessing followed by a few more blessings. I am praying with all my heart that I get to stay here with Sister Dominguez for another 6 weeks at least! Please pray for Naomi and her family this week! Thank you for all you do! I got the girl scout cookies and the hi-chews! You are the best! Thank you for all the love and support. -Sister Barton

April 13

I got a lot to say and not much time to say it so here we go! First of all- Kalli- remember that meditate then put your worries in a box thing?? Hermana Dominguez told me to do that the other day. I froze in horror for about 15 seconds, looked at her, then was on the floor laughing for days. Yikes. This week was a roller coaster. I think I say that every week but hey that's life. Naomi is set to get baptized this week. She almost gave me a heart attack about 46 times because somehow something always came up so we couldn't meet with her. I totally thought she was dodging us. We had an appointment with her Tuesday that was cancelled because she had to stay late at work, then she forgot our appointment on Friday, then she got food poisoning so she wasn't at church on Sunday. We went over after church ready to hear bad news. When we got there she was so sick and horrified that she wouldn't be able to get baptized. It was a huge relief! She is all set to be baptized on Saturday! She doesn't have any friends or family here so the ward has really made it a huge effort to make sure she knows they are her family. We ran back to the church just as relief society was ending. We announced the baptism and suddenly all the Sisters were deciding who was going to do what cutsie thing for her. It was PURE JOY to watch! This week we also get to go with the bishop and his family to the temple because their oldest daughter is going through for her mission. She is going to Ryan's mission! I really hope she doesn't freeze...she's never left Arizona. Poor thing is going to be a Popsicle in July! Any tips Ryan? Our district really wanted to do a blitz this week and nobody wanted to be in charge so Sister Dominguez and I took charge and we got to blitz our area! Every single time I do a blitz we don't have an success for 2 hours and then the last like 3 houses are golden. It's the weirdest thing. This time we knocked on a door to find a young mama who was actually from Park City yet she know's nothing about the church. She was telling us about how she is worried because she didn't know how to teach her friends about what Easter is truly about. WE CAN HELP WITH THAT! We are going to start teaching them this week! Most people hate knocking doors and I'll be honest, I always dread it until we are doing it then it's sooo fun! I love seeing how weirded out people are when they first open the door then by the end of our 5 minute conversation we are all pals....well that's only sometimes but when it happens it's great! Any other time they just don't finish opening the door and it's just blah. Anyways! Blitz' always remind me that we are shown miracles after the "trial of our faith". Everyone would love knocking doors if it worked on the first one. That doesn't require any faith! It takes two hours of walkin'! It was the exact same lesson this week. Hermana Dominguez and I had a pretty rough week but in the end we were able to hear a testimony of someone who was truly converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! Sometimes I like it more than other times but every time that I get to write home I get to think about all the miracles that I got to be a part of this week. Heavenly Father knows what we need to go through in order to learn to trust in him. That's the biggest lesson of the week. I'm slowly learning to trust in my Heavenly Father with all I have. He isn't going to hand me everything that I want. I'm a little stubborn but he is working with me. I'm grateful for the Gospel. I'm grateful to be a missionary. I'm grateful for a companion that I get along with so well! We are the sassiest pair on the block and it's awesome! On days when we are really struggling we have learned to lift each other up and laugh it off! That is the biggest blessing in the world! I love you all! Summer is just around the corner! Who's ready for some summer fun! I hope I stay in this area for the rest of my mission! It's too incredible around here. Have a wonderful week! Keep me posted on all the adventures in the 801! You all mean the world to me! Mom--Tyler (future convert) and Jessica (fellowshipper/girlfriend/future wife) are staying at our house next January and we are all going Skiing....just a warning. -Sista Barton

April 6- Just do it

It's been another Spirit filled week! On Tuesday we got to go to zone conference. The whole conference was about the Book of Mormon challenge that we were given last December. We were supposed to read the Book of Mormon with one topic in mind. It was cool to open up to a random scripture and see how everyone got something completely different out of it because of the topic that they had been studying. Pretty much everyone had picked a different topic. During the conference I got to reflect on a lot of topics and questions that I had been praying about the past couple of months. Slowly I realized (light bulb moment) that all of my questions had been answered just by looking back on what I had learned over the past few months. One of the biggest light bulb moments was realizing that the only thing that made a Book of Mormon hero a hero was his desire to serve God. Pretty sure God didn't tell Captain Moroni exactly where to go and which men to send where and what time this all needed to happen. Moroni needed to have enough faith to say "Okay I'll try this and if it's wrong then let me know." His desire to serve God was far greater than his desire to stay safe or to be great or to do anything for himself! It's the same with everyone else in the Book of Mormon. Most of the time they were just doing what they thought God wanted them to do then accepted correction when it came. Ugh I have so much work to do before have that much faith! It's the same with every decision we make. Most of the time God isn't going to say "Sister Barton go knock on that door". We have to grow the desire to serve God and then just do it! We have to have the desire to get an education and then just do it. We have to have the desire to have faith and then the faith will come. It's not supposed to be complicated! Anyways there's my rant. The Book of Mormon is incredible. I got to go on exchanges to YSA again! This time with Sister Sutherland. She's from Idaho and has been out for 17 months.---Yikes! haha She's really cool though. We had a pretty awesome day full of trying to help her pink wash an area. I love pink washing. It's simply the best! We had lots of miracles throughout the day like a random man buying us dinner because he felt like he needed to. The best miracle was at the very end of the night. We had planned to join the ward in a ultimate Frisbee game (#ysamissionarylife) but somehow the whole ward forgot to tell the Sisters that it was canceled. They had a former investigator show up named junior. Well Junior ended up being a former investigator and a former RSL soccer player from Africa. Okay cool. I told him I was from Salt Lake City and he threw in that he used to play for RSL. I didn't believe him but he had pictures to prove it. I was a little excited about life and that moment. We taught him the restoration and about the Book of Mormon. He said he would be at church and would love to meet with missionaries again. It was kinda awesome. Next lets talk about Easter! Our church building didn't broadcast conference so we watched every session with a different member. It was cool to see how every family watched conference very differently. We were fed way too much food but all in all conference was incredible. Every talk reaffirmed to me that those men are called of God. Once again so many of my questions were answered. I loved being able to hear the testimonies of our leaders knowing that what they are saying is true. That this Gospel is true. That the whole purpose of God's plan for us is to find joy in being a family. We are all children of God. Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world! He is here for us always. He rose of the third day. He died so that we can live. helives.mormon.org I know these things without a doubt in my mind. I love you all and am glad to hear all is going well! Please keep Naomi and her family in your prayers! Have a good week and I'll talk to ya in a week! -Sister Barton