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