Nov. 23 Grateful in all things

Transfers calls were a little unexpected. I thought Sister Desautels and I would be together for a little bit longer...we kind of are but not really. I have been asked to be "an exchange missionary". That means I will technically keep all of my stuff at my apartment but I won't be there very often. We will be in a trio but I won't be spending very much time with them. President Passey has asked that I spend 90% of my time on exchanges with the Sisters in North, West, South, and central Tucson. Exchanges will be like 3 days long and I will pretty much be area hoping all transfer long. I have no clue how it's going to work. He didn't really give me a whole lot of instructions. I'm just supposed to figure it out and pray really hard. Staying in my area would be too simple I guess. I'm grateful for the opportunity to help train these sisters on a more personal level. Everything went really well this week! We are begging Jicell to slow down so that we won't run out of things to teach her! We started her up on personal progress this week and begged her to take her time doing it. She took the book and went to town! That night she called us freaking out about how much cute stuff pinterest and blogs have on personal progress. She is getting 5 other converts in the ward started. The bishop has now decided to call someone to be a personal progress teacher! Now what are we supposed to teach her!?!?! Luke set a date with us for December 2nd! Ever since he set the date that boy has gone a whole other level of on fire! Whatever he was holding back before is gone and he is ready to move forward! He couldn't stop smiling all week long. Thanksgiving couldn't come at a better time. Thanksgiving is just reminding me how important it is to slow down and remember to be grateful for what I've been given. I'm grateful for our investigators. I'm grateful for the friends that I have made here. I'm grateful for trials. They are necessary to grow. They help us to become better. I couldn't be more grateful for my mission. Thank you for everything. I love you so much! Mom- I hope you have the greatest birthday of all time. You deserve it! I can't even begin to express how grateful I am to have the greatest best friend of all time. Happy Thanksgiving! It's the best holiday of them all! All our ward members are going home for the holidays so this next week should be an interesting one.... -Sister Barton

Nov. 16 My Arizona Family

Sometimes I wish I could take a video of my week and send it home. That would make life so much easier. I don't remember what happened Monday through Thursday....but the best stuff started happening on Thursday so I'll start there. Exchanges!! This time I went up to Marana (north of Tucson) with sister hunt. She has been out for a grand total of 4 weeks so she was completely freaking out the whole day about having to make the decisions. It was fun to get lost a couple of times and to figure out how to help her be confident in lessons and in planning. She is a super shy still so it was pretty much a day of me teaching strangers. By the end of the day she was bearing her testimony at the end of lessons!! Small steps! She is a hard worker so we got a lot done! At the end of the night we went to ward coordination meeting and I got to help plan the missionary work part of the ward Christmas party! Being back in a family ward was weird but a ton of fun. My favorite part of exchanges is always reuniting with Sister Desautels. By the time we get home we both are ready to pass out! It's the best. Friday was a pit and a peak kind of a day. I received an email from a really good friend in New Mexico. She was baptized a few years ago and recently got married in the temple. Her email broke my heart as she told me things she is struggling with. It made me just wanna run to New Mexico and give that girl a hug and big bucket of ice cream. I asked the sisters over there to visit her so hopefully they can help her out. Friday night i got to Skype Ramon's baptism!!! We got to talk a little bit before his baptism. He was beaming!! I am so proud of him! Getting to see a lot of my New Mexico friends was heaven! Being able to see Ramon choose joy and enter the waters of baptism was a huge blessing. I was a little jealous that I couldn't be there during his baptism then I thought about how blessed I am to be able to have been part of his conversion and now be in Tucson for my current investigators. I wouldn't want it any other way. I know I'm where I need to be. Saturday was the top of the cake! Last Monday a less active woman from Rincon emailed me. She heard rumors that I was in Tucson and insisted that we meet up. We ended up meeting for breakfast Saturday morning. As soon as she walked into the cafe she spilled all the beans! I worked with her family for about 6 months. She was slow to make progress but we kept feeling the need to continue to see them. When I left the area the sisters didn't visit her anymore. Sister Youngblood started her story with explaining the hard time she has been having with her 11 year old son getting suspended. She was furious. As she drove to pick him up from school she said the first prayer she had said in months. Peace came over her as she picked him up and drove him home. For no reason at all she started planning a fhe lesson. (Never done FHE before) she announced to her family that FHE is officially mandatory. The next day she called the sisters. They are currently preparing her two kids for baptism. Sister Youngblood is living the word of wisdom for the first time since her baptism. The best part is....THEY WENT TO TO CHURCH FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 10 YEARS!! In one week this woman has completely changed her life and her families life. I couldn't stop smiling the rest of the day!! When we said goodbye, Sister Youngblood gave me the best compliment I've ever received. She told Sister Desautels that I wasn't her missionary. I am her sister. At the beginning of my mission I wanted so badly to be somebody's missionary. I don't care about that anymore. I would much rather be somebody's sister or somebody's friend. She was an answer to so many prayers. Saturday night I got to Skype Kenny's baptism in New Mexico. Remember him?? Once again, he was glowing and happy. Kenny has changed so much since we started working with him. Getting to talk to him and watching him bear his testimony after his baptism was priceless. You could tell he was scared to death to talk in front of everyone but it was impossible to not feel the spirit as he said what he believes. This email is getting super long so I'll stick with those stories. The biggest lesson learned this week was how perfect god's timing is. I think the hardest part of my mission has been accepting gods timing. I'm not the most patient of people and I like to have a plan. I would have loved to be there to go to church with the Youngblood family or to have said the opening prayer at the baptisms in New Mexico. But that's not where God wants me to be. He wants me right here at the u of a. I looked up right as I finished that sentence to find that Jicell had walked into the study room and started studying right in front of me. I know I needed to be here for her. I know I'm where God wants me to be. He has a plan that is so much better than my own. Thank you for all you do! I love you. -Sister Barton

Nov. 2 We've Got The Power

There are very few times on my mission where I can distinctly remember feeling the spirit completely leave the room. Those are the lessons where me and my companion go speechless and just sit there waiting to figure out which one is going to close the lesson as fast as possible. This week we went over to finally meet a recent convert in the ward. She was baptized about 2 weeks before I got here. Nobody has seen her since her confirmation....no Bueno. We walked into her humble abode and due to the surroundings, we knew the spirit couldn't help us get through the lesson. It was the most awkward half hour of my life. After the lesson Sister Desautels and I were reflecting on what we could have done to help the situation. We talked about how we choose how much the spirit can influence us. Another recent convert that we've gotten really close to is tom. Tom was able to baptize his friend this week. Tom has been a member of the church for 2 months. He was glowing as he told us how proud he is to have the power to baptize Rudy. He has also found over 130 names to take to the temple in the last month. He is doing the new member lessons with he mindset of learning how to answer his friends questions about the gospel not his own. This guy is too perfect! It's crazy how big of a difference these two recent converts have used the power they've been recently given. We choose how much power we have. It's been hard to watch the first recent convert struggle to understand the potential that she could have if she just had the spirit with her and learned how to listen to that spirit. It's the same for all of us! We had an awesome miracle this week. Since we are in ysa our area is huge. It's from central Tucson all the way down to the boarder of Mexico. On Wednesday we had a pretty open schedule so we decided to go on a little trip south. The very first house we tried was a less active girl that nobody knows anything about. Her little sisters let us in!! (Miracle) when Sumy saw us at the door she burst into tears. We stood there awkwardly until she calmed down and explained that right when she heard the doorbell ring she had just finished the first prayer she had said in years. She had prayed for help to know what Heavenly Father wanted her to do. I LOVE THE SPIRIT!! It was a little tender mercy to know that we were right where we needed to be at just the right time. This week had some overwhelming and frustrating moments but so many tender mercies. It's the new joke that Jicell is our visiting teacher because she brings us treats to the lesson and then she pretty much teaches us when we tell her the topic. Best visiting teacher I've ever had!! Luke showed up to church wearing a tie with the temple on it this week. He finally got to stay all three hours and loved going to priesthood meeting. He works at a bagel shop and brings us all the left over bagels. Then he found out our obsession with pumpkin!! It's gone a little out of control from there! We also went on exchanges this week. This time I left the area and went with Sister Afemata. Everyone loves her just for the fact that is from Hawaii and then because of how fantastic she is. I learned a lot from her. The best part about being an slt is getting to learn from these sisters. I don't really know what else so say so goodbye! I love you all! Congrats Kenzie on the ring. I think all my friends are officially married or on a mission. Pictures 1. My main gals!! 2 of them are fresh rms the other 2 are future missionaries. I love them to death!

Oct. 19 Humble, Happy, and Completely covered in Sugar....

Times to repent. Last week I made this area sound like a breeze. False! We are still working as hard as we can. I was pretty humbled. This week was mid-terms which means every student in Tucson was glued to their laptops and not so much to their Book of Mormons. My first few days with Sister Desautels were super rough just because everyone was canceling on us. As the week went on we were able to actually teach people again! I'm not a fan of mid-terms -___-. We had a surprise MLC on Friday!! Lynn G. Robbins came and gave us a training about responsibility and accountability. It was pretty heavy and intense but I learned a lot. He talked about how every time we make an excuse for something not getting done, we lose control of the situation. There is no such thing as a valid excuse. The next day I read about when Mormon walks away from being the Nephites captain then 3 chapters later he repents and comes back. Same goes for us. There is never a good excuse to walk away from a responsibility god has given us. That includes no excuses to ever turn down a prompting! Like I said- it was pretty heavy!! At the end he read a few verses about how the salvation of souls is on our shoulders. We were all spiritually exhausted by the end of the 5 hour training!!! On a lighter note, the temple groundbreaking was this week!!! Tucson is finally getting a temple!!! I'm so stoked!! Elder Uchtdorf came and gave a talk about breaking ground in our own hearts and preparing ourselves for the temple. He also invited everyone to get baptized today so that they could go inside when the temple is ready. There were a ton of government people and religious leaders! Elder Uchtdorf is my favorite! The temple dedication helped me recharge and get pumped to work even harder than I've been working. I gotta give the next couple of months my all! One of the greatest parts of the week was the stake bbq. The ysa members were in charge of manning all the kids booths. Somehow we got signed up to help with the cotton candy. We were excited to help! A ton of students brought their friends and we were able to get some solid potentials (free food works every time). The only problem of the night was the wind....cotton candy and wind don't mix. Within a half hour we were all COVERED in sugar and loving every second of it. Jicell and Amorah were volunteering at the face painting and laughing at us while we were turning into blue and pink clouds of cotton. It was an amazing week full of miracles. I'm already starting to see how much Heavenly Father is willing to bless me not just during but after my mission. I feel so blessed to be serving at the u of a. These people are teaching me so much. They are some of the sassiest, most hilarious, ambitious, and inspiring friends I've been blessed to meet. There is nowhere else I'd rather be than serving these crazy young single adults!! Thank you for all the prayers and thoughts! I love you all from Tucson to New Mexico, to California, to France, to Toronto, to Japan, to SLC to Logan and back times 100,000,000. Pondering scripture: Mormon 8:12 -Sister Barton Ps. We taught Luke about fasting this week. When he was a Buddhist munk he hand to fast EVERYDAY!! We are talking breakfast only! He took the once a month idea pretty well.

Oct. 12 Hugs From The Homeless....

I think I hit my head and went to heaven. Once I was told that serving in a Tucson ysa ward is like summer vacation. I didn't understand that until this week. This can't be real life!! Everything is too perfect. Warning...I've possibly found my future roommates at U of A. There is a group of girls here that I've gotten pretty close to. Amorah is my main gal. She's actually from Layton but she's going to school here and studying exactly what I want to study. She's preparing for a mission and has spent a ton of time with us this week. Amorah is probably exactly what I want to be when I grow up. I love her so much. 2 of her best friends are recently returned missionaries. They both have kept missionary work as a huge focus since coming home. They have been answers to my prayers. The greatest miracle was Jicell! One of our investigators met Jicell in a chemistry class. They found out they both are investigating the church and Leah asked if she could hook Jicell up with missionaries. We met Jicell on Thursday. I feel like I've know this girl for way longer than 4 days! Her boyfriend introduced her to the church last winter. She's been going to church for months, has somehow been taking institute without anyone noticing, has read 1 Nephi, watched conference, studies out of the ensign, and knows the church is true. We taught her the restoration and plan of salvation this weekend. During the lessons we ask her questions to try to figure out how much she really knows. When we ask questions like- "What do you know about the priesthood?" She answers in jaw dropping ways like, "well there's Melchizedek and Aaronic.....I don't know what that means though." She talks like a Mormon she just has no clue what any of it means! She's soaking everything up like a sponge. That doesn't happen!! Nobody knows how she's gone this long without ever having met a missionary. After our first lesson to got out her phone she showed us how her screensaver is the picture that elder Uchtdorf talked about in his talk at the women's conference. It reminds her "to be more like Jesus Christ everyday." Funny story: The vehicle coordinator in our mission is strict. She demanded that we get our car checked so we drove to southern Tucson (ghetto) and handed over our keys. The dealerships waiting room had a tv so we decided to go to a nearby park to do our weekly planning. As soon as we got there we realized this park is home to many many people. Every 10 minutes or so, a new homeless person would ask us who we were, if we could help them be saved, give us an unexpected "respectful friendship side-hug", then walk away to take a nap leaving us stunned. After an hour or so a man delivered a huge box of bread to the table we were sitting at. I guess the table we were at was the "park's kitchen table". oops. I wish you all could have seen the priceless look on our faces every time a new toothless stranger gave us a side hug. Missionary bubbles are SO real. We left shortly after that laughing all the way home. This week wasn't perfect enough so Heavenly Father had to put a cherry on top. We had achieved/exceeded our weekly goals except for finding one more investigator. We walked into relief society and noticed our new freshman friend flagging us down as casually as possible. We sat next to her to find she had brought a friend from her dorm. Her friend was pretty confused about what everyone was talking about but she said she loved coming today and would be back next week. As soon as relief society was over we explained what we do as missionaries and set up an appointment to teach her about the restored gospel!! We could hardly believe it. That made 7 investigators at church!!! I'm sad to announce I'll be taking over the area after today. Sister Adams will be going to Sahuarita and I'll be here to man the fort. 2 weeks in this area to learn from Sister Adams wasn't enough. I honestly feel like Heavenly Father trusts me way more than I trust in myself. I love taking over areas but I'm sad to see her go. I'm grateful for all that Sister Adams has taught me. I don't think I've stopped laughing since I got here. She truly shines. Between running from appointment to appointment and getting lost almost everywhere we go, I'm so happy and loving my Tucson life. I feel so blessed to be a part of this great work! This area is unlike every other that I've served in. U of A students make great missionaries. This area is proof that when members are involved the sky is the limit. We all have a part to play. Thank you for all you guys do for me! Your prayers are very much felt! I love you :) sorry this email is all over the place. Ponderizing this week: D&C 59:8-9 Feel free to pray for: Luke, Jicell, Charlie, Leah, Lea, Matthew, and Mary. :) -Sister Barton Amorah :) I love her even if she makes us take selfies.

Oct. 5 The Big City

I have no idea what to say this week. It's been crazy. This institute is HUGE! They have as many institute teachers as we did members back in SIlver City. There are soooo many people here. My new companion is Sister Adams. She's from Logan, Utah. She's just finished her training and is still trying to figure out the area. We are pretty much figuring everything out together which makes things very interesting. I woke up Wednesday morning and the first thing Sister Adams said to me was, "I've never seen anyone fall asleep that fast!" Yes- falling asleep is one skill I've mastered on my mission. Between MLC and general conference, I've only had 3 days to meet a whole lot of people but from what I've seen the ward is mostly converts. They all seem to have the craziest conversion stories I've ever heard. Most of the people I've met so far have come from really hard family lives where their families hate mormons but they knew the truth so they got baptized and are enduring to the end! They are incredible examples to me. One of our investigators has had a baptismal date set for December 26th since January. Her mom asked her to wait one year until she could be baptized with her families support. She loved conference and loves everything about the church she has a count down to December and couldn't be more ready! We have had some pretty incredible miracles though. Our main progressing investigator is Luke. Pray for this man. He's incredible! He's been taught twice before I got here but this week we taught him about the gospel of Jesus Christ and The Book of Mormon. He didn't grow up in a religion and really didn't have any foundation when his girlfriend introduced him to the Sisters. This weekend he was able to watch conference. Right after conference. He asked us when he could get baptized. YOU CAN ALWAYS COUNT ON THE PROPHET. He said he came to conference with questions just like we had asked him to do. All throughout conference he was able to check off his answers one my one. The spirit was really strong as he told us how happy he was that he had found the truth. We will be preparing to help Luke enter the waters of baptism these next few weeks :). I feel so blessed so have been able to walk into this area and be able to have met Luke! There are always a ton of people on campus. The U of A is known as the biggest party school in the nation. The students are very proud of that fact. We talk to everyone we can....sometimes it's rough. This week we met Matthew on a park bench. He was waiting for a friend when we started talking to him. We invited him to check out the institute. We got to teach him the restoration and testify of how we can all be forgiven for our sins because his Savior, Jesus Christ, died for him. He got really emotional and said, "I think you ladies need to teach me more." We get to start teaching Matthew more this week! I couldn't be more excited or grateful! I already know I'm going to love serving here. The people wear pants that are 7 sizes too small and most of them don't want the crazy mormon girls to talk to them but I know that I'm here for a reason. I'm grateful for Sister Adams. I'm already learning so much from her sweet spirit. This girl is so good at getting to know everyone and letting them know she's got their back. I know that this church is true. I know that we have a prophet on the earth today. I'm grateful that we were able to learn from inspired leaders this past weekend. I love general conference with all of my heart. Elder Christofferson said it too perfectly, "We do not strive for conversion to the Church but to Christ and his Gospel." He is the center of everything! As each speaker stood and bore their testimony I felt so at peace. I know this church is true. I know that Heavenly Father loves us. I know that with faith there can be no doubt and no fear in God's grand plan for us. Thank you for being amazing. I love you all :) My scripture of the week: Mosiah 7:33 -Sister Barton

Sept. 28 Early Goodbyes

I've never been very good at goodbyes. They are hard and awkward and emotional and just rough. After Christine's baptism President Passey pulled me aside and told me that I needed to pack my bags and get ready to serve at The university of Arizona's ysa ward. (I knew he drove to Mexico for more that just a nice drive and a baptism) we had kinda been warned that I might have to be transferred early but I had hopes of staying the whole transfer. The lord has other plans as usual! On Sunday I said all of my goodbyes. My heart broke a little more every time. I've never received so much love and appreciation than I did on Sunday. I love these people so much. I have inherited so many families here. Brother Lantz heard that I was leaving and wouldn't let me get away without a hug. It was a very emotional day! Yesterday really taught me that we have no idea how much small and simple things that we do can make a huge difference to someone. A less active ysa girl that we take to lessons wrote me a letter saying how every time so was lonely she would pray. Within 15 or so minutes her phone would ring with us inviting her to a lesson with us. We had no idea. I love how the spirit does its job. Let's talk about the week. On Tuesday we did exchanges. I left my companions to man the area while I went to Deming. Yup- Spanish mode. Having all three of us there was a really cool experience. I got to help the sisters work more in unity. It was fun to watch them teach in Spanish and feel the spirit even though I had no clue what was going on. Before exchanges I had been working on my testimony in Spanish. It's simple and probably sounds awful but I'm working on it! At the end of our first lesson the sisters were about to close when I interrupted and bore my very very simple testimony. The spirit was so strong as I struggled to remember how to say what I wanted to. It took everyone by surprise including myself. I owe the spirit big time for the help. I loved being able to be with Hermana Garcia and Hubert. They are incredible examples to me. Back in silver city we have been working a lot on getting less actives and investigators going on family history. Ramon and Christine have caught the family history bug!! It has been so fun to do so much family history with people this week. I am still completely addicted. At one point we ended up getting 5 or so people in on our lesson with Ramon at the institute because everyone else in the building wanted to learn to!! IT WAS THE GREATEST! I was in heaven. During our lunch breaks I've been teaching my companions what I know so that they can continue to help Ramon. It was even fun to watch my companions light up as Sister Reid found a family! The greatest peak of the whole week was Christine's baptism. The whole night was so fantastic. We had two non-members give the prayers(Avery and Kenny). Two returning less actives giving the talks (missy and brother Lantz). Brother call baptizing. And the young women doing a musical number. It was incredible to watch Christine glowing with joy the entire time. She said she felt "tingles" the entire time. She is truly converted to the gospel. We started teaching her the new member lessons. The first and last lesson I taught her was the plan of salvation. After we taught it this week she confessed that she had no clue what we were talking about the first time we taught that to her. She just knew that she needed to learn more. She knew that what we were saying was important. The spirit really is the real teach here. After the baptism I was talking to Christine. Ramon came up and congratulated her. He said she really helped him receive his confirmation. He'll be getting baptized October 17th. I couldn't be happier for him. Saying goodbye to him was really rough. It's been amazing to watch the atonement completely transform him. He made me promise that I'd come back and we'd all go to the temple!! He is so excited to get to the house of the lord. He's got ancestors ready to go. He's a miracle that I am so grateful for. He bore his testimony on Sunday. We were all a mess! He was so nervous. It was an incredible tender mercy before leaving. This area has a taught me so much about how powerful charity is. The key to missionary work is love. That's the secret ingredient. As soon as we figure out how to love the people around us we have the power to help people change their lives and come unto Christ. I love silver city New Mexico with all my soul. I feel truly changed by all the love that I have felt here. These people have taught me so much about who I am and who I want to become. I couldn't have asked for anything more. I'm leaving here a better person with no regrets. Wow sorry this letter is so long. It's been a big week! Thank you for all of your love and support. I love you. I love this restored gospel. I love heavenly fathers plan for us. I'm working on being submissive to his will. I know there are even more blessings and miracles ahead. I can't wait to see what the lord has in store for me. It's going to be pretty hard to top my 4 months in silver city with sister Reid. That goodbye is one that I will never be ready for!! - Sister Barton

Sept. 21 Pits and peaks- the Ultimate week

Hi everyone! > This week was a crazy roller coaster so I thought I'd do a "Pits and > Peaks" list. > > Peak: Found out that our investigator Kenny has a childhood best > friend, Steven, who was baptized in the YSA branch just last February. > And he's been helping us teach Kenny! We've been trying to talk Steven > into praying about a mission. He's such a good teach and has helped > Kenny so much already!! Hopefully this is helping both of them. Steven > didn't remain active very long after his baptism. This summer he's > come back, received the priesthood, gone to the temple, and now is > preparing to get his patriarchal blessing. He's so fun to teach and to > watch teach Kenny. Then you've got Kenny who is absolutely hilarious. > > Peak: One of my favorite old couples in the ward are the Rogers. They > remind me so much of grandma and grandpa Barton. We ate dinner at > their house this week. Brother Rogers calls us his granddaughters. He > is obsessed with giving us marriage advice. He offered to audit > anyone's bank account before we married them. Yikes!! At dinner he > found out Sister Tanner is brand new and felt the need to make sure > she's safe for the rest of her mission. We were talking about relief > society and quilt making when he suddenly turns to Sister Tanner and > states, "So, if you want to borrow my .9 MM for the rest of your > mission, you're more than welcome to." Hahaha we couldn't stop > laughing for the longest time. > > Peak: The Primary Program was on Sunday. And Avery participated. Pure > joy. Sister Reid , Christine, and sister Lantz couldn't stop crying. > > Pit: We dropped our miracle family with the mom and four girls because > they wouldn't make the commitment to come to church. :( it was so hard > to do but they still have their Book of Mormons and we just pray that > they keep reading! Dropping families is the worst. Nobody warned me > about that before I came out!! Brother Rogers asked us if they teach > us rejection in the mtc. Nope!! It's even harder when we have to drop > them. Now we need to find an even more miracle family!! > > Peak: Our investigator Christine finished the Book of Mormon. Now she > wants to read all of the Doctrine and Covenants and the Gospel > Principles manual. She radiates. She was determined to finish before > her baptism... She finished 10 days early. > > Pit/peak: we taught seminary this week! We had to leave out apartment > at 5:30 AM! Needless to say we weren't looking as put together as we > normally try....sleep is required if you want anything but pony tails. > I actually liked teaching seminary! I knew nothing about Genesis 13-15 > but we figured it out with lots of help from the spirit! We've got > some awesome youth in the stake. > > Ultimate Peak: We went to the temple this week!!!! The temple offers > so much peace. It helps us draw closer to our Heavenly Father and > receive revelation for our own lives. I'm so grateful for all the > covenants and blessings that it offers for us. There is no greater > place on earth than the temple. Our goal for our investigators is not > baptism, it's the temple. Baptism is just another step on that path. > One of my favorite things about the temple is that it helps us > remember who we are as children of God, and who we can become. It > motivates us to try a little harder and be a little better to reach > our full potential. We have the spirit to help us in our journey back > to Him. I got to give a training in zone meeting right before the > temple. Sister passey and then aps were there so it was super > intimidating but I trained about our purpose as missionaries and > making each commitment personal to us. If we are going to be bold in > our commitments then we better have a testimony of the commitments. > Our job is to cry repentance. We can't do that without extending > commitments with the spirit. D&C 15:6 "And now, behold, I say unto > you, that the thing which will be of the most worth unto you will be > to declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto > me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father. Amen." > This is the greatest thing that I could be doing right now. That > brings me so much peace. I love this work. I love you all. Thank you > for everything. I can't wait for is next week. It will be full of > miracles, blessings, and always pits and peaks. > > > -Sister Barton

Sept. 14- Knee High to a Grosshopper

Dear friends and family, This week flew by (don't they all) and was a lot of fun. I love being in a trio, we have a great time together and probably laugh way too much! Sister Tanner fits into the family perfectly! It has been so awesome to see how much Sister Tanner has grown just in two weeks. She is a great example to us and the members love her! I think these two have gotten me rolling on the floor crying with laughter at least twice a day since the transfer started. She has this funny phrase that I had never heard of before. We were talking about how we've been raised with the Book of Mormon, and she said that she's been reading the Book of Mormon since she was knee high to a grasshopper. Hahah I guess that's common in Idaho. Who knows but she's always saying crazy things that we don't understand. This week we started teaching Aaron again!! He said we could come over and we taught him a simple lesson about the Atonement and the Book of Mormon. He said he would give reading the Book of Mormon another shot! We are excited. He has a great heart and we love teaching him, so hopefully that continues. We also taught Ramone this week about temples. We showed him the video of the phoenix temple that goes through all the rooms. The spirit was strong. At the end of the video he got teary-eyed and said that he really wanted to go there. He has changed so much in just 6ish weeks! He understands that the Holy Ghost is working in his life. He has such a great future ahead of him. We are also almost done teaching Christine all the lessons, she is flying through them like a champ. I was excited to report that she read the whole Book of Alma in 4 days but then we saw her in Walmart today and she was stoked to tell us she read Helaman last night when she couldn't sleep!!! Yes- all 16 chapters. Ever since she decided she was ready to be baptized she has caught fire! She has such a great spirit and sets a good example for her family. Every Sunday she is so proud to tell us that she woke everyone up and made sure they were ready for church at 11. I feel the Spirit so much when I'm around her! This week I've been thinking a lot about how the spirit doesn't just change peoples attitudes or life style. It literally changes their countenance. Ramone and Christine are literally glowing. They are so much happier than the first time we met them. That's one of my favorite parts about being a missionary- seeing the fire. The "greenie fire of missionaries", the convert fire, the member missionary work fire. Christine described this fire as a cleansing fire. I completely agree. This week we did exchanges! It was a little stressful for me because Sister Tanner and Sister Garcia stayed with me in Silver City while Sister Reid went to Deming. This normally isn't stressful but we didn't have very many appointments, one of my companions is a brand new baby and the other is from El Salvador and barely speaks English....Yeah it was a little rough. On top of it all I wasn't feeling at the top of my game. YIKES! We were able to see lots of miracles though. Sister Garcia is a convert to the church and was able to share her story with a few of our investigators. The accent might have been hard to understand but the spirit wasn't! That girl knows how to be bold and bring the spirit. I was grateful to get to learn from her. Having to preach the gospel in a second language really makes you have to teach simply and rely on the spirit. She's got that down! I am grateful for this week of ups and downs! I'm grateful to have two companions that understand and love me. We have battles all the time to serve each other more than the other. It sometimes gets a little competitive. I've learned to race to do the dishes and grab the groceries or one of my companions will beat me to it. They are too incredible. I'm learning so much from them everyday. I know that there is an exceeding amount of joy that's available to us in this life, and as long as we are diligent in doing the daily things that bring us close to the Spirit, then we can experience that joy. I have felt that joy so much this past week as I've watching the fire in my companions and investigators grow brighter and brighter until they truly shine. Thank you all for bringing so much joy into my life, I'm so blessed far more than I deserve, but I thank God every day that I have such wonderful people in my life. :) Thank you, have a wonderful week. -Sister Barton Brother Griswold wouldn't let us go another day without learning something about cars. The first lesson was painting. Next time is tires.

Kenny is absolutely hilarious. He describes the spirit as glitter being shaken up inside his heart! Proud mamas of a wnmu baby! Christine's the one in the floral. Brother and Sister Lantz and then Avery is the hilarious 8 year old that looks like he's 12. Ezekiel is a 5 year old Dennis the menace.