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.