December 22- He Is The Gift

Family! Hello everyone! It's me Sister Barton! Wanna hear about Rincon? Okay I'll tell you because it's so fun! I pretty much feel like I have been sprinting for the past 6 days. As soon as we got the area we were ready to work. Sister Charles likes to do things one step at a time, one task at a time so she keeps reminding me to slow down but we are starting to get our feet on the ground a little bit. Being in a new area with a brand new companion is a lot of work but I LOVE TRAINING! During training we do role plays because that's what missionaries do. Mostly just because Sister Charles doesn't really know the lessons yet so we practice by teaching each other. Good things Sister Rhodes taught me to love role plays. At first the role plays were a huge struggle and it was a little frustrating. Then I had an idea! From then on during all role plays as soon as they got to stiff I would stand up and say, " Sister Charles, pretend I'm your boyfriend! You are teaching Ryan about the Plan of Salvation! Ready. Set. Go." Suddenly she was a pro teacher! It's weird how most of our companion studies I pretend to be Ryan from Kentucky but it works! :) In this area we cover two wards- The Carona ward (621 members) and the Cieniga ward (452 members). Holy cow that's a lot of people! The Corona ward is in a community with a really really good school system so a lot of young family have started moving there. This is fantastic because new people in the neighborhoods means it's easy for members to do missionary work. Our Bishops are both really really missionary minded which helps A TON! There is also a brand new chapel being built that the whole community- members and non-members- are excited to see so this is pretty much an amazing place to be right now. I feel SOOO blessed. It means that there is never time to breath. Work work and more work! Love it! Story time. Christmas sacraments are so amazing! In both sacraments they had the choirs perform pretty much the whole time. At the end of Corona's sacrament meeting everyone either stayed in their seats or bolted for dear life. Sister Charles and I were so confused. Then the Choir director stands up and starts giving the whole ward a choir practice. We starting seeing a song and then she would stop us half way through the first line and give us instruction on what to fix. It took 20 minutes to get through one song. After we asked a member and they said that woman really wants our ward to be powerful singers so that the spirit can be stronger in our sacraments....Sister Charles asked me if that's an Arizona thing. NO! hahaha kotos for that woman for teaching the whole ward how to sing! You all better have seen the He is the Gift video by now! Normally the mission would all get together on Christmas a celebrate together but President Passey decided to change that and just have a little devotional as zones the week before. Ours was on Saturday. The whole devotional was about He is the Gift. In the video we are invited to DISCOVER, EMBRACE, AND SHARE the gift. We talked about how in the Christmas story everyone taking part discovered, embraced, and then shared which lead the next person to discover, embrace, then share. President Passey invited all of us to read the Book of Mormon between now and Easter and focus on just one topic or question. I want to invite all of you to do the same! Think of one topic just one and discover, embrace and share what you learned! I'm excited to get started! I just finished the Book of Mormon again so the invitation was perfect timing! By the way! We live with members in a separate part of the house and I love it! Yesterday a ton of people invited us to eat with them breakfast lunch and dinner on Christmas! I feel so blessed to be part of this area! We are very spoiled! Merry Christmas everyone! I love you so much! Please remember what Christmas is all about. It's about the birth of our savior. Everything we have is thanks to him. Don't forget what he did for us! His life was everything. His life was so full of love and giving. I am grateful for the knowledge that I have of this gospel. I know the church is true. I know that anyone can discover embrace and share the truth. MERRY CHRISTMAS I CAN'T WAIT TO CALL YOU IN JUST 3 DAYS. I'm not going to lie...I'm a little nervous. -Sister Barton

December 16- Area number 3

Family! Wow it's been a crazy crazy week. Soooo yes I have left my sweet Madera Ward in Green Valley. I'm on to my third area with my fourth companion Sister Charles. AND I'M TRAINING! Sister Charles is from Kentucky and so far seems to really really just want to be a diligent and obedient missionary. Neither of us know the area at all and the elders before us didn't really give us a whole lot of information about the area but that's okay! We are going to make it work. We now cover 2 wards and other than that I know nothing about where I am...people tell me I'm east of Tucson..it's called Rincon. haha Okay so this week was crazy busy. It started with another "the day". I can't believe how fast that came! I went with Sister Flake this time. Once again we were in Spanish mode. The hard part was is she is a pretty new missionary so she wasn't super confident going into some of the harder lessons but she did great! During language study I showed her my Spanish skills and she was impressed! Yay! I can sometimes understand what people are talking about but I can't speak at all! Reading is the easiest. Ugh I should probably work on that. The rest of the week flew by! We went to my favorite place -Arivca a few times to visit less actives and to see Heidi. Saying goodbye to the people there was for sure the hardest. Once a month they have a sacrament meeting there in the old school building. This week was that week! There was only about 20 people there and half of them were us and the Duncan family but it was the most powerful sacrament meeting I've ever been to. We sang Christmas songs, took the sacrament, and then had a testimony meeting about gifts that we have been blessed with. I think the whole room was crying including our less active Brother Hancock! It was the first time he had been to church in since his wife passed away a few years ago. Seeing him there was one last miracle before saying goodbye to my sweet home of Arivca! After the meeting we had a delightful mexican feast! Heidi had Sister Call and I crying in the kitchen as we said goodbye! That was for sure the hardest goodbye. She means the world to me! She talks about going to the temple in a year more than she talks about her baptism next month. Her year mark will be exactly when I get home! Tender mercy? I think yes! Okay so I also went on an exchange yesterday! One of my super good friends from the Gila Valley, Sister Grange had a really hard transfer with her companion that went home today. President asked me to go on an exchange with her super fast so she could recharge before she began training today. It was so good to be with Sister Grange for a day and chit chat. We got a ton of work done in her area and everything is all set up for her new missionary to have a good first week! I have to go but I love you all and I can't wait to call you in just 10 days! The church is true. God loves us! I know it. He is with us every step of this crazy adventure called mortal life! I hope everyone is almost ready for Christmas! -Sister Barton

Week of Dec. 8- Getting lost in Arivaca

Where do I begin! My heart is so full of gratitude for the miracles that I have been able to be a part of this week. The biggest one is Heidi. We have been teaching her for two weeks. Every lesson that we teach is full of tears and the spirit. She lives an hour south of us so it's hard to see her more than 2 or 3 times a week but when we do we make it memorable. This woman is seriously incredible. She has been church hopping all 44 years of her life, for the most part. She loves reading and has already read the first 5 books in the book of mormon and the Gospel Principles book. When we asked her if she would be baptized by someone holding the restored priesthood authority of God she burst into tears. She explained to us that all her life she has felt like the outcast for her beliefs. In her mind she was picking pieces of every religion and not knowing where to put them. Then as soon as we starting teaching her the puzzle was all put together and she wasn't alone anymore. THIS WOMAN IS INCREDIBLE! She has family out of state she she wanted to get baptized when she goes and visits them over Christmas. Well after two weeks of ward members reaching out to her she called us today and told us her family is coming the second week of January to see her get baptized because she wants her ward family there as well!!! We couldn't be more excited for her! January 10th can't come soon enough. She will be the first baptism in over 3 years in the Madera ward! Next- Since Heidi lives an hour away we are out in Arivaca by the border a ton. They have been trying to get a branch started out there but there aren't enough active members. As I looked through the area book I was shocked at how little work has been done out there! We were determined so get the ball rolling in Arivaca so we set out for the hills and quickly learned why it seems like work hasn't been done out there......there are only 500 people in that tiny town and they all live miles and miles apart in the middle of nowhere. It's really hard to find less actives out there or anyone for that matter. We got lost about a billion times! BUT when we did talk to people they let us in because they said we were brave for chancing their beware of dog sign, coyote sign, or chancing a rattle snake in the dark! Every time someone opens a door they would say something like "Hey wait why didn't by dog attack you" or "Don't you know there are coyotes and rattlers out there, GET INSIDE!" It was awesome! Sister Call is afraid of all three animals so she wasn't too thrilled with me but it was an adventure! We have a lot of work to do though! Flirt to convert- Okay so I don't believe that missionaries should ever flirt to convert. EVER! But somehow that's what happened this week. We took a widow to one of our lessons with an investigator named Bob. Little did we know they were born in the same New York hospital a year apart from each other. They were both raised atheist and they are both so sassy! It was the weirdest thing I've ever witnessed. These 73 and 72 year olds were flirting over the Book of Mormon. WHAT! Sister Call and I just sat there with our jaws open not knowing what to do. The lesson went really well though I guess. We got a return appointment and some fellow shipping so I guess things are working out will for Bob. This week was full of up days and down days. One day this week we didn't get to teach anybody. We went over to see Barbara. It had been a week since she called us she wasn't ready. We went over and she told us that she was too busy and couldn't see us. She did the classic "I'll call you" escape. We both are heart broken about Barbara she really is so ready for the Gospel. After a day of knocking and then Barbara I was pretty down on myself and just having a rough go. We went home and I found a letter in the mailbox from a young woman in Safford. That letter changed everything! I was in tears in no time! She has decided to start preparing for a mission and says that she considers me her big sister. Okay the Lord knows us all too well. After that I stopped the whole self pity and tried to think of all the things that I am grateful for. I cannot even express how grateful I am for my savior. I am grateful for the success that I have had on my mission. I am grateful to be part of this great work. I have never before understood how much joy and peace this gospel and the atonement give. Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us to much. 3 nephi is one of my favorite books. I love reading about Jesus Christ praying with the Gentiles. The love that he has for us is indescribable. Thank you all for your letters, thoughts, and prayers. I love you so much! -Sister Barton

The district

​Arivaca. I told you it's easy to get lost!

Heidi

​Going to the Border last p-day. Too fun!

Week of Dec. 1- They Didn't Teach Me That At The MTC

Alright I promise this weeks letter will be better than last weeks! These computers just give me no time! Okay so A LOT happened this week. 1. We had interviews with President Passey! I love and admire him so much. I have been struggling with a few things and before I even said anything he answered a ton of my questions. He is just incredible. 2. I went into Spanish mode this week! Well actually everyone around me went into Spanish mode and I sat there wondering what was going on. This week we went on exchanges with the Sister Training leaders. I go to go up to the ghetto of Tucson with Sister Lopez! She was in the Gila Valley with me so it was really nice to be with a familiar face again. The only problem is that every other companionship of Sisters around me are Spanish Sisters. Which means I got to go to a Spanish area! When I was with Sister Smyth I could pick up a little bit of Spanish but I had no clue what anyone was saying the entire day! It was weird. I officially know how missionaries feel when they go to a different country. We did have one lesson in English though! Luckily she spoke good enough English to have a lesson that I could understand. She is a super cool lady with a really sketchy past. She was covered in tattoos - you know like the tear drop ones and stuff. Plus she was lacking quit a bit of clothing and was playing with a snake when we walked into the apartment! I was so excited to teach her as soon as we walked in! I wasn't disappointed. We talked about being grateful for what the Lord has given us. She talked about how she was raised in the church but when she moved to Tucson in Elementary School the kids would abuse her verbally and physically because she was a Mormon. Finally she told her mom that she wanted to go to a different church because then people wouldn't beat her up. Later on She got caught up in negative things and just lost sight of the straight and narrow path. She told us that she was so grateful that she was able to find her way back and got out of all that mess. After everyone in the room listed a few things that they were grateful for we asked them how they show their gratitude. As a group we decided that God gives us talents, blessings, and strengths so that we can share them with others. We read the story in Matthew about Christ turning just a few loaves of bread into basket fulls in order to feel thousands of people. It's the same way with what we have been given. With small and simple things are great things brought to pass. As soon as we choose to let our blessings bless others lives, our blessings multiply! She asked us if we would give her a couple of extra Books of Mormon so that she could share them with her friends. She says, "You know people are scared of you missionaries. I have sins on me so they aren't scared of me. I'm just like them. You guys are scary though." She is such an amazing example to me! She taught me how important it is to use everything that the Lord has given us. I read a talk called Baring your Burdens with Ease. We all have been through hard things that have lead us to where we are today. Lorita is determined to take all of her mistakes and let them help her be a tool in God's hands. Oh how I love meeting people like Lorita. 3. We have a new investigator! Her name is Heidi. She found us on mormon.org! We got a text last Monday giving us her address and phone number. We drove all the way to the boarder to go meet her! She is incredible. She loved church on Sunday! Everyone in the ward was so excited to see an investigator come to church! We love Heidi. She has already read the first 80 pages of the Book of Mormon so that's pretty much incredible. She lives an hour away so it's hard to see her very often but when we do it's always a good lesson. Please keep her in your prayers! 4. Thanksgiving was incredible! We got to visit lots of widows and had dinner with a new family in the ward. There were 4 Sisters and each of them reminded me of one of my own. They were teasing each other and giggling the whole time! Loved it! Okay I have to go but I love you all and am grateful for you! The work in Green Valley is making so much progress. This area is starting to blossom right before our eyes. I just can't figure out why they call it GREEN Valley.... Today we are going to the boarder of mexico. The Elders have been talking about it all week. We'll see how that goes! I love you all! I love this work. I love this gospel! I want to invite you all to pray for missionary experiences. Find someone to serve. Even helping a random old lady put up her Christmas lights is missionary work (Did that yesterday). This church is true. The gospel is here for us to share. The lord answers every single prayer said. I know it.

Week of Nov. 24- Sorry for the rush

Okay I have a lot to say and only 8 minutes to say it! Yikes haha k here we go Grandpa- you are doing missionary work in Arizona and you didn't even know it. This week I had another Blonde moment. We went over to see a less active. The man that she is living with (as his care giver) is not a member. Okay so they are like the same age so I totally thought they were married so I tried to get on his good side. Sister Call told him I was really smart and that I could figure out any of his riddles. Yeah nobody knows why she is promising these things BUT!! Literally evey single one of his riddles are the ones Grandpa Jerry uses. SO yes actually I got all of them right AND he is now one of our investigators because he says I'm a smart girl so he will let us teach him! WHAOOO! Thank you grandpa jerry! Okay next. I pretty much met the Schanz family this week. They are new members who just moved from Chicago and the Husband is literally a mexican version of Nathan Schanz we had dinner with them and I was just on the floor laughing the whole time. It was heaven! Yoga cactus is officially a thing. We normally just do it in the car as we drive by but sometimes we stop for a pic it's too funny. I read a talk this week about receiving revelation. It was really good haha I'll explain in a year. we keep meeting people that have traveled all around the world. Yeah my world traveling bucketlist as quadroopled this week. I just want to see everything! Ahh I'm out of time so I love you and miss you and am grateful for you! Happy Birthday mom! We have 3 new investigators this week. The lord is for sure blessin us. Pray for barbara becuase she is fantastic and i love her. Okay the church is true! Bye! :)

Week of Nov. 19- 19 going on 90

HELLO FAMILY AND FRIENDS! Remember me? I'll just introduce myself because it's what I do all day long. I'm Sister Barton. I'm a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Green Valley/Sahaurita, Arizona is currently my home. 98% of the population is retirement communities. Residents spend most of their time sleeping, doing puzzles, golfing, watching TV, and enjoying the beautiful warm weather. Driving past golf courses is one of my favorite things because it's the only green thing in Arizona! The work here is a little slower kinda like the people but that's okay! I have never seen so many Prius' in my whole life. The lord has a sense of humor. This week really has been great though! It's a completely different world from Safford but I'm learning to love it. Sister Call is probably one of the funniest people I've ever met. Half the time we don't know why we are laughing but we are! We cover a really big area mostly because each the 8 communities that we cover are all spread out so we do a lot of driving. During those drives is all laughing though. I've never cried so much from laughing in my whole life! Most of the people that retire here don't just retire from work they kinda retire from life. But the ones that do let us in sure love to tell us stories and for the most part don't realize that they are less active. The appointments that we do have seem so go a little long because old people love to talk about their "Golden Years". A lot of the people that we visit are just really lonely and have forgotten why the gospel is so important. I've met about a thousand Vietnam veterans. I had to stop telling them I went to Vietnam because then they always think I'm crazy. Since we don't have a ton of investigators and since most of our ward is in wheelchairs and walkers we do a lot of service which I love! It's really neat to be able to help people in a million different ways. The area book hasn't really been touched for a few months so we have a lot of former investigators and potential investigators that we have been trying to meet. A lot of the communities here are private so we have to be careful about who we talk on the streets and we aren't allowed to knock on just anyone's doors. It makes for a few interesting encounters with security/the cops but that's okay! I'm learning to have no fear and just go for it. One of the weirdest parts about Sahaurita is the evenings. We were trying a former investigator on Wednesday at 7:30. Sister Call had warned me that this place is a ghost town by 7 but I didn't believe her. We knock on the Woman's door and after a few minutes a random voice yells "Who is it" We told her it was the Sister Missionaries. A few seconds later the voice yells "It's the middle of the night are you girls crazy!".... YIKES! Nobody knows when 7:0 turned into the middle of the night but it's just weird. We try to do our meals as late as possible so that we get as much done before 7 as we can but after 7 it really does feel like we are the only ones in the world. We do have 3 investigators though! I've only met 2 of them and one of them we found this week! So please pray for our investigators! Thanks! I love you all and am loving my missionary life! It's by far the hardest thing I've ever done but I'm learning so much about my Savior and what he wants from his children. I know that this church is true. I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. I know that families can be together forever. I know that prayers are always answered. We might not get the answer that we were expected but the answer that we need will always come. I know that miracles come according to our faith. And I KNOW that God wants us to be happy. That full happiness can only be found through The Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you for all the love and prayers. It's very much needed and appreciated! :) Have a great week! -Sister Barton

Week of Nov. 12- Week of Crazy

Sorry for the picture overload but I hope you enjoy! The past week has been insane. Yes, I have been transferred to Sahaurita. They tell me I'm not south of Tucson but I really have no clue where I am. My new companions name is Sister Call! She has been out 16 1/2 months which means she is really experienced and I'm sure she knows a lot of different finding ideas which I'm excited to learn! We have a car which is kind of sad but our area is HUGE so I guess it's for the best. If you've seen meet the Mormons you'll be happy to hear that THE CANDY BOMBER IS IN MY WARD! Yay! I cannot wait to meet him! Since he is kinda famous I guess he goes around the country doing speeches a lot so I don't know when I will meet him but I'm determined to catch him one of these days. Oh speaking of famous people- Grandpa do you know who Paul Robinson is? I guess he used to be a professional football player? Well, I have been really good friends with him for 4 months and I didn't even realize he was famous. Whoops! I guess he almost when to the Olympics or something I don't know! But he is really cool. His daughter is a member. I loved teaching that family! This past week was "The day" again so I went back to Disneyland/tombstone with Sister Munn. She is incredible and was an answer to a lot of prayers. At the end of the day we were driving to meet up with the Sisters when we got to talking about goal for our missions and who we want to become. I told her about my goals and she told me what she thought my strengths as a missionary are. This was really neat because literally everything on her list were things that I had been really praying about and trying to improve on. The lord answers our prayers in the greatest of ways! Sister Munn made me promise that I wouldn't be so hard on myself and I would work on treating myself how I treat others. Woof that's hard. Okay so This computer just told me it is going to turn off in 2 minutes so ahhhh! Sahuarita is no joke! Okay so I'm happy and still loving the whole missionary life! Being in a new area is super scary and makes me nervous and a tiny bit lonely but the lord knows what he is doing! The Mission President says he has a lot of faith in my and my potential so I guess I'm going to rely on that one! I love you all! Scriptures of the week: D&C 50:24 and 40-46. The whole thing is good but that is the highlight! Love you all have a good week. Someone please say hi to Toby for me and kiss cute Chloe! Thanksgiving is right around the corner and I can't hardly believe it. It's 85 degrees and sunny in Sahuarita...sorry i had to pull that one :)

​This is AJ he calls me his biker chick. I promised him I'd be back in a yeah to go on a motor cycle ride with him. He isn't a member but has the most solid testimony of anyone I've ever met.