I can do hard things!

I cannot believe another transfer has gone by. This week was "the day" again! I got to be with Sister Hurst a.k.a. my mission sister! (Sister Smyth trained both of us) yeah so that was incredible. We spent the whole day talking in accents and laughing our heads off. Oh how I wish I would have been able to serve around her more. She is going home next transfer but I just love her to pieces. We spent the whole day dashing from appointment to appointment and having a ball the whole time. Too great! She taught me how to do an indian accent while I attempted to teach her a french accent. Making my family proud! Ranching- Okay so I know Brother Chinchilla sent Dad pictures but now I have to tell you the stories to go along with it! It felt so good to put on some pants and play in the mud/chicken poop. I have decided I will own a pet chicken for the rest of my life. They are just too fun! I spent at least half of the morning trying to catch Bertha the chicken. She was my friend as soon as I had food. My kinda girl! So yeah she was awesome. Then we also go to hang out with the horses and the dog (if you could even call them dogs.) It was so fun! The Chinchillas ranch is a rescue ranch so all of the animals were abused or have something going on with them. I loved being back with Horses. We aren't allowed to ride horses as missionaries but we sure get to play with them! Oh I was in heaven. We also helped the Chinchilla's make shelters for the horses and while doing that WE CAUGHT A GECKO! Yeah it was pretty much the best. One of their dogs is named carlos. He was abused so he doesn't have any teeth so his tongue just hangs out of his mouth. That thing is evil but he is so funny! My day of ranching was for sure a success! Right after ranching we went and helped an old lady organize her family history records. It was a very diverse day in Rincon. Speaking of diverse. We are teaching a family from Syria. There are 8 people living in the house but only 3 of them know English. We got them Arabic Book of Mormons they love reading out of it. The first time we went over they were all sitting in a circle on the floor eating this bread/cookie thingy and mate (wrong spelling? the south american tea stuff). We spent the whole first visit sitting in a circle eating and drinking freaky food. They told us about how churches there get burned down really regularly so they came here so that they could be better Christians and worship the God that they love. It was amazing to me how much faith they truly have had to have in order to stand up for what they believe it. Teaching them has taught me how simple the gospel really is. Because they don't speak very good english we have to teach as simply as possible. I'm trying to learn a little bit of Arabic but it's kinda a huge struggle! Funny story: An appointment canceled and we didn't have any more back ups to try. We attempted to go tracking. The first house that we went to we were about to pass through the gate to get onto their porch and then noticed that their porch was full of goats! We were literally attempting to knock on the huge mansion but the goats were in the way! I wanted to get a picture but it was raining and most people have cameras so I controlled myself. That is one way too keep people from knowing on your door- turn your porch into a goats play pin. They had slides and everything! Last p-day we got to have a snowball fight! We put flower in nylons and threw them at each other! Oh the struggles of winters in Arizona! It was a good final p-day though! okay the computer is kicking me off now but I love you all so much! Miracles are happening in Rincon and I am so blessing to be able to be here right now. I love this work! I love you all! I love chickens! But most of all I love this restored gospel. It is the one and only true gospel on the earth today! Have a good week! Thank you for everything! :) -Sister Barton

This is the pet gecko that I love! Sister Chinchilla felt bad that she made us let him go so the next time that we went over she had a plastic lizard for us to keep as a pet. She's the sweetest!

We asked the elders to help with making the snowballs.....this is what they did.

Grateful

Wow. That's kinda sorta all I can say. I opened up my email and was overwhelmed with emails of love. Thank you so much. All of you are truly answers to my prayers. Everyone always told me that missions are hard. I had no idea what that meant. They really are full of so many twists and turns that you never see coming. The great thing is that I know every trial is there to help me learn and grow. Let me tell ya about my area. It's not nearly as spread out as my last one and there is only one private community so there are much less interactions with cops now adays. Pretty much everyone here is working for the military (the air force base is 10 minutes away) or Ratheon which is like missal and bomb engineering top secret stuff. I don't know! Once again they pretty much sent me to the middle of nowhere. I've come to the conclusion that all of Arizona is the middle of nowhere unless you are right in the middle of the city. The community is growing like crazy! Apparently the vail school district is da bomb so there are lots of families moving in. One of our wards is an army for a primary which is way different from the 20 kids in my last ward. Some of the area is normal neighborhoods but a lot of it is the typical dirt roads, super spread out, nobody knows their neighbors sort of place. I have grown to love falling asleep to the sound of Coyotes. Everyone here has to be super careful about leaving their animals outside at night because...well ya know...they won't be there the next day..The other day Bother Chinchilla told us that we need to learn how to be ranchers so on Thursday we are going to work at his ranch! I am so stoked! Ahh I'm somehow almost out of time so I'll be quick. Today I am just full of gratitude. I'm grateful for my amazing family, I'm grateful that I get to put on a name tag everyday that not only has my name on it but the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I'm grateful for the knowledge that I have of this restored gospel. The one and only true gospel on the earth today. I am grateful for the atonement and the chance that we have to constantly be improving ourselves. I cannot even begin to describe how grateful my mission has made me. It's incredible how much I have learned and grown over the past 7 months. Somehow this week people kept asking me about what I want to do when I grow up and where I want to go to school. I honestly have no answers to any of these questions but I am confident that the next 11 months will help me figure out everything one step at a time. Thank you again for all the prayers and all the kind words. It means everything to me. I think I sometimes forget that I am for sure not doing this alone. I have so much help surrounding me. Thank you! I love you all so much!

January 12-Going Greek?

Family! Hello! How is everyone? Things in Vail Arizona are going pretty well. The week of winter is over so I for sure can't complain. I have to start out by telling you about my new friend, George. One rainy day Sister Charles and didn't want to drive home for lunch so we stopped at the one and only cafe near us. Before we went in we prayed for someone to be put in our path. As soon as we walk in we meet the owner, George. While Sister Charles was in the restroom he came up and asked me where we were from. I explained that we were missionaries out teaching people about Jesus Christ. He starts telling me about how he loved Jesus and pretty much baring his testimony to me. He suddenly stopped and asked me if we were like Mormon nuns.....NOPE! Then he asked if we were allowed to get married and pretty much asked about how the whole mission thing worked. He told me about how he moved here from Grease and just loves it. Then out of nowhere he comments that he thinks that since I love Jesus I should marry is Greek grandson and "make greek babies"....things got awkward really fast. Sister Charles came back so he walked away. We finished out food and went to pay. George was at the register ready to help us. I introduced them to each other and he told Sister Charles about his plan to set me up with his grandson. Once again we tried to explain our missionary purpose. We both bore our testimonies in the middle of that tiny little cafe. George got really quiet and suddenly have us both hugs. We asked him if we could leave him with a pamphlet and come back to teach him. He told us he would love to learn more! We will be teaching him on Tuesday! Everyone in town is really really stoked for the chapel open house we have this next weekend! All the missionaries spent a big chunk of time this weekend blitzing our area, handing out invitations to the open house. There isn't very much going on in this part of town so EVERYONE is really curious about the new building. I was shocked at how many people think they aren't allowed into the church building. On the blitz one of the Bishops brought his kids so that some of the missionaries could go on splits with them. His daughter and I had a blast tracking up and down streets. She was really scared at first but by the end she was the one doing the talking! Yesterday at church Bishop Merrill talked to the ward about how much his kids and all the youth that helped have fallen in love with missionary work! Lots of parents came and thanked us for letting the youth join us. Wow if these youth think tracking is fun they are in for a really big treat when they start actually teaching people. The best part was when they asked if we go tracking all the time. We explained the role of members in the work and how much more effective missionary work is when members are helping find people. It was a blessing to see so many light bulbs light up at they told us they were going to invite their friends to the new church building or how they were going to give out invitations to their neighbors! They are the greatest examples! This week I got to go on exchanges with the YSA sisters! I went with Sister Jones to her area which is pretty much all of Tucson. At first YSA gave me a little bit of culture shock but by the end of the day I was in love with serving in YSA. It's funny how different it is to teach a 60 year old man than it is a 20 year old single girl. There are elders and Sisters in YSA which means Sister Jones and I were only in charge of the girls. Our dinner appointment consisted of chatting about who got engaged to who and where everyone is going on their honeymoons. WEIRD! Oh it was so weird. We did get to teach a less active girl named Stevie. Stevie is one of those girls that had my respect from the beginning just because she is who she is and she's not going to change that for anyone. She has LOTS of animals including dead ones that she keeps in her freezer...yes. I am not kidding. She showed me her rat that has been dead for 3 years...yeah. She fed her dragon lizard thing worms while we were teaching her and I was just loving getting to know this girl. One day I just want to be as chill as good old Stevie. Last new of the week is Heidi's baptism! Everyone told us that the church was 10 minutes away....it was 30 so we were 20 minutes late but somehow so were the baptism suits. BLESSINGS! I walked in right when they were getting ready to start. Heidi made a huge scene and everyone cheered...it was a little embarrassing but whatever! As soon as we sat down I look over and President was sitting there. Oops. I should probably be on time next time. The baptism was incredible. It just made me feel like I was home! Almost everyone in the ward that I am close to was there. Including Sister Howl who manages to slip me muffins every time that I see her. She makes it seem like a dirty secret which is exactly why I love her. Sister Charles was cracking up. The Dunfords sand and Heidi bore her testimony of how she got to where she is at. The spirit was so strong and she was just glowing! Afterwards she wouldn't let the elders take a picture with her until "all her missionaries" were in the shot. It made me really miss Sister Call. This week has had so many rewarding miracles that helped me remember how blessed I truly am. This is the hardest thing I've ever done but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I love being a missionary. I love being able to teach people about how much their Heavenly Father loves them. I love knowing that this gospel is beyond true. I love feeling the prayers of family, friends, and strangers all around the world. I can't wait to be able to go to the temple this week with my zone! A few women in the Corona ward have been teaching Sister Charles and I how to do family history. It's addicting! I am planning on taking a family name to the temple for the first time this week. It's been such a blessing to be able to learn about my ancestors. I can't wait to serve one of them through temple work. Sarah or Mary- one of you might need to help me with baptisms :) I love you all! Have a great week! Don't forget about your missionary in Arizona! -Sister Barton

January 5- Happy New Years

Hello Family! (Safford and all) How is everyone? From your emails you all sound way too busy. You should probably take a break and go on splits with the missionaries....food for thought. I have no clue what I'm going to email about this week so bare with me. This week was pretty slow work wise. Last p-day was only a half p-day because Thursday was M.U.D.! (Mission unity day). President and Sister Passey threw a huge party for all the missionaries! We had Sonora Dogs and everything! All of the missionaries got to hang out and play games at the stake center all day long! It was SO good to see Sister Rhodes and some of my cute mission friends! I found out that one of my investigators in Safford is getting baptized this weekend! ahh I'm so stoked for Stephanie! Getting to hang out with everyone made me really realize how many memories my mission has given me. It felt so good to just be with everyone! Next amazing thing about this week was we got to have a mini missionary live with us for the weekend! Cecelia is a 16 year old girl from Southern Tucson. She got baptized a little over a year ago and is debating on going on a mission so to help decide President gave her to us for a weekend to show her what she will be signing up for. I prayed and prayed that while she was here we would be able to show her the joy of the work and prayers were for sure answered! Suddenly we were getting into houses that we have been trying for the whole transfer! It was cool to see how much she loved the work! Plus she was a very big good luck charm so I wouldn't mind doing a mini mission every day! Next miracle. The holidays made it really hard to teach people. Everyone was either out of town or constantly running around trying to get stuff done. Now that the holidays are over things are starting to get back to normal! It's been WAY easier to get a hold of people. All throughout the past week we were making return appointments for this week so this week should be the busiest week ever! YAY! With the new building being opened up in 2 weeks pretty much most of the less actives we see say they will start coming to the new building...we'll see about that...HOPEFULLY they are telling the truth. I'm really excited for the church open house because everyone in town has been saying that they are inviting some friends! The 18th can't come soon enough! :) Now that the new year is here everyone keeps talking about goals and resolutions. I've never really liked the idea of resolutions because I feel like they never get done BUT if my mission has taught me one things it's the importance of making goals. As I've pondered and prayed about the goals that I have for this next year I can think of about 5169465131 things. My biggest one is figuring out who God wants me to become. It's not enough to be an obedient missionary. Anyone can do that! My list of goals are all about who I want to become. It's weird that I've already been out 6 months. I only have a year to figure out what kind of missionary God wants me to become. SCARY! I want so badly to be a good missionary. That is a process not an event. On the morning of MUD Heidi got in a roll over accident. It was the first and only snow of the year so 7 cars hit black ice on the freeway. Heidi was one of them. Her car rolled three times. The accident shock her up really bad emotionally. President Passey told me the news and I just about freaked out. I called her and she said she walked away from the accident without a scratch. She hit the ice and immediately felt something lift her hands off the wheel and protect her. She said the whole thing was 100 miles an hour yet slow motion. Through it all she said she felt so protected. She somehow knew that it was going to be okay. I admire her faith so much! She'll be getting baptized this weekend. I'm speaking at her baptism and seriously just can't wait to see her. Heavenly Father is watching out for her so much. Through all of the hard trials that have tried to stop her from progressing she has let them only strengthen her. She has strengthened my testimony so much. I know we have a loving Heavenly Father who is looking out for us. I know that Heidi was able to walk away from that accident with a totaled car yet not even a scratch because she was being protected. I know this church is true. I know it. Have a good week! Love you all! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGAN FRODSHAM! I ABSOLUTELY LOVE YOU SOOOOOO MUCH! -Sister Barton

First Snow!

Mini Missionary

Dec. 29- Christmas Miracles

Where do I begin?!?! Miracle #uno :) Okay so our first was because of a four year old boy. We were walking back to our car when we finally found someone outside! That's when we ran into the mowers! Ethan is 4 years old. He and his Dad were cleaning the garage when we stopped by to chat. They are members but we stopped anyway to ask for a referral. Brother Mower automatically said he didn't know anyone but cute Ethan jumped off his bike and said, "My friend R.J. goes to the wrong church can I introduce you to him?"....a referral from a 4 year old? We'll take it. R.J. just so happens to live next door to the Mowers. Ethan ran over and knocked on the door. He was so excited to introduce us to his 5 year old best friend. Nobody answered the door so we promised him we would try again later. Well, yesterday we were in that same neighborhood when Ethan comes running out of his house and says, "Can we try again!" We did! Thanks to cute Ethan we will be teaching R.J. and his family this week! Yay! Miracle #2 That same day we got done with our last appointment and had 30 minutes until it was time to head home. We are trying to use every second wisely so we prayed and decided to point to a random name in the ward directory. My finger landed on the Johnson's name. We drove over there to find their oldest daughter was having a small party with her highschool friends while they are all back for winter break. After talking to a few of the girls for a little while we went to say goodbye to Brother and Sister Johnson. Brother Johnson pulled us aside and said, "Sisters you look like you need to go roast a marsh mellow over with all those girls." At first we said we were okay then he informed us that none of his daughter's friends were LDS and none of them knew very much about the church. Okay fine! We went over and jumped right into the girl talk, trying our best to get their names down and get to know a little bit about them. Before long they were asking us about what missionaries really did all day and about how often we get to call home. They were shocked! Questions started flying at us like crazy! We left with the hopes that lots of seeds were planted that night :) Miracle #3 One of our investigators is named Gayle. She is really hard to get a hold of and her family is not to fond of her joining the church. She invited us to come over on Christmas eve and share a christmas message with her family! She made it sound like it was going to be 5 or 6 people....we show up to the party to find like a really fancy adult Chirstmas party! There was like wine and cheese balls. Like that kind of stuff! Obviously the 19 and 22 year old missionaries stood out a little bit in that crowd which was a blessing! Gayle intoduced us to a few people and suddenly people started asking us all kinds of questions. Once again everyone thought it was so shocking that we gave up internet, tv, and that we only talk to our families twice a year. Before long they were asking us about what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is all about. Miracle I tell ya! We didn't get to share a message because Gayle asked us to do it another time BUT once again seeds for for sure planted. We are going to start teaching Michelle (the best friend/neighbor) this week! I'm running out of time so I'll save the rest for some other time! I love you all and loved hearing your voices on Christmas! The past 6 months have gone by way too fast. It kinda scares me a lot. I feel like a whole different person than when I left. My testimony has grown so much stronger in the atonement and all that Jesus Christ has done for us. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. There is simply no other option. During a member present lesson we were trying to teach the restoration. The member that we took with us got a little ahead of us and ended up teaching out investigator, A.J. the first 3 lessons and about how to receive revelation form the Book of Mormon. Sister Charles and I were in a panic! Everyone knows you can't just throw everything at them! Our investigator just sat there and at the end said, "WOW!" We was literally speechless. It was overwhelming but at the same time the spirit was so strong as this passionate member bore his testimony that there is no other way. The knowledge that we need is at our fingertips. God has given us so many resources to help us learn and grow! I know that Brother Smith is right. There is simply no other way. This church is the one and only true church on the earth. There is no other way. Thank you for all the Christmas gifts and thoughts! I love you all so much! Happy New Year!

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