Week of Love Feb. 17

Okay so I honestly don't have much to report for this past week. We were just doing out missionary thing! In the spirit of Valentines day I decided in addition to spreading the word I was going to do everything that I can to love everyone to death. Sometimes that meant killing with kindness, other times it meant using every free second to call and check up on someone. If we weren't in an appointment than I was on the phone chatting with someone! It was actually a lot of fun. I've noticed a difference in the work. I've always loved the people that we teach and that I've worked with but this week I made it a point to tell everyone how much they are loved. Peggy- we are teaching a woman who loves the gospel! She knows it's true but she won't progress without her husband. He doesn't want anything to do with us which is really hard on Peggy. This week I decided to kill him with kindness and see where that takes us. So every day we would call Peggy and ask her about how the kids book fair went and how her pta meetings are going and just heart attacked her on valentines day. We tried to show her husband in every single way that we want to teach her family because we love them not because we want recruits. It's been amazing to see his heart soften. In so many other situations I've seen love change people. This work and this gospel is all about showing people that you care about them. You want them to read the Book of Mormon because you care about them. You want them to come to church because you want them to feel peace and joy. You want them to pray to their Heavenly Father because feeling his love is the greatest feeling in the world. It all comes back to love. Valentines day showed me how important it is to never let anyone forget how much you love them. I'm grateful to be a missionary because it means I can randomly call or show up to anyone's house for no reason and just love them. This name tag gives me so much courage to talk to everyone in our path because I know how much heavenly father loves them. Ah I love you all so much! I'm grateful for all you do! Thank you for all the sweet packages and mail. I am overwhelmed with how much love and support everyone has given me while I've been in my own little world of Tucson Arizona. Fun Facts about Tucson: -All of the animals are either deadly or they are chickens -Don't touch the plants -The sunsets are incredible -They don't let anyone have street lights because they want to be able to see the starts (blessing and a curse) -1/2 the streets are on dirt roads no matter how fancy to houses are -House numbers aren't a thing. If you want to be a mail man stay away from arizona!

Feb. 9

Hello family! I have quite a lot to tell you about so put on your seat belts and listen up! This week was awesome! I got to go on exchanges with HERMANA HUBERT. She went to Lone Peak High School...Kalli do you know Rachel Hubert? Rachel she said she knows you. We spent the entire day trying to figure out how we knew each other before this missionary life. Drum roll please.....we went to EFY together 6 years ago!! What?!?! Yeah we were pretty stoked when we figured it out. It only took 24 hours but we figured it all out :) For the exchange I went to their area which was in southern Tucson. (Pretty much the ghetto) My day with Hermana Hubert started off with my first run in 4 months aka heaven! Then she converted me to smoothies with rice crispy cereal in it. Okay it sounds weird but it's bomb. Once a week a few missionaries meet up for a Spanish/ASL class. First the ASL elders were teaching us how to street contact. One of the elders knew I spoke Sign Language so when we broke up into different levels I ended up teaching one of the classes! They claim they are going to talk to President Passey and get me to be an ASL missionary for the rest of my mission...There haven't been ASL sisters in 6 years so we'll see how that goes. My day of Spanish reminded me that I really need to work on my Spanish. It's a little rough. Hermana Hubert and I are pretty much twins though. We were laughing the whole day! Most of the lessons that day were in English so I got to help teach! At one lesson the woman made me pray in Spanish. I had no clue what to do but I kinda spoke spanglish and apparently it worked! My new goal is saying all of my personal prayers in Spanish. GO FIGHT WIN! I forgot my list of things that I wanted to talk about so this letter is going down hill fast. This week was amazing! We got 5 new investigators which is pretty much unheard of. All of them were member referrals which is even more unheard of. Two of them is a young couple who have a 5 year old girl. The mother is very concerned about raising her daughter in a scary world. They weren't home when we went over for our appointment on Saturday. Last night we went by to try them again. The mother was home and told us about how her husband doesn't want to be Mormon. She quickly asked us to give us a little bit of information about our beliefs so that she can talk her husband into letting us come by. Her husband came home while we were talking on the front porch. Before we knew if they were both asking all sorts of questions about The Plan of Salvation. She went inside, grabbed her daughters princess table and we laid out the entire Plan of Salvation. By the end of the lesson the husband began to really open up. He shared his story about going through a lot of challenges in his young adult life. He tried to commit suicide twice. One time his phone went off which woke up his mother and the second time the bullet got stuck inside of the gun. It is a miracle that he is here today. Those experiences taught him that there is a purpose for why he is here. It was incredible to see how much the spirit softened his heart. I feel blessed to have been able to meet them. We have a return appointment that I can hardly wait for! A Few Things I know For Sure I do not understand all the things in this life I do not understand what causes us strife What causes us sadness, what causes us gloom Or the way the flowers begin to bloom You feel so little and small sometimes Not knowing the world and what makes a clock chime You come to me sick and I know not a cure But there are a few things that I know for sure

I know that God loves me and He knows my name In fact He loves you exactly the same He knows what I need and He knows how I feel He knows my desires, my dreams and my wills Above all of that I know for a fact As I trust in Him, He’s got my back So knowing it all, it doesn’t matter to me For God knows it all, and in Him I believe. Have a good week! I love you all! -Sister Barton

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!