Hi family!
Well today is crazy because we have a lot to do and no car so I won't
have very much time to email and I won't be able to say all I want in
this email either.
So yeah! All week we knew Hna Simmons was leaving and she has always
had this fear of serving in the Peoria stake because it is so far, and
just kind of sounds like the armpit of the mission even though we have
no armpit here- says President Fenn.
Jokingly all week I was
saying "so next week when you are in Peoria..." Anyway she eventually
accepted the fact that she was going there.
So we get our transfer
call and the assistant to the President goes "any guesses?" And I go..
Yeah Hermana Simmons is going to Peoria! and he goes "that's actually
right....." Hah so Hermana Simmons actually is excited to go down
there with Hna Figueroa.
My companion will be Hermana Lewis!
Hermana Lewis came in the same transfer as Hermana Lopez and my mtc
companion Hna jones trained her! The last 2 transfers she has been
with Hermana Lopez. So she has been with two of my companions already
which is great. This is the first transfer that I actually know my
companion before, more than "hi how are you good bye" which is cool. I
am excited! But also nervous because EVERYONE knows that Hermana Lewis
is all about running and working out. She loves loves it! All sisters
in the mission have a video of her doing workouts so we can all do
them. My kind of working out is some nice stretches and simple yoga.
Needless to say I am scared for what I may have to do at 6:30am cada
dia!
And the thing I am most excited about is that I am a grandma! Aka
Hermana Lopez will be training this transfer! I am excited about it
because I know Hna Lopez is going to be amazing. I don't think I know
a more obedient, diligent and dedicated missionary. So proud!
Ok so, what even happened this week. The great thing was that Amalia
had read! She is solid. In our lesson she read over the Baptismal
interview questions and was like "I have to get married don't I" haha
so the cat is out of the bag but it went well. She's making progress
except for it truly will be a miracle to see her at church this
Sunday. It's going to happen! Isabel too. We are seeing her today
do please pray that her and Amalia will come to church this next
Sunday!
Joaquin is frustrating to work with but mostly because he is
having a lot of problems with the people he shares an apartment with. He
says he really is going to move out. Keep praying for him. THIS is his
month! His transfer!
Tuesday we saw some miracles in disguise. A cool guy named Mateo
cancelled our appt so we were sad of course. But then Maite- who has
been to church several times over the past year and is 18 and dating a
member- texted us and said the only time during the whole day we could
see her was when Marco's appt was! So we taught about baptism and she
is now praying about a baptismal date. She is also so so close!
FUNNY STORY...That night another cita (appt) fell through but it was a miracle
because it allowed us to find a woman to go with us to a potential
new investigators house to teach him for the first time. It was a
miracle the member got home from work and came straight with us,
such an angel! But anyway we get with this guy Tomas and it's a
HILARIOUS STORY! he has a
cat named Travieso which means tricky or trouble or mischevious and it
is a silly cat.
so Hna Simmons teaches
Tomas how we pray and that we close our eyes for respect to God and
so he closes his eyes and all in respect, and then Hermana Simmons
starts to pray. As soon as she starts, the cat jumps on her lap and
sticks his head in her bag. I peek to look and she is trying to get
the cat out of her bag while praying. So I start to help her and I
push the cat out (she is still praying by the way) the cat gets
out and has her pack of gum in its mouth. So I just snatch it out of
its mouth Hahahah and look over to Tomas and he is just still there
with closed eyes in respect and I am just at the point of BURSTING out
laughing and she ends the prayer so we can laugh hahaha to this day I
don't think Tomas even knew what went on during that prayer hahaha.
Tomas seemed strange at first but later into the lesson we find that
he is passing through the biggest trial of his life right now. He was
fighting back the tears so much and so we were able to share about the
atonement and he said he was interested in this. I am thankful for
Jesus Christ and for the Book of Mormon that teaches us about his
atonement so that we can get through our trials in this life. I hope
we can keep teaching Tomas!
ALSO we had an amazing zone conference this week. President Fenn gets
there and it's his turn to instruct and he tells us that his Dad
passed away that morning, and that teaching of the doctrine of the
plan of salvation and what happens when we die was going to help him a
lot. So of course it was absolutely amazing and I learned more and
felt more about the Plan of Salvation than ever before. It was amazing
and I wish I had more time to tell more. ALSO I am going to send you
all the harvester from president Fenn this week (if I can) about the
atonement. It is mind blowing!!
We all had to go with a talk prepared and OF COURSE I randomly got
chosen. I hadn't really thought through it that much either but it
went ok. It was in front of 4 different zones, aka a lot of great
missionaries. I'm just happy it is over! I talked about the atonement
from Alma 33 because that really stuck out to me last time reading the
Book of Mormon.
Well that's all I have time for now unfortunately but I love you all!
Love Hermana Barlow
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