Weekly Update: July 21-29, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

Here's a quote by Elder Bednar, "Your work is all about who you are and
what you are, not so much what you say."

It has been such a great week! I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have
had to serve with Sister Connor. She has taught me so much and she will be
great trainer. I'm sad to leave Raymond because I've met so many great
people, but it will be good too. I'm excited to experience Calgary.

This week has been one full of many great experiences. Yesterday I turned
20, I can't believe that. Yesterday was also miracle Monday and we had a
miracle. Last transfer we went through our ward directiories and
prayerfully came up with a few people to visit and ask for referrals from.
One family gave us a referral to Dan. When we met Dan he was struggling
because two of his close friends had passed away. We gave him a plan of
salvation pamphlet and left him with prayer. For the past month we stop by
once in while to see how he's doing and if we can do anything for him. We
usually pray with him too. Yesterday I felt promted to go by, so we did. We
talked with him for a while then I shared a scripture with him. We thought
he said one time he had a BOM, but he didn't so I gave him one. He told us
while talking that he really like the pamphlet it really helped. He has
read it four times already. He also wants to start going to church again,
and more specifically going to the "Mormon Church." He promised me he would
read the BOM and he is planning on going to church. It is amazing to see
how the Lord has prepared to hear the gospel. I'm sad I won't be here to
teach him, but it will be good.

This week we also went to the trainers meeting for Sister Connor. On our
way home we had trouble with the bumper on our car. The bumper has been
damaged since January when it was driven into a ditch to avoid a T-bone
with another missionary car. This time the underside of the bumper flipped
under toward the tire and was dragging on the ground. We kept flipping it
back to how its supposed to be, but it wouldn't stay because of the wind.
When we got to Lethbridge we ended up taping it and trying to call Elder
Trim, but he wouldn't answer. Now we have things figured out with him and
he should be taking the car at transfers.

We had a good lesson with Scott this week on Saturday. We went over and
pulled weeds in their garden for 2 hours then while we were sitting
drinking water we taught them about prayer. We invited them to pray as a
family and to come to church. Then on Sunday we made sure we would be in
their ward for church. When church started we looked around and they were
not there, but during the last speaking I looked back and they were sitting
in the back row. We caught them afterwards and took Scott to gospel
principles while Cheryl took their daughter to primary. He commented during
the lesson, which surprised us and a few people that have heard of him. It
was really cool to see him finally making some progress.

Well, I hope everything goes good for Raymond. I know it will, Sister
Connor is a great missionary. I love Raymond and the people here. I will
miss it, but I know the Lord needs me somewhere else. I will be able to
learn and grow so much. I love this gospel so much. I love seeing how god
truly has prepared people for the gospel. I love being a missionary!


Love, Sister Barton

July 14-21, 2014

Hello my family and friends,

How are you guys doing this nice day? I hope you are doing good and enjoying the nice summer weather. I sure am! I love the nice warmth we've had, it makes me grateful I'm not serving in a hot place, I don't think I could handle it. So last week as I was leaving emails I realized I didn't send a spirtual thought, so I will this week. It comes from some studying I did on Conversion for a talk I gave on Sunday. This a quote from Marion G. Romney.

"Now there are among us who are trying to serve the Lord without offending the devil. . . . must eh choice lie irrevocably between peace on the one hand, obtained by compliance with the gospel of Jesus Christ as restored through the prophet Joseph Smith, and contention and war on the other hand?"

This was a cool quote that interested me and made me think. It reminded me of the scripture that says "You cannot serve two masters." It made me think over things in my life and see if there were things holding me back from serving God 100% and I invite you all to do the same.


It has been a great week! It started out last Monday as we went to another Hutterite colony. It was so fun to go around and see the colony. We were given a tour by a group of girls who just love the missionaries! At the end when we were in the school house, they did our hair and let us try on their clothes. We only looked like Hutterites long enough to take pictures. It was really funny, but I don't think I could live that way. Today for P-day we are going out to Waterton. The whole zone is going, but we had already planned to go with a member before the zone planned it. Maybe we will see them there. 

Of course we have also done missionary work this week too! We have put a lot of focus into finding this transfer. This past week did service for two potential families. The first family the Fossum's we ran into when we went to go contact another house, their neighbors, who we knew were non-members who recently moved from Nova Scotia. They weren't home, so we went to the Fossum's. Sister Connor thought they were members so she offered service and gave them our number. About a week later they hadn't called us back, so we decided to stop-by and see how they were doing and we ended up scheduling to come back the next day, Saturday, to come back and help her mow her lawn and week the flower bed. We are going back on Tuesday to continue helping her. We also did service for the Moore's. We do service for them a lot. This time they called us and asked us to water their garden while they are away on vacation. Before leaving we gave Donald, their 8 year old son, a children's Book of Mormon. He loved it and so did his mom. She said it was going in the book bag to read on the trip. The Moore family is progressing towards being ready to be taught. They are awesome.

We were only able to teach one of our investigators once this week. We saw Sam when they were getting their house blessed and we taught a lesson to them on how they can strengthen their family. We did stop-by Scott's house and visited with them for a few minutes. They were doing good, just getting ready to go to Lethbridge and we were going to a lesson. We scheduled a time to go see them on Friday, but then Cheryl called us and told us that Scott was in the hospital because he was sick and got dehydrated. We will try and stop by a little later this week to see how they are doing. We have been working with a few less-actives too, and trying to help them come back to church.

As this transfer draws closer to an end, I just keep reflecting on how much I've grown so far in my mission. I can't believe how much I've changed and grown. I know it probably wouldn't have happened on my mission, or at least as fast has it has here. It just makes me so grateful for the opportunity I have had to come on a mission and change myself, but also help those around me change. Yesterday I gave my second talk on my mission in fourth ward, which is the same ward I gave my first talk. I got to choose my topic, so I prayed and felt like I should talk about conversion. That topic I realized is relevant to my life right now. I am noticing myself becoming more converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I love it. I want to continue learning and growing on my mission.

I can't believe this week I will be out on my mission for 10 months, and I will turn 20! It will be crazy, but crazy fun. I love this gospel and being a missionary!!!!

Love, Sister Barton

   

Some pics of sister barton

Weekly Update: July 7-14, 2014‏

Dear Family and Friends

This has been a crazy week! Especially on exchanges with Sister Estrada on Thursday and Friday. As you have probably heard there was a hail storm here in Raymond. It ended up shattering the back windshield of our car, which wasn't really fun. Sister Estrada and just gotten home for the night after exchanging when about 10 minutes later we heard loud pounding. We looked outside and saw the hail storm. We grabbed our cameras, of course as missionaries we have to record everything, and went outside still under cover of the awning. As I was looking out at our car, all I could think was our car was toast and I hoped it wasn't going to hurt it too bad. Then I thought I saw the windshield fall through, but I wasn't sure, so when the hail stopped and it was just rain I went out and checked. Sure enough, the wind shield was gone! We rushed inside to find something to cover the gaping hole with, but all we could find was cardboard. So we started putting that up, when the Elders brought over a tarp. The next morning we called Elder Trim to figure out what we needed to do. We ended up having to drive to Cardston to get the car fixed, but picked up the parked car that Sister O'Dell used to drive. Then we came back and tracted out a street in 6th ward. But that wasn't the end of our crazy week. We exchanged after dinner, but Sister Estrada took the keys with her back to Cardston, so we had no keys to drive the car. On top of that our house keys were locked inside the car, but luckily we live with members and they let us in. We walked the next day, despite the intense heat and mosquitoes everywhere. That was my thursday through saturday. 

The rest of the week was pretty good too. On Monday after emailing we went to a Hutterite colony for P-day. It was really cool to see how they live. They live such simple lives and all work together, I loved that. I loved how everyone was kind to us and all the kids ran to visit with us. It was a lot of fun, and we are going out to another one this week with another member. On Tuesday we had ZTM's out in Glenwood, because that's a half way point for everyone in our zone I guess. We had a really good discussion about how we can be better missionaries. Meetings like we had always inspire me to do better as a missionary. I love it! Later that afternoon we taught Krissy. Then she wanted to go meet with one of her friends and teach them about the gospel, so we went with her and picked up a new investigator, Rayne. We hope to start teaching her and see where things go. I love seeing Krissy sharing with other people what she has experienced.

Sunday was a good day too. It was a lot of church, like usual, but I learned so much. In 4th ward during sacrament, it was a farewell for a girl going on a mission, and Brother Depew spoke. Brother Depew's talk was on covenants, but he started off with a story that taught me a lot about ministering angels and made me want to learn more about them. Then in 8th ward we found we have got some more ward missionaries. One just got home from his mission a week ago and has given us some great ideas of things he did on his mission, and the other is going on his mission in September. It will be good to work with younger people as well as the older ones. 8th ward is picking up! 

Well, that was my week and a crazy busy one at that! But that's what missionary life is all about. I love being busy and meeting new people, teaching them about the gospel. I've noticed our lessons have been going down with less-actives, but it is because we are spending more time finding. We are trying to come up with ideas to find new investigator. One thing us and the Raymond Elders are doing is a 3 on 3 basketball tournament. So far everyone we have invited is excited about it. It should be a good opportunity to meet the town. I'm excited for it! I love this gospel so much! I love being a missionary! 

Love, Sister Barton

So here are some pictures of my crazy week.
1. Hutterite Colony pigs in their fridge
2. I'm being eaten by horses
3. Our car after the hail storm
4. some of the hail I saved



I will post the pictures sometime this week. :)

Weekly Update: June 30-July 7, 2014‏

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope you guys have had a great week! I sure have. I want to share with you a quote I read this morning in a talk about teaching doctrine. It talked about how in the church we teach a lot about principles and the things we should and should not do, such as pay our tithing and go to church. But understanding the doctrine behind those things will benefit us so much more. When we understand something, it means to have the Holy Ghost tell you tell you it is true through the feelings you have in your heart. When you feel something it's much harder to deny it. I'm going to be better at teach the Why, or the doctrine behind principles this week. 

“True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and 

behavior.

“The study of the doctrines of the gospel will 

improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior 

will improve behavior. … That is why we stress so 

forcefully the study of the doctrines of the gospel”

It has been pretty fun and hot week here in Raymond. The town is finally back to its normal size after it about tripled in population with everyone who came to visit for Canada day. We did a lot of service this week which was great. However, our lessons went down in number. The upcoming week is going to be better. We are going to work as hard as possible to do as much work as we can.

Monday evening we helped serve cake after the family program which was a talent show. On Canada day we went to the parade, because that's were the whole town was. We talked to a few people during the parade. Then we went to a few BBQ's with members. That evening we volunteered at the Street Fair. Both activities were great opportunities to talk to with a lot of people. Most of the people we talked to were members, but it got our faces out in the community so people can know who we are more.

Our investigators are doing pretty good. We dropped Lloyd this week, but we haven't told him we did that yet. We taught Sam twice this week. She loves the gospel so much and you can see her learning each time we teach. On Wednesday we taught her about the law of chastity. She pointed to Haylee, her daughter, and said obviously she's already broken it. We also discussed other aspects of the law of chastity. At the end of the lesson she asked if you could repent for breaking it and if so how? We told her exactly how she could repent. The next lesson we had with her we read 2 Nephi 2 and discussed the importance of agency and choice. Then we taught her how to mow her lawn and helped her do it. She came to church on Sunday and loved it like usual.

Sunday evening we had some time in between appointments, so we stopped by to see the Cameron's because we had not seen them the whole week. It was hard to teach them because their four year old Zina was hiper and loud, but she eventually quieted down enough for us to teach Scott. We talked to him a lot about prayer and he again opened up to us about his concerns or feelings. We tried to resolve his concerns. I felt during the lesson that we just need to continue teaching him the lessons, because right now he only knows a few things about the gospel.

I just want you to know that I know this church is true. This is the Lord's gospel that I as a missionary have the opportunity to share with everyone I meet. I know God lives and that he loves everyone. I know the Book of Mormons is true and brings us closer to Jesus Christ. I love this gospel so much.

 

Love you all,

Sister Barton

The pictures are from Canada day.