A Week of Ups and Downs ........

Week #9

Los Malos y Los Buenos…   (the bad and the good)

This week has been a week of ups and downs, it's been a roller coaster ride for sure. First to reply to some of the things in your email, I am so glad people see the blog! You work so hard on it and I could never thank you enough! You're the best mom ever! That's awesome about Chelsea! I hope she is doing well. When I read what Mrs Keller wrote about the missionaries I may have teared up a little, but that's no surprise ha. That's so sweet of her!  A mission definitely isn't a walk in the park, but it is so rewarding.

Thank you for all the support from everyone. I can truly feel the love on the hard days. I hope everyone knows they are in my thoughts and prayers constantly. I'm glad you're not too worried about me. It definitely is true that the Lord is on my side. Everyone I meet is an angel in some way. It's amazing what the Lord can do. I have seen so many small miracles that could never happen without the Lord's help.

Now for the week, basically this week started out rough.  We had zone conference and guess what? President Pace (the Barcelona Mission President) came up to me and said that President Edgren (he is the Mission President in Poland, and he is a long time member of our church here in Danville.) says hi! They had a presidency meeting with all the presidents in the missions of Europe and he was there! President Edgren said they were lucky to have a sweet shining star like me in their mission. It was so cute and such a tender mercy in this hard week that we had.

LOS MALOS:

The bad this week was rough. First of all we had 15 citas (appointments) fall through…that's like most of the citas we had scheduled. We spent a lot of time trying to find things to do. It was rough because you feel worthless when you're just standing around.

Also we had an investigator drop us. idk if I told you about Beto. He is 18 and he had so many questions and was so concerned for his brother and hell and all of that. We met with him a ton the last two weeks and then he didn't show up to an appointment. We called and called and finally he answered. He said he wanted to talk to Hermana Barker so I talked to him. Basically he said I really like you guys and the help you give me, but it's a waste of your time. I don't want your religion. I have too much going on in life and I need to figure that out first. I asked him why he wanted to talk to me and he said cus he trusts me the most and thinks I would understand. It was bittersweet. I told him if we see him on the street he still has to say hi and he said of course. It definitely was hard though. We talked to a member about it who had come to appointments with us and he said it just wasn't Beto's time. Beto needed to learn a lot more before he was going to accept the gospel.

LOS BUENOS:

Where to start? We met Rosemary and Manuel this week. idk if I said anything about them so sorry if I repeat. Basically she's GOLDEN! She is so willing and so ready and asks us every day when she can be baptized. The only thing is, Manuel is still married to a woman in Bolivia...awkward right?  He is a member from like 15 years ago and saw the missionaries on the street and told them he wanted to come back to church. It was awesome, so we are working with them. We talked to them last night about finding their own places for the time being so that's what were trying to do now. Hermana Tuttle said that every golden investigator comes with their problems and I can definitely see that now. We are shooting for October 5th to be her baptismal date if they can find places to move. Keep them in your prayers for me!

Also, the Elders had a baptism this week and Elder Perez (our district leader) asked me to give a talk about the Holy Ghost...IN SPANISH! So I gave about a 5 minute talk. It was awesome, but I was so nervous. Also Rosemary and Manuel were there so it was cool to bear my testimony for them. When I asked Elder Perez why me he told me it was because he wants me to push myself. He knows I can learn fast and he wants to help. It was super cute. 

We also had preparation day today and we went to the ciencias…they're science buildings in Valencia. We went hampster ball running on the water. It was solo hard, but so fun. I have never sweated more in my entire life! I like prep days though, they are super relaxing. 

Well that's about my week. I'm slowly learning to rely on the Lord in all things and to really believe that it is on His timing that things happen. It's hard but rewarding. Also, my quote for the week is, ¨there are no ordinary people nor ordinary situations¨. It's in my Patriarchal Blessing. I thought it was perfect for right now. Not one person we meet or teach is ordinary. They all came to us for some reason. I thought that was a great way to look at things.

I hope you are all doing well. I miss you terribly, but its almost been two months! can you believe it? I am halfway through my first transfer. I love you all and pray for you every night! Be safe and remember who you are...and Taylor and Courtney, don't kiss boys :)

all my love,

hermana barker

ps. can you send a message to Sammy Jo Smart for me and tell her happy birthday! I'm a day late, but there was nothing I could do. Also tell her to email me because I don't have her email!! She's the worst! haha but I love her. Please and thank you!!

(the words in Blue are linked to pages that further explain their meaning.  Just click on the word and you will be taken to the page.)