Ever Upwards!!

Hello my loveliest & most wonderful family!!

    How are each of you this beautiful day?? Ohh so fun. We just got back from playing fútbol at a nearby park with our zone. It was soo much fun! I'll admit, it was extremely hot but I had lots & lots of fun. It was awesome playing with all the missionaries and then on top of that we had some members from our Spanish branch and an awesome Hispanic who is now in the Chico English ward (due to a stake calling). Hey, you can see who he is actually. Brother Lugo. He's in the Mormon Message but I can't remember the name of it right now. Anyways, good guy. Also, he has a brother who served in Brad's mission!! We made that fun connection. But anyways, the Hispanics, including some Hispanic Elders, made the game that much more exciting, they are all amazing!!! And Brother Lugo even brought cleats, jerseys & everything. It was awesome!!!! Also, last week on p-day I forgot to mention we went bowling!! Haha it was a ton of fun but some of the Elders were getting a little obnoxious trying to teach me how to bowl properly. I have never attempted to throw the ball in so many different ways and as a result, I still like my normal, goofy, wrong way of doing it. Haha oh well. 

So as always, here are the exciting updates on the mission life of Hermanita Barth:

 1. SAD news. Maria is not on date for next Sunday anymore ... Ana, her mom is being stubborn again and doesn't want her to be baptized! We taught her the Restoration on Saturday though and it went very well so we are still praying our little hearts out that things will turn around again. Maria really wants to be baptized and has no doubts with joining the church. She just wants her mother's permission and apparently her dad also said before he passed away that he didn't want any of his children to leave the Catholic religion so that they could see him again ... Anyways, she is so darling and we want to see her baptized so badly! So please please keep them in your prayers. Please pray for Ana to have a change of heart &  pray for Maria simply to be able to be baptized!!

 2. We had another exchange this past week and this time Hermana Briggs & I went to Yuba and spent a day there with my little baby Hermana Hughes!! I was so happy to be back in Yuba and to spend more time with Hermana Hughes. It was soo much fun!!! We had a wonderful time and I had a blast spending a day with two of my favorite Hermanas! Exchanges are the best!! Especially now that we strictly do them with the Spanish Hermanas. 

 3. We had an awesome chapel/church tour this last week with Amparo (mom - she's not the thug, it's Manuela - sorry, I mix up names sometimes!! Haha) and her kids & Cecilia. The Whitaker family came as well, this darling family in our branch - the wife is Mexican and her husband served his mission in Mexico & they have 3 adorable little children - and it was amazing!! We showed them every room of the building while giving quick lessons & descriptions of each room and then both Hermano y Hermana Whitaker bore their testimonies when we were in the chapel. It was super spiritual and I think it made them all feel a lot more comfortable coming to our church. Also, we made rolo cookies for them to eat afterwards and of course they loved that!! I love those families soo much. I have great faith that one day they'll all be baptized too. Right now I just have to exercise patience and know that all will happen in the Lord's timing. 

 4. President Marston truly is so amazing & such a loving, caring and thoughtful mission President. I was very excited because he came to our zone meeting this past week and so we got to spend a little bit of time with him and his sweet wife. I love them both so much. Also, he still responds to all of my emails!! Which makes me soo happy!!! In the response I just read from him he said,

 "Dear Sister Barth, 

Happy and excited as usual. I look forward to reading your letters. I actually sort them alphabetically on Tuesday in my mailbox so that I can pick yours out in a hurry to help my day get started right. And true "EVER UPWARDS." 

Love and best regards, 

President Marston."

    I wrote "EVER UPWARDS!" in the past two emails I wrote to him haha so that's why he added that part but anyways, is he not the absolute sweetest!?! That little note honestly just made my day!! And makes my heart soo warm & happy. I appreciate his personal kindness so much and he really is such an incredible man. He sincerely feels like close family to me but then I also completely view, respect and admire him as my mission President. It's the best of both worlds. I am fully convinced I will have had the best mission presidents in the entire world!! I am so so so blessed. I still think about President Weston all the time too and stick to all of his personal, perhaps more strict, rules haha. I think all that he has taught me will forever be engraved in my mind. Both of my presidents, as Hermana Piggott said in her description to her family "are as different as night & day" but they both are so special and I love them soo much!!! Ps. I am so sad you weren't able to find President Weston at that farewell to meet him Abs!! I want you to meet him so much and I want him to meet you!

 

    Well, I don't have too many other crazy updates to give .... everything is going wonderful here in Northern California and I still couldn't be happier. I have been taking dad's advice and trying to really take time each day to look around and soak in what I am doing. He said to, "Take time to breathe and look around. Memorize the streets and quaint little places that are unique. Take lots of pictures." I am definitely doing each of those things and enjoying my mission to the fullest and loving every single tiny second of it. Even the moments that may seem rough. Haha for an example: yesterday we went tracting after church in blazing, scorching hot weather and as we were going from door to door while sweating bullets, we kept running into English people who would LITERALLY slam their doors on our faces. Haha one lady was very rude & disrespectful as Hermana Briggs was simply offering service ... the lady shut the door right on her, mid-sentence! But as we were walking away I just gave my sweet Hermana Briggs a smile, chuckled out loud and said, "THIS IS THE LIFE OF A MISSIONARY!" And then I said how I am actually grateful for those moments of rejection because when they happen I feel like a true missionary haha. Also, I get a greater glimpse (still the tiniest, teeniest glimpse) of how the Savior felt when He was on the earth being rejected over and over and OVER again. The Savior, Lord and Redeemer of the world HIMSELF.

 It reminds me of the scripture in the Bible that says, "Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you." - John 15:20 ... Because the Lord Himself, while preaching His own gospel, was persecuted and rejected, of course, we as full-time missionaries, representatives and servants OF Him will be persecuted and rejected as well. We will be hated, looked down upon, mocked, etc. just as He was. It says in the precious verses, "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." - John 25:18-19 ... It is only expected for us to be hated by the world and to be honest, I am proud of it. I am proud to be known as a representative of my Savior, to have His name on my chest and to preach that to all that I meet. I could not be happier to defend my Savior and to share His wonderful gospel. I love being set apart from the world and being as far away from it all as possible. Even if it may not seem to be the most "popular" or "convenient" thing to do. I know it is favorable in the eyes of God and and that's all that matters. I want HIS approval, not the worlds. Ohh I am so pleased to take upon myself the name of Jesus Christ and serve Him and do His work. Even if that means taking upon myself some of the rejection He took upon Himself for my personal sins & salvation. It's the very least I can do for Him. 

    To be completely honest, mission work is hard. It is. I know without a doubt it's the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. But like Elder Holland said in an MTC talk, "Why on earth would we expect missionary work to be easy for us, when it was NEVER easy for Him??" So yes, missionary work isn't easy, but it is by far the greatest thing in the entire world and more rewarding than I can possibly express. I am so unbelievably grateful for my mission experience and I truly cannot picture myself or my life without it. I wish so badly that every single person could come on my same mission and experience all that I have. My mission has sincerely changed me in more ways than I can express and I want every single person I know to serve one!!!! It is the best decision anyone could ever make because it is the best one I have ever ever made in all of my life. I can testify of that. My mission has changed who I am, who I want to become, my life, what kind of life I want to live, what kind of wife & mother I want to be one day, what kind of daughter of my Heavenly Father I want to be ... the list goes on. It has shaped me in so many ways and I am now beginning to know & see who I truly am inside. I am beginning to view my true identity. I am getting more of a glimpse of how my Father in Heaven sees me and of the potential I have as his Heavenly daughter. What a treasured gift that is. There is nothing greater or more valuable to me. 

    I have such a full heart and family, I know I say this all of the time but I truly love each & every one of you more than you can possibly imagine. I talk & talk & brag & brag a little more about each of you ALL the time and I have learned more than ever before that I have the most perfect family in the world. Yes, we're all not literally perfect and we each have our bumps & bruises but I could not feel more grateful for the family I have and I know that Heavenly Father put each of you individually in my life for an important & eternal reason. I am the luckiest & most blessed girl in the entire world. I love you all sooo much!!! I hope you know that and know how much I admire, look up to and completely adore you all. I could not feel more proud & honored to be a Barth. 

I LOVE YOU ALL & 

EVER UPWARDS!

Con mucho amor y un gran abrazo (siempre), 

HERMANA BARTH

Ps. I also forgot to mention I got 3 wedding invites in one week! Which leads to me addressing the fact that Jane & Ben will both be getting married this week!! Two of my very best friends. So so crazy!! And then Meg & Carter (that's so fun you saw Carter in the temple and then both of the outside, mom & dad!!), Zeke & Asia and Jaleigh, my roommate from BYU, were all married last week!! When is this wedding madness going to end??? Haha no, just kidding. I am very very happy & excited for each of them!! Send them all my love! And send me tons of pictures!!! I am positive they will both be gorgeous weddings and I want to see how the Gardiner's do this reception. Oh, please give them both big hugs from me!!! I love them so much. And mom, Marissa e-mailed me with a picture of you & her attached. I cannot believe Marissa is now home!!! We were emailing each other back and forth as missionaries just 2 weeks ago ... time is sure flying by. You both look so pretty though and the picture makes me very happy!

AND last but certainly not least, as was discovered by my packages never arriving ...

My address for packages is:

1350 Forbes Drive

Orland, California

95963

I accidentally wrote 1354 instead of 1350!! Sorry again my dearest mother. 

Pictures!

I LOVE MY MISSION!

¡Hola mi amorosa y querida familia!

I hope you are all well and that you had a safe & lovely time in my

Heaven ... Jackson Hole!! I want to hear all about it! I loved the

pictures you sent me mom & abs, thank you! All of the little ones look

so grown up! And the videos!! Jane's ballet dancing, haha I was dying.

So fun! I love our family soo much!! I love my Teton Troopers! And I

love this years t-shirts too by the way. Good job Barb! Ohh I am sure

you all had a complete blast! If you can believe it though, as much as

I love Jackson, there was nowhere else I would have rather been this

past week than here in Northern California in the mission field!

Working & serving in the Lord's vineyard. Here are some reasons why my

week was so WONDERFUL!!

  1. Maria update. So, we had to push her baptismal date till the 17th

because of church attendance but a MIRACLE happened! Well two

actually. First off, we taught her the Word of Wisdom & Law of

Chastity. We were a little unsure how she would take it - since we

knew she drank coffee & tea - but the lesson went perfectly smooth and

she said she would stop drinking both, no problem at all. She accepted

the invitation to live both commandments with a smile on her face and

she even started recognizing & mentioning all the bad effects she has

noticed from coffee, etc. Amazing! And then our next miracle with her.

So, as I mentioned last week, her mother Ana didn't support her in

being baptized and she didn't want to get baptized without her

mother's blessing. Well, we had been praying & praying for her and

decided to continue to simply try our best to bring the spirit with us

& into their home whenever we visited and pray for Ana's heart to be

softened. Well, after we had our wonderful lesson, we asked her if

there was anything we could help her with and she said for us to

continue to pray for her & her baptism! We then thought things were

the same but she continued to tell us very enthusiastically that she

now has her mother's support, blessing and that her mother is actually

EXCITED for her to be baptized! Ana, her mom, supposedly said that we

have behaved ourselves very well and she can tell there is nothing bad

about our church. She really likes us Hermanas and knows the church

will bless her daughters life! We were all cheering when she told us

and we could not stop smiling!! It was the biggest miracle!! Hermana

Lee even had tears come when she told us and I can't say that mine

didn't well up a little bit as well ... I just love Maria soo much and

am soooo happy & excited for her. Heavenly Father truly is watching

out for each & everyone of his precious children!! I love it!!! Soo

baptism coming up!!!

2. Another MIRACLE. So, one of Hermana Lee's recent converts here is

Ana. Ana is 11, her mom was baptized right before her, her dad has

been a member for many years (less-active) and then she has an older

sister, Mercedes who is 14, and a little brother, Gustavito who is 8

and severely Autistic. Well anyways, Gustavo does not need to be

baptized and Mercedes has not yet been baptized. Apparently Mercedes

hasn't had any interest in learning from the missionaries either and

will just occasionally come to church with her family ... However, we

invited her to come to our last lesson with Ana (recent-convert

lessons) and she came!! It was a miracle! And what was even better was

she LOVED the lesson!! We taught about service, watched the Mormon

Message "Lessons I Learned as a Boy" by President Hinckley (which

always makes me feel the spirit very strongly) and it was a very

spiritually uplifting & heart warming lesson. She shared many personal

comments & experiences too and supposedly on the way home told Elder

Warmoth, a senior missionary - we had our lesson at his home, that she

felt sooo good during the lesson & cannot wait for our next lesson

we're having this upcoming week!! Amazing! I have a very strong

feeling it won't take long for this darling girl to be baptized.

Part-member families are the best!!

  3. We found a new incredible investigator!! So one night we were

leaving a lesson and we saw from a distance, in this apartment

complex, a few ladies and their children sitting around a park talking

... we decided this would be an excellent OYM (open your mouth)

opportunity. So, we went over and started talking with the ladies and

casually brought up our purpose as missionaries, etc. The ladies were

all super nice and gave us their apartment numbers so that we could

stop by in the future. Well, later in the week we were back at the

same apartment complex and decided to try them all. We knocked on one

ladies door, Veronica, and she immediately let us in. We then had one

of the greatest lessons!! We got to know her a little bit better,

talked more about our purpose as missionaries but what made it go so

well was Hermana Lee asked her what she expected out of us teaching

her, what she wanted to gain from our lessons, etc. She then said

"TODO" ... EVERYTHING .. and then she sat there for a moment really

pondering over it and then completely opened up to us and told us more

about herself and what she really wanted. She is this

darling/beautiful young mom, she looks like she could easily be my age

or younger, has two little ones and is currently a single mom. She

said it is a hard job and she has no family here in the States,

they're all still in Mexico, so she said she often feels very lonely.

She said because she gets so busy with work & being a single mom, she

hasn't given herself much time to study the word of God and grow

closer to Him but she know it's what she needs and she's ready for it

& for it to make that difference in her life. So, I first had us read

a few Scriptures: 2 Nephi 25:26 (talking about our purpose and leading

to the Atonement) and then Alma 7:11-14 (talking all about the

Atonement of Jesus Christ) and then I immediately thought of the

Mormon Message "None Were With Him" or in Español, "Totalmente Solo"

and had her watch it. After the video I could tell from the look on

her face that she absolutely loved it and I couldn't have been more

right. The spirit was so strong and as soon as I asked her what she

liked about it she put her hand to her chest as if she couldn't catch

her breath and she simply said, "WOW." She then said she loved

EVERYTHING about it and still couldn't quite find the words to express

how she felt. She kept putting her hand to her chest and saying "wow"

and then she said, with tears in her eyes, "Yo se que esta lección es

para mi." ... "I know this lesson is for me." She said, "Yo se que

estas lecciones que tienen son muy personal." ... "I know that these

lessons you have are very personal." She loved it so much and said she

would love to learn more. The lesson applied to her PERFECTLY and she

could feel that we, como misioneras y representantes de JesuCristo,

were really there for HER individually and her personal needs. It was

amazing! I could barely speak for a little while as well because the

spirit was soo strong and I was so touched by all that was happening

and by her sweet reaction. It was a moment I will never ever forget &

I am soo excited to teach her more!!! She is amazing! We have a lesson

again with her tomorrow, I cannot wait! And her kids are DARLING!! I

am so happy we followed that soft prompting of the Holy Ghost and

decided to OYM her that one night. A miracle is happening because of

it. I truly must talk to everyone I see in sight!!! No matter what!

  4. We had exchanges this past week and we're exchanging with the

Yuba Hermanas and so Hermana Hughes got to come up to Orland and spend

a day with Hermana Lee & I!!!! It was the best!! The second I saw my

baby Hermana Hughes, I realized how much I have missed her!! Honestly

I have missed her sooo much and it completely hit me when I saw her

and got to spend another day with her. She is purely AMAZING and one

of the best missionaries I know of. She is sooo positive, happy,

upbeat, humble, energetic, enthusiastic, fun, biggest hearted,

Christ-like, diligent, obedient, loving and I couldn't look up to or

adore her more!! I had a complete blast chatting with her, spending

more time with her and I feel like most of the day I was smiling or

laughing. She is so much fun and I realized more than ever how much

fun we had together. Also how diligent and hard working we were

together. We honestly worked our little hearts out in Yuba and both

talked about how proud we are of ourselves and the work we performed.

Miracles are going to come because of our efforts and I know none of

them were wasted. Ah, Hermana Hughes is incredible and I know she will

always be so dear to me. I am so excited to see her down at BYU and

experience more fun times & memories together. I am the proudest

mama!!! Also, her Spanish is "FANTASTIC" (she always says that word)

haha and she is just killing it as a missionary. That Hermana came

into the field, pre-trained. I love her so much!!! We had an awesome

day when she was here as well. So much fun! (Ps. we all have a

prediction that Hermana Piggott is going to get transferred to Yuba

this upcoming week and so my "mama" & "daughter" are probably going to

be serving together!! So crazy!)

  5. BEST THING. So since Hermana Briggs was in Gridley for a week and

was supposed to be serving there, she started teaching Yamara and

tried to get a good relationship with her.. well, after the changes,

there are now only Elders in Gridley. And we talked about how Yamara

along with Marcella and others, will be a little neglected because it

won't be the same for them to meet with Elders. Well anyways, since

Yamara is my recent convert as well, Hermana Briggs asked President

Marston if we could have Skype lessons with Yamara here. He joyfully

gave us permission and so we had out first Skype lesson!!! It was

amazing! I never knew I would be able to teach and feel still feel the

spirit so well through Skype! We read & discussed the Alma the Younger

story in Mosiah 27 and led it into talking about her conversion (the

other Hermanas wanted to hear her tell it) and then missionary work

(she still needs to work on her family). So we did just that and it

was sooo much fun along with being such a powerful lesson! Yamara

could not be more darling and I am thrilled to be teaching her still.

It is going to be amazing. She also said THE most heartfelt & sweet

prayer at the end of our lesson and I was almost in tears. I love her

so much. Also, I got to see Antonio & Lorenza on the screen for a

little, they were loving it way too much haha and they agreed to keep

reading the Book of Mormon with Yamara and then they said how they are

going to visit me when I get home. They said they want to come to my

wedding. Which if that's far away I will be visiting them way before,

but it made me happy. They say they're my "familia Mexicana" and I

love them so much. The Elizondo's are so close to my heart.

    6. Manuela, our thug investigator and the best person ever, is

finally starting to pray on her own and she said she'll come to church

this Sunday!! And then we have another awesome progressing

investigator, Lourdes, who we've been seeing at least twice a week and

she is so amazing as well! Lots is happening here and I'm absolutely

loving it!!!

    7. Haha fun fact. My companions have beautiful voices (Hermana Lee

has an amazing voice and even has a song recorded!! I need to send you

a cd with the song on it ... We sing along to it all the time) and so

we offered to sing a trio at a baptism! We teach the mom Spanish and

so she asked us if we'd do something. But anyways, even though my

voice is nothing special and I am no singer, I have enjoyed singing

lots on my mission and our trio was very nice!! We sang at the cutest

little girl, Morgan's baptism, and we sang "Neared My God to Thee." I

actually prefer to sing that song in Español now but it's such a

beautiful song and it was really fun. We even harmonized and that has

definitely been something I've had to learn how to do on my mission!

It has been pretty fun!! I also started playing the piano again the

other day ... It has been awhile but I actually miss playing! And then

we're also singing in Sacrament Meeting next Sunday with three of the

young women from our branch. It should be a good experience!! I love

singing on my mission because I know I never will never do it publicly

at home. Haha I am taking advantage of it while I can!

   Well family. I truly could not be happier and I never want my time

on my mission to end. Everything is becoming more tender to me and to

be honest, tears already come to my eyes when I think about this

beautiful journey ending. In dad's email today he said something about

how next August we'll be laughing thinking about how fast the time has

flown and I will actually be crying not laughing!!! But really. My

mission means everything to me and I am soaking in every little moment

I have here in the mission field and I still have sooo much time

left!!! So many wonderful miracles and experiences are about to

happen.

I LOVE MY MISSION!!

Con mucho amor,

HERMANA BARTH

These are from the baptism we sang at!!!

life is beautiful

Hello my loveliest family!!

How are all of you!? Well, I am not exactly sure what to say about

this past week but let's see....

1. I finally had a personal interview with President Marston! It was

amazing!! He is incredible!! He was very complimentary, sweet, loving,

easy going and I already love him so much! We had a wonderful

interview and I have already learned so much from him. He is pretty

different from President Weston, of course - two completely different

people - but with that, I am learning all sorts of new things!! I feel

so blessed to experience two mission presidents! President Marston

already has a big place in my heart like President Weston does and I

am very excited to get to know him more!! He is the sweetest!!! He is

very very personal, intimate and thoughtful too which I love. For

example: we send him an email every week and he has emailed me back

every single week thus far!! And his emails are the nicest!! Haha

today's was kinda funny too. So I told him how I had actually always

wanted to serve with both Hermana Lee & Hermana Briggs so I feel as

though I am killing two birds with one stone and he said, "Dear Sister

Barth, You mentioned killing two birds with one stone. Please don't

kill my two lovely missionaries. Just kidding, they are not like birds

anyway." Haha I love his sense of humor. And then he is so nice and

said, "I mentioned how appreciative Sister Marston and I are of

missionaries who take the time to look happy, look attractive (neat

and clean and sharp), and have a confidence about them. Let me again

thank you for that. As to the trio---I really believe it can prove to

be an amazing force for good. Three dynamic and faithful sisters doing

the work of the Lord at the same time with the same spirit and also

acting as ONE is surely to provide the mission with miracles, stories

of faith and success, and prove that not only can two people get along

in a companionship but three can do as well. Thank you, thank you.

Love and best regards, President Marston" ... I love him!! Also, how

darling is this.. he gave me a little silver heart necklace charm and

said that since he can't hug us sisters, whenever I need a hug from

him... I can squeeze the heart charm. And then he also gave me a

silver anchor charm and said it represents my faith. "Wherefore, whoso

believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even

a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh

an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and

steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God."

- Ether 12:4 ... I love President Marston so much!!! Also, I got to

have a good long chat with Sister Marston before & after my interview.

She is soo darling and amazing as well. Mom, I feel like you would get

along with her very well. Actually, come to think of it ... I think

both of you, mom & dad, would get along with President & Sister

Marston very well. They both remind me of you both. Also, she told me

they have a place in Bear Lake!! Salt Water condos or something like

that?? I can't remember exactly but I recognized the name and could

picture the area ... Fun connection! We both love Bear Lake!!

2. Our investigators are still progressing!! Maria's date may have to

be pushed back a week because she didn't come to church yesterday and

we found out her mom hasn't been very supportive of her being baptized

and she wants her mother's blessing, so we are working with her ...

But she, her mom Ana, loves us sisters and even made us beautiful

doilies (do you know what those are?? I'll send you a picture of Ana

holding them to her as a skirt - all Mexican old ladies make them and

have them all over there houses) and they always feed us when we're

teaching them ... So we have a very good relationship with them both

but we just need to get Ana on board. Haha she is a riot though, she's

this hard working, hard headed lady that even admits it and will say

quite often, "Soy negativo, soy negativo" haha so anyways, more

updates to come! Cecilia & her family and Amparo & her family are

progressing too but they still need to come to church!!!! Hopefully

I'll have more updates on them next week ... and everyone else is

doing well! Including our thug Amparo. Haha I love her sooo much!! I

need to send you a picture of us with her. She is so rough & tough on

the outside but we're digging into her soft side ... love the woman.

3. We did tons of service this past week which was wonderful! Every

week we do 2 hours of service at a local food pantry that is stationed

at the Lutheran church in town and it's awesome. I have had quite a

few casual chats with the Pastor too which has been pretty cool. He's

a very very nice guy and I am happy we can serve together. We also

painted the inside of a trailer which was pretty fun!! Haha there are

a lot of trailer parks around these parts. One in Yuba was called

"roll-a-home" haha classic!

4. Hermana Briggs & I spoke in church yesterday! We were asked to

speak on covenants and so Hermana Briggs spoke on "making" covenants

and I spoke on the importance of "keeping" & "honoring" the covenants

we make. It was pretty fun to speak together and our congregation is

quite small so I didn't have an ounce of nerves! I loved it! I love

speaking in church in Spanish too ... it is so much fun!!! I'm going

to miss that.

5. Our trio is still going amazing and we are honestly having too much

fun. Haha it has been the best time!! I love Hermana Briggs & Hermana

Lee sooo much and we honestly are the best of friends. We talk about

it all the time too haha. Pretty much every single night we have the

best pillow talk and out of the blue last night Hermana Lee said,

"Hermanas, do you know how much I love you??? I love you both so much.

And will you please never forget it??" Then she started getting on our

beds and Hermana Briggs was screaming, "you're breaking the white

handbook!!!" Which says ... "If you live in an apartment with more

than one room, always sleep in the same room as your companion, but

not in the same bed." Hahaha we are such nerds!!!!!! But then Hermana

Briggs & I joined in and we were all saying how our tripanionship is

such a blessing and that we are the luckiest missionaries ever!! Haha

we are the cheesiest but honestly, these Hermanas are amazing and I am

learning soooo much from them every single day. Haha everyone is

constantly serving one another in this tripanionship and there are

compliments flying left & right at all times, everyone took President

Marston's advice on being "more patient, more kind & more loving" to

the extreme but hey, looks like it's working out because we really all

could not get along better and I am soo happy!!! We also now all have

brand new wardrobes - one huge closet full of our clothes, we share -

haha so great!! I love my loveliest Hermanas!! I am crossing my

fingers we get to stay together next transfer as well. They are

amazing and incredible missionaries!!!! I am so blessed!

6. Fun facts:

- We died Hermana Lee's hair last p-day!! Haha I have now died hair

twice on my mission. Calee would be so proud!!

- We are living off of Horchata and I couldn't be happier about it.

- We are very diligent in exercising each morning. Hermana Lee has us

wake up every morning at 5:45 to start working out at 6!! Some morning

we run a few miles at a track behind our home and the we do some other

things as well. I'm so lucky I have companions that are so dedicated!!

I can't lie and say some mornings I wouldn't be just fine sleeping in

till 6:30 hahaha but I am always thrilled we did something that

actually worked up a sweat!

Okay well I don't have much else to say for today!! I love you all

sooo much!!!!! Have a wonderful day & week and know that I am thinking

of and praying for you always.

The church is true. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ with all of my

heart. I love my Heavenly Father and Savior & Redeemer, Jesus Christ

more than I can express. My relationship with each of them has become

increasingly stronger & closer in this past year and I am so humbled

even thinking about the love I have for them and the great amount of

love I feel from them every single day. I will never be the same

because of it.

I also have learned how crucial and important prayer, scripture study,

meditating & pondering are. It is through these simple acts that we

are truly perfected & transformed.

"Sometimes people think those are such small things ... prayer,

immersing ourselves in the scriptures, pondering, meditating, how can

that really produce a significant difference in a persons life, but it

does. As small as those things may seem, how daily routine they

sometimes may seem to be, these are the things that day by day,

transform us."

- Elder Christofferson

I have grown such a strong love for praying, reading - studying -

analyzing - and pondering over the scriptures and meditating and I am

sooo thankful for the wonderful habits I have picked up of these

actions on my mission. We must make time to pray, study & read,

meditate and ponder every single day. We must continually move upwards

and grow closer to our Heavenly Father and becoming like His Beloved

Son, Jesus Christ. I crave each of these simple yet powerful acts and

can feel them constantly changing me.

I LOVE MY MISSION &

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH

Con amor y un gran abrazo,

HERMANA BARTH

Ps. I got Ben & Angelee's wedding & dinner invitation in the mail the

other day!! I was so excited. They are a gorgeous couple and I am sad

I'll be missing out on the special celebration but send my love their

way!! I still can't believe I have never even met Ben's fiancé -

future wife!! So excited to meet her. They are darling!! So sweet.

Oh, and I just found out you are in my Heaven!! Jackson Hole,

Wyoming!! Have sooo much fun and make sure to send me plenty of

pictures!! Tell everyone hello from me as well, give them all big hugs

from me and tell them I love you soo much!!!!!! Have fun hiking,

swimming at String Lake, river rafting, playing double nines, whiffle

ball, etc. and just spending precious time with those who mean the

world to me!!!! Teton Troopers!! Woot woot!!

Here is a picture of my darling trio with Sister Marston!! We wanted

one with President but he was busy interviewing everyone ... So soon I

will send you one of him!!! Isn't she the classiest lady though!? And

my companions are so pretty and wonderful. It goes Hermana Lee,

Hermana Briggs, Sister Marston and me!!