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!!!