You like Carlos Santana!?

I'm just going to jump right into the good stuff today... here are the highlights of Sister Barfuss' week!

Turns out that at Bible study every week the sister missionaries are in charge of singing a musical number. Well if any of you remember anything about me, it's that I don't really love singing in small groups, let alone acapella, 2 part, and in someone's living room. But Heavenly Father refuses to leave me where I'm at! And by golly, I want to grow! So Sister Bodine and I sang,  "There is a Green Hill Far Away" and I about fell over. But then something great happened, it wasn't that bad! Then we went to a woman's house later that week and sang her a song while Sister Bodine played the Ukulele. Guess who has to sing again tonight!? Yep. Here's what I've learned. Heavenly Father can really (for reals, He can and will) make weak things become strong. My ability to improve my comfort level while singing is correlated exactly to my faith.

We went to the Mormon Battalion twice this week! I LOVE that place. I decided to email you the pictures we take so that you can secretly know what I'm up to that day! (You can email the pictures right there at the Battalion). The first picture with the older lady is Sister ----. The ward has been trying to get in and help her for years and she has always refused to accept help. Well one day we went over and I asked her a bunch of questions... she told me that she doesn't feel very good everyday. Soon enough I figured out that she has Chronic Pain and Fatigue and she doesn't like how everyone thinks she is just "making up" her pain. She told me all about her pain and that she "puts a show on" at church because she hurts so bad. Then she talked about how she has always done everything herself and she will always do everything herself even if it kills her.

I thought about all of this for a second and then I felt like I should share my experiences with people that have similar challenges. I told her that my mom has to deal with the same thing and that she in no way inflicted it on herself and that IT IS REAL. I told her about how my mom didn't like slowing down at first and still tried to do everything she was doing before. Sister ---- asked me about mom's symptoms and I told her a few and she matched them all pretty well. I just looked at her and said with all the love I had, that "I know you want to do everything yourself. I know that it's frustrating and that you hate it. But I also know that I have the particular mom I have for a reason. I have had lots of experience helping her with things, so I know what hurts the most. Sister ----, where is your vacuum? Let us vacuum for you."

She smiled, gave us some treats and invited us over for the next day. We did about 6 hours of service for her and she fed us lunch :) As Sister Hinkley once said "Everything you are learning now, is preparing you for something else." Pay attention to every situation you are in, there is a very specific reason! Funny fact: every time we go over to Sister ---- she makes us a root beer float and calls it "rooty toot float time." Haha! Love her!

Oh and PS- the other sister you are seeing in all those pictures is Sister -----. She is a Battalion sister that served in Spring Valley and knows all the people we bring, so she gives us the tour and gets in the pictures! She's great!

Now I would like to move to a section called

 "Awkward Moments Rebounded Off Of - Staring Sister Barfuss"

 Haha! Get pumped! I have two stories to tell today. The first being about a Mariachi band :)

So we went to the Battalion with Sister ----- (did you end up sending her a letter? i can't remember) this week and after she took us out to lunch. We went to a super good Mexican restaurant and all the sudden we see this mariachi band walking around. So of course they see our table and think, "We need to go embarrass them and then ask them for money!" Naturally I am on the end that is closest to them. 30 seconds later they came over and said "You like good music!??" And since I am mastering the art of making potentially awkward moments not awkward, I said, "You bet I do!" They said back to me "You like Carlos Santana!?" Me: "You bet I do!" *que mariachi band* Thank goodness that Sister -----
knows how to have fun, so we started moving and dancing. At some point one of the band members tried to scare me -  I just kept acting like this was a normal thing for me... I look over and Sister Bodine has her camera out and is recording it all... I'll send that video sometime soon. When they are all done they said "You chicas are fun!!" *que me letting out the biggest sigh of relief that that was over* We gave them 2 bucks :) Situation awkward or not awkward?? - NOT AWKWARD!!!

Last story in this section... We walked up to a house where a less active lived and there was someone on the porch. Naturally I started talking to him and he said that he knew about Mormons and didn't need to talk to us. We asked if we could share a scripture anyway, we did, and then I asked if we could pray with him before we left. He said yes and then I asked him to say it. So he looked at me for a second and then looked down for about 25 seconds. I wasn't sure what he was doing but I assumed that he was getting ready to pray or something, so I bowed my head and kept one eye open to see what he was doing. Pretty soon he looked up at me and smiled.

(Uhhhhhh... wait so did you just pray in your head?? Or uhhh did you think I was going to pray? Or uhhh... I'm super confused?) So I just said "Heavenly Father loved hearing from you right then! Thank you so much for praying with us. You have a nice evening alright!?" *walk off* Situation awkward or not awkward?? - NOT AWKWARD!!!

Best quote of the week... "Heavenly Father loves us how we are, but He refuses to leave us that way."

I'm so happy that He supports me all the time. He loves me. 

He wants me to push myself everyday so that I can see how good it feels to align my will with His.

Pretty cool stuff if you ask me.

I love you!!

Sister Barfuss