"Happy Halloween you two."

 And then I got a truck load of pictures from you and Katelyn and they were perfect!!! I laughed and laughed and laughed! Some of them I don't even remember what was going on! But you picked out the perfect ones! I DIED when I saw the one of our family at the San Diego temple! How stinkin' cool is that! I don't even remember coming here! You even made me cry because I was so happy :) So thank you from the bottom of my heart. My favorites were the super embarrassing ones of me and Moo, the one of me and dad in the garden, the one when you took me and moo on a little day trip to the reservoir, the picture of me and brennan at the statue of liberty looking all nasty, and then the softball ones of katelyn and moo :) they were SO great! And our new family picture!! WHEW that's a good one! My favorite ones of katelyn's were her and todd and peter at the temple and peter is kissing her, her and peter on mothers day, and then the one when he's in the cupboards :) hehe THANK YOU SO MUCH :) :) they are perfect.

 

Last Pday we went to a pier only about 3 miles from the border! So naturally, we went the extra three miles and waved to Tajiuana! Not even joking... we saw the HUGE Mexican flag that flies over Tijuana and then we took pictures and such. The craziest part is that they have all these signs on the interstate that say "LAST UNITED STATES EXIT IN 500 FEET" so if you miss that one you have to go to Mexico. We were very careful to make sure we hit that last exit. Can you even imagine having to tell President Clayton that we went to Mexico for Pday!?? So bad. But basically we serve in northern mexico... Sister Bodine and I are the only full proselyting english speaking sisters in the zone. When we go to Pday stuff the missionaries are always blabbing in spanish and we feel kinda stupid. BUT! Let's just take a moment to reflect on who in the Barfuss family was the only one to not take French in high school for some weird reason... yup :) I know that Heavenly Father was even preparing me in high school for my mission because although I don't remember hardly ANY spanish from high school, I know how to pronounciate things around here! Yay! I can't tell you how many of the street names can make you look stupid if you don't know Spanish. Aka- "Jamacha" :) hahaha!

 

Some funnies...

1) we went to dinner at one of older lady friends house and when we walked in she had her fireplace going. Well you have to realize that it was 75 here and humid... BLEHHHH!! I sat there the whole time about to faint. It was SO hot! But I will say that the fire place brought on a new level of classiness that I haven't seen for a while, so I'll give her that ;)

2) during sunday school this week they were talking about the seagulls that ate the crickets that were eating all the pioneer's crops. Well since we're in California, the teacher took a moment to make sure he pointed out that the utah state bird is the CALIFORNIA seagull and everyone laughed and laughed. I'm pretty sure I even heard a couple of knees slap ;) People make fun of Utah SO much here. I secretly thought the whole situation was funny because of Johnny Biscuit's comedy routine he does on the mormon crickets... *But they ate the crickets bissssscuit!* Anyone!? Hahaha!

3) somehow we ended up on a toll road this week? And since neither of us had even been on one before we didn't know how to pay! We didn't want to hold up the people coming in behind us, so I grabbed my purse as fast as I could and slapped my debit card into the machine! Who knows how much it cost!? Hopefully not too much. Haha! But seriously... paying to use a certain street? Like whaaaat!?

4) I found that this week my brain was hungering for some sort of stimulation other than spiritual, so I decided to make a math problem for myself (I know, I know, I'm sorry I ever complained about math homework). Here's what I decided to do... Missionaries say the phrase "Set goals and make plans" about a trillion times a week because of nightly planning and weekly planning. I decided to calculate how many times an average missionary would say it their whole mission! *wOoOoW sister barfuss get a life* Turns out an Elder says it over 8,000 times and a sister says it over 6,000 times. That's what I'm talking about!!

5) we did some service for two elderly potential investigators this week and it was AWESOME. The husband looked at us and said, "I need you to weed whack this whole back yard of weeds." YESSSSS!!!!!! Could you pick better service for Sister Barfuss? I submit that you cannot. THEN he gave me a automatic hedge trimmer thingy and said "I want this bush to be 6 feet tall." So I gave a HUGE bush a hair cut! I was so nasty after... I found twigs in my hair for days. But man, it feels SO GOOD to use you body for service. Lots of missionary work is you mind and your mouth, so it was delightful to use my hands and my muscles for a few hours.

6) we printed out some invitations to watch conference this weekend and we've been giving them out. Well we gave one to this huge dude and he all he said was "Happy Halloween you two." Ummmm yeah, 

We got a good chuckle out of that one...

 

Can I just take a moment to say that if you want to learn about other cultures, languages, ways of living, etc., come hang out in San Diego for a bit (or maybe get out of Idaho and Utah haha!). This week I talked with people who are white, people who are Hispanic, people who are black, people who are Native American, people who are Polynesian. We talk with people who are more committed to their animals than their kids, people who like to cuss ever three words (lets just say that my ears have heard everything you can imagine plus a few more), and people who don't know what to do because they only have 10 bucks in their bank account. We run into to super lonely people all the time, people who are still single at 55, and people who work 12 hour day. My mind is really being opened up to the world. But more specifically, the things that I should be more grateful for.

 

Let's take a moment to talk about General Conference!!! YESS!!! The relief society session was perfect. Covenants, covenants, covenants :) That was my first experience with conference as a missionary and I can't wait for more! The way my mission lands I get to watch conference 3 different times! Let's get some guesses on what the main topics for this weekend will be... my guess is missionary work and covenants! BAM! Because in all reality the reason we do missionary work and that each ward has a rescue plan is so that people can make or get back to keeping their covenants... love it! Just a quick thing I thought of... in October 2011 conference they announced the Provo City Center Temple, October 2012 they announced the missionary age change, so what will October 2013 bring to blow my mind!?? I can't wait!

 

I love you to pieces :) I love you so much!

Sister Barfuss