Sis. Barfuss and Sis. McKee! (from Pocatello)
"On this Christmas I send my love to every missionary, every man or woman in the military, every student, and every employee and traveler who won't 'be home for Christmas,' as the carol says. Keep your faith. Look for the good in your situation. Do something kind for someone. Seek Christ devoid of wrapping and tinsel. You will find that despite external circumstances, Christmas, like the kingdom of God, is 'within you.'"
| --Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, "Christmas within You", December 2012 Ensign |
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!
First of all... did everyone see Katelyn on page 77 on the
December Ensign!? Hahaha! I did! (apparently she thinks Katelyn resembles this pic) Basically this week it finally got
cold. Crazy, I know! But for reals, it's only like 39 when we
exercise in the morning, so now I finally feel like it's Fall :)
haha! We had some frost and such.
Thank you for the update on Sarahr... I love her so much. Sarah would always say "WHO
ARE YOU!!??" When I would hang out with Kyle in the seminary building (she had a
crush on him haha).
Christmas questions and answers: I get 40 minutes on the phone on Christmas
day. So let me know what time is best to call... we're pretty open :)
haha! A family invited us over for dinner that day. That was VERY
nice of them! Thanks for sending me things and making me feel happy :) Sister Bauro gets to Skype because
she's a foreign missionary.
Her dad is owns a grocery store, she is an only child, and she didn't finish
high school. So basically she and I are complete opposites in virtually all
things, but our service to the Lord, that's all that counts right!?
Sounds like you and moomoo and papas are pretty darn busy! It
feels nice to not be in the hustle and bustle. I have an new zone leader and he
is one of the only missionaries in our zone that was here last Christmas (so
many of the missionaries are new!) and he said that if you are homesick, you
need to dive deeper into the work. Isn't that the truth!? So here is how I am
diving deeper... I'm keeping the speed limit Hahaha! Here's the
story... an elder in my zone asked me how many "check you speeds"
TIWI yells at me everyday and I said 10 (they have a monitor on their car that checks their speed). He laughed and said "yeah
right! I followed you for about 3 miles and I think you had 10 there!" And then
later that day we followed our zone leaders to the temple and they drove 65 the
whole way there. Well let's just say I don't go 65 and neither do people in San
Diego. I made fun of him once we got to the temple and he told me that when he
decided to start going the speed limit, his mission completely changed.
WHAAAAAT!!??? So I tried it. I loved it. I was calm and the Spirit
had lots of time and opportunities to speak to me because I was just casually
driving and enjoying the day. Who would have ever thought this was possible!?
(heheheehe) Well my zone leader took this as an opportunity to also
teach me about the "good, better, and best of obedience." Pretty much you can be
good at being obedient, better at it, or best at it. And someone who is "best"
at obedience, goes the speed limit, writes in their journal everyday, says their
personal prayer before 8:00 so they can start studying at 8:00, etc. So here it
is, my gift to the Savior this year is being more obedient so that I can have
the Spirit with me more often. I know this will lead to miracles. "Obedience
leads to success, exact obedience leads to miracles."
So this week Grandpa T came down the stairs and asked Sister M if he
could get fitted for a suit!! Yay! And then he handed her a coupon!
Haha The sad part to this story is that he had a right brain stroke
on Sunday and now he's in the hospital :/ So we're feeling really grateful that
he got baptized a couple of weeks ago. If he had waited, it may have never
happened. They said he'll be in the hospital for 2 weeks and then he'll be
moving really slow for a while at home. I love him so much you guys.
This week I also took a moment to feel old... we were at our zone meeting
and they played a "get to know your companion" game. One of the questions was
"what is your companion's full birthday?" One of the elders went and he said he
was born in '95!! '95 people!!!!!!!!! I just sat there and looked at him saying
"whaaaaaat theeeeee...?" So they thought it was SUPER
funny when I said when I was born.
"Grandma Barfuss" is the term
they like to use :) haha
My headaches have been wonderful this week!! I'm not sure what is helping
but something is! Here are the possible culprits... stretching in the morning,
taking Magnesium, my reading posture, my water intake, going to the
chiropractor, not having sugar, and getting good sleep, AND a Priesthood
blessing. And I'm being serious about the sugar, although it's impossible to cut
it out completely because it's in virtually everything, I've been trying SO hard
to not take in unnecessary sugar. Thanksgiving was a beast and same with the
Christmas party, but I came out victorious!
I also had an opportunity to stand up for what I believe in this week. We
went to a less active's house that I'm very close with and she
asked us if we would go get her some groceries because her car broke down... and
she asked if we could pick up some cigarettes while we were there.
Uhhhhhhhhhh no, duh. She looked at me and begged! Literally begged
me. She said "I'm so stressed!! Please Sister Barfuss! Please!
You're going to make me walk all the way down to seven11??" Bahhh!!
I looked at her and said "I love you too much to buy you cigarettes." If I have
learned one thing in Spring Valley, it's that cigarettes are the most horrible,
terrible, destructive, wasteful, disgusting pieces of garbage on the planet (I
would like to include alcohol in here too). I have seen too many peoples' lives
destroyed. I've seen too many people become slaves to them.
We got to go to the San Diego Temple Christmas light/choir show last night!
We took our investigator P and then two other members in the ward. We all
crammed into his 5 seater and had fun. NEWS FLASH: I still get
super car sick in the back seat. Hahaha! Good thing Sister
Bauro is an international missionary so I get to drive the whole
transfer! HOLLAH! The temple was all lit kinda of like a mini
temple square. We went and enjoyed the choir and then talked all about why the
temple is so important. Why is the temple so important eh!? Here is my current
favorite part of the temple: It's a place where everyone becomes equalized and
unites in their mutual love for God and the Savior. You can get answers there
because the Spirit has less it has to fight against to get your attention. There
you can find peace. There is no such thing as that kind of peace anywhere else
in the world. You can also learn. I'm finding that my conversion can always be
deeper. It can ALWAYS be rooted farther and farther down so I can become
stronger and stronger through Christ.
I love you mamas :) you're my favorite
Sister Barfuss
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