Do you want to get married to me, right now?

 She's NINE MONTHS ALONG!!!!

You are right, Grandpa Ted passed away Sunday night at 11:39. Here are the blessing we've seen with him this week... we went over on Sunday morning before stake conference to see him and he looked terrible. And I mean it, TERRIBLE. We felt so bad! Sister Martin said he looked like a holocaust victim and i agree. It was getting pretty bad. But when we came over he perked up for a second and said hi! He mumbled a bunch, but we could understand a few things! They told us that after he talked to us he slept for the rest of the day and then he died that night peacefully. What's crazy is that Sister Martin texted us at midnight to tell us, but our phone never got it. When we went the next morning we walked in and his room was empty and our hearts dropped. We took a minute to cry, but then we took an hour to tell all of our favorite memories. 

One of my favorites was someone  said whenever they have "orange cheeto fingers" or when they see massage chairs they think of Grandpa :) hehe! I took a "orange cheeto finger" picture this week! They are having a memorial in two weeks and we'll still be here. The next transfer isn't until February 18th. I'll take Sister Bauro to the airport that day. 

We're all a little sad, but it's just because we loved having him around! He was so funny and he was literally one of my top 5 best friends that I have right now. Man, I love him. But we keep on keepin' on right!? Grandpa is with his mom that he never met and his wife, and siblings (he used to always ask us how he would recognize his mom when he died and i told him he would know it was her because she was going to be waiting there to attack him with a huge hug!!) so there's a party going on somewhere :)

Fun Facts:

1. On my run one morning i looked over and a raccoon was jogging next to me in the grass! I said "Heyyyyy now... you stay over there mister!!"

2. It's been hot here! Like 93 baby! We drove past the high school one afternoon and there was a swim meet going on! Hahaha!

3. This week we met a lady and she was straight up racist to me. It was the weirdest thing. My favorite line of her's was "You're white... Is your favorite food hamburgers?" Come on lady. I told her that I hadn't even had a hamburger this whole month. BOOM!

4. We had district meeting on my 9 month mark this week and my district leader said "Hey! This is a special day for me too! It's me and my girlfriends 23 month mark!!" Bahahaha! I might have teased him for a bit. it was awesome.

5. I met my very first real live Jehovah's Witness. I asked her sooo many questions. Turns out that when they saw "Jehovah" they are talking about God, not Christ. Thought that was an interesting thing. Her concept of the Holy Ghost was a little different too. But we agreed on quite a few things. I still don't understand the only 144,000 in heaven thing... i don't think she understood it either because she was dodging all my questions.

6. finished "Jesus the Christ" this week. ALL 800 pages :) i know moomoo will be proud of me! Haha!

7. I ate fried squid this week. a little chewy if you ask me.

8. i ironed one of my skirts for the first time in 9 months... and it was a complete waste. Never doing that again. NOT WORTH IT!! haha

9. At stake conference they announced that all of California will be fasting for rain the first week in February. We need some rain! Stake conference was in three languages this time! Spanish, English, and ASL!

WHAT IN THE WORLD?? MOMENTS...

--Remember how I used to serve in La Jolla? Turns out that means "the jewel." Well now I serve next to La Mesa and El Cajon and they mean "the table" and "the box." I have obviously downgraded a tad. Hahaha! Nah, I love it here!

--We have an investigator that really thinks I'm crazy (which i think is so funny because I'm not, but whatever). She was feeling a little down and she said "You gotta keep the faith, keep truckin', and spread the word!" Then she stopped and said "that would make a great tatoo! you could totally pull it off sister barfuss!" bahahaha oh man people......

--We went to contact a referral this week and the next door neighbor came out and started asking questions. He was super tall, all tattooed up, he was chewing tobacco and spitting it in his coke bottle, he told us he was an ex-gang member, and just got out of jail, but he was eating up everything we were saying. We could not believe this guy! After 15 minutes he asked us for our card and we gave him one. Then he said "I need one with your number on it" while he was looking at me. I felt a little weird and then he said "Do you want to get married!?" I told him that yes, getting married was a goal for my future life, but then he corrected himself and said "No! I mean do you want to get married to me, right now?"

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.........  *awkward pause* Here's the quickest thing my mind could muster... 

well we've only known each other for 5 minutes, shouldn't we at least know each other for 5 hours!?" bahahahaha nice save sister barfuss!!

He asked for our number again and Sister Bauro was so mad when I pulled out my pen, but secretly I changed the last number. Hopefully that doesn't keep me out of heaven. And then we walked with haste to our car and then we drove with haste to a different location :) hahahaha Not going back there ever again.

We had stake conference and it was a satellite broadcast! We were so lucky to have Sister Burton, Elder Anderson, and President Eyring. Let's just say I walked away fed! The Saturday night session was amazing too. My favorite part was a quote a speaker used from President Hinckley...

"You can't plow a field by simply turning it over in your mind!" Well amen to that President Hinckley. I'm finding that the solution to all of my worries, annoyances, short comings, and sadness it instantly resolved by getting my tush out the door and finding someone to talk to. When I talk to other people I can't think about my own stuff, just theirs and it's awesome.

 "So wake up and do something more, than dream of your mansion above!"

Wasn't this the weirdest week of my mission so far? yeah. it totally was.

LOVE YOU!!

sister barfuss