"brown dogs taste the best"

                                                                                                                                      9-30-14

FUN FACTS!

1. sister talatoka told me that it's really hard for her to remember when to say "chicken" or "kitchen" hahaha true story!

2. sister clayton had breast cancer surgery this last week and on Sunday the mission fasted for her. it was powerful. i LOVE her.

3. i had a guy tell me that i am "a robot religious missionary" but then proceeded to ask me what i was doing after the mission and if we could stay in touch...

4. corn dogs. THAT is what i'm craving right now.

5. "brown dogs taste the best" -quote someone this week. they were DEAD serious

6. so the way Fijian people refer to white people is a word called "palanga" so i get called that all the time hahaha

7. we were walking into the church this week and this little girl was in the way. i asked her to move to the side and she grabbed a piece of pizza and slammed it on my skirt and then wiped it up and down my shirt and arm...... UHHHHHHH...... i almost drop kicked the piece of pizza and found her mom.... but then i chose not to......

8. going to the Women's Broadcast without your mom and sisters on your mom's birthday is horrible. glad that's over with. 

9. when they announced that the YSA girl was going to give the prayer at the General Women's meeting i was like "YES!!!!! YSA YSA YSA!!!!!!" 

10. it was 67' this week. we were all freezing. hahahhahaha seriously though.

11. sunday was our long anticpated "Bring Your Friend to Church Day"!! it was awesome! 8 nonmembers came :)

SOMETIMES YOU ARE AN EMBARRASSING DORK FACTS:

1. at this "Bring Your Friend Day" i was in charge of the whole 3rd hour and i was up there talking when i realized i forgot to get an opening prayer. so i asked sister talatoka! then at the end i realized i didn't get a closing prayer and i asked sister talatoka! *FACE PALM* i didn't realized it until later. sometimes you are an embarrassing dork and ask your companion to pray twice in one meeting

2. we needed a key to the church and i called the senior couple to get it at 7:15 AM thinking they were up. yeah they weren't and i woke them up. now i owe them "4 hours of slave labor" to make up for the lost sleep. sometimes you are an embarrassing dork and call senior people that are sleeping.

3. we played a game like musical chairs for FHE yesterday and our senior couple played. well i went for a chair that sister van alfen did and i TOTALLY knocked her to the ground... she is 70 something! her husband had a camera in his hand and took pictures and then announced "that will be 8 hours of slave labor for you now!!!!!!" ohhhhhh my. i almost died i was so embarrassed. sometimes you are an embarrassing dork and knock down old ladies.

(the van alfens go home the same day as me, so they said i can come to their house in Utah and do my slave labor hahaha)

UPDATE: elder van alfen JUST texted me and said, "I'm bringing janet home from the hospital now. She can get by with neck brace to take the pressure off the cracked vertebrae if she is careful. We had to taker her to the ER around 2:00 AM." (he is sooooo messing with me!)   I WILL NEVER LIVE THIS DOWN!!!! he is mr.jokester hahahaha

volunteered at the Poway Rodeo this week!! it was the best thing ever because sister landeen and i found the service about 5 months ago! i can't believe i'm still in Poway! it was funny to see most of the missionaries hate the smell of horse poo and not want to touch the straw bails. we all grow up different places right?? haha

this week i've been super impressed with how much the people we get to teach strengthen MY testimony.

 it is such a blessing to be a missionary in poway right now.

 i love my life.

 i love my companion.

 i love my ward. i love the weather

. i love palm trees.

 i love my supportive family.

i just want to say thank you :) thank you for helping me get to this point in my life.

"It is good, oh so good."

love,

sister barfuss

Volunteering at the Rodeo

My Zone

FUN FACTS!:                                                                                                                         9-23-14

1. after transfer meeting, president interviewed my new companion after everyone had left.... meaning i was ALL alone for the first time in *17 months.* in the past there have always been other missionaries around when president was interviewing my companion, but not this time... IT WAS SO WEIRD... like i was totally and completely alone. so what did i do? i flopped over on the couch and closed my eyes and wept at the beautiful silence. talk about the most crystal clear 15 minutes of my life. so weird.

2. my new companion is Sister Talatoka from Fiji (and more specifically Kiribati like sister bauro crazy huh!!!??) she's from the temple square mission and will be here for 2 transfers, been out 10 months, is 22, i'm her first American companion, she calls me "compy" hahaha, cooks me breakfast every morning, and it so dang cute. just look at the pictures! i'm for reals a foot taller than here. yessssss.

3. the Romeros (new family we live with) are Mexican and Chilean, so they made us arroz con leche this week. ahhhh yeah. i LOOOOVE mexican anything!!

4. had a little kid run past me and say "LIZARDS DO PUSH UPS!!!" it's true though. there is this super weird lizard over here that does push ups when it needs something to do. i have a video i'll show you one day.

5. had my last zone conference yesterday and we watched Meet the Mormons! I loved it!! they made me bear my "departing testimony" :( i bawled through the whole dang thing

6. the Romeros said they like me because "you're the only white person that likes seafood" hahahahahaha I love that i'm the minority now... it's fun :)

i had a super spiritual day yesterday - and have since asked for "more spiritual eyes" ..........

today I had this experience.... it was WAY foggy this morning and as soon as the sun came up it burned it all off. spiritual side to that? when the Son comes into our lives He burns off the fog that may be causing distraction or pain. It's so refreshing to see things clearly and completely!

next example.... we were doing laundry this morning and the mom in the house was teaching Joy School and it hit me that I AM A JOY SCHOOL STUDENT in Heavenly Father's class. I mean come on, the things she was teaching them were so basic, like the letter C. But they have to draw 1,000 Cs before they get it perfect. Isn't that how it is with scripture study and prayer? or listening to the Holy Ghost? we are just at the beginning of all the knowledge and lessons that Heavenly Father has for us, but we have to get good at the basics before. line upon line anyone? man. earth life truly is a reflection of everything in the eternities.

.

 i love the gospel.

 i know it's true. it's true because it makes simple sense to my simple mind.

 i love the Book of Mormon. oh my goodness... i LOOOOVE the Book of Mormon.

 that's how I know who Christ is and that He is divine.

 I have LOVED reading the Bible and Book of Mormon at the same time to teach me the character of Christ.

 He is real. 

He is there. 

He loves me.

i loooooooove you.

 FLAP FLAP FLAP. FLAPJACK!! :)

-sister barfuss

 

if you're not willing to wear your heart on your sleeve, you're not living life to the fullest

FUN FACTS:                                                                                                                           9-16-14

1. I will be spending my last transfer in...... Poway!! My companion is going to be from the Temple Square mission! (they spend 2 transfers out of their mission in the states somewhere... she'll probably be foreign. i'll pick her up tomorrow)

2. it has literally been in the 100s all week. certain death is upon me. AC on full blast. always. 

3. took a sister to the airport today where her family picked her up. she saw them and flew out of the car and was screaming and jumping up and down all over them... it made me cry. it was so tender.

4. last pday we slack lined... it's like tightrope walking but not quite as intense... but still intense... IT WAS SO FUN. look at our pictures.

5. pretty sure we broke the word of wisdom on accident this week. i'm 99% sure we had iced tea. hahaha i was ticked because i've been clean off of caffeine for my headches for 4 months now! broke my record... maybe

6. i ate a donut this week and it seriously knocked me out into a migraine. dude. a DONUT. it was the worst. 

7. one of our investigators is getting baptized on October 18th!!!!!!!!!!!!! she is dating a guy in our ward :) she is so lovely. one time in  between visits with us she decided to read Alma 1-34 in one sitting. whew!!

8. rode on a golf cart this week. BEST THING OF MY LIFE. i was screaming and yelling even though the guy was only going like 5 mph

9. so we had stake conference and the Schmitt's were on the program... they walked in the door and Sister Schmitt came right up to us freaking out because she had forgotten her name tag hahaha i gave her mine and she put it on, but President Schmitt said that it would cause too many questions... she reluctantly gave it back to me hahaha

10. more fun facts on stake conference... we pulled up and there was a sign with a guy next to it that said "the stake center is 30% full" the guy was in the process of changing it to 40%... go! go! go! get in there!!!

11. the joke that they told right before sister landeen and i went on stage for the talent show was "the other day i farted on the elevator, it was wrong on so many levels." COME ON PEOPLE!!!!!!!!

12. i destroyed my pinky playing football. good thing i type incorrectly, or typing right now would stink hehehehe

13. we moved 5 people this week. #movingcarmawillcomebacktomeoneday

okay so basically i haven't spent any time setting goals for the next 6 weeks (yet)... that will happen this week. i'll keep you posted on it next email. 

i know the gist of what i want to do... overcome my fears of just a last few things. throughout the mission i've been able to get rid of most of them, but there are just a few left that i want to stomp on and come out victorious!! also, NO REGRETS. seriously though.

FOR NARNIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i love you :) i miss you too.

i love you more :)

i love you the most :)

-sister barfuss

FUN FACTS:                                                                                                                                9-09-14

1. why do we call silly things "cheesy" and "corny"? that's how you describe your dinner!

2. i totally blew over a traffic cone this week. i laughed so hard :)

3. i counted. i have up and moved everything I own 11 times in my life. 10 of them have been in the last 3 years. 

4. 8 stakes border our area. 2 different missions border our area. OUR AREA IS HUGE.

5. talked with someone who was growing marijuana in their garage

6. baby blessings are amazing. did mine get written down? sorry about not writing it down myself ;) i was lazy back then

7. we had a member of The Seventy come for mission leadership council and EVERYBODY thought we were going to get iPads. BONK. 

8. i found another Murdoch cousin. that's TWO people i've met on my mission that are descendants of Wee Granny like me! :D

9. BYU IS RANKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! pretty much every person in my ward hates on BYU so i have to be a lone cougar in the wilderness

10. the ward had a talent show for FHE and sister landeen played the guitar and sang while i sang and played the uke. i felt so silly

11. we had a investigator that wanted to sing in the talent show so we had to send a text that said " We would love to have you sing!! But you can't sing anything super loud and rocky or anything that talks about drugs and sex." hahaha really though

12. brother quiggle's sister died and we had her funeral this week. after they had tons of HUGE flower arrangements and sister quiggle asked us to make them into smaller bouquets for people. i channeled my inner "mama barfuss" :) i'm so grateful you taught me how to do lots of random things mom :)

13. "deal with what you've been dealt" interesting huh?

well the lesson learned this week is that if you're not willing to wear your heart on your sleeve, you're not living life to the fullest. example... we had to move out of the quiggle's house and i just cried and cried and cried. honestly the have become my adopted parents and it felt like i was leaving on my mission all over again. it was terrible. like i was seriously sobbing in the shower and super mad. it hurts to love people a lot, BUT IT'S WORTH IT! if i had just chosen to live with the quiggles instead let them become part of my life, it wouldn't have hurt to leave. but then again, the last 5 months of my life would have been less rich and exciting. it's so worth it to wear your heart on your sleeve. 

i love you!! loves loves loves loves loves

sister barfuss

Yell "DING DONG!" (really loud)

  Map of all the places Sis. Barfuss has traveled.

 Marysa's new "Granny Flat"

FUN FACTS:                                                                       9-2-14             

1. we have this plastic black lizard that we throw into the fan at night and watch it get slammed into the wall. his name is blizzard (get it? black lizard??) kind of reminds me of when we used to put cheese on the fan as kids and let them fly off and stick to the walls :) does mom know that we did that?

2. last pday we played 3 on 3 volleyball on two courts and played tournament style. oh my lanta i was in heaven. my throat hurt the rest of the week from all my yelling. i slapped the floor a couple times too :) hehe

3. San Diego is the 8th largest city in the US

4. met an olympian this week! she threw the javelin. she pulled out a few of them for us to feel and throw. it was INTENSE. 

5. why are shower heads so low? like seriously. the average shower head height in san diego is 4'11" and uhhhhh i'm DEFINITELY taller than that. so i have to shower on my knees or do an "air chair"

6. since i go on lots of exchanges i get to try all the sisters different shampoo and conditioner. my favorite right now is Tresemme. ahhhh yeah.

7. i went on an exchange last week and the sisters lived on top of a liquor store... hahahaha

8. apparently it's Fall? i saw one leaf on the ground which indicated to me that it must be Fall. if i remember right, it usually gets colder in the Fall in other places right? hahahaha yeah, it's still 85 and 90 down here

9. i used a redish/pinkish can of suave hairspray this week and memories of mamas came FLOODING back to me instantly. it's weird how smells bring back memories!

10. this week i taught a lady that was Jewish. it was interesting. because usually people accept the God&Christ combo or they reject it all together. She totally believed in God but said that Jesus isn't the Christ and she is waiting for Christ to come again. Man, i sat there and thought and thought and then BAM!!! (hello the Book of Mormon sister barfuss!) it was cool to give her a copy of the BoM and testify to her that if she read it she would be able to see that Jesus really was/is the Christ

11. EVERY element of my testimony has been tried on my mission so far. seriously. i have had to double and triple pray/check/ponder about everything i have believed in the past and make sure i TRULY believe it. it's been a wonderful blessing to me. pretty hard too. 

12. came in the Quiggle's house on Friday and the BYU football game was on. my reaction "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" thank goodness we got the heck outta there.

13. did some service at a horse polo arena again and had to shovel horse poo. the ONLY TWO that would shovel it were the two missionaries from idaho. me and elder murdoch. the one that's related to me. 5th cousins??

14. brother quiggle got me and sister landeen a present for our new apartment! it was one of those "get your hair out of the drain" sticks with sharp hooks :) hahahaha we laughed so hard. 

well check this out... the last month we have been doing those MTE things where sister landeen and i have to go out with other companionships ya know? well it's takes us out of our area a lot and sometimes that is frustrating for us. BUT! Heavenly Father always provides :) on the very last day of the very last one, when we were exhausted and destroyed, we had two members call us up and ask us to teach their girlfriends and roommates! we added 3 investigators in one day!! we usually add that many in a transfer! it was such a blessing. and it gets better... we were super tired right? but we wanted to teach right? so i went and said a prayer in the laundry room. i almost fell asleep in it.... but i said it! i have never really felt like i have called down the "powers of heaven" but i had to. i asked so sincerely to have strength to be engaged and in tune. and of course Heavenly Father helped me the rest of the day. after we planned for the next day at 9:30 PM i crashed and died in my bed and slept like a boss. it was an amazing day.

i love you.

thank you for your prayers for safety.

please continue to pray for me to F.L.A.P.(Finish Like A Pro)

 i need it really bad.

i lovesss you!!

sister barfuss

FUN FACTS!                                                                       8-25-14                                                                                                 

1. the raccoons are eating all of our cat food!

2.found out that I have 31 teeth. counting wisdom teeth.

3. last pday we were so tired we just took a nap. YEP. a nap. i'm so exhausted

4. saw the weinermobile parked in front of Petco :D yeah yeah yeah

5. one of my friends from BYU showed up to church on Sunday... it was so weird to have my past life come into my current life. my response was "are you real???" hahaha it just came out

5. an investigator in another area I was on in an exchange gave me a nickname... "pinball wizard" he said one time he watched me after a fireside and I was bouncing off the walls talking to this person and then that person and then that person. hahaha! not sure if I approve

6. found a new kind of poo pourri called "secret santa" at a member's house hahhahaha you have NO idea how much I love that

7. on our morning exercise we had 2 coyotes run away from us like 15 feet away. reminded me of grandma's house and kellie, Katelyn, sheii, and brennan's story of almost being killed by coyotes in the night ;)

8. a ten year old kid said the following to me this week "California is hot and has crappy laws. I want to move." hahaha

9. two people this week said to us "hey elders!! how are you!" #thatwilldo

10. met a guy that had some Japanese on his hat so I asked him what it meant... he said "ninja." my response... "cool!!" his response..."you probably think i'm a poser. i'm not. i'm seriously a ninja." his mom chimes in..."really though. he's a ninja."     *back away slowly*

well basically I love you peoples (especially my mamas). 

like too much.

 I have to pray to not think about you and want to be with you. 

so yeah, you're a problem for me :) 

hope you feel good about that ;)

 really though. I love you like crazy and I miss you like crazy. 

please be safe. 

please be happy.

I love you!!
sister barfuss