Week #51 - Return of the Jedi

 Sister Larsen and Sister Page some of the coolest Sister Training Leaders

At transfer with THE Sister Lloyd (before she left)

 

Hello friends!

Life in Warren is great! Sister Cox is a top-notch missionary and is a blast to be with! She knows how to work hard and play hard. I don't feel like anything too crazy has happened this week. Sister Lloyd left last Wednesday which makes me sad, but onward and upward I guess.

Cool thing from this week is that I have gotten to work with Sister Palmer again. She is member in Youngstown ward (where I served about 3 months ago). She came out with Sister Wadley and I a lot. It was great! Now though she is a service missionary! She gets to come out with us like every day! It's so great! It's really cool to see how much she has learned and grown just in the 3 months since I have been gone. That's what happens though when we turn to Christ. We become better and become more than we ever thought that we could. It is just amazing to see it in Sister Palmer.

Now onto some funnies because it's been a party this week. Sister Cox and I were tracting because we gotta find people to teach. Anyways, we knocked on a door. A guy answered the phone at the same time and said hello to the person on the phone. Sister Cox didn't see any of that and ended up yelling, "HELLO!" at this guy who was just trying to talk on the phone. Hahahahaha he later came up and talked to us. He was pretty cool! Another funny is that I of course was looking through all the random things in our apartment (because I am a snoop ask my Grandma Joyce) and I found these little laser tag things. We have been playing like every night, that or soccer! We have a little box for our goal for soccer it's bomb! Back to the laser tag though! We have been playing and we were running around, and Sister Cox decided to do a roll. Which she did before, and it was legit! And she totally killed me with it. This time however she smashed into the wall. Hahahahaha it's such a good time! Last funny is from Sister Lloyd. She was putting her suitcases in the mission office and her wheel that she had ducked tapers on just fell off! Hahahaha she ended up just flipping it around and dragging it. Hahahahahaha she is so great!

That's it for this week!

Love ya,

Sister Barrow

Week #50 - DRUM ROLL..... New Mission!!!!

The Bader's

Brother Baer

Balsadua Family

Miles Family

 Rob!

Ruined favorite skirt

Story of the ruined skirt

Alberto


Hello!

For the big news of what mission I am going to.........

I will tell y’all later. Hahahaha. I have all the power!

Let's start off by talking about Sunday good ole Father’s Day. Happy Father’s Day mi padre! I love you! We are dinner at the Coffelt’s house they are amazing! They fed us last minute, so we wouldn't be by ourselves for Father’s Day. It was so sweet. We ended up sharing a video with them about fathers and we talked about our dad's and how they are so important. Mostly about how Dads are a part of God plan and are SO needed. Then I talked about how great my dad is. Legit THE best dad in the world! I had tears like streaming down my face. I have made it almost a year without like crying in a lesson, but my dad got me. Thanks dad.... I LOVE YOU!!!! I miss you!

Let's skip back to Saturday now to my birthday. Barf sauce I am 20 now! What the junk! My birthday was great! Thank you for everyone for sending me a card or box. The box from the Barkers was such a great little surprise! Thanks so much. I won't have time this week to write letter because I am being transferred but THANK YOU! Y'all made my birthday really great. I of course ate all the ice cream and a sister in the ward made me some great cupcakes! It was a great day! We also did service for a majority of the day, so I wore basketball shorts and America socks. Which was a supreme blessing. Basketball shorts on my birthday as a missionary. God is good!

Back to Sunday night at like 10pm President Brown called us, and we missed it hahahahaha. We called him back and he told me I am going to be an STL (Sister Training Leader)...... in WARREN in the Youngstown Stake! I will be going back to my roots of y-town! Which also means I will be going to the Columbus mission! I am pumped about it! I am going to miss my friends that are going to the Detroit mission. I will be with Sister Wadley, all the other site sisters, my Youngstown people, and Sister Boren. I am really excited!

Okay now, on to some other things that happened this week. Then I got to go because I got to pack all of my stuff. I have SO much junk. Hahaha. We had our last interviews with President Brown. It was sad. He hugged all of us as we were leaving. I am going to miss President and Sister Brown! Mom and dad if you don't go to their homecoming I am going to disown you! After our interview we went on exchanges with Sister Larsen and Page. I was with Sister Larsen and it was a party. I love that lady! She is one top notch missionary. We spent like 20 minutes talking to a Hindu man it was great. He gave us some water and Gatorade. Sadly, Sister Larsen and Page will be in the Detroit mission.... I will miss them!

Other than that is week had been a blur. One funny then I must go pack. Lighting bugs are out and about now. Sister Golden and Elder Morgan hasn't seen them before. I saw them last year which was super cool. The other night we had a whole bunch outside our apartment. We of course sat out there and looked. Then we were like we need to catch one for Elder Morgan. I caught one and named him Alberto. He is my son. We put him in a glass jar with some grass. He stayed alive for about a day but didn't last long enough for us to give him to Elder Morgan. We still have him to him. Hahahahaha when we gave him to him Elder Schwartz mentioned how Alberto didn't have water.... so I killed my son. Hahahaha. Sorry it's not a good funny, but it's all I could think of. 🤗

Hope y'all have a great week!

Love,

Sister Barrow

Week #49- God's Love and little friends

 

 

 

Kyle the guy from Goodwill took this pic. We did some service for Sister Wlodarsky. I also am wearing a Team Jesus shirt, but sadly I was wearing the ugly yellow vest. 

 

 

 A cool pic Sister Golden took

At Casa Fiesta for a birthday lunch

 

 My desk because my mom says I am not go at sending pics of my stuff, so here you all go.

 

When Ruth Pistorius says that Epsom salt will help your feet you do it! Thanks Ruth!

 

 

Some swings Sister Golden and I found so we of course we had to swing on them. They were so squeaky though hahahaha

 One of the many bed bugs

 

Putting everything in trash bags. 

 

 

Where I slept. It's a miracle I didn't fall and died 

The bed islands 

 

 

Friends and Family!

How are all y'all doing?

This week has been a week that is for sure....

Okay, I am just going to tell ya.....

I can do this!

1

2

3

This week I got bed bugs.....

On a scale of one to ten of how grossed out I was and kind of still am it's about a solid 20.

Here is the story of how I got bed bugs:

On Sunday we were having a quality time at church. This ward is great! I also talked to a lady, Sister Coffelt, she might have played softball with Mikki at BYU. So of course, we had a great time talking about that. We decided that we were going to play together in the millennium. Mikki if you want to join us that would be great! Obviously, it was a great time at church. Come back home get some food and go off to an appointment we had with one of our investigators, Janice. Well, Janice didn't mention that she had BED BUGS. That's right this lady HAD BED BUGS AND KNEW!!!!! She apparently didn't think that it was a good idea to tell us..... So we go over and we are over there for maybe 30 minutes. Nice easy Book of Mormon read. It was a good lesson. We leave get in our car and drive off. We park in front of a Baptist church and update the lesson. As Sister Golden and I are talking about the lesson I see a bug on me I go to grab it to throw it out the window and I am like this looks like a bed bug. Sister Golden confirmed my fear that it was a bed bug. We killed it and I freaked out. I leaned forward and Sister Golden was like screaming because there was another one on my back! By this point I am like in full panic I feel so gross. It's like pouring outside, but I was like I needed to get out. We end up going in an arch way of the Baptist building to call Sister Brown. She didn't answer because she was in a meeting with Sister Wadley. I blame you Sister Wadley for increasing in panic. Thanks Sister Wadley.... We try to call Elder Henretty the housing coordinator to see what he thinks we should do and no answer. We then try the Elders because they just had bed bugs last week. As we are talking to them Sister Golden screams because there was another one crawling on me... I panic again. The Elders calmed us down. Told us to go to our apartment and change and shower. We went back to our car and I found at least 20 more just chilling on my seat ready to suck my blood. We killed all the ones we could see.

When we get back to our apartment, we both changed even though we only found some on me. We had to throw all our clothes in garbage bags and seal them. Then we had to wash them in super-hot water and dry them on super-hot to kill the bugs. I also took the hottest shower of my life to make sure if any were still on me they would die. After I was all showered Sister Brown and Elder Henretty called us back. They told us to vacuum out our car and to wash everything in the house. It’s a blessing we have a washer and dryer in our apartment. They also wanted us to spray our car with this bed bug spray stuff and vacuum it out. Luckily, we also have really good members who brought us bed bug spray, an extension cord, and a vacuum. They are awesome!

We also had to move our bed away from the wall and put the legs of our beds in soapy water. However, I am on a bunk bed, so I had to spray the legs of my bed with cooking oil. Hahahaha. I end up sleeping on the top bunk with no rail on one side, so I slept real great..... not. Thanks to the Bader’s and Sister Walters we are bed bug free now!

Some things that this experience taught me:

1. God loves us! Sometimes He lets stuff happen and I don't know why, but He helps us out. Example by giving us the Bader’s who came over in a moment's notice and helped us got.

2. That God's work is still moving forward! We are still able to teach Janice even though we will NOT be going over to her house. Since, we now have smart phones we will be video chatting her and continue to teach her about this wonderful restored gospel

3. How much God loves us and even if we may not fully like someone because they give you bed bugs. God loves them and because He does you can too. It really cool. To be honest I kind of hated Janice on Sunday, but now we are homies. It all because of Christ. I don't really know how to explain it.

4. God loves a good joke. I am pretty sure this is His way of telling me welcome to full adulthood. Hahahaha Happy Birthday to me!

5. It showed to me how God is in the tiny details even as small as a bed bug. He was able to help us out. Because with how many were on me it is a miracle that we were able to kill all the ones in our car and there isn't any in our apartment.

Now that's not all I learned from this experience, but in a weird way I am grateful I got bed bugs. I was able to see God's hand in my life better because of it. I wish I could have done that without getting bed bugs. However, I am my mother's daughter though and I am a little stubborn. He knows us perfectly and knows what will help us grow.

I love this work and I love being a missionary. This is Christ church again restored on the earth and I am beyond grateful to be a member of it! Christ lives and He loves us! He knows us and know everything we go through. Even the fear and panic that comes from getting bed bugs. Because of that He is able to help us feel peace even in the panic moments of life.

Hope y'all have a great week and stay bed bug free!

Love,

Sister Barrow

Week #48 - The B-Day Celebration

George and Me at my B-Day Bash

The Eggs

Little Girl Doing My Hair......

The ELDERS.....

The District

Exchanges

with Sister Page

Hola mi amigos!

Belem is teaching me some Spanish! When we go over and read sometimes Sister Golden and I will try to read in Spanish with them. The key word is try. Sister Golden does pretty well, but I am definitely Blanco. Hahahahaha Belem is really cool! She just started radiation and chemo again this week. Luckily, she hasn't been too sick. She is awesome! She actually teaching her friend who is a JW and is reading The Book of Mormon with her! Belem is amazing!

Also I am writing this while I am eating fresh eggs. Well, now they are gone. They were good #theblessingoffarmcountry We have a less active family that we stopped by the other day and they gave us both a dozen eggs from their chickens. It was awesome!

As for the rest of the week it has been pretty good. Nothing too crazy. We had exchanges! I got to go with the fabulous Sister Page! She actually went to high school with Sister Wadley, so I got some quality blackmail pics of Sister Wadley. Just kidding, but it was a really fun exchange. Sister Page is a great missionary! At one point on the exchange we went to go talk to this guy and he was standing at the base of the hill and we were asking him about something. Then he just ran up the hill 😂😂😂 we just kept walking. We also ran into an NFL player who is a member. He plays for the Browns and is from Utah and lives there most of the year expect when he has training. He was really cool and had two really cute daughters! It was also good on exchanges because Sister Pages old comp is comps with Sister Wadley and we were talking with this one guy about Kirtland. Telling him he can go up there and get a tour because he is really into history. He was like do you know anyone they give tours up there. Both of were like yes our two good friends give tours and they can give you a tour together. Hahahaha.

The rest of the week was pretty good. We celebrated my birthday early with some members because they are going to be out of town the week of my birthday. Their son Max made me some blue berry cupcakes and they were delicious! I ate like 5 of them! Oh man! It was great!

Miracle of this week is that we set a goal of finding two new investigators this week. We weren't having any success. It was Sunday the last day to get any before the week ended. We were sitting in Relief Society having a good ole time. When our phone buzzes. We got a referral for a gal who wanted a Book of Mormon. We stopped by her house later that day and her husband was home. We taught them the Restoration and picked them both up as new. We saw them early this week too and they have been reading! It was such a blessing! God is good!

I already shared some funniest, but a couple more never hurt anybody. We were contacting at park near our apartment. There is water and stuff around it's great. Well, we were just walking and out of nowhere there was a BEAVER! I didn't even know there were beavers here. Yes, I tried to get a pic, but it ran away so it wasn't quality. Last one is that the Elders stole my phone and took some pics you guys get to enjoy them 😂

One more funny is that we went over to a part members house and they have a little girl and she is ALWAYS crazy. She was wanted to do my hair, so I let her do it and we could get a lesson in. After a while she wanted her hair done so I was doing it. I just did some simple French braids and as I was doing it her mom was like if you see lice let us know at school it's been going around and she had some in her hair like a couple of days ago..... this is after she had been playing with my hair and brushing it with her brush! Luckily, I didn't see lice and I have yet to see any on me, but I will keep you updated. 

Hope yizn have a good week!

Love,

Sister Barrow

Week #47- The Death of Toad

 

 

1. Your girl killing in the tennis shoes 

 

 

2 and 3. The ugly feet

 

 

4 and 5. I made some of Joyces potato salad and I have to say it turned out pretty good #wifemeup 😂😂😂😂 jk not read for that 

 

 

6. Taught young womens 

 

 

Hello Everybody!

It has gotten HOT over here in Ohio! It was so hot a toad got scorched to death. I wanted to take a picture, but then we got talking to peeps. We tried to go back the next day and it wasn't there anymore. I was a little sad.... RIP the toad on the side of the road. This has been good though we had a strawberry festival like right down the street from us, so there was a lot of people walking around it was a blessing! The only down side to it was that it blocked Main Street and we live on Main Street.... It was inconvenient to drive around it. Also with the HOT weather means that snow cones places have opened up which means happy Sister Barrow! There is this really cool one in our area that's right by our house! It like Lanis, but they don't have ice cream in the bottom.... It was really good though. We got some and went contacting. IT WAS THE BEST THING!!!!! Mine legit tasted like butterbeer. I was one happy camper! I could die and be happy! I got to eat a snow cone and preach the gospel how could life get better!

One cool experience from this week is that I had to go to the doctor for my dumb foot. I have plantar fasciitis and some other stuff. It's no big deal I am just wearing some awesome tennis from now on 😎 I am a cool kid. Hahahaha. Back to my story. I had to get X-rays and I was talking with the tech and asking her stuff. We got talking and she was saying how she lives in Norwalk. Which is crazy because that's where we live and we were in Lorain for the doc. Lorain is about an hour from us. Anyways, we talked about how both of us ended up in Norwalk and I was able to talk about a mission call and living prophets. It was really cool because it would have been really hard to meet her any other way then her giving me X-rays. She isn't home that often and gets home after our bed time. God works in funny ways!

A couple funnies from this week! We went over to a members for a BBQ on memorial day and it was awesome! It was two families in the ward and us. There were about 7 or 8 kids there. It was a party. Anyways we were all sitting down getting ready to eat and Brother Miles was grill and his son Camden came up to him and asked him for something and Brother Miles was busy, so he told him to go to his mom and he came up to Sister Golden and I 😂😂😂 okay this one isn't a funny, but it is still good. We were walking one morning and this guy in a truck came roaring down the street, mind you it's like 7 in the morning, he is blasting Don't Stop Believin! I was so happy and I started jammin with him! What a blessing it was! One last funny is that we met this guy named John at the library and to say the least he wasn't all mentally there. At one point during our conversation he pulled up the shelve on his shirt and said, " I am strong boy" hahaha. Then he was telling us that he was walking more and eating health so he could get rid of this and pointed to his stomach hahahahaha he was a funny guy. The great people if Ohio always cracking me up!

Hope yinz have a great week!

Love,

Sister Barrow 🦆