Week #55 - "Elder! They are Sisters they can't shave their heads"

                                            Kirtland Trip Crew

                                            7 Eleven in Ohio?!?!?!

                                               Kirtland Temple

                                               My Favorite People

                                                   The Sister Wadley

                                             Going to do service, but needed a snack

                                                     The Alliance Sisters

                                                      Biking with Cucumber

                                                           Sister Wadley's Grandparents



 ALSO, I PROMISE I DO NOT WEAR THE SAME CLOTHES EVERY DAY. MOST OF THESE PICTURES ARE FROM TODAY!!!
 

Hola Familia!

This week has been a fantastic week!! We have been up at Kirtland all day long! Has been such a party! Sadly, it means my weekly email probably junk. It's been such a party the senior Sisters drove us up to Kirtland. I also got to see my best friend sister Wadley!!!!! Sister Frank's was able to surprise sister Hanssen who she went to school with. Overall, this week has been awesome. We went on exchanges with the Alliance Sisters. Which is my baby area. (For those of you who don't know it was my first area in the mission.)

Also, just got a Slurpee and veggie straws so I'm one happy camper. This week was just really good I don't have my journal or any notes with me so I'm just kind of winging this email so sorry.

Exchanges with the Alliance sisters were really good! I got to go with sister Jenks she is awesome! She was comps with Sister Lloyd right before she died (left the mission). It was fun to be with Sister Jenks! She is one stellar missionary!

 I just looked at my pictures and we're able to remember more that happened this week. We rode our bikes with cucumbers, I cut my own bangs, went through a whole bunch of Sister Lloyd's old clothes, found the biggest wreath I've ever seen in my life, set up and tramp (I may or may not have jumped and did some flips) and met at Sister Wadley grandparents. It has been a quality week!

Some cool things that happened this week is that we had an awesome lesson with one of the people we are working with named Chuck. We had a lesson over at the Alton's house and over at the William’s house this week. They were both really just great lessons because the members were able to help us out so much. Having lessons at members’ homes is like one of the best things ever. Members have such a spirit in their home just from doing simple basic things in in the gospel and so it brings comfort into their home, so it makes it, so we can have a way you better lesson then we can have in other people's homes. I would just invite each one of you to as much as possible and offer your homes to the missionaries to use for lessons because it just really helps us to help our people to fill the spirit and to see what they can have in their lives and in their future families.

Sister Brent the coolest Senior Sister agreed with everything I just said so I have her stamp of her approval so y'all better do it. Sister Groesbeck just backed her up, so you best do it. Otherwise you got two Senior Sister coming your way! 😉

Okay, one funny story and then I want to go email other people so... Here it goes we have some people we're working with and they have a really bad case of lice. However, we didn't know this. We go over and the mom is like looking through the little girl’s hair and is like saying to the dad, I guess you're going to comb through her hair tonight. We are like what to do? We just kind of both stared at each other and then we got out of there as quickly as we could. Went back and this little girl had a shaved head!!!! So, we told the Elders that they can go over and teach them now. But it's all good we didn't get lice and didn’t have to shave our heads. Another funny was that I rode with a bag of cucumbers on my bike and then the bag ripped and I had to carry it like a pregnant lady. I looked ridiculous, but it's really funny and really good and they got some good pics.

 That's like it for this week. Sorry this is kind of a lame weekly email, but I hope you enjoyed it.

 Yinz have a good week!

 Love,

 Sister Barrow 

Sister Barrow Week #54 - Tiny Helmet???

                                                        Sisters on exchanges

                                                    Sister Hathaway! What a cool CHICK!

Throw back to last year when I got a picture in front of this sign. I think it was with Sister Lloyd then....

                                                             Sister Frank and I

                                                        An Elder wearing the fur tough

                                                                  Some of our buds

                                                          The cutest little kid

Yellow! Hahahaha I am funny!

 

Any who! 

 

How are y'all doing?

 

Life here in Warren is great! I got a new companion Sister Franks and she's really awesome. She's served her whole Mission down in Columbus, so Warren is a new culture for her. It's a blast though we rode our bikes this week it was good. We also had exchanges with the Newcastle sisters, Sisters Skeen and Sister Hathaway. Those two sisters are hoot!!! I got to go with Sister Hathaway and it was such a party. Sister Lloyd and Sister Golden told me about her and how awesome she is. It was fun to get to know her a bit better! There's a lot of other stuff that happened this week, but it's been all blur. It's been a really good time though!!

We met this really cool girl named Samantha this week. She was a former investigator that we found on the phone and we decided to stop by her and she's awesome. When we went back for return appointment we got talking with her and she told us about how her sister is getting baptized this next week and how she wanted to learn more about the Mormon Church. It's kind of a little quinky dink that we happened to knock on her door. It amazes me how well God does his work sometimes. He's so aware of us and knows exactly what we need when we need it!

  Now on to the best part of my email the funnies. One for me from this week is on Sunday this lady in the ward that I know idea who she was came up to me and she's like your Sister Barrow? She then handed me a package and in the package there's an Indian doll and tough of fur. I was trying to figure out what the heck this was and where it came from.  Come to find out this lady used to live in Hailey’s Mission and Hailey sent me an Indian doll and a tough of fur. Thanks Hailey....... It is really good it gave me a some good laughs. I'm pretty sure your Sister Ketterman thinks I'm crazy now. Another funny from this week is Sister Franks and I  asked all of our neighbors for their Wi-Fi.  Luckily our neighbor across the hall gave us Wi-Fi. We decided to try to make him cookies in gratitude. We however didn't think about the fact that there isn't a lot in our apartment since we haven't had a p day at this point and we had nothing to make icing. We tried anyways though. We thought it was a good idea to mix together cream cheese, vanilla, white sugar, and Nutella. Let's just say it was the grossest frosting probably ever seen in your life. However, it didn't taste too bad. We didn't give the cookies.

 

 That's about all for my week.

 

Hope y'all have a great week!

 

Love, 

 

Sister Barrow 

Sister Barrow Week #53 - The end of the Cox fox

Devonte

The best companionship in Warren

Sister Cox fixed our toilet

Hello Friends!

Life is so good. Sister Cox is the best. Sadly, she's leaving me this week and will most likely be going down to Columbus. We aren't a hundred percent sure where she's going we learn tomorrow. This week overall has been pretty good. We met a really interesting guy at the library who dyes his hair & thinks he can get rich from a book. He also hit on sister Cox....He's a great guy. We also met a recent convert name Devonte he is really cool. I met him on exchanges like forever ago with Sister Gravin. It's super cool though to see how much he has changed. 

 

Life is really great! I am don't want to email, but life is great!

 

Funnies:

 

• Sister Cox breaking our sink... She poured like a cup and a half of rice down the drain. It clogged our sink.... She ended up unscrewing the pipes under the sink. Slipping water and rice everywhere. We still have rice everywhere, but our sink works now. Hahahahaha

 

• We also had exchanges again this week and I was in a triple up. It was a good time! We tracted for like 7 hours because all of our appointments fell through. It was good! Sister Cox’s appointments of course didn't fall through. Hahahaha. 

 

Life is good love all y'all!

 

Sister Barrow 

Sister Barrow Week #52!!!!! – THE COLUMBUS

At MLC with Sister Wadley and Sister Heaton (my fav Site Sisters)

Sister Cox and I 😂😂😂

The ambulance 

Just in a stall

THE Sister Boren. The best trainer the OCM ever saw 

A pic of my dogs my mom sent me a while ago and I thought y'all would enjoy it because they are adorable!

 

 

Hello Fam!

 

Life has been good. It's kind of weird to switch over to the Columbus mission, but they are so great! We had MLC and it was awesome to meet some of the old Columbus missionaries. It just a little weird I feel like President and Sister Brown should come back, but they aren't. I am going to miss them! They have taught me so much! I will be forever grateful for them! It’s like saying bye to your parents. It sucks! However, I am excited to meet all the new Sisters though. They have about 60 sisters! It's going to be fun working with these new sisters I'm excited to get to know them! The Columbus mission is awesome! 

 

 The rest of this week has been pretty great! Sister Cox is really awesome, and I love her she's really funny she's been such a good time!  Just an example of the good times that we have is during one of our lessons Heidi one of the people we meet with passed out on Sister Cox. It was during the Law if Chastity. We were talking about how pornography is bad and she just passed out. The ambulance ended up coming and taking her to the hospital, but it is all good. Sister Cox and I both are have 1st aid training and it came in handy. It is a party here in Warren. 

 

 OH! I also got to go on exchanges with these sister Boren!!!!!!! And it was such a blessing to be back with her we had such a party! Oh man! I love her and have missed her! Sister Saxey was so nice and came up here to Warren. To take us out for dinner so I was like a good ole Alliance reunion. Well, if Sister Lloyd was there. She is lame and instead is hanging out with my fam..... It's all good I have Sister Saxey! 

 

Also, I only get about an hour to email, so my weekly's might be getting shorter. If you want more of an update email me personally. 😁 

Love all y'all,

 

Sister Barrow

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