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Sister Monroe/Sister Seegmiller/Sister Haddock/Sister Schofield/Sister Barlow

Sister Haddock/Sister Scofield/Sister Barlow

Hermana Monroe - Hermana Haddock - Hermana Barlow
(Salt Lake Airport)

Hermana Monroe - Hermana Barlow
(Salt Lake Airport)

The Best 18 Months :)))))

Words can't even express how much I love my mission. I am so so grateful for the opportunity God gave me to serve as one of His missionaries these past 18 months. I have learned so much, about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and to do the Lord's will in all things. I have developed such a deep love for the people here in Texas. The relationship I have with my Savior Jesus Christ has been strengthened so much through the successes & trials I've had from serving a mission. 

I am so grateful for the love, prayers, & support I have received from y'all these past 18 months! I have felt your prayers every single day, and I'm so grateful I had the chance to share my experiences with y'all. There truly is nothing greater than teaching & serving God's children and bringing them to the fulness of His gospel. 

I know without a doubt, that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is Christ's church on the earth today. I know that the doctrine & principles taught in this church have blessed my life in so many ways. I know it has blessed my family, and I'm so grateful that I was able to teach the people here in Texas about this church. I know, that Jesus Christ is our Redeemer. His Atonement is real & has the power to heal us as we exercise faith in Him and keep His commandments. I'm so grateful for the ways that we are able to learn more about Christ, through the scriptures and living prophets. How wonderful is it to know that we have a living prophet on the earth today! There are just so many wonderful blessings that Heavenly Father has for us!!! HE LOVES US SO MUCH!

I love y'all & I'll see y'all in a few days :)))

Last zone conference :(

Another Horse!

Hey y'all! Here I am saying it again, another great week in the TSAM!!! So many wonderful things happening here :) 

Like can we just talk about how wonderful the members are here? We have seen lots of miracles this week, we are starting to teach a few more people in both the YSA branch and the family ward. I love these members and their eagerness to bring their friends & family closer to the gospel! 

James had his baptism this week! It was wonderful, and he was smiling the whole time :) Sacrament was also crazy yesterday, I played the piano for Sister Jensen's musical number of "The Morning Breaks" hymn, and I also gave a talk! I thought I would go my whole mission without giving a talk in sacrament haha ;)

Sister Tanner!!

Also had my last zone conference this past week :( I think that's one of the things I will miss the most about my mission. I always learn so much from them! Our big focus this time was of course the Book of Mormon :) If y'all are not reading it right now I invite y'all to do so!!! It is seriously one of the greatest gifts God has given us! I don't know where I would be if I didn't have the Book of Mormon in my life. I'm so grateful that we have another witness of Jesus Christ and that we are able to learn more about His life & mission through the prophets in the ancient Americas. 

I love y'all with all my heart! Hope you have a great week! 

Con Amor, 

Hermana Barlow

James' Baptism

Found this crazy road in the middle of the river on the way to dinner 

WORKING ON THE RANCH!

Hello everyone! I can't even believe it is March already! Where has the time gone???

Well, part of this email is a special shoutout to Grandfather Dorius cause I got to work on a ranch this week! Haha, it was seriously so much fun! Felt like I was back at home at our family ranch. The Michael's in the family ward have a cattle ranch, and they invited us to come help weigh some of the cows!

Another thing that we do for service each week is we help paint ladies nails at the local nursing home! One of the sweet ladies there is the cutest and was telling us that she talks to all of the celebrities on Twitter haha (but really she's just "following" them). She was talking about the Jackson family and we talked about how Michael Jackson passed away a few years ago, and she's like "He's not dead!" Literally had a 10 minute debate with her on that one, but she's still not sold haha :) 

There's a member that we try to meet with regularly who has epilepsy. We were visiting with her and watching Bible videos, and towards the end she was telling us again how her retention is just horrible. It's something that she's always dealt with as part of her epilepsy. She told us how she knows she needs to read the Book of Mormon daily but she finds it hard to read. Sister Jensen is just so awesome and she went on to bear her testimony about the Book of Mormon, and promised her that as she reads the Book of Mormon daily, her retention will get better. It was just SO POWERFUL to hear her promise these blessings and state herself as a representative of Jesus Christ. She turned to me, and I bore my testimony as well and I ended up tearing up cause the spirit was just so strong from her promising that blessing. I have forgotten about that a lot on my mission, how I have that authority as a representative of Jesus Christ to promise people blessings. But it is seriously just so cool to be serving as the Lord's hands in His great work. I love it!!! 

Lunch at Chuy's with the Fergusons :))) 

I found a really good talk for y'all to check out this week! It's titled "If Ye Had Known Me" by Elder David A Bednar, October 2016 (he's the best!) I loved that he focused on how we need to do more than simply know ABOUT the Savior, but that we should strive to come to KNOW the Savior. 

"On a future day, "every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess" that Jesus is the Christ. On that blessed day, we will know He knows each of us by name. And I witness and promise we can not only know about the Lord but also come to know Him as we exercise faith in, follow, serve, and believe Him."

Out in the beautiful country of Texas

¡Hola mis amigos! ¿Cómo están??? 

Another good week as always! We found a few more people to teach, all referrals through the members! And Elena went to the temple with the branch on Friday. She already wants to get her patriarchal blessing! She's so amazing, I love her :) 

On Tuesday I caught a bad stomach bug, but the Elders gave me a blessing and I pushed through in the evening. The Elders invited us to come with them to a bible class that is on Texas State campus, and what did we find???? A whole room full of YSA potentials! The Elders are teaching the pastor who teaches the class haha. So we are all going to start going each week and bring the YSA members so we can teach all these people! :))) 

One of my favorite things from this week :) so we had our first lesson with 2 of our new people that our member Kolin referred us to on Saturday night, and some of Kolin's neighbors were over as well who are younger kids. The one girl who has met missionaries several times asked us what our favorite lesson to teach is. So I responded with the Plan of Salvation and talked about how I love it so much because of the additional knowledge we have of where we were before this life and where we go after death. We said that it would be the next lesson we would teach, then Ashley (one of the girls we're teaching) perked up and said "Oh wow! I'm so excited for that lesson!" :)) but seriously though, so grateful for the Plan of Salvation! How wonderful to know that God has a plan for all of His children!!! 

Enjoy these pics from the hike with our zone to Hamilton Pool Reserve.  

 

We helped Sister Pulliam (aka Grams) move out this week :( 

THE RESTORATION IS STILL HAPPENING!

Sister Schofield & Hermana Haddock last p-day

WOW Y'ALL! I can't keep up with these changes, I can't believe all the guidance that the leaders of our church have been receiving lately. I have to quote something I received from my dad's email cause I think it's just hilarious :)
"Facebook, cell phones, Sisters can wear pants and now they can call home!?  What’s next?
“You’ve never had it so good” – Grandfather Dale Dorius"

We had another baptism yesterday after church, and it was so good! Elena is just so awesome, she was introduced to the church by her roommate and has progressed so quickly ever since! We have a few other people we are working with in the YSA branch who are close to baptism! And we have a lot of recent converts we are working with, trying to get the newest ones ready for the temple so yay! The gospel is just so cool!!! 

 

One of my favorite experiences from this week was teaching a lesson with the deacon's in the family ward. For their mutual activity last Wednesday, they asked if they could come out on a visit with us. So we decided to stop by a returning member who lives in a nursing home, and the deacons prepared a lesson about missionary work & service. It was so powerful and such a neat experience to see the deacons sitting on the floor around this sweet lady in her small room, teaching her through the scriptures and sharing their experiences. She was smiling through the whole lesson and sharing some of her life experiences afterwards, and like wow can I just say how much I love the church and the way that members minister to each other?? It's just amazing :))) 

I love y'all so much! Hope y'all have a wonderful week!!! 

Elena! & she made her own dress!!