TIERNAS MISERICORDIAS DEL SEÑOR

Canyon Lake, Texas

Wow missions are full of tender mercies! This week was filled with 
a lot :) 

So the Canyon Lake area is an English area, so I still have rarely used spanish on my mission. I definitely have felt discouraged at times to see that compared to others I still haven't gone to a Spanish area. But it's all about the little opportunities! President Polley in interviews this week talked about how he has felt strongly to not cut down how many Spanish missionaries they send here because of how spread out the Spanish speakers are. Sister Sunderlage and I had the opportunity to join our zone leaders last Monday in one of their lessons. They are teaching a little girl from Honduras who is learning English (which she has perfect English!) but she is really shy so they invited us to come and speak Spanish with her to see if that would help her open up. So little things like that is what I am grateful for. It gives me the opportunity to meet even more wonderful people here in Texas! :)

Sister Sedgwick came to my area on exchanges this week, and we taught Carol who is one of my favorite ladies :) She has been learning about the church for several years and has had many questions about our church, so she makes us work! It's so funny cause sometimes our district goes crazy with her learning process whenever we talk about her. But Sister Sedgwick was great and showed so much love for all the people we met that day, including Carol. 

Sister Sedgwick

I went to my first MLC (Missionary Leadership Council) this week, and it was SO GOOD. Wow, I felt like I could conquer the world coming out of that meeting (even though it was 8 hours haha). Basically the whole meeting we talked about how we can improve our goals of how many convert baptisms we have each month, and especially how we can work closely with the ward council and make their goals our goals. In D&C 107 it talks about how the 12 apostles and quorum of the 70 are "traveling ministers". They travel the world to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it's the same thing for us full time missionaries! We are assigned to any part of the world and move around to different areas, to preach the gospel while working closely with ward members who are "standing ministers". It was so cool to learn about that and it strengthened my testimony of how important the members are in missionary work. It truly is MEMBER missionary work! 

So a miracle to go along with that! On Saturday night we met with Dolores to finish up her lessons before her baptism, and for a while Sister Sunderlage and I have been discussing who could be a good minister for her. We sought the counsel of our Relief Society President and she suggested a less active couple who live right behind Dolores. The husband is a convert who has a similar religious background to Dolores, and the wife still has a hard time coming to church for family reasons. It was a perfect lesson since the brother has a family history calling and that was our last principle to teach, and the couple just adores Dolores! She was basically teaching us the lesson and just kept talking about how excited she is to go to the temple and do the work for her deceased husband who passed away with a baptism date set. (Side note: President Polley said she might be able to baptize her husband in less than a year in the temple since her husband had a baptism date before he passed. So cool!) And the couple was excited for her baptism and offered to attend temple prep with her. I know that eventually this will help the couple to return to full activity to the church. Miracles everywhere! 

Driving to thrift shop service!

Our old Bishop's horses

Midnight trip to the ER!

Adventures in the hospital!

Well this past week has been crazy, to say the least! For the past few weeks, Sister Sunderlage has had some pain from kidney stones, and on Wednesday night it came at it's worst. So at midnight we had to drive half an hour away to the nearest emergency room. The pain medication wasn't working so at 6 am she got admitted to the hospital and we spent the whole day there until she had her surgery in the evening. We didn't really get any sleep, but several Elders in the area were nice and brought me some breakfast and gave Sister Sunderlage a blessing :) And I got to hang out with the mission nurse and her husband for a little bit while they took me back to our apartment so I could shower and get a few things, so that was fun! I love Sister Lee, mission nurses are angels! I went with the San Marcos sisters Thursday evening to sleep at their apartment, and then in the morning we met President and Sister Polley at the hospital, and now Sister Sunderlage is doing better :) Satan works hard on God's missionaries their last transfer! 

I also went on exchanges with Sister Boyer in the San Marcos area on Tuesday. She's over a YSA branch! It was fun to get to meet some more single adults. Dolores had her baptism interview yesterday and she is one step closer to her baptism! And we had an amazing lesson with Millie last night! 

Sister Boyer

Millie is a single mom who lives in our apartment complex. She asked us to take care of her cat while she was gone on the east coast haha, and her Mormon friends who lives in our zone leader's area felt prompted to invite her to church yesterday at the last minute. She immediately got her kids ready and they went to all 3 hours! And then the family invited Millie and her kids over for dinner and they asked us to come as well. We had a great lesson on the Restoration, and she understood it all! Wow it was such a good lesson, she told us a lot of the challenges that have gone on in her life recently, and SHE IS READY FOR THE GOSPEL! We can't wait for our next lesson with her :) 

I want to tell y'all how much I love this gospel. Every day that I get the opportunity to study about the Book of Mormon, I come out spiritually enlightened and I learn so much about the Savior & His teachings every single day. I know that what this Church teaches is good and true. I know this is the true church. The Book of Mormon can bring everlasting peace, guidance, and happiness in our lives as we act on the things that we learn and as we rely on our Savior, who is "mighty to save". I was studying that phrase this past week in Alma 34:18, and it has always stuck with me. While in the CCM the President's wife would constantly say this in her devotional whenever talking about Christ's Atonement. Jesus Christ is truly "mighty to save", for He is our loving brother and redeemer, the only one who was capable of performing such a loving act for all mankind. I love my Savior and for this time I have to represent His name. 

Hey Y'all!

Hola todos! Wow I can't believe I am here now in Canyon Lake. This area is gorgeous! It's a big area so I still have a car, and I am still driving cause it's Sister Sunderlage's last transfer. So my new area is more out in the country side (yay!) lots of hills, and a beautiful lake right in the middle of it. The demographic is a mix between nice homes and trailer houses, and the people here are crazy! Haha, everyone has unique stories here which I love! It's been so neat to meet all the members, and there are a few people that will be getting baptized soon! 

Really quick though before I continue talking about Canyon Lake, saying bye to Alamo 2nd was rough. Wow, I just love the people there so much. We were at the Bishop's house the night before transfers discussing transferring from Sisters to Elders, and Elizabeth (convert getting ready to go through the temple) was already at his house for her recommend interview. We sat with Bishops wife in the kitchen while they had the interviewa, and then Bishop and Elizabeth came in after a few minutes and starting talking to us. Elizabeth had to leave after 5 minutes, but then she starts crying talking about how much she appreciated meeting with us sisters and how much she learned! And then she looked straight at me and said "You better become a nurse! Never stop working for it!" And then I about started bawling too. I just wish y'all could meet Elizabeth, she is the most amazing person I have ever met. She is like my big sister and she is one of the reasons why I miss Alamo 2nd so much. I just love those members! 

So Delores has a baptism set for August 11th! She was going to get baptized next Saturday, but her brother in law and his granddaughter are also getting baptized in another area close by, so they want to do it on the same day together. We are so excited for her! She is amazing. She had a loved one pass away recently who was the one that first met with the missionaries, but she is still going strong and loves the gospel so much! Delores's mom was a member of the church, but her dad wouldn't let them get baptized. So now years later, her and her siblings are slowly trickling into the church. 

We also did some service at a thrift store! Every week we go over and help tag clothes/put them on racks. And the workers let us get anything at the store for half off! Definitely is not a good sign that we are helping out there haha cause I've already bought a few things ;) 

I'm so excited to be here in this new area and new zone! Another fun fact I found out this week! At zone council I found out that my district leader Elder Gundred also went to Lone Peak. What a small world! Lots of Knight pride in the Hill Country zone ;) 

WHERE IS SISTER BARLOW GOING???

Okay so lots of emotions right now cause there were many great things that happened this past week and exciting things coming up but sadly I am leaving the wonderful YSA area :( and guess what? Sister Motock is leaving too! We are getting doubled out and the Elders are taking over! 

So I will be going to the Canyon Lake area which is still near San Antonio, and I will be a STL (Sister Training Leader) !!! Ahh I am nervous but also so excited!

West Zone -- Best Zone!!

BUT you will never guess who my new companion is! I am going to be with SISTER SUNDERLAGE! Fun facts about her: 

1. She is in the same home ward as my best friend! 

2. She went to high school with me at Lone Peak! 

3. Our dad's worked together!

I am super excited to be working with her and to meet some more wonderful Texans :) 

So the really amazing thing that happened this past week is we got a new investigator AND also set him on a baptismal date! His name is Francisco and he was a self referral. He took the discussions 2 years ago and was close to setting a date, but things came up that influenced him to stop meeting with missionaries. But he decided to come back and know that the gospel path is the next step in his life. He has read the whole Book of Mormon and knows that it is true! He also had a loved one who was a faithful member that passed away a few days before he was born, so that's another deep connection he has as well, and we are so excited to hear about how he progresses! 

The 4th of July was interesting, it was raining most of the day :( so we didn't get to watch that many fireworks. BUT we helped Dina and her husband pack up to move! She is a lady in the Helotes area who grew up a member, but her husband is a non member, so we went over twice this week to help her. She is the cutest and I am so sad that I won't be able to see her again :( 

It's hard to be leaving this area. Even though I was here for 9 months, I'm sad to be leaving so many wonderful people that I have grown to love! The work has picked up this past transfer but I know that this is the Lord's work. Change is good. I'm super excited to see what work I get to be a part of this next transfer! 

Con amor

Best Zone!

Elder Gulso's Funeral (ha-ha)

New Preach My Gospel!

San Antonio River Walk

Wow guys lots of amazing/funny stuff happened this week and not enough time! But here's some highlights :) 

They came out with a new Preach my Gospel! How crazy is that? They haven't changed the whole thing, but just a lot of little wording, so each missionary has been assigned to compare certain sections. For example, "investigators" are now called "people with interest" so that's interesting! 

Allie was made a new person with interest this week! And she came to the Helotes sisters baptism on Saturday even though she hadn't slept for more than 24 hours! She is so great :) so yeah she is a caretaker for Sister Reed in the Helotes ward, and we had another great lesson with them this last week. Allie kept saying the lessons make sense to her and she wishes she found the gospel sooner :) 

We also did service for Sister Reed this week with 9 of us missionaries haha. She fed us for lunch and Elder Wiest asked what everyone's favorite day of the year was. Elder Gulso (who is leaving next week) said his birthday haha, and then Sister Shaw was like "Hey that's my birthday too!" And then Sister Reed got excited and asked what year they were born. Turns out it's the same year and we were all freaking out, and then Sister Reed yells "It's destiny! Y'all gotta get this show on the road!" Oh my goodness we all about peed our pants! 

San Antonio River Walk

Also, Chinonso came to church yesterday! We've had a few lessons with him but haven't been able to get him to come until now. The members were so great and we had a big group show up at gospel principles! 

I'm studying in the book of Alma right now, and in Alma 5: 46-47 Alma shares his experience of how he became converted and came to know the truth about God's plan. I was surprized to learn that it wasn't fully because he first saw an angel, when he initially was seeking to destroy the church and an angel appeared to him to tell him to stop what he was doing. But in these verses it shows that what really converted Alma was the spiritual experiences & revelations he received because of fasting and prayer. And I know that can be the same for all of us! We don't need to have a HUGE spiritual experience, basically seeing an angel, to know that the gospel is true. Rather, the Spirit speaks to us quietly, day by day, giving us little impressions to help us strengthen our faith and & our testimony. And how amazing it is to have the Gift of the Holy Ghost, where the Spirit can be our constant companion and guide us in the little details of our lives! I'm so grateful for the big & small spiritual impressions I receive each day, and how they have helped me to shape my testimony. 

Love y'all! Hope y'all have a great 4th of July! 

We had to visit Sister Bell and her comp last week in Boerne :) 

Exchanges with Sister Duke

San Antonio Mercado

When Members sent you referrals!

I Love My Zone!