I just got back from the temple, and I am feeling like a million dollars :)

I just got back from the temple, and I am feeling like a million dollars :) We left at 6:00 am, and the traffic was pretty bad so we got to Santa Monica at 7:15. The temple is huge! They are starting to put the Christmas lights on the palm trees. We get to go to the temple for our birthdays (this was my birthday trip), once in December and once in June as a mission, so I only have to wait until December to go again! I feel refreshed. It has been a crazy, beautiful, mentally and spiritually stretching past 5 months and I know that my temple and baptismal covenants have given me the strength to endure!

Hermana Diaz took us to the temple! She is so cute

It was a beautiful day! Cloudy skies and NOT HOT!

Our view from the LA  temple

I also got to go to the visitor center this past Saturday with one of our investigadors (she is from the M......... family that I told you about last time) It was a ward activity and she was the only one available to go from the family. She loved it! She is 18-years-old and has such a sweet spirit. We watched a couple videos and looked at the statue of Christ, and when we walked outside she paused and said, "This is going to sound really random..." She paused for a while...which made me nervous, but she started to cry and said, "I think I want to be baptized!" What!? It took Hna Vega and I by surprise! She has such strong desires to change her life. She wants the fresh start and a relationship with God that baptism brings. I am learning so much from her. I got thinking...am I increasing my faith like Dana is? Or am I just maintaining my faith? I think we can simply maintain our faith by keeping the commandments, but when we submit our will completely to the Lord, that is when our faith will increase! Submission is vital to a healthy, strong, powerful testimony. I want there to be no conditions to my faith. No conditions to my willingness to serve and obey! I want Heavenly Father to know that Hermana Barfuss is always ready and willing to serve and follow the spirit!

At the visitor center!

Random Stuff1. For Halloween Presidente Henrie is letting the missionaries have a "movie night" He wants us inside by 6 o'clock so we are eating pizza and watching The Restauracion at the church! Happy Halloween!
2. I went on two exchanges this week! It was my first time bringing a english missionary with me to do spanish work! It was fun! On Friday I am going with an ASL missionary to her area (one companionship of ASL sisters covers the whole valley!!!!) I can't wait!
3. Last week we were fed by members/investigadores 9 times. We had dinners everyday and some lunches! It was great :) but it is a good thing we run in the mornings...
 

Love you so much, Mom.

 Te amo muchisimo!

    Hermana Moooooo

Found this picking oranges!

 This is my mom's lucky machete...(what does this mean?)

Hermana Iglesias made us some cupcakes...I laughed so hard when I saw them ahaha!

Hermana Garcia's dog had puppies! so cute!

"Hermana Dandruff"

I got this birthday treat last Monday. Katelyn would have loved it! It was a churro sundae!

Mom I love you so much! The skirt is perfect and the shirts are so cute! I am loving all the treats and decorations...and so is my companion :) Muchas gracias!!!!
Thank you everyone for making my birthday so special! I got packages from mom and Jordan, Maddie and Rachel and a card from Grandma! I opened them all up during our lunch hour on Tuesday and I LOOOOOVED everything! Then we had to make a trip to the mission office and SUPRISE I had packages from Kayloni and her family, Katelyn, and Marysa! I was so excited! I felt so loved this week :) Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the love. It means the world to me!    

Yummy cake...not sure how they knew my first name haha. Oh and I love the necklace Katelyn! And the chocolate cinnamon cookies were sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good!!!

On Thursday we had an appointment with our new investigator family and guess what they did? They threw me a surprise birthday party! We walked in and all the lights were off and all the kids jumped out and surprised us! They even had a little cake that said Emily. This family is so great. I wanted to cry! There family has been going through a lot of hard times with deaths and drug abuse in the family, but they are working so hard to have unity in their family, and they are finding unity in God! That is one of the greatest blessing of this gospel. It unites families here on earth and for eternity.

I went on an exchange with Sister Kim and Sister Young this week. Sister Kim is from Korea, and she does Korean work here in California but for this transfer so is doing English work, and Sister Young is from Colorado. Pretty much english work is a little awkward for me hahaa teaching in English feels awkward believe it or not! It was fun though because while we knocking doors we had a lot of Spanish contacts that I was able to talk with. Exchanges make the week go by so fast! Literally all week we have been running from appointment to appointment, but I would rather have too much to do than be sitting around with nothing to do!

 This is from a couple weeks ago! We ate this for our Zone activity!

For Peter and Calvin! (because La Tia means "Aunt")

The primary program was this week too! The kids did so great :) They all sang so loud and had their articulos de fe memorized! Heavenly Father has been blessing my piano skills too...I don't have much time to practice, but I always pray that the music will bring the spirit into our meetings, and it always happens.

Some of the primary girls the day of the program! They all wore white. Oh and I love the shirt Marysa!!!

Love you all so much! Thanks again for all the birthday love! I am so happy. I love being a missionary.

Hermana Moooooo

P.S. This week I was called

    "Hermana Barliver"

    "The Hermana That Plays The Piano"

    "Hermana Dandruff"

I think Hermana Dandruff was my favorite hahaa

Half the time I do not know when people are talking to me because they call me some crazy name.

"there is just something different about this church."

What a week. Seriously we kept so busy this week which is great! We were able to help some sisters out with their bikes and drive them to a few meetings. I forgot how much I love driving. Don't worry mom...I am being very safe :)

I can't even think about grandma moving. It makes me too sad! I hope the property doesn't get split up. One day I'm going to buy the farm back...seriously I would love that :) you heard it hear first! The Little Dew Ranch with live again!! 

I did get the tote and it is the wrong one. Sorry I should have sent a pic of the one I wanted! The one you got is a little too big and doesn't have the one shoulder strap. How should I send it back? Sorry I am at the Apple Store emailing today on and iPhone 6 so emailing is a little weird this week! I haven't gotten mail for the day yet. It will come in a couple hours from the zone leader! 

I am excited to be 20. 20 is kind of a weird number. You don't have any teenagers anymore! We are all so old ;)

I love my new companion. She is super loving and personable with the people. We had one problem...she kept writing my name Hermana Barface because she didn't know how to spell it and was just sounding it out hahahah i laughed so hard. It's like elementary school all over again!

Me Hermana Vega and Elder Lee the zone leader. (This is us at the Apple Store :)

The rest of this month is pretty packed so I will be going to the temple on the 26th of October. I CANNOT WAIT!!!! Let the count down begin! The temple is the best place to think and ponder with an eternal perspective. 

We have a new family of investigators! The mom has a brother who is a member of a bishopric in Arizona and he referred them to us. Long story short...the actually came to both sessions of conference on Sunday without even having Lesson 1 from us. They loved conference! The little girl who is 10 said, "I liked it because it seemed like the speakers actually cared what they were talking about." So true! They are special witnesses of Christ that really care about us! After our first lesson with them the mom asked us if we had testimonies and if we could share them with her. We had an awesome mini testimony meeting with her and all she could say was, "there is just something different about this church." I really love this family. They are so kind and are so genuine in their search for truth!

My ponderize scripture is 2 Nefi 2:28! I love how is says to choose eternal life! We have the power to choose happiness. To choose hope. To choose to be obedient. The spirit will help us make those decisions. 

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. Tomorrow we have to drive up to the mission office so that will be a fun birthday trip! Oh and of course I will chow down on some ice cream :)

Love,

   Hermana Mooooo

I am still a little nervous for all the Changes!

Not sure what this fruit is, but IT IS HUGE!

This was a crazy weekend for me. President Henrie called me to be a sister training leader. This transfer he is also combining the English and Spanish zones, so me and my new companion Hermana Vega, will be over all the sisters in the zone. So each zone will have Spanish Sister Training Leaders and English Zone Leaders. I will take any advice I can get! I got a blessing yesterday, so I am feeling better, but I am still a little nervous for all the changes! More news...me and Hermana Vega are getting a car, and they are expanding our area! No more biking!!!! For now at least :) All I know is this transfer is going to be busy, busy, busy!

 This is my new companion! Hermana Vega -  

we went on an exchange last week, so I have this picture with her :)Yep I am a white giant...

 Our district at conference

I loooooved conference! I wish I could have sat there all day, but I realized that would defeat the purpose of Conference. We listen, feel the spirit, and are invited to make changes and become more Christ like. The most important part of conference is Sunday at 4:01 pm where we start making changes! Here are some of my favorite parts:

Looking for human weakness is rather easy- Elder Ballard- I do not want to passively judge people anymore. Look for the strengths in everyone!

The Holy Ghost will lead us home- Elder Lawrence- The Holy Ghost is our friend, and can give us very specific guidance. Strive for the Spirit's help, correction, and support every day!

Our testimony must always be fresh- Presidente Eyring- The only way to have a living, healthy, strong testimony is to have the Spirit with us always.

We do not need to be perfect, but we need to be good and getting better- Elder Clark- When I got the call from Presidente Henrie I instantly thought of all my weaknesses. I realized that yeah I have a lot of weaknesses, but I also have a lot of strengths! I do not have to be a perfect leader, but the best kind of leaders are constantly trying to be a little better each day.

Have the courage and vision of Mother Eve- Presidente Nelson

Elder Holland's talk was a missionary nightmare. You can't talk about moms to a bunch of missionaries! Moms are a soft spot for every missionary! Everyone was crying haha Love you Mom!

I found BAIRD Street (Emily' has a Grandma Mary Baird)

RANDOM THINGS

1. I got to travel to the far away land of Arcadia this week. My companion had a check-up, so we got to ride with the Mission Nurse to Arcadia. California really is beautiful. Once you get out of the valley there are rolling hills for miles and miles!

2. My new companion is Hermana Vega from Tennessee. She moved there from Mexico when she was little. She was STL with Hermana Day, and now she is with me!

3. I got called Hermana Boof the other day haha I haven't heard that one before!

4. We had dinner at a member's house and right after she had a cut up a bunch of cilantro, she asked me if she could try out some makeup on me (she sells makeup for Mary Kay) so she rubbed her cilantro fingers all over my face. I am still not a fan of cilantro...hahaa

I love you so much! Thanks for all the love and support. Your prayers help me everyday!

Love,

   Hermana Moooooo

 A member forgot to feed us so she ran over some fast food for us....yes...I ate it. Curse you Carl's Jr.

The C.....family. We are working really hard with them to go to the temple!