I looked in my side view mirror and saw the bike being dragged on the pavement..........

Thankfully everything went great for Hna L.... baptismal intereview .This week has been a roller coaster with her. We met with Hna L... 5 times this week, and one lesson lasted 3 hours. I know, I know that was way too long for a lesson, but it literally took us two hours to get her to pray. We taught her about the word of wisdom, and I asked her to end with a prayer, and she said no. We could tell something was bothering her, and about hour and a half later she finally expressed a lot of anger she has had with God about her daughter passing away. The lesson ended with her saying a very sincere prayer where she prayed for help to be ready for her baptism! The next time we saw her she told us she was ready for baptism. We finished up the lessons, and she had her interview. The day of her interview she told us she wasn't nervous like she thought she would be. When she came out of her interview I asked her how she felt, and she said, "Can't you tell? I'm happy!" Hna Luz really has been a light in my life (luz means light in spanish) I love her so much! It is crazy how much I love her. I am very excited for this Sunday :) I love being a missionary!

We had a pretty crazy week. Transfers were on Tuesday, so we had to take some of the bike sisters up to Santa Clarita, but when we woke up Tuesday morning we got a phone call that a sister needed an emergency root canal. So we got ready and picked up the sisters, and after a series of unfortunate events we were running pretty late for her appointment. We were on the 118 and missed our exit to the 405 so we had to do some flipping around (i felt like a true californian) anyway as I was getting on the 405 I looked at my rearview mirror and realized that only one bike was on our bike rack when there should have been two. In a panic I looked in  my side mirror and saw the bike being dragged on the road. Very quickly I pulled over haha and thankfully the bike is ok...the only damage is the handlebar was shaved down about half an inch from being dragged on the interstate! But through a miracle and some tactful driving on my part :) we made it to the appointment on time and she didn't have to pay a late fee! Milagro! At the end of the day we had driven to Santa Clarita twice. Lots of driving, but a missionary told me that I drive like a well behaved californian. I will take that as a compliment! 

We are excited for Thanksgiving! The two members we are eating with say that they don't eat turkey, so we will see what we eat. 

Here is my quote of the week,

"God does not begin by asking us about our ability, but only about our availability, and if we then prove our dependability, he will increase our capability." -Eler Maxwell

Let's all show God how much we trust him! Pray for opportunities to serve and then be alert because many people need spiritual, emotional, and physical during the holidays!

LOVE YOU MAMA,

    hermana moo

Jimmy Kimmel gave Operation Gratitude a shout out!

We had one guy talk to us about the new policy change. He was pretty mad! Listen...

we all just need to get on the old ship zion.

Hold on! God is at the helm!

Transfer update: I am staying in Canoga Park!!! This means I will be here until Dec 28. Christmas in Canoga Park! I am also staying with my companion Hermana Vega and we are still Sister Training Leaders! The ward is happy that I am staying because I have been practicing some Christmas songs with the ward choir and the ninos :)

 

 This is Hno R.........he is pretty much my grandpa here in Canoga Park. He makes fun of me all the time. ALL THE TIME! hahahaa

Operation Gratitude is awesome. Apparently Jimmy Kimmel gave Operation Gratitude a shout out on his show with the halloween candy pranks, so we made a video saying thank you that they are hoping will aire on the show. About 150 missionaries were at the event and we made 10,000 packages to send to the servicemen. It was a community event so I was able to talk with a lot of army wives and moms!
 

As of right now we have three Thanksgiving dinner appointments! This is why missionaries gain so much weight, but I am grateful that the ward wants to feed us so much. The ward is awesome with helping and befriending investigadores.
 

Good news! We have been teaching a lady named Hermana L.........and she has committed to baptism for November 29th! Her daughter is a member and Hna Luz has never been set in a religion...she has culturally been catholic her whole life, but her other daughter passed away recently and has been interested in our church! I really respect Hna L..... It can't be easy to believe one way for 75 years and then be taught be two twenty year old girls about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, but she is so willing to learn! We made it very clear that we know she has a firm base/foundation in Jesucristo and his teachings, we are only here to build upon her foundation.
 

This week with had interviews with Presidente Henrie. Because we are STLs we stayed at interviews all day and drove sisters to/from interviews and did role-play/practices with the elders and sisters. It was fun! I got to know Sister Henrie a lot better. She is awesome. She is learning spanish and she has a way of being lovable and fun, but stern at the same time. Presidente and Sister Henrie also took us out to lunch! We went to Doghouse. Doghouse has really yummy dogs and burgers...I got a brat in honor of Papa Barfuss!
 

We also had to get an oil change this week. It took a lot longer than expected so we ended up just street contacting for 2 hours around the Pep-boys while the car was being fixed...we also took a quick icecream break yummmmm.
 

That was pretty much the week. It flew by as usual. I am really close to 6 months...that means

we get to skype soon :) We also get to go to the temple on Dec. 11 for Christmas! Happy Holidays!

The members always ask what type of tamales we want for Christmas...apparently tamales are a Christmas must! Good thing I loooove tamales

 LOVE YOU!!!

    Hermana Moo

"Either we are all in, or we are in the way."

I am very sad to hear about Marie. I just love Annie and her little family so much! We taught the plan of salvation to an 75 year old grandma that just lost a daughter to cancer. Such a cool experience! The gospel brings so much hope. Nothing can go permanently wrong when we follow the path of Christ! It is a cool thing to think of all the happy reunions that happen in Heaven :)

This week we had Mission Leadership Council and Zone Training Meeting! Busy, busy. I gave my training of loyalty, and being "All in". I took the scripture from the sermon of the mount about having an eye single to the glory of God. There is a quote that says, "Either we are all in, or we are in the way." It sounds kind of harsh but as disciples of Jesus Christ we have to be all in! We are first loyal to the Lord then to others. The Lord has always asked his followers to sacrifice whether it be their homes, their time, their will...etc. But if i have learned anything on my mission it is that the Lord honors sacrifice! When we complain and gripe about the things God has asked us to do it can dominate our thoughts, overtake our vision, and absorb our energy, and deprive us of the important experiences that Lord wants us to receive (TTTF). We should try to respond by asking

   What am I to do? What am I supposed to learn? What am I to change? Why is the Lord asking me to sacrifice this thing? How will the Lord honor my sacrifice? How can I learn to be grateful during this hard time?

We went on a hike..........

Ok preaching over... :)

We started our first english class! It was so fun! We have two little ladies that came and they know barely any english. There are a lot of immigrants that have been living in the states for 10 plus years, but have not had the opportunity to take any kind of english class, so hopefully this can help out so people! it has actually been helping me with my spanish. I told the ladies that I will help them with their english only if they help me with my spanish! We would make them say sentences and then they would say, "Your turn!' and i would say it in spanish :) 

The weather has been soooooo nice! The sun goes down by 5 o'clock which is when we are usually knocking doors. I was trying to be Idaho tough and not wear a sweater, but i was freezing! California is weakening me...

We had to email at the apple store this week and I am typing next to a Christmas tree! What the!? Time is moving so fast. Transfers are next week! Who knows where I will be spending Christmas!?

Random story...yesterday we ate with a member and she feed us a vegetable, chicken soup with a ton of cilantro, and guess what!?! I loved it! It is a Christmas Miracle!

Have a great week. Love you all so much :) 

Hermana Moo

every UTE fan ever was at the LA visitor center!

Random Things

1. I think I experienced my first earthquake. I woke up in the middle of the night and my bed was shaking...it was on October 25 so maybe someone can investigate that for me haha

2. We had a service opportunity to paint a house last week! It was an english ward activity, so one of the member walked in and said to me,

      "Where are you from?"

      "Idaho!"

      "That's what I thought...you just have an Idaho look about you."

I am not sure what the Idaho Look is, but I took it as a compliment!

3. I forgot to tell you that last week when we went to the temple every Ute fan ever was at the LA visitor center! I guess the UCLA vs. Utah game was that day. Made me think of Brennan :)

 

 

Here's the update on the M............ family: D...... is still set on being baptized. The rest of the family is still wants to learn more, but they are consistently going to church and we meet with them twice a week! They have an uncle that lives in Arizona that they want to baptize them, so hopefully the uncle can come for Thanksgiving! We are still working that out. We taught the family about baptism yesterday. Near the end of the lesson we asked, "So what do you think baptism is?" Hna Montoya responded, "It sounds like baptism is just a beginning of something." Exactly! I never really thought of it that way. 

Baptism is the beginning to a new life. 

A step towards the temple. 
A beginning to a deeper relationship with The Lord. Hna Montoya expressed some concern about being baptized and then making mistakes, but we know that God has given us so much help. 
Every week we can partake of the sacrament and renew our covenants. We can have a fresh start every week. 
Also we have the gift of the Holy Spirit that can guide us through every decision we make.





So I went on an ASL exchange this week! I learned how to sign, "My name is Sister Barfuss and we are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." The ward the sisters serve in has about 10 deaf members, so we visited with a couple of them during the exchange. It was so cool! 

We had a booth at the mall! (this was who I exchanged with)

We did "knock-out" up the mountain. I was in heaven! It was the first time I got out the the pit of the valley and up into the mountain areas. The people who lived there had HUGE houses and most had horses and chickens...i still haven't seen a cow in 5 months hahha

 This was someone's backyard. They didn't answer their door so we took some pics

We had to stop by the other Hermana's apartment and we had a quick arm wrestle. I barely won haha

 We found a dead cockroach in our bathroom the other day. I disposed of it in the disposal. Ewwwwww. It's antennas started to move when I scooped it up...I may or may not have screamed.


 I had to take a picture...I knew Dad and Uncle Brock would be proud :)

That is about it. Just another week that flew by! I love being a missionary!

 

Hermana Moooooo