This week I ate 10 tacos, 1 thing of Nachos, 2 pieces of carne asada, and a whole lot of refried beans. yummmmmmm

First matter of business: My next pday is on TUESDAY! The church has decided that on national holidays missionaries should use the time to proselyte, so i will not be emailing home next Monday.

bubba gump

my golden globe for best aunt!

This week was a lot of fun! For Pday we went to something called City Walk. It is just a little touristy, shopping place outside of Universal Studios. Burbank is a fun city. It has a lot of the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. It is crazy how much changes in a 15 minute drive. Our area is pretty rundown, but once you drive into Burbank it is a whole new place! Today we are going to hike to the Hollywood sign (I hear the front of the sign is in the other mission, so we can only look at the back of it hahah)

The hermanas

My goal this week has been to teach with the spirit and teach LIKE the spirit. I have a strong testimony that teaching with simple statements of truth is the most powerful way to teach. Think of any spiritual experience you have ever had. It was simple, powerful, and clear. I want to be a teacher just like that! We found 2 new investigators this week *WEEHOO* which gave us the opportunity to teach simply but boldly. They were some of the sweetest, most powerful lessons I have ever taught. I love being a missionary.

The elder taking our picture didn't get the whole globe...face palm

Funny Things

1. There is a "crew" of high school kids we keep randomly running into. They probably think we are stalking them. We talked with them outside their school, we saw them outside their apartment complex, and yesterday we knocked on one of their doors. He opened the door and said, "Oh...it's you again!" Their names are Luis, Andrew, and Homie Carlos. I think I will name my first son after Homie Carlos.

2. This week I ate 10 tacos, 1 thing of Nachos, 2 pieces of carne asada, and a whole lot of refried beans. yummmmmmm

3. Yesterday we got stuck at a member present lesson for 2 hours!!! There is a little 97-yr-old grandma that lives there with her grandson that is investigating the church. Oh. Sweet. Mercy. They talked and talked and talked and talked...I have learned pretty well how to interrupt kindly and end a lesson, but I could not get us out of there! I finally said for the 5th time, "TENEMOS QUE IRNOS!" which means we have to go!!! Then I said,  "I am going to pray." hahaha. We said a prayer and then the grandson walked us out to our car and continued to talk for another 20 minutes. I thought my brain was going to explode :) I still love being a missionary!

4.We ate with a member this week, and we came right as her Novela started. She really wanted to watch it, so we ate as the goofiest Novela ever was playing. Hahaa it was like a musical, but still all the drama of a Novela. Good times...

Saying goodbye to Hna Salazar! So sad!

Here is my fav quote from church yesterday.

 An Hermana was teaching about reaching out to less active members. She said (a rough Hna Barfuss spanish to english translation)

 "Thank goodness the effort was made to rescue Alma the younger and the Sons of Mosiah. Thank goodness the members made the effort to pray for and help rescue those rebellious boys. Just think of all the people who were converted because of the mission work of those rebellious youth!"

 No one is a lost cause. There are millions of Saul-like people with Paul-like potential (someone said that in conference)

LOVE YOU,

Hna Moooooo 

 picking a monkey's nose 

 I had to take a pic with my homie Dorothy!
(remember when she was Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz in high school?)

She told us we were angels sent from God

What a crazy week! I am happy to have a week under my belt. Thankfully this week went about 100 times better than I thought it was going to go :)

Introducing my new companion: Hermana Jensen from Orem, Utah! She is great. She is super excited to learn and to work. Plus she is taller than me! I got the one not-native Hermana, so I have been speaking a lot of spanish. All of my dreams this week have been in spanglish...

Don't be confused by North Hollywood's name. We are by no means in a glamorous place hahaa. We live in Sun Valley and it is majority Latinos and Armenians! We went and did service at a food bank this week, and everyone there spoke spanish. It is awesome! Definitely a change from my last area.

Tuesday (the day of transfers) was a scary day. I had new trainer training in the morning, and all of us kept saying, "I think I am going to throw up." "I have no idea what I am doing here!" hahaa but I have learned this week that whom the Lord calls HE QUALIFIES. I met Hermana Jensen, we got in the car, and off we went to North Hollywood. Thankfully I have Marysa's GPS or else I don't think we would have made it!

We took over an area that has been shut down for about two months, so we started with zero investigators, but we have knocked a bunch of doors and now we have two new investigators!!!! One is named Rebekah. She is a single mom of 8 kids that was recently in a car accident that left her with a back injury. She had an apartment inspection that is scheduled for Monday, and she had been praying for help. We knocked on her door and she let us help her mop, vacuum, and wash dishes. She told us we were angels sent from God, and she committed to come to church with us. The Lord's timing is perfect! We have seen a lot of miracles this week.

Our ward is great. It is about the size of a branch right now. There is a lot of work to be done. Yesterday I made the goal to talk with as many people as I could. Mission work goes a whole lot smoother when we know the ward, and the ward members trust us!

Random Stuff:

1. We helped with the LA county food drive this week. Thankfully a group of missionaries came because we were the only volunteers there. They brought 1000s of pounds of food that we organized and packed into trucks.

2. I hope everyone had a happy Friday the 13th. spooooooky

3. Last Monday before I left Santa Clarita we ate with the Smith family from the english ward. We had a musical FHE with them and the brother we ate with has perfect pitch, so he could play any song we requested. Sister Smith asked me what kind of music my parents listened to. I told her 80s country hahaa, so she asked me if I knew the song "Grandpa" by the Judd Sisters. You better believe I know that song! Her and I sang it together. "Grandpa. Tell me about the good old days!" I teared up while singing the song. I am such a baby these days...baby barfuss

Alright. I think that is everything. 

Thank you for all the prayers. 

They have really helped me this week!

I love you mom :) 

Hermana Moooooo

Kill the "me monster"!

(Notice the ORANGE TREE - or something that is Orange :))

NORTH HOLLYWOOD! 

I will be in the North Hollywood 4th ward starting tomorrow. I am feeling about a zillion emotions right now. I am excited, grateful, nervous, pumped, etc about being transferred and training for the first time. It is going to be an adventure :) 

With the Lord I can do hard things, so let's get to work!

It was great to skype the whole family even though Dad, Marysa, Los Halls were in Georgia and Mom, Brennan, Grandma, and Los Hansens were in Utah. 

I LOVE TECHNOLOGY (said in Kip voice) My mind was racing the entire time talking to you all. Peter is huge and is so smart.

Marysa was lookin' foxy (FELIZ CUMPLEANOS MARYSA). 

Calvin looks like a totally different person. 

Brennan is rocking a mustache. I could on and on! To sum everything up...I love our family. Your support, jokes, and words of encouragement mean the world to me. I will try and expound on those words of advice I was trying to give everyone :)

Be Happy!

Embrace life.

Kill the "me monster" and help others. 

Help others see the beauty of life.

Heavenly Father sent us to earth to experience joy. 

He created a beautiful world. 

He sent His son to show us an example.

He gave us families. 

He has given us the fullness of His gospel. 

It is very easy to complain, feel that life is unfair, and be selfish, but I believe there are about 100,000 more reasons to be grateful, joyful, and giving!

I love you Mom. I hope you had a super fantastic Mother's Day!

Hermana Moo 

The gospel of Jesus Christ blesses families!

Dearest Mama,

    I CANNOT WAIT TO CALL YOU!!! I am sending a package today. I am very excited! My first package! I hope it gets to Pocatello before everyone leaves...It has Marysa's birthday present in it, some Mother's day fun, and other random stuff. The plan is to skype at 7 pm cali time. We have dinner at 6 so plan around 7:15ish. WEEHOO!

   

 This week was a very humbling week for me. Let me tell you why

1. I went on an exchange with Sister Groberg. We went to her area and we ate dinner with a super nice, less active family. Two months ago their only daughter was killed in a terrible car accident. She was 19 and some irresponsible guys were racing on the highway and in a freak accident a semi truck crossed the median and hit this girl's car. As I walked into their home, I had no idea what to say to them. What do you say? We walked in and this couple had made us a huge dinner. We chatted, laughed, and talked about their daughter. They were soooo kind to us! They were visibly still in shock about the loss of their daughter. Their home was filled with pictures of her. We shared a message about love. We thanked them for showing us so much love, and I felt the spirit strongly as we testified about how much their Heavenly Father and Savoir love them. The beautiful thing about the gospel is that even when I have NO IDEA how someone might be feeling, I can always testify that the Savior knows exactly what they are feeling. He gets it. He understands. He is the only one that can lift the burden. For that I am grateful. 

2. We ate dinner with a family yesterday of three girls and one boy. We did not know the family going into the dinner, but as soon as I walked in the house I could feel that she was a widow. The home was filled with pictures of the father who had passed away in an accident. My heart hurt as I saw that little girls running to the door to great us. You would not believe how happy this little family is! I cannot imagine the pain, confusion, and heart ache that they have felt, but they are the most faithful family I have every met. The girls were telling us all about their dad's mission stories. They all expressed desires to serve missions! I know that it is the faith of this family that has carried them through the hard times. The gospel of Jesus Christ blesses families!

3. We had two investigators (a husband and wife) come to church yesterday! WEEHOO! We had stopped by their house twice this past week, and tried texting and calling multiple times with no luck. Sunday morning we got a call from J....... asking where the chapel was!!! So we waited outside to make sure he wouldn't get lost. We sat outside for about 25 minutes praying he would show up. We decided that he probably wasn't going to make it, so we walked into our Gospel Principles class (i was pretty bummed) and BOOM! Sitting inside the class is J....... and his wife M.......! Surprise!!! He must have entered the back door and a member had already welcomed him and was sitting next to him in the class. Mission work is IMPOSSIBLE without members. They stayed for all 3 hours and the branch had a break the fast fiesta after church so they stayed for that also! The work is moving forward. No effort goes unnoticed by the Lord :) The funny thing is in Elders Quorum they talked about the law of chastity, the word of wisdom, keeping the Sabbath day holy, and tithing. Those are all the whammy lessons we teach. He didn't run for the exit, so that is a great sign!

District Picture: My companion is the  dwarf shepherd. Our herd is being attacked by Goliath. 

FUNNY THINGS

1. I ran into a girl that served in the New Jersey mission. She came in after Kate left, but she says Hermana Summers is a legend! Apparently her wedding announcement is all over the mission home, and the mission president quotes her all the time! Love you Kate!

2. I also met a man named Paul Jones...apparently he went to high school with Uncle Todd! Small world hahaa

3. I held a lizard and I ate at Carl's Jr...booooooo

(Emily doesn't like Carl's Jr - their commercials are nasty!!)

I love you mama! Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there! Feliz Dia de la Madre! 

Love,

Hermana Moo