"I don't have time...I need to feed my 80lb turtle."

 It has been a great week! 



My new companion is Hna Gomez. She goes in the history books as my shortest companion ;) She comes in at a solid 5 feet. Basically I am a giant everywhere I go.

Here is what I learned this week: 

Success is hard to measure. 

• As missionaries we keep track of everything with numbers, but you can start to go crazy as a missionary if you focus on the numbers.
• Some missionaries determine their success on how many people will listen and accept the gospel. 
• Some determine success from getting assignments to serve as leaders or trainers in the mission. 
• I have determined my success as a missionary MANY ways throughout my mission, and I have finally found THE ONLY WAY to measure success. Nightly Prayer. No joke. It is in my nightly prayer that I can give Heavenly Father an honest accounting of my day. I can tell Him what I did, and I can ask Him how I need to improve. I give Him thanks for His guidance throughout the day, and ask Him for help and strength to improve as a missionary. I can ask for forgiveness for the things I didn't do so great, and I can promise Him that I will give a sincere, honest, best effort the next day. Doing this has helped me a lot. Daily accountability is super important! It is through daily accountability that we can reach our goals. That is a promise!

RANDOM STUFF FOR THE WEEK:

1. We had our ward Father's Day party this week. We have been working on getting a family involved in the ward for the past 2 months. THEY CAME TO THE PARTY. Wahoo! I spent the whole night sending ward members to go talk to them, so they would never be alone. Muahhahaha. If you ever see anyone alone at a party...Sit. By. Them.

2.  We were out knocking doors and a guy told us, "I don't have time...I need to feed my 80lb turtle." WHAT!? I had to see it to believe it. Picture to come :) I told him I had a turtle named Pete.

3. We also met the man named Cainen. He was sitting on his porch with a black suit that had skulls all over it. He was smoking a cigarette and holding a guitar. We walked up to him and said, "Can you play us a song?" I wasn't sure what he was going to do, but he ended up playing us a really good song. Be on the look out for Cainan! Dropping his new album 2017.

4. We had to take our car up to Santa Clarita so they could put a bike rack hitch on it. We kept telling everyone, "We're getting hitched!" 

I love you Mama. Have a great week. Don't forget to say your nightly prayers :)

Hna Moo

It looks small in the picture, but it really was 80 lbs!

goodbye tacos with Hna Jensen

"Is this how the devil lives?"

Yesterday it was 113 degrees and it smelled like smoke because of all the fires. 

This 10 year old boy at church asked us, "Is this how the devil lives?" 

hahahaa I have no idea how I biked in this weather last summer...

 Ok. So here is the weird news of the week. Hna Jensen is getting transferred! We got the phone call and I honestly felt like a horrible trainer. I was thinking, "what did I do wrong???" Well today we got the news that I will be finishing the training of another Hermana. Thankfully Hna Jensen is just being moved to the other area in our ward, so I will get to see her at least 3 times a week!

We went to the temple! Wahoo! We left at 7:00 and hit some nasty LA traffic, but we got to the temple at 8:30 with plenty of time to spare before our session. We went with 3 other zones, so the temple was packed with missionaries! Nothing is cooler than being with the missionaries in the temple. It reminds us of what our goals are as missionaries: Helping families be sealed in the temple! It also reminds us of all the missionary work that is happening on the other side of the veil!

I was doing some training last week with Hna Jensen, and I was trying to help her think a little deeper, and the wise words of Peter Ashton Hall came into my brain, "Mas hondo...Go deeper!" I started to crack up.

I was asked to give a talk about fathers yesterday, but they ran out of time so I did not have to speak. I was nervous all day for nothing! But I definitely was going to give a shout out to the best padre in the world! FELIZ DIA DEL PADRE!!!

Well I am very excited for this week. We have really planned, prepared, and prayed about this upcoming week. We are expecting to see miracles! 

I love you mama! Sounds like you had an eventful weekend :) LOVE YOU!

Hna Moo

So check out this message...it is from another missionary in the mission:

"The Miracle continues. Remember Uncle Brock? There is a good friend of mine back home in my stake who’s name is Lucia Spencer. Her mother, Patricia, was born and raised in Spain. Bro. Crow is the missionary who baptized her. Now their daughter Lucia is serving a mission in Spain. Hna. Barfuss' Uncle Brock's influence is spreading even more."

Emily with Bro. Crow

There is in every true woman a spark of heavenly fire

Happy 30 years to Mom and Dad! Thanks for getting married. I am eternally grateful ;)

This week was a little tricky for us. Everyone is leaving for summer vacation. Usually the families go visit their home countries for a few weeks! We have a few investigators that we are working with, so that is keeping us busy.

Here are a few random stories from the week:

1. A Time Warner Cable salesman knocked on our door. He said that his records show that we do not have cable, and he asked us why. Green light! We ended up teaching him the restoration of the gospel of Jesucristo and we invited him to be baptized. He said he is interested in learning more! He is from El Salvador and currently lives down the road from my first apartment in Canoga Park!

2. We got a member referral a few days ago. Her name is F...... The problem is she has a huge gate around her house that is always locked. We stopped by a couple times with no luck contacting her. Yesterday we planned a time to see her, and prayed for a miracle that she would pull up in her car when we showed up. GUESS. WHAT. HAPPENED. Right when we walked up to her gate, she pulled up in her car behind us! God answers prayers. We ended up talking to her and her son for about 20 minutes. They are pretty Catholic and not interested in changing religions, but it was a wonderful conversation!

3. Has anyone seen Nora's Christmas Gift? It is on the missionary Christmas DVD with Mr. Kruger's Christmas. It is so good. I think I will make it a new Barfuss Christmas tradition to watch it every year! 

4. It has been cloudy and rainy all week. I love it! I am trying to enjoy every second because I know I will be sweating my guts out soon.

5. There is a member in the Burbank ward that owns a food bank. They are being audited so all the North Hollywood missionaries have been helping out. We counted, stacked, organized about 300 hundred crates of food. The gave us some free bread a stawberries :) yummmmm

6. Our mission is going to the temple on Friday! I cannot wait!

I think that is everything...I hope your back is feeling better mamas. I hope you and dad did something fun for you anniversary like get ice cream or watch an Andy Griffith episode together.

LOVE YOU!

   Hna Moo

fav quotes from the week:

Ordinances and covenants help us remember who we are- True to the Faith

There is in every true woman a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the daylight of prosperity, but which kindles up, and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity- Washington Irving

"Pocatello!? The man who baptized me lived in Pocatello. Do you know any Barfuss'??"

(another year mark photo)

Buckle up. The coolest miracle happened this week!

( riding a grasshopper )

It all starts June 2, 2015 (hahah gotta love the drama) June 2, 2015 was one of the worst days of my life. I won't sugar coat it. It was the day before I left on my mission, and I was sooooooo scared BUT June 2, 2016 was one of the happiest days of my life. Here's why:

On June 2nd I got a phone call from a man named Brother Crow. I answered the phone and he said, "Sister Barfuss. This is Brother Crow. Your Uncle Brock was the missionary that knocked on my door in 1978 when I was a senior in high school and baptized me." I cried as he told me that he was at a baptism the other day where there were over 200 people in attendance. He just happened to talk to two elders, Elder Black and Elder Jensen, who were at the baptism. Elder Jensen just happens to be from Pocatello. Brother Crow told them, "Pocatello!? The man who baptized me lived in Pocatello. Do you know any Barfuss'??"

One thing lead to another and he called me. He told me that after he was baptized, he served a mission in Spain. He just bought tickets to go see one of the families he taught be sealed in the temple. Another family he taught is sending off their fourth missionary. I sat on my bed completely in shock. He told me how he and Uncle Brock had kept in touch for years. Years after Bro Crow came home from his mission, he received a prompting one day to call Uncle Brock. He called just as Uncle Brock was leaving to get testing done. Brock told his he was having serious health problems. Brother Crow was able to tell Uncle Brock he loved him on last time, and a couple weeks later he got a phone call from Aunt Nat telling him that Brock had passed away.

 

This experience has touched me for so many different reasons. I have had a prayer in my heart my entire mission that I would find some connection to Uncle Brock. I knew that he served around the same area I was serving, and I have had a feeling that somehow I would make a connection to him. I didn't think it was a coincidence I was called to the same area he served in. Turns out Brother Crow lived about 15 minutes away from my old area in Valencia!

 

Heavenly Father hears our prayers. Heavenly Father answers prayers. He knows the desires of our hearts. God has a perfect plan, and He is truly in the details of our lives. The gospel changes lives. We have no idea the depth of the work we do each day. Uncle Brock's decision to serve a mission has changed hundreds of lives!

 

I love being a missionary :)                                                        somehow this plant is still living..

 

Love,

   Hna Moo

Hna Jensen's first Pupusas!

YEAR MARK!

I celebrated my year mark with a Ben and Jerry's yummmmm.

"There is no learning in my comfort zone, and there is no comfort in my learning zone."

We did the Wisdom Tree hike last week. It is a really steep climb, but at the top there is a wise looking tree with a box where you can write some words of wisdom.

At the top

hahaa so there is part of the Hollywood sign...that was all we could see! One day I will see the front!

The wisdom box!

I wrote some very wise words :)

Saying adios to the mission nurse! Bye Sister Anderson!

One week follow up for the new missionaries

I hope you all had a fun Memorial Day! I definitely had Gpa Preece and Barfuss on my mind. We had a ward picnic, and one of our investigators came! We ate a lot of food and I got a sunburn, so I think it was successful Memorial Day :)

Friday is my one year mark. 

Fastest, best-est, most wonderful, and rewarding year of my life! 

This week I also finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish for the first time. Yes...it has taken me a year to finish it. I have jumped back and forth from reading in English and Spanish, but I finally finished in good old Espanol! I remember starting to read in the CCM. It took me forever to pronounce and understand the words. I remember sitting in my first area with my English and Spanish Books of Mormon sitting side-by-side. It would take me about 15 minutes per page. Many of the pages in my BOM have tiny penciled-in translations when I didn't know a word. Let's just say the first half of my Book of Mormon is covered in pencil. My initial thought was, "One day I am going to understand these words and I will just erase all my translations!" But I think I am going to leave them there. Those little pencil marks are a testimony to me that I can do hard things!

 Here I am now, one year into my mission, and I can understand the scriptures.

 I can teach from the scriptures!

 It is no longer a struggle but a joy. 

The book is true. 

You can read it,

you can touch it, 

you can pray about it, and 

you can know it is true!

Random Stuff

1. We had interviews this week. My interview ended up taking 30 minutes! I love President and Sister Henrie :)

2. Hermana Jensen had to give a talk this Sunday. Somehow I got away with only having to say a prayer. Our investigator came to church and he gave Hna Jensen and the other speakers little flowers. He gave me a bag of Vanilla Cupcake flavored Goldfish hahaha

3. We do service at a food bank and this week they had us go through cartons of eggs. If there were any eggs with cracks in them, we got to squish them into a bucket. It was oddly satisfying to throw, squish, and crack eggs for 2 hours.

I hope everyone has a super duper week. Here are some words of wisdom from my district leader:

"There is no learning in my comfort zone, and there is no comfort in my learning zone." amen.

LOVE,

  Hna Moo