"You gotta repent, get prayed up, and THEN deliver that word!" -Joe

Yall, I love the South. I love the people here. And I love being a missionary!

This week was another full of missed appointments and rejection - more than ever for me! I don't know what's going on. But it was one of my favourite weeks! sister Maughan and I had fun despite everything. The lessons that we DID teach were so powerful, the people we were able to see are beginning to progress, and the ONE new person we met this week was really searching for truth. So I call it a success!

The one person's name is Tina! We knocked on  her door and she said that for SOME reason she decided to open it to the Mormons. They knock on her door all the time, it seems like, and she always ignores them! But she actually spoke with us, asked all of her questions, and with more hesitation than I have ever seen, accepted a Book of Mormon! She was always told that Mormons were a radical cult that didn't watch TV and she had never really spoken with one because of that. We were able to share with her some of our basic beliefs, reassure her that we weren't dangerous, and invited her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon! I am so excited to see her again, she is very sensitive to the Spirit. One of the first things she said to us was "The Spirit guides me every day of my life!" And I love that. There are so many wonderful people like her out here. She was the only new person we found after 7 hours of knocking doors! I have some pretty high hopes!

Billy is another faithful man we are teaching. He loves when we come over, he sits outside reading and waiting for us to arrive. We asked him if he had been able to pray about the Book of Mormon, he said yes! He said he was asking to know the truth from God and that "God sure answers prayers! Just sometimes at 11:59 and 99 seconds!" so he hasn't gotten an answer yet, but knows God will answer right in time! (at least that's what I think that meant)

Sunny is wonderful. She started working at Dillards in the Men's cologne department! She loves it and of course she is good at it. Also, she's blonde now!

This week has been a serious test of my attitude. My optimism was very challenged. But I think with the help of prayer, a wonderful companion, great district, and support from all of YOU - I have come out okay! I'll be going into this last week of the transfer zealously! I hope and pray I don't leave this area or this companion yet, but I will go where I am called! I'll talk to you all next TUESDAY!

Have a blessed week!

Sister Bartsch

Me: "Do you know where Dorothy lives?" Stranger: "ARE YOU ASKING IF I'M A MORMON?"

FRIENDS! Wasn't conference wonderful? I sure loved it :) I hate to say it, but this has been the week of cancelled appointments and disappearing people. We are losing track of people left and right! Pray with us for miracles, please :) Losing contact with people is our biggest struggle. But, we have also seen some wonderful people come closer to accepting the gospel!
We taught Yolanda and her four kids. We planned to teach them a full lesson but Yolanda hadn't had time to read from the Book of Mormon. So we handed them out to the kids and read with her. We explained as we read and every time we wanted to insert a little "Alright, we can stop there" they just kept reading and asking questions and reading and reading. All of them were loving learning about Jesus Christ ministering in the Americas - they found it fascinating! Sister Maughan and I are thrilled to finally have her whole family involved in the learning. Next time we will teach that whole lesson and be sure to bring visual aids to keep the kids entertained :)
We found an angel named Joy! This woman's name suits her. She is 83 and goodness gracious can she TALK. We spent nearly two hours at her house. The last 40 minutes were spent repeating "Well, Joy! We really had better go! Thanks for letting us in!" over and over. She is the most lovely lady, though, with an incredible story and strong spirit. We are going to see her and her dog Dobie tonight. I hope we can get a word in and help strengthen her Faith!
One of the greatest things about being a missionary is all of the beautiful spirits we meet. I get my fair share of door-slams, angry dogs, and hurtful comments, but I'd take a billion of those to find people like Joy, Yolanda, Charles, Don, Sandra, Monique, LeStoria, the list goes on and on. I knock on people's doors hoping that I can brighten their day, help them feel the Spirit, increase their Faith, and tell them how loved they are by their Heavenly Father. I want them to know that He has a plan for them! And that there are answers to the questions they have. By then my companion and I have in their own personalized way borne our testimony of Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, and the Book of Mormon. The Spirit is strong and the puck is on their side of the ice (sorry, had to).
It makes us sad when they don't keep their appointments or commitments to read after that, but it helps us know who is really interested and ready for the Gospel! Unfortunately, my computer won't let me attach pictures this week. So you all don't get to see the dead frog in Joy's driveway. I know, I'm sorry.
Have a blessed week! I love you all so much!
-Sister Bartsch

"Well, he stood too close to the screen door, didn't he!"

​Has another week really flown by? My goodness. We're already halfway through the transfer! What?!

Y'all. I love this place. I love these people. And I love being a missionary. It's been a good week :) 

On Wednesday I went on exchanges with my new Sister Training Leader, Sister Kendall! We brought Sunny with us, taught a bunch of lessons, and had probably too much fun. That night, she mentioned she might want to maybe  go into cosmetology when she gets home. I asked her if she had ever dyed hair before, she said  no. I asked her if she wanted to learn, she said yes. There was a mystery tube of hair dye and a bottle of developer in the closet, so she dyed my hair! And then there was some left over so I dyed hers! Luckily it was a brown-ish colour :) It was a good time. And our companion's faces when they came home the next day were priceless!

Sister Bartsch and Kendall after dying their hair!

Our mission has a new goal! Every companionship is working towards having a baptism in November. When we make it that's 100 BAPTISMS. Sister Maughan and I are currently teaching 7 people/families that we have really high hopes for who are making real progress in the Gospel. It's wonderful. We pray for them all the time! If you want to help us out, pray for the mission!

To explain the quote in the subject of my email, we watched Meet the Mormons at Sister Adams' house with Sunny and Don on Friday night. There was a really freckled-faced kid on the screen and Brother Adams (age 92) pipes up and said "Well, he stood too close to the screen door, didn't he!" He is a man of few words and Sister Maughan and I have been laughing about that ever since. You might not think it is funny, but it really broke the mood when everyone was crying through the story. Good 'ol Brother Adams.

I have a Southernism to share with yall! Obviously I have loved it since I first heard it, but I've grown a new appreciation as I have started to use it in my own vocab :) "Fixin' to" (verb) used in place of "going to, preparing for, or getting ready to" such as "fixin' to take a shower, fixin' to go to work, or fixin' to start readin my Bible again." Sometimes they don't even get the whole word out and it sounds more like a fi'in to. AND I THOUGHT I WASN'T LEARNING A LANGUAGE. 

Everyone thought the world was ending last night, too. I heard that was a common concern? I got flyers on my car and stuff.. and lots of people asked us what we knew and whether our Prophet warned us..

"L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N." By Noah and the Whale was stuck in my head all week :)
​
Like I said, I really love this place and these people. I have such an appreciation for the Faith of the South. And whether these people join the Church or not, I am grateful to help them come closer to their Savior Jesus Christ. One of my favourite quotes from the Women's Session of General Conference was: 

"When we serve in the name of the Lord with purity of heart, we reflect the Savior's love and give others a glimpse of Heaven" -Sister McConkie

The Church is so true and I am so happy out here. I love you all! Have a blessed week :)

Sister Bartsch

P.S. I love my companion!

You ladies shouldn't be going to the laundreteria

Oh, how I love being a trainer. This last week has been so fun with Sister Maughan. She is picking up her training super fast and is making me feel like a proud mama every day :) thanks for praying for us! 

Easily  my favourite. Pretty much describes how our training is going ;)
Just kidding.

A couple cool things happened this week. Remember Yolanda? My Saturday miracle last week? We taught her again and she shared some really special experiences with us. This woman has lived a rough life and has had to overcome a lot of trials. She reads one of those day-by-day books that helps her to remember to pray and draw closer to God. A few days before we had met, she read about how God often sends people in our lives as answers to our prayers. The book invited her to pray for people who will be true friends and good listeners or something like that. She realized after she shared her life story that we were her answer! We had literally said maybe three words that whole first half of our appointment. As soon as she shared that, I shared with her our side of the story. That she had been an answer to our praying all week. We knew there was someone we needed to find on Nattin Street and we knew that someone was her. The Spirit was so strong. We see Yolanda again tomorrow and I'm so excited. 

On Friday, we had parked our car to go knock on Rodney's door. He wasn't home and we were going to leave when Robert drove by! I love Robert, but I feel really uncomfortable around him and for some reason I didn't want him to see us get in the car and leave. Lots of missionaries have problems with people recognizing the missionary car and following them (dang bike rack). So we walked around the block. We passed a couple of houses that we could have tried and taught lessons to, but I STILL felt like we needed to keep walking. So we did! And then we walked passed this woman who stopped us by saying "Okay this is going to sound crazy, but were yall visiting with someone who lived on Bonn Street?" Sister Maughan is still new and had no idea. We were teaching a lot of people on Bonn Street! She said "my dad was being visited by two young girls" I knew exactly who she was talking about. Her dad's name is Clifton and this man was so wonderful to us. She told us he had passed away and that the house was full of family and she had to get out and take a walk. She cried a little bit as she shared how much of a Daddy's girl she was and that he always told her that those church girls that stopped by would really brighten his day. I have no idea if we will ever see her again, but I gave her our phone number, said a prayer, and let her finish her walk! As we were parting she said "THIS is why I needed a walk" and I just looked at Sister Maughan and we both were thinking "No, no, this is why WE took a walk." 

We got bit by about 40 bugs. No one runs through the grass here. Bad idea.
We thought we could make it to the path in 10 seconds but no. 

The simplest of miracles happen every day for me out here. Maybe it is because I'm a missionary, but probably it's because I am praying for miracles and watching for them. I know Heavenly Father loves the people here so much. I'm working every day to make sure they know that!

I love you all! 
Have a blessed week!

Sister Bartsch

This is from The Church Of The Cross. The cross is almost so big it's scary.
 Ah, I love the South.

Did I ever send you this picture of the lizard? I found it in my closet and it scared me to bits.

Y'all the ones handing out the Books of Normans?

Sister Maughan survived a week! I think that means I am doing something right :) I love this girl. She is shy, but her personality is coming out ever so slowly. It's been fun :) Being a trainer is definitely the challenge I needed! I am learning and growing so much and I'm so grateful for such a sweet companion.

So something neat happened. Starting Tuesday, our Zone started planning a Zone-wide tracting (knocking door-to-door) hour from 3-4 on Saturday afternoon. We were told to pray to see miracles during that hour in EVERY prayer we said as a companionship and by ourselves (that's a lot of prayers). So we did! We prayed and prayed and prayed. We even prayed during our weekly planning session on Friday about WHERE to tract. We picked a section on our area map, prayed about it, and both picked 5 streets that stood out to us. Afterwards, Nattin Street was the only one we had both written down. Nattin it was! (I have no idea if anyone else in the zone did this).

So then Saturday comes along and we have an appointment with Joe at 1:00. As per usual, his daughter tells us Joe isn't home. As per NOT usual, I say "Well can we share a message with yall instead?" She reluctantly agreed so we came inside. There was a woman on the couch, her name was Yolanda. We introduced ourselves, said a prayer, and started teaching her about the Restoration! Joe's daughter wandered in and out of the lesson and didn't seem to care, but Yolanda really did care! She was super into the discussion and accepted a baptism date! We get to the end of the lesson and set up a return appointment. We ask for her address and GUESS WHERE SHE LIVES? NATTIN STREET. Nattin street has like 10 houses on it, I was pretty surprised. Anyways, we were tracting the street during 3-4 and we didn't remember to check her house number, so we just knocked them all. Right as we were about to leave the area, Yolana pulled into her driveway. She lives in one of the first homes we tried at the beginning of the hour and we would have completely missed her :) I love little miracles. Yolanda gave us a big wave and her little daughter came and gave us a big hug. Like I said, it was pretty neat.

We are still struggling with progression down here. But we are starting to see a couple people standing out from our dozens of potentials. Keep praying for us as we try to sift through our long lists! I love this place. It is so full of wonderful people that I love so much. The Church is true, God is good, and the Atonement is real.
Have a blessed week!
Sister Bartsch

Current favourite scripture: Acts 17:27

27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:

I had my baby!

Her name is Sister Maughan and she is from Cache Valley. She's super cute and super nervous and we only have one picture together :) She is quite a bit taller than me and we think that is funny. That's about as far as we've gotten so far :) I LOVE HER ALREADY

Fixin' to be a good Transfer!

And I finished another transfer! I have been a missionary for a whole 3 months - time has FLOWN!! 

This week was craaaazy. 34 lessons. My new record! Sister Dobbins and I were both HEALTHY the entire 7 days and that was such a miracle, so we made the best of it! 

The best part of this week? Sunny fed us 3 times. Every time a member asks us what we want for dinner, I ask for the Southern Experience. And I never get it! So, leave it to Sunny to grant my every wish :) We made fried chicken FINALLY and it was delicious. It hurt the next day, but it was great. She seriously stuffs us, spoils us, fills us with joy, and sends us with leftovers. Sunny is our best friend out here, when times get tough, she is who we call. Every time. 

Despite our high numbers and fun times with Sunny, this week got pretty discouraging. There are so many people that are hard to contact, don't keep their commitments, and reschedule appointment after appointment. Most of them have baptism dates and say they really want the blessings of the gospel! It's hard to go week after week not seeing progress in these people, we love them so much! Monique keeps telling us not to give up on her, and we are trying our best! I think the hardest part for me is that for so many of these, we pour out our souls in testimony, we go back to the darkest part of our lives, share personal experiences, and invite others to feel the love of their Savior and they still don't give prayer a try.  I know that I was sent to this little city in Louisiana because there are people here who need me. Who need my testimony, my trials, and my words to relate with. It's just not easy to share all of this with so many people, I like to keep personal experiences personal! But you don't always know who you're looking for and you especially don't always know if something you say pricks their hearts (Acts 2:37-38)! So you just always share. And I am not sure I will ever get used to that. 

There was a lizard in my house this week. 

My District Leader died, meaning he finished his mission. So our theme for our District Meeting was  his funeral. It was fun in a weird way. Missionaries get weird, guys. 

My Zone Leader turned 20 yesterday and we had a party at their trailer. They live in a trailer park and it is awesome, I'm so jealous of their porch. I wish I had pictures, sorry! 

Aaaaaand Sister Dobbins got transferred. She is going to Ridgeland, Mississippi to be a Sister Training Leader! I know she will be fantastic. She's been such a good example to me and I know the Sisters in her zone will love her, too. I'M GOING TO BE TRAINING!! I don't even know my companion's name yet, but she will be coming this evening. If the library is still open we will stop by and I will send yall a picture :) In the mission, we are 'in training' for 12 weeks. I just finished my 12 weeks on Sunday, and this new Sister will be just beginning hers! I am so excited. But I also know I will be praying a LOT as I take over my area and teach a brand new missionary everything I have learned! pray for me. 

Thank you all AGAIN for all your support. I will have to come home and make yall some fried chicken & waffles. 

Have a blessed week! 

Sister Bartsch

These bug bites just don't let up and they keep her up at night!

HAVE A BLESSED WEEK!