10/4/21 another week with the boys

Good Morning! for those who indeer to read my email this week, I hope to make it worth your while.

We have just come off of having a very motivating week with Elder Gifford Neilson and Elder Vai Sikahema! (shout out to Elder Sikahema for delivering an awesome talk in conference!)

On September 28th it was President and Sister Camp's 42nd wedding anniversary so they challenged us as a mission to find 42 potentials (people who could potentially be taught) during our whole procelyting day. By the end of their day we as a mission found 193 potentials! 5 of those were from Sister Martin and I. We are so grateful for our inspired leaders in this mission.

This is the miracle of my week! We have been praying to find families to teach and we finally were able to schedule a lesson with one of our potentials. Her name is Tani! But as we arrived she gathered her two daughters (age 17 and 19) and we got their life story. Tani is very long winded. Like we were there for 1hr 45m and she only took 3 breaths and that's where we were able to bring up a few gospel questions. The good news is that they are open to learning more about our church and we gave them lots of promises if they keep their commitments that we give them. And they agreed to give everything a chance! Our lesson was so long but I think we built a good base of trust.

Our teaching pool right now is a bit dis-heartening. Along with getting in person lessons scheduled with our friends, we realize that all our friends live outside our ward boundaries, so we have to pass them off to the correct missionaries. (this included Tani and her daughters :( ) I've never had this problem before haha. All my areas have been anywhere from 50-110 mile radius, so you just assume they're in your area. But my area now is tiny. Pray that we can find more people to teach because our teaching pool of 13 just went down to 1.

We were able to go to work on Mt. Rushmore again this week. Another week with the boyz. One of the sister sets got sick so we picked up their shift so we were up there 2x! I love being up there. The people you meet are such a testimony that all of God's children have good in them. We talked to a few about temples and a few about family history. You get a lot of questions like "So you believe in multiple wives right?" and " Aren't you Mormons famous for not drinking? So you can't have soda?". and it gives us a chance to explain. Luckily no bashers this week! But our first shift on the mountain it GOT COLD. Like really cold! The day before it was 70 degrees and sunny, but that day was 50 and windy, and Sister Martin and I did not bring the means to keep warm. I had my jacket luckily, but my dear comp from Arizona only had her cargian. We had roughly 12 people offer their coat to SIster Martin that day. Literally people from all these different countries were taking off their coats and handing them to Sister Martin. All of God's children have so much good in them.

Whenever I'm on the Mountain you're bound to get asked to take a picture for a family. My Dad served in Toronto Canada and he was telling me of how when they were at Niagara Falls people would like up for pictures and my dad would be the unpaid photographer. Now Im the Mt Rushmore photographer. Like father, like daughter.

We have a dear friend Hope. She was baptized a few months ago and in the sunshine to my soul. She called us and invited us over to help her clean and after her neighbor came over and made Indian Taco's for us. A real Indian Taco is so good! They make their fry bread from scratch and it is delicious! Hope was telling us that when the European settlers came and took their land they had no more crops to live off of and the only food that we given to them was ground wheat and seeds. In order to survive they had to learn a new diet. So that's how Fry Bread came about! It's now a delicacy among natives. Hope as we ate Hope told us how she got into a fight last week. (Mind you, shes about 60-something and doesn't walk too well) but I guess a old lady broke into her home wanted diapers but Hope didn't have any so they wrestled on the floor until the cops came. I wish she could tell you the story, word for word. She is an awesome story teller. hahahah oh Hope. But she taught us a few more Lakota words!

Oyatè (oh-ya-tay) family
Wakan tanka (wah-kah tonka) big holy *Jesus Christ*

Crazy Fact of the NDBM. We have had so many missionaries come in every transfer. But by the end of October, 50% of the missionaries in the NDBM will be in their training (first two transfers)! We are a young mission. We lose more and more of us older missionaries every week (due to leaving for their original assignment)

Now remember a few weeks ago when Sister Erdmann and I were in Bismarck, and she pranked my whole zone by telling everyone it was my birthday. Well it happened again: General Conference Style. I should have expected it since we both got transferred to the same zone. But after the Saturday AFternoon session a few missionaries got together for a bbq (we had other plans so that's why we didn't go) but she then announced to my whole zone that it was my birthday. We were visiting a friend of ours so we were a bit late to the 6pm session but I walked into the church and I got all these birthday wishes from these missionaries and members. Mind you, my birthday is still not for a few weeks. This causes Sister Barlow to panic, and at the end of the session one of our beloved elders leads the whole attendance of people in Happy Birthday.. Sister Erdmann was having a hay day and I was left to awkwardly tell people it wasn't my birthday and it was just a mess. I thanked them and now the whole zone is now on board to keep telling everyone it's my birthday. On Sunday the other missionaries told a few members too and now its a big Rapid City joke. I will say I expect the whole zone to throw me a party now since they are so dedicated to tell every living soul it's my birthday.

General Conference! I love conferences! Favorite talks were the ones about Mental Health and the one from Elder Oaks. I kept noticing themes from talk to talk. Many of them referred to Christlike Qualities and the quote about "our Joy is determined by our focus and not our circumstances". I think that quote was shared about 3 times. I find it so interesting to see these themes because it's eye opening to what all of God's children needed to hear. We heard it so much that we now know that so many of us are struggling with the same things. I would love to hear your favorite parts of the conference as well! Just email me back!

Love you all!

Have a miracle filled week!

Sister Barlow

265 Federal AVE #13

Rapid City, SD 57702

pictures:

meeting one of our YSA at South Dakota Mines Music Building (I miss orchestra mom)

Hope with our Native Taco's (she's a hoot)

rainbow in rapid!

Mt Rushmore

Our Map on Mt Rushmore

Rapid Zone watching Conference