Thanks for tuning in today! Super great week!
It all started with our Mission Tour with Elder Vai Sikahema and Elder Gifford Nielsen! They have both been NFL players and it was cool hearing their stories because they really followed each other in careers and life. Both super awe-inspiring missionaries! They started in up in Bismarck and the ND/MT/MI missionaries gathered with them while we watched over zoom, but they ended here in Rapid city with All the SD/NE missionaries! We all needed a good hype up.
Notes from the meetings
- Leave your mission in a way that in 25 years you'll come back and be in awe at the progression. (Elder Vai Sikahema served here in my mission 25 such years ago!)
- We get to learn our missionary purpose now, but it does not stop until long after the Lord comes!
- You are the most important convert on your mission
- This is the only message that will continue throughout eternity!
It was cool to be apart of such a great experience. A few guests also joined our meetings, such as Brother Sittingbull, YES I mean the great grandchild of the LEGIT Sittingbull! Talking to him he is also the Great grandchild of Crazy Horse. Native Legends are members of the Lord's church.
We were asked to prepare for this conference by reading Alma 17-27 and by preparing a 5 minute repentance lesson. First off, those chapters will motiviate anyone to share the gospel. But I prepared my repentance lesson and they asked us to pair off and teach each other. In my trio of Sisters when it got to my turn Elder Sikahema came and sat in. It was a bit of a nervous moment but it doesn't change the fact of what repentance means. We got some good pointers and some kind compliments. I love our priesthood leaders!
A tender mercy for me is that my grandparents were able to come visit me! They had this trip planned to come see Mount Rushmore long before I was here. I just happened to be transferred here a week before they came!
At the end our the second meeting of the mission tour Elder Gifford Nielsen gave us the promise that if we prayed with real intent and stronger faith than ever we would see miracles in the next 24 hours! Sister Martin and I were super excited cuz our area has been a little dry. After the meeting we re-planned our day and as we prayed they spirit made it known that we needed to spend the rest of the day on South Dakota Mines Campus. We planned to do our studies there but neither of us could focus cuz we were so excited to see these miracles. We tried talking to a few students but none of them were interested in religion. The Geology building caught our eye and we decided to go take a look. Found out that there was a museum on the third floor and we knew this was our chance to talk to people! We talked to the front desk lady but she wasn't interested :( so we just walked around looking at rocks and fossils until we saw another person. We talked to a few more and still nothing. WHERE WAS THE MIRACLE! We were a bit anxious to see one haha. Then this worker walks up to us and asks us what our favorite dinosaur was... I think dino's are so cool but this guy was a WIZ with those big science words. He then continued to explain the difference between all these different prehistoric animals. I wish I remembered the names of what he told us. It was a lot of knowledge. We shared that we were missionaries and he said he was also Christian and that we could refer to him as "brother john". Every time we brought up a mild church topic he quickly flooded us with more dinosaur facts. But we eventually got through to him. We gave him a 1 minute plan of salvation lesson and talked about the Book of Mormon. He declined our offer taking a book of Mormon. But we invited him to volleyball and then he had to get back to work. It was not a giant miracle, but at least we were present and maybe help spark some righteous curiosity! Favorite quote from Brother John: "Those Long-Necks were FER-TI-LE" and "GROUP HUG SISTERS"
Other miracles of the week!
I got a keyboard! A senior couple had one in their garage so I snagged it!
At the Rapid City Pumpkin Festival we were able to snag a bunch of business cards and friend them and their friends on Facebook! HA how the turntables
On Sunday we had our dear Kingi family speak and Brother Kingi shared this native story!
A long time ago All the animals came together for a special meeting. Mountain lion was there, Mato the bear, Wambli the eagle, turtle were there…, coyote, porcupine, takatanka or buffalo. All the animals you can think of were at this meeting. Moutain lion was in charge and stepped forward and said. “Good morning brothers and sisters, I am Mountain Lion. Welcome to this meeting, We have many important things to talk about.” Rabbit ( was off in the distance, Beating his drum with a stick ) (Rabbit singing: I yi yatehey, I yi yatehay, I yi yatehay, hey hey hey…Who is making that terrible noise. Quite out there we are trying to have a meeting said Mountain Lion. Rabbit: (Singing on his drum) I yi yatehey, I yi yatehay, I yi yatehay, hey hey hey…Mountain Lion runs to the noise and takes rabbits arm, and says, “You can have this back after the meeting. Now keep it down out here.”Mountain Lion talks to all the animals : As I was sayingRabbit: (Begins singing on his drum, with only one arm: I yi yatehey, I yi yatehay, I yi yatehay, hey hey hey…This time, Mato also known as known as Bear Stands up: “Hey rabbit, stop singing- we are trying to have a meeting..”You guessed it, Rabbit keeps singing. Bear takes Rabbits other arm. (But Rabbit keeps singing beating the drum with no arms but his big ol fluffy rabbit tale) Rabbit: is singing beating his drum: I yi yatehey, I yi yatehay, I yi yatehay, hey hey hey…This same scene repeats itself.... Next Coytoe comes up to rabbit...HOWLS , he takes rabbits leg, and says you can have this back after the meeting…Rabbit with no arms and only one leg, keeps on beating his drum and singing. Then Wambli or eagle comes and takes Rabbits Head. (Smile) As Eagle is flying away with it, you can hear the beat of Rabbits HEART, like this , and he is still singing: I yi yatehey, I yi yatehay, I yi yatehay, hey hey hey… after the meeting rabbit receives his arms back, his leg, and his head. Native Americans have many stories that teach us life lessons. That story originates from Pueblo tribe, and was told to me by Gene Taganon. I changed it to include Lakota names for animals. What I learned from that story is rabbit loved to sing, and he doesn’t let anyone or anything stop him from doing what he loves.
We keep singing our song, or doing what we love to do. Like the Rabbit we will have to make adjustments, overcome obstacles, disappointments, trials, and the stresses that life will surely throw at us. The title of my talk is getting up. Like the Rabbit who got up everytime, we have the opportunity to get up and fulfill our divine purpose in this life.
I love the people here in SD! God is so good!
Thank you all for your prayers!
Sister Barlow
265 Federal Ave APT 13
Rapid City, SD 57702
Pictures:
Native statues and artifacts
Grandma and Grampa Barlow!
a "Holy Ghost" a YSA crocheted for me!
Elder Gifford Nielsen!
Sister Mauer is famous. She's all over our Facebook pages :)
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