1/18/22 God's Country - Blake Shelton

Hey! My bad for not warning yall but my pday got moved to Tuesday for this week. But here's the spill... (not in chronological order)

NATACHA WENT TO THE TEMPLE! You're right! She is not a member yet. But our stake had a temple bus and she signed herself up! She drove the 6 hours to Bismarck and walked around the tiny grounds and met with a few of the sisters up there. She waited in the waiting area of the temple and in her words "the most tranquil place I've ever been in". She said that she was feeling that God wanted this path for her! We are super excited! We are working on a baptismal date right now, but I am just so proud of her. Some people and just so ready to receive the gospel and it is so awe inspiring to me!

Remember Sheila? I met her on a Rapid City Music group on Facebook and she offered me a spot in her Lutheran Band! We have tried to work things out before but they had fallen through. But this time it was legit! Sheila was in charge of the Senior Centers New Years party and her band was booked to play. She called me up and we worked out a song and I joined their band for the afternoon! HAHAHAH It was the best day! Sheila bought me some music which we did a little duet on for the party. So if you can imagine Sister Barlow and Sheila up on a stage with a bunch of American flag hanging everywhere, we play/sing The Rose by Bette Midler and all of our cute older friends sway to the music. It really was so fun! I knew I wouldn't have been able to teach her the gospel at that time but God still wants us to unite as Christians and to support and love another!

This whole transfer it has been super hard to find people to teach. Sister Wessman and I were swamped with taking care of our two new wards, all 10 of our sisters, and with other music/analytics responsibilities all transfer. We had a meeting last week in which we got a bit called out in front of people for not finding anyone new for awhile, and that pride monster comes out and we were determined to find every last soul who was ready to receive in Rapid City.. Well. God had a very different plan for us. We had some possible covid scares in our apt so we spent a lot of our time indoors doing Facebook work. By the end of the week my companion and I totaled just over 60 conversations we had with people about the gospel but not a single one of them were interested in learning or bashed us pretty good. Sister Wessman and I were so frustrated and begging Heavenly Father to give us someone new to teach. But as God works, he does it in his time. Sunday night is the last night before we report our week and we still hadn't had anyone agree to learn more or to meet with us again. We were SO SAD! But in a conversation I had with my companion we realized that we solely wanted to find someone to teach just to show up this poor elder who called us out. It wasn't because we wanted to help someone come closer to Christ. We both knelt in prayer and asked for forgiveness and a change a of heart and God delivered! Just a few moments later a friend we had been messaging wanted to learn more! So we found our new person to teach and we were able to help someone come closer to Jesus Christ! It was one of those moments when you realize that God does hear our prayers but he answers according to our faith and the desires of our hearts. Lesson Learned. God is so good

Both my companion and I got our Booster Shots on Thursday. We were trying to get it earlier in the week but there was no time in our schedule. The rough part is that we had to now plan in our schedule when to be sick from the side effects, which planning time to be sick is the worst thing as a missionary because there is work to do! Anyways, we went and got the shot and immediately i started feeling the soreness. i was hoping that I could just get the soreness over with because the next day I was supposed to play my cello in Sheila's Lutheran Band, and the day after that I was playing in sacrament! It really was a terrible time to get the shot but by the time it was my turn to go and play with Sheila God gave me the strength to move my arms to play. By Sunday morning I couldn't feel the soreness till after Sacrament meeting! This was a miracle for me because if Ib was sore while was playing my arms would just drop like limp noodles and would not be able to deliver.

With more and more areas opening up for missionaries we are loosing our friends by the minute! We drove our Sister McLane up to Reva SD (pop 150) to be picked up by the Dickinson Sisters who would take her to Bismarck. It was sad to see her go but I'm glad I was able to serve with her for awhile!

A few days ago I was in my personal study reading a few scriptures in prep for a lesson that day. My whole week was FIND FRIEND MESSAGE REPEAT all day every day and I was so in the zone my mind was overwhelmed with everything going on. But as I was reading I came to a stop and I heard a voice say "Have you forgotten who you are?" and I just shrugged it off and got back to studying. Then the thought came again "Do you remember who you are?" this time I started a prayer asking Heavenly Father to help my mind concentrate on my studies and he interrupted me in my prayer with another thought of "Go read your blessing NOW!" I guess God does work in 3's because I then took out my blessing and as I read I realized that I have in fact, forgotten who I was. As a missionary I spend all my time trying to work on his work and find who he has prepared. But I had been so busy and concentrated on that that I wasn't using the gifts that come from knowing that you a daughter of God. I think this is a great reminder for everyone to remember that they are Children of God!

The reason of my pday being on Tuesday is that it's transfers week! We got the news last night and I'm being transferred to Grand Forks, ND/MN. The area covers over the North Dakota and Minnesota border. Please pray for my safe travels for on Wednesday I will start my journey at 6:30am and will drive the 12hrs to Grand Forks. GOTTA LOVE THIS MISSION.

But I sure love you all!

Go remind people that they are children of God!

Sister Barlow

NEW ADDRESS

3750 Garden View Dr #211

Grand Forks, ND 58201

Pictures!

- the beautiful drive that Rapid offers

- Bye Sister McLane!

- Reva, SD. pop 150, Home of the Turtle Races

- Road trip buddy

- Sister Wessman is teaching me how to say a Japanese Prayer