1/24/22 Frozen

MY HECK! My apologies if you're annoyed about how much I tell you about the weather. But this is by far the worst freeze I've ever felt.

But after my 12 hours drive for transfers I've arrived in the coldest spot in the mission! Grand Forks is right on the border of North Dakota and Minnesota. The city is cut right in half by the boarder so its fun to state hop every day. University of North Dakota is right down the street from us and it's so fun to be with the college age students again! Go Fighting Hawks! Hockey is HUGE here! We went and checked out campus and had to stop by The Ralph (hockey stadium) to get some pictures. I fully expect to embrace the hockey look since I grew to love the hick look in my last area.

It was so fun to see missionaries on transfers day! Rapid City is the farthest zone in the mission from Bismarck so we don't get to see new missionaries all that often. At 6:15 AM MDT we met at the Rapid City Stake Center to load up and head on our way. It's about 4 hours to Dickinson, ND to drop some missionaries off. At the Dickinson church I hopped in a car with the sisters so the elders could take the bus. We the continued the 1h 30m drive to Bismarck. When we got to Bismarck it was -12 F. Not the worst, yet such a difference to the 30 F weather I've been so privileged to have in Rapid City. I got to see Sister Maurer and Sister Myers (my daughter) I love these missionaries, like wow they are so good! We had lunch with all the transferring missionaries and then we hopped on the Grand Forks caravan train to Fargo (3 hours) and then after dropping those missionaries off we drove the 1h 30m drive to Grand Forks. And we made it! By the time I got to Grand Forks it was -28 F without windchill and I got a nice warm welcome to Grand Forks! As I was packing I couldn't help but laugh because all my clothes were frozen solid and I couldn't unpack any of them with fear of ripping the fabric. I moved on to unpacking everything else and came to find that all my shampoo/conditioner and stuff was also frozen solid! Why would anyone willingly live here? Jkjk (but also not kidding) but I'm super excited to be here! My new companion is Sister Gibbs from Pleasant Grove UT. She's a doll and I'm super excited to be companions with her!

Funny Story: So during transfers I wen up to go say hi to President and Sister Camp. Well every Monday we get to write President an email telling him about our week. In my email last week I decided to try to help him celebrate being done with transfer assignments and I said something along the lines of "Great job president! You're finished! Go and take a nice drive down Sertoma park and treat yourself to some Bearskat!". Well.. my dear mission President didn't know what bearskat was and he looked it up and he read BEAR POOP and I then had to frantically explain that Bearskat is a donut shop in Bismarck and I was MORTIFIED. He and Sister Camp had a good laugh but dang that was absolutely the most embarrassing Sister Barlow moment ever happen

Yesterday we had a great lesson with our friend DeBen. He's from Liberia/Ghana and the Sister approached him a few weeks ago asking him about the gospel and he was super open to it! They taught him the restoration and he received it well. The lesson I got to be apart of was about the Book of Mormon. DeBen started off by saying that he does read the bible but he doesn't belive its pure truth because it was touched by man. We agreed with him and we talked about receiving truth and knowledge for ourselves and how to receive personal revelation. From hearing about his background I don't think he's ever heard of that before. He agreed to read 3 Nephi 11 and to pray about it. It was cool for us because we saw a little lightbulb go off in his head about receiving knowledge for himself. We are super excited to hear how it goes! I'l keep you posted!

We did our studies one morning at the mall and this woman walked up to us who works at West African Cusine and she offered us a sampler tray! It was full of of couscous, jallof rice and this really good fried donut that you dip in hot sauce. We started talked to her. She's not interested in learning about the gospel yet but we are going to keep checking in on her because she was just SO nice and you can tell she is being prepared!

I wish I had more I could share the first week in a new area is always a lot of adjusting. But I do know that God loves his children and he loves me enough to send me to this frozen desolate land to share his message of joy! I LOVE being a missionary and I'm so grateful I get to see his miracles and watch the atonement work in peoples lives first hand!

I love you all! Stay warm lol

Sister Barlow

NEW ADDRESS

3750 Garden View Dr #211

Grand Forks, ND 58201

pictures

Koda in Rapid City! I'll sure miss her!

Transfer Van vibes + sleepy comps

Sister Reid, Sister Prince, and Sister Miller!

These temps are ridiculous

GF Winky Water Tower (we took this picture in 5 minutes because right after we started getting signs of frost bite so we dipped hahah

The Ralph!