DOS. December 27,2023

Twas a few days after Christmas, and all through the MTC,

Hermana's brain has been spinning, it felt like cream cheese.

So much fun and so spirit and much love for the Savior,

it makes little sense that another week is now over.

So now settle in, for a festive lengthy email,

if you're bored, skip ahead, (the pics are sure to thrill)

Someone please tell me what day it is...I feel like I'm in groundhog day slightly. But in a good way. "I like to say a prayer and drink to world peace" is the main mood here (if you didn't get that reference...go watch Groundhog's day. I cannot, so do it in honor of me) 

I am running on approximately 7 minutes of sleep each day, but for some reason that makes it more fun. The hermana's and I decided to ban ourselves from speaking English At 10 pm each night so that we can ONLY communicate in Spanish.We were hoping that it would make us run out of things to say so we could fall asleep quick...but it did not. We just kept hablaring. Worth it though to feel fluent. We start immersion this week which means literally all of our classes will be in Spanish so pray for me that I have a google translate kind of mind.

I wish I could just take a picture of my brain and copy paste it in here to help everyone understand how much I love my district. The elders drive us insane but they play along with our jokes so well. All you lads out there, there's nothing better than when you laugh at an Hermana's bad joke. (ALSO if you want to know how to, as Elder Orr says, make one of us fold like an omelet, say Awwww Pobrecito!!. We think it's the funniest thing ever. It means like "poor little thing" so when anyone is being pouty that's what we tell them). We did a Christmas Eve gift exchange and it was so much fun. Elder Widdison had me, and he gave me the sweetest note and a pack of Expo markers (because I've borrowed them from the classroom before to write on my mirror...and he didn't want me to be a thief. S/o to him for keeping me righteous) We all wrapped our gifts in leftover wrapping paper from gifts kids had gotten and laughed so hard at each random gift. 

The entire Christmas weekend was really really just so....like...hm. How do I describe this...okay like if you took the way it feels to have a big swig of hot chocolate and also singing with your favorite people and blend that up with a sprinkling of peace. That's how Christmas was. It was so little about presents and snow and Santa (who is still an absolute dawg), but SO much more about the most important thing. Christ. Every day here is about Him, and so Christmas was just another way to remember truly why we are here. To feel and share His love. There were so many times that my heart was very Grinch post growing. It felt too big for my body. I loved it.

We were super lucky and Quintin L Cook came to speak to us. He's one of the leader's in the church and is super smart and truly hears God. His wife was the cutest ever and led us in singing "Hark! All Ye Nations". To hear missionaries from all over singing a song about the joy of going out to spread God's word was POWERFUL. Elder Cook said, "I can testify to you I know His voice. I know His face". It struck me. It felt like the whole room was a vacuum of peace. How much do I KNOW Christ? How much am I putting into my relationship with Him? He told us that EVERY MILE EVERY STEP ON THE MISSION IS A GIFT TO GOD. <<<this is in all caps because it is very very important. IT'S A GIFT. We had another general authority come and speak to us last night, and something I thought of is we need to align our will with God's. If our will doesn't align with His, choose His every time. Every. Time. That is the ultimate way to align our will. 

This elder is literally yelling to his parents on the phone in this computer lab but he's saying good things. He said "I love being here, and it's fun, but I want to have fun while I'm getting to work". VALID. It's a party here, and it's going to be epic to serve for real. 

Random funnies and photos: 

-My companera and the hermanas

-We pranked the Elderes and gave them the biggest box ever and taped it very meticulously and had each one take off an individual tape. We had Hershey's kisses for each one and declared unto them it was their last kiss for 2 years. Elder Checketts started clapping in appreciation and they all gave us a consolation thank you so we felt accomplished and funny XD

-Me with my bed of angel soft tissues. I swear I have blown gallons of snot out of my nose. Put me on guinness world records or something.

-Christmas Eve in front of pretty tree!

-We're cool pic

-Barnard thinks I'm going mining in this image

-Barnard broke her foot. On Christmas. While we were skipping around. The group tree photos were taken moments after the occurrnce. (She now has a scooter named scootsmagoots. sound familiar stroh kids?)

-Elder O'neal food pic of the week....hot dog jenga tower

-MIMIANDPOPPASENTMECRUMBL AND I WAS SO JOYFUL. Whoever sent me the Milk and Cookies from BYU I love you who are you

-Which drawing looks more like Bowman? I NEED TO WIN SAY MINE

-Elder Bake's mom sent us an epic box of christmas games so we spent all of Christmas afternoon playing the Bake show. (we also had a chair race. the chairs all have wheels here so we zoomed them down the hall. don't tell tho. (i did win in the women's division though:)

-Our Christmas mega bed. 

Love you all muchas muchas!!! Email me back photos/random updates, I adore seeing what y'all are up to. For reals. Makes my heart happy to know the people I'm praying for back home are being protected by God. 

xoxo hermana barker