October 26, 2015: Hermana Dickson

Sadly, I had to say good bye to Hermana Castro today. She went to Nogales, which will be a big change because here it is super hot, and in Nogales it snows!! It felt weird to say good bye because all I know of the mission is with Hermana Castro. But my new companion is Hermana Dickson. She is from Dominican Republic. She is taller than me,and and has curly hair too. I thought I got weird looks with Hermana Castro, but with Hermana Dickson we get even weirder looks because of two crazy girls with afros cruising the streets of Mexico. 

This week we contacted a man named Gigibaldo. I asked my comp if this was a normal Mexican name... it is definitely not! Sounds like a name my Dad would nickname someone. Now whenever I don't know someone's name, I just like to call them Gigilbaldo. I don't know why this is important, but I just think that this is an awesome name!

This week we have started teaching lots of families. So great to teach families because they are so important in this life. I am so grateful for all of my family and friends, and stoked to help other families in Mexico feel the love that God has for them!

Oceans of love to all,

Hermana Barton 

 Pictures from the last zone meeting with la Hermana Castro. (E. Wimmer, E. Villalpando, Hna. Castro, Me).

Hna. Hernandez, she is so nice. We came to Hermosillo together from the CCM. 

October 19, 2015: Cerro de la Compana

Today my comp and I woke up at 4:30am and went with the other missioneras to hike the Cerro de la Compana (a big hill in the middle of Hermosillo). We hiked under the stars and then watched the sunrise. But the thing about Hispanics is that they LOVE to take pictures, of EVERYTHING!  If a member has a dog, there will be at least 50 pics. If there is a flower, another 50. And in a moment when the breeze is right and your heart tells you, well by golly, how bout a photo?!  And LOTS. Like I thought my mom took lots of pictures, but she is nothing compared to my comps. But you can be assured that this adventure was well documented! Haha! Not a bad thing, just different. That is one of the cool things about being here, is learning a new culture. Also, living with someone from Peru, I have learned a lot from her culture and best of all she makes yummy Peruvian food! 

This week we had another baptism for an 8 year old girl named Azul. She is super cute and was so excited to be baptized. Her mom is inactive, and before the baptism of Azul, she never wanted to listen to us. But this week she decided to start listening to our lessons with Azul, and asked us to start teaching the rest of her family! 

This is my last week of the transfer and next week I will most likely have a new companion, and maybe also be moved to a new area. Crazy that I have been here in Hermosillo for about 3 months! I will definitely miss Hermana Castro!

Loads of happiness and love to you all. 

A quote that I love from my comp that I want to share with all says:

CUANDO TENGAS UN DÍA OSCURO, TOMA UNOS COLORES Y PINTALO!

Oceans of love,

Hermana Barton

Pictures as promised...

Sarahi (Sister Ortega)

This is Martidiano. Funny story about sweating up a storm!!This week we were teaching Martidiano, a member who was inactive for 15 years (told me he is from Colombia and came to Mexico because he was running from the Mafia! He has some pretty crazy stories! Many about near death!) and he has no air conditioning. I was sweating puddles!!! My comp looked at me and I wiped my face and then my pits (haha, joke like when we were going on a date in SoCal with Ashgail_01). This was a joke... but then she looked on the table that we were sitting at, and it was all wet..asco!!! (gross!) And she said, "is this from you?!!!" and all we could do was laugh, but we were trying to give this lesson and I was so delirious from all my sweat that I could not focus. But he gave us some water, and then we focused on up and gave a good lesson! But it was really funny!! And repulsive!!!!!!

Pics from Cerro de campana 

we did the daily study we have to do at the top of some rocks that we climbed

October 12,2015: Tomas Salas Torres

This week we had our first baptism--for Tomas! He is so awesome, and his family too. He lives with his two daughters and his grandkids. After his baptism, we went to his house and he homemade about 15 pizzas for all the people who went to his baptism. I felt like I was right at home in my house eating homemade pizza with my family, like we do every Friday night! I can't describe to you how happy I am for this man and his family! 

This week we went to an investigator's house, and she was making tortillas, so we got to help her. We had to take a chunk of dough and pass the dough from one hand to the other until it was like, tortilla shape.  Then we put it on the griddle on the fire pit fire outside her house. This lady was beyond confused of how the heck I had never made tortillas before...and I planned to have any future? But by the end, she told me she had hope for my future and a future family, and that I did alright making the tortillas!

The new house is doing pretty good except for there are hords of ants, NOT my favorite. If any one has tips of how to get rid of aunts,  it would be more than appreciated!!!  [*Editor's note (aka Amy): I try really hard to keep Meredith's letters as close to authentic as possible, only fixing spelling and punctuation, but in the case of 'getting rid of aunts,' I could NOT touch that spelling error in good conscience. It was too fantastic to fix. To all of Meredith's AUNTS, you know how much she would actually adore you all infesting her little, blue casita with a virgin Mary out front. But, ants of the insect type, different story. Back to Mer.]

Thanks for all your love and letters!

Oceans of love to all,

Hermana Barton

Elder Thayne, (L) our district leader who baptized Tomas. And Hermana Alejandrina (R) who is a friend to Tomas. She was the one who invited him to come to church and listen to our lessons. She is a pretty new convert too. I hope someday they can be sealed in the temple, haha but they have to fix a few things.  For example, he is going through a divorce. But someday.... :)

Tomas and us. He looks so happy! Ha ha!

Hermana Martinez,

The hardest thing about our new house is that we don't live next door to Hermana Martinez. There are other members close, but no one will ever match her!

She has family who lives in San Fran and hopefully will come visit someday!!

(LOVE that Mer has taught both Sis. Martinez and Hermana Castro the joy of goofy-faced pictures too!

October 5, 2015: Casita

This week our land lord came to our house and said that we had to renew our contract for the house, and that he was raising the rent... 

Our house is already the most expensive house in the mission, so our leaders told us to look for a new house! We looked and we asked the people in our ward if they knew of a house for rent but no one knew. 

On Thursday morning we prayed that we could find a house this day, or know that it was okay if we stayed in our house and payed the more expensive rent. That day we were walking to an appointment and I saw a house for rent: blue, and perfect, with a virgin Mary statue in front (haha). My comp called the number on the sign, and the rent was exactly what we needed.

Two hours later we viewed the house, and today we move into our new house. 

I hope you all are happy and healthy!

Oceans of love,

Hermana Barton

Here are some pics!:

 My comp,and a woman named Sarah Fraijole. She always goes to appointments with us and is the one who sends me the Sister Ortega style letters. She is awesome & a good friend.

 Two hermanas in our ward and the patriarch (He is hilarious and so kind and nice just like ours.)

Tomas and his familia!

September 28, 2015: Shout Out to My Abuelitas!

Today for pday we decided to go to Dairy Queen and get Blizzards. Who knew that they had Dairy Queen in Mexico too! This place will forever remind me of my Grandma Olga: that a Blizzard is a meal! "Ice cream is the dairy. Nuts or Reeses the protein, and a cherry on top, the fruit. And what more do you need?!"  And that's the gospel truth!!! And shout out to my Grandma Bebe because she taught me that "my favorite food is whatever is in my mouth." And truly, lots of times I have zero idea what I am eating. But so far most of the food has been pretty good.  It is all about perspective!!

This week's highlights were Vincente and Tomas. Vincente is a man who apparently is part Indian. In his prayer in the lesson this week, he started off normal and then in the middle of the prayer started chanting in Indian, asked for some more blessings, did a few more chants, and then closed his prayer. Then followed it up with some deep breathing practices! I felt like I was in a yoga class in Santa Cruz or something, I was doing all I could not to laugh and just know that Heavenly Father understands! 

The other experience was Tomas. Tomas is a friend of a member here, and he has been coming to church the past few weeks by himself. We asked him yesterday if he wanted to be baptized on the 17th of October, and he said, "Well actually, can I be baptized on the 10th?!!!" Miracles happen if you just believe! Such a relief and so much happiness after the experience with Joanna!

Oceans of love to all!

Hermana Barton

PS- did you see the lunar eclipse yesterday?!! Que suave!!!!

Derek!

Mauricio, Artlet, "Wawitcha"

La Hermana Alejandrina

La Hermana Manuelita y sus nietos