Spring Break

Stopped to visit someone, they weren't home,
but his mom gave us fry bread!
Hello everyone!! So I am staying with good old Elder Pope in the McCLintock YSA area for the next transfer! We are so pumped to be able to work harder and do some good things here. There is a lot of potential and we are excited. 

This week there was some interesting stuff going on. On Monday night we got a call from our Zone Leaders letting us know that there was a referral for us by the name of Sarah, and they said that although it was a referral, we should drop all contact with her. Apparently she is a legit psycho and stalks missionaries and seeks attention. It is a serious issue, trust me. So about 5 minutes after the call from them, we get another call, we answer because we are missionaries, and it was Sarah. We were freaking out. Then she showed up to our Family Home Evening activity at the institute looking for us, and talked to some of our members wondering where we were. The members had no idea that this was happening, so they thought she was an investigator. We were not in the building at the time, but we were on our way there.   Then we got another call from the Zone Leaders saying that the members were super mad because we weren't at the activity to help this investigator. Member trust was crumbling. We got there, found the bishop, pull him aside, tell him the situation, and he understood. We avoided the activity to stay away from her, because our mission president had asked us to. It was nuts. Super stressful, and apparently it still hurt our member trust, even though we did everything we could to explain it. That was rough. 

However, after that we had some amazing experiences throughout the week. We were trying to build the trust back up and doing all we could, and it payed off. We created super strong relationships with the Elders Quorum and Relief Society presidencies, and set some hardcore expectations with bishop. Things are not super pretty yet, but the ward knows we are here to work and are doing all we can. I am really excited to see how that goes in the future. 

Me making phone calls while Elder Pope tries to sleep off illness.
This experience showed me that even if we are placed in unfortunate circumstances, and go through trials that shake us a little, when we do all that we can to bust out of them and overcome them, we can receive so much strength and help, which can only come from our Father in Heaven. I know he loves all of us and wants to help us to succeed, if we let him, and do what he asks us. He loves all of you, I invite you all to reach out to him and ask for help! Your lives will change. 

That was pretty much my week, trying to repair the damage of an unfortunate circumstance. But things are great, we are super excited for the week. Spring break is in full swing at ASU, so lots of people are out of town, and we will definitely have some good stories next week. 

Love you all! Have an awesome week! 


Elder Barlow

Comments

  1. EvelynMarch 7, 2017 at 7:52 AM

    Love the faith and hard work you are showing! God bless you!

    ReplyDelete

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