12/24/18 - Busiest Week of the Mission so Far

Thank you so much for all your Christmas cards! It's been so fun to get those! I put them all up on my wall. So cute! 

Yall know my family is a family of 10,000 traditions. One of our Christmas traditions is to decorate sugar cookies together and deliver them to neighbors. Sister Bernardo and I did the same thing and dropped them off to people in our apartment complex with a Seja Lus do Mundo pass along card and an invite to our special sacerment meeting. 

And on this week's episode of fails with Sister Barlow we have sone pretty crazy stories.....

Presidente Ribeiro asked me to play violin at the Christmas conference. Doris had a violin lying around so she got it all restring and tunned up for me. I got it home and was tuning it and I broke a string. I was leaving early the next morning to take the trip to Tucuruvi  for the conference. I called another member Nadia because I knew she had one too. Luckily she let me use hers that was also just lying around. As I was tuning that one I BROKE THE SAME STRING! UGH! OS I said a prayer and the next day we got to Barueri super early and there just happened to be a music shop open at 8:00 (miracles are real) and I got new strings and was all set. We were on the train heading to the capital and Sister Bernardo and I were singing Christmas songs and giving our pass along cards and making contacts. It was super cool. When we had finished talking to everyone in one car I had the brilliant idea to switch cars so we got off and I hopped into the next car. Sister Bernardo was right behing me but the doors started beeping AND THEY CLOSED AND I LEFT HER STANDING THERE ON THE PLATFORM. LOOOONG story short we sepnt 59 minutes without a comp that day becuase I left her at the train station. FAIL! 

Anyway, the Christmas conference was amazing! Each zone prepared a presentation about Christ's life. One zone had the proclamation of His birth, another had His actual birth, we had His ministry and another had the Atonement.  We all used a bunch of scriptures and music and the spirit was so strong. It was super musical-theater-y. Da hora. We had a killer Christmas almoço and Acai! It was so fun to see President up to his elbows in Acai dishing everyone out. After we all got balloons with pass along cards and all 100+ of us went walkng down the street to a plaza singing Christmas carols. It was so cool to be in the middle of all these missionaries belting out "Gloria a Deus" and running up to cars to give the cards and ballons to people. All the busses and people passing were honking and filming us. It was so cool! We sang in the plaza and continued to make contacts. We played in our little orchestra and it was so cool! WE got home after midninght that night and there were a few from our district who were just sitting on the side of the street in Barueri waiting for a member to come pick us up because there weren't any more busses heading to our areas. Tudo bem.

We did such a good job playing that President asked our mini orchestra to play at the Christmas conference in the interior too. So I then got to go back to Tucuruvi and wake up at 4:30/5:00 am and catch a van with the Assistants and Staff and head to Sorocaba. It was fun to do it all again. This time President arranged for all of us to do a flash mob in a mall. We got there and they hooked us up with body mics and everything. They filmed us and it ended up being like something you see on youtube. Super chique. I was super nervous with these people fiming my playing all up in my face, but it was fun. We alternated songs with scriptures and missionaries handed out balloons again. The spirit was again so strong! It was so cool to be a apart of such a big flash mob. Heading home I never realized how bad São Paulo traffic really is until it was 11:00 pm and we were in stand still traffic.... kkkk

I only got to spend a little bit of time in my area this week because of allthe happenings but one day we were walking to an appointment in the middle of the jungle as always and Sister Bernardo tells me she knows every line of Mulan. I told her to prove it... SO SHE DID! She quoted the entire movie complete with descriptive comentary. It was the best thing I've ever seen and this is why she's my best friend. Also S/O to that girl because all week she was the best music holder that ever existed since music stands are uncommon here.

Preident loved what we played so much he asked us to perform at a special devotinal he held last night so after I played violin in Sacerment meeting we went to the capital again and played there at a devotional for investigators and recent converts. None of ours could come because it was so far away :( But that devotional was amazing! It was the first time it's actually felt like Christmas here in Brasil! During all this I've learned so much about the pure love of Christ. It's been amazing to be so close to that sweet spirit all the time on the mission! I know that God sent His son to earth in the simplest of forms. He really was born in a stable and though in simple circumstances, His mission was somthing that would change the course of all history. I love Him so much. and I'm so thankful for how my relationship has grown with Him these last 9 months.

Feliz Natal gente!

Amo Vocês!

Sister Barlow

Ps. Miracles are real and God answeres prayers because it's been so long since I've played violin but I know becuase I was trying to help people feel the spirit, Heavely Father helped me remember everthing I needed to to play decently. #TenderMercies

1) Christmas cookies
2) Best book ever

3) The cutest stockings my mom made us

4) Christmas conference