8/5/19 - It's the final count down! 6 weeks!

Sister Almeida finished her mission and went home today. When ever someone goes home we say that they "died", so basically I "killed" my companion. Tomorrow I will recieve a new compaion.

This week I went on splits in Santana and Cantareira with S. Belnap, S. Melo and S. Xerez. I love these Sisters.

Other than that it was a pretty normal week. We're seeing a few people progress and others not so much, but that's part of it all. I'm super tired but I know I still have so much to do. Many have said they're praying for me to reach my goals in this last transfer and I'm so grateful for that. Prayers have power. 

Sister Belnap and I caught a nasty stomach bug from some food we ate. I've been vomiting everything I've eaten for the last 2 days. I think I've gotten over it by now. I hope I've gotten over it.

All 7 sisters going home tomorrow have been in staying in our house for a few days and all the B.O. (Bulitio de ocorrência or problems when things go wrong) is my responsibility. I'm not complaining, I love this calling and I love these girls, but it is tiring. Sister Bybee is going home tomorrow too so I got to help that crazy girl weigh her suitcases and then take about 10 kilos of stuff out. She asked for my help and then she started hiding things from me because she knew I'd tell her to take them out too LIKE 75 MARACUJÁ JUICE PACKETS! The picture below is of all the juice I made her leave behind. She has about 20-30 more packets in her suitcase that she's taking. It was so funny as we were laughing and yelling at eachother "Bybee sua loca isso não é necessário!" "Mas Barlow é tão bom!" Poor thing. She made a lot of brigadeiro with the heavy cans of leite condensado and she ate a lot of candy last night to take advantage of it all and not have to leave so much behind. It's been tricky to not get trunky with these girls talking and getting so excited to go home.

I wanted to share an experience in relation to family history. Ana Claudia was baptized about 2 months ago and this week was called as the relief socitey secretary. We were explaing more about family history and I reflected on the many times I've felt the presence of my ancestors on my mission. For example, everyone knows that I am always tripping, especially on the uneven São Paulo streets. Not just once but a few times I've been walking down Ave Nova Cantareira and tripped almost falling into traffic and I've felt someone catch my arm or something like that. Tadinho of these ancestors constantly getting beat up trying to help clumsy Sister Barlow. I guess they don't have bodies so that's ok. Anyway, at the beginning of my mission my mom told me she found that one of my great uncles in the early 1900s was a professional motorcyclist. He and 6 other people died in a gasoline explosion when he crashed his motorcycle in a race. My mom felt that he was super sad for having killed these people unintentionaly. She felt that he was asking her to look into doing these people's temple work. Recently my family discovered that these acident victms didn't have family on earth anymore. Their family line stopped and they don't have anyone who could perform their ordinances. My family did their temple work a few weeks ago and after that experience my mom said she felt one of them hug her saying, "Thank you for helping me, now I'm going to help you." My mom knew this woman had accepted the ordinances and was now on her way to Brazil to help me. Many times I have felt my ancestor's presence as well as the presence of my future children if you believe it. On the hard days it seems like there is always someone there to put an arm around my shoulder and comfort me and help me keep going. The veil is very thin while on the mission. I miss doing family history and temple work. Us missionaries help people on this side of the veil make these sacred covenants. You members help yes, with missionary work, but also with family history, or in other words missionary work on the other side of the veil. You give them the opportunity to accept these essencial covenants. I'm not really sure why I'm sharing this story this week, but I hope someone benefits from it. If you don't have your 4 generatiom chart, get that together. If you have never taken a family name to the temple, make that a goal. The blessings and joy that comes from missionary work on all sides of the veil is irreplacaeable. The prophet himself has said that time is running out. There is urgency in this work now more than ever. It's real and it's amazing.

Ficam firme friends.

Ephesians 4:31-32

Amo vocês.

Sister Barlow

1) Livro te livra. The book sets you free.

2) Sister Mello taking artsy pictures of Belnap and I

3) Bybee's juice crisis.

4) My great Uncle Odin on his motorcycle.