Preaching in Pennsylvania: The good + the bad + the in-between

Hi family!!

Hope you're all doing well!! Sooooo excited Cam Bam got his
patriarchal blessing yesterday!!! SO happy. :D Oh my goodness and
guess what?!? Friday is my "click day", which means I will have been
on my mission for one month!! Can you believe it?? I can't. It's
crazy. :)

Oh! And our family ponderize scripture: 1 Timothy 4:12..."Let no man
despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word,
in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity."

My thoughts:
Be an example of Christ in all that you do.
Word: speak the words of Christ
Conversation: hear the words of Christ
Charity: love and serve as Christ would
Spirit: have the Spirit of Christ with you always
Faith: demonstrate your faith in Christ through your works
Purity: Be pure like Christ was

It's a good one! Let me know what this week's scripture is!!

Okay. So. Like the title of this email, this week consisted of the
good, the bad, and the in between of missionary work. :-) So here we
go!!

First. There is a MAJOR struggle teaching people here in Pennsylvania.
It's called "the PA ramble". IT'S A REAL THING. And it makes it hard
to keep people focused while we are teaching them! I probably
experience it like 10 times a day. It's a struggle. (But I've been
known to ramble too...haha) We're working on it though. :)

This week we met Kelly, and she's less active. The Bishop asked us to
go see her, so we did. It took several days for us to get over to see
her, but when we did, she was so grateful. She receives lots of
opposition for her faith, and it's hard for her. She's recently gone
through some challenges that have made things harder. But she has the
best attitude and definitely inspires me. We shared the video "Because
He Lives" video and she just cried. She told us that the night before
she had been praying for us to come. Then Sister Talbot and I started
crying. The spirit there was beautiful and so powerful. It was
incredible to know that we were truly an answer to her prayers and we
came at the right time. I KNOW that our Father hears and answers each
and every prayer. And He is SO aware of each and every detail of our
lives.

The not so good part of the week...I experienced my first Anti
material on the mission this week...we were driving in the car and
answered a phone call (it's all hooked up in the car, so it was on
speaker). Sister Talbot did all the talking, but the man on the phone
was SO rude. He went on about this and that about Joseph Smith and how
he thinks we don't believe in the Bible...he was so disrespectful too.
I could feel the Spirit leave, and I felt so icky afterwards. We were
both pretty shaken up about it...our faith wasn't shaken, but we were.
It was the worst Anti Sister Talbot has come across so far in her
mission. It was bad. But it's out there. And I have to be prepared for
it. We also had a really hard lesson with a less-active, and it was
rough. We think she's been "anti-ed" too, so that made it hard. But
it's okay! These moments help me appreciate even more the good ones.

But! There were many good moments throughout the week! For instance.
We are teaching a man named Tim. He's trying to stop smoking, and he
really wants to change. His son Tristen has been in and out of
lessons, but the other night we taught Tim the Plan of Salvation, and
Tristen came and sat in on the lesson. Tristen's friend Greg came and
sat in on the lesson too. They both had really good questions, and
were sincere about learning more. It was wonderful! The spirit was
there, and I'm really looking forward to teaching them more this next
week. On another note, we totally walked out of there smelling like
smoke...but the running joke in the mission is that if by the end of
the day you don't have animal hair on you, or smell like smoke, you
haven't done your job. Ha ha :) so I guess we did our job!! :D

We taught a man named Dave and he is great! He's met with the
missionaries off and on, but had some questions for us. We were able
to answer them, and we can tell he has a willing heart and wants to do
good and follow the commandments. Sister Talbot felt prompted to, so
she asked him if he would be baptized on December 19th. He said yes!
Ahhh so excited!!! He has a lot to learn, but we are here to help and
teach him. It's a great goal to work towards and I'm so excited for
him!!

Oh my. I have to tell you about a story Sister Talbot told me during a
companionship study this week. I'm just paraphrasing here, but it's a
powerful story about the Refiner's Fire. These Christian ladies were
studying in the Bible together, and they came across the verses that
talk about Jesus Christ being the Refiner. They wondered what it meant
to purify silver, as it mentions in the Bible. So, one of the ladies
went to go watch a blacksmith purify silver. She observed the
following: he would shape the silver, and then he would place the
silver right in the center of the fire, where it is the hottest. But
as he holds it in the flame, he never walks away from it. She noticed
this, and asked, "Why couldn't you walk away from the silver while it
was in the fire?" He said, "I can't walk away, because if I do, the
silver will be completely destroyed. I keep it in the fire just long
enough so that when I pull it out, I can see my reflection in it."
Wow. I didn't word that very well, but hopefully it made sense. It
gave me a new perspective on the refiner's fire and trials in general.
I know that He places us in the furnace of affliction, but He never
leaves our side. He helps us endure so that when we come out on the
other side, He will be able to see His reflection within us. (If you
haven't watched the Mormon message about the Refiner's Fire, go do
it!!)

We have shown the video "Because He Lives" many times this week, and I
love it so much. I know it's message is true. During the good, the
bad, and the in between, HE IS HERE. I know He is because I can feel
Him, and see His hand. In each of our lives...He is here.

I am praying for you and I hope you have a wonderful week!!!

LOVE YOU SOOO MUCH!!!!!!!

Romans 8:31 <3

Love,
Sister Bartlett

PS: I'll be ponderizing 2 Nephi 31:20 this week :) + the family scripture!!

"The Refiner's Fire" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DIIgm6xABQ

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