But, back to the task at hand.....Another reason why this post has been so long in the making is that I didn't know how to approach it. It seemed a monumental task to best convey how amazing and how awesome it has been to have 3 daughters being witnesses for Jesus Christ throughout the world. (Kaylee in Mexico, Analise in Peru, and Lynae in New York.) However, a few weeks ago, Kent and I were asked to speak about our daughters and their missionary service in sacrament meeting. Although, I didn't write out and "read" my talk word for word, I did write it all out so that I would have a record of my thoughts and feelings, and just yesterday, it dawned on me that my written "talk" would be the perfect way to express my feelings in this post, which I have been wanting to compose for sometime. So what follows is the talk I gave in sacrament meeting a couple of weeks ago and then a LOT of pictures for further illustration and also because it is so HARD to choose just a few pictures when I have such amazing and talented and beautiful daughters (and I'm not biased at all! :) It is wonderful to have all 3 of these "sisters" (pun intended) serving !
Talk given by Kay August 16, 2015 in Logandale 5th ward sacrament meeting:
For those of you who don’t know me, I am Kay Barlow,
and my husband, Kent, and I currently
have 3 daughters serving missions. They
are all close in age – only 3 ½ years separate daughter #1 from daughter #3,
but none of them are twins… (That’s a question we sometimes get when we say we
have 3 daughters serving.)
For those of you who may not know them, their names
are- in order of age-Analise, Kaylee, Lynae.
(Alphabetical)….but that’s not the order in which they left on their
missions.
For the purpose of our messages today, I will explain
how we came to have 3 daughters serving simultaneously-something we never
planned on, nor even imagined- and then Kent will share a little bit about
their service.
Let me also say that my mother is currently serving a
mission in Nauvoo, Illinois. The
scripture on my mother’s missionary plaque that hangs in the foyer is John
13:17 “If ye know these things; happy are ye if ye do them.” Those of you that
know my mother, know that this is the PERFECT scripture for her…she is ALWAYS
happy. But I would like to base my
remarks today on this scripture, specifically that true happiness comes when we
first come to KNOW and then follow through and DO God’s will for us. And, while God has an “overall plan” for his
children, He also has a specific plan for each of us, which, if followed, will
lead to our personal happiness.
It was fun to have 3 little girls close in age growing
up, and while we never told them they couldn’t or wouldn’t serve missions, most
of our “when you serve a mission” discussions were directed to our sons. (We also have 3 sons.)
When Kaylee, our middle daughter began her freshman
year at BYU, she expressed an interest in possibly serving a mission when she
turned 21. That October, President
Monson announced the age-change, allowing young women to begin missionary
service at age 19. All 5 of Kaylee’s roommates immediately began preparing
papers. Kaylee did not; she was
determined not to just “be one of the crowd.” Instead, she enrolled for another
year at BYU….and things did NOT go well.
While nothing was seriously wrong, she had many troubles: roommate
troubles, job trouble, boyfriend troubles, and even troubles deciding on a
major and classes. She was constantly stressed and in turmoil. After several
months of this, she decided to seriously fast and pray about a mission. She got an immediate and strong answer and
called home saying she wanted to put in papers as soon as possible. Everything fell into place very quickly, and in one weekend she completed all her medical
and dental work and had her papers turned in in 3 weeks. She was happy. Things fell into place at school and
work. She KNEW God’s will for her, and
she was DOING it. She left in April of
2014 for the Mexico, Aguascalientes mission.
Lynae, our youngest daughter, was next to go. She was still in high school when the age-change
was announced. Shortly thereafter, she
got her patriarchal blessing which talked specifically and directly about her
mission. She KNEW God’s will for her and she DID it. And she was happy. (Any of you that associated with Lynae prior
to her mission can probably attest to that.) She went to one semester at BYU
and left for the New York, Rochester Mission/Hill Cumorah Visitor’s center in
February 2015, just 3 weeks after
turning 19.
Analise, our oldest daughter, planned NOT to serve a
mission, and was totally fine with this plan (as were we, her parents.) Her
patriarchal blessing stated specifically, “It is not required of you to go on a
mission at a young age.” And we often
joked as a family that she had a “mission excuse note” written by the Lord
himself. When the missionary age-change
was announced, she was well into her major course of study at BYU, and was
focused on finishing her degree in civil engineering. As the time for her graduation from BYU
approached, she found herself unable to decide what to do: graduate school,
work, date one of the several boys pursuing her…. Nothing seemed right. She
said she felt grumpy and unhappy even though she should have been happy. Now, just a side-note regarding Analise’s
personality. She is VERY stubborn, and
if told what to so, will
often do the opposite just to prove she can.
About this time, both she and I “just happened” to re-read her
patriarchal blessing (neither of us knew the other had been re-reading it) and
the same line stood out to both of us.
It was the line that followed the line which stated she was not required
to serve a mission. It stated, “but IF
you decide to go, the Lord will bless you abundantly and increase your
abilities greatly.” She and I both
stewed over that line independently for weeks, she wondering if a mission was
the right choice for her, and me wondering if I should say anything to my
stubborn, “don’t-tell-me-what-to-do-Analise.”
She finally decided to fast and pray about a mission, and she told
Heavenly Father that she needed a very direct and undeniable answer if He
wanted her to serve. About this same time, encouraged by my visiting teachers,
I decided to craft a very carefully-worded e-mail to Analise expressing my
recent thoughts and feelings regarding her patriarchal blessing. A few days later she called me and told me
about her decision to fast and pray about a mission. She said that just a few minutes after
closing her fast, she opened the e-mail from me; she had her answer. She said she began to feel more at peace and
happy with things in her life. Analise
graduated from BYU and left for the Peru Lima North Mission just 3 weeks after
Lynae.
Once my daughters KNEW what they should do and then
DID it; they were happy. Remember John
13:17 “If ye KNOW these things; happy are ye if you DO them. “
Furthermore, each of my girls have expressed happiness
while serving despite difficult circumstances.
Circumstances which it would seem would make one anything BUT happy, but
because they have aligned their wills with God’s and are serving Him, they are
nevertheless happy.
Let me end with a quote from each of them that
illustrates this point. From one of
Kaylee’s emails:
“Oh and did I also mention that I’m back to showering
with buckets again? Yeah we don’t have a shower here either, so I really only
went 2 weeks in the last 5 months that I got to actually shower. Those little
blessings you just gotta enjoy while you can I guess. Other fun fact - our
toilet doesn’t have a toilet seat and it doesn’t flush so every time you go to
the bathroom you have to fill up a bucket of water and dump it in after to
flush... I never guessed I would miss flushing a toilet so much! But really I
love it here. I can’t believe just how fast I’m falling in love with this new
area, with these members and with our investigators. It´s amazing being a
missionary. I hope I never take this precious time for granted!”
From one of Lynae’s e-mails:
“The work is hastening and I couldn't be happier. Seriously, the other day as we were spraying
our hair and coats with febreeze because we smelt like smoke after our lesson I
just kept thinking how happy I was. It
makes no sense. I should not be happy
that I have the talent of breaking up groups of people faster than anyone else
I know (seriously, people see us coming and just run). I should not be happy that I'm sleeping on a
cot. I should not be happy when I'm
eating cheese and crackers covered in hair because I am someone's
"guest" during bible study.
BUT I AM! I am soooo happy, and I
definitely attribute that to the fact that my will is more closely aligned with
God's than it ever has been before. I
know that when we do what God wants us to do we can be truly happy. I'm just a little frustrated that it has
taken me 19 years and coming on a mission to figure that one out.”
From one of Analise’s e-mails:
“Also Cristian.
He is a new investigator of 14 years and wants to get baptized. Yesterday he showed up to church and we were
kind of freaking out. The young men in
our ward were awesome. They took him everywhere he needed to go, even during sacrament meeting. They brought him in and had him sit on the
bench behind them while they passed the sacrament, and then after they joined
him and sat by him the rest of the meeting.
I wish I could describe how happy I was when I saw that, but I just cant. Just know I was so happy.”
I am thankful and HAPPY to be a missionary mom. And I have a testimony that the Lord loves
every single one of his children and knows exactly how to bless and teach each
one according to his/her individual needs.
For example, my “germ-a-phob” Kaylee is learning to bathe in buckets; my
picky dresser, Analise, had all her laundry stolen and is now wearing Peruvian
thrift store apparel; and my directionally-challenged Lynae is driving in an
unfamiliar city, learning to find new locations with only the assistance of her
GPS, who she has affectionately dubbed “Sister Siri.” I don’t think Brother Pulsipher (who gave all my children their patriarchal blessings) knew that
Analise was stubborn and probably wouldn’t respond well to a specific directive
to serve a mission, but the Heavenly Father did, and the wording of her
patriarchal blessing allowed her to make the right decision at the right time
for her. The gospel is true. Joseph Smith was and is a prophet; we have a
living prophet today, and when we KNOW and DO what the gospel and the prophet
teach us, we are happy.
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| Kaylee and her comp, dressing the part....when in Mexico.... |
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| Kaylee and her comp at Hermano Pedro's baptism |
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| Pig's nose?!? A Mexican "delicacy" ?!? And Kaylee actually looks excited about it! |
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| The closest thing Kaylee can get to "soaking" in a "bath" in Mexico. She has spent much of her mission bathing with buckets: One bucket is dumped over her head to wet herself. Then she "soaps" up and gets a second bucket to rinse. |
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| Kaylee writes, "Only in Zacatecas can you be in the middle of the city and still ride a donkey." |
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| Street of Fresnillo, Mexico EVERY time it rains even a little. (Luckily Kaylee's seen a few good Moapa Valley floods so this doesn't phase her ;) |
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| Washing clothes by hand. Kaylee writes, "And I thought I hated doing laundry before....." |
Photo journal of Lynae's experiences in New York:
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| Lynae's mission is an I-Pad mission. Here she and her comps (she was in a 3-some) "model" their I-Pads. (quite a contrast from Kaylee's bathing-in-buckets, laundry-by-hand mission ;) |
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| As a "site sister" -someone who gives tours at the church history sites in Palmyra- Lynae thought it was easy to learn the stories and history of each site, but she struggled to keep the dates and time frames straight, so she made this giant timeline, which she posted on her apartment wall, to help her study. |
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| Lynae and her first two comps welcome you to Palmyra :) |
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| Lynae at the Joseph Smith log home, one of 5 church history sites where she gives tours. (The other 4 include the Hill Cumorah Visitor's Center, the Joseph Smith frame home, the Sacred Grove, and the Grandin Press.) |
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| Lynae's first baptism: Victoria. As a "site sister," Lynae works at the sites for half the day and is a regular proselyting missionary with an area to "work" the other half of the day. |
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| One of the "perks" of being a site sister and giving tours is that sometimes Lynae gets to see people she knows who are there to tour the area. She actually got to see all the youth from our stake this past summer, when they were on a church history tour back east. This picture shows her with the Turners from our ward in Logandale (Logandale 5th ward) after she gave them a tour of the Hill Cumorah Visitor's Center. |
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| Lynae was one of 4 sisters chosen to be a "cast trainer" for the entire cast of the Hill Cumorah Pageant. She had to "train" over 800 cast members. It was a bit exhausting, and for the weeks of the pageant, she got little sleep and no p-day, but she had the time of her life. Here she is with the other cast trainers and some of the pageant dancers posing with some pageant props. (Don't worry, it was all posed; they really did all love her. :) |
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| The Hill Cumorah Pageant |
Photo Journal of Analise's Experiences in Peru
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| Analise at the Lima MTC (or CCM as it is referred to in Spanish.) Analise was the only one of our children who did not report to the Provo Missionary Training Center. Instead of driving her to Provo, like we'd done with our other 3 missionaries (Dallin, Kaylee, and Lynae), we drove her to McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas and watched her go through security all alone and tried to have faith that she'd make it safely to Peru with no cell phone and not knowing any Spanish.. This pic proves she made it :) |
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| Analise points out her mission on the "big" map in the Lima CCM (It's not too "big" of a map compared to the one in the Provo MTC. :) |
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| Analise and her comp at the Lima temple |
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| Analise and her comp overlooking Lima |
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| Analise and her comp at Cristian's baptism. |
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| This "lovely" shirt was included in some donations Analise got after all her laundry was stolen. She thought it was quite "appropriate" in a weird, ironic sort of way. |
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| Analise told the Peruvians she would try "Suri," a Peruvian delicacy. She writes, "I didn't know the worm would be THAT big and be eaten LIVE." You can see how she felt about it, but she reports that she did eat it, with no ill effects. |
And, because I really can't leave out the 4th "witness," here is a picture of my lovely mother serving a mission in Nauvoo, where she gets to dress in period clothing, sing, dance, and perform, and give tours of the church history sites there. She is doing marvelous things, but that will be a post for another day.
Missionaries are the best; and I have LOVED every minute that I've had being a missionary mom (and daughter)!
