Week 5

This week was very, very busy! Missionary life is stuffed full of lessons to teach and people to see, and when you run out of those things, it doesn't matter. You're still busy, because there's no going back to your apartment and spending the rest of your night chilling. Nope, we are out until 9 pm, even when we don't have an appointment or we feel like we have seen every single person we could think of. That sounds a little crazy, but it's when we make the effort to be busy and working hard that we see those blessings and miracles come.

I'll do a day by day this week, giving you a little bit about each day.

 Monday last: It was District P-Day! Hoorah. We went to a restaurant that's pretty famous around this area called Lambert's. It is known for its flying rolls. They throw their rolls at you to eat. Also, if you have a private airplane, you can land at the local airport and call them and they will send a limo to pick you up. Random much? Missionaries who go there also sign their names on a tie and then get to hang it up, so my district did that. I might send you a picture of it.

 After eating at Lambert's we went and had a birthday/going away party for Elder Bracken, our district leader, and Sister White. We played games. We played this game called Pterodactyl. You have to cover your lips with your teeth, and you can't show them or you're out. Then you make a pterodactyl noise. It was hilarious. I know it sounds stupid, but oh my goodness, it's so hard! Except three of the elders were so good at it. They did it for something like 10 minutes, and were getting really into it (flapping wings, getting in each others' faces...). It was so funny, because they all thought that they should wrap it up, but none of them wanted to lose.

 We ended the day with Family Home Evening at a members' home and they gave me a tag journal. A tag journal is one that you keep throughout your mission and all of the people that you meet or are close to are supposed to just write a little in it. So far Sister White has written in it, since she left Saturday (we're not there yet though).

Tuesday: We did a lot of walking today. That is probably going to be true for almost every day this week. That's what happens when you have limited miles per month and you start reaching the end of the month. We helped two old ladies jumpstart their battery! That was pretty fun. It's awesome to have these opportunities to serve. You know, a lot of times we see some people struggling or something, and we hesitate before offering to help, because it might be awkward or we are busy. As a missionary, you don't hesitate, because you are constantly on the watch for these service opportunities. I love it. Even when the person says that they don't need help, you are doing service by showing them that someone is willing to help.

We also taught Edna today. She sometimes has a hard time concentrating on our lessons because she babysits two of her great-grandchildren, but I think that she understood most of it.

 We went and visited a less active woman named Gerrie. We met her at a gas station the other day and she recognized us as Mormons. She invited her to come and visit her. She has been less active for a long time, but she misses the Book of Mormon. She also gave us some homemade pickles and salsa. The pickles were spicy and delicious. Apparently she does a lot of home canning and sells the cans and homemade jerky. She asked us if we like pickles, and we said yes. Sister White admitted to liking kosher, so she got to go pick out the can, and then Gerrie made us try the pickles there and then. We each took a bite, and then we made Sister White finish the rest of the pickle.

 Wednesday: Ok, so I didn't really write in my journal today, because it was a busy day. Here's what I wrote: "Today we sang 'I'm a Little Teapot' to the tune of 'If You Could Hie to Kolob.' We were standing on Ashley's driveway [she saw us just as she was pulling out and told us that she was running to the store. She told us that we could wait inside, but there was only a man inside, so we waited outside instead], waiting for her, and somehow we started singing that."

 It was also district meeting today. That's always fun. We went out afterwards and ate at Taco Bell--Yum Yum!

 Thursday: We taught Ashley a lesson on faith today. It was cool, because she had a friend there, Amanda, and Amanda was pretty into the lesson as well. She told us that she's been having a rough time lately, but she and her boyfriend have been looking for a church to attend. They also are wanting to get married! It's really amazing the way that the Lord prepares people to receive the gospel. We are going to go teach Amanda on Wednesday of this week. It's also exciting because Ashley and Amanda are friends, so they can hopefully support each other in learning about the gospel.

We went to CVS Pharmacy, which is the newest store in town. We got some supplies for Hermana White, because she was leaving, and then some free stuff, because it's their grand opening.

Lots of walking. We taught Hannah. I don't think I've told you about her. She's one of our investigators that is really interested and sincere about her desire to follow Jesus Christ. She is 20 years old, and has a son that is very precocious. The lesson was... interesting. Freddy Krueger was playing on the TV in her house. Obviously I didn't watch it but sometimes I would look over at Sister Richardson and catch a glimpse of some creepy dude.

 For dinner, I made Tikka Masala. It was good. I couldn't find coriander at Walmart, but I did find garam masala, so I just added extra of that. Over rice... Mmm.

Friday: I actually haven't written on this day either... Oops. Sometimes planning goes long. The good news is that we keep everything in our planners, so I can go back and write a journal entry. I will probably do that today.

 Today was another day where a lot of people cancelled on us. That happens a LOT. We taught Ashley, Abby, and an investigator that we have had a lot of trouble contacting. We were able to set a return appointment with her-- yay! Hopefully it stays solid.

We spent some time today getting Sister White ready to go. She sent a package home with all the things that she won't need in Argentina. I got her quilt, which I added on top of the blanket that I already bought. Now I'm ready for the winter!

Saturday: Literally every appointment we set for today fell through. Plus we had to say goodbye to Sister White in the morning. What a day. You know, I refuse to be discouraged, because discouragement is demotivating. But there are times when you are frustrated. This was one of those times. But good news! The scriptures have the answers!

 So, some comforting scriptures this week:

 D&C 18:15: "And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one asoul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!"

Yup, I could spend my whole mission working and only bring one soul unto Christ. But then it would still be worth it. In fact, it would be more than worth it. I would gain incredible joy in the life to come.

 2 Nephi 10:23: "Therefore, acheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are bfree to cact for yourselves—to dchoose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life."

Cheer up! You can't make anyone else choose the right, but you can make sure that you are making good decisions! That's what's important. You can choose for yourself to have eternal life. I think I may have shared this scripture with you before, but it's a good one.

 I have also been studying Elder Richard G. Scott's talk from this conference: http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/personal-strength-through-the-atonement-of-jesus-christ?lang=eng

It's fantastic. I love the message that he shares. Part of repentance is dealing with the consequences of our choices! Just because we repent doesn't mean that the consequences will disappear. And one consequence is that you'll have that memory of the guilt, and Satan will try to prey upon that memory, to tempt you back into sin. But the Lord will help you overcome your weaknesses, and build up fortifications against the enemy. You just have to turn to Him. (See Ether 12:27 also).

Sunday: Edna came to church. I wish people knew how wonderful it can be to come to church! If they knew and fully understood the blessings, they wouldn't want to miss out.

I way geeked out at dinner. We were eating at a member's home, and one of the daughters is watching Stargate for the first time (she's just starting Atlantis now). Elder Tiegs, one of the Poplar Bluff elders, and one of the other daughters are both huge fans. So we discussed it. In depth. The merits of various storylines and such. I think Sister Richardson was a little bored...

We are working on getting bikes. It is so hard to stay under miles with driving our car, because our area is so big. So, we decided to try and get bikes. So, Mom, Chelsey, you can send me a bike if you want to send me stuff! [I AM KIDDING. DON'T ACTUALLY SEND ME A BIKE. I HAVE MONEY. I WILL BUY ONE]

I'm attaching some photos... the tie at Lambert's and some of our apartment. I don't know if I sent those to you already or not. I will work on getting more photos of me and my companions! I'll take some on Halloween for sure. The ward Halloween party is supposed to be off the heezy.

Quinn: Thanks for the letter for Parker. I think I'll give it to him tonight.

Lyvia: You were so cute at Homecoming. I can't wait to read about it.

Chelsey: I hope you are doing well in school and are loving learning about drugs. Oh, and thanks for the photos!

Owen: Why did you have a beard?

Mom: Enjoy yourself! Have a good time at work and I hope your Sunday School lessons are going well. Almost done with the Doctrine and Covenants!

I'm sure I'll remember a million things that I should have told you as soon as I finish the letter. I can't remember much more now. Every day in the mission field is just jam packed, even if that's just with walking and knocking. But I am good. Honestly, don't worry too much about me. There is something about being devoted 100% to preaching the word. You wake up thinking about your investigators, and you go to bed thinking about them. Obviously there's other stuff there too, but you are just focused. There's not enough time to worry or stress about the other stuff.

 Love you all! Keep up the missionary efforts. Tell me everything about your lives so I don't feel like I'm missing out :)

Sister Barret

Week 4

Aloha family!

Might be a shorter email this week than last week--which, last week's was super long, so not that surprising, but oh well.

This week was really good as well. We had a Zone P-Day last Monday, I think I told you a little bit about it. We went bowling! It was fun--we got to spend some time with the other missionaries in the area, and the bowling alley turned on the blacklights and neon lights, and we bowled in the dark. My companions and I did very well... But we had the bumpers on, so I don't know how much you could really compare our scores to the elders' scores!

The members fed us a little more this week, don't worry, I'm not starving. I actually used those rice noodles to make Pad Thai for my companions last night! It was delicious. The noodles you sent were a little wider than I'm used to... and I don't have a lot of the ingredients... and I had to cook it in a pot because we don't have a frying pan... but it somehow still turned out delicious! That recipe is really quite foolproof. I'm going to be making them Tikka Masala this week. I'm excited for that. I don't know if I'll make it super spicy though. Maybe I'll freeze some and once one of us gets a cold, we can use it to clear our sinuses.

Tuesday we had totally Washington weather. It rained all day, just kind of misty and drizzly. I loved it.

As missionaries, we have a lot of meetings. Someone joked that the 14th Article of Faith of the Church is "We believe in holding meetings." It's a little true, especially for missionaries. We have district meeting, with three companionships. Zone meetings, with all the missionaries in the zone (so about 30ish). Missionary coordination meetings. Priesthood meetings. Church meetings. Ward council meetings. They are often good opportunities though, because we get to coordinate with the members of the ward, and learn from other missionaries. Still, I like the days when we get to get outside and teach!

 On to the investigators!

I think I will give them code names, so you can kind of follow along with their progress and hear their whole stories. I'm not really sure what we are and aren't allowed to share--obviously not too many details, but it's more fun to give code names anyway.

 Last week I told you about a 13 year old girl. We'll call her Abby. Abby is amazing. She comes to church, she comes to Young Women's activities, and she loves learning about the gospel. We taught her on the 15th about the plan of salvation, and she got to reteach it while we were still there to one of her friends in the neighborhood. We often teach her sitting on her front step because her family is kind of apathetic towards the church. It was so cool to see her understand and be able to apply the things we were teaching--and even do a little missionary work herself! We also met with her on Sunday, after church, and asked her to if she would be baptized. She said yes! (I feel like I just proposed or something) Her baptismal date is November 30, so we'll be working with her to prepare.

Oh, just so you don't think that my mission is just dancing through daisy fields... I told you last week about the two sisters we were teaching, and how one (aka Karen) was more interested and seemed to believe that the things we were teaching were true. Well, we met with Karen again this week. She said that our church is just too different from the churches that she is used to. She still thinks that we're going to heaven, and that the things that we taught are true, and she says that she will read the Book of Mormon... But she doesn't want to meet with us anymore. It was really difficult to hear that. We accepted it, of course, because everyone has agency. And it doesn't really discourage me, because I know that everyone has a time that they will be prepared to accept the gospel, and that time might not have been now for her. But it is disappointing. Elder Holland said that the first thing a missionary should be when he or she hears that someone hasn't kept their commitments is devastated! And it is true! These things are life and death. It's a matter of their eternal salvation! It can be hard to have to deal with these emotions, up and down, but I am learning to be disappointed not discouraged. Discouragement gets you down. Disappointment motivates you, and hopefully the person you're disappointed in.

 I told you also about the family of three. I already told you the boy's name--Parker--but there is also a twelve year old girl (Cara) and their dad (Bud). The two kids came to Young Men's and Young Women's activities on Wednesday. It was fun because we got to show them the baptismal font. It is awesome to see them meeting members of the ward and getting accepted. We haven't seen Bud for more than a week now though, so we are hoping to meet with him tonight. We invited their family to come to a family home evening with another family in the ward, so we will see if they come. Cara is a very sweet girl, and she is very peppy as well. She and Abby get along well, and it is fun to see them bond over learning more.

I will write Miriam a thank you note today. it was actually really cool--the day that her package arrived, there was a package for me, Sister White AND Sister Richardson! All on the same day! That's the picture of us all holding packages. That never happens! We're lucky if we even get a letter. We were so pumped. We saw that we got packages, grabbed them, and then met a member right after that. I think she thought we were a little crazy because we were so excited.

 Oh, speaking of that night. We taught a lesson in a Laundromat :) Our investigator, Ashley, has three kids and she's living by herself right now, and she's having a rough time. She needed to do laundry and planned over our scheduled appointment. So we said that we'd come along with her and help her do her laundry and teach her at the same time. It was a little unorthodox, and I don't know how much we taught her, but hey! Service.

 We do a lot of service. This week we helped two families move. The first one was for a nonmember friend of a member of our ward. She is dealing with some health problems and so we went over and helped her clean the house that she was moving out of. We also helped some members who were moving to Las Vegas pack their moving truck. Lyvia, Quinn, if you want to serve a mission, learn how to pack and move things. The elders get REALLY GOOD at this. They even have these strap things to move heavy furniture. It was fun to help this family move because all the missionaries in our district were there to help, so it went fast. Then they fed us dinner. Then they gave us the food from their freezer that they weren't taking with them. The elders snagged the steaks, but we got a couple pounds of butter and some other food, so it evens out. Ok, the steaks were probably pretty expensive, so maybe not.

We got to have a lesson with Edna! She's an older woman who has been in and out of the hospital. She loves meeting with us, but she has been very sick. We asked the elders to come and give her a blessing, and she felt good after it. She is living with her family, but it's not a good situation for her. We hoped that she would come to church, but she didn't make it.

 It's hard because a lot of our investigators don't have cars or ways to transport themselves other than walking. We ask members a lot of times to give investigators rides.

 Spiritual thought of the week:

I finished the Book of Mormon last week, so this week I have started over! It is amazing to be reading the Book of Mormon with so much of an emphasis on study and missionary work. I spend thirty minutes (at least) of my personal study in the Book of Mormon. A lot of things have impressed me as I start again. First, I love how we can learn new things every time that we read the Book of Mormon. Even though I've read 1 Nephi many times, I have learned so many new things already.

I love Nephi. He is a great example of meekness, and trusting the Lord, and obedience. He also is pretty straightforward. 1 Nephi 7:12 says, "Yea, and how is it that ye have forgotten that the Lord is able to do all things according to his will, for the children of men, if it so be that they exercise faith in him? Wherefore, let us be faithful to him." Nephi basically says, "How can you forget already all the blessings that you have had? How can you forget that God is all-powerful? If you have faith, He can work miracles. So have faith!" It's a reminder to me to have faith! Believe and the Lord can work with you and bless you and lead you. Don't believe, and you have to operate with only your own limited knowledge.

Funny story of the week: (We have to have one of those, right? Don't get too freaked out, Mom)

We have these things called street lessons, where we try to talk to people on the street and just share a little thought with them or a card with our number. So we were walking down the street and we met three people, two women and a man. He noticed that Sister White had a nametag in Spanish. She explained that she is going to Argentina. So he asks her if she is fluent in the language, then asks if she can translate something into Spanish for him. He pauses to puff on the cigar in his hand, and I'm thinking that he's going to say something obscene, or bust out some swear words. Suddenly, he leans in SUPER close to her, right up by her face, and whispers in her ear, "Do you love me?" Now, he wanted her to translate that because I think he and one of the ladies with him were involved, but oh my goodness it was so awkward!

 Keep me updated on everything. I love you all. I pray for you and think about you all the time. I keep a picture of our family in my scriptures :) Maybe I'll send you some pictures of my apartment next time. We rearranged, so it's a little cuter now. And the elders gave us one of their bookcases! They had three, and we had zero, so we persuaded them to give us one.

Love,

Sister Barret

PS Sister White got her visa, I don't remember if I told you that. She leaves October 28, so in a week. We're bummed.

Week 3

Alright. As per usual, there is so much that I want to say, and I have no idea if I'll be able to say all of it or remember half of it, but I will do my best.

Thank you so much to whoever sent the rice noodles! I opened the package and just started laughing. It's awesome. I'm planning on making my roommates Pad Thai this week now. I'm not sure what pan I'll use, because our apartment is pretty limited on kitchen supplies (only two knives!) but we've got enough to do it, I'm sure. I might have to modify the recipe a little, because I'm not going to buy a ton of ingredients for it, but it'll be delicious, I'm sure.

 Thank you also for the letters and the emails and the pictures. It's actually kind of hard on P-Days. Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think too much about you guys during the week. That's not super accurate--I think about you every day--but I am so busy doing missionary work that I forget about other stuff. But then on P-Day I remember that I miss all you a lot! And I'm jealous that I missed out on Utah trips, and Quinn's first time at the Cannon Center. I'm sad that he was feeling sick so he didn't get to eat as much as he should have... And I'm glad that we won the volleyball game. Does Lyvia have a lot of new clothing or was she just wearing Chelsey's? Also, the reading photo was adorable... Lyvia's hair is super cute, and she looked really tall! Have you grown since I left??? I love the photo of Quinn regretting the burrito. He should have known! That they are super delicious!

I'm proud of you all inviting a non-member friend to go with you. Missionary work is the bomb :) I invite non-member friends to go with me all the time.

Gosh, I miss you all so much. Lyvia, tell Charles thanks for getting me the Divine Comedy ticket. Did you meet some of his roommates? Also, I expect Homecoming pictures! When is it? If you want to mail me some of those pictures, that would be fine by me. Or any pictures. I want to keep the ones I've got updated. Charles's Book of Mormon teacher was Brother Griffin, right? You should have told him that you were my sister! I worked for him for two years, after all! And took three classes from him!

Ok. I'm going to try to respond to letters by hand today (we've got a long drive, I'll explain later), but I think I've written to most of the emails. It's kind of difficult to keep up with everything and remember who's written what, but don't take that to mean stop writing! And yeah, I don't have any clue if some of my emails go through or not. I've sent some to some people who haven't responded, and I don't know if that's because they just don't want to respond to me or if they haven't received them. Awkward.

 This week has been crazy! And awesome. But mostly crazy.

 So, Monday night we got a call from the Assistants to the President (APs). They asked for Sister White, and we thought that it meant that she had got her visa! It wasn't, but they wanted to take her away from us anyway. A sister in Illinois's companion went home, so she needed a companion for a week. The next day was President Interviews, where we meet with the President, so Sister White had to pack for a week and leave the next day!

We drove up to Cape Girardeau for President Interviews, which is about an hour and a half drive. Blech (lots of driving this week). During my interview with the president, we talked about Poplar Bluff a little. He told me that, in the mission, there are 8 stakes. The Cape Girardeau stake, per capita, is the poorest of those 8 stakes. And Poplar Bluff is one of the poorest areas in Cape Girardeau. I wasn't exaggerating when I said that it is really poor! A lot of government housing.

Anyway, so Sister Richardson and I left Sister White and went back to Poplar Bluff after our interviews. From Tuesday to Saturday I was in a two-panionship! It was totally cool though, no real problems. It doesn't make a huge difference if you have two or three, except more space in the apartment. And I could move the front passenger seat back further in our car.

 I'm trying to remember everything that happened this week and it's hard because there is so much! I'll just tell you all the exciting parts, I guess.

 We met with some new investigators, two older women who are sisters. They were a referral from some former investigators. One of the women is so awesome. She has already been taught the first two lessons (the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation) and she just nods and says, "Yep, that's right." It's great! It's like she already believes and has faith, she only needs to know that this church is Christ's kingdom on the Earth. She has read the Book of Mormon before, and she said that she read it and the Bible and they say the same things, so she believes that it's true. We've extended the baptismal invitation, and she is praying about it. Yay! She and her sister also came to church this week!

 We are also teaching a family of three who are living with a less active member. They are such a great family. There are two kids, a 12 year old girl and a 13 year old boy, and they are both so interested in the gospel and learning about church. We invited them to be baptized, after they've been praying about it, and the kids both said yes!!! The dad is a little more cautious, since he's had some doubts, but he said that he's ready to start preparing to be baptized. After that lesson, we were practically dancing on our way to the car. They've learned so much! That lesson was the lesson on the Plan of Salvation, and one of the kids said, "I always knew that there had to be more than just a heaven and hell! God couldn't be that cruel. This is what I always thought." It was a testimony to me that we are teaching eternal truths, and that the Spirit can help people to recognize this.

We are teaching another 13 year old, a girl, and she is so excited to go to church. She came with us to Conference and to Young Women's! She and the other girl we teach are in the same grade at school and one of them told us that they talk about church for a couple of minutes before class starts. Isn't that so exciting? And adorable?

Ooh, and one more miracle for the week. We were coming out of an awesome lesson with one of the two sisters, and we were walking back to our car when a lady stops us. She said, "Hey! Are you two from church? Will you come talk to me?" She had a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other. We looked at each other, and said "Of course!" She was kind of taken aback: "Even though I've got a beer in my hand?" "Yep!"

It's amazing that we were actually recognized as representative of Jesus Christ. I thought that they were kind of joking in the MTC when they said that some people will recognize you on sight as ambassadors of the Lord, but nope. No joke. I have no idea if she will be interested in learning about the Church more, but we were able to help her and offer some comfort, which was amazing.

 In my personal study, I'm reaching the end of the Book of Mormon (Mormon, Ether, Moroni). I love reading these chapters. Each of these men were among the last living of their people. The only thing that they had left was their record on the plates. As you read, you can just hear their desire to make sure that they are leaving SOMETHING worthwhile, and to make sure that their last words are powerful. I love Moroni's plea in Ether 12:23-25, and the Lord's response: "If they have not charity, it mattereth not unto thee, thou has been faithful; wherefore, they garments shall be made clean. And because thou has seen thy weakness thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father."

 Stay faithful! Take care of your own salvation, and help others as much as you can, and the Lord will bless you.

I love you all so much, and I miss you extra much after seeing your awesome photos. Keep me updated on everything though!

Love,

 Sister Barret

Week 2

I totally forgot that you're going to Utah! Oops. Well, have fun without me :) not possible, right? We use the computers in Three Rivers Community College, a local college that allows people to use their computer lab for free if they have an ID. The public library here doesn't allow people to use their computers for more than an hour, and I guess you have to pay? It makes some sense though, a lot of people here don't have Internet of their own. My apartment is new, in the sense that missionaries haven't lived here very long, so it's pretty bare. We have folding chairs and folding tables. Classy :) And the walls are mostly bare as well. We try to have a few homey touches though! I got the CD--thank you very much. Sister Richardson also just bought a Les Miserables CD, so we've had some good music on our car rides.

 I'm getting to know all of the people that we're teaching, and a lot of people in the ward. Before I forget to tell you: The Relief Society President sounds just like Eulalie Shinn from The Music Man. Like I said before, it's a pretty small ward numbers wise, but it's a huge area geographically. If you want, you can look it up--we go from Poplar Bluff out to Doniphan, Ellsinore, Neelyville, Qulin, etc... It's a huge area! It's divided right down the middle between us and the elders. We try to stay mostly in our area, but we teach quite a few people on their side of Poplar Bluff. They have the richer side of Poplar Bluff. We usually get females and they get males (or at least the scary ones). But anyway, technically the sisters are in the Poplar Bluff 2 area, and the elders are in the Poplar Bluff 1 area.

 The bugs have not been as bad this week. At least, not on my legs. it's starting to get colder, so hopefully that will scare them off. it's mostly just mosquito bites (or chiggers) and they come from walking around outside. Don't worry about my apartment, it's quite clean and mostly bug free.

I need some recipes! I do have to cook a lot. We don't often eat with the members. I made the cream cheese cookies, which people loved, and banana bread, in a 9x13 pan because it's the only one we have, and spaghetti for my companions and I. I was going to make Pad Thai, but neither grocery store had rice noodles! Can you believe that? Walmart didn't have them! I was shocked. But then again, there are about zero Asian people here, so maybe it's not that surprising. It's still sad!

Missouri... It's humid. Not so bad today, actually. The people here are different than people in Washington. They are definitely more welcoming in some ways, and they are all very solicitous. Like, they'll warn us if they see us in the worse neighborhoods. The difficult part is that they are set in their ways, because a lot of them have lived here in Missouri, or in Poplar Bluff, forever. The trees here are very pretty. It's kind of strange to see so many trees but hardly any evergreens.

General Conference was so good. I actually stayed awake for all sessions, which is a bit of a miracle in itself. We watched it at the church building. None of our investigators came on Saturday, so it was us, the elders, and three or four other members. But on Sunday, we had SIX investigators come! It was so cool.

Time for some spiritual thoughts, about what I got out of conference.

President Uchtdorf gave an outstanding talk. I think it might win my "Best Overall" award. The quote that both my companions and I love was "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith." This applies to everyone, especially our investigators. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the questions that we have that we forget about the things that we know.  Remember your testimony. Don't ignore your questions, but if it comes down to it, doubt your doubt before you doubt your faith.

Elder Richard G. Scott talked about fortifying ourselves against our weaknesses. I love what he said about how the Lord views weaknesses differently than rebellion. When we sin, we are rebelling against God. He cannot tolerate that. But He understands that we are mortal and weak. And when He looks upon our weaknesses, He views us with mercy.

And some themes overall:

"Come unto me, all ye that are heavy laden" That's what I'm inviting people to do every day! If we have burdens, they can be lightened through the Lord's aid. When we are suffering, the Lord can assist us.

Daily decisions shape us, and have eternal consequences. It's easy to think that one day doesn't make that much of a difference in the long run, but that's what Satan wants us to think. Every single day is important in our lives, and we should be making decisions every single day that draw us closer to God.

Missionary work! Pray for the missionaries, because we sure need it. Support the missionaries. I was thinking after conference about this. I asked myself, If the missionaries could have the members do one thing, what would it be? Now, my answer could change over the next 17 1/2 months, but here's my answer today: I would want a member family to walk up to me and say, "Hello Sister Barret. We have a family that we're friends with. For a while now, we've been talking to them about the gospel, and they've seemed really interested. We have invited them to some activities, and they came and enjoyed themselves. So we asked them if they would be willing to meet with the full-time missionaries. They agreed. Will you come by our house Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6 pm to teach them?" I think I'd about faint with happiness. And if they fed us dinner...!

Be "Anxiously Engaged"

Finally: Elder Holland's talk. That talk was amazing. Mom, I hope you print it out and read it again. I was going to print it here, but it's not up yet, so that will have to wait until next week I guess. Remember, remember: God's love is always there. Believe in miracles. Hope is never lost.

 I love personal study time. It may be my favorite time of the day. It's an hour of just studying the gospel. I usually read the Book of Mormon for thirty minutes, then study the lessons and the doctrines.

 haha, funny story time. So, we had exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders this week. That's where the two sister leaders come and proselyte with you separately (splitting up). So we drove out to Ellsinore--Hermana White, me and one of the STLs. But we didn't have an address, and we kind of had no clue where we were going. So we drove out there... and found what we thought was the right road... and started knocking on doors. no luck finding the less active sister's home. We knocked on one door, kind of countryish, and two people come out. The man is wearing a huge gun on his hip. We asked them if they know where the sister lives, and they said, "No! Never heard of her, and I've lived here my whole life!" So, astute as we are, we realized that they didn't really want us there, so we said, "Ok, thanks. Bye!" We were opening the doors to the car when we heard a gunshot and all three of us jumped! The man had gone to his backyard and fired his gun--not at us, just as like a warning shot I guess? We couldn't believe it! We were leaving, after all. We certainly left faster after that, though.

I got to see one of the pictures of Lyvia's hair. I think that pictures work if they are in the body of the email instead of as an attachment. It's cute! How does it look curly? It's got a very 1920s vibe. I've been getting the letters that you sent to the mission home.  It's kind of hard to respond to them, because I don't know when they are all written in relation to each other and to my emails, so I just try to enjoy them. I enjoyed reading about Quinn's soap experiments :) What scientific principles are you supposed to be learning from that??

 Mission life is busy, exciting, hard, crazy... Honestly though, I'm doing really well. It kind of freaks me out how well I'm doing. Everyone keeps asking me how I'm doing, do I have any concerns, don't get discouraged... And I'm just fine. My adjustment has been smooth. I am doing things that I would normally hate--speaking to strangers, going to their homes, not contacting family, putting myself out there--but I come home happy each day. Tired, but happy. Even on days when it feels like we've accomplished nothing and just been rejected, I'm downright cheerful. Like I said, it's actually a bit worrisome. I wonder sometimes if I'll wake up one day in the middle of my mission and all that anticipated discouragement will come crashing down on me. But I already know how to avoid that--after all, they gave me the answer in General Conference. Persevere. Build up endurance. Give service. Make the daily decisions that keep me on the right path. Be obedient. Love God and love my neighbor.

Anyway, this email is getting super long and I have no idea if I've responded to everyone or not, and you're probably bored by now. But oh well! (I've learned missionaries are weird, by the way. Whole different culture out here).

I love each and every one of you, and I pray for each of you each night. Be good. Be examples of the believers. Reach out to the people around you. Pray for me, Hermana White, and Sister Richardson. Pray for the missionaries in your wards.

 I don't think I need you to send me anything (other than letters ;) but I'll let you know!

Love,

Sister Barret

3 Nephi 18:34