Hello everyone! So, I am actually typing this on a Word document, because surprise! It snowed in November! And apparently, there was a power outage at the library, which knocked out their Internet, which… is still down. That is a real bummer. Obviously. But I hopefully can save myself some time now by typing this up.
This was a crazy eventful week! I don’t even know where to start. So, on Tuesday, it was my 14 month mark! Crazy. Every time the 11th of a month rolls by, I am always surprised. It’s strange how quickly the months have been ticking by. And someone just warned me yesterday that your third-to-last transfer is “Wow, that was the fastest transfer of my mission!” And then your second-to-last transfer is “Wow, that was even faster than last transfer!” And then your last transfer is “What just happened?” When I think that I have four and a half months left on my mission, it feels like I’ve still got quite a bit of time left. When I think of it in terms of three transfers… Um, that’s how long I spent in Paris. That’s less time than I spent in Poplar Bluff. Anyway, Tuesday was also awesome because we did the funeral for Elder Smith and Elder Locklear! Yeah, not going to lie, we threw an amazing funeral for those two elders.
Family, don’t expect much of a letter this week. Sorry! But this is going to be really long, so hopefully that will make up for some of it. Oh, before I forget, my new address: 120 Springcreek Dr. Springfield, IL 62702.
We tracted for most of the day Wednesday. You know what I don’t like about tracting? I try to have a positive attitude about it overall, and really, it’s the best thing that we could be doing in this area to get some investigators and to get things moving forward. But it’s also demonstrably the least effective way to do missionary work. And that’s tough. I like to be effective, and I don’t feel as effective as I could be when I spend a whole day tracting. It’s a building thing, which is alright, but it’s emotionally (and physically) exhausting.
Thursday was a pretty good day. We were able to see our investigator Mary. She wanted it to be very clear that “I am a Catholic!” We’re like, “Okay! Can we still share the things we know?” :) Most of the rest of the day we spent contacting less active members. Which is still one of the things that I was surprised about with missionary work. I did not know how much work the missionaries did visiting and helping less active members! But it is as important to help less active members find their conversion as it is to help non-members. And often, it can lead to other missionary experiences. Look at the Hardens in Paris!
We had dinner with a way sweet less active family. They made lasagna. It was good, but not as delicious as ours ;) I just definitely prefer cottage cheese.
Friday, we did our weekly planning. Always an interesting thing when you’re waiting for transfer calls, since you have no clue where you’ll be by the next week. It was good though. I love weekly planning, because it is really able to set the tone for your week. If you’re thorough and follow the instructions in Preach My Gospel, the weekly planning session can make your area so organized and so prepared for the next week. If you don’t… let’s just say, you won’t be as effective as you could be.
Sister Auble received a blessing for her knee. It was another cool experience with the priesthood. She has tendonitis and it had been giving her a lot of pain. Well, after she received that blessing, she started feeling way better and she hasn’t had the same pain.
That evening was probably the busiest four hours we’ve had as companions! We had an appointment with a recent convert and an active member who are sisters, and we talked with them about missionary work. Then we went to visit a less active member and invited her to church. Then we went to a part-member family’s house for dinner and shared a message about the Atonement. Then we went to a less active family’s house (where we hadn’t been able to get in before!) and shared a message about obedience. They have a hairless cat. It’s the ugliest thing. They named him “Jafar Voldemort.” Phew! It was awesome. I love being busy, and I love when we get to teach! Definitely it’s my favorite.
Saturday we had a lot of fun. The branch president and his wife invited us to their house for lunch and for the elders to bring up their Christmas trees. We had toasted cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, and while the elders carried up and set up the Christmas trees (they have two, and one was a 12 footer), I made fudge again. And it turned out perfect again :) which made me really happy. Then it started snowing. It felt like Christmas. We haven’t even had Thanksgiving yet!
Well! Then at about 3 pm, Sister Auble checks the phone and says, “Hey! President Morgan called! And he left a message!” That almost never happens… President Morgan calling, that is. We listen to the message, and he says, “Could Sister Barret call me back?” And my heart starts pounding. See, here’s the thing. Our district leader was an office elder and a zone leader before he came to our district for his last transfer, so he thought that he was “in the know.” So, he’d been telling me for the last couple weeks that I’d become a sister training leader next transfer. I usually just rolled my eyes. So… yeah, when I got that phone call, I was pretty sure that that was what was happening. I call President back. No answer. He calls us back. I answer. And basically, he said, “I just wanted to tell you that you are being assigned as a sister training leader.” Okay, there was more than that. Before he told me that, he asked me, “Sister Barret, do you support me fully as your mission president?”
That caused a minor panic attack… I thought he was going to tell me that he was giving me some awful assignment next transfer! Ha. But no, he told me that I was going to be an STL!
Well, that kind of blew my mind. Yup. I was a little distracted the rest of the day.
We didn’t get official transfer calls until later that evening. We are being whitewashed out of Columbia, which means both of us are leaving and two new sisters are being put in (one of them is Sister Esterholdt!). Sister Auble is going to St Louis Hills, in the city. I’m going to Lincoln, Illinois and I’m going to be with Sister Martinez. Which means a) I might finish out my mission in Illinois! And b) I’m going to be the sister training leader over Paris! So I might be able to go on exchanges there :D which would be amazing. We’ll see what happens though!
Unbelievable. I feel very humbled. I didn’t think that I would become an STL. I thought I’d be move somewhere and maybe train my last two transfers. Guess my baby will be an only child!
Sunday then was the last Sunday in the Waterloo Branch for me, Sister Auble, and one of the elders. The branch was pretty sad about that, especially the branch mission leader and the branch president. We had some good things that started happening really in the last six weeks. The three of us who are leaving were asked to share a brief testimony. And Sister Auble and I did a musical number… the same one we did for the funeral. We did an acapella mash of “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and “Brightly Beams Our Father’s Mercy.” And she sang soprano and I sang alto. Again, not going to lie… It was pretty amazing. I saw at least five or six people crying, and we got so many compliments. Someone said it’s the best musical number they’ve ever heard in sacrament meeting, and our branch president said he’s pretty sure he heard angels singing with us.
Sister Auble and I did Singing Time in Primary because the normal music person wasn’t there. That was fun! We just did all the fun songs… and Christmas songs!
After church, I got a blessing because I was feeling (I AM feeling) pretty nervous about my new assignment. In fact, I hardly slept Saturday night, so I figured that I should probably get some sleep between Saturday and Wednesday if I wanted to not be in a complete fog for the first week of the transfer. But it was another great experience. I always work myself up about asking for a blessing… I worry “Should I? Is it weird? Is it necessary?” etc. But I have never regretted asking for a blessing, and I’ve had some very special experiences receiving blessings, especially since I’ve started recording the things I remember about the blessing afterwards. Then I’m able to go back and reflect on that, reflect on the things that I’ve learned since then, and I’m able to see promises being fulfilled. For example, I remember a blessing I received way back when in Poplar Bluff. I had been feeling pretty discouraged and down for a week or two, so I asked my district leader to give me a blessing. One of the things I remember was the promise, “This experience is helping you prepare for even more difficult things to come.”
Well, who wants to hear that when they’re feeling depressed?! But really, I have definitely seen that blessing be fulfilled on my mission. The things I learned from that experience, I have been able to apply to help me when I was struggling a lot more than I did in Poplar Bluff.
We had lunch with a member, and then we had a great lesson with a man named Gary. We brought a member with us, and it went really well! We taught him about what the Book of Mormon is and why it’s important, and invited him to pray about it.
Then we had dinner with some more members! Seriously, we have been fed the most I’ve ever been fed on my mission over the last couple of weeks. It’s ridiculous. I’m not going to complain, I think it’s hilarious! Right after Sister Auble and I have a great shopping trip to Aldi… Anyway. The member taught us all how to cure our own bacon, which was pretty neat! And we had homemade bacon and pancakes from scratch. Yum. They are a super cute family; they have four little girls and a boy on the way.
Yup. Great week. Sorry about the massive email! Okay, not really. You all don’t have to read them if you don’t want. I’m just adding lots of details, because we’ve been here now for almost an hour and forty-five minutes, and the Internet has still not been turned on. And I still don’t know the transfer results for the people I know!!!
Sister Richardson, my trainer, and our district leader go home today. She’s my last senior companion to go. Every other companion I have had goes home after me. Crazy. It’s tough to see people go. Even though we don’t really get to talk much or see each other often, you know that they are out there in the mission field with you… and now, they’re going home!
The good news is that there are no real good-byes in the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are only “See you laters”! That’s definitely a comfort on a mission. It’s so difficult to say good-bye to some people that you’ve come to love, and then not know if you are ever going to see them again. But we are going to see each other again! I’ve been reflecting a lot on my testimony this week, because whenever you’re leaving as a missionary, people ask you for your testimony a ton. And I realized that a lot of my testimony is centered on the plan of salvation, because the plan of salvation is the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ! It’s the way that God implemented for us to return to live with Him, with our heavenly family, and with our earthly family, in perfect joy forever. I am so grateful for a sure knowledge that I can be with my family forever. I know that the sealing power is real. I know it!
Alright, the Internet just got back on, so I’m going to wrap this up. Love you all! I’ll send pictures on a later email.
Sister Devynne Barret
