Sister Barret's Sacrament Meeting Talk

Good morning brothers and sisters! Surprisingly enough, even though I have been serving here in Poplar Bluff for almost four months now, this is my first time giving a talk. It’s not my first time being asked—Brother Richardson actually asked me a few months back, but he had forgotten about the Primary Program!

But like I said, I’ve been a missionary in Poplar Bluff now for almost 4 months. This is the first area I’ve served in on my mission, so I am still pretty new to being a missionary.

I’m going to forewarn you though—this month is missionary month. You have Elder Vincent and me today, and next week we’ll be blessed to hear from our companions.

As you may imagine, today I’m going to be talking about missionary work. I’m going to answer two questions—first, why did I choose to serve a mission? And second, what exactly do we do as missionaries?

No matter who you are, or who your family is, it is a very personal and soul-searching process to choose to go on a mission. It’s not a decision you should make on a whim—and for good reason! A mission changes your life. As I was growing up, I never really thought about serving a mission. No one in my family had ever served—my dad was a convert, and he married my mom shortly after she turned 21. My older sister got married when she was 20. I knew that my grandpa on one side had served a mission in England, but I had never asked him about it or heard any mission stories. So, serving a mission wasn’t even really a blip on my radar.

The first time I even thought about serving a mission was during my second year at BYU. I was blessed to room with several returned sister missionaries. These were some of the best women I’ve met in my life. Each one of them was a spiritual giant, and a great example to me.  I started thinking—I want to be more like them! And I knew that for each of them, their mission shaped their life.

But hey, I was only 19. I had two years before I had to make a decision, right? Wrong! General Conference, October 2012—changed so many lives. Suddenly, for many young women—including myself—we could decide NOW to serve a mission. And honestly, when I heard the age change announcement, I pulled out my phone and sent a text to my mom—“Hey Mom! I’m going to serve a mission!”

That was in October 2012 though—I didn’t leave on my mission until September of 2013. There was a lot of time there in the middle to really ponder my decision. There were quite a few moments of panic—“What in the world am I doing? I can’t serve a mission!” But honestly, for me, I needed that time. I needed to think, pray, and fast about going on a mission.  And as I did so, I examined my reasons for wanting to serve a mission.

When I think about being called on a mission, I think of two examples in the scriptures of people being called by God to serve a mission—Jonah and the sons of Mosiah in the Book of Mormon.

The first example is Jonah. He’s kind of the example of “What not to do when God tells you to do something!” I’m going to read some of his story to you:   Jonah 1:1-3

1 Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,

 2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.

 3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

Jonah learns that fleeing is not a good idea.

Jonah 3:1-4

1 And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying,

 2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.

 3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.

 4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

Jonah figures things out, and does it right the second time. What happens when Jonah preaches?

Jonah 3:5-10

5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

 6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

 7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:

 8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.

 9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

 10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

Wow! Jonah has 100% success! Can you imagine? Now, we tend to kind of laugh a little at Jonah—and expect a little better from him. After all, he was a prophet! But who of us hasn’t acted a little like Jonah? Sometimes, as I prepared for my mission, I felt like I was going somewhat out of a sense of duty more than anything else. I knew that this was what God wanted me to do, so I’d better do it—but I would think about all the things I could be doing instead and wonder if I was doing the right thing.

But I didn’t—I don’t!—want to be a Jonah. The people who truly inspire me are the sons of Mosiah. Like Jonah, they received revelation from God that they needed to serve a mission. Like Jonah, they were called to preach to a wicked, hardened people. But unlike Jonah, they had zero desire to run away. Yes, they were nervous—in Alma 17, they pray to God and ask Him for comfort and courage. But here’s what the scriptures say is the reason the sons of Mosiah wanted to serve a mission with the Lamanites-- Mosiah 28:2-3:

2 That perhaps they might bring them to the knowledge of the Lord their God, and convince them of the iniquity of their fathers; and that perhaps they might cure them of their hatred towards the Nephites, that they might also be brought to rejoice in the Lord their God, that they might become friendly to one another, and that there should be no more contentions in all the land which the Lord their God had given them.

 3 Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble.

Wow. For me, that is the definition of charity. The sons of Mosiah knew that “the worth of souls is great in the sight of God.” And the worth of each of the Lamanites’ souls was great in their eyes—not because those Lamanites had done anything to deserve it—but because those Lamanites were of value to God, and therefore of value to them. Jonah was motivated to go on a mission because he felt a duty to go serve God, and he was afraid of the consequences of disobedience. The sons of Mosiah went on a mission because they loved God, and they loved the people they were going to go serve.

The longer I serve a mission, the more I want to be like the sons of Mosiah. I want to be out here because of love. I seek after the gift of charity. Moroni 7:45-48:

45 And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

 46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—

 47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

 48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.

Now I’m going to change gears a little. I want to talk a little now about what we do as missionaries. My guess is that many of you have not served a mission, but you know people who have. So I’m going to quickly run through our daily schedule.

At 6:30 every morning—7 days a week—we wake up. We roll out of bed and pray, as companions and as individuals. We exercise for 30 minutes, then spend an hour getting ready for the day. At 8:00 am, we have personal study. I usually spend a half hour reading the Book of Mormon, and a half hour studying for the lesson we are going to teach that day. At 9:00 am, companion study. Then, at 10 am we leave for the day. From then until 9 pm, with an hour for lunch and an hour dinner, we are out in Poplar Bluff proselyting. We are teaching people—active members, less-active members, recent converts and nonmembers. We are contacting people who might be interested in learning more about the gospel, through door-to-door finding, old teaching records, trying to talk to people that members have suggested. President Eyring, in the December 2013 Ensign, states, “When your ward mission leader or the missionaries ask for the names of someone to teach, it is a great compliment to you. They know that friends have seen your happiness and, therefore, those friends have been prepared to hear and choose to accept the gospel. And they have confidence that you will be the friend they will need as they come into the kingdom.” As missionaries, We look to do service for people. We have meetings, with our leaders in the ward and with other missionaries. Once a week, on Fridays, we take three hours and plan out the entire upcoming week.

But usually, on good days, what we are doing is sitting down with people and helping them learn about Jesus Christ and His restored gospel. Our purpose as missionaries is to invite others to come unto Christ. We spend our time building the kingdom of God here in Poplar Bluff, and we are out every night until 9 pm doing our best to find and teach people. Then at 9 pm, we come back to our apartment. We sit down, and for a half hour we plan out the next day. We think about who we can visit, and then who we can visit if the first person doesn’t want to meet. We discuss what each person needs and how we can help them. Then, we prepare for bed. At 10:00 pm, we offer a prayer with our whole mission that the missionary work in the Missouri, St Louis mission will continue moving forward, and at 10:30 pm we go to bed.

Very full days as missionaries! We plan a full day every day, but many times—appointments fall through. People forget, or cancel on us. We knock on doors, and no one answer. We talk to people, and they say, “Sorry, not interested.” Or hardest of all—we meet with someone we’ve been teaching and they say, “No, I haven’t prayed. Or, “No, I haven’t read. I don’t want to go to church. I don’t think I can change.”

Oh! Days like that break my heart! I was a little surprised by how much it hurt the first few times. But you know why it hurts? And do you know why we keep going out every day, even when it feels like disappointment is heaped upon us?

Because as a missionary, I love each and every one of the people I teach! It’s a love I don’t really understand, but I feel it. I think Clayton M. Christensen comes the closest to expressing it. He said, “Every time you take someone figuratively by the hand and introduce him or her to Jesus Christ, you will feel how deeply the Savior loves you and loves the person whose hand is in yours.”

I have felt enormous joy as a missionary as I’ve witnessed people having amazing spiritual experiences. I have felt terrible sadness as I’ve seen people I love choose a path that I know won’t lead them to happiness. But throughout it all, I have felt more love than I have ever before. In Preach My Gospel, there’s a promise:  “Charity is a gift from God. The prophet Mormon said that we should “pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that [we] may be filled with this love” (Moroni 7:48). As you follow this counsel and strive to do righteous works, your love for all people will increase, especially those among whom you labor. You will come to feel a sincere concern for the eternal welfare and happiness of other people. You will see them as children of God with the potential of becoming like our Heavenly Father, and you will labor in their behalf. You will avoid negative feelings such as anger, envy, lust, or covetousness. You will avoid judging others, criticizing them, or saying negative things about them. You will try to understand them and their points of view. You will be patient with them and try to help them when they are struggling or discouraged. Charity, like faith, leads to action. You will develop charity as you look for opportunities to serve others and give of yourself.”

I explained a little of why I chose to serve a mission. But that was just why I came out in the first place. The reason I stay—the reason I get up every morning after every long and sometimes discouraging day—is because I love the people of Poplar Bluff and wherever else I might serve, and I love Jesus Christ. I want to be a missionary who strives to be exactly obedient. I want to learn and serve out of a sense of love, not duty. I want to come back from my mission changed. I want to be a different person after I come back than I when I left. I want to be more like my Savior. It makes a difference to serve out of love.

Week 16

Yay! We actually have enough time to email all the people that we want! Sister Reed was dying. When she went on her email this morning, she had 31 unread emails, between all the ones she had gotten over the course of the week and the ones she has been leaving unanswered for the last few. I have no idea how long we'll be here today, but I'm pretty sure it will be for at least another hour. She's typing away pretty frantically.

It was very cold earlier this week. Very very cold.

This is in our recent convert's backyard. Yep, that's ice. It rained a ton, which flooded parts of town (yards, streets, etc), and then it froze. So, sheets of ice!

  

Tuesday, we had a great day. We taught a ton of lessons, which is always good! I love days when we get to sit down and teach for most of the day. After all, that's really what we're supposed to be doing as missionaries. Finding is more difficult, in a way, because sometimes you don't know where to start. Door to door finding is not very effective. We contacted a lot of old potential investigators this week, though, so hopefully we'll find some people to teach through that.

Wednesday, we had a REALLY awesome lesson, where one of the young women we teach told us that she had decided that she wanted to get baptized! We were talking about her scripture study, and she has been reading every day, even though I think she has dyslexia, so it's not easy for her. We were talking about how she can feel closer to God through her scripture study, and she said, "I think that I need to get baptized so I can feel that way." Sister Reed and I were a little taken aback--it's always such a good surprise--and then we were like, "Yep! That sounds like a good plan to us!" haha.

We also had a fantastic district meeting on Wednesday. We had a training by our district leader, and he was talking about our motivations. He drew a triangle on the board, and divided it into four sections. Basically, the lowest motivation is fear. Plenty of people obey God out of fear of consequences, fear of hell, whatever. And they will be blessed, because they are at least doing the things that are right. The next motivation is duty. Some people obey out of a sense of duty, like this is what they should be doing. And that's fine as well. We should serve God, because it is a duty. Then, the next motivation is blessings. Some people obey because they know that obedience brings blessings. So they will receive blessings! But the highest motivation, the real reason that we should serve and obey God, is out of love. We should love God and love our neighbor. I wish I had clip art or something so I could draw it out better.

Then, the next day, we had exchanges! I've talked about exchanges before, I think, but this time was a little different. The biggest thing?

I LEFT POPLAR BLUFF! dun dun dun...

Haha. See, before, the two sister training leaders (STLs) would come to our area, and we would split up here in Poplar Bluff. But now, they're changing it so that we meet up halfway between the STLs and our area, then two missionaries go back to the STLs' area, and two go back to our area. So, Sister Reed and one STL stayed in Poplar Bluff, and I went to Fenton Missouri with the other. It's a twenty-four hour exchange, so nothing too crazy, but it was definitely strange to be out of Poplar Bluff and doing missionary work! Obviously, I've been to meetings in other areas of Missouri, but this was my first time teaching, finding, contacting, etc. out of Poplar Bluff.

It was a lot of fun, though. It's definitely different in other areas! Fenton is pretty close to the city. It was a lot... richer. Actually, it probably was very similar to Camas, but it felt a lot richer because I'm so used to Poplar Bluff! It felt a little surreal.

I was glad to go. I learned a lot, and I think that it will make the transition easier when I get transferred out of Poplar Bluff. But I was definitely glad to be back in my own area, with our investigators! Home in the country :)

Friday I headed back to Poplar Bluff! Yay! Long, long car ride, with a lot of rain. Basically, I drove six hours over the course of two days. It was a bit much. But there was a happy reunion with Sister Reed ;) When we got home, we did our weekly planning. Then, we went to a member's home for dinner. These members are awesome. The brother is actually an amateur artist, and he offered to paint a picture for our apartment. That night, we actually got to help paint it! Pretty fun stuff. And I'll be excited to get some more color in our apartment.

I have been so tired this week though. Hooph. It reminds me of being back at college, and feeling perpetually exhausted. I'm usually happy, but also I could usually use a nap.

Sunday was a little rough. Most of our investigators who had said they would come to church didn't. Which was sad. Also, I gave a talk! I think it went pretty well. I was still writing it on my way to church.... I just always dread giving talks so much that I procrastinate way too much. Got to stop doing that. I talked about why I went on a mission, what we do as missionaries, and tied it all to charity. I'm going to send it to you all (Mom Lyv Quinn). It's actually kind of missionary month: one of the elders and I spoke this week, and next week it will be our companions' turn. Our goal this transfer was to really encourage the members to get excited about member missionary work! We have started implementing some new things, and I hope that our work will pay off.

In my personal study, I've finished the Book of Mormon, so I'm starting over again (yay!). This time, I'm studying it a little differently. I really want to STUDY the Book of Mormon. So, I started 1 Nephi 1 on January 7, and I've studied it almost every morning... and I am still on 1 Nephi 1. I think I'll finish it tomorrow! But I'm going through and reading the cross references on every verse, and actually pondering the scriptures. It's been a great experience, and I'm so grateful that I have this time on my mission set aside that I can go this slowly, and it's okay!

One of the verses that I studied was 1 Nephi 1:3: "And I know that the record which I make is true; and I make it with mine own hand; and I make it according to my knowledge." So, I was reading the cross-references, and basically pondering how I personally know that the Book of Mormon is true. We have a lot of testimonies of it! First, Nephi said it's true, along with his descendants, the translator (Joseph Smith), the Three Witnesses, the Eight Witnesses, and millions of Latter-day Saints since it was published in 1830. But really, the only way that I can declare with Nephi that I know that the Book of Mormon, the record of ancient inhabitants of the Americas, is true, is if I follow Moroni's promise: Read the Book of Mormon. Ponder it. Pray about it. That's how I know that the book is true.

It's also been interesting to read the Bible through as I study the beginning of the Book of Mormon. It was a total coincidence, but I was reading in 2 Kings, right where Zedekiah starts to rule, as I was studying these verses. I feel like this time, I have actually understood what's going on! Which makes sense, because the last time I read the Old Testament was when I was a sophomore in high school. I've been enjoying it a lot this time.

Well, life's good I guess. Not much more to say than that! Transfer calls are 11 days away, which is INSANE. I can't believe that. I just looked it up and man oh man, I keep saying time flies, but it really really does. More than four months since I left? 16 P-Days? Almost the end of the transfer?!? I love Sister Reed, and I'm going to be sad when I have to leave her and Poplar Bluff, but I know that there are great things still to come!

Love you all! Miss you loads! I hope that you enjoyed this email... although maybe you preferred the shorter ones from the last three weeks! In that case, whoops! Sorry :)

Sister Barret

Week 15

My face froze off this morning... because it was 7 degrees outside. BRR! I do not like the cold. I wasn't really expecting it to get that cold! Everyone told me that in Poplar Bluff, we wouldn't get much snow, maybe a little freezing rain, it didn't get that cold... And so far, we've had an inch of freezing rain, about six inches of snow, and very cold temperatures. They all lied to me!!! Haha. 

It's not that bad, because we're not outside that much, but let's just say we probably won't be tracting much the next couple of days. 

I forgot to tell you all: On Christmas Eve, we went to a member's home that night, and they shot off fireworks. And they were intense! They live out on a farm, so they could shoot them off without bothering the neighbors too much, and it was like a fifteen minute show. They had some big ones! Probably illegal...

This week has been a little slower than some. I never thought I wouldn't enjoy the holidays this much! But the problem is that people are busy during the holidays, so they don't have as much time to meet with us as usual. I'm ready to get back down to business.

Despite the slowness of the holiday, we had some really amazing lessons. Edna has been progressing well towards baptism. We set up a baptismal calendar with her for January 25th. Transfers are on the 29th, so if I do end up transferring, I'll be able to see her get baptized before I leave! Which is exciting. One of the reasons I'm so excited for her is that she has really been befriended by some of the members of the ward. She doesn't have a car, so she can't drive herself to church, but a couple of the other older sisters have offered to drive her, and she actually sits by them at church! It's a little strange when you get excited because people don't sit by you at church, but here I am, cheering her on for sitting with someone else! 

We also had some really amazing lessons with a young woman we teach. She's been taking the lessons since August, and she's had a lot of ups and downs. Sometimes when an investigator hits those lows, it really hurts a missionary's soul. But this week, a lot of things started clicking with her. She has finally seen more clearly why she should come to church, and though she had to work this Sunday, she promised that she would make it as soon as possible. We think she's going to come talk to the bishop on Wednesday, so that is definitely some progress! 

Overall, lots of exciting things! We had four investigators at church on Sunday, which was awesome.

On New Year's Eve, Sister Reed and I broke out all of the junk food from Christmas, bought "wine" glasses from Dollar Tree, and toasted the New Year with sparkling cranberry juice. 

And watched church movies. Hooray for The Testaments!

On New Year's, we had a zone meeting, and we went back to Lambert's--The famous roll-throwing restaurant!

Good times. 

Well, hope you all are having a lovely New Year! Our church time moved to 10, so hurrah for that! 

Week 14

Ok, I'm really upset, because I started an email to you about ten minutes ago, then the computer glitched or something and I just lost it. And when you only get 60 minutes on a computer... Grrrr. So I'm really sorry that I'm not super responding to the other emails I've gotten, but this email is probably going to be pretty short too. So...

I can't believe Christmas has come and gone. The biggest part I miss is being with family, of course. Christmas to me is all about family--after all, Mary, Joseph and Jesus spent the night together, right? :)

Someone gave us some Christmas treats, and one of them was Divinity. She made it just like Dad used to, chocolate chips and all, so they made me really nostalgic.

We were actually pretty busy on Christmas Eve. Surprisingly few people cancelled on us. We were able to have an after-baptism lesson with a member for our recent convert, which was exciting! But I'm pretty sad, because our recent convert hasn't been to church now for a couple weeks. That's hard. I'm hoping and praying for her. The time of church is switching to 10 instead of 9 starting next week, so hopefully that will help her get to church.

Christmas was a good day as well. We were "off" all day, so we had breakfast as a district. It's always fun to spend time with other missionaries. Then we came home and opened presents (Thanks everyone!). The Tripps (Justin's family) sent me a super nice care package that included....

Lady Beards! Haha

Good times.

We spent the afternoon/evening at a member's home. They were very kind to us, letting us monopolize their computers. And they fed us Vietnamese Christmas food, and let us watch Monsters University. Pretty fun stuff.

We are spending some time organizing our area. We are mapping out the Poplar Bluff ward, and marking on a map where people live. (Thanks for the GPS! Very helpful) Sister Reed is definitely contributing a lot of great new ideas for Poplar Bluff. I'm really enjoying having her as a companion. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ON SATURDAY QUINN!!!!!!!! I'm sorry I didn't send you a card :( I forgot. But I talked a lot about you on Saturday! I can't believe you're thirteen! So old. And so tall. Ugh, it kills me.

We (all the Poplar Bluff missionaries) taught a lesson for third hour this Sunday. We were talking about member involvement. I think that it went pretty well.

I love you all! Sorry my emails keep getting shorter and shorter. I need to work on my typing skills! 

Just got my five minute warning so I'd better send this. Love you all! THanks for the thoughts/emails/Christmas presents.

We named our GPSs. MIne's Ellanantha (the two female voices are Michelle and Samantha)...

Week 13

What a week. Hoo boy. And another short day at the library, with more to share about my week than I could in two hours... Let's see how I do with 23 minutes left. 

Tuesday was my last full day with Sister Richardson! And a lot of our appointments fell through, but hey, that's missionary life! Wednesday was transfer meeting. A super sweet member offered to drive us, even though she had never driven to the city before! She did great, although we were a little worried at first. 

Transfer meeting was a lot of fun, to see all the missionaries in one spot. Okay, not quite all the missionaries, but a lot of them. I met my new companion! She's Sister Reed, and she's from Oregon! Forest Grove. Basically Portland. We actually each know the same person from Camas! Which was fun. She's awesome. A little aggressive, which I like. And she's been out for almost 9 months, so she's been teaching me a lot as well. 

We had a great week. Taught some really wonderful lessons, with two people actually accepting the invitation to be baptized. Our next step is to help these people choose a date and get calendars set up! I'm really excited to be here, with Sister Reed. Sorry this email is going to be super short, I don't have like any time.... haha. 

I'm so excited for Christmas! I can't wait to see you! It's actually been a little distracting the last couple of days, thinking about that. No wonder we're only allowed to do it two times a year! Okay, I'm going to send this before I run out of time. 

Spiritual thought: For God so loved the world that He sent His Only Begotten Son. Remember the real meaning of Christmas! Hope everyone has a lovely one.

Week 12

Okey dokey, I'm going to try to make this a very long email, for a couple of reasons. 1. Last week's was short. 2. It was a very busy week! 3. The community college's library is going to close from this Friday to January 7 (a TUESDAY! Why do they hate us???) so I'm going to have to use the local public library for the next couple weeks. That might mean that I get on a little later than usual, and my emails will probably be shorter too. Lame. Plus, at the local library, if you're not a member, you have to pay. I may just try to get a library card, since that would make it easier.

Of course, you all might hate long emails! Sorry! I'm FORCING you to learn about my life and what's going on in my mission. Enjoy! Can you believe that I've been out for three months? I feel like I was just marveling about being out for two months, or one month... 12 whole P-Days

Actually, I don't even know if some of you even read my emails. Lyvia and Quinn never email me :(

So, last P-Day was disappointing, as I mentioned, because the local community college was closed. That kind of threw our whole day off. It's one thing when you KNOW that you won't be able to email long, it's another when you're not expecting it. This week, I was talking to the librarian here, and he said that, because of the snow, they went ahead and just CANCELLED finals week! Can you believe that? So the grade you had at the end of classes was just your grade. It sounds like something out of Harry Potter :) but that would be terrible if you were going to try to do really well on finals and get your grade up. On Monday, I also made some Lime and Chicken Enchiladas and froze them (because Saturday was Sister Richardson's birthday!). I don't know if I made them right, and I don't know if it was really good to freeze them, but oh well. They tasted good anyway. We also got haircuts at the local Walmart! Hooray for Walmart haircuts!

Now, Tuesday was a long day. We went on exchanges! I don't remember if you remember what exchanges are, but basically, for sisters, it is when the sister training leaders come to your area, and you spend the day with one of them, while your companion goes with their companion. It was very odd. Last time I went on exchanges, I was in a three-person companionship, so it was me, Sister White, and the STL. This time it was just me and the other sister. It has been so long since I've been anywhere without Sister Richardson that I felt very strange. You just get so used to being with your companion! I'm sure that it will just get worse as time goes by. I'll probably get home and be scared to go to the store by myself or something. Or, on the other hand, I'll be so tired of having someone with me all the time that I'll want to just be alone all the time. Hopefully I won't go to either extreme, actually!

But Sister Minyard, the STL, and I had a very good day. She taught me a lot in the short time that we were together. She taught me about tracting (going door to door looking for people to teach). Sister Richardson and I have been receiving kind of mixed messages about tracting. Originally, she was told that we were kind of phasing out tracting. Then, our district leader told us that we were supposed to try to tract for two hours every day. Which is kind of a lot! Basically, what I understand is that we are supposed to tract when we can and to help us find new people when we aren't through other methods. Sister Minyard taught me about how we can really get to know the people who answer the door. We need to view them as individuals, instead of just random people on the street.

Also, our mailman definitely didn't come through the whole storm (Thursday through Monday). So, on Tuesday, we got 9 pieces of mail: I got 2 letters, and Sister Richardson got five letters and a package. That was an unprecedented amount of mail!

I also drove on Tuesday while on exchanges! That was freaky. It's weird to drive again after not driving for so long, but I'm kind of used to it. After all, I never had a car while I was at school. But there was still some ice on the roads, so I was a little nervous.

Our district leader is dying (in missionary terms). So we had our last district meeting with him on Wednesday.

We went to Broseley, a small town to the east, and were trying to visit a less active member. What do you do when the door is four feet off the ground?

Go around back, of course! Even when it's awkward, we don't give up on people.

On Thursday and Friday, we spent a lot of time at the church building. Ward members put up nativity scenes around the church, and so we were there to give church tours. While we were there, we also got to decorate the ward's Christmas tree!

Not the best picture of me, but you get the idea.

The ward Christmas party was Friday as well. It was a dessert potluck. I thought I was going to be sick from eating sugar, but it was good!

And Saturday... the day that we were all waiting for... Transfer calls! bum bum bum... I wonder if transfer calls ever become routine when you're a missionary? I know that my heart started beating faster when the STLs called us Saturday night! It's nerve-wracking. Here's my transfer doctrine: I'm staying in Poplar Bluff! Yay! We're not being whitewashed (when both missionaries are transferred and two completely new missionaries come in). My new companion is Sister Reed. She has been on her mission for nine months now, and she will be follow-up training me. I don't know what that exactly means, other than I'll be junior companion again! Sister Richardson is heading to St Louis, and she's going to be companions with someone from my MTC district! That's pretty cool.

Actually, it's a little weird how you start getting to know people in the mission. I guess there are only around 70 sisters, so it's not that weird... But Sister Reed was training Sister Hobbs, who you might remember as one of my MTC companions. Then their apartment flooded, so they were emergency transferred to other areas. Then apparently Sister Hobbs had to go home for some medical concerns. I found that out this week! I don't know for certainty, since rumors tend to fly when you're three hours from the center of the mission, but that's what I hear. It's sad to hear. She can come back sometime in January, according to the rumors, but I think that I would find it very difficult to come back out on my mission if I had to go home for some reason. I don't know why.

So, since transfer calls, a lot of our work has been having Sister Richardson say good-bye to people. She's been here for six months! One third of her mission. I'm speculating (speculation only!) that I will only be here for the next transfer. I kind of hope that I'm wrong. I like Poplar Bluff, and it's amazing how quick you come to love the people you're serving. But I know that there are people in every area that I will love as well.  

Also, remember that zip line I was describing last week? Well..

Yeah. That doesn't even get all of the pole in the picture.

In my personal study this week, I've been spending my time in Helaman. It's really amazing to read about these people, and to see how they can make the same mistakes over and over again. It's even more amazing, because we find it so difficult at times to recognize that we make those same mistakes! But there was a scripture that I liked. It is talking about the people who were members of the church of God. These are the people who were more humble, while the rest of the professed members of the church were being lifted up by pride. The prideful were persecuting the humble. "Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and strong in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling of their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God." (Helaman 3:35)

There's so much that I like about this scripture! First, they fasted and prayed. One thing that I've really realized on my mission is that it is a commandment to fast and pray. It's not a suggestion, or a "hey, these things might help you out! Try them!" Nope, God has commanded us to pray and fast. The reason He did though was to strengthen us!

They were sanctified because they yielded their hearts to God. What does it mean to yield your heart to God? I'm not really sure. I think it is what I'm trying to learn here on my mission. To me, it means not holding anything back. It means that you can't say, "Alright, here's my heart. But I'm going to just keep this one little corner, ok? You can have everything else, but this part right here I'm keeping for me." It has to be a complete submission to God, a complete sacrifice of our selfishness and our wants. Prayer can help with that. The purpose of prayer is to align our will with God's. So every time that we have a meaningful prayer, we should be giving up a little of our selfishness, and a little of our desire to have life go our way.

But the part of this scripture that really stood out to me was the phrase "wax stronger and stronger in their humility." I'd never thought about humility in that way. When I did, I realized that this means that pride is weakness. When a person is prideful, they place more reliance on self than on God... but humans are infinitely weaker than God! No wonder it's called being lifted or puffed up: it's all hot air. One good poke and they'll be deflated. True strength comes from relying on God. It comes from acknowledging that you can do nothing without Him. There are so many scriptures about how God will give people power and strength when they turn to Him and offer their hearts as a sacrifice.

I hope that you are all having a wonderful time preparing for Christmas. Send me pictures of you and your Christmas decorations and your Christmas baking! It doesn't feel much like Christmas for me yet, though Sister Richardson and I have been listening to a lot of Christmas music. I guess Christmas = family in my mind, so I will be thinking of you all a lot! Only 9 days until we get to talk! I'll have more info on that next time, but if nothing else, we can call that day and make sure that everything's all set up. Weird to think about!

Hope everyone enjoys their Christmas break! Have fun baking lots of food and treats. I might try to make fudge today. It's seriously my downfall though. I'm nervous.

Love you all! Merry Christmas! TALK TO YOU SOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!