Week 30: Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone!

This is the Easter egg I decorated at a less active member's home. It is super cool! They got fake eggs that you can dye/decorate like real ones, except the crayons work way better :)

One more pictures for the week...

Springtime in Missouri! The trees are blossoming everywhere. This type of tree is super popular, it feels like they are everywhere.

Also, everyone admire my wonderful parking job... Yes, I parked that white Ford. Don't mind me :)

Won't be doing much more wonderful parking anymore, because my new companion, Sister Nelson, will be driving! Yes, that's right, just as I have finally adjusted to getting in on the driver's side :) haha. We got transfer calls on Saturday night, and Sister Esterholdt is leaving Oakville and heading to Illinois, while I am staying here and getting a new companion! 

This week had some really great things happening! On Tuesday, we had two lessons with investigators with members there. We love when members come because they can connect with investigators so well. For example, one of the investigators we saw is Catholic, so we brought a member who converted from Catholicism. She was able to testify to him that the Church has really blessed her, and she understands many things in a much deeper sense now. It definitely struck him to see someone who has been in his position. 

Funny story from the week! So, we do weekly service sometimes at a place called Feed My People. And one of the things they do is have us take leftover food from catering events that restaurants donate and package them in smaller containers that they can hand out. And then we label them and date them, so each container says something like "potatoes 4/21/14". Well,  I open up this one container of food, and I swear, it looks like tofu rolls. Or something. They were cylindrical, whitish with brown flecks, and soft looking. And they didn't smell like anything. Mystery food at its finest! Well, I poke it. I package it. They're super squishy. I suspected that it was some sort of pudding or something. Well, I was wearing gloves and finally I just caved and tasted some that had stuck to my gloves. And it was sweet! Some sort of dessert, juts a really weird looking one! haha. Sister Esterholdt thought I was crazy to taste it :)

On Saturday, we made cupcakes that we later decorated and handed out to some people for Easter. That was fun. 

On Easter, we actually visited quite a few people! We saw three members and an investigator. Cupcakes open doors :) Actually, I'm pretty sure it was because they were people that Sister Esterholdt wanted to see before she headed out of Oakville. 

We had Easter dinner (lasagna! Not ham!) with some members, and had a good time there. They also gave us Easter baskets... I should have taken a picture of those...

Spiritual thought of the week!
So, it being Easter weekend of course, I have to recommend the video "Because of Him" on mormon.org and lds.org. It's really a great video. If you have a chance, check it out! But from my personal study, I have been reading in 2 Nephi 9. And as I mentioned, I've been being pretty darn slow with the Book of Mormon this time through because I've been studying the footnotes (all of them) and there are a LOT in 2 Nephi 9. It's a packed chapter. Today, I was reading in verse 40: "I know that the words of truth are hard against all uncleanness; but the righteous fear them not, for they love the truth and are not shaken." 

I love this scripture! It reminds me of a General Authority, I think it was President Eyring but I'm not sure. He taught us that all truth is part of the gospel. It doesn't matter the apparent source of the truth--the scriptures, science, philosophy, whatever. All truth is ultimately from God, and as such is part of the gospel. We should welcome all truth, and we need not fear it. When we cannot see how something new fits in to the overall picture, we need to be patient, and we will eventually learn. Love the truth, don't fear it.

I love you all! Hope that you had a wonderful Easter. Summer is coming!

Love,

Sister Barret

Week 29

So, the amazing news from this week doesn't actually come from my area... but it comes from Poplar Bluff.

Do you all remember the family that I taught while I was there? A dad and his two kids? Well...

They are getting baptized!

AHHHH!

Here's how I found out! So, we were eating district lunch on Thursday after district meeting (we went to a Mongolian buffet. It was pretty good). And we got a phone call, and Sister Esterholdt handed the phone to me and said, "It's Sister Reed." To which my reaction was, huh? But the reason she was calling me is because they set a date with the family! Which is incredible! They are getting baptized on April 19, which is this Saturday. It sounds like they are quite excited.

On Monday, we had our zone p-day, and Sister Esterholdt and I got there on time... which meant that we were the first ones there and the ONLY ones there for about fifteen minutes.

After everyone else got there, we had an Easter egg hunt and watched a movie! Ephraim's Rescue! It was pretty good, about the Martin handcart company. Probably the only non-Church produced movie I'll see this year until Christmas!

Other exciting things this week... We taught our Bosnian investigator again. She says that she likes when we come because she gets good feelings :) which was great.

Then, I was craving pizza because it had been forever since I'd had pizza, so we got some Domino's pizza. Then, literally two nights in a row, members fed us pizza. After no pizza for months! There was a point where out of my last four meals, three had been pizza. Not healthy. Not healthy at all. oops!

We had some good lessons with members this week. One of the things that this bishop believes in strongly is having the missionaries help build the members. He believes that this helps build the kingdom, and baptisms will follow. Which seems to be working well for them!

The most exciting lesson this week actually happened last night. We set up an appointment with a less active member, and when we showed up, her non-member "boyfriend" was there. Except we think they got married? so her non-member husband. He is an ex-pastor, on disability now. So, we started talking (he enjoys talking) and we invited him to take the missionary discussions... and he said yes! He's not officially an investigator yet, because we weren't able to set a return appointment, but he seems very willing to learn. He has a lot of history with religion, and was obviously a pastor, so he might be an interesting person to teach, but he knows when he feels the Spirit! And he's had positive experiences with Mormons in the past.

As far as General Conference... I'd been hearing a lot about Elder Oaks' talk in Priesthood, so I went back today and read it. Wow! I liked this quote, of course: "When a woman—young or old—is set apart to preach the gospel as a full-time missionary, she is given priesthood authority to perform a priesthood function."

I don't have the priesthood, but I have authority from God, to have power given to me by God, to preach the gospel. Heavy stuff! But great. It is amazing how God allows us imperfect people to help in His great and marvelous work. But then, He has always used imperfect people. I think that that can comfort us, and it reminds us that we DON'T have to be perfect! Thank goodness. I feel like as a missionary, there is a constant pressure to improve and become better. Which is great! But sometimes, when I hear that message, I feel like I need to be better so the work will go better. But it's not my work, it's the Lord's. And if I am doing all that I can, no matter how short I fall of perfection, the Lord will direct His work. The stone cut without hands will roll forward to fill all the Earth.

Paraphrasing Elder Bednar, "We need to appreciate that the Lord desires to strengthen us, heal us, enable us... It is not our job to carry along through sheer grit."

I hope you all have a lovely week, and that you have wonderful missionary opportunities!

Love,

Sister Barret

Week 28

This week has been so crazy busy, I can hardly believe it. I'll do my best to talk about everything, but we'll see how much I get through!

Tuesday, we did mission president interviews and district meeting. It went really well. It's always a great opportunity to actually sit down and talk to President Morgan for a few minutes (about 15-20 or so). It's a pretty rare opportunity--only about once every three months--but it's really nice. He's a pretty straightforward guy.

After interviews, we had a lesson with a potential investigator who was a Catholic nun for a while. She was really neat! She's struggling with her testimony of God, and she doesn't have a huge interest in learning about the LDS faith, but we testified and she said she'd take the Book of Mormon with her on her vacation.

Wednesday was our Zone Leader Training and the start of exchanges. After ZLT, it started pouring and lightning/thunder... It was pretty intense. We ate as a district at Olive Garden, and when we came out we got soaked. That was when we started the exchange. It was good, but man, it's tough to run an area after you've only been there three weeks! I had plans, back-up plans, and back-ups to those, but sometimes you run out of things to do! but we kept overall busy :)

The crazy storm system continued overnight into Thursday, and that was a rough morning. The sister I was on exchanges with woke up at 4:30 (to use the restroom) but it woke ME up, and I thought that I missed the alarm... so I rolled out of bed onto my knees. Luckily, I check the time, and realized, nope, not time to wake up. Less than an hour later, I was woken up again by tornado sirens! At 5:30. I do not like missing sleep!

We had an interesting dinner that night. We and the elders were at a member's home, and one of the elders was ill, my companion got ill during the dinner, and the tornado sirens went off again. Poor members! haha

I ate my first gas station hot dog on Friday. It was alright. Chelsey would have hated it, of course!

Funny moment of the week: we were tracting, and ran into someone who would actually talk to us. A man, maybe in his 50s, very chatty. Not super interested, but he said that he would check out mormon.org. Well, at the end of us talking, he held out his hand to shake, and then totally went into a bro hug. Awkward! But even funnier was Sister Esterholdt's reaction, she was totally shocked.

Highlight of the week was of course General Conference! It was so good. "missionary spring break"

some of my thoughts:

Elder Holland started with a bang! That's for sure! I'm glad that the only person who ever spat on me was two! But I loved what he said, discipleship isn't all just encouraging and teaching, it's also worrying, warning, and weeping. As I've studied the Book of Mormon on my mission, I realize more and more that the missionaries in there, even though they are very righteous, have a lot of sorrow. It is not easy to be a true disciple of Christ; he is not a comfortable god.

I felt like some of the themes of this conference were courage, God's law does not change, defending your faith; but also, service, love, and reaching out to those around us.

I have more thoughts, but we have a Zone P-day today (Easter egg hunt and watching a movie, Ephraim's Rescue! Woohoo!) so I have to be speedy! Maybe I'll write more next week about Conference :)

Love you all!

Sister Barret

Week 27

Big news from this week, I finished my journal! 200 pages in 200 days. Now I'm starting my next journal, which is pretty enormous (340 pages, 8.5x11). So that'll probably take me through the rest of my mission. Anyway...

We kept pretty darn busy this week. Although, Tuesday, it seemed like no one wanted to open their door :P That's fairly normal for missionaries, though.

I'm excited because I got some news from Poplar Bluff! Sister Reed emailed me and said that some good things are happening there! They set a baptismal date with a younger investigator, for April 12! That's amazing!!!

Other news...

We taught many less actives, of course.

We found a new investigator! We met her at Hooters. Haha, not really :) we met up with her outside of Hooters, because it was near her apartment complex, but it's fun to say.

We had a great lesson on the plan of salvation with the recent convert here. His family is so great. We're trying to help them to understand why it is so important that they become an eternal family though. They'll get there! And then they'll get to the temple!

On a more spiritual note, the General Women's Meeting was great! I hope that all you women had a chance to watch it. And participate! I loved all of the singing. And this video made me cry, of course. Actually, I practically cried through the whole thing. I think it was all the emphasis on sisters. Made me miss my sisters!!! I mean, "To be sisters implies that there is an unbreakable bond between us." Geez.

But overall, good week. I'm just not very wordy this week! Sorry :) Next week I'll write more!

Love you all!  I'll try to remember to take more pictures!

President interviews, zone leader training, exchanges with the sister training leaders, and general conference all coming up! Busy week ahead!

Sister Barret