Week 52: A Year of P-Days

Being a missionary, man. I'm telling you. It's awesome. It's definitely strange... we were talking to some other sisters, who've been out for maybe 5 months and 7 months. And they told us that last P-Day they drove to Champaign with some members to go to the mall, because they "wanted to do something normal." And I thought, "What's not normal about a normal P-day?" That's how I know I've been a missionary for some time.

I think this week I will quote from my journal:

Monday:

"Grocery shopping. We went to Save-A-Lot. I did save a lot, but mostly because they didn't have the stuff I wanted. Like delicious Halloween pumpkins. Then home. For whatever reason, I felt like I had a lot of time this P-Day. I wrote letters, worked out some, packed up some stuff... I even cleaned! The ant tub." Which for the record is much less ant-y this week! Yay.

Tuesday: 

"I also fasted today for the zone goal of 50 baptismal dates by the end of the transfer, and my stomach was so growly. It was kind of ridiculous.... We contacted a member referral in Kansas (small town). And it was awesome! She seems super interested in coming to church and learning more and getting baptized! Hopefully. Soon. Haha." 

Wednesday: 

"We did service at the food pantry in the morning. Always fun. There were some kids in FFA and their teacher who came and helped, which kind of lightened the load on us. The teacher was way young... It was a slow day after that... Basically nothing went through. We got stood up twice, by a now-former investigator. Got told "not now" by a couple more investigators... We also agreed to help prepare the handouts for the Honeybee Festival. [Have I mentioned I'm going to be in a parade this Saturday? Woot woot! The branch is doing a float in the parade for this festival.] To save on miles, we biked to the church. Bad idea. Not only did it get super painful (never realize how many hills there are until you have to bike up them) but also, the ONE time it rained all day today was as we were biking there. Too funny."

Thursday:

"Between the two sisters' cats, I had a bad allergic reaction. My right eye got very red, very itchy and puffy. My throat felt terrible and I was sniffling and sneezing... embarrassing. We were having dinner with one of the members and I was basically crying through it. But we helped her wrap Christmas presents for her grandkids."

​

Friday:

"After weekly planning, we met with Tina! Which went well--we set a baptismal date--yay! We set it for November 22. We think... we know she needs some time. The good news is that she wants it! I had another allergic reaction to those darn cats! ... We were driving across Main St and a parade totally comes along! With cheerleaders, the band, and homecoming floats. Random parades--small town moments! The high school homecoming game is tonight, and we can hear the cheering and the band and stuff. Hopefully, they at least score some points this game. They were scoreless in their first three. Ouch!" [They won!]

Saturday:

"I am just a mosquito magnet. I am going to be so grateful for winter--who cares about the snow and ice? The bugs will be dead! I won't be able to count five or six new bug bits in the morning! Seriously, I'm pretty sure the only reason that I haven't got West Nile yet is because I'm a missionary. Slow day though. We tracted at 11 and had a cool experience. So we tracted near our house because we're low on miles. And we met some of our neighbors, who were very friendly. We were debating whether to head back for lunch at one point or to knock more doors. We decided to tract, and the very next door we knocked, the woman was pretty interested! Unfortunately, she lives in Terre Haute... But she wants to come to church!"

Sunday:

"The Primary program was so darn cute!!! One of the kids pulled a loose string from his pants, and that kept him entertained for about twenty minutes :) We set up our investigator's baptismal program, super exciting!"

​Wearing out shoes in the service of God :) These were pretty cheap shoes, but still!

I set a goal to take more pictures this week, so I'll try to do better! (Sorry Mom!)

In my personal study, I've started on Chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel, and I've been reviewing the Christlike Attributes one by one. If there's one chapter of PMG that I would say applies equally to non-missionaries and missionaries (Okay, I'd have a hard time picking just one), this would be it. I studied "Hope" today, and the thing that really stood out to me is that hope comes as we have an abiding trust that God will fulfill his promises to us, which allow us to hope for eternal life... And when do we make promises with God? When we make covenants! Covenants are so essential, because we obtain the blessings we desire from God through our covenants. They give us hope. I've definitely been reflecting on temple covenants over the last week, and I am so grateful for the temple!

Hope everyone is getting stoked for General Conference!

Love

Sister Barret

Week 51: Happy One Year to Me!

And Happy Birthday to Lyvia. Happy 18th! You're an adult! 

...when did that happen?

It was a busy week! And I have been wearing sweaters! That is because it got down to about 40 degrees two nights this week! BRR what is that nonsense? It's only half-way through September!

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Plague update: We have an ant infestation. Okay, the reason they got so bad is that we put down some bait. They've been dying off since then, but it's still an ongoing battle. More updates to come later.

Okay. What didn't happen this week? It was a good week. Big thing is that Matt and Carol came to church again this week, which makes three weeks in a row... and three is the big number in church attendance. An investigator needs to attend church 3 times before baptism! And Carol is so excited about her baptism, which is definitely contagious. It looks like we're actually going to be having it October 5, and hopefully get the whole branch involved.

We found three new investigators this week, but actually two of them were while I was on exchanges. I traveled to Springfield IL this week! Fun fun fun! It is always fun to go on exchanges, to see how different areas are and how different missionaries do the work. After all, I've only had three areas and seven companions, I don't know how it all works! Everyone does missionary work differently! 

Thursday was the day exchanges started, but it was also president interviews and district meeting... where I had to give a training. Everything at once much? It was good though. I had a good interview, Sister Edgel had a good interview, and I think my training went well. We talked in my training about what it means to be obedient. I kicked off with this scripture, talking about the prophet Lehi:

"And it came to pass that he was obedient unto the word of the Lord, wherefore he did as the Lord commanded him." 

Now, I think it's significant that it doesn't say "He did what the Lord commanded, wherefore he was obedient." No, he was obedient first. So obedience is more than just a label for someone who does as they're told. It's a characteristic, an attribute. And we also talked about what it really means to serve with all your "heart, might, mind and strength" (D&C 4). It's easier, sometimes, to give your might and strength, but hold back your heart and mind. We think that somehow it's enough to act but keep our hearts and minds not all the way in. But really, obedience is about submitting our WHOLE selves to Heavenly Father's will.

Other than that... I don't know. I left my journal at home, so I don't know exactly what all happened this week :P Sorry! It was a good week!

Getting pumped for General Conference!

Love,

Sister Barret

Week 50: A Year Ago Thursday....

I entered into the MTC. Crazy! How fast can a year go? 

One of things that I've been working on is having hope that things will work out for the best. Like most missionaries, I've experienced a lot of disappointment on my mission. Even amazing missionaries, like Alma, and Aaron, and Ammon, experienced disappointment at times. Alma, after being rejected by the people of Ammonihah, is described as "being weighed down with sorrow, wading through much tribulation and anguish of soul." The sons of Mosiah describe how they felt about heading out on their missions later: "When our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success." 

Now, I'm not facing half of the trials and afflictions that they faced! Luckily, no prison or smiting or being bound for me! But there have been days of a lot of walking and a lot of shut doors. People who think we're misguided or evil or who knows what. The tough thing for me is not the rejection. It's not allowing yourself to harden your heart against the rejection. It would be easier to say, "Whatever. They rejected the gospel. Their loss." But that's not the example of these missionaries! No matter how much rejection they faced, their hearts were still full of hope. They pressed on, hoping that they might bring "some soul" unto repentance.

And then they were blessed immeasurably! Think of Nephi, in Helaman 10:4-5. "Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments. And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will."

I am still working on my unwearyingness, and my hope. But I have reason to be more optimistic this week!

I think I mentioned that we're working with a part-member couple, and the wife is preparing for baptism. I should tell more of the story!

We visited Matt and Carol for the first time pretty early on in my time here in Paris. Matt has been less active for most of his life, and he is a self-described "long-haired hippie." He's Carol's third husband, so they've been married for about ten years. Since they've been married, she's helped him to make a lot of changes in his life. She's the absolute sweetest person you'll ever meet. Extremely tender. Well, Sister Schwenke and I visited them first, and they were very friendly, and very talkative. We continued to visit them, and eventually Carol began investigating the church. Continue on... teaching principle by principle, we taught most of the lessons. When we first invited her to be baptized, she was hesitant. Some of her family was against her joining. But after a while, of reading and praying, we invited her to pray about a specific date: October 4. She prayed, and she received an answer: yes! She and Matt have been to church two weeks in a row, and they are just joining right into the branch family. This week was testimony meeting, and Carol actually wanted to get up and share her testimony! She was a little too nervous to share it in sacrament meeting, but she shared it with us in Gospel Principles, and it was so wonderful. 

So hopefully we'll be preparing a baptismal service over the next couple of weeks!

This week was a mix bag of good/hard. We had an excellent zone training on the importance of teaching people about the Atonement and about salvation.

Not many pictures this week, sorry D:

Helped a member move into the branch, which was fun! Drove out at 8 pm and moved in without any lights turned on. Oh, the joys of missionary work! Getting eaten alive by mosquitoes!

I think that the thing that I'm most excited for with the changing seasons is the deaths of millions of mosquitoes. I know, I shouldn't wish death on any of God's creation... but come on.

Lots of love! 

Sister Barret

Week 49

I made a concentrated effort to take more pictures this week!

Illinois, I've decided, is seriously like Egypt with the plagues. Last week, we discovered crickets, this week: the locusts. yup, no joke. WHAT IS GOING ON. Plus my legs will never be the same after being eaten alive by mosquitoes. COME WINTER! COME AND KILL ALL THE MOSQUITOES!

​We also took some photos yesterday because our P-Day was a little longer. It was very windy, so that was kind of a bummer. But let's see: abandoned railroad that looked cool, a plaque in the town square about how Zion's Camp passed through this town, and the courthouse.

Big events this week:

We did a "Wilford Woodruff Day" where we tracted for most of the day. We haven't been doing much tracting here, so we decided to change it up for a day. We discovered that we really aren't used to that much walking, and that you can have some really strange experiences while tracting. Like having an 80 year old man open the door in his underwear (AWKWARD). Or like running into a less active who moved and didn't give us her address (SMALL TOWN). It was fun though. We gave away two copies of the Book of Mormon, several pamphlets, and placed almost 100 pass along cards. Fun fun fun!

The woman who has committed to baptism came to church this week, and her husband! It was awesome. We are so excited for her. She is already living the Word of Wisdom, and has so much faith. She loved church, even though she was a little too tired to stay for the potluck lunch linger longer afterwards.

I taught Young Women's on Sunday too! Being a missionary means being able to step in and help out, right? And teach kind of on the spot. I think it went alright, we talked about how the things we say affect the people around us. It made me realize how long it's been since I was in Young Women's... I forgot to have them say the YW Theme until they reminded me.

A lot of craziness... I'll have lots of good stories to send you all when I have the recorder :) Let's just say that they involve drunk people, DNA tests, witches... It really seemed like all the crazy things happened this week. It keeps life interesting though! 

We also started teaching another wife in a part-member family. She reminds me a lot of a woman in my first area. She is way excited about church, but she didn't come this week, so we don't know what happened there... We're going to help her pack this week (she's moving somewhere else in town) so hopefully that goes well!!! Part-member families are excellent because they have that built in support.

For my personal study I've been highlighting Conference talks from the apostles: one color for principles, warnings, blessings, and invitations. I love conference!!!

Getting kicked off. Love you all!! Hope your week is great, that school's going well too!

Love

Sister Barret