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.