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