Week 33

And the 8 month mark was commemorated this week with Mother's Day!

So, as promised...

Breakfast for Mother's Day, as described... Baked French toast, banana blackberry muffins, ham, and a fried egg. So good!

SIster Nelson and I tried to make good purchases at Dollar Tree... fail. The jump rope was about two feet too short, and the hula hoop she's holding does not hula. I can't hula hoop anyway, but she was disappointed :)

​This was some good food that I forgot to tell you about! It's a place called Hodak's in St Louis, it's reputedly got the best fried chicken in the city. And it was pretty darn good. A couple of members took us there, and I was pretty impressed. Not too expensive either.

Look at those giant flowers! They were just outside a house that we were visiting, and they match my dress, so there you go. This picture was taken during the weird cold snap we had where it went from about 80 to 50... thus the sweater. Missouri weather is something else! :)

There you go, proof that I do​ take the occasional picture!

The highlight this week was of course talking to the family on Sunday. We also did exchanges this week, and I stayed in Oakville. Nothing too exciting, don't worry! I'd tell you if there was :) I should probably take more pictures, is what I am realizing.... I will try! Promise!

Anyway... I'll hopefully take more pictures today, because we're going to try to go to the zoo! Fun fun fun! :) And free! What's not to like?

Love you all!

Devynne

Week 32

First! Here is a picture of the family that was baptized only a few weeks after I left Poplar Bluff. Sad I couldn't be there, but so happy for them. Sister Reed was there to represent...she had called to let me know that this family was getting baptized and sent me a few pictures. Hurray!

So, I'm quite sad. One of the companion goals Sister Nelson and I set this week was to try to take at least 1 fun photo every day this week. So I actually took pictures this week! ...and then I left my camera at home today. Very sad. Guess that just means that you'll have extra pictures next week!

This week felt like it went quite quickly, so I'm having a hard time actually remembering what happened... It's kind of a blur. Here are the main things that happen almost daily:

1. Visiting less active members, either ones that we have appointments with or trying to get into contact with ones that we have yet to meet. We taught seven lessons to less active members this week, so it was a good week for that. Now to get them back to church!

2. Tracting and contacting potential investigators. We are trying to find, find, find. Finding people to teach is probably one of the biggest parts of missionary work. It is so important. We have to find those people who will accept the gospel message for themselves.

3. Teaching investigators. We currently have five investigators, we found a young woman this week who had taken some of the lessons before. We think we might have to drop a couple of them though if they don't start either keeping commitments or showing some more interest in the church. Dropping an investigator is one of the hardest things on a mission, but it's necessary. Sometimes it is not the right time for someone to learn about the gospel. They need to have more time, or more experience, or whatever.

4. Visiting active members. This could be dinner appointments, or families that the ward council has asked us to focus on, or visiting members to support and strengthen them in their missionary efforts!

So, 1-4 was our week. Pretty fun stuff :) We also had a Dollar Tree expedition to get some things for our apartment... I wish I had brought my camera. So sad that I forgot it, but next week! you shall see our Dollar Tree finds :)

Yesterday, we also had a chance to teach Young Women's. Man, it feels like forever since I was in Young Women's! I could barely remember how to recite the theme, I felt a little embarrassed actually. But the lesson part went pretty well. We talked about modern prophets, and in particular about the push for more missionary work :)

Our zone is doing a Book of Mormon challenge this transfer, to read the entire Book of Mormon in 34 days. 15 pages a day. So, I have started the Book of Mormon... again! Plus I'm doing my personal study in 2 Nephi still. It's really such a privilege though, to be able to be spending 30 minutes or more a day studying just out of the Book of Mormon. My testimony of the truthfulness and power that comes from the Book of Mormon grows deeper the more I read it. There is definitely a sense of peace that comes as I learn more and read through it. And really, gaining a testimony and conviction about the Book of Mormon is what will give you a solid foundation in the gospel. I'm so grateful that I can read it and study it over and over again.

Anyway, I hope that everyone is having a good week! Love you all!

Sister Barret

Week 31: Blue Skies & Sunshine

You all must know that I am dying. Because Quinn's play looks so amazing. I know, I know, it's a sacrifice that I chose to make... and I'm not angry or anything. But I must see more pictures. Because it looks awesome.

So, this week was transfers! I kind of love transfer time on a mission. I think that all the change is what makes the time fly past.

Also, you should all be so proud, because I actually took a picture with my new companion before we got to the library Monday morning!

The first few days of this week were crazy busy. When someone's getting transferred, especially after they've been somewhere for 4+ months, there are a lot of people to say good-bye to. So, Monday, we visited James, the recent convert that Sister Esterholdt taught. I think that that was pretty rough on her. I know it was hard for me to say good-bye to a lot of people in Poplar Bluff!

We also cleaned a lot on Monday :) had to make a good impression for the new companion!

Tuesday was insanely busy! We were running around half the city. We had lunch with a member and we went to a place called The Blue Owl, in historical Kimswick. It was so cute, you all would have loved it. Oprah mentioned their famous apple pie. They put 18 apples in their apple pie. It is  basically a foot tall. You will have to Google it, because it was amazing. And pretty darn delicious. I should have taken a picture of it! Sorry!

We taught the first lesson to our new investigator, Ray. He is a retired pastor, who married a less active member. Should be an interesting go of it! His main concern is definitely the priesthood, because he doesn't believe that the priesthood authority was lost from the Earth after Christ. We talked a little about priesthood keys, but it could be his major stumbling block. So, we're emphasizing the importance of prayer. If he prays about the Book of Mormon, and receives a witness that it is true, I have no doubt that he will be baptized. Satan's just going to be working extra hard to make sure that doesn't happen.

Then dinner at a member's house, and she fed us a ton of food. Oh my goodness. I felt like I was going to explode, especially after eating a foot tall piece of pie at lunch. No wonder sister missionaries gain weight on their mission. Thank goodness for the gym at our apartment complex!

Wednesday was transfers! Transfer meeting is always fun because you get to see people :) and meet your new companion! My new companion is Sister Nelson. She's from St George, and she has been out on her mission for about 13 months. We had a lesson with one of our investigators, which went pretty well.

Thursday was District Meeting. We had district lunch at Panda Express, which is the first time I've had Panda in just about forever, it was better than I remembered. I like chow mein.

We also had a lesson with a semi-active member, and it was a pretty interesting lesson... I think it freaked out Sister Nelson :)

On Friday, Sister Nelson wasn't feeling well. But we did our weekly planning (always an adventure) and visited some people. We also started putting some decorations up on the wall, because the walls are pretty bare here. I'll try to send a picture next week.

Saturday was busy. We saw some less active members and tracted. One of the less actives we saw was a really nice girl, who's graduating this year and plans on being the first member of her family to go to college. Unfortunately, in order to pay for college, she's working a job that makes her work Sundays :/

This week, in my personal study, one of the things that I have been kind of studying is cheerfulness. I was reading in 2 Nephi 10:20: "Seeing that our merciful God has given us so great knowledge concerning these things, let us remember him, and lay aside our sins, and not hang down our heads." And then, in verse 23: "Therefore, cheer up your hearts"!

Wow, what a reminder. God has given us so much to be grateful for! He has given us such great knowledge, most importantly about the redeeming power of the Atonement. Through Christ, we CAN be cleansed of our sins, and thereby return to live with our Father in Heaven. We can live with our families forever. This life is not the end. I loved the talk in General Conference by President Uchtdorf. He talked about how we can have that cheerfulness, and how we can avoid hanging down our heads.

It comes back to gratitude. And the knowledge that we can be most grateful for is this: "The more we learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ, the more we realize that endings here in mortality are not endings at all. They are merely interruptions—temporary pauses that one day will seem small compared to the eternal joy awaiting the faithful."

Most sadness in this life comes from endings, but they are not endings. They are just pauses. So we can lift up our heads and rejoice, that there is more coming after this life.

I love you all! Hope you are having a wonderful week. Enjoy studying Preach My Gospel, it's a good one :)

Love

Sister Barret

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