Month: December 2017

¡Feliz Navidad! I love and miss everyone, and hope that you are having a fantastic Christmas!I’ll try to keep my email brief today, but I just wanted to share a few great experiences from my week.

On Friday, we went caroling as a zone. We went to Peacock Street, which is nicknamed Christmas Street because of how beautifully decorated it is every year. It was super fun, but it was pouring freezing rain on us. A lot of people were much more prepared for the weather than I was, because as you know, I was supposed to go to Puerto Rico! But it’s all good. As Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin taught, “Come what may, and love it.”

On Saturday, we got to play Santa! A water pipe burst in a new investigator’s apartment this week, and she has two daughters and two little granddaughters living with her. She told us that they wouldn’t have any money for Christmas after fixing their ceiling, and so we got right to work! We picked up a few little toys and some candy for the girls and wrapped them all nice and cute to give to the family. We probably only spent about $10-15 total, but we could tell that it made such a difference to them. The grandma, Lupita, also told us about a ton of other tragic things that have happened in her life, so we plan to teach her about the Plan of Salvation as soon as we can. Hopefully we will be able to bring some more peace and comfort to her life by teaching her about God’s plan for each of us.

Also on Saturday, we had dinner with one of our favorite old couples in the ward. They gave us an amazing Christmas present, but I’ll have to explain some of the backstory. A long, long time ago, their daughter and our ward mission leader’s son got married. The daughter tried to order 5 of these beautiful ties for the people involved in the wedding, but they somehow ended up with 50! Ever since then, they’ve been giving them to the elders who serve in the ward, and calling them the Alameda ties, because we’re in the Alameda ward. Apparently every elder in the mission hopes to serve here so they can get one haha. Well anyway, this couple ordered bracelets that match the ties for us hermanas, so that we could have the official Alameda uniform! It was such a simple but thoughtful gift, and it’s one that I will always treasure.

As you can tell, it’s been a fantastic week. Hermana Cornwall and I have also been working REALLY hard on our goals this week, and one of them was to remember to ask everyone for referrals. We created more opportunities to do that by bringing cookies to a ton of our members and investigators, and then asking them who else we could share the “sweet” message of the gospel with haha. That got us a bunch of referrals and by the end of the week, through our own finding and through these referrals, we got 5 new investigators! That’s a lot for this area, so we are psyched that all of our plans and prayers worked so well. I am especially excited that we were able to find this one family that had apparently been super close to baptism in the past. The mom, Morgan, was really excited and said that she had been wanting to come back to church! They are gone on vacation now, but I can’t wait to see how things go when they get back because they are an awesome family.

I think the biggest blessing I have experienced on my mission so far is the ability to see people a little bit more like Christ sees them. I have been blessed with the ability to love each person I come in contact with on the mission, and view them as they truly are–a son or daughter of God with divine potential. These people are my brothers and sisters and to fully realize that I have such a magnificent extended family is just an incredible thing.

I am still so happy to be on a mission. I get to focus on what I love, every single day. I get to tell people where they’re from, what their purpose is here on earth, and where they will go after this life. I get to tell them that we are allowed to have second chances and be forgiven for our mistakes, that there is a specific plan for our lives, and that it is possible to live with our families forever. What could be better?!

I feel so very blessed. All of the families in the ward/group here have been SO kind to us! There’s a ton of older couples in the ward, so it’s kind of like having 4 or 5 extra sets of grandparents looking out for you. The members have made us cookies, given us Christmas pajamas and fuzzy socks, brought us stockings full of goodies, and given us several other special and significant gifts. But most importantly, they have opened their homes and their hearts to us. I miss my family, but I’ve still been able to have such a fantastic time this Christmas because of these charitable people, and because I am out sharing the light of the gospel.

One last thing–we are currently grounded in our apartment because of all the ice, so please pray that we can actually get out and enjoy our Christmas today! I love all of you and wish you a merry Christmas! Remember the reason for the season, and give each other lots of hugs for me! I’ll talk to you all next year!

Love,
Hermana O’Barr

It’s been another great week in the mission field! A new game that I’ve been introduced to is called scatterball. It’s terrifyingly competitive, but everyone in the zone loves playing it. You haven’t really played a game of scatterball until you’ve been pegged with a dodgeball hard enough to see stars haha.

On Wednesday, we taught a REALLY great lesson to Daniel, one of our new investigators. A really awesome, 10/10 recent convert came with us and he was so helpful! I can’t wait to continue teaching Daniel and see him continuing to come closer to Christ.

On Thursday we got to Christmas carol for 2 hours at an old folks home, and it was so sweet! The people were so appreciative, and we even found a few LDS members that we didn’t know were there.

Yesterday, our AMAZING ward mission leader called and told us to stop by his house. He knew we wanted nativities, so he ordered us both one! Him and his wife are so sweet and thoughtful and I love them so much.

I don’t have a whole lot to say this week, just that I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father. I’m grateful to be here, I’m grateful that PR is starting to reopen, I’m grateful for the ways I’ve already changed and grown on my mission, and I’m grateful for the support of my family and friends, both here and in many other places all over the world. I would encourage you to read Alma 26:12 this week. It’s a great reminder that without God, we are nothing. But with God, we have everything and can be anything.

Have a great week, and a great Christmas!!!

Love,
Hermana O’Barr

This week has been so crazy! Today we had a 9-hour mission conference for Christmas which was super great, but now we have barely any time for emails, grocery shopping, and laundry. So, yep, I’m a little stressed. It’ll be okay though.On Wednesday we met with a super cute old man named Don who’s a recent convert. He really wanted to share a Book of Mormon with his new Cuban neighbor that he’s befriended, so that’s why we went over to help. They were both so sweet and it was so cool that we were able to help him share his testimony with someone who speaks a different language than him.

On Friday/Saturday I went on exchanges with one of the STLs, sister Davis, which was really great. I learned a lot from her, and we had a bunch of cool experiences together. I am so grateful to always be surrounded by amazing people that I can learn from.

I don’t have a lot of time to write, so the last thing I want to write about is a super awesome experience that we had last night. We were supposed to take a member with us to teach an investigator, since we can’t teach single males alone. Well, she had to cancel on us and we were kind of frustrated because we didn’t have any backup plans, and we still had about an hour before we needed to head back to the apartment. We were looking through our area book, and we found a house that just said next to it, “we think this house has some Hispanics.” Hermana Cornwall was kind of discouraged but I had a spiritual prompting to check out this lead, and I felt really good about it. So away we went to this random, unpromising referral. But, when we knocked on the door, we were blessed with a miracle! This woman and her boyfriend opened the door, they speak Spanish, they just moved here, and they’ve been searching for a way to improve their lives and come closer to God! It was SO PERFECT. We started teaching a few parts of the first two lessons and they were soaking it up! I felt the Spirit so strongly and I know for certain that we were led to these awesome people. They want us to come back this week and keep teaching, and I am SO excited! I know that this gospel can bless their lives and give them the peace they are searching for. I know that the gospel of Christ can do the same for each of you! If you have any unanswered questions in your life, take them to your Heavenly Father in prayer, and I promise He will answer.

Love,
Hermana O’Barr

This week has been incredible, and so much has happened!

I was pretty lonely and bored at the beginning of the week because my entire district left before me, but things definitely picked up once I got into the field! I met my mission president and his wife, and they’re super awesome. As soon as we got there, they stuck us outside with some other missionaries and gave us the challenge to pass out a Book of Mormon. Then that night, they played guitar and gave an amazing steak dinner and we had a lot of fun with them.

The next morning I met my amazing trainer, Hermana Cornwall. She is from Orem and she just finished up her own training so she’s been here for 12 weeks. I’m technically in the Washington Vancouver mission, but we are actually covering an area near Portland, so that’s really cool. It’s really beautiful and exciting and I feel blessed to have been reassigned here. This mission actually gets lots of visits from general authorities because they’ve been impressed by the culture of obedience this mission has, and they have authorized us to try a lot of new things, like having smart phones and a new chapter of PMG.

I am so excited to be here until they reopen PR, and I know there’s a reason God has sent me here. I’ve seen so many little miracles this week, and being a missionary feels even better than I thought it would! When I taught my first lesson to a super sweet progressing investigator, it was the best feeling I’ve ever had in my entire life!

We’ve also had two different returned missionaries from the area pull over to give us 20 bucks and lots of encouragement, which was super cool. The second time happened last night, after we had been trying to contact several people in an apartment complex with no luck. As we were walking down the street, wondering why we had felt prompted to go there, this lady pulled over and started screaming in excitement. She said she had been listening to a song that made her miss her mission and was praying for some comfort, and then she immediately saw us! I know we were an answer to her prayer, and I hope we can be the answer to many more as we find people who are prepared to hear the gospel, like the two new investigators we made this week!!

Being a missionary is incredible and has already helped me come so much closer to my Savior. If you are a member who is reading my email, continue sharing the gospel with as many people as you know, because it WILL bless their lives if they accept it. If you’re not a member, I would encourage you to go check out the church’s videos that they have for Christmas! There is a different video for each day of December, and each one includes a way to become a little more like Christ. I hope everyone has a great week and enjoys getting ready for Christmas!

P.S. Here’s your weekly dose of weird–We had a zone potluck lunch today and I took a dare to chug some Mexican hot sauce, which rapidly made me very popular among my zone 😂 If I can get someone to send me the video, I’ll forward it later. Anyway, sorry for the long email!

Love,
Hermana O’Barr