April 2018 – Hermana O'Barr

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Proud to Me

This week was full of lots of ups and downs, just like usual! But as you all know, I like to focus on the ups!

Monday was super awesome. We played lots of sports as a zone, and when we got home that night, I discovered that Sister Schott, the member that we live with, had gone and bought me a bunch of flute music because she wanted to hear me play! She is literally the best!!!

We also had a great time going to mutual with the youth this week. The ward mission leader from another ward came and taught self-defense! He is the top volcano scientist in the world and is a 5th degree black belt. He’s like the most legit old guy I’ve ever met!

Anyway, we also had exchanges this week! The STLs slept over at Sister Schott’s and then I spent the day in our area with Sister Proctor, which was fun because then I got to know her a lot better and we spent time heart-attacking more members with cookies.

Another cool part of our week was that we finally got a new investigator! You all know those are few and far between here…

I think the best part of my week though was that I found out that Luz and Anthony are both getting baptized next week!!! I am so so excited for them and I hope I’ll be able to go back to Portland next Saturday to see them! What an incredible privilege it is to see two more of the people I taught decide to make covenants with God!!!

Also, Ali messaged and told me about going to the temple visitors center! He loved it and said it was really special when he went. He is working on finding a few names to actually take and do baptisms, and then I should be able to go with him! For those of you who don’t know what that means, we believe that anyone who didn’t accept the gospel in this life will have the chance to learn and accept it in the spirit world after they die. We perform things like baptism and other saving ordinances for those who have passed on so that they can accept the gospel and make covenants with God. We believe that we have a special responsibility to do this for our family members who came before us, so we use websites like familysearch.org to find their records and take them to the temple. Pretty neat, no?

Anyway, here’s your little dose of funny for the week. I normally don’t like fish, but Sister Schott was determined to have us all eat salmon for lunch yesterday. So I tried it, and it was actually pretty good haha. The first thing she said to me was, “Proud to you!” It’s so funny because my comp does this thing where she says stuff wrong to bother people (i.e. proud to you, mean at you, scared from you, etc.) and now Sister Schott and I have started to pick up on it. This isn’t good for someone who is planning on becoming an English teacher haha.

I hope you all have a good week! Try something new, or do something out of your comfort zone. Mine was just a stupid little example, but I’ve been so blessed by the number of times I’ve stepped out of my comfort zone on my mission! I hope you all have a fabulous week!

Love,
Hermana O’Barr

Sis Hansen is always freezing in our house haha

We chalked the Plan of Salvation with our phone number everywhere!

When the only day we try really hard to look cute for is Sunday

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6 months down, 1 year to go

Hello, happy Monday, I hope everyone is doing well! Here is how my week went down (I’d love to hear about yours!).

We had a super fun P-day last week. This indoor soccer stadium let us in to play for free if we washed their windows, and I got to spend a bunch of time playing ultimate frisbee!

We also had a GREAT time that night, because we had a Family Home Evening with a 12-year-old that we’re teaching, and two of her fellowshipper families. We watched Meet the Mormons (which I had actually never seen) and had a really good time showing her what FHE is like.

We also had a good lesson with a recent convert this week, and we reviewed the Restoration with her using Enos 1, which actually worked super well. I have had a goal for a long time to use the scriptures in my teaching more, and I can testify that reading from and pulling apart the scriptures is one of the best ways to invite the Spirit into any lesson!

Another cool thing about this week is that we had dinner with a fun family with a bunch of little boys (If you know my family, you know that’s different for me!). But the best part was that the mom served her mission in Columbus, and even served a transfer or two in Powell! And, the family is thinking about moving to PR later in the year, so we had lots of cool connections to talk about!

Anyway, we did have one day this week that honestly was just super depressing and difficult. For some reason, our zone conference was the opposite of uplifting. I think it was mostly just because we are having a hard time finding lots of people to teach in this area, and so many of the messages we heard just felt difficult to swallow because we felt that we weren’t doing enough in our area. I know it was just Satan getting us down, but it was pretty rough because zone conference lasts nearly the entire day. It was all okay in the end, though. We got some suggestions of things we can try and are going to keep working hard this week.

Also, on that day, I hit my 6-month mark! Holy cow, I can’t believe I’ve already been out for so long! I’m a third of the way done with my mission! Some days that seems like not enough, and other days I freak out because I don’t want to be that far into my mission! No matter how hard things get, I truly do love this experience and the way I am changing because of it. I’ll never truly know how much of an impact I’m having on my mission, but I CAN see how much I have changed and grown, and that is so important to me. I still have a long ways to go, but I’m glad I have seen positive changes in myself as I’ve tried to follow my Savior’s example.

Anyway, here’s a funny little story for you…

We were trying to knock on the door of a potential on like Friday, but no one answered. I felt like trying the next door over, so we knock, and…one of our members opens the door! He just nodded at us and was like, “Hey, what’s up Sisters?” We died laughing and felt so embarrassed (Sister Hansen has even been to their house before!), but luckily they thought it was pretty funny as well. It made for a good topic of conversation when we had dinner at their house yesterday!

Sorry, I know this email is long, but I just have a little bit more!

We had a miracle this week! A bunch of members of our district and zone came to help us blitz our area, and now we have two new investigators!!!

I love this work and the privilege I have to be here. Even though I’m not where I expected to serve, and even though pretty much nothing has worked out the way I expected it do, I don’t regret coming out here and I know I will always be grateful for the experiences I’m having. Nothing is more rewarding than serving the Lord! Be happy, be grateful, and constantly be asking what you can do next! I promise that will bring you blessings and incredible experiences!

Love,
Hermana O’Barr

Me with a cute member who comes with us to teach sometimes

Sis Hansen jumped over a pond and then scaled the fence for this picture

We picked up garbage! I should have put myself into that bag too hahaha. Also, note Mt. Hood in the background! I could finally see it since we had nice weather this week.

Sis Hansen and Dezzie (We had to go outside because it finally got warm!)

Pretty views # 1. We were trying to figure out how to get to the river from our area, but everyone just hogs all the access with their back yards!

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My First Baptism!!!

This has been a great week! My new area is tough, but a lot of our hard work and faith was rewarded by miracles!

This week we also had a super great district meeting about happiness, which I think did a lot to pump us up to continue working. A scripture that our district leader shared and asked us to study is Mosiah 4:9-12, and I would definitely recommend studying it because it’s one of my favorites!

After district meeting we had our first miracle of the week! We found a new investigator named Dave and then taught him the next day with an awesome young woman from our ward!

The next day was pretty great as well, because we went on a mini exchange with the STLs to help them get to all of their appointments on time. It was super fun to spend some time with Sister Davis (She was my STL in Portland, and she followed me here to Vancouver!). After we got home, Sister Hansen and I were exhausted and really hungry for some reason haha. So the member we live with, Sister Schott, drove to Chick-Fil-A for us (She’s the bomb!) and we used our personal time before bed to hang out and play card games with her.

The next day was nuts, though! We blamed it on it being Friday the 13th, but all of the times we tried to talk to people, they were in awkward or weird situations! It was okay though haha, it’s good for us to be able to work through the awkward and keep trying to teach people!

And, the rest of the weekend was full of miracles! We got a call from a lady who was visiting her non-member friend and wanted to bring her to church! We informed her that it was stake conference, but they came anyway and her friend had a great time! Last night we brought her a Book of Mormon, and we’re going to start meeting with her every Friday! That means we got TWO new investigators this week, in an area where everyone is seemingly happy with their lives. What a miracle to see our hard work paying off already.

The other awesome thing that happened this week was, drumroll……………………..
ALI GOT BAPTIZED!!!! It was such a special moment and I am so so grateful for the privilege I had to find and teach him while I was serving in Alameda. He is going to be an incredible member of the church, and I can tell that his life has truly been changed. If I don’t have any more success the whole rest of my mission, all of it would be worth it, just to see that one special soul join the church and bear his testimony of all that that means to him. I cannot adequately describe just how fulfilling and joyful it is to see one of your best friends join the covenant path!

The rest of the weekend was just so good as well. I loved getting to see Hermana Vazquez and members from the Spanish group at the baptism. AND, we had stake conference! I learned a lot, but I just wanted to share one simple thought with all of you. One sister got up and talked about how to help families study the BoM and learn from it. She said:
1) Read it
2) Liken it
3) Live it

I LOVED her message because as we like the BoM to ourselves, or in other words, think about how it applies to us, it becomes so much more real and interesting, and so much easier to apply its teachings in our lives. Hold tight to the scriptures, brothers and sisters, they are the foundation of our testimonies and they contain the sure and certain way to return to our Heavenly Father. Have a fabulous week!!!!

Love,
Hermana O’Barr

Hopefully people will send me more pictures from the baptism soon.

The one pic I have from the baptism so far

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My First New Area

Hello everyone! I’ve now been in my new area for almost a week! Things have been a little crazy trying to adjust, but overall I’ve been blessed with a lot of peace about my new area. It is definitely a difficult area, because it’s been whitewashed a ton of times, it’s super tiny, and most of the people are very wealthy and uninterested in changing their lives. However, I love my new companion, Sister Hansen, and the Prune Hill ward. I am so excited for all of the new experiences I will have, and I know there are people I’m meant to meet here! Anyway, here’s how my week went down.

Monday–We did so much! We visited a wall of Washi tape (you just know I had to buy some!), ate Indian food, signed transfer journals, went to froyo with Valeria (I love her!), ate dinner at IHOP with Ali, baked a billion cookies, and deep-cleaned the apartment. And cried. A lot.

Tuesday–We had to go say goodbye to even more of my favorite people and it was so sad!!! I LOVE these people and they have truly become like an extension of my family. Even though it has been rough not knowing about PR at times, I am SO grateful Heavenly Father allowed me to come to this mission.

Wednesday–We had transfers! I could tell right away that my mission experience is about to get a whole lot different, but I’m really excited! Sister Hansen is the bomb and so is the member we live with!

Thursday–We had so much fun! We did 2 services on Thursday. One was packing food into boxes, and the other was mucking out and leveling horse stalls! It was really awesome AND I got to see Elder Finley again! He was my old district leader and it’s going to be fun to serve around him again.

Friday–We had a super interesting day that eventually ended up with us getting a razor blade in our tire. But, this really nice Romanian guy named Nic helped us put the spare on, so we’re going to go back with a plate of cookies and hopefully make him and his cute family into new investigators.

Nothing that interesting happened Saturday or Sunday, but it was fun to get to know the ward a bit better, and I fasted for revelation to help us jumpstart this area, and I already feel like I’ve received some good ideas!

I hope you have a fantastic, gospel-filled week! I’ve been reviewing conference talks this week and one of my absolute favorites was “One More Day” by Elder Taylor G. Godoy Of the Seventy. He talks about how our personal sacrifices to live the gospel make it all the more meaningful to us, but also how no sacrifice we make is anything in comparison with the sacrifice made by Jesus Christ. He says “…of one thing we can be sure: we all have a “today” to live, and the key to making our day successful is to be willing to sacrifice.” I loved the perspective that his talk gave me, and it definitely strengthened my resolve to be better each day that I have been granted to live here on this earth. Never forget how important it is to live this gospel with all of your heart!

Love,
Hermana O’Barr

That’s Sister Hansen for ya. I LOVE HER!

A chocolate bar I was given that MAKES ME ANGRY

I live in an actual house now! With 2 dogs! Goodbye, sketchy apartment!

Sister Hansen takes way more cutesy pictures than I do

Hahaha I made Sister Hansen kill a spider

It literally has not stopped raining since I got here

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Tamales with a side of surprise news

Whoa, what a week! I received transfer news, we celebrated Easter, and there were some crazy-awesome announcements in General Conference! But, I’ll go back and start from the beginning.

Monday–I found out that Hna Vazquez had never been to IKEA, so of course, we had to go! We had a blast and spent way too much time there haha. Another great thing about Monday was that we had dinner with Ali and the other side of his family, the one he lives with! It was SO sweet and even though we were a little bit nervous about what they were going to say, they were super kind to us and asked a bunch of good questions.

Tuesday–We had a new zone meeting thing and it was incredible! We had four different discussions and we all counseled together to help each other. I am so amazed by the other missionaries and the things I’ve been able to learn from them, especially during this transfer.

Wednesday–We helped some members move, and then they fed us pizza!

Thursday–Nothing too exciting happened, except that we got fantastic Peruvian food for dinner!

Friday–Valeria, one of the youth who is planning on serving a mission, came with us to teach Ali! She is sooo sweet and she also brought us stuff back from her trip to FL! I am going to miss her SO much and I promised I would come back and visit. We are going to get froyo with her today to say one last goodbye.

Saturday–We went to Valeria’s house early in the morning to go for a hike, then us and the elders helped make breakfast before watching conference. It was really cool getting to watch in Spanish and realize that I actually understand a lot more than I thought I would! It was also an incredible experience to have the privilege of sustaining Russell M. Nelson as the new president of the church. As I raised my hand in unison with millions of other saints around the world, the Spirit truly testified to me that he is a prophet of God. I have no doubt in my mind that President Nelson was called to lead this church and that his words are the words of the Lord. The sustaining was truly a special moment that I never want to forget.

After both sessions of conference, we had dinner with another member family, and then afterwards, Hna Vazquez and I stayed to help make tamales for the next day! It was super fun and I got lots of pictures (you’re welcome, Mom).

After we got home, we received transfer news! I’m going to the Prune Hill ward, which is in the Vancouver East stake. And I’m going to be speaking English! I’ll admit, leaving is going to be really hard. The people here, including members, investigators, and my companion, have truly become my family. I love them more than I ever thought possible and leaving them is going to be super difficult. I’m also super sad that I won’t be teaching in Spanish anymore. But, I KNOW that God has a plan, and that things always work out better than I ever could have imagined. I’m willing and excited to see what’s in store in my new area.

Sunday–We watched Conference at church with members and investigators, and then had a fun potluck! Everyone was really upset about me leaving and I couldn’t go until I promised every one of them that I would come back! I am so grateful for the true friendship and love I’ve developed with all of them this transfer.

After that, we went home and watched the rest of conference alone in our apartment haha. And there was a super cool announcement made! I am so happy to see the more personal, Christlike ministering that will be taking place in our church, and I am grateful for the continued revelation our prophet will receive as we get closer and closer to the Second Coming. Also, SEVEN new temples were announced, including one in RUSSIA! What an exciting time to be alive!

I love you all, and I love our dear prophet. Remember to stay close to him, follow his counsel and his direction, and I promise you will be better protected from the chaos of this world. Have a fantastic week!

Love,
Hermana O’Barr