Month: June 2018

WoWw! We have been blessed to see so many miracles during this 1/2 transfer together. On Sunday we had a meeting with our mission president and the stake president to talk about some of the struggles of the branch and how we could help them. It was a big deal but it went well, and I’m excited to hear about the continued success of the branch, even though I’m leaving. Yep, you read that right–I am moving once again! I hate packing and leaving again, but I know this is what the Lord wants. I’m so grateful that He allowed me to be here for these past three weeks. My companions and I formed an amazing friendship and I learned SO much from these two hermanas. It was a privilege to come serve here with such great missionaries! Now I’m headed back to my baby area (where I started), which is Alameda, and my companion is going to be Hermana Capron.

So, now you get to hear about our last week of miracles together! This week I have really felt the guidance of the Spirit as we’ve sought it more in our small decisions and I have seen that bless us and the people we teach so much more! Sometimes it’s so easy to forget how much guidance is readily available to us. It’s especially available to us as missionaries because we are usually asking for guidance so we can help other people. My companions and I have worked together really well this week and we have come so much closer as we have sought revelation for our area.

One miracle was a hand-off lesson we had with Elder Finley and Elder Grant!! One of their member families have a caretaker named Erendira who was so impressed with their examples even though they have health issues that usually prevent them from coming to church. She has felt the Spirit so strongly in their home and wants to have such a gospel-centered home for her family! All 5 of us taught the Restoration and it was one of the most spiritual lessons I’ve ever had. Erendira is so sweet and accepted everything we had to say with enthusiasm, even asking for a Book of Mormon and for extra pamphlets to bring home and read with her family.

That same day, we also got to see Isaiah get baptized!!! He is 17 and wants to serve a mission! He asked me to give the talk on the Holy Ghost and I was so honored that I got to be a part of his baptism. And the next day, Adriana got baptized! Her whole family had already gotten baptized and she was taught for a LONG time, so it was a really exciting day for lots of missionaries who taught her and her family. She looked so so happy after she was baptized, she’s going to the temple on Wednesday, and is now working with her family so that they can be together for eternity!

We also made a new investigator at church this week! And we had such a good lesson with one of our on-dates, Lina. She’s only 17, like Isaiah, but she is AMAZING. She retains and accepts everything we teach her right away. We taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ this week and she was so excited to learn that she will receive the Holy Ghost after she is baptized!! WoWw!! I love her and hope I can make it back here for her baptism. She is going to be a very strong member of the Church and is already sharing the gospel with her friends.

The past 6 weeks have been crazy, but I am so grateful for them. This has probably been the best transfer of my mission so far, and I have been very, very blessed. I have learned a lot on my mission and I’m excited to go back to my baby area and apply what I’ve learned. I don’t know much about Hermana Capron but I hope we will have a good time together!

ALSO, if you have gospel library on your devices, you should check out the new 2018 Preach My Gospel! It’s so cool!!! Remember to be bold this week in standing up for what you know is right and sharing the gospel with others!

Love,
Hermana O’Barr

The power trio continues! This week has been so incredible! I got sick but I’m feeling a lot better. I also hit my 8-month mark yesterday! I’m sad, though, because we found out that our mission president was going to do everything he could to keep us together next transfer, then he found out that we are getting 4 hermanas who are visa-waiting for Ecuador. So instead of staying together, some of us may be training this next transfer. We will find out what’s happening this Saturday.

We had a huge miracle at English class last Tuesday! A new family of 4 showed up and they were so sweet! While we were going around helping people in the class, the husband, Marino, asked me a question about prophets and the Book of Mormon. I started talking more with him and found out that his brother and his whole family are members and returned missionaries! He showed me pictures of them, and pictures of him going to church with the missionaries when he was 15!! He ended up talking to us more after the class and we exchanged info with him. Marino also told us that earlier that day he had come across a copy of the Book of Mormon, and that he was taking that as a sign that he needs to meet with us. We all felt the Spirit so strongly and see a lot of potential in him and his family. They are going to meet with us as soon as him and his wife decide when would be the best time to do so.

Another awesome milagro (miracle) came on Saturday night. We were supposed to have a lesson but when we got to the apartment, nobody answered. However, Hnas Jessop, Hindmarsh and I felt like we still had another reason for being there, even though it was too late to tract. When had we first gotten there, we saw a woman walk into the laundry room in the middle of the apartment complex. We peeked in to see if she was still there, and she was! We said hi and asked for her name, and she immediately started telling us about how she raised an amazing family of 9 kids and how much she loves her husband! She then picked up her laundry basket and invited us to follow her straight into her home without us having to say a thing! We got to meet her husband who picked up his guitar and asked if he could play and sing his alabanzas for us (hymns that he wrote). It was so sweet! After that he bore his testimony to us of the Holy Ghost and asked us to teach him something new so we taught them the Restoration and we couldn’t stop smiling the whole time because the Spirit was strong in their home.

Also, two of our on-dates passed their baptismal interviews and will be baptized on Friday and on Saturday! We are SO excited!!! I love you all! PLEASE continue or start reading the scriptures and praying individually and as a family every day. It will bless your lives immensely and I promise you will just continue to grow stronger and happier every day! Have a great week!

Love,
Hermana O’Barr

I’m still waiting on some people to send me pics, so sorry I don’t have very many. I should definitely have a lot more next week.

What a week!!! Stay tuned to the very end for the crazy-surprise news we received!

First of all, this week started on a great note because Sister Hansen taught me how to properly throw a scatterball at P-day! Watch out, because I am fearless, armed, and ready to scatter some brains! I am finally starting to match the intensity of the game haha. It’s the only way to play, really.

We also had zone conference this week, which was awesome. Sometimes I let myself get really down about these types of meetings because I just focus on how much I need to improve and how many mistakes I’m still making. But I came at this zone conf with a really good attitude and a lot of prayer, and it really was a good experience. I left feeling really motivated and excited to keep working my tail off!!! It was also interesting to see how many friends I have in the mission now, and just how much I love all of them! One of the other hermanas waiting to go to PR actually joined the missionaries giving their departing testimonies because she found out that she is leaving this week. I thought I would be a little bitter, but I’m honestly not. I’m really happy for her, and I know that the Lord is in charge of things and will put me where I can grow the most, and help the most people. I looked around at all of my friends, and thought about how much I’ve changed in the WVM, and then realized that if and when the call comes for me to go to PR, I’ll probably be equal parts happy and sad. I’ve also been thinking a lot about those ways that I’ve changed here, and dang, I’m so different now compared to the person I was at the beginning of my mission! If that isn’t a true measure of my success, then I don’t know what is. I think I can be happy just knowing that I myself am more deeply converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ than ever before.

Anyway, I’ll tell ya a little bit more about what went down this week. We did tons more yard service! It was super fun and people are always so impressed and grateful for what we can do with 8 missionaries in just a few short hours. We also had a fun lesson with a lady named Pam this week. She likes us to stand out in her garden and sing hymns and primary songs to her. She is so sweet, and I enjoyed being with her, even though we got funny looks from everyone walking by. We also did a lot of service for this less-active member by helping clean up her super crammed apartment. She really appreciated it and it was amazing to see how much more cheerful she got!

Another favorite part of my week was when a member gave us money for dinner. I picked where we went, and it was this legit pizza place with a bike park inside of it! We got to watch all these awesome people doing tricks and flips and stuff while we ate our amazing pizza and drank our strawberry-mango lemonades. It was pretty much one of the best hours of my life and I’m so glad Sis Burton is chill enough to go on little adventures with me!

Anyway, here’s one cool miracle for you before I divulge the crazy news! We got a referral in our area book for this lady, so we called her up. We found out that she had really wanted to get baptized, but just had to wait until she got off probation to do so! She is so pumped to meet with missionaries again and I really hope she is able to get on-date for baptism soon!

Alright, now that I’ve tortured you enough, I’ll tell you all what’s going on. Sister B-town and I are getting emergency-transferred!!! *sobbing noises in the background* I already love her and this area so much, but we are officially out of here Wednesday morning. Our mission president called us right after church on Sunday (so basically, right after we told everyone that we would probably be here until at least the end of June). I feel so bad, because the ward was super excited to have us! Our previous ward members were happy we were staying, and the ward that we got combined with was so pumped to have sisters since they’ve had elders since forever. I feel kind of bad leaving the elders here because not a single member we’ve talked to wants elders in the ward haha.

Things are crazy right now for us. I just packed 3 weeks ago, and now here I am, frantically trying to shove all my stuff back into my suitcases, let Sister Burton say goodbye to everyone (she’s been here a long time), clean out our apartment, and make sure the elders know everything they need to know to take care of our investigators. President was kind enough to give us one more p-day with our zone, and we are going on a hike today, so that will be fun. The reason we are getting ET’d is because Hna Daniels is leaving for PR today, and now our ward has 2 sets of missionaries from the combination last week. Sis Burton is going to be companions with Hna Daniels’ companion in the Vancouver Central stake, and I’m going to the Van 6th ward in the Vancouver West stake. The bright spot in all of this is that I’m going back Spanish-speaking!!! And I’m going to a whole big Spanish ward! I’ll be in a tri-pan with Hna Hindmarsh and Hna Jessop. I don’t really know either of them, but I’m sure it will be great. Hna Jessop is my mission sister (meaning she was trained by my trainer, right after me).

Anyway, I love you all! I hope you remember that God truly does love you and wants the best for you! ALSO, WATCH THE YOUTH DEVOTIONAL THAT WAS GIVEN THIS WEEK! Holy cow, it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen, and I definitely encourage everyone to take President Nelson’s invitations, youth or not. Have a great week!

Love,
Hermana O’Barr