Month: February 2019

Well, this week has actually been a little rough. I have been feeling a lot of pressure to be perfect from myself and others and it was really getting me down, because as we all know, none of us are perfect. On Saturday night I was praying for help, for something to alleviate some of the stress. On Sunday morning I decided to pick up the Come, Follow Me manual to refresh myself on what I learned from my studies earlier this week. I turned to the last section of this week’s assignment, and found my answer! It said, “Does Heavenly Father really expect me to be perfect?” because one of the verses to read this week was Matthew 5:48–the commandment to be perfect. The section in the study manual includes a quote from President Nelson that gave me the comfort I asked for. He talked about the true definition of perfect, which is to achieve a distant goal, to be completely developed, or to finish. He talks about how we will never be perfect in our own right in this life, but we can be perfected in Christ and rely on His merits and grace. The day we will be perfect is far in the future and for now, God just asks that we give Him our best! It was something I already knew, but that reminder came at just the right time as an answer to my prayer. I know God loves us and answers our prayers if we ask with faith!

I hope you have a week full of miracles and answers to your prayers!

Hermana O’Barr

HIGHS: We received a historic announcement that we can now increase our communication with our families by texting, calling, or video-chatting on p-days and on other special occasions!

We also found some SUPER cool jovenes this week who are really interested in the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ! We are hoping to put them on date for baptism tonight!

LOWS: I am just super tired, sunburnt, and blistered this week haha. It’s all part of the walking life, though, which allows us to talk to so many more people!

I have been studying a lot lately about how the Book of Mormon and the Bible support each other. It is so necessary to study BOTH to get a full understanding of who Christ is and how to follow His example. Here’s a quick comparison I made from studying Preach My Gospel.

The Book of Mormon teaches us about ancient covenants, or promises, that God made with His children. The Bible teaches us about the great prophets who received those covenants by faith. The Book of Mormon testifies of Christ and His Atonement. The Bible gives the history of His birth, ministry, death, Atonement, and Resurrection. I have grown to love both of these books so much more on my mission through my daily studies. I invite you to study them both and gain a testimony that Christ lives, and that He loves us!

Until next week!

Love,
Hermana O’Barr

Okay, I can’t match these up but I will try to give context on a few photos. The bird just randomly fell dead out of the sky when we were talking to this weird guy…

• The pics of me against the wall were when I was sooo hungry and struggling to make it up a hill.
• The giant loaf of bread is called pan de agua, aka DELICIOUSNESS
• The pic at McDonald’s is how we celebrated after Pablo’s baptism
• The zone pic is from our p-day bbq and kickball event we had today with the Pearsons

HIGHS: Pablo was baptized and confirmed this week! He is such a special guy and I’m so happy he was able to take this next step in the gospel of Jesus Christ! A less serious but still amazing high from the week was getting free Nutella limbers from this lady named Jalira that we are teaching. And then we finally got the greasy PR food we had been craving, because we hadn’t had any since coming to Ponce! Everyone told us the place to go was the Chinese restaurant in town and we didn’t believe them until we tried it for ourselves haha. Chuletas, arroz y habichuelas, tostones, y mayo-ketchup. Can’t get much better than that! Pics attached

LOWS: Every day this week it has been in the 90s or pouring rain. And NO ONE lets you in when it is raining in PR hahaha. But, all is well, we just keep trucking along! I really do like Ponce a lot.

Something that really touched me from my studies this week was 2 Nefi 32:4. It talks about how if we don’t understand something or are lacking knowledge, it’s only because we haven’t searched for it through study and prayer. So if you have a doubt or question, don’t hesitate to take it straight to the Lord! HE is the only ultimate source of truth, and the only one who can give us the answers we need to survive spiritually in these last days. I feel like this goes for studying the words of the prophets and apostles as well, because they speak directly for the Lord! How cool is it that we never have to be lost or confused because we can communicate with an omnipotent God?!

I don’t have much else this week, sorry! I love you all, things are going well, and I hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,
Hermana O’Barr

HIGHS: Pablo passed his baptismal interview!! I am so excited for his baptism this Saturday. He has gained such a strong conversion and I know he is making the right decision. We also went to our first MLC this week and I loved it! The meeting was full of inspiration and enthusiasm and I left super pumped to help our zone. The last high was getting to conduct an exchange for the first time! I went with Hna Allred and it was so much fun to get to know her better and work with her all day.

LOWS: Our ancient phone split IN HALF on Monday! Also, Hna Branham and I wandered into an area called Claussell on Monday night looking for some people to talk to. We got a super bad feeling, a warning from the Spirit, so we high-tailed it out of there. We told Hna Allred the story on the way home that night. Her eyes got HUGE and she told us that place is super dangerous at night. Whoops, haha. I am so grateful we had the Spirit. Hna Allred and I also had an interaction with a really creepy guy on our exchange, but everything is okay.

Overall, I am loving Ponce so far! I love Hna Branham and she cracks me up all the time! It is awesome to be serving in a ward and in a city again and I’m really happy that I’m here.

Have a great week and remember that “there is none other name given under heaven save it be this Jesus Christ, of which I have spoken, whereby man can be saved. (2 Nephi 25:20)

Love,
Hermana O’Barr