Category: Columbia River

Hola! I hope everyone is having a fantastic Tuesday! This week has been wild but I’m loving every moment!

On Wednesday we held a district fast for each companionship’s progressing and on-date investigators. It was great to fast for these people, even though our investigator who was on-date for baptism ended up telling us that she will never become a Mormon ahahaha. However, we did have a really good time finding new people this week! We have set a lot of really good goals as a companionship and although we weren’t able to reach them all, we have been blessed with a lot of success and good experiences. And also some not-so-great experiences, which I’m grateful for as well. Like when we talked with an old Italian guy who strongly encouraged us to go to the apartment complex next to him because “they need Jesus.” And then when he saw 3 cops cars pull up, he said, “But maybe you should come back a different day.” Ahahaha. So we walked back to our car, past the apartment complex, and saw one of our investigators surrounded by police. As you can imagine, our lesson with her for the next day never got to happen.

That was just one of many similar stories from this week, but I love the adventure of it all! You never know what you’re going to find here! I’m glad that Sister Burton and I can handle it and know how to laugh about all the crazy experiences, because we’re having a grand old time. Every day is something new, especially because we are almost out of our allotted miles for this month so we’ve been walking the streets quite a bit.

Let’s, see, what else did we do this week? Oh, we did a ton of service pulling weeds in an investigator’s yard! We got dirty and had a lot of fun. We also met her ex-husband/roommate (?) and his whole garage band. We went back there yesterday night as well, because he and our investigator had a little barbeque for us. We got to talk with him for an hour, and he had a ton of great questions for us! I can honestly say it was one of the most interesting ways I’ve ever spent my Memorial Day, sitting in a skirt and answering questions about what I believe to a man drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette in our faces, while our on-date/no-longer-on-date investigator talks to us about socialism and her birds. I love these people! How great is it that I was still able to have a Memorial Day barbeque while finding a new potential investigator? It was a nice way to spend the evening as a missionary, and I wouldn’t trade it for any other experience.

I think the last crazy thing to mention about my week was what happened to our ward on Sunday. The Columbia River and Rocky Butte wards got completely dissolved, to make the new Glendoveer ward! We’ve been making a lot of jokes about the new ward because it was named after a golf course in the area. And the elders are sad because they can no longer makes jokes about Rocky Butt. (Don’t be fooled by their suits and ties into thinking they’re more mature than any other 18 to 20-year-olds haha). Anyway, so I am back in a ward with multiple missionaries because our mission president said we would all stay at least until the end of the transfer. It’s gonna be fun! Our area is huge now, and we have a lot more members to get to know and to work with. This week will be pretty crazy, trying to meet the new bishopric and coordinate with the elders, but I think it will be good.

One last thing I wanted to say, in regards to general conference talks. I’ve been re-reading through a lot of them, but this week we were challenged to go back through all of the most recent ones, make notes of all the commitments and invitations to act contained in them, and then prayerfully choose a few to work on right now. I would invite you to do the same! Each one of who are members should be ready at any moment to tell others what things our living prophet and apostles have taught us and asked us to do. What good is the wonderful knowledge that God’s mouthpieces are on the earth if we don’t even know what they’re saying? I promise that as you read through these talks, both members of the church and those who are less familiar with it, you can find more peace and guidance for your life and for your families. I love all of you and hope you have a great week!

Love,
Hermana O’Barr

Also, I want to start including some weekly quotes from my quote book so you can die laughing with me.

“I’m short and fat and I smell like Doritos, why would she be interested in me?”
-Elder Shah

“Awkward conversations are my bread and butter.”
-Sister Burton

“I call this my polygamist hairdo.”
-Sister Burton

“He’s a sly cat, ya know? Ya neva know when you gonna catch him around here.”
-Guy who opened the door when we were trying to find our investigator

Well, we had transfers this week, and I’m now in my third area! It was super sad to say goodbye to Prune Hill and Sister Schott, but I am sooo excited to be back in Portland, to be with Sister Burton, and to have the chance to actually find people to teach and do missionary work! I’ve also gotten to speak Spanish a lot here. Sister Burton is really awesome and chill and I love her lots! We already have great comp unity and a desire to work hard, and we’ve been able to see many miracles come from that.

I’ve been having a lot of fun in my new zone this week! We have zone workout every other day, and I’ve actually been killing it in the games we play, and really enjoying myself. Do any of you remember when I was legit terrified of things like scatterball and talking to new missionaries?? I’ve changed so much and now I’m really loving the time I get to talk with new people and put myself out there.

Another crazy thing about this week was that I hit my 7-month mark! Sister Burton also hit her 9-month mark and she likes to celebrate by going to Dutch Bros, so I got to go for the first time!

We also had a sweet zone service this week. We tore up asphalt to save the salmon haha. It was a lot of fun, and we got to talk with a bunch of people who wanted to know what organization we were from and why we are out here doing what we’re doing. It can be a little scary when you hand sharp tools to elders, but the whole thing actually went really well and helped us become more established and well-known in the community. I love doing service for many reasons, but one being that it shows everyone that we’re not just the people who knock on your door at really inconvenient times–we’re representatives of Jesus Christ who are going around trying to live and serve as He did.

Another fun time this week was when I had a really great chance to get to know the ward members in Columbia River. They held a ward potluck and talked about emergency preparedness. It was the smallest ward activity I’ve ever attended, but it was entertaining and I got to meet our investigator who is on-date for baptism!

On Sunday, Sister Burton and I gave talks about the new ministering effort! I actually hadn’t given a talk as missionary yet, and so it was great to get up there and speak! I ended up having to talk for almost 25 minutes but I loved every second of it! I was so excited to talk about something I’m so passionate about, and it was another good way for me to make myself known among the ward members. They are so key to the success of missionary work, so I love getting to build good relationships with them. However, the ward received a special announcement on Sunday that next week will be just an hour-long meeting with the Rocky Butte ward, and it seems pretty likely that the two wards will be combined. Sister Burton and I are really upset because we already love serving with each other and don’t want anything to happen that could mess that up. She also ended up down in this ward a couple of transfers ago because she was emergency-transferred when the ward she was serving in got dissolved, and now she might get ET’d out haha.

But anyway, we are trying not to think of the potential disasters and just focus on how much good we can do while we’re here! We found and taught a lot of new people this week and it felt so great! I am so grateful for the success we’ve seen, and it was a huge blessing to have these opportunities to share the gospel.

We ended Monday night (I forgot to mention, my p-days are all on Tuesdays now) with a zone bonfire with President and Sister McAteer. Those of us who have served around the missionaries who will go home at the end of this transfer were assigned to talk about what we learned from them. I got to talk about Sister Hansen! Most of you know, I don’t cry very easily. But as I talked about how much I’ve learned from her, I just couldn’t help it! Sister Hansen is the reason I’m able to let my faith overcome my fear. I’m a much more confident and happier missionary, and I’m doing and saying things that I never thought I could before, just because of the things she’s taught me. I’m glad I still get to serve around her for her last transfer!

To end this email, I just want to share a quick thought with you about prayer. There is a paragraph in the Bible Dictionary about prayer that I really love, and has begun to change the way I think about prayer, and the way I pray.

“As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are His children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part (Matt. 7:7–11). Many of the so-called difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship. Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings.”

This contains a lot of powerful info, but I just love that it talks about how willing God is to bless us! We just have to work hard to obtain those blessings through obedience and any of our own efforts that we can contribute, and then pray specifically for those righteous things that we desire! Take your doubts, needs, wants, questions, desires, and problems to the Lord. I promise that He wants to talk to you! What can it hurt to try spending just a few minutes on your knees?

I hope you all have a fantastic week! Congratulations to all of my friends who graduated this week, especially my little (or not-so-little) brother, Tanner!

Love,
Hermana O’Barr