Hermana O'Barr

Hm, well, I really don’t know what to put in this week’s email haha. There has been so much that has happened, but also not a whole lot. We found and taught cool people, we got a lot of rejection, and we sweated buckets like usual. I love Ponce a lot! It is weird and hilarious and we are constantly laughing here!

This week Lizzet came to church, which was amazing! She is already reading in Mosiah 4 and I am so happy that we found her! We have had a lot of people fall off-date for baptism recently though, which is pretty sad.

Also this week, I ate empanadillas stuffed with seafood while looking at an amazing view of the ocean! Doesn’t sound like me, but it’s the truth! I hope you are proud of me for eating fish, dad!

I just wanted to conclude with a quick thought about the priesthood. I had several opportunities to teach and testify of the priesthood this week, and it was amazing! A lot of people on my mission have asked me if I feel oppressed as a woman or if I am angry because I don’t have the priesthood. And let me tell you, my answer is NO! This week people were celebrating the day of the woman (idk what exactly it’s called in English) and I can tell you, that nothing empowers me more as a woman than being a member of the true, restored church of Jesus Christ. I know that His priesthood authority was restored on the earth to worthy men and that it is only to be used for the blessing people’s lives and helping them achieve eternal life! I am so grateful for the priesthood and for the priesthood holders that have helped prepare me for my mission, set me apart with specific blessings to do well out here, and then have continued to support me in my time as a missionary. The priesthood is necessary for saving ordinances such as baptism and I know I would be nowhere without it! I do not need the priesthood to be blessed by it or to feel that I have worth and a special role in the kingdom of God. We may not understand all things now, but I do know that God restored his priesthood through Joseph Smith so that we may one day live with Him and our families forever!

Have a lovely week!
Hermana O’Barr

View from the roof!

Wow, so much happened this week that I’m not even sure where to start! This has been one of the best weeks of my entire mission!

We read the whole Book of Mormon in 28 days as a zone and then this fast Sunday we asked all of the wards and branches to fast with us for the progression of the missionary work in our areas. And let me tell you, the miracles from these sacrifices came flooding in!

We were walking around this area called Ferran which is crazy and has these really interesting side roads/paths. We ended up at just the right place at the right time after a few minutes of tracting through there. This young teenager walking past asked if we wanted to come visit her aunt with her. Of course, we said yes! She asked us if we were “llevando la palabra” (sharing the word of God) and we answered that we were. She said, perfect, my aunt will love you! And off we went on an adventure through Ferran. We arrived at her aunt’s house, and, long story short, ended up teaching the lady and her daughter, and we committed them to baptism on March 23rd! Rosa and Ashley are SO prepared for the gospel. They cried and I cried as we shared our testimonies and they told us we brought them the light they had been searching for!

We had another amazing miracle yesterday. We were walking towards Jardines del Caribe to try to visit some people, which is a really long walk. We were tired and we thought about turning into a street and contacting instead of going as far as we had planned. We prayed and felt that we should keep going, so we rounded the corner and took the next street after that. The FIRST house that we contacted turned out to be an amazing lady named Lizzet who was immediately interested in our message. She let us in and we taught her and testified and she told us that she had never felt quite right in any church. It was so cool because she agreed with what we shared and her boyfriend told us that the feeling he had was better than ANY feeling he had ever had in any church. We helped him recognize that is was the Spirit and it was a very special moment.

We also received transfer news last night, and we found out that Hna Branham and I are staying here in Ponce 1, but that we will be taking over the entire area of Ponce 1 and the other hermanas will take over Ponce 2. I am so happy! We get to stay together in our area and we get even more amazing people to teach! Things really couldn’t have worked out any better and I know I am going to have a wonderful and busy last transfer, which is exactly what I want.

I feel slightly panicked now that everything is coming to an end but I am going to give the Lord all I’ve got while I am still out here and then I know there will be good things coming my way after this experience ends. I am eternally grateful for my mission.

Love you all!
Hermana O’Barr

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

Okay, this week was crazy! And we have had a heck of time trying to figure out where to write today, so I will try to see if I can type all of this up really fast.

HIGHS OF THE WEEK: Wow, this week was so amazing!!!! I love Ponce! This area is much more city than campo and the work is popping! My new comp, Hna Branham, has been out for 5 months, she’s from SC, and she works super hard. I am so excited to be serving with her! We also put 2 people on date for baptism this week, Pablo and Argenis!! Pablo is so sweet and I am excited for him to get baptized! He is really funny and innocent sometimes. One day we had to walk super far in the rain to get to his house because we have car fasts on Wednesdays and Fridays in our mission, and he asked us if he would have to stop driving on those days after his baptism haha. Also, I told him that I was from OH in the first lesson, and the next time we came back he told me (in English), Hna O’Barr, close your eyes! I did, and then he turned around and was so excited to show me that he was wearing an OH State shirt that a friend had gotten him a little while ago! It made my day! We have been teaching him a lot and it seems like he will be ready for his baptism on February 9th!

LOWS: We got hardcore bashed by this old guy. Also, it is HOT in Ponce!

FUNNY: We had a meeting with the Zone Leaders to discuss what goals and plans we’ll present at MLC (Mission Leadership Conference) this week. We ended around 8:50-something so then the Zone Leaders watched us as we started sprinting out of the church parking lot so we could get home on time!!

Whitewashing as a Sister Training Leader has been hard but awesome. My motto has just been “Well, we’ll figure it out!” There has been a fair amount of laughing involved in the process because when you don’t know what you’re doing and you end up lost in the rain, you can choose to laugh or cry. This quote from President Eyring pretty much sums it all up–“Keep your eyes open for the humor in the present…It’s not hard. That’s because the best humor springs from seeing the incongruity in your own predicament. Who’s got more predicament than someone giving lots with small result? And who’s more apt to laugh easily at himself than someone who has ultimate faith that the predicament will end? So look for the chance to smile.” Have a wonderful week!

Love,
Hermana O’Barr