Hermana O'Barr

This week was great! We had an awesome zone conference on Wednesday and I learned a lot from all of the trainings. And, they fed us a traditional American Thanksgiving feast!

We had a good and fairly uneventful Thanksgiving on Thursday. We did some proselyting and then ate with a member. The food was yummy!

I have seen a lot of evidence of God’s hand in my life this week and I am so grateful to know that He will never leave me alone. I have been guided and supported throughout my whole life and that is what makes it possible for me to keep going!

A few things I wanted to share from our zone conference, where we talked a little more about what Elder Christofferson shared.

Something cool he said to Presidente and Hermana Smart was that it’s not rude to pause your prayers to write down revelation that you receive from God, you don’t even have to wait until the end of your prayer. Some of you may already be doing this, but I just thought it was a really great reminder of how important it is to write down the inspiration we receive to show God how important it is to us and then we can receive even more!

Also something that was discussed in church yesterday is that there is always time to do things that are priorities! Make sure that your righteous gospel habits (including attending the temple) always come first and then I promise God will help you accomplish everything else you have to do. It is an act of faith to put those things first, but the blessings you will receive cannot be gained any other way!

I love all of you! Have a great week!
Hermana O’Barr

This week has been fantastic! Training is still going really great and I love Hermana Nelson! We had an incredible lesson with a family we are teaching this week. A member came and bore an powerful testimony and invited them to church and to mutual and everything. It was exactly what they needed and the Spirit was so strong!

I also had a great time on exchanges this week. I was with Hermana Jorgensen again, but this time I went to Juncos and had some fun experiences. I love her and I’m sad she will be going home in a few weeks.

Also, I shook the hand of an Apostle of the Lord on Saturday! Elder Christofferson visited and had a conference with just the missionaries and it was an incredible experience!!! I want to share a few points with you from what he shared with us.

1. In ancient times, people brought physical sacrifices to the temple. Now, Christ asks us to bring a broken heart and a contrite spirit. We need to always be thinking about whether we are becoming a more pure and humble sacrifice, or less. We must always keep ourselves worthy to enter into the house of the Lord!

2. We must invite even the most unlikely of people to learn about the gospel! We never know who is ready, and they may surprise you! Remember that we have all received the mandate to preach the gospel to every creature, not just the full-time missionaries.

3. Remember that revelation you receive while reading the scriptures or listening to talks may not be directly related to what you are reading or hearing. But just the simple act of obeying the commandments and doing things that bring the Spirit will help you receive specific guidance for your life and answers to your questions.

The last story I want to share is a miracle we had with a lady named Maria! We showed up outside her house late at night and we asked if we could sing her a song. As we sang she started to tear up! She told us she loves to sing at church and hasn’t been able to because of a health problem. Then she said she was just telling her cousin about a dream she had of her singing the same song! And she said my voice sounds just like hers did and that she realized we were fulfilling her dream! It was crazy cool and we came back the next day and were able to teach her about the Book of Mormon!

I want to invite all of you to study D&C 75:29! It’s a good one!

Love,
Hermana O’Barr

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Hola everyone!

Life is going super well, despite all the craziness of the past few weeks! I love my trainee Hermana Nelson and we are seeing lots of miracles together. We are very similar, and we both like working hard and being obedient, which is a good combination.

I am also doing a lot better at learning where things are and I feel pretty confident in my language abilities, so I am at a really good point in my mission. There is still so much for me to learn every day, but it feels nice having a decent handle on things some days haha.

A cool miracle from this week was finding a really sweet lady named Yolanda when we got a little lost! We definitely needed to end up on her street and the gospel is going to help her so much! She is going through some really difficult trials and I am so glad that we found her.

Also, I geeked out so hard this week because a lady we are teaching named Evelyn let her daughter put up their Christmas tree and it is HARRY POTTER THEMED! It was literally the coolest thing ever and I need to ask if I can take a picture of it haha.

Okay, to finish, I wanted to invite you all to read 3 Nephi 20:8. It talks about how the souls of those who come unto Christ “shall never hunger nor thirst, but shall be filled.” I think all of us try to fill our souls with things of the world sometimes, in one way or another. It could be with tv, social media, video games, alcohol, drugs, music, careers, exercise, a whole variety of good and bad things. But we need to remember that the one and only person who can fill us completely, with joy and love and the only one who can make us whole is our Savior Jesus Christ.

Love,
Hermana O’Barr

This week has been long and difficult. Hermana Molina, the member we live with, passed away on Monday. I also said goodbye to Hermana Rollins and picked up my new trainee, Hermana Nelson. And I’m sick haha.

But overall, things are still going super great. We have seen a lot of miracles and I am learning a lot. Hermana Nelson is already a great missionary and I am really excited to be with her.

We invited Obdulia to be baptized this week! Even though she is Catholic and said she would never change, she is making huge progress. She prayed on her own the way we taught her instead of her recited prayers and said she felt an incredible feeling she had never had before. When we invited her to be baptized she said she wasn’t sure but that she was willing to ask God about it! She prayed at the end of the lesson to know whether she should be baptized or not and it was one of the strongest spiritual feelings I have ever had!

I love this area and the people we are teaching. We also had a super cool lesson with a little family which I am very excited about because it has always been my goal to help an entire family enter the waters of baptism together.

I am sorry this email is so short, but there’s not too much to tell. I want to invite you all to read Mosiah 23: 27-28. Remember that fear is the opposite of faith, and that there is so much good ahead of you!

Love,
Hermana O’Barr

Whoah, what  a week! It has been nothing but pure craziness up in here, but I am loving it as always. We have had some wild experiences. Last week, after writing, we were buying groceries in Econo when a guy died, it was so sad. They only have a couple of ambulances here for multiple pueblos, so by the time someone who could help got up here to Barranquitas, where we write and shop, it was way too late to help him.

On a lighter note, we finally got to go and visit Ana and Philip this week! They are the funniest members and I love them so much. Ana is having a lot of health problems so we are going to help her clean her house this week.

Another fun thing we did this week was carve pineapples with the jovenes for mutual! They turned out so cute and I think everyone had a lot of fun. Halloween isn’t really celebrated here because a lot of people in PR associate it with Satan-worshipping. But, we tried to bring in a few little traditions to celebrate. We brought them some candy corn as well, and they all hated it hahaha.

That was a super great day, until we finally got home and found that our apartment had been flooded! We have had a problem with our sink and it has been temporarily fixed a few times, but it completely bit the dust and we were left with a few inches of water. We cleaned everything out and our sink is off, so we are hoping to get it fixed very soon, along with our broken washer. Ay! We already have very few appliances, it would be nice if they would work haha. I’m not sure I can handle another one breaking haha. We also had a rat chew his way through a window screen! But, our apartment got one nice little update because a member was giving away some of her chairs this week. We will take what we can get!

Anyway, I will spill the beans on transfer news now! I am going to train here in Aibonito! Woot! I have never trained or taken over an area, but I think it’s going to be super fun. I am going to miss Hermana Rollins so much though!!! She is such an amazing companion and I have learned so much from her during these last two transfers. But, I know she is going to kill it in Mayaguez, finishing training another missionary!

I wanted to end with a quick quote for all of you that has really impacted me this week.

“In these times of commotion the Lord expects us to adjust our habits and be in His house more often.”
-Elder Neil L. Andersen

If you live close to the temple, never ever take it for granted! Go to the house of the Lord as often as possible for peace and comfort, for increased knowledge, and protection from temptation. It is a refuge for YOU!

Love,
Emma

Wow, this week was so incredible! It was probably the most miracle-filled week of the transfer!

First of all, if you didn’t know, flan is a huge thing in PR. And this week I tried pumpkin flan! Literally made my life. I love pumpkin more than I can express haha.

Also, we taught the cutest lady named Angie again this week and she loved our message! A lot of people try to tell us why we can only have the Bible as soon as we pull out the Book of Mormon, but Angie was so excited to read it!!

We also had a super great noche de hogar (FHE) with a recent convert and her husband who was already a member. It was so much fun! We also had an incredible lesson with Anangeli. We were able to be super bold with her because we love her so much! She is a really really special person and I am so excited for her to get baptized.

I also had a miraculous exchange this week. Hermana Jorgensen is so sweet and this was seriously the best exchange I’ve ever had. I learned so much and we accomplished our goals, and then some! My favorite experience from that day was a lesson we taught to Obdulia and her daughter Odalis! It was one of the most spiritual lessons of my mission and I know that they are truly searching for the truth and are going to find it!! We also talked with this lady named Sylvia. We were invited in and started singing “Families Can Be Together Forever.” She started crying and said, “Did you know my mom passed away just two months ago?” We were an answer to her prayers and I am excited to go back and teach her and her family!

A random experience for you all is that I was hugged by a really nice drunk guy last night! Awkward! Hermana Rollins and I were laughing forever haha.

Anyway, I hope everyone is still applying the things they learned from conference! Do not forget how important it is to follow the words of the prophets and do your part to help yourself and others around you continue growing in the gospel! Reach out your hand to lift others who are falling! Stand together with all those who want to follow the Savior and you will be unstoppable.

Love you all!
Emma