Month: December 2023

On Monday, we went to the coast and it was so fun! The weather couldn't have been better!

On Tuesday, We invited one of our friends to be baptized and she accepted! She is so excited to be baptized. The Spirit was so strong in that lesson and it was cool to see that she felt the Spirit as well. We had dinner with a member and it was fun. Then we met up with the sisters to do exchanges. I went to the YSA ward with Sister Chaddock. 

On Wednesday, I was in the YSA ward. We went and knocked on a few doors, then went to the Chick-fil-A truck for lunch. We then walked around campus. We had a lesson with a YSA member who actually helped change a tire for the lady who we just put on date for baptism. I told him that his willingness to serve made such a big impact on her and now she is on date to be baptized. Afterwards, Sister Chaddock told me that she had never seen him look so happy. It was cool to tell him how he is influencing others. We had dinner at our bishops house. It was so fun! Their son just got home from his mission in Ghana a month ago and he wanted to make us all Ghanaian food. The YSA elders and the other sisters were there too. It was so much fun! The food was interesting. There was some sort of chicken rice dish that I would say was similar to Indian food. He had made fried plantains, some sort of bread thing and fufu. It was odd. It was a good time. We switched back companions as well.

On Thursday, a cool miracle that happened was that we were able to find someone to come to our lesson with our friend that day. We had reached out to so many people during the week to see if they could come to this guys lesson. Since he is a single man, we can't go into his house unless we have another woman with us. We called probably 10 more women that morning and everyone was either out of town or busy. We had one lady say she would try to be free by then but we weren't sure. So we just decided that we would still good and we could always teach on the front porch. About an hour before the lesson, a member texts us and said she could come! We were so grateful! And the lesson went to really well. We gave him a Book of Mormon! 

Friday was so weird. We had NMT, my last one! I graduated from training! We also had District Counsel, which was good. We had a funeral for Elder Anderson, the only elder in our zone going home. Then we ate lunch at the Institute. We then went to help a member move. So we helped her for a few hours, then she fed us dinner. 

On Saturday, we went and playes soccer with a bunch of people from our ward. They do it every Saturday. We came home, got ready, and went to a less engaged members home. We had a good lesson with her. Then we walked downtown. We met up with the sisters for lunch. We went and helped our member move. We then went to dinner at a members. We came home and deep cleaned the apartment. We had sleepover with the sisters for Christmas eve and I wanted the apartment clean. 

On Sunday, we went to church. They had a ton of musical numbers, including me. I played a piano solo. We talked with a bunch of members. We came home, did some planning, then went to a memebers house from another ward. They invited all the missionaries to come over at some point during the day. Then we had dinner with a member family. They are so fun and I greatly appreciate them. We made gingerbread houses with the kids and it was a blast. We ended the day at our bishop's house. We played a bunch of games and acted out the nativity. It was such a good night! The sisters slept over, we made gingerbread cookies and decorated a gingerbread house.

Today, we went on a hike at Mary's Peak, then did a big potluck breakfast. We are hanging out at the church all day. We are going to a few members houses today for Christmas.

I hope you all have an awesome Christmas! 

Love,

Sister O'Barr 

This week was so fun! And it helped me to realize the Lord is aware of the people we are teaching.

On Tuesday, we did exchanges. Another Sister came to my area. We went to a service. We had a lesson with a lady and it kinda turned into a bash. We had dinner at a members. They have a son on a mission in Spain. They are the best! We had so much fun. The mom kept saying to call her if we ever needed anything. She even offered toliet paper, which resulted in me telling about how when we first showed up at our apartment, there was no toliet paper and the other set of sisters had to bring us a roll.

On Wednesday, we got to go to the temple! It was pouring rain the entire time. The Portland temple is so pretty! I always leave the temple feeling so peaceful and happy! We took photos even though it was raining. We came back to the church and played volleyball and chair soccer. 

Thursday was crazy! We went to this Christmas potluck. Our friend showed up and all the members were so welcoming! We contacted a bunch of people and set up lessons. We met with a member who is from England but got married and has lived here ever since. We then went to the church for a lesson for our friend. She didn't show up so we decided to go practice for a musical number in the chapel. The Lord was in every interaction that night. She showed up just as some elders were leaving and they were able to bring her to us. Then, she had a flat tire so we said a prayer to help calm her down, then went out to her car. Apparently she had run over a curb while coming to the church. Neither Sister Flake or I had ever changed a tire so we tried calling the elders that had just left. They had an appointment so they couldn't. The other set of elders that live across from the church weren't home so they couldn't help either. Then, a member from the YSA ward pulled up. He was going to play basketball. We asked him if he could help and he said he could! He put on the spare and our friend was able to get home safely! We made sure to point out to our friend that the Lord is aware of our needs and will help us through our hard times!

Friday was fun! We had NMT and district counsel. We had lunch at the Institute and played games. We had a super good lesson with our friend who's on date for baptism. And dinner with the member family that I actually had dinner with my very first night of the mission. It was fun and they sent us home with a bunch of pizza. 

We had so much fun on Saturday! We signed up to help with our ward Christmas party so we had to be there at 8am. We went and got to decorate the gym. The theme was Christmas in the Southwest and we put the cutest pepper lights on the tree. They had breakfast burritos and all sorts of fun stuff. We had a friend come and she loved it! We then went to the Institute for lunch and we played pool. Sister Huffaker and I crushed Sister Flake and Chaddock. It was fun! Then we had a lesson with a guy and we might start teaching him. We had a few other lessons with members that day and a member dinner. 

Sunday was also super cool! We had church and the lesson in Relief Society was awesome. Then we met with a member who just moved in. She was super cool. Then we had to drive about 10 miles south into the middle of the woods to this members house. Everything was so green! They have a really cool house in the middle of the woods. It was fun to talk to them. They were cool people. We then had dinner with a member family. They are just the best! They invited us over for Christmas Eve!

I'm excited for Christmas! It has been cool to help others remember the reason behind Christmas and to help them share the Light of Christ as well! How can you help other's feel loved this week?

We are just chugging along, doing the work and having a ton of fun while doing so! I hope you guys have a great week! 

Love,

Sister O'Barr 

On Tuesday, everything fell through because everyone is sick. We decided we were gonna make cookies to bring to people. So we did that, then went and dropped them off. Then we decided to knock on a few doors. It sucked. Everyone was rude and it kinda made both me and Sister Flake really discouraged. So we met up with the other sisters for dinner at Five Guys. They are always so fun! They had gone to Eugune for some leadership thing and stopped at Target on their way home and got us all matching Christmas socks! Definitely made our day better. 

We had a ton of fun on Wednesday. We went to the young mens and young womens activity. We had been looking forward to it all day! A member in our ward owns a tree farm and he does these cute reindeer to give out to people. The activity was putting the reindeer together! It was freezing cold out but they had a big bonfire going and it was just so fun. Sister Flake and I made one. Next week, the youth are going to go drop them off at different people's houses. 

Thursday wasn't the most exciting. We had a few lesson. We also made a ton of peanut butter chocolate chip cookies for District counsel. 

On Friday, we had NMT and district counsel. Everyone loved the cookies. We ate lunch and played games at the Institute. We had a few lessons and a service.

Saturday was fun! In Corvallis, the church puts on a Christmas event called Light the World where they have a service activity and a bunch of choirs come and sing. We walked downtown to give out Light the World flyers. We went to the service portion of the Light the World event and a friend showed up. She is the nicest lady I've every met. We also went and knocked doors for an hour and a half. This is where I realized that the Lord was aware of our efforts. At the start of the week, we had a terrible tracting experience and were really discouraged. But we decided that we would try again because we are really trying to find people. So we said a prayer and forced ourselves out of the car. The whole tracting experience was so much better that time! No one was extremely rude and we just had much better responses. It helped me realize that we just have to keep trying. The Lord knows we are trying and it was a tender mercy that we had a much better experience. After that, we went back to the church for the choir portion of Light the World. We got to listen to a few choirs from the community. Almost our whole zone showed up.

On Sunday, we had church at a different building and it was only sacrament meeting. We then went to another portion of Light the World. It was more choirs from the community. We helped clean up chairs, then did weekly planning. We asked a member if we could come over and watch the Christmas devotional with them. They said of course and fed us dinner as well, which was nice.

I hope everyones week goes well and remember to be nice to people! Think about how you can share the light of Christ with everyone around you!

Love,

Sister O'Barr