Month: September 2024

We went to Bandon on Monday. We had so much fun! We went to the Coquille River Lighthouse, then walked old town Bandon and got some lunch. Then we played games on a beach for a couple hours. It was so fun! 

I didn't get to do a lot of missionary work on Tuesday because we were tied up with interviews all day. It was also Sister Cornelius birthday, so we got a cake and sang her happy birthday. My interview with President was pretty chill. I did tell him I wanted to be on a bike so guess we'll see next transfer! Us and the zone leaders loaded up into Presidents car and he drove us to President and Sister Hopkins house for a late lunch! The new mission nurse is so funny and she insisted on getting in the back. We tried to stop her and she goes, “Too late, I already farted on the seat.” We were all laughing so hard! Lunch was super fun! President drove us all back, then we came back to Winston and went to an early dinner. We had a lesson, then went on exchanges. I went with Sister Maile to their area. I definitely got the short end of the stick because their ac was broken and it was 100° that day, so their apartment was hot! And they had run out of toliet paper and had been using paper towels. I don't know why they didn't just stop and buy some toliet paper. But that was interesting!

Wednesday was good. I was with Sister Maile in Roseburg. We did some stuff, lots of studies and prep and contacting people. Also our app that we do all of our missionary work on was down all day Wednesday, Thursday and half of Friday, so that was frustrating. We got some really good tacos for dinner! We exchanged back and I was glad to be back at my apartment with actual toliet paper.

Thursday was fun! We went out to one of the little towns in our area. We visited some people, then went up to our friends house. She lives on this not well maintained road but it is so pretty! We helped her make some bake apples for a relief society activity that night. We went to a members for dinner, then to the relief society activity. 

I had a good day on Friday too! We visited with a lot of members and shared a ton of messages about conference. We went on visits with a member of our ward. We had dinner with a sweet lady.

We helped clean the church on Saturday. We invited a ton of people to church, then got lunch at a little local place. We visited some members who haven't been to church in 30 years. Super nice, they gave us homemade grape jelly from grapes they had grown. We had a couple good lessons, had dinner with a super funny member of the ward. Then we had another lesson. We had an awesome little miracle happen on Saturday night! A lady had called us asking for some help mowing her lawn. She also said that she was lonely and wanted to make friends. So we invited her to church and she said she'd be there!! 

Sunday was good! We went to church and had several friends show up! They had a linger longer, so that was fun! We came home and did some planning, visited some people and had a fun dinner!

General conference is this weekend! I love hearing the prophets and apostles speak and testify of Jesus Christ. Hope you are able to watch some of it!

I miss you all! Hope you have a fantastic week!

Love,

Sister O'Barr 

Tuesday was the day to feed the missionaries Dominos pizza. We had lunch with a less engaged member and she got dominos pizza. We also had it for dinner at a different members house. We had a bit of a slower day, visited some people and had a good lesson with one of our friends. Dinner was with one of my favorite member families! Their family is just so cool and focused on Christ! They build a giant fort for general conference! 

Wednesday was good too! We went and visited with this lady. We've tried to get in contact with her daughter and we finally caught her! We had a good little lesson with them. Then we went to an old couple who love to talk and they are everyones grandparents. They are so sweet! They have a candy bowl on their coffee table and always tell us to take whatever we want. They gave us watermelon too. Its so hard to get out of there because they just talk a ton but its fun! We had dinner with another sweet old couple. Sister Maile and Sister Bills came and stayed the night with us since we had to leave early for zone conference. We made apple crisp out of some apples a member let us pick from their yard. It was delicious!

We had zone conference on Thursday! We left bright and early so we could get chickfila for breakfast! It made me so happy! Zone conference was good too. Lots of good instruction and things to apply in my missionary work. They focused a lot of being righteous leaders and making sure our motives when correcting others is good. We had car inspections, then headed back to Winston. Our members who were gonna have us over have a sick kid, so guess what they dropped off? Dominos pizza! It was a good day overall.

Friday started off good! We helped a lady in our ward pack up a trailer. Then we had a good lesson with a friend named Austin. There are always a bunch of little kids running around during the lesson. We contacted a bunch of people, then went to a mexican restaurant with one of our friends. It was some good food! 

We had a blast on Saturday! We started off by going to the melon festival they held here in Winston. They had a parade and it was so fun! We helped a member staple some netting stuff on a fence, then went out to Camas Valley to do some contacting. Camas is about a 20 minute drive from Winston and it is gorgeous! We visited with the coolest member ever! We visited a few less engaged members out there. A huge miracle was that every door we knocked on, we got a positive response! We had dinner with some converts and it was so fun! Then we had a very interesting lesson with a guy and we've decided that we won't continue to teach him.

Sunday was good except for Sister Lunt wasn't feeling well. I was asked to play organ and it went well. We ate lunch, did our studies and planned. We had dinner with a family that has 6 crazy kids. They live in a really pretty area too.

Overall, this week was pretty good and we had some awesome lessons! There were so many little miracles that I saw. I recently read Elder Dieter F Uchtdorf's latest talk, “A Higher Joy” and I love what he says about finding joy: 

“If we seek reasons to be angry, to doubt, to be bitter or alone, we will find them too. However, if we seek joy—if we look for reasons to rejoice and to happily follow the Savior, we will find them. We rarely find something we are not looking for. Are you looking for joy? Seek, and ye shall find.”

Hope you find ways to look for the joy this week! Love you all!

Love,

Sister O'Barr 

Monday was a blast! We went to President and Sister Hopkins house and watched the thing for President Nelsons birthday. Then President Hopkins told us about one of his brand new baby cows and told us to take our truck out on their property to see it. So we loaded the truck up with sisters and drove over to see the calf. It was so cute! We had dinner there. They make the best burgers! Then we had district council. It was a fun evening.

Tuesday we had a leadership meeting. It was in Roseburg this time, which was so nice! I saw Sister Chatwin, which made me so happy!! She brought me flowers and candy corn for my birthday, which was so sweet of her. I miss her so much! Just a few more changes and such. A big push for obedience. Sister Chatwin and I cannot sit next to each other. We are terrible and laugh at everything! 

Wednesday and Thursday were busy and a little stressful. The elders in a different ward were teaching a lady and she was supposed to get baptized this week. But they found out she lives in our ward and wanted to get some lessons scheduled with us. We had to find members for those last minute lessons they scheduled and all of it was stressful. But we had some awesome dinners both nights! And everything got figured out for the baptism!

We had a funeral on Friday for a lady in the ward. I think I've been to more funerals here in Winston than I have in my entire life! A member gave us a 25lbs watermelon they grew in their garden. It is so good! We had some good lessons, helped decorate the church for a dance and went on exchanges. Sister Lefler came with me in Winston!

I was so tired on Saturday. And it was just one of those days where no one was home or wanted to visit and everything canceled. So I had to figure that out. But we did some good stuff. We went to an awesome stake relief society event. We had a couple friends come and they loved it!

Sunday was good! We went to church, then visited with some super fun members who likes to sing hymns with us. We did some planning, then had dinner with some members. 

I've been watching the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square world tour and it is so good! The songs are all focused on finding hope in Christ. You should definitely try to watch one! 

I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Sister O'Barr 

This week was good but also an adjustment. 

Tuesday was busy. We finished getting Sister Chatwin all packed up. Then we drove to Roseburg and worked on a report for the stake president. Then we went to the transfer spot! I found out I was companions with Sister Lunt! I served with her down in Klamath for 2 transfers. She goes home a transfer before me. We did some quick grocery shopping, then some planning. We had a lesson, then had dinner with a fun member couple. 

Wednesday was good. We went back to Roseburg to work on that report again. Then back to Winston for a couple lessons. We went and visited a bunch of people and had some good lessons. We went to Young Womans and introduced Sister Lunt to them.

Thursday was so hot! I think it got up to 107! We were melting. We visited some people, then decided it was too hot so we chilled at the church and contacted for an hour. It was good! We went and visited more people, then had a little lesson with our new member. 

Friday was still too hot but it was good! We had a member message, then went to Roseburg to have lunch with all of our Sisters. We only had one other Sister change so we met her. We had another member message. Then a little miracle happened. We were supposed to go visit with another member, but they texted us and canceled last minute. As we were trying to figure out what to do, one of our friends texted us and asked if we could come visit right then. It was awesome that she texted us and we were able to have a great visit! We had some great visits and contacts, then a member dinner!

We had a good Saturday. We got up and went and helped clean the church. We had an awesome lesson with one of our friends. We also had an amazing lesson with our friend Jackie. She has been taught for 6 years and just an addiction she is working on overcoming. We brought a different member to the lesson and it was just what she needed! She is thinking about setting a date for her baptism! But then we had an awesome dinner with the Barrs! Some of my favorite members! We had another member message after that.

Sunday was my birthday!! I made zucchini pancakes. I've learned you can stick zucchini in anything. We had a meeting at 7:30am, which was fine. We had church, Sister Lunt spoke. Then we had to go to Roseburg for a meeting with the stake president. Then we did our studies and planning stuff. We had dinner with the bishop and his family. She made homemade mac and cheese, my request. And we had brownie sundaes. It was so fun! I appreciated all the birthday wishes from everyone! Thank you!!

I hope you all get a chance to watch President Russell M Nelsons birthday broadcast today and have been ministering to the one!

I hope that you all are having a great week! 

Love,

Sister O'Barr 

 On Tuesday we met with a less engaged member who's working on getting back to the temple. We met up with Sister Bills and Sister Maile to go on our last exchanges of the transfer. I went with Sister Bills in her area! It was fun! Sister Bills and I had a good conversation and talked a lot about some of the struggles she is having. 

The next day was fun! We had so much study time with new missionary training and spanish study. We went and had a lesson with this one lady and I've realized how much I've grown as a teacher. We switched back! Sister Chatwin and I drove all the way back to Winston when we realized that Sister Maile didn't grab her stuff out of the car so we called them and drove all the way back. We had dinner with a super sweet couple. The members always have a giant garden. The ward came and helped them plant this year. They took us out to the garden and they have giant dahlias! They were gorgeous!! He walked around and cut us a whole bunch so we have a beautiful bouquet in our house. They also gave us a ton of veggies, zucchini, lemon cucumbers and tomatoes. We went to young womans and we were playing volleyball. I accidentally hit a ball right into a girls face but she was fine. Everyone was laughing so hard!!

Thursday was good! We went and visited people, had lunch, then went on visits with a member in our ward. We visited with a sweet lady who gave us more tomatoes! Then we had dinner with a super funny lady who lives on a ranch. She has sheep, cows and horses. She had us help feed her sheeps and horses.

Friday was also so good! We went and visited with a member and a friend. We were supposed to have a lesson with another friend but he didnt answer his door. We decided we needed to order a custom cake for Monday so we ran inside a little grocery store and did that. We had dinner with a newer member. Her husband is in culinary school and made scallops! We had two more lessons after that! 

We had such a good day on Saturday! We first went to a funeral for lady in the ward. We then had a lesson at the church with a memeber who hasn't been to church in about 10 years. But he was so genuine and really wanted to come back to church. We then had a lesson with a member referral! He is the grandson of a member in our ward. His grandma has been inviting him to church every week and he's come twice now! We drove to Roseburg and work on the stake monthly report on the computers at the stake center. Then we went and visited people, then had dinner at home. We went and helped another member move some furniture and did a little lesson with them.

Sunday was chill! We went to church and then some planning. We visited some people. We were just waiting for transfer news all day! We made zucchini bread and I helped Sister Chatwin pack.

Today is gonna be fun! We are running some errands, sending a package home, and picking up our cake. We are planning on going to the u-pick farm with our district, getting lunch and going thrifting. Sister Chatwin and I are wearing our matching dresses and it'll be a fun last day together!

I came across this poem this week and I has helped me understand how I can measure my success, especially on a mission! Its from Ralph Waldo Emerson: