Category: Uncategorized

On monday, we went up to Springfield and had some fun shopping with the sisters. Sister Chatwin and I got matching dresses! We all stayed the night in Springfield. It was fun! 

Tuesday was a party! I was in Springfield with Sister Flake. It was just like old times! We did some visits and had some lessons. It was so gross and humid out. We were supposed to get a storm that night and we could just see the clouds rolling in. That night, we got some a thunderstorm!! I was so happy! Except for there was lightning and started more fires… some missionaries had to be evacuated on the California border. 

Wednesday was good. We drove halfway to Roseburg to exchange back with the sisters. We had a busy rest of our evening. We ripped out blackberries for 2 hours, so that was fun! If you didn't know, blackberry bushes are considered weeds here because they grow so fast and everywhere. There are so many wild blackberries! We'll just randomly stop and pick some for a snack. Its awesome! 

Thursday was also good! We had some lessons with some members. We stopped by this ladies house who just lost her husband last week. She needed help moving a shelf. We thought she just meant a shelf in a cabinet or something with the pegs that you move, but it wasn't. It had a ton of screws. We moved all the screws and wall ancors. It was fun! She had no level or any way to measure. She just took a piece of paper, drew how far down she wanted it, and we marked every hole off of that. It worked out fine! We had dinner with a sweet old lady, then went to a relief society activity.

We worked hard on Friday and Saturday. We visited a ton of people, went tracting, called so many people! We worked our butts off! But to no avail. We did not find much success this week. But we had a good member dinner on Friday and a super fun member dinner on Saturday. We had authentic Mexican food and sang hymns in Spanish. It was a good time! It was also so smokey here on Friday morning from all the wild fires.

Sunday was a good day! We went to church, then did some weekly planning. We also made cinnamon rolls for a zone potluck on Monday. We had dinner with this awesome member couple. It was a party because they are both major talkers!

We found out transfer news… Sister Chatwin and I are staying!!! Its crazy!! We are so excited! 

Even though we didn't find a bunch of success this week, we still had a ton of joy. I think that is something that Sister Chatwin and I have learned since being together is finding joy, even when things aren't always going well. We watched this video by Joseph B Worthlin and he gives some great advice on how to find joy in the hard times. Hope you get a chance to watch it!

Come What May, and Love It

Love,

Sister O'Barr 

Monday evening was a blast! We went up to President Hopkins house. He's in the mission presidency. Sister Chatwin and I convinced him to take us around to see his cows! It was so fun! They fed us dinner, then we had district council at their house. It was a party!

Tuesday was hot! I think it was the hottest its been so far. We went and visited people, then decided we needed a drink so we got some blended lemonades. Then we visited more people. We had dinner with the sweetest lady. She was so excited to have us over. The problem is that she is known for having expired food. She had salads and the dressing expired in 2021 and did not taste the best. She loved having us over and she is just so sweet. We then drove out to this lesson. This lady lives in the middle of nowhere on this dirt road in the mountains. It was awesome but kinda scary because this super old member wanted to drive us and she drove so slow. It took us almost 30 minutes to get there. We had an awesome lesson with the lady! She comes to church every week and we are going to try to get her on date for baptism!

Wednesday was so fun! We went over to a members house and spent the morning making cookies to drop off to people. The member has a super cute toddler and so we were hanging out with him while our cookies baked. Then we had a lesson with this sweet old couple. They had lemonade and vanilla wafers for us. It was so cute! We went and dropped cookies off to a bunch of people. We had a lesson with Grandpa Jim and Jeanne. We played dice with them and I won! We didn't have time for lunch and only like 30 minutes for dinner. It was a wild day. We went to the youth activity and they had a water balloon fight. We got soaked and it was so fun!

Thursday was crazy! We went to Costco with Sister Cornelius and Sister Petersen and got some fun stuff. Then we had interviews with President. We are getting so many sisters! My interview was good, nothing crazy happened. We went to lunch with a senior couple at Mod Pizza and taught them how to use the missionary app. It was fun! We ran back to Winston, had a lesson and visited some people. We ate an early dinner, then ran back to Roseburg for the restoration devotional. It went well! 

Friday was good. We went over and helped a member sort Legos. It was a pretty basic day, lots of visits and tons of lessons!

Saturday was wild! We went and visited people, had lunch, then one of our members took us on visits. We went to visit our one friend and she was drunk! I had never seen her like that. It was kinda sad. Our member was amazing and so kind. We had a few other awesome lessons. We had to do all our weekly planning on Saturday because we had a ton of meetings on Sunday. We had dinner with this adorable member family!

We had so many meetings on Sunday! We started off with church, then we had lunch and did our personal studies. Then we had a meeting with the stake presidency of Springfield and then Roseburg. They were an hour long each and we drove up to Roseburg for that one. Then we had dinner with a sweet member. 

We have transfers next week! I really hope I stay with Sister Chatwin. I love her a lot and we work so hard together! Guess we'll see next week! 

Hope you all have a great week! Love you all!

Love,

Sister O'Barr 

On Monday night, Sister Chatwin decided we should rearrange our entire apartment so we switched the study room and our bedroom. It was a lot of effort but fun! Sister Palmer and Sister Sterzer, some sisters serving in Eugene, came and stayed the night becausetheyvhad to present at zone conference in Medford. It was so much fun! We stayed up way too late talking. We just were having such a good time! 

On Tuesday, the sisters had to leave pretty early to get to Medford so we didn't get to hangout much. We went and vacuumed our car at a members house. Our car was so clean! We went and contacted a bunch of people! We had an awesome lesson with a lady who we just met. She has 4 daughters and loves the bible. We had a really good study and hopefully she'll come to the restoration devotional this week! We had dinner with some members at subway. Sister Palmer and Sister Sterzer met us at Grandpa Jims and Jeanies, a member and her husband who we are teaching. They are the funniest and some of my favorite people! We played a round of dice and laughed so hard. We were making so many jokes and just having fun! We stayed a little longer than we should have. Oh well, it was totally worth it! The sisters came back to our apartment and stayed the night again! We were up talking for a long time again. 

Wednesday was wild! We got up and made crepes for everyone. Then we left early to go get a carwash on our way to zone conference. We made sure our car was super clean because Elder Barker said whoever had the cleanest car would get a brand new truck. We got to zone conference early so we talked with Sister Cornelius for a bit and she is gonna take us to Costco next week after interviews! We had zone conference, which I played the organ for. It went well! Then we had car inspections and guess who had the cleanest car?? We did!! So guess who now has a brand new Ford Maverick? The elders were so mad! We are the only ones in our zone with a truck and the only sisters in the entire mission driving a truck. Its so fun! A member couple picked us up and we went to mutual which was at a gorgeous park! We had some good burgers and it was a party! 

We had so much fun on the 4th of July! We started off by making jewlery with a member. She is the sweetest lady on the planet! Afterwards, we went to a BBQ at another members house and they invited all the old people! It was too hot outside but they were keeping their house at 67 and all the old people were freezing! They had some good food and we played corn hole! We also got so many comments on our truck. Everyone likes it! We then went to another members house for dinner pt 2. It was fun to hangout with everyone! One member liked our truck so much, he asked if he could sit in it and had us open the trunk and everything. It was kinda funny! We came home and texted people. Then I did probably one of the most disobedient things I'll ever do on my mission. Some members came and picked us up at 9pm and took us to go see fireworks. We didn't get home till close to 11! It was so fun though! Definitely a party and probably not nearly as disobedient as some of the elders! 

Friday was good! So hot though! This whole week has been a furnace. It was 108 on Friday and it was so gross! When its that hot out, you have no motivation to do anything! But we still worked hard. We went and visited some people and had some awesome little lessons. We were standing outside talking to this guy for and hour and we were drenched in sweat afterwards! We had a meeting with some elders that night.

Saturday was so fun! We got up and went to help clean the church. Then Winston was doing a parade so we walked over and found a spot. We watched the parade, which was fun! Then we went down to the park where they were having this big festival with food trucks and booths. I got some lemonade and we shared some nachos. It was so fun! We went and visited some people, then had an awesome lesson with Grandpa Jim. Jeanie took us out to visit people. She took us for ice cream too because it was so hot. We came home and made some dinner, then did our personal study. Thats how crazy our morning was! We weren't able to do our personal study till just before bed! 

Sunday was good! We went to church and then did some weekly planning. Overall it was a good wind down from the busy week! I'm really tired of the hot weather so I hope it cools down a bit this week! 

This week has really grown my testimony of the power of fasting. One of our new members daughter just had triplets and one of them had been really struggling in the hospital. We decided we should talk ahout fasting with her and do a fast all together. We fasted on a Friday, then things seemed to just go downhill. Another one of the babies had to be hospitalized. But, a couple days later, both babies were doing so much better and both were able to return home! All three babies are healthy and at home and our member bore her testimony of fasting during sacrament meeting. It was so cool to see how fasting for others can impact them! If you didn't get an opportunity to fast this sunday, I'd encourage you to fast next Sunday! Prayer and fasting have so much power!

Love,

Sister O'Barr 

On Tuesday, we went and visited with quite a few members. We were all over the place. We also met this guy who is going through such a rough time. He asked us why God lets bad things happen to good people. We had a good discussion on it and he said we could come back and talk more!

Wednesday was fun. We had some extra miles so we decided to go out to one of the small towns we cover called Looking Glass. We visited some of the memebers we have out there as well as some previously contacted people. We were able to share a lesson with someone and she said we could come back and share another! Satan was definitely working hard though because it took us 4 wrong turns down other driveways and knocking on the wrong door before we finally found her house. We then had dinner with sweetest couple! They joined the church a couple years ago and are the sweetest ever! They want to be so involved with the gospel and help us. For dessert, she had these awesome little blackberry sorbet bars and they were awesome! Sis Wilbur told us to stop by whenever and snag an ice cream bar. I love her so much! Then we went to the elders quorum presidents house. We meet with the relief society president and the elders quorum president every week. He is known for giving what the sisters call a Bro Averett Ted Talk. We definitely got one and it was awesome! He is super smart and he definitely gave me some good insight on the gospel. He talked about how we need to come to our own knowledge of the gospel and that it's true. When we fully commit to our Heavenly Father, He can help us more and more. It's us that prevent the help we need!

Thursday was so fun and a little stressful. So we are doing another Restoration devotional in Roseburg so now I have so speak again. We also found out that we need to figure out musical numbers and the elders put us in charge of that. So we spent our morning trying to get another musical number set up. We had a fun lesson with a new member named Melanie. She is the sweetest! Her daughter just had triplets and 2 of them weren't doing so good. So we talked about the power of fasting and we all fasted on Friday for her grandkids. We then went to the Family history center to help our friend Tami do some family history. She loved it so much! 

Friday was busy but awesome! We decided we were going to hit the furthest town in our area, so we spent all day in Camas Valley and Tenmile. It was so pretty out there! We were there visiting people from 1 to 6! I was so tired afterwards. We were in the middle of the woods with no one around for quite a few contacts. It was fun! We then had dinner with this super nice old couple. It was one of their birthdays and they had an awesome cake! So fun! We were able to have an awesome lesson with Andy and the Wilburs were awesome! After everyone left, Sister Wilbur comes out with a box of those blackberry sorbet bars and gave it to us! She is the best!

Saturday was good. We were both so tired after our busy week. We contacted more people, then went to visit a bunch. We decided we needed a little treat so we stopped at dutch bros. We then went to this trailer park where we had quite a few contacts for people there. It was awesome because we were able to have a ton of nonmember lessons. We even found a guy who wants us to come back, and a cute family that we gave a Book of Mormon to and they want us to come back as well! So awesome! We then had a really wild lesson with this lady who lives in the middle of nowhere. She's a really old member who definitely has some memory problems. We had texted her and set up a time to vist, then when we showe up, she said that she didn't remember texting us or calling with us. Oh well, we were able to have a little lesson with her. We went to the church and I practiced piano because I was asked to play for zone conference next week.

Sunday was good! We went to church, then they had a ward potluck, which was fun. We did some weekly planning and had dinner with a nice family!

This week is going to be a blast! We have pday, then some sisters are going to stay the night with us on Tuesday. We have zone conference on Wednesday! Thursday is the Fourth of July, which should be fun!

I hope you all have a great week! Have a great fourth of July!! 

Love,

Sister O'Barr 

On monday night, Sister Bullock and Sister Week drove up from Medford and stayed the night. We were all carpooling to MLC the next morning. We had such a fun time hanging out! 

Tuesday was busy. We got up and made breakfast for everyone! Then we drove to MLC in Eugune. That drive is so much shorter now that I'm in Roseburg. MLC was decent. Then we exchanged with the Springfield sisters. I went with Sister Boulter to Springfield. It was fun! 

Wednesday was fun too! Its always interesting to see different areas and people. We had lunch with Sister Petersen, the mission nurse. She is the sweetest! Then we went to a service and scraped out old beehives so that they could put new bees in it. I've never done that before, so it was kinda cool. The lady let us try some of the honey and it was so good! We ran over to the Willamette Valley temple site and got to see how far along it is. We had a fun dinner with some members, then we drove to Drain, which is a tiny town halfway between Springfield and Roseburg. 

Thursday was super good! We went to visit this less engaged member and she is so cool! She joined the airforce and was an aircraft mechanic for 12 years, then went back to school and became a nurse. The relief society president called us during the lesson and asked if we could come help with a service. So we ran home and quickly changed, then went to help pack up this ladys house. We helped for 2 hours, then our rs present found out we didn't have lunch yet and it was 4pm. So she took us to subway real fast. We ran home and changed, and did some contacting and had a lesson, then we went to dinner. 

Friday was busy but good! We went out and visited a bunch of people. We drove past a gourmet hot dog truck and decided to stop for lunch. They had some fun hotdogs! Then, one of our members likes to take us out on visits with people so she drove us around and we had some lessons. Then we had a lesson with a new friend named Tami. She is so curious and its been awesome to teach her! We had a super fun dinner with this old couple, then another lesson with an old couple. This ward is really old! But its fun!

Saturday was good. We helped with a funeral for a guy in the ward that neither one of us had met. We helped clean up, then had lunch, then a couple awesome lessons. We had another lesson with Tami and showed her around the church. We had a member dinner with a lady who was a little lonely but loved having us over!

Sunday was a little bit more relaxing. We had church, then we weekly planned. We had dinner with another sweet old couple and did a bit of contacting. 

Today was awesome! A member took us to pick cherries and it was so fun! I really appreciate all the members here. They are so kind. This week should be awesome! We have a lot of good things planned.

We went to visit this less-engaged member in our ward who has muscular dystrophy and can barely move anymore. But she was the most positive and happy person I have met. She is grateful for the little things she can still do. It is cool to see someone who is going through such a hard time but still has put so much trust in the Lord. She had this awesome poem hung up in her house and I think it really shows how much Jesus Christ supports us. Hope you take second to read through it! 

Love you all! I know that we can find happiness and joy during the rough times if we just turn to the Lord! Have a great week!

Love,

Sister O'Barr 

On Tuesday, we had a ton of lessons and I said bye to quite a few members and friends that I love so much! I really have learned so much from serving in Klamath Falls. I love all the members and friends there! 

Wednesday was wild! We had to drive up to Medford, where I then caught the transfer van up to Roseburg! When I got there, I found out I was going to be companions with Sister Chatwin! I have met her at meetings but I have never served around her. We are serving in Winston, Oregon! We got to our area in the afternoon, then we got to work!

On Thursday, we worked hard and visited a ton of members. There is one member here who takes the missionaries around to visit less engaged members for 2 hours and then takes the missionaries out for ice cream. Its so fun! 

Friday and Saturday were so good! Sister Chatwin and I get along so well! I love her so much and am so excited to serve with her for this next transfer! We visited so many people and had such an amazing time! The weather here is so different from Klamath Falls. Its humid, rainy and cloudy and so many rainbows! Its also green here! Love it a ton. We work so hard and have so much fun! 

Sunday was my first time meeting the whole ward! We ended up singing with the youth for Fathers day! I got to call my dad, which was so good. I love him so much and am grateful for everything he does for me! We did some planning of our week as well. We had such a fun dinner! The member always does a “swig” bar and we make our own sodas. It was awesome! 

I know that God is so aware of us. He really does care about every aspect of our lives. My last transfer was a little rough, but I have been so much happier here with Sister Chatwin. She makes me laugh so much! I feel so comfortable around her and I definitely feel like she is one companion I will have become lifelong friends with. She's amazing, so kind and compassionate! I love her and am so excited for this transfer!

I love you all lots! I hope you all are enjoying your summer! Have a great week!

Love,

Sister O'Barr 

On Tuesday, we had two awesome restoration lessons. We also went and visited some people. We had a fun member dinner! 

Wednesday was fun! We had a ton of lessons and an awesome member dinner. They have puppies that are adorable! 

Thursday was good too. We went to the temple!It was nice to go and do an endowment session. We got chickfila, then went to Trader Joe's again. We drove back and chilled, then contacted a ton.

On Friday, we had some good lessons. We went to visit this old lady in a nursing home and it reminded me so much of when I worked in one. The weather was amazing so we sat outside in some shade and contacted a bunch. A cool miracle was that some media referrals we've been trying to get in contact with finally answered!! After several weeks of missed calls and texts, two finally answered the phone and we were able to set something up! We also had a good member dinner who had invited a friend over.

Saturday was decent. It started off at a farmers market, which was fun. Then we got lunch with the sisters. We had a lesson and did some weekly planning. We had a member dinner and they live on some awesome property with an amazing view!

I hope you all have an amazing week! Remember to just keep trying because the Lord will magnify any effort you put forth! Also, I'd highly recommend the BYU talk, His Grace is Sufficient by Brad Wilcox!

Love,

Sister O'Barr 

Hey guys! This week was busy! 

On Tuesday, we were on exchanges. Sister Hansen was with me in my area. It went pretty good! We had some awesome lessons and worked hard. We switched back and went to dinner, then to another lesson!

On Wednesday, we got up at 5 to drive over to Medford for a meeting at 8. We then had zone conference with Elder Gary B Sabin from 9-4:30. They fed us lunch in between. It was so cool to hear from Elder Sabin! He had so many good stories and it was so cool! We all went to chickfila afterwards. We ran over to Trader Joes and I got some good things. We sat at a park in Medford for an hour because the sisters we were staying with weren't home. That night was so fun! There were 6 sisters staying in this tiny apartment and it was actually a blast! We stayed up a little latter than we should have but it was good. 

The next morning, we had to be at our leadership meeting at 7:45. 6 sisters getting ready at the same time with only one bathroom wasnt nearly as bad as I thought it would be. We had another 3 hour meeting with Elder Sabin. My biggest takeaway from Elder Sabin is to have faith and to expect miracles. There is so much we can to with faith! We drove back to Klamath Falls. Elder and Sister Barker, a senior couple in charge of housing, came by and put a window AC unit in. So nice! 

Friday was busy! We had a lesson every hour staring at 12. It was awesome to just keep doing lesson after lesson. We had a member dinner, then a meeting with the zone leadership.

Saturday was decent. Sister Linares wasn't feeling good so we had a slower day. We did some weekly planning. We had lunch with the sisters and the zls. It was fun! We had 2 lessons to finish off the day.

Sunday was good! I played organ in sacrament meeting. Everyone in the ward always asks who taught me how to play the organ. I'm super grateful for my piano teacher! The skills I was taught have blessed so many others! We went over to our bishops house to return something. The Bishop's wife invited us in. She got us each a sparkling water and we sat outside and talked for like 45 minutes. It was not the most productive but it was fun! We went over for dinner with some awesome members. They made this whole greek meal and it was so good!

Today we are going to a memorial parade, then doing a service, then having a couple hours of pday. We get to go to the temple on Thursday so that'll be my full pday. I'm super excited to go to the temple! 

A super cool thing I have experienced is seeing the efforts of our ward to share the gospel. A neighbor of one of our newly baptized member noticed how much happier the member was, she started asking questions. The member was so excited to talk about her baptism and how happy following Christ has made her. Her neighbor is now being taught by us!!

Keep up your efforts to share the gospel! People can see the joy and happiness the gospel of Jesus Christ can bring to our lives! I hope you all have a fantastic week! 

Love,

Sister O'Barr 

On Monday, we had so much fun! The zls has everyone over for a bbq and it was a blast! We sat outside in the sun, I got a little red. We played Uno no mercy and it is so fun! We ate hamburgers and hotdogs and all sorts of snacks. We then went to district council. 

Tuesday was interesting but good! We had interviews with President. My parents had sent some packages to the mission office so they brought them down to me. It was fun to get them! My interview with President was good. Nothing crazy. In Sister Linares interview, President told her that I'm going to be transfered next transfer. So I have 4 weeks left here in Klamath. During interviews, Sister Cornelius and Sister Petersen did a whole waffle bar, which was fun. Then we went to lunch with the sisters at a thai place. It was good! We had an early dinner with a sweet member. We went over to the church to prepare for the restoration devotional. Overall the devotional went well! The musical number I did went really good! 

Wednesday was good except that Sister Linares was sick. I also got another package from my older sister! She sent me some healthy snacks and some other random things. I love her so much! It really was so kind of her. We contacted a bunch and had a few lessons.

Thursday was awesome! All our original plans fell through but we were able to set up a bunch of lessons. We also met with our new ward mission leader and talked through a bunch of stuff. We went to volleyball and had a ton of fun! Also, a random package appeared for me with mini junior mints. I found out they were from my parents but I had no clue all week!

Friday was fun! We went to this neighborhood about 10 miles out of town and parked our car. The weather was so nice! We visited a ton of contacts we had. We had a couple lessons, then went over to the church for this ward dinner. We helped set up, then we got to eat. It was a dessert auction to raise money for the young mens and young womens programs. People were buying plates of cookies for like $75. It was crazy! This one really rich family in the ward bought a plate of cookies, then gave it to us. Then another family did that, then another! So we had three plates of cookies. It was so kind of the members!

Saturday was fun too! We had a lesson with a new member, then went over to this birthday party for a friend. She is the sweetest person! We had such a good time! I think she really appreciated us coming. We did some weekly planning at the lake. It was so pretty! Very windy and a little cold. 

Sunday was good. We had church, then we went and visited some people. It has been windy and cooler, which has been so nice since our apartment has no AC. We had a really good member dinner. 

This week will be busy! We will be in Medford on Wednesday and Thursday. We are staying the night with some sisters there. We have zone conference on Wednesday with Gary B Sabin and MLC on Thursday. We have to be at zone conference at 8 and it ends at 4:30. I hope they feed us lunch and we have a couple breaks. If not, I might die!! Should be awesome though to hear from Elder Sabin! I love his talk he gave in October 2023, Hallmarks of Happiness. I would highly recommend you give it a read! One of my favorite quotes from it is “In God’s eyes, kindness is synonymous with greatness.” 

I hope you have a fantastic week! Don't forget how important being kind is!! Love you all!

Love,

Sister O'Barr 

On Tuesday, we has mlc on zoom for only an hour. It was interesting for sure. I We had some lessons, then I practiced the musical number I'm doing for the resto devo. I'm playing the accompaniment part for a lady in the ward.

Wednesday was good! We had a bunch of lessons. We also went to young womans and talked with all the girls!

Thursday we had more lessons! We also helped this lady move a dresser. We went and played volleyball and we also went on exchanges. I went with Sister Lunt in her area! Their apartment has ac, which is so nice. Ours does not and we cannot figure out how to keep it cool.

On Friday, I was in the other area and we had one lesson and some other random things. No one in their ward has been responding to them so we've been trying really hard to help them. We exchanged back right before dinner.

Saturday was my 8 month mark! Crazy that I am almost half way! Everything fell through on Saturday. Even the secondary things we had set up after the first things canceled. We had no clue what to do. So we prayed and ended up going to a members house. They are such a fun and kind family. They immediately welcomed us in and gave us a snack and started talking with us. They had a good list of people for us to go visit so thats what we ended up doing the rest of the day!

Sunday was fun! We went over to the sisters ward and had them introduce everyone to us. Its something President wanted us to do. We came back to our area. After sacrament meeting, all the women were given chocolate bars. Then they ended relief society 20 minutes early and had a whole bunch of snacks and cake and such. It was fun! We went and had an awesome lesson with Shannon and then had such a fun dinner with a member family. 

I hope you all had a fantastic mothers day! I am so grateful for my mom. She always supports me in everything that I do. I love her so much!

Hope you all have a fantastic week and remember to look for the Lord in your life!

Love, 

Sister O'Barr