Sister O'Barr

On Tuesday, we had MLC in Roseburg! I miss Roseburg! I got to see Sister Chatwin and it made my day! We tried to convince President to put us together for our last transfer. The drive was super foggy but it was good. The meeting was pretty chill, we are switching the time of pday, so I won't be able to text until 11 am my time for the rest of my pdays. We had a good dinner when we got home!

On Wednesday, Sister Eubanks bike broke, again. So we walked it back home and reevaluated our day. We spent it walking around, visiting people, we tracted a bit and had a fun member dinner!

Thursday was fun but we didn't get to do a whole lot! We texted a ton of people to invite them to this Christmas concert that was happening at our church building. We had interviews with President. He was running super behind on interviews. We waited forever. But it was fun to see Sister Cornelius and Sister Caras, the mission nurse. 

Friday was busy! We had a good lesson with a returning member. We visited with a social media referral. She lives in an assisted living facility and is super funny! We visited with another returning member. She is so sweet! While we were walking back, this random member who was stopped at a stop light gave us $20. That was super nice! We then visited this one record that we have and both her and her son were interested. We had an interesting lesson with our friend who speaks Hindi. We put together this whole PowerPoint about the Restoration in Hindi. 

We spent the majority of Saturday at this event for foster families. We helped run games and crafts. There were a ton of missionaries there and it was fun! We had dinner with a family that has 4 little boys. They are wild but it was fun! Then we went to this Christmas choir concert. It was honestly so good. It was an interfaith choir that a member from our church runs. It was cool! 

We went to church on Sunday, then we had Summer's baptism! It was so good! Her 8 year old sister got baptized too. It was honestly just so cute. Kids are awesome! It was so spirit filled and made me realize how grateful I am for the knowledge of eternal families! It brings me so much peace and comfort knowing that I'll be with my family after this life!

I love you all lots and miss you! Hope you have a great week!

Love,

Sister O'Barr 

On Tuesday, we went tracting and had lots of success. We found two people who wanted to learn more, which was so cool because we hadn't been finding lots of success with it last week. We had two dinners, one with an active member family, then with a less engaged guy and his mom. 

We helped one of our members bake a few things for Thanksgiving. It was honestly so fun and definitely made it feel more like Thanksgiving. We went to a friendsgiving that a family in the ward put on. There were so many people that showed up and so much good food! We had two less engaged members come so we talked with them for a while. It was so good!

Thanksgiving was a blast! We went over to this less engaged lady's house because she really wanted us to come. Then we went to our next house. The food at their house was so good! They also taught us how to cut snowflakes. It was so fun! They drove us home and sent us home with a bunch of food. We went over to a less engaged members house. She has twins that aren't baptized and had lots of questions. We are going over next week to talk to them about the Plan of Salvation! We went over to the bishops house to share a quick Thanksgiving message, then we went on exchanges. 

I was in Gold Hill with Sister Bean on Friday. It was good, had some less engaged member lessons! I got this awesome burrito for dinner filled with fries, carne asada and more. It was so good! 

We switched back on Saturday morning! I'm always glad to be back in my area. We went tracting and had a funny conversation with an older lady. We had a fun dinner too!

We had a good time at church, had some lessons and tracted a bit more. We ate some good leftovers for dinner. We've made a ton of snowflakes so we hung them all from our ceiling. It is so cute!! 

It has been freezing cold and super foggy this past couple of days. I even pulled out my coat because I was so cold! 

We are decorating sugar cookies with some elders today. It should be fun! I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving! If you haven't already, definitely look into Light the World and look for opportunities to serve others! It'll definitely help you focus more on the Savior this Christmas season!!

Love,

Sister O'Barr 

Tuesday was super windy but we visited a bunch of people and had some good lessons. I also figured out how to replace break pads on our bikes. We had a good member dinner too!

Wednesday was pouring rain but we went out in it anyways. We visited with this less engaged member and she gave us lemon bars. We also had a meeting with some of the other missionaries.

We were able to go help the ladies quilt on Thursday! They are so excited that we want to learn! We then visited a bunch of people, then had a lesson with a couple who are both powerlifters and have a giant gym in their garage. Its awesome! We had another lesson with the guy who speaks Hindi. Its so hard to tell what he's understanding. We tried using google translate but it doesn't work the same. 

We biked downtown on Friday and visited a bunch of people. We also knocked on a ton of doors. We did so much tracting this week. We had dinner with a returning member and it was fun! She has the cutest cat and dog that are best friends. 

We spent so much time biking on Saturday. Someone that we had knocked on their door on Friday told us to come back in the morning, so we did and he didn't answer. So we biked back to our apartment. We were trying to figure out where we should go tract and we felt like we should go to this one apartment complex. The first door we knocked on was a member couple who just moved in that week and hadn't gotten their records moved. They didn't know what time church would be and so we were able to talk to them. It was awesome! We had a good dinner with another returning member! 

Sunday was pretty chill. We went to church and had a bunch of meetings and planning stuff. We had a lesson with one of our friends! 

It was so cool that we were able to follow a prompting of the Spirit and were led to some amazing people! I've definitely learned that the Spirit is one of the best gifts that we have! 

I hope you all have an amazing Thanksgiving! Don't forget to show gratitude to others and to God! 

Love,

Sister O'Barr 

On Tuesday, we had MLC over zoom. It was pretty good. Nothing crazy this time. We called a bunch of people, then we got to go to the temple! It was awesome to get to go. We got to visit with a sweet less engaged family who lives up on a hill and you can see all of Medford. 

Wednesday was fun! We went and got donuts for my 100 days left! Sister Eubanks bishop from home was in town and she got permission for us to go to lunch with him. It was fun! It was cold and pouring rain though, which wasn't very fun to bike in. We visited with a couple other people. Then we had a meeting with the Stake president. We had a fun dinner with a member. Her grandson is so funny!

We were on exchanges on Thursday! I went with Sister Martinez into her area. We had a couple lessons, some spanish stuff. We got the best mexican food around. It was so good! We exchanged back that evening. We had a church tour with a man who was a social media referral. He's from India and speaks very limited English. He's super interested but it'll be hard to teach him because of the language barrier. 

Friday was definitely interesting but good. We had a couple lessons with some members. Then, we tried to visit this one lady that we had set a lesson up with when a security guy came up to us as we walked to her door and told us that people here weren't allowed visitors and we weren't even allowed to knock on her door. He was super nice about it though so not a big deal. We tried to call her and she didn't answer so we left. We had an awesome member message though with this single mom and her kid. He loves to bake and wanted to make us cookies. It was so fun! 

On Saturday, we had a funky day but it was super fun! One of our sisters was sick but they really wanted to go to this lesson with a new guy they were teaching. So we met up with them and I went with Sister Bean to their lesson. The guy was an hour and a half late… but it was a great lesson! Sister Eubanks and I then went to the Quackenbush's for some sewing and dinner! Sister Quackenbush has a whole shop for sewing. She helped me made this cute tote bag and Sister Eubanks made a scripture case. It was so fun! Then they fed us bangers and mash for dinner. It was a party! They also invited us over for Thanksgiving, which is going to be awesome! Then, I accidentally got us locked out of the apartment… We were going to visit some people and as we left, I soon realized that I had left the keys hanging up instead of putting them back in my bag. After a couple calls, we figured out who the housing people in Medford were and they came and unlocked the apartment for us. The wife was so funny because she just kept commending us for how much cleaner it was! They are getting us new blinds too and were super kind! 

Sunday was good! We went to church, then had a few lessons. We have a member family who adopted a 10 year old girl and she wants to be baptized so thats exciting! We had a fun dinner too!

I studied a lot about prayer this week and I really liked this quote from President Russell M Nelson: 

“Nothing opens the heavens quite like the combination of increased purity, exact obedience, earnest seeking, daily feasting on the words of Christ in the Book of Mormon, and regular time committed to temple and family history work.” 

I hope you all have a great week! Don't forget to pray! I love you all!

Love,

Sister O'Barr 

On pretty much every day but Friday, we had 3 or 4 lessons planned. The people texted us back in the morning, then we’d bike to their house and they wouldn’t be home or were sick. Or they would cancel in the morning and we’d have to replan our entire day because we had planned it around those lessons. We used so much time biking to and from places. But other than that, the week went well! We had dinners almost every night with some fun members. We have such a young ward!

We went on exchanges. Sister Bean came with me to my area. She hasn’t been out very long but is super sweet. While walking around a neighborhood, this lady started talking with us. She told us she has some really good friends who are members. She was pretty set in her church but she told us that she could see the light of Christ in us and in our smiles, so that was cool.

We had some fun services. We had emailed a less engaged member and she invited us to come help her and a bunch of older women quilt. They meet at the church every week and help pin quilts, then when they are done sewing them, they donate them to the church. It was fun and the ladies thought it was so fun that we came! We also helped pull weeds for this less engaged member. I guess I should say, we dug out giant 5 foot tall weeds from her lawn. They were massive and required we used a shovel to dig out the roots. It was fun!

On Friday, everything went through! We had 5 lessons, we were able to find a family that wants to learn more about the gospel. They are so cool! An awesome member picked us up for dinner. We had a good time with them!

Saturday was interesting. We decided we should go downtown and do some public contacting since we have downtown Medford in our area. I had done it in Corvallis and there were tons of people out. But there was no one! We were so confused because we were passing all the shops and just no one was there. We walked around a ton, visited some people.

Sunday was good. We were both asked to speak. It went pretty good. I’ve spoken in every ward I’ve served in! We had ward council and a couple lessons that went really well! We had a fun dinner too.

I spoke on personal revelation and there’s a quote a I really liked that I used from President Nelsons talk, “Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives.” I hope you all enjoy it:

“Nothing opens the heavens quite like the combination of increased purity, exact obedience, earnest seeking, daily feasting on the words of Christ in the Book of Mormon, and regular time committed to temple and family history work.”

I miss you all lots! Hope that you have a great week!

Love,

Sister O’Barr

On Monday, I got permission to drive the mini van with all the sisters so we went to lunch and Target! It was so much fun!! 

Tuesday was pretty good. We went to help this member in our ward who broke her wrist do some cleaning. We got a call from our landlord because they wanted to send someone to come fix our leaky sink immediately. That totally changed our plans so we biked back to our apartment to let the guy in. He fixed our sink, which is so good! We then biked to a further out part of our area and spent the entire afternoon contacting out there. We visited with lots of members. Our last appointment offered to give us a ride home because they had a bike rack. We were so grateful! 

We had interviews with President Cornelius on Wednesday. It was pretty chill. Afterwards, we had 2 friend lessons. Both of the guys were a little interesting and I'm not sure they will progress. We biked to this cute family's house. 

We had zone conference on Thursday! We learned lots of good things, like how to run a council properly, how to be dignified. It was some good conversations. We came home, did some study stuff. Then we had dinner with such a fun member! She gave us little Halloween goodie bags. We had such a fun conversation. Then we asked if she needed any help and she had me remove some arms off a chair.

Friday was fun! We went on exchanges with the Spanish Sisters. I went to their area and I felt so bad for Sister Martinez and Sister Eubanks. It poured rain, all day long. Literally everything canceled on them so Sister Eubanks and I spent some time replanning our day before we went on exchanges. I was with Sister Kukahiko and we had a blast! Lots of lessons, and a super fun dinner. I got to have some good conversations with her and get to know her. It was fun! 

We exchanged back the next morning. We had a great day planned, we were going to get lunch downtown and then public contact and visit a bunch of people we have not been able to. Well, Sister Eubanks' bike broke on the way there. So we had to figure out what to do. Dairy Queen was close so we got lunch and sat for a minute to replan our day. We ended up ditching our bikes at a members house who lived nearby. We walked around the entire area and visited a bunch of people. We had some great member visits. Then we had dinner with a couple and helped build a couch for them. And a table. We did a ton of church invites and wrote cute thank you cards to all our members who have fed us or come to lessons. It was good! 

Sunday was pretty chill. We went to church and we had a lesson. The guy was nice but I don't think he's gonna progress. We had dinner with some awesome members. They are so kind. We also did some planning for the week! 

In my studies this week, I spent some time studying my identity as a child of God and stumbled across this quote from Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf: 

   “I believe the Savior Jesus Christ would want you to see, feel, and know that He is your strength. That with His help, there are no limits to what you can accomplish. That your potential is limitless. He would want you to see yourself the way He sees you. And that is very different from the way the world sees you. The Savior would declare, in no uncertain terms, that you are a daughter or son of the Almighty God. Your Heavenly Father is the most glorious being in the universe, full of love, joy, purity, holiness, light, grace, and truth. And one day He wants you to inherit all He has.”

I hope you all recognize your true identity as a child of God. This truth gives you so much power and strength, especially during rough times! I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week! 

Love,

Sister O'Barr

On Tuesday, we went to MLC in Roseburg. I miss Roseburg! The Medford STLs drove us so I napped the entire ride both ways. It was nice. MLC was good. We talked about we can help the missionaries increase their spirituality. Overall, it was a really good discussion! We had a dinner with a fun member family.

Wednesday was my first adventure biking in the rain. It wasn’t bad! We visited with some older members. They were funny! We had an awesome lesson with a less engaged member! She was so sweet and you could see she had a genuine interest in coming back! We then helped a less engaged member who was trying to figure out a website for her work. We came home and ate dinner, then we got to drive to our last lesson because they were so far and we had exchanges right after that. We exchanged with the Sisters in Gold Hill, Sister Bean and Sister Blake. Sister Blake came with me back to Medford 3rd. I was Sister Blakes STL when she first came to the mission in Roseburg.

Our exchange was fun on Thursday but I might have killed Sister Blake on the bike. We had a busy day, and we biked pretty far. We started out at the top of our area and visited a ton of people there. Then we had a lesson at the bottom of our area, so we biked down there. We stopped at Wendys for a frosty and fries to refuel. We were able to visit with some older members. We exchanged back, then Sister Eubanks and I headed to Young Womans. We carved pumpkins with the youth and got to talk to all of them. It was fun! What wasn’t fun was trying to bike home with a pumpkin in one hand.

We had a long missionwide broadcast with Elder McKay of the Seventy. He talked a lot about Joseph Smith and it was a cool little broadcast. We were finally able to meet one of our friends! We did some tracting and actually found a really cool guy that was looking for a church! We had been knocking for like 30 minutes and no one was answering so we were going to leave. But we felt like we should keep going for a few more minutes. And I’m glad we did! Its cool how the Spirit guides us to those that are prepared to hear the gospel!! We should always listen to the Spirit! We had a lesson with a cool newer member. She’s a single mom of 3. She told us her story and how she couldn’t deny the gospel. It was awesome!

Saturday was so fun! We had an awesome lesson with a guy named Jeremy. It was a pass off lesson with some elders in the Medford zone. We rode down to the park for it, then back to the church to help set up for the ward trunk or treat. Our building has 3 wards in it so they did a massive combined trunk or treat and it was so fun! We got to see all the other missionaries from thise wards and just have a blast. There was so much good food and stuff. We came home and contacted a bunch of people!

Sunday was good! We went to church and our friend Jeremy came! We had a couple different lessons and dinner with an adorable member family! They are such good cooks!

Today, we are carving pumpkins with everyone! It should be lots of fun!

We have interviews and zone conference this week! Zone conference is on Halloween so that’ll be fun! We are also going on exchanges and I’m going into a spanish area, so that’ll be a blast!

I love you all! I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Sister O’Barr

On Tuesday, we went to the transfer spot and off I went down to Medford/ Central Point. When we got there, I found out I was actually pink washing, so taking over from elders! My new companion is Sister Eubanks. We got to the apartment and it was pretty typical of and elder apartment. The beds were on the floor in the living room. We are on bikes, but have a car that we share with another set of sisters. We have very few miles though so we've been biking a ton. We went to a member dinner with a sweet member who was so happy to have sister!! We rode the bikes there, but they started to fall apart on us so we had to walk the back. Overall a good first day. We are in the Medford 3rd ward, which is in the Central Point stake, which is odd. 

Wednesday we walked everywhere! And texted like the entire ward. We set up a bunch of member messages and visited some people that live around us. We went over to our bishops house and they fed us dinner. We met with the district and zone leaders at the stake center. We also had our district leader fix up our bikes, which was so kind of them! 

We went full force on Thursday with bike riding! We cover downtown Medford and luckily they have some awesome bike paths. We had a lesson with a less engaged member who lives downtown so we rode down to visit with her. She is so cool! That was a long ride though and we are so slow. We had a lesson with the sweetest old lady in a nursing home. We were supposed to have a member dinner but they were sick. They still wanted us to have dinner so they had us go to Chickfila and they did an online order. Chickfila is not close. We were so tired afterwards. Chickfila was so good though! We biked back to the church because we thought there was young womans, but they weren't there, which was sad. We biked home and texted a bunch of people.

Friday was a whole lot more biking. We are learning that we need to plan things better because we just don't have the time to bike between things. We had to drop the car off to the other sisters, then we biked home. They live really close though. We went and visited with this awesome member who just moved here from Peru. She is so kind and she made us muffins! We then had a super long ride to the other side of town to visit with some members. They have 4 little boys and are so fun! As we were riding, we ran into some more members who were so excited to have sisters. We visited with an older couple then biked home for dinner. We went to the church and had a lesson with a new member. She was super sweet! 

Saturday had a lot of ups and downs. We got up and a member picked us up for breakfast! They are so fun! They dropped us off at home and we had to book it to our next lesson. We were still pretty late but we couldn't find the apartment and the lady wasn't answering her phone! I felt so bad. We went to our next lesson, with this less engaged member and her caregiver. We had an amazing restoration lesson with this guy. He wants to keep learning. We then visited a ton of people in the area. We had dinner with this really cool couple. She is blind and he has some health challenges but they have such strong testimonies. We then went to another lesson with a less engaged member. She is struggling with a lot but was so sweet. She got us a pumpkin, which was fun to bike home with.

Sunday was awesome! The ward was so excited to have sisters. We had some awesome member messages and a member dinner with a ton of kids! We got our car back for a bit so that was nice!

Alright, thats about it from this week! I know that God is very aware of our situations and will put people in our paths to help us. There have been so many generous and kind members that have made us feel welcomed and loved here! 

I hope you all have a great week! I love and miss you all!

Love,

Sister O'Barr 

On Tuesday, we finished planning out our week, then had a lesson with Michelle, our friend who got baptized this week! We showed her the font and found a jumpsuit for her! Then we got some awesome pizza from this cute little shop called Bluebird pizza. It was so good! We contacted a bunch of people, then had dinner with a part member family.

We went on exchanges on Wednesday! Sister Bills came with me and we had so much fun! She's so sweet and has just been struggling a lot so we just decided to work hard and have fun. She helped me make a bunch of homemade applesauce. Its so good! We also visited with some people, had some lessons and a dinner. We went to young womens and played mafia with them. It was a blast!

Thursday was so good! We got up and helped rip out some blackberries for a member. Then we had to do all of Sister Bills studies, spanish study, new missionary training stuff. We were supposed to have a lesson but the member canceled because she forgot she was doing a famers market. So we decided to go and check it out since its in my area. It was so small and cute! We ended up talking with this one lady who sells soap. I was gonna buy a thing of soap and she tells me I don't need to pay her and she let Sister Bills pick out a soap too. It was so kind of her! We exchanged back, contacted a bunch of people and went to dinner with some awesome members. 

Friday was a bit more relaxed but good. We spent the morning making cookies to bring to people. Then we had a lesson with one of our friends and we put him on date for baptism! And his aunt that we are also teaching is thinking about being baptized as well! It was such a good lesson! We visited with a bunch of ladies in the ward and had dinner with a fun couple. 

Saturday was amazing!! Michelle got baptized! It was so cool to see her finally make that commitment to God! Elder Mortensen of the Seventy said that recieving the Holy Ghost is one of the most precious gifts you can recieve! We then went out to Olalla and Camas Valley and went on the prettiest drive ever! The fall leaves were so bright! We visited with some people and were put there for a while. We went to the adult session of stake conference. Elder Mark A Mortensen spoke and we heard some good stuff from him. 

Sunday was pretty chill. We got up and went to a session for ysa of stake conference, then the general session. Elder Mortensen is a cool guy! He talked a ton about missionary work. We came home and planned. And we got transfer news!! I'm leaving and I'm on a bike! I hope that goes well! I'm headed to Central Point! 

I love you all lots and I'm excited for my next area. I'm down to 3 transfers, which is wild!! Its gonna go by so fast!

Hope you have a great week!!

Love,

Sister O'Barr 

On Tuesday, we went and helped a less engaged member pick tomatoes. She had so many!! It was a fun time. Then we had lunch and we contacted a bunch of people. We had dinner with a sweet couple, then a lesson and went to the addiction recovery class with her. 

We had follow up MLC on Wednesday. We had an awesome lesson with our friend Michelle who is getting baptized next week! Then we visited some people and invited a ton of people to watch conference. We had a lesson with a less engaged member, then had dinner with a couple. We went to young womans and painted aprons! 

Thursday was full of member messages and it was a fun! We went and visited this couple, they are both 90! Someone had said something rude to the husband and he wanted our opinion on how he should react. Old people are so funny! They asked if we'd had lunch yet, then made us ham sandwiches. We had a meeting with the zone leaders, then met with a less engaged member. She is pretty funny. She asked if we had seen this video on YouTube about how the second coming is almost here. We told her we didn't have access to youtube and she proceeded to turn it on and had us watch the entire 30 minute video. The guy is just quoting President Nelson the entire time so it was fine. Pretty funny though. We had a few good little stop by lessons and then a super fun dinner! We have an amazing returning member who has been coming to church and is working with bishop to get her temple recommend. She is the sweetest and she invited us over for dinner. We had so much fun and the food was delicious! We went on exchanges! I went to Sutherlin with Sister Budge! 

Sutherlin is a fun little area. But I really love Winston! We had a good day though! We had a lesson with a guy who was an aircraft mechanic, so we had a cool conversation about that. Then we got lunch at the cutest hawaiian place! They had the best shaved ice I've ever had! Then we visited some people, invited a bunch of people to watch conference and then exchanged back! We had an amazing dinner with some more returning members! The wife grew up in the gospel but her husband did not. He joined for her and they both said that he did not join for the right reasons. He asked if we could start the lessons over and he had some good questions. Its so cool to see all these people wanting to come back to church! 

Saturday was a blast! We got up and went to a members house for breakfast and the first session of conference. Then we came home and did our studies really fast, then went to another members home for lunch and the second session. We visited a few people and dropped off cookies to them. Then we went some of tmy favorite members for dinner and the final session of conference! All the talks were so good! I loved Elder Hirsts talk focused on love and Elder Kearon's talk on joy! 

On Sunday, we went to the Bishop's house for cinnamon rolls and bacon and watched the first session. Then we ate lunch, did some studies and then went to one of our new members for the second session. It was so fun! I love hearing from everyone! President Nelson is so cool! I definitely dont wanna live till 100 though. We had dinner with our ward mission leader. We figured out all the details for the baptism happening on Saturday. We also met with our relief society president. 

I'm not sure what we're doing for pday. It should be pretty chill and relaxed. Hopefully it'll be fun!

General Conference was a big reminder that I should focus on becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ first and everything else will get figured out. It also reminded me that this is a gospel of joy!! I hope you were all able to get answers to your questions during conference!

I love you all!hope you have a great week! Find a way to share something from conference with someone😁

Love,

Sister O'Barr