Aloha!

  This week was so good! We worked and worked and worked! Sister Blackner is an awesome missionary! She really has been such a great strength to me, and I know that she will continue to be a strength to me. She has many qualities that I have always wanted, so I am learning a lot from her, and I know that I will be a better person and a better missionary from serving with her. 

  So far, we have contacted just about everyone from the area book. So, this week we are going to be visiting members like crazy, trying to get referrals. We tracted a lot this week, but it isn't super effective. We have investigators, but none are progressing. It can get kind of overwhelming at times, but I know that as long as we continue to work hard, we will be able to at least plant some seeds. However, I also know that "the field is white already to harvest" (D&C 4). We just need to find those who are "ready to harvest," and that won't happen by giving up. So, we will work even harder this week. 

Some funny things that happened this week:

• While tracting, we ran into this old man. He was super skinny and he was all hunched over. He looked like if he sat down to take a rest, he would never get back up (if you know what I mean). So, we stopped to introduce ourselves and offer help. Well, he had this bike leaning against the fence and it was filled with fish. So, we offered to push it up to his door. He completely ignored us and said, "My name is....Alejandro." He said it in such a perfect way! It was one of those moments where you expect a Spanish guitar to be playing in between the pause between the word is and his name. Then, we were going to say adios, because he was being a little creepy and he grabbed my arm and was like, "but you can call me Jandro." Then we said have a good day and we walked very quickly away.. yeah.. that was interesting.
• Then, another time while tracting, we saw this guy outside watering his plants, so we went to talk to him. We started talking to him about the church, and he just kept watering his plants. His poor plants were soaked by the end of our discussion... 
• hahaha then! We were tracting again, and Sister Blackner was waving at every single car that passed us. It was so hot and we were starting to lose it a little bit. This one car full of military guys drove by and Sister Blackner starts waving her arm and yells, "HOT DAY!" It wasn't even in a way that would make sense. It was just those two words shouted loudly. Hahaha she's the best. 

Some Spiritual things that happened this week:

• Sister Blackner and I tried contacting a former investigator. She wasn't home, but her brother and her son were. Her son is 3 years old. He was so cute! On our way back to the car, Sister Blackner said that she felt something different while we were there. I thought about that for a minute and then I got in the car and started crying. I looked over at Sister Blackner and she was crying too. We both felt something different about the little boy. We are going to go back for sure. 
• Junior dumped us. He had us over on Thursday and he told us that he felt like he was wasting our time, because he is not going to be baptized. I told him that we appreciated his time, and that we will still continue to help his family in any way that we can, we testified of the Book of Mormon and encouraged him to continue to read it and to continue to attend church, and then we left. It was hard at first, because I really have come to love him and his family, but I know that they will come to know the truth some day. 

Those are just a few of the things that I thought would be good to share. I am loving the work. It is challenging, for sure, but it is so worth it. I know that I am being changed and that the Spirit is changing those that I meet every day as I testify of this gospel. I love you all so much! I hope you have a wonderful week! 

Love, Sister Sydney Barber

Freaky Turtle... It has crazy long nails. Don't mind the face..

Williams fam

Aloha Missionary Moms!

We had the pleasure of having your sweet daughters in our home for dinner last night.  They are amazing young women and we are grateful for the chance we had to feel of their spirit in our home.  We pray for them daily, as I am sure you do as well.  Thank you for raising such amazing young women to be an example to my children and to me.

Katie Williams

Val McTee

Dear Brother and Sister Barber,

    I am hoping that his email reaches you, I tried sending an email some time ago but I got it back saying this was the wrong address.  So I am attaching  three pictures, one from last night when the Sisters had dinner with us and then one from 6 or so week ago and one from our Relief Society activity last month.  I'm holding onto Sister Soriao's arm.  Sister Soriao is learning how to play the ukulele so they sang us a song before they left.  Both of them are so darling, we love having them in our home.  You can certainly be proud of Sister Barber, she is so sweet and so sincere.  I know the Sisters are working hard and doing a good job. 

Aloha, Sister Val McTee

New Companion

Hello!! This week was crazy busy! We had transfers, so my new companion is Sister Blackner! She is amazing! She has really taught me so much since we have been together. We have been meeting with a ton of people from our area book, so that has been interesting. We met with some former investigators and a lot of less-active members. They were all really nice. We are hoping that something will workout with them. I know that if we continue to do what the Lord asks of us, we will be able to accomplish all that He has in store for us. I have learned a lot about patience this week. I am not a very patient person by nature, but I know that it is one of the Christlike attributes that I need to develop in order to help those who I am meant to. I also know that it will help this experience mean so much more to me. Which is kind of mind-blowing, because I love the mission so much! Today we played basketball with the Elders. It was a lot of fun! My team won, of course. ;) Well, this week will be interesting. We have a lot of appointments this week, so we are hoping that they will be good. I am excited to tell you about it next week. I love you all!!!

Sister Sydney Barber

I'm having a baby!!

So, this week was super crazy! On Monday, I caught two fish from the ocean! They were pretty good size too! I'll try to send some pictures.. 

We visited a lot of people this week, so we were super super busy. This week flew by. On Thursday, Sister Soriao and I were planning, and we got a phone call from President Warner. Sister Soriao is training in Kaneohe and I am training here in Ewa. I will be training Sister Blackner from Cedar City Utah. I am so excited! I was not expecting to be training this quickly, but I am really excited to meet her and learn from her, and hopefully teach her a little bit from my experiences so far. I am going to miss Sister Soriao, but I am so grateful for the time we were able to serve together. They call the new missionaries babies, so that is why I said I am having a baby.. I don't really care for the whole baby thing really, but I thought it was an exciting way to head the email... anywho..

This week I have been thinking a lot about the Sabbath-day. I think I have talked about it before, but I am so amazed at the difference that Sabbath-day observance can make in the life of every individual and in the life of every family. If families and individuals are keeping the Sabbath-day holy, they are choosing to take a whole day out of their busy schedule to dedicate to Heavenly Father. We should always remember Heavenly Father every day, but I believe that if we choose to really honor the Sabbath-day, our families will be strengthened, and we will have the spirit in our homes. The home should be a place where the spirit can always dwell. If the spirit is always dwelling in our home, there will be no room for anger and contention. I am so blessed to be able to see the difference that Sabbath-day observance has in the different families in our ward. 

I am also grateful for the opportunity that I have to get to know every woman in the ward so well. I was sitting in Relief Society this Sunday, and I was thinking howblessed  I am to be able to attend Relief Society with such incredible women each week. There is one Sister who's family is faced with a new extremely difficult challenge every week, it seems. Even though her trials only seem to get bigger every week, her faith gets bigger right along with them. She is a recent convert and she has such an amazing and strong testimony of this Gospel. She loves Heavenly Father with her whole heart, and she would do anything for Him. She is such an example to me. Whenever we go visit her, I learn so much from her. She has an incredible understanding of the gospel, and of Heavenly Father's plan for her and her family. 

I am truly blessed to be serving in this area. I am so excited to introduce Sister Blackner to the area, so that she can share in my love for it. I hope that you all have a wonderful week! Thank you for your love and support! Aloha!!

Love, Sister Sydney Barber

Obedience

Hello!! So sorry that I am a day late! My companion and I had something come up yesterday, so we didn't have much of a P-day. We got to email today though, so that is good! The internet here is really bad though, so I am sorry for not responding to individual emails!

Next week I will!

 So there is not a whole lot to update other than we have a new investigator from China! She is super sweet and seems very receptive.

I am excited to continue to meet with her. She is wonderful! Anyways, this week, something that I have really come to realize, is that obedience is so much more important than I ever thought before. I read an article in the Ensign about how the people who eventually leave the church usually end up leaving because they have stopped doing the small things, like scripture study, prayer and attending church. If you are struggling with your testimony, the last thing you should do is to stop living the gospel. The first thing you should do is make sure that you are living the gospel. If you aren't, then start living it. If you are, as far as you can tell, look for ways that you can live it even more.

I have also been thinking about how the Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion, because if the Book of Mormon is true, that means that Joseph Smith was a true prophet, which means that the church is true. If you stop reading the Book of Mormon, you will lose your testimony of it, and you will eventually question the church as a whole. In order to stay converted, you must constantly study the Book of Mormon as if you were reading it for the first time. Continue to gain new knowledge and understanding from it. That is something that I am trying to do. I have started the Book of Mormon over again, and I am reading a chapter every night. Before I start each chapter, I take a sticky note and write down a question that I have. Then, as I read, I answer the question. After I read the chapter, I write down how I can apply the answer that I received to my missionary work. I have seen a difference as I have really tried to apply every chapter of the Book of Mormon to my life. It's amazing to see what I have overlooked every time I have read it.

We have been given so much from our Heavenly Father. The steps to living the gospel are simple and plain. We just need to make sure that we are always keeping them fresh in our minds. The little things are important. Pray always, read the scriptures and go to church. Keep looking for further knowledge and light as you do those things, and I promise you will receive it. I love you all and I hope that you have a wonderful week!

Love, Sister Sydney Barber

                                       P-day picture with Sister Soriao and Elder Mabey

Service

This week we had a lot of service! Lots of people moving! We went to one investigators house, thinking that we were going to be washing windows, but we found out that we were going to rearrange her whole kitchen and then paint pots for her. It was really fun, but also not quite what we expected.. I had a blouse on and everyone else had tshirts on, so she called me rich girl the whole time.. yeah. She's fun. ;) Anyways, we had another lesson with another one of our investigators on Thursday. He has some interesting ideas about organized religion. He is having a hard time believing in the Book of Mormon. He is very interested in how the Book of Mormon and the Bible are connected. Sister Soriao and I are trying to be very careful though about how we answer his questions. We don't want to ignore his questions, but we also don't want to allow our lesson time to be filled with questions that, even if answered, just lead to more questions. We have just been trying to focus on helping him to keep an open mind and heart while reading the Book of Mormon, and then praying about it. During our lesson, Sister Soriao bore this beautiful testimony about the Book of Mormon and her conversion (She was converted from Catholicism 5 years ago, and is the only member of her family). When she finished, I had tears in my eyes, because of how strongly I felt the spirit. When I looked at our investigator, he said: "Sister Soriao, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but listening to you just now was like listening to a recording or a pre-programmed robot." My hear sank when he said that. I don't know where to go with him, yet. It will be interesting to see what happens. 

We were also able to go visit the Racoma family on Saturday. Brother Racoma is determined to read the whole Book of Mormon before he will discuss baptism, but he is very slow at reading. He doesn't really prioritize it throughout his day. We talked with him about the Plan of Salvation though, and we answered a lot of questions that he has had, apparently, for a really long time. He told us at the end of the lesson that he really appreciated what we had said, and that he feels very motivated to speed up his reading. To us, that was very encouraging. I really hope that he sticks to that desire to prioritize his Book of Mormon reading higher up. 

That's all I have time for this week! I hope that you are all doing well, and that you continue to keep the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the center of your lives!!

Love, Sister Sydney Barber