ALOHA!

ALOHA!

   So.. A lot of changes have happened. Well, kind of.. this week is transfers. Sister Jolley and I get to stay together, which is SO awesome! We will, however, only be covering Waianae ward. It will be good, because we will be able to focus on one area, and hopefully get a lot more work done, but it is also hard, because we love Makaha ward. There are going to be two new sisters in the Makaha ward. These two sisters will also be living with Sister Jolley and me. That means no more giant house, just the two of us. It is going to be a lot of fun. I know one of the sisters. Her name is Sister Smith. She came out with Sister Blackner, and she was trained by DUH DUH DUH... Sister Soriao! So, yeah. That will be kind of cool. We can share all of our crazy stories about our crazy Pilipina trainer. 😉 Sister Jolley are excited and nervous for the changes, but we are mostly excited, because at least we will be together for the changes. 

  This week we are going to be meeting Elder Holland! I am so nervous... he wants to shake hands with every missionary. Sister Jolley and I are STLs still, so we will be shaking hands with him twice.. The last time he came, he shook everyone's hand, got up to the pulpit, and then said, "When I shook each of your hands, I looked into you very souls." 😶 ... My soul is going to be looked into twice by Elder Holland... I really am excited though. I'm sure that he will have plenty suggestions for us missionaries. I feel so blessed that we will be able to receive instruction from Elder Holland on what we can improve.

   As far as some people that we met this week: there is a super cute family that we have been meeting with. The mom just had another baby, and then a 3 year old and the dad. The dad is super interested and he keeps his commitments. Last time we met with him, we invited him to read the introduction of the Book of Mormon. When we came on Saturday, he had read the introduction, the testimonies, and the first chapter of 1 Nephi. So awesome!! Then, while we were with them, they kept talking about how everything we were teaching just made sense. Here is the down side...: they mom and dad are not married to each other. The mom is actually married to someone else. We just found this out at our last appointment with them. It's kind of a sticky situation, so it is really sad. We gave them a copy of "The Family: A Proclamation to the World." They understand that they cannot be baptized without being married to each other, but it is just weird too, because she is married to someone else.. We love them so much, but it is hard to really know what to do at this point. 

   There are so many challenges in missionary work that I did not expect to face, but I am grateful for every one of them. It just testifies to me more and more of how important this gospel is. I am so grateful for the principles that it teaches, and I am especially grateful for the atonement. How incredible the love of our Heavenly Father is!!

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

Love, Sister B

 I kind of had an epiphany this week about something that you told me in the past. I remember you always telling me about how a mission will help me to gain confidence and be a stronger woman in the future. Before my mission, I thought that that was because of the life skills I would learn and how I would be able to live on my own. While I still believe that that is part of it... I have discovered that the most confidence and strength that I will receive for the future, by serving a mission, is from the growing understanding that I have of the atonement. I have never used the atonement in my life as much as I have as a missionary. As I have studied about and used the atonement, I have gained confidence and strength, because it helps me to understand my worth. It helps me to feel closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, which helps me to see myself a little bit more how they see me. It is an incredible feeling to know who I am. Keep encouraging the girls to go on missions. It will help them too see who they are faster than any other way. I love you!!

Love, Sister B

Carrolls

This is the carroll ohana we are feeding your missionaries. ...

They send there love and aloha 2 u all

Aloha

They are eating at pizza Hut w sister ha tori and sally...

I am feeding them again at carroll ohana on sunday I  will send another photo to u all Sent from my iPhone

Aloha~

This week was really great! 

• We were able meet so many great people! We walked on Saturday, so we talked to a lot of people. Most of them weren't interested, but we have 7 new investigators, so that's good! We met two Chuukese families and then we met a bunch of kids in an apartment complex. We have set appointments with each of them this week. 
• We had an appointment with a couple of our investigators, and it went really well! They are an unmarried couple with a little baby. Their names are Travis and Jessica. They are so sweet, but they don't have jobs, so they are living with Travis's mom right now. Travis has so many awesome questions about the church, but he won't commit to anything. He is keeping up with his Book of Mormon reading and prayers though. I am really excited for our next appointment. I think that they have really great potential.
• We had zone conference on Thursday! It was super awesome! Sister Jolley and I got to give a training on faith, and it went really well. President and Sister Warner's trainings were amazing, as usual. They talked about Elder Holland coming on the 30th and the new mission president that will be coming this summer. I am so excited for Elder Holland to come.. and a little intimidated...but mostly excited.. I am really sad that the Warners are almost done, and that I will have a new mission president the last six months of my mission, but I am excited to get to know them. President and Sister Warner have talked very highly of them.
• Our wards were small again at church. Most of the people that filled the seats were visitors. The bishops in both wards are working so hard. Sister Jolley and I are trying to be there for whatever they need. It has been challenging, but I feel really good about our areas. I think that we are going to see a lot of good changes soon. 

  I have never been so exhausted in my life. At the same time, I have never been so happy in my life. There is nothing quite like missionary work. I am so grateful that I have this time to learn so much about the gospel, about people, about my Heavenly Father, about the Savior, and about myself. I hope to be able to continue to learn more about those things as I serve. Thank you all so much for your prayers. I know that the success we find in our areas is because of the prayers that you offer for the missionaries. I hope you all have a great week!

Love, Sister Barber

Aloha!

ALOHA!

  Well, this week was another crazy one, but another good one as well! We have been able to contact most of the names that Sister P. gave us last week. A lot of them were in different areas, so we are waiting to hear about how they went. None of the people that we met were interested, but most of them were very nice. We are going to try to go back to some of the houses where no one was home. Hopefully some of them will be interested in hearing more.

 Sister Jolley and I were given the opportunity to speak in both of our wards yesterday. It was really wonderful. I feel more confident in sharing my testimony and I felt that we both were able to speak with love and boldness. I love my companion. Both of her talks strengthened my testimony greatly. I am so grateful for her. We are still facing a lot of challenges in our wards and our areas, but it is wonderful to be able to overcome those challenges with someone like Sister Jolley.

  Withey is MIA. She has only texted back a few times, and that was just to tell us that she was busy.. She is a teenager in high school, so I kind of understand, but it's still a little disappointing.. or a lot. I know that she will come around though, because I know that she has felt that what we have shared with her is true. 

 Tihani never got baptized, because her family wants her to wait until August.. her cousin comes home from her mission then, that's why. We are still teaching her though. Hopefully we will be able to meet with her family pretty soon.

  We met another Micronesian family. The kids are so cute and so good! The mom is very sweet, but not that interested. We have tried to set appointments with her several times, but she never follows through. We are going to try to continue to work with the kids though. 

  Still trying to fill up our teaching pool, but we are also trying to focus on getting less-active members back in church too. Our wards are really suffering, because members are not coming to church. Sister Jolley and I counted 17 adults, not counting the bishopric in one of our wards on Sunday. It was so sad. The members who do go are doing so much. It would be so nice to have more strong, active members in the ward. Well, I know that that is what Heavenly Father wants too, so I know that, in His timing, our ward will grow, if we keep doing our part. 

  Mission life is crazy, but it is so good! Thank you all for your love and support. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love, Sister Barber

  

  

ALOOOOHA!

  Here we go! So:

1.   This week was challenging, but good. Both Waianae ward and Makaha ward do not have ward mission leaders at the moment, so it has been a little bit crazy, as far as our correlation meetings and ward council. We were able to meet with both bishops, however, so we were able to figure some things out. Both of the bishops are very hard-working. I am confident that we will all be able to work together well, so that we can help the work progress in our areas. 
2.   There is a woman in our ward who is very missionary minded. Her name is Sister Pa'a'aina She talks to everyone that she meets about the gospel. She has placed several Books of Mormon in the area over the 40 something years she has lived here and she wrote down their names and addresses as well. Sister Jolley and I were able to get over 40 names from her journals, so we are going to try to contact as many of them as we can this week. It was like Christmas all over again!! So wonderful!
3.   Many of the people that we have been teaching have not been able to meet with us for a while, because of things that have come up in their lives. It is amazing how one week things can be going so well, and then the next week everything starts to fall apart. We have been praying for our investigators though, and I know that Heavenly Father is looking out for them. We just need to do all that we can, and then trust Heavenly Father. 
4. On Sunday, during fast and testimony meeting, one of our recent converts got up and bore his testimony on prayer. He is 9 years old. He told a story about how he had to pray that their car wouldn't get taken away, and it worked. It was so sweet! Everyone in the chapel could feel the spirit, I am sure! Kanita was going to bear her testimony, but I don't think that she expected the time to go by so quickly, so she missed her chance for this month. I hope she will get up next month though. 

  I am so happy! Seriously! I love the work here! It has been hard, but that has just made me appreciate the members and the help that Heavenly Father gives us every day! Thank you so much for all of your support and prayers! I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful new year! 

Love, Sister B

Aloha!

 Sister Jolley and I have had such a crazy week. Here it is:

1.  MLC on Monday. We had MLC on Monday, which took all day long. We didn't get home until right before our appointment with the Davidsons. Then we went to our appointment and then had to go pick up our dinner. By the time we got home it was just before curfew. 
2. Tuesday we had our P-day, so we deep cleaned our pad, emailed, did laundry and then we had an appointment at 2:30. Then, we had to wash our car and then we had dinner and then we tried to contact people until it was time to go home.
3. Wednesday we had service in the morning, and then we had an appointment with Albert and his mom. It was so cute. Kanita, Albert's mom, kept telling us that, even though Albert was with his friends, he was still thinking about his baptism. She said that he couldn't stop talking about it, and then he asked her if she would cut his hair for the baptism..which I will bring up again later... then we had one of our new investigator's, Tihani, baptismal interview. Tihani is amazing!! She is going to be baptized on the 2nd. :)
4. Thursday! Christmas Eve! We had Albert's baptismal interview in the morning, which took a lot more time than we had expected, but it was still good. We tried to visit people all day, but everyone was out of town or not home when we came! In the evening, we joined the Gilbert family for their family Christmas party. It was super fun! Their family is great! 
5. Friday! Christmas! We had service at an old-folk's home. We played BINGO, actually it was JINGO.. it was super fun! Then we went to the stake center and watched the movie, "The Cokeville Miracle." It was really good. Then, Sister Jolley and I went to Bishop Velasco's house. We skyped our families, which was wonderful, and then we had sushi for dinner! It was awesome! 
6. Albert was baptized on Saturday!! It was so amazing! The baptism was really really small, but the spirit was definitely there! His mom and older sister were there, and they couldn't stop smiling! They were so cute! Then we had to go to town, because one of Sister Jolley's past investigator's sister was there, so we went to be with her. 

Overall, our week was really insane, but it was really good. We are looking forward to another great week! I hope that you are all doing well, and that you all are able to have a wonderful New Year!

Happy New Years! I love you all!

Love, Sister B

P.S. I will send pictures next week