ALOHA!

  Here it is:

1. So, my new sister is Sister Brandenburg! She is from the Netherlands! Her and two other sisters came from Europe this transfer! Pretty neat! Sister B served for 9 weeks in the Netherlands/Belgium mission while she waited for her visa, but now she is here!!!! I'm pretty sure she had to wait for her visa, so that I could be companions with her. She is awesome! Such a diligent, hard working, missionary! Aah. I am so blessed. 😂 She is fluent in Dutch, so that is just another language I will add to my list that I would like to pick up some phrases from. 
2. The work is moving along! We have seen a lot of, who we thought were, our most solid investigators not keep commitments and drop us, but it has left the ones that are really looking to have the gospel in their lives shining brighter than ever! The people that we are working with, and focusing on, right now have big hurdles ahead of them, but we know that they will do wonderful once they get there! 
3. One of these individuals is struggling, because her husband wants to be the same religion as her, but he wants her to baptize Catholic (He doesn't want to change to be Mormon). So, she asked us what she should do, because she knows that the church is true and that the priesthood is necessary, but she doesn't want to be different from her husband. We read James 1:5 with her and asked her what the scripture was saying to her. She responded that it was telling her to ask God. We then asked why God would be the best person to ask, to which she responded that He would be able to answer her question better than anyone else. We then invited her to read Mosiah 18, as well as any other scripture from the BOM that she felt prompted to read and to pray specifically to receive answers to her specific questions. She is really so wonderful. I pray that she will be open to the spirit directing her to the path that will bless her and her husband's life the most. 
4. Here is a really humbling experience I had this week: Several times this week, Sister B and I have needed our Preach My Gospel in different situations, but we didn't have it with us. I kept getting the prompting, also just common sense, that I needed to have my Preach My Gospel with me all the time. Well, this happened several times, and I just never made it a priority or wrote it down, so I kept forgetting. Well, on Sunday, Sister B spoke and I sang in sacrament meeting. Also speaking was Elder Auna (area of the seventy). He had the YM sitting near us ask if he could use one of our Preach My Gospel. Of course, because I had been to lazy to remember to put my PMG in my bag, we had to respond that we didn't have it with us... I felt so silly. Of course Elder Auna was very kind and humble about it, but how different of an experience would it have been to have a General Authority use your PMG in their talk.. I even had the line that he read underlined. Oh well... it was a learning experience for sure. :/

Well, it was another wonderful week in the Hawaii Honolulu Mission. Lots of ups and downs. Lots of opportunities to learn something new. I love being a missionary. :)

Love, Sister Sydney Barber

ALOHA!!

  Unfortunately, this will be another short one! For big news:

• Sister Hwang is going to Pearl City in the Waipahu Zone! She is going to be with a Korean. She's pretty stoked about that.. :)
• I am training again. It will be good for me to train my last transfer. Keep me strong! ;) When President called he was like, "Sister Barber, I got a call from Salt Lake. You will be extending another 6 months!" I was like, "I wish!" and he was like, "Yeah, so do we.." Man.. So close! Well, I am looking forward to another wonderful transfer, full of surprises and wonderful memories to be! :)

   Love you all!!! Aloha!

Sister Sydney Barber

ALOHA!

ALOHA!

     Last week was kind of nuts!

Monday: We went down Waipio Valley, which is this really steep road down into this beautiful valley! It is where a lot of locals live to get away from everyone, but ironically a place that tourists always go to see. We met some less active members while we were down there and saw some wild horses! It was quite the experience!

Tuesday: We had a zone meeting because we just had a meeting with the head of the missionary department. They flew in the Sister Training Leaders and Zone Leaders from the other islands for it, so it was interesting getting on a plane and flying over for the day. We were able to stay overnight with Sister Ogawa and Sister Smith though, so that was a treat, for sure. :) The training talked a lot about what missionary work should be and how we are spending too much time tracting and not enough time working with members. So, when we got back, we started making phone calls and setting up things with the members. It has made a great improvement in our area. 

Wednesday: We went on exchanges with the Honomu Sisters. I was able to go to Honomu to be with Sister Biggs, whom I came out with, so that was fun! We had a really neat experience, which will kind of go against what I just said that the training was, but I am still going to share it.. ;) We went tracting in the morning and we found this guy named Rowland. He is Filipino and so sweet! He listened as we shared about the restoration and asked really awesome questions! I felt the prompting to invite him to be baptized, so I did. He didn't accept, but he really considered it. We shared that that is an act of faith that will bring the light and truth into his life that he and his family need. He didn't disagree. They will be meeting with him again and I am anxious to hear how it goes. 

Thursday: Due to conflicting schedules in the past weeks, we went on exchanges with the Kilauea sisters on Thursday. So, Sister Hwang and I didn't see each other for two days in a row, pretty much. We had service in the morning. We helped this man cut down a bunch of trees in the jungle behind his house. We used machetes part of the time and then chain saws the other. It was a blast! Also, Sister Baumgardner (the Sister I exchanged with) almost got cut in half with a chain that was being used as a dog's leash... Yeah... it was quite the day.. haha

Friday: Finally Sister Hwang and I were reunited! It was lovely. We just got back to work and met with an investigator named Dianne. She has a Buddhist background, but has expressed that she wants something more in her life. We talked about the Book of Mormon and Faith. She has had all of the lessons multiple times, but has been struggling to find answers. We then found out after some questions that she has not been praying about the Book of Mormon. She explained that, if she wants specific answers, she is going to need to ask specific questions. She agreed. I look forward to seeing the progress she has made, assuming she has begun to pray as she agreed to. 

Saturday & Sunday: General Conference! It was wonderful! So many talks on faith and missionary work! I especially loved the talk by President Uchtdorf on the Plan of Salvation. It is  beautiful when our church leaders go back to the basics and explain it simply. 

Monday: We went to the temple to help clean it. Sister Hwang and I cleaned the chandeliers. It was so tedious, but so worth it! 

Well, it was another wonderful week! I hope you are all doing well and that you remember how special this gospel is! 

Love, Sister Barber