Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Ghosts

Well sound like you all had a great time for Thanks Giving. I did as well. Different members feed us for lunch, dinner and dessert. I paced myself so I would get overloaded. So we got a lot of leftovers and we are still working on them. We went around the table and said what we are thankful for of course and I mentioned that I was thankful for my family and Being on a mission. Being on a mission has given me an opportunity to grow and learn in the gospel, which I’m especially thankful for. A knowledge of a everlasting perfect

Plan for us has got to be the best. Although I get down sometime, I never regret this decision. This truly is the best thing I can be a part of. Actually Austin’s letter helped me out. I’ve been going through some weak moments and Austin’s letter was really uplifting and inspired me to. He said exactly what I needed and I’ve been doing soooo much better. This week we taught Shannon Kellie about the Youth Standard and we are helping her out and going to try and find some modest clean cut clothes for her. She is kind of into the whole gothic look so this might be fun.

The Krolls, Jake and Sue are doing well we have a big hold up with Sue’s smoking. Until she has a desire she can’t really quit and progress. And it seems that it’s holding back Jake as well. But they sure do seem tons happier and they are all about reading. We are disappointed in them for not coming to church because they had to cut up a deer, but Jake gave us the deer heart to eat to make up for not coming to church. He really doesn’t understand the whole process but he get it soon. Sister Larsen was all about dissecting that heart before we eat it. She going to be a nurse so she likes that kind of stuff. It will be fun to watch on our P-day activties. Actually this will be our last P-day together because she goes back home to Utah next week. I’m really sad about that whole situation. Bridgeport will not be the same. We have been here together for 6 months and I think I might cry.

Last week for p-day we went into a Ghost tunnel with the senior Couple Elder and Sister Appel. The scary part was Sister Appel jumping out of the wall. Speaking of ghosts for Gospel Principle our lesson was on ghosts, not the Holy Ghost but ghosts, goblins and elves. Luckily we did not have any investigator there for there first time scared out of their minds but we did have 2 recent convert there. Totally inappropriate for Gospel Principals, but what can you do?

The short had to reschedule again last week but we will have a great lesson this week. We meet some crazy people while tracking this week. Some of the best door slams on my whole entire mission. One of them were a little bit Satanist and screaming some Santanist things and the other just looked at us, laughed and slammed the door. I’m with Austin with tracking, Sometimes you just got to do it.

There was a part member family that we were teaching the wife and the RM husband wasn’t the best example and in courage her to learn her own religion first before she studies with us. So we had kind of dropped her but I this clear impression that we needed to go ove there. Surprsing they were both home and we could have lesson with them. We found out some pretty deep reason why he stopped going to church. I t was the most productive lesson we have ever had with them and Brooke the wife was helping us out and explaning our religion to him. It was pretty cool.

Love you all

Sister Barrand

Mom do you think you could send my hair license, I only need the little copy. I’m also wondering if you opened the boxed that had your name on them because there is a letter for you in that and the clothes that need to be returned

As for the date of my release I’m going to be extending until April 10, 2008. I’m going to assume that we still live in the same house; we attend the Falcon Ward and the same Highlands Ranch Stake, with the same Stake President?

Wait is Danica moving to Huston? i want to see that baby!

Sherry Going to bed with the Sports bar around my ankles Picki'n up trash
Plung'n the Sink
Got to Love Planning!


Heather's Baptism

Monday, November 26, 2007

I got so busy trying to remember everything i needed to tell you and forgot to say

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!! HAVE FUN WITH THE FOOD,FAMILY,FUN,FOOTBALL, FREEDOM, FIRE, FOURHEADS, FORGETTING THE TURKEY IN THE OVEN, FUNKY STUFF STUCK IN THE DRAIN OR THE TURKEY, and EVERYTHING FESTIVE!!!!!!!!!!!

oh and i figured out what i wanted for my Birthday/ Christmas
-General Conference on DVD ( April 06 and Oct 07) only 7.00
-Saturday Warriors DVD
-Twizzers from Bath and Body Works they are ( TwizzerMAN )Twizzers

By the way we will be feed really well at three members homes for ThanksGiving so don't you worry!
Love yaSister Barrand

Plunger

Sorry I didn’t get to send my letter last week the silly computer kicked me off as I was pressing the button to send. It was a little upsetting but I got over it.We finally snuck in a lesson with our talkative Land Lord/ Funeral Director (Brad Ford). What he wanted was customs of Mormon Funerals and what he got was the Second Lesson The Plan of Salvation.

He not really interested but I’m glad we got a word in that head of his.These pass two Sundays have been great. Last week we had 2 ½ investigators there and this week we had 4 1/2 investigators there. Seriously that does not happen here. I say ½ because Sherry Gross Brought her 11 year old daughter and we haven’t taught her yet so we can’t fully call her a investigator. But hey they love Church, especially when the women are doing a Visiting Teaching conference and there is a Potata bar. Plus we had a special musical number performed by us sister missionaries. I’m telling you they always are getting me to sing out here. I even had to do a little solo part. P.S. I hated the song. But the old ladies loved it.There is an old lady that also live above the funeral home and we sat down with her a listened for hours. WE were thinking of recording her voice and just playing it at night and we would fall asleep in the matter of seconds.

I night have fallen asleep in a couple of visits with her. I doesn’t help when you in a big cozy chair and you don’t have to say a word cause they will just talk you ear off. I saw my other comps doing the same thing. This three some has been really great. WE get along so well. Last night we tried something new to unclog the bathroom sink due to the fact that sister Hatch dropped her Toothpaste cap down the drain. We took a plunger to it and brown chunky liquid was flying everywhere. Don’t worry I got it on video.Oh you already know but I got my trunky Papers last week and it scared the crap out of me. I still can’t get over the fact that I’m actually severing a mission. This is all too crazy. I actually got really stressed out about what date I would come home on either Feb 28 or April 10. I still can’t believe it it’s gone by so fast. I’ve been giving it some thought and praying about it. I’m not sure even what I’m going to do when I get home. So I have really no reason to come home unless you got something planned. I was wondering if you could get me schedules for school so I could check out my options. I was thinking about summer semester at BYUI and if I could get in to BYU or I don’t know what I want to do. So you can help me out if you want. I might want to be an EFY consoler? ifyou have any ideas you can let me know.

Although i did talk to president Cowley about my relase date and i think i've made up my mind.About 5 months ago we tracked into Lori Short. I was incredibly hard to teach her on a regular basic due to her sickness. All she told us was that she had M.S. We felt prompted to fast for Lori’ Health so that we could teach her about the restored truths. So both Sister Larsen and I fasted. We both agreed that it was the most spiritual fast that we have had. We Still continued to try to make appointments but she was never well. Her Husband and Daughter were both unsure with us coming over and kind of fought her on it. Lori was strong and tried to help them understand, but she felt like she didn’t know it well enough to try to teach them.

So we would try to set up appointment with the Husband there but she would always say he is not ready. We managed to have her get to know the bishop’s Wife (Sister Haws). Last week on the phone Lori said she had some exciting news, even to good to tell us over the phone we had to wait until we were face to face, so we were real anxious to get over there.

We were thrilled that it was late in the evening that David her husband would be home. As we got there we were excited enough to see that David was there. As we were sitting down they told us that her Brain tumor was completely gone and the Lesions in her brain were so small that the Doctors would have never diagnosed her with M. S. And All the Doctors were floored. You could just see through their expression that they knew that this was truly a miracle and all of our prays were answered. Then David asked if he could learn more because he wanted to read the Book of Mormon this week. So we taught the most incredible Lesson of a Loving Heavenly Father and a humble boy’s prayer.
Love you all
Sister Barrand

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Cat Fight

Hey HeyThis week we had an eventful cat fight with the Elders for not letting us know about day light savings time. We, well I got pretty up set about that extra hour of sleep and got mad. I let it fester to long and blew up at the Elders. I’m terrible and felt incredibly bad for getting so upset over an hour, and apologized as soon as possible. I don’t know why but that was probably the most mad I’ve gotten on my mission. I felt pretty bad. So this week I’m really trying to work hard on being nice and saying nice things. Especially to those I don’t get along with. I’ve been kind of sarcastic with one Elder cause I can’t stand him, so I have to watch myself. Not to mention there was a cat fight last week in Ward Council with the Elders Quorum President and us Sisters. It was feisty. We were just trying to state our option on home teachers for Heather and it did not go over well.

He said we were pushy because we were asking to get home teacher for her, it had been weeks since her baptism and getting a home teacher right away to teach them the new member lessons is vital for new converts. GRRRRRR. Sister Larsen said she’s never seen me so enraged.Our trio had an intense work out/dance party with Halloween tinsel and Josh Groban. It was a blast and it might be hard to believe but I’m sore everywhere. We are just glad no one saw into our windows.We tried volunteering at the nursing home to see a less active that works there but they want us to fill out all this paper work and have back ground checks. No thank you.We might start teaching a man who looks exactly like Michael Douglas.

I’m sick right now cause sister Hatch was sick and were are with each other 24/7 so I was bond to get sick.Jake is doing pretty well. His wife Sue came back home from the hospital today. We are trying to teach them together so they can get baptized together, but it hard when she is always in the hospital. Jake is a funny man he is always trying to give us a hard time and he thinks I’m trouble. He calls us “the pepper steal’n Mormons” cause we stole some peppers from his garden and took pictures for him. He loved the pictures cause we looked so happy. I had so many peppers they were coming gout my pockets.To end on a good note are less actives and investigator came to Fast and testimony meeting and it was the best one out on my mission so far. I was so good. There was only one kinda scecty one but the kids were making enough noise and they weren’t able to hear. So that Sunday went from dark to light.
Love you all
Sister Barrand

I would love Austin’s mailing address so I can write himDad I’m not surprised that no one showed up at the temple on Halloween.Mom whats hows the job situation ?

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Happy Halloween! Cazy eyes
Don, do these look familiar? - if not they are what they have to wear in the army

I was a clown for Halloween what were you?

“I’m a mean old witch with my hat, and I ride on my broom with my cat!” Mom do you remember singing that to me when I was little. Well in honor of you and Halloween I sang it to all the Elders here. I loved to see the pictures of you all having dinner and that you invited the missionaries. That is the best thing you can do for the missionaries is to provide a home where you can feel the spirit and participate by sharing your testimony.

For the ward Halloween party we tricked everyone one into thinking we were all Sister Barrand’s. I had Sister Larsen and Sister Hatch wear my other named tags. Some members knew there was a sister Larsen and a Barrand but couldn’t tell us apart cause they think we look alike. AS for sister Hatch it was her first time meeting some of them and they had know idea what her name was. So that was our excitement there. Oh yesterday was the first live possum I have ever seen. We all started screaming in the car because we were all so excited. Zone conference was better then I thought. I have to tell you that president told us we would be doing some role playing and I hate role playing with other missionaries. So we joked about not going but of course we went and I felt the spirit probably one of the strongest I have ever felt.

My old District leader is now AP and taught the Restoration to us all. It was more then powerful when he taught. You can feel the sincerity when he teaches, it truly amazing what our heavenly Father has in store for us.I’d say one of the greatest things that happened this week was our prayers about Jake’s Septic tank were answered. About two weeks ago when it stopped working the Kroll family and us started praying for a way to fix their septic tank, so they could all be home together as a family rather then them at their friends because they couldn’t use the toilet or the shower. We also wanted them to concentrate on Jake’s baptism not on having no money to pay for a new septic tank. This consumed their thoughts and took place of the Gospel. Well a senior couple down in another area about a hour away was also praying about how they can help out because they were all out of trimming trees in their area.

The Apples felt impressed to take us sister and help us find less Actives in our area. WE would use their miles because we don’t have very many. WE had a lot of people we could find in Grafton because they all live on routes and it would take a lot of miles to try and find them. So we had a couple of appointments and we were able to find people and streets that we had searched for before. The Krolls and the Apples got along really well and Elder Apple paid and fixed their septic tank the next day. Elder Apple spent the whole day over there fixing it all up. We noticed how many prayers were answered and thanked our loving Heavenly Father.

Now Jake’s wife Sue want to take the lessons for real and they want to get baptized together. So that means were are going to work really hard with Sue and her smoking addiction. We also have to keep Jake on the right path so Satan can’t distract him to much. It will be the most difficult but the most rewarding. So that’s a no go on the baptism on the 4th.Mom, Dad and Celeste, did I ever tell you that I was obsess with Prison Break as well, the only difference is you can watch and I can’t. You luckies!Dad- about that cook book, I’ve already collected a whole but of tasty treats, but not anything gross. So I don’t think I will be cooking any squirrel for y’all. Sorry. That description of the food on your mission was enough. Sorry to hear about the Rockies but that was very good of you to go to a ballet. I promised you will be blessed.P.s. mom for the list that you have been asking for is going to be tuff cause I don’t even know what I want. There is one thing but I will write a real letter about it. Know that I love you and your Heavenly Fathers loves you He’s watching over you and is pleased when you are aligning your will with His.
I hope you all have a great Halloween
Love Sister Barrand

Nasty

I bet if you knew what it looked like hear you would all jump on a plane today and check out all these colors. Oh but it sounds like the snow is crazy there. Random people will update me here and say they are getting a lot of snow out in Colorado. I’m glad you have the missionaries over cause that means a lot. Are you two lonely and that why you had three nurses sleep over? Sounds like a great breakfast that they made.

So did you mess up your diet, or what? There is a lady (Tina) who we help with the activities at the nursing home and I think she is on the same diet. Tina has lost 21 lbs in two or three months, so good luck with that diet. The portions look pretty small. At least you get Chocolate. Right?Dad, sounds like we both had a Stinky day. But mine was a silly reason for being bad. Basically both Sister Larsen and I couldn’t sleep, trains were honking, sirens were shrieking, dogs were barking, I had to give a talk for District Mtg, and Jake’s septic tank died. But what we found amazing is that the lessons that we had went really well. Speaking of stinky and septic tanks, I stepped in Jake’s dog’s (Sweet Pea’s) poo on there front porch. I just put it back on the grass where it belonged, because Jake told me too. So we are still teaching Pam and her son Jonathan.

We are still trying to figure out if Pam was baptized when she was nine. I have to tell you that Pam is always on her swing on her front poach and as we go up to take a seat on some lawn chairs there is the most ghastly smell of doggie presents. Not to mention two smelly sickly disease spreading dogs trying to eat the flies that are swarming all over us. Its so nasty. Last night we went over to make sure Jonathan had a ride to Church Basketball. He thought we were going to give him a ride and we thought he already had a ride, so we had to use their phone to find him a ride.

We disgustingly went into the home overcome by the most horrible BO ever in my life. I’m telling you it went from rank to rank not even a time to take a breath. I t went directly from stinky dog poop to deadly BO. We got a ride for them and the poor member had to ride in car with two smelly kids. We felt pretty bad but we didn’t know plus we are trying to get them involved. I just have one more nasty story. We went over to a member home to eat and as was in the bathroom, The Member proceeded to tell Larsen about the problems or her Curdling Milk in her frig. Later as we sat down she continued saying that the meat that she had prepare made her and her husband both sick. We looked around to what to eat and there was nothing we had no back up besides a plain potata. The water option was even gross there was green fungus living at to bottom of the picture. I would have to say that was the worst meal of my whole mission so far.
I love you all\u003cbr /\>Sister Barrand\u003cbr /\>\u003cbr /\>\u003cbr /\>\u003cbr /

Well In my studies I’m working on knowing scriptures better and some other random things. When I started off you could quiz me on about 15 of them and I knew what they all said and where they were. The next day I tried doing the same and it was like my brain was full and there was no room for any other scriptures. It was pretty funny cause the same thing happened to Larsen. By the way we prayed and prayed to stay one more transfer together for our investigators and it was answered. Larsen and I are here again for another 6 beautiful week, plus we got Sister Hatch. That’s my third threesome if you count the MTC.

Threesome’s are crazy!! We will see how this one works out. I’m afraid that sister Larsen and I have become such good companions that someone would feel left out but we are going to try our hardest to work on including everyone. Sister Hatch and I were in the MTC together but we were not in the same district. She came from a difficult companionship so it’s good that she is here. We are going to pump here up and get some work done. Too bad we had a glow sticks party with out here. Sister Larsen’s Mom always sends glow sticks so we are always having fun. Jake Baptism date moved to the 4th of November due to the fact that Sue needs to be there. Plus she is out of the Hospital. Heather is a great member and goes out with us on teaching appt which is great.
I love you all
Sister Barrand