Out Kock'n doors
Tak'n a rest after some service at the Millers
Our apartment door
Too many bags.. so we filled the suitcaseWednesday, January 24, 2007
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Hip Hip
Talofa Lava… that means hello in Samoan
Well this companionship is going great and we are making a lot of progress. We were to meet with the Stiltners that we found two months ago. Cute family. He almost didn’t let us in cause he thought we were trying to convert him and he was going to stick to his church. But we got in and talked about eternal families and the three kingdoms, cause he had always been wondering about good people that don’t get baptized. I have to let you know that Noah just walked into the library. Sorry that was random.Over dinner Sunday we kind of got into a heated discussion over dinner with sister Kirby’s nonmember husband. He talked about how he would hate to live for eternity with his family cause he can’t even stand them now. It was pretty sad to have their daughter who is a member also agreeing that she is suck with her x-husband cause she is getting out of a messy divorce.
On the Sunday Sister Montgomery taught our lesson in Relief Society. She is the most entertaining person to watch. Her lesson was on repentance. She said “Repentance is like your behind, just leave it behind.”Pam Saheem (old referral) was having a hard time and we were able to give her an Ensign and some up lifting articles to read.This week we got a hold of Shavon (she had ordered a BOM) She was kind of avoiding us for a while and not showing up for our appointments. However this week she said that she got the assignment for the semester to research Mormonism. So we will be giving her a whole bunch of great stuff and the rest of the lessons. Hip hip Hurray. We taught her lesson two and she said that she would pray about it. She is a big timer into the bible, like knows it back and forth. Shavon is on the Radford University Girls Basketball team. I think that we will be able to go support her this Saturday at one of her games. She is also coming to Thai Chi at the church this Thursday. We will be attending to learn some self-defense moves for scary men that look into our window and to let our investigator know that we are normal.We do service at the library and the Clothing bank. Entering obituaries data into the computer is great fun when we get to talk to all the people that sit by us and read the 1965’s jokes (they don’t make any sense, and not funny at all.)
I’m so proud of Don he is being such a member missionary and blessing other lives. I’m glad to here that things are going well there. I pray for you all everyday. There is a lady in the ward that served a mission and knows how much time doing your laundry take so in return I will do her hair. I can’t tell you how much I love this work and the people here. As I was studying in Alma on: change of heart. I was reminded of my freshman year in my Book of Mormon class when my teacher taught about “ Change of heart”. I had one of my own changes. I went to all my roommates and the girls above me and taught them. That was the greatest feeling. And know I get that feeling everyday where I can share this gospel and feel true happiness. I’m so lucky to have had such a wonderful family who were loving examples to me. You all have been so good to me and I am so privileged to be apart of this family.Alofa Atu….Love you
Sister Barrand
Well this companionship is going great and we are making a lot of progress. We were to meet with the Stiltners that we found two months ago. Cute family. He almost didn’t let us in cause he thought we were trying to convert him and he was going to stick to his church. But we got in and talked about eternal families and the three kingdoms, cause he had always been wondering about good people that don’t get baptized. I have to let you know that Noah just walked into the library. Sorry that was random.Over dinner Sunday we kind of got into a heated discussion over dinner with sister Kirby’s nonmember husband. He talked about how he would hate to live for eternity with his family cause he can’t even stand them now. It was pretty sad to have their daughter who is a member also agreeing that she is suck with her x-husband cause she is getting out of a messy divorce.
On the Sunday Sister Montgomery taught our lesson in Relief Society. She is the most entertaining person to watch. Her lesson was on repentance. She said “Repentance is like your behind, just leave it behind.”Pam Saheem (old referral) was having a hard time and we were able to give her an Ensign and some up lifting articles to read.This week we got a hold of Shavon (she had ordered a BOM) She was kind of avoiding us for a while and not showing up for our appointments. However this week she said that she got the assignment for the semester to research Mormonism. So we will be giving her a whole bunch of great stuff and the rest of the lessons. Hip hip Hurray. We taught her lesson two and she said that she would pray about it. She is a big timer into the bible, like knows it back and forth. Shavon is on the Radford University Girls Basketball team. I think that we will be able to go support her this Saturday at one of her games. She is also coming to Thai Chi at the church this Thursday. We will be attending to learn some self-defense moves for scary men that look into our window and to let our investigator know that we are normal.We do service at the library and the Clothing bank. Entering obituaries data into the computer is great fun when we get to talk to all the people that sit by us and read the 1965’s jokes (they don’t make any sense, and not funny at all.)
I’m so proud of Don he is being such a member missionary and blessing other lives. I’m glad to here that things are going well there. I pray for you all everyday. There is a lady in the ward that served a mission and knows how much time doing your laundry take so in return I will do her hair. I can’t tell you how much I love this work and the people here. As I was studying in Alma on: change of heart. I was reminded of my freshman year in my Book of Mormon class when my teacher taught about “ Change of heart”. I had one of my own changes. I went to all my roommates and the girls above me and taught them. That was the greatest feeling. And know I get that feeling everyday where I can share this gospel and feel true happiness. I’m so lucky to have had such a wonderful family who were loving examples to me. You all have been so good to me and I am so privileged to be apart of this family.Alofa Atu….Love you
Sister Barrand
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Happy New Year
Happy New Year
I loved talking to all of you over the late Christmas season. Man it was fun to talk to all of you. For the New Years we went to bed and that was my first New Years sleeping, oh and that first day of the year was even better sleeping. On Monday night I found out that Sister Quinton would be transferred to media as one of the media sisters. And I would be getting Sister Campbell. I really didn’t know how to react cause I would have to know everything here in this area and pass that on to my new comp. I also knew that sis. Quinton would be an excellent media sister with all the paper work and stuff. So I was up and down about this whole transfer thing. Sister Quinton reassured me that I would be ok. So the morning of transfers I was pumped to learn and grow from another comp just as I had done before. A new year and a new companion, things are great. Sister Campbell and I click right away. That night we got right to work and I started introducing her to the people of Radford. She fit right in and I was surprised on how much I new about this town. The spirit really does help you out in times like these.
Some exciting things are happening I’m suddenly more Red you know like taking charge and stepping up to the plate. It’s great I didn’t know I was capable. Sister Campbell and I work together and give the lessons. We were finally able to teach Caitlin in her home and her mom was there!! This has never happened before. Plus the mom wanted her own copy of the BOM cause she would like to know what her daughter up to. Caitlin’s mom Jane is not interested in the church but it is still exciting that she want to be a part of Caitlin’s conversion. Exciting! For the first time in two and half years we taught Annette the Plan of Salvation. She had been getting feeling that her deceased grandmother wanted her to pray for her. It didn’t make since to her mind until after we taught about the spirit world. She seam like it made since and she needed to do something about it. Her two kids were there for a little bit and enjoyed talking about Christ. Exciting!
We had a great lesson with the Lawson’s Pam is not a member and was asking questions. I feel I can teach with out holding back. For some reason as a greenie you just feel like the trainer know and has better promptings. Come to find out that I have those prompting also and I need to act upon them or I won’t receive them. On Sunday the testimonies were uplifting. After sacrament we were told that there was a lady in the foyer for us. She was about 4’9” and weighing about 70 lbs. She was in her 60’s with a big ol’ wig on. Her skin was way beyond wrinkly probably from the smoking and her clothes were three sizes to big. She was crying about how she wouldn’t know what to do if her brother died. She pulled out a folder and told me to take a look. There was a picture of him in his 40’s and a recent picture of him in his 60’s, with the end of his nose cut off. She seamed very down trodden and lost. We could barely understand her. Sister Campbell had a feeling like she hadn’t eaten in days. She was right so we took her to the kitchen to whip her up something, only to find that the Kitchen was empty. We searched for anything to feed this lady (Lydia Carden). We found a can of tuna and some frozen corn. We made a tuna sandwich with the bread from the sacrament and some ranch instead of mayo. Sister Campbell thought it would be nice with some specialty hot chocolate. She grabbed everything that she could and threw it on the stove. It contained water, vanilla, chocolate syrup, butter, cinnamon, powdered dream whip, and some cookies and cream ice cream. It looked poisonous. We didn’t even get to taste is cause we were fasting. Sister Campbell said she wouldn’t have tried it if she wasn’t fasting. We tried to find a strainer to get rid of the floating chunks of cookies but Lydia said, “It’s ok, more the merrier.” Lydia drank in and she said it was the best hot chocolate she had ever had. We asked her if we could get a picture with her and she started cried cause she felt so loved. We gave her a purse to put her stuff in and she said that she wanted to come back for the youth activity cause it would give her something to do. I don’t know if we will see her for that youth activity or at church but we are looking forward to helping her out in any way.
Zone Conference was another inspiring experience. We are doing better as a mission and have some more we can work on. Our zone is working a lot with the members rather than tracking. I’m glad for that cause tracking is not very effective (it even says that in Preach my Gospel). It great when everyone can be member missionary.
I love you all
Sister Barrand
I loved talking to all of you over the late Christmas season. Man it was fun to talk to all of you. For the New Years we went to bed and that was my first New Years sleeping, oh and that first day of the year was even better sleeping. On Monday night I found out that Sister Quinton would be transferred to media as one of the media sisters. And I would be getting Sister Campbell. I really didn’t know how to react cause I would have to know everything here in this area and pass that on to my new comp. I also knew that sis. Quinton would be an excellent media sister with all the paper work and stuff. So I was up and down about this whole transfer thing. Sister Quinton reassured me that I would be ok. So the morning of transfers I was pumped to learn and grow from another comp just as I had done before. A new year and a new companion, things are great. Sister Campbell and I click right away. That night we got right to work and I started introducing her to the people of Radford. She fit right in and I was surprised on how much I new about this town. The spirit really does help you out in times like these.
Some exciting things are happening I’m suddenly more Red you know like taking charge and stepping up to the plate. It’s great I didn’t know I was capable. Sister Campbell and I work together and give the lessons. We were finally able to teach Caitlin in her home and her mom was there!! This has never happened before. Plus the mom wanted her own copy of the BOM cause she would like to know what her daughter up to. Caitlin’s mom Jane is not interested in the church but it is still exciting that she want to be a part of Caitlin’s conversion. Exciting! For the first time in two and half years we taught Annette the Plan of Salvation. She had been getting feeling that her deceased grandmother wanted her to pray for her. It didn’t make since to her mind until after we taught about the spirit world. She seam like it made since and she needed to do something about it. Her two kids were there for a little bit and enjoyed talking about Christ. Exciting!
We had a great lesson with the Lawson’s Pam is not a member and was asking questions. I feel I can teach with out holding back. For some reason as a greenie you just feel like the trainer know and has better promptings. Come to find out that I have those prompting also and I need to act upon them or I won’t receive them. On Sunday the testimonies were uplifting. After sacrament we were told that there was a lady in the foyer for us. She was about 4’9” and weighing about 70 lbs. She was in her 60’s with a big ol’ wig on. Her skin was way beyond wrinkly probably from the smoking and her clothes were three sizes to big. She was crying about how she wouldn’t know what to do if her brother died. She pulled out a folder and told me to take a look. There was a picture of him in his 40’s and a recent picture of him in his 60’s, with the end of his nose cut off. She seamed very down trodden and lost. We could barely understand her. Sister Campbell had a feeling like she hadn’t eaten in days. She was right so we took her to the kitchen to whip her up something, only to find that the Kitchen was empty. We searched for anything to feed this lady (Lydia Carden). We found a can of tuna and some frozen corn. We made a tuna sandwich with the bread from the sacrament and some ranch instead of mayo. Sister Campbell thought it would be nice with some specialty hot chocolate. She grabbed everything that she could and threw it on the stove. It contained water, vanilla, chocolate syrup, butter, cinnamon, powdered dream whip, and some cookies and cream ice cream. It looked poisonous. We didn’t even get to taste is cause we were fasting. Sister Campbell said she wouldn’t have tried it if she wasn’t fasting. We tried to find a strainer to get rid of the floating chunks of cookies but Lydia said, “It’s ok, more the merrier.” Lydia drank in and she said it was the best hot chocolate she had ever had. We asked her if we could get a picture with her and she started cried cause she felt so loved. We gave her a purse to put her stuff in and she said that she wanted to come back for the youth activity cause it would give her something to do. I don’t know if we will see her for that youth activity or at church but we are looking forward to helping her out in any way.
Zone Conference was another inspiring experience. We are doing better as a mission and have some more we can work on. Our zone is working a lot with the members rather than tracking. I’m glad for that cause tracking is not very effective (it even says that in Preach my Gospel). It great when everyone can be member missionary.
I love you all
Sister Barrand
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Oh I just love you all so much. My Christmas was wonderful. I hope all yours was also. Sharing the true meaning of Christmas was the best kind of Christmas. We were able to teach and talk to a lot people. We started off the week caroling to people member, less-actives and non-members. The non-member were the funniest, you just never knew how they would react. We had a great experience going to a less active family trying to teach the wife Sister Reed but ending up sharing the message with her husband Brother Reed. He opened up to us and became a chatterbox. He came to church that Sunday (I know it was Christmas but it was still good to see him there. He even showed us all the old cars he restored they were a beauty. Nicole is coming back to church and loving it, she wants the best for her 4 kids and knows she will find true happiness here. She has had a really tough life from drugs, abusive husband to exotic dancing. She was baptized at the age eight but was never active. It is neat to see how the church can turn your life around for the better. She only wants her kids life to be better than hers. They are living in a transitional home and doing so well. She’s attending church and brings her kids. We watched Work in the Glory with Josh Mompower (Invest.) and Jason Dobbins (member). Josh enjoyed understanding more about the life of Joseph Smith. On the 23rd we celebrated Joseph Smith Birthday and opened a Christmas gift. Ryan got me a necklace of a widow’s mite with the engraving of Mark 12:14 on the back (around the time of Christ, it was like pocket change) (its purr-de). We had a great Sabbath, the music was all centered on Christ and we sang in the choir. There were a couple of special numbers they were all so beautiful. A ward member told us that every Sunday should be Christmas. That night we went over to have Christmas Eve dinner and we did the nativity with their family and the other Elders. It brought me back to the good old times we when use to do the nativity. We should try doing that again. On Christmas we opened our present underneath our tree. I got some of the most wonderful gifts that were very thoughtful and that I will never forget. I was so proud that I didn’t pick anything out and I got everything I wanted and needed it was just fabulouso!!!! I knew that I would have a Christmas with out knowing all my gifts. It was just great to know that I was loved. I feel so bad that I didn’t get the family anything. I know its not about the gifts but I didn’t get to give to my family members. I missed trying to think about each person and what they would need. Oh and see all your faces. Well I hope I gave enough to the people out here. Thanks to mom we were able to hand out a lot of Christmas Cards and share a message. We had Christmas breakfast with the Buchinskys and they gave us nerf guns so we had a little bit of fun shooting their son. It was a good work out. We had brunch with the Burkes and family who loves the missionaries but won’t come to church because of health reasons and their grandbaby died. But they were so kind. Sister Quinton and I made the other Elders some stockings and hung them up. They were out of my knee-high nylons. Ha Ha. They were filled with packing peanuts and ties that we got at the clothing bank where we do service. The Elders got us a huge princess coloring book. For lunch we ate at the hills we played some games just like our family would do. That’s when Brother hill called dad and what I wanted to say was that “I love you” not “where’s my package.” Whoops. Don’t worry I got it and opened it right in front of the mailman that we gave a book of Mormon to. John the mailman already read some and is asking a lot of question. He does a lot of favors for us in delivering the mail and we return the favor in teaching him the gospel. Christmas dinner was great with the Zisettes. He cooks the best turkey I have ever had and Sister Zisette make the best heavenly Chocolate pie. I will have to send the recipes. Sister Quinton and I were both given blessing by the elder for our companionship. The blessing was really good and it made me think about this amazing gospel we have on the earth. And how the priesthood is the true authority from God. I’m so blessed to be out here teaching this message.
AHHHHHHHHHH I get to talk to all of y’all on Friday!!! I’m so excited!!! I Love you all. Thank you all for the wonderful gifts, they were perfect.
P.S. Ha Ha. That Nashville tribute to Joseph Smith CD is not country dad, and I was serious. Its amazing music.
Love Sister Barrand
AHHHHHHHHHH I get to talk to all of y’all on Friday!!! I’m so excited!!! I Love you all. Thank you all for the wonderful gifts, they were perfect.
P.S. Ha Ha. That Nashville tribute to Joseph Smith CD is not country dad, and I was serious. Its amazing music.
Love Sister Barrand
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