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