"Oh Deer"Sister Campbell climbing over my seat to get in.What we look like when we open our mailbox

Twinners!
Choose the RightClean Linen is the best car freshner....Ever!
Excited to go eat some Pumpkin chocolate chip muffinsYou have got to be creative on a Mission

Oh Deer

Well well well. I Can’t believe it’s finally here my little bro and I out on Missions together just as we had always dreamed of. I always knew this day would come, where we could share this time together but be so far apart. He is going to love this work and you will be so surprised on how much he will learn and grow. He will be an amazing Elder Barrand.

It’s been crazy here. We went to Shavon’s basketball game. It was weird to here that loud music. She was an amazing basketball player, she was the team. After the game we met this retired religion teacher and one his old students (Brittany). Brittany had the light in her eyes; you could tell that she was doing something right. We have met with her three times since then and are continuing meeting with her. She takes us out to lunch with her. She has a lot of questions and is very open to learn more. She is a student at Radford University.

As we were driving to one of our dinner appointment when a big old buck ran out in front of us and made a big boo boo in the front. It was pretty neat to see how many people were willing to stop to make sure we were ok. The buck was down and couldn’t get back up. We prayed to thank our heavenly father that we were ok and let the buck go back to his family. As soon as we opened our eyes the buck ran off. The cop was about to give it a shot but the buck ran off before he could get to him. We handed out Books of Mormon and shared a message with everyone. At church Brother Hill came up to us and said. “You prayed for the deer? Do you know we eat road kill? Do you know that we would have had a full freezer by now?” He said it sarcastically but he totally meant every word. You know I’ve always wanted an excuse to say “Or Deer” if I ever ran into one, but this phrase did not cross my mind when all this was happening. Oh well better luck next time. The cop said they have deer accident every other day on that road. Sister Campbell has to climb over my seat to get to hers seat in a skirt cause her side door will not open. We called the president to let him know what was going on. He was sure glad that we were ok and he made sure that we did not climb in and out of the window.

We had an ice storm and Church was cancelled. It was frustrating because Shavon was planning on going to church with us for the first time. It was also important to me to take the sacrament. You realize what an incredible remembrance you receive when you partake of the sacrament, when you are not able to. We weren’t aloud to got out and work so we spend the day with the Zisette and worked what we could from their home.

Laura Hull is coming right along we taught her another lesson and set a baptism date for February 10. She is sad that her mom doesn’t want to go but she wants to do it anyways because she knows how important it truly is. We are praying and fasting for comfort in her heart weather her mom and dad come. But everything will work out. The lord only wants the best for her.

Sister Campbell keeps us reminded to accentuate the positive. She’s amazing and would go through anything for anyone. She is a great example to me of faith. I’m learning tons from her on how to become more charitable and personable. We also have fun as we are doing it. For the ward game night we dressed up as twinners. We said that we wanted to be like the elders, so the next day they wore the same ties so they could be like us. You have to find the joy in life in the simple things. For example we don’t have a lot of food but we get creative and try meals out from what we have. Like the fudge that sis Campbell made from hot Chocolate mix. (Mom you got to get this recipe) Or the cobbler for jam, canned peaches, cookie mix and granola bars. Or the other day we made a fabulous appetizer from asparagus and cheese. No recipes included. I’m thinking I’m going to go into cooking. j/k. Life is great here.

We just had President Interviews and I think I will be staying here in Radford for at least another two transfers. It’s all good to me because I love it here and I don’t know any better. Sister Campbell will be leaving me soon to go home in the end March. So we want to make this last little bit for her the best. We are working hard and receiving the blessings. You all are lucky to be able to go to the temple so often. There is a lot of important work to be done. I know you all are amazing examples. Keep up the wonderful work and keep helping the missionaries.

I love you all
Sister Barrand

Out Kock'n doors
Tak'n a rest after some service at the Millers
Our apartment door
Too many bags.. so we filled the suitcase

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

Money might grow on trees there, but it grows on bushes here

Long day


Lydia Carden
My new comp

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

Our Coloring Book from the Elders

Our killer sweet Nerf Guns. (Brother Buchinsky said these are for when we get bored in the apt, Little does he know, we don't have any extra time)
Christmas dinner at the Zisettes
Nativity at the Davis's

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

Merry Christmas!

Charlie Brown Christmas

Our Swimming Skit
Southern half of West Virgina Charleston Mission at Christmas Zone Conference
My Birthday goodies from the Zone Leaders

Preston, our invesigator that moved to Colorado

Merry Christmas

Hey all,
I wanted to wish you all a merry Christmas. I won't be able to check this until after Christmas so I hope you have a great one. Thank you so much for the brithday cards and present,they were great. you make me feel so loved. I guess that i will be having a member call on the 25th to see if that is the day you will all be there.
What a great week. Have I ever told you guys that I love being on a mission? Oh I thought of two more things I would absolutely love
Calendar of Christ
CD- Nashville tribute to Joseph Smith.
We went to the mall for p-day. It felt really weird being in there. If you know me and shopping, if I get rushed or I don’t get enough time try it out I end up returning it right away. Well you can all guess what happened I returned it. We rushed over to give a member a haircut after we were done shopping. Well I had one of the most memorable birthdays thinking of others and not myself. We had the tastiest breakfast at a member’s home with a less active and our Zone Leader (Elder Tautatoli and Elder Marshall). The less-active told of her conversion story and how much the missionaries meant to her in her life. I love hearing how this gospel blesses them and everyone who allow Christ and his Atonement to become the most important aspect in their lives. The zone leader’s gave me all the goodies that were in their apartment cause they are on a no sugar diet. They also put a bow on our car and said they got us a new car. Ha ha it was funny. That night we went to a relief society Christmas dinner. A couple of less actives showed up and felt welcomed. It was good to hear some of their favorites scriptures and why. I made me think of the whole book and how I can’t pick a favorite one cause they are all so good. My scriptures are becoming very colorful! After that we raced over to Josh Mompower’s (new investigator that read 10 chapters, also friends with Jason Dobbin) apartment. He had there a cobbler that he bought for us to celebrate. This Josh guy is a funny character. He’s very gun ho about the army and is training to go back, but very kind and polite using words like yes mam. There was only one problem; there were no candles to put in the cobbler. But him being creative put some hand sanitizer on the top of his fingers. The liquid was very liquidy and ran down and burnt his fingers. Josh didn’t give up and tried it with a glove. This birthday I blew out three lit fingers instead 22 candles. Very West Virginian! P.S. I know I’m in Virginia but if anyone does anything stupid here they say “ Very West Virginian!”
We were able to meet with the Bishop’s son Mike Skidmore. We are working praying, reading and quitting smoking. He is down to 3 cigs a day. P.S. everyone here smokes! No joke! Its hear for him cause he lives and works with smokers.
We finally got to track part of Tenth Street, a street that looked very desirable to missionaries. They first four doors we were rejected pretty hard core with flying hands and voices raising. The only man that was Christ like and actually nice to us was a ‘born again Atheist’ and didn’t even believe in Christ. He wished us good luck in our journey and we went on our way to find more people.
Rob Zisette( ward member) played in a Christmas program from another church. It was fun to see and listen to the choir gospel music. They were shouting and clapping for Jesus. We got some people there that we will be visiting later
Christmas Zone conference was awesome. President Cowley gave us all West Virginia Charleston Mission pins. We all came up with skit in our zone and performed them for the southern half of the mission. Some of the skits were a bit odd. Most of us didn’t know what was going on, but knowing how much time we were given we could understand why. Well in our zone they gave all the responsibility to us sisters. So Sister Quinton and I had to think of a skit for our zone of 12 missionaries and a senior couple. We did a little synchronize swimming act to Carol of the bells. It was hilarious! All of us had swimming gear over our proselyting clothes and jumped into the pool (blue sheets) and swam together. Then realizing that we are not suppose to be in the water, ripped off the swimming gear and starting ringing doorbells. It was a good one we heard chuckling from President and Sister Cowley.We then got all the letter and gift that you all had sent awhile ago for the christmas message. Thank you sooooooo much, they were great. i loved reading about everthing.
Mom- that was the most thoughtful, cutest card ever
Dad- that was so caring to remember all thoses things
Austin- thanks for being an example to me
Celeste- thanks for the letter and long round package underneath my Christmas tree
Danica- i loved the letter and the family Picture! and i'm not Stubborn!
Bryce- thanks for saying happy brithday to me
Grandpa and Grandma- thanks so much for the brithday card, Christams letter and the gifts, i love them !!!
Love you all
Sister Barrand

Hey All

CONGRATULATIONS! Austin I’m so excited. Did you know I guess Canada? You can even ask my companion. Now we have severed as a family in a big circle!
Ok well Kevin is out of the picture for now. He told his roommate Mike that he didn’t want to meet with us anymore. Sad we think he’s just not ready yet, he got to scared cause he felt the spirit so strong. His girlfriend is the most important person in his life now. We taught Laura Hull again and she is all excited to learn more and we have to wait till January 8th when she comes back from break to teach her the last lesson. She will pray about a baptism date over the break. She is progressing and loving this gospel, it amazing how it can bless your life. She got really sick though and is going home to receive a blessing from her boyfriends dad. We know and she know that Satan is not happy that she is progressing and will do anything to stop her. But she is way to strong and won’t give up. We got a new investigator Shavon and taught her lesson one, but haven’t been able to get a hold of her recently. It so sad that it is so hard to meet with these people sometimes. The lesson went excellent. I felt it was probably the best lesson we have ever taught. The Christmas dinner was pretty good except the two young women singing Santa baby suggestively, when we had two investigators there. Ronnie Dalton ( which we have to give to the Elders cause he lives in there area now, sad ( our only adult investigator)! Josh Mompower who is best friends with a less Active Jason Dobbins who enjoyed the dinner and who we taught. He had read 10 chapters the first night we gave him the book of Mormon. The next time we saw him he wanted us to quiz him on the chapters. Oh I we had the worst food the other day it was….. a ten year old piece of reeses pieces. It was the grossed thing ever. Both sis Q and I were so grossed out.

I'm so excited for the new Applebee's!
Santa Clause is comin' to town
The Lawsons

Wow

Wow, wow so much going on! I loved reading everyone discussing how your going to run Christmas presents this year. Ha ha. I think I was laughing so loud that I night of disturbed the people in the library. I would have to go with Marcia’s ADDENDUM A. Good thing I found out what that meant for my companion cause I thought you were using the first initials in our names. But now I understand… anyways that idea is the way to go, I just thought you would also like my opinion even though I can really be a part of the whole present giving thing this Christmas. L I’m really sad about not being able to be there and give away presents. I’m wondering when you all are going to be around so I know when I should call. Sounds like the 28th or 29th? But I don’t know if I can call then. Oh and I think I need a calling card for that. I’ll ask the President on that one.
It’s OFFICAL I have been REJECTED with the whole door slammed in my face after baring my testimony! So dad, I’m not the heartbreaker anymore! It hurts!
They tell us that Less Actives are like investigators. So we re-taught some of the lessons and it makes more sense for them. When we were trying to find Ashley Shockley in that huge apartment building we taught the bishop’s son Mike (less active). He asked us a good question “ why a mission”. Now I’ve gotten that question before but this time I bore my testimony about it and was so incredible to have that warm feeling of making the right choice and sharing it with others. I knew he could feel it and he knew he had to start making some changes. I hope he can be a good influence to our investigator Kevin Sullivan. YES they are roommate that how Kevin got a hold of the Book of Mormon. They also have another roommate that just got off of his mission 2 months shy because he couldn’t hack it anymore (now moving in with a girl). Yeah so that apartment is full of work!
We had are first lesson with Ronnie (a man that we tracked into). He is just great. He called us before the appointment to make sure that we were still coming. It’s funny cause that is our job. Before the lesson he showed us his amazing house that he built with train tracks smothering it. It was pretty cool he had an elevator in him home. The lesson went well and he came to church for all three hours. That’s amazing for their first time at church. Most investigators don’t enjoy fast and testimony meetings. And this one lasted for an hour and 25 minutes. People just keep coming up and the spirit was so strong there. It was neat that we got a mix of all the different age groups also. You know how some testimony meetings are all little kids. This one was evenly done, like they arranged it or something. Second hour was short but good (it was on repentance) third hour was kind of a mess because it was senior missionaries trying to pump up the members to go out on missions. They were mostly talking about info and not the spiritual side. So I’m sure Ronnie really didn’t know what was going on. But never the less he stay and told us he enjoyed it. We have the ward Christmas party and we hope he will be there. I have horrible news this week we have to give this golden investigator to the Elders, cause he live in their area. LSad! It’s ok the elders ran in to a new investigator that was working in their area but lives in our. So we will get to teach Peter. We jokingly promised each other as missionaries that we would baptize these investigators that we are switching if we gave them to one another. Noel Lawson came again to church and him and his wife feed us a lovely healthy dinner. After we talked about the gospel. I guess he has been in contact with the missionaries and not his wife. I guess the wife had a big dislike for Mormons and that why he didn’t attend church. Now we were all sitting around talking about the gospel. cool!
Thank the Fitzgerald for the card and money, which was nice of them…. did you tell them that it was my birthday coming upJ?
Hey everyone keeps asking me where my ancestors are from and I really don’t know much about it, only that some are from Norway. Just wondering if you could send some info this way. Or my genealogy line or tree or something to help us teach.

What Sister Barrand List for Christmas…..and Birthday;)
Shoes!!! From Journeys- Black Walden size 7 ½ . keep the recite just in case the size doesn’t fit. They should be around $30… It’s for the big spender
Mission stuff… like
The big poster of the huge linage from Adam all the way to Christ. That would be sweet!
Talks on CD (by Prophets?)
I would love to get Jesus the Christ on CD
CD ( any thing that would invite the spirit) mom and Danica did an awesome job on that! That missionary one is my favorite
I would love some new clothes like…
Small button up sweater that I can wear over other shirts (normal solid colors that would match a lot of things.)
Small plain long t-shirt (maybe from Shade’s or Molly me) (white, black, and some other colors)
Plain long Tanks top (Celeste or mom knows how I like them) with no slits in the side (white, black)

Thanksgiving breakfast at the ZisettesChoppin' wood. Can you see we are strong missionaries!Turkey bowl

As a missionary thinketh "how did this fire hydrant become one with the ground?"


Water at Claytor lake" Sunrise...Sunset"
My Crazy Comp driving

Faith

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanks Giving. Everyone loves to eat here so much we had two. The first one was wild. There were so many family members that all the guests including the missionaries had to go downstairs and eat. I was just like home to be around all the noise. For some service we chopped down trees and chopped them to pieces, joke, that was the elders but we did move the wood to families house that were needed. The second Thanks Giving dinner was quite and calm with some really good food. We went around the table and told everyone one what we were thankful for and mine was to be on a mission. We meet a less active member there who denied being a member when I asked her how long she had been in the ward. She was married in the temple and now says that she was never a member.
Noel Lawson came to church for the first time in 20 years. We just met him and his non- member wife just a couple of week ago when we raked his leaves. They also invited us over for dinner later this week. He and his wife are so kind and loving. Along with our less-actives Kate Harshberger was there for her 2 week in a row. I love to see the members flood to less-actives, it doesn’t always happen but we give them a little push.
There is a great young couple in the ward that is great in helping us out with everything and feeding a lot. We love going over to the bridges cause we always get into doctrine decisions. I hope that if I ever have the missionaries over I will talk to them about the gospel and up lifting things. Next time we go over there we are going to be talking about Jacob 5!
Finally this week all of our investigators are back!! Yeah!! They are all students and they were gone for Thanksgiving. We were so excited to see all the car and students out on the streets. Ha ha we started tracking in the student housing cause we were so excited to teach these young minds that don’t know where they are going in life. It kind of back fired on us but we still love the students. We have so many amazing people we are and going to teaching. Yesterday was amazing; you know out here you have to have so much faith. We are still working with Becky, she hasn’t smoked in a couple of weeks and we are still working on reading and praying on her own. She needs to have that desirer to first and the rest will fall into place. We found a less active (Jerry Peterson) that has been to church in 2 or three years. When we talked to him he knew that he had to come back to the church. It was funny because now that his mom had died (died of old age) he had no one to push him out the door and he knew that he mom would be disappointed in him. He has work on Sundays but he is trying to get it off. So we got a referral to go find this Ashley Shockley girl in an apartment complex of 12 buildings and 12 apartments in each one. We deiced to start at the end and meet everyone and ask them if they knew Ashley. I was a little worried that we were never going to find let a lone know if she was home last night. Well we knocked three doors and no one was home the first person that we talked to went to high school with Ashley and told us were she live. We went straight to Ashley and are going to start teaching her this Thursday. I knew that we found her because she was ready and the lord was preparing her for us, and we just needed the faith to go find her. The lord works in marvelous ways. I never thought we were going to find her so quickly. I love the inspiration that we receive if we are being obedient.

Elder Tauteouli, Elder Lowder,President Cowley, Sister Scidmore, Sister Quinton, and Me at Zone Conference
Our Ap's acting out the scriptures
I didn't know Goldie Locks was a man. They do stuff here a little different!
Our Family Home Evening at the Zisettes with Caitlyn

Elder Pace!

Well to start off the week, we had zone conference with Elder Glenn Pace, of the seventies. It was awesome but pretty rough conference. We found out that the West Virginia Mission is the hardest baptizing mission in the United States. And we as missionaries are showing it. The average baptism here per mission per year is 2.1. We as a mission are at 1.3 and the highest that it has ever been is 3.3. That hit me pretty hard. As Elder Pace said, “Where is the fire in our bellies?” or “Eye of the tiger?” He talked about us being Vultures and going out and killing something and not sitting around. He said, “We suffer more from a lack of self-confidence than a lack of humility!” All right I’m so guilty! This week was pretty hard on my self-confidence. Someone had little faith in me to take on a project and other person went on about how wonderful my companion was. I took it very personally I felt all alone, like no one cared about me, that there was no need for me. It was Satan pushing me down making me feel as little as dirt. It stopped when I stopped thinking about myself and started thinking about (Kate) a less active member that was there. When I sat by her and befriended her when no one else did she told me she loved me. She really meant it too. She said that it is not weird cause she really feels that was. That made me feel all warm inside that I was there for one of Heavenly Father’s Children. And that I was not a nobody and I have a very important work to do.
We were able to teach Jessica lesson two. She opened up and told us that she doesn’t know what to do: take the rest of the lessons or be there for her sister in her church. Mom is not too happy about the church either.
Oh oh, we were able to wear jeans!!!! We helped a family in the ward move. It was fun to help out.
We didn’t get to much teaching to our investigators cause they are all students and they were all home for the holidays.
I hope you all have a great Thanks Giving, eat a lot! Have fun and befriend someone!

Love Sister Barrand

I tried to take a picture with a cow but it ran off. I thought you might like the rolling hill behind me though!?

Gas dosen't always come that cheap. 1.98 baby
I'm so greatful for our 2006 malibu. It tells us when we need to get an oil change and washer fuild! It's like the nicest car I will ever own.
I gave Preston (an investigator) and hair cut for the price of listening to Sister Quinton preach the gospel. I knew cutting hair would come in handy!
This is our humble Apt. You can tell if you look real close at the windows. There is a picture of Christ. We didn't want the people behind us to feel left out so we put another one on the other side, so you were able to tell from anywhere.

The People

Hey all

Appalachian Quick Reference Guide:

myep-ya May i help you?
mear-mint Come here a Minute
rat-chere right here(or thar)
y'all you all
all-y'all plural of y'all
purt-n-nir pretty near


Ha Ha that’s really how some of them speak over here. It's funny to listen to that coming from the pulpit. Sometimes I just laugh to myself. Last Sunday was probably the most entertaining cause there was 160 of them all condensed into a branch building. The first Sunday we were here there were 127 people. And last week we had 160. Oh wee. Ok I’m tellin' the truth but it was only cause of the primary program. Which was amazing... to watch those wild kids. Ok it was distracting but also heart warming (I cried). All I could think about is how young they learn the gospel and how they are truly Children of God. I loved it.
Wes Smith: Each Sunday I go and talk to Wes. Wes was bought up in the church and says “I was made to believe in god by my parents, but that doesn't mean I believe in him now." he is peculiar. He got a divorce, has an adorable mentally handicap son named Liam, and lives with his brother's family. And is oh so bitter at everyone and the church. But he comes to church still on his own. That is peculiar. He said we can't make him become religious.
Jess Cantline: He is a less active that got real offended by people in the church. He used to be on the council and his wife use to be the organist. But sadly now they say "the church might be true but the people aren't”. Well hello we all know that people are not perfect. But that doesn't stop us from going to church! Just reminds me to not get offended. I'm glad Danica had that family home evening on not getting offended. That was great. Really if you get offended you can not have the spirit and the spirit is your constant companionship and he strives to be there when you are like Christ, and Christ dose not get offended.
So I think I told you about Tina Lindsay before. She is the one the had some question about Joseph Smith. Now, I called her the other night and she was mumbling 10 time worst then I do, plus an accent. All I heard is that she took the Koran and put in front of our synagogue... mummble . . . mummble. .mumble...crack... I stopped her and asked her about that crack. She said "opps did I say that, you were not supposed to hear that, don't tell anyone about that." Come to find out she just was interested because she wanted the church to pay for her food and rent. She told me "it's ok cause I can go to any other church and get them to pay for that."
On a Good note Laura Hall: We met her and the next time we taught lesson one. She has been going to church for about a year and has been dating her LDS boyfriend for about 3 years. He is putting in his papers to go on his mission. And she is waiting for him, she wants to get married in the temple to Alex for time and eternity. She is so excited to learn more about the gospel. We can see it in her eyes when we meet up with her. She is just soaking up everything the spirit is teaching her.
For Zone P-day we were able to watch the Best Two Years. It’s way more enjoyable if you know whats really going on, on a mission.
BOM Baseball is my new favorite game. We played it over at a member's home for FHE.
This work out here that I get to do everyday is so amazing. Just the other day we finally found this less active member Patricia, Who started crying when she saw that we were missionaries. She shared her conversion story and told us how much she loves the missionaries. The only reason she is not going to church is her husband won't let her. Its so sad to see that she never thinks his heart will be softened. The lord works in peculiar ways. We never know who's heart he will soften or when it will happen. But we do know that he his merciful and loves each one of us. I love this place and what I’m doing for the lord. I love having the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost 24/7.
Love you all
Sister Barrand
P.S. The worst food that I’ve eaten here was this cheesy over cooked vegetable goop, with gross tough ham. (You can just say that I had a lot off rolls that night)
Ok fine I’m spoiled here.

Don't be ashamed

You should never be ashamed of the Holy one of Israel. I was reading about this in 2 Nephi 6 and how you should not be ashamed. It so neat to actually go through the change of heart where you might be embarrassed of what you do, what you believe in, and what you stand for. I realized that in high school I had so many missionary opportunities and didn't take any of them. I never remember sharing my testimony with any of my friends. I never felt worthy of such things, I just thought that it was to hard to bring up the gospel to my friends I didn't want to come across "preachy" or "churchy" it just kills me, that I wasn't a member missionary. I was thinking about that and, there is a huge difference when there someone who is not a member and claims themselves to be spiritual and yells and shouts out what they think is holy. But that is not how the spirit works. The spirit is soft and quiet. That is why I always felt uncomfortable when I heard someone shout out the lords name or when they talked preachy to me. They didn't have the spirit. I have never yet, felt so proud to be so spiritual and in tune with the spirit. I am so far from being ashamed to share this true gospel and to represent Jesus Christ. Now I see that in Kevin, he told us that he is not ashamed of reading the scriptures or doing what is right in front of others and his friends. Man it's neat to go through that myself but it is even better when we get to experience that through someone else.

Last night we were at a member’s house for dinner and the husband is a recent convert of about three years ago. It took him 32 year of being married to a member and having three righteous kids to finally join. I asked him what changed his mind. He said that it was all the great examples. He had learned and watched his wife and children be righteous. It’s amazing to think that you can learn from your children like Brother Shelton had. I hope we all are great examples of Christ in all that we do, cause you don't know who will be watching us as an example.

We will hopefully get together this week with Kevin because he was sick all last week. Preston had so many questions and we just didn't have enough time cause he had to go. He also asked if he could come to church and if people would judge him if he showed up. We made it apparent that it was perfectly fine to come to church.

So on Saturday we went to go visit the new Stilner family. We came across Ronnie (60's) and Bryan (20's). Ronnie is the manager of the apt. and Bryan was just helping him out putting in a basketball hoop. We stopped and talked to them and gave Ronnie our number to come to church. This morning we got a call from Ronnie asking us if we could teach him more about what we believe in and our standards in a week or two. Sister Quinton tells me that people never just call up and ask to be taught. I say that we are just being spoiled. I love this work and this gospel. I'm striving on being the best example for others so they are able to come unto Christ.

I love you all
Sister Barrand

This is the Zisette Kids (my favorite family) and Catilyn our Investigator at their band concert. They were awsome.
Exodus 3:2
And the ^aangel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of ^bfire out of the midst of a ^cbush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
Stand back from the fiery flame of Pegasus. Ha HaEndure to the end 2 Nephi 31:20
20 Wherefore, ye must press forward with a ^asteadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of ^bhope, and a ^clove of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and ^dendure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have ^eeternal life.

Man I am Strong
For Halloween we all switched name tags and tried "The Rock" face.
Work Work Work, that's all we do here!
Our results at the end of the day
I know that, but do they?

No Shows? What!?

Hey all
Happy Halloween. We were able to wear each others name tags for our costumes!
This past week we got a lot of no shows and hit and misses. No one showed up for Sunday, it sad and stressful. I prepared a talk just for those people and they weren't there. Every Sunday we have PEC and meeting for the missionaries and the bishopric and other important people, I made some good pointers about what the missionaries need to be doing on Sundays with the ward and they listened and followed my ideas. Oh the song we sung went well, especially the other boy who sang. Before we all started singing it was kind of noisy but after we began, it was dead silent. You could feel the testimonies of Joseph Smith there. My talk was on Pray. I think this was the very first talk I've given with out anyone writing my talk for me. I actually looked at the people and didn't read the whole talk verbatim. I just found out that they talked discussed my talk in seminary the next day. Surprising that they were all listening. Neat! We also talked a lot about Missionary members and how important they are. I love hearing that you are helping out the missionaries there in your own area. It helps a lot to have a member there while we are teaching. So dad good job. Sorry to hear about the water that dipped down your back. I can just see you now, reacting to that ice cold water dripping on ya. Ha Ha
So we were given a referral to go meet Kimberly Campbell. After a lot of searching we finally found her house. A man was already going it to the house so he invited us in with him. In there was his wife and daughter. This family was not the Campbells. But we talked for a while about the gospel and placed a BOM and movie. They asked us to come back. We are going to set up an appt with them this week.
Kevin was really sick this week but we are seeing him tonight.
So we go visit all the new freshman and we had an appt. with Derek and he was a no show. But then he called us back and said sorry and for us to start teaching his girlfriend Jessica! Yeah! Calls like that don't happen that often.
The next day we got another phone call from another no show named Preston Gieger. I feel like I’m being spoiled.
I'm reading in the BOM for my personal study and I’m understanding sooo much about Nephi.
Cool experience happened. The Zisette Family had over their grandparent and Aunt and Uncle. This is the neatest family. I just love them. They are the ones that let us stay with them for a week and a half. Anyways I learned tons of knowledge of the 12 tribes in my studies. Then we were at the Zisette all playing church taboo and then we got in to talking about the 12 tribes. The Uncle was a patriarch, so in this conversation I totally followed along cause I had studied it earlier. Wow. I think if I wasn't where I I’m at spiritually I would have left that conversation. cause I would have no idea what on earth they were talking about. It is neat to know all this amazing stuff.
President interviews went well and it looks like I will be here for another 6 weeks! Yeah.
Love you all
Sister Barrand