A Fab Week!

Hey everyone!

It's been a crazy week but it's been amazing!

So yesterday we got the Elders to drop us off NEAR where our dinner appointment was, so we could walk down the street. Well we had an interesting experience! We came across a house with a horse in the garden and we wanted to pet it so we knocked on the door, but there was no answer so we just went to pet the horse anyway. But then an elderly woman came out of the house and was like "who's that?" and we were like "Oh sorry we just LOVE your horse and we wanted to pet him!" and she was like "oh yeah he's Irish!"...so I was like "Ummm...what?!" The horse's name was Irish! So I told her tat I'm Irish too! We told her we're missionaries, but she was not interested AT ALL. But she was really nice and she let us feed 'Irish'! So this is me and Irish!

Also, a few days ago we were in the apartment and it was about 9:15pm. The doorbell rang and myself and Sister Blair were SO confused! Like who would come to our apartment at that time? So anyways I went down to answer the door, and there was nobody there, so I looked down and there was this basket on the doorstep! It had loads of sweets and chocolates and it had rocks with prayers written on them! The Elders made it and dropped it off for us! It made us so happy!!

The General Women's broadcast was incredible. And I'm getting REEEAAALLY excited for General Conference! One thing I loved about the Women's broadcast was something that President Uchtorf said. He talked about obedience to God's commandments and said that sometimes we tend to ask "do we really need to obey ALL of His commandments?", and then he said that Heavenly Father is constantly raining blessings upon us, and when we choose not to obey His commandments, it's like we are putting up an umbrella, and blocking the blessings. I LOVE analogies! 

Another amazing thing about that broadcast is that our investigator, Roxanne came to watch it and she LOVED it!! I don't know if I mentioned this before, but she's currently praying about a baptism date. She's been investigating for over a year and she's SO ready! She's an amazing woman and we love her so much! 

So General Conference is this weekend and all of us missionaries are SOOOOOOOOO excited!!! So many people have told me that General Conference is THE BEST when you're on a mission! One of the Sisters said that it's just SO good because as a missionary, you're constantly giving giving giving, teaching teaching teaching, so General Conference is the one time you just get to sit and listen and take things in and be taught. I can't wait to hear the Prophet speak! And also..Jeffrey R. Holland! I hope he speaks! He came to this mission about 2 months before I got here and it kills me anytime anyone talks about it. Even our investigator, Roxanne met him!!

Anyway, hope y'all have a great week! And enjoy General Conference!!!

Love you all!

Sister Barrett

Love for Norwich

"Hey Everyone!

So this week was really great! We played disc golf for P-day last week and I was SO bad at it! What's new?...I'm bad at yet another sport! But it was really fun! Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures there :( 

We've been talking about the book "Power of Everyday Missionaries" a lot lately and it is seriously the best! Every member needs this book! I know all of you would love it. President Packard went through a lot to get that book approved for us to read. Other missions are not allowed to read it but we got permission from the First Presidency so it's all good! 

I got the opportunity to use my Spanish skills this week! We were on our way to an appointment and we started talking to this woman on the street but she literally speaks NO English so I said that we're missionaries from "La Iglesia de Jesu Christo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias"..and then we gave her our card with our number on it. Unfortunately in that moment, that was literally the only Spanish I could remember. I'm definitely not good enough to teach this woman, but that's why we have Spanish missionaries serving nearby. It was a cool experience! She didn't call us, but it was still a good experience. :)

So we had a really fun Ward activity this week and SO many people brought non member friends and family :) Everyone had an amazing time. It was a Fall Festival. Everyone is REALLY into the Autumn season here!! It was a very successful activity! There was over 110 people there :) 

The 4 companioneros! Elder Sutherland, Sister Blair, Sister Barrett (obviously) and behind me is Elder Ching.

We took that photo about 3 minutes ago so that is what I look like RIGHT NOW! Also..sorry it's blurry.

Myself and Sister Blair on Feline Friday ... that cat clearly didn't like us.

The work is continually progressing here in Norwich and I am loving every minute of it. This place is amazing!

I love you all! Hope you have a great week :)

Love,

Sister Rebekah Barrett

2 MONTHS!

"Yes...I have been on my mission for exactly 2 months today!! It feels like I've been here for 2 weeks! It's going SO fast! I'm just having the most amazing time ever! 

So as you all know, we moved house this week! We now live in a fancy house with a basement! We were looking for storage space and we found a basement, and it's super creepy! But it's home! We love it :) We struggled being in our new house for the first few hours because we had NOTHING in the house! We had no cups or ANYTHING! So this is Sister Blair drinking Orange juice from a bowl.

So we are now settled in, and the Elders are settled into our old apartment! So we have Elder Sutherland from Utah/Idaho and Elder Ching from Hawaii!! So I'm still the only European around here! But the Elders are really good! We all get along very well..we don't hate each other at all! :P We made them banana bread and cookies and left them in the apartment for them, we also bought them a load of cereal...and we bought a load of cards and left them around the apartment for them to read. We wanted them to feel welcome...so I think that did the job! Also..we photocopied our entire area book and member book for them so they're very well informed of everything here!

So the members here in Norwich are AMAZING! They're very missionary minded and that's what we want! The ward mission leader and his wife are the nicest people EVER! We LOVE Brother and Sister Lewis! We were in Relief Society yesterday, and one woman made a comment about how she didn't let her son go on a mission because she didn't want him to be away from her for 2 years because she'd be worried about him, but now he's inactive, and she knows if he went on a mission things would probably be different. So Sister Lewis made a comment about that..she said that we should encourage our children to serve missions, and they'll always be looked after.She said "My kids are grown up and they've moved out, but I'm still a mom!" and then she pointed at me and Sister Blair and said "I'm their Mom!" She's the sweetest person ever! ALSO...we were at their house for dinner about a month ago, and they were asking me about the food in Ireland and they asked if we eat Shepherd's Pie a lot..and I was like "actually I haven't had that in a LOOOONG time but I LOVE it!"..so yesterday when we were talking to her she told me that she's making Shepherd's pie for dinner this week when we come over! They're the nicest family ever! We are VERY well looked after here. No need to worry about me while I'm here!

Sister Lewis is also really good friends with one of our investigators, Roxanne, who we LOVE! She's been investigating the church for a LONG time! She went to Transfer meeting this week and got to see all the new missionaries coming in, and she got to hear all the departing missionaries bear their testimonies. She LOVED it! We went to visit her this week and we asked her how she felt about it and we read the Book Of Mormon with her. She loves the Book of Mormon! She's totally ready to be baptised! But she just hasn't made the commitment yet. We love her SO much though! She's an amazing woman! :)

This is the AMAZING sunset in Norwich! This is 5 minutes from our house!

Sister Barrett & Sister Blair at sunset

Well, that's all for this week! We're going to play Disc golf for P-day today! Yes that does exist. I'm pretty excited about it! 

Love, Sister Barrett".

If you want to write to Sister Barrett at her flat, just message me or her mom on Facebook for the new address. Thank you as always for your love & support!

Staying in Norwich!

"Yep! That is correct! I'll be here in Norwich for another 6 weeks at least! And Sister Blair is staying with me!!!! We are SO delighted to be staying here and getting to be companions for another transfer!! This is her second last transfer though so we'll have to say goodbye soon :( NOT GOOD!

Also, we found out what Elders will be coming here! We're getting a greenie Elder straight from the MTC so I won't be the baby anymore! We don't know who he is yet though..we just know there'll be a greenie here, and then Elder Sutherland will be coming here..who I have also never met. But Sister Blair said we'll all be best friends in no time!...Or we could all hate each other..it could go either way! Nahh I'm just kidding! Haha

So another awesome thing about this week..Ryan got baptised!!! Saturday was the big day!! He was SO delighted!! And he's going to the temple to do baptisms with his wife, Angela this Saturday! They are both so excited! 

I have no crazy stories this week! And we didn't burn any rice! So that's very good news!

We went to a cool place for P-day last week though! All of our zone went. We went to this really beautiful place and we hiked through the woods up a mountain! It was torture in the humid weather..and there were SO MANY BUGS! But it was still beautiful! And we had a barbecue so that was really fun!!!

I love you all :) Thank you for all being amazing!!"

Sister Barrett will be moving apartments this week, and she will send us her new address next Monday. In the meantime, if you are just DYINGG to send her a letter, you can send it to her flat address as the Elders in her ward will be moving in there so she'll still get it, or you can send it to her mission home address.

Big Changes are Coming!

Sister Barrett is already nearing the end of her first transfer!! If you want to write to her this week, you can send letters to her flat until Wednesday, and then send them to the mission home. Here is her weekly email.

"Lots of changes are happening for us in the Norwich Ward as transfer week is approaching! We found out that we're getting Elders in the ward which is a big change! At the moment it's just me and Sister Blair, and The Bernards, our missionary couple. So the ward is really excited for this big change. Also, because we're getting Elders...we're moving apartments! They're going to take our apartment and we're moving to a town house! Super fancy! It's just down the road from our apartment now so we're not moving far. Our new house has 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and it has a stairs! 2 FLOORS! We are blessed! They REALLY take care of the Sisters! We always get the nicer apartments.

Oh, and yes, I did say transfer week is approaching, transfer texts are this Friday, moves are next Wednesday. I'm REALLY hoping I don't get transferred! But we shall see.

So more cool news, a girl in our ward got her mission call this week and she's going to the Paris, France mission! She's super excited! And we're SO excited for her! She comes out with us ALL the time so she'll be well prepared. And she'll be closer to my home than I am! CRAZY!

Anyway, success story of the week, Ryan is getting baptised on Saturday!!! We're so excited, and so is he! And he's working on some family names to bring to the temple too! He's doing really well and we're just SO excited for him!

Anyways I love you all!!

Have an amazing week!"

Sister Barrett also sent these photos of her and Sister Blair celebrating Feline Friday, where they take pictures with cats every Friday ........ at least we know Sister Barrett is still as crazy as ever!