Teaching, Teaching, Teaching!

Hey everyone!

So this week was AWESOME!

Tuesday was such a solid day! We were SUPER busy, just going from one appointment to another to another! It was beautiful! We had a lesson with our investigator, Stefano. Right now he claims to be atheist, but our lesson with him went really well. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and at the end we asked him if he felt like this is God's true plan, and he said no! It was a little awkward, but then we asked him what he believes happens to us after we die. He said "I believe that when we die, that's just it. We die and that's the end of life. There's nothing more." So then I asked him if that's what he wants? He said "No, I would love to live forever.' Then Sister Egan was like "YOU CAN!" We then explained to him again that it's Heavenly Father's plan for us to live eternally with our families. Then we told him that the only way he's going to find out if this is true is to pray about it, so we taught him how to pray, we all knelt down, and for the first time since he was 7 years old, Stefano prayed. It was beautiful! We're going to see him again tomorrow. We're so excited!

After we saw him, we went to see a less active woman who we've been working with lately. Her name is Laurie. She's such a sweet lady! We had a lesson with her where we asked her what he spiritual goals are. She said that ultimately she wants to get back to the Temple. We're going to be helping her to take some small steps to get there. The greatest blessing is that the Hartford Temple will be finished at some stage next year so she can go there! She took the first little step by coming to church this Sunday. She came to Stake Conference! It was amazing to see her there!

So then on Wednesday we had our Zone Conference, and it was SO good! We left with SO many goals and action items to hasten the work in our area. We are SO PUMPED!!!

Sister Egan and I are so excited!

So update on Richard...he is now in contact with the missionaries in Finglas! We called the Sisters this week and told them all about him and they were super excited to teach him! We've also been Skyping him. He's excited to be in Ireland! The best part about him being there is that the first people he talked to were members of the church! It's awesome! I know there's some great fellow shippers there for him! :)

On Thursday we had an amazing lesson with a family in our ward. Sister Egan felt like we should share a talk with them. It's called "Latter-Day Saints, Keep on Trying". It's from the last General Conference. We read it with them, and the spirit was so strong in the room as we talked abut it and discussed it. They loved it! One of my favourite quotes from that talk is "God cares a lot more about who we are and who we are becoming than who we once were."

On Friday and Saturday we went on exchanges with the Glastonbury sisters and disaster struck! All of our appointments cancelled! But it was okay. We had a miracle happen on Saturday. We went to see a potential investigator family, and when we walked up to the house, the Dad was outside working on the car. We said hello and told him who we were. He said that he had met missionaries before us. He was SO nice! He said "I know that not a lot of people are willing to talk about God, but my family and I would love to." He said we can come by any time! It was amazing!

Then later on we had Stake Conference and it was fantastic! Both on Saturday and Sunday. President and Sister Miller spoke on Sunday and they challenged everyone to think of someone who they can invite to take the missionary lessons! #letsgoooooo

A familiar face at stake conference. So crazy!

So overall it was a pretty exciting week! I hope you all had a wonderful week also!

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Rebekah Barrett

Skyping & Salty Brownies

Hey everyone!

This week was so incredible!

So in digital mission news. We Skyped this guy from Brazil. His name is Richard. He is super cool, and I've actually been in contact with him since December, but we never Skyped. This week while we were talking, he informed us that he's moving to Dublin...on Tuesday! He's going there for college! CRAZY! This guy is awesome! He doesn't drink or smoke, he prays daily, and he has a strong belief in Jesus Christ. We're so excited!! Once he gets a permanent residence, we're going to get in contact with the local missionaries so we can both teach him. It's going to be weird contacting the missionaries in my home stake! But it'll be cool!! We're pumped!

So this week we had a lesson at Gloria's house, and she invited her friend over to learn more. His name is John and he's super religious! He's Catholic! We taught him about the Restoration and he loved it! He said he's gong to start reading the Book  of Mormon, but we have to be prepared for all the questions! We're ready! :P

Also, this week we were doing our weekly community service, and we met this woman, Susan. She saw our nametags and she was like "Oh hey! I'm reading the Book of Mormon." We were like "Wow! Really?!" Then she awkwardly changed the subject and asked Sister Egan if she has a younger brother...

Sister Egan was just like "Yes??....." Then Susan proceeded to tell her that something bad is going to happen to him, and then she told her that a young male in her family died... It was the weirdest experience ever. We can safely say that nothing bad happened to her brother, and no young male in her family died.

Another thing that happened this week is that we attempted to make brownies for a less active woman...and we FAILED! The spoon measurement thingy was broken, so we ended up putting in waaaayyy too much salt and vanilla extract. So we made disgusting salty brownies. We asked the Canton Elders to try them out. They tried to be nice, but we knew they were bad. It was pretty funny!

It's been hot, sweaty and gross this week. This is how I feel about this weather.

Yesterday at church this family, The Pescatellos showed up. They aren't members but their daughter is. She went to BYU and was baptised while she was out there in Utah. So the whole family came to church! Then afterwards, their daughter came up to us and asked if she could take some copies of the Book of Mormon so she can give them to her family! She is awesome!

So yeah it's been a great week! And this next week is going to be awesome too! It's a busy one! We have Zone Conference coming up, and exchanges! So it'll be fun!!!

I love you all! Have the best week ever! 

Love,

Sister Rebekah Barrett

New Missionary

Hey everyone!

So this week was CRAZY and awesome!!

So on Wednesday I said goodbye to Sister Hansen, which was super hard because she has become one of my best friends over the past 3 months, so I'm really going to miss her! BUT my new child's name is Sister Egan, and she's from Spokane, Washington and she is AWESOME! I barely feel like I'm training her! She knows it all!

Sister Hansen's last day in the mission field with the cutest child ever, Isabella!

The transfer meeting on Wednesday was amazing! There were SO many new missionaries there! 28 new missionaries came into the mission! They announced all of their names at the transfer meeting, and at one point I nearly DIED. There is an Elder Mark Berrett in the mission!!! Not quite the same name...but very close! :P

Me with my two daughters!

So, a lot of great things happened this week! Sister Egan got her first Skype in the digital mission! We Skyped a guy in Vietnam and taught him a little bit about what we believe and then got his information so we could get him in contact with the missionaries in Vietnam! It was so awesome! Sister Egan is KILLIN it!! :D

Later on that day, we went to Hartford to help out with a chapel tour for the Elders there. It was so awesome! We got to use our street contacting skills, and Sister Egan just has no fear! It was so cool to see how confident she was her first day in the mission field! 

On Friday we had District meeting with our new district! Our district is AWESOME! We have some solid new missionaries here in the Hartford Zone! I am SO pumped for this transfer!

Later on Friday we had a lesson with Gloria ad her son Eoin. We taught Eoin about the Plan of Salvation, and he had some awesome questions and comments! At the end of the lesson we taught him how to pray, and asked if we he would say a prayer. He was hesitant at first, but then we all knelt down, and he offered a beautiful, simple prayer. It was amazing to see him exercising his faith like that. 

Sunday was SUPER busy!! So, crazy story. we were waiting outside the bishop's office so we could go to Ward Council, and all of a sudden, President Miller walks into the building! He was supposed to be going to the Canton Ward's sacrament meeting, but he showed up too late, so he came to our sacrament meeting, and he gave a talk!!! It was awesome! The members really needed that. It gave everyone a little push to share the gospel more! It was such a blessing to have him there!

Then later on that day, we went to an appointment with our investigators Adam and Ashley. We planned on teaching them the Restoration, but they had so many great questions ALL about the Plan of Salvation, so we ended up teaching that. It went super well, and at the end we taught them how to really receive revelation through reading the Book of Mormon, and how to really receive revelation through prayer. We then asked Adam to say a prayer, and we all knelt down and he prayed. He POURED out his soul! It was incredible! It was the most amazing prayer I've ever heard an investigator say! They also said they're coming to church on Sunday, so we are PUMPED!

It's been a really incredible week. We've had a lot more time to focus on the people and the area, and it has been such a blessing! The work is really moving forward here! We are preparing this area for the Temple! We are so excited!!

I love you all so much! Have the best week ever!

Love,

Sister Rebekah Barrett

Ch Ch Changes!

Hey everyone!

So this week was BEYOND crazy! We had meetings for dayyys!! We had Mission Leadership Council on Wednesday, which was really awesome. Little did I know, it would be my last one. We'll get to the reason for that later...

Then Thursday we planned for our Zone Meeting and we had the AP's come down and help us out so we could plan an awesome Zone meeting!It was great to have them there. They always come up with great ideas. I have been anxious ALL week to find out who my new companion is, and since they knew, I asked them who it's going to be. They gave no information. That stressed me out about it even more! :P

Hartford Zone! #HartandSoul

That night we went to have dinner at Hannah's house. Before dinner, we all sat down to say the blessing on the food. We have NEVER heard Hannah or her Mom or anyone in that household pray, so we invited one of them to pray. Hannah refused, her Mom refused. We were VERY persistent. Her Mom told us that the missionaries who taught her never made her pray out loud with them! Clearly we're different! So after much stubbornness, her Mom finally agreed to pray! It was the first time she's ever prayed in front of people! It was so great! Even though it was just a little thing, it was a huge step for her! Now our next step is to get Hannah to pray out loud!

On Friday, we had Zone Meeting, which went super well! One thing that we trained on was the digital mission. We wanted to get everyone pumped about the digital mission, so we brought our whole zone into the Family History centre, and said "Okay you have 15 minutes to get a Skype lesson with someone. GO!" Everyone just went CRAZY! They got 6 Skypes! It was SO awesome!It was fun to see everyone teaching online!

Okay, then later on was the big moment of the week. We were expecting T-texts all day Friday, but by 9pm they still hadn't come and I was SO anxious to find out who my new companion was. Well...at around 9:15pm we get a call from President Miller! So here's what's happening...I got released as a Sister Training Leader, and I'm going to be training a new missionary AGAIN! So my new companion isn't even in the mission yet. She's in the MTC right now! :P I did NOT see that one coming! It's funny how we think we have everything figured out, but then Heavenly Father switches things up! It's great though! This area needs attention. The people here need full attention from the missionaries, and we weren't able to do that as Sister Training Leaders. Having a new missionary here is going to light this area up! It's been FOREVER since someone has been trained here, so this is super exciting!

So as well as becoming a mother for the second time, I also realised that I'm the oldest sister in the zone, so I think this scripture sums up this point in my mission very well! (v. 60)

I am PUMPED! What an interesting week this will be! There'll be pictures of me and my new baby next week! WOO!

Elder Dawson left his sunglasses in the library ... this is what happens when you do that.

I love you all so much! I hope you all had an equally amazing week!

Love,

Sister Rebekah Barrett

Exchanges and a Sealing!

Hey everyone!

Sorry I'm late this week. We had interviews with our mission president yesterday, so we have p-day today!

So, this week was awesome! It was not a normal week. We had exchanges with the Glastonbury sisters again and that was really awesome, and THEN on Thursday night we drove down to Bridgeport CT to stay with the Bridgeport Sisters, Sister Francis and Sister Smith. I promise there's a good reason for this..

So we stayed there on Thursday night, and then on Friday, we switched companions for the day. I went with Sister Smith, and Sister Hansen went with Sister Francis. They stayed in Bridgeport, and Sister Smith and I headed to the Boston Temple. We went to the temple to be there for the sealing of two amazing people in the Greenfield Branch, Lee and Anthony! They got baptised this time last year when Sister Morgan was serving there. It was SUCH an amazing day. It was so incredible to see them get sealed, and to witness them taking this huge step in their lives!

All the Sisters with Lee and Anthony!

Also, speaking of Sister Morgan...or should I say Hannah? She was there! It was SO awesome to see my old companion since she's been home!

After that wonderful Friday, we headed back to our area and had a wonderful weekend! Church on Sunday was amazing! Our Ward Mission Leader bore his testimony and challenged both me and Sister Hansen to bear our testimonies. We rose to the challenge, and had a wonderful experience. I know that when we bear our testimonies of the restored gospel, our testimonies grow! I love the gospel so much!!!

Yesterday was also an amazing day. We had interviews with President Miller, and every time we meet with him I just get more and more of a spiritual confirmation that he is here for a great purpose and he has so much good to bring to our lives. He is an inspired man. I'm so excited for T-texts this Friday. Sister Hansen will be going home, so I'm also super nervous! Pray for me!! :P 

Last p-day we went to ESPN! We got to see how everything works! I still don't know anything about sports though ...

I love you all SO SO much!!

Sorry this is shorter than usual. 

Love,

Sister Rebekah Barrett

21 Years of Life!

Hey everyone!

Oh my goodness this week was incredible!! Where do I even begin?!?!

Okay so I guess Monday is a good place to start..

So last Monday we went on exchanges with the Glastonbury Sisters. Sister Lind is a brand new missionary in the mission, and she came with me to our area. It was awesome! She's so great! Fun fact: Her dad served his mission in Ireland!

So we had an awesome lesson on Monday night. We went to teach Gloria one of the new member lessons, and we were teaching about The Commandments, and it was going great as usual. But it was even better because her son Eoin actually stayed in the room while we were teaching. We could see that every few minutes he'd stop playing his Xbox and he'd listen, but then after a few minutes, he pitched in and started participating in the lesson. He had some awesome comments! All the things he talked about were about the Plan of Salvation, so we said that next time we come, I'll bring my visuals for the Plan of Salvation, and we're going to start teaching him the lessons!!

So then on Wednesday, we had an interesting day. We did our weekly planning for all of our investigators, but we decided to do it outside because it was a really nice day. So it went great and we were very focused, and we came up with some great ideas to help each of them...but we were out there for a good few hours in the sun...so when we finished, we realised that we had WICKED sunburn on our legs! Mine were SO bad! Being Irish is rough sometimes...

The struggle is real!

Then Friday was another interesting day! We had district meeting and it was great as usual, but then afterwards we were making our lunch. We decided to make BLT's for lunch and we were all very excited about it. Well, the Elder who was in charge of making the bacon ended up burning it and I had a flashback of an interesting event that happened at the beginning of my mission. The fire alarm went off in the church, and the whole situation that Sister Blair and I went through in Norwich happened again. The whole fire department showed up. It was super embarrassing..and hilarious. Hopefully that will never happen again on my mission! :P

Okay then Saturday was AMAZING! We got to meet the couple who we got a referral for last Monday, Ashley and Adam. They are awesome! They live right beside the Temple, and they live in a little Mormon neighbourhood! We went into their house, and Ashley was so nice and she was so excited for us to be there, because she had been to church before and she loved it, but Adam didn't really look like he wanted us to be there. We got to know them and as we talked more and more he really opened up, and he was asking lots of great questions. When we asked them if they'd be open to taking the lessons, he said "You know, at first I didn't really want to hear anything, but I'm really surprised. I wasn't expecting it to be like this. I'm really intrigued and interested to know more." It was amazing! We have another lesson with them this Sunday, and they should be coming to church too!

Then later on Saturday, I got a lovely surprise! We went to the church to write up our weekly report, and when we walked into the library in the church, the Canton Elders were there and they had the room all decorated with balloons and they made a cake for my birthday! It was so nice!! They organised it all with Sister Hansen! I have the best companion!

Blowing out my candles.

Then on Sunday morning when I came out of the bathroom after my shower, there were balloons everywhere and a Happy birthday banner, and little sticky notes! It was so cute! Sister Hansen really went all out!

Sister Hansen's decorations

Then this awesome family from the ward, The Armisteads, came walking up our driveway and gave me balloons and a bag full of sweets...and some cheesecake :P I love cheesecake!

THEN after church, we went home for a few minutes and our house looked like it had been attacked by party decorations! There were decorations all over our door, and there were little American flags (because I love America :P) and there were oreos on our front step, and a bunch of cute little Happy Birthday notes from all the people I worked with in Greenfield! The Canton Elders organised the whole thing and it was literally the sweetest thing ever! It seriously made my day! 

What I came home to after church!

Happy birthday notes from the people of Greenfield!

THEN Hannah, our investigator made us a delicious 3 course gourmet meal and it was FAB!!! We had baked brie cheese with cranberry and apples and crackers for the starter, for the main course we had cajun chicken alfredo, and then for the dessert, we had cheesecake! Once again...I LOVE CHEESECAKE! 

Hannah gave me a birthday Tiara!

We also got to talk to Hannah about baptism, and we had a REAL conversation about it. It won't be happening before Sister Hansen leaves, but she is working towards it and getting closer and closer every day :) We love her so much!!

Oh my goodness it was juts such an incredible day, and an incredible week full of funny, crazy and amazing experiences! I love serving the Lord! Being a missionary is the best! It's changing my life with every day that comes :)

I love you all so much! Have an amazing week!

Love,

Sister Rebekah Barrett

Green Cake & Miracles

Hey everyone!

So this week was AWESOME!! 

First of all, on Tuesday, Webex's came back! President Miller has decided to do a weekly Webex with us, so we're all super excited about that! It made my day!

Then Wednesday was my year mark and it was so weird just thinking back. I just can't believe it's been a year! It goes way too fast! It's just weird :P

Okay so the most AMAZING this that happened this week was...

On Friday after District Meeting, we got a call from our investigator, Hannah. She was in the airport on her way to Utah and she was asking Sister Hansen if she'd like her to visit her family. So Sister Hansen was like "YES! Visit my family!!!" And then Hannah said "I was thinking I could tell your Mom in person that you guys committed me to be baptised." We were like "WHAT?!?!?!?!?" It was the shock of the century! But we are SO excited!!! She's thinking of getting baptised just before Sister Hansen goes home, so we'll see what happens! We have dinner with her and her family on my birthday (she's a chef, and she's making a three course meal for my birthday...we're really excited about it), so we're going to talk more about it then, but it was literally the best thing EVER!!! I absolutely love that girl!!

So then on Saturday we got to go to a baptism! It was someone that Sister Hansen taught when she was serving in Canton CT. The Canton ward shares a building with us, so we didn't have to travel far! It was a really nice baptism :) The Canton Elders did a great job! This weekend we also baked a cake for Elder Dawson because it was his birthday. He loves green!

 (l-r) Elders Dawson and Terry, me and Sister Hansen!

So along with the miracle of Hannah, we also had another miracle happen today! We got a referral for a couple who live in our area. They live RIGHT beside the temple, RIGHT beside the people in our ward who are building the temple, and apparently they have a lot of awesome questions about the church! We are SO excited to meet with them! Miracles are happening!

The church is true! God is good! I know that when we work hard and give our all to serving the Lord, He truly blesses us! The work is moving forward!

I love you all, and I hope you all have the best week ever!

Love,

Sister Rebekah Barrett