HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

Hey everyone!

I hope you're all excited for Paddy's Day! It'll be weird not being in Ireland for it this year, but hey, the work must go on! Oh! And speaking of work...people have to work here on St. Patrick's day! HA! No days off school or work. Laaaaaame!

Haha anyways, I hope you all had an amazing week! We certainly did! 

We went on exchanges this week. I went to North Brookfield with Sister Williams, and Sister Hung came to Greenfield to work with Sister Haws. Sister Haws always has to exchange with Sister Hung, and I always have to go with the American companions because myself and Sister Hung, are both foreign, and we can't drive here haha! The exchange started off pretty exciting. It was about 8:30pm. I got in the car with Sister Williams, and we were on our way to North Brookfield...and then I realised that I had the phone. I had the GREENFIELD phone! So we had to turn around and see if we could catch up with them to give them back the phone. It was like a car chase..really exciting stuff :P We did find them eventually and gave them back the phone. Thankfully we didn't have to go too far to find them. We thought we were all going back to Greenfield that night!

Exchanges were awesome though! I enjoyed my day in North Brookfield with Sister Williams. It was cool being with Sister Williams because we were in the MTC together so it was really amazing to see how we've both grown since then :)

Sister Haws and Sister Hung had a really eventful exchange! They did some awesome Digital mission work. They told us ALL about it! They Skyped this guy from Colombia, and they taught him the first lesson, and he was really receptive!  Then they asked him if he'd like a copy of the Book of Mormon, and he said YES! So they got his address, and they found out the number of the Branch President in that area. They called the Branch President, so that they could get the missionaries number. Unfortunately, he only spoke Spanish, so that was awkward. They ended up getting one of the Spanish missionaries in the mission to call and get the number for them.

Then the next day, when I was back in Greenfield, we called the missionaries...Once again THEY ONLY SPOKE SPANISH! So...yes I took Spanish in school for 6 years...no I do not remember a lot of it. I tried, I really did. I got out a few a few sentences, but then we couldn't understand anything they were saying to us! So then they started saying numbers so we were like "Oh.. we should write this down" Then they say "Americano" So were like "Oh! Awesome! It's the number for some American person! Let's call them!" So we called the number. Turns out, it was their Mission President!  So, we talked to the Mission President in the Colombia Baranquilla Mission. We told him everything and he said he would take care of it. ALLELUIA!!

So something really cool about this week...so whenever it's somebody's birthday in the mission, Sister Packard sends out a birthday text to everyone in the mission so that everyone can wish them a Happy Birthday. It always has a little bio about the person who's birthday it is so that everyone can get to know them a bit better. So this week it was Sister Bernard's birthday. She's one of the Senior missionaries in Norwich. She said the sweetest thing in her birthday text. It said :"Sister Bernard has a special connection with Sister Barrett because she knew her Dad many years ago when he served as a young missionary in New England." It was so awesome! I love The Bernards!

On Friday we had our first Branch Activity in FOREVER! The last Branch activity was the Branch Christmas Party..so it's been a while. It was called 'The Cure for Cabin Fever' since everyone was stuck inside this past month, because of the crazy weather. So we had a campfire in the Cultural Hall. Soooo many people showed up. We had lots of cookies, and hot chocolate, and told fun stories around the campfire.

Not a real campfire! Made out of Christmas lights and some wood, but it looks amazing!

On Saturday we went to Vermont for dinner. The things we do for food...haha! No it's the part member family I talked about before, The Young's. They are just AMAZING! We try to visit as much as possible. The wife, Allison, who is not a member has been working on her "Mormon Prayers", so she said the prayer before dinner :) She was really nervous, but she did really well. She blessed everyone in the world, but forgot to bless the food. Haha It was great though!

Yesterday, we had a St. Patrick's Day Potluck after church! WOOOO REPRESENT!! Everyone eats corned beef for dinner on Paddy's Day here...I tell them that NOBODY does that in Ireland! They think it's really authentic...haha So everyone is making us corned beef and cabbage for dinner this week..yaaaayy.....

The poster for our potluck dinner!

The Relief Society president made this whole thing!

But yeah..this week was great. I love it here! The people are SO  amazing. Myself and Sister Haws have seen miracles here as we have seen the Greenfield branch grow in "unity and love one towards another". This really is the work of the Lord!  I'm so grateful I am able to be a full time representative of the Lord. 

I love you ALL!

Being strange as usual

Have an amazing week, filled with lots of green! 

-HAPPY ST. PADDY'S DAY- 

Love,

Sister Rebekah Barrett