Bittersweet Goodbyes

Hey everyone!!!

I hope you all had a fabulous week! 

This week was so bittersweet! Aahhh so much happened!

So first of all...Tuesday, we went to the church bright and early with the Zone Leaders and the Canton Elders to practice our song for the Farewell Conference. Before we started practicing, we made a fabulous breakfast consisting of pancakes and bacon! It was glorious! Then we practiced, and practiced...AND practiced! I was still super nervous. It sounded good, but I'm just a nervous soul! Sister Hansen suggested that I get a blessing, so I did, and it was really beautiful. The power of the priesthood is SO real! It gave me comfort, and I felt a little better :)  Then later that day I was talking to another Sister in our mission, who is an AMAZING singer, and I asked her "how do you never get nervous?". And she said something that really hit me. She said "We have been given gifts and talents from Heavenly Father, so that we can literally be an instrument in his hands to bring the spirit into people's lives through those gifts." I've never really thought of it that way. But it's so true. Heavenly Father gives us gifts and talents for a reason, and we need to use them the way He intends for us to use them, and literally become an instrument in His hands :)

I love this picture! With our Zone leaders, Elder Stones and Elder Silva!

We also got a text from Sister Packard on Tuesday evening telling us that there was a tornado warning! We were like "Nahh nothing is going to happen," But then later in the day, when we were on our way home, there were flashes of lightening in the sky. It wasn't fork lightening or anything..yet. The second I said "I wish it was fork lightening", this big bolt of lightening shot out of the sky! So...be careful what you wish for! Then the sky started turning a really weird colour, and it was just so scary. So we were glad to get home! Nothing happened thankfully. It was like there was going to be a tornado, but it just decided not to happen.

Then on Wednesday, we had a really cool lesson with Patti! We brought Gloria, our recent convert. She shared her conversion story and bore her testimony, and it was just beautiful! We still haven't been able to get Patti to come to church though. Her 13 year old daughter has been coming though! So that's super cool! She'll get there :)

Then Thursday was the Farewell Conference!  We had a training on making the Sabbath day more meaningful. President Packard showed us a video from the General Conference training that the General Authorities get the Friday before General Conference, and we spent some time talking about our thoughts and feelings about the Sabbath day. It was really amazing. We talked about the importance of the Sacrament, and during the video, something that Elder Holland said really stood out to me. He said "The Sacrament is the only ordinance we repeat for ourselves". Sacrament meeting is the most important part of Sunday, and I feel like sometimes we forget that, so it's certainly a goal of mine to make sacrament meeting, and partaking of the sacrament ore meaningful :)

After the training, that's when Elder Stones and I sang, and it went really well :) It wasn't perfect, and I was still a little nervous, but it was still good, and I just hope that we touched many hearts :) I'm glad that we could literally become instruments in the Lord's hands to bring the spirit into people's lives through music :)

Than at the end, we all got to hug President and Sister Packard. Hugging President Packard was so special! He just looked right into my eyes and said the nicest things, and I just cried! Oh man, saying goodbye to the Packards was so hard! But now we have President and Sister Miller, and we get to meet them on Friday, so that's definitely something to look forward to :)

President and Sister Packard!

The mission is definitely going through a lot of changes, but change is so good! I know that we're all going to grow so much from this, and we all need the Millers right now. 

As I always say "There's no growth in a comfort zone, and there's no comfort in a growth zone". SO #letsgooooooooo

Our last district meeting of the transfer!

I love you all, and I hope you all have an amazing week!

Love,

Sister Rebekah Barrett