This week was incredible! General Conference weekend is always a SUPER exciting time in the mission..but there was so much more than that!
This week we had an amazing lesson with McKelle. We brought Laurie again and that was great. We had planned on teaching The Gospel Of Jesus Christ lesson and it was going really. We read 2 Nephi 31 with her and then asked if she had any questions about it or if there was anything she didn't understand. She said no, but then she completely opened up to us about her life. She told us that she wants to be baptised but she wasn't brought up in a religious home so she really knows nothing about Jesus Christ or His life. She said that if she's going to follow His example and be baptised then she wants to know more about Him. We were really grateful that she opened up to us like that and basically told us what she wants to learn and needs to learn before she gets baptised.
Then later that day we went to one of our member's houses, Sister Gelbach, to do some service for her with the Canton Elders. This woman is literally one of my favourite people ever! She's from Panama and she is just SO awesome! We got to her house and she had a ton of food for us, and then she quickly put the Elders to work. They had no idea what they were getting themselves into. They had to move a giant wardrobe from the upstairs of her house to the basement downstairs. Sister Gelbach's house is not small. Neither was that wardrobe. While they slaved over that, we got to share a message with Sister Gelbach. She is seriously the sweetest lady.
On Thursday we went to help the Glastonbury Sisters with the digital mission. I love the digital mission. It's so unique, and it's so great to have the opportunity to literally bring the gospel to all the world! We helped them get set up on their accounts and start contacting people all over the world! It was awesome!
On Friday we had such an incredible day! We had District meeting first of all. Sister Egan and I gave the training. We had to train everyone on how to best teach about how God is our loving Heavenly Father and how the Gospel blesses families. We started by asking everyone how they've felt God's love in their life and how the gospel has blessed their families. It was really sweet to hear everyone bear testimony to each other and come closer together as a district.
Then after that we went to Hartford to give tours of their chapel. The Portable Visitors Centre Sisters were there. It was a cold and rainy day but we still went and did WORK! We stood out on the street and contacted people, and invited them to take a tour of the chapel. We contacted this one guy, Tyreo. We just walked right up to him and we were like "Hey would you like to take a tour of our church?" and he was like "Right now? Wearing these clothes? I'm not dressed for church". We told him it was fine and he came in and took a tour. We shoed him the "Because of Him" video and he loved it, and then we showed him this video "Christ's Church". We asked him what he thought of it and he told us "I've actually been wanting to make a new beginning in my life." And then he brought up baptism! We took that opportunity to teach him about the importance of baptism and what it really means to be baptised. We taught him that it is an important covenant with our Heavenly Father, and it is just the first step to follow the Savior. He agreed with everything we said, and we were both thinking the same thing. Sister Egan extended a baptismal date to him for October 24th...and he accepted! Then we got the Hartford Elders in there because they're going to be the ones teaching him. It was so cool! It was a unifying moment between myself and Sister Egan, and it was also amazing to see her boldness and confidence as she invited Tyreo to be baptised!
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| Fall is here! |
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| We took some pictures at the lake near our house. It's so beautiful! |
From the Saturday Morning session I loved Elder Larry R. Lawrence's talk. I loved his direction to us to ask the Lord "What lack I yet?". There is always something in our lives that we need to improve upon. We need to be humble and teachable so that we can become who the Lord wants us to become. When Elder Lawrence visited the mission last year we talked about this, and as missionaries we each took that counsel and asked the Lord "What lack I yet?" so that we could sacrifice something in our lives or our ministry that was holding us back from giving our whole souls to the work. Because of our sacrifices we saw miracles. That was the month that the Massachusetts Boston Mission baptised 100 people :)
From the Saturday afternoon session Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk really stood out to me. I loved when he said "No love in mortality comes closer to approximating the pure love of Jesus Christ than the selfless love a devoted mother has for her child". I just think it's beautiful that the love of a mother comes so close to the love of the Savior! He said that our mothers are "Saviors on Mount Zion, and like the Master [they] follow, [their] love "never faileth".
From the Sunday Morning Session I loved President Russell M. Nelson's talk. I loved when he asked "Sisters, do you realise the breadth and scope of your influence when you speak those things that come to your heart and mind as directed by the spirit?"
As a missionary, it's so important that I listen to the promptings of the spirit as I teach, and act on those promptings because that can really influence and change people's lives. I fgeel so blessed to be a missionary!
In the Sunday Afternoon Session, Elder Devin G. Durrant's talk stood out to me. I loved his invitation to us to "ponderize" one verse of scripture every week. As we do that, he promised us that "as we make this effort, we will feel an increase in spirituality". He also said that "We will always be able to teach and lift those we love in more meaningful ways".
I hope you all had an amazing week and enjoyed conference as much as I did!
I love you all!
Love,
Sister Rebekah Barrett
P.S. Update on Henry. We bought mouse traps, put them in our house. Put peanut butter on them. The next day I went to check the trap. The peanut butter was gone but the mouse wasn't in the trap. So we were outsmarted by Henry! THEN the next morning I went out to check it again and the trap was gone, so I asked Sister Egan "Sister...did you move the trap?" and she was like "no?? But I heard it snap last night". IT WAS GONE! So she checked behind the dryer, and there was the mouse caught in the trap. Henry is now dead and gone. That's the short version of the story. I'll tell you all the full length story someday...
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