Dear fam,
I miss y'all. It was so fun to talk with you all last week, except for they Day Day ): [mom's note: David was the only sibling not able to talk to McKenna] I feel my letters are becoming repetitive. This week we taught people about the restored gospel. If they want to be baptized and have an open heart, we teach them more. If they are hard- hearted, and want to bash, we bear our testimony, and move on. Yep, normal week. And in this normal week we had four people accept baptismal dates on the first meeting, three of them before we'd even managed to teach anything yet. Just, "Do you want to follow the example of Jesus and be baptized?" Yep, "Okay, here's your date." Not that y'all find that interesting. But it is just so obvious that the work is hastening.
Mother I wanted to follow up with you. I did not take more pictures, but I did buy myself two cute tops. So I'll work harder on your other commitment.
I guess the sad part of this week is we found out two of the people we were teaching that had a goal to be baptized this week, turned out to have only tourist visas, so we only had one person get baptized. It was so sad, because we called one of them Friday and asked if he was excited to be baptized, he said, "I'm more than excited." This guy is quite shy and quiet, so that was the equivalent of him jumping up and down and shouting. Then on Saturday Sister du Plessis felt we should ask him about his visa ): It was so sad. A quite large part of me wishes she hadn't. But oh well. I guess it wasn't his time.
In other news, we have 2 Muslim investigators. That was quite interesting. Both times when we gave the investigator a Book of Mormon, they kissed it, and touched it to their heads. It was shocking the first time, I was like, "what?!?" But I think it's endearing now.
Hmm. anything else to report? I still have two awesome companions. There are definitely different challenges to a trinity, but I think we've got it pretty much down.
CULTURE LESSONS: Thai people hate rain. Yes, they live in one of the rainy-est places in the world, it makes no sense, but they do. It is a common reason for missing appointments, and some times church, or English class. "I can't come, it's going to rain!" I have heard that many times.
Spiritual lesson: A member gave a marvelous talk yesterday about our load, based on Elder Bednar's talk. He made some wonderful points. He started off by saying "Yes, we all have loads. Often we try to say we don't: everything is fantastic, nothing to worry about. But that's not true. So first we must examine our load, then we must decide: are we too light, or too heavy, or are we Goldilocks - just right? If we are too light, we may end up watching cat videos for hours on end, or watching two seasons of Doctor Who in one day. If we are too heavy we will get just as far as if we were too light. In other words, we stall. So we must examine our load. Are we too light? Too heavy? What can we add? What can we take out? He also added, as we continue to check our load, and pull on, we will grow in spiritual strength.
I love you all! I hope you're in good health. I wished I could talk to you for another two hours last week! Man I'm lucky to have a great family.
love you,
Sister Barber
I miss y'all. It was so fun to talk with you all last week, except for they Day Day ): [mom's note: David was the only sibling not able to talk to McKenna] I feel my letters are becoming repetitive. This week we taught people about the restored gospel. If they want to be baptized and have an open heart, we teach them more. If they are hard- hearted, and want to bash, we bear our testimony, and move on. Yep, normal week. And in this normal week we had four people accept baptismal dates on the first meeting, three of them before we'd even managed to teach anything yet. Just, "Do you want to follow the example of Jesus and be baptized?" Yep, "Okay, here's your date." Not that y'all find that interesting. But it is just so obvious that the work is hastening.
Mother I wanted to follow up with you. I did not take more pictures, but I did buy myself two cute tops. So I'll work harder on your other commitment.
I guess the sad part of this week is we found out two of the people we were teaching that had a goal to be baptized this week, turned out to have only tourist visas, so we only had one person get baptized. It was so sad, because we called one of them Friday and asked if he was excited to be baptized, he said, "I'm more than excited." This guy is quite shy and quiet, so that was the equivalent of him jumping up and down and shouting. Then on Saturday Sister du Plessis felt we should ask him about his visa ): It was so sad. A quite large part of me wishes she hadn't. But oh well. I guess it wasn't his time.
In other news, we have 2 Muslim investigators. That was quite interesting. Both times when we gave the investigator a Book of Mormon, they kissed it, and touched it to their heads. It was shocking the first time, I was like, "what?!?" But I think it's endearing now.
Hmm. anything else to report? I still have two awesome companions. There are definitely different challenges to a trinity, but I think we've got it pretty much down.
CULTURE LESSONS: Thai people hate rain. Yes, they live in one of the rainy-est places in the world, it makes no sense, but they do. It is a common reason for missing appointments, and some times church, or English class. "I can't come, it's going to rain!" I have heard that many times.
Spiritual lesson: A member gave a marvelous talk yesterday about our load, based on Elder Bednar's talk. He made some wonderful points. He started off by saying "Yes, we all have loads. Often we try to say we don't: everything is fantastic, nothing to worry about. But that's not true. So first we must examine our load, then we must decide: are we too light, or too heavy, or are we Goldilocks - just right? If we are too light, we may end up watching cat videos for hours on end, or watching two seasons of Doctor Who in one day. If we are too heavy we will get just as far as if we were too light. In other words, we stall. So we must examine our load. Are we too light? Too heavy? What can we add? What can we take out? He also added, as we continue to check our load, and pull on, we will grow in spiritual strength.
I love you all! I hope you're in good health. I wished I could talk to you for another two hours last week! Man I'm lucky to have a great family.
love you,
Sister Barber