Monday 24 November 2014

"Let Your Soul Delight in Fatness"

Hey everyone!

I thought that title would be appropriate because Thanksgiving is this week! My first Thanksgiving! Sister Morgan is super excited to be spending my first Thanksgiving with me. I thought that one dinner would be nice, but Sister Morgan insisted on 3. So we have 3 Thanksgiving dinners. I'll definitely be pacing myself...otherwise I'll be waddling out of appointments. But I'm really excited to be celebrating this joyous American holiday! Haha

So, this week was INCREDIBLE!! Saturday was Peggy's baptism and it was SO great!! Elder Ching baptised her, and all her sons (there's 4 of them) came to the baptism! Roxanne was also at the baptism, so she got to see what this Saturday will be like. After the baptism, Peggy's sons all asked "So, when can we be baptised?" This is a huge miracle! We're going to start teaching them asap! Everything about her baptism was just incredible. Myself and Elder Sutherland did a musical number. I was super nervous, but it was good, and we get to do it all over again at Roxanne's baptism, with the addition of Sister Blair :) I cannot wait!

Peggy's baptism!
This week we get Transfer texts and I REEEAAALLLLY don't wait to leave Norwich! But, wherever the Lord needs me I'll go. Hopefully he still needs me here in Norwich! :)

The mission continues to experience many miracles, and we are at 63 baptisms so far this month. The previous record was 59 baptisms in a month so we have beat the previous record and the month isn't even over! We are SO excited!!

Sorry this is super short, but I love you all! :)"

Thank you ALL as always for all the emails, letters and packages and love and support! Sister Barrett really appreciates all the wonderufl things you all do for her and so do her family! Just to remind you that if you want to send something to Sister Barrett for Christmas, the final posting date for letters is December 11th, and for packages (standard packets and parcels) is December 6th. You can send letters to her flat, the address of which you can get from Maria, or myself (Aisling) or you can send them to the mission home; the address is on the side of the page! :)



Monday 17 November 2014

Baptisms & Farewells

"Hey everyone!

This week has been wonderful as always! Lots of great stuff happening here :)

We got to go to a missionary farewell thingy for a girl in our ward who's going to the France, Paris mission. Pretty cool, huh? It was so fun! It's really cool to see things from the other side. I got to experience all of this myself before I came on my mission, but it's cool seeing everything from a missionary's point of view. I want to be a good role model for her as she is preparing for her mission. It wasn't long ago that I was in the exact same position as her, so it's really great to be able to help someone prepare. She comes teaching with us all the time! She'll be a great missionary :)

Sister Barrett, Melina and Sister Morgan at Melina's farewell.

We are still experiencing great miracles within the mission! Peggy is getting baptised this Saturday, and Roxanne's baptism is next Saturday! There were 19 baptisms within the mission just yesterday! That is INSANE!!! So there's been 39 altogether this month. We are getting there with our goal of 70! It WILL happen!

So this week we had a really cool dinner appointment with an AMAZING lady in the ward, Miriam. She's a recent convert and she's SO awesome! All four of us went over to her house to have dinner with her family, and Elder Ching prepared a Hawaiian dinner and dessert for us! It was SO much fun! And Hawaiian food is delicious.

I have a GREAT story from this week! So on Wednesday evening, myself and Sister Morgan were at the church updating some stuff and we knew the Elders would be coming in a few minutes. So Sister Morgan suggested that we scare them when they get there. We had to move our car because if we didn't, they'd know we were there...so we drove onto the grass at the back of the church. We RAN back into the church and watched out for them. So a few minutes later, they pulled up into the parking lot and they came into the dark church, and when they walked in the door, we SCREAMED! And they DIED! Elder Sutherland fell to the ground because he was so scared...so this is his reaction. It was REALLY funny, and we got it on video. The whole ward has now seen it.



I love you ALL!!! Have an incredible week and keep the faith! :)

Love,
Sister Rebekah Barrett"

Monday 10 November 2014

A November to Remember

"Hey everyone!!!

So this week has been INCREDIBLE!! We have seen so many miracles as we've been praying to achieve this goal of 70 baptisms.

I have an AMAZING miracle story from this week!! Buckle up, because this one made me WEEP!! So this week we went to see Roxanne, and as you all know she's been investigating the church for over a year, and she's been praying about a baptismal date for a while now. So we went there and we asked her how she's feeling about baptism. She asked us "Well, does it have to be on a Sunday?" so we told her that it doesn't have to be on a Sunday, it can be any day. Then we continued on with what we had planned for our lesson. Then later on, Sister Morgan asked "So why did you ask if it had to be a Sunday?" and she said "Well I really want it to be a Saturday so my husband can be there", so I told her that the date we originally extended to her, November 29th is actually a Saturday! And she just lit up and said "Oh really?! Well let's do that then!" So Roxanne is getting baptised on November 29th!!!!! We are all SO excited!! Pretty much everyone in the ward knows her and everyone is SO happy for her and so excited! Her husband, Steve is SUPER supportive. He's so good to her. There are tons of missionaries in the mission coming for this because so many of them taught her! This is the biggest miracle ever!!

We had Stake Conference this weekend and it was amazing! It was all about Hastening the work of Salvation. A topic that all missionaries LOVE! Something INCREDIBLE happened at Stake Conference though...well it was incredible for me... So this older man came up to me and said "Are you Sister Barrett from Ireland?" so I told him I am indeed. And he introduced himself to me as Brother Dannecker. His Dad was my Dad's bishop when he was serving in this stake on his mission. His Dad is now serving in the Preston temple with his wife, and I met him when I was there in June. I have had a lot of experiences like that ever since I got here and it just makes me feel so at home here. I dread leaving the Providence Rhode Island Stake!!

Funny story of the week, we got to hold baby turkeys at a members house this week! My life is now complete! I can die happy now.

Baby Turkey!

Then later, we were at an investigators home, reading Book of Mormon stories to the kids.....their kitten REAAALLY likes Book of Mormon stories! 



This place is my home and I love it SO Much! Norwich ward is constantly growing and the Lord is hastening his work. We are experiencing miracles on a day to day basis, and it's not just us, it's the entire mission. I LOVE THIS PLACE!

I hope you've all had a great week :)

Love,
Sister Rebekah Barrett"

Tuesday 4 November 2014

Winter Miracles & Missionary Birthdays

"Hey everyone!

It's been a busy day. I was out buying winter clothes. Apparently it has already started snowing in Massachusetts! So I had to prepare myself for that. Also, we went bowling.

So anyway, this week was INCREDIBLE!! Amazing things are happening in the Massachusetts Boston Mission right now. We had an amazing Zone Conference with Elder Larry R. Lawrence (of the Seventy) on Friday. We are all PUMPED for November because we've set a mission goal to have 70 baptisms within the mission (even though 115 people have baptismal dates). The whole mission is going craaaazyy!! We're so excited! During the Zone Conference, Sister Lawrence gave an amazing talk about children of the house of Israel. She talked about the lost tribes, and at one point she got everyone who is in the tribe of Ephraim to stand. Myself and 5 other people awkwardly sat there while EVERYONE else stood up. Then she got the rest of us to stand! We had to say which tribe we were from. It was really cool. I'm the only one in Benjamin!

We have seen SO many miracles this week. Roxanne came to church for the first time in a year! She's getting closer and closer to baptism. She said "It feels right". So, we'll see!!! I just LOVE Roxanne. She's like a mother to me. She was concerned for myself and Sister Morgan yesterday because we weren't wearing coats (don't kill me Mom and Dad), but I informed her today that I bought a nice Winter coat and she said "Your American Mum is happy!". She's the best! :)

So, fun news of the weekIt was Elder Sutherland's 21'st birthday on Saturday so we had to make it one to remember! We started off the day by giving him a wake up call at 6:30am and singing "Happy Birthday", then for lunch we bought the Elders some Wendy's...which is fast food for those of you who don't know. And THEN later on we dropped off a nice birthday present at their apartment. We got him a picture frame with a picture of the 4 of us, a tiara, peanut butter cups, a face cloth with batman on it etc. All the stuff any 21 year old would want really! But this picture just shows the fabulous tiara! Isn't it wonderful?!

The photo they got framed for Suthy

Tiara!!

I'll be singing in the Norwich Ward Primary Presentation on Sunday the 23rd! I am pumped! It's going to be so fun. There's a huge Primary in this ward so it'll be great :P

Anyways, I love you all! Stay safe and stay strong :)

Love,
Sister Rebekah Barrett"

Remember if you want to send Sister Barrett something for Christmas the final posting date is the 1st of December. Thank you all for your love and support!