Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Everyone and their dogs use DoTerra. Literally!


This is basically what every street looks like in Powell.
I'm starting a Powell big house of the week award... This one wins.
House or temple? (Yes we pressed the thing and the gate opened... We
hiked up the driveway but nobody opened when we knocked)
It was cold one night...
Everyone gives us pie and cobber and other things, so we wore ankle weights tracting one day!

Hey family and friends!

First of all... HAPPY HALLOWEEN 🕸
🎃🕷🍭🔪🎉👻💀👹 wow I love Halloween. Please watch some scary movies for me :').

Wow, this week was great.

It started off shortly after I sent my last email. We were able to have a super awesome lesson with the brother who used to be a bishop and fell away from the church. We shared the talk by Elder Cornish from general conference called "am I good enough? Will I make it?" It was a very inspiring lesson. We were able to help him feel of the spirit and the need of the Gospel. He sent us home with a book full of coloring pages that he has filled out. He is very into them and it is an honor that he would send us home with them. We even drew some pages for him to color lol.

There's a lot of less active work in Powell. One member we have been working with is a returning member who is retaking the lessons to learn more. His parents are super awesome. They are great examples of missionaries and covenant keepers. We had super awesome lesson with them earlier this week, and dinner with them on Sunday. We have also been meeting with this "frail old lady". She is the sweetest lady in the world. She lives with her son in law and daughter. She loves writing poetry and talking about her awesome life experiences and lessons she's learned. She even wrote us a poem. Her testimony is so strong, but her body is not. She's not able to come to church most of the time because she does not have enough energy to get there. But she so badly wants to be able to come regularly. I love old people.

So apparently Powell has been tracted over and over and over again. We decided we need to find a new way to get people to talk. Some other missionaries from our mission put together a survey about the family proclamation. They used it at Astaire and had a booth set up for people to come answer the questions. The questions are: do you believe that family values are declining in the world today? Do you believe this family relationships continue after death? Do you believe in abstinence before marriage? Do you believe in complete fidelity to your spouse? Do you believe that parents are equal partners? Do you believe that you will be accountable to God for how you raise your children?.... We have been able to approach people on their doorsteps and say we have been meeting families in the neighborhood and asking questions about their beliefs on family values. Most of the people in Powell have families so many are willing to answer a few questions. We have been surprised by the results! Lots of people have opened up and shared a lot about what they believe. It's been interesting to see how people respond to the questions. We have explained the proclamation to people and how it was revealed by a prophet in 1995. We ask if we could bring a copy of it to all the people we gave a survey to. Many of them are willing to get and read it! We were able to deliver some of these and it was awesome. We are excited to follow up on their reading of it and things they can apply to their own families. I have been thankful for this experience because it has helped me see the importance of having a family that is centered on Jesus Christ. I know I have seen this in my family(shoutout to mom and dad) and I want it for my future family (like way future don't worry).

Another investigator R. hasn't been doing well. She has had a migraine all week. Our lessons have been kind of dull as well. We feel that she is not fully comprehending everything us and the other sisters have talked about. We know that she is no longer progressing and are being prayerful about what actions to take from here. Pray for her!

There have been some funny things happen this week. One night we were tracting these condos and nobody wanted to talk to us. We were talking to this one guy and he must've not been able to hear us very well. Sister Bohner was talking and he stepped out of his door and got his face probably 2 inches from hers so he could hear. Somehow she was able to keep her cool but I kind of lost it quietly. It was so funny. Another day, we brought a member to deliver some family proclamations with us. We were knocking on this one door and a dog came running up to the window on the side of the door. It just kept running. It did not stop. The window stopped it. It banged it's face against the window. We all just laughed. Poor dog.

So day times here in Powell are not very productive. In order for people to afford these houses, both parents have to work. We usually do something service related. There's a food pantry and a nursing home near by that we volunteer at. We also do lots of service for members and our blind investigator R. We helped sand a porch, fold socks, and clean a kitchen this week! Since the mission office is like 2 seconds away (it's across from the church haha) we get to help out there sometimes too. This week we helped sort extra clothes that departing missionaries left behind. Perks of this? We get to keep what we want
😍😍. Also pretty cool thing, the senior couples that work in the office have us over for dinner sometimes. Haha what is Powell?? We were also meeting with some members and were right by the mission home. President Daines told us to come by whenever we're in the neighborhood. So we did! So strange we can just swing by the mission home and mission office whenever we want or need to.

Yesterday we saw the Daines a few times. First was at church like usual (still weird). President asks us about different things each time, like numbers of lessons, people at church, and all sorts of different things. This week he asked about our finding efforts! We told him about the survey and him and sister Daines were pumped we used it in a tracting setting. Phew glad we had something we could report on. Later last night we stopped by the mission home! President Daines was asking how I liked Powell and stuff. I said I miss Athens but I love Powell. We were talking about the whole trailer homes vs mansions and he was asking why missionaries are fine to knock on a shack but are so afraid of mansions? He talked about Ammon teaching Limhi. So Ammon didn't just start with the servants and their "shacks" and work his way up to the king in his "mansion." His main goal was to teach the king! Sure, he lived with the servants and probably taught them a bit too, but he went to the "biggest house" in town! I told you that that was a cool scriptural story about how we shouldn't be afraid of people with money!

Sister Bohner is still awesome. We are continuing to get along super well! We're not just companions, we're friends! I'm excited I get to be her last companion. I learn so much from her every day!

I'm so thankful I get to be here in Powell serving God's children. I'm thankful for the Savior and the marvelous example he is. D&C 128:22 "Brethren (and sisters), shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory!"

Hope everyone has a great week!!

Sister Barnes

Oh, and the subject line. DoTerra is an expensive brand of different kinds of oils that people use for everything. There's probably one that raises the dead haha. People here use it on their dogs, cause they can?

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