We Are All Investigators

We got an email from Collette today! She shared so many wonderful things! Enjoy!

"Hey everyone!!

This has been such a crazy week... as always, but here we go!

I had my first baptism on Saturday the 21st! Her name is Kimberley Gonzalez! She is super wonderful and has such a strong testimony and firm beliefs of the gospel! The whole time we were thinking she was already a member. She was absolutely golden! We taught her all the lessons in less than a week and a half, and it was really stressful because we were team teaching with the temple square sisters and we could only go through Kimberley if we needed to talk to them. We were pretty sure she loved them more than she loved us! haha But it's ok. She is amazing and we love her so much! I know that she is going to be such an amazing influence towards her family and hopefully one day bring the rest of her family along. It was fun to see the changes she made and fully come unto the Lord! The gospel really brings happiness and joy! I could honestly see how happy she was after she was baptized and it was incredible!

Sister Widdison, Kimberley Gonzalez, and Sister Barclay

Not only did I love watching one of my investigators get baptized but I loved the talks and the lessons that were shared! Elder Crouch and Elder Johnson got up and started teaching the restoration because we had a ton of investigators at the baptism! Man, let me just say, the restoration of this gospel has never hit me stronger than it did while they were teaching! I know that Joseph Smith restored the gospel and I know that Thomas S. Monson leads and guides our church today under our Heavenly Father. I know that Heavenly Father loves me and knows me personally, and I know that Jesus Christ died for me and the atonement is real. That hit me like a ton of bricks! I realized how cool it was that not only was I teaching the missionary discussions to investigators, but I was learning for myself that everything we teach as missionaries and as Latter-day Saints is true! Elder Johnson talked about why we, as missionaries, wear our name tags and why our names are always directly about Jesus Christ's, and it was because Jesus Christ is always lifting us up and we will never be alone as long as we keep Heavenly Father close to our hearts!

Lately, I have been thinking what if I was investigating the church. How scary would it be to start gaining a testimony and to believe what these 18, 19 year olds are telling me! Then I realized that we are all investigating the church because we are always learning and digging deeper into the gospel; we never stop learning! Last Sunday, the bishop felt really inspired to have this lady get up and bare her testimony and she was super nervous, but she said she didn't have a 'traditional testimony'... I didn't really think much of it until the speaker this Sunday said, "I hope I don't have a traditional testimony. I want my testimony to be unique and from my heart!" And that is exactly what I want too!! So I'll keep working at it!

Sister Barclay laughing with Sister Widdison

Sister Barclay with the ward missionaries

Right before the baptism on Saturday, we had Zone Conference and Elder Kapishka was the speaker. He talked about how we, as missionaries, need to not just look at the number of baptisms or investigators we have but really love the people we are serving and look at them like Heavenly Father would. He talked a lot about being together as companions; always finding ways to teach and be the best missionaries God would have us be! It was so awesome! He was so cool!!

It was a really good week and I'm so grateful I get this opportunity to come closer to my Heavenly Father! Thank you for all your letters and support y'all give me! I love y'all and each y'all!

Hope y'all have a good week!

Sister Barclay"

Mardi Gras!

Utah has their 24th of July parade to celebrate the Mormon pioneers, where kids on floats throw candy to parade-goers, and Louisiana has Mardi Gras parades to celebrate Fat Tuesday, where masked people on floats throw beads to parade-goers. 

...That's a good comparison, right??

Yes, you guessed it... This week, the missionaries were able to experience Mardi Gras in New Orleans! Sister Barclay sent home lots of fun pictures so you could try to imagine what it would be like to be there, although, I think I'd be alright in saying that the pictures don't do it justice!

Sister Widdison and Sister Barclay

Don't hate on the fact that I wasn't 100% sure of the purpose for the holiday before getting the email... instead, be happy with the fact that Google was kind enough to inform me that Mardi Gras is French meaning "'Fat Tuesday' alluding to the last day of feasting before the fast and penitence of Lent" which starts on Ash Wednesday.

Well, that was a good start, but that still didn't really tell all I wanted, so I found another site called Mardi Gras New Orleans which clued me into a few interesting things to note. To save you all from lengthy reading, here are some of the things I found out: 

• Mardi Gras is now an official holiday in Louisiana

• The first Mardi Gras was celebrated in 1703 near New Orleans

• In the 1700 and 1800's, secret societies were formed who would parade around the streets with either a huge bull's head on wheels or an actual bull draped with a white cloth to signal the coming of the Lenten meat fast

• Mardi Gras changed from elegant society balls into more of a carnival when New Orleans had parades of masked individuals with carriages, horseback riders, and dazzling torches

• A break off of the secret societies of old came in 1856, known as the Mystick Krewe of Comus, and they anonymously brought magic to New Orleans with extravagant floats and masked balls

They pull their floats with tractors!

Sister Barclay and Sister Widdison with another couple of sister missionaries at the parade

• 1870 was the first time different "krewes" started doing Mardi Gras "throws" which includes things like cups, beads, toys, doubloons (basically collectible aluminum medallions), and stuffed animals. 

• Two years later, they invented a "King of Carnival" to preside over the parade, and to impress a visiting Russian duke, the king presented the duke's family colors as the official Mardi Gras colors; purple for justice, gold for power, and green for faith

This is how people decorate for Mardi Gras

• Private social clubs make up most of the "krewes" today and since their members fund the parade organizations, the people of New Orleans call Mardi Gras "The Greatest Free Show On Earth!"

• Although Mardi Gras is on Fat Tuesday, the party is known to start about a week before the actual holiday so tourists flock to New Orleans around this time to enjoy the carnivals

Elder Johnson loves his beads!

Sister missionaries displaying their "throws"

"I love this girl!" (Sister Barclay and Sister Widdison)

I asked Collette to tell me about it and she said, "Oh my goodness!! It was a freakin' party! They throw out beads and there's like 9 million people, so it's just crazy! And everyone on the floats are getting drunk and dancing (!) and everyone's fine with it! haha The pics are just not doing it justice... you need to experience this!" 

Excited To Be Back To Work

"Hey y'all!!

Man this has been just a crazy week as always! I got a new companion! Her name is Sister Widdison and she is absolutely wonderful! She is from Utah! Wahoo! She is so cool and she has such an amazing testimony of the gospel! I am really learning a lot from her! She just came from Denham Springs from a car area so she is having to adjust to the whole biking situation! I don't think she is liking it too well! We have been trying to figure out how to just get around our area! It's so big and it's quite the challenge on bikes, let me tell you! 

Sister Barclay with her cute new companion

We had a couple of appointments and only through prayer did we find those houses! The lessons went really well! We have this investigator that has been taking lessons from the temple square sisters over the phone and they just turned her over to us, and if she is ready, she already has a baptism date set for the 21st of this month!! Wahoooooo! We are super excited! We just hope she is in it for all the right reasons... she heard the church helps with welfare stuff... and she's got some financial problems... it's pretty interesting, but she came to church yesterday and loved it, so we'll keep praying that everything goes good!

We are also going to start teaching Pam and Willie (the cute newly wed couple from the last post) from the beginning! I'm so excited! We went and saw her the other day and she kept hugging me and told me I could never leave! It made me feel so good! I really felt like I was sent to Pam for a reason! She loves me! It is so wonderful! I'm so excited to be her missionary!! She is wonderful!

Sister Barclay! Isn't she beautiful??

I am excited to be getting back to work! I have been trying to strengthen my testimony and over these past couple of days, I have really come to know that Joseph Smith really was called of God and I am so amazed  with how much faith in our Heavenly Father he had to restore this gospel! I know that he is a prophet called of God and that through everything he had so much trust in God that what he was doing was true. He is so amazing!

I know that the atonement is real and Heavenly Father wants us to use it and come unto him. I know that through repentance we can be clean of all our scars and mistakes; he loves us so much! I know that through him we can get through anything! I love being on a mission!

Well, I love all y'all and each y'all! Hope y'all have a fantastic week!!

Love always,
Sister Barclay"

Sister Davis and Sister Barclay hanging out with the Spanish Sisters before Sister Davis headed home

Experiences to Keep

So in last week's post, I had mentioned from Sister Barclay that they had taken Sister Davis (her companion) to the ER for abdominal pain and dehydration. Well, I got a little update on that today:

"Sister Davis is actually going home on Tuesday :( So I will be getting a new companion this coming Wednesday! Sister Davis is going to get surgery and go through all the doctors appointments again to find out what is going on :( I'm so sad!! But she told me she'd send me video diaries and updates on what's going on! Pretty intense!"

Everyone please keep Sister Davis in your prayers! She and Collette have become really good friends and she will be missed!

Sister Barclay and Sister Davis with their district

In addition to that news, Sister Barclay also sent some pictures and told us of meeting with an apostle:

"Did you hear that I got to shake hands with Quentin L. Cook!!! He spoke to all the missionaries on Saturday in Baton Rouge! It was the coolest experience of my life! His testimony was so powerful and you could just feel the spirit so hard!

That is my favorite part about being a missionary. These experiences will stay with me my whole life! How many times do you get to shake an apostle's hand?! Shoot!"

Lauffenere Park

Lauffenere Park

Lauffenere Park

And now for a couple of missionary stories and experiences from her last letter to my little family:

1. The New Investigators

"So we did get new investigators, which pretty much rocks! They are a cute couple that just got married on the first of January. Apparently they were meeting with the missionaries before Katrina hit and then lost contact after, but it's a long story and it's so cute. They just LOVE JESUS!! She kinda reminds me of Grandma Odie on Princess and the Frog haha it's awesome!



People's accents and stories are amazing! People have their crazy moments but we just gotta love them like Jesus and Heavenly Father does! I know this gospel is true even when people don't want to listen to us. I know that Heavenly Father is there for us and is helping us every step of the way!"

2. Visiting with Members

"We have this less-active member we go see and one Monday we went over, some members were there as well. When the less-active saw us she literally said, in one sentence, 'Y'all are welcome in my home anytime, but I don't want you to come over anymore...' haha She was so drunk! 

And Brother Bush (one of the members that was there) said, 'Wait, I'm confused.'

And she looked him straight in the face and said, 'Well, stand up, Brotha Bush, so you're not confused!'

We were all dying! You should've seen Brother Bush's face as he slowly stood up to be 'unconfused'! Me and my companion have laughed about it since! 'Well, stand up, Brotha Bush, so you're not confused!' I can't wait to say it in person to you! You'll die!! 

Missions are always fun when you find the positive!

3. New Years Hashtag

"On New Years we were in at 8:00pm and we were too tired to party :( We played cards and went to sleep. #MissionLife

And Sister Davis says 'Hey!'"

For the Birds

Today I got a short response to an email I sent Collette, plus a super cool picture and a promise that I should be getting a letter in the mail this week!

Here's a bit about what she said:

"I went to Lauffenere Park today for P-day; look at all those birds!!! It's so cool, huh? I felt like birds were going to attack me! haha One of the geese bit Elder Neild's finger!

...Oh, did you hear we were in the ER on Thursday?! It was crazy! Sister Davis was having really bad abdominal pain and they thought that it was her appendix, but she was really dehydrated and they put her on an IV... then did a CT scan, so we have another doctor appointment on Thursday to see what's up! It's way crazy! So we've been taking it easy this week, but yeah... I think I've watched all the Mormon Messages, watched all the church movies I can, and played all the cards I could! haha So hopefully she gets better soon!

...I love y'all!"

So basically, between Sister Barclay being sick last time we heard from her and Sister Davis being sick this time, they could REALLY use your prayers that those bugs leave them soon so they can get back to their callings!

Send prayers and love their way. Oh! And maybe a letter or two! ---> *Address is in the Write Me! section*

MLK Day

Hey all! It's a day late, but we did get email from Sister Barclay today!

Elder Teh visits zone conference

Turns out she has been sick for the last four days so be sure to send prayers her way for a speedy recovery. Not sure what she's down with but it's no fun to be sick!

Here's a few bits from her email to me:

"So it has been so super crazy, as always... but, Liz, I went to a Baptist church. It was for the Martin Luther King program they have here; we sang at it! And it was so different from our church! ...It was really intense...[the minister] She yelled so loud! Almost like she was trying to get her beliefs into your soul! Shoot! It was crazy!

Then yesterday, we went downtown (New Orleans) to march in the MLK Parade! We as missionaries were pretty much the whitest people ever! And people kept saying, 'Look! It's the Jesus people! Where are your bikes?' hahaha it was crazy and so fun! Then me and Sister Davis decided we wanted to stay downtown for awhile and just take the trolley home..."

Sounds like they had a very busy day with the holiday yesterday! How fun to hear from her.

Then my mom forwarded on the email she received from Collette:

"On Wednesday, we had zone conference and Elder Teh from the Seventy came and spoke to us. It was intense! He talked to us about being exactly obedient missionaries and it was really good. There is always something we can do to be better. He was awesome and I even got to have lunch with him and his wife! It was so cool!....

On Sunday, it was stake conference and Elder Parker of the area seventy spoke. You'll have to look him up; he is awesome! He talked to us about having faith and how blessed we are to be a part of the church.

Today is Tuesday, I know, but it is our p-day because of MLK Day yesterday! It was crazy; all the missionaries got to march in a parade!... After the parade some of the Denham Spring sisters came to New Orleans and we spent the day with them. It was so much fun! We went all over!...

We kinda got ourselves stuck downtown so we did some hardcore tracting! It was really fun. I smiled at this old man and he said, 'Well, thank you, baby, for your smile. I really needed that today.' Ahh, it made me so happy! So then we were all ready to get on the trolley and head home cause we had an appointment when a marching band stops all the traffic and all the trolleys! ...We finally got on the trolley then prayed so hard that we'd make it home in time and let me tell you, mama, Heavenly Father works in mysterious ways... and answers prayers because that was the fastest bus I've ever been on! And we made it on time to our appointment! Heavenly Father is amazing!...

One thing I really love about this mission: I think I'm coming out of my shy shell! Finally! I'm just being me and loving it! I know who I am and it makes me so grateful that people are so confident in themselves. I really needed that lesson; that being you is the best thing and being confident in who you are is ok! A lot of folks down here are a little on the heavy side and they are just fine with that. They look at every curve as beautiful and they have just taught me to love being me! How incredible!

Also, I'm going to send you the funniest picture; you're going to love it! Downtown there is a mall on the river walk hahaha and they have a whole store just for Crocs.... and I just about peed my pants when I saw it... they have crocs in boot form, ked form, little kid form, and I'm just thinking why????? hahah it's crazy!

....I'm doing really good and I know that even though Louisiana is crazy and different, I truly know that I was sent here for a reason. I know that only through Heavenly Father and through Jesus Christ's atonement can we return to live with him! I know that religion really does make you who you are and I'm so grateful I was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ. I know that families can be together forever and Heavenly Father loves us! I know how important prayer and scripture study is! I know this gospel is true!"

LOVE THIS GIRL! Send her some love in a letter this week, won't you??

Down on the Mississippi

Today I had my email open at the exact right time that Sister Barclay was on! That meant that I got to chat with her by emailing back and forth.

I realize that a missionary's computer time is short so we only emailed for a minute; just long enough for her to tell me a few things.

1. She got my letter and is working on writing me back! Apparently she has loads to tell me, so I'll be sure to post some stories when I get that.

2. She misses everyone.

3. She asked if we got the picture of her doing the woman's hair and YES we did! You all saw it right here... so her response to what they were doing? They were doing "two twists or something like that". Collette said, "She told us that now we'd be friends for life because we did her hair! haha She cray cray!"

Also, today, my mom and dad got some pictures! She said that they were able to go downtown last Monday and had lots of fun. They saw the Mississippi River and everything was "so cool!" She told us she'd have to take us to downtown one day!

Downtown!

Selfie on the Mississippi River

Mississippi River

Mississippi River

Hanging with Elder Crouch and Elder Johnson

Sister Barclay is doing so great but could definitely use your letters! PLEASE keep writing to her and praying for her and her companion; they really do feel your prayers!

Address is posted in the Write Me section at the top of the page. Thanks, everyone!

In Sister Barclay's words, "We love all y'all and each y'all!"