Tuesday I was able to go on trade-offs. That was a blast! Me and Sister Robinson, back together again!! She is literally like a big Sister to me. I always have a great time when we are together. Friday we went on trade-offs again but that time I was with Sister Maughan. We had a great time as well. We baked treats for Fun night. At this rate, I am going to be eating Ramen noodles for the rest of the transfer haha. It costs so much to make treats for the activities. But it is the only way to get people to keep coming so it is worth the sacrifice. So if you know any easy and delicious recipes for treats, please email them to me!!! I am running out of ideas. To mix things up I made rice crispy treats with fruit loops instead and brownies with a layer of chocolate chip cookies on the top. The ants are crazy here though and we left a bowl of cookies on the counter and walked away from them for literally 15 minutes. We came back and hundreds of ants were in the bowl. So we "bopped" the bowl and threw them away. (Bop is a bug killing spray)
Saturday we got to go to two baptisms and our investigator and her daughter came to the first one. It was awesome. It was the baptism of Elder Kuru (from Australia) and Elder Odhiambo's (from Africa) investigator Kevin. Then Saturday night there was the Women's session of General Conference. How great was that?! I loved the theme of Service throughout it. Service is the Key! As we serve them, we show our love for them. Sunday was Easter!! I wonder what y’all ate for Easter Lunch. You want to know what I had? 2 Pieces of toast with mayo on them and a bowl of green beans. Living the life as a missionary. #bestmealever Sorry it took me so long to send this email. The email place wouldn't let me back on the computer....Don't ask me why haha. That is just the way it is for us sometimes. Anywho, we had to go to a different email place so I could send this so I don't have any time now to write anything else. I will update you more next week. I love and miss you so much!!! :) P.S. Please tell anyone that emailed me that I am very sorry I couldn't email them back. You are the only one I was able to email. I love you so much. I will hopefully have more success emailing next week :)
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Summer is upon us here in Barbados. We said goodbye to rainy season a while back. It was sad to leave and has still been blessing us here and there with an occasional sprinkle. But summer is cranking up the heat. Back home a few degrees wouldn't seem like that big of a difference, some might not ever notice a few degrees change. Here a few degrees are A LOT!!! We can feel the difference. I remember when I first got off the plane to Barbados back in August. The humidity was overwhelming and my arms felt all sticky from it. Now, it doesn't feel like that. I have adapted to the humidity. Now, it just feels extremely hot and sweaty all the time. Fun huh?
These past couple of weeks have taught me patience more than ever. When you pray for patience, trial are put in your path to help you become more patient. Well, I didn't really understand that a few weeks ago and...I prayed for patience. Barbados, while beautiful and amazing, is a hard island to keep appointments set. Since the first week of the transfer, about 95% of our appointments have fallen through, that includes most of our back-up appointments as well. Well, If any of you have ever seen the movie the Princess and the Pauper you will know what I am talking about next. Towards the end of the movie the Princess and her friend get trapped in a mine. There are a bunch of what look like rocks everywhere and they can't find a way out. The princess's friend is bothered by the fact that he is "a nobody". The fact that he doesn't have a lot of fortune and fame makes him feel like he is unimportant. The princess picks up one of the "rocks" and tells him that it doesn't matter what is on the outside. What matters is what is on the inside, what kind of person you are, and what your heart wants. She opens the rocks and inside is beautiful. Although you had to get through the hard, unpleasant outside, on the inside you find beauty. I will compare that to Barbados. Right now we are in the process of getting through the exterior of the rock so that we can open it and find the beautiful things inside. It takes time..and it also takes a lot of patience and hard work. Eventually, it will open. This week we have been doing a lot of finding, and being rejected a lot. Every once in a while we find someone willing to listen to us. I think this is teaching me a good life lesson. I am going to be able to handle rejection like a pro when I get back home. Not much will be able to offend me :) I have also learned to appreciate those who truly care for you. That includes our investigators and simply people we meet on the street. We are hoping to have some more solid appointments this week and find the elect. People have been prepared for us, we just need to find them. Easter is coming up as well!! Stoked for that!! This week, Brother Turley(I think that is how it is spelt) who is the assistant history person in Salt lake....forgive me for not remembering his title. I don't have my study journal with me as I email today. WOW. I learned so much from him. He has so much knowledge! And a very strong testimony of the gospel. As missionaries we had a meeting with him Thursday morning where he shared with us some history of the church. I loved it!! I wrote down so many notes of things I want to learn about after my mission. He is going around the islands to learn of our history here. Can you believe that I am among the pioneers of the church here on Barbados. Brother Collucci, is a member that we visit often. He is so awesome and has such a strong testimony. He was one of the first missionaries from Barbados. He is a pioneer of the Barbados church. It is amazing to hear how the church has grown and changed first hand. This Sunday was District Conference (basically stake conference...but there are no stakes in this mission). We learned about Sabbath Day observance. I would invite everyone to reflect on their own Sabbath Day observance. What are you doing to remember Jesus Christ? How are you showing your love for God on this sacred day? *****Very important!!!: WE NEED SENIOR COUPLES IN THIS MISSION!!!:):):) If there is anyone that is willing and ready to serve a mission as a couple, please let me know! Senior couples are so important and play a big role as missionaries. So, if you would be so kind as to ask around for anyone that is interested in this that would be much appreciated :) Let me know how it goes :) Shout out to Megan turning a year older!! 17!!! She is practically an adult. Better watch out for that one. :) Love you long time, Sister Breana Stewart This week was a pretty good week.
We had committed our investigator Steven, who is trying to find a job, to fast and pray, and then go out and search for a job. We testified of the many blessings that come as we fast. Guess what?!?!?!?! HE FASTED!! He said that it was good but he didn't feel a whole lot different. We told him to be patience, continue looking, and the Lord will help and bless him. That was amazing that he had a strong enough faith to fast. We are so proud of him. Also, we have a Less-active named Shakira that we have been visiting recently. We also felt prompted to commit her to fast and pray and she took the challenge as well. She is a busy Mom of two and is going through a struggle right now. She said that she felt better after fasting and can feel God's love for her more abundantly right now as well. She is so sweet. Sunday was so amazing!!! First of all, our branch president asked me to give a talk this Sunday on Teaching by the Spirit. So, with the little time I have as a missionary I whipped up a little something Sunday Morning (I am not proud of this fact) and it actually went pretty well. The spirit truly was the teacher. AND....drum roll please!!!! We had 2 investigators at church!!! That was the first time I have had investigators come to church in a long time...since before I was here on Barbados. What a blessing that was. Sherri and Sandrene came to church. We were a little nervous at first because we had told both of them that we would bus with them. Obviously we couldn't be in two places at once. We were blessed because one of our members, Sister Griffith (who comes out teaching with us) lives near Sandrene and was willing to bus with her to church. I LOVE BUSING!! It is so fun haha. I feel like more of a missionary when I am walking around and busing. While it is a blessing to have a car, it can get a little boring after a while. You don't get to talk to as many people. Also, on Sunday we had 15 contacts. It was pretty sweet :) We met a really nice lady named Marcia and a guy named Shakeel who lives there too. They let us come in and share a message with them. I think Shakeel is Marcia's son or nephew or something like that. They were very nice. I am excited to go visit them again. Anywho, I hope you have a fantastic week. I love and miss you. Love, Sister Breana Stewart MOTHER!!! OH HOW I MISS YOU :P
This week. Oh boy, where do I start :) I probably won't go in order but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. For starters, sometimes I am just as awkward and clumsy as ever :) On Friday, February the 26th, after a long day of weekly planning and dropping Sister Henry off at the airport we were doing more weekly planning. Sometimes I am about to fall asleep, and for us as missionaries 9 o'clock can feel like 1 in the morning. I was trying to say that I loved sticky notes because I use them so much!! They are probably my favorite things as a missionary because without them my planner would look pretty chaotic (not that it doesn't anyways, but still). They keep me organized. LOVE 'EM!! Anyhow, whilst I was trying to express my love of sticky notes I ended up saying, "I love hickey notes"......not my proudest moment. Haha earlier that day we had "fun night" at church and sometimes me and Sister Fisher don't have time to change before it so we play in our skirts and such. So to make sure we are staying modest we have a phrase we say in case it is a windy day, if you catch my drift. (haha drift....okay probably not as funny to anyone else). So no joke, not even 20 seconds after we decided on a phrase (it is "that's a nice sunset". classic huh?) one of the elders said it!! Sister Fisher and I by that point were on opposite sides of the court and just looked at each other and busted up laughing because nobody knew about that phrase and it was just such perfect timing. Ah, the things we find funny as missionaries. Sunday magic happened. We decided to visit a member named Sister Griffith (who I love so much!) that comes out teaching with us when she can. While we were there she gave us the numbers and names to all her children, 2 of which are less-active and the other isn't as active as he should be. So, we were able to call them up and set up times to go see them. Her face when we finally got the chance to meet with them makes all the trials of being a missionary worth it. The happiness and gratitude in her eyes made me grateful that I am able to serve a mission. Monday was da bomb!!! It was my Seven month mark!!!!! Weird! Who knew time could fly by so quickly. I have so much to do so if anyone knows how to slow the time down would you be so kinds as to clue me in? We went to the wildlife preserve with the whole zone and it was awesome!! Monkeys, branches to swing on, turtles, weird deer looking animals, and lots of other cool things. My seven years of bad luck obviously hasn't ended yet because a few things happened while we were there. First of all, one of the missionaries was taking a picture of me and accidentally dropped my camera....it broke. :( So no camera anymore. Secondly, we were on the nature trail and my shoe slipped off my foot and I cut it open on a rock. I was determined to have a good time and a cut was not going to ruin my day!! So, I tied a bandanna on it and continued to enjoy myself despite the minor setback. Then, my shoe broke. At this point I knew for sure nothing else could go wrong. I had gotten all the bad luck done at the beginning so that I could enjoy the rest of the trip. So by this time I am walking with one shoe on, a cut open foot, and a broken camera. Somehow, don't even ask, I cut my hand on some metal while simply trying to look at some alligators. I'm happy to say, that was the last disaster of the day :) And I still had a great time throughout it. So this week was pretty difficultly teaching wise. For the majority of 4 days this past week, every single one of our appointments fell through. We literally called people for ages going though every single person in our teaching pool. That is a lot of people. We went through the area book and found people that past missionaries used to teach, still not much success. Come Saturday it was starting to take a toll on me. My faith to find could have been stronger sadly to say. Sunday, when people started to fall through again I was determined to have a successful night. After all, I was raised to never give up hope.:) So, after a few prayers and taking a few moments to think I felt the whispering of guidance. The Holy Ghost. It was time for us to meet some new people. Wow, was that an adventure! So, around 7 o'clock we got our walk on and began contacting until it was time to head in. I can testify that as we head to the promptings of the Holy Ghost, miracles WILL happen. We ended up being guided to a Less-active that we didn't even know lived in the area and whom we were trying to get in contact with for the past month. We also were able to meet new people to share the gospel with. As tedious as contacting can be, with the right attitude and the spirit on your side it becomes really fun :) We also received our transfer calls this past Saturday and...Drum roll please....Sister Fisher and I are staying companions and staying right where we are in Oistins, Barbados!!! I am so excited for this transfer and I know that as we continue being diligent and striving to be exactly obedient that miracles and blessings will come. Love ya long time!!!:) Sister Breana Stewart |