20 December 2010

Hello

Today is the most chill pday ever, we just had one like 4 days ago and we don´t have anywhere we have to go. It is the best. I finally had time to rest and write letters, and, the mission office elders finally gave me the money for a water heater so we get to go buy that next!!! Yay hot water! I don´t know, I might just shower in cold water anyways, I kinda grew attached hahaha.

The Christmas conference was super cool, I got to see my buds, who I realized are now some of my best friends ever, because I have been here for so dang long that home life doesn´t really even exist for me. It was awesome to see all the peeps. Presidents son talked at the end of the meeting, he just got off of his mission in the other side of Uruguay last week, and his talk was so powerful. he put his hand to feel where his nametag would be and said that it is like losing part of you when you can´t wear you tag anymore. He told us to love. Love the people, love your companion, love the mission, because it ends. That was the moment when I realized how great it really is to be here in Guay. I love it. Yeah it sucks to work in the heat and have rejection all day long, but I don´t want to leave. A day off would be nice here and there, but I do not want to leave. until October, then the fun is gone anyways.

Christmas Eve I get home at 1030 here. Then we can stay up and at midnight we are going on the roof for fireworks. I don´t know, that hour and a half could get rather boring while I wait for the fireworks... haha

The guy we found last Tuesday came to church on Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was awesome. We had an amazing lesson about eternal families and he even participated, he has a date for the 15th to get baptized, I am so stoked, he so simply believes and accepts the truths of the gospel. He is just so great and you can tell his desire to come unto Christ, best dude ever.

Well I am super excited for Christmas. The call should be tight.

love you guys

elder B

16 Dec. 2010 letter home homie

This week went alright. Started with us losing our 4 best investigators, including L, who was going to get baptized at the end of the month, and this awesome family we thought were super excited. Then at district meeting we had to talk about our investigators and we had basically no one to talk about, so it was super humiliating. From role model to laughing stalk. But then that day we found a new investigator, and a part member family who are amazing, and the next day we set a baptismal date in the first lesson with a guy named A. He is so cool. It made us feel great. We are working our butts off, yesterday we walked around for like 5 hours straight without even sitting down, just because no one was home or we couldn´t get in to a house. But we found some awesome potential investigators. We will see blessings. We have to, I have never been so obedient and worked so much. The bikes are nice. We bought helmets this week, everyone makes fun of us now because no one wears bike helmets, but we are being obedient, so its worth it.

That is so cool about C for Christmas, makes me feel really lame. I hope you find a good place to donate to. I´m sure rabies could use some money. That girl is getting to be a really amazing person. That thing that S wants sounds really cool, and perfect for him.

Shoot, my time is almost up already...

Thank you for sending the water bottle, I am still kinda iffy, but I´ll get better. My oro is good, oh yeah christmas!

my number is ..., plus whatever you have to put to connect to Guay. Also, could you call at 5 oclock here? That is 11 oclock in PST. That would be the best. PS you might want to test it and call the night before, haha jk. maybe.

STP sounds super fun wish i could do it with you.

love you guys.

elder B

12/6/2010 an email from a part time ducks fan

hey fam.

Ever since the Ducks won and are going to the championship I am officially a ducks fan.

This was a pretty good week, we focused a lot on obedience, not that we had a problem, but we focused on the stupid little time things, like leaving the house at the right time after Spanish study, even though it is siesta time. And we had BLESSINGS for it. This weekend we found a family of investigators, and they are awesome. And we had better numbers too. Even though this Monday was the leadership conference and then Tuesday was pday we were able to keep our numbers up to where we had had them for the rest of the change so far. Then came Sunday. Nobody came to church. We had multiple investigators who we were sure were going to come to church, and not even the lady who was going to get baptized the18th came. I was sad, but I guess we´ll just fix it this week.

This Sunday is the activity about member missionary work, I am kinda nervous, but it should be great, we have everything put together, and we are going to practice a few times this week, its gotta be perfect. The people here are a lot different than the people back home. They see having the missionaries over for dinner as a job rather than an event or even fun. Here there are only a few families that give it to us and they do it weekly. There are some who love having us over, but for some it is a burden, because that is how they advertise it. When I told the ward mission leader that we should display lunches with the missionaries as an opportunity instead of a task or assignment he laughed out loud. I could have socked him in the nose. So we are also gonna talk a little about that in the activity. How they can have their friends over while we are there. Plus pres is coming, so we can´t go wrong.

Yes dad, that would be tight to go to the OSU WSU game in a year, sounds like a blast. Then we could chill in Seattle for a little bit.

Mom, I am taking pills that Hermana told me to and my comp lent me his filter water bottle, but he said that they have them in the dist. center for 8 dollars, could you send me one prease? Also the DVD Joseph Smith Prophet of the restoration, it is the new one that they were playing in Salt Lake. It is amazing to show people. Other than that I think I am good, oh wait!! Shoe inserts, mine are getting ripped to shreds.

I think that is all

I love you guys tons

November 22, 2010

What the heck, since when can the beavers play football?! That's not even a close score, I am so proud of my boys... brings a tear to my eye.

So first off, news for the week. I got sick, again. not super bad, I was able to still work, but I feel a little bit like a pile of trash. but I called the presidents wife and she told me some pills I need to take and got mad at me for drinking tap water. My oro is the cats pajamas, he is a cool kid, and since he is just out of the mtc he is 140% obedient. Its gonna help me out, but it is a big difference. He brings up things that I never even thought about before. it is a good thing I guess, but sometimes I forget that he hasn´t been here for a year too so I need to show him how some things work. His Spanish is pretty solid, he speaks great about the gospel, but when the members or investigators talk to him he kinda just fakes his way through. It reminds me of my times of not understanding people. But I learned a lot from my trainer so I hope my kiddo comes out a superstar, he has potential.

We found a buttload of new people this week, and L is still awesome. She didn´t go to church yesterday because she was sick, but when we talked to her she invited us to come over tonight. Its really cool to see her progress.

We are having the meeting with the ward in a couple of weeks, and president is coming. We set it so far in the future so we could plan it well and announce it so much that everyone knows. But this week I explained it in depth to the bishop and he seems really excited to have it. I am pretty stoked, and my new companion has excitement for the work, so it should help us out a lot.

I miss pie night, you should send me some cheese cake, that is the best. For thanksgiving we are going to get some of us gringos together and maybe have a feast. I doubt that we´ll find turkey, but a chicken works out all right.

Dad, doing a bike race together would be a blast! I am going to have to get used to a good bike first, but that will only take a little bit. Mountain or road would be cool, mostly I just miss riding at all. I always stare longingly at the cyclists here. Its actually a pretty big thing here, we see nerds going down the streets in matching shorts and jerseys all the time.

We are having a lot of success here, I am super excited to be working with my new oro, he is a stud.

I love you guys a ton. Peace!

Elder B

Training my first Oro 17 Nov. 2010

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

IIIIIIIII´´´´´MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM TRAININGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!

Translation... oh my cow I am training a new missionary!

Wow. i figured when change calls came that I was going to stay here as district leader with elder T. false. elder T was transferred to Canelones, an area in our same district, and I am training my own gringo, elder H. He is from Utah, and is a little bit studly. his Spanish is at about the same level as my last comp, and he had 9 months here in guay. The only difference is that my oro (means gold and in this mission newby) doesn´t know the slang from guay yet. It is super exciting, kinda a bummer because I am no longer dl, but so worth it. We are going to blow it up out here, look out san jose, here we come. And no, we have no beaners riding in low riders, Dad.

So they went over a bunch of rules with us today, and I am only allowed to send one email home every week, so from now on I am just going to have to put it all together into one. There was a few things that I had either not realized or forgotten about in the rules lecture... hmmm.

But this week was pretty sweet. we have one investigator, L who came to church this week. She could only stay for relief society, but everyone loved her. She shared the story about the day when me and my comp passed by her house the first time. She was so depressed that day that she had been contemplating suicide, and then we knocked her door, and she decided that she should let us in, that she had been asking for help from God. Then the Mormons came pounding on the door. nuts. Those stories humble me a lot. It was crazy to hear and even hard to believe that I was used as the Lords servant in this situation to help this lady get her life back. it just makes me glad we decided to knock there that day, because if we hadn´t, who knows?

Dad, about working with the members in our area, we are about to have an activity based on that talk you sent me (The Missionary next door), I shared it with the hermanas, and we are basically going to give the talk, with big changes because the people are different here, but it is so simple and amazing, we´re stoked. I`ll keep the members especially in my prayers this week, hopefully the best will come out of it. Of course it will.

I didn´t finish the college application questions yet, I started but I have to revise because my english is terrible, I actually had to look up words in my dictionary in spanish to see what they were in english, flip.

Well, I love you guys a ton, have a great week. Eat pie until you can´t stand up straight, and then eat a couple slices more...

Elder Barry

Finally! Wednesday Nov. 10

We are having a great week out here! In the last two days we found two families to teach! They both have teenage kids, which will be awesome for the ward because our youth is itty bitty. We talked to a million people last week and now this week we are finally seeing results, it's weird how that works. our goal for the week is to set appointments with everyone, instead of just saying we´ll see you another day. A lot of the time when we are tracting, we don´t set a time to go back and we lose the opportunity of teaching the person. but now our week is jam packed with people to visit, we are also planning better, different parts of the city for different days. Its a blast out here now, and me and my comp are getting along great.

The sister missionaries that share our ward are super good too.

I let them borrow that talk about member missionary work and now we are going to have a ward family night and me and the gringo hermana are going to talk about the social conversion side of missionary work. It should be great. We are going to announce the crap out of it and make sure all 25 active members come to it. We can change the area, I know it. Its super exciting to be here with these hermanas, one of them is a greenie so she has a ton more enthusiasm than most kids, and I always try to out enthusiasm everybody as the district leader. my favorite district leader was elder A, the white kid that lived with me and C, and whenever we had a success he was always more excited about it than we were. I try to learn the names of the other missionary´s investigators. It's exciting business.

I definitely think that my setback would be my severe mental retardation, and how I got over it.... well, the doctors are still working on me. Lets just say I used to be schizophrenic, but now we´re fine. haha

Its so cool to hear about elder C, he seems like a great missionary, I want to be more like him. In my other letters I always hear about him too. We are trying harder now to work with the members here, we don´t have very many, and lots are old people, but we´ll get them excited, just you watch.

love you a lot.

elder Barry

Hi mom sorry I am so late, p day got changed because tomorrow we go to the TEMPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This last week was pretty cool. We found some new investigators, well, 4. It was kind of a bummer, because we did 250 contacts in the week. that is my all time record by a longshot. We almost had this awesome lady L come to church, but she slept in. But yesterday we went and saw her and she is still way cool. She hasn´t eaten for 15 days, so i was a little worried. We offered to make her something but she refused. She just has no desire to eat... but she can really feel the spirit in our lessons with her. She said she feels really peaceful when we come. We had such a great lesson, and now she has a baptismal date for the 27th. The only thing is that we might have to move it back to the 28th so she can go to church 3 times. but she is super excited, she even asked what she has to do before the 27th. I was like, go to church, and EAT!!! She promised she would eat something.

Also this week, we have already found 2 families!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yesssssssssssssss!!!!

One of them kinda has issues, but a lot of faith, and the other one is awesome!! We found them last night at like 8 at night. We were trying to fit in like 15 contacts to finish the night off and they let us in and we gave the Restoration lesson and they were super intent. My comp even taught for longer than normal.

Basically, this week is going in the right direction. we already have almost all of the required contacts (140) for the week, and we have found 6 new investigators. Basically, we are stoked out of our minds, but changes are next week, so my comp might be out of here. We´ll see.

I love you a lot mama.

ps i got the halloween package, yay allergy pills and pictures, the family one looks cool!!!

peace out girl scout.

elder b

Halloween 2010

Halloween was super lame here. the kids trick or treat, but their costumes are stupid. and they started at like 4:30, and here it is almost summer time, so the sun was no where near going down yet. Oh well, I guess if you´re gonna copy an American holiday you can´t do it perfectly. Trick or treat in Spanish is Dulce o truco. There is another way to say it, but I don´t remember, most of the kids just say dulce o truco.

Go Beavs, is Cal good this year? Not gonna lie, I might root for the Ducks if they go to the championship, pac ten needs some good representation.

That Doctrine and Covenants scripture was really good! (D&C 109:22
And we ask thee, Holy Father, that thy servants may go forth from this house armed with thy power, and that thy name may be upon them, and thy glory be round about them, and thine angels have charge over them;)

It always amazes me how blessed we are and can be as members of the church when we do what is right. I have been studying a little bit in the New Testament and this week I was able to use it in a lesson, it was way cool. I was never good at the Bible, I´m still not, but the investigator said something that went perfectly with what Jesus told some pharisees, so I opened it right up and quoted the bible.

We had the baptism of T this week. hardly any members came, but then again, we hardly have members here, so I wasn´t surprised. the talks were awesome, this lady with gave one about the Holy Ghost, and it was great. It was just really simple, but really powerful at the same time.

The Jason Mraz song is pretty easy. You play the bar chord E on the 7th fret, then on the 2nd then the 4th and then an A bar chord on the 7th, and that just gets repeated throughout the whole song. You´ll have to look up the pattern. Those Jonas brothers, what bums for copying that song.

We had a lot better week this week. We almost doubled our numbers, not that that means we had good numbers, but it was a good week. I feel a million times better.

love you

elder b

We had that same Sunday School lesson about stakes and the millennium this week, it was a goodie!

Your halloween costumes are hilarious mama!

We had a pretty good week this week. I had an interchange with the zone leaders, which was super hectic, because I then had to go do a baptismal interview an hour away(by train) in the middle of the day. But we got to work with a kid in their ward who is technically a missionary, but at home. His visa isn´t done yet so he had to come home after like 3 weeks in the mission. So he just sits at home now and sometimes helps the missionaries, poor kid.

We had our baptism, it was way cool. I got to do it, we were asking T, the kid who got baptized, who he wanted to do it, me, my comp, the bishop, the YM president, and he said that he wanted me to do it.

But... this week we decided to only speak Spanish when we are walking in the street so we could practice, and it was easier than I expected, it stunk, but we did it. I could feel my Spanish get a lot better, I hope my comp could too.

We had an awesome lesson the other day. A guy named J. He lived a while in the states, so he speaks English, but I can´t talk about the church very well in English anymore, so most of the lesson ended up in Spanish. It was awesome, he talked about how he has no faith, so we read together Alma 32. You could tell that he could feel the Spirit. I feel really good about it. And I feel super stoked for this week.

I have some ideas for a Christmas list...

socks

candy

music:marimba, phantom of the opera, wicked, the goofy movie soundtrack, those are just ideas, don´t feel obligated.

duct tape

gangster bandana

primary music, scripture power!!!

That's pretty much it, for now. I don´t really care though, also... cards to be able to right thank you notes to people.

I love you mom!!!

elder barry

(A note from Jenny: If any of you Barry friends decide to send him anything from this list will you please let me know. I would rather not double up on it. Except for the duct tape of course... you can never have too much colored duct tape! Thanks!!!)

October 26, 2010

Hey mamma this week was alright. We walked a ton, like a ton. My comp has huuuuge blisters. Good thing I have good inserts... it’s funny that you talk about teaching, the zone goal is to convert yourself into a better teacher, we are all studying the Preach My Gospel lessons thoroughly.

I listened to that talk you sent me for my birthday the other day (The Missionary Next Door) and it was amazing, I am definitely going to use that stuff with members.

The weather here has been super-hot, this is going to be a long summer, but better this than wearing all of my clothes every day. That is crazy about the stake, but not different than I expected. I love President W. I wonder how D is doing, he dies soon,(that means he finishes his mission soon) wow, that makes me feel old.

I have the flippin best district ever, I love these kids. Could you send us materials to make tye dyes? Maybe as part of Christmas, that would be an awesome activity. Sorry, i have to go fast today, it is late.

I love you a lot mom.

Did you know the ducks are number 2? My comp gets weekly college football updates.

Chau

Elder Barry

Giants are going to the World Series!!!!!!

President W will be an amazing stake president, but watch out, he knows his stuff, you will lose a fight about doctrine with him.

Since when are the rangers good??? That came out of nowhere. Stupid Rangers.

Well this week I had the worst week numbers wise that I have had for the time I have been here. We only had 6 lessons with investigators all week long. Not because we didn´t work, but because we just couldn´t find anyone home. I think I walked more this week than I have walked some months. But I don´t feel like we failed this week, we have a baptism next Saturday, a 14 year old named T he is cool. If there is one thing he needs it is the church.

The district is doing great though. The hermanas in our ward are doing just about the same as us, but the other two areas are flying!!! Today we had an activity as a district and went to the zoo and played football and soccer, it was fun. Plus we jammed out singin and playing guitar. I learned the song I´m Yours by Jason Mraz, it’s a goodie you should look it up.

I heard that people celebrate Halloween here, but not a lot. I’ll probably wear an orange tie.

Our new apartment is nasty. It is old and falling apart, the shower head no longer has a head, and doesn´t hang, so we just have to hold it in our hand the whole time with a thin stream of water.

Being district leader is fun! Our last meeting went really well, and tomorrow, we are going to do practices most of the time. It’s hard to be in charge but my peeps are cool

I hope you guys have a great week, oh yeah, for Christmas I would like updated pictures (printing here is expensive!) of family and friends, and then candy, other than that I will have to think about. It’s hard to know what I want.

Love you dad

Elder B

October 18, 2010

Hey Dad,

It is super weird to be in charge, my comp is super cool, and we are good friends, so that helps a lot, but I am the one who has to teach most of the lessons. We'll figure it out, we are going to have two days a week where we only speak Spanish now so we can improve our speaking skills.

My first district meeting went alright... not the best, but I'll figure it out, now I know my peeps a little better too. We have this one hermana in our district who whenever I talk to her on the phone she talks for about a year and a half, it's super funny. It is a little weird to have sisters in the district, because I had never had that before and now I have 4!!

Way to go on getting a job for the beaner!! Now she can wear millions of polos of all different colors.

I can't believe the beavs lost to uw, that is embarrassing. its just cuz I'm not there.

This week we had interviews with the mission president and mine lasted almost 4 minutes, it was my personal record. Kind of a bummer to not be able to talk longer, but it means that I am not in trouble. I also found out that my district from last change was the best in the whole mission, we were all best friends and did funtivities, I am sure that's why. So now I am trying to make this district kinda like that, the only problem is that I live an hour away from the other elders.

oh well... I found an awesome scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 100. 5 thru 8, it made me excited to be a missionary and feel like I really do have help out here.

5 Therefore, verily I say unto you, lift up your voices unto this people; speak the thoughts that I shall put into your hearts, and you shall not be confounded before men; 6 For it shall be given you in the very hour, yea, in the very moment, what ye shall say. 7 But a commandment I give unto you, that ye shall declare whatsoever thing ye declare in my name, in solemnity of heart, in the spirit of meekness, in all things. 8 And I give unto you this promise, that inasmuch as ye do this the Holy Ghost shall be shed forth in bearing record unto all things whatsoever ye shall say.

I love you dad
May the force be with you
elder B

Hi Mom

I have never seen the testaments with a family here, but it would be a great idea, I just bought it form the distribution center a couple weeks ago, that one and legacy, they are both suuuper good. I also like the long version of the restoration. I don't remember gospel words in english, haha me and that hermana were talking about that the other day, i don't know if i could even give the lessons in english at this point.

haha to celebrate my year mark we burnt a shirt, the old old navy one I brought. It lit really well, I have a video of it, I'll try to get that to you at some point in the future. It is weird to think that I am on the way down the hill of my mission, I feel like I have grown a lot, but also like I am no where near ready to come home yet. We weren't able to do the plaza activity yet but we are going to do it eventually, it is an amazing idea.

I love you mama, you are the best mom ever
Elder Barry

11 Oct 2010

OOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is extraodrinary! go beavs!

My district is way awesome! The hermanas are pretty cool. also, there are 4 of them. One pair of them we share a ward with so we see them all the time, the other ones are like 30 minutes away. This town, san jose, is ittybitty. the center of the town is like a mini 33, but with an outdoor mall, a lot like the outlet mall, just without the rain covering. There was almost no work at all when I got here. We do have one kid named T who is going to get baptized the 23rd. He has lisdexia so bad that he can't even read, but he is super excited. He is 14 years old and wants to help us out all the time. He has already come with us to go tracting, and he isn't even baptized!

Other than him, they had zero steady investigators. But never fear, Barry is here, we found seven new investigators this week, some of them are iffy, but yeah baby! We got to church this Sunday and there was about 30 people there, and apparently that is a good week here. Sooo different, I am used to having a whole big chapel full like in Montevideo, but life is way different here in the country(and ps, there are no peaches anywhere to be found. what a ripoff!!!)

My comp is from Mississippi, he is rather southern. His spanish is worse than mine was when I left the mtc, but we are learning together. It is weird to be senior comp, I find myself talking all of the time, it is hard to know when he understands, and when he will even have something to say, I now know what my first two companions felt, I feel really sotrry about how stubborn I was back then. I see a lot of my young mission self in this kid, and all I've gotta say is that I am glad that I have grown up a little bit.

They are really splitting he stake!? Wowzers. that is nuts. Lots of things are different since I left.

So, I had a tiring week, but it was a lot of fun, making DL calls every night is a lot of fun, one of the hermanas is super funny and her comp only speaks Spanish so she just lets out all of her English humour over the phone to me, its hilarious. There is another set of missionaries in the district, two latinos, but they seem really awesome. we have not had district meeting yet, so we'll see.

love you.

peace

elder b

Hey Mama

Being DL is the best. I get to call 3 companionships every night to see how their day was. I am supposed to ask for their numbers, which I totally hate doing, but I made it better, I ask for how many people they made laugh during the day. It is a tight rivalry between us and the hermanas for who gets more every day. It is super fun though.

We have 4 companionships, 2 elders and 2 hermanas. So far everyone seems really cool. The hermanas in our ward are awesome, we are planning an activity to go down to the plaza with people from the ward and have a big sign about the Book of Mormon, and hand out invitations and then the next day to watch a Joseph Smith movie in the church, it should be awesome.

Also, I have to run a district meeting every Tuesday morning(starting tomorrow). It should be good, I studied the stuff really well with my companion this morning. That is so cool about C and her friends! She sounds like a good missionary. And it is way awesome that you are friends with J, she sounds like a way cool person, thank you guys so much for helping the missionaries out.

San Jose is just a little city far away from everything, but technically it is part of the stake and zone Las Piedras, so i am back here, kinda.

Shoot, I gotta go. I love you mom.

Barry