4 Months Today! 2-15-10

You have three hours of meetiings before the church every week as ward clerk? That's rough... at least you get to have Bishop W in there with you, he is a swell guy, he kind of makes that stuff funner, at least for me he did.

I gave another talk yesterday, about missionary work, again. But different branch, so I was able to use the same scriptures from last time. I used Matthew 10:19-20, which talks about how the Spirit will talk through you, and also I think it was Doctrine and Covenants 68, somethin or other, but you really should look up the d&c one. It talks about when you speak with the Spirit your words become scripture. I love it. (See sidebar under Teaching with the Spirit)

Then I talked about how having the gospel in our lives is like having a batch of cookies, but, you see, your cookies are perfect cookies, so perfect that you will remember the taste of them forever. But the thing is, you have more cookies than you could ever eat in your lifetime, and your neighbours don´t (canadian spelling of neighbours hehehe). They have cookies, but their cookies aren´t perfect. They are missing some of the ingredients. We shouldn´t be afraid of sharing our cookies with them because if they realize the importance of a happy tongue they will really appreciate our gift.

Now relate that to the gospel; we have the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, but our neighbours and friends don´t, and if they realize the importance of a happy soul (because who wouldn´t enjoy a little salvation to their soul?) they will be really grateful that we shared with them. Also, they might make us cookies to say thank you.

And, it was in Spanish, booyah.

You are so lucky to be able to go boarding. I am so jealous. How are the olympics, are people going crazy because they are so close? Are you guys gonna watch any of it? I am glad that C busted some goggles, tradition is a good thing, sometimes.

So my comp. he never stops smiling. he is from Pleasant Grove, Utah, and he is almost done. He has a testimony voice, meaning his voice changes like crazy to bear his testimony, and then at other times when he doesn´t need to be that serious. He is awesome though. You know that you are glad that we have companion unity! We have fun, and I taught him how to make duct tape stuff. I made a bag with a shoulder strap and everything, it is way cool, and I used it to tract the other day when all I needed was my scriptures and hymn book.

Happy Valentines Day Mom! This week was kind of eventful, but our numbers went down the tube...


Both of us got sick, on consecutive days. just like a cold, but we had to stay in and sleep, I felt pretty bad about it, but the sleep felt so nice, and now we´re totally fine.

We have been working hard, just it's been rough on us. We have fun though. I wouldn't be anywhere else but here though. I can't believe its already February, its been 4 months today since my first day in the mtc, and 2 months in Uruguay, half of my mission now has been in this country! I am so pumped to be here. You remember that guy who is gonna get us jerseys? He can´t right now because he has no job, but we are teaching him English! He is so cool, I love talking to him and teaching, it was harder than I thought to teach my own language. We were teaching him how to pray in English, and we were struggling how to remember to say things. That's just cuz we pray in Spanish about a million times every day. Enjoy the Olympics, and watch a hockey game for me. USA USA USA!

I love you, I am glad you fixed your bathroom, now come fix ours. Gotta peace, enjoy your callings and the rain. love you a lot.
Elder Barry

Hey S!

We do do a lot of tracting, we´re supposed to get 140 contacts every week, and a contact is just like everyone we talk to. Last week we got 170 contacts though. all of our investigators have kind of been falling through, and they come up with lame excuses to not go to church. I´m just hoping we find someone good soon...

We started teaching English to a guy today. He already knows a lot, but we were able to help him out, and he is way cool. Then we played soccer with him and he schooled us all. I wish I could play soccer hahaha. I am so jealous you get to go to efy I miss that stuff, EFY was the best.

Dude you should be stoked about your mission this is the best time you´re ever going to have, we work like crazy, but its the Lord's work so its awesome and totally worth it.

I love you
Elder Barry

Teaching and Rain

Barry displaying Duct Tape Christmas gifts from the family:
Book cover, wallet, glasses case, pocket protector, and... Tie!
All handmade by those who love him best!

This week was kind of rough, we worked hard, but nowhere near as much success. It rained, hard. This place floods like mad too. We went through this neighborhood, and there was a big old lake where we had to cross the road. so, we skipped rocks with the kids that were there, then got their addresses and invited them to church, hahaha not slackers!

Yesterday it was raining soooo hard! We put our backpacks under our coats and ran from place to place because the rain gives us energy, and because it was pouring so hard. There was seriously rivers in the streets, I wish that I had had my camera...Haven´t gotten the jersey yet, but I'll send a picture of it home when I do.

WE FOUND S. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On the way home from emailing you guys last week we ran into him, set up an appointment for a lesson, and had it. But then, he came to church too!!!!! I was right he hadn't quit smoking, so figured he couldn´t come to church. but we invited him and he came. I even gave him the 1960 edition of the Bible we had in our house because he was worried he didn´t have one. He is still lowering his smoking too, he is down from 4 boxes to 12 cigarettes a day.
He is so honest and real I love it. We set a new date with him and he is really excited. His new date for baptizm is the 27th of February. That day we are having a baptizm together as a zone. Everybody is going to bring one person to the Stake Center to baptize and we´ll all be there and it will be super spiritual. I am so stoked. When we were talking to S I could picture him there dressed in white at our big baptizm, and I felt the Spirit so strong at that point, it was brilliant. Thank you so much for your prayers for him.
That is crazy about Brother, uh, Bishop K. That is crazy. Things are about to be shaken up over there. I think he could do good though, that area kind of needed some renovation hardy har har. The foothills park ward! No way that is awesome. Is bishop still the bishop? That is so crazy that they changed it! That's exciting too.
My spanish is improving a lot. I can understand people really well, usually, but speaking I´m slow, but I can communicate what I want to say. We bought hats that we are allowed to wear tracting!!! I think we are allowed to because there is like a hole in the ozone here, everyone always tells us to, so we finally bought them today. They are country folk hats, not cowboy hats, but probably still shouldn´t tell dad. The rule is that we can wear these kind of hats, but not baseball hats, or I would be all over it hahaha. It also keep water out so I´m stoked because it has rained all week here, and when it rains it pours. But the Columbia coat is perfect. I stay 100% dry underneath it. I love it and it doesn´t overheat me, because even though it rains, it is still way hot sometimes.