Thursday, September 30, 2010

Sep.21, 2010

I am excited to drive Henry (the family kid car), him and I had a very good relationship, best friends forever. Actually he was my first love, so I can never forget him. but I treated him right haha.

It was hard without a pday, but it was alright... the kid who was going to work with me bailed so he could go to super seminario(yeah thats really how you say seminary in spanish) so i just worked with elder young and an elder from the area across the highway, elder colvin.
GO BEAVS!!!! who is the QB this year?

It is super weird knowing that people pray for me, it makes me feel amazing and it makes me feel like I need to work 100 times harder. so I try to. I love bishop a ton.

haha I just saw a guy outside and his shirt said ¨make love not babies¨ I laughed my head off.
It was in English so guaranteed he has no idea what it says.

You´re right, it is really hard to see the fruits of what I have done, and I don´t want to look at the trees yet, I´m good being right in the middle of the forest.

Last night, we were walking down the street and we saw one of our less active members, C, 60 something years old, just standing out on the street corner. Just chilling. this guy has serious mental issues, just because aging has taken its toll on him, he has had like 2 or 3 strokes, so he's basically just boppin around without knowing what is going on. He told us he was out waiting for his wife to come home from work. His poor wife works like crazy all day long so she can provide for the two of them and buy his medications, and then when she gets home, all she ever does is basically babysit her husband.

It has been so hard for her lately that she told us she has even thought about suicide. so yesterday we see C and go talk to him. While we were talking, I told him we loved him, and he almost cried, his wife has lost all patience, I don´t think he hears that very much. Then the crazy next door neighbor lady came out and told us all this mean stuff about him and told us he had escaped 2 or 3 times already that day and gone out to the highway. He started to walk away and she just told us to let him go, because he isn´t worth saving, or something ridiculous like that. I could have punched something... so then I ran around the corner, hopped his fence(he had locked th gate but left the door wide open) closed the door, and then we went out to grab him and brought him back home. He told us he was going to his grandma´s house. but we brought him home and we talked for a bit, just to distract him. (we gave the cat a middle name because it only had a first name. I pretended like it was a big deal so he would be focused on the distraction. hehe)

Then the wife got home and just started going off on him... it hurt me to hear her yelling at him, he is so innocent and not in control of himself. Then she went into the kitchen to make him milk. I said a little personal prayer for them, and to know what to do. I was prompted to go help her. I went in and she was crying. then I knew that I should ask if I could give her a blessing, because this is just as hard for her as it is for him, if not harder. She said yeah. Then she couldn´t get him to take his pills so she gave them to me, and I ´knew´ exactly what to say to get him to take them. Then I gave her the blessing. I said things in that blessing that I hadn´t even thought of before, as I was giving the blessing, it was as if I understood the situation perfectly, and my spanish came out really smoothly. Blessings are given in a form of Spanish that we don´t usually use as missionaries, but it came out easily. then we told them we love them, and left. I know that that blessing will make a difference in this problem, not because I have confidence in me, but because I know that it was the Lord whose power I have and it was He who put the words in my mouth.

Well, I love you a lot Dad
Elder B

That is cool that the missionaries did service at the house this week, they could just do my Saturday jobs for me every week... I love Venid a Mi!!! (Come Follow Me) it is a great song in Spanish. I am glad you guys get to hear it now the way I hear it all the time. it is going to be really weird singing in English in two years when I get home. man you´re right, this week back home sucked. Our week was good, other than the five investigators we lost, we had a good time. I love my companion, I hope we get to stay together next change, we have fun all the time, and our numbers are good. except for finding new investigators, we only found one in all of last week, that means that out of the 150 new people we talked to, one let us in and we have an appointment to go back and teach him. He is a cool dude and bought us soda, but that fact is super depressing. but at least we enjoy the work, six weeks ago I couldn´t have told you that.

quote of the week!!!
I´m not a beaner without my beanie. elder P
deep quote!!!
no estamos hablando con numeros, estamos hablando con almas.
We aren´t talking with numbers, we are talking with souls.
by elder S, the district leader

I love you mom.
talk to you next Monday.
Barry

12 Sep. 2010



We found 6 new investigators on Saturday night, and 4 of them said they would be baptized in October. So basically it was like a miracle to make up for a cruddy situation. hehe I love the word crud.
Also I got the amazing package, the best ever!!!! I am loved, also I got hymn books from the grandparents, they had no idea how much I needed those, lifesavers.

Well I love you a ton mamma, I attached pictures, hope they work.

Wow, D loves ms S, good, because that lady is awesome, have D say hi for me, if Ms. S still remembers me...

And S is in Latin, dang! genious.
and CEDGPJ Jr. the third is in Sherry`s class, rock on with sherr bear!

Wow, Dad that is awesome that you got to bless the sacrament, I got to do that in my first area, but since then I never got the chance again, I loved doing that as a priest, I didn't realize the importance of it before, but it was still a good feeling. Sounds like you are still in the old man closet, Dad. Sometimes you just have to embrace being an old guy, just think about it, soon enough you`ll be able to wear suspenders and loafers without people looking at you weird. I envy you. you should probably get a huge pair of glasses and always have them hanging around your neck in case you have to read anything again haha.

I miss the temple sooooo much, but this week as a zone activity we got to go clean it. One of the best experiences of my life. It was mostly just dusting and vacuuming rooms, but the Spirit was super strong, I felt great. Then when we finished we just sat there in awe and enjoyed the moment, then I got my birthday package. Basically the best first half of a pday ever in the history of pdays. Then, we went home to eat, and my comp got super sick. He was stuck in bed all night, hence the no email yesterday. Today he is a bit better, but seeing as it is raining (again!) we will probably take it a little easy today, the rain really kills him. He had to spend the whole winter inside when he lived in Utah, because the cold activates his asthma. poor kid... I`d rather not have him faint on me, I know how to use an inhaler, but I`d rather not have to force feed it to a half conscience Mexican American. haha i called him beaner and it didn`t even bother him, he thinks it is hilarious, in fact, he makes more jokes than anyone else. We were labeling milk the other day and I gave him another nickname, he didn`t like that much. But we get along really well, I am so much happier now, regardless of this crappy weather of late.

Everything will work out if we have faith. Keep praying and hopefully we can get a couple baptisms this month.

Thank you for your words Dad.
Have a good week.
Tomorrow I turn 11 months old!!!
Love you a lot
elder Barry

Sept. 6, 2010

Wow that was weird to see all of my friends on that facebook thing. (We copied Barry's facebook page on his birthday and sent it to him. Thanks to so many friends who remembered him on his big day.)

YAY C AND C!!!!!! They are both going to speak Spanish but aren´t going to understand each other, because the accents are so ridiculously different, no, they´ll understand each other just fine, just a couple words are different, that is so cool, there is a family in our ward who lived in Chile for 7 years so the son has a pretty bad accent hehe.

I got the package with the music and the shorts, with shoes etc, then I got the consider yourself hugged thing, thanks!!

This week was really hard, it rained 5 days straight, cold windy rain, I wanted to cry all the time, I got kinda sick too, so overall from Wednesday on, life sucked. But our bishop gave us the goal of 8 baptisms this month and on Monday and Tuesday we found 8 new investigators, perfect, it sure helps that we decided to try to have faith in the man. because no one in the ward really does, his son was like, my dads crazy! when we told him about the goal, but it could happen. but now its sunny and hot like the summer, so life is good.

btw tell the L family thanks for the package!
I love you so much mom, you are the best ever, I wouldn´t be where I am now without a mom as special as you.

Love you guys tons, Elder B

P.S. I am gonna miss that dog. Thanks for writing me about it.

Love Barry

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Pictures and Videos

We received a letter from Elder Barry that included a couple of photo discs in it. We had a great time looking through all of them. Here are some of our favorites.

Can you name this song?






















Wednesday, September 1, 2010

August 30, 2010

Mom

For our baptizm, one lady told me no she wouldn´t give a talk, so she made me ask her son, super funny, and way awkward, but he did a good job.

Yeah the weather is getting a lot better, I was afraid it was just a pineapple express, but it looks like it is here to stay, I have even been able to work in short sleeves a couple of times.

As for Friday... you should probably eat stuff that they don´t have here, like chimis or real pizza, with black cherry soda or root beer, or anything with cheddar cheese, haven´t seen that here. And confetti cake.
mmm.

Well, the baptism was the best ever, the lady we had give a talk on the spirit did a great job, she talked about who the spirit is, his function, and then the difference between the influence of the spirit and the gift of the holy ghost... I was impressed, she has only been a member just over a year, Saturday her husband got baptized. But he had a good example from her, she is the young women's president for the ward, and the music director in sacrament meeting.

Way cool
love you mama
elder B

Dad,

That song we sang is a hymn, called Oíd el Toque del Clarín, and it is only in spanish and its one of my faves.

Nylon strings on a guitar kind of stink, but its super easy on your fingers. I like metal strings, sound better, but for now nylon is totally cool, plus its more Uruguayan.

For my bday you have to eat confetti cake and good American food. or Mexican food, because spicy doesn´t exist here at all.

Having a Mexican American comp is the best thing to ever happen to me, I get to learn Mexican things all day long, and he loves Nachoooooooooooooo Libre! plus my accent is already becoming Mexican(in Spanish) because he hasn´t lost his Mexican-ness. He has no accent in English at all, because he lived in Utah for half of his life, he actually went to the same superhuman highschool that cousin S went to. shveet.

Thank you for the Mexican American lyrics, they will come in handy at random times. Hopefully I get to stay his comp for 2 changes so we can celebrate hitting a year in the mission together. That would be tight, we are already planning.

I just started reading Jesus the Christ, it is a hard read, but it is so interesting and good. it also helps me in lessons. Also I am reading doctrine and covenants and preach my gospel cover to cover in spanish, so I am pretty excited. There is so much in Jesus the Christ, it just reaffirms how perfect our Heavenly Father´s plan is. This morning I was reading about the need for a Savior, and wow, the church is true, thats all I've gotta say.

Have a good week, tell the kids haha because they have to go to school next week. enjoy the rain!
love you tons
Barry