17 Jan 2011

hey fam.

This week was really good. It all started out on like Wednesday or Tuesday we had an amazing lesson with an investigator named N. We have been talking to him for a while. He is a famous painter and his work is amazing. He is really intelligent and has even traveled to Israel. A while back he told us that he was never going to get baptized, and even for a little bit we had dropped him. But on new years day we went back and watched the Restoration with him. Then we watched a video about the right baptism another day. But he was still just kinda interested. But this week we went and we were talking about the Holy Ghost, and that the peace that he felt is an answer from the Holy Ghost, and then he said he feels good often and we talked about the gift of the Holy Ghost, and as I explained he pointed at me and said that I will be the one to baptize him, because I am the son of Jacob. We put a date with him then for the 5th of February. One problem, he smokes, a lot. so a couple day later we went to his house with a member and talked about the word of wisdom. We had already talked to him about it, but this time we went in with the purpose of him never smoking again. He said that he can´t do it. He has tried, but just can´t. So we read Ether 12:27, (And if men come unto me I will show unto them their ^aweakness. I ^bgive unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my ^cgrace is sufficient for all men that ^dhumble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make ^eweak things become strong unto them.) and explained that if we realize that we can´t do it and put it all in the Lords hands, He can do it. He accepted. we gave him a priesthood blessing and he was really grateful and willing to do it. Then on Sunday he didn´t come to church. So at 10 my companion and I went to go get him and he said he couldn´t because his friends had called him and said they were coming over so he was stuck. But, he hadn´t smoked anything at all. He also thanked us for the blessing and said he was praying to stay away from the temptation. I am super excited. If he does really well, he can still get baptized the 5th, I really hope so, because changes are the 8th and I really want to see him in white.

The rest of the week went really well. we are working more with the members, and they are getting excited about it. We are going to their houses and giving them challenges too, its exciting, and fun because we do practices with them. Plus with our purification, we have the Spirit more than ever, so our lessons are going much better.

As for goals this year, I want to read the whole missionary library, the whole standard works, our heritage, our search for happiness and true to the faith, and Jesus the Christ. and I want to feel at peace when I finish my mish. But other than that I don´t have any set goals. Maybe something with guitar, like learn a cool rendition of a hymn.

Well, that's about all I got for yáll this week, have fun at mount rose dad, say hi to the rainbow box for me, haha.

love ya

elder B

I can´t believe that quizz is going to the draft!! the beavs are toast this year. Is he supposed to go high? I didn´t think he had much of a future in the nfl, but I only saw like 1 season of him. I got the inserts, they are great, I feel like I am walking on pillows.

10 Jan 2011

Hey its elder Barry,

Wow that's nuts. I can't believe GB and DK are going to missions right next to each other. I guess I had better start learning Portuguese, half my friends are in Brasil. that is so cool that they leave only a week apart. Do they go to the same mtc?

So Uruguay is super flat, there are a couple big hills and one large valley, but other than that there is flatness, with some rolling hills, great for cycling all day long.

It is super humid.

The weather moves in and out suuuuper fast, like it can be hot then poring down rain, then hot in like an hour. But that only really happens in the summer.

This week we did an activity as a district called purificándonos, purifying ourselves. It is an activity that starts with a fast for 24 hours and then at the end you write down all of the things you do that keep the Spirit from being with you, or that keep you from having the Spirit strong with you. And then you make a promise not to do any of them for 40 days, and then it becomes a habit. The people who did it first had amazing successes thanks to this, so we decided to do it. Saturday/ Sunday we did the fast and made our lists. Mine was rather long, some of the stuff is kinda stupid, but I think it will help a lot. Some of my things are, sing inappropriate songs, speak English when I am around Latinos, and sarcasm. I decided to take the activity one step further and came up with a positive activity to put in the place of each of the things I was getting rid of. We'll see how this goes. But already in this last week as we were preparing for the activity and starting to make changes we had the Spirit a lot stronger, and we even got along better. I love this stuff. I feel super happy and pumped to work now.

I thought about it and I think I will be cheering for Auburn today too. I don't hate the Ducks, but it's just wrong. I got the package this week the one with the contact solution and water bottle, I love not having to use glasses, its amazing.

Yesterday we set another date with a guy named D, he is a cool dude, like 45 and he always shows us this random classical music that puts us to sleep like turkey and 'It's a Wonderful Life' do. But he accepted the date to be baptized the 5th of February. no one came to church this week, we were kinda sad, so all of our people before who had dates will have to move them back. But I still have hope. We talked to L Saturday night and she said she would come, I am not sure what happened cuz she didn't show up, last week either, I think next week we need to drag her by the ear. She so wants to be baptized but just needs to do the stuff.

love you guys,

elder b

January 3, 2011

From Jenny: I know that I'm a few weeks behind on posting Barry's letters so I'll start with the latest and work backwards. We got to talk to him for about an hour on Christmas. He sounded great. Same old Barry. I thought he might have an accent or forget words in English but he really didn't except for the time he said, "Como? er What?"

Hey fam how goes it? Today we had a district funtivity here in SJ, we made tie die and went on the bridge of death. The new hermana is a doozy. Her comp is K, and K had been calling me a lot this last week, and now today I understand why. The two of them are exact opposites, but I think in the end it will work out because the oro completely respects K and they are both really nice, just different. Me and my comp had a good week. We got along well and worked our tails off. One day was super rough though. we walked around for hours and no one was home and we only ended up with one lesson the whole day. The ZL kinda let me hear it for that one, so the next day I studied on how to plan better and we have been working on it lots as a companionship. I have actually learned. At first planning was rough because I was used to having the other comp either be in charge of it or at least help out a lot, but now I am 100 percent in charge and that was hard to get used to.

But then after that we had a great week. we set four baptismal dates, only one of them came to church, but we are progressing, I can finally see a change in the area, a small one, but a change. we even have two ladies who had a date for the 22. One of them is............... L!!!!!! Yes. we went over and talked about the law of chastity. She said her and her man candy are through, so we talked about how she can´t go back if she wants to get baptized. We´ll see, but I am super excited for her, thanks for telling us to go back.

This week I had lunch with P because I had to go back to the obelisko 2 area for a meeting. it was awesome to see her again, and we joked around about old times. My comp just kinda sat there, but whatevs, someday he will be senior comp. I never really participated in small talk until I was like 8 months in. It is way way harder than teaching, mostly because it is a whole new vocabulary, but once you can small talk, it is really fun to get to know the members a lot better and actually make friends. Once i got to Pesqueira the mission became a lot funner because I had a whole grasp on small talk and we could enjoy member visits together.

Oh yeah, that new hermana likes Neil Diamond...

Well, that's about it, I am pretty stoked about life right now, this week is leadership meeting so I get to see buddies and sit in a superspiritual meeting.

Love you tons fam.
elder B

ps. tell T happy belated birthday and that a letter is on the way.

December 28, 2010

Well, we got the change calls on Sunday night, and I am staying, no surprise there, with elder H. But, I am District Leader again!! Yay. its gonna be super fun because hermana K, the one that talks a lot, is training a gringo this change so I get to call them every night to verify. Its gonna be crazy.

Wwe gave our fireside talk in church on Sunday! It went really well, no one really had big sidebar comments, and the spirit was really strong. I was super happy when it was over, relieved, and happy that it went well with the members, but, our investigator didn´t come to church. We weren´t able to see him yesterday, we even went past twice. I still have a lot of hope in him though.

So yesterday we were supposed to go and reserve the house so that the financiers of the mission could do all the paperwork, but all the lady did was give me a sheet to fill out, and I had none of the needed info. But today we saw the financers at changes and they took it, so within the week we should at least know for sure if we are moving to that house. We got the water back in the baño, luckily, we were suffering and stinky. So there was a gringo hermana here in san jose, but she had been here six months so she is gone and a columbian hermana came in, she is super quiet from what i remember the one time I met her, and so is the sister who was already here, so it sounds like I get to be the one that talks in the ward, woohoo. But columbians are cool, we already know that from Elder C, and it is going to be the best change ever because I decided to have faith and expect success, also, we are tie dying as a district, what could go wrong?!

Well, I think that is about it.

Love you tons
elder B