Hey fam.
This week was a decent week, we didn´t have bikes, because my chain full on broke while I was riding, so we did a lot of walking around. Two investigators came to church, N, who´s son and boyfriend are members, they just are waiting to get married so she can get baptized. They said they were going to put a date today at the judge place. And the other person was D, yeah, his name is Sunday, you´d think he would be better at keeping the sabbath day holy hahaha. The meetings were pretty good, me and my companion had to give the gospel doctrine class so we watched the movie Lamb of God, being Easter I thought it was appropriate.
Lets see, this week we ate pizza, had some really great lessons with our peeps and saw some miracles. One was an investigator named N. She had told us that she didn´t feel ready to get baptized because she didn´t want to obey some rules, and it was hard to make the change and get in the habit of going to church. But then later in the week we visited her again, because we thought that maybe we could still visit her kids and get them wet. But something had changed. She was always good for listening to us and had wanted to keep listening, but baptism freaked her out. But this time we went back over the first lesson, The Restoration. It was really nice to go back over the basics, and she sincerely said that she would pray to know if it was true, we could tell she hadn´t done that before, she had prayed, just not for a testimony. But she said that thanks to us she had started praying and that she had received answers. Her 15 year old son had been in drugs and he had quit them and was even trying to quit smoking, and the father of her baby had come to visit like three times. It had been months since she had seen him, and she had been praying that the baby could have a father figure. I was so happy to hear that she realized that these things came as an answer to her prayers, all we can do now is wait for an even better answer to come, one telling her that its all true. Then she shouldn´t have too many issues changing. Things change when you have a real testimony.
So here is a scripture I read today in my scripture study, 2 Pedro 1:3-8.
3. According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
5. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
6. And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
7. And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
8. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It was a suggested scripture in the Preach My Gospel section about virtue. I decided that I want to memorize it in Spanish so that whenever I have a bad thought come to my head I can recite it. It's pretty long so I´m sure the bad thought will be loooong gone by the time I finish hahaha.
So I don´t know if you remember but in the April 2010 conference there was a talk about a kid who had cancer or something like that and died, and they showed a picture of him and his brother who had recently received his mission call. Well, my companion is that brother. Yeah i have a Mormon celeb as a companion.
So Easter Sunday. Here they don´t have the Easter bunny, but some of the parents wrap up chocolate eggs and hide them for the kids to find. They eat a lot of chocolate eggs, and pretty much everyone gets the whole week before Easter off of work and school. They call it many things, originally the holy week (semana santa), but also tourism (turismo), la semana criolla, which is like the week to celebrate country folk, and even la semana de la cervesa, beer week, hahaha. Don´t you love how commercialized the holidays become. From holy week to beer week.
By the way HHHAAPPPYYYYYYY BBBBIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRTTTTTHHHHDDDAAYY MMMMMMOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!!!!!! you are the best mother on the face of the planet I hope you realize that I love you a buttload. On the 30th I´ll buy you an alfajor, then eat it because its illegal to send it to you and it would go bad in six months. But anyways, happy 44? holy cow. you are not that old. yet.
I love you all, have a great week.
Elder Barry
ps. i hit myself in the face with my phone today, i think Jim is responsable.
pps. my fingers are dying from having no guitar, its been a whole month now :(
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
18 April 2011
hey folks.So to start off this email I would like to ask a question, why is pink lemonade pink? We were trying to figure it out and we honestly have no idea.
Can I just say now that C is a genius, I never would have thought of borrowing a prom dress, perfect.
Then, the bad news. No one came to church. there was a big rain storm on Sunday morning, and there was only like half of the usual attendance in the chapel. It's hard for the people here sometimes, because hardly anyone has a car, so they have to rough it like the 10 blocks to church. I personally arrived all muddy and nasty because we went all around ghettoland trying to get investigators to go to church. Also another Uruguayan tradition is to sleep when it rains. So everyone heard the rain on their tin roofs and decided to turn the alarms off and sleep til noon. Sometimes I think it would be really great to live here. But because of rain and other nonsense we have no baptizm this week.
It sounds like dads talk was pretty good, I'm super happy that G came to church again, way to go elders!
I do have a good story to tell you. The other day we doing contacts and we were in this pretty ghetto neighborhood and this kid invited us in. He was like 16 or 17. I talked to him, just saying we were missionaries, and he was like yeah, uh huh, and then I asked if he would be interested he said yeah. Then I asked if we could come in he said yeah. What?!?!?! teenage kids are supposed to make fun of us! He so directly and without emotion just said yes, come in, that I didn´t know if it was real. Then as we had the lesson with him we asked if there was anyone else in the house that would be interested, he said his mom, and went and got her, then his sister came in then a neighbor came in and then another random guy. In the end, we had five people we were teaching. It was way cool. we had another lesson with them later in the week and we set a baptizmal date with two of the teenagers, the original kid wasn´t home the second time, and then tonight we are going to go talk with them. Pretty stoked. I´m just a little worried about getting them to church, but we´ll pray hard ;) haha.
Bueno, I think that is all,
peace
love you guys
Elder Barry
ps. the pictures are the cooked head of the rabbit G made for us. Then the one with me eating is its tongue, yes sam, I ate rabbit tongue, and then the one of just me is me on my 18 month day. I didn´t do anything to celebrate. It was lame. also it was flipping cold so I wore my underarmor all day and had beanie hair.
Monday, April 11, 2011
11 April 2011
Hey fam. I can´t believe that Bishop W. was released! holy cow. I am really glad that my letter finally got to him. That was a long time coming. He was a great bishop I really love that guy. also T.A. will do a great job. hopefully bishop W will now get his dream calling in the primary.
Well S got baptized, it was an awesome service, her nonmember mom came so we watched the Restauración movie while they changed, my comp baptized her. Hardly any members came, but those who did really made it good.
One hermana who was supposed to give a talk about baptism couldn´t show, so I ended up giving the talk, it went alright, I wasn´t even scared or anything, being a missionary is a blessing, I had two scriptures I could just turn to and badabing I had a talk prepared. She is so golden though, she volunteered to give her testimony at the end of the service and she remembered both of our names and said that she was willing to always follow Christ. Super spiritual. its pretty amazing, because this week she told us that in high school she smoked pot. Her boyfriend said that he isn´t going to ever smoke any more because he knows he can´t keep the Spirit with him if he does. What a guy. this week we are going by and watching the Joseph Smith movie with them, should be pretty good.
As for your talk, Dad, talk about how members don´t always have to teach doctrine to be good missionaries, that is the missionaries job, but they need to be good members and not pharisees. Lots of people either leave the church or don´t get baptized thanks to the bad example of the members, but... many more get baptized because of the good example of great members. I like the cycling explanation.
That's cool that C was able to find an apartment, who is she going to be rooming with? I might have to do the same thing in October with elder P, I am kinda nervous we won´t find anything. No worries I could sleep in the streets, couldn´t be much worse than the apartments we have here.
This week me and elder G kicked butt. We had like a million lessons, found some new investigators, and still had time to clean out the nasty font for the baptism on Saturday. The water from last baptism hadn´t drained all the way and there was nasty brown stuff in the water at the bottom of the font. So I got in there with a broom and a bucket and had some fun,
luckily we had a window in the room so we just chucked the water out that window. 
Hopefully the pictures get to you. This week we don´t have any planned because no one was able to make it to church :´(, we were depressed, but we will work that depression out this week.
Thank you all for being great parents slash sisters slash brother, I am very thankful for being in our family.
Love you Elder B
Well S got baptized, it was an awesome service, her nonmember mom came so we watched the Restauración movie while they changed, my comp baptized her. Hardly any members came, but those who did really made it good.
One hermana who was supposed to give a talk about baptism couldn´t show, so I ended up giving the talk, it went alright, I wasn´t even scared or anything, being a missionary is a blessing, I had two scriptures I could just turn to and badabing I had a talk prepared. She is so golden though, she volunteered to give her testimony at the end of the service and she remembered both of our names and said that she was willing to always follow Christ. Super spiritual. its pretty amazing, because this week she told us that in high school she smoked pot. Her boyfriend said that he isn´t going to ever smoke any more because he knows he can´t keep the Spirit with him if he does. What a guy. this week we are going by and watching the Joseph Smith movie with them, should be pretty good.As for your talk, Dad, talk about how members don´t always have to teach doctrine to be good missionaries, that is the missionaries job, but they need to be good members and not pharisees. Lots of people either leave the church or don´t get baptized thanks to the bad example of the members, but... many more get baptized because of the good example of great members. I like the cycling explanation.
That's cool that C was able to find an apartment, who is she going to be rooming with? I might have to do the same thing in October with elder P, I am kinda nervous we won´t find anything. No worries I could sleep in the streets, couldn´t be much worse than the apartments we have here.
This week me and elder G kicked butt. We had like a million lessons, found some new investigators, and still had time to clean out the nasty font for the baptism on Saturday. The water from last baptism hadn´t drained all the way and there was nasty brown stuff in the water at the bottom of the font. So I got in there with a broom and a bucket and had some fun,
luckily we had a window in the room so we just chucked the water out that window. 
Hopefully the pictures get to you. This week we don´t have any planned because no one was able to make it to church :´(, we were depressed, but we will work that depression out this week.Thank you all for being great parents slash sisters slash brother, I am very thankful for being in our family.
Love you Elder B
4 April 2011
We got to be in the gringo room for this conference, but the stake president forbade us from eating during the sessions, I wanted to cry. 
But in the end it turned out to be one of the best conferences ever. I learned so much about how to better myself and what I need to do to prepare for the future. I loved the talk about to be and to do and the talk about being prepared to meet the Lord. I did a thing I had never done before, I drew a line down the middle of the paper and on the left side I wrote things they said and on the right things I felt, it was really great I sometimes even had more things I felt than things I heard. Then I heard in another talk an hermana lent me that you forget a big portion of what you learned if you don´t take notes, and then read them again within 24 hours after. So I did that for personal study yesterday and today. I took notes on my notes, it was really good and I was able to remember more and take it at my own pace this time. Plus we have been reading the chapters that Pres Uchtdorf asked us to read from the Doctrine and Covenants.
This week was pretty good for the work. S. the girlfriend of a member we are reactivating, or rather that he has reactivated himself, she has been going to church and her baptism is this Saturday. She went to 3 sessions of conference, wow. In between the sessions on Saturday we ate with them a little picanic at the stake center. It is really cool to have solid investigators. Also we have an investigator named N. who is way cool. Last week she went to church with 3 of her kids and her baby, and this week they accepted the date for the 23rd to be baptized, she smokes, so hopefully we can get her off that quick, but she is really interested and always has questions. I love it when people come to a lesson prepared with questions.
haha I loved banjo tooie, that was a blast. How did the big dance go? I decided to be a mariners fan when I get home, get some hometown loyalty going down.
Hey Dad I have a question, we are right next to the airport and we always see a bunch of planes fly over our heads, do you recognize any of these companies? TAM, Pluna, Aerolineas Argentina, or American airlines? Hopefully you recognize the last one haha. Sorry you have had to work so much, but I guess when you are important that's what happens.
The Burger King sign in Spanish means, english spanish or spanglish ask for it in your way, or have it your way I guess. What a clever choice for dinner Sam, classy.
Well I love you guys a ton.
Elder B
But in the end it turned out to be one of the best conferences ever. I learned so much about how to better myself and what I need to do to prepare for the future. I loved the talk about to be and to do and the talk about being prepared to meet the Lord. I did a thing I had never done before, I drew a line down the middle of the paper and on the left side I wrote things they said and on the right things I felt, it was really great I sometimes even had more things I felt than things I heard. Then I heard in another talk an hermana lent me that you forget a big portion of what you learned if you don´t take notes, and then read them again within 24 hours after. So I did that for personal study yesterday and today. I took notes on my notes, it was really good and I was able to remember more and take it at my own pace this time. Plus we have been reading the chapters that Pres Uchtdorf asked us to read from the Doctrine and Covenants.This week was pretty good for the work. S. the girlfriend of a member we are reactivating, or rather that he has reactivated himself, she has been going to church and her baptism is this Saturday. She went to 3 sessions of conference, wow. In between the sessions on Saturday we ate with them a little picanic at the stake center. It is really cool to have solid investigators. Also we have an investigator named N. who is way cool. Last week she went to church with 3 of her kids and her baby, and this week they accepted the date for the 23rd to be baptized, she smokes, so hopefully we can get her off that quick, but she is really interested and always has questions. I love it when people come to a lesson prepared with questions.
haha I loved banjo tooie, that was a blast. How did the big dance go? I decided to be a mariners fan when I get home, get some hometown loyalty going down.
Hey Dad I have a question, we are right next to the airport and we always see a bunch of planes fly over our heads, do you recognize any of these companies? TAM, Pluna, Aerolineas Argentina, or American airlines? Hopefully you recognize the last one haha. Sorry you have had to work so much, but I guess when you are important that's what happens.
The Burger King sign in Spanish means, english spanish or spanglish ask for it in your way, or have it your way I guess. What a clever choice for dinner Sam, classy.
Well I love you guys a ton.
Elder B
Monday, April 4, 2011
28 March 2011
Whattup
This week was pretty cool, my new comp is a stud muffin. He reigns from American Fork Utah and went to the same high school as and Elder P. He speaks really well and has experience. We found nine new investigators and had a giant miracle in church. We had 7 investigators come to sacrament. It was really cool because this one lady we found this week, N, showed up right as sacrament was about to start with three kids and her baby. That was a huge miracle. we have a lesson with her today. It almost never happens that someone comes to church the same week that you find them. Also we had this lady who has come for the last three weeks to church and yesterday she asked us what she has to do to be a member of the church, hello golden investigator. Unfortunately, we have not been able to talk to her in her house yet. This last week we passed by and set an appointment with her, but then she wasn´t home. Her name is S, and shortly she will be baptized.
HAPPYYYYY BIRTHDAY S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Elder B was telling me about a thing his mom had him do called a date scrapbook. every date he has to take a couple pictures and write who he was with and what they did. The challenge is to do 100 dates before he gets married 50 before the mission and 50 after. He should definitely do it. I decided to do it for the 50 after college.
I got the package it was awesome, I loved the brownish greenish pants, way cool and last night we ate the licorice. delish.
But yeah, we had a great week, I am excited to keep working here. I haven´t decided what to do for 18 months, any suggestions?
ps I have moments when I have missed all of you guys, usually one at a time, but sometimes I just miss chillin as a family. But I am not homesick. just love the fam.
Thank you for taking care of me.
The church is true.
Elder B
This week was pretty cool, my new comp is a stud muffin. He reigns from American Fork Utah and went to the same high school as and Elder P. He speaks really well and has experience. We found nine new investigators and had a giant miracle in church. We had 7 investigators come to sacrament. It was really cool because this one lady we found this week, N, showed up right as sacrament was about to start with three kids and her baby. That was a huge miracle. we have a lesson with her today. It almost never happens that someone comes to church the same week that you find them. Also we had this lady who has come for the last three weeks to church and yesterday she asked us what she has to do to be a member of the church, hello golden investigator. Unfortunately, we have not been able to talk to her in her house yet. This last week we passed by and set an appointment with her, but then she wasn´t home. Her name is S, and shortly she will be baptized.
HAPPYYYYY BIRTHDAY S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Elder B was telling me about a thing his mom had him do called a date scrapbook. every date he has to take a couple pictures and write who he was with and what they did. The challenge is to do 100 dates before he gets married 50 before the mission and 50 after. He should definitely do it. I decided to do it for the 50 after college.
I got the package it was awesome, I loved the brownish greenish pants, way cool and last night we ate the licorice. delish.
But yeah, we had a great week, I am excited to keep working here. I haven´t decided what to do for 18 months, any suggestions?
ps I have moments when I have missed all of you guys, usually one at a time, but sometimes I just miss chillin as a family. But I am not homesick. just love the fam.
Thank you for taking care of me.
The church is true.
Elder B
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