30 May 2011

Hey before i forget here are some pictures, its us at the Ws, the temple, us at L´s house, With G.

enjoy.

Well this week was really good. The baptizm of I, is this coming Saturday, she came to church yesterday, also C is getting baptized.

C is the 11 year old kid I told you about. He has a great story, his mom was inactive but we found her knocking doors a couple of weeks ago, she said that she wanted to return and bring C with her. So they came. But C is really into soccer, and he is good. The only issue is that his team almost always played on Sundays (sound like another kid you know?). We explained that it is important for him to always go to church, and I shared my story about me keeping the sabbath day holy and they shared the this could be his career, and that he would always try to come, but soccer was his thing. That was Saturday. I was like, its your choice, but he needs to take the sacrament, and with my testimony left them.

On Sunday he came, and stayed all of church. At the end we talked to his mom and were like, doesn't he have a game? She was like, yeah, but HE made the decision to keep the sabbath day holy, if coach needs a new player, he´ll have to find someone else. Wow. I was so proud, and felt kind of bad about it. I told him that soccer was not a Sabbath thing, and he didn´t go. I have been cheering for him ever since. That 11 year old kid is a great example for me. I prayed pretty hard that everything would go okay for him, I don´t want this to ruin his soccer career. But I know he made the right choice. God will bless him.

D and S still haven´t found jobs, but they are trying. They are so great and as soon as we marry them they are getting baptized, they said that they want us to be their witnesses. Its hard to be around them a lot because they ask for help, and we can´t really help that much, but we are going to involve the ward.

Also we met this awesome family yesterday. The parents are members, but none of the kids are. All are over 8, but most important, they want to return, and asked for our help. They are the best, they are the Santana family, and yes I did see a guitar in their house, must be relatives.

I love you guysa lot. have a great week.
good job on your bike rides ´rents.
don´t get senioritis C
don´t be trunky family, cuz I´m working until they force me to stop.
elder barry

23 May 2011

We had a killer week this week. We had further lessons with D, and also his lady E. They both have a date for the 11th of Junio. But we found out that they are not married :(. We´ll have to help them with that. They said that they have been waiting to find the right church to get married in it. So hopefully we can get them hitched before the 11th. The 2 baptisms were going to be E and I, but E isn't going to the interview and I got kinda sick day on the baptism and the bishop said we should wait. We were kinda ticked we thought it would be fine, but as I have been through before, its better to not fight with the leaders, so we are hoping for the 4th of June for them.

C came to church, he had to leave early, but he came with his mom so we are pretty excited. We actually saw quite the miraculous day yesterday in church. We had 7 investigators in church. only 6 for sacrament, but that is a ton. We are pretty stoked. When D and S came in I was so excited! They came in right before the sacrament. We sat next to them in the back row, and it was way cool. They were reverent and honestly payed attention. The ward was way excited too. But I have a nasty cough so I had to leave in the middle of the last song. And I yakked in the baño as they sang and prayed. When I came out, d and e were being greeted by a number of members, it was so cool. I guess the trick to getting the members help is bringing families to church, not disruptive 25 year olds haha. About them, we had a little chat. She said church was boring, we said that your salvation is worth being bored once a week, and that it is usually better and she missed the fun class where we teach. but she didn´t come anyways, for some lame excuse that today she starts work so she was busy and distracted. Whatever. but its all good.
One of them was this guy named G he is the cousin of the ex-bishops wife. He is staying here for a while to do photography, and I think he is trying to find himself. We talked to him afterwords and he seems genuinely interested, also he speaks fluent English :). I am pretty excited for where this guy will go.
All in all I am pretty excited about life. love you guys a lot.
elder b

ps I just got moms email, iIam not the organist, we have a member, I try to play hymns while we wait for stuff, one hand only for now, but sometimes two notes at a time ;). we got a new bishop this week too.

18 May 2011

We received an amazing email today, it was from the Bishop of the ward Barry is currently serving in. He thanked us for our son and said that he is doing much good. He said, "you have an exemplary son, very devoted to missionary work and is always happy and joking, he is beloved in the neighborhood." He shared his testimony of Jesus Christ and stated that he knows Barry will be greatly blessed for having served a mission.

With Pictures!

We wrote a reply in English, put it in Google Translate and sent it in Spanish. It really made me wish I knew Spanish. I would love to be able to communicate better. But, I felt very blessed and so thankful that Bishop would take the time to send us pictures and share his feelings both for our son as well as Jesus Christ.

16 May 2011

~After sharing the armadillo pictures with some friends, Barry's dad was told that eating too much armadillo can give you leprosy. He shared that information with Barry and this is his response:
You know, I did notice that my skin was kinda falling off the other day, darn leprosy haha. I read about that in Jesus the Christ (the book) the other day, and did you know that it is not contagious? Everyone ran away because it was written in the Law of Moses that a leper was unclean and they were to be shunned. Fact of the day.

So yesterday we had a little surprise in Sacrament meeting. Right after the sacrement, in walks L, the investigator, the cool lady who is the mom of E, and three of her sisters. so of course I got up, ran across the chapel, and sat with them in the back. Apparently they all found out that the primary kids were singing to the moms. And yes I still have a little Barry left in me, the chapel has tile floor so I slid for like the last 7 feet before the door. They came in, we sat down. They made some racket, then the kids got up to sing. It was really cool, didn´t sound that bad , and at the end the whole row I´m sitting in starts CLAPPING. Yes, full on applause. most of the members understood, yeah they're new, but L´s sisters, the ones who have been members for like 2 years, laughed out loud. I love havoc. Then they turned to me during a talk and said, not that quietly, hey hockobsen, isn´t it supposed to be over? There was still a half hour left. Then, not that quietly, they were like, its boring! Then they told me they had to leave to throw a party for their mom, got up and left. Oh boy. we will do 2 things about that this week. 1: congratulate them for coming, and two: drop massive cane on them about using their church voices and not being punks. Its gonna be weird to parent grown women, but I guess the mission is the place where you do everything...

Also we are going to have the baptism this week, the two ladies had a little more left to learn. and we found two miracles. One is C, he is 11 his mom is a member, less active who wants to come back and he really wants to get baptized, found them knocking doors. And two is D. He is very religious, but disappointed in his current church, so our message is veerrrrrrrrrryyyy interesting to him. He told us he wants to find a church that he can stay with, not have to leave because of false doctrine or bad principles. I almost hugged him. So we invited him to get baptized and he was like, of course!
I love life
love yall fam
have a spankin week
elder b

9 May 2011

We got to talk to Barry on the phone on Mothers Day! It was really great to talk to him. He sounded like he had a cold and said its pretty much a way of life for him there.

He also told us about the pictures you are about to see here. A man they know killed an armadillo and fed it to them for dinner! Yikes. Here's the armadillo ready to be served.Face to face with dinner!

Armadillo tongue. Ugh.

It was awesome to talk to you guys yesterday, the time went by way too fast, but we´re only 5.5 months away from having no time restrictions. haha. Today I feel kinda like garbage but we are pdayin it up anyways, my comp is a little sick too. We be illin.

Well we kinda already talked about everything yesterday, loved the pics you emailed me, its hard to believe that the little kids are now the seniors about to graduate. that bike ride sounded painful, but really fun, I´m super excited to get out there to pound up mountains with yáll.
This week we started to talk with a kid named I, he is the cousin of a recent convert kid. He is really disruptive, but when we talk to him he is reverent and controlled, its crazy. He actually listened. we are a little nervous, because in the past his mother has been rather antimormon, but hopefully this can help her out. We have yet to find her at home, so we haven´t even been able to ask permission yet, but if all goes well, he should be baptized by the end of the month. We also have E, I and L the mom of E. I think L is one of my favorite people here, but its really frustrating because she doesn´t go to church. Her family whenever we leave always say, adios mundo cruel, or goodbye, cruel world. So we always say that with them, so I decided that that would be my last words as I am in the plane leaving Uruguay. hahaEnjoy the pics, have a great week.
Be excellent to each other
love elder barry
adios mundo cruel.

2 May 2011

Hi there face here.
This week was alright, Sunday it was raining buckets and the investigators we went to go pick up couldn´t come, so we were bummed. But after the first hour of church I went over to the Relief Society to check, just for the sake of having a hope, and two of our investigators, E and I were there. They are two older ladies that we have been teaching for a while. They have had multiple dates to get baptized, but had only come to sacrament one time so they have had to wait, but yesterday they came! So the 14th they have their baptism, at 6 in the afternoon, if you guys would like to come. I was super pumped, I looked through the window and I saw them, I literally jumped in the air for excitement. Then we had a really good Sunday school class that me and "the G" team taught. The stake president came, not sure why, but he made some really good comments and the Spirit was super strong. It was good to have a lesson about Christ. often times investigators don´t understand that Christ is the cabeza (head) of the church, so it was about the life of Christ. Perfect.

We are trying to visit the members more and Ireally like it, we gain their trust, have fun, and they often give us food. Last week a family was like, you have no idea how long its been since the missionaries have visited us. Their little eight year old daughter is way cool too, we are going to trade stickers, and bracelets. She is super excited because I have high school musical stickers hahaha.

Well I am super excited to talk to you guys this week, hope you have a great week, enjoy prom beaner.
I love yáll tons.
elder b