Ho-kay (Nov. 22nd!)

What a wonderful Week! Wow! So many miracles and tender mercies I'm about to explode with joy!

Monday was pretty routine. Not too much happened to report about (Truth be told, I can't remember what happened. ;) )

But Monday night we started an exchange with One of the elders from my MTC District. So good to catch up.

Tuesday We had a miracle day! First off, if you remember Monday the 25th of Oct. We were able to go to the hospital and give a blessing of health and healing to a fellow in the burn unit. He was told that he'd have severe burning and scars and when we saw him he didn't look pretty. Anyways He called us Tuesday morning to thank us for visiting him and blessing him and he wanted to meet with us and he said that he was healing very nicely. It was great to hear him. Anyways, that was good. And then our day began and it was going pretty well. We met with one of our investigators and talked with him for a while, we're still trying to figure out what is keeping him back. He is like an iceberg: he only shows a little bit and there is more underneath.

We then decided to take the car in and get an oil change. While we were waiting, the guy sitting across from us in the waiting room said, "Hey, you guys aren't from around here are you?" And then we talked for a bit and told him what we are doing here and then we asked if he'd be interested in learning more about God. He said Yes! So we had a wonderful lesson in the waiting room. Man. the spirit was so strong. And the great thing was, had we not received a text telling us we needed to change our oil and had more of our appointments followed through, we would never have gone into the auto place that day, and that never would have happened. Great orchestration on God's part.

Wed was pretty good too. We had one lady who I was trying to talk to, but it's hard to talk through a door to someone. and we were trying to ask her if there'd be a good time to come back and she was like, "THAT'S IT! I GUESS I"M GOING TO HAVE TO CALL THE POLICE!!!" -Whoa... have a good night. (I guess she wasn't interested. ;) )

Wed evening we stared another exchange with some other missionaries and it was kind of crazy 'cause my companion for the next day had just crashed his bike and landed on both of his hands and his wrists were killing him like crazy. So we iced them and wrapped them up and gave him a blessing and started our exchange.

Thursday we went to this GU-HEH-TOE Medical clinic. (someone seriously needs to pick a better paint for the walls. It felt like I was in a concentration camp, Auschwitz eat your heart out. It was bad.) and it turned out that neither of his wrists were broken, only one was sprained. We spent a good portion of the day in the mission office getting things all squared away with accident reports and stuff. Then we had dinner and that was most of the day.

Friday was Friday. We had a great lesson with this one college kid. Great guy. He has so much faith. "Absolutely. When I know that this is true I'll need to be baptized." And we got a parking ticket while we were in the lesson. :(

Our Wolverine Paul Revere friend got Interviewed to be baptized and He passed! Yay! and it was so cool, we were talking a bit to him after about how our other friend who was preparing the be baptized wasn't going to be baptized this week and a little about how he wants to join the military, Or Wolverine friend said, "Some people learn the hard way I guess. He'll be able to learn a lot in the army. But a part of me is like 'Don't go into the military- go on a mission.' " SOOOOO coool!

Saturday is a special day, and it was a wonderful day for a baptism! Wooo hoo! I just love baptisms! It was such a wonderful experience and Everyone felt the spirit. Good stuff.

Sunday our friend from the burn unit in the hospital came to church. And seriously, there is no scarring/ damage or anything! He told us about how after the blessing (not sure about when exactly, but it was after the blessing) the nurse removed his bandages and called for the doctor, who called for his colleague, who called his associate until there were thirteen doctors there all staring at him. "What's wrong?" he asked. "Nothing," was the reply, "Your entire left side is healed." They told him that his lip, eye and ear would be deformed, but when we saw him, if he wasn't wearing a bandage on his ear you couldn't tell that anything had happened to him. He said, "That experience humbled me. And now I'm going to come back to church and make a change in my life. If that experience doesn't affect me for the better, than it was totally a waste of time." Wow. The priesthood of God is real.

We knocked a bit before dinner and nothing much. alot of times rich people are kind of in the mindset of, "I have everything I could ever need, Why would I need to talk to you?" Oh well. We had a wonderful miracle lesson in the evening. We were trying to find one person, and as we were calling him, the Spanish family who lived in the home we happened to be standing in front of came home, and we talked with them and they invited us in and we had a wonderful discussion. Great stuff!

Isn't life grand?

I love you all so much!

Thank you ever so much for your letters and emails and cards. It means so much to me to hear from you.

Happy Thanksgiving! (Now's the part where you say happy thanksgiving back)

"Happy Thanksgiving back."

Knock knock.

"Who's there?"

Orange.

"Orange who?"

Orange you going to have a wonderful thanksgiving, and eat too much and fall asleep on the couch watching it's a wonderful life?

I hope so.

I love you!!!!

Have a great week! Catch you next time!

-Elder Barker

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger! (Nov, 15th)

That's true except for Burger king Whoppers. Ha ha.

Last week on Monday we bought the zone Whoppers, cause we're cool like that and Plus the BK said 99 cent whoppers, Who could pass up a deal like that? So we bought 20! Yum. Monday evening we were able to meet a wonderful woman and her family and teach them In Spanish. It was so fun!

Tuesday, We were visited by Elder Gibbins from the 70. So cool. It was such a spiritual boost. He talked a bit about teaching doctrine and then principles and then application. Great stuff. We had a wonderful lesson with this one girl. She is having a little bit of trouble living the word of wisdom (Abstaining from Tobacco, Alcohol, Drugs, Tea, and Coffee) So I made her a deal. She gives up the stuff she's working on and I'll give up Ketchup. It's a month experiment. So, yeah... It's gonna be hard. AND You had JUST sent me a Bag of Ketchup Potato Chips too, ma. The Irony of it all is amazing,

Wed. We taught a lovely man in Spanish, and he's pretty interested. We also we able to teach a young man who is getting ready for Bap. and This one guy who Is soooo cool! He had gone to church with his friend and he attended for a while and then he had a wonderful spiritual experience while playing a musical number in sacrament and He's soooo Cool. He's going to get baptized over the Christmas break back at his home ward. And in the evening we Were able to teach this one Spanish man who's door we knocked. My Spanish is sooo bad. I Just hope that the people can under stand me. If I don't have the gift of tongues I hope that they get the Gift of interpretation of tongues. ;)

Thursday I went on exchanges with the Assistants to the president. I learned a lot. Mostly about my self. We taught this one lesson to these people at an old folks home. So fun. We just talked about prayer. Man lots of tangents. "My Pant size is 42/42!" -Ok... that's a great reason why we pray... any body else?

Friday was... Friday. Lot's planning. We had an interesting dinner with some members. At the end there was a knock on the door and one of the yard workers or something was there and so we invited him in and introduced what the Book of Mormon is to him. Cool stuff. You meet people in the strangest places. I wish that it was like that more often. People knocking on our door wanting to learn more Instead of Us knocking on their door asking if they want to learn. What would the world be like...?

Saturday We met with one of our friends who is a bit stressed out. Because he wasn't able to get to the library in time before it closed so he could get some ASVAB books so he could study up and pass the test on Tuesday. I guess he thought that would be enough time to study... What ever. And we met with Our Boxer friend and shared a cool visual with him about not letting the other things in the world drown out the spirit.

Sunday, Was a really cool Sunday. Each of the three parts of church turned out to be on the Holy Ghost. Way cool because we had two people there at church who are preparing to be baptized next Saturday! So it was very fitting to talk about the spirit. And we had a wonderful lesson in the evening in Spanish, and we told the story of how Nephi got the records of his people from Laban too these kids who were hanging out in a hallway who were telling stories and we asked if we could tell a story that was a true story. It was fun. They liked how Nephi was like a Ninja sneaking into the city by night and stuff. Cool beans.

and then we're at today!

Thanks for being Awesome! Hope you have a great week!

Thanks for the letters and cards and stuff. Sorry If I'm a little late in responding to some of them. This whole Zone leader thing means I don't have much time anymore... But I'll try to respond asap.

Love ya!

-Elder barker

An addendum to soren's letter...

OH!!!! Could you add and addendum to my email?

-With the Holiday season coming up I'm sure you are all wondering "What could I give to my dear friend Elder Barker?" Well here is my Christmas list:

I don't want any gifts or candy or toys or stuff like that. What I would love is to hear that you have either given a Book of Mormon to a friend and about how it went, OR If you don't have a Copy of the Book of Mormon or if you aren't a member of the church Call this Number (888-537-2200) and have one delivered to you and talk to the missionaries and read it and tell me how it goes. That is what I want this Christmas.

I'm excited to hear how it goes for you. I know that the greatest gift in the world is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and sharing it is the best way we can enjoy it. Please let me know how it goes with you. Please talk with the missionaries and read in the Book of Mormon. I love you all soooo much.

It was silly, It wass Pointless, It was... Short. WE LOVED IT!!! (Nov 8th)

Well, it feels like it's been only a few days since I last updated Y'all. And that could be attributed to the fact that it has only been five days. So here goes...

Wed we had a Zone leader council and it went really well. We discussed what the mission needs. We did some good work in the evening. We met this one family that was like,"Hey! We've been trying to get a hold of you guys. We have time this evening and we'd love to talk." Super cool! Wed night we realized that we were about to have Stake reports on Sunday and We had failed to remember to collect information from the missionaries to compile our reports So... that was part of the madness. Actually it was most of the madness.

Thursday we had a lovely day. Lots and Lots of paper work. And in the evening we had a great meeting with our investigator friend Bernie who looks like Wolverine. It was a really great lesson. and he's excited to be baptized soon! Woo! He read through the Book of Mormon like a tornado! Like he read most of it in three hours.

Friday was Another day of fun fun fun and fancy free. Full of Reports and planning for the next week.

Saturday was MAD fun. We did some knocking and we met some great people, and we had a wonderful lesson with Theron, this one kid who has been coming to church for a while and is so close to being baptized. Great fun. Then we spent the rest of the evening filling in the rest of our reports and then when we went to print--- the printer was gone. WHAT! Yes, apparently it had exploded and was lying dead and bleeding ink in the other room. So that was super fun working around that little bump in the road. We were able to get it printed in the end. THANK GOODNESS!

Sunday we got to report to the stake leaders. AND Bernie came to church! AND Theron came too! and It was fun! Testimony meeting was so cool! One girl that we had met up with the previous week bore testimony and told about how her family is going through some hard stuff and she said, "and then those wonderful missionaries in the fifth row back there came to my home and shared some wonderful scriptures from Alma and Helaman and it was exactly what my father needed to hear and it was wonderfully inspired. The timing the scriptures, inspired." And the best part was that we had decided to go to her home as a spur of the moment type thing and our discussion was purely what came to mind as we met with them. Hooray for the Spirit!! So church was great. Crazy part, one member brought a bunch of her friends who wanted to bash after gospel principles and that was a crazy.

So yeh. that's my week.

I love you all.

Thanks for everything.

you are always in my thoughts and prayers.

-Elder Barker

WHew! That was a close one...(Oct 25th)

HELLLOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Wow what a week!

Monday I went to my new area and met my new companion, Elder Reidhead. HE IS SOOOOO AMAZING!!!!! We go together like a wink and a smile! I'm super excited for this upcoming transfer! That evening we had a wonderful meeting with a young guy who is meeting with us and has been coming to church AND We also were able to meet with his girlfriend! Soooo fun!

Tuesday was a wonderful thunder storm. What an amazing day.

SO! We parked our car on the street across from this guy's apartment and we went up and he wasn't there. So.... we contacted a couple Spanish people on the street and asked the guy in the produce truck if he knew anybody in the area that would be interested. He wasn't very helpful and nobody was interested.

Instead of contacting more people we were prompted to just hop in our car and head out.

So we hopped back in our car and drove around the corner and decided to walk back to the area an contact another guy who might be interested. Before we go out of the car we saw a FLASH of light!

When we rounded the corner it looked as if someone had lit a firework over by the produce truck and people were all coming out of their homes.

"What happened?"

"The power lines just got struck by lightning and there's a line down."

"Oh... OK."

So we contacted the guy (Weird fellow... Like he is an actor and from what the posters in his ratty apartment would suggest an alcoholic and... it just felt weird in his home...)

When we went back to the car HUGE FLAMES were coming (---"from the side of my face"----) from the produce truck!

Whoa! And the fire trucks were there spraying water and the power line was blowing up with beautiful iridescent colors and loud "BUUUZZZZFFFT GZZZZZZZZIIIIITTTT BAAAAOOOOOOOOOUUMMMMM" sounds and... we were right there.... not two minutes before the power thingy blew up.

Wow.

Thanks God for that one.

That was close!

We met with a wonderful young woman named who is super excited about learning more! I love it!

Wed! We met with a member who hasn't been to church for a bit cause he... is busy? I don't know the whole reason BUT He's really cool cause he's a BOXER who has yet to lose a game. 8-0 all K.O. wow. AND later that evening we taught a Spanish family... My Spanish is... not that good. Ha ha whoooo. I need to study better.

Thursday was a wonderful day or finding people! AND INDIAN FOOOD!!!!! YES MUA HA HA HA !!!! I love it!

I impressed the member who brought us out by asking all the great questions to the server dude. "Is the sag good? What kind of lassi do you have? Mango? I'll take the garlic naan." Ha ha I feel cultured! HA

Friday was: Planning.......

And we met with Berny! cool guy. Picture Wolverine mixed with a revolutionary... pirate. Yeah that's him! Great guy! Fun lesson.

Saturday was... MORE PLANNING!!!!

Sunday was Church! Wonderful branch. I like this area. Fun people good leaders.

So that was the week.

Whew. Thanks for your prayers.

Guess what!

I LOVE YOU!

Especially You Kathy and Kim. "I am mindful of you always in my prayers, continually praying unto God the Father in the name of his Holy Child, Jesus, That he, Through his infinite goodness and grace, will keep you through the endurance of faith on his name to the end." (Moroni 8:3) I love you both so much. I'm sending you all my good energy.

Thanks for the letters/emails/ stuff/ PRAYERS (Super thanks for those) You are keeping me Alive! Really!

Catch you next week!

Be well.

ELDER BARKER

Ok! Nov, 2 2010

What a week!

Monday we carved pumpkins and it was such fun! Elder Reidhead and I each did a half of one and so the Quasimoto of a jackolantern was funny. Harry potter meets Elvis Presley. ha ha. We had a great meeting with this one kid and his dad, and once again I realize how little I understand Spanish. Wait... let me rephrase that. How much I understand but how little I can communicate. Oh well.

Tuesday was Interviews with the mission president. just check ups to help him see how we are doing and to strengthen us. And I got to do my first real zone leader thingy. We got to teach/ train the three districts in our zone about recognizing and following the promptings of the Holy Ghost and to act in faith. Good stuff. A little exhausting at the end BUT it went well.

Later we met this young kid and talked with him, but his parents weren't interested. Oh well... We also met with a gal and her friend and It went really well. I hope we can meet with them more. It was fun. After the meeting we had dinner at this burger joint and at the end we were all in tears, not because of emotion or laughter--they were cutting onions. And the best part was when we walked out everybody we passed was sniffing and wiping their eyes as well. ha ha. Fun stuff.

Wed we met a couple people. Some nice, others weird, and some both. One guy as we were talking about how there is a prophet on the earth said, "Shalock-de-de-de-de-de-de. I believe God speaks though prophets--for I am one."

Oh.. OK.

Later we knocked a door and the atmosphere was just so peaceful. I don't know what it was about it, but it was like coming home or something. So we left a note on the door saying, "your wind chimes are delightful. Thank you, the missionaries."

Thursday, we went to district meeting and delivered supplies like we do every week and Elder Porter came over to us and said, "Do you recognize this?" We looked and it was the note we had left on the door! Apparently that was the home of some members in his neighborhood. Go figure! We had a great lesson with this one guy. He looks like Wolverine and Paul Revere's kid. And it went really well.

Friday we planned and had another lesson with Wolverine. Oh yeah! We got Flu shots! but not just ordinary flu shots: These were Drive-Through Flu Shots! Yup. Just roll down the window stick out your arm and say "ow!" Fun stuff. But I felt a bit like I was in a cattle vaccination program. MOOOOOO!!!!

Saturday is a special day and it was a day of meeting people and finishing planning.

Sunday I found out that one of the members in the branch knows me. WHAT!? yes. He was like:

"Hey, Elder Barker. Where are you from?"

-Maine. "Damariscotta?"

-WHAT!

"I Knew it! You're President Barker's son! I took you out on splits with me when you were fifteen And I was serving there!" -NO WAY!

Wow. Small world! Big church.

Do you remember a missionary by the name of Malm? Elder malm and his comp was Elder Frost. April-ish of '05. Frankly... I don't... So I had to do the -"Oh yeah! ... that was---great? When we taught that...uh...person about....stuff.......yeah......"

Ha ha. Cool stuff.

Halloween was fun. We dressed up as missionaries. It was so funny. Everybody was like, "Great Costumes!"

-Hey thanks. Can we talk to you for a little?

"Ha ha! Funny."

-No really. we're missionaries.

"oh...uh...sure"

Fun stuff.

Monday we had Exchanges with one of the district leaders and I had a wonderful day of helping less active members realize the importance of church and inviting people to be baptized and two dinner appointments. Great day.

Today, we just got back from the temple. Ahhhh wonderful peace and calm. I love the temple so much. Hey I got to do the work for this German guy who was born in 1755 Wow! I love thinking about what their lives must have been like. What was going on? Was the gospel restored yet? Was it war time? Were in the world were they? I love it. PLUS I love going to the temple.

So that was a long on... sorry about that. Thanks for the letters and emails and Blueberry pancakes! They were delicious! as were the coconut cookie bars. Yum!

I love you all!

Be well!

Keep your stick on the ice. Remember, I'm pulling for ya.

-Elder barker

Madness!!!!! Oct 18th, 2010

WHOA!

Transfers always throw me for a loop. So! I get a call from President Watrous Saturday night.

(No big deal right? I'm just going to be released from being district leader, right?.....................WRONG!)

He called me to inform me that the Lord has called me to be a Zone leader! BAAAHH!H!!

Didn't see that one coming.

Man... now I have to leave this awesome area... Oh well. C'est la Vie!

SO This past week was pretty eventful.

Monday we went shopping at the mall for our activity last week. Man... I always feel under dressed, even in my best suit. That was fun. Then we had a Samoan feast! And taught a lesson to their friend but she was a little frazzled from a murder that had happened last week near her apartment. So...

(Santa Ana is a crazy place, I'm tellin' ya.)

Then we had the week-long training meeting for the "Fundamentals of Preach my Gospel: Teaching more effectively" That I had to direct and teach. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS! It really was a good training. It's so exciting to be a part of this great world-wide change! YAY! More effective! Efficiency! Huzzah!

During the time we had after the meetings everyday, we fit in some good work: We met with this family a couple times and we read out of the Book of Mormon with them and it was great. We were arranging rides for them to come to church like they've said they would for the past three weeks and have flaked out every time AND!! this Sunday!!! The flaked out again... arrgh.

BUT! We also were meeting with this other fellow who has been striving to give up smoking AND! He made it to church! Huzzah! It's so nice when people actually keep commitments! What a novel idea! Doing what you said you would! WOW!

Any who... Um.. Yesterday I got to bear my testimony to the ward. So sad... but I started off like this:

"TA-Loooooo-Fa!...

Ma-Oh-L-Lei!...

Aloha!...

Hola!...

Howdy!

...did I miss anyone?"

[somebody yelled ] Ni how!

"Oh! Ni How!" Ha ha ha. So fun. I love a good mix of nationalities.

After all, I am Aficasi, Hapa-hauli, and I've got poly in my blood! ;)

Well, I had to say goodbye to Joseph Leocadio... :'(

But we swapped info so we should be able to stay in touch. Man! It has been great to see him just take off! He's caught onto the Gospel and he's going strong!

Well.....that's all for now.

I love you all!

Wish me luck.

YOU ARE THE BEST!

Love ya!

-Elder Barker

So, what happend this week? Oct, 13 2010

Not much.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's that time of the transfer cycle again where we had the week long training on Worldwide Effective Teaching stuff. So, it was good. And I took copious amounts of notes (I'm not kidding ya! Look at the size of it! It's like SPUTNIK!!) Because this week I get to train my district on the whole shabang. Ahhh, the joys of being a District Leader. AAAHHHH!!!!!

So!

Monday was good. We had dinner with a Samoan Family who introduced us to their friends and we taught a lesson. SO cool! i love it when Members are good friends to people and invite them to talk to us missionaries. It was a great meeting. And The food was grreat too. My Samoan Chief Name is "Fia-ai So-o"--'feed me all the time!' ha ha ha. Elder Ortiz's name is "Ai Tele"-- 'Eat too much' ha ha. So fun!

Tuesday I got to go to the training meetings. And when I got out we went on splits with some members and visited to people. Great fun!

Wed. We were able to meet with some great people and help them. One guy was so cool! When we walked to to his house he came out and greeted us with, "I read in the scriptures!" That is probably the best way to be greeted.

Thursday was a great day. We got to meet with a couple less active members and used a good visual teaching method to talk about the Book of Mormon.

Friday was a day of searching.

Saturday was weekly planning.

Sunday was great! But unfortunately none of our investigators made it to church. Even though we hooked them up with rides and visited them Sat night to make sure and all that jazz... but they still weren't able to make it. Interesting... I got to teach gospel principles all by myself. :-0 Elder O was out with our ward mission leader trying to pick up our investigators for church. So... that was fun. Teaching from the hip is fun!

And... yeah...

Man! i just love being out here and learning from President Watrous. He is amazing! And being with such Spiritual Giants for a week of training was great! now I just have to replicate it all for my little district this week... a bit daunting? yes. Possible? also yes, but I'll need your prayers.

I love you all! Thanks for being the best!

have a great week!

Catch you laters!

-Elder barker

Locked out, twice. Sept. 27, 2010

Hello!

Man what a week. Unfortunately I don't have my journal or planner near so I can't go through the days and check off what exactly happened BUT It was a week. THAT I know!

So, Last Monday Elder Ortiz and I were locked out of our apartment. and after a crazy goose chase for the keys that the mission office said would work but actually didn't we found the maintenance guy and got keys from him. So! That was fun.

I got to go on exchanges with the zone leaders on Wed! That was super fun. I really enjoy being with Elder Soffe. He's a great leader and an even better friend. We were able to teach a couple college kids who let us in and.. it was interesting. They were on the verge of bashing and I'm not sure if they quite understood all we were talking about. Darn Pot. But other than that Mrs. Lincoln, it was good. I did my first baptismal interview! Woot! That was a great experience. Pretty much all it is is where the person who is getting ready to be baptized meets with the district leader and they talk and the district leader makes sure that the person understands what they have been taught and are willing to follow the commandments. So It was great.

Sunday YAY! I was given the wonderful blessing of conferring the Aarronic priesthood onto Joseph Leocadio! Wow what an experience! Words cannot describe the feeling. I just... All I can say is... Man I love God! I had a wonderful spiritual experience as I gave Joseph a blessing. That's all I can say. On another note halfway though Priesthood meeting I reached into my pocket and realized that the car keys were missing. My ca' keys! So that was fun rushing around the chapel, hoping that the keys were somewhere to be found. Thankfully they were in the car. Whew. And the doors were still unlocked. WHEW! That was a close one.

And today We are once again Locked out of our apartment. I think this is becoming a trend. Losing the keys/ locking them in the house... Hmmm... i don't like it. Perhaps we should try climbing in through the window... Nah. I guess we'll try to find the maintenance guy again.

Anywho! Um... yeah. that's all I can think off right now.

I hope you are well, and happy and healthy and cheery and I know this sentence is redundant but it's true.

Thankyou sooooo much for you letters and emails and love.

I love you all soooo very much.

Catch you next time!

-Elder Barker

Busy Busy Busy! Sept, 20, 2010

What a week!

Monday was super fun! We went shopping at this HUGE mall in our area. Unfortunately everything Was SUPER expensive. Like I'm not even kidding. 95.00 for a t-shirt. A T-SHIRT! Wow... That evening we had dinner with Bishop Rodgers and Man was it fun. Good food, good conversation and An amazing Plumeria Garden in the back yard. Oh, Grandma, I don't know if you heard from my letter but We had dinner with Manase Tonga's wife. Good 'ol #11 from BYU is Bishop Rodger's son-in-law. It was a grand evening.

Tuesday, Was so awesome! One of the members just got back from her trip to Hawaii and We had asked her (semi jokingly) to bring us back something Hawaiian and SHE DID! yay! Hawaiian Host Chocolates and Lays for both of us. Awww so nice. So that was fun. We taught a bunch of people But that was the highlight.

Wed. we were able to teach Joseph Leocadio's son! Wooo hoo! I hope that we can help that family to come closer to Christ. It's always fun teaching Joseph but the lessons go a bit long, 'cause he likes to talk and we like to listen. Ha ha. Oh well.

Thursday we had a great district meeting. We talked about Elder Packer's talk "A candle to the Lord" and discussed how we can apply what we learned in it in our lives. It was a lot about receiving personal revelation and how the spirit speaks to us. Elder Packer is soo good. He points out in the talk that the scriptures try to put a word to describe how the spirit communicates with us and it calls it a voice, but that it is more of a voice one feels than one hears, and he sites 1 Nephi 17:45 "ye have seen and angel, and he spake unto you; yea, ye have heard his voice from time to time; and he hath spoken unto you in a still small voice, but you were past feeling, that ye could not feel his words..."So good! Anyways we took Joseph out with us to meet with a recent convert who hasn't been coming to church lately. It went really well and it was great. I think they hit it off really well.

Friday was weekly planning. And then we met with this one kid and helped him to realize that prayer isn't scary and that it's important to pray. It's like talking to our Dad (Because he is our heavenly father after all). It went really well. His prayer at the end of the lesson was so sweet, "Heavenly father I thank you for these missionaries. i have fun with them And I'll do what they ask me to. I'll pray every day. and I hope we can get together again soon. In the name of Jesus Christ amen." Then we had dinner with a polly family. man I love Supo Moa - Chicken soup. the kids were super fun and bouncy. ha ha. Like they wouldn't stop jumping and making me hold their hands and pull them up higher. It was a great work out but it was tiring. Then we had a great lesson with this one girl who was So great! I'm excited to keep working with her.

Saturday we had a couple lessons. We had a great one with Joseph. He took us to get Little Ceasar's and then we had our meeting in a park and later we played guitar and chatted. TOO FUN! Anyways Friday night we got a referral from the Spanish Elders and we went to the house and after we got past Tootsie the Pit bull we had a great lesson and All four of the people in the family were eager to learn and willing to prepair for baptism! Yay!

Sunday we had stake conference which was AMAZING! The stake presidency (Leaders over several congregations) was reorganized and the rest of the meeting was their testimonies and MAN the spirit was strong. It was alot about the origin of testimonies and about needing the lord's help to fill our callings ,whatever they may be. Whether leaders, teachers, home teachers, parents, whatever it may be, we all have callings. It was funny cause one of the counselors in the old presidency is now the new president and he said, "I know that this must be inspired. look at me. I have glasses, hearing aids, and braces. no one but the lord would call a man to be stake president who is blind deaf and dumb." ha ha ha. GREAT stuff. We met with one of our investigators and hopefully his mom will give him permission to be baptized. It looks promising. So We're excited!

And that was that.

Whew!

Well, thank you for being such amazing friends and family. You are the best! Thanks for your letters and emails and love.

I love you all so much!

I hope you are well and that things are going good.

Catch you later!

-Elder Barker

Ka-me-te Ka-ma-te Monday Sept 13, 2010

Whew!

Goodness what a week! I guess there is no where to begin but the beginning.

SO! Monday: Was pretty good. Ya know, the usual. Emails, groceries, laundry, teaching. The norm.

Tuesday we stated the day off with a service project for ladies who were kind of rude and who had a cloud of nicotine hovering around them that was reminiscent of an airport pick-up-and-drop-off zone. Cough! We were helping to set up for this "Senior Sports" thing which looked, well... Bless their hearts... but... hmmm, yes. I think that says it. We took out Our friend Ron with us. He's soo cool. I think I already said this But he's getting ready to serve a mission in Montana so we are taking him out with us a lot. We were able to give a blessing to one of the members, and teach Joseph Leocadio! Woot He's so cool, and yeah... that was the day.

Wed.Was a great day! We met with people we hadn't seen for months. And we were also able to meet with some less active members and some who I had never met before. Man! I wish that people wouldn't make excuses. They just put up these excuses for why they don't go to church or read the scriptures or pray or anything like that and it's just... I want to say pathetic but maybe that's to harsh. No it isn't. It's Pathetic! They are keeping themselves away from God and from blessings that he wants to give them just because they are too busy! Well I'm sorry but you're complaining to the wrong guy! (Ok... getting off my high horse. [Mom if you think that was too strong you can omit it from the email])

Thurs. District meeting was lovely. We had a great lesson on How to improve our personal prayers and it was pretty good. I have some things I've got to work on, that's for sure. We had a lovely lunch at Happy Buffet, which I think is a partial lie, because you are only happy as long as you're eating. I think the same principle applied to the food at BYU-Idaho. Right after your last bight you realized that what you ate wasn't actually food. We took Ron out with us and did some good tracking and we actually talked to some people! yay, They didn't just kick us off their door step!

Friday, was full of planning and a couple lessons with some good people, their motivation is just a little low. so it was ok.

Saturday, We Tracted, went on a temple tour (I just love temple tours. It's so wonderful to walk around the grounds and feel the spirit and the peace and serenity. After all the grounds are dedicated too), Had good meetings with people.

Sunday, We had a wonderful Sabbath! i love church! The youth speaker however was... well... Bless her heart... hmmm yeah, Reading her talk for the first time at the podium. ha ha ha. So funny.

And that Was the week on fast forward and reader's digested.

Fun huh?

Thank you soo much for the letters and cards and emails. You all are wonderful! Thanks for your support. Hey guess what? It's been a year. (whoa... it's been a year? Where did that go? That went by like... super fast. It feels like yesterday I went into the Missionary Training Center. It was yesterday wasn't it? Wow... Scary)

I love you!

Be well.

-Elder Barker

FOR ISRAEL, HURRAH!

Hooray! Hooray! Hooray-'ooray-'ooray-'ooray-'ooray!

I just love Baptisms! Ooops, I've gotten ahead of myself and ruined the ending... Oh well, surprise or not This week was GREAT!

So, Monday we had to go to the mission office and pay our fine from the towing incident. Oy... Ah well, I didn't want that money anyways (SOUR GRAPES!) But in the evening we met with Joseph Leocadio And had a wonderful lesson. It was two hours long. Oy! Long time I know. But he has so many good questions and side stories. The funniest part was that we didn't have all that much to cover, just the ten commandments and the importance of prophets, and yet it was two hours long. Whatever; it was worth it!

Tuesday was an interesting day. We met with The Espinozas. Wonderful people. Sister Espinoza is a member of the church and Brother Espinoza has been attending for 36 years but... isn't a member... yeah I'm confused too. And what makes it harder to understand is that he speaks only Spanish. SO! I could barley understand anything besides "Comme mas tortillas." Good food.

Wed we met with Joseph and he was able to meet with Bishop Rodgers and it was a great meeting. I love bishop Rodgers. He's soo cool. He's got the good laid back Polly attitude. Anywho.

Thurs. Joseph Met with Elder Soffe and passed the Baptismal interview - which really isn't like an interview-interview-interview. It's pretty cool. Like, "Do you believe that God is our loving heavenly father? Do you believe that the church has been restored? What does that mean to you?" So We weren't worried about Joseph passing. so we worked out some of the stuff for the service and yeah...

Friday, Joseph gave us this funky Filipino drink called Halo-halo. It's more like a meal than a drink. It's got like... rice and beans and fruit and ice and milk and this weird purple stuff.

Saturday JOESPH GOT BAPTIZED! Wooot! And his brother and sister came and his wife and kids and his father in law and a bunch of people from the ward and it was soo great! the spirit was so strong and it was so great to see him make this first step and to set the example for his family. MAN i love the gospel!

Sunday He got confirmed a member of the church and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was wonderful. So peaceful. and at the end of sacrament meeting he was like, "You know that feeling of being a part of the 'ward family' and being accepted and unity that you mentioned- you could have at least told me that it was literal!" Ha ha. So great!

Anyways enough about that GREAT news.

Thank you all for you emails and letters and love and stuff.

Things are going great. We are starting a new transfer (six week span) and I am still in this great area! But our teaching pool just went down so, we are going to do a lot of finding people to teach. after all nothing can be accomplished in missionary work until we find someone to teach.

SO! I love you all! and I miss you. and I love you. In that order ;)

Catch you next time!

-Elder Barker

August 30th --WHERE IS OUR CAR!??!!

Another week another adventure!

The week was an interesting one.

Monday we had a cool experience. We got a media referral telling us that there was a lady in the hospital with a life threatening case of tetanus and that she wanted us to come and give her a blessing. Ok. So we went over and checked in and went to her room and- She wasn't there. Yeah... So we asked the guy who was standing outside the door if he knew about her, and he didn't know her but he thought that she had been allowed to go home that day. ...ok... So we talked to him for a bit and it turns out that he had spoken with Elders in the past. I was like- whoa- This is not a coincidence, we are here for a reason and that reason is to talk to you. Unfortunately Some people can't see Divine intervention if it smacked them upside the head. But cool experience.

Tuesday was Tuesday. We had an appointment set with Joseph Leocadio But he was apparently sleeping during said appointment time.

Wed. We had a couple lessons with some great people. And I learned to play a couple chords on the ukulele. We went by Joesph's to reschedule (Man, i wish he'd get a phone already!) But he was- Sleeping! So we talked to his youngest son through the screen door and committed him to put on some pants before we came back, and he committed us to coming back. But things didn't turn out so well. After checking on a family that we've been trying to work with we went back to our car and- it wasn't there. Which is king of funny when you realize that I sometimes try to pull elder ortiz' leg by saying, "Where's our car?!" But this time it was for reals. So while we were looking under the rocks and behind the bushes for a sign of the thief this mean old lady with a wall eye and sharp nasty teeth pulls up and asks if we had a car on the premises and wheat we were doing there and was just really... rude. So I tried to be polite and ask if she knew where it had been towed and stuff and she wasn't helpful at all and then she went on to tell us that we were wasting our time and that we should be finishing school and that you can worship god at home and that she has zero respect for us and yadda yadda yadda. So I told her to have a nice day, and after some crazy finagling found where our car was and arranged for us to pick it up and long story even longer we picked it up but it cost us double because it was after hours. (Well, if you hadn't towed it at 6:22 it wouldn't have been after hours so who's really at fault here? You.) Oh well. All's well that ends better.

Thursday I went on exchanges with one of the elders in my district and it was so fun! we were on bike and we taught this one guy that we met after knocking the first door, and it was cool.

Friday, Ron (The Samoan Midget who is super cool) Got his mission call! So we went over and had a "Call-opening party!" He was called to billings Montana. Fun Fun!

Saturday is a special day, and we were actually able to teach Joseph Leocadio! yay! He's sooo cool. And he had just gotten a hair cut so the pony tail is gone and the cool short hair is in. Man. He's like a super sponge and everything we teach him he already has kind of a basic knowledge of it but when we teach it he's like, "Wow! i had never thought of it like that! Fasting isn't just a cleansing healthy thing to do- but it also allows your spirit to not be subject to your physical needs and helps you draw closer to God! I'm just blown away by this." So cool. And he likes James Taylor. Like I said, Super cool.

Sunday He came to Church and brought, Not one of his sons, not two of his sons- but ALL THREE OF HIS SONS! Sooooooo cool! They all loved it! So great! Man I just love teaching people who love to learn. Anyways, we had dinner with some members and tried to contact some people and yeah. It was a good day.

So that's my week. i hope you had fun reading about it.

Thanks for your emails and letters and love. I really appreciate it.

I hope everything is well with you.

I love you all so much.

Be well!

Catch you next time.

-Elder barker

August 16th - Ahem...

What a great week!

In the mission we had a four day long meeting about how we can be more effective missionaries! man it was good. So much to learn! and so much to teach. It was a meeting with the leaders and the trainers and so now our job is to relate it to the rest of the missionaries. Man it was good though.

President Watrous taught us the new simplified curriculum for the MTC and it's amazing. It focuses on the doctrine of Christ (Repentance and baptism) The role of the Holy Ghost in conversion, Revelation through prayer; through the Book of Mormon; and through church attendance, Focusing on teaching people not lessons, The importance of commitments and How to begin teaching. MAN It was a feast of knowledge and spiritual food. Yum!

But because we had that big amazing meeting all week there wasn't much time for teaching and stuff.

We had a couple opportunities to meet with some less active members and strengthen them, and those went really well.

Let me see what to report... I'm not sure.

I don't know what the deal was with some of our investigators. Every appointment they were either sick, asleep, in the shower, or gone. So... Unfortunately none of them made it to church this week. But after church we stopped by Joe Leocadio's and talked and ended up playing guitar a little bit and we'll be meeting up tonight so that's good. Hopefully we can teach him a few principles before it turns into a jam session. ;)

Anywho... Life is good. The carpet is clean! (just cleaned it this morning- yuk) and... yeah.

I love you all!

Be well! Yes, I mean you.

Thank you for all your emails and letters and goodness.

Catch you latter!

-Elder barker

August 9th Lesson, Chemo, Spiritual feasts, and Feasts.

What a week. And to make it even more fun I think I will start at the end of the week and work backwards!

So! Sunday was Excellent! In sacrament meeting we had a billion Pollys all there to say goodbye to our departing missionary (Alfred) from the ward. It was a wonderful meeting full of love and song and tears. Good stuff. And the Alfred family was there, who are pretty much all inactive members. so that was cool to see. After church we were invited to be a part of the Feast! It was sooo good. And the cool part was when we were looking for a place to sit Alfred's dad was like, "Elders, you sit over there." (over there was next to Alfred at the head of the feast.) It was an honor to be there. Plus the food was super good. Yumm Pig! And taro and a bunch of other things that I can't pronounce let alone write and which they didn't have a translation into English so we just ate it and didn't ask any questions. We had a couple lessons after that and then we crashed another party! This one was a birthday party of a member in the ward. So it was a fun day.

Saturday Was long. we had a couple lessons fall through but we were able to teach a less active member, and the husband of a member. Crazy story. So this guy has been coming to church for 30 years and he's still not baptized. Crazy. Anyways they fed us a bunch of tacos and then moments after that meeting we had a dinner appointment. Ha ha ha! Man... So much food.

Friday we had the opportunity to watch the new Preach my Gospel DVDs (It's where cameras follow 8 missionaries around for six weeks and then they compile it into a cool thing that we get to watch and learn from and adapt our styles to what we like) So that was awesome! Then we met with a less active member and talked about some good stuff. He is from Maine! Whoa! But I guess the nearest chapel was like in Canada, so he had to cross the border every week to go to church. And he's out here doing art school and stuff. So we had lots to talk about. ;)

Thursday we had a good district meeting. on how we can improve ourselves as executives in the lord's kingdom. Good stuff. Later we taught a couple less actives (man it was a less active week wasn't it?) Good stuff. I think we are making progress with one in particular. good stuff. Hooray for repentance!

Wed was a long day But we had a great evening. We split up with some of the leaders in the ward went out to visit people. The high Priest's group leader and I visited a Sister who is battling cancer and her husband. It was great to see that her spirits were up and plus she had the knowledge that Heavenly father loves her and that she only had one more treatment left. I shared a thought from the old testament about when the Israelites were just about to get to the promised land and then because the people who lived there were soo big and scary they doubted that they could make it. And then God was like, "Hey! Did you already forget that I delivered you out of Egypt and parted the red sea? This isn't a big deal. Have faith!" So I drew the connection that we need to remember that With God nothing is impossible and that miracles do happen everyday (if you saw a miracle would you recognize it?)

Tuesday we met with Joseph Leocadio and it was a super good lesson! We taught about Obedience to the commandments and the importance of prayer and we also talked about keeping the sabbath day holy. It was good. When we asked him if he would be able to attend church this week he said that he'd be out of town but then asked if there was a way for him to attend a church where he was going to be at. YAY! super cool.

And Monday was Monday.

So that's my week in review.

Man, i love you guys. I miss you like... a fat kid misses (Klee-Shay! [ yes my spelling is off, and the computer wouldn't recognize the way I was trying to spell it so... Hooray for phonics!]) um like a flower misses the sun (Klee- Shay) Like... You know what I mean. I miss you guys.

Thank you for your letters and emails and love and everything! I take them all and put them into an IV drip that keeps me alive.

Be well!

Catch you next time!

-Elder Barker

July 19th- Hello again!

So this past weeks was fun!

We had exchanges with the zone leaders and that went really well. It was fun being in their area and working with them. We knocked this one area that had a super big house and to top it off it even had a moat. Ha ha. So fun.

On wed we taught this one guy who pretty weird. First of all he lives in one of those one bedroom trailers/ you know the kind that are more like campers or a tent on wheels. It was so funny, he'd say "Jesus-Christ-the-son-of-the-living-god-the-living-god-and-the-holy-spirit" and since he's from South Africa his accent is pretty funny too. crazy lesson. Anywho, later we had dinner with Cheyenne. and we taught one of his friends. Cool stuff.

We had a great weekend, a couple investigators in our district were baptized! So cool.

Um... Oh yeah! We had an investigator at church this week! Woot! It was so great. He brought his 7 yr old son and they both enjoyed it. That's so cool.

Well, that's the long and short of it.

Thank you sooo much for your letters, Emails, and love.

I love you all!

Be well.

Catch you next week!

July 12th- The following is mine and I wrote it and so it is mine

Ahem.

So! another week! Woo and such fun stuff to report on.

Like on Tuesday when we got lost on the way to interviews. How we got lost, I'm not sure, as we drive to that chapel every week. BUT that's all part of the adventure!

Wed we had an earthquake! And the best part was Elder Robertson and I were walking up the steps to Chyenne's place and the guy who lives across the way (down-da-road-down-da-way) was like, "The Building is shaking! THE BUILDING IS SHAKING!!!!!!!!! IT'S AN EaRTHqUAkE!!!" and we looked at each other and were like... there is? so we looked around and yeah the bushes we shaking a little bit but nothing serious. Chyenne ran into the house and was like, "Get the BABY! Quick!" So he comes bustling out of the house and everyone is in a panic, except us, and he's like, "Is it Still Shaking?" "....um... nope." ha ha. Funny funny.

We were able to bring Bradley to the temple tour. So cool. He's a great kid. I can't remember if I told you this before, BUT I'll tell you again! He's twelve and his dad is a member but his mom and step dad aren't, and the two aren't so psyched about him wanting to be baptized. The reason being they don't want him to be different from the rest of the family. ...um step dad is catholic and mom is a born again christian... I'm confused. BUT he's really a sweet kid. I wish opposition wasn't so popular.

We weren't able to meet with Cheyenne much this week. he's been heading out of town a lot trying to scrap up work and stuff. But we were able to meet with a friend of a less active who we are teaching and he's doing really well! He's reading in the Book of Mormon and doing great.

Yesterday at church we had this guy named Jerry just show up. It was interesting to say the least. He said that he was just lead to come to church and so there he was! So, we'll see what happens. But it was so funny, after Sunday school he was like, "Is there more?" all excited and we were like, "um.. no." and he was like, "Aww man." ha ha.

Anyways, It's been a long and busy week teaching and finding and teaching some more! Fun fun!

THANKYOU Soooooo much for your letters and emails!

I love you all and you are ever in my thoughts and prayers!

Be well.

July 5th -Long time no... Nope it hasn't been that long.

So. HAPPY FOURTH!!!

Fun Fun Fun. So last night the streets were full of people lighting those screaming fireworks and their sparklers and their fountain thingys and all that jazz. So needless to say- driving was eventful. AAAHHH We're under Fire!...works. hee hee hee.

So the week was a good one. We got a referral and when we went to the address to meet the person They were THERE! Wow! and the guy gathered his family around to listen and it was great! just one small hitch in the story. The dad didn't speak English too well. When we were talking about the Period of time after Jesus Christ when the church that he organized fell and we were talking about how that was the dark ages and people were confused, he said, "Oh yeah. Like when it's 2 o'clock in the morning and you try to wake up. Man, I get confused easily during that time of day when it's dark." ha ha.

We also taught Cheyenne a few time this week. It's always funny how our conversations go. He'll get on a tangent and then he'll be telling us how to break into a house. ha ha. The great line of the week from him is, "Man, when i used to loan out money to people- If your late on paying me back, after two weeks You owe me fifty more, after a month it's a hundred, and another two weeks- I shoot you with my sleeper dart take you back to my place, beat you up, take what I want, and then you pay me what you owe me. that was my three strike program." ha ha. Fun fun.

Sunday was a crazy meeting at church. A family that had moved away six years ago was visiting and the mom was playing the organ in sacrament meeting and Belting away America the beautiful over the congregation. ha ha. And there was a baby blessing and the kid started screaming his head off half-way through the blessing. ha ha. I love this church.

But really i do love the church. man, what a great thing that God would do, to organize the church so that we can increase our talents and serve those around us and be supported in our growth as well. Man.

I don't think I write this enough but i know that the book of Mormon is truly a volume of holy scripture. We've been re-reading it as a mission and MAN It is so TRUE! I just can't get over it. Every time I hear an investigator pray to know if it is true the spirit tells me so strongly that it is.

I love you all! Thank you for your support and your love. Man, i need it. Your letters and emails are like those pools of water in the desert that I have just enough strength to get to and then I fill up and keep going on till the next oasis. Thanks for keeping me going.

You all rock!

Be well.

I mean it.

Love you!

-Elder barker

Jun 21- One midnight gone

So!

I have officially moved in!

-And the last seven days didn't count because...?

Because I finally unpacked the last box, So now it's official! ha ha ha!

Ok but seriously, one week done! Woot!

It's a really mixed ward. It's so cool. Like there are Tongans, Samoans (Hey! Sule!), Mexicans, white folks, Europeans, and Asians! Pretty cool. and the work is pretty good too.

We are working with some cool people and helping them to see how the gospel can help them in their lives.

OH the other night when we were trying to contact a family that we are working with there was this guy and his son getting their fishing pool and gear all together, so I asked him what he was fishing for, and It turned out that he was going of for mackerel! AHA HA HA HA! My specialty! So We chatted a bit about the best kind of jigs to use and about that kind of stuff and then we talked a little about the gospel. He wasn't too interested but Hey! It was cool to have a quick connection like that. Those don't come around like that everyday.

So, we had dinner with Brother Harmer, the second counselor in the bishopric, and his family, so fun. But in the closing prayer I said, "Help us to have more opportunities to open our mouths and share our testimonies with those around us." and after the prayer Brother Harmer said, "I just received revelation! Elder Barker, would you give a talk in sacrament meeting this Sunday (two days away)." ... so I got to speak my first week in the area! Brothers and sisters!TALO-O-O-O-FA!

Speaking of Samoan phrases I learned a new one: Fia ai. That means "feed me" and then Fa a Fe Tai Fai Mea ai. That means "thank you for making the food." very important phrases in Polynesian culture. ;)

OK, so one cool character in the ward is Ron. He is a Samoan who is getting all of his papers and stuff together to go on a mission. He's so cool, and He's a midget. He's like a Polynesian hobbit! we take him out to lessons with us all the time. way cool.

Elder Robertson is way cool too! I wrote this in a couple letters but He seriously reminds me of Cousins. He is a mix of Kimball barker and Zach Davis! Too fun! We are doing really well together.

Well... That's all for now... I think.

Thank you sooooooo much for your letters emails and such. I received a package this week with a wonderful gift in it. Thank you all for that, and thank you Emily for putting it together. it was an awesome pick me up. You all rock! and If I was to describe you all in one word it would be: The-greatest-people-that-I-could-ever-wish-to-be-friends-and-family-with.

I love you all!

Catch you on the flip side later!

-Elder Barker

Jun 14- I've moved (but address is still the same).

So... Now I'm in South Coast! YAYAY!!!!!

And I'm In car again! YAYAYAYAY!

And I have a new companion, Elder Robertson! YAYAYAY!

And KAYLEEE GOT BAPTIZED YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYY!

SO, Let me up date you on some of the highlights of the week.

Monday We tried to be nice and help the other elders to have enough time to email and do that kind of stuff, but the library in our area was a mean bunch of money grubbing blaaa so... that didn't happen.

Tuesday was a long and tiring day. And It was so funny. I was reading Elder Ballard's book "Our search for happiness" and he was talking about how if you don't believe that the lord is with the missionaries just spend some time with them and see what they have to go through and how they can't go through that without the help of the the lord. And I thought to my self, "Well, It's not that bad." Oh-Oh-Oh... That was asking for it. So all day we had cancellations and everybody was not home and madness! So... that was Tuesday.

Wed was crazy and mom we had a sort of similar situation with a family for dinner on wed. So! They had signed up to feed us and we called on Sunday to put the time at 5:30 because we had a potential lesson at 6:30, and it was all good. and Tuesday night we figured we didn't have to double check, but when we showed up for dinner the mom was like, "What are you doing here?" So... we were like, "um You signed up for dinner" and so she whipped up some grilled cheese sandwiches. Ha ha. Ooops.

Thursday was good, but not too eventful.

Friday Kaylee passed her Baptismal interview! and we talked to her mom and she was like, "It's amazing ! I'm coming yo church, I want to be active, I see that Kaylee is having a good time . And just a few months ago I said, "Don't even try to convert me! Cause I won't!" You guys are amazing." Too nice, but it wasn't us doing the work. That was the spirit prompting her and that was her following the promptings.

Sat we worked all day and at night we got the transfer call, Elder Saxton is staying in Garden grove and training a greeny. and I am off to south coast. Sad But I'm ok with it.... now.

Sunday! KAYLEE GOT BAPTIZED! It was soo good and the young women sang and her family was there and her friends came too and a whole bunch of people were there to support her and it was great! and I accidentally dropped my camera and it now says lens error. Arrgh. Hopefully I can get that fixed. then we went over to Kaylee's and gave her a memory book with testimonies and congratulations from everyone who came and with pictures we printed off and it was so good to give it to her and I LOVE THAT FAMILY! they were so sweet saying that they want me to visit and write and I was in tears by the end of our visit. The spirit has worked in that home and now it is moving in the direction that Heavenly father wants them to be. SO COOL! It's amazing.

Hurrah for Israel!

Well. Thank you for your letters, emails, packages, cards, well wishes, prayers, vibes, and thoughts. I couldn't do this with out you.

I LOVE YOU ALL!!

Be well.

_elder Barker

June 9- Sorry Sorry Sorry!

There was an earthquake! The flood gates broke! The sewer backed up and a sludge monster took over down town Garden Grove! I was stuck in traffic! the Freaking library was full and they wanted me to pay $45 to get a library card! WHAT! (yes that last one was true.)

So sorry about the radio silence. I bet you were thinking," ok, either he's dead, or he lost his Internet privileges because of selling his internal organs on ebay for outrageous prices" (Kidneys by the way are going for $50 a pop. any takers? eh? eh?)

But seriously, Things are fine here. We're fine, I'm fine we're all fine. How are you?

SO! Update! Monday was memorial day...

Tuesday! We taught Kaylee and then had an awesome meeting with Bishop About how we can work better at fulfilling the ward mission process, and all that fun stuff.

Wed. We did a bunch of crazy fun stuff. then later, because last Sunday Brother Schenck asked us to be a part of the youth's mutual thingy where some older members of the ward shared stories from their missions, we dressed up as really old missionaries (like 1850's) it was fun! We wore beards and had cool hats and there are pictures in the mail! It was so fun!

Thursday: We tried to work the spirit gum out of our side burns. Ouch. and we taught Kaylee more review about the plan of salvation, and the great conversation of the day was this:

-Hey! Watch out! My dog will get you. Didn't you see the sign?

(this is all in Spanish mind you)

-We don't see any dog.

-Yeah but he's right there, watch yourself! He'll kill you!

-Hm.... ok. Well in the meantime, can you tell us if Noel lives here?

-No one by that name lives here. Watch out!

-look Mame, we are servants of God. A little dog isn't going to hurt us because we are protected by God.

-Do you want me to get him?!

-Sure!

So she went to the end of her drive towards the back of the house and opened the gate to the back yard, and out trots this chocolate lab. HA ha. The dog was more scared of us that we ever would have be of it. Silly lady. Your Jedi mind tricks don't work on us! ;)

Friday: crazy planning for the week. and a Delicious Dinner at Kaylee's. They are so cool. Sister Francis made fried chicken and we had a party with a couple of Kaylee's friends from church.

Saturday: We had tried to arrange a tour of the family history center, but everyone fell through, humph... So it was a very long day.

Sunday was madness! We had a million meetings where we presented training and assignments to people and is was crazy hectic teaching 13 yr olds and surprise investigators showing up at odd times and sharing messages in other classes and it was a roaring good time!

And now you're caught up!

So transfers are this up coming Monday. :( I'm scared to hear what the transfer will be. I don't want to leave. I don't want Elder Saxton to leave. I think we should stay forever! so there! 'cause transfer calls are awfuller than all the awful things that ever were I don't want to go off don't want to move out or to ship off- Not ME. _not I -NOT ME! SO THERE!

Ok That's most of the fun and fancy free that's been flying around this part of town.

Thank you soooooooo Much for your cards, letters, emails, pictures, prayers, thoughts and all that jazz. I need it.

You are the bestest ever! and I love you all!

be well.

Catch you on the flip side laters!

Jun 9- BAAAAHHH!!!

Happy Memorial day everybody!

so, because the libraries ere closed last Mon. I am writing a quick email today!

So sorry if it's abrupt but TIME TIME WHO'S GOT THE TIME!!??

Mon: We had a loverly Family home evening With Kaylee, and it was wonderful!

Tues: We had some miracles! We had been praying to find a bike for one of our less active youth so he could bike to seminary and LOW AND BEHOLD a friend of ours was moving back to Washington and He had to get rid of his bike! HALLELUJAH! and then we had a great meeting with Bishop!

Wed:The night of the screaming children! What was the problem eh? I don't get it. Every time we would be talking to someone their children would start screaming. No matter what we did and it would be at the worst THE worst moments. Right during the opening prayer, in the middle of a testimony or du4ring a scripture. Why?!

Thurs: Exchanges we crazy! I was in my area with a different elder. and My spelling has become horrid. Sorry. We had some great lessons and committed one of our less actives to follow the Word of Wisdom and give up the Coffee.

Fri: PLANING MADDDNESSS!!!

SAT: miracles with changing Kaylee's bap from the 20th to the 13th! YAYAYAYAYAY!

Sunday was Sunday.

MAY 17- A Wop Ba-ba Loo Bop!

A Wop Bam-BOO!

Wow what a week.

Sorry I don't have much time to write all the crazy details so I'll just sum up quickly!

Mon: was Monday, and it was rather uneventful

Tuesday: We did some major searching for potential investigators from years ago. Like the records we found these in were buried under a pile of bones found in the land northward old. And because they are old we ran into a lot of situations where the people had moved. One we got to the trailer park and went to the lot and the whole house was gone. We figured either they were taken into heaven like the city of Enoch or they fled into the wilderness with all of their household. ha ha,

Wed: we had the funniest thing happen. We had a lesson with this lady and at the end we asked if we could leave with a prayer. she said yes and got to her feet and stretched out her hands to hold hands during the prayer. OK- not too weird, but then her yippy black poodle started up and wouldn't stop, so Elder Saxton and the Lady both took a paw and included him in the prayer circle. HA HA.

Thursday: Was Busy buys busy, and Yet nothing worth mentioning happened.

Friday: was another long day of planning out the next week.

Saturday: the youth had a fifties dinner and did a song skit thingy with the music from Grease. Ah Grease: good times great memories. I MISS YOU GUYS!!!!! Anyways... That was fun!

Sunday: started out like any other Sunday. Kaylee made it to church and things were normal when what to my wondering eyes should appear but the Jeff Davis Clan and My Dear Kajirsty-Beerst! WHAT! Crazy stuff. Yes, they crashed our sacrament meeting. So silly. Although it was great to see them I DO NOT SUGGEST IT TO OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS! The only reason it worked was because they were busy heading off to the next place and I was busy trying to keep track of people and heading to class. But... Worlds Colliding.. not good.

Anywho!

I love you all! SOOO MUCH!

Thank you all for your letters and cards and warhead drops and Stuff.

Catch you later!

I LOVE YOU!!!

Hello!!! MAY 10th

Goodness gracious Great balls of fire!

What a great end of a pretty good week. It was soooooo goood to talk to you Mom and Dad. I think I can make it another 7 months.

So this week started out with a busy preparation day. we had lessons scattered throughout the day, and in the evening we had a lesson with a former investigator who half way through talking with us, turned pale, rushed inside and promptly threw up all over the floor. Thankfully it wasn't because of us that he threw up it was that he had eaten tooo many hot Cheetos.

then two days later when we came back for our follow-up appointment he was tripping out on vicadin or something. It was weird. he was like chattering his teeth and mumbling to himself and weird stuff. Just WEIRD. So... That was fun. And we got to be doctors for a minute or two, his mother was like, "Do his stitches look right to you?" and thankfully I know enough medical terms that I could flounder my way through a response that sounded educated, "Yes, but I think that 20 milligrams of morphine and a day of bed rest and preparations for a rectal ectomy and 50 cc's of hydrocloridoxid at 30 min intervals in an intravenous drip to avoid infection of the retinas would be good." Fun stuff.

We were able to meet with Kaylee everyday this week! WOOO HOO! so that was totally Awesome! She is so ready to be baptized, all we need to do is set a date! It's been great teaching her, because her grandma (Frances Francis) has been sitting in on our lessons and has really felt the spirit too, and it has changed he totally around. It's just great to see how the Gospel helps people to be better.

We did a bunch of organizing of our ancient records from like ten years ago. We put our potential investigators in areas so when we are over there we can check up on them and see what their stories are, and good stuff like that. but because we were preceded by a bunch of unorganized missionaries we spent quite a bit of time planning and fileing and My dreams have been full of those mundane things like counting rocks and sorting papers and stuff like that. THERE IS NO ESCAPE!

Anyways. The one conversation that was kind of funny, kind of strange, Besides the guy tripping out on his drugs, was this one guy who said, "So I know you guys volunteer for this- but what do you get out of it?" -The joy of service. "No, no. Not that. You know. Don't they like at least pay for you schooling or give you a high position or something?" -No... that wouldn't be volunteering anymore.

Elder Barker's Statment of the week: Little dog's need to be swept off the face of the earth. Or at least sedated.

And... that's all for this week.

Thank you all for your letters and emails and love and support! I wouldn't be able to make it with out you.

I LOVE YOU ALLL SOOO MUCH!

Be well.

Be happy!

-Elder Barker

It's the most wonderful time of the year -MAY 3rd

(Seriously? he's starting off the subject with Christmas music again? I thought we were done with that. Oh well, If he thinks he's being funny I guess we'll humor him.)

HELLO!

So, a reason for the Christmas quote, We just had the most wonderful Sunday. Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles came and it was Amazing! He is so fun, and funny, and amazing, and I could listen to him all day and not get tired. Wow what a joyous experience to be in his presence. I have had similar experiences twice before. Once when I met Elder L. Tom Perry, and then when I met Elder David Bednar. Those men are amazing. What a testimony to me that they truly are called of god. The glow that radiates off of them is just- ah I can't describe it. Check out Heleman 5 for a reference.

He shared a cool story about most breeds of cow that face their rump into the wind when the snow and winds come and get blown down hill up against the fence and then die, and then another breed that faces head on into the wind and weathers the storm. It was cool to see how when we face things head on and ask help from God we can make it. He also talked about how we need to stand as witnesses of Christ and many other things he did tell us that, if I had time I would share but... I don't so I won't!

Um... other that that... OH! Transfers happened AND! I'm still here in the same area and Elder Saxton is still my companion! Huzzah! This is going to be a great transfer. Hopefully we can get some awesome work done. We see what the ward needs to do and the tricky part will be helping them do it. But challenges are fun right? Of course right.

Things are going good. We are meeting with Kaylee and helping her to understand things better, but the funny thing is that she already gets it and knows it. It's so fun to teach her.

Oh funny line of the week: "Oh sorry we're headed out to the doctor's right now."

-Oh, but we're here to share the gospel with you and how God has a plan for you. This message answers the questions we all have, namely 'Where did we come from?' 'Why are we here?' and 'Where are we going after this life?'

"Well we already know where we are going."

-You do! Wonderful. Where are you going?

"To the doctors. Goodbye."

ha ha ha.

And another experience I gotta share:

We were biking along and we saw this guy at the bus stop. So we pulled up to him and Elder Saxton said, "Hi! We're out here sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with people. Do you believe in Jesus Christ?" the guy (who had orange curly hair, freckles and a poofy orange beard said nothing but looked around in a non-engaging kind of way. "Well, we'd love to share this with you," Edler Saxton continued, "What do you believe about God?" The man still said nothing, but he spat on the ground and glarred around him. "Can I at least give you a card?" Elder Saxton asked. And the man answered, "Are you looking for a fight?!" "Um... no," was our response. "Then keep going. Just keep going." "but-" "Keep Going!" "OK have a nice day!

Wow... some people.

Well that about wraps it up.

Thank you soooo much for your emails and letters, You are all in my prayers and thoughts. I love you!

Be well.

Hurrah for Israel!

-Elder Barker

Hurrah for Israel!

Some times you win sometimes you 'lose'.

 

we had a pretty amazing week.

 

Kaylee (thirteen year old genius) Is doing very well! We had some great lessons and we brought a few young women. Wow! those girls have testimonies the size of skyscrapers! They seriously need to be missionaries (well, technically they already are member missionaries, but 'Full time set-apart door knocking life rocking missionaries' is what I meant).

And this one gal who had come to church a couple times with her friend asked if we could get her a bible. we said, sure! and when we brought it over she was like, do you have a book of Mormon too? OF course we do! So we have been teaching her a bunch too. How cool?! I'm telling you, missionary work is so fun! :D

 

Hmmm.... OH we had this one lady who was CRAZY like 'hootch is crazy' kind of crazy. We knocked on her door and she was all like, "WHAT do you WaNT?" -Well, we're in the neighborhood and we're meeting new people and sharing a scripture with them. Can we share one with you? "As a MAtter OF FacT I Had Bible Study THIS morning!" -That's wonderful! We were actually going to share one with you from the Book of Mor- "NO! Don't YOU Read THAT BoOk!" -What? It's another testament of Christ. "THOSE AREN'T THE WORDS OF CHRIST!!!" -hmm... But- "DON"T HARASS MEEE!!!" -whoa! we weren't trying to harass you. have a good night. (SLAM*)

Great stuff huh?!

 

Sunday was good, testimony meeting is always good. (Most times) It's always fun to sort of see how the testimonies all have an underlining theme. The theme was how the gospel is exciting. Really cool meeting. a bunch of youth got up and bore their testimonies and it was just really great.

 

Speaking of great, HEATHER!!! What amazing news! I hope you are reading this, because if you aren't then... this would be silly, but Wow. I am so happy for you! This is such a wonderful step in your life. But remember that it is only the first step. keep on enduring.

WOW!!!

 

well, that's all for me right now I think... yes.

 

So! thank you for your letters and emails and prayers and well wishes. I love you all!

 

Be well.

 

Have fun!

 

Follow Heather's example!

 

I love you!

 

-Elder Barker

ROLLERCOASTER!!!!

Whew... That was a week and a day if I ever saw one.

 

We worked pretty hard this past week.

 

Tuesday we did quite a bit of tracting and the area that we are in is soooooo amazingly diverse. One door is a Buddhist, the next is catholic, next atheist, next anti-Mormon, next ex-Mormon, next anti everything! It's insane. The place is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you're gonna get. then we had a lesson with one of our less active youth, and man... the poor kid. His whole family used to be members of the church but then some decided to become atheist, and others decided to stop going to church. Oy... so the kid is trying to make it out but is being pulled away by his family, and when we asked him what was keeping him from coming to sacrament meeting he said, "Sacrament meeting is about being with family," and then he broke down in tears. It was a rough lesson, but I think we can work on helping him.

 

Wed. Elder Saxton got hit by a car. Wait... scratch that. Reverse it. A car got hit by Elder Saxton. And the punch line is that it was a parked car! It seriously appeared out of nowhere and he just smashed into it. Funny and sad at the same time. Later we had a lesson with a guy who was really hard to teach. He didn't want to listen to learn he was only listening to bring up beliefs that he had that didn't match what we were teaching, and frankly, his were downright lame. I'm sorry but they were.

 

Thursday we almost got dropped by our most progressing investigator. Oy... that was a really rough day. We thankfully were able to talk to her (Kaylee) and address her concerns and salvage that, and then later we had an amazing experience!!! We decided to try knocking an apartment complex and we started with a prayer to be led to those who were prepared to listen to our message, and the first door we knocked let us in and we taught him about the restoration of the gospel and about how God and Jesus Christ appeared to a fourteen year old boy who prayed in faith to know what to do. And it was sooo cool, because the guy we were teaching related so much to Joseph Smith. Awesome!

 

Friday We had a couple more lessons from just knocking on the door and they let us in. Cool!

 

Saturday we had a Tour of the Newport Beach temple grounds! Very cool. And Kaylee, and her mother (who is a member of the church but way inactive) and her grandmother (Member also but not as inactive as mom) Came! WOW! and Kaylee's mom was actually thinking about coming back to church by the end of the tour. The spirit at the temple is so strong. Great stuff.

 

Sunday, was Sunday.

 

Monday, L. Whitney Clayton of the presidency of the seventy came and spoke to the whole mission! VERY cool! He spoke to us when I was at the MTC and then in the November conference too. He's so inspirational.

 

Like I said, this week has been a roller coaster.

 

SO! It is sooo good to hear from all of you. KJ sent me a few messages from face book. It's good to hear from you all and I love you all too!

 

Thank you all for your letters and emails and love and support.

 

I love you all and I think of you often.

 

Be well and happy and all that good stuff.

 

-Elder Barker

Hmmm, what to write?

Monday April 12, 2010

This week was "pretty blooty good." (Did you get the referrence? Kj? anyone? I hope so.) [ It's from "Watership Down" btw-Kj]

What a awesome Spiritual High. So last weekend with general conference, and then Wed. we had interviews with President. I seriously love that man! He always has the right words and good spirit. Great man. And then we taught that amazing teenage girl I think I wrote about a few weeks ago. It's been a while since we were able to teach her, and even this last time we were only able to talk a little bit and share about how when we have a question we can answer it through applying the Book of Mormon to our lives.

She was having trouble knowing how to trust a friend who she and her friends had forgiven for stupid things before and he kept repeating the same things, so we had her read about how the lord forgives as many times as the people repent with real intent. and she was like, "OH I get it! So when we really mean it then we are really repenting and we get forgiveness, and when he really means it and truly stops doing stupid things then we can trust him again." awesome!

-Oh and then some dude pulled over and flagged us down and wanted us to answer all of his rapid fire questions about all of this crazy stuff. It was crazy! He wouldn't even let us try to answer his questions because then he'd fire in another one on top of that one. HOLD ON DUDE! Let me address your question. What ever. People are NUTS out here. Maybe everywhere people are nuts- but it's especially apparent here.

Then on Thursday we had exchanges and I got to meet a bunch of fun characters in Elder Oliphant's area. Sooooo fun! So, we stopped by this 101 year old lady and MAN she was so cool! She had these BEAUtiFUL paintings on the wall and she was like Do you like my paintings and i was like yeah, and she was like I did them. WOW! amazing! And she was just so sweet. a true example of enduring to the end in faith. She was great.

And I finished my first Journal! WOOOT I don't think I've ever done that before! oh wait... yes I have. BUT this one was a consistent journal not a journal of scattered consistency. So I'm well pleased with myself. and I have started on the second plates of Barker.

Friday we had a couple lessons with some people. A couple less actives. Man they really are difficult to work with. It's like they don't want to progress. They want to hold themselves back from receiving blessings and added guidance in their lives. Ok go for it! I can't force you, even God won't force you, all he can do is invite.

Saturday was interesting we had a couple investigators drop us. Oy... and we had a door contact with one of our investigators and taught her about the word of wisdom. And we invited her to church. She said she'd "try" to get to church and "try" to stop he word of wisdom issue. So we pointed out to her that "I'll try" means I'm not going to do it. She wanted to convince us otherwise, but Sunday rolled around and what do you know- She didn't make it. "Do, or Do Not- there is no Try."

Oh this one guy pulled a, "What are your names? Oh I just want to write them down so that we can pray for you so that some day you will find that Jesus is your personal lord and saviour." DUDE! We already believe in Jesus! And we Already know that! Come on! We tried to explain that to him but he wouldn't listen. Man. when people say that we're not christian It really makes me upset. Arrrrrgh! ok.... I'm over it.

SUNDAY we had an investigator at church! WOOO HOOOO!!! that hasn't happened for at least 7 weeks! Wow- that awesome teenage girl came with her less active grandmother. How about that?! Great stuff. And the sisters in our district had a baptism and it was sooooooooo great! The lady was just so excited to be baptized and she was all aglow and clapping her hands with joy and amazing.

Funny character: return missionary at the baptism, "So, I just got back from my mission in Mexico. we had a theme 'dos por dios' that means 'two for God' and our goal was to have two people baptized every week. and I finished off my mission as an assistant to the president, and we were the highest baptizing mission in Mexico and I'm better than you'll ever be and you all are lame and I"M big and you're small I'm right you're wrong and Smart and you're dumb and there's nothing you can do about it!" ... ok maybe I exaggerated a bit, but Dude! Work on being a little humble. what ever...

SO! Thank you soooooooo much for your emails and letters and love and support! I love you all soooo much!

Oh next week P-day will be on Tuesday so, mother dear do not worry about not hearing from me next Monday, all is well.

It's so interesting, every time we testify and invite people to act and to move forward in the gospel, I feel more and more converted to the gospel. I love it! It's great!

I LOVE YOU!!!

I love hearing from you!!!

Be well!

catch you on the flip side laters!

-Elder barker

I'm late! I'm late!

TUESDAY, April 6th, 2010

Sorry bout that mum. P-Day got switched up on us this week at the last second. No joke. 10:29:59 PM we got a call from the Zone leaders telling us that instead of having Pday on Monday we would be switching to Tuesday this week so we could attend the Temple. YAY! Temple! It was such a good session. I'm telling you. I learn new things every time! I just wish that I had the schedule to go weekly. Oh well, that'll just have to wait for the future!

Anyways. Guess what?! Easter Sunday WE HAD CONFERENCE!!!! Ok... yes I know you knew that but What made it especially cool was, Hmm.... I think it was Elder Cook who talked about how we don't know exactly when the Saviour will come again but that earthquakes and the sea over stepping it's bounds are signs; well, after conference, WE HAD AN EARTHQUAKE!!!! BA HA HA HA! And I was awake for this one! :) It was pretty cool. And the epicenter was so far away that all it did was shake things up but WOW! it was cool. It was like being on a boat but then looking around and seeing that you are inside. It made me miss being out on the water. Oh well, that'll just have to wait for the future! (wait a second... that phrase sounds familiar... I should stop repeating my self. Oh well that'll just have to wait for the future! )

SO! let me see what else happened this week. Well it was a week where I was well fed spiritually. Wed. Zone conference. Sat + Sun General conference. Today the temple! WOW can life get any better? I submit that it cannot!

Hmmm... (I'm looking over my journal for the past week) OH! wow.. that was this past week wasn't it? yes yes it was. Ok so the 30th we did some tracting and we decided to go back and visit this one lady that we had met a couple weeks ago. So we biked up to her trailer and looked for the door... and we looked some more... and- we couldn't find it. Seriously. You know that criss crossy thing that trailer people use for the skirting stuff around the bottom? Well she had that up over the windows and the doors and everything. Talk about barricading yourself in. So we kocked on the wall. and Gene (that's her name) popped her little face out through the curtains behind this crisscross skirting thing. and so we chatted for a bit and then we asked if we could talk more. she said, "Well, right nows not a good time, You see I'm doing my laundry and I'm kind of busy right now, But if you have any literature you see that mail box behind you? Get the mail out and roll it up and pass it through to me and you can put your stuff in there too." Um ok... so there we were. Two missionaries rolling up junk mail and passing it through these little holes in the wall of this trailer to this woman, and that's not the end of the joke. as I got closer I could see her a little bit better through the skirting and the curatin. and from what I could see- she was naked as the day she was born. I guess when she said she was doing her laundry she meant it. So... that was a crazy experience that I thought you might enjoy.

So, for April fools the only joke we got was that all of our set appointments with people turned out to not happen. Ha ha! What a great joke to play on the missionaries!

Wasn't general conference wonderful? I loved it! I'm just in awe of the blessing it is to have a modern day prophet and apostles who receive revelation for the world. HOW AWESOME! and the best part is that I don't have to believe what they say just because they said it. I can receive personal revelation when I ask God if what they are saying is true. AWESOME!

Easter was lovely. Isn't it great to have a holiday set aside to remember that Jesus is ALIVE. He is risen! What a wonderful time of year. It made me wonder, you know how we say, "I want to have the spirit of Christmas with me throughout the year." Well I love that the sacrament allows us to have the spirit of Easter-Christmas-life-joy-love with us all year through.

Jesus Lives! The Scriptures are true! The heavens are open and I'm so grateful to be able to represent Jesus Christ in this corner of the world. Hurrah for Israel!

Further up and further in!

I love you all! Thank you ever so much for your emails and letters and Love and all that good stuff!

Be well.

catch you sooner than later!

-Elder Barker