ERIN!!!! GO BRAGH!!!!!!

Whoa... That was a week? It was another one of those weeks that seem like a month but pass by in a day. If that makes any sense at all... I realize that it doesn't- BUT seriously... CRAZY!

 

So...Where to begin? I guess I'll start at the beginning and when I get to the end stop!

 

MONDAY: Good day. P- day is always so nice. And I ABSOLUTELY love LOVE hearing from you all! thank you so much for your updates and stories.

 

TUES: So! we had a lesson with this Spanish guy. In Spanish. and It's been a while since I've taught in Spanish....... But I guess that he understood. It was so funny, I would say something and then look at him to make sure that he understood and then he'd say the word I actually meant. So really he taught himself. I was just prompting. OH yesh, some random dude swore at us as we were riding down the street. Thanks dude.

 

WED: We finally contacted a guy who had said that he wanted us to stop by sometime and talk. That.... was interesting. He really was interested, but...(not like wanting to bash or anything) he got off on some tangent and told us all of the woes and sorrows of his life. Whoa dude. We don't need to here your confession. In fact we aren't authorized to hear your confession. STOP! GAAAAHHH!!! so... That was weird. BUT later we had about the coolest lesson ever. This girl was like AMazing! We'd teach a principle and then she'd expound on it with stuff that we hadn't even covered yet. AWESOME!

Oh yeah. We're still trying to teach Carmen, that old Spanish woman, how to read. She's having a little bit of trouble figuring out that you can sound out words or parts of words. Hmmm... difficult.

 

THURS: Crazy day. I can't even condense it. OK I'll try. District meeting, teaching Carmen some more, contacting less active members that actually turned out to be active members, Stopping by a member's apartment where she is helping a friend kick meth, long chat with an atheist dude about theater productions that he's in, got dropped by some investigators, read a bit with a less active member, raced to an investigator's home but he was busy, talked to the husband of a less active member, and then went back to our apartment. Long day...

 

FRI: Lots of lessons. OK this time I'm really not going to try to condense it.

 

SAT: Long day with lots and lots of people who were not receptive at all. Long day... In the morning we got a knock on the door. Yes, Jehovah's witnesses! When ever they knock on the door they're like:

 

"Oh... hi... Um.... 

 

*to each other:  "What do we do?"

"I don't know just give them a flyer." 

"But they're missionaries."

 "I know. But you can't just stand there looking silly."

 "Do something!"

--- Um... here's a flyer. Have a good day."

 

Yesterday was a rough day... Man, people are rude sometimes. And sometimes they have absolutely no drive at all.

 

If I saw a miracle would I recognize it?

Well, in other news, WELCOME to the world Maile! We are so happy that you arrived safely. And we're so happy that you're part of our family! Welcome!

 

KJ! I LOVE YOUR GUTS! and I miss you like a fat kid misses cake.

 

Oh yeah... I'm six months "old" tomorrow.... weird. Well I've got three more of those to go!

 

I'm so sorry to hear about Mark Brewer. it's times like those that really bring the reality of mortality into perspective. But it also is accompanied with the reminder that Death isn't an end of existence. In fact all it is is the door into the next scene. Which makes a kind of sense when you look at every exit as an entrance somewhere else.

 

I love you all. More and more each day.

 

 

Confession: I'm not wearing green for St. Paddy's. Reason: I don't have any! Ba ha ha ha!

 

So, I love you all. Thank you all for your emails, and letters, and love and all that other good stuff.

 

Be well.

 

-Elder Barker 

Whew!

HEY!

 

I love Mondays. So good to hear from you all. Things sound like they are quite mad but Insanity is just the spice that makes life FUN!

 

So! Ahhh the week was so fun. First of all last Monday we had dinner with this fun family and their son who is like... 40's I'm not sure about age But! We gabbed all evening about Theater stuff- because when he was younger he was an aspiring thespian. SO fun! and he just HAD to pull out is Ben-nye [make-up] kit and show it off and he just HAD to pull out his prized hat collection and show them off. It was such fun! Oh the theatah the theatah What's happened to the theatah?

Then on Tuesday we stopped in to say Hi to a lady on our ward, and she invited us in and gave us delicious zucchini bread and we chatted about Hawaii, and it was such fun. OH that's right! While I'm on this food kick thing, I made a delicious Banana cream pie with berries and good stuff. It apparently was a hit. I only had one piece . my companion took care of the rest. ;)

Then on Wed I was on exchanges and the people I met... goodness.... NUTS! ALL of them are NUTS! Like I was laughing my head off nuts. But I digress. So we taught this one guy who lives in this halfway house thingy that should seriously be in a horror movie. The thin hallways- Welcome to the hotel California playing in the back ground- crazy people looking at you through the corner of their eyes-don't want to be here past dark kind of place. ha ha! I love it! 

OH and we met a few people with trach (sp?) tubes. Eugh... Or at least there used  to be tubes there. Now they are just those gaping holes that pulsate and it's so hard to look away and it obvious that you are staring but you can't stop staring because of the gravitational pull of the void and then you realize how weird it would be to have a hole in your neck and your neck starts tingling and you find yourself covering your neck right where their hole is on their neck and then you run away screaming and shouting "You can't have my neck!" ..... okay .... maybe not that dramatic....but It was a little creepy.

 

Ha ha! So on Saturday we called the phone number of Bret (big guy who just got baptized) And this Vietnamese guy picks up "Ahh... Bre-na-heah! bac-ah-six!" And when we went over at 1:00 anyways, Bret was there! Ha silly Vietnamese guy. Tricks are for kids.

 

OH! We saw the craziest person on Saturday! She reminded me of that scene that Mae did in acting class. the one of the homeless lady who was swearing up a storm and just wanted to drink her pelagrino in peace. Well this gal wasn't swearing up a storm she was just Singing up a storm. Very badly by the way. And she would get up from her table and dance and then she'd sit back down and go back to singing, "Boom-boom-boom! alay-alay-alay!" Ok... then she went outside for a smoke and was tramping around like she was on parade and then she'd burst into these Charlie's angels/CATs poses and point her fingers at people and go "Bang-bang-bang-bang!!!"     coo-coo. ha ha. Oh the people we meet.

 

So... that was my week. I'm so glad to hear that you are all well, and ALIVE! and all that fun stuff. Keep on keeping on.

 

Amanda: thanks for the package

kj: I swear By the moon and the stars in the sky- that you are bonkers.

 

Everybody else: Letters soon!

 

I love you all!

 

Be well

 

-Elder Barker