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