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