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