Launchpad! Launchpad! I've lost my voice! (Dec 27)

CAN YOU NAME IT!??? (besides immediate family of course and Kj if you didn't catch it I WIN I WIN!!!)

So! Hey It's another Monday! Woooo hoooo! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Thank you for your gifts and letters and Updates about stuff. I sure had a wonderful time Christmas morning tearing through letters and cards and yummy food. Awww...

SO! The week! The week! There were wonderful things that happened during the week! Last Monday we had a great lesson with that girl who's been attending institute and works at Bloomingdale's (I hope she can get me a discount--JK). The lesson went really really well. We talked about the scriptures and praying and the Word of Wisdom!

She is so great.

We said, "So, Now that you know about the Word of Wisdom are you willing to follow it?"

Her response "I'll try."

"What would be the hardest for you to over come? Alcohol? Tobacco? Drug---"

"I like meat!"

"What?" "It says to eat meat sparingly... and... I like meat... But I'll try to cut down."

Isn't that great?!

After the lesson we had an exchange with one of the District Leaders. [ this means Soren and his companion switched things up for a bit and taught lessons with the District Leader and his companion ].

Tuesday we met with this one guy who was baptized almost two years ago, who has drifted away from the church. Mostly he stopped believing in a God. He said after his friend's mom died he had to question why. And it's sad to think what the world is like for those who don't believe in a loving God who wants us to return to his presence. It's Not the End! There's more! Your friend's Mom isn't gone forever: We will still exist when we pass on. There were more miracles that happened on Tuesday, mostly with perfect timing and meeting people and showing up on their door and all that jazz at EXACTLY the right time.

Wednesday we were able to meet with this cool gal. She's awesome! She's been going to church with her friend and now she wants to meet with us and come to our congregation. YAY!

Thursday we had district meeting and then we MOVED TO OUR NEW APARTMENT!!! It was like the city of Enoch... except... not quite.

elder griffin says hi!!!!! e. barker is awesome!!!

on Friday we did planning and then we moved more stuff to the apartment! AND we had the most wonderful Christmas eve dinner! Rice Ala-mond! and HAM and then after dinner we had a white elephant exchange! I got a pen... Not too too crazy. But I was able to give it to a poor elder who didn't receive much for Christmas. AND we delivered last-minute packages to the missionaries and Caroled our way home!

Christmas I talked to my FAMILY!!!! YAYAYAYAY!!! And opened packages and letters! AND we had dinner with some members! TAMALES! YUM! and then we caroled with the district and that's when I lost my voice!

Sunday was great! We were able to meet with this great guy who's been coming to church with us for a few weeks but has been hesitant to really meet with us. It was wonderful! He's so curious and eager to learn more!

And we caroled (a day late) and my voice left even more!

Today... is today!

We just watched the video: "How Rare a Possession" SO good.

I love you all!

I hope the New Year brings true happiness and great resolutions to be Marvelous!

I love you!!!

_elder barker

And a partridge in a palm tree... (Dec 20)

Hello, Hello Hello HELLO!

How are you all on this fine blustery misty moisty morning? Things are going pretty great out here. It's only a few more days till Christmas! WHAT?!?! Where did the time go? It seems like yesterday it was August. wow...

This week was a pretty good one. I missed Santa Lucia... Mostly because there isn't a girl in the apartment who could bring cookies to the household and welcome in the solstice ;-)

So, Monday we cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and cleaned our apartment 'Cause we're moving soon. This Thursday to be precise. Merry Christmas to us! We'll be in a new home for Christmas! We were able to meet with a wonderful Girl that we met last Sunday. I can't remember if I told you about her BUT she is awesome! She has been going to Institute (Scripture studies) for a few weeks and has been loving it and her friend said, "Hey why don't you meet with the missionaries?" And so we met up Sunday evening and then we met with her again Monday Night. Woot! It was after the Multi Stake Family Home evening Activity Ginger Bread house making contest which she won! The lesson was great. and her prayer at the end was priceless: "Thank you Father for my friends and for My Elders and helping me to learn more about you and where I came from and I'm excited to learn more and to be baptized." She is super cool.

Tuesday we had a cool meeting with a man on a park bench who was watching his friend doing some Jackson Pollack-style painting. Is that the right guy? Splatter paint Dribble Master mess madness? It was a good talk though.

Wed. We got to inspect the missioinaries' cars that were at a Zone conference. Fun stuff! After that we me with this one guy who is kind of out there in his beliefs, but It was a really fun discussion. And that was it. We did some knocking and that was fun. We met this guy who talked to us for about 45 min about how the Lord healed him in multiple occasions and it was fun. Fun!

Thursday WE GOT TO HAVE ZONE CONFERENCE! And we acted out the nativity scene, and sang and had a great spiritual meeting. I WAS THE ANGEL!!! Afterwards I got to interview an amazing woman for baptism. Wow. What a wonderful experience. She is recognizing blessings and great stuff. AND we met with our friend from Monday night and it went great.

Friday we planned forever and then we had a couple meetings.

Saturday we had exchanges with the Assistants. It went great. We followed so many promptings and knocked on doors of people that needed us there to brighten their days and it was wonderful!

And Sunday was good too. Church was the Christmas program and it was lovely.

And now it's today! yay!

I'm soooo excited to call home! YAY! I love you all sooo mcuh!

THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH FOR your cards and notes. I love My Christmas gifts! It's the best to hear about your missionary efforts or Church investigating.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

Love ya,

-Elder Barker

WHY DO I NEVER HAVE TIME! (NOV 29)

So this week was a wonderful mixmaster of miracles and fun.

Thanksgiving I was able to go on exchanges with one of the district leaders and have two thanksgiving dinners! One was Mexican! YAY! Pavo con chile! Wondrous!

Saturday we had an amazing lesson with a family that we knocked into. AMAZING! And to add on to it, it was in Spanish! WOW. So we talked about God and Prophets and Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith and Modern Prophets and The Book of Mormon, and they prayed about the Book of Mormon. It was such a powerful prayer. Like at the end we invited them to prepare for baptism and they were all stoked! And at the end we asked the Father who he'd like to say the prayer and he said his wife and so we taught her and she at first wasn't able to start... So he held her hand and prayed, "Heavenly Father, my wife isn't able to pray right now. So I'll pray for her..." So he went on for a bit, then she started up and then prayed for a bit then she broke into tears cause she was feeling the spirit and then they ended the prayer and embraced! Great! Beautiful! Most amazing experience I've been able to be a tiny part of!

Sorry I don't have time to write much. We had transfers and because of all the madness and such I have 6 minutes left to email. YAY!

So. I love you all!

Thanks for being so good. I wish I had time to tell you all how much I love you, but this will have to do.

Have a great week!

Merry Christmas!!!

-Elder Barker

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