Sunshine! 2-18-14

Dear family and friends,

                                 This has been another great week! And it has been a really warm and sunny week! It was so warm for the first time in a long time I took off both my coat and my wind breaker. And then of course I ended up with a cold two days later. We haven't had too much success this past week with getting in on our progressing investigators. But we did have great success in finding. We tracted into a door of an old lady who is Catholic. And normally they're the ones who slam the door faster than anyone. But to our surprise she actually let us in. She told us she had a past investigating with our church, and had read the Book of Mormon before. We taught her the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson. And when we gave her a Book of Mormon you could really tell it lit up her day. Some members that live around her have told us she is rarely home. So we hope to get in with her again! I guess time will have to tell on that one. But she lives right across the street from our Ward Mission Leader Brother Smith. So that is a big time positive! We had a spiritual lesson teaching the Dickerson's their new member lessons. The three boys weren't home so we will be going back! My Companion is Elder Hardman. He is from Ibapah, UT. He pretty much grew up there, and he likes to hunt. He also worked at a scout camp in the summers. He is a good missionary who likes to work hard, and keep busy. 

                                 This week we are going to have our Zone Conference again with president Anderson. I am really excited to see him and Sister Anderson again. It is going to be centered on the Power of the Book of Mormon in conversion (at least that's is what I have heard). And he told us in an email today he is going to commit us all to read the Book of Mormon before July 1st. It will be good for me to have a date to finish it by to give me some motivation. But I think that it is a great goal to have! I am excited to have the Book of Mormon finished by July 1st. Maybe it will become a traditional goal for me at the beginning of every year! Well I hope all is well at home! And I love you all and I pray for you all!

Love, Elder Barber 

Far away in the West 2-3-14

Dear family and friends,

                                 It has been such a great week out here in Devils Lake. We have truly been staying busy for our last week of the transfer. It was a pretty decent teaching week. We got to have a great lesson with Michael and Samantha. Michael had been doing some soul searching about out church. We went over not knowing what to really say or do. But as we listened to Michael and his concerns we were able to answer his concerns. Me and Elder Anderson were certain he was going to drop us and tell us to hit the road. When we went to the lesson he told us he hadn't gotten an answer yet. His girlfriend Samantha was sitting in the room with us. We turned the focus on her and we started asking her questions. Before the end of the lesson the spirit was strong, and Samantha agreed to learn with Michael. It truly turned that whole lesson around. I am so thankful for the spirit and the aid it gives us missionaries. We were going to meet with Donnada this past week, but a sickness prevented it. As far as lessons go it was a pretty good week to end the transfer on. We also got to visit a new less-active member that we found named Omar. We gave him a Book of Mormon and every Sunday we plan to meet with him. 

                                 Friday was a great day. It started off with area calls from our Zone Leaders. Right as I hung up the phone and got my tie on the phone began to ring. It was a call from the Assistants to the President Elder Cunningham. Well I knew a transfer would most likely come this time around. And he asked me all the typical questions. After that he told me that I am being transferred. I didn't want to ask where but I finally did. He told me that I am being transferred to Casper, Wyoming to be a district leader in the 5th ward! He told me I am going to be in the most LDS populated area in the mission. I was really excited to be out in a town full of missionaries and members again. Mostly my number one question to him was "Do they have mountains in Casper?". He then asked me where I was from. I told him Kaysville, Utah. Then he told me that compared to what your used to Casper has "hills" At this point and time I will have to take whatever I can get! It will be nice to shed some layers and go down to the warmth of the high thirties. Yesterday was hard we had dinner appointments where the Super Bowl was going on in the other room. It was very tempting for me to not go in and watch my team beat up on the Broncos. But I knew that if I didn't watch it would be a secured victory! And it was! I would like you to send me a Seahawks CHAMPIONS hat. Mainly because I predicted this coincidence years ago. But not only that I want the world to know. THAT IS MY TEAM. It was kind of hard to celebrate my companion is a hard core Broncos fan. He had been giving me a hard time the whole week. I chose not to return the trash talk. My team did that for me. But sadly with a huge victory I can't celebrate too much. I will have to focus on it when I get home. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love, Elder Barber 

Fun week In Casper 2-10-14

Dear Family and Friends,

                       Well it was a great, long, hectic, and chaotic week in the mission field this past week. Of course last P-day was spent packing all of my stuff and trying to fit in the new stuff. I actually ended up putting all of my bedding and some other miscellaneous items in a trash bag. So seeing that I am in Casper, Wyoming I will be buying a small suit case at Ross. We made our way to Fargo on Tuesday Afternoon to meet the "transfer train" (AKA: Big Mormon Mover Vans) I remember a feeling of relief as I put all my stuff in the trailer and we sped off to Sioux Falls. It was fun because Elder Cannon my old District Leader in Grand Forks is the Zone Leader in Sioux Falls. So we packed about fourteen missionaries in the Zone Leaders apartment that night to sleep. It was a long night of sleep on a rock hard floor. But early in the Morning we made our way from Sioux Falls all the way to Rapid City. We had to stop for gas probably five times in between. But the transfer train was a lot of fun. Their was some Elders going home and they were all really funny. I felt extreme joy as the landscape around me turned from flat plains to hills to small mountains of the black hills. My old District leader Elder Salmon (who is a zone leader in Rapid City) got to drive us the whole way to Casper in another van. And I was even more excited when we started driving through actual Canyons! I was happy when I could finally get to Casper and get off. I met my companion Elder Hardman. He is from Ibapah, Utah. He is an obedient missionary who likes to work hard. So I can't complain about that. He has a total different personality from my last jokester companion Elder Anderson. But I don't see any conflict in him. It is funny because every time he tells someone where he is from they always reply with "Where is that?" But we share a car with Elder Guyman, and Elder Heninger. And they are really funny missionaries and we always have a good time being around them. Me and Elder Hardman met with the Dickerson family when we first got here. They had three boys who were on date for baptism the upcoming Saturday. It was a spiritual experience for me to see their recent convert father baptize the three of them. Even though I only taught them two lessons I was just as happy if I had taught them from the beginning. I absolutely love our ward. They remind me of the Webster Meadows Ward of Casper. All the members are really nice and they fill our meal calendar every week. Well I love you all, and I hope you all have an amazing week!

Love, Elder Barber  

Finishing up 1-27-14

Dear Family and Friends,

                                    It has been an awesome week up here in Devils Lake. Not too much has really happened this week but it was a good teaching week! We got to teach Michael this week. It was a really hard lesson because we visited him, and he is wondering if this is the right path for him. So we will be meeting with him this week to address any concerns he has. I hope and pray that it can go well! It really makes me realize that there are some people truly prepared for this Gospel and others need time. We weren't able to meet with Donnada this week because she had surgery. We did get to meet with Bruce and we are going to continue to work with him. We did get a new investigator! Her name is Bernie. Me and Elder Pawlenchuk tracted into her house during a blizzard on an exchange. We finally got into her house when she could meet with us. She committed to learning more and says she feels our message is true. So we hope to continue to work with her. It has been an awesome week! It is funny to think that this is the 6th week of the transfer but we still are going one more! But I will enjoy this week. It might just be my last week serving here in Devils Lake. 

                                    This week ends the transfer. We are finishing up this transfer and who knows if I will go or stay. It is really suspenseful to be a missionary and waiting for a transfer call. You don't know if they will call or not. And if they do call you don't know where you will be going or what you will be doing. But I have enjoyed my time in this transfer. It was fun to experience and serve the calling as a District Leader in Grand Forks. I have truly been blessed on my mission with opportunities of growth. It is amazing to me how you can grow in such a little amount of time. Even though I am just barely seven months out I can truly say the mission has flown by. Yesterday we had a terrible blizzard blow through with winds up to 40 miles an hour, and windchill's as low as -35. But it comforted me to know that they predict that, that was the worst storm of the season. I am hoping they're right! Now that the worst blizzard of the season is behind us I hope for a sunny future in the summer time. And by the time summer gets here time really will have flown by. I love you all and I hope that you are doing great this week!

Love, Elder Barber 

Heat wave 1-13-14

Dear family and friends,

                     It was an awesome week up here in Devils Lake! It was also a really super busy week up here! It was an awesome teaching week for me and Elder Anderson. We have had barely any time to go out tracting. We truly have been blessed by Heavenly Father with lessons this week. We got to meet with Michael. A really good thing that happened with that meeting was his girlfriend Samantha sat in on the lesson. It is the first time she actually sat in for months! So that was awesome progress! Hopefully we can get them both on board to being baptized. We will have to push Michael's baptismal date back unfortunately. We got to meet with Donnada this week! She is doing great but we will have to push her date back as well. One thing that I learned this week is that we are on a seven week transfer cycle for this transfer. So I will at least be here until February 3rd. We have been experiencing a very well needed heat wave up here. Yesterday it was 33 degrees outside and I could feel spring in the air. It was one of those days you just wear a light coat. Any day above 0 is a warm day. And it looks like this week we will still be in the heat wave. But pretty soon it will drop back down to the negative thirties. So I will enjoy this while it lasts!

                   This week we had a wonderful experience with teaching an investigator named Dina and her son Tanner. Something cool about Tanner is he has hearing loss and is completely deaf. So we got to do a lesson with Tanner and we showed him the restoration in American Sign Language. It was a really spiritual lesson and the spirit was indescribable. The coolest part of the lesson was when we could talk to Tanner with his mother translating. It was amazing because we had to speak really simple with him. It was amazing to watch the spirit speak through us to his mother, and from his mother to him. Dina translated the words with tears in her eyes, and you could tell the spirit was in the room. It was probably one of the coolest experiences on my mission so far. I can truly testify of the spirit. And the remarkable way that it can touch the hearts of men, and even change hard hearts to soft hearts. It is by the power of the Holy Ghost that we may know the truth of all things (Moroni 10:5). I hope you are all having a wonderful week I love you all! 

Love, Elder Barber 

Miracles. 1-21-14

Dear family and friends,

                                    It has been another great week up here in Devils Lake. Not so much of a good teaching week, but not terrible either. We got to meet with our investigators Tanner and Dina again! We taught them the Plan of Salvation. At first the lesson wasn't going so great, but as we listened to the spirit it went better. We committed them to come to church. We even told them we would drop by in the morning to have them follow us to the building. And that is what we did the next day and they came to church! We haven't been able to meet with Michael lately, because every time we go over it's a bad time for them. So this week has been humbling but also a great week! On Friday after District Meeting we got to go on exchanges with the Grand Forks Elders. I was on exchange with Elder Allred and my companion was on exchanges with Elder Dibble. We had a lot of fun. They have this guy in their ward who is less active and his name is John. He can be a bit wild at times. But he shops at the Thrift Stores all day to buy ties. And I have some unattractive thrift store ties that I bought recently so I got some good trades with him. But a bad blizzard blew through on Friday night! Good thing we were staying in Grand Forks!

                                   We had an awesome miracle that happened to us on Sunday. We just got to church with Tanner and Dina, and about five minutes later Bruce walked through the door (Bruce is Donnada's less active boyfriend who hasn't been to church in years). It was an awesome miracle to see! I never thought I would ever live to see the day. But the ward gave him some awesome fellowship. He told us he wants to get sober and has been sober for five days. Donnada also came to Church that Sunday and was super happy to see him actually at Church. It was one of those Sundays where your heart is so full that tears are in your eyes the whole meeting. As I sat there I couldn't help but say silent prayers of thanks the whole time to God for this wonderful miracle. I can truly testify that God is hastening his work. He is a God of miracles. We have been so blessed here in Devils Lake these past few weeks. If this is the end of the story for me in Devils Lake at the end of this transfer I can truly say that it couldn't have ended in a better way. I will try and survive through this arctic blast! Yesterday we got stuck in the church parking lot because the snow was so thick. So for thirty minutes our P-Day activity was trying to get the car un-stuck from the drift it was in. I love you all, and I hope you are having an awesome week!

Love Elder Barber