Land of the free. June 30,2014

Dear family and friends,

                This past week out here in the Casper 5th ward was great! We had a lot of member involvement! We taught Tammy, Drew, and Ashley twice with a member. The first time we taught them we had a wonderful talk about baptism. Brother Geddes is a solid member missionary. You can tell he was an awesome missionary! When he extended the invitation to be baptized Tammy was hesitant at first. He then helped us address her concern about baptism. He then re-committed her and she still gave us a hesitant answer, but she said she would. We will continue to work with her! We took Slade out teaching with us. He is an eighteen year old in the ward who is still doing his papers. He came out and taught Tammy with us again. We talked about the Book of Mormon. That was a really spiritual lesson! We went over and taught this elderly man named Allan with Slade. While we were teaching it rained cats and dogs outside. And then of course like it always does in Casper the Tornado Sirens went off. Except this siren was for a flash flood warning and not a tornado. We went out tracting yesterday and we tracted into a guy who grew up a member and fell away but was really open to us. And he wants us to come teach him and his girlfriend! We also got back in with Bryan and we followed up on his Book of Mormon reading, and he is almost done with 1st Nephi! So that was all of our successes this past week! The Lord is really blessing our area!

                Let me first off start by saying I love this time of year. The fourth of July is a time where we can be thankful for the freedoms that we do have. It is a time where we can celebrate the independence of our country. I think back to the time when our Country was fighting for our Freedom and Independence. The Lord definitely helped us win the battle and become our own nation and establish Freedom. I am thankful for this Country and the Freedom that we do have! I hope this fourth of July you can look back and see the Lords hand in our Freedom. I am excited to experience my first mission fourth of July outside the MTC walls. Last fourth of July we had a big devotional and we sang american hymns until my throat hurt. They let us stay up and watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks. I remember that that was a part of my mission that I was the most homesick. I know that I will be thinking of all of you this fourth of July. But it is my last one and I will enjoy it! I hope you all have a great week, and God bless America! 

Love, Elder Barber