Frozen but thankful. 11-24-14

Dear family and friends,

                 It is that wonderful time of year again! The time where the Nation comes together, and realizes the things that they are thankful for. I know one thing that I am thankful for is to have a great family at home who supports me. I am thankful for the missionary work world wide that is taking place. I am thankful for the churches growth in my area, and also the world. I am thankful to be a missionary. I am thankful for all of the things that I have learned in the field. I am thankful for the next 7 1/2 months I still have to be a missionary. I am also thankful that I will have the privilege of returning and seeing you all once more. There are many things to be thankful for every day. This week was a slower week. The work is getting a bit more difficult with Winter coming into play. It is also more difficult because we are currently trying our hardest to find this upcoming week. It is hard to find up in North Dakota. There are a lot of great religious people here. But not many of them care to hear the message. So it was one of those weeks where we knocked a lot of doors and not too much has come from it. But we do have some people that have told us we can come back! We were able to get a new investigator his name is Bob! He is an older man, but a super nice man! When we offered him a copy of The Book of Mormon he said "I gladly accept." So we are very excited to teach him! We also just experienced transfer calls. This week in weekly planning I had a very tender yet weird moment. In the front of your missionary daily planner you put the months the transfer will go through. I put 11/14 and the ending will be in 1/15. It made this whole mission feel like she was slowly but quickly getting closer to the end. By the end of this transfer I will have a little under 6 months to go. I hope at the end of this transfer I can hang on to Elder Cannon for one more. He goes home in the middle of February. So if he stays at the end of this one he gets to end his mission in Grand Forks. And that means I will be a Zone Leader up here until my last transfer. And I will probably just go to Rapid City to end the mission. This very day my trainer is home! He and the missionaries such as Elder Parrish flew home today to be with there families for the Holidays. It is weird to think he is home. When I came out he seemed to me to be a younger missionary. As I watch my friends I knew at the beginning of my mission go home each transfer. It makes me want to keep pushing to the end. I am doing well up here. It has been a pretty warm winter so far! This time last year the temperature was dwelling in the negatives! So I am thankful we are still in the 30's! Well I hope you all enjoy your wonderful Holiday this week! Just know that I am thankful for you all this year. I am thankful for the examples you all have been to me! I hope the Lord touches all of your hearts as you list the things you are thankful for this year! I love you all, and have a great week!

Love, Elder Barber