One last chance 6-15-15

Dear family and friends,

                      Thank you all for the wonderful emails! I have had a fantastic week...also a very busy week! It seems like the Lord is really helping me to stay busy! We are seeing a lot of great successes. We have officially put the Hinton Boys on date for the 4th of July weekend! Or possibly July 3rd (we are going to work out the extra details later). Those two boys are so prepared to be baptized. One is about 12 and the other is about 10. They know so much more than I did at their age! They are super ready to be baptized. It's now just a matter of making it happen! We are also helping out our investigator Jason! He is doing so much better now. We have truly seen a lot of progression with him over the past couple weeks. He is making a lot of great changes in his life, and we are helping him see those changes. Elder Mitchell and I can both tell he is enjoying this Gospel. It seems like Service is really taking a toll on us. I would say the Lord has been filling those "blank" hours of the day with awesome service opportunities! This upcoming week we have a pretty packed schedule as well. Tuesday is the only free day we have in the area. Wednesday we will weekly plan, and probably end up helping people move. Thursday we will be out in Britton, SD to help a member move. Friday we will be up in Jamestown for District Meeting all day. And Saturday we will be out in Eureka doing work. So this week is going to fly by! It is amazing how fast the mission has gone. Yesterday I was pondering about my time in the MTC and that feels like Yesterday. But when I really think about it that was a LONG time ago! I am happily working to the finish! I am excited to see you all next week! That is still weird for me to say. It doesn't feel real to me. But I look forward to being back in Salt Lake, and see all the family again! I love you all and have a great week!

Love, Elder Barber 

Finishing fast 6-8-15

Dear family and friends,

                  What a great week it has been. We are diligently working up here in Aberdeen! It seems to me like each week is a blur, and they all mesh together very well. This morning I actually woke up and the comforting thought came to me saying "Get up, it's P-Day!" and in that moment I thought to myself "Are you serious? Again?" Right now it just feels like P-Day happens, then a crazy fast blur of a week, and then P-Day again! We are starting to weed out a lot of investigators. It seems like we have just dropped a lot of investigators this week. Some of them were trying to convert us to there religion. You could say it didn't work out the way they were hoping. I think one of the biggest successes this past week is working with the Karen Members. I have absolutely grown to love them this transfer. Last transfer it was kind of hard because I didn't know how to communicate with them. But since the tragedy they have had we have all become very close knit with them. To me it is almost like being with my own family when I am gathered with them. The Father of the Family's name is Eh Poe. I absolutely love Eh Poe. A part of me wishes I could just take Eh Poe and his whole family with me when I come home. Every time I am around Eh Poe you can just feel the goodness he has. His kindness and his love for his family just radiates off of him. I will definitely miss the Karen families I am privileged to serve with. We also were able to get the Hinton boys on date for the 4th of July weekend. I wont be here at the time, but I am so excited for them! This past week I had my last Zone Training Meeting. That was very weird for me to think about. It was also very hard to take the trainings seriously being so close to the end. But Elder Mitchell and I are trying to apply as much as we can from them. This upcoming week I will also be going on my last exchange of the mission. I will be with Elder Carter (who is currently serving in Valley City, ND) down here in Aberdeen. It is weird to be finishing a mission. It is weird to think it is all coming to an end, but I am so excited for the future and everything it holds. I love you all and have a great week!

Love, Elder Barber     

Welcome June. 6-1-15

Dear family and friends,

                      Thank you for all of your letters and support! I really do appreciate it! I have heard word about Elder L. Tom Perry. I didn't find out until Sunday. Elder Mitchell and I were up at the Sacrament table and we were having Ward Conference. When they did the sustaining of Church Officers President Olson said "as we all know L. Tom Perry passed away yesterday." Elder Mitchell and I looked at each other like "we didn't hear this yet." I guess this confirms that missionaries are 100% out of the loop on everything (including news in the church.) I am thankful for Elder Perry and his great example. I loved his strong and very bold testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ. I will never forget the multiple occasions of meeting Elder Perry. He is the only apostle I have ever met and it seemed like I ran into him everywhere. I still remember the time he held the door for me at the GAP at the Park City Outlets. I will never forget Elder L. Tom Perry. Well June has officially arrived! I am sad to see the mission ending so soon. I love Aberdeen! I am thankful to be ending my mission in this area. It is definitely helping me fulfill the vision I always had for my mission. I absolutely love the members here, and I love the work load. I have never taught this much in my mission! I also have never had this much fun with all the people I teach. We are currently teaching a lady named Cheryl. I think she has some kind of mental disability, but she is accountable enough to live on her own. Elder Mitchell and I have truly grown to love Cheryl. Ever since we began teaching her she has called me "Urban." I really don't know where she got that name from! She always says to me "Alright Urban you got the prayer, fire away!" And just to mess with Elder Mitchell I told Cheryl that his name is "Perry" and that name has stuck ever since. So now she calls us Urban and Perry. We love our visits with Cheryl she's funny. Also we had a Karen Investigator pass away. His name is Noe Noe (I may have mentioned this in the last letter.) But we got to attend his funeral this past week. I had the opportunity to say the opening prayer of the funeral. That was a hard funeral to go to for us. I wasn't amazingly close with Noe Noe but it was still hard to watch his young wife Say Htoo Paw (who is now a single mother) say her final goodbye to him. It was one of those wet eye moments for sure. But we are still visiting them and testifying strongly of the Plan of Salvation. And right now Say Htoo Paw is planning on having his work done so they can be sealed in the Bismarck Temple. I also am trying to learn a Karen tracting approach. It seems to work! Except all of the Karen people we tract into think I speak Karen. I don't know if they realize I am reading it off of my planner. So at least I can communicate to them who we are and then I ask them in Karen "can we come inside and teach you?" And usually they try to talk to me in Karen but it usually ends with them shaking their head yes or no. Well we will keep working hard out here in Aberdeen! I love you all and have a great week! 

Elder Barber

One more month. 5-26-15

Dear Family and Friends,

                   It has been an awesome week! I can't believe today is my 23 month mark out of 24. That absolutely blows my mind. I never thought I would be able to say that, but the day is here. We had such a sweet Zone Conference! It is always a trip to get to Fargo from Aberdeen. It is a total three hour drive one way. It was such a beautiful drive up on Wednesday. There was a sweet lake that I really enjoyed driving next to. It's called Buffalo Lake, SD. For some reason it was totally beautiful the day we were driving through. But on the way back it was cloudy so it wasn't as beautiful on the way back. But we had an awesome Zone Conference. The spirit was VERY STRONG. Like after the meeting I could feel the spirit burning in my heart for the rest of the day. It was crazy. I got to give my "final testimony" to my fellow missionaries. I don't know why but I was so nervous to get up and bear my testimony. I kept thinking to myself "this is the last testimony I get to bear to my fellow missionaries." But I prayed that I would be able to loose my nerves, and bear a strong testimony. And when I got up I was totally fine and I felt like it went over wonderfully. I got to go on exchanges with Elder Eckley in Fargo for a couple of days. It was awesome to be serving in the Zone Leader position again! It totally brought me back for a couple of days. It was good to spend time with Elder Eckley. He goes home one transfer after I do. So it was good to talk to someone who is in the same boat as I. But we had a great teaching week this past week! So far we have hit 22 lessons each week! The Lord is truly blessing us! This week will fly by. And we have another trip to Fargo on Friday June 5th for my last Zone Training Meeting. It is crazy how fast it will be from right now to then. But I love the work pace in this area. It truly is helping me finish my mission the way I have always wanted to. Well I love you all, and I hope you have a great week!

Elder Barber

The Merge. 5-18-15

     Dear family and Friends,      

           Well we are off to the start of the last transfer and week 1 is in the books forever! Elder Price and I worked hard all the way up until Thursday, and then we sent him and Elder Winger to the van. So they are now officially home, and my last transfer has officially begun. So far it has been pretty good! And it has been raining a TON here. I feel like the Lord is really blessing this land. The farmers really needed it around here. They may have been praying for rain a little too much because it doesn't seem to be letting up. So far Today there hasn't been any, but I don't want to speak too soon. I am ready for summer to arrive! It feels like it showed it's face for about a week and winter is indecisive as always. So I may not get another summer on my mission. Maybe I will just finish in the cold rain. But that's alright! It has been pretty busy taking on the other areas work load. It seems like we are currently in the "lets figure out how we're going to do this" stage. And we have Zone Conference coming up this week so we probably wont figure this thing out until week 3 of the transfer possibly week 4. Lately it has been a tad bit discouraging with investigators falling through. It seems like getting in with people is becoming more and more difficult. Hopefully it becomes a little more easy to teach people. It seems like the adversary is really playing a role with our investigators. But nevertheless we will continue to work hard and try to do our part. I personally feel like you can sometimes relate your mission to the Saviors life. I feel like for a lot of missionaries the final transfer of their mission can be a trudge to the finish. I feel like the Lord is putting me through the final trial of my mission. I know this final transfer will be amazing, but I personally feel like it will go out with a final battle. But I know if I follow the Lord to the end he will assist me to win the battle. We are still teaching over 20 lessons a week. Which is awesome! But they are all hard fought lessons. In other words we have to fight to get there. But I love my calling no matter what struggles we are going through. Well that is about all for the week! I love you all and have a great one!

Elder Corey Barber

Peace Be a Still. 5-4-15

Dear family and friends,

                Thank you all for your letters! May is here! I can't believe it is here! I think it will be even more unbelievable when June gets here. But for now May will do! Hanging above my study desk is a calendar that has very beautiful scenes from around the world. Each picture scene on the calendar has a beautiful picture to accompany the time and season of the year. It also has inspirational Christian quotes on each page. For the Month of May the quote is "When wait patiently on the Lord we are trusting in His Love." For the Month of June I can't recall the exact quote but just to paraphrase it states "Pretty soon the winds and waves will cease, and all will be calm again." Sometimes I lead myself to believe that these quotes were inspired for me, and this time of my life. It seems that the Lord is telling me subliminally (or clearly) "I know it's May but be patient and trust in my love." And for the month of June it seems it is telling me "The winds and waves may be rough right now (as they have been for the past two years) but hang in there. Soon it will all be calm again." I know that the mission brings forth trials. It has it's times where the tempest of the work may toss you around. And it has it's times of peace and happiness. This past weekend it seems like it is one of those times where it tosses you around a little bit. We were on exchanges with the other Elders here in Aberdeen. Elder Mitchell is our District Leader and he was going to interview Paw Say for his baptism. He was able to interview Paw Say but eventually Paw Say revealed that he did not feel ready at this time for baptism. But on the bright side he still wants to meet with us to learn more. I'm not sure exactly what his concern is. I think he believes he needs to be perfect after he is baptized. And he is not sure if that is the kind of commitment he is ready for at this time. Which I can truly admire as discouraging as it can be. I would rather have him be baptized knowing what he is getting into rather than just trying to please the crowd. We also got a text from Camille on Saturday sharing with us that her friend Timmy told her three scriptures from the Bible that "disprove" the Book of Mormon. But she wants Elder Price and I to meet with Timmy and herself this upcoming week. She said Timmy is willing to hear us out (which is the good thing). I'm sure he will bring up concerns with the Book of Mormon, but we will do our best to help him to address those concerns. So it was a week of trial for us. On the bright side we reached our peak of lessons this transfer. So we were super busy teaching! 

                 While serving in Grand Forks we shared an apartment with Elder Dutton and Elder Lee. Elder Dutton had a box of these beautiful paintings of the Savior that the artist himself wanted him to give out on his mission. Elder Dutton told Elder Cannon and I we could both have one. I picked out the picture of the Savior calming the tempest. When I picked it out I told myself "I want this picture to remind me of who I need to turn to to calm the storm." I have had many moments since then where the Savior had calmed the storm for me. I can remember one occasion in Grand Forks where Elder Smith and I were out street contacting. And we saw a man underneath his car doing maintenance." We approached him and started talking to him. He was an older man in his sixties. He got up and started talking to us. Instantly he told us he was Lutheran and started bashing our Church. He told us how the Book of Mormon was thought up, and how "John Smith" was either telling half the truth or he was a complete liar. And if any of you know me I love the Prophet Joseph Smith and get extremely fired up when anyone disgraces his name. I have never felt such extreme anger in myself before. You could probably say the tempest of my heart was extremely stormy and intense. And then the weirdest thing happened, peace overcame me. I remember as Elder Smith and I opened our mouths we testified of the Savior. And instantly the storm in my heart was calmed. I have a testimony that day that the Savior filled my heart with his love and whispered to my heart "Peace, be still." We weren't able to change this mans mind, but that day I walked away knowing in my heart that the Savior can calm any storm. And this is his work. I know his peace can fill each and every one of your lives. He is our redeemer, and he will always calm the storm. 

Love, Elder Barber 

Time is Flying. 4-27-15

Dear family and friends,

                      How's it going?! I hope you are all doing well. The time is really flying by. It almost didn't feel like a whole week has gone by. Monday comes and goes, and then it feels like two days pass and it comes again. We had such a great week! Each week it seems like the work increases. I haven't seen that since the days of Casper. And I feel like soon the work load in this area will surpass the work load of Casper if the Lord is willing. It is amazing! We were able to teach Camille this week and have Brother and Sister McQuillen present. It seems like Camille really needs someone to talk to so hopefully Sister McQuillen will stop by this week. PawSay is doing really well. It really helps to have his Sister Paw Htoo translate for us. He is doing really well, and we are 98% sure of his baptism this upcoming Saturday! So we are stoked to see him baptized! It will be incredible. We are also working with a guy named Jason. We teach him a few times a week. We actually got him to attend an institute class! Which he seemed to enjoy the fellowship there. Brother and Sister Olsen do a great job with the lessons each week! On Saturday we were able to drive to the small town of Leola, SD (the Rhubarb capitol of the world.) There is a member family there that had a house fire recently. It only fried one side of the house, and nobody was hurt and nothing was really lost. So they were pretty fortunate as far as house fires go. But we got to climb on ladders and rip nails out of the wall, and rip the siding off the house. Lets just say I probably have smokers lung after inhaling all of that ash. We were able to meet with the Hinton boys. They still haven't secured an official baptismal date. They want their Brother to do the baptism. But he needs to get the Aaronic Priesthood before he can baptize them. So it may be a little while. They took us out to lunch in Eureka so that was really nice of them! Sunday was amazing! We had Camille, Jason, PawSay, and the two Hinton Boys were all at Sacrament Meeting! So that is five investigators at church! We were super blessed. The work is really awesome here! It seems like we teach a lot! The Lord is really blessing me with a hard working area for my last six weeks that are coming up soon. Elder Price and I are doing well. I am really helping him stay motivated to work hard, and he is doing an awesome job. I'm looking forward to next transfer. My goal is to walk around and bike around Aberdeen as much as possible so we can drive to the out skirting areas to do work more often. That is my plan of action so far, and I am excited to see how it plays out next transfer. Well thank you all for your letters of support! I really do appreciate it, and all of you! The Church is true! 

Elder Corey Barber