Growth 6-23-14

Dear family and friends, 

                      What a great week we had this past week! This past week we were able to meet up with Alicia. We had not been able to get in with Alicia for a couple weeks. But we had dinner over at the Goodman's and Alicia wanted to come have a lesson. We learned from Sister Goodman that some misinformation from friends had crept into her life. So we spent the lesson resolving concerns. I felt the lesson was successful because at the end we told her that she has one side contending that we are wrong, and she has another side contending that this is the way that will improve the quality of her life. So we told her the ONLY way you will learn if this is true or not is to pray about it. Only Heavenly Father can give her the answer. We are continuing to work with her. Her husband isn't too supportive of the LDS thing. Which will be hard to overcome, but we will pray for him to soften his heart to our message. We are getting back in with Tammy again. We are trying to help her progress in the gospel, but it will be difficult because she is paralyzed from a stroke. So getting her to Church is pretty hard. But she does have a couple of kids that could progress in the gospel towards baptism. Just yesterday David and Cynthia were able to make it to church. We sustained David to receive the Aaronic Priesthood. And after church I was able to confer upon David the Aaronic Priesthood. That was an amazing moment to give the Priesthood to someone else. That was definitely a highlight of my mission. 

                      This past Sunday we had a girl who was going to the Las Vegas mission give her farewell. After the meeting was over I was talking to her, and it blew my mind when I told her that on this same Sunday a year ago I was giving my Farewell talk. It amazes me that I have been away a year. The year mark for me is not as celebratory as I once thought. I would say coming up on your year mark is a blend of emotion. On the positive you will see your family in a year, and get to be with everyone. But on the other hand you will lose all of the joys you get as a misisonary. Such as seeing your investigators progress to baptism. Seeing the lives of others change as they embrace the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Although it is an exciting landmark to hit on your mission, it is also a hard one to hit on your mission. I can tell each and every one of you that I am excited to see you this time next year. But another thing I can say is I am excited to live out this one last year to serve the Lord. I love you all and I miss each one of you! I pray that you all remain safe! Thank you for all of the letters that you send each week! 

Love, Elder Barber