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

Miracles Happening. 4-20-15

Desr Family and Friends 

                      It has been a very great and eventful week! The warm temperatures are here and it feels awesome! All of the farmers were very happy because we have gotten a little bit of rain this past week. Hopefully we have more to come! Even though this region of South Dakota looks like one giant wetland apparently it's a "dry" year. The wind here is INSANE. When it blows it almost knocks you over! Good thing we don't do a whole lot of walking here I might blow away. The members here are pretty awesome! The longer I am here the more of them I meet, and they are all pretty awesome! It is always funny when were at Dinner appointments they always look at Elder Price and say "I know you're almost done with your mission." And then they look at me and say "So are you new? Is this your first assignment?" And of course I give the response. "Actually Elder Price has been out one month longer than me." So they are always shocked to see two OLD missionaries serving together. This week we had a strait up MIRACLE happen. We have this investigator named Camille. She has come to church once and is seriously investigating the gospel. All of her friends and family are telling her "don't go to the Mormons!" And they tell her all sorts of rumors that we have to clear up. She has a friend that gave her a book that has a whole chapter about Mormons (anti material). She intended to read it and also read the Book of Mormon. One day we were driving by her apartment and we saw her sitting in her car with the door open. I felt like we should go talk to her so I had Elder Price pull over and we talked to her. We had a good conversation for 25 minutes or so and we left. We got a text from her about an hour later saying "well I guess I wont be reading that book my friend gave me. I left my daughter alone in the house while she was napping and apparently she woke up and shredded that book to pieces. And the Book of Mormon was laying beside the shreds peacefully, still open to the page that I left on." It was cool to literally see the Book of Mormon break down the walls of pride. It was a true MIRACLE! And we are meeting with Camille tomorrow night! We hope to put her on date for baptism soon! Another miracle was I survived three meal appointments yesterday. After Church we had our third Sunday potluck. And immediately after that we had a Qurin birthday party we got invited to. And people from Thailand like to feed you well. It was really good food I liked it! And about an hour and a half later we had a dinner appointment with the Vensils. So you could say we were stuffed. We got to visit with Pawsay last night and we had his Sister Paw Htoo translate for us. Which made the lesson really nice because PawSay Doesn't speak English fluently yet. So we knew for sure he was understanding what we were saying. But he is still looking awesome for May 2nd, and he wants the Bishop to baptize him. So there is a lot of awesome things happening here in Aberdeen. Well that is all for this week! I love you all and have a great week!

Elder Barber. 

Grand Forks Zone with Elizabeth Smart UND

Full Week in the New Area 4-13-15

Dear Family and Friends,

                       It has been good to get into the swing of this area! I love it here! This area really keeps us busy! This past week I hit a personal mission record of a 7 lesson day! So it was crazy busy and full! One of the days we went up to Oakes, ND. It is a town that we cover here in Aberdeen. It was fun to get to know the members up there, and teach the investigators up there. We are working with a couple up there named Betty and Jason. They are awesome we just need to see how committed they are before we baptize them. They didn't end up going to church so we will have to follow up with that one! But we also are working in the town of Eureka, SD. In that town we are teaching the Hinton family. The parents are members and I think some of their kids are baptized. But we are working with they two young boys who are 11 and 9. They have been taught everything, but we just need to pin down a date for them. It's hard because the Dad is always out of town. And they are still trying to figure out who will be baptizing them. So we have a lot of work there! Something I love about my mission is you pass through all of these little towns and each one has its own "claim to fame." On our way out to Eureka we passed through this town called Leola, SD. Their claim to fame is they are the "Rhubarb capitol of the world." I have never seen such towns take pride in the littlest things. Leola is a town of maybe 200, and they are the Rhubarb capitol of the whole world supposedly. And then we got to Eureka and Eureka is the hometown to the man who started USA today newspaper. This is clearly stated in Large letters on their town sign. Each town without fail has it's own claim to fame. Aberdeeen is the hometown of the Wizard of Oz. The man who wrote the story of the Wizard of Oz wrote it in a house that you can find just across the street from the Library. It's pretty funny. I am loving the mission! We are trying to work as hard as we can with both of our missions coming to a close. I am thankful that the Lord has given me a strong desire to finish strong! We are still working with Camille! It was awesome we had a great lesson this past week with Camille. We brought Brother McQuillen with us, and she loved that he too was a convert of the Church. And Camille came to Church this past week! She seemed to really enjoy it! And her daughter did really well at being reverent the whole time. We are also working with an investigator named Paw Say. We put him on date for May 2nd. We feel like he will be able to reach that date! So we have a lot of good things happening in our area. There is a lot to keep your head up for! I am thankful for all of your letters and support! I love you all and I hope you have a good week! The church is true!

Love,

Elder Barber

photo Shoot

Starting off Strong 4-6-15

Dear family and friends,

                      This week has been an awesome week! Before I left Grand Forks we had an awesome P-Day. Around 8 O clock we got to go see Elizabeth Smart speak at the U.N.D campus. It was awesome! She really told an inspiring and uplifting story. It made you angry at parts but her outlook on everything is incredible! It was really cool! Afterwards we went and got our planners signed by her, and we also got pictures with her. I am waiting for the picture to be sent to me! It was an awesome way to leave Grand Forks. On Tuesday I got transferred so I went down to Fargo to catch the van to Valley City, ND. I got to work out in Valley City with Elder Edwards for the night. Which was cool because I am good friends with him from the Grand Forks Zone! So it was sweet to be with him again! Aberdeen is pretty sweet! The ward here seems awesome! And we drove by the airport and I saw a Sky West bird chilling at the airport! So it made me especially glad to know I can fly Sky West directly to EVERY area I have served in! So that is really cool! We have a dang nice apartment too. It is really new, and it has a washer and dryer unit in our apartment. So having free laundry is always a plus as a missionary! One thing I have noticed about South Dakota so fat is there is a TON of birds everywhere. I have never seen more birds in my life. Pheasants, ducks, geese, random birds EVERYWHERE. Right behind our apartment is a little marsh where you will always see ducks floating on the water. There is one Mallard duck out there that can quack really loud. I don't think I have every heard a duck quack as loud as he can. You can hear him pretty clearly with all the windows shut and were on the third floor. We have been seeing some awesome success in Aberdeen! We went tracting on my second day here and we hit this one door of a single mom named Camille. She has a daughter who is about four and blind. She was really emotional about the savior. You could tell she had a good relationship with him! She is really looking for change in her life, and she says she is looking for a place to go to church. So we are stoked to be teaching her! I absolutely loved General Conference. I am glad that that one was my last conference in the mission. It seemed to me that this last conference was the hardest one to make it through. Every time I see Salt Lake I can't help but think "there's home!" It was hard to endure the fourth conference. But it gave me peace to know that I will be home for the next one, and I will be in Salt Lake soon enough! I absolutely love being a missionary! I'm not the biggest fan of being away from home and family, but I am thankful for my mission and all the things I have learned. I would do it again if the Lord asked me to! I am stoked to finish my mission as strong as I can! This truly is the work of the Lord! I love you all and have a great week!

Love,

Elder Barber

To the End. 3-30-1

Dear family and friends,

                         We have had an awesome week up here in Grand Forks! This has been such an awesome area! I have truly learned to love the people, and those around me. I feel like I have learned so much here in what seems like a short amount of time (even though it has been 6 months.) On Saturday we had transfer calls go throughout the mission. This transfer call was a little different then the other transfer calls. The transfer calls that were given this time around determined for many who would be staying in the mission, and who would be leaving the mission. On transfer call day around two O clock. Our Zone got hit with a whole bunch of calls. 6/8 companionship's will be experiencing a transfer. Which is a lot! For me the transfer call didn't come with the entire zone. It seemed like it came a little bit later. But on the phone was Elder Lott who congratulated me for the great work the Zone had seen. And he let me know that my new area will be in Aberdeen, South Dakota. I will be serving with Elder Price. This is Elder Prices last six weeks in the mission. So I will be sending him home. And then someone else will replace him to send me home. It will be awesome! The area is teaching around 20 lessons a week, and there is another former Zone Leader serving in the other ward. So I feel like we are going to get work done!! It will be awesome. I know Elder Price from serving around him in Casper, WY. He is a good missionary, and I think we will do well together. He is a spanish missionary so I'm not sure how this is going to work out. But we will see! I am sad to be leaving Grand Forks. I'm going to miss being in a town with such awesome people, and airplanes. But I am thankful for this change. I know the Lord is preparing a wise purpose for me to go to Aberdeen. I am excited to serve to the end there! This past week the new Easter initiative premiered! It is awesome!! I am so thankful for it. I am glad I can use it in my proselyting. I love that video and the message it shares. I love one of the videos final phrases "find him." I love this because it shows people we can't just merely say I follow Christ. It requires action. We must seek him to know him. We can seek him in prayer, we can seek him in our scripture study. I have a firm testimony of seeking after the Lord. I feel like on my mission I have sought after the savior many times. And every time without fail I have found him. I know he lives. I know he loves each one of us. If the atonement was to only save one he still would have suffered it all. I am thankful for my savior this Easter Season. I am thankful for General Conference coming up. What an amazing opportunity we have to listen to men we can call prophets, seers, and revelators. I love this time of year! Well I love you all and I hope you have an excellent week!

Elder Corey Barber

Warming up. 3-16-15

Dear family and friends,

                  Thank you for all of your letters this week! It has been really WARM this past week! One day got up to the high 50's! It was awesome! We drove with the windows down for a good majority of the week! The Lord is truly blessing us! We also had an excellent exchange with the Assistants this week! I got to go with Elder Tidwell for the whole day! He is the missionary in Ron and Annes ward! I love that missionary! I think he is a really down to earth assistant. I feel like with being out for 20 months I have fallen into a "routine" which means I am getting really used to doing missionary life. Which is a good thing, but getting into a routine can also allow for me to get too comfortable and lose certain skills I once had. But going on exchanges with Elder Tidwell helped me learn how to talk with everyone, and be very diligent! I loved it! I felt like it was a turning point for me in my last three months! It really motivated me to push to the end of my mission. I only have a short time left to preach the gospel. And I don't want to get burned out. I am so thankful that my last winter is closing before my eyes. I HATE cold weather! So I am thankful to see springtime and rain and grass again! This week we went out to Crookston, MN which is a part of our area and we put Angel on Date for April 11th. The Crookston Elder were teaching him, but then they took missionaries out of Crookston. So we are stoked to have Angel on date! He is amazingly prepared for the gospel. A lot of the things he says is so in line with the gospel. It is crazy to talk with him, because it is as though he already knows this and already believes it. It just goes to show that the Lord prepares people in his own time and in his own way. I am really going to miss Grand Forks! I have a lot of awesome friends here! Brother Mackillop being one of them. He is an awesome Texan guy who wants me to fly down to Dallas this summer to visit him. I told him the only way I will do that is if he drives me up to OKC to fly home. But he is an awesome guy. Yesterday we had a barbeque at the Englemans (Bens) and we were there with the Hale family. We had some good steaks! We had strawberry shortcake for dessert. And one of the little girls didn't even touch hers and left it on the table. So Elder Smith was debating just eating it, and Brother Mackillop talked him into it. And as soon as Elder Smith picked it up and started eating it the little girl walked back in. So he had to go around the corner and scarf it down. The little girl was like "Where's my pie?" Brother Mackillop and I were dying of laughter because of the irony of this situation. It is good memory's like that you can't find anywhere else. Well I love you all! And I thank you for your support! It means a lot and has carried me through my mission! Have an awesome week! 

A great ZTM. 3-9-15

Dear family and friends,

                  Thank you for all of your wonderful emails! We had such an awesome week! Not too much has happened since I last wrote you. We had an awesome Zone Training Meeting! Sister Woodbury gave an awesome training on Gratitude! Hearing that training for the second time has really blessed my prayers. I am now saying "Thank you" in my prayers a lot more. I remember at Missionary Leadership Council Sister Anderson gave a powerful training on Gratitude and that really touched me. She shared an experience with us of how she was trying to be more thankful in her prayers, and really striving for gratitude. Shortly after she began being grateful in her prayers her and President Anderson welcomed a new grand daughter in their family. She expressed to Heavenly Father how thankful she was that the baby was safe and healthy. She then got a text a few hours later from her son explaining that their new daughter was diagnosed with signs of down syndrome. Sister Anderson explained how this broke her heart. She began to have feelings of "no this can't be right, the doctors have made a mistake." She then turned to Heavenly Father in prayer. And in this prayer she felt prompted to show gratitude and be thankful that the baby was alive and well. And that is when she began to have more love and appreciation for the situation her family was in. She expressed thankfulness to Heavenly Father for the family that surrounded the baby to take care of it. She also expressed her thanks to the relief society for bringing meals over to the family. Even in our hardest circumstances always show thanks. We had a very powerful training on the new #becausehelives initiative the church is coming out with on March 28th. At the end we had a powerful testimony meeting. We announced at the end of our meeting that we would be watching the because of him video, and at the end of the video the floor is open to anyone who desired to share their testimony of the Risen Savior. The video brought an amazing spirit. The room was so silent and the spirit was so strong you could hear a pin drop. It was awesome and the testimonies were so powerful. It increased my testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ. I know he lives! I love this time of year where we celebrate his resurrection. I absolutely love the testimony of that Joseph Smith gave in D&C 76:22. And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, thisis the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives! I can add my testimony to theirs that I know the Savior Jesus Christ lives. And he cares about us, and he wants us home. I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love, Elder Barber 

Because He Lives. 3-5-15

Dear family and friends,

                 I am thankful to be writing you on this day! I know it has been a little while since the last time I wrote. We had such a great week! I got to go on exchanges with Elder Adair who is serving in Cass Lake, MN. That was an awesome time! I got to meet a very awesome Sister who was in there ward. She is about 75 years old, and deaf. But she can talk to you like a normal person, and it sounds normal! I was blown away by her Family History. We were going to share a message of Family History with her, but it turns out she has about 1,167 names reserved to go to the temple. If there is anyone that needs to be taught it is me! She has so many names that the temple has told her to send them 100 names a month. We had an awesome M.L.C trip! Sister Woodbury is our new Sister Training Leader so it was really cool to get to know her for the whole 18 hours we were confined in our truck. But it was really good! We got to go to Mount Rushmore! I have awesome pictures, but they will have to wait until Monday when I can get the right flash drive. We had a great training on the #becausehelives initiative. I am getting really excited for this. The video itself comes out on March 28th! So it might be difficult to actually use in proselyting until then. But we are very excited. I am thankful to be living in a day and age where the Church has such a position in the social media. I have loved all of the videos that they have produced! The spirit is always the strongest. And the cool thing about this initiative is it is intended that it goes past Easter! It will be ALL year long. I am excited to see the miracles it will bring! It is hard for me to believe that Easter is coming up along with General Conference! I am so excited to hear from a living Prophet who testifies of the Savior Jesus Christ! I love you all and I hope you have an excellent week!

Love,

Elder Barber

A great baptism 2-23-15

Dear family and friends,

                 What an awesome start we have had to the transfer! I am sorry I am emailing you all so late. We had President and Sister Anderson in town. They met us at the church around 11:30 to conduct interviews. I had a great interview with President Anderson. Probably the best one I have ever had! It was awesome! This week we have started a new transfer! And week 1 is already in the books! I was able to go on exchanges with Lake Region this week! Elder Autrey is the new District Leader, and I have never before been on exchanges with him. It was a great time! I told the people in Devils Lake that it would probably be the last time they see me until July. Which to them doesn't seem too long! Elder Cook is also serving out there (he came out with Elder Smith and I). He was told by President his main objective is to get Donnada baptized. I hope that comes true. There is not too much work out there so I am not sure how much longer the area will be open. So we need to get Donnada in the gates of baptism before the area closes. I will do what I can, but it's not my area anymore. On Saturday we were able to see Johnathan baptized! It was a great baptism! Johnathan's father is a convert of about 10 years. And he did an awesome job with getting all the words correct! It was really cool to see! Elder Smith and Elder Cook taught Randall while I was in Devils Lake, and he committed to live the word of wisdom. We followed up with him on Sunday to see if he had been living the Word of Wisdom. And it sounds like he has kicked coffee and is living it! So it is really awesome! Randall is on date for March 21st! And at this pace he is looking like he will hit it! That will be one of my last weeks here! We look forward to Missionary Leadership Council next week in Rapid City! This will most likely be my last one while serving here in Grand Forks. It has been awesome! But I loo forward to next week! President told me at the end of my interview that the assistants want to take all the Zone Leaders to Mount Rushmore for our P-Day activity. Since the mission home will be swapping to Bismarck, North Dakota in April I wont get a chance to go to Mount Rushmore with President at the end of my mission. So he is giving us the opportunity now. I don't think it will have the same feeling, but it will still be cool to say I did it! SO this means next week I probably wont be writing until Thursday! But I want you all to know I love you, and I thank you so much for writing me every week! I love the encouragement and the support you all give to me! It means a lot! I love you all, and have a great week!

Elder Barber

University of North Dakota. Grand forks North Dakota

Eternal progression. 2-17-15

Dear family and friends,

                 Happy late Presidents day to all! We should always take a moment to honor those great Presidents of our Nations History. And we should keep in our prayers the current President, and future Presidents to come! The work has really been picking up here in Grand Forks. This week we hit a personal record of receiving 5 referrals (that's what we get when Sisters accidentally "poach" our area." But it was still a personal record for Elder Smith and I! We contacted one of the referrals named Collin. He is in his 20's and studying to become a leader of a Non-Profit organization. He knew members growing up, and he felt he should learn more! So we are excited to continue working with him! It will be awesome! This past week we met with Randall. We have been working with Randall for about 2 months now, and it has been on and off. He contacted the To our surprise he contacted the first Ward Sisters that originally taught him, and told them he "knows the church is true, wants to be taught everything, and get baptized." We were very shocked at this! I think he knows these things our true by the fruits of the Gospel. He has really seen a change in himself for the better. And he feels that God is lining things up for him. It was awesome, and we had a very spiritual lesson with him on Valentines Day. And we were able to set him on date for March 21st! We are so excited!! We even told him that God will help him make that date, but Satan will do everything he can to make it so you can't get baptized. So we warned him in a way. Johnathan's baptism is this upcoming Saturday!! His family confirmed they are flying in from Sunny Florida to Frozen Tundra North Dakota this weekend. So we are very excited it will be an awesome day! His Father is baptizing him, and Elder Smith and I are giving talks. We are really looking forward to it! It will be an awesome week! Were hoping Randall can attend the baptism! Well another Transfer has gone and I am staying in Grand Forks at least until March 31st (That is the next transfer van day.) I get to be with Elder Smith! He is a good missionary, and fun to be around! He is from the Castle Rock, and Parker area of Colorado. So he kind of lives near Cheryl and Glade. But there are a lot of great changes happening in our Zone this time around! 

                Yesterday we got it approved to go tour through the aviation center at U.N.D. And take a tour with some members who are currently studying there. It was awesome!! Recently I have been praying about, and taking interest in the Aviation field. I am not sure what section of Aviation I would like to go into just yet. But the member here in town plans to hook me up with a pamphlet or two on the program and different things I could Major in. As we walked through I thought to myself "This is going to take a lot of work." Here I am just a normal person who plans to tackle this huge degree. When I looked at the real life simulators I only knew the basic instruments and that's it. The rest of everything else was a blur. But I thought to myself schooling for anything is not going to be fun. I believe that aviation is the funnest degree you can chase after. But the schooling and the work to get there is not going to be fully enjoyable. But then I thought to myself the college degree for anything is not going to be fully enjoyable either. In that moment I took a thought on the eternal progression of us all. Here we are as normal humans some more educated and capable than others. But we are all shooting for the same thing. To live with God again and the chance to become like him. Right now nobody would be capable of becoming like God. But as we go line upon line and precept upon precept. We will reach our goal, and our eternal reward. It was a great lesson I learned. Well I hope you all have an excellent week! I love you all!

Elder Corey Barber

All is Well. 2-9-15

Dear family and friends,

                  It has been a great week up here! This transfer has been really fast! And I feel like next transfer will be even faster. I know my time is always running shorter and shorter. Not to be trunky but you only get 18 emails after this one. But that is still plenty of time in the Lords work! Recently Elder Smith and I have been working hard to crack down on our potentials list! It is literally 15 pages long. So it is taking us a while. It is a blessing that our cars get so many miles up here. We are really abundantly blessed with cars that have enough miles for all of us! It keeps us out of the cold ALOT! I can only name a couple of times that we have had to walk in the blistering cold this winter. We have been really blessed. I pray for the weather to continue to stay above 0. I know once we hit March it should stay in the 20s relatively. We had an awesome miracle happen. We were at a less active named Chads house for a lesson. We were just getting Elder Smith acquainted with him. When his girlfriend walked in with a friend that lived nearby. Her name is Chanita. She asked us why we don't stop by her house. We thought she was joking, but she was serious! So this week we plan to make Chanita an investigator! It will be awesome! We are very excited. Johnathan is doing awesome! He is looking great for his baptism on the 21st! We are so excited! This week we had the opportunity to drive out to Bemidji, MN. I believe this is the town where the T.V show "How I met your mother" takes place in. That is what I have heard at least (I wouldn't know I have never really watched that show.) I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Docking for the third time in a row! This time we were in Grand Forks. Elder Docking will be flying home at the end of this transfer. It is kind of weird because I met him when he was a year out. And now he is almost gone. It is crazy how fast the time goes! Every day the mission feels shorter and shorter. But the work is still going forward, and strong. Next Monday I will not be emailing due to President Day. But we got it approved to have two hours of P-Day to go explore the aviation center here in town. It is a museum along with a member pilot will be showing us around the schools airplanes. It will be REALLY cool! As I have been on my mission I keep getting the feeling I should master in aviation. All throughout my mission I have met all different likes of career options. And I have pondered them all deeply. And I really can't find anything I enjoy. I can find careers that could make me "money" in the long run. But I always come back to what will i enjoy doing. And honestly the only thing I truly enjoy and would be actually excited to learn about is aviation and airplanes. I personally would love to say my "office" or my workplace is in the sky. I don't know if I desire the airline industry. But I have been thinking of teaching aviation at a college, and help others learn how to fly. One of these P-Days I hope to meet with somebody over aviation here at UND and talk to him about their program. Well I am happy that all is well at home. I know recently there has been some scares, but it brings me great comfort to know the Lord is over all. And in the end ALL will be well. Well I love you all, and I hope you have a great week!

Elder Corey Barber

Out with January in with February 2-2-15

Dear family and friends,

                  I am so happy that February is here!! January was a doozie. And I have to be quite honest I'm happy January is over. Mainly because with January brought transfers. And many companionships in the zone got transferred which drove a lot of cars to Fargo at the beginning of the month. And then of course we drove to MLC which is always a fun time. And then we had our Zone Training Meeting which drove a lot of cars to Grand Forks. And then we just had our Zone Conference down in Fargo which drove a lot of cars to Fargo again. You could safely say January taxed a lot of cars with a lot of mile requirements. But we safely squeaked by and stayed under on our mileage cap. So we are doing great! And we welcome February with open arms. This month we won't be driving down to MLC. So we will be able to give more cars more miles for this month. But it feels good to welcome this month because every day we are getting closer and closer to warm weather. This winter has been an awesome winter up here! The temperatures have been really good compared to last winter where there were 100 days straight of temperatures in the negatives. I believe I was here for at least 80 of those days (yes God has a great sense of humor.) But this week was good we had an awesome Zone Conference. I feel like our training went well overall. I could pick out some things I would change and some mistakes I would correct, but overall I feel like it was good and it taught missionaries well. Something cool that we did at the end of the training was we had each district come up with what they are going to work on to help their investigators teach 50% of the lesson. We had them write it down on a blank white puzzle piece. We then gathered the pieces and put them together on the board and taped them. We then flipped over this puzzle and it was a well sketched out picture of the savior. It was really cool! We promised them that as they apply these commitments it will help their investigators come closer to the savior. We met with Johnathan this week! And they are all excited to have this baptism coming up on the 21st. Elder Smith was chosen by Johnathan to give the talk on baptism. And I was chosen to give the talk on the Holy Ghost. This will be the first talk I give on my mission. I'm still striving to go 24 months without talking in sacrament meeting once. So far I'm doing good! We also got a new investigator this week. His name is Jean. He is from Africa! And he had some friends in Africa who were members. He seemed pretty interested when we shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ with him. The reason we taught that to him was he grew up Muslim, but converted to Christianity not too long ago. So he doesn't really know what the gospel of Jesus Christ is. So it was cool to teach that to him, and we look forward to working with him! We will have to apply our training and use pictures to help teach him! Yesterday we went to another church and it was one of those southern churches with the clapping and the dancing. It was actually really fun! My ears hurt afterwards due to the loud music. But now I can say I have experienced an African American clapping church. The pastor was really funny as well. At one point he was talking about how their trying to pass a law that allows pastors to carry firearms in church. And he shared a story of a guy that would attend his church regularly who was always packing. At one point the pastor said "It was good I was preaching the right thing or I would have been shot!" Coincidentally we were sitting at the exact bench this man sat at every week. He then looked to us and said "I hope you two aint packing!" He was a really nice guy! Well that is about all for this week! I hope you all are doing well! I love you all and have a great week!

Love, Elder Barber   

Keeping Strong 1-26-15

Dear family and friends,

                 Thank you so much for all of your emails this week! We have had a pretty busy week! Not so much work wise, but we have been planning for our Zone Conference. We had the Assistants in town on Wednesday! That went well! I went on exchanges with Elder Lott. Elder Tidwell is the other assistant (he is in Ron and Anne Thompsons ward in Centerville) It was really great! They brought the movie Meet the Mormons into town, and we had anyone and everyone come watch it. We had a pretty good turn out. Not as big as we were hoping. But it was still pretty good! It was kind of scary Elder Smith and Elder Tidwell took our dinner appointment, so had the sisters schedule us another one. We had thirty minutes until our dinner appointment so we decided to start to set up the projector and microphone. We were having some extreme technical difficulties. The projector worked and hooked up to the DVD, but we could not get ANY sounds to come out. So we had to fiddle with it and get creative, but eventually it produced sound and all was well. We were about twenty minutes late to our appointment. We could NOT find the house at all, but we found it! Like I was saying we have been planning for our Zone Conference training which is getting the investigator to teach 50% of the lesson. The Assistants helped us out by showing us a resource on teaching youth videos on LDS.org. So we are using the video "using pictures" in our training. It is a great video and in the video the youth clearly taught 50% of the lesson. So we will be using this. In our training we will also ask for other ideas that people have seen successful, and have them write it down on a puzzle piece. They will then bring that idea up, and we will have other tables bring there idea up. We will do some role plays of the ideas. At the end of our training we will flip the puzzle pieces over and it will be a sketched drawing of the Savior Jesus Christ that Sister Pohl in our zone sketched! It looks really good! And it should be spiritual. We will be giving this training next Thursday. 

              I never have had any issues with Miles in this zone until this transfer. It seems like a lot of companionship's got transferred this time around and many of them drove to Fargo for this. Well they also had to drive to Grand Forks for Zone Training Meeting. And now at the end of the month they will all have to drive to Fargo again. So this really adds up fast. Lucky for us a missionary car got totaled while it was parked and this has given us 900 extra miles for the Zone. Without it we would be going over for sure. So we have been running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to accommodate to all the cars that need extra miles. And we trying to choose the most logical way for everyone. So it has been a real struggle, but it looks like we have things worked out. So cross our fingers that everything will be okay. I am also sad to say that Jana and Lee dropped us this week. It was a real struggle for Elder Smith and I. Mainly for me because I taught them twice. But the Lord comforted me assuring me that they will get another chance in the future. Also Johnathan is still looking awesome for February 21st! His family even followed up with us asking if that date would work. So it looks like they're all excited for his baptism! Well I love you all and thank you for all that you do! I know the Lord is with us! Have a great week!

Love, Elder Barber    

Great Week and Warming Up 1-20-15

Dear family and friends,

                 How are things going!? It sounds like you all had such a great week! It feels like yesterday I was writing you. So not too much has happened since I last wrote you. Last week we were crazy busy the whole week! Missionary Leadership Council was good! We spent most of last week either on the road, in meetings, or planning. So it was very busy! Zone Training meeting went really well! We trained on a new method of role playing. Which is Explain, Practice, Evaluate, Re-Practice. The only thing that makes it different from the old role playing method is the evaluation. It is a lot more comfortable and easy. And you learn a lot from it. It almost makes role playing a council setting with your companion or district. So we think this will help the mission with teaching skills! It will be awesome to see all the missionaries progression. We had a two and a half hour meeting, which usually those drag on and on. But for everyone there they all said it went by fast, and they learned a lot! Which is awesome to hear! I finally have some good news! On Saturday we were able to set Johnathan (our nine year old part member investigator) on date for February 21st!! His grandparents in Florida were finally able to establish a set date they could be here for! So that is the goal at the time! Hopefully we don't need to push it back. But we know he will make it! We were informed a couple of days ago by the assistants that we will be giving the training in Zone Conference next week! So it will be back to planning a training this week. This time we have a harder subject we have to train on getting the investigator to teach 50% of the lesson. And we don't really know where to start wit that one! We're just going to have to count on the Lord to help us! Well I hope you all have a great week! I love you!

Love, Elder Barber     

Big Changes 1-15-15

Dear family and friends,

                   It was such a great week! I am sorry that I am writing late. As you all know we were at Missionary Leadership Council in Rapid City. I love being a Zone Leader up here. When I was serving in Devils Lake I constantly desired to see the mountains. I got to the point where I named the disease as being "mountain sick." It gets tiring looking at flatness. And it is awesome this time around because I get to drive to Rapid City usually once a month, and see something obstruct my view. That always makes things easier. We had a great time at the recent M.L.C! It was a lot of fun to see everyone again. We usually arrive in Rapid City around 12:30 or 1 MST. And we had the opportunity to do service at the Journey Museum. It is a museum of the creation of the black hills, and the history of the hills. It was really interesting. Even though we spent most of our time cleaning it we got to walk through and see it after we were done. While we were doing our first session of M.L.C on Monday night we heard the announcement of the new mission change. Of how the new mission headquarters will be located in Bismarck, ND. That will be really cool. We will also be downsizing our mission. Casper, WY. Will now be a part of the Ft. Collins, Colorado mission. And Gillette, WY will be a part of the Billings, MT mission. And Sioux Falls will be a part of the Nebraska Omaha mission. This will go into affect on July 1st or just a little bit before. But I will be home, so it will not matter to me. I am thankful to be the last of the South Dakota Rapid City mission. It will be good changes for this mission, and will make it a whole lot easier on the new mission President. But as for us now we are currently planning diligently for our Zone Training Meeting that will be held tomorrow. So we will be busy for the rest of the week! We plan to get John on date this Saturday! His parents now know of a time range of the baptism. We just need to set an exact date. It will probably be around the end of February or the beginning of March! Which will be awesome! Well I hope all is well this past week. Elder Smith is doing awesome. It is fun to be companions with someone who was in the M.T.C with you. He is a hard working missionary, and pretty fun to be around! Well I love you all, and I hope you have a great week!

Love, Elder Barber 

The final four. 1-5-15

Dear Family and Friends,

                  It has been a great week! And an awesome end to a transfer! On Sunday I started my final four transfers. I have really enjoyed serving here in Grand Forks for these past 12 weeks! I have to admit it doesn't feel like 12 weeks have passed by at all. But they have and they have been awesome! Well I am sad to say that on Saturday we got a transfer call. Elder Cannon was called to go to Dickinson, ND to finish a training for a new missionary. The reason he is finishing a training is because the New Missionaries trainer got called to be the new Assistant to the President (he was previously a Zone Leader.) It was really sad to get that call. I was hoping Elder Cannon could finish his mission up here (he only had 6 weeks left.) President Anderson told me that Elder Smith will be my new companion. Elder Smith was in the MTC with me when I came out! He is a pretty great missionary and he seems to work hard and be obedient, which is always good! But here is the deal. Usually they have the Senior Zone Leader train the new Zone Leader for two transfers. Which in our case can easily be done. But since we both have 4 transfers left I get to train him for two, and I will pretty much be for sure transferred. And then he will train a new Zone Leader for two transfers and finish his mission. So that means I will probably spend my last 12 weeks in a different area. But that's okay I am going to enjoy the next two transfers! I love Grand Forks! It is a great place, and an awesome Zone! I am very excited for the next two transfers! We did really well this past week with getting members at lessons! We came away this week with 5 member present lessons! Which is usually what we got in the Casper 5th ward. So that is some improvement. Honestly it has been a struggle to get people to progress here. We still haven't set a date with John Larsen because his Grandparents from Fargo who are non-members had him stay down there for the week! So that has been rough trying to meet with him. We had a great new year! It was sad to wave goodbye to 2014, but it was awesome to welcome 2015 and all it will bring! I hope you all are doing well this week! Next week I will not be writing on Monday, but probably Thursday again. Due to MLC next week! Well I love you all!

Love, Elder Barber