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