Push Back. 9-22-14

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Corey Barber

to me, Conco
6 days ago

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Dear family and friends,

                      This has been a great week! And luckily for us we have not had any more snow! We actually have had some really great temperatures! This week we were able to meet with Janessa a few times. Before our first visit with her Elder Bench and I both felt that we should push her date back a little ways. So when we sat down with her she told us that she wont be able to be baptized this week because she was going to be out of town. We also told her that she needs to be living the Word of Wisdom, and the law of Chastity. She also had a tragedy happen in her life this week. We were able to give her a priesthood blessing, and I was the one who performed the blessing. It was absolutely amazing. It was one of those blessings where you didn't know where the words were coming from, but when it was over it was hard to have dry eyes. It really built my testimony in Priesthood blessings. We had an awesome success meeting with Monty a couple times this week! He is still struggling with the Word of Wisdom. We taught him about tithing this past week. It is really funny trying to teach Monty because you can get so side tracked so fast! We were teaching about tithing and next thing we know he's bringing out his bow and arrow to show us. So it is hard to keep him on task, but we will find a way I'm sure. I was on exchanges with Elder Black on Thursday in our area, and we didn't have a dinner appointment. Which for Casper is quite a shocker. A thought came to me to go ask Ronald for a dinner appointment, but also commit him to invite his neighbor Rose to dinner. So we acted on it as soon as we could. Ronald accepted having us over for Dinner, and he also accepted the commitment to invite Rose. He invited her and she accepted! It was awesome just to fellowship her for the evening. We were able to share a message with her about having Faith in Jesus Christ. It was awesome! Though she isn't investigating she now knows that we worship Christ and he is the Center of our Religion. We had great support from our members this past week! We taught nine member present lessons!! It was an awesome week! Well that is about all for this week! I hope you all have a great week!

Love Elder Barber

Early Winter. 9-15-14

Dear family and friends

                      It has been a great week out here in Casper! September 11th sure brought us a nice surprise from Winter! Around 6:30 A.M it was like misting outside and it was really cold! And then it quickly turned to sleet, and then of course SNOW. It was RIDICULOUS! Snow cannot be flying this early in the season. The ground was pretty hot from the summer season so it didn't start sticking until about 5 or 6. But it snowed ALL DAY LONG! It was crazy! If it was winter time we at least would have gotten a foot of snow! It was crazy! But now it is back to good temperatures! So we still get to see a nice transition into fall (at least we hope so ) But this week was a pretty awesome week! We are working with Janessa and she made the personal goal of being done with smoking by last Sunday. We are going to follow up with her tonight about how it's going. Her baptism is on Saturday the 20th so we hope she can make it! Her boyfriend Justin is still here and wont be leaving until Thursday. We love Justin don't get me wrong, but she does need to be living the Law of Chastity to its fullest. But were hoping and praying she gets baptized this Saturday. I guess you will have to wait and see what happens next Monday. I am sorry to leave you all in suspense. If it makes you feel any better I will be in suspense for most the week too! Monty was supposed to be baptized this week, but we pushed him back to October 18th! He told us he wasn't going to be able to make it any way because he will be working this whole weekend, and he still needs to be living certain commandments before baptism. But we are pretty confident he will make that Date! We have been working with Ronald lately the less active. We have really been going over there a lot to help him prepare for the temple. When I first got to this area we thought it was impossible to ever get him to come to Church. And now he is coming pretty regularly, and he is preparing to enter the temple. This last Sunday he even set up a time where he could talk to Bishop Gallup about going to the temple. The Lord has really been blessing us! Even if he did send snow this week I am confident that he loves us and he supports the work that we are doing! Well I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love, Elder Barber

Starting the Transfer Strong. 9-8-14

Dear family and friends,

                 This has been a great weak out here in the Casper 5th ward! It was weird starting off another transfer in Casper. I will try and enjoy this area as much as possible though the members are great, and I know there is a work for me to do. This past week we had a meeting set up with Monty McDaniel. We were just  a tad late to the lesson, and he called us up asking "are you coming? I have questions!" We apologized for our delay and got on our bikes and cruised on over to his apartment. When we got there he reported to us that he had been reading in the Book of Mormon. He was re-reading 1st Nephi so he could better comprehend it. While he was reading the overview of 1st Nephi at the beginning of the Book he got caught up on "The Daughters of Ishmael". He wanted to know who the Daughters of Ishmael were. So we had to give him a little overview of 1st Nephi. But it was awesome that he was reading and actually putting forth an effort! We taught Monty about the Word of Wisdom and he's got some things he will have to work through before baptism. But he has a strong desire to come to Church and he feels that this is all true! We have been teaching Janessa this past week! She is still doing pretty well! Recently her boyfriend Justin has returned from Job Core in Montana and is living in the same house as her. But he should be going back up to Montana soon. They assure us that there is no Chastity issues right now. But we will see how things will play out over the next couple of weeks. Well that is about all for this week! It is great to hear that you are all doing well. I hope the rains don't wash you all away this week! 

Love, Elder Barber 

Defying the odds. 9-2-14

Dear Family and Friends,

                      It has been another wonderful end of a great Transfer in Casper, Wyoming. This week we were able to teach Monty twice! Which was really awesome because sometimes we are lucky to only see him once! Aaron our recent convert was able to fellowship him on both visits! In each visit we hard invited Monty to come to Church! He kept telling us  "I will have to get my nice suit out". And on Sunday Monty came to Church in that nice suit! It was way cool! He told us after the meeting that he wanted to come to Church each week! So hopefully we start seeing him every week! Janessa is still looking forward to her baptismal date on September 20th! We were able to meet with her twice this week as well! We are really excited to see her get baptized! We are still working with her to get over her Word of Wisdom issues. This past Saturday were transfer calls. We had the Casper Mills Elders come pick us up to go take a media time. While we were getting ready to walk out the door we heard a phone announce that it was getting a call from one of the Assistants. It was the Casper Mills phone. Elder Wood got a call to go up to Fargo to be in an area. I knew that they usually call 5th ward in order (so if one fifth ward cell phone gets a transfer call the other phone will get one shortly after.) I expected that phone to ring, but it never rang. So it turns out I will be staying out here in Casper for another transfer. Elder Bench will be my longest lasting companion. I know that at times missionaries can get what we call "area trunky." But I know that the Lord has a purpose for me staying here. Though I can't immediately see that purpose I can trust that it is there. I am excited to hopefully see a couple of baptisms before this transfer is over. I think every member in the 5th wards jaw hit the floor to hear that I am still going to be here for another six weeks. I am truly excited for these six weeks because I know that I will learn a lot and continue to have uplifting experiences! So now is the time to get to work, and when a transfer call comes it will come! I hope you all have a great week! I love you!

Love Elder Barber

Getting by. 8-11-14

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Corey Barber

to me, Conco, jodie, +1
5 days ago

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Dear family and friends,

                       It was an alright week out here! It was kind of a slow week. We have the awesome members out here in Casper who are always willing to come teaching with us. But when we take them lessons fall through. So it was a really hard week that we just had to get by! We did end up teaching a lot of Less Active lessons which are just as good as any lesson! So all in all we taught ten lessons. Two of them being investigators. We taught Tammy this week. She is still struggling with the Word of Wisdom and it is very hard to get her to commit to church. We will continue to work with her, but she needs to start progressing or we will have to let her go. We weren't able to meet with Taylor and Cynthia this week mainly because they were in Utah. For a part of the week, and when they told us they could meet they didn't answer the door. We have been working with Ronald who is a less active. He is not less active for the typical reasons. Some of those reasons are members being offensive, and over stepping their bounds. Some reasons are they don't see how it can bless their life. There are many reasons why people are less active. Ronald is less active because of health reasons. It limits him to come to church sometimes. There was a period where Ronald was coming pretty consistently to Church. So the thought came to me "lets get Ronald to the temple". So we visit him twice throughout the week every week. And we read over the temple preparation booklet. The progression with Ronald has been amazing these past few weeks. He has actually located his floppy disks which have his genealogy on them. And he took them to Church yesterday, and he stayed the entire three hours. At this rate he will be able to attend the temple by next year. We are also visiting with Sister Groso. She is an older lady around 80. She has been a member her whole life, but went inactive at a young age. She still doesn't go to Church for personal reasons. But we visit her twice a week as well. She is a widow and she loves our visits! But she tells us she wont come to church, but she loves the feeling she gets when we teach her. So hopefully the Spirit will work with her enough to convince her to come to Church one of these weeks. Yesterday evening we had a General Priesthood meeting. Stake President Smathers announced that the Church has purchased land here in Casper. He didn't specify for what reason. But it was really exciting news! Well that is about it for the week! I love you all and have a wonderful and safe week!

Elder Barber

Baptism 8-4-14

Dear family and friends,

                  It has been a great week this week! On Tuesday we had the baptism of Aaron and Erika! That was an awesome experience to baptize them. Aaron and Erika were very prepared for this gospel. At the baptism we were a little late starting because we were waiting for Erika's mom to show up. She had gotten out of work late and was rushing to the stake center. Her mom is a non-member so it was really cool to have her there. Her mother was in tears at the very beginning when we had a talk on baptism. You could tell that she was feeling the spirit strong. We had a great service, and right after we had some awesome refreshments. Chocolate covered cake balls are officially one of my favorite desserts now! Right after the baptism the earth was then baptized it started pouring crazy hard outside of the church! It has really been a stormy week out here! I can't believe how fast this transfer is going. We are starting week 4 out of 6 this week! It has really cruised by! But that is mainly because we are teaching a lot more than we used to! This week we started teaching Janessa who is engaged to a less active member named Justin. Justin is Dave Martons step son (so Cynthia's son). We taught her the Restoration and committed her to pray about the Book of Mormon. We followed up a couple of days later, and she had actually read! She said when she prayed about the Book of Mormon she felt "butterflies" in her stomach. It never ceases to amaze me when somebody prays about the Book of Mormon and receives an answer. It just shows that if you have real intent you can know of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. It is Gods promise to all of us that he will manifest the truthfulness unto us by the Power of the Holy Ghost. We met with Tammy this week, and it is still a struggle to get her to come to Church. But we figure we just need to be more persistent with her. Well I hope all is well at home. I wish all of the students luck at the beginning of this school year. I also wish all of the teachers luck as they start this year! It is crazy that school is back in session. Those 3 months of summer probably went faster for me than those school kids ;). Well I love you all and I hope you have an excellent week!

Love, Elder Barber   

 

Aaron and Erika and Elder Bench and I

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Blessed. 7-28-14

Blessed

InboxCorey's Mission Letter and Pictures

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Corey Barber

to me, Conco
6 days ago

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Dear family and friends,

                      Thank you so much for all of your letters this past week. We had such a great first week of the transfer! This transfer I wanted to work as hard is I could and push hard to reach high goals and break personal records. This past week was a great blessing! We had a lesson with Erika and Aaron we taught them the Word of Wisdom. Both of them knew this lesson was going to come sooner or later. The lesson went over really well, and it turns out they have been trying to quit drinking tea and coffee this past week! At the end of the lesson Erika and Aaron pulled out all of the tea and coffee in the house and we put it into a glass bowl. After we gathered it all we went out and threw it on top of their garden for fertilizer! It reminded me a lot of the Boston Tea Party. If I were to give this event a name I would call it "The Casper Tea and Coffee Party". Tea and Coffee may not be good for the body or the belly, but it sure is good for your tomatoes! We also got a new investigator named Norm. His wife was recently Less-Active and is trying to become more active. Norm has had the discussions before, but he feels like maybe he should get baptized. So we will give it a shot! We sure do have a good fellow shipper for him! We took Brother Munger over to his house, and he loved him to death! And when I say love I mean that after the lesson was over he had to go hug him. You know you have a good fellow shipper when hugs are given! Norm is pretty cool he has a huge guitar collection. He told us that every time we come teach him he will show us a new guitar. Last time he showed us his "Jetson" Guitar. It was pretty retro and cool looking! He told us of see through guitar he has! I can't wait to see that one! When we were taking Brother Cassity out teaching with us we were able to get in with Brian again. He has been doing awesome with his Book of Mormon reading! He is already in 2nd Nephi. It is just a struggle to get him committed to come to church. He has a concern with organized religion. We tried to address it to the best of our abilities, but he still would not commit!  So we will continue to work with him and try and get him to try it at least once! We know that if he does come to church he will be able to feel the spirit if he comes! Last night we also got in with Erica. We thought she was a really solid potential, but it turns out she is an inactive member of the Church. She wanted us to drop by so we could teach Mike her non-member husband! We were actually able to talk with Mike and Erica for a little bit! She said she would give us a call when she would like us to come over! We hope she comes through with that! We really would like to begin teaching Mike! Well that is about it for this week! I love you all, and have an excellent week!

Love, Elder Barber