Happy New Year 1-6-14

                                     Happy New Year to you all! I hope you are all having a wonderful New Year! I hope that you all have made some awesome goals this year to bring you and your lives in closer harmony with his teachings. It has been a much better teaching week for us. We got to meet with our investigator Michael. We have discovered some new struggles that he has. So his baptismal date might be pushed back. But he did commit to seek strength from God to overcome his weaknesses. And he is still currently not married to Samantha. So we will be pushing his date back to a more realistic date. We haven't gotten to meet with Donnada for the past few weeks, but we do have an appointment with her tomorrow on Tuesday. We met with an investigator named AJ. We don't really know hsi true interest in the Church. So we will be working on finding that out. We finally got in with an investigator named Michelle and we showed her the restoration video and she said that truly helped her put Joseph Smith into a visual aspect. She told us that she believes God could call another Prophet to the Earth. So those are the successes we have had this week! We went to District Meeting this past week, we were blessed to have the Zone Leaders from Fargo attend. They were there to come on exchanges with me and Elder Anderson. I gave a training on how we as missionaries can find service opportunities. I mainly focused on finding those "un-planned" opportunities. For example helping an old lady you see put groceries away. The training and the role play definitely went well. And afterwards I had the opportunity to do a baptismal interview for an investigator for Elder Cloward and Elder Pawlenchuk in Grand Forks. He was a pretty solid and very smart investigator so of course he passed the interview. It was a really cool experience for me. Afterwards we got a call from our Branch Mission Leader warning us to stay in Grand Forks for the night. He told us that there was a terrible blizzard blowing in. But for our exchange we still headed back to Devils Lake. It was pretty scary you can only see the highway reflectors to guide you in some parts. But we made it safely home. We definitely will be more safe next time a blizzard comes through, I can promise you that!

It was also cool to learn how to be a better district leader from our Zone Leaders and get pointers and tips!

                                    Yesterday temperatures hit -55 with windchill. Obviously we stayed inside due to cold temperatures. We did walk across the street to Peter and Cindy's house just to get out of the apartment. It was so cold that your face was numb by the time you were across the street. But we had dinner with them that night and visited. Cindy got a call telling her to look at the Co-Op Bean Plant (which is the street just West of us.) We all went to the window and the Bean Plant had spiraling flames shooting out of it. So of course an event that big in Devils Lake attracts the whole entire town. We all went outside and took pictures. You could see it outside our bedroom window. So whenever I would wake up in the night I would sit up and look out the window to see if it was still blazing. It burnt until like four A.M. It is still smoking right now but you can tell it burnt the whole thing. And they shut down College Drive (the main highway that runs North.) So now 3rd Ave. NE is the new highway detour. So our boring little street is now a crazy highway. I love you all and I hope you all have a wonderful week.

Love Elder Barber

Have a Happy New Year with New Beginnings 12-30-13

Dear Family and Friends,

                                  We had a great Christmas up here in Devils Lake! It was great to see all of your faces and to talk to each one of you! It was definitely a good rejuvenation for me to talk to all of you! I miss each one of you very much. But I know that my time out in the field is being shortened. This last week I got to burn a tie the day after Christmas! I have officially been out for six months! And I think if that quarter of my mission went by that fast, I fear how fast it is going to go by once the work gets moving into the New Year! It is really weird it feels like it was an eternity ago that I was at the MTC being dropped off. And now I am six months out and it doesn't feel that long. So the mission time is slow but fast at the same time! It is crazy that at the end of tomorrow we will be beginning a new year and leaving an old year. This week was pretty slow with teaching lessons. We only taught one lesson due to the holiday and everybody being busy! We did get to teach Joyce who is a new investigator. If I remember right I have a written about her before. We had another lesson with her and showed her the restoration movie. It really helped put a lot of things in perspective for her. Our next lesson we will be bringing Sister Mitchell to fellowship her! And we are really excited about that! Me and Elder Anderson are now working on gaining the members trust in this area. We spent the rest of Christmas driving around trying to get a hold of less active members in the far away towns. This was an assignment given to us by our Branch President Christensen. It was really fun to drive around and try these people (even though we didn't get in with any of them). But I feel like we are now using the Branch better to help us with this area and our investigators. 

                                  It is exciting that 2014 will be here before the end of the week. I know that new years resolutions are something that almost everyone makes, but forgets. I think we should re-name new years resolutions as "The first two weeks of the year resolutions". But I hope that we all can make one change in our lives this new years. I hope that we can all resolve to make the Savior Jesus Christ the center of our new year. And by doing this I hope we can become more bold with those around us. To share the gospel with those who need it. To have a love for everyone around us, and help as many people as we can. I know that as each and every one of us are to center this next year on our Savior we will feel his love. It will strengthen our testimonies along with the testimonies of those around us. We all can make this the best year of our lives! I hope you all are doing well this week! I love you all and stay strong!

Love, Elder Barber 

Merry Christmas 12-23-13

Dear Family and Friends,

                                        I would first like to start out by saying Merry Christmas!! I hope you all are enjoying this Christmas season. We have been doing great work up here in Devils Lake this week. We had a great finding and teaching week! Me and Elder Anderson have been staying busy with Tracting, and teaching. I have also been staying busy this week with my new calling as District Leader. We have bridge calls every Wednesday that usually takes up an hour. I have to give area calls on Thursdays and that takes up almost two hours. And then of course we have District Meeting on Friday which takes the whole day of driving for us. But it has been a great learning experience for me. I never realized how awesome Preach My Gospel and the Scriptures really are in missionary work! Last week for District meeting I gave a training on Addressing the importance of the family in our finding efforts. I knew that when we addressed the family the doors we knocked on were more receptive to us. After giving that training me and Elder Anderson went tracting the next day. As we started addressing the families more in our finding we noticed the more success we were having! We actually hit two doors in a row that would be willing to have us come back. This past week we got to finally meet with a potential named Joyce. We had found Joyce back in October when we were still meeting with Barbra and Laura. Joyce was very receptive to us when we found her and said she would take us in and listen to our message when she wasn't so busy. Joyce said she was looking for another church to go to, and she knew a"Mormon" co-worker she used to work with. So we taught her the Restoration and we boldy comitted her to be baptized on the first lesson, and she accepted! We just have to keep meeting with her and working with her to set a date.

                                       This Christmas eason has been a wonderful time of year for me as a missionary. For once I can truly focus ALL my attention on Jesus Christ and his birth, and not focus on what I want for Christmas  or anything commercial. It sounds crazy but it isn't too bad being a missionary at Christmas time. This season I can truly be thankful for Jesus Christ and his birth. His birth meanteverything to this Earth. Jesus Christ on the Earth taught us to be thankful and love one another. It has been awesome to be a missionary where that is all you do year round. I received Mom's package as well as Sister Bolli's package. Tell her I really appreciate the hand and toe warmers and that Beef Jerky was the best.  I can't wait to talk to you this Christmas for the 45 minutes I have. I enjoyed all of the Pictures that I received from all of you! It looks like you are all having fun! I can't wait to join in on that fun for a short time! I wish you all a Merry Christmas!!

 

Love, Elder Barber

What can we give? 12-9-13

Dear Family and Friends,

                                       Thank you for all of your great letters this week! It has been a pretty good week up here in Devils Lake. It has been getting pretty cold. We had a beast of a blizzard roll through here this week. But of course that is the greatest day to go out finding! So we went and knocked on doors offering if we could shovel people out of their houses. Which was really good. We didn't get too many potentials from it, but now the people here have a different view of Mormon Missionaries. I am for sure staying warm in this crazy weather. With all the layers on the only thing that gets cold is my eyes. Icicles form on my eyelashes when I go walking around in this stuff. We stopped by at an investigators house when it was snowing. He asked us if we would assist him in helping others get their cars un-stuck. So we drove around for a couple of hours helping people get un-stuck on the roads. When we were driving around I noticed the fierce wind that was out and the blizzard we were living through. I almost felt like I was serving in a polar ice cap. It is almost hard to believe that only a thousand miles away in Arizona it is 60 degrees and nice outside. The following day after the blizzard we went out trying to help people but they had already shoveled all their walks. And the next day we were banned to leave the house because it was -30 or below. So we sat inside all day and studied and watched Church Movies.

                                      This week we met with Donnada and she is still on date. In our last lesson we shared a conference talk "I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee" by Thomas S. Monson. We also gave her Perro which is a Word of Wisdom approved Coffee drink. So she committed to live the Word of Wisdom. We haven't been able to meet with Michael in a while. And we have our investigator named Paul (he is the one that drove us around helping people) he committed to being baptized last time we met with him. Next week is transfers and I do not know if I will be transferred or not. The area is doing awesome so President might leave me here to keep on working. But I have been here since July so he might take me out. I am what they call a "wild card" in transfers this time around. If I stay we for sure get to Facetime and Skype. If I leave the area there isn't a guarantee that we could get hooked up with that. So we will know this Saturday what is to be done with me. But until then I need to keep on pushing in this area. Hopefully the weather allows me to leave the apartment. 

                                    Last night we got the wonderful opportunity to watch the Christmas Devotional. It was a very inspiring and wonderful meeting. Thomas S. Monson's talk really spoke something to me, It led me to the question "What can we give to our savior this Christmas season?" In the last General Conference address they encouraged us to find "one" person we can share the gospel with before Christmas. And I hope everyone has had the opportunity to contribute to that. I would like to echo that message just before the Christmas Holiday. I would invite you all to take that invite to heart. To pray for the guidance and help of our Heavenly Father. I can promise each and every one of you that as you do this eventually the answer will come. And will come before Christmas. May you be humble enough to follow the prompting that the spirit whispers. I hope that you can keep Jesus Christ at the center of this Holiday Season and help someone in need. Or assist a family in buying gifts for their children. Last night they gave us the message that Christmas is not about getting but the spirit of giving. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

I love you all and have a great week!

Love Elder Barber

It's getting snowy. 12-2-13

Dear Family & Friends,

                                    It has been a great week here in North Dakota. We have been receiving a lot of snow up here this week! It is a lot of fun to ride bikes out in this kind of weather and slide on the ice. The lessons have been slow for the week because of the Holiday. But we had a great week anyways! We got to do some fun exchanges this week! We got to do an exchange with the Grand Forks Elders! It was me and Elder Dibble who came back to Devils Lake and do some tracting. We didn't see too much success from the exchange, but it was still super fun! Last week was my 5 month marker! It has been a really fast five months! We got to go over to our neighbors Peter and Cindy for thanksgiving day. They had the Lions and Packers game on. Even though we didn't really watch it the score at the end was a sad score. Poor Packers. But they had a fun family to talk to, it almost felt like home! Almost. But after that we went and shared a Thanksgiving lesson with the Marshalls. It was really a spiritual message we shared. We watched the thanksgiving Mormon message with them and we went around the room asking people what they were thankful for. And of course we shared scriptures and ended the lesson. We had another Thanksgiving on Saturday with Jim and Roxanne, and their family. It was really cool because they wanted me to offer the opening prayer. And non of them are members. It was pretty cool. But right after that we went and had another dinner at Mina's house. And she really knows how to feed people! Well it is already snowing here like crazy! And I can bet that it isn't going away until May. But at least I will be having a very white Christmas.

                                   Yesterday we went to church and a lot of people couldn't make it out due to the snow, and the holiday! But there was about fifteen people in Sacrament meeting, and it was an awesome fast and testimony meeting! We had Sister Marshalls Dad and step mother in from Idaho. Elder Anderson needed to send something back to his parents so we ran over to the Marshalls after lunch to give it to Sister Marshalls Dad. Her Dad drives right through Rexburg so he will drop it off at his house. We got to talk for a little while, and Sister Marshalls Dad told us one of the funniest Story's I have ever heard. I will have to tell you on Christmas it is a pretty complex story. But afterwards we just tried potentials but we got to meet with a potential named Carol, and also Paul and his kids. So it was a great day yesterday with two lessons! We are one week from transfer calls! But I might just stay here in Devils Lake for one more term. Well it has been a great week! I will still be tracting and walking around until it hits -30 outside. It has been pretty warm lately. I hope you all have a good week!

P.S I have discovered THE greatest hot cocoa recipe. Its gonna be worth millions some day!

Love, Elder Barber

Thankful Hearts 11-25-13

C

Corey Barber

to me, Conco, Gavin, +3
19 hours ago

Details

Dear family & friends,

                                 This week has been a great week that just flew right by! Thank you for all of your letters! This week we started out going fishing in the lake. We decided to use minoes for our bait (which are little fish). It was really stupid because everytime I cast into the water the minoe would go flying another way. And we didn't catch anything and it was really cold so not the best fishing experience that day! But the lake is now frozen over and I hope to at least ice fish once before I leave this area. The temperatures have been dropping this week. The coldest it got was about 0. It was definitely fun to tract in that! A lot of people let you in when it's freezing like that. We had a REALLY busy day on Tuesday! We had an appointment in the morning that was re-scheduled. We went over to the church to practice our special musical number for Zone Conference. And thirty minutes right after that we met with Donnada and Sister Christensen at the church. And then we just had many activities through out that day to attend! On Wednesday it started blizzarding up here! We got like about a foot of snow. We drove to Grand Forks and met up with the Sisters who drove us to Fargo from there. We had a wonderful special training for trainers and trainees by President Anderson. He gave me the opportunity to do a role play of teaching the restoration on the doorstep. It was pretty nerve wracking even though we do it often. But it went pretty well! That night we stayed in a members home in Fargo their names were the Mitchells. She went to Northidge back in 2004 and grew up near home so that is always good to talk to people who know where your from! They have two cute little boys who love the missionaries. So they were definitely excited to have them sleep over for the night! We received a wonderful training throughout the day at Zone Conference! That night interviews with President ran really late and we got to stay in Grand Forks for the night at the district leaders house. The next day it had snowed a lot and was still snowing. But we were definitely blessed with safety on our ride back to Devils Lake. We got to meet with a great investigator Paul last night. It was a really good lesson to be bold in. I learned that as a missionary if you want things to go in the way you want them to go be bold. All of our investigators are doing well! Donnada is still on Date for February 7th and Michael is on date for January 25th! We are still working with and teaching them!

                                Around this time of year we have many things to be thankful for. I am definitely thankful to be a missionary in the hastening of the work. I am thankful for the gospel which gives me the plan to return to our father in heaven. I am thankful for the pioneers and their great sacrifice they made for us to be in this gospel. And I am thankful to have a prophet who leads and guides us today! I found this scripture this morning in D&C 62:7  "he shall receive this blessing, if he receive it from the hand of the Lord, with a ^bthankful heart in all things." I hope around this time of year we can all find things to be thankful for. I am also thankful for my Mission Presidents anouncement he made at zone conference. At Zone Conference he changed the Christmas Call Policy. And this year we will be allowed to Skype or Facetime for Chirstmas calls this year. I look forward to hopefully seeing you all this Christmas! The work is great and I can't complain! I hope you all have a great week!

Love Elder Barber

Jumping out of the Boat

                                       It has been another great week! The time has been flying by this week! It seems like it was literally just yesterday I was pulling up to the library and it said "closed for veterans day". This week has definitely been slow in lessons. A lot of people had fallen through. This week we were out tracting, and we knocked on a very inspired door. We knocked on it and the lady answered "Oh are you here to see Rob?" and me and my companion were like "Who is Rob?" and it turns out that it was the house of a potential investigator we have. He came to church with Laura Chew when she came to town. He has been needing a pick me up lately so we got together with Rob and the Storys and spent the evening having dinner and doing activities at their house! It was a wonderful experience! We have had plenty of time for tracting this week! And it can be pretty humorous becauause people here hate using their front door, and sometimes prefer you to use their back door. We knocked on this one door, and of course it was an older man who didn't want to talk to us anyway! We knocked the second time and he got up out of his chair and came to the door. When he tried to open the door, the door slammed into him when it opened. He then angrily rejected us. We were out knocking doors yesterday, and this guy came to the door and was like "Do you guys realize the vikings game is on?". For a second I thought he was trying to be funny, but he was totally serious! And of course I knew the Seahawks were playing them that day and I responded "Well I'm a seahawks fan" he then told me the score and was still really angry with us for interupting his game. While out tracting some older lady invited us to come to St. Josephs catholic mass they were holding that night. So we took her up on the invite. When we were on our way to mass we went and got out neighbors Cindy and Peter (who are catholic) to take us there so we knew what was going on. We knocked on her door and she answered thinking we were just coming to drop by. But I promptly told her "hey were on our way to mass" she replied "Why are you guys going to Massachussets?". We then told her we were going to the Catholic Mass at five. So it motivated her to take us to her church. It was definitely an interesting service. It is always interesting to see how other churches do their service. Of course we got stared at the whole time by all the old people around us. But it was a fun night to go check out another church!

                                     It was a great day at church yesterday! I definitly love pot luck sundays! Darryl the older man in our ward has been living here for like forty years. I always make it a game on sunday to try and get him to admit its cold outside. So far I haven't been successful with that! Everytime he always calls it "Chilly" outside. I will definitely get him one of these times! It was way nice outside this week! We got in the high thirties and the low fortys. But it will now officially start getting cold! Yesterday our investigator Donnada showed up, and pulled me and Elder Anderson outside to help her. We realized that she got to the door and dropped her dinner she had brought to the pot luck. So we helped her pick it up. After the meeting many people were saying how sorry they were for her. But she told everyone that she had learned something from it! She said that she should have asked for help with the door instead of trying to do things by herself. I was bery humbled to hear that. If it were me who had dropped it I would have been kicking myself all day for it, and feeling sorry the whole time. But she moved forward and learned a lesson from it! Donnada is back on date for february 7th, 2014. This week in district meeting we had a training on "Jumping out of the boat". We watched a video of Bednar speaking about the story of when Jesus calls Peter to walk on the water. Peter was safely inside the boat. But Peter fastened his eyes on the Savior and began to walk on the water. Peter probably had no idea he could do such a thing! But when the savior prompted him and he focused his eyes on the savior he was able to walk on the water. Us as missionaries are sometimes safe in the boat of a "lesson plan". And sometimes the holy spirit prompts us to "jump out of the boat" or in other words leave our lesson plan and follow his promptings. After learning this at district meeting I have had many opportunities to jump out of the boat. I will be sitting in a lesson and the spirit will prompt me to take it somewhere else. And when I follow these promptings we teach exactly what the investigator needs. I hope that we can all have an opportunity to "Jump out of the boat" and take those steps of faith that God needs us to take. I hope you all have a good week!

love, Elder Barber