Monday, July 29, 2013

Hey hey,

How´s everyone doing? Man this last week was super good. Carol was baptized Saturday and confirmed on Sunday. Gabriel, her brother baptized her. He´s 16 and she´s 18. Gabriel blessed the Sacrament too, it was super cool. They´re awesome. They´re both going to be great missionaries here in a couple years. Their other brother is ready to be baptized too. He´s 20 and he´s living with his girlfriend right now, but we have a Family Night there tonight and we´re going to help them mark a date for marriage. His girlfriend wants to be baptized too! 

    Man the Buckner Reunion sounds like it was a blast. I want that video that Uncle Jimmy made ;). Summer sounds like it´s a bunch of fun, and that´s exciting all the new stuff with the house and the trailer. Does Grandpa have a lot of hay this year? And how does the barn look?

I spoke in church yesterday. I spoke about love and charity and how it is at the heart of missionary work. I was feeling pretty good about it, but then afterwards I realized that no one really understood what I was saying... It was a shame. But I think the main message got across ;) Oh! It´s Kenzee´s birthday this week! Happy birthday gizmo. Holy smokes, 18? Hope she has a good one, even though she already got a car.

   I love you all. I´m so grateful for all of your support and love. The Lord really has a plan for us, isn´t that amazing? He knows us personally and he knows exactly what we need to experience in order to reach our potential. I had a really special experience this week with an inactive woman. We just taught the Restoration and bore testimony of the first vision. Her attitude changed a lot by the end of the lesson. She started to cry and told us that she knew she needed to come back to church. There are so many members that are just waiting for someone to call them back church. Join in the Rescue like Presidente Monson says! 

Love you all, Elder Barker

P.S. Don´t hack my email MoM! 

Hahahaha jk You can look all you want. But really, don´t worry about me, I´m doing great.

Pictures next week I promise.... I´ll try.

 

Hey Everyone!

Are my emails really that weak? I just got some rebuking reading your emails. ;) I´ll try to do better. I´ll send pictures next week... I need to take some pictures. So... Lorena didn´t get baptized yet. She is doing everything right, already a member basically, but she says she just doesn´t have a desire to be baptized. Strange isn´t it? We think it might have something to do with her family, but we´re not sure. We have some good ward missionaries that I think will help her out.

 Have I already told you about Gabriel? Well he was baptized about a month ago and he´s awesome. He does visits with us almost every day. He´s 16 and he can´t wait for his mission. Anyway, his sister Carol is going to baptized this week. She was very hesitant and then one day she just came out and told us that she got an answer to her prayers! She had a really cool experience and asked a very specific question, and she got a clear answer. We´re excited for her. Just need to help their parents get married now.

   So my area is really cool. It´s a lot closer to everything than Cipó, so that´s nice. We have a some little favellas here, but they´re all really safe. Our house is really cool. We have an awesome view of the Repreza de Guarapiranga. My companion is Elder Nogueira. He´s from Minas Gerais. It´s a big state up North a little bit. His family has a farm there and he really likes horses. He says it´s more like the Wyoming of Brasil. He speaks English really well.

Did you have other questions? I forget. Yeah Mom, you can send me those recipes, that would be awesome;). Kenzee got a car? Que Bolsta. Jesse is liking golf huh? I remember I went quite a bit with Isaac and Matt when I was his age.

Life is good, it feels like yesterday that I was emailing you, but another week já passou. Love you all. I know that Jesus Christ lives and loves us. We are so lucky to have the gospel in our lives. The gospel and the sacrifice of Christ are the solution to all of the world´s problems.

I´ll talk to you soon! Elder Barker



Favellas (slums or shantytown)

Repreza de Guarapiranga

Monday, July 15, 2013

Hey Everyone!

Happy anniversary Mom and Dad! You are the best parents in the world. Did you go anywhere cool this weekend?

And Happy Birthday Dad! Love you and hope it´s a good one! And for Amber too!

Things are good here. Elder Nazareth was transfered so I´ll have a new companion tomorrow here in my same area. It´ll be my 8th already. I´m really excited to work here in this ward. There are some great people here and we have a lot of potential to grow. We´re working with a lot of less active families and families where not everyone is a member. I´m learning a lot about the love of the Lord. He never gives up on us, no matter how far we think we´ve strayed. I´ve had some great experiences here already. We´re going to continue to build Zion here in São Paulo ;) Love you all, and I´ll talk to you soon!

Elder Barker

Monday, July 8,2013

Hey!

Good to hear from you as always! Sounds like 4th of July was a blast. I heard some fireworks but I think it was still about Brasil soccer. But I was on an exchange with an American named Elder Baisden. We celebrated with a pizza. And you can´t email Isaac. He´s in the wild. He can email at the end of the 6 weeks is what he told me. OH! I got the Barker Reunion package! It came pretty fast, 2 weeks? Man, it was Awesome! A whole lot of sunshine for sure. I loved everything, especially the letters, it was great to hear from everyone. Can´t believe Kenzee and JJ ate at Elements, they don´t deserve it. 

 

Desculpa, mandei errado. Foi mal. 

Anyway, we had a mission conference this last week. It was sweet. We have 105 missionaries now instead of 205. Both of my companions from the MTC are in other missions now, it´s crazy. I´m glad I stayed in Interlagos with President Pinho. Our mission has a great reputation, and Pres. Pinho has a lot to do with it. He is a great motivator and he talks to us all personally. You wouldn´t think that he has 100 other missionaries and things to worry about. The ward I´m in now is really good. We have a baptism this week, her name is Lorena.  She was Adventista, but when she moved to São Paulo she moved in with her Aunt that is a member. She´s 17 and she´s already in the middle of Alma in the Book of Mormon. We´re also going to get to couples married this week, well that´s the plan. The process here is a little bit more difficult. They have to marry in what´s called the Cartorio. It delays a lot and in some places it´s really expensive. But it should work out good this week, it´s going to be a great blessing for their families. I love you all. I´m so grateful for this work and for our Savior.

Love, Elder Barker

 

P.S. Evanston didn´t Burn Down on the 4th?

Monday, July 1, 2013

Hey Family!

You know it makes the mission a lot easier knowing I have my family praying for and supporting me! Love you all so much. Sorry I made you worry with the last e mail hahaha it really wasn´t a big deal. Tudo Beleza! All is beautiful :) I´m feeling great and working very well with Elder Nazareth. We live with two other missionaries and they´re awesome, Elder Assis e Mariano. I bought a hammock this week too, so our house is sweet. I love my hammock. Did you hear about Isaac? Holy smokes he´s going to some Island without water and power for the next transfer. He´s excited, but pray a little extra for him. Alumni tournament sounds like it was fun! Why didn´t my boys win it? A shame. Hey do you think you could send me my priesthood line of authority. I´m curious and I don´t have it here. Brasil was pretty crazy last night because of the soccer game against Espanha. It was the final, and  I got just a little taste of what the world cup will be like. EVERYBODY watches the games and shoots fireworks and it will be even crazier next year. We also had some protests here recently against the government with prices for transportation and stuff, we haven´t been affected by it much, but it´s pretty interesting. Oh, I´d love to get monte´s and megan ´s  emails por favor. How´s everything with my bank account? My card is still good to use? Thank you so much for all you do! It´s been raining for about a week now, everything is always wet, but the work is going great. We baptized and confirmed Marcelo this weekend, he turned 8 this week and his brother and uncle were already baptized. Don´t worry, we´re teaching the parents too ;) the only reason they haven´t been baptized yet is casamento... marriage. But it will be very soon! Love you all, this work is amazing!

Elder Barker