Monday, December 16, 2013

Dear Family,

So good to see all the pictures and hear from you! Except about Zoe´s accident, that´s so sad. I can´t believe Christmas is coming. Time flies. 

One year has come and gone. That is insane. It just so happened that I got to go to the temple on my mission birthday and it was awesome. Elder Steadman is the only other American in my group and he was at the temple too. So we celebrated with the Shurrascaria, The rodizio grill close to the temple. We even bought the expensive drinks and dessert. Mango with milk (rocks), and the dessert was ice cream and fried banana. Worth it.

And I did burn some shirts. Not because I hit one year, but becuase the mold is attacking from every direction in my wardrobe. A problem I never dealt with in dry Wyoming. But I´m learning how to counter attack it now. 

I spoke in church yesterday about being perfect like Christ is perfect. I love the scripture in Moroni 10:32-33. Perfection is a process. It doesn´t happen all at once. I like the example of learning to play the piano. Nobody can play a song on the piano perfectly without a lot of practice. We practice, make a lot of mistakes, but we get better. We progress and one day we will be perfect. 

Remember that we are living in a magic time! The hastening is happening. Now is the moment for missionaries and members to work together!
We´re seeing miracles here in Parelheiros because the ward is excited about missionary work!

Love you all and I´ll be seeing you soon! 

Elder Barker

Ps- Everybody will receive packages at the christmas meeting next week. But I´m excited! Thank you so much.