Monday, July 7, 2014

Dear Family,

How was your week? Mine was great! We had the first leadership council with Pres. Dalton and then another meeting with all of the zones. Sister Dalton is great too. She doesn´t speak Portuguese, which is kind of nice. I like speaking english sometimes. Pres. Dalton showed a slide show of his life. I was impressed. He´s very humble for the kind of success he´s had. He played basketball in Powell, Wyoming. He said the coaches didn´t want him anywhere, but it was one of his goals, so he did it. Then he said that one of his goals was to graduate from Harvard. After being rejected once, he got in. THEN, he decided he wanted to graduate in the top 10 percent of the class. And he did it. He´s been the president of three companies and has given speeches in many parts of the U.S. He is a Huge (almost 7 foot), happy man. He has enough energy for the whole mission to feed off. We have a strong focus on the temple now. We´re going to take everyone to the temple. Investigators, Recent Converts and Less Actives. Everyone will be doing Family History and taking their own family names to the temple. Very cool.

 Speaking of family history. In my zone there´s an Elder Hardman. He´s from Liverpool, England. And I remember that story of our ancestor Margaret Hardman also from Liverpool. Maybe we have ancestors in common. Do you think Grandma Lynn could send me her generation chart and Grandpa Jess? 

 We´re teaching a lot about the temple. It´s a new rule for missionaries everywhere to teach the 5th lesson before and after the baptism. It´ll be very good.

 Woohoo! I got accepted to BYU. Thanks Uncle Jimmy. Now, I just need to make a final decision. 

 I love you all and I know that families can be eternal. I also know that there are many people in our family on the other side of the veil waiting for their work to be done. Keep up the great work with family history, because it truly is missionary work.

 Love you all!

Elder Barker  Vai Brasil!!!!!!