Monday, January 27, 2014

Dear Family,

Good to hear from you as always! I´m doing great. We´re seeing miracles in the ward, it´s been really neat. We had two baptisms this weekend as a result of reactivation. The mother is coming back into activity and we baptized her two daughters. It was really neat, now it´s just the father that needs to cut the coffee.

 The attendance has been about 150 these last few sundays, which is good for this ward. The ward has already passed the number necessary to split, but we need to reactivate a few more priesthood holders and we need more full tithe payers. But from what we´ve heard, when the attendance is 180, they can split the ward. So that´s what we´re working for.

I love the scripture Helaman 3:35 that says:
Nevertheless they did ^afast and ^bpray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their ^chumility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the ^dpurifying and the ^esanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their ^fyielding their hearts unto God.

I´ve learned a lot about yielding my heart to God. It´s not just about doing the right things, but doing the right things for the right reasons. I´ve really felt a change in my heart. Love you all and have a great week!

Elder Barker

Monday, January 20, 2014

Dear Family,

This week was hectic, which is normal. When Monday comes I can´t even believe another week has passed by. The Lord´s work is non stop. 

 Sounds like Bridger had a good learning experience for the mission. It´s good to always have a talk ready to go, because one day he´ll be on the mission and the bishop will show up and say, Èlder, the last speaker didn´t show up, can you fill in? And he´ll have to pull of a 15 minute talk. 

 Closed the Riverton Office? Has it been a good thing or a bad thing so far? Sounds like a lot of work for you mom.

 Where is Jemini going? I´m proud of him. And I can´t believe Jack will be getting home this week. 2 years is really a short amount of time. And it´s only 2 seconds in God´s time. I´m so grateful for the opportunity to serve. 

 Congrats for the missionary work, keep it up! You guys are awesome. I returned to Cipó on an exchange last week. It is really strange to go back, but we had a really cool experience. The Elders there are teaching a family that is passing summer break here. The Husband is doing some work and the wife and son just came along. It was a last second thing that they didn´t even plan. They didn´t even pack bags because it was so fast. Anyway, it wasn´t for nothing that they ended up here for the break. They stayed in the house of a member, who invited them to church. They had always heard bad things about Mormons, but they decided to go. They loved the church and went the next sunday, too. And it just so happens that they were batpized and confirmed this last weekend. They said that it was the most gratifying month of their lives´and that they´ll return home with something greater than they had ever imagined from this trip. 

 It was a testament to me that God has a great plan for all of us. Coincidences don´t exist, and if we´re worthy and diligent He´ll put us where we need to be.

Love you all, and hope you have a great week!

Elder Barker

Monday, January 13, 2014

Dear Family,

Sounds like a full week! Thanks for the report, Mom. Good Luck and be safe with alll those snowy roads. It´s been so hot here these last few days, you wouldn´t believe it. 

Busy, busy, busy. I feel like I ran non-stop the whole week. The new sisters arrived in Parelheiros. Sister Thornhill and Sister M. Silva. They both have less than two months here in São Paulo. We had a hectic day of moving into our new house and moving the Sisters into theirs on the same day. We arranged for some members to help them in these first few days before the get to know the area. I had a meeting in Santo Amaro and we had another meeting in Cipó with Pres. Pinho, so I feel like I didn´t even get to work in my area this week, but I really learned a lot. I´m seeing the importance of true conversion in missionary work. That this mission is really meant to change my life as well as my investigators. 

 I can´t believe Jack will be getting home next week. That is so crazy. And Ben Smith had told me about Brayden, that´s too bad. Hope he makes it back out.

I still haven´t gotten any packages, maybe Pres. Pinho is holding them.... No, just kidding. They´ll get here some day ;) But all is good. Love you all, and I bear my testimony that Christ lives and that the Atonement and His grace is sufficient for every one of us. Satan promised to destroy the world and he is fulfilling his promise, but we don´t have to worry, because Christ is on our side. We can have peace in a world of turmoil and sin, because He is the Prince of Peace. He will return and this world will receive it´s paradisiacal glory. Sou muito grato por este evangelho na minha vida.

Love, Elder Barker

 

P.S.- I heard Pres. Dalton lives in California and he graduated from Harvard.

 

Monday, January 6, 2014

Dear Family,

How´s everyone doing? Thank you for the pictures and everthing. I didn´t get the packages yet, but I´m anxiously waiting! I didn´t get transfered, but I received a new companion named Elder Loredo. He´s from Nicaragua and he´s the first missionary from Nicaragua to serve in Brasil. He´s awesome, and he´s been here six weeks, so I´ll finish his training. I also live with a new Elder named E. Castro, he´s from Ecuador. So my spanish is going to get good. The ward here is going to have us 4 Elders and 2 Sisters now. It should be good. The ward is excited. We´re just waiting to move this week so that the Sisters can move into our house.

Happy Birthday Mia! I can´t believe she´s going to turn ten. I sent a letter for her, so hope she gets it soon. I remember saying happy birthday to her from the MTC and that seems like yesterday. 

Oh Big News!

Elder Dean made it down to Brasil! He was Elder Steadman´s companion in the MTC, but went home for a while. And he made it back on the mission! He´s from Alaska.

Pres. Pinho also said that our new mission president already received the call to serve here. All I know is that his name is Pres. Dalton and I think he´ll be coming in June or July.

The new year was good, I was exhausted and didn´t even wake up for the fireworks. But they partied pretty hard here.

We are in the Cipó Zone now. The zone was divided so now I´ll be doing exchanges in Cipó again. It´ll be cool to go back every once in a while.

Love you all, have a great week!

Elder Barker

1 Corinthians 9:24- show this scripture to Jesse. It´s about winning!

 

Monday, December 30, 2013

Querida Familia,

Man, it was really great to talk with you all. You´re all looking great! And Jesse´s voice is sounding manly. Everyone talked about how beautiful you are, Mom. They always say, she looks so young! 

 It was great! I´m sorry for my lack of tact and awkwardness. I was struggling a little bit. I´ll brush up on the English before Mother´s day. And tell Zoe I miss her too!

Christmas was awesome. We went caroling at the Bus Station (Terminal Grajau) with our zone and one other zone. And then we went walking down the streets giving pass a long cards and singing. It was a good time. The only down side was the heat and I was wearing a suit and a santa hat. It was rough. 

We had 3 baptisms and confirmations this weekend. It was a very special experience and a great way to close out 2013.Their names are Katherine, Nick and Elisa. Eliza´s baptism was really a miracle. There was an incident on the day of the baptism and I thought that there was no way she would be baptized. Her family is basically anti mormon, but all was well in the end. I´m so happy for the decision they made.

What?? Matt´s engaged? He didn´t say anything to me yet. I just knew that they were dating. But I´m happy for him and it sounds like he is doing well.

Have fun in St. George! and Happy New Year! 2014 is gonna be a good one.

Thank you for all you do for me and all of your support!

 

Transfer this week, never know what´s going to happen... Parelheiros is going to have 6 missionaries now. 

 

Love, Elder Barker

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.

Monday, December 9, 2013

Dearly beloved family,

Happy birthday for Jesse this week! He´s getting old... is he getting any bigger? Hope you all celebrate well.

How are things back in the cold? It´s super nice here. About 80 degrees today. Had one day that it got up to 100 last week, and it was one the hardest days on the mission. All of my short sleeve shorts were washing or very dirty, so I was in a long sleeved shirt in the hottest day of my mission so far. Every single appointment fell through, so we were in the street the whole day (we entered into one house the whole day). And to top it all off we had a zone fast. It was a struggle. But the Lord really blessed us for our efforts and this last week was full of miracles. We had 4 baptisms in the ward, between the two companionships, and many more people with potentiel for this next week. 

The ward is getting more excited about missionary work and everyone is giving referrals and sharing the gospel. 

I haven´t heard anything about Christmas yet, but I´m sure I´ll be able to Skype. It will probably be in the afternoon.

Another blessing this week is that I get to go to the temple again. I don´t know why, usually it[s every three months, but I´ve been able to go a bunch lately. 

Elder Steadman got transfered to my zone now, I´m excited about that. I think we´ll get to work together a little bit. 

Love you all and hope you are all healthy and happy. And if you aren´t happy, just share the gospel with someone and you´ll cheer right up! 

Something that we learned with Elder Mazzagardi is that angels are always with us. And they record our testimonies. In DC it also says that our sins will be forgiven when we bear our testimony. I think it´s DC 63:2 or 62:3. So, I bear my witness that this church is the kingdom of God on the earth. I know that this church was really established by Jesus Christ and the Joseph Smith was called as a prophet. Let´s share it with everyone!

Love, Elder Barker

Give Jesse a big hug for me and tell him that I´m very proud of him and so happy to have him as a brother