Hello Everyone!

Hope all is going well back home. Everything is fantastic here. I had a great P-day. We got to go to the temple and get a lot of other stuff done at the residence and stuff. We have TRC tonight, where we teach members that speak Portuguese. It's also really cool. Last week we had a couple from Sao Paulo and they were super nice. Our teacher said they'll probably have more Brazilians there tonight so I'm excited. Thank you so much for all the letters and packages! I love getting anything you send. I have so much candy and cinnamon rolls and stuff, I can't help but feel loved (even if I'm not) ;). Sounds like all the kids are doing good. They're all champs. How's Dad doing? Haven't heard a whole lot from him. We got to host for the first time this week. That was pretty fun. One of the Elders I hosted was from Colorado. I could kind of tell that there was something a little bit different with his family when we were at the car. The parents weren't exactly thrilled to be there and it just felt different. Well, after talking to him for a little while I found out that he had gone to the University of Wyoming and joined the church there about a year and a half ago. He is the only member in his family and his parents weren't very excited about him going on a mission. He told me how he found the church through one of his friends and he said he never thought he'd be serving a mission. He's heading to Las Vegas, English speaking. He's an awesome guy and I was glad I got to meet him. It made me realize how good I've had it all my life and how blessed I am to have a family that supports me and raised me in the church. It's also a testament to the reality and truthfulness of this gospel. That a 20 or 21 year old guy that has no reason to be serving a mission is leaving everything behind for two years to go share the gospel. So that was a really cool experience. Let's see... Dave Evans came and spoke to us on Tuesday. He's on the Missionary Board with Elder Holland and Elder Nelson. He gave a great talk and presentation about faith and miracles, especially on a mission. I also sang in the choir for that devotional. It was a really cool experience. We sang 'Lead Kindly Light'. I wasn't very familiar with that song, but after practicing it for a few days it became one of my favorites. It has a wonderful message about giving up our own will and desires to follow Christ. The chorus says 'Lead thou me on', it's a great song. We also got a new MTC Presidency this last week. We have President Nally, 1st counselor President Hacking and then President Roach. They're all very impressive men. We had 19 missionaries from our Zone get reassigned this week. It's a mix of West Virginia, Alabama, New York City, Tampa, Florida, and Oklahoma City. So they're all over the place. They leave on Monday and Tuesday. If I get my reassignment at the same time they did then it should be in about 12 days. I finally saw Wade Eyre this week so that was sweet. He's been here for two and a half weeks and I just barely saw him. Justin Covington is here too so it's always fun to see them. Isaac comes over to my residence sometimes at night so we get to see each other pretty often. He's doing really well. He's a district leader and his Spanish seems to be coming along pretty good. So I don't know if I told you about Greg Olson, but he came and spoke to us around Christmas. He's a really famous artist. All of his paintings are awesome. I want you to go look up some of them. I think my favorite is one of Christ laying down looking up at the stars, it's really neat. I think you all would like it. Oh yeah, I guess Ashlyn Jorgensen got her call. She's going to New Jersey, Morristown Spanish speaking, I think. She reports May 1. I'm excited for her! Well I'm out of time. I'll talk to you all soon. Mom, do you need anything from me? The picture and scripture work out all good? Just let me know if not. Love you all!

Elder Barker