Josh's current address is 51 N 2nd St. Apt 310 Stroudsburg, PA 18360. Packages and letters will be safer going to the mission home. The mission home address is 721 Paxon Hollow Road Ste. B, Broomall, PA 19008. Keep in mind that there will be a delay because it take some time to get packages and letters from the mission home to Josh.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

11/18/2013

Dad,
that's pretty cool about the Masons i am so excited for Justin! what is his address in the field? i know he will be going to the MTC for 6 weeks.

i would take pictures but honestly there is nothing to see haha. it is kind of in the middle of nowhere and all so many parts of the towns i serve in are falling apart:/ Philly is about a 2 hour plus drive away so i have not seen it at all except for the airport. President Anderson and his wife are going to be coming around for christmas presents i believe. she sent an email, meant for the families, to the missionaries by accident and it said their plans for it haha. December 18th, give or take a few days, every single companionship will be getting iPhones and every single missionary will be getting an iPad!!! we will have our own iPad for the duration of our mission and we will be using skype and facetime to teach! we would have to go to the church for a wifi connection of course but it is pretty exciting! We will be the first mission in the North East to have them. 

Tuesday we went to what was called the Soul Kitchen at a church in Hazleton, where the Spanish speaking elders live, and helped serve food. the missionaries go every time but it was just my first time. it was a really cool experience but i was so surprised by how impatient and how ungrateful people were to get FREE food! there were also a lot of people who were truly grateful and that was so great to see. the minister who runs it loves the missionaries and appreciates us helping out. Unfortunately we were unable to meet with our set appointment for David (we met him the Wilson's first day here at Angelo's) because he would not answer his phone. We were able to meet with a less active computer genius Brother Hyland who, like most of the people who live here, is having a really hard financial time right now but he is really cool and loves to talk for sure haha. this week was pretty slow honestly. all of our set lessons except one did not happen because people either got sick or forgot or "forgot" or weren't there. an investigator who requested a visit from the missionaries on mormon.org and lived in our area (we thought) apparently lives in Pittsburgh so we sent his info to the missionaries out there.  Saturday we went to the Adult session of stake conference and President Anderson was there and he talked to me for a bit after. Sunday we had Stake Conference and that was really cool we had to drive about an hour away to go to this High School in Reading to use the Auditorium there. it was pretty huge it had an upper level haha.  i don't know if i told you last week or not but Zane was ordained to the office of Priest and will pass the sacrament this coming sunday most likely and Brother Roman (our branch mission leader) became an Elder! Last night we met with Joe Kalista -- the guy who wanted to take us to the Penn St game -- and had dinner with him and his wife. we had roast and mashed potatoes so i was happy:) it was fun but he just kept telling elder parker to let him introduce him to Penn St people. it was pretty funny. 

i'm trying to focus and be a good missionary my studies in the Book of Mormon have helped even when Jacob is comparing Isiah (Jacob was way too smart haha) keep me in your prayers i still need them a lot haha. i love you all!

Elder Barker

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Email from 11-11-13

Note from Amber:  Last Monday, Josh found out that a close friend of his passed away, so this last week was hard on him.  His faith is amazing, and we are very proud of the eternal perspective he has maintained during this time.  

Dad,

This last sunday was exactly what i needed. Sister Molano talked about temple work and how others have had experiences where some one who has passed on is now doing missionary work for others on the other side. 
This past week was not as productive because of well.. yeah. Monday was not exactly my perfect day... and we were just sitting around and then a sister called us and asked if we could come over now and help her move the rest of her stuff after she broke into her old place (her landlord locked her out because it was a few weeks after she was supposed to be out). we had an appointment at 7:30 with an investigator though so we told her we had to leave by no later than 7. After that we went to this artist's, from new york, house and he gave a tour of his home and art studio and it was huge! i didn't think something nice was in Tamaqua haha. after the tour he took us to La Dulce Casa (or Demagio's) and it was a pretty nice italian restaurant and we talked about what we do. he started almost lecturing us about Catholism though and then he apologized saying, "sorry i went into lecture mode. yous guys are supposed to be teaching me!" -- yes people say yous out here, as well as warsh (or wash) and instead of semi truck it is a tractor trailer-- but he is a really cool guy and wants to meet with us again. 

Friday we were able to meet with Zane's sister and brother in law and they have so many questions so that is really cool.  Sandy's (Zane's fiance) daughter Lianna reminds me so much of Daisy except a bit more shy and it is so hard not to play with her because i miss Daisy and Emmy so much :( They fed us Lasagna though and it was good and were very welcoming and we actually got in pretty late because the lesson was just going so well it was hard to leave but they invited us to come back this Friday.  Yesterday we had dinner at the Hulls and we had Venison roast and mashed potatoes :) yes i had deer haha. it was really good. later we were calling people to try and hopefully set things up for this week and Joe Kalista picked up (the guy who wanted to take us to Penn St) and was asking if he could talk to President Anderson himself about the possibility of taking us to a game. he really wants to take us and i would love to go so bad but it is very very unlikely, but he did invite us for dinner this Sunday so that was good:)  this week is definitely going to be better than last week.

 President Molano talked to Elder Parker and I about everything that happened and told me that the adversary is trying very hard to stop me from being here on this mission at this time very hard and it is up to me on what i want to do. i want to work i want to serve. i know that if i consecrate my time fully to the Lord that He will provide for me. I can do all things through Christ who giveth me strength. I know that this is true and i know that the Lord has plans for me that Satan doesn't want accomplished. i have said it before though, nothing satan throws at me will deter me from doing the work of the Lord. I love this gospel and i know it is true. don't worry about me dad. i am okay. God is watching over me and yesterday he sent an angel to comfort me.

I love you all,
Love,
Elder Barker


Josh's mission plaque is finally up in the church!