Email from 3/24/14

Hey Dad

That's really cool about Colbie going on a mission just after a year of being baptized and that's really cool that she is going to the same place as Elder Steingraber.

As far as the family pictures go, you can ask what the Tuis did for Jake's wedding haha. Oh and for the member missionary thing, you should get "The Power of Everyday Missionaries." It's a great book that President wants us to read and it talks about how members can do missionary work in their everyday lives that isn't so "scary" as missionary work tends to sound like haha. Bonus: all the proceeds of it go to the missionary fund!

Oh so what is going on with Russia. I've heard a lot but I hear WWlll is gonna happen pretty soon if Russia gets greedy with Ukraine.

Anyway,

So this week, like many others, had good and bad. 

Monday after p-day we went to FHE at the Dean's and we ended up talking about eternal marriage for the most part.

Tuesday we had a lesson with Jackie and it went really well! She was able to find a lot of questions that she needed answered just by reading the Book of Mormon with us! We then got to teach Mikey about the 10 commandments and we took him through the hand signs which he seemed to enjoy. He told us that he had prayed about the Book of Mormon and that he found for himself that it is true. It was great hearing that from him.

Wednesday we had another lesson with Jackie and we read 1 Nephi 14 with her and her daughter's boyfriend. He had a lot of questions that the plan of happiness will answer. It was really cool to see Jackie help answer some of the questions that he had. After that I went on exchange to Wilmington, Delaware; about a year ago was the 4th most dangerous city in America. That was a lot of fun:) all the appointments were Spanish speaking though so I was able to understand what was going on but if I spoke the other elder would translate. Elder Paulsen and I though had such an awesome time we got along too well haha. He's a funny kid, he's going to go to BYU-I after so he will be married after his 1st semester there. 

Thursday we were going to do our weekly planning but elder Taylor was feeling too stressed so I asked him if he wanted to go for a run and he said he'd love to so we got changed and he wanted to go a nearby state forest so we drove there and got out and just ran in the forest. It was a nice day and as much as I hate running, running in forests is pretty nice. We then went on splits and I got to go to dinner with a family (the Mayes) and she made meatloaf which was really good. 

Friday before our weekly planning we met with Jackie - she lives right below us haha - and she was feeling stressed about what to do. We watched the Daily Bread series with her and we just sat there letting the Spirit work on her. It may have 4-5 minutes before she said anything but she said she knew what she needed to do and we talked with her about the Holy Ghost and how we can receive His guidance more when we are baptized. 

Saturday was a service day. Started at 8 with the Kemptons. He is building some garden boxes and so we helped fill some. After carrying the wood he was going to use, we grabbed a wheelbarrow and filled it with dirt and mulch and mixed it by hand and then wheeled it over 100 yards to the garden boxes and dumped it. After 2 hours our arms were pretty tired. But then we got some study time in and then went to the Mack's and helped clear some space for their garden and killed some moles that were burrowing there. After that we brought the axes and started chopping wood. A lot of wood. A lot of wet wood. It was pretty hard but it was fun. Then we went to the Aydelotte's and helped Sister Aydelotte in the garden tilling and getting dirt from grass roots. It felt like I was in our yard doing that. It was relaxing but listening to sister Aydelotte talk about gutting rabbits was a bit different. I'm sure they make good eatin' haha. 

Sunday was the last Sunday in the building for 8 months or so and we will be going to the stake center at 2:30 from now on. I always thought 1 was late. But we were able to have a good lesson with Jamie & Nicole. Jason and Noelle (she got baptized a few months ago) were there as well helping us teach.  they will be engaged soon I'm sure, elder Taylor and I think that he is going to propose when they go to general conference together. The lesson went well we were able to clear up their concerns for Joseph Smith and why he was needed. We get to teach them the Law of Chastity to them next time, apparently elder Taylor and Roberts really made it awkward last time so I'm just gonna have to be more mature and tell them of why we do this and use the "Family: A Proclamation to the World" pamphlet we have. They're really funny haha. After we went to visit an investigators daughter and we talked with her for a bit. She was really receptive and she committed to be baptized in April! It was really great:) I'm excited for this area!

I hope you are all doing well! 

Love,

Elder Barker

Ps how is March madness going? This is my first year since I was like 5 not filling out a bracket and it's weird. 

ALSO when you can please send my Space Jam pillow case haha. The one I have is tearing in a few places haha thank you guys!