Email from 8/4/14

Hey Dad, 

Yes i did get the pants thank you so much they are very comfortable and were much needed. so do you have the address for the house? i'll have to know when you move because i need to tell President that my address and ward (possibly stake) is changing. I am excited to see all the new changes when after my mission but i know i'm where i need to be right now. I'll get the card this Thursday we are having our zone conference then and so they bring mail from the mission home so as long as it says Elder Josh Barker instead of just Elder Barker i should get it because there are two Barkers now but soon just me. The Elders around me are all older than me and are now having to think about college and i think i might want to go back to Idaho at least for my Associates and then go to BYU (or wherever Nate plays) or a school with a good program to help me get into Pharmacy school. if i do that though (BYU-I) i will need to come home a transfer early and i might ask president about it in my letter but what do you think i should do? 

Well this week was confusing haha. Monday we were supposed to finally have a dinner appointment and it was with our Elders Quorum President and we were going to bring a less-active with us but he kept having to put off coming little by little because of traffic until it got to the point where we had to call it off so the member just dropped food off at the church in the fridge. Tuesday we had a lesson with a woman named Rosita, and i feel so bad for her because she lost her boyfriend that she was living with in January and she is just broken over it. I think our lesson about the Plan of Salvation helped and she recognized that there may be a reason that after all her prayers for help we came into contact with her but she says she barely has any faith and is trying to hold onto that. I felt pretty tired after that lesson because i bore testimony as much as possible about how i know the plan of salvation is true and how families can be together forever.  

Skipping ahead to Saturday, we were able to meet with Chris Smallwood, who we met a couple weeks ago. We talked about the Gospel of Christ (faith, repentance, baptism & receiving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end) and how important having the authority to baptize was and how it has to be by immersion not just sprinkling. It went really well and he told us what he had read in the Book of Mormon and he accepted baptism for September 14. He said he didn't have any bus fare so I still had my weekly pass and I recently had gotten my month pass for August so I gave him my weekly since it expired after Sunday so he could get to church, it meant we had to walk the rest of the night but it wasn't a big deal.  

Sunday he was able to come the last 5-10 minutes of sacrament. I was happy that he came even though he was late and he stayed for Sunday school and priesthood so that was awesome and he participated! He says he likes what he's seen and he plans on staying around. He's a good guy just has had problems with drugs in the past but he's staying clean. 

That about sums up my week, hopefully we move apartments soon, we checked out a place on Wednesday and it is really nice and it a better part of our area.  

I hope you are doing well,

Love,

Elder Barker

Ps. I don't really have good access with Walmart or any store like that could I possibly get a wallet? Or I could get a fake Gucci one haha kidding