Email from 2/4/14

Hey Dad,

Sorry i didn't email yesterday there was another snowstorm and the college and library were closed so we couldn't email. But that's cool about everything going on sounds exciting. This last week was relatively slow we're focusing on trying to find more people to teach here in Tamaqua so we have gone tracting a few times.

 On Tuesday we went to the local Salvation Army to see if there was any way that we could help them out, and they told us they would love if we came on Friday to help out with their youth program they have. They have been doing a lot of good in the community but there is a pool hall just a couple buildings down and it attracts a lot of bad things, cops have had to go there a few times because of fights and drugs. Maybe we'll go there and do some beat-to-teach with pool. i mean, i did beat you before i left. After that we went to Brother Nunemacher's and it was good he is an awesome guy and Elder Hansen and him were talking cars a lot, so i was sitting there like, "I can change a tire!" haha.

Thursday we went to District Meeting and it was good, our DL was not there because he and his companion (Elder Prue) had to go to Broomall to get Elder Prue's iPad since he is a tech elder now. we probably will be getting those on the 11th so a week from today. We combined with a spanish district it was fun.  Later we went to Brother Bhola's and helped him with some more things around the house and helped him back up all of his files onto an external hard drive because he wants to sell his computer. The estimated time to completion kept going up and so we had to go because it was getting pretty late. So we told him we would come back tomorrow and finish everything. 

Then Friday we went back and finished backing everything up and then restored his computer back to factory settings. that took a long time too, longer than we thought anyway, Sister Watson (his wife) made us some mac n cheese though which was good. I hate mac n cheese but i don't mind her's. We went to go to the Salvation Army and then Brother & Sister Mousseau drove past and were like elders! and pulled off to the side. They gave us a pizza they couldn't finish at a local restaurant it was really good:) So we hurried and went back to the car and put in the trunk and now we were 10 minutes late to the Salvation Army. Turns out it got cancelled anyway and will go back to this week. I was pretty bummed out but oh well.  We went to go try a couple of former investigators from years past and we knocked on one door and apparently that person had moved away 16+ years ago but we asked if they would like to hear a message of Jesus Christ and she let us right in. We gave her the restoration lesson and asked her to pray about whether Joseph Smith was a prophet or not so she bowed her head and said a prayer and then waited in silence for a time. Then she looked up and said, "He was a prophet. I know that" I was really happy about that but honestly i am not sure on how much she actually took in of what we told her. We asked her to read the Book of Mormon with her husband and we would come back the next day to see how it went. They didn't answer though Saturday or Sunday.

Saturday we met with Tom, an old investigator of Elder Parker's. He wants us to help him quit smoking and the church has a program that leaves peoople smoke free in 7 days but only if they do every step. So we need to study on that. We also met with Mario and talked about the Plan of Salvation. He understood it all because he read the pamphlet multiple times he is just awesome. Then we met with Brother Hyland and he showed us a lot of some unusual things that he has come across. 

Sunday Brother Hull (he had recently just been rebaptized) said the opening prayer, bore his testimony, and got called to be the branch mission leader!! I am excited to work with him as he lives close and we might actually have a correlation meeting. Brother Hull after church went up to Mario and said "tomorrow our house @7?" and Mario was like yeah sure i can move some things around. He didn't mean it to be enforcing but Mario just went with it haha. Mario though did not show up. His phone was dead too so i got a little worried about him. we ended up just giving a spiritual thought with the Hulls and i think it went well we talked about Helaman 5:12. Turns out that Mario couldn't come because he couldn't get his car out of the driveway because of the snow. Glad he's okay though. 

So that was my week. Thank you for the exercise band and the cookies:)

Love,

Elder Barker

Elder Parker and I haha