3/16/2015

Hey Dad,

Well first off I am staying and my companion, the one who speaks spanish in this spanish area, is leaving. Not really sure what's going to happen and i wrote president after hearing the news and he wrote back telling me to not worry that he is not going to leave me hanging out to dry. :)  We all think that an elder who served here some months ago is coming back to die [finish his mission] here. He knows the area and from what I have heard is a good elder so I am hoping for that. This week, we had lesson, it was in spanish...  It went well. Each individual of the family is progressing differently in the gospel. Adrian, the 12 year old son, is the driving force in the family for the gospel. He goes to church with a notebook and scriptures each week and writes down things that catch his attention. Freddy, the dad, believes it is true but not from a spiritual standpoint yet, it's more of this makes a lot more sense than everything else. Monica, the mom, is agnostic despite having had powerful spiritual moments with the missionaries but she did come to church with Adrian and her mom so that was pretty cool. 

Not really much else to note except that my spanish is getting better because of a free app called duolingo. it's really good and i actually understand what's going on now around me. I love it and will use it after my mission as well. 

Well, for college i've been thinking a lot and Winter has come to mind a lot. I've talked to a few returned missionaries past couple of weeks and i have gotten mixed responses on how soon i should go back to school. some have said that they wished they had a month or so to just transition i guess you could say, and others have said they liked going to work after a couple weeks. and i really don't know what will be best for me. i am going to pray a lot about it, the plan is still September and the registration is in June so there's no rush for the time being.

But what do you think? I really need some fatherly advice. 

You are always in my prayers.

I love you Dad

Love,

Elder Barker

3/9/2015

Well this week was better! We were able to have some very good lessons, (in Spanish haha but the spirit was there). Unfortunately on Tuesday my back started having spasms again. I was just standing and all of sudden it hit me. I'm feeling better now it's just sore, but it took me 2-3 minutes to put on one sock in the beginning and getting in and out of the car was horrible. Tuesday though we got new iPad mini 2s. So even though it was super uncomfortable to sit for 3 hours because of my back that was cool at least and they have 32 G instead of 16 so now I can download all the gospel library things I want haha. Did you get an email talking about having to buy it though? They told us that if we go home after August 23 that we have to buy it. I'd rather not because having a computer would help me so much more in college, but if I got a keyboard to go with the iPad then that wouldn't be too bad.  

On Monday though we were able to have a lesson in English! It felt so great haha but I felt rusty as well. His name is Arlington and we were able to teach him the Restoration of the gospel. He has been studying with the Jehovah's Witnesses for some years now and so he had some questions since this is different than what he's been learning. He accepted a Book of Mormon and that its great to have a possibility of having even more of the word of God. He lives just a couple blocks outside of our English area though so we gave him to the other elders and they have an appointment today with him.  

On Saturday we went on a mini exchange with the other elders and I was able to go to a lesson that I really loved. We met with a sister who is facing disciplinary council soon. She has come to really humble herself and see this as her way back to the church and talked about how no matter what happens she knows the church is true and will still go and work her way back to the temple. I felt the spirit so strong and it was really an answer to the prayer that I had the night before. I've had many strong spiritual experiences with Spanish events but it's hard on a daily basis, at least for me, and so I prayed to be able to feel the spirit as I had in every other area and that lesson was just what I needed.  

This is week 6 and I find out whether or not I'm staying on Friday. I don't know what's going to happen I just hope that if I stay my companion stays because I don't want to have to introduce people when I don't speak the language. I'll keep you posted on what happens though

I hope everything is going well.

I love you Dad.

Love,

Elder Barker

Email from 2/23/15

Hey Dad, 

So that's really cool about Nate's game hopefully he's able to have a good day. That's really cool that you get to go to General Conference! I want to go so bad and I think I'm going to try when I go to college.  

So this week was very slow again we had the cars parked a couple times. We did have some great things happen though, Sister A. (from Spanish branch) finally stopped drinking coffee! That was great to hear and we found out that someone we are teaching, Freddy (Spanish), stopped drinking coffee as well and we haven't even taught him about it yet! This while teaching the law of chastity to him and his 12 year old son. Freddy also told us that he wouldn't be able to attend church because they were picking up his mother in law, but as we were sitting in sacrament meeting, Freddy, his wife, and his son all walk in! It was so cool! Also we went to all 3 services on Sunday because a less active from the Spanish branch works but has time for the 2nd Ward (9 AM) so we went with him and elder leach translated for him.  

Yesterday we had a couple of 70s come and speak to us about the technology we have and will receive in the mission. We were told for everyone that has more than 6 months left they will have to buy their devices so I'm actually very happy I've been out for 18 months for that reason. But while they were talking I had a lot of personal revelation come to me about how I can finish my mission strong.  

Well I'm so happy to be on a mission and it's such an exciting time to be a missionary as well! I absolutely love it and I will never regret it. I love being a missionary

Hope everything goes well 

Love,

Elder Barker 

Email 2/16/15

Hey Dad, 

First off, the oral surgeons office # is ------ The appointment was on February 6 and my patient id is ------. The medicine I picked up at Walmart and My insurance card from kaiser didn't work. As for school I'm asking president if I can do that soon, elders can register for classes out here. But for housing what is the price range you'd like me to go for? There's going to be time because I'm going to coordinate with a couple elders who are now home about rooming together since we talked about it on the mission. One thing though if possible, could you possibly look up a few places in Rexburg, near campus since I won't have a car, that I might be able to work at? I have a resume on the Mac computer that you could submit online if you have time (or someone else). I could really use a job after. I'm trying to prepare for when I go home, not where I ignore my mission but just trying to plan things. My mission has really made me realize the kind of life I want to live and the type of member I want to be after my mission. 

So Nate's season is done huh? Wow that's crazy, has it seemed to kinda make him think more of after high school as far as grades or mission? I hope they win one game, I still remember my senior season for volleyball, my last game was on my birthday. I'd love to be able to have a copy of that game for after my mission, do you know if Sister Tui has it still? Anyway, the snow isn't terrible but the roads here are still slick. 

This week was pretty uneventful, my lip is 99.9% back to normal so that's great (see amber for photos). Church was unfortunately cancelled for the Spanish branch due to snow but the English Ward still had sacrament so that was good, even though there wasn't really any snow. Every big scare for snow this winter I've only had a couple inches if that, but people get so scared it's kinda frustrating really, but I understand. We were able to visit a less active sister who was drinking coffee but we (my companion really since I don't speak spanish) were able to commit to stop coffee and hopefully she does. Honestly that's about it. It really was an uneventful week :/ 

I love you Dad. 

Love,

Elder Barker

Email from 2/9/15

Hey Dad, 

So I am now in Stroudsburg Pa, my mailing address is 51 N 2nd St Apt 10, Stroudsburg, PA 18360. I am in the Spanish branch here. I am in a Spanish area now so this is very weird for me. I'm in what's called a "Zebra companionship" Spanish/English and we are now part of the Spanish branch and one of the English wards here (Stroudsburg 1st). I haven't really participated much in lessons haha. 

So the tooth.. A couple weeks ago I started wearing my retainer cause I figured the gap might be smaller for when I go home and wore it for a few days and then stopped and then 2 days later I accidentally packed it. On Monday I started getting a tooth ache and by Tuesday night it was really hurting and was giving me a really bad headache as well as a fever with chills. Wednesday and Thursday as well. I went to the dentist Thursday and he said it looks like my ligaments were pretty stressed from the retainer and may have caused a bacterial infection, but there is no abscess and gave me an antibiotic (clindamycin). Woke up Friday and my face my face was really blown up and they got me into a oral surgeon. My face had been swelling more and more over the days, took a few pictures buuuttt I don't know if anybody will be seeing them until after my mission haha. Apparently I did have an abscess and a bad bacterial infection and so they drained it, which really hurt, and put a rubber tube in my gums which I had taken out today. My face is getting closer to normal now at least, but both dentist and oral surgeon talked about possibility of having root canal... I really don't want that. I have another appointment with the dentist on Feb 26, for a check up/cleaning.  I was just trying to be good and wear my retainer, this is not what I expected. I've paid about $220 in personal funds for medicine and the draining.  I might be able to get a lot refunded though so I will let you know. They gave me Vicodin for pain haha, a smaller dose it definitely worked, but I had complete control of myself though. 

This Sunday we went to the Spanish meetings as well as the English meetings, which will happen each week. As a missionary I'm okay with it because I love church:) but it's definitely tiring still. It's been a rough first week. 

Please pray for me that I won't need root canal, I really really don't want that. That draining was painful enough. I could really use prayers. 

I love you dad.

Love,

Elder Barker

Email from 2/2/15

Hey Dad,

Well first off it turns out that I'm being transferred have to just seven weeks. This comes as quite a great shock to me as I have just left my last area after five weeks. Some good things did happen this week though, Gloria Reyes and her husband and son who are both nonmembers came to church for the second week in a row, and she was able to give her testimony in sacrament meeting. That sacrament meeting was so spiritual. I had been able to really build trust with Gloria and her mom, who for a long time did not like the elders but I just was able to call her mom and she loved me. 

When I got up to bear my testimony and said I was leaving, I looked at Gloria and she just looked so sad because this has been the first time in over a year that she has come to church. Her husband, well boyfriend, loves church though and all the men there. We had a big "munch & mingle" after to church to break the fast and everyone was talking to them it was so great to see! I was pretty heart broken to leave, I'll miss the branch here and the Spanish elders here (we live next door to each other and we would go into each other's apartments and do harmless pranks haha). I'll miss being in a walking area. I hated having to pack again after just getting here. It makes you wonder why was I even sent here? Or my last area? I just have to trust that every thing happens for a reason. On a brighter note, I finally have my drivers certificate and can drive now! I need to renew it in may though because that's when my license expires. 

Well for the home coming talk yeah talk with my mission president and let me know what he says. What coaches were talking to Nate? That's really cool! It was a lot of fun when I would go to volleyball tournaments and play in front of coaches and even though I missed every single playoff game I don't regret my decision on not playing on Sundays. Did you film any of his games that I could see?

This transfer and finding out I'm being doubled out has really taken me by surprise, I still can't believe I'm leaving. 

I love you Dad

Love,

Elder Barker

Email from 1/26/2014- pictures!

Hey Dad,

Yeah the storm is starting to come now (9:30) and I'm sure Elder Barker has already been hit hard. We are on the edge of the impact area so we'll see how bad it gets. It's just a little bit of snow at the moment, but the mission is having us take precautions so we had to cancel our trip to Philadelphia, which is right across the river from us, even though we would take the train. I can't believe Elder Tui is home!! I guess it's Jordan now again, how was his talk? Did Nathan talk to him at all about the mission? When does Elder Coggins go home? I know he's been out for awhile too. Has Nathan invited his girlfriend to church events?

Well this week things started to pick up. We were able to go visit the temple site with an investigator named Pete. He has been meeting with missionaries for some time now and has been taught everything, but can't get baptized yet because he's living with his girlfriend (for like over 20 years). He absolutely loved the temple and the spirit there. It was great to be back on the streets of Philly where I spent so much time of my mission. I honestly would love to try and move there for some time for like Pharmacy school maybe (Temple has a really good program and I talked with some members in philly about it that were attending pharm school there). The temple would be built and the church is also building an apartment building right next to the temple and it would so cool to live there! It would only be for a couple years but if I am able to work at Dan's pharmacy during summers and if I transfer somewhere closer to where I could work there during school as well, I would hopefully have a decent amount of money saved up for it. My mission has helped me budget so much better! What do you think though? It was an idea I had when I served there but didn't think much of it, but it came to mind a lot while being down there again. It'll be something I'll pray a lot about when that decision comes closer but yeah haha.

We got to help out at Ronald McDonald and they had some decent sized projects for us and in the process and I was told by someone that we were their favorite and we seem like we are "somebody's son." They meant that we seem normal haha but it was an interesting way to put it haha.

On Wednesday we went to dinner at our branch presidents and well, I got whipped cream in the face haha. I'll send pictures. It was fun and then we went out with the first counselor and stopped by a few people and were able to have a really good lesson with a recent convert who has only been coming sporadically. Her kids have missed the missionaries come over more so we are going to try more.

Before dinner though we had a lesson with a less active named Gloria Reyes. The lesson seemed to go relatively well and she said that she would "try to get to church" which normally means "I'm not going." Sunday though, so the less active we had called the night before with a ride set up and was set on going, didn't come. However, as we were singing the opening song, Gloria walked through the door with her husband (well her boyfriend who's not a member)! I was so happy Especially since she hadn't come in at least a year! She told me after that she feels happy, she felt that she won that day. We set up an appointment with her and her boyfriend. I'm very excited for them:)
Well I hope everything goes well!
I love you
Love,
Elder Barker