March 30, 2009

Scenes from Bucaramanga




Hola Family,
All is great here in Bucaramanga. It has been a beautiful week with lots of little showers all week which equals more shade and cooler (which equals good).

We have had a successful week finding various people who seem to be very interested in our message. One of them is a 19 year old girl named Laura and her Mom. After writing you last week she asked us who we were so we introduced ourselves. She asked me where I was from and was amazed to be talking to a Gringo. She asked me if she could practice English for a second, so I answered a few of her broken English questions and she thought it was quite cool. She asked if we could stop by her house and explain better what we do so we have visited them twice this week. Both she and her mom seem very intrigued by our message and we are excited to keep teaching them.

It is hard to believe but yet again another cambio (transfer) has almost passed. Next Monday night the assistants will call and tell us who is going and who is staying. Ha I don’t think I will start packing my suitcases yet but it is almost a sure thing I will be transferred somewhere else. But I won’t know until after my next letter so that can be talked about later.

I really liked what mom and dad said about preparing the harvest in your letters. Sometimes missionaries get caught up in how many baptisms they have and forget the importance of preparing people and real conversion. I know I probably won’t see the end result with the people we are working with now or if they become converted or not so this week. This is a good chance for me to forget about my own results and try to help prepare these people so that hopefully if I leave they can reap the "harvest" blessings later.

Yesterday at church my comp and I spoke. The bishop told us we could pick whatever topic so I spoke on Prayer. I talked about 3 important parts of prayer, that we pray "at all times, in all things and all places (D&C 6:36), that we ask in faith (James 1:5-6) and that we are ready and know how to recognize the answer. With the last point I shared the experience that had happened with Marta and Jose a few months ago and how our prayers were answered. It went well and one sister told me after that I was "La persona clave de mi dia" and it was a message she needed to hear. So I felt very good about the talk and I know the spirit testified through my gringo accented Spanish to help her.

Now for your questions... I don’t think I have put on any weight – everything fits loosely - but I really don’t have access to a scale. We have been going to a soccer field every other day to run a mile and doing exercise in the house the alternate days so I think I’m staying in pretty good shape. I got the parcel with the two books and the candy. I took a few peeks at the book about preparation and it seems to have some awesome stuff. There is Jell-O here, cool whip I haven’t seen yet but pasta, yes there is plenty. We do have a cake pan but I couldn’t tell you if it is 9 by 13.
Well all I can say is thanks for all of the support. I know I always say the same stuff but I really am grateful for the family I have, especially as I see more and more how family life is in many cases here. The majority of the South American elders here were raised by single mothers or are converts of a few years and it really makes one think about all we have.
But again thanks for everything, the church is true, hasta next week. Love Elder Barnard

New Missionaries

This must be Elder Wagstaff - he's a big handsome boy. With his blond hair he will really stand out. He looks like he loves Giron already.

Will with two of the Elders in his apartment - I think.

Will said that he was frying plantains - I am continually amazed at his new cooking skills. Ha ha.

March 23, 2009
Hola familia,
It’s good to hear that all is going well even if you’re all over the place traveling to Canada etc. This has been another good week in Bucaramanga, we just keep grinding along looking for the elect. These few weeks have been a struggle to find progressing investigators but we have been trying many different things and involving the members so I know it will come. I know the Lord always puts us with people or gives us challenges to help us learn and grow in something.

This week two new gringo Elders arrived here, Elder Wagstaff and Christiansen. They sent them on a middle of the night bus, all by themselves, exactly like Elder Lee and me. We're glad they got here okay. They had quite a trip.

Since I live with the Zone leaders, they asked me if I would go with one of them (Elder Fernandez) to pick them up and the other one stayed with my comp. Because it’s tough to communicate and understand people when you first start the mission, they gave them a cell phone to carry and I would call them every once in a while to see where they where (not that they knew ha-ha). So we were up waiting all night for them to get here and call. They called at about 4 in the morning and said they thought they were in Bucaramanga because the bus was stopped but they didn’t know for sure. We had them give the phone to the bus driver and he told us they had already passed the terminal and were like 10 miles outside the city up a mountain heading to parts unknown. So we hurried and grabbed a taxi and went to where they said. I’m glad we found them – it wouldn’t be fun to be lost in the Colombian jungle in the middle of the night. Who knows where they could have ended up. We picked them up and we couldn’t all fit in a taxi so I went in one with the two new elders and Elder Fernandez and the comp of Elder Christiansen went in another.

It was really cool because that was exactly the situation I was in a few months ago. I got to amaze them with my Spanish skills talking to the taxi driver and getting us to the house ha-ha.
Elder Christiansen left right away with his comp to Cucuta, but Elder Wagstaff stayed the night so I really got to talk to him. He is awesome. They both seem like really good elders. We’re so glad to have them here. Elder Wagstaff will be in Giron with Elder Lee and those guys there. They were lucky to be able to come to a really good area to start out their missions. I know they will love it here.

Today we went to Giron to play some b-ball with Elder Wagstaff and his comp and some of the members of their ward. Wow, it was great to play b-ball with these guys. I found out he went to Olympus High School in Salt Lake so we had played them like 4 times in spring league and he said he remembered losing to us ha-ha.

But to los preguntas. Elder Amador only has been in the mission a little over a year so he has plenty of time left so I’m sure the package will get to him fine (I think the best way to assure packages is to plaster them with stickers of Jesus and the Virgin Mary because they are all Catholic. Now for your questions. I would like to get some recipes of typical dinners you make, the elders want me to cook some normal gringo food, so recipes would be very useful. Usually we take a taxi to the church because it’s pretty far but after we almost always walk to the next lesson or the house. When the sisters have a baptism they either ask a member or one of us to do it, last week they had one and a member did it. I am always very happy with the packages so whatever you send I will be very grateful. Also the church supplies are very cool and I was grateful for it but don’t worry about sending proclamation to the world or stuff like that because we basically have closets full). The rules are that we should be out of bed by 6:30 and praying followed by exercise. I haven’t had any problems with shirts getting stretched and to dry them, we have ropes tied up on the roof (we have an awesome roof pario thing) and I hang hangers there like a clothesline. And yes I take my vitamins frequentlyJ Well I’m short on time but thanks for all the support and the prayers I hope all goes well with the travel/tornadoes/kids/etc and I will talk to you next week.

Learning Patience

Here's an adorable little child with Will

Here is Will's former companion in one of the beautiful parks with a white, furry rabbit. Will says that there are lots of little animals running through the parks.
This is something that Will would spot from a mile away - a basketball court!!!
This looks like a shoe store named after me - ha ha. I couldn't believe that it is spelled exactly like my name.


Hola family,
Well it has been another good week here in Bucaramanga. This week I have been given the chance to learn about agency and improve in patience. I wrote last week telling about all the great people we had found and the experiences we had and our many progressing investigators. This week they have basically been dropping like flies. Ha not to say that anyone died but like I said the Lord is giving me a chance to learn about patience and the agency of people. Literally 4 investigatoes that had goals for baptisms this month, now do not. One fell back into a drug habit that he had stopped for 6 months and has now moved to another city. Two others that have promised us to go to church for 3 weeks again didn’t come. Its tough but we are taught over and over that if people don’t progress and comply with assignments we have to move on to the people that will progress. Ha it’s frustrating because we can hand wrap the gospel, plan lessons, bring it to their door whatever time they want but if they don’t do their part they can’t receive the blessings and learn for themselves, so we have to move on to the people that are escogidos (the elect) that are waiting to hear this message. But I know it’s just a challenge and I’m excited to work with the people that we have and keep looking for the elect.

Today has been a P day of just relaxing and taking it easy to recover from a long week. I found a little sandwich toaster thing so I have been experimenting by making cool sandwiches. I used it to make us lunch today followed by some reading and a nice nap.

We got some really exciting news. Today one of the new gringo elders will get here from Bogotá. They say his name is Elder Wagstaff so I wonder if he is related to the Wagstaffs in Evanston. He will be in my zone and live in the same house as Elder Lee in Giron.

Here's the answer to your questions. My morning schedule is to get up at 6:00 A.M., have personal and companion prayer, exercise from 6:30 to 7 (sometimes running or else pushups and jump rope in the house). I iron my shirt at 7 and then into the shower, make a quick breakfast (recently my famous toasted sandwiches) and then personal study at 8 o’clock sharp.

As far as the mission approved library, I bought the ones I didn’t have in the mtc so I already have them all I'm pretty sure. With the last package I did get the pillowcase with all the good mom advice ha-ha and the CTR Rods, I put one in my keychain. Elder Araujo is very happy with the camera and takes lots of pics.

As far as Diana, (who had been in jail), the final decision is that the first of May, when her probation ends she can get baptized. Sadly I probably won’t be here to see it but we keep visiting her to make sure everything goes well. Two of the teenagers who accepted the invitation to get baptized are the ones that we just can’t get to go to church, so we may have to let them go and look for others. No new parcels have arrived here yet but they might be in the office in Bogotá.

Well I really love you fam thanks for all the support, you’re in my prayers always.

Mucho Amor, Elder Barnard

Testimony Builders

A little member boy

Will sent this picture today - it looks like they had a good lunch that day.

Hola Familia,
Another great week is Bucaramanga has passed way too fast.
I have read in Doctrina y Convenios and in Preach my Gospel where it says that the lord will guide his elect to you if you work with faith. A few days ago as we were leaving lunch walking down the street, I heard someone call "Hey Mono venga" (mono is a term they use here to say white person or gringo and venga is like come here). Initially, I thought it was just some crazy guy asking for money or something so I had the thought to just keep walking but then I felt like I should turn around and we knew that we should go talk to him. He showed us a Book of Mormon someone had given his mom and he said it was interesting but he wanted us to explain it. We told him we would be more than happy to and he invited us in. We taught him all about how the Savior established his church, the great apostasy, the restauracion and about the Book of Mormon. He loved it and he said he really felt something special when he read it. We set up an appointment to return in a few days and we taught him again and invited him to come to church. By himself, he asked how he could become a member of our church, so we taught him baptism and we are now preparing him to be baptized the 28th. He went to church yesterday and talked with many of the members and participated in the class and everything.
I wouldn’t say I was feeling discouraged, but after having so much success and now going for awhile without baptisms, I was feeling a little disappointed. But I know the Lord guided one of his elect to us and now we get to do what we can to prepare him and help him. We have other investigators that are also progressing but I wanted to write a little of the experience that we had with him.
The week here started off nice and cool with plenty of rain, but these last few days have been veery hot. I saw a thermometer today and it said 89 degrees and it’s been about the same these last few days. When you combine that with 95% humidity it feels like a sauna. But believe it or not I have gotten pretty used to the hot tropical climate and even the freezing showers don’t seem so freezing anymore.
Haha also I had a good crazy Colombian lunch the other day. Sister Sandoval gave us a soup for lunch but she told me she wouldn’t tell me what was in it until after, so I ate it and it was actually pretty good. After finishing it, she told me it was soup of cow heart, liver and pancreas... mmmmmmm mmmm right? Ha but it was actually quite good.
Well as far as the questions. One parcel that had some CTR rings, skittles, church supplies and pics of the Bates arrived. Thanks a ton, it was nice to see all the kids growing like crazy and I haven’t had skittles in about 7 months so they were veeerry good. Also I gave CTR rings to some of my converts and they were very happy.
The sister missionaries are from Ecuador and Peru.
A few people have asked to see my photos. They are all amazed at how huge the High School is and that we have trees and everything.
Well thanks a ton, pues Mucho Amor y hablaremos esta semana que viene.
Hasta Lunes, Elder Barnard

Hola mama, Well I checked the rules for books and there are only a few we can have. Sorry if you already sent one. Also I wanted to say thanks for the great letters and the pictures and spiritual thoughts. I know it probably takes a long time to upload all the pics and write spiritual thoughts from those books so thanks a ton. Well gotta run. Much love Elder B

No Transfer

Will sent this one picture and said, "this is proof that I can cook." It looks like he is frying an egg - wow. He actually does do macaroni and cheese out of the box okay.


HOLA Familia,
Well I realize all my letters start the same but all is well in Bucaramanga. The cambios (transfers) came and went and I’m still here so I’m happy about that. To start this cambio, we are setting our goals extra high to accomplish as much as possible in the next weeks. I made new study goals to focus on the chapters of Predicad mi Evangelio and read lots of Book of Mormon in Spanish and it has really helped to get the days started well. I’m learning a ton. I’ve gotten to where I am comfortable reading the Book of Mormon just in Spanish and I have stopped following along in my English version.

This has been a very good week to start the cambio and we have been blessed to find some escogidos (elect). Also we had a very good experience of how far a small step can go. We started teaching (Angelica) a little while ago because one day we just happened to stop by a member’s house to visit and she told us she had a friend who wanted to listen. The week before last, we had asked Angelica’s mom if she would let her get baptized and unfortunately she said no. But we decided we would stop by a few days later just to see what would happen. Angelica invited 2 of her friends to come; we taught them. They went to church that Sunday and now they have both accepted invitations to be baptized with another friend of theirs now receiving the lessons. All because one member invited us to talk to her friend. So this is a great example of the impact that a small step of faith can have.

Well as far as the cambios (transfers), nothing changed in our house, so it’s still me, Elder Araujo and Elders Fernandez and Madariaga (Chile). But two sister missionaries have replaced the Elders that were in Terrazas (in our district). I haven’t had anything to do with sister missionaries yet in the mission, so that could be a little strange ha but I’m sure they are very good missionaries.

Today I got a nice, short hair cut which feels much better. I spent about an hour cleaning the bathroom so it’s nice and clean.
And now for the highly anticipated mom questions :) As far as packages, I received the one that had the photo Album last week but nothing else has arrived. Something may have happened to the one that Angie sent. I got the dearelder that talked about the bush that had to get cut down but not any others yet. Ha no I don’t use bleach, but maybe I’ll pick some up and if I can figure out which is the wash cycle (ha I presume the first part). I will have to start doing that. And I have gotten to be quite the shirt ironer because we have to iron them every morning. We don’t have a dryer.

Well I’m all about out of time but thanks so much for all your support and the emails and letters and packages etc. and especially your prayers. I am learning a ton and yes, there are frustrating times like you said, but without them the good times wouldn’t be so good and I’m still loving it here.

Love, Elder B.

PS (that’s awesome about you and Dad going to Europe for a month this Spring!)