Grandma Passed Away

December 7, 2009
Hola Mi Familia.
Well it’s been another week here in Barranca. Last night while we were in a lesson talking with a few people outside their house, I got a call from President Hacking. I asked the people to excuse me and answered him. He asked how I was and told me he had some news that might be a little bit hard for me. As soon as he said that, my imagination just took off running. I was thinking about all kinds of things and wondering what had happened, then he told me that in the morning my grandma Barnard had quietly passed away. He told me that it sounded like she was very proud of me. It was quite a shock because you don’t expect to hear something like that. I remember I visited with her and said goodbye the last time, the morning before we left for the MTC. Although you never know, I think we felt that it could be the last time I would see her in this part of the plan. It was hard to give her those last hugs. It is a sad thing to know that the whole family will be gathering to celebrate her life and I won’t be there and that I won’t get to talk to Grandma again. My whole childhood was filled with happy memories, playing with cousins at grandma’s house, old Thanksgivings and Christmases, family reunions and sleepovers. I remember as the mish got closer I had the chance to spend more time that summer visiting grandma and doing things like drive out to Arbys or Subway with her and BJ when you were gone. She always showed me a special love and I will really miss her. It was very tough last night and today to think about and realize that she is gone. But just the same, during the last years of her life I know she always wanted to do so much more than her body could. I also know she loved and missed grandpa B and they are now doing what it says in Alma 40.

... The spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life. And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow.

That’s the neat thing about what we know as the church of Christ. That grandma B was just taken back to the God that gave her life and is enjoying happiness, rest and peace. So while it’s hard for me to know I won’t get to talk to my good old grandma again, she is in "a better place" as they always say, and we will meet her again.

As far as Barranca, my son and I have just been working away and keep on fighting the sun and looking for Gods Elect. Haha let me tell you that they are hard to find here. This week, although not perfect, we worked out butts off. Lots of heat and looots of lessons and new investigators. The tough tough thing about Barranca is that everyone is down for whatever, so most anyone will let you in and show interest in the message, but when you set them a commitment like praying, reading or going to church no one does it. They are friendly and partiers but when it comes down to doing something or taking a step of their own, they don’t do it. This week, we taught 9 Lessons with Members Present (This is one strength of this area, there are some very good young men that are always willing to work with us), 18 other lessons and found 22 NEW INVESTIGATORS. I mean you never find 22 new investigators in a week. So we were pumped. For fast Sunday we fasted that we could get them to come to church along with the 18 we found last week. We spent Saturday visiting everyone, teaching about the Sabbath day, organizing how we would take some of them to church, calling and inviting all off them, even fasting. Sunday came and we set out very early to go and make sure some of the best ones were awake and remind them and it was amazing. We got there and they acted like they hardly even remembered promising they would go to church, some were sleeping, another said she didn’t want to wake her husband up to go because he would get mad, another family decided it would be better to pick weeds outside haha. So in the end, of the 40 new investigators we found in 2 weeks, 5 of them showed up to church and one of them after Sacrament Meeting.

To make things better we decided to send them to class with the members instead of doing the Gospel Principles class. The young men’s young women’s teacher wasn’t there so they asked us to teach them so we brought Roman, an investigator who is 15, also. The class members would not stop talking and yelling. It was the worst experience I have ever had in a church class, and our investigator left quickly after and wanted nothing to do with it.

But honestly at the end of the day, we are taught that effort is success and we are putting in our effort so I don’t feel bad or discouraged. It can be very frustrating but we are slowly picking out the people who really are looking for the truth. Also we continue doing all we can to get the branch excited. The Branch Pres didn’t come again, but we are bonding with the members and trying to build them up so that this branch does too. President Hacking is strongly considering putting missionaries in the Branch Presidencies here.

My comp and I are getting to be good friends and I really like working with him. Also I am going to have him teach me some Kung Fu because he is an expert.

It looks like we might FINALLY have a house after this week, but all we can do is work hard. I have faith that this little branch can grow. It’s not easy to completely change the momentum of something but that is our job right now and we can’t expect it to be an overnight thing. I know the Lord will help us and despite the challenges here I continue to love the mish. It’s such a simple life, you don’t have to worry about jobs or the economy or the government, you just work and improve. And we always make sure to get our fair share of having a good time in and joke around every night.

This will be a hard week for me, but I know it is best to keep working and doing what we can. Well I am out of time. I hope everything goes well this week, send my love and best wishes to all the fam. Love Elder B