An even greater week

Well its been another great week here in "la ciudad bonita". We're still working like crazy and it’s looking like our goal of a "noche blanca" (white night) is going to turn out great. The zone is out of the slump it was in when we got here and for July we already have over 30 people with baptism dates as a zone.

The weather has been great, a little rain but nice and cloudy so it doesn’t get too hot and everyone is still going crazy over the world cup (The US lost and got knocked out by Ghana... they'll just have to wait till we play em in Ball). But I have to admit that after 2 years in South America I have grown to like and even understand soccer.

This week we did 2 days of splits with the missionaries in Central and Gijon. I went to Gijon for a day and worked with Elder L. He is from chile and is from my group(ends in August). We studied together and had a very good day. He started in the same zone as me and I worked with him a little as AP so we are kind of buddies so we had some good talks during the day about the mission and ending well etc. We worked hard, got another baptism date for them and set some good goals. Divisions with missionaries, just like lessons with investigators, should always have commitments. so we set goals for them to always pray as a district (the 4 that live in Gijon) each night and morning. It’s really cool to help the other missionaries, you almost have to treat it like when you work with an investigator and think about their needs, plan how and what to do and try to lift them and get them excited. And if you really don’t love them and want to help them, it will never work. They say things are going much better and they now have a good list of progressing investigators so we are very happy.

We have been working very hard with the investigators I mentioned last week. Unfortunately the Garcia family (the ones that knew the Camargo family) went to Bogota for the week so we haven’t talked to them but we have plans to go back. We've been working very hard with the Gomez Family and Lia and Claudia. On Saturday we had 2 baptisms - one at 10 and the other at 6 and between them we had Elder Mura (our district leader) doing all of their interviews. And they all turned out fine!!! Mura was about spiritually drained because an interview can be a very spiritual thing and he was there all day doing them. But that night we bought him some ice cream and had a little celebration.

Afterward we had Lia (22) and Claudia(20) call their mom. She lives across from the church and has been member for almost a year. She has tried with all the missionaries that have been here to get her daughters to follow her example but they just weren’t feeling it and when we started teaching them, she explained to us and told us that all the other Elders had tried and that it was likely that nothing would happen. After they told her (she is in Bogota for a few days) they gave us back the phone and she started crying and thanked us for the way we helped them feel the spirit and our patience with her daughters. We seriously feel like it’s a miracle how the Lord has touched these peoples hearts and they have all progressed just as we planned. So this Saturday the 6 of them will be baptized at 6 o clock and we have possible one more baptism depending on how this week goes. The week really turned out great, our weekly stats improved again and we were able to teach 16 lessons with a member present and 29 lessons in total. I can’t help but feel like the Lord is specially blessing us at the end of my mission with so many great people.

This week was ward conference so the bishopric has been working hard for the last month to get out invitations etc. All the stake leaders came and its turned out very well. Elder Butler and I sang with the ward choir the tenor (I think?) part of I am a child of God. We felt like it was way too high for us but we squeezed it out and the choir sounded good. Also, here the chapel as I have said is very nice, its only a year old and is supposedly the nicest chapel in Colombia. In the Sacrament Hall the piano is big like a normal one but its digital and has all the hymns programmed into it. So you can put it on a special mode where you just push whatever key to the rhythm of the hymn and it plays it as you go. For some reason they haven’t been using it in sacrament meeting so I told the bishop I could program it for ward conference. Ha I tried to make it look like I was playing by myself and afterward a bunch of people congratulated me on how well I played. . Maybe I will keep doing it for the sacrament meetings.

Anyway we had 12! investigators in church. We are yet to have less than 10. Its really ridiculous how much we are being blessed and how well things are going with the ward. We got a reference of another sister from Barranquilla who has been inactive. We visited her this week and invited her to come back and she was very happy, and the best news is that she brought her 2 kids (16 and 11) who aren’t members yet and they are all loved the church.

Also another member brought a friend named Lury. She spent over 10 years as a preacher and missionary in evangelical churches but says that in the end she found out that it just wasn’t what she thought it was. She knows the dang bible from front to cover and had some crazy questions in the class on Sunday but we answered them and taught her a little about the restoration and she left really interested. Later we visited her and she told us that during the stake presidents talk and during our lesson she thought she saw a special light coming from us and him and she felt like she was where she needed to be. We taught her about prophets and gave her the new Liahona from General Conference and she loved it. She told us she wanted to start over and wanted to start working for Jesus haha. She wants to hear from us again ASAP so we set up another lesson and were going tomorrow. She also brought her teenage daughter so there are 2 more great references. She would definitely be a good ward missionary to go and help some of the Protestants.

So basically things are going great. This Saturday will be the "white night" and we are going to hold all the zones baptisms at the same time in our chapel. There will be 6-7 people from our area and possible another 6 or 7 from the rest of the zone. We invited the stake president and he will be coming and somehow President Hacking even heard about it and called to say that he was going to be there too!

I wish I had time to tell you all about our investigators. The Gomez family who will be baptized are people who I really can see going to the temple. They have also spent months investigating the church and gone through various pairs of missionaries but for whatever reason we are the ones who will have the blessing of helping them reach baptism. Cesar the dad is a stud, I think he’s gonna be a bishop someday. Aside from the baptisms Saturday we have more investigators who are going to church and are there with family or friends who are members, at least 7 more. I am very grateful that the Lord has blessed me to be here right now and I know he has heard our prayers and my prayers. I have been praying since I left Barranca for the chance to bring a family into the church and now there are several. The Gomez family will be one..., Lia and Claudia will now complete a family of members and I have been talking every once in a while with Guillermo and Lina and it looks like they will get married this week and then baptized in July

I can't imagine ending my mission in a better way. I’m not trunky by any means but I feel at peace with the way I have lived my mission and the way it is ending. Its hard to believe there’s only 7 weeks left but I feel great. I've just about done what I was called to do. But there is no time to talk about that yet, we've still got much more to do. I know that this is Christs true church and I feel so blessed and humbled for all that I've been given. I love you so much familia, you’re in my prayers and I hope you’re loving life. Love Elder Barnard

Best Week Ever

My birthday package got here last week. Thank you very much; we have enjoyed all the food. Haha I liked the Hawaii shirt and the ties also.
This has been another great week. We have all kinds of investigators and they just keep coming. This week we had over 11 investigators in sacrament meeting for the third straight time and we now have 10 people preparing for baptismal dates in the next 2 weeks and maybe 11.

I started the week going to do splits in Barranca. I didn’t get to Pinos where I was but I saw a few members from the other branches who remembered me and we worked well with the missionaries.

On Wednesday we had Zone conference here which went very well. We also did divisions with the missionaries from Kennedy. I stayed in our area with Elder Acosta from Peru and Elder Butler went to their area with Elder Vergara. It’s always cool to work with the newbies and get to know them and get them excited or feeling better. They were both a little down but we worked hard and when we met back up they were both more excited and we now have their confidence, so mission accomplished.

Things are going amazing in our area. The other day we were looking for a house and we took a wrong turn and just as we were turning around an SUV pulled over and called us over. It turned out to be a family whose daughter had been friends with President Camargos daughter and they recognized us as being from their church. They said they really liked the example etc. of the Camargos and would like to learn about the church. Serious Jackpot, they are married, well off financially and a very nice family. We went to teach them and they were very nice and receptive. The dad is from Mexico and the mom from here and they have a 19 year old daughter and a young housekeeper girl who lives with them.

Afterwards I found out President Camargos number and called them. It was cool to talk to him and sister Camargo and they sounded very excited to hear from me and asked how I was, how my mission was going etc. I told them about the family and gave them the number so that their daughter could call her old friend and congratulate her etc. They called immediately, turns out that the family is going to Bogotá for 2 days this week so the 2 girls are going to meet up and eat lunch and she is going to talk to her about the church etc.

This Sunday despite the election and raining, they all showed up in their car and it was a great Sunday. The ward had just got back from a temple trip and 4 families have been sealed, so Elder Butler and I each gave a talk and then the 4 couples gave their testimonies about their temple sealing and it was way spiritual. In total we had 11 investigators and apart from the Garcia family we also had another family of 4 (Gomez) who have been investigating for a long time. They both loved it and in gospel principles class we taught about eternal marriage to explain a little more and they all loved it and wanted to know how they could go to the temple and do the same thing. We had a very spiritual lesson with the Gomez family and challenged them to prepare themselves to be baptized on the third of July and they accepted. So we have 2 golden families and we will soon be inviting the Garcia family to be baptized also.

Literally baptisms are falling into our hands. This Saturday we will have 2. Basically we got to church and a member lady approached us and said "hey Elders we have been inactive for a little bit but now we are back coming to church, my daughter is 9 now so I need you to prepare her to be baptized" and basically the same thing has happened with 2 other families. I honestly don’t have time to tell about all the investigators we have but in a few words there are 2 baptisms this week and 8 more planned for next week. It was awesome because everyone was welcoming the new family at church and shaking their hands etc. and the same with our other investigators. The ward is really working great and we are working like crazy ourselves.

Elder Butler and I get along great. He is such a good worker and so humble. This week we will be doing more splits with the missionaries of the zone and getting our investigators ready. Please pray for them that they can keep progressing and not lose sight now. We are very close to doing amazing things here, it’s so rare to find two such great families and I really feel like the Lord is blessing us so much.

Although Colombia just missed making it to the World Cup it’s still a big deal here and everybody had their schedule or their sticker book. I actually bought the world cup sticker album too just to be down with what’s in. It’s got all the teams and you buy packs of stickers with players kind of like Pokemon or baseball cards and then try to collect all the players and stick them in your book. The book only costs $1 so I have it with a few stickers but all the little kids here go crazy about their sticker albums so it’s a good way to start conversation etc. The USA seems to have a decent soccer team now and if they win their next game they will go to the next round. We have little rivalries between the missionaries of whose country will do better although most of the Gringos don’t really know anything about it or our team.

Also the presidential Elections were yesterday so they made us be in our apartment at 4. Santos the conservative guy killed Mockus from the green party like 75 to 25 percent.

Well time is short but I’m loving it and trying to squeeze in everything possible in these last weeks. There are now less than 2 months left... Keep being of good cheer, I love ya, thanks for everything and talk to ya next week. Sorry if my letter is all over the place. Love Elder Barnard

Lizards and Stitches

Hola Familia,
It’s been another great week here in Bucaramanga. We have been working hard in our area this week and there is lots and lots of potential. We also went to the Zone Leaders Seminar in San Gil which was awesome and had our first baptism here in the area and with it my first trip to the hospital :) The weather here has been great, not really sunny and hot but not raining lots either, just cool and fresh.

Bucaramanga really is the best looking city I think in the mission. Nicer roads and parks etc. and lots of nice big apartment buildings etc. The UIS (Santander Industrial University) which is one of the biggest and nicest in Colombia is here in our area and also the Bucaramanga soccer team stadium is here in our area.

Our apartment is small for the 4 of us and was a huge mess when we got here but today for P day we got it all cleaned up and organized and now it’s looking much better. Our bedroom has a big slide open window with a somewhat view of the city so that’s pretty cool.

Things are going very well with the ward. This is a nice strong ward with good leadership and experience and we are seeing the blessings of that. We are working very well with the Bishop and leaders and things are going great. On Sunday we had 17!!! people in church who aren’t members. Only 12 of them are officially investigators but just the same, that number is great. It’s a challenge to talk to all the people who want to talk to us at church and organize all the visits people want us to make. We have hardly had any time to do contacts since we got here because the planner has been full of appointments with members’ references.

Since arriving, we have been out of our area 4 of the days, we have taught 30 lessons and 27 of them have been with member present. So things are going great and we are working like crazy. We get home every night dead tired, we plan for the next day and update the area book, talk with the district leaders (we have 4 districts so in order to really have good communication with them we talk with 2 each night so that its not a rush etc). For some reason the offices sent us another cell phone so now Elder Butler and I both have our own phone which really helps. It’s really awesome to get to know the missionaries in the zone and see how much some support and encouragement and example can help and how much we have grown to care and worry about them.

On Wednesday morning all the zone leaders from the mission got here (Bucaramanga) because it’s the closest major city to San Gil where the leadership seminar was. We all met together at a chapel and then our rented bus got here and we all went to San Gil. They let us watch some movie about a high school football coach who turns Christian and wins state etc.

It’s funny to see the make up of the zone leaders. When I got here there were about 8 Gringos in the whole mission and now the U.S. is the country that has the highest number of missionaries here and so the majority of the zone leaders are gringos. Since the last time I did a zone leader seminar (as AP) there are none of the same ZL's but I know all of the ones who were there so it was nice to talk to them etc and we had a fun time. I got to see old mission homies like Elder Wagstaff, Larsen, Williams, my son Elder Larson among others.

The first day was basically a free day. First they rented some little fields and we all played soccer, then everybody got cleaned up, ate lunch at our hotel and they gave us a few hours to go into San Gil and look around etc. I bought a plastic ant (they eat big fried ants here) and a cool typical Colombian Hat. Then that night we watched a movie and just relaxed a little bit. The next day was full of training sessions etc. They assigned various Zone Leaders to give training sessions about things that have worked well in their zones which was very cool and we got lots of good ideas to use here. They asked Elder Butler and me to talk about how we are working with the church leaders in our ward and stake. We presented our plan to visit each bishop in the stake and all the things we are doing in our ward and everyone thought it was great. We stayed in a hotel room. Elder Butler and I are getting along great. We both have similar personalities although he is a little more soft-spoken than I have gotten to be. But we have great unity and we are really enjoying and working hard together.

On Friday we had the baptism of Yicell. She is a little girl (10) who is living with her aunt here who is member. She has been going to church forever but the missionaries never talked to her mom to get permission for her to be baptized. We started teaching her, found out she wanted to, then called her mom and she was fine with it. So on Friday we were getting everything ready and as the font was getting filled I noticed that there was a tiny lizard in the water. I started walking down into the font to get it out and luckily I had my almost worn out Rockport shoes with no traction and slipped on the stair. I grabbed the rail but fell and hit my elbow on the other stair. It hurt but I thought it was just pain so I got up and walked back out. Yicell arrived and when I shook her hand she said "me pintaste....you painted me" I looked at my hand and my whole sleeve was covered with blood. We rolled it up and found that the impact had opened a nice big hole right below my elbow. It was like when I cut my shin and you could see right in there. We got it cleaned up a little bit. I wanted to stay and finish the baptism so I covered it with some gauze, finished the baptism service and we headed to the hospital. The mission has insurance with the nice hospital there so they just send a fax and we go right in to the "VIP" service. We went in, talked with the doctors etc. Everyone looked at me kind of weird, for one because I’m a tall white guy with blonde hair and second because I had blood all over my shirt. The doc and nurse looked it over a little bit and decided I would need a pre shot for hepatitis or something even though I already had one and then gave me a numbing shot on my elbow and put in 4 stitches. Haha I had to get the hepatitis shot on my butt which was a tiny bit awkward, but after the stitches went quick and painless. I taught the doctor and the nurse a little as they were doing the stitches and told them how to get to the chapel where they live. So in the end it will be a good remembrance scar of my time in Bucaramanga and next Friday they will take my stitches out.

As of now as soon as I finish writing this Elder Mura and I will take a bus to Barranca. It is part of our zone and they have a possible baptism on Saturday of a guy who I actually met there so I will go with Elder Mura and do interchanges and work with the missionaries until Wednesday which is Zone conference here in Bucaramanga and possibly interview this guy for baptism. And Elder Butler will stay here with Elder Muras comp, Elder Moreno so that they can teach all the lessons we have planned in our area.

Well fam life is great. I think some Colombian post office workers are eating my birthday package haha but who knows, there still is hope. If not at least someone can enjoy it. I'll get to have plenty of whatever was in there after the mish I’m sure. I am trying my hardest and the spirit is very strong. I know we are in the truth and I absolutely love life. It is such a blessing to serve the Lord as a missionary and I’m so grateful that I can. HAPPY FATHERS DAY to Ben Bill and of course Dad. Be of good cheer and enjoy life. talk to ya next week. Love Elder Barnard

Back in Bucaramanga

Well fam life is great back in Bucaramanga. My companion Elder Butler and I are doing great and working like crazy. Elder Butler is from Houston Texas. He is about 6 foot and used to play basketball and football also. He is a very good missionary and a great guy. He is very humble and easy to get along with and I think we make a veery good team. He is a hard worker and we are doing great. He has about 6 months less than me in the mission. He was here in Bucaramanga as Zone Leader but in Real de Minas (where I started) but now President put the ZLs in Pinos so we are both new here.

It is the strongest ward in the stake and we use the brand new big stake center (it’s the nicest chapel in the mission). The Bishop here has had some problems with the missionaries but we now know that it’s because he has the ward and its plans very organized. He wants to make sure that what needs to be done, gets done. The first thing we did in our area was visit him and tell him we were there to serve him and asked what we could do. He gave us all kinds of ideas and we have been helping him lots. He seems to be really happy with what we are doing. Haha so the ward has very good leadership and he has them helping us like crazy and I think we will do great things.

This week we were all over the place moving into a new house and organizing things. We taught 14 lessons and 13 were with a member present which is almost unheard of. In church we had 11 investigators and all of them have friends and are progressing. This week we will have our first baptism. It’s a girl named Gicell. She is living here with her aunt and been going to church forever but the missionaries didn’t realize that they only had to call her mom and get her permission to be baptized. So we did just that and she will be baptized on Friday.

We live in a huge apartment complex with like 5 towers of 14 floors. We live on a 7th floor apartment with a nice view of downtown, there are 4 of us in the house and it’s a little small but it has a washing machine and its good enough.

We have all kinds of ideas to start helping the zone. Right now there isn’t a whole lot going on in the other areas but there are good missionaries and we are going to try very hard to support them and get them going. We have made a calendar of the whole transfer (6 weeks) with all the splits we will do with each area and all the activities we have planned. Our zone includes 7 companionships in Bucaramanga and the 3 in Barranca and we should do splits with all of them at least once each transfer. That means we are in at least 2 every week from now on. I can’t wait to get started working with them.

Today we gathered the whole zone and did a little training session about some things we thought were lacking and to set goals for this month. Then they played sports for a little while, watched a movie, and the sisters (there are 2 in the zone) and some elders prepared a lunch. We had everybody put in 5 bucks and then they went and bought a bunch of steak and potatoes and we had Argentina style Milanese (basically chicken fried steak) with mashed potatoes. Ha, we spent the whole first part getting things ready etc so my companion and I couldn’t play sports with the others but at the end we finally got to rest for a second. It was a good chance to improve unity in the zone and teach the missionaries and get them pumped for the month.

You can really see the needs that they all have and our job is to elevate them and help them be happy and be able to work as well as they possible can. Ever since we got here we have hardly stopped to take a breath. Even today was like that but on Wednesday and Friday we go to the zone leader council in San Gil so that will be a second to stop and relax for a bit. I think I have always been a hard worker in the mission, but knowing that there are only 2 transfers left I feel an even greater desire to make every second worth it and do everything possible so we have been going like crazy. The spirit is great and I am loving life.

I’m so grateful for all the great experience I have been able to gain throughout the mish and now I feel completely comfortable helping all the missionaries and our investigators. I get almost 3 more months to use all that I’ve been able to learn and it looks like it’s gonna be great. It’s so good to have a good companion. I feel like we are a great team even if we are 2 gringos in Colombia. We have all kinds of things planned and are working as hard and smart as we can.

I know the church is true, thank you for everything, Love you, Gotta run. Talk to ya next week. :) ELder Barnard