Back to "Miss"ion

It's strange to think that i've been home from my mission for about 4 1/2 months. I just wanna say how much I miss the mission. I'm pretty sure that's why they call it a mission just because it has the word miss in it. There is nothing that compares to how good a mission is and how amazing it is.

Today I went with Men's Chorus to the MTC and we had a devotional. Well, we performed for the missionaries in the MTC. It was an amazing experience. I honestly must say that I miss the whole mission (back to miss) experience. I know that i'll never go back and life can never slow down but just let me relive my mission. Please?

I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is God's Church here on earth and that it teaches the correct doctrines. Like how a member from men's chorus said, "before my mission I was converted to the Church, but during my mission I became converted to Jesus Christ." You might say then how do you know the church is true? It's because of Jesus Christ that I'm in this Church. I'm not converted to JUST the Church but also the Jesus Christ. I know that I have a long way to go to perfection and a lot of things I need to do before I'm ready to meet my Savior. I'm doing my best and my best can always be better. I know the time i went on my mission was the perfect time for me to meet a lot of people that I needed to meet.

Endure to the End

Signing Out
Matthew John Barry

I have a Friend...

Hey people of the world,

I have a pretty good friend that some of you might know, his name is Zac Kaiser. Well Zac has been writing some pretty good music and has started performing it around provo. He's been doing fairly well. Well he's trying to get on something call the unsigned tour so he can go play his music on a larger scale. He needs some votes so all you have to do is go to www.theunsignedtour.com/vote and type Zac Kaiser in the box that says Artist. Then enter your email address, and that's it! I hope you do it.  It takes like 5 seconds.

Singing Out
Matthew John Barry

3 Months Later

Yeah, I know... It's been 3 months since I've done anything with my blog... It's been a while. I know. Don't start your hissyfit, I'm still alive and kicking. (What I'm kicking... I'm not really sure yet, but I'm kicking.)

In these last 3 months, I've been in college and let me tell you, College is sure different than anything else I've ever done. It's not like High School or like a Mission. I'm definitely not in Kansas anymore. I guess you can describe College as "The things I couldn't do in High School and the Mission". Like staying up till 3 in the morning watching James Bond movies or Sleep in till noon on a Mon/Wed/Fri and not care (cause I don't have class until 3pm).

The other day I was with my dear cousin who got home from his mission a week before school started. I asked him how many girls he has taken on dates since he's been home. He started counting and got up to about 8 or 9. I think that's pretty good considering that he's been home for about 3 months. Then it got me thinking... how am I doing... Then I stopped thinking.

I really don't have much to write on here. Not much has happened. I'm pretty sure other people could talk about my life in a more interesting way than I can. So if that's a job position and somebody wants it... be my guest. I pay 0$ per hours... sorry. What more can you expect from a SCS (Starving College Student).

Singing Out
Matthew John Barry

Dare to Stand Alone

This is Awesome. Thought I'd share it.

Hope you like it.

Signing Out
Elder Barry

Dear Utah,

Dear Utah,

You sure have changed a lot, seriously... a lot. I didn't recognize anything... almost... Thanksgiving Point was still there... but other than that you have changed in two years.

It must say that it'e strange to be here with you again. I don't know what to do anymore. The things that I found important aren't anymore. The things I wanted to do don't seem like the right thing anymore. Maybe the one that has changed is me.

I must say, Utah, if you wanted the same person to come back who left, you must keep searching because he's not here. Now if you want to get to know someone a little bit new, Bring it on

Signing Out

Matthew Barry

Florida... no wait... Georgia

So right now I'm sitting on the 3rd floor of a giant Beach House that is on the beach... that's why it's called a beach house. It's beautiful. It's giant and there are 37 people living here for a week. All part of my family. It's been so much fun.

I'll be back in Provo probably on the 11th and I'll be speaking in Church on the 12th. So I'll see you all then

Signing Out

Matt Barry

Post-Mission

So yes, confirming all awesome rumors and stuff like that... I'm back... almost. I'm in Florida and it's been fun to be here. I must tell you that it's weird that everyone speaks English and it's weird that I don't eat beans and rice everyday. I keep slipping into portuguese when I speak to people. My vowels are weird sounding and they don't make sense some of the time. I don't make sense half... alright... all the time.

The other day I went out with the missionaries here in Florida and we were knocking some doors and it was way hard to not call myself Elder Barry. I slipped up a couple of times trying to call myself Elder Barry and pointing at the empty shirt pocket where my name tag used to be. Weird.

But I'm home.

Signing Out
Matt Barry

Mission Post (Mission)

I'm pretty sure when I started my mission that I wasn't ready. But by now I'm pretty sure I'm I ok and having a grand ol' time. I'm probably loving it right now and the mission is just flying by. Not much to report cause I'm writing this on July 26th 2010 in the Library of BYU. So... I don't know what will be happening to me within a couple of years. But this is just a fun thing to do. Schedule them so they post forever and a half ahead. This will post two years after I wrote this. Cool eh? So I don't need to worry about it and you can be entertained with my randomness and think this is awesome. So I'll see you when I get home. I'll post something about being home and how weird it will be to be home. But we don't know that yet.

Singing Out
Elder Barry

Elder Matthew Barry returns soon!!

He arrives in Jacksonville, Florida on July 24 at 10:30 am.  Yes he flys all night from Brazil!  He will stay here with us, his parents, and Jessica until Aug 11.  He arrives in Utah at 6:45 pm on the 11th.  That was the fastest 2 years ever!  I have enjoyed posting his letters and sharing his mission with you. 
Here is his final letter...a little rushed, a little short but at least he is thinking of us.  LOL


Dear Family,
I will see you here in a week... and I don't have much time.
So I'll talk to you here in a week.

Endure to the End

Signing Out
Elder Barry

Dear Family,

I'm doing great.

We had a shock this week. We found out the Sr. Andrade isn't married yet... so he can't get baptized. I'm so glad that God knew that and didn't let him get baptized.

Me and my companion are great. Our teaching styles have been hard to mix because I talk a lot and my companion doesn't. So I sit there talking a whole bunch with the people and then sometimes my companion just says the closing prayer. I need to calm down a little and give him some space to speak.

The ward is really good too. This last week we had about 102 people in Church. It was way good. I'm really liking this ward and if we ever come back (mom... we'll talk about this afterwards) I'm coming back to this ward for sure just to say hi. One of the members said that if I come back to visit, there are beds in her house for me and others to sleep in during the visit.

The members in this ward help out when they are asked. So we just need to ask them to help. That's it. Generaly we can mark family nights ect... easily, lessons with members too.

I have two favorite families here. One is Edvaldo and Nilda which are actually know as Pai e Mãe (Dad and Mom) by the missionaries. They are always there and help out.

The other is a single mom that works in the food buisness. She does food for big parties so when she needs help with food, we always go and help out a little bit because she does almost everything by her self. She's also less active but she went to church this last week and I'm hoping that she's there to stay. She said that she is not going to mark any more parties for Sundays so that she can go to church and keep the Sabbath Day holy.

You asked what is my favorite food... I actually have no clue. I just eat. I like it when the members make french fries or mashed potatoes. Those are sooooo good. Oh, there is a Brasilian food called Cus-Cuz. It's basically grated corn... I can't explain it. But mom, if you have a steamer at the mission home like one that you put water in the bottom pan and there are holes in another pan that you can put on top so the hot steam can go up through it... I can buy a package of Cus-Cuz and bring it home to make it for you. It's way good and I've heard that you can find it in the states. A missionary who served in Utah said that he made it all the time for the missionaries. So if he made it all the time... I'm sure that it's somewhere in Utah.

My favorite part of missionary is talking with people. I like breaking the ice with people who like to talk, someone who talks back. It's so much easier to break the ice with someone who just likes to talk. I have a hard time making friendships with the people that just answer all your questions with yes's or no's. That is hard.

I will miss the people here. There is no other people I know like Brasilians. No one can compare. I will also miss some of the food that they have here like Cus-Cuz and Açai. Today, me and my companion will probably eat Cus-cuz for lunch with pepperoni and something else like onions and other things.

 

My goals for the next two weeks are:

- Do 70 contacts in a week. I've failed that one... A LOT in my mission. Not because I didn't want to, well sometimes not because I didn't want to, but sometimes I would just forget.

- Baptized Cleide. She's so close to getting baptized. She just needs to make her decision. It's a miracle that she is so close to getting baptized. MIRACLE. I've been here for about 4 months and before that the missionaries had been teaching her. Her sister is a member for 20 years and her daughters for 10 years. Her daughters are probably some of the best, most faithful and diligent Young Women I have ever seen in my life. No joke. So I'm way excited. It's just an exciting thought to think that this woman will finally baptize and will be able to have an eternal family with her children.

 

As Jess said to me in a letter.

"Just think of it as another transfer. Cause really, it is. You'll still be a missionary you'll still have covenants to keep and rules to obey in order to be truly happy in life. And you'll still need to open your mouth all the time. The only differences with this next transfer is 1) you won't be able to wear the name of Christ on the outside of your chest (You've already taken upon yourself is name so you'll still wear it... just not as visibly) and 2) you'll have more responsibilities to juggle on top of being a missionary (school, work, dating... etc). So don't think of it as coming home from your mission where you will come back to how things were. You're getting transfered to a new area where you have to do missionary work while doing homework and finding yourself a permanent companion (sadly there's no mission president here to assign you one). Focus on your investigators and potentials now and you'll be able to better focus on that other stuff your next transfer."

So all in well in Zion.

I love you all and hope all in well in Zion

Endure to the End

Signing Out

Elder Barry

Dear Fam,All is well in Zion, It's not too hot. We are actually in Winter right now... but that just means there's wind and that it doesn't rain. I actually can't remember that last time it rained here... but that's not a surprise because i'm not remembering anything as of late.

Sr. Andrade did not get baptized but he went to the Ward Conference and loved it. He's going to get baptized but I don't know when. He just needs to feel ready.
To my surprise the Bishop didn't change. But the Elders quorum president changed and the ward boundaries changed so that next week they will need to call a new Relief Society President and a new Primary President. That was crazy. There were a lot of changed and not the way I expected it to happened. Our area is now a little bit smaller.

I'm trying to remember what happened during the week but I can't remember. As of late, like I said at the beginning, I'm not remembering things any more. All I remember is laughing a lot with my companion, walking and working. I did have a strange dream once but now it just seems like a blur. Everything just seems like a blur. It goes by so fast.

I got a letter from Elder Hodges that I read today and it seems like yesterday that he left, actually yesterday was when I left. He left between yesterday and today. But he said that he was getting close to him 1 year mark, that about blew my mind.

Today I was reading the general Conference talks from 2010. The one in April. I learned that adversity is just part of life. It will always come. It's the between part of "Once upon a time" and "Happily Ever After". It's necissary.
I love you all.

Endure to the end
See you in 3 weeks.

Signing Out
Elder Barry

Fam bam,

Me and my companion are doing great. We get some pretty funny comments in the street sometimes. We got one this last week were someone said "Irmãozão e Irmãozinho" Which isn't as funny when you translate it but they said "Big Brother and Little Brother". We got a kick out of that. The membros laugh about it and everything. It's pretty funny.

Hey, I don't know if I can have a word in on the Family Reunion but I would love to go to the temple (if possible) with everyone.

Also a singing session would be awesome.

Sr. Andrade couldn't go to work this week and doesn't feel ready for baptism but I'm not worrying about that because he isn't ready... yet. We are thinking of changing the date this week for next week so that he can go to church one more time before baptism.

We also marked a date with a woman named Cleide and her daughter Daniella. Cleide is the mother of two really strong young women in the ward. Her daughters have been baptized for about 10 years ish and she wants to get baptized but is scared that she won’t make it to the end. Endure to the end is hard for her. But we are trying so many different things to help her. We watch the video about "John Tanner" (If you haven't seen it, it's worth it). It's a movie from the D&C DVD for (i think) seminary. It was amazing and it helped her out a whole bunch. Her date is for the 15th. We hope that all will go well.

This week will be the Ward Conference and we think there will be a change of bishops. Our bishop has been there for 8 years and it's time for it to change. It's going to be strange.

Well I love you,

Endure to the End

Signing Out

Elder Barry

This is Matt's companion, Elder Araujo.  Yes they are both standing! 

Last transfer!

Hello Fam,

I'm here again, Sending an email to you. It feels like an hour since I was last doing this.

So Transfers happened but I stayed in Ceilandia 1b. But you're going to get a kick out of who my companion is. My companions name is Elder Araújo. The funny part is that he is the shortest missionary on the mission and I was the tallest (now I'm the 2nd tallest). So you can probably imagine that funny comments we are going to get and the jokes that are going to fly. He comes up to about my chest. I give his head a hug... not him. I can tell you that this is going to be really funny.

This week we didn't have church because there was a Brazil wide transmission of the dedication of the Temple in Manaus, Brasil. I must say that it was the highlight of my week. I learned some very important things.

1. Why didn't i go to the temple that often before the mission. I lived 20 minutes (or less) by car to a temple. It would of been so easy to go every week. If i would of planned, I could of gone more often. One thing they said in the dedication was 'It seems as the temples get closer to the members, the members start to think 'I will go to the temple tomorrow' and then the next day they say 'I will go to the temple tomorrow' and then after 3 years the members will say, 'I will go to the temple tomorrow'. There are member that are in the church for more than 40 years and they are doing this. I seems that some members lose the significance and importance of the temple' This is something that I was thinking about. I want to go to the temple. After about 2 years of not going, I really am starting to understand what I had and what I could of done better. Here in the part of Brazil that I'm in, People take off work for a week to go to the temple. They need to travel for 14 hours by bus to get there. What is 20ish minutes compared to 14 hours.

2. They talked a lot about the two greatest commandments. Love your neighbor and love God. I understood a lot about action. Love is an action word. Without the action, the words are lost. If I love my neighbor I will help them in anything I can without being asked. If I love God, I will do what he wants without being asked and compelled to do it.

These are two thoughts that came into my mind during the dedication that I wanted to share.

I love you

Endure to the End

Signing Out
Elder Barry

Dear Fam,
Today is the 21 of may and it's a great day. I'm happy. I'm great.

I'm way excited because I got a letter from Dexter. Mom you remember Dexter? He wrote a 9 page paper talking about what he's been doing for the last year and so. He's already in the mission field right now. He went to the McAllen, Texas mission and went to the MTC on may 9th. He's serving a Spanish speaking mission. He misses you. In the letter he said this. "You know one thing I've missed the most? Barry food." You remember how he had really long hair. Well of course now he doesn't because he's on a mission. Just sharing the news.

We had a miracle this Sunday. We had Stake conference and it was packed. But because of the distance to stake conference some on our investigators didn't go. But while we were there a member from another ward called us and introduced us to a lady. This women had come to conference all by herself and wanted to know more about the church. Actually she wants to get baptized. She has already chosen. She wanted another Book of Mormon because she lost hers. So this Tuesday we are going to teach her. I'm way excited. Talk about blessings.

We also are teaching a young man of 11 years that wants to get baptized. We have marked a date with him for the 3rd of June. He's doing great and is reading everything we leave him. He's a less-actives son and he loves the church. Reminds me a little of Tyler and Mike mixed.

This week we had a visit from Elder Ellis of the Seventy and wow. That was an amazing conference. We talked a lot about prayer and how we need to ask God for what we need. We learned that God does not have limits. If we ask him for 1 family to teach, why don't we ask for 2 or 3. God is not limited.

Love you
Endure to the End
Perseverar até o fim
Perseverar hasta el fin

Signing Out
Elder Barry

Training

Dear Fam Bam,
All it well. Greeting. I'm still alive.
Mother's day is getting closer so I'll see you all on skype... maybe... if a member actually has one here. But it all comes down to it. I'll hear you here soon.

I'm doing wonderful here in Brasil. I can't believe how fast time flies. I just had an excellent transfer with my Companion and we are about to enter into the next. To Infinity and Beyond!! He's way amazing and I just learned that his dad is going to pass through Utah in August and that he has a bunch of uncles that live right around that area. We are way excited to plan and to work another transfer together. We just ended a 5 week transfer to we are starting the 2nd transfer on week 6 of the training but literally a whole bunch of the stuff we are studying, he already knows it. I feel like I'm the one being trained. Not him. He's the trainer here. It's pretty fun.

We are still finding people but none of them are going to church. We are really having a hard time in taking people to church. People say they will go and then don't. We are still going but it's hard when people don't follow through with their words.

Alright, So this week we had a visit of Elder Clayton from the Seventy and that was pretty cool. He talked about being a missionary that helps people enter into the church to stay in the church. He talked about how Baptizing and Reactivating are the same thing and should have equal importance. So me and Elder Condorí are doing our best to do everything and learn a better way to do it. The meeting was amazing. I loved it. Sister Clayton talked about D&C section 31 and how it gives promises and tells us what we should do as missionaries. Read D&C 31. It's great.

Endure to the End

Signing Out
Elder Barry

Eating Acai berries with Elder Condori.  It's a favorite of Matt's.

Wearing out

Dear Family,

I'm doing great. My worldly possessions are a wreck. My shirts are turning yellow, my pants have been ripping, socks are wearing out, my bags are better used as a speed bump in the street and my gym shorts are gym shorts. My mind is going and the hair is growing (you should see the chest hair but you can't so just look at the facial hair). I feel like old age is startin' to hit early.

I'm sorry but I don't have pictures that week (again) I forgot my camera and I'm a little scared to bring it because last week there was a robbery in the Lan House that we were in and it's a miracle that my camera wasn't stolen. The theifs only got about 2 Reais which is equal to about 1.50$. It could of been a lot bigger.

Mom, I think i'll try duck tape. Honestly. But you might want to send it in the next package because I'm not sure they have it here. If I'm going to be transfered (has a 20% chance) I don't know what I'm going to do. This tranfser is 5 weeks and we are already in week 3. So, I hope I stay.

Mom, I was talking with a missionary from my group today and he says that one of his best friends is in your mission. His name is Elder Tenney (I hope). The missionary from this mission, his name is Elder Greene. It's definately a small world.

I must say that I love training. It's a really stressful, funny and exciting experience. I keep on remembering everything that I did when I was a newbie on the mission. I keep laughing and I find funny things everyday. Lately is how nervous my companion gets on talking with people. I remember when I got on the mission and how funny it was for me. It's an experience that brings back a lot of memories about the mission. I hope I can help him th best I can.

Yeah, we are doing the 12 week training program. It's recent here on the mission for about 6 months. This is the first time I'm doing it and I'm trying to get a hang of it.

We are in a ward so there is a building. This is a really old church building. It is one of the firsts here in ceilandia. Actually it is the first here in ceilandia. We are working on a teaching group but we are getting there.

I was reading in the Liahona today and it hit me how much expereince the church leaders have. In the back of the conference issue it talks about the people being called to leadership possitions and I am realizing that these people are usually people who have gone through A LOT. They know what they are talking about. It's pretty cool.

We are now working with a lady named cleide. She is a mother of 2 members and knows that the church is true. She is just scared to get baptized. We are doing our best to help her out. We marked a tenitive date for the 22nd and I hope that we can help her through with it.

Love you all

Endure to the End

Signing Out
Elder Barry

Learning Spanish

Fam,

Well mom, that's rough. Man I knew the asparagus would get you one day. When I was younger I knew that it was unhealthy but ate it anyways. But now love it.

Well I got my new companion. His name is Elder Condori!. He's from Argentina. How cool it that? I'm training him and I hope everything goes all right. I think it's funny how things that just seem so second nature for me are pretty strange for him. Like for P-day today. We are here typing and sending email and he got in here and got on his email and started listening to some music that his parents sent him. Here on the mission we can listen to music just fine. Classical stuff is good and instrumental stuff is just fine. So I love Jon Schmidt. Well we go into the lan house and he throws on the earphones. I probably didn't realize for about 3 minutes but we have a rule that we can use earphones, but just one side. So I thought it was just really funny.

He's really outstanding. He plays the piano, loves music. Speak almost fluent English and is almost fluent in Portugues. He's pretty much a genius. I guess I'm not going to train him. He's going to train me. He's pretty short so it's pretty much a joke walking around in the street. He's just on fire and excited to work. I'm doing my best to follow him and learn from him because he has got some really great ideas. I'm excited.

General Conference was amazing. I loved it. As I did last general conference, I made a general theme. It's what I think general conference was all about. I like to sum it up in scriptures. D&C 24:7-9.



7 For thou shalt devote all thy aservice in Zion; and in this thou shalt have strength.



8 Be apatient in bafflictions, for thou shalt have many; but cendure them, for, lo, I am with thee, even unto the dend of thy days.



9 And in temporal labors thou shalt not have strength, for this is not thy calling. Attend to thy acalling and thou shalt have wherewith to magnify thine office, and to expound all scriptures, and continue in laying on of the hands and bconfirming the churches.



It talks about how we will have strength to do the Lord's work. We will have strength to do our calling and I was thinking how this could apply to all general conference. Well we all receive callings. Missionary, Dad, Home Teacher, Mother, Visiting Teacher and all the other ones we receive from God. These sacred calling are really important for our lives and for the lives of others. We are here to help and rescue others. Like less-actives and our own children to people we meet in the street. It is our calling. According to the scripture, when we do our callings, we will have energy to do it but if we try to do other things that do not apply to our callings, we wont have energy to do it.

I though it was pretty interesting.

Well I'm in a new area called Ceilandia. It's a pretty cool area. I with a newbie and we are opening the area. It's pretty hard but we are getting a hang of it.

Love you all

Endure to the End

Signing Out
Elder Barry

P.s Remember the talk by Elder David F. Evans. I liked it. Especially what he said about Missionaries.

TRAINING

Dear Fam,

I resent that email from 2 weeks ago and on top of that, I'm sending this one as well.

Woah, Leah is 13? That is soooo cool. It's a little strange to me too. She's gotten old. She's an oldie... well almost. I honestly will be really surprised to see everyone when I get home. They will all be grown up and savin' China.

So transfers are this week and I was desobrigado. I was released from being a Zone Leader... I'm actually excited because being a zone leader is really tiring. I left Pedregal and I'm going to Ceilandia 1b. I'm going to be a normal senior. Well almost a normal senior... I'm going to train... I can't believe it. This is basically the calling that I've always wanted to try. Wow, I'm going to get my companion on Wednesday. It has a 50ish% chance of being american 35ish% chance of being brasilian and a 15ish% chance of being argentinan. You will get to know... next week. So don't forget to look in on that. :D

I don't think I got a package yet. I haven't heard anything. I hope it's coming. It's getting closer and closer everyday... well should be getting closer.

Cancer Free is good.

I hope Jekyll island doesn't turn into Hyde Island at random times cause that could get dangerous.

Well, All is good right now. Just to tell you those three people didn't get baptized but one of them still wants to get baptized. I don't know when but before I left she said that she wanted to get baptized and that the church is fullfilling all of her dreams that she had when she was a girl. I hope it all works out now.

I honestly don't know what to write this week because I'm in a new area and I know nothing about this area. Actually I'm not in my area yet. I'm in an area about 5 minutes ish from my area.

Endure to the End

Signing Out

Elder Barry

The River is Wide

Dear Fam,

...

Wow.

FAMILY REUNION!!!!

If you can tell, I'm speachless.

I just knocked in the head by a 2X4. But don't worry, your secret is safe with me.
I'll keep it secret.

Anyways. This sweet boy is more like a sweat boy. Wow, I have now realized that I am my Father's child. I basically get made fun of because I sweat sooooo much. We walk somewhere and the other missionaries joke that I have just gotten out of the shower. I know you probably don't believe it and you need to see it to believe it. It's true.

I'm sure that Jess will do just fine on the registering.

I'm glad that housing is all A. O. K.

Any Plans with the Fam is Fine. or APwtFiF for short.

So now lets talk about the weather. Yes, typical\everyone talks about subject. But it's super crazy here. For example, today started out blazing hot and now the thunder has come. Last night me and another missionary ran home in the rain. There was so much rain that we ran through the rivers or in other words the streets. We were at the bottom of a giant slant. Literally right at the bottom. So all the rain had come down from higher up and was going through the streets. If I stood in the water in the streets it would cover my shoes completely up to my ankles. Try running home through water like that. My shoes are still a little soaked because I honestly only have one pair right now. Yes I know, missionaries go through A LOT of shoes. I've been using these shoes for the last 5ish months. Hope they last longer.

This week was an upper and a downer. Up was that we marked date and an investigator received an answer to his prayer but the down is that he didn't go to church and his cell phone broke and that we haven't found him in his house. We hope that this week we can find him at least once to figure out what's going on.

In this area we find new investigators but they don't progress. It's hard. Everyweek we find new one that don't carry over for the next week. They like us, they want to change but don't have the strength to do it. We try to help them for 3 weeks but it just doesn't work.

Real fast. It just started to rain here. It's going to be river roads here. I'm glad I'm inside... But I don't know how we are getting home.

In this area we are finding a lot of people who aren't married and just don't want to get married or want to but don't have the money or their family lives somewhere else and can't come visit for the marriage. It's hard to deal with. But the people are all really kind and you can basically get into almost any house really easy. It's a lot easier than Valparaíso 1. A LOT easier.

The power just went out and turned back on. That is how heavy the rain was.

'The river is wide, and I can't get or' and neither have I the wings to fly.' This is how I feel right now.

One of our neighbors, well old neighbors, have been writing me. Well of course Meridith Blackburn always sends letters and I'm always grateful to receive them. But Christopher Erickson wrote me right before he left the ward. He sent me two letters and I sent him one. He always sends amazing talks in his letters like one from Jeffery R. Holland that talks about "The Inconvenient Messiah". It's an amazing talk that you should all read. I'm sure you can find it on the BYU Website because he gave the talk when he was President of BYU. It talks about the temptations that Christ had and he applies them to our day, things that happen all around us. I believe that everyone could learn something from reading this talk.

Endure to the End

Signing Out
Elder Barry

Singing Out

Dear Mom,

I was honestly surprised that you caught that 'singing Out' because I have sent that home in over a fourth of my emails maybe a little more. I think it's pretty cool that you finally realized. Go back in some of the other emails and look. It's in some of them if not half of them.

So we had another practice the other day because we had zone conference. It was my zone and another zone together (which makes our stake.) We have 2 zones in our stake and are working to help the members grow in their testimony and become closer to Christ. This way the stake will split. Well, we had another practice after zone conference.

Terça-Feira Dia 6 - At zone conference my companion and I had to give a 45 min-ish doctrine and it was pretty fun to give. It's fun to do that type of stuff. We had some metal mind bogglers. You know the ones where there is a ring in the middle and you have to take the ring off but it looks like there is no way to take it off. But there is a way if you move the parts the right way. Well we had about 12 of those and we called up 12 missionaries and had them try it in 2 minutes. We seperated them into groups of those who got it and those who didn't. All the metal mind bogglers were different so we switched it up again and gave new ones to all the missionaries and had them try it again. Well afterwards we split them up into 3 groups, the ones who were able to do 2 of the mind bogglers, the ones who only did 1 and the ones who didn't get any. We then talked with all of them and asked them why they got it or didn't get it. We then compared it to their areas and how every area is different. Each one looks different and has different people. But they all have a key or a way to be opened and they all have a way to find new people. We continued to talk about ideas with the missionaries about how to find news and help the people in our areas. It was pretty interesting.

Segunda-Feira Dia 5 - We had Mission Counsel and we talked a lot about being an example to the missionaries in our zones and helping all of them. I think I told you about the Standard of Excellence here, the Silver and the Gold. Well we set a goal to have 50% of the mission acheiving the Silver standard of excellence this month.

We marked a date also with Cícero. He is an investigator of ours that we have been working with for a while. He wants to change but isn't going to church. So we firmed him up and marked a date with him. We marked a date for the 31st of march. I hope this will help him in his decision to get baptized.

I'm glad everyone is doing great and thanks for the emails you have sent me.


Eu Amo Vocês.

Perseverar até o Fim

Signing Out
Elder Barry

The Spirit Rains

Dear Fam,

If you like rain, you'd love the rain here (when it rains.) Because when it rains... it POURS!!! Seriously, Sometimes when it rains, we get stuck outside and don't have umbrellas. It takes us by surprise so we get stuck underneath something that protects us from the rain. Like right now, it's sunny, but here in 30 minutes it could be pouring. It's like good ol' Utah weather. You know how they say "If ya don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes."

An apartment by Brick Oven sounds great. I'm excited for it. Well scared and excited. It'll sure be strange. My companion is excited because he just got accepted to BYU today.

So about 2 weeks ago I spoke in church. I forgot to tell you that. I spoke in church the other day. It was fun. I talked about how there are people that we know that are ready to receive the truth that are all around us and all we need to do it open our mouths and tell them about it. I hope that at least some of the members got something out of it.

Pedregal is a branch that is bigger than some of the wards here in the zone. I think it's really close to becoming a Ward but I don't know. Maybe there are more things it needs. But in church this last week there were almost 100 people. That was cool.

In our stake the stake president wants to do a musical program with the missionaries. So guess who basically got put in charge. Yup, me. I'm guessing that's why I wasn't transfered, I need to do this music program. We had our first and only practice today and It sounds pretty good. I'm excited and hope that everything goes without a hitch. It's interesting to work with missionaries who know basically nothing about music. I hope they remember everything so that we can do the program all goody good.

I love reading the Ensign or the Liahona of the conference reports. It is so good. I read one by Elder Eyring the other day that has helped me a lot. He said to always work even though you are tired and exhausted. We must work. I loved it.

Right now my companion and I are finding new people to teach because the old people aren't progressing that well so we are basically going to start from scratch.


Endure to the End

Love you

Singing Out
Elder Barry

Movin' strong

Wow, I must say that my legs are pretty darn tired from soccer today. But afterwards we ate 2 bowls of Açai. You know the Brasilian fruit that everyone was basically talking about, yeah. It's so good. I love it.

We are hitting Carnaval. It's basically a big party here in Brasil. Everyone parties while the missionaries need to stay in the house. We have to get home early for about a week because it can be really dangerous here. Not just dangerous but scandalous. Honestly, from the little I've seen in the street and passing on TV (everyone watches TV) from all the little tid bits...wow. Watch out.

Today, I'm good. Great. I'm a little tired but that is basically every day especially a day of soccer. This week was really hard. We had transfers, meetings, meetings and more meetings. My companion and I basically lost 3 days just because of meetings we needed to go to. On the days we had free to work nothing happened until Sunday, last day of the week. We were walking past a house, I was on the phone resolving problems and my companion just stopped at a house we were walking past and started talking. This led to entering the house and teaching. They are a good family... well, not married family but they are still potential to progress. We are way excited. After a week of almost nothing, finally a result.

We are still working with the same people and they are all kind of... stopped. We need to do something different or find new people.

Maicon is only missing permission from his mom. She won't give it because she says that Maicon doesn't obey her enough. She basically says that it's our fault that he isn't changing and that our lessons aren't changing him. But we see a difference. I don't know how she doesn't see it.
Waldivino still is going to church. We can't get him to accept a date or stop smoking. But honestly after time of going to church he is probably going to ask to be baptized.

Sávio is still there, his foot is getting better. He went to another church the other day so now we know that he can go to church. We are going to work on that. Him in Chruch. Get him in and he'll ask to be baptized.

Family ties are strong, if Jess stayed in Idaho I would find time to go there.

Movin on, movin strong

Endure to the End

Signing Out
Elder Barry

Tender Mercies

Dear Fam,

Mom, it was strange to see "sent from my IPad at the bottom of every email. Since when does my mom know anything about technology.

Well, we are in our last week of the transfers and it looks like everything is going up. Looking up and going. We have about 6 men we are working with that can go to church this Sunday and we have a young man who wants to get baptized this week. We did his baptismal fecha the other day and we will return tonight to talk with his mom and get her to sign it. This kids name is Maicon. Remember him? His mom basically kicked us out and didn't want us to come back. After 4 weeks, Maicon went to church saying that his mom will let him get baptized. We are pretty excited. Tender Mercies.

We are teaching 6 men
Fêlix, Cicero, Savio, Hernando, Lucas, Gerson and then have some others. Waldivino, Arí and Meikon.

This is the biggest group of men I have ever taught in my mission. 3 or four of them have accepted baptism. It's way cool to see them grow and change too.

Dang, carry everything around again. Man, I don't know if my suitcases will handle it. But I'll find a way.

Well, I honestly don't have any more news this week. I'm just tired from playing soccer.

Sorry, I don't have more news.

Endure to the End

Signing Out
Elder Barry

Dear Fam,

So all is good and all is well is Zion. Tudo bem. Tudo bem.

The reason why I didn't say anything about leadership in the past is that it shouldn't matter.

I was a District Leader in Valparaíso 1 for 3 months and then turned a Zone leader here in pedregal. In our mission we really don't have a jr. Zone leader and a Sr. Zone leader but if you want to think about it that way, this transfer I went a Sr. Zone Leader. I've been a zone leader here in pedregal for 3 transfers. Basically 2 como Jr zone leader and 1 como Sr.

I'm hoping meiken progreses too because he has started to work and it's been hard to find him again. But he's still only smoking 1 cigerette. It's a good thing. Now the hard part is getting off that one.

So Silver is
5 lessons with member
15 lessons in total (including other lessons and lessons with member)
2 in church and one of them with a dare
4 new investigators

Gold is
1 baptism or confirmation (You can get gold twice on the same investigator)
10 lessons with member
25 lessons in total (including other lessons and lessons with member)
4 in church and two of them with a date
7 New investigators

The reason we have two is that silver is the floor standard. It should be about 80% of the mission getting it. Right now we have about 40% getting it. The silver acts like a spring to get the gold. Usually those who get silver one week can get the gold in the next because there is at least 1 person at church with a date. This week we are going for silver because we don't have anyone who can get baptized or confirmed this week.

But we try to focus not on getting the Standard but on inviting other to come unto Christ. That is our purpose. Our purpose is not to get silver or gold. Silver and Gold are just a way we can accomplish our purpose. We could even work with less actives all the time and get them going to church and helping them return and we will accomplish our purpose. Invite others to come unto Christ.

One thing I learned is to invite others to come unto Christ, we need to be there first. We can't push or pull people to Christ. We can't show them the way to Christ. We invite them to come to a place were we are. That's why people say 'you can't convert someone to a higher level than you are.'

I wish we could have a giant stake conference like you had, mom. It's needed. Honestly. In every area I've passed through, there are only 5 or less really converted men in the area and only 1 or less can pass the idea to others. The church grows really fast in Brasil. The difficulty is getting them to stay strong because the church is still growing here.
All is well = Tudo bem

Tudo bem em Sião = all is well in Zion.

Endure to the End

Signing Out
Elder Barry

Hello Family,

Well this week was a week full of goodness, It was an amazing week. I loved it. We worked "até o pó" (until the dust). It was a really good week. Honestly I feel great about everything until now. I'm still growing and I don't know what to do in every situation but I'm growing and that's a good thing.

We had a baptism that was way good, I'll send a picture. We have some perspectives for the 4th and the 11th which are way good too.

I have too much stuff that it's really hard to carry it around on every transfer. For example I have a bag I don't use. Basically my big bag I just keep all the stuff that I never use. It's about half full and thinking about how full it was when I left, I don't know how I'm making it to every transfer with everything. I'm wanting to send home the stuff I never use. I've been trying to send it home for the last 6 months and I could never get it off.

I've honestly reached the point where I don't want to go home. Unfortunately it's an inevitable end that all missions come too. But if it wasn't for a visa, I would try to stay longer on the mission. I'm learning probably more than I will in two years at home.

There are A LOT of things I haven't told you during my mission. I've probably told you less than half of my mission and I want to apologize that it took me 1 year and 5 months to realize that I should tell these things. I'm not the best but I'm learning.

So, I can't tell you everything right now but I'll tell you one thing that happened this week and I'll keep telling things about the mission in other emails.

Right now I'm in Pedregal as a Zone Leader. I'm been here for about 3 and 1/2 months. One thing that I love from being a Zone Leader is doing Interviews. I did an Interview for a lady named Maria leidilane. She is married but her husband didn't want to join the church. He was totally against it but she went right ahead and wanted to get baptized. Her husband tried tempting her with coffee a lot of times but she held strong. One thing that I wanted to share was during the Interview, we were talking about her family and something really cool happened. We were talking about how families can be forever and I had the strongest Impression that her husband would be baptized one day too. I started to cry because I knew and I know that God loves this lady so much. It was one experience that marked my mission and it has been one thing that I love to do. I love to Interview the people getting ready for baptism.

My new year's resolution was to write in my journal too. so far... so good.

I had an experience just like that Elder that got hit but a truck, except I wasn't hit. This was about 7 - 10 months ago. I was in Planaltina de Goias and the buses there are crazy. Truely crazy. I've never seen bus drivers like the ones there. Well I was walking with my District Leader (who had already been my companion Elder Santos) and we were with the Branch President walking to do a visit with him in a place really far. Well,we were walking up a hill that went slightly up. We were walking and walking and a bus passed us. This street is a pretty big street and here... we usually walk in the street or close. In that particular area we had to walk in the street. The street was big enough for two buses going in the same direction on one side and two buses going in the other direction on the other side. A bus passed us and I just had a feeling to look behind me. Right when I turned, another bus passed right where the right side of my body had been 1 second before. It's really interesting how the Lord protects. He does that for all the missionaries in the whole world.

Right now we are working with Meiken (Mike). Remember him from a while ago. We could never find him but we found him again and he is doing good. He was smoking 2 packs of cigarettes and now has only smoking 1 or 2 cigarettes per day. He wants to get baptized. He told us "I got to get me baptized." We are working with him for Dia 4 de Março.

In our mission, we have two Standards of Excellence, a Silver and a Gold. The Silver works like a base line of the work we need to do and the Gold is the hard one. The president wants that 80%of the mission gets silver. It's like the minimum work we should do. Well one thing I'm way excited about is that these last two weeks me and Elder Giles have gotten Silver. But this week we went for Gold. It was amazing. We threw it all in, planned and did it.

I hope you like the letter because it's cram packed with information. Hope your brain doesn't explode.

Endure to the End (of the Letter)

Signing Out
Elder Barry

Dear Readers,
I'm sorry I didn't post Matt's letter last week. His day to write letters this week was on Thursday and I was in the middle of zone conferences. I forgot to send it till now. In my last letter to him I asked him some questions to stimulate his thinking. These are the questions:
1. Have you had the chance to be a Sr. Companion? It’s okay to tell us things like leadership opportunities, baptisms, teaching experiences, contacting experiences. I love to hear those types of things. I feel you purposely don’t tell us the good things you do. It isn’t bragging.

2.Tell me when you felt the spirit this week and the events surrounding it.

3. Tell me a funny experience

4.What do you do on preparation day? Our missionaries have to wash the car and sometimes wax it. You don’t have that responsibility. What is it like to go food shopping? What are the stores like?

5.How are you feeling?

6.Tell us the everyday activities of a Brazilian. Do they have siestas? What is unusual that we don’t do in the states?

I felt that you needed to know the questions because he answers them randomly with no explanation. It's a trick to figure out where he is going. I'm grateful for the juicy letter. Mom/Marilyn


Dear Fam,

Today we don't have a lot of time because in 20 mins we need to leave because my companion needs to do an interview. So, I'm sorry if I don't get everything responded to because I still need to write president.

Elder Giles has been in the pageant and his dad is the director of the pageant. So he knows exactly what you are talking about. Me, I'm still a little bit clueless.

(Matt's comp is from Castle Dale so I told him in the last letter about the pageant there and the times we went to it - Mom)

Sorry for not saying anything for the last while about it. I just don't like to talk about it... but if you want to know about it I will tell you.

I've been a senior since about May. It's been a new experience. It's been pretty cool to teach and take the lead in some lesson but honestly, I have so much to change. My new companion, Elder Giles, has shown me a whole bunch of stuff that I can do to become better from the way I talk to people to the way we teach. I used to teach a little like a robot. I've been working on overcoming that and learning on how to really teach people.We had a really good lesson with a man named Sávio. He is really good. The only problem is that he has a broken foot. It's been broken for about 1 month and he is having a hard time going to church because of it. But the first lesson with him this last week was amazing. We saw him driving a car yesterday so that's a good sign. We will see what's going to happen there.

We had a meeting with President Geartner on Monday, (which is the reason why I'm writing today.) and it was really good. He talked to us about helping others around us and living by example. Teaching by example and being a better example are somethings that I want to strive for plus doing better contacts and meet more people and not being afraid.

Funny experience, Well not funny but good. We ate at Burger King today. It was sooooo good.

On preparationg day we email, write letter and clean the house and sleep. Maybe study. Eat at burger king. Do some fun activities. Food shopping is just like a grocery store. Nothing different. It's big and cool and has food inside. I think that's how it is in the states. I usually eat oatmeal, milk and chocolate mix in the milk. It's way good.

I'm feeling good. Honestly. I have a lot to get better at and it's overwhelming sometimes all the things that need to be done in missionary work. You know how I'm antsy about the future. I just need to take things step by step. Other than that I'm great. I need to follow the counsel in 3 Néfi when it says focus on today and don't worry about tomorrow.

An unusual thing about Brazil is all the houses are tiles. There is no carpet and to clean you just throw water, soap, scrub with a broom and then use a squigee to take all the water out. That's something different. Also the showers only have one setting, cold. To take a warm shower you need to buy a shower head that is hooked up to the electricity and when the water passes through, it warms up. It's just a little bit different. Our water heater you usually don't see. Also they are supposed to have building permits to build stuff... but... they usually overpass that and just build. So it ends up with some pretty cool building. But they are sometimes strange.

I have make a goal to study the missionary manual to be more obedient. I've been studying in depth so I read all the scriptures and follow references and everything. I've read about 5 pages in 4 days. somewhere around that time. I also have a goal to study more of Preach my Gospel because that is something that has been lacking. The last time I studied all the way through was about a year ago. So I need to focus again and learn something more. I also want to learn more scripture references and read the Bible , D&C and Pearl of Great Price and the Book of Mormon in Spanish before the end of my mission. It's a lot of goals but I know when I plan I can do them. I'm way excited this year to learn more about everything. Knowledge is a Christ-like attribute and through this I can accompish more Christ-like attributes. It's going to be an amazing year. I'm excited.

I just want to challenge every single one of you to pick a spiritual goal like reading the scriptures everyday or studying Preach my Gospel. Or read and study the bible. Or read one of the Teaching of the Prophets books. The gospel principles book is a goody. I know we can all strive to gain more knowledge about how we can help others and helps ourselves. After you gain the knowledge. Apply it.

I Love you

Endure to the End

Signing Out
Elder Barry

New Year

FELIZ ANO NOVO!!!! FELIZ DOIS MIL E DOZE (2012)

Querido Família, (Dear Family)

Eu Amo Vocês!!! (I love you)

It was so great to see you (almost) all on Christmas and I hope that everyone is having a wonderful New Year.

One thing strange or awesome about Brasil is that there were A LOT of Fireworks on new years. I woke up, watched a little bit and couldn't go back to sleep because it was so loud. It was a cool experience. I was actually surprised with how many fireworks there were. I'm in a poorer area and I was surprised with how many fireworks people bought.

I wrote a whole bunch of notes on my patriarchal blessing, now I need to go back and review them because there is a lot of things there that I can learn from and grow from.

New years was a day like any other day for me. Only difference is that we woke up around mid night to look at the fireworks. But honestly, people are a lot happier here during Christmas and New Years. I hope it lasts.

I think the biggest difference for me is that my plans now need to include what is going to happen after the mission. It's strange to think that in 7 months, everything isn't planned for me. I need to actually plan 100% of my days. I'm so excited to do love gifts for next year. I'm already planning something awesome.

So for transfers, I stayed in the same area and got a new companion, His name is Elder Giles and he's also from Utah. He's from Castle dale (try finding that on a map.) He is actually in my same group. We will be going home together and we are way excited to work together.

I love Lehi's dream and thanks on the insights. I find that the best way we learn is sharing what we learned. Something cool that I learn this week was in church. We learned about the mission of the church. The mission is to invited all to come unto Christ. We learned about three over lapping circles 1. Missionary work 2. Perfecting the saints 3. Work for the Dead. These three circles overlap in a way that when we are doing missionary work, we are becoming more perfected. When we are doing the work for the dead we are becoming more perfected and helping missionary work. When we become more perfect, we have a desire to serve others and help in missionary work and go to the temple. So you could say that we should have some goals as members of the church. 1. Help the missionary work 2. Go the the temple and do work for the dead 3. Become Perfect.

I loved this lesson we had in church. I hope you all can learn from it too.


I love you and hope everything is going wonderfully good.

Do what is right.

Endure to the End

Signing Out
Elder Barry