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