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.