La Familia!
first off, WOW Brianne Stokes is going on a mission! that is so crazy, but so AWESOME!!!!
well i am doing fantastic!!! everything is going great here. well i am so so sorry that my email last week was so so short. well i really dont like transfers that much now. yes i am back in Delicias but a different ward. i was in Barrio Juarez but now i am in Barrio panamericano. my area is big and yes we have bikes. my companion now is Elder Carrillo. he is a big guy but very funny. he has a lot of animo when he talks with people. he is a great guy. he is also helping me with my spanish because it isnt the greatest. well my feet are doing great. they have healed and i did take a picture. its got a lot of pics and i have a ton of other SD cards. so i will try to send it home soon.
oh by the way, i forgot to get a letter for jeff sent this week, so i will try to send next week. i feel so so so bad about how terrible i have been with writing letters. i have been so so busy. i dont see how derek was so good at that. it is something really hard to do!!!! so congrats to him!!!!
oh in my next package (when you send one) could you send the conference ensign and maybe some more sunscreen? and more candy of course
well being back in Delicias has been great so far. my area needs a lot of work, but our church is being remodeled so we are in the same building as my last area. our sacrament service is at 8 in the morning, so this will be harder to get investigators in church. but the two wards overlap and i got to see my old barrio. it was GREAT. i saw some of my old investigators and members. its was great because when i left, that week i was going to have 3 people baptized but i was transfered. well Fabiola was one of them and she is married to an inactive member and she was baptized and now they are REALLY strong in the church. she has a really strong testimony. i also got to see the other little girl that i was going to baptize (Vanessa). she and i were both happy to see each other. she is a little shy though.
but ya it has been great to be back.
oh my area is almost the same as the other one here, but there are more poor people. like the houses are the same but there are more poor people hanging around here. a lot of them are Chileros. people that pick chile all day. i have taught this one outstanding family and they are really poor. they live in this place that is kind of like a hotel but they live there. its like off of the movie THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. two of the kids were baptized but the parents werent. the parents have STRONG testimonies but they cant be baptized because they arent married. the husband is from some other country and doesnt have his papers. its so sad that they have such strong testimonies but cant be baptized. but i have seen some weird stuff with these poor people like some sleeping on the side walk and another bathing in the canal. that would be nasty!!!! i would understand more if it was like the canals in boise but here they are disgusting!!!
well i better go. i love you all and miss you tons¡!!!!
Elder Barnes
thanks for everything
Monday, August 8, 2011
Trying to Understand Transfers
Hey mom!!!
welll this weeks letter will be really short. yes i am online earlier and it is because of transfers AGAIN!!! this week i worked a lot and my feet dont hurt. sister angulo looked at my feet and she understood that i could walk, but i havent really talked with the president. so now i am going BACK to delicias. i will be in a different area though. i am not really happy about this because i know that they have bikes and i hope this transfer isn't about my stupid feet. i hope this transfer is from God and his part of his plan for me.
well i really really need to go. i LOVED the letter so much. i LOVE you guys so so much. i miss you tons and i will ttyl.
Elder Barnes
welll this weeks letter will be really short. yes i am online earlier and it is because of transfers AGAIN!!! this week i worked a lot and my feet dont hurt. sister angulo looked at my feet and she understood that i could walk, but i havent really talked with the president. so now i am going BACK to delicias. i will be in a different area though. i am not really happy about this because i know that they have bikes and i hope this transfer isn't about my stupid feet. i hope this transfer is from God and his part of his plan for me.
well i really really need to go. i LOVED the letter so much. i LOVE you guys so so much. i miss you tons and i will ttyl.
Elder Barnes
Blisters Make for a Tough Week!
HOWDY!!!
how is everything going? how is the US? how is everyone doing? how is jeff recovering? How is jordan liking it being home? hows dad?
well first off my companion has the same amount of time in the field as me. so really i have more time in the mission than he does. i say he is in my generation because we both got here the same day. but we live with the district leader and his companion is really the same generation as me. we both entered the same day. but yes my companion is the senior compnaion.
well this week was the hardest week yet. my area has less investigators and i can fix that, but this area is hard. i have to get to know everyone and the area. the problem though this week was that all of the roads are dirt. its terrible. so last time i wrote i think i had some blisters on my feet but it got worse. i had big blisters and some blood blisters. they hurt so bad. so we ended up calling sister Angulo and she got mad because we didnt call sooner. OOPS!! its just so hard to call when i want to work!!! she told me to go to the doctor. I didnt like this at ALL! i knew when the doctor would see my horrible flat feet he would freak out. WELL GUESS WHAT! he did. He said that i cant walk at all on my mission. i need to be in a area where there are bikes. well there are only very few area with bikes and thats Delicias and here. we dont use the bikes because they get flat easily because all of the roads are DIRT!!! the doctor didnt do anything with the blisters. he told me to buy this cream that was 180 pesos and it was only 10 grams. tiny little thing. totally not worth it. now i am afraid that the president and sister Angulo will think that i cant walk. well now my feet are pretty much healed and i feel great. oh i also got a fever and a bad headache the other day. but i feel so so much better today. i am ready to WALK ALL DAY!!!
well ya i love the area a lot except for the dirt roads. My house is very nice. it is an upgrade from the last one. ELder Candila is great. ya i also think that it was wierd that the president would put us together.
well i am really sorry this letter was more of a complaint. i am really not having that bad of a time here. i am loving it here.
i love you and miss you tons.
i cant wait to see those letters. oh the package wasnt open i dont think. it was beat up but i still got the deoderant.
well ttyl
Elder Barnes
how is everything going? how is the US? how is everyone doing? how is jeff recovering? How is jordan liking it being home? hows dad?
well first off my companion has the same amount of time in the field as me. so really i have more time in the mission than he does. i say he is in my generation because we both got here the same day. but we live with the district leader and his companion is really the same generation as me. we both entered the same day. but yes my companion is the senior compnaion.
well this week was the hardest week yet. my area has less investigators and i can fix that, but this area is hard. i have to get to know everyone and the area. the problem though this week was that all of the roads are dirt. its terrible. so last time i wrote i think i had some blisters on my feet but it got worse. i had big blisters and some blood blisters. they hurt so bad. so we ended up calling sister Angulo and she got mad because we didnt call sooner. OOPS!! its just so hard to call when i want to work!!! she told me to go to the doctor. I didnt like this at ALL! i knew when the doctor would see my horrible flat feet he would freak out. WELL GUESS WHAT! he did. He said that i cant walk at all on my mission. i need to be in a area where there are bikes. well there are only very few area with bikes and thats Delicias and here. we dont use the bikes because they get flat easily because all of the roads are DIRT!!! the doctor didnt do anything with the blisters. he told me to buy this cream that was 180 pesos and it was only 10 grams. tiny little thing. totally not worth it. now i am afraid that the president and sister Angulo will think that i cant walk. well now my feet are pretty much healed and i feel great. oh i also got a fever and a bad headache the other day. but i feel so so much better today. i am ready to WALK ALL DAY!!!
well ya i love the area a lot except for the dirt roads. My house is very nice. it is an upgrade from the last one. ELder Candila is great. ya i also think that it was wierd that the president would put us together.
well i am really sorry this letter was more of a complaint. i am really not having that bad of a time here. i am loving it here.
i love you and miss you tons.
i cant wait to see those letters. oh the package wasnt open i dont think. it was beat up but i still got the deoderant.
well ttyl
Elder Barnes
Transferred to Casas Grandes!
Hey Everyone,
well now i do know why everyone doesnt like transfers. i am now in Casas Grandes. i found out about three or four hours before i left. i went to chihuahua wednesday night and thursday we went to a conference and i joined up with elder Weiss and elder Johansen for that day. elder weiss is about done down here and he was the AP for awhile. he is really cool!!! Friday i left chihuahua to casas grandes around 330 we got here around 830. my companion is Elder Candila. He is mexican and is from the same generation as me. so we both have the same amount of time in the field. he is a really cool guy and he doesnt speak very much english. not much at all. we live with another companionship. elder ward and elder Lopez. elder ward is from bear lake Idaho. elder lopez is from mexico and entered the mtc the same time i did but has more time in the field than me. he is really funny and can speak some english. our area here is small and ALL of the roads are dirt. its terrible!!! we dont have very many investigators either. i am liking it here though. transfers are just so hard because i was starting to get to know everyone in delicias and i knew the area really well.
so that little girl that wanted me to baptize her, i didnt get to. i also didnt get to see the other two people that were going to be baptized. we were going to have three people baptized but i had to leave. perfect timing!!! but like i said, i do like it here. there is just a lot of work to do.
that is so cool that jordan is home now. tell him to write me. i bet he had a great time in china.
Oh i got MAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!! i got the dear elder about jordan and the little thing with laytons pic and zachs and someone else. and letters from the jones. that was really cool. i need to write to kaytlen again. i also got that package of candy for the fourth of july!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that was awesome! thank you so much!!! i really like U.S. candy. Elder Lopez really likes it too. my companion didnt like the twizzers. that was funny!!!
so sister Wallace called you? well i dont know anyone here. i dont know her brother at all but i guess its somewhat right. my spanish is ok but i definitely need to practice more and more. oh i didnt really give a talk i just went up to introduce myself in sacrament meeting and bore my testimony. i gave a talk last week though.
(side note - Sis Wallace, who lives in our Stake, well, her brother lives down in Chihuahua and serves on the High Council. He was visiting a Ward where Jaron introduced himself and bore his testimony. He said that Jaron was doing really well with the Spanish and that he is in a safe area...which was so nice to hear!)
well i love the song baptism so much. i listen to it a lot here and i feel close to you also. for janessa i have 6 people baptized. i really wished to have stayed in delicias for one more week but that didnt happen. oh well.
yes that was a resturaunt but the lady is a member and owns the resuraunt. so i didnt have the choice to order it that nasty looking fish.
well i better go.
i love you guys tons and miss you a lot. thanks for the prayers!!!! i still need them haha
Elder Barnes
well now i do know why everyone doesnt like transfers. i am now in Casas Grandes. i found out about three or four hours before i left. i went to chihuahua wednesday night and thursday we went to a conference and i joined up with elder Weiss and elder Johansen for that day. elder weiss is about done down here and he was the AP for awhile. he is really cool!!! Friday i left chihuahua to casas grandes around 330 we got here around 830. my companion is Elder Candila. He is mexican and is from the same generation as me. so we both have the same amount of time in the field. he is a really cool guy and he doesnt speak very much english. not much at all. we live with another companionship. elder ward and elder Lopez. elder ward is from bear lake Idaho. elder lopez is from mexico and entered the mtc the same time i did but has more time in the field than me. he is really funny and can speak some english. our area here is small and ALL of the roads are dirt. its terrible!!! we dont have very many investigators either. i am liking it here though. transfers are just so hard because i was starting to get to know everyone in delicias and i knew the area really well.
so that little girl that wanted me to baptize her, i didnt get to. i also didnt get to see the other two people that were going to be baptized. we were going to have three people baptized but i had to leave. perfect timing!!! but like i said, i do like it here. there is just a lot of work to do.
that is so cool that jordan is home now. tell him to write me. i bet he had a great time in china.
Oh i got MAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!! i got the dear elder about jordan and the little thing with laytons pic and zachs and someone else. and letters from the jones. that was really cool. i need to write to kaytlen again. i also got that package of candy for the fourth of july!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that was awesome! thank you so much!!! i really like U.S. candy. Elder Lopez really likes it too. my companion didnt like the twizzers. that was funny!!!
so sister Wallace called you? well i dont know anyone here. i dont know her brother at all but i guess its somewhat right. my spanish is ok but i definitely need to practice more and more. oh i didnt really give a talk i just went up to introduce myself in sacrament meeting and bore my testimony. i gave a talk last week though.
(side note - Sis Wallace, who lives in our Stake, well, her brother lives down in Chihuahua and serves on the High Council. He was visiting a Ward where Jaron introduced himself and bore his testimony. He said that Jaron was doing really well with the Spanish and that he is in a safe area...which was so nice to hear!)
well i love the song baptism so much. i listen to it a lot here and i feel close to you also. for janessa i have 6 people baptized. i really wished to have stayed in delicias for one more week but that didnt happen. oh well.
yes that was a resturaunt but the lady is a member and owns the resuraunt. so i didnt have the choice to order it that nasty looking fish.
well i better go.
i love you guys tons and miss you a lot. thanks for the prayers!!!! i still need them haha
Elder Barnes
Sunday, July 17, 2011
July 11, 2011 - ¨Por qúe ustedes no quieren enseñarme?¨
HELLO EVERYONE!!!!
your welcome for the pictures. i had to use one of the other missionary´s camera. ya that fish was pretty nasty. this week i ate a lot of interesting stuff. i think i told you about menudo. its cow stomach and its a soup. its not that bad. we also had cow liver the other day. my companion didnt like it that much but i thought it was decent. but ya everything is going great here.
well this lady that we baptized was not ready for one. that was our bad and also the district leader because she passed the interview but we finally confirmed her. We also were going to have another baptism this past saturday but she didnt pass the interview. we have a new district leader and he is a little better than the last one. but the lady (Fabiola) is really ready for baptism but for one thing. she is from the catholic church and participates in the chior. but this sunday was a great experience for her so she will be baptzed this saturday. she is WAY more ready than that other sister. We will also baptized two little girls. their parents are investigators but they need to get divorced and married. so that takes a long time because it is alot of money for them. but they are really strong and they go to church everytime. they are almost stronger than most members. so they decided to get the girls baptized. the little one is vanessa and she wants me to baptize her. i thought that was interesting because so many elders have taught them and i only have been here for a little time. so that is cool.
well here it is not like brazil. we dont clap. everyone here has gates in front of their house and we hit the gate with keys or something like that. and no one has grass here. no grass. the people that do have grass, they only have a little. to cut the grass they do it by bush cutters or by a weed waker. one investigator that we are teaching works for a lawn care business but there is very little grass around the city. but anyways he doesnt even have a lawn mower. they use weed wakers.
oh funny but awesome experience this week. . . we were teaching a lady and we cant enter the house so we sat on chairs outside the door and she was inside sitting on a chair. While we were teaching her this guy across the street caught my attention. he was holding a bible up and wanted us to come over. i thought, oh great this guy wants to bible bash.
we continue to teach this lady and he keeps trying to get us over. one of the times that i look over he was holding a chair up because we were sitting with this lady and he was just trying to tempt us to come over. then this lady that we were teaching gave us water and next the time i look over he is holding up two glasses of water. at this point i was trying not to laugh. he was very clever. but when we finished we tried to leave really fast and not bible bash. he got on his bike also and chased us down. when he got near us he said ¨Por qúe ustedes no quieren enseñarme?¨ it means, why didnt you guys want to teach me. this hit me really hard. so we both stopped and this guy was hammered. he was so drunk! so i felt a little better after seeing that. he talked with us and we gave him pamphlets(?) of the restoration and of the Word of Wisdom. we then said that he saw an angel and Jesus Christ. and he started acting like he was possessed. started speaking funny and acted like he could see Jesus at that very moment. this dude was crazy but i learned so much. I DONT WANT ANYONE TO SAY THAT SAME QUESTION EVER AGAIN!!! no one should ever say that. so that is my goal to not let anyone ask why i didnt want to teach them about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
so this week was great.
well tell jordan hi and welcome home for me. and tell him to write me. mom i will try to write some hand written letters. dont worry!!! and no i havent gotten any mail but i will probably soon!! oh and i dont know if you should send anymore of my ties. because i might never ever get them. just a thought. oh how was dereks first week working???
what else is new? That is so cool about whitney floyed!!!
well i need to go.
I LOVE YOU TONS and I MISS YOU GUYS A LOT
Elder Barnes
your welcome for the pictures. i had to use one of the other missionary´s camera. ya that fish was pretty nasty. this week i ate a lot of interesting stuff. i think i told you about menudo. its cow stomach and its a soup. its not that bad. we also had cow liver the other day. my companion didnt like it that much but i thought it was decent. but ya everything is going great here.
well this lady that we baptized was not ready for one. that was our bad and also the district leader because she passed the interview but we finally confirmed her. We also were going to have another baptism this past saturday but she didnt pass the interview. we have a new district leader and he is a little better than the last one. but the lady (Fabiola) is really ready for baptism but for one thing. she is from the catholic church and participates in the chior. but this sunday was a great experience for her so she will be baptzed this saturday. she is WAY more ready than that other sister. We will also baptized two little girls. their parents are investigators but they need to get divorced and married. so that takes a long time because it is alot of money for them. but they are really strong and they go to church everytime. they are almost stronger than most members. so they decided to get the girls baptized. the little one is vanessa and she wants me to baptize her. i thought that was interesting because so many elders have taught them and i only have been here for a little time. so that is cool.
well here it is not like brazil. we dont clap. everyone here has gates in front of their house and we hit the gate with keys or something like that. and no one has grass here. no grass. the people that do have grass, they only have a little. to cut the grass they do it by bush cutters or by a weed waker. one investigator that we are teaching works for a lawn care business but there is very little grass around the city. but anyways he doesnt even have a lawn mower. they use weed wakers.
oh funny but awesome experience this week. . . we were teaching a lady and we cant enter the house so we sat on chairs outside the door and she was inside sitting on a chair. While we were teaching her this guy across the street caught my attention. he was holding a bible up and wanted us to come over. i thought, oh great this guy wants to bible bash.
we continue to teach this lady and he keeps trying to get us over. one of the times that i look over he was holding a chair up because we were sitting with this lady and he was just trying to tempt us to come over. then this lady that we were teaching gave us water and next the time i look over he is holding up two glasses of water. at this point i was trying not to laugh. he was very clever. but when we finished we tried to leave really fast and not bible bash. he got on his bike also and chased us down. when he got near us he said ¨Por qúe ustedes no quieren enseñarme?¨ it means, why didnt you guys want to teach me. this hit me really hard. so we both stopped and this guy was hammered. he was so drunk! so i felt a little better after seeing that. he talked with us and we gave him pamphlets(?) of the restoration and of the Word of Wisdom. we then said that he saw an angel and Jesus Christ. and he started acting like he was possessed. started speaking funny and acted like he could see Jesus at that very moment. this dude was crazy but i learned so much. I DONT WANT ANYONE TO SAY THAT SAME QUESTION EVER AGAIN!!! no one should ever say that. so that is my goal to not let anyone ask why i didnt want to teach them about the gospel of Jesus Christ. so this week was great.
well tell jordan hi and welcome home for me. and tell him to write me. mom i will try to write some hand written letters. dont worry!!! and no i havent gotten any mail but i will probably soon!! oh and i dont know if you should send anymore of my ties. because i might never ever get them. just a thought. oh how was dereks first week working???
what else is new? That is so cool about whitney floyed!!!
well i need to go.
I LOVE YOU TONS and I MISS YOU GUYS A LOT
Elder Barnes
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
July 4, 2011
the Family,
Hey how is everything going? Here for the fourth we just listened to the "Star Spangled Banner" twice because its a hymn.
oh yes the president doesnt do many tranfers. He is an interesting guy but very strict. He has some pretty strict rules but its not that bad at all. last week was almost like a zone conference but with three or four zones. It was huge. he just talked about what we should be doing and our goal to baptize everyweek. That is tuff though, but we are trying. It also made my companionship stronger because now we both want to really work hard. The president said that the people beginning the mission should already be thinking of how we want to finish. I thought that was interesting. My companion and I watched the GREAT talk by Elder Holland and I learned a lot from that.
This week has been great!!! The weather was awesome. Usually it is really really HOT here! One day it was like 117 degrees! VERY HOT!!! but this week it has rained a few times and the cools the place down A LOT!!!! it was really nice. we also did a service project with the ward. that was fun.
yes the food is not the greatest at times but i always eat it. on the first of this month we went to this food appoinment and we had this soup with shrimp in it. that wasnt the greatest either. and after the soup we had some fish. as the four of us we heading off we all went to the church and used the bathroom. it was BAD!!! that food destroyed us. also yesterday this one investigator gave me this soup call menudo. it is cow stomach! that wasnt that bad. i thought it would be worse but it was good. i also had a burrito with pig skin. that was not bad either. so yes i am learning to eat good. well i havent gotten anything in the mail. nothing!!!!!! It does just sit there in the offices forever!!!! so if you write things in dear elder make sure that it is something that i wont need to know for awhile. i could do better with my journal writing. i wrote in it last night but i definitely WILL do better. i will also write you a long long letter. i definitely need to do better at that. on pdays i am busy and other days i am more busy. plus when i get back home, i am just so tired and want to eat and go to bed. it is so tiring to be on the mission. but i need to do better and write and stop complaining. so i will do that this week.
now here are some pictures!!!! YIPEE!!!!!!!!
hey dont feel bad that you missed writing to me. that was my fault because we had to leave really early.
i miss you tons and i love you guys so so much.
ELder Barnes
HAPPY 4TH Of JULY
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