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

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

June 27th, 2011

well sorry that i am on a little early today. today we had to wake up at 530 because last night we got a call from the president or assistant presidents and we have to go to chihuahua today. i think the presidents is going to do interviews with us. the whole zone is going. should be great!

well this week was a little crazy for me! i am always busy. this week was not the greatest at first. my companion and i got in an argument that was retarded, but later things started to get better. this saturday we had a baptism. it was this lady that is 21 and she is really cool. she has a strong testimony and i think she be a great member. at the baptism though, it was really spiritual. i had to give one of the talks this time. it went really well. the baptism made everything great this week. she was confirmed on sunday and that was awesome too. i think that was one of the best baptisms yet.
the language is definitely coming. i am learning more and more everyday. it is great!!!
there is nothing else that really new. everything is almost the same everyday, but its great. oh i told you that we baptized this lady and her daughter. . .well they didnt go to church the sunday after their baptism because there was some sickness in the family or something. and it might have been just a running nose or something lame like that. yesterday they didnt come AGAIN!!! we called them to make sure they were coming and she said that she would be there but they never showed up. we went by the house and she wasnt there. the grandma said that they slept in. so we are going to have to do something about that. :(
i need to do better at writing also. i am just so busy even on pdays. i will also try to find that cord for my camera so that you can get pictures. sorry i will try to do better!!!!!!!!!
well i didnt get an email but dont feel bad at all. its fine!!! last time you felt really bad but dont feel bad. well i need to go so i will talk to you guys later. hope everything is going great!!!!
i miss you tons and i love you so so much. ttyl
Elder Barnes

June 20, 2011

HELLO EVERYONE!!
how is everyone doing???? how is the weather? Excited for the trip? whats new in boise or meridian or nampa???
well the weeks fly by here also. the president says that we need a baptism every week and it flys by and so it seems very difficult at times. well we had another baptism this week. we baptized a mom and her daughter. i baptized the mom and my companion did the other. the other missionaries baptized one hermana and she is the sister of one in our area. she knows everything and what she needs to do but she is not ready to make the commiment. this week was great though. we had 7 invesigators at church and that was awesome. we also are having another baptism this week also. its another young lady. she is dating a inactive member but he is wanting and is changing. her name is liz and her boyfriend is alan. he works at this t-shirt place and he gave me a free t-shirt. i also got a free hat from this other investigator. its awesome being a missionary.
the water or the diarrhea isnt that bad! sometimes i am a little scared to eat but its not that bad. the other day i went to chihuahua and learned that my old companion is having worse food. so i think i am a little spoiled. i went to chihuahua for my visa thing. now i have a card that says i am living here just for a short time. but yesterday we had the worst food yet. the lady brought out this soup that wasnt that bad but it had fish in it. bones and everything. after the soup she brought out a plate of fries, small salad, and another fish. this fish was nasty though. it was just fried so it still looked like a fish but just a little crunchy. i took a pic of it and it was not great at all. i was close to gagging!!!
the pics.... i really want to send you pics. i dont have the cord that hooks to my camera to the computer and i tried the other missionaries cords but they dont fit into my camera. i will try to find a way though sooon!!! sorry!!!!!
my package...i need need need candy. i bought reeses here and they are terrible and nasty. they arent the real reeses. but i do need candy. i would also like some of my other ties that i left home. thank you so much. i hope to see that package sometime but i bet it will take away for me to get it.
oh i have been here for one transfer now. today i am starting the next transfer. so my agenda looks really cool. i put a cool picture on it!!!!
dont be worried about anything. there are just funny stories.
ya the spanish is tuff but i am learning. there is a lot of ways to say things i am learning that we cant say some of them because its slang. but i just need to have more confidence in myself because when i do talk, it usually just comes.
So has Whitney Floyd gotten her call yet???
the other missionaries in the house are the zone leaders and we talk with them quite a bit. they seem really cool. we only really see them a church, at night and mournings, and sometimes at food appointments.
oh when you do talk to mindy, ashley, kaytlen, or any other people, please tell them sorry that i am bad at writing back. everything here is really really busy. i will try to do better. i also havent sent a letter to janae either. OOPS!!! i feel really bad. oh and dad, HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!! during church yesterday they were talking about fathers day and i really wanted to call home and tell you what a great father you are and how much you have taught me. AND that i love you tons!!!! well i need to go
i miss you guys tons and i love you a lot!!!
Elder Barnes

June 13, 2011

Buenas Dias,
how is everyone doing? what is new? where did derek and julie go on their cruise? how was the camp out thing? are you guys gettting excited for the manti trip? that will be a cool experience for the youth. i think that is cool that dad is doing a lot of good for the young mens. i cant believe he offered them jobs. that would be cool. how is jordan doing? when does he return back home?

well everything here is going great. i am really busy and am having a great time. i am learning so much. the weather here is hot!!!!! siempre!!! but i think i am starting to get somewhat used to it. oh the other day we were riding our bikes and passed this dog and it was eating another dead dogs body. that was pretty sweet but it stunk a little. also i have had some bad diarrhea. i was like Harry off of the movie Dumb and Dumber. it was bad. but that has improved big time.

the food here is great though. often i get this stuff called mole. its this meat with chocolate and some other weird stuff but its good. we get that quite a bit and every meal we have rice and tortillas. tortillas are like utensils or you can use it as a burrito. they also call everything water. they will ask if you want water but they come back with orange juice. they make all kinds of different water. they just put vegetables in there and sometimes it is nasty but i am always thirsty so i drink. one sister put cucumber and lime in one and the cucumber was nasty. they also get these small sugar packs for the water (like the orange juice) but one tasted like candle wax. everyone has it and its not that good. and the poor people will give us that to try to cover the bad, tap water.

the church is somewhat big i guess. we have three wards here in Delicias and the stake is over three other cities. from what i know i think there are a lot of inactive members but i have never really seen what it is like in the US. thats one thing that has caught my attention. missionaries are supposed to confirm the converts in church and we bring investigators to church, but i have never seen that done in our ward in the US. have you guys seen that done?

how does my chart look like? getting more full?
well when you wonder what i am doing, i am usually teaching a lesson to an investigator or trying to share the gospel with my bad spanish. my spanish is doing better. everyday it is better but i still have troubles. it is hard to listen to the people also. i can get what they say most of the time but some times they just speak so fast or they use different ways of asking the same thing. but the language is coming. a little slower than i like but its coming.

this saturday we should baptize two people. it should be another great experience.

well i better go. i am sorry that my letters aren't detailed enough...i am always in a hurry. i never have time to write but i think i can do a lot better. i just got a letter from a girl from college this week and that was exciting. well i better go.
i miss you tons and i love you guys so so much.
Elder Barnes
ps i wil try get some pics to you sometime soon

June 6, 2011

Hey Everyone,
Everything is going great! This week was Stake Conference and President and Hermana Angulo spoke. I think that they were great talks. I get most of the talks but not all. The spanish is coming. I keep getting commpliments from some other missionaries that are mexican.
We are actually teaching a guy in English right now. His name is Harley and he has a lot of questions. He speaks spanish also but he would rather speak english with us. So yesterday we got an english book of mormon for him. we are making a lot of progress.

Elder roth (my companion) is from Iowa but his family is in Japan. He also lived in Germany for awhile. The others in the house are Elders Gerratt and Hatton. Elder Gerratt is from Gooding!! I thought that was interesting and he knows some of the Andersons. Elder Hatton is from Utah. Dont know where exactly but near Provo.
Well that is good advice. I have been writing in my journal but now it only has been once a week. I need to do a little better than that. I have been writing in it a lot though.
I have also been writing the companions names down and the converts. But that is a great idea thank you so much.

Wow layton got baptized! That is so cool!!!! I bet that was fun to go out there. So how are they doing?

Its crazy at how much I am learning out here in the field, as to what is important and not. Like sports or Duty to God. I will have to send a letter to dad to have him read to the young men.

Well hopefully we will have another baptism this week but we might not. This week we couldnt because of stake conference. But everything is going great. I think the english guy (Harley) has gotten me to have confidence with speaking more in the lessons with the hispanics because H have seen how much I can do in english with helping my companion and the investigator that i want that same relationship with people that speak spanish. I dont know if that made sense but it does to me.
Well everything is going great. Its hot here also. I am sweating like dad at times. its terrible!!! But i am loving it here!!!
I miss you guys so much and I love you tons!!!! ttyl
Elder Barnes

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