Hey there familia well I am glad to hear that you all are having snow it is still super ridiculously hot here in San Luis.  I am not getting changed and Elder Parker my comp is our new district leader so that will be fun!!!!

This week has been sad, happy, exciting, scary, just everything, I have lots to write about!!!

So first thing my great friend and fellow elder, Elder Granillo goes home today.  He lives in Pueblo Mexico and he was my first zone leader.  This week we all went to San Benito and he talked to us and bore his testimony.   The day before we had this meeting he came to San Luis to help us find a new house for a new area in San Luis (unfortunately we couldn't find any houses that were safe enough so this change we won't get new hermanas in San Luis).  We got to hang out with him and talk a lot for the last week on his mission and he says he doesn't want to go home he loved his time in guate.   I am a little sad that he is leaving but its all part of life!!!

So we had a festival in San Luis, Se Llama Fecidadineva. It is a catholic festival but we went and watched and it was just a lot of floats and stuff but it was a good time.  We bought my favorite street tacos and squiz and sat and enjoyed the festival but after the festival they had parties so we had to go inside but it was pretty fun!!

So the scary this week was me and my comp got attacked by dogs twice this week.  We always carry around a few rocks to throw at them but it sucks when you miss like I did.  These three dogs just started barking and getting in a fighting stance and showing their teeth and they tried to bite Elder Parker and I threw a rock and I missed.  They got soooooo angry and they attacked Elder Parker he kicked and ran and so did I but out of nowhere this big pit bull runs out of the trees as I am running and jumps and bites at me and I punched it right in the mouth and it cut my hand but luckily we outran the dogs and they left us alone.  First time getting attacked pretty exciting though good to know I still have adrenaline haha!!!

So Elias and the Madrid family are progressing in the gospel.  I am so thankful for this because a lot of people just lie and nod and say what you want to hear here.   These investigators are very truthful they tell us what they don't understand and they ask questions!!!  I am happy for them and their decision to accept and live the gospel!!

My Spanish is coming really nice.  It has been the biggest trial on my mission but it is now clicking.  I am far from perfect but I am enjoying learning this language!!!

Mema and Pa I got your package thanks so much!   I love it, I ate that beef jerky so fast hahaha that is the first time I have had beef in I think four months so thank you.   My comp says thanks as well for the present.   He opened his already but I am following the rules, he loves that little car haha!!!

Ok lastly last night the Lopez family (my family away from family) his brother got murdered in Poptun and they held some funeral service in San Luis for him.  We got asked to come and teach the whole family (at least 60 people) the plan of salvation which was a incredible experience for me but we also gave a few blessings and they asked me to dedicate the grave today at 3 o´clock and I am sooooo nervous but very grateful!!! 

Well that's it nada mas hang in there enjoy the snow and life in general.   Be grateful for what you have and like Ricky said never complain you don't know how nice you have it compared to others!!! 

con mucho amor Elder Barker

howdie howdie howdie feliz cumpleanos a alec y gabby esta semana!!

 

This week has been kind of crazy so to start off we had my first zone conference with the President of the Seventy over Central America, Elder Amado.   He was a really nice guy and super good teacher.  He taught us for 5 hours and it of course was all in Spanish and I understood everything except for when my mind wanders it tends to do that when people speak in Spanish for long amounts of time hahaha.  It was also embarrassing because he had me come up and talk in front of 40 missionaries and he had me recite the purpose of the missionary and that was fine I did that good but then he asked what I was going to do with the knowledge I have gained in my area and I pretty much just said a little bit like apply it into my lessons. Then he was like mas and I was thinking for like 30 seconds just sweating and I finally spit out a few more words and he was like how long have you been out?  I say 3 months and he says wow your Spanish was amazing but I know it was out of understanding and sympathy because I asked some latinos after if they understood me and they said no so ugh little frustrating but oh well all in all a good zone conference!!

Me and my comp are genius´!   We have been having mosquito problems these past few weeks and I swear I put on more mosquito repellent and they love the stuff.   So we are just thinking how we can keep them away and we get the genius idea of onions hahahaha so we go buy twenty pounds of onions and for lunch and dinner we eat about two pounds of onions each and the mosquitos are gone no more but I stink sooooooooo bad hahaha but its worth it!!!

Some news on Elias he is being persecuted pretty bad by his friends.   Last night we had a appointment with him and he was with his friends but he left with us and when he did his friends were like vaya chillero va con los mormones #@#$ and we look at him and he is crying so really sad but he didn't look back he came with us.  The leccion turned out good we had a member with us and he pretty much told him his conversion and how he has been persecuted but your salvation is worth a few laughs but I think he is coming along pretty good so ya!!!

We also have a new progressing family se llama Familia Madrid we actually visited them at first when I got there but we decided to drop them but we went back and we taught them and they came to church.   I am really excited for them they are awesome tomorrow we are planning on putting baptism dates with them as well so hopefully all goes well with them they are awesome!!!

Well that's it fam I love you all siga adelante!!!

Love Elder Barker

And yes I have changes this week I find out Saturday.   I think I am leaving but who knows!!!

que onda voz!!! hahaha

Well this week has been better we are having more success here in San Luis.  Just think I finish my training in two weeks hahaha time flies!!!

But this week has been good fun, we have a baptism fecha with elias so for 21 de diciembre and I am so excited for it.  He has a testimony now and he loves the Book of Mormon so I have my fingers crossed.  Pray that he gets work off so he can come to church por fa!!!

I had divisions with Elder Lomeu our district leader.   He came to San Luis and I showed him around and things went great.  He had me take the other missionaries stats on that day and help teach in district meeting the next day so a good leadership training opportunity.  Elder Lomeu is from Brazil and is super smart. He knows 6 languages and is fluent in 5 but he is a good servant leader so good fun huh!!!

Last night my comp being led by the spirit he said we need to go see an anchient (sorry for the misspelling I forget sometimes haha) investigator Angel and his family.   Angel said why haven't you guys come and visited us we thought you left. We apologized and he had tons of questions and he had read The Book of Mormon and he has a testimony but before he gets baptized he wants to read with his kids and pray with them.  Hopefully he will be a future member and the next family in San Luis gosh I hope so!!!   I am nervous changes are in two weeks and either me or Elder Parker will leave.   He has been in San Luis for 3 changes so a little while.

Well this week we have zone conference in San Benito and the Area of the Seventy is coming so that will be fun!!!  Oh last thing I killed a tarantula.  My comp got a video of it but I killed it with a stick and it was sweet he is probably going to send the video to you so make sure you see it, it was funny.  We just were walking home at night and bam there the beast was we both wanted to kill it so we did a good ol game of rock paper scissors and I won so I got the honors but it was pretty sweet!!! 

Well enjoy your Thanksgiving I didn't even realize it was Thanksgiving but enjoy it.   Love you all stay strong have a good winter hahaha!!!

con amor Elder Barker

Well first thing is this week is a tortilla week haha!! Nothing really happened this week our stats went up and we set a baptism date with Elias the older brother of Darwin.  We visit him mañana which will be great but he works every sunday and to get baptized you need to come to church and partake of the santa cena 3 times so this will be the trial of his faith but I have faith that he can do it!!

We had a zone conference and it was awesome to see Presidente and Hermana Curtiss.  I love them they are great they bought us all hamburgers haahaha!! You don't know how big the smiles on our faces were hahaha!! But presidente curtiss told us we have 160 missionaries in this mission and we are recieving 40 more in two weeks next cambio.  Me and Elder Parker have been thinking and we have an idea if we can get more elders in San Luis we can have more time focusing on finding more less actives and finding new investigators.  Now I know this is not my job to recieve revelation for this but Presidente Curtiss told us to ask us if we think an area needs more missionaries so we both jumped on the opportunity. I hope and pray it happens I am becoming stressed, frustrated and sometimes overwhelmed with the branch in San Luis!!

So we had probably the most stressful day yesterday on sunday so if you are wondering why we are a little overwhelmed its because every sunday it goes a little like this... so we show up our branch president asks Elder Parker to say the prayer then me to lead music and then to bless sacrament we do that and before we can go sit down he asks us both the speak so of course we do. I went second so I at least had time to prepare a little but still embarrassing.  Then I had to say the closing prayer then after we got to teach gospel doctrine and then young mens.   I am so happy to do all of these things and to do my preisthood duties but we do this every week and this is kind of sad but it is hard for me to bear a strong testimony to my investigators when I honestly dread church here. I love the sacrament but I feel like if we left San Luis there would be no church here and this is sad but this is why we have the idea of more missionaries to come and help!!!  Don't worry I still love church haha!!! but I  also have to explain so members do have responsibilities here in the branch but they just don't want to do them so we of course do them.  It's just a little frustrating but oh well good growing experience!!!

Ok so now on to tortillas.  So you pick the corn, you dry it, you shuck it, then take it off of the cob which we do alot to do service for people.  And I get tons of blisters but it actually isn't bad work I kind of enjoy it hahah.  But then when you peel it off of the cob you dry it again then boil the corn then send it through this grinder add water to the flour then wam you put the dough on the flat iron stove and you got some good ol guatemalan corn tortillas hahaha.   Alot of work but its what keeps guatemala involved with their past and hey it tastes pretty good!!!!

Well thats all for this week. Love you all.  Good luck to BYU this week and Ricky keep trekin buddy love ya all!!!!

Elder Barker

Elder Barker and Elder Parkers adventures!

Alright so this week was ok.  Tuesday and Wednesday every single one of our appointments fell it was sooooo frustrating but got through it!!

It's funny every week I tell myself I will tell you all how to make corn tortillas but every week I have another good story so eventually I will let you all know how to make authentic corn tortillas just hang in there its super exciting!!!

Ok so Hermano Gustavo hasn't come to church for the past two weeks so we were worried about him.  We went to visit him and he tells us that he has been cursed by witches and we were just like no you aren't knock it off you just need to come to church... so a little background Hmo Gustavo catches turtles and uses them for medical purposes and sells them that's his job.  So he goes around selling medical supplies and stuff but he hasn't been able to sell anything for 15 days and he is already way poor so this is a sad thing to hear but we are like well how does this have anything to do with witches and stuff.  He tells us that he found caterpillars all over his house and land 15 days ago and caterpillars are extremely poisonous here they have hairs that are toxic and can cause issues so everyone kills them and I guess they are known as bad luck as well. He killed all of them and now he is convinced that his neighbors the ones that practice witchcraft cursed all of these caterpillars and put them on his property so we told him ok well what can we do to help.  He said I don't know help me sell and we said we can't do that but what we can do is fast for a day and give you a blessing of comfort and you can bless your house so he agreed so we all fasted for a day and then we broke our fast with a bag of oranges and gave him an awesome blessing and then he blessed his house and later that day he finally sold his medicine.  This taught me a good lesson, I don't think he was cursed but if he was, the priesthood is there for us to use but it's not just for us it's for others too.  Last night I also gave our branch presidents wife a blessing, it was my first in Spanish and it was great I am so thankful for the priesthood that I have and being able to share it with others in service!!!!

Ok and for my last story this has blown my mind, every week my mind gets blown. So on Friday all of our appointments fell again it sucks when that happens but this time it was for a different reason so no one is home so we just decide to walk back home all sad.  Then we meet Darwin he is a 16 year old kid and his brother is one of our investigators and he comes up to us and says you have it, and we are like have what, and he says the light. We were all confused and so we are like can we go to your house and talk, so we do and the previous night he had a dream.  He was sitting on his porch and everyone was like just dismal and kind of colorless and gray and then this guy walks up to his house and Darwin tells us he had a different light about him and so Darwin asks him how are you like that, how can I be like that?  The man says you can, I am here to preach the gospel to you and then Darwin asks where am I and the man says you are in spirit prison and Darwin says so I am dead and he says yes you are waiting to hear the gospel.  Then Darwin says so you are the one to teach me and help me and he says nope I am not, you are not dead yet you are just seeing a little of what is to come if you do not change.  So Darwin says ok well how can I change and he says wait here let me go get them and he wakes up from his dream!!!! then he meets us the next day and he like flips. He is like you have it you are the messengers and this confused us until he explained and when we got to his house Darwin was just shooting off questions to us about his dream and we were like we can answer all of your questions but we need to start with a prayer.  So we do and after we discern his dream for him we set up to visit him again tonight with his brother.  Apparently his brother has had a lot of dreams like that before but I didn't know as missionaries we could discern dreams so I ask Elder Parker when we are at home like what just happened and he told me he has discerned dreams a lot in his mission.  Some really hard and some really easy but he showed me in the scriptures that alot of the people here in Guatemala are from the tribe of Manasseh.  Lehi is a descendant of Manasseh and he always received revelation and different things about his life through dreams so alot of people here who are descendants of Manasseh get alot of direction of what they need to do next in life or to better themselves through dreams.  But oh it was just a way cool experience to have, hopefully he will accept our message I am really excited though!! Well that is all for this week, love you all have a good safe week!!!!!

Love Elder Barker

Hey family so the soccer game went well we just ended up doing a shoot out and so we won so that was sweet but only two showed up for church and we are playing them again today so ya more fun.  It's fun just to get to know the kids here and just be their friends and role models they dont have much to look up to so hopefully we as missionaries can help with that but it was good fun!!!

So we have two new investigators that we found they are the Sux family and they are awesome.  We have a appointment with them tomorrow and we invited them to read. Why do I tell you this because I know what it means to ponder and pray so we chose one day to go find new investigators. We prayed and we left and just walked.  We ended up in the barrio florida and we go to this street and we are like hmmmmm no lets go to the next so we do and we just sit and think and we are just like nope the last street so we go back and then we just go to the first house and it was Daria Sux who answered the door.  We taught her and her neice and she said a day earlier she had been walking by our church and she felt something weird so she went and talked with people about what church that is and she found out it was our church and she said everyone that she knew was super nice from our church and she wanted that in her life so ya awesome.  I am sooooo excited to go back and teach her we didnt meet the husband but she says he is interested as well so I am so stoked hopefully it goes well!!!

Not a ton actually happened this week one thing that was cool is we went to Aldea which is clear the heck out in the middle of the jungle and we went to this one family who has 18 people in it and I guess the parents and two sons are members but we thought the entire family was members but they aren't so we have 14 new investigators.  We decided to teach them the baptism of Jesus Christ because they were washing clothes in the river so we went down and when we went by the river there was this pond with this two foot waterfall in the background and me and Elder Parker were just like yes picture perfect baptism spot not that it matters where it takes place but gosh it was sooooooo beautiful gosh if we do get a baptism in this family then for sure it will be in this little pond!! but anyways the spirit was so strong when we taught we brought some of the ladies to tears and stuff and they all excepted baptism but the hard thing is, is that church is in San Luis and it cost money to take a bus to San Luis and that is money they don't have so you know kind of hard but it is possible!!!

Yes it rains like crazy. The rain has washed away all of the dirt roads and I wear boots everyday.  I like them its just that when I wear them I am like a walking dollar sign because first of I´m a gringo and second is these boots are super nice and thats all people wear here so ya kind of awkward but another thing is that since the rainy season started I have seen a ton of snakes and tarantulas.  I have seen two tarantulas and one snake these were all live but there are so many dead snakes and tarantulas on the streets its way gross and scary but it is pretty cool too!!!

Ok last thing for this week we had a family of investigators come to church yesterday and they are from Belize so they speak broken English, Quechi, Mopan and a tiny bit of Spanish so me and Elder Parker got to teach in 4 languages.  I had such a big headache I had to translate 4 languages at the same time and teach in as much as I knew in Mopan and Quechi and it was super hard to teach in English.  I hated teaching in English awwww it was terrible but it was fun as well!!! 

Well thats it for this week so long!!

Elder Barker

Helllllllooooo family hows it been?   First off Mema and Pa thank you for the package I got it today and ate some pretzels.  Thanks for the money and letters as well I love them and appreciate them!!!

 

Well lots has happened this week so here it goes!!

 

First on miercoles me and my comp helped build a house and that was awesome I miss doing service it made me feel good. It was for one of our investigators Manuel snf for his son.  We were in charge of the concrete of the house. I would have never thought that I would be thankful of all things for a concrete mixer but we did it all by hand and wow I have never been so sore,   For 3 days after I have hardly been able to move hahaha but it felt great I have pics!!!

Next on jueves we went out and I spoke my mind and said Elder Parker if you haven't noticed our area is struggling we need to drop so and so and find more so we did.   We prayed and went and found 14 new investigators and I have another story that I will tell later but possibly 11 more so we will see.  I will fill you all in but it feels so good I feel like I am losing myself in this wonderful work. My comp is awesome we work really well with each other.  He is a nice missionary and I sometimes am the bad guy but it works!!!

Also on jueves we got invited to lunch which is huge here and so we went and ate a duck hahaha.  My comp is awesome he ate the duck hip with the kidneys and liver and he gave me the leg which was way good really tough meat but delsh!!

This Sunday well was sad but awesome. I walked into church to find 14 people there and nadie else so i was just like depressed cause we worked so hard to get members to come to church. Eventually more showed up but I asked to give a talk hahaha weird but you know how I said I am the bad guy in the companionship I got up and got teary as I always do.   I said this is a sad sight hermanos this kills me inside to see this.  We work so hard and this is our reward and then I went on to say we have a plan every Sunday.  We want every member to come with us at two and go visit whoever did not come to church and just talk and bear quick testimony and then when everyone comes we find more less actives and we are going to fortelecer san luis, I then went on to say the Lord doesn't want quantity he wants quality. I asked what is the name of our church I said it and I said Latter Day Saints these are the latter days we as missionaries need all of you to come and help us without you we get cast out because we are gringos from the ustados sonitos so we need you all.  I then said I am so thankful to see you all here though the Lord knows you and he will bless you for helping us and going to church. I told them I loved them and said we are meeting at the Lopez´s house at two please be there!!!!  At two everyone except for one old lady was there and it made me so happy like so happy it was awesome we went and taught and told others we loved them and wanted to know how the ward can help but gosh it made my mission!!!!

Ok last part today is a big day for us it was the first p day where I have actually been like I actually need this pday to recover so that was nice and about those 11 possible investigators as we went and looked for more investigators these kids came out of the bushes and said hey gringos we want to play you in futbol soccer and we said we can't today but Monday at 5 and they said ok and then my comp was like wait on one condition if we win we get to teach you and you have to come to our church with us and they all agreed so wish me luck family. I love you all have a Happy Halloween!!!!!!

Love Elder Barker

Wow Conference was sweet.  I loved it and I learned a lot and felt the spirit a bunch so all in all a great conference!!!  But not a ton has happened this week.  I went to a zone meeting in San Benito and ate Burger King.  I had to teach a lesson in Spanish to all the missionaries there.  It was all good until I closed and I said en el nombre de tu hijo jesucristo amen.  For all of you who don't speak Spanish like me I said in the name of your son Jesus Christ Amen.  Hahaha, geez all the hispanos just kind of looked at me and chuckled but dang almost perfect but oh well!!!  Like I said I ate at Burger King.  I don't even like Burger King but it was soooo good.  Its crazy how good things taste here!  My birthday was not like it is at home.  I didn't even realize it was my birthday until the President called.  It scared me because he only calls if someone dies.  I am thankful for him though, he is a great guy!  I am trying to lose myself in the work, I just have to be diligent.  My Spanish is coming but I am learning it mixed with some Mayan too so don't be surprised if my Spanish is weird.  I am not going to write too much because I want to send some pictures and it takes a while.  I will tell you real quick about our investigators.  We have one guy whose son is a member and he would never come and greet us but he noticed how the church has changed his sons life so now he wants to know.  Unfortunately he didn't come to conference but its all good.  I am hoping he accepts baptism this week because then it will have a domino effect on his family.  The other is Hugo.  He is a body builder.  We are going to the gym and teaching him while he works us out haha.  He won't get baptized until his family hears the message.  He has two daughters and they go to different evangelist churches so he is kind of torn.  But if he gets baptized he will definitely be the next branch president!  Pray for us por favor!  Well that's all, have a great week!!  Love Elder Barker

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Well this week has been a lot better thank goodness! I was so cultured shocked last week but things are better. To start off I have two stories to share this week and then I will answer questions. I went on my first division splits I went with Elder Guitierrez up north to a town called San Benito which is a two hour bus ride and when I say bus ride it isn’t a bus it’s a van that they squeeze at least 18 to 25 people on so its tight, it doesn’t help that the ladies breast feed their babies right in front of you, super disgusting. Once we got to San Benito we took a little motor cycle thing?? And went to work. I failed to mention that Elder Guitierrez is my zone leader; he only spoke Spanish the whole day which helps me with my Spanish. The next day he started speaking English which really surprised me because he is a Latino. We finally made it back to San Luis, San Luis is nothing but hills my calf muscle are so sore from all the hiking up hills don’t worry I drink about three litters of water each day. We buy pure filtered water because the water here has worms in it. Hahaha We use a capilla which we wash are dishes in look it up on-line. In the bottom where the water is it there are hundreds of worms little gross. I am use to the ants in my food and having them crawl on me they are tiny sugar ants. I eat them all the time people here eat ants there is a kind of ant that they or we eat that tastes like long grain rice, not too bad. We went to a small village near San Luis named Cain which has a bunch of tiny little grass huts with dirt floors scattered throughout the hills. We went there to teach this awesome family definitely humble people their house is a grass hut with dirt floors there were dogs, ducks and pigs running around. We brought with us one of the most amazing members  his name is Humo Gustavo who is a recent convert to the church. He brought his little son with him Angelito who is super funny and nuts. We had a great lesson we finished teaching and left to find our bus back to San Luis the driver wouldn’t take us back to San Luis so we had to walk. We walked back to San Luis which is about three and a half miles in the pitch black night, at one point in are hike back we stopped on the top of a hill which overlooks the valleys below it was beautiful calendar picture like. To one side a huge lighting storm in the distance the sky would light up purple. I wish I had brought my camera. The stars are just nuts I have never seen so many stars in my life, it is crazy beautiful. I have a story from my walk home that I will have to share when I get home off my mission. Hahaha don’t worry I am fine and all is well. Q&A time: I eat pretty much what you would think I would eat beans and rice and avocados for every meal mema you would love it the avocado in the states are tiny compared to these the avocados here are bigger than my cabaza(head). Some days we stop by the only restraint In town and buy a half of chicken for each of us really good. We have had three dinner appointments which have been really good. We don’t have a ton of people to teach right now so we are trying to working with less active members. Oh yah, before I forget they made me the branch secretary on Sunday, funny. Well that’s about it for the week, I love you all take care.

 

Love,

Elder Barker

Well call me Tarzan and throw me in the Peten jungle hahaha.  But I'm not in the jungle I am in San Luis Peten and it is a little tiny dinky town in a valley surrounded by several big hills and well its jungley to me but I guess the real jungle is on the other side so who knows!  My trainer is Elder Parker, it is funny he has red hair as well haha.  He is from Logan, Utah and he is cool I like him.  Our apartment is a one room house, two beds and oh yes don't forget the mosquito nets haha.  The first day I came home and counted 25 bites just on my feet, nowhere else just on my feet but they are small ones so I am good.  This area is challenging.  We have 200 members but only 40 at most show up for church so we have to really work with inactives.  The 14 hour drive here was cool.  I had to stay overnight in Coban at the zone leaders house along with 7 other missionaries going to Peten.  After that we had the 14 hour drive couped up on this little bus.  It was scary, we had to change buses and all of our stuff was on the bus and the bus started to drive off so we had to chase the bus and they stopped and gave us our stuff back.  So all is well now, I made it but I was so stressed and paranoid.  All I do is sweat constantly, like I get in the shower get out sweat ... go out and work come home and my pants and shirt are just soaked to the bone wet so I take a shower get and ...yep you guessed it sweat hahha.  I sweat non stop 24/7.  It is really pretty here but the only bad thing is our apartment is infested with ants, like way tiny ones so I am pretty sure I eat ants every meal but I just don't realize it haha but oh well!  Here is a funny story, we taught this old branch president and we talked about the temple and getting sealed and the spirit was strong then when were done he told us that he was separated from his wife and so it was really awkward.  The Spanish is terrible everyone speaks so fast and uses all these slang words so I struggle with it but I just have to try.  Well that all for this week, love you all.  I miss you all!

 

Love Elder Barker