Wow what a week it has been!!!

So first off Polochic is insanely dope I love it.  I love my area, my comps dope, and especially the members.

 

So where to start..I left Coban at 1:35 in the morning for Polochic then I got to the ZL´s house met my comp then it was off to Canlun wooooo!!! So my area is on the south side of the Polochic Valley and it is separated by the Polochic river.   To get to our area we had to go by boat then walk a mile to our house which is a little dinky cinderblock 3 room house on church grounds.  My next door neighbor is the church so that's cool!!! 

 

First day we just went to visit the members, all in little stick huts and dirt floors but they are the most amazing people in the world.  I love the Qéqchi people so much!  They understand the plan of salvation so well, they don't care about the worldly things one bit they just are so humble wonderful people!!

 

I haven't cooked a meal while I have been here.  The members and our investigators and even strangers just cook for us.  The weirdest thing I have eaten is mushroom soup and no one here drinks water its all agua de maiz.  They put water with ground up corn mush stuff that isn't my favorite but the water is hot so it kills the bacteria so ya I am being well taken care of!!!

 

So something that surprised me was we were just walking and these people are like singing for us so we go over and sing then bam like 6 new investigators and that happens a lot so we won't ever have to go contacting here in Canlun!!!

 

Qéqchi is really hard I can say my testimony and pray but not much else.  Every night we go to this families house and I talk to the little kids in Qéqchi.  My favorite little guy is Fredi and Lester they have huge stomachs and they just are super funny.  That is how I am going to learn,  I study every morning for three hours then at nights when my comp does his calls so lots and lots of headaches but it will pay off!!

 

So the Qeqchi people have a tradition for the missionaries they change our names to invite us into the Qeqchi family. They changed my name to Cacitul which is translated to red banana hahahaha!!! So when we like leave our house little kids just yell Cacitul Cacitul kim which is hey come here and then we do and the girls touch my hair hahaha!  I have never had so many people touch my hair oh my gosh it freaked me out at first but now I am used to it.  I don't know much about different cultures but I love it.   We have mountains in our area as well that we can only go to Thursday´s.  It is soooooo tall we hop in the back of a truck then we go an hour and a half to San Visente and we have lots of investigators there that we visit.  My comp took me to a part of the mountain and you can see the whole Polochic Valley, the lake and the Senahu mountains oh my gosh soooooo beautiful but ya I love it here I feel at home!!!!

 

Well that's all folks love you all sooooo much be safe and keep goin strong!!!

con mucho amor Elder Barker/Cacitul.

Wow I have a lot to talk about and you guys are going to freak -  what I am about to do next... but first...

 

Last week I had to take Elder Parker to the hospital he has had pneumonia, so we made the trip to Flores and went to this super ghetto hospital.  I mean it was clean but their x-ray machine was ancient like it was just super weird and old we don't realize how nice the little things in life are so be grateful!!!

 

So we only had one lesson this week the rest of the week we stayed inside which was so boring and Rand and Stacy you guys rock!  I loved the usb drives they came just in time so thank you guys so much... but the week was filled with anxiety waiting all day inside waiting for the call to tell us where we are going!!!

 

So we got the call on Saturday and my comp Elder Parker is going to open a new area in Santalena and train and be DL.  He´s excited but nervous that's a lot of responsibility.

 

As for me.... you guys are going to flip I am going to Canloon Polochic learning Qéqchi´ hahahaha.  Oh I am so nervous and just when I got somewhat fluent in Spanish but I am super stoked to go and learn its a huge blessing but also scary.

 

So I leave tomorrow for Coban then I meet up with my comp Elder Griffiths.   I just talked to him on the phone and he seems really cool and he is DL. I am excited and I have been getting called by so many other missionaries telling me what to expect.

 

This is what they said.. so my comp said that he will pick me up and we will go eat McDonald's woooooo!  Then we take a bus to Tucuru then another bus then we walk 4 miles to our house which I have heard is the church of that branch as well so who knows.  There are 3 zones for Qéqchi´ speaking missionaries.   Two in the Senahu mountains then one zone in the Polochic Valley which is under the mountains where I will be. In Polochic they eat with a lot of chile and I have heard from Hermana Curtiss that the Polochic Valley is very hot and is in like the top 10 most poor places in the world so it should be very humbling experience but I am just so excited to go and just experience it all!!

So our schedule is a little different.  We get up at 4 in the morning and bring buckets from the river up to bathe and then we study and leave at 9 and work until 4 then come home at 6 then bed time is at 8 so pretty different but sweet, of course a little nervous but I know I will be helped.

 

Ok last thing this Sunday we gave our testimonies at church and that was good.  We visited the members and took photos but before we left each member said they were sad that they didn't help us more.   I told them they could help the next missionaries please so hopefully they do but a little frustrating to see them realize that now instead of like a month ago but all is well!!! I am actually very sad to leave I left a piece of my heart in San Luis but I am excited to move on!!!

 

Stay safe please and be smart. I love you all so much thanks for everything!!!

Love,

 

Elder Barker

 

 

Hey family what's goin on!!  Oh so this week has been the hardest on my life and my comp.so what happened?

 

Lets start with Elias he had a baptism date for the 10th of January.  We went to his house to teach and his Dad was flipping out, we asked why and he said Elias left with a girl and took all of his clothes and that was last week so we lost Elias!!!

 

Another is the Madrid family.  We went to go teach them and the Dad had just picked up and left.  They were our golden family so that was hard!

The last thing was we had a family in Cangrejal who was golden as well.  We went to teach and all was awesome, the spirit was strong then we asked the family to read the Book of Mormon and they were like we don't have tons of time this week but we will try.   We told them on our next visit can we read it with you and they said ya and then the Dad came out to us and just told us that his family has a church and our pastor told us you are of Satan and you are to get out of here and never come back so with respect we left!!!

Hard week but I am grateful for my trials, yes it does hurt it breaks my heart but after my comp was like why are we here we have been here for 5 months and we just get rejected and no one wants the truth... I didn't know what to say.  That night I was reading President Monson'

 

s talk in the last conference and it was like the most comforting thing but my comp the next day didn't even want to go to church so I showed him the talk and he said thanks and we went and started to work all over again. I am thankful for San Luis it is really hard but I have learned to love even the most hard hearted people and as I look back on these five months they weren't all for nothing I have learned humility and tons of other stuff.  So I  thank my Heavenly Father for the opportunity to be here in this hard area and have some trials I just hope in my next area we can kick butt but hey life is good can't complain!!!

Thanks for everything I love you all so much!!

 

Con mucho Amor Elder Barker