Well this past week was a good week we worked like Kawachins this past week I pretty much destroyed one of my shirts, not really its just yellow and brown hahaha!!!

It is sooo hot here!  It is only February but holy cow its sooooo hot you just step outside and the sweat just starts.  I love Canlun and the people there so I will endure the sun! Mas tik li saqe.

Nothing super exciting happened this week Marcos didn't drink for a whole week then his mother-in-law told him he won't make it and he broke and went and drank.  It sucked he got so hammered its just sad to see but we are going to try to get him to pick himself back up and keep going.  But I know he probably won't get baptized in my time here but I have faith for him in the future.  Marcos and his wife Amalia are going to get married in March and I hope I get to see her get baptized as well.   Drinking is not a easy thing to stop doing but he can do it with the Lords help.

We went on divisions with the AP´s this week Elder Barton came with me and Elder Griffiths and he was in the Polochic his whole mission too so he knows such good Qeqchi like it blew my mind.   

We have been working hard we put two more baptismal dates with investigators for March and they all came to church and we are planning on putting 3 more this week.  The people here are so prepared for the gospel its amazing of course there are those heard hearted people but for the most part Canlun is a chosen land.   I love it here!!!

Qeqchi is going good, everyone has told me that I am learning really fast but I know its not me.  I just put effort and whats hard and seems impossible one day is super easy the next so the Lord is helping me a ton.

Well just some advice for my man BK when he leaves for his mission and learning a new language.  Study like a Kawachin (like a old Guatemalan man who works his butt off).  I know that if you study and put your study into practice you will learn Spanish in 3 months just don't get discouraged.   Study when you wake up, then at language study, then practice throughout the day, then before you go to bed its a proven technique oh ya and the most important pray like a Kawachin also!   Good luck don't be disobedient, be a flechon or follow the rules to exactness but have a blast.

Well I love u all sorry nothing super huge but good week.  Be safe and continue forward in the gospel love you all.

Love Elder Barker

 

What the heck Pa brought out his banjo hahaha!!! I was reading on Ricky´s email and he said something about a banjo hahaha!! sweet!!

Alright so life is good here and I know you guys wouldn't be able to find out what pur is -  it's snail soup hahaha!!!  I have eaten it twice and I actually don't mind it. The tortillas are a blessing cause I just suck out the snail then take a big bite of tortilla and I can't taste the snail hahha!!  Also this week we ate at a families house and we ate chicken head caldo it was good.   I ate everything, the eyes, the brains, the spinal cord, everything!  It was actually pretty good but never again will I ever complain about any food ever again but ya the members feed us good!!!

Well this week has been good.  Elder Grifs and I are killin Canlun.  I love the members every time we ask for a reference they are like yep we have one and let me know when you want another so its going good!!!

Marcos our investigator that we are trying to help stop drinking asked us to give him a blessing on Monday and my comp did it all in Qeqchi.  My comp doesn't know Qeqchi super good he knows a heck of a lot more than me but the spirit was really strong... later on Saturday we came to check on Marcos and he was drunk.  We were devastated oh it was terrible we just saw him all bolo and what not and we just oh it was terrible we just left!!!

We came back Sunday to talk to him and we had a really good talk with him.  My comp kind of chewed him out but it was good.  He wants us to come chat with him everyday so he doesn't go drink so we are going everyday to just hang out with him. He cried in our lesson last night because his wife just said to him these missionaries love you so much you should have seen thir faces when they saw you drunk, this got to him he gave us a hug and told us he is trying to stop, but I understand its hard but I know he can do it.

To Rand and Stacee the Corndog Song is all over Canlun.  The kids and families ask us to sing for them in English so I sang Corndogs hahaha! Every time we go to a family I have to sing it to them hahha they love it here!!!!

It is super hot here I am in like the second hottest place in our mission and March to July is summer but its sooooo hot I don't stop sweating ever here.  Even at night I have my fan on high but to no avail the heat is a killer hahaha good times in guate!!!

My Qeqchi is coming I am helping in lessons so that's good.  Heavenly Father is really helping me big time with this language everyone tells me I am learning super fast but I know its all Heavenly Father helping me!!!

Well I love you all so much enjoy life and be safe!!!

Love Elder Barker

 

Looking over San Vicinte

 
Our House
 

 

PUR!

 

Baptism

 

Crossing the river

 

Chicken Head Caldo and us eating it!

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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!!!