FELIZ DIA DEL PADRE .........

WEEK #46
07/16/14

Nido del Aguilar

Happy fathers day to the best dad in the world!! I know it's late but I'm always torn between if late or way early is better...so I decided late haha. I hope dad that you had a great day and that you felt my love from all the way over here!!! I was definitely thinking about you yesterday!  (Rachel sends her emails every Monday morning, so Ron received his Fathers Day email a day late.  That was her dilemma).

Also today we have a weird schedule so we are going to email tomorrow. I will update you all about everything tomorrow. But I love you all!!! Thank you always for the emails.  You don't know how much they really mean to me. Without them, I coud never get through the week!!!

LOVE YOU!!

Hermana Barker

07/17/14

Dear Familia, I hope you had an amazing Fathers Day, and that Grandma Daisy had a great birthday! That's awesome that you got to spend some time with her. (Ron surprised his mom on her birthday by actually showing up at her house in Southen California with flowers).  

As you can see we had a great last preparation day of the transfer...can you believe the transfer is already over!? It went so fast!! I hit a year in one month...thats insane!

On our exploration we came across an abandoned house

The Elders are convinced that this is where the people of Tarragon hide dead bodies.

We didn't find any dead bodies, just bones....

Enough about me though...you all are awesome!! Mom that is awesome that youre helping the missionaries! I am so glad that you have had that opportunity to see a little bit of what I'm doing. I bet our lessons are a little different  but I am so glad you are getting to go out with them. I'm glad they are seeing some success in little ways. My only advice is to trust in the missionaries...they may do or ask some crazy questions to the people they are teaching that you may feel uncomfortable with, but just trust them...I am finally getting comfortable with some of the fuerte (strong, hard) questions that we ask. Trust!  They are teaching by the spirit.  (That was the best advice she could have given). 

I thought about you mom because today we were eating with a member who has a daughter on a mission and she was reading a letter that she got from her daughter. The whole time she was trying not to cry but she couldn't hold it in. She finally broke and I started to cry because it made me think of you on the other side reading my letters. It was a sweet moment for me.

That is awesome about Miranda wanting to serve. I hope every girl serves who is willing to sacrifice and who wants to have the most amazing but hard experiences. Really I will never regret serving a mission. It is the best decision I have ever made. Even though its hard, its worth every tear to see just one person enter into the army of the Lord. The change of Manuel (the kid who got baptized) was amazing. He knew after only three weeks that he wanted to be baptized.  He went from smoking a ton of cigarettes every day, not really knowing what to believe...to having a super strong testimony in the things of the gospel and wanting to move forward every day to have a future family forever. That is what makes the tears and the hard days of being a missionary worth it. We had a bbq for him after the baptism.

Also I have great news!!! Godson from Martorell got baptized!! Although I would have loved to have been at his baptism, I am so glad that he finally had the chance to be baptized. Of all the people I have ever met, I have never seen someone fight so hard for something they believe. After having known the church for 5 years, he finally was blessed with the opportunity to be baptized! It was amazing to see.

So one of the things that my distric leader put me in charge of this transfer was to liven up noche de barrio (neighborhood night -  The missionaries have these nights once a week to help build unity in our ward - church congregation). Nobody was coming to the noche de barrios that we were having. I told him I would try my best. We planned a big "Iron Rod"  activity and invited the world. On the day that we had the activity, I was worried that nobody was going to show up...we had about 40 people come and people even invited friends! The bishop was amazing and we felt like we had accomplished something big. Finally people are coming to the activites and we hope that it stays this way. I am going to try my best to get this ward to be close. There are so many peoople, the activities should be so fun! It was a success though!  (Click here to read the story of "The Iron Rod" or click here to read the scripture story in the Book of Mormon 

I also finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish!! Now I'm back to English once again. It's amazing to me how 10 months ago I couldn't understand even the simplest sentence in Spanish...now I'm reading a whole book and understanding it all! What the Lord can do for His missionaries is incredible!! 

Well although we didn't have our baptism of Obed like we had planned, we had a successful week. This is the last week of transfers so we are going to be eating well with the members :).  I hope all is well with everyone. I miss you all mucho but I'll see you in no time!  Kelli you are looking big, in a good way!! That's insane! But also sooo cute! Well stay safe and have an amazing week.

LOVE YOU ALLL MUCHISMO!!!

Hermana Barker