(tay took these pics of Carlsbad, CA, while driving through. He did not say why he was in the area- so i'm guessing it was a transfer :)
Hey Mom,
where are you going to school? thats exciting for you. where are you trying to go with it? teaching?
im glad that you made it through gospel doctrine class this week. it would be an intimidating undertaking. i have had to give trainings at district meetings to the other missionaries a couple times but that was no big deal. ask a few questions, tie a few things together, show them the promised blessings, and promise baptisms.
gospel essentials was much better this week. our ward mission leader, bro ortiz gave the lesson on prayer and he expressed that he felt the same way that we did about how the lessons should be taught.
i have thought some about what i want to do when i grow up some more. so far what i want to do is be an engineer like Dad. if not that then i want to be a fireman....possibly. sure sounds like an awesome gig from what i hear about it. Elder Gibbons and i might go in on that together. (from me: whaaa???)
havent gotten your package just yet but i did get grandma and grandpa's.
so far nothing on the calender to shake the schedule up too much. this week started out a bit rough in some ways but its coming back together really well now.
hadnt seen chris er*** for a week or more which is unusual before we caught him at home yesterday. he quit his job to get sundays off and he is currently spending all his time trying to find a new job. im not sure why he had to quit his job before he found a new one but im sure that he knows what is best for him more than i do. he is on his way, i dont know how quickly we can get him baptized now. we will meet with him on thurs to find out more. i think we will fast with him for him to find new employment. his fellowshipper, bro richardson, set him up with lds employment so we are doing everything that we can for the guy.
everything with henry has just been awesome. he meets with us every chance he gets and he knows that the Book of Mormon is true. he is always smiling and excited to see us like we are royalty or something. getting to see him sure makes a missionary feel good. we had two sit down lessons with him this week. the first time he missed his reading from last time and we read mosiah 4 with him and that was an awesome experience. he bore testimony of the Book of Mormon to us and the Spirit was very strong. the second meeting we taught him about following the Prophet and the Word of Wisdom. he bore testimony of the Word of Wisdom and we found out that he is a recovered alcoholic and a smoker that quit. so that was good.
dan is still fun to see but stuck in a rut. we are going to give him some time to think about things before we visit him again.
we taught Casey the Restoration lesson this week and the Spirit was there. i think he was a bit confused because the Bible supported what we said and not what he believes. still i think that he is an honest man and if he decides to do what the Lord wants for him then he will join. he said that he would read the Book of Mormon. i actually asked him to be baptized because i was prompted to and he asked me what i thought it took to be saved and he was a little taken back when i showed him from the Bible some things.
found a new investigator this week who is a Buddhist but believes in Christ. teaching her should be an interesting experience.
chris el*** was supposed to meet with the Bishop and his girlfriend sunday to work out a way for them to get married. we will see him tonight to see how that went. chris has been investigating on and off for 3 years and he has some momentum going now. i hope his girlfriend doesnt mess it all up.
Paige, our convert, got in some trouble some how and its going to be a couple weeks before she can see us because she is grounded. she deffinately has a testimony but she still has some learning to do on mother/daughter relations. she is still going strong.
we started to teach member families the Restoration this week. we wanted to do that to get referrals, to practice asking questions in our teaching and to show families that they can trust us with their friends. we taught the Felt family last night and bro felt commited himself to bring his less active home teaching assignment to church on sunday. he has three unbaptized children that are potential baptisms for us if that goes well.
love you guys. ill pray for gabe and for everything to go well with classes, Mom.
Dani: the gospel essentials has gotten better. im glad that we were given a chance to model how we would like it to be, sort of. i think that members just get anxious about teaching because they want to send people away with something and so they go deeper than is necessary sometimes. but we tried to show that if you ask good questions and know the scriptures then people share experiences or feelings that invite the Spirit and then everything goes well. our ward missionaries are good guys, they will get it. im glad that you guys got to see Mom. i really liked some of the pictures that she took of utah and sent to me. i really like pictures of the family. thank you for praying for my investigators. it would be awesome to get another letter from my cousins.
grandma:sounds exciting about your upcoming trips. i got your package last week and thank you for sending it out. i always leave post it notes on doors when people miss appointments and when we miss them so i always think of you guys when something doesnt work out, lol.
Elder Gibbons and i went to taco bell last saturday with the money you sent and we bought some hamburger patties to make bacon cheeseburgers next time we feel like cooking. good luck on your trip.
Love your favorite missionary,
Elder Taylor Barron
2 comments:
Hey Elder! I'm writing this from Alaska. We are currently in Anchorage but will be driving to Talkeetna tomorrow which is very close to Mt. McKinley. We will be doing some whitewater jet-boating up there. Should be fun and hope to get some nice pics.
We went to church here this morning with the friend that actually brought me into the church. Then we had dinner at her home and saw some other old friends there. All of these people are very involved in missionary work here as they have much opportunity. We also saw two Elders and visited with them. I always love to tell them about you :-). I don't have much time to write but just wanted to get a note off as we may not have internet access in the little town we are going to. We love you so much and always think of you and pray for your success. Take care and keep up the wonderful attitude! Grandma Sue
Elder Tay: Reading your email each week always boosts my spirits and recharges my batteries. There is nothing like what you are doing---teaching the gospel and bearing witness to the divinity of the Savior and the Restoration. And the spirit of that work carries over to all of us who are following your activities and experiences. We always pray for you and those you are teaching. We hope those prayers have some positive effect.
It's Monday morning, now, and Sue and I are packing up and heading up to Talkeetna as I see she said in her note. It's been raining pretty much since we arrived, but the weather forcast indicates a clearing should begin today. I'm sure hoping so. I'd love to have a bit of blue sky today as we travel north.
This is big and magnificent country. HUGE. The glaciers are amazing things to see. The ice that gets compacted by years and years of snow piling up on top of it becomes so dense that it turns this beautiful blue. So you have the green forests, blue glaciers, water falls almost everywhere, ice cold rivers and streams, and wildlife everywhere. For someone who enjoys taking photos its a pretty exciting place to be.
And, of course, being here bring back a lot of memories from my "returned missionary" adventures with my friends when we first came up here. We had a wonderful time, made lifelong friends, I found my wife, and we had some amazing experiences. I think I've told you about the times up here when I fought forest fires down on the Kenai peninsula, worked in the fire control center here in Anchorage and dropped supplies to fire fighting crews from a C-47 cargo plane. Great memories. Great times. And that was just the first year I came up. The following year was the year of the earthquake and that was an amazing time to be here as well. But, that's another story for another time. :-)
So, it's good to be back and be able to spend a little time here this summer.
I'm still having trouble, however, getting adjusted to the long, long, long days of daylight. We never see night. It comes about 2 or 3 in the morning for about three hours but I haven't stayed up long enough to see it.
Don't be in too big of a hurry to decide what you want to be when you "grow up." The Lord will help you decide that when it's time.
I got very acquainted with the Arizona Fire Fighters when I published their monthly newsletter for them. It's both an exciting and boring life. There is a lot of down time in-between the rush of activities. It's also pretty dangerous and not all that well paying. None the less, there is a lot to be said for the great good they do. I admire them immensely, but I wouldn't want to live their life. It's not good for the family, because you have to be gone so much. But,still,being "one of them" for a while was a great experience.
Well, I've got to run. Adventures await.
Love you, son. Really do.
And I'm very proud of the great work you are doing and your obvious delight in doing it.
Grampa Ron
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