(this week i received two letters from the Carlsbad Mission home. 1.) was calling Elder Barron to be a district leader and 2.) was calling him to be a trainer. i wasn't expecting copies of his letters to be sent to me, here at home- such a fun surprise!
Hey Mom,
sorry to hear about your pinkie getting mashed. im glad that you were able to make it to the hospital and stay calm. also make sure that as we recieve help from our home teachers let them know that i am thankful for what they are doing as well as you guys. they are great people.
i can understand what you mean when things arent very easy but you feel that Heavenly Father still has a plan through everything. something that i noticed in 2 Ne 2: i think verse 3, i dont have my scrips on me at the computer is when Lehi tells his son Jacob (maybe Joseph) that his difficulties would be consecrated for his own good. there is a similar promise in my patriarchal blessing and i have been considering the wording. to consecrate means to make holy. i wondered about that for awhile as to why afflictions would be turned into a holy memory. in light of my recent experiences with leaving my struggles with Heavenly Father and letting Him make my burdens light i realized that i would never have learned how to do that in prayer or had that perspective if things were easy enough to handle on my own. to me, my afflictions have become holy because they have brought me closer to Heavenly Father through the power of the Atonement of Christ. i know that Heavenly Father has a plan in all things. long and short of it is, Heavenly Father cares about us so much that He wants us to change for the better and often hardships are the only way.
i am glad that ben is going on his mission. where is he going?
i really appreciated bro ferrell's books but i dont know what to tell him about it.
this week has gone alot better. Elder Catanach and i are getting along famously and we are doing better finding than i have ever done on my mission so far. i think the first week was just difficult for him and i dont think anyone can blame him for that. he is learning very quickly and he has been really brave. he said that he is ready to do exchanges in our area so that i can have a better look at what the other missionaries are doing in the district and know better what to do about it. i didnt do an exchange in my area until my second transfer. he is putting in everything he has into this missionary business.
henry this week has been working with his manager to hire a reliever for him on weekends so that he can go to Church every week. yesterday we gave him a Book of Mormon and challenged him to give it to somebody after a lesson on missionary work. it was really funny. henry wants to give it to the other guy that works there and henry said that he would make sure it was gone soon. another time we met with him this week he talked about how the Spirit guided him to let us in the first few times and to read the Book of Mormon and how thankful he was that he listened to those promptings. it might take us longer to get him baptized but once he is he will be able to go to Church every week.
chris er** dropped us. he got offended about me asking him if there was something we could do to make it easier to get to Church.
Chris El** is doing the same as ever.
we have alot of potential this week to pick up new investigators. possibly at least one every day this week. hopefully tonight we will get to teach a part member family where the father is the only member and has been inactive for a long time. he served a mission though so he must have some testimony.
lots of potential this week but not a whole lot going on as of yet.
Ryan: it is amazing how fast missionaries grow. Elder Catanach has made incredible progress in just one week. it takes about 3 months for the missionaries to become the missionaries that they want to be. of course we are always learning more but once they are done training they in short order decide what they want to be and act that way.
Grandma: i have learned a ton about the difference that it makes to be "in charge". i am treated differently and i have to be careful that i at least match every reproof with a compliment. i have spent a lot of energy trying to catch my district doing things that are good. i am glad that i had that example from my last district leader who was a former assistant and basically everything that i want to become.
at the end of exchanges we have evaluations. he would let me know what i needed to do differently or better but i always felt like a million bucks when it was over. i hope that i can help the Elders in my district to feel that way.
Grandpa: growing pains is right. it seemed like i was just comfortable being in charge of my own area when i got hit with all those changes at once. but i feel like it has all worked out for my own good. i just hope that it is for everyone's good rather than just my own.
glad to hear that you and Grandma are doing well.
thank you for your prayers. they are often felt out here.
hope you have a good week.
Love your favorite missionary,
Elder Taylor Barron
2 comments:
Don't know if you know, but your mom numbers your emails and this one was your 40th! Can you believe that?
Hope this is another good week for you. Sounds like last week was. It's great that you are finding more people and that you and your new companion are doing well together. Probably by now you have been able to split up and be with some of the other Elders.
What are you doing for meals right now? Do you do any cooking since you are in an apartment?
Things are going pretty well here however Braden has been very sick. They think he had a bad asthma attack but he has never had one before so that's kind of odd. He has been wheezing since last Saturday night and nothing they have given him has done much good. Grandpa Ron and Uncle Kirk gave him a blessing a few nights ago. Sure hope he gets over this soon. I have been worried about him.
Also, little Gabe had an appointment at Primary Childrens hospital this week. He has a condition where his skull closed sooner than it should have. Sometimes that can be a very serious thing requiring surgery but the doctor said he had an extremely mild case and should be just fine. We are grateful for that.
All the little kids are back in school. Caleb and Mandy started kindergarten this year so the only three left at home are Tanner, Gabe and Brinley! Our family is growing older :-).
Well, Elder, I hope you continue to be as excited and anxiously engaged with the next 40 weeks. I think that will be the case. We love hearing from you. We love you and pray for you. Take care until next time! Love, Grandma Sue
Elder B.,It's late Monday night and I'm hoping I'm getting this in time to make it to you this week. It sounds like all of the potential troubles all turned into blessings. You and your companion are doing well together, you're finding people to teach, and you're also settling into this leadership role a bit more. Wow, what an exciting time. Your grandmother pretty much summed up what going on with the family here. All in all, going well. We're very blessed.
At work all of the schools are back in business, the students are back, and things are humming on each of the campuses. We've got films were producing for BYU Athletics, Engineering, Animation, and Humanities. We've got one film in production for each of the other schools, ie; BYU Idaho, LDS Business College, and BYU Hawaii. We've got a number of brochures in process, four 20'displays, and sundry other things for the schools and for Humanitarian Services. Perhaps you've seen the stories we did about USNS Comfort in the Church News a while back. We're also working on a PowerPoint presentation that will be presented to the General Welfare Committee next week. (That's the First Presidency, the Presiding Bishopric, some of the Apostles, and leaders of the Relief Society and Young Men and Young Women. We like to keep the pot stirring. We enjoy the work and the people. I think I do have the best job in the Church.
Having said that, I also believe that what you are doing is also one of the most rewarding, hard, memorable, life-changing, constantly challenging, most exciting things you could be doing right now. And from the sounds of things you are making the most of this once in a lifetime experience. We're all very proud of you (I know, you've heard me say that before. It was true before and its true now.)
The gospel is an interesting thing. It can be learned and loved and faithfully followed by the most humble of disciples. But it also has tremendous depth and unfathonable layers to explorer for the most capable of Heavenly Father's children. All can learn to their ability. All can come to love it's truths. And all can be saved in the Celestial Kingdom. God really is no respector of persons. All have an equal opportunity before Him.
You gotta love it. It's exciting. And I'm always totally amazed at the new things that you can learn and the new understandings that can be revealed to you. As the Lord said, line upon line. As you seek and as you're ready for new light.
Love you. You keep working. We'll keep praying.
Grandpa Ron
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