Hey Mom,
it has cooled down here quite a bit as well. for like the past month its been over 100 about every day it seems like. and if it wasnt, dont tell me because it still felt brutal. we are feeling really good about the weather here turning into fall weather. the fall is especially nice in California.
i havent gotten a letter from Jacob yet but im excited about it. i would like to get back in touch with him. so yeah, it would be good if you sent me his address i would like to write him back.
havent seen my troubled mish this week. they were sick when we had district meeting. i think that the anger comes from frustration. every missionary wants to be great and when it takes alot of effort especially at the beginning it is difficult to adjust. some missionaries never do and just end up disliking mission leaders their whole mission. i think i didnt express any frustration that i had and i was having such fantastic experiences in my study time so i never really got angry. plus i was blessed to "get it" really quickly so i always felt like my progress was as good as i could expect it to be. i was just trying to make my mission the best that i could at the beginning and so far so i just tried to soak up as much as i could from those i met and never really felt any anger.
Elder Catanach got better when we worked out a study plan for him to learn scriptures and teach the lessons better. and it took him about a week to realize how invested in his progress i was and that i was not just trying to boss him around. f
or my birthday---- ties are always good. letters from family are good. i dont really know what else i would want.
the teaching is going well but the week got a little slow after monday. greg had family in town so we havent gotten to see him yet but they left sunday so we are going to drop by today and set an appointment.
henry is doing well as usual. we are running low on things to teach him now so our ward council came up with some good stuff to go over with him like reading conference talks with him and ensign's and stuff. still meet a few times a week. only hold up is that he is back to his 4 days on 2 days off so Church only once in every 3 weeks.
taught paige again last night one of the recent convert lessons. she is doing really well but her parents are trying to mess it up. she got in trouble last week and got as a punishment that she could not go to Church on sunday. lame.
but a cool thing was that family, the lovell's, grabbed this other kid off the street to sit down with us as we taught paige and we will probably teach him as well. they are so awesome. just grabbing people off the streets.
we also taught this guy named victor from tracting. he let us in and we have taught him a couple times now. he was excited about the restoration once we cleared some things up for him that are common misconceptions with people.
with everyone else we are teaching not too much that is new. just keeping them reading the Book of Mormon.
im starting to try to be creative with finding. we are teaching a lot of people who are part of families but not teaching the rest of the family. so with our ward mission leader we set up for one dinner appointment a week to have as many nonmembers as possible. this morning i was working on what we would teach and i felt that we should share passages of the Book of Mormon that testify of Christ and then try to teach the rest of the families. we are also teaching active families how to have a succesful family mission plan. its really fun to get creative but sometimes difficult to do with a new missionary. half the battle is keeping him on the same page. really fun though.
Grandma: Hey Grandma. Glad that you guys had fun up in yellowstone this week. it certainly is fun to visit and see all the cool things that they have up there. i cant believe that im going to be 20. it all seems weird to be getting older. the other thing that seems weird is that im closing in on the halfway point on my mission.
love you, Grandma
Dani :im glad that Braden is getting better. i hope that he did well on his first football game. i am not sure that i can relate as well to the ballet landmark moments but i am still excited for Kimmy. its hard to believe how old Marissa and Tanner are getting. look forward to getting letters from the kids. love you guys.
hope you have a good week.
Love your favorite missionary,
Elder Taylor Barron
2 comments:
Hey Elder! Always good to hear from you! One of my callings in my ward is as the newsletter editor. It's fun to get all the news from the missionaries that have been sent out from our ward. They are all over the world and having wonderful experiences just like you have. I try to feature some each month.
Grandpa comes home from Hawaii tomorrow. He is meeting with the president of BYU Hawaii today. They are getting ready to make a new movie on BYU Hawaii that will encourage people to donate to scholarships for the many students who are from poor countries and who have nothing. A lot of their students are like that. We are so blessed in our country to have all that we do. But I love the testimonies from those humble students. They are truly special.
Glad the weather is turning a bit cooler for you. I remember going swimming on Christmas day in the ocean when I lived out there. You probably know that I used to go to church (not ours) by myself when I was only 8 years old when I lived out there. I knew I should go to church; I just didn't have access to our church at that time. Well, recently I found a photo on the internet of the same church I would walk to when I was only 8. Kind of a little piece of my past. :-) I was surprised that it still existed!
This time of year is my favorite. I love the cooler crisp temperatures and the changing of colors. I love the ripe peaches and pears. I love the holidays that are coming. A lot to look forward to including seeing your mom and Emily again. I hope they can work it out.
Hard to believe you are coming up on a year. You are doing really well and have a great attitude. Keep smiling, keep doing what you are doing and you will continue to have rich rewards. Love you,
Grandma Sue
Elder B., I apologize for not checking in last week. But I have read and enjoyed what you had to share with us.
It's always a great opportunity to travel to BYUH and work with my friends and associates there. It was, I think, a successful trip and I felt the Lord's hand in our efforts. It really is an amazing thing to know that the Lord is aware of what you are doing and that He is arranging things so that you can succeed. One of the things I wanted to get done, in addition to getting the first draft of our script approved by Presidents Wheelwright and Orgill, was to find the right people to be in the film. Another was to find appropriate locations for the filming. As a result of a series of "coincidences" we were able to get it all done in the three days we were scheduled to be there. Pretty amazing: unless you realize that every step of the way was orchestrated by the Lord. As you might guess, there is a lot more to this story than I'm able to write in this short note, but it was amazing to us as it all came about.
Of course, working in Hawaii is not bad in and of itself. The weather was balmy and beautiful. Perfectly paradisical. And everyone is so warm and helpful. We also saw the new evening show. It's called "Ha, the breath of life." In essence, it tells the story--from the birth of a baby boy to his growing up, marriage, death of his father, to the birth of his own son--through music and dance. In the process it subtly portrays the plan of salvation. Really good. Really cool. They are getting a standing ovation every night. Perhaps you'll get the opportunity to see it one day.
Well, my eldest grandson, I hope you have a great week ahead of you. I know the Lord is with you as I know your heart is pure. Keep up the good work. The Lord is by your side so you cannot fail---even if you don't teach or baptise as much as you might like from week to week. The desire of your heart is what counts most.
Love you.
Grandpa Ron
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