Friday, February 23, 2007

It's very cold up here, 10 hours North of Toronto!

Hello everybody! Gratz on haveing a girl Celeste and Brad!  Just wanted
to let you all know that I'm here safely in Toronto to the Mission home.
We had dinner and orientation, and then got my new comp. he is awesome!
his name is Elder Packer; everyone that was trained by him said he was
great, I’m stoked; the mission president Ashton is most likely the wealthiest
man I will ever meet in my life but also the most humble. then we drove and
saw the temple and got my bags then drove to the mission mansion spent
the night then woke up at 5 in the morning and drove (10 hours driving
straight north) to Timmins, Ontario. famous for being the home town for
Shania Twain, I like to think of this town as one of the farthern most points
of civilization. so its very cold and windy and lots of snow. there haven’t
been any baptisms in a while up here so my and my comp are excited to
get to work. in this area it’s only me and my comp we are 4 hours drive
from the nearest town, what my comp told me is that the president
sends the really good missionaries up to Timmins, so I won’t let anyone
down. my mailing address is now:

66 Brousseau #105

Timmins
Ont P44N5Y2
love
elder barrand

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Dear Parentals,
Life is great! I'm alive. There's not a whole lot that goes on the MTC accept studying with the spirit and learning by the spirit which is pretty freaking awesome. I'm getting really excited. I'm about to finish the BOM for the first time by myself. I am 10 pages away. I can't wait to finish it tonight. Happy Valentines day! I am actually really happy that there are no girls that are writing me except sister barrand and it's awesome. I just wanted to give you guys an update on my situation. I have been getting a form of lock jaw. I have sharp pain that runs from my ear down to my jaw. It started this morning I entered the MTC. I saw the dentist today and he said that it was from bad alignment in my teeth an mostly from stress. Who would of thought that I would go through stress. All I had to worry about before my mission was where am I going to eat next. The dentist said I am clenching my teeth at night so the muscles in my jaw don't get to rest. The idea for now is ibuprophen, massage and don't stress out. So all is well, I can live with pair, I have one week left in the MTC.

I just want to go teach people and put my arms around people and lead them to Christ, give them the chance to repent for their sins. This gospel is awesome. We have prophets on earth that tell us what to do and even better we have temples to make great and awesome covenants with our Lord. At church we are all asked to prepare a talk on diligence. I only had one scripture written on my hand for my preparation and low and behold Brother Cerny stood up and said "We ask Elder Barrand to give a talk because he dove for BYU and all the swimmers thought divers were lazy but he loved the points I made in my talk. I told about Brother Botts at BYU .. I shared Alma 57:21 and D&C 100:6 it was great. I look forward to your letters and I love and miss you guys very much.


Elder BarrandMom's note.
Austin called today from the airport at 4:57 a.m. He got 3 hours of sleep. He said we didn't need to worry about the sister missionaries being attracted to him because the MTC food made him so gaseous that they all teased him. He said he had a great time, he played lots of practical jokes on the Utah boys in his zone and was a goof ball. He said he loved the study time and kept a study journal. He was disappointed that his companion slept through most everything and that 3 Elders in the 17 that were supposed to go to Canada didn't make it. One didn't show up, another went home for some legal problem and the last went home for a legal problem with statutory rape!!! ach!!! An Elder Wright was one of his very spiritual trainers who recognized his name and said "I know a Japanese Brazilian Sister named Barrand who was my trainer in the MTC, are you related to her? We take it as a good sign that laid back Austin finally feel some stress!!!!"

LoveElder Barrand

Thursday, February 15, 2007

MTC









Wow, I don't even know where to start! The first week has been awesome. Most people said the first three days were the worst and hardest but they weren't that bad. I would love to see the look on dad's face when I say "I love studying" I love being taught most of all because I know before I was ordained a missionary I would have never said that because with that calling the spirit takes over your life changes you into what the Lord needs you to be. There are ants in my pants to get out into the mission field and start teaching and loving the people of Canada. My district is amazing every Elder is going to be a great missionary. My branch pres is a small short guy that is shaped like George from Seinfield but when he bears his testimony the fire that is under me turns into a BON FIRE.






Richard G Scott came to Tuesday's devotional and gave an amazing es son on prayer. The spirit I felt that night after bearing my testimony to my district can only be compared to a few other times in my life. Then fir the first time in my life I prayed and asked for the Lord's will to be done, not mine, not for my glory but for the Lord, it was a very humbling experience to know that I am only a tool used to do the Lord's will and another humbling experience is....remember when I said I would be able to get along with ANY companion. Well when the Lord heard me say that he probably laughed a little when he gave my my campanion. He likes to sleep in every class and is the only missionary I know that doesn't take notes and reminds me of Scott T from the diving team. But I love him any way. He gives me something to pray about.



Love,Elder Barrand