Thursday, March 22, 2007

A quick report on the work !!!

Things are going great up here in Timmins! We are still
working with the same investigator, We have made
great strides with Sylvie she wants to reset her baptism
date so that she can get married to her less active boy
friend which is great. Also her son is progressing along
nicely. Lisa is still living with her friend that’s a girl she
really wants to change bad but doesn't know what to do.
The less actives we worked with this week are Sue and
Nicole, Sue was there when we taught Lisa a lesson it
was great, Nicole has stopped going to church because
of health problems but she still finds a way to go out and
get other things done, and she still feels she is active.
I have been studding the Book of Mormon 30 mins. every
morning and then reading in our heritage or covering a
lesson for a person we are going to teach that day. Wow
what can i say things have been going awesome we have
been working hard we taught the most amazing lesson
last night to a gator, it was half a first lesson on Joseph
Smith and half about Book of Mormon the spirit was more
strong there then any other lesson i am so excited to have
progressing gators. YEAH its the first day of spring but its
snowing!! That’s so cool that Bud got his mission call to the
same place as Spencer.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

We have investigators and less actives!




hello everyone here’s a general report on investigators and less actives:
"One of our new investigators this week is named Howard. He is very knowledgeable in the Bible which is nice but at the same time very humble and willing to learn more stuff so the Book of Mormon is great for him. He was very interested learning about the restoration he is a great man with high standards and is fighting for custody of his kids.
Sylvie and her son Steven are doing great they still have a baptism set for April 8 are are going to reset to the 1st this week on Thursday. We were bummed to not have Sylvie come out for church like she has so diligently before but Steven did come out for sports night and had fun playing scatter-ball and making friends in the ward.
Mary-Ann and Samantha are doing great also they need to make the sacrifice to come out to church. We have an appointment with them tonight where we are going to cover Alma 40 and testify really strong on Christ's atonement and try and set them for baptism.
A new less active we are working with is named Anny, she loves missionaries and was baptized 4 years ago. She is good friends with Sylvie because they work together, in fact after one of our appointments with Sylvie she referred Anny to us, and told us that Anny had not been going to church lately. Elder Packer and I's goal is to have both of them come out to church and to partake of the blessing there in.
We made great strides with another less active named Sister Kasperait, she opened up to us and told us why she was not going to church, and it was some small way of her being offended we kinda have her the same talk that Elder Bednar gave in conference not to long ago. Then we gave her the talk its self and told her to prayerfully read it over and study it and she said she would.
Zone Conference was great! I loved learning so much more about the Atonement of Jesus Christ it was a great experience. I am excited to continue to learn more through my own study and experiences. "
Me and my comp are working hard having a great time, Mom stop worrying i have a nice coat that fits perfect and looks cool to i found it in the closet here in timmins, i havent gotten any mail or packages yet from anyone maybe the mail is just slow, we have no music up here we are only allowed motab and hymns because they invite the spirit the most. i wish i could have been at your stake conference dad that would have been awesome! i love you all and hope you are doing well!

Thursday, March 8, 2007

March 7, 2007 Spit freezes before it hits the ground


Hows it going family?
This is really interesting my companion was born on the
exact same day as Don and would have left about the
same time as Don did for a mission,So Don might have
been my trainer if he had gone on a mission. I was
actually really bummed when i first learned this but then
i thought well when Don gets back from Iraq and decides
to go on a mission i will get to train him instead so if
anyone is in contact with Don through phone or writing l
et him know about this. Danica thanks for the cord the
library here doesn't have the drivers installed to read
whats on my camera so i wont be ableto get you
guys any pictures till later. Way to go mom for bring
back all those students! Gratz Dad on switching
partners and having some good things happening
with your work and being able to put together a
stove by yourself. Things are going great here in
Timmins the coldest i have seen the temperature
gage at so far has been -35C but that was not
what was cold the wind would freeze your spit
before it hit the ground. I witnessed a miracle
yesterday, we are teaching a native named
Mary-Ann with 6 kids who just moved to
Timmins
and is struggling to get food on the
table because shehas to pay to get her kids
down from the reservation, she wanted to first
talk to us because one of her kids died in a
house fire. We knew that we was struggling
to get some food for her family so i called
the Relief Society president for a meal that
we could drop by Mary-Ann's house little did
i know that when you ask relief society for
some thing they give you ten fold up here
in Timmins, we had enough food that it would
barley fit into our car it was awesome
Mary-Ann was very thankful i figured we gave
her enough food to last her and her family
about 2 weeks. Another great story this week
is oneof our appointments bombed on us so
elder packer was like lets call some less
actives, we got a hold of one named Richard
who is headed into surgery this week and
i asked him over the phone if we could give
him a blessing and he said yes, it was my
first to ever give a blessing and it was great
Richard's wife told us it that it was exactly
what Richard needed, so God work's in
mysterious ways. Well i Love you all you
are awesome! The church is true!
Keep the commandments!
Love Elder
Barrand 

Friday, March 2, 2007

First Week


Hello everyone!

My first week out in the field was great! the first investigators
we taught is awesome she has 2 kids knows the church is
true and wants to be baptized but is struggling with living
with and having the same sex attraction is it was very
interesting. Its very cold up here in Timmins its about -25C
then with wind chill about -40C so your face gets frozen in
a smile when you are contacting. Last night i taught my first
first lesson to a real person the people in the MTC and
comps don't count and it was awesome the spirit was so
strong and its so amazing how you can gain a testimony
about that the advisary is real because he comes in right
on que and interrupts the lesson. But the man we were
teaching is a honest seeker of truth so hopefully he will
want to join the church. My comp is freaking awesome
he loves to work and knows how to teach and have the
spirit i am very thankful to have a great comp. I loved
your stories from your mission dad they were awesome!
You are so awesome for going on a mission and setting a
great example for me and the rest of your kids by going
and i am very thankful of that. And i really hated those birds
when i was living in the pink room they would always wake
me up at strange hours and i would want to climb out on to
the roof and kill them.
I Love you all hope you are all doing well!
i bet Celeste is going to look really funny pregnant but i will
miss it

Love Elder Barrand