Sunday, January 27, 2008

Mary Wall, Zone Leader?????



Dear family here is a quick report on the work This week was amazing sister Mary Wall’s baptism was a spiritual experiences unlike any other. I am so thankful for great missionaries that I was able to work with in London the Sisters and Elder Hayashi are amazing! We had a great teaching and dinner appointment with Roberto the spirit was really strong he was crying when we bore testimony that he needs to get married in the temple. We left him with the commitment of praying and talking to his Fatima about the 14th of February valentines day! The best day to get married. I pray that it works out for him.Family this week was AWESOME!! First, on Sunday Mary Wall’s baptism was amazing I will send you pictures as soon as I can. Mary is a widower and she said that he husband was at the baptism was watching she even knew where he was standing isn’t that cool! This is transfer week and on Monday and Tuesday we Blitz our area and found tons of people and set up tons of appointments it was so much fun. Then last night I received a call from President Middleton he gave me a new assignment to be Zone Leader in the Hamilton Zone. Hamilton is a city in Ontario in case you didn’t know it’s pretty big too. Anyways I am so excited I cant wait to learn, grow and develop great love for the people I serve it is going to be great. I love you all so much and thanks for all your supportLove Elder Barrand

Thursday, January 17, 2008

January 9th

Dear family here is a quick report on the work:
Things are going very well. We started teaching a boy named Derek he is a friend of one of the young women in the ward Cloey they are both 15 years old and he is a volleyball player and pretty good at it from what I hear. We taught him after a dinner appointment with the family there and taught the first vision we related as much as we could to him because he is about the same age and Joseph Smith was when he had the first vision it was a very fun teaching appointment the spirit was very strong and Derek wants to come to church again this Sunday.
Charles, Luke, and Joe the three 17 year old boys we are teaching, are planning on going to a mutual activity this weekend it is going to be great!
Roberto came to church again and is still progressing slow towards marriage but loves learning the doctrine and more about the church we are teaching him and his common law wife tonight and she need a priesthood blessing hopefully the spirit can help her progress towards marriage.


Family you guys are the best!! I finally got my Christmas Presents hurray!!
My new shoes are the coolest things ever! I love them so much thanks! Bryce’s family got me “Praise to the Man” a DVD about Joseph Smith and W. W Phelps the author of the lyrics to the song and I absolutely love the movie the spirit is really strong and it deepens my testimony of him being a Prophet of God also the type of man that he was and his ability and capacity to love. It is cool. Dad I missed your letter this week are you out of town?
Anyways I love everyone and all your support you are the best

Love Elder Barrand

January 2nd

Dear Family here is a quick report on the work:
Things are going very well Roberto did make it out to church and had some amazing thoughts while in gospel doctrine class he is so ready to be baptized he just needs to be married we have been praying really hard to know what to teach him in order to want to get him married. The problem is we don’t see him often enough. But he does keep the commitment that we leave him with.
We taught Charles and Luke the two 17 year old boys a third, when we explained about baptism Charles said baptize me when I am in the spirit world, and Luke didn’t know what to think. So I think we need to explain to them a little better why it is so important I think it might have gone over their heads. But they are reading from the Book of Mormon and haven’t been able to make it to church yet. We are going to get them on a chapel tour so they will feel comfortable enough to come to church. Logan their less active friend is a really bad influence on them he thinks the church is good for nothing and causes more problems then helps. So I bore really strong testimony that Joseph was a Prophet and this was Jesus Christ Church and that we only get trails because God wants us to grow and learn. I think he is too comfortable being idol with his time it is very sad.

I am reading the Book of Mormon highlighting faith, repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost, and endure to the end with separate colors and learning a lot more about each one. I love it



Family!!!
My newyears resolution is to eat more healthy and improve my physical condition I am a little out of shape . Also to in some small way improve my teaching a little bit each day its going to be fun. I love you all and hope you enjoyed the holidays as much as I did. Lots and lots of Disneys movies its was a blast I love hanging out with other missionaries and laughing at movies we loved when we were kids. I finally got to see Cars and I absolutely loved it!! it had one of the best lesson in it ever. And that was to love others and serve them and don’t think about yourself it was awesome! Meet the Robinsons was really funny because it was so random I laughed a lot.

Love Elder Barrand