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. 

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!

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 

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

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

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

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