a warning voice

Dear Family
Things are going so well, the weather has warmed up a little bit to -10 enough for us to have more time out side and walking around, tracting and finding people it has been great we have found some really good families and the work has started to pick up a lot, the members brought a bunch of the friends to church and things are just going amazing, i have been contemplating alot on the miracles i have seen through out my mission. the people who i have seen embrace the
gospel and and my heart is filed with joy that i had some small part in helping them find the gospel and salvation. i came on a mission to preach the gospel, and cry repentance, of all the people that
benefited most from these last two years is me i have repented and change and become more as my savior would want me to be. i am so thankful for every moment that i had to raise a warning voice and help other people learn. i would not trade it for anything in the world.

Love Elder Barrand

Here is a quick report on the work:
Things are going amazing in Stratford! We had Anita out at church she is a friend of one of the members here named John, he met here randomly at a grocery store and invited her to hear the missionary lessons and come to church. She is a single mom and has three great kids the ages are eight seven and three. Also the members are great here they are giving us referrals to even some of their family members. We have also being seeing tons of success with finding new
investigators and enlarging our teaching pool.

Family Costa Rica looks like it was a blast! Thins are going so well, even though its really cool we are finding tons of success and many people are listening to us the lord is blessing us with our efforts. I have a special request from all return missionaries and their husbands/wives I want to know what you guys did with your last day or two being a missionary, so look in your journal and write me back!!! i love you all and look forward to your responses email them back asap i
don't have much time left.
Love Elder Barrand
ps here is a picture of me and elder weber

Finishing with a bang!

Here is a quick report on the work:
Things are going well I'm very excited to start working in Stratford we have Brayden who is nine years old we are working with him and his less active mom to start coming back out to church and having Brayden baptized. Other then that we have some good member referrals we received over the holidays we are excited to progress them into the gospel.

Family!
I got emergency transfers with only 4 weeks to go, i'm in a small great little town named Stratford my new companion it Elder Weber he is fairly new and has tons of energy and zeal for doing the work. I am bummed to leave Guelph at the same time very excited for the new adventures and people i will met in Stratford. I am holding on strong and finishing with a bang.

Love Elder Barrand

Christmas Floor Hockey

Dear Family!
this week as you know i was playing floor hockey at church and my companion did a slap shot and on his follow through his stick met my face it knocked my front right tooth clean out root and everything, and chip up the front left one really bad. i think one of my canines went clean through my lip and i had to get 2 stiches. the first picture is right after i got hit the second picture is right now. which is just temporary i cant use my front teeth to eat anything for a couple of weeks. and there is a bunch more stuff that has to get dont to my teeth. but looking on the bright side i have lost a buch of weight already because it hurts so much to eat that i havent been stuffing myself as much as usual. This week has been going great we have been working very hard i am in a Three some Elder Wells, Elder Ford and I, we are tearing it up. getting hit in the teeth has not slowed me down at all in fact i have been working harder then ever. merry christmas and happy new year i love you all so much and will see you in a couple of weeks

love elder barrand

Thanksgiving chickens

Here is a quick report on the work:
This week went pretty well we started teaching this guy name Todd Roux he seemed very receptive and understood everything we taught. He agreed on reading the Book of Mormon but i think he thinks there is a hidden scheme we are trying to pull over his eyes its pretty funny. I
pray that he works out well. Other than that we are finding a lot of college students to teach and hand over to the sisters they are pretty busy too with exams this week.

Dear Family
Things are going so well i hope you enjoyed your thanks giving as much as i did. A family named the Crawfords one of my favourite families here, invited us over to help them do some service. It was the funniest service I have done yet we got to kill their chickens . I finally got to see what happens when you chop of a chickens head and they flop around on the ground for a long time it was awesome! Now i know how to kill and skin a chicken isn't that great!
Anyways, the work is going very well I am so excited you guys decided to house missionaries, that is so awesome. I was thinking about telling you guys to do that. I love you guys very much
Love Elder Barrand

November 26th

11/19 Here is a quick report on the work:
Things are going very well we have been able to find many new YSA students for the sisters to teach, like this young man named John we taught him and he understood everything so well even his mom came in at the end and posed as some opposition and John told his mom off and
said that he loves learning it was great.
Family!!!
Tiana and Don Congratulations on the engagements thanks so much for scheduling them so I could be there. Families are the best things in the world! I love you guys so much. Bryce I hope you feet can be healed, maybe you could get back on the boards a couple of times and test out the waters again that would be awesome! Celeste and Brad thanks so much for the birthday letter, I can't wait to meet Brooklyn for the first time haha. It's crazy to think that. Good luck with your decision making I know with the Lords help you will make the right choices. Danica and Dave have fun doing whatever you guys are doing working and rising kids. I hope you enjoy these pictures we took them at my birth day.

Love Elder Barrand11/26 Hey Family things are going great! this last week has been good to me
and elder ford we have been working hard and enjoying serving the Lord i love you all and have a happy thanksgiving

i am thankful for God and his son Jesus Christ, My family, my companion, being able to devote all my time to serving the Lord.
love elder barrand

Email to Evan

Evan,
I am so grateful for your well thought out testimony of your beliefs.

I will try and answer your questions, I think they boil down to First, why would we need a prophet today and Second, why would we need more scripture ex. the Book of Mormon.

None of this will matter or make sense comparing your theology to our theology, because if I am not mistaken you are a born again Christian and all you need to do is believe and confess on the Lord Jesus Christ and you are saved. Please correct me if I am wrong. What the Prophets have taught and preached since the beginning of the world is that you need to have Faith, Repent, Be Baptized, Receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Endure to the End. This is the Doctrine that was lost, changed, and twisted. This is the Pure Doctrine of Jesus Christ. The bible makes references to this but does not state it clearly enough. That is why with the Book of Mormon, with Living Prophets, and the Bible, we can know the pure doctrine of Jesus Christ and participate in those saving ordinances. By stating this I invite you to keep in mind that salvation is more than just a belief or a onetime confession I will explain in greater detail as to why. But just remember that your theology and ours is different.

To understand why we need a prophet today let's look at what a prophet does. They are first given the Priesthood which is the power and authority to act in the name of God for the salvation of his children, examples being Jeremiah 1:5 and Hebrews 5:4 and; with this priesthood the Prophet in entitled to receive revelation for the children of men. Through visions, dreams, and the spirit the prophets are taught the Plan of Salvation (Numbers 12:6, 1 Nephi 22:2, Amos 3:7), which is in essence the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to have faith, repent, be baptized, receive the gift of the holy ghost, and endure to the end, then in turn they teach it to everyone else. The scriptures record the pattern wherein God repeatedly reaches out to His children by revealing His gospel through a prophet, who in turn teaches the people. All people have the gift of agency which includes the freedom to accept or reject the gospel as taught by the prophets. Some people
follow, some don't then become disobedient; others reject it outright. The Lord then takes away His priesthood and the gospel is lost. When there are those prepared to follow Him again, the Lord reveals anew His gospel and restores His priesthood. Such periods when prophets are
commanded to teach the gospel, often involving a restoration, are called dispensations. The periods of time headed by a prophetic leader, such as Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and so forth, are called dispensations. Evan the Book of Mormon also testifies of this principle here are some references: 2 Nephi 9:2, 2 Nephi 25:26, Jacob 4:4-6, Jacob 7:11, Mosiah 3:13, Mosiah 8:13-18. And some other Bible references: Acts 10:34-43, Luke 16:19-25

Evan, through much study of my own and praying the best way to describe what I now have, has already been done on our church's website here: http://mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/basic-beliefs/the-restoration-of-truth/jesus-christ-established-his-church
A few things I want to point out. First I know that Jesus is The Christ I know that it is only through Him and His Atonement that we can be clean and make it back to the Father. I know He walked this Earth, I know that he did in reality suffer for our sins, was crucified and died for us. He was resurrected, and broke the bands of death for us to live in His presence after this mortal life. Second he organized a Church, one church, that church having the foundation of Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ being the Chief cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20). Those twelve men were giving the priesthood just like the prophets of old, by the Master himself by the laying on of
the hands. (Matthew 10:1; John 15:16; Matthew 28:19-20;) Now to explain Matthew 16:16-19, first off the Rock is revelation not Peter, Revelation is how Peter came to know that Jesus was the Christ, that is the context to which he was referring "the Rock" to. Christ fulfilled and completed the Atonement He accomplished all that his Father sent him to do. The "Gates of Hell" would not prevail over Revelation, it is impossible for that to happen, but just like in times past people used their agency to persecute the church and Jesus Christ. I'll explain.

Jesus Christ ascended into heaven leaving the eleven apostles a commission to go out and preach the Gospel to the world, and baptizing them. One of the first things they did was call a new apostle Matthias so there were twelve again (Acts chapter 1). Now this is very important to understand, that because of so much persecution from outside the church and apostasy from within the church made it very hard for the apostles to keep everyone in the unity of faith
(Ephesians 4:11-13) consider that almost every epistle written was to try and keep the early saints from going off in the wrong direction. Here are some scriptures that show evidence that this apostasy was happening and predicted and prophesied about: Matthew 24:9-11, Acts 3:19-21, Acts 20:28-30, Galatians 1:6-9, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, 1 Timothy 4:1-3, 2 Timothy 4:3-4, 2 Peter 2:1-2

These are ample enough scriptures foretelling of this apostasy, The twelve apostles were killed off too quickly to keep calling more, the organization to run Christ's church had crumbled, that foundation spoken of in Ephesians was no longer there. The Great Comforter the Lord Promised was still there but no one was there to administer the ordinances or keep the doctrine pure, the organization of Jesus Christ's Church was lost. The last of the Twelve apostles were killed off before the turn of the first century. No doubt that their words which they wrote were kept and inspired. Now go forward in time to 325 A.D. what happened here is what is called the Council of Nicaea, Emperor Constantine gathered all the bishops to establish the doctrine of the church. Let me point out a few things, Emperor Constantine was not even a Christian at this point and was doing this to gain political power in uniting his people under one religion. Now the bishops he gathered were not acting under the direction of the twelve apostles because there were none. They formulated the doctrine of the Trinity aka the Nicene Creed by a vote not by Revelation. This is not how God works. I will not go into the doctrine of the Trinity at this point in time.

At these Councils in later years under the dictation of the Emperor they decided on which books would be canonized and what books wouldn't be. Again this act was not under divine revelation. Please don't misinterpret what I am saying here. I know the Bible is the Word of God. Books were chosen to be put in to the Bible to best fit their views or doctrine. Take into consideration the so-called lost books of the Bible are those documents that are mentioned in the Bible in such
a way that it is evident they are considered authentic and valuable, but that are not found in the Bible today. Sometimes called missing scripture, they consist of at least the following: book of the Wars of the Lord (Num. 21: 14); book of Jasher (Josh. 10: 13; 2 Sam. 1: 18); book of the acts of Solomon (1 Kgs. 11: 41); book of Samuel the seer (1 Chr. 29: 29); book of Gad the seer (1 Chr. 29: 29); book of Nathan the prophet (1 Chr. 29: 29; 2 Chr. 9: 29); prophecy of Ahijah (2 Chr. 9: 29); visions of Iddo the seer (2 Chr. 9: 29; 2 Chr. 12: 15; 2 Chr. 13: 22); book of Jemeaiah (2 Chr. 12: 15); book of Jehu (2 Chr. 20: 34); sayings of the seers (2 Chr. 33: 19); an epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, earlier than our present 1 Corinthians (1 Cor. 5: 9); possibly an earlier epistle to the Ephesians (Eph. 3: 3); an epistle to the Church at Laodicea (Col. 4: 16); and some prophecies of Enoch, known to Jude (Jude 1: 14). To these rather clear references to inspired writings other than our current Bible may be added another list that has allusions to writings that may or may not be contained within our present text, but may perhaps be known by a different
title; for example, the book of the covenant (Ex. 24: 7), which may or may not be included in the current book of Exodus; the manner of the kingdom, written by Samuel (1 Sam. 10: 25); the rest of the acts of Uzziah written by Isaiah (2 Chr. 26: 22). Now many centuries past, each generation passing on this apostasy from what the previous generation had inherited, changing and orrupting doctrine, such as indulgencies, baptism being change to sprinkling and at birth not like Jesus Christ was baptized, the crusades, the pope exalting himself saying he acts as God on earth, the mass, and the list goes on and on. This is a direct fulfillment of prophecy by Paul:

2 Thessalonians 2: 1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, 2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. 3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. 5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? 6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.

Paul makes it perfectly clear that there is going to be a falling away from the truth. The evidence is the changes that were made in the doctrine, ordinances, organization, and everything that I have stated earlier. A restoration was needed, but people tried to reform the doctrine and practices, men like Martin Luther, John Wycliffe, William Tyndale, and John Calvin, were all inspired by the Holy Spirit of God to Protest and try to reform but none of them claimed priesthood authority from God. With these protestant movements that gave way for a final restitution of all things. Acts 3: 21 "Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began"

This Restoration or Restitution began in 1820 when God the Father and Jesus Christ our Saviour appeared to Joseph Smith when he was only 14 years old. This is so important because men need to know the true character of God and His Son. You can read of Joseph Smith experience in his own words here: http://scriptures.lds.org/en/js_h/1 I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God, now to say that I can also say, I know Moses is a prophet of God, and I know that Paul is an Apostle of God, this only means that "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8) He calls men to teach His Gospel and doctrine, to perform ordnances in his name, and to keep people unified, to show us the way to Christ.

The Book of Mormon is indeed what it claims to be Another Testament of Jesus Christ. It stands as a second witness that Jesus is the Christ. It was written and inspired by Holy Prophets of God just as the Bibles was. The Book of Mormon covers a 1000 year time period between 600AD and 400BC on the American Continent. There is so much to explain about the Book of Mormon and why it is important but I will not do it at this time, only will I say that it was translated by Joseph Smith into English through divine revelation. Jesus Christ stated his pure doctrine again when he manifested himself to these people shortly after his resurrection. The pure doctrine is to have Faith, Repent, Be Baptized, Receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Endure to the End.

So the Book of Mormon fulfills many purposes the two main ones being First for the none believer in Jesus Christ the He is the Saviour and Redeemer of the world and only through him can we be saved. Second that Joseph Smith is a Prophet, because he translated it. Jesus Christ
Warned us of false Prophets in Matthew 7: 15 "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them."

Evan the Fruit of the Prophet Joseph Smith is the Book of Mormon.

The only way to know of the Book of Mormon being true is by reading it and asking in pray if it is true. There is a promise in the end of the Book a Mormon I would like to quote for you. Moroni Chapter 10:

3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these
things, and ponder it in your hearts. 4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. 5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things. 6 And whatsoever thing is good is just and true; wherefore, nothing that is good denieth the Christ, but acknowledgeth that he is. 7 And ye may know that he is, by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore I would exhort you that ye deny not the power of God; for he worketh by power, according to the faith of the children of men, the same today and tomorrow, and forever. This is a promise giving to all who read the Book of Mormon that they
can know for themselves that the Book of Mormon is true, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

I'll close with my testimony I know that Jesus is the Christ, he is the way the truth and the light. Wrought by his infinite Atonement, only can men be saved if they have Faith, Repent, are Baptized, Receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Endure to the End. I know the Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God call to restore us to the truth that was lost over centuries of time. I know by the power of the Holy Ghost that the Book of Mormon is indeed scripture and it is "16 All

scripture is givenrighteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly

furnished unto all good works."

My invitation is for you to learn more about this restoration that has taken place. It has taken me a long time to write this email, I will not be able to answer any more of your questions over email but will be more then willing to answer them in person, please read the references that I have given to the Book of Mormon and other internet sites. You can reach me at me cell phone: 519-831-0651

Elder Barrand

P.S. I apologize for it being so long.

The Undercover Cop and the Bible Scholar

Here is a quick report on the work:
We started teaching this man named Jeff he is a cop and lives with his girl friend and she is pregnant, he remembers attending the Brampton Temple open house which was like 15 years ago and he is only 30. He is Anglican and very nice and receptive he says he wants to start coming to church but is very busy with work, he is an undercover cop and goes to high school parties and tries to buy guns and drugs which is pretty cool. He looks like we he will progress very well. The next two people we are working with are both YSA, they are James and Andrew, Andrew is born again christen and is basically a bible scholar he knows it pretty well, but he has been reading the Book of Mormon. James is a more of a party boy who is looking for direction in his life and invited us to teach a bunch of his friends. Which went over very well.
Family
Things are going great we are working hard having fun and loving the cold weather. Nothing new to report. I hope you all enjoy Halloween. Mom and Dad you guys are awesome keep up the reat member missionary work, more important then the missionaries is the love they receive
from the members and your own testimony of the Book of Mormon and Restored Gospel.
Love Elder Barrand
ps thanks for your emails i love them

Joan, Glen and Mona in our teaching pool

Hey family here is a quick report in the work:
Things are Progressing we finally have some good people in our teaching pool First is Mona she is doing very well she has been sick the past couple of weeks but is now feeling good enough for us to teach her. When we taught her we read Alma 40 about the spirit world and the resurrection, to tell her after death you can be resurrected and you ever be sick again it was a very good lesson. Another person we are teaching is named Glen he is a very humble man from the Philippines his wife just had a baby, he is pretty hard core catholic but we have a really good member that was catholic was even going to become a nun in the Philippines but a month before she became one meet the missionaries and converted. It's a pretty cool conversion so she
will be able to relate to them well. Elder Ford and I are getting along great we are working very hard and having lots of fun doing it.

Family
Another Great week has gone by the temperatures have reached 0 degrees winter came really fast this year. Hurray for my third winter in Canada! I hope you enjoy our jumping pictures we took them at district meeting. It's crazy I signed up our district to do a musical presentation at Zone Conference, but we couldn't come up with a hymn that we all sound good singing together so I am singing a solo of "come thou fount" it's going to be great pray that the spirit helps me
out. A Lady that I contacted on the street a couple of weeks ago got baptized last Sunday she is so funny her name is Joan Gratoo she is about 70. When I was talking to her the first time I inquired about where was going and she answered "I am going to get my birth control pills" it was so funny she is a great lady and has a good sense of humour.
I love you family!

Love elder Barrand

Turkey Bowl

Here is a quick report on the work:
Things are going very well, we started teaching this women name Monique with her boy friend Audin she is a less active member and he is now an investigator, Audin is super humble and very nice Monique has been offended because of some of the members at church, Monique has not been to church in a long time so we committed them to start reading the scriptures together and praying on a regular basis then hopefully they will come to church she said it herself. As for anyone else in our teaching pool we have handed them over to the YSA sisters.

Dear Family Thanksgiving in Canada was a blast and it took place on Monday this week we got feed by this awesome family named the Crawfords I felt at home it was great I upheld the Barrand family tradition and went around and asked them all what they were thankful for it was really fun, we also had a turkey bowl we played one hand touch football, ultimate Frisbee and soccer for 2 hours. That was on Monday, Yesterday and today I am not able to walk straight because I am so sore, same with my companion it's really funny to see us walking down the street. When it was my turn to say what I was thankful for I said my family you guys are the best I love you so much
Love Elder Barrand

My daily schedule

Here is a quick report on the work:
Things are going amazing we have been working so hard only taking 30 min. for break each lunch and dinner, we have contacted tons and tons of people all of them being YSA because we live right next to the college tracting seems like the only way we have been able to find families so we still don't have any investigators we can call ours to report on and progress but I know the lord will help us find some. Elder Ford is amazing he is so humble and has not complained once
about how much walking and working we have been doing it's great I love him.

Family
I have asked some of the parents that have missionaries out in the field in our ward what makes good letters home and one said testimony and another said what you do day to day, So every day we wake up at 6:25 no matter what or how tired I am. Never will I allow myself to sleep in. Every morning we exercise for 20 mins of cardio we have a cool row machine and jump rope. Then for ten mins I stretch I don't see much improvement but I do it every day. Every morning for breakfast I have oats with peanut butter and honey in it and a fruit smoothie made from frozen berries and orange juice. Then get dress and shower and start studying right at 8, that is
personal study where I read the Book of Mormon for 30 mins then study Preach My Gospel and Jesus the Christ and New Testament on a specific topic for an investigator or a lesson. Then at 9 we have companion study we sing a hymn and pray. Then read 5 pages in the white hand
book, review a lesson covering the principles and a scripture reference with each principle. Then recite My Missionary Commission by Bruce r Mconkie, then recite Remember This from the back page of Preach my Gospel. Then teach each other want we learn in personal study and or review and prepare a lesson for whom ever we are teaching that day I have doing tons of role plays lately with my companions because they are new and need alot of help becoming better teachers. Then we briefly go over our plans and goals we have made from the
night before. Then right at 10 we are out the door. Missionary work is simplified down into 3 activities to find. First is tracting, second is walking down busy streets and contacting people, third is doing drop bys of contacts that you already have of people who said they are interested. We have our day planned out of who we will drop by that day what area we will be in and what streets we will contact people on and tracting. This transfer Elder Ford and have set a goal that we are not allowed back to our apartment when we leave in the morning so we pack sandwiches. That means no naps and no wasting time traveling back and forth to the apartment. Also we only eat for about 30 mins and then call contacts and try to set up apponiments and plan a little
more about what we are doing. Guelph is a College town so we meet tons of students who are really busy with school, but alot of them are willing to listen. In the morning we resort to most of our tracting and in the evening we try to visit members home and do this missionary
presentation that I invented and it is power house, using quotes from Preach My Gospel and a video clip from Special Witnesses of Christ by the end the members really want to invite people and do more things to help the work progress. Then we try and be in by nine 9:30 at the
latest. And plan for the next day and set goals. One thing that has taking me the longest to gain a testimony of is nightly planning after working really hard all day you just want to come in and rest but planning is the most important thing, it takes tons of will power to focus 30mins of you energy and time to focus and map out where you are going who will you visiting and what you will be doing. But without it you are directionless and nothing effective happens. Plus the day goes but way faster when you have thing to do because you have planed it out also you want to achieve more because you have set goals that you want to hit. Then once we are done planning we make our sandwiches for the next day, write in our journals and prepare and go to bed. Then do the same thing the next day I love it!!!
My testimony, I know I am on the Lord's errand, I know I am given strength to make it and last through the day, I know that the Saviour's Atonement is really. There is a young man named aron who we found that was really big into smoking and drinking and his life was going nowhere. The amazing thing about Aarons is he was a sober mind which is interesting to say that after he smokes and drinks but he is sharp we tell him something and he understands and it burns in his
heart. Two days ago Aaron decided to change to repent and to have a better life when we meet with him again yesterday he was glowing and so unbelievably happy he prayed for the lord to help him change, then a job offer fell into his lap and other great things happened for him
and he couldn't be better. I know that The Father and the son appeared to Joseph Smith to restore truth, and the Church of Jesus Christ again upon the earth of which we are apart and the Lord himself declared it to be the "only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth" what greater blessing can you ask for then that of the way to salvation!
Love Elder Barrand
ps i talked to Rob Stoddart and we had a good conversation he made it
very clear that we would not join our church but he loves alot of Mormons and was excited to talk to me and catch up on things it was
way cool

the pictures are Caleb's Baptism
Elder Ford and I and also a picture of elder Rollins the other elder i
have trained and elder for too

Transfers!!!

Dear family
I have the wonderful chance of traning agagin!! i am so excited to do this, Guelph is getting split in two. Elder Ford and i will be covering the outskirts of the city with the car and my last compaion elder Storer and other missionary will be in the more downtown area. With the area change we have no progressing investigators, but thats why i am here to find them and the best members are in my area. family tranning again brings me back to when i first came out and the faith and hope of new missionaries its a very humbling experience. i am so excited to train, a goal i have set for myself is to not return to the appartments for breaks. and i have some other great goals like tracting out most of my area or as much as i can. i want to leave the best impression on elder Ford of one who never gives up never stops working and is the most obedent and loves the work so much, along with teaching by the spirit and loving people with all
your heart. i ask for your prayers with this sacred trust the lord has given me to train again. Mom and dad keep up the amazing member missionary work i hope you are enjoying the fruits of the spirit as you help others find christ and his atonement. bryce and tiana i hope
your health problems will get better.

here are some pictures hurray!

i love you guys so much it hurts!

love elder barrand

ps i am not able to check your blogs anymore because i am trying to be
as obedient as i can

A morning on Instant message

This morning I was able to instant message with Mom and Dad for 20 minutes.
Here's some things I said to them that I didn't write in my letter.
I have been eating more healthy. I bought a steamer and have been steaming vegetables. I like broccoli and other veggies. My companion inspired me to keep the morning rules which include exercise. So, I need to have my suit taken in. If I don't have a tread mill I've been jumping rope. I'm going to keep my weight a secret until I get home....but I was up to 215, now I'm down to ?????
We had about 12 investigators and that's dropped back to 6. I love my companion, the scriptures and the atonement. I took the color personality test and guess what colors I am? 60% yellow and 40% red.
The town we are working in is a commuter town for Toronto. There are about 180K people and about 180 people in the ward. The immigrants are nicer to us than the white people, one strong member in the ward is a RC (recent convert) and he's from India.

Here is a quick report on the work:
Things are going very well, our most progressing investigator is this young girl named Sara she is 15 but her parents are ok with us talking to her we gave her the Book of Mormon two of three weeks ago and she has read all the way to 2 Nephi 26, so she just got past Isaiah which
is pretty exciting. Her big stumbling block is she works at Tim Horton's on Sundays we told her church is more important and she agreed and said she would try and get her schedule changed.
Also we are still working with Caleb he is doing good we taught him the word of wisdom and he has been very consistent with church we are still panning on him getting baptized on the 28th of September. His parents are progressing well they need some work though. pease if you can keep them in your prayers

Famly things are going so well, i wish i had some fun and crazy stories to tell you, i will make an extra effort next week to have a good story. You guys are the best i love you so much
Love elder Barrand

Gelph is just exploding!

Hey Family,
So i fractured my pinkie knuckle bone. there is a picture of me and the president and i have the splint on for it.
The other pictures and at zone conference where i didn't know i had fractured my hand yet but it was really swollen. Elder Storer is the tall one with blond hair. the other pictures is with elder wells and elder summers they are my two favorite elders. they came out with me and i lived with elder wells for 7 1/2 months and elder summers is the assistant, and a really good friend.

Life is doing amazing Guelph is just exploding with people to teach and find and love i am having a blast. Doug came out to church and the ward did such an amazing job fellow shipping him i didn't even have to do anything. they even invited him to lunch this week i am so thankful
for good wards who like missionary work. this week we had three district meetings together and they asked my to talk and give instruction on getting people to church and i got alot of compliments from other elders it made me feel really good. thanks for your emails and prayers!!!
love elder barrand

setting Guelph on "fire"

Family!!
i got transferred my new area is Guelph. i am so excited i am not a zone leader anymore and i can focus more of my efforts on my area. i even couldn't sleep last night because i was coming up with great ideas on what i can do in my area to make it catch on fire. nothing
else exciting has happened
love elder barrand

here are some pictures the first 2 are of elder ruckman and i, the second was a hike we went on to a cool water fall i slipped in and got a bunch of small leeches on me it was a blast!

Searching for the true church

Dear Family
Things are going amazing! we finally have a few good people in our teaching pool and i am so excited, the top three are a man named Cory he and his wife have a 6 year old son who has been asking them questions like who is God and they didn't want to answer him wrong so they have been looking for a church to help them understand. while teaching him the spirit is so strong, comparatively to some one who is just being polite and listening to us, to some one who is seeking and looking. i love it! It is the same story for this other lady named Jodi the she is searching too but because of her husband there is lots of opposition. Another guy we just started teaching his name is George. he is a convert to the catholic church and has done tons and ton of study into the catholic faith. he was the first Christian i have meet in the year and half i have been out that actually knew the word "atonement" and what it was referenced to. we haven't had too
much teaching opportunities with him so far but we gave him some chapters to read in the book of Mormon and he said he would do it, when i gave him some chapters it was 2 Nephi 26-33. haha i don't know if i was prompted to give him that or i just wanted him to know that his church was apostate. Anyways i am loving life and the work thanks for your emails and letters and prayers they help so much.

love elder barrand

9 hours of tracting

Hello family!!!

Here is a cool story from this week. We were traveling some elders in a very small town the name is Elliot lake it is a retirement community and lots of old people and there is a church on every street corner and there is and out 13000 people in the town and each church is well attended. most missionaries view going to this area as punishment luckily there are some good missionaries in there now but their faith has been lacking a little because of little or no success,
but i was so excited to server there just for one day so when we got there we planned for the days activities and they had no appointments or anything scheduled, i was so excited to help them find people. we set a goal to tract for 9 hours, that meant ever hour we have to work
would be spent tracking they seemed half enthused to do it but elder Williams the elder i was supposed to travel is going home at the end of this transfer and is counting the days till when he will be home, and i was going to do this with him, he kinda wanted to do it just to be able to say he tracked all day once. So we started and worked our butts off running after people down the street and talking to tons of people, there was alot of persecution and alot of bible bashing because most people know about the Mormons in that town. I loved it! we got 17 great contacts for them and caught their area on fire they got 6 new investigators this week and are happy and excited about the work again. it was for sure a very fun travel.

Love Elder Barrand

zone conference like stake conference

i apologize ahead of time for having a short email if i had more time i would write more but i am traveling too much to do so. things are going amazing elder ruckman and i conducted a zone conference and president middleton complimented that it was just as good or better then any stake conference which is way cool. i am right now in my old area the soo, again i love it here it was such a blast serving here there have been a couple people in each area where i just love so much and they make the whole experience worth it. the people that will be life long friends and you will keep in contact with them. i am so thankful for it. anyways good luck in you missionary work even if they are unwilling to learn or don't like or reject the message you did your put and can stand blameless before God. i hope more opportunities arise for you guys. i love you so much and may the lord bless you.

love elder barrand

ps tomorrow marks 18 months
i was walking past a movie theater and i thought about being home for
a few moments and felt sick to my stomach

What I'm Thankful for:

Hello Family!!!
Happy birthday Celeste!

here is a quick report on the work:

This week went really well we had a couple of really jam packed days while we were in our area and were able to get 3 new investigators, definitely a blessing from the Lord Also a past investigator we had dropped 2 weeks ago finally came to church with her excommunicated boy friend her name is Jacqui and she has some great potential to progress I am very excited. Also we started teaching a young couple name Adrian and Lexy. Adrian believes the Book of Mormon to be true because a preacher from another faith told him to read it and he did and loved it, which is very interesting. Then Lexy is still having a hard time believe that God exists so its fun trying to teach them at two different levels.

Things are going so great!
mom and dad, danica and dave you guys are the best thanks so much for being great member missionaries i wish and pray more members would have the courage like you to invite others to hear the good news! i bet the missionaries there just love you. one cool thing that has happened i finished reading Jesus the Christ for the first time, and i loved it. i set a goal for myself to make
that book along with preach my gospel a life long study. i got your letter mom about things i am thankful for so here are a few on my list:
God being our loving father in heaven hearing and answering our
prayers giving his peace to our hearts when we need it.
Jesus Christ preforming and completing the atonement, through which we
can receive a remission of our sins.
Joseph Smith his humble prayer that opened the windows of heaven once again.
My family i love you all so much! who can ask for a better more
amazing group of people.
The scriptures to teach us how we can come unto Christ.
The companionship of the Holy Ghost, what peace is brought into my
heart when living worthy of that great gift.
there are many more but i am our of time

love elder barrand

Authority, Shannon, never been more obedient, enthused and urgent

Dad and mom, Oh how i love your letters i just got your 4th of july letter yesterday thank you so much for the $40 that means alot but i dont know what i will spend it on. and it sounds like you are doing some amazing work helping people over come their addictions, i love it!
mom and dad if i had enough time to tell you everything that is going on that would be amazing. but i want you to know mom and dad that i have never being more obedient, more enthused, more urgent about the work, and i can only feel myself going onward and upward, i love the
lord and his work, i love the atonement and the power of recieving a remission of our sins, i love the principle of repentance and always being able to improve our lives, i love my companion and the missionaries i serve. i love the story about coaching the swim team dad it brought tears to my eyes. thank you so much mom and dad for supporting me while i share the gospel i love it. these last 6 months will be the best i know for sure



here is a quick report on the work Things are going very well we are getting the area jump started again last transfer we dropped most of our investigators. So some people we are teaching is Shannon she is a 23 year old lady that studied world religions as her major is college, so she knows a lot about each religion but doesn't really believe them. when we were teaching her she
had so many questions but we said we would answer them in the next lesson so she is very excited to meet with us again. We are also teaching the guy named Pat he is about 20 and has a brain tumor and will die in about 5-10 years he is a tattoo artist and has alot of word of wisdom problems but he wants to change his life and understood authority when we taught him and asked so the preacher that baptized me didn't have the authority? and we were so happy he
understood. Other then that the Zone is doing very well. elder Ruckman and i get along very well and we are learning a lot from each other in our long driving trips.

Love Elder Barrand