District Leader

Hello Family
 I have wonderful news I am leaving Timmins and headed to Sault Saint
Marie, the only place in the mission that part of its area covers some of the
State Michigan, and the coolest part is the Lord has placed me as District
Leader, and I have only been out 3 transfers, not very many people get to be
senior companion being out this young let alone be leadership, anyways when
President told me about be district leader he said the lord wants me to reach my
full potential, so I am very excited. My new companion is elder Lahadurn he is
huge weights about 300 pounds and is from Montana. 

June 20 2007

Hello Family! Heres an update on the work. Things
are progressing very well with Lisa. When she
said the closing prayer yesterday i felt the spirit
so strong,We have been trying to get her to read
and pray every morning with her sons.  One of her
sons Trevor wants to be baptized but does not want
 to learn about the church its weird. Other then that
its going great. We are also working with Richard
Cooper, he knows about and wants to be baptized,
and whenever we have gone over to his house to
teach him we always ask his wife if we can do
anything for her and she has always been friendly to missionaries, then as soon
as we give Richard a date to be baptized his wife doesn't want him to go to church
anymore. So we have been praying really hard that she will be willing to let Richard
 progress and that she herself will be interested in learning about what we are
teaching. The next time we go over there and going to ask her if she wants to know about the amazing covenant
Richard is going to make when he gets baptized. Hopefully that will work. My
studying has improved dramatically over the past fews days. I have been to afraid
 to mark up me new set of scriptures because they look so nice, finally i talked
myself into highlighting Names and Places which really helps me comprehend them a
lot more
Life is great! I read this morning the Jacob chapter 5 and finally understood
it! Its freaking awesome i love that the Lord tells us in these latter days when
we are doing missionary work that he will be with us and that if we work with
all our might are joy is going to be so great! And it is! I am so happy right
now having fun sharing the gospel. Jake Ferrigan, the 15 year old recent convert
told me that he didn't want to get the priesthood, I flat out told him that
without responsibility he will not amount to anything in this life, then i was
sharing this experience with Elder Packer and he told me that it was the voice
of my Father telling him that, then i pondered on how proud Dad would have been
when he heard me say that. And how great a dad i have! Happy Fathers Day!

Love Elder Barrand

June 13, 2007

hello everybody!!!
HOLY COW its so amazing to hear from you don!! i prayed so hard the night before 
you e-mailed us that you would contact us in some way. i guess is worked. Don i 
have some advice for you Dont Die! there was a promise give by a general 
athourity that if you read the book of mormon in another language then read the 
book of mormon in english verse by verse you will be fluent in that language 
when you are done, so you should try that with spanish, i did it for 2 chapters 
then got distarcted, anyways i love being on a mission! it is so amazing! We are 
praying for three people to be baptized before the 24 which is the last day of 
this transfer Chris, Richard, and Lisa its going to be great! I will be sad to 
move out of Timmins i love it here the people treat me like family its great!

love Elder Barrand 

Jake and Jason Ferigan get baptized!

Dear Family
Things are going amazing here in Timmins! We had 3 baptisms this past week the first two were of a recent
converts sons Jake and Jason Ferrigan, their dad baptized them in a beautiful lake one after another, it was
great we had Lisa, one of our investigators, show up to the baptism it was the first one in 8 months she was
able to witness. That was on last Saturday, then on Sunday after church Liliane Gauthier got baptized by her
husband it was great! Some other people we are teaching are Chris and Heaven, they are a young couple living
together. They are going to be married as soon as they can get a copy of Heavens birth certificate. Richard
another investigator that has been meeting with missionaries for the past year has finally made it out to church
with his four year old son, he loved it and wants to come back next week. We are also beginning to teach our
recent converts other children Brother Ferrigan's 23 and 26 year old daughters.
Hey family its so great to hear from you guys! I have some amazing pictures of Jake and Jason's baptism i
will try and get them to you as soon as possible. I don't have much to say except that i love working for the
Lord working hard always thinking about Jesus Christ its great! Calling people the repentance is so much fun.
Especially when they have a lot to change from.
Love Elder Barrand

Things are going great up here in Timmins

We have a baptismal service this Sunday right after church. Where our recent convert
Wayne Ferrigan will be baptizing his two boys, Jake who is 15 and Jason who is 17.
they are very excited because they have seen the amazing change that has taken place
in their fathers and mothers life.
Also Liliane Gauthier will be baptized by her husband which is extremely exciting. There is
a young couple we are working with named Chris and Heaven they are set  to be
baptized on the 10th of June, they are living together so Elder Hoffman I wish i had
time to answer all your emails individually!!! Tiana you rock  thanks for being a great
example to me. Mom good luck on all your classes and your paper if it were me i would
try and eat all the elephant in one sitting just because i think it would taste pretty good.
Dad i wish i could have been there at state with you that would have been so much fun
but the things i am learning now will make  me be such a better diver, student, father,
husband, friend, and brother. I almost started crying when i thought that Don may never
be able to go on a mission but there is always hope and thats all we can do is hope and
pray he has to decide for himself. Celeste congrats on your baby i cant believe you are
a mom thats crazy! You and Bard are going to be the best parents for her. Holy crap i
didn't know Bryce could get such amazing grades and be the valedictorian thats so cool!
Danica and Dave i hope everything is going well i haven't heard much from you guys.
Don email me tell me whats new in life My new companion is great! He is very obedient
and a very hard worker, and knows the scriptures very well, he has been out for 6 months
and i have only been outfor 3. and the president trusts us enough to be in Timmins its great!
Love you all
Elder Barrand

Dear family,

We baptized Raymonde Ferrigan on Saturday she
is an amazing women, both her sons Jake and
Jason came up to Elder Packer and I at church
and asked when can we get baptized. We told
them as soon as your dad receives the
priesthood. Earlier this week we had a dinner
appointment with a part member family, the
husband is a member and the wife has been Roman
Catholic all her life. Brother and Sister Gotea.
We invited her to get baptized and tell us on
Sunday when you would like to get it done, she
told us that she wants to be baptized on the
27th. We used the Who, What, why, when, that
elder Kerr taught us it was great! Things are
going amazing up here in Timmins, many of the
members were really sad to see Elder Packer
leave, I am too he is an amazing missionary,
I am so excited to start working with a new
companion, and progress the work.

Here is a really funny story, Elder Packer and

I decided to head down to Sudbury last nightfrom Timmins, because Elder Packer is get
ting transferred We were on such a spiritual high after having elder packer say
goodbye to the Tinney family and the Ferrigan family, We started driving down the
road and missed the one and only turn, we needed  to make the entire way. We drove
for 2 hours, on the way many things were pointed out to me that we were headed the
wrong way but we were so engaged with the amazing conversation at hand talking about
the people in Timmins. Like towns that we had never past before or the forest had
been burnt and we have never noticed it before.
There are no mountain ranges in Ontario so that you are able to tell which way you
are going so it is not unusual to drive through the forest for hours and not know.
Then all the sudden we came to a stop sign just then I realized we had been driving
the wrong way for the last 2 hours, this was at ten o clock at night so we stopped
the car gotout stretched a little and got back in the car, I realized that we did
not start driving with a prayer so I said one and in it I said please let us not hit
any moose on the way back. So we start driving back to Timmins. Elder Packer sees a
moose in the road and we are about to hit it going about 85mph, he slams on the
brakes, and we come to a complete stop about 10 feet, with the moose right in front
of the car. Then the moose just keeps running down the road and then back into the
forest, then I say another prayer thanking God for our lives. Then we get back to
Timmins 2 hours later, to sleep for a few hours then start driving to Sudbury
needless to say we did not miss that turn again. And now with a stronger testimony
that there are angels watching over missionaries and that the power of prayer works
and that the church is true!!

Love Elder Barrand

April 25th

Hey Family
My First Baptism is this Sunday! For Wayne Enright Ferrigan.  He received an answer to his prayers through a dream and also he had a similar experience to
Joseph Smith and the first vision being over come by then Devil with doubt,fear, and guilt,  then calling upon Gods name for help then feeling the spirit
so strong and he knew this is what he needs to do is get baptized. So i gave him my old set of scriptures that i got when i was 12 and he said he would cherish
them forever, and i told him to get new ones in a couple of years because thats what i did when i came on my mission. That set of scriputers was barely used, i
remember Bryce came up to me and looked at my scriptures and said  “these look brand new” and i said thanks then he said that is not a compliment, and that
priced me to the heart because i never really read or studied my scriptures much before the mission, but now i cant get enough i love them so much i don't know
how i will ever be able to go a day with out reading them. They are true words of God i know Joseph Smith translated them and that Christ
lives!