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!

Our Gator Waye

Hey everyone!Things are going great we have been
working hard teaching our investigators preparing
them for baptism. Elder packer and i are traveling
North Bay (another city in the Great North) it is
300k away i don't really know how far that is in
miles but it took us about 3 hours to get here.
We get to actually see other missionaries it is
awesome! Wayne our amazing gator at church on
Sunday told me the excuse for not getting baptized
was melting away, then we went to go teach him
the word of wisdom on Monday and he had already
started living it that morning. This man was so
prepared to hear the gospel and have it change his
life, it is so cool to be able to see the affects that is has on him and his family.
I am so thankful for Mom and Dad even thoughit was tough getting up every morning at
5:45 for scrip tures and prayers it was worth it, having FHE and singinglove at home every Sunday
 together even though i would of rather been playing video games. Most important dates once a
week either going and getting owned by dad in racquetball or going on walks with mom on Sundays
wow you guys are awesome!!! and learning to settle arguments even though i have yet to use it
with a comp i have taught elder packer anyways. Anyways i love you all hope everything is going
well sorry i don't have time to write more or get any pictures to you guys.
Love Elder Barrand

Hey everyone! We had stake conference this last Sunday Elder Kerr was there,  he is a member of the first Seventy and a very loving man, he meet with just us missionaries for our Zone conference and taught us a great way to set people for baptism i cant wait so use it to set some of our gators to be baptized. Right after closing prayer at conference Elder packer and i went looking for his backpack because he had lost it. I ran into Elder Kerr just before he was leaving and was able to shake his hand again he said 5 simple words to me that hit me really strongly he said give it all you got i know that seems like simple words of Encouragement but to me it was a little different. I had a long time to think about it on the 4 hour drive back to Timmins from where Stake conference was held. I know those were inspired word to me because if I am able to give 100% of all I have only then will I be able to reach my full potential and become the man I have always dream of being, but even better the missionary the Lord has always wanted to have. You got me good Dad i thought for sure you hurt 

your leg or something bad, you better be ready for a beating when i get back. I love you all and hope everything is going well! Love Elder Barrand   Here is a list of people we are working with incase you are interested Wow things are going great up here in Timmins! Its was so  wonderful to receive great council from Elder Kerr at Stake Conference, we are going to set some people for baptism using his who what why when, method i cant wait to see the results.

Howard Fletcher He is struggling to over come smoking with his girl friend Crystal but loves the gospel and loves reading the Bible we just need to get him to love reading the Book of Mormon just as much. He is a good man wants to keep the commandments of God as soon as he stops smoking we are going to baptize him.

Janna Magman -she is also trying to over come smoking she knows its not good for her and wants to quit for her 10 month old child, her mom is less active and has been for about 30 years i know that if we get her daughter baptized she will want to come back to the church. Again once she quits we are going to do the Who What Why When method with her to get her baptized.

Wayne Ferrigan -Wow this man is a Golden investigator. We have only taught him a first so far, which he loved and was excited to read the Book of Mormon and see us again. We are going to teach him a second tonight. Wayne has 4 kids and has been married to his wife for 25 years and just wants the best for his family. I cant wait to see the best thing ever happen to him and his  family and that is coming unto the fold of Jesus Christ.

Diann -She is a less active who is struggling separating the Doctrine from the Culture because she lived in Provo for a couple of summers and saw that the people weren't always the best latter day saints, and now questions the church. I had only read the Book of Mormon once before the mission

 and had a good testimony of it but now i love reading it again and understanding the stories and the principles that it teaches and its a blast! 

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!