A Few Highlights

Conference was incredible. I loved the advice we received from our leaders. I also want to mention this, brought up during a conversation I had with an investigator a few days ago: Jesus Christ is the head of the Church. That is why it has His name in it, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The prophets and apostles, great men though they are, simply are not the head of the church. They represent Christ, and it is important to remember that our loyalty is to the Lord first, and then to the rest of humanity.

One of the greatest things that happened from this conference was helping a woman named H*** come to church for the first time. We promised her that if she would come with a question in her heart that she needed answering that she would find an answer. The very first speaker answered many of the questions she had brought. We are looking forward to seeing her again later today.

One of the streets where we spend much our time was heavily visited by a missionary some years back, an Elder Jardine. It seems that nearly every person we talk with there has had some sort of former contact with him, and this has opened more doors that we could have opened ourselves. H***s family was one of them, although she herself has never talked with missionaries before. Another person is a wonderful woman named Miss E***. She is  up in her 80's and is a minister. She was very active in her preaching when she was younger, but has since slowed down some due to her age. We'd been meeting with her for about a week and invited her to come to Conference with us. She was so excited to go, actually going door to door in her neighborhood to invite everyone else to come with her to listen to a "real live prophet!" Right before conference something bad happened, and she was hospitalized for a short while. During one of the sessions we get a call from her on the phone making sure we weren't mad at her for not being able to come to church with us. She told us "I've gotten fond of you boys. If I had grandkids like you boys I would be the happiest grandma in the world! You still can come over for bbq later this week, right? You're not mad at me, are you?" I just love this woman! She is such a big miracle!

The weather is starting to turn a bit cooler. It's that fun time of year that you aren't really sure wether to bring a jacket or not, because it would be really nice early in the morning or in the evening, but a bit overkill during the day. Soon it will be Halloween, and I will get to carve pumpkins to put in front of our door! I'm considering using that as a means to find people to teach, just taking a whole bunch of pumpkins outside one night to carve them with the other residents here. If nothing else it at least help people see we aren't JW's! Lol. I said this last year too, but holidays are NOT a good time for us to go out, simply because people are more likely to give you a handful of candy than they are to invite you in. I've also been having a lot of really bizzare dreams lately, more and more frequently about people or places or events back home. It's made for some fun conversations during the mornings with Elder Price.

I'm really not sure what else to mention. Life is going well here. Some of the other Elders are headed off to go play golf. We still need to get groceries and laundry and such done, so that will come first, but we'll find something entertaining to do before we head back to the grind. 

Thanks for those who read these emails, and for those who support the missionaries back home! We couldn't do it without you.

~Elder Barker

"Don't forget to read!"