Week 49

Things in my new area are going good! It was two areas but President Dalton took one companionship out of the ward leaving my companion and I with everything! haha! So it's a lot of work but it's going good!

So we arent aloud to be out on the streets after 6 o´clock the 24th, 25th, 31st, and the 1st. So with just my comp and I in the house we´re going to have to get creative. I was thinking about cooking, but I don't have money to waist on food.

After buying 2 pizzas this week and taking out another R$200 I'm throwing my debit card in my suitcase to not waste anymore money. But with that being said..................with the money that you guys sent me I bought myself a new suit!!! Super nice!! It was only R$300. We´ll see how long it'll last.

This last week in the ward we had a christmas party and we worked our butts off. We had a family of less actives and a family of investigators there at the party. I wanted to go because of all the great food that was made but the party started really late and we only got to stay for the spiritual part of the party..............hahaha it was kind of sad but afterwards I came to realize I wasn't there just to eat, I was there to help these families!!

President Dalton wants a white christmas....but we´re in brasil and it doesnt snow here....soo it can't be a white christmas of snow, but it can be a white christmas with everyone wearing baptism jumpsuits!!!! WOOHHOOOO!! He wants us to break his record of baptisms in one week (the current record is 61) so I'm hoping that the 2 baptisms my comp and I have will help break the record!!!

love you guys!!!!!!!!!!!

Week 48

Well, this week was interesting!!

Learning a new area is always a hard thing to do but I always like the challenge. Elder Medina is by far the best companion I've had in my mission so far. I've only had 1 week with him but I can easily say that he is a a great missionary. I couldnt be any more happy with my companionship. This transfer is going to be great.

I went to renew my visa this week and Wednesday I had to do a division with Elder Chumbley (a dude from my group from the mtc). He is in Cipo and so the fastest way to do the division was meet up in Grajau. Meeting up there completely ate the entire day. We got back to my area around 8 o'clock. Then going to the police took the whole day in Denovo. Elder Medina and I got to our area around 7. So with that being said, going to the police took around a day and a half out of my week but we still got a lot of things done.

Pictured above is the family that will get baptised! We baptised their daughter because she was too impatient to wait for her parents wedding!!! (This was from last week)

Week 47

well, this photo should explain everything!! raneiri here i come!!!

ill be serving with my first hispanic companion!!!! WOOOOHOOOOO! yo queiro aprender espanhol!!

i would like to thank everyone who sent me letters and stuff i recieved in my package that the ward sent me!!

Week 40

This week we had multizone conference with President. He called a few missionaries to gives talks and you guys can put your money on the table that I'm always going to get called on. My name was called out to give a talk. Luckily I had prepared a talk so everything went good. After I closed President told me that he was very grateful that I have the spirit with me because what I talked about was the topic that he chose to give his training! He said that great minds think a like but with the spirit minds will always think the same thing because the spirit will guide us on what he need to say. It was an amazing conference!! Then, this morning, reading my weekly letter from president Dalton he said that out off all the missionaries that gave talks mine was the best!!! When your priesthood leader says things like that to you all you can do is be happy and grateful!!!

 

The Lord really wanted me to speak to a lot of people this week and not only was I called to speak for the whole mission but also I was called by the bishop to speak in sacrament meeting. (He informed us as the meeting was starting) you can tell Bishop Campbell that I'm grateful for the opportunities he gave me to speak in sacrament meeting just letting me know 2 minutes before the meeting started while I was still home because this week, I put that practice to work. President Campbell always told me that he was putting me on the spot so that on my mission I'd be ready. I always thought it was just a good excuse to not have to call someone else to speak but looking back at now,  this week I realized nope! bishop Campbell was inspired and knew I needed the practice!

 This week was my 9 month birthday of my mission. It's a tradrition to buy a pizza with chocolate crust every time you hit your monthly

 

AND IT OFFICIAL. I AM NOW OFFICIALLY ELDER HUNTER

EMAIL ME THIS WEEK!!!!!!!

LOVE,

ELDER ANDREW HUNTER BARNARD

Week 39

So last week I sent an email in portuguese because I didn't want to have to think translating my email for you all. haha I hope google translate served well. Just in case people didn't understand. I HAVE A NEW COMPANION Elder da Silva. He is from Minas Dirise, a state that is close to SP. He served in the Brazilian army for two years. When I asked him if he ever had to kill anyone he said that he's shot many people but he doesn't know if they ended up dying. haha Kind of scary, nah? But he's really cool. He's getting ready to end his mission here in a little bit. He has 1 year and 7 months so. He is very experienced. I'm very grateful that we had an emergency transfer and that he ended up with me in my area. Just in case anyone doesn't know, I'm in the ward /guarapiranga, stake Guarapiranga. My area has a lot of apartments and is the more wealthy park of the stake. But with that being said its still in the middle of the ghetto!!! 

 

tTis week we were teaching the brother of a young man that we recently baptized. His dad arrived at their house and for a moment this kid (Igor) was kind of scared. Saying "oh no its my dad!" I had already seen his dad before but the only thing that he had ever said to me was good morning, good afternoon, and good night. But out of no where this man looked at us and completely opened up to us. His name is José Luis. He is super duper ready for the gospel in his life!!!! We are working to baptize him, his wife and his son, Igor. With their baptism this Sunday it will be a whole family that I, ME ANDREW HUNTER BARNARD helped get baptized!!! I'm not going to count my chickens before they hatch but with their baptism this weekend, I'll be able to go to the temple with them next year to witness their sealing!!!! Super happy about them!!

 

This week a few times we had to make our own lunch in our house. It is nice to have a companion who knows how to cook with you because with two people cooking things are easier and the food is better!!

 This is a dessert that is really common here in Brazil that we made called PUDDING. it doesn't look the best but it tastes BOM DEMAIS!

Week 38

A gente teve uma transferencia de emergenicia aqui na missão. meu companheiro, Elder Amorim fui transferido. meu novo companheiro é o elder Da Silva. ele é de minas dirice. (fiqua bem perto de são paulo.) esta semana fui super bom e coisas são de boa. o uniquo problema é que é mais facil para falar em portuguges do que ingles....durante conferencia geral eu tinha que prestar atenção para entender o que o discorsante estava falando. eu estava escutando em ingles! era bem deficil. mas, por em quando eu não tenho muito para dizer. eu espero que todo o mundo etsa bem e eu espero que eu vou ver muitos emails esta semana que vem! eu fico um poco dis amimado quando ningem esta querendo falar com migo.....mas tudo bem!

com amor,

Elder Hunter (Barnard)

Google Translation:

We had a emergency transfer here on the mission. My companion, Elder Amorim was transferred. My new partner isElder Da Silva. He is from Mines Dirice {a place in Brazil}. (it is near Sao paulo.) This week was super good and things are good. The unique problem is that it is easier to speak in Portuguese than English! During General Conference I had to pay attention to understand what the speaker was talking about. I was listening in English. It was pretty hard. Well, I don't have much to say. I hope everyone is well and I hope that I will see many emails this week! I'm a bit discouraged that everybody is needing to talk to me ... but oh well! 

With love

Elder Hunter (Barnard)

my area looks alot like this.

(P.S. i had to change my name)

Week 37

My area is kind of annoying and I'm having a hard time with my companion. That's basically been my life the last 9 weeks! haha Things here are way different than any other ward I've served in. This last week my bishop told me that he wont support a family with baptism. He told me that he is tired of seeing missionaries baptize every week but after baptism never see the investigators again. Soooooo yeah...He gave us a list of 13 pages of less active we need to reactivate. hahah My week's gunna be super fun!! But I'm really excited for conference this weekend!! I now have more than 5 friends serving missions around the world!!!! It's awesome to see that after years and years of everyone talking about serving everyone is actually here!!

Week 33

Here in Brazil things really started to cool down. Like really cool down. Last night I was so cold trying to sleep! I've kinda got to admit that I like it more than trying to sleep sweating. This last week we tried closing a few baptisms of people we are working with but unfortunetly nothing went through. This week has been very hard for me and we only had 5 people at church. My companion and I are making new plans and working on creating a few teaching group. My area is the biggest area in my zone and we know that there are people waiting for us to talk to. We've realized that there are a few things that we aren't doing like PMG teaches us to do and so we are making these changes to get better. (There are things that every single missionary in my mission are doing wrong) and so after studying PMG, the scriptures, and talking to other return missionaries that had a lot of success on their missions, we have made a new plan that will literally change my mission. Our goals this week are quite lower than normal because we are going to do things the right way. My district lead is very very mad that I'm doing this...idk why. We have to send our goal to president weekly and this morning before p-day started he called me telling me to put in numbers that I had not planned for. I
gently told him no, that I know what I'm doing, that as senior of my area I received inspiration to make changes. After I said those things I hung up the phone. I am currently sitting next to him and I've never seen someone so mad at me. In my letter to president I explained what my plan is and I pray that he will understand what im doing! 

Lets all pray that things will work out for me this week!

Love you all and hope that you all have a great week cheia de milagres!

Week 29

Well, I got transferred. Just when the ward was starting to get warmed up.

I got transferred to the nieghbor ward, Gurapiranga. I'm a little frustrated to be completly honest but it looks like the Lord needs me in this ward now. It's going to be difficult, this area hasn't baptised very much at all this whole year! I'm gonna hit the ground running tomorrow morning.  My goal is to baptize weekly this transfer!!!! Yesterday my companion and I had 15 people at church! It was an awesome week and I can't wait to see what blessings and miracles will come this week!

Week 28

Well, I was transferred. I am now in a city called Guarapiranga. It's more ghetto than I thought ghetto could be! hahaha! But everything is great here. My companion is elder Oliviero from Fortaleza Ceará. He and I have the exact same time in the mission as each other and so it's cool to relate with him on a few things! My testimony here has been tried but the outcome was that it's only stronger now! We made a lot of plans to really make a difference here as missionaries and so he and I are going to focus a lot on re-activating people. We are convinced that with this we will have just as much success as we've been having but even more. With 2x the blessings!! We're super excited to be here together as companions. He always tells me that he hates companions that are lazy and he always asked president to give him a companion that isn't lazy and so he's super happy that I think the same way! We're going to make miracles here people!! Here's the dude we baptized this past week! Ermerson.

sorry I've sucked at sending email home lately, but I'll try better to keep you guys updated!

Week 27

Feeling the love this week with 4 in the inbox. 3 from the mission home secretary and one from the church talking about how much money I have on my mission card. But here's a picture from the mission tour I had this last week with a 70!

Week 23

So now with just over 5 months in the mission, my 4th transfer as a missionary in the feild is going to a start tomorrow. But this transfer will be a little bit different for a major reason...the Lord and President Dalton have put their trust in me to be a trainer!!!!!! wahoooooooo! In mission language, being a trainer means that I'm going to be a dad!!! Haha, I'm so excited for the opportunity I'll have to help someone else better themselves as a missionary! But with that being said, it also means that my son will be my 5th companion in just 5 months! Kinda crazy!! Last sunday we had 11 people at church! It's been something I've been praying for for a long time! It seems like the people here are just getting lined up to enter the baptismal font and become members of this great church.

I'm so happy for the opportunity have to serve a mission. To serve a mission in Brazil, be speaking portuguese and to be helping people come close to Christ! I love our savior and am so proud to be a representative of him!  

My baptism last week! My last baptism with Elder Moos!!! 

Week 21

 Here's a picture of me and my new companion elder moos!!! He's american! We teach english tp a school every Tuesday and so we are the only area in the mission that has 2 americans. It's really hard to keep learning Portuguese because we only ever speak English to each other!!!

Here's a picture of our baptism from this week! It took us forever to finally help this guy get baptised but after more than 10 weeks working with missionaries he asked me to baptise him!

Missionary work is very hard but it is soo rewarding. at times. I'll be walking in the street and realize how much pain my body is feeling and it makes me want to stop. But one thing that I always remember is the fact that Christ felt 1084375693249599 times worse than I'll ever feel and it helps me keep going. I always tell myself that the only unfair thing in life is the fact that Christ had to suffer for US. That always helps me keep going. There is a talk from Jeffrey R. Holland that I found that talks about missionary work. He says that missinary work is not easy. We are proud to call ourselves representatives of Jesus Christ, but because of that we need to feel a little bit of what he felt and that's why missionary work is hard! Why would we think that it would be easy for us if it was never, ever easy for him. That's what keeps me going. That's what makes me talk to people and that's why the spirit is with me when I teach and that is why I'm baptised weekly. The atonement changes people but most importantly it changes us as members of the church. It carries us through our trials.

I love my call and I love this work. The work of Christ is the best work to do.

I love and pray for you all everyday. Remember God in all things!!

Love,

Elder Barnard

jacob 6:12

Week 18

Andrew was called in by his mission president and told the news of his grandpas passing. Here is the sweet note he wrote to his Grammy: 

grammy I just want you to know that I love you and that you have always been a major role model in my life. Things are going to be different but things are going to be good. The Lord has a plan for us and we will all see grandpa again. When I found out all I could think about was you. I wanted to fly home just to hug you then fly right back. But one thing that I want you to know also though is that I feel grandpas presence in my work as a missionary. He's with me and he is protecting me. I'm so very glad I had the opportunity to go through the temple with you guys before I came here. It was my last memories of grandpa. love you grammy

Week 16

 It's finally starting to get cold here!!!!! yesssssss sweater weather all day everyday!! the missionary life is a killer but its so worth it!! Always happy and always bringing more people to the knowledge of the gospel!!! I keep on forgetting to bring my camera to os reuniao batismais. freake meu. mas tudo tranquilo eu vou email aqelas fotos para voces mais tarde. haha....didn't even realize I was writing in portugese hahaha lemme translate.. I always for get to bring my camera to the baptisms but its okay ill email them to you later... mycompanion has them all on his camera!

Week 13

Sooooo first transfer is finally over and I was sadly moved to another area. But, I've come to love this area even more than my last because its a cooler area. I now have 3 people living with me and I'm looking forward to having a great tranfer with good numbers. Elder Semedo is my companion, but, only for this past first week. He was here to show me the area so that I can memorize it and my new companion is Elder Albuqueque! I dont even know him yet but, I'm looking forward to working with him! We had another baptism this week of an invetigator that was more than golden and now she is a golden member! :D Her name is Ivania and she is O CADA!! (the best). We had I think 3 visits this week and every visit she made us a snack with coke!! She gives us a bag of candy everytime before we leave and most off all, last night she gave us a whole cake and me and my companion a new pair of shoes because she knows how fast we go through them!! Man she's awesome!!!!

 

So that makes 4 baptisms on my mission so far and we have another set for Wednesday!!!! The field here is ready to harvest, you just gotta open your mouth!!!!

What a great week! We have a train track here is my new area and he have trains come trough literally every 30 minutes. We put coins on the track and after the train passes by we go back and find our money and its Squished flat, super illegal!! haha 

I hope everyone has a great week! keep listening to those confernece talks!

 

 

Week 12

well dang...this week was a good week. elder dias and I got a lot done and were starting to get excited about the next 6 weeks or the next transfer. We were starting to set major goals for us as a companionship, finally getting our lazy ward to get involved with missionary work and so on. All was just peachy until the last 30 minutes of my first transfer when our phone rang and the assistant to the president told me I was being transfered! BOOOOOOO!! haha that was last night so today I'm packing my bags and starting all over again!! We finally had not only 1 baptism, but 2 baptisms this week. Our hard work finally paid off! After having every single other potential baptism kiau (fall through) we finally had 2 elect investiagators make their first convanent with the Lord. I was getting excited about being able to practice my baptismial prayer in the tougue of Brazil but both of our investitagotrs chose to have a member, FABIO, baptise them!!!! Fabio is a 6 month convert that as soon as he hits one year as a member is gunna ship off on a misson!! He is really excited about serving but earlier this week when Alice told us that she would like him to baptize(shortly after we left alices house) broke down in tears saying that he can't baptise her because he doesn't even know for himself that this church is really true. We tried everything we could to help him but he still was stuggling. All the way until Lucasour another baptism who got baptized on friday(alice got baptized on saturday) minutes before the baptism choice Fabio to baptize him also!!! Both Alice andLucas  desperatly wanted Fabio to baptize them...but why? "the holy ghost" quoting robert d hales on that one from conference this last wekend on that one. haha but anyways by this point Fabio felt good enough to baptize Lucas and after the baptism he came up and huged me and said thank you for helping him  and that he knows the church is true. The next day he baptized Alice. então, back to my quote.........conference was awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We all call conference here on the mish "the missionary vacation" it was by far the best and most inspirational conferences for me in my entire life. The overall theme for me was something that nearly every speaker spoke about. O Espiçao. the atonement. foi um otimo semana e eu esto super animado por o semana que vem!!!! really sad that I'm leaving my dad (my trainer) but life goes on!!!!

jacob 6:12

love,

Elder Barnard 

Week 11

Andrew got his Easter basket!!!!! 

Here's what he had to say 😍😍😍: 

i showed elder dias the pic of the fam (I sent him a copy of our Easter family pic) and he said "que siquy!" which means uhhhhh crap i forgot how to say it....but kinda like "oh how rich" everyone here thinks im rich and i keep telling them that i am not!! its kindof annoying actually. haha but yes i got the basket!! thank you!!! elder dias and i are going to snack like kings! haha i went to the mission office this morning because i had to do stuff for my ssn for here in brasil but as soon as i walked in the door the assistents to the president said "ohhhhhh, élder barnard! nos temos um presente bem especial por voce. más voce no pode ver" which trasnlates to we have a really special present for you but you can't look! i was super surprised to see a huge basket just full of chocolate. it was really embarassing actually because all the other missionaries there at the office were just staring!! awkward! so i didnt want to get mugged for my chocolate on the way home and look super gay carrying around a huge basket so i asked for a box to put all my stuff in. haha foi bem legal!! oh and the basket has a new home at the presidents apartment on the table and a center peice! sister dalton (presidents wife) asked if she could have it to put apples and other fruits in for when missionaries come over they can have something to eat. haha so next time i go to thier house i will see my basket!!! there was some chocolate truffles in the bottom of the basket, maybe 10 at the most. i put them in my hands and yelled "quem quer?!?" which means who wants?! everyone went crazy! haha FOI BEM LEGAL!! tahnks mom!!!!!!

Ugh I love this boy!!!!!!

Week 10

With another week in the books I can say that time is seriously flying! This week was super fun. We had our novo missionarios reunion at the presidents villa apartment (no joke the nicest place I've been to other than the temple here in Brazil). We ate like kings that day. It was really fun to see all my family members from the mtc! That was on tuesday and it was an all day thing, so by this point in my week we had only done about 3 hours of missionary work (the 3 hours after p-day and before we have to volar a nosso casa). Then on wednesday we had our usual didtrict meeting. I finally got to hit the streets that day. Then Thursday we had interviews all day with president. His wife made us all some sugar cookies and they were soooo good. Reminded me of how much I miss american deserts. haha. Then the rest of the week went normaly. We're hoping to have 3 baptisms this week. Finally!!!! This weeks letter is short but with that being said I will fill some space with my testimony.

eu se que este igreja e verdadero. este igreja e o mesmo igreja que jesus cristo establcei quando ele vivei em este terra. eu se que o expioção de jesus cristo e real. eu tenho um testimonho tambem sobre a reteração de este igreja. eu se que joseph smith vi dois personegens em um pilar de luz. jesus crinto e nosso pai celecial. eu se que o livro de mormon e o palavra de deus, como o biblia. jesus cristo vive e quando nos usar os ensinamentos dele, nos podemos ser perfeto como ele. nos poemos volar a nossa pai celecial. jesus critso e nosso savlador, nosso retendor, eu estou moito grato por o sacraficio de ele en o jargim de gethsemane. ele vive. ele nos ama muito. este e minha testimonho em o segrado nome de nosso salvador, jesus cristo, amem.

Translated using google translation for us gringos: 

I know that this church and true. This church is the same church that Jesus Christ established when he lived on this land . I know that the experience of Jesus Christ was real. I have a testimony also of the restoration of this church. I know that Joseph Smith saw two personages in a pillar of light . Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, as is the Bible. Jesus Christ lives and when we apply his teachings, we can be perfect like Him and become more like our Heavenly Father. Jesus Christ is our savior and our redeemer.  I am grateful for the great sacrifice he made in the garden of gethsemane . He lives. He loves us very much. This is my testimony in the sacred name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. 

Week 9

Well my friends, this week has truly been a heart wrecker! But it's been a good week also. haha anyways,first on Monday, we had 4 firm investigatores lined up to get baptised for Sunday. But they were all leaning on Mateus because the other 3, Pamela, Hedelyn, and Adailton are all younger family members and will follow Mateus to the end of the earth. On monday they were all super excited and pumped for baptism. It was so cool. All 4 of them each said their own closing prayer before we left. But then on tuesday and on wednesday Mateus went to work with his dad and we weren't able to talk to him. This, my friends, is bad news. We didn't get to talk to him until thursday and by that point he was having major doubts about everything. Satan works hard on investigators!!!! We tried our very best, taught very spiritual lessons, but he is stuck on the fact that "he is still learning and is too young to make bold desicions in his life" (he's 16). Well anyways, because of that, our other 3 investigators dropped out too. Along with that 3 other investigators this week told us that they didn't want us to teach them anymore. Ahhhhh, it's soooo sad. I really really want to bring at least 2 more souls unto christ before this transfer is over!! With that being said Elder Dias and I gave our first blessing togther saturday night. It's hard doing it in Portuguese!! haha Anyways, we gave it to Nicole. She was really sick and coughing a lot and she said that she wouldn't be able to go to church because of her sickness. Well, she didn't go to church...but we ran into her later...yesterday, around 6 and she is good as can be. We talked for a good 5 minutes and she didn't cough one time. So that was really cool to see. Her and her 2 brothers are lined up to get baptised either this week or the week after! We had 6 investigators come to church with us and one, Lucas, is going to get baptised this week. Oh one last thing....HAPPY TWO MONTHS FOR ME!!!! haha Crazy how time flies!!

Week 8

okay so this is is how my day goes down. every single day. with the exception of church on sunday and pday on monday. 6:30 wake up. take a shower and eat breakfast..(i only eat breakfast if i have anything to eat...which i usually dont..) 8:00personal study. i read from the book of mormon for 30 minutes and then a book that my mission president gave me called drawing on the powers of heaven for another 30 minutes. i absoltutely love the heck out of this book!!!! i challenge all to read it! anyways then at 9:00 i have companionship study. we talk about what we learned during personal study, read the book of mormon in portuguese and then he helps me memorize things like the first vission and lessons for investigatores. then at 11:00 we have language study. i have a language book i got at the mtc that i study. then at 12 we go to a members house for almoço. this is my favorite part of the day because its the only time i actually eat real food. you eat as much as possible because you dont really ever eat dinner! i only ever have like 2 pieces of bread for dinner. its crazy. but then from about 1:30 till 9:30 we go out and teach. every single day. okay the food. its awesome and i love it. even though its almost the same exact thing every day. haha rice and beans, some kind of meet and some kind of salad or pasta on the side! and thats pretty much it day in and day out. im always super tired and always super hungry! but super happy to be out here serving the lord!

now as far as this last week went... it wasnt as dramatic as last week because we didnt have a baptism, but i was definetely just as awesome! então, its been a very busy week and i have been very tired we had planned to go to the temple with one of our investigators but he didnt show.. its very dissapointing when you get your hopes up to go to the temple but then your investigators just decide to not show. so not only did rodrigo not show for the temple, he also said later that day when we ran into him that he doesnt want to get baptised... he still wants to go to church and mutual and fiday night soccer but not get baptised... im very confused on why that is. Its a sad thing when you get dropped by an investigator but life goes on and all we can do now is pray for him that his heart will be softened! the next day elder dias was determined to go to the temple so we went and asked mateus and adailton if they wouldve like to go with us.... and they said yes!!!!!!!!! it was the most amazing experience to see the expression on their faces when the saw the temple and were able to go inside and sit and pray in the waiting room. i know for a fact that mateus felt the spirit. adailton is only 9 so he was reallyt there for the ride but i think he felt it too.. they are bith lined up to get baptised on sunday after church. they will be the first two investigators that i got to see from the very start progress and get baptised. so happy for them.

yesterday we had conferecia da estaca. i was just expecting to see all the missionaries from my zone but to my ver surpise i saw elder tippets!! my mtc somp!!! i have been very worried about him because he i sa staight up city kid who hasnt really worked a day in him life. he said its been really hard but the lord is on his side!!! super proud of him. haha i also got to see elder chumbley (hes also from my mtc fam) all i could do was smile while talking to them. its was a great expericence to talk to them. (AND SPEAK IN ENGLISH FOR ONCE) haha any doubts i had about my mission went out the door as i talked to them. i cannot explain it. just being able to talk to them and see how happy the lords works makes us, makes it all worth it.

love elder barnard

heres the pictures from the baptism last week

and of my mancave the bunk bed is very short and there has been multiple times wehn i wake up that i hit hy head on the uper bed. it hurts a lot. hahaha

Week 7

well, i finally made it out to the frield. i coudnt wait to get out here and leave the ctm.. nothing against that place, ut it was a prison! hahapres daltin is super super legit. my first official companion and trainer is...... elder w. dias!!! he is from the campinas area! just north of sao paulo. hes really cool. he speakes a little english so that is really helpfull.pres dalton told me that he wants e to baptise every single week.i didnt think that would be possible but after this first week i belive it. we just gotta work hard.

so i staight up live in a ghetto! haha but fortunetally i live on the church grounds behind locked gates. that makes me feel better when i try and sleep at night. haha there are so many people here in my mission there are 12 million people in sao paulo but 5 million of them are within my mission boundaries. crazy. my area is Itapecerica. there are two wards. my ward and then the other ward is covered by sister missionaries.

thing are definetly different here you eat a small breakfast, have a big lunch with members, then eat a small dinner (if we have time). that usually means that i eat maybe 2 pieces of brad before i hit the hay.. haha im starting to loose the aweful 10ish pounds i gained at the mtc. by the time my mission is all said and done though, i am sure i wil have gained it back in leg muscle. we walk and we walk and we walk and we walk up and down up and down hills all day long. by the time each day is over im soooooo exaused. im glad to be here though. im reakky worried about how my portuguse has been coming though. but when i asked elder dias (who has tained 3 other americans) how i amdoing compaired to how they did their first week, he said " voce e muito melhor de eles" you are way better than them... its hard to belive but that really gave me a boost of confidence to know that im farther a head than some other people. but at the end of the day, all of that doesnt matter. its  about how i am improving myself everday and not compaire myself to others.

sooooooo after just 6 days in the firld i baptised someone!!!!! way to set the bar high id say! hahah 

love yu guys! keep e in your prayers and dont ever be too busy to thznk the lord our god for all of our many blessings!

love, elder Barnard

Week 6

im finally in the field! we have 5 minutes to send a quick email! love you guys! 

Week 5

HOLY COW PEROPLE I HAVE 6 DAYS LEFT AT THE MTC! when i think about it
it seems like just yesterday i said my final goodbyes and shipped off
to this wonderful country so its hard to belive that ive been here
longer than a month and by this time next week, ill be in the field
doing what real missionaries do. so i havent talked very much about
elder tippets and my investigators. theyre names are hilda and nielle.
they are just our language teachers but we get to teach them almost
everyday as if they were real investigators. sometimes they make
things easy for us but other times they make things so incredibaly
hard. haha long story short, they are both set to get baptised this
week! it was soo cool to watch them be "converted" and be so "excited"
for baptism. lemme tell you somthin, they are some GOOD acttresses. we
had the oppertinity to listen to two mission presidents from the area
come talk o us here at the ctm. one was from the sao paulo north
mission and this guy didnt look a day over 40. man he was young. but a
great, powerful speaker that talked about how we have the obility to
change peoples lives and that when we have the constant companionship
of the holy ghost we can do anything. i have a new favorite
scripture.. Alma 29:9 ill let you guys dive into the scriptures to
read that one ;) i cannot express in words how excited i am to finally
dive into the lords work, get sick, lose a bunch on this mtc weight,
and baptize! the record here (idk if this is he exact number for my
mission) but the record is 18 baptisms in one week for one
companionship. what ever the record in interlagos is, im gunna beat
it. goal number one LEARN PORTUGUES, goal numba 2 BAPTIZE as many as
possible. this is my ward and my word shall reamain. love you guys and
dont have too much fun back home because remember, im down here and i
bring the fun ;)

Week 4

canival is off the chain bro!! naked people everywhere and they let us go outside everyday this week to party! HAHAHA jk!! the mtc is like a prison. but ive been told that i need to think of it more as a palace. but its hard. there are guards that are constantly on watch. i guess us missionarys are a huge thret;) 

so the mission president from sao paulo lste (east) spoke to us yesterday. he talked about how we need to always have the constant companionship of o espirtio santo com nos. it was a great talk and i learned a lot from him. 

my portugues is really coming a long and im talking more and more everyday. but as my knowlegde of this language grows, my english is starting to leave me. i forget how to spell and say so many word its crazy!

last night i got my first haircut here in brasil.......I DID IT MYSELF AND IT LOOKS.... pretty good. hahaha elder chumpley from my distict (who is our new zone leader) taught me how to do it. and he fixed the partys i totally screwed up. haha

13 more days here i prison thand then ill be free!!!! hurayyy for freedom!!!!!! this saturday will mark on month. dang only 23 to go... crazy how time can fly!

love you all and remember, god loves all his chidren and wants us al to return to him someday. he blesses us more than we even realize and gives us trials because he knows who we can become if we have aith and keep marching through the storm

Week 3

heres a few of my photos ive taken in the last 3 weeks.  i have no idea what order they are in but obviously theres a picture of me and tipeets, one of elder pequeno (the elder i talked about in my firts letter) the sao paulo temple, one of me and the girl i sat by on the 9 hour flight here to brasil and so on. so about that girl. her name is julia and she lives in campinas brasil. like an hour north of the mtc. she was a forign exchange student in wyoming with..... A MORMON HOST FAMILY. she is so gunna get baptized someday. she went to church every week for 6 months... so she knew alot about the church. hse said she wasnt really interested in baptism but she will definetly get baptized someday . no doubt in my mind. this week went by super fast! me and elder tippets are really starting to get a feel for one another and with me understandung and speaking a lot more of the language our lessons with our pesquisadores are going a lot better! 

so last week we had our room just to the two of us and it was great. but then last wednesday night after we had finished our pday, we found 4 new set of bags in out room.... i love being able to talk to them everynight but man... they are smelly and dirty poeple!!! hahaha love them like crazy though.

there has been highs and definet lows this week but the overall message this week for me was to not be discouraged. não tive duvidas!!! dont have doubts. especially about how you feel your progress is going. instead look at how far you have come and realized that the  lord gives our more blessings then we even thought.

be glad, seek for the insperation of the holy ghost, strive to be perfect, and if you fall short, christ has our backs and will always get back up again.

miss you guys and hope everything back home is just peachy.

love, elder barnard

Week 2

My time this week is very limited but I hope I can get my message across! This last week has also been very stressful but thats just what the mtc is all about! haha jk its about learning to rely and learn more and more about the Savior and the gospel. I'm still having a hard time with the language but when people talk slowly to me I'm starting to entirely understand what they are saying to me. Answering/ talking the language is definitely something that I still am working on. My favorite chapter in the BoM this week was ether chapter 12. It's all about having faith and being humble. If I humble myself and recognize that I have weaknesses then through faith the Lord will help the weak things become strong (verse 27).

So I bought a nice set of portuguse scriptures that are honestly nicer than my scriptures I used for seminary that I got when I was baptised. but the coolest part about it is that my triple BoM combination was $69 reals which is equal to $17.25 american dollars. my bible was on sale for half off and i got it for only $6ish american dollars. Elder tippets and i and taeching 2 "investigators" (its our portuguese teachers) and weve comitted both of them to be baptized after only one lesson with one person then 2 lessons with the other. we were only allowed 15 minutes per lesson. Obviously its not going to be as easy in the feild but its fun to watch Elder Tippets and myself have success. Our lessons consist of me asking a bounch of questions that I have written down, Elder Tippets relpying to her responce and then me reading my part of the lessons out of my potuguese or missionary book. Speaking is hard for me but it's slowing coming!!

Have faith in the Lord and strive to be like our loving Savior Jesus Christ. Rely on Him, have faith in Him, and all things will be possible.

love,

Elder Barnard 

Week 1

soooo my first week out here on the mish.

 i spent like 30 minutes yesterday writing out what i wanted to tell you guys about but i forgot that we weere going to the temple today and so last night when we left the classroom i just left my notebook in there.. but because we got to go to the temple its locked in the sala de ala (classroom). this week has honestly been really hard and stressful for me. the gift of tounges is definetely not something that comes to you overnight. Elder Tippets got the oppertunity to study portuguese before he came here at byu so he is soooooo far ahead with the language. i thought that him knowing so much would really help me a lot but unfortunatly i kinda feel like it does the opposite at times. everyone here speaks nothing but portuguese (exept us gringos from the ustados unitos) so there a huge language barrior. it makes thing so hard. i can not express in word how stressed and upset ive been this week. the mission is hard. but hey, its only been a week. by next week i will have learned at least 2 times as much as i learned this week. so time will definetly prove itself and i will grab hold of the language before i even realize it. heck, i might have done so already. so with that in mind i decided to fast on suday and prayed to know what else i need to be doing to really start understanding & learn the language faster. the answer came way faster than i coulve even hoped for. it was like a slap in the face!!! in preisthood our branch president talked about developing christlike attributes. so since that talk ive devoted all my personal study and free time to reading, understanding, and truely converting myself to becomeing more like christ. there is no one that loved us more, there is no one else who has felt EVERY SINGLE FEELING that we have all felt in our lives. Èu sei que jesus cristo vivo. 

so the nativos... when we got here to the ctm i really just wanted to shower and take a nap. but when ElderSnyder took us up to our room, it was conpletely trashed! the brazilian elders that we share our room with had it completely torn apart. there were matresses scattered aroound the room and on the floor, cloths everywhere, it was just a mess. Elder Snyder, the secritary to the president, said he had never been so embarrased. he said that he knew that must have been kinda hard for us. so while he went to go find them me and elder tippets went to go take a shower. when we came back there was a complete change in our room. it was entirely clean and the beds were all made and there stood four brazilian elders sweating with half their shirts were untucked. Elder Snyder must have said something to scare them because they got some work done! haha sadley because they are nativos we had to say goodbye to them last night.. that was soooo much harder than i ever thought it could be. i didnt even know those guys a week ago but i didnt want them to leave. last night Elder Pequeno (which means elder small) was by far my favorite brasilian that i met here. contrary to his name, he was a very tall, oversized man. I learned sooo much from him in this last week. Every night, someoe in our room had to give a devotional, in potuguese. so yes people, i gave a devotional in portuguese without saying a word of english. but anyways back to last night. Elder Pequno had the devotional. he talked about Alma chapter 17. alma had ran into the sons of mossiah after many years. alma says that as happy as he was to see the sons of mossiah he was way happier to know that they were still waxing strong in the gospel. Pequeno said that he knows he will see us all again and although he will be super happy to see us, he will be overpwered with joy to know that we are still living and waxing strong in the gospel. it was hard to hold back the tears.

i dont have much time and im trying to type as fast and i ahve sooo  much more i can talk abou, i must go. thank you all for your prayers and emails!! My one word of advise is to read the book of mormon. it is like eating your favorite candy. you dont want to put it down and all you ever want is to have more of it! which btw the brazilian elders in my room loved some of the candy that i gave them from my stash ;) they said they want to live in america just for the candy.

Letter from the MTC Mission President

Dear Parents,

 

Sister Swensen and I are very happy to let you know that your missionary has arrived safely at the Brazil Missionary Training Center.  What a great joy and privilege it is to greet each missionary as they begin their missionary experiences with us. We will surely take good care of your missionary.                                                                                                     

The missionaries now have companions and are settled into their rooms.  They are assigned to a district with capable and caring instructors for language and lesson study.  Their branch presidents and wives, will meet them this Sunday.  These wonderful couples are richly blessed as they work with, motivate, and interview the missionaries assigned to their branch.

The MTC has a full-time live-in physician to care for their health needs.  He is assisted by his able wife who is a nurse. We are also happy to report that the cafeteria food is plentiful, healthy and very good.

Your missionary will be able to e-mail home on Preparation Day after a morning at the Temple.  This will be either Wednesday or Friday, depending on individual assignments.

Your missionary is about to make an eternal difference in the lives of many others. President Lorenzo Snow said: “There is no mortal man that is as interested in the success of an elder when he is preaching the Gospel as is the Lord who sent him to preach to the people who are the Lord's children".  We love these missionaries as if they were our own.  We will watch over them carefully to ensure they are ready for a wonderful missionary experience after the rewarding time they will have in the MTC.

We thank you for preparing such a wonderful representative of the Lord.

 

President Robert Swensen and Sister Julie Swensen

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION . . .  

PlEASE DO not send packages to the Brazil Missionary Training Center. All packages must be sent directly to the mission where your missionary will be serving not the MTC. If you have already mailed a package to the Brazil MTC, please understand that the package cannot be forwarded to his or her mission and will be returned to you.

WE Strongly eNCOURAGE sENDING HAND WRITTEN LETTERS. Please write your missionary´s first and last name. Your missionary will provide you with his district and box number. Also, please DO NOT SEND ANYTHING BY FEDEX, DHL, UPS, or other private carriers.  The cost to process this type of correspondence is exorbitant.