Week 52

THE MIRICLE:
this week we found a NTM that will be baptised on sunday, during our first lesson with this family a young woman named tainan was at this families house. she was feeling a lot of pain in her upper stomach. after she accepted our invitation to go to church we explained to her about the priesthood and asked if she had faith stong enough to gain her health that she always had. she said yes and asked for a preisthood blessing. in my patriarcle blessing it says that i have the gift to heal the sick and weary, after recently gaining a true testemony that i have the power of god and that if i have faith i can help people, i gave a blessing to tainan. when i finished the blessing it didnt even take 10 seconds for her to say that she wasnt feeling anymore pain at all. the next day i asked her at church if she felt any pain from that point until now and she said she hasnt felt a thing. i know that the preisthood is a real thing and that through the power of god and because of the restouration of the gosple we have the power to bless the lives of many just as christ did when he was on the earth.

(NTM means personof a member family that isnt a member of the church yet)

the church is true and we all know it! i love the opertunity i have to be a member of this gospel and that i am able to share it to everyone here in my area!

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)