Week 15 - April 24, 2023

This week has been a great one, but also kinda crazy because I finally learned what the actual expectations for a missionary are.  Let me explain.

 The squad eating at a members house we eat at every Thursday 

Rice and beans, rice and beans

Eating carne asada at our neighbor, Salvador's house (he's from Guatemala)

When I say expectations for a missionary, I mean more for a consecrated missionary.  Jesus has commanded us to be perfect (Matthew 5:48), and that's what we should be striving for, especially as a representative of Christ.  So, it's been a little stressful because I'm a bit of a perfectionist, meaning if I do something, I have to do it the right way.  Obviously, I can't be perfect, no matter how hard I try, so sometimes I beat myself up.  Before this, I read in the scriptures that with faith you can do anything, even to the moving of mountains (don't remember, somewhere in Matthew maybe), and I just didn't see the meaning of that scripture.  Obviously, even if I had all the faith in the world, and prayed for all the Utah mountains to go to Kansas, would it happen?  I just don't know.  I learned, however, that becoming perfect, even as our Father which is in Heaven is perfect, as mountainous of an expectation that is on me, with faith I can move that mountain. 

The choir I was a part of for district conference.

Don't worry, we hit our two goals again this week, so we're happy about that.  I also did the impossible, I got a cold, in the Dominican Republic.  How.  That's been a little rough, but I'm still working as hard as I can, I'm not going to let an occasional cough ruin my days.  I just want to say, the mission work is amazing.  The people here are great people, but they are missing the gospel of Christ in their lives, and I'm the one gets to help them find it.  How cool is that?  I love it.  It's super hard sometimes, and I don't always love it, but I appreciate it.  This work for me is like the "refiners fire," and not only because it happens to be super hot here, I am changing into a better person.  But this change is a very long and enduring one, like diamonds being made under the most extreme pressure and heat.  I know that if I endure the challenges now, there's only good things that will come out of it.  There's always a light at the end of the tunnel.  Love you all, talk to you next week!

"Carnival" masks

I must go -Elder Barlow

Week 14 - April 17, 2023

 Amigos!  How's everything going in life, what's up! Everything is going great here in Barahona.  I've been seeing a lot of progress happening, and God is taking care of us well!  I have a story I want to share, a miracle that happened this week.  As you may or may not know, we have goals every week to meet 10 new people and to have 10 lessons with a member of the church present to share a message.  This week we got off to a really good start early on, and by Thursday, we had 7/10 on both.  However, Sunday evening we had 9/10 on both, and by about 6:30, we were wondering how we would do it.  How would we get one more new person, and one more member lesson in just two hours?

Well, through the help of our Heavenly Father of course!  As we were walking towards our last lesson of the day, I was wondering how we would find one more person, and right after thinking that, a guy comes around the corner in front of us (who we had met before) and we talk to him a bit and got his number.  Boom, 10/10!  Now we were on the way to find one of our favorite friends we like to teach, Ruben Dario, to get him to the lesson we had planned at 7:00.  He wasn't home, so we went searching in the places he was usually found.  We found him finally at 7:45, super late, and he was playing dominoes with his friends.  We told him to meet us at the lesson in 20 minutes, and he agreed.  We went to eat dinner at the house of another friend we have, Altagracia, who feeds us dinner every Sunday at 8.  We thought it would be best to do that as we waited for Ruben's game to finish.  We finished our massive bowls of rice as fast as we could, and we went to see if Ruben was still playing dominoes.  He wasn't there, nobody was there, so we thought he was at the member's house already. We got to the member's house, and he wasn't there either.  I sighed in frustration.  It was now 8:30, this was our last lesson of the day, and we needed to teach an investigator with the member we were with.  I was thinking so hard, and then, I lost hope. 

Before I finish the story, let me back up.  Right after finding Ruben, we didn't really trust that he would actually go to the member's house after the game.  And since we were out of ideas, we prayed aloud to God that we would try our hardest to complete our goal, but also to help us with the things we have no control over.  I ended the prayer and felt that things would work out, a real true feeling.  I testify and declare, that that very prayer was answered.  The very moment that I lost hope, at 8:30 in the member's house, a man, who we had never met before, walks in.  I look up at him, and ask, "Hey, how's it going?   Are you a member of the church?  He said, "I'm here to visit my friend Zombolo (the member), and no, I'm not."  I'm lost for words and look at my companion who just smiles at me.  We have the lesson with him, and boom, 10/10 lessons with a member present.  10/10 new people.  Double double.  I promise to you, dear reader, that God is desperate to help you, just ask for his divine help, and it will come.  For me, it came at the very moment I had spent all my patience and lost all hope. Just as when Peter was sinking and about to drown, Christ was there to save him.  I love this gospel, this church, and being a missionary.  Things happen that are not just coincidences.  God looks out for his children.

Thank you all for your support, talk to you next week!

I must go -Elder Barlow

Week 12 and 13 - April 10, 2023

Hey, everyone, how's it going?  I missed last week's weekly email, so this one will be a long one.  Let's get right into it.  Last week on Wednesday, I got to go to the capital, Santo Domingo, to get my residencia, which was a fun process.  It was like a 4-hour drive there in this big bus (here buses are called guaguas, kinda weird), and we got to see the Capitol and all its craziness.  On Saturday a week ago, it was April Fool's Day, so me and my companion pulled a prank on the other Elders we live with and made white rice for dinner.  So funny.  We hid the stuff to go with it in the fridge, but first we both had to eat the plain white rice to make it look real, and that was a little painful.  Good stuff.

We've been teaching a lot of new people recently.  It's hard to talk about the people because there's a lot of very different people we teach every day, and if I were to give a brief explanation about all of them, this email would be very very long (I'm staying humble, I promise).  I'm very glad for the progress God has been giving us with some of these people, but at the same time, I'm definitely seeing my patience grow too, which is good.  I love the people here.  They're all great in different ways, and I just want so badly for them to be happier, through the gospel of Christ.

 

This week was good.  It was semana santa, Holy Week, where the whole week they "celebrate" the resurrection of Christ, which is in quotes because they just drink a lot lol.  Especially on Friday, everyone makes this drink, habichuela con dulce, which tastes pretty dang good, as long as you forget that you are drinking bean juice basically.  

On Saturday night, it rained so hard, I thought our house would get flooded, and were on the second floor of an apartment!  It was literally insane (Join the Google photos to see it!).

I want to end with what I have learned so far.  I've learned literally so much, but I'll talk about what I've learned about what it takes to be a missionary, like what to focus on.  Through lots of scripture study and trial and error, there are three things I narrowed it down to.  They are- faith/working hard, obedience, and charity.  Faith and working hard/diligence are interchangeable, because you need to have both at all times, from 6:30 in the morning to when you get in bed at night.  Exact obedience to all mission rules and commandments I have found, brings more happiness and rest in my days than when I wasn't exactly obedient.  And charity, which is the love of Christ for all of his children- for the people we're teaching. Those are the things I have focused my days on.  Every time I make a decision, I ask myself, "Would this be disobedience or make me less charitable?"  Trust me, if I were to read that a month ago, I would've rolled my eyes, too.  I would not be saying this if I didn't know 100% for myself the joy it brings. Jesus said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments," and he, as they say, was "spitting facts."

Pero bueno!  Great stuff, I love it here, I love this work, what a blessing it is to be here, working this great and marvelous work.  I love you all, thank you for your prayers and support. Talk to you next week!

Join the Google photos to see all the action:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/tihiSziTbydZFL4M6

I must go -Elder Barlow