It's been a while! How is everyone doing? Espero que estén bien. We've got three weeks to catch up on, let's get started!
A "family home evening" with members
A couple pictures on the roof
The squad eating chocolate bananas
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How the work is going:
These past couple of weeks have been great! I've been seeing some progress in the people we're teaching, others are taking a little longer to convince. I finished up my training, and got a new companion, but we'll get to that later. I've been learning to find happiness and even joy in things I wouldn't have before the mission, like different music, working, and talking to people, lol. I know it's been through a lot of prayer and faith that I have been able to do that. There have been many times this week where I would feel super unmotivated or stressed or even angry, and a simple prayer of help and relief would just help me be happy. Not all prayers are answered instantly though, I'm still hoping to see some more progress in people, and I'm still learning the language.
The squad at pica pollo
We have had to drop a lot of people, because they weren't progressing, some of those people I really love a lot. It's sad, but we gotta move on sometimes. You never know how much faith it really takes to be a missionary until you are one. It's insane the raw amount of pure trust and faith you need to have in something, someone, so far above you just to be able to get out of bed in the morning. And it's an ongoing process. This is the Lord's work, no doubt in my mind about that, so of course He will help me with it.
Zone Conference-
We had another Zone Conference, and I was able to meet a member of the Seventy, Elder Gavarret, the Area President of the Caribbean. I learned a lot from the trainings we had, like how we need to find and convert more families, not just individuals, and how "be" and "do" go together, meaning we need to be the things that we teach others to do.
Transfers-
Finally, I have finished my training, and now it's up to me to lead my area with my new companion, Elder Winkle. This dude is a beast. He's from St George, has a strong testimony, and works hard. I've been spending this last week showing him the area and introducing him to the people we're teaching. It's been stressful for me a little bit having to lead the area, but through much prayer and faith, it's not been as bad as I thought it would be.
A baptism!-
That's right, another member of the Church of Jesus Christ, you love to see it. We baptized this girl, Emilia, and it was great! We met her through the members 3 or 4 weeks ago, and she just progressed super fast, read the scriptures a lot, and came to church with us every week! We're going to start teaching the rest of her family, too, so hopefully that goes well. This won't be the last baptism I'll have here in Barahona. We have a couple more people in mind, I'll keep y'all posted!
That's about it! I'm already about 4 and a half months through. It is going by so fast! I'm starting to change my mindset from "How long do I have left until I get to go home" to "How long do I have left to serve others and to strengthen myself." I realized that even though it's hard now, I know I'll be looking back on this very moment that I'm here in the future and miss it, so I gotta live it up while it's still happening! Thanks, guys, for your support, talk to you next week! Elder Barlow
