Week 24 - June 26, 2023

 I've said it before, but I'll say it again, this has been the longest week of my mission.  Let's dive right in.

This week included transfers on Friday, and there was a lot of changes.  Me and my comp, and one other companionship, were the only two companionships in the entire Zone (out of eight companionships) that DIDN'T have a change.  A bunch of new people, which is pretty sick.  I had to say goodbye to Elder Terry, who was the Zone Leader and kinda like my second dad here on the mission (the first being Elder Ross of course, big shout out to the beast), he taught me so much.  We got a new zone leader, Elder Allen, who wears a cowboy hat all the time, which is interesting.  I'm excited to get to know him, as well as the rest of the new people in the Zone.  You already know, I'm running it up one more transfer here in Barahona, which is super exciting!  This transfer for some reason I don't know, will be seven weeks instead of the usual six, so I'll be here until August 11, and then I'll get a new area and comp.  Pretty cool stuff. 

We, also, did a little service project for one of the members here, Verónica.  It was kinda fun, we built this little shack-canopy thing outside of her house so she can sell ice cream. Not anything crazy, just a roof and two poles to hold it up, and the roof wasn't even fully done because they didn't buy enough roofing.  The builder guy who was there was supposed to show us how to do it, and then let us do the rest, but then after he got done and we tried for like 30 seconds, he went "Pinewood Derby Dad" mode and just did the rest himself, and we watched.  Fun fun.

It is literally getting so unbelievably, unfathomingably, unrealistically, unwelcomingably hot here.  I didn't know the earth ever got this hot.  I thought this was reserved for Mercury or something.  It's crazy.  I'm trying to drink lots of water, but ever cup I drink gets immediately sweat out of every pore of my body.  Drenched from head to toe every day.  They said it would rain like crazy because of a "hurricane that's coming, oh no, get inside no se muda!"  But no, ni una raindrop fell from the sky, ni una cloud in sight.  This is insane.  Every day I ponder longingly on how it's possible that people live, grow up, and raise families in this weather.  Honestly props to them for that. 

With all the complaints I can muster about the weather or anything else, comes a reminder of why I'm here.  Every time I feel like I'm about to faint or just die from heat exhaustion, I remember that I have been called to SERVE, and I know that that's what I'm doing.  Knowing that God has me and is the reason I'm able to even stand up every time, keeps me going. I'm so glad I have a god to trust in, and a savior to look up to. These past couple weeks I've been super super tired and worn out, but I've also been strengthening my testimony in Jesus Christ, who through him and his great mercy, ALL will eventually work out.  I learned that through FAITH in Christ, we can have HOPE for the future, and that good things will happen to us and our friends and family and those we pray for. It's so awesome to know that.  I invite all of you to find ways to hear him, and to strengthen your testimony in Christ the Redeemer. 

That's about it for this week.  Thanks for reading and taking an interest, if you read until here, blessings!  Thanks for all the support and prayers, I'm seeing good stuff happening here.  I'll keep praying for all you guys, too.  Don't you worry.  "The size of your faith or degree of your knowledge is not the issue.  It's the integrity you demonstrate towards the faith you do have and the truth you already know"- Jeffery R. Holland

I must go -Elder Barlow

(Not a lot of pictures here, but there were cool videos taken that are in the Google Photos!)

Week 23 - June 19, 2023

This one was a good one!  There's a chance this was my last full week in Barahona, transfers are this Friday and I get news on where I'm going (or if I'm staying) tomorrow night or Wednesday night, so I'm excited for that.  A lot of cool stuff happened, so let me tell you!

The Squad

Cool action shot of us talking.  

Barahona

Last Monday, we had a luau (I think that's how you spell it) for Zone P-day, where we buried a bunch of food for like three hours and then ate it, it was super good.  Then for the rest of the week we had good lessons with a lot of people. 

On Thursday, we went to the temple, which was great.  Always a good time to visit the House of the Lord, and to feel his Spirit.  I sure did learn a lot of really cool things as well.

 

There was one lesson we were teaching where I was attacked by a demon!  Not actually, but almost.  I was talking about faith when suddenly I look to my left and see this huge wasp-dragonfly-thing looking creature flying towards my face.  I show my confidence by letting out some war-cries (not screams of fear, trust me), and it flew away.  They called it a "caballito," which scared me even more because that means "little horse."  Bruh.  If you call a bug a horse, that's not ok. Crazy stuff. 

Today, we went up to "the shack," which is this tiny little house that's at the top of the mountain.  You can see it from all over the area.  Of course, when we got there the view was amazing.  We could see all of Barahona! Super cool, I always enjoy a good hike. 

That's about it for this week. I'm still finding a lot of joy from this work, which is good.  Thank you all for your support, love you, and talk to you later!

I must go -Elder Barlow

Week 22 - June 12, 2023

Wow, this week has flown, but also been kinda slow.  I don't know, it's a weird feeling.  A couple things I want to talk about this week.

OK, so not a ton really happened that's worth mentioning, but there was Zone Conference, which was great.  Right before that, we went to a member's house and made pizza, which was gas (super good).  Then when we went up to Azua (the "capital" of the south) for the Zone Conference, we had pizza again from Little Caesars, which was gas (amazing). 

 Zone Conference was great, this transfer is our mission president's last transfer, so after three years of service, he's going home next week.  Pretty crazy.  I got to get to know him pretty well, not nearly as well as all the other missionaries who know him way better, but well enough, so that's good.  Our new mission president is from Guatemala, he seems chill.

 

Yeah, learned a bunch from all the trainings at Zone Conference, then after we squeezed our entire district into this tiny little Guagua, which was sick.  You can see my reaction to the whole thing in the picture below, having a great time (that drive is an hour and a half para que sepas). 

I love this work.  I'm feeling the Spirit with me as I work, which is great.  One thing I always have in the back of my mind is the fact that doing this work without the Spirit or the guidance of God, is a waste of time, which is definitely true, so I've been doing all I can to make dang sure I keep the Spirit with me, and I've been seeing results for it.  I was able to give a blessing for the sick to someone yesterday, and it was great. He said he felt better right after the blessing, which was cool, I hope that's true. 

Yeah, that's about it for this week.  It's been mad hot during June so far.  I'm hoping for more rain honestly to cool us off a bit.   Also, there's been literally hordes of mosquitos attacking us like crazy, so that's interesting.  They say it's because of the rain, but I'm like where's the rain at?  Anyway, that's about it, thanks everyone for the support, please join the Google photos, you won't regret it. 

I must go -Elder Barlow

Week 21 - June 6, 2023

Hey, guys, probably shouldn't send this today since it's not p-day, but there's some things I really wanted to write about. 

Firstly, our "Wilford Woodruff day", or our day where we worked from 9am to 9pm, without returning home once.  We left super early and got a lot done.  Throughout the day, I noticed small things that helped me strengthen my testimony a lot.  It turns out, when you sacrifice more, you start to receive more.  "He that loseth his life for my sake, shall save it," said the Master.  During some lessons, I really felt the Spirit testify of what we were teaching.  It's the greatest feeling ever.  Also, at the very end of the day, I wasn't sure if we should go straight to our last lesson, or on the way there, pass by someone else we were teaching's house just to say hi and remind about church and stuff, which is something we usually do.  I felt super prompted to just go straight to the next house, which was unusual, but I followed.  I'm glad I did, because we got there, and I'm not kidding nor exaggerating, the literal moment we got into the house, rain just started POURING like you've never seen before.  It's like God was holding on to all that rain so we wouldn't get wet, and the second we were safe he let it go.  I know God's looking out for us. 

Speaking of rain, yeah this has been a super rainy week.  Like all week there's been a huge blanket of gray clouds across the whole sky, which is super nice, because of course that means there's no sun, and it's not hot.  I love the rain here!  But, the time came when it's Saturday night, and we've invited all of our friends to come to church.  We need Sunday morning to be clear so that can happen.  Dominicans absolutely abhor the rain, so obviously if it was drizzling at all, they wouldn't come. We knew this, so all day Saturday, we just prayed so hard, Hey, God, thanks for the rain we love it, but just for tomorrow morning, can you please let it not rain so our friends can come to church?  Then it can go right back to raining, that's fine.  We woke up Sunday morning and ran outside, and dudes it was the clearest day I've seen in the past like couple weeks.  Crazy stuff.  Even after that literal miracle, most of our people didn't show up which is sad.  But hey, whatever--that was a miracle. 

We also met Lil Uzi Vert, a famous rapper, check the pics below for that (not actually him lol but imagine.)

Anyway, I think that's all, thanks everyone for the cool emails and stuff, and the support.  Hope everything is going well with y'all, talk to you next week!

I must go -Elder Barlow

Join the Google photos for all the action!:

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

Weeks 19 and 20 - May 29, 2023

 Yo yo yo, how's it hanging everyone!  Another couple weeks gone by here in the good old Dominican.  I didn't send an email last week, so I got two weeks to catch up on, wish me luck. 

Alright so last week, as in two Mondays ago to last Monday, was probably the longest week on my mission so far.  I have no idea why.  I remember we got to Thursday, and it felt like it should be Sunday night.  We taught a lot of people and dropped a bunch, too, (as in we stopped teaching a lot of people because they weren't progressing).  We met a bunch of new cool people, like Manuel, who's this old guy we would pass by almost every day and wave to.  One day we decided let's just teach him already.  He's super cool, got a lot of cool family, too.  I hope he progresses.  We've been led by the Spirit a lot, like I would randomly remember a specific house or place then we would go there, and we would end up teaching somebody there.  It's great. 

This week was way way faster, thank goodness.  I remember yesterday sitting in church and just feeling weird that we were at church on a Saturday- but wait it's not Saturday lol.  Lots of cool lessons happened this week, some cool new people, too. 

The past couple weeks have been a little rough, too.  We had to drop a lot of our favorite people because they weren't coming to church or reading the scriptures.  We had some days where literally every single one of our lessons we had planned fell through, so tons of walking, which is discouraging. I'm really learning to put my trust in the Lord, and when I do that, I can see things being put in place- for good, even great things to happen in the future.  I remember last Thursday was a day like that, all of our lessons fell through, and it was just a hard day with not much progression at all.  I was walking home and I was trying so hard not to be sad about it, but I was too tired for that.  I just thought this is the Lord's work, not mine.  If he wants me to convert 100 people this week, it'll happen.  And if it doesn't happen, well that's fine too.  I need to be more grateful for the good things I have, for the blessings I have seen.

 

I've been picking up some new hobbies in my free time, too. I've been playing some chess (I really want to be good at chess), I learned how to solve a Rubix cube (actually easier than you think), play the guitar a bit, and recently I picked up widdling, or wood carving.  Also, this Thursday, me and Elder Winkle are planning to do our "Wilford Woodruff day," which is named after one of the first missionaries of the church who was famous for serving from sunrise to sunset.  So yeah, Thursday we'll wake up, have breakfast, go out at 9am and not come back to the house until 9pm.  Crazy stuff.  Anyway, I think that's about it for these couple weeks.  I wish I had more to add, but whenever I start writing my emails, that's when all the cool stuff that happened flies out of my head, and I forget it all.  But yeah, thanks everyone for your prayers and concerns, God bless you, and nos vemos ahorita!

I must go -Elder Barlow

Weeks 16, 17, and 18 - May 15, 2023

 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

Join the Google photos to see the action!

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

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