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

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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

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!

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I must go -Elder Barlow

Week 11 - March 27, 2023

 Yo yo yo!  How's it going, Todos.  A very good and even longer week I have had this past week.  I swear last Monday felt like it was at least 12 days ago.  But we're here, back at it again with another p-day, and another weekly update.  Good stuff.  Let's jump right into it. 

So first, had a baptism yesterday.  My first baptism here in the mission, super stressful because we had to set everything up and it almost didn't go very well, but it happened and everyone's good, so I'm grateful.  Another member of the greatest church in the world in the books, let's go!  

Other than that, I've been learning a lot on how exactly faith works, and how sometimes, no matter how much faith you have in something, it just doesn't happen, and that's OK.  We gotta move on sometimes, things don't go as planned.  I'm still learning not to get frustrated from that.  One of the greatest pieces of advice I've gotten this week and just ever is to CHOOSE to be happy.  In middle school, our principle would say at the beginning of every day to "make it a great day, or not, the choice is yours!" and we always thought it was kinda dumb.  But now, five or so years later, I'm seeing what he meant, and the importance of it.  I learned if I let other people and circumstances affect my mood, my mission will be a miserable experience.  So, from now on I will always remember to choose to be happy in the difficult times, which isn't easy. 

So, I bet you're wondering what the title means--Coke and the eagle.  Sit back and grab some popcorn, I got some stories for you.  So, another missionary I live with had an uncle who, a while ago, worked on the temple we have in Haiti.  He lived there for a month or two, and as you can guess, the food there isn't always prepared well.  So, he got super sick for like a week.  His assistant, who was also Haitian, told him he should drink some coke because it can really help that kind of sickness.  He didn't believe it, but out of desperation he just chugged a coke, and the next day he was completely fine.  I got the chance to try it after hearing that, and let me tell you, coke here really is the potion of healing, the flask of happiness down here in the Dominican.  It changes you.  And it's only 25 pesos (like half a dollar)! 

Also, the eagle story.  During a lesson we were having, a member of the church told us this story.  There was once a naturist looking upon the land.  He saw an eagle land on a farm and eat the corn that was being fed to the hens there.  So, the naturist went to the farm and told the farmer that lived there that there was an eagle that was eating his corn.  The farmer replied, "No, I only have hens here.  So, the naturist said, "Tomorrow, I'll show you the eagle."  Sure enough, the next day, the farmer opened the gate, and all the hens came out to eat the corn the farmer threw to them, and there was the eagle in the midst of them.  The naturist said, "Look, there's the eagle with his great wings and potential.  This eagle is better than the hens, it can do and be so much more."  To prove to the farmer what he said was true, he picked up the eagle and told it to fly away, and it flew away.  The moral, is that as disciples and followers of Christ, we can do and be so much more than the people that just spend every day eating corn or doing the same things.  We can be an example to others and be a light to them.

Sorry this email was a long one.  I am also not a fan of long emails, trust me.  I learned a lot of really cool and interesting stuff though and wanted to share.  Thanks for all your support, and again, don't be afraid to reach out and say hi, how you're doing, I love to hear it.  Love you, talk to you next week!

I must go- Elder Barlow

Week 10 - March 20, 2023

Hey guys, another week in the DR and this week has been a good one.  Let's get right into it.  So, I've been working on myself a lot this past week and it's been getting better.  I'm starting to really enjoy this work a lot more and learning a lot more about myself.  We have a lot of people who are starting to progress too, which is great.  We were able to get seven people to church on Sunday, which is awesome.  I'm so glad to finally see some progress in people, but I also know I need to be more patient. 

I started doing an English Fast every day from about 1:30 to 9:00, where me and my companion only speak Spanish in the streets and stuff.  That's helped me a lot with the language.  I've been learning a lot about myself, as I have said before, all my strengths and weaknesses, and working to get better.  It's a long process, and I'm still not even close to the person I would like to be, but it's a process that is moving. 

For P-day today we went to a really really cool beach in Baharuco, which was super fun.  Got super sunburned somehow which isn't fun but hey that's life.  Hope you guys like the pics and email me and let me know how you're doing.  Love y'all!

I must go- Elder Barlow 

Week 9 - March 13, 2023

Hey, everyone, another weekly email from your favorite missionary, Elder Barlow.  Or at least second favorite, I hope. Things have been getting better for me here.  We have been having more success in terms of meeting more people who are actually down to progress, which is nice. 

There's this one guy who we met one night a while ago who I really think will progress, but we haven't had a lot of time with him (our first real lesson was yesterday) because he's just never home.  I always tell my companion we need to keep holding on to him because I just really feel like he needs the gospel in his life.  Good old Rubén Darío. 

We also have a couple that promised us they would get married soon so that they can get baptized because that's important, you gotta be living that Law of Chastity.  We have one lady who we have prayed to help her understand that baptism is something she needs to do, and hopefully that answer will come to her in time.  

Other than that, I'm getting used to missionary life, which is be awake for 12 hours a day every day and walking multiple miles every day in like 80 degrees.  Good stuff, I love it.  I'm getting more used to the food too, or rather, I'm getting used to the insane amount of food they feed us.  

Another cool thing, on Thursday, we made a goal to have 10 lessons every week with a member of the church present.  On Thursday, we had 1, so we needed to have 9 lessons with a member present by Monday, 3 days.  By yesterday, we had 6, and were planning to do 2.  Once we did 1 more that wasn't planned, we knew we just needed to do 1 more member lesson by 7:00 because that was our last planned lesson.  So, we said maybe we could go to this one person's house we went to a while ago and do a lesson with her.  I didn't remember where that house was, but I knew that's what we should do.  I said a prayer for guidance to help remember where the house was, and we just ended up making it there.  When we got to the house, it looked pretty different from the last time we were there, but I just felt strongly that it was the right house.  We walked in, she was there, we did the lesson, we got 10 member lessons in 3 days, and were having pizza to celebrate.  Good times, hopefully I was able to tell that story so it at least kinda made sense. 

I know this is God's work, bringing others to salvation, and I know he will continue to mold me into a great missionary.  It's a long process, becoming the person I want to be, but I have to stay patient.  Rome wasn't built in a day, you know.  Bueno, thanks again for the prayers, and again, let me know how you guys are doing, p days are kinda boring, and it would be so great to hear from some of you.  Love ya, bye- Elder Barlow