The address is: 11023 Pegasus Ave, San Diego, CA 92126.
The meeting starts at 11 am.
Peru
Machu Picchu
Thursday, June 22, 2017
Connor Homecoming Talk
You are invited to hear Connor reporting on his mission this Sunday, June 25th at the Mira Mesa building.
Monday, June 5, 2017
Final Email from Connor
Hi guys. So this is my final email from the mission! This week we had a multizone conference, which I believe was to be a replacement for us folks who would not be able to attend the mission conference with Elder Christensen.
I've attached some pictures below from this week. The first one is me and Elder Sanchez (my greenie / that I trained). The others are just me from this week.
Elder Lara and I are in a trio again, as the Elder who was in the hospital a few weeks ago had to go back again. So we are going to spend a week together as a trio and covering two full / different areas. The plan appears to be that I will be shipped back to Cusco on Saturday. I will stay with one of the office Elders and one of them will go with me to attend my old Wards in Cusco on Sunday. Then on Monday I will be with Elder Ordoñez (who goes home with me) and am fairly confident we won't have time or the ability to use the internet / send emails again. It really won't matter much to us as I will see you guys on Monday night!
I wanted to send you all one final email with my thoughts / feelings on approaching the end of my mission. As I thought about that some more this week, one of my favorite stories from the Book of Mormon is about the sons of Mosiah. They were obviously VERY different people before their conversion...But after their powerful conversion, it states that they were "instruments in the hands of God in bringing many to the knowledge of the truth, yea, to the knowledge of their Redeemer."
I too, feel like I have been an "instrument in the hands of God" for the last 2 years while serving here in Cusco Peru.
I know that I am obviously not the bravest person. I really am terrified of talking to strangers.
I know that all the Lord really required of me was a "heart and a willing mind" (D&C 64:34)
Being willing to share the gospel, even while terrified, the Lord has strengthened me more than I could ever have imagined.
Throughout my mission, it has obviously been a rollercoaster, full of different types of problems, with different people and places. My mission thoughts are:
1. Starting off in the MTC. I was pretty confident. I thought (due to my somewhat "superior" Spanish skills due to 4 years in school) that I would be a star in the mission. I learned VERY quickly that I was, indeed, quite wrong. But coming to that realization early really helped me and I think made me a good tool for the Lord to prepare me to enter the field.
2. Starting off in Los Alamos, Cusco. Luckily, I had an excellent trainer (shoutout to Elder Ludlow), and I am grateful for this. I know the Lord knew my weaknesses, and put me with the best person to help me. I know the Lord blessed me and guided me to help the Peruvian people in that first area, even though I couldn't communicate myself! (Funny how that works!)
3. After 3 short changes in Los Alamos, I was sent to Juli. So Juli, is about as "middle of nowhere" that you can go! It is a little pueblo, with a little population, and at times it seemed discouraging. But I know that the Lord prepares people all over the WORLD! People were found, taught, and converted just like in any sector, despite the reputation for being "Impossible"!
4. Thanks to Juli, by the time I reached Tahuantinsuyo (back in Cusco), I had tons of patience.
I was used to people not being in their houses (even when they said they would be), I was used to people not following up with their commitments. I was blessed to be able to train there, Elder Sanchez (his pic is above as we are in the same zone now).
Training was rough, because I felt like I wasn't "good enough" for that. But the Lord once again strengthened me and helped me, helping us to find people prepared to receive his restored gospel
5. Back to Puno! So Mirador (back in Puno) was ROUGH. Not much help from the Ward, small and cold area. But even with those problems, Elder Lara and I were able to have fun, find and teach new people, and keep working!
6. Finishing in Juliaca. So Juliaca is...well just gross. It is visually quite gross, but the people are really humble and kind. The Lord has blessed us in these short 2 changes with many baptisms and new investigators.
I am more than anything grateful for these 2 years of service on my mission.
I know the Church is true. I am grateful for it. I am grateful for the prophet Joseph Smith, and more than anything for the love of our Heavenly Father. I know he has guided me and protected me, watching over me in the hardest and easiest parts of my mission.
I can't believe my mission is over. Two years in the marvelous Peru Cusco Mission! Over the two years, I can proudly say I've become a different person from who I once was. I still remember the day, opening that long-awaited letter, on the 20th of March, 2015, Peru Cusco it said!
Well, at that time, I'm sad to say, I didn't know much about Cusco, or even Peru, or maybe even South America. I thought of it as the place, that my leaders obviously wanted me to be. Also the place that my family wanted to be. I was excited to go, but I was unaware in that moment that it was the place the Lord wanted me to be.
I recall not being that nervous, merely thinking something along the lines of---"Well I'm off for two years, going to baptize a few hundred people, come back, continue on with NORMAL life" (Didnt seem too bad in my mind!)
Oh how I was wrong. I obviously haven't had the opportunity to baptize /convert hundreds of people, but more importantly, I did have the opportunity to convert myself. Throughout these two years, I've seen the Lords hand in my life/ in my mission. I know He lives.
I am very grateful for everyone who has contributed to the person I am now. My family above all, my friends, leaders, seminary teachers and many more. Without them, and without the Gospel, I know I would be a completely different person from the person I am today.
The mission has been rough, but I know the Lord has helped me.
"Yea, I know that I am nothing, as to my strength I am weak, therefore, I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things, yeah, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever." (Alma 26:12)
I, with Ammon, glory in the Lord who has strengthened me and helped me throughout these 2 years!
LONG LIVE THE PERU CUSCO MISSION!
See you soon Mom and Dad.
Take CARE!
-Elder Connor Barry
soon to be merely
Brother Connor Barry :P
Peru Cusco Mission
June 2015---June 2017
I've attached some pictures below from this week. The first one is me and Elder Sanchez (my greenie / that I trained). The others are just me from this week.
Elder Lara and I are in a trio again, as the Elder who was in the hospital a few weeks ago had to go back again. So we are going to spend a week together as a trio and covering two full / different areas. The plan appears to be that I will be shipped back to Cusco on Saturday. I will stay with one of the office Elders and one of them will go with me to attend my old Wards in Cusco on Sunday. Then on Monday I will be with Elder Ordoñez (who goes home with me) and am fairly confident we won't have time or the ability to use the internet / send emails again. It really won't matter much to us as I will see you guys on Monday night!
I wanted to send you all one final email with my thoughts / feelings on approaching the end of my mission. As I thought about that some more this week, one of my favorite stories from the Book of Mormon is about the sons of Mosiah. They were obviously VERY different people before their conversion...But after their powerful conversion, it states that they were "instruments in the hands of God in bringing many to the knowledge of the truth, yea, to the knowledge of their Redeemer."
I too, feel like I have been an "instrument in the hands of God" for the last 2 years while serving here in Cusco Peru.
I know that I am obviously not the bravest person. I really am terrified of talking to strangers.
I know that all the Lord really required of me was a "heart and a willing mind" (D&C 64:34)
Being willing to share the gospel, even while terrified, the Lord has strengthened me more than I could ever have imagined.
Throughout my mission, it has obviously been a rollercoaster, full of different types of problems, with different people and places. My mission thoughts are:
1. Starting off in the MTC. I was pretty confident. I thought (due to my somewhat "superior" Spanish skills due to 4 years in school) that I would be a star in the mission. I learned VERY quickly that I was, indeed, quite wrong. But coming to that realization early really helped me and I think made me a good tool for the Lord to prepare me to enter the field.
2. Starting off in Los Alamos, Cusco. Luckily, I had an excellent trainer (shoutout to Elder Ludlow), and I am grateful for this. I know the Lord knew my weaknesses, and put me with the best person to help me. I know the Lord blessed me and guided me to help the Peruvian people in that first area, even though I couldn't communicate myself! (Funny how that works!)
3. After 3 short changes in Los Alamos, I was sent to Juli. So Juli, is about as "middle of nowhere" that you can go! It is a little pueblo, with a little population, and at times it seemed discouraging. But I know that the Lord prepares people all over the WORLD! People were found, taught, and converted just like in any sector, despite the reputation for being "Impossible"!
4. Thanks to Juli, by the time I reached Tahuantinsuyo (back in Cusco), I had tons of patience.
I was used to people not being in their houses (even when they said they would be), I was used to people not following up with their commitments. I was blessed to be able to train there, Elder Sanchez (his pic is above as we are in the same zone now).
Training was rough, because I felt like I wasn't "good enough" for that. But the Lord once again strengthened me and helped me, helping us to find people prepared to receive his restored gospel
5. Back to Puno! So Mirador (back in Puno) was ROUGH. Not much help from the Ward, small and cold area. But even with those problems, Elder Lara and I were able to have fun, find and teach new people, and keep working!
6. Finishing in Juliaca. So Juliaca is...well just gross. It is visually quite gross, but the people are really humble and kind. The Lord has blessed us in these short 2 changes with many baptisms and new investigators.
I am more than anything grateful for these 2 years of service on my mission.
I know the Church is true. I am grateful for it. I am grateful for the prophet Joseph Smith, and more than anything for the love of our Heavenly Father. I know he has guided me and protected me, watching over me in the hardest and easiest parts of my mission.
I can't believe my mission is over. Two years in the marvelous Peru Cusco Mission! Over the two years, I can proudly say I've become a different person from who I once was. I still remember the day, opening that long-awaited letter, on the 20th of March, 2015, Peru Cusco it said!
Well, at that time, I'm sad to say, I didn't know much about Cusco, or even Peru, or maybe even South America. I thought of it as the place, that my leaders obviously wanted me to be. Also the place that my family wanted to be. I was excited to go, but I was unaware in that moment that it was the place the Lord wanted me to be.
I recall not being that nervous, merely thinking something along the lines of---"Well I'm off for two years, going to baptize a few hundred people, come back, continue on with NORMAL life" (Didnt seem too bad in my mind!)
Oh how I was wrong. I obviously haven't had the opportunity to baptize /convert hundreds of people, but more importantly, I did have the opportunity to convert myself. Throughout these two years, I've seen the Lords hand in my life/ in my mission. I know He lives.
I am very grateful for everyone who has contributed to the person I am now. My family above all, my friends, leaders, seminary teachers and many more. Without them, and without the Gospel, I know I would be a completely different person from the person I am today.
The mission has been rough, but I know the Lord has helped me.
"Yea, I know that I am nothing, as to my strength I am weak, therefore, I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things, yeah, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever." (Alma 26:12)
I, with Ammon, glory in the Lord who has strengthened me and helped me throughout these 2 years!
LONG LIVE THE PERU CUSCO MISSION!
See you soon Mom and Dad.
Take CARE!
-Elder Connor Barry
soon to be merely
Brother Connor Barry :P
Peru Cusco Mission
June 2015---June 2017
Monday, May 29, 2017
Ending with a Bang!
So we had 2 baptisms this week, 2 confirmations, found 5 new investigators to teach and had 7 investigators at church! Cool stuff. Is great to be so busy as the time gets closer to going home. Just keeps me focused. We have another baptism scheduled for June 17th, but that will have to be handled by Elder Lara in my "absence!"
I also spent 2 days this week traveling to Cusco. I got a call last Monday night and was told I have to give a power of attorney and then be fingerprinted for something with visa / Peru travel rules. I have no idea why they couldn't have done that when officer Elders were in Juliaca last week, but I got on a bus and traveled to Cusco (7+ hours) and then the next day came right back. Sort of crazy and inefficient, but whatever.
I can't believe I am coming up on the end of my mission. I am getting tons of emails from the office about "rules" of finishing your mission, details about last few days, instructions for travel and immigration paperwork, etc... Here are some pictures of one of our baptims this week. For some reason I only took them from the first baptism and not the second! Things got really busy with the White Night and number of folks getting baptized.
So Elder Lara stayed with Elder Wells and Werlen (the two serving in our neighboring area) while I traveled to and from Cusco.
So I also have some potentially sad news. So evidently we might not get to see Elder Christensen. Apparently he is only coming to Cusco, but the mission really doesn't have the money to send us all to the event. Is a little frustrating actually and many folks are angry. I find it interesting that they can afford to bus me around for something that could have been handled in person a week before, but oh well.
It struck me pretty hard this week re: money spent in the mission as I had to stay with office Elders on my quick trip back to Cusco. The office house is DEFINITELY a huge step above what I have stayed in my entire mission! So they have a huge complex, like in a tower that is very close to the mission office. They basically have a complete house that is really nice. 3 bedrooms; 3 bathrooms with actual working showers. A super nice kitchen and a nice balcony with city views. I had to take a pic (below) to just show my District back in Juliaca how some folks got to live in the mission! :)
We pay 250 soles a month for our house, getting showered with a bucket, living in a little hut on top of some guys roof! Yet the office Elders live in an ultra modern apartment tower, with super nice water heater thingies for their showers, and their rent is around 2,000 soles a month! Crazy.
Anyway, was still an experience to ride the bus for so long and to people watch and talk with folks who wondered what the "lost tourist" was doing on the bus! We got stopped two or three times by police on the trip and they searched for stolen electronics and checked people's identification.
Here is a little video of Elder Lara and I having some fun. Meet "the Barley Challenge." I had dared Elder Lara to eat a spoonful of that Echo drink I like and he totally thought he could do it! Result: FAILED. It was totally funny though.
A member took us out to "Asador Point" this week, which is pretty much the only good restaurant Juliaca has to offer. I ordered Lasagna. It was actually pretty good (definitely in comparison to the food I normally eat here). I gave it a 10 out of 10. Lol. The member is 19 and turning 20 in December. He is very mature though for his age and seems a lot older. He is the Ward secretary. He is a recent convert (think about a year and a half ago) and is planning on turning in his mission papers in the upcoming next week or two. His family aren't members and he has it pretty rough. His mom has some sort of illness where she got paralyzed and his Dad doesn't live nearby.
I heard from my entire Lima MTC group this week and they are all going home on the 12th of June as well. So that is going to be exciting to catch up with them back home.
Here are a few more random pics from this week. I am off for now. Will talk to you guys next week, which I guess will be for the last time!
Take care!
I also spent 2 days this week traveling to Cusco. I got a call last Monday night and was told I have to give a power of attorney and then be fingerprinted for something with visa / Peru travel rules. I have no idea why they couldn't have done that when officer Elders were in Juliaca last week, but I got on a bus and traveled to Cusco (7+ hours) and then the next day came right back. Sort of crazy and inefficient, but whatever.
I can't believe I am coming up on the end of my mission. I am getting tons of emails from the office about "rules" of finishing your mission, details about last few days, instructions for travel and immigration paperwork, etc... Here are some pictures of one of our baptims this week. For some reason I only took them from the first baptism and not the second! Things got really busy with the White Night and number of folks getting baptized.
So Elder Lara stayed with Elder Wells and Werlen (the two serving in our neighboring area) while I traveled to and from Cusco.
So I also have some potentially sad news. So evidently we might not get to see Elder Christensen. Apparently he is only coming to Cusco, but the mission really doesn't have the money to send us all to the event. Is a little frustrating actually and many folks are angry. I find it interesting that they can afford to bus me around for something that could have been handled in person a week before, but oh well.
It struck me pretty hard this week re: money spent in the mission as I had to stay with office Elders on my quick trip back to Cusco. The office house is DEFINITELY a huge step above what I have stayed in my entire mission! So they have a huge complex, like in a tower that is very close to the mission office. They basically have a complete house that is really nice. 3 bedrooms; 3 bathrooms with actual working showers. A super nice kitchen and a nice balcony with city views. I had to take a pic (below) to just show my District back in Juliaca how some folks got to live in the mission! :)
We pay 250 soles a month for our house, getting showered with a bucket, living in a little hut on top of some guys roof! Yet the office Elders live in an ultra modern apartment tower, with super nice water heater thingies for their showers, and their rent is around 2,000 soles a month! Crazy.
Anyway, was still an experience to ride the bus for so long and to people watch and talk with folks who wondered what the "lost tourist" was doing on the bus! We got stopped two or three times by police on the trip and they searched for stolen electronics and checked people's identification.
Here is a little video of Elder Lara and I having some fun. Meet "the Barley Challenge." I had dared Elder Lara to eat a spoonful of that Echo drink I like and he totally thought he could do it! Result: FAILED. It was totally funny though.
A member took us out to "Asador Point" this week, which is pretty much the only good restaurant Juliaca has to offer. I ordered Lasagna. It was actually pretty good (definitely in comparison to the food I normally eat here). I gave it a 10 out of 10. Lol. The member is 19 and turning 20 in December. He is very mature though for his age and seems a lot older. He is the Ward secretary. He is a recent convert (think about a year and a half ago) and is planning on turning in his mission papers in the upcoming next week or two. His family aren't members and he has it pretty rough. His mom has some sort of illness where she got paralyzed and his Dad doesn't live nearby.
I heard from my entire Lima MTC group this week and they are all going home on the 12th of June as well. So that is going to be exciting to catch up with them back home.
Here are a few more random pics from this week. I am off for now. Will talk to you guys next week, which I guess will be for the last time!
Take care!
Monday, May 22, 2017
Lots of work!
Hello from Juliaca! This week was just a good week working. We were sent to Puno on Saturday to have interviews with the Mission President. Mine was pretty easy, and VERY short, as I guess he is realizing we will have our final and more "official" final interview in less than 3 weeks!
This week we had 7 investigators at church, taught a ton of lessons, and have confirmed 2 baptisms for the Zone's White Night this Saturday. We thought we were going to have 3 baptisms by Saturday, but one investigator wants to wait until June 17th when his Dad will be in town. So I guess that one will be for Elder Lara and his new companion!
Here are a few pics from this week. Nestle Ecco is a barley drink that everyone drinks down here. I am actually a fan of this! But I am not sure it exists back home, so I will need to take home a few cases!
We also found a bunch of new investigators this week, including an older man who appears to be in a lot of debt and has many problems and issues. We were a little unsure how to approach the lesson given the host of issues he has, but it actually turned out very well!
Messing around in soccer today--- played volleyball and soccer as a zone-- and made these little funny videos!
Love you guys. Talk to you next week.
Elder Barry
This week we had 7 investigators at church, taught a ton of lessons, and have confirmed 2 baptisms for the Zone's White Night this Saturday. We thought we were going to have 3 baptisms by Saturday, but one investigator wants to wait until June 17th when his Dad will be in town. So I guess that one will be for Elder Lara and his new companion!
Here are a few pics from this week. Nestle Ecco is a barley drink that everyone drinks down here. I am actually a fan of this! But I am not sure it exists back home, so I will need to take home a few cases!
We also found a bunch of new investigators this week, including an older man who appears to be in a lot of debt and has many problems and issues. We were a little unsure how to approach the lesson given the host of issues he has, but it actually turned out very well!
Messing around in soccer today--- played volleyball and soccer as a zone-- and made these little funny videos!
Love you guys. Talk to you next week.
Elder Barry
Monday, May 15, 2017
Mother's Day
[We got the chance to talk with Connor via Skype for Mother's Day! We are excited as this was the 4th and final video call and now we just have the last 27 days to wait until he comes home!]
[We also got our weekly email on Monday and the blog entry below is a combination of a portion of that Monday email along with some text / chat we had with Connor as his companion spoke with his parents.]
Hey guys! So we can video chat in about an hour once my companion is done. We can chat on Skype until he is done though.
We are not in a Trio anymore. Our third Elder went back "home" on Tuesday, so we have been the dynamic duo for a while. Today was an awesome day in church! We had 10 investigators at church and now have 3 confirmed baptisms for the 27th! (We might actually have 4 but are still working on that.) I think my District will have 6 or 7 by itself on the 27th and our entire zone will have over 10. Pretty exciting and is helping me not think about going home! It helps to have work to keep you busy.
Here is another picture of my mission dollar! It only has one letter left unshaded! [They evidently color in one letter a month until all 24 months / letters are complete.]
We have a very busy week scheduled to keep teaching our investigators and line up the District baptisms for the upcoming White Night. The weather is very strange right now, as it is very hot in the day and then come evening it gets very cold. I sort of wish it would just pick one or other! Hot or cold!
Well not much more to say given we got to talk live yesterday! Looking forward to seeing you guys soon.
Love you.
-Elder Barry
Hey guys! So we can video chat in about an hour once my companion is done. We can chat on Skype until he is done though.
We are not in a Trio anymore. Our third Elder went back "home" on Tuesday, so we have been the dynamic duo for a while. Today was an awesome day in church! We had 10 investigators at church and now have 3 confirmed baptisms for the 27th! (We might actually have 4 but are still working on that.) I think my District will have 6 or 7 by itself on the 27th and our entire zone will have over 10. Pretty exciting and is helping me not think about going home! It helps to have work to keep you busy.
Here is another picture of my mission dollar! It only has one letter left unshaded! [They evidently color in one letter a month until all 24 months / letters are complete.]
We have a very busy week scheduled to keep teaching our investigators and line up the District baptisms for the upcoming White Night. The weather is very strange right now, as it is very hot in the day and then come evening it gets very cold. I sort of wish it would just pick one or other! Hot or cold!
Well not much more to say given we got to talk live yesterday! Looking forward to seeing you guys soon.
Love you.
-Elder Barry
Monday, May 8, 2017
A Trio Working in Juliaca
Hi everyone. So this week pretty rough. We are still in a trio with Elder Cunya. We really haven't received any news about his companion. We hope he is ok and doing better, but we really aren't told anything.
So we actually are not having a member of Quorum of the Twelve come to our mission in June. I guess that was just a rumor. We are instead having Elder Craig C. Christensen from the 70 though on June 7th.
It will be interesting to see what they do with me in terms of travel plans. I was going to come into Cusco anyway on the 10th to wrap up my mission. I am guessing they will just bring me in (along with entire mission) on the 7th for our meeting with Elder Christensen and then let me stay there rather than sending me back and then turning right around a day later basically and coming to Cusco again.
We are working hard though since we also need to cover Elder Cunya's area. So we spend our time in our area and then running over to Elder Cunya's area. The good news is that working keeps us busy and I don't think about going home as much! We also have a great investigator in his area that accepted a baptism date for the 27th (the next Mission White Night). We have two tentatively scheduled for that day!
Working in a trio is a little hard actually. Everything is more complicated! The travel arrangements by moto taxi; teaching a lesson (when we are so used to two Elders); and even just walking down the road with three of us! Is all just sort of strange. We don't want to waste money so when we take a mototaxi to Elder Cunya's area we try and spend the entire day working there.
I assume we will still be in a Trio for our Mother's Day call on Sunday. That might be interesting for logistics too. I guess we will figure it out. I will try and figure out what time we are talking and will tell you beforehand. I assume it will be like around 6 pm my time.
So we actually are not having a member of Quorum of the Twelve come to our mission in June. I guess that was just a rumor. We are instead having Elder Craig C. Christensen from the 70 though on June 7th.
It will be interesting to see what they do with me in terms of travel plans. I was going to come into Cusco anyway on the 10th to wrap up my mission. I am guessing they will just bring me in (along with entire mission) on the 7th for our meeting with Elder Christensen and then let me stay there rather than sending me back and then turning right around a day later basically and coming to Cusco again.
We are working hard though since we also need to cover Elder Cunya's area. So we spend our time in our area and then running over to Elder Cunya's area. The good news is that working keeps us busy and I don't think about going home as much! We also have a great investigator in his area that accepted a baptism date for the 27th (the next Mission White Night). We have two tentatively scheduled for that day!
Working in a trio is a little hard actually. Everything is more complicated! The travel arrangements by moto taxi; teaching a lesson (when we are so used to two Elders); and even just walking down the road with three of us! Is all just sort of strange. We don't want to waste money so when we take a mototaxi to Elder Cunya's area we try and spend the entire day working there.
I assume we will still be in a Trio for our Mother's Day call on Sunday. That might be interesting for logistics too. I guess we will figure it out. I will try and figure out what time we are talking and will tell you beforehand. I assume it will be like around 6 pm my time.
Elder Cunya gets to sleep on the cot in the picture above. He says it is fine, but I am sure he is ready to go "home."
We also spent a fair amount of time this week looking for a room for the Elders opening up a new area here. We really spent most of the day Tuesday, all day Wednesday, and a lot of Thursday. We didn't expect it to take that long, but honestly, everything we looked at was pretty scary! Most didn't have hot water, didn't have a private bathroom, or were just extremely dirty / run down.
But after a lot of prayer, we finally found a decent room for them. I prefer ours still for sure! But it was the best (by a long shot) of the things we saw. They live very close to our church building.
This coming week should be busy, as we plan on spending a lot of time in Wiracocha (Elder Cunya's area), and mostly trying to firm up our two baptisms for the 27th. It looks like we will have a lot of baptisms this White Night in our zone!
For our time in Peru after my mission ends, I am literally going to be wearing basically the same few sets of P-day clothes for a week! It is weird how I have more white shirts than p-day clothes! Elder Lara and I were laughing the other day when we realized "how did a white shirt and tie become normal clothes!" That is the joy of missionary work though!
So looking forward to our LAST phone call this Sunday afternoon. Take care. Wow, can't believe this is our last call!
Love you all.
-Elder Barry
Monday, May 1, 2017
Staying in Juliaca for final transfer
Hey guys! I am on early again today. Well today was transfer days again and I am staying here with Elder Lara! So this will be my 4th change with Elder Lara. So by the time I go home, I will have been with him for 6 months! That is great though as we get along really well and love having a companion that I get along with so well.
We were in a TRIO since Thursday this week with Elder Cunya. His companion (Elder Diaz, who has the super long hair (a cultural thing and which is "legal" here in the mission) from Ecuador) got an infection in his belly button (gross huh and no idea how that happens). He is getting an operation in Cusco. So not sure how long Elder Cunya will be with us.
So my area is being split in two like I thought it would be. Universidad 2 is being opened by Elder Wells (was in our district in Puno) and he is going to train a new Elder. Wells is super cool so excited to have him in our area. So Elder Lara is going go "kill me" (be with me as I go home) and I am still the District Leader.
The new Elders in Universidad will live by the church (other side of sector), but we actually don't split the sector geographically. It is pretty much what we did in Cusco / Tahuantinsuyo with the Zone Leaders. Whoever you find, you teach and so we all share the same geographical limits. So we are keeping all of our investigators (around 15 or so right now) and the new Elders have to open a new area and find new investigators for themselves!
Apologies for not taking any pictures this week. We just got busy with work and time flew by fast. Our pension took the picture (above) from her phone which has all 3 of us that served in the Trio this week.
This week we added a new investigator to our group. Her family are less actives (her brother is a returned missionary), but she only came to church before when she was REALLY young (5-6 years old). She has come to church now two times in a row. She is really kind and understands what we teach her right away. She offered the closing prayer in the first lesson, and said, "I believe this is the true church". That was a first for me! :) This Saturday we have another appointment to teach her. We are hoping that can be a baptism for us by the end of the month. We have another Zone wide "white night" scheduled for May 27th. So that is our goal to have at least one baptism by then.
We also heard that apparently we have a member of the Quorum of the Twelve coming to Cusco to visit in June! We are not sure of the date yet or which Apostle is coming. I will let you know what I hear next week. I sure hope I am still here in the mission when the visit happens!
My plans for that last week are basically set. I will come in to Cusco on Saturday (the 10th of June). They let you do that ONLY if you served in Cusco during your mission. So since I served in Cusco twice, I sort of have my pick to where to go. I am really excited to visit my first area where I was trained (Los Alamos) but the problem is that only 4 sisters serve there now. So I will most likely be teamed up with some priesthood members for Saturday and Sunday. My other area (Tahuantinsuyo) has Elders, but I really want to visit the ward where I STARTED. There are tons of recent converts that are willing to work with missionaries and let me stay with them in that ward though--its huge! If not---I can just visit Tahuantinsuyo.
Funny note: I will be in the church on Sunday June 11th about 3 minutes away from the airport when you guys land! But as you know we apparently can't see each other until Monday night. Lame huh?
Well we are off to play soccer in our Trio of Elders! Love you. Take care!
-Elder Barry
We were in a TRIO since Thursday this week with Elder Cunya. His companion (Elder Diaz, who has the super long hair (a cultural thing and which is "legal" here in the mission) from Ecuador) got an infection in his belly button (gross huh and no idea how that happens). He is getting an operation in Cusco. So not sure how long Elder Cunya will be with us.
So my area is being split in two like I thought it would be. Universidad 2 is being opened by Elder Wells (was in our district in Puno) and he is going to train a new Elder. Wells is super cool so excited to have him in our area. So Elder Lara is going go "kill me" (be with me as I go home) and I am still the District Leader.
The new Elders in Universidad will live by the church (other side of sector), but we actually don't split the sector geographically. It is pretty much what we did in Cusco / Tahuantinsuyo with the Zone Leaders. Whoever you find, you teach and so we all share the same geographical limits. So we are keeping all of our investigators (around 15 or so right now) and the new Elders have to open a new area and find new investigators for themselves!
Apologies for not taking any pictures this week. We just got busy with work and time flew by fast. Our pension took the picture (above) from her phone which has all 3 of us that served in the Trio this week.
This week we added a new investigator to our group. Her family are less actives (her brother is a returned missionary), but she only came to church before when she was REALLY young (5-6 years old). She has come to church now two times in a row. She is really kind and understands what we teach her right away. She offered the closing prayer in the first lesson, and said, "I believe this is the true church". That was a first for me! :) This Saturday we have another appointment to teach her. We are hoping that can be a baptism for us by the end of the month. We have another Zone wide "white night" scheduled for May 27th. So that is our goal to have at least one baptism by then.
We also heard that apparently we have a member of the Quorum of the Twelve coming to Cusco to visit in June! We are not sure of the date yet or which Apostle is coming. I will let you know what I hear next week. I sure hope I am still here in the mission when the visit happens!
My plans for that last week are basically set. I will come in to Cusco on Saturday (the 10th of June). They let you do that ONLY if you served in Cusco during your mission. So since I served in Cusco twice, I sort of have my pick to where to go. I am really excited to visit my first area where I was trained (Los Alamos) but the problem is that only 4 sisters serve there now. So I will most likely be teamed up with some priesthood members for Saturday and Sunday. My other area (Tahuantinsuyo) has Elders, but I really want to visit the ward where I STARTED. There are tons of recent converts that are willing to work with missionaries and let me stay with them in that ward though--its huge! If not---I can just visit Tahuantinsuyo.
Funny note: I will be in the church on Sunday June 11th about 3 minutes away from the airport when you guys land! But as you know we apparently can't see each other until Monday night. Lame huh?
Well we are off to play soccer in our Trio of Elders! Love you. Take care!
-Elder Barry
Monday, April 24, 2017
Baptisms in Juliaca
Hi Mom and Dad! So this week was a great one working away in the mission field. In particular, this week we had 4 baptisms in my District. It was a "White Night" with that many great baptisms scheduled. We also had 12 investigators come to church in our Ward this week! That was pretty crazy and is definitely a record for me on my mission.
Our Mission President is talking about opening up a second area in our current area (Universidad), so that would mean we would have 4 missionaries in the Ward. That would be neat, but we wouldn't live together, although we would share the same pension! It is always fun to have another set of Elders in the same area. We will find out the specifics next week when changes happen (May 1st).
I can't believe that this will be my last change / my 17th in the mission!
My companion got his cast off this week and everything is good with him. We are guessing that we will be split up next week. I am guessing they might just move one of us to the NEW Universidad area and bring in two new companions (one for each of us), but guess we see. We have 14 missionaries going home this transfer and 17 come in, so I think that means the mission will try and open up at least 3 new sectors.
Our Mission President is talking about opening up a second area in our current area (Universidad), so that would mean we would have 4 missionaries in the Ward. That would be neat, but we wouldn't live together, although we would share the same pension! It is always fun to have another set of Elders in the same area. We will find out the specifics next week when changes happen (May 1st).
I can't believe that this will be my last change / my 17th in the mission!
My companion got his cast off this week and everything is good with him. We are guessing that we will be split up next week. I am guessing they might just move one of us to the NEW Universidad area and bring in two new companions (one for each of us), but guess we see. We have 14 missionaries going home this transfer and 17 come in, so I think that means the mission will try and open up at least 3 new sectors.
The next multi-zone conference we have will be my last one and the one that I am asked to give my "last testimony" at. Is a time when the old timers talk to the younger missionaries about what they learned, what they might wish they did differently, etc.. That will be around mid-May for me.
So yeah everyone was making fun of me in my baptism pants! They are HUGE on me. People didn't believe they were actually my pants.
My companion and I are still running (pretty consistently) in the mornings. But only for like 25 minutes. Is really nice though, but TIRING. We get literally like 5 to 10 minutes into the run and our chests start throbbing and just hard to breathe. Will be interesting to see how I do at home.
It still would be a great way to end my mission with training a new Elder. But I doubt that will happen. I have seen it before with only one transfer left, but is pretty rare. They just usually want the trainer and the trainee together for 2 changes.
Well we are off to have lunch and then just hang out and relax (no plans this p-day and that is actually kind of exciting!).
Love you guys.
Hope you have a good week..
NEXT WEEK NEWS WITH CHANGES :)
Monday, April 17, 2017
Floating Reed City of Uros
I can't believe another week has gone by so fast! Is crazy how time seems to be speeding up as I get closer to the end of my mission. I can't believe I have 8 weeks left, but just have to finish these last few weeks working hard.
We unfortunately had to postpone our baptism from last week. The new date is this Saturday (the 22nd).
We had a great "super" P-day this week at Uros. It is a super big tourist trap now for sure. Overpriced stuff that they sell on the shore cheaper than on the islands! We had probably 80 missionaries on the floating islands! It was our entire zone, the 2 zones from Puno and all the missionaries from Sicuani.
Me and my companion started running this morning. We got really tired at like the mile+ mark. Then my chest was throbbing, etc.. People where looking at us like we were crazy. Was sort of funny! I guess the elevation (12,000 feet) makes seeing a jogger something more unique.
We worked hard this week, trying to find more investigators and started teaching the two families we found last week. About the only excitement that happened was that we almost got EATEN by dogs! They came out of nowhere in a pack and just charged us! We are fairly used to crazy dogs here in Peru, so we just threw some huge rocks at them and after hitting a few, finally forced them to leave us alone.
Well we are off to go play soccer and run some more errands. Love you guys! Looking forward to Mother Day Skype.
-Connor
Some more pics
From our zone conference and zone activities on island
We unfortunately had to postpone our baptism from last week. The new date is this Saturday (the 22nd).
We had a great "super" P-day this week at Uros. It is a super big tourist trap now for sure. Overpriced stuff that they sell on the shore cheaper than on the islands! We had probably 80 missionaries on the floating islands! It was our entire zone, the 2 zones from Puno and all the missionaries from Sicuani.
Me and my companion started running this morning. We got really tired at like the mile+ mark. Then my chest was throbbing, etc.. People where looking at us like we were crazy. Was sort of funny! I guess the elevation (12,000 feet) makes seeing a jogger something more unique.
We worked hard this week, trying to find more investigators and started teaching the two families we found last week. About the only excitement that happened was that we almost got EATEN by dogs! They came out of nowhere in a pack and just charged us! We are fairly used to crazy dogs here in Peru, so we just threw some huge rocks at them and after hitting a few, finally forced them to leave us alone.
Well we are off to go play soccer and run some more errands. Love you guys! Looking forward to Mother Day Skype.
-Connor
Some more pics
From our zone conference and zone activities on island
Monday, April 10, 2017
Hi guys! I am online now. So we don't have P-day today, but only time to write emails. We aren't having a true P-day today because we are going to Uros with the Mission President on Friday. Uros is that floating island of reeds in Puno. I will make sure and send pics when I go. So Uros has been off limits to missionaries for the last year or so. But apparently we get to go for a special occasion with the Mission President, so that will be exciting!
Here are a few selfies with a member who was baptized like a month or so ago and is so excited about the Gospel and sharing it with everyone! AWESOME!
In terms of work here is what we have going on:
-Avril passed her baptismal interview and so we will have that on Saturday! That will be exciting!
-A really cool 20 year old came to church this week with a member, and he is VERY interested in learning more. So we have an appointment already scheduled to teach him this week.
-We got 10 (other) new investigators this week, so we will see how they progress over the next week or two.
We found the 10 new investigators by just knocking on doors this week! We are still working through our old area books, and we found an entire family that was interested in taking the lessons! They were NOT the people in the book, so was very cool to find them.
We would have had 12 new investigators, but decided not to count 2 of them, because they were a drunk husband AND a drunk wife, but they did in fact listen to us and were asking questions. But obviously not understanding that much given the amount of alcohol they had drunk.
So my companion's hand was not broken last week, just a torn ligament. He has to wear a cast for like 2 weeks.
We found this place out walking around this week. I think it is a bit of a copyright infringement on Napoleon Dynamite!
Well I am off for today. Love you guys so much! Take care!!!!!
I will take pics at floating island this week...pretty much have Pday on Friday..but we won't be able to write again until next Monday.
Monday, April 3, 2017
Hi guys! So I was on another computer originally, but it was SO slow! It literally crashed every 10 seconds trying to upload pictures, so I had to change to a new computer. The internet here is not what we are used to in the US! Although where we are is supposed to be as fast as road runner evidently -- and have "Speedy 2 mb of velocity internet" as you can see in the picture LOL.
Speedy huh?
Anyways, this week was pretty good! We are walking a ton, because we still don't really know the area that well and are meeting people and trying to find folks to teach. We have a 10 year old girl as an investigator right now, her Mom is less active, and her Dad isn't a member (and doesn't want anything to do with us -- and is pretty funny how he goes to such lengths to avoid us!) but her grandparents are all super active.
She has a baptismal date for 15 of April, we are committed, but is a little rough because she isn't home that much, so we are trying hard to keep teaching her and helping with whatever we can.
Today, we were played soccer with the zone, and my companions hand got kicked by another Elder! He can't move his wrist right now and it is SUPER swollen. We think it might be broken -- but we are going to the hospital later tonight.
So that was a pretty awesome General Conference huh? I cant believe it is the last one in my mission!
We did get to watch it in English. We were upstairs in our church building with 4 other Americans in a small room. It was pretty funny, everyone was teasing me because they all have over a year (or more) left in the mission. When the picture of a guy at the temple getting married came up on the screen, they all started hollering my name...haha!
Here is a delicious video demonstrating the beautiful landscape of Juliaca, Peru. We were out working one day and trying to find a house for 2 hours that we found in the old area book.
Here is another video of my companion with his pant leg up to his shin wet! He wasn't looking where he was going and backed up looking at the house addresses and BOOM -- he sunk like a rook in a dirty sewage little hole in the road.
It is VERY cold outside by like 5:00 PM and we are entering into the "frozen" time so the natives tell us! Late April, all of May, and June are just way way way cold.
Is crazy that Elder Lara is only second English speaking companion. We do like to talk English when we are together, but we do have to keep working on his Spanish. He is definitely getting better. But sometimes he gets a little flustered, and messes up even more. But is cool, because he just laughs at himself. Was the same way I learned Spanish early on.
I did get ONE of my packages (the first one you sent) and I also got new sheets from the zone leaders this time around. I still have a package in the office then (the second one you sent with my Birthday stuff) and my companion has a package as well. We told zone leader just to tell the office guy to send it, and we will pay for it, as it is seriously like 15 soles around there to send it. I really don't want to wait 6 more weeks till the next zone leader meeting. But yeah in this package I did get all the goodies, snacks and the cream for my sunburns.
We have been eating / sharing all my goodies a lot through the conference sessions. So I was everyone's best friend for that day! :P
Well we should get going. We have to get approval from mission office for my comp to go see a doctor. He is not really in pain at the moment, but can't really use that arm! He has had a pretty bad "series of unfortunate events" lately.
I don't have any more photos, but will take some in the next week :P
Have a good week
Will have more news next week :P
Love you.
-Elder Barry
Monday, March 27, 2017
First week! Last area?
Hi guys!
Well I can't lie, but Juliaca is pretty ugly!
Tons of mud, like, everywhere, pretty much all the streets aren't paved.
But that doesn't really matter because, at the end of the day, the work is pretty good!
I am struggling to write at the moment because I am SO full. We ate at Pizza Hut today (the first time in over a year for me!) I actually weighed myself last week, was pretty curious. It turns out that I am 142 pounds (and think I was like in the 182 range when I left on my mission). I feel like I have eaten 5 pounds of food today though! :)
Here is a picture of the little slice of civilization out here in Juliaca! Is crazy really, as most of my areas didn't have that many restaurants all in a row! I mean this is a place with basically ZERO tourism so my companion (a red head American) and myself walking around always creates a little buzz of people watching us!
Here is a picture of the "Park of the Virgin" which is real close to our house (us walking through it on one of the videos!).
Here is a video of us in the park as we are out working / walking.
So here is our house: LINK
Our house is the one with the red door on the left (not the red door on the right!). We live in a room on the third floor. We are seriously ON the roof. There is a little square room built on the roof, but we walk outside of our room and we are out in the open air on the roof with stairs going down into the house AND our bathroom is up there. I have a video of that as well.
We live with the Bishop, but we don't really see him all that much.
Our room is fairly big and we are happy here. I really like the work in Juliaca. We are starting up this new area (as I told you last week) so we are looking through a VERY old area book (from like almost 2 years ago when missionaries were here) and unfortunately it doesn't help that much. We have some AWESOME recent converts here though in our ward and they are helping us out a ton! I know we will find some more people to teach this week.
The only bummer is that is is VERY cold and windy though. Like. Super cold. Lol. Most of my mission has been in cold places, but this seems to be the coldest yet!
The roads are literally always covered in mud and is just hard to get around. Here is a video of me and my comp just trying to navigate the mud!
I am pulling a little bit of a trick on the ward though. ALL of them (Bishop, pension, and all the ward members) that have asked me how long I have left on my mission. I tell them all that I just recently hit the one year mark! It will be pretty funny when I say "PEACE I AM OUT OF HERE" in a few months! Lol :P
I have been thinking a lot about school when I get home and what I want to study / what I want to do as my profession. I know that I will be guided in what I should study / do, so I am trying not to freak out about it too much! I think the advice in my patriarchal blessing will help. I just force myself to work harder with my companion when the thoughts of home / what to do after the mission start to occupy too much of my time! I just want to end my mission strong and love working here with Elder Lara. He is great!
Well, we are off for this week. Talk to you guys next week! Have a good week. Thanks for everything guys -- I love you.
Will try to get more pics/vids.
-Elder Barry
P.S. Although it is freezing cold all the time here, we have a ton of flies! I am guessing that is because all of the livestock just walks right by our house and into the park! So my companion and I are keeping a tally of all the flies we kill in our room! We are up to high death count.
Well I can't lie, but Juliaca is pretty ugly!
Tons of mud, like, everywhere, pretty much all the streets aren't paved.
But that doesn't really matter because, at the end of the day, the work is pretty good!
I am struggling to write at the moment because I am SO full. We ate at Pizza Hut today (the first time in over a year for me!) I actually weighed myself last week, was pretty curious. It turns out that I am 142 pounds (and think I was like in the 182 range when I left on my mission). I feel like I have eaten 5 pounds of food today though! :)
Here is a picture of the little slice of civilization out here in Juliaca! Is crazy really, as most of my areas didn't have that many restaurants all in a row! I mean this is a place with basically ZERO tourism so my companion (a red head American) and myself walking around always creates a little buzz of people watching us!
Here is a picture of the "Park of the Virgin" which is real close to our house (us walking through it on one of the videos!).
Here is a video of us in the park as we are out working / walking.
So here is our house: LINK
Our house is the one with the red door on the left (not the red door on the right!). We live in a room on the third floor. We are seriously ON the roof. There is a little square room built on the roof, but we walk outside of our room and we are out in the open air on the roof with stairs going down into the house AND our bathroom is up there. I have a video of that as well.
We live with the Bishop, but we don't really see him all that much.
Our room is fairly big and we are happy here. I really like the work in Juliaca. We are starting up this new area (as I told you last week) so we are looking through a VERY old area book (from like almost 2 years ago when missionaries were here) and unfortunately it doesn't help that much. We have some AWESOME recent converts here though in our ward and they are helping us out a ton! I know we will find some more people to teach this week.
The only bummer is that is is VERY cold and windy though. Like. Super cold. Lol. Most of my mission has been in cold places, but this seems to be the coldest yet!
The roads are literally always covered in mud and is just hard to get around. Here is a video of me and my comp just trying to navigate the mud!
I am pulling a little bit of a trick on the ward though. ALL of them (Bishop, pension, and all the ward members) that have asked me how long I have left on my mission. I tell them all that I just recently hit the one year mark! It will be pretty funny when I say "PEACE I AM OUT OF HERE" in a few months! Lol :P
I have been thinking a lot about school when I get home and what I want to study / what I want to do as my profession. I know that I will be guided in what I should study / do, so I am trying not to freak out about it too much! I think the advice in my patriarchal blessing will help. I just force myself to work harder with my companion when the thoughts of home / what to do after the mission start to occupy too much of my time! I just want to end my mission strong and love working here with Elder Lara. He is great!
Well, we are off for this week. Talk to you guys next week! Have a good week. Thanks for everything guys -- I love you.
Will try to get more pics/vids.
-Elder Barry
P.S. Although it is freezing cold all the time here, we have a ton of flies! I am guessing that is because all of the livestock just walks right by our house and into the park! So my companion and I are keeping a tally of all the flies we kill in our room! We are up to high death count.
Monday, March 20, 2017
Transfers / New Area and Very Sick Companion
Okay guys, I have like 30 emails this week that I need to respond too (a lot of them are birthday messages!) but just typing this first.
So I got a change, I will be leaving current sector (Mirador) and being transferred to Juliaca! That is literally like 45 minutes away! [Editors note: What is crazy is that in the San Diego mission where we live the ENTIRE mission is encompassed in a 45 minute drive; but yet in Connor's mission that is a crazy "short" inter-zone transfer in Cusco!]
The weirdest news is still to come! I AM WITH ELDER LARA IN JULIACA! [Elder Lara is his current companion.] Like we are closing Mirador and opening up a new sector in Juliaca to be called "Universidad". I am actually VERY excited about opening a new area AND staying with Elder Lara. He is a great guy. I will be a District Leader again, so not really excited about the additional administrative work!
So apparently our new area will be pretty huge! It is called "university", apparently because, yes you guessed it, that is where the university is. I have heard the work in Juliaca is really nice, just got to wait and see!!!!
Apologies for no pictures, videos or anything today. We didn't really plan on coming to the internet when we did, so left my camera back in our room. From what I have heard about our new sector, we will live with the Bishop, but not with the pension. That is about all I really know. The Ward is a bit stronger than Mirador (as it will have around 80 members in attendance from the 50 we had in Mirador).
Pretty crazy that I am 20 years old right!?
So my birthday was "ok." I tried not to tell any members, (only the pension knew). In the morning, we ate cake. She bought a 50 sole cake from PlazaVea here, which was super kind of her! Then she made me any lunch I wanted. I chose a plate that consisted of mashed sweet potatoes, and like a stir-fry type thing on top. I guess it is pretty weird to describe, but I really liked it! That evening, and I don't know how they knew about it, but the Bishop and all the YSA came over to our house and wished me a happy birthday. It was very nice of them, but pretty awkward as well, because they all were saying stuff abut me and basically embarrassing me! :) but it was cool.
We did have a fairly wild week work-wise. We didn't get to work on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, because my companion had to be in "complete rest". But he is way better now, but he was VERY sick this week. He evidently had a very serious stomach infection and we had to visit the doctor almost every day.
I am guessing it is almost certain that I will "die" in Juliaca though [finish his mission]. It would be great if Elder Lara is my final companion. That isn't impossible anymore, since we are opening up a new sector.
So I basically hung out when my companion was sick. I wrote my talk (which I gave at church yesterday), listened to music, studied and basically tried to cheer him up in between him taking all his antibiotics and trips to the bathroom like every 20 minutes! Poor guy!
I am excited to open up a new area, I think that is a great way to reinvigorate me for the work for my last two transfers! I am not all that excited for the added admin stuff of a District Leader, but am sure it will be fine. I would love to have a few more baptisms before I go home, I know it is possible.
Well guys, next week I will have news on Juliaca! Love you guys. I will take pics and vids of Juliaca (p.s: its SUPER ugly:.....lol)
BYE
Elder Barry
P.S. Here are a few pictures the mission sent around.
Monday, March 13, 2017
Keeping up the work in Puno
Hi guys.
So my companion woke up today sick as a dog. So that is a bummer, and I truly know how he feels! I think we are still going to play soccer today for P-day, but think he is going to sit this one out!
This week was pretty rough here in the mission. I am not going to lie. We got to spend some time in a little pueblo called "Mañazo", which is about an hour away from our house. This was a zone activity where we all went to different pueblos to contact people. It is pretty hard for folks who are interested in learning more to even proceed with the lessons given they usually don't want to come to church being so far out from town.
We also had our multizone/interview with mission President this week. That was a good day, but still involved a lot of traveling. We did end up making a lot of new contacts this week, so I guess that is a good start for the weeks ahead as we continue working here in Puno.
I still haven't received my package -- and I guess the mission President couldn't travel with all the missionary packages, so it wasn't brought out to Puno from Cusco this week. I am sure it will come eventually!
We have transfers next week, and I would really like to train another new missionary. Evidently we have 10 Elders and 11 Sisters coming in next week! There is work to be done here in my district and I really feel like having a greenie for the last two transfers of my mission would help me keep focused and working hard! But I guess the odds of that happening aren't that high! :(
My first greenie, Elder Sanchez, is in my zone so I get to see him every P-day. Is fun to see him and notice how he has progressed. It is his birthday tomorrow! I can't believe I turn 20 in a few days. Crazy how time has flown by out here.
Well we are out of here! See yah next week, news with changes.
So my companion woke up today sick as a dog. So that is a bummer, and I truly know how he feels! I think we are still going to play soccer today for P-day, but think he is going to sit this one out!
This week was pretty rough here in the mission. I am not going to lie. We got to spend some time in a little pueblo called "Mañazo", which is about an hour away from our house. This was a zone activity where we all went to different pueblos to contact people. It is pretty hard for folks who are interested in learning more to even proceed with the lessons given they usually don't want to come to church being so far out from town.
We also had our multizone/interview with mission President this week. That was a good day, but still involved a lot of traveling. We did end up making a lot of new contacts this week, so I guess that is a good start for the weeks ahead as we continue working here in Puno.
I still haven't received my package -- and I guess the mission President couldn't travel with all the missionary packages, so it wasn't brought out to Puno from Cusco this week. I am sure it will come eventually!
We have transfers next week, and I would really like to train another new missionary. Evidently we have 10 Elders and 11 Sisters coming in next week! There is work to be done here in my district and I really feel like having a greenie for the last two transfers of my mission would help me keep focused and working hard! But I guess the odds of that happening aren't that high! :(
My first greenie, Elder Sanchez, is in my zone so I get to see him every P-day. Is fun to see him and notice how he has progressed. It is his birthday tomorrow! I can't believe I turn 20 in a few days. Crazy how time has flown by out here.
Here is a picture of me with a balloon sword -- the Elders Quorum president here knows how to do all that balloon art! :)
I am trying to keep focused on the work and not get too "trunky" thinking about home. I just have to keep working for 90 more days! Hah!
Well we are out of here! See yah next week, news with changes.
Love
Elder Barry
Monday, March 6, 2017
Puno
Hey guys!
This week was decent, we did tons of walking, but also had a good amount of appointments and got a few new investigators.
We went to a ward activity this week (our investigators came too!). Here is a pic.
Will send more pictures, but they load slow!
We are going to play soccer today with the Bishop of the ward the zone leaders are in. Apparently the Bishop put together a team of old guys, and they are willing to pay for the field, but only if we actually "form a good team". So only a select few of us from the zone are going! We are going to crush them as they are just a bunch of old guys with guts, so confident we are going to run all around them. But hey, they are paying for the field, so what more can I ask for.. HAH.
This week was decent though, went in Divisions, I went to the District Leaders sector, but with his companion (guy he is training), Elder Rojas....Way cool guy. We had tons of contacts, new families to teach, but just unlucky it wasn't in my sector!. HAH
Today a guy told us he didn't really have time to hear us or talk with us because "his leg hurts", was one of the weirdest excuses I have heard in my mission.
Almost got struck by lightning this week, it seriously sounded like a gunshot in our hears, and left them ringing after. Was pretty crazy, struck the house next to us, then the cables above us like blew up, and all the lights went out, we went running back home!
We've only been on 40 mins, still got 20 minutes left, but we are going to go play soccer.
AFTER soccer, will come back and write again for a short bit......Will have the pictures!
Love you guys a ton..
LOVE YOU!
Hi, we are back! First off, we WERE invited to go see the temple groundbreaking, but we had an appointment, they told us late about the temple groundbreaking and we couldn't go :(
The primary kids drew a picture of my companion and I, and we found it on the door to church!
They were just told to draw the elders and what they do. Pretty hilarious when we saw it.
They said we teach about Jesus Christ, help people in accidents, baptize people and then bring them to the temple. I guess they got a pretty accurate idea. Hah!
Here I am deep in thought.....
Jeez these pictures are taking FOREVER to load....Internet must be pretty gross
Okay going to send this message and attach them in other
So we won the soccer games (of course). There were 3 teams, 1 full of bishops and the stake president. 1 full of YSA from different wards and 1 full of missionaries from the zone.
Was super fun, and they all INSISTED I was from Europe, because "apparently" people from the states "cant play soccer".
We are off to a family night with a member family that doesn't come to church because they had some "problems" (fights) with other members. Pretty sad because he was branch president before:P
Talk to you guys next week
Take care!
This week was decent, we did tons of walking, but also had a good amount of appointments and got a few new investigators.
We went to a ward activity this week (our investigators came too!). Here is a pic.
Will send more pictures, but they load slow!
We are going to play soccer today with the Bishop of the ward the zone leaders are in. Apparently the Bishop put together a team of old guys, and they are willing to pay for the field, but only if we actually "form a good team". So only a select few of us from the zone are going! We are going to crush them as they are just a bunch of old guys with guts, so confident we are going to run all around them. But hey, they are paying for the field, so what more can I ask for.. HAH.
This week was decent though, went in Divisions, I went to the District Leaders sector, but with his companion (guy he is training), Elder Rojas....Way cool guy. We had tons of contacts, new families to teach, but just unlucky it wasn't in my sector!. HAH
Today a guy told us he didn't really have time to hear us or talk with us because "his leg hurts", was one of the weirdest excuses I have heard in my mission.
Almost got struck by lightning this week, it seriously sounded like a gunshot in our hears, and left them ringing after. Was pretty crazy, struck the house next to us, then the cables above us like blew up, and all the lights went out, we went running back home!
We've only been on 40 mins, still got 20 minutes left, but we are going to go play soccer.
AFTER soccer, will come back and write again for a short bit......Will have the pictures!
Love you guys a ton..
LOVE YOU!
Hi, we are back! First off, we WERE invited to go see the temple groundbreaking, but we had an appointment, they told us late about the temple groundbreaking and we couldn't go :(
The primary kids drew a picture of my companion and I, and we found it on the door to church!
They were just told to draw the elders and what they do. Pretty hilarious when we saw it.
They said we teach about Jesus Christ, help people in accidents, baptize people and then bring them to the temple. I guess they got a pretty accurate idea. Hah!
Here I am deep in thought.....
Jeez these pictures are taking FOREVER to load....Internet must be pretty gross
Okay going to send this message and attach them in other
So we won the soccer games (of course). There were 3 teams, 1 full of bishops and the stake president. 1 full of YSA from different wards and 1 full of missionaries from the zone.
Was super fun, and they all INSISTED I was from Europe, because "apparently" people from the states "cant play soccer".
We are off to a family night with a member family that doesn't come to church because they had some "problems" (fights) with other members. Pretty sad because he was branch president before:P
Talk to you guys next week
Take care!
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