Hello again!! :) These weeks are flying by!! ha It's so good to hear that you guys had a good time down in Salt Lake this last weekened!! I was a little sad, I have always loved the trips to Nancy's!! Man is Tiffany getting big!! ;) She probably has to sleep in her own bed now huh?! haha Sounds like she got alot of really good things for baby Kohki. When is her due date again? Early June isn't it? Im so excited for her she is going to be an amazing mother! And Kellan will be a pretty decent dad too! :) So I have had an amazing week myself. I had my first baptism!! :) Anita got baptized. It was an amazing experience, her devotion and love for the gospel has grown so much since I got here. The baptism was really good, Elder Lish baptized her and she asked me to give her the Gift of the Holy Ghost, I felt so honored and blessed to do so. This is what makes the mission so worth it is experiences like this!! Thats what drives me each and everyday is to have more people have the same experience as Anita. The work is really moving forward out in Alamo, I see the hand of the Lord preparing these people everyday! He loves them so much, He LOVES us all so much!! And wants us all to be close to him, and to rely on him throughout our life! Its too hard to do it on our own, He knows it and thats why he has made a way for us so that we dont have to be!! Why do so many of us look over such a blessing? It is simply because of our own selfishness and our attitude of thinking "I" have gotten myself this far "I" can get myself through this. Selfishness and pride is so so prominent today, that is what is keeping so so many people from partaking of Gods love for us. Think of Lehi's dream. He longed for his whole family to partake of the tree of life (Gods Love), but the selfishness that blinded Laman and Lemuel kept them from the realization of such a blessing in their life. AH! It is so frustrating sometimes as you see it so prominetly in the world today!! We are teaching a very devoted baptist family, they love the bible so much and it has almost blinded them from anymore of the blessings that God has for them. They will not even give the Book of Mormon a chance to find out, and see if it is a word of God. Last night it really frustrated me as I taught them, I got pretty bold with them, hopefully not overbearing, but they just dont understand really the blessings that the book can be in their life. Its so simple if you dont give the book a chance and read and pray about it then your feelings towards it wont change. How can you sit and say that it is not a word of God when you haven't even read it?!! ha she said that she would for the 10th time... I just pray that she actually will. I truly believe in Moroni's promise, that if any man reads and prays about it with real intent and a desire to know if it is true, that the spirit will make manifest to them wether it is true or not. Another thing that fustrates/amazes me is how many people haven't even thought about what the purpose of life is! Ha it just baffles me! I guess that is why I am here, to tell them what the purpose actually is.
So we had a really neat experience when teaching Terrie. We are preparing her for baptism, and she has a big issue with coffee that we are trying to work through together. So we have set goals for her as she progresses to ultimately give it up. We told her to stick to just one cup of coffee a day for this next week. She kinda moaningly agreed. So we went over there a week later and asked how it has been going. She said that she had a crazy experience. She said that she had been keeping the one cup a day the whole week until today, she said that she felt like she needed another cup, and when she went to drink it she started gaging!! Crazy huh?! Its the power of GOD!! She said that when that happened all she said was dang gom'alees(mormons) are right. haha She is ready for baptism, she just needs to work through this one issue.
So there has been alot going on around here, alot of work and alot of joy!! :) I'm going to be so sad to leave this wonderful reservation, I have really grown to love the people. The number at church hasn't increased as much as it should, but thats why we are working so hard. We went on exchanges yesterday and I stayed in Alamo with Elder Heslop(been out a year, but didnt say a word every lesson) So I worked my butt off trying to see as many people as I could, we had 10 lessons. Which is probably close to a day record. I am just so grateful to the Lord for alowing everyone that we went to see to be home!! :) So it has been way cold here lately!! We have had snow, yes SNOW the last couple of days... its crazy!! ha I dont mind it too much because a few days ago I saw the biggest spider that I have ever seen in my life!! Literally the size of my fist!! It would have gave Grandma a heart attack!!
I LOVED conference!! I learned so so much, I struggled to find a specific question before it started, and it kinda made me mad. Because I was telling everyone else to come with a question in their heart, but I was a hypocrite and didn't have one myself!! So I just decided that maybe I have a hidden question that will be answered, and then it seemed like every single conference message was directly for me. I had more answers given to me than I had questions for! haha I loved each talk! I expecially really like President Uchdorf and Elder Callisters Priesthood session talks. They really touched me. But I also like of course Elder Hollands talk, but also Elder Scotts on centering our homes on Christ, "making it a place of refuge. I definitely felt that growing up in our house, and this talk really made me grateful for that, and the blessing that that really is!! SO thanks Dad and Mom for that!! Im sure all us kids feel the same way.
Thank you all for your continual prayers and support that you give me. Tell everyone hi and that I love them all!! :)
Love,
Elder Barrus
Elder Barrus
PS... Thanks for the Red Soxs updates Dad!! I'm missing it!! :( haha its worth it.
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| Anita's Baptism |
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