15th Letter: "Family...ITS MAY?!!"

Dear Family!! 

My love ones how are y'all?!! I am still doing great out here on the Reservation!! And believe it or not that I am still with Elder Lish. He is going to be on the res for a total of 9 months!! Ha we have no idea what the real world is like. Our second area is going to shock us. He is the new district leader, so I am assistant to the district leader!! No such thing, but I want a tag. But I am glad that I am still with Elder Lish, he is great and we have so much potential this month. So Its good to hear that you all are doing pretty well for the most part!! Amandas birthday was a blast I'm sure!! Im sad I missed out!! But I will be there for her 28th birthday!! haha wow old!! ;) So for mothers day I will be going over to the Crofts to Skype or Google plus you. I hope you don't have to go to Rexburg that day. It will probably be between 1-6 Im not sure exactly what time I'll call though. We will be able to talk for an hour. I cant wait!! :)

 

So what has happened this last week...hmm time is just flying by, its hard to keep track of what all has happened. Nothing too crazy has been happening we have just really been working hard. Last week we had 37 lessons which is a ton!! Set 3 baptism dates and had 5 new investigators. It was the best week as far as numbers go that I have had on the mission. 

 

So on Sunday we had to give the talks in sacrament meeting.... that's fun!! And it was on the 5th article of faith. Ha it was kinda difficult. You have to keep things pretty simple with Navajos or else they will get lost and just stop paying attention. So I thought that we had quite the task with having to try to explain the 5th article of faith. I focused mostly on what being called of God meant and how we aren't called by man but rather by God as far as our callings in church go. I really emphasized this because nobody in Alamo wants a church calling let alone go to church!! But me and Elder Lish were the whole program so we each talked for about 20 min... But I really felt the spirit in both Elder Lish's talk and mine, I hope they got something out of it!

 

Yesterday I kinda had a crazy experience!! I gave a medicine mans wife a blessing!! We were teaching a recent convert and while we were there a medicine man and his wife (which was the recent converts daughter) came in and started talking to us. We talked for quite a while and I asked if we could come over to his house and teach them. He said no because he was a medicine man and I was like "oh you have killed a man"....jk but it is a prerequisite to being a medicine man for some reason. But anyways we just kept talking and were about to leave when he asked us if we would give his wife a blessing because he said that his powers don't work on her. Ha they don't work on anyone they just make people "high" so they think they are fine. Anyways I gave her a blessing and it was one of the most spiritual blessings that I have ever been apart of. She was crying afterwards, and Elder Lish and I bore our testimonies to her about the power of God and of having faith in Jesus Christ. She looks like she is trapped with her husbands beliefs which is sad, but hopefully this will be a start for her. We are going to try to start seeing them, even though he said no. haha

 

Also yesterday we went to a funeral for a less active member that passed away. It was really sad I got to know him over the time that I had been here pretty well. But his funeral was in a Word of God church. That was a different experience. I have never been to a funeral of a different faith before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. But I felt super uncomfortable and didn't feel the spirit at all during the whole funeral. People were singing rock songs and the preachers were constantly taking the Lords name in vain, plus they never even talked about the guy that had passed away!! Wow it was a testimony to me of how true our church is!!

 

Ronnie is staying sober as far as he tells us. He looks good and says that he is praying with his family and that he no longer has the temptation to do any of that stuff anymore which is a miracle. Savannah his wife is a solid, she really wants to be baptized!! Everything is going great on the Alamo. I hope the whole family is doing good! I want to hear from everyone that reads this letter because I love you all!! Just tell me about how your life is going!! :) I care. Love you all
Elder Barrus