46th Letter: "Merry Christmas!! :)"

Dear Family,

Wow it is cold!! Coming to New Mexico I thought I was going to die in the heat and not have to worry about the cold, but boy was I wrong!! Winters here are pretty brutal, or at least this year!! With how cold it is it definitely can be a hindrance to the work if you let it be. I am handling the weather pretty well, it definitely is a blessing that we have a car to drive, but we still try to walk as much as possible so that we can have opportunities to talk to people. I am just grateful that I had the preparation of growing up in -10 degree weather to prep me for this. :)

Well it sounds like y'all are enjoying the Christmas season!! It is always good to hear that your doing good, it definitely helps me to keep moving forward. I hope you were all able to hear the wonderful Christmas devotional, it was so uplifting and helped me continue to remember the true meaning of Christmas. If you weren't able to watch it I definitely would recommend getting on Lds.org and watching it!! There is such a wonderful spirit during this time of year, I think part of the reason that the Lord sends His spirit in great abundance at this time is to bless the few people who will put aside there selfish desires of the Holiday and remember its true meaning. I am really going to miss fighting with Amanda and Zac on waking up early and saying a family prayer by mom and dads bed before we went in to open presents, I am going to miss the power going out and Dad trying to save the breakfast by cooking it on the bbq, I am going to miss the look on Grandmas face when Grandpa gets her a space heater for his garage ;) But the blessing that I wont miss and that I know will still be with me during this season whether I am at 3818 boulder creek lane or 2909 turf lane is the spirit of our Saviors birth. I pray that, that will be the gift that we will all cherish and love the most this Christmas season!! 

So as far as the missionary efforts here and RIOOOO Rancho have been going... So this last Thursday was MLC and Friday Zone Training of course. And so Elder Black and I have really been praying and pondering on what to present in the meeting to best help our zone get fired up and to increase there faith that success can be found in Rio Rancho as well. So for MLC we have to account for our Zones numbers over the month and it is super hard to stand before the leadership of the mission and report on the only zone in the mission that is not having any success and everyone can see that. As we were standing up there I just kept asking myself what is it going to take for this Zone to be blessed the same as ABQ or Las Cruces or El Paso??? The Lord doesnt love his children more in one area more another. I know he wants us to have success to! It hit me like a brick wall what the problem was.... There is no faith in the Rio Rancho missionaries. Faith precedes miracles and we are definitely asking for a miracle. So meanwhile this is all going through my head during the 5 min we were reporting, the AP's were kind of giving us grief through suggestions, and then the last thing that I said as we were going back to our seats is "Rio Rancho is going to explode!!" I have faith and know that the Lord is going to work wonders here as we just diligently exercise our faith. So after MLC we have about 3 hours to prepare for the 3 hour zone training the next day. And that preparation was an incredible experience, the spirit bore witness to us of what we needed to train of to help this zones faith increase. I could feel the whole time preparing that this was going to be a turning point for this zone if we followed the spirit. Needless to say the Zone Training was incredible, one of the most spiritual experiences of my life. Closing the training we invited the zone to bare testimony of our potential, and you could just feel their faith increase as they did just that. We have witnessed and are witnessing amazing changes in our missionaries, and miracles are occurring more often as a result of it. I AM EXCITED!! :) Change is possible, one thing I cant stand and bugged me the most coming into this zone was that nothing has changed increased of decreased in the zone since the stake was opened. Everything in life is about change!!

Family, I love this work!! Everyday I get to wake up and put on the name of Christ, and stand in His place and proclaim His gospel. There is no other place in the whole world that I would rather be than here in the Panorama Heights North area in the Rio Rancho stake, because I know with all of my heart that I have been called by God to be serving here. I know that there are lives to be touched and souls to be saved as I turn to the Lord and be His instrument in helping His children. Know that I love and miss you so much!! This mission is going by so fast, it is unbelievable to me that I am coming up on a year now. It scares me to know that this will one day come to an end. I have never felt so close to my Savior and realized so many truths than on my mission. I give thanks to the Lord for changing me, and molding me to the individual he wants me to be.

Take care!! LOVE ELDER BARRUS!!