53rd Letter: "YOLO!"

Dear Family, 

Well it is great to be here again writing the most awesomeness family in the world again!! Life is so good isn't it? Something that has really hit me this last week is how wonderful God's creations are. When I look at this wonderful world that is just full of testimonies that God exists it truly humbles me. And to think that God created all of this just for us! SO that we could come here and experience life! It simply is amazing!! And when you look deep enough into it, you could say that God created this world for Missionary work!! That's how important all of this is!!

Well my dear brothers and sisters, and parents! I have been doing really good! I am super excited for the things that are happening and that are going to happen in this area! On Saturday the 1st of February Kat Andrew is going to be getting baptized! :) So we are looking forward to that wonderful day!! And then on the 15th Emery Nelson is looking solid to get baptized! A bunch of miracles right? :) And that isnt the biggest of them!! On Sunday we had 2 totally random people show up at church and are super interested in learning about the church! That never happens haha it is awesome!! Wait no that has to be the biggest of all of the miracles! Nope thats not it!....... drum roll!! We got a new bishopric! And the new bishop (Bishop Pitts) is the biggest help and encourager for missionary work that we have in the ward!! In the new bishopric there are a combined 5 missionaries out from their families!! Needless to say we are pumped! And there are so many miracles already happening from it! My words couldnt have described my frustration with the ward and the lack of drive from the leaders to even consider talking about the missionary work. That has now changed! Our last ward council was the best one that I have been in yet! Super Happy!! :) 

Once again life is good, and I am super happy! This work is so fun to be apart of. I wouldnt want to be anywhere else right now!! This zone taught way more than average this last week and it is only increasing in every category!! It is super humbling to be apart of. As the inspiring words of a fish once said "just keep swimming".... "just keep working" and that is just what we shall do! :) Miracles always follow!!

My challenge to my wonderful family this week is! Sometime tonight I want you to sit down, personally or as a family and decide on one person that you are acquainted with that isnt apart of this church or that is less active. And make them apart of your prayers, maybe they arent even close to coming back or to the knowledge of this gospel, but I promise you as a representative of Jesus Christ that if you do this you will be blessed to the miracle of missionary work. Be willing instruments in the Lords hands. We are all he has to work with!! :) 

 

Love you my dear family!! Take care!!
Elder Barrus 

Didn't get the story from Elder Barrus on this so I'll have to ask next time

52nd Letter: "1 year anniversary!!"

Dear Family. 

So I just finished writing my big long letter to you and it deleted.... So I will try my best with the time that I have to write you. Well from the famous words of a primary song "I am one year older and wiser to", and I definitely feel allot wiser. This year of my life has been amazing!! I am in awe of what has taken place!! I just thank my Heavenly Father for this blessed opportunity that I have been given and I hope to repay him through diligent and consecrated service this upcoming year!! Well Family it sounded like Dad, Mom and Amanda had a wonderful time in Savannah! That is awesome! I am super jealous!! :) 

So this last week was simply amazing things have been going awesome. And this area is only improving. Elder Black and I have been working our tails off. The ward has not changed a lick and has only gotten worse and so we went and met with our awesome stake President Rounsville from Blackfoot. And he assured us that there are going to be some exciting changes that we are looking forward to. We have been fasting and praying for success despite the ward situation and things are on the up. We had a miracle this last week as Emery received permission from his Dad to get baptized!! So he now is looking really solid to get baptized on February 15th. And anther miracle that has taken place is we recently had an solid investigator move into our area named Kat, I think I told you about her, but her lesbian mom is letting her get baptized on her 16th birthday! Yay! We have been finding new investigators allot more often as well which I definitely attribute to our faith in looking forward and not back! 

Family! I miss you!! But I love what I am doing! This is the greatest work in the world. This is an eternal work, and we all need to be apart of it. Lift were you stand and be an instrument in the Lords hand. I am grateful for the missionary moments that you shared with me. They really strengthen me. Keep sharing them I would love to hear where your focus is!! Thanks my dear family for your love and support! I feel it!! By the way the greatest happiness you can feel as a missionary I just felt. I just found out that Fredrick Mckay got put in the Elders quorum presidency in the Academy Heights ward!! :)

Love
Elder Barrus 

51st Letter: "Hey Hey Family!"

Dear Family, 

A miracle truly has been performed in the Barrus Family! Congrats Zac and Chelsea on having a GIRL!! I am still not sure if maybe you are all pulling a fast one on me or not, but hey I will believe it when I see it (or her) in a year!! No but that is super awesome she is going to be a rocking softball player!! And Sister Missionary, the Barrus family needs some of those!! 2014 Is going to be such an awesome year for y'all and it sounds like Dad, Mom and Amanda are starting it off right with going on a vacation!! I hope you will have some fun in the sun!! :) Well I have been doing great! It was a great week last week and I am starting to get a better feel of which direction this zone is heading in. There were some awesome moves within the zone and we got some stellar hard working missionaries that know how to get things done, so that is what I like to see!!  

I personally have devoted myself to make 2014 the year of miracles! I have said this over and over again, but it really does make me sick to think that my mission is half over. I look back over 2013 and am humbled by how many blessings that I was given, how many miracles that I was able to be apart of. I dont know what I have done to make myself worthy to receive such blessings. The last couple of weeks I came to a conclusion that the reason that I havent been blessed with success so far in Rio Rancho is because I hadnt have been grateful for the blessings that I have been given to this point of my mission. I truly was humbled at that moment I realized it. And I have seen a distinct change in my missionary work. The Lord has kind of poked me in the side and said most missionaries arent able to have this much success and why arent you grateful for what you have. 

So since that kind of realization that I went through we have been experiencing success! We have been finding people to teach and we have just felt more fulfilling after each day. We found a man named Frank and a different man named Steve just this last week and taught them super powerful Restoration lessons. I am excited to see where that goes. Emery the 10yr old was suppose to get baptized on Saturday but his anti dad put a hold on it. Emery is going to call his dad today and tell him how much he wants to get baptized. So we are pretty confident that he will be baptized in the coming weeks! He is awesome! Also we had a huge miracle were an investigator from the Bernalillo ward moved into our ward, she is 15 and has a super strong testimony! She is going to be baptized next month when her lesbian mom allows her too! Wonderful things are happening!! I am super excited for this upcoming transfer!!

Love you my dear family a ton!! I hope you all have a great week!! I leave you with a challenge this week though! Have a missionary moment, live your life uncensored! When you are on the airplane flying to Georgia tell the person sitting next to you that you went to church on Sunday and heard a powerful message or that you really enjoy Family History. You dont have to have a big missionary experience, just open your mouth!! The Lord works through the willing....so be WILLING!! :) 

Love you much
Elder Barrus

50th Letter: "First letter of 2014!!"

Dear Family,
I feel that the quality of my letters are drastically decreasing over my mission. My brain has becomed fried and so every time I sit down to write I cant think of anything to tell you! I am so sorry!! 

Anyways I am doing really great!! I found out that I will be staying in Rio Rancho for another transfer with Elder Black, I am excited and feel that it is going to be a great transfer!! There is so much to do!! And I am looking forward to the challenge! Which it definitely will be.

 We are experiencing a gradual change within the zone, we had 3 baptism this last week which equals the 3 previous months combined!! So we definitely are on the right track!! I am super excited to see a change in the whole zone moving forward this next transfer. Zone Training was this last Friday and we taked about burrying our weapons of rebellion and becoming fully consecrated missionaries! It went really well and I am hoping that the zone took it seriously. We really are trying our best!! 

I hope life is going well for everyone!! It is for me, this last transfer was definitley the most difficult for me of my mission, but I saw myself grow and develop the most, and I have really come to know why I am serving here in Rio Rancho. The Lord loves us all and knows our weaknesses and strengths, and He is willing to work with us if we are willing to work with Him! I am really looking forward to 2014 and what lays ahead for me and for all of us. My prayer is that we will all look forward in faith trying to become better!! Look for missionary opportunities, open your mouth and be an example of the believers!! The Lord loves us and blesses us unconditionally!! Let us share that love!!

Have a great week!! It is going to be a busy one for me getting everyone in there assigned areas and what not. Love you tons! Never forget that!!
Elder Barrus

49th Letter: "2014!! Black-out year for Elder Barrus!!"

Dear Family,
Here I am again, the day before the new year! 2014!! I am so pumped it is going to be such an awesome year!! I will forever love 2013 because I dont think I have ever grown so much in a single year than as I have in this last year. I have truly seen myself be molded into the person that my Heavenly Father wants me to be. And I cant imagine what 2014 will bring, I am guessing allot of fun difficult challenges, thats usually what missionary work brings. I really look forward to seeing what difference I can make as I devote myself to the Lord and give all that I can for the remainder of my mission. I truly do love this work!! I am exhausted as exhausted could be and I have been pretty frustrated lately, but I know that I am where the Lord wants me to be doing what the Lord wants me to be doing. 

It was so great to be able to see you all this last week. What an awesome family that I have!!! :) You all look great!! I hope that you had a wonderful time together, I am sure you did with the boys bouncing off the walls.  

So I am doing pretty great, trying to finish this transfer out strong! Our area has been going great as it looks like we are having 2 baptisms in the month of January! :) We have been working really hard to find people to teach, as our teaching pool is really small currently. We have seen some miracles as we have been striving to talk to and invite everyone that we meet. 

I am going to try to write to a bunch of people that I have neglected to write to on my mission so sorry this is a somewhat shorter email. But there isn't too much going on!

I love you a ton Family!! :) 

Elder Barrus 

ps I will be emailing on Monday next week since it is transfer week.