New Opportunity and More Trucks...

Hey y'all

This week was crazy busy with it being Methvin's last week. Imma miss Elder Methvin - he's been great. Our baptism wedding didn't pan out, but we still got a lot done last week.

Someone that I helped teach a few times on exchanges got baptized! That was exciting, Hector is a great guy. It was great seeing him and the fact that he considered me one of the missionaries who was part of his conversion meant a lot to me. Other than that we found some more trucks to add to the list, an International and a Mack (see pics). 

Oh also I got called to be a trainer for a new missionary. I'll get to meet him Thursday. It's weird training a missionary when I just finished my own training but oh 🐳. I also am getting a mini missionary for 2 weeks starting Tuesday when Methvin leaves. A mini missionary is basically a kid who doesn't know if he wants to serve a mission or not so he's gonna try it out for 2 weeks. The mini missionary will be my only companion for 2 days, so he'll definitely get a taste of missionary work haha. 

Hollister is about to be the greenest area of all time. I'm in my third transfer as of Tuesday, my new comp will be in his first transfer, and we'll have a mini missionary who doesn't even know what a transfer is. My goal is to give the mini missionary a baptism opportunity. Don't know if that's possible, but I will do my best and with the Lord's help, you never know.

Love y'all,

Elder Barker

Hector's Baptism

Another picture from Santa Cruz's P-day a few weeks back

Another truck....

and ANOTHER truck....

Methvin Tie Cutting and More Great Food!

This week has been pretty stressful. Will and Brandy's baptism date was pushed
back to this Saturday so we are putting a lot of focus on them. We've
been having daily contact with them and so many other things. I
actually bought them a cake on their anniversary - a flipping cake!
We brought it to them and they weren't home so it melted. Now
there's a melted/frozen cake sitting in our freezer that we still need to
take to them. I didn't know it was possible to put so much work in for
one couple of investigators. Close to 10 hours a week, but they are definitely worth it.

Other than that Itried fondue for the first time this week at the Bruicks!! It was soooo good. 
We put oil in the fondue pot and stuck pices of chicken, steak, shrimp,
scallop, and potatoes on little sticks and fried them. I was in heaven and slept the best
sleep of my whole mission that night. Whenever I eat at the Bruicks house I always
leave super happy. 

The next day I had another BBQ with the Johnsons and had beef
deer and the really good cheesy potatoes so food wise it's been the
best weekend of my mission by far. 

Elder Methvin goes home a week from Tuesday so at district meeting this week I "killed him."
Whenever a missionary goes home, his last comp cuts their tie in half
with this machete knife we have. Because it's Mathvins last week, we're really
pushing hard so he can go out with a bang. When he leaves there's
a chance I could be training. Methvin is saying this so we'll see
how in tune he is with the spirit. 

The Primary program was Sunday so that is always good. We taught Gospel
Principles after sac meeting but only 4 elderly sisters were in the class so we just sat
in a circle and talked about "back in there day". It was interesting because they
were even older than my mom it was crazy! 

We got to wrestle Mark and the other elders Friday so that's always fun. I got Banks stuck pretty
good and that was great cause Banks can literally bench the gym so I felt like he-man. Mark
thought it was amusing so he video taped a snip.

Today we went hiking which was cool. The pic of two Elders (Joyner and Adams) and me was
taken cause we are all from the south.

Well, that's it. Love you all!
Elder Barker

Cutting Elder Methvin's tie before he goes home next week

Tie cutting  

P-day Hike

Elders from the south - Joyer, Barker and Adams

Elder Barker wrestling Elder Banks

Short and Sweet plus a Polar Bear

Hey y'all

This week was a long week. We had a baptism for this past Saturday but he went and talked to his Catholic priest about it and surprisingly he dropped the date. Oh well, hopefully we'll be able to stay in touch with him. 

We have a wedding-baptism on Saturday for Will and Brandy so that's exciting. Not much else went on this last week other than teaching, although, we didn't teach as much as we are use to. I did see a cool polar bear sign while we were moving a lady so I took a picture. Don't know what else to say...

Love ya,

Elder Barker

Saw this cool polar bear when we were helping a lady move

Garrett said that trucks are a good conversation starter, plus, "they're just cool"

Teaching a lot, a rattlesnake and Santa Cruz!

Hey y'all,

This week was fun and we taught a lot of lessons. I'm pumped about two of our investigators, Will and Brandy, who are planning on having their wedding and baptisms on the same day later this month. I'm hoping everything goes as planned. A lot of things have to fall into place between now and then to make this happen.

I got to go on exchanges with Elder Banks in Morgan Hill - it was great working with him again. Other than that this week was just filled with teaching which is a good thing. I did kill a rattlesnake (see proof picture)and a tarantula so that was new and fun. 

We went to Santa Cruz today for p-day and it was beautiful! We also went to the San Juan Mission museum (see picture). 

That's all see ya, 

Love Elder Barker

Enjoying a big black dog at the Dicksons

Fought the battle and won!

San Juan Mission Museum

Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz panoramic

Elder Banks and someone else with Elder Barker at Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz

Elder Barker found another semi to sit in

Our Zone

Baptism, Monterey and Learning to Lasso!

Hey y'all,

This was my favorite week in the mission so far cause I got to participate in my first baptism out here!! Her name is Madison and Elder Methvin and I contacted into her 5 weeks ago. She's the first member in her family and was a dream investigator - gave up word of wisdom issues as soon as we asked her to. She's already asking for a calling in the ward. She said everything we taught her seemed "familiar" to her.

Conference was great. I learned a lot about the importance of sacrament meeting and missionary work. My favorite talk was Elder Uchtdorf's about not losing excitement for the gospel and the Plan of Salvation.

I also am learning how to rope and am picking it up pretty quick. It's a super awesome missionary hobby, because it's real cheap and you can do it anywhere (see video).

Also I went to Monterey and had a fun time for p-day today. Had this really good seafood on the beach, visited the aquarium and walked around. Monterey is beautiful, but it turns out you can't even drive by Pebble Beach without paying so that was pretty sad.

And... Tennessee keeps winning so the blessings continue to flow from serving a mission. and I got a cool shirt....mom, you won't like it. 

Love y'all,

Elder Barker

Elder Methvin, Elder Barker and Madison Machado

Elder Methvin, Elder Barker, Madson and ?

Madison Machado's Baptism Program

Hollister Zone Conference end of September 2016

Garrett learned how to lasso and he has a video to prove it!

The shirt mom won't like