Lots of Service Opportunities in Los Altos

Hey,

We continue to do a lot of service in this area which I've really enjoyed. There isn't as much teaching as there was in Hollister, but I'm learning to like this area and am meeting some pretty awesome people. Here's the run down from last week.

Monday- P-day!! Whoot whoot!! 

Tuesday- We had an good day - went on exchanges with our Zone Leader, Elder Parrett, and did some awesome missionary work (isn't that what we're suppose to be doing!)

Wednesday - We fed homeless people and visited a retirement home. We ran an amazing game of bingo for them which was actually kind of fun. Also Elder Gartside wanted a hair cut so I hooked him up...there's a reason no picture is included!

Thursday - I puked a lot, had interviews with President Mella and we've started just going to ball courts at the parks to find people to teach. I like this approach, especially since I got to play an additional 4 hours of ball this week.

Friday - We fed the homeless and the whole week we were with an awesome member. So it was chill day. 

Saturday - We opened our gym for the public and people actually came. It was exciting! That night we had real Louisiana food from a member. Look up Jeff Corolla gumbo recipe on Google and that's who we ate with. If you want to try the recipe, let me know first as Jeff said he changed the recipe a little from what is published.

Sunday - We had church today for 60 hours! OK, so that's a little exaggeration, but attending two full church meetings plus correlation meetings makes for a very long day!

It was a great week, other than being sick.

Love, 

Elder Barker

Got these two pictures last week....

Garrett with Chris Durden - a friend from Hollister he ran into at a fireside

Garrett with his ukelele

Service and a Google bike ride

Hey ya'll,
This week was good. I'm still adjusting to the area, for example, 95% of the people here don't even wave or say hello....just not use to that. We also have a challenge of finding people at home because everyone here works so much....I know we'll figure it out though, at least we're able to get a couple of teaching opportunities each day in addition to lots of service. Here's some stuff that I did last week.

Monday - my exciting p-day activity was learning how to solve the rubix cube.

Tuesday - We had zone conference

Wednesday - Fed the homeless people and I came across what must be one of the dumbest names for a Vietnamese restaurant while out contacting.

Thursday - Did some shoveling in the rain and went to an awesome buffet with Brother Sydall

Friday - Fed the homeless people again and found a Google bike in a dumpster so I rode around on that bike for the rest of the day.

Saturday - We had a zone sports activity which I really don't like, mainly because I have to wake up 45 minutes earlier than normal and they play stupid games (sorry mom for saying stupid, but they are). Someone captured the moment (see picture below).

Sunday - Figured out that our Russian progressing investigators were just using us for English practice. But, on the brighter side, I set a PR for the rubix cube and of course, caught G sleepin' during church again...smh.

Love, Elder Barker

Elder Stutz and Elder Barker outside of Chick Filet

Riding the Google bike

A Vietnamese restaurant

Catching up on some sleep at the sports activity

Week of Service: Feeding the homeless and shoveling mulch

Greetings from Mountain View,

Had a good week. I forgot to tell you that we watched a broadcast last month that talked about changes in the mission. Basically we have more free time on p-day and in the nights. It seems like we honestly have less accountability as we now only report 4 things - not a big deal, I'll still keep doing what I've been doing.

You asked about my comp - he's laid back and a great guy and I'm really happy he's my comp. Here's what we did last week.

Monday - P-day! We played basketball. 

Tuesday - Today we had our first district meeting today. We started to meet a lot of people in the area which is exciting

Wednesday - We fed some homeless people and gave a couple of them our numbers. It was awesome, but now they won't stop calling us and asking for KFC.  

Thursday - We shoveled mulch in the "rain storm" for 2 hours! Ok, it wasn't a "rain storm" but it was drizzling. The west is soft

Friday - Today we fed the homeless people again.

Saturday - We biked soooooo much today, the most I've biked on my mission so far. It was a good day though. 

Sunday - Poor Elder Gartside, I caught him napping again at church and I missed the Super Bowl for the first time in 19 years :-(

Love ya'll,

Elder Barker

Elder Gartside in the back, Edler Finau in the front

Good-bye Hollister, hello Mountain View and self driving cars

Last week was good other than leaving Hollister which I'm going to miss. I arrived in my new area, Mountain View, Tuesday. I live in Mountain View and cover all of that city plus Los Altos and Eagle Park. The area is not as big as Hollister, but has like 5 times the amount of people. Everyone here has so much money. They all have post grad degrees from places like Duke MIT and Harvard. There are a lot of really young (and rich) families. I see cars that literally drive themselves everyday. You just type in an address and the car does the rest, it's ridiculous, (btw, missionaries don't have these kind of cars). And everyone else who actually steers their cars, have vehicles that cost more than my life. Not sure I like this type place but I know I'll get used to it and will learn to love the people. 

The work here is a lot less than in Hollister. I support both the Los Altos and Eagle Park Wards. There are a few people I can see getting baptized soon so hopefully I'll have some bright spots. We definitely need to work on building the teaching pool.  My new companion is Elder Gartside. He is from Maryland and fell asleep in church....getting to be a tradition with my companions.

The best part of the week was going back to Hollister last Saturday to participate in two baptisms , Jose and Kristina. It's hard to express the joy that was in the room that day. I've been very blessed to be a part of their conversions and to see two families who are now progressing to the temple. I got to eat with the Johnsons and Momma Johnson hooked me up with some food to take back to Mountain View - she is awesome!

Hope you all have a good week.

Love ya'll,

Elder Barker

Jose and Debbie Fernandez, their family and Elder Hack

Kristina, her husband, Elder Hack plus two

Elder Gartside asleep....maybe he was just closing his eyes

Helping people dig out of the Hollister flood, baptisms! and getting transfered

Hey,

We have two baptism dates for this upcoming Saturday - Jose Fernandez and Kristina Elliott which is awesome. We didn't teach as much this week because we were helping families dig out of the flood that happened in Hollister - it was really bad.

Here's what I did last week....

Monday: P-Day! Wrote my mom a wonderful, long email....trying mom!

Tuesday: We did service all day for Hollister flood and landslide victims. I felt so bad for this one family we were helping dig out of the mud...we found their dead goats, pieces of their car and other things. There are still families that cannot return home and probably won't be able to any time soon.

Wednesday: We did more service for the flood and landslide victims before we had to go to San Jose for a "driving defensively" course. In the entire mission, there's only 3 "reckless drivers", and they're all in Hollister (we won't name names, Elders Hack, Azuara, and I would be upset if we did). So we had to go through a drivers safety course for over 3 hours.

Thursday: We did something productive and Momma Johnson cooked us tacos.....going to miss Momma Johnson and her family when I'm transferred!

Friday: We did awesome service and I had a play date with Elder Parker at Bass Pro Shop while our comps got some training.

Saturday: Today we went to a wedding! Jose got married so he can be baptized this coming Saturday. We are stoked for him! We found Jose when Brother Hughes (awesome Ward Mission Leader) and I were going through the less active list to see if we could speak with any of them.  Jose's wife was on this list (has been less active for 20 years) and she agreed to speak with us. Long story short, we began teaching her husband Jose and now he's getting baptized. They are a great couple and I'm so excited for them.

I found out that Tuesday I'm heading to the Los Altos and Eagle Park Wards, in Los Altos. Currently we teach an average of 7xs more lessons in Hollister than they do in Los Altos so we have our work cut out for us. It's definitely not Hollister, and I will most likely be reminded of that the whole time I'm there smh, but I'm sure I'll learn to love the area/people there as well.

Sunday: We went to church and said bye to a few families. I'm really going to miss the awesome people in Hollister and will always be grateful for all they did to help me get off to a good start on my mission.

Love ya,

Elder Barker

Jose and Debbie Fernandez' wedding day

Nordstoms and Sydall family - great people in Hollister!

Holdaway Family - more great Hollister people

Mudslide in Hollister - can you see Garrett?

Aftermath of Hollister flood

Stopped by the Police again!

Hey ya'll,

Been another great week...here's some of the stuff I did.

Monday- we went to Gilroy and later ate salmon at the Johnson's.

Tuesday- we got rained on and had an apartment inspection. We got rid of lots of stuff. We also went on splits.

Wednesday- very interesting day, I got pulled over for apparently being an aggressive driver. Totally false by the way, at the time I was being an excellent driver. The main reason I was pulled over was that the bike rack was blocking the license plate so I sawed it off. It was awesome! And, btw, didn't get a ticket.

Thursday- we had a zone conference. It's always good to meet with President Mella and other missionaries I don't see often. We also went on exchanges with a Vietnamese elder and ate Vietnamese food to help him feel more at home, just a little less communist. I did get to ride in a Hellcat (very fast car) with a Marriott! He told us that "it rains Marriott money in Morgan Hill". Maybe some day I'll get to figure out what that means.

Friday- I ate Asian buffet with the childhood BFF of Jim McMahon.

Saturday- Elder Hack bought a new bike at a very sketchy yard sale. He is super stoked to have a bike again! We ate chicken at the Elliot's and had whitetail at the Johnson's.....love the food here in Hollister!

Sunday- we went to church! 

I find out Saturday where I'm going for transfers on the 24th....will be interesting.

Love ya,

Elder Barker

Proof of the Hellcat ride

That is the policeman in the background

Just doing what the policeman told me to do

Successfully removed the bike rack

Helping Juliette Johnson try out a new product that she sells :-)

Tom Sawyer, a missing bike and a new baby!

Hey ya'll, 

Yea so the huge flash flood rain storm everyone was talking about sucked. It was literally just like the weekly rain in Carolina. Everyone is a pansy out here about weather. Hits 90 with no humidity and it's too hot. Hits 50 and it's too cold. So the rain didn't effect me much at all. In other news, think I'm going to find someone to do my weekly emails for me so mom will be happy week in and week out. Think I'll just do "Tom Sawyer" it my whole mission. Someone else writes emails while I sit there. The Holy Ghost converts people while I just sit there. And, I get credit for both- it' will be awesome!

Here's what happened last week...

Monday - we had an awesome time gettin' pedicures. Elder Hack was hiding behind his iPad with an uncomfortable expression on his face as it was the first time he had ever had one. He said it was weird and his feet are now soft. I, as always, had an awesome time and thanked the lady many times. It was legit!

Tuesday - It was windy, cold, and rainy. I was not feeling well and had a headache. It was a rough day so I went to see mission momma, #mommaJohnson, and get some medicine. But, the work needs to go on, so I then went on splits which is always a blessing.

Wednesday - we did service for a 97 year old man by planting a palm tree in a cardboard box. We ate at Kong Fu Panda, or Panda Bear as King Cash calls it, or Panda Express as everyone else calls it.

Thursday - we did something very productive but I can't remember.

Friday - we played volleyball at the church in the evening.

Saturday - Elder Hack got his bike stolen! He's gonna have to borrow one from the mission and he's not too happy about it. His bike was right next to mine and they only took his ! We think it's because my bike is Shrek sized and his was fun sized.

Sunday-we went to church and one of our investigators had a baby (not at church.)

That's it - love ya'll,

Elder Barker