A slide!

Hey ya'll,

This week was one of the busier weeks I've had since Hollister which is good it means we have people to teach and people are hating us slightly less. I've also officially determined that this area is at least 40 years in the future from NC, there's no way around it. One day we'll catch up, but I hope it's not soon. I love the barbaric ways of normal civilization, it's nice.

We had zone conference this week and that was good. It only went an hour over this time instead of the normal 2 hours, so we almost made it to our appointments on time that night. I enjoy zone conferences here a lot because it is combined with the 2 zones next to us and that's where all except like 2 of my friends in the mission are, so I'll take a 8 hour meeting to see all of them. We talked a lot about humility, which I'm already a perfect master at, so it was an easy few hours...smh We also got new phones there and these are slightly less aggravating as the old ones, but they shortened every single contact into one word. So where before we had 50ish names that started with brother (I.e. Brother Jones, brother Johnson, etc) we now have 50ish "brothers" in our contacts. So that's been super exciting dealing with. 

Tho the most exciting thing that happened this week wasn't really a missionary thing but there's no way anything could top this. So we went to a member's house to eat dinner and teach a family of 4 (who's probably getting baptized so that justified my actions). They asked me to go downstairs and tell the 8 kids, all 14 or younger, to come get dessert, so I said ok. I asked where the stairs were and they said "just take the slide". Yea, the slide! They literally had a slide that went down to their basement. So I'm like flip yea let's do this. I go down this big blue spiral slide and come out on a mattress, next to an indoor basketball court that the 10 year olds are playing on. And obviously I can't say no to a couple kids challenging my skills. So we played 2 on 1 really quick to 11 and I killed them. It's was 11-0 in about 60 seconds. I felt a little bad, but they challenged my manhood and they said I couldn't go easy on them. Me and the 2 kids were talking trash to each other when G walked down the stairs and said we had to go up, and he was probably a little surprised at the scene he walked into. But yea that was the most exciting thing to happen to me in the past couple of weeks.

Also a little kid knocked G's iPad out of his hands and now he has to pay to fix his screen so apparently i bully kids in our ward, and the kids bully Elder Gartside. Interesting to say the least.

I can't think of anything else to talk about, I'll send some pictures later - we're going to Stanford with a friend from Hollister who's driving up to see us - sweet! I still miss the people in Hollister - probably always will.

Love ya'll,

Elder Barker

Stanford

New District Pet and Styling a Lava Lava

Hey ya'll,

This week was good. Today marks 8 months on my mission so I'm a third of the way there. So last week I had good BBQ for the first time my whole mission. The family was from Texas and Louisiana, so they have some county in em. They did Carolina style because they knew no one out here can handle a smoker. It wasn't as good as the east coast, but it was close enough to where I was honest this time when I said the pork was good (first time in my mission). 

Also I caught a salamander and so now we have a district pet. His name is Randle and it's probably the most exciting thing to happen to me the past two months. The issue is every single night this week when we got back to the apartment he had escaped and we'd have to find him. I don't know why he keeps trying to run away, his diet is leftover pizza milk and water so I'd trade places with him any day. I spoil him rotten. 

But on another note we had a referral that actually was interested. We've seen him twice and both times he couldn't talk because Mexican soccer was on and apparently that's more important than his salvation. But he said there wasn't anything he wanted to watch Tuesday night so we're gonna see him then. We're also excited to teach the family from Delaware we met at church last week - they're back from their vacation. Looks like this week will be another good one. 

Also the Tongan family that I've gotten close with is letting me use lava lava's whenever I want. And needless to say I look a lot better than my sisters in a dress. I'll end it on that note.

Love, 

Elder Barker

Randle - the District Pet

Elder Andrade with Randle

Modeling the lava-lava

Holi Festival in Mountain View

Received these great pictures from a member. Apparently the Elders had a dinner apt and after the dinner the family invited the Elders to join them at the Holi Festival. Garrett said the family didn't think the Elders would participate due to their clothes.....they were wrong!

5 Trunkiest Minutes of My Mission

Hey ya'll,

Overall, it was one of the slower weeks I've had in the mission, but it ended on a high.

Monday- P-day! 

Tuesday- We had a district meeting at a Chinese restaurant and had some bomb food! 

Wednesday - We did some awesome homeless service and spent the day with Elder Finau on exchanges.  

Thursday - We did service cutting down and moving some trees, and I found this dope soda place called Rocket Fizz that sells a ton of southern and eastern candy and soda. I was only there for like 5 minutes and I saw moon pies, sugar daddies, Stripes, Cheerwine Bubble Up, Nehi Boylan and so much. It was the trunkiest 5 minutes of my mission! 

Friday- We didn't do anything too exciting, but it was a good day.

Saturday - I demolished my ankle playing basketball! It was equivalent to a train running over it and then going in reverse, awful! 

Sunday- I hobbled through the church meetings and was introduced to a family of new investigators who are super solid. G and I are excited about the opportunity to teach this family of 4.

I know mom would like me to write more details, but I am who I am.

Love ya'll,

Elder Barker

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