Here is a picture of one of the beautiful parks in Bucaramanga.
Here is Will on Christmas Eve with the tiny little Christmas tree I sent - I had to laugh. There are only two presents next to the tree. A sweet sister gave them each a bottle of cologne. At least they had one present to unwrap Christmas morning. He had opened our parcel earlier in the week.

February 23, 2009

Haaalo familia,
I don’t have tons of time to write but I will get in what I can. The package that you sent with the pictures and all has arrived. It was very, very cool and the cards as well. Thanks a ton. All the Elders loved looking at my pictures and they thought the High school was huuuge. Also they were very amazed to see me in my football uniform with all the pads and stuff. I gave everyone part of a big hunk to try and they thought they were very, very good but I doubt they will last long. It’s always exciting to get a package or a letter from home so thanks a lot again.
I know I say this every week but the time is passing incredibly fast. I now have 3 1/2 months in Colombia and another cambio has already come and gone. This week we have continued working with Diana (who is working out her problems) and we continue waiting for a response from the Mission President as to when she can get baptized.
Also on an unexciting note, we talked with the mom of Angelica, (who is very, very catholic) and had a great lesson and explained everything. At the end we "popped the question" and asked if she would allow her daughter to be baptized. Angelica told her how much she wanted to and we taught about Personal Agency and she flat out said “no”. She said being the Catholic mother that she is, she would consider it a disaster in the family to have someone leave their church. It’s frustrating because we have to respect what she says. We can only keep trying to work with them.
On a good note, we found some very, very good investigators this week. It was a very good testimony builder for me and an answer to prayers. To start the week we had some veeery slow days with very little success teaching anyone. We always pray to find the people that are waiting for our message but this night I prayed "harder" I guess you could say. The next day we found 4 different homes that wanted to listen and were very willing to have us come back, I really have realized in the mission over and over, that prayers are answered and it’s such a strength to your testimony each time one is.
Today has been a busy P day. We played some more bball and ping pong at the chapel. None of the chapels have gyms inside like we do but they have little courts outside.
As far as my camera, Hermana Camargo took it to get fixed and gave it back to me but it doesn’t really work right (but I didn’t say anything). I did have a Sony camera that dad sent me buuuut, Elder Araujo didn’t have a camera so I gave it to him for 2 ties. I know he deserves to have pictures of his mission and it’s so much easier for us to get one. So today we went to the mall and I bought a new Sony Camera.
Tonight we end the cambio and the Assistants will call all the Zone Leaders and tell us who is headed for another part. There is a very, very good chance that I could be headed out of here and to my second area. I love the people here and the area I have, but also it would be interesting to see other places and work in other parts of Colombia. But I really am not too worried about it. The best thing to do is just say "A donde me mandes ire señor, “I´ll go where you want me to go dear lord”. So my next letter could be from here or from Bogotá or who knows.
Also, we are very excited because 5 more gringos will arrive in a few days. They are going to love being missionaries in Colombia.
All is very well - I love it here and thanks for everything.

Hasta Monday,
Ciao, Elder B

P.S. Haha, I just wanted to write one last thing I forgot to say in my letter so I don’t forget, because this is kind of like a diary. I think today I arrived as a Colombian. When we went to buy my camera we went to one of the big malls they have here. But it is very different than a mall in Utah. They are packed with little family or personally owned stores of Colombians that sell stuff. We headed to the Electronics floor and I started bartering with the people. I went with Elder Madariaga who is very convincing and it was actually quite fun. I went around all the different stores seeing what their prices were and telling them what the other ones had offered (it’s the way business runs here). We ended up taking off 40 mil pesos of the price (20 bucks) They put the prices up because they know it’s going to happen but it was actually fun and something you don’t experience growing up in Evanston. Ha ok I know this is not a very spiritual thought but I didn’t want to forget.
Love you all, the church is true, bubbye

Pictures from Bucaramanga

We really don't know much about any of these pictures except that they are obviously of his friends and companions in Bucaramanga. I'll post more later.

Will with his new companion, Elder Araujo from Peru. Will says that he is a great teacher.

We just received a package from Will - the first one that he has sent from Colombia. He sent 2 CD's with pictures he had burned on them. Someone opened the envelope, cut the tape on the inner box and removed the CD's. I'm very grateful that they didn't think they were worth stealing so they did put them back in the parcel but NOT in the secure box. The package was really a mess by the time we got it and I'm sooo glad that they were not broken. Whew. That is a little miracle. I am just so relieved to have all these wonderful pictures - I'll post some on his blog. We told him NOT to delete his memory cards until we had the pictures safely here.

Next time I send him a package, I think that I will include some of the Jesus stickers that I bought, so that he can put them on the packages he sends home. I always put them on the parcels I send him and so far he has received them okay. I think that they must really help. They say that the postal workers are really influenced by religious pictures and are less likely to steal those packages. I guess we say a prayer with each package we send and hope for the best.

All is Well

Here's Will's newest letter. Some of his wording really sounds funny but I guess it is because he is doing part of his thinking in Spanish.

February 16, 2009
Que tal familia.
All is well here in Colombia. I can’t believe how fast the weeks pass and that another has already come and gone.

I want to write a little part of my letter in Spanish so that you can practice your espanol translating it :) Toda ha sido muy bien esta semana, seguimos trabajando con nuestros investigadores. Cada dia siento mejor en mi abilidad de comunicar y expresarme a los investigadores, miembros y otros elderes. Esta semana tuvimos conferencia de le estaca y también entrevistas con presidente Camargo (mas información abajo). Tenemos una investigadora que se llama Angélica que ha querido bautizarse hace mucho tiempo pero la mama es muy católica y no todavía le permite bautizarse. Angelica también tiene una amigo se llama Camillo que tiene mucho interés en el mensaje entonces estamos trabajando mucho con ellos juntos.

Translation by Bruce – “All is very well this week. We are continuing to work with our investigators. This week we had Stake Conference and also interviews with President Camargo (more information later). We had one investigator that is named Angelica that would love to be baptized but her mama is very catolica and won’t give permission to baptize. Angelica also has a friend named Camillo that has much interest in the message. We work a lot with them together.”

Okay - back to English. We have a special case we are working with. She is a 25 year old girl who has had a really rough background. She has a little daughter of 8 years old who just got baptized and her mom also is a member. To be concise, she used to have a lot of problems with drugs and on one occasion, while she was on a lot of drugs, she had an altercation and killed someone. They say it was self defense but she had to serve prison time. She has also has some sickness and they say she has only about 8 years to live. She had been working with the missionaries in North Bucaramanga and just moved here.

She has had an amazing change through the gospel. She has done about everything she can to repent. She is working and supporting her daughter and receiving treatment in the hospital. She attends church every week. She always has something prepared for us to eat when we get there to teach her. It makes me feel bad because they are incredibly poor, but she has so much kindness. Seeing how she is, it’s hard to imagine her as the person she was. She really. really wants to get baptized as soon as she can and has done about everything she can. This week after Stake Conference, we had arranged an interview with her and the Mission President. She has already written a letter to the First Presidency and according to Pres. Camargo, she should be able to get baptized within this next month. This is an example of the amazing changes that can happen with the gospel. We are doing everything we can to help her get baptized and start a new life.

In other news this week we had interviews with the Mission President. He and his wife spoke in Stake Conference so they were here in Bucarmanga all week. She stopped by every house to see if we are keeping them clean and see if we needed anything. President and Sister Camargo really are basically awesome. They are always friendly and telling jokes and you can see how much they care about the missionaries.

But anyway, she stopped by and pointed out a few things that we could throw away and wrote down the stuff we needed for the house (like a new ironing board that doesn’t fall in half when you’re ironing). But she said the house was very clean. Ha when she was looking at our room she reached up to check something on a shelf and accidentally knocked my camera off and it broke. But she took it to a place and dropped it off to get fixed and she said she would return it to me fixed at Zone Conference this week.

The next day we had interviews with Pres. Camargo. It was different than the last interviews in that we went in as a companionship. All he did was ask how we were, discussed the situation with Diana our investigator. He said he was really amazed with my Spanish for only three months in the field, and that it was a real example of the gift of tongues.

In other happy news, after the interviews, they announced a new rule. We can play basketball and soccer on p days! Ok the soccer news isn’t that exciting but it has been over 3 months without touching a basketball. So today we went and bought a cheap ball and a pump and went to the nearest little park and got some good bball in. Elder Fernandez (zone leader from Chile who lives with us) and I went and played for about 2 and a half hours. Ha my comp and the other ZL Elder Madariaga have no idea how to play so they went to the mall place. It was pretty fun, although I was quite rusty and it was hard to shoot because the wind was blowing. But we played 1 on 1 and I got a little sunburn.

Well this letter is all over the place but I’m about out of time. All I can say is thanks for everything. Everyday I realize more how much I love my family and friends and how blessed we are and how happy I am to be serving in such an awesome place.

Much love and chiau,
Elder Barnard

Hey, forgot to answer any of your questions.
You asked about the freezing cold showers. I am used to the cold showers and after exercise in the morning it actually feels refreshing to have a nice cold shower as strange as that sounds.
I love the missionary quotes from those books, I don’t know what it’s like to send books in the mail but I would love to have some of those books to read.
I haven’t given any more talks but I usually bear my testimony on fast Sundays and try to talk about something that could be uplifting and helpful to the members.
I love getting the pictures every week via e-mail and they are very quick to download. I will try to send some as well, this week if I get a chance.
And I would love to get dearelder letters with spiritual stuff like that. I LOVE to get anything uplifting to read so all would be very welcome!
You asked if there is anything else that the family can do for me. All the family can do to help me is stay healthy and be happy :) all is great here.

Stung by a Wasp

February 9, 2009

Halo family,
All is well here in Bucaramanga. I can’t believe how fast these last few weeks have been going. It feels like P day comes, I wake up the next day and its Thursday; I wake up the next day and its P day again. I love it here in Bucaramanga.

We have continued working with Angelica and Isabel and have also found a young couple who seems to be interested. There are also two other ladies who really like the gospel message. This week we taught a ton of lessons and started teaching a lot of new people so hopefully some of them will end up being some of "the elect".

My new companion is a very, very good teacher and we work well together.

That’s sad to hear about Elder Wilson. (He got Dengue Fever but is recovering okay). All the Elders in my group at the MTC got to be really close and this is the first news that I’ve heard of him. He is in the other mission, the Barranquilla Mission. It’s in the Northern part of Colombia and the coastal area. I have heard that their mission has more jungle crazy parts like that, and the cities are all ridiculously hot. As far as my mission, I don’t think there are parts that have big problems with mosquitoes etc. like they have there. Here in Bucaramanga I haven’t been bitten by any mosquitoes yet.

Some random cool stuff that happened this week. The other day we were walking down the street to go to an appointment and we saw some little kid throwing rocks at a tree and laughing. As we walked under the tree I felt like something was shocking my hand and out of impulse I dropped my bag and there was an avisp (I think in English it’s like a wasp) stinging my hand. I flicked it off and it started chasing us down the street. We had to run like 50 feet to lose it. Ha-ha but no worries, we were close to the house of Marta and Jose (our converts) so we stopped by there and I washed my hand. It only left a tiny bump which is already gone.

Also yesterday we were walking by one of the barrios that is a little lower class, and there were two teenagers having a knife fight. One would jab at the other and then back away and then the other would do it. Ha all the people just walked outside and stood there like they wanted to watch, but one guy called the police. By the time they showed up the kids had already ran off.

But to close, everything is going well, despite that stuff. I really feel like we are protected and I know as long as we’re doing what we should, we will be fine. I realize things I have been blessed with at home and here that I should have been more grateful for everyday. I see how much the Lord has blessed our family. Tell grandma happy bday and I hope everything is good at home. I
love you all and will talk to you next p day.

Love Will

I had to laugh at the thought of Will, at 6'3" and his companion, at 4'9" running down the street together to get away from the wasp. It would have been a funny sight.

The Work Goes On

February 2, 2009

Hola familia,

All is well here in good old Bucaramanga. This has been yet another week that has passed rapidisimo (very fast) but another good one.

This week we decided to focus on working with members that haven’t been as active and with our converts. We have two teenage girl investigators that could accept an invitation to get baptized any second, but they still feel a little nervous so we are trying to help them with their doubts. We also have another teenage girl who is 16 and already has a testimony and wants to get baptized but her parents are very very catolico and they haven’t yet given her permission, so we have potential investigators we just have to get them over the hump and help them. But as I was saying this week, we had a lot of lessons with our new converts and with some inactive members.

The family of Marta, Jose, Pablo and Angie are doing great and really growing in the church. For the Sacrament meeting here they use 5 priesthood holders, 2 to bless and 3 to pass since the ward is smaller. ha-ha This week 4 of the 5 were our converts, one of them blessed the water and the other 3 passed the Sacrament. At first they looked a little like lost sheep, but the First Counselor pointed them where to go and they got it done. It was very rewarding to see the people we have brought into the ward contributing and already helping in the church. It really is true what President Hinckley said, that all new members need a friend, a calling and to be nurtured with the scriptures. You can just see how much more people feel involved when they have something that they are asked to do in the church.

My comp. (District Leader) and the Zone Leaders, who live with us, went to Bogotá today for a meeting of leaders so I am here for 3 days with another Elder from here. We will split up our work between our two areas and today we are here in our casa for p day. It has been a very relaxed pday, I have done the laundry and relaxed around the house. For lunch we went to a little place down the street where they have a bunch of roasted chickens and potatoes. We bought a little chicken and some potatoes for 11 mil (thousand) pesos which make about $5.50 for both of us.

On a spiritual note, today I was thinking about our investigators and what we could do to help them gain a stronger testimony and I realized it’s really a blessing and made me think about the atonement. That I can be here in a different country and I’m worrying about these people I've just met and not about being homesick or feeling like it is too hard. It’s something we can always have to think about that the Savior already suffered for every pain we have had so that we would be able to worry about these other things.

You asked about my shoes. I rotate between the 3 pairs every day, the Eccos are a little better looking but the Rockport’s are very tough and all 3 of my pairs of shoes are in great shape so far. I haven’t gotten a dear elder parcel yet but I’m sure it’s coming. Also, how is grandma doing? I haven’t heard about her for a while and Adam and Taylor with his mission tambien and anything else going on in the family? I can’t believe it when you said the Cardinals were in the super bowl, ha but I guess that shows I have been gone a while.

Thanks a ton for everything and I will talk to ya next week.