Vacation

Hi all family and friends.

This is just a short note to let you know that I will probably be unable to post regularly for the next little while. We are going to Europe on a vacation for four weeks and will probably have only limited and sporadic use of computers. I am so excited that I can hardly stand it. I can't believe that we will be leaving tomorrow morning. We are all packed up and ready to go. I will try to post a few things when I am able. Bye for now.

Will is a new Trainer

Some beautiful pictures of the Colombian countryside thanks to Elder Lee.

Elder Barnard and Elder Lee leaving Bucaramanga




Hola querida familia,

Well I have been transferred to la capital (Bogota). They have called me to be a trainer. I will be working with a greenie named Elder Larson. I am very very excited and nervous. All is going very well up to this point and I’ll try to write a little about the last week. I am in the same zone as all the Mission Home people.
I got my stuff all packed up pretty early so I wasn’t up all night packing suitcases and at 5 30 I was up showering and getting ready. We lugged our suitcases ( Elder Fernandez and me) down the stairs of the apartment and took a taxi to the bus station. There were about 8 elders and 1 hermana that were heading to Bogotá so we all got tickets on the same bus. It was kind of ironic because I got to sit with Elder Lee and we talked about how 5 months ago we arrived on a similar bus without any idea about the mission or being able to speak much Spanish and now we were leaving to start the next part of the mission on a similar bus. I said goodbye to my comp and the other Elders and we headed out at about 8 30.
Coming to Bucaramanga it was the middle of the night so I couldn’t see anything but this time I was able to see all the little villages and Colombian scenery as we drove. We stopped at about 1 for lunch and they showed 2 movies during the ride but they were both kind of dumb so I didn’t watch. It was a very long bus ride and we got into Bogotá at about 7 30 but Bogotá is gigantic so we got to the bus terminal at about 8. I was a little nervous as we started to drive through Bogotá thinking about being a trainer and starting in an area we know nothing about. We got to the terminal and our zone leaders were there waiting.
They hauled me off in a hurry and we took a taxi to our apartment. We got to the house at about 8 30 and headed upstairs to the apartment. It’s an apartment complex somewhat like the other I had but it’s designed differently. It’s got like curvy stairs that lead up to little balconies where all the doors to the apartments are. We live in Apt 307. It turns out that there are 9 new American Elders. They hadn’t arrived yet so we waited at the house about 15 minutes before they got there.
My son (haha that’s what the missionaries say when you train someone) was the first one up the stairs. His name is Elder Mike Larson from Kaysville Utah. He is awesome. He is about 5 10 and has short blonde hair. He has been to BYU for one semester. He used to play sports but in 10th grade he had an accident that messed up his ankle so he couldn’t play after that.
But anyway they opened the doors and we got the first view of the house. Haha after the nice apartment in Bucaramanga with open roof deck and lots of space you could say it’s a downgrade. Haha but its a nice little apartment with a little kitchen and dining room, a little bathroom, 2 bedrooms and a tiny study room. It’s got a beautiful view of some rusty tin roofs of some shops that are next to it :) But it’s the only apartment I've seen in Colombia with carpet so that is good. The sisters left it quite messy with extra clothes left behind and dirty plates and stuff but not too bad. From there the other Elders headed out and I got to know my comp a little bit.
My comp has a very good attitude and wants to work hard so that’s very good. He is very humble and he seems to be a very nice elder. His Spanish is good for a greenie but he still doesn't understand things because everyone talks so fast. I remember those days ha. We talked a little in English to get to know each other but we put the rule in place that first he will try his best to say something in Spanish and if he can’t then I can tell him how. I know that he will learn it much faster that way. It was so good for Elder Lee and me because we had to speak Spanish from day one. We got a little sleep and spent the morning getting the house all cleaned up. We bought some eggs and bread and I fried them and made egg sandwiches for breakfast (my cooking skills are very limited). After that we studied a little and headed out to walk around the area a little bit.
The temple is about 6 blocks from our house and the chapel is about 4 so its a great location. Its not in downtown Bogotá but it's somewhat close. Its pretty easy to figure out the directions and stuff because it's all basically a perfect grid which is a lot different than my other area. We got to know some of the members and they are awesome. It is a ward where the church is very strong. About 160 to 180 people attend church every week in comparison to 60 to 70 in my old ward and the leadership is very very good.
The area presidency of Colombia Venezuela and Ecuador live in our ward and many of the temple workers also. The members are great and we have met some families that are very very very firm in the church. We met the bishop and he was great and said he wants the goal of everything the ward does to be to help the mission work so we are glad for that. The ward has 2 companionships because the neighbor ward dissolved because of lack of priesthood so about half the members from there got put in our ward along with the missionaries. The district Leader Elder Alvarado has been here for a while so he has helped us to get to know a lot of the families and a lot of them have friends that want to learn the gospel which is great but has been stressing.
Ha The first 5 months here in Colombia, I have been a junior comp so I could just let my comp handle things. But now I am the person that communicates with all the members, organizes all the references and questions they have and make sure every thing goes well. I also have to communicate with the district leader and zone leaders.
It really has been a little stressing but at the same time I’m very excited to have more responsibility and I know it’s a blessing. Well I love you all, I think I’m learning faster than I ever have because I’m definitely being challenged but I’m loving it. Thanks for all your support, out of time. Much Love Will

Probable Transfers

Hola querida familia,
Things are going great here in Bucaramanga. Sounds like hectic times there but all the travel sounds cool. That is awesome about the trip to Europe, what cities are you going to see? This has been a busy week but again a very good one.

We had interviews with the president. Went on companionship interchange with the assistants and of course conference. The interviews went very well, and after President Camargo told me that I was going to be leaving for another area. Ha, he said he had already done the transfers and he didn’t remember where I was going but he thought Bogotá, but we will find out tonight.

The conference was very cool. The first two Saturday sessions we watched in Spanish in the terrazas chapel. It was cool because I was able to understand everything they said, but it’s just not the same as hearing president Monson or Uchtdorfs voice. For the priesthood session they had a TV set up in the chapel with English so we watched that in English. The talks by the first presidency were amazing, I loved Presidente Uchtdorfs talk about the little light in the airplane. Sunday morning we watched the first session in English again and right as the second one started the power went out. It was kind of funny because in the English room were Elder Lee, Wagstaff and I, and a few Colombianos who served missions in the states or who learned from gringo companions so we sat there for a while and they practiced English with us. The power came back with about half an hour left so we will have to wait for the Liahona to read what was said.

They really talked a lot about the economic problems. This was a total surprise to me. What is happening in our country? And what is it that is causing the problems? If you could tell me in the next letter because I really am out of it as far as what’s going on there.

Today for PDay I spent most of the time getting my suitcase ready and I've got about two thirds packed so I won’t be up all night on Tuesday. Ha, I don’t think I have ever packed before the last possible second in my whole life for basketball camps and trips. I guess that’s because of the mission.


Bueno to the questions. I have plenty of space in my email inbox but I do delete lots of the letters so I hope you keep saving them. The mail here tends to come in big piles about once a month or once every three weeks so when I get stuff there is usually quite a lot but they have been arriving just fine, only slow. I’m about out of time but they call pretty late with the transfers.

Thanks for everything family. Much love and keep on being happy and healthy.

March 30, 2009

Scenes from Bucaramanga




Hola Family,
All is great here in Bucaramanga. It has been a beautiful week with lots of little showers all week which equals more shade and cooler (which equals good).

We have had a successful week finding various people who seem to be very interested in our message. One of them is a 19 year old girl named Laura and her Mom. After writing you last week she asked us who we were so we introduced ourselves. She asked me where I was from and was amazed to be talking to a Gringo. She asked me if she could practice English for a second, so I answered a few of her broken English questions and she thought it was quite cool. She asked if we could stop by her house and explain better what we do so we have visited them twice this week. Both she and her mom seem very intrigued by our message and we are excited to keep teaching them.

It is hard to believe but yet again another cambio (transfer) has almost passed. Next Monday night the assistants will call and tell us who is going and who is staying. Ha I don’t think I will start packing my suitcases yet but it is almost a sure thing I will be transferred somewhere else. But I won’t know until after my next letter so that can be talked about later.

I really liked what mom and dad said about preparing the harvest in your letters. Sometimes missionaries get caught up in how many baptisms they have and forget the importance of preparing people and real conversion. I know I probably won’t see the end result with the people we are working with now or if they become converted or not so this week. This is a good chance for me to forget about my own results and try to help prepare these people so that hopefully if I leave they can reap the "harvest" blessings later.

Yesterday at church my comp and I spoke. The bishop told us we could pick whatever topic so I spoke on Prayer. I talked about 3 important parts of prayer, that we pray "at all times, in all things and all places (D&C 6:36), that we ask in faith (James 1:5-6) and that we are ready and know how to recognize the answer. With the last point I shared the experience that had happened with Marta and Jose a few months ago and how our prayers were answered. It went well and one sister told me after that I was "La persona clave de mi dia" and it was a message she needed to hear. So I felt very good about the talk and I know the spirit testified through my gringo accented Spanish to help her.

Now for your questions... I don’t think I have put on any weight – everything fits loosely - but I really don’t have access to a scale. We have been going to a soccer field every other day to run a mile and doing exercise in the house the alternate days so I think I’m staying in pretty good shape. I got the parcel with the two books and the candy. I took a few peeks at the book about preparation and it seems to have some awesome stuff. There is Jell-O here, cool whip I haven’t seen yet but pasta, yes there is plenty. We do have a cake pan but I couldn’t tell you if it is 9 by 13.
Well all I can say is thanks for all of the support. I know I always say the same stuff but I really am grateful for the family I have, especially as I see more and more how family life is in many cases here. The majority of the South American elders here were raised by single mothers or are converts of a few years and it really makes one think about all we have.
But again thanks for everything, the church is true, hasta next week. Love Elder Barnard

New Elders arrived

This must be Elder Wagstaff - he's a big handsome boy. With his blond hair he will really stand out. He looks like he loves Giron already.

Will with two of the Elders in his apartment - I think.

Will said that he was frying plantains - I am continually amazed at his new cooking skills. Ha ha.

March 23, 2009
Hola familia,
It’s good to hear that all is going well even if you’re all over the place traveling to Canada etc. This has been another good week in Bucaramanga, we just keep grinding along looking for the elect. These few weeks have been a struggle to find progressing investigators but we have been trying many different things and involving the members so I know it will come. I know the Lord always puts us with people or gives us challenges to help us learn and grow in something.

This week two new gringo Elders arrived here, Elder Wagstaff and Christiansen. They sent them on a middle of the night bus, all by themselves, exactly like Elder Lee and me. We're glad they got here okay. They had quite a trip.

Since I live with the Zone leaders, they asked me if I would go with one of them (Elder Fernandez) to pick them up and the other one stayed with my comp. Because it’s tough to communicate and understand people when you first start the mission, they gave them a cell phone to carry and I would call them every once in a while to see where they where (not that they knew ha-ha). So we were up waiting all night for them to get here and call. They called at about 4 in the morning and said they thought they were in Bucaramanga because the bus was stopped but they didn’t know for sure. We had them give the phone to the bus driver and he told us they had already passed the terminal and were like 10 miles outside the city up a mountain heading to parts unknown. So we hurried and grabbed a taxi and went to where they said. I’m glad we found them – it wouldn’t be fun to be lost in the Colombian jungle in the middle of the night. Who knows where they could have ended up. We picked them up and we couldn’t all fit in a taxi so I went in one with the two new elders and Elder Fernandez and the comp of Elder Christiansen went in another.

It was really cool because that was exactly the situation I was in a few months ago. I got to amaze them with my Spanish skills talking to the taxi driver and getting us to the house ha-ha.
Elder Christiansen left right away with his comp to Cucuta, but Elder Wagstaff stayed the night so I really got to talk to him. He is awesome. They both seem like really good elders. We’re so glad to have them here. Elder Wagstaff will be in Giron with Elder Lee and those guys there. They were lucky to be able to come to a really good area to start out their missions. I know they will love it here.

Today we went to Giron to play some b-ball with Elder Wagstaff and his comp and some of the members of their ward. Wow, it was fun to play b-ball with these guys. I found out he went to Olympus High School in Salt Lake so we had played them like 4 times in spring league and he said he remembered losing to us ha-ha.

But to los preguntas. Elder Amador only has been in the mission a little over a year so he has plenty of time left so I’m sure the package will get to him fine (I think the best way to assure packages is to plaster them with stickers of Jesus and the Virgin Mary because they are all Catholic. Now for your questions. I would like to get some recipes of typical dinners you make, the elders want me to cook some normal gringo food, so recipes would be very useful. Usually we take a taxi to the church because it’s pretty far but after we almost always walk to the next lesson or the house. When the sisters have a baptism they either ask a member or one of us to do it, last week they had one and a member did it. I am always very happy with the packages so whatever you send I will be very grateful. Also the church supplies are very cool and I was grateful for it but don’t worry about sending proclamation to the world or stuff like that because we basically have closets full). The rules are that we should be out of bed by 6:30 and praying followed by exercise. I haven’t had any problems with shirts getting stretched and to dry them, we have ropes tied up on the roof (we have an awesome roof pario thing) and I hang hangers there like a clothesline. And yes I take my vitamins frequentlyJ Well I’m short on time but thanks for all the support and the prayers I hope all goes well with the travel/tornadoes/kids/etc and I will talk to you next week.

Learning Patience

Here's an adorable little child with Will

Here is Will's former companion in one of the beautiful parks with a white, furry rabbit. Will says that there are lots of little animals running through the parks.
This is something that Will would spot from a mile away - a basketball court!!!
This looks like a shoe store named after me - ha ha. I couldn't believe that it is spelled exactly like my name.


Hola family,
Well it has been another good week here in Bucaramanga. This week I have been given the chance to learn about agency and improve in patience. I wrote last week telling about all the great people we had found and the experiences we had and our many progressing investigators. This week they have basically been dropping like flies. Ha not to say that anyone died but like I said the Lord is giving me a chance to learn about patience and the agency of people. Literally 4 investigatoes that had goals for baptisms this month, now do not. One fell back into a drug habit that he had stopped for 6 months and has now moved to another city. Two others that have promised us to go to church for 3 weeks again didn’t come. Its tough but we are taught over and over that if people don’t progress and comply with assignments we have to move on to the people that will progress. Ha it’s frustrating because we can hand wrap the gospel, plan lessons, bring it to their door whatever time they want but if they don’t do their part they can’t receive the blessings and learn for themselves, so we have to move on to the people that are escogidos (the elect) that are waiting to hear this message. But I know it’s just a challenge and I’m excited to work with the people that we have and keep looking for the elect.

Today has been a P day of just relaxing and taking it easy to recover from a long week. I found a little sandwich toaster thing so I have been experimenting by making cool sandwiches. I used it to make us lunch today followed by some reading and a nice nap.

We got some really exciting news. Today one of the new gringo elders will get here from Bogotá. They say his name is Elder Wagstaff so I wonder if he is related to the Wagstaffs in Evanston. He will be in my zone and live in the same house as Elder Lee in Giron.

Here's the answer to your questions. My morning schedule is to get up at 6:00 A.M., have personal and companion prayer, exercise from 6:30 to 7 (sometimes running or else pushups and jump rope in the house). I iron my shirt at 7 and then into the shower, make a quick breakfast (recently my famous toasted sandwiches) and then personal study at 8 o’clock sharp.

As far as the mission approved library, I bought the ones I didn’t have in the mtc so I already have them all I'm pretty sure. With the last package I did get the pillowcase with all the good mom advice ha-ha and the CTR Rods, I put one in my keychain. Elder Araujo is very happy with the camera and takes lots of pics.

As far as Diana, (who had been in jail), the final decision is that the first of May, when her probation ends she can get baptized. Sadly I probably won’t be here to see it but we keep visiting her to make sure everything goes well. Two of the teenagers who accepted the invitation to get baptized are the ones that we just can’t get to go to church, so we may have to let them go and look for others. No new parcels have arrived here yet but they might be in the office in Bogotá.

Well I really love you fam thanks for all the support, you’re in my prayers always.

Mucho Amor, Elder Barnard

Testimony Builder

A little member boy

Will sent this picture today - it looks like they had a good lunch that day.

Hola Familia,
Another great week is Bucaramanga has passed way too fast.
I have read in Doctrina y Convenios and in Preach my Gospel where it says that the lord will guide his elect to you if you work with faith. A few days ago as we were leaving lunch walking down the street, I heard someone call "Hey Mono venga" (mono is a term they use here to say white person or gringo and venga is like come here). Initially, I thought it was just some crazy guy asking for money or something so I had the thought to just keep walking but then I felt like I should turn around and we knew that we should go talk to him. He showed us a Book of Mormon someone had given his mom and he said it was interesting but he wanted us to explain it. We told him we would be more than happy to and he invited us in. We taught him all about how the Savior established his church, the great apostasy, the restauracion and about the Book of Mormon. He loved it and he said he really felt something special when he read it. We set up an appointment to return in a few days and we taught him again and invited him to come to church. By himself, he asked how he could become a member of our church, so we taught him baptism and we are now preparing him to be baptized the 28th. He went to church yesterday and talked with many of the members and participated in the class and everything.
I wouldn’t say I was feeling discouraged, but after having so much success and now going for awhile without baptisms, I was feeling a little disappointed. But I know the Lord guided one of his elect to us and now we get to do what we can to prepare him and help him. We have other investigators that are also progressing but I wanted to write a little of the experience that we had with him.
The week here started off nice and cool with plenty of rain, but these last few days have been veery hot. I saw a thermometer today and it said 89 degrees and it’s been about the same these last few days. When you combine that with 95% humidity it feels like a sauna. But believe it or not I have gotten pretty used to the hot tropical climate and even the freezing showers don’t seem so freezing anymore.
Haha also I had a good crazy Colombian lunch the other day. Sister Sandoval gave us a soup for lunch but she told me she wouldn’t tell me what was in it until after, so I ate it and it was actually pretty good. After finishing it, she told me it was soup of cow heart, liver and pancreas... mmmmmmm mmmm right? Ha but it was actually quite good.
Well as far as the questions. One parcel that had some CTR rings, skittles, church supplies and pics of the Bates arrived. Thanks a ton, it was nice to see all the kids growing like crazy and I haven’t had skittles in about 7 months so they were veeerry good. Also I gave CTR rings to some of my converts and they were very happy.
The sister missionaries are from Ecuador and Peru.
A few people have asked to see my photos. They are all amazed at how huge the High School is and that we have trees and everything.
Well thanks a ton, pues Mucho Amor y hablaremos esta semana que viene.
Hasta Lunes, Elder Barnard

Hola mama, Well I checked the rules for books and there are only a few we can have. Sorry if you already sent one. Also I wanted to say thanks for the great letters and the pictures and spiritual thoughts. I know it probably takes a long time to upload all the pics and write spiritual thoughts from those books so thanks a ton. Well gotta run. Much love Elder B