The Elder Barr Blog

Thanks for everything. Don’t worry about the money, everything went fine with that. I found out that suits are somewhat machine washable . Don’t worry I needed a new one anyway. I am glad that Japan went well and that the home is alright.

Alright I better get going. Everything is taken care of, and I will see you tomorrow.

Thanks for everything. I love you very much. Thank you so much for supporting me throughout my life and for these past 2 years especially. I will see you tomorrow.

Love,
your son,
Elder Stephen J. Barr

Thanks for the email. Congrats on the surprise promotion. That is really cool and I am sure that it is well deserved. I am glad to hear that your efforts are being recognized.

So how is Tokyo? I actually met with a member in our ward who served his mission there a few years ago. He said he really wants to go back to visit. I bet it is a pretty cool place. What is the air like? I would imagine that it is pretty clean, despite the size of the city.

The work is going really well here, and this area is in good hands. I know that good things are possible here in New Rochelle.

I will most likely get to email next week, but I will have to really be in a hurry to get things done in time. I will start packing Tuesday night, so Wednesday I just have to wash the clothing and pack it and that should be it. One night in the mission home and then it is off to the airport the next day. I am really excited to be home.

I don’t think I have much time left on the computers, so I want to wish you well. I am excited to see you less than 8 days. Have a fun and safe time.

Love,
your son,

How is everything? Sounds pretty busy. That is strange that you had to do a round trip from Seattle to Seattle. The conferences sound really cool. I agree about the making money from syndic8 and second life. I think those are my best options. I made some financial goals for the next 4-10 years over the last few days, that I want to review with you when I get back. I also want to show them to Andy. I think that they may be more attractive to him that retail.

Anyway, I just sent an email to Andy. It sounds like they are working him way too hard at that store. I advised him that he leave as soon as possible. I don’t really think that it is a positive work environment in any sense of the word. So, hopefully he can be out of that environment soon. I am somewhat concerned by that music that he enjoys, especially the even tonight. I am not sure how positive it is. Anyway, I am sure that you and Mom are on top of it.

The time here is going quickly. In my study times, I have been doing some planning and goal setting for the next stage of my life. There is a lot to do. We spoke about getting a laptop. I think that if we do get one, the large form factor models would be best. For my use, which is essentially a portable desktop, I think that would be best. They have good screens and graphics cards, and I think that the large laptops would be good. I would be able to work for a few hours at school, so I could just plug for power somewhere. And they have wireless throughout the campus, or if necessary I could bluetooth to a phone.

Alright, I better go. They are kicking me off the computer, and I still need to email Mom and the girls. Also, Grace hasn’t emailed for 2 weeks. Could you remind her for next week?

Thanks for everything.
Love,
your son,
Elder Stephen J. Barr

Thanks for the great email. I am writing a reply to both of you today. Things have been busy this week. We just got back from the mall…not too impressive. A lot of cool stuff but I think the mission has changed me quite a bit so that I don’t value it as much as I used to. It was interesting though.

The schedule looks pretty good. I think that that would work. I am browsing the site right now to see if there are any other classes to take as well, but the schedule looks good. About computers, I agree that maybe a laptop would be better. I did have a chance to visit the Sony store in the mall today…I don’t think that Sony stuff is for me, their computers always have a bunch of extra stuff with them and I haven’t ever liked the feel of Sony computers. Maybe Alienware? I heard those are good. I don’t know. I’m techonologically out of the loop. I was thinking though that if I were to have a laptop, it would be super cool to have a bluetooth enabled phone so I could have internet from anywhere on the campus. They do have wi-fi though, but if I were to get a phone I would make sure it had bluetooth. Anyway, the schedule looks good. Thanks a lot for doing that for me. I really appreciate it.

About the job, I think that it sounds pretty good, but I don’t want it to take a lot of time. If it is something that I could do from anywhere, then I would be interested. But I definately want to ace every single class and that is my priority. So, whatever amount of time that takes, that is what I will give it and if I have time to work on the side, I will. But, that is the mentality that I want to have regarding school.

My Thanksgiving was pretty good. The food was good. I didn’t really know the members, but it was nice of them to have us over at short notice. New Rochelle is a good place to work as a missionary, but I don’t think that I would live here. Everything revolves around the city. Too much stress for me.

About Cody and Chase wanting me to go to BYU. Don’t worry. It isn’t going to happen. Case closed. Like you said, UW is #9 for CS, BYU is #100+. So, it isn’t a big decision. I’ll be sure to go to institute though.

Let’s see, I haven’t accumulated too much stuff. I threw away a lot getting transferred out of Middletown. I don’t think I have accumulated much at all.

Alright, I need to get going. The librarian told me I only have a few minutes left and I still need to write my siblings.

Thanks for everything!
Love,
your son,
Elder Stephen J. Barr

Thanks for the great email. I don’t have a lot of time to email today, so this will be somewhat brief. Anyway, I am glad that everything is going well at home. It sounds very wet!

Lets see, we have some good plans for Thanksgiving. We will be with a member family. Also, they shifted our P-day to tomorrow but we still get to email today. It should be pretty good.

Oh, I have some interesting news. President Searle called me and said that he would rather have me not be mid-cycle transferred, so he told me I would go home a cycle early rather than 4 weeks early, so I will be home December 21st. So, this puts us under 30 days. That plans are set and the travel plans have been made. I am really excited for that! I think that it will be great.

I hope all is well at home. Thanks for taking care of my UW registration. I hope that the email advice I sent was sufficient.

My new address is 55A Locust Ave #5F, New Rochelle, 10801. Or you can just send stuff to the mission office, since it is very close to here.

Alright, I better go. I love you very much.
Take care,
Love,
Elder Stephen J. Barr

So, I am now with my new companion in New Rochelle. Mom, sorry to hear about the package. Hopefully I can figure out a way for it to get to me.

Anyway, things are going great, except I am incredibly low on funds. It is nice to be in Westchester county though. I like this place. I am actually in Scarsdale right now, but the area that we work is New Rochelle. It will be good. My companion is Brazilian, which will be pretty cool. He has been on the mission almost as long as I have, so we are an “old” companionship. It will be good. I already know some of the members of the ward, and I am excited to get to know the rest of them.

Alright, I better go. I want to spend some time picking out classes, and I also need to send emails to the rest of the family. Again, Mom, happy birthday!

Love,
your son,
Elder Stephen J.

Thanks for the letter. I hope that you had a good time at the conference and are now safely back in Seattle.

Things are going pretty well here. I am not sure if this is my final area or not. There is one last transfer opportunity, next week, so I will know by then. But, things are definately coming to a close as far as my time here. (~55 days)

We had a good mission conference on Monday, which was nice. They showed some training videos on how to create a spiritual atmosphere while teaching. It was nice. They also showed a video of Elder Holland reminding all the missionaries to be safe, which was nice to hear. It is important that missionaries do all they can to be safe of their own power, in addition to turning to the Lord for assistance. Both are important.

I am glad to hear about school. I will print out a course catalog today and send you some choices next week.

I hope everything is going well at home. We had a good lesson last night with an active family, and we recommitted them to family prayer and scripture study. It was good. I have really seen those 2 things, and FHE as well, be a huge blessing to the people that apply it. So, just a friendly reminder .

Things have improved within the apartment. I think the next couple of weeks will be great. We have some good people what we are working with. I really enjoy seeing people when the understand true concepts for the first time. It is great.

Take care and I hope you have a good week.

Love,
your son,
Elder Stephen J. Barr

Thanks for the great email. Yes indeed, I have recieved candy. However, I am trying to avoid the sugar these days, as it is easy to have too much and get a headache, so I got some good “low-sugar” groceries for this week.

I am glad that you were able to get a furnace. That is nice. As I said, we have radiators for heat and they can get loud from time to time.

I am glad that you are getting increasing popularity. That is great. I am excited to see exactly what is happening in the computer world. Yesterday, I had some time since we had to be in early for halloween, and I got to brainstorm some ideas of things to do, programs to write, when I get back. The problem is, being out of it for two years, I don’t really know what the edge is any more. So, I will definately need a crash course.

I hope that the second life documention is okay, but I will have to ask. I will be hope pretty soon anyway, so it will be cool to get up to speed on that platform.

I think that things will go quite smoothly for my return Jan 2nd. That gives a few hours for some relaxation and eating a decent meal before school. The people that I have told about my upcoming transition think that it is going to be very abrupt. It will definately be fun, that is for sure. I know time will continue to fly by.

I hope you have a fun and safe trip, and that things go well for you. Again, I hope that everything is well. Thank you so much for everything.

I love you very much.

Love,
your son,
Elder Stephen J. Barr

Thanks for the email. I always appreciate the update on the family, and the enthusiasm with which you present it.

That is too bad about the heater. Hopefully you will be able to get it replaced. Here in NY the heat is usually radiator or baseboard, which works well but the systems are usually old. A lot of the things here are old.

So, I am excited to be getting back into the computer world again. It will be fun seeing all the new stuff that comes out. I would think that putting together a couple of new systems would be good. I can’t believe that my mission easily is encompassed by the development of longhorn/vista/avalon. What would be the best OS to use. WS03 or WinXPsp2 still? Wow, 2 years and the same OS. Is it possible to do Second Life on linux or is that out of the question? Is RedHat 7 cds or 8? I don’t even know what the specifications of a “good” box will be. I think that you will have to give me a crash course on technology.

Things have improved with my companion and district leader. I went to President Searle for some advice, and that has helped. I am just going to do the best I can, but I do admit that the day count can be motivational. We’ll just keep going.

I hope you have a good week and that everything at home is doing okay. Let me know what more I can do. I am glad to be able to email individually now. I think it has helped for everybody. I haven’t got much email from anyone else. But, that is alright. I’ll see everyone at home soon enough.

I love you very much and again thank you for the email.
Love,
Your son,
Elder Stephen J. Barr

Thanks for the great email. I really appreciate hearing from you. Also, how was San Francisco. I hope to be able to accompany you on some of the trips that you make.

Things here are going okay. I am having a little bit of struggles with my companion and my district leader. I don’t want to rant about it though. Hopefully between my roommates and President Searle and myself we can get things sorted out.

I am glad to hear that the computer industry is progressing, and I am anxious to have access to a good computer again. It will be really cool I think to explore all the new technologies and things that have been developed over the last 2 years.

Speaking of trunky, I also realized that there are only 76 days left. Actually, next week is the last of the double digit weeks. This is week 11. I do double check the calendar from time to time. I have enjoyed the mission but I am really excited to be able to be back with my family.

The developer island sounds really cool. How does it work? Is it one giant world with different locations within it, or are there different instances of the world? Does it have its own language? What can you do within it? Can you incorporate live data on to the “physical” features on the island - i.e. a billboard on a building that gets its data from an xml feed? Anyway, I suppose I will need to play with it to get an idea of how it works.

We have been teaching a lot of good people lately and that has been nice. We have some people who are on the “faster track” i.e. within 6 months they will most likely be members, and some people who are much more throughly investigating the church, i.e. several years before they will be members. Our job is just to help them along the way.

The ward is doing great. Last night we went on a split with a young man from the ward, to teach one of the investigators. It was good. He’s coming out with us again tomorrow. I think that this is good for the investigator and the young man.

We tracted in to some great people this week, and now the trick is to follow up and keep their interest alive. I think that we will hopefully see more visitors at church in the upcoming weeks.

Alright, I better go. It is more work to email everyone but I enjoy it. Thanks for everything Dad. I really appreciate it.

Take care,
Love, your son,
Elder Stephen J. Barr

Thanks for the email. Sounds like everybody is busy. I am excited to see how second life works. I hope that we can make some good money off of it.

I am glad that you got to go the the Salmon days festival. That is one thing I miss. I tell people out here that there is really good salmon out there, but you have to live in Seatlle to get it. Here they only sell farm-raised “Atlantic” salmon. More like “pond-lantic” if you ask me. They have to spray paint them pink just to make them look somewhat normal. Gross. Because of the pollution it would be hard to eat fish that you catch in New York. We might go fishing with a guy we know in a few p-days, and hopefully there will be a good catch.

The work is going well. I have a young new companion, and it is fun working with him. He is a lot like me when I came out, which means that he may have some growing to do. But he will make a good missionary. We have some high quality investigators, and we are trying to find more.

I am trying hard to not get trunky. It is hard though. FYI today is the 12 week mark. . I hope we hear back from the UW. If not I would want to apply to a private school somewhere nearby. I am thinking that I would try to get into computer science before bio-eng, so I will probably have to spend a quarter or two taking some classes to boost my GPA. Anyway, I’ll have to worry about that soon enough.

Thank you so much for everything. Things are going so well here. The money is running out though. I will need a deposit by next week Wednesday for groceries. We are meeting some investigators for lunch in a few days, which is nice but going out to eat can be a financial hit. Plus there was an Elder going home 2 weeks ago and they wanted to eat out before he left so that alone put me behind.

Anyway, I should go. I have to write my siblings. Plus Tom J_______ wrote so I need to write him back. I like the new system.

I love you very much.
Love,
your son,
Elder Stephen J. Barr

Thanks for the email. It was great to see a whole bunch of email in my inbox. It is great.

The work has been going well. On Monday we were notified that Elder Peterson would be transferred today, so yesterday he got to say goodbye to a lot of people. We took some good pictures, which we developed this morning. By the way, I did tell you that the digital camera wasn’t working, right? Anyway, I should have a new companion by the end of the day, so you will hear about him next week.

We had dinner with a Trinidadian member family. They are really gool. They are teaching me how to make curry, Trinidadian style. We also have a Haitian family in the ward, and I am learning their style of cooking too. The islands really have good food.

General conference was great. I really enjoyed all of it. We got to watch all of the sessions. On Sunday, we even had some investigators come. We have this one family from the British Virgin Islands that we are working with. It is a large family. Anyway, the “grandparents” came, and they really enjoyed it. The lady cried during President Hinckley’s talk about the ring, since she had a piece of jewelery that meant a lot to her, and she lost it. Anyway, it was a lot of fun.

That family owns an ice cream store in town, and for some reason their freezer shut off. So, we helped them throw away 100 gallons of ice cream. It was too bad. It was a real loss for them. Hopefully their insurance will cover it. The “grandpa” took us out afterwards for a steak dinner. I ordered fish, since I wasn’t in the mood for steak. It was pretty good.

So, things are going well. Oh, I never got a chance to order the garments, so could you order them for me. 4 pairs of dry-lux bottoms and 2 dry-lux tops. I have no preference on neck style. That would really be great.

Alright, I better get going. I love you all so much and I appreciate everything that you all do for me.

Love, your son,
Elder Barr

P.S. - no BYU application, but maybe a UW Bothel application, or some other local schools. I want to stay local.

Tell Grandpa Steve happy birthday for me. It is great.

President Searle changed the old email rules, and I can now send and recieve individual emails, so I wanted to write you. I hope that you are having a great time in Boston, and that the presentations are going well. […] I hope the presentation went well.

I am excited for working on the projects that you have for me. I think that it will be great for getting back into programming again. I think the first thing that I want when I get back is a blackberry phone. Question, can you bluetooth to it from a laptop and use its internet connection. If so, I think that that would be a useful setup to have. That way you could use the blackberry phone for emails, but if you needed more power, you could use the laptop and still have internet access without a separate device.

Things are great here in Middletown. We have been working hard and we have some great investigators in various stages of progression. I hope that they will all eventually be baptized. The ward is great here. It is very diverse, and the people are really great.

Alright, I hope you have a safe trip back to Boston. Please take care.

Love,
your son,
Elder Barr

Thanks for the great email. It was good to be able to hear from everybody. I really appreciate it. I will try to send some pictures as soon as I can. My digital camera batteries don’t charge, so my companion takes pictures and I get doubles. I might get a few disposables to tide me over.

Things are going great here. We are having a lot of great success. I love this area and my companion, and I hope there aren’t any changes and that I can go smoothly home. President Searle said that the missionary department approved my release date, so everything is all set. Have you heard from the UW? Hopefully they let me back.

Anyway, we met a great guy named E____, who is a young guy who just converted to Catholicism. He is trying to become more religious, and he said that he felt cheated that he wasn’t raised with any particular religion. Anyway, he went to church. We had one of our members pick him up. He stayed for all 3 hours. Afterwards, the member who gave him a ride, who is Haitian and has a big family, invited him over for lunch. We were also going there for lunch, and it was nice to see E____ there too. And, we found out that E____ can really eat a lot. Our member was sure to tell him that this was the best rice and beans he could ever eat. It is funny. People from the islands are really proud of their cooking. We have a 10 y.o. Trinidadian member who said, “You haven’t tasted curry until you have tasted our curry".

We also had a really great meeting with this young family, F____ and H______, and their young son. We talked to F____ in front of Wal-Mart a few weeks ago, and we finally were able to get an appointment with them. The appointment was wonderful. They were both very open minded about everything. I really like them.

We also met with this other family. Guyanese/African-American. They are really cool. We mentioned on the 1st lesson that the eventual goal is baptism for herself and her family, and she agreed. This is the council that we recieved yesterday in zone conference, and it was nice to be able to apply it that same evening.

So, things are going great. I don’t have any complaints. It hasn’t got cold yet, but I am sure it will. It is quite nice actually. About 65 degrees, and partly-cloudy, partly-sunny. It is great. We have been working in some good places. The days seem to go quickly. Which is nice considering the count down. We had an exchange yesterday, and I realized that my time on the mission was longer than the combined time of the other 3 missionaries in the apartment. It was just interesting to be in that situation. There are some great new Elders and Sisters in the mission. General conference is coming up, and I am excited for that. It is great to truly be able to tell people that Prophets and Apostles are going to speak, and they have an opportunity to listen.

Dad, I am glad that things went well in your travels. It is nice to hear about new technology. I am excited to be back in that world. Right now I am on a computer in a Mexican store, using AOL on Windows 98. Not exactly the latest. But it still works and plus they are cooking a nice plate of rice and tortillas right now. Now the question is, will my return preceed the 1 TB drive? I think it will come down to the wire…or the gigabyte.

Mom, I am glad that you have been able to show some more houses. Please let me know if you decide to move. When you tell people that it is Scottie’s old house, you should use some old Star Trek quotes. I have all the movies in my room, unless Andy ebay-ed them. Anyway, I hope you are enjoying your job and that it isn’t eating up too much of your Sunday time. Also, I think it is a really good idea to find a car for Andy. Buses aren’t good. Too many “different” people. That is one thing I have really become synical/sensitive to is the trustworthiness of random people. It is important to be very careful. I was thinking about it all week actually. Try to find a Volvo all-wheel-drive. They are built like tanks and are good in the snow/rain. Or maybe a small truck or something.

Tina, I am glad EHS is going great. Keep up the good work. I can’t believe you will have a permit soon. Bianca, it was nice to hear from you and your workouts. I should do more of those. Grace, thanks for the email. That is a funny trick you did. I hope school is going well.

Alright I need to go. I love you all so much. This church is true. Don’t forget it.

Love,
your son or brother, depending on who you are,
Elder Stephen J. Barr

P.S. 36 waist, 16/34-35,

Thanks for the great email. I would have love to have heard from Tina too, but I bet she was busy with high-school stuff.

First of all I am sorry to hear about Maggie. She has had this problem for a long time. I think what you need to do is purchase an electric training collar. It is a shock collar controlled by remote control, and she should have that on her at all times, and when she goes on walks and gets out of hand, that will stop her very effectively. So, I think that that could be an effective solution. I hope we get this worked out soon.

So, the week has been great. Although, there has a problem that has been developing over the last few months, that came to fruition today. It has been a problem that I have been dealing with for quite a while, but the mission has made it worse. I am not sure what to do about it, but today I realized that it is serious. It is my hair . It has decided to relocate. Hairs that were once on the top of my head have found new territory on my face, nasal passage, and back. One the front line, the left and right sides are starting to etreat, with the center holding strong. The crown of my head is starting to thin too. I gave myself a haircut today, and I am afraid if I give myself any more haircuts, my hair will just give up and stop growing all-together. I suppose it is part of growing up. What was once thick now is thin. And to make things worse, some hairs are out of uniform. nderneath the dark black is gray. That’s right. They are starting to appear.

Other than my hair, things have been great. A lady that we have been working with came to church on Sunday, and she really liked it. We had the opportunity to go to her church, and it was fun. The style was very different than ours. Anyway, the first and second hours were good, and we went with her to RS. The lesson was “Temples and Family History". Imagine learning about that for the first time. It was a lot for her. Wewent to her house the next day, and she had a good list of questions. It was fun. I think she will visit again.

We have been having some great discussions with a Catholic guy named M___. He has been very nice to us, and we have good discussions. He isn’t planning to convert, but it is interesting to see the similarities and differences that are present in our various faiths.

The money situation is going okay. There is enough for groceries today and next week, but I will need some more by next week. I had a sore throat this morning, so I am going to use some of my personal funds to buy some tea’s. It is getting cold. Halloween is around the corner, and Christmas isn’t too much farther than that.

I hope everything is going well for you. Mom, be careful what you do for other agents. Be choosy in what you go. Many risks aren’t worth taking.

One thing about Orange county that they don’t tell you on Orange County Choppers, is that there are A LOT of crazy people around. Lots. Especially here. There are a lot of psychiatric and criminally-insane institutions, and it is sad to hear some of the stories about this part of society. So, just be careful. The same goes to everybody. Better safe
than sorry.

I love all of you so much. Please be careful in all that you do. Thank you for everything. I love you all.

Love, your son or brother
Elder Stephen J. Barr

Thanks for the great email. It is such a pleasure to be able to hear from you on a weekly basis.

First of all, Mom, I am so sorry that you had to do that for me, in regards to the bank. I am sorry. It is hard. I am trying to live within a budget but it is just very difficult when it is quite limited and you can’t do anything to make in increase (aka work more hours, etc). I’ll do the best I can to not eat into any of that money that you put in.

So, there were a lot of good things that happened this week. One of the first ones, it was about 8pm, and we were trying to find something to do. We decided to drop by the home of a recent convert, only to find that his wife had just miscarried earlier that day. The bishop and HPGL were on their way. We were able to participate in giving her a blessing. It was nice that we were able to be in the right place at the right time.

On Friday to Saturday I did an overnight split in Newburgh. That is a really different city. Not very nice. Anyway, we didn’t spend a lot of time there, but went to nearby Washingtonville, which was nice. We did some tracting there and found some great people. This was the zone leaders area, and they are both good missionaries.

On Saturday we were also able to help a lady in the ward move. She is moving up north a few hours, to get away from this area and start again. She has had a rough year or so, including divorce. So, it was nice to send her off in good spirits to her new home.

We met with this Catholic guy that we met while tracting. He is really nice, but isn’t planning on any kind of conversion. It is very evident from our first meeting with him that he views religion very differently from the way we do. He is suspicious of leaders, and I think that deep down he sees the whole thing as a fantastic story that builds character but isn’t really true. I think a lot of people see it that way. It is sad.

The other day we met a guy who was an Atheist, but he tried to be the best person he could, and said it was part of the humanist philosophy. He couldn’t prove the existence of God with the scientific method, and had thoughts of that nature. It can be hard, since God isn’t subject to the empirical tests that science has to offer. The tests are more spiritual. But, things weren’t real enough to him, and he tried to explain things away through biology. Anyway, my thoughts were that even if one were a good person for the sake of society, eventually the betterment of society would not be a suffieciently powerful motivation to be a good person and make morally correct choicies. It is such an interesting world. I told him that he is better than most people, who are still stuck in a world of pleasure-seeking, but that faith could still play an important part in his life, and that you do not need to turn a blind eye to science in order to accept religion. It was a good discussion.

We had a great lunch with the Bishop and his family on Sunday. They are all from Texas, and they made this delicious beef brisquit. It was really good. Homemade apple pie was a great dessert.

A few nights ago we had a meeting with one of our favorite families, W____ and his wife. He had just sent his oldest daughter to college, and was a little down about that. She is in Westchester county, so not too far away, but it isn’t the same as being at home. Anyway, he is one of those guys who loves the church, but just can’t get himself to go in the font quite yet. He doesn’t have too many doctrinal hold ups; he just hasn’t seen a need to join the church yet. Those are the hardest, the people where their life is really a good life, and they are great people and trying to live a good Christian life, and they are blessed for their efforts. So, you really have to get down to the details to show them whey they should be baptized. Anyway, they are great. I will introduce you to them when we visit the mission.

On the same day as the split, my companion and the other Elder found a great family. The husband is a retired navy medic and the wife is a nurse. They are great. We have an appointment tomorrow. We will see how that plays out. I am optimistic for them.

We had a great appointment with a member family last night. They are all Italian. He is an RN and went down to the city on Sept. 11th, and has some interesting stories to tell.

So, everything is going great. The apartment is good. The work is fun. The hardest time to fill is the morning time, because nobody is home and this isn’t really a bustling community with people walking the streets. We are going to try to see if we can get a booth or something in a good location.

Alright, I will try to write some letters and get them sent off today. I wrote some last week but I never got around to sending them, so I will send those as well. I will try to be more on top of things in that nature.

Dad I hope your trip goes well. Mom, good luck with everything as the school year gets going. Andy, please be careful and always use your best judgement. Tina, I didn’t have any of those teachers, but I am glad that you are excited for them. Bianca, I did have some of those teachers, Lund, Clay, and Blair. Grace, I am glad that you are happy with everything right now.

I miss you all very much and I am very excited for the time to pass quickly and I am awaiting a wonderful reunion in a few short months.

Love,
your son or brother,
Elder Stephen J. Barr