The Elder Barr Blog

Hey Mom and Dad, and family!

This is Elder Barr. I am using my companion’s email account, as mine isn’t set up. I would use my own account but it is a violation of mission rules. I arrived safely at LaGuardia last night, and spent the night at the mission home in Scarsdale. It was nice to meet the mission president and his wife. They are great people. President Boren was aware of my desire to be able to preach to Jewish people, and I bet that I will spend a bunch of time in those areas.

My first area is in the Bronx, Olmstead side. It is a cool place. On the first day we got here, they drove the 11 of us to the chalpel in the Bronx, gave us pass-along-cards, and let us try to talk to people and give them out. It was a lot of fun, and I will be able to continue doing that for the forseeable future.

So, right now I am in the Bronx, at a public library. I just put my stuff in the apartment, which is newly refurbished and really nice. President and Sister Boren try to take care of the missionaries, and they make sure that the apartments are good and the mattresses are new. So, life is great here. I am excited to be able to be here, spreading the Gospel. People are receptive and humble there. The city is loud and exciting.

After I leave the library, I’m going to get a load of groceries, my pillow and blanket, and some other supplies, and head back to the apartment. Today is preparation day, so there is plenty of time to get all that stuff taken care of.

My mailing address is:
1268 Olmstead, Apt 4N
Bronx, NY 10462.

The apartment is nice, and there are 4 Elders there. There are all kinds of different nationalities and families here. I’m going to buy a load of groceries tonight, and make my own food! Sister Boren cooked a good meal yesterday, but it still doesn’t come close to what you cook Mom!

Oh, I will see if I can find another wrinkle-free shirt. Let me know what you can do about that, if you want to send me some or if I can just buy them here. I don’t have a preference. I just don’t want to duplicate efforts. Also, by next Wednesday I should have my email set up and be emailing from my own account. I will try to get elderbarr@myldsmail.net, or something to that effect.

It was great being able to talk to you guys yesterday. I really enjoyed hearing all of you sounding happy and enjoying yourselves. It was great to hear that. The flights went well and I even managed to give a pass-along-card and a short lesson 1 to the person next to me, on the way to New York City. The Lord places prepared people all around us. My companion, Elder W*****, told me that statistically, after 7 contacts with the missionaries, the average contactee will be baptized.

Everyone in the Bronx knows who we are and is familiar with us. The kids love calling in and ordering the free stuff from the pass along cards. One of my friends from the MTC, Elder G******, was trying to give out cards when a young boy ran up to him and held out his hand. Elder G****** handed him a pass-along-card and the boy got a big smile on his face and ran off. The mission president told us that President Hinckley has forseen incredible growth of the church in this area, and is directing quite a bit of tithing funds to anticipated growth. Much of the stakes here are young, with the stake presidents being under 40 yrs old, and the high counsilors being in their 30s usually.

There are large church buildings going up in Harlem, Brooklyn, there is a great building here in the Bronx, and they have seen large increases in the past 18 months, and anticipate more growth. I’m really excited to be a part of it.

I think that emailing is going to be great, because I can type so much faster than I can write. If you respond by Thursday, I’ll probaby get them by Tuesday or Wednesday, and maybe we can have almost 2 conversation cycles per week. I bet we will figure something out. I am so happy to be here and I know that this mission will go fast. The people here are awesome and they need the Gospel. We are in a fairly humble area from what I’m told and what I can see, but that is fine because the people are probably going to be teachable.

Alright, have a great week. I’ll write every Wednesday, which is the mission preparation day. I hope you had a great trip in England Dad! Tell me about it in your next mail.

I love you all and hope and pray that everything is going well.

Love, your son,
Elder Stephen J. Barr

Dear Family,

Thank you so much for being so good about getting everybody to write me via dearelder.com . It was great getting letters from you that had been written earlier that day. It is so wonderful to hear from you.

I am in the MTC laundry room right now. By the time you get this, I will be in New York. The last few days have been great. For Sunday night devotional last night Elder M. Russell Ballard addressed us. It is amazing to hear from an Apostle. Elder Ballard was such a great speaker. Half of the talk was about recognizing the Spirit and how to apply that to your mission. He also told stories about his mission in England. He left about 20 minutes for open Q &amp. A, was asked some hard questions, and responded very well and without hesitation.

After MRB, we watched the Testament. You should see that movie when you go through Utah this summer. It was really cool, and a little cheesy. Overall it was a great movie about the Savior’s ministry in Jerusalem and in the Americas.

Overall the MTC has been a great experience. When we send Andy, make sure to send him with three weeks of food. Cafeteria food is pretty bland and not very digestible. Some elders have noted a certain addicting euphoria that comes with MTC. I guess eating the exact same set of foodstuffs at the exact same time can do that to you.

One thing about the MTC is that you become great friends with the rest of your district. Each of the Elders and Sisters are special and definitely contribute to our district. One Sister, Sister C******, was feeling a bit discouraged and asked for a blessing, which I was able to administer. That was such a special experience. My companion and Elder G****** and Elder D******** were able to assist. You can really feel the Spirit directing your thoughts as you administer a blessing to someone with specific needs. I was glad that I had that opportunity.

Before I forget, enjoy your recommend holders, Mom and Dad. I hope you are having the opportunity to attend [the temple] as often as possible. I get so excited whenever I go to the temple. Today was our temple day, and I was up at 3:45 AM because I was so excited. I laid in bed and kept on checking the clock, and finally got out of bed just before 6. I always have a great experience whenever I go. I found these recommend holders at the MTC book store.

So, MTC life is good, although three weeks is just as long as I would like to stay. There are some times that are awesome, like hearing an Apostle or Seventy speak, but classes and teaching 12 hours per day gets exhausting. Oh, I got the CF card back on the 17th and it was postmarked on the 10th. I think that non-envelopes take a long time to ship. It is hard to get used to the time lag of letters. The letter that you wrote me, Dad, that I got on the 17th addressed a letter that I sent probably on the 5th or 6th, and the DearElder.com letters arrive before those that were written after. I think it will be easier when I get to the field and have an email access. Maybe there is a DearElder.com on my mission. Well, we can figure it out.

By the time this letter gets to you, I hope to have called you and talked to at least some of you. I hope you are all having a great week. Take Care! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Stephen Barr

Elder Stephen Jeffrey Barr
New York New York North Mission
700 White Plains Road Suite 315
Scarsdale, NY 10583

Hi Family!

How are you all doing? Thank you for all your letters and for the cookies; it is very uplifting to receive support from the family. I should have time for a decently long letter as it is laundry day today and I just put my clothes in the wash cycle.

The MTC experience is very unique. It is also very busy. I’ll include in this letter my schedule for the first two weeks. Today, Monday, is preparation day so it is very relaxing.

I started the day going to the Provo Temple. I went with my district which is a group of 4 sisters and 6 elders that I’ve been talking to you about. They are a good group. My entire branch, which is 4 districts, was there. It was of course a fun experience.

Helping run a branch is a lot of work. My companion and I have extra meetings to go to, plus we need to arrange sacrament and priesthood meeting, help resolve issues on the branch level, and alert the branch presidency to any issues. It is fun though since it is Wednesday, most of our branch (district 34-A) is departing to their locations. This week we have no incoming missionaries in our branch, so we will only have 3 districts with my district being the senior one.

I can’t believe that in 8 days I will be on a plane with 11 other missionaries to New York, New York North. The time seems to fly here and yet the individual days are long. Memories that I sometimes feel happened weeks ago are actually those of only few days ago, or even memories of events earlier in the day.

It is fun seeing all the different missionaries and hear about their families and their lives and how they reacted to their calls. I have heard so many different languages while I’ve been here. While waiting for my companion to get his haircut, I talked to a sister learning Mandarin, some elders going to Fiji, and one from New Zealand that was headed to Alaska.

Oh, you won’t believe this. I was at an assistant’s meeting and I noticed this elder who I thought looked familiar. It turns out it was Elder Scott F******, from Potomac. He was also an assistant and he was headed to Fresno, California. I think he is departing within a day or two of my departure. I got to talk to him for a while and found out what has been happening to all these kids that I haven’t seen since Senior Primary. Dallin B**** just entered BYU. Paul D**** left the MTC just as Scott and I entered. Avery W****** is doing well and is probably missionary bound.

I haven’t ran into John R******* yet, I’m keeping my eyes open. There isn’t a lot of time where all the elders here get to meet with each other. If you aren’t on the same meal schedule as someone else, you probably won’t get to see them.

So, classes are going well. I think other class members like my knowledge of the Old and New Testament, as they call their memorization cards “Elder Barr Cards.” It is hard to stay humble with that phrase floating around. I am trying my best though. There are some more shy missionaries in my district, and I want to make sure that they feel confident when they share things in class.

At the MTC, they give you many chances to teach the Gospel in different ways. Every day or two my companion and I will teach either a teacher, a new set of Elders, or another companionship. We teach 1 minute, 5-7 minutes, 10-15 minutes, and 35-45 minute lessons. The teachers give good feedback. We also have the ref. center, the TRC, and the TEC. At the ref center, we answer phone calls of people who call for free Bibles, copies of the Book of Mormon, videos, etc. We also call back people who have ordered stuff, ask them how they like it, and testify about its truthfulness.

At the TRC, we teach volunteers from Provo who pretend to be investigators. In the TRC, the teaching environment is a bunch of mock living rooms and there is a video camera there as well. After teaching, we get to watch videos of how we did and our teacher comments on how we did.

At the TEC, we teach teachers who are employed by the MTC and they get to give us very good feedback. They hear tons of lessons each day and they really help give good feedback. We are teaching or learning all day.

Most days, we have 3 classroom instruction sessions. One will be led by Sister M********, and one by Brother H***. The other session is called M.D.T., or Missionary Directed Time. During this time we as a district decide what to do, we read scriptures together, have time to study individually, and as a companionship. We also play scripture memorization games and sometimes we take walks around the MTC campus. It quite a bit of fun but the days are long.

Well, this has been a long letter. I hope you have gotten a taste of MTC life. It is fun, tiring, full of ups and downs, but in the end it is worth it. Amazing things happen here. There are times when the Spirit is so strong. There are times when some Elders struggle. Sisters here also struggle, but we pray hard. The Elders give each other and the Sisters priesthood blessings when needed. We are a humble group of young men and women, but we are all set apart as missionaries, and either have or have access to the priesthood. I have every faith that we are part of the greatest generation of missionaries. This is an amazing work and it will roll forth all over the world.

I love you all and I hope and pray that everything is going well.

Love, your son and brother,

Elder Stephen Barr

Dear Family,

Thank you so much for the cookies. I really appreciated them, and it was so wonderful to receive a package from you. Things are going well. It is a big responsibility being Assistant to the President, but I think I am doing well and fulfilling that role.

I have my exact flight information, which is included with this letter. I am also the travel leader for the 11 missionaries that are flying out to New York New York North. The flight goes from SLC to Denver to Laguardia. We have an hour layover in Denver, and I may be able to call from the airport during the layover. So keep your cell phones on and with you that day.

Time here is really flying, and my district really seems to like me. The MTC is a pretty amazing place, and at times it can be almost surreal. I’ve heard so many languages spoken here, as everyone greets each other in the language they are learning. Off the top of my head, I have heard Spanish, French, Italian, Tongan, Samoan, Philippine-something, Swahili, Russian, Hmong, Mandarin, and probably a few more that I am forgetting.

Tuesday nights are MTC devotional nights, and this past Tuesday we got to hear from Elder Rasband of the First Quorum of the Seventy. He gave a great talk. He was the one who presided over my mission, from 1996-99. He gave a good talk about “bridling your passions.”

So, my MTC experience is half over. By the time you get this, I will only have a few days until I arrive in New York.Thank you all for your support. I love you all very much. You are the best family and I am so glad that we blessed to have each other.”

Love,

Stephen Barr

PS - I got the DearElder.com letter around 5:00 PM today, Friday 11th. I do not know how long it sat in the mail room but it was very fast.

[Omitted: flight information]

…Stephen at the entrance to the MTC on dropoff day…

…Stephen in his room at the MTC…

…Stephen’s room at the MTC…

…Provo Temple (across the street from the MTC)…

Dear Family,

I’m writing to say hi from the MTC. We just finished dinner, and I had a turkey salad wrap. I know mom’s cooking is good, so anything I eat here will be only so-so. The wrap was pretty good though.

The MTC is really an amazing place. There are almost 2000 missionaries here. It is pretty incredible. After we said our goodbyes, we were led through a series of rooms, getting information packets, a binder, checking immunizations, etc. I needed a tetanus booster and there were giving flu vaccines for free and strongly recommending them, so I got one of those as well.

The schedule here is very busy. It is completely full. We have tomorrow, for example, a 7:00 AM meeting, breakfast, 2 hours of instruction, a health ‘orientation’, lunch, more class, a ‘large group meeting’, another class, and then dinner. Oh yeah, Andy, at the MTC dinner starts at 4:30, which is different from what we are used to. After dinner we have class until 9:30.

My companion is Elder A*******n. He is from Idaho, and is the 7th of 8 kids. His 5 older brothers all served missions. He is headed to Guam. On p-day we are going to lift weights, which I will enjoy.

Well, I’m going to spend some time reading. It is 5:50 PM right now, and we have a class at 6:30. I wanted to write and let you all know that I love you all so much. You are the best family! Take care of each other. I’ll be back before you know it. I am doing great here and am proud to be representing my family and the Lord for His church.

Love,

Elder Stephen Barr

Elder Stephen Jeffrey Barr
MTC Mailbox #259
NY-NYCN 0222
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

Elder Stephen Jeffrey Barr
New York New York North Mission
700 White Plains Road Suite 315
Scarsdale, NY 10583