The Elder Barr Blog

How are you doing today? First of all, I got your advice about the camera. I think I’ll return it. You are right…it is too nice of one to have right now. I can send it back to the store. It is only in Manhattan, so I’ll send it back today. Sorry about that. So, please send me what you can in terms of cameras. I’ll return the one I bought camera today. They have a 14 day unconditional return policy.

Anyway, the birthday was great, and I really enjoyed it. I appreciate all the gifts.

Oh about the tripod, I ordered one for Elder Volkanov, using my acct and he paid me in cash, but for some reason the store told me they shipped it to the billing addr instead of the shipping address. We got it straightened out.

We had a big change of areas the other day. President Hinckley and the 1st Presidency asked mission presidents to re-evaluate the areas where we are serving. So, we decided to do that and we ended up dropping our area. Except for the people we currently have (A*** the M****’s, ******* (the aids patient)), there won’t be too much tracting in that area anymore. We got transfered to the East Tremont area, and mostly it is a wealthy Catholic area. Many Italians and Irish people. We were taking a quick drink break, and a guy came up to us in a tank top and shorts. He came up to us and asked us what we do. We explained and he said, “oh, I’ll give you some money". He then pulled out a wad of cash and flipped through it and said, “oh, sorry, all I have are hundreds". He then looked through his other pocket, found a stray bill. “oh, another hundred. Yeah, sorry guys". The Bronx is full of weird stuff.

Oh, by the way I have a 99% chance of getting transferred this cycle. President Boren told the zone, at a zone conference, “you better review your areas before Elder Barr gets transferred". Then he turned to me and said, “you’ve been here what? 4 cycles? That is what I thought.” So, on August 10th I’ll be mailing from a new place most likely.

There haven’t been too many other stories to report lately. The new area is a fairly wealthy Italian place. There are lots of nice little bakeries and Italian restaurants. We tracted into an Irish guy, B***, who kept his return appt. and looks promising. Also, we have been teaching a wonderful Jamaican lady with a daughter who looks promising as well.

I am trying my best to stay as focused as I can. Mission life gets so hard some times. The heat. The companionship. The day to day routine. Never being alone. I’m trying my best though. I think a transfer will be good for me.

I’m glad you all had a great trip to Disneyland. It sounds like a really great place. I hope to be able to visit it with you when I return. That would be a fun trip. I bet that Bianca’s decision to quit gymnastics was hard. I will write her about that. I know that she’ll be happy no matter where she goes or what she does.

Thank you so much for everything. I’ll take care of things today, and all I’ll lose is the money for shipping. So, not a big deal. You were right…I just needed something “new” to happen. But the camera was too much money. I’ll return it today.

Thank you so much for everything. I love you all so much and hope for the best for you all.

Love,
Elder Stephen J. Barr

Thank you so much for the package. It was great to get the sweets, shirts, and watches. It is pretty easy how to turn off the hourly update. I’ll write it in my written letter.

My birthday was pretty good. We had lunch as Sister C******’s and dinner at the M****’s. The M**** family is really a great family and an example of the gospel changing lives. They have cleaned up their apartment, are starting to save to buy a reposesed house, and are starting to let go of their old traditions. For example, all the M**** boys had long hair, and when we met them the mom wouldn’t let any of the boys cut their hair. The boys hated it, because they don’t have manly faces and were often mistaken for girls and forced to defend their boyhood. Anyway, Elder Georgeson brought his clippers over yesterday and we cut their hair. They look much better now. So, it is nice to see their lives improve.

So, this week has been full of interesting experiences, good and bad. On last Thursday, Elder Hansen and I were on a split, street contacting. We ran into 1 black Jamaican, 1 black Guyanese, and also a 3rd black Jamaican guy who became interested in our conversation. We brought up the book of Mormon to these 2 guys, and they had a lot of interesting questions. Sadly, most of them had to do with racial stuff. People get so caught up in that kind of stuff that they loose the big picture. Anyway, the most memorable statement that I remember from that conversation is saying “we have a prophet on the Earth today!". The response, “A prophet, like Bob Marley or Martin Luther King?". Maybe like Dr. King….not like Bob Marley. There is a lot of Bob Marley worship from the Jamaican community. It turns out the guy, and a handful of people on that street, are of the “Rastafarian belief", which is a mostly-Jamaican tradition. The belief: when Moses saw a burning bush, it was actually a marijuana plant. Therefore, smoking marijuana brings you closer to God. Therefore, they “pray” as often as they can afford to. Needless to say, that discussion didn’t go well. That 3rd guy was a Hebrew Israelite (believes that real Jews are black, so was Christ, and that white people are evil). He took the Book of Mormon, looked through the first pictures in the front of the book, and yelled “there are no black people. Come black when you get a black book…". I told them that if I was looking at a book about the history of Africa, I wouldn’t be offended when I didn’t see white people. Anyway, that was interesting to say the least….

Another story. We tracted into this lady with a few children. She has AIDS, and so do some of her children. I suppose she was diagnosed after the youngest was born. Her husband has just died, persumably of AIDS. Anyway, she had come to church with her kids once, and enjoyed it. After that, we had another appointment set up, but she never made it. She also has chronic asthma, and any cough she gets develops into a huge asthma attack, since her body can’t fight the cough. So, we saw her on Saturday night and she was ready for our appointment on Sunday. We show up on Sunday and it turns out she is in the ICU, interbated. We went to Jacobi hospital to the ICU on Monday after district mtg, and that was a rough experience. About 20 different machines, IV’s and stuff were connected to her. She was convulsing and unresponsive to all external stimuli. I was really taught by the Spirit over the last few days about the purpose of our visiting with her. I feel that we gave her an opportunity to feel the Spirit, so she would recognize it on the other side. It was quite an experience.

Another story, we went to A***’s house yesterday, and she told us she decided that she isn’t coming back to church anymore. She is now 5 months pregnant, and she just had a sonogram and it turns out that her expected son is missing part of his skull, and if he survives, will probably be mentally handicapped. This was the initial diagnosis by the doctor anyway. So, she told us that she just doesn’t care any more. That ever since she joined the church, she has been tried too much and she can’t bear it anymore. We are going to visit her tonight and give her a blessing. She tends to overreact, and Elder Georgeson and I are confident that she can be reclaimed. It is so hard to see people go inactive, especially because of trials like that. When we hear more about her condition, I’ll let you know. Maybe the bishop can write her a letter.

So, things have been up and down this week. By the way, I would love it if T** sent me the camera. I also want to know what you think about me getting a good film camera in addition to the digital. I can order a Nikon N75 plus a good lense for ~$500. Elder Volkanov has been explaining some stuff about film photography to me, and the pictures seem so much better and the colors are better, plus it seems fun. I want to order it soon, so please let me know what you think. If you mail a response tomorrow, I’ll get it by Saturday. So, please respond. That would great. I really want to try film photography, as there are some cool things that you can do that would be impossible with digitals, plus I can mail back picture CD’s which are only an extra $1 with development. The lense I was looking at was a Sigma 24-135/ 2.8-4.5 77(0) Aspherical internal focus lense. That would last me indefinately, as well as the camera body. The camera body is an Nikon N75. So, if you could let me know what prices you can find that for, maybe we could arrange something. For now I am using a disposable that you gave me at the beginning of my mission.

Alright, I should get going. I’ll write you my written letters as usual. Thanks for everything. I love you all very much. Please take care.

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

This week has been a good week. A lot of ups and downs, but overall pretty good. My companion and I are working okay together. Truthfully I enjoyed Elder Wood or Elder Wilcox better, but I’m sure I’ll learn from Elder Georgeson.

We have been tracting a lot, trying to get people to church, and all of that. Truthfully, I am getting a bit sick of my area. Things here are very “ghetto", to use that word. For instance, we got a mom and her kids to church on Sunday, but I think we are probably going to stop teaching them, as they have some really big, bad issues. What we really are doing is looking for the ‘elect’, meaning people who will be an asset to God’s church. Don’t worry about safety here. I have never had one person be a threat to me personally. Sometimes I wonder how or why people want to live here.

So, on Sunday, we were at corellation meeting, and then we went to pickup a family for church (they couldn’t afford the subway, so we paid for them), and then we went to church. Elder Georgeson and I ran back to the appt. after the 2nd hour to pick up something to use for class. Now, it has been really hot lately so we have been leaving the windows open. Anyway, we came to our apartment door and it was unlocked, and we came in and all looked normal. We were a bit frustrated at what we thought had happened, that the other Elders left the door opened. Then, my instinct told me to check for my camera. Gone. Elder Georgeson’s camera. Gone. Elder Hansen’s camera, and cash, gone. In short, someone got in the fire escape, took our stuff, and walked out the front door. We called the police and everything, and the first set of officers showed up. Later in the evening, a second set showed up and dusted for prints. The didn’t find anything. It must have been someone in the building, because access to the roof via the stairways has alarms. Someone must have gotten to the roof via their own fire escape, and then crawled down to ours and grabed our stuff. It is sad that people would do this. We spend a day with the senior missionaries who are in charge of apartments, and we added another lock to the door, and bars to the windows, and we are keeping the fire escape window locked. So, this should prevent any further problems. So, I will be using my disposable camera for a while. We’ll figure out something I’m sure. President Boren is advising all missionaries not to carry good cameras, as we aren’t the first apartment to have been raided in this way.

So, that was the most exciting part of the week. As I said, we are finding and teaching a lot, but many people here have so large problems that they are not ready for us. We are looking for the people that are.

Well, thank you so much for the birthday wishes. I’m glad to hear them. I’m not sure what I’ll do to celebrate. I know President and Sister Boren will call and sing to me, and thats about it.

Alright, take care family. Have a great time on the road with Grandma. I love you all very much and wish you the best. As for the rules, I know they are hard. Visits from friends aren’t allowed either. The rules are from the 1st Presidency. I guess they have a lot of missionaries that do bad things, like go to the library to look at porn, so they try to limit computer time. I wish sometimes to feel more trusted, but rules are rules.

[personal stuff removed]

I love you all very much.

Love,
Elder Stephen J. Barr

It was great to hear from you all this week. It sounds like you are having a great summer so far.

The work here has been good. Elder Georgeson is the district leader, so I am still jr. comp. He is from Boise, ID. Work is going well. We are purging our investigator and potential investigator pool, and dropping people who aren’t prepared to recieve the message of the gospel. So, we are quite low on investigators. That means that we get to do a lot of finding this cycle. That will be good, because in a few weeks we should have a lot of progressing investigators if all goes well.

Not too many interesting experiences this week. The work is going well, and the ward is growing slowly but surely. I do enjoy my associations with all the people there. There are a lot of good people, and most of them have had what we would consider “hard lives", but they move on through the gospel.

We had a great experience last night doing some contacting in a park. We had just read the Book of Mormon with one of our recent converts, A*******, and then we walked over to Sister C******’s for family night. We had some extra time, so we decided to do some contacting in the park, and A******* stayed with us. We were able to teach a person a full 1st lesson and give him a BoM and get a return appt. Additionally, it got A******* excited about the work.

Elder Volkanov really appreciated the laptop. He sent you a card which you should recieve soon.

Yeah, so my b-day is coming up. I’m doing fine with money and everything. Oh, please tell people in the ward, especially the Bishop, that he can’t email me, only snail mail. It is a new rule. I put an autoresponder to my mail to let people know of that. I could use some more mahleb to make some more bread. Everyone who tries it loves it.

Anyway, I need to go. Have a great week. I love you all so much and wish and pray for God’s blessings to continue upon you all.

Love,
Elder Stephen J. Barr