The Elder Barr Blog

Thanks for the great letter this week. This week has been really good. I can’t believe that Thanksgiving was a week ago already. It seems like a distant memory, although we are still working through the leftovers.

Oh, by the way, I think the best reader of the blog is Elder Hedelius’ mom. Sometimes he gets lazy about writing, so they check here for more details. Anyway, she read about the spinach omlettes, and made some. But, she wanted the recipies from the source. So, in a round about way you could post them on the blog and answer her question. Or, send her an email. That would probably be better. Elder Hedelius’ mom’s email is: ******@hotmail.com. Send her some other good recipies too, including the one for the greek Easter bread, and a little mahleb. They would like that. We don’t have an oven, so I can’t make it. The landlord has one, so maybe I’ll make it. It eats a whole pday to make. Anyway, if you could send her an email, that would be great.

Oh, one other interesting detail. Elder Hedelius’ mom found the blog independently. I didn’t tell him about it. Can you send me some stats on readership, just for my personal curiosity. Their IP address is **.***.**.***, from Elder H’s memory. I wonder if anyone in the ward has gotten hold of it?

Thanksgiving was really good. We first went to drop by on C*****, a young recent convert from Ecquador. It was nice. We got him a basketball for his birthday. His aunt told us to try “a little bit of turkey". We told her we already had dinner plans. She just said, “have the 1st plate here, the 2nd there.” And then she started putting a bunch of rice on one plate. Then she literally opened the oven door, ripped off a leg, and put it on top of the rice. Then she put some veggie/mayo salad on the side, and handed it to me. Elder Hedelius was smart, and asked for a very little amount of rice. I was stuck with this enormous plate. I got to work on eating it, and C*****’ aunt looked at me and said, in Spanish, “if you like it, finish it.” My heart sunk. It was good.

Anyway, after C***** we walked over to X***** G’s house, where she hosted a party for the Hispanic part of the ward. It was nice. They played charades, trying to act out the names of different Univision soaps. It was amazing how many different soap operas they were familiar with. The teams were guys vs. girls, but one of the guys, Bro. C******, was running the event, and he helped the guys team in a wink-wink sort of manner, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, we walked back to the car, and then drove to Ridgefield to visit and have dinner with a non-member family that is related to the M******* family in the ward. The M******* family is 50% Guatemala, 50% Philipino. Their relatives were of the Philipino side, and they had a HUGE house. 8,000 sq. feet. It was pretty incredible. The food was great. Filet mignon was a nice side to the turkey. Each dish was in its own buffet-style serving apparatus, with a warming candle under each one. The deserts were brought from an Italian bakery in the Bronx. It was great.

Let’s see….other good appointments/events:
Sunday at church, I had to teach a lesson on the spot, without preparation. The lesson was on the millenium, for the Gospel Essentials class. B** and L*** were there, along with N*** S*******, and a few other members. The lesson went pretty good. It was a lot to cover in 40 minutes. Pretty much everything from now till the end of the world, and what we should do about it. We had some good discussions. Especially with L***, B**’s wife. She asked some really good questions that got everyone thinking outside the standard box.

We have been working with another Ecquadoran family, the Q**********’s. They are great, although the mom played a terrible trick on us yesterday. We were over there watching a church video in Spanish (which she loves), and I was also working on making a word-search for the 10 year old son, J****, which he loves. The mom, Sister Q., also loves to cook (Elder Hedelius adds that we refer to her as Sister Q., although she isn’t technically a member. She enjoys the title.). Anyway, she asked if we were hungry. We had just eaten lunch at the apartment, plus a snack at Costco, and we honestly weren’t hungry. She said, “okay, how about just a little hot chocolate?". “Un, chocolatito? un pancito?". We said, “sure, some hot chocolate will be great.” We then hear some rustling in the kitchen, which we assume to be the hot chocolate production. She comes out with this big grin on her face, and 2 plates loaded with rice, 2 chicken legs, some beef/bean thing, and a salad, and says “Una comidita.” Just a little food. We had to take the hit for the team. It was good food, but I felt like I was going to explode, and my companion concurred. Then, just as we polish off the dinner, she brings out the hot chocolate and some rolls. I need to exercise.

Thats about all I can think of. We visited a few other great families, and we have been tracting a lot. We looked up a less active as part of our home-teaching duties, and we found his daughter in law, who has a 1966 Ford Mustang Fastback GT 2+2 with 4 sp. toploader tranny, Magnum 500 wheels, powered by a 289. Paint was red with dual white racing stripes. That is my dream car. Maybe one day….

Things are going well. Stress level is down. Energy is up. Health is good. My throat/ears have been a little sore, but I think that is just the weather fluctuations. It was really cold, then it got really warm. We had some snow a few days ago (on dia de pavo), but it is like 65 degrees right now.

Alright, take care of yourselves.
Love,
Elder Stephen J. Barr

This week was a really good week. We had a zone activity today that ate up most of the P-DAY, so that is why the email is late, and there won’t be any handwritten stuff this week. I have only 10 minutes to finish the email, pick up the clothes from the laundry-mat, and drive to Carmel to visit a Peruvian sister, Hermana L******.

One funny thing that happened this week was a visit to R*** and R*****, a Peruvian couple that we had “dropped” (discontinued visits) for a while but decided to “look-up” (drop by unexpected and see if they are receptive). We had a good conversation with R*****, and it gave me a good testimony of how Peruvian I am. We talked about hot chocolates. I asked him if there was any good Peruvian hot chocolate available in Danbury, and he said “maybe at an Ecquadorian store". I asked him his opinion of Mexican hot chocolate. “Que feo hermano!” was his reply. So, I asked him what he thought about Mexican cheviche…"ooh. Que feo! Tomate en el cheviche? “. It was really funny, because I have the exact same opinions. It is nice to be able to relate to fellow Peruvians.

Thats about all the stories I have time for this week. I am really sorry for the super-short email. Things have been going well. There are stresses accompanied with missionary work which I have been feeling lately, but I guess that is part of the job sometimes. I have been super-tired this week. Hopefully that will clear up soon.

For thanksgiving, we possibly may be going to a half Guatemalan half Philipino member home, or possibly to a Hispanic “dia de pavo potluck". Either meal should be pretty good, although one is at an 8000 sq. ft. house and the other is at a rented American Legion hall. But, thats not really what is important.

I hope all is going well at home. I love you very much. Please take care. Thank you for your letters, love, and support.

Love,
Elder Stephen J. Barr

This has been a great week. First, tell Tina HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I am so proud of you! Second, thank you so much for all the great email. I just got a library card today so I will be able to print the messages I recieve and then respond today, so I should be back to normal in terms of Q+A responsiveness.

This week has been pretty good. It started with a someone rough lesson Wednesday night - a guy name M*** who we have been working with, who seemed to be interested but had a lot of questions regarding Joseph Smith and the idea of modern day prophets - anyway, we set up a lesson for him and invited D*** K***** from the bishopric. He didn’t tell us, but he invited a preacher from his church who came prepared with an argument and all kinds of anti-LDS stuff. We let him do his thing for a while, and then bore testimony, had a closing prayer, and left. The preacher was actually incredibly rude. We had Elder Hedelius say the closing prayer, and at the end of the prayer, he added on his own prayer, asking God to help us recognize our sinful ways. We left pretty fast, since we were late to a meeting. D*** stayed a little longer, and told us that afterwards M*** was apologetic, saying he didn’t mean for the meeting to go that way. Hopefully over the next few weeks, he will realize who was acting like a real Christian and who wasn’t in that situation, and follow his heart. I don’t think we’ll be persuing M*** much longer.

On Friday, we looked up S*******, who is the father of a really cool Ecquadorian member family. He was struggling over the last few days with some neurological problems, and we had the opportunity to give him a blessing. When we came by on Friday, it turned out he had been admitted to the Psych ward the night before, and was still in the hospital. We comforted his oldest son, J**** (13), and then went over with him to the hospital for a while to visit S*******. He looked tired, but was glad to see us. We spent some good quality time with him, and I think we cheered him up. He was released on Monday, and has the week off from work. I think that stress really just got to him and his body found a way out.

On Saturday was B**’s baptism. That went really well. I went on a split with our WML, Bro Royall, since Elder Hedelius had to go to Manhattan to go to the temple with someone he baptized last year. The baptism went well, and a lot of B**’s friends came. L***, his wife, flew in from Iowa to see it, and she was really impressed. Everything went well, and then we had a little refreshments and I got to mingle with some of B**’s friends. They are a really good group of people. Some lawyers, some doctors, and one who was both. His friend, who was in med school, drove down from Boston to baptize him. It was a great program. Afterwards, we went out to Ruby Tuesday’s for a celebratory lunch. I stayed with Bishop Smith (former bishop), since Bro Royall had to leave. It was a good evening.

On Sunday we had a dinner with President Sealy and some friends that he invited over. They were from Queens, and were Jamaican. They were all pleased that I knew how to relate to Jamaican people from my experiences in the Bronx. It was a fun evening. Bro. Sealy was President of a mission in Mexico and he and his wife just returned a few months ago. They are great people, and are always getting us referrals. Sunday was a great week overall, and our #’s were great, but we are still having a little trouble building our investigator pool.

Yesterday, we were tracting in a nice neighborhood, and we found this lady who was born into the church, but fell away when she got married to a Catholic guy. They had since realized that Catholicism wasn’t really holding up for them, and we have a return appointment to help them with some painting around the house, and hopefully to teach them more. She said “don’t expect a convert out of me". She has no idea what is coming .

So, it was a really great week. Elder Hedelius and I are getting along great. The weather is pretty good. Not too hot or cold. Just right I think. No real complaints. Oh, the itchiness is still there but it isn’t bad. I’ll try to get some lotion today and see if it helps.

Alright family, I love you very much. Thank you so much for everything. Tell Bianca I will write her a letter today to answer all of her questions.

Take care. I love you all so much.

Love,

Elder Stephen J. Barr

Thanks for the great email. I think the system will work out perfectly. Sorry I don’t get to answer every question because I can’t print from where I am doing email. I will try to get a printed copy tonight from my WML’s house. Also, sorry about the hand written letters. I know I need to be better about those.

I had a few really cool experiences this week. A lady from the ward called us to visit her daughter who was in Danbury hostpital. We went there and found her room, and the nurse asked her if she wanted visitors. She said, “no…my mom sent you didn’t she. Well I’m less active.". So, we were about to go on our way. Then, the lady in the next bed called out to the nurse, “Are those Mormom missionaries?". We said “yes". She requested that we visit with her. It turns out she was baptized in Dallas, and was up on business when she got a sudden pain. The doctors were trying to figure out what was wrong. Anyway, we gave her a Book of Mormon, since the hospital didn’t stock them and she had been wanting to do some reading. It was a really good visit. I think Heavenly Father chose a cool way of leading us to her. We left her our # and told her to call if she needs anything, and that we are only a short walk away from the hospital.

Oh, Mom, you will find this funny. After we went shopping at Costco, I made sure to get the big 4.5lb bags of spinach, and I started making spinach omlettes again. The other missionaries at first thought they were weird…the remark “fried salad” was made by Elder Hedelius. But then I started sharing, and things changed. They are very popular. The other day we made spinach omlette wraps with some chopped up grilled salmon burger. It was good. Elder Brown the other day asked me to make him one for breakfast, and at night he asked for another one for dinner. They are very popular.

We had a good experience with this young Equadorian kid, C*****, who is a 13 y.o. recent convert to the church. His mom is a member, but works Sundays and never comes. He is pretty much raised by his aunt and uncle, who are Catholics. We try to stop by from time to time and play basketball with him and his friends. He really enjoys it. Last night, we stopped by and he said he needed some help with an English assignment. It turns out it was a huge assignment and he hadn’t read the book and it was due the next day. We helped him with what we could, and then we sat him down and had a talk with him. We were very frank with him. I told him, “C*****, do you want to do landscaping, or pour concrete, or do driveways for the rest of your life?. Do you want to raise a family on $8/hr? You could be a lawyer. They make $100-$300 per hour.” It was a good conversation, and he admitted that he needed to change. We are going to “tutor him” for the rest of the year to make sure he passes.

Lets see…what else…Sister Summerhays, the bishop’s wife, gave a great lesson on food storage the other day. I’ll mail home a copy of the handout. It was really good. Today, she came to a teaching appointment with us. It was with a lady named J****, who we have been working with. She is a good Christian, but she was struggled to accept the Book of Mormon. It was a great lesson, and I think we made a little progress.

B**, the Jewish attorney, is getting baptized on Saturday. I’m really excited for him. He will make a great member of the church. We have a couple other great investigators. An Ecquadorian family called the Q********. A part member family - the O****’s, and a few other people. We are trying to figure out the most effective ways to find people. Tracting isn’t very effective but we need to do some every day. Also, there is a new mission rule - no dinner appointments unless an investigator is present. It sounds like a hard rule but it is good because now members try to get their neighbors over so they can have us there too. It will take a little while for the members to get used to it but overall it is a good thing.

Alright. I should get going. It was a great week. Physically I feel good. BTW the garments are the right size and fit/feel great. I think I have all I need for the time being (except for the hat). And, I usually make it with the money the church gives me. And since we are buying food as an apartment now, I have had a lot left over, which is nice.

Thank you so much for the great email. Please send a paper copy too, since I can’t print here at the apple store. I love you all so much. Take care and have a great week. I love you all so much.

Love,
Elder Stephen J. Barr

Thanks for the great letter. Things are going great up here. Another transfer Monday came and went. Still in Danbury. Still with Elder Hedelius. I’m pretty happy about that. We have a lot of going things brewing and a transfer would have been difficult. Nobody in the apartment got transferred, so that was nice.

The work is going really well. We are trying to work as effectively and intelligently as possible. Elder Hedelius and I though of a companionship motto - “we’re on top of it". We want to be able to fully account for everything that could possibly concern us.

Monday was halloween. It was nice. We had a good lesson with a part-member family from Argentina. They are a really great family, and the husband, who is a NM, is coming to church on Sunday. It will be really great. Since we didn’t go out halloween night (tracting is ineffective that day), we stayed in. It was really nice. I took a bubble bath at the appartment, and then made a nice chicken soup and a plate of brownies….don’t worry the weight is still down. A member gave me a blue suit that I have been using, and it has size 34 pants, and they fit fine. The size 38 pants are loose, even with the belt at its smallest setting.

Monday, we also got to perform some quick service for our new Bishop, Bishop Summerhays. He is a great guy. He lives on a lake, and we helped him move some furniture from a storage unit. We also got to have some good conversation with him. He is very interested in the missionary work and sees a lot of good potential in the ward. It is great, because we have daily contact with the WML, and frequent contact with the Bishop, and he and the WML are in constant communication, so things get done fast.

Another cool thing we did today…as a mission they have told us that we have to buy food as an apartment, instead of each missionary buying and cooking on his own. This was hard at first, because each person likes different food. So, we tried for a while to have the companionships take turns buying things. This worked out alright, although we weren’t eathing that good of food (corn dogs and cheese quesadillas ). So, last night we made a big list, and then Elder Hedeilus and I went to COSTCO with ~$300. We got some good food. Pork ribs. Salmon burgers. Chicken breast. Lots of cereal. Spinach. Eggs. Everything! It was great. We will be eating well this month.

We had some good lessons with other members and investigators this week. B** has his baptismal interview tonight, and his baptism is on the morning of Nov 12th. I am really excited for that. It should be great.

Oh, remember the camera that T** sent me. It crashed. That is the best way to describe it. I turned it on one day, and the screen made some funny patterns and then shut off, with the lense still out and open. At that point, the camera went completely unresponsive. I tried different batteries. Manual (paper clip button) reset. Everything. It is completely unresponsive. I’m not sure what to do. Part of me wants my Nikon back, but I’m sure I’ll have some more time in the city, where it is less safe to have a good camera. I’m not sure what to do. It has a 1 yr warranty on it, so I’ll call today and see what they say.

[Personal stuff omitted]

Oh, by the way, I got a package from you all. I haven’t opened it. It came as I was on my way out the door. But, thank you anyway. I’m sure it is great, whatever it is.

Other than that, things are good. We have been working hard. The weather has been great. The fall colors are beautiful. The ward is awesome. The air is fresh and crisp. It is a good time to be alive. The only complaints I have are that I have been really itchy lately. I haven’t been able to figure out what it is. I might call the mission doctor if it lasts more that a few days. Also, my lip has been a little irritated. It is probably just the changing weather. I’ve been using medicated chapstick, but maybe it isn’t working with my lip right. I’ll try switching brands.

Alright. I better go. I love you all so much. Please take care.

Love,
Elder Stephen J. Barr

P.S. thanks again for the package. I’ll try to write some handwritten letters today.

This week has been a pretty good week. First of all, thank you so much for the shoes. I am wearing them now and they are great.

Lets start with last Wednesday, in the evening I noticed I had a bit of a dry throat. By Thursday it was getting bad, and Friday I called Sis. Boren, who referred me to the mission doctor. There was a strain of strep throat going through the mission, which took out a lot of people. As a precaution they put me on levaquin, which I still am on for 3 more days. I don’t think I ever got full-blown strep, but I did have a bad cough/cold for a few days, and I am still a little congested but it is not too bad. I didn’t go out Saturday evening, but other than that it didn’t affect the work too much.

Over the last few emails I had mentioned A****…A**** won’t be getting baptized. During his interview with the Bishop a lot of things came out and we pretty much aren’t allowed to have any more contact with him. It is pretty sad. And I think the ward is a a bit mad at us because we haven’t heard from the members too much lately.

Being sick is bad on a mission, because you have way too much time to think, and also it made me a bit homesick. It is hard being up here in CT. In a lot of ways I miss the Bronx. Here in CT, the members don’t know you by name (just “Hey Elder!"). They like you for what you are, but still the relationships are very impersonal. So, I’ve been feeling a bit lonely lately. I don’t know what it is. I need to find a way to be happier than I have been lately. I think your mind can get addicted to being sad or worried and even after you have no reason to worry or be sad, it still has a tendency to get that way. I’ve been working on it though. Also, in the Bronx, all the members know you and love you, and you get to work with a lot of other missionaries, and the people there see it as a blessing when you are there. It is much harder to feel needed up here. Most of the members are returned missionaries, with successful careers and families. There are some great members that we can count on, but it isn’t the same as the Bronx.

Oh, there are some new rules from the First Presidency that I should let you know about. We found this out in a mission conference on Monday. First, missionaries are only allowed to recieve 1 incoming message, 1 outgoing message, each week. And, the message can only have 1 recipient. So, please “digest” the messages and just send them as one, or snail mail me. That is the only rule that should affect us.

One other one, “beanies” are now outlawed…they want more formal hats. So, the hat we bought at REI won’t work. It is getting cold fast so we’ll have to figure something out. I’ll do a little looking around to see what I can find.

The mission conference on Monday was really spiritual. The subject was that we need to be a more spiritual mission. A lot of fasting and prayer needs to happen if we are going to get what we want to happen as a mission. Pres. Boren started crying and said, “this is the most difficult mission in the world". He is definately right. There are some challenges here that don’t exist anywhere else. But there is great potential here too.

So, overall the work is good. There are some challenges that I never anticipated, but we’ll make things work. This is really the Lord’s work and I am glad to serve. Thank you so much for your prayers. I love you all so much and miss you all.

Love,
Elder Stephen J. Barr