The Elder Barr Blog

It was indeed great to talk to you all on Christmas. 30 mins seems like 5 on the phone. Still it was great and really refreshing to talk to you all on the phone.

Today was a really busy P-day. We had a member take us to the mall with 2 YM from the ward, C**** and C*****. C***** is a young Equadorian kid that joined the church, and doesn’t have a lot of family support. His dad is in Equador, and his mom works all the time. Consequently he gets into a lot of bad things. Today, he was bent on buying some M-rated video games. C**** is a bit older (16) and was a good example to him and showed him some better stuff. Also, the store didn’t let him buy the game and there was no way I was going to do it for him.

Anyway, we went to wal-mart, got the car washed/vacuumed, and ran some errans. Speaking of that, I am sending a package out tomorrow with my sweater, the winter jacket that I took but never have touched, and my stocking. I may also be sending another package with some letters that I have been stockpiling for a while. If you could archive those somewhere, that would be great. I’m not sure if that package will go out this week or next.

Also, I was thinking of buying a tape recorder ($20 at walmart), and sending audio-letters. That would be in addition to the email. What do you think about that? I think that we could use the bubble-mailers for tapes. Plus, it would be faster to dictate than to write. My comp. has a tape player so I’ll try sending one and you can see if you like it or not. Also, I’ll work on a weekly overview and try to send it next week. This P-day was super busy. Next week should be better.

Other than that things are going great. The holidays were fun but it will be nice to have them over since people will have less reason to be busy.

Oh, today will be interesing. I may go on a split with a member from the ward, and I will be teaching a Spanish appointment. The member doesn’t know Spanish, so this will be a real test for me to see if I can hold my own in Spanish. It should be fun, but I’ll definately need the Lord’s help to pull it off. It is cool the interventions that we see from the Lord. For example, sometimes we have investigators at church and some member will say some crazy thing that I am convinced will offend the investigator. However, the investigators never seem to hear it. The Spirit acts as a filter. That much I am certain.

Anyway, next week should be great. It will be fun to have the new year. We have to be in by 6:00 New Years eve, so it will be nice to relax, cook a nice dinner, and maybe take a bath.

Alright, thank you so much for everything. Again I really enjoyed the phone call and the gifts. Don’t tell Grandma that I shipped the sweater home. Oh, and say hi to the Australian exchange student for me. Ask him to say, “Crikey", or “there’s crocidiles in my backyard", or other funny but culturally-insensitive things.

Speaking of cultural insensitivity, my comp. is from Brazil. And, a lot of people here are from various South American countries. However, a lot of the white people here thing that everything south of Texas is Mexico. So, when one says, “I’m from Sao Paulo", you get, “What part of Mexico is that?". So, that has become our joke. We passed a Taco Bell, and I said, “Elder, does seeing that make you home sick?". It was pretty funny. The Brazilians and the Hispanics hate it. Especially the Equadorians, because everyone thinks that they are Mexicans. Brazilians don’t particularly like being called Mexican’s either. So, when you pass people on the street, you need to quickly judge wether you want to say “Hola, como esta” or “Oi, como vai". Anyway, that’s life on Main St. of Danbury.

I really need to go now. It is 5:10 and I still have to do a bunch of stuff and be out the door by 6:00.

Love you all very much.
Love,
Elder Stephen J. Barr

Thanks for the great email. Please send me a hard copy, as the library is closed and we are back at the old apple store. The mall is packed, as it is only a few days before Christmas. Also, we couldn’t use our cars today because of some car stuff going on in the mission, so we had a member drive us to the mall. This P-DAY will be a long day.

Anyway, I will be calling sometime between 5:30 and 6:00 pm on Christmas day. I am so much looking forward to talking to you. I miss you all very much.

Oh, I haven’t gotten the Christmas card yet. I got one from the P******* and one from the K******, but I haven’t gotten ours yet.

Life is going great here in Danbury. My Brazilian companion, Elder Ferreira (pronounced Fa-hair-uh), and I, are working 3 languages. Portuguese, English, and Spanish. While tracting yesterday, and we taught a lesson to a Peruvian guy. It was really cool. My Spanish is getting to the point where I can teach an entire lesson, or at least be a major contributor. My comp. can speak Spanish, but it is with a heavy Portuguese accent.

The work is going great. We are working with all different kinds of people, and I love it.

I love the Gospel. It is wonderful. I love to teach people. I love the work. It is hard sometimes. There is so little personal time. Things are always rushed. But it is part of the work.

We had a great lesson with an Argentine part-member family on Tuesday, and we took the Elders quorum president, Bro. Richards, out with us. We got a baptismal date from the husband, A****, for the 22nd of January. I told him that that would be a good date to get baptized since it is my brother’s b-day .

Well, sorry to have this letter so short. I am looking forward to talking to you on Christmas day. It will be a normal proselyting day, but we will be allowed to have one dinner with a member family. So, we’ll try to visit people. We’ll tract. Carol. Maybe have a street meeting. Normal missionary stuff. It will be great.

Thank you so much for the great email. I really appreciate it. I’ll try to write some handwritten letters today, but we still need to get shopping done and finish the laundry. I’ll do my best though.

Have a great Christmas. Say hi to Grandma Debbie and Grandpa Paul.

I love you all very much!
Love,
Elder Stephen J. Barr

This has been a great week. I didn’t get transferred. I got a new companion, Elder Ferriera. He is really cool. He joined the church in 2000, and he is the only member in his family. He is Brazilian, and we will be working English, Spanish, and Portuguese. It will definately be a challenge but I know that with the Lord’s help I am up to it. Elder Hedelius got transferred to Middletown, which will be good for him. He is in a threesome with 2 other really good missionaries.

Oh, one thing on the hats. Very few hats are “approved". There is the chaufer style hat (kind of like a lump on the head, but looks pretty good), and the Russian style. So, maybe a hat gift cert. would be better, or just get something that you are sure is approved by Sister Boren =) Rules are rules.

Mom, I am so glad that you have been able to go out teaching with the sisters. I know exactly what kind of appointment you had. I was in a very similar situation where we brought a the first councilor in the Bishopric to an appointment. It is hard to answer all the questions. Anyway, I am sure the sisters love you to death for going out with them. Just make sure to volunteer to drive them places (to save on miles), and to go out with them a lot, and they will love it.

We are working with this great family, the Q**********’s. They are from Ecquador. The mom of the family loves us very much. She listens to everything we say, and loves to feed us. She sees us as her teachers, and from God, but she also treats us like her kids. She said, “yo soy como mama a ustedes.” It was because we told her we couldn’t come in without another man being home. It was funny! I was thinking that sometime you could write her a letter encouraging her along in the church. She is really trying to find out if the church is right for her and her family. The father is also interested, but the mom is the real decision maker in the household. (so you can relate to her j/k)

Tell andy I will send him the password via letter, and to not send any more passwords in cleartext over email. It is dangerous.

On Christmas, I will probably call in the evening, around 6:30. I will make plans with my companion and write you today.

Alright, I better get going. It is 3:30 and we need to shop for groceries and run some other errands. I hope everything is well and home and I am looking forward to calling you. I am excited about this cycle with a new companion. Transfers is always a good time to really recommit to being totally obedient and trying become not just a missionary, but a true disciple of Jesus Christ. It is such a priveledge to be out here. I love it.

I love you all so much. Please take care.

Love,
Elder Barr

Thanks for the great email. I always appreciate them. I love reading about what is happening at home.

Lets see, this week has been really good, and cold. It snowed on thanksgiving, got hot again, and then snowed a few more times, and the snow is frozen to the ground now. It is typical east coast…the roads are plowed and nice and brown and salty, and the roads are clean but pretty gross.

Here’s a funny/sad/painful story that happened to me this week. It was 7:30pm last Thursday night, and we were walking to a member’s house ( a recently returned missionary) to go visit a less-active member. On the way there, we decided to cut through the park. On the entrance to the park, there is this little stream, and there is a little bridge over it. They had just poured new concrete on the sidewalk part of the bridge, and it was roped off. We decided to walk around the side. Mind you, it was dark. So, I started to walk around the side when I come to the realization that there is no more concrete underneath my feet. The next thing I know, I’m laying in the stream on my back. I got up and I was fine, but soaking wet. Lucikly, I have been using the “give-away” scriptures during the day, so my scriptures weren’t ruined. But by suit and nice overcoat were soaked. We weren’t too far from the member’s house, so we kept walking there. When I got there, I told him what happened, and he gave me a towel to dry off, and a change of clothes. We went to the cleaners to drop off my stuff, and he paid for it all. (which was really nice of him. it was $27 for everything). Then we went to the appointment. So, it was a cold night that night.

We had a great mission conference on Monday. I got to see a lot of old missionary friends and it President and Sister Boren gave wonderful talks. Also, we all got a chance to bear testimony which was really spiritual and touching. Mission conferences are so refreshing, just because you get to relate to other missionaries who are doing the same thing you are doing. Also, I got to ask about my old area. Do you remember the M****’s in the Bronx - all the kids had long hair. The father and the youngest son got baptized together. They will hopefully get sealed this time next year, and I will be able to attend since I baptized most of the family (with Elder Wood, of course).

Oh, I was wondering, what should I do about cameras? The one T** sent me doesn’t work. I’ll try calling HP, but the mission is really discouraging digital cameras. My old apartment in the Bronx got robbed again. It is getting ridiculous, especially down there. I think disposables will be fine. Also, who is using my Nikon. If it is just being stored, did you take the batteries out?

Lets see, other than the conference and the fall, things are going great. Not too much is out of the normal. Transfers are next week, and either Elder Hedelius or I are out (not sure if that sentence was gramatically correct). It will be interesting because the wards here are structured in a funny way. Danbury is English and has a Spanish group. Newtown is English and has a Portuguese group. The stake presidency just announced that beginning January 1st, Danbury is absorbing the Portuguese program. Then, the Spanish/Portuguese programs will have a combined sacrament meeting. The youth will meet with the English youth. So, maybe Danbury will be getting an Spanish/Portuguese companionship? If so, I’m not sure where that leaves me. I guess we’ll have to see what President Boren and the Lord come up with for the area.

Alright, I should get going. I hope everhting is going well. I love you so much and I am excited to be calling soon. We only have 30 minutes, so it will be a quick call. That is okay though. It is incredible thinking about where I was last Christmas, where I am now, where I’ll be. It is great. I love the work.

Thanks for everything. I love you so much.
Love,

Elder Stephen J. Barr