The Elder Barr Blog

Sorry for the lateness of this email. The p-day before General Conference is “CONFERENCE CLEANING", which means that the apartment gets a top to bottom deep cleaning. Our apartment was pretty bad, so we made it look really good. Myself and Elder Bostwick (a roommate) took 6 hours on the kitchen, Elder Wall made the bathroom almost as clean as an operating room, and Elder Sawyer took care of the bedroom. Apartment living on a low budget in NY is an adventure. In our apartment, now that it is spring, the ants are coming out. We are doing our best to keep them under control but they manage to find their way in. Hopefully the improved cleanliness will help.

Thank you for the great email. I’m really glad to hear that things are going so well at home.

[Lots of personal stuff omitted]

So, this week was really good. We had a good meeting with my district leader and one of my zone leaders and did a little revising of the focus areas. We are working White Plains, Scarsdale, and Tuckahoe. There are some great members in the ward, although their lives are so busy. Still, the people who want to make the time for the gospel, and are definately kept busy by the Westchester Stake.

For example, we met with the T_____ family a few nights ago. We did a good FHE for them, and then I had a chance to talk with President T_____. He is in the stake presidency, and was actually Bishop of the Olmstead II ward when I first got there. He’s a good guy.

So, that’s what we have been doing. Meeting with members. Trying to get a feel for the area. Finding a lot. Etc. This is such an interesting place. People are so busy, and it can feel very aggressive here. It is so great to have the church here to give life some perspective.

Alright, I better get going. Thank you so much for everything. I love you all so much.

Love,

Elder Stephen J. Barr

Thanks for the great message. I have had a really great but really stressful week. Here has been the schedule on average:

6:30 awake, excersice, get ready, personal study, a little comp. study, and then to the office by 10:00. Office from 10:00-2:00 (we have food there - there is a Trader Joe’s nearby), and out working by 3:00 or so. Work till 9:00, and go to the office to do our planning (since we only have 1 phone line at the apartment), and then finish stuff. A lot of times the AP’s will come in to work on their stuff, and it seems like we have been up past midnight more than a few times in the last week or two. In fact, I don’t think the 10:30 bedtime has applied to us in quite a while. It is alright though. It is to further the work.

We have been working a lot in Tuckahoe, which is a tiny little village that is part of Eastchester, which borders Scarsdale. Westchester county is the strangest place. Some of the most wealthy and most poor people live here. For example, there are some really poor, ghetto areas in Yonkers, and then again there is Scarsdale, where a 70 y.o. 2000 sq. ft. house is $1.5 million. And it is still all on the same tiny piece of land. Also, most well-to-do people here work in Manhattan. The main commute is the metro north.

So, the ward is really great, but the people are really busy. It is incredible. In most of the families, the father isn’t home till 7 or 8 o’clock. Usually later. I think that the mom’s in the ward try really hard to keep the families strong, and many of them are. I would think it would be really hard to do with the father’s gone till 8 or 9 at night every day of the week. There are some where I think the kids only see their dad on weekends, even though they live in the same house.

I don’t think I could ever raise a family in Westchester county. It is just too close to Manhattan, and things rub off way too much. Although there are some really nice part of Westchester county, it is all just too much in too small a space. You always have to have your guard up. Not necessarily for safety, but just for weird stuff.

One of the lessons in gospel doctrine was about Lot and Soddom. The Gospel Doctrine teacher, Sister S______, is awesome. In her lesson, she said that there were a lot of good reasons to be in Soddom. It was a trading center. There was culture. Arts. Trade. Lots of money and technology. Also, she pointed out that as you read more and more of the story, Lot gets closer and closer to Soddom until finally he is right in the thick of it.

I think the same goes for Westchester county. It is so close to Manhattan, and you can find EVERYTHING worldly in Manhattan and close to it. Although it is possible to raise a strong LDS family here, it would be a real fight. And, in my perspective, why put yourself on the downhill side of a battle.

There was another interesting observation that I have had over the last few days that I have been sharing with some of the people we talk to. It is that although the Gospel has “big things” and “little things", and the big things (WoW, Chastity/morality, etc.) and little things (wearing a tie to church, doing home teaching at beginning of the month, running errands on Sunday, etc), people can make or break themselves by little things.

For examle, it is common knowledge that white shirt and tie is what you wear to church. Is it a big deal if you don’t. No. Especially for investigators…many don’t know any better, and our church dresses fairly formally. But, when you see returned missionaries that don’t dress to church as they should, it is frustrating. Not that they will lose their temple reccommends…but it is still not what they should be doing. Anyway, I have way too much to say about that.

[Personal Stuff Deleted]

Oh, about the expenses. Yeah, Scarsdale is really expensive, and I had a bunch of dry cleaning to do. I found a cheaper place, and I think I may be done with cleaning for a while. Once it gets a bit warmer, I won’t have to wear suit’s except for Sunday’s, and then I can use the machine-washable pants.

About my companion. He isn’t Chinese. He’s a great Elder though. He’s from Hyrum, Utah, which is close to Idaho. He learned Chinese in the MTC, and in his long stay in China town (his entire mission up to this point). From his description, Chinatown sounds pretty cool. Hopefully I’ll get to see it at some point. At the same time, it sounds really dirty, of which I am not a huge fan.

Well, I better get going. Thank you so much for everything. If I have learned one thing, it is that you all play such a regulating influence on my sanity, and without that, I think my sanity goes off the deep end sometimes. Working the the mission office and all the stress that comes with that doesn’t help. That’s okay though. It is great to be of service to the Lord and the mission. Pres. Boren said that I’ll probably be in the office for a while. The new president gets here in July 1st, and Pres. said that there was some “stability” that I brought to the office that will probably be useful to him. That was nice to hear.

ALright, I really need to go. I love you all.

Love,
Elder Barr

This has been a great week. I love White Plains, and my companion Elder Wall is just great. We have been having a good time working the Westchester 1st ward. I love it. The ward covers White Plains, Scarsdale, pretty much the west side of Westchester county, with the exception of Yonkers. There is a branch getting started in Yonkers, that currently is still part of the Westchester 1st ward.

So, lets start off with Wednesday. Transfers come, and since I am an office Elder I know exactly what is going to happen and where and who. But, it was still nice to see all the new Sisters and Elders coming in. We got a big group, especially with Sisters. I think we had 8, and we have another big group coming up in May. But, a lot are going home in May/June so we will need the replacements.

Anyway, on Wednesday, Elder Willden and I drive down to the Scarsdale mission home, meet the new missionaries, and help load their baggage into the mission van and the truck. It was funny to see the new missionaries. New suits. New ties. White shirts (not yellow or grey). New luggage. It was a nice time to reminesce about my entry in to the field. Anyway, we got them all loaded up, and drove down from Scarsdale to the Kingsbridge chalpel in the Bronx. The KB chalpel is something else. It is at a fairly busy intersection, and it is huge. It has underground parking, and a lot of other interesting features not typical of your suburban LDS chalpel.

So, all the new missionaries entered the transfer meeting, along with everyone being transferred. We sung a hymn, introduced the new missionaries, and met our companions. I knew what was going to happen, so it wasn’t too big of a shocker. Once Elder Wall and I met, we went straight to work trying to fit 15 people’s worth of luggage into a 12 passenger van. We got it all to fit, with the doors just able to close. One interesting thing, I was with Elder Willden and Elder Watkins, and we were running down a stairway, and we got locked in the stairwell somehow. There was an exit, but it was emergency only. So, we had to knock on the stairwell for a while before someone found us. Not too big a deal. Bad design though.

So, Wednesday night we started working. We contacted some people in downtown white plains, tracted a little bit, and it was great. Thursday was the same thing. Just starting to call members and make appointments, and then start tracting and street contacting. We had a meeting with the zone leaders and discussed a few possible “focus areas” to work. We have found some really good neighborhoods. The main theoligistics (not sure if that is a real word) here are Jewish, Catholic, Asian (Christian or Buddist), and a few Protestants.

On Thursday in particular, we were able to see the inspiration of this companionship, as we were able to teach a young Jewish man and a Chinese family all in the same night. It was great. I don’t think either of those people will progress, but it was still nice to be able to handle that situation.

Another thing we have been trying is Chinese restaurant look-ups. We found an interesting family from Fujo at one of them. They were all amazed that Elder Wall - a - Spoke Chinese, and b - had heard of Fujo. It turns out that a lot of people who come into this country from China are coming from Fujo. They speak Mandarin but they also have a dialect called Fujanese. It has been interesting learning more about that particular culture, especially the illegal immigration part. It is amazing what people will do to get in this country. It really makes me think of how blessed I am to be here.

We looked up another Chinese restaurant, where they happened to serve Mexican food too, although there were only Chinese cooks. So, it was interesting to think about where they picked up Mexican cooking. They were nice too.

We street-contacted an interesting guy a few days ago. He had a Book of Mormon, and had met with missionaries before. His main concern was that as Christians, we didn’t have a stronger anti-war perspective. We tried to explain the doctrine about it, without becoming political. It was good I think, and we left it in his hands. Anyway, a few days later we street contacted him again, and had a long, thorough discussion on many aspects of the Gospel. Again, we bore testimony and left it in his hands. Hopefully he’ll find his way someday.

Things have been going well in the office. I haven’t had a ton of time to work on some of the software. I keep getting new feature requests. For example, the CES missionaries wanted to be able to generate a list of all the converts from 2005 and onward, within a certain age range, living in either the Westchester or Manhattan stakes. Not too difficult of a query, but the data is not there. So, I called SLC and asked them to send me the data in some format that I can work with. They can’t give me an XML, which would be nice, so I am probably going to have to write a parser of some sort. Havne’t done Perl in a while…..This will be fun.

So, things are good. Sorry I didn’t send some handwritten stuff lately. I will try, but just like you all, we have been soooooooooo busy lately. It has just been incredible. There is so much work to be done. In the office. In the area. Personal studies. I wish I could just pause the world for a while to catch up.

So, today was good. Played football with the zone. Shopped at Trader Joes. Got a new belt. It was good. I think I am good on stuff for a while, although probably some shirts (long or short sleeve) and some ties wouldn’t hurt whenever you get around to it.

Alright. I better go. Thank you for everything. Oh, here is some quick car advice for Andy. Andy, get something good. Like, $3000+. Anything less is going to be much more trouble than it is worth. If I total up all the $ I put into the truck and the mustang, I could have probably a nice used Tahoe. Look into something like that. Maybe a 98-00. Spend $3500-$5000, so you’re going to have to save for a while. But that will be nice because you will be able to drive your car, instead of fix it. And fixing cars is fun, but not when you want to go somewhere but you can’t. So, that is my advice. Get something decent. And do whatever Mom and Dad tell you.

Alright, I have to go. I love you all so much. I know this work is true and of God. Please take care.

Love,
Elder Barr

Thanks for the great email. I will get some handwritten letters out today, and I will use a yellow pad of paper. Also, please excuse the inevitable punctuation errors. I am using an international keyboard and the layout is a little bit different.

This has been a crazy week. Only once did we get in before 11 o clock. That is because it was transfers this week. Elder Willden is going to work in Yonkers, with Elder Watkins, who just got released as an assistant. I am with Elder Wall, who just came up from Chinatown. That has been his only other area in the mission as he is called Mandarin. Anyway, we are going to be re-opening the White Plains English area, and we have some Chinese investigators that hopefully Elder Wall will be able to talk to, because I can´t.

Anyway, it will be great to be proselyting again. The office was fun, and we will still come in 4 hours per day to do some stuff, but we will get to tract and teach again, which will be great. Plus, White Plains is a nice, fairly clean city with some great families who are just dying to hear the Gospel this month. Anyway, it will be great.

Today, I will be picking up some dry cleaning, buying some food, and then I will spend the rest of the time writing some letters. I may go to the office to write the letters because it is easier to concentrate there and there is more space there as well. We´ll see what happens.

Oh, I got to do something cool the other day. Andy, you need to try this. We went to a Brazilian restaurant with the Assistants, and we had these awesome sandwiches. Here is a description from the bottom up.

Bread, corn, cheese, ham, egg, bacon, chicken, tomato, lettuce, cheese, bread. I know it sounds fatty but it was really good, and I have been losing weight so it is fine. I am wearing a size 34 pant right now and they fit fine. I´ll have to send you a picture.

[Personal stuff deleted]

Speaking of BYU, I will ask President if I can do the BYU application online, but it would be EXTREMELY helpful if you went to the website and did some research for me in terms of semester start and end dates, and if you could send it all to me, along with a course catalog, that would be so extremely helpful. I don´t want to miss any deadlines, so I really need to get started with that application. If you could do some research on it, that would be great. Because even if I did the application online, it would still be very rushed and I would like to see it. So, if you could print it out and send it to me this week, that would be wonderful.

Mom, I would love to see a picture of you with your braces. I´m sure you look great. About Andy doing running start, I think it would be a great idea for him. Tell him there is a lot of good money to be made in the sciences. I will write him a good letter today about it. I also wrote a letter for him with some car advice. I just need to send it.

So, I hope everything is going well at home. I will definately send some hand written letters this week. They will be in the mail tomorrow. That is a commitment.

Dad, I am excited to hear about Korea next week. I´m sure you´ll have a great set of things to do there. If Mom doesn´t have time, could you send me prints of all the college stuff, so I can get started on that. Also, I am working on some good apps for the office, and am actually getting into some pretty deep DB theory. For instance, I am writing a program to record key indicators. The issue is, there are 2 reports generated. One shows key indicators per companionship and one shows key indicators per ward. Storing the data, you need to use a comp-ward pair as a key, because there are some companionships that work multiple wards, and some wards that have multiple companionships. Also, there is some interesting stuff in there that makes sure that the data gets entered for every companionship once per week. It will be great when it is all done.

Anyway, I better go. I love you all very much and I thank you for the great letter. I promise to get some handwritten stuff out today.

I love you all so much.

Love,
Elder Stephen J. Barr

Thanks for the great email. I really appreciate it. I am glad to here that everything is going well.

This week was pretty regular. Transfers are coming up and that is a busy time at the office. Especially this transfer, we are getting 10 sisters. Most of the sisters in the mission are going to be training this cycle. We are getting a few English, a few ASL, a few Spanish, and one Mandarin speaking.

In the office, right now I am just about done with the baptismal statistics stuff. It is pretty cool. I wrote an XSL that transforms the output of the church baptism software to a format that access can import, and then all you have to do is review the imported baptisms, tell how they were found, and it prints out some good reports.

Also, it is great to hear about that job in Provo. I think that that will be a good thing to do, so we better get on top of things for the BYU application. There is a March semester there, so that may be a good option. Either that or start in the summer. Either way.

Today we went bowling as a zone. It was really fun. The city we were in was New Rochelle, which is a nice and clean city. I like it. Most of Westchester County is pretty good, although there are some bad spots from place to place. It is amazing how close together it all is. You can drive from a bad spot in Yonkers to a $5 million Scarsdale home in 15 minutes. It is weird. White Plains is pretty good.

So, a day in the office is pretty normal. We work, take a lunch/study break, and then keep working. We get there at 7:45 AM, and we work the ENTIRE day, except for meals/study. We do most of the “cooking” ourselves, although I haven’t had a good cooked meal in a long time. Either “take-out” or packaged stuff. There is just no time.

We work with the Assistants quite a bit. They usually come in just as we are finishing things for the day. Sometimes if they give us a last minute request we’ll be there to quite late in the day.

Also, Dad, I have been getting your postcards. I really appreciate them. I hope you have a great trip to Korea. Take care of yourself. Mom, I’m sure you’ll look great with the braces.

I will try to send some handwritten letters today. We have most of the errands done, and there are still a few more hours in the day.

Also, I wanted to mention. We had a great mission conference on Monday. The subject was on the proclamation to the World on the Family. It was great. It has made me resolve to plan to be the best parent I can be. I have a head start though, since I have the best example parents in the world.

I love you all so much. Please take care.

Love,
Elder Stephen J. Barr