Please send me some snow.

Hey Everyone,

Thanks for the emails this week. Please send me some snow :) sounds like you have extra. I would love some right now. Its been really hot and humid right now as we are heading into the hurricane season there is a lot more rain. No worries a hurricane hasn't hit Puerto Rico in about 30 years apparantly but we sure do get a lot of rain this time of year. Sounds like things are going well at home, and everyone is just sort of winding down with school. Have fun in Spring City this weekend! Sounds like you did a really great job on your seminary graduation talk, Ab, that's supper cool. PS are you still sending me emails? I haven't gotten any if you have, just checking to see if your email is still being weird.

Well things this week have been really good. we were able to get out and knock a few more days! Hermana Thornton still isn't feeling too well but she's being awesome and just pushing through it. One day we found this really awesome girl who is about our age named Neldys that we taught out in front of her house sitting on a wall. She is awesome and the spirit was really there. Her dad was having surgery that day and she was really nervous about it. But the spirit was really strong. So slowly we are getting more investigators to teach. we've been teaching a lot more in Corozal which is a little far away.  We have two investigators out there that we just started teaching. We are really excited about one family especially. Probably one of the coolest things that happened this week was that we met with a less active family that is amazing. We talked with the bishop awhile ago and asked him who he felt that we could go visit that could really use our help because there are so many less active families that we can't focus on all of them. Well he told us the name of one and we have been trying to find out where they live but they moved. We finally figured out how to get there last monday night. They invited us over for dinner on tuesday and it was amazing. The wife served a mission and the family has been sealed in the temple but they stopped coming to church becuase of a problem with some other members. They haven't been very receptive to visiting teachers in awhile so the bishop and his wife were excited to hear that they not only opened the door to us but invited us over for dinner. We had an awesome dinner and talked about her mission and they told us about how much they loved the temple and how many times they had gone to the different temples. We invited them to come back to church and they said that they had been thinking about it recently because they want their children to be able to receive the blessings of the gospel and their kids don't remember anything. Wow, the spirit was so strong and I just know that this family is ready to come back. We testified about the Book of Mormon and even the Mom who was there and told us that she was going to a different church, when we left she was flipping through the pages of the Book of Mormon. Wow, I'm really excited to work with this family.

Anyway things here are going well. We are working more with the members to try and get them excited about the missionary work and give us more references and I think that the genealogy activity we are planning will be really great once we start getting it under way. Anyway things are going well. I'm sending a few pictures I don't have a ton.

But these are some from transfer meeting and zone conference (you've got to love the pictures where everyone is squinting and looking at 20 different cameras :) ) and some pics of us making pastelillos de arroz at a member's house (think mexican tamale but rice instead of maza and banana leaves instead of corn husks).

I slept through the earthquake.

Hey everyone,

Thanks for the emails this week.

Sounds like things are going well at home. Mom and Dad sounds like the yard is going to look great. Are you doing the home tour this year? Hopefully you'll get to relax down there this summer and not just work all the time. Wow, Ab sounds like you are in high demand, talking and singing in sacrament speaking at seminary graduation that's really cool. Sounds like you are really busy. Have you had your madrigals concert yet? What are all you girls doing for the summer? Are you working? Have you started working at the front desk at the club rach or teaching tennis? PS-what is a crew regatta?

So this week has been pretty crazy. I don't know if you heard but there was an earthquake in the north west tip of Puerto Rico in a place called Moca. It was about 1:00 am in the morning and I didn't feel a thing even though it was about 5.8 on the riechter scale (spelled right?). Sunday morning my companion said did you feel that shaking last night and I was like what? I have no idea what you are talking about. But then we got to church and everyone was talking about it. As far as I know no one in our area had anything damaged they just felt the shaking, closet doors and dishes in the cupboard rattling etc. Pretty crazy I slept right through it. I've never thought of myself as much of a deep sleeper. No worries though everything is fine here. Pretty crazy though.

Other than that we have been just doing the same old thing. We found have a new investigator named Isabela who is amazing. She doesn't really have a religion and she has the cutest little family. She and her husband are awesome. We testified of the family and there was a really special spirit there. She doesn't really know much about the Bible at all but I know that she felt something different. When we asked her what interested her about the message she said very quietly that she just wanted something to believe in. It's so true there are so many people out there that just need something to believe in especially when life can be so hard. We are really excited to go back and teach her, there was really something special about her and her family.

So today we experienced probably the biggest downpour I have seen since being here in Puerto Rico. I mean this was the aguacero of all aguaceros. We happened to not bring our umbrellas and had to run from the doctor's office to our car which was parked on the other side of this huge parking lot. The rain wasn't letting up so we just took a run for it. Here were these two american girls in skirts just booking it as fast as they could down the flooded sidewalk and across a parking lot by the time we got to our car we were completely soaked, mascara running down our face and not a dry spot on our clothes, it looked like we had just jumped in a pool. We couldn't stop laughing for the longest time. So any of you planning a trip to Puerto Rico anytime soon remember to bring an umbrella even when it looks sunny in the morning.

Love you all!
Have a great week.

Long time, no talk!

Hey everyone,


Well I'm sorry I don't really have anything extremely life changing since now andlast sunday but that's the cool thing I guess. It was so fun to talk to on Sunday. Wow, I couldn't stop smiling or laughing all day. Too much fun; you are all crazy! I saw the pictures of your Mother's day adventures looks super fun and tasty,send some of that my way will you :) PS Erin love the glasses. Thanks for the blogs I'm way excited because I got tons of email this week except for Abby that is I don't know why but I'm not getting anything from her e-mail address and I everything I send gets sent back to me. Make sure you are sending it to brooke.barker@myldsmail.net. Thanks for sending me copies of the blogs.  I don't have time to read all of them but I'm really excited to read a little bit each week and catch up with you all. Thanks also for sending me the email from Karina, that was really cool to read about her, I'll be praying for her and tell her hi from me ps tell her I would love some of her spicy Mexican food right now.

Mom, I think I would just like two white if thats okay green might be a little much with some of my colorful skirts. Thanks for doing that you're awesome.

Here is a shout out to all the people that might be reading my blog or ward members and family friends that have said hi via my family.  I say "hi" back and I'm doing great. Puerto Rico is amazing. Send me a letter and I'll try and write you back as soon as possible. Thanks for all your prayers. I miss you all! Oh and ps congratulations to the million of you who are engaged.

Well things here are good. We are working with our awesome recent converts that we have and looking for more people to teach. Lots of potentials so we're hoping that will be able to start see some of them be able to go to church and start progressing. Prayers would be appreciated. We are working on getting together a big genealogy activity/open house with the ward and possibly the stake. We are really excited and hoping that we can get it under way. It will take a lot of work but we are hoping that it will help the members be more excited about preparing to go to the temple and also help find new people to teach and to lesson to the church. Other than not much n.  It's hot and rainy at the same time and it's not even summer yet so for now I'm still alive haha. No worries Dad I'll put more sunscreen on.

 Love you all.

It's hot chocolate weather...the low 70's

Hey!!! Thanks for the emails. Sounds like everything is going well it's so fun that everyone is back home again. I apologize for the mouse that was living in my vacuum cleaner. haha that's really gross. Hey Dad, that conference sounds really neat I am really jealous. You'll have teach me all sorts of cool stuff when I get home I'm sure you'll be pro at everything. We are trying to encourage members to go to the genealogy center in our stake center so that they can get excited about the genealogy work and prepare their own names for the temple. The ward is planning two temple trips one for just the youth and one for the ward to go to October General Conference in 2011. Apparantly the temple prep class is very well attended. Hey Erin, that's awesome that you finished your novel draft. You still haven't told me anything about it yet. You'll have to give me a brief summary. I'm really excited to read it when I get home. Hope school isn't too busy you are probably almost done right? Ab, you'll have to write me and tell me about the dance. Mom said that you got asked twice. That's awesome. I haven't heard from you in forever I'm sure your super busy with AP tests and I'm sure its that time of year for Madrigals concert but let me know how things are going.


Well things here in Puerto Rico are well... wet. Its quite funny actually because its like low 70s and people are wearing jackets. Two different members gave us hot chocolate yesterday! Its really not that cold! haha but in comparison to how it usually is I guess people are inspired to bring out the hot chocolate. I hear that it's still snowing in Utah. That's crazy.

This week has been pretty slow, we've been trying to find a lot of less active members and teach a few investigators that we have. We have a new family to teach the wife has come to church a few times with a member named Maritza. She doesn't have a phone and lives ridiculously far away so we haven't been able to coordinate with her until this week when we went out to Corozal to eat lunch with Maritza. Maritza took us to her house and we met her husband and even though he didn't have much time we taught him a quick intro to the plan of salvation, and left him a pamphlet. While we were teaching his kids came home from school and the oldest daughter who is probably about 11 or 12 went inside and brought out a book and started reading in the hammock. Well it just so happened to the gospel principles manual. She had already read several chapters. We are pretty excited about this family, they are passing through some really hard times right now and they really need the gospel. We are hoping to be able to drive out there today but Angel, the husband just called from a telephone he borrowed and told us that it is raining ridiculously hard and there is a lot of fog so we might have to stop by another day if it doesn't stop raining in a few hours.

Hey here are some photos that I haven't sent.

Remember the photos with us studying with the laundry well this is what happens when we leave it outside and it rains a lot. haha. I love rain...

Photos from the Baptism with Jose and with Luis (the one with the mustach) and also with Madeline and the Bishop

Well guess what?! This sunday is Mother's Day. Do you know what that means? I get to call home!!!! So you better all be there. I can call for five minutes or so on saturday to set up a time to for the next day. Got to go but I'll talk to you soon!

Baptisms!

Hey Family,


How are you? Its good to hear that Rachel got home safe, that's so crazy. Hope everything is going well this week. No worries Dad that fried food was a one time thing and I didn't eat it all. I don't like fried food so I never eat it unless its at a members house and I have to. Haha actually I've eaten more american food than ever before because so many people in our ward are from the states.

Wow, this week was amazing so much to tell. The baptism on Saturday was amazing. So there were three baptisms, Jose, Madeline and Alondra. The first was Alondra is an eight year old girl of a family that is recent convert/less active. The mom got baptised years ago but the Dad and the kids were baptized last year. They stopped coming to church for awhile but recently started coming back to church about a month ago. Wow it was so amazing to see the Dad be able to baptize for the first time. To see the Mom crying and feel the spirit so strongly.

A little background information first about Madeline and Jose. Two years ago Jose worked with a friend who is a member in the ward in Bayamon. He gave him a Book of Mormon and they would have long discussions at work about religion and Esteban would answer Jose's questions using the Book of Mormon. Not long after they lost touch and Esteban has not been attending church. Luis, Jose's best friend since they were very young, was invited by his girlfriend Laura to listen to the missionaries last year. Becuase of her and her family Luis was baptized in December. Luis then invited Jose to come over and listen to Hermana Thornton and Hermana Mertlich. Jose readily accepted the invitation.

Madeline was also a reference from a member. A few months ago the Young Women were each given a Book of Mormon and challenged to write their testimony in it and give it away to a friend. So Desire decided to give it to Madeline. Madeline started going to Seminary and then Hermana Thornton and Hermana Mertlich started teaching her. Madeline from the beginning always wanted to get baptized, but she still had not gained her own testimony that this was the true church. Each time we taught her we would ask her if she had received an answer and she said that she still hadn't. Hermana Thornton talked to President about and asked him what we should do because she wanted to be baptized and kept all the commitments but hadn't recieved an answer yet. He told us to go ahead with the baptism and that maybe her spiritual gift was to belief on the testimonies of others like it says in D&C. So we've been praying hard every day that she would be able to come to know for herself and we went ahead with the plans for the baptism.

There were quite a few members, Madeline's family, and also Luis and his girlfriend, Esteban and his girlfriend who isn't a member and also Jose's girlfriend who isn't a member either. It was especially amazing to see Luis baptize Jose and despite his nerves (no kidding, he was literally shaking before the baptism started) he said the baptism prayer perfectly and they embraced each other afterwards for a really long time It was really neat. Madeline was baptized by the bishop. After the baptisms the bishop wanted to have time for the bearing of testimonies while they all changed into dry clothes. He was definately inspired because the spirit was so strong. Luis' girlfriend Laura bore her testimony first and I realized how amazing it is that through one person's example so many miracles can come about. How amazing to hear Esteban bear his testimony and then finally to hear Jose bear his testimony for the first time testifying how he received an answer to his prayers and how the influence of his friend had brought him to know that this was the true church. Everyone was crying including the two girlfriends that don't know much about the church. Then Madeline got up and bore her testimony for the first time. The spirit was so strong as she thanked Desire for giving her a Book of Mormon and Hermana Torro and other members that helped her then she paused and started to cry and said that she knew that this was the true church and that she knew the Book of Mormon was true. Hermana Thornton and I just started to cry, she had come to know for herself. We played the last five minutes of the Testaments when Jesus Christ comes to the Americas and I'm pretty sure there was not a dry eye the room. I looked around and saw Madeline's mom crying, Jose's girlfriend crying, Alondra's mom crying and I don't know how to describe it was just so amazing.

As they left the baptism the group of six friends Luis, Jose and Esteban each with their girlfriends were already planning on having a movie night to watch the Testaments all the way through and Carla, Jose's girlfriend left with a Book of Mormon in her hand, a gift from Esteban.

Wow, I love this gospel so much. I am just amazed at how small things like a Book of Mormon with a testimony written in the cover can change the life of a seventeen year old girl or how an invitation to listen to the missionaries from Luis' girlfriend Laura set off a chain reaction that has not only blessed Luis but Jose as well and who knows how many more people, as they continue to share the gospel with their friends. How home teachers and ward members helped to reactivate a family that had become inactive after recently being baptized and the father was able to baptize his 8 year old daughter. By small things great things come to pass.

As missionaries sometimes we find people to teach and baptize, but even more amazing is to sit back and watch as miracles unfold because of members who are willing to share their testimonies. We just get to be instruments in the teaching process.

Anyway sorry that was really long but it was just a really amazing experience that I wanted to share with you all. Love you all a ton. Hope you have a great week!

Hello Stranded Friends

Hello fellow stranded friends,

Haha I only say this because it looks like we're all stranded in one way or another. As for myself, I've been stranded in the house a lot this week because Hermana Thornton is still feeling really sick. It was better than last week but I've still been making a lot of phone calls instead of knocking doors but things are good. We have been able to go to all of our teaching appointments but there have been a few days where she hasn't felt well enough to knock (and also we can't cancel some of the appointments or we won't finish the lessons before the baptisms this weekend). For those of you who are stranded in Utah and England, WOW, I can't believe the emails this week. That's so crazy. I hadn't heard anything about the volcano eruption in Iceland. As missionaries we never hear anything unless members or someone tell us and we haven't heard anything. That's crazy how many days has it been erupting for? Hermana Thornton's Dad just told us that there was a earthquake in Utah, in Randolf and that he felt it where he lived in Fruit Heights. Did you feel it at all? This is crazy. I'm sorry you had to cancel your European trip I know how much you were all looking forward to that; well at least after the plane landed :) I'm really sorry. Rach, I am praying for you and all the students so that you will be able to get home safely and I guess all I can say is that in the meantime enjoy your extra time in London. Dad said that you were going to go on an extra weekend trip so that will be good. Wow, things are crazy. Hope school is going good Erin, when are you done? That's cool that you are moving back to Salt Lake.  Are you moving home or getting an apartment? Ab, good luck with AP tests; I'll be praying for you. You'll do great and then it will be such a relief to be done and you can just enjoy the rest of your senior year with less stress. Wow, so weird my baby sister is graduating from High School.

Well things are good here. This week has been really great. We had to move Madeleine's baptism date because we didn't have time to finish the lessons. So this weekend we are having a triple baptism! Madeline, Jose, and also Alondra who is a little eight year girl of one to the coolest families in our ward who are recent converts. So it is going to be great. We just have to round up the baptism clothes (its turning out a lot harder than we thought), visit both of them each day even though they live about 45 minutes away, and keep Luis (Jose's best friend and recent convert of only 4 months) from hyperventalating because he is so nervous because Jose asked him to baptize him and since he just got baptized himself he is super nervous and worried he'll do it wrong.

We had a really great lesson with a man named Angel who is a former investigator, the spirit was so strong. Luis (same Luis mentioned above) also happens to be one of our most gung-ho member missionaries and he went with us to teach Angel. Wow, the spirit was so strong as Jose testified of how he received a testimony of Joseph Smith. Even though we were on the front porch and there were a million distractions inside the house from the tv and computer and the neighbors were playing loud rigatone music it was like, I don't know, this amazing moment where it was like we were in our own little world and the spirit was so strong. I am really excited for some of the people that we have found because of the hours of calling on the telephone from the area book. We have 3 or 4 really great appointments this week with people. So maybe spending lots of time in the house is just what we needed :)

Well I am going to send you some pictures. I don't have a ton but some of them are pretty funny. In Puerto Rico where it rains a lot sometimes you have to try and dry your laundry inside the house which is a pain because unless it dries in the sun it never really gets dry very well. Last week it was raining a ton so the only place to hang a clothesline happened to be where we study. So we couldn't see each other as we studied. So this is how we did our companionship study. Well... that's a lie, we moved it out of the way so we could see each other but we took pictures because it was funny.

This is why I am going to gain a ton of weight here, fried food. A recent convert owns a little shop on the side of the highway (a very common thing here) where she sells frituras (fried food).

 These are bacailiatos which is basically fried batter that has little bits of bacalai which is a really salty which fish. There is empanada with ground beef and my favorite, Pinonos, which is the little round thing which is bananas stuffed with ground beef and then fried. The bananas are really sweet.

Translation: Life is short.  Eternity is not. - God

Translation:  Do you feel lost?  My book is your map. - God
Why don't we have billboards like this in the states?  I love Puerto Rico

Hey Rach, remember the pictures of the tans that we used to laugh about like the lifeguard ton or the rollerblade tan?  Well, you can add Puerto Rican Sister Missionary Chancletta tan.  Wish the picture did it justice, it looks better in person.

Ab, you'll like this one.  These little critters are everywhere.

Love you all. Hope everything is well. Thanks for the emails I love reading about everything back at home. I'm praying that everything works out well this week with airplane flights, tests and moving home.

Hermana Barker

P.S. Thanks for the package it was perfect.

Toa Baja and two baptisms this week

Hey Family,

Hope things are going good this week. Sounds like everyone is really busy between work and school. Good luck with work Dad hope you get all your returns done. Good luck on finals Rach. Don't stress out too much but enjoy your last few days in London. I didn't go to France so I don't know anything about it but I am super jealous take lots of pictures and tell me all about it.

Things here are good here. Toa Baja is a really great ward. I still don't know anybody but I am excited to serve in this ward because there are a lot of really great members. I'm not going to lie its been a pretty hard week. Hermana Thornton has been sick these last few transfers and even though she has been to the doctor several times she still isn't better or something else comes up. Its hard because she has no energy and really horrible headaches and dizzyness. So we spent quite a bit of time in the apartment this week. I felt bad because I know she feels miserable and she was a good sport about it and we tried to work as much as we could and we taught most of the lessons we had set up but she just didn't have the energy to knock doors some days. So we would go back to the house and we were able to count finding time by going through the area books (these are binders that keep track of all the contacts we make so like everyone you ever contact you write in the book so other missionaries later on can contact them. It also has the teaching records for former investigators). So I spent hours this week calling former investigators or contacts trying to set up appointments. That gets old pretty fast. But its good to try and go back and find people that were listening to the lessons that maybe at the time weren't interested or ready but maybe they are now. Hopefully this week will be better. We are going to be really busy this week because we have two baptisms coming up! Jose and Madeleine. Madeleine was supposed to get baptized this week but she was sick and had a lot of school projects this week we won't be able to finish the lessons in time so we put her baptism date back a week and we are going to have a double baptism with Jose on the 24th. They are both amazing. Jose is especially excited for his baptism date. I just love how enthusiastic he is about the gospel. He went to his first fast and testimony meeting yesterday and loved it. He told us that he couldn't help but think what he would say when he would be up there bearing his testimony. He takes his Book of Mormon with him everywhere and always reads it when he has a free moment at school. When his friends made fun of him for reading it all the time and saying, I don't know how you can read that its so long and the letters are small and it looks so boring. he started saying "well you read Lord of the Rings for the tenth time and instead they could read just a few verses of the Book of Mormon" he tells them how much it would change their life. He and Luis and are going to talk to one of their best friends today to see if we can come teach her the lessons. It is so great to see young people get so excited about the gospel and also want to share it with their friends.

We had a really great zone conference on Friday where we talked about how we can work better with the Bishop. We met with him last night with the elders that also serve in our ward. He said that his main goal is to get 150 people in Sacrament each week. So we have a giant list of the names of less active members that we are going to go out and find. We want to start working with the members and going on splits, bringing them to our lessons but then also going to visit less active members. There are so many in this ward. But we are excited and up for the challenge.

Well hope everything goes well this week. Thanks for sending the package mom. My asthma is doing fine everything is back to normal. Don't worry Dad, I'm wearing sunscreen.

Love you all a ton. Have a good week.