Elder John M. Barker
Chile Osorno Mission
Monday, April 22, 2013
Monday, April 15, 2013
Well I should start out this week by mentioning that I am now in Valdivia.
On Wednesday during the afternoon we were visiting Miguel, a less active member
(because he is sick in bed because of his age), when President Rappleye called.
He asked me how our plans were for the afternoon, and I informed him we had
only one appointment. He asked if it could be changed for another day because
he had something he wanted me to do. He then went on to say how he knew me as a
sort of "minute-man" and that he could rely on me. I could only imagine what
would follow shortly after a statement like that. He then asked if I could have
my bags ready within an hour and a half because he was sending the assistants to
Pucòn to pick me up. We ended the conversation and quickly ran home to pack my
bags. I plugged in the camera to charge a little and started filling bags. We
took a break and ran to the two houses we could reach so I could say goobye and
then ran to pick up my clothes from the branch president's house. We arrived at
home and finished packing up the bags. The assistants arrived around 10pm and
dropped off Elder Malaver to stay in Pucòn. We arrived in Valdivia around
midnight.
I am now here in the sector Laurel (the same church building as
Martìnez de Rosas where I was a year ago). My companions name is Elder Balbuena
from Mexico, and we are serving here as the zone leaders of Calle-Calle. It has
been a really interesting change.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
My last Sunday in Pucòn I had decided to start playing the keyboard (which I
detest very much, rather than playing a real piano) to be able to help the
branch members out. Right when I decide to play, they transfer me. Now I am
playing the piano, a nice Clavinova, here in the Laurel ward. I have decided to
teach classes on leading music and playing piano because the church has a great
program to help people learn. Unfortunately as a missionary I do not have the
time to dedicate to these classes for the quantity of personas that have the
desire to learn. Therefore, I am taking the course material and crunching it
down into a small 6 week program. I will be teaching our ward mission leader
and probably one other person to lead music and to play piano so that when I am
no longer here they will be able to take the time to teach the rest of the
people, hopefully in the whole stake, to lead music and play piano. I have such
a desire to help, yet I simply am not permitted to do it in he full capacity
that I would like to. However, I will do what I can to get things moving.
Maybe someday I will be permitted to spend more time teaching in that
capacity.
We have been working a lot with members because we are both relatively
new in the sector. I know the majority of the members from when I was close by
a year ago, and we have their trust. We have been teaching them and talking
about their friends. This past week we were able to receive over twenty
references from members and we contacted five of them. This is the first time
in the mission that I have seen such success with references. I urge everyone
who reads these letters to pray about your friends who are not yet members of
the church and ask the Lord how you may be able to present them to the
missionaries. True joy will be brought into your life.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Many things have been happening here in
the District of Villarrica. We have seen many people choosing to follow
more closely in our Savior´s footsteps. On Saturday I went to Villarrica
and Sandra and Odaliz had their baptismal interviews. They are prepared
and will be baptized this upcoming Saturday. We are inviting all of our
investigators, and I know that this will make great progress for the district
for the month of March. We will be discussing baptismal goals and in
March we will see miracles. There is no district meeting on Tuesday
because on Friday we will have Zone Conference.
As of now we have many people who
have accepted the invitation to be baptized and we are working very hard with
our new branch mission leader. We are receiving more and more help from
the members each day. Tomorrow we will have a three-way companionship
exchange with the zone leaders and the sector Ancahual. I am realy short
on time so I must apologize for the shortness of this letter. Today we
went to "Los Ojos de Caburgua" as a district and took a lot of
pictures. It was really amazing.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
This is Elder Bosse, Elder Jolley, President Rappleye, and Elder Barker.
These three missionaries were in the same MTC group.
These three missionaries were in the same MTC group.
The district is doing absolutely amazing. We started a game of sorts
to increase the efforts in the zone. Every time we extend a baptismal
invitation, we are to "pinch" (call and let ring once and then hang up) our
corresponding leader. We set a goal as a zone to reach 18 baptismal
invitations, and we reached 36 in all of last week. Of those 36 there were 18
that accepted baptism. I feel great about the progress that we are seeing.
This week as a district we will be focusing on how to get our investigators to
attend church. I woke up this morning in such a great mood and my personal
study was incredibly effective. The meeting tomorrow will be great with
participation from all.
On Saturday night we were assigned to speak in church with two topics.
One being fasting and fast offerings, and the other being family unity and
exaltation. I wanted to speak on both of them, so I let my companion decide
which one he wanted to speak on. I ended up delivering a message on Family
Unity and Exaltation. I felt really inspired when I was preparing the talk, and
it greatly strengthened my testimony of families, however when I was speaking I
was prompted to remove several scriptural references from the discourse. I feel
as though what I found edifying for myself was too harsh for the members to
handle. Family issues are very common here and I was prompted to tone down the
message so that the Spirit could testify to them of the basic principles that
aid a family in its progress to salvation.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Monday, January 14, 2013
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