Happy New Year From The Barr Family

Happy New Year From India

Hey everyone. i hope you all had a good Christmas and have a good new year. I'm in kgf now and well, its different. haha. but i love it! its much poor area here. we spend a lot of time in the village type areas because the nicer areas have been hit hard by the missionaries. its a lot more like what i thought India would be like. haha. i have taught lessons outside on the ground with chickens pecking me and baby goats jumping on me. haha. there isn't as much English here as in Bangalore. most of our lessons the people speak Tamil or Telugu so I'm usually pretty lost. but i have learned that no matter what language is being used the spirit is always the same. i was sad to leave Bangalore but we are already seeing progress in kgf. we actually set 4 people for baptism my first day and one the next. so I'm really excited to work hard and get them all baptised and strong members of the church. there are about 40 people that came to church or maybe a little less? but it is crazy to see. I'm going to have many opportunities to teach and speak in church. i already have to teach the gospel essentials class and they usually just ask one of the missionaries to speak in sac just before it starts. haha.the apartment is okay. . . haha. the shower only works "sometimes" so i have had to take bucket showers a couple times. if im luck ill get to boil some water so its not so cold. haha. the washer has to be filled with a bucket. there is all sorts of good stuff. haha. the food is alright. there are only a couple of places we dare eat. most of the places even scare my Indian comp. haha. oh i got really sunburned yesterday. it sucks not having a mom here to remind me about sun screen. but I'm doing great. i love serving the lord. love you all.elder Barr

Merry Christmas From India

hey everyone! well i hope christmas is going good for everyone. being here in india is definately different. haha. there are a few christmas decorations but not many. so enjoy the snow and cold cuz i miss it! but its good for me to see the true meaning of christmas and how its not all about the gifts. . . . its all about the FOOD!! haha just kidding. i actually just had tacos at a couples house and i might be getting a couple more american meals before the holidays are over. but i found out im getting transfered to KGF on friday and ill be with a native companion. so im excited to get to have some new experiences. im sure my english will get even worse than it already is when i have a native compainion. haha. the church is very small in KGF maybe 30 members? and its not a big city like bangalore. so im sure that will be a big change. but im looking foreward to it. we had a christmas activity this week and they built a big stage and a backdrop. i had to help build the backdrop cuz they knew i did construction. i thought it would be easy but building with crocked sticks and rope mad from coconut hair is not like shooting a nail gun. haha. but we got it done and it turned out really nice. my compainionship the the couple misionaries and the branch missionaries did a puppet show for our skit. everyone really liked it because they dont see stuff like that here. i gues the party didnt get over til like 11 so everyone was late to sacrament the next morning. it was pretty funny cuz there were only like 2 people there on time. im sad to have to leave the branch here cuz i just started to get close to the members. but thats how it goes i guess. but im still doing great and loving it here. hope santa finds everyone!love elder barr
PS I got my Packages Santa does know where India is

Kaden sent some pictures of his first few weeks in India

We are excited to talk to him at Christmas

Kaden December 17,2008

hey everyone! hows it going? i bet great cuz there is actually snow during christmas time. haha. the people here celebrate christmas and they try to decorate but nothin like what im uses to. im in goa right now and its really hot and humid. we flew in yeasterday at like 5. its really cool here there are trees everywhere and the elders apartment is right by the beach so we went running on the beach this morning. baywatch style. haha. were going to some place in like ten min where they have dolphins and stuff i dont really know. but the work in india is going good. elder sing and i almost have too many investigators. not really but its hard to deal with them all. we need more missionaries in bangalore. it will happen. we have 3 pople who are supposed to get baptised on the 28th and then we have a few more with a date. so we'll see. i might not even be here on the 28th if i get transfered? i sure hope i am. but i dont have much time cuz our taxi/ mini bus thing just came. haha. but thanks for the pictures from the barr xmas party. i miss everyone and hope your all doing good.elder barr

Another great week in India

hey everyone! well i just had my scariest experince in india yet!!! i got my first haircut. hahaha. wow it was nuts scisors, razorblades, hair flyin everywhere. i look like a dork but its all good. im in india and it doesnt really matter. haha. things are going great! i had a really cool experience a few days ago so ill try to make it short but make sense. so one night a few weeks ago we were walking to an apnt and a man stopped us and told us to come pray for his wife. samuel and stella. she was pregenant and the baby want developing right and it was going to need to get aborted. elder sing gave a really nice prayer. we didnt know what happened after that. but a couple days ago during a lesson my phone rang two times in a row and i didnt recognize the number and when i called it back the phone was shut off. then we had a feeling we needed to go see samuel and stella. when we got there sam had been in a bad motorcycle wreck and was in a lot of pain. we taught a really good lesson. and during the lesson he said "did you know i called you about 20 min ago"? elder sing and i looked at eachother and just smiled. but it was amazing to me that the spirit guides so much. it was great! they also have a 4yr old girl named jenny she is so cute and loves the elders. we have taught them a couple of times since. and i know that they will be baptised. and last monday we went to a members house for fam home evening. they said they would cook beef byriani. i was stoked! the power was off all night so it was really dark. so i took my first bite and was like this is really weird. . it was kinda slimy and squishy. nest bit was fine. but then in the candle light i saw that there were intestines in the meat also. haha. so i was a bit more carefull as i picked through the rest of the meal. haha. but anyways im doing great! hope all is well back home.love elder barr

Kaden's Thanksgiving 2008

Hey everyone! i hope everyones thanksgiving was as good as mine! the lintons cooked a really nice meal for the bang elders. i think i ate more than i do even at home. when i was done i seriously couldnt stand up. they bought a turkey for 120 dollars. they are such nice people! its not the best quality but hey i was expecting chicken curi. haha. she had stuffing,corn,salad,RANCH,mashed potatoes and gravy,rolls sweet potatoes" nothin like grandmas tho"haha, banna cream pie, pumpkin,apple pie, brownies and ice cream. i ate way more than anyone i had 3 huge plates and like 4 pieces of pie. we played games after to so it was a really great day. i am so lucky to be in bangalore cuz i gaurentee the other elders didnt get anything like that. we only got put on lockdown from the attacks for one day. so that was good its not fun having to sit inside. we can still knock doors and find. the finding is going really well. we already have 7 new investigators for this week. we had the baptism for john too. his uncle baptised him and he will be confermed this sunday. it was great to see that and it makes me want to work that much harder. after church we went and ate at the couples home thats near by and had pancakes, french toast, bacon, eggs and fruit! once again I LOVE BANGALORE. haha. i am going to KGF again later today because my comp has to go on exchanges with the district leader.its a 3 hour bus ride but its really cool there and you get to talk to everyone. so we will be spending a couple days there. we also get to go to goa next week! im so lucky to be with a zone leader. i hear goa is sweet! oh ya and i spoke in church sunday. haha. i was nervouse. but my legs werent shaking like at the farewell. i had to take up 12 min. i think it went good. they probably didnt understand me. haha. its funny cuz there are like 10 people there until right after the sacrament and then it fills up. i guess the people are just like i was back home. your not cool unless your late to sacrament. haha. things are still going great though. i love being a missionary. even in all my dreams i am a missionary its weird. haha. but hope everything is going good back in the USA. love elder barr

Thanks friends and family

Thanks everyone for your calls and concern with Kaden and the recent troubles they have been having in India, he is several hundred miles away from Mumbai and there are no missionaries serving there either, We know that he is being protected and feel peace that he is safe but also feel of all your love and concern it truly does help us to keep a positive outlook.
We hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving and look forward to next year and having all are family at our house, so everybody plan on being there.

Congratulation Alexa on making the Utah Soccer team, that is so awesome we look forward to watching you play good job.

Love, JayDee & Machelle

Happy Thanksgiving from India

Hey, well happy thankgsgiving! well i think it will be thanksgiving for you when you get this? haha i dont know. the office couple is having us over for dinner at 3 so that will be nice. definately nothing like grandmas thanksgiving but ill take what i can get. haha. sorry i didnt get to write yesterday either. i hope you havent worried. i wasnt in jail or anything like that haha. it was cuz we had zone conference. it was really good and i learned alot. they taught a lot about studying and gave us tips on how to better study the scriptures. elder singh said it was good i liked the first one cuz he hated his. oh and a little more about my compainion. he is indian but born and raised in northern california we have more and more fun the better we get to know eachother. he is really good at football, well soccer. haha. he is a bangalore zone leader so its pretty cool cuz im learning a lot from him. we live with the other zone leader elder pulla and his jr comp. e pulla is a native from hydrabad. he is funny i laugh all the time. his accent cracks me up and he is always dancing and singing american songs. his jr comp is elder balthrop from houston. he is a paramedic so thats good. haha. it was another great week though. except for right after i e mailed last week i started to feel sick. and on thursday i felt terrible. the food definately wasnt sitting right. haha i couldnt eat for a couple days but im fine and doing great again. it definately made me miss my mommy. haha. we still went out and taught it was really cool to cuz during the lessons i felt fine. we had some great lessons this week. we got 10 new investigators and set 7 baptisimal dates. it was so good to feel some success. we also met a kid named john, his sister is a member and he took the lessons with her. we met with him and set him for baptism. here in india they have to attend all 3 hours of church for 3 weeks and then they can get baptized. but he has came to church for a while and when we set him for december he was like why not sooner. and we talked to pres and he said we can. so were going to be having a baptism!!! we teach a lot of recent convert lessons too. we need to work with the members so they will give us refferals. and it looks like that well be all well be doing for a while because i dont know if you have heard but today there was a terrorist attack in india. so the whole mission cant procelite now. they didnt give us details on the attacks but i guess its kind of seriouse? you probably know more than us. but im safe and doing great! so dont worry, we are very careful where we go and where we find. it sucks though cuz i was just starting to enjoy knocking doors. but pres just told us to let you know we are all okay.this week was one of the first times i have felt like the spirit guided me on where to go. we had been walking all day and i was starving. it was like 7. there is a noodle vendor on the street that we eat at its a huge plate for only 14rs anyways i told elder singh lets go eat. and he was like we gotta get into one more house i can feel it. and then i got the feeling too. we had no success for a while and knocked a bunch of doors. then we realized we needed to go to some people we have been teaching and they have rejected baptism. but when we went in we set this woman maria and her son mark. they have been coming to church but just not wanting to get baptized. her husband wanted nothing to do with the church but he sat through the lesson and we actually set him too!! the spirit does guide us and i just need to listen. the weather is so nice here. its cool all day. the locals say its freezing but it feels great to me. haha. it has rained off and on this week. it was funny cuz on the way here it was raining and the roads were slick our auto driver was about to rearend the car in front of us and slammed on the breaks we spun all the way around and stoped with hardly any room to spare. elder singh and i were just laughin. there is no such thing as a close call here. every second is a close call. ha halove you all and hope everthing is going great.love, elder barr

Letter from Kaden

Hey everyone! well like i said in my first letter, india is crazy! everything anyone told me about india is usually way off. haha. i whish all you guys could see what e have seen in the few short days i have been here. ill start with the bathroom situation. haha. its just like anywhere its a toilet there is tp almost everywhere. so the left hand is still doing as good as ever.haha. there is what you call a "squatter" in the apt too. but noone uses it. the shower is nice too. you shower and the water goes all over in the bathroom but its warm water. we have to flip the water heater switch right when we wake up so it gets warm. the only problem is that there has only been one morning since i have been here that the power was on. but the watter heats up fast so its all good.
i eat oatmeal for breakfast. just plain with sugar. im actually like it now. haha. we eat out for lunch. usually rice with curry or some other stuff that i dont know what it is. they have torilla things called chapati that you eat with too. i use my right hand to eat im getting pretty good already. my first meal i was pretty helpless.haha. for dinner i usually just make noodles but i got some bread and cheese today so ill start makin grilled cheese. but im hanling the food just fine. its not as spicy as i thought. im still solid. hahahaha. but the food is good. so dont worry about me starving.
the apt is nice, 4 elders stay there. there is 2 bedrooms a nice living room and a pretty nice kitchen. our stove is just propane but it works. the beds are hard but its better than all the people you see on the street sleeping. we have a washer but no dryer. i feel blessed though cuz if you look out the back window there are people living under tarps and whatever they can find. i have definatly been humbled in just one week. i have kids begging for money every night as we walk home. people dont like americans as much as i thought either. i hide while elder singh catches an "auto" the little 3 wheeler thing and then i come around the corner and get in. you should see the drivers faces. haha they try to charge extra. but thats how we get aound a lot.
im in the 2nd branch. there are 3 in bangalore but 2nd branch covers 80% of the city. so its a ton of walking and trying to learn the area. the chapel is really nice for 2nd branch. i actually saw a guy from n logan sunday at church. brother izrelson i think? his brother wnet to school with dad or somethin. but he should be talking to you soon. he left yesterday for home. small world though huh. i have seen monkeys big lizards, cows on the roads, camels, and millions of stray dogs. i bet at any one time a can see 10 dogs. I have only taught a few lessons. we can only knock christian doors cuz there has been a lot more problems here. last week over 20 christian missionarries were arrested, 11 last night. i dont know many details but one of us has to wear colored shirts. we cant wear our ties or nametags. dont worry though ill be fine but we definatly have to be careful. some lessons have gone well and some not good. its verry humbling to not be good at something i wanna do. but just like baseball, you gotta put in the time. im doing great though. i love it here! i miss you all and hope everything is good. thanks for all the support.love elder barr.

A visitor from North Logan

This is Kaden with his companion Elder Singh and Bert Israelsen from North Logan. Bert happened to be in Bangalore on business and went to church and saw Elder Barr there and made the connection with the fam. Small world!! He emailed us this picture when we returned home.

MTC pictures

We are a little slow putting pictures of the MTC but better late than never!!
Kaden with his companion Elder Sorensen (from Texas) in front of the temple.
With the Elders in his district who are all going to India.
Either he has had enough or is trying to soak it all in!! We wont mention that he could just be sleeping.
With all the Elders in his district.

Kaden goes to the MTC October 22, 2008

Kaden opening his call to serve in Bangalore,
India.














It's official Kaden is a missionary! We are so
excited to have him serving the lord. It was
my honor to place his name badge on him.















It doesn't get any easier the 2nd time around

Our missionary is gone!!

We had the opportunity to take Kaden to the MTC on Wed. We had a great experience . It is a bittersweet time. But he was just ready to get on with it.
We are so excited to have this awesome experience and we are going to try and keep our family and friends posted with the things happening at the Barr's and in INDIA....