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