Kaden's Doing Great

hey everyone! hope everyone is doing good back home. i had another really good week. we were supposed to have a baptism sunday but didint because of some word of wisdom problems. everyone here drinks tea and coffee so its hard for them to stop. but im sure it will happen soon. its hard to see people struggle to overcome there problems but i know that the lord has a plan. this week a sister named Vani is getting baptised. she has been comeing to church for quite a while now. she speaks very less english. elders have taught her for a while and she has came to church every sunday. she is 18 and her husbands family are all members. she wants to get baptised so we continued to teach her. we have to translate in tamil. we got permission to baptise her this week and she is so excited. when we asked her when she wanted to get baptised she said "SUNDAY!" haha so thats cool and im excited for her. hopefully we can get some more water in the font this time. haha.we are having to cover both areas in kgf now so we have had to travel a lot. the north area takes about 20 min to get to so its tough to try and see all of our investigators. elder korrayya loves to cycle so somedays we have had to travel from the north to the south area a couple different times on cycles. winter season is pretty much gone. i dont know the temperature cuz its in celcious but its definately getting hot. we didnt have so many investigators at sacrament this sunday. i was really surprised. we even went and visited a bunch of families in the morning and they said they were coming for sure. but only 2 came. its hard because alot of the homes are in little villages and everyone knows everything about everyone. so after we leave sometimes there pastors come and yell at them and tell them not to come. but hopefully this week we will have some more success.but im doing really good. im loving it here and im greatful to serve these people in kgf and also the Lord. im learning so much about the gospel and i hope and pray that i can share it with as many people as possible while im here.hope everyone is doing good. love you all.elder barr

Another Great Couple Weeks In India

hey mom, i dont think ill have time to write to you and a letter to everyone so just take the parts you want. but i had another really good week. the weeks are starting to go by so fast. i used to look foreward to p day. but now they just happen. haha. a lot of things happened this week but ill just start by talking about zone conf. we went to bangalore and elder watson of the first quorem 70 was there. it was so different than any other conference. when he spoke the spirit was so strong, probably the strongest ive felt for a while. he talked about his mission and was just like he was one of our friends. he talked about how the bangalore elders are truly the best missionaries hes been around and that we have a important role right now in making the work progress. when he said that the spirit was so strong and i realized how important missionary work is. it makes me feel a bit unworthy to be called to serve here. but im doing my best and and the lord is blessing me so much. he served in taiwan or something and there were only 6 elders there. and now there are over 600,000 members. he told us that in our lifetime if the church keeps progressing here like it is that its verry possivle to have 150 stakes in india! its crazy how fast the lords work is going.i didnt get to see paul because we had to travel to and from kgf in one day. so there was no time. i wish i could but it just didnt work out.so kgf had some changes happen. one of the elders in bang got sick and has to go home. so our district leader elder bartlett from hyrum got transfered to bangalore. so now my companionship turned to a 3 some untill next transfer. its hard being in a 3 some but we will make it work. his name is elder korrayya. hes 24 or 5 he doesnt know haha. but hes kind of handycap. his left leg is vers skinny and his ankle is rolled in so he walks on the outside of his foot. mentally he isnt all there and his english is very less. but i like him a lot. so we also have both areas to cover in kgf so we will be very busy and have a lot on our plate now.we should be having one more baptism sunday. nelsons girlfriend arpana. we wanted to have more but some of the family missed church last week. so hopefully it will go through. its so good to see people making commitments with the lord. we also set 2 more people from the other area last night, so im really excited for them. i always have things i want to say throughout the week but i always forget. haha. but im glad you got to see the pictures sorry it took a long time. i wanted to send the disk at the same time but i forgot so sorry. ill try and send more soon.thats way cool you got to go to the temple with everyone also. we are so lucky to have so many temples so close. anyways i had a great week! thanks for all you do. love youelder barrp.s. tell g ma happy b day. and thanks to dad for pullin lexi out. haha

Feb 10 2009

hey, i hope everyone had a good week. i had a GREAT week. we got to have a baptism for a brother named Nelson. he is 20. but this baptism wasnt your usual baptism. haha. so the font is on the very top of our church building so the water has to be pumped up to the top to fill it. sunday morning the water truck still hadnt came to fill the tank in the bottom. so during church we kept checking to see if any water had been put in the tank yet. but nope!! haha. so church got over and i was praying somehow we would get some water. right before the baptism was going to start the water started running. ya talk about a close call. i thought we were going to have to perform a sprinkle baptism. haha jk. so after we the baptism talks and stuff we went to the top but the water had quit coming and there was only about 18 inches of water. we didnt know what to do but the branch pres said just try and do it. so my companion was the one doing the baptism and when i did it nelsons suit just filled with air and wouldnt go all the way under. so they tried again. and still it wouldnt go. so they tried from their knees one time and still his clothes just wouldnt go under. elder william was pretty puch on top trying to get him under. haha. then branch pres asked for someone to help. everyone looked at me. haha. so i was like ya ill do it. but i was in my suit and everthing. so i took off my socks rolled my pants up to my knees and got in. haha. so finally on the fourth time they did it and i pushed him all the way under. so that was the story for my first baptism in kgf. haha. i felt bad but nelson was really happy and felt the spirit really strong.we also had 7 people come to church so that was also really good. we will hopefully be having 4 or 5 more baptisms in 2 weeks. nelsons girlfriend is part of the joseph family who i have talked about. so i hope everything will go good with them. it has been a few months since there has been a baptism in kgf so i hope and pray that there will be more and more success here.it feels great to be serving the lord and i know that all that i am is an instrument for him to use. i hope all is well back in the US. im doing great and had an awesome week! oh and im going to bangalore friday morning at 5 for zone conf. the india area president is supposed to be coming so that should be really cool. and i here there is going to be pizza for lunch!!!!!!! haha. kgf is rice only. haha. love elder barr