7-25-16

Hey everyone!

Oh man what a week! Well I got some news about our transfers! It looks
like Elder Dalin and I are not staying together for another transfer.
I am pretty bummed about that but he is going some where super
awesome! He got transferred to Nome! The best part is that his new
companion is my old companion Elder Jensen from when I was back in
Anchorage! I am just so excited for them! Nome is crazy because they 

have to fly in on a little bush plane so that will be nuts haha.

Elder Barney and Elder Dalin

Anyway so for what is happening for me is that I am staying and getting a greenie fresh off the plane. I will be training a new missionary here in Delta Junction! I am super nervous!!! I still feel like a greenie myself and now I'm training one!? It is pretty crazy but I am excited just as much as I am nervous. It has been a really

long time since someone was trained in this area just because how out there it is. My mission president asked me if there is enough work out here to train and I told him there here will be now I guess. So this coming week will be a lot of traveling! I guess that's the blessing curse

 of serving in Alaska.

 So on Tuesday I will drive to Fairbanks to the Airport and fly

 to Anchorage and get there a little later in the evening. 

Then spend the night with some missionaries who will drop

 me off the next morning to pick up my new companion.

 After we have some training we get to go to the temple which I'm super
excited for!! After that we will be taken to the Airport again and fly

to Fairbanks and spend the night there and then the next morning make a drive to 

Delta Junction.  See how Crazy that all is!?

                                                 

Well that was my exciting news for the week. The rest of the week was
really great too! We went to Salcha last P-day to meet up with the
zone for one last big zone P-day. That was such a fun time! We bbq
some hot dogs and hamburgers and talked and played bored games at a
members house. It was a good way to unwind and have fun! Also another
great part of this week is that we were able to see Spencer and Bree!
They came down from Fairbanks to visit. Spencer is the one who was
baptized in Fairbanks that I talked about last week. It was so great
to see him and his family! And holy cow what a difference in him and
his wife!!! They seem much more happy!! It is hard to explain how
people look after baptism. It is the same every time. They just look I
guess "shinier" is the best way to put it haha. They are just so
awesome! He got the priesthood this week and is looking forward to
blessing the sacrament. I love seeing the change in people! I know I
didn't have a huge part in it but I am so happy for them! Well I hope
you all have a great week! I will let you all know who my new
companion is next week!

-Elder Barney

Spencer and Bree and family

7-18-16

Hey everyone!

Hope you all had a good week! This week was a freaking amazing week!
It was super HOT all week. I never would of thought Alaska would get
so dang hot. It was high 80's low 90's all week. Interesting fact
about Alaska is that no building or home has A/C. It is only like this
for 3 months out of the year so no one has any A/C. Anyway other then
the weather this week was great. We worked really hard and had some
great lessons with some really awesome people. My birthday was
definitely the highlight of the week. I got a package from my family
that was so amazing! Thank you all for your birthday wishes! It was so

awesome to see all the love in that package. The rest of the day was normal missionary life which made this the best birthday I have ever had! I look back on my past birthdays and realized the difference in what I did on those days. In the past I just thought of myself all day but this past birthday I spent all day thinking of others and teaching about Christ. There is nothing else I could have done that would of made my birthday better. One thing that was the cherry on top though was the dinner we had with some  awesome members that night! They made
this big birthday dinner and made me a birthday cake for dessert! The cake was on a new level of deliciousness! Oh man I just wanted that cake all over my body ;) haha anyway I really had a great day! I just
have a great time this whole week.

I love the people here in Delta Junction! With it being so hot it has been hard to sleep and all we have is a fan that is the size of my fist and works half the time. So nights have been pretty rough but since there is such amazing people here, there was some members that went out and bought us a fan! How awesome they are just blows me away! Now they want to pay for a ceiling fan for our apartment. Man there is
some amazingly nice people here! Anyway for the best part of the week some one we taught was baptized in Fairbanks Saturday! We were so
pumped for him! We taught him for awhile then he moved and decided to be baptized! I am just so dang happy for him! It is so great to hear

about those things! I know that this gospel will bless their lives more then anything! I know this work is true and it gives me happiness like never before! I love my mission, I love my savior, and I love all
of you!

 Have a great week and have fun! 

 Elder Barney

                                                    

7-11-16

Hello Everyone!

So this was just another great week here in the Anchorage Alaska
Mission! We have been pretty busy with meetings lately. First of all
our 4th of July wasn't half bad. It was raining for a bit but cleared
up and turned out to be a nice day. We went fishing once again with
the same awesome members and were able to have a BBQ with them! It was
such a fun time. Later in the week we went to Fairbanks for another
meeting. It was really fun going there! I love seeing other
missionaries and love the training we get. I learned something about
change. Change is a choice everyday. I find myself saying at times I can
change this later or work on that some other time. The truth is that
we can change right now. I have learned on my mission that God and
Christ are all about us changing for the better. At times we feel that
we are not successfully repenting when we continue to fall. We are
always successful when we change for the better. Even the smallest
change is great in the sight of the Lord. Change is like a snowball
effect, it can start out as something small but over time it gets
bigger and bigger. That is something that has been on my mind ever
since our last zone meeting.

Anyway the rest of our week has been great. We recently learned that
an investigator we taught and committed to baptism then moved to
Fairbanks is now getting baptized this Saturday. Although we were
unable to continue to teach him I really grew to love him and his
family. I am so excited for them and his choice to be baptized! How
great it truly is to see people change for the better! I love the
opportunity I have to teach about Christ and love to hear of people I
taught make that step to baptism. I also recently heard of another
investigator I taught in Anchorage being baptized now. I am just so
happy for all of those people! They are truly making the best decision
of their lives. I hope all of you have a wonderful week and stay safe!

-Elder Barney

I'm this big

The Gang is all here

7-4-16

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!

Hope you all are having a great 4th! It was great to see the Rigby(Menan) parade in the pictures my dad sent me. They don't do parades here in Delta Junction. There is just not enough people here haha. I'm not sure how fireworks is going to work because it's as bright as mid day all stinking night!! It can get hard to sleep haha. It honestly doesn't fill like the 4th of July because I'm use to the big celebration but it pretty quite here.  Anyway the past Pday was amazing! We were able to go fishing! It was just so beautiful! I caught about 15 or more grayling and my biggest one was about  22 inches! We were catching fish left and right! A member took us to a cabin they have right off a place call Clearwater River. It worked out great. As I fished my companion who really hates the outdoors was able to play a board game with the members son. He had a great time and so did I. That just made my week! We also had a pretty busy week. Our zone leader and District leader came down to Delta for exchanges. I love exchanges here because we don't see other missionaries very often so it is always fun. We cooked up the Pike I caught last week and had ourselves a little late night snack. We didn't really know how to cook a fish or what spices to use so we just used them all! It had a lot of flavor haha! It was great to be with and learn from those great Elders. So that was Tuesday and Wednesday then on Thursday night we went up to Fairbanks to spend the night for zone conference on Friday. Zone conference was just so awesome! I learned so much as I always do with trainings. It's like they always know exactly what I needed to hear. Zone conference took all day so we had to stay another night in Fairbanks with our zone leaders. The next day we were running all around Fairbanks trying to get our tire on our truck fixed. We got a flat on Wednesday so we needed to get a new tire. As we were trying to find a place to do so guess what happened!? Another tire went flat! It was a very long day.... We rolled back into Delta just in time for dinner and to see a few people before we had to be in. This was a very busy week but sooo much fun! Zone conference was one of the best parts. Yesterday on Sunday I was able to put to use something I learned. We were teaching an investigator about faith in God. He told us he envies our faith and struggles to know the truth. Something we learned on Friday was to use personal experience to testify. I did just that. I told this man about my past struggle with faith before my mission and how I came to know the truth. The spirit was very strong and I believe it changed the whole outcome of that lesson. Before he just said that he is fine without knowing but once I shared that experience he said he wants that too. I never thought that my past struggles would be able to bless someone else's life. I love the opportunity I have to share this gospel with others and show them how it has blessed my life as well.

I hope you all have a great week and enjoy the 4th of July. I love and miss you all and am thankful for all you do. 

Thank you Nana and Grandpa for everything

 and CONGRATS on retirement Nana!

-Elder Barney

The picture with the missionaries go: Elder Barney, Elder Parks,
Elder Dalin, Elder Davis.

ZONE CONFERENCE 7-1-16