October 24, 2016

Hey there everyone!
So this was another great week up here in Alaska! The snow as fallen
and so has the temperature! This morning as we jogged to the church
building it was a couple below zero! Usually in the mornings everyone
is saying it's about -12 to -15 here. When I go outside I feel my
noise hair freeze! Anyway ya that is what has been going on up here.
Not to much snow yet but enough I busted out the boots for tracking!
Other then the weather it's been a super nice week! We drove once
again to Fairbanks for interviews with President Robinson which was
sooo awesome! I really love my mission President! I took us awhile to
drive up because it was snowing like crazy and the roads were pretty
bad so everyone was taking it nice and slow. It's kinda crazy seeing
everything with snow on it here. I'm use to the long summer days but
know it's cold and the sun is going down around 5pm. So it's back to
adjusting to that again. I really like summers up here but sometimes
the winters are so looong! We have seen a lot of awesome miracles up
here in Delta Junction! We have a part member family here that is just
so awesome and progressing so much! They are 2 sisters trying to raise
their kids together. They both surprised me and my companion when they
told us earlier this week that they are quitting smoking and chewing!
We have been trying to get them to quite forever and. Now since they
have been doing the small and simple things like praying and reading
scriptures they are having a change of heart! It grew my testimony so
much knowing that change starts one step at a time it just takes an
act of faith.
I love and miss you guys a lot! Have a great week!

-Elder Barney

10-17-16

Hey there friends and family!
Well to just start off with my transfer call I am (drum roll please)......... Staying!

Yup I am staying with my greenie Elder Semadeni! That makes it a total of 7 1/2 months here.

I am actually happy with my call! I was very surprised and so was everyone else but I guess it just means I still have work here to do. I just need to roll up my sleeves and get to work and fulfill the purpose I am here for. Things are going good here! We had quite the busy week! Fist on Tuesday and Wednesday we had exchanges with Elder Davis and Elder Parks. They came down and we flooded the town of Delta with missionaries! I was able to go with my good friend Elder Davis. He is awesome and it was a fun exchange! We went way out in the boonies to see the people we haven't seen in awhile. Always meet some interesting people there!

Later in the week we went on down to Tok! We had planned to drive down late afternoon on Friday but we had a miracle Friday morning! We got a phone call from one of the less active members down there who asked if we could come down earlier to teach a lesson to one of his friends. Oh man was I pumped! We don't teach very much in Tok so that was a cool experience! It was a powerful lesson filled with the spirit. I hope we can meet with him again sometime soon. We spent the night there in Tok in the awesome Berg cabin! 

Nice digs for a Missionary

The next morning we had some bomb crapes for breakfast with the Bergs! Then we headed over to a service project for one of the members there. About 15 members of the Elder Quorum from the Delta Junction Ward made the 2 hour drive down early that morning to cut up some fire wood. That was one awesome project! I have never cut as much wood in my life as I have in the past 6 weeks! We cut, split, and stacked about 8 cords of wood in about 2 hours! Man that was some hard work! 

Splitting wood will ware you out fast! Anyway it was all worth it because after that we all went to an awesome small town diner called "Fast Eddies" and it was delicious! Nothing better then a butterfingers milk shake after a hard day of work. After devouring a pizza hoagie we went to visit some less actives with the Elders Quorum. One of which was the same less active who called us to teach his friend the day before. As we were meeting with him he told us that when we were teaching the lesson to his friend he felt the spirit tell him he needs to forgive the person we offended him and come back to church. He talked about the blessings he knows he is  missing when he doesn't go to church. He committed to come up on the 30th with the rest of the Tok members! I am so excited for him! It will be his first time back in years! Its crazy to me because we didn't even talk about going to church in that lesson but the spirit told him what he needed to hear! Well that's my crazy week this week!

I love and miss you guys! See ya!

-Elder Barney

Not sure if this the pizza hoagie, but it looks messy no less.

10-10-16

Hey there everyone! So this might be a little shorter. We are heading
out to go fish for some silver salmon!!! I am so pumped! I have been
waiting all summer for the silver to finally get up here to Delta! I
will let you know how that goes!

So the Fishing went well!!!!

So for a update. This week was great as usual! We traveled once again
to Fairbanks for a Zone Meeting which was pretty good! We had some
great lessons this week! We had a miracle happen on Sunday! The Bates
family from Idaho came to church! They just moved up here and we found
them a couple weeks ago. Turns out they are less active members but
they came this last Sunday. Man I was so happy to see them! They are
so awesome! We helped them move in this week. Speaking of which we had
lots of good service this week! We killed Turkeys this week instead of
chickens. So we help pluck the Turkeys and chop them up! There sure is
a lot of awesome service when you serve in a tiny farm town! Well this
next week we are headed down to Tok for a service project and meet some
more people. We get our transfer calls this week also. I have been
here in this area for 6 months and I love it! I would love to stay but
I would also would like a new challenge and meet new people so what ever
happens I am excited! Well I love you all and hope you all have a safe
week! 

Got to go fish are biting!

-Elder Barney

10-3-16

Hey everyone!

This week was awesome! We were so blessed to be able to listen to
General Conference this week! It was great to hear the direction from
our General Authorities! Also it was great to hear from President
Monson! When a Prophet only has energy to speak for 4 minutes we
better pay close attention to those 4 minutes! I thought it was
interesting that everything he could of talked about in Priesthood
session he chose the Word of Wisdom. I was so grateful he did! With
some of those we had listening that was the message they needed to
hear! Also I noticed a lot being said about the Plan of Salvation.
The Plan of Salvation has taken such a new meaning to me being on my
mission. I have come to truly love the plan our Father in Heaven has
given us! Helping those learn that they not only will see their loved
ones again but can be with them for eternity is one of the greatest
things I have ever experienced. I really loved President Nelsons talk
about joy. This gospel is all about TRUE joy. I can tell you that true
joy is only found in following Jesus Christ and keeping his
commandments. Like President Nelson said, "joy is a gift for the
faithful."
So this week we have been trying to help this less active come back to church. She really wants to be a good example to her kids and start having a better life. We read some scriptures with her one day and you could just feel the spirit hit her. That night she called us out of the blue and asked for a blessing. So we went over with our Ward Mission Leader and gave her a blessing of comfort. The spirit was so strong and the next day she told us how she was going to give up drinking. It was been so awesome to see the Atonement work in her life. Through Christ I know and have seen people change! 

Well on a less spiritual note, I had mutuk this week! I don't know if  I'm spelling tht right but Mutuk is Whale Blubbler!! So the story goes we were tracking and came across this lady

 we talked to the other day before she was super nice and let us in.

Her husband is Native Alaskan straight from the villages, we gave them a Book of Mormon with an invitation to read it. As we were about to leave I asked him in conversation if he eats mutuk. His wife jumped right up and said "we love mutuk!" She ran to the fridge and pulled some out and told us we needed to try it. I guess it was raw too haha. Oh man it was so chewy! It felt like a piece of gum. Flavor wasn't too bad, some were worse than others haha. Then after that she pulled out some smoked salmon and had us dip it in seal oil. That wasn't bad at all, it was a lot better than the whale blubber. They told us that the whale we eat was from a village up by Barrow. What happens is they kill the whale with a harpoon and the whole village comes out and chops it up! Crazy right!? Then after that she was so nice she gave us a jar of smoked salmon and told us to eat it with some crackers. And it was awesome!!! 

Anyway that was one of the coolest tracking experiences I have ever had.

So earlier this week we went out to the boonies to help one of our investigators to kill some chickens. I never knew how long it takes to pluck chickens! It was pretty crazy this guy we helped should be on one of those Alaskan shows. He goes out to his coop and started shooting the chickens in the head! He kept missing so it was hilarious watching this guy pumping out bullets trying to kill these chickens hahaha! Anyway that was a different experience this week!

-Elder Barney