7-17-17

Hey guys!

Wow! This week flew by so fast! It seems like so much has happened! So to start out the week.  Last pday we had the whole Zone together for the first for Zone Conference. All the other Elders flew into Anchorage then drove down to Soldotna. We then went on a hike to some water falls together which was a lot of fun! We saw some salmon jump out of the water into the falls which was super cool! Blows me away how beautiful Alaska is! That was a great pday!  

The next day we had Zone Conference and met President Toone for the first time.  He is super awesome and very knowledgeable! He definitely likes to drop a lot of doctrine in his training's.  We were also able to have interviews with him for the first time and it was really great just to get to know him. Love him already!

 At zone conference the biggest thing that kept hitting me was how important it is to endure to the end. For me I kept thinking about how I want to end my mission. I want to end it on the highest note possible by working my hardest! One thing that one of my Zone Leaders said is "live every day like it's your last day of your mission." I have been asking my self a question every morning when we plan now and that is if it was my last day what would I do? It has really made a difference in deciding what's important. Anyway on top of Zone Conference we had to keep a 2nd companionship busy all day so we went OYMing on the beach for the rest of the day. The cool part is that we got permission to wear sandals or flip flops on the beach so it was awesome to feel the sand on my feet for the first time like ever! It is insane how many people are in Kenai for dip netting! It makes it great for us but bad for traffic! I got to go on exchanges again this week. I went with Elder Hunt and it was a lot of fun! He is from Samoa and is learning English which just made the exchange even more fun! He taught me some Samoan and it was a lot of fun. We also went on the beach for a bit and talked to lots of people! It was funny when people asked me where I was from and I said Utah and then they asked Elder Hunt and he said Samoa their reactions were priceless haha. We had good times! 

Then the next day was my birthday. I love birthdays on the mission! It is the first 2 birthdays in my life where I completely focus of others. It feels so much better that way! I will say it was super nice to have amazing members have us over for dinner and make me a birthday dinner. The people up here are so amazing! I have just never see so much kindness and love like up here! I truly love Alaskans! So my birthday was a lot of fun filled with every other day missionary work. 

Next big thing was Saturday one of our recent converts got married! It was a lot of fun! I'm excited to see them now start taking steps to the temple. It was kinda weird to be at a wedding though. It was definitely one of the most trunky things I have ever done on my mission but it was still a good time! With all the family in for the wedding and plus fishing season there was a ton of people at church on Sunday! On top of lots of people we had 2 investigators come as well! So all and all it was a great Sunday! Today we are all planning on going fishing because the salmon run should be here hopefully so wish me luck! Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes and gifts! Love you all so much and miss you a lot!

-Elder Barney 🎣


2 Timothy2:3
Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

Got a few new ties for his birthday to add to his collection