9-19-16

What a week it has been! We traveled up to Fairbanks on Monday for a
Zone Conference on Tuesday. We stopped off and Santa's house to show

Elder Semadeni so that was awesome. There was a pretty cool miracle on Monday that happened. We were playing ping pong and pool at the Institute building for P-day when a member from the YSA branch came walking in and asked us if we had any dinner plans for that night. We didn't because we were 2 hours away from our area so she took us to McDonald's with her less-active dad. It was pretty cool because even though we were so far away from our area the Lord still puts people in our path to talk too. Anyway on Tuesday we had a really great Zone Conference. The spirit taught me a lot and gave me a lot to work on.  We had our Stake President speak to us and he said something that
really hit me. He said, "you are only as spiritual as you are humble." That is something I really need to work on it's being humble and knowing Father in Heaven enough to trust him. 

Everything will work out as you put that trust into the Lord.

So Sunday was crazy! We show up to church and there is all these members from Tok which is 2 hours away. The Stake Presidency was also there. With the Branch President moving from Tok and talking his family, which is about half the congregation, the Branch is no longer a Branch. The members down there are now members of the Delta Junction Ward and all the members in the far out places Tok covered. Now the Delta Junction Ward boundaries are just about the size of the Philippines haha! It will be very very interesting to see how this all plays out. It was a pretty good shock to everyone there but it was okay because we had the best pot luck I have ever tasted after church! The members make the best food around out here! We have one sister who use to run her own  restaurant so we love when she signs up for dinner!
Oh and just to make my dad jealous, we had home made Butterfingers ice cream topped with a home made chocolate sauce made with chocolate from Madagascar!!! All over my body!!!! That was some dang good ice cream! Anyway back to the pot luck, we also had a pot luck because one of the coolest families of all time are moving to Burley Idaho.  They have lived her over 35 years! The Wrigley family is just the best people around! There son Steven who has Downs syndrome is the nicest guy I've ever met! I will miss his big hugs and joke! It's okay though because we will be like neighbors in Idaho.

Well that's my week! Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Barney

                                                    P.S. Those are Santa's reindeer

9-12-16

Hey there friends and family!

Seems like the weeks are getting shorter and shorter! This week flew by! We had a very awesome week! Last P-day we went to go on a hike but we got lost but we did see a lot of cool sights.  We came acros the famous Alaska Pipe Line!  That was pretty cool. 

So last P-day was pretty fun. This P-day we are going to Fairbanks because we have Zone Conference tomorrow so we just decided to head up today. I'm pretty excited to go see other missionaries! It can get kinda boring after you have done everything Delta has to offer twice haha. So this P-day should be pretty fun!

Anyway this week we had some awesome lessons! We have been meeting with one of those families from Idaho. They are 2 sisters who have a bunch of kids they are raising together. They are really cool. It was so awesome because they came to church Sunday!!! I was so pumped to see them. It was quite the sacrifice because one of them is a Packers fan and they were playing during church. She almost didn't go but I told her if I could miss the game so could she. It was so funny because every time the was a quiet moment she leaned over and told me updates from her phone haha. They both loved church and so did their kids. On top of that Sunday we had some other investigators come to church too! We have been teaching them forever and they finally committed to coming!  I was a little nervous because one of them was raised southern baptist

and I've learned on my mission pretty quick that they are not to fond of Mormons 

All went well though. Her and her Aunt both came and seemed to love it. They answered questions and gave great impute so it was a great Sunday. It was pretty crazy because we haven't had investigators at church for over a month and a half. It has been a struggle getting people there but this week we had a ton of new faces! We were expected at least 6 that told us a definite yes and we even met with all of them the day before to remind them. We were pretty excited. We were telling our Ward Council and everyone that there is going to be lots of people so be ready. As we were waiting at the door no one was showing up and sacrament was starting. I started to have a lack of faith and got frustrated, then out of no where in walked the investigators.

So then I quickly repented and then in walked the sister family. Man prayer works!
Awesome miracles this week.

So we did have a crazy part of the week. We were helping one of our

investigators take down a tree and it was awesome. I never done that before so it was pretty sweet taking down a huge tree! Then we went and totally destroyed this tree house he wanted taken down with a hammer and crowbar. It was a lot of fun! Anyway that was my exciting week!
Hope you all have a great week! Thanks for your emails and stay safe!

-Elder Barney

9-5-16

Hey everyone!

What a week it has been!!! I really do hope you all had as an awesome
week as I had! We saw sooo many miracles this week! Oh man I first
have to tell everyone the coolest thing of all time!! I SAW THE NORTHERN LIGHTS!!!!!

Ya you read that right the Northern Lights! So we were in Fairbanks for Zone Meeting staying with the Zone Leaders when in the middle of the night I get woken up by Elder Davis telling me I have to go outside. So we went out and we could barely see them. We sat there really excited because even though they were faint it was better then nothing. Then out of the middle of now where, right when we were taking pictures, the sky just exploded with the Northern Lights! It was bright green, pink, white, and purple! We all just dropped out cameras and jaws and just stared! It was so amazing!
 All 4 of us just sat there dead quite staring at the most beautiful thing ever!!! It was so bright it lit up everything!! I'm so sorry I didn't get any awesome pictures of that for you guys, I was just in to much shock! As it was quite one of my Zone Leaders said something very profound.

He said, "I can't believe anyone can see this and not believe in God." That is sooo true! God is so amazing! He has created the most beautiful sights to see on this Earth! It was just a tender mercy to be able to see the Northern Lights this week!

We saw so many other blessings as well. Earlier this week we went to a dinner when I felt prompted to knock on three doors we previously knocked on that didn't answer. So the first door we knock on this lady answers and starts laughing at us. We were pretty confused. Then she stopped and smiled and said "I'm Mormon I'm Mormon!" She told us how she just moved up here a couple months ago from Idaho and how she has been less active for a long time, but 2 days prior she was just talking to her sister saying she wanted to contact some Mormon Missionaries to come over. How crazy is that!? We set up an appointment and came back the next day. At the appointment we taught one of her friends the first lesson and he was super interested! Now we are going back for family home evening tonight! How awesome is that!? Man God works some great miracles. Okay one more miracle!

So we were talking to this less active and asked her for some referrals and she gave us this name and address of a lady she met the other day who she thinks would "make a good Mormon." So we went and stopped by and the lady laughed at us too! Turns out that she is also Mormon and less active from Idaho as well! And actually her 9 year old son just took the missionary lessons in Idaho and got baptized a month ago. They didn't think that there was a church all the way out here. So now we are helping them move in and getting them set up with the Ward! They are so awesome! Man what great things the Lord does just amazes me! I
love this work!



Also we got transfer calls this week. Since I am training we will both
be staying. 6 months in Delta Junction! Bring it on!

-Elder Barney

8-29-16

Hello there friends and family!

Hope you all had a great week! This was another awesome week up North!

We were lucky enough to travel to Fairbanks! Besides the 2 hour long car ride 

it was a blast!  We went up for a trainer trainee meeting for all the new missionaries

 and their trainers. It was awesome because we usually set up our iPad and Skype 

into Anchorage but this time it was in person 

Another Beautiful Day in Delta Junction

in Fairbanks. President Robinson and his wife and also the AP's came up for the meeting. I learned a lot and love going to those. We had interviews with President Robinson this week which was cool. We were able to talk about the work and how we can improve as missionaries in our Christlike attributes. So latter on this week we had some great lessons with some awesome investigators. One of our new investigators we met with after about a week and a half, so we asked her where she was in the Book of Mormon and she said Alma 48!!!! Holy cow that's like half the book!! We were pretty surprised to say the least! We are really

 excited  to continue to teach her.

 Hopefully she will have a baptism date here soon.

On Sunday I had a pretty cool experience with the Holy Ghost. We were
sitting in sacrament meeting getting ready to partake of the sacrament
when I got a strong prompting to get up and leave church to go see
this potential investigator. I shrugged it of because we were in
church and I was asked to give the closing prayer. After the sacrament
the youth speaker got up to give his talk and of course it was on
following the promptings of the spirit. So after that I stood right up
and grabbed my companion and started to walk out. We went to see them
but they weren't home. I was confused on why I had this strong
prompting to go to this persons house and they weren't even home.
After telling this to my companion it dawned on me when he said maybe
it was so we could speak to that guy that we talked to on the walk
home. We were walking back to our truck to see that investigator and
we stopped and talked to our neighbor who we always wave to but never
have talked to. He told us that missionaries always try talking to him
but he wasn't interested so we offered to help him chop up some wood
and he was taken back. He was very impressed that we would do that and
said he would take us up on that. I don't know if that will work out
or not. It wasn't a crazy awesome ending but as soon as my companion
said that to me I felt the biggest since of peace like I did the
right thing. I don't know what the outcome will be but i sure I'm glad
that I followed the prompting to get up and do what the Lord asked.
Hope you all have a great week and stay safe! Love you all!

- Elder Barney

8-22-16

Hello there everybody!
Hope you all had a great week! This week up here was very interesting.
I will start at the beginning. First Elder Semadeni and myself decided
that we knew how to fish and didn't need anyone to take us out and
just went and didn't catch anything.... First mistake. So last P-day
was a bummer but on Tuesday we had exchanges. Here in the bush they 

send a Zone Leader and the District Leader down to flood the tiny down of Delta Junction with missionaries. It is a PARTY! I love those guys! They are a blast! Since this was Elder Semadeni's first exchange I wanted it to be really good. We had a really packed schedule that evening! Well right after dinner we had planned to split up and get lots done but of course things started to fall apart. All of our plans cancelled! So all four of us went to our plan B. We went to visit this priest who is less active but thinking of a mission. As we were talking with him he told us he had a friend who is interested in learning about he church down stairs. So we were able to teach his friend and she is now a new investigator! If our original plans didn't cancel we never would of been able to teach her. It goes to show that sometimes things don't go has you have planed but God always has his plan. If we would of just gave up and said what's the point after things didn't go good then we never would of seen that huge blessing of a new investigator. I learned that we need to put our shoulder down and keep pushing forward. We are closer the we think, we might not see
it but God does.

So on Sunday we went over to one of my favorite families for dinner
and they had us play this funny game where you had to say something
with those things in our mouth and they have to guess what we were
saying. It was pretty hilarious! I have got to invest in some of those
when I'm home.

Is this a game or are they getting their teeth cleaned?

So anyway later in the week I got the worst sliver of my life! I
literally got a sliver under my finger nail! Oh my heck the pain! I
know that sounds wimpy but dang that thing hurt! 

Sliver in

We have a doctor in our Ward who really helped me out. At first he said it would come out

on its own but then at church he casually told us to stop by his house
so we did. He just plopped me down put some ice on my finger and dug
out the sliver! Man oh man did that hurt. It's out now and feels much
better! That was the exciting part of the week

Sliver out!!!!

 but the best part was seeing investigators at church! Oh man I was pumped to see 2
investigators there! We have been trying our hardest to get one for ever and we hit a double bounce! One of them is such an awesome person who is super prepared! We have been working with her for some time helping her overcome some concerns. It's funny we like to tease her that she is just pre-Mormon. It's true though because she is so close! All her friends are members and she is just like a Mormon but has just a few concerns. The struggle is real. So anyway we had a pretty fun
time this past week. Hope you all have a great week and keeping being awesome! 

Love ya!

-Elder Barney

8-15-16

Hey everyone!

What a great week here in the great state of Alaska! We have seen a ton of miracles this week!

Great Outdoors of Alaska

 First we were able to actually be in a real live district meeting instead of over Skype which was just awesome! It is really different on a IPad then in person. So that was a great start to our week! Later we were able to teach some investigators we have been trying to get a hold of for a while. It was so awesome because they are both so elect! One lady we are teaching is so ready and prepared! She just has a few concerns but it was so awesome in our lesson to be lead by the spirit on what to say and what to share! I think one of the best feelings on this earth is when you are listening to some ones problems and something just pops in your mind like a scripture and it turns out to be just what they needed to hear. It is amazing to know that God used you as a tool to help someone else! Love helping others!

So the rest of the week was pretty sweet but the coolest day was Sunday! We were able to go to a branch conference in Tok. We just went down for the meeting. Some changes are happening because their Branch President is moving and they meet in his house. So now the question is where do the meet. The Stake President came down and talked about it and kinda seems like they are still trying to figure it out. It will be interesting what happens. All the members there are just so awesome so I pray it will work out some how. There is only about 10 to 15 members in the branch so we will see. The big miracle that happened is there was actually investigators there at church in Tok! What the heck!? 

Tok Alaska Where Miracles Happen

In little old tiny Tok!? Comes to show the Lords hand is in the work EVERYWHERE. 

We were able to pull a tiny Sunday school class together in one of the bedrooms and taught the restoration. The spirit was strong and they both want to learn more! So hopefully we can set something up and go back to teach them. It will be pretty crazy because we might be teaching over Skype or something. That will be interesting. It was just such a testimony builder to me that the Lord truly has his hand in HIS work. I know he  prepared those people and it worked perfect that we happen to be there that Sunday.       

                                     

I just wanted to tell you all thank you so much for your love and
support! It really means a lot when I read your emails and letters of

support. Thanks for your love! Also I wanted to say thank you to my
grandparents for all they do for me!!

Thanks Grandpa & Nana 

Well got to get going. Fish are biting!! ;)

Elder Barney

8-8-16

Hey there everyone!

This week was a great week to be in Alaska as one of the Lords
missionaries. We had a pretty busy week with lots of meetings. We got
a new Ward Mission Leader who is just the coolest guy! He is super
funny and is very excited about missionary work. We have been

meeting

Alaska State Troopers (Trace's favorite show)

 a lot with members and working with them. We have got lots of great things happening in this area. We were able to go to a Zone Meeting this week in Fairbanks which is always a blast! I learned a ton! I learned how key obedience is. To be honest at times it can get annoying to be obedient all the time but I realized as we remember why we are doing what we are supposed to it makes a difference. The big thing I learned is that obedience to Gods commandments should be done
because we love him not because we have to. Also I have learned that the mission is supposed to be fun! I am having so much fun and loving it all at the same time as trying to be the best missionary I can be. It's not easy all the time but we can improve everyday. So anyway that is something I learned as I have been pondering this week. We had a couple of those funny times happened this week! As you all know I love funny situations! 

So on Saturday we were trying to do some street contacting when we came across a garage sell so we thought we would check it out and see if anyone is interested. So it was in what looked like this living room of a house. There was a lot of people and as I started to look around I saw a sign that said something about Catholics. Then I started to look a little closer and noticed all this pictures of the Pope. I turned to my companion and said "I think this
is a Catholics house." So we kept looking around and decided to leave but I have always wanted to ask a Catholic for a referral so I walked up to the lady and asked if she knew anyone who would listen to a message about our church. She looked at me very angry and said "that's
a weird question to walk into a church and ask." At that point I realized we were in a Catholic Church! So as we left we saw the big sign on the other side of the yard. It looked so much like a house at first hahahaha! I just about died when she said church. So I guess I can cross that of my mission bucket list.

                                                                  

                                                               So the next funny thing that happened is that my companion Elder Semadeni was looking at some

Way to go Elder Barney 

stuff in our apartment and found this hanger thing. It had some screws out the back to put on the wall. So as I picked up this hanger it slipped out of my hands and BANG! It hit Elder Semadeni's iPad! Oh man it put quite the crack in it as you can see. I felt SOOOO BAD! But we are getting it fixed. He will be without one for a couple weeks and will have to go old school haha. Anyway that was my funny stories of the week. Hope you all have a fantastic week and stay safe!

         
              Love ya guys!

              Elder Barney

Cool Cats (so they think)