6-26-17

Hey guys! Wow! It's been one crazy week! Everything just happened sofast. Okay, so first off we got transfer calls on Friday and I am training a new missionary here in Kenia. I'm really excited because this is my second time training and the first time was a lot of fun!  So this means I drive up to Anchorage Tuesday and pick him up Wednesday and I get to go to the temple then drive back to Kenai.  I am so pumped to got to the temple!! Last time I went is the last time I trained which was about a year ago so I'm excited!  Should be a fun time pick the greenie up because we have about a 3 hour drive back to really get to know each other haha.  I don't know who it is yet because we find out Wednesday, but whoever it is sure is lucky to come to Kenai for his first area during the best time of the year, so that's the big news.  Other then that we have just been really busy seeing lots of people. Everyone here is super nice and I noticed they are very faithful here.  It's crazy to see the new converts in the Ward being so hungry for the gospel.  That's honestly one of the favorite things is going to their home and listening to them just ask these amazing questions and hear their insights and what they have been studying.  It's not just a few of them it's like all the new converts and it's great!   I had one of the coolest conversations with a member this week, it was after a  get together for the less actives and non members.  We were talking just the member, me and my companion.  We talked about a lot of things one thing is I asked him if he had any advice for an RM.  He told me to always read the Book of Mormon, pray, and repent every single day.  He told me how when he was a bishop not one person who did that everyday had to go see him and that really hit. It really sunk in when he looked at us in tears and said I don't dare miss even one day because that's the day Satan will be there. That is really something I want to make sure I always do, is get in the scriptures everyday and want to be able to say I don't dare miss a day. So that really struck me this week.  Oh! And also on Sunday I had one of the best surprises ever!  My old companion Elder Jensen showed up to church in Kenai to say hi!  He moved to Nome and came to Anchorage to go the temple and decided to come say hi to me!  We served together a little over a year ago in Anchorage when I first came out!  He was my second companion.  It was so awesome to see him again and just talk about all the amazing memories we had. I love all my companions so much and hope one day I will see them again!  Well that's it really for this week!

 

Hope you all have a great week!

-Elder Barney


(Me and Elder Jensen.....well I guess it's Austin Jensen now)

6-19-17


Hey everyone!

So it's been a pretty great week! It's crazy how fast this transfer is
flying by! On Friday we get transfer calls which is just crazy! This
is kinda weird because my mission President is going home in a few
weeks and it is sad to think this is his last transfer call. On
Tuesday we had our last interview with him which was really good but
kinda weird because it doesn't feel like he is leaving. I really have
come to love President Robinson. On your mission it feels like your

Mission President is like your dad and his wife is your mom. They have helped me out so much and they will be dearly missed! I hope to get to go see them in 6 months though. So other then saying bye to our mission President this week has been fun with lots of hard work. We have really been trying to find now after Jena and Hara were baptized.
They are doing great by the way! We had a lesson with them last night and it was really awesome to hear them talk about how the Holly Ghost has helped them so much. I love watching people change! Also this week I gave a talk in sacrament meeting about how my dads Priesthood example has helped me on my mission. It was awesome to look back on just how much he has taught me. I love my dad and feel so blessed to have his example in my life.

Love you Dad! Can't wait to go fishing up here with you one day! 

Speaking of fishing I have to get fishing so I hope you all have a great week.

love you guys!


-Elder Barney

6-12-17

Hey Everyone,

Okay so first off this week was awesome because we were so blessed to meet and hear from President Nelson himself!  It was so awesome to be able to drive up to Anchorage and meet an Apostle!  So when we first got there, we were all in the gym waiting for President Nelson so we could take a picture with all the missionaries. While we were all waiting we started to sing called to serve and we thank thee oh god for a prophet. It was pretty cool to do that. When he walked in you could just feel the presence of an Apostle, it's hard to describe. After the picture we all lined up to shake his hand and man oh man that was so great to look him in the eyes and shake his hand! As he was sitting there on the stand the spirit was so strong and was just testifying to me that this is a prophet of the Lord a true spokesman in these latter days. We heard from some amazing General Authorities. Elder Murphy from the 70's and Elder Gong from the Presidency of the 70's,  both gave great talks.  The thing that touched me the most out of their talks was the love I felt for my mission President who is about to go home in a few weeks. It was amazing to hear his final testimony to all of us.  I felt nothing but pure charity from him. After all of their talks President Nelson spoke to us and it wasn't what I was expecting. He went straight to the scriptures and started talking about the different meaning the Bible gives in Hebrew.   It was super awesome!  It made me realize that I haven't even scratched the surface of what the scriptures really are all about. There is so many meanings. He spent a lot of time talking about the "great I am" in the scriptures. Oh and one of my favorite things he taught us was the different meaning of repent, it means to "breath different".  I love that definition of repentance. The two biggest things that struck me is in the middle of his talk to us he stops and asks his security guard to come up and speak to us about his daughter going on a mission.  It was crazy to see how in tune he is with the spirit. It was obvious once the security guard started to talk to us that he really needed to speak to us. That was such a great example of always following the promptings of the spirit because it was really great to hear from him telling us how our parents feel. After he was done President Nelson went over D&C 31 with us and it was amazing! I got a ton of cool insight but the thing that was the biggest was,  we are promised these amazing blessings for a short time so don't waist it. I know that this church is lead by true prophets and inspired leaders! This weekend has made my testimony grow of that fact so much. On Sunday we had a special Stake Conference with Elder Murphy and he talked about faith and their is a difference in "faith" and "Faith" think about it ;) anyway it was one amazing weekend that I surly will never forget!

 Love you guys and have a great week! 

Gotta go catch them fish 🐟


-Elder Barney

Me and my Grandson (its a mission thing)

6-5-17


Hey guys!

So it's been a crazy but cool week! It all started Monday when we went
fishing which was awesome by the way. The next morning I couldn't find
my wallet which started the great search. We were on exchanges that
day so it was spent trying to find it. We looked everywhere and just

couldn't find it anywhere so I decided to call the search and get new stuff. So that was the crazy part of the week but the cool part was summer time in Alaska! I love summer here so much! It's beautiful all the time. On top of the beautiful weather we have had lots of blessings with investigators. On Sunday we had an investigator who honestly should be Mormon but isn't which drives me nuts, but he came to church. So that was awesome! Also it was cool to have district meeting in person for the first time in like a year! It is so much better then being on Skype. I really love the missionaries I'm around here, because they are a big help and inspiring. It feels good to see them at least once a week instead of every 6 weeks. So ya that has been nice... Oh! I almost forgot to mention that President Nelson is coming to Alaska this week for a special fireside for the youth so he is going to stop in and say hi to the missionaries as well. 

We get to drive up to Anchorage and see him so that will be lot of fun! It has been a long time since our mission has had an apostle come talk to us. Really stoked about that! Oh and also I hit my 18 month mark this last week which was a weird experience.

I don't feel like it's been that long and it feels like I still have 2 years left so I don't know how

to explain. Anyway it has been the best 18 months of my life that's for sure! I have truly come to love the people of Alaska and the Yukon! There is no where else I would rather be then here serving the Lord. Well I hope all is well and if I don't hear from ya keep on trucking!


-Elder Barney

5-29-17


Hey guys!

So wow this has been a crazy week once again. I guess I'm just use of being in the middle of no

where with my companion and only worrying about what we are doing for the day, but now it seems like so much happens in one week! We drove up to Anchorage this week and it was a long but beautiful drive! It was so awesome to see the Kenai river and how blue it is!  Everything is just so green and awesome right now so I loved the drive. We went up for Zone Conference which was a lot of fun. I haven't been around that many missionaries in a long time so that was weird but super fun! We combined with two other zones. I learned a ton there and the spirit was really strong. I took away a lot about just how powerful the Book of  Mormon is in our personal  conversation to the gospel of Jesus Christ. They called up missionaries  randomly to give a 3 minute talk about the Book of Mormon so it was really neat to hear their insights. Right after one Conference we drove back down to Kenai and man was it a long day after all those training's then driving 3 hours back! The rest of the week went really well. Seemed like we were running all of the place but it was good to stay busy. I really love the work here. There are so many elect people and everyone is so kind! At church today I was so impressed with our ward coming up to

our investigators and making them feel as welcome as possible.

This Ward is so nice and gives us so much food I love it but man I'm going to get fat here haha.

Oh something really fun happened this weekend. So there are a ton of people here for the holiday weekend so they had some booths set up in parks and parking lot to sell stuff. Anyway so a recent convert owns reindeer and had them and this party thing we went to and they all wanted the Elders to "kiss" the reindeer. Soooo I put a dandelion in my mouth and puckered up hahahaha! I will send you guys the picture either this week or next, but it made everyone laugh so that was cool. So it's been a lot of fun here in Kenai! Fishing here will start up soon so I can't wait! 

Well I love ya all and up you guys have a great week!

-Elder Barney

New Companion, Elder McGee 

5-22-17

Hey guys!

So I got here to Kenai and I'm really loving it! The people here are
so amazing and the Ward is super nice! It's so crazy how much they
really take care of us here! Anyway it has been such a crazy week!
Soooo much has happened! It feels like a month of stuff has happened
in a week long time period. I guess I should just start with the
beginning. Juneau on Tuesday was fun with the Zone Leaders and my
district leader. We went street contacting over where cruise ships get
in. Only cow those things are huge!!!  

It was super fun talking to all the tourists because they just looked so lost and it was fun helping them find stuff. Also it was super easy to give them Book of Mormons and amphlets because I would just tell them that it was a free gift fropm Alaska hahaha. So we did that all morning long then went to catch a plan. The plan ride to Anchorage was good and beautiful! Seeing a lot of the missionaries in the office was a real treat considering I either haven't seen them in over a year or never met them. After seeing everyone we took of to drive down to Soldotna. It was such a cool drive! We get to make that drive tomorrow night because we drive up for Zone Conference. It's about a 3 hour drive. Once we got to our areas I was so tired I just crashed so that night was a blur.                        My new companion is Elder McGee and he is a stud! Super nice kid and is fresh out of being trained. We have done a lot of work together for the short amount of time we had so far. It was crazy because after only two days in the area we did exchanges with the ZL's so we were just all over the place. 

 It was weird being in exchanges. It's crazy to think I have been out about 18 months and only have left my area 2 times now for exchanges. I'm not use to having missionaries close by. It honestly feels like I'm starting over again. Anyway so after exchanges we had a baptism on Saturday which was super awesome because I have never just got to a area that had a baptism. It was a mom and daughter and they are just so awesome! You can just see how happy they are! I'm excited to work with them! 

Sunday was Stake Conference so another run around thing.  I did learn a lot on Sunday about true conversation. It just really hit me how conversation is a constant process that takes constant good decisions and habits. I have really been trying to focus  on doing all I can in the process of true conversation. So ya, just a lot going on right now. I'm really excited for pdays to go fishing and have some fun here. It hasn't stopped raining since I got here so hopefully we get some good weather soon. 

Anyway I love you all and hope all is well!

-Elder Barney

5-15-17

Hey guys!

Okay so to start off I am getting transferred to Kenai! That is right below Anchorage and it's right on the ocean. I am so excited because that's the place to be for Alaska fishing! I have some crazy logistics to get there. So I started yesterday after mother day calls. We drove a couple hours to Skagway then took the 7 hour ferry ride and now I'm here in Juneau waiting to catch a plane on Tuesday. After we land in Anchorage we drive 3 hours to Kenai. So it's going to be a long few
days. So that's the big news of the week. On top of all that excitement I got to talk with my family which was awesome. Shout out to Elder Taylor for showing up! It was awesome to see everyone but kinda weird to realize this is my last Skype call on my mission. So transfers and Mother's Day was really the exciting part of this week. I have been saying goodbye a lot to everyone.  I'm super sad to say bye. Whitehorse has been a big stepping stone in my mission. I have learned a lot there. The people I met there I know I was suppose to meet. I have never seen people so converted to the gospel before. It's one of the hardest things to do as a missionary actually it is the hardest thing to do is leave after helping and seeing people change their lives. I will really miss all the people I taught and that amazing branch. Although it's hard to leave it is exciting for something new at the same time. It's kinda weird feeling and hard to explain. Another thing I will miss about the Yukon is all the views! I love the beauty of the Yukon! On the drive to Skagway we saw a brown bear cub. That was my first Bear so that was awesome! 

Oh! And on top of that we saw porpoises which is kind of like a dolphin and we also saw two whales on the ferry ride. It was super cool to see them spray and jump all the way out of the water! Man I love Alaska so much! Well that was the big things this week. I just wanted to say I love all you in Whitehorse and will miss ya'll a ton! Thank you so much for all you
have done!



-Elder Barney

Back in Alaska