MY TESTIMONY OF CHRIST WILL GET ME THROUGH MY MISSION

Que pasa! kamusta kayo
So yeah this week has been good! It is very difficult, but i have been able to practice what i preach concerning prayer and i have been able to open my own personal connection with Christ in a real way that i never experienced before my mission. My testimony of the book of mormon and joseph got me on a mission, but now my testimony of christ will get me through my mission. Dad about your difficult home teaching family… sorry i didn’t adress that in my last letter. Just listen to him.  He needs someone to vent to and explain to him that you have gone through similiar things, but just share your pure testimony like Alma and show kindness and be his friend. Prepare his heart for the future. His daughter will be that future when she comes home he will see the change in her and she will be able to plant a seed because you were the tiller and rain that softened the soil. You are no less important in this work then the person who plants the seed. Moses never saw Israel,  joseph never saw utah, and you and i and many other missionaries may never see the fruits of our labors until the next life, but our purpose may not be to see the fruit of our labors. Our purpose is to invite others to come unto christ by sharing the restored gospel with them through deed and word. Uhm other things of note i wrote down some things to say so i dont run out of things to say. There is a town or city called sevilla in my mission. when i saw that i was so excited! Uhm at nights some times i can see the road to baguio lit up on its way to the mountains. It is an awesome thought that one day i will go there. It is good im here in san quinton as a starting area to learn the language because the people in baguio are well learned rich and less likely to listen to the gospel. Uhm also forgot to tell you i saw the kid from the day i went through the temple for the first time at the mtc the one going to new york. He was nice and it was cool to see him. The branch mission leader has been called finally here and were rolling. We have only one investigator who is progressing and one more on the way but that is because the standards for baptism are tight and many of the people here are not married and that causes a huge problem. Our branch is going on a temple trip in May.  If one of the families asks us to witness their sealing then maybe president jensen will let us go to manila which would be awesome. Thank you for sending a package mom and family! Well dad baseball is starting to begin so hopefully the socks pull it together this season. One cool experience this week was one day we walking in front of our church and all the youth and their friends play basketball and volleyball out on the side of the church.  We noticed a boy and his friends staring at them from outside the fence and he looked distraught. So we went and talked to him to do a “preach by the way” before we bought soda (which i have gained a taste for here but dont worrry i take care of my teeth). Anyways we started talking to him and we asked him what church he belonged to there are many in san quinton and he said he was a mormon! We were like wahh. He was like yeah my family moved from ilocos and i havent been in a while and i have been working up the courage to attend again. We then took him into the court introduced him to everyone and he became happy at once. He attended the service project we had on sat and then attended church and it was awesome. Even though not many people will listen and follow commitments, we have had so much success bringing the lost back to the church and there is no one better in the world at fellowshipping than filipinos even with all their weaknesses they excel in this category. Well good luck, i pray for you and many others. Pray always follow the holy ghost…it will never lead you wrong. That’s what joseph said to brigham after his death. He returned to earth to tell him that truth, so it must be of great worth and i know it is. Well adios!

Labanan ang mabuting laban.

Elder Barney

I WITNESSED A MIRACLE THE OTHER DAY

Kamusta kayo!

What a week! the branch is having their branch activity at a water park and president jensen let us go. No swimming of course, but we get to eat and watch and talk to the members...and no water parks here are not the same as they are in states haha. Two swimming pools and a slide, but they are having a blast. We are at a outside internet cafe down the street in the urdaneta zone. Last week i was able to see elder savage and that was awesome! hahaha we both are holding onto our pbjs as long as possible. Even the filipinos are trying them because their easy to make and quick and taste m\delicious. Glad brock is back safe and doing well. Wish i could see his homecoming!  I'll see him soon enough. Cray stories of the week. We saw one of our pamphlets in the street and by the looks of it, it had been used for toilet paper and by the smell of it. I guess i'm just glad their not using their hand. If i saw a ang aklat ni mormon used for tp i might go ballistic!  I try not to be judgmental when i hand them out, but i want people to realize how important it is and only to accept it if they will treat with care and not as a fire starter. What else....we are teaching a recently defected muslim woman. As we were walking up the path to her home we got to witness her beating one of her kids treading for being pasuway or bad. The little girl proceeded to cry and walk to the house, but she didnt want her mother to get the best of her so she picked up a stone about the size of my palm and chucked it at her moms back. yeah....lets just say we werent able to teach her that day. The spirit definantly was not there after that incident. Uhm we have one baptismal date but because of the issues with lasting conversion teenagers have to consistently attend church for three months which is disheartnening because i will never see his baptism. We are teaching a family right now who are gung ho on getting baptized, but they wont keep their commitments. They want to because the mother's brother is a bishop in taiwan and he is a great example. It seems like everyone has a relative in the church here. They showed his picture and he looks like a filipino version of dad hahaha. seriously so funny. Happy birthday uncle aaron!  You're finally over the hump! I need to figure out how i will call for mothers day it is difficult to call here in the philippines.  I witnessed my first miracle the other day. Similar to Eliza in the movie legacy. They have faith that is why they are healed. amazing. Uhm what else 85 percent of the philippines is inactive yikes! so that is why our focus is the rescue.  I'm proud to say baguio has the highest activity rate hopefully we can keep it going. President Jensen is awesome. Well adios!  

Elder Barney

HAE JO WA SHORE NAME!

Kumusta Kayo?

My address is:

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Philippines Baguio Mission

Elder Taylor Barney
PO Box 7
Brgy: San Vicinte East
Urdaneta City, Pangasinan 2428
Philippines

That is the mission home so recheck on the website to make sure that is correct. Just got back from hiking some water falls for my pday. That was awesome! I was able to take some great pictures finally. There isnt much to take pictures of here in the town its about the size of fallon. 40,000 i would say. Its okay to litter here. And its okay for the kids to run around naked and pee in the gutters out in front of your house hahaha. Thanks dad, mom, kylie anne, and lou for the emails and grandparents and bishop and everyone. Yes you can give my address to anyone. Whats it gonna hurt? diba? Uhm lets see this week has been good. No lessons taught to new investigators because we have been just trying to work with less actives, recent converts, and returning members. I love the Tobias family especially. They treat me great even though i dont know tagalog and really try to help me and they invited us to their daughters birthday party the other day. Speaking of birthdays happy birthday Dad! At her birthday they do a thing called birthday messages. So i want to give you a birthday day message which includes advice and words kindness. My advice is to keep doing what your doing. Never fall. There are so many bad dads here, but there are some really good fathers. The father can really unite a home. I want you to know that i love you and i think about you mom and girls everyday. Every family night i look through my picture book. I'm proud that you are my dad. I talked about you in my talk last sunday. They wanted me to speak for fifteen minutes on missionary work, and i did it. Mix of tagalog and english. (taglish)  I wouldn't have been able to do that before my mission no way. I said that you are the greatest example of missionary in my life because you and mom know how to share the gospel in a natural way because you do not judge.  You have the spirit you know how to handle rejection. Anyways the girl turned 14. She reminds me of D. Her name is jethros tobias. The people here are not smart in the things of the world, but in the things of gospel, and the scriptures there is no comparison. They are well read and know how to communicate the gospel truths. Lets see crazy stories so many! My companion likes bugs! Every morning there is a new giant bug in the bathroom they climb through the pipes. One day it was a flying huge cockroach, the other day a spider the size of lexis hand. One day a fever bee i dont know what their called really, but they are huge black and if they getcha you fever for a week. Really poisonous. I keep tally of how many mosquitoes i have killed with the zapper tennis racket. 16!  Yeah you can say that im kinda like a jedi or something. I have been taking pictures pero i need a card reader which i should buy today in the big city tayug. hahaha. not really. so i can send pictures and not get a virus from these computers. What else. Oh yeah some of the boys in the ward finally got circumcised the other day. They really wanted to show us when we were at their compound. That was nice. hahaha. Good thing i have quick reflexes. They wait until their about 8 here. The next story is probably not a story you should share with anyone else who isnt family. People here are very superstitious. If a cow dies they think its a vampire.  Anyways, in our apartment the other day my companion was complaining that he keeps seeing a woman in our apartment. sort of a apparation. The elder before him had a hard time sleeping in there as well his previous companion. I then asked has the apartment been blessed. He said no... i was shocked! The house of missionaries wasnt even blessed. I felt like i could bless it so, we came home one night and i blessed the home according to the white hand book. The entire atmosphere of the room changed. I never saw her or anything but i did feel at unease. I was able to learn and study in there a lot easier and i felt less angry thoughts towards my companion when he did or said ridiculous things.  The priesthood is real i have seen it soften hearts and i have seen it heal. I have had a few interesting dreams here as well. I know what i have solidified and what i want to do for a career. I know that one day i will have a beautiful daughter. You are so lucky to live where you do. The people here are happy but they know no different. We are lucky to have been raised in the covenant because by happen chance a missionary who wasnt in tune with the spirit might have missed us. I really try to have the spirit with me. I used to think the stories would never pertain to me, but i have felt the spirit work through me. I did find a golden investigator. He wanted to talk to me and not elder tan which is weird because i dont speak english.  Im kinda ignored because i speak to slow, and i have weird word choice hahaha. The Lord has given me experiences to lift me. Fear...that feeling always allows me to know when i really need to talk to an investigator or person. How is romney doing? Everyone here wants to know haha. Im tired of being called amerikano and jo hahaha. They all say "Hae jo wa shore name." Their accent is different than anyone thing i have ever heard it definantly isnt spanish. Anyways, labanan ang mabuting laban. good luck with everything

Elder Barney

FIRST AREA...SAN QUINTIN

kumusta kayo!
So my companion is a filipino from cebu he is very good trainer. He knows enough english to get buy. I have been stationed in San Quinton. The most eastern part of the mission. The people are nice but the kids are scared of me because im tall and white and im the only white person i have seen in a couple of days. My apartment is nice! I have a desk and a bed.  I hate the mga gagambas (spiders) though. We have a papaya tree out back, but i only go out there to throw trash in the trash hole because there are pythons out there. I have a taglaba (laundryperson) who washes my clothes. I placed my first ang aklat ni mormon (BofM) yesterday to a trike rider. He accepted but he is too busy to listen because of his job. I am in the rosales zone, yeah all the towns and names are spanish kind of funny dad...bunch of asians with spanish name. Im the tallest person for miles. My zone leaders are chill. I eat peanut butter and jellies everyday because im lazy and porridge for breakfast or oats with energen~! yaa! Tonight we are going to the house of a member for kanin and adobo. Rice! is what most people eat everday because its cheap but i have enough money from the mtc that i didnt spend that i can hold onto my american food. The member kids are starting to like me! Now that they know my last name is barney it kind of makes me less threatening and they love me. General conference was good for the second time. Uhm the turn out for sunday morning was amazing but in the afternoon not so much. Haha?  I didnt understand why because if you travel all the way from san quinton to rosales you might as well stay for the whole thing. oh well. I have met most of the members. The iglesia ni cristo (Church of Christ) members want to bible bash tuesday but thier in for a treat. We're just gonna talk about the book of mormon hahaha. Well my companion will... ill provide scriptures from the book. Haha. Uhm most people here speak ilocano and they dont like speaking in tagalog but they do because im white and my companion is cebuano. Uhm next week we get to hike to some waterfalls for our pday which is cool because their in our zone. Uhm holy week was crazy the catholic processions were actually scary they looked like zombies out of movie pressing through the streets with lights and the virgin mary on top of a coffin looking thing. uhm they also whip themselves and crucify themselves in order to show thier devotion to god but yeah dad you already know all about this. But that is my purpose is to bring others unto the one true god by helping them receive the restored gospel. Seeing them follow those traditions makes me understand the dire need of the true gospel in thier life. Uhm i went to the mall the other day in rosales to get my support and their malls are very nice. Very comparable to a fiesta mall. I ate at mcdos!  The other day...every transfer we get to and it was good. I have had some filipino food and its pretty darn good! Their rice is a lot better but im to lazy to cook it for my self lots of soy sauce red peppers garlic onions and potatos. Uhm the dogs here are worse than mexican dogs they are everywhere and i told my companion they need to be shot. He didn't like that idea. I also told him that we should leave our pesticide out in a dish like uncle mel did with some chicken to kill our neighbors dogs and roosters who wake me up at  3 in the morning. OMIT... next part if necessary. our neighbors remind me of something i just read in 2nd nephi and revelations the other day. We have a catholic church slash house on our right. And on our left we have house full of undesirables...woman who follow after the worlds oldest profession...yeah. Great and abominable church on one side and on the other side we have the bad ladies but we dont see them. I love the families we have been teaching lots of reactivation and retention lessons. Which is good but im excited for tuesday when we get to teach investigators. Yeah dad maligayang pasko means merry christmas, but i dont know what easter is they don't really call it that here.  They just have good friday and the catholic names for things. Stay strong, keep me updated with romney and be grateful for toilet paper. Don't send me anything please until christmas or birthday very expensive.  If you mail me something mark it as a gift because it is cheaper that way, and put a virgin mary or jesus christ sticker on the box. Once i get settled ill send dad's and lexis kaarawan (birthday) stuff.

"Labanan ang mabuting laban"
Elder Barney

JUST ARRIVED IN THE PILIPINAS!

Hey just arrived sa pilipinas! I'll be sending you more emails to add to your forwarding list Dad.  "Blowflex" Johnson is...hayden.johnson@rocketmail.com I'll get my teachers emails to you next pday i just got out of a get to know you interview with President Jensen extremely nice his wife is as well. I slept with elder savage at the AP house last night which is very very nice. I won't get the same luxury. Uhm yeah the flights were killer. Everyone was asian on my flight. Uhm i talked to everyone around me on my flights which made it go faster when i wasn't sleeping. My pdays here are normally lunes. We get to watch general conference again with the members again this weekend which i am excited for. I get assigned tomorrow until then i'll be in orientation. This week is holy week here in the pilipinas. On the flight from hong kong to manila i was surrounded by the extremely religious and roman catholic nuns and priests. One filipino told me that my companion and i were going to be fish among alligators. I told him thank you for the information and went back to sleep. His point he was trying to drive home was that my companion and i needed to catch the next flight back to wherever the heck i came from. The long flight i did sit next to a man who was from chicago and was on his way to vietnam to build a school with some vietnam vets. He was very respectful in fact his wife and him used to invite missionaries over there to feed them and then discuss religion. He told me he would pray for me. When someone from another religion tells you that they will pray for you i don't know if that means they like ya or if they will pray that you come to know the error of your ways and stop this mission nonsense. People here in the philippines are nice. Nothing like i imagined. I have seen poor in Haiti, Mexico, and Phoenix but nothing like here. People like to pee in the streets here. Its my kind of country. Joklang! haha. If you saw the way people drove you would die. Probably similar to spain, pero they don't get in many accidents. They lost my bags in manila that was a nightmare, pero i found it. Just had to wait an hour and a half, and missed my bus to urdaneta where i am currently at. It is green here and very humid. I like it. I sweat a lot but i dont stink. Working out this morning let me tell ya was barely anything but i looked like i had just jumped into a river. Anyways they took me to a bus station and luckily i had converted some of my money to pesos at the airport which i was told to hold on to because it is very expensive at the airport. But i had a feeling and luckily we did because we would have been stranded in manila. Six hour bus drive. yesterday was a force fast. We only drank water because i didn't know about the food. But its awesome here. Never been happier. I did wake up at 5 this morning wide awake haha. But i feel alright make sure that you send this to flex cause he has no idea that im not in kansas anymore. Let dallin know as well, and tell him good luck with track and im proud of him. Once i get a hang of things around here dad ill send you a birthday something. It might come with lexis present if that tells you how long it will take me to understand this place. The AP keeps telling us we know a lot, but i think he is being nice. The filipinos tell me he same. They're too nice to tell us otherwise which is the reason so many people join the church and then leave because they don't want to tell you NO, and they want to do what you ask of them. My goal is bring others until Christ that is the goal of all missionaries. The baptized and the unbaptized. I read a great verse today in D and C what is of most worth of us to do in this life is to cry repentance unto the people. So i am finally doing something of great worth, and when we do something that is truly worthwhile we are happy. Mom i want you to know i am happy and safe. The Lord didn't send me here to fail. He desires me to feel my self worth and show others their self worth. Our worth is great in the eyes of God. Talk to ya on lunes. ill let you know my address info so you can update my info on fb. 

'labanan ang mabuting laban!"

~Elder Barney