Hello there,

Well i your letters made me laugh and then almost brought to tears. I really don't know what to say. Uncle Cecil was very nice us i remember him and i glad the funeral was upbeat despite the circumstances. I have emailed grandma and for me i can only do one thing i have taught faith and fasting to investigators for months now its time i practice what i teach in a very real way. Well this week has been good. I really like the work its really wet but im okay the spiders have left. The package hasnt got here yet im glad lexi got my letter. I hope you liked it lexi i know its not much, but i tried. Well i am teaching my first whole family. The whole family is baptized but momma is holding out. We are blessed to be teaching her now because before she has rejected so many missionaries, and im sure a lot of those who reject my will accept missionaries in the future just on gods timetable. Dad if you could find everything you know about raphael what his name was on earth as a person anything. Just curious. Im not studying deep doctrines in personal study strictly preach my gospel and teaching skills at ang aklat ni mormon. Anyways my companion elder cabautan is from makati his mom is single mom teacher he has one whole sister and many half siblings. anyways he was inactive before but he returned and he has been able to use his background in a way to relate to people im a white kid from usa and people have a very hard time relating me most people dont have both parents and werent born into the covenant and are very very poor. I have spent many nights pondering how can i relate to these people with such an upbringing. The other day with sister hipona i found part of the answer. Americans have a very hard time teaching for relevance because obviously we are in a foreign world with a culture that is very different. During, lesson one principle two, the gospel blesses families I could tell for her she was thinking why does it matter if im mormon with my family im a good catholic. With the help of the spirit i shared the love and beauty of your marriage how there is no vices, adultery, fighting, work interfering with family, and there is a sharing of the duties because of the principles of the gospel and that we are safely sealed as a family in the gospel. She is very interested in the temple sealing and it was the most exciting moment in the mission to be teaching a family that can one day be sealed and support each other. She just wont go to church but we are praying that she will feel in her heart that this skinny white kid and this chubby filipino are telling the truth :). 

I TRIED "BALOT" FOR THE FIRST TIME THIS WEEK

Kamusta,

Well let me know if you are now forwarding my letters to my teachers thank you! Well its been a really good week. I have learned a lot from some of our new investigators and new less active people that we have found. Dont worry about the news. I like hearing that stuff i only get it once a week. Anyways who is romneys running mate again? So im glad new york was fun. Uhm so i tried "balot" for the first time this week. Not terrible but im not gonna be begging for it. I had an interview with president it was good, eye opening, and he was able to answer my questions other than one. Who is raphael? His name here on earth. I know if there is an answer here on earth you can find it haha. Frederick was baptized it was a night baptism. They turned on the font before the cultural show thought it was filling up slower than expected and they baptized the church. yeah.....good thing the ground is tile. Anyways they cleaned up the tile and the baptism was a sucess. Church the next day was not because for some reason everyone chose the exact same day to be sick and busy so yeah that was scary but next week will be better. Once you get them in the pen they jump out again haha. Anyways president said we have a great companionship and we are effective. He told me that mom went up and talked to him, but he wasnt bothered. He didnt say what she said. I didnt want to be on his radar from the git go...but now i am. Its kind of like a hey were both from arizona so i know where you live, i expect a lot of you, and im gonna keep an eye on you which may be good or bad. Anyways he is not a yankees fan, but a dodgers fan. ayos! He can hang out with the mexis on the west coast thats fine. He said that I was literally an "A"postle which was cool to hear. And he wanted to hear my personal goals for my mission. I had some but i hadnt really written them down so that prompted me to get them written. Im doing good. Its rained pretty good. I was able to teach my first investigator in a family setting yesterday which was Awesome. She finally will listen to the missionaries so we started the lessons. The rest of her family is baptized she was defensive at the beggining like ill listen but ill kinda die a catholic and do i have to be baptized to be one of you. She had a friend that she brought over who was born again and by the end of the discussion the spirit won them over. We answered thier questions using the book of mormon honestly the best lesson i have ever been apart of. The born again will bring her family next time which is unheard of. So the lord is blessing the work. But of course there is always drama in the early days of the church and everything we are working for might get hurt if the members dont repent but our branch pres is good. really good. It is amazing what jealousy can do to a person. But i like the news please dont leave it out please dont. Haha yeah new york doesnt have anything on some of the stuff here. Were definantly safe though i have no doubt. People here are funny a lot of people know the church is right but their so hard headed that they will never convert. Iglesia ni cristo is a problem for us but its all good. Love the spanish i will learn it dad by the end of my life i promise haha. There isnt a reason why i cant in arizona plus i live with a spaniard. Well the baguio mission was selected to do a survey on the internet today. so we got more time on the computer today. He told me that me and him have the same problem. We are too serious and we are always looking for the next thing to get down and forget the moment. It was kind of a backhanded compliment because i have been really working on being more bouncy like a spencer frame and i have gotten really good but i guess i have more room to improve. He said if i go inactive after my mission he has no problem coming to my house and chewing me out. He has softened a bit and is more like a dad than a leader this last week. He said the bagyos or storms are coming and we need to store water. Dont worry i can actually filter any water as in any water. You'd be surprised at the water i have filtered. I havent tried toilet water yet i dont think i will. Well the work is good. A minimum of one baptism for each transfer cycle which is really tough but we can do and we have been given the permission to do it. We just have to baptize smart. And i hope i can say we did. We had special cases ut they were priesthood special cases so yeah good. Well the lyons are nice to do that to give you thier apartment. Yeah so i went running when i was on splits with some americans. One was a football player, the other was a swimmer, and a filipino basketball player. they have been training for a while hehe. So they convinced me to run with them. I used their companions shoes and we went jogging. I didnt show off. I tried to talk during the run, but they were intense about it.They were all...i thought you played football in high school?  I was yeah i did but i was also on the mountain view distance crew haha...and actually now I'm in running shape again. Well i cant dunk a basketball anymore because i dont work out. A lot of walking has just made me skinny but i dont think i have any worms. If i do I'meating for two so its all good. Well Adios, love you all remember Jacob 6:12 Be safe. Good luck d and lou and you too mum. Ulit  Elder Barney

Adios

NEVER TAKE THE DAY OFF

'ello, 

So im here in SM Carmen and yeah basically the whole office is here. Lots of missionaries even president (im sure to keep an eye on everyone) haha. Anyways who is romneys running mate?, is anyone building in the neighborhood?. Im glad that mom, lou, and the doobs made it through camp. I'm doing fine. Thank you for the stories, balita(or news), and the words. We have another baptism on saturday Frederick Merrera! We are trying to build a priesthood base. We are getting some to come back but people are funny sometimes the parents take turns going to church or the people like to do the every other week thing. I'm interested to read the letter of dad about his mission/members. Baptizing is not an issue here....bringing people unto christ is. If i ask a person who were your missionaries a good majority of the active ones forgot who they were until they looked up thier names. Most of the ones who are inactive instantly remember their missionaries first because they got baptized for THEM. Every time i extend a commitment i try to get them to do it for the right reasons and its working. Well i saw the biggest spider i have ever seen in my life the other night haha. I'll try to get a picture. I'm having a hard time getting the pictures from other missionaries if i dont take the pictures on my own camera. Well its been pretty hot and dry for the last couple of days, but i need to buy some rubber shoes for the monsoons. Lexi please keep that kind of news coming thats the kind of stuff that makes me laugh. Well I'm patiently awaiting your letters. Well summer is kind of winding down make the best of it girls. I need to work out today haha i had pizza today for the third time in the mission it was delicious. 150 pesos so sobrang expensive haha its like 3.5 bucks for americans. Well lexi im going to send you a surprise. Yes i know Elder Thompson. Well for the campbell kid...yeah an umbrella, only polyester ties, and start reading chapter 3 of preach my gospel haha. Haha my first day in manila was the craziest day of my life when I arrived. Bus accident, forced-fast all day, random pinoy taking my passport, losing my baggage, missing the van for urdaneta. Fun stuff. Someone really doesn't like elder savage and I. Well im thinking of new food ideas other than rice and meat, and pbj. I'm gonna try mac and hotdogs. I think we will see how long that goes. Maybe egg sandwhich. any ideas? Me and my comp are doing good work with the spirit. Here are the pictures...Love you all. never take the day off. 

~Elder Barney

NEW MISSION PRESIDENT IS HERE

Ello' 

Thank you for the emails. Well alright president monahan is here and he isn't short. You said he was short. He is really smart, he is all about truly making disciples of christ, he likes baseball, and the trombone. He was in the air force and he was a lawyer. He met and married his wife here. He is a convert never served a mission and Loves the apostle Paul, so yeah it was kind of love at first sight. He wants to learn tagalog and he is self taught in spanish. He was promised by elder oaks that he would be able to speak in Tagalog before he left. He has a lot of work to do haha me as well. He scared a lot of people with his first talk, but i just laughed cause he's just a gold old arizona boy. Thank you for the address. President mentioned President Holmes in his talk that was cool, and he answered some big life questions for me in like 5 minutes of speaking. I cant imagine what else he has in his head and listening to him speak is a great opportunity. I have 1 and half years to listen.. I have zone interviews with him on the 19th and i have prepared some really spiritual questions for him like...who would win in a fight  a grilled cheese sandwich or a taco and are you a boston or a yankees fan. Ha just kiddin but their good questions. Well the work is progressing, the boy who at first was afraid to talk to me, wants me to baptize him. I was shocked. Ishould try to allow his cousin who is preparing for a mission to perform the ordinance either way he's getting baptized. He is scared when we asked him about coffee that is a huge problem here but were getting them to switch to MILO or ENERGEN haha so thier kicking the habits. Well im glad youre having a good summer, and yes lexi summers are only boring if youre boring so get out! Yes i will be sending a letter. Well what's the news with the world? Im not too whole concerned with the sports world unless its something like nash getting traded what!? or big stuff. Like about wars, obama, and all other kinds of evil. Yeah can you give my address to anyone. Who is engaged haha please dont say lots of girls are engaged and not say anything that stuff cracks me up. Thank goodness i dont have to join the dear johned club. Whats the trick to not getting dear johned........you dont have a girlfriend haha. Well my tagalog is okay. I can trick people in the province into thinking im fluent. Im doing okay i dont have any pictures im waiting on them. Lexi...Positive attitudes? Well the cliche is you are the only one that controls your attitude no? So yeah easier said than done. There are two types of happiness. worldly and celestial one is burning just on lighter fluid and the other has a nice fire place and an eternity of fire wood and most of the time in campouts it takes awhile to get that nice steady camp fire going. Just like eternal happiness it takes time. Scripture reading, learning, family time, prayers, temple and church attendance. Anyways yes i love watching sports, but what will i do without them after this life only eternal happiness exists there. So don't fill your life with superficial happiness and (if's then's) If i was richer or more handsome or beautiful then...i would be so much more this...yeah. Honestly a good attitude depends on what you are filling your life with. Please dont say you quoted me in your talk Lexi. But yeah we just had two long-faught returned members come back.. im doing good. We have one IBD july 21 Frederick Merrera. Well things are good i want more rain but i better be careful what i wish for. I'm glad chelsea is going to USU awesome. Wish her good luck in track for me maybe ill catch a meet after my mission. Mahal ko kayo at alalahanin ninyong basahin ang aklat ni mormon araw-araw this email was brought to you by ~Kuya Barney

 

**Oh i was also privileged to confirm Francisco, and two little girls that we baptized this last week. Franciscos was amazing. San quinton is growing because we had two members really old less active members die and then three just joined so yeah we're one up now.  So dad, president monahan loves the apostle paul and talked a lot about him it was awesome for me. How are the barneys doing? How is cecilia doing in the job hunt. Well im sure their slandering us hard over the romney race. President Monahan was talking about it. He is pretty fiery kind of like Elder Holland. He said, "all those that slander our revelation (these iglesia ni cristos and our christian brethren) will NEVER! be able to come between you and your personal connection with heaven..never". He wasn't yelling but it was powerful. Sister monahan is nice. He is pretty intense haha. but i like him. sige Adios

CLASS 1 TYPHOON...NO BIG DEAL

Kamusta sikayo,

 Sige well yeah this week has been rainy. Only class 1 typhoons pretty weak they say haha we're just waiting for a big one to come a long. So no I'm not transferred I'm just apart of the normal transfer schedule which is fine by me. We are having a lot of sucess because the branch is getting really excited about missionary work. Thank you for news i still like to hear the obama part (made me cringe) but the second coming has to start sometime the sooner the better. I have not yet met the new mission president maybe next week. (haha)  I hope you picked a decent picture of me for the newspaper. Well somedays I'm good at the language and somedays I try to expand and get humbled haha but thats alright. I have two americans in my district, so it helps to see where i should be kinda of "markers". They are older than me in the mission. Funny story our ward mission leader sat in cat poop on a chair in the middle of a lesson. Might have been the funniest thing i have seen yet but yeah missionary life is fun. There will be a baptism on the 21st Frederick Merrera and he really came a long way no addictions but just very hard to teach. Not handicapped but just some people take longer but he is really starting to feel more comfortable answering questions. 

I hope camp goes good for you girls. Sorry for scattered email its because i need to look at your email and respond haha. 

Oh dad if you didn't please say thank you to the Barneys for their letter. I hope they're doing well. Well yeah i miss the temple a lot, but i think I will be here for the groundbreaking of the urdaneta temple in 2013 or hopefully sooner. President said before he left, if i havent told you already, I get my journal entries and my emails mixed up a lot haha. But he said stay close to the spirit basically and that's all he could ask for. So yeah president monohan is here (i need to learn to spell his name) and I haven't spoken to a pure american in enhlish in a while and its really awkward cause i have a tendency to use words here and there. You will see in december what i am talking about. Well soon now is lexi's birthday yeah! 17 I dont have much support to send something, but i will bring things home i promise that you and the doobs might like. I hope efy and dance is good for yall.

...sorry double emails...Just put them together please into one long big email haha. Well francisco has not been yet confirmed two weeks straight he has been late for sakremento and its got to stop. But this next week, i think he will get the picture that we show up 30 minutes early for sakremento. This transfer maybe more than two I'm trying to leave the area better than i found it. I dont care if they dont remember me as long as they remember to go to church after I'm long gone. Well we're about to go to a house blessing? A lds one but this lady moved from manila and invited some auxillaries to come and witness the blessing. The branch president said we can all go and there will be food so I'll be there soon. Well im changing my diet to pasta I think and more fruit haha. It is hard to know what to buy because limited money so we have to be smart. Elder Cabauatan lost the cell phone so they will slash his bill, but i think he will be okay he has some reserves and I'll back him. Plus i have that good old butterfield blessing that I won't starve so I'm good if worse comes to worse i can eat crickets like the ilokano. My companion ate one the other night. Well we have developed a couple of ways to get people active and get people to comer back. One is "ambush family home evenings" all the leaders and ward missionaries and some fellowshippers and all go to a less active family with a guitar, some food and we have family night. Sobrang epektibo! The other way to get dads active is if they have a son or daughter that is coming up on baptism we say well either you prepare yourself to baptize or someone else will. Yeah they dont like the idea of strangers or missionaries baptizing their kids, so it's working with some. Some not so much, but yeah Dad said that he developed the sowing seeds project. My two ideas are ambush family home evenings and...i need to coin another name for the other. aAny ideas im open for ideas. I have some really funny pictures to send you I just got to get some from one of the pinoys in my district. Well life is good in san quinton! ~Elder Barney

Hey family. So yes francisco got baptized then basically no showed for his confirmation yeahh.... next week i hope i am here.  Yes mom megan can have my address anyone can write me. I cant guarantee that i will reply though. SYL (Speak your language) has been hard speaking my language here cause my comp knows fluent english. We just made some adobo for lunch it was good. rainy season is here and im tired of my pamphlets getting wet hahah but its all good. But yes dad we are having so much sucess. The members are dumping refferals into our lap and im getting worried that we have moved away from investigator focus, but our zone leader said for this area that we are healthy 125 total members roughly 80 active and a ton returning compared to Tayug our sister area which is like 700 members 125 active haha. So yes god is moving the work forward now. Good things will happen and i finally understand why missionaries hate the prospect of transferring because you put so much heart into one thing and then it is gone and you get a new thing to work with haha. Anyways i chopped my hair for zone conferencer elder savage is doing good he is looking really white. It was awesome to talk to him again and we still are keeping our fingers crossed that they will place us together or near each other later on in the mission, so who knows. anyways so yeah my hair is great its hot even though its technically winter for them here, and now i get saluted everywhere i go yeah thats why they said in the call packet dont shave your head but... president and sister jensen said my haircut was nice so im in the clear. Anyways i dont have the pictures I want to show you yet they are awesome but i got to get them from another missionary. I met elder dalton at the conference he is nice he spent a lot of time in the missionary recuperation place in manila i heard but he's back. How are my lou and D? Dancing going to vegas sounds fun. Well yeah i feel bad i cant answer all the questions. I read the letters but i forget all the questions anyways love you all much. Story for doobs for sunday school hm....we had a brother in the ward give a blessing to a sister she was very sick, not yet dying, but getting there. He was praying in tagalog a blessing and during the blessing he basically told her that god would relieve the pain and she died. Well some people would say thats awful. The priesthood didn't make her get up and walk nope Heavenly Father brought her home. So just remember that God does what is best for us and we shouldnt question him, but accept it and take the situation and ponder it and pray about it and later down the road in the eternity we will thank Heavenly Father. Maybe it will be thank you Heavenly Father for putting those mean girls in my life because they helped me be more patient and loving or thank you for putting that leader in my life who chastised me because i wouldn't be the man i am today without him. So yeah remember that our goal is for eternity to walk through into the afterlife with our family waiting for us smiling and we embrace them and we then turn to see our elder brother and God. By then we will forget every pain and trial because they are miniscule in comparison to the reward. Don't be sad for the lost moments because of my mission but for the shared moments and the many more after this life and after my mission
 ~Your kuya your anaknalalake 
Elder Barney

so here's me, francisco is the younger one, and his uncle antonio oria, who we got to return to church and he was worthy to baptize his nephew !! and my companion elder cabauatan

HOME TEACHING IS MISSIONARY WORK AND DAD WAS MY FIRST COMPANION

Grabe(Wow) what a week!

I am doing good. Just got back from san nicholas again. They are pulling the

missionaries out of there because of lack of missionaries in the baguio mission. We

need more troops. haha. It is sad to see families so young in the gospel left behind

without any missionaries to help them out. Well i have some sick pictures to send you.  I just got to get it together. I joined a family on a hunt (hahaha) for birds. Well

happy fathers day dad. I am proud to be your only son and I hope that I am doing

missionary work according to the way you did it and in unison with God. Well we had

stake conference this last week and it was good for northern luzon. Elder L. Tom

Perry presided. The stake president said some interesting things to the members that really rang true. He said that because of the lack of family history work in this

area the lord is delaying the ground breaking. (food for thought). I dont know if

that motivated the 200 members that showed up, which makes me sad because the temple in urdaneta would turn this area around. Well the pictures of you guys are great dad looks different darker and thinner. I really don’t "need" anything. Some things that are hard to get here (but don’t rush) are solution, shaving cream, hand sanitizer, tooth brush, tooth paste just simple things id rather not spend money on. I’m really doing good. I’m not exactly in the best shape of my life, but im happy and healthy. People are extremely excited for the new mission pres. I dont know what he will bring,probably different ideas. Francisco is doing good he got through the interview good and we are working with him. He lives very close to the mountains so yeah it is very hard to get to him. We have cleaned out records and suprisingly we need to switch to a more Part member investigator focus because most of the people we are contacting are now saksi or JDubs (Jevovah Witness). We had one sister who told me that and said "hindi......mormon po kayo, pwede po ba kaming makapagbahagi ngensahe sa inyo.(can I share a message with you) I said no your a mormon (not a JDub) and can we share a message with you. She allowed us in it was funny because at first she told us she was JDUB then she was back to a inactive mormon by the end of our lesson. Religion is something that people are accustomed to changing four or more times in their lives here. I actually respect the old nanays who have been devoted catholics, then the people who go to churches because they like their churches monthly calendar better than the rest or whatever their reason is. Well this week is president jensens last zone conference and I will get to see elder savage woop woop. How are you all doing mom I hope you stay healthy. I am not scared of anythingI just am put under a lot of stress with the work haha because when I always put to much time into something until it’s not unhealthy. If you want to come herethat is fine. I think moms deserves an answer  haha. I came into thismission with elder savage, and I will leave with him as well. So do whatever his parents do or whatever. I don’t want to hear about stay with them it’s not exactly

safe in manila so be smart. I just want to give the ok in advance so that can you

plan when the time comes around. On a lighter tone hahah funny story there is a goat who follows me everywhere I go haha. The elders say it’s because I am maputi or white haha I’m kind of like the white elder on the other side of heaven here polipoki. I stand out like a sore thumb. I’m kind of exactly like that what the movie that’s how I feel all except the fact I dont have a girlfriend. Yeah the members think I’m a bakla or gay everytime i say that, but I explain im not hahaha. What are my

struggles? haha I dont know. Countless but I’m fine mom. The language is clicking this week but I’m not great yet. I realized that home teaching is missionary work and dad was my first companion.  I am glad that he taught me how to build relationships, ask questions, use scriptures, serve, etc. all the teaching skills.

That is an epiphany of mine. I’m working hard… I love you much!

Sa muli nating Pagkikita (Until we meet again)

Elder Barney