TRANSFERRED! I'M A REAL BAGUIO MISSIONARY!

I've been transferred out of pangasinan! I am now a real baguio missionary! Not a pangasinan missionary. The joke here, because most of the mission is in the state of pangasinan, is i served in the pangasinan mission. Anyways im in AGOO, third branch, the place is amazing here im close to the ocean which i want to see. I smelled it in damortis on the way here. The spanish influence is way strong here the catholic church is really enticing. I just want to look inside haha but we have to wear missionary attire on pday, so that would be weird watching the mormon missionaries walking into the cathedral during confession time. Well im glad lexi and kylie are doing great in their areas. The language is fine. I think i will grow a lot this transfer. My new companion is actually from my batch Elder Rabaca from cebu city. Batch means the group you entered with into the mission. The branch has a lot of less actives but the leadership is very strong and the biggest problem here is not getting the people married but keeping them married. The language is good. I'll be here for about six months. I would have to say but here in La Union im fine with that. Its green and awesome. Up north more there is a place called vegan which is a pure spanish style town but its in the laoag mission. I'll probably spend christmas here so im happy.  I like my district leader he served in iraq. Elder Purcell from america samoa before he came on a mission i have a lot of friends in this area. The members are nice they try to grab my nose because its sobrang matangos "very pointy". I'm glad the rabbit is alive haha. Dallin emailed me i laughed so hard he will have fun in his mission. Kylie i dont have a picture yet but i love the yarn squares you sent me. They are on my study desk. I'll bring them back you can have one ill have the other ayos ba? oh yeah if people from san quintin try to add me on facebook thats okay! If they start writing on my wall thats weird but yeah. I was surprised when i left at some of the reactions because of the position of me leaving i got a lot of unprogressing investigators to open up for more lessons and i got alot of presents. I had to leave a lot behind there. I thanked everyone for the food. Here in my new area the apartment is very small, but very clean and very nice. No cobwebs this time and my companion is an amazing cook just like home. He cooks and i clean and we half the budget on lunch. I love all the news any kind so please keep it coming. I love the pictures duba looks old. Lexi you can date but tell the guys to keep their hands off!!  Elder Barney

NEVER DENY AN OPPORTUNITY TO SPEAK OR SHARE TESTIMONY OR A CALLING

Hey,
No i havent been transferred yet i'll find out on wednesday so we will see. I'm doing good the work is slowing down but were fighting back. I liked the pictures and thanks lexi for emailing me i want to punch petersen he's lucky the church was nice enough to give him a job because no one else would hire him. Man byu lost? Well they will be good when i get back. Elder Ardern from the first quorum of the 70 visited and it was amazing the best zone conference i have ever been to. He talked about our role here in the philippines. They are phasing out white missionaries out of philippines. I'm a dying breed in the church because of the filipinos are having a hard time supplying an adequate amount of missionaries 70 percent to be precise. And then the philippines will be 100 percent pilipino. China will be ready to receive the gospel. That is the sign that china is ready and the filipinos will take the gospel to china. Amazing really. He is from new zealand he grabbed me after the meeting and we talked. One of the most christ like people i have met in a long time. He gave us good advice and reassured me of some things that i have been thinking about. No mom...my mission is not like what i expected. I think I expected sipping pina coladas on some beach somewhere in the Philippines haha but seriously different I still love it here. I'm glad your having fun. Never deny an opportunity to speak or share testimony or a calling. It is frustrating here to have people go inactive and hide in their homes on sunday when its their turn to teach elders quorum or whatever. It comes down to no or weak faith and we are fighting back. One member has a brother who is a recent convert to islam he was fun to talk with him haha. He has lots of scriptures to show us in the bible while we were waiting for his brothers to finish eating. We directed him to some other scriptures that gave him a clear message that we take our religion seriously, and the spirit remained haha. I always laugh when I pass the j dubs and i think of all of dad's mission stories. They dont mess with us. Well im excited for conference!

I laughed good at kylies pictures as napolean. If he ever had a girlfriend she looked the part. Well right now one big struggle is bad dad's here. Pilipinos are notorious for leaving the country to work abroad its a recipe for disaster. Dad goes abroad finds another girl converts to muslim or whatever leaves his family starving here in the philippines its happened so many times their ripening for gods anger. I have learned good lessons from their bad examples, but i cant do anything really to help these people financially. It's hard to teach people about paying tithing and faith when they dont have money for food. Mom you wanted to know what life's like here...sad...I'm not discouraged. It's the reality of things here. Sorry i dont get enough time to email here haha so im rushing. 

The time is flying here for me. I can barely touch the days sometimes. I did exchanges with the zone leaders this last week and their apartment was like a california apartment, so nice brand spanking new. There is a huge batch coming in one of the biggest ever 18 elders and sisters we need it bad were stretched thin. Where are all the missionaries going? utah?! Send them here we need them more here haha.
Elder Barney

HOW AM I FEELING? I FEEL GREAT!

I'm doing great my email got erased? shoot well ill resend them. I'm

doing good i got to go with elder cabauatan to train the trainers so

either im getting transferred or he is to open an area on sept 21 so

we will see. President surprised us and showed up at our apartment

with the AP's, but they cant fool us. They called to ask what barangay

we lived in and the address so we were ready for them haha. I saw

another snake this week but it was dead i want to see a live one. Well

president is focusing hard on doctrine and getting ready for the day

of defence haha. Well were just trying to push our progressing investigators into IBD's. If elder cabauatan will train here i dont want his trainee to show up like me. No ibd's no success. So i'll prep it up and i have noticed the branch is booming we actually fell short of chairs and reverence in sacrament was a problem

because of how many people were working in tandem with the auxiliaries

and we're going hard at these part member families that are saying they

are waiting. Procrastination is something we have to fight them

with but it's fun. The language is still coming I'm running out of

language study materials which stinks. Well how's doobs and lou? Kylie

and lexi you better not be saying to the boys...this is crazy but

heres my number or call me baby or maybe-carlie jepson somet thing like

that?? Thats always played here on the radio i dont think the boys

here know the meaning of it because they are always yelling it at

me.(?) Dad i read an article in the sept ensign or liahona about the dos

hermanas stake in sevilla spain. The featured author was sister maria

perez sanchez. Do you still have contact with the people there or no? I

never asked. I'm glad dallin is going there. I did tell him he was going to africa. I'm glad utah state won haha. Me homesick? No mom haha. I was after a week in the philippines. There were times when i have been upheld by the spirit, sometimes so many from being too bold before i was withheld because of the language but sometimes matigas and ulo ng less actives they are so hard headed but its all good. I dont want to be 20 yo haha. What am i feeling each night?  Usually great by the end of the night. I need to rest to forget about some

of the parts of the day. My mission is not even close to what i

expected even when i was in the mtc. This isn’t like a cruise

destination spot. This is like the nebraska of the Philippines lots of

fields but i like it. I will miss the members when i am transferred. I

worry sometimes that im not changing as much as I should be or if when

i return home that I’ll be able to do school again. I dont like having

so much future ahead of me..haha. Sharing the gospel is so much easier

when they ask you about it first. There are obvious ways to display our

faith without wearing a "i love mormons shirt", ctr rings, or reading

the book of mormon in public etc. Well i love you all You look at the

calendar and it still reads 2012 but look at it now. I'm 7 months into

my mission and its crazy the first transfer was tough but you just become attached to the growth of the ward, personal, and companionship study.  Well thats all for now folks~

Elder Barney

DIDN'T FEEL THE QUAKE...BUT I ATE PIZZA HUT

Hello!

Well no i didnt feel the quake havent even heard of it, but i just ate pizza hut and it was delicious. Some crazy white biker guy walked into national bookstore like a white trash apache junction guy with biker boots and a white trash shirt came up poked my pilipino zone leader in the stomach grabbed me by the shoulder and whispered in my ear, "i think i know where your from just by lookin at cha".  I said oh really where am i from? He said utah usof a. I said nope I'm from arizona then he said mesa it is then? I said yeah then he said east mesa huh i said yup and he was all how long you live there? I said 2000-2012 and he said you probably saw me when you was a boy. I used to drive the garbage truck there until 2002, but i like it here they dont got any road sense but i have a cheap house for only 12000 dollars. All this was happening while my companion was right there. He turns to my companion and said you look like one of those navajoes haha. He turns back to me yeah you know them huh and i laughed and my companion was all whats a navajo i then turned back to him and explained its a lamanite my friend was all what??! My comp is fluent in english, so they talked anyways. I apologized to my companion after and explained that not all americans are like that. He totally made fun of them. My comp is used to bumping into creepy old american dudes here though. Anyways on another note i got grandmas package that was awesome. Jerry and Jelo were baptized, so now the challenge is to continue the sucess time to replant. President will surpise attack my apartment soon, so im prepping. Thank you for every bit of news. Dallin emailed me that was good to hear from him. Dad i have a question has the pilipino peso ever been more than the american dollar? curious i exchanged some dollars today the rate is down to 41. Sounds like america is doing great haha. Yes were allowed to read the infinite atonement because tad callister set sister monahan apart haha he said jokingly to me. I love the news every bit. Dallin said someone will move in next to us dangit my fort!? Dad help them save the fort help them haha. My companion is getting his bible prepped. The saksi ni hevoah or the JDUBS are getting active in the area. The jdubs here are brash but they have been thrashed my mormon missionaries in the past so they have been taught to avoid us kind of not to make a scene but with our new finding focus we are running into more and more and more manila attitudes very prideful and ignorant. I use 2 nephi chapter 29 it hasnt failed me once. No investigator or person can deny the truth of the chapter. I love it!! I hope i answered most of the questions if i didnt i read them but forgot to answer. I love you all im doing fine there are some members here that might move to arizona, so i might meet up with them after the mission. Its safe here in pangasinan anyways adios ~Elder Barney

WE WENT TO BATCHELOR NATIVIDAD

hey!

Mom please please dont send money or cards with money on it. I'm fine im

healthy the weather is really dry for the philippines which is very

odd they said they dont really have trouble with drought though. Well

we have a baptism on sept 1 which im excited for Jerry Sending and

Jelo hernandez so yeah. Zone conference is fast approaching and im

excited to head to urdaneta to hear another president monahan talk. I

saw the last baguio buzz post of president and sis jensen an elder in

my district received it. It was nice but kind strange to read. Well

that is awesome the new bishopric i havent received any packages

lately ill look up elders savage area on the map. We have a basketball

hoop in our house now haha. My companion and I are having lots of fun.

Im glad lexi's doing good she is dating a boy from another school. If

she isnt talking to boys at mountain view of course she wont be taken

to a dance even if she just is talking to them as friends. We went to

the one and the only (i bet)tourist spot in all pangasinan haha earlier.

It was awesome ill try to get some pictures to you its called

batchelor natividad the people there have no clue what a batchelor is

even my, fluent in english companion, im teaching him american slang and

he is teaching my tagalog slang and sometimes ill talk tagalog slang

to the filipino elders and they will say you talk like your from

manila or something. I had to give a talk in church this last sunday.

The president wanted me to talk 15 minutes. They played "how great thou art"

before and i actually didnt use notes because i felt calm about it. I

talked on the temple and i was able to make the talk very applicable

to them like if some people in your family are able to go to the

temple and your not then that is a warning signal to you that after this

life you will left behind as your family walks into the presence of

god for eternity and you stand there not knowing what to do and you

feel the inexpressable horror that that the savior felt in the garden

of Gethsemane. I think it woked up a few people. Some people still are

hard headed to set time aside. It is free in Luzon for families to go

for the first time to be sealed and take out garments FREE but they

still refuse. It is a perfect example of the atonement salvation that is

free but people watch it pass by them for nothing. Kylie dont text

boys! Dylan larsen emailed me. He's awesome ill shoot him a note in a

second. I love the quotes the info every thing please keep it coming. I

love you all and i pray for your happiness and safety. Im getting old in a

couple of months. I'll be 20 and looking back on my life its like a

quick dream and this mission is quick. Adios ~Elder Barney

ello'
So this week has been good. No im not transferred i am now the longest stayed missionary in san quintin everyone joked around that its because there hasnt been a zone shirt made yet haha. So yeah i'll get on that. Just preparing a couple of people for baptism and trying to get people not to hide from us when we walk up the path and getting those people to church. What i have learned about people that sa,"if this happens ill go to church" is that what changes when they actually go to church isnt the "if" but the change of heart. Life is always hard. My companion was pretty bold to a brother the other day, but it was good. He said to him, "brother in 10-20 years the same things are going to still be your problem. But you can get the Lords help if you change and come to church to overcome those issues. Working more on sunday or staying home to rest you will still be poor and tired on monday but at least you will be tired and poor with the spirit and more ready to take on the next week. I got the package i loved the letter from dad and the stuff inside. Thank you very much. My teeth were starting to turn yellow now their back to semi normal ....I laughed at some of names of the places in dads mission because almost all of them are in my mission the spanish were pretty clever at naming things here. Well drum roll...i took a nutritionist test at the mall and a height test I'm starting to put weight back on slowly but its coming. I'm now 6' 2''!!! and a 161 lbs so im down 15 from the mtc, but i know i can maintain this for the rest of my mission. The lady was kind of a quack doctor at the mall but she scolded me after my test because i filled out a questionaire and i dont drink milk. She asked why and i said im not used to milk. She tried really hard to speak to me in english and then i spoke back to her in tagalog. Sometimes i let them practice thier english. Well i liked the newspaper. Saw everything and laughed in the beehive article that some lady wrote an article about back rubs in church. I dont know what is better...if me and lexi were fighting or she was giving me a back rub. haha that was funny. I laughed at the article about me and about the snakes. I didnt think you were that worried. actually funny story. After 5 months here in san quintin i realized that there are no snakes until october only spiders which are harmless i have seen two snakes and one was road kill and the catholic church next to our house isnt a catholic church but a another wacky protestant church and the house next door isnt a house for bad women but its called a house of whores by the people. I took it literally they called it that because the girl that lives there has a bad reputation and the dad and mom own a bar in town and the mom was just like the daughter in the past. Its funny how my perspective has changed on all the things in san quinton and in the pilipinas. Well we went to rosales to watch the prophets birthday party it was awesome one of the members let us drive with him in his car. Third time i have gotten to do that in the pilipinas we always use bus and tryke. It was so cool. You should watch it if you havent. The pilipinos laughed hard at the fat opera man but they enjoyed the rest. Thanks for the news about anything and everything. I'm glad grandma is doing better. Well abouty me I'm learning how to play the guitar kind of...our member has a guitar and sometimes for fun he whips it out. My companion is really really good he was in a band before. Well im glad all  my ym friends are serving missions. I'm still trying to figure out the mission and everything but i have a long time to do it. There is a family in my branch that just moved to arizona. I'm pretty sure mesa the viduya family they should know how to speak english. They were the pioneers of the san quinton branch. I just talked to their son a minute ago at the lugawan. Well d. and lou , and the dog are doing good. Work hard but enjoy every second. 

    Please find out how the barneys are doing. I emailed cecilia anyways. Where in my mission is elder savage haha. I hope i answered all the questions. I'll send mom a letter for december but thats still a far way off

    22 years anniversary...wow long time. I'm 19 so at least the math is right (its a little ackward when it isnt) haha. But im glad i was born in the covenant. We have a girl that wants to marry her fiance in the temple, but the parents are having trouble preparing for the temple

CONFERENCE AND BROADCASTS FROM SALT LAKE ARE LIKE THE SUPER BOWL FOR US

'Ello

Please dont load money on a card. I have no idea how i would use it and i dont know how to access my credit card plus i dont want to spend the time to figure it out. I love the packages. The zone leaders called and said they recieved a package. They didnt tell me the name on the package. No i wasnt transferred but a pilipnio from my batch got pulled out with his companion in a four elder area and reassigned twenty minutes away haha. But he said he saw elder savage got transferred. President is keeping everyone really long in thier areas unless he needs us for leadership. I dont know. I'm excited for this next transfer. Well im glad everything is good with grandma that felt good to read that. Well no big storms have came. San quintin is relatively safe. My weight has leveled off so dont worry about my weight. I might have a pooch when i come home, but i decided i will work out better by the end of my mission. I love reading jesus the christ in the morning right when i wake up and i eat oatmeal and chocolate ENERGEN haha.  What was lexi's birthday gift? I guess i get to wait another week before i find out haha in other words dont do that please. I had pineapple, kanin, patatas, and corned beef for lunch today so good haha (i made it). Well dad is a rep for dental conf now so what is your job there? raising money, advertising toothpaste? 9 out of 10 LDS dentists choose COLGATE haha. Well the work is good the members are becoming more organized in the work this sunday we will receive a broadcast from SLC about the prophet at 7 in the morning! haha I am so excited for that (no) but really i am. Conference and broadcasts from salt lake are like the super bowl for us. Well i was sad to hear about don and mark. I want to be like don with all the rabbits when im older. Oh guess what there are tons of rabbits here. They dont eat them either they love them haha. My companion and i have a lot of fun plans for this next transfer so we will see how it goes. Lexi and Ky dont worry about a thing because "every little thang is gonna be alright"...Thank you for the information about romney. please keep it coming. Yeah i havent heard from connor in a while but im sure their doing good. I know that I cant compete for time with ashlynn for toph ill lose hard. They made me teach gospel principles class on sunday on scriptures it actually went well because i felt like i could do it. When i doubt myself i sink always like peter. I always write a quote on my planners for this next transfer it is "I am because god is with me". It might stay that way for the rest of my mission cause i like the quote. Am i being punished because my letters are two short your letters are short hahaha. Well i know if there is something you know i would like to know you usually remember it. I walked by a house the other day and they were watching the olympics..looked like the 400m. I verbally had to tell myself outloud "i hate track!" because i wanted to watch it so bad hahaha. I got hugged by a drunk the other day. That was great he is really nice and he loves me and wants to share stories. I'd love to give a lesson to him but he is always drunk so no way. ETB