October 26, 2015

Dear Family and Friends!

Another great week here in Hillsville, Virginia! This week went by so fast! It is so true when people say that the mission goes by fast! I dont feel like I have been out as long as I have! Thankfully I still have a lot of awesome and miraculous experiences ahead of me! :) 

So on Wednesday, we went to go and visit these 2 families that we are teaching. They have a great desire to be taught and we were able to set them on date for baptism next month! We are so excited for them and I cant wait to see them get baptized! It is going to be awesome! They have expressed interest in being sealed as a family in the temple so this is just the first step in the right direction!

 

Then on Friday we had interviews with President Salisbury which is basically just one on one time where we get to talk about different things! I have been looking forward to it for weeks and the 15 minutes we get seemed to pass it a matter of seconds! Haha it is kinda frustrating because you want to ask all these questions, but there just isn't enough time! With what time we did have though, President helped me to think about my work as a missionary and how I can improve it and become the best missionary that I can be! Mission Presidents are so awesome! They always know what to say and do!

So yesterday was pretty crazy, but also pretty awesome! Haha we brought someone from our ward out with us because we wanted to go see some Spanish families in our area and he was going to translate for us! We visited this less-active family and I did my best to communicate in Spanish with them, but I guess 2 years of high school Spanish didnt make me as fluent as I would have liked! Haha! They actually have a non-member friend who is living with them at the moment and it was awesome because he starting to talk to him about his religious background and everything and he seems pretty interested in what we were teaching! He was talking about how all the churches he went to contradicted each other and it was all so confusing! We testified of the Book of Mormon and how it helps us to understand what the Bible teaches and he said that he will read it! It was such a great experience! I finally know what it is like to try and teach someone who only speaks Spanish and wow is it difficult! Ha! Anyways I am running out of time but I know that this gospel is true and I know that it can and will bless all our lives so much! Continue to choose the right because that is where true happiness comes from! I love you all and have an amazing week! :)

Elder Barazoto

No pictures this week! Sorry!

October 19, 2015

Dear Family and Friends!

What an awesome week! The work here in Hillsville is moving along really well! Our investigators are progressing and we are continuing to find more people to teach! 

So we have a part-member family that we are working with, and we had a pretty interesting experience regarding them this week. So this family lives with their parents and they have relatives that live next door. So when the relatives found out that Brittany and Robbie had been meeting with us and were preparing to be baptized, they wanted to take the discussions too!! So we met with them and wow was it awesome! One of the first questions that they asked was how they can be sealed as a family!! It was amazing! I know that Heavenly Father is preparing and placing people in our path for us to teach! We will be teaching them all together now and I cant wait see all of their progression! It is going to awesome! :)

So funny story time... Haha! This week we went on exchanges and Elder Sawyer went with the district leader in Wytheville and Elder Vest came to Hillsville. On the morning of our exchange, I wanted to be nice and make pancakes for us. I made sure that I got ready earlier so I would have time to make them too! So as I was starting to make the pancakes and everything, I realized that we did not have nearly as much pancake mix as I had thought... So rather than scratching the whole idea I was determined to make it work! So I just added some flour, water, vegetable oil and other things to the mix and prayed that it would work out! By the end of my free style cooking experience, I had made three pancakes... Haha! I gave them to Elder Vest and he said they were good but he was probably just being nice! Haha anyways that was pretty goofy and embarrassing on my part, but the rest of the week was really great! I know that this gospel is true and I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God! I love you all and I love this work! Have a great week! :)

Elder Barazoto

Awesome view!

October 12, 2015

Dear Family and Friends!

What an awesome week! It doesnt seem like it has been a week yet but time flies when you're having fun right?! Haha

So this week we went to see the part-member family that I mentioned last week who is doing really well. They are so awesome! We get along really well and they are both progressing really well! They ask great questions and I love seeing how happy the gospel makes them! So the wife who is not a member is Brittany and we have been focusing on her and during the lesson we committed her to baptism! November 28th is the day and I am SO excited! Its going to be amazing! 

So a couple days after that, we decided to see a potential who we have not been able to contact in a few weeks. He and his family have been really busy and we were finally able to contact him this week somehow! We were so lucky that we were in the right place at the right time! I know that Heavenly Father has a plan and is helping us talk to the people that need and are ready for the gospel! He seems very interested so that is very exciting! 

Yesterday was probably one of the more interesting days of the week though. We were in a place in our area called Galax which is about a 30 minute drive from our apartment because we had a dinner appointment with a family in the ward named the Kohls. As we were socializing around the dinner table, Brother Kohl starts telling these insane stories! He worked for the American embassy in Guatemala when President Hinkley was prophet and when President Hickley, President Packard, and President Faust came to dedicate the temple there, he was the one that was their escort! Crazy right?! He got to know them all pretty well and he has some pretty awesome stories to tell! I loved it! 

Well that's all for this week! I love you all and I love this work that I am apart of! I know it's true and it has blessed my life in so many ways I cant describe! Have a great week everyone! :)

Elder Barazoto

​Hillsville, Virginia!

​Makin pancake! Haha!

October 5, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

Wow the weeks are starting to fly by! Its seems like I was just emailing yesterday! crazy how time works in the mission field! Ha!

So this week was full of really great experiences so here are a few!

On Wednesday we went to go see a part-member family (the husband is a less active member and the wife is not a member). They have been coming to church a little bit so it was pretty evident that they were interested in the church which is awesome! We went and visited with them with our ward mission leader and taught them the restoration and the lesson was a little shaky but it didnt matter because the spirit was definitely there! After the lesson, Brittany told us that she had some questions that she had been praying about and we answered them without even knowing it! It was so cool! It wasnt a perfect lesson as far as what we taught but it was perfect because she felt the spirit testify to her that what we were saying was true and now they are progressing towards baptism! I know that the spirit is very real and it is the single most important element to this work! Without it, that lesson would not have gone the way that it did!

Thursday was a particularly special day for me because I finished the Book of Mormon again! I have grown to love the Book of Mormon so much! I know it is true and it has blessed my life so much! I have always been familiar with the scriptures but as I constantly search and study them I have grown to love them! I was never very good at reading the scriptures every night growing up, but now it is something that I look forward to! I love the Book of Mormon and every time I read it, I learn something new and it is just so enjoyable!

General Conference this weekend was so great! Being on a mission has made me cherish every spiritual nourishment I can get and boy was that a feast! Haha I learned so much, but Ill share one small thing that I learned. It was in the talk given by Sister Neill F Marriott. She taught us that if we put our trust in the Savior, it will all work out. This is such a true principle! I know that everything that happens to us is for a reason. We may not know all those reasons, but we can be assured that the reasons are heaven sent! Trust the Savior! He loves and wants what is best for all of us! I loved General Conference and I cant wait for it to come again! I love my mission and I love teaching the gospel! Thank you for all the support and love! I love you all!

Elder Barazoto