February 27, 2017

Hello family and friends! 

Another great week here in the mission field! I didn't know I could be so happy, but I am! My only complaint is the weather! Haha West Virginia and Ohio get too cold! :) Its really not all that bad, but I am pretty excited for Spring hopefully in just a few more weeks!! 

We had Zone Conference and Interviews this week with President Salisbury and those are always good! We talked a lot about teaching repentance and how to do it. When I think about repentance and how it makes me feel, it has really helped me grow a desire to share the gospel! I know I and many of you are grateful for the gift and miracle of repentance! 

So our investigators are doing well and progressing right along! The family we are working with wasn't able to come to church this week because they had to go to a funeral so that was sad, but at least it was a legitimate excuse! It was ward conference and the whole stake presidency was there so that was really cool. They basically did all of the teaching for all the classes and that was really cool! 

We have been trying hard to find people to teach this week, but we haven't been able to see much success with that... I guess that's what we get for being blessed with some AMAZING investigators! Ha I am really hoping this week we will be able to find a bunch more people that are willing to listen to us! We have some good less-actives and recent converts who will hopefully introduce us to there friends so I am really excited about that.

Well that's mostly it for this week! I am so grateful for all of you and all your support! Church is true! Love ya'll! :)

Elder Barazoto

February 20, 2017

Hello Everyone! Well this week we had some amazing things happen! Elder Harris and I are so excited with all the things that are going on here in Marietta! So we picked up a new investigator this week and he is going to be getting baptized in a few weeks! His name is Rob and we have actually been teaching him almost every day this week! He is so ready for baptism, we can't wait! 

Yesterday at church we had yet another amazing experience! So there were a couple of investigators there yesterday and both of them, after church ended, came up to us and asked us if they could be baptized! I just kind of laughed a little in disbelief and I didn't know what to say! Eventually I was able to contain my excited and put them on date for baptism in March! I have never had someone ask me if they could get baptized, but hey no complaints here! I think i've said it before but this area has SO MANY golden people who are ready for the blessings that the gospel brings! It makes me so happy that these people have been touched by the Spirit and desire to act on those feelings! 

All of these amazing experiences this week make me so grateful for the knowledge of the restored gospel. It makes me also grateful that I get the unique opportunity to be a full-time representative of Jesus Christ. I love being a missionary and helping these people realize the blessings that I have seen as well. The church is so true! :)

Thats mostly it for this week! Next week is Zone Conference and Interviews with President so I am really excited about that! I love you all very much and hope yall have a great week! :)

Elder Barazoto

February 13, 2017

Hello Everyone! Well this week was transfer week so its a bit of a shorter week, but there was still some great things that happened! So Thursday was of course transfer day and our district didn't change very much at all. The only new missionary in the district is Elder Clark who was actually my last companion! He came from Clarksburg so that was really great getting to catch up with him. Everyone is Clarksburg seems to be doing great!

On Sunday we had 6 non-members at church! It was awesome! In the gospel principles class there were a total of 4 families or soon to be families there! We are working with each family and hopefully we will see some success with them very soon! We are pretty optimistic about it too. Elder Harris and I both think that there will be some baptism coming soon! We are stoked! 

We had a pretty neat experience with our ward mission leader actually this week as well. Every week we have a coordination meeting with the ward mission leader. We were talking about all the people and families we are working with and he shared an experience from his mission that had a significant impact on me this week. He told us about a scripture in the Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 18:20 and also D&C 82:10. He told us that when we ask in faith for things that are right, God has no reason to not bless us with those things. Of course God has a plan for each of us and we may not receive all the things we ask for, but that does not mean that we shouldn't ask Him for things! I think we can sometimes be afraid to ask God for certain blessings but the reality is God WANTS to bless us. But some blessings He will not give us unless we ask Him in faith believing that we will receive. That lesson I hope is useful to someone this week because I know it was sure helpful to me! 

I know that God loves us all and wants happiness for all His children! I know that this is God's work and this is where God needs me to be! I am loving my mission and loving all the experiences! And I of course love all of you! Have a great week! :)

February 8, 2017

Hey Everyone! Well Elder Harris and I just got done teaching a class here at Marietta College all about the LDS church so that was really fun. Yep! There is a professor here that teaches a religion class that called us one day and asked if we could teach the class about our church! I was sure that we werent allowed to do that for some reason but we asked the Assistants anyways and they said we could! The class was about an hour long and the students had tons of questions! The professor emailed us some questions the students already had and that is the file thats attached. At the end of the class, one of the students came up to us and told us that she was planning on attending church this Sunday too! So that was really awesome, we'll see how that all goes! :)

Other than that, we have actually had a bunch of really cool things happen this week! But something not so cool happened as well... On Thursday we had a dinner appointment with a part-member family that we are really excited about. To get to their house we have to take a road that I guess is pretty well known for having deer on it. So its pretty dark outside and as we are driving a deer jumps out in the middle of the road and we crash right into it! I was going pretty fast but was able to slow down to maybe 30 or 40 mph before I hit the deer. Both of us are totally fine, I was just upset because now we don't have a car... We have been doing a TON of walking now because of it. We are getting SUPER lucky though because they are actually just going to end up giving us a brand new car instead! We dont know what kind of car it is, but we know its brand new! We are stoked! :)

The work this week was actually really rewarding. We are teaching this wonderful lady named Chyanna. She is just great! She came to church last week and I think she really enjoyed it! After church we found out that her husband, whom we've never met, wants to be taught too! We are really excited about that! Our lesson will all of them is tomorrow so hopefully it goes as well as it has in the past!

Well I am just about out of time, but I am doing really well. Elder Harris and I are staying together another transfer and we are really excited about that! He is such a great companion, we have lots of fun together. I love you all very much and hope you have a great week!!! :)

Elder Barazoto