Elder Joseph Barlow - Nevada Reno Mission

  ​​ We had pretty nice week! We had a general authority 70 come tour the mission. His name is Elder Pieper and I learned a ton and it kind of helped rekindle my fire and help me feel more joy in the work. The biggest thing I learned was to help people we're teaching use their agency and to not just do everything and act on them as if they were objects. It's been cool to see people's desire to come closer Christ grow as they choose to do things by the spirit and set their own commitments.  Mission prez came out with us one night to teach which was pretty sick. I was a little bit nervous before but as we started going I wasn't at all and we had a cool night. We invited a fam to be baptized yesterday in just the second time we met with them and they said yes it was crazy. They have a ways to go but they have the best desire to follow Christ.  We got to drive to Quincy California to help with a baptismal interview which was sick it's super pretty out there. Some actual...

  The week was pretty sweet.  New area in the city is way different than the old area in the country.  Here are some highlights for you guys: ● I walked right into a baptism in my new area. A 9 and 11 year old and I got to teach them once and then the baptism was amazing. I already love those kids ● Got to go to the temple to do baptisms with a recent convert in my last area so that was pretty sick ● So many people to talk to compared to my last area so it's way nice were finding a ton more people ● Being back with my old comp has been way fun, we've been grinding and it's been pretty cool ● The new area feels a lot like North Salt Lake with the old small homes and stuff Hope everyone back home is good Elder Barlow

Crazy week! Highlight of the week was that we put the Dawson's on baptismal date!!!! April 16th, pls pray that it will all work out. The mom is a little hesitant but we set a date and now we set up a plan to teach their 2 oldest kids by that day. If all goes well then the dad can baptize their son when he turns 8 in 3 months.  Some wild news, I'm getting transferred and I'm really bummed about it. I won't be here for the Dawson's baptism, the 10 year old baptism we have in 2 weeks, and hopefully Deb in about month. It's alright it's how it goes and I'll be able to come back for all of them. Sooo now I'm going up to north Reno and I'm going to be a Zone Leader. It's crazy and I'm pretty nervous because I've never been a district leader or anything so I'm gonna be figuring it all out on the fly. Also my comp is gonna be Elder Henline who I was already companions with for 2 transfers before I trained Elder Giauque. It'll be sick ...

  This has been the fastest slowest longest shortest 6 months of my life haha. I'd be lying if I said I've enjoyed every second or that its always felt amazing because its been extremely hard and challenging. Theres lots of ups and downs but the times I get to really help someone and see them happy means the most to me and it's why I'm out here. I've changed and grown in 6 months what i thought I would in 2 years so it'll be crazy to see what happens the next 18 months! Really fun week and lots of cool experiences. Some great lessons with Deb and the Dawson's and we're looking to really invite them to be baptized in the next 2 weeks. Mission President showed up to sacrament meeting out of nowhere which was pretty sick He talked with our investigators for like 20 min after church. Cool to see God answer our prayers for people as we taught them this week. We pray so much for people in preparation for lessons and it's amazing how everytime God answers t...

  Cool week, we found a really cool dude after going back like 4 times to his house and turns out he knew Austin Collie (who played for BYU and in the NFL) when he was little! Had some really cool lessons with Deb and the Dawson's and they all came to church! They're so close and we're being patient with them but also doing everything we can so they're ready. Pray for them to receive answers to their prayers! Highlight of the week was definitely the temple, it's always amazing what you can learn and feel in the temple. Also we built a cool bobcat proof chicken coop with an investigator so that was pretty neat Hope yall are doin good!

Time flies when you're busy and we have been crazyyy busy. We found out we have 3 cats living underneath our front deck so we named them Radshack Meshack and Abendigo lol. No idea how to spell that though. It snowed a couple inches last night so we went to go shovel some driveways and Elder Giauque being from Arizona has never really shoveled snow haha it was pretty funny to watch him shovel and figure it out the best he could. Me being the expert snow shoveler I am was able to give him a few tips and he ended up liking it in the end. We had some amazing lessons and Deb had read and annotated all of 1 and 2 Nephi it was so cool. Crazy amazing miracle that happened, Dawn is a recent convert of about 8 months, has 2 kids under 4, and she's been fighting cancer for about a year and a half. We've been meeting weekly with her over zoom and she has the most amazing faith and trust in God especially only being a member for 8 months. In January she had a bad test result and the can...

 Welp we got a call from the APs last Monday at like 10:15 and they were pleased to inform us that they were combining our area with the one next to it so now we're covering two areas. So I'm training, white washing an area, and trying to keep up our original area haha. We've been crazy busy and it's been tough trying to get to know the new ward and figure out the investigators and people in the new area. It's been a grind but I love it and my trainee likes it which is good. We had an amazing lesson with the Dawson's and then they came to the ward silent auction and they were part of the ward family it's awesome. And they bought some treats and stuff to give to us to say thank you it was pretty cool. Chess with Michael Oh we met this guy named Michael haha he's a weird dude but I like him. He's a zen-budhist and I have no clue what that means. We helped him walk to the Maverick to get some milk and we listened to Tracy Chapman and blues music the wh...

  It was a good week but a hard week. Lots of ups and downs. The activity days girls heart attacked our door at the beginning of the week and we're just gonna keep it up for as long as we can.  On Wed I picked up my trainee! His name is Elder Giauque and somehow you pronounce his name like juke. He's from Arizona and he and I are pretty different but we found some common ground on Avatar the Last Airbender lol.   He's excited to do everything and wants to be obedient so that part of training makes it really easy! Ive been working him hard and he's been pretty exhausted but he tells me he likes it so we're gonna keep it up haha. Last transfer I was working on and praying for patience and then God had me become a trainer haha now I'm definitely using that patience! Missionary work can be hard and now training makes it harder but I'm enjoying it and I've learned a ton in these last 5 days. I just hope I can be a good trainer for him!  We got to play some ba...