Elder Joseph Barlow - Nevada Reno Mission

  Well, my day got changed back to Monday so here's my final email!! I'll be having an open house at my house Monday night August 7th and if you can I'd love for everyone to come say hi! Then my homecoming will be August 27th at 11:30am! Hit me or my family up for the addresses if you need them! The mission has been the best thing I've ever done with my life. I honestly never thought the day would come when it's over. It's kinda hard to put into words all the feelings, experiences, and things I've learned. Day in and day out putting in so much effort to serve God and everyone around me, has truly change me into the person I wanted to be. My testimony and love for Jesus Christ has grown so much. I've seen it change my life in so many ways. I've found true joy, peace, and rest in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The scripture on my mission placket is Matthew 16:25, "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my...

  Well I've got about 9 days left and it doesn't feel real. I'll keep this email short and then next week I'll kind of give my last hurrah email next Thursday.  This week was crazy fast. Did some service and had some good lessons. One of our lessons the guy we've been working with just broke down and he's struggling real bad. We just talked and in my head I was thinking it's gonna be hard to leave this. Hard to not be the one helping people and comforting and teaching. But God's got a plan for all these people so it'll be alright. We joined a pick up soccer group in Reno and played with a bunch of people at a park. It was so fun, I miss playing so bad. I was dropping dimes out there and all the guys were loving it. This old fat guy Javi was so funny. Just calling my name to pass it to me every time I got the ball. And we found a guy with a Book of Mormon after so it was sweet! Gotta finish this week strong!💪🏿 Love yall have a good week! Elder Barlo...

  This week after almost 2 years I'm Reno I finally got to go to Lake Tahoe. We went on the Monkey Rock hike and played some spike ball by the beach. So chill. I wanted to get in the water so bad it was tempting haha but we held out and didn't go in. I'll add a ton of pictures in another email.  Missionary work was a roller coaster this week. It's tough. Wyatt was super excited and had some super spiritual answers. Then he texted us Sunday morning and said he went to a different church and wasn't interested anymore. So confusing. He didn't even tell us why so that's hard. I've had so many amazing lessons with people who are super interested and then for whatever reason they decided to stop meeting with us. It's been hard feeling like I've been putting in so much work and you start to wonder if I don't have enough faith or hope. Or if I'm doing something wrong. The truth is, God's timing and people's agency determines everything. A...

  So the Dawson family that I taught and baptized in April 2022 went through the temple to get their Endowment on Tuesday night. So cool, the spirit was so strong. We were in the celestial room and Will Dawson walked up to me and said, "This is all your fault haha." It was so fun to see my old ward and talk with them. They're definitely one of the biggest reasons I was called to Reno. We've been running into a ton of summer sales people out here. Most of them are from Utah and a lot are return missionaries lol. We had some old guy tell us we were Solicitors for God and then a summer sales guy told us we were working for our eternal commission. So we're just Gods Solicitors working for our eternal commission lol.  We had the coolest miracle teaching this guy named Wyatt. He was raised atheist but he said he's always had an innate belief in God and Jesus Christ. We taught the restoration focused on Jesus Christ and baptism and he said it was something he felt he...

What's up everyone! This last week had a lot going on and was really eventful.  First off our new mission president came in and I love him. He's such a chill guy. He's got the greenie fire for sure haha. Right off the bat he was joking around with us and having fun. He's got a lot of new ideas that I'm excited about. Part of me wishes I had more time with him but I'm gonna live it up while I've got time.  I had my last zone conference this week so that was surreal. I've been doing this for so long that it feels weird to think that was the last one. I gave my departing testimony at zone conference and It was really cool. I felt the spirit really testify to me how much the mission has changed me and how much my testimony has grown. I'm really gonna miss it all I think.  The 4th of July was a ton of fun. We visited some less active members and went to one of their BBQ's. It was chill and then some guy ran inside having a panic attack and then to cal...

  Don't have much time but thought I'd send some pics! We got a new mission president and a new PMG so life is changing haha. I'm working my tail off this last transfer trying to leave it all out there! Alma 21:23 I love the phrase "zealous for keeping the commandments of God" Love yall have a good week! Elder Barlow

  This is wild, I'm starting my last transfer tomorrow! It doesn't feel real haha. Because I'm going to the fall semester at BYU I'm going to come home a transfer early. I'm kinda anxious about it honestly, feeling like it's coming too soon. My entire life I've been looking forward to the mission and now that it's almost over it just doesnt feel right. Going to grind out these last 6 weeks as hard as I can though. This last week was pretty cool. Last Tuesday we had my last zone conference with President Dunn. We started it with an Endowment session at the temple as a zone. So cool to be there with President Dunn. He taught about consecration and sacrifice and I really loved it. I'm really gonna miss him. He's made a huge impact on me and my mission. So next Tuesday we get President Saxton as my new mission president. I'm hyped to meet him.  Our friends are doing pretty well. It's hard because people's agency literally determines every...