Shorter Email after Christmas

Ola Familia e Amigos!

Today I only have a short time to read and write emails (15 minutes!) because the library is closed, so we have to share the chapel´s computer between 4 elderes. I just wanted to make sure that I send an email to all of you to let you know that everything is going well here! Abrantes still is a branch of the church, so we still have to give talks every few weeks, haha.

For Christmas Eve, we ate a member´s house ( Teresa, Sariah, and Ruben). She made a very portuguese dish of cabbage and codfish, lol. It was good, but definetly different from the Chick fil a that I´m used to having every Christmas Eve. On Christmas, we had lunch with them again, and dinner with the family of our investigators, Rosa and Claudia. But of course the highlight of the day was when I got to talk to my family over skype! We were able to have a group call, so it was so fun to be able to talk to each of my siblings and their families (and of course my parents and Grandpa!)

Sorry this email is so short today, but I´ll write a lot more next week (and personal emails to those of you who wrote me :) ) 

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and always remember the true reason we celebrate this holiday. I love you all, and I love being a missionary!

Com Amor, 

Elder Barker

Olá de Abrantes!

Olá Familia e Amigos!

Well, as I said in my last email, I was transfered. I left Leira on Tuesday (my birthday!) and got to Abrantes two hours later. 

MY BIRTHDAY: It went well, haha. To be honest, I kind of forgot that it was my birthday, lol. I mean, I would remember during random moments during the day, like " Oh, yeah, I turn 20 today." But it was a good day! Because it was my last day with Elder Cardenuto, we went and ate sorvete ( icecream) at the Italian sorvete place in Leiria ( a native Italian always made it from scratch!). We didnt get too much missionary work done, because we were running all over the city getting last minute things done (including picking up a package that had come to the apartment for me, but missed me so we had to go to the post office, haha). But we were able to teach one last lesson to Rui and Gilberto! The night before, I was able to visit three of our investigators before being transferred: a family "Rui and Cristina and Mariana, and "Wyllam". It was very sad to say goodbye to them all, because I had grown so close to them and I was excitited to see them start to progress. 

In my new area, one of the members found out it was my birthday, and she made me a birthday card. It was very, very nice of her (dont worry, sheś in her forties, lol). She even wrapped it all up in wrapping paper. Also, the mission presidentś wife called me later in the day and wished me a happy birthday. And also the Sisters (they were transfered as well). So overall, my birthday was different, but I felt loved. Thanks for all the birthday emails!

ABRANTES:  Abrantes is definetely a lot different than Leiria. For one thing, the congregation here is very small. We have a branch of members here. On sunday, we had a grand number of 14 people in church (including us). The chapel is a rented store space, but has everything that we need. There are no kids! Most of the active members are middle aged ladies haha. But despite this, I have great faith in Abrantes. i feel very strongly that Abrantes has lots of potencial. I know that there are people here that are ready for the gospel. When I think of Abrantes, the scripture that says "the field is white, ready to harvest" comes to my mind. Abrantes is literally a city on a hill. Remember how I would complain about my apartment in Leiria being at the top of a big hill? That is literally Abrantes. Every where we go, we are either going up or going down, haha. Based off of Sunday, it looks like the missionaries really have to be the leaders of the ward. As in, we teach the lessons, conduct the meetings sometimes, are incharge of Family home evening, prepare bless and pass the sacrament. You know how generally the new missionary is asked to get up and bear his testimony? One of the members who was supposed to give a talk didnt show up, so I was asked to give a talk, ahhh. i talked about charity, and all of the members really liked it. They were even replying back to me as I was talking. Oh branches, haha. But I know that I will get to be closer with the members here!

My companion is elder Nascimento, from Brazil, haha. He speaks very good english, but I try to speak portuguese as much as I can when we areńt in the house. 

I am so grateful for this time of year, and the oporunity we have to celebrate the birth of our saviour!  Each day I feel more grateful for all of the blessings that I have been given. I have really seen the gift of tongues start to work more strongly these past few weeks. I have been able to have slihtly better conversations with people haha. I know i have a long ways to go, but I have faith and Im grateful for every blessing I receive! 

I love you all and miss you lots! 

Love,
Elder Barker

Thanksgiving in Leiria

Olá Familia e Amigos!

Even though I missed being with you guys on Thanksgiving, I still got to celebrate it here in Portugal! The Sisters planned a small ward activity on thursday with the theme of "Dia de Acção das Graças." They don´t celebrate Thanksgiving in Portugal, but the few members that came seemed to really enjoy it. It was pretty simple, just a short video, food, and an activity where we went around and said what we were thankful for. We had four investigators show up! They came even though it was raining super hard (and none of them had cars). I think they had a good time, and the members were all very nice, as usual! I mean, only about 6 or 7 members showed up, but oh well haha!

One of the investigators who came was Marcelo! When it was his turn to say what he was thankful for, he said : "Por meus dois irmãos, Cardenuto e Barker, por o confiança que eles me dão, " which means " for my two brothers, Cardenuto and Barker, for the confidence they give me" ( among other things).  It was very touching and I was reminded again why I am serving as a missionary. It´s for moments like this where I see that I am helping bring a difference into someone´s life. It´s to help others find happiness through the restored gospel of Christ. 

What I said I was thankful for was my family! Everyday I am reminded at how blessed I am to have you guys and how much I love you! I am forever grateful for the family that I have.

Two of the other investigators that came to the ward activity were Rui and Gilberto. They are always together. I think it´s because it appears that Rui has some side affects from some drugs he used to do, so Gilberto kind of watches over him. We had another lesson with them a few days ago, and they decided to be BAPTIZED! We asked them how they had been feeling throughout our lessons, and Gilberto said "melhor (better)" and Rui said "calma (calm)". The Spirit truly testifies to people in different ways! They´ve been to church before, and enjoyed it. We still have to teach them a lot ( especially about smoking and drinking), but I´m excited for them! 

Something funny/not so fun that happened this week (more than once actually) was that we had to run to a few appointments. In our church clothes. The first time was because we were waiting for a member at the church to come with us to teach Marcelo, but he then called and said he could meet us at a place a little bit closer. We were already running late  by this point because of the member, so we ran to meet him there, lol. The second time was when we were in an unexpected lesson and by the time it ended, we were almost late for a lesson with Rui and Gilberto, so we had to run to get there in time (but they showed up late, so...). The third time happened because we had to run to our apartment to get inside by 9:30 ( we got there exactly on time!). 

And today! It was P-day de Distrito, so we went to the city of Alcobaça with the Sisters. It was about 50 minutes by bus, and I wouldn´t say it was worth the distance. But it was still cool! The main "attraction" was an ancient monastary (?) and had some interesting things inside. A lot of statues Catholic objects. I´ll either send pictures today or next week! Afterwards we ate at a hamburger place (lol). The food took longer than  we thought to be prepared, so by the time we got our hamburgers, we had 10 minutes to eat AND get back to the bus station. So we ate super quick, and RAN. It must have been a sight to see two sets of missionaries running up a hill, haha. We made it just in time too.

Every day I see the Lord´s hands in my life, whether in small ways or big ways. I´m very happy that I can serve a mission here and that I can help bring joy and more happiness into the lives of others. I love and miss you all!

Love,

Elder Barker

Alma 26:37

Olá Família e Amigos!

To be honest, nothing too exciting happened, haha. 

BUT, we finally moved apartments! As you probably already know, the apartment we used to live in was 35 to 40 minutes from the church, and on the outskirts of our area. It was a very nice apartment, and very new, but the location was bad for us. Where we live now is ten minutes from the chapel. and right in the middle of our area. Now we don´t have to waste 40 minutes every night walking up a huge hill, lol. We´re on the top floor, so we get a pretty nice view, but it´s also freezing! It´s a little bit older of a builiding (not too old), so the insulation is pretty much just cement, lol. My new address to send letters ( :) ) is:

Elder Michael Barker

Rua Miguel Torga, Nº 167, 5º Esq.

Leiria 2410-134

Portugal

This week we had zone conference on Tuesday. There were two zones there (Coimbra and Santarem) and the mission presidente spoke. I´m ashamed to say that I didn´t take any notes, haha. But, I was able to understand everything he was saying, so that´s good. The main points were to avoid judging others (he gave a lot of scriptures) and to use "olhas de luz" which means, eyes of light, which basically means to look for the positive in every situation, even if it seems like a negative at first. 

Our mission presidente also focused a lot on helping less active members to come back to church. This really made me excited to start searching for our less active members here in Leiria, because there are a lot. It´s so important to help those who have fallen away, because each one of them is a son or daughter of God that He cares about just as much as any of His other children. We were able to meet with a 25-year-old women named Anísia this last week who was baptized a year ago, but hasn´t been to church for a long time. We actually found out about her from one of the missionaries who baptized her last year. We saw him at the zone conference, and he asked us about how Anísia was doing, and seemed sad when we said we hadn´t ever seen her. RIght when we got home, we looked in the Livro de Area, and found her phone number and called her, and she said that we could come right over. Apparently she hasn´t been coming to church because she works every Sunday during the time of the meetings. But we are going to continue to pass by every week to continue to help her and teach her and help her to know that she isn´t forgotten.

It is so important to work with our members who have gone inactive, because they are just as important to Heavenly Father as any of His other children. Every person on our "less-active" list is loved by at least one person, and has a story. And I know that God knows each and every one of them. 

We had the primary program in church yesterday, and it was so cute, haha. It reminded me that the church truly is the same in all parts of the world. The members are the same, the doctrine is the same, the primaries are the same. Even thought Leiria is one of the bigger wards, they still only have about 10 primary kids, but it was still the same, haha. THere was that one 5 year old who sang louder than every one else. There were the kids who needed the teacher to whisper every word into their ears. There were the kids who spoke as if they were 30 years old, haha. I always love the primary program, and it always brings such a nice spirit into the room. 

Marcelo came to church yesterday! He seemed to really like it, and even made a comment about faith in sunday school. He is still marked to be baptized on the fourth of december, and I´m just so excited for him. I´m so grateful that I can be a missionary and be able to take part in helping people find the gospel!

My Portuguese is still not too good, but I can understand people a lot better now, and can have simple conversations about the weather and setting appointments, lol. But each week I can see improvement, and I know that the Lord is helping me with this. Each week the zone leaders call to follow up on our investigators who are planning to be baptized, and this week elder Cardentuto had me do it. I was a little scared, because the zone leader is a native speaker who doesn´t speak english. But I was able to talk without having to think too hard about what to say, and I was able to get everything across. So I´ll call that a success.

We didn´t have too many lessons this week, which made me a little bit sad. But I realized that not every week will be fantastic. But each week I can improve  just a little bit more and learn a little bit more how to be a missionary. Every week I can become closer with my Heavenly Father. 

I know that Heavenly Father loves all of His children, and I would like to end with this scripture in Alma 26:37: "Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of everypeople, 

whatsoever land they may be in; yea, henumbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over allthe earth. Now this is my joy, and my 

great 

thanksgiving;yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen."

I love you all, and I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

Love,

Elder Barker