Elder Samuel Barlow - Florida Jacksonille Mission

This week was pretty crazy and long. We had a zone conference on wednesday and it was like 6 hours long but super good. Elder Martino came from the seventy to speak to us, he gave us some really good lessons and information about working through members in missionary work and the importance and effectiveness of that so we are really trying to help the members in their own missionary efforts and it's really cool to see everyone even the youth reach out to their friends and share our beliefs.  We are working with two different families, one who has a friend that is going through some tough stuff so we made a plan to kind of help him out and kind of bring happiness and peace to his life through the gospel. Then we are working with a man to get him to the temple and to the point where he can baptize his son. Its definitely different working through members but it is very special and helps us to and the members be more United in the work.  We went and did service at this guys...

Ward mission leader and his son This week has flown by so fast. I have finally started to get in the swing of things and it's starting to cool down so I don't swear ;) as much lol. So I just want to talk about a couple things that happened this week. The members here are freaking awesome, they are all super nice and supportive of us. One of the members actually went to Brighton like 20 years ago and had Mrs Mattson as a teacher when she was young so it was cool to make that connection.  We went to go visit a guy who was taught by some missionaries a while ago and that conversation was just interesting. He talked about how the bible isn't completely truthful and it leaves a ton of stuff out, he told us to go look in genesis because he told us that Eve wasn't Adam's first wife but it was actually lilith. So yeah, he like has a strong faith in god and the bible and other books that I've never heard about but really doesn't feel like he needs chu...

What's up everyone? I'm finally made it to Florida and I'm so hyped. I flew out on Friday and I'm gonna skip talking about the days before that because they were super boring. But Friday we got in to Jacksonville at around 7, we met the mission president and his wife they are super awesome. We went to the mission home and had some food, and I think it was one of the best meals of my life, I was so hungry. Then we went to the AP's apartment to sleep for the night, let me tell you the bed was so much nicer than the mtc's beds. I slept so good and then they made us French toast it was sick. Then we went and had training and met our companions.  President and Sister Wood My companion is Elder Pace he is from Saint George and is super cool. He has been out for 10 months and has been in our area for 4 and a half months. He knows a lot and is teaching me a lot. We are in Julington Creek, it is like 20 min outside of Jacksonville. It's very interesting, the me...

This week has completely flown by. I feel like I just got here but now I'm leaving, it's so crazy especially when new missionaries come in all nervous "deer in the headlights" like and to think that was me just 3 weeks ago. So on Wednesday we were playing basketball and Elder Clifton, from my district, caught an elbow in the mouth and it knocked one tooth out and chipped the other front tooth in half. The kid that elbowed him had to get stitches because the cut was so deep. It was wild, but Clifton got to go to the real world to go to the dentist so we were all super excited to hear what it was like out there lol, crazy what little things you get excited about when you are here for a while.  I got asked to be in a focus group on how to better the MTC so if in a few years they build a huge sauna then you know who to thank, (me and elder Iverson from a different district). I have finally started to get over my cold this week and we found out that our district didn...

My district at the temple This week flew by. It started off so awesome, Elder Bednar came and gave the greatest talk about just being good and moving forward, showing that action first and then the spirit will guide you. I think a lot of times we wait for a sign or a prompting from the holy ghost to tell us where to go and that kind of stalls us in progression, but as we show heavenly father that we are taking action with faith then he will guide us. Probably the strongest spiritual experience I have had while I have been out here. Elder Johnson, Elder Frampton, and I trying on our rain jackets I have been pretty sick this week with a cold, so it's been hard to focus in classes and stuff but I'm starting to get better slowly. We have started doing teaching classes this past week and they have gone well, it's kind of difficult to teach so much information in a 25 min lesson but I am learning a lot about how to teach and how to make it effective. I got my trave...

What's up everyone?! This first week has been one of the longest but one of the best weeks. One Elder put the MTC experience as the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. It feels like I have been here for a month. So my district is an all elders district and most everyone is going to Reno Nevada besides me and my companion, but they are awesome and we are becoming really good friends. My companion is Elder Laing from Lehi, hes a good guy, he graduated last year and has been working until now. We have like 6 hours of classes a day and don't worry I have only fallen asleep during class twice haha.  The first day was definitely overwhelming but like 20 min in I saw Elder Castleton which was awesome and definitely helped with all the emotions of leaving. I have seen a ton of people I know which is cool and helps with the transition, like I saw Camden Robbins from churchill and I saw Lanson Tuttle and Jake ward. I'm learning a ton about the gospel and about how...