April 13, 2020 - Quarantine Smuarantine

 Oooofff what a crazy time. So a week ago me and my comp were transfered to the Gainesville 2nd Ward, which is like 30 min away from our previous assignment. It has been so awesome already. The ward has been great and has kept our fridge stocked full, considering they have never met us I've been really appreciative for that. As far as the work has gone, it hasn't. Most people that we were teaching have just completely shut down and won't answer texts or phone calls, so it is kind of difficult to help them move forward in the gospel, so we are hoping that we can finally get in contact with them. Although we do get to talk to a lot of people that missionaries have taught before, most times when we text them they respond with a "I've been thinking of you guys" which sounds great and gets my hopes up every time but so far we haven't found someone who wants to be taught. But we will keep pushing on. 

Man General conference was awesome, I think my biggest takeaway is to Remember. We should remember our spiritual experiences and also the endless gifts that our Father in Heaven has given to us. Let's see what happens when people don't remember, in the Book of Mormon Laman and Lemuel didn't remember or chose not to remember how the Lord delivered the plates unto them, the angel, and just about every other spiritual experience this led them to be bitter and murmur and eventually start a group of people bent on getting revenge on the people of Nephi. Not remembering brought the Nephites to destruction or almost destruction several times throughout when they were prosperous and forgot who provided their prosperity. Remembering is so important not only for us but also for others, Elder Anderson talked about using our light of spiritual experiences to help someone find theirs that they forgot about. One other thing I think it is so important to remember is the pioneers. They sacrificed literally everything to be able to worship heavenly father and Jesus Christ, in his church. Paving the way that allows us to be able to do so.

With all this time I decided I may as well workout. So I do. I also shoot hoops mini and regular for about an hour a day. I honestly feel like I'm training for the NBA rather than a missionary stuck in quarantine. I also decided to start eating healthy so I bought bell peppers and tomatoes in addition to all the frozen junk. Oh and also there are these things at Walmart called cinnamon French toast sticks the great value brand, they smack. Like 20 sticks for 4 bucks and they taste like churros. Easter came and it was good, I got to focus on the resurrection of christ and also eat a ton of Cadbury eggs, thanks to my dad🏾. There is this car wash place in our apartment complex and we were walking by the other day and this dude was chilling in there washing his dog, it was funny you just had to be there. 

Also I've been doing family history research and here are a few cool things I learned: 1) Great Grandma Gunn loved golf, I don't know why no one told me 2) my 1st cousin 6 times removed husband is Brigham young 3) my 1st cousin 7 times removed is Willard Richard's. So that was cool. Last thing, at the entrance to our complex there is this wall and it has a window on it and stairs leading up to it with a platform, from far a way I thought hmm that looks cool maybe it's like an exhibit of an old motor cycle or some artifacts or something, so I wanted to check it out and turns out... It was a trash compactor. That was very disappointing. On a different note I have never seen more squirrels in my entire life then in this place its crazy.

Well that's what I've been doing for the last 3 and a half weeks, pretty cool huh

Love you all

Elder Barlow