Testimony comes through praying and reading the scriptures...

Hola Pops!! What up!! 

I am all good here in La Ligua, still. And I am still with Elder Almanzor.   so I am pretty sure the lord has a reason for me to still be here.  I've decided that I am just going to love, learn how to be patient and learn how to teach through words that are kind a through my example.  We have worked a lot better this past week which was nice and 2 of our investigators attended this week which was so nice because I was sick and tired of nobody keeping their commitments! Most people that we are teaching are reading and not praying or praying and not reading and none of them are attending, apart from 2.  And well, we have not had a baptism so I'm now sure that no one can gain a testimony of the truth of message, fully if they don´t do all these things. So we are going to be pushing a lot more with attending this week to our envestigadores( Investigators).   With it being conference and all I think it will be really good when they listen to  the prophet speak! I discovered that I love receiving revelation, so that is pretty awesome!! This morning I was studying and I got asked the question why would God call a prophet  if we have the Bible and I knew the answer but the words just weren´t coming out in the way I wanted them to or in the way that I knew they should come out and it bugged me a lot. I couldn´t answer in a convincing and sure way. So I studied why and Heavenly father saw fit to bless me with an answer so now I am ready for the battle. I love the gospel and the simple and easy way it all fits together. Satan has tried for thousands of years to put everything into darkness and change so many things but this just shows me how much power we as children of God have to overthrow the chains of misery that Satan has around us, step into the light and love Christ has prepared for us. 

Elder Christopher Ryan Barlow

Branch is good but struggling...

 

I am good with my area its called La Ligua and it is super big if I haven't told you before. I have the biggest area in the mission.   Some of my areas are 2 hours away on bus and there are members that live there!!! They are inactive but still I might have to visit them someday if our branch president asks us to. My companion and I are well.  We will also have changes soon. 

I am being fed very well don't be worried.  I'm still doing a lot more exercise so I wouldn't worry about the pants not fitting. There are lots of hills and its really hot, dry and I walk a butt load. I am in a pretty good branch with about 765 members. About 200 are on our branch list don´t live here and about 60 are active. Its a struggle.

Lots of traveling, reading BOM a lot...

  Hi mom! How are you? I like the family picture you sent. You all look beautiful. You guys are really skinny! Except Hannah she is fat and needs to start running! Jk I'm really tired!!! And this week we will be traveling a lot because we baptismal interviews for the sisters. We also have zone conferences in Belloto on Friday. We will need to leave at 4 am so we can be on time. We are in search of a good investigator too because all our investigators aren't progressing, which is really bad. We have about 6 investigator's and only 4 are progressing but they aren't married and live together.  The first couple is a young couple with a 6 year old little boy. Camila the mom wants to get married but Ulises has been married before and is afraid. The other couple is great!  They want an eternal family, want to be baptized and want to get married. She was married before but has been separated for 15 years. They have send the papers for a divorce but she needs to wait 9 months to get married again... it's stupid. 

  I have been reading the Book of Mormon a lot, obviously. It is wonderful how easily I can relate everything to what is happening to our day today. I have been blessed with so much revelation and I have been making some very important promises to myself, for my future. Promises about the way I'm going to raise my kids, how I will treat my wife and how nothing will be more important then the church in my life. I've thought a lot about why people have such a hard time attending church here and its because they live to work and they don't work to live! So I've decided if at anytime in my life my work is separating me from going to church, for more then 2 weeks I am going to find another job. I will live to follow the commandments and for the salvation of my family. 

  I don't know if you know about this tv show but all the members said to talk to you about El Chavo? And they say I'm more hungry then El Chavo. Love you.

Big guy was my companion in the MTC and the "Gringa is Brad Anderson's cousin

El Chavo a Mexican television show that they watch in Chile