Zone Conference, Exchanges, & Baptisms


What is up everyone!!!! I am so glad to be able to send an email to you today. It was a different week for sure. We had some good stuff, some bad stuff, but overall it was a great one. I don't have a ton of time so it will be a brief summary. 

So, here it goes. We had Zone Conference on Tuesday, and that was really cool! It was ALL centered on the Book of Mormon, and I learned bunches about how to use that better in our work. I got to see Elder Day again, my MTC companion. He is doing super well. We had the conference with the Maricopa Zone, so that was cool. Anyways, President gave us a challenge to read the Book of Mormon cover-to-cover by Christmas highlighting every reference to Christ, which is a tall task. We don't have time for much during the day, and we have to read about 6 pages from the Book of Mormon each day to stay on track. It is tough but it helps so much seeing how everything is so centered on Christ. I am almost in 2 Nephi. 

We went on exchanges on Wednesday, and I led out the area again with Elder Cleveland!! He has been out about 16 months, so it was awesome to be able to be with someone as experienced as he is. We ended up putting THREE people on date for baptism, which was awesome. One is Jacob Russell, who taught US about the Restoration before we even said the opening prayer, so he is spiritually prepared and will be baptized on November 26th. The other two are Aaron and Justin. Aaron is in his 30s and was super pumped about the Plan of Salvation, and Justin is 18 and is a little skeptical, so we are working hard with him. But yeah, exchanges were a total blast. 

Gonzalo on the left & Charlie, who baptized him on the right!
Finally, the coolest event this week was yesterday morning Gonzalo was baptized!!! It was awesome to see the support from the ward and even our stake president came to see it!! Gonzalo was confirmed in sacrament meeting and also received the priesthood!! That was super cool. Will, another investigator, thought the priesthood is awesome and is super excited for not only his baptism next weekend, but to receive the priesthood. So yeah, that was super cool.

The best thing I learned this week was realizing that I am so little and so insignificant. That sounds sad, but I feel like the work that I am doing is much bigger than the person that I am, so it is helping me grow and learn new things each and every day. So hey, work hard. It works out. Trust the Lord, and you will always receive strength.

Love you all, stay awesome!! Let me know how I can help you! :) 

Elder Barlow

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