Another Week.....

Another P-day came and went! We got a quick e-mail, and everything sounds good!
Last week on Wednesday we received a package of goodies from Elder Barlow. He sent some fun stuff from Mexico. There were ties for all the boys, Key chains and coin purses, and bags. Some pesos and other fun stuff. In his letter he said told us that he and his companion had been given a lot of responsibility to try and start a Spanish branch from scratch. He mentioned it in last weeks email, but the letter was a little more specific and stressed how important it was. And a HUGE task. He said he had seen many miracles at work already!


Here is yesterday's e-mail to us with a few random pictures he sent, and I will update any more news when we get a letter later this week!!

Remember any mail or packages send to the mission home!

Elder Austin O'Neil Barlow
California Ventura Mission
3301 West Gonzales Road
Oxnard, CA 93036

Hey Family!!!

Everything has gone pretty good this week! Its pretty fun to go around and talk about god with everyone you meet! Church yesterday was pretty fun too! me and my comp taught a primary class! they were really crazy they would not sit still! luckly i had four pieces of candy in my backpack so that calmed them down a little bit! Im glad everything is going good at home! this past week i was able to go on exchanges with another elder in our district his name is elder fridal! he is from malta idaho and he is really funny we stayed over in his part of the area called pismo beach! it is the coolest little town ever! its just like a tiny little beach town! everywhere i go i can see the ocean! it is awesome! for the past couple of days i have had a really bad sore throat it sucked i think it is starting to get better so i hope it does! Me and my comp were driving around some of our areas trying to find little pockets of hispanic people! and there are some really good key indicators of that hispanic people live in certian houses! some of those are they always have christmas lights on! they have a mop by the door! they have lots of cars outside of thier house! ands thats really it! But on saturday we went up to these four guys some of them were drinking and we just started talking to them its pretty hard to understand the spanish but i could get some bits and pieces of it! they all seemed really interested! one guy named martin said something really cool that i didnt understand so after my comp told me what he said! he said to us if you guys need a place to stay or have some dinner my door is always open to you!! it was so cool! it is so awesome when you talk to spanish! when you say hello in english they are really shy! but when you start speaking spanish it is so cool to see there face light up and they are so willing to talk to you!! So thats all that really happened this week! i am glad everythings going good at home! Did you guys get my package i sent! i hope so I will try and send some pics if i can!

I Love You all so much thanks for all the support! if i think of stuff i need i will send it in a letter i will be writing later today! and always just send everything to the mission home address thats what the rule is then they will send it to us!

You are in my prayers everyday!

Again I Love You all!!

Elder Barlow

 

Sure Love this crazy Elder!!

MISSION MAIL!!

I was able to speak to an Elder Truman and the Ventura Mission home this morning, to clarify Austin's address! He told me he was able to meet Austin last Monday and sit in on some trainings. He told me he was impressed with what a happy and eager missionary Austin was! He thanked us for sending him to their mission and told me he would do great things!! (What great news to hear).

So I just want to pass along Austin's address!
Everything will go to the mission home for his entire mission!
Letters, packages, etc. Then they will forward it all to him. If you send things Priority Mail or 1st Class, then they can send it on to him at no charge. For regular letters that is just your normal postage stamp. For Packages just send Priority or 1st Class!
I know he won't have a lot of time to answer e-mail on P-day but hopefully he can find some time during the week to answer letters!!

Thank you everyone for all your love and support!

Elder Austin O'Neil Barlow
3301 W. Gonzales Road
Oxnard, CA 93036

Ready-Set-Go!!

So Monday was a great day!! We finally received a quick email from Elder Barlow!! He didn't have very much time, but it was sure good to hear from him! And as an added bonus, we got a letter from him, and his Mission President and a Photo! It was a great day, and our family is so happy!!
Here is the email followed by the letters!!

Mon 09/16/13 12:38 PM Attachments Name Type Save View Part 1   text/plain Save   Part 2   text/html Save

Hey Guys!!!   I am glad to hear that everything is going good!! that is awesome that you guys found some help for the farm!! But anyways i have some awesome crazy news!! My first area is is called Arroyo Grande!! It is sweet! My comps name is Elder Buckmiller! haha he is really cool! he is from salt lake and he only has 6 more weeks of his mission!! So some more of the crazy news is that me and my comp are covering three wards! Ag 1st 2nd and pismo beach!! and we are the only spanish elders up in this area! Are apartment is brand new! and when we walk down the road a little bit from the apartment i can see the pismo beach sand dunes!! the ones from rob and big!! haha!! its awesome! but anyways president castro sent me and my comp up to this area to do the impossible it seemed like! what he wants us to do is start a spanich branch from scrath!! one that builds off of the one of the other wards! It will be hard cause we are both brand new to this area and here there are really no spanish speakers!! So many miracles have been going on the past week! my very first day in the field was sweet! we knocked a few doors and nothing was happening but then we walked up to this house and talked with this girl named maria she was doing the dishes! so we just talked to her through the window!! we told her about everything! the restoration and the great apostocy! and then we just asked her if she would be baptized and she said YES! haha the spirit was so strong!! and in my mind i could feel the spirit workin through me!! so what i did i asked her if i could give her a book of mormon! and she accepted so i gave that to her! we still have to go check up with her on if she has been reading!! haha The miracles here are the best!! Today i am going to try and send a package home to you guys so i hope you get it! i hope to hear fromyou guys soon!! but the picture for nates wedding i like the one i sent, and i will try and write letters to you giuys as much as i can! i dont really know our email schedule yet so but i know its only for an hour so.... but  I love You guys!! tell everyone that i love them so much!!   Love___ Elder Barlow!!

Austin is a Great Missionary!! And even though we miss him like CRAZY, we know he is doing much good and we are Honored to be his family!!

Back in the USA!!

Austin left the Mexico MTC on Monday September 9, 2013. He called us from the LAX airport for just a few minutes! It was so good to hear his voice! We asked him if he was nervous about going to California and start teaching in Spanish, he said NO! He is actually very excited!!
As of today he has been there for 1 week. We don't know where he is yet, or how things have been going for him. But today is P-day, and we should hear something!! So Stay tuned..........

Elder Austin O'Neil Barlow

 

MTC Life........

Austin's time at the MTC went by quickly! He really enjoyed it there but was ready to move on by the end of his time!
One of his first e-mails was mostly of his experience as he first came:

Hey Famila!!!

 This will be one of the big emails that you can share!  when i first arrived in mexico and all the missionary got on the mtc busses it was so crazy.  the traffic here is nuts there is no rules at all.  most of the local busses just stop in the middle of the road just to cram more peolple on them.  then we were driving by a pretty good sized wall for a while and then realized that on the other side of the 10 ft. wall was the mtc!!  we got to the main gate and all of the guards that protect the main gate of the the mtc came out to make sure that everyone on the bus were missionarys. so basiclly the mtc is locked surrounded by a 10 ft. wall with barbed wire at the top. and nobody is allowed out of the mtc! But the cool thing is the mtc is pretty big it is about 93 acers of land because it used to be a school here.  it is pretty nice to have so much room.  but as soon as i got off the bus in the mtc the first person i saw outside was my friend from high school Elder cory fowers. it was so awesome to see someone that i could talk too! Then we got our compainions and went to lunchroom and my first mexican meal in the mtc was a cold peice of pizza from costco.. it was pretty sweet i guess. Then we went to go try and find our casa we finally did and it is really getto!! haha but i love it still.  all of my roomates are really cool and awesome to hang out with we all get along so well.  the nights in mexico are really scary actually me and the elders in our room the first night were trying to fall asleep but we couldnt because of the gunshots and abulences going around the mtc most of the night!!! but now it does not even bother us.  it actually puts me to sleep. i will tell you the rest of my story tonight when i get on!!

Love you guys!!

Elder Barlow

 

 

He also told us that his very first lesson on his very first day was 100% Spanish. And everyone was supposed to speak in Spanish all the time. At the end of his first week he was praying in Spanish and sharing his testimony.

After 2 weeks he told us he blessed the sacrament in Spanish without any mistakes! He was pretty happy about that.

After a couple of weeks there, he was made district leader which he said meant he was in charge of about 10 missionaries.

Some other high-lights at the MTC were:

~Being able to attend the Mexico City Temple 2 times.

~Teaching a member investigator and realizing they had talked with her for 20 minutes in complete Spanish with-out any notes or help.

~Leading all the Missionaries in the mission purpose at one of the last devotionals.

~Being able to speak and understand Spanish so quickly.

~Seeing old friends from home around campus, and making new friends there!

~Standing with all the other Missionaries that were leaving the same day as him and singing 'God be with you 'til we meet again' in Spanish to the rest of the missionaries.

~And of course all of the Soccer playing he got in during gym time, and p-day!

There are many more, but these were some of the ones he was most excited about!

 

                                          Standing outside the MTC

                                         1st Companion Elder Eric Sheldon Laws

                                         Outside of the Temple

                                          Mexico City Temple

                                          Friends from Home

                                         The city

                                          Some of his instructors

                                          Missionaries

                                          MTC

 

 

Picture used in the church news that he was cropped out of!

 

                 MTC Flower!

                              The Temple

                 'Live' shot he sent as we emailed on his last p-day!

                  Cutest Missionary Ever!!

 

 

Time to Fly.....

Austin was set apart as a Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints on Monday July 29, 2013 by our Stake President. President Henderson gave a beautiful blessing, and it was a VERY Special experience for our family.

We took Austin to the airport on Tuesday July 30, 2013. It was such a BITTER-SWEET time!
It was NOT fun saying good-bye, but we knew Austin was doing what he wanted to do!

We watched as he made his way through security and then he turned and gave us one Smile and Wave, and was gone!!

That is probably one of the HARDEST mom moments I have experienced!

I had my first Tender-Mercy later that night when I happened to check my e-mail and there was an e-mail from Elder Austin Barlow!!

It was short but OH SO SWEET!! He was basically letting us know that he made it safely to Mexico City. He sounded so excited to be there!! It was such a blessing to us to receive that email!!

 

Called to Serve!!

It all started with the Call!!
Austin wanted to have an 'Opening Party' to read his Mission call!
Family and Friends gathered and helped celebrate this great moment in his life!

Dear Elder Barlow,
     You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the California Irvine Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 24 months.

     You should report to the Mexico Missionary Training Center on Wednesday, July 24, 2013. You will prepare to preach the gospel in the Spanish language!........

Little did Austin know he would receive 2 calls! The Irvine Mission was 'over-called' so they were sending him a whole new call. Of course Austin wanted to have another 'Opening Party'.

Dear Elder Barlow,
     This letter is to confirm that your mission assignment has been changed from the California Irvine Mission to the California Ventura Mission as a Spanish-speaking missionary. You should report to the Mexico Missionary Training Center on July 31, 2013.
     We appreciate your willingness to accept this assignment and are confident that you will be able to successfully fulfill this new calling.
                                                                  Sincerely,
                                                                Thomas S. Monson
                                                                      President

And so the ADVENTURE begins!!