Happy Birthday and Happy 6 month mark!! :)

Elder Barlow turned 19 on Monday Jan. 27, 2014 and also hit his 6 month out mark on Thursday Jan. 30, 2014. The time is going by quickly! He loves the mission, his companions, and the people that he is meeting/teaching!!

            This picture is of his tri-pan/companionship (left to right) Elder Jones, Elder James, and Elder Barlow, and in the Center, Tom one of their investigators.

He still loves getting letters or anything in the mail!! Thanks for all your love and support!!

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

Miracles in the Mission!!

Elder Barlow is doing so well, and having some awesome miracles happening in the mission. He is happy, and that makes us happy as well!! He sent an email last week, and also a letter to Lindsay. Chad and I were on vacation, and Lindsay wrote Austin while we were gone and he sent her a great letter back. The email and the letter both told about his miracle week. Lindsay's letter was a little more descriptive, so I will post it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We are so thankful for such wonderful testimony building stories like this!

 Elder Barlow is a great example to us.

 

Temple~New Investigators~Happy!!

Austin had another great week! It was good to hear from him Monday! He was able to go to the L.A. Temple Yesterday, because it is his birthday month, and they get to go during the month of their birthday! He was super excited for that, and we look forward to hearing about that in future emails.

Here is Monday's email:

Hola!!

WHAAAAZZZ UUUUUUPPPPP!!!

I am so glad to hear that you all are doing good! That is awesome that you all had a great new years eve! guess what we got to do?? any guesses? We had to be back at our apartments by 7:00! Oh yeah it was such a party! when we were trying to go to sleep a lot of people were shooting fireworks and guns too cause we heard the cops out all night long! haha!

That is awesome that the kids are back in school!! I hope they are enjoying it! That is crazy to think that Lindsay can start dating! I am in shock!! ;) jk Tell Lindsay that I will be sending some pictures home soon for her! I went to go print some off last P-Day but the stupid machine was broken!! so I promise I will be sending some soon!!

I am so happy that you got my SD Card! that is a very funny video while we were driving in the car!!! It is probably one of the best! haha. I cant wait to fill up the SD card I have now and send it home to all of you guys!!! 

So guess what? I am going to the L.A. Temple not on the 9th but on the 7th so..... Tomorrow!!! I am so excited to go it will be such a good experience!! I cant wait! I hope that you and dad have an awesome time on your trip.. and send me something from there!! haha!

So me and Elder Carter Found a family that has been talking with missionarys for a long time. the familys name is the bucks! they are very interested in the gospel! we talked to them on Saturday night and they are very interested in the temples too!! Most of the dads friends are Mormon so that is good! this weekend the mom said that she would read out of the book of Mormon so I cant wait to follow up with them, Johnny is doing great he is having an interview with the bishop on Wednesday to prepare to get the Priesthood! It will be awesome to see him help with the sacrament every week!

Speaking about the sacrament every sunday  during sacrament meeting there is only one priest in the ward so I usually help bless the sacrament!! it is always such a spiritual expirence! Then since this week was testimony meeting  I also got up and gave just a short testimony, that is so cool that you were able to give your testimony about how I am doing!

I have a few things you can send me in the birthday package or just in separate, I could use some more stamps! that would be cool maybe you could make me some stickers that have Elder Austin Barlow on them with the mission address so I can just throw those on the envelope instead of writing it out!, I also need some more fingernail clippers maybe you can get some heavyduty ones for me! then I want jerkey too maybe just a box of slim jims or something whatever you can find will be awesome!

I am so glad that you all are doing good! I also pray for you daily I love you guys so much and I will talk to you soon!!

Life is a garden, DIG IT!!!!

nos vemos

ELDER BARLOW  aka Sheldon!!!

 

 

 

 

This was taken at a house where they were doing service, and it started to rain a little bit and then a double rainbow appeared, so they snapped some pictures!!

 

 

Our Favorite Elder 'Sheldon' Austin Barlow.......somewhere on his bike!!

 

Thanks again everyone for your support! It is Elder Barlow's Birthday on January 27th! I am sure he would love a birthday letter!!

 

Elder Austin O'Neil Barlow

California Ventura Mission

3301 West Gonzales Rd.

Oxnard, CA 93036

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

I apologize for not keeping up on the blog better through the Holidays! I will try and add updates at least monthly.
Our best Christmas gift this year was being able to talk to Elder Barlow! He sounded so good, and said he was happy! He loves the town of Fillmore where he serving right now. He was so excited about his first baptism, It was 14 year old Johnny.

This is Johnny!!

Johnny has an Uncle that is a member and he asked his Uncle to baptize him!!

Elder Barlow was so excited for Johnny to become a member.

 

Our family enjoyed hearing his stories. He spoke in Spanish to us, sharing his testimony. We all thought that he spoke Great Spanish! He even had a hard time remembering what some words were in English. He said he is slowly but surely learning that Language. He understands a lot of Spanish, and he is not afraid to just try and speak it.

He really is loving the misson, and we are so happy about that. His testimony is such an example to all of us. He has grown in the gospel so much.

 

He sent home his first SD card. Filled with wonderful Pictures and yes even some great video. I will try and add pictures as I blog.

 

On Dec. 30th Elder Barlow reached his 5 month mark. The time is going by quickly (MOST DAYS).

There are times that it feels like forever.

We love him and miss him so much, but are so blessed to have him serve the Lord.

 

Here are some Pictures from the SD card!

Not sure where this is..... a Member's house?

Elder Barlow and Elder Carter with their $12.00 Rite-Aid Christmas tree!!

 

 

 

Thank you everyone for your love, support,  emails, and letters!!