Santa Barbara Happenings!!

Elder Barlow is continuing to love his mission! He is keeping busy and trying to get his new area figured out! Here is his latest email:

Hey B_CREW!!

I am so excited to share this week with you guys!! it has been a really good week! and i cant wait to tell you what is going on!!!

Monday was so much fun! P-Day is always such a great day to prepare for the week! We stopped by at least 3 of our investigators and they were all home! it was such a good day!

Tuesday was so great!! Zone Conference was one of my favorite days so far on the mission! i got so much revelation that day!! I love being able to get so much inspiration for our investigators!! i went to the zone conference with a few questions and they all got answered, it was great!! I know for sure that the Book of Mormon truly is another testament of Jesus Christ! It was so great to see some familiar faces from Fillmore! Elder Jones and Elder James are doing great! it was nice to see them again. they are the greatest.

Wednesday we went out and got quite a few Declarations! it was such a great time! i love being able to share the gospel to someone that might be looking for it in their own lives! it is so great to go out and find someone that is so prepared for the gospel in their lives! and i love being able to see miracles every day!

Thursday went great we had a little quick lesson with a recent convert named Joel! it went very good! he is doing so good and loves talking with us, and when he does he tells us stories.. a lot of stories! But today we also got a lot of Declarations! me and Elder Griffin had a great day!

Friday was weekly planning! it was a good time talking and planning with Elder Griffin! Things are going good in the area and we are trying to focus on finding some new investigators this week so we will be working pretty Hard!

Saturday we had an exchange with our District Leader, i was on the Exchange with Elder Parrish, he came in with me from the CCM in Mexico City so it was such a good day to work with him. we had a great day, i tried to focus on Diligence during our exchange, and just always enjoying the work of the lord! it was such a great day! Then the branch had a little party for a members birthday so we had dinner at the church and it went great! anyways so about Elder Parrish He is from Brigham City! and we got talking about some stuff over our Exchange and get this! he would go hunting up Mink Creek  because his grandpa used to own the land up there. So where we go sledding in that little parking lot, that used to be his grandpas land!! and his grandpa runs the little cemetery in Fair view! where the dirt bike track is!! he said he would always drive through lewiston too so he basically knows where i live!! and his grandparents live in Preston and i told that mine do too! and we might think that they live by each other!! haha Crazy!

Sunday went great too. Maria did not show up to church, we had a rough week with her she was never home during the week so we dont know what happened, we even tryed calling her too, so, all we can do is keep her in our prayers. Our recent convert Joel brought one of his friends to church too so that was a little miracle for the day!

So that is whats up in Santa Barbara!! i got nate a birthday card today so he will be getting that pretty soon!

 

So some crazy news that i have. when we had our Zone Conference on Tuesday, President Castro spoke to us and said that next month on April 19th a member of the quorum of the 12 Apostles will be visiting our mission!! and today i found out who it is!!   Elder Russell M. Nelson!! 

I am so excited for him to come! all the missionaries get to meet him!!!! oh yeah!!  

I got your package and it was great! the pants work perfect! 

That is awesome about lindsays friend!! i hope she keeps up the good work!

Give Maggie and Lily a treat for me!

I will write a letter to you as soon as i can, and i guess that my hand writting is getting better haha!

I love you all so much i will be watching for the other package to come to! I am so grateful for the family that i have! i love you all so much!! keep on keepin on!

 

con amor,

 

Elder Barlow

 

P.S. I will send my sd card home today it is full!! i hope you guys like it!! 

nos vemos!

 

 

Cutest Missionary Ever!!

 

 

 

Santa Barbara/Los Olivos Branch Week One!!

This was Austin's last email! He sounds like it has been a good transfer so far! He gave us his actual address at the end of the email, because we are tracking all of his mission areas on Google earth. If you write him or send him anything please continue to do it with the mission home address!!

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

Thanks for your interest/love/prayers/and support of this Awesome Missionary!! :)

HOLA B-CREW

Hey guys! it was so awesome to see your email this morning!! it has been a good week!!

 

Monday was such a great day to get ready to go to the new area in Santa Barbara!! it was so good to spend some time with our district for the last time! we went to go see a few members also to tell them that i am off to Santa Barbara!! it was very hard to leave Fillmore. i have grown so close to the people there! but it is all good!

Tuesday was great. transfer meeting was so great! it was was good to hear the testimony's of the departing missionaries this transfer! it made me have a spiritual boost for sure! then i met my new companion Elder Griffin! i like him already! we get along so great! we had dinner at our ward mission leaders house and it was good to meet a few members of the branch!
Wednesday was my first full day of work here in Santa Barbara! I got to meet a family that we are teaching that has a baptismal date for the 29th of March! it is great! they are so prepared! we also had another lesson with Alfonso he is a very nice guy and is super prepared for the gospel! 

Thursday we talked to a lot of people on the street! it was very fun! we also had a lesson with a catholic family that we are teaching! they are very nice! they are going to be feeding us on Thursday so it is great!

Friday was weekly planning which was great! it also rained a bunch too! it was crazy! we had dinner with a Hermana in the branch she was very nice! the members here feed us a bunch it is great!

Saturday was good we went and had another lesson with Maria it went great! we had a member present with us this time, we talked about reading the scriptures always, and also praying too! she liked it a lot! we even got her to say the pray at the end of the lesson!! it was great!!

Sunday was my first time at the los olivos branch!! it was great to meet so many new members and family's! Maria even came to church and she brought all of her kids with her too!! it was her 3rd time at church too!! ans she is going to come next week also!!

The rain has been crazy this week! we haven't seen the sun until today so it was so awesome to have a little river outside of our apartment!! haha 

La Rama Los Olivos is awesome!! it is all in Spanish! this whole week i have only spoke in Spanish to people it is great! i already understand so much more!! i love it!!

Last night me and Elder Griffin were driving down State. St. it is a Really busy st. in Santa Barbara! but we always see homeless guys on the st. but last night there was a crazy guy! he had a broken foot but he grabbed his crutch that he had and started to play it like a guitar!! it was funny then he tryed to stab people with it !!! it was funny!

I am so glad that you all are doing good!! i will be waiting for the little package!! and all the other stuff!

I love you guys so much!!!!!!!!!! 

 

Keep in touch!!!! i will talk to you later!

yo se que jesucristo vivi!

con amor!

Elder Barlow

 

p.s. this is the address to our apartment!

714 W. Arrellaga St. #12

Santa Barbara CA. 93101!!

nos vemos!!