Monday, December 29, 2014

Elder Tyler Stone

Dear Familia Mio,
It was so great to be able to talk to you guys!! I think talking with you really solidified the fact that my mission is rapidly coming to an end. I only have 2 short weeks before I am going to see you again! How crazy is that? I understand what people mean when they say it is just as hard to leave their mission as it was to come on it in the first place. Before my mission I would have thought that was crazy! I think the only way to actually fully understand it is to serve a mission and fall in love with the people you are serving. It's a bittersweet experience. I have felt some of the happiest moments of my life while I have been here but saying goodbye has and will be some of the hardest moments. I think one of the biggest lessons I have learned on my mission is to trust in Heavenly Father. He knows us and what we need in order to be the people that He wants us to be. We had a district meeting this Thursday where we focused on hope verses discouragement and how faith and work are the things that can help us overcome discouragement and  have more hope. It was one of the most spiritual district meetings I have had on my mission! I'm so thankful for the Holy Ghost and for the power that it gives to us to comfort us and enable us to be the people we want to be. We learned a lot about that this week and I have felt the power as we have gone out and worked! Now that we are back to a normal schedule I'm excited to go and finish my mission strong! I will talk to you all next week! I love you!
Love Elder Stone

Elder Tanner Barlow

Dear Family,                                                              
Well this week was awesome.  I had a baptism and I hope to be able to return when he goes through the temple. The work was slow this week but full of blessings.  Our land lady is not a member and we have been working hard on her. We watched a new stop smoking video that my comp found and tested it on her.  We watched it Saturday night and she still has not smoked.  That’s miracle one because she smoked 15 cigarettes every day, so to go almost 2 whole days without one is awesome.  Then my district had the best numbers if it was in baptism or lessons the numbers were awesome especially for the holidays. Lets see Wednesday was our party it was awesome and i don’t think I’ve ever acted sang or felt so strong the spirit in all my life..   i think i made my comp mad though cause we had to leave early to go to a baptism interview.  But we have worked it all out so yea.  The sisters are good, full of high school drama right now  but good.  Can’t blame them too much for the drama cause there stuck in the same building everyday for the most of the day with the same people so all you other missionary’s be grateful. .     
love you all hope you have a happy new year.
Con Amor
Elder Barlow

Monday, December 15, 2014

Elder Tanner Barlow

Well, this week was amazing. I don’t think we have ever visited so many investigators with a member present in my entire mission.  I think God keeps trying to tell me something because almost none of them came to church. Maybe one day I’ll learn why but at least i know it will be a good lesson learned.   Work goes as normal but in the end i still love it.  Anñy way Mom, my camera is going weird I put it into a computer and it says there is nothing on their but i unplug it and i can see all the photos, so Im sorry I havn’t been sending you any.   This week i found a devil worshiping Christian mason.  It was awesome cause i even got to teach him in English.  He isn’t a devil worshiper any more which was nice and he isn’t a mason any more either but is still looking for God.  i think i taught him all three lessons in 1 hour saying everything perfectly.  i think that’s why God sent me to Mexico to learn humility.   in English i can teach awesomely but in Spanish my teaching is still awesome but slower.  
I ran into a missionary this last week in my mission and lo and behold he is from Saint George and went to dhhs,  wow amazing right. and although i dont know him he knew me.  So I guess I'm famous or something cuz some how he says everyone knew me or at least of me. ( HA HA )   To end….. CHRISTMAS, pure English translation  more Christ.  i hope we all see that this year that we really need more Christ in our lives.  Everyone look on you tube for a video that says “ He is the Gift.  Then share it.  love you all 
Con Amor 
Elder Barlow

Monday, December 8, 2014

Elder Tanner Barlow

Dear Family, We had changes We had p-day on Wednesday this week because of something the Mission President wanted to try last week and now I’m with elder Sumano.  He is so not like my other companion. I am still D L though, over all the sister Missionaries in our area, and then the pres. Secretaries report to me too.  It was fun to have P-day on Wednesday for a change, because we went and visited a place that is never open on Mondays, we went to the zoo.  It was awesome and although we didn't have time to see all the animals it was still super fun.  Thanks for taking the time to read my letters it means a lot and you all mean a lot. love you all!

Monday, December 1, 2014

Elder Tyler Stone

Dear Family,
 
This week...
 
   We had a great Thanksgiving this week! A lot of turkey and stuff. Last year we had a lot of food when I was in Compton but it was more of Hispanic food like Mole and Spanish spaghetti. It was definitely tasty and it was a fun experience but there's nothing like a nice turkey dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy and rolls... Mmmm. This year we had a few different people invite us over to eat dinner and they all had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner and as you can imagine, I was thankful. (: It is slowly but surely starting to get a little bit colder here in California so it's starting to feel a little bit more like the holiday seasons. I'm also very thankful for that!
 
   Another cool fact about this Thanksgiving is that we had a surprise meeting as an entire mission before our usual district meeting. It was focused on a campaign type thing that the church is doing right now called "He is the Gift" or in Spanish "El es la Dadiva". The church made a super powerful short little video about how during this season of Christmas we should focus on the Savior and how He is the true gift of Christmas. The focus of Christmas as we are all well aware is slowly becoming the gifts that are given but the Spirit of Christmas comes into our lives when we focus more on the Savior and why we should be celebrating in the first place. The church has made that video and this next Sunday they are going to be "taking over Youtube". The plan is that on December 7th if you log onto youtube the first video that you are going to see advertized across the home page is the "He is the Gift" video. The church estimates that around 220 million people are going to log onto youtube on that day and are going to be able to watch that video. Another thing they are doing is they have bought a spot on Time Square in New York to advertize every day in the month of December. The church really isn't messing around! The meeting we had was for us to help be aware that a lot of people are going to see this video and they want us talking to every body about how Christ is the reason for Christmas. They have cards that they gave us to pass out too and we have started sharing them with everybody! It has been nice because it is an awesome way to start talking with people and help them remember that we follow Jesus Christ. The other cool thing about it is that this isn't just for missionaries! Everybody has the chance to share this message. In the Ensign for December there is an article that talks about this video and gives 9 pass along cards to share with friends and family. The invitation that I want to leave is to find 9 specific people to share these cards with. After seeing the video it actually motivates you to want to share it with others so it shouldn't be too hard! (: Go watch it sometime today! It's awesome!
 
Well I am officially in my last transfer of my mission. It's kind of a bittersweet moment. I am staying here in Whittier and I will be staying with Elder Allowitz as my companion. Now our job is just to work hard to the end! (:
 
I love you all!
 
Love Elder Stone

Elder Tanner Barlow

Hello everyone.   I hope you all had a fantastic thanksgiving i sure did.Smiling face with open mouthany way so these last what was it 4 days was extremely awesome thou we didn't do much work. See what happened is as DL i had to go to a couple of meetings.  Then we had a 3 ward family home evening so we were planning and taking care of that and in the end had the FHE so busy but not with a lot lessons.  Any way so the temple light up last night with christmas lights and it got me thinking.   Uncle Ray guess what CHRISTMAS Times a comin.  Dont know what more to say 
Love you all 
Con Amor 
Elder Barlow