Hello Family

Burning a shirt to celebrate one year on the mission!

Lentils for the multizone conference!

Well, this week was alright for me. We worked hard. It rained all week, for the first time in months. Luckily we're in a car so we don't get too soaked. I honestly don't know what to write about. I'll be honest: when I write emails, I'm struck by the sheer number of crazy stories and experiences I have on a mission. There's no way I can describe it all in a short email. If you want to really understand what a mission is like here at Tahiti, you'd have to come serve a mission here at Tahiti.
Anyways, the mission challenge this month is to do lessons in the presence of a member. We've been working really hard to set the example for the zone. So basically every morning we call different members of the ward until we can find someone to come with us to all of our fixed lessons. The goal is 12 member lessons each week. We had 16 last week and 12 this week. With members, you have someone who can relate way better to the investigators and bear a powerful testimony and integrate the investigators once they come to church, etc. It's way more effective than just a lesson by two young white guys. I really like our ward, the members are great. We got a new ward mission leader last Sunday, he worked with us a little this week.
What else is new...
I ate snails yesterday! That was a first. I also ate lots of lentils this week, which I really love a lot!
Oh, so Thursday we had a multizone conference with our zone (Paea) and the zones of Taravao, Papeari, and Punaauia. Our zone was in charge of the main course for food for everyone, about 60 people! Yikes! So Tuesday Elder S and I were stressing because we didn't know what to do as far as food. We had a tight budget of about 80 000 francs (about 80 dollars). We got the great idea to do lentils! Yum! We went and saw Papi Tepa, an old Tahitian papi in our ward who is also a new convert from earlier this year. We asked him how to make lentils really yummy and if he had the pots and pans we could borrow, etc. In the end he offered to make it all for us if we brought him the ingredients! So it turns out 5 little bags of lentils feeds about 50 people. Who knew? It ended up costing about 30 dollars to feed 60 people. I felt pretty money efficient. :) haha. I love saving money, even when it's not mine! So to make lentils, you just put lentils in water with some onions and corned beef or whatever meat you want (it's super good with cut up lunch meat like roast beef!) and spices or salt if you want, and then you heat it all up for a really long time and let the lentils soak up all the water. You serve it hot as a semi liquidy mess over hot rice. It is super delicious, cheap, easy, and healthy! I experimented with lentils later this week and found out I can make them in the microwave in about 20 minutes (but it's not as tasty). That's my fun news for the week! All the food worked out for the conference. There was just enough lentils for everyone to go through the line once, but not enough for everyone to have seconds. Oh well, we all need to watch our weight here in Tahiti anyways. The conference was good, I don't really remember any specifics right now off the top of my head, but President Bize gave a really good formation on leaving our fears behind and using our strong points.

This Saturday was good. We had our two baptisms. The ward here is great, I love the people. They came and supported. I hope to re inspire the ward with a few more baptisms and really get the members in the missionary spirit. That's what happened at Papeete once we started having baptisms every month. The ward here has only had 3 baptisms this year, but now there's 5 total. My goal is 15 baptisms for the end of the year (also the mission's goal for every ward in Tahiti- at least 15 baptisms). So there are 10 people out there that I need to find, teach, and baptize. We have some really great investigators that we're teaching right now, including some younger kids and a teenage girl who wants to quit smoking pacalolol (marijuana). I'll keep you updated on their progress over the next few weeks. Things are going well overall.
Yesterday and today I am driving people all over. As a zone leader, I have to drive missionaries all over the place for their needs. Today has already been a crazy P Day of driving and trying to get things done. I want to just go clean the house and the car and sleep! We'll see how it goes though, I have to drive back downtown later and pick up Elder S. He went to Moorea today for P Day because he served over there at the beginning of his mission. He wanted to go visit some people for one last time before he finishes (in two weeks!).

Oh, one last fun story! Today while shopping, I saw G T

! He is one of the people I taught during my brief stay in Tavararo (Faaa). Remember when I skyped from their house at Christmas? He works at Carrefour, the grocery store where we went. He still remembers me and was so excited to see me. He told me I have to come visit him before I finish my mission and give him one of my nametags so he can remember me. He got baptized with his wife and daughter in February. I am continually humbled by how loving the people are here. This morning seeing him was again a fulfillment of the promise in my patriarchal blessing that those I teach on my mission will always remember me and praise me for the effort I put forth to bring them the gospel. Super cool to reflect on those moments.

Well, I love you all tons! I am going to go eat, I am super hungry hearing about all the yummy Amish donuts and deep dish pizza and cruise liner food y'all ate this week. Have a great week, keep praying for me!

Until next week,

Elder Barlow

August encore

Hello family!
This week blew by. It was filled with activities and things I don't normally do, so it seemed quicker than normal.

Monday was P-day of course. Then Tuesday morning we went to the temple in Papeete. That took up most of the morning. I love going to the temple, so peaceful! Tuesday afternoon was a normal work day in our sector. At our faatamaaraa Tuesday night we ate with the members and we found a new investigator! A family friend was with the members that night and we invited him to take the lessons. He said okay. We did several lessons this week and he came to church yesterday! Woo hoo! Super potential. Anyways...

Tuesday night I went down to the house at Papara and went on split with Elder P in the sector of Maraa! It was great to spend time with the missionaries in our zone. There's 4 missionaries who live in the house at Papara. Overall in our zone there are 16 missionaries on Tahiti, 11 Elders and 5 sisters (two three-person companionships), and 4 missionaries out in the Marqueses Islands (super far away). Voilà. So all day Wednesday I was biking around the sector of Maraa with Elder P and we did work! It was great. I tried to help him see how to engage investigators to get baptized, come to church, etc. He said some of the investigators we had taught came to church yesterday! Yay! It was a good split.

Wednesday night I got back into my sector/house. Thursday morning we woke up early and went back into Papeete (Elder S and me). There was the monthly mission leadership meeting for all the zone leaders and sister training leaders at President's house. It was most of the day and consisted of formations, trainings, brief reports on the zones, and a lunch of delicious home made hamburgers! (shout out to american bbq) Thursday night we did one or two lessons in our sector, then went to bed!

Friday I woke up not feeling so hot. I went on a run in the morning, and felt really tired. After showering and doing our studies, I felt even worse. Really achy and fatigued all over. I went to our zone meeting at the chapel just next to our house, but before the meeting even started I had to go back to our house and just sleep. I passed out all day. Literally all day I slept. Friday night I threw up for the first time in ages. It was terrible. I didn't sleep well Friday night. Saturday I woke up and was still sick, just really tired and weak. I was able to make it to several lessons throughout the day, and in between lessons we just came back to the house and I slept. It's pretty terrible to be sick on a mission. You can't do anything to get better quicker, but you feel super guilty just laying around doing nothing. It is the worst. Mostly I just think about how much I want Mom to be there to take care of me. Haha.

Sunday (yesterday) I was still pretty wiped out, but able to go to church, then go do some lessons, etc. Today (P-Day) is the last P-Day for Elder Porter. He's hosting a mission wide 3 on 3 bball tournament in Papeete and I was sooooo excited to play, but now I am way too wiped out from this weekend of being sick to play. Bummer. I have little energy and probably lost a ton of weight and I don't feel that great, but life goes on, right?

Voilà la semaine. Good news, the zone is picking up! Every sector has baptisms that should happen before the end of August. Also, we had 9 amis who came to church yesterday! The members brought some new people who we are going to start teaching this week. Blessings! Keep praying for me, I need it! Miss and love you all, thanks for the emails!

à lundi prochain,

Elder Barlow

August again!

Hi family!

This week we worked pretty hard. Time flew by. Monday night after P Day I had to do zone leader stuff. We had a family night at a member's house, but we also had to go pick up some missionaries from the airport. So we did a split with the missionaries of Vaiatu (who live at the same house as us) and I drove to the airport to pick up a missionary who is now serving in our zone. I felt weird. I never imagined that one day I would be driving around Tahiti in a stick shift truck, speaking French, familiar with the airport, parking, roadways, etc. Crazy where life leads, huh?

The rest of the week we went and visited members, tried to find investigators, the normal stuff. We scheduled the marriage of one of our investigators and his baptism the week after (beginning of September), and another investigator normally gets baptized next week. So the sector is starting to pick up. The bad news is none of the investigators we're teaching made it to church yesterday. It's a constant struggle. That's about how most of the week went.

Saturday morning was wonderful.
Background: so while I was still in Papeete we had been teaching a lady, the sister of K (my new convert who we found tracting in the pouring rain). So we taught S and her husband a little bit. They were interested, but afraid to change.  After I left Papeete, Elder L and Elder P kept teaching the husband and their little daughter. It turns out they fixed their baptisms for yesterday, Saturday. I was invited, since I had taught the family a lot, but we had a lesson so we weren't planning on going. Friday night, our lesson called and canceled. Saturday morning, we asked the assistants for permission to leave the zone and go to Papeete for the baptism. They said yes. I sent a text to Papeete 2 that we were coming. Elder L then promptly called me and asked if I wanted to baptize S! Friday night Elder P and L asked her if she wanted to get baptized the next day with her husband and daughter. She was ready, so they made it happen and wanted me to baptize her, so it worked out perfectly that our lesson had been cancelled! I was excited Saturday morning to go back to Papeete for the 2 baptisms, but when I got the phone call from L saying it was 3 baptisms, I was ecstatic! I hung up and then just yelled at the top of my lungs "yes!!!!" I gathered up my white clothing and a towel, and we booked it for Papeete. I was able to see all my new converts and all the ward members that I love. It was awesome! And the baptismal service was so great. Elder L baptized  the little girl; I baptized  the mom; Elder P baptized the dad. It was great! I love that ward and that sector so much. We have to go visit. It's right next to downtown Papeete, and the temple is next to the chapel, so if we ever come visit as a family, we'll surely stop by. Anyways, it was a wonderful event that happened tout d'un coup. (don't know what to say in Engish... "all of a sudden" or "just like that (with a snap of the fingers).") I was so grateful to be the instrument in the hand of the Lord that blessed that particular family. What a blessing.

Saturday afternoon was work as normal, and yesterday was a normal fast Sunday. Our zone is doing better, and I think our sector is on its way up. We found a cute little girl who was at her friend's house (a member). We taught her a lesson and gave her a book of Mormon. We found out that her mom is an inactive member we had tracted into three weeks ago. So we went and talked with her mom. She said she is totally okay with us teaching and baptizing her daughter, as long as it's what her daughter wants to do. So that was great! I'm again grateful to be the medium that brings the truth of the gospel to people. It is such a blessing. We'll teach the daughter again this week and invite her to be baptized in two or three weeks. The sector is on it's way up!

Thank you for all the prayers and support, I felt it this week! I love and miss you all, hope you have a great week!

Avec beaucoup d'amour,

Elder Barlow

encore juillet

Iaorana family!

This week was alright. I am in love with air conditioning in our house. Also, this morning, we deep cleaned our house. Yes, we live with two other Elders, Elder G and Elder M. Elder G is from my MTC group and just came back from the Tuamotus, so he has lots of fun island stories. Elder M is an awesome and funny little french man who is half Spanish. It's a nice group, the struggle now will just be to keep our house super clean! We mopped the floor and cleaned out the fridge and cleaned the bathroom and the car and our bedrooms. I loved it! The rest of the plan today, go shower, go shopping, play basketball/soccer at the chapel with some of our zone and the zone of Punaauia (the zone right next to us), then go home. So it should be good. I love P Day.
Our zone has 12 Elders and 5 sisters and one senior couple. In our house there's 4 elders, there's 2 elders who live alone, but not far from our house, there's 4 elders down south a bit in the Maraa house, and 3 sisters in another house quite a bit further down. There's also 2 elders in the Marquises Islands and the senior couple on another Marquises Island. It's a fun zone.

This week was interesting.  We don't have a ton of investigators and door to door contacting is extremely ineffective here.  But it's alright. We'll just keep working and the Lord will take care of the rest.  Tuesday we worked in the sector, Wednesday I got to do my first split as a zone leader! I went down to the Maraa house Tuesday night and stayed the night there. I served with Elder C, a new elder who is being trained right now by none other than Elder T! Remember him? The old assistant who lived in the same house as me at Papeete. He's awesome. Elder T is in our zone, he finishes next week. So I was at the Maraa house with Elder C and Elders M and P. It was super fun! I like their house, they are right next to ocean, it is beautiful. Wednesday I was on the split in the sector of Papara. It's a good sector. It was fun to see, it is so beautiful down here in Paea! Yes, it's a little more rural than Papeete. It's less crowded and more calm and right next to the ocean and really beautiful. I love it. Thursday was another day in the sector. We average about 1 lesson a day, and other than that we go and see members and inactives and such. It is difficult work, not the fast pace I became accustomed to at Papeete. Friday was zone meeting. Elder S and I gave the training. It went well. It's weird to be the leader, everyone looks up to us now. Every Sunday as zone leader we get to take the report for the zone and put it in the computer and send it to the assistants. It's a pretty cool system, and fun to call everyone and see how all the sectors are doing. We use the numbers to determine what the needs of the zone are, trainings to give, etc. It's cool. I like analyzing numbers and stuff and acting de suite. Don't know how to say it in English anymore sorry. Acting in accordance? Something like that.

Oh yeah, last Monday we also did a hike, I sent pictures. We summited a mini mountain, rock cliff thing up above the sector of Maraa. It's really steep and right next to the ocean, so we had a great view of all of Paea, the ocean, and the big Tahitian mass of mountain behind us. The pictures don't do it justice. Y'all are going to have to come to Tahiti and visit here with me after my mission, it's unbelievably beautiful.  Basically any given moment of the day, I can look around and if I took a picture it would be worthy of a calendar or postcard.

That's about all I can think of for the week. Thanks for all the emails, it's fun to hear about everything.

Love all the news, if you guys have any questions for me or want to know anything about Tahiti, let me know. I don't really know what to write about except for what we do everyday. Keep praying for me, I need it and the sector definitely needs it!

Bisous,

Elder Barlow

With ward mission leader in Papeete and Elder  L.

Fun story. First day here at Paea, the sister missionaries called us to come remove a dead hen. It had tried to fly over the fence at their house, missed,and fell in between the fence posts, strangling itself. Eww! And the sisters hadn't told us about it for a few days, so it was all maggotty and stinky! Zone leader points for Elder S, who removed it with a garbage bag.  

Hello family!

Apparently you are up to date a little on the situation because of an email or something? Yes, I am transferred, yes I am now a zone leader. It's weird. So Monday was P Day. Tuesday was a normal work day. Tuesday night were the transfer calls, which meant a crazy night at our house! We love listening to the assistants call everyone for the transfers. So for me, I was in the shower Tuesday night. I came out of the bathroom, heard Elder F on the phone downstairs saying "your new companion is Elder L!" which meant I had been transferred! Elder R came up the stairs and I asked "what, I'm transferred?" He said "yes, I don't have a lot of time, you're transferred to Paea with Elder S, you will be a zone leader, you will be the driver of the truck." So there I was,completely stunned. I hadn't even had time to get dressed after my shower! And my replacement at Papeete? Elder P! He is coming back to Papeete for the last 5 weeks of his mission. Apparently President felt that P hadn't finished his work at Papeete yet and there was something there for him to do before he finishes. Yeah. Transfers. So my first thoughts: what, me as zone leader? Already? Shocked, surprised, honored, etc. I'm the youngest zone leader in terms of mission experience, with only 10 months (almost 11!) under my belt. But it's cool, I am excited to take on the challenge. So I stayed at Papeete all week because Friday was the extra P Day! We went to President's house and ate pizza and watched a movie called "one man's treasure." I enjoyed it. I'm sure you would all find it very corny, but it was about missionaries so I thought it was pretty funny. So many typical missionary inside jokes. Then Friday night I went and said goodbye to all my new converts. Some of them started crying. It was very touching. Saturday morning I left for Paea.
So it was a great week for me until then. Now I am in the zone of Paea, the ward of Orofero. I got to the house and unloaded my stuff, and we did our studies and went to see some people. The house here at Paea has air conditioning which is very strong, which means I can wear a shirt inside and not be all sweaty all day! Yay! But in the house, the toilet is broken and the house flooded my first day and everything seemed like it was falling apart and I was stressing out hard core and missing Papeete where everything had become familiar!  But I'm getting used to the situation here. Elder S, my companion, finishes in 8 weeks. He is also from Washington! We should get along fine. He's nice and knows the gospel well. I hope to help motivate our companionship to go work really hard and set the example for the zone. Already we have blessings. This morning a member called us and said there's an 11 year old girl who's parents want her to get baptized as soon as possible and take the lessons! Yay! So we have something to do this week. I am confident the Lord will give us people who are ready for the gospel as we show that we are working hard and following the spirit! Besides all that, the hardest thing right now is adjusting to a new sector, new people, new house, new everything. Also I am no longer the senior companion, so I can't go do whatever I want. But that's okay. I can endure a few weeks. So pray for me, I need help! Haha!
Also, I am the driver of a white Toyota Hilux stick shift truck. Yes, I learned stick shift here and am now driving all over the place for the zone. It was a little scary at first, but I have the hang of it now. So that's an update on my life. Today we have to go clean the car (I insist, it is dirty!) and then we're doing a short hike this afternoon! I am nervous about getting fat in a car. We don't spend much time walking around, just driving to appointments and such. It's not the same as before when I was on a bike all day! Yikes! But we'll see. Worst case scenario, I get fat for the next 8 weeks and when I'm in charge I'll lose it all. The food in Tahiti is too fatty and delicious and produce and things healthy in general are too expensive for missionaries to buy. Jealous of the farmer's market, mom! That's about it for my week, have any questions for me?

Sounds like everyone back home is doing well. I loved all the photos and news, so fun to see and hear from everyone! Keep me in the loop. Have a good week and stay righteous!

Love,

Elder Barlow

encore juillet

Hello family!

Wow, I loved all the photos! Talk about beautiful Washington state, I miss it! I'm excited to go hiking with everyone next summer!

This week was alright. Monday we didn't do too much, just the 10 minute hike or so up to the cross above Papeete.
Tuesday- we had planned to do an interview with President Sun of the mission presidency for one of our amis, but she didn't show up.

The rest of the week we were just trying to find new investigators who are actually interested and not flaky! In French Polynesia, lots of people come to Tahiti during the school year for school, etc. Since it is now summer break, lots of families leave for the outer islands, tuamotus, atolls, etc. to be with family, summer vacation, etc. So this week we lost all of our progressing investigators. Our report for the week was pretty sad. Haha. We have zero progressing amis, but oh well. We found some new investigators from OLB (ouvrir la bouche) (OYM in English I think, open your mouth) in our quartiers, so hopefully this week when we go back for the first lesson there will be people there.

Friday was our zone meeting, like normal. We met a little as a district and planned some activities to help out a sector that is struggling right now.
Saturday we didn't have any planned lessons. We had an OLB activity in the struggling sector, then later that day we had a sport activity in the same sector, where we went and played volleyball with youth in the quartier. It was a fun day, and I think it helped out the sister missionaries in that sector to find some new people to teach. It was fun to be able to do something as district leader to help out the district.
Sunday (yesterday) was good. It was the first Sunday in forever that we didn't have a missionary concert. So we actually had time to go do lessons, etc. Then we got home a little early, around 7:30pm. It was nice to have extra time before p day to start some laundry, get to bed early, etc.

Today is p day! Emails this morning, then shopping, then maybe a sports activity later with the zone. I would be happy to just take a nap all day haha. Also, the weather here has been more bearable lately. We still are soaked with sweat everyday because it's humid, but when I walk outside it's not overly unbearable. I can breath at least.  Voilà an update on life!

Also, our zone was the only zone to succeed the mission challenge last month for a certain number of baptisms (different for each zone). So President told us to choose our reward! We all voted for an "extra p day" and President said yes! Haha. So this Friday we get to have 3 hours or so after our zone meeting to do whatever we want in p day clothes, and President will bring us pizza! Score!
The new mission challenge this time around is to do our personal and companionship studies everyday, along with a language study, including p days and Sundays. That will be challenging! But important.  I started reading "Jesus the Christ" in my personal study this week and I am loving it! I recommend it for anyone who wants something churchy to read.

There's a mini transfer this week to organize a new zone being created on the other side of Tahiti. Exciting mission growth! But the odds are I won't be transferred until August 2, the next big transfer. So I will have spent over 6 complete months here in Papeete! I know basically everyone in the ward and in the sector, it feels a little bit like home. I think we all have to come visit Tahiti sometime after the mission as a family, and I can introduce you to my new home here!

Love you all tons and bunches,

Elder Barlow

P.S. the subject "encore juillet" means July again, or "still July" in French. Sorry if you didn't understand. I think I can probably express myself more effectively in French now, sorry if my English doesn't make sense sometimes. Haha.

Happy 4th of July!

A picture of the temple I took one morning this week because it was pretty.

Dear Family,

Well, no one in Tahiti knows what the 4th of July is. It's kind of like Thanksgiving. So enjoy a hamburger and fireworks and all that fun stuff for me. The sisters in our zone had planned to make hamburgers and hotdogs, or so they said, but then yesterday I asked them what the P Day plan was today and they said MacDo! Which means McDonalds. A mcdonalds hamburger on the 4th of July is basically blasphemy or treason before the state, so I will be boycotting that zone activity. I'll probably make a classic PB n' J sandwich. Haha.

Yesterday, Sunday, was fast Sunday. We started fasting after lunch Saturday, so we finished our fast yesterday around 2:30pm. That worked out well with our plan yesterday. We went to church in the morning, 8am to about noon with after church meeetings, then right away we left for Papeari, the other side of Tahiti. It's about an hour drive or so, so we got there right around 2pm, 2:30ish. In fact, Elder Requillart had a branch president back in France when he was little who is from Tahiti, and they invited us over to eat. So we got to Papeari and ate a delicious meal. The wife of the family is French, and they made us a legit French meal. I love French people. The meal is called "raclettes," (say rack-let). Basically, they have a sweet kitchen appliance that looks like a pancake/crepe maker. But it's raised up about 6 inches. Underneath is space for little non stick spatula things. So what you do. You put baked potatoes on top of the pancake/crepe grill to stay hot. Each person has a mini personal spatula that you put underneath. You put slices of special raclette cheese in the spatulas, and ham if you want, and it melts! Then you cut up your potato, pour the melted cheese over the top, and eat it with ham slices (hot or cold, however you want). They also had a delicious salad. Wow! It was a delicious meal. It tasted so.... normal. Extremely delicious, but normal. Not a ton of white carbs and fried meat and rice. It reminded me of home. Also, Papeari is far away from the city, so it was nice and quiet. Here in Papeete is constant sound. Anyways, after eating we went to the stake center at Papeari for our last missionary concert this year! It was fun to see all the other missionaries. It made yesterday feel like a mini holiday, since I only spent about 20 minutes in our sector working.

Saturday was good. We studied, then went in the sector. Our faatamaaraa was at noon, so we ate really well and started our fast around 2 or 3pm. Also, Saturday night was the baptism for V! It was great. J baptized her. That was cool for me, because I baptized J last month. Now he is baptizing his family! Cool how the gospel works. Also, V is basically ready to serve a mission already. She shared some cool scriptures in her testimony Sunday at church and I am humbled to be the missionary who got to teach and baptize this family! They are the golden family for a missionary!

Oh yeah, Wednesday was like a national holiday or something here. In fact, no one really knows what the holiday was, but there was a parade in Papeete and all the missionaries walked in it! Sounds like fun right? Wrong. Actually, we ended up waiting in parade formation for about 2 hours to walk in the parade, standing around in the sun waiting and waiting, and then the actual parade route was about 5 minutes long.

Other fun news: Elder F likes running! He's the new assistant in the house, and we went running a few mornings this week. Turns out my heart is in pretty good shape from biking, but my hips and legs were super sore after running! It's been too long! Eating healthy and exercising like I want is definitely one of the biggest trials for me on my mission. I have no agency, because you can't just go running without a companion. I hate that rule. Honestly, I am an independent person. I like making decisions and going and doing what I want just like that. It drives me nuts waiting around for someone else's agreement for every little activity. Argh. Haha mini rant finished.

What else is new... I talked with Elder P on the phone last night. He went out to Makemo, an atoll in the Tuamoto archipelago. It's comparable to Ahe, just a little bigger. He was feeling a little lost. He went from being the assistant, in the middle of all the action, etc. to being out in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do! Haha it's his first time in the islands. But it's a good life experience. I'm glad to have the experience and lessons and memories from Ahe. I want to go visit Ahe with you guys one day, it would actually be fun for 1 or 2 days as a tourist.

Voilà my week! I don't have much else to report. There's a mini transfer in 2 weeks. If I'm not transferred, then I'll be transferred for sure at the next big transfer in 4 weeks. I've been in Papeete a long time now!

Well, I love seeing all the pictures and hearing all the updates from your guys' week. I miss you all tons! The longer I'm away and the more of the world I see, the more I am convinced that our little family is a piece of heaven on Earth and there really is "no place like home." I'm grateful we are an eternal family. Keep me in your prayers, have a good week, love you!

Elder Barlow