Email - 4/7/09

From: Bryan Barney
Sent: Tuesday, April 07, 2009 7:29 AM

Well, actually, transfer is 5 weeks only. I'm not sure why, but it is. It happens 5th of May, so who knows where I'll be then (please not Tibery, I'm ready to see more of the mission!) Actually though, things are looking fairly bright now in Tibery. We have a Bishopric now, and the house has some furniture. It isn't super new, but hey. We have a Washing Machine, a cabinet for our clothes, a microwave, and yeah.

Also, May 10th will be my telephone call home. I don't know a lot beyond that just yet, but that's about it.

General Conference was incredible. Maybe it is just because it was the first time in my life I actually LISTENED and not just HEARD the things spoken. Maybe it's just the first time I looked at the Prophet and said, "Here is a man who, as Moses, speaks face to face with the Lord, as a friend would." Maybe it's because '.m serving a Mission and I tried to apply every last bit of juicy doctrine that came forth to my work, but Conference was INCREDIBLE.

From David A. Bednar's "Please, Repent." To the Prophet's cautionary/Old Testament style fire and brimstone for people fallen to pornography, "CEASE NOW!" Conference was incredible. The cries to repentance, the warnings against coming hard times, the call for all who can to go to the Temple more frequently, the warnings against judging our fellow members, our fellow man, it was amazing. I feel by far the best was the talk by Elder Holland about Loneliness. It was just, WOW. I don't know if you can watch talks again, but that one is worth seeing.

I took 27 pages of notes on General Conference. Especially on such things as the 6 things which destroy testimonies.

Watching it in Portuguese isn't so great, but maybe just because of the sound quality. All the Brazillian missionaries seemed to have gotten the full effect too, so that's good.

Well, it's time to go again, but I'll talk to you all really soon. Much work to do, and I'm praying for you all. Keeping fighting the good fight, and go to the temple when possible. It's only been 3 months, but I'm already eager to go back.

-Bryan.