Email - 5/26/09

From: Bryan Barney
Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 11:14 AM

Epistle of Élder Barney to the Saints Up North,

This week was once again a tough one. A lot of running to and fro with little payback, but well, some weeks are up, and some are down. We tried our best to laugh during the rough patches of the week, including creating (in our heads and on a few sheets of paper) Obra Missionaria! Batizar Até o Pó! (Missionary Work! Baptize Until the Dust!) A non-existent but highly entertaining anime about Missionary Work here in Brazil. Needless to say we did a LOT of walking around this week.

That's cool that the Mowers went off to the Holy Land recently. Maybe someday I'll get around to trotting off there. I wonder how the food is there? Food's not actually too different here.

I read Dad's talk and liked it a lot. I find it funny that, actually, this same Sunday I gave a talk, too. I gave a talk on Forgiveness in portuguese for 10 minutes. I have to work up another one now, because well, you never know when the Elders have to get up and speak. Granted it's not too hard to talk Gospel these days. It's essentially all I know.

Good to hear I finally have a plaque, now that I'm nearing the 7th month of my mission. Let's hope the Brian Van Duyn's plaque doesn't take so long, huh? Speaking of him, someone let him know I'm pulling for him here. The more missionaries our ward sends out, the better, and I actually picked up a magazine in Spanish the other day and read it (it's basically Portuguese with a lot of spelling errors.)

I live in a place called Jardim Presidente, I think I live in a building on Rua Pres. Washington, but I know I live above a store called FF Utiliarios, for all that helps. I live on the 3rd floor. As of now no one has ripped my eyeballs apart to see if I'm okay, but we have Zone Conference soon, so I should have a chance to bug Pres. about it pretty quick.

Good to see you all went to the beach to play. There are no beaches anywhere near where I am, and the sea is probably one of the few things I miss still. That picture of Chingu is very funny, and it does remind me of Yoda. Granted, he wouldn't have to bite the sea if it would just go where he wanted it to.

I have no idea when or if I spend too much time in the sun these days. I basically bathe in sun-screen, and then it makes me slimy and gets in my eyes and I go more blind, but eh. What's a mission without a little work?

No baptisms this Sunday, but we're shooting for 2 this coming. And, close-minded Mormon as this sounds, I finally understand what Mom meant when she said there are people in the world who wrest the scriptures unto their own destruction. We had someone reject the first vision the other day because Joseph Smith saw God's face, when Moses couldn't even see more than his back (though, as anyone who has actually READ the Bible might remember, that's not actually true.)

Sometimes we go past churches and can't help but laugh. We went by one and the pastor was saying "Today we have three kinds of offerings. One of R$30, one of R$50, and one of R$100. Who has faith pays accordingly."