First of all we need some light-‏ September 8, 2014

To whom it may concern

So this has been a fun week y'all!  I really do love Rosenburg, Texas and there ain't nothin like it.  There was a funny moment this week when I was talking to the AP who served here for nine months.  Of course, AP's know everything about transfers and all that and I just say, "yeah, I'm starting to like Brazos."  He responds "Its because you're with Elder Spencer Elggren isn't it?" the clear implication here is that it was because I wasn't with my last companion, Elder Topham.  Its kind of awkwardly silent and I'm kind of saying "not exactly, I was liking it before he left," but who you're with makes a big difference.  I'd never say I don't have charity for him, and I love him lots.  I think he's doing better in his area.  Its somewhere where its hard to break rules and stuff.  He lost his phone privileges.  When a zone leader was here, I just kind of let him look through the phone and waited for him to notice, and it worked.  Thus Elder Topham got transferred.  And that is my story.  I feel bad for the kid and just realized how long I spent talking about this.  It was a fun time for me nonetheless.

So this week, was great, I went to Sugar Land in Elder Tate's new area where he's still the zone leader to be trained on being a district leader!  His companion (that stayed cuz he's in a trio, so I was in a trio for a day) was super hilarious.  He is being trained and is the first missionary to leave his island in the Virgin Islands.  He loves how cheap stuff is here and bought something everytime we stopped at a gas station to go bathroom.

Also, Dizzle Dub is something I made up last week when I signed out.  It doesn't have any meaning or point.  I just wrote dizzle dub when signing off my e-mail.  So yeah. Not that exciting.

Elder Elggren hopefully likes Brazos now, I mean its not the city, maybe someday I'll serve in the city, but its crazy here.  We're searching for people to teach, but we found a new this week named Alma!  She was a former from like 07 and we finally taught her, and it was funny.  We heard voices from inside when we went to our cita (appointment in Spanish for all you taking notes)  but no one answered so I left a note and we started to leave. We got in the car and she chased us down.  It was good, and because the member we wanted to take with us fell through, we had to teach her on her doorstep.  Elder Elggren is super smart and has a lot of random knowledge. We get along then. Its awesome.

Well I need to finish a letter to my recent converts so see y'all! You're in my prayers!

Elder Dizzle Dub?

We are not stopping!‏ September 2, 2014

Firstly, sorry, I forgot my camera again...  I'm pretty bad at that aren't I. I promise next week you'll have pictures of me, Marlen, and my new comp Elder Elggren.  We were at the mission office this morning for choir!  I've decided to go cuz its fairly close, and the english sisters that live in our complex told me to.  It was fun, makes p-day awesome!  Its been a pretty different week I have to say though.

Well to start off I'm district leader here! I have to take care of all four people here in Brazos! That is a lot of people!  Its pretty exciting, and I guess its the right time and stuff.  I kind of half expected it, but what surprised me is that I'm not companions with a zone leader down here like I'd have expected, I'm senior companero but Elggren has more time in the mission, so I guess I'm doing well out here.  Elder Elggren is awesome! He's from Chandler Arizona and kind of reminds me a little bit of Jeremy Whipple, especially in like his taste for books, schooling, and so forth.  We're going to do awesome in Brazos! Elggren has spent his whole mission on a bike in the city, so this is a different experience for him.  He'll learn to love it like I'm really beginning to.  I'm still riding my truck around (Elggren can't drive, so I've just stuck as a designated driver for my whole life here I guess. I'll probably start praying when I know I'm going to leave Brazos for a bike area, and then regret it when God sends me there).

Our first week here though, heh, not much really happened. We had one investigator lesson, so we're trying super hard to go find more people, we kind of have to try to find them.  People are ready though!  We just have to keep working though formers, trying new areas, less actives, members, referrals, etc...   So yeah, hopefully next week there will be someone new I can tell y'all about!

Like yesterday, we tried biking in an area where no spanish missionaries dare to go, and saw some people, but not much.  We keep trying though!  Sometimes it feels as if I'm running on ice, where did my life go wrong? Anyways, that analogy doesn't quite fit, song lyrics, yeah...  Anyways!

We had someone random show up to English class and so we gave her book of Mormon in English and Spanish, hopefully the sisters can teach her as a new because she lives in their area.  I noticed in our area a bunch of the people they'd see a lot have moved away.  Oh well- Dios esta con nosotros y si confiamos en el, y trabajamos con la mira puesta unicamente en la gloria de Dios, va a recibir la galardon.  Paz afuera!

Elder David Austin Barlow, aka Dizzle Dub.

Abundance, Charity, Goodwill Towards Men‏ August 25, 2014

Well hello! We had a baptism this week like we said we would! Marlen Alejandro.  A member has my memory card to photoshop something, so you'll see next week.  It has been an interesting baptism. I'll say more later.

But in other news, Elder Topham is leaving Rosenburg and I'm staying, so I'm taking over this area and our "many" investigators.  To do that, do y'all want to send me a GPS? Brooke had one right? Also a CD case would be wonderful! Aaron said he can finally send me a bunch of CD's, and Brooke has talked about it, and I have too many cd cases.  I'll probably try to send home my medium sized suitcase (the handle is a little bit messed up, but doesn't the warranty cover that?) because technically we should only have two, and I just hate having three suitcases. Last transfer I only put a few things in it.

So Friday, to do the baptismal interview, Elder Tate came down here as a zone leader for an exchange.  That was fun.  Aaron mentioned something about his trainer, and I remember Danny, I mean Elder Dawson, talking about his, and I'm just like, my trainer was awesome! That was fun and we worked hard and schtuff. (I use and stuff a lot when I speak in English.  Quote from a recent lesson "Jesus Christ atoned and suffered for our sins and stuff.")

So the interview went well with Marlen.  She's super happy and was ready to get baptized.  What was funny is we had like two more things to teach her and her boyfriend, a member, misunderstood her.  We said these two things can be taught after the interview, and he thought we meant after baptism.  So we ask if we can teach her and he's just starts getting super worked up and why we're going so fast until Jennifer, the daughter of the Solis family yells "Calmese!!!"  It was funny, because she was ready.  We knew way beforehand that the 24th of August was when she needed baptism, but the biggest obstacle for this pretty easy baptism was the members.  More about working with the members, at the baptism- waiting for the ward mission leader to show up.  He said he'd make the program. We talked to him multiple times about that.  He shows up like twenty minutes after six and we pass the programs out.  The program is full of errors, "Marlene Alejandro" extra e. Espititu Santo, etc.  After the baptism he pulls Elder Topham aside and says "You need to make sure the name is spelt right next time."  Well.... who made this program? We knew how to spell it.  You gave us a hard time the first correlation when we spelt it Marlin. (Also its spelled, not spelt, you learn something new every day.).  But that's life, and we go on.

Yesterday was Branch conference, and guess what? We're getting a new presidency too! Hermano Solis is now presidente Solis.  That's crazy about the new presidency and stuff.    Oh, and enough letter and on to the deeper stuff! Its been a crazy transfer for me, but we learn stuff from everything.  Charity!  For example, my comp now has an interview with prez, and based on president's notes today, (The mission had 42 baptisms this week!) its about improper phone use.  A sister from my MTC district talked about being chastised by her prez for not being  honest enough about her comp who just went home, and I think I've done things right and done things out of love.  Nothings as bad as having to go home, but it hasn't really been the best of things.  Its been fun though! And tiring at times, but oh well. I've learned what charity really means, and I guess that's why I went here.  I'd quote scriptures here, but you don't understand Spanish.

I'm out of time now, but I promise y'all pictures next time.

With love, and from your favorite son.... I mean one of your favorite sons....

Elder David Austin Barlow