Wake Me Up When September Ends

This week has been crazy, had a pretty good pday. got a few ties then tuesday we had a zone conference and everyday everything continues to change my mission and life! I learned a lot about the spirit and just our life, there was a scripture that was shared. 1nefi4:6 it was a huge game changer for me. there are so many things that are possible through the spirit. Nefi was led by the spirit not knowing anything before. It really gives me hope in having success and being able to reach out to everyone. with the spirit you are able to see so much more. this place is beautiful! by the way elder barnett turned 19 on thursday.. well wednesday night we were riding home at the end of the day and i saw a skatepark and decided to stop so i could ride my bike off a jump. well i stopped and mijo ran into my handle bars going pretty fast and fell right to the ground way hard. i look at him like "what were you doing man?' this lady pulls up all worried asking if hes alright..and got a little upset cause i wasnt helping him. but me being how i am wasnt going to help him cause ive seen people wreck all the time and idk they just need to pick themselves up.. thats when the spirit hit me..i picked up the bike off of him and helped him up.. idk it may sound weird but it really changed a lot for me. just having more and more love everyday. be nice! the next day was his birthday and it was awesome!
i dont really have much to say this week. just be humble guys. please.

last p-day dig

had a big fat meal and a member gave us more ties...it was a good day.

multiple cakes for mijo

weslaco zone asian buffet lunch!

Blind

last monday we went to mcallen to try and dig, we had no success it was pretty sad. We've been meeting and finding lots of people and being more bold. People are more understanding as we are more bold in calling them to repentance. you might think,, wow youre a savage but as long as the spirit is there and its not just me saying it then its great! but most of the time people need a wake up call, this is their salvation we are talking about. i dont know why but i just thiking so deeply about the spirit, i just remember not really feeling the spirit through out my life until i got on my mission. with that in mind my first few transfers i really studied about recognizing and following the spirit. It helped me a lot and i know if you really want to have a better knowledge of something, study and pray for it and you will! our heavenly father truly wants to see us progress! ive been feeling pretty gross lately, the reest in the air is finally affecting me. had a few exchanges this last week. so mijo and i have been finding quite a few people lately and a lot of them hadnt really been progressing so we decided we were going to drop them. so we made a plan that we would call all of them and text them if they didnt pick up and whoever answered or called back to set up another time to go by, we would continue teaching them. we counseled with the lord and it was decided that we would go with this plan. so we call all of them and no one answered. we left messages and the day went on, later that day we only got one phone call back, and its from Danny boy, so we set up a time to go over the next day. the next day comes and im on an exchange with elder Sheehy and we visit danny firs t thing in the morning. when we show up he has a friend there that just got out of jail so we taught both of them and they both have desires to be baptized and danny's friend Fiddi had actually been praying to find a church to go to. what a miracle!! the next day i went to Olivarez for an exchange and had a really bad sore throat and lost my voice and took some medicine in the morning and was sleepy allll day, like everywhere we went i was fighting to stay awake. we finally get home at night and i read teh box of medice and it says may cause drowsiness.. GREAT!! my voice literally sounded like someone was talking into a microphone but every other second it cut out.. ah it drove me crazy haha. yesterday we gave talks in church on charity, procrastination, gossip and helping lost sheep. it was good and really made me think of a boy i once knew. a very good friend of mine who has made many changes in his life through obedience and actually seeking the lords help. i promise that if you dont procrastinate the day of your repentance, you will be more happy and be more prepared to meet our heavenly father. i love you guys!!

mijo steaming his first tie.

Tiny 

mijo ate it... i couldnt help but take a picture while he laid there.. it was hilarious hahaha

asian buffet!!

All I Wanted Was A Pepsi

pretty sweet week! we've been coming across tons of dogs!! ahh its great. we've been finding lots of people, heavenly father is great cause a majority of the people we have been blessed with have been wanting to come back to church or were taught in the past. i feel like mijo is starting to get the hang of things. its cool how the spirit works. he had asked me a question about personal progression on a mission and i just told him about following the spirit and how he can, and after he said "you know whats crazy, that you just talked about that cause i was just praying to know more about following the spirit" the gospel is beautiful. it feels good to be a missionary, ive never been happier. it took me having to come on a mission to finally experience what true happiness is. something ive learned a lot is the power and authority of our calling. we are representatives of jesus christ. this place is pretty wicked.. and we ride through countless neighborhoods where we feel like something is watching us.. its pretty strange but the adversary is real and knowing i have teh power to cast out evil spirits is very comforting. we are sent here for a reason. friday, our day was full and set, then came 4:30 and our 5 and 6 fell.. mijo and i were thinking well ok.. theres a reason those fell cause our 6 was going to take us far from the city.. we prayed to see why we were where we were and we ended up finding a small family of 6 for the spanish elders and found this guy named carlos whos roomate was being taught before. following the lords plan is pretty important even though at times we may feel like we really deserve something or should go a different way. seek the lords guidance, well carlos said we could go over the next day in the morning and we did and no one was there.....well comes the following day (yesterday) we were coming home from a members house.. and we were setting out our game plan for when we got back at 8. as soon as we got back we took off to visit carlos. we get there and he's not there but his friend Ross opens, we start talking to him and he comes outside and we start talking.. and he tells us his whole life and said that he was prompted to come outside and talk to us.. and how he had been feeling super stressed and frustrated during the whole day and we close with a prayer and it all just went out the window, he felt peacful. oh also he had read the book of mormon in 3 days when he was in jail, but last year he had a stroke and forgot everything. ahh he's a stud hes in his 30's. man this week was crazy but good. elder setati from the seventy came down for our stake conference. ah it was great!:) have a sick week!

cute lil watch dog 

future dog whisperer hahahah

Jehova Es Mi Pastor

pretty interesting week. i dont know why but lately ive been feeling a little lost but not at the same time. i just really want to get this area like my last one in Laredo. the work goes on. I went to my first MLC, its a meeting where all the leaders of the mission get together and have a training by presidente torres and we talk about last month and what we are going to do to prepare for the following months. I saw E.Birrell and my papi it was super good. the work has changed immediately since that meeting. its been so crazy!! we have been blessed with so many miracles of random people walking up to us as we are on the street and people calling us over to teach them. i gave a training to the zone about following your leaders and it all comes down to being humble. presidente said the first step to apostasy is talking bad about your leaders. our heavenly father is great and as we are humble and obedient we will see miracles. Mijo has been good just a little sick as he gets used to the valley reest.. He has so much animo for everything!

Connie May was baptized. I probably havent said much about her but acosta and I were teaching her, last year her family was baptized and her dad had been battling cancer for a while and was the first of the family to be baptized and then the rest of the family followed except connie May. a few months after the father was baptized he passed away. with his only desire that connie may would become a member. fast forward to the end of july. she came to church out of no where with her boyfriend who was a member. right off the bat she wanted to be baptized and knew everything was true. she asked to be baptized on the 3rd cause thats her fathers birthday. it was honestly a super great service there was like 50+ people there, friends and family. it was really a great experience. Now her and her boyfriend are going to get married. COMPLETED FAMILIES!! it was awesome! and last night this random women pulled up to us while we were on bikes and asked for a pamphlet and wants us to teach her family! god is good and to be honest mercedes is a super interesting and weird city but i love it! i dont know what else to say.. yeah!!
be safe out there!

Live at the dive

Déjà Vu

I got a call last monday night that i was going to be having another son. so on tuesday Elder Barnett was born!! yay!! he's from farmington utah and we went to highschool at the same time. he's a good lil dude and is super similar to his brother Elder Scott. its been quite the trip training again and moving to Mercedes (one of the old areas that i covered). so much crazy stuff has gone down, we now only cover Mercedes, "Queen City" we met a Viuko (big gang down here) who almost got his foot cut off, it was a good experience for elder barnett. we are also on bikes again. its nuts down here. i thought laredo was but... no wayy.. the valley is worse. elder barnett accidently called me elder garcia.. i was offended by my son.. haha jk he's super great and eager to learn everything!! he has a million questions allll dayyyy long its awesome and he is getting used to riding a bike in the heat! haha. random scripture for you to read. Joshua 1:9. I had mad Deja Vu at a zone meeting before i gave a training on teaching. im in the biggest zone in the mission. I know i am where i am supposed to be. there is 30 of us. i gave a training on teaching and it really opened my eyes on the importance of the spirit cause the spirit is truly the teaching in everything. the weather is starting to cool down its not that hot anymore.

cool experience of the week.
last night we were riding our bikes and stopped and started talking to these 2 guys in their yard. everything was going pretty good until this boracho pulled up on his bike and the 2 guys started getting pretty mad and told him to go away and kept telling us that we need to teach him cause he needs the lord more than anyone, we tried to talked to all 3 of them but the first 2 guys didnt want to say anything until the boracho left, we asked the guy Z"hey do you love your family?" he said yes and then we asked "do you want to change for your family?" and he said yes.. so then we asked.. "will you take us to your family so we can share a message with all of them?" then the 2 guys told the boracho, take the missionaries to your family!! and the boracho said, only if you give me another beer.. so they did and he chugged it and then we went on our way with him. he took us to his house... and on the way there i felt a little weird like oh man what are we getting into but.. i also felt like something good would come out of it. soo he takes us to his house and his wife opens the door and we start talking to her and them both and they are just in a huge struggle right now financially and stressed and worried and have 4 kids.. the husband wants to change his life and be good for the kids and be an example for them. it was honestly one of the greatest things ive seen as a missionary.. they are so humble right now and want the lord more than ever in their life. so we are starting with them and i hope they continue to progress, they are so great! mercedes is a weird city but its awesome!:) the church is true and whatever you do.. just choose the right okay.

greenies are so tired..

biking out to a member

texas clouds are so majestic

mijo is interested in everything he sees!! haha its awesome

Mercedes Tigers!!

dazed and confused after biking in the sun hahaha

oh and we are in a 2 man in a shoe box apartment

blessings right here! mijos first carne!

lil dude

punks not dead, an investigators grill! we were instant best friends. 

the milagro 

stephanie in the sunset