ERRATIC ROCK

A Text:
"Found this guy hanging out at Erratic Rock tonight. He's doing well and settling right in. It's almost like he's from Oregon or something..."

This text and picture came from the Mission Leader in the ward David is serving in. His wife Anne and his mission companion are there on the rock with them. The Elders usually play wallyball with them on Friday nights but it got cancelled. Instead they took them to Erratic Rock really quick :).

Erratic Rock Historical Site - Sheridan,OR
This 90-ton rock was deposited during an Ice Age flood. It floated over 500 miles in an iceberg 12,000 to 17,000 years ago,  by way of the Columbia River. When the ice melted, the rock was left behind. This is the largest glacial erratic found in the Willamette Valley. It is a type of rock not normally found in Oregon because it came from the Northern Rocky Mountains. Visitors at Erratic Rock can look out across the vast landscape and image the huge amount of water that filled the Willamette Valley during the Ice Age Floods.

David's shirt says "Not all Super Heros wear capes :)"  We sent it to him in his "Greenie Box" last week.

FIRST WEEK in the FIELD

Received Tuesday, JUNE 25 2013

Hi Mom, 
Here are the answers to your questions:

1.) (What days can you access email?) Tuesdays and sometimes Fridays 

2.) (What times?) Tuesdays around noon UTAH TIME, Fridays are uncertain. 

3.) (Have you visited many members homes?)I've visited so many houses that all their names are not coming to me right now. But there is a family who's son is going to serve in the Salt Lake City South mission, which is totally our area. If you come across an Elder Green, FEED HIM!!! haha!

4.) (How is tracting going?) We aren't tracting much, but within the time that we have been tracting, I've been called a cultist, among other things lol. It's been fun!

5.) (Are you teaching any families?) Yes, we are teaching 3-4 families right now, always a member present. WOOHOO!

6.) (What is your biggest hurdle?) Biggest challenge so far: Staying awake during personal study time. Seriously. This is rough haha.

7.) (What was everyones reaction when you and Whitney saw each other?) They were just as suprised as we were! It was so weird!

8.) (I heard there was a group picture of the 32 of you...do you know who has it?) The mission pres has the picture, I'll find out how to get it to you. I believe they were going to send it to you anyways?

9.) (Are you and Elder Andrus getting along well?) Absolutely, we spend so much time praying and studying together that it's hard not to. We've extended so many commitments together as a companionship that we're becoming one in purpose, which is awesome. We decided to offer a deal to one of our innactives who lives in a unkept mobile home. We told her that every hour she spends at church we'd serve her for that amount of time around her home. Pretty good deal!

10.) (Is Elder Andrus going to the Salem Mission as well?) Yes, he is, he'll be my companion for 11 more weeks at least.

By the way, I inherited a gorgeous brown suit that fits like a charm, will be buying brown shoes for it soon :) I'll take a pic of myself in it and send it your way as soon as I have a memory card reader to plug into the computer. :) Thanks a ton! I'll talk to you soonish!

PICTURES from the FIRST DAY!!

Here are pictures from Monday, June 17th 2012. Thank you to Dayna Davis, my dear friend who was there at the Mission meeting the day David landed.

Pic 1 - FIRST DAY!!!  This picture totally cracks me up!! You can see in his eyes how exhausted he is from being up since 3:00am!  This reminds me of his "first day of Kindergarten" picture, hahha. Doesn't he look so excited and proud to be there?? That's my son. I'm so happy for him!

Pic. 2 - On the left is my dear dear friend Dayna Davis. Dayna have known each other since 2006, when we moved to Sherwood. She's an incredible pianist and a very expressive composer and musician. We have been through a lot together, including our thyroid disorders :)  Love this lady.  Elder Barrow is next to her. In her words "Sis. Benson (from Woodhaven ward but is now in Gladstone) with Sis. Gillis who is a brand new missionary like David."

Pic 3 - ELDERS of ISRAEL!!!  This is Elder Barrow and his missionary companion/trainer Elder Andrus. They are so excited to go and serve!! So proud of these young men, who give 2 years of their lives to serve others.

A Surprise Guest at Dinner!

We got another short email from Elder Barrow today! He is with a fabulous trainer, Elder Andrus. They seem to be very busy about the Lord's work. He listed a couple of needs that we will take care of for him. He continues to be blessed, and also continues to meet people he knows, hahha. 

"The Boswells say hello, as does Whitney Ackerson, who is engaged to our previous bishop's oldest son. We had dinner with him (Brother Bernhisle) and she was there! It was super crazy!" 

The Boswells are friends we served with in the Aloha 1st ward when we lived in Beaverton Or.  Whitney Ackerson is a friend of David's, also from that same ward. She is my friend Allyn Ackerson's youngest daughter. Elder Barrow went to primary with Whitney from age 3 to 6, when our ward split. Later, after we returned to Oregon and lived in Sherwood, they reconnected and sang together four two years in a regional Mormon Youth Choir. To sum it up, Elder Barrow and Whit go way back :).  

How fun for him to see her and meet her fiance'!  I'm looking forward to sending a note to her Mom :)

The Boswell Family and Whitney's family will not be part of the Salem Mission...funny that he met them in McMinnville....

Yet another reminder that it is a Very VERY small world :).

From the Field - McMinnville!!

The most recent letters from David!  

They came yesterday. He is in McMinnville Oregon, and is already busy at work!!  The first part of his letters he is answering questions I've asked him.

Email #1

1) yes - we have a car

2) no - I dont need a heavier blanket

3) yes, continue to use the same address for now

4) no - no new map of the Salem mission yet, I'll get the map on July 1st when the changes are in place.

5) My work out t-shirts are awesome, but they can have logos,  you didn't have to go out of your way to get a bunch of shirts that don't have logos haha. The logos just can't be inappropriate.

6) My favorite scripture is Isaiah 35:3-7

7) Yes, I can print pages. It will just cost me $.05 per page.

 

So yesterday was my first day in the new ward. Elder Andrus (my comp) and I had dinner at the bishop's house, Bishop Kamper. He has been the bishop for a total of 9 days now, and so we decided that we'd learn how to do our respective callings together haha. Then we went to help a lady and her daughter move out of her house (and out of a really bad situation). [And he's getting caught up with the needs of the ward.] I'm really getting put to work here! Anyways, I'm excited to be here so far and I hope I can actually do some good in the ward haha.

 

[My friend Dayna Davis, who saw David at the mission meeting, had been teasing his companion to "watch out for this kid, he's a handfull" kind of thing, haha. Both young men were not responding ...stoic was more like it haha. She was concerned, wondering if she had gone too far].  And no, Sister Davis didn't go too far,  I had just been up since 2 AM and I was extremely exhausted. I hope she didn't think I wasn't having a good time, I totally was! And it was awesome to see Bishop Eddington. Aparently my comp's dad also works with Uncle Joel, so that's interesting as well. Sorry if anything is incoherent, I still haven't slept enough to recover from yesterdays insanity.

 

Love you!

~~~~~~~~

Email #2

1) yes - (he got his meds ok)

2) yes - (he got his clothes I sent)

3) yes - (he got his shots at the MTC and no reactions)

4) My first area is in McMinnville

5) I am learning a lot. LOL jk, I'm learning right now a lot about the mentality of man, mostly about how to create a desire to be repentant and humble as well as a desire to come unto Christ and learn of his love. It's really interesting!

 

So I have envelopes, but I'll try and buy some stamps when I can. I need to start writing more people so they will start writing me! >:)

Hint Hint :)

Rebeca Shinkle Matz

Rebecca is one of my dearest friends from Monmouth. Still, as we chat on Facebook it seems nothing has changed :).  Way back when, as an investigator, she and I became the best of buds. Her dad is such an incredible man, and was the bishop of the ward I was attending. Nobody plays "Margaritaville" on the ukelele like Bishop Shinkle :).

Rebecca is responsible for dragging me into a tri-stake church production of the musical "My Turn on Earth".  She was with me at my baptism, she helped me get my drivers license, and she was there for me during a very heart-wrenching breakup.  I believe we met during Music Man...her family was very involved in the college production where I played Marian...and her little brother fell off the stage into the orchestra pit...

Amazing how all the memories flood back...

She just FB messaged me....she is in David's ward. I'm excited for them to meet. Well...she can leave out the part about teaching me to drive... Hahhaa.

Very VERY small world.

~ Patti

Meeting of the Parents

With Bishops email sent out to the parents of both elders, I was contacted by Elder Andrus's dad. Turns out he "works for OC Tanner with a Joel Barrow. Do you know him?"

Sure do! He's my husbands uncle :).

Very VERY small world.

~ Patti

McMinnville with Bishop Kamper

David is now serving in the McMinnville Stake, McMinnville 2nd ward. His Bishop sent this letter to me and Elder Andrus' folks:

"I am Bishop Kamper, of the McMinnville 2nd Ward, McMinnville Oregon Stake. We had the privilege of having your sons join my family for Dinner tonight. We are excited to have them serve as a companionship to bless our friends and families through their service.

I have been the Bishop as long as Elder Barrow has been a missionary, so together we're greenies.  I promise, we will take good care of them.  Thank you for entrusting them to us."

MOVING from PORTLANDIA....

I have it on good authority that Elder Barrow is now in McMinville!!  (thank you Dayna Davis!!)
He will be transferred to the Salem Oregon Mission on July 1st.

I can't believe it!!
He is back at my old stomping grounds :)  I can't wait to see the mission map, looking at the area which is part of eugene, Im thinking he will get to go to the coast! Hopefully during the winter...easier on the eyes if you know what i mean hahaha.

What a wonderful day....

~ Patti

Meeting a Dear Friend

Bishop Eddington wasn't always our bishop. For a few years, Scott served as the YM president of the Woodhaven Ward where we lived in Sherwood. He was in instrumental part of our sons growing up, and in times of crises for our family. He is a good friend, and a stalwart man of God.

I got an email from him today!  David is being watched over, for certain.  A lot to be thankful for today :).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was coming back from SLC on a plane with a whole bunch of missionaries - Look who I found. It was a lot of fun to catch up with him. He's going to be a great missionary.

Regards,

Scott Eddington

A Call Home

When I was a young mom, I had a little man who loved to talk.  As a baby, he would sit up in his crib, pull out his binky and blow raspberries. I'd hear endless giggles coming from his room as he would entertain himself with the amazing sounds he could make. Then...he figured out how to knock on the wall, the crib, anything within reach that could make a sound, it was David's happy place. The day he left, Niqui and David occupied the Music room with their talents. Niqui sang as David played the piano...songs he would not play for two years. It was music to my heart.  His John Schmidt anthology still sits there, waiting for him to return.

Speaking of music to my ears, David called us this morning from the Salt Lake City Airport. He sounded tired, but excited! It was 6:50am, and with it being an unknown number, I didn't know wether to answer it or not. But at that time in the morning, it HAD to be important. Then I hear..."Hey, it's me"...um..."David?"  "yeah".  Ok, first of all...if he had said "hey mom, it's me" I would have known...had a clue...but seriously? LOL

It was an awesome call. John was there and we both spoke to him for a couple minutes, and then he asked if I'd get Niqui up. She'd probably be really upset if we didnt wake her up and he had called :).  The young man is considerate of his sister. Awesome :)

He's excited, nervous, and a bit scared. I could hear it in his voice. We were encouraging, excited for him and loved being with him if even for just a few minutes. Oh yes, I do miss him. The ten minutes of heaven was just too short. As soon as we hung up, my tears couldnt be contained. So many emotions...proud of his decision, excited for his journey and those he will teach...and yearning to hug him, not wanting to let him go. Still, we cheered him on, told him to go forth and work hard. It will be much too long before I hear his voice again. Yet, Im so very happy he is where he is.

Where IS he? Well..wether he stays int he OPM or goes to the Salem mission, we wont know until we hear from Him.  Our friend, Dayna Davis, from the Woodhaven Ward in Sherwood, will be taking their wards sister missionaries to the Mission Meeting today. She is hoping to see David there. Thankfully, when David was on the phone, I was able to tell him that Dayna would be there. He was SO excited, he said he would look for her. A little touch of home. That's all he needed.

TORNADO HITS MCMINNVILLE!

Three Days before Elder Barrow arrived, an EF1 Tornado 

touched down in this small town of McMinnville.

Click here to visit the new footage!

David's First Letter - MTC

David's letter from the MTC!   Wednesday, June 12th 2013

From Patti -- It had been a week since we'd heard from David! We dropped him off at the MTC on June 5th, and he was finally able to write home one week later :).  It wasn't until then that I was told it was "normal" for them to be so busy that first week, a letter rarely comes home. Wish I had known! It would have saved me a lot of concern! Hahhah

Hey Mom,

I got your letter yesterday from "Dear Elder," in case you were wondering how fast I received it. [It arrived the Same day!} 

This last week has been the most amazing week ever.  As to my experience in the MTC, this place is absolutely astounding. Every day we study for 9 hours in the scriptures. By the end of the day we are just so exhausted that we start mixing up scriptures and experiences haha. Each day here feels like 3 whole days, but we love it! I could come home after being here at the MTC and just be so filled with everything that I've learned that I would be twice the man spiritually that I was. I'm excited to invite others to Christ, for them to feel that same love that I have been feeling. 

Last night we had a devotional in the Marriot Center, the only place that could fit so many missionaries. The walk there was amazing, just being in the middle of the throng of elders and sisters all singing about Zion. At one point we got everyone to sing "Called to Serve," and it was AWESOME. Imagine 2,800 missionaries all singing at the same time! But the best part was the devotional itself. [It was on the News and in the papers!!]

So my companion is a short venezuelan/columbian/Italian named Elder Viecco (pronounced V-echo) and he is awesome. Such a kick in the pants. He's a dancer, tree hugger, nature lover, and vet student at BYUI. He's 18. There is also a sister in my district that reminds me of Niqui so stinking much, it's hillarious. Her name is Sister McMahon (pronounced McMan) and she's a vocal preformance major at BYUI. Imagine if you took Niqui's talents and Francisca Requelme's excitement and put it all into Emily Sorenson's attitude about life. She's so loud! [for those of us to know these three ladies, this description is just too funny! hahah]

All in all, I'm having a wonderful time here in the MTC.  By the way, I can write letters any day of the week, but I can only e-mail on P-days. [preparation day = once a week]

God's work and his glory is to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." This isn't my mission. This is the Lord's mission that I've been permitted to work. It's such a blessing to be here. I love you all.

~Elder Barrow

And so it begins....

Becoming a Missionary

Tonight David became Elder Barrow. President Tracey Jones, Bishop Steve Pace and his dad John G. Barrow set him apart as a Full Time Missionary for the church. What a great blessing it was.  On Wednesday he will leave for the Mission home. His service begins now :).