Stories and Stinging Caterpillars

Dear Family,

So far from my studies, we only have to worry about four different animals: Mosquitos, fire ants, dogs, and... Stinging catipillers?
 I'm still not sure if I believe the catipillers can sting...
maybe I'll convince someone to find out for me.
  Sigh, but yes, I actually DO have something to say for each and every one of those pictures, but I couldn't think of a way to send them >:( frustrating.

I'm doing good! The language is steadily progressing and I'm trying to stay patient with myself as everyone tells me to, We've actually been having problems getting a hold of contacts. Either they don't answer the phone, or they tell us to set another time, so we've been constantly searching for people that will let us in progressivly. And that's kind of hard.

Cool story though:

So we met a man two weeks ago, he was drunk, shirtless, and angry. I personally didn't understand much about what he said but my companion later told me it was a lot of really offensive stuff about religion, false prophets, and people in general. (something else that needs to be understood: there is A LOT of religious excitment here. there are several cults, including one really wierd egyptian/christian group. One really terrible preacher predicted the end of the world and convinced a LOT of people to leave their homes and stuff. the world ended Two months ago.)
Back to my story:
My companion didn't like this guy at all, but even still invited him to hear our message. To the suprise of my companion He agreed.
WELL we met a week later, he was still shirtless and I THINK he was drunk, but he spouted off a lot of angry words and politely asked us to meet with him next week 'cause he had a docters appointment or something...
This last monday we met with him, (He was shirtless, but not drunk) and he listened intently, asked good honest questions, and I THINK he felt the truth in our message. The thing is, throughout our visits with him... There's something in his eyes that are saying something very honest, desperate. I THINK. I dunno. I'm putting a lot of faith in the idea that this person is ACTUALLY trying to find answers and not just conquer random religious people. But He listened to us, he was happy to let us come back next week!
SO Now we're going to see whether or not I'm just imagining things.

ANOTHER STORY!

It was 8:45 at night. Raining. This is the WORST time to be contacting. We had no lessons planned, Nothing. BUT after praying and meditating for some time... K, I'm going to be strait up honest, and it will sound dumb, but I'm just going to say it as it happened so play along.
I heard in my head a woman calling. She was in our neighborhood. I told my companion that we needed to go contacting "over there". Since we had nothing better to do he agreed.
We met with a man (my companion is sure he was gay) Who had no interest in our message but was nice and talked with us about religion. We then asked if there was anyone he knew that might like to hear our message and he pointed to a house jokingly and said "those people just went through a divorce, go teach them about families."
Well we did just to spite him. We called them "Calle 25" and tried every two days to see them, but they were never home.
Until last night.
So, he actually lied to us. They weren't going through a divorce. Last night it was late and we decided to try calle 25 'cause we were wasting time. We pulled up just as a woman was walking into the house.
Turns out two months ago her mom had joined the end of the world cult and abandoned her daughter and her husband to "live with God".
She gladly accepted to meet with us this saturday.

So right now my challenge is believing that people will listen. I never realized just HOW little faith I had in humanity until I got out here. I personally believe with all my everything the things I teach, but... I'm still shaky on trusting in peoples ability to search as I searched and see what I see.  It sounds really egotistical doesn't it? Yeah, I'm full of myself.

ANYWAY, stay safe,  be smart, Write you next week!

-ME

New Address

Elder Cody Barnes
Puerto Rico San Juan Mission
Urb Jardines de Capparra
500 Calle Marginal Norte
Bayamon, PR, 00959

Things are good (sent June 1, 2011)

Things are good, the pope is still catholic. We actually have most of the missionaries here in Puerto Rico, we've got a project going where we're trying to fortify this island and get more families going to church here before we go to other islands.
Rainy season just started, but it's still always 80.
My area actually has a ward! But I haven't been there yet. I had to go on splits for some reason I don't really know :P
Yes, you can send packages now. PLEASE send food!! Haha, no we actually JUST bought four hundred dollars worth of food from costco :) Mom needs a bumper sticker that says "Costco saved my baby".
BUT I WILL NEVER COMPLAIN ABOUT YOU SENDING CANDY/FOOD

UMMMM yeah. Things have been going alright though. I'm still getting the hang of the language. Right now that's kinda a thorn in my side. But most of the people I talk to speak english, so I'm not hopeless.

Can't say TOO much has happened yet. I've met a lot of really awesome families. I'm pretty much always sweating, but I don't mind.

Until next wednesday!

-Me

Genius Mosquitos!

About the mosquitos. They are geniuses. I hate them with a passion. and I
usually sweat off all the repellent around noon. :P but they say after your
here for a while they... get bored of you? I dunno.

Ummm Yeah! So Contacting can be a lot of fun! Contacting at Kmart is NOT so
fun. Well, it's not that bad, it's just we have to compete with some real
estate agents and these crazy hombres selling cakes. But I really like
talking to people at their homes. We don't knock on doors, we just yell
"Buenas! Permiso!" until they come :P I think my favorite houses are in the
Campo (Pronounced like Compost without the st, it means jungle), all
jury-rigged and added on, and the people up there are much nicer.
Oh, I got a fun conversation to share. So I was talking to someone about
sports, and they said
"So do you play football or anything?"
"Not especially, I really got into parkour though"
"What? Parkour is OLD man! You should play football!"
......
Because football is a new sport apparently.
XP NO ONE UNDERSTANDS MY ART!!

Oh! another fun story: so We were driving in the city borders, and as we
were stopped at a light I saw a lady point out an iguana to a security guy.
The Iguana wanted to go into the store or something apparently, but the
security guard walks up and tries telling it to go away. It sort of pretends
to wander off but then goes and sits next to the door. So the guard is
standig there, and I couldn't really hear him, but he had his hands out like
he was trying to explain to the iguana why it couldn't sit there. And that
Darn iguana just wasn't listening! What a punk.

Anyway, that's about all for today. Stay safe!

-Me

From the field!

I'M IN PUERTO RICO NOW! My new companion is a zone leader O.O I don't know
if you know what that means, but that's actually pretty intense. I was
warned several times that he was a real "go getter" :P that means someone
who ENJOYS doing what I was planning on doing >.> .... he's really nice and
funny too, and he's not a fanatic, which is REALLY nice. So far it seems
like he's found that perfect balance of hardworking and human.
I'm learning spanish! Haha I found when I'm listening to someone talk to
someone else I can usually understand them almost perfectly, but if they
look me in the eye I go blank :( and I can't really respond very well. But
really, I do that no matter what language you speak to me.
Speaking of languages! Last night I visited a family from cuba, and after
our lession the nice lady gave me this sweet electronic translator thingy!
Very fun :>
UUUMMMMM The people here are much more american, meaning not as willing to
talk to you as the dominicans or hatians, the driving is a LITTLE better
(they drive in lanes here!) but still pretty crazy.
I'll be sending pictures of my house along with all my other ones I've taken
at the Mtcs. Rainy season just started, hurricane season is like... next
week? So it's wet a lot. But it's so hot that it dries really fast. ... It's
actually quite a bit like utah (jumping from rain to blue skies in minutes)
except no snow. AND THE LIZARDS! 8D Skinks and anoles and they say on the
beaches there's iguanas all over, an kokki frogs! I really like kokki frogs,
I like them so much that I will learn how to spell their name someday!
Honestly? It's kinda too much to take in. I think I'll be able to give you a
good lowdown in about a week but right now I'm still in shock.

And I don't mean culture shock, My goodness. I'm growing so fast and
everything just seems laid out for me. My Family, I beg of you to try
looking deeper into this religion. It is a religion of Life, of Freedom, of
Peace. Our culture in Utah is skewed, but this Gospel is perfect.

I love you all. I'll write more next wednesday!

-Elder Barnes

May 19, 2011 Leaving for Puerto Rico This Tuesday!!

    I'm leaving for PUERTO RICO THIS TUESDAY! so don't send letters or anything to the D.R.! Ummm... It seems emails are being problematic again, I didn't get that last email you spoke of...But at least you only have to click resend, right? 

    Ummm.. These last few days in the CCM have been hard because it's mostly just reviewing, and if I'm not careful I start thinking I don't have anything more to learn :P BUT thank goodness I found the book of ROMANS! And I understand it, so... it's really cool. The first four chapters of 1 Corinthians is pretty cool too, but Romans is like.. the first general conferance. and THAT'S cool.

    I have had two or three moments where I suddenly realize the teacher isn't speaking english. This is pretty cool, except as soon as I realize they're speaking spanish my mind shuts down >8( but it's a process :P

    I got some SWEET pictures of this butterfly I caught, It's all blue and bright orange. I'm actually having trouble discerning if it's a moth or a butterfly, because it's body is fat and fuzzy more like a moth, and it's wing layout is V shaped. BUT it's head, proboscis and antennea are TOTALLY of the other genus! so... When you get my pictures, if someone finds out what kind of creature it is that would be cool. 

    Yes. I've caught two lizards, and I've TOUCHED a skink (stupid crafty skinks) There's dogs everywhere, but they just look... dazed. and we don't touch them.

For example, on one occasion whilst being social at the university there was a german sheperd curled up right in front of the front doors to the school. It was very sad.

    Ummm... Yeah..  I had a really weird dream last light where i played a show.. but I didn't actually know..the song..  but it was realy dumb. Yeah. ALL my dreams are just odd lately

    Oh! Haha, kinda a funny story. So, everyone knows I freerun. The other day someone was having too much fun with the soccer ball and kicked it over the 12 foot wall. NO, I didn't go get it. My mission presidante would have had a heart attack. BUT. I got a good look at where the ball was :P I think what really makes it funny is I took FOREVER getting up the wall, cause I didn't run strait up like I normally do, I cat-ed to a ledge next to it and dyno'd up to the top, but the wall is rounded on top so I had to REALLY struggle. BUT everyone was SO impressed

    "Whoa! That was super fast!"

    "I didn't know you were like, GOOD!"

    Very silly. Everyone at home would have made fun of me, but I'm a genius in France!

    No really though: The fellow elders here are really amazing people. I hope someday I convince them to visit or something so you can meet them.

    WELL... that's all for now, I'll probably write a little more later today.

Ciao!

 

May 3, 2011 Pictures from Pres. & Sis Burk

We received these pictures from Pres. and Sis Burk, who are in the temple presidency in the Dominican Republic, and have a daughter in our ward.  They wrote:

The missionaries sang for us at FHE. Elder Barnes conducted the choir.It was beautiful. They Haitians sang in French, the others in English. So wonderful! Could you share these with his family?