Another good week out here in enid! My comps got greenie graduation this week so that's exciting! Also we got 2 more friends on date with more on the way and also our friend yumine is getting baptized this Saturday sooo let's gooo!! God is good all the time! GOD SPEED!
Iakwe kom!
Elder Barben
**Bo's Email's have been short because he is spending the majority of his P-day's working on essays to apply to BYU! For part of his letter today we will share one of those. It was about how he handled a time in his life when he was defeated. Here is the essay:
My whole life I have had the goal of being a Missionary! I was excited when I received my mission call to the Oklahoma, Oklahoma city Mission, Marshallese speaking! When I arrived in Oklahoma, I fell in love with missionary work and the wonderful message I had the opportunity to share! After about 10 months of being a missionary, I received a call from my mission President saying that I needed to go home due to my asthma and Covid-19. I felt robbed and crushed, not knowing what to do next.
(What steps did you take to recover from this defeat? What resources did you use? How and why are you different today?)
When I got home from my mission, I was released as a Full time missionary via zoom. My Stake President counseled me to make goals as if I was not going back out on my mission. That was one of the hardest days of my life. But I followed his counsel and my first day out of quarantine I had a landscaping job. I started saving money and thinking and praying about what college I should attend. As I prayed and pondered, I felt like the heavens were closed. I knew Heavenly Father answered prayers and that he had a plan for me, but at the time I felt like he wasn’t listening. I didn’t know what to do or why I was home, but I trusted that Heavenly Father had a plan for me. I tried to make plans for my life, but I just left a part of me in Oklahoma. I had such a deep desire to go back out on my mission. So one day I sat down with my mom and dad and we wrote a letter to Elder Holland. I told him everything that had been happening and about my desire to serve. I had done everything I could possibly do to get back to Oklahoma; this was my last hope. Elder Holland personally called my dad and told him that I would be going back to Oklahoma as a full time missionary! As all of this was happening, my grandma had been taking the missionary discussions and she was ready to be baptized. So, right before I returned to Oklahoma, I had the wonderful opportunity to baptize my gramma and also confirm her a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints! At that moment, I knew why I was needed at home. Heavenly Father had it planned the whole time. He knew that I needed these experiences. He used this hard trial as one of the defining moments in my life. Looking back, I realize that the Heavens were wide open the whole time, I just needed to put my trust in Him. It has now been about 6 months since I have returned to my mission. My new perspective on life and my Heavenly Father has blessed me and these people of Oklahoma so much! I am a different person and will never forget this defining moment in my life.