April 9, 2018 - Surely the Lord God...Revealeth His Secret Unto His Servants the Prophets

Hey everybody!!!

I hope you've had a good week! My week here in Zimbabwe was full of soaring highs and humbling lows, but I'm so full of gratitude to my Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. As I mentioned last week, we were finally able to watch General Conference, and it was incredible!! That was definitely the highlight of my week. However, I guess it's best to start with the lows and move to the highs.

Last week one of our investigators, Alice Chongoziva (the one who's been waiting for her husband to return from Gweru so that they can be married and baptized), fell ill and missed church on Sunday. Elder Byrom visited her on exchanges mid week, and she had gotten worse. Then on Friday morning, we received the shocking news that Alice had passed away. Elder Byrom and I just sat there in silence and sadness. I have never experienced anything like that, and I took it hard. Alice was such a sweet lady who had learned so much about the gospel. Their family has been attending church and progressing for months, and we loved Alice so much. I understood anew in a very difficult way that the worth of souls is great in the sight of God, and that He has allowed me to begin to see and love those souls as He does. I am so humbled by the faith of her husband, Humphrey, who has expressed his desire to continue on the gospel path. I am so grateful to be a member of the Lord's church, where Heavenly Father's plan of salvation, the Savior's Atonement and Resurrection, and temple ordinances make it possible for families to be reunited again. I am thankful for Elder Uchtdorf's talk on how hope comes to us through the Lord Jesus Christ! I know that despite the sadness of Alice's passing, all can be made right through Christ!

Viewing conference surely lifted my spirits. I cherish the opportunity I had to sustain President Russell M. Nelson as the Lord's prophet during the solemn assembly. The Holy Ghost witnessed to me that He has been chosen by God to direct His Church in these days. I love him and sustain him. Here are a few of my favorite parts of conference:

With Elder Bvute on exchanges.
He's a Zimbabwean and his family lives in South Africa.
He was trained by my good friend Elder Daka
and is a great young missionary

- President Nelson, President Eyring, and Elder Wilson's talks on personal revelation through the Holy Ghost. I've always seen revelation as a concept that applied to others in conference talks and not to me personally, but I'm starting to understand that I can receive direction from the Lord for my day to day life.

- Elder Lynn G. Robbins' message on mistakes and repentance. I love how he said that the Lord is on our side, and that He paid an infinite price to give us infinite chances to repent!

- Elder Hawk's talk and others about the healing nature of forgiveness.

- President Oaks' talk on the small and simple things. Simplicity does not denote triviality when it comes to keeping or breaking God's commandments. We must never stop paddling upstream! 

- The theme throughout the conference of pure Christlike love and service.

With Annastancia (recent convert) and her family

Each time I have viewed general conference on mission, I have learned something profound and new. Each time it seems to go by too fast. I am so grateful for the semi-annual opportunity we have to be instructed by the Lord's ordained servants. I am grateful for the wake-up calls I received, the impressions that I felt, the Spirit that was present, and the love of God and His servants that was manifested. I hope each and every one of you found things that you can apply in your lives to be better disciples of Christ. I know that He guides this Church through revelation, and that His servants will never lead us astray. 

I love you all so much and I hope you have a fantastic week!!

Love Elder Barlow

April 2, 2018 - I Know that My Redeemer Lives!

Dear friends and family,

I hope you all had a fantastic week!! April already??? Time flies as a missionary, and sometimes I wish it would just slow down a bit. I hope you all enjoyed general conference over the weekend! I haven't viewed it yet because of the time difference, but I'll see it this weekend and I will send my thoughts next week. Thank you to everyone who shared their thoughts and impressions from the conference, I really appreciate it! 

Eastview in the Rain

This week started off with MLC, which was awesome as always. We had a lot of fun playing basketball with the rest of the zone leaders, and I even managed to set up the volleyball net at the chapel, which was sweet. Our meeting the next day was really powerful. President Mkhabela instructed us on several topics, one being how to teach the Word of Wisdom. Part of his remarks applies to all of God's commandments: when the Lord gives us a commandment, that in itself is the principle reason that we should keep the commandment, not because of man-made explanations or rationalizations. I know that when Heavenly Father gives us a commandment, we should act in faith and be obedient so that we may receive the promised blessings. Acting in faith gives us more strength to endure than any other reasons for obeying. Overall, it was a great meeting. Our zone was the most successful in the mission during the month, which was pretty cool as well, even though this work is not all about numbers.

Elder Byrom and I after MLC

This week was spent rebuilding our teaching pool. It's been slow going, but we were blessed with many new people to teach. We even exceeded our goal of finding new investigators! The awesome part was that several of them were families, which is the best! One of the first things we teach people when we meet them is that the gospel is there to bless their family! I definitely have a testimony of that because I can't even number the blessings that have come to my family because of living the gospel!! It makes it all the more special to teach people about the eternal nature of families here in Zimbabwe. My first recent convert here in Eastview, Annastancia, lost her aunt this last weekend and her mom was taking it pretty hard. Her mother is such a sweet woman. She makes traditional tablecloths and they are so cool. She's an active Christian but not a member of the Church, even though she loves the Book of Mormon. When we visited, she was pretty depressed about losing her sister, so we taught her about Alma 40-42 and how we will all be resurrected and live together as a family if we live the gospel. She then asked us about how her family can be together forever, and we are teaching her about the temple this week! I love this work so much!

On Sunday we had a wonderful fast and testimony meeting. Nearly everyone's testimony was centered on the Resurrection of the Lord. Our stake presidency joined us and shared their powerful testimonies and it was amazing. The Spirit was so strong. It is with great joy that I add my testimony to theirs, that Jesus is the Christ, and that He lives. I know that the tomb was empty on the morning of that first Easter Sunday and that He appeared to Mary Magdalene, the Apostles, and to disciples on Emmaus road. Though I have never seen Him with my eyes, I know that He stands on the right hand of the Father as the triumphant Savior of all mankind. To quote a favorite hymn that paraphrases 2 Nephi 4 "I love the Lord, in Him my soul delights." I hope you all had a wonderful time commemorating the Atonement and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I pray that each of you will celebrate it every single day. I love you all, have a fantastic week!!

Love Elder Barlow 

That Zimbabwe Sunset

March 26, 2018 - Gratitude

Hey everybody!!

I have to apologize again, this is probably going to be my shortest email yet (time is again a scarce commodity). Not a ton happened during the week because I was sick for a couple days. I can honestly say that although it was a bad experience, I gained such an appreciation for missionary work because I wasn't able to do it. I am grateful for the health that I've been blessed with throughout the majority of my life and my mission and for all the small tender mercies that have often gone unnoticed. Even more than that, I am grateful for a Savior, even the Lord Jesus Christ, that loved me enough to take upon Him my sins AND my infirmities so that I may be succored in trials and granted forgiveness. I am also eternally grateful for the opportunity the Lord has given me to serve Him and these wonderful people in Zimbabwe as a missionary. I have come to understand more and more that it is a privilege to be here participating in this great work, partially because it's an opportunity for me to learn, to change who I am, and become more like Christ. I am thankful for the good times and the bad times that I've encountered throughout my mission and for the person that they've helped me become. I firmly believe in our Heavenly Father's divine design to help us reach our full potential, and I cannot wait to see what lies ahead for the rest of my mission! I love you all, I promise that I'll write more next week!

Love Elder Barlow

Us with Freedom, one of our recent converts. He's going to be an awesome missionary, he asks to work with us all the time

March 19, 2018 - Faith Without Works is Dead

Hey everybody!!

I'm going to apologize in advance, today is going to be another condensed email. Time seems to be a scarce commodity these days, but I hope you can still glean the details of the week!

Baptism!

At the start of the week, we had plans to baptize 9 of our investigators. However, it seemed like all the powers of the adversary were bent on preventing that from happening. First, we got a call from Humphrey. He and his family were found by Elder Byrom and Elder Gunther before I came; he works in Gweru most of the time and has been meeting with the missionaries there while we've been teaching his family. Everything was lined up for their marriage and baptism this week, but when Humphrey came on the phone, he told us that his employer and not given him his salary, which meant that he didn't have the funds to make the 5 hour journey back to Harare this week. We still have great hope for them, and we are confident that they will be baptized in the very near future. Then Tuesday, Elder Byrom woke up sick, so we weren't able to do much. Then on Friday when we were doing baptismal interviews for the other 6 people who were getting baptized, one of them wasn't there, so we had to conduct his interview prior to the baptism. And the biggest obstacle of all: there was no power at the meetinghouse, so there was no way for the pump to fill the baptismal font. There seemed to be so many things going wrong, but the Prophet Joseph Smith once stated "No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing." We managed to get Tinashe interviewed before the baptism and Elder Byrom regained his strength throughout the week. And then on Saturday morning, Elder Byrom and I got up at 5:30 am, grabbed all the buckets from the house, and went to fill the font. We found a man named Andrew who stays a couple houses down from the meetinghouse, and we asked if we could use his well to fill the baptismal font. It was a miracle that he was up that early, and an even bigger miracle when he agreed to let us use the well and stayed to help us fill the font without our asking. We had to draw water by hand out of the well and then carry the heavy buckets of water down the street to fill the tub. Our bucket broke after about two loads, but Andrew the good Samaritan happened to be a bicycle repairman, so he patched our bucket and we were able to keep working. Eventually the DamoFalls elders joined us, and by 7:45 am we had the font nearly full. Then at 8, the second counselor arrived and got the generator to work so that the pump could finish the job. I testify that faith without works is dead, and I'm grateful that Heavenly Father provided means for our baptism to proceed. Misheck Mapuranga and his wife Whitney, Freedom, Angeline, Emilia, and Tinashe were all baptized on Saturday and it was incredible! We were blessed to teach them and it was a privilege to see them enter the waters of baptism! That was our week of mayhem and miracles here in Eastview! I love this work and I'm so grateful to be a part of it!

Elder Byrom and I celebrated the week with coconuts

That's probably all I have time for this week, love you all!

Elder Barlow

One of the many pics from our expedition
out in the far reaches of Eastview this morning

March 12, 2018 - Still Stuck in Eastview

Hey everyone!!

Transfers have come again, which seems surreal because I feel like I just got back to Harare. I'll be staying put in Eastview with Elder Byrom, and I'm excited to continue working together! I know the title implies that I'm unhappy to be sticking around, but it's just the opposite. I was just referring to how we got the truck stuck in mud this week. Elder Byrom suggested that we take a different way home since a lot of the water has dried up, but we ended up getting stuck in a foot of high quality madhaka. We were there for about 30 minutes, but luckily Zimbabweans can do basically anything so some guys helped us get out. It was pretty funny in hindsight.

With Elder Larson

I was able to go on exchanges twice this week. My first exchange was with Elder Larson. He's from California and we are in the same group. We lived across the hall from each other at BYU the summer before mission, and it's been so fun to catch up with him and remember the good times at the Y. Halfway through the day, we just stopped and talked about how we didn't think we'd ever be where we are now. He knows a lot about the gospel and we had a great time working together. The second exchange that I went on was with Elder Williams. He's from Arizona and is also in the same group. He's been the district leader out in Marondera, the furthest part of our zone and has been a huge help to us. It's been a blessing to serve around good missionaries, and it's always fun to talk to other elders from my group. There are so many of us and we've been scattered across the mission, so it's always good to catch up. 

Golfing with the district

One of the highlights of our week was finding new investigators. Last week we had a tougher time finding people to teach with everything that was going on, so we decided to talk to more people and put in some extra work this week. We met our goal and found 20 new investigators! It was so incredible to teach so many people, especially because our teaching pool had been decreasing a bit because we've had several people that needed our focus. We also taught an investigator named Faith. She was found by Elder Byrom and Elder Gunther last transfer and was progressing super well, but just dropped off the map for the whole transfer. We found her again and set up an appointment. As we were teaching her, it became apparent that she had forgotten the things she learned and the feelings she had. However, as we retaught the message of the restoration and bore testimony of it's truthfulness, it seemed that all the good feelings that she had before just came rushing back. She attended church with us this week, and we are excited to teach her again. In the recent weeks, I've learned the importance of bearing testimony. In zone conference, Sister Hamilton taught us about pure testimony. She said that pure testimony isn't a travel log or an expression of love for family or interesting experiences among other things; it is a simple, heartfelt declaration of truth that we have come to know by the Spirit and is centered on Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the restored gospel. As I have tried to apply what I learned, I have felt the Holy Ghost so much more during our lessons and felt so much more joy. In the words of President Packer, "a testimony is found in the bearing of it." I am so grateful for the testimony that I've gained while serving as a missionary, and I feel so humbled to be able to share what I have come to know to be true.

We have a big week for baptisms coming up this week, so keep us in your prayers so that everything will go smoothly!! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love Elder Barlow

1. with Elder Larson

2. Golfing with the district

March 6, 2018 - Highs and Lows (but mostly highs)

Hey everybody!!

March already?? Time really isn't slowing down in the Zimbabwe Harare Mission, but the Lord is still blessing us! However, the time moving quickly also applies to my email time today so I'll do my best to summarize everything that happened!

With the branch president's kids in Eastview

We had MLC again last week and it was awesome! The most memorable thing was President Mkhabela's instruction on discipline. A lot of zone leaders were concerned about missionaries in their zone being complacent, and President just took some time to teach us how discipline not only eliminates complacency, but how it brings honor and ability to achieve our goals. We can truly be anything if we are disciplined, and that applies to becoming like the Savior. It was awesome, and Elder Byrom and I have been applying his counsel and it has blessed us throughout the week!

Out in Arcturus during the rain

On Thursday and Friday we had a bit of a tough time. There were some pretty big problems with some missionaries in our zone that popped up out of nowhere, and the rain spoiled a lot of our plans find new investigators. On top of that, we came back from a baptismal interview in Friday and when I shifted gear, the clutch pedal broke. We had to wait for the car to get towed, which took the rest of the day. It kind of felt like the storm clouds were hovering right over us. Elder Byrom and I sat down and just talked about how we both felt, and we set a goal to lose ourselves in the work and lift each other up. 

Champion's baptism!

Saturday started with a baptism for Champion, an old man who speaks no English and stays up in Arcturus in the mountains. He was taught by the missionaries there before they were taken out last transfer. His house is definitely kumusha, the typical thatched roof huts that you would imagine making up his humble abode. He is such a sweet and humble man. We found time to go find him last week, and he initially was planning to go to his rural home at the beginning of the week. However, we taught him about the importance of baptism and invited him to pray about whether he should go or stay an extra week and be baptized. He prayed and decided to stay, and his baptism was awesome! After the baptism, we went right to work. For the whole weekend, we had a smaller car that couldn't handle the rough roads of Eastview, so we've been walking like crazy. We didn't waste any time and found a bunch of new investigators. Church was also really amazing on Sunday and almost all of our progressing investigators attended! We have two marriages scheduled for the coming weeks and we are so excited! The Lord really helped us get back on our feet after a few rough days and I know that He cares about even our smallest challenges!

The T-shirts that Elder Byrom and I made

The biggest highlight of the week was our zone conference with Elder Kevin S. Hamilton of the Seventy, the Africa Southeast Area president. He was so well spoken and he had a great sense of humor. He requested that we study a talk by Elder Bednar entitled "Converted unto the Lord" prior to the conference (if you've never read it, I would definitely recommend it) and he then instructed us on conversion and testimony. Testimony comes to the honest seeker of truth and is knowledge that comes by the power of the Holy Ghost, but conversion is being true to that testimony and offering our whole souls to God. He also taught us that as missionaries, we are agents of change/conversion for our investigators, not just bearers of information. That's just a tidbit of the many things that I learned from the meeting; it was definitely my favorite zone conference in memory. I was privileged to play the piano throughout the meeting as well, which was really cool.

I love you all!! Sorry that I don't have much time to include more thoughts, but I hope you have a great week!

Love Elder Barlow

February 26, 2018 - No Longer a Sister Missionary (18 months)

Hey friends and family!!

I hope you all had a great week! It's been a pretty busy week for us here in Eastview, mostly because we've had to be running back and forth across the zone. It definitely has been a rewarding week though! I can't believe that Elder Byrom and I are 18 months out now. I still feel so young on the mission. Time is flying by so quickly and I want to make the most of it!

Ruwa district

Here's a little snapshot of Zimbabwe: when Shona people see a couple of murungu's driving around, they love to say little remarks to us as we pass by. Something like "hey!" or "murungu/white guys" or "this is our Zimbabwe." Every time this happens, Elder Byrom just goes, "Hilarious, absolute comedians" and we just laugh about it. Some kids also try too hard to mimic English accents when they greet us, so often time we hear "how are youuuuuu?" in a high pitched, nasally voice. It's pretty funny, until grown men start doing it to you. We just speak Shona back to them whenever they do it and it garners a few laughs from people passing by. Haha this mission is so unique and I love it!

Alice's Baptism!!!

Alice got baptized this week!!!! It was pretty special to help her prepare throughout the week. By the way, both her and Jestina (the ones I mentioned last week) study the Book of Mormon like crazy and always have amazing thoughts and questions whenever we meet. It is so cool. Before her interview, we were going over a few things with Alice and we were discussing about repentance. When we talked about how repentance precedes baptism and asked her if she feels like she's been repenting of her past sins, she just kept nodding and saying yes. The Spirit was immediately there, and I felt this overwhelming joy and goodness in my heart. The gospel of Jesus Christ truly does change people. Alice was meeting with missionaries for several months and has gone through a lot, so it was really special to see her get baptized. When she was bearing her testimony, she shared about how much peace and joy the gospel has brought her, and how keeping the commandments and reading the Book of Mormon has blessed her life so much. It was one of the best experiences that I've had on my mission. 

Out in Kumusha (rural area) with
Elder Williams and Elder Tuimaseve

My spiritual thought will be short this week. It comes from CS Lewis: "We can say we believe in Christ as we believe in the sun at noon day, not because we can see it, but that by it, we can see everything else." I know that the Savior lives, but not because I have seen Him or heard His voice. I know because through His Atonement and gospel, I have become a better person and I am filled with hope and joy. I am so grateful to be able to spread the gospel and help others to see the world through Christ! 

Sorry that this is another brief email, but I hope I provided a sufficient summary of the week! I love you all, have a great week!!

Love Elder Barlow

PS Also, our mission will be having a special zone conference with Elder Hamilton next Monday, so my preparation day will be on Tuesday next week! So don't stress out if I don't email on Monday haha