Elder Joel Preston Barker ~Columbia, South Carolina Mission~: God never forgets to answer my prayers!

Thank you to The Cipriano Family for the picture and song!

Hahaha I love the song that they sang in primary! We had our little Christmas party the other night, and I got to sit on Santa's lap and take pictures! I heard Brother Cipriano sent you one. :) I love that man, I promised him that I would come back and visit him as soon as I can, so you have to hold me accountable to do that, okay? ;)
My week has been pretty fun. :) Crashed my bike, went to the ER, took the car to get it fixed, they won't let me do it by myself. :( and we met a bunch of way awesome people that we are working with! There is this one guy named M*** D****. He just came out of being homeless for years, and he loves the LDS faith. God has prepared him in so many ways! He loves movies, and he rented one that was called "New York Doll the movie" And it was about a band that was getting back together, and the lead actor is LDS! He was like "Hey! I know them!" :) God is pointing him back to us in so many ways. He is very goofy and loving, and he is the most humble man I have ever met. I love him so much, and I am excited to see him get baptized on January 4th. :)
The bike accident was dumb. I swerved to miss some branches and when I corrected my swerve, I lost control of my bike, and slid sideways. The only real damage I got was I scraped my palm a little on the landing, and I think I hit my helmet. I got up and kept biking, but the next day my neck was pretty sore. I guess I jerked it the wrong way. After a day of just babying it and taking Ibuprofen, I called the mission nurse and she told me to go to the ER and have it looked at. The people at the ER were really nice and got me in very quick. They had a muscle specialist and a physical therapist come in and check me out, and he massaged it a little and did some other things that were weird and helpful at the same time, then he put this weird tape stuff on my neck and back that is supposed to help with inflammation. They gave me a prescription for Flexeril (I think is how you spell it) and some Ibuprofen. They also gave me a prescription for pain medicine, but I didn't fill it out because I didn't need it. I have been steady on Ibuprofen, and I take one muscle relaxer right before bed. I have only taken two. I am doing fine though, It hasn't been hurting at all yesterday or today, and I can use it just fine. I am okay Momma, I'm sorry that I hurt your son :/

Bike is fine. :) Your boy is fine. I promise. :) Not even hurting any more. :) Please don't put my bike on the roof..I need it to do missionary work! ;) I'm sorry to worry you. I really was trying to avoid a doctor so that I wouldn't worry you, but I am just fine. :) All Sunshiny and great!

I am so excited to talk to y'all on Christmas! We are going over to the Fengers in the morning and they are letting us do it over there, we will be able to figure out all of the details on the phone beforehand.

I love these people so much momma! I am going to be so sad when I leave!

We did a little exchange thing on Saturday because the Columbia Elders needed to have someone interviewed for baptism, and Elder Harris had to be the one to do it, but we had like 3 appointments at the same time, so we exchanged and I went with Elder Farnsworth into my area, we just biked. The other Elders took the car because we were going to be going with a priest from out ward, Well, we went out, and all of our appointments fell through, so we relied on the Lord to tell us where we needed to go, we ended up running into a lot of people we had been trying to get a hold of, and taught 3 really great lessons with this kid. :) He is getting ready to leave on his mission, just waiting on his call, so it was really cool to have him out with us and to be able to answer the questions that he had about what to expect. :) Well, we did this until about three. And we weren't switching back until 5. IT started POURING rain. :) I like the rain. Elder Farnsworth and I got to bike in the rain for about 2 hours on Saturday, and it was crazy! haha we were so wet! We were having a ton of fun though. :) Just picture me, soaking wet, riding a bike, smiling and singing to myself. :)

We have been doing a lot more biking lately, but you will always hear that from an Elder. We are always trying to conserve miles :P That's one thing I am going to be very exited for when I get back, I won't have to pay attention to how many miles I go a day! :P We try to see people on our way to appointments, but sometimes we have to get right out and right to the far parts of our area to be sure we'll get to an appointment on time. I find myself praying to myself throughout the day, just asking for strength to continue onward and praying for opportunities to teach people. :) And God never forgets to answer my prayers. :)

We have some pretty big hills in our area that we bike up, so when we are in the car, I am extra thankful that we have a car. People are being much nicer to us with the Christmas season coming so fast. 9 days!!! That's so crazy! Do you remember in the airport when I called and you told me "Talk to you on Christmas!" Well, that's almost here! So fast! I can't wait to Skype with y'all! I know I am going to cry! :P
I have to go Momma, I love you!
Merry Christmas!
Your Sunshine! :)