Elder Joel Preston Barker ~Columbia, South Carolina Mission~: How great is my calling!?

Hello Momma! I love seeing the pictures of the snow! I think I miss that the most. Here, the South has too much pride to actually snow, so instead it just gets about 20 degrees and starts to rain, then it will rain ice for a little, then the humidity in the air will freeze, and we will be riding our bikes through a frozen fog. :P It is so weird! We get all bundled up and bike like big marshmallows. :) You'd laugh at us if you saw us! I am very thankful for our members, because they'll see us and pull over and drop us off wherever we need to go.
Last night, our Elders Aquarium President picked us up, came to an appointment with us, then brought us back to his house to help wrap a couple presents, and to drink hot chocolate. :) YAY! Haha I knew how to wrap the presents very well because my momma taught me how. :)
I am thankful for members with dogs, because I miss mine so much. haha I get to play tug-o-war and scratch plenty of bellies. :)
I can't believe Carlin is home! It is weird to think about how long he's been gone. He and Brandon Peterson felt like they were gone way longer than 2 years, or maybe I was just more conscious of things in this time. :) If that makes sense at all :P
Haha I got weird looks when I started laughing in the Library about the bear in the big blue house and me not wanting to get sniffed. I remember the video you showed me. :)
I miss you Momma, the other day, I thought about that video you showed me of the missionary coming home off the plane and his Momma wasn't there yet, the one where he picks her up and hugs her for like 10 minutes, and I just cried. I know that's how it's going to be when I get home, I just know it. I am crying right now just thinking about it. :P I'm a baby when it comes to my Momma. :) It is crazy that I have been out for 5 months though! So fast! Time is seriously flying by! I am excited for Christmas so I can Skype with y'all. :) I am so excited to see your faces! I miss you so much Momma! I am having so much fun though! I am doing so well, we are now in our car-share as you know, so we are getting used to biking a lot of the time. :) I enjoy it though! It has been really weird with the temperature lately. The other day it got to 81, then below freezing the next. I'm so confused :P

I wanted to tell you a story. The other night, we stopped at a young couples home right before we headed in for the night. I am not going to mention names because I am sworn to secrecy. The wife asked us if we wanted anything to drink and I said sure, so I followed her into the kitchen, she opened the fridge and asked if I wanted a soda, I said sure. When she opened the fridge, there was an Ultrasound magneted to the fridge..haha She closed it, handed me the soda and I just looked at her with a smile and said, "umm...." she followed my eyes, her jaw dropped and she just looked at her husband. We all started laughing and she yelled, "I told you someone would find out!" Haha He said, "missionaries seem to always know things before everyone else" :P It was so funny. They told us that they haven't even told their families yet, and that we would never ever be heard from again if we told anyone. :P So I'm telling you. :) That's THAT story.

Another story. :) We have been working around the parts of our area that we haven't worked before, and we are doing a lot of knocking. I don't particularly like knocking, because I think it's boring :P But that's just my ADHD. We were knocking in this little neighborhood, and we knocked into a preacher. Oh joy. Haha he was very nice, surprisingly. But he did bash with us a bit, but it was in a very different way than I have ever Bible-bashed. He spent about 15 minutes trying to prove to us that Elder Harris and I were prophets. um...he said that if we go do the Lord's work, that makes us prophets. We have an appointment to go back in a week, so I hope we can help him to come to the truth. :) Satan is so good at what he does. I can really see what he is doing more clearly. I feel so bad for him. Knocking is getting fun though! We are running into a lot of people that are much friendlier because we are listening to the promptings of the spirit, as well as how close it is coming to Christmas, there is a special spirit in the air. :) People in the South are very hospitable especially around the holidays.

We are working with a man that we found just 2 days ago, and he is just coming out of being homeless. He has very little, and spends most of his time thinking of things that he can do for his 14 year old son that lives in Georgia with his mother. He is probably the most humble man I have ever met. After our first lesson, he gave us some of his favorite caramel corn. :) He was so happy to see us happy by something that he was able to give us. He is always thinking about giving, this gospel is exactly what he needs. Yesterday after church, he called us just to tell us that he has been reading the Book of Mormon, and that he is very excited to see us again tomorrow. :) I love being a missionary! How great is my calling Momma!?

My thumb is doing very well. Not as good as I wish :P But it is great. It hasn't been hurting too bad, I still can't bend it too far without it hurting a bunch, but I can use it just fine for writing and biking and all that. :)
I did get my Christmas countdown, and I LOVE IT! Haha such a cool idea! I am loving the ornaments also! Such a good idea! You should patent it. :) I also got your letter with the pictures, and I am very jealous! I miss The Who group! I am so glad Sawyer is coping well. :) Also, I thought Todd was Greg in all of them! Holy cow! He's huge! haha I miss that boy terribly. Is he doing alright? I love you Momma! I don't a have ton of time, so I am going to send this. :)
Love you!
You're the best Momma there ever was!
Also, we got to watch the scout program the other day, and I wanted to tell you, Momma, you earned your Eagle, but they gave the badge to me. :)
Thank you so much for all you do Momma, I love you too much!
I love you more than Sawyer does! ;)