God is so amazing!

This week I...
wait no, that wasn't me.. ;)

Anyway, this was a pretty good one, it was really busy! We got to go fishing last Monday for P-day, and I caught a snapping turtle! I have never seen one in real life, but I knew what they could do to a
finger...I was a little apprehensive about picking it up, but we got it on land, and out of the pond at our bishop's property. It was a fun day.
We went to Columbia with our district leader and his companion because Elder Griffin needed to have surgery to put one of his fingers back together after he broke it playing football. We were originally going with them so we could leave one of us there during the surgery, and the other two could go get new tires put on the car, but that didn't end up happening...hah, we ended up all just waiting for him to be done...goodness we had a good time. I served around Elder Griffin last year when I was in Windsor Lake, and he was in Columbia ward. We went on a p-day hike through the Congaree national swamp...I mean park...haha I love this kid, so I was stoked when he came to our
district. I am so happy he chose to stay out on his mission too.  We got to go out to lunch with the mission nurse, and stopped by Hopkins and by one of my favorite stores and we each bought a shirt! Fripp and Folly are cool shirts :)
We had an awesome night on Thursday, where our bishop wanted to take us out teaching, but we also had another member who wanted to go out teaching with us, so we split our area. I went with our bishop, and Elder Connolly went with Campell Connell, and we covered way more ground. I was eager to serve and teach along side the bishop.
We all ended up meeting at a part member's home where Bishop and I had already begun teaching a lesson, and they showed up. Could have used a little more coordination on our part, but hey, it all worked out. :)
We helped a man in the ward with service, and while we were there, we taught his less-active daughter about the atonement, and got a referral from her, and they fed us dinner while we were there! She and her mom are also both hair stylists, and they saw a part that I had missed on the back of my hair, so they helped me cut it. That was good to have :) I love when members cut hair, because it means I don't have to pay for it, or do it myself. :) And they do a good job.

Conference was AMAZING. It was my last conference as a full time missionary, but it was so good...I think my favorite quote was "God knows everything we don't want anyone to know about us, and still loves us." That touched me..it is so true! God knows all of the little secrets that we don't want anyone to know about us for fear of judging us, but he still offers forgiveness for whatever it may be, and wants to help us, and loves us infinitely...God is so amazing! It was also comforting to see President Monson doing so much better than last conference..I know I wasn't the only person praying for him the entire time, and he had so much more strength than last year. Very
comforting. :)
We are excited for this next week, because we have 3 new referrals and we are very hopeful for at least 2 of them, but we don't know much about the third! We will just have faith that it turns out well! :)

Love y'all!
-Elder Joel 'Sunshine' Barker!