July 15, 2019

I honestly cannot believe that this is my final letter of my mission. I'll keep this brief, but I hope y'all read this because it's my testimony.

There's nothing I love more than the Lord. He is my best friend. These 2 years of serving Him has changed me and molded me, sometimes in really painful ways, into a man. As I left for my mission I did not know or even comprehend what changes I'd make, struggles I'd have, or the growth I'd experience. It really has been the best 2 years. I wouldn't trade this experience for everything. Now, as I return home I want to continue in that growth. Don't worry everyone I'm still goofy me!!!! I've just come to know OUR Savior. I know He lives. And because of that I want to live a life centered on Him. The Book of Mormon is in every way true. Reading it EVERY SINGLE DAY of my mission has changed my life. I never want to live in mediocrity because God's glory is magnificent. We all have potential to be better and it starts with us.

If you aren't sure if you want to go on a mission, go. No better experience awaits you than a mission experience. Pray to the Lord, ask for strength, serve a friend, love a neighbor, repent a little more, do a little bit more a little bit better. Then you'll find peace. That's what this Church, this Gospel brings. I echo what Timothy said... "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." I've never been happier in my life because I live God's commandments. I repent a ton because I do stupid stuff all the time but I NEVER get discouraged. Be happy! 

I love you all. The Gospel is true. God loves you. Elder Barazoto, for the last time, out. 

I return home Wednesday morning at 9:02 AM. I'd love to see you there . My flight is Delta Air Lines DL 3020. 

July 8, 2019

Hey all! Not much to report but I'm loving life. Twin Falls is so fun. And I'm loving life. Can't believe the mission is almost done but I'm going to grind until I leave. See you all next week!

Read the Book of Mormon! 

July 1, 2019

Holy cow. I really don't know how to start this email not going to lie. I don't think I've ever been this stressed/worried/tired/and every other feeling this much in my friggen life. I would not wish a mission boundary change on any missionary haha. A lot of stuff has happened so I'll try to make it all coherent. 

On Friday we received 84 missionaries from the Idaho Boise Mission. We took in 15 more stakes and lost 5. President asked me to stay in the Pocatello East Stake and white wash into a sisters area for my last few weeks. So the past few days we've been proselyting with them and learning the area. We met one of the ward mission leaders and he's so dope! He has a Tesla Model 3 too. He took us for a spin and it was a dream come true. Sunday night President Southward told me my assignment was going to change next week. On the 8th I'll be going to Twin Falls traveling again with Elder Cook. So a ton of changes and I'm living out of my suitcase haha. 

This week we haven't done much in proselyting not going to lie. We weren't able to go on many exchanges because we were so busy! Also not having an area makes it really hard to just go and do missionary work in down time. 

Well everyone I love the mish and it's coming to a close but I'm gonna give it all I've got! The church is true and Jesus loves you!!

Stay good. 

June 24, 2019

Sorry for not writing the past few weeks! We've been insanely busy. Recap a little bit... We've been going on a TON of exchanges and finding so many people to teach. It's such a blast. So many spiritual experiences as well. My companion, Elder Thornton and I are doing great as well. We get along so great! It's kinda weird though because we aren't together 24/7 like other companionship so we actually don't know each other that well, so we're gonna work on that this week. 

This Friday our mission boundary is changing. We will be taking in Twin Falls and the surrounding areas. President Southward is sending the 3 other Assistants, me, and 2 other missionaries to go over and have areas and travel. I'll be with Elder Williams, my son!!!!! We'll just be normal missionaries with an area for my last few weeks. I am so excited to be with Elder Williams again. For the 4th time, 2nd time being companions. It'll be cool to have my greenie send me home. We are going to work our tails off. 

Cool little tender mercy this week. Yesterday we went to church with some Elders in the Highland area. We just kind of randomly chose a ward to go to since we didn't have an exchange. IN WALKS LILY FRIGGEN CANDLAND. MY friend from high school. She went to Mountain View. I kind of did a double take making sure it was her. It was such a tender mercy! I love her to death. She is here just for a few months which is crazy. And I happened to be in that ward just for the day. Inspired. 

Here's a quick little spiritual thought for the day... I read an Ensign article that said...

"Don't try to pay the price for your sins. No amount of your own suffering will redeem you; it is only through the Atonement that you receive forgiveness."

 

Alma the younger didn't suffer as bad as he did so that he could be forgiven of his sins. He suffered "for three days and for three nights was I racked even with the pains of a damned soul." Pretty intense huh? It wasn't so that he could be forgiven. It was so that he could change. I know the way we want to become better isn't necessarily to suffer but every single hard thing that we walk up to or are given, has to require something of us! Whether we cope/deal with it well or we feel like the world is caving in on us, we are being sculpted by a master sculpture into something so much greater than we could ever do. Would we ever trust an amateur contractor to build a house? Fleep no! So trust God, who literally knows you better than you do. 

Anyway I love you all! Have a great week and be kind please. 

June 3, 2019

Greetings friends and family. What a blessing it's been to serve as a missionary. Wow. This week was just a normal week. Nothing too exciting except for Sunday! We had a BAPTISM WOOT. The daughter of a family that was baptized in September got baptized along with her 8 year old brother. It was a HUGE turn out. We filled the Relief Society room and had a few people standing too. I got to do a special musical number for it too!

We had Zone Conference on Wednesday with Elder Costa of the Quorum of the Seventy. WHAT A MAN. His wife and him are straight savages. We role played with them and we got TOASTED. They are really good at acting not interested hahah. Moral of Zone Conference: Don't be stupid. Baptize a ton. Do family history. Repent.

Well we got transfer information this week as well! It's pretty complicated and not exactly what President Southward had told me in interviews haha. I will be on a special assignment to help out in the Star Valley, Wyoming area. I will be a traveling missionary over there contacting referrals and boosting missionaries basically. That will be for about 3 weeks until the mission splits in July. Then I will be over in Twin Falls traveling around helping missionaries as well! I'm uber pumped. For the first half, I'll be with Elder Thornton who's been out for about 6 months or so and then I'm not sure who I'll be with after I got to Twin Falls. 

Man oh man time just keeps going faster and faster out here in good 'ol Idaho. I absolutely love my mission. I don't think I can put into words, let alone attempt to, say how much I love the Lord! It is incomprehensible to our minds at how good He is to us. I think we forget that simple principles that God ALWAYS loves us, even when we sin or are sinning. If He didn't love us, then forgiveness and repentance would not be an option ever. Something I've learned of my almost 2 years on my mission is that when we live the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Gospel, we will be happy. There is nothing in this fleeping world of temporary happiness that can bring something that lasts. If you want light, intelligence, strength, capacity, peace contentment, grace, kowledge, power, happiness, mercy, joy and every other good thing, live the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Literally that's all you have to do. Not easy, but always worth it! More than worth it actually. It's the greatest thing you'll ever do in your entire life. I really mean that with all my heart. I wish I could just look each of you in the eyes (so pretend I am and listen up) and tell you how important it is to keep the commandments and live the Gospel. There is nothing I want to do in life than to serve the Lord and to make Him happy with me. It is THE ONLY WAY YOU WILL BE HAPPY NOW AND IN THE LIFE TO COME. I think you get what I'm saying. I love God. I know He's real. As real as this email you're reading. Same with Jesus Christ. He died for you. He suffered for you. So live His commandments for him. 

I love you ALL so fleeping much! Please send me an email and tell me how you're doing. I'd love to hear from you. All my love!!!!!

-Elder Barazoto 

May 27, 2019

Helloooooo everyone! Can't believe another week has gone by here in the Idaho Pocatello Mission. What a blessing it is to be serving the Lord in such a beautiful place. I have learned so much this week let me tell you/enlighten you. One major thing I learned and improved on a lot was about faith. Especially how our faith is the catalyst to basically every good thing in our life. I wrote this... "Faith = action; repentance, obedience, dedication, trust, service, diligence, work." Simply put, when we do some type of action with faith, it increases and God blesses us. Whatever that action is, as long a we're improving, our faith is growing. 

This week we found 2 new people woot woot! It's been a few weeks since we found, so it's been so nice and refreshing to have some new people in the teaching pool. We actually dropped our whole teaching pool too so we've been stuck on finding recently... OH and one of the daughters of a family that got baptized in September didn't get baptized because she didn't feel ready and she wanted to less-active dad to do it. This family is AWESOME. They've totally taken hold of the gospel and love it. They daughter, Emmalyn, is active completely just wasn't ready for baptism until recently! We set a date today for this next Sunday at 4 PM. We are pumped and her dad is going to perform the baptism!!!!!!! There's a lot of other details behind the family, but I love them and so does everyone, especially President Southward. So that's so exciting and right before I get transferred out as well. 

For P-day we are going to go on a hike with our ward mission leader and his wife and baby. Hopefully the rain (which has been coming for like 3 weeks) doesn't poop on us AGAIN. Spring is just being skipped here in Idaho and we're basically back to winter again. Yesterday was warm but rain is in the forecast all this week. 

Well know that I truly truly love each and every one of you reading this email and thanks for staying for so long haha. It's kind of becoming more real that my mission is coming to a close but I'm still in denial. I absolutely love this church and the gospel of Jesus Christ. It 100% has brought me closer to God than anything I've ever done or heard of. I challenge you to give it a shot! 

I love you all so much. God loves you so much, and that's what truly matters.

My companion and I are taking bathroom selfies in every house we have dinner at. We are going to make an album and it's gonna be lit. 

We went to the baptism of a guy I taught on exchanges. It was such a good service!!! 

May 20, 2019

Hi sorry for writing so late! We were literally able to sit down and relax for only a bit today. We drove some Elders around so that took up some time too. We went to Costco today with a member to shop and she literally paid for all of our groceries and some. She is an absolute SAINT. It made our day/week. Then we went to a trampoline park and then chilled at the mission home and watched Love, Kennedy. Lemme tell ya, if you want to cry, watch that movie. A bunch of dudes crying in a basemeny is quite a sight to see.

Anyways this week was a slow one. We've been struggling to find and teach and we don't really know what to do. Members here are great but referrals seem non-existant. I have been humbled a lot recently and man lemme tell you how important it is to listen to chastisement with patience. I've got a lot to fix and change while I'm still a missionary!

We had many encounters with cops this week it was wild! Old Town Pocatello is usually busy with cops or illegal stuff and hasn't been too popping recently but it's happening now. We helped get a dude arrested for domestic battery, and a lady we visited had a wanted man on the run commit suicide at her house/lawn (not too sure what happened though).

For district council on Friday, I invited Brother Egan to come speak to us. He was the high counselor over missionary work when I was serving in Tyhee a year ago. He is an AMAZING teacher and is hilarious. I want to do what he does and be just like him! It would probably be blasphemy to say I don't have a man-crush on this man. Anyways, he talked to us about consecration and following the spirit. It was probably (and by probably I mean was) the clearest and most powerful lesson I've ever been taught on my mission. It truly changed my life!

As I reflected on what I've learned and the blessing it is to repent everyday, I was taught how when we fully and willingly submit our wills, desires, habits, concerns, temptations, fears, anxieties, and challenges to the Savior. When we lay it all at the altar and say "Ok, I'm ready. Take it." That is when we become who God intended us to become. He can send spiritual information or promptings all day if He wanted. Christ said, "The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak" (Mark 14:38). When we let our spirit take over, who is ready to change, over our physical appetites, that is when we become who God intended us to become. God, who sees our divine potential not only of who we can become later in life, but who we can become now, is anxious to help. "And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more." Grace is there to change us instantly. Our pains or whatever our trial or many trials, we can remember our pains no more. Gone. Completely. Christ descended below it all. Completely. "Art thou greater than he?"

I can say with literally zero doubt or even skepticism in my mind and heart, that Jesus is the Messiah. He is the one who was sent to save us. He already has. Completely. Trust in His amazing grace. It really is amazing. Then do what is right... It's not hope the right will happen. It's choose the right. Even when it's hard.

I love you all. Be good. Do good. Turn to Him who is Good. Our loving Savior. Even Jesus the Christ!