January 22, 1995
Today I begin my record in my missionary journal(s). I have already recorded several of the day's experiences on the preceeding pages-in brief facts. My previous journal that I'm taking a two-year reprieve from *is* also contains several facts. Today haas been one of those never-to-be-forgotten dates. Others include 4 February 1984, 27 September 1991, *5* 1 June 1992, 5 June 1992, 22 April 1994, 18 June 1994, 15 April 1994, 24 November 1994, ^and^ 10 January 1995. Today was my farewell, my open house, and my being set apart to serve the Lord in the Bolivia Cochabamba mission. I will enter the MTC in 64 hours. My farewell was wonderful. There were many people there. The chapel and overflow areas were quite full-though they did not open the gymnasium. After the opening *prayer by* hymn-I Believe in Christ-My Grandmother Reeder gave the opening prayer. Then after the *I s* sacrament ^Hymn-I stand all amazed^-which Tim Miller and Mark Richins blessed-Melissa spoke, then Carin, then *C*Daniel, then Chad. Afterward, Chad and Carin played a piano duet of Praise to the Man. Then My mother spoke, followed by my faahter. Then Dee and Nedra Pace sang a beautiful rendition of A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief. After this I spoke, followed by the closing hymn-I Need Thee Every Hour, and the closing prayer was given by Granddad Jones. Blaine Richins conducted, Melissa did a somersault off her seat during the closing song, Chad taped the meeting - later finding that the tape recorder didn't record-and I may write the approximate text of my farewell talk hereafter. The prelude music included "In the Hollow of Thy Hand" and "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go." People that attended: other th*a*en ward members--Cliff and Cleo Samsel, Uncle Bob and family, Somer, *Millers, Uncle Nat*Aunt Sharon, Michael and Ali, Uncle Nathan and family, *(Gren* LaPrele, Einar, and Karen Hall, Uncle Harold andd his wife, several friends and relatives of my father, Lance Barker with his sister and "friend", Nathan Adams, Kaleb Anderson, Jared Olschewski, Ben Bingham, Kevin Francom, Andrew Hebdon, and Theresa Baron. The open house had a lot of food,
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and the setting apart went well--but that had space reserved in this journal, so I woon't repeat it here. It's about as complete as I can recall. Well, mission rules say bed about 10:00 or 10:30; it's 10:15 now, so I will close my first entry as an official representative of Jesus Christ and his church with an old, traditional THE GOSPEL [double underline] IS TRUE!!!!