What a treat of a week! The work is continuing to fly forward-- and it was great to have a double helping of how life is for the Barnes family all around the world! I'm happy and comforted to hear that Grandpa's surgery went well-- I pray that his recovery will continue to be quick. But with Grandma and Heavenly Father watching out for him, I'm confident that there's not a more loving and caring combination!
The miracle of this week and month has been Zentar. We had our fourth lesson with him this week and I'm always amazed at his desire to read, learn and follow the Savior. I've talked about him before I think, but Zentar is the decathlete with a family of two daughters. We've yet to meet with his family because he lives 40 min outside of Riga and takes the tram into church for lessons. After one week of meeting with him, he'd read from 3rd Nephi 11 to the end and had
incredible understanding. He even said that the Book of Mormon fully supports “that bible” but just explains things more concretely. We challenged him again to baptism during monday's lesson of the Gospel of Jesus Christ but he said he wants to be baptized with his family.
As we had planned the lesson in the morning, we wanted to bring up how the gospel blesses families and Elder Hillman thought it would be good to share Lehi's dream. So in the lesson, we went to 1 Nephi 8 and read the first twelve verses-- it was powerful to see the connections and how Lehi partook of the fruit before his family. We explained that sometimes we just have to show how important something is and others will see and want to follow. I love the scriptures-- I feel the Spirit so strongly because they were written for our day and tell us exactly what God expects of us. I know I've had questions that I ask in prayer and Heavenly Father has already answered in the scriptures. Usually multiple times!
That's why a prophet is so crucial too-- because if we just follow the things he tells us to do everything will be ok! I've been reading a General conference talk every morning for the last month and that's also helped me appreciate the power of applying the words of God to our daily live. Granted it's probably a little easier to do that when our daily live involves talking about the words of God all day...
We have been unable to contact Yurdan the last 5 days-- he's still without a job and so his phone is turned off. We also don't know his address because we always just met at the church in center. In our last lesson a week ago, he was still really down about being without work but had made great progress with quitting smoking. I still have a lot of hope for him because his testimony is strong-- I pray daily that the Lord will again provide a miracle so that we can come into contact! It's always comforting to me that because this is the Lord's work, when we do our best, He will make things happen.
Holy cow, thank you for the Thanksgiving feast!! I received that package on Monday, and who knows how much of the food will be left by next thursday! We try to be a little grateful every day so I figure it's okay. Just kidding. But seriously we're saving the majority. Although the pie crust was all over in the box. Don't worry, Elder Hillman and I took care of that quickly. I was already at a culinary disadvantage trying to re-create Dad's Famous Chocolate Pie and without the graham cracker crust, one of the two key ingredients, I'm not sure how we'll make do. Thank You, Thank you!
Thank you all for your prayers. There have been multiple moments but this week was an especially memorable time as we were knocking doors (which we usually do daily from 4:30 when it's dark, till we go home) when I really just felt lifted up. It had been a few hours and I really just had a distinct thought put into my head that said “have faith.” From that moment I did my best to smile more or just know that the prepared family was around the corner.
A few floors later we were talking to a woman who said she had no time because she was busy after coming home from work. She continued to talk and we continued to listen, nod, and smile. After a while I told her that since it had been so pleasant to talk for 10 minutes, we'd love to just come in and share a 15 minute message. After that we got to know her better, she made ginger tea, Elder Hillman played "Be Still My Soul" on the piano and before we knew it we were teaching her the message of the Restoration! As I recited the first vision, thoughts popped into my head of our family, and the countless blessings the Gospel has given us.
Later Elder Hillman and I noticed how it really didn't feel like we had to try to speak or understand throughout the lesson. To make a long story short-- I'm very grateful for the Spirit because without it this work would be impossible!
I'm forever grateful for seminary and how Mom, Bishop Steve, and Bishop Richey helped us fall in love with the scriptures. One of my favorite things every day is study. I'm beginning to better understand what feasting on the words of Christ means-- the scriptures are an incredible tool for teaching, learning and living the gospel!
As always-- I love you!
Love, Elder Barnes
