THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT

My dearest family,

The highlight of this week was definitely Sundays baptism! Sikta and Paulina are referals and long time friends of the 1st counselor in the branch, Sasha and wife Zita. Sasha is an incredible man, he's been a member with his wife for 15 years, shares the gospel without fear and he leads meetings like Dick Vitale. He actually baptized Sikta and Paulina which raised my respect for him, because he was in the water the longest. I say that because they got baptized in the pond behind their home. I forgot my cord to send pictures this week, but i promise i'll send them next week. They literally had to break the ice to get in. Ha! It was awesome. I was able to interview Sikta and Paulina for their baptisms and it was so cool to hear about how they gained their testimonies. Sikta (the husband) told me he always just knew the church was true, because Sasha wouldn't be a member of an untrue church. They had been friends since childhood and Sasha had absolutely no belief in God until he converted. In the interview I was reminded of the Risley family and I showed them the christmas picture of their family I carry around with me. It's so cool to think how saintly Jake and Wanda are and Jenny and Nate's missions, and imagine the thousands of lives who have been blessed, and are being blessed because of their service. The gospel is just so true.

I apologize that last week's e-mail was so short! I wrote a good one and then just deleted it all, which is something I don't plan on doing again. You live and you learn! This week we've definitely had some learning experiences as it seems like nearly everything was gone wrong. Ha, last monday our electricity was turned off because of a bill not paid from December, so to this point we've been going home and waking up to darkness. Planning and journal writing by candlelight has been an adventure but I'm excited to be able to see. And then last Wednesday we ate something that just wasn't right; it could've been the 12 lt chinese food (about 6 dollars, I was so stoked about the price of a full meal deal, at first...) or the yogurt we had refrigerated by hanging out the window. We're honestly not sure which, so I've decided to stay away from both.

The worst news of all was the family that we teach (with the 3 adorable girls) didn't open the door when the member went to pick them up for church. There is always hope though, and we'll go to them again some time this/next week. It lifts me up knowing that nothing truly worth it, has ever been easy.

So our teaching pool at this point is down to one man, Volodia. He's originally from France but speaks Russian fluently, although his accent is different than any other i've heard! I spoke a little bit of French, or tried, but i speak so much worse in french than in russian it's ridiculous. I pulled out my French Liahona a few days ago for fun and I still probably read the same in both languages-- although i guarantee my «french accent» is more messed up than ever. Ha what a blessing it was to learn a language growing up though, I really hope someday to re-learn how to speak french. For now Russian is still enough to try to master. But Volodia has met with missionaries before and we found him from the area book and had a good lesson with him so we're looking forward to teaching him again tonight! We also received a referral of another man, Dima, who's met with missionaries, who we're teaching tomorrow. We met him at FHE and he seems really excited. We'll see what happens!

Dad asked about the Russian speakers here and I got some statistics this week that will paint a good picture. There are 18% Russian people here, but 90% of the adult population speakw Russian, including those from Poland, Belarussia, and other nearby countries (way more here than in Riga). So we've done about a quarter or third of our teaching to people who speak Lithuanian as primary language (if adult than we teach in Russian, if teenager than in English-pretty much always). If it goes well than we pass them to Lithuanian missionaries as soon as possible, which we have done a few times.

Zone conference was last friday and it was awesome, as always! President Dance taught us doctrine from Moses 1 that blew my mind, his understanding of scripture is unreal! He reminds me a ton of Dad, especially when he teaches. I'm really excited about Dad's new calling, those institute kids are lucky! And then Sister Dance talked about how we are chosen of the Lord because of our choices. And she showed us in 1 Nephi 17:40 tje scripture that Mom showed to me while you were in Montana. So basically the mission president and his wife are my parents, which is what I'm talking about!

Please make sure to pass a thank you on to the Richeys for the home made carmels. Mhmm!! Those definitely cheer you up after a night of throwing up in the dark. Just kidding, but seriously we are feeling much much better and just loving life. It is good to be in the Lord's service. OK it's awesome!

I love you!

Love Elder Barnes #12

P.s. I sent Emma a letter about a month ago that i hope she got! She wrote me a few times before i got around to writing back so if she's still waiting tell her i say «Hey! I'm really happy to hear the 2nd semester is going great with the roommates! Football champions? Jealous. Give Gary, Ericka, Kelly and the whole clan a big hug and hello from me.Yup yup!