TOUR DE BALTICS

Hello family!

Wow it sounds like you had a fantastic family reunion in Mexico. Like you all said, it was truly a win-win situation that I'm here while you were there. I don't feel like I missed out because we are continually blessed and happy over here. As Elder Boyce (Cami's friend from the mtc) said in his testimony on Monday-- “God is Awesome!”

It was really fun being in zone conferences, seeing other missionaries and learning a lot. It worked out so that we were in Estonia from Sunday to Tuesday morning, stopped by Riga for lunch, and then spent Tuesday evening and Wednesday in Lithuania. I was amazed that even though we heard and gave the same presentations multiple times, there were always new things to learn from others and by the spirit. Elder Brown and I talked about creative finding, exploring new supplementary ways to find. It really hit me though that sometimes almost more important than what you do, is why you're doing it. There was an Elder who went to school in the Air Force that wanted to go to an “air-show” and President Dance said “Great! Are you going because you want to go, or because you want to fulfill your missionary purpose?” Sister Dance nailed it when she said that “there's a difference between obeying and obeying with your whole heart” and I agree. Living the gospel is so worth it though.

Our main investigators are either at sea or traveling in Europe for awhile so there's nothing new with them, as far as we know! We've taught a few good lessons to some new people so hopefully there will be some exciting news about them next week. Oh I guess on one exchange while in Tartu, Estonia, I was with Elder Zach Baird (who was in a BYU Book of Mormon class with me, and in the BYU 55th ward last year) and we talked to a cool kid who was wearing red pants. His name was Siim and he seeemed interested (hehe) so we immediately invited him back to the teaching center. We had a great lesson with him and then gave him a Book of Mormon and he was so excited. He said “wow, earlier today I was thinking, it'd be great to have a book to read, and now I have one!” He lives a ways out of the city and wouldn't be back until university starts in September but he wanted our information keep in touch until then. After the lesson he was so happy and talked about how glad he was that we met up and gave him the Book of Mormon-- and then later that night Elder Brown and the Elder Boyce saw him in a park reading it! It's fun to see people feel the spirit and get so excited but still not completely understand why. Ha, that's kind of how I feel all the time, and I love it.

We were cleaning out the computer and we ran across a quote the other day that I like-- “do not expect the world to look bright if you habitually wear dark brown glasses.” Charlie Emmerson. I think it parallels President Monson's more doctrinal and less quirky remark at General Conference “the future is as bright as our faith.” Oh so true.

Thanks for your love and letters! I would definitely not be as happy without them. Speaking of which, the office is moving so we'll have a new address--Cesu iela 31- 2K2, LV-1012, Riga, Latvia. No worries if things have already been sent, because they will be forwarded for a while. But if you have been meaning to write for a while and just haven't got around to it-- now's a great time to try out the new address! Just kidding, but seriously. I constantly feel support from home and it keeps me keeping on. And I'm trying to write at least one letter every preparation day, so if you've been waiting for a reply, hopefully one will come soon!

I love you!
Love, Elder Barnes #12

P.s. Who won the TOUR de France? one of the missionaries in Lithuanaia is a cyclist and he's dying to know!

You all look great!!

What a great picture—of great missionaries!

PART THREE

Like I promised, this is the rest of the e-mail. Sorry it's been all over the place but hopefully you're having too much fun to even notice. Yesterday's zone conference went really well and was followed by two awesome lessons! Learning the gospel and feeling the spirit just charges me up and then you go into a lesson calm and confident. We taught a man named Maris who's the best friend of Sanita, one of the twin's who was baptized last winter. I saw Sanita at a baptism of a woman in the Latvian branch last week (whom Sister Reber and her companion taught!) and she told me about a good friend she has who might be interested. So she gave us his number, called him up, he came with Sanita last night and it was one of the most comfortable and spiritual lessons. He doesn't really believe deeply in God, but has just seen “how happy and cheerful” Sanita has been since her baptism. At the end of the lesson we asked him how he felt and he said that it was odd because he had never believed in these things but he could “see in our eyes” that we believed and that he wanted to also. So now he just has to read the Book of Mormon. I love that the Book of Mormon is true because it makes this work a lot easier.

Afterwards we met up with a Russian man (yes!) named Denis who'd been taught by missionaries a year earlier, right before I came to Riga. His first questions was “how do you remember God all the time and always put him first?” I wanted to say I'm not exactly sure, still trying to figure that one out-- but luckily Elder Brown answered and talked about covenants we make with God. Eventually we talked about the baptism by authority and how we promise to always remember Christ. I thought that was a good answer. Overall, he's a sincere, successful guy that cares about his wife and 3 year old daughter and wants them to be happy. It's cool to find good people who are looking for truth in the right places.

Other than that life in Riga is same old-- faster pace, a lot of Russians, high speed car chases, and a little bit more smelly. Just kidding, but then seriously because the forests in Vilnius keep the air a little fresher, which was nice. Elder Brown and I go running in the mornings and it's still exciting to jog through a cement jungle. Oh on sunday we taught two guys from Sweden, one who was born in France. I talked to him in French on the streets and it didn't go too badly, but when we got into the lesson i was in trouble. We watched the Joseph Smith Movie (in french, with Swedish subtitles) and I'm pleased to say that I understand about 90%.

Although it helps that I've seen the movie over 50 times and could probably understand it any language. But I also understood everything he said and just had to
really plan out what I was going to say for it to come out right. I attempted the opening prayer and he came in after two lines to save the day. I was happy though, his tag team solution was a miraculous answer to the prayer in my heart.

It's been great serving around some of the old MTC district, Elders Pratt, Patterson, Schmidt and Sister Nelson-- brings back so many good memories. They all look great, have been working hard and are happy. Crazy that it's been over a year together. I can definitely see a lot of growth, but it still baffles me that time has gone by that quickly. Elder Brown reverently compares a mission to a role of toilet paper, the more that's gone the faster it goes. And the more you cherish every bit.

Welp now we've got to go and will probably write again next thursday. I hope that I asnwered your questions, and if not i probably just forgot so ask again! I feel like a broken record for saying this every week, but do love you all so much and am very grateful for your prayers. I've never felt so supported and sustained, and I constantly realize that this truly is God's work.

Keep on body surfin on-

Love, Elder Barnes #12

P.s. attached are pictures of the Russian family (Ruslan, Tatiana, little Nelly, and Kolja) and our swedish/french friends (Akim and Zryan). I didn't ask but I'm guessing their ancestors weren't from Sweden...

July 22 Letter Dear Family!!!

I hope the fun has only begun at the family reunion. We had our first zone conference today with the Latvian speaking missionaries and it was great! Tomorrow the Russian speakers in Latvia will get together (about 24 missionaries) and then Estonians will be on monday and Lituanians on wednesday. We were going to do all four this week but President Dance got pretty sick so a few got pushed back. President Dance is my favorite mission president I've ever had.

He finds such a good balance of loving and appreciating others, while at the same time expecting everyone to reach their potential. He spoke today on the law of sacrifice and consecration and it blew everyone away. There was a lot of good stuff said but my favorite was the definition of consecration: to dedicate or develop for a sacred purpose. Also we read from Moses 4:1-2 and compared the way Satan and the Savior presented their plans to Heavenly Father. I don't know how its exactly possible, but true consecration is when thereš no I and only thee and thine. I'm so far from that point itš ridiculous but I'm doing what I can. (maybe not that well because I used three Is in the last sentance....hmmm).

Well for something a little lighter, we're teaching a few families! A few of them are already baptized, but I guess you gotta start somewhere. We continue to teaach the russian family that was baptized last transfer, theyŗe so happy and will help us on a few lessons tomorrow! On monday we taught a family Elder Brown taught and baptized a year ago and they are so strong and getting ready for the temple! And then we taught a man last night who's married and has two kids and then we have to go. Library's closing so we'ļl email the rest...on friday. ahaha

love you bye!

REMEMBERING RIGA

Dearest Family!

It's been so good to be back in Riga, so many familiar sounds and smells and faces. And miracles! The highlight of this last week has been teaching Gatis, an 18 year old kid we talked to last week while contacting with one of the new Estonian Elders. He's very humble and listening, came to church on Sunday, has been reading the Book of Mormon and wants to be baptized! He also does karate, which is now one of my new favorite hobbies for other people to have. He's leaving this week-end to do a month trip around Europe, so he won't be able to baptized till September 12th which is a bummer, but the 12th is always a solid day.

Also being back in Riga has brought back memories from the beginning of the mission,at some points is feels like starting over again, haha. More than half of our investigators are Latvian, so I don't understand much in lessons or at church, but we also went to Russian sacrament meeting and it was so fun to see the members. Elder Eddington and Elder Brown baptized a young Russian family and their friend, and there are doing incredible, passed the sacrament for the first time and just love coming to church. The husband told me that if he could, he would live in the church because there's just such a good feeling there. We're actually going to visit them today in an hour, their working schedule is really busy and are rarely all home together. But there's seriously nothing better than teaching people who have such a big desire to live the gospel and help others. It's just the best.

Speaking of which, we had another great lesson yesterday with a man named Marian, who's been investigating the church for the past 5 years. He's had lessons with missionaries in Ireland and Riga but lives in a small town 140 km outside of Riga (jekovpils, I think...) and has 6 or 7 friends there who believe in the Book of Mormon and want to start a church in their city. He's a really good and sincere man, so I'm excited to work with him. He's also leaving this week-end to work in Sweden for 3 weeks so nothing will happen too soon but I think eventually we'll make a trip down to his city with President Dance.

President Dance is incredible. He knows the scriptures so well and cares a lot about these people. Next week's preparation day will be on Tuesday because of Zone conferences, so I hope that won't be a problem! If you forget, you'll just be surprised to already have an e-mail for you when you go to write Tuesday, and in that case, it would be a longer one because I'd have nothing to read. But you don't have to forget, I LOVE reading your e-mails. Oh you'll be in Mexico next week! Mucho Bueno... Have a riot and give all the cuzzies my love! And eat some nachos for me. Mhmm... we had nachos this week! Elder Brown is a master chef. More on him next week. I really really like serving with him, this is going to be a fun and busy transfer. Welp love you much!

Love, Elder Barnes #12

HELLO RIGA!

I left my new home of Vilnius yesterday morning and came back to my real home of RIGA! I'll be serving with Elder Brown and after one day of being with him I know it's just going to be joyful. I've had the best companions. I actually knew Elder Brown pretty well when I served here in Riga. He is a Latvian speaker, a very sharp and great missionary who knows Riga really well-- he spent the first 13 months in the field in the exact same apartment! Elder Freeman will be staying in Vilnius for his last transfer which will be great because hopefully he'll see some of our investigators get baptized. I found out that I'd be transferring tuesday morning so we were able to teach Artiom and Alexander on Tuesday and it made me so happy to see how well they're doing. Alexander said a prayer at the end of the lesson that almost made me and Elder Freeman cry. By almost I mean I might have cried. He talked about how grateful he was that we'd been able to become his great teachers and friends in a such short period of time. It's incredible how quickly the gospel can change someone's life. I'm not trying to jinx it either but I think that Artiom could eventually serve a mission. He asks about it all the time and really is on top of the ball. In Tuesday's lesson we read Alma 26:12 and he talked about how most people don't understand miracles-- they think it's like books flying or crazy things when really “it's a miracle that you don't smoke, and that I don't smoke, and that we met each other.” And then Elder Freeman said-- you're a miracle. And I agreed.

We've spent today helping the 15 departing missionaries take their luggage to and from the bus station. It's crazy to think that someday the mission will end. I'm really glad that day will not come soon. But at the rate time flies these days a month feels like less than a week. Is it the same for you? It feels like I got here the day before yesterday. We took a trip down memory lane yesterday evening when we picked up 6 new excited missionaries that came into the mission, three Estonian elders, two Lativan elder and one Latvian sister. It brought back so many memories. What was crazy is that I knew 4 of the incoming missionaries-- kind of. One of them was Elder Boyce, Sister Richey's friend from the MTC who got the swine flu; he's doing well and is just a ball of fire, another one was a friend from a BYU Book of Mormon class, another was the brother of a girl from a BYU class and the last was Sister Reber, Jenae's friend from Romania! It was so cool meeting them and they will all be excellent missionaries. It's such a big transition from MTC to the Field, for a lot of reasons, being surrounded by non-members being one of the big ones. But that's what makes it exciting! No offense but serving a mission would be SO boring if the whole world was members. Although that would be kind of cool too. Saying good-bye to the members in Vilnius was tough, but almost all of them said they feel like I'll be coming back someday and I have the same feeling too! Like I said, there's plenty of time and no need to worry. Except I do have 3 minutes and 12 seconds left on this computer so I got to fly but I love you! Life is good. So good. And the
church is really true.

Love, Elder Barnes #12

It looks like you have to over 6 feet tall to serve in the Baltic Mission!

KARATE KID

Elder Freeman and I had another fun and exciting week! Before I forget, next week’s preparation day will be on Thursday because of transfers. Elder Free Mangoes home after next transfer so I’m not sure we’ll stay together but until then we can keep our fingers crossed. And arms folded. Just kidding. But seriously it’s been a riot serving with him and we’ve seen big time blessings these last fast five weeks.

Artiom is by far one of the more prepared people I’ve taught, and he just eats up the book of mormon and understands really well. Like I mentioned before, he’s really busy and leaves town about every week for karate (last week-end) or chess (this week-end) so he’s only come to church once but really enjoyed it and will be more free next week until he goes to Jerusalem for two weeks. It kind of reminds me of my summers during high school, I’m just really bad at karate and chess. These are conventionally pretty nerdy hobbies but he’s so normal and cool. Last week we had a ward activity and he brought his cousin who’s 13, and it was cool because he had all these questions like “what’s a mission?” haha but it was cool to see how much he looked up to Artiom. One of the biggest joys of this work is teaching people who are so good already but see that there’s something missing. Mostly the joy that comes from knowing and living the gospel!

We’re in the American Embassy right now and just had a really cool conversation with a couple from Florida visiting their son who lives here in Vilnius. I forget how many nice people live in America! I meet some on the streets once every other week and the conversations are always so much different. Maybe it’s because they’re in English but it’s fun to talk to people who already know a little about the church and think that “celestial marriage is really cool.” Most of the people I talk to here have either just seen some missionaries or heard about us on T.V.—so there’s a lot of opportunities to explain and it’s fun. I get reminded over and over that there’s no way the gospel isn’t true. No way.

Alexander is doing very well. The branch president and a counselor in the district presidency had a business together that’s struggling and so they’ve had to close a lot of their shops, and they asked20Alexander to come help them move some inventory. This is a mini miracle because we were wondering how we could help him become more involved with the members. I love the members here—they are always willing to help. President Dima Konikov is especially the man. Amongst all this chaos, he recommended an area by his home with some new domes for us to knock, and so we came out and he came with us! We baked some cookies (from the pre made packets mom sent me—so delicious . I love taking credit for my “baking skills”) and took them over and he introduced himself as their neighbor and us as his friends, the missionaries from his church. That is a sweet, kind thing to do in the states but here it’s absolutely unheard of and many really appreciated it. Some others were just so confused. But we ended up teaching a few good lessons too and we’ll be going back next week to follow up.

Sharing the gospel with your friends is the way to go. The past week, we’ve had 4 lessons were the people we were planning to teach brought a friend along. That’s happened to me before but never so much in one week. I thought about it—maybe it’s because it’s summer and it’s nothing better to do, or maybe because Elder Freeman and I scare people and they don’t won’t to come alone. But I hope it’s because the gospel is good news that you tell other people because you want to.

Yeah that’s probably it.

O, BUNNY BUNNY RABIT! Mom claims that she won, but as far as I know it’s illegal to try to bunny bunny rabbit before the clock strikes twelve, in the location where YOU are located. But because she’s my mother and I love her, she can win. But only this once. Glad to here you had a fun and LONG week in Eugene, they are such deer friends (pun intended). Especially Eliza, her autograph will be worth billions someday.
Welp till next Thursday! Keep it real real. I love you all!

Love, Elder Barnes #12