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
Friday, July 3, 2009
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