From: Peter Barnes Sent: Thu, Aug 20, 2009

Whew life doesn't slow down! It sounds like things are only getting crazier in Eugene too. Perfect.

Today is transfers so we drove around some of the Elders leaving to the bus station and brought in those coming home (among which are Elders Freeman, Eddington and Jensen--three stellar Russian elders I've served around/with.) I'm sure all missionaries around the world are great, but I REALLY love the ones there. I'm going to miss these Elders like crazy, but I bet their families are pretty excited so they'll be happy.

We reunited with Gatis, the 18 year old who was in Europe for a month. He's safe and home and had an interesting experience sleeping on people's couches(couchsurfing.com--crazy idea), in random hotels or airports. But he kept reading the Book of Mormon and still wants to be baptized Sept 12th! He had a few questions but the members there really helped (a man from Australia who's parents were latvian and he's just so cool. His name is Petris, which is Latvian for Peter. I think it just sounds like a combination of Peter and Tetris.) But he helped Gatis understand that you have to just go forward and act in order to get answers sometimes.

Speaking of cool 18 year olds, ARTIOM GOT BAPTISED! I've been taking to Elder Freeman about him very frequently since I left but Monday night was his Baptism and I guess it was just wonderful. There were 40-50 members there, which is above average sacrament meeting attendance. I might have told you but his nanny 4 or 5 years back is the wife of the Lithuanian branch president (who's actually a Russian man), and the first day she was nannying them they sat down to dinner and she said-- wait, you don't pray before you have dinner? And she taught them how to pray. Haha this was right after serving a mission in Russia, and I'm sure her example was big for Artiom. But he's just so prepared. 18 years old, never smoke or drank, loves to read and study and play and laugh. He's just one of the coolest people I've ever met. I'd totally let him marry one of my 18 year old relatives, someday. He's planning on coming up to Riga next saturday because Elder Perry will be here to speak to the missionaries/members! I forgot to tell you about that but yeah, Elder Perry is coming. I'm excited, it'll be the first time an apostle has been to Latvia in 15 years (since the dedication)! Elder Rasband will be coming as well, which is a bonus. They've been traveling through East Europe and have a Mission President's conference in Tallin and then will be in Riga for a day and fly out on Sunday. So he won't be here very long but hopefully we'll get to accidentally bump into a few times as much as possible.

Final miracle: Gennadi, who has been taught by missionaries since last transfer, came to church for the first time on Sunday and brought his 7 year old son! Gennadi is russian, but his wife is Latvian, so they speak to each other in their languages and the kids speak both. So it's perfect for them when Elder Brown and I teach them, although we don't understand half of what's going on. But his son is just a future apostle. Maybe that's an early prediction but he sat silent at church and smiled and sang the hymns and had a suit and a part in his hair and loved it! We taught them again last night and Gennadi accepted a baptismal date for the end of September so that's awesome. Elder Brown had to help President Dance on a neighborhood association meeting or something so I went with a 23 year old member of the Russian branch and it was just a riot.

Hopefully I'll send a picture of them next week. And thanks for the pictures/package from Mazatlan! the all-sorts are gone, but I'm still enjoying everything else. I love you!

Love, Elder Barnes #12

Big Congrats to Meggerz! And Matterz! And good luck to Lysee at the Y! LUCKY

SHORT BUT SWEET(?)

FAMILY!

Happy 12th!

We had a few lessons this week from investigators who've been taught before and they were awesome. The first was with a kid named Giorgi, (or George). I'm pretty sure I told you about him, but he's a cool 19 year old that LOVES serving in the army. Well I called him up last week and said “Privyet!” and immediately he responds “Wow...Barnes!” He was really happy to hear from us and had just recently gotten back from France where he served in their legion. We met up on monday and first thing he does is pull out his I.D. Card-- and it turns out his real name is Marek! I was like, you've had two names this whole time? And he goes, yeah, I'm in the army. That's not exactly how the conversation went but basically he had to live by a different name for a year and just couldn't say anything, but it's been so weird now talking to him because I always call him Giorgi at first. He still works a ton, every sunday, but believes in the book of mormon, and really wants to be baptized so that is awesome! He should get sundays off in september so we'll see from there.

I was reading in 2nd Nephi 25 during studies and read verse 5 about how Jewish people understand the things of the prophets more than everyone else. It made me feel not so guilty at first, because although I appreciate them more and more each time, the Isaiah chapters still seem like references to people and places that I've never heard of. But I also realized that Artiom, the 18 year old karate kid in Vilnius whose mother is Jewish understood all of 2nd Nephi so clearly. So the book of mormon prophecies are true, which is neat. Also he's getting baptized next week! I've talked to Elder Freeman a few times and he said he's doing incredibly, on his last karate trip he gave a friend a book of mormon and said that now she wants to be baptized too! That's what I'm talking about.

We actually have to run because there's the monthly council today with all of the zone leaders which starts soon. But know that I love you, pray for you, and am always smiling when I think of you!

Thanks for your support,

Love, Elder Barnes #12

ITS AUGUST 5TH. WOAH.

We’ve had a few neat experiences the last several days and we continue to be blessed with miracles. Last night we were walking out of a dome after teaching a new lesson to a nice old bobka (the affectionate term for grandmother in russian) and we came across a cool kid who was riding his bike. We flagged him down and found a nearby bench and taught a clear and powerful first lesson. His name is Roman; he'š 23 and had read a little bit about the church before. Unfortunately we had just given away a book of mormon a few minutes before so we didn’t have a russian one to give him but gave him a pamphlet and got his number. He eneded up getting a call at the end and had to leave real quick. Russian people love to do that for some reason—when ever you call a wrong phone number they just say you didn’t get to the right place and then hang up. Hopefully it will work out for the best! Thinking back I’ve seen A LOT of miracles that don’t result in huge ”success” or baptisms. But itš cool to know that God is always willing to make things happen, even if he knows we'ŗe going to use our agency poorly anyway. I love that the gospel is perfect.

I’m trying to think of other good experiences. OH! Elder Patterson, (my buddy from the MTC who served in the army and was in Afganhistan and is one of my heros) and I went on an exchange last Saturday. He'š also serving in Riga right now but it was so good to be reunite for the day. We can also communicate with each other a lot less worse than we did in the MTC which was fun, MTC ”SpeakYourLanguage” is so classic. Elder Brown and I try SMyL, but it usually results in confusion and then English. But anyway Elder Patterson works in the area where I did at the beginning of my mission and so it was fun to teach some of the same members I’ve taught before. The first is a 14 year old kid named Misha who acts like he'š 25 until he'ļl break out in song and dance during the middle of lessons because "he knows everything”. Another one is Olga, an OLD lady who was baptized over 5 years ago but is somehow convinced she'š still a member of the Russian orthadox church and closes her prayers in the name of the father, son and holy ghost because “that’s the way she was baptized.” People are so interesting. But the cool/spiritual part of these stories is as we were teaching Olga, we both had a clear feeling like we should go back to center for the rest of the evening, instead of staying and knocking like we had planned. I remember the thought came to my mind and was so random/clear but I didn’t think much of it until we got out and he said he’d had the exact same feeling. Well, we went back and a few hours later ended up teaching a cool group of 24 year old-ish students and then later another man who had known the missionaries in Liepaja but was kind of stranded in Riga. We didn’t think about it much until the day was all over but it was clear that we were led where to go and what to do, while at the time we didn’t feel like we were doing anything special. Like Elder Bednar said (quoting, although not so directly from the email cami sent) ‘’Štop analyzing it, quit worrying about it, move on. Keep your convenants, keep the commandments, Be a good boy…and you will be guided. ‘’ I agree with him. Well I’ve got to go and sorry these stories today are kind of open-ended but that’s okay because it'ļl hopefully give something to write about next week!

I love you all, a lot!
Love, Elder Barnes #12