THREESOME!

It's been a packed week and having an extra side kick has been a big time help! I'm really enjoying serving with Elders McLaren and Hatch in our tripanionship. We have a lot of fun while we preach a lot of gospel. Well this week has been less proselyting because we had zone conference in Latvia on Monday and Lithuania yesterday. The conferences have been a little shorter because we're doing a special mission tour with Elder Gvido Senkans, the first member in Latvia who is in the third Quorom of the Seventy. We drove the van with them down and back to Lithuania and it's been great spending time with them and especially listening to him speak at zone conferences. He has a really neat conversion story-- 17 years ago as we has studying with his wife in Russia he met missionaries and was just really impressed at how happy they were. More than anything else, he saw the happiness in their eyes, and it was a rough time and he couldn't understand why they were so happy if they “didn't smoke, drink, date or make any money.” He gained a strong testimony of the book of mormon, he learned english as he read the doctrine and covenants because he wanted to hear how the Lord spoke to the prophet in our day, and now has a very large and active family with 5 children. They are just great and really love the Lord and His church. I had an interview with him yesterday and learned a lot of things, but the number one thing that stuck out to me was how blessed I am to have an active family and amazing examples of service and dedication to the Lord. Happiness truly comes from serving and loving the Lord and those around you. I've learned that over and over.

We had an awesome miracle on Sunday morning when Ilvars called at 9 saying that he'd be coming to church. We'd hadn't been able to get a hold of him the last week, but we met him at the church and he's doing great! We actually had district conference that day, so we were able to teach him and he told us that he had been really busy with work and an old lady (which was his grandmother) had been giving him slack for reading the Book of Mormon saying that we teach a ton of bad things. Well, he finally asked her to name one of them and she couldn't so he decided that he'd come back. He said that he was impressed at how friendly and good the people at church were and he came to the district conference with all the members from Latvia later in the afternoon and really enjoyed it. In between our lesson and the conference he went to the park and read the Book of Mormon and wrote down questions. That's what I'm talking about! Juris also came to the conference and sat with a member named Peter who's from Australia but his dad is Lativan so he speaks fluently with a land down under accent. He's the man and is always willing to help us teach, which is even more fun now cause we can have one of us teach with him (Elder McLaren cause he speaks Latvian) and then Elder Hatch and I go out and work. Another bonus of a threesome. Both Elder Hatch and Elder McLaren are starting to learn Russian, and they're picking it up quickly. So we can't really SYL, but maybe we can start pretty soon. Haha, I forgot how hard a new language is though. Especially when the alphabet is a little different. I can't even imagine learning Chinese or something. Those little squiggly lines that make a whole word are just absurd.

Another thing that Elder Senkans talked about at Zone conferences was a study that it takes about 10,000 hours until you become a professional at something. He then compared it to faith, and how that is THE most important thing we can grow and develop while here on earth, and are we spending enough time to do that. I realize that being an active member in the church feels like it takes a lot of time sometimes, but in the long run it's only a fraction of everything else we do and the benefits completely outweigh the “sacrifice.” I'm just very glad to be able to spend these two years and dedicate all of my time to serving. I can't even believe how quickly it's going and I can see that the blessings are huge. I know this the most important/eternal work I'll ever do and I'm thankful for your love and support which lifts me up and keeps me keeping on. Have a happy thanksgiving. Go Ducks!

Love, Elder Barnes #12

P.S. I attached a few pics of our apartment, we've definitely cleaned it since then but it's a way nice place even if it's a little messy! Next preparation day is next Thursday. Be sure to give everyone in Utah a big hug from me! Ok not everyone, but just family members. And any familiar missionaries you run into at the MTC/Temple Square...

My companion speaks...

Lithuanian and Latvian!! Well okay, I've got two companions. One is Elder Hatch, and the other is Elder McLaren. And they are awesome. They came out in the same group about a year ago, both work extremely hard and are very humble, easy to get along with missionaries. Basically they are Elders who played sports and dated before the mission, which I think should be a requirement for any prospective missionary. Elder Hatch is from Bellingham, WA and looks like a clean cut Luke Ridnour. Elder McLaren is from Blackfoot, ID and looks like a dark haired version of Brad Pitt. Elder McLaren thinks I would be the George Clooney of the group-- so that could give you a comparison of how accurate my description was. Although Elder Hatch did grow his hair out in the 6th grade so that he could look like Luke. I still think he does.

It was tough to see Elder Brown leave, but he'll just be in Imanta so we'll see him around for sure. And I might be calling him very regularly to ask him about administration stuff that he just dominated. Any doubts that I ever had about having crazy companions are out the window, because my companions have been just so solid.

Four new Russian Elders came in last night, they were so excited and it reminds me how fresh and new it is to serve. One of them got the swine flu in the MTC, but didn't know Elder Barnes, unfortunately. But maybe that's good because it means the whole quarantine thing was not a joke. I'm feeling healthy and so excited. My body is kinda tired, but I might take a nap why my companions unpack later. Hmm, that sounds good.

It's been an exciting week of preparing for transfers. It really is such an inspired process, and it's clear that President Dance receives revelation in all that he does. I love the President and Sister Dance! We taught a few members that Elder Brown has worked a lot over his mission-- seeing as he's served all but 1 transfer in Riga. Some of my favorites are the Straupmani family who got baptized about a year and a half ago and have three children, one newborn. The father is a policeman/ coast guard lifesaver who earned the “lifesaver of the year” award last summer for saving a drowning 8 year old kid. So physically he's a beast, and he's also one of the most spiritually dedicated people I've met. They met the missionaries, the same day he'd been praying for help from God, he was an active member of the Russian Orthodox church, but after praying and fasting (for 4-5 day periods at a time, with only water) he knew the church was true and the whole family was baptized in less than a month! They are preparing for the temple and should be going in February to be sealed. So cool! One thing that I had never seen until this last couple days, was that at home, when they say things they don't want the kids to understand, they speak Russian. Haha, I guess it's something a lot of Latvian parents do because the kids are mostly learning English in school. But after a while the oldest (9 years old) son picked it up so he could understand, but they said they still do it anyway out of habit. I decided that I might say things in Russian to my family that I don't want anyone to understand. Although I don't think that'll be quite as fun, and I don't really know to say anything too bad because I've still yet to learn the swear words. And I'm planning to keep it that way.

We're also teaching a family who was found in a miraculous way! We were walking through the city to switch back from exchanges on a Saturday morning and the last man we talked to just seemed really interested once we said we have a message about Christ. We wanted to teach them right then, but he said he'd rather come with his wife, which we said would be perfectly fine. So the next evening we went to their place, and he told us after the lesson that he'd been praying that same day for help! During the lesson, as we were talking about the Restoration and explaining how we get answers from the Holy Ghost, I said that sometimes he testifies to me through feelings of peace and warmth-- and she goes “yeah I definitely felt that warm feeling.” The church is so true. They came to church last week and really enjoyed it, after sacrament meetings Zintra said she was “drunk with the Holy Ghost”, haha, never heard that one before. But they are reading every day and praying together and really humble people who are looking for truth. She works a crazy 12 hours a day, every day a week schedule, every other week, so it's difficult to teach them sometimes, but I really think that if they keep it up, they could strengthen the branch.

We had another Latvian man come to church last Sunday, after just meeting him Friday afternoon. He'd been contacted by missionaries in the past, and had wanted to come, but his son who'd lived in America told him not to. But we taught him and he came and also really liked it! A member just basically pulled him into sunday school which was awesome. The best part was the last talk from a Sister who had just returned from her mission. I didn't understand everything, obviously, but I could tell she was testifying a ton and said the first vision in Latvian and English and talked about how the holy ghost speaks all languages. It was a really powerful talk, and from watching Juris, it was clear he was feeling the spirit. He turned to me afterwards and said, "that was super! I get that feeling once in every ten years!” I went up to the Sister afterward to thank her, and I was pretty sure that she had just come back from Temple Square, because there's a Latvian sister who just returned from there. Turns out she had just returned from the Leeds England Mission, so she definitely didn't know Sister Brett-- but she thought that was neat that that's where Dad served too. I was curious why she said “England” during her talk and for some reason I was thinking about dad's mission and the things he'd told me as she was speaking—yup yup. The spirit is definitely understood in all languages! And I'm really glad that's true seeing as we have a tri-lingual companionship. But I'm not scared. I really have a testimony that in the Lord's work nothing really gets in the way. Or as President Hinckley would say “Things will work out.”

I love you! Thanks for your prayers. I'm praying for you!

Love, Elder Barnes #12

Happy THIRD day of November! from Jenae Brett

Hello beautiful family!

I just love you all so much. We had Relief Society yesterday! Oh, church works differently here (don't worry the same doctrines are taught though :)...We have just sacrament each Sunday at 7:30am with all the sisters, Senior couples(the husbands pass the sacrament), and mission presidency, and then we get Relief Society every other Monday morning at the same time because we can't afford to be off the Square.
So, Relief Society was wonderful and the lesson was about eternal families! I think that is my favorite topic...ever. We ended with talking about a quote from Joseph Smith- he said "Parents who love support, and pray for their children bring immeasurable blessings into their children's lives." I am a living testimony of the truth of that statement. As I read your letters and emails, and as I feel the power of your support and prayers I am motivated to want to be better, to work harder and testify through the Spirit to more people so they can know of the possibility of having their own eternal family!

Okay...our miracle for the week:
Yesterday morning was really slow on the Square, but Sister Beylis and I had planned for a language tour and prayed it would come. So, 15 minutes before we had planned to find our Russians or Israelis, we got a page (yeah...we use pagers. I don't even know if I have seen a pager in my life until now). Anyhoo, we responded and found out there were 20 Russians who just got on the Square and were interested in a tour! Haha, WHAT?!? Big language tours like this don't happen a whole lot unscheduled during the winter-time. So we got there and guess who we were taking on a tour? The 2010 Ruassian Olympic Luge Team! They are here training in Park City for a few weeks and decided to come see the sights. It was SO fun! I may not speak Russian, but I had fun attempting to communicate nonetheless. We had taken the Russian Speed Skaters on a tour a few weeks ago, but this one was completely different from the very start. They listened, they were more receptive than many of the russians we have taken around have been...and three of the referrred to hear more from the missionaries! Oh yeeah. Miracles do happen.

Alright, I have to go because we are way limited on time, but we may be able to pick of 5 minutes later tonight, we'll see!


I love you all and am ALWAYS praying to you!

Love,

Sister Nay Nay Brett #3

The Church is true! Go Ducks! Happy Halloween!

Dear Family,

Overall Halloween is not really celebrated too much here, but we had a trick or treat miracle on Saturday evening! It had been a pretty long day of not much going on, and right as we opened the door to go into another building, a group of 5 or 6 young trick-or treaters without their parents, came from out of no-where and ran right by. We debated whether it was worth it to knock at the same time, and just figured it wasn’t the best of ideas. So we turned around and headed towards some different buildings a hundred or so yards away. While walking, we came across a man with a hoodie. We greeted him, he took off his hoodie and it turns out that he was a nice, prepared guy who said he had few minutes. So we sat down on a nearby bench and taught him for the next 20 minutes. It was zero degrees out, so not too warm, but it felt very comfortable and he definitely felt the spirit. He came to church the next morning (he got there 20 minutes early!) and really enjoyed it. We’ve yet to teach him this week, but it’ll work out tomorrow I think. His name is Ilvars, he’s about 30, and has gone to other churches, just didn’t really like them. So he’s pretty prepared.

Yesterday morning we returned from exchanges in Vilnius and it was another highlight of the week. I love Vilnius! It has a lot of trees, the buildings and homes are more spread out, and it just feels like Eugene, kind of. We drove down Sunday evening after church, and arrived after a quick/dark 3 ½ hours. Like mom mentioned to me, it’s getting dark here really early (between 4 and 5). We also had a full moon yesterday, which I kind of forgot you were seeing too! Sometimes I forget that life is going on ever where else, especially when it’s moving very quickly where you are. That was another part of the fun of going to Vilnius; the city was the same more or less, a few new buildings here and there, but it was a lot colder than when I left, and now there are more members! I was with two Russian speakers who live in the area I served in, so we taught Karl (the man to whom we taught piano), and Artiom, who are both doing really well. Artiom had been dating one of the new converts, Ina, but she left for England a month ago and he said it’s been lonely without her, haha. My last lesson with him she came to teach with us, and I joked that they would become
“really good friends” and he said no way, but it just turned out to be destiny. But I’m telling you all of this because he baptized one of her good friends last Sunday, who’s been investigating for the last few months, and now her brother has been starting coming to church. Artiom’s friend, Jefim, that got baptized 2 months ago is doing really well, and is dating a long time member from the Lithuanian branch, and they are very lovey dovey. So basically, there’s a lot of baptizing and righteous dating going in Vilnius, which is what it’s all about.

Transfers are coming up next week, so we’ve started to do some planning. I’ve been serving with Elder Brown for three transfers, so we’re both pretty sure that we’ll have new companions next week, which is weird. Senior Missionaries are lucky in that they get to keep the same companion the whole time! I’ll for sure miss Elder Brown and his cooking, driving, and leadership skills. But transfers are always fun because you get to look at where you are, and figure out how to get where you want to be. My guess is I’ll still be in Riga, but you never know, anything can happen! Welp gotta fly, I love you and you’re in my prayers!

Love, Elder Barnes #12