Peter's Epistle

Dear Family!!!

Hey I'm going to be a male uncle!

What a week! January is in full swing, and it's definitely not getting any warmer. But things get getting better. So bring it on cold weather!


I hope you like those rhymes, they just kind of came to me. It has been a very great week though, for a few good reasons. First I got a few packages (thank you Mommy, Cedar City Barnes, and Sister Brett and Grandma and Grandpa Sager) and a ton of letters with updates from the missionaries in our ward which are fun to read and catch up on. The 3rd ward is putting out an army! If you have Dean, and Jordan Lymans address for when they get into the field it'd be fun to send them a note. Plus I got the letter from Sister Richey through Sanita (the member in the Riga, Latvian branch) and it sounds like she's working hard and finding her groove. And I got the pictures from Gary and he looks really good and sounds like he's dominating school and life. I forget sometimes that life goes on at home, and probably at a faster pace than here. Although this week seriously felt like a blink.


Yesterday both Rollands and Igor came to church and they announced their Baptisms for this saturday! I think I've told you about them a bit, but they are sincere and prepared and will be strong priesthood holders. Rollands (16) has the huge family with the Hungarian father so we all went out there with the Birkenfeld family in the Latvian branch who are both returned missionaries (Martinc to Ukraine, Noami to Finland!) but she is from Hungary so they spoke at the begining with the father and it was really good. All of the kids are interested, listen and answer questions, and read the Book of Mormon. When we asked who would be coming to Rolland' baptism the mother asked if the others could be baptized too! We said yes, they'll just need to come to church first, and I think she would come too but she works 2 jobs and they live out of the city so it's about an hour bus ride in. But they are elect people, and once Rollands becomes a member I think it'll help them all accept the gospel and find a way to come. His younger brother Andris has come twice and whenever we ask him how he likes church or the Book of Mormon he just gets a huge smile and says “Great.” They are all pretty shy and introverted people but the more they've come to church, the more they've opened up. And they are just all smiles when we come over, it's classic. I'll send a picture from our last lesson, and it's good, but just doesn't quite capture what amazing people they really are. Hopefully someday you'll get to meet them!


Other miracles involve another man we've taught a few times named Roman, he's about 31 and we knocked into him in Mezciems, the same area where we found Katja (she's doing GREAT by the way, mixes in really well with the branch and we've taught a few good lessons where she's really starting to open up these past few weeks and has started to read more in the Book of Mormon which will help her more than anything else.) But Roman is a nice, quiet guy who takes care of his sister's dog when she's not home and that's actually how we found him! He normally lives in an area far away, but was in Mezciems one evening when we knocked. I don't know about you but that definitely doesn't sound like an accident to me! He's been reading the Book of Mormon, came to church yesterday, and agreed to be baptized the first week of February. In our last lesson he said that he doesn't know exactly what he's supposed to do in life, but feels good when we come over and thinks about God more. I'm really looking forward to seeing him grow, he's a way good guy.


Welp, I hope you have a better glimpse of what's going on here, this is the happiest time of my mission. I really love my companions, we are teaching some amazing people, and I kinda feel like I know what I'm doing. Although I got my haircut this morning and I should learn some more Russian vocab words for that because she understood shorter on top and low blend on the sides as really, really short and no sideburns. But hair grows back, thank goodness.


I love you and am grateful for the love I feel from you every day.

Love, Elder Barnes #12

the e-mail thing shut down right as I was about to send this, so I read all of your e-mails and luckily I wrote in word so no problems! It should be up by next week so keep sending e-mails there, and hopefully all will be well!

The other pictures are from saturday's earling morning workout/football. It was freezing (-12), but way fun. We played again today and it was even a little colder. But so worth it.

Greetings from Sister Brett #3

PARK CITY!!!! Yeah, once again life has outdone itself and I have been showered with the best start to transfer #3 I could've imagined! Sister Tyree has been sent outbound to Aneheim, California for 2 transfers, and Sister Barona is my new companion. We are in the same class (transfer) and she is from Lima, Peru. SAweet, I know. She speaks english, spanish and french and is so hilarious. I have loved her since the moment I met her in the MTC and I am SO excited to serve with her for a transfer at the largest tourist/skiing attraction in Utah!! Not to mention one of the most beautiful places I've seen in a very long time.

I'm not positive I have even told you about our Family Search Center up in Park City. Probably because I didn't really know anything about it... we only ever have one or two companionships that get to serve here every transfer and it is part of our Extended Zone (like Welfare Square and the Humanitarian Center are), but it's farther away and much smaller.

It is incredible though! It is just a small little shop on the tourist Main Street, with three stories--lowest level is the center with some computers and displays about Family History and how Jesus Christ and His gospel allow us to know that family relationships are eternal--2nd level is THE CUTEST apartment we are blessed to live in, and above us is where the senior couple lives (the Estes'). It is just this cute little cabin and I am SO excited to serve here.

Elder and Sister Taylor are the directors of this Visitors Center and they are incredible. We got here late last night, and Sister Barona and I have Preparation Day today so they took us shopping, out to lunch and up to the Olympic Park for a tour! We learned about all the Winter Olympic sports and went up to the top of all the 2002 Olympic jumps and race tracks (for skiing, luge, skeleton and bobsled). SO COOL. SO HIGH. And incredibly beautiful.

As sister here we will be in the Center most of every day helping our guests with Family History!!! Tell Uncle Russ I terribly regret not spending more time getting geneology pointers from him, but I am SO excited for everything I am going to learn this transfer! I am especially grateful because I do have such a stronge testimony about the reality the temple and how the ordinances within allow us the opportunity to have an eternal family. President Holmes told us that serving up here will allow us to better come to understand the pupose of temple work and to feel connected to our ancestors in a way we could never imagine. "They (our ancestors) are truly urging us forward in this essential and eternal work!" he says.
We also have a call center-like the one in the MTC and on Temple Square, and we will spend a ton of time in there as well. I just love the call center. Miracles, I tell you.

We are expecting a whole TON of visitors in the next few weeks because the 'Sundance Film Festival' is up here next week and it draws up so many people---especially movie stars. Jeah. The sisters who just left said they have already seen a few movie stars who came into the center so we're excited to keep a look out for Hollywood's finest so we can share the gospel with them! ;)

I cannot wait for the new adventure that awaits this transfer. I'm not on the Square, but I know I'm exactly where the Lord needs me right now and I am more than happy to be here.

I love you all so much and it was great to hear from everyone this week! I finally got Jessie's letter and it was SO good. Jess, that poem about our family is great, I loved it and read it all the time :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Love,
-Sister NayBrett#3

oh, and our address is still the same--they will figure out a way to get the Park City mail up to us. I love you Mom and Poppy.

HEY! from Peter

Dearest family

Wow it's nuts that it's already preparation day! I usually track the weeks by wednesdays because it's the day when we sit down and re-cap what happened. A week usually flies by, but it feels incredibly quick when it's only been 3 days! But even then it's been a fun and busy week and a lot of good things have happened, so I have some things to write about—thank goodness! Thanks for the e-mails by the way, I really love hearing from you and look forward to knowing what's going on in your lives. I forgot to fast for the ducks yesterday, so that's probably why they lost. Bummer. But like Mom said, next year is looking good!

I was kidding about the fasting thing but I've really grown to enjoy fasting while serving here. I remember it used to be a struggle to even wait to get home to eat the fast sunday brownies, but it's become easier to go longer without eating—that's probably thanks to my first few transfers with Elder Glauser! Haha just kidding, but seriously I also think that understanding why we fast and having a reason helps a lot. That's a great idea for the 40 day fast in our ward, 3rd ward rocks. Have there been any cool missionary experiences or recent converts over the last while?

Yesterday Igor came to church and brought an investigator! Haha he had called him the day before and invited him to come-the man is named Maris and he was found the week previous by some latvian misisonaries in Imanta, he came to the baptismal service last tuesday and the missionaries had forgotten to catch up with him before sunday. Well both Maris and Igor bore their testimonies in sacrament meeting yesterday-- in BOTH russian and latvian branches. It was awesome! They did a really good job, way sincere. Maris talked about how his relationship to life has changed as he's thought more about God and Igor testified strongly of the book of Mormon and how you can't find the answers it gives to “all of life's questions” in any other book. The members loved it, and it really brought the spirit into the meeting. Fast
sundays are always exciting, but especially here!

I love the Baltics! Dad told me about his new travel guide and asked which cities I'd been to last week so here's the break down-- Lithuania- Vilnius, Siaulai, Kaunus and stopped in Panevjizs (no idea how to spell that one, there's no missionaries there but it's the pit stop between Riga and Vilnius and is infamous for being the next city to be opened but won't be opened any time soon), Latvia-Riga, Jelgava, and Daugavpils and Estonia- Tallin, Tartu and Parnu. I've not been in three cities where missionaries proselyte, Klaipeda, LT, Liepaja LV, and Narva, ES. I'm not sure how but it'd be fun to go there. Someday, somehow. We were talking with my companions though, and there are some things here that you'd just never see in the States—women in their 70,80's shoveling the snow on the sidewalk is just one example. But they really are beautiful countries with interesting history which I know little about now but would be fun to study sometime. And maybe in Russian!

Tomorrow I'll be heading to Tartu, Estonia for an exchange and then zone conference the following day. This round of zone conferences will be a little bit different than usual because we'll be gathering in small groups and not necessarily as zones. I think there will be 9 conferences total and we'll each go to 1 not besides the one in Riga, and then the zone leaders will lead the other ones. As much fun as it would be to go to all of them, I'm glad that we won't have to give the same presentations 9 times over. That's a lot! I don't think the missionaries will realize that President and Sister Dance will be doing their teaching over and over though, they both have histories in teaching and are really good at making things feel fresh, even if they're not. That's a skill!

Well sorry this is short but I'll write you again next monday, which will come in no time. I love you!! The church is so true!!!

love, Elder Barnes #12

2010!!! from Peter

Hey! It was so fun talking to you on Christmas day and it was the perfect way to end a happy day. I didn't mention it on the phone but earlier on Christmas morning we were running around the city delivering goodies to investigators/less active members and singing carols and it was a little bit of a stress-fest. We didn't have it planned out real well where to go, some people weren't expecting us and were a little too surprised, I was anxious for the rest of the day (especially the phone call) and so forth. I just felt a little bit like Scrooge so I tried to relax and forget about the problems and think more about the people we were serving. I bet you can tell what happened-- but I'll say it anyway. Everything got better. I was happier, I felt the spirit stronger and the people we visited were really grateful. We even met a few cool new people along the way! One thing that seems to be a theme in missionary work is what you put in is what you get out. That's probably why the Lord asked us to give our whole heart, might, mind and strength.

This week has been filled with fun ranging from teaching a great family to the appearance of Igor the perfect investigator to nighttime nerf gun wars in our apartment (the Dances [mostly Sister Dance] gave us the nerf guns for Christmas-- so we figured it was OK/expected.) The family we taught are the relatives of Rollans, the 18 year old who game to church last week for both branches. We'd been teaching him for 2 weeks but always in center because he lives about 30 KM outside of Riga. Last Saturday, we arranged to go out to his place and met the rest of the clan: 4 younger brothers and one younger sister! That's unusually large for a Latvian family. We also met his mom who's really interested but works 2 jobs as a nurse so she's super busy-- his Dad was at work and apparently isn't as interested but a real nice guy. Rollans brothers are Erins (15), Andris (13), Norberts (9) and Arturs (3) and then Lasma(7). They are all WAY good—quiet, listen and understand. Lasma is especially cute because she's missing some front teeth and smiles really big and gives perfect one word answers. Plus her name kind of rhymes with the Russian word for cool—Klasna-- which I mentioned because I was accidentally calling her Klasma the whole time until my companions corrected me after the lesson—whoops. But we taught them the restoration and gave them a Book of Mormon and asked if they would read and Lasma quickly shouted out “Yes!” Elder McLaren did 95% of the teaching because the kids don't speak Russian but I threw in my simple Latvian testimony and
Elder Hatch nodded and smiled. You'd think he could teach in Lithuanian and be understandable to a Latvian but I think it's kind of like Russian/Ukrainian or French/Spanish. Similar, but not really. We've been practicing teaching in Russian during morning study though and they are picking it up well. I love Russian and I'm really glad I've had the chance to learn it. I'm hoping to keep it up after the mission-- I'm not quite sure how but maybe classes or books or maybe just watching Bourne movies. I'm just really glad I passed the “Radio” test though. That would've been embarrassing...

The other miracle of the week is Igor! Very often it feels like Heavenly Father just leads prepared people right to you, but with Igor it's more that way than I've ever seen. We showed up for Latvian sacrament meeting Sunday morning and he was there setting up the chairs. One of the Latvian elders came up to me and told me he only spoke Russian and my first though was, oh jeah. Turns out he'd been contacted by Elders Freeman/Eddington last summer, came to a baptismal service and church a few times, but lost contact because of working week-ends and a not-so supportive girlfriend. But ever since then, he's continued to read the Book of Mormon and has “thought about the church every day.” He said he feels better there than anywhere else. Welp sometime last week, he broke up with his girlfriend, quit smoking and decided he wanted to put God first in his life. We've taught him everyday since Sunday, he attended a baptismal service on Tuesday and got teary eyed during the ordinance. He came to the ward activity last night (the New Years Party activity-- where Santa Claus [the skinny young branch mission leader] came and gave the kids gifts who could recite a poem/do something interesting—the Russian orthodox Christmas is this week, and that's why I think they waited, haha, but anyway) Igor had spent a few hours reading Ether 4 earlier in the day, and said he read some parts over and over because they had answers to questions he'd had for a long time. He especially liked verses 18-19 where it talks about the need for faith, repentance, baptism. He accepted a baptismal date for Jan. 16th on Sunday and then yesterday I told him he could pick who he wanted to do the ordinance and so he approached Sasha (Santa Claus) and asked him if he would be able to. Not long ago he texted and asked what time we could meet up today. The best thing is that he's a way
normal, cool guy, and all the members love him, he's just got a huge desire to come to God. Now that's what I'm talking about! Like mom said on the phone call, we're just being extremely blessed with people to teach who are ready and humble. I'm so happy, and grateful for that. No matter how many accept or reject it, I know this church is true and Christ is the way. But playing a part in watching people accept truth is also very cool and makes it more than worth it.

I love you, and look forward to hearing again from you soon! Speaking of which, starting tomorrow (or next year as Bishop Steve would say) Preparation Days will be on Mondays. So mark your calenders, because if you forget to write till next Wednesday my e-mail will already be outdated and short. Just kidding. But seriously happy new year and Bunny Bunny Rabbit!

I love you, I love you, I love you!

Love, Elder Barnes #12

P.S. Happy Birthday to Mommy!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! from Peter

Hey hey. Whew I love this time of year. It was so good to hear from everyone and like you all mentioned, I'm looking forward to talking to you tomorrow! The other phone calls flew by in a blur so I'm hoping that tomorrow's will go by a little slower, ha. But it really fires me up to hear your happy voices and reminds me how lucky I am to be here and have family that is so loving and supporting.

We don't have much time today but I'll give you a quick update of what's been going on in this most wonderful time of year. Sunday was just miraculous. We had three investigators come to the latvian sacrament meeting—Rollands, Juris and Ilvars! Rollands is a super cool 18 year old kid who we've been teaching for the last two weeks. He lives with his family about 25 km from Riga, and he has 5 siblings who he looks after a lot. He studies in Riga so Elder Hatch and Elder Hansen taught him after meeting him on the streets while on an exchange. He's a really kind, humble kid, pretty shy but understands well and gives really good answers. He also speaks english well which is really helpful for our teaching situation. He really enjoyed church though and ended up staying for over 6 hours, for both Latvian and Russian blocks! I've never had an investigator do that before. We rarely do that, even though we always go to both sacraments, we'll take off if we don't have investigators in the classes. And 6 hours is a long time to be at church. But I'm really looking forward to continue to teach him and if things go as planned he'll be passing the sacrament at the end of the month! The branches here need good young priesthood holders pretty badly-- so he'll be a good addtion! Juris and Ilvars came unexpectedly, we'd invited both earlier on in the week but Juris is not completely interested and it's been hard to stay in touch with Ilvars because of his work schedule.But they came and that was good-- Ilvars especially has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and is also planning on being baptized in the middle of January. And then in Russian branch Vladimir came again and he's really getting it. He's traveling to Liepaja this week-end to be with family but he's coming back for sunday morning so that he can come to church! He also has a goal to be completely off smoking by Christmas (wow that's tomorrow!) and he's been smoke free the past three days. Oh man it's just a joy to teach people who are prepared and ready to change. We really continue to be blessed, and the best part about it is seeing people who start to repent and live commandments and see immediate blessings and increase of feeling the spirit. It works like clockwork everytime. Speaking of time we've only got about nine minutes! I'm way bad at writing short e-mails. Other week highlights are old missionaries leaving. My whole companionship misses Elder Brown—it's not the same without him. But he sent me an e-mail and seems to be doing well and apparent made his way to temple square to visit Sister Brett, haha. I hope her companions aren't sick of all these family/friend visitors. He said she was a very happy, awesome missionary, and asked him for a referral, and I was so proud. 6 new missionaries flew in yesterday, it's getting a lot warmer—above freezing, and it feels really warm actually. Tonight the Dances invited us for dinner with their family and the Senior missionaries, we'll be caroling to some investigators/members tomorrow as a district, go over to Katya's in the evening and then talk to you! Woo-hoo!

Sorry I didn't have time to write everyone back or give lots of details, but I'll fill you all in more on the flip side. Merry Christmas. I love you! And I just love being a missionary for Christ's church. It's so fun.

Love, Elder Barnes #12

Working in a Winter Wonderland from Jenae Brett

Hello Family!

What a beautiful Thursday morning! And yes...very cold. We are blanketed in snow at the moment, and as much as I hate the cold, I can't seem to complain because it is just so darn pretty! Even better is we just got back from the Temple and I can't help but be happy after coming out of the temple!

First off...Alex Forsyth is 18?!?!?!?!? WHAT?!?! How in the WORLD did that happen? Tell Jess I simply won't allow it. Also, I hope Josie's solo-debute went amazing (actually, i know it did!). My address is still the same Momma, and I'm outside a lot but the scarf grandma gave me is keeping me un-frostbitten, so no worries. :) Oh, and I LOVE Sister Tyree. She is fairly opposite of me (quiet, shy, small, introvert) so I am learning and growing a ton! Together though, we are loving this season and loving being missionaries!

The Christmas season on Temple Square is incredible and we have new and exciting experiences each and every day. The highlight of this week is probably Rich and Protik. They came to SLC for a conference, but they both live in South Carolina.
Rich grew up in Vietnam and his mother is Buddhist, and Protik is from India and is Hindu (I hope I got that right...I think Hindu is the religion and Hindi is the people...).

Anyhow, I was on exchanges with Sister Donelly from Colorado, and we were about to go and close the Joseph Smith movie when we got a page to take a tour. We let them know our schedule and they said if they couldn't find other sisters they would page us back-and they did! We took the two around and taught them the history of Temple Square and basic doctrines of the church. It was going pretty normal up until the moment we asked them about their beliefs and religious backgrounds--then we saw miracles! Asking questions is SUCH an effective way to invite the Spirit and help others realize their testimony and the truth. Basically, it ended with us bearing our testimonies of eternal families and of the Book of Mormon. When we asked if they would like to learn more they both got HUGE smiles on their faces and said, 'YES! How?!" As I talked to Rich for a few more minutes after, he let me know that his father had a serious illness and he had been praying to God, "If there is a God" he said, to send peace and an answer. When he heard that families can be eternal his face lit up and he said he felt so happy and hopeful. He wants to find out how this is possible and how to get into the Temple! :) Protik was excited to read the Book of Mormon and learn more about the Resurrection, because his faith believes in reincarnation. He said it hasn't always sat right, and this may be his answer. haha, may be?!? Nay, I submit it is!

So, other than the million miracles, we also had an amazing zone conference this week. It was based completely on the birth, life and mission of our Savior Jesus Christ. The first class was about his birth. Sister Kai (one of the APs), asked me to tell the story of when I was born and what my parents/family did. I told her what I've been told multiple times--that the scream of joy that I came out a girl after 2 boys could be heard in China. She compared that to how joyous our screams of joy must have been when God sent our brother, Jesus Christ to earth to fulfill His mission. I bet we were among those herald angels singing! Then I thought more about that joy--I imagined, as I have many times, Jeremy shouting joy and jumping up and down when finding out our little Bella was actually a Kobe James Joseph! I wish I could've seen that! The joy that parents feel when holding their newborn in their arms must be incredible. A precious Spirit straight from God and entrusted in OUR stewardship. WOW. That is also a GREAT responsiblity! Can you even fathom what Mary must have felt as she and Joseph held their newborn baby, Savior of all mankind, in their arms in that manger? I sure can't. But I would imagine it was incredible....and probably a little bit overwhelming...

Christmas this year has taken on a whole new meaning, and the Spirit on Temple Square each day testifies boldly that Christ was born in Bethlehem to fulfill exactly what the Father sent Him to do. And He Did---and thank goodness for that! He is the reason Rich felt such hope and peace when he heard families can be eternal. Christ is the reason we can be forgiven of our mistakes and short-comings. And above all, He is the reason we are promised joy and blessings beyond compare if we endure this short life faithfully!

I love you all and I love this season! If you haven't already, PLEASE listen to the 1st Presidency Christmas Devotional. It is such a great reminder of the wonderful reason for this season--our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Love,

-Sister Nay Brett#3

P.S. I saw Cammi Nelson from my BYU freshman ward and she goes into the MTC this week. (Croatia mission!) Tell Josh to keep an eye out for her and make sure she knows I love her!