Dad Called It - Mon Jan 25, from Peter

Welp Dad's right. He always is! For the last few transfers he's been telling me that the next stop is Estonia, and this morning President Dance asked me to serve in Tallinn next transfer! I was trying hard not to be biased on where I “wanted to go” because you just go where you are supposed to go and it's not like we get to choose. But having said that I'm VERY excited. Even better, I'll be serving in another 3-some and my companions are solid. I'll be serving with Elder Patterson (Russian speaking, from my MTC group who served in the Army including a year in Afghanistan) and Elder Sam Plothow (Estonian speaking--from my BYU 55th ward). I seriously have had the coolest companions, and threesomes just make it all the more fun. Wow I just realized that they will be my 11th and 12th companions. Hmm... my goal was to have 12 companions total. Well either way, it's going to be sweet. And now I'll be an even closer rock's throw to Sister Cami Richey!

Elder Hatch and I were in Tallinn last Friday on an exchange and it's a really neat city. It has a much more modern feel than the others, with a few more tall sky-scraper-ish buildings. It has about 40% Russian, 60% Estonian but there are
Russians wherever you go, and some areas that have a higher concentration. It has a more complicated system of transportation than Riga--at least from what I could tell. In Tallinn missionaries use both Tramways, trolleybuses and autobuses whereas in Riga center you really only need the buses. Well I guess we've had a car for the last little bit but I really enjoy taking the buses because you never have to worry about where you are going, just as long as you get on the right bus! I mention all of this because I was with a missionary last week who's in his 2nd transfer and wasn't quite sure where we were going. I obviously had no clue, but we were able to ask around and ended up where we needed to be. We were looking for a few less active members/former investigators and it was evening and freezing! I think it was about -20 C which is what it's been in Riga the past few days but the air is numbing and the wind in Tallinn is pretty fierce. (A member came back from a trip to Siberia and said it was -37- -40 there, but felt colder here because of the humidity ). Well anyway we found the dom and rang the outside doorbell to see if "Aleksei" still lived there. His friend answered and said he had moved but let us come up to get his
phone number. At his doorstep, we started to talk his friend Denis, a cool 24 year old kid. He said he was not too interested but saw that we were "nice guys" and let us sit down so that we could “get warm”. Immediately as we sat down he started to ask a bunch of great questions about how we can know who god is, where he lives, and how to communicate with him. It naturally flowed right into a first lesson and he wanted to learn more and meet the next day! Hopefully now we'll be able to teach him next week. It was nice warm little miracle.

Both Igor and Rollands received the Aaronic priesthood yesterday at church. In both branches, all of the priesthood brethren get together and make one “big” quorum for the third hour. I remember when I first came to the Russian branch at the end of last summer there were the 6 missionaries plus about 5-6 active members. Yesterday there were over a dozen members plus Roman, the investigator. It's great to see the branch grow and especially have more Priesthood holders. I love the Priesthood and it's definitely one of my favorite parts about the church. It's tough to play favorites, but the church wouldn't be anything special without the Priesthood. Roman is progressing well and will have his baptismal interview this week-end. He's a naturally shy guy, but he feels great at church and sees how his life is already changing. He told me on Saturday that he asked his mom to pray before they eat dinner together. She didn't want to, but still, that's a way big step for him! He's living the word of wisdom and starting to read daily, and really felt the spirit at a baptismal service last Saturday They are a ton of great investigators, recent converts right now in Riga. This transfer alone, there will be 7 baptisms from all four branches, both Russian and Latvian branches on both sides of the River.

We had a district lunch earlier today at the Jacques home, they are the best senior couple who live here in center. (I told you about them earlier, they are the ones who were expecting to go to Hawaii on their missions and got called here. Polar opposites.) We had spaghetti and watched the Book of Mormon video, Volume 1; the Journey. That thing is way too cheesy, we all laughed really hard especially when the angel comes and stops Laman from beating Nephi. We even watched it on instant reply. President Dance spoke on 2nd Nephi 2:15 last Sunday in sacrament meeting. He said that he used to like it because it was shortest book of Mormon verse he memorized for seminary. But then he pointed out how it's Nephi looking back at his father and the kind of man he was. In a nut shell-- he sacrificed all his worldly possessions to obey the Lord and leave his home. Even throughout the challenging journey he continually showed gratitude. He mentioned that what Lehi took with him are only the three things that we really need: faith in God, our family, and basic food and shelter. I'm really glad he put food on that list, because I love food. I'm also grateful for a family that I love and miss but know I will be with forever. And I know that we have a loving heavenly father we watches out for us and is aware of our daily needs.

I love you! I pray and think about you every freezing day! I might have to e-mail next Tuesday, so don't panic if no e-mail comes next Monday. I'm staying alive. And Life is so good.

Love, Elder Barnes #12