Happy Love Day! from Peter

Dearest Family,

Some of you asked if we did anything special to celebrate Valentines Day. Nope. Well, I guess my companions and I all wore red ties yesterday-- which is about the most creative you can get without getting into too much trouble on a mission. I really love my companions though. We don't give each other the nightly hug like i have done with all of my other companions (don't ask why, i guess it's just a tradition of our fathers) but we get along really well, enjoy serving with one another, and tell each other we love each other often. Having companions that you get along with makes all the difference. I can imagine that eternity would be a lot less fun if your companion was someone that drove you crazy. That's why Mom, Dad, Chisos and Bethany are just so lucky!

Because we all came out together, it's been fun to compare experiences we've had throughout the mission and life in general. Elder Patterson's conversion blows me away, because it happened in Afghanistan even though he grew up as a member in Idaho. He had a really good friend there who has a strong active member and asked him why he wasn't coming and invited him to read the Book of Mormon. He did, and then finished the doctrine and covenants and new testament within 2 weeks, changed his life around, and made the decision to serve a mission. It inspires me everytime he talks about it, it's very powerful in lessons when he testifies about not really believing in God until he read the Book of Mormon. Elder Plothow grew up in an active family and always attended church and had a testimony, but liked sitting in the back of the classroom leaning on his chair and making funny comments (at least that was the case at BYU!) But he's a very smart kid who understands the doctrine, teaches well and has grown and matured a lot but yet is still fun-loving and easy to be around. So we all have our different little backgrounds but they gel together and we had some powerful lessons together.

About a third of our lessons last week were in Estonian/ English, a third were pure Russian, and third in English. It works out that way because a lot more of the Estonian people speak English than Russians do, and then we're teaching a few people from out of the country as well. No one came to church yesterday which was a bummer, but I still think a lot of them have very good potential. One man I told you about last week is named Tanel and he was supposed to receive the Holy Ghost yesterday, but didn't come. That was surprising because we had a few good lessons with him with members and he was really looking forward to being confirmed. His family is very opposed to him joining the church, so I'm assuming that's the reason he didn't come. He's about 30 years old and is a great guy, just cares a lot about what his family thinks-- which is good, except for when it comes in the way of doing something more important. I think he'll come around though.

Some other investigators include a man named Sergei, who's in his mid 40s and is still down after splitting up with his wife and losing his 16 year old to illness 2 years back. He's a classic Russian “tough guy“, but he's really a softie on the inside and he thinks deeply and understands what we teach. We had a lesson last saturday with the branch president, and a recent convert, who are both his age and very dedicated to the church. It was a LONG lesson that started off with the Gospel of Jesus Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, etc) and ended up covering Aaronic and Melchizidek priesthood, callings, temple work, patriarchal blessings, word of wisdom and everything in between. Those are all great things, just not necessarily what we were hoping to teach, but I think Sergei enjoyed it. It's sometimes difficult to tell what Russian investigators are thinking because they express themselves in a different way. On the other hand, we're teaching a 30 year old guy from Mauritius (a small island near madagascar... I'd never heard of it!) and he lived in London for 15years and will tell you exactly what he's thinking. He grew up going to a catholic school and „fell away from the path and lost his faith“ a while back. He loved Alma 32 and said it was the best discussion on faith he'd ever read, although he's yet
to be „convinced“ mostly because the story of the golden plates and angel Moroni is „outlandish“ in his opinion. As you can tell, it's really fun to teach him and he's a sincere guy which makes teaching much more effective.

Last week we also had a great zone conference about focusing on our purpose by being exactly obedient and teaching for understanding. President Dance loves our missionary purpose, and it's really helped me better appreciate how cool it is to spend all day teaching people the gospel. He also compared Alma's teaching in Alma 5-10 and how he taught completely different people, in very different ways, but he taught the same doctrines, focusing a little more on certain things in certain places (basically he threw it down on repentance when they were wicked and invited them to be baptized when they were righteous.) It really helped me feel good. Sometimes I get flustered when you teach people and the spirit is there and they accept commitments but just choose not to act in the end. But I know i'm not the only one who's felt that way, and it's very likely that these people will have other chances down the road. One lesson i learn over and over is that when you do your best, sooner or later, everything just seems to fall into place!

We also did exchanges down in Riga last week after zone conferences with the Assistants and that was fun and faith building. We were able to teach Roman, the investigator i taught earlier and he's doing well and growing and looking forward to be baptized in two weeks. Also last sunday, Andris received the priesthood and Rollands passed the sacrament for the first time. Woo-hoo! I guess Andris (13) was talking to the Elders Quorum president after church and came up to Elder McLaren and said „he said that when I'm 19 i can go on a mission too!“ Haha that is what i'm talking about. Wow i'll be 27 at that point and probably have 3 kids. Weird. That would mean only 9 more to go!

We're actually going to a family's tonight who are in the Estonian branch, and they have 12 children, so it is possible! We did a FHE with a family last week with a 15 year old son and just talked about serving a mission and how it's blessed us. Looking back it's crazy how we're pretty much in the 4th quarter. We played basketball this morning for an hour and half with the other missionaries in Tallinn (inside no worries) and it was really fun. But we rented a gym a little ways from our apartment and since then we've been in sweat pants and jackets and it feels way way not normal. We kind of just blend in, and it feels funny that people are not staring. I'm looking forward to changing back into „church clothes“ so that everything will be back to how it's supposed to be.

Whew this is a long e-mail with nothing too new, i hope it didn't bore you! Elyse asked for some funny stories and it's lame but i really can't think of any. I'll be on the look-out next week though, for sure. I love serving here, and the ways i've seen the Lord's hand daily. Thanks for your prayers and love. I love you!

Love, Elder Barnes #12