Dear Family,
As you probably noticed, this will be my new e-mail from now on. I think all of the e-mails sent to the old address will be forwarded but if you send them to pbarnes@myldsmail.net then they will get here faster, probably. Myldsmail and Gmail basically just combined which is pretty snazzy, i think there will be a lot less glitches in the system which will be nice. Pbarnes@mydsmail.net is a classy new name, but it's obviously not one that I came up with. It's lacking a lot of personality if you now what I'm saying. But I'm still happy!
Life is just good. Overall, this week has been very similar to last week, just a little bit more white! It's continued to snow pretty much everyday and the past few days have been back in the negative teens. Everyone keeps saying this is the most brutal and snowy winter they've had in about 40 years. I'm not sure if that's true cause I'm only twenty, but it's definitely a lot colder than last year. But the cold brings some fun obstacles including the 2-4 feet of snow piled up on the sidewalks. And all of rivers are frozen solid. I was in Parnu a few days ago on exchanges and the elders live right on the beach so we walked out and on across the Baltic Sea! I really felt like Peter. Hehe, but not so much because it just looked like a wasteland of snow, well, thick ice with snow on top for as far as I could see. But we stopped walking out after a bit, just because that would be a lame way to end a mission. But there were fisherman who were way further out there, so it was safe...
Okay back to the exciting news! Our investigators are continuing to make steps, but not extremely big ones. We've been trying to work more with members in our teaching and having the members call and invite them to church, and that's made a little difference but we still didn't have any at church yesterday. Antonio has a lot of potential, he's the 40 year old man from Equador who's lived here the last 20 years. The Estonian branch president REALLY likes him, and is convinced he'll get baptized. I think part of that is just because he's South American and "the promises in the Book of Mormon are about him" (a direct quote from President Jögi--prounced Yegee,) but he's really got a good shot. He has a testimony of the Book of Mormon, and pretty much everything we teach, it's just a matter of putting his trust in God that everything will work out with keeping all of the commandments. Then there's Tanel who was baptized, but has yet to receive the Holy Ghost. That's a tough situation, and we're not sure what else to do. He's said he would get it a few times, but just didn't show up to church because of family pressure or anxiety. We've had good lessons with him though when he's committed to receive so it's just a matter of him deciding on his own to do it. It's kinda like the idea of Borrowed Light vs. Added Light that one of the local general authorities taught at a zone conference. He said that what you hear and learn at church or general conference is borrowed light and will get you by but won't be long-lasting until you really learn and apply it through personal study and living. It's so true!
I'm trying to think what else is new-- oh yeah we had a miny miracle last week when we needed 4 eggs on Sunday evening to make brownies. We didn't have any though, so we went and asked one of our neighbors, Sylvie. She's a sweet, ancient little lady who speaks Estonian, Russian, Finnish and a little Lithuanian! I said all of the words I knew in Lithuanian and I'm pretty sure that's about all she could say too (How are you, I speak a little lithuanian, good, good-bye). But she did have exactly 4 eggs! She explained that just that morning she had thought about eating two of them but had a feeling not too. The Lord works in mysterious ways! Haha, I'm not sure if it was revelation or not, but it was pretty funny. We went back the following evening and gave her some brownies and returned her egg carton (she didn't want the eggs because all we had were store bought, and she got hers from the farm...). She also had us open a cork jar she couldn't muster open and check her electricity gauge which was high up, and then we sat down and taught her for a little while. She's pretty convinced in the Lutheran church and has had some pretty out-there experiences with angels and things, but it was still a fun way to share the gospel with a neighbor.
Other than that we've been trying our best to get people to stop and talk on the streets and on the transport and we've set up some new lessons with some cool people this coming week which I'm excited for. We also contacted a less active member who apparently spent some time in the states and said her favorite state is Oregon! So we're probably going to give her the beanie you sent me for Christmas. That was an inspired gift!
I love you and I'm so happy to be on a mission! I'm enjoying the snow as much as I can because I know that next year i won't be able to do! Well I guess it does kinda snow in Provo too. Dang. Well, at least I'll already have warm church clothes!
Much Love,
Elder Barnes #12
The first pictures is from the exchange in Parnu, the guy on the left is going on a mission to Hungary in 2 months and they guy on the right, Dima, is an investigator who got introduced by his friend who's also an investigator. They are both 20, Russian, want to serve missions and want to be baptized in March! I thought Parnu was all Estonian but I saw a lot of russians there. I asked a lot of people what percentage of the city population was Russian and some said 5% while others said 30-40%. I didn't count but I'd say right about 12%.
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