It's the Middle of March? from Peter

Well it has been an awesome week. I feel like the more the mission goes on, the more all the weeks blend together and they all seem good. But this one was good for a few specific reasons. Here they are...

I love my companions! We find out transfers tomorrow and then move on Wednesday and I'm pretty sure that we won't be serving together any more. Elder Patterson and Plothow have been so easy to get along with, we all enjoy doing this work and our styles blend together well. Maybe a bummer I don't have any juicy stories of us big-time disagreeing or trying to hurt each other, but we really just get along. I will miss serving with them, but we'll still see each other around till the end of the mission and hopefully afterwards. Life is good, especially when you're surrounded by people that you love and like being around.

Our investigators are making good progress-- especially Karl (the referral from the member in Riga.) He's reading the Gospel Principles book and Book of Mormon every day and really likes it. He's hesitant to accept a baptismal date, but I think within a few weeks he'll feel ready. He's mentioned that everything in the gospel priniciples books that talks about families just seems not real-- a little too idealistic. We taught him with a recent convert, Andre Varsha, on Friday, and after the lesson Karl kept saying how good the people are in the church, and that "with you, it's fun." Brother Varsha picked up Karl for church on Sunday, which was perfect because last week Karl came and walked-- over one hour each way! It's not quite a pioneer trek, but it's definitely not warm outside yet, and it showed me the dedication and desire Karl has to find out if this is true. He's a happy, good guy, and I really have a good feeling about him. He also says "znai-yesh" ("you know" in russian, I have no idea how to spell that in english) at the end of every other phrase and when he's reading the scriptures. Sometimes I can't help but laugh, you know? Okay that was bad but you gotta hear it, it's entertaining.

We also taught a few other investigators who are doing well but weren't able to make it to church this week. The main ones are Fred and Maris, the Estonian couple that wants to get married in the temple. They were out of town, but we also found out it takes 30 days to get registered to be married so we'll have to push their baptismal date for April. Is ts really April next month, wowzers. We taught another cool kid we met on a bus named Dima, he's 22 and really smart. After the lesson, he asked us if we believe in Destiny. I'm not sure what official church doctrine we have on that, but I told him that I believe that if we do what's right, things will work out the way they are supposed to. So sure, I believe in Destiny. I hope I didn't teach false doctrine. But I figured, Destiny-Fore ordination; Tomato-Potato.

I also went to Narva for the first time last Tuesday on an exchange. It's a small, quiet, "Russian"-people city, right on the border of Russia. There's a sweet spot where you can look across the river and see an Estonian castle on one side and a Russian castle on the other. If you have a good arm, you can easily throw a rock into Russia. I didn't try because it was early in the morning, and I didn't want to wake anyone. Plus once someone told me that I throw like a girl and I've never really recovered from that. But I took a picture and I'll see if I can send it-- it's a really beautiful place, probably one of my favorites I've seen here.

Wednesday was zone conference, and it went really well. We focused on the Spirit, Planning, and working with Members. It was cool because right after zone conference we didn't really have any concrete plans. We were supposed to teach a guy named Dima who'd called us the day before and said he wanted to "confess his sins". Well that was sort of odd but we said okay, we'll meet up. But he wasn't answering his phone and we didn't know where he lived. So we had a feeling to go out to an area that we hadn't knocked in a little while. We got off the tram and boom, Dima calls and wants to meet up. We asked him where he was and he said that he was waiting a bus stop, which was only 2 stops away on the tram we were just on. So we hoped back on the tram, and met him within three minutes. Miracle! I was a little apprehensive, because it's not super normal to call someone and tell them you want to confess your sins, but it turns out Dima was a very good guy! He was baptized over 5 years ago and fell away after making some mistakes. He'd visited other churches since then, but didn't feel like he'd received forgiveness, and knew that this Church was true. We went back to the teaching center and talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and especially how God and Christ will forgive us, so long as we have faith and truly repent. It was a powerful lesson and he ended up helping us teach an investigator the following day and did a great job! So it was a cool miracle and it strengthed my testimony of the importance of the Spirit, Planning and Members in this work. They are all crucial!

You are crucial. Really, I love you so much. And I am grateful to be related to you forever. Life is so good!

Love, Elder Barnes #12

P.s. We're at the library and the computer doesn't accept cameras so I'll have to send these pictures next week! Just picture me, smiling with my companions and covered in snow. It's still snowing here everyday, but apparently spring is coming sometime soon. Keep your fingers crossed!