Sweet Week! from Elder Barnes

Dear Family,

I believe in Miracles! We've been blessed with a really great week- I'm going to try and attach some photos because sometimes words just don't cut it.
Firstly, last Tuesday the cake came! The pink elephants were amazingly all in-tact, just a little bit skinnier, and the writing was all legible. That's a miracle! And it was delicious as always, we actually gave a piece to a member here that we work with a lot and he took a bite and said "sick americans." hahah, our sweets are a little more rich/sweet than the Estonian ones. But so worth it! Really thank you for sending that, it actually came on March 29th, we just didn't get it for a while because of the Easter holiday. Speaking of which my companions say thank you for the candy bags. You love me!

Christopher and Bethany mentioned to me in their e-mails that they got in contact with Robert and Fiona through e-mail. They are the Chinese couple who came to general conference last week. We called to teach them again this week, and they were super busy with exams and said they would call the next day if they had time. Usually that means that we would have to call the next day and follow up, but 15 minutes later Robert called back and said they could come and was wondering if he could bring a few friends! So Friday evening, we met up in center and took the bus to the church (15 min) with 5 cool Chinese people. It was awesome! We met at the church because it's closer to one of the members in the Estonian branch, Brother Christopher Chan. Bro Chan was born in Hong Kong-- lived there till he was a teenager, moved to the U.S (Washington state, i'm pretty sure) and then moved to Estonia, where he married an Estonian woman and now has 4 kids with one more on the way. He's one of the funniest people I've ever met-- apparently he joined the church in the states but was never really active until he came here and his wife asked him something about if their family could live together forever, so he remembered about the church, called up the missionaries, and now his whole family is very active and sealed in the temple! He did an awesome job teaching the lesson-- we watched the Finding Happiness video in Mandarin (they all speak Mandarin, all though Bro Chan only speaks Cantonese) and he taught with a lot of good parables/stories. After watching the video, one of the other guys, whose name is Richard, said "before I watched the movie, I didn't really know why I am here. But now, I just want to help people!" I was just blown away. Definitely one of those almost too good to be true moments. All throughout the video I just had a really strong feeling that Heavenly Father knows every one of his children and prepares them to have a chance, sooner or later, to hear about the gospel. They weren't able to make it to church yesterday, but really wanted to and they said they will come next week. They'll probably attend the Estonian branch because there are a lot more English speakers (we teach them in English) and Bro Chan goes to that branch. But from the way it's looking, there might have to be an Estonian Chinese branch soon-- or at least a Chinese-speaking Sunday school class!

Do you remember when I was a wittle guy and told you that I wanted to serve a mission "someplace where they have good chinese food?" That dream is kind of coming true! We haven't had dinner with our chinese friends yet, but apparently Fiona loves to cook- so we'll see. Do you also remember when I said I was "addicted to candy?" Old habits die hard. We devoured the goodies from the package, and then I decided that I'm going to go a month without eating any sweets. Part of that was inspired by Dad who would go on those kind of diets, and I use to think it was nuts but now it sounds like a fun challenge. But mostly there's this one activity in PMG that talks about giving up a habit in order to try to better understand how investigators feel when they give up addictions to live by the commandments. We are teaching two 21 year old guys from our English class, Leo and Ilya, and they came to conference last week, and church yesterday, and they are progressing really well. We invited them to be baptized on Tuesday, and they said yes! Leo even said "of course", so Thursday we taught them with some youth members about the word of wisdom. They know about it, because they had heard about it before in spiritual thoughts so it wasn't anything new, we just needed to commit them to live by it. So when we asked them to if they will live by the word of wisdom, Leo said, sure we'll start after we're baptized. Haha. We explained that it doesn't quite work that way. But they said they would start to live it, so I thought that cutting off the sweets would be a a good way to sympathize and understand. It's only been three days, but I feel a little difference (especially after a week off chowing down cake and all-sorts!) but it's definitely tough! I'm grateful that for the rest of my life, candy is not against the word of wisdom.

We have watched 3 sessions of general conference in Russian, and the saturday morning session in English, and we will finish the rest of the english sessions this week! I'm so so excited. Even though watching in Russian is fun and I can understand what they're saying, it still means a lot more in English and the jokes are a lot funnier. Some of the themes I've picked up are the emphasis of focusing on living the gospel as a family, and relying on faith in Christ. I appreciate General Conference more and more as time goes on. It also makes me realize how much I love and am grateful for and miss my family! I was feeling especially family sick on Sunday, just being at church with the members and their families and Elder Nelson's talk and those adorable pictures and so of course i started to think about Tate! And then I really liked Elder Anderson's talk. I don't know why it had never really clicked with me so clealy before but he said a line that hit me hard. I'm not even sure if it's something he said, but it's at least what I heard" The Atonement of Jesus Christ is what makes it possible for families to live together forever." So whether separated by distance, or death, if you know that your family will be together forever, you can take comfort in that everything will be ok. At that point I started bawling like a baby, but not because I was sad. I felt a lot of peace and warmth, and it was yet another confirmation to me that the Gospel of Jesus Chirst is the only way to eternal happiness.

One last piece of sad/mostlyhappy news came Saturday evening when we called Karl in Finland to see how he's doing. He said that he FINISHed his work on the yahct and will probably be coming back within the next few days. Sad because he was really excited about having work, but he even sounded happy about the idea of coming back to Tallinn. I asked him if he still wants to be baptized and he said "of course!" He's passed his interview and is ready, so the plan is for him to come to church this Sunday and then he could be baptized next saturday, the 24th. That's in 12 days! Woo-hoo. Life is good.

Love, Elder Barnes #12

P.s. the last picture was last thursday evening which happened to be Elder Reid's birthday! So the candles/balloons came right on time! I tried to show the Baltic smile in the pic with the pink elephant cake, but the first picture is my favorite. They are so awesome!

More Details from Sister Brett

Hello family and friends,

What a beautiful week to be alive!

I don't even know where to begin. Let me just say that conference was an incredible experience--never has a general conference been so exciting/exhilarating/tiring/happy in my whole life! We set goals as a mission before conference as to how many referrals we would be able to receive, and God was definitely aware of us! We decided that we would be able to get at least 3,000 referrals (names and numbers of friends and family w/out the gospel for us to call and share the gospel with) from all of the members. That was a pretty hefty goal seeing as last conference (while I was in the MTC) we were able to get about 2,203 as a mission (3 over the set goal). Anyhow, I have never seen the sisters in this mission work as hard (or look as beautiful ;) as this past conference weekend. The Square was buzzing, the loudspeakers were booming the conference talks and Tab music across the grounds, and the Spirit of missionary work was THICK. OOO, I LOVED IT. I thought several times as we were contacting of what an incredible mission this is. Nowhere else in the world can you look in every direction and see sister missionaries and couple missionaries at work and in the midst of building the Lord’s Kingdom. It really was a sight to see.
Another sight to see was MY BEST FRIENDS!!! Andrea, Holly and Garrett found me and I thought I would faint for joy. It was the first time I’ve seen them yet and I just couldn’t imagine life getting any better at that moment. It was a blessing to see so many familiar faces from BYU and pre-mission life (Andrea would laugh that I saw the Rhoads from Platos Closet and John Campbell, haha), and they all helped us out with missionary work as well So good.
Above all else however, were how prepared the members came this conference. Sister Johnson and I were literally floating when we had members offer us referrals and missionary opportunities without us even asking (yet)! For example, there is one RM who is going to college here and he comes to Temple Square all the time. A few weeks ago I challenged him to go through all his missionary planners and find 3 people for me to call and reinvite to have missionaries. He was way excited with that idea and promised he would. Well…on Sunday between sessions we were just contacting when he came and found us. He had a huge smile on his face when he pulled out a list of about 24 people for me to call that he knew/taught from his mission in California but never knew what became of them. “And I’ve only gone through 2 of my planners so far Sister Brett!” haha, jeah. It was so wonderful, and 3 of the people I have called thus far from that list were so excited to welcome the missionaries back into their home and learn more about the message we carry. I even called one woman named Sheila, and she got baptized after Logan had finished his mission! Talk about planting seeds. It was so neat to talk to her and she said something really true, “I’ve been so blessed because so many people didn’t ever drop the ball when it comes to me learning the truth—Elder Nikolas is obviously one of them, tell him thank you a hundred times over!” We can't ever drop the ball when it comes to inviting others to learn about our Savior's gospel!
The urgency of this message is really starting to catch on to the saints and it was proven this weekend!
At 9pm on Sunday evening we had a mission meeting in the Tabernacle with the Sisters and President and Sister Holmes' family (they have 12 grown and married children so their family is large!)—yes, once again I was overcome with gratitude. We met at the end of the 180th conference in the original conference center where the pioneers heard the words of living prophets. Wow. Anyhow, the purpose was to account for the work we had done during conference and to see if our goal was met. Our goal was 3,000 referrals, but guess how many souls/families will be invited to accept the gospel because of the incredible members this conference?....4,782!!!!! Yes, it was a miracle and God was definitely in every aspect of it.
The work continues onward though as we call, teach, testify and invite all of these individuals---and once again they are proving to be prepared. The field is WHITE!!! BEAUTIFUL.

I love this work on Temple Square. We were able to see one session of conference, the Sunday morning, where President Monson spoke of the hope provided through the Resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ, just as he had promised. This is truly the greatest hope we have, and I am so thankful for this Easter season to remind and renew that hope.

I love you all so much, thank you for your prayers, letters, packages(thanks Momma!), hugs (Andrea and Holly), smiles (Gary), and hard work in living according to the knowledge we have been so greatly blessed with.
All my love and prayers,

-Sister Brett#3

Hello! Happy Easter! from Elder Peter Barnes

Whew! It's been a great week. And to top it off, I opened my e-mail box today to find 12 un-read e-mails! Sorry for the super short e-mail last week and I don't have too much more time today but I'll try to fill you in. First, please pass very big thank yous to Grandma and Grandpa Barnes and Sager for the birthday gifts, Tyler, and the Hubler Family for the E-mails, and to Sister Jenae Brett and the Brett family for the packages-- I got them last week and they were awesome! I've already worn my new favorite "Ammon" tie and Spokane shirt (not at the same time), and all of my companions are very jealous. The birthday cake has yet to arrive, but I've got faith that it'll come soon. And I'm so excited! Also, I forgot to thank the 1st/3rd ward primaries for the valentines letters, and cookie mix. Super delicious. I say it a lot but probably not enough, thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, e-mails. I really do feel the love and it makes serving far away seem not so bad at all! I really love serving a mission and I'm a lucky guy to have the world's greatest family and friends. Thank you!

I'm jealous that you were able to watch all of conference! In Latvia and Lithuania, we watched it the following week-end, but in Estonia (the more high tech of the countries) they watch it live and do a direct translation into Estonian! So we were able to watch the Saturday morning session at 7:00 PM saturday evening and the Priesthood session on Sunday. We didn't watch all of them because we were just supposed to watch them in our mission languages with investigators and then next week we'll get to watch recorded English sessions. It was fun to watch it in Russian, and I can understand pretty much everything they say, it's just not quite the same as watching it in English. Especially when President Monson started to "ad-lib" and the translator got lost... But it was a nice teaser to see a little bit and I'm really really excited to be able to watch them all. Conference week-end is one of my favorite times of the year and it just reminds me more and more how true the church is, no matter where you are. We actually had four investigators come on Saturday evening, which was awesome! Two were young guys from our English class, who are pretty interested in the church and really enjoyed it although they said their bottoms hurt for sitting down for so long. Ha, and the other two are a miraculous couple we just started teaching-- their names are Robert and Fiona and they are from China! So I guess their real names are Kong Shw Wu and Wang Pintint (no joke) but they chose English names because they are (a lot) easier to say. They are both 23, will be here for 3 years for studies, met each other here, and they already look and act like members of the church! When they watched the restoration video, in Mandarin, they were so so excited. Fiona pointed at the picture of Christ being baptized by John the Baptist and asked if they could do that too!! Ha I'm not sure how much they understood at conference, but they said they still liked it and that the music was really peaceful. I told them all about Christopher speaking Mandarin and serving in Paris and living in Nan-Jing and they were really interested in that too. I thought about trying to arrange a lesson with him over skype, but then realized that that's probably not allowed and I probably like the idea so much because then i would be able to see Christopher over skype... But there's an awesome member here from China so we'll hopefully teach them together this week. I love sharing the gospel with humble people from all over the world-- it's the best!

I had a very solid birthday. A member who we've been working with for the last few weeks invited us over for lunch and it was really good. (That's probably the 3rd or 4th dinner appointment of my mission. haha!) I didn't tell many other people about it, because it's kind of odd to walk up to someone and say, hey did you know today is my birthday? Especially on April 1st because no one believes you anyway... But my companions treated me very well and we made a birthday pizza and mayonnaise cake(surprisingly really good-- although no comparison to pink elephants.) The assistants told me that last week at church Igor was walking around and telling anyone that would listen that "April 1st is Elder Barnes's Birhtday." And then he'd say-- "oh and it's mine too!" And Karl texted me from Finland too, which was really nice-- i felt the love from all around the world, so thank you! Speaking of Karl, I called him last night just to see how he's doing and he was really happy. He lives 25 KM outside of Porvo (not sure if there are missionaries there...) and he's working 10 hours a day building a yacht and doesn't know how long he'll be there. He misses us and was bummed to miss Conference and his potential baptism, but he started over in the Book of Mormon and is loving it. I asked him where he's reading and he said where Nephi is building the ship. And I said, Karl you're Nephi! And he thought it was a good joke. He's such a good guy and I really believe he'll find his way into the church sooner or later. Welp I gotta run but again, thank you, I love you, keep praying for me and I will for you!

love, Elder Barnes #12

Just hanging out with The Brethren, HAPPY EASTER!!!, from Sister Brett

Hello beautiful family and Happy almost Easter and New PDAY! We have preparation day on Friday now, so that's when my emails will be headed your way.

My first two days in the office have been the longest yet most wonderful days of my mission thus far! We welcomed the new sisters from the MTC at 7am on Wednesday morning, and literally haven't breathed since. Working on schedules for 200 sister missionaries while also trying to take care of the crowds here for conference has been a challenge, but wonderful. I have a perpetual migrane from overworking my little brain, but we can't slow up because this is a HUGE weekend and such an incredible chance to do the Lord's work. I cannot believe conference starts tomorrow!!!! YESSSSSSSS.

Speaking of conference....oh man, I don't even know where to start...

Well, yesterday (April 1st) I woke up and it was already a GREAT day because it was my best friend's birthday (Elder Barnes)...then, we had the incredible privelege of going with the Assistants and one other companionship to help serve lunch to the 1st Presidency, the 12 apostles and Quorum of the 70 between their general conference training meetings at the Church Office Building. Yes, you read that right, yesterday I personally met President Monson, his counselors and many other men called to lead the Church and work of our Savior Jesus Christ! I can't even begin to explain what an incredible experience that was.

The first general authority I met was President Eyring while I was putting punch out. Definitely not a situation I ever expected! He walked right up to me, shook my hand, asked where I was from and thanked us for all our service. I just smiled like a child who had just recieved the best Christmas present ever and said, "...Hi President Eyring...oh, you are welcome....our pleasure!" as if that were a normal sentence to come from my mouth. Pah!

Then, we served and mingled with them for an hour or so as they ate. It was such a neat sight to see because the Presidency and 12 apostles were spread out at the tables among the 70 and some other auxilary leaders, and they just seemed like they were all so happy and content to be together preparing for general conference. As we walked around and helped, they'd talk to us and joke with us---Elder Perry and Elder Holland were especially firecrackers yesterday to us 6 sisters, haha. Then as they began to filter back to their meetings I ran into the 70 from, or over, Riga, Latvia and said "hello" and "thank you" to him in Russian....the only 2 Russian words I know. He seemed pleasantly surprised and responded with a "No, no, no, thank you!" I was tempted to ask him if he knew an incredible Elder who served in Riga for a while, but decided he was probably a little bit busy. ;) Elder Bednar's table stayed an extra 20 or so minutes and Elder Bednar was just teaching the gospel like no one's business. I heard him say, "alright...you study that and so will I, then give me your address and I'll send you my notes." I want to be on that mailing list...

The icing on top came as we were cleaning dishes in the kitchen and President Uchdorf came in, said hi and thanked us, then about 12 minutes later President Monson came in! Actually, it was more like he waltzed in like he owned the place and then he met and gathered us 6 sisters around him and just began sharing stories and talking with us as if he had all the time in the world. He stayed there and talked to us for almost half an hour. He told us about the first time he saw his dear wife Francis and how the only thing he could think to say to her was that her middle name was spelled wrong in the ward directory, haha!!! Needless to say he got up the courage to ask her out. He told us the story that I know you have all heard, about when he met her parents. He came to pick her up for their first date, and upon meeting Francis' dad he ran and got a picture of 2 young missionaries, asking if he was related to the one with his same name. President Monson said it was his grandfather's brother. Because of that missionary (Pres. Monson's great-uncle) all of Francis' family had joined the church, and when they had made this connection her parents both gave President Monson a huge hug and kiss. "Most guys can't say that they got a hug and a kiss from their girl's parents before they even got one from her!" President Monson exclaimed with joy. It was hilarious and he just went on and on about stories from him joining the Navy and leaving his angel, but then eventually returning and marrying her forever. He spoke so fondly of her, and got very sad when he talked about her not feeling well right now. "She promised that she will be right next to me at conference though! Oh, my dearest angel."

It was fun to watch, because when he told these stories it was as if he were right back in 1945 reliving it all, but then he would jump back to reality, look you straight in the eye and say something like, "Sister, decisions determine destiny, every single one." I had to keep pinching myself because I just couldn't believe I was standing there with a Prophet of God hearing his love story and life advice. Even more, when he looked you in the eye, there is no dispute he holds God's authority, ALL of God's authority. It put a whoel new perspective to me on the saying "Eyes are the wondow to one's soul." That was one of the most amazing experiences of my life, and I will never forget exactly how I felt.

Family, I know Thomas S. Monson is a prophet called to witness of our Savior Jesus Christ. I know that his counselors, the 12 apostles and all the other leaders and worthy priesthood holders in this church truly have the authority to act in the name of our Savior for our salvation. This weekend we will be priveleged to hear, through His called servant's, God's instruction for us TODAY. He loves us! So much that He still is sharing with us how we can receive the greatest happiness possible. This truth is proven, above all else, in the beautiful plan He set up for us which is centered on His Son Jesus Christ. This Easter weekend please don't forget about why we are celebrating. President Monson told us that in the Sunday morning session he will be speaking on the Resurrection, and he so humbly said "I think it should be good." Our living prophet will be reminding us of that Sunday morning so many years ago when our personal Savior overcame death, spiritual AND physical, so that we can do the same. What incredible news! He LIVES! I pray every day that we live worthy of this knowledge, and now we have to tell the world!!!

I love you all so much, this weekend will be incredible!

Love,

-Sister Nay Brett#3