Happy 3rd day of May!

Dearest Family,

It's starting to get sunny here, and I'm still in Tallinn! I was pretty sure that I would stay but you never know. Both of my previous companions (Elders Reid and Koegler) went down to serve in Riga and when President Dance called to tell us transfers, he said "you dodged a bullet, didn't you Elder Barnes?" I definitely wanted to stay, and I'm glad it's what the Lord wanted too. I love it when that happens! My new companions are very solid missionaries, and they bring a lot of fire and love for the work, and we laugh a lot and enjoy serving together. Elder Nielson is Russian speaking and has been serving for about 9 months, and Elder Jenkins is Estonian speaking and been out for right around a year. They are both from the Salt Lake area (Holladay and American Fork) and Elder Nielson went to Olympus! He actually went to Elder Glauser's homecoming-- which is a cool connection! We all get along really well, we love what we're doing, and it's sweet to be able to talk and teach anyone that we meet!

Well it's very rare that someone will only speak Estonian, but at least now we won't have to pass anyone that we find-- and we were blessed to find and teach a lot of cool people last week! One example is Tanu, a young hip 25 year old Estonian guy. We were riding the bus home from Church and Elder Nielson starting talking to him, and he was immediately really interested and said it must have been a "sign from God" that we met up. So he went with us from the bus stop to the teaching center, and during the lesson he said that everything we were saying was true. He even said the closing prayer, which happened to be the most interesting prayer I think I've ever heard. I'm not sure if it's legal to quote prayers but you've got to read this in a deep dramatic voice--
"Please Bless every particle in this worldly word and let them resonate in piece....Aaammen"

It was kinda difficult not to bust up, but he was super sincere, and it was definitely an effective prayer. My favorite part was the 5 second pause after he stooped talking, Elder Nielson actually looked up and said "amen?" and that's when he threw out the amen. He's a way intelligent, interesting guy. In Priesthood, when he came to church the following day, the Elders Quorum President asked who wanted to take the sacrament to some elderly members and he immediately answered "I'll do it, where do they live?." Haha. He has a few interesting ideas, but we'll teach him tonight with a younger member, see how well he understands, and see how it goes from there!

Only Ilya was able to come to church last week, (he's one of the two young guys for English), and he's making good progress but not sure that he wants to be baptized next week-end. He's a cool kid, and understands the doctrine better than Leo, but they both are just trying to figure out if this is something they are fully committed to, which I respect and appreciate. They both have testimonies of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and I think he'll be joining the church before the summer starts. At least I hope so! Karl is doing great and received the Aaronic Priesthood last week. It was funny because as the Branch President started to ordain him he said that he was giving him the Melchizidek Priesthood and ordaining him to the office of Elder. I tapped his hands, and then he quickly realized and pulled away and shook his hands as if to "undo" the blessing. Haha it would've been sweet if Karl immediately became an Elder but I'm not sure that's exactly modzna (allowed-- not sure to say/spell that one in English but it's a great Russian word.)

We weren't able to make any Chinese cuisine last week but Robert and Fiona came to a baptismal service for a lady in the Russian branch and they really liked it. It's difficult to explain all the doctrines to them sometimes, because the words are foreign and I'm pretty sure that's the first time they've ever seen any kind of baptism, let alone one by immersion. But the coolest part was in our lesson and we asked them how their reading is going in the Book of Mormon. Fiona said that a few days back, she was feeling kinda of down, and Robert told her to read the "Mormon's Book" she she picked it up and immediately felt a "peace and calm." I still can't figure out how he does it but God definitely speaks all languages. It made me think more about how I feel when I read the scriptures and it really does bring a peace that's hard to find any other way. Sometimes it puts me right to sleep, which is both good and bad. But never for too long, cause I jerk my head a lot and wake myself up. But really I love being able to study, teach and serve all day everyday. I know it's a big time blessing that I want to have forever and I'm just trying to love it while I can! It is pretty comforting that that's pretty much all we will be doing in Heaven. Only with our families forever. Oh that is going to be sweet!

I love you and am super excited to talk to you this Sunday! Here's the plan-- you can call me at 7:00 AM your time, which should be 5:00 PM our time. We have two phones and Elder Nielson's family will be calling a different number at the same time. Whew that's going to be awesome! If you have any questions before then, I hope you can find the answers, but I'm not worried, you're already pros at this long distance short phone call game. I can't believe this will be my last one! Best for last.

I love you all a whole lot.

Love, Elder Barnes #12