Dear Family!
Whew it's been a good week. We had a scare when it started to snow yesterday morning, and I thought winter was already coming back, but it's bright and sunny out today so we're all good! Dad got me up to date on the ash in the air situation, I heard about it a few days ago because someone mentioned that the airports all across Europe are closed. That's nuts! I haven't been able to tell a difference in the air though.
As far as teaching goes it's been a really good week and we've been blessed to teach with members and our investigators are progressing well. Karl is on track to be baptized this Saturday! He's back from Finland until he can find work, but he's really excited to be baptized. You can tell how much joy it brings him to meet up and come to church. Yesterday, we sat down with Karl and Bro Varsha, a recent convert of 8 months, the branch mission leader with whom we usually teach Karl. We didn't know who would baptize Karl because Bro Ulyanov (the friend of Karl who lives in Latvia) isn't going to be able to come up. During the lesson Bro Varsha asked Karl who he wanted to baptize him, and Karl asked if Bro Varsha would do it. Earlier, we had talked about that possibility but Bro Varsha had declined because he said he didn't feel ready. Bro Varsha responded that President Oganov should probably do the ordinance, because it would be Bro Varsha's "first time." Karl responded, it's no problem, it'll be my first one too!" Ha, it should be great, and I'm really happy to see Karl make a decision that will bless him in more ways than he realizes. He's pretty down about not having work, but once he starts to live and apply the gospel, everything else will fall into place. It works that way everytime!
Our other investigators who are progressing are Leo and Ilya, the 21 year olds from English class. They came to the baptismal service last Saturday for an Estonian man and they really felt the "strong" spirit and are still looking forward to their baptism. They've accepted the word of wisdom and tithing, and we have a few more things to teach but once they keep coming to church they'll be good to go. We're really teaching some prepared people right now, and just like Mom said in her e-mail to me, it's neat to see the way the Lord leads us to them or them to us!
The other highlight of the week was teaching Robert (the student from China) with a recent convert from the Estonian branch named Migel. Robert and his friends are pretty busy with lectures and exams so Robert was the only one able to come to the lesson last week, but we watched Finding Faith in Christ in Chinese (well they watched it, I kind of tried not to fall asleep, but wasn't too successful). Afterwards we asked him how he liked it and he said "it was amazing." He's such a sincere and kind person, it's so refreshing to teach him and see how big of a desire he has to learn. He said the closing prayer at the end, and it was the first prayer he'd ever said. He expressed gratitude to have these "new good nice friends and all of the wonderful things they are teaching him." He addressed his prayer "to everyone here" instead of to our dear Heavenly Father, but I think he knew that he was communicating with God, just meant to say FROM everyone here. He's been talking with Christopher over e-mail and said that his Chinese is "very super good", and Fiona, his girlfriend was "so surprised." He also said that Christopher sent him some pictures of the family and his wedding and Robert told me that Christopher is "very beautiful." I said I agree. I found out this week that although he's been living near Hong Kong for the last couple of years, he's originally from Harbin! I told him that's where my Uncle Steve and and taught at a university. He didn't know him, I think Harbin is pretty big, but maybe someday they'll meet up. I would definitely not mind going to Harbin someday-- Chinese people are so sweet! And then if that's not enough, walking home from Church yesterday we ran into 7 confused and athletic looking Chinese guys, whom we found out were a hockey team from Harbin! They were looking for a bus, and we didn't know where it was, but we walked with them for about half a mile and finally found it. They were grateful, and even though only one really spoke english, they all knew the word for "Thank you.!" The "two most important words" in the english language.
We watched the rest of General Conference this last week on the recorded DVDs. I love general conference, a lot. It's hard to pick a "favorite talk" but the ones about teaching children were really really interesting, because even though we are teaching a lot of grown people, I sometimes feel like they need to be taught like little kids. Not that they are not intelligent, it's just the simple and small doctrines that people do NOT understand and which make the biggest difference. "I am a child of God." "Love one Another." "Keep the Commandments." Three songs kids sing over and over, which if you actually understand and live, can make life twelve times three times better. The church is very very true, and I know that Jesus Christ, our Savior, is at the head.
Welp we gotta run, but I'll try and attach a few pictures of the last couple days events. Thanks for your prayers.
I love you!
love, Elder Barnes
P.S. Welcome Home Sister Jess Richey and Emma! I'm glad I have a few months to before I speak in church because I'm pretty sure that's going to be a hard act to follow...
P.S. The first picture is outside the church right before the estonian baptismal service last saturday-- from right to left you have me, Karl, Ilya, Leo, and Elders Koegler and Reid. The second picture is me getting rim checked on a field a 3 min jog from our apartment (the twin towers in the back is where we have our teaching center, it has a sweet view) and then the last picture is from today playing soccer with missionaries, members and investigators. If you look close you can see that Robert is holding the frisbee to make Richard look like an Angel. Robert is the man!
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