Dear Family!!!
Thanks for your great e-mails, I’m definitely spoiled to hear from every one of you! It's a highlight to hear you are all happy and doing well. As some of you guessed it’s been a crazy and exciting week, so there’s lots to update you on. We’ve still got a lot going today but President and Sister Dance really emphasized with the new missionaries the importance of writing home to your family and how you live and experience the mission through our letters. So we figured it’d be a good idea to take some time and let you live! Plus I do enjoy reviewing the week and realizing all of the times we’ve seen the Lord’s hand in the work. This week there’s been a lot.
First, and probably not most important, I learned how to sew this week! I’ve seen Mom use that machine before but it used to scare me so I think that’s why I avoided learning how. Well I had a softball size hole in a pair of my suit pants that I’ve been trying to ignore until someone pointed it out to me in the grocery store. So I just haven’t worn them for the past 3 or more weeks until I REALLY needed to fix them because my other suit needed a break. Well thankfully, Elder Brown is good at these kind of things and he taught me and I was so proud of myself. My pants fit a little tighter than they used to but this is good because my waist is still skinny (unlike the guy in Missionary Mall who forced us to buy pants a size too big predicted…). But I’d recommend Tigey learn how to sew sometime within the next few years because he’ll save some embarrassment and it’s way easier than it looks.
Secondly, eleven new missionaries arrived yesterday! We were waiting without patience all week, and even longer because it’s been over 10 months since Russian elders came in, so that was really exciting. There were 4 russian elders, 3 latvian elders, 2 estonians and a Latvian and Russian sister. We met them at the airport and went directly into center where we met up with other companionships and contacted for an hour. It maybe doesn’t sound like the most fun thing to do when you get off a 36 hour plane trip but it was fun and they enjoyed it (and it sounds like that’s what Chisos did in his mission too!) Afterwards went back to the mission home last night for dinner and testimonies.
After a little training this morning, they were assigned companions and were off to their areas by twelve! The most exciting part was the three van size taxis plus the mission van that we drove to the station. It felt like the Italian job. We had bought all of tickets two days earlier which made things a little less crazy. Actually as we were standing in line to buy the tickets, an old man came out of nowhere and jumped in front of us. At first I was kind of tempted to tap on the shoulder and say “excuse me buster, would you take your place at the end of the line.” Than I realized that I don’t know all of those words in Russian and him shoving in line was not that uncommon and would slow us down 3 minutes, maximum. So we just laughed about it, and it turned out to be a funny and enjoyable few minutes. He was obviously in a hurry and probably had no idea how much his little move brightened our day by something kind of nice.
Thirdly, Roman is getting baptized! We’ve been meeting up with him every other day and he is soaring spiritually. Especially once he started to really spend time studying the book of mormon, you could see how much he was changing and understanding. He’s just a really happy- and love-everyone kind of guy, and will make a big difference in the branch. We watched The Testaments on Tuesday evening at the Gublers home (a very friendly, funny senior couple—the senior missionaries here are so good) with Roman. We brought Misha ,the 14 year old who knows it all. They both really enjoyed it and felt the spirit. Misha was WAY more at peace than I’ve ever seen and commented that it was unusual that the Gublers seemed SO happy even though there is a crisis. Roman said that he just wanted to go home and the following day “read the book of momon and think about Jesus Chirst.” Perfect. Roman’s baptism will be on Saturday at the same time as a 17 year old girl the Russian sisters are teaching. Her mother and two little siblings just got baptized last week-end so the branch is really excited. The month for baptisms as a mission went really well with 17 total.
That was our goal the zone leaders set at the beginning of the month, so it was really cool. After an evening at dinner when the brethren were here, Elder Perry told President Dance (in a loving way) that we should increase the number of baptisms by five, which averages out to 34 every month. President Dance responded that he was still grateful Elder Perry came, haha. But the goal for now is to get 34 baptisms in at least one month sometime, so we're not quite there, but at least we’re half way! I’ve learned a lot about setting goals and making plans and the power goals can have to lift vision and stretch you. I also can’t help but incorporate the number 12 into goal setting, that is whenever it would be a good thing. President Dance caught on to that, and mentioned that unfortunately 34 is not a multiple of 12. I responded that 3x4 does equal twelve though, and he thought that was funny. I know I’m a dork.
Finally for a final few crazy connections—Sister Richey ran into Santa and Sanita (the twins in the Latvian branch) in Haaga, Finland! They were there on vacation and ran into her at church where she was teaching a class. Apparently she did a great job and seemed really happy. Also the Latvians that arrived were in the same district as Sister Brett and passed on a hello and letter. She is just bursting with joy and I can’t even believe that she’ll be in the field (on the square?) so soon! Oh that’ll be so cool, so jealous she’ll get to be by a temple! And finally, Artiom in Vilnius, baptized his friend Jefim last week-end! He introduced him to the church about 3 weeks ago, and apparently was just good to go from the get go. Artiom is the coolest kid, and I am so happy to hear that he’s sharing the gospel. I’m convinced that no matter where you are, there is just absolutely nothing better.
I love you so much, and thank you again for your prayers. Wow this doesn’t usually happen but I’m getting teary eyed thinking about the many many miracles I’ve been able to see. I know that your faith plays a role in that.
So thanks, keep the faith!
Love, Elder Barnes #12
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