Peter's Family Letter

Family,

Life keeps on rolling! We haven't had a lot of time proselyeting this week because of being on the road, but there's been some great experiences. Well last week we watched conference and that was just awesome. I learned a lot about love, the savior and how to strengthen families. Now i'm excited to read the ensigns and pick up what i missed! I love general conference a lot. I don't even understand how it used to be so boring to me. I still fall asleep occasionally, but not because i'm bored more like spiritually exhausted and just good at falling asleep. Before watching the first session i realized that i had a similar feeling that i used to have before watching a football game at Christopher's apartment, summed up best by the somewhat slang word "stoked." There's so much to learn, and i especially liked President Monson's talk on warm fuzzies, his talks always make you feel so good and want to be better.

We drove up to Tallin sunday evening and stayed with Elder Patterson, had a wonderful zone conference with a focus on helping "interested learners become progressing investigators," finding, and faith. We drove home friday evening with the Jacques, a really great senior couple. They told us the story of their mission call because they were expecting to go to Hawaii for their mission, BYU-Hawaii specifically requested them because Elder Jacques was a psychology professor so when they got their call they were shocked. And had already sold all of the warm clothes. Whoops! But they are really happy to be here and have taught with us a few times. It takes about 4 1/2 hours to drive home from tallin so we got home from that pretty late and then realized that we left our keys in tallin. Major whoops. So we ran through some ideas, realized that waking up the Dances to sleep at their guest place was not ideal, sleeping on the streets even worse, so we called up some other elders in Riga and slept on their floor. It was quite the adventure. Early yesterday morning we drove down to Kaunus (3 1/2 hours) and had zone conference there, which also went well. The church building had yet to turn on it's heating (it's about 0-5% C here now, pretty cold) and so we bundled in the relief society room and brought in some heaters. Which was fun, and much warmer. I heard that Artiom came to church last week with a new suit. He's such the man. I've also kept in contact through letters with the son of another member down there who's had a rough life and is in prison right now, but has read all of the Book of Mormon, New Testament and Doctrine and Covenants over the last 6 months and really wants to join the church. I've never met him, but it's cool how you can become friends through letters and feel the spirit and testify. Just awesome. AH not much time left, we have

continued...

Sorry the internet froze! Anyway tomorrow is the last zone conference in Latvia so by next week I'll have more things to talk about the work here. But I want you to know I'm safe, happy, warm, healthy, kind of tired but just loving life!

I LOVE YOU!

Love, Elder Barnes #12

S
ubject: For Mommy's sake

HEY!

Again our e-mail time got cut short today and we had to come back to the office tonight to finish up a few things so i just wanted to add a story that just about sums up the week--

We went to bed early on tuesday night because we knew we'd have to get up WAY early on wednesday. So we're asleep and the phone rings. I pick it up and say "Dobre Utra" (good morning). It was 9:30 in the evening. And President Dance was calling. hahah he was pretty confused and said he had to think about it for a second to realize if it was morning or not, but he understood and was calling to tell us to come down a little later just to make sure we were rested. It actually only took us 3 hours to drive down in the morning but then over 4 1/2 to come home because the weather was pretty nasty. He had us text when we got home just to make sure we were safe. He really cares a lot about the missionaries and their safety, happiness and success. So no worries we're in good hands!

Also we need to e-mail Roman and give him the church information in Minske, Belarus! We found out last week that he had to move there for a few months for work-- he's been out of work here for a while and an opportunity came up there that he had to take quickly. We didn't even get to see him sunday but talked on the phone and i read/translated the testimonies that you wrote and he really appreciated them and said them made him feel better. We'll see him again for sure though so it'll all be good.

I love you,
Elder Barnes #12