My companion speaks...

Lithuanian and Latvian!! Well okay, I've got two companions. One is Elder Hatch, and the other is Elder McLaren. And they are awesome. They came out in the same group about a year ago, both work extremely hard and are very humble, easy to get along with missionaries. Basically they are Elders who played sports and dated before the mission, which I think should be a requirement for any prospective missionary. Elder Hatch is from Bellingham, WA and looks like a clean cut Luke Ridnour. Elder McLaren is from Blackfoot, ID and looks like a dark haired version of Brad Pitt. Elder McLaren thinks I would be the George Clooney of the group-- so that could give you a comparison of how accurate my description was. Although Elder Hatch did grow his hair out in the 6th grade so that he could look like Luke. I still think he does.

It was tough to see Elder Brown leave, but he'll just be in Imanta so we'll see him around for sure. And I might be calling him very regularly to ask him about administration stuff that he just dominated. Any doubts that I ever had about having crazy companions are out the window, because my companions have been just so solid.

Four new Russian Elders came in last night, they were so excited and it reminds me how fresh and new it is to serve. One of them got the swine flu in the MTC, but didn't know Elder Barnes, unfortunately. But maybe that's good because it means the whole quarantine thing was not a joke. I'm feeling healthy and so excited. My body is kinda tired, but I might take a nap why my companions unpack later. Hmm, that sounds good.

It's been an exciting week of preparing for transfers. It really is such an inspired process, and it's clear that President Dance receives revelation in all that he does. I love the President and Sister Dance! We taught a few members that Elder Brown has worked a lot over his mission-- seeing as he's served all but 1 transfer in Riga. Some of my favorites are the Straupmani family who got baptized about a year and a half ago and have three children, one newborn. The father is a policeman/ coast guard lifesaver who earned the “lifesaver of the year” award last summer for saving a drowning 8 year old kid. So physically he's a beast, and he's also one of the most spiritually dedicated people I've met. They met the missionaries, the same day he'd been praying for help from God, he was an active member of the Russian Orthodox church, but after praying and fasting (for 4-5 day periods at a time, with only water) he knew the church was true and the whole family was baptized in less than a month! They are preparing for the temple and should be going in February to be sealed. So cool! One thing that I had never seen until this last couple days, was that at home, when they say things they don't want the kids to understand, they speak Russian. Haha, I guess it's something a lot of Latvian parents do because the kids are mostly learning English in school. But after a while the oldest (9 years old) son picked it up so he could understand, but they said they still do it anyway out of habit. I decided that I might say things in Russian to my family that I don't want anyone to understand. Although I don't think that'll be quite as fun, and I don't really know to say anything too bad because I've still yet to learn the swear words. And I'm planning to keep it that way.

We're also teaching a family who was found in a miraculous way! We were walking through the city to switch back from exchanges on a Saturday morning and the last man we talked to just seemed really interested once we said we have a message about Christ. We wanted to teach them right then, but he said he'd rather come with his wife, which we said would be perfectly fine. So the next evening we went to their place, and he told us after the lesson that he'd been praying that same day for help! During the lesson, as we were talking about the Restoration and explaining how we get answers from the Holy Ghost, I said that sometimes he testifies to me through feelings of peace and warmth-- and she goes “yeah I definitely felt that warm feeling.” The church is so true. They came to church last week and really enjoyed it, after sacrament meetings Zintra said she was “drunk with the Holy Ghost”, haha, never heard that one before. But they are reading every day and praying together and really humble people who are looking for truth. She works a crazy 12 hours a day, every day a week schedule, every other week, so it's difficult to teach them sometimes, but I really think that if they keep it up, they could strengthen the branch.

We had another Latvian man come to church last Sunday, after just meeting him Friday afternoon. He'd been contacted by missionaries in the past, and had wanted to come, but his son who'd lived in America told him not to. But we taught him and he came and also really liked it! A member just basically pulled him into sunday school which was awesome. The best part was the last talk from a Sister who had just returned from her mission. I didn't understand everything, obviously, but I could tell she was testifying a ton and said the first vision in Latvian and English and talked about how the holy ghost speaks all languages. It was a really powerful talk, and from watching Juris, it was clear he was feeling the spirit. He turned to me afterwards and said, "that was super! I get that feeling once in every ten years!” I went up to the Sister afterward to thank her, and I was pretty sure that she had just come back from Temple Square, because there's a Latvian sister who just returned from there. Turns out she had just returned from the Leeds England Mission, so she definitely didn't know Sister Brett-- but she thought that was neat that that's where Dad served too. I was curious why she said “England” during her talk and for some reason I was thinking about dad's mission and the things he'd told me as she was speaking—yup yup. The spirit is definitely understood in all languages! And I'm really glad that's true seeing as we have a tri-lingual companionship. But I'm not scared. I really have a testimony that in the Lord's work nothing really gets in the way. Or as President Hinckley would say “Things will work out.”

I love you! Thanks for your prayers. I'm praying for you!

Love, Elder Barnes #12