I hope the fun has only begun at the family reunion. We had our first zone conference today with the Latvian speaking missionaries and it was great! Tomorrow the Russian speakers in Latvia will get together (about 24 missionaries) and then Estonians will be on monday and Lituanians on wednesday. We were going to do all four this week but President Dance got pretty sick so a few got pushed back. President Dance is my favorite mission president I've ever had.
He finds such a good balance of loving and appreciating others, while at the same time expecting everyone to reach their potential. He spoke today on the law of sacrifice and consecration and it blew everyone away. There was a lot of good stuff said but my favorite was the definition of consecration: to dedicate or develop for a sacred purpose. Also we read from Moses 4:1-2 and compared the way Satan and the Savior presented their plans to Heavenly Father. I don't know how its exactly possible, but true consecration is when thereš no I and only thee and thine. I'm so far from that point itš ridiculous but I'm doing what I can. (maybe not that well because I used three Is in the last sentance....hmmm).
Well for something a little lighter, we're teaching a few families! A few of them are already baptized, but I guess you gotta start somewhere. We continue to teaach the russian family that was baptized last transfer, theyŗe so happy and will help us on a few lessons tomorrow! On monday we taught a family Elder Brown taught and baptized a year ago and they are so strong and getting ready for the temple! And then we taught a man last night who's married and has two kids and then we have to go. Library's closing so we'ļl email the rest...on friday. ahaha
love you bye!
Welcome to the Sager Family Blogspot. Please post your ballgames, Phase 10 victories, motorcyle trips, family pictures, and missionary updates.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
REMEMBERING RIGA
Dearest Family!
It's been so good to be back in Riga, so many familiar sounds and smells and faces. And miracles! The highlight of this last week has been teaching Gatis, an 18 year old kid we talked to last week while contacting with one of the new Estonian Elders. He's very humble and listening, came to church on Sunday, has been reading the Book of Mormon and wants to be baptized! He also does karate, which is now one of my new favorite hobbies for other people to have. He's leaving this week-end to do a month trip around Europe, so he won't be able to baptized till September 12th which is a bummer, but the 12th is always a solid day.
Also being back in Riga has brought back memories from the beginning of the mission,at some points is feels like starting over again, haha. More than half of our investigators are Latvian, so I don't understand much in lessons or at church, but we also went to Russian sacrament meeting and it was so fun to see the members. Elder Eddington and Elder Brown baptized a young Russian family and their friend, and there are doing incredible, passed the sacrament for the first time and just love coming to church. The husband told me that if he could, he would live in the church because there's just such a good feeling there. We're actually going to visit them today in an hour, their working schedule is really busy and are rarely all home together. But there's seriously nothing better than teaching people who have such a big desire to live the gospel and help others. It's just the best.
Speaking of which, we had another great lesson yesterday with a man named Marian, who's been investigating the church for the past 5 years. He's had lessons with missionaries in Ireland and Riga but lives in a small town 140 km outside of Riga (jekovpils, I think...) and has 6 or 7 friends there who believe in the Book of Mormon and want to start a church in their city. He's a really good and sincere man, so I'm excited to work with him. He's also leaving this week-end to work in Sweden for 3 weeks so nothing will happen too soon but I think eventually we'll make a trip down to his city with President Dance.
President Dance is incredible. He knows the scriptures so well and cares a lot about these people. Next week's preparation day will be on Tuesday because of Zone conferences, so I hope that won't be a problem! If you forget, you'll just be surprised to already have an e-mail for you when you go to write Tuesday, and in that case, it would be a longer one because I'd have nothing to read. But you don't have to forget, I LOVE reading your e-mails. Oh you'll be in Mexico next week! Mucho Bueno... Have a riot and give all the cuzzies my love! And eat some nachos for me. Mhmm... we had nachos this week! Elder Brown is a master chef. More on him next week. I really really like serving with him, this is going to be a fun and busy transfer. Welp love you much!
Love, Elder Barnes #12
It's been so good to be back in Riga, so many familiar sounds and smells and faces. And miracles! The highlight of this last week has been teaching Gatis, an 18 year old kid we talked to last week while contacting with one of the new Estonian Elders. He's very humble and listening, came to church on Sunday, has been reading the Book of Mormon and wants to be baptized! He also does karate, which is now one of my new favorite hobbies for other people to have. He's leaving this week-end to do a month trip around Europe, so he won't be able to baptized till September 12th which is a bummer, but the 12th is always a solid day.
Also being back in Riga has brought back memories from the beginning of the mission,at some points is feels like starting over again, haha. More than half of our investigators are Latvian, so I don't understand much in lessons or at church, but we also went to Russian sacrament meeting and it was so fun to see the members. Elder Eddington and Elder Brown baptized a young Russian family and their friend, and there are doing incredible, passed the sacrament for the first time and just love coming to church. The husband told me that if he could, he would live in the church because there's just such a good feeling there. We're actually going to visit them today in an hour, their working schedule is really busy and are rarely all home together. But there's seriously nothing better than teaching people who have such a big desire to live the gospel and help others. It's just the best.
Speaking of which, we had another great lesson yesterday with a man named Marian, who's been investigating the church for the past 5 years. He's had lessons with missionaries in Ireland and Riga but lives in a small town 140 km outside of Riga (jekovpils, I think...) and has 6 or 7 friends there who believe in the Book of Mormon and want to start a church in their city. He's a really good and sincere man, so I'm excited to work with him. He's also leaving this week-end to work in Sweden for 3 weeks so nothing will happen too soon but I think eventually we'll make a trip down to his city with President Dance.
President Dance is incredible. He knows the scriptures so well and cares a lot about these people. Next week's preparation day will be on Tuesday because of Zone conferences, so I hope that won't be a problem! If you forget, you'll just be surprised to already have an e-mail for you when you go to write Tuesday, and in that case, it would be a longer one because I'd have nothing to read. But you don't have to forget, I LOVE reading your e-mails. Oh you'll be in Mexico next week! Mucho Bueno... Have a riot and give all the cuzzies my love! And eat some nachos for me. Mhmm... we had nachos this week! Elder Brown is a master chef. More on him next week. I really really like serving with him, this is going to be a fun and busy transfer. Welp love you much!
Love, Elder Barnes #12
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
HELLO RIGA!
I left my new home of Vilnius yesterday morning and came back to my real home of RIGA! I'll be serving with Elder Brown and after one day of being with him I know it's just going to be joyful. I've had the best companions. I actually knew Elder Brown pretty well when I served here in Riga. He is a Latvian speaker, a very sharp and great missionary who knows Riga really well-- he spent the first 13 months in the field in the exact same apartment! Elder Freeman will be staying in Vilnius for his last transfer which will be great because hopefully he'll see some of our investigators get baptized. I found out that I'd be transferring tuesday morning so we were able to teach Artiom and Alexander on Tuesday and it made me so happy to see how well they're doing. Alexander said a prayer at the end of the lesson that almost made me and Elder Freeman cry. By almost I mean I might have cried. He talked about how grateful he was that we'd been able to become his great teachers and friends in a such short period of time. It's incredible how quickly the gospel can change someone's life. I'm not trying to jinx it either but I think that Artiom could eventually serve a mission. He asks about it all the time and really is on top of the ball. In Tuesday's lesson we read Alma 26:12 and he talked about how most people don't understand miracles-- they think it's like books flying or crazy things when really “it's a miracle that you don't smoke, and that I don't smoke, and that we met each other.” And then Elder Freeman said-- you're a miracle. And I agreed.
We've spent today helping the 15 departing missionaries take their luggage to and from the bus station. It's crazy to think that someday the mission will end. I'm really glad that day will not come soon. But at the rate time flies these days a month feels like less than a week. Is it the same for you? It feels like I got here the day before yesterday. We took a trip down memory lane yesterday evening when we picked up 6 new excited missionaries that came into the mission, three Estonian elders, two Lativan elder and one Latvian sister. It brought back so many memories. What was crazy is that I knew 4 of the incoming missionaries-- kind of. One of them was Elder Boyce, Sister Richey's friend from the MTC who got the swine flu; he's doing well and is just a ball of fire, another one was a friend from a BYU Book of Mormon class, another was the brother of a girl from a BYU class and the last was Sister Reber, Jenae's friend from Romania! It was so cool meeting them and they will all be excellent missionaries. It's such a big transition from MTC to the Field, for a lot of reasons, being surrounded by non-members being one of the big ones. But that's what makes it exciting! No offense but serving a mission would be SO boring if the whole world was members. Although that would be kind of cool too. Saying good-bye to the members in Vilnius was tough, but almost all of them said they feel like I'll be coming back someday and I have the same feeling too! Like I said, there's plenty of time and no need to worry. Except I do have 3 minutes and 12 seconds left on this computer so I got to fly but I love you! Life is good. So good. And the
church is really true.
Love, Elder Barnes #12
We've spent today helping the 15 departing missionaries take their luggage to and from the bus station. It's crazy to think that someday the mission will end. I'm really glad that day will not come soon. But at the rate time flies these days a month feels like less than a week. Is it the same for you? It feels like I got here the day before yesterday. We took a trip down memory lane yesterday evening when we picked up 6 new excited missionaries that came into the mission, three Estonian elders, two Lativan elder and one Latvian sister. It brought back so many memories. What was crazy is that I knew 4 of the incoming missionaries-- kind of. One of them was Elder Boyce, Sister Richey's friend from the MTC who got the swine flu; he's doing well and is just a ball of fire, another one was a friend from a BYU Book of Mormon class, another was the brother of a girl from a BYU class and the last was Sister Reber, Jenae's friend from Romania! It was so cool meeting them and they will all be excellent missionaries. It's such a big transition from MTC to the Field, for a lot of reasons, being surrounded by non-members being one of the big ones. But that's what makes it exciting! No offense but serving a mission would be SO boring if the whole world was members. Although that would be kind of cool too. Saying good-bye to the members in Vilnius was tough, but almost all of them said they feel like I'll be coming back someday and I have the same feeling too! Like I said, there's plenty of time and no need to worry. Except I do have 3 minutes and 12 seconds left on this computer so I got to fly but I love you! Life is good. So good. And the
church is really true.
Love, Elder Barnes #12
Friday, July 3, 2009
KARATE KID
Elder Freeman and I had another fun and exciting week! Before I forget, next week’s preparation day will be on Thursday because of transfers. Elder Free Mangoes home after next transfer so I’m not sure we’ll stay together but until then we can keep our fingers crossed. And arms folded. Just kidding. But seriously it’s been a riot serving with him and we’ve seen big time blessings these last fast five weeks.
Artiom is by far one of the more prepared people I’ve taught, and he just eats up the book of mormon and understands really well. Like I mentioned before, he’s really busy and leaves town about every week for karate (last week-end) or chess (this week-end) so he’s only come to church once but really enjoyed it and will be more free next week until he goes to Jerusalem for two weeks. It kind of reminds me of my summers during high school, I’m just really bad at karate and chess. These are conventionally pretty nerdy hobbies but he’s so normal and cool. Last week we had a ward activity and he brought his cousin who’s 13, and it was cool because he had all these questions like “what’s a mission?” haha but it was cool to see how much he looked up to Artiom. One of the biggest joys of this work is teaching people who are so good already but see that there’s something missing. Mostly the joy that comes from knowing and living the gospel!
We’re in the American Embassy right now and just had a really cool conversation with a couple from Florida visiting their son who lives here in Vilnius. I forget how many nice people live in America! I meet some on the streets once every other week and the conversations are always so much different. Maybe it’s because they’re in English but it’s fun to talk to people who already know a little about the church and think that “celestial marriage is really cool.” Most of the people I talk to here have either just seen some missionaries or heard about us on T.V.—so there’s a lot of opportunities to explain and it’s fun. I get reminded over and over that there’s no way the gospel isn’t true. No way.
Alexander is doing very well. The branch president and a counselor in the district presidency had a business together that’s struggling and so they’ve had to close a lot of their shops, and they asked20Alexander to come help them move some inventory. This is a mini miracle because we were wondering how we could help him become more involved with the members. I love the members here—they are always willing to help. President Dima Konikov is especially the man. Amongst all this chaos, he recommended an area by his home with some new domes for us to knock, and so we came out and he came with us! We baked some cookies (from the pre made packets mom sent me—so delicious . I love taking credit for my “baking skills”) and took them over and he introduced himself as their neighbor and us as his friends, the missionaries from his church. That is a sweet, kind thing to do in the states but here it’s absolutely unheard of and many really appreciated it. Some others were just so confused. But we ended up teaching a few good lessons too and we’ll be going back next week to follow up.
Sharing the gospel with your friends is the way to go. The past week, we’ve had 4 lessons were the people we were planning to teach brought a friend along. That’s happened to me before but never so much in one week. I thought about it—maybe it’s because it’s summer and it’s nothing better to do, or maybe because Elder Freeman and I scare people and they don’t won’t to come alone. But I hope it’s because the gospel is good news that you tell other people because you want to.
Yeah that’s probably it.
O, BUNNY BUNNY RABIT! Mom claims that she won, but as far as I know it’s illegal to try to bunny bunny rabbit before the clock strikes twelve, in the location where YOU are located. But because she’s my mother and I love her, she can win. But only this once. Glad to here you had a fun and LONG week in Eugene, they are such deer friends (pun intended). Especially Eliza, her autograph will be worth billions someday.
Welp till next Thursday! Keep it real real. I love you all!
Love, Elder Barnes #12
Artiom is by far one of the more prepared people I’ve taught, and he just eats up the book of mormon and understands really well. Like I mentioned before, he’s really busy and leaves town about every week for karate (last week-end) or chess (this week-end) so he’s only come to church once but really enjoyed it and will be more free next week until he goes to Jerusalem for two weeks. It kind of reminds me of my summers during high school, I’m just really bad at karate and chess. These are conventionally pretty nerdy hobbies but he’s so normal and cool. Last week we had a ward activity and he brought his cousin who’s 13, and it was cool because he had all these questions like “what’s a mission?” haha but it was cool to see how much he looked up to Artiom. One of the biggest joys of this work is teaching people who are so good already but see that there’s something missing. Mostly the joy that comes from knowing and living the gospel!
We’re in the American Embassy right now and just had a really cool conversation with a couple from Florida visiting their son who lives here in Vilnius. I forget how many nice people live in America! I meet some on the streets once every other week and the conversations are always so much different. Maybe it’s because they’re in English but it’s fun to talk to people who already know a little about the church and think that “celestial marriage is really cool.” Most of the people I talk to here have either just seen some missionaries or heard about us on T.V.—so there’s a lot of opportunities to explain and it’s fun. I get reminded over and over that there’s no way the gospel isn’t true. No way.
Alexander is doing very well. The branch president and a counselor in the district presidency had a business together that’s struggling and so they’ve had to close a lot of their shops, and they asked20Alexander to come help them move some inventory. This is a mini miracle because we were wondering how we could help him become more involved with the members. I love the members here—they are always willing to help. President Dima Konikov is especially the man. Amongst all this chaos, he recommended an area by his home with some new domes for us to knock, and so we came out and he came with us! We baked some cookies (from the pre made packets mom sent me—so delicious . I love taking credit for my “baking skills”) and took them over and he introduced himself as their neighbor and us as his friends, the missionaries from his church. That is a sweet, kind thing to do in the states but here it’s absolutely unheard of and many really appreciated it. Some others were just so confused. But we ended up teaching a few good lessons too and we’ll be going back next week to follow up.
Sharing the gospel with your friends is the way to go. The past week, we’ve had 4 lessons were the people we were planning to teach brought a friend along. That’s happened to me before but never so much in one week. I thought about it—maybe it’s because it’s summer and it’s nothing better to do, or maybe because Elder Freeman and I scare people and they don’t won’t to come alone. But I hope it’s because the gospel is good news that you tell other people because you want to.
Yeah that’s probably it.
O, BUNNY BUNNY RABIT! Mom claims that she won, but as far as I know it’s illegal to try to bunny bunny rabbit before the clock strikes twelve, in the location where YOU are located. But because she’s my mother and I love her, she can win. But only this once. Glad to here you had a fun and LONG week in Eugene, they are such deer friends (pun intended). Especially Eliza, her autograph will be worth billions someday.
Welp till next Thursday! Keep it real real. I love you all!
Love, Elder Barnes #12
Thursday, June 25, 2009
YUP YUP
FAMILY!!!
The rain continues nearly every day, which showers the miracles. I'm convinced that the best things happen when you're desperate and soaking wet.
Okay well it hasn't been raining THAT bad but the weather here feels a lot like spring in eugene, rainy and then sunny a few minutes later. Last night was the longest night of the year, which is infamous for people staying up all night and partying. As we were going to bed last night it started to thunder and storm really hard and I guess people were screaming and stuff. Elder Freeman told me about it, I slept like a baby.
The biggest miracle is Artiom, I told you a little about him last week but he's different than any other Russian 18 year old I've met. He doesn't smoke or drink (“i don't see the point”), he loves the Book of Mormon and asks questions I've never thought of (who's the Rahava guy in 2nd Nephi 8:9) and does karate. He had karate last sunday morning but he came to the services in Lithuanian and liked it. In yesterday's lesson he gave such a sincere and grateful prayer and thanked God for the holy scriptures and the knowledge God gives us and our purpose in life. He wants to be baptized and could be like next week, but will be out of town this week-end, and than in Israel for 2 weeks in July. So we set a date for August, the week-end before Elder Freeman goes home. Wow that is way too soon (for my sake), but than again not soon enough (for Artiom's sake and probably Elder Freeman's family). Artiom is just the man. I'll send a picture of us all next week.
Alexander is still going strong. He'll need some more time to prepare for baptism but he's diligently reading the scriptures and doing what he needs to. We brought a white shirt and tie for him last week, and for the first 15 minutes he was feeling uncomfortable but after church he was loving it and said it made him happy to have people stare at him on the streets! I told him that pretty soon he can be out there with us talking to people, and he kinda laughed. He'll be a good missionary though because he's so open, fearless and feels the joy of the gospel.
Yesterday we ran into Kobe Bryant, almost. Well it was a Lithuanian gangster with a Kobe jersey, and as we were talking he made it pretty clear that we was not extremely interested. He ended by saying, “time is money” and Elder Freeman answered “Kobe is money. From behind the three point line.” Haha I laughed so hard. The young man in our branch told me that Kobe was the championship MVP. Props to Lakers fans. I have a feeling the Jazz will take them next year though. Times are changing. Christopher showed me the duck's new uniforms but I guess that's nothing too new. Tell the Long's HELLO from me. I'm excited to hear how Elder Long is doing in Cali with Mandarin, and don't forget to take family pictures with Trixy! What great friends.
Our Branch President and his wife teach online russian lessons for all levels. If you know ANYone that would be interested it'd be so worth it. He's e-mail is dnkon@yahoo.com, and skype ID dnkon73. He and his wife are from Russia and speak gorgeous Russian, and perfect english. He has two young daughters and still helps us a ton with teaching and is a huge blessing for the branch.
Thanks for your love. I love you!!!
Love, Elder Barnes #12
The rain continues nearly every day, which showers the miracles. I'm convinced that the best things happen when you're desperate and soaking wet.
Okay well it hasn't been raining THAT bad but the weather here feels a lot like spring in eugene, rainy and then sunny a few minutes later. Last night was the longest night of the year, which is infamous for people staying up all night and partying. As we were going to bed last night it started to thunder and storm really hard and I guess people were screaming and stuff. Elder Freeman told me about it, I slept like a baby.
The biggest miracle is Artiom, I told you a little about him last week but he's different than any other Russian 18 year old I've met. He doesn't smoke or drink (“i don't see the point”), he loves the Book of Mormon and asks questions I've never thought of (who's the Rahava guy in 2nd Nephi 8:9) and does karate. He had karate last sunday morning but he came to the services in Lithuanian and liked it. In yesterday's lesson he gave such a sincere and grateful prayer and thanked God for the holy scriptures and the knowledge God gives us and our purpose in life. He wants to be baptized and could be like next week, but will be out of town this week-end, and than in Israel for 2 weeks in July. So we set a date for August, the week-end before Elder Freeman goes home. Wow that is way too soon (for my sake), but than again not soon enough (for Artiom's sake and probably Elder Freeman's family). Artiom is just the man. I'll send a picture of us all next week.
Alexander is still going strong. He'll need some more time to prepare for baptism but he's diligently reading the scriptures and doing what he needs to. We brought a white shirt and tie for him last week, and for the first 15 minutes he was feeling uncomfortable but after church he was loving it and said it made him happy to have people stare at him on the streets! I told him that pretty soon he can be out there with us talking to people, and he kinda laughed. He'll be a good missionary though because he's so open, fearless and feels the joy of the gospel.
Yesterday we ran into Kobe Bryant, almost. Well it was a Lithuanian gangster with a Kobe jersey, and as we were talking he made it pretty clear that we was not extremely interested. He ended by saying, “time is money” and Elder Freeman answered “Kobe is money. From behind the three point line.” Haha I laughed so hard. The young man in our branch told me that Kobe was the championship MVP. Props to Lakers fans. I have a feeling the Jazz will take them next year though. Times are changing. Christopher showed me the duck's new uniforms but I guess that's nothing too new. Tell the Long's HELLO from me. I'm excited to hear how Elder Long is doing in Cali with Mandarin, and don't forget to take family pictures with Trixy! What great friends.
Our Branch President and his wife teach online russian lessons for all levels. If you know ANYone that would be interested it'd be so worth it. He's e-mail is dnkon@yahoo.com, and skype ID dnkon73. He and his wife are from Russia and speak gorgeous Russian, and perfect english. He has two young daughters and still helps us a ton with teaching and is a huge blessing for the branch.
Thanks for your love. I love you!!!
Love, Elder Barnes #12
Friday, June 19, 2009
SINGING IN THE RAIN
FAMILY!
Hey. First, please pass a CONGRATS to SISTER BRETT!!! The excitement has been building up the last couple weeks and I was thrilled/shocked to find out where she's going. Salt Lake City, Temple Sqaure is. She will be a light and share her testimony with so many people from all over the world. I got a envelope from her yesterday ith pictures of her Romania adventure-- wow it looked incredible! So many smiling faces on kids who've probably lived such hard lives. I knew that I would find out where she was going so Elder Freeman and I made predictions, but it was tough because I could seriously just picture her going everywhere! I thought the Philipines or New Jersey, Elder Freeman said Paris or Florida, but then again I could also imagine Japan, Romania or Argentina. Now people will come from all over the world to her! What a unique and amazing mission, and like I've said before every mission is the best! Especially the one you are called to. I'm continuing to enjoy life on a mission more and more every day. It helps that Elder Freeman and I get along like long lost brothers and we're having a blast.
We go running almost every morning in a forest right by our apartment building, and then go into center every day and teach the gospel. If I could do this every day for the rest of my life, I would. Alexander is making great progress, loves coming to church and reads the Book of Mormon every morning. He's way excited for baptism, and we want to make sure he's comitted to live all the commandments. He quit smoking last week so that's big time! As for now, we're thinking that June 27th will be the day, and that would be just awesome. Richard and Igor have not come to church the last couple weeks so that's a bummer. I have heard them bear their testimonies so it is seems more a committment issue. It seems a lot of people here are facing some difficult economic times right now and a little extra humility can always help! I had a long telephone conversation with Richard a few weeks ago and I told him that he has the most potential of anyone I've ever taught on on my mission (true, by far). He expressed concern about enduring all the way to the end, and he feels some kind of guilt although he didn't think he was doing anything wrong. Which is pretty much true, besides the fact he's just not getting baptized! Which would be very righteous. We've taught a few new young guys that have some big time potential.
One's named Valera who's 24 and said that he's been to other churches but doesn't feel the same there as he does here. It was a cool thing to say, especially because it was on Saturday, and we'd just taught him the for the first a day earlier! When we asked him what he thought the purpose of life was he said " to serve God." An acceptable answer. He came to church and accepted a baptismal date for the end of July-- he's going to Belarus for 2-3 weeks to help his grandmother. The good ones are always so busy! But more updates on him to come. And then there's Artiom who's 18. We taught him the first lesson yesterday and asked how much time he'd have to read the Book of Mormon before we met again today. We were expecting a usual "Well I'm busy so maybe 15-20 minutes." But he said "I don't know, 2 or 3 hours." Perfect.
Time is flying faster than ever. It's basically July. Pretty soon summer will be over. I bet Elyse would be excited. It's been raining here all week, and I love it because it totally feels like Eugene. Lithuania (Lietuva) literally means land of rain. Rain's fun because everything turns green and when you're walking on the street, you can sing with your companion and nobody can probably even hear you under your umbrella.
I love you all so much! Life is a ball.
Love, Elder Barnes #12
Hey. First, please pass a CONGRATS to SISTER BRETT!!! The excitement has been building up the last couple weeks and I was thrilled/shocked to find out where she's going. Salt Lake City, Temple Sqaure is. She will be a light and share her testimony with so many people from all over the world. I got a envelope from her yesterday ith pictures of her Romania adventure-- wow it looked incredible! So many smiling faces on kids who've probably lived such hard lives. I knew that I would find out where she was going so Elder Freeman and I made predictions, but it was tough because I could seriously just picture her going everywhere! I thought the Philipines or New Jersey, Elder Freeman said Paris or Florida, but then again I could also imagine Japan, Romania or Argentina. Now people will come from all over the world to her! What a unique and amazing mission, and like I've said before every mission is the best! Especially the one you are called to. I'm continuing to enjoy life on a mission more and more every day. It helps that Elder Freeman and I get along like long lost brothers and we're having a blast.
We go running almost every morning in a forest right by our apartment building, and then go into center every day and teach the gospel. If I could do this every day for the rest of my life, I would. Alexander is making great progress, loves coming to church and reads the Book of Mormon every morning. He's way excited for baptism, and we want to make sure he's comitted to live all the commandments. He quit smoking last week so that's big time! As for now, we're thinking that June 27th will be the day, and that would be just awesome. Richard and Igor have not come to church the last couple weeks so that's a bummer. I have heard them bear their testimonies so it is seems more a committment issue. It seems a lot of people here are facing some difficult economic times right now and a little extra humility can always help! I had a long telephone conversation with Richard a few weeks ago and I told him that he has the most potential of anyone I've ever taught on on my mission (true, by far). He expressed concern about enduring all the way to the end, and he feels some kind of guilt although he didn't think he was doing anything wrong. Which is pretty much true, besides the fact he's just not getting baptized! Which would be very righteous. We've taught a few new young guys that have some big time potential.
One's named Valera who's 24 and said that he's been to other churches but doesn't feel the same there as he does here. It was a cool thing to say, especially because it was on Saturday, and we'd just taught him the for the first a day earlier! When we asked him what he thought the purpose of life was he said " to serve God." An acceptable answer. He came to church and accepted a baptismal date for the end of July-- he's going to Belarus for 2-3 weeks to help his grandmother. The good ones are always so busy! But more updates on him to come. And then there's Artiom who's 18. We taught him the first lesson yesterday and asked how much time he'd have to read the Book of Mormon before we met again today. We were expecting a usual "Well I'm busy so maybe 15-20 minutes." But he said "I don't know, 2 or 3 hours." Perfect.
Time is flying faster than ever. It's basically July. Pretty soon summer will be over. I bet Elyse would be excited. It's been raining here all week, and I love it because it totally feels like Eugene. Lithuania (Lietuva) literally means land of rain. Rain's fun because everything turns green and when you're walking on the street, you can sing with your companion and nobody can probably even hear you under your umbrella.
I love you all so much! Life is a ball.
Love, Elder Barnes #12
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