November 12th!

On November 12th Sister Barnes returns home from the Arizona Tucson Mission.
Her homecoming will be held in Provo on Sunday, Nov 23rd at 9 a.m., 1122 North Grand Avenue.

New Beginnings....

Halloween as missionaries ... switching nametags:)

"How grateful I am to my Heavenly Father that in His plan there are no true endings, only everlasting beginnings" -Dieter f. Uchtdorf

Dear Family,

First of all thank you so much for all your sacrifices for me! Thank you for allowing me and supporting me as I have been on my mission. I love being a missionary!! As I was reflecting on what I could say today, I thought. Well I will probably just share what happened this week and my testimony. Like I usually do! So here we go! 

This week was a blur, it was crazy! We went on two exchanges. Both of the sisters I went with are struggling and have a little less motivation to work than I would like them to. But we each had miracles and the highlight of each of them was the people we talked to! On the first exchange we were on bikes! We went around all day, with no luck with anyone! Finally at the point of giving up, we were riding to dinner and stopped to talk to a lady! She was AWESOME!!! Tender mercy, and we got her info to send as a referral! Oh also, right after my last email, we met a guy in the library who started to bash on us pretty hard. We kept our cool and at the end he said, well maybe my ride needs help. Go talk to her! We did and gave her a Book of Mormon! She was super excited to learn from us!!! It was awesome!!! 

On Wednesday I got a blessing. I did it because I felt the spirit impress on my heart that I should. And it was fantastic! I love the priesthood and the ability that it gives us to connect with our Heavenly Father! 

Friday was the best Halloween I have ever had! First off, I hate Halloween. I don’t like all the evil and darkness. But we got to spend our Halloween in MLC!!! A very inspiring and uplifting meeting! It was fantastic! I learned some great things and felt guided by the spirit. I have loved and will continue to love the opportunity I have to be a leader. My duties are far from over... :)

We also got to go to the trunk or treat and meet a bunch of friends of members! It was great! I went as Sister Whitmore and she went as Sister Barnes :) clever, I know! 

Saturday and Sunday was stake conference! So good!!! Saturday session was amazing, the Passeys came and spoke! I also love our stake president who has been my stake president for 7 and a half months of my mission- President Polley! He is fantastic! We got a referral for a potential family who would be coming to stake conference in the morning session. So we got to go to both sessions of the regional Arizona broadcast stake conference. It was great! We also met the family and they are awesome, not quite ready to meet with us, but great! 

Here is what stuck out to me most from listening to stake conference. Elder Foster of the 70 shared a story/fable to highlight a principle. It went something like this... Once there was a man who lived on a small farm and had one horse. His horse ran away and his friends told him that it was a very bad thing, which had happened. The man didn’t know if it was good or bad. Then later the horse came back with 9 other horses, and the friend said that it was a very good thing! The man said he didn’t know if it was good or bad. Then the man’s son got bucked off one of the new horses and broke his leg. The friend again said it was a bad thing. Then a draft came for the army and all healthy young men were called to war, the son was not able to go, eventually all the soldiers died. The moral of the story is that we cannot tell what is good or bad in our lives. We must have faith in Jesus Christ that he will carry us through it all! We must be grateful for whatever Heavenly Father gives us, and then trust in Christ that He will make us what we can become through our experiences. 

In my natural man self; I would say that this week has been a bad week. But I cannot say if it has been good or bad. All I know is that I am grateful to my Heavenly Father for the week He has given me. I know that He will bless me a ton this upcoming week! I know that because of Jesus Christ we can change and become who He wants us to be. I have felt the change in my life so much since being on my mission. My mission has not changed me, but Christ has! I love being a missionary and I love being a disciple of Jesus Christ more! I know the true gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth through a prophet named Joseph Smith. I know that the Book of Mormon brings peace and answers and that it is true! I have felt the love from my Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. I love the people of Tucson Arizona and will continue to love them! I also love you! 

Love, Sister Barnes

Oct 27 - Golden Days of Golden People

My dear family,

This week has been fantastic! I love being a missionary!!! We had a super good lesson with S. and really got onto the same page as her. The summary of what was learned at our very long heart to heart was that she desires to have the spirit in her life and we let her know what she has to do, to have it! Hope she acts! 

We had a zone conference this week, which was fantastic! We watched "Meet the Mormons" in the stake center and I loved it! We also got flu shots! I learned a lot, but what was really cool is that I really felt like it was a summary of everything I have learned form every zone conference ever! Kind of cool! 

Thursday was amazing!!! Absolutely perfect! We were guided by the spirit to try a potential and met his son! We had an amazing little lesson and discussion with him. He would have been a new investigator, but he is YSA. Still cool! Then we FINALLY had a lesson with N! She is absolutely the most golden investigator I have ever taught in my whole mission! She asked the question after teaching about apostasy "why don’t we have prophets today?" Then she said that the reason why she wants us to email with her is because she wants her family to be strong and united. Her desire is so strong! Then she said that everything we taught her felt very familiar, had a familiar ring and felt at home! So cool! Also she cried during the first vision, Sister Whitmore is a powerhouse! Also that day we got to do one of my favorite things- bikes! Some of our sisters needed the car, so we got their bikes! :) Happy day! Then we saw the biggest shooting star I have ever seen! We met up with a new recent convert who just moved to our ward. Tender mercy: we have both met him before! 

Saturday was also an awesome day! We participated in make a difference day where we completely wiped out weeds on two streets. It was awesome to work together with the members! We got some sweet potentials from it! We also got the meet with S. again, who is absolutely amazing! We really need to teach him the restoration next time! He is so open though! And he has been reading the Book of Mormon. He had an experience, which was very similar to the tree of life, so he thought that was neat! Then we went to our north stake BBQ where we got to see a lot of our lovely ward and people from La Canada! Always so good to see them! One of my favorites members from La Canada- Sister Williams shared a cool experience. When I was there Sister Walter and I helped a less active lady move out of our ward to green valley. Turns out that when she moved down there she met the sister missionaries! One of which was Sister Whitmore! She helped teach and reactivate her and her son and his wife! They went through the temple on Saturday!!! I remember when we did service the spirit prompted us to just share our testimonies and have a prayer with them. What a great experience to plant a seed. What an amazing opportunity to hear about what happens when we listen to the spirit! It was such a miracle!!! 

I love being a missionary and I love the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! I know it is true! Please apply it into your life everyday, and also make it the most important thing to do!

Love sister Barnes

Oct 20 - Faith Brings Miracles

Dear Family,

I think I need to stop praying for the most amazing transfer of my whole mission, because it is working! But the unspoken rule of heaven is that whenever you had super amazing experiences and miracles, you have some crazy weird stuff happen too. Overall I appreciate and am super duper grateful for every experience I get- good or bad, it is just a little exhausting! Also, I love you all so much!!! Also thank you for the emails you all send, I really do appreciate them!

Here is the week in a nutshell....

Monday: We made videos of all of the object lessons we know, it was awesome!!! We had some dinner appointments and awesome lessons with members and less actives.

Tuesday: was a tender mercy from the Lord! We have tried so hard to get members out with us, but it is really hard! Mostly because the members are super busy! But we finally got members out with us. We saw J. and after the lesson she told the member and us that what the member had said in the lesson made the most sense to her and that she really understood it! Go member missionary work! Then we brought a youth with us to try another 16 yr old investigator. He decided to bail, so we taught his less active dad and had an awesome lesson! Even the crazy youth are so amazing at sharing the gospel! Also we met the missionary who came home from medical leave, which was awesome!

Wednesday: we walked around a lot and did everything we were supposed to do. We saw some little miracles, which was nice!

Thursday.... We went on exchanges with Sister Soren and Magnusson. Sister Magnusson and I had a very interesting day, I haven't seen that many members in a long time, but it was a day of unusual miracles. Also we saw this guy walking down the side of the road and we wanted to stop our car and talk to him but we were on too busy of a road. So I prayed in my head we would get a chance to talk to him.... about an hour later after some failed attempt of finding anyone we saw him walking down a less busy road and pulled over to contact him! He was super nice and we got his number and he was interested in us coming by! Yay!

Friday: was super duper weird! We went and did some STL duty stuff which included bringing ice cream to some sick sisters who are stuck in their apt, and having comp inventory with a set of missionaries and teaching them the importance of obedience. It was awesome and it was fun to be bold! Then we went and saw C., she wasn't feeling super great and about ten minutes after we left we got a call from her mom telling us to come back because she was being taken to the hospital. We were able to help a little bit. But it was crazy! With all the unexpected emergencies we didn't get lunch until 3:30, weird day! But glad we could help!

Saturday: was one of the best days of my entire mission!!!! We went on a mini "the day" and named it D-day for date day. The goal- each companionship in our zone set a baptismal date! I went with Sister Thomas in the YSA ward and it was so fun! We met SOOOO many people who were super prepared to hear the gospel! I love them all so much!!! I probably won’t see them until the spirit world but I have confidence that EACH one WILL get baptized soon! We learned about the importance of pure faith- without doubts, excuses, or justification. Then we acted in faith! The coolest one was M. We were going to try his roommate who was a potential. The roommate wasn't home, but M. was! He wasn't interested at first, but we asked him what he believed and he told us. Then we testified boldly of the restoration of the gospel and the fact of absolute truth! Then Sister Thomas invited him to be baptized and set a date with him! It was amazing!!! It was a super fun day packed full of miracles!!!!! We also got to go to a devotional where we heard Elder Tuttle one of the missionaries from the Saratov Approach speak, it was awesome!!! I saw members from the LA Canada ward, my ward, and YSA! It was awesome!

Sunday: another beautiful day, luckily less crazy! We weekly planned and went to church, which was great! I love the countryside ward so much!!! The members are absolutely incredible!!! Then we went to Elder Murdock’s homecoming open house for dinner. We were able to share a pass along card with a lady coming around door-to-door trying to get people to vote, everyone thought it was awesome! Also we got to give a Book of Mormon to a non-member lady that Sister Murdock invited! What a neat day!!! Also I love sister Whitmore, she is so funny and super amazing! I absolutely adore being her companion!

I love you each so much and I know that you can have miracles too as you act in faith! 

Love, Sister Barnes

Oct 13 - Disciple of Jesus Christ

Dear Family,

I love you so much!!! This week I really felt like a disciple of Jesus Christ! We had some amazing miracles and some great tribulation. The result: one happy missionary named Sister Barnes who is so grateful for every opportunity to be a missionary! But I really did love this week the good and the bad! I will explain... :)

Tuesday: Sister Whitmore ended up being kind of sick, which was really unusual for her. But we helped her get some good rest which resulted in the miracle that I had time to write a few letters and make a few videos that needed to be sent :) After that we had a really interesting day of miracles! We went to go try a 16 yr old investigator who is part of a part member/ less active family. We only taught him once and he has been really hard to get a hold of. After the unexpected sickness we evaluated and changed our plans and were prompted to go to another family! We went and they were home! We had a great lesson with the less active dad! We taught them exactly what we planned by the spirit! It was amazing! Our conversation went perfectly into what we had planned for them! Then we were impressed to bring up baptism. We invited them to pray about baptism and coming back to church. We are excited to see their answers tomorrow! :) Then the bishop of the Tortolita Ward and also an institute teacher I know really well from YSA set up a dinner with a non member lady who has a daughter serving a mission in Mexico. We were excited and nervous, we didn’t know what to expect! We got there and immediately we found out that her daughter was having medical issues and happened to be coming home for medical leave tomorrow! Wow, good timing! So we sat and listened and soothed her fear by being there for her. She really appreciated it! We are going to see them again this week and help the mom and the poor missionary daughter! It was such a miracle! 

Wednesday we had zone meetings. Being STLs we were able to go to two! We had to rush over to the west right after our training in the north. We trained on faith being a principle of action and power. It was awesome! Ok cool story! 6 months ago, Sister Walker and Sister Fuller (missionary I replaced in Countryside) received a referral for a lady. They tried to contact, but to no avail. Then when I got here Sister Walker remembered that they never contacted her. But she could not remember where the house was. But through the spirit she was lead to the house! We then tried almost everyday for a long time. We met her whole family, but never her. So we also ended up putting her in the area book for some future missionaries. On Sister Walker's last day, we got a call from the Spanish sisters who had felt impressed to knock a culdesac in our area. They met her, and she let them in. They shared a great message with her, she cried and said it was an answer to her prayer and they set up a time to come back. She ended up canceling. Then this week we went by with the Spanish sisters and she wasn’t there :( but we were impressed to come back later that night. And we did! And SHE WAS THERE!!!! WE met her and taught her and her family about the Book of Mormon. We are going back next week! It was awesome! I am so excited for that family! 

Thursday- was exchanges, I went with Sister Yarborough! :) We had a ton of miracles! Here are the coolest ones! We had a referral from a member of a part member family who was interested in coming to church with us! We went by and met the non-member dad. He was super excited and interested! He said he would talk with his family and that we could come over and teach them, and that they could come to church next week! We are so excited for them!!!! Then, in Sister Yarboroughs ward, they have a recent convert who moved to our ward, but due to some mistakes he had made was not doing the right things and was too embarrassed to tell them his address. She really wanted to find him and we knew the area, so we prayed with faith knowing that God would guide us. We went and drove all around the twin peaks area looking for his car, a white van. We drove and drove and didn’t find any vans. Then we tried one more neighborhood and found a white van matching the description! We went up to the door and before we could knock it opened and a guy answered! Before we even said who we were he said, "we are on our way out right now, but you can come by another day around 4!" Wahoo, miracle! So we will be going back to that family this week! ") Also we popped in one recent convert whose bird had just flown behind a dresser and couldn’t get out. She was distressed. But never fear the missionaries are here! I was able to use my long skinny arms to get it out! :) Yay! 

Friday, - was our Jehovah witness day.... our investigator who is a JW mutually dropped us. We sang her "I like to look for rainbows" and she cried. She felt the spirit so hard. But she is being sucked into it and can’t get out. It is so sad. Then we met a super angry JW later who kind of chewed us out. I got kind of mad, which is weird. I don’t get mad very often. But I kept the thumper rule and didn’t say anything. I "suffered it." 

Saturday- was a pretty awful day. Everyone we talked to wasn’t willing to change or try to change, or act on our message. It made us super sad. But it also made us more determined to share our testimonies with everyone! I am so grateful for my testimony of the Savior! It only made my testimony even stronger and deeper! Haha, nice try adversary. God is always more powerful! 

Sunday- was a great day! Also Sister Whitmore's birthday! I forgot about it until after p-day and so I had no way of getting her anything that I didn’t already have. To make things even more difficult, we decided to fast, and she is on a sugar fast! So my options were limited. I ended up making her a poster out of sticky notes, and singing her a birthday song on my uke. Then we put some matches in some bread and lit them. As we were singing happy birthday the fire alarm went off. It was hilarious! At church she got a warm welcome form our awesome ward!!! I was able to sneakily tell our dinner appointment at church that it was her birthday. (Another hard part about secrets on a mission is that you are always with your companion)! But I got the message to her and there were balloons and a banner at dinner:")

It was a great week! I love being a missionary! 

I love you all! 

Love, Sister Barnes 

Hello my dear family!

Dear Family,

I had a great week! Here begins the adventures with Sister Whitmore. I absolutely love her! We get along really really well! On the outside it seems like we are pretty different, but on the inside we are super similar! She is super funny, and we think the same. She is super obedient and hard working. I love her to pieces! The theme of the week is probably being in the right place at the right time. We met so many people because we had plans and followed through and usually the people we planned weren’t home, but the people prepared around them were! We met a less active lady when we pulled over and parked and offer to help serve her. We ended up getting some water and talking for like an hour! It was great! We met some other people who know members and want to learn! 

Also we have the most amazing members in the Countryside Ward! Sister Whitmore was shocked, and I was a little bit too! Everyone that we went to dinner this week talked about the plan they had to invite their friends, or they gave us a referral! We now have 5 referrals to contact! That is 500 times more than we have got the last two or three months! 

While we were walking one day we saw these two guys in a golf cart. So we went and talked with them. At first they were super standoffish but then they warmed up. We gave them both pamphlets and they both began reading immediately, they wouldn’t take their eyes off. We got their info and had to pass them off to people down south, but it was super awesome! I love talking with everyone! Also we were looking for a less active family, the miracle is that we had met the kids before and they really liked us, so the non member dad invited us over tonight, I am so excited!!! 

We had MLC this week and it was amazing! We learned about faith and that we need to set goals with God then follow through in what we planned, then god will grant us power! Also we learned about a new tool to help harness our faith, it is called harvesting. Harvesting is where you get to know someone and invite him or her to pray with you shortly after you meet him or her. You ask them what you can pray for and then pray with them, right there on the street or on their doorstep. Afterwards you ask them how they feel and either invite them to be baptized or to learn more. 

We did this, on Saturday! We were going to dinner and knocked on the door. Turns out we had the wrong address, but we talked to this guy named Palmer who was a super happy chill guy who didn’t really believe in god. We prayed with him and he felt super good! We invited him to learn more, even though we had already invited him. Because of our prayer, he changed his mind and we got his info, he is YSA so we passed him off. But it was super cool! We plan on doing this more! :) 

General Conference was amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don’t have time to go into my goals or what stuck out to me. But I just loved it! If I had to pick a favorite talk it would probably be Elder Callister, I had so much revelation from that! But I loved it all! I ran into my first Bishop form La Canada and his whole family still remembered me! What a blessing it was to hear that even though I was only there 6 weeks I made an impact in the ward! :) I hope to make a lot more impact in these next 5 weeks! We invited J. to be baptized this week, it was awesome! She wasn’t sure because of some past experiences, but we know she will say yes and set a date this week! At least that is our goal for her! The spirit was super strong in her lesson and she absolutely loves it! I love her and all the others we are working with!

I love you all so much!!! 

Love, Sister Barnes

New companion, Last Transfer, Sep 30

Sis Barnes and Sis Whitmore in Tucson

Hola Family,

I love you all but don't have much time this week. I got a lot of emails I needed to respond to! Very good emails! :)

We had an awesome exchange on "the day," we had a blast and saw a TON of miracles! We tried to pray with everyone we talked to, which was a great idea, I will keep doing it!

We had a great STL moment, and were able to help some sisters big time this week, it felt great and was just what we needed!

We had so many miracles with finding new people this week! Be prepared for a crazy email of miracles next week! Everything is changing, in a good way!

Women’s Conference was amazing and just what I needed! We also had a very sweet lesson with J.; she loves the restoration and is beginning to think we came into her life so she could prepare for death- not in a morbid way, but in a very neat way!

We also got transfer calls! Sister Walker will be going back to the Rincon zone! I will continue my service as a STL and get Sister Whitmore! She is super awesome, I love her! We are going to have the most amazing transfer together! I am super excited!!

Yesterday while saying goodbye we were able to pretty much relive our whole 3 transfers together, it was way fun and a tender mercy!

Coolest miracle of the week I have to tell you really fast. Yesterday on miracle Monday we got a call from the Spanish sisters who cover our area. They had tried a referral that we sent them, who wasn't home... but they felt impressed to knock a culdesac. They found a lady home and she let them in and they testified of the gospel blessing her family! It was an amazing miracle and they called to tell us that they had a pass off lesson! Turns out we had got a referral for this lady and had tried her a million zillion times. We even knew her whole family but could not contact her. We will be seeing her tomorrow! Miracle!!!!

I love you all so much, sorry for the short email!

I am doing well, and super excited for this next transfer! I love you!

Love, Sister Barnes