Spring Break

Dear Family,

This week was spring break, so it was a little different than our normal weeks; more like Christmas break all over again. But it was still good and there were still miracles!

We met preacher Dean's friend last Sunday and we got tot teach him, he was so excited to learn and was asking insane amount of questions! Even down to "Wow, why does Jesus wear these kind of sandals". He was a little crazy, but we figured he just had ADD or something. He was so excited to learn, then the next day we taught him again. He wasn’t quite the same, and he dropped us. He dropped a few other things too, but we still loved him and he ended on a positive note.

Over Christmas break, in fact on Christmas, we met a girl. We got to reconnect with her and she is all on board for meeting with us again. She finally after all these months got a job which took a huge weight off her shoulders. The same day she found out she had a job we stopped by and she said we could come back! She is super excited and over her initial fear when we invited her to be baptized which is what she got freaked out about. And she made us muffins; I think this is going to work great!

Best investigator news this week is T.! We didn’t hear from her all week, but Sunday she texted us and told us she was coming to church. She came! She told her parents and they were pretty against the church. But she knows it is true and is going to keep coming! She is so pumped and wants to move her baptism date up! That has never happened to me before! :) So expect good things!!!

The best success we had this week was less actives!

One morning we both woke up and felt like we should go see a less active girl earlier in the morning rather than later. So we did, we drove down there and she was actually home! She said she still wants to come back to church it is just hard. So we got to go back a few days later and teach her a lesson. She wants guidance in her life and is super excited to come back! We love her!

Last week we met a less active guy at church who wants to come back. He has only been less active for about a year and a half. He felt shunned after not going on a mission and his home ward was being judgmental towards him. But our great ward mission leader just talked to him over facebook, which sparked his desire to come back. All he needed was a small act of love and bam, he wants to come back! He lives on the reservation called Sells, which is about two hours from Tucson, but still in our area. So we decided to do as the Savior would do and leave the 90 and 9 to go find the one. We took a road trip out there with two ward members and went and saw him. The visit was great! He came to church again this Sunday and is super excited about coming back! Also the reservation was super sweet! There were wild horses roaming around, tons of cacti, and I felt like I was in a wild west movie! It was sweet!!! It was a really cool experience to see the Native American culture a little bit! I am happy I got to do that; going on the reservation was one of my goals and dreams coming to Tucson- mission accomplished! Well at least that mission :)

Ok cool miracle- I was studying one day and felt like I should read a talk, so I was going through my talk collection and picked out one, but didn’t feel right, so I picked out another one- that we might not shrink by elder Bednar. This talk was sent to me from my beautiful mom about 9 months ago. Which I read and loved then. But when I read it this week, I nearly started crying! It is perfect for M! It describes perfectly what she is going through; she has that same kind of cancer and everything. It was amazing to me and a tender mercy. We watched the daily bread videos, which were super good with her. Then we had a really great lesson where she was able to remember the things that she has forgotten for a while, it was a testimony to me of why we go to church- so we can literally promise to remember!

Here is what I learned this week!

We had a zone conference, which was amazing!!! It was all about repentance, which was perfect!

First I learned that remission of sins means lessening or shrinking of sin- picture a drain and the water going into it slowly. Our sins slowly go away and we slowly become more and more Christ-like. I learned that we need to help our investigators see the reason for repentance and baptism, which is a remission of sins and the Holy Ghost. When they can understand this they will want to repent and be baptized! Repentance is really a fresh view about God or ourselves or the world and is a change of mind and action.

Also we missionaries can all relate to investigators because although we were baptized a while ago, we recently made covenants and received more of Gods power by going through the temple. This really helped me realize that I can relate and testify of the joy of baptism because I have been through the temple! What a blessing it has been to me and it has helped me change and grow so much! 

Here are some other nuggets of goodness I learned.

I learned that confession is an ESSENTIAL part of repentance. If you are struggling to repent and change yourself of something, please go to your priesthood leader for assistance. He will guide you to the Savior and His healing. Seriously, if you need to repent of something serious, go to your bishop of mission president. He will help you feel the power of the Atonement more in your life! I promise it works; they are called by God to do this. They are not perfect, but they are called.

Here is a cool quote "A distraction doesn’t have to be evil to be effective". Always put God first, anything that comes before God is bad, even if it is a good thing.

I love you all so much and hope you have a great week! Let me know if I can do anything for any of you or the friends that you have. Also, please keep looking for people who live in the Arizona Tucson mission that we missionaries could go see!

Keep being missionaries!

Love, Sister Barnes