Santee - Week #63 - July 15, 2014

World Cup, Interviews, Primary praise, purpose.

Hola familia!

Good news: The World Cup is OVER!! Which means people will finally start answering their doors! We've been trying to make our message more important than the World Cup, but we only succeeded half the time. Welcome to almost Mexico.

Interviews with President: It was the most different President's interview I've had. Because he is brand new, we basically had a mini Mission Leadership Council in our lil' interview as we talked about my input for transfers, which sisters should train and which sisters should become the next sister training leaders because two are leaving this transfer. He is getting input from the leadership in the mission because this upcoming transfer is going to be a big one. It has been neat to go from an experienced Mission President to a brand new one who has had to depend on the missionary leadership. Also, President Schmitt told me to tell my parents thanks for your sacrifice in sending your amazing daughter on a mission ;)

We were asked to help out in sharing time in Primary as "Special Guest Baptism Experts" on the "Good News Network Primary News report" haha. The kids LOVED it. We were celebrities for 15 minutes as they all shot up their hands to ask questions. I've realized that teachers and leaders have to get creative sometimes to compete with technology and facebook. We failed with the World Cup, but succeeded in Sharing Time. Ahhh yeah.

Cool miracle: We street contacted and added a solid guy named Fabian who then helped us find a referral who we ended up adding as well! 2 miracles in 10 minutes! 

Update on Gonzalez-Ambriz: They are still doing well. Mayra wasn't able to make it to church, but Arturo (the dad) brought the kids by himself for the first time on Sunday! Before, if Mayra wasn't able to make it, no one would come. So it's progress! Your prayers are still working!

Well, I sure love ya. I love the challenge made by your ward missionaries to pray about specific people on the ward directory for missionary and service opportunities. Our missionary purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ so whether people are members or non-members, we can always invite them to come more unto Christ. Thanks for your examples of Christ-like service. Les quiero mucho!

Hermana Barnes

Las fotos:

1) My district at the pier at Ocean Beach. Some of us weren't quite ready for the picture. Haha.

Santee - Week #62 - July 8, 2014

New Mission President has arrived! 

Happy late 4th of July! I hope you had a wonderful day. There weren't a lot of people home here on that day, and then all the missionaries had to be home before 7 p.m. to keep safe from the partying and drunk drivers on the road. It definitely didn't feel like a holiday, but it's all good. I'd say a great way to celebrate our freedom and our country is by sharing the Gospel!

Our new Mission President, President Schmitt, has arrived! We had a 'Meet the President' meeting with him and then we had Mission Leadership Council. Although he's brand new, he knows how to get things done. He is going to be great for the mission. He is very young, and his four kids with ages ranging from 6 yrs. to 14 yrs. will be staying the whole 3 years. They are an awesome family! He's a lawyer and his wife's a doctor (who also a Spanish-speaking mission in California). Can you imagine the future of their children? Sheesh.

Update on the Gonzalez-Ambriz: They're doing super well! Here's a cool miracle: Mayra (the mom) was supposed to work this past Sunday and was really bummed because she's been praying for ways to get Sundays off. Then she looked at the schedule again later on and someone had switched her days without telling her so that she could come to church! She was like, "Hermanas, it was a miracle!" She was so excited. How cool is that?! They keep praying that they will be able to have Sundays off and Heavenly Father keeps answering. Also, every week they are more and more open to marriage. At the beginning of this all, they basically said "NEVER" to marriage and now look how far they've come. Please pray that they will have the desire to get married sooner than later. They are so close! The kids are such good examples to them.

Sometimes, your investigators get deported to Mexico. Two of some of our really cool investigators just got deported! We were so sad. They are going to get in contact with the missionaries down there. It's a good thing the church is true wherever you are, right?

Sister Hess and I taught part of Zone Meeting again (meetings we have with the whole zone once a month) and we taught about effective planning and raising our faith and expectations. When we put our trust in God's timing and planning, we will realize that He already has miracles planned. We can't make our own miracles happen, so we might as well do everything God's way. When we skip an hour of studies in the morning because we want to go out and teach more peple, we're not doing things God's way. When we hesitate to pray because we want to put off receiving an answer we're afraid to receive, we're just putting off the miracles He already has planned. Doing things God's way and being exactly obedient brings the exact miracles you need. There's a lil' spiritual thought for the day haha. Love you!  

Hermana Barnes

Santee - Week #61 - July 1, 2014

Be prepared to find the prepared!

Hola familia!

 

We had a cool spiritual prompting experience a few days ago. We had an awkward amount of time left before a branch activity, so we decided to say a quick prayer to know how to use the time wisely. The idea of "go find someone" popped into our minds but we didn't know where. We decided to start driving and all of a sudden another idea of, "try that family you met a couple weeks ago that wasn't interested" popped into our heads. So we pulled into their trailer park, knocked on their door, and they were completely open to learning from the missionaries! We were able to add them as new investigators. It was cool to see how Heavenly Father prepares people for specific times and He will guide you to them if you just ask with faith. Is it really that simple? Yesssss.

 

We were running around town for morning exercise yesterday, and we ran into the cutest lil' hispanic lady named Ortancia Morales. She was so excited to find out that we were missionaries and we were able to teach her a mini gospel lesson right there on the street in our workout clothes. Haha it was the coolest lesson. She told us she wants the missionaries to come teach her and her whole family! So cool. Whether it's 6:45 a.m. in your workout clothes, or prime proselyting time at 6:45 p.m., there are people to find. People are prepared these days people!

 

I love you!

Hermana Barnes

 

Pictures:

1) Saying goodbye to Elder Martin Solis at the branch activity. He's off to the MTC today. He's going to tear it up!

Santee - Week #60 - June 24, 2014

Sometimes you have to break into cars so that others can keep the commandments.

Hola familia!

Saturday night, we got a call from the Gonzalez family asking if we knew how to break into cars because they locked the keys in the car. Immediately I thought to myself, "I am so grateful to my Dad who taught me at such a young age how to break into cars." So we replied with a resounding "YES!" and were off to the rescue. We got to their house and they said, "Hermanas, we really want to go to church tomorrow but we need to be able to drive our car." Okay, no pressure. After just a few minutes of struggling to get the wire hanger into the door, the blissful "Dink!" sound of the door becoming unlocked began a choir of angels singing. Haha the awesome part of it all is that we had just had a super powerful lesson with 1 Nephi 3:7 the night before about how the Lord will provide a way for them to go to church every Sunday if they had the faith to talk to their bosses. So it was a perfect object lesson--Satan tries to get you to "lock your keys in your car" but we have been given the tools (faith, prayer, wire hangers, etc.) to "break into our car" if we really have the desire and the faith to keep the commandments. I'm a cheese ball. But anyway, THEY CAME TO CHURCH!! Thank you, my wonderful father, for teaching me how to break into cars so that others could keep the commandments.

The changes this family are making are unreal. We'll have lessons where we bring up more of the things they need to do, and they basically say, "Oh yeah, we've been talking about that and we're already trying to make it happen." So cool. They are progressing so well but the adversary is working hard. I know I say this every week, but please keep praying for them!

I went on the coolest exchange in City Heights this week with Sister DeAngelo. I love going on exchanges because there are always loads of miracles because they are always expected. We just need to expect miracles to happen every day and they will. The last lesson of the night, we taught a family where the mom was pretty against the church but her heart was softened after her daughters were baptized two weeks ago. She accepted a baptismal date that night of the exchange!! It was one the most spiritual lessons I've ever had and coolest miracles I've seen on an exchange.

Well, thank you so much for all the love. I love you back. Go be a blessing in someone else's life today!

Les amo,

Hermana Barnes

Las fotos:

1) The family (Margarita, Karen, Abby) from City Heights.

2) A confirmation that I listened to what my parents taught me.

Santee - Week #59 - June 17, 2014

Trial of Faith

Hola familia!

Awesome week!

Last Thursday was one of the coolest exchanges I have been on. Sister Hofer who is serving in Poway came down to Santee with me. We were able to have 4 member-present lessons and add 5 new investigators in one day! We got down to business! It was a huge blessing and something our area needed. Sister Hofer has only been out for about a transfer, but she did so well! Heavenly Father really does work miracles through all of us, no matter how long we've been out.

Not a lot of people were home in general this past week, which was a little discouraging. But we kept working! It was a trial of our faith, and the miracles definitely came. Just yesterday, we contacted a referral from a member and she accepted a baptismal date right on the spot! She is so incredibly prepared. We really need to continue to work on getting referrals from members--the members know what they're doing!

Gonzalez-Ambriz family is doing well! We didn't get to see them much because they've been in and out of town again but Pablo Ambriz is out of the hospital! Thank you so much for your prayers! Keep praying for them!

On Sunday, the newly called Elder Kacher from the Quorum of the Seventy came to our Stake Conference. It was awesome! He brought some major power to that conference. Later that night, it was President and Sister Clayton's last Mission President's Fireside. It was so powerful. Sister Hess and I got to perform in the very last musical number. Do you like how I often tell you how cool and powerful things are and then not give you details? Haha time is just slipping out from under my fingers.

I will tell you this though. One of the most important things I've come to realize is that it all comes down to two things:
1. Your personal relationship and love for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.
2. Your commitment to become like Them.

Everything we do and are-- every desire, every intention, every act of service-- should be rooted because of those two things. We get to make that decision. I have to go but I love you!

Hermana Barnes

Santee - Week #58 - June 10, 2014

Powerful moments, funny moments. You need both.

Hola familia!

Super buena semana. Filled with all types of moments.

--One of the most powerful moments of my mission: I LOVE THE GONZALEZ-AMBRIZ FAMILY. We had a super powerful lesson about faith and desire. Arturo, the dad, with tears streaming down his face, told us that it's interesting we would talk about this today because it hit him so hard. He said they trust us and know that we and and the church have a lot of power, so they told us about his brother who is in the hospital in Texas. His kidneys are failing him and the doctors don't know why. He's only 31 and he needs all of our prayers.  We offered to send the missionaries in Texas over to the hospital to give a blessing. There were a lot of tears during this lesson but the spirit was so strong, it was insane. At the end, Arturo said the most sincere prayer we'd ever heard. He began to cry as he said that he knows this is the path he should take because the spirit touched him and we keep coming back.  This is ARTURO we're talking about here. ARTURO! I talked about it before, but he was the one totally against having the missionaries over just a couple months ago. Look at him now. The spirit really does change hearts. That miracle will never cease to amaze me.

--One of the funniest moments also happened this week. We were street contacting this lady named Tracy who was part of a Pentecostal church. We talked to her for a minute about the church and our purpose as missionaries and then she had to run. But before she left, we asked her if we could pray with her and she said "oh I'd love to pray for you girls." Guess what happened next? Before we could say or do anything, she ran up to us, put her hands on both of our heads, and started blessing us! In the middle of the street! It took all of our willpower just to keep our laughs to a minimum. What were we supposed to do?! Who knows what people were thinking as they walked by. We got BLESSED by a woman in the street that day. As she was walking away, she yelled out to us, "No fornications! Keep your hearts pure! I'm very pleased with you girls." We love you too, Tracy. Hahahaha.

--Another spiritual moment: Sister Hess and I got to teach part of zone meeting again this week. The spirit was so strong. We were asked to focus on opposition (one of the focuses in mission leadership council). We focused a lot on how we come to know our Savior and become like Him by going through opposition. There were a lot of tears in the room. There were just a lot of tears this week in general. Good tears. Anyway, this principle is something that has helped me a lot through my mission. Remembering that we have the opportunity to become more like the Savior if we allow every opposition, no matter how small, to make us better. With the eternal perspective, opposition makes sense. Without it, it doesn't. So rejoice in opposition and rise!

Les quiero!

Hermana Barnes

Santee - Week #57 - June 3, 2014

Hola familia!

 

I don't have much time to email again so I'll just tell you a couple cool things/miracles really fast.

 

--The Gonzalez-Ambriz family are progressing so well!! We had some miracle lessons with them this week. They opened up to us a lot. The dad, who used to run and hide in his room when the missionaries would come over, finally accepted a baptismal invitation! When we invited him he said yes, and then all the kids were like, "I want to get baptized too! No I want to get baptized! No me first!" So we were like, "Children, children, calm down. You can all get baptized." Hahaha I love this family so stinkin' much. The parents just need to get married. They're getting closer and closer, they just have a few things to work out. I'm pretty sure all your prayers are working. Keep on prayin'!

 

--Had a super awesome Mission Leadership Council yesterday. It was President Clayton's last one before they go home this month. It sad because we're going to miss them, but it was so powerful. He talked a lot about opposition and how Satan is very upset with the good things happening in San Diego and how hard he's working to mess things up before the new mission president arrives. There has been a lot of opposition and hard things that have been happening to missionaries in the mission. When opposition comes, we just need to be prepared to fight back twice as hard and we will always win. We've all learned that the mission is just the beginning of the rest of our lives. It's preparing us to be soldiers in the Lord's army forever. I feel that.

 

I love you. I love this work. Have a wonderful week!

 

Hermana Barnes

 

 

Picture:

1) A group of us missionaries headed to the USS Midway Military ship museum tour down in San Diego on p-day last week. Highly recommended. You boys would be all over that.