Ramona - Week #17 - August 27, 2013

Do I really have to turn 20?

Familia! 

 

Loved this week. First, we had MTE's (Missionary Training Experience) where we focused on asking for referrals, getting people to pray in the moment, using the Book of Mormon, and street contacting. So for a whole day, we had a sister trainer on an exchange with us and we did all those things hard core all day! Hard to explain but I only have like 10 more minutes on email so I'll leave it at that. It was SUPER awesome though.

 

Marisol and her family are getting baptized on Satuday!!! AHH!!! I am so incredibly excited and happy for this family. So many miracles have happened with this family and I wish I had time to just tell you everything. Please pray for them though because Satan is really shooting some fiery darts their way... it's driving us nuts! On Sunday, Marisol was super sick, and she still came to church with her husband and all the kids. Solid!

 

Last night, we had the coolest two hours. We taught 4 lessons and added 5 new investigators! All in two hours. It was super cool. And we prayed with two people who were swimming in a pool... It could've been weird, but these people were totally receptive and are now new investigators. So cool. We also had a special training for all Spanish-speaking missionaries yesterday. It was super cool and we learned more about how to be polite and strengthen trust between us as the missionaries and the hispanic community. Guess what the number one key is to building the most trust? FOOD!! Of course. So far I've done a pretty dang good job at building trust then. God has given me the gift of an expandable stomach. Haha get ready to see me 20 lbs heavier in a year and two months ;)

 

Well, I don't have anymore time, but I love you all! Tengan un buena semana!! Next time you hear from me I won't be a teenager anymore :( ...well, only technically ;)

 

Mucho amor,

Hermana Barnes

 

Picture: Me, Hermana Hughes, and the coolest AP's ever!

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Ramona - Week #16 - August 20, 2013

SENIOR WEEK

 

Hola mi familia!

 

This week is Senior Week! It's week 11 in my training (there are 12 weeks total) and I am basically the "senior companion" this week. So I take the lead on all planning and teaching opportunities... agh! Scary. My companion is basically acting as a little greeny. Oh that little greeny, I love her so much.

 

Guess what? I got to go on an exchange with my MTC companion the other day! What are the odds of that? Like a one percent chance. Can you imagine both of us, little greeny trainees, running around the streets of Poway? It was awesome though! That definitely got us out of our comfort zones being on our own. The Lord definitely blessed us though. I understood and was able to speak in Spanish a lot better than usual! And she was too.  It was a pretty big test of our faith.

 

MIRACLES are continuing to happen with our investigators!! Pablo, one of our investigators that usually has to work every Sunday, came to church on Sunday!! His baptismal date is September 28 and he is probably the most prepared person to get baptized I have ever met. Wow. He has so much faith and is making so many changes in his life, it's incredible. Marisol and her family came to church on Sunday again and their baptismal date is August 31! (what better way to celebrate my birthday than with a baptism?!) They've  been to church 4 times, but now the husband just needs to come one more time so they can get baptized. Please pray for them!

 

The other day at a lesson with this same family, Marisol and Jose were telling us that before we found them and started teaching them, they were about to separate and get a divorce. And ever since we started teaching them, they said their relationship has gotten stronger and their whole family is more united. We were all in tears! It was incredible! That was just another testimony to me that the Gospel really does work miracles in families if you live it. We all know that. So... LIVE THE GOSPEL.

 

Hermana Barnes 

Ramona - Week #15 - August 13, 2013

BEANS, bears, battle star galatica!

Hola!

 

First of all, you're not going to believe this...  I'M STARTING TO ENJOY BEANS... I NEVER THOUGHT THIS WOULD HAPPEN.  EVER. The first month or so being out here, I had gotten very creative in avoiding eating beans as much as possible, using my napkin or extra chips to hide the evidence that I didn't finish my beans, sometimes my companion would even help me out and finish them when no one was looking. Finally, I gave in and decided I would eat all of the beans on my plate no matter how excruciatingly painful it was. I even prayed that I would enjoy them... (I already know I'm pathetic) And guess what?! My prayer was answered!!! I can now say I can stand beans. It's a miracle. I don't know if you really understand the real extent of this miracle, but just know that God is quick to succor his missionaries. Hahaha.

 

Second of all... I got spanked by a 98 year old woman this week... the people are sassy out here! I love them.

 

So, Marisol and her family are still progressing very well.  We had to move their baptism to next Saturday because of different things that have come up (dang Satan) but I know they will get baptized. They are so prepared! We had an FHE with them last night at a members house and it was such a success! They even said at the end, "Next time, we want to have the FHE at our house and we'll invite people!" It was super cool. This family is incredible. I say that every week. Even the little 10 year old girl, Valerie, has been marking in her scriptures and has been reading to her little brothers out of the Book of Mormon. She probably has the strongest testimony out of all of them. She said that all of the good changes in her home have been because of the Holy Ghost. Siiip!

 

We had another President's Musical Fireside on Sunday. These things are so popular in this mission, the whole place was packed with members, missionaries, and investigators. We sang in the choir again but our investigators didn't come this time because it was in English.  But Hermana Hughes and I are still planning to do a special musical number for the next one with another Sister who is 6'3" and played on the U 0f U volleyball team. She's one of the sister training leaders and one of our best friends. Can you imagine that trio? Haha but Hermana Hughes and I have been praying for ways to use our talents to serve and now we 4 special musical numbers coming up! President's fireside, Marisol's family's baptism, one of the members of the branch presidency wrote a song and wants me to write music for it and perform it (haha I love Mexican people), and then the missionaries have to sing a song in sacrament meeting next week. What an answer to a pray that was! Pray for opportunities to use your talents and they will come!

 

Les quiero tanto!

Hermana Barnes

Ramona - Week #14 - August 6, 2013

Shook Elder Ballard's hand this week!

Hola mi familia bonita!

 

This week was AWESOME!! First of all... ELDER BALLARD CAME!!! And it was amazing. I even got to shake his hand! Oh man. I wish I would have brought all my notes from the meeting with me to share with you, but I didn't. But WOW. He is definitely an apostle of God. The theme of the mission conference was basically "Do more, because your Father sent you" (3 Nephi 27:13) All of the missionaries in San Diego have been on fire since he came. He challenged every missionary to contact at least 10 new people a day, so 20 per companionship. That's a lot! But Hermana Hughes and I have been doing it. We have been talking and walking (and chasing people down) so much this week. It's been awesome. We're dead tired all the time but it's so great at the same time. Our hard work is truly paying off.

 

So we had zone meeting yesterday that re-emphasized everything Elder Ballard said about doing more and contacting 20 people daily. After the meeting, my district went to Wendy's and all of us as companionships basically contacted every single person there! Haha it was so cool. That's what I call immediate application.

 

We have 6 baptisms planned for this month now! And 4 of those are happening on August 17 (11 days... eek!!) Marisol and her family are so ready to be baptized. We ate dinner at their house a few days ago, and they told us that they've been praying and reading the Book of Mormon every day, and that God has answered their prayers, that they know they need to get baptized. It was such a powerful night. I wish you could watch this family's progression and conversion like I am, it's incredible. They have changed so much the past 5 weeks. Es muy bonito!

 

Pablo, one of our investigators that has a baptismal date for August 31, came with us on an awesome hike today! For P-day today, my district hiked a mountain called Mount Woodson. It was beautiful and super fun/steep/mildly dangerous. My legs are on fire! Pablo isn't in the picture I sent because you can't see anyone in the picture with him in it. But I will send a picture of him at his baptism :)

 

Well I gotta go, but I love you all! Thank you so much for your love and prayers! Les quiero tantisimo!

 

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Barnes

 

P.S. Here is the address to send everything to throughout my whole mission:

 

Hermana Brianna Barnes

California San Diego Mission

7404 Armstrong Place

San Diego, CA 92111

Mount Woodson 

Ramona - Week #13 - July 30, 2013

Hola!

 

What a week! I've been out 3 months in two days... The time is going too fast. First of all, Elder M. Russell Ballard is coming to speak to all the missionaries in San Diego tomorrow!! WAHOO!! I'm super duper excited. How cool is it that he is my mission president's wife's dad? President Clayton was telling us a few weeks ago that he got a phone call from Elder Ballard, and he picked up the phone and said, "Hey dad." Haha how cool would that be to be able to call an Apostle of the Lord, "dad"?

 

So many awesome things are happening here in Ramona. I don't even know where to start. Missionary work is the coolest thing in the world!! You really can see the Lord's hand working in EVERY single detail of this work. I love it so much. I know I say that like every week, but it's because my love for it grows every time I see a new miracle.

 

Here's one miracle of the week: The other day, Hermana Hughes and I were doing some finding and we weren't having a ton of a luck. So we stopped the car, said a prayer, and immediately after we finished the prayer, we both spoke at the same time and said, "we need to go walk around that apartment complex." It was crazy! Especially because this certain apartment complex is like impossible to get into unless you live there and have the code to get in. So anyway, we started walking, trying to find some way to get in, and all of a sudden a guy drives up in a car and we asked him if he knew anyone that spoke Spanish in the complex and that would benefit from our message and right away he gave us two families, and then said, "oh and... you guys are cool and you're probably trustworthy so... here's the code."  WHAT?! Haha it was a miracle!! So awesome. We got in and met two new awesome families! They will hopefully become progressing investigators pretty soon :)

 

I taught the Word of Wisdom three times yesterday! And all three times we a had a member with us, and all three investigators accepted to live it... And they all had a baptismal date! That was a good day. So we will hopefully be having 6 baptisms in the next 3-4 weeks. I'm super excited for all these people, you can just see the immediate changes from the blessings of the Gospel already. The Gospel changes people! Les quiero tanto!

 

Jacob 7:5 (be more like Jacob) 

 

Hermana Barnes

Ramona - Week #12 - July 23, 2013

Transfers, bed bugs, Mormon Batallion!

Hola familia!

Transfer 1 in the mission field---done! And both Hermana Hughes and I are staying here in Ramona!  Here is a cool fact: Hermana Hughes and I have added a fourth of all of the investigators in the whole stake this transfer... the WHOLE stake, and that's including in Poway!... What?! Wahoo!! So I guess that gives you an idea of how many people we've chased down on the street or waved down in their cars.  Haha I don't know what got into me, but even the first week I was here I had sudden urges (promptings?) to chase and wave people down. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to save those people God has prepared!

So, it's official. I had bed bugs this whole time! Haha nasty, right? My whole bed got thrown in the trash last week. I finally got a new bed a few days ago so we're all good! I think I've conquered my fear of bugs now, maybe. We'll see what bug adventures we have next.  We even found a huge tarantula at one of our member's houses the other day. I'll send a picture.

Guess what... Marisol and her family are getting BAPTIZED!!!! Wahoo!!! On August 17.  We will hopefully have 5 baptisms that day because we have another promising investigator with a baptismal date! How cool is that?! I have never been happier in my life!!  Especially because we started out with nothing when we got to this area, and now we have 5 getting baptized. Ahh, I love this work of happiness.  This family came to church and then we went to the Mormon Batallion with them and it was such an awesome experience for them all! I will send a picture.  I love this family so much, they are incredible.

Well, I guess I'll share something I've been studying a lot for one of my investigators. Repentance isn't just praying and asking God for forgiveness for our sins.  It's also praying and asking God to change our desires and our hearts to be in line with His. So if there's ever something you don't want to do, like read your scriptures, go to church, or even share the gospel with other people, you can ask God to change those desires, but not without faith. That's just one more amazing way to access the Atonement every day.  Les quiero tanto y espero que tengan una semana magnifica!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Barnes

 Mormon Battalion with some of the kids of our investigators!

Check out that sunset!

 Man-eating tarantula

Ramona - Week #11 - July 16, 2013

Fire in Ramona! Baptism, President'​s fireside

Familia!

 

Como estan? Espero que todo bien.  This week was awesome!  On Saturday, there was a baptism of one of the Elders' investigators that has been investigating for about 3 months.  It was beautiful to see how converted to the Gospel she is when she shared her testimony after she was baptized.  There really are people so incredibly prepared to receive this Gospel.  And there are those people that aren't quite ready yet. It's interesting to see the difference in the two.

 

So I will try to answer all of your questions in this email. 1) I have P-day on Tuesdays because that's the day that President felt was best for our mission. It's the day before transfers so if people are getting transfered the next day, they have time to pack and get everything prepared during P-day. 2) The weather in the area I'm serving in (Ramona) is really hot, actually. It gets to around 100 degrees every day and we walk quite a bit so we get pretty drenched every day. Haha it's not that bad though.  It's perfect weather in actual San Diego and closer to the coast and border. But I love Ramona, it's like a little Mexican farm town, and totally does not look like San Diego at all.  I feel like I'm in a different country. I have to remind myself every day that I still live in the U.S.  3) My Spanish is coming along pretty well. I'm understanding more and more, and I'm speaking more and more.  We actually do still speak English sometimes whenever we're in the nicer neighborhoods and trying to get referrals, but we speak mostly Spanish.

 

We had a fire in Ramona on Saturday! It was actually pretty scary. They had to evacuate a lot of the houses that are like 5 minutes away from our apartment complex.  Luckily they maintained the fire and put it out before it traveled into the city, but there is a huge area that is completely black, it's crazy.  There were millions of sirens going off all day and we had to cancel a lot of our teaching appointments because the roads were closed off.  But, all is well.

 

So in this mission, there are musical firesides once a month (English and Spanish) and this past Sunday we got to go to the Spanish fireside and some of our investigators came! It was amazing. Hermana Hughes and I sang in the choir with like 50 other missionaries and it was super powerful.  There are a ton of special musical numbers and they show inspirational videos. It's a perfect opportunity for investigators to come and feel the spirit through music and to hear from the Mission President. Hermana Hughes and I signed up to sing a duet in the next fireside so that'll be fun! I'll let you know how that goes.

 

Well, we are seeing more and more success with our progressing investigators. (I forgot to explain that picture I sent last week of the family... it's the amazing family of Marisol and Jose we are teaching that are getting so close to baptism!) It is so amazing to see how much the spirit works in people. I know that God trusts us 19-20 year-olds because it's not us doing the teaching or converting, it's the spirit hands down.  I love you all so much! Tengan una semana maravillosa!

 

Con muchisimo amor,

Hermana Barnes