It Got Cold Again

NEW daily missionary schedules worldwide!

Batman!

Here's a picture of just the porch, let your ind fill in the rest of the house...

People are serious about hockey...these are in people's backyards.

Look how many people were at the zoo with us last week.

Hi Everyone! Another great week that flew by! Like my subject line said, it's starting to get cold again :(

I'll start with the big news.. we had a worldwide missionary broadcast which adjusted the daily schedule and indicators that we report on! Holy cow it's awesome. I'll attach a picture of the new schedule specifically for our mission but basically we plan in the mornings so we can go straight to bed when we get home. We have an extra half hour to get ready in the mornings and our companion Study is shortened and we do it during the day sometime. A big focus is being out the door at 10 am. It's super awesome because everything is so flexible and we choose the order. We're given a chunk of time and a list of things to do during that time. I still haven't had a morning where I've done the same thing, yay agency! We also have 2 extra hours on pday. We now only report how many people were baptized, are on date for baptism, came to church, and are new investigators. We still plan for all the other indicators (people progressing, lessons taught, referrals, recent converts, less actives, etc). It's cool to switch the main focus a bit. It was fun to see all my mission buddies there :)

M&S - we had bishop and his wife come to our tithing lesson. The lesson went great, except that S. may not be all for the law of tithing... She understands it and sees the need for it, but she said this needs to be a family decision and she'll need to talk to her husband about it. We're praying and praying that his heart will be softened. Her testimony is so strong and we know things will all work out. They weren't able to make it to church this week because of family things. We'll need to push back the baptism a little more to make sure they're really ready. During the lesson, M. said that she felt the date (Feb 11) was very soon. She said she wants to feel like she's fully committed and all in before she's baptized. We've decided that we'll let them pray about and pick their own date that they want to work toward. Patience is a virtue.

The lesson Monday night at the church went well! Her parents came too. They don't speak any English but I know they could feel the spirit. When we taught about the Holy Ghost, S. asked if we can still get angry. Haha she thought that the Holy Ghost just makes us perfect. We assured her that that was a misconception hah. We also saw them Saturday night before church. We taught the plan of salvation and they loved it. It hit home for S. because she lost her grandmother about a month ago. The spirit was so strong and they're comprehending very well. They came to church on Sunday and loved it. Rena's 11 so she was in primary, and S. loved the opportunity to see what it's like. They loved singing the songs and feeling the spirit. S. wants to bring her 3 year old daughter, too. She was talking with us a little bit and said she wants R. to serve a mission!!!!! We told her she definitely could work toward it and we'd help with the whole process. All the lessons in church were so inspired and it was a glorious day!

R.- doing well. We did a little service for her this week and had a nice discussion about the spirit. I feel like she's comprehending and understanding a ton more just in this one lesson than the whole time we were working with her before. She couldn't make it to church because of family things but she said she'll definitely be there next Sunday. The thing that made me most happy was her closing prayer at the end of the lesson. Sister Bohner and I spent so much time trying to help her see that her prayers need to be specific. She wouldn't ever do it because she said God knows her thoughts and she doesn't need to pray about them.. Finally this week her prayer was SO specific and it was awesome. So excited about the little bits of things she's progressing in. We're still deciding if we're going to start teaching her the lessons again.

Last night we tracted a bit on Wingate Dr. And Woodland Hall Dr. If you can see the houses on google earth I recommend it. They're technically in Delaware, OH so check it out. Holy smokes some of the BIGGEST houses I've seen in my life. The first door we knocked on this young adult girl opened the door and invited us in. She said they were having a dinner party downstairs but we could visit for a bit. We were so awkward and shocked at the size of the house and her willingness to just let us in haha. We talked with all the "guests" for a little while and it was cool. The owner was a race car driver and I'm guessing (by the size of his house haha) that he was really good. The whole thing was like a movie it was awesome. They weren't super interested but we gave them a pamphlet and said we'd come back. 

Lots of tracting and service this week :) excited for another week! Love you all!

Love, Sister Barnes