Busy Busy Fun Week

We matched one day just for fun!

Some MLC friends

Hey everyone! 

It was another fun week. So much happened!

Tuesday we had MLC (mission leadership council). All the ZLs and STLs in the mission go! We talked about mission needs and did a lot of other cool things. It was at the mission home so I got to go back to Powell for a bit :). There was a cool experience I'll share. We were discussing a mission wide goal for church attendance this month. We prayed and President said he had an idea of what it should be but he wanted the spirit to confirm it through someone else. Some ideas were discussed and he called on Sister Deighton to share her thoughts. She said 500! He smiled and confirmed that 500 was the number he chose too. It was a super spiritual experience and we all knelt together again and thanked Heavenly Father. It was fun to see lots of my friends! Sister Blaser was there too :)

Wednesday we had zone training meeting. Us and the ZLs in the zone planned a training on a few different things. I was kinda nervous but it turned out okay. I got to see Sister Flora and her new companion and lots of my old district. It was fun. So, we are working with this family who just moved to the area. We asked if there was a thing we could do to help. They said they did need some more hangers. We told them it was no problem and we had tons of extras in our apartment. When we got home we realized we threw away almost all of our extras while we were cleaning out. We kinda panicked but knew the Lord would provide. We planned on asking a member who we had dinner with. After dinner she said, "this is super random, I don't even know if you'd want them, but I have some extra hangers that I don't need." We almost cried as we explained how big of a miracle that was. She said for some reason she thought to offer them to us, which looking back she realized was the spirit! Super cool experience and the family was super thankful. Thanks Heavenly Father! He's so aware of us and our needs. We also got to see M. that night! She's doing awesome as always. We gave her a LDS KJV of the Bible so she could have the footnotes that reference BoM scriptures. She's been reading that and going to all the scriptures. She still is reading from the BoM! We felt like we should study PMG with her and she loves it. She's just the coolest person alive. I love her! We see her almost every other day. Usually more often :)

Thursday we had exchanges! All of the sisters in our zone and another zone will come here to Marysville for an exchange once a transfer. The Dublin sisters were here and I got to go with Sister Mock! She's super cool. We had tons of fun and laughed a lot. We saw lots of miracles from making the most out of awkward situations and talking to everyone! Met a cool lady from the Philippines and she let us in her house. Yay! We got  to go to a non denominational bible study class that one of our investigators facilitates. She was super excited to see us there. It was weird and hard not to reference everyone to the Book of Mormon and convert them all haha. I also got to drive the Dublin sisters car, a 2017 Chevy Malibu! Super nice and I felt rich!

Friday was weekly planning. Weekly planning is always awesome but it takes forreeevvveerrr. Haha a little exhausted from the week so I was a little grumpy, sorry Sis Hansen

Saturday we got an oil change. He said it would take 1.5 hrs tops but it took FOUR HOURS. We updated everything, called a billion people, got members for every set lesson, and cleaned out a ton of people in our area book. We were going crazy so we went to Waffle House. It was a long morning haha. But we ended up having an awesome evening!! There was a less active guy and his family that previous sisters were working with a little bit. They got super busy and said to wait until after holidays. They hadn't been able to contact them since. We stop by and there is music blaring out of this house. We knock anyway and this HUGE Tongan guy opens the door. He lets us right in and we see that his 5 yr old daughter and some neighbor families were over for a karaoke night. It was so cute. We sat down and he apologized like 20 times for the alcohol being out. Haha it was great. We're going to start teaching them all again this week! He knows he needs to be at church. He said he was afraid to come because the spirit would slap him in the face for not being there in so long (fell away when he was a teenager or young adult). His wife is interested and they're just the best. Go part member families!!!

Sunday we had church! J&M showed up again which was awesome. We weren't expecting to see them again! They loved being there. We're planning on seeing them this week and hopefully helping them get on date for baptism! D. was also there. He's so cool! He's getting a lot more accountable and responsible. Usually we have to set up a ride for him, but this time he arranged for his son to take him. He wants to be there! Coolest contact of my mission, here we go! We were following up with a potential and a guy was standing outside his garage. We said hi and kept walking. I had the strongest feeling to go back and talk to him. I ignored it and decided we'd stop on our way back to the car. The potential wasn't there and thankfully the guy in the garage was still there. He pulled out his phone to answer a call right when we got there, but I stuck out my hand and walked all the way up the driveway to shake his hand anyway. He put the phone away and we started to talk. He told us he didn't know English. We tried to keep talking and he eventually pulled out his phone and typed in google translate that he couldn't understand. Sister Hansen had the google translate app downloaded so we tried that to communicate back. Sadly she didn't have Chinese downloaded. He really wanted to communicate so he signed her into his wifi. We had a nice conversation about his religious background and the Book of Mormon. Turns out he's a Christian and wants a copy of the BoM! He gave us his number and asked us to come back Sunday with a copy in Chinese. Thanks again to Heavenly Father for guiding and directing us. Also thanks technology! 

Today! I got my hair trimmed and got some new shoes to physically prepare myself for a GENERAL AUTHORITY who's coming on Saturday, Elder Stevenson! One of the newer members of the quorum of the twelve apostles. Super pumped. 

Love you all. 

Sister Barnes