#BibleBrawl2k17

New companion in Marysville, Sister Hall

Hey everyone!

It's been a quick few days! My new companion is Sister Morgan Hall. She's from Alpine, UT and is awesome. This is her 4th transfer, she came out the same time as Sister Flora! She was serving in Hilliard where she was trained then trained a new missionary for a transfer. Now, she's here with me! She graduated 2016 and lived in Provo for a few months before her mission. She's going to play tennis at BYU and we've already decided to be pals. She's a super hard worker and is super real with everyone. We're going to have a good transfer! Or maybe 2? Or maybe 3?! We're thinking we'll be together a while. We had a new leader training at the mission home and President Daines looked at us and said, "this is a good companionship." He is correct!

I'll start with the craziest thing. So there is a senior in high school that got baptized a little over a year ago. He's waiting on his mission call! He goes to this bible study thing every Monday at his school. The facilitator guy goes to the bible Baptist church, which just happens to be the church that one of our members came from, that another investigator is fighting between, that others we teach often attend, and that most of ours and the Elder's investigators are coming from. So one day C. asked the youth pastor, if he could bring a few friends and discuss beliefs. He said yes. C. called up the missionaries. So Saturday at 10 am us and the Elders and C. meet at the Bible baptist church for a discussion on beliefs. We didn't have a clue what to expect. We all go in and meet the youth pastor. We sit down and list out a few subjects that we want to discuss including the godhead, priesthood, Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, etc. The discussions begin. Here are a few funny highlights: So we were talking about baptism and how the Bible says we all need to be born of water. He said that was true, and said baptism by water could mean when you're born. He mentioned that there is water involved, because the water breaks when you're giving birth! Haha not quite, sir. Later on we were talking about the spirit and how we feel it. We read in Galatians 5 about the fruits of the spirit. He was saying that all those things were just choices, not feelings. He expounded and said that love is not a feeling it's a choice. We then were talking about things that were feelings. He gave an example and said that lust is a feeling and we shouldn't trust it. He went off about how all teenagers do is lust and Sister Hall said "well, I don't lust my parents." And we all laughed and he didn't know what to say. He talked about only trusting God's word, which he believes is ONLY the Bible. We asked how he knew it was God's word and he said because it says it in the Bible. Then Elder Vance with the straightest face ever says "I'm the president of the United States" then pastor will says what then he says it again. Hahahahahaha it was so funny. This showed that we can't just trust something that says they're something...We taught that God is the only source for truth and we need to turn to him for the truth of all things! One of the last things we were talking about was the Godhead. He tried to explain why the trinity should make sense. He said that he's a father and he's a son and he's a pastor.. three in one. We turned to Genesis 1:26 where it says "we" and "our" (referring to Christ and Heavenly Father) and I asked if he says "we're going to go store" when he's going alone. Haha we had a good chuckle and he changed the topic so he wouldn't have to answer. By the end we were all having a good time and we invited him to read the Book of Mormon to see for himself what it's all about. Haha that whole situation was a first and probably last. It wasn't bashy but the elders gave it a funny name: #BibleBrawl2k17.

Here's another funny thing that happened on Sister Hansen's last night. We set up a time to meet with a part member family in the new area. We showed up at the designated time and the wife, who's the less active member, invited us in and told us to sit down and talk to her father in law while she finished stuff up. We chatted for a little while. Then he told us to move the car off the road because he didn't want it to get hit. So we did. Then when we come back, the whole dinner table is set with 2 open spots for us. We're invited to sit down and we start to eat. Haha we're still not sure what previous elders did when they asked if they could come over for a visit, but we got a nice meal out of it. We shared a quick impromptu dinner message using the Prince of Peace video. Haha super awkward situation and now we're worried that when we ask to come over they assume we're asking for them to make us food 😂😂

M. is awesome. We had a few lessons this week and she came down to Milford Center with us to see a few people. Turns out she knew almost everyone we were trying! She grew up in Milford Center and showed us her old house and told us about some people and relatives that still live there. She's the best! She got set apart as a ward missionary yesterday!

J&M are still dying. Just kidding not dying but basically. Michelle is finally on antibiotics and is on the road to recovery but still can't meet. They're anxious to have us over again soon!

We met a sister who is a less active in our new area boundaries. She has some crazy health issues which supposedly prevent her from being active. We went over and decided to start teaching her. We taught the restoration and asked why she doesn't come to church. She told us that it's because he piano is too loud and it gives her really bad headaches (she has chronic headaches of some sort and they get really bad.) So we decided to help her come to church!. We bought some earplugs that she can put in during the hymns and take out during the talks. She was super excited. We called her Sunday morning but she didn't pick up. We tried stopping by after church to see why she wasn't at church but we think she had one of her bad headaches because she didn't even open up. We'll keep working with her to help her receive the blessings of coming to church.

Yeah this week was a good one. Lots of people tried to convince us our church was not true but it just made our testimonies even stronger. I love the church and know it's true!

That's all!
Love, Sister Barnes