I Love OSU (Aug 6th)

Enter the apartment, prepared...

The district in scarlet and gray ... go OSU!

The zoo on p-day

A cool wall..

Sis Stratford with the Sister Training Leaders

Hello everyone!

This week was a giant MIRACLE. So many incredibly awesome things happened. Our district had a huge focus on finding new investigators. It was super motivating and got us out working hard. As a district we were able to find over 50 new investigators.. just last week!

Tuesday I got to go to MLC! Oh man, it was good. We talked about goal setting and planning and how to be accountable. We also did some fun role plays on how to find new people. We also counseled on a lot of things. One that I'm most excited about is temple attendance! We get to go on our 6 month mark, year mark, and day before we go home. Yay!

Tuesday night after MLC we had a very spirit guided experience. We got home and found our bedroom mirror on the ground and shattered. It was in a position that was not at all natural for it to have fallen from the wall. We tried to figure it out and had the prompting to leave the apartment. We called our district leader but he didn't answer, then called the zone leaders. We were in the hallway of our apartment building. They instructed us to go to the Sisters upstairs and pray with them. Pray to know if it is safe to return to our apartment all together and check every closet and corner for a possible person there. We all felt comfortable to go down together. We were a little nervous so we equipped ourselves with frying pans and knives and checked every nook and cranny in the apartment and didn't find anything else out of place. We then were instructed to pray to know that we were safe. We all individually thought about the dedication that took place exactly 4 weeks prior. We knew our apartment was a safe place and we had nothing to worry about. The sisters went back upstairs and we continued on with our night. (Still have no clue how the mirror fell and shattered the way it did... I guess it will remain a mystery! But we know that we are safe of any harm from things that are seen and unseen around us.)

Wednesday was a major miracle day, I'll share one of the many highlights. We were walking down the street from the institute and ran into a couple who had just gotten pizza. It was a super awkward contact but we asked if they wanted to come check out the church for 10 mins. They looked at each other and said, "sure! We have time!" We ended up finding out that they have recently been talking about starting to go to a church. They became new investigators and were supposed to come to church.

Here's something funny. We were teaching an investigator who's here for a month or two straight from China. We were teaching about baptism and he said he wouldn't feel comfortable with it. We asked why and he said, "I don't want to be standing next to someone when I'm naked." Hm we had no clue where he got that idea but we cleared it up and helped him understand. Hahaha I'm glad we have jumpsuits instead of birthday suits... 😂

Sunday we cool. So we walk in and two girls were standing there talking to the Elders. One says, yeah, these are the sisters I met! (I did not recognize her to save my life.. hah). She told the elders that we talked to her for like one minute before she got on her bus and invited her to church. We didn't even get her contact info or anything... but she came and brought her friend! We got their contact info and will be teaching them soon :'). We also had a church swap with some investigators. They came to church with us this morning and we went with them this evening. It was an Evangelical Christian church. It was more of a concert than church.. but hey! Confirmed the truthfulness of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!  (Hey it was a good concert though not gonna lie).

Other random things. Someone was speeding down high street and threw a handful of coins at us. Luckily none hit us. A recent convert said I'm human cocaine. Why? Because I'm just always up and smiling and happy. We always give a recent convert a hard time for jaywalking. In a prayer in his lesson he said, "Heavenly Father, I repent for jaywalking." I couldn't stop laughing. He is awesome. We were talking about eternal marriage and his commitment was to ask a girl out on a date. I love YSA wards. We were searching for a less active and had to knock on some doors. That was weird. We got donuts this week and the worker put the one I wanted in a bag then shrugged his shoulders and put another one in. He gave it to me for free :) We contacted a huge tall buff guy and he said he has been here for 3 days. I asked if he was a new freshman and he said he was a grad student. Haha whoops 😬 One of the bishops took us to Piada, my favorite place out here. Some lady on the street asked if I was Princess Kate. When she realized I wasn't she said I look just like her? One investigator was praying about baptism and whether or not to keep meeting with us. She went on a de-stress run to think about it and ran into the Powell Elders. She said they said some random things that answered her prayers. She is still meeting with us and is on date for September 9th. We finished the new member lessons with all three of our recent converts!

Oh yeah! This is awesome! So remember when I was in Powell and we worked our tails off and found less success than we desired? Well, they just had a baptism! There is a couple that lives in the same apartment complex we did. They have been watching the sisters for a long time trying to figure out what we do without actually talking to us. They looked up a lot of stuff about the church and just showed up one day saying they want to get baptized. I ran into a member from the Powell Ward last week and she told me about this and said that I would've been one of the sisters they watched. Wahoo! Hah they probably saw me biking in the snow and lots of random embarrassing things. People are always watching, watch out!

Sister Barnes

Welcome to Zion!

On Wednesdays we wear pink

The District

Anna got baptized!

Hello friends and family! 

There was so much that happened this week. So many random little things that I don't know how to put it into an email... hm...

I.- after his "spiritual crisis" on Monday he decided to come to FHE to chill out. It was a Pioneer dinner for Pioneer Day! That was fun. He always just makes us laugh! Tuesday he called us and we were scared to death, but he told us that he sat with the Elders on the bus and was thankful for that tender mercy. Wednesday we had our hand off lesson with the other Sisters. It went so well. He got a priesthood blessing and is doing awesome. We talked to the sisters last night and they had a good lesson with him this week. He's still having a hard time with stuff, so keep him in your prayers!

J. - one of my first district meetings here we had a training on how to contact groups of people. This is awfully terrifying which is why it was practiced. A few weeks ago we talked to this one group of J. and her friends. None of them were super interested but J. said she'd meet up with us again just to get a Book of Mormon and bounce. She texted us the night before and said she read the pamphlet and got curious about some things and was wondering if we could sit down and talk. We said of course! We taught her last week and she looooved it. We taught her again this week and she loved it again! She came to church and participated in all 3 hours. She is so cool. Also the only girl in our entire teaching pool.. haha I don't know why girls usually never like talking to us.

S (recent convert) - he's doing so great. We're almost done with his new member lessons. We taught him about missionary work this week and role played giving away pass along cards. He's already given one to a coworker. 

Dinner- there were a lot of notable dinner appointments this week. A member took us to her family's house in Lewis Center. It was so weird to be in an actual home and eat real food. A recent convert took us and another member to Jimmy Johns. It was fun. A member of the bishopric took the whole district to this Chinese place. Holy cow it was good. 

Part of a date- okay this story is hilarious. So a member, texted us Thursday night. She said that she was on a bad date close to campus and asked us to save her. Why was it a bad date? They went bowling and when they were paying he said, "can you pay for yourself? You have a job, right?" Haha then she was just done. They were driving to the next location and she ran a red light to get a head start away from him. Where did she go? The institute! We luckily were there so we let her in. She made up some random thing about how we were practicing the lessons on her. He's not a member so I got a good idea. I told her she should tell him to come so we could teach him! He told her that he was not at all interested in the church, but he was interested in her, so he'd sacrifice to spend another little while with her tonight. HAHA boom. Member referral. So he showed up and it was just so awkward. We taught him the restoration and it definitely felt like we were part of a super awkward date. Despite the weird situation, the spirit was very strong and he accepted the challenge to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. He may even come to church sometime! Haha this will be a funny conversion story. 

A. FROM MARYSVILLE- Sister Hall emailed me last week and told me that A. was getting baptized! She was the lady who referred herself, said the plan of salvation sounded familiar, and quit smoking a week before we taught the word of wisdom. She was diagnosed with cancer when we started meeting with her so her progress slowed down. But, SHE GOT BAPTIZED! And we got permission from President to go. It was amazing!! I got to see a lot of my good Marysville friends, it was great. 

And a lot more. It rained. It was hot. Went on exchanges with Sister Hansen. Talked to a cool guy member who's visiting from Congo. He's writing a book and will be a general authority someday. Got hit on by some drunk guys. Found some really cool people. Our phone got possessed. 

Next week is transfer week! I will be emailing next Wednesday. We have MLC tomorrow. It will be a good week!

Love, Sister Barnes