Ice skating to lessons?

A normal picture in the snow...

Our awesome district!

Sister Cook is my nickname, found this in the apartment haha

It's coooooooold!! Look at the temperature!

Ward Christmas Party

Hey friends and family!

This week seriously went by in 2 seconds. It was so good, but I can't remember a ton of what happened.. haha I'll do my best. 

Tuesday we had zone conference! HOLY MOLY I love zone conferences so much. We learned about ways we can be more genuine and find new investigators. It was awesome. Half way through one of Sister Daines' trainings in the chapel, the lights shut off. We all got our iPads out and it looked like a freaky candle light ceremony or something haha. A little after we got the power on, we found it it was snowing BUCKETS outside. So President Daines says he wants a picture of missionaries in the snow and asked us to go outside. This of course led to a snowball fight with everyone (3 zones). It was a blast. The picture was probably really cool. If anyone sees it on Facebook send it to me so I can see. President is so fun. During our lunch break we had cream puffs for dessert. President threw them to an elder who caught it in his mouth. They kept getting further and further and eventually it was all the way across the gym. So fun!

So along with the crazy snow storm, we had "freezing rain". We had no idea what this meant, we thought it was just hail or something. But no! We woke up Friday morning and literally everything was coated in ice. I guess it rains a ton and freezes really quick so everything is icy. We weren't allowed to drive so we ice skated everywhere. It made the work kinda slow, but we were able to reach out to a lot of members to get rides and stuff. Fun!

So remember that awesome miracle family last week? Well we went back and they said they weren't interested. Bummer cause we told basically everyone in the ward about them. Oh well, we'll find another. 

Enough sad stuff, I'll tell you about a few of our many (yes we actually have quite a few!!) progressing investigators. 

There are a mother and daughter who had been taught a little by previous missionaries. They were dropped because the missionaries couldn't get ahold of them. Sister Bohner and I met them and they were very excited to see us again. We've had a few lessons with them and they have accepted baptism!!. The members of the ward are reaching out so much. A member came to one of our lessons and told Madison, the daughter, all about some of the young women. The next day she brought a few of the young women over to meet her and they had a great time. We have a lesson at the church with them tonight! We'll be teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ in the form of a chapel tour. We're excited to put them on date and have them commit to coming to church this Sunday, for Christmas!! (That's really all I want for Christmas... PEOPLE AT CHURCH!!)

Remember the man I told you about last week, the fermenting beer guy lol? He was actually home for his return appointment and was anxious to receive his copy of the Book of Mormon (he remembered us, so I guess he really wasn't too drunk!!). We taught him the restoration and it was a powerful lesson. He didn't accept baptism yet, but he knows it's a goal to work toward. He will be out of town for 2 weeks but we have his phone number and are staying in contact. He committed to come to church as soon as he's back in January. We're very excited!! 

Umm yeah that's about it. Really quick funny missionary story. A few nights ago I had this nightmare that we slept a few minutes past 6:30. It was so scary that it woke me up. I looked at the clock and saw :33. I was mortified. I jumped out of bed and woke up sister Flora. We both said our prayers and made our beds. I looked at my clock and thought it was probably wrong because it said 2:33. I asked sister Flora to look at her iPad and check the time... turns out it was actually 2:33. Haha, oops. We had a good laugh and went back to bed. Haha the things that scare a missionary...

I am super excited for Christmas! We had our ward party this week and everyone's giving us treats to get us in the spirit. It's so fun! Looking forward to face timing home for a bit later this week. Merry Christmas to all!! #LIGHTtheWORLD

Love, Sister Barnes