Snow = bikes + ice cream?

This week was FULL of miracles and funny and cold things haha.

One miracle that stands out happened last night after we swung by the mission home (hehe still love that we are so close that we can just do that). We were going to find a referral that we haven't been able to contact for a few weeks. Our plans were not the most effective with our miles, so we were considering adjusting them. We have 2 addresses for her and we went to the first. The light was on inside so we got PUMPED that she was home. After knocking twice and almost giving up, some lady yelled "WHO IS IT" we said "the missionaries!" She opened the door holding a GUN in the air!! Hahahaa she hid it quick enough and sister Flora was on the side that she couldn't see it, but I saw and got so pumped. I've been waiting for a story like this my whole mission!! We asked for the referral but she said she wasn't there... and that she was at the other address! We hurried over with high hopes to find her there. When we got there, we were told she wasn't there either. Nobody knew where she was. When we got in the car to see where we were headed next, we looked on the map to see that we were super close to the original plans we set the night before. We trusted our plans and went out tracting in the cold COLD rain. Almost everyone was grumpy at us for knocking on their doors late at night (like 7:30 haha, oh Ohio.) We had the same answer door after door until we got close to the end of the street with not a lot of time left in the night. We met a lady, Heather, who moved here with her family not long ago. We talked about service and the Christmas initiative. Without asking, they invited us in to show the video!!! The family gathered around and watched the video. They were all so happy and the kids shared experiences they've had with service. We testified of our message and they invited us back. They told us how they're still searching for a church they want to attend with their family!! They are very very busy but worked us into their schedule next weekend. We left them with a pamphlet and have plans to set up a chapel tour and get them to church soon. I'm so thankful the search for our referral led us to feel more confident in trusting our plans. I'm thankful we were diligent in the cold and just kept knocking. I'm thankful that Heavenly Father is preparing so many people in Powell to receive the gospel! 

One more miracle brings me so much joy. We were tracting again, not having luck even catching people at home. Hahaha so actually funny story from before the miracle.. this grumpy lady answered the door and as soon as she saw us she was like ahh nah go away not interested. As she was closing the door, she said "good luck with converting the heathens or whatever..." HAHAHA I died. She was one of the few people that even opened their door... we got a little annoyed for a second..  THEN the house we were walking up to opened up their garage. This means someone is there and we don't even have to knock!!!!! Craig was getting ready to go to his friend's house to have him taste this beer he's been fermenting in his basement.. HAHAHAHAHA YES BEER HE HAS BEEN FERMENTING IN HIS BASEMENT FOR THREE YEARS. He told us all about it and how GOOD it was.. haha when we said we were missionaries he just annoyed it a little more. I didn't know what to say.. so I was like, want to watch a video about Jesus?! We told him about the #LIGHTtheWORLD initiative and he agreed to watch the video. Wow, that video is so powerful and he felt the spirit!! He went on to tell us about his wife who recently died and some special experiences he's had since. He seemed to be in a phase of life where he was questioning God's existence...We testified of the restoration and the Book of Mormon and he said he wants a copy of it. We have a return appointment next week to bring it to him. Again, diligence during the cold and kind of unsuccessful times really does pay off. So pumped for his return appointment.. I feel like I'm in Athens again praying that they were sober enough to remember us when we come back.. LOVE HIM!!

We've been following up with lots of potentials and have had a few lessons with new investigators as well. The work is definitely progressing and we are finding people with lots of potential everywhere we go. I love the Savior and I am so humbled to be his instrument to do his work. I love the gospel!! We finally have progressing investigators that actually want to learn about the gospel. There are too many miracle people to even write about... I LOVE POWELL!

Oh so we mapped out our miles this month and they're going to be a little tight with the meetings and stuff we have.... so what is Sister Barnes awesome idea?! BIKING!! Hahaha we have been biking in the SNOW and enjoying every second of it. Haha well, I have. I love biking so much. I made a mistake yesterday and told President Daines that I love biking and think it would be fun to serve in an all biking area.... haha wish me luck. We have been saving miles and finding people to talk to outside (like 2 people in our whole time but STILL). We biked 14 miles in a day.. 10 of those were to change a lightbulb for a member who couldn't reach the ceiling. Haha what do you do? Call the tall sister missionaries! We got there to help and she pulled out the light and realized it was the wrong kind... but she gave us hot chocolate and we biked like mad men to get to our dinner appointment wayyy down in the elders area. Hahaha fun times. We also got ice cream one of the days we went biking. Haha ice cream and biking in the snow? Why not!! A member works at Jeni's ice cream and he gave it to us for free :'). 

Oh another funny thing that has to do with mileage conservation... we were way up at the top of our area and it was dinner time. We were planning on coming back up after. So, to save a few miles we decided to get some food between our current location and our future destination. We prayed that there would be something... and wahoo! Ghetto gas station (ghetto for Powell at least haha). We bought that instant ramen stuff and used the coffee maker water to make it. Hahaha pics included. 

Funny thing, we were tracting these condo things on Saturday night (k yeah everything is from tracting... let's just say we tract A LOT but hey it's working so whatever). Everyone here has huge Christmas wreaths on their front doors. It was pretty dark at this time and we couldn't see some of the doors suuuuper well. I knock on his door and bam. OUT FLIES THIS BAT THAT WAS IN THE WREATH! I don't think it hit me, but it got very close and body slammed the overhang of the condo before it flew off. Haha gave me a heart attack. Good thing those people weren't home cause we were laughing too hard to even talk. 

We met this one old guy who was kinda grumpy when we knocked on his door (haha typical). He was like "who are you" we said we were missionaries blah blah and he said "show me some ID" and we were like haha okay here look at our name tags! And he got up real close and held my name tag and put it like 2 inches away from his face. Then he walks like okay hang on, I need to grab something. We were like k cool. He came back out with $10 and tried to give it to us and we said we don't accept donations. He saw "wow, you're different than I thought!" Then he went on to tell us all about these cool things he has done in his life. One of them was he performed heart surgery on mother Theresa! Someone look that up and see if it's legit please. That would be cool to say I met him! Based on his house and the cars in the driveway, he very well could've done it. 

WELL it was a wonderful week and sorry that was so long but wow it was just awesome. I hope everything is going well for everyone! I love Powell!️

Lots of love!

Sister Barnes