All Hail to the Wembley ZONE

What a golden week! Sister Campos and I have been loving every minute.
We had interviews with President on Thursday in London and so we got
to travel to the Hyde Park Chapel for those, and it is just my
favourite place! It was so good to spend time with President and
Sister Stevens, the time with them is so sweet and precious. We were
with our district for the morning and then I was able to be reunited
with Sister Cook because we were with our zone for the rest of the
day! The Wembley District is the biggest district in the entire
mission and so we call ourselves a zone and it annoys the zone leaders
soooooo much, it is so funny! We had a wonderful time!
We also had exchanges the next day in North London with Sister Wilson
and Sister Lamb, and it was Sister Lamb's birthday!!! We got to spend
time with them in London and a member of their ward took us to a
Turkish restaurant and we had the biggest feast! It was awesome! I can
never get over how beautiful London is. Sister Campos and I were sure
lucky to spend so much time in central London this week
As for the work in Hayes, it is AMAZING ME. We were able to meet this
awesome student from Vietnam and he is just amazing. We put him on
date for baptism and he is so excited! We have been working incredibly
hard to find new investigators and wow, the Lord has delivered His
people right into our arms. We have a huge teaching pool of miracle
people. It's something I'm so thankful for as I train sweet Sister
Campos, there is not one miracle that goes unnoticed by me, because I
see the Lord putting in His effort as we put in ours!
We ran into a man earlier in the week and just started immediately
talking to him about the plan of salvation. He was so humble and quiet
and just listened to us so closely, we asked him a little about
himself and he told us that 25 years ago he had lost his fiancé to
suicide and for years he has been suffering. He was SO interested in
the plan of salvation that he met with us in a cafe the next day and
was doing his best not to cry as we explained death and eternal
families. He message meant so much to him and he told us he was able
to feel peace with it for the first time. It's moments like this where
I am so honoured to be a missionary for Christ's true church. Have a
wonderful week everyone, I love you!

XOXO  

Sister Barnes

English Espanõl

What a week. I just can't tell you guys how awesome the England London
Mission is, I feel like everyday I travel to every single country in
the world. This week I was blessed with a really cool experience
because we had a dinner appointment with a family from Ecuador that
speak Spanish and like minimal to no English. Sister Campos speaks
Portugese and she can understand Spanish, she kind of took the lead
and taught me how to bear a simple testimony of the plan of salvation
in Spanish via google translate. It was super humbling to go to this
dinner appointment and to be the companion who doesn't understand what
anyone was saying. It was so crazy! But I, Harley Barnes, spoke
Spanish! Haha, Sister Campos said that they could understand me but I
do have my doubts:) It was such a neat experience to bear testimony in
a different language though!
Also, I must add that I've always had a lifelong dream of visiting
India and I don't even think I need to go anymore. On our way to the
Spanish dinner appointment we passed through a town that was literally
India. And it was amazing.
We have been teaching like crazy this week and our investigators are
doing SO WELL. The other day it was just pouring rain (Welcome to
England, what can I say) and we were out on the streets outside the
library, we went into the library and one of our most solid, awesome
investigators was in there, and also a really cool recent convert! We
all got together and started talking together about the Gospel, and
then all of a sudden another one of our investigators showed up and
randomly joined us! We all were just feeling the spirit so strong as
we talked about the Book of Mormon. Our recent convert bore THEE most
powerful testimony of the Book and how it has changed his life. They
came up to us and wanted to kick us out of the library because there
were so many people talking excitedly. It was the coolest experience.
I love these people in Hayes.


Sé que Jesucristo vive y que él te ama
XOXO
Sister Barnes

Hayes Sweet Hayes

It has been a wonderful week in England like always! God bless my
sweet greenie, Sister Campos. She is A M A Z I N G. I've never met
someone so dedicated or patient in my entire life. She barely learned
English and she is killing it! Sometimes I look at her and just want
to cry because I'm so proud of her.
The bus system in Hayes has taken 10 years off my life. We travel so
many places everyday and since Sister Campos has only been here for 4
weeks and has limited English, there has most definitely been times of
great anxiety. But all is well! God really takes care of us. There was
one evening where we needed to get home and we were running to find
the nearest bus stop and both of us were so confused. All of a sudden
this random bus just pulls up to the road and stops for us, there
wasn't even a bus stop there! We got on and it ended up taking us
where we needed to go. Miracles like that happen every day! Thank you
Heavenly Father!:')
This ward is probably one of the most diverse to ever exist. There are
people from so many different countries! And they all feed us SO much.
This week we have had breakfast, lunch, and dinner appointments! Bless
these people. I love it here so so much.
We had 3 really solid investigators come to church and that was
awesome! I'm so excited to start off another week of teaching here.
I'm really thankful because there is so much potential in the
investigators we're working with, they are great! Everyone in Hayes
already knows me and so adjusting to the area has been a breeze. And
Sister Campos!! Man she is so good!
We are working so hard, there are barely enough minutes in the day!
But we did make time yesterday to Skype our sweet families and it was
so fun!


YAY for Mother's Day!
XOXO
Sister Barnes

Six Months & A Step-Mum

Ello mates! I have some exciting news! I have been transferred yet
AGAIN, I will be returning to the land of Hayes and follow-up training
Sister Campos, the greenie that came in with Sister Corrêa after me
and Sister Cook left! I will be a step-mum!! Sister Campos is from
Brazil, she speaks Portugese (she learned English in the MTC) and she
has only been out in the mission field for 3 weeks. I am so excited to
return to Hayes and to TRAIN!!! This transfer is going to be so
wonderful!!! Today marks 6 months of being out on a mission here in
England, and how I love it!
Sister Cook and I were definitely not expecting to get separated but
we had a truly incredible last week here in Watford. We met a young
new investigator and he is so willing to keep all of his commitments
and learn more. We were in our first lesson with him and we taught him
about the plan of salvation, it was amazing as we explained these
things it all just flowed so well and we answered a lot of questions
that have long bothered him. As we testified of Jesus Christ there
were tears in his eyes. He also came to FHE that we have with the YSA
at Elder and Sister Baron's! He loved it so much! I am so excited to
hear about all of the ways he will progress, the Gospel is helping him
so much. And it was so fun at FHE to be with the Barons and the YSA
one last time in Watford, I'm thankful for the time I was able to
spend serving here.
Life is good and the church is true! Every day I am reminded of that❤️

Cheers!
XOXO
Sister Barnes

Welcome to the Jungle

What can I say about this week of miracles? We had stake Conference
this weekend and it was especially exciting because the Watford Stake
Presidency got reorganised and we had Elder Saban of the Seventy speak
to us. We were able to attend on Saturday night and Sunday morning and
it was among one of the more spiritual experiences I've ever had in my
life. Elder Saban is a godsend! There are no words to even describe
that man. His talks were some of the best ever. (He spoke in General
Conference this past month) And our dear President Bettridge was
released and the Lord has called President Fu to now serve the stake.
It was so spiritual and emotional for everyone and it was so fun to be
reunited with the other missionaries in the zone, President and Sister
Stevens, and also all of the people who we met in Hayes! Serving in an
area for two weeks is so awesome because you get to know even more
brilliant members! Sister Cook and I sang in the Stake choir and loved
it so much.
This week we had exchanges with the STL's and so we travelled to
Hatfield for that. I was with Sister Lamb and she is amazing! Some
really cool things happened, first off we stopped this lady who was
holding her son and also pushing a baby, we chatted with her and she
really wanted to learn more about the Gospel! We found out she lives
in Luton, so we referred her to the Luton Elders and as we were on the
phone with them we found out that they have been fervently praying
specifically for a family of 3 for many weeks. Elder Botta said,
"Sisters, write this down in your journal. Heavenly Father looked down
on you today and chose you to be the answer to someone's prayers." It
was so cool!
Also we were getting pizza later on that night and the worker at Papa
John's couldn't really speak much English, but as soon as he saw our
name tags he took out his phone and showed us a picture of his baptism
in Romania!!! Amazing!
All in all it was just a week full of miracles like always. I'm so
thankful to be here. Today we went with our awesome district and we
played games at this place called the Board Game Cafe. We sat by the
window in the rain and played a card game about being in the Wild West
and it was probably the most fun I've had in a long time! These
missionaries I serve with are the coolest people in the world. I
really love them! We were all just so happy and laughing so hard for
hours! And we all bought matching animal masks at Poundland (like the
dollar store but we use the good old English pound £) and entertained
ourselves for awhile with those. I don't know why you guys, but I
don't ever think I have laughed so hard in my life. Truly. Life is
good!

Love you all so much!
XOXO
Sister Barnes