DOUBLE DUNKED

Alma 29:9 I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy. 

Yesterday we had a double dunking!! 2 of our beloved investigators were baptised on the same day and I truly cannot express how amazing the day was. It was hands down one of the best days of my life!! Missionary work works. And the Lord has been good to us! 

Godspeed!

XOXO

A HAPPY MISSIONARY 

Whistle While you Work

Gillingham has a bike squad now. And it's Sister Barnes and Sister
Cobabe. This week we decided to bust out the bikes in our area and
it's been quite the experience. I haven't been on a bike in probably
10 years but one morning we just decided to go for it. I wear the
nerdiest helmet known to man. But anything for our investigators:)

We had interviews with President and Sister Stevens on Wednesday this
week and I love them SO MUCH. We travelled to Canterbury and had the
best training from them and then we ate lunch as a zone. Sister
Stevens makes these huge brownies that are heaven on earth. It was so
good to spend some one-on-one time with President Stevens, how I love
that man!! And Sister Stevens is my role model. She is so full of
love. During my time with Sister Stevens, for about 30 seconds we just
cried in silence because neither one of us could speak or put into
words the wonder of missionary work. It was a very special day and I'm
thankful for my "mission parents".

This week will be known to me forever as having the best dinner
appointments of all time. We had so much fun is week! We were able to
have dinner with our amazing relief society president and attend an
activity after, and we also had dinner with the funnest recent convert
in Sheerness! The other night we had dinner with a sweet young couple
and their precious 4 month old son. It has sure been a pleasure
getting to know all of the amazing members of the ward!

We have gone through the baptismal interview questions with our
investigators and they are doing so absolutely brilliant I could cry.
We had a miracle this week, a new investigator, A, joined our teaching
pool and she is the sweetest thing! We are so excited to teach her and
see how everything goes. Our investigators just mean the world to me!!
They are amazing!! We had a great day at church as well, four of our
investigators came! And me and Sister Cobabe taught gospel principles
and relief society, it was awesome.

I also think I have the funnest companion in the entire world, I am
enjoying the work so much! Me and Sister Cobabe are ALWAYS laughing!
We have so much fun! I've been really blessed to be her companion, we
are making so many great memories! The people we stop on
Sittingbourne's high street are the most entertaining chaps. Lately
there has been a guitarist that plays music all day on the street, but
on Saturday there was a random guy playing an accordion, haha it's so
great here I love it!

It was a successful week of spreading the Gospel! (and having fun
while doing it:)
God save the Queen!
XOXO
Sister Barnes

California Dreaming❄️

Ello! Hope everyone is doing well! Last week we had a fun p-day in
Chatham, we went bowling and I got to wear pants for the first time in
two months. Then we visited Fort Amherst, an old military base from
the war that still stands. We got a lot of fun pictures as a district
including the one of all of us on a cannon! It was the best day!
The next day was transfers and my new companion's name is Sister
Cobabe, she is from Sacramento! The song "California Dreaming" has
been stuck in my head ever since we got assigned together. I LOVE my
California girl companion, she is seriously so amazing and we're
already so close.
Our first full day together it rained all day and then full on snowed.
It was a blizzard! For this part of England that's a big deal! It
hasn't snowed like that in Sittingbourne for around 5 years. It
reminded me and Sister Cobabe of home, since she went to BYU-I, and we
loved it! We went finding in the blizzard and we were just absolutely
giddy. And everyone was so nice! I think it was because they were all
in a daze and couldn't believe what was happening. We met some pretty
amazing people this week:)
Our investigator L is doing SO GOOD. We are so excited for him! R and
E are also doing well and I couldn't be more thankful to know them. I
didn't know it was possible to love people this much!
At church this week we had L and R in gospel principles and me and
Sister Cobabe were teaching about the Atonement. As we started
speaking about Jesus Christ, this testimony came out of my mouth that
I didn't even know I had. I was bearing testimony of the Atonement and
as I spoke my chest was burning and time seemed to stop. All I could
see were the faces of our two investigators and all I could feel was
the spirit. You really know that Heavenly Father is real when He uses
you to speak to someone. All He really needs is an able body and He
does all the rest! I think that's really what missionary work is.
I had a wonderful week in my forever home of Sittingbourne, England
and miracles are taking place all of the time. This ward is really my
family and they have blessed my life tremendously.
Now, if anyone needs me, I'll be street contacting on High Street:)
Have an awesome week!
XOXO
Sistah Bahhhhns

The Sick and Afflicted

Hiya! ( "hiya" is actually the word they use over here instead of
"hi") hope you are doing well! I somehow survived the first transfer
of my mission. I get a new companion tomorrow but I get to stay in
Sittingbourne. Sister Chiping is leaving, she got transferred to
Milton Keynes, and I am so so so sad about it. She has been such an
incredible trainer and I can't believe she has to leave now that we
have conquered the area. People know us on a name to name basis in
Sittingbourne. We walk down the street and everyone recognizes us.
Even the people who reject us can't get away from us, so we're all
just a big happy family now;)


We had a zone training meeting in Canterbury on Friday! Canterbury is
one of the gems of England, there is an ancient cathedral there that
looks like a castle. But welcome to England. That's just how it is,
you walk down the street and then "oh look, there's a castle." The
only downside to this week was that I got sick. When we were in
Canterbury I couldn't even speak because I didn't have a voice, my
zone took good care of me though, they really baby their greenies.
I've been joking round all week that I'm representing the sick and
afflicted. And the meeting was amazing! We stay true to our Canterbury
catch phrase, "greater love hath no zone than this".

On Sunday we brought 2 investigators (who are BRILLIANT) man I love
both of them. And it was fast and testimony meeting. I just have to
say one thing: British people are CRAZY. They basically just get up
there and start making fun of each other over the microphone. I would
have just found it amusing. But because of the investigators it was
both amusing and stressful. You have no idea what's going to come out
of their mouths or their minds. At one point an old man gave another
old man a piggy back ride to the pulpit. They should make Testimony
Meeting in the Gillingham 2nd Ward the movie. It's entertaining! We
taught a good gospel doctrine lesson for our investigators so they
were fine:) And then I had a terrible cough attack in relief society,
I feel a lot better now but I was very ill! Church this week was just
an absolute circus!

We had such a fantastic week. We have really made this area our own!
What's funny about Sittingbourne is that there are all of these
ancient churches within like a mile of our flat. There is a Methodist,
Baptist, and Catholic Church on the same street, and the buildings
have been there for centuries. They are so old and cool, they take my
breath away. And a lot of them have bell towers that ring out on
Sunday mornings. On our way to the library the other day we waved to
the priest, proud to be a Mormon. There were a lot of great teaching
appointments and our investigators never cease to amaze me, E made a
drawing of the steps of the gospel of Jesus Christ that we got a
picture of (If you look close you can see the big fluffy bear paw
slippers he always wears) and he did that on his OWN. The VC sisters
helped us with a Skype lesson with our Polish investigator so one of
them could translate! And last night we had the absolute best lesson
ever with our investigator L. There is a returned missionary from
Canada named Tim Brown who always comes teaching with us, and
seriously bless him. He is awesome. He came and taught L with us and
we had such a spiritual discussion and then we were able to just laugh
and enjoy each other's company. I'm so thankful for the friends I've
made here.
There is nothing better.


I'm so nervous and excited for this next transfer with a new
companion! Sister Chiping will ALWAYS have a special place in my
heart. I don't know what I'll do without my cute, tiny Asian sidekick!
We are going to spend the day with our district since both she and
Elder Nakaima got transferred:( We are going to Chatham so it will be
a super fun day. And as for the next six weeks, I'm so pumped to be
able to stay in the area that I love so much. It will be lovely! Have
a brilliant week!

XOXO
Sister Barnes

Stand Fast!

Happy New Year!! I hope everyone is doing well! I think that Sister
Chiping and I had one of our best weeks yet and kicked it into high
gear! We found a couple new investigators and have been drowning in
lessons the last couple of days. One thing that was particularly fun
this past week was teaching our investigator, E, with a recent convert
in the area named Kizzy! She was baptised last April by missionaries
and now she is preparing to serve a mission herself! When me and
Sister Chiping are with her we feel like a companionship trio! She is
so amazing and E is really benefitting from the lessons.
The ward has just been amazing with helping us with our lessons. It
helps so much to have a member present. We taught two lessons the
other day that were so challenging because the first one was with an
investigator who spoke Kurdish and another one was with an
investigator who spoke Polish. It was a little frustrating not being
able to understand each other but all we had to do was pray for the
spirit to speak. That's really what matters. When I was called to an
English speaking mission I thought that I wouldn't need to deal with
other languages, but England is such a melting pot and I have been
able to help a lot of people out, including my companion, with
English. I loved taking English and language arts in school and so
when I meet someone on the street who struggles with English I can
sometimes help them figure out a word or understand what they need to
say. It's been really cool. I love these people.
The STL's came to visit us on New Years Eve and we had so much fun!
They both fought over going finding with Sister Chiping because I
wanted to go tracting and literally everyone hates tracting. But I
love it. Soooo I dragged Sister Soulier along with me and knocked
doors, the sunset was seriously beautiful and we found a lot of
miracles! I love these people.
We had dinner with a member family after that, an older couple from
Jamaica. The husband has a super strong testimony but his age has
thrown him off and makes him forget things. One thing he ALWAYS says
to every missionary is the scripture found in Galatians 5:

1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us
free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

He said that to us about 50 times and every time he'd start with
"stand fast!" The way he said it with so much passion was really
inspiring and I honestly loved it. As we were leaving he took my hand
and looked me dead in the eye and said "Christ is with you. He is
leading you. Stand fast! In the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us
free."

It was amazing. I'm thankful for the experience.

A couple of our investigators have had to delay their baptismal date
and it was humbling to have to do that. I think I got so excited to
baptise someone that I had taught I forgot to ask God if it was really
the right time for them. Me and Sister Chiping decided to fast one day
and it made a huge difference in our missionary work. Heavenly Father
saw that we were serious about things. And our investigators are doing
so well, they just need time. Have I mentioned I love these people??
Anyways I love you all and I'm thankful for the support that I have.
Have a wonderful first week of 2017, remember God loves you. And so do
I.
Stand fast!
Sister Barnes