London Calling

London is so good. It truly is heaven. We had a mission tour on Friday
at Hyde Park Chapel, we got to hear Elder Phillips of the seventy
speak! When we arrived in South Kensington we were early and we got to
explore with the Elders and it was such a dream. We were just walking
around and taking pictures and enjoying life, I cannot even tell you
how much I love London!! It is hands down the most amazing place. And
guess what else was amazing? Elder Phillips' talk. He will probably be
an apostle one day and I got to shake his hand. No big deal or
anything. He didn't even use the podium, he came right down and
started drawing on whiteboards and talking to us directly. The spirit
was striking our hearts like lightning. It was such a good day!
It didn't rain here for like a solid 2 days and me and Sister Benson
spent every waking moment outside. It wasn't even cloudy either! Ahhhh
blessings We went finding in this amazing park we discovered, it's
like an England fortress. It even has exercise equipment already there
to use! Our plan is to start running there in the morning.
We met this really cool guy who just came up to us on the street (that
never happens) and he wants to learn more about the church! He really
wants to change his ways and settle down. Awesome right? And get this,
he is literally the nicest person I have ever met, he is so. cool. You
would die! He owns a really cool barber shop, and we teach him lessons
in the back room. He told us we get free haircuts and colours for
free. That's how nice he is. And today he invited his friend to join
our lesson and they're both coming to church on Sunday!!
My life skills have been greatly improved upon, we have been helping a
part member family move, they are the awesome Portugese family! Crazy,
but I love them so much. Their dad is the funniest man in the world
and whenever I would go get another box out of the moving van he would
hand it to me and make fun of my American accent. I learned how to
pack boxes super effective, manuever around tiny, wild children and
run around like mad trying to get everything organised in their new
house. Life skills. Also, an awesome member got us Harry Potter World
tickets. Because Harry Potter was actually filmed in my neck of the
woods over here. So my lifelong dream will be fulfilled shortly:)
Our investigators are doing great! How I love them. 0 of them came to
church though even after they promised over and over and over again.
They had me and Sister Benson fooled! I haven't been played that hard
since high school. I love them so much so it's ok:) The other night we
were sitting on a bench in town with our investigator R, and these
born-again Christians came up to us and started talking, they were
handing out pamphlets and I was just sitting there trying to be polite
and respectful, they wouldn't go away though and they saw our tags and
we told them who we were. Then they wouldn't leave us alone! All of a
sudden our investigator just went off! He was bible bashing so hard!
And I don't endorse or participate in bible bashing but MAN! Our
investigator literally left them speechless. And to be honest I wanted
to cry, I felt like such a proud mom. Me and Sister Benson just sat
there and smiled at each other as we listened to the monster we
created.
There was a man I stopped last week and set a return appointment with.
He started to text us the morning of the appointment not wanting to
come and told us all of the things going wrong in his life, his
partner left him and he lost his job, and just wanted to do what was
best for his young son. I would not let him cancel. I sent the boldest
text to him and he actually decided to show up. He was so sweet and
just completely humbled and he told us he didn't want to meet with us,
but our persistence made him decide to just show up. We were able to
bare testimony to him of The Atonement and the spirit was so strong.
It really helped him and I was so thankful that we pushed just a
little harder to help him understand the importance and the grandeur
of the message we share.
It was Elder Parkin's birthday and so we had dinner at Nando's with
the Zone Leaders Saturday night and yesterday we ate dinner on a
houseboat with a member couple! It was really cool! We also were able
to spend time with "Broseph" the coolest recent convert in the world,
he took us to Five Guys for p-day milkshakes and we had a good time
rocking out to music and feeling like Americans. I sure love it here
and I am surrounded by people who constantly push me to be a better
version of myself each day.
I hope you know how dearly I love you all:)
XOXO
Sister Barnes