Ilfordstan

This week has been wonderful, lots of changes for sure! I really love
my new companion Sister Kinney, she is from Utah and is loud and
hilarious! It was hard to say goodbye to all of my friends in Hayes
who I love SO much, we had an awesome time all together one last time
and played with water balloons and then two recent converts took me
and Sister Campos out to Five Guys and then the most amazing ice cream
place, I am so spoiled.
My first day in Ilford, we were walking down the sidewalk and we had
all of my luggage with us, we stopped this guy and he ended up being
the coolest new investigator of our lives!! In Ilford, we play
football every Saturday morning and we invite all of the people
throughout the week to come and so even if they aren't super
interested in learning about the Gospel, they are in an environment
that is so fun and wholesome. It is so cool! Our new investigator came
to football, had two lessons with us and came to church in like a span
of 3 days. He is such a miracle! Me and Sister Kinney are so focused
on being exactly obedient and diligent and it shows so much in the
work!
The ward in Ilford is mostly African and everyone is SO nice! It's a
place where you just really feel like you can be yourself, there's so
much diversity. Last night we had dinner with a member and her Welsh
Atheist husband who made us Welsh cakes and told us hilarious stories
and then played the piano for us so we could sing a long. Every day in
Ilford we have moments like that, they are just so special and
random:)
I am so thankful to be serving a mission here and I know that God
loves us all and has blessings that he is just waiting to give us, all
we need to do is trust Him.

Sending my love from england/the middle east;)

XOXO
Sister Barnes

Apostles, Baptism and HEAT

I know I say this every week but I'm for real this time, this has been
the best week in my entire mission so far. This is going to be kind of
long but oh well because I'm having the time of my LIFE!
To start off, William got BAPTISED!!! We are so happy for him. It was
really special because he was baptised on June 17th and exactly one
year from that day was when I opened my mission call. What blessings.
He has got probably among the strongest faith of anyone of all time
and just clings to the Gospel. He gave a speech at his baptism, that
was beautiful, and another talk the next day on Sunday after he
received the Holy Ghost. I'm so thankful that Sister Campos was able
to see her first baptism, I remember how much it meant to me when I
was in training and I just can't thank Heavenly Father enough for
leading us to William and for helping us teach him all transfer long
until it led to this. William is so happy! And the baptism was great,
even though it is SCORCHING here in England. It is so hot you would
not believe it, and I'm not just being a baby because even my
companion who is from the hottest part of Brazil is suffering! Even
though it is so hot, so many people from the ward came and the Elders
even surprised us and cleaned the baptismal font for us. What studs.
Also, on Friday, Elder D. Todd Christofferson, an Apostle of the Lord
Jesus Christ came and talked with us. The things he said were amazing
and will help me all throughout my mission. I even got to shake his
hand! It was so awesome! And it was great to be with the whole entire
mission!
This week we had a really hard time finding new investigators, and in
order to meet our goal we had to find 6 in one day. We set off on
sunday and started street contacting in Uxbridge. It was fiery hot and
not a lot of people were outside in town, but we knew we could do it.
And we did! Heavenly Father blessed us tremendously and as we
demonstrated our faith we were able to find these 6 prepared people
who are interested in learning more about the Gospel. It has been a
week full of huge spiritual experiences that I will remember for the
rest of my life.
We were able to have some super fun family home evenings at the
Shattuck's (They're American!!), they have a huge yard and yesterday
we were with some recent converts and the elders and investigator and
we just played with water balloons and ate in the backyard. It was the
funnest thing in the world!
We got transfer calls yesterday and I have been transferred to Ilford
to serve as a sister training leader. My companion will be Sister
Kinney and I love her already! Ilford is basically India so that will
be really fun, I'm excited.

"Let your covenants be paramount and let your obedience be exact. Then
you can ask in faith, nothing wavering, according to your need, and
God will answer. He will sustain you as you work and watch. In His own
time and way He will stretch forth His hand to you, saying, 'Here am
I'."
- Elder Christofferson

Love you!

XOXO
Sister Barnes

Jesus Loves Children

This week was SO GOOD. We had zone Conference in Hyde Park and it was
just so spiritually uplifting, loved being able to see President and
Sister Stevens! Elder Christofferson is coming to our mission this
week and so we are sooooo excited!
We had 5 investigators come to church yesterday and W passed is
interviews this week woohooooo! He is for sure getting baptised on
Saturday and we are so happy for him. Yesterday we had a lesson with
him after church and he started crying, it was so sweet. Our Polish
investigator came to church as well and he is he cutest person. During
Gospel Principles, there were these little boys outside the door being
SO loud and obnoxious and a lady in Gospel Principles got up right
away, stomped over and yelled at them. Our investigator was so
confused and all of a sudden he was like, "BUT JESUS LOVES CHILDREN!!"
It was the funniest thing ever. Sister Campos showed him a scripture
that made him cry too. Everyone is just feeling the spirit these days!
Things are still going great in Hayes and I'm loving the work!

XOXO
Sister Barnes

Touchdown Jesus

Another great week in my favorite place! These days have been
tremendously spiritual. With so many recent terrorist attacks in
England, we have been able to speak peace to a lot of people's minds.
Missionaries are really needed here at this time. The Gospel is
helping everyone over here, even the people who we run into on the
street who go their own way after 2 minutes.
And yesterday was one of the best Sundays I have had in my entire
mission! It was fast and testimony meeting, and we had four
investigators attend! Two of them were just super unexpected and we
didn't really think they would show up, but they did. During the
meeting, our investigator who will be baptised in a couple weeks got
up and bore his testimony. . . It's only his 3rd time being at church!
It was such a beautiful testimony too, me and Sister Campos were
basically weeping. After he went up, a less active member that was
attending for the first time in ages got up and talked about how she
had ran into us in town center and how we had ran up and hugged her
and helped her to feel so much better with things going on. It was
amazing because when we did that we had no idea it had that big of an
impact.
One of our investigators that attended sacrament, I literally had to
sweet talk all week to try to get him to come and FINALLY he agreed.
He just moved here from New Zealand and told me that he was only going
to come ONCE, he was NOT going to meet with us, and he will never
return to church. However, the spirit was so strong as countless
people went up and bore testimony that I know he felt something. You
should've seen the Hayes ward in action. Every time I looked at him
there was some new awesome person talking to him and making him laugh.
He stayed at the church for so long.
And he's meeting with us on Thursday.
Another wonderful investigator that was there is just an absolute
miracle! We were on our way to teach a lesson at the chapel one
morning and saw this young guy sitting on a bench, we had time to hand
him a card and then as we were in the church he walked up to the
doors! We were able to give him a chapel tour and he accepted a date
to be baptised! We have been meeting with him all week and he loved
coming to church. He's awesome and he produces music and raps.
I could write more, but just know that the Lord is taking care of His
people in England. I love it here so much and every day I am so shaken
with gratitude that this is my life. Keep London in your prayers, and
know that you're always in mine.

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of
love, and of a sound mind.

xoxo
Sister Barnes