Feliz Halloween!

It's going to be a short email for a long and awesome week! First
thing first, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! Since they don't celebrate Halloween
very much in England, yours truly took matters into her own hands and
orchestrated a huge Halloween ward party. It was SO fun! Our amazing
ward came to support and a lot of investigators came! I love this time
of year!
And my new companion is Sister Sanchez, she is amazing! She is my
Spanish twin! We have had an amazing week! So sorry that I don't have
time to write more, but I want you to know that I love this work and I
know that this is the Church of Jesus Christ. He is with us always!

XOXO
Sister Barnes

An East Londoner for Life

We have done so much this week it seems like a year! We had two
exchanges, I was with Sister San Martin from South Africa and then
Sister Lannon from Australia.
Since Ilford is basically India (this area is 50% Indian, 40% African,
9% Eastern European, 1% English) Ok that is just my guess, but still -
we celebrated Diwali, the Festival of Lights! The city was going
crazy! And it was so cool because we were just surrounded by fireworks
in every direction on our way home and even in our flat we could see
them from everywhere. It was like being right next to a firework
stadium. So fun!
Saturday was one of my favorite days ever of all time. We went down
to Sittingbourne and went finding on high street. That place will
always feel like home to me! We found incredible people and then we
went to beautiful Canterbury and went finding with the sister there!
Canterbury is so incredible. It was a beautiful fall day and all of
the International Uni students were out. We found a cool new Italian
investigator for the sisters there!
We traveled back that night through Stratford International and when
we arrived to our dinner appointment, Brother and Sister Stevenson
surprised us and we had a fire in their back garden and ate next to
the fire. It was so magical! So fun.
We've been running around like crazy teaching and we have such a good
group of solid, wonderful investigators. Has the day of miracles
ceased? Behold, I say unto you, NAY.
There are some attached pictures of Sister Lamb and I's adventures, we
made fried plantains, an African food that is super popular in Nigeria
and Ghana. All I really eat is that and jollof rice. I'm basically an
African now, and I'm not kidding.
We also visited Chigwell today for P-Day. Sister Lamb's grandpa served
in the area and it is so beautiful. It was so nice to explore nature
for a while!

I really love being a missionary and every day my love for the Gospel
increases. I thought I loved the Savior when I left! It is nothing
compared to now. We are truly so lucky to have the exact Gospel that
Jesus Christ himself taught while He was here on the earth. Count your
blessings!


Transfer news! It is unexpected but I will be staying A FOURTH
TRANSFER IN ILFORD!!!!! WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO YESSSSSSSSS! Good old East
London, in the crazytown of the mission! I will be training a new
sister training leader, her name is Sister Sanchez and she is from
Barcelona, Spain. Oh yeahhhh! Sister Lamb will be whitewash training
in Milton Keynes, I will miss her so much! I am so happy to stay here
though!


With love from your fav East Londoner

XOXO
Sister Barnes

Siiiick man that was lit!

The subject line is a tribute to our dear investigator who came to
church with us while he was completely stoned and proclaimed how "lit"
it was to the entire congregation right after we all stood and sang
Families can be Together Forever. That's what you get in East London.
He's right though.
And the phrase is how I feel about our week too! On Tuesday I was on
an exchange with Sister Gade from FIJI. She's totally awesome. We were
both trained by the same person! I loved being with her and she is
such a spiritual giant!
We went finding on Thursday and we were in Dagenham, a town in our
area that is just perfect because it's full of humble Africans. We
went into the library because we had an appointment and there was a
full blown party going on! People from like every country in Africa
had brought food from their countries and so it was a food festival.
We went around and it was such a perfect finding opportunity. We
handed out so many Book of mormons. This is such a blessed land.
After church on Sunday we were rushing to the Europe Broadcast in
Romford and we stopped by an investigator's. He has such a nice family
and he is the pastor of a church, they had a birthday party and they
gave us cake and jelloff rice and sent us on our way!
The Broadcast was amazing. I won't reveal too many secrets because it
was exclusive for those of us in Europe:) Elder Ballard bore such a
powerful testimony. I loved what he had to say. He promised us all
miracles if we simply believe and shared such powerful experiences in
his life. I love him so much! The spirit was so strong at the
Broadcast and we had  two recent converts with us, Ben and Curtis,
they are amazing.
Also we got a surprise this week, the legendary Sister Ranck and
Sister Epicoco knocked on the door of our flat! They used to serve
here and came back to visit Ilford! I serve around the most fun people
ever. Sister Lamb is incredible. We both love talking about so mannyyy
things. Last night we stayed up having a serious talk about deep sea
trenches. There's a random fact for you.

The work of God continues!

XOXO
Sister Barnes

Cheers to 20 Years!

Another Autumn week in blessed England. . . Miracles are rampant in
these parts. We met with a super cool investigator after praying and
praying and PRAYING for a miracle. We were able to teach this amazing
lesson that was completely led by God and by the spirit. He is on date
now and is doing so well! We went on 2 exchanges this week, I was with
Sister De Oliveira from Brazil and Sister Reichling from Germany, I
love these sisters! We also had an amazing zone Conference in Hyde
Park and me and Sister Lamb gave a training that was really fun!
The pictures really say it all:

1. They surprised me in the wee hours of October 4th and dumped
balloons all over me. Yay for birthdays!!

2. Recent converts, members, and investigators came in clutch and
dropped off gifts all throughout the day. . . Flowers, perfume,
chocolate, and lots of birthday wishes. It was the greatest birthday
ever!! #partyinengland

3. A digital birthday card from a recent convert

4. ZONE CONFERENCE!!!!! The Romford, Canterbury, and Hyde Park zones of the ELM.

5. Goodbye to the Irish Elder Jackson. . . He has been either my zone
leader or AP for my entire mission.

It's been a wonderful spirit-filled week of hastening the Lord's work along.

I love you all so very much!
XOXO
Sister Barnes

Happy October!

Ladies and gentleman it's the most wonderful time of the year! I love
the British autumn. Let's face it there is no other month that starts
with General Conference and ends with Halloween. The two best things
on earth.
We had MLC this week and it was amazing as always. I really learned a
lot and it was so good to be there with President and Sister Stevens.
Was wonderful to work together in the spirit of counsel! I took back a
lot of things from it.
Because we love Conference so much we printed out flyers and talked
with people tirelessly about it every single day this week. With the
Elders, we even tried an English Missionary staple. We soapboxed. We
set out a stand in the middle of town center and preached. And it
rained, actually no, it didn't rain, it poured. It was awesome, we
found so many good people.
We spent the weekend in Romford, they have the coolest chapel that was
built in the 80's, it's so retro and that is where we watched General
Conference. Are there even words that I can use to describe General
Conference?
No.
 Go watch it if you haven't already!
I felt like every talk was rooted in the importance of service and
there were so many wonderful things that stood out to me. It was a
spiritual feast for sure. Life just couldn't get better:)

Happy October!

XOXO
Sister Barnes