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

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