The sun is shining!

Dear Family,
This week has been dramitically better. There were so many amazing things that happened and the spirit was felt ever so strongly in my life. I am thankful for trials and opposition in my life becasue it helps me to be a stronger and better person.

 

 Last week we were asked from President Harding to find someone to invite to baptism for a specific date so we could all reach the top together. All week we were working so hard to find people to talk to but we weren't having any luck. Finally on friday evening at about 8 pm with only an hour left I felt the inspiration to go to a store called 5 below. When we got there we went over to the tshirts and starting talking to one of the employees named shequia. As we were talking to her the spirit was strong and we were able to invite her to baptism, she accept a specific date. It was one of the coolest experieces because of how directed we were. Unfortunatly she isn't a YSA so we will need to pass her to other missionaries. I feel so thankful that I was able to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord. 

 

We also got to meet with Elder Cook this last week on saturday, the meeting was really amazing and we learned a lot of great things for our area and how to be better teachers. He told us all that we are exactly where we need to be right now. I was so thankful to hear that from him. He also talked to us a lot about agency and the importance of having faith. "if the missionaries have more faith they will have more success." it is as simple as that!

After the meeting as we were driving through Atlanta to get home (such an amazing place!) we went and got some food from chipotle. I was so happy becasue I haven't had food from there in a really long time. It was a treat for me!

 

Guess how many people we had at church this week? it was a record breaking 3 investigators!!!!!!! I haven't seen that happen in so long. It was so refreshing and wonderful. Jonathan came (the guy from hibbets) and he really liked it but now he has a ton of questions.

 

I am so thankful for the miracles we have seen and for the opportunity I have to be a missionary! I love being here and I love this gospel! :) Thank you for all of your love and support.
With love,
Sister Emily Barnett

2 in a row

Okay! here we go again!
This was one of the most interesting weeks of my mission, and I hate to say one of the hardest. But all is well because hope is shining brightly before us and we KNOW that deliverance is nigh!
Do ya'll remember my investigator Eric? Well on my birthday we received a call from his family informing us that he had passed away from an overdose. I was a little bit devastated, but something amazing happened. I felt the overwhelming peace that the knowledge of the gospel and the Plan of Salvation brings. I know that there is someone teaching him on the other side and I know that he will accept the gospel.
Some other things happened this week that made it less than Ideal but i am trying to keep the best attitude about all of it and continue moving forward. I was able to receive a blessing this week and in it I was told that my family is my support and that many prayers are being said in my behalf. I want to thank each of you so much for being my support and comfort when trial comes about. I couldn't do all of this without you.
This week we are expecting many miracles to come our way. One miracle is that we will be able to meet Elder Cook! He is coming to our mission and we are all so excited! This will be the second general authority that I will have the opportunity of meeting on my mission.
A few weeks ago we were out contacting in the mall and we saw one of our former investigators named David. We were able to stop and talk to him and meet his friend Ashley. A few days later we taught Ashley the restoration, it was a good lesson but she was a little bit confused because it was a lot different from the Pentecostal church. Well.... A few days ago we were talking to some other sisters about some YSA's that they have been working with and they told us that they had been teaching Ashley's mom! Nothing says prepared as much as that! We are so excited to see where this goes with both of them. I love when we meet people and I know that Angels have been with them preparing them to receive the gospel!
I wanted to tell ya'll today that I know that God is real. I promise you that he loves you and is watching out for all of us. I am so thankful to be a missionary and that I get to represent my Savior.
I love ya'll so much.
I hope you have a fantastic week!
Sister Emily Katherine Louise Barnett

 12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the arock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your bfoundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty cstorm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

 

 

 

Happy monday!
Happy Birthday to me!
Next week when you get my email I will be 21... I am not sure how I feel about it.... It's like the time when I turned 11 and I cried about it. I will make it a happy birthday though, no need to fear!
Sister Nielsen had a good birthday, we were able to meet with lots of people and see a lot of cool things happen! We ended up meeting with Summer (do ya'll remember her? the one that had her dad pass away a few months ago when I was with Sister Diehl?) Well she is doing well and she wants to start meeting again!
Sara Pearl, our current investigator came to church on sunday! She said she liked it, which is always a good thing :) It was a little bit awkward becasue in Sunday School we talked about a lot of really deep doctrine... She didn't seem to mention it though so maybe she wasn't paying attention (which in this situation could be a good thing)
Tonight we will be meeting with Teah! We have a super awesome lesson about Faith planned for her!
Last week we were driving back to our apartment after District meeting for lunch and we passed this guy on the side of the road who was just taking a walk. We got out of the Car and went and talked to him, I love moments like that when I really feel like a missionary in action. We were able to set a return appointment and meet with him the next day. His name is Akwo and he has been in America for 2 months! We taught him about the restoration and he told us he would read and pray about the Book of Mormon. The reason this was such a cool experience is becasue we listened to the spirit and we really felt like we needed to pull over and talk to him, and becasue we did that now he knows that there is more! Experiences like this have happened a few times on my mission and every time I am so thankful that we decide to talk to these people. The Lord loves all the people and now so do I! How cool is it that we can come to love people that we don't even know?
The tempurature has been wonderful here, I no longer need a coat!
I am feelling a lot better than I did last week and I am just so happy to be a missionary!
Thank you for all of the support and love! also thank you for the Birthday wishes :) They mean so much to me!
I pray everyone is happy and doing well!
I love you and I will talk to you next week.
Love,
Sister Em Barnett

Valentines and Strep Throat!

Thank you so much for all the Valentines wishes!
I hope everyone had a great day filled with love and happiness!!! My Valentines was pretty great! I would probably have to say it was one of the best ones i have ever had! No stress, no worry, just sharing the gospel with the people in Georgia!

This last week was very interesting.... Guess who got strep throat? I did! Luckily we had a really bad weather day and we weren't really supposed to leave becasue of all the ice on the day when I got really sick. That day I was able to sleep! I am also now on antibiotics so I am feeling a lot better! Hopefully this week we will be back in the swing of things :)

 

We were able to teach a lot of our investigators and meet with some of our new investigators this last week, I sure love being a missionary! We taught a great lesson about the restoration to our investigator Teah that I told you about a few weeks ago! We told her that she could come to know that the Book of Mormon is true by the 8th of march. Unfortunately she didn't come to church, we will meet with her again on wednesday! 
On sunday lilly and Gerard, the recent converts, were asked to stand on sunday and bear their testimonies. It was so exciting and Sister Nielsen and I were both very proud of them :) It is amazing to see the change that comes to peoples lives because of the Gospel, they are both proof of that.

This week I also had quite a bit of time to study and catch up on a lot of the things I want to read. I was able to get more into the book Jesus the Christ by James Talmage. Becasue of this book I am learning a lot more about my Savior and his earthly ministry. It is also really helpful becasue I recently finished reading the four gospels in the bible.

This week is Sister Nielsens 21 birthday! Hopefully for her Birthday we can find someone amazing who wants to learn more about the Gospel and how they can come closer to their Father in Heaven! I am going to hopefully make her a cake :) I will take pictures and show you next week.

I love ya'll so much and I will talk to you next week! Hopefully I will have more things to talk about!
I love you
Sister Emily Barnett

Happy Half-way!

Family!
Congratulations! Happy Half-way! We have made it this far and I just can't believe it! We are now on the down ward slope and I know there are many amazing miracles still coming!
So I know Grandma and Grandpa really want to know... I am not being transferred! I will be in my dear branch for at least 1 more transfer :)
I am very happy about the whole thing and I am so excited that I don't have to leave yet. I am a little bit sad though because one of the Elders that I have served around for 7.5 months is being transferred, I am going to miss that Elder! Sister Nielsen and I are also staying companions a little longer as well :) I am happy about this because I have truly come to love her. This is going to be the prime of our companionship, we know how to work together and we know what to expect. We can't go wrong!
So apparently Georgia is in another state of emergency, but I don't think it is anything to be worried about. We hopefully will be able to get out and do a lot of work and make a lot of phone calls if we have to stay in.
This last week we went on exchanges with the sisters in the Lost Mountain ward (my last area) it was fun to go back and be in a family ward for a day, we saw a lot of amazing miracles and met some really cool people.
Last night at president Bristols home we had a "cottage meeting" where all the recent converts came and we discussed somethings that may be foreign or new to them, we discussed the orgin of the Bible and I learned a lot of new things! President Bristol formally taught seminary, he has so much knowledge! I really hope that one day I will get the opportunity to teach seminary, it's my dream calling.
This week will be the 1 year anniversary of when i received my mission call. It is hard to believe that it was a short year ago... so much has happened and I truly feel like a completely new person. I was thinking the other day that here on my mission I have learned to see things in my life in a completely new way. It has been an amazing miracle and blessing in my life. I love people more than I ever have and I can see the potential that they each have, it is truly an amazing gift!
I am so thankful for the knowledge of the restored gospel, i am so thankful to know that I will be with those I love forever. I know that we have an important choice to make, and that choice is to be HAPPY!
I know that my Savior and that happiness comes from him :)
I love you
have a great week
Sister Em Barnett

Snowy days

Hello my dear family and friends!!!
This week was a crazy crazy week in Georgia! We had an amazing snow storm, I was so happy when I saw the snow but I don't think the rest of Georgia was as happy as I was.... We weren't allowed to drive our cars for about 3 days and we spent a lot of time calling people and teaching them over the phone. It was awesome but by the end of the 3 day I was itching to get out of the apartment and go somewhere!
Now we are back to the normal weather which is dandy :) I am happy to say that I only fell one time on the ice and I only have a little bruise on my knee. Other than that I think Georgians are crazy and they need to learn how to deal with the snow. The people here went CRAZY! It was funny.  We talked to some people that were stuck in traffic for 12 hours for a normal 30 minute drive.... When the snow started we were just ending our district meeting and we were supposed to go on exchanges but we ended up canceling and heading home to grab some lunch. on the way home we say a bunch of accidents and a car completely flipped over then our mission president told all the missionaries that we had couldn't drive.
As for the rest of the week after that fun winter adventure we spent a lot of time contacting people in malls and big stores near where we live. We didn't teach very many lessons to investigators because somehow  they all disappeared and have decided not to talk to us any more thus the search for new people who do want to talk to us!
This week I was really able to dive into Jesus the Christ while I have been studying, I have also been continuing my study of the New Testament and the Book of Mormon. I feel like I have been learning a lot and so many things are more clear to my understanding than ever before! Something I have been pondering a lot is how we can each come to know our Savior and not just know about him. A few ways that i have figured we can accomplish this is by coming to love him. When we love him we are willing to do what he asks us to do and then we can feel is love for us in our lives. We can also come to know him by spending our time in holy places such as immersed in the scriptures, in the temple and among those things that invite the spirit. Without the spirit we cannot come to know our Savior, this is why the Book of Mormon is so pivitol. This book brings us the spiritual side of the gospel, this is where our spirituality flows from.
"Nothing is going to suprise us more when we pass through the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father and how familiar his face is to us." - Ezra Taft Benson
I want to make it a point in my life to come to know my savior, not just know about him.
I hope that this week ya'll can read out of the pages of the Book of Mormon and that you can come to know your Savior a little bit more :)
I love you!
Sister Emily Barnett!!
Next week is transfer week, I am hoping i will stay but we just never know! I will let ya'll know what the plan is next week!

Baptism!

Family, friends, countrymen! lend me your ears!
This week and this month are successfully coming to an end. I can't believe that the time is going by so fast! It is so strange to me to think that the end of this transfer is going to be in two weeks. and then I will be on the downward slope. NOOOOOO!!!!!
Troy was baptized this week, it was an amazing experience to be a part of his conversion. I haven't felt the spirit that strongly in a metting in a very long time! It was  one of the best experiences of  my mission. Every week I hope i can come to this  email and be a better more refined human being from the last time I spoke to ya'll. I feel like this last week I have accomplished this in a lot of ways! Our numbers in our key indicators didn't turn out amazing, but I have never felt more successful than I have this last week.
There were so many experiences where i felt led and guided. This week I am a more converted disciple of Jesus Christ, although I still have a long way to go!
Okay so let me tell you about all the amazing things going on in my life as a missionary!
So last week I met a famous guy named Jason Deere, he is  the heart and soul of a really cool group called the nashville tribute band. We were able to talk to him and express our gratitude for the music he makes (we are allowed to listen to his stuff in our mission.) He got really emotional and just shared with us  his love for the gospel and for this great missionary work! It was really amazing and i ended up getting some free mexican food out of it as well!
The next cool thing I want to share with you is what happened the other night as we were meeting with a less active fellow. We were in his home with his parents and we were just sharing a message with him (heleman 5:12) and then I was able to bear my testimony to him. There was  an amazing calm that came over me as I shared with him how much his  Heavenly Father loves him. I truly felt like the spirit was testifying to this boy through me! I love when these things happen and i get to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord.
The last thing I wanted to tell ya'll about was the Powder springs stake conference that went on this weekend! Elder Nelson spoke to 48 stakes in the southern part of the country, our stake was included. He spoke of the 9 facets of the doctrine of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I have never heard anyone speak so plain and simply but in a way that I learned so much!
I wish I could type up all of my notes and the things I learned but I don't have enough time right now... :(
Maybe ya'll can search and see if yo can find it on youtube or something haha
Well my dear family I love ya'll so much! Thank you for all the love and support you give to me! I hope ya'll have a fantastic week
love,
em

Manic monday!

Another week has come and gone! Today is a beautiful day, I almost forgot it was a holiday until our district leader told us we could email at a members home today because the libraries are closed. 
This last week has been very busy and crazy, but it was great! I feel bad i can't always tell ya'll everything, maybe it is a good thing though :) that way I will have plenty of stories to tell everyone when I return home! 
This Friday we are going to have the baptism of Troy! We are so excited :) Troy is an amazing guy, he really has been so prepared to receive the gospel. like I have said before, it has been a tender mercy to see him accept the gospel- I truthfully have done nothing! 
We have had a few meetings with a really cool guy  named Jonathan! he is super into star wars and good athletic foot wear :) We met him while contacting in a sporting goods store a few weeks ago. He says that he is continually being drawn to learn more about the Mormons. We have had quite a bit of fun getting to teach him! This coming week we are going to talk to him more about the restoration and his Book of Mormon reading. 
This next week we are going to spending as much time as we can contacting people in the stores and on the street, this isn't my favorite activity but unless we find people to teach we won't be able to teach! Funny how that works... 
I wanted to tell ya'll about how cool I think writing in journals is. This last week there was a day when I was really having a hard time, i decided to write everything in my journal. When I was done I started to read through some old entries- it was an amazing epiphany to me of how therapeutic and wonderful keeping a record of our lives can be! I read once that happy people keep journals- I would invite everyone to take a little bit of time this coming week and write a little bit in your journal! I promise it will make you happier! 
A goal that I have for myself this next week is to have better prayers instead of just going through the motions. I know that Prayer works! I see miracles everyday when my prayers are answered- I know that so many more miracles can happen if i fine tune my personal prayers a little bit! 
Alrighty my Friends and family! I love you all and I wish you the happiest of weeks :) stay good and healthy! 
Love, 
Sister Barnett