December 30, 2013
Dear Family,

Hello everyone! It's definitely weird seeing as how we just talked to each other just a few days ago. To be perfectly honest I don't really have a lot of things to report on. Definitely the most eventfull thing that has happened since we have talked is that we went and watched the Hobbit!!! We saw it on a super huge and nice IMAX screen. We got perfect seats for it too. Couple of rows from the back, right in the middle. It was perfect!! The movie was FANTASTIC!!! I really wish I saw the first one to catch up on what happened before but oh well. I mean, I will be back home before the third one gets out so I will just have a nice movie marathon and watch them all! But yeah the rest of my week was just pretty typical. On sunday I had to give an "on the spot" talk about how we were grateful as missionaries to have been able to go and sing carols to the members. To be honest, it was a terrible "talk". I wasn't prepared and had no idea what to say. I mean, it's hard making speeches on the spot in english let alone in a different language! But it's all good. I also got to translate for sacrament meeting which was okay. Translating is always hard but what can I do. I also got to teach sunday school. Basically all of sunday was done by me!! Ha ha but it was all good! I'm glad that you got to have a nice little chat with Lasater at his homecoming!! He is awesome. It was weird saying goodbye to him cause he told me that in just a couple of days he would be talking face to face with all of you back at home!! It's crazy!! 

We'll I'm sorry everyone that I don't have a lot to say... I mean we just talked on Skype not too long ago so I hope you all don't mind! :) 

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Well here are a couple of pics taken around Christmas!

One shows our nice little Christmas corner where we had a tree and the presents . . . and the lights hanging from the giant tv (that we can't use :( sad day)

Then the other ones are just me and the onesie!! :) 

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

M E R R Y    C H R I S T M A S   F R O M    R O M A N I A!!

We had a wonderful time talking to Elder Josh Barney on Skype.  He is doing great and enjoyed Christmas Day.  Here are a few pictures we took as we were talking to him!!  ENJOY!!

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Dear Family!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!! Wow it's just crazy that Christmas is already here. It's the last one away from everyone!!! Thanks for letting me know about the skype account. I love the user name!! Classic!! I'm still not 100% sure on exactly when we are going to be Skyping. I'm assuming that it will just be on Christmas day around the afternoon/evening but I'm not sure. We are having difficulties finding a computer with a camera on it. The internet cafe we usually go to isn't going to be open on Christmas so we are trying to use some computers that are at the Church. But we will see what happens. When I call you guys I will let you know for sure. Actually I just talked to the others and I guess we are going to be able to do it at the church on Christmas. Elder Duker is going to be starting his at like 3 or 4 in the afternoon and then I'm going to skype you guys whenever he gets done. So I would say that I will be starting my skype session with you guys at like 5 or 5:30. So for you guys that would be around 8 or 8:30. So just make sure your computer is all ready to go by like 8 and then we will just see what happens!

That's awesome that you are going to be going to Lasater's homecoming! You will have to tell him that I say hi. I'm sure he will tell you all about cool stuff in Romania. Oh and I'm sure that Hannah will just give a talk in the coming weeks (muahaha!)

So some things that happened with me this week; I had a pretty awesome exchange with an elder named Elder French! He is from Cedar City, which is cool cause that's just a hop and a skip away from us! He is actually a pretty cool kid too. I'll probably hang out with him a little bit when he get's off the mission (he still has like a year and a half or so). This week we also had a cool opportunity to go to the United States Embassy to go sing! It was a pretty cool act of service... plus they fed us some nice, american food. I got a nice cold Dr. Pepper with some beef stew and potatoes. I also got a root beer and one of those delicious uncrustables pb&j sandwiches that I love so much. It was sooooo good. Plus it was cool to be around some americans.

So this past week we went and saw a MOVIE!! We went and watched Ender's Game. It was such a good movie! Have any of you seen it? I hadn't read the book so I didn't have any expectations for the movie except to just watch it and enjoy. I actually have the book in Romanian that I bought not too long ago. I'll read it eventually! So with the Christmas season our branch did sort of two activities for it. On Saturday we had an activity that was for all the branches in Buch. The missionaries sang carols and the members talked about the life of the savior. After all the singing then Santa Claus came and gave some presents to some of the kids. One thing that is pretty cool that I learned about Romanians is that when the kids go sit on Santa's lap they need to either sing a song or recite a poem in order to get something from Santa. Pretty cool if you ask me! Then the other thing that the branch did was on Sunday instead of having Sunday school we had like a Christmas meal! It was a pot luck sort of thing so everyone brought some food. It was pretty good!

I'm trying to take and send as many pictures as I can. I have a couple of pics to send but I will send those later this week. Ha ha yeah actually for Grigore it's more like going from St. George to Cedar. Or Beaver. Something like that. It was pretty fun to do an exchange with him.  Yeah President Hill sang the Fiddler on the Roof again when we were at the embassy. It was about as funny the second time as it was the first. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! CRACIUN FERICIT!!!

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

So here are a couple of pics for ya!

The first picture is me next to a car that is apparently from the states . . . not quite sure how it got here in Romania!

The next picture is with me, Knapp's MTC group, and a couple of other missionaries that just decided to get in the picture. I'm too lazy to write down everyone in the picture though. 

Monday, December 16, 2013
Dear Family!! 

Hello there everyone!!! Well I guess to start i'll just write a couple of things that happened this week. This week I did an exchange with an actual romanian!! It's the only romanian native missionary here in the whole mission. His name is Elder Grigore. The reason why we did the exchange is because he was in this area last transfer and there is this family that he was working with. Well since he still wanted to work with the family he got permission from Pres Hill to do exchanges with me so that he can still work with this family. I mean, Grigore is just on the other side of Buch so it's not like it is a major problem. The man of the family though (George) was at the hospital this past week so all we did was just visit him at the hospital. So I had my first chance to be in a hospital in Romania this past week! Definitely different than the hospitals back home. Actually I had the chance to go to two different hospitals. Once was with Grigore to meet with George, and then the other hospital we went to was to give a blessing to this kid named Christian. We got a call from one of the members asking us to come over and give a blessing to Christian. And the pair of elders they call is us who have no idea how to get around the city at all. But I mean it's for a blessing so we just head out with the vague directions we were given and just started to find the right hospital. After a little time (and much asking around for directions) we make it to the hospital. The sign on the hospital says "hospital for infectious diseases" . . . that's not a very promising place you want to go to. Especially because it's Romania. Who knows what different types of infectious diseases are here!! So we start walking in and of course the workers at the hospital kept telling us that we weren't allowed in because it was after visiting hours, but after telling them that we were there for a blessing they eventually let us in. That was nice. Then we go and give this sick little 7,8 year old kid a blessing. It was actually pretty cool. Then on Sunday I found out that the kid is back at home feeling a lot better. That was nice to hear too. On Saturday we had this little Christmas Concert that we put on as missionaries. We just got together at the chapel at Mihai Bravu and sang tons of Christmas carols. Elder Duker played the organ. President Hill got up and sang "If I were a Rich Man" from the Fiddler on the Roof. Not really Christmasy, but it was really entertaining to see my mission president with this big fake beard on, dancing around with a broomstick. And of course, Elder Knapp conducted the Choir and sang this awesome solo! Speaking of Elder Knapp, he is leaving back home this week. Today all of Buch had a lunch so that we all could see Elder Knapp and the rest of his MTC group leave. It was definitely weird saying goodbye to all of them and taking my last pictures with them. I will send them later this week! 

I'm glad you liked the pictures that I sent! Actually I'm waiting to get my suit until after Christmas because that's when the sales happen. You know, gotta shop smart and everything. Plus it's not like I'm really needing a suit before Christmas is over anyways. Speaking of Christmas...It's practically here!!! I'll be Skyping you guys soon enough!!! I think what we are trying to do is Skype in the evening time (meaning morning for you guys) on Christmas day. I don't really know the exact time though because I have to coordinate with my companion. I'll fill you guys in on the details of that later though. It sounds like Jourdan is doing great! I'm really glad to hear that he really loved his mission. It must be weird for him being home. Geez momma if you are crying about me now then I can only imagine how many gallons of tears are going to come when I meet you all at the airport! That'll be crazy! Sadly we aren't really teaching anyone. This week Elder Grigore and I are going to try and do an exchange again so that we can teach that one family. But hey the great news is that President Hill is letting us watch 2 movies for Christmas! Hobbit 2 anyone?! I'm not sure when but I'll be watching two movies during these holidays. That'll be fun!! Yeah make sure you keep me updated on that whole Skype account thingy. 

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!! :) 

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

So here are a couple of pictures that I have taken!! 

The first one is just of me sitting on this little ledge thingy. Bucharest has these little river things going through it so I just took a picture next to one. 

The other picture is of my companion, Elder Duker, and I. This was at that Christmas festival where I ate those fish last year with Elder Knapp. I was going to eat the fish again but nobody there was selling them :( 

Elder Barney

Elder Barney and Elder Duker

Okay so after going to the Christmas festival thing we decided to go to this grocery store called Profi. The only reason why is because this new store opened up for the holidays that is made entirely of ice!! All the shelves and walls were ice!! 

And so just for fun I decided to lick the side of the store. It was pretty legit!! 

Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Dear Family!! 

So to start, I did get my packages!! I guess since I'm living here in Buch the office elders didn't bring my packages to transfers cause I would end up at the office eventually. So I got both of them! Plus I also got a package from the ward. We aren't doing the english classes this transfer due to the Christmas and New Year holidays.  We had our zone conference/mission christmas party this past week. It was actually pretty fun! We did a tie exchange, I got to hang out with a lot of missionaries, and also the missionaries who are going to be leaving soon got to go up and bear their testimonies (Elder Knapp and his whole awesome MTC group). It was crazy. This is Elder Knapp's last full week here in Romania. That's crazy!!! 

So speaking of those small sardine fish, I think later today we are going to go to that same place where I had them last year! I might have to get some! :)  So today we were doing our weekly shopping and we decided to get one of those fake little Christmas trees with some decorations. We have to be celebrating Christmas somehow!!! Translating is actually pretty fun. I mean obviously it would be a pain in the neck to go from English to Romanian. Hopefully I'll be able to do that but for now I'll just stick with going from Romanian to English.  Things with Elder Duker have been going good. We have had a lot of just random stuff to do so we haven't had a whole lot of time to be able to do like normal missionary work stuff. We have had bills to pay for multiple apartments, Christmas parties, activities, meetings, and stuff like that. It's great that we are busy though with stuff!!  Hey it was Elder Duker's birthday this past week!! It was on Saturday. I basically had no idea about it until the day before. I guess I just forgot to ask him when his birthday was before figuring it out the day before it happened. So that was pretty fun. I'll be sure to send you a picture this week with Elder Duker and I. One of my goals for this transfer is to take more pictures . . . cause I have been terrible about that. Anywho, Buch is a pretty cool city. It's really big and it's got a metro system. I love the metro. I remember going to New York City (without your permission) and just LOVING the metro system. So yeah Buch is cool. We can't really go into the malls to talk to people about the gospel, so usually we are just on the streets. If it gets too cold then we usually go into a block building with apartments and just try knocking on doors. I can't wait to be able to talk to you guys on Skype and stuff!!! :) 

oh and just so you know momma . . . I haven't unwrapped any of the packages that say "don't open till Christmas"

I love you all so so much!!! 

Monday, December 2, 2013
Dear Family!

Hello there everyone!! It's great to hear from you all again. This week has been pretty crazy training and being in a new city. It's kind of weird but cool at the same time. We are in a new city and the apartment that I am at was only moved into by the missionaries like a week before I did because the mission got new apartments. So the last missionaries didn't really give me any information about where to go for things or anything like that. The nice thing though is that we live right across from the church! That's nice. My companions name is Elder Duker from Iowa.  Basically some things I have found out about him is: he has studied latin since he was 10, he was homeschooled, he has a yeast allergy (so no breads!), and he is just pretty quiet most of the time.  For thanksgiving I didn't really do a whole lot of stuff. We had to go to the visa office to help my companion get a visa so that he can stay in the country. I didn't have any thanksgiving meal of any sort. The only cool thing that happened for Thanksgiving was that Pres Hill gave us permission to watch a movie. So all of the Buch missionaries got together and watched Monster's University. It was super super good!!! I can't really say it was better than Monsters Inc but it was still a really good and funny movie. I still haven't gotten the Thanksgiving package but I think that now that I'm in Buch I have to go to the office to see if there is any mail for me. So I will go and see sometime this week if there is a package for me. I'm glad to hear that all of you had a pretty fun Thanksgiving!! I'm glad to hear that Jourdan is back!! He sent me an email so I will have to see what he wrote. Tell him that I say hello when you go for his homecoming! 

Let's see what else is new . . . there was a cool activity here in Buch last saturday because sunday was the Independence Day of Romania. There was a cool party at one of the churches where there was lots of Romanian food and dancing. It was a lot of fun. Then on sunday we had church which was pretty good. It was pretty weird going to an actual chapel to go to church. Buch is one of the 3 cities in romania that has a chapel. It was pretty nice. For sacrament meeting I had to translate, which meant that I held a microphone in my hand and attempted to translate while the romanians were getting up and bearing their testimonies. There's a couple of people who don't know romanian so that's why we have to do the translations. It was pretty rough at some points but still pretty good. The best part about church though was after sunday school all the members gathered together in the chapel and then we all started singing the national anthem of Romania for their independence day. It was SUPER COOL!! 

I love you so so much!

Tuesday, November 25, 2013
Dear Family!!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!! Wow Thanksgiving is already here!! Soon it's going to be Christmas!! WAAHOO!!! This week was a pretty good week. I guess I can start by telling you guys about what is going to happen next transfer!! Guesses anyone? Cause I promise you won't get it ha ha so on the day when the transfer board was going to come out Pres. Hill called us and told me that I'm going to be going to Buchurest, I'm going to be whitewashed, and my companion is a brand new missionary. I'M TRAINING ... AGAIN!!! I didn't think I would ever be training again! I'm excited though to be going to Buch for a couple of reasons. I have heard that Buchurest is a cool city. There are two branches there. One in a place called Mihai Bravu and the other in Panduri. I'm going to the branch in Panduri. As for here in Sibiu, Elder Covey is staying and Elder Myler is going to be taking my spot here. 

Map from Sibiu to Bucharest

I'm going to try seeing if Elder Knapp can make something delicious for Thanksgiving because Elder Knapp is going to be in Buch too!! Knapp is over in Mihai Bravu, but It's not too difficult to coordinate some type of dinner! The other thing that's cool about having Elder Knapp in Buch is that I'm going to see him right before he leaves to go back home! He is leaving halfway through this transfer to be home for Christmas. 

Let's see what else happened this week . . . I had a member exchange with Eugen! Eugen really really wanted to do an exchange with me. So I went with Eugen for a couple of hours when Covey went with the Branch President. On our little exchange we went to the park and chalked the Plan of Salvation on the ground! It was pretty fun! I took a couple pictures of it so I will try and send them today or sometime later this week. It was pretty fun.  This week at church was pretty good! There were more investigators there than members! We had a total of about 20 people at church. Basically for the 3rd or 4th time of the transfer I gave a talk. It was nice though because I was leaving the branch so I got to get up and tell them about how much I will miss Sibiu. And then of course after my talk Eugen came up and told me all the romanian mistakes that I made (again!). It was good though! 

I love you tons

Monday, November 18, 2013
Dear Family!!

Hello there everyone!!! I'm glad I made your week my sending those pictures! I realize that I don't take enough pictures . . . but oh well. Maybe before my mission ends I will realize all the stuff I need to take pictures of and then just takes millions of pictures!! ha ha Yeah we are still teaching the english classes. We just teach really beginner things. Like on saturday we were teaching the phrase "I like to ..." because it's different to say it in Romanian. In Romanian they say "It pleases me to . . . " (kind of sensual right?) so we just taught them that. It was funny though because one person was like "I like to watch to TV" Cause in Romanian they would say "to TV" instead of "the TV". It's kind of funny to see how romanians would say english stuff . . . and then I remember that I probably sound the same to them with Romanian ha ha 

So this week we find out about the transfer board and then transfers are the day before thanksgiving! So to be honest I think I am going to be leaving Sibiu and go to some different city for Thanksgiving. But we will see what happens. I'll try not to open the Christmas Presents!! But I need to know . . . Am I allowed to open the box and then just some of the stuff that is wrapped up or am I just not allowed to open the package at all! I need to know these things cause there was a great miscommunication last year!! ha ha 

This week we did a ton of missionary work! We had a total of 6 lessons and 19.5 hours of contacting. The most I have ever had in a single week in both of those categories all in the same week. I'm always doing some type of missionary work with Elder Covey. I guess it's good cause we get to just work a lot. This past week the AP's came to Sibiu and I had a good exchange with Elder Davis. It was kind of fun being with him again for a day. This sunday was funny ha ha so the branch president had to be at work so I presided and conducted the meeting! It was kind of fun. Then I was basically the one teaching Sunday School. It's kind of fun to be able to serve in all these little ways that I don't think other missionaries have the chance to do. Like what other missionary has the chance to conduct, preside, bless the sacrament, and teach sunday school?! It's kind of cool :) 

The language is going good. It's always good to understand what people are saying. Like the other day we were talking to this guy on the street and he started to tell us this joke and I understood the whole joke! And I laughed super hard because it was kind of funny, but mostly because I just could understand what it was! I'll have to tell you the joke sometime. I'd write it but I don't feel like writing the whole joke. It's too workfull. I just have to soak up this opportunity to be surrounded by these natives!

Anywho, I love you tons.

Sunday, November 17. 2013
Pictures from Elder Barney

P-Day: On the way to Cristian, Romania

Fortified Saxon Church, Cristian, Romania 

On the way to Sibel,Romania 

Elder Josh Barney

Elder Slemboski, Eugen, Elder Barney - Sibiu, Romania

Sisters & Elders - Sibiu

   Elders & Sisters - Sibiu

Elder Barney, Elder Covey, President and Sora Hill, 

and Sister Missionaries

Elder Covey and Elder Barney

Monday, November 11, 2013
Dear Family!!!

Well hello there everyone! Yeah the english classes are always good. Things are still going for us. We have had a couple of lessons this past week. 3 to be exact. Hopefully we can get at least one progressing investigator out of them. Yeah yeah I'm still trying to keep up a journal!!! I'm writing down all the good stuff that happens ha ha cause to be honest . . . I forget things pretty easily!! ha ha 

Yeah I definitely understand how a European mission is a hard one!! ha ha It sounds like Hungary and Bulgaria would be a hard one. I guess I didn't really realize that President Wilstead is like right next to Romania ha ha he is just a hop, skip, and a jump away! That's crazy though that the government won't let them go up and talk to people about the church. I mean, we don't have permission to do lots of stuff, but whatever. One thing that we have done a lot is having a "survey" to where we stop people and ask them a couple questions about churches. So yeah Europe is hard . . . but at the same time I wouldn't see myself in any other mission or place. I LOVE IT HERE!!! Yeah I was on LDS.ORG the other day and I read that stuff was going down over there in the Philippines. I'm going to have to send Tylan a little email to see what's up. That would be crazy to say that I live through a Typhoon! 

YEAH!!! Another package!!! I always love those packages!! I will definitely try to send you a picture sometime soon in the next couple of days for the Christmas Card. So transfers are going to be the day before Thanksgiving! So we will eventually get the Ensign in a hard copy but it will be a little longer before we get them. It's just kind of random on when we get them as missionaries. 

Hmm lets see what else happened this week . . . we had our interviews with President and Sora Hill this past week! It was pretty good. It's always nice meeting up with them. Another thing is that I gave another talk yesterday at church! I gave one like 2-3 weeks ago but since Sandu (the branch president) couldn't get a hold of some members, he just asked Covey and I to give some talks. So it was pretty good. I just gave a simple talk on faith. 

Love you all so so much! 

Monday, November 4, 2013
Dear Family!! 

Hello there everyone!! Things are still going. We started english classes this past week. The first day was a great success because our whole sacrament room was full of english students! So somewhere between 20-30 people or so. So lots of people came!!  On saturday we only had like 8 people come. But oh well. Maybe there will be more people who come on tuesday so we will just see what happens. 

It was kinda different yesterday at church because the branch president wasn't able to come . . . which since I'm the first counselor I basically was the one presiding at the meeting. Covey was the one who conducted the meeting. It was just weird that I was kind of like the "substitute leader" of the branch for a day. Gotta love small branches! 

I love you all so so so much!!!! :) 

Monday, October 28, 2013

Dear Family! 

Well hello everyone!! This week has been okay. We have basically done nothing but finding people! We did have a zone training meeting which was good. We had a bunch of missionaries over here in Sibiu and it was good to see them all. But yeah other than that all we did was go out and talk to people. These past couple of days we have really tried getting the word out about our english classes. We are starting them again on tuesday so we will see how many people come to the classes. One way we have been getting the word out is through the newspapers here in Sibiu.

But we did have the chance to have one good lesson this past week! It was yesterday actually. One day we were walking through the park talking to people about the english classes when we start talking to this one guy who just starts talking to us in English. We come to find out that this guy isn't romanian. He is actually from the czech republic working here in Sibiu for some company. So after talking with him for a bit he said he was totally down to visit our church and talk with us. So we told him about mormon.org and got his number. Yesterday we were able to meet with Jakub (that's his name) and we got to talk about a lot of things! He talked about how in Czech the majority of the people are atheists because they don't want to belong to a church but that he still believe in a higher power. So we told him about God, Jesus Christ, The restoration, and just a lot of stuff. He looked up a lot of information online on Mormon.org and other websites. So we just answered all his questions. We had an extra book in English so we gave that to him and then ask him to pray. So to close our lesson we knelt down and Jakub said the prayer! And the cool part is that he said that was the first time he has ever prayed! Like ever!! It was really cool. We are going to try and meet with him this weekend when he isn't working. We will see how it goes! 

Anywho, I love you all so so much!!! :) 

Monday, October 21,2013
Dear Family!!! 

Hello there!!! Well I guess first things first, this week we have had transfers. I always love going to transfers in Bucharest to be able to see and hang out with a bunch of missionaries that I usually don't get to see. Although with all the extra meetings and stuff that I have to go to, I spent more than half of last week in Bucharest! But I'm okay with that because it was all pretty fun. It started out with me and Slem traveling to Buch and then staying the night over at Elder Knapps apartment (because Elder Knapp is serving in Buch right now). It was a lot of fun staying over there. It's crazy to think that Elder Knapp is almost done with his mission!! Crazy. Then I eventually got together with Elder Covey and hung out with him for all the meetings and stuff that we had to go to as zone leaders.

It's funny that you say that shopping is boring . . . because something that I have acquired on my mission is that I . . . actually like going shopping now!! ha ha Maybe it's due to the fact that one of the common things we do on p-days is just go to the mall. Like today for example, we are going to the mall sometime today cause Covey wants to get a coat! 

Hey so I actually got the Halloween Package!! Plus!! I also got this other package thing that had a Ranger Rick magazine with some letters from the Primary kids!! I thought that was pretty cool!!! Primary kids are always the best!!

Hmm lets see what else happened this week. Oh so yesterday I gave a talk in Church!!! I did it on Scripture study.  It was funny because all during the talk I thought I was speaking really good and really getting my point out there . . . but then after sacrament meeting (one of the members) came over to me and was like "Hey your talk was pretty good . . . but here is all the things you said wrong" and then just told me about a ton of mistakes that I was making throughout my whole talk!!! Geez right when I think I'm doing great I get reminded that I keep messing up!! ha ha but hey that's how you learn right?! 

I love you so so much!! :) 

Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Dear Family!

Hello!!! So first of all, I found out about what is going to happen for next transfer. I'm going to be staying here in Sibiu as a zone leader and my companion is going to be Elder Covey. The living seven habits of highly effective people. I've been on exchanges with him and Elder Covey is a really nice guy and a really good missionary . . . he's just a machine. 

Hey so this week I got the halloween cards that you guys sent!! It was pretty cool getting 4 letters all at the same time!! And I must have forgotten to tell you guys that I did get the small package that you sent with the In n Out stuff from my hump day!!! I'm kind of surprised that you went out to the Rainbow Sign company to go talk with the people who saw me!! ha ha especially cause I only saw them for like a minute! I feel like they wouldn't really have a whole lot to talk about only after a minute. But hey that's still cool that you talked to them for a bit! Yeah of course she thought that Romania was the most beautiful place!!!! :)

So I had a really cool opportunity to be able to conduct a baptismal interview this past week! So the district leader companionship in Brasov (one of the cities in our zone) had someone who needed a baptismal interview so the zone leaders (meaning us!) had to go and do the interview! Since Elder Slemboski has already done an interview in the past, he let me do this one. It was actually really cool!! The guys name was Jora but for some reason I kept forgetting it during the interview so he said I could just call him John. Anywho, it was kind of cool to be able to see someone who actually wanted to become converted to the gospel and be baptized! I mean, the only convert baptism that I have seen was Elena back in my 2nd transfer in Constanta so it was nice to be able to see another person who wanted to change! 

Also since I am going to go to Bucharest this week I really hope that my halloween package will be there waiting for me!! 

I love you so so much!! :)

Monday, October 7, 2013
Dear Family!! 

Hello there everyone!! I hope everything is going just wonderful for you guys! This past week we basically had our zone conference and then general conference for the weekend . . . so we didn't really have a lot of time for proselyting. Today though before internet we did something that was super duper awesome for P-day!!!! We decided that we would venture out and visit the small little communities that are around Sibiu!! So we went out to the outskirts of the city, stuck out a small piece of cardboard, and stuck our hitchhiking thumbs until somebody picked us up! Hitchhiking was a pretty fun experience!! So (since you guys can google these places) the first place we hitchhiked to was called Cristian. There was this cool church around the center of the city. So we got some cool pictures of that! Then we got another Hitchhike to a small place called Orlat. We stopped there for a little bit and then started to hitchhike to our next destination when this woman in a wooden horse carriage came and picked us up!! A lot of the poorer romanians have these horse drawn carriages and I have always wanted a ride in one! So we got a ride from Orlat to Sibiel. Sibiel was awesome to visit!! Sibiel is one of the most cultural places in all of romania (meaning it has retained most of the original romanian culture). Actually all the places we visited were like that. Then after seeing the streets of Sibiel we hitchhiked to our last destination called Saliste. We just hung out there for a bit and then took our last hitchhike back to Sibiu!! It was a ton of fun! AND!!! I took some pictures!! So I will try to send them if I can!

This is a map of Elder Barney's hitchhiking adventure, seriously!?!

don't know if this is mission approved....

Yeah we were able to watch some of conference!! I watched the two sessions from Saturday and then the first session on Sunday. I still haven't seen the Priesthood session though. Oh so I guess I should tell you that we find out about transfers this week! I'm pretty sure that Slemboski is going to be leaving . . . he only has one transfer left and I don't think they would keep him as a zone leader for his last transfer. But hey I guess we will see what happens!! 

I love you all so so much!!!!

Friday, October 4, 2013

Yeah I am still having some problems with the pictures . . . but I think I was able to send you at least two of them. One of them is a picture with my "dad" Elder Knapp, my "son" Elder Hokkanen, and my "grandson" Elder Lenhart! 

The other picture is of me on one of the streets of Sibiu! 

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Hello there family!! 

Well first of all I just want to say that I love you all so so much!!!! I know it was over a week ago from when I last wrote you guys. I blame President though because he was the one who scheduled zone conference to be on our p-day. It was a really great though!! I had a lot of fun. Although I'm sorry to break your guys' hearts, but I'm pretty sure that I didn't take any pictures at the zone conference ha ha not a single one!!! Yeah I know that I am terrible at taking pictures and sending them home. I just don't have the chef to do it!! Chef means like "willpower" or "energy" or something along those lines in Romanian. And no, it doesn't sound like the english word dealing with people who make food ha ha it sounds like khef (not the ch sound!)

Anywho, the zone conference was great!! Sora Hill talked about the history of what happened during the apostasy and a lot about how the different churches were created and about how paganism affected how a lot of religious work (and especially noting the Romanian Orthodox Religion because that's what we are faced with here!). It was really interesting!! President Hill talked a lot about goals and using our time wisely. The AP's talked about contacting (cause that's like all we do). All in all, it was a very great zone conference!! It dealt with a lot of things that are actually applicable for all us missionaries!! Like in times past they might have talked about something like "how to teach the commandments" or something along those lines . . . but not everyone has investigators to teach the commandments to (like me!). So it was just good that this time around President and everyone talked about stuff that we can actually apply here in the mission! 

So yeah Elder Slemboski is going to be my first companion that will head home! He heads home the day before thanksgiving! The lucky duck gets to be home with his family for thanksgiving!! I really hope I get that halloween package before halloween!! That would be really great!! I'm glad to hear that you guys spotlight a couple of missionaries every now and again. You will have to keep me updated on how all the missionaries are doing while you do this. Ha ha um of course the little kids don't care about the number of people who come to church here!! Ha ha transylvania is a lot more fun for them!!! I really hope to visit Dracula's Castle in the coming weeks. We will try to see if we can plan something to head there!!! Cause there is a 100% chance that I will take some pictures if I go there!!! ;) ha ha 

The english classes are going pretty good!! We barely got back from Arad (the city we went to for zone conference) when we had to head over to the church for english . . . and then only one person showed up! It's because of the rain though. Since half the people walk by foot, when it rains nobody wants to go outside. I mean, I don't blame them!! I'm the same ha ha But yeah english is going good. I wish there were more ways for us do to service though. We don't get a whole lot of chances to do service. Geez with all the work you guys are doing to the house; the house is going to be a whole new place when I get home!!! Partay!! I definitely call mowing the lawn when I get back!!! I will need the extra money!! ha ha 

I'm glad you are proud of me momma!!! That's always good to hear. I absolutely LOVE my mission. Yeah it may be hard with the actual "missionary work" (like only having like 1 lesson [in a language I understand] for the past 2 transfers), but the experiences I have had here are just awesome. The language is aşa şi aşa (meaning so so). To be honest, I don't really have a whole lot of chances to speak Romanian during the day. Like obviously I try to talk to people on the street, but that just involves a couple second/minute conversation about the fact that I am a missionary. So yes I constantly try to learn new words . . . I just don't really have much of an opportunity to use them . . . and then I forget them ha ha but what can I do! I understand almost everything I hear though. That's pretty helpful! Hopefully overtime I can just incorporate all the stuff that I hear. Anywho, Yeah I can't believe that it is already october!!! Not that I'm counting down or anything, but I only have about 10 months until I have HOME!!! Partay!!! Still a ways away, but still time moves sooooo fast that it won't seem like too long. 

Yeah we had another run in with some tourists from the states! All mormons who just treated us like we were the greatest thing ever! They bought us some lunch and then we showed them around the church. I think they might have been a little surprised about the size of us here in Sibiu. 

I LOVE YOU ALL SO SO MUCH!!

Monday, September 23, 2013
Dear Family!! 

Okay so listen to this!!!! Last week during extra internet time I was determined to send you all some pictures!! So I brought my converter and everything . . . but when I started plugging it all in, the computer started to freeze and it wouldn't work!! I dunno why it was like that. I guess the computers at this internet cafe aren't that great for transfering pictures. So I'm sorry to say that you might have to wait a little while longer for some pictures!! SORRY (GILLY!!)

So besides pictures, things are going pretty good. Yeah I'm glad that you got that picture that Davis took of me!! It's definitely crazy how there are connections to mormons everywhere around the world!! You can find us anywhere!!! Sibiu is great!! The city is beautiful and everything just seems nicer than the other places I have served at here in Romania. We just walk everywhere here in Sibiu. So we have to walk between 5-10 minutes to get to centru. I haven't yet spoken in church yet, but we will see when I actually give a talk!! My guess is that it will be sometime soon. 

Well that's about it for me family!! I wish I could send pictures!! I will try again soon!!! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Monday, September 16, 2013
Dear Family!

Well hello there family!! I just want you all to know that I miss you all so so so much!! The mission is going great though. Nothing really much has changed, but things are just good. This week has been a lot of finding efforts (as every week seems to be). We have been trying to talk to many people about our english classes so that more people can come. And again, I don't have my converter for pictures. I'm sorry momma!! I will try to remember to bring it when I come next time to internet. Well we haven't really conducted any meetings. I think the branch president just does it everytime. It's funny because the branch president conducts, I'm sitting at the sacrament table by myself, and Slemboski is playing the piano. Then when it comes time for the sacrament the branch president comes and sits next to me to bless and then Slemboski has to get up from the piano to head over on the other side of the sacrament table so that he can pass. Then after the sacrament is done we all get up and sit up in front of the congregation. Ha ha it's like we play musical chairs or something for church! Well speaking of baggage stuff, one of my suitcases has been broken basically since I have been in the country. The wheels on the bottom just got destroyed so I basically drag it instead of having it roll on wheels. But so far all my stuff has been fitting in them so that is good! We only have two other companions to do exchanges with and so we just have to figure out when we are going to do that this transfer. Actually one of the companionships are going to come to us this week. So it's not like we are really going out and about to do exchanges and stuff like that. Yeah Elder Slemboski and I are having a great time! This transfer is going to be a lot of fun! My language skills are still coming. My time in Chisinau has really hurt my language skills mainly because I had no opportunities to speak in Romanian in Chisinau. So speaking right now is actually harder than it was but I'm slowly getting back to par. Yeah I have no idea what is going to happen for general conference. We will just have to see what happens! 

Well you could say hello in many different ways. You could just say Alo (Awe-low). But usually when I say hello to someone I say Buna Ziua (Boo-nuh Zee-Wah) which means Good Day. So will let you pick which one you want to choose. 

This week there was something totally crazy that happened!!! We were just walking along in centru talking to people about english classes when all of a sudden we hear this shout of "Elders!". So we turn around to see who called us and we find that there are this group of like 30 americans, all from Utah, who are here on some type of tourist trip or something like that. It was super crazy because the next thing we know they started treating us like we were celebrities or something like that!! They were asking us where we were from, asking about the work, taking pictures of us, and they even managed to give Elder Slemboski 20 dollars so we could go buy a dinner!! It was super crazy!!! We were talking about it after the group left and we had to "regroup" and realize what just went down!! ha ha It reminded us on how different cultures are from america to here in Romania. Like, never has a romanian come up to us and like talked to us in such a friendly manner about the work we are doing and such. It just reminded us about how americans really are and such. Oh and then the next day we were walking towards the church and there was an american couple (see picture below) and so the same thing happened again!! Took pictures with them and they gave us money so that we could go buy some food!!! Gosh I'm sure that missionaries in Utah get their whole missions paid for by just walking down the street and going out to eat all the time. ha ha 

I LOVE YOU ALL SO FREAKING MUCH!!!!!! 

Elder Josh Barney

Picture taken and emailed by

 Steve Davis, Rainbow Sign and Banner, St. George Utah

Monday, September 9, 2013
Dear Family!!! 

This week was a pretty good week! We were in Bucharest for most of the time because of transfers and meetings. It was pretty fun though! I'm back to being a zone leader. Being a zone leader is pretty fun . . . sometimes! Ha ha We have a lot of work that we have been doing because we have meetings to plan and things to do. Actually something that are mission is going to start doing is we are going to start recording the amount of hours we contact and the amount of BOM that we give out. We are adding those numbers to the key indicators. Apparently President Hill recognizes that we hardly get any numbers during the week. Like there have been many weeks where we get all zeros and such. So he is adding these two numbers to the list so we can see how much work we are actually doing. We will see how that goes. But things should start getting not as "workfull" soon. We actually didn't take a train ride to Sibiu (pronounced Sea-Be-You) because they are working on the trains or something like that. So we took a bus there. Sibiu is a beautiful place!! I will have to take some pictures of the centru area today if we go pass there. The buildings that are here just seem more nice and clean. The branch is pretty small . . . small enough to where I got called yesterday to be the first counsellor of the branch! We have a branch president here but us Elders get put as his counsellors. So my companion is the second counsellor. Yeah that letter from Moldova was written by the Schwartz. They are the missionary senior couple who are in Chisinau. I'm glad it put a great smile on your face momma!!

Monday, September 2, 2013
Dear Family!!!!

I LOVE YOU ALL SO SO MUCH!!!!! 

Hello family!! So this week was pretty good! My last full week here in Chisinau has ended!! I found out that both Elder Reid and I are leaving Chisinau!! So any guesses about where I'm going?! 

Well if you guessed somewhere in Transylvania then you are totally correct!! I'm going to go to a city called Sibiu!!! I'm actually really excited because I have heard that Sibiu is an awesome place! My companion is pretty awesome too!! His name is Elder Slemboski! I'm excited to go to Sibiu, but to be honest I'm kinda sad to be leaving Chisinau! I have had such a great time here. We have had tons of fun with different activities and stuff like that. This second time being here in Chisinau has been a lot better than the first. Actually speaking of my first time in Chisinau, Elder Hollist (my companion the first time I was here) is actually going to come back here and train a new missionary here in this area! So that's kind of cool that both Elder Hollist and I were able to come back to Moldova for a second time. Yeah so sorry about taking some pictures. I haven't really thought about taking a lot of pictures yet. I will probably do it today though just cause it is my last day here. I will definitely have to send you a letter in Romanian!!! That would be great language study for me and then you guys can try figuring out what it says ha ha :) 

Lizzy has been meeting with Elders Farnworth and Westover. Lizzy was meeting with the sisters here, but now she wants to meet with the Elders. Anywho, so when the other elders have had lessons with her they usually ask us to go and help them out with the lesson. So this past week we have had 2 lessons with them. They have been some pretty good lessons actually!! Lizzy was being taught about stuff when I was here in Moldova the first time. Back then she only believe in some "greater power". But now she actually believes that God exists! It's kind of cool to see how different of a person that she is and how much she has progressed. I can definitely see her getting baptized someday. Hopefully she continues to progress with Elders Farnworth and Westover! 

from Chisinau, Moldova to Sibiu, Romania

Monday, August 26, 2013
Well hello there everyone!!!! Yeah once again I forgot to take pictures . . . so I don't have any. Sorry!!!

Yeah so now I am with Elder Reid. We reopened a new area so no other missionaries were there but they have been there in the past. Which basically means we have no investigators!! And finding them at this time of the year is very difficult because it's right before school starts which means everyone and their dog are on vacation. So yeah we are just trying to work to find some people. We are still in Chisinau. Elder Reid is a romanian speaking missionary. Elder Reid was in my same MTC group back when I was in the MTC a year ago. 

Speaking of which, I have offically been out on my mission for longer than a year!!! PARTAY!!!!!!!!

So yeah I didn't do much of anything on my year mark. We have just been getting settled into this new part of the city and trying to move all our stuff and get everything situated. So that was what my year mark consisted of. We had a chance to go over to that Preschool and do some more service for them! We are also heading back there tomorrow to do some more service before the school year starts up (which it starts at the beginning of next month) to be honest, I can't believe this time of year is already here. I mean, before we know it I'm going to be talking to you guys on Skype for Christmas!! Oh that steak sounds SOOOOOOOOOO good right now. I haven't had a real good steak in a very long time. 

Something that has been really great about Chisinau is all the activities that we have been doing. For the past little bit there have been these awesome activites for investigators to go to and such. Like one of them is sports night which is where we all gather and play some sports. This past week our sports night consisted of awesome water gams which concluded with this awesome water balloon fight!! It was super fun. Then other activites just include playing games and having food inside the church. Activites are great just because it's a time for investigators and members and us missionaries to just hang out and have fun. We still have our english classes. Elder Reid and I don't really have an english class so we just go join Elder Farnworth and his new companion Elder Westover in their english class. We find out about transfers this week so we will see where I am going. President told me right before I was getting put with Elder Reid that I would be leaving to go be a zone leader somewhere back in Romania. So I guess we will just see what happens!! 

Well that's everything for me!! I love you all a lot!!! :) 

THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 2013
HAPPY HUMP DAY!! 

         ELDER JOSH BARNEY

YOUR HALF WAY THERE!!

Monday, August 19, 2013
Dear Family!

Well happy hump week everyone!!!! I can't believe that thursday is my official hump day!!! PARTAY!!!!!! I will have to take a picture with my hump shirt and my awesome camel. This week we have to change things up a bit because there are 2 new russian elders coming in to the mission. So Elder Farnworth is going to train one of them and what is going to happen is that I am going to go to a different part of the city here with Elder Reid. Elder Reid right now is in a different city here in Moldova. So we are both being put into an area that we have no idea where things are ha ha Elder Reid is actually in my MTC group. Which is cool because we will be serving together on our year marks. Although, When President Hill told me all about what is going to happen, he said that I'm only going to be in Moldova for 2 more weeks (when the transfer actually ends). He said that once I leave here he is going to put me into a zone leader position somewhere else in Romania. So for now I just get to enjoy being whitewashed in a new area. I'm glad you like the pictures I sent. Yeah those european shirts really show off the gut that I have spent many meals trying to achieve! ha ha 

Well we did have this cool chance to do service this past week!! We went over to a preschool/kindergarten and helped clean up and paint some stuff!!! It was a lot of fun!! We are actually going over there again tomorrow to do some more stuff. The other elders took some pictures but I personally didn't take any. I will have to try and take some tomorrow when I'm there!!! Things are going good though. It's seems to be getting darker earlier in the day, which means that summer is coming to an end and winter is just around the corner. 

Well that is about it for me this week. I will have to send some pictures when I have the chance. I seriously can't believe that a year ago I started this journey. And in less than a year I will be done with it. I love the mission and for all the things I have learned so far, and I'm sure I will learn even more. But I can't deny the fact that I miss you guys terribly!! I can't wait to be home to enjoy being with you all. Oh well . . . that will have to wait just a little bit!! :) 

I LOVE YOU ALL SO SO MUCH!!!!! 

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Well like I promised, I have a couple pictures for you!! 

So the first one is me in this little forest area.

second - Me and my companion sitting on a bench at a park. I look kinda weird cause I was taking the picture ha ha 

We were at a park and there was this guy who was doing some magic tricks. He actually knew some english and we got to talk to him for a bit. So we decided to get a picture with him. But to be honest, we were all wanting to get a picture with him because he had some very good looking hair!! The picture just doesn't do it justice!! ha ha 

And this is where we have church!! 

Monday, August 12, 2013
Dear Family!!!

Hello there everyone!!! :) It's great to hear from all of you. Well I'm going to start off the bat by saying that I forgot my converter for pictures so I can't send you any this week!! Sorrrry (Gilly)!!! I still haven't taken any of the apartment so I will try to remember to take some. This week has been pretty good! The only lessons we have really had were basically in Russian. Hearing russian all the time and not having an opportunity to speak Romanian is definitely making my Romanian skills worse. I guess that's the difficult part of being with a companion who speaks a different language and living in a place where they mostly speak a different language. But we still have fun!!!! Actually in like a week and a half there are going to be 2 new russian speaking missionaries coming here to Moldova so President is going to have to change some companionships around. I probably won't be with Elder Farnworth anymore and who knows if I will still be in Moldova! ha ha I guess we will have to see. Church was pretty good. It was mostly in Russian, except for the Pinders who spoke in church. The Pinders were the Humanitarian missionary couple who was serving here. It was their last sunday here in Moldova so they talked. They headed back to the USA this morning. So out here in Moldova there are 3 Romanian speaking Elders and 2 Romanian speaking sisters. The other 7 Elders here in Moldova are Russian speaking elders. I haven't really heard from Elder Knapp just cause he is back in Romania, but I do know that he goes home like a week before Christmas. He hardly has any time left on the mission!! Which is crazy because I remember serving with him like it was yesterday, but in reality that was 10 months ago. That's nuts!! 

Everyday we just try finding people to teach and just do work! 

Well that's about it for me everyone!!! Have a great week this week!! I promise to send you pictures . . . soon!!!! :)

Monday, August 5, 2013
Dear Family!

Hello family!! It's great to hear from you (as always). Things are going pretty good here in Chisinau! We had a couple of lessons this past week. Mainly with our investigator named Dima. He's a pretty cool kid. He just can't really sit for more than 5 seconds without doing something to mess up lessons.  Oh and Dima only speaks russian which means I can't really contribute to the lessons that we have with him. Basically that is how all our lessons have been. Mainly just in Russian. Oh well!! ha ha things are going pretty good. We usually cook things together. One of our favorite meals is eating pasta with this italian sauce stuff called pesto. Throw some chicken in there and it is delicious!! We have gone out to a couple of food places, but nothing that has like "authentic moldovean food". Mainly just some pizza places and some clatite places. The weather is pretty good. I have no idea what temperature, but I'm not DYING of heat like I have in the past. So I guess it has been pretty good! No we don't have a car. Basically the only missionaries who have cars are the missionaries who serve at the mission office and the AP's. The branch here in Chisinau is a LOT bigger than the one in Craiova. We had about 65-70 people at church yesterday . . . but mainly that was because this american family showed up because the family went and picked up their missionary who was serving in Austria and then came and visited here in Moldova because one of the family members served here. But nevertheless, the branch is a lot bigger here! I actually think that there is a primary here. But I mean, it would only have like 3 kids in it. I loved everthing that was put in the package!!! Very creative (as usual!) and just a lot of good stuff!! I seriously can't believe that my halfway point of my mission is actually becoming a reality. It's kinda crazy! And from what I have heard, the second half of the mission goes even faster than the first. So we will see what happens! 

I really don't have a whole lot to say. We just keep working and going. We will see if there is more interesting stuff that happens this coming week!!! Anywho, I love you all!!!!! :)