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!!!!! :)