Letter #60

Hello Hello boys and girls!

 

Well, there has been some surprising news that I am very excited to share with you! This cycle came to an end today and I am not with elder fan any more. I am sad about that! Elder fan was a great comp! We really had some good times together. He taught me so much. He is now with elder near and I am with elder Faulkner. We just switched for some reason, very strange. I am excited to see what comes out of it. I was really sad at first because elder fan has been helping me so much with my Chinese and we get along really well! But elder Faulkner is really good at Chinese too. In fact, natives will even come up to him sometimes and ask him what the best way is to say things. They will even ask him what certain characters are sometimes. I think that he could really help me a lot.  (just FYI... Elder Faulkner is related to the Dustin Family ;) -darci

 

Elder fan and I had a great last week together. In a way I guess you could say we really “burned the midnight oil”. We were able to meet with Eric again and it very well. I was so surprised that he came back. The way he left it with us last week is that he would see how he felt after he read, then give us a call. A lot of times people will say that but not read and not come back. But he did! He said that he read the chapter that we assigned him to read but it was hard for him to understand because he did not fully understand when the book of Mormon was taking place. So, when we met with him this last time, we drew two time lines on a chalkboard. One of them was representing the book of Mormon and the other representing the bible. We started from the begging around the time frame of the prophet Jeremiah and Lehi and his family leaving Jerusalem and went all the way down to the life of Jesus Christ. I have to say I really liked teaching it that way. I have never done it like that on my whole mission but it went really well. The spirit was so strong and I felt that it was described very clear.

After we shared our lesson with him, he said I have to be honest with you… this whole faith thing is a little hard for me sometimes. We asked him what he meant by that and he began to explain. He said that for Americans it is easy to believe in ideas like this. We grow up in a culture that promotes imagination and hope. In china it is not like this. In china they are raised with logic. Eric is a science major! He also attended law school! He is very educated. We then asked him if he thinks that faith is a good thing. You could see him go into deep thought about this question. He then replied that it is. In his opinion, faith gives us hope and helps us through a society of changing values. He said that we need things like scriptures to keep us on track. At this point, I was so amazed how the spirit had completely led him to figure out the answers to his own questions. He then looked up and said, how can we test our faith and know if things are real or not? Before I could even speak, I looked down and my hands had turned to Alma chapter 32! It was crazy! If I had done it my way it probably would have been some boring speech based off my experience as a twenty-year-old kid. I think I like the way it worked out better! The scripture answered his question perfectly and made him understand the power of the book. He ended up coming to church the following Sunday! I was so amazed… I can’t believe how good things are going with him.

 

Well I spent a lot more time talking about Eric then I had planned! But things are going so good! I really love my mission… it is amazing all of the things that you learn out here! I hope you all have a good week!

 

Until next time, this is elder Barton signing off.

Letter #59

Hello Hello!

 

I am reporting live from china town chapel today! I just found out that we are allowed to use this computer today! This environment really beats the underground Internet cafe! That place is so crazy! I come out of there with a headache every time! You can only handle so much screaming in Chinese about world of war craft! I love our church it is the best. It is also raining today which I am really excited about! The streets of china town really needed a cleaning! Layers of dried fish guts cover the streets of china town, so I think this will be great!

Elder fan and I had another great week in china town. We have been working so hard! It is so cool being with elder fan because both of us are the exact same age in the mission, so we are ready to get out there and work! This week, Eric came and met with us! Eric is the guy that we street contacted over by the top of the rock! I was so surprised! For some reason, I really did not think that it was going to happen. I called him on Friday and he did not answer. I left a message for him saying that we would love to meet with him the following day and he called back the next day saying that he would love to come down and meet with us. He is a very educated guy. Educated in the sense of the world, but when it came to church, god, Jesus Christ; he knew nothing. He had heard a lot of small facts but I don't think that he was ever able to put them all together. As we went thought the lesson with him, you could see his curiosity continue to grow. My favorite part of the lesson was when we talked about the book of Mormon. The spirit was so strong! We could feel it and we could tell that he was feeling it! It was great, one of the top lessons on my mission for sure. When he left, he said that he needs some time to think about all of the things that he had just learned. We are going to give him a call this weekend and see how he is doing.

This week all of the missionaries in my zone sang for a group of young men and young women. They were at an activity called the mini mtc. The idea was so that they could see what a mission would be like. They had some opportunities to teach and I think that they even went out street contacting! I thought that was intense! You never know what is going to happen street contacting in the city! I really enjoyed this activity. It made me think of when I was getting ready to go on my mission. The doubts, fears, and excitement all mixed together into a casserole of mixed emotions. My favorite part of the activity was one of the speakers. He was a recent convert to the church, who went out and served a mission. You could really see how the Gospel had changed his life and the life of his family. And not only that, but all of the people that he shared the Gospel with on his mission. This really made me feel good. It doesn't matter how many people that we convert but what they do with the message after they receive it. It has to be the best feeling in the world when a recent convert brings a friend to church! Those are the people that are truly converted! The people that want to share the Gospel with others!

This week we had one of our investigators bring a friend to learn about the church! Right when we saw him, he said that he wanted to be baptized. As cool as this sounds, it usually means that they want to get baptized to help them get a green card. And in this case, it was! He started to ask us if after he is baptized he would have proof that he was baptized. These situations are always so hard. We can never deny any one the right of being baptized, we can just hope that the Gospel will do what it does best and convert them. Change them into saints! I really hope that it will. Elder Fan and I both noticed he had a dark countenance about him. Part of the reason may have been his purple hair and black fingernails! We hope that the Gospel will help him! It will be interesting to see what happens!

Well I am sorry this week was kinda short! But we are going to see the crime museum this week and I am really excited! Thank you so much for all of the love and support! I sure do love you guys! Have a great week! Until next time!

Elder Barton

Letter #58

Hello hello everyone!

 

Well this week was just fantastic! Elder fan and I worked really hard and it really paid off for us! The best part of the week was that we had a baptism! Those are always the best! It was the husband of hou jie mei, lin di xiong! He is a really cool guy! He met with us every day this last week and was able to be baptized on that Sunday! We were so happy for him! He was able to quit smoking in that short amount of time! I really believe it was because of his faith! It was amazing how even in that short week; you could just see a new light in his eyes. We have not been able to see him again this week but we gave him a call and everything is still going great. Before he was baptized, I looked over at him dressed in all white sitting next to his wife. His wife was baptized two weeks ago. The spirit came over me so strong as I tried to picture these two preparing to go into the temple and how much that this one small choice would really change their life. I am so happy I was able to meet those two.

We had a really cool lesson with one of our recent converts this week. Her name is Ellen. She is 17 years old and is the only member in her family. She joined the church about six months ago. A little bit after I left to go up to Connecticut. She is truly incredible! She does not have any support from her family but she continues to try her best! She even goes to seminary despite the fact that it is a long slow subway ride to get there and she has to wake up really early. She met with us and told us that she does not feel like she is ready to go into the temple because she said that she does not feel worthy. She said there are some weeks that she is not able to come to church and she is too tired to go to seminary sometimes. She then continues to explain that the temple is a serious place and it should not be taken likely. Elder Fan and I went speechless. I never have seen someone take the temple so seriously. I think often times we will take that place for granted and really forget how special it is. But we also explained to her that she is doing great. She is trying her best to do all of the many things that are placed on her plate. I think the reason that we are given so many things to do is so that we will not be able to do all of them! If it were easy, there would be no need for the atonement of Jesus Christ. But, as we began to rely on him, to help us with our burdens, life becomes a whole lot easier. We learn that these things are real! Not just something we talk about for fun!

Street contacting this week was very fun! We met some great people! There was one day that elder fan and I decided we wanted to go to top of the rock area, over on 47th street. The Chinese missionaries cover the whole island but it is very rare that we leave because it is harder to find Chinese people. But this day we were feeling kinda crazy. When we first got up there it really was not going that well. We ran into a few Chinese people but none that were willing to listen to us. We ran into some really nice members that were here for a younger adults conference but other than that nothing. But then finally I saw a Chinese man walking slowly looking down at the ground. I walked up to him and started talking to him in English (just in case he was not Chinese.) He responded back in perfect English. He was really not interested at all in what I had to say. Even though in my mind there was no way this guy was Chinese, I gave it a shot and asked. He said that he was! And we started to talk in Chinese! His eyes lit up and he became so excited! He really opened up! He is a lawyer from Bei Jing and has a couple friends that are Mormon. He said that he would love to meet with us and talk about our church! I was so excited! After we talked with him, we did not talk with one more Chinese person! It was like we just needed to go there that one time to find that one guy!

A plane flew over the top of china town this week and wrote "last chance" in the sky. Elder fan and I went inside to take cover, thinking that a bomb was about to hit china town. Then we realized it was talking about a sale at a local store! That was a relief! There was also a fire in china town this week! That was pretty cool to see! There was no need to fear dragons were here! The fire department in china town calls themselves “the dragons”! I have no idea why! Dragons make fire; they do not put it out! I also met a man this week that had a pigeon on his shoulder! I walked up to him and began to talk with him. He said that pigeons are smarter than dogs and he has two that will fly away and come back to him! As he talked to me, the bird flew onto my shoulder! He got so excited and said that means he can trust me because the bird has never done that to any one else! I have to say I felt very loved! We had a great conversation about the church! I was also on a Japanese TV show this week! It was some cooking channel thing! They would give me random Japanese cooking utensils then have me guess how one would use it! They were laughing at me so hard and I have no idea why! So I am probably famous in Japan now!

Those are just some of the weird things that happened this week! Well, I sure do love you guys! Thanks for all of the love and support! I hope that you guys are all having a great week! Talk to you next week!

Elder Barton

Letter #57

Hello everyone!

Well this week was what we like to call a little bit of a tougher week. We spent a lot of time rolling up the sleeves and getting to work, but did not see much success. We had one guy that was willing to come up to the church though and listen to a lesson, which really in a sense makes the whole entire week worth it. Regardless of the challenge I still love street contacting. It is the best. I think the reason that it is so awesome is just indescribable. You see all of these people walking around holding in so much pain and sorrow, and it is so nice to walk up and tell them how they can lift those pains and sorrows. If only more people would listen to us when we talk.
This week a few of the people that I contacted a long time ago in Chinatown showed up and are going to be taught again, this really made me so happy! Elder Near and Elder Faulkner are going to teach them, because they are the ones that took over my old companionship, but I am still excited for them. I would tell you which ones they were, but I doubt you would be able to remember because it was such a long time ago. It is crazy how timing sometimes is everything in peoples journey through the gospel. Then at the right time people will decide that the gospel is right for them. I was thinking about the analogy that is often made between missionaries and fisherman this week, and realized that it is not always correct. Fisherman will often hall in many fish at the same time, using huge nets, and large machines. On my mission so far this has not been the case. We are also known as harvesters. Well during the time of a harvest, many rewards are reaped, and all at the same time. I feel that in some missions this is accurate. I know that many who serve in South America or other Spanish-speaking missions will see much success, kind of like the fisherman or the harvester. I feel like I am a hunter. Now I am not saying this to sound gnarly, or because it sounds cool, but this is really just how I feel. A hunter will work long hours stealth and swiftly searching for his prey. Some days he might not have any success but, when he finally does make his attack he feels a true feeling of success that cannot be described. I hope that everyone reading this understands that it is an analogy, I am not running around Chinatown with face paint on and a machete.
I loved conference this week! I got so much out of it. It is amazing how if we prepare ourselves to hear the word of the Lord, we really can receive revelation. There were so many talks that I felt like I was having a one on one conversation with the speaker, like it was directed right towards me. One talk that particularly stood out to me was by Dieter Uchtdorf. He talked about the people through out history who have not been written about. The people that just do what is right and willingly follow the word of the Lord. I thought about some of the people that are very briefly mentioned in the Book of Mormon. For example, the small group that follows Alma into the wilderness after Abinadi was executed, or the one person that was converted when Alma and Amulek preached to the Lamanites. What faith it took on these people's behalf. They were really true Christians. Elder Uchtdorf encouraged us to not worry about our reputation with man, but worry about our standing with God. He said that God does not care if we work in marble halls or stable halls, He loves all of His children the same. Compared to God we are nothing, but to God we are everything. Pretty incredible! What an amazing Heavenly Father we have.
I also wanted to say thank you so much for all the love I received for my birthday! That was so nice of you guys. I have to be honest; it felt so good to know how many people support me out here. I got amazing letters and pictures from the primary, I loved them all so much! I received some very nice letters from the Relief Society as well. It was so great to hear from all of you. I keep you in my prayers constantly. I really hope that all is still going well. I sure do love you all.
Well, it is time for me to go and spread the word! Have a great week, and I look forward to talking to you next week!
Elder Barton

Letter #56

Hello hello everyone!

 

Well this was another great week in china town! I love this place. Our baptisms last Sunday went so well! Hou jie Mei is what we like to call a feisty one. She came in and wanted to be baptized in a week but at first I really don’t think that she understood why. She had a friend getting baptized and she just knew that Christianity was a good thing.  In our lessons we would try hard to get her to feel the spirit, but it was hard for us to really get her attention. It was not until se received the gift of the Holy Ghost that you could just see it hit her. We had to confirm right after the baptism because we are having general conference this weekend so we did not want to wait two weeks. Our ward mission leader put his hands on her head and confirmed her. He was completely overcome by the spirit. He did not know anything about her background. As he started to confirm her, he talked about her like they were best friends. The spirit was so strong. When she looked up from being confirmed, there were tears in her eyes. She held her heart and said my heart is beating so fast.. It was perfect! It was just what she needed to be completely converted to the gospel. Her husband wants to be baptized next week, so we are excited for that as well.

This week, we also decided we needed to find some more investigators, so we spent a lot more time contacting. We did not find a ton of people but I am very excited about the ones that we did find. They were all very nice. One of my favorite finds was named Yin…she was from Beijing. It is very rare that we meet people from Beijing… people around here are usually from southeast china, but people from there are always funny. They love it when you tell them that they have very educated Chinese. It makes them all happy. So when I first walked up to this lady, she was not really very interested. She said that she had a church and she did not need to find another one. I had a feeling just to try to get to know her. The more questions I asked about her, the slower and slower she walked, until finally she came to a complete stop. We talked on the side of the busy street for about 30 minutes. She really started to open up and tell me different things about her life. And in the end of it all, SHE started talking to me about church… I did not even have to say anything. She told me that in China, she saw a card in Chinese that was about our church and has always wanted to learn about it. I am not sure what will happen with this but I had a very good feeling about it.

We also had a really cool lesson experience. An English class student asked us to give her some personal English lessons. We agreed that we would and we were planning on sharing a lesson with her after we helped her. We had found out that her brother had just died, so we figured the plan of salvation would be a great way to start off teaching her. On the day of our lesson with her, another English class student saw us helping her and wanted to join in on the party. We taught them a lot of English and then started into the plan of salvation. As soon as we started the lesson, the lady that we were planning on teaching completely checked out of the lesson. She started looking down, studying English as we spoke to her, the whole ten yards. But, the other English class student… leaned foreword in her seat and her eyes widened with interest. When we got to the part about families living together forever in the celestial kingdom, she said really? In a very excited tone. It is incredible what heavenly father will do to get one of his children to hear the gospel. Another great example of his love for us.

Yesterday our mission had a great mission conference. I really took so much out of it. He share a story that Elder Boyd k Packard shared long ago. It was about a man going up into his attic and finding a really old picture of his grandfather that had just passed away. It was a beautiful picture, but the frame that it was in was old, and thrashed. He got a screwdriver and began to dismantle this frame so that he could get out the picture. But as he did, he noticed that under much dust and debris laid a beautiful golden frame. He cleaned off the frame and was so excited to see how beautiful it was. He used this analogy for the missionaries in our mission. He told us that we were all of great worth and sometimes because of investigators not progressing, and not many baptisms we will feel useless. But we are still beautiful golden frames! This made me feel very good.

Well guys thanks for all of the love and support! It really does make me feel so good. I love you guys! Have a great week.

Elder Barton

Letter #55

Hello my dear friends!

I am back in Chinatown and loving it! I have decided that I am much more of a city person then an up state person. Don’t get me wrong, I loved up state! But, it was just so slow.. I would street contact for three or four hours and maybe talk to 20 people on a good day. Here I talk to over a hundred people every day, and it is just marvelous! I really did not realize before how much joy I get out of talking with people. It is the best thing ever!

Chinatown has changed a lot! We have three new sisters that were not here before! Two of them are from Taiwan and one is from main land china! They are all so cool! It has been hilarious teaching them some English. Sister Gao (the one from mainland china) can now say, "what’s up homie g?" if you say that in a Chinese accent I promise you that you will laugh. It sounds so funny! They have been helping my Chinese a ton as well! My companion and I do not speak any English all day long! And we do not read English all day long! He makes me struggle through the characters until I finally understand what it means. He has been really good for me! In Connecticut my tones got really bad! I still remember how to say everything, but my tones are just off a lot of the time. So that is not very fun. But Elder Fan has been helping me so much!! I love this guy! He makes me laugh so hard.

One of the things that I really liked about coming back to Chinatown was teaching English class again. It is still the exact same group of people and you get to have a pretty close relationship with them from teaching English. It is kinda funny how it works. But anyways, I walked into the room to teach, and Elder Near got on the piano and started to play a song on the piano that kinda sounded like the beginning of “eye of the tiger”. Then he started to tell English class to but their hands together for the “return of Elder Barton”! I am not going to lie to you I felt like I was a movie star. It was almost like being Ammon in the road show again. Ok maybe not quite that cool. That was a pretty intense experience. But it was cool. I really like teaching English class.

Elder Fan and I have also had an amazing week. We got a few referrals from members and investigators. It is always a good feeling when you get them from an investigator. Two of them want to be baptized this week! Pretty crazy considering that we met them on Sunday! They have been meeting with us every day in order to prepare for their baptism. It is a husband and a wife, which is also really cool. We are so excited for them! This is a miracle! Such a miracle that it feels like I am dreaming. I have noticed that the biggest miracles always happen when someone new comes into an area. Or if you are on companion exchanges.

Chinatown has had so many baptisms since I left! I barely recognized anyone on Sunday! It was like going into a new church. Luckily we were able to see some of the converts that Elder Near and I had while we were together. It was so good to see all of them again! Chen Dixiong is starting a restaurant! Fan Jie Mei moved to Queens now, but she came up to see us, and she has been doing really well. She had this huge backpack full of English learning books! Wang di xiong had a baby! All kinds of new things happened! But it is so good to be back! It almost feels like coming home after a long trip.

My mission president gave me permission to call Jing, and see how she was doing up in Connecticut. I was worried that she did not have any one to translate for her on Sunday. It turns out that her daughter did for her, and it went really well. I was glad to talk with her, and see that everything is still going well.

Well I hope that all of you have a great week! The church is true! Thanks for all of the love and support!

Elder Barton

Letter #54 Elder Barton's Back in China Town

So… this is officially the last time that you will hear me email from Danbury, Connecticut! I am making my way back to china town!! I have to say I am so excited!! I have missed that place so bad! I have been so lucky up here to meet such great people. Not only meet great people but also learn so much! I feel like me coming up here was my defining moment on my mission.

I have to say, I was actually really surprised to leave.. We had so much going on! Ernie and Lu Lu's family of five boys has still been progressing really well! They came to church this last Sunday! Do you know how exciting that was?! Our chapel is far away for the people that live in our area, so it was a little bit of a sacrifice for them to come. But they were so welcomed!! It turns out they had a ton of connections in our ward! Right after sacrament finished, they were surrounded by people that knew them or recognized them. One of the members in our ward was the crossing guard for all of the boys, and would always talk to them as they walked home from school. Another one was in the same class as the youngest, Ryan. They immediately started to play together and have a good time. Another one of our members went to a birthday party at Lu Lu and Ernie’s house along time ago. The connections go on and on! I am not even kidding there are so many more! I thought it was powerful to see how heavenly father has really prepared this family. Their whole life, little bits at a time! Until finally at the right moment, two missionaries came knocking on their door. One of our members, (the one that used to be the crossing guard for the boys.) came up to me and said wow, I never would have thought that family would have been interested in the gospel. I really wish that I had said something to them before about the church. Then she went on to say how she wants to get better at that! That was cool to hear. It was very reassuring to see them have so much support right before I leave. I know that they will be ok. Our ward is so awesome and so good at supporting our investigators.

Yesterday was such a good day. It started off by going to Jing’s house to say good-bye. I was so sad to leave her. I have gotten so close to her over the time that I have been here. I brought her a picture of her, her daughter, and I on the day of her baptism and put it in a frame. It made her very happy. She then cooked for me one last time. It was a huge meal! That was in the morning too, which was pretty crazy. Then she gave me this huge bag of candy loaded to the brim! It kinda made me feel bad for only getting her a little picture. She is such a nice lady! I really hope that I will see her again someday. I wrote down all of her contact information, so I hope that it will happen. At the end, right before I left she said that she has always wanted to have a son. (She has two girls) She then said that she kinda feels like I am her son. I thought that was pretty cool! I am really going to miss her. She has for sure been the biggest miracle that I have ever seen. I am still so amazed that happened. After Jing’s we went home and I got all packed up and ready to go. Then we went and saw most of our investigators. One of them took us out to dinner at “buffalo wild wings”! I got some really cool pictures that I cant wait to send home! Then in the middle of the day, we got this random call from a man that was an alcoholic. He was sober for many years but then relapsed. He was bawling and asked us to come over to his house. We went over and taught him about Jesus Christ and his atonement. We also told him that we really want to help him. He kept saying that there was nothing that we could do and that he had done everything before. No matter how hard we tried to tell him we could help, he would not believe us. But finally at the end we convinced him to let us try. Elder Dees and his new companion are going over there on Thursday! So I am excited for them.

Wow! I really can’t believe how fast time has gone by! I feel like I just came up to Connecticut and now I am already going back to china town! I am so torn between being excited and sad. I am really going to miss the people that I met up here, they are all so great. And our members were amazing! Now I am going back to china town were the members are not very involved… it will be a huge change!! I also have a native companion!!!! I am excited for that! This will help my Chinese a lot because I will have to use it! And not just sometimes… all of the time!! It is going to be so cool! Pretty crazy situation. Wow missions are really incredible. They are so hard at times but then you look back at it and realize how much the lord has really been carrying you! And it strengthens you so much! I can’t wait to see what lays ahead for me, it is such and adventure.

Well guys I have to get going, but I sure do love you all, hope you have a great week, and talk to you soon!

Elder Barton

PS my china town address is still the same… it is

117 Mott St., apt 3b, New York, NY 10013

Letter #53 Jing was baptized

Hello Hello!

Well, this week was a great week! Well… there were a few bad things that happened but the good replaced the bad, so that is always a good thing.

The good was really good! Jing was baptized! I cannot even tell you what a relief that was for me! I have never had an investigator go through so many trials and have so many things happen before the baptism. She would have doctrinal issues then have problems with the date, work schedules, commandments, and etc. It was quite the journey! Her baptismal program went great as well! despite the fact that she was not able to videotape herself being baptized. She really wanted to show her dad who lives in china, which is a good reason, but we are just not allowed to videotape baptisms. That made her kind of sad but she was ok with it as soon as she started getting a ton of attention! The ward did such a great job supporting her! I have never seen so many people at a baptism! Maybe this is because I am from china town and we only have like 4 members if we are lucky at the baptismal service. The whole service was in Mandarin, so it was I and two other guys in the word that spoke Mandarin doing everything! But it was awesome! I have already seen how the Gospel has blessed Jing’s life. Her relationship with her daughter has improved incredibly! They have  been starting to read the scriptures together every night! She is starting to find more job opportunities… her whole entire personality has changed really! It is like she has this new glow to her! I am so happy for her.

The bad news from this week is that we lost Shane. I am not really sure what happened but he is gone. We went to his house for a scheduled appointment that we had with him and no one was there. AND on top of that… everything in the house was gone! It looked like he moved out. Not going to lie… this was really hard on me. We have been going to his house every night to check and see if he is back, but everything is still the same. He does not have a cell phone so there is really no way for us to get a hold of him. I felt like he was so prepared for this. I was very surprised to see it all fall apart like that. I am sure that whatever happened, he had a legitimate reason for leaving. I hope that I will run into him again someday.

Lu Lu and Ernie's family are still doing really well! We have had members with us the last two times that we have gone to see them and they have taken the lessons really well! They take everything really well! It almost makes it hard on us to know what they need because they take everything that we teach so well and never have any problems with the things that we teach. We are still having a hard time getting them married and to come to church but other then that, everything is good. They promised us though that this Sunday they would be at church! We are looking foreword to that!!! They also said now that school has started up again, they should have more time to talk, and figure things out.

Elder Dees and I have been working really hard trying to figure out ways to get our members involved with our investigators. It has been really hard to find things that work. We are trying to do some things that we thought up a long time ago…. and they seem to be working pretty well so far! We made the sign up chart for them coming to help us teach and are doing a movie night this Friday at the church! We are excited. I really hope that things work out!

 Have a great week ladies and gentlemen… this is Elder Barton signing out!

Letter #52 Hurricane "Disappointment"

Hello everyone!

Well this week was pretty intense I am not going to lie! Hurricane “disappointment”, I mean “Irene” came which was actually pretty gnarly! Our whole town has lost power and most likely will not get it back until next week. Floods were everywhere! Many houses were flooded and many trees were knocked down blocking the streets! We are still helping clean up the mess! Our mission president was completely on top of it though! I was not scared at all with somebody like him leading us through it. He evacuated all of the Manhattan missionaries and some of the other places that were along the coast or in places that were in danger of flooding! He was also texting us through out the whole storm letting us know what was going on! It was pretty incredible! We had 6 missionaries living in our pad. It was a lot of fun! Almost two much fun! We were not allowed to go outside for two days under our mission president’s orders. We went pretty nuts I am not going to lie. A lot of wrestling, scrabble, and church movies!

This whole experience has really strengthened my testimony. Probably about two months ago or so our mission issued every missionary in our whole mission an emergency back pack full of survival supplies. He also told us to not let our car’s gas get under half a tank. I guess there was a member of the seventy received revelation that this storm would be coming. Our mission and the stakes in our mission have been preparing for it like crazy. It gives me the chills. The gift of prophecy and revelation is real.

My favorite clean up story that I have is for sure about a lady named Liz. She was not a member of the church but got our number from a former investigator and gave us a call. She lived right next to a river, so the street she lived on was completely flooded with water. At the end of the street, the water was up to 5 feet deep! As you can imagine, her house was pretty bad… particularly in the basement. Oh and did I mention that her husband was a HOARDER!!!! His basement was loaded with a bunch of junk! We are talking mountains of stuff! Mix that with a lot of water and it really does not end well! We were using a snow shovel to dig through piles and piles of moldy clothes!! The smell was incredible! I think in the end, we hauled off over a hundred trucks loads full of stuff to the dump! And on top of it, she was not very grateful. In a way, it made it that much better! Sometimes when we serve people with no reward or praise it feels that much better!

Jings baptism was canceled due to the hurricane… as was church. I was bummed and so was she. It will happen this week though, which is great. She is a little bummed that it is on the 4th though because Chinese people are very superstitious of the number 4!!! But I assured her that everything would be ok and we are looking forward to it! Chen is also scheduled to be baptized this weekend! He talked with his professor and he agreed to let him off! We are so excited! And so is he! The poor guy has wanted to be baptized for such a long time but has never been able to get the time off! Words cannot even describe how happy I am. Lu Lu and Ernie’s family is still doing great as well! They said they want to come to church this Sunday!!! Now that school started, they are in a more stable situation! The members are so excited to finally meet them. We were also able to find one new investigator in the heat of all of this! His name is Carlos! We actually taught him on the day the hurricane was coming! He sat in our car with us and we shared the first lesson! It went so well. As we led him through the lesson, you could just see his mind grasping on to all of these new foreign concepts. He told us in a very sincere tone that he is excited to read the book of Mormon and see if it is true! He also texted us yesterday and said he is on page 5! We are so excited for him!

If there is one thing I have learned from all of this, it is that the lord’s work really cannot be stopped. It will keep on going on. The people that are prepared to hear the word, will hear the word! The elect few that god has prepared, will learn, and there is no thing, or person that will be able to stop this from happening! I also felt very protected. I never realized how much God does care about his missionaries. I felt like Ammon when he said that the lord has looked over him in the foreign place that he was in and protected him. (Sorry I kinda butchered that scripture)

Well guys I hope that you are all having a great week! Thanks for the love and support!

Elder Barton

Pictures of Elder Barton in Connecticut

Elder Boekweg

President Smith

Danbury

Letter #51

Hello hello!

 

Well this week once again was a little slow… but starting on Monday, things started to pick up. Even though things were a little slow, it was still a good week. We were able to meet with all of our baptismal dates at least once, which is always a good thing. I have to say I love these people. I have been so grateful to come up here and have an opportunity to meet all of them.

Jing came to church again on Sunday and was loving it! She was able to stay all three hours this time, so I had to stay all three hours as well so that I could translate for her… in all of the meetings! Really this was not so bad until we went into relief society. Can you guess what the topic of the lesson was that day?! Of course!!! none other then the law of chastity and of course the ladies of the ward were loving me translating all of their weird comments! They would all say something then look over at me translating and start cracking up! It was really a great time! She, Jing, will be baptized this Saturday and I am so excited for her! She has gone through a lot to be where she is now and it is powerful to see. It is truly amazing what the gospel can do for somebody if they let it. At the end of church, Jing had me follow her around so that she could talk with the members. She loved all of the little kids; she even had me ask one of the members if she could hold her baby. She is so funny.

Shane is still doing really well! He has been talking with his professor to see if he can get baptized and start coming to church. He really wants to go! It has been so amazing working with him. He accepts everything that we teach him! It all comes back to the feelings that he had when he read the book of Mormon! If you read that book and receive conformation that it is true, it makes the rest of the gospel so easy. He has really been a great example to me. Sometimes it is really hard for me just to say "ok" and do what the lord wants me to do with out any question. Especially when it seems like it does not make any sense. We hope that he can come to church this Sunday, so he can be baptized the following Sunday.

The Veach family is still doing great! We have still not received an answer back from them about the marriage situation. Things have been pretty crazy for them though. The husband just broke his ankle this week, of course on the day that we had scheduled to meet with them. Luckily we were able to re-schedule for the following day and have a member come and help us teach. We brought with us bro. Gallagher, and wow he helped so much. He bore such a powerful testimony on how the gospel has blessed him and his family! He has a son going off to college today and he talked about how that has been so hard for him, but knowing that his son will be involved with the church still in college has brought him so much comfort. We could tell that it really touched the parents of the Veach family. The kids are so fun! I have loved going over there! They are always doing something crazy! Last time they found an electric scooter on the side of the road and were taking turns pushing each other around really fast! There were some nasty wipeouts, but they came up laughing every time so we are good!

As far as finding other people right now, it has been pretty slow. We have been tracting and tracting and tracting, and having little success. I am very lucky that my companion has a great sense of humor and always makes it very fun! Missions are awesome!

Well guys, I love ya! Hope you are having a great week! Talk to ya next week!

Elder Barton

Letter #50!!!

Hey there and good day!

 

Well, this week was a little harder than the weeks previous. Our baptismal dates are starting to have the trials that always conveniently come right before people are baptized, but I have been so proud of them they are all pulling through and doing very well. It is insane how good of examples investigators are. It is crazy to try to put yourself in their situation and think of how you would respond.

To start off on a positive note, Jing is still doing very well. She has overcome her trails now and is continuing to progress towards baptism. She had her interview this last week with elder near (my china town companion serving in new Canaan, a town 30 minutes away from me.) He had to come down because he is the only other one around that speaks Chinese and I couldn’t do the interview because I taught her. She did great on her interview! And is so excited to be baptized now. She also talked with her boss and got her work schedule changed so that she can come to church every Sunday. So I had to come and translate the whole entire meeting for her this past Sunday. It was really hard. The speakers were saying all of these crazy quotes with huge words in them. But I think I got the jest across to her. She left saying that she loved church and was so excited. I have to say in a way, it kind of felt like I was a proud parent. It has been so cool to see her grow and progress in the gospel. Her baptism will be next week.

On another note, Chen this week was having a hard time. He really wants to come to church but his professor does not want him to. He thinks that it will distract him from getting his PhD. Chen wants me to go and talk to his professor for him and explain the situation. I really hope that I will be able to help him. But he has still been doing really well. He is a real example of true faith. No matter what the commandment was that we shared with him he accepted it right away. His personality reminds me the scripture in Alma that talks about how blessed we are when we just believe and have a good attitude. I know that there are some big blessings coming his way because of his obedience. He was supposed to be baptized this weekend but because of his situation, he wants us to push his baptism back till the 3rd of September. I really don’t like pushing dates back, it usually does not end well, but in his situation it makes more sense. I am so happy that he is taking this seriously.

The Veech family had a minor set back this week as well. We found out some new information. It turns out that everyone in the family wanted to be baptized except for the dad. The dad was already baptized once before and was pretty stubborn when we would try talking to him. His wife was still very interested and really wants to be baptized. We told them that they had to be married in order for her to be baptized. They took it fairly well. They said they wanted to talk about it and make sure that it was something they want to do. The oldest son has really impressed me. He has been reading the book of Mormon and praying on his own. He also was the only one in the whole family to watch the restoration DVD that we gave to the family. I find that pretty amazing. If anything the reason we found this family could be for him. The ward and my mission president are being so supportive. They are offering to have a wedding for this family! With everything provided and having our bishop marry them!!! It is cool to see how willing everyone is to help.

I read a talk this week that I really liked. It was by Brad Wilcox and it was called "his grace is sufficient". The talk was so powerful. And I really felt like it rang accord with the things I am going through right now. Missions are hard, I constantly feel like I have things I can improve on. And it seems like every time no matter how hard I work, I always feel like I come up short. I am still not the strongest teacher, I still don’t know my scriptures very well, and I still let little things get to me at times. And now despite all of these things, all of these blessings lately have been popping up out of nowhere. It is purely by grace that all of these things have been able to happen. It is grace that fills in this gap of me coming up short. I am so grateful for grace. that is a really good talk that I recommend reading if any of you have time, it has helped me out a lot.

Well guys I hope that you are all having a great week! Thank you for all of the love and support!

Elder Barton

Letter #49

Hello my dear friends,

 

This week was a little slower than weeks previous, but it was still great. We were able to meet with all of the people that have baptismal dates which was very good! But other then that, we spent a lot of time looking people up and having them not be home! And then tracting and getting yelled at… you know the usual. Wow it is so cool hearing about everyone back home getting mission calls! That makes me so happy! Its like we are all this army going to battle together. I like to picture myself as the strong one in the front with the longest and best-designed spear out of the whole group. I am sure that the rest of the friends would have to agree on that one! You guys are all going to love your missions so much… this is the best decision that you could have ever made. I mean that with all of my heart.

The lessons and experiences that we did have his week were incredible. We met with jing twice this week. The first time that we met with her, she said that she was not very sure if she wanted to be baptized any more. She kept talking about how she just needs to be supported and how she is going through such a hard time, barley getting by every month. She said that it is too much to put on her plate right now. When she said that, it made it very clear that she did not understand the atonement, even though it had already been taught to her. It is hard to understand until you use it and apply it into your life. Not matter how hard I tried to tell her that these things were true and that they can help her, it just did not seem like she understood. I felt like I should give her a blessing. I explained what a blessing was and told her that I would like to give her one. She asked me if I was old enough to be doing something like this but then agreed to let me do it. Poor elder Dees had no idea what was going on!!! I suddenly just looked over at him and asked him to help me give her a blessing. With the biggest prayer in my heart, I laid my hands on her head and started the blessing. Shortly into the blessing, a dog ran into the room and started to jump on me. Followed by the owner of the dog trying to get him out of the room. We finished the blessing and I felt like I failed. I was really bummed and felt like the blessing was ruined. Jing said thank you, walked into the kitchen to make us dinner. We ate, said goodbye, and left. On the way home I had no idea what to think. I continued to pray for her… that something would touch her heart.

The next day I get a call from her daughter Xiao. She told me that her mom decided she wants to be baptized now. I was so confused, but told her that we would come over the next day to see what’s up.

The next day, I helped jing learn how to say things for her tai qi class in English. Then we started to talk about why now she wants to be baptized. She looked at the floor for a second and then started to talk. She said that it is touching how much that we care about her and how much we really just want to help her. She said that when we gave her that blessing she had a very peaceful, and good feeling. It helped her know that the things we have shared with her are true. She said that she is going through a really hard time right now and really needs help and she knows that heavenly father would help her. The spirit was so strong. I had no idea what to say. As a matter of fact, I literally could not speak for a few minutes! It has never been so evident to me how much that heavenly father loves his children. It is like he knows each of our needs then just interchanges all of us to help each other. I don’t know if that made any sense. But wow I am so grateful I had that opportunity. I really needed to learn that lesson. It is kind of like what I was saying with jing and the atonement… how she did not understand it because she had not used it. I feel like I always heard the words our heavenly father loves us, and even had things happen that have helped me understand. But now, I know for a fact and that part of my testimony will never be changed or budged.

Well I am sorry I kind of got carried away in that story. But it really was incredible. Well guys I love you all so much, and I hope that you are having great weeks. Keep doing everything that you are doing!

Love Elder Barton

Letter #48

Hello everyone!

 

Well this week was really incredible. I keep thinking that eventually these blessings are going to stop but they don’t! They just keep on coming. It has gotten to the point where me and my companion really wonder where they are coming from. We have no idea what we are even doing to deserve them.

I think I told you all about Shane, the Chinese guy that accepted a baptismal date, he is progressing and very fast. We went over to his house and visited him with our ward mission leader last Saturday. It was so nice to have a member there to help us teach. That is one thing that we do not get a lot up here and I really wish that we had more. But, our ward mission leader was great. He taught so clearly and bore some great testimony. When we followed up with Shane about his book of Mormon reading he said that he has been reading and he feels something very special as he reads that book. He explained that it is a feeling that he has never felt before. He also said that when he prays, he really feels like some one is there and listening to his prayers. I felt so happy when he said that words couldn’t even explain.

Jing is also doing great. Last Thursday she called and asked if I would come help her buy a computer. She wanted me to translate for her at the store. It ended up being so stressful! To start everything off, I had to follow her to the place in our car. She is such a scary driver! She would start drifting into the other lane or try to do a u-turn in the middle of a busy road, or randomly flip on her turn signal and then not turn! It was crazy! But luckily we made it to the store alive! When we got into the store was really when the magic began. She was buying a new computer and wanted the programs from her old computer transferred on to her new one. When the man at the store said that she couldn’t do that, she became upset. Then the man was not able to get the computer she wanted in red, which also made her very mad! It was crazy! I felt bad for the guy in the store. But then finally after spending over an hour in that store she purchased her computer and we left. When we got back to their house we had an opportunity to teach her a lesson and it went really well. She accepted a baptismal date as well, but I don’t know how committed she is quite yet. She does not fully have a testimony yet that these things we have shared with her are true. We are going to meet with her again tomorrow and I am excited.

We also received a referral this week from the Portuguese elders. They told us that it was a family and they seemed very interested! We called, set up an appointment and they ended up being very interested. A man named Ernie and his wife Lu Lu with their 5 boys. They also had a friend over when we taught them. We taught them the first lesson and the spirit was so strong. When we were talking about apostasy, the dad chimed right in and started to tell us how he has seen this in the world today. At the end of the lesson, the spirit was so strong I and my companion gave them baptismal dates. They all accepted to be baptized! That was our first time meeting with them, so they still have a long way to go but we are very excited for them. They will be a great contribution to our ward.

It has been so crazy with all of these things going on. I have to be honest; it really does not feel real. I have spent so much time out here working my tail off and really have not seen to many results. And then now I feel like I am getting hit with this wall of blessings. The cycle ended today and yes I am still here! I am not sure how much longer I will be in Connecticut, but I am loving it here. I am learning so much… it is incredible. Well, I hope that you are all having a great week!!! Thanks so much for all that you do!

Elder Barton

Letter #47

Greetings!

 

Well this week was fantastic! Elder Dees and I really had a great week! We decided this week we really wanted to focus visiting all of the other people that we had previously talked to that said we could come back another time! It worked out pretty well for us! Not as good as we hoped, we did not get in touch with everyone but we still made some good progress. I don’t know if you guys remember me talking about Shane. He will pop up from time to time then I won’t write about him for a while. He was the other Chinese guy that I met like my first week in this area. Then we would call and call but he would never answer. And we would try to go visit him but he was never there. So eventually we started to give up. But it seems like each time I have started to give up, he is put back in my path again. One time the Portuguese elders ran into him and he said he was still very interested in meeting with us; he has just been so busy. So we tried to go visit him that night and got the first lesson with him! But then the same thing happened we got out of touch... a few weeks had gone by and we were starting to give up again. But then we were eating dinner at a member’s house close to where he lives. So we decided to go try to visit him again. Sure enough he was home and we were able to teach him again. It turns out that he had been reading the book of Mormon and was still very interested. And the best part was, he agreed to be baptized.  We set a date with him for the 20th of august. Even though, he still does not fully understand everything, he knew that baptism was a good choice. He has a long way to go still but we are very excited for him. It is very evident that heavenly father thinks he is prepared. We now have a set day and time that we will stop by every week so that we don’t loose communication with him.

Other than investigators this week, we were also able to be involved in some reactivation. We met 3 people tracting that had been baptized and lost contact with the church. It was very powerful to see how heavenly father leads us to his lost sheep. One of them that really stuck out was a man that had two autistic children and a wife that was not a member. He told us that he still had the strongest testimony of the church; it was just hard for him to get to church and have his kids distracting the congregation. His wife works on Sundays so she is not able to help out with the kids. He said that he tried and tried for two years to bring his kids to church, but he said it just didn’t make sense. He then said he had his purpose in this life and he wanted to fulfill it. He talked to us about how raising those kids had helped him so much and how he tries to talk to his wife about the church. I thought that was a really cool thing for him to say. It really became evident how god knows each of us individually! One of the other members I want to share about was having a hard time with his testimony. I am not sure of the full thing that happened to him but regardless, he was struggling. As we were talking to him, the spirit came in so strong and took over the lesson. We shared with him d&c section 6. This is the section when Oliver Cowdry wants to translate the plates. There are some really powerful verses when the lord says he had already answered Oliver and tells him when he is having a hard time to think back to that one night when the lord did answer him. We then asked him why he was baptized (He was a recent convert). He said that it was because of the feeling he had when he read the book of Mormon. We told him to think about that moment. The spirit was very strong. It was like you could see everything clicking together in his mind. We are not sure what he will do, but we hope he will start coming to church again, so he can baptize his daughter that is 9 years old.

The weather this week was crazy! I am not used to this crazy humidity! If you leave food out on the counter here, instead of becoming stale, it will become soggy from the moment you get out of the shower you are wet for the rest of the day! Then it will randomly just start to rain out of nowhere sometimes! Sorry that was random, but I just felt that you guys needed to know.

Well I hope that you guys all had a great week! I am going on a hike today, so I am pretty excited! It will be nice to go see what this place is really about! I hope I don’t get any ticks.

Elder Barton

Letter #46

Good afternoon everyone!

 So this week has been so awesome I am not going to lie! Every week out here is incredible, but this one was really incredible! I will start off with telling you the story that I am most excited about.

So jing han came back from Hawaii this week, yes that is my Chinese investigator! It was so nice to see her again! She had all of these funny stories to tell me about her experience. I think my favorite one was about two dogs that jumped up on her (her facial expressions were making me laugh so hard)! She looked so disgusted talking about how these two large animals almost ruined her shirt. We talked for a really long time, and it was amazing how much I was finding out about her and her past. This was such a blessing; I had really been praying to know how I could best help her! It was like every question I was praying about was answered in our conversation. I felt so bad for my companion, I looked over at him half way through and he was conked out asleep on the table. He said he had a really bad headache from listening to us talk. Anyways I found out that she was a tai qi instructor in china before she came to America! tai qi is the thing that you will see hundreds of Chinese people doing all together sometimes. it is like a slow dance kind of thing. yes I made sure to ask her for lessons. which was another answer to my prayers! I have always wanted to learn! but I also found out some real ways that the gospel would bless her life. she explained to me that her husband used to treat her and her daughter horribly. so that was her reason for coming to America, when she got here she was remarried to a man that treated her really well. they were married for a few years before he was diagnosed with cancer. she would wake up every day at 3 o clock in the morning just to make him some Chinese medicine. eventually he died. she started to cry as she told me this story and said that it feels so good just to talk to some one about it. because she can’t speak English there is really no one there for her to talk to. she just has her daughter, but she doesn’t want her daughter to see her struggling. after she finished telling me this story I taught her about the atonement of Jesus Christ. the spirit was so strong. I really feel like this was the reason I was pulled out of china town. even if she does not get baptized, I really feel like she just needed some one to talk to. I am so grateful I had this opportunity. after our talk, she made me such a good meal. and taught me how to make this really cool Chinese soup! I have not tried to make it yet but it tasted really good! we have another appointment with her tomorrow and I am so excited!

Something else that happened really cool! I think I mentioned a few weeks ago about the girl Rachel that bore her testimony in sacrament meeting about the book of Mormon and was not even a member? we finally had a chance to talk with her! I guess she was always kind of scared of the missionaries because she thought that we would make her get baptized! it was funny we just had a normal conversation with her, and at the end thanked her for our testimony that was it. then a few days later she called and invited us to come over to her house to eat dinner! we were very excited because the rest of her family is also non-members! the dad and the sister were not interested, but her mom was very interested! we taught them the entire first lesson and they really received it well! the mom requested a copy of the book of Mormon, and wants to have us over again in a few months to eat Italian food! she is Italian. it will be in a few months because they are going on some family vacations. but still… it went really well! Rachel has already looked up were institute will be when she goes to college! wow she is awesome.

we also got a member referral from a guy that is in a different ward! it was a friend he knew from work and had some questions about our church! the member that came over there with us was so good! he was testifying and sharing all of these great stories! it really made the lesson great! please volunteer to help the missionaries teach! it really does make all of the difference if a member is present!

Our ward mission leader is also back in town! he made this awesome plan and thought of some great ideas to get member referrals! it was so nice to finally meet with him! I have not had one correlation since I have been in this area! oh if you guys want to see how awesome my ward is go on bookofmormonproduction.com my ward made this movie!!! I hope it will work, and I gave the right address!

well guys I love ya, hope things are going well! stay fresh....

Elder Barton

Letter #45

Hello hello!

So I am typing this email from New Canaan this week! New Canaan is one of they richest zip codes in the whole United States and it definitely shows! I am on a split with elder rosell! He is a cool guy. I guess his family has a beach house in Oceanside! So, we are going to hang out after the mission for sure! He lives with elder near (my china town comp) so I have been able to hang out with him which has been really fun! He is serving in New Canaan! It has been so nice to see him again; we have been having some good times. My split with elder rossell was actually yesterday but because we didn't get out of a lesson until 9:00 we got permission to split back today! Our split yesterday was really fun! We went and got all you can eat sushi for lunch! That tasted so good, I have not had sushi in a really long time! I had a very large helping to say the least. And to my surprise, all of the people that worked there spoke Chinese! And gave elder rossell and me a discount because I was talking with them! I am not going to lie I felt like a movie star.. They would walk up to me with a word in English written on a piece of paper and ask me what it meant in Chinese. (They were all trying to learn English!) I was so lucky the word they asked me I totally knew how to say! They would all start freaking out whenever I told them an answer! It was really fun! I also really liked it because we were in a city area again! We walked around the city and street contacted! I loved it, I missed it so bad! We were just walking around talking with people. We met some cool kids doing tricks on bikes and talked with them for a while! I was so tempted to throw down a trick for them, but I didn’t want to get hurt! We also met this really funny limo driver that didn't speak any English. Although probably not the best thing to do, we messed with him. We asked him if he had driven anyone famous. He said, "oh yes! Many!" we started to name off all of the stars and for each of them he said he had driven them! Even when I said Gordon B Hinkley… he said yes! It was funny!

As for the rest of this week, it went really well. I can’t say that it was as good as last week, but it still went well. We had a lot of people say this week would be a really good time for us to meet with them so we are looking foreword to it! Also jing han comes back this Saturday and I am so excited! I have been thinking about what we should share with her like crazy! I know it is going to be great. I think I have told you before about the vaness family? The recent convert family, with the non-member dad who just got out of jail. We have really wanted to start teaching him, but didn't know what the rules were about teaching people on probation. This week in PEC, our bishop told us to go for it. That made us feel good! I guess he just has to get permission from the first presidency if he wants to be baptized. The bad news we had this week was we lost Matilda. Not really lost, she just wants to start taking things slower. As of right now, she really does not understand that there is one true church on earth. We have shared scripture after Scripture, but just does not seem to be sinking in. She said that we could still meet with her on Saturdays though which is always a good thing. I don't think I had a chance to tell you this last week but in our fast and testimony meeting, a nonmember girlfriend of a member in our ward got up and bore her testimony. She talked about the book of Mormon and what she felt when she was reading it! She went to girl’s camp with a few of her member friends and I guess it really went well for her. This of course got the missionaries so pumped! It was such a powerful testimony! We have been talking with her boyfriend’s family to make arrangements to teach her! We are very excited to see what will happen with that!

Once again, we have so many things that could potentially be so good! I really hope that things will start to happen! We have a lot of really cool investigators, they are just not progressing because we can’t meet with them enough. They are all so busy! I really want things to start happening! Well I hope you all had a great week! Talk to you soon!

Elder Barton

Letter #44

Family and Friends!

I can honestly say, I think this was the best week that I have had on my mission so far. Words are hard to describe some of the things that have happened. Well, to start off it, was stressful; I am not going to lie. Everything from trying to find my way around this area and trying to fill the place that elder boekweg had in this ward. He was here for 9 months so he was very close with a lot of our members. I was nervous starting out. I had no idea how I was going to do it. And on top of that, finding lately has not been going so well. We still have Matilda with the bap date and Jing Han that are doing really well but both of them are out of town this week! I was feeling quite a bit of pressure! But this week ended up being awesome! We found a lot of new people to teach that are extremely prepared and I have never felt closer to the spirit my whole life.

A lot of things that happened were just small but they felt huge to me. We were helping this new family move into the ward (the man invented the missionary name tag, which I thought was pretty cool!) but anyways they said they wanted to follow me to this new house they were moving into. I had been there before because a member used to live there. They told me to make sure I didn’t go under any small bridges because the Uhaul was so big. I said ok and didn’t think there would be any in the way I had planned to go. Well, as I was leading them to their new house, I took a wrong turn. Nothing to hard to correct. But on the way home took the way that I had planned on going, realizing that we would have gone under an extremely small bridge!

I was also on a split this week with a Spanish elder in my district. We decided we would get out of Danbury and go try tracting in a place called Carmel. It was about a thirty-minute drive to get to this place. We got there and began to tract. We tracted for about ten minutes, then I looked over at my comp and asked him what he was feeling. He said, I am not feeling to good man. I had the exact same feeling. I had such a sick feeling in the bottom of my stomach, I felt like I was going to throw up. We got in the car and drove all the way back to Danbury. Who knows what would have happened but there was no reason for us to find out. 

Me and elder Dees one day decided that we would walk instead of drive to save miles on our car. (We have a certain number of miles given to us each month.) We ended up walking down this street that we would have never even thought about going down before. It was small and did not even look like there were people home in most of the houses. Turns out, the first two houses that we knocked, let us in to teach a lesson. Both of them were so cool! Blake was a skater kid that had just graduated high school. He had a mow hawk and the whole deal! He received the lesson really well! We had several opportunities to teach random people that we had found this week! We found so many great new investigators this week! A personal record since I have been here!

We also had opportunities to use our priesthood authority! This is something that I have not had an opportunity to do yet on my mission. Coming from china town, the branch was so small, and I don’t know how well the members even understood we could give blessings. The first lady was a sister of a man in our ward. She was not a member and did not speak English. She was from India! She just had a horrible brain tumor removed, which paralyzed the right side of her body.. She could move one of her arms and nod her head if she understood, that was about it. After we gave her the blessing, we knew that she understood, because of a small tear running down the side of her face. The spirit was so strong in that room! We also had an opportunity to give a blessing to a less active mom, who used to be extremely active. She was just visiting for the weekend when she started to have some internal bleeding. She was the nicest lady!!! When we walked in and asked her how she was she said "I am finer then a frogs hair!" very energetically! I left my scriptures in her room, so I had to come back the next day to pick them up. (Yes I still forget things all of the time!) But when we came back to see her, she had made a miraculous recovery! She was getting ready to leave the hospital! We were very happy to hear that!

Our mission president also gave us the okay to go into the fair! The fair in Danbury is a big deal! Not much goes on here! But we were able to go inside and set up a table with a poster and pamphlets! I can’t even tell you how effective this was for the whole district! We talked to a lot of people! We had the Spanish, and Portugees speaking missionaries from our district as well, which was great! The reason the fair allowed us to go in was because the man in charge of the fair that we talked to was an inactive member. His family left the church when he was only a deacon. He let us do it for free and gave us a whole tent! It was incredible! I played pool with a man working in the carnival to get a lesson out of it! It turns out he was a free mason! We had a really cool conversation and placed a book of Mormon! The Spanish elders also ran into that Chinese guy I met my first week here. He said he still really wanted to learn about our church but had just been so busy! We went over to his house that night and were able to share the first lesson! 

This week was amazing! There is still so much that I have not even typed! My testimony grew even more this week that the church is true, god is always preparing people to hear the gospel, and he knows each of us individually. I can’t tell you what an answer this week has been to my prayers and my efforts. I will be looking back on this week the rest of my life when I am having a hard time. I really felt like things just clicked together for me.

Well, I hope that you are all having a great week and enjoying this great summer weather!!! I know that I am! Talk to you all next week!

Elder Barton