Pictures of Elder Barton in New York

"You know feeling it.....Manhattan"

Elder Near & Elder Barton on Blizzard Day

First Baptism He taught me how to use Nunchucks

Elder Faulkner with Investigators.  One on left is getting baptized.

"The Pad"

China Town Vegetable Market

Letter #19

HELLO HELLO!

Well... this has really been an awesome week i hope that i can get everything out that i want to say and it will still make sense! Well, first off... i just returned from an awesome snow ball fight at central park with most of the elders and sisters in my zone! It was so cool! We had bases and everything and played capture the flag!! I also recruited two little kids in the park to be on my team! It was so awesome... we were destroying!
But anyway, it was really a great week! I started contacting like crazy and began to be much more bold with my contacts, and we have been seeing some great results. I met a ton of awesome new people but i will just tell you about a few of them! The first one was xiang! I met her when i saw her struggling to carry 4 large heavy bags by herself! I asked if i could help her and she said yes very fast and gave me 3 out of the 4 bags! I am glad that i asked her because she had a long way to go. She was very nice, and had a very heavy Fujiu accent! She was very giggly and spunky i liked her a lot! She was supposed to meet with us on Sunday but she didn't come! Kind of a sad ending but i was still very grateful to meet her. The next one was ling xiao jie, another very awesome lady! I started to talk to her about our english class then she just gave me a bunch of Chinese candy! She didn't even know my name yet! She would just grab my hand and start dumping candies! It was so funny! She said that she wants to come to our English class on Thursday, THEN SHE ASKED WHAT TIME CHURCH STARTS! This was definitely a blessing! People will never say things like that in china town! She was so cool! I really hope that she actually comes! I also met li. He was making these really cool lizards out of grass on the side of the street, so I bought a lizard from him then talked to him about church for a while! He was a very nice man! And last but certainly not least da da da da! POP EYE!  Well, actually probably before i start, i should give you a background! So, in china town we have been trying tracking lately! (going door to door and talking to people about church!) It is not usually done because it is very hard to sneak in to the apartment buildings! NOT illegal, just frowned upon!  So we tracked so many buildings and did not have too many amazing contacts. (mainly Cantonese people, Spanish, and English!) I actually liked talking to the English people though! a lot of them were very nice and wanted to know where the English wards met! WHY CANT THEY SPEAK CHINESE!? hah! but anyway, finally on the last door we planned on doing for the night, he answered. A small Chinese man (about my height) with one eye missing. We spoke to him in Chinese and he just stopped and starred at us for a second.. Finally he responds in an English ITALIAN accent, and says why the heck are you speaking Mandarin! we talked to him for a bit and told him about what we do! when i told i am from California and my companion said he was from Iowa, he insisted that we came in so we could tell him more about what we do! he was so funny! even when he spoke Mandarin he still had his Italian accent! (turns out this guy moved to America when he was seven years old and was one of the first Chinese family's in china town)! When he moved into china town, it was all Italians he said! He said he used to get chased home every day from school and was picked on by the Italians! He told us the reason that he has such big forearms is from fighting them! Then he told us that is how he got his nick name! (not for his eye!!) It was so funny! The first entire time we just talked to him about his life! It was so awesome, he shared with us so many cool stories! I am pretty sure that he is involved in the mafia now. He has not said that but I am just assuming! He said that he will teach us how to control people and demand respect! I don't know, it gave me the feeling! We are meeting with him next Sunday, so I am sure that I will find out more! He is so cool though!
Gosh missions are so amazing! I am meeting so many awesome people! I seriously love this! I would really love to see some of these people's lives change because of our church! I really hope that their time will eventually open up! Oh i asked one of our English class students to meet with us and he agreed it was so cool! We were planning on teaching him about "the book of Mormon" but he did not even know who GOD or Jesus Christ were! Not even the bible! He had recently moved from China, so he did not know much! I did not realize how much the Chinese people were isolated from beliefs! That is pretty sad! I really hope that China will open up soon, they need the gospel! But in our lesson with him, we just taught him that God is our loving heavenly father and asked him to pray to feel his love and existence! I really hope that he will get his answer! He is another person that i really like! He was the same one that was going to teach me how to make sushi!! OH and by the way our recent convert taught us how to use NUMCHUCKS!!! I AM SO PUMPED! He bought us a pair so I have been practicing like crazy! He was so good at them! He was a very big fan of Bruce Lee so would make the sounds and everything it was a crack up!!
Well, sorry this one was kinda long and all over the place! But I am having an awesome time! I hope that all of you are still doing well! Thank you so much for all of the amazing love and support you continue to give me!! The church is true and it really can change peoples life's! I am so grateful for it!
Bao Zhang Lao!

LETTER #18

> HEY HEY HEY!
>
> Well, another great week in the big apple! I have not talked to you all year!! haha! A lot of big things that are sooo close to happening but are just not quite there yet! People have been out of town for the holidays, and busy with work so it has been hard to find time to meet with all of them! I am excited that the holidays are taking a break for a while, hopefully peoples lives will start to calm down a little bit!
> My companion got very sick this week, so we had to stay inside one day! Not going to lie that got a little boring! I studied so much chinese and scriptures I think my head almost fell off! But it was a great, really terrific feeling! My companion had a horrible sore throat, and head ache! He seems to be doing better now though which is great! I really hope that I will not catch the same thing!
> Chinese people are still hilarious! I am really enjoying talking with them! It is always such a surprise to see what you will get when you start talking to someone! Sometimes they will start running, this is my favorite response because I will usually start running with them! It is so funny to see what reaction they will give you! Usually they think it is funny and will take a card! sometimes they will just yell! what?!?!? what?!?!? those people it is just best to assume that they are not having a good day!! some time you will get no use!! no use!! as they wave their hand about two inches from your face! this is not a fun response to get.. but sometimes they will stop walking and talk with you.. this is the best response to get! It might not come often, but when it does, it makes the whole entire day worth it! I am loving missionary work. It is not an easy work, it takes a lot of time and dedication, but when something actually follows through, someone tells you they will come to church, they will try praying, they want to learn about Jesus Christ, it is so amazing!
> So we have transfers tomorrow! da da da da! I am not leaving! But elder Faulkner is leaving! (aka Chad) I am super bummed! But we are having someone new come in now! And china town is getting a new companionship of elders in china town! So now we will have six elders there! That is kind of exciting! I really like the new companionship too so that is a plus! Now me and my comp are the only white missionaries in china town! This will be cool! Hopefully we will not be speaking a lot of english! It helps so much talking with native chinese people and having them help you! It is the best language study ever! Speaking of me and my comp, we have been giving two of our investigators english lessons! And usually after we will teach them a lesson! It seems to be working out pretty well for us!
> Chinese is still really hard, but it slowly continues to get better! I will feel like I have not gotten any better, then all of the sudden, my mouth will just start moving, and I have no idea what is going on! Then I kind of just say.... WOAH!!!! Haha! I will probably get made fun of for that one! It really does seem to be getting better though! I am kinda starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel! A very small amount of light… maybe like a little christmas light bulb. But hey it is still light!!
> OH new years was fun! We had to be in by 6, but we celebrated with lord of the rings monopoly and sushi! It was a good time! Unfortunately, I did not win, but it is ok!
> Well, Thank you all so much for your love and support!! It so nice to hear from you all! I am so sorry if I have not responded to some of you yet! I hope you know though that I am so grateful! Letters and pictures make me so happy! Love you guys!
>
> Bao zhang lao

More MTC Pictures...(even though Ryan's in New York now)