Letter #33

hey hey hey!

 

well this was another GREAAT week in china town! our investigators are really starting to progress and we are getting very blessed to find more!!

so i am so excited today i want to start with talking about the investigators situation!! so first of all i want to talk about chen di xiong, or as me and elder near are starting to call him "chen gold." so last night we had an amazing lesson with him. we taught him about the gospel of Jesus Christ. we started by watching the movie finding faith in Christ. he really liked it, he was so amazed how much Christ suffered for him. he said that he had seen the movie the passion before ( i had no idea that movie was translated into chinese) but he said that it was very similar. Then we started to talk to him about the first principle in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, faith. it was amazing how much the spirit was working through me and elder near as we explained how important it is that he has faith. this ended up really being the focus of our lesson. we shared multiple scriptures, experiences, and our testimony's of how important it was. i don't know if you remember, but last week he really wanted to come to church but was not able to because of work. after our lesson he said that he would come to church on sunday no matter what happens. he said if it meant that he lost his job, he would still do it. me and elder near both froze... we were not used to people having this kind of faith in china town. the amount of faith that he is showing is amazing! especially considering the situation of the chinese people in china town. their work is their life, and work is so hard to find to them. but he has so much faith that heavenly father will provide a way for him! i really don’t know if i would be willing to do what he is doing. what an amazing guy. he also accepted to be baptized on the 8th of may!! but there is a catch.. he said that if he gets his license the day before, he would know that it is the right day! i love this guy, he is such a great example to me.

we also had a great lesson with fan jie mei! she was the one that was already baptized in another church, and was having a hard time understanding why she needs to be re baptized. me and elder near continued to teach her authority, but no matter how much "proof" we gave her that our church was true, she was still confused. finally we bore our testimonies on prayer. we told her that if she wants to know she can ask heavenly father and he would give her the right answer. we got on our knees right then, and said a prayer. she said the prayer. one out loud, then she said one to herself. the spirit was so strong! i have never seen someone pray with so much desire, and so much faith! but unfortunately, she did not get her answer. she said she had a small feeling but not that strong. we told her to keep praying, and gave her a bap date. she agreed that if she gets a feeling by that day she will get baptized.

both of these stories strengthened my own testimony so much! we hear so many stories of things happening like this, but it is so different when it is some one you know. it is amazing to watch someone else’s conversion! (Some one that is searching for the truth, and really wants to know) i am so happy i came on my mission! when you meet people like this it makes your whole entire experience worth it!

our other investigators are still doing good. kitty attended a baptismal service this sunday and really liked it. we are still trying to decide how accountable she is though. she is a great lady, and very fun to hang out with though! we found out the Jehovah witeness people have been teaching her too. that is another reason why we are worried about her. ling met with us this week and is so awesome! he was already baptized too, we are excited to teach him authority tonight. he has had an insane life! i guess he was in a bus accident!! so his body is still pretty beat up and he has a lot of doctor appointments every week. we also have a few that are more focused on English then the church. we are really hoping to help them develop interest.

well this week has been so great! i have been so grateful for all of the blessings! well i hope that you all had a great week, thanks for all of the love and support! until next time, this is elder barton signing out....

Letter #32

Hey hey hey!

 

Well this week was pretty dang awesome… I am not going to lie! To start off, we had one really hot day, even though a rainstorm quickly countered it yesterday and today, it was still a great day! I am hoping that it will start to stay that way next week. Everyone says that I am crazy for saying that because when it gets hot in New York, it gets HOT in New York! I guess the heat reflects off the big buildings creating a giant microwave! We will look foreword to that.

But anyways, this was a great week! To start off, yesterday I got to go on an awesome split with an elder from the English program! That was so fun! It was the same elder that I was telling you about last time. (The huge guy that is also from California)… Everyone tells us when we walk around together we look like Frodo and the Troll. I guess I will take that as a compliment? Frodo was fast right? Any ways it was a fun day. To start off it was awesome because I got to go stay up in Harlem one night. That place is so sketch! People throw glass bottles, fight, sell drugs, and you see it all! Crazy! But the next morning we went on a run for exercise and we all wrestled! I really enjoyed it. But the day was awesome; we went to visit one less active that lived in Time Square so we had to go through Time Square to go meet up with her. (My mission president usually does not let us go in there but in this case it was ok)… So, Time Square is also nuts, and my mission president is right there is no reason for a missionary to be in there. But we were able to walk by the premiering for the play “the book of Mormon”! The creators of South Park put it on so I am sure you can guess what it is like. We have been getting a ton of questions from it lately though so it is actually working out great for us! I heard that it is actually not that bad. It is just the story of two missionaries. It makes fun of some things but not really that bad. But anyways, when we met up with the less active we started to talk to her about the play and she said that the guy that plays Joseph Smith lives right down stairs! We were really excited to go talk to him but he was not home... he really wants to go try another day though, that would be so funny! (Imagine if he gets converted!) Later that night, we also visited another family for dinner. It was such a cool experience! The whole family was from Haiti and none of them spoke English except for two of the little girls and one really little boy! We shared a message with the two little girls and then watched them perform a dance and sing a song! I of course, tried to get up and perform a jig and severely threw out my back! It has been a while since I have got my groove on I guess. But then the family made us Haitian food! It was so good! It was so humbling to me how amazing that family was! They don’t even speak the same language as the missionaries but they just want to be around them! They were so happy to have us there! I felt so good being around them.

The rest of my week was also really good! We met one new investigator in china town, but we are not sure what will come out of it! Her name was fu jie mei and she told us that she sees a person that follows her around all of the time. She said that he tells her what she needs to do but never hurts her... this was kinda scary! (Especially because she seemed normal!) She doesn’t want to meet with us though any more because she was already baptized. We encouraged her to keep meeting with us but I am not sure how solid that commitment was. Our other investigators are moving along nicely. Especially Chen di xiong, he is incredible! Last week we wanted the restoration movie with him. We had already taught it to him but we thought that would help him understand better. It did…. The spirit was so strong in the room. After we watched it and bore testimony of how true that amazing event was he said, “who would not believe this message it is incredible?”. He sat in silence for a few moments and then asked us to give him two minutes. He bowed his head and started to pray to himself. I don’t know what he said in that prayer but I know that it changed him. It was really an amazing lesson! He told us he really wanted to come to church but he works on Sunday. He talked to his boss and his boss said that he couldn’t change his schedule. We are really hoping for a miracle on this one. We are meeting with him tonight and I am so excited!

My scripture study is still going really well! I am starting to get so much joy from studying the scriptures! I have been writing down good references that can help me in lessons on a little card and I am trying to memorize them all! I hope that I will be able to! My favorite story I read this week, was the story of Alma and Almulek! I thought it was amazing how even though the people, made fun of, and almost killed, spit upon Alma… he still returned because the lord told him to. I really hope that I can have that kind of faith! I know there has been times on my mission were a spot does not seem to be doing well. Maybe I get made fun of, or almost spit on. I am telling you it would be hard to return to a spot like that.

Well, I love you all so much! Thank you for all of the great love and support! I hope you all had a great spring break!

Have a great week!

 

Love,

Elder Barton

Letter #31

Hey hey hey!

 

Just got back from playing soccer and football with the elders in my zone! It was so fun! It always feels good just to go run around after a long week! The football game was really fun despite the constant interruptions! Chinese people walking across the field and through the game like it was no big deal. And all the sudden, a bunch of high school kids just started brawling. There were probably about twenty or thirty kids all just fighting… it was a little interesting, I am not going to lie!

But any ways, we had a great week! We continued to meet with our new investigators and they are really starting to progress beautifully! Especially Chen… he is doing so well! This is the new Chen, not the baptized Chen! He is doing great! He has actually been reading the book of Mormon and da da da praying!! I am so happy! Every time that we meet with him he always brings in the best questions! Last time, he asked what the brass plates were! We invited him to be baptized, and it went well. He said that he wants to go through all of the lessons, then he will make a decision! I really respected that answer. But he said that he really has a good feeling when he meets with us, and loves praying! He always says the most powerful prayers the spirit is always so strong!

We also met with Kitty again this week! It was.. interesting! We are still a little confused what to do with her. She loves meeting with us! This time she said she feels such a peace when she comes into our church. She is just a little slow. But usually after the fourth or fifth time we explain to her, she will understand! This week she said she liked the spirit world because it reminded her of this story about a monkey king! In this story, a monkey steals fruits from the gods and gets caught! He is sent to this special cavern were he can only eat fruits that fall in and drink the dew from the grass. She said that she thought he was in the spirit prison and had to repent. Ha it is kinda a tough situation! We love her though! She is very nice! We found out this time her mom died recently. She was so happy to know where her mom was! The plan of salvation is so beautiful.

We also met some new people this week! And my companion and I had a record-breaking week for phone numbers! One day, brother Chen came with us contacting! (The one that is our recent convert) He was doing so well! He would speak to people in fujiuinese (a dialect a lot of people speak here as well as mandarin). People were very interested in what he had to say! He had so much power! I had a really cool experience that same day when we were street contacting! I saw this man sitting on a bench next to where we were contacting. He was smoking a cigarette and looked very lonly. I had a strong feeling that I needed to go talk to him. I started to walk over, but got distracted by another person. But the spirit immediately changed my course back to this man. I told Elder Near where I was going, then walked over to him. I sat next to him on the bench and started to talk to him. At first, just small talk. There were some funny kids in front of us that I used to strike up a conversation. As we started to talk about church, I found out that he had previously been to many churches. One in Indiana, one in New Jersy, Brooklyn, but he felt that they were all the same, just good people doing good things. I talked to him about authority (using a plane ticket analogy my dad taught me). I then encouraged him to pray and ask if what I had taught him was true! He agreed he would! I am excited to see where that goes!

I also received so much help with Chinese this week! I have been struggling to have my Chinese progress, so I talked with Elder Faulkner (a white Chinese speaking missionary known for great Chinese) and asked him what his secret is…. He asked me what I had been studying and I told him I would memorize the words that I learned from the week and read some little kids books that I got for Christmas. He laughed and said, “there is your problem!” He asked me why I wanted to learn Chinese. Then said, “if it is to teach the gospel, study the gospel”! He said, that all he does for study is read the book of Mormon! I have been doing that every day and I am really noticing some good results! Words come faster and I am starting to speak clearer! I am so grateful for him.

Conference this week was so awesome! I really wish that I would have gotten so much more out of it before my mission! I took notes but in a way that elder bednar recommended that we do! He said that we should right down what the spirit is telling us not what the speaker is saying! It definitely requires much more attention but it is so much better! My favorite talk was one from elder christopherson about correction! I really thought that was something all of us can work on! It is the only way we can do what heavenly father intended us to do, progress..

WANG XIAO JIE also called us in the middle of conference to meet with us this next week so I am so exited about that! She was the one that had the Bap date then disappeared! She said she had just been really busy! But I guess she lost her job, so now she wants to meet with us again! I guess this is one of those bittersweet miracles!

Well this week was awesome I hope to have another good one this week! Thanks for all of the love and support! You guys are amazing I am so blessed!

 

Bao Zhang Lao

Letter #30 whoot whoot

Hello everyone,

This week was another great one! Last week I told you that we had a lot of investigators drop off but now we are finding a lot of news, which is always a great thing! The new investigators that we do have are awesome! Another good thing that happened was elder near did not leave! We already finished another cycle! I am so amazed how fast the time is going by! We were all expecting elder near to leave to the English program this cycle, but he is staying for another cycle! We were so excited because we have so many things that are so close to happening! We celebrated with sushi and rice pudding! The sushi was only 3 dollars but still it was a treat! The rice pudding was amazing! It was at this place called rice for riches in little Italy! I guess it is world famous! It was sooo good!

The new investigators that we got are so solid! The first one is Jolie! We met her in English class and because her English was so advanced and she was answering every question that we threw at her, we offered to give her personal lessons! She was very excited! Her English is fantastic besides some of her tenses being a litte off. She works in a furniture store and does not like her job because it stresses her out! She had a very different impression of what America was before she came! She thought that it would be easy to come here and accomplish her dreams, but she has been disappointed because it is so hard and expensive! When we started to teach her about prayer she got very excited! She told us that she has been praying every night and it is really helping her! We are going to teach her the plan of salvation tonight and I am so excited! I think that it is a perfect lesson for her!

The next new person this week was Kitty. We did not know what to expect with this one because it was a referral from another missionary in the mission! But she came to the church and met with us. I have to say I have never felt so tall in my whole life! She has to be at the most 4 feet tall! And she has one of the softest voices that I have ever heard in my life! I thought she was whispering! But as we taught her, we realized something was a little off. She was very slow to understand things but when she did, she got so excited and would have the biggest smile! We taught her about God and how much he loves her. She was so happy! We also taught her how to pray, which I think that she really liked! At the end of the lesson, it was so sad because she told us that a lot of people in her family are mean to her because she is slow. She said she liked us because we were nice to her! I have to say that made me feel so good!

The next new investigator was another referral! This one was from chen di xiong! Does that name sound familiar?! It should! It was from our baptism last week!!! That made me soo happy!! I am so excited that he as a desire to share the gospel! I guess he would not stop talking to his friend at work about our church so his friend got interested! His friend is extremely basic!! He had heard of Jesus Christ but had no idea who he was! He thought that he was just a philosopher. He had never heard of the bible or prophets or any thing else! Me and elder near used a lot of different object lessons to help him understand and I think that it went well! I am excited to see where it goes!

The next new person was Anida! I really hope that I did not talk about her in my email last week! This lady was amazing! Elder near contacted her… she said that she sees us all of the time in the cold contacting and always feels so bad for us! Elder near called her for a lesson last Thursday and not only did she come, but took us out to this fancy restaurant for dinner! I have never eaten such nice tasty food my whole life! She ordered crab, steak, noodles, and the whole nine yards! Me and elder near were extremely full! She said that she wants to start making this a regular thing!  We told her no, but she insisted that she could every once in a while! She has been to church before and is excited to learn about what makes ours different! At dinner we were not able to talk much about church, but we are looking foreword to when we can!

I really tried to work hard on my personal studies this week! Working hard choosing topics and specific things to study! I also started reading the New Testament, which is so cool! I am learning so much from it! My favorite thing that I learned this week was in Matthew chapter 9 verse 9. It is an extremely simple scripture. It is Jesus telling Matthew to follow him and Matthew listening with out any hesitation at all! It does not say that he asked why, he just got up and followed him. I feel like Jesus is offering all of us this same invitation. Will we be like Matthew and follow with out question? Our will we be like lamen and lemual? Following along but complaining the whole time! I really liked that scripture! It was easy to understand!

Well you are all having a great week! I am so happy to have so much great support from all of you! Stay strong!

Bao Zhang Lao