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