Letter #36

Ryan has moved! He left his new address below. 

HELLO! Ok I had the craziest past few days of my whole life!! I mean that I don’t think that I have ever had a crazier time in my whole life! Ok so I think I have explained to you all the china town missionary life in New York before but allow me just to refresh you all.. Ok so usually we will stay in china town for about a year or so then we will leave for a few months and come back! This is the usual process.. I have some huge news for all of you.. I am e-mailing you from Danbury Connecticut!!!!... Can you believe this!!! I was so surprised when I got the call! I was in the middle of teaching English class, when I got a call from our zone leader. I answered because I knew that transfer calls were coming in! He asked me if I was sitting down and I said no, I am teaching English class! Then he said, ok well you are going to Danbury Connecticut.. Just thought I would tell you….bye! hahah! The room started to spin! I dropped the phone on the floor! I then told my English class what was going on!! They all became really sad and said that I couldn't leave! This made things even worse!! I was so confused and sad! I was not ready to leave china town at all! My Chinese was just starting to come along, we had many great new investigators that I really liked being around! Everything was in a bad situation to leave!! I have never had to trust the lord so much in my whole life! I still have no idea why he wanted me to come up here but there is obviously a reason for it! But I am loving my new area! I just got up here like an hour ago but it is really cool! It is a small town but very green and beautiful! I am also driving now!! This is the weirdest part! I have not been in a car for so long!! It has been all subways and walking! The air has to be the biggest change I have seen though so far! When I got out of the car it was like I was holding my breath for a really long time then took a big fresh breath of air!  Elder Boekweg is my companion and he is so awesome! He is really outgoing and seems to have an awesome attitude about everything.. I think that I am really going to learn alot from this guy! But ya!!! that is what is going on as of right now! I am excited to see what happens. I am not going to be here long at all, just a few cycles, but still it is extremely intense way to much for me to handle, but that is when we grow right?

I am happy I left china town on a good note though! Our baptism last Sunday was so special! Fan jie mei was so funny! It is amazing how baptism can really change people! I think it is affecting her in a really good way! It took so much faith on her part to get baptized and she is going to be blessed so much! Chen di xiong called us the last minute on Sunday and said that he was not ready to be baptized. This was very sad, Elder Near and I knew that this was the day heavenly father wanted him to be baptized.. But hey, he has his agency! He will keep meeting with two other elders coming in now, so it is ok! I hope he will be baptized when I come back to china town! We met with him yesterday night and told him we were both leaving (Elder Near is going to a different place too) and he got so sad! It was making me feel so bad! He kept saying that he knew heavenly father really did want him to be baptized last Sunday, so that we could be there to watch! I am sure that was not the only reason, but I am glad he is thinking that way! It was so crazy last night going through all of my phone numbers, and investigators getting things all ready for the new companionship coming in. it really made me realize how much I loved the people I have been serving! I felt so sad! It was like I was leaving my family! 

14b Durant ave bethel Connecticut 06801 is my new address! Write me soon! Sorry this email is so rushed! I have no time! We have an appointment soon! Love you all hope you have a great week!

Elder Barton