Letter #42

Hello everyone!

Today is transfers, and elder boekweg will be transferred to Kingsbridge in the Bronx. The scariest place in our mission… I am excited for him! He is going to have some awesome stories to tell coming out of that place. He has been an awesome companion and I have learned a ton from him. I look foreword to seeing what he will do in the Bronx. My new companion is named elder Dees, I have never met him before but I have heard some funny things about him! I am going to go pick him up after this. I am excited!

This week was a little slower. We were busy with meetings so we did not have much time to go finding. We had elder Craig Christianson, a member of the seventy, come into our mission and give us training. It was so powerful. One thing that I have noticed about general authorities is they never want you to take notes, they always just want you to write down impressions that you have as they are speaking. They understand that it is by the spirit we will learn, and by the spirit they will teach. They are also always very humble; it is never about them, always about us and the spirit. We also had a zone meeting this week up in new caanan, which was incredible. The zone leaders assigned two district leaders to do the training and they did so well. They also taught about the spirit and the power that it has in teaching. After they set up this big maze in the dark that we all had to walk through only using the light of Christ at first (a few small lights set up around the maze) It was hard! I hit my shins a few times and was led of course a few times thinking that I was on track. But the second time they gave us the spirit (a flash light) and let us go through again. It was so much easier than the first time. In conclusion we need the spirit when we teach it was a great lesson I really enjoyed it.

We taught Matilda again this week and it went so well. She is the one from Ghana Africa who had a great understanding of the bible. This time we taught her and the lady that she nurses for named Alis. (A very nice old lady that was born and raised in Danbury her whole life.) At first she was extremely hesitant, she kept telling us that she was catholic over and over again as we were teaching her. But finally, she started to relax, and the spirit really came into our lesson. We taught about the book of Mormon. I have never seen someone that was intrigued by the things we were telling her! Here is some one that has been reading the bible her whole life and said herself that she still felt thirsty for the truth. As we told her about this record of scripture that was so new to her, it was like watching her thirst be quenched. We asked her to read and pray about the book of Mormon and she accepted this commitment.

I had a really cool experience this week with following a prompting of the Holy Ghost. There is a young man we tracted into a few weeks ago that expressed interest in learning more about our church. We have tried to go and revisit him a few other times but we were never able to catch him home. This last Thursday, after we finished our studies, I had a strong feeling we needed to go and visit Carlos. The feeling was so strong, I knew before we even got there that he would be home. Sure enough he was home and came outside to talk with us. Me and elder boekweg, taught him the full first lesson and he accepted it great. We could tell that he was going through a tough time so we testified of the comfort the book of Mormon can give.

Our new referral thing is starting to work! At our dinner appointment tonight a member has invited her child’s kindergarten teacher to learn about our church! I cant not even express through e-mail how excited I am for this! We have been working so hard for it! I hope it goes well!!! I have been preparing like crazy for this lesson. It will be weird not having elder boekweg there for sure! I am definitely going to have some big shoes to fill in this ward.

Well, I got to get going to transfers!

Until next time this is elder Barton signing out!

Letter #41

HELLO HELLO!

So this week definitely had its ups and downs for sure! Very high ups and very low downs! What do you want first the bad or the good? I will just start with the bad to get it out of the way. Tom Hughes will be moving out of Elder Boekweg and my area.. We are so sad. There is still a possibility of him staying, if he can find another place to live around here. But so far things have not been looking good. We were bummed when we got the call. I have been fasting and praying for him like crazy but we will see what the lord wants to happen. This was our awesome investigator with the baptismal date for July. I hope that things work out to were we can still teach him. When he was on the phone with us, he started to bare his testimony about the things that we have shared with him, particularly the book of Mormon. I was so happy we had the opportunity to introduce this to him! It is not over though! If he does move, I will still be in touch with him and we have already looked into the missionaries were he is moving, so it will all still be ok!

Now for the good news! Elder boekweg and I had a great finding week. We have been working so hard and things are starting to come together. We have been running into some of the nicest people ever! One day, elder boekweg and I were tracting and it started pouring rain outside! But we still kept going. Finally, a man saw us from inside his house and came running outside holding an umbrella, gave it to us and said we do not need to give it back. But, right after, he got into his car and drove away. Giving us not opportunity to talk with him. We were so grateful. We left it on his door with a note and a pamphlet when we were done tracting. Also that same day, a little old woman answered the door and we noticed a large tree branch had fallen from the tree in her front yard. Elder boekweg and I picked it up for her and then she insisted that we came inside. I think maybe her mother instincts kicked in. It is so great how much heavenly father looks after his missionaries. We sat on her couch and just talked with her. We found out that her husband had just died very recently and she was having a very hard time. She was lonely and had no one to talk to. She had gotten a job at a factory making dentist supplies as a way to meet people. It turns out that day her daughter had was supposed to meet her for dinner but due to the weather, she couldn’t make it. I could not help feeling the love that heavenly father has for this woman. I wanted to help her so bad. Because we were short on time, all I could do was testify of the plan of salvation and give her a pamphlet. I hope that she reads it; I know she would find so much comfort.

We have a Chinese investigator!!!!! I found her from a Chinese member that is in the ward that neighbors ours. The member is named shao and just moved here from China about a year ago. She is eighteen but looks like she is 10. When I started talking to her, I found out that her mom was not a member because her English was not good enough to take the discussions. I might have already told you about how I found out about her... but this week I was finally able to go to their house! It was so awesome! I came to find out that shao's mom had heard some bad rumors about our church. You know the basics. I guess it had been really hard on her to allow her daughter to even go to our church because of these rumors. I cleared up all of the rumors she had heard and she was very relieved! Then we started the lessons. I was expecting her to know a little from the previous discussions she had heard but she didn’t understand a thing. So we just started from the top. I asked her who she thinks god is. Then explained that he is our heavenly father! I told her that she can pray to him and he will help her because he loves her! At first she seemed a little hesitant, but her daughter bore the sweetest testimony of prayer and the power that it has played in her life. And the power of the Holy Ghost. The spirit was so strong! She agreed to pray, and ask god for help in her life. She then explained to me all of the things that she needs help with. She needs a job and better English. I told her I would love to start teaching her English and as she prays she will find a good job! So we will see what happens! It went really well and I was so happy.

We have also had some really good first lessons with people this week. I am really hoping to see people start to progress! We met one lady named Matilda, from Ghana, Africa! She is awesome! She reads the bible so she says that she doesn’t like to attend church because people are so off with the doctrines! She has been giving the sacrament to herself on Sundays! It is amazing how much sense our church makes if you actually read the bible, not just say that you do. No sarcasm intended. When we taught her about authority, she quickly brought up the story in the bible when the demons could not be casted out because he did not have authority! It was great I think that she will move along great!

My mom sent me the ward letter this week, full of all the other missionaries in our ward. It is amazing how different all of the places are but the work is exactly the same! They all sound like they are doing so great. I am so happy to apart of such a good group of missionaries. Well I hope that you all have a great week, thank you so much for all the support.

Elder Barton

Letter #40

Hello everyone!

 

I hope that you are all enjoying this lovely weather! It has been soo hot over here… it is insane! I have been sweating through my shirts like mad! But don’t worry, I have been applying plenty of sunscreen and various lotions so I am ok!

This week was so nuts! We spent a lot of time finding.. Our investigators were all very busy and did not have time to meet with us! So we did a lot of tracting and street contacting! Everyone makes fun of me up here for liking street contacting so much! They think I am still too caught up in my china town days. But I love it! I love talking with people! Tracting, you will talk with maybe 5 people in a whole hour.. Street contacting, you can talk to 20 people in an hour! It is fun! I love weeks when we do a lot of finding because we always meet the funniest people! This week there were some very interesting people! Everything from people that professed to be witches, to rock stars!

The rock star one was hilarious! We go and knock on the door of this huge, scary looking mansion with a large manikin in the front window wearing a mask and this short man with a beard answers. He says “oh we love Jesus come on in”! Elder Boekweg and I hesitantly went inside! As he unloaded his groceries, he talked with us about his life! He is in a heavy metal band! And lives a crazy life! His mansion also has the other members of his band living in it. The walls had huge holes and the floor was covered in dents from when they party! It was weird! He then wanted us to help him unload this huge inflatable so his kids could play on it! That was very interesting!

I also found a vine this week! Now I am not talking like a grape vine here… I am talking like a full on Tarzan vine! I saw it on the side of a street we were tracting! I of course, (as any one would do) went to go test the vines durability. Assuming from everything that Bear Grylls (from man vs wild) has said, this vine would support my weight. I gave it a big tug and then proceeded to take a swing. I am sure you can see where this is going.. I fell really hard on my back. And almost stained my pants.

I don’t know if I told you last week about the investigator I met form Haiti. He was so awesome and we really thought that he was prepared! He was prepared! But after we left his house he went on like 10 different anti-Mormon websites. It was really too bad! We walked into his house for our second lesson with him and you could already tell that something had changed. He printed off a page for each of us on why our church was wrong. We started trying to explain some of the things but it didn’t matter. He was already convinced. Not knowing what to do, I bore my testimony. I have never felt the spirit so strong as I defended everything that I believe in. It really became evident to me how much Satan does not want this work to continue on! It was sad.

As for the rest of our investigators, they are still doing great! We were not able to give Tom his blessing this week to help him quit smoking but this Tuesday we are going to! I am so excited! He is such a great guy. I can’t wait to see what is going to happen. Everyone else has been so busy and has not even been able to get in contact with us! It is discouraging at times! But, I have noticed I am always quickly humbled when I see how fast the lord gets my back. Right as I start to feel that nothing I am doing is working, we will run into some one or get a call from someone awesome. That always helps me so much! This week after a long day of tracting, I was feeling so tired and discouraged. But right then, one of our investigators called and invited us to come eat dinner with them this Friday! They are going to make Argentinean food! I am so excited!

Well, I hope that you all had a great week! Thank you so much for the love and support! I am sorry this email is a little short but we are going to the driving range! I am excited… I have never done this before! Have a great day!

 

Elder Barton

Letter #39

HEY HEY HEY!

 

This week was an awesome week for elder boekweg and I. We met some really cool people and had some great things happen! 

So to start this week off there is a story I would like to share…. Elder boekweg and I were tracting in a rougher part of Danbury, before a dinner appointment that we had around that area. On they last house we knocked, it was elder boekwegs turn to talk. As he started to speak, he was quickly interrupted by "where do you live!?!" we told him in Bethel. He started screaming at us to write down our address so that he could come bother us at our house. We apologized and walked away. He slammed the door. Then, as we started to tract his next-door neighbor, he ran outside again yelling and swearing. He wanted us to get out of his neighborhood. As we started to walk away he followed us yelling at us as we walked. Telling us that we were not walking fast enough. We just looked down and tried to ignore the comments he was throwing at us. Finally, he shoved me in the back and said "boy you are not moving fast enough." When we got to our car (that was about a block away), he saw that we had New York plates (where the mission home is) and started to yell at us for lying to him about where we lived. When we got in the car, he stood in front of us and told us to go the other way. We couldn’t back up because there was a large landscaping truck blocking us. But no matter how hard we tried to explain, he really wanted us to go the other way. As I started to inch foreword, he punched the hood of our car. This made me mad, so I pulled out our phone and called the police. I really should have done that sooner because he left right away and went home! So in Danbury there are 6 cars on patrol at a time. 4 cop cars pulled up to investigate the situation. Do you think this town sees a lot of action? When I told him what happened he said based on what you just told me, I could go arrest him right now! Do you want to press charges? I said no, but he needs to know that is not the best greeting to give someone when they knock on your door. The cop and the eight others with him fully coated in all of the latest tactical gear, (I think there was even one with night vision goggles), said that if he gives them any lip, they are going to arrest him with out question! I am not sure what happened to my little friend but I hope he is ok. That was a great way to start out the week!

On the positive side, it really was a great week! We had a really funny dinner appointment where the kids were forcing me to translate all of the latest songs into Chinese! It was hilarious! The kids brought the parents into the room and the parents called their friends all in to listen to me translate hip songs into Chinese! It was so funny… I was laughing so hard! I love my ward; the members here are so great and supportive! We played ultimate Frisbee on Saturday! The missionaries from our ward and new town ward against the more seasoned crew in the area. The missionaries owned. The others were all talking smack the whole time too and it was great!

Me and elder boekweg are going to implement a new way of getting referrals, we want each person we visit for dinner to write down 4 people and an action they are going to do to spark interest about the gospel. We really hope that it works!

Tom is still doing great! He is progressing so well! We taught him the word of wisdom yesterday and he accepted to start living it. He has been smoking since he was 16 years old, was an alcoholic, and drinks coffee every morning! So this was no small sacrifice on his behalf! He requested a blessing, but wants to prepare himself before he receives it. He is really taking it seriously!!! I love it! We are getting so close with him and Mariza! Now we just have to teach him about the law of chastity and he is set to be baptized! I have not met many people that have faith like this man so I really don’t think that it will be a problem. I love when an investigator is a better example to you than you are to them! It is so motivating for me!

As far as the Chinese people, nothing has changed so far. I am having a hard time getting a hold of the ones that I have met. And the referrals that I have gotten were addresses that don’t exist! I still have faith; I hope to see some good things happen. Yesterday tracting we found a large clan of Asian people. I was so excited to go and start talking with them! Until I found out they were all Vietnamese and Cambodian. Frustrating!

Well I love you all so much thank you so much for all of the support you give me out here! I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Barton