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