Hey there and good day!
Well, this week was a little harder than the weeks previous. Our baptismal dates are starting to have the trials that always conveniently come right before people are baptized, but I have been so proud of them they are all pulling through and doing very well. It is insane how good of examples investigators are. It is crazy to try to put yourself in their situation and think of how you would respond.
To start off on a positive note, Jing is still doing very well. She has overcome her trails now and is continuing to progress towards baptism. She had her interview this last week with elder near (my china town companion serving in new Canaan, a town 30 minutes away from me.) He had to come down because he is the only other one around that speaks Chinese and I couldn’t do the interview because I taught her. She did great on her interview! And is so excited to be baptized now. She also talked with her boss and got her work schedule changed so that she can come to church every Sunday. So I had to come and translate the whole entire meeting for her this past Sunday. It was really hard. The speakers were saying all of these crazy quotes with huge words in them. But I think I got the jest across to her. She left saying that she loved church and was so excited. I have to say in a way, it kind of felt like I was a proud parent. It has been so cool to see her grow and progress in the gospel. Her baptism will be next week.
On another note, Chen this week was having a hard time. He really wants to come to church but his professor does not want him to. He thinks that it will distract him from getting his PhD. Chen wants me to go and talk to his professor for him and explain the situation. I really hope that I will be able to help him. But he has still been doing really well. He is a real example of true faith. No matter what the commandment was that we shared with him he accepted it right away. His personality reminds me the scripture in Alma that talks about how blessed we are when we just believe and have a good attitude. I know that there are some big blessings coming his way because of his obedience. He was supposed to be baptized this weekend but because of his situation, he wants us to push his baptism back till the 3rd of September. I really don’t like pushing dates back, it usually does not end well, but in his situation it makes more sense. I am so happy that he is taking this seriously.
The Veech family had a minor set back this week as well. We found out some new information. It turns out that everyone in the family wanted to be baptized except for the dad. The dad was already baptized once before and was pretty stubborn when we would try talking to him. His wife was still very interested and really wants to be baptized. We told them that they had to be married in order for her to be baptized. They took it fairly well. They said they wanted to talk about it and make sure that it was something they want to do. The oldest son has really impressed me. He has been reading the book of Mormon and praying on his own. He also was the only one in the whole family to watch the restoration DVD that we gave to the family. I find that pretty amazing. If anything the reason we found this family could be for him. The ward and my mission president are being so supportive. They are offering to have a wedding for this family! With everything provided and having our bishop marry them!!! It is cool to see how willing everyone is to help.
I read a talk this week that I really liked. It was by Brad Wilcox and it was called "his grace is sufficient". The talk was so powerful. And I really felt like it rang accord with the things I am going through right now. Missions are hard, I constantly feel like I have things I can improve on. And it seems like every time no matter how hard I work, I always feel like I come up short. I am still not the strongest teacher, I still don’t know my scriptures very well, and I still let little things get to me at times. And now despite all of these things, all of these blessings lately have been popping up out of nowhere. It is purely by grace that all of these things have been able to happen. It is grace that fills in this gap of me coming up short. I am so grateful for grace. that is a really good talk that I recommend reading if any of you have time, it has helped me out a lot.
Well guys I hope that you are all having a great week! Thank you for all of the love and support!
Elder Barton
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