Letter #59

Hello Hello!

 

I am reporting live from china town chapel today! I just found out that we are allowed to use this computer today! This environment really beats the underground Internet cafe! That place is so crazy! I come out of there with a headache every time! You can only handle so much screaming in Chinese about world of war craft! I love our church it is the best. It is also raining today which I am really excited about! The streets of china town really needed a cleaning! Layers of dried fish guts cover the streets of china town, so I think this will be great!

Elder fan and I had another great week in china town. We have been working so hard! It is so cool being with elder fan because both of us are the exact same age in the mission, so we are ready to get out there and work! This week, Eric came and met with us! Eric is the guy that we street contacted over by the top of the rock! I was so surprised! For some reason, I really did not think that it was going to happen. I called him on Friday and he did not answer. I left a message for him saying that we would love to meet with him the following day and he called back the next day saying that he would love to come down and meet with us. He is a very educated guy. Educated in the sense of the world, but when it came to church, god, Jesus Christ; he knew nothing. He had heard a lot of small facts but I don't think that he was ever able to put them all together. As we went thought the lesson with him, you could see his curiosity continue to grow. My favorite part of the lesson was when we talked about the book of Mormon. The spirit was so strong! We could feel it and we could tell that he was feeling it! It was great, one of the top lessons on my mission for sure. When he left, he said that he needs some time to think about all of the things that he had just learned. We are going to give him a call this weekend and see how he is doing.

This week all of the missionaries in my zone sang for a group of young men and young women. They were at an activity called the mini mtc. The idea was so that they could see what a mission would be like. They had some opportunities to teach and I think that they even went out street contacting! I thought that was intense! You never know what is going to happen street contacting in the city! I really enjoyed this activity. It made me think of when I was getting ready to go on my mission. The doubts, fears, and excitement all mixed together into a casserole of mixed emotions. My favorite part of the activity was one of the speakers. He was a recent convert to the church, who went out and served a mission. You could really see how the Gospel had changed his life and the life of his family. And not only that, but all of the people that he shared the Gospel with on his mission. This really made me feel good. It doesn't matter how many people that we convert but what they do with the message after they receive it. It has to be the best feeling in the world when a recent convert brings a friend to church! Those are the people that are truly converted! The people that want to share the Gospel with others!

This week we had one of our investigators bring a friend to learn about the church! Right when we saw him, he said that he wanted to be baptized. As cool as this sounds, it usually means that they want to get baptized to help them get a green card. And in this case, it was! He started to ask us if after he is baptized he would have proof that he was baptized. These situations are always so hard. We can never deny any one the right of being baptized, we can just hope that the Gospel will do what it does best and convert them. Change them into saints! I really hope that it will. Elder Fan and I both noticed he had a dark countenance about him. Part of the reason may have been his purple hair and black fingernails! We hope that the Gospel will help him! It will be interesting to see what happens!

Well I am sorry this week was kinda short! But we are going to see the crime museum this week and I am really excited! Thank you so much for all of the love and support! I sure do love you guys! Have a great week! Until next time!

Elder Barton