Letter # 75 A Fantastic Week

Hello Hello!

Well this was a fantastic week. I had some of the most amazing experiences that I have had my whole entire mission. To start off this week, we had a zone meeting that really helped me to change my perspective on missionary work. We began to discuss different ways that we could improve as a zone. Many of us shared our ideas, but it seemed like no body was really getting much out of it. Out of nowhere, two of our native Chinese sisters stood up and bore a very sweet testimony. In the best English that they could they talked about prayer. They said that they will pray as many times as they can through out the day. As they are standing on the street if things are going bad they will say a prayer and know where they should go and they will find those people that are prepared to hear the gospel. They said that in their opinion it is better for a missionary to go outside for an hour and give every bit of his heart, then it is for a missionary to go outside for five hours just to go through the motions.

I decided that I would try to utilize this same faith in the way that I do missionary work. That night I said a prayer that we would be able to find those people with a broken heart ready to find the Gospel. A problem that we have been having recently is that we have been trying to convince people that the church is true. With out faith on their part, this really is not doing much good. Like James says, if we ask god with "nothing wavering"… It is only then that it shall be given them. We also started to pray not only right before we went contacting but as we contacted! Asking heavenly father for guidance. As the week went on we contacted many great people! People that we really felt were "prepared". But, many of them were unable to meet with us. We were still able to meet with some of our other investigators, but like I said they were just really not progressing. Although we felt discouraged we kept our chins up and continued to work hard.

Sunday, the last day of the week was incredible. We had scheduled four appointments and two investigators were at church. The first one was scheduled to meet with us right before church. Elder Mok and I were very excited but more so Elder Mok! This was his first time a person off the street that he had contacted agreed to come and meet with us. As the elevator doors opened for us to walk into the chapel to see this girl, she was standing in the doorway. We said hi and I began to introduce myself. Then, I was quickly interrupted by, "I am sorry I have to go, I will be back in a second". She jumped into the elevator that we had just stepped out of, the doors shut and that was it. We both had very high hopes that she would come back so that we could teach her. We sat in the foyer for a few seconds then heard a sound coming from the chapel. When I walked in side I saw one of our active members preparing the sacrament table. But I also noticed that every single chair in our chapel had a nice advertisement gently placed on top of it. We knew that it was probably the person that we had just seen fleeing the chapel. We had a good laugh then began to clean up this mess of advertisements. But not long after, she walked into our chapel again. She apologized for the flyers and we went with her to the back so that we could share a lesson. In the beginning everything seemed pretty normal until we started to talk with her about prayer. The spirit guided us to talk about trials in our life and how prayer can help us to overcome them. I have never spent so much time on that topic my whole entire mission. When we finished we looked up and said, how does it feel to know that there is a heavenly father that loves you? She put her head down for a second then began to cry. The spirit was so strong that I was not able to move. My eyes stayed focused on her the whole time. She began to tell us some of the things that she is going through and said it feels so good to know that some one cares for me.

After church was over, we were able to share a lesson with one of our investigators named Zhang. I have never seen someone so interested in the plan of salvation before. Questions that had been bothering him for years of his life were answered in that simple twenty-minute conversation. He said that he also had a great experience with prayer this last week. He lives in New Jersey, so when he comes to NEW YORK, he gets very confused sometimes. Last week after church as he tried to make his way home, he became very lost. He was very scared, he said a prayer in the way that we had just taught him about an hour earlier, and he was able to back track and find his way home! It is so amazing how the gospel is changing his life! I can see a visible difference. He has a lighter countenance about him how compared to the first time that he met with us!

After this lesson, we waited for our 3:00 appointment. It got close to 3:15 so we figured that he was not going to come. I gave him a call to see what was going on. I woke him up from a deep sleep but he told me that he would come right away. He met with us! This is the first time on my mission that all of my scheduled appointments have gone through! As we sat down and began to talk with him, we found out that he had met a missionary that served here about a year ago. He still remembered her name and everything. He said that when he met her, he was very busy with work and never had an opportunity to come meet with her. But now, he has a solid work schedule with Sundays off! He said that he could meet with us every Sunday. As we talked with him, the spirit led us to focus much of our lesson on Jesus Christ, and his teachings while he was on this earth. The spirit was so strong.

It is amazing how when people are prepared to hear the gospel it really does make all the difference. The teacher cannot force his/her students to be prepared, he/she can teach the materials and surround the students in a good learning environment but it the end, it is the students choice whether or not he/she wants to study for the test. I am so grateful that heavenly father heard my prayer. This week was really just another testimony to me that God loves each and every one of us. Jesus Christ's grace is sufficient for all of us. When we try our best and do all that we are physically and spiritually able to do he will make up the difference. I am so grateful for him doing that day in and day out for me on my mission.

I love you guys hope you had a great week!

Elder Barton

Letter #74

Hello hello!

Today I am doing my email in a BEST BUY so, I am not going to be able to make it to long. But it is ok it is not about the quantity, it is about the quality. Feel free to write that down if you have a pad of paper near by.

Elder Mok and I had a great week. Elder Mok is a great companion. He makes me laugh so hard. This week we purchased some of those little poppers that you throw at the floor and it makes the loud bang sound. They became really cheap the day after Chinese New Year. Anyways, Elder Mok and I were contacting and I could see that elder Mok looked rather tired. Right as he started to yawn, I tossed a popper in his direction. He squeezed together so tight, and he hit the floor for cover. I was going to try to play it off like I had no idea where the attack had come from but my laughter took over. I was laughing so hard. He is being a stud and being very patient with me. Even though we are going through a hard time right now, he is making it very fun by providing lots of laughter. I think that is one of the best skills that I have learned on my mission. When times are hard, sometimes the best cure is just to laugh.

We had a great zone meeting this week. Our mission president just opened it up to questions and answers. Our mission president is such a good speaker. I noticed whenever he would be talking about something and I would have a thought or a question, it would quickly be answered as he continued to speak. He is very good at following the spirit. I really hope that I have that effect on our investigators when we are teaching them; I think that is so important. He also shared a portion from "When Thou Art Converted" by M. Russell Ballard. It was an analogy about a ship and an anchor. He talked about how we need to keep our chain links strong so that our boat will not start to drift away. This made me think about an experience that my dad shared in a talk a few years ago that happened to our family when we embarked on our journey to Catalina. It really helped me to understand this analogy a whole lot better. My mission president also quoted 2 Nephi 33:1-2 (I really hope that is right) It talked about how the Holy Ghost brings the message unto our heart, but not into our heart. It is our job as missionaries to be a worthy conduit so that the Holy Ghost is able to deliver the message. After our mission president touched on this subject an elder raised his hand and asked a great question. "How can we as missionaries bring this message into our hearts?" Our mission president shared a quote that I really liked his answer to this question. "We can become the person that we want to be by practicing every day." Very short and to the point. The word practice really stuck out to me in that quote. I thought about all of the "practice" that I would do for wrestling. Let me tell you when I first started wrestling most of the time at practice my coach would put me with older and more skilled wrestlers where I would just get whooped on over and over. The wrestling skills that I developed were only after a lot of hard work and failure. And even then, I was never a perfect wrestler. There were still many times that I would lose. If we have changes that we want to make, the only way that they will happen is by us trying our best everyday.

The rest of new years was great and things are slowly getting better. One of our members brought a friend to church on Sunday that we were able to teach. We don’t know exactly what will happen with that but we are very excited. It was for sure a huge blessing that I know would not have come if were not working so hard and being obedient. Our investigators are also slowly progressing, what else could we ask for? I am so grateful.

Well I hope that you all have a great week!

Elder Barton

Letter #73 Happy Chinese New Year

Hello Hello!

Happy New Year, and welcome to the year of the dragon! This is a pretty cool year I must say, anyone who was born this year, is very lucky! I was born the year of the sheep... I mean that is still pretty cool. But if a sheep would be able to take a dragon in a fight, I really do not know. I will do some research on that and then get back to you. But anyways, Chinese New Years was so cool! I am very lucky to be in china town during this awesome holiday. The streets are loaded with parades, lion dances, and the whole ten yards. Every child is also well equipped with these cannons that shoot out confetti, you have to be very careful. I would say walking out side could be likened unto walking through a minefield. It is a blast! All this special food comes out as well that is not usually available. Oh how I love Chinese New year. 

The missionaries performed a play again in front of the whole stake. This year we did the story of how the months came to be. They say that long ago there was a problem through out the entire world. No one was able to measure the time. As a result, they could not remember when major events had occurred. So a wise jade emperor came up with a resolution to this problem. He would issue a race amongst all of the animals in china! And the first twelve animals to arrive would have the honor of a month named in their honor. The rat (played by elder Barton) climbed on the ox's back in order to get across the river. The cat had the same idea! But, was pushed off the ox's back as they crossed the river. (This is why today cats are always chasing the rat!) The rat ends up winning the race, because he jumps off the ox's head to cross the finish line! THATS  RIGHT I WON! Ha but anyways, that is the story. It was a lot of fun! It took a lot of work on our districts part. We put blankets over a volleyball net, with waves on the top to make the river. It was really cool I wish that I could have video taped it! I love Chinese stories, I think they are so creative.

As fun as the food, and the minefields have been, the work as still been really hard. No body wants to talk to a missionary when they are trying to party. So we have been outside doing lots of contacting. Weeks like this are great; it gives you an opportunity just to think. I was able to think about our investigators that are out of town, and ways that we can help them. I was also able to think about all of they amazing blessings that I have been given on my mission. All of the great things that I have experienced. It has been a long time since I have stopped and looked back. My mission has really been amazing so far. There is not a single thing that I would change. Part of the reason I think that my thoughts were led in this direction, was a conversation that I had on the phone this week with Jing. She was the Chinese lady that I was so lucky to baptize upstate. She just came back from a trip to Utah. Her daughter really wants to go there for college so she thought she should go and take a look. This trip was such a positive experience. She was able to go see Temple Square as well as the tabernacle. She also met many other members that were also Chinese. She went to church on Sunday and was embraced by the members and felt very welcomed. She felt the spirit very strong and her testimony was solidified. The reason that she called me was to ask me how two of her friends would be able to be taught the gospel. They do not speak English and after Jing taught them about our church, they are very interested. She also wanted to know more about the temple. And after she learned more was very excited to start preparing herself to go. I don’t know if you can have a better experience as a missionary.

When I was doing language study this last week, I was looking out the window of the china town chapel. We are on the fourth floor, so we can see out a little ways, with even pieces of the sky, which is very rare in New York City. As I looked in the sky, I saw a bird. I assumed because of the height this bird was flying at that it was an eagle, hawk, or an owl. The bird slowly began to descend until it got low enough to land on a flagpole, which was right in front of me. This bird was not an eagle, hawk, or an owl. It was a pigeon. I have to say I was a little disappointed. As I continued to look at this bird, I became very confused because of its behavior. It was not acting like the normal pigeons that you see in New York. It had a certain confidence that the very flap of its wings seemed to emulate. I thought this could be put into a pretty good analogy. We are all children of god. Even though we all look the same, if we have been baptized we take on a higher responsibility. We suddenly bear the name of Jesus Christ. We cannot participate in activities that would not represent him. We cannot be on the dirty streets eating the "crumbs of temptation." ha-ha! The coolest part of this whole experience was after the pigeon sat there for a while, one of the pigeons on the street flew up and sat with him on the same flag pole, they then flew away back to the same high plain that first pigeon was at originally. As good members of the church we need to share the gospel with our friends, not just keep it all to ourselves.

Well I hope all is well! I love you guys! Have a great week!

Elder Barton!

Letter #72 Another Great Week

Hello hello!

I am just coming off of a great week! We had a few things that just kinda happened out of nowhere!

Elder Yamashita of the 70 (I really hope that I spelled that right!) came to New York for a fireside! It was focused on the Asian population. It had Korean, Japanese, Mandarin, and Cantonese translation. My companion did the Cantonese translation! He makes me so proud... ha! He is such a funny guy! I was laughing so hard as he was speaking that tears began to roll down the side of my face. He shared the story of Lambert the Sheepish Lion with us and then asked us if we are the children of a lamb or a lion. I thought this was a cool question. He never told us the answer, he just encouraged us to go home and think about it. My opinion is that it depends on what god’s purpose for you as an individual is. There are some that he needs to be lions and some that he needs to be lambs. He also shared his conversion story. It was an amazing story. He shared it in recent conference I believe. But after he shared the story, he looked over at the missionaries and started to cry. He then said thank you so much. That made me feel so good. He also talked with all of us after his talk and continued to express his gratitude for our service. He is such a great a guy! It made me feel so happy that I chose to come on a mission. It doesn’t matter how many you convert, the worth of one fully converted soul is incredible.

We also had a lesson this last week with Eric and the Union Square missionaries, and passed him off. Although it was really hard to do, it was the right thing to do! He will progress so much faster in the other ward. We also had Vicky take off for China for four weeks! So right now we have one investigator in Spain, one investigator in China, 2 passed off to the English missionaries, and a few out of state for work... Yes things have been a little slow. Even though it is hard, it has been perfect. I know that sounds really weird, there are probably a select few that chuckled to themselves as they read that last line, but it was true. We have been able to focus on li guang's family and have really been starting to see some progress. It is so hard because the mom is not into Christianity and the father is. We decided the best way to help them is really just to serve. We went over to the house yesterday and helped the kids with their homework. I have never seen the mom so relaxed and with such a big smile. There was a warm feeling in the home. We ended up not sharing a lesson but it felt like it was the right thing to do. Changes in this family are not happening right away but we are starting to see some small changes little by little.

This whole experience has really strengthened my testimony that the gospel really can strengthen families. And more specifically having the spirit in a home can strengthen families. It invites peace and unity. It is hard for some one to understand this; unless they have seen what a family is like that does not have the gospel. That does not have the spirit. I am so grateful for my family and for the blessings of growing up in a home that had the spirit.

Everything else is going great; we are still working so hard, and being guided by the spirit everyday. Sometimes it will lead us to do big things, and sometimes it is as small as helping somebody carry a heavy bag of vegetables. We are really hoping to have another great week! I can’t wait to tell you guys all about it!

Elder Barton