Letter #97

Hello my dear friends and family!

 

This week was just marvelous! Me and Foley have been working so hard! My mission president gave me a challenge in my last interview to make elder foley the most tired that he has ever been in his life my last cycle. I think we have been doing a pretty good job with that. Every night after we finish planning we crash. It has been great!

This week was full of miracles. Everything just seems to be working out perfectly! We have found a few new investigators this week that are so cool. The ways that we found them I feel were a huge blessing. The first one that I want to tell you about is Yan Di Xiong. A few months ago I contacted a lady on the street of china town that I will never forget. If I remember correct I even talked about her in one of my e mails. She walked towards me with her face down staring at the ground. In response to my voice she slowly looked up into my eyes. She had a black eye and her mouth was bleeding a little bit. As I started to get to know her, I came to realize that these wounds on her face were a result of her husbands anger. She started cry as she told me that she was in china town to give her husband some time to cool off. She was leaving the next day to go back to Philadelphia (where she lives), so we did not have an opportunity to sit down and talk with her more.

We have stayed in touch over the last few months, but it has been really hard for us to do anything considering she does not speak english, and there are no chinese speaking missionaries up in Philadelphia. When we called her on monday she told us that she was still up in Philadelphia but she assured us that things were starting to get a little better. As I was getting ready to hang up the phone, I asked the signature missionary quesion, "is there anything that we can help you with?" We ask this question to people all day everyday, but it is very rare that we actually get any kind of response. This time was different however. She said that her husband just got out of the hospital and is in china town. She said that she would love it if we could go visit him and see if he is ok. I think before she was even able to finish her sentence I was asking for the name and the phone number! I was so excited for this opportunity.

We called his phone, he answered, and agreed to come and meet up with us. I have to say I was very surprised. I was expecting a rough looking man with a rough attitude. But Instead it was a short little man with long flowing hair and pink t shirt. He also came across as a very nice man. We shared with him our purpose as missionaries is to help him come closer to Christ, and in turn help his life and his family. We gave him the family proclamation to the world, and invited him to read and pray about it. The spirit was very strong. Me and my companion could feel that he had a very strong desire to change.

I feel so blessed to have that experience. I can remember the day after I met that girl on the street feeling so sad for the rest of the day. I also prayed for her with all my heart. Heavenly father heard my prayers. Not only did he hear them, but he answered them. I really hope that Yan Di Xiong will take the things that he learned with us and apply them into his family. He is meeting with us agian tomorrow. I cant wait.

I do have to share one funny story before I log off... So we were teaching a lesson in dunkin doughnuts the other day, because one of our investigators did not feel comfortable coming to our chapel. There is a crazy homeless lady with a large hole in her forehead that loves to cause trouble in china town. She will do things like come next to us as we are teaching a lesson on the street, drop her pants, and start to go to the bathroom. It really gets out of control sometimes. As we were in dunkin doughnuts teaching this lesson she walked up to our table. I am so happy that our investigator did not speak english, because she said alot of bad words. She chewed us out pretty good, then hocked a luggie on my companion. I dont think I have ever been that discriminated against my whole entire life. Our poor investigator was so scared. He got up and left right after the episode. I think he will probably feel comfortable coming to our chapel next time.

I am really sorry. Now that I think about it that was a really weird note to end on! haha! Well I sure do love you all! Thank you for all of the love and support! The church is true I believe it with all my heart. I am so blessed to bring this great message of happiness to the people here in china town! have a great week!

Elder Barton

Letter #96 Elder Barton Arrives Home In 5 Weeks from today!!!

Good Afternoon!

 

Well this was another fantastic week! I am so excited to go home and count up how many of my emails have started with that exact sentence! Ha I think it will be very interesting. Elder Foley and I have been sooooooo busy! I love it! China Town is such a wonderful place in the summer. I am not going to lie, the smell is not something I am going to miss, but the group of people that cover those smelly streets, I am going to miss so much. Recently there has been a ton of people outside relaxing. China town has many different parks and places to sit down. Almost every place will have families and other people waiting to hear the gospel. There are also these little singing and dancing groups that will come and perform. Even though they are all over 70 years old, the heart and soul that they put into these performances is just incredible.

We have been meeting some great people. It is so amazing how fast they will go out of state. They meet with us one time, then bam, they are gone! The process gets a little old sometimes. But when you think about the seeds that are being planted, it always feels pretty good. Sometimes I just wish that I could have a car in this mission... That way I could drive to these places where our investigators are and take them to church. There are so many things that I wish I could do for these people. Some of the stories I have heard on my mission make me think that every single hard ship I have ever experienced was just a piece of cake.

We had a member bring a friend to church on sunday, which was so great! After the church service we sat down with him to share with him the gospel. He was such a nice a guy. He was very shy and kept to himself but the more we spoke with him, the more he seemed to open up. He told us a little bit about his life. He is going though a typical china town situation. He came to America illegally, so as a result is in a lot of debt and trying desperately to get his green card. He is all alone. His wife and 18 year old son are in china. He misses them so much.... But he will not be able to see them for a long time. It is impossible for him to go back. I have heard similar stories so many times on my mission and each time it just breaks my heart. I dont know that I have ever met someone that was suffering as much as he was though. We shared with him prayer and how the atonement of Jesus Christ can help us to overcome our trials. He really seemed to enjoy it.

I feel so blessed to serve in this mission. These people are so pure. It is their first time hearing about any of these things. It is one thing to teach it, but see someone use what you teach them and have it change their life is something so much better. I have such a great mission call.

I had my first interview with President Morgan yesterday. I was expecting him to sit me down for a couple seconds then shew me off when he realized I was going home soon. That was not at all the case! I have never met some one that listened so well to everything that I had to say. I left that interview feeling so complimented and uplifted. He is such a great man! I wish I had more time to get to know him, I feel that he and I would have gotten along very well. There is such a huge part of me that just wants to stay here for a little while longer so I can see all of these exciting changes continue to take place.

Fourth of July was sooooooooo awesome! Our land lady opened up the roof! We had snacks and the whole deal! I have never seen fire works like that in my whole life! The whole thing was like one giant grand finale! And the coolest part was seeing them come out from behind these gigantic sky scrapers!! It was a great time to be an American! I took some awesome pics, but I dont have my camera today so I cant show you! sorry!

Well I hope that you are all doing well! Have a fantastic week, and I will talk to you soon!

 

Elder Barton

Letter #95 Happy 4th of July

Hello Hello!

Today is going to be a shorter email. I am in best buy using a computer. Today is fourth of July so a lot of places are closed! It is nice being out of china town on the fourth of July. In china town you would not even know that today is a special day! I saw a guy that had a pair of socks with USA embroidered in red white and blue but other than that, I have not seen the slightest amount of patriotism. I made sure to sing the national anthem to start off comp study this morning though. I sang it extra loud so everyone in china town would get the gist. 
This week was just amazing. Going into a new area is always accompanied by so many miracles. With that being said, I don't know that I have ever seen such a rapid increase in a teaching pool my whole entire mission. Starting last week we had one baptismal date. But, he went out of state for a few months and will not be coming back for a few months! So we had to drop his date. But me and Elder Foley continued to battle through the sorrow and work hard. We were so blessed. We had some of the most powerful lessons that I have ever had in my whole mission. I think a few weeks ago, I may have told you about a business man that we met on a work exchange from Bei Jing. We had the opportunity to share with him the first half of the plan of salvation, and invite him for baptism. After much thought, he finally agreed that he would do it. We are so happy! His family is coming out in about a year as well which makes it just that much better. 
We ran into another guy on the street holding a bible in his hands. We started to talk with him and heard a remarkable story. He said he became a christian. He really enjoyed church and started to share the word with a lot of his friends. One day a few government officials came into his church and dragged him out. They beat him pretty severely and confiscated his bible and other materials that he had on him. After he was released from jail, his father gave him money to go to America. The spirit was so strong as he told us this. He then said that he is preparing to get baptized into another church. We shared with him the first lesson and invited him to be baptized with the proper priesthood authority. He agreed!!!! 
On Sunday we met with a lady that we have been trying to meet with for quite some time! She is so prepared but hardly has any time to meet with us. She is a very busy woman. Finally with much prayer and effort we were able to meet with her. She began to cry right when she said the opening prayer. She began to tell heavenly father. After the prayer, we talked with her for a second. The poor thing has really been going through some hard times. The spirit made it so obvious what we need to teach. What is the best way for us to start over? How can we have consistent happiness in our lives? Baptism! The spirit was so strong!
We also were very blessed with people coming to tour our chapel that we met on the street. We also had a few people randomly just call us! I wish so bad that I had more time to in depth of all the wonderful miracles that happened to us this week. I can't even begin to tell you how much it strengthened my testimony that god lives. He guides his missionaries to those people that are ready or need some extra help preparing. 
We got to meet President Thomas B. Morgan this week! He is a great guy! So much different from President Smith. They are both great in their own way. I really like President Morgan. He has five boys. One of which will be living with him throughout the course of his mission here in New York! I thought that was pretty cool! It is weird seeing children sitting up on the stand with the mission president! I really like it though.
I am so grateful for all of the love and support from all of you! I love reading the letters that you all send me! I am sorry I am not the best at writing back sometimes. I hope Andrew tears it up in Brazil! I know that he will be an amazing missionary! After seeing a picture of Tucker on his mission, I am not worried that he will lose those big biceps of his... I am sure that he will have many more baptisms on his mission. Love you all!
Elder Barton

Letter #94

Hello Hello!

So we have some big changes in china town! Because president smith is leaving this thursday, we got transfer calls on sunday and had transfers/p-day today! It feels very strange. I got transferred again into the other china town companionship! This really is just the common pattern of my whole mission and I love it! Each time that you go into a new area, it is a great opportunity to see many miracles. Heavenly father will help his missionaries if they want him to. I am back in my greenie area with my man Elder Foley! Elder Foley is a great guy! He has been on his mission only for a few months but is catching on to everything so fast! He is from Missouri, comes from a big mormon family, and his very stylish. As you can probably tell, we were destined to be friends. I am excited to start working with him! I will be finishing where I started! We also had another new missionary come in! He is a giant! I am concerned that the people of china town will be scared to death of him. He is 6'5", which is the china town record. ( We keep track in our apartment. We started a tradition where each new missionary marks his height. I hope that is not weird.) My dear son, Elder Mok, ventured out into the english program. (son just means that I was his trainer) It was hard for me to see him go but I know that he will tear it up. The next time that I will see him will be in Hawaii for school! Pretty crazy!
My last week in my old area went so well. We committed a few of our investigators to baptism! They will do so great. They were all so prepared! Brother Wang was still having a problem with smoking as of last week. We invited Brother Ye to sit in on one of our lessons. Brother Ye is one my recent converts that previously had a smoking problem. He just got a calling to serve as a branch missionary! WHAT A STUD! Brother Ye bore such a strong testimony and assured Brother Wang that if he read the book of mormon and prayed everytime that he wanted to smoke, he would be able to do it. It was very believable considering the fact that Brother Ye went from smoking a pack a day to nothing with in a very short amount of time. We were also able to give him a blessing, which was a really cool experience. After the blessing, he felt very comforted and was filled with determination to quit smoking. It was SO cool to see Brother Ye help us teach. It seems like just yesterday that Brother Ye was In a similar situation.
We have been meeting with a lady named annie for the last few weeks. She randomly called our number one day and told us that she want to come to church. We meet with her usually once a week. She has been suffering from depression recently due to health problems, and loved ones passing away. We have been trying so hard to help her! We gave her a blessing and have even gone as far to sing songs to her each time that she comes in. Recently she has made some improvement, but not much. This last week, at our branch temple activity Elder Mok and Elder Foley saw her doing baptisms for the dead with the flushing branch! We met with her yesterday and when we talked with her about it she was very embarrassed. She told us that she was worried if we thought she was a member we would not be willing to meet with her. The whole thing was very strange but I feel I learned alot from this. First of all, we as missionaries need to make sure that we are not making anyone feel unwelcomed to come and talk to us. And second of all, as members we need to make sure that we are living up to our baptismal covenant to " mourn with those that mourn, and comfort those that stand in need of comforting." (Mosiah 18) Missionaries are very fortunate to not have anything distracting us from helping those around us. But, living a life as a "normal" member of the church, we have many things to distract us. I think there are so many people in and outside of the church that simply just need somebody to talk to. The missionaries have no way of finding them all by ourselves.
I have recently realized how big a roll planting seeds has played in my mission. If we dont stop and look, sometimes we will not even see the many small miracles. The other day me and Elder Huang ran into a lady on the street that came with us to the church, listened to the first lesson, grabbed a book of mormon, and was on her way. She lives in flushing so I will call the office and give the flushing Mandarin speaking elders her phone number. This is a very common practice in china town in which the grandeur is often forgotten. This last time, it really hit me how blessed I am to be doing this. That one small seed could change this woman's path forever. Missionary work is really something!
Well I sure do love all of you guys! Thank you so much for everything! I am sorry that emails are always so short and lame! It is so hard to write all of the amazing things that happen in a week, in just one hour! In order for me write everything it would take a whole day, and a bunch of icy hot to help my carpel tunnel go away! I hope that you have a great week!
Elder Barton!