Letter #98 Another Fantastic Week

Hello Hello!

This was another fantastic week. My testimony continues to be strengthened as I do missionary work.
A few weeks ago when we went to give the flowers to our investigator at work, we ended up having a really good conversation with one of her co-workers about the church. He expressed interest in our church and told us that he would give us a call one day when he had time. A few days later, he called us and we set up a time that he could come in to meet with us. When he came into the chapel he told us that he met with the missionaries about 10 years ago. At the time, he had just come to america so his life was very busy working 12 hour days most of the time 7 days a week. But now he has alot more time and his life has stabilized immensely. He even showed us a picture of him and the missionary that taught him 10 years ago. The lesson with him went fantastic. He accepted a baptismal date, and really seems to have a sincere desire to learn. He came to church this last sunday and something amazing happened. At the end of sacrament meeting our branch president asked if a visiting return missionary that served in our branch 10 years ago would stand up and share his testimony. When this man passed by our investigator grabbed his hand and greeted him by name! It turns out that was the missionary that taught him 10 years ago!!! The now grown up returned missionary did not recognize him at first, but after a few seconds remembered. I am not even sure that our investigator even realized how much of a miracle that was. This missionary has not come back for 10 years, then on the one sunday that he did come back it just so happened that our investigator came to church. truly amazing. 
That same sunday we had to amazing member present lessons. One of them was with our investigator getting baptized this last sunday and the other was with the buisness man from Bei Jing that talked to you guys about a little while ago. The spirit was so strong in both of them. Me and Elder Foley barely did any of the talking. The members got to know them then just kinda took over. IT WAS GREAT!  Both of them bore such powerful testimonies, and shared their personal conversion stories. Our investigator from Bei JIng went from having alot of questions and concerns to almost having none. The member that was present in our lesson has a very similar life, so they were able to connect very well. Our investigator getting baptized this sunday felt the book of mormon was true but boring. But after this member present lesson, she feels it is the most interesting book in the world! I can not even begin to say how grateful I am for the help of those two members! They really helped us out!
We had an opportunity to take another one of  our investigators to go take a tour of the Manhattan temple! We obviously were not able to go int he temple side with him yet, but he really enjoyed seeing the chapel. We are so blessed to have the temple so close to us here. It is such a great tool for finding new investigators and making the investigators that we already have become more converted! I love the temple. That investigator is doing so well. He makes me laugh so hard. He is really shy but has a personal goal to become more outgoing. So he is always asking us to help him. He is a great example of somebody that is meek and humble.
I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have had to meet these people. I wish I had more time to tell you about all of our great investigators! I could talk about these people all day! They are all so special each and every one of them. It is funny how allot of times I feel like the missionary learns so much more from the investigator than the investigator learns from the missionary. I will never forget the impact that some of my investigators have left on me. I love each and every one of them so much.
Well I am so grateful for all of the love and support that I have received recently. Thank you all so much! I hope you have a great week! Talk to you soon!
Elder Barton