Letter #42

Hello everyone!

Today is transfers, and elder boekweg will be transferred to Kingsbridge in the Bronx. The scariest place in our mission… I am excited for him! He is going to have some awesome stories to tell coming out of that place. He has been an awesome companion and I have learned a ton from him. I look foreword to seeing what he will do in the Bronx. My new companion is named elder Dees, I have never met him before but I have heard some funny things about him! I am going to go pick him up after this. I am excited!

This week was a little slower. We were busy with meetings so we did not have much time to go finding. We had elder Craig Christianson, a member of the seventy, come into our mission and give us training. It was so powerful. One thing that I have noticed about general authorities is they never want you to take notes, they always just want you to write down impressions that you have as they are speaking. They understand that it is by the spirit we will learn, and by the spirit they will teach. They are also always very humble; it is never about them, always about us and the spirit. We also had a zone meeting this week up in new caanan, which was incredible. The zone leaders assigned two district leaders to do the training and they did so well. They also taught about the spirit and the power that it has in teaching. After they set up this big maze in the dark that we all had to walk through only using the light of Christ at first (a few small lights set up around the maze) It was hard! I hit my shins a few times and was led of course a few times thinking that I was on track. But the second time they gave us the spirit (a flash light) and let us go through again. It was so much easier than the first time. In conclusion we need the spirit when we teach it was a great lesson I really enjoyed it.

We taught Matilda again this week and it went so well. She is the one from Ghana Africa who had a great understanding of the bible. This time we taught her and the lady that she nurses for named Alis. (A very nice old lady that was born and raised in Danbury her whole life.) At first she was extremely hesitant, she kept telling us that she was catholic over and over again as we were teaching her. But finally, she started to relax, and the spirit really came into our lesson. We taught about the book of Mormon. I have never seen someone that was intrigued by the things we were telling her! Here is some one that has been reading the bible her whole life and said herself that she still felt thirsty for the truth. As we told her about this record of scripture that was so new to her, it was like watching her thirst be quenched. We asked her to read and pray about the book of Mormon and she accepted this commitment.

I had a really cool experience this week with following a prompting of the Holy Ghost. There is a young man we tracted into a few weeks ago that expressed interest in learning more about our church. We have tried to go and revisit him a few other times but we were never able to catch him home. This last Thursday, after we finished our studies, I had a strong feeling we needed to go and visit Carlos. The feeling was so strong, I knew before we even got there that he would be home. Sure enough he was home and came outside to talk with us. Me and elder boekweg, taught him the full first lesson and he accepted it great. We could tell that he was going through a tough time so we testified of the comfort the book of Mormon can give.

Our new referral thing is starting to work! At our dinner appointment tonight a member has invited her child’s kindergarten teacher to learn about our church! I cant not even express through e-mail how excited I am for this! We have been working so hard for it! I hope it goes well!!! I have been preparing like crazy for this lesson. It will be weird not having elder boekweg there for sure! I am definitely going to have some big shoes to fill in this ward.

Well, I got to get going to transfers!

Until next time this is elder Barton signing out!

Letter #41

HELLO HELLO!

So this week definitely had its ups and downs for sure! Very high ups and very low downs! What do you want first the bad or the good? I will just start with the bad to get it out of the way. Tom Hughes will be moving out of Elder Boekweg and my area.. We are so sad. There is still a possibility of him staying, if he can find another place to live around here. But so far things have not been looking good. We were bummed when we got the call. I have been fasting and praying for him like crazy but we will see what the lord wants to happen. This was our awesome investigator with the baptismal date for July. I hope that things work out to were we can still teach him. When he was on the phone with us, he started to bare his testimony about the things that we have shared with him, particularly the book of Mormon. I was so happy we had the opportunity to introduce this to him! It is not over though! If he does move, I will still be in touch with him and we have already looked into the missionaries were he is moving, so it will all still be ok!

Now for the good news! Elder boekweg and I had a great finding week. We have been working so hard and things are starting to come together. We have been running into some of the nicest people ever! One day, elder boekweg and I were tracting and it started pouring rain outside! But we still kept going. Finally, a man saw us from inside his house and came running outside holding an umbrella, gave it to us and said we do not need to give it back. But, right after, he got into his car and drove away. Giving us not opportunity to talk with him. We were so grateful. We left it on his door with a note and a pamphlet when we were done tracting. Also that same day, a little old woman answered the door and we noticed a large tree branch had fallen from the tree in her front yard. Elder boekweg and I picked it up for her and then she insisted that we came inside. I think maybe her mother instincts kicked in. It is so great how much heavenly father looks after his missionaries. We sat on her couch and just talked with her. We found out that her husband had just died very recently and she was having a very hard time. She was lonely and had no one to talk to. She had gotten a job at a factory making dentist supplies as a way to meet people. It turns out that day her daughter had was supposed to meet her for dinner but due to the weather, she couldn’t make it. I could not help feeling the love that heavenly father has for this woman. I wanted to help her so bad. Because we were short on time, all I could do was testify of the plan of salvation and give her a pamphlet. I hope that she reads it; I know she would find so much comfort.

We have a Chinese investigator!!!!! I found her from a Chinese member that is in the ward that neighbors ours. The member is named shao and just moved here from China about a year ago. She is eighteen but looks like she is 10. When I started talking to her, I found out that her mom was not a member because her English was not good enough to take the discussions. I might have already told you about how I found out about her... but this week I was finally able to go to their house! It was so awesome! I came to find out that shao's mom had heard some bad rumors about our church. You know the basics. I guess it had been really hard on her to allow her daughter to even go to our church because of these rumors. I cleared up all of the rumors she had heard and she was very relieved! Then we started the lessons. I was expecting her to know a little from the previous discussions she had heard but she didn’t understand a thing. So we just started from the top. I asked her who she thinks god is. Then explained that he is our heavenly father! I told her that she can pray to him and he will help her because he loves her! At first she seemed a little hesitant, but her daughter bore the sweetest testimony of prayer and the power that it has played in her life. And the power of the Holy Ghost. The spirit was so strong! She agreed to pray, and ask god for help in her life. She then explained to me all of the things that she needs help with. She needs a job and better English. I told her I would love to start teaching her English and as she prays she will find a good job! So we will see what happens! It went really well and I was so happy.

We have also had some really good first lessons with people this week. I am really hoping to see people start to progress! We met one lady named Matilda, from Ghana, Africa! She is awesome! She reads the bible so she says that she doesn’t like to attend church because people are so off with the doctrines! She has been giving the sacrament to herself on Sundays! It is amazing how much sense our church makes if you actually read the bible, not just say that you do. No sarcasm intended. When we taught her about authority, she quickly brought up the story in the bible when the demons could not be casted out because he did not have authority! It was great I think that she will move along great!

My mom sent me the ward letter this week, full of all the other missionaries in our ward. It is amazing how different all of the places are but the work is exactly the same! They all sound like they are doing so great. I am so happy to apart of such a good group of missionaries. Well I hope that you all have a great week, thank you so much for all the support.

Elder Barton

Letter #40

Hello everyone!

 

I hope that you are all enjoying this lovely weather! It has been soo hot over here… it is insane! I have been sweating through my shirts like mad! But don’t worry, I have been applying plenty of sunscreen and various lotions so I am ok!

This week was so nuts! We spent a lot of time finding.. Our investigators were all very busy and did not have time to meet with us! So we did a lot of tracting and street contacting! Everyone makes fun of me up here for liking street contacting so much! They think I am still too caught up in my china town days. But I love it! I love talking with people! Tracting, you will talk with maybe 5 people in a whole hour.. Street contacting, you can talk to 20 people in an hour! It is fun! I love weeks when we do a lot of finding because we always meet the funniest people! This week there were some very interesting people! Everything from people that professed to be witches, to rock stars!

The rock star one was hilarious! We go and knock on the door of this huge, scary looking mansion with a large manikin in the front window wearing a mask and this short man with a beard answers. He says “oh we love Jesus come on in”! Elder Boekweg and I hesitantly went inside! As he unloaded his groceries, he talked with us about his life! He is in a heavy metal band! And lives a crazy life! His mansion also has the other members of his band living in it. The walls had huge holes and the floor was covered in dents from when they party! It was weird! He then wanted us to help him unload this huge inflatable so his kids could play on it! That was very interesting!

I also found a vine this week! Now I am not talking like a grape vine here… I am talking like a full on Tarzan vine! I saw it on the side of a street we were tracting! I of course, (as any one would do) went to go test the vines durability. Assuming from everything that Bear Grylls (from man vs wild) has said, this vine would support my weight. I gave it a big tug and then proceeded to take a swing. I am sure you can see where this is going.. I fell really hard on my back. And almost stained my pants.

I don’t know if I told you last week about the investigator I met form Haiti. He was so awesome and we really thought that he was prepared! He was prepared! But after we left his house he went on like 10 different anti-Mormon websites. It was really too bad! We walked into his house for our second lesson with him and you could already tell that something had changed. He printed off a page for each of us on why our church was wrong. We started trying to explain some of the things but it didn’t matter. He was already convinced. Not knowing what to do, I bore my testimony. I have never felt the spirit so strong as I defended everything that I believe in. It really became evident to me how much Satan does not want this work to continue on! It was sad.

As for the rest of our investigators, they are still doing great! We were not able to give Tom his blessing this week to help him quit smoking but this Tuesday we are going to! I am so excited! He is such a great guy. I can’t wait to see what is going to happen. Everyone else has been so busy and has not even been able to get in contact with us! It is discouraging at times! But, I have noticed I am always quickly humbled when I see how fast the lord gets my back. Right as I start to feel that nothing I am doing is working, we will run into some one or get a call from someone awesome. That always helps me so much! This week after a long day of tracting, I was feeling so tired and discouraged. But right then, one of our investigators called and invited us to come eat dinner with them this Friday! They are going to make Argentinean food! I am so excited!

Well, I hope that you all had a great week! Thank you so much for the love and support! I am sorry this email is a little short but we are going to the driving range! I am excited… I have never done this before! Have a great day!

 

Elder Barton

Letter #39

HEY HEY HEY!

 

This week was an awesome week for elder boekweg and I. We met some really cool people and had some great things happen! 

So to start this week off there is a story I would like to share…. Elder boekweg and I were tracting in a rougher part of Danbury, before a dinner appointment that we had around that area. On they last house we knocked, it was elder boekwegs turn to talk. As he started to speak, he was quickly interrupted by "where do you live!?!" we told him in Bethel. He started screaming at us to write down our address so that he could come bother us at our house. We apologized and walked away. He slammed the door. Then, as we started to tract his next-door neighbor, he ran outside again yelling and swearing. He wanted us to get out of his neighborhood. As we started to walk away he followed us yelling at us as we walked. Telling us that we were not walking fast enough. We just looked down and tried to ignore the comments he was throwing at us. Finally, he shoved me in the back and said "boy you are not moving fast enough." When we got to our car (that was about a block away), he saw that we had New York plates (where the mission home is) and started to yell at us for lying to him about where we lived. When we got in the car, he stood in front of us and told us to go the other way. We couldn’t back up because there was a large landscaping truck blocking us. But no matter how hard we tried to explain, he really wanted us to go the other way. As I started to inch foreword, he punched the hood of our car. This made me mad, so I pulled out our phone and called the police. I really should have done that sooner because he left right away and went home! So in Danbury there are 6 cars on patrol at a time. 4 cop cars pulled up to investigate the situation. Do you think this town sees a lot of action? When I told him what happened he said based on what you just told me, I could go arrest him right now! Do you want to press charges? I said no, but he needs to know that is not the best greeting to give someone when they knock on your door. The cop and the eight others with him fully coated in all of the latest tactical gear, (I think there was even one with night vision goggles), said that if he gives them any lip, they are going to arrest him with out question! I am not sure what happened to my little friend but I hope he is ok. That was a great way to start out the week!

On the positive side, it really was a great week! We had a really funny dinner appointment where the kids were forcing me to translate all of the latest songs into Chinese! It was hilarious! The kids brought the parents into the room and the parents called their friends all in to listen to me translate hip songs into Chinese! It was so funny… I was laughing so hard! I love my ward; the members here are so great and supportive! We played ultimate Frisbee on Saturday! The missionaries from our ward and new town ward against the more seasoned crew in the area. The missionaries owned. The others were all talking smack the whole time too and it was great!

Me and elder boekweg are going to implement a new way of getting referrals, we want each person we visit for dinner to write down 4 people and an action they are going to do to spark interest about the gospel. We really hope that it works!

Tom is still doing great! He is progressing so well! We taught him the word of wisdom yesterday and he accepted to start living it. He has been smoking since he was 16 years old, was an alcoholic, and drinks coffee every morning! So this was no small sacrifice on his behalf! He requested a blessing, but wants to prepare himself before he receives it. He is really taking it seriously!!! I love it! We are getting so close with him and Mariza! Now we just have to teach him about the law of chastity and he is set to be baptized! I have not met many people that have faith like this man so I really don’t think that it will be a problem. I love when an investigator is a better example to you than you are to them! It is so motivating for me!

As far as the Chinese people, nothing has changed so far. I am having a hard time getting a hold of the ones that I have met. And the referrals that I have gotten were addresses that don’t exist! I still have faith; I hope to see some good things happen. Yesterday tracting we found a large clan of Asian people. I was so excited to go and start talking with them! Until I found out they were all Vietnamese and Cambodian. Frustrating!

Well I love you all so much thank you so much for all of the support you give me out here! I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Barton

Letter #38

Hello hello!

 

This week was so awesome! I am really starting to enjoy myself up here, starting to get used to the way things work up here! Elder Boekweg and I worked hard and we ran into some great people! We found some great new people that are interested in learning about the church! The first one we found was in a part member family. His wife was a member and he was not. But they came to church and requested to have their baby blessed. My comp and I went over to their house and gave the certificate to them, and also invited Louis to take the discussions and learn about our church. He agreed!! He is from Argentina and his wife is from Mexico! Luckily, their English is really good! We also ran into a guy tracting that wanted to learn about prophets… he told us to come back at a different time and teach him and we set up an appointment and came back! The appointment was great! Because not only was he there but also he had two of his friends over! As we were talking to them trying to get to know them, they were being weird at first. Then, finally we found out they thought we were Jehovah Witness! When they found out we were Mormons, they became so excited! I guess both of the friends were history majors and loved to study about Mormon history! The lesson with them went great! They new a lot of information but as we helped them understand reasons behind the history and the story of Joseph Smith the spirit was so strong! We are going to meet with them again tomorrow, and I am so excited! They are a great group! Another contact that we had was sooooooooooooo exciting! We ran into a Chinese guy tracting!! He had just moved here from main land china and wanted to learn about our church! What a blessing! We have not met with him yet, but I am so excited for this opportunity! I have actually been finding a lot of ways I can use my Chinese! The librarian here is from Taiwan and I have been talking with her quite a bit! We are becoming good friends! It was funny because right away she was very standoffish. I asked her if she was Chinese and she said, “why do you need to know?” But when I started to speak with her in Chinese, she was laughing and having a good time. She requested a pamphlet about our church as well so I am really happy! There is also a Chinese girl in our neighboring ward that was just baptized! She also just moved here from China! BUT!!! Her mom is not a member yet and does not speak English!! dun dun dun! I got permission from my mission president to start teaching her the “after baptism lessons” and try to teach her mom! So I am soooo excited about that! I really hope you can all understand my excitement!

I was so scared to come up here because I thought that I would not have any opportunities to speak Chinese… boy was I wrong! I really wish I were better at just trusting the plans heavenly father has for me! OH and we also have some really good news! Tom Hughes has agreed to be baptized! This was the awesome guy with the mullet! We are not quite sure when (due to some problems that he has) But he was so excited when we mentioned baptism to him! I have never seen someone so accepting of what God wants him to do! He was already baptized as a catholic, but he understood authority so well, he said, " even though I was already baptized as a catholic, can I be baptized by the right authority? I really don’t think my baptism was legitimate in the Catholic Church!" he is so cool! It has nothing to do with Elder Boekweg or I! It is purely him! To be honest, I felt like I was having a bad teaching day, when we were teaching him authority! I kept stuttering, and bouncing around like crazy! It was purely the spirit that has taught him these things. What a great guy! He also invited Elder Boekweg and I to go ice climbing with him next winter and was very discouraged when we told him we could not leave New York! He is so cool. Sorry I am being so repetitive but it is so true!

I am learning so much up here! Elder Boekweg is teaching me a ton! He has this real love for people he teaches and is purely motivated by that! He is also so patient! It is very relevant what heavenly father wants me to learn for him! It has been good so far. I am not sure how much longer he will be here considering he has been here 5 cycles, but I hope I will learn all that I need to.

Well I hope that you have all had a great week! Thank you so much for all of your love and support out here it helps me so much!

Love Bao Zhang Lao

Letter #37

Hello Everyone!!

 

SO i am in a completley different mission now! it is so crazy! i am still suffering from culture shock! everything is so different!!! The members feed us, and are very involved! we have a ward mission leader! I am driving! the nighttimes are not filled with sirens and drunk people yelling! it is quiet! everthing is way spread out! our pad is huge! all of these things are so different compared to what i had in china town!

This week was great! me and elder boekweg worked hard. i really like elder boekweg, he is so fun, and knows how to work hard. we laugh our heads off all day long. we are getting really good at singing the efy songs together. the way that you work up here is so different! we tract! no street contacting.. it is illegal to street contact in the small town of danbury unless you have permission! tracting is so different! i did it from time to time in china town, but it was always hard to get into buildings. here that is all we do to find people! that and look ups...less actives or referrals from the Portuguese missionaries and spanish missionaries! i know this is going to sound so weird but this area is like a little brazil! there are three portuguese missionaries here! this was also the area that elliott dennis served which is so cool! i went over to the Portuguese elders pad today and saw a deer that elder dennis skinned while he was on his mission! haha! i thought that was so cool! the portagese elders are obsessed with elliott! they talk to me about him non stop! one of the elders that he trained, and two others that have never even met him, just heard of him! he is a legend! they all talk about how hard he worked and never stopped. i am not surprised at all!

This area is so beautiful! i feel like i am in the middle of the sacred grove all of the time! i have never been there but from pictures i have seen it gives me the same feeling! i love the people that we are teaching and the members they are so cool! we have a dinner appointment almost every night! there has been one night so far that we didn't go to a members home for dinner. AND on that night we went to dennys. "FROOOOOM DENNYS!"  it brought back that memory for sure! i know what you are all thinking! i am going to be a mammoth when i get out of here... yes i think i will and i have to say i am excited! everynight me and the other missionaries i live with have a "weighing" and take a look at our progress! they have been here longer than i have so, they are making better progress but i am coming up strong and quick! anyways, back to the people! my first day here elder boekweg and I found an awesome investigator that is progressing so fast! And on the plus side his girl friend is a brazillian lady that is a less active! she has really been wanting to get back into the church, so it was so cool that we found them! They are named Tom and Mariza. Tom is probally in his late fiffties but he is still rocking a grey mullet! (buisness in the front and party in the back!) he has such a big interest in the book of mormon! he requested us to bring him one of those huge book of mormons so that he could read it easier! as we explained to him what it was with his girl friends help, he became so excited! he said that makes so much sense! we meet with him twice a week and each time he has read at least five chapters more so far! He is a great guy! and his wife always cooks us awesome brazillian food every time we go over so it is so awesome!

We were so blessed to find him because i guess this area is one of they slowest areas in our mission! we also work a lot with recent converts! our recent converts are so awesome! one of them is named June Fry. she is so interesting! she is always watching the gospel channel and really believes that these priests are healing people, despite the fact she was already baptized! She is way cool though she went through a lot to be baptized!!! i respect that a lot! our other new convert is named brigget! she has an awesome family that were also all baptized! her husband just got out of prison so we are really excited to start teaching him! they are a great family!

Eventhough it is so different up here, the work is still the same! if you work really hard and try your best, heavenly father will provide people to teach! I love being a missionary! you really can understand how the gospel will bless peoples lives! because you see it everyday! i am sorry that i did not get to cover everything but we have to go. i love you all so much, and i hope you have a great week!

Love Elder Barton

Letter #36

Ryan has moved! He left his new address below. 

HELLO! Ok I had the craziest past few days of my whole life!! I mean that I don’t think that I have ever had a crazier time in my whole life! Ok so I think I have explained to you all the china town missionary life in New York before but allow me just to refresh you all.. Ok so usually we will stay in china town for about a year or so then we will leave for a few months and come back! This is the usual process.. I have some huge news for all of you.. I am e-mailing you from Danbury Connecticut!!!!... Can you believe this!!! I was so surprised when I got the call! I was in the middle of teaching English class, when I got a call from our zone leader. I answered because I knew that transfer calls were coming in! He asked me if I was sitting down and I said no, I am teaching English class! Then he said, ok well you are going to Danbury Connecticut.. Just thought I would tell you….bye! hahah! The room started to spin! I dropped the phone on the floor! I then told my English class what was going on!! They all became really sad and said that I couldn't leave! This made things even worse!! I was so confused and sad! I was not ready to leave china town at all! My Chinese was just starting to come along, we had many great new investigators that I really liked being around! Everything was in a bad situation to leave!! I have never had to trust the lord so much in my whole life! I still have no idea why he wanted me to come up here but there is obviously a reason for it! But I am loving my new area! I just got up here like an hour ago but it is really cool! It is a small town but very green and beautiful! I am also driving now!! This is the weirdest part! I have not been in a car for so long!! It has been all subways and walking! The air has to be the biggest change I have seen though so far! When I got out of the car it was like I was holding my breath for a really long time then took a big fresh breath of air!  Elder Boekweg is my companion and he is so awesome! He is really outgoing and seems to have an awesome attitude about everything.. I think that I am really going to learn alot from this guy! But ya!!! that is what is going on as of right now! I am excited to see what happens. I am not going to be here long at all, just a few cycles, but still it is extremely intense way to much for me to handle, but that is when we grow right?

I am happy I left china town on a good note though! Our baptism last Sunday was so special! Fan jie mei was so funny! It is amazing how baptism can really change people! I think it is affecting her in a really good way! It took so much faith on her part to get baptized and she is going to be blessed so much! Chen di xiong called us the last minute on Sunday and said that he was not ready to be baptized. This was very sad, Elder Near and I knew that this was the day heavenly father wanted him to be baptized.. But hey, he has his agency! He will keep meeting with two other elders coming in now, so it is ok! I hope he will be baptized when I come back to china town! We met with him yesterday night and told him we were both leaving (Elder Near is going to a different place too) and he got so sad! It was making me feel so bad! He kept saying that he knew heavenly father really did want him to be baptized last Sunday, so that we could be there to watch! I am sure that was not the only reason, but I am glad he is thinking that way! It was so crazy last night going through all of my phone numbers, and investigators getting things all ready for the new companionship coming in. it really made me realize how much I loved the people I have been serving! I felt so sad! It was like I was leaving my family! 

14b Durant ave bethel Connecticut 06801 is my new address! Write me soon! Sorry this email is so rushed! I have no time! We have an appointment soon! Love you all hope you have a great week!

Elder Barton