Letter #81 Hair Cut Experience

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was extraordinary! I have to say I am really running out of adjectives to describe each week that I have on my mission. They are all so great!

To start off I want to tell you about a hair cut experience that I had last week. So as you know missionaries do not have a lot of money. So, for my whole entire mission I have cut my own hair. But, elder near left at the end of the last cycle, and so did his hair clippers. So, I was forced to go find a pace in china town to get a hair cut. As I thought about where I should go, I had one place come to my mind. It only costs 4 dollars for a hair cut so I figured that it was with in my budget. When I walked down the steep and jagged stairs into this basement that they call a hair salon. I was quickly greeted, and some one surrounded by approximately 4 men yelling in Cantonese. I was called to speak Mandarin, so I cannot understand much Cantonese at all. I called Elder Mok to come and help me translate, but he just started laughing. Next thing I knew, I was shoved into a chair, a paper towel encircled my neck, followed by a large purple plastic sheet, and then I heard the flick of a switch... The clippers were ready to do their job. He did not ask me what I wanted, my name, or how I was feeling! He just started to go! This whole time I was calling desperately to my companion for help, but he just continued to laugh and even photograph the things that were taking place. I have a picture that I will include with this email. Luckily the hair cut did not turn out too bad. It is really short and tight on the sides, and the top is still pretty long. I kind of look like a missionary from the 80's.

I also have another story from this week in which I was brutally attacked. We taught a lesson at Columbia University this week. It was really a great experience! The campus is beautiful! You don't even feel like you are in New York City! It takes on the look of spirit paradise mixed with some sort of a Roman empire. There were even white doves flying around! I almost feel like they were released there or something. I have never seen white doves in New York. But anyways, my attack. So we sat down with our investigator on the grassy pastures of the Columbia University campus and began to dive into the doctrine of prayer. The lesson was going great, the spirit was strong, and he was really asking some great questions. But, right as we prepared to do the opening prayer, a huge gust of wind came and flung a piece of paper faster then the speed of light right at my face. Now I am sure a lot of you reading this are saying, "Oh, no problem Elder Barton has the speed of a Gazelle! I am sure he dodged it no problem!" I am very reluctant to tell you that you are wrong. I was caught off guard and the paper nailed me right in the face. And to make this whole situation even worse, the paper was a pamphlet from the Catholic Church.

This week was truly one to remember! Despite those two minor set backs, everything else was great! We had one investigator come back from china! Two of our other investigators are leaving for china, so this definitely made up for it. We taught our 13-year-old investigator about the priesthood and he was very excited! Missions are so great! I can honestly say the time in the mission field just get better as you go on.

Well I got to get going. We have conference cleaning today, so I am off to battle with our wonderful china town pad. Please wish me luck!

 ELDER BARTON

Letter #80 Another Fantastic Week

Hello Hello my dear friends!

This was another fantastic week! I really don't think that I will have another reason to complain for the rest of my life with all of the great blessings that I have been receiving recently. It is such a blessing just to be the Lord’s instrument. It does not matter what the purpose of the instrument is, just the fact that you are in the Lord’s hands is so amazing. A “saw” and a “screw driver” have two very different jobs. I am sure that the job of the screwdriver seems a lot more fun at times. But, there is no way that the screw driver would ever be able to do the job of the saw, and there is no way that the saw could ever do the job of the screw driver. Both tools have been prepared and made to accomplish their own individual purposes. Both purposes are special! Depending on the situation that we are in, we will use different tools. Some tools are used more then others but that does not make them any more important. Regardless of the job that our heavenly father has prepared us to do, or is preparing us to do, we should always just be grateful for the opportunity to be in his hands. We should also keep ourselves sharp and ready so that when he does call on us, we will be ready to go!

We had some great things happen this week. Brother Lin (our blind investigator) came to church! We picked him up from his house and dropped him off after church. He had such a great time at church. It is amazing how much he remembers. On Monday, we picked him up again to take him to an eye appointment. The whole time that we were in the car, he asked us question after question about the doctrines that were touched on in our church meeting. I was very impressed. We could tell that he had really been thinking about the things that he had learned at church and had his questions ready for us. The doctor appointment was one of the hardest things that I have ever had to sit through in my whole entire life. Brother Lin has very high hopes that he will be able to find a cure for his eyes. And his reasoning for going to this doctor was just that! The doctor was a very mean and impatient person. She treated him like he was seeing, giving him no guidance, and even caused him to smack his chin really hard on one of the machines. Then showed no sense of care or concern when she delivered the bad news that he would most likely never be able to see again. We were translating all of this, so we tried to make it sound a little better and put more feeling into it than how she told him the news. The news shattered Brother Lin and as soon as the sentence entered into his ears, his body literally looked like a puppet that had all of the strings clipped from the top. When the doctor saw his body fall in this way, she began almost yell, "He looks confused! Why is he so confused? Are you translating everything right?" She was making me so mad! I have never been so tempted to yell at someone throughout the whole course of my mission. He was sad for a while but then as we dropped him off at his house, he said, "It’s ok, I will go to China and see if there is a cure!" His countenance changed back to the same happy Brother Lin and he walked into his house. That poor guy! Working with him has been so humbling. Despite his hard circumstances, he has such a great attitude! It makes me feel like such a loser for all of the small things that I have complained about.

Sister Lin and her son Henry are still doing great! It is so cool to think that the Canal Street Branch might actually have a deacon! A 13-year-old Deacon! They have come to church many weeks in a row and continue to get closer and closer to baptism. It has been so great to see their progression in the gospel. Our other investigators made some great progression this week as well. Sister Chen went with us to go see the temple! Because of her 1 and a half-year-old daughter she had never used the subway before! We helped carry the stroller on and off of the subway, so that she was able to come. On the church side of the Manhattan Temple we were able to share with her the plan of salvation! Can you think of a better place to share with some one the plan of salvation? The spirit was so strong! She is getting ready to back to China as well, but I am not too worried. I know that she will remember the things that we have shared with her. When people feel the spirit that strong, it is very hard to forget. Brother Zhang (our baptism two weeks ago) received the Aaronic Priesthood last Sunday! It was a very special feeling to stand in the circle and hear his name ordained into the office of a priest! We are hoping that he can baptize a few of our upcoming baptisms. Brother Zhen (the guy with the bad back) gave us his medical records, and we were able to give them to one of the most well known spinal surgeons in the whole world, who just so happens to be member of our stake. He reviewed the records and requested to meet with Brother Zhen immediately free of charge. He also offered to perform a surgery for free! I thought it was amazing how generous this doctor was. But, I was not amazed with our investigator! He is contemplating whether or not he should go through with the surgery! He feels like it is not a good choice! I would have taken that in a heartbeat! But I guess it is his personal decision, it is not my back! It was so great though to see how heavenly father really did answer the prayers!

Well I love you guys! Thanks for all of the great support!

Elder Barton

Letter # 79 We had a Baptism!!

Hello Hello!

Well the weeks just continue to get better and better. Despite a few minor set backs, the major operation still continues to roll foreword. Elder Huang and Elder Mok are so funny! It has been so good to work with them! They are also great missionaries, so organized and on top of things! I have learned so much from them!

We had a baptism this last weekend! I have to say it was awesome! It has been a while for me! His name was Zhang. He just randomly walked into the chapel one day and asked us how he could join the church. It was such a miracle and I am very grateful for it. It is such an amazing feeling when you realize the change that a person has had because of the gospel. I especially noticed this feeling when I looked at Zhang this last Sunday. I had a flash back of the first day that he came into meet with us. He seemed to not have a lot of energy or enthusiasm. As time went on, he fell in love with the scriptures! He loved all of the principles that the book of Mormon lays out so clearly. I think his real turning point was when he learned the plan of salvation. When he was a child his father passed away and he had always wondered where his father was. He was also very concerned because his father was a butcher, and he had heard that if we kill animals we can't go to heaven. We were able to clear up both of these questions for him. These are the reasons I am so happy that I came on a mission. It does not matter how many lives we change, the feeling of simply changing one person’s life is incredible.

Yesterday we had three investigators stand us up. One of them will not be able to meet with us for three months because she is going back to china for a while. So we were pretty disappointed. As we were getting ready to leave the chapel, the elevator doors opened and brother weng came walking out. He was my very first baptism! So it was so great to see him! His wife has been pregnant, so he has been very busy and not been able to come to church for the last few months. He looked very tired. He works every day of the week and whenever he does have a little time he goes to the hospital to see his wife. Let me just tell you his schedule! He wakes up at 5 30 every morning and makes fish and other healthy food so that he can get on a subway for about an hour to go to the NY down town hospital and give it to his wife. He says that the food at the hospital does not have enough nutrition. Then he gets back on the train for about an hour so he can go back home and get ready for work. What a great dad! When we saw him he only had a little bit of time, but he came to pay his tithing. After he paid his tithing he was off to start his hard work in the restaurant again. He has such a good attitude! Every time I see him he is always smiling. It is people like that, that make me feel like I never any reason to complain! 

I think I told you guys last week about our blind investigator. If not now you know! We had an opportunity to take him to a doctor’s appointment this week! It was so cool! We took a Chinese taxi! It is not as special as it sounds, just a mini van with a lot of various mystical creatures posted all around the interior. They also had these really comfortable backrests. It was cool though; I have never done that before! We spend all of our time underground in the subway. Brother Lin, (our Chinese investigator) is such an amazing guy! It is so humbling to be around him! He is a lot like Brother Weng in the since that he has a fantastic attitude. I have been so blessed to meet some great people recently.

Well I am grateful for this opportunity to chat! I hope that you all have a great day! 

Elder Barton

Letter #78 Another Fantastic Week!

Hello Hello!

So this week was fantastic! As far as numbers go this was the best week of my whole entire mission! There were so many incredible miracles that happened this last week! We found a lot of new investigators, and even had almost all of our investigators come to church on sunday. It was so intense! I am loving having elder huang in our companionship! We came out at about the same time, and we have a lot of fun, but we also work very hard. I love it, it is a perfect balance!

Some of the new investigators that we found this week are so cool! One of them is a blind guy, that me and elder huang found tracting a long time ago while we were on a split. It is cool how time has permitted us to now teach him together. He is a really nice guy! Very smart! He remembered everything that we taught him the first time! Even though it was about a year ago! He walks down five flights of stairs to let us in at the door, and then leads the way for us back up the stairs to the door of his house it is incredible. We have recently just been reading the book of mormon with him, to try to help. Chinese does not have any form of Braille, so there is no way for him to read on his own. We also ran into this girl that I contacted a long time ago! She has such a cute baby! The baby is only one years old but has the funniest personality. After we taught this lady, she stayed for a while to watch our english class. As I was teaching the english class, I would feel a little tug on the back of my pants then turn around and the baby would start cracking up! She thought she was such a little prankster! I will send a picture home today so that you can see! We also met a lady this week from California!! How cool is that! She is from riverside! She has only lived in the US for about a year, and NY for a few weeks. She came to NY without really knowing why. She started to find interest in Christianity when she lived in California. I am very excited to continue meeting with her! We had so many other finding miracles happen! People that we have been trying to meet with a long time just show up, and investigators that we already had bring in referrals! I cant even begin to explain the feelings that I feel. I am so grateful for all that heavenly father has blessed me with.

My up state chinese convert came down again to visit me, and this time she delivered some great news that made me so happy. Those two friends of hers that she told me about a while back. The ones that she had been teaching about the church. They are going to get baptized! One of them will get baptized in Seattle Washington, and the other one lives in china so she is going to fly to hong kong so that she can get baptized. I thought that was so amazing! What a great example to all of us of true conversion. What a great blessing it has been to have met somebody like her.

I also had another very touching experience happen to me this week. I was street contacting in china town, and I saw a man that did not look chinese. Don't worry I promise you that the story will get better then this. I walked up to him and began to talk with him. He had just come to AAmerica from Guatemala, so his english was not the best. I talked to him for a few moments, and he told me that he really needed help. He had to go to the bathroom really bad, and needed to know a place to go. Luckily I knew one that was close by, so I was able to give him directions. After I gave him directions My shiny name tag caught his attention. He asked me where our church was. I told him, then he asked if we had a church in CT. Luckily I served in CT a few months ago so I knew were a few chapels were located. He told me that one day as he was walking down the busy streets of Guatemala in a big hurry to get some where he passed by two missionaries from our church. They stopped him and tried to talk with him, but because of all the noise and the rush that he was in he was not able to stop and talk for long. But there was one sentence that he remembered. He said it in spanish, but I think that it meant Joseph smith restored Jesus Christ's church. He told me that he has never been able to forget that sentence. He said that he really felt something when this young missionary said those simple words to him. Because he was in hurry I took down his phone number and gave him the phone number of a spanish companionship in CT. Such an amazing miracle.

Well, guys I got to get going, but thank you so much for all of your love and support it really means a lot! I hope that you have a great week!

Elder Barton

PS thanks for all of the updates! If you get a chance tell andrew I said congrats! That is so awesome he is going to love that mission!

Elder Barton

Letter #77

Letter Just To Family This Week:

Not much time today, so I am only going to be able to email the family! We had so many amazing miracles happen this week! As weird as it sounds, it is very humbling! It makes you realize really how little we as missionaries do. Heavenly Father does all of the work!
I just got back from dropping off elder near. I have to say it was really hard! I am going to miss him so much! But not really because I know that I will see him again. I consider him one of my best friends. He said he wants to come down to cali and visit when I come home! He is going to school in idaho so it really would not be that far.
I have one story from the week that I must share with you!
So this week me and elder mok were doing service in the park. We were laying down wood chips along all of the borders of the park. Me and elder mok were having a great conversation then all the sudden elder mok went dead silent. I looked up to see his eyes fixed on the ground between us. I looked down to see the wood chips we had just layed moving... Elder mok's  look of intensity slowly turned into a look of fear as it became more and more evident that this moving creature was getting closer and closer to the surface. Finally, a small furry head popped out of the wood chips! It was a New York city rat! I was not able to look at it long because as soon as elder mok identified the situation he let out the cry of a Hong Kong warrior and decapitated the animal with his shovel. I have never seen such speed and accuracy in all of my life. Elder mok is a great example of one that is always on his toes.
I am now with elder mok, and elder huang! elder huang is from taiwan I really like him alot! I am now the only white guy in the china town district! I have no idea what I am going to do! ha! It will be good for me. Put the hair on my chest that I have been waiting for my whole life! haha!
I love you guys! I hope you have a great week!
Elder Barton 

Letter #76

Hello Hello!

Well this week was another great one full of many miracles. Some big, and some small but I feel very blessed to have seen each and every one of them. The more that I do missionary work; I realize that every single cool experience that I have had on my mission is a result of the love of heavenly father. Every person that I am able to talk with on the street is some one that heavenly father has put in my path.

We had another very successful week. One of our really solid investigators brought one of his friends to church and we were able to share a lesson with her about prayer. She just moved here from China and has felt very lonely. She cannot talk with anyone, so it is very hard for her to make friends. She works in New Jersey as a waitress and comes to china town the one day a week that she has off. I can’t imagine living that kind of life. Prayer really seemed to ring accord with her. She felt the spirit as we testified that heavenly father really does hear us when we pray. I am so blessed to be on a mission where I can share with people this sweet and simple message.

One of our investigators came back from china! And met with us again! She was the one that had a lot of amazing miracles happen before she left, so we were very happy to see her. She brought me sand from a really cool island in china called Hai Nan Dao. That has become my dream place to go visit. It is supposed to be a lot like Hawaii, but everyone there speaks mandarin! I think it sounds like a great place for someone like me! She also brought us a lot of unique Chinese candy. Interesting would be another great adjective. It was so good to see her again; she is a really fun person to be around. She still prayed even when she was in china! I thought that was awesome. It is great to teach people things, but when they actually use the things that you teach them it is a feeling that is indescribable.

Well we got to get going, today is elder nears last p day before he goes home, so we are going to have to party a little bit!

Elder Barton

Two Elder Missionaries in NYC

Dear Mothers,
This e-mail is very much overdue!  I was at a Mid-Single Adults Conference in NYC last Fall with two friends of mine and we ran into two handsome elders near Radio City Music Hall street contacting.  Of course it's always exciting to run into missionaries out sharing the gospel, so we went over and spoke to them... and took their pictures!  At the time I had a brother on a mission and a sister who had returned from a mission just a few months previously.  Both were blessed to be teaching in areas where the members and new converts surrounding them took the time to contact my mom with stories and pictures of my siblings mission experiences.  This meant SO much to my mom, I just had to take the opportunity to pass on the pictures I took of your boys and I asked them at the time for your e-mail addresses.  How grateful and proud you must be for such amazing young sons so dedicated to the gospel of Jesus Christ!  I am SO sorry for the delay... they may even be home already... but regardless, I hope these pictures of your boys happy and healthy and sharing the gospel will put a smile on your face today! 
Sincerely,
Sister Jennifer Low
Valley Forge Pennsylvania Stake, Philadelphia 3rd Ward