Office Elders

Elder Barton, Elder Medina, Elder Mason

Elder Hirsch, Elder Barton, Elder Mason

Last email from Mexico

Familia,

     Well, this may be the last email of the mission. I don´t know if I will write this next week. I´ll try to. But if not, this will be the last one...so weird. We just had our concilio with president and my comp and I gave a presentation about Preach My Gospel. I can say that I´m the missionary that I am thanks to that manual. It has all the answers to anything. We gave a powerpoint presentation that we made yesterday and it went really well. Then I was given time to give my last concilio testimony...it was rough. Today was my 14th concilio...haha. It´s all ending so fast. But I´m still fighting and working hard. President kept me updated on the world series. haha so that kept me sane in my last weeks. I´m honestly nervous to come home. I don´t know what I´m going to do, but I know that my life has changed because of my mission. I have grown so much spiritually and I´ve gained so much knowledge. I hope that I can get things going with school and baseball and stuff, but the things that I learned here have been worth more than anything. I hope that a change is noticed in my personality, spirit, and overall being. So I almost forgot to notice that ´´el dia de los muertos´´ was today. haha it´s the mexican halloween. They use it to visit the graveyards and clean it, put flowers, etc. There are also some really scary things that go down, but in our part of the neighborhood, it´s calm and not many things happen. The best part of this time of year is the pan de muerto. Basically bread covered in sugar, but sometimes they fill it with chocolate or vanilla cream, jam, etc. Also, I want to congratulate my brother for receiving the aaronic priesthood!! You can bet Ty that we´ll be going to the temple next week. Also, Happy 12th Birthday! So this last week we went back and visited Camarones to work with them. Right now, my son Elder Higbee is there with one of my ex-companions Elder Arellano. We did splits with them and I got to see Tacuba again. The coolest thing that will happen this week is that Maru and Kenny are going to the temple on Saturday!!! Maru will be endowed and Kenny has family names done to take for baptisms. President gave us permission to go and I´m so excited for them! Well that´ll be all for me today. I´ll see you next week!

Con amor,

Elder Barton

Halloween Masks 

It's like riding a bike....receiving help from beyond the veil

Buenos dias! 

     Well, more trials for the family. These 6 weeks are turning out to be very hard. I received the phone call from President Whitehead yesterday about Great Grandpa Penrod. It was a shock to me, because I was looking forward to seeing him soon. I sat alone here in the offices for a good 15 minutes. Then the spirit reminded me of something I had read a few months ago found in the Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith. It´s chapter 14. I was still kind of sad while I was reading it, but I came across this paragraph and the words jumped out to me. "I am authorized to say, by the authority of the Holy Ghost, that you have no occasion to fear; for he is gone to the home of the just. Don’t mourn, don’t weep. I know it by the testimony of the Holy Ghost that is within me; and you may wait for your friends to come forth to meet you in the morn of the celestial world." I felt calm, and I await his help here in these last 2 weeks. I invite all the family to read chapter 14 of the teachings of Joseph Smith. On the positive side, my companion and I baptized 2 yesterday! We found a young man and his sister through their aunt. Their aunt, Erika, is a member from a few years ago and recently took her niece and nephew in. They were in a government building because their dad is in jail and their mom passed away. They had gone to church with her recently and they were very open to the gospel. The nephew is 16 and the niece is 15. They were baptized yesterday and they were very happy to be baptized and feel good. All they are looking for is hope, and they´ve found it. We are happy for them! This week was full of travels as well, as we went to Atlacomulco and then Zitacuaro (the 2 farthest zones of the mission) We traveled Monday night to Atlaco, worked all day with them on Tuesday, and traveled to Zitacuaro Wednesday morning and worked with them all day. We arrived to the offices again Wednesday at about 10 pm. We then went to work in our area for a day then had to be with president for some things. One thing in Zitacuaro is that the 2 areas that have bikes in the mission are in that zone. I got to ride a bike Wednesday morning while we worked. I realized how bad of shape i´m really in....haha. I´m going to have to work hard to get back in shape. Even though these 6 weeks have been hard, I know that I am being strengthened. I have a great companion and the secretaries are great as well that have been there for me every step of the way. I know I receive help from both sides of the veil. I love you guys. Thanks for everything. You´re in my prayers individually.

Con Amor,

Elder Barton

this made my day!!

baptism

Hey Family!

     Another rough week health wise. I had a fever for a day and I was very cold during that. I would be shivering so bad that my neck would almost be cramping up. I got over that and just felt tired and sore from all the shivering. But we had a lot to do this week so it kept me busy. On Monday afternoon, we headed out to a zone called Lerma and helped them on Monday night. Tuesday we went to the zone Toluca and were with them all day. Wednesday we went to the zone Metepec and helped them for most of the day, and we returned home on Wednesday night. Thursday we were in Culturas all day, Friday we were with president and hermana Whitehead while they did interviews in the zone Chapultepec, and Saturday I got a special assignment from President to visit an area and see how the missionaries are doing

there and how their area is doing. It´s one of the most beautiful areas of the whole mission called Valle de Bravo. It´s a very touristy location and the trademark of Valle de Bravo is the huge lake that curves with the mountains. It´s beautiful but a hard area due to how many tourists are there. We left the bus station here in the city at 9:30 a.m. and we arrived in Valle de Bravo at 1:30 p.m. haha. We found a good taco place to eat, got together with those missionaries and I talked with the senior companion while we worked. I got the info that President needed, and we headed back to the offices, arriving at 9 pm...an all day trip. But worth it because I got to visit Valle de Bravo. haha. This week will be similar because we are doing another pueblo trip this week. Tonight we head out to Atlacomulco! We will be in their zone meeting tomorrow morning and then we will be in Zitácuaro Wednesday. I´m excited for this trip and to help out those zones. My companion and I are worried about the mission right now. We have a lot of leadership that will be going home soon, and the young missionaries need to be trained a little more. We lack a lot of technique in the mission, so we are telling the zone leaders to administrate a lot and teach how to teach, how to find, etc. My comp and I are running around trying to train as many missionaries as we can. It´s a really stressful time, and President is really worried as well, but he has a president seminar this week in Cancun...so he should relax a bit. haha. I love you all, and as always, I´m grateful for your support!

Con amor,
Elder Barton

Hna. Whitehead would encourage some tidying up 

The assistants house

when new missionaries come to Mexico, they sleep in the assistants house

October 12, 2015

Dear Family,

     Well, another week goes down. Yesterday, I met the members of our ward because last week was general conference and we were in the offices for it. We went to our services over there and had fast and testimony meeting. It´s a different feeling, because I´ve never been in this stake before, I had never been to that area before, and we won´t be there everyday. Normally, I go to town trying to get to know the members and start working with them. But I´ll only be here 4 more weeks in the ward...so I´m trying to figure out how to work well in the area. Elder Mason and I are getting along great! He´s so good with the scriptures and I´ve been learning a lot from him. He works hard and loves the work. He´s got 7 months left in the mission, and he´s in his prime. We also see the secretaries a lot. We live with them and we are in the offices a lot together. One is Elder Hirsch from Centerville. He´s a state champion golfer and has a scholarship to BYU. The other is Elder Lowe from Layton. We love that all 4 of us are Americans to be able to speak english during the day. haha. My chest pains and gall bladder pains have gone away for the most part. Sometimes I´ll get a sharp pain to the gall bladder but then it goes away. This week I went on interchanges to a zone called Lomas Verdes. It´s the wealthiest zone of the mission. They say it´s hard to work there because of the wealth. Mostly everyone has cars, and aren´t in the street. Or they have hard hearts and don´t want to listen. I went over with an awesome guy named Elder Alegre from Argentina. He´s an energetic guy and we had a good day over there. The member who signed up for the food wasn´t going to be there so we had to go buy it. We went to a burger place called la cabaña. (the cabin) and I had the biggest burger of my life! It was only 100 pesos and it had 500 grams of meat. With ketchup, mustard, onions, lettuce, tomato, all that. In our area, we were working pretty hard but not really finding much success. It´s a different area than I´m used to, but we are making do. Honestly, I´m scared for this last month. It hadn´t have hit me yet that I was going home until last week. It will be a life changer that I have to be ready for, but I´m ready to get things going at home. I love you all, have a good week!

Con amor,

Elder Barton

General Conference and Pain...

Hey Fam!

     Well another general conference has come and gone! I was spiritually recharged and I was moved by the topics that were repeated again and again. Have faith, be a true disciple of Christ, and no matter what happens, stay true. I´m excited to listen to those talks again here in this week here in the offices in our spare time. I had a miracle happen to me this week. Friday morning, I woke up with a little pain in the gall bladder area right up under the rib cage. I had difficulty taking deep breaths, which resulted in pains and coughing. I survived that day and got ready to general conference on Saturday. I woke up on Saturday with more pains in that area, and it was spreading to my chest and side. It hurt to move anything. Even when I had to sniff, it shot a pain to my side that was really bad. When we went to walk a few blocks to a taco stand between sessions, I was in so much pain in my chest and side that I could barely walk. I survived the lunch and we came back. I just laid down on the couch in the offices and I was trying to lay still. For the priesthood session, President invited us over to his house to watch. We went over and I told him what was going on. Hermana Whitehead said she thought it could be a gall bladder inflation. I talked with the mission doctor and described it. He wanted to see me the next day. I asked for a blessing from my companions in the offices and president, but priesthood was starting and I just said we can do it after. After priesthood, president was really busy and we didn´t end up doing the blessing...I was kind of upset, but I figured it was fine to just do it the next day. We went home and I was in so much pain I just wanted to change out of my mission clothes and lay down and hopefully get to sleep. I went straight up to our room and I was in tears. I was trying to take my shirt off without the pains but it was hard. All of a sudden I heard the voice of our Elder who is just waiting for his VISA to go to the Salt Lake mission and he´s staying with us meanwhile,´´do you still want a blessing?" I was happy he asked and accepted. I got a blessing from him and one of the secretaries and it was just what I needed, I immediately calmed down and went to sleep. My biggest fear was that I would be stiff the next day and it would hurt even worse. I had faith in the priesthood. I woke up yesterday morning, with literally almost 0 pain at all. I was in awe. With the worst day of my mission the day before, I was completely healed from it. Today, I have 0 pains. I already loved this Elder that´s here with us, and he showed faith and love towards me in that night. Nobody knew I was crying out of pain, but he just felt that he needed to offer the blessing that night. I´m grateful for him and for the power of God here on earth. Anyways we just had our concilio meeting. It was my 2nd to last one...It´s flying by too fast. I love you all!

Con amor,

Elder Barton

I've been getting on him for pics of his apartment and and he promised last week to send me some. This was all I got today "My new sweet shoes" #priorities

Bonus mission!!!

Hola Familia!

     Well today officially starts my extra mission time. I´m now in time that the Lord has gifted to me on top of my full time service. I´m ready to plow through these 6 weeks and go to work with my new companion. I am now AP1 and my new companion is Elder Mason from Corona, California. Which is 20 minutes from Disneyland. He´s an absolute stud and I´m going to learn a ton from him. This morning, he was coming to the city while I went with Elder Medina to pick up the news. We got to the MTC and we saw our new Elders and Sisters. We started to get their bags out to the van and my comp and I went to the bathroom. We came out a minute later and there was Hermana Larson with her companion!! It was amazing to see her again and talk for about 5 minutes. We got the news in the van, exchanged gifts, and said goodbye. haha obviously I would have preferred to talk with her longer, but it was such a blessing to see her for that time. On the way back, Elder Medina and I gave the ´´combi ride experience.´´ Which means that we kind of talk directly to the new missionaries about our higher level of obedience and diligence in our mission. We gave them the rules and they seemed excited to get started. We got to know them a little more and we arrived at President´s house. We gave them a little orientation and they got their trainers. My companion and I finished strong this last week! We worked hard and we were blessed with 3 baptisms. 3 baptisms that were clearly prepared by the Lord and are ready to start their journey. Also, I got Glenn´s letter here in the offices this week! I always love your letters, Glenn. Your testimony brings the spirit even off of paper. Thanks for sharing your experiences with me. I also received a package from the Larson family! I was also so thankful to get that, and I´ve been enjoying the candy that´s inside. I love you guys! I´m excited now to have an american companion again, but we got moved out of Molinito....Our new area is called Bella Vista 2 in the stake called Chapultepec. Elder Mason was there for a change awhile ago so he knows the area. We´ll see what we can do together over there! I love you guys, thanks so much for the support!

Con amor,

Elder Barton

Lindsy at the CCM!!!

Elder Barton, Elder Matthews, Elder Medina

baptism

fun church games

big boys turn

"P-uuussshh"

baptism

shenanigans climbing Jared is like climbing a tree.  The kids love him


(mom edit: Lindsy was called to the Ft. Lauderdale Florida, Spanish speaking mission. She was in the CCM at the same time Jared was picking up new missionaries. They were able to shake hands, take a pic, exchange gifts and say "see you in 17 months" ever since we knew they'd be there at the same time, I'd hoped they could see each other. My heart is full.)