Hola Familia!

     Those are pretty much the only two words that don´t have the red squiggly line underneath them. haha. Anyways I had another great week here in Mexico. Christmas was just another day (besides being on skype of course) Right after I got off the Ipad, we went right to work. On Christmas Eve, we had a zone party at our stake center. We watched two worldly movies. Rise of the Guardians and Hotel Transylvania. Both in Spanish. I understood about 20 percent of them. We had pizza for dinner (heaven) and played games as a zone. We have an amazing zone. On Friday, Elder Woodbury went to the misión offices to have his final interview and go to the temple, so I went to Metepec with Elder Borgel and Elder Gomez. It was a different experience because they both only speak spanish. I did pretty good with them. I was able to understand them and have conversations with them too. It was a normal work day with them, and Elder Woodbury came back that night. Thank you so much for that Christmas present of letters from the family. I opened it up Christmas night and I loved it. As for my memory card on my camera, I have been taking pictures to fill it up and send home with Elder Woodbury. I´ll send home a piece of paper with it explaining all the pictures, like the names of the people or what´s going on. One thing you need to know is that I took some money out of the ATM using my personal card. I took out 1000 pesos just in case of emergencia. I´m going to stash it away somewhere and it will be emergencia money. Or money to buy a soccer jersey. haha they are only 120 pesos. Which reminds me, I need you all to do some homework about the soccer teams in Mexico. Tell me which team is the best, which team has the coolest jerseys, etc. haha. Other than that, I don´t need anything. I´m doing great here and having a blast. I did a lot of traveling this week, so I don´t have any cool stories that happened. Besides our baptism dates fell through. We had 2 scheduled for yesterday and they fell through and they moved away. One weird thing was this. One night, we came home and there was a HUGE party going on outside our door. Just a party in the Street for Christmas. There was so many people there and they had a mariachi and everything. The band was playing so loud. Even at 11 p.m. they were still going. If I wasn´t so tired from the day´s work, I would have had trouble sleeping. Tomorrow for New Years Eve, we are going to our stake center again for another zone party, because it is dangerous to be out on the Street. We are going to watch 2 more movies and just have fun again. And then resume as normal the next day. That´s all I have for this week. I love you all!

         Elder Barton

baptism for the Hermanas

baptism

Jared making french toast for his companions bday

laundry day

Baptism day!!

laundry day

baptism for the hermanas
Hola Familia!

 

     Those are pretty much the only two words that don´t have the red squiggly line underneath them. haha. Anyways I had another great week here in Mexico. Christmas was just another day (besides being on skype of course) Right after I got off the Ipad, we went right to work. On Christmas Eve, we had a zone party at our stake center. We watched two worldly movies. Rise of the Guardians and Hotel Transylvania. Both in Spanish. I understood about 20 percent of them. We had pizza for dinner (heaven) and played games as a zone. We have an amazing zone. On Friday, Elder Woodbury went to the misión offices to have his final interview and go to the temple, so I went to Metepec with Elder Borgel and Elder Gomez. It was a different experience because they both only speak spanish. I did pretty good with them. I was able to understand them and have conversations with them too. It was a normal work day with them, and Elder Woodbury came back that night. Thank you so much for that Christmas present of letters from the family. I opened it up Christmas night and I loved it. As for my memory card on my camera, I have been taking pictures to fill it up and send home with Elder Woodbury. I´ll send home a piece of paper with it explaining all the pictures, like the names of the people or what´s going on. One thing you need to know is that I took some money out of the ATM using my personal card. I took out 1000 pesos just in case of emergencia. I´m going to stash it away somewhere and it will be emergencia money. Or money to buy a soccer jersey. haha they are only 120 pesos. Which reminds me, I need you all to do some homework about the soccer teams in Mexico. Tell me which team is the best, which team has the coolest jerseys, etc. haha. Other than that, I don´t need anything. I´m doing great here and having a blast. I did a lot of traveling this week, so I don´t have any cool stories that happened. Besides our baptism dates fell through. We had 2 scheduled for yesterday and they fell through and they moved away. One weird thing was this. One night, we came home and there was a HUGE party going on outside our door. Just a party in the Street for Christmas. There was so many people there and they had a mariachi and everything. The band was playing so loud. Even at 11 p.m. they were still going. If I wasn´t so tired from the day´s work, I would have had trouble sleeping. Tomorrow for New Years Eve, we are going to our stake center again for another zone party, because it is dangerous to be out on the Street. We are going to watch 2 more movies and just have fun again. And then resume as normal the next day. That´s all I have for this week. I love you all!

 

         Elder Barton

Week 4!!

     Another amazing week. First off, I forgot to tell you about our baptism last week. His name is Ignacio . And again, I forgot to get a picture....sorry. I´ll try to get one when we visit him again or at church. So we have had 2 baptisms in 4 weeks, and we have 2 more scheduled for this week. But yesterday, they said that they may want more time... so we are working on them. As of now we have 6 with baptism dates in January. I set a personal goal to have 8 baptisms every month. Which is 96 in a year. In this mission, it is more than possible. This week, we invited one hermana to be baptized and she accepted. My companion then says,´´ok. Primera, necesite tomar un examine de ciento preguntas´´ Which is, first you need to take a test of 100 questions. And he sat there with a straight face....I looked at him all confused, and the hermana´s face was priceless. He then said he was kidding, and we laughed for 5 minutes. After that lesson, he told me that he thinks the Testigos de Jehova make their converts take a hundred question test, that´s why he said that just messing around. But it was pretty funny! In other news, I was worried about not being able to buy food here when I wanted or needed to. But there are 3 main types of jobs here. One is a taxi driver, another is driving around selling gas for hot water, and the third is own your own ´´tienda.´´ It´s basically a little maverick. They have Mexican treats and other stuff like drinks, bread, and whatnot. In the street, a lot of people sell bread. It´s so good and there are a lot of different kinds. They are all 2 pesos each. Which is about 20 cents. So I get 5 different kinds of bread, all pretty good sized, for just under one dollar. It´s a sweet deal. On Thursday, we had zone conference. Presidente and Hermana Whitehead come and do a presentation every zone conference. This month was a special one because of Christmas. Presidente and Hermana Whitehead did a very powerful message and presentation. It was all in español and I understood all of it! There was not a dry eye in the room, and it was the first time I took notes in español. As for my Spanish, I haven´t opened my english preach my gospel in awhile, I can do fine with the Spanish version. As for scripture reading, I´m still working on getting used to the spanish scriptures. I can understand people better and better everyday, and I learn a little more everyday. Anyways here´s a little info. about mail. If you send it through regular mail, I receive it every time we have zone conference or interviews. Which are once a month. So if it gets there the day after zone conference or interviews, I won´t get it until the next month. If you send a letter through pouch, I´ll get it the next tuesday that it gets there, because our zone leaders pick it up every week I believe and bring it to District Meetings, which are every Tuesday. Now for the most important info. to you right now. Skype! haha. Our bishop has graciously offered us his laptop and ipad for us to use on Wednesday for Christmas. We are planning on pushing the call button on skype at 11 in the morning at our church building. Our church building is about 30 minutes away, so don´t panic if we are a little late getting there;) I´m excited to see everybody and be able to talk to you guys. And lastly, I have a request. haha. I would love if I could have sent to me a small Spanish Preach my Gospel. It would be easier to carry around with me in the day. I usually just leave my PMG at our house because it is too big of a hassle to carry. Also, I would love American candy. haha. It´s not essential. I love hearing about all the snow in Utah, because I can say that right now, I´m in a short sleeved shirt and perfectly comfortable. But then again, you have a washing machine.... Also, this is a reminder to Jason and Tyler that they need to be on about page 70 in the Book of Mormon! I will be so happy if they have read it by the time I come back. I love you all. Merry Christmas, and I´ll talk to you in 2 days!

Love,

Elder Barton

Week 3!!

     Hola again!! This last week was pretty great. My companion and I work hard and we have a lot of success. One cool story from this week happened last Tuesday. Every Tuesday, we have zone conferences. In these meetings we learn how to be better missionaries and meet with our districts to talk about numbers and how to be better. In this last meeting, we learned how to contact a bus the best way. (meaning talking to people on a bus) Basically, you pay the bus driver, ask for permission to present yourselves to the people on the bus, and get everybody´s attention. After you have their attention, you introduce yourself and what you´re doing. Then you teach a 30 second principle about the gospel, say that you and your companion will be coming around seeing who is interested in hearing more, and talk to people in the front while your companion goes to the back. So right after the meeting ended and we were going back to our areas, of course we need to get on a bus. So my companion wants me to contact the bus. I told him to do the first one then I´d do the next. At this point, we were already sitting down on the bus, so we started to go to the front. It was a very full bus to say the least. My companion says,´´well there´s not enough room up there for both of us. You got it.´´ And turns around and walks away. Talk about getting thrown under the bus. Or rather getting thrown to the front of the bus....So I just went for it. I asked for permission to present ourselves, he said yes, so I turned around and got everybody´s attention. I had to yell because it was pretty loud. So there I am, yelling in spanish to a bus full of people I don´t know preaching the gospel. After I was done, I said thank you for your time, and began to ask if people were interested. I got a couple names who were interested. I sat down after we were done talking to people, and my companion told me that he didn´t ever have the guts to contact a bus until last month, and my example would stick with the other missionaries who were on the bus. I felt pretty good about myself! Also this week, I had my first companion exchange. I went with Elder Porter to his area and spent the night there. It was pretty interesting going to a new area. Elder Porter is from South Jordan. So I came to Mexico to be with elders from Draper and South Jordan. In other news, the food is still killing me. haha. My mouth is not used to spicy food, and we have had some pretty spicy food these last 3 weeks. My lips literally were burnt. They looked like they were sunburnt, but they were burnt from the food. We eat lunch with members every single day, and one family found out that I´m fresh from the US, and they made us hamburgers and fries. I had 6. haha. The members here are great, and they are so willing to help us out. Our bishop here is so excited about missionary work, and he´s fun to be around. My companion´s dad and our bishop were actually mission companions when they served. Talk about a small world. Another night while we were on the street, we were stopped by a lady and her daughter. She asked who we were and what we were doing. (probably because we stick out like sore thumbs) and my companion´s phone rang and he had to take the call. So I was left to talk to this lady by myself. I told her our purpose and taught a principle. I gave her a pamphlet and invited her to church. It was pretty cool. Whenever I need to talk by myself while my companion takes a call, I always seem to find words to say and remember to invite them to church. I always feel happy after I do it. It´s pretty nerve racking thinking about it. But when it happens, it makes me happy. Another interesting thing happened. Remember the story I wrote about last week about my companion and I stopping on a dime and leaving quickly? Well we may have found out why we had the terrible feeling that we needed to leave. We took a member with us to a lesson, and it was near that same area where we had the feeling. I had the prompting to tell him the story of our experience. So I told him our experience in Spanish, and he told us an interesting story. The lady that lives in that house has a brother who used drugs to buy power. A lot of people hate him. He was at his ranch one day (somewhere separate from where we were) and people were sent to kill him. Well they succeeded. Then the member told us that next, this certain group of people like to target the families of the people they go after next. I was thinking, and a few weeks ago when we were teaching this lady, every time she heard the chain rattle on her gate, she would jump up and see who it was. It didn´t matter what was going on in the lesson, she would jump up to see who was coming in. We don´t know if that´s the reason we had the feeling to leave, but I´m just glad we left. We were told by the member to never go back to that area at night ever again, and he told us some more dangerous places never to go to. Thank goodness for the locals!! Anyways to lighten the mood, here´s one more story before I start sending pictures. One of my last days at the MTC, long story short, one of the cashiers at the bookstore named all his ties. haha so I started naming all my ties after Pokemon, and every time I choose one in the morning it´s always,´´I choose you!´´ It´s pretty great...anyways this morning I had an idea to film myself taking a tour of our house. So I´ll try to send it now and we will see if it works. If it does, I´ll do more videos in the future to save time with pictures. To close, I just want to let you know that I´m doing great. My health is great, I´m learning Spanish quickly, I have the best companion, and I´m having a blast. I can´t believe that today is the 2 month mark. I just blinked and it was 2 months. Thanks for all your support. I can feel your prayers. You are always in my prayers. I love you all so much!

     Love,

week 2

 This picture is at the MTC. I loved it because the people standing on the shore of the water are waiting for fresh water crocodiles to come around. They are protecting the people getting baptized.

 Our bathroom is all right there. Shower, toilet, and sink all in one room.

Week 2!!

     This week was pretty great! I got to baptize 3 people. 2 of them were for the Hermana´s, and the other was our investigator! He left before we could get a picture, so I´ll try to get one when we visit him again. His name is Sajid. He´s a pretty big guy and I nearly dropped him when I baptized him. The water in the font was FREEZING. I felt bad for Sajid. I´ll cut to the chase, the food is getting to me. haha. I did have a very good meal though. It is called Ceviche  (say-bee-chee) you have chips and you dip them in it. Other than that, I have choked down pretty much every meal. Some of them are spicy and they burn my lips and mouth. I´m always grateful when I see chicken come out. Members feed us lunch everyday. We have a schedule and we just go to the assigned family´s house. The people are so nice here. They won´t let us clear our plates when we are done. They either take them for us or dump on another round of food. I have stayed away from beans for the most part. Whenever I have had to eat them, I have a really bad stomach ache afterwards.  On a separate note, here are some really cool/scary things happen to us. Last night, we got done with the baptismal services around 8:30 pm. We have to start heading back to our house at 9. So we tried to get one lesson in with a less active famly near our house. We got to the house and knocked on the gate. Most people here have gates surrounding their yard so you need to knock on the gate with your pen. Nobody came to the door. There was another place that someone could be about 40 yards inside the gate, and we noticed it was unlocked. So we walked inside the gate and started to walk past the driveway. The house was on the right, and the driveway went for another 40 yards or so. So we walked in the gate and went to see if anyone was in the other place. It looked like a garage thing made out of some wood and sheets. All of a sudden, my companion and I stop on a dime. We both looked at each other and said, ``we need to go.`` I just had this terrible feeling that we needed to leave. When we turned around to walk away, I realized I was walking as fast as I could without meaning to. We got out of there fast and went home. I have no idea why we felt that, but it was a bad feeling there. We both recognized it, and left fast. I can´t describe the feeling that I had, but it came all of a sudden to me and Elder Woodbury. So we went home and prayed in thanks for the Spirit guiding us. We had a similar experience a few nights ago. We were in a more dangerous pueblo after dark. We needed to find an investigator before heading back home. We were talking to her on the phone and she was giving us directions. My companion hung up and we started looking. We got to the house she told us, and noboby answered. We called her again multiple times and she didn´t answer. And the same thing happened. We had a feeling that we needed to go. It wasn´t as urgent and the one last night, but we still needed to go. We got home safe. It´s so great to have the spirit with us always. It´s just motivation to strive to have it with us. On other matters, washing clothes by hand is terrible. haha. After email, we are going to eat then go wash our clothes. Not looking forward to it. Another thing, you need to make a skype account for me and give me the login info. before Christmas. We can skype for an hour or talk on the phone for an hour. I assumed you would want to skype. It´ll be on Christmas day probably in the morning, but I´ll find out for sure. Another thing is that I need American stamps sent to me. That´s how I get mail to you from the pouch. The pouch takes it to Salt Lake, and they mail it from there. So if I could get a package of a lot of stamps that would be great, because I can´t send handwritten letters without american stamps. Another thing to be grateful for back in the states is a drain in the baptismal font. My companion and I emptied it by buckets yesterday. That was fun....sorry this is so out of order, but I´m just trying to type as fast as I can and remember what I want to say. But a couple times in the last 2 weeks, I have felt the presence of Grandpa Rees with me. We will be walking down the street, and I´ll feel him or other angels with us. It is one of the most comforting feelings I have felt. I love you all so much. You are in my prayers and I can feel your prayers here. Thank you for all the love and support. Hopefully the computer will let me send pictures this week. I love you!!

            Elder Barton

December 1, 2013

Week one!!!
 
 Hola! This week has been so great for me. I can feel the Lord in my life and I can feel the Spirit basically all day. My first companion´s name is Elder Woodbury. He is from Draper. He has been here for 22 months. He is such a good example to me. He Works so hard and he is teaching me the ways of the missionary. First of all, I can not understand a Word that anybody is saying...I just kind of nod when I feel like it and laugh when my companion laughs. I have been getting better at understanding people, but it is still hard. We have had some cool stories already together. Yesterday, we committed a family of 6 to baptism, and one more kid was there who wasn´t apart of the family. That kid was so touched and he was going to invite his family for the next lesson. Also yesterday, we had a great lesson with a family of 12! Well they all live together, but they aren´t all immediate family. But it was so cool. My comp. did most of the talking, but I bore my strongest testimony I had in me whenever I felt like I should. I also taught the first visión to them. When I recited Joseph Smith´s words, the Spirit was so strong! That family I think just needs one more lesson and we have them to baptism. One funny story that happened was this. We were walking down the Street when we were stopped by a drunk guy. He had been visited by missionaries before we came here. He was drunk out of his mind and he stopped us to ask us why we hadn´t visited him in awhile. We handed him a Word of Wisdom pamphlet and walked away. 5 minutes later, a taxi pulled up next to us, and the same guy got out! hahaha we were laughing and we just kept walking. In our first week in our área, we contacted almost 80 people. My companion is a great example of talking to everyone. Our área is called Tiangistenco, and it is pretty big. We do a lot of walking and taxi riding. Anyways I´m doing great so far. My misión president is awesome. He stresses exact obedience and he knows for a fact that this is the reason why our misión has the highest baptism rate in Mexico. We have to report our obedience every week to him in our weekly letters to him. Like how many days we got up at 6:30, how many days we had comp study and personal study. I have been able to teach a few góspel principles in lessons recently, and I just love teaching. Especially when the Spirit is obviously present. I only get an hour to read, write, send pictures, and write President Whitehead. So I better get to sending pictures soon. I love you all. Thank you for all the love the support. I´ll try to write more in a handwritten letter today. I can only write on Pdays but I will try my best!
 
 Elder Barton

first pictures from Mexico

Greenies/gringos

Hermano and Hermana Whitehead

Dear parents and family of Elder Barton,

President Whitehead and I want to let you know that your son, Elder Barton,  safely arrived in Mexico City and is working hard.  You should have received a phone call from him right after he arrived at the mission home.

We are so thrilled to have your son in our mission. President Whitehead hand-picked top-notch elders and leaders in this mission to train this group of elders that your son is a part of.   We know they are going to be valiant, obedient, hard-working, and will love the people.  We have anticipated their arrival for months. 

We fed your son dinner soon after he arrived, had a short devotional and sent him to bed in the basement apartment at the mission home with the other missionaries. The next morning we fed him breakfast and then he was interviewed by President Whitehead.  Next he was briefed on the rules of the mission by the APs and afterwards met his new trainer and companion for the next 6 weeks at least.  We took him to an authentic Mexican  restaurant for comida (lunch), took pictures and then he was whisked away with his companion by taxi to his new destination to go to work.  

Thank you for raising this wonderful young man.  We love him already.

President and Hermana Whitehead

unpublished

P.S. don't include this in the public address. haha. But I had an amazing experience in the temple today. I went into the Celestial Room with my companion to pray before we left. When I was done with my very sincere prayer, I was just sitting down and pondering what will happen to me in the next few months. All of a sudden, I felt an overwhelming feeling. I just KNEW that Grandpa Rees was right beside me. I felt him, I felt his love, and I felt his support. I said,"I love you" in a whisper. And I felt him say it back. I KNOW that he said it back. I lost it and started crying. I know I have felt love from both sides of the veil. I have felt Adrianne as well. (the special needs girl I danced with my very first time at Kauri Sue) We have angels of God watching over us. They know a lot more than us, and they are ALWAYS with us. They're protecting me as well as you. 

So I got a picture with Jeffery R. Holland. haha we watched a talk of his on Sunday night on the TV. The other Elder is Elder Worthington

We got doorbell ditched by the district next door. I looked through the peephole to see this....they meant business.

This is Hermano Urquhart. He's a stud. He was one of my favorite teachers.

I made this binder to help me organize my lessons. I put in pictures from pamphlets to decorate it.

It's been a long day... we were given a ten minute break right before our last in field orientation meeting.

Ran into some school friends. Elder Butler on the left and Elder Bagley (he's in our stake) on the right

I forgot to tell him, he didn't have to wear them all at once

Work it!!

Showin' off

This is Hermano Holman. He was the teacher that sparked the most ideas in our head about some really deep doctrine. He speaks Spanish and a native Nicoraguan language called Mesquito. (to pronounce it, say the Nevada city Mesquite, and add 2 O's on the end. haha) And yes, I'm wearing all the tie bars I received,  I forgot to take them off.

By the way, the other two elders are from another district that leaves the same day as us. Elder Mielke and Elder Christensen

Again, no need to say it. I got skills

Yup....explains itself I think

This is my district. Our last photo session...

Hey Everyone!

     Here's my last email before I head out to Mexico!!! One problem is....i only have an hour layover in Atlanta. Which means no call time because that hour will be used running through security and boarding the next plane. But I'll call if we have a delay. But I may be able to call in the morning before I leave the Salt Lake Airport. My flight is scheduled around 8:30 or so. So you'd have to get up early to talk to me...and it would only be for an hour or so. But I will get to the airport around 6 a.m. and probably will be able to talk around 7 or so. If I buy a call card, you have to answer the call or else it charges me like $1.30 just to attempt the call. If I don't get a chance to call during the day, I will for sure beg and plead for President Whitehead to let me call home. On other matters, this week has been pretty eventful! I sung in the MTC choir for my last Tuesday night devotional and it was so fun. I love singing songs to the Lord. Also, yesterday we had "in field orientation." Which is just what it sounds. An all day meeting telling us what to expect and what to do when we get there. Like get in contact with the ward mission leader and bishop and such. It was pretty cool because all the teachers at the MTC are recently returned missionaries. One teacher was apart of "the district" that we are supposed to watch before going on our missions. It was Elder Christensen for those who know what I'm talking about. We went up to main campus for it and we stayed there pretty much all day. When we got back, we checked our mail and I got even happier than I already was! I got my jacket and boots and the "13 lbs of love" haha. I was so happy! I am so grateful for everything I received. I'm not sure exactly who contributed what, but please tell them thank you. Because it made my day! But there is one small problemo...haha. The razor blades you sent don't fit on my razor handle because they're a different kind from Gilette. But the good news it, I have the handle that they go with in my bathroom drawer back at home. I don't know if you can find it in there and drop it off by Sunday night, but I need it or else I can't use the razors. If you can't find it, just bring all of them in the drawer. haha. It should say "Gilette Fusion" on it somewhere. But thank you so much for everything. Also, Cheryl needs to know that we can check our mail more than once a week. haha apparently she got in a scuffle with someone on the phone. We check our mail 2X every day, so I'll likely receive her package tonight. I'm so excited to leave for Mexico right now. I know it's going to be some of the hardest few months of my life, but I'm going in with a full head of steam and I'll be ready for whatever the Lord has in store for me. This morning was my last opportunity to go to the temple here. My companion and I decided to do a sealing session. It was so cool to do that for other people. The temple worker performing them said that he is so sure that the people that we perform them for will personally thank us in the next life. As missionaries, we can only perform them as a son or daughter. But it was so cool! The Spirit was so strong. It gave me a better testimony of eternal families. I had an old Tongan couple be the proxy for the parents for me. And after we were done, the man came up to me and said,"you're a good son" and laughed really hard and walked away. haha. Anyways I'm gonna start sending pictures now so I got to go! I love you all, and I look forward to emailing you for the first time in a foreign country! Thank you for all the love and support. I can literally feel it, and I hope you feel mine too. I have grown so much since being at the MTC, and I wish I could share with you all the knowledge I have obtained from my teachers. We have the best teachers here. One of my teachers, Hermano Holman, put the MTC experience like this. "You're going to forget everything about the MTC. You'll forget your teachers, your districts and fellow missionaries, and all you'll think about is the mission field. Right now you're probably all thinking that this isn't even possible to forget the MTC, but I believe we felt the same way in the pre-existence. We were ready to come down to earth, we were told that we wouldn't remember anything, and we couldn't believe it, but here we are." It is really hard to think that I won't remember a lot of this place, because I have grown so much here. The time has flown by for me, and I hope to make the best of the next 2 years. I love you all so much!

              Elder Barton

 Elder Duke(the only elder taller than Jared

 Elder Munoz

 Elder Ollerton

 Elder Reid

 Rice crispy man (has boredom set in?)

 the sign they touch before they leave their appt

 Elder Worthington

Elder Reid

 getting creative...or bored

plan of salvation (2 hour lecture he wants us to save so he can explain to us)

Snowy temple day

Hey Family!!!

     I got my travel plans yesterday! I leave for Mexico a week from Monday! We fly to Atlanta, Georgia then straight to Mexico City. I was upset we don't get to go to Dallas because I was excited to see Nate. But oh well...One thing you need to know is that Delta Airlines charges 100 dollars for the second bag. I can use my card to pay for it, but you just got to know. I'm fine to take my shoulder bag and carry on bag on board, I just need 100 dollars for my second suitcase. Anyways now for the good stuff. The stuff I need! haha. I'm going to want a new watch because I just can't find mine anywhere. Also, I forgot to bring my baptism clothes with me. Like my white pants and tie. I also will want more razors. I've gone through 7 up to this point. I'm praying that they will last longer but I'm going to want more. I also need like 5 more pairs of socks because if i want to change them after gym everyday i won't have enough. I also forgot my oil vile in my room....sorry it's a lot to get in the last week. I also will want address from anybody who would like a letter. But keep in mind that I don't have time to write a lot of letters, but I will write anybody who gives me an address. But I definitely need Aunt Cheryl's address!!! This is optional, but I'd like another sweater if that would work out. I think that's everything I need....if you don't want to send it through the postal service, you can just drop it off at the Wyview multi-purpose building and I can go pick it up. Sorry that's a lot of stuff...

     Now for the other good stuff! We heard from L. Tom Perry at the Tuesday night devotional! It was so good. He's such a funny guy and his message was so good. He said a lot of simple things, but in a different way. And it made some simple things more clear to me. And he also said some things that were a little deeper and harder to understand. So it was a good mix. 

     My companion and I taught a few more lecciones this week. We totally knocked one out of the park. Our "investigator" had a very firm belief that the Bible is complete and we can't add anything to it. Which was a problem when the Book of Mormon was brought up. We talked about it more and more, and we pulled out scriptures off the top of our heads. One scripture hit him hard and he realized that it is necessary to have the Book of Mormon as well. After that, we talked about baptism and he accepted! It's our first time getting a baptism!!! We were so excited. It was our first lesson that we had a legitimate conversation instead of just teaching prepared lesson. We were able to trust our spanish enough to have a conversation. It was so cool and we got complimented on our lesson afterwards from the teacher who was playing the investigator. It was definitely a confidence builder!

     I got to get to sending pictures now. I love you all!!! 

          Elder Barton

Elder Romo wanted to feel tall so he got on a chair.  On the right is Elder Knight. He joined our Companionship when his district left because he had a broken thumb. He was with us for a week and he was one of the funniest guys I've ever met. We all got along well.

Me and Elder Knight

This is our man Latrell.  He's 12 and just so full of the spirit!
Hey Family!!

     The only eventful thing that happened this week was yesterday. I woke up at 4:00 a.m. to make it to the Wyview Chapel at 4:30 to catch the shuttle to the airport. We would be traveling with 5 Elders and 3 Sisters. Well the shuttle didn't show up until 5:30 so we were just sitting there for an hour. We got to the airport and went through security. I quickly found out that airport workers are very uptight. Haha especially for being early in the morning. We got through security and our flight was scheduled to leave at 8:41. When we were all done with security and such it was 7:00, so we had some time to relax. Being on an airplane for the first time was really cool. My favorite part was the takeoff because it was cool to see how fast we were going and then all of a sudden seeing everything get smaller and smaller. After a 50 minute flight, we got off and were picked up by a senior missionary by the name of Elder Greer. Elder Greer took us to an institute building so we could talk until our consulate appointment. Little did we know that our appointment was at 1 o'clock. When we got to the institute, it was 10 o'clock Vegas time. Elder Greer said,"anything I say today will not pertain to your personal salvation, but I hope you retain some of this information for your future boyfriends or girlfriends. If you want to sleep, I don't care. If you need to use the restroom, just go." Then he goes on to talk about the lineage of Abraham and all the family issues they had. It wasn't a group discussion, it was a lecture. And he talked all the way up until 12:30 and we had to leave. All of us sighed with relief. Then Elder Greer says,"when we come back we are going to talk about the different dispensations." and I turned to another Elder and said,"WHEN we come back???" and we all groaned to ourselves. The consulate itself only took a half hour. Then we got back to the institute at 2, and he told us he was going to drop us off at the airport at 4....so we got to hear another long lecture about lineages through the dispensations. 4 o'clock finally came and we all rejoiced. When we got back to the airport, we went to get our boarding passes and we found out that the church voided our round trip... so we made a call to Salt Lake and found out that they switched our flights and switched airlines. That took a half hour to find out. Our new flight was scheduled to leave at 7:00 pm. It was 4:30 at this point. So we reported to our gate and got dinner. After we had dinner, we found out that our flight was delayed until 10:20.... So my companion and I decided to go proselyte. Haha we bought a B.O.M. the day before for this purpose. So we had 5 hours to talk to people. Long story short, the only people we talked to were members, stopped talking to us as soon as we brought up religion, or just plain ignored us. This went on for 5 freaking hours. My companion and I kept walking around with hope though. When we sat down at our gate again, we decided to go around one more time. We figured one more time wouldn't hurt. We went around and......nothing. We came back with 20 more minutes until our flight and needless to say we were frustrated. We were sitting down with our heads in our hands. We had just declared we were done trying when we heard a voice say to us in a loud whisper,"psssst. Are you missionaries?" we looked up to see a young boy. We whispered back excitedly,"yeah!" and we stood up to go talk to him. (he was sitting 10 seats over from us) He was this little ball of joy. He told us his name is Latrell and he was 12 years old. I have never seen a young boy so excited about the gospel. My companion and I were talking to him and he noticed the other 6 missionaries sitting down, and he wanted them to come over too. So I got everybody else to come over to talk to him. He was so happy! He said,"I feel so......spiritual!" and it just made our day. We kept talking to him and he told us his favorite scripture is James 1:5. We shared with him our favorite scriptures and he was just so happy. My companion and I decided to give him the B.O.M. we bought and we told him,"we want you to read that, mark your favorite scriptures, write your testimony in it, and give it to someone else that needs it. That was you can be a missionary too." and his face just lit up. He was so happy to do it! He said,"I am never letting this out of my sight until I give it away!!" We were so happy! Then we sat by him on the plane and read about Samuel the Lamanite with him. Long story short, the 5 hours of frustration were erased and all we could think about was Latrell. I just remember thinking,"the Lord answers our prayers in mysterious ways." all we prayed for by the end was SOMEONE to talk to. As soon as we threw in the towel, we heard his loud whisper, and we forgot about all the rejections. You never know who's life you will change. Always be ready to share the gospel, no matter with who. I love you all, and I'll send the pictures from this week in a couple minutes.

            Love,

               Elder Barton

Found this map at the main campus when we were over there the other day.

This is my branch president and his wife. President Sanchez is a great speaker, and he reminds me of grandpa Barton. Just a great guy to be around, and he is so in tune with the spirit.

Dear family,

     It's P-day again! I have a few more pictures that I'll send in a second. In a nutshell, this last week was pretty good. Mi compañero y yo taught a few discussions to our new investigator. We made it a goal to no longer use notes in the lessons that have all of the phrases we need to say, and just go in with it memorized. Since we have started that, we have noticed a big difference in our lessons. I´m looking at our investigator in the eye and bearing my testimony with words I know. This new investigator is harder than our last one. He is pretty shy and doesn´t look at us a lot. But when we look him in the eye and we are talking effectively, he looks at us and listens. He looks really interested when we ask him about his family and about what he likes to do, so we try to include those things in our lessons. We teach him again this afternoon when Prep day is over. My español is coming better each day. We have 4 hours of spanish class every day besides Saturday and Sunday. Sunday´s are pretty crazy around here. We have sacrament meeting at 8 a.m. followed by priesthood session. The church we go to is right across the street from where we enter LES on Canyon Road. After priesthood, we walk back to our classrooms and have personal study time for about an hour. We wait for the branch presidency to be done with meetings. Then we have branch council. It´s basically BYC. All the district leaders, the zone leaders, the sister training leader, and the branch presidency is in there and we talk about our districts needs or problems. Then after that meeting, we have a leadership meeting for the same people as in branch council. We learn how to be better leaders and we learn different ways to be a great leader. In my recent studies of the Book of Mormon, my mind has been blown. Mostly by the facsimile of Abraham (the second one) it´s so cool to study that and see connections to us. Also, I´ve read about Ammon, Helaman, Limhi, King Noah, the priests who escape, and so on. I´ve learned a lot from them. Also, Doctrine and Covenants 130 is pretty cool as well. What am I saying? It's all pretty cool. The teachers here have only been home from their missions a couple months or a year or two, so they are fresh off it. They are such powerful teachers and they have given me really cool things to study and think about. P-day is fun because we get to go to the temple. But they have shown the old film all 3 times I've gone, because there has always been at least one person that needs headphones for the translation. And apparently they don't have the translation for the new film. It shouldn't be that hard to do, seeing as it's the same script.... oh well. Keep me updated on Playoff day. I can't wait to hear about it. Thank you for everybody's dearelder.com letters, and I really appreciate the cookies from Aunt Cheryl (so does my companion) haha. Thanks to Lindsy for the posters and candy. I have my posters and pictures all set up on our bedroom desk. Also, I need an email address from Glenn and Cheryl. I'd like to email them on Saturday's as well. I was happy to read Glenn and Cheryl's letters. I'm sorry if I don't write you enough during the week. I try to write as often as I can, but by the time we finally get back to the apartment and shower, pray, and write in journals in time for bed. So every Sunday and Tuesday night we have a devotional. They are so cool and we see some cool people. We haven't seen an apostle yet, but we've had 2 members from the seventy speak to us. Hopefully we get an apostle soon. Apparently Dallin H. Oaks spoke the night before I came to the MTC. Again, thank you for all the letters and packages, I never get sick of them. I love you all!

     One request I have is from Mom and Dad. On Tuesday, our branch president came into our classroom after the devotional to talk about it with us and he asked us a question. He asked if we knew who the first member of the church was in our family on both sides of our parents, and I realized I had no idea. So if you could email or write me about how the church got started in my family, I'd love that. Well, that's all for now. I love you so much!

             Love,

                Elder Barton

Dear Family,

     It's P-day! We just got back from the temple and lunch. We leave our campus at 8:00 a.m. to go to the temple, and we eat lunch at main campus right after, then we can do whatever until 5:55. As for requests, I'd love for Hi-chew candy, a couple raquetballs, and possibly the seagull book posters of Enos and Ammon. I received the family pictures on Thursday afternoon, and I love them! I also still love getting your dearelder letters. I'll do my best to respond to them in letters as much as I can, and email on Saturdays. My companion and I have taught 4 spanish discussions together. When we were preparing for the 4th one, we decided to go in without any notes or notebooks, just a book of mormon and our memories. When we got started, I was nervous because I couldn't remember the lines I rehearsed 1000 times. But when it was my turn, i remembered, and all the words came out. It was cool to look him in the eye instead of reading off of our papers. Our district has an "investigator" who we teach 4 times, then we are done teaching them, and we get a new "investigator." I say "investigator" because he/she is a teacher from around campus that we have never seen before, and they act. So we are going to get a new investigator soon. My companion and I decided to make a goal to never use notes in lessons ever again. So that means a lot of studying for us to be able to talk without notes. My spanish is coming more and more everyday, and I can tell that the Spirit is teaching me. I'm working on sending pictures now. They may have to come one by one. But I'm trying.

 Provo Temple, Every saturday, they get to do a session

 His apartment (have you even unpacked?)

 love to see him happy

 He was excited for his Spanish name tag

His class room where he spends 10-12 hours a day. I bet he makes the desk look small.

 His football bud Anthony Ennis

 Albert Tai and Anthony (football friends)

 His companion Elder Romo

The Hermanas in my district. From left to right. Hermana Flores, Howard, McKnight, and Tatafu

On a separate note, I didn't realize I could see Lavell Edwards Stadium from our classroom window. The west campus is one road west of Canyon road, and the Raintree is one more road west of that. I think it's 200 west. But the University avenue exit goes right past our building. One elder in my zone has a camera that can zoom up to the scoreboard and we can see it clearly, so that's how we kept up on the score. Also, it was awesome hearing the roar of the crowd knowing I had family there. I miss you guys, and I love you so much. It's hard to believe I've been here for a week and a half, about 100 more weeks to go! I actually got my ending date to my mission, like they told me I'd be going home on this certain date in 2015, but I don't know if you guys want it because it goes by longer if you can countdown to the exact number of days. I love you all, my email time is almost up and I gotta send Lindsy one. I miss you so much and I really appreciate hearing about everything!

             Elder Barton.