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.

Dear familia,                                                                                                                     Oct 21, 2013
Como estas? Te amo mucho! I miss you all so much. To sum up my MTC experience so far, I can pray and testify is Spanish, I've taught 3 discussions in Spanish, been made district leader, I've ran into cousin Alex, Jeff Nichols, Albert Tai, Anthony Enniss, Megan Jensen y Ashlie Bohling. La comida es fastastico, y amo las otras Elderes. Uno Elder I am with played beisbol por Lone Peak, y he said he remembered me. Again, amo DearElder leatters, Since I am District Leader, I pick up the mail por mi districto (we all have the same mailbox)
I'll be honest, I was so frustrated about learning Spanish the last few days. But last night, (Sunday) I listened to 2 talks that hit me so hard. We went up to the main campus to hear Elder Stephen B. Allen, the manager of missionary affairs. When talking about learning a language he said, with some vigor, "Chill out. Get over it. It will come!" It just reminded me that I was called to speak Spanish by a man of God, and I just need to work hard and do my best. I see myself speaking more and more words everyday, and I feel the Spirit teaching me. The 2nd talk I listened to was from David A. Bednar. We walked back to our west campus and into our chapel to see it. He gave this devotional a couple years ago entitles "Character of Christ" I HIGHLY recommend it for EVERYONE. I was so touched and so uplifted.
Again, I'll send pictures as soon as I can. I think I know how to upload them now. Te amo familia!
Love, Elder Barton

Dear Family,                                                                                                                                 10-20-2013

     Hola! MTC is so great. I have been receiving your dearelder letters daily, and I love reading them throughout the week. Saturday is our P-day, and I only have an hour to email. I'll just send a family letter to mom's email, and if I have time I'll send more than one. Long story short, we spend 10-12 hours in the same classroom daily. It differs between spanish class or just a doctrine class. Our teacher is Hermano Wolfe. We like him a lot. But the catch is, he only speaks Spanish in class. Even on day one, there wasn't a single english word. I felt so lost on day 1. It was a little better on day two, and we learned how to pray that day. Yesterday, we learned how to bear our testimonies in spanish as well. I have 2 companions because one Elder in our district hasn't shown up. I am with Elder Romo from North Carolina, and Elder Milius from Arizona. Elder Milius is only here until Monday cause he is going to the MTC in Spain, he just needed his visa to clear. Elder Romo and I get along really well and we work together well in learning and speaking spanish. As a companionship, we have prayed in spanish the last 2 nights. The first time we prayed in spanish, I went first. I said a few simple things then I got stuck on how to say something else. I tried my best, and suddenly the words came out of my mouth with no hesitation. After I closed my prayer, one of my comps asked me how to say what I said, but I couldn't remember. It was a very cool experience with the gift of tongues. All I had to do was try to say it, and I was reminded how to say it. Yesterday, which was day 3 in the MTC, we taught our first investigator. The investigator was an actor, but I treated it like a real investigator. Me and my companions tried to come up with a lesson plan on the Restoration. We worked hard to translate what we wanted to say. The other Elders in our zone told us that the first lesson always sucks and they all bombed theres. the investigators we teach here are actors who don't break character, and it's all in spanish. the investigator doesn't say a single word of english and doesn't understand english. When we had taught the investigator, I thought we did alright. We didn't bomb it, but there's definitely room for improvement. Thursday night, we met our branch presidency. They are 3 men with their wives. On that night, we had a chance to introduce ourselves to them and to bear a brief testimony to them. After a few discussions with them (we had our district there and one more district from our zone) they said that they were going to choose district leaders. And I was chosen! So I was given even more responsibilities. We basically have no free time. We are either in class, lunch, class, dinner, class, or bed. We get back to our apartment at 9:45ish, and bedtime is 10:30. Just enough time to shower and write in my journal. Oh I forgot to say, I'm on the west campus. I'm staying in Wyview. No, i can't see the stadium...but we go to a church every now and then on Canyon Road I think. When you walk outside of that church, you can see the stadium. I can see the gates that we have been walking into lately. From the northeast side of the stadium. There is so much to say... and so little time. We don't really have time to think about home (sorry) but I still think about you guys while I'm trying to go to sleep. We are always so busy and hurrying from place to place. Sometimes we spend 4-6 consecutive hours in our classroom. But honestly it doesn't feel that long, probably because I don't have a phone to check every other second.

     This is my email address, and I'd love if I got emails on here. I can only email and write on P-day. Please be sure to tell Cheryl thanks for the cookies. 

     My spanish is coming along fine. I can say a simple prayer and simple testimony. I can feel it getting easier and easier though. 

     I'm glad to hear about Tyler's football, and I'm glad to get messages from everybody. Glad to hear dad almost throwing down with someone.

     I'm not sure how to upload pictures to emails, but i'll find out. if i had time to take any pictures up to this point, i would have tried to put them on today.

     Since today is P-day, we went to the Provo temple for a session. They showed the old film for some reason. I like the new one better. The temple was beautiful and it was still a powerful session. At the end, I figured the best place to pray for the gift of tongues is in the Celestial Room, so that's what i did.

     I love you all, and i do miss you. But I'm having so much fun. You are in my prayers and thoughts. Again, I love getting dearelder letters. Please tell Lindsy about it. haha. I love you!!!

                        Love, Jared