A good week in Mexico

Another quick week in Mexico...but it was a good one! First of all, I´ve forgotten to write about our dear friend Hermano Merlos, he´s a 40 year old special needs man in our ward, and I love him to death. He works with us whenever we ask him too. His testimony is so powerful because he had a pretty rough life, but turned it around when the missionaries visited him about a year and a half ago. He isn´t completely special needs, actually I´m not sure what he has, but he talks and walks perfectly. Also this week, my companion went to a meeting for district leaders, so I got to stay in our area with Elder Mielke again. This time, it was for most of the day instead of an hour. We did really good! Again, we were in the MTC together and we´ll leave the mission together too. Long story short, we got a baptism commitment for the 18th of May, we taught 12 lessons, and had fun.  My spanish has really taken a leap this change. Also, we found out on Saturday that we were going to have Zone Conference on Monday morning. So this morning, we went to our chapel for zone conference with presidente whitehead. It was so powerful! The new assistants gave a talk and training thing, and of course presidente and la hermana whitehead were powerful too. I can´t wait until I go up to a leadership position so I can be apart of zone conference. (besides just listening) In my studies, I have learned so much this change. Elder Grajeda has a huge knowledge of the Bible, and it has helped me a lot. And la familia Sanchez from Armas is still sending Elder Willie and I scriptures to use to answer questions.  All I can say is, this church is true. Everything fits, and everything testifies each other. The other religions use the same Bible, but they don´t apply it. We were talking to a lady in a taxi and when we told her the Bible says nothing about baptizing babies she replied,´´Well, we don´t have to apply the Bible literally!´´ haha. Another Catholic person we were teaching has always bragged about how studious he is and he brags of his knowledge of the Bible. So we went to work with every scripture we knew, and he found an excuse for every one.  Then the deeper things that we find in the Book of Mormon, and what we see after we have entered the temple. Blows my mind. I have never met someone that has testified of their religion and if it´s true. Only us. We have talked with a lot of people very devout in their religions. They say that theirs is the only right one, so we use scriptures. They realize they´re beat, and just say,´´in the end we will all return to God. We just need faith. He´s not going to ask us what religion we were apart of.´´ So we ask,´´so you´re fine with coming with us to the church of Jesus Christ? Since it doesn´t matter what church we go to?´´ and they say no with a little anger.  I have learned the importance of testifying here in the mission. Because people can´t deny a testimony. Sorry this email is so short....I don´t have much to say this week. But I love you all so much. Thank you for your continuing love and support.

Con amor,

Elder Barton

hola

Hola!

Another quick week here in la gran misión...but to start. Yes, I felt the earthquake down here. haha. My comp and I were studying and the tables (and the apartment buildings) started to shake. We went outside until it calmed down. It was pretty cool actually. The only thing that happened to us was a few things fell off shelves and desks, but nothing broke. We went outside and saw the lightposts moving side to side. Also this week, I completed 6 months in the mission...I´ll just say that I hate milestones in the mission because they´re never good days. On my 6 month mark, we went to a pueblo in the middle of nowhere about 1 hour from our house. Our ward mission leader wanted to go with us to some of his family members. We left right after studies, and got there around 12. The lesson had to be done outside because we didn´t all fit inside, so I got really sunburnt on my arms and face. They seemed really interested throughout the whole lesson, asking questions that were really good, and answering really well. Since we weren´t going to come back in awhile, we made it a longer lesson, making sure their doubts were resolved. At the end of the lesson, 2 p.m., we found out that they can´t leave their house because of the husband´s health, and their daughter that was there doesn´t even live in our area....so we wasted a whole morning. After that, the plan was to eat with that family and come back to Zitácuaro. Our ward mission leader says he has to leave to get the food...so we were waiting for another hour. Then it took an hour to cook the food. Then a half hour to eat really fast and leave. We got back to Zitácuaro at 6 pm...also, I had a really bad sore throat, and that week, we ate a TON of beans so I was in the bathroom whenever I could. haha. So this week here in Mexico was Semana Santa. We call it Semana de Apostasía. haha they do a lot of activities that are so against any doctrine anywhere. For example, they crucify someone. Yes, they whip this person, walk around the pueblo like Christ did, and they nail him up on the cross. I don´t know if he actually dies or not, we didn´t go and see, but I couldn´t help but have a sick feeling in my stomach. Also this week we saw a ´´coincedence´´ when we were trying to chase down a combi to go to our food for the day. We were running down the street when we heard ´´Elderes!!!´´ And long story short, it was a member from el Distrito Federal visiting some relatives. They said they were hoping to find us while they were here so we could visit their family. Long story short, we went with this person on Saturday, she went to church on Sunday with her 2 daughters, and they have baptism dates for Mothers day! Magic comes when we work with the members, but this was a miracle. I also found out that Mexican hair gel is so much better than American. It´s almost like glue. The line in my hair looks so much better. haha. Anyways last story, I got to work with Elder Mielke this week a little bit in my area. He was in the MTC with me. He was doing interchanges with the Zone Leaders and my comp and I needed 2 baptism interviews. So the zone leader went with my comp to the house of the investigator, and Elder Mielke and I worked together. It was cool to work with someone from my ´´generation´´ as we call it. Well that´s it for me this week. I love you all so much!

Con amor,

the biggest cockroach Jared has ever killed

Jared holding a duck (I think this is what duck face should look like) his pic to mark his 6 months

 Elder Willie told me that called to serve in the spanish hymnbook has 24 measures. which is equal to 24 months of the mission. Every month, you color in one measure. and above you write where you were.

la familila in el districto

mom and the 2 daughters. The hermano and his wife are who found us. 

Members who are teaching with the missionaries

We went to play basketball this morning with the Zone Leaders Elder Mckell from Idaho, and Elder Calderon from Sinaloa

Having fun in the middle of nowhere

Sorry for the late email this week. We went to Ciudad Hidalgo to play basketball with a couple other elders and their branch president. It was a blast, and my team won every time. haha. As for this week, it was another fast one. We had 5 people at church yesterday and didn´t baptize. But we have 5 possibles for this week! 2 of them are for sure for sure, but the other 3 need some work. haha. We were teaching a family of 4 this last week, with the parents (who aren´t married and are living together) with 2 daughters that are 20 and 13 years old. The mom and the 20 year old are really the only ones interested, so we focused on their needs. The 20 year old wants to be baptized, but says right now isn´t her time. We found out that she thought that after baptism, we had to be perfect and never sin again...haha so we cleared that up and hopefully she will be baptized this week. The mom either needs to get married or divorce the guy and move out to be baptized. So we´ll see how that turns out. At church yesterday, the mom had a good time, but we could tell something was wrong. She started talking to us after the 2nd hour and started crying, so we went back in to the chapel to talk privately. She said her 20 year old daughter told her some things that she didn´t know about her husband. Let´s just say that I got a little mad. I can´t say what she said, but I´m totally sure she´s going to move out of the house with her daughters. I´ll just say that she can´t trust her ´´husband´´ to be alone with her daughters. The 2 daughters aren´t his, they are from another dad, but that relationship didn´t end up working out either. We are trying to help them out as much as we can, but it´s hard because we really don´t have the right to give advice about this stuff, we just invite her to keep coming to church and stuff. As for Mother´s Day (whoot whoot!) Here in Mexico they celebrate Mother´s Day always on May 10th, but still we are going to use skype on Sunday, the 11th. I still don´t know what time yet, but I´ll let you know as soon as I know. On that Sunday, we will already have our changes and where we are going or if we are staying. We have a guy here in our branch who has a place where we can skype, and my comp said that it should be a pretty good connection even though we are in the middle of nowhere. As for my comp and my area, we are pretty good. My comp and I get along really well, and he´s obedient. The only thing I would change about him is to be a little more compassionate towards people...haha like when we are in a contact or a lesson, he gets a little too direct and a little in their face. But he only does that every now and then. My area is really good. This week is Semana Santa so there are a ton of people in the streets selling things especially for this week of apostosy. I´m getting to know my area pretty well, and it´s really safe. I haven´t felt in danger at all. That´s all I got for this week, I love you all!

Con amor,

Elder Barton

These pics were labeled"the middle of nowhere"

it reminds Jared of trek

and more of the middle of nowhere

Week 1 in Zitácuaro!

     A fast week here in the mission again. This week was pretty good, and more than anything, just a blink of an eye. I´m settling right in to the pueblos again. First, I got to talk about conference! haha I had the blessing to watch all 5 sessions in English! I went to another room of our church with our American zone leader and we watched them in english because an awesome member got the broadcast for us. One of my favorites was Marcos A. Aitukaitis. He spoke to us in the MTC about the plan of salvation and was hilarious. His voice just makes it that much better. My favorite line was,´´Satan wants to make us sift through what is quite simply, pure garbage.´´ haha it´s so true. This conference they focused a lot on the worldly things that waste our time, or can be a benefit to us. I can´t remember who said it, but,´´the Lord applied technology to hasten his work.´´ Also, President Ucthdorf´s talk in priesthood with temptation and when he was in the cockpit of Air Force One. President Monson simply said,´´Dieter, don´t even think about it.´´ haha. Also what President Monson said,´´If you ever find yourself somewhere where you ought not to be, GET OUT.´´ I love that. Besides conference, we still had a good week. We have some people set up for baptism this week and some in the future. One event that happened this week is a consequence of being in the pueblos again. We were walking our normal fast speed to an appointment. I was looking down because the sidewalk was uneven. I was about to go down a stair, and boom. Hit the top of my head on the concrete house that´s not even 6 feet off the ground. My comp. was in front of me, and said the noise scared him. haha. I bled a little bit and had a big headache, and a cool bump. It wasn´t like bleeding down my face or anything, but it opened up a little. First of all, yes mom, I called Hermana Whitehead. Yes mom, I´m ok. And yes mom, it´s all better now. haha. It´s no longer opened or hurting. In other news, we were walking down the street one night at around 8 pm. It was dark and we were walking fast. We hear someone running up behind us, and I turn around ready to defend myself, only to see a 9 year old kid. haha. He told us to follow him. We had no idea who he was, but he lead us to his mom and dad. His mom and dad had listened to the missionaries before, but stopped going to church because they had to work. After talking with them, they told us that they still want their kids to go and be baptized. haha talk about a miracle! We are probably going to baptize them this week. So while I was in Armas, Hno. Sanchez shared a bunch of knowledge with us about church history. For example, he asked us who prepared Joseph Smith at hill Cumorah to restore the church. We said Moroni, and he asked who else. We had no idea. He pulled out History of the Church and showed us a paragraph that said that all the prophets in the Book of Mormon visited Joseph when he went up once a year to Cumorah. Long story short, it would be awesome if I had a copy of History of the Church waiting for me in 18 months. haha. That´s all I have this week. I love you all so much! Thank you for your emails and your support.

Con amor,

Elder Barton

Jared's "new wall"

celebrating a birthday with an investigator (who doesn't want a gun cake?)

the view from the front door