Las Torres!

Hola!

     Another fast week again! The weeks get faster and faster...So first of all, you know how I´ve had exzema all my life? Well it started up again last week and got pretty bad, and my comp. told me to buy something for it. I told him that I´ve literally tried everything, but it was worth a shot. I bought a lotion that helps protect from the sun, and it worked in about 6 hours! My skin isn´t dry at all and all I have to do is apply this lotion twice a day. A miracle! I´ll send a picture of the bottle to see if we have it in the states. haha. Second, I got to work with my former teammate Elder Sanderson this week for a day in his area. We did interchanges and we had 2 Riverton boys together. I learned a lot from him and we taught some great lessons. It was cool to think of a little bit less than 2 years back, we were playing together in the state tournament, and now we are in our white shirts and ties. The next day, we did another interchange but I went with our other zone leader Elder Everett from Bountiful. When we were returning to meet up with our companions again, we had to take a bus to get to the meeting spot. We got on the bus and asked if it was going to a certain place called Las Galerías, where we were meeting. The guy said yes and we paid and sat down. 30 seconds later, a 22 year old guy come up to us and told us that the guy lied to us and we weren´t really going to las galerías. And he told us to get our money back and he told us where to go when we got off. We thanked him and went up to the driver and called him out. haha he got SO MAD and wasn´t giving us our money. Pretty soon, the whole bus was yelling at him to give us our money and let us off. haha he finally slammed on the breaks, pulled over, slammed our money in our hands, and let us off. haha before I got off, I turned around and waved to everybody to say thanks. It was awesome to have support from a whole bus. One thing that I´d like to start learning is the mexican sign language. In our ward, there´s a couple who can´t talk, and I can´t describe how helpless I felt when I couldn´t even ask them how their day was going. So if you guys could maybe send me some attachments of a paper describing some words in an email or maybe a letter, I´d appreciate it. I´ve learned some things from someone in our ward, but I´d like to learn more when I´m in our house or something. Thanks! Also, we had 2 baptisms set up for this week, but once again, they fall through. And this time we aren´t going to get them back because one of them went into surgery yesterday, but she wanted to get baptized beforehand for comfort. Elder Everett went to interview her, but she had a newfound doubt of the prophets in these latter days. So she couldn´t get baptized....we have to wait until she recovers to go talk to her again to resolve this doubt. So we will see how fast she recovers. That´s it for me this week. I love you all! Thank you for all your support and prayers. Your prayers and love are felt here in Las Torres!

con amor,

Elder Barton

Jared's pants are like a tv commercial

In their apartment with a mask

(mom comment: clean your apartment)

a window sticker of a member. it means "be happy Be Mormon"

Jared showing how short the urinals are (he felt compelled to say that he wasn't "doing his business"

magical eczema lotion (mom comment:missionary blessing) 

truck fail. it should say God is love, not good is love

No bed bugs!!!

Hola!

 

     Another fast week here in the mission! Las Torres is treating me pretty great! One thing that surprised me was when my comp. told me that there are only 50 active members in the ward, and about 400 less actives....haha time to go to work there. One thing that I forgot to say last week was that I confirmed someone a member of the church for the first time last week. It was the same 12 year old kid that I baptized 2 weeks ago, and I got to confirm him last week. I was pretty nervous, but go the job done. This week, to welcome me into the ward, the bishop asked me to say the closing prayer in sacrament meeting. Also my first time doing that, but I wasn´t as nervous because there was only 47 people in the room.

One great thing here is that there are no bed bugs! whoot! haha my scars from those bites are almost gone. Today, we ate at KFC again. haha so that was good too. One good thing about this last week was how much I have learned from Elder Tafur. He´s an awesome worker and uses a lot of examples when we teaches so it´s easy to understand. He has taught me some things that have blown my mind. Another thing that happened this week was that I got the package from you guys on Wednesday! I was happy to get all the treats, ties, and a shirt of Tyler´s team. Thanks so much! One thing that has taken a leap is my spanish. I have testified a few times this week where I knew I was talking by the spirit, because I couldn´t remember what I said. I remembered the quote by a general authority I can´t remember...´´I know when I´m talking by the spirit because I learn from what I say.´´ That´s definitely been the case this week for me! One thing that different in Mexico is their water. (that we drink at the food) Because they put fruit in the water, and mix it in a blender. It´s pretty good! Like they take off the skin of the fruit, stick in it a blender with water up to the top, and blend it. The most interesting water I´ve had so far was with celery. haha. I love water of watermelon, strawberry, pineapple, and guyaba. So one thing that´s been bothering me the last 2 weeks or so is my nose. I´ve had a stuffy nose but I haven´t felt sick at all. (don´t worry mom, I´m getting help as we speak) We went to a member´s house this morning who knows about that kind of stuff, and she wants to see if I´m allergic to something. So she took a Q-tip, and told me to relax. haha a second later, I had a Q-tip tickling my brain. I hated it! Remember how I always HATED when I had to get my throat swabbed? Imagine a Q-tip up my nose! Then she asked for the other one...and I had to do it again on the other side. Long story short, we´ll have results back in a week.  Another thing that blew my mind was this morning. We were walking out of the store where we bought our food and stuff, and there was a machine that tells us our weight. So we both paid 2 pesos to know our height and weight. I have lost 43 pounds from the MTC!!! haha I left the MTC at 265. And right now I´m at 222. The last time I was 222 was my sophomore year. haha I love the mission! That´s it for me this week. I love you all!

 

Con amor,

a cool pic they found in their apartment

Jared and his companion

keeping up with "called to serve"

his companions glasses

a cool thing his com showed him in the BoM

Yay! a Package!!

Hola!

So as you already know from the call from yesterday, I got transferred again...haha my 3rd straight transfer. I´m in my 5th change, and I have 4 different areas and 5 different companions. Right now, I´m in Las Torres in the zone Metepec. It´s the same zone I was in for my first 2 changes. I love it here so far because it´s more of a city. Today for the food, we ate KFC!  it was so good. We also have Burger King, McDonalds, and Pizza Hut really close by. My new companion is named Elder Tafur from Peru. I knew him from before and we´ll see how this change goes.  He seems like he´s changed a lot. And he will be my first companion that doesn´t speak english. But I´m not the least bit worried about that. I´m excited to get things going here! Some things that happened from the last week...both of our baptisms fell through Sunday morning...We got a text message from one saying he had to leave for an emergency, and the other one didn´t come to sacrament meeting, and didn´t meet the requirement of 3 times going to sacrament meeting. We went to go get him after sacrament meeting, and we found him ironing some clothes and he told us he just got up. We had to tell him he couldn´t be baptized and he is still going to do it next week. I was kind of mad because I found this guy, and he was going to be the first guy that I baptized that I personally found. But that´s part of this work. Another thing that happened was we were walking down the street and some guys stopped us to offer us an English class...haha my companion and I looked at each other and laughed. The guy said sorry and we contacted him. it was funny because there were a ton of people walking down the street and he offered his advertisement to us. Another funny thing happened. We were eating one day and the food looked like chicken (the most popular food here) and so we started eating and the texture and taste was different. I ate it anyway and didn´t ask any questions. It still tasted good, it just wasn´t normal chicken. Then I found out I was eating duck. haha it was the first time for me, but it was good! One thing I have been doing for about 3 weeks is memorizing one scripture a day in Spanish to get to know the Bible more and to improve my spanish. I thought it would be hard, but it´s easier than I thought! I have about 21 scriptures memorized word for word and where they are, and it´s helping me out so much when I contact and when I teach, because I can quote scripture on the spot. I definitely recommend that to everyone. And since it was Mother´s Day yesterday, I have to say that I really do have the best Mom out there. I love you so much Mom, I don´t know what I´d do without you. Thanks for all your support for me and everything you have done and what you are still doing. Again, I love you! That´s it for me for this week with a few pictures to come. I love you all!

Con amor,

Elder Barton

family picture after 2 baptisms

theme for this change

funny teenage girl face

Elder Grajeda and I in the cafetería, and the picture with the workers there.  The only reason we were there is because one of them is a member but she is less active and going to another church.

Elder Gardeja and Elder Barton

Concrete roof that split Jared's head open (at eye level)

Hno Merlos special needs friend

Hno Albert

Elders and Hermanas Salinas and Jiminez

Hola!

     This week was really good and really fast here in la gran misión. First of all, yesterday the branch of Zitácuaro baptized 5! 3 were from us, and 2 were from the Hermanas. 2 of our baptisms have been in teaching for just about 5 months now, and they finally did it, and the other was a little girl that I love to death! haha. The baptism services were cool. We planned it out really well with our branch leaders and it was a really spiritual experience. I got to baptize 3 of the 5. The little girl, one of ours, and one from the Hermanas. It was really cool for me because first, I haven´t had a baptism in over a month, and second, I haven´t performed the baptism since my 2nd change. After the baptisms were done and we were changed, we had representatives from the primary, young men, young women, and relief society give a welcome to the new converts. It was really cool to be apart of and really cool to see the changes on the faces of the people we have been teaching. Also, what´s on every mother´s mind this week? They get to see their missionaries in 6 days! haha for us, we are going to have our church services, and we are planning on 2 baptisms, and then we have to eat. We are going to try to make the call around 6:00 or 6:30 our time (5:00 or 5:30 in your time) so be ready for that! I´m really excited to see everybody´s faces again. The last time, at Christmas, I still wasn´t thinking about home at all. haha because the only time we had apart was the MTC (but I got to call home once) then I called when I left from the airport, then I called again from President´s house because he let´s every missionary call home to say they arrived, then it was only a month until Christmas. haha but this time it´s been 5 month...so I´m a little more excited. Another thing that happened this week was I did an interchange with one of our zone leaders Elder Calderon from Sinaloa, Mexico. He´s pretty good, and we had a couple powerful lessons together. This morning, we went to Ciudad Hidalgo again to play basketball with our zone leaders and the missionaries of Ciudad Hidalgo. It´s really strange how we walk all day every day, but when we play basketball for 2 hours, we can hardly move after. haha but it was fun anyways. Again, it´s always fun to put on a shirt and shorts for a change. haha. I haven´t been outside in those clothes for over 6 months now. We have to wear missionary attire in public, and the basketball courts we went to are inside. haha I guess I can say I´m used to it, but the collar bugs me every now and then. One thing that I have been trying to do here in the mission is baptize someone that I have actually found. To this point, all the people I have baptized were already listening to the missionaries when I arrived. But this week, I am hoping to meet that goal! I found someone really golden with Elder Mielke, and he is set for a baptism date for the 18th, but we are going to ask permission to baptize him this week because he is so ready. Well that´s it for me this week. I love you all! I´ll see you in a week (on a computer) haha.

Con amor,

Elder Barton

Jared loved this little girl