Hola!

    Another change has come and gone here in the mission. The good news is, we baptized 2 yesterday! They were so prepared to hear the gospel, and they are progressing so fast. The 16 year old daughter is already talking about serving a mission! The mom is in Mosiah in the book of mormon, and she is learning so fast. People at church thinks she´s been a member for awhile. I have a lot of pride in them because they were my contacts! haha that was the first time I baptized someone that I actually found. Our 3rd baptism didn´t come to church....so we are going to search her out this week. When Saturday came, it was so hard to believe that the changes had already come. Even though it was a frustrating change, it went by so fast. Saturday came, and the changes normally come at 10 pm. Elder Tafur and I were with the hermanas of our district because they needed a baptismal interview done by Elder Tafur. When he was done with the interview, we were waiting for a bus on the side of the road. The changes hadn´t even crossed my mind when our phone rang. My comp. answered and said it was one of the assistants, Elder Noel, and he wanted to talk to me. Elder Noel told me that we would be getting our changes in a few hours, but he wanted to tell me mine. (Elder Noel and I are good friends) He told me that I would be receiving a new assignment in Las Torres, and I would be the new District Leader! I was so excited to hear that and to hear it from Elder Noel. I´m so excited to take on this new responsibility. Now, I can do baptismal interviews, and I get to carry around the cell phone. haha. I can´t wait for my first interview! I also got a new companion. His name is Elder Maldonado (also from Peru) haha we´ll see how this goes...Presidente told me something interesting though in my interview with him last change. He told me it doesn´t matter who our companion is, if we have the attitude that we are going to have to best change ever, we are going to have the best change ever. So that´s what I´m trying to focus on. That´s all I got for this week. I love you all!

Con amor,

Elder Barton

(mom edit, Jared said that in his district are the zone leaders and the Hermana trainers. He said it he was feeling a little pressure..in a good way)

their baptism this week made a list of the food the Elders liked and didn't like

group baptism photo

baptismal candidate 

picture  of their area

one from last week with the stake division

hola!

Sorry for the late email. We got invited to eat with 2 of our baptisms this week at 3 pm, and we went, and came to write afterwards! This week was pretty exciting. First, it started with 2 of our investigators (the ones we ate with) told us that we have a light at church. Literally, she saw a light. And she said it to her daughter. Her daughter said,´´yeah mom, I saw it too.´´ I love being a missionary! haha. Also, today marks 8 months of my mission, otherwise known as a blink of an eye...I can´t believe how fast time is going. But I have to make the best of it. So on Thursday, there was a Relief Society Activity that we were invitited to for a little. They were going to split up in companionships and go visit less actives. When it was time to go to the church to meet up with everyone, one of the lid things in the road popped and water was absolutely rushing down the road! We were up on the sidewalk, and our shoes were still getting wet. I took some pictures and videos. But the relief society ladies still went and visited people. On Saturday, we had our interviews with Pres. Whitehead. He always knows what to say to animate us and help us get answers to questions. He is a big example to me, along with Hna. Whitehead. So yesterday, for the services, we had a stake division because Metepec is growing so fast. We made a new stake yesterday! As missionaries, we knew about it since March. But it became official yesterday. The area seventy came and announced it, and we met in the stake center with about 1300 people. There were chairs in the main room, other classrooms, and outside in the back with a screen. It was so cool to see so many members again! haha. One of the wards that came to it was Tianguistenco. (my first area) and I got to see some of my favorite families! The Gutierrez family was always my favorite, and we were helping prepare their son to leave on a mission. He´s basically my brother, and he was my best friend in that ward. He plays football, and has a really strong testimony. I got to see him yesterday. When we were talking, I asked him if his mission papers were in, and he told me he got married.....my heart sunk. I knew he had a girlfriend before, but I still thought he was sure on going. I looked over at his new wife, and she looked 2 or 3 months pregnant....I don´t think I´ve ever been so sad on my mission. I remember teaching with him and how much potential he had, and I couldn´t believe he let it all go. During the meeting, we were listening to the area seventy, and he started talking about missions. He asked all of the young men who were 18-21 years old that should be on missions to stand up. (ouch) and a few young men stood up, but my friend stayed in his seat. The area seventy then said,´´that includes if you got married.´´ I was sitting behind my friend a few rows, and I saw ALL of him family look over to him. I felt bad for him. I´ll keep him in my prayers. Some good news this week, we are expecting to baptize 3! I personally contacted 2 of them, so I have a little pride for them...haha but really, the Lord prepared their hearts the most that he could have. They are starting their family history, and they´re already in Jacob in the Book of Mormon. I´m excited! That´s all for me this week. I love you all!

Con amor,

Elder Barton

"Called to Serve" location update (24 measures in the song, you write your area over each measure)

Jared's "I'm frustrated" face

Jared's favorite rainy street pic

beautiful sunrise

Hola!

Well, another week in the misión! Little bit tougher this week. But the good news is, we have 3 baptisms set up for the 22nd. We are working so hard to keep them with this baptism date, and they have to go the church 2 more times in a row to do it. 2 of them will be people that I personally found! So I´m kind of prideful about them...haha. They were so prepared by the Lord. Their names are Maru and Kenny. (mother and daughter) They have read so much of the book of mormon, and are starting to do their family history. We just have to keep them interested and pray for them! Speaking of family history, we got a little book thing here where we need to fill out our relatives´ info. I realized, I can´t remember birthdays or anything.  but if you guys could please send me the info. for grandparents, great-grandparents, and aunts and uncles, I´d appreciate it! I want to have an example to show the people how to do it, but I realized I can´t do it!  all I need is birthdays, the date when they passed away (if it applies) and if they have gone to the temple for themselves. Thanks! So also this week, I gave my first talk in spanish. I´ll just say that I must have had a lot of prayers said for me!  I stood up and did great. My spanish sounded fluid and good, and I said a lot of things guided by the spirit (because I learned from what I said) There were 3 talks planned for the meeting, and I went last. The first lady took 5 minutes, and the second lady took 1.5. haha I stood up with 25 minutes left in the meeting, but I filled the time and I didn´t feel like I was rambling on. In fact, the bishop stood up, slipped me a note that said,´´tiempo. Gracias!´´ haha I felt good. Also, this week is the birthday of my little brother Jason! He turns 7 years old and is already a great example to all of us. I love you Jason! As well, Father´s Day. All I can say is I have the best dad. There´s no doubt about that. Always working hard, never complains, and always is at our games and activities. He´s a spiritual giant, and I have always learned from his example. I love you Dad! So yesterday, in Ward council meeting, we asked the Ward council if there are any less active families that we could visit. We received a family close to where we ate, so we gave them a visit. We heard that the wife was having troubles because her husband is sick and needs a blessing, so we went over there and we found the wife home, and her mom and dad with her. We were talking and teaching, when we found out that the wife is having issues emotionally because her fish is in the hospital....her husband is just fine. But, it gets better, when we finished the lesson, she asked for a comfort blessing...only one other time I have wished it wasn´t me that she picked to give the blessing. haha the first time was my first change when I didn´t speak really well, and the second time was this. But, of course, she chooses me to give her a blessing about her sick fish and she needs comfort....Let´s just say I was guided by the spirit again.  I think I did fine, and she feels a little better. This morning, we went and played soccer with our zone leaders and a few youth from their ward. My first real soccer game against Mexicans! I did terrible but I managed to get 2 goals in! I´m very happy with that result. After 2 hours of soccer, we played 2 hand touch football, and the americans won that one.Other than that, things haven´t changed with my comp. Every day is worse and worse somehow. Oh well, 14 more days with him. That´s it for me this week. I love you all!

Con amor,

Elder Barton

the zone of Metepec

the zone of Metepec

"The Riverton boys" Austin Emch, Jared and Riley Sanderson

Elder MkKell from Idaho and Jared

this months Liahona the kids drew Heavenly Father saying "Hola" 

the soccer field they went to

Jared scored two goals...but lost 

after soccer they played touch football...the Americans won that game

Hola!

    I always start emails the same. Another fast week in la gran misión! This week was full of ups and downs. I´m starting to have more trouble with my comp because he needs a fire lit under him or something. He walks about 20 feet behind me and doesn´t stand close to me when I am contacting. I´m pretty sure he´s exaggerating our numbers when he sends them in too. I´ll have to check on that. He´s gotten up out of bed late 4 times this change by his own free will. We´ll see how these last 3 weeks of the change go. For the good news, I got to work with one of the assistants this week for a day. Elder Stromberg came to our area to do an interchange with us and the zone leaders. Elder Borgel (the other assistant) worked with a zone leader, Elder Sanderson worked with my comp., and I worked with Elder Stromberg. It was cool to learn from him and to work with someone with that experience and with the trust that the assistants have. He had to be on his phone a lot dealing with other Elders in the mission, but it was cool to teach with him for a few lessons. Another thing is, pouch came this week and I got Glenn´s letter! His letters always teach me so much and I can´t help but read them more than once. I feel the spirit when I read them too. Another cool thing is that I put in an order for scripture cases from a relative from one of the Hermanas in my zone. Her dad makes them and she said she could ask him for a discount for us. haha they will be about 500 pesos which is a steal. They will be made from crocodile skin. The hermana showed us an example and they might be the coolest things I´ve ever seen. They should be here in a month or so. So yesterday at church, our bishop asked me if I could give a 15 minute talk next Sunday in sacrament meeting about missionary work. I´m excited of course, but nervous for my first talk in spanish. So a prayer would be appreciated on Sunday morning around 7:30 a.m. your time, because we start church at 8:30 a.m. here...haha. So also, here in our area we are by Galerías Metepec. Which is basically a mall. Inside this mall there´s a restaurant called Sirloin Stockade. It´s a buffet and my comp and I went today. I´m so full! It was so good and it was so cool to just eat and eat again. haha. To close, we had a cool thing happen to us on Tuesday last week. We were walking to the house where we were going to eat, and we were asking around for directions. A less active member that we have never met pulled up beside us and offered us a ride. We got a hold of the family we were going to and they told us they forget to write down on the food schedule that we were eating at another house...haha so we were walking around in the wrong direction the whole time. But we found this less active who had served a mission. He hasn´t gone to church in 8 years, but we found him and he told us he´s going to come back again with his family! We were led by the spirit in the wrong direction. haha. That´s all I got this week. I love you all! 

Napkin from the Sirloin Stockade

the back of their church

a gift from the Sanchez family (the poncho)

more food

I'm guessing he likes the Sirloin Stockade

another from the back of their church