Hola!

     Once again, another fast week in the best mission in the world. We had a new record 75 people at church yesterday! We only had 5 investigators there this time, but it was another great sight. We dunked 2 more people under the waters of baptism, and they are great. One was Cristofer, and he was a reference given to us by the senior missionaries. The other was Saul. He´s the grandpa of the big family that we have, and he´s setting the example. We are hoping to get a few more of the big family baptized this week. This ward is starting to get excited and come together. Ward Council every week is full of enthusiasm and everybody wants to help. We had one baptism in the morning during the 3rd hour of church, and there was a lot of people there. The second baptism was at 5 pm, and I was worried that we wouldn´t have a lot of members there because some live far away. When we showed up again to get everything prepared like the chairs and the program, about 20 members were already there with the chairs set up and a program made. I have fallen in love with Las Torres and the members. We have the stake patriarch in our ward and he is full of love. He was a ward mission leader before and he says he misses it a lot, and he´s been helping us out so much with references and being part of the baptisms. Also, I got to do a few more baptismal interviews this week for the hermanas and our zone leaders. I went to their areas to interview there baptism candidates. The investigators of the zone leaders were really prepared, and I got one of the interviews done in 5 minutes. The hermanas didn´t check all of the details of their investigators and we found out that 2 of them weren´t married, and the other didn´t have permission from her husband to be baptized. (which is a requirement) They were going to baptize 7, but ended up with 0. We are praying for them for this week. We are progressing fast here in Las Torres, thank for for all of your prayers and love!

Con amor,

Elder Barton 

Miracles and punishment in Mexico

Hola!

     This week was another really fast week, but a really good one! We saw so many miracles unfold for us. First, let´s start with zone conference. Pres, Whitehead was feeling it and gave us an AWESOME 5 hour conference. haha we played a doctrine game, heard from our leaders, and Presidente rocked it to close. His best quote that stuck out to me the most was ´´begin with the end in mind´´ which means when we start with investigators, we need to be imagining them in the temple, and in the celestial kingdom with us. We learned to much. Second, we got home late twice this week....almost to the point where we needed to call Pres, which nobody wants to do. Well, God decided to punish us. haha. When we left the house of the investigators, it wasn´t raining at all. 5 minutes later, it was the hardest rainstorm I have ever been in. I didn´t bring any form of protection, and we both got absolutely soaked. We ended up running home, and got even more soaked. Mythbusters was right, you get more wet when you run in the rain. That happened later on in the week as well. Now with the miracles. haha. We have a family of about 8 people in progress, and 6 of them went to church yesterday. The wife of Immanuel didn´t go because they have a newborn baby in the hospital with problems. We got to go over there during the week to give little Jonás a blessing. My comp, Immanuel, and I went up and they only allowed me and Immanuel in. (I was going to give the blessing) I went in, and I felt the spirit so strong. I was in a room with maybe 20 babies. I was giving the blessing, which was a little different because it´s a baby that doesn´t understand me at all, but I knew that Immanuel was listening too. I felt impressed to say that the baby was surrounded by angels. We left and ever since then, Immanuel said that he´s been receiving more funds for his baby. The power of the priesthood is true! So in the ward of Las Torres, the average attendance is 50. Sometimes we have 40, sometimes we have 55. Yesterday, we brought 11 investigators to church, and 6 less actives came, and we had 70! It was a number that we haven´t seen in Las Torres for about a year. We are definitely not satisfied, but it was a great sight. Also, my recent convert gave a talk! She rocked it. Her mom is giving a talk next week too! I´m so happy for them, and they are completely converted. They also brought 2 of their relatives to church with them. Kenny, the daughter, is at EFY this week as well. I can´t wait to go to the temple with them! Thanks for all of your love and support, I can literally feel it, and it helps a lot. You are in my prayers, and I know that we are protected from both sides of the veil. 

Con amor,

Elder Barton 

one of Jared's favorite foods in Mexico   Churizo  is the meat with white rice

the dog was begging Jared to take off the cone

dinner with some recent converts

3 steak bones...Jared felt like the winner

Hola!

     Another week in la gran misión. It´s really weird to think that I have been gone for almost 9 months. The time has gone by so fast, but so slow at the same time. The first 3-5 months of my mission were hard because of the spanish hurdle, but when I leaped that the time started to fly. One cool thing that happened this week was my recent convert, Kenny, worked with us for a few hours. Because she is 16 years old, we brought another hermana from the relief society too. Holy cow she´s powerful. She has really experienced a change in her life and she has a strong testimony. She bore her testimony with so much love for the people, and she told us she wants to serve a mission too! Even though she´s only 16 years old, she´s so powerful and spiritual. It reminds me of my sister. One thing that has changed here is the weather. In Metepec, it gets a little colder in this time of the year because of the rain. It´s crazy how bad of luck I have, because every day that I wear a long sleeve white shirt, it´s so hot. And when I wear a short sleeve white shirt, it´s cold. haha it´s fun....So as part of being a district leader, I have to go with my comp. to work with the Hermanas of my district for a few hours every week. In this last week, I got to know a few of there future baptisms and I got to see how they teach and work. We were about to head back to our area, and we got a phone call from a member of our ward. He told us that they had about 14 extra ´´costillas´´ for us. I had no idea what that word was, but my comp got really excited and told me that we have to go over there. haha so when it was 9 pm, we went over there and I found out that costilla means steak. haha. Of course, it´s Mexican steak, (not as big) but I ate 10 of them...haha it was so good! The daughter of the family had just had a party because she graduated high school, and they had 14 of them left over, so they called us. We were grateful. I took a picture of my finished plate. haha. I also got the card that Cheryl sent me! It was by far the funniest one so far. haha they always make me laugh. Thanks Cheryl! 

Con amor,

Elder Barton

over sized orange, undersized banana

new motto

all Jared's steaks

Time to step it up

Hola!

     I´ll have to admit. A little frustrating week here in Las Torres. DL is kicking my butt a little bit and I´m starting to realize how much I really need to do. The district meetings are fun to do, but hard to plan. haha. One thing that was really cool was I got to my first baptism interview! I went to the zone leaders ward and interviewed an obviously prepared lady. I got through the questions without any problem and she was totally worthy. It was a little bit better than the first interview of my last companion. haha his first one had problems with just about every question...it was cool to represent the Lord in front of this lady who was changing her life, and it was cool to feel that I have the authority to help this daughter of God along the way. One thing that was kind of frustrating this week was with a young kid that we are teaching. He is 15 years old and he´s awesome. I think I talked about him before...but he had 0 faith when we found him and he came to church with us. He saw the baptism of Dominga and his faith skyrocketed. But, because he is underage, we need the permission of his catholic mom in order to baptize him....let´s just say that she´s as hard as a rock and won´t budge...We went with a member and he was so powerful, but she won´t let him get baptized until he´s 18, because at that point he can choose for himself. We were all disappointed, especially the young kid. But we know that there are more people out there for us. So on Thursday, we were walking by a concrete soccer field and other young men were playing. They invited us to come play with them for Monday morning. We accepted and we went this morning. One of our investigators lives right by it, so we went by to get his grandson and change in his house. Turns out it was only my comp, our investigators grandson, and me. The others didn´t show up...but it was still fun, and my soccer skills are getting better and better! So that´s a plus. That´s all I got for this week. The zone leaders have ´´concilio´´ today so I should get letters and stuff tomorrow! I love you all so much, and thanks for all the support!

Con amor,

Elder Barton

celebrating the 4th of July

Phineas and Ferb cup from a member

there's Perry

Hola!

Another week in la gran mision. It was a little bit rougher trying to understand spanish over the cell phone. haha but I´m getting used to it. I had to plan an hour and a half district meeting last week, and I have to get another one planned tonight. So fun! haha. So Elder Maldonado and I are getting along great so far. He´s definitely different than all of the elders from Peru. haha. He actually works and stands by me when we are contacting. haha. Part of being a district leader is doing baptism interviews, and I was going to have my first one last week, but the lady wasn´t home! I was pretty upset, but I should have a couple to do this week for my district. One cool thing that happened this week was our baptism! Her name is Dominga, and her life has changed 180 degrees. Before, she was into drugs and bad stuff, but a member started talking to her and eventually we got to her. It was so cool to see the changes in her life. I had the opportunity to baptize her, and her face changes completely. She had a new smile on, and she bore her testimony after she was baptized. We had another investigator there at the baptism that doesn´t really have that much faith in God. But after the baptism he was asking me great questions and showing real interest in the church. Our 2 baptisms from last week, Maru and Kenny, got confirmed and also gave 2 minute talks in the baptismal service of Dominga. They are so powerful! haha I don´t baptize a lot here, but when I do, they stay in the church, and that´s all I want. Maru and Kenny have already made plans to keep in contact with me and go to the temple in one year! I´m excited for June 22nd, 2015. haha. So again, we went to Sirloin Stockade to eat. We got our monthly money and we went again with our zone leaders. haha I ate more than the last time. It´s always a great feeling to walk out of any place stuffed with food. We also did some service this morning and helped a family move out of their house and into their new one. It was fun to do. So that´s it for me this week. Thanks for all the support!

Con amor,

Elder Barton

baptism picture

pictures of their apartment