Office Elders

Elder Barton, Elder Medina, Elder Mason

Elder Hirsch, Elder Barton, Elder Mason

Last email from Mexico

Familia,

     Well, this may be the last email of the mission. I don´t know if I will write this next week. I´ll try to. But if not, this will be the last one...so weird. We just had our concilio with president and my comp and I gave a presentation about Preach My Gospel. I can say that I´m the missionary that I am thanks to that manual. It has all the answers to anything. We gave a powerpoint presentation that we made yesterday and it went really well. Then I was given time to give my last concilio testimony...it was rough. Today was my 14th concilio...haha. It´s all ending so fast. But I´m still fighting and working hard. President kept me updated on the world series. haha so that kept me sane in my last weeks. I´m honestly nervous to come home. I don´t know what I´m going to do, but I know that my life has changed because of my mission. I have grown so much spiritually and I´ve gained so much knowledge. I hope that I can get things going with school and baseball and stuff, but the things that I learned here have been worth more than anything. I hope that a change is noticed in my personality, spirit, and overall being. So I almost forgot to notice that ´´el dia de los muertos´´ was today. haha it´s the mexican halloween. They use it to visit the graveyards and clean it, put flowers, etc. There are also some really scary things that go down, but in our part of the neighborhood, it´s calm and not many things happen. The best part of this time of year is the pan de muerto. Basically bread covered in sugar, but sometimes they fill it with chocolate or vanilla cream, jam, etc. Also, I want to congratulate my brother for receiving the aaronic priesthood!! You can bet Ty that we´ll be going to the temple next week. Also, Happy 12th Birthday! So this last week we went back and visited Camarones to work with them. Right now, my son Elder Higbee is there with one of my ex-companions Elder Arellano. We did splits with them and I got to see Tacuba again. The coolest thing that will happen this week is that Maru and Kenny are going to the temple on Saturday!!! Maru will be endowed and Kenny has family names done to take for baptisms. President gave us permission to go and I´m so excited for them! Well that´ll be all for me today. I´ll see you next week!

Con amor,

Elder Barton

Halloween Masks 

It's like riding a bike....receiving help from beyond the veil

Buenos dias! 

     Well, more trials for the family. These 6 weeks are turning out to be very hard. I received the phone call from President Whitehead yesterday about Great Grandpa Penrod. It was a shock to me, because I was looking forward to seeing him soon. I sat alone here in the offices for a good 15 minutes. Then the spirit reminded me of something I had read a few months ago found in the Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith. It´s chapter 14. I was still kind of sad while I was reading it, but I came across this paragraph and the words jumped out to me. "I am authorized to say, by the authority of the Holy Ghost, that you have no occasion to fear; for he is gone to the home of the just. Don’t mourn, don’t weep. I know it by the testimony of the Holy Ghost that is within me; and you may wait for your friends to come forth to meet you in the morn of the celestial world." I felt calm, and I await his help here in these last 2 weeks. I invite all the family to read chapter 14 of the teachings of Joseph Smith. On the positive side, my companion and I baptized 2 yesterday! We found a young man and his sister through their aunt. Their aunt, Erika, is a member from a few years ago and recently took her niece and nephew in. They were in a government building because their dad is in jail and their mom passed away. They had gone to church with her recently and they were very open to the gospel. The nephew is 16 and the niece is 15. They were baptized yesterday and they were very happy to be baptized and feel good. All they are looking for is hope, and they´ve found it. We are happy for them! This week was full of travels as well, as we went to Atlacomulco and then Zitacuaro (the 2 farthest zones of the mission) We traveled Monday night to Atlaco, worked all day with them on Tuesday, and traveled to Zitacuaro Wednesday morning and worked with them all day. We arrived to the offices again Wednesday at about 10 pm. We then went to work in our area for a day then had to be with president for some things. One thing in Zitacuaro is that the 2 areas that have bikes in the mission are in that zone. I got to ride a bike Wednesday morning while we worked. I realized how bad of shape i´m really in....haha. I´m going to have to work hard to get back in shape. Even though these 6 weeks have been hard, I know that I am being strengthened. I have a great companion and the secretaries are great as well that have been there for me every step of the way. I know I receive help from both sides of the veil. I love you guys. Thanks for everything. You´re in my prayers individually.

Con Amor,

Elder Barton

this made my day!!

baptism

Hey Family!

     Another rough week health wise. I had a fever for a day and I was very cold during that. I would be shivering so bad that my neck would almost be cramping up. I got over that and just felt tired and sore from all the shivering. But we had a lot to do this week so it kept me busy. On Monday afternoon, we headed out to a zone called Lerma and helped them on Monday night. Tuesday we went to the zone Toluca and were with them all day. Wednesday we went to the zone Metepec and helped them for most of the day, and we returned home on Wednesday night. Thursday we were in Culturas all day, Friday we were with president and hermana Whitehead while they did interviews in the zone Chapultepec, and Saturday I got a special assignment from President to visit an area and see how the missionaries are doing

there and how their area is doing. It´s one of the most beautiful areas of the whole mission called Valle de Bravo. It´s a very touristy location and the trademark of Valle de Bravo is the huge lake that curves with the mountains. It´s beautiful but a hard area due to how many tourists are there. We left the bus station here in the city at 9:30 a.m. and we arrived in Valle de Bravo at 1:30 p.m. haha. We found a good taco place to eat, got together with those missionaries and I talked with the senior companion while we worked. I got the info that President needed, and we headed back to the offices, arriving at 9 pm...an all day trip. But worth it because I got to visit Valle de Bravo. haha. This week will be similar because we are doing another pueblo trip this week. Tonight we head out to Atlacomulco! We will be in their zone meeting tomorrow morning and then we will be in Zitácuaro Wednesday. I´m excited for this trip and to help out those zones. My companion and I are worried about the mission right now. We have a lot of leadership that will be going home soon, and the young missionaries need to be trained a little more. We lack a lot of technique in the mission, so we are telling the zone leaders to administrate a lot and teach how to teach, how to find, etc. My comp and I are running around trying to train as many missionaries as we can. It´s a really stressful time, and President is really worried as well, but he has a president seminar this week in Cancun...so he should relax a bit. haha. I love you all, and as always, I´m grateful for your support!

Con amor,
Elder Barton

Hna. Whitehead would encourage some tidying up 

The assistants house

when new missionaries come to Mexico, they sleep in the assistants house

October 12, 2015

Dear Family,

     Well, another week goes down. Yesterday, I met the members of our ward because last week was general conference and we were in the offices for it. We went to our services over there and had fast and testimony meeting. It´s a different feeling, because I´ve never been in this stake before, I had never been to that area before, and we won´t be there everyday. Normally, I go to town trying to get to know the members and start working with them. But I´ll only be here 4 more weeks in the ward...so I´m trying to figure out how to work well in the area. Elder Mason and I are getting along great! He´s so good with the scriptures and I´ve been learning a lot from him. He works hard and loves the work. He´s got 7 months left in the mission, and he´s in his prime. We also see the secretaries a lot. We live with them and we are in the offices a lot together. One is Elder Hirsch from Centerville. He´s a state champion golfer and has a scholarship to BYU. The other is Elder Lowe from Layton. We love that all 4 of us are Americans to be able to speak english during the day. haha. My chest pains and gall bladder pains have gone away for the most part. Sometimes I´ll get a sharp pain to the gall bladder but then it goes away. This week I went on interchanges to a zone called Lomas Verdes. It´s the wealthiest zone of the mission. They say it´s hard to work there because of the wealth. Mostly everyone has cars, and aren´t in the street. Or they have hard hearts and don´t want to listen. I went over with an awesome guy named Elder Alegre from Argentina. He´s an energetic guy and we had a good day over there. The member who signed up for the food wasn´t going to be there so we had to go buy it. We went to a burger place called la cabaña. (the cabin) and I had the biggest burger of my life! It was only 100 pesos and it had 500 grams of meat. With ketchup, mustard, onions, lettuce, tomato, all that. In our area, we were working pretty hard but not really finding much success. It´s a different area than I´m used to, but we are making do. Honestly, I´m scared for this last month. It hadn´t have hit me yet that I was going home until last week. It will be a life changer that I have to be ready for, but I´m ready to get things going at home. I love you all, have a good week!

Con amor,

Elder Barton

General Conference and Pain...

Hey Fam!

     Well another general conference has come and gone! I was spiritually recharged and I was moved by the topics that were repeated again and again. Have faith, be a true disciple of Christ, and no matter what happens, stay true. I´m excited to listen to those talks again here in this week here in the offices in our spare time. I had a miracle happen to me this week. Friday morning, I woke up with a little pain in the gall bladder area right up under the rib cage. I had difficulty taking deep breaths, which resulted in pains and coughing. I survived that day and got ready to general conference on Saturday. I woke up on Saturday with more pains in that area, and it was spreading to my chest and side. It hurt to move anything. Even when I had to sniff, it shot a pain to my side that was really bad. When we went to walk a few blocks to a taco stand between sessions, I was in so much pain in my chest and side that I could barely walk. I survived the lunch and we came back. I just laid down on the couch in the offices and I was trying to lay still. For the priesthood session, President invited us over to his house to watch. We went over and I told him what was going on. Hermana Whitehead said she thought it could be a gall bladder inflation. I talked with the mission doctor and described it. He wanted to see me the next day. I asked for a blessing from my companions in the offices and president, but priesthood was starting and I just said we can do it after. After priesthood, president was really busy and we didn´t end up doing the blessing...I was kind of upset, but I figured it was fine to just do it the next day. We went home and I was in so much pain I just wanted to change out of my mission clothes and lay down and hopefully get to sleep. I went straight up to our room and I was in tears. I was trying to take my shirt off without the pains but it was hard. All of a sudden I heard the voice of our Elder who is just waiting for his VISA to go to the Salt Lake mission and he´s staying with us meanwhile,´´do you still want a blessing?" I was happy he asked and accepted. I got a blessing from him and one of the secretaries and it was just what I needed, I immediately calmed down and went to sleep. My biggest fear was that I would be stiff the next day and it would hurt even worse. I had faith in the priesthood. I woke up yesterday morning, with literally almost 0 pain at all. I was in awe. With the worst day of my mission the day before, I was completely healed from it. Today, I have 0 pains. I already loved this Elder that´s here with us, and he showed faith and love towards me in that night. Nobody knew I was crying out of pain, but he just felt that he needed to offer the blessing that night. I´m grateful for him and for the power of God here on earth. Anyways we just had our concilio meeting. It was my 2nd to last one...It´s flying by too fast. I love you all!

Con amor,

Elder Barton

I've been getting on him for pics of his apartment and and he promised last week to send me some. This was all I got today "My new sweet shoes" #priorities

Bonus mission!!!

Hola Familia!

     Well today officially starts my extra mission time. I´m now in time that the Lord has gifted to me on top of my full time service. I´m ready to plow through these 6 weeks and go to work with my new companion. I am now AP1 and my new companion is Elder Mason from Corona, California. Which is 20 minutes from Disneyland. He´s an absolute stud and I´m going to learn a ton from him. This morning, he was coming to the city while I went with Elder Medina to pick up the news. We got to the MTC and we saw our new Elders and Sisters. We started to get their bags out to the van and my comp and I went to the bathroom. We came out a minute later and there was Hermana Larson with her companion!! It was amazing to see her again and talk for about 5 minutes. We got the news in the van, exchanged gifts, and said goodbye. haha obviously I would have preferred to talk with her longer, but it was such a blessing to see her for that time. On the way back, Elder Medina and I gave the ´´combi ride experience.´´ Which means that we kind of talk directly to the new missionaries about our higher level of obedience and diligence in our mission. We gave them the rules and they seemed excited to get started. We got to know them a little more and we arrived at President´s house. We gave them a little orientation and they got their trainers. My companion and I finished strong this last week! We worked hard and we were blessed with 3 baptisms. 3 baptisms that were clearly prepared by the Lord and are ready to start their journey. Also, I got Glenn´s letter here in the offices this week! I always love your letters, Glenn. Your testimony brings the spirit even off of paper. Thanks for sharing your experiences with me. I also received a package from the Larson family! I was also so thankful to get that, and I´ve been enjoying the candy that´s inside. I love you guys! I´m excited now to have an american companion again, but we got moved out of Molinito....Our new area is called Bella Vista 2 in the stake called Chapultepec. Elder Mason was there for a change awhile ago so he knows the area. We´ll see what we can do together over there! I love you guys, thanks so much for the support!

Con amor,

Elder Barton

Lindsy at the CCM!!!

Elder Barton, Elder Matthews, Elder Medina

baptism

fun church games

big boys turn

"P-uuussshh"

baptism

shenanigans climbing Jared is like climbing a tree.  The kids love him


(mom edit: Lindsy was called to the Ft. Lauderdale Florida, Spanish speaking mission. She was in the CCM at the same time Jared was picking up new missionaries. They were able to shake hands, take a pic, exchange gifts and say "see you in 17 months" ever since we knew they'd be there at the same time, I'd hoped they could see each other. My heart is full.)

Happy birthday Elder Barton!

Querida familia,

     This week was another full one that went by super fast. But here we go! First off, I´m now 21 years old! My birthday yesterday was honestly a really stressful one but I had fun anyways. On Saturday,we went to Chili´s for lunch. I got the classic nachos for an appetizer, then I got the chicken crispers. Then one of the secretaries told the waitresses that it was my birthday and all of a sudden I was surrounded my chili´s workers. They brought out drums and had a sweet song. haha I got a bowl of ice cream with melted chocolate on top of it. That was pretty cool. On Sunday, we went to church and a lot of the members had remembered that it was my birthday. I got a lot of hugs from the men and handshakes from the women. haha. After church, we went to my convert´s house and his family (la familia Milan) to eat lunch. They bought a cake and made one of my favorite Mexican foods. It was a fun lunch. During church was frustrating because we had our baptism fall through and some people failed us getting to church. Afterwards, I was calling the others to see about their baptisms, but some more had fallen through too. We lost a few in the mission, and it threw us off on our goals we have. We came back to the offices around 7 pm to get things planned for this week. President called me and Hermana Whitehead and him sung to me over the phone. Then President showed up and gave me 2 pieces of cake. Elder and Hermana Tobler, the office couple, brought 8 cinnamon rolls. haha I had a good dessert and a good breakfast. This time is going by way too fast. I have 7 Sundays left to just give it my all. I love you all so much. Thanks for the birthday wishes and thanks for the love and support I can feel from Utah.

Con amor,

Elder Barton

Temple dedication, Cultural celebration and baptisms

Dear Family,

     Well another week flies by...this week went by extremely fast... But it was full of events. We had concilio on Monday and I got to give my same talk in the zone meeting of Culturas on Tuesday. On Wednesday, we went to a place called Zócalo. Which is the main place to go buy in the mission. I bought a few sweet ties, some things that they are selling for their independence day, and I found a pair of shoes my size! They are only for Sundays, but I like them a lot. On Friday, my comp and I got to participate a little in the cultural celebration of the temple rededication. The celebration took place in the theater in a place called Bellas Artes. President assigned my comp and I to go and have a table where we would have pamphlets and Book of Mormons. It was cool to see a whole bunch of Mormons walking around the building and having everybody know you. I talked to 2 american families that work in the embassy down here. It was so weird to be speaking english... my mind is in spanish mode right now, and when I talk to my zone leaders or the secretaries, we speak in spanglish. But when I have to speak only english, I find it very hard...we´ll see what happens here in 2 months in Utah...but anyways it was fun to hand out the pamphlets and preach that way. On Saturday, my comp and I baptized 2!! They are great converts. Antonio has huge ear rings that he wears everywhere... he´s had a rough life but he´s a great guy and he´s changed a lot. His wife will be an amazing member as well. In their baptism service, they had a lot of family there from another state supporting them, and Antonio´s mom brought a sweet dinner after. haha. On Sunday we had the rededication of the Mexico City temple! My comp and I went to the 3 sessions. The first went from 9 to 10:30, the 2nd from 12 a 1:30, and the 3rd from 3 to 4:30. They were different every time and the stories were really powerful. Pres. Eyring talked about when he was sealed to his wife and he got emotional. Then Elder Holland gave a powerful talk about a promise we made God when we knew we were going to live in the Latter-Days. He got emotional and had his strong voice as always. And he told us that when we accepted to come to the last dispensation that we would be responsible for the salvation of the entire human race. With the temples in operation, we are called to save EVERYBODY. I left pretty excited from there. That´s all I got for this week. I love you guys!

Con amor,

Elder Barton

Names from Left to Right. Hermanas Villalobos, Maldonado, Aleman, Lopez. elders below, Acosta, Tovar, Gonzalez, Davis, Gadberry Wanner, Medina, Barton, Mathews, Espronceda, Fjerstad. Elders Above, Peguero, Lendeche, Avila, Christensen, Dahlin, Bishop, Carballo

cathedral in Zócalo

at the cultural celebration

Prayers and special help

Hola a todos.

     Well we have permission to write in these hours right now...haha today was concilio day but pres. wants us to write right now to go to work the rest of the week. Today´s concilio was so powerful! My comp and I both gave talks, president gave a sweet training, and his brother came to visit us as well! He´s an ex-mission president from England. He doesn´t speak spanish, so he gave it in english and had president´s secretary translate for him. I got to speak about our goals for this month of September and how we are going to meet them. I talked about the mission plan that Elder Marcus B. Nash helped us make when he came here, and I got a little teary eyed when I talked about personal prayer. I talked about how important it is to have a good relationship with our Heavenly Father, but then I talked about the prayers of our families. I talked about how I imagine my siblings and parents on their knees together and separately asking God with all their hearts to strengthen me and help me keep going. And how that strengthens me during the day when things are hard. So thanks so much for your prayers! Also I talked about the strength from the other side of the veil that we have. Elder Richard G. Scott one time thanked his already deceased wife at the pulpit of general conference. And I took the chance to thank Grandpa Rees, Great Grandma Barton, and Adrian. (my special needs friend that passed away a few years ago) I had something cool happen to me this week with preparing my message. It was a pretty broad topic, so I could take it in any direction. I received my topic last Tuesday and started preparing immediately. I had so many ideas during the week and I couldn´t put it all together in 10-15 minutes. I was getting nervous Saturday night on how it was going to turn out. I went to church on Sunday and all of a sudden it just all came to my mind just how I wanted it to, and it seemed perfect. Sunday night, I got the outline out in my talk journal and it was a sweet talk. I gave it today, and I felt full of the spirit. It was an amazing feeling. Then I thought about why I didn´t get it all put together with inspiration until Sunday night. Then I realized how many talks I read and how many stories I heard about that topic, and I realized I had gained a good amount of knowledge and future material for talks. I was benefited a lot by a lot of preparation, and God was just letting me learn more and more until the last minute. Because if I would have already had it by Tuesday or Wednesday, I probably wouldn´t have studied as much for it. It was interesting! As well, yesterday my comp and I baptized 2! It´s AMAZING to see the miracles we find with so limited time to work in our area. We baptized 2 yesterday, and we could have 3 this week. We work hard during the week in other areas helping them out, and the Lord prepares people in our area meanwhile. I love it! Well that´s what I got for this week. I love you all!

Con amor,

Elder Barton

Elder Christofferson visits Mexico

Hey Family!

     Early email today! My comp, Elder Medina, and I have to travel today to go to a little town called Cholula. We have to get a couple married civilly so they can get baptized this Sunday. And after that, we are going to go to my birthplace of the mission, Tianguistenco! Elder Adams, the ex assistant, is there and it´s kind of close to Cholula. We are going to hang out with him and his kid for p-day, then work with that zone for a few days. Today, I´m going to be working in Tianguistenco! I haven´t been back there since February 2014. I´m excited to go! Anyways, we have another week full of zone conferences. After we had the chance to write last Tuesday night, we went to the zones of Las Torres and Metepec on Wednesday, Lerma on Thursday, and Chapultepec on Friday. I got to speak in the Lerma conference again about unity. I used an example of my class at Kauri Sue Hamilton and how us 4 teachers had to be one in that class using love, patience, and diligence. It was a pretty solid talk...haha. Then we had a very special day on Saturday. We had one of the 10 apostles of the Lord, Elder D. Todd Christofferson, speak to our entire mission! It was the first/only time that all the missionaries from the mexico city west mission would be gathered together in one church in our missions. For the zones that are far away, we had them come in Friday night and sleep in our house, and all the sisters from those zones slept in President´s house. We got up early Saturday morning and went over to the stake center of Camarones (which is a famous church in Mexico) We were all singing our songs of the mission. Which are just church songs that are not in the hymn book that hermana whitehead has taught us. Like If the Saviour Stood Beside Me, and The Family is of God, Army of Helaman, stuff like that. We were singing Army of Helaman, and all of a sudden the spirit filled the whole room. It was an energizing feeling that filled my whole body. I turned to my comp and we said at the same time. He´s here. My comp and I were sitting up front on the stand behind the bench where President Whitehead would be sitting. I don´t know if the missionaries know it, but when the spirit filled the room like that, it´s like we all turned up the volume on our voices. It was an amazing feeling. 30 seconds later, we get the notice that he was on his way in. He entered and we all stood up for him. He got to the front and we all had the chance to shake his hand. When I shook his hand, I felt the spirit fill my body again, and the look in his eyes was so pure and spotless. That´s the only way i can describe it. We also had our area president, Elder Benjamín De Hoyos with us, and he spoke as well. Elder Christofferson followed and blew us away with scriptures and stories. He left us a blessing on the whole mission, a sister said the last prayer, and we all stood up for him as he was walking out. When he walked out the door, we all just sat down in awe. I don´t think there was a dry eye in the room. President stood up again to say some last words, and we started to file out. I´ll never forget that experience. The spirit was so strong. The church is true!

Con amor,

Elder Barton

lunch at Chili's

Busy week of zone conferences

This is a quote Hermana Whitehead sent to Jared:

Parley P. Pratt gave us a vision of what the gift of the Holy Ghost could mean to us when he said:

“The gift of the Holy Ghost … quickens all the intellectual faculties, increases, enlarges, expands and purifies all the natural passions and affections; and adapts them, by the gift of wisdom, to their lawful use. It inspires, develops, cultivates and matures all the fine-toned sympathies, joys, tastes, kindred feelings, and affections of our nature. It inspires virtue, kindness, goodness, tenderness, gentleness, and charity. It develops beauty of person, form and features. It tends to health, vigor, animation, and social feeling. It invigorates all the faculties of the physical and intellectual man. It strengthens, and gives tone to the nerves. In short, it is, as it were, marrow to the bone, joy to the heart, light to the eyes, music to the ears, and life to the whole being” (Key to the Science of Theology, 9th ed. [1965], 101).

Hey yáll!

     I want to first apologize for not writing yesterday. We have had zone conferences every day since Wednesday of last week except for Saturday and Sunday. Yesterday, we were in Zitácuaro from 9 am to 2 pm, and then we booked it to Atlacomulco and started there about 4 pm and went to 8 pm. Then we slept in my old house in Atlaco. This morning, we traveled about an hour and a half to Toluca to do another zone conference, and we got permission to write to you guys right now. Life as an AP is totally different from the life of a zone leader or district leader. We are in the offices a lot with President´s 2 secretaries just making sure everything is perfect around here. Making sure reports are done, making phone calls, confirming appointments with stake presidents, etc. We get to work in our area of Molinito 1 only on Saturdays...so that´s going to complicate things a bit. But my comp. and I are getting along great and we will find a way to get people to church and baptize. On Sunday, we managed to get 4 people to church. So there´s a start. I´ve gotten to give a few talks this last week in a few zone conferences. I spoke yesterday in Atlacomulco and today in Toluca about the imprortance of unity. I´ve learned some pretty cool things, and my testimony has been strengthened about the holy ghost, because in both of the talks I´ve given, I´ve said some things completely out of my game plan, but they were the highlights of the talks. Tomorrow, we will be in another zone conference in the zones of Las Torres and Metepec, then on Thursday in Lerma, then on Friday in Chapultepec, then on Saturday we will be welcoming in an apostle of the Lord. We are trying to get the whole mission ready for that, and the church where we will be at is being cleaned inside and out all this week. We´re excited! Being by President´s side a lot has been cool, especially because I can ask him a lot of stuff. I´ve learned a lot about his life and his knowledge. Hermana Whitehead is amazing as well with knowledge and her love for everybody. I´m going to take advantage of that for these next weeks while I´m here. It´s pretty sure that I´ll finish my mission as an assistant, so I´m going to figure out the best way to be one, and learn from all the people I´ll be around while I´m here. I love you all!

Con amor,

Elder Barton

Saying goodbye Acambay Hello to his new assignment

Hola Familia!

     Well, I got a huge surprise these changes...to set up the story, we did a ward family home evening on Saturday night with our ward of Atlacomulco. We did a few activities focusing on the responsibility to take care of recent converts and less actives. Between the 4 of us, we put together a pretty good activity. To finish it all off, us 4 were going to share a brief life story to show how we got to the mission and what we had to drop. I went last of the 4, and I finished my life story. I went into my testimony and my phone starts to ring. I pulled it out and it was President Whitehead. I stepped out into the hall and asnwered and he gave me my changes right there. I have been assigned to work in the mission offices here in the city as the new AP. I´m so excited to take on this position, but I´m horribly nervous as well. I was pushed right into it today. Usually the changes happen on Monday, but I came into the offices on Sunday night to be able to start Monday early. My new companion, Elder Medina, and I went to the Mexico City MTC to pick up our 7 new missionaries that came in. We brought them back to President´s house for their training session and to get their trainers. Elder Medina and I explained the rules and set things straight. haha. After, we ate pizza and sent the new missionaries off with their trainers. I can just tell that my sleep schedule will be worst and worst for the rest of my mission...haha. One cool thing about being an AP is we get a sweet phone. haha it´s not a piece of junk phone. And this change is especially cool because one, we have zone conferences this week and next week, two, the temple redidication is this change. And 3, Elder D. Todd Christofferson is coming to our mission! I´m excited to see how much we are going to do with those events. Yesterday, it was really sad saying bye to Atlacomulco. Even though I was only there for 2 changes, I fell in love with the ward and I left great converts there. The last visit of the night to say bye to people was to a recent convert family of Arturo, Doris, Arturo, Josué, and Fernando. They invited a ton of members over to their house to say bye to me. They bought a cake and all said some words to me. I was in tears as well as everyone else...it was sad but I finished with my key phrase when saying bye to wards. ´´If we don´t endure to the end, this is a goodbye. If we endure to the end, it´s just a see you later.´´ It was hard, but I´m excited to move on as well. I love you all! Thanks so much for everything. 

(mom insert: Jared feels very nervous about his new assignment. He's excited, but asks for prayers. Assistants get little sleep and travel so much to speak in zone conferences etc. He has to speak in 11 zone conferences in the next 2 weeks.

Con amor,

Elder Barton

saying goodbye to Acambay

New companion

his sweet technology

"Atlacomilagros" zone of miracles

Hey Fam!

     Last email of the change...It really is incredible how fast each change goes by. This one has been frustrating with the comp and all, but it still found a way to slip by. I experienced another miracle this week...haha right now the mission knows our zone as ´´atlacomilagros´´ which in english is ´´atlacomiracle.´´ We are finding a lot of prepared people to baptize that have already been to church and received the missionaries in the zone. But this last week, I had a miracle with my cell phone. It has been announced in concilio and zone meetings for a few months now that the sister missionaries lose 80% of the phones that are lost. haha. In the zone meeting last week, everybody got a kick out of that announcement and were giving tips to the hermanas to not lost their phones. haha. On Thursday, I was in a taxi going to a certain part of Xonacantlán (another area in the zone) on interchanges. I was talking to the driver about the church and he seemed interested. He gave us his address and what time he´s home during the day. We said thanks and got out at our destination. When we were 2 blocks away, I realized my phone wasn´t in my shirt pocket or my pants pocket...I ran back to the taxi base, but the guy had already left on his route again. We waited to see if he got back, but he didn´t get back. It turned out that his address was in the area of the hermanas of Xonacantlán, so they went to try to find him and get my phone. Turns out that his address doesn´t exist...haha he gave us a false address. But we were using the phone of Xona to call mine over and over again. I might have called it 100 times. No luck. The next morning, I was still in Xona and I was calling it over and over again because the call was going in and everything. Someone was bound to answer. Long story short, someone answered it at 10 am on Friday morning, and we set up a time and place to meet to get it back to me. We get to the place, and I get my phone back. Curious, I asked the guy where he got it (because it wasn´t the taxi driver that we had contacted the day before) He said that some kids sold it to him the day before because they wanted money to play arcade games. haha. So in less than 24 hours, it was sold, given to little kids, and sold to this guy....#mexico. But I was able to get it back for a reasonable price from the guy. haha. So first was the keys, and now my phone. I wonder what´s next...haha. Anyways we were also going to have a baptism yesterday but it turns out that our guy didn´t get it all out in his baptismal interview...he doesn´t feel ready because he still has some things that he didn´t tell the district leader that he´s done...we are going to help him understand the atonement a little more and help him feel our support even more this week. And we´ll get him baptized this Sunday. I love you all!

Con amor,

Elder Barton 

concilio

Hola Familia!

     Another concilio week flies by. This concilio was full of the spirit and subjects that we needed in the mission. We had the meeting in President´s house this time instead of in a stake center in a stake called Tacubaya. It was fun being in President´s house, especially because he pulled out the grill afterwords and made hamburgers and hot dogs for everyone. That was AMAZING. haha I haven´t had a hamburger with the black grill lines for about 22 months. haha. The most special part about that was that his family was their visiting. Their daughter and grandkids that had lost their dad recently. They had a special musical number that the kids sung, and the mom played the piano. They sung families can be together forever. I´m pretty sure there was not a dry eye in the room. The spirit was so strong, and that family just got stronger after their tragedy. Yesterday, we had our zone meeting where we had to relay the messages from concilio to our zones. I got to talk about ´´internal pressure´´ and how it compares to external pressure. External pressure comes from others. Mission president, companion, leaders, etc. But what we need to develop is internal pressure so that we can motivate ourselves to work instead to relying only on external pressure. I liked giving that message, and I learned a lot while preparing it. We were going to have a baptism on Sunday but it fell through because the guy had to take a double shift in his work and worked all day on Sunday...So we are going to get him either during the week or this Sunday. He´s a great guy, and he had asked his work to let him rest on Sundays. They gave it to him, but someone didn´t show up to work and he had to cover them. On Sunday night, we traveled to the assistant´s house in the city to sleep so we didn´t have to wake up so early for concilio. When we do that, we meet with the assistants, secretaries, and another pair of zone leaders that are also far away in the mission offices. When we got to the offices, the secretary tells me that we had made it to the elite 8. I was confused and asked him why. He took me back to the secretary´s office and showed me a bracket of the mission. haha. He had seeded every single area according to the success they had in recent times. We were put up against other areas in a bracket and according to our success of the week determined if we won or not. haha. Out of about 100 areas, we were in the elite 8 going into last week. During the ´´tournament´´ we had beaten a few companionships of zone leaders, regular companionships, and we had beaten the assistants. haha but this last week, our baptism fell through and we were going up against a pair of hermanas in my ex-zone camarones. They baptized 3, and we were eliminated from the tournament. haha they find great ways to entertain themselves in the offices. That´s all I got for this week. I love you all!

Con amor,

Elder Barton

I love Atlacomulco!

Hey family!

      I love Atlacomulco!! haha. We are having a lot of success and the ward is starting to see it and take action. The main issue in all of the wards down here is that the ward doesn´t want to preach the gospel to their friends and even less to people they don´t know. But they´ve seen our efforts and are starting to want to help us out. haha. We are going to see what we can do this week with them. First things first, we had 5 baptisms last week! One on Wednesday, and 4 yesterday. The one yesterday was Bere. She´s a future missionary and she tells us that every time we see her. She was obviously prepared by the Lord and she´s going to be great. The other 4 we found over here in Atlacomulco while we were getting to know the area. One of them is named Petra but everyone calls her Adelita. She´s about 4 foot nothing...haha she´s the most loving lady down here! I got to baptize her, and she´s definitely my shortest convert...and I´ve baptized some 9 year old kids. haha. It was a really rewarding day and we have a lot of momentum right now. Another cool story about this week is about some lost keys. In the side pocket of my backpack I keep my 2 sets of keys. One set has the keys to the house in Atlacomulco, and the other set has the keys to the house of Acambay and our church. Well, we have to travel a lot by bus to get to other areas. We were going to do interchanges in an area called Ixtlahuaca, and I put my backpack on the top shelf of the bus to sit down comfortably. We got back to our area, and we had to take a taxi to get to another part of our area. When we were done there, we took a taxi back and I realized I needed an address that I left in the house. So we get to the house and I go to take out the keys and they aren´t there...they had fallen out somewhere. I was thinking we had taken a bus and 2 taxis since I last noticed they were there...I was nervous. We went back to the bus station with very little hope. At the bus station, there´s a line of about 20 stalls where buses park all going to different locations. I went to the bus going back to Ixtlahuaca but it didn´t have the keys on them. We had an idea and we took our ticket to the main office of the station, and they told us what number of bus we were on. We turn around, and the bus was right there! It had changed routes during the day, left and came back from another pueblo about 45 minutes away, and was about to leave again. I got on, looked above on the shelf, and there were the 2 sets of keys...it was a huge relief and a miracle in my opinion. Well that´s all I got for this week. I love you!

Con amor,

Elder Barton