Ups and downs in Mexico

Dear Family,
 
 I could´ve sworn that I wrote to you all yesterday...week 4 of
 the change flew by too fast. This last week, we had interviews with
 Presidente Whitehead. In mine, he talked a lot about the problems of
 the zone and how some missionaries can improve. So my comp. and I
 focused on a few more missionaries this last week based on that
 information. President always says,´´an informed missionary is an
 inspired missionary.´´ So we also share with him all the key
 information that we know of what´s going on. Also, this week was full
 of ups and downs. It started with ups, when we committed 12 people to
 go to church in the first 3 days of the week. We were excited, and
 they stayed committed for a few days. Then all of a sudden it all came
 tumbling down. On Friday, we reported only 5 going to church, and 1 of
 those 5 actually went...kind of upsetting, but the zone had success,
 so we didn´t get too upset. As conference approaches this weekend, we
 are determined to take at least 15 people to listen to the prophet.
 One thing I don´t really like about Mexico is their culture of telling
 lies. They tell lies,´´to not have more problems.´´ It´s interesting
 the way they think that. We contacted one lady and she accepted an
 appointment. We learned that she has 4 kids baptismal age and they all
 committed to church. We went over for the appointment and went to the
 meeting place. (her house is hard to describe, so she said go over to
 the soccer field and call her so she can come find us) So we get to
 the soccer field and call. She answers and says that she´s on her way
 to come get us. 15 minutes later, 3 kids come up to us saying that
 their mom isn´t home. Saying that she had left 30 minutes before to go
 buy stuff. However, we had talked to her 15 minutes before...so we
 said that we were just going to go knock on the door, and the littlest
 kid bolts to his house to go tell his mom that we were coming. So we
 follow the little kid and find the house. haha. There are a lot of
 cement stairs going down to 2 houses, and hers was one of them. We
 went halfway down the stairs and a neighbor came out. We asked if our
 appointment was there and she went to check. 5 minutes later, the
 neighbor comes out and says that she left...we know that she´s home.
 So we just start contacting that neighbor meanwhile. Afterwards, we
 just sat down on the stairs and waited. haha. One of the 3 kids that
 came to get us from the soccer field says, my mom says to come
 in...so, a little bothered, we went in and started to talk to her. Her
 name is Guadalupe. We invite her to church again and she says she has
 to work (which we had already talked about. She starts at 3, but
 church ends at 12) and then she said she was going to leave with her
 husband (but she had told us a week before that she didn´t have a
 husband) but all of a sudden he comes every 3 days to visit...then she
 said that she might go on vacation on Sunday. The lie went on for so
 long! We finally just said thanks and walked out. But most of the
 people are like that. So I´ll be a pretty good lie detector when I get
 home. haha. On a good note, we had another zone meeting this last
 week. My comp. and I put funny examples and fun activities to teach
 how to take someone to church, and how to have faith that every area
 has great people. And we saw results this week! So to finish, I have
 to say Happy Birthday to my mom! I really hope it was a good day for
 you and that you enjoyed it. I love you so much and I really know that
 I have the best mom ever!
 
 Con amor,
 Elder Barton

(Personal note that made me smile)
Dear mom,

    I´m always happy to see the family pictures. It´s hard to believe
that I´ll be home before this football season ends. Whenever I see
pictures of Utah I think, wow that air is clean. Or, can grass really
look like that? We really are lucky to live in the United States, and
especially in Utah. One favor, can you tell me how the baseball team
is doing at Riverton? Also, I really hope you had a happy birthday.
You´re always in my prayers. You are one of the spiritual giants in my
life. Everything you teach me can by applied temporally and
spiritually. No wonder you have been put to teach adults and kids,
because it´s your gift to teach. I love you so much!

Con amor,
Elder Barton

My theme for the rest of my mission is Ephesians 6:12. So there´s a
backpack for it. haha.

pic of our district minus my comp. haha he´s looking over the rail at the water fountain of the
mall a few feet away. It´s Elder White from Arizona and Elder Vazquez from Chiapas, Mexico.