Goodbye Molinito hello Acambay

Hey family!

     Well another change has come and gone! I have 4 changes remaining en la gran mision. I received a transfer to a zone called Atlacomulco. I´m zone leader again in an area called Acambay. (ah-com-bye) It´s in the middle of nowhere! I´m so excited to be out in the pueblos again and be isolated from everything. When I got off the bus in Acambay, I could literally smell the difference in the air quality. Mexico City really is one of the most polluted cities in the world. I was put with my great friend, Elder Floisand from Salt Lake City. He was in my zone in Camarones as a district leader. We got along great then, and we got put together. We are dang excited! He played basketball, baseball, and football in high school for West. We´ll have plenty of stories! My new area is beautiful. A lot of green trees and rolling hills, instead of dust and garbage. haha. I´m excited to get going. As for my last week in Molinito, we baptized 4 yesterday! Rodrigo, Rosalba, Kevin, and Kelly got baptized as a family. Their conversion was amazing to see. From unemployed and desperate, to still unemployed but putting 100% of their trust in God. Rodrigo said,´´I don´t understand. We have the same problems as before. But things are going better, and we have money when we need it.´´ I got to baptize Rosalba and Kelly. The services were really nice, and they were happy. I feel that the 2 kids are future missionaries. After that, I said bye to the members. We visited some members to say bye and we went to Rodrigo´s house too. I held in the tears druing the farewell, but when i heard the door shut behind us when we left, I couldn´t hold it in. I love that family so much and it´s hard to just see the first part of their conversion. But it´ll be fun hearing about them in the future. We also had Elder Nash from the seventy come and do some conferences with us! He was such a powerful speaker, and clearly had the spirit. He gave us some great ideas, and he just has a way to make one feel good about himself. He gave everybody a lot of compliments, and said he loved being in our mission. He challenged us to memorize Doctrine and Covenants 121:33-46. He said his dad issued him that challenge as well when he was a kid, and promised 20 bucks when he did it. When he memorized it, he told his dad that he no longer wanted the 20 bucks, because he had been blessed a ton for it. I loved when he said,´´I can´t promise you 20 bucks to do it, but I can promise blessings to the point where you can´t receive them all.´´ I have almost all of it memorized in spanish, and I´ll do it in english after. I´m excited to see what blessings have already come, and which ones will come. Thanks for all the love and support!

Con amor,

Elder Barton

Jared with Elder and Sister Nash

the scorpion the chopped up in their apartment

Happy day! Baptisms

saying goodbye to friends

19 months down...

Querida Familia,

     Well, I completed 19 months in the mission here last week. It´s so crazy how the time just hasn´t slown down, even when times are harder then ever. Some cool stories that happened this week were that we prepared our family of 4 to be baptized for this Sunday! They really are the family that every Elder looks for. It´s a dad, mom, 12 year old son, and 8 year old daughter, with a 6 year old daughter that the dad can baptize in a few years. They accepted the gospel so quickly and have even started inviting their family members to church. The 8 year old daughter is named Kelly, and she is on of the cutest little girls ever. In primary, she wants to participate in everything even though she doesn´t know anything that´s going on yet, and she gives the most spiritual prayers I´ve heard here. Just so sincere and full of love. This morning, my comp. and I got together with 2 more elders and went to play basketball with some members of Armas and Tezozomoc. It was really fun, but my body already hurts...haha. Then we played 2 hand touch football. So that was really fun. One cool thing that happened yesterday at church was that 3 of our converts were involved in the sacrament. Pedro and Abraham received the trays from their dad who blessed the sacrament for the first time. With the family that will be baptized this Sunday, Rodrigo, the dad, and Kevin the son will be involved as well in a few weeks. We´re excited for them! So this will be my last email for this change. It´s crazy how fast that went by, but we´ll see what happens when we get the call on Saturday night. I have the feeling that I´m heading out after 4.5 months here, but I can never be sure. President has been leaving Elders in their areas for 6-7 months at a time lately. With 4 changes left, it´ll be interesting to see what happens. Well that´s all for me this week, I love you all!

Con amor,

Elder Barton

Some views of the city of Naucalpan. It´s beautiful

Happy Mother's Day

Hey!

     Well I won´t have much to say, because we were on skype yesterday...haha but I just want to say that it was great to see all of you for the last time before I come home. The biggest change that I have seen is in Jason. He´s growing up fast and his voice was so different! I just hope him or Tyler don´t get taller than me some day! Thanks for being prepared with questions, that helped get the conversation going and helped have some laughs. I was laughing so hard when dad pulled out the 2 mexican sodas, and I found out that they were the 2 that I avoid down here. haha. The best soda I´ve tried is called Ameyal. And the best flavor is kiwi strawberry. Don´t think you´ll find that up there, but it´s good anyways. This morning, we did a quick cleaning job and went to the mall to eat Burger King and do some shopping. I got a new belt that should last me awhile even after the mission. My comp. is really into looking stylish, so he shops for a long time...haha it was bringing back memories with mom or katelyn...haha. So yesterday at church, we had another chance to give talks. The subject was "every member a missionary." I talked about being a missionary by example and being a "full time member" instead of being a Sunday member. Then it gave me a chance to talk about my mom, because she always preaches by example. I teared up a little when I was talking about her, but I got through it. And just so Tyler knows, I was able to watch his walk off homerun video! haha that was so cool and dead center field. I´m a prould brother! I´ll be excited to help out with practices and stuff afterwards! Anyways, thanks for the love and support as always. I love you all!

Con amor,

Elder Barton

Concilio

Hey family!

     So, we had another week and a half here in la gran misión. It was full of ups and downs for us again. We had a great family come to church for the first time on Sunday. They are so prepared! We are excited to see their progress and their conversion. We had our meeting with President on Monday, and it was pretty good. We got overloaded with new things we could try in our wards to get things going and accelerating. Culturas had a pretty bad month, but we will do better this month. As for the news that you want to here, we have arranged to skype with a family over here. We eat with that family on Sunday, and we will skype right after we eat. They only have 1 computer, so we will have to go one at a time. But we will eat with that family around 3 pm. Then the skype call will either be around 4 or 4:30. We have a total of 30 minutes to talk. I don´t argue it, but I´m just tired of being affected by poor choices by other missionaries. Either way, I´ll be obedient. So we found a less active yesterday that hasn´t been to church in 15 years. He´s endowed and sealed to his wife, but his kids aren´t baptized, due to his time of being inactive. We sat down with him and it got frustrating fast. Because he immediately said that he wasn´t going ever again to this ward because of some members that treated them badly. We tried to remind him of his covenants he´s made and his testimony, but he told us to leave him in peace because what we were saying was reminding him of, and quote, ´´what I´ve done, what I´m doing, and what I´m going to do.´´ Basically, he had a strong testimony, went to the temple, and denied it all a few years later. I felt sadness and a little bit of anger in that lession. Not only is he denying himself, but he´s bringing his whole family with them, and not letting them go to church either. Satan is clever, and took out that family by attacking the endowed father. More missionaries will pass, but we´ll see what happens. If anything, I learned how I never want to deny what I know to be true, and I will always stay strong. Because on the way out, it made me sad thinking of that guy´s consequences that await him if he doens´t change...Anyways that´s all I got for this week. We´re half way through the change now, which flew by faster than I wanted to. I love you all, and I´ll see you on Sunday!

Con amor,

Elder Barton

the "brozone" one of two zones with fewer sisters than elders