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

Angels watching over the church

Hola Familia!

     Well, yet another Monday in la gran mision. First things first, my sister is 18! I thought that was crazy to think about....she´s an adult. When I left, she was 16. It was then that I realized that you guys have changed so much. It was then that I realized that I have changed so much too, and we´ll all be shocked together. But Happy Birthday sis. I love you, and you´re one of my best friends in the world. A few things that happened this week: my comp. and I were walking down the street and we see this guy who´s skin was as white as can be, with 2 little kids. I thought, he´s got to be an english speaker right? So with stealth, I acted like I didn´t know where I was going, then asked him if he knew the name of the street we were on. He responds in english,´´I don´t have a clue.´´ I had broken the ice, and started to speak english with him. haha. He was actually visiting from Ireland! His accent was cool, and it was a relief to speak english for 2 minutes. haha. Another thing that happened was really unique. After church yesterday, we were eating. The sister that had put her name down to feed us had an emergancy and had to leave, but she brought the food to church and we just used the oven to heat it up. We were eating when everybody was almost gone. The 2nd counceler was the last person in the church besides us, and he shouted from the other side of the church,´´Elders, just lock up on that side when you´re done!´´ And left with his wife. We knew we were alone, but my comp. and I heard footsteps down the hall. Confused, we walked out of the kitchen to see who was there. We went down the one hallway that the church has and we saw nothing. We went back to the kitchen and continued to eat. We heard more footsteps and a door open, and what sounded like voices that we couldn´t understand. It didn´t sound like a language, but just a sound, but for some reason we knew it was voices. We checked again, to find nothing. I knew in that minute that the angels had arrived to protect the church. We washed our dishes and locked everything. It was an interesting experience, but I can´t deny that angels were there. We just couldn´t see them. So there´s that. Another thing was our baptism had to leave out of town for family emergancies...she´s still not back to this minute, but should come back this week sometime. We´ll get her this Sunday. Well that´s all for me this week. I love you!!

Con amor,

Elder Barton

wedding day and the three amigos

Hey family!

     Another Wednesday email. I kind of woke up sick this morning. My throat kind of hurts and I´m really tired. But we started off the day well with studies and a letter home. Here´s the summary of the last week and a half. We had concilio on Monday. My comp. and I traveled to the city on Sunday night because we are so far away and we slept in the assistant´s house again. We went to concilio and learned about a lot of things. One of the main things that we did was review all the mission rules that are in our mission binder...it was kind of boring, but it needed to be done. I noticed a few things that I could get better at as well, and I know I´ll see a difference in myself afterwards. Yesterday we relayed the message from Monday to the zone and it turned out pretty good. I gave a message from what Elder Nash taught us and how we can apply it. Also, we baptized another 2 on Sunday! Their names are Arturo and Doris. (the parents of our other converts, Arturo and Josué) They finally got married and baptized! We were so happy for them and for the progress they´ve had in their marraige. They´ve told us numerous times that they were going to get divorced before, but kept trying in hopes of something different. That difference was,´´2 angels that appeared and changed their lives.´´ They will be strong members and I´m excited to see their progress while I´m still here. I also got to go to their wedding ceremony. It was fun because the whole family went and supported. The 3 sons, who normally have hated their dad and always argued, have now put in more effort to help out and do stuff with their dad. It was a really cool conversion and change in their lives. As for my new companion, Elder Magos, I really like the kid. He´s a convert from 2 years ago! As soon as he completed a year as a member, his mission papers were in and he left. We are still getting used to each other, but we will be a great team. Also, tomorrow, 2 things are happening. First, I complete 21 months in the mission....I´m old. I´m one of the 4 elders now who has that time in the mission. I´m trying to stay strong and stay focused. It´s getting harder everyday, but the Lord is blessing us a bunch in this ward with great people and great members. I love you all so much, and I can´t say thanks enough for the support!

Con amor,

Elder Barton

wedding day!!

Jared and the three amigos

Change day!

Hola Familia!

     Another week in the books, and another change has come and gone...It´s crazy to think that I only have 3 more. But we are going to work like crazy out here. My changes were interesting this time. As the ward of Atlacomulco, we have 3 companionships. They are called Atlacomulco 1, Atlacomulco 2, and Acambay. Well, we found out on Saturday night that the hermanas from Atlacomulco 1 were being taken out. And also that we were going to move out of Acambay. I get to take their spot in Atlacomulco 1, which brings me closer to the church building. We still get Acambay as part of our area, but we will be living in Atlacomulco. Also, I received my first Mexican companion of my whole mission!! haha. His name is Elder Magos from the state of Guadalajara. I don´t know him at all, and it´s his first change as a zone leader, so I get to train him up. He is my 4th zone leader kid, and at the end of this change, I will have completed 11 months as a zone leader...have mercy. haha. I´m still going strong, but I´m definitely more tired all the time. So when we received the changes for the zone on Saturday night, I got really excited for our new lineup. In one word, we are stacked. We have ex-sister training leaders, ex-zone leaders, and an ex-financial secretary. We could do some damage here with this group, so we are going to follow the spirit and see what we can do. But this last week, we baptized 2! A mother and daughter got baptized together. They were really hard to teach because they aren´t home much and they like to change the subject a lot, but they decided to be baptized together. Their names are Isabel and Valentina. Also, it was fun to see all the pictures of Jason´s baptism! It was really cool to see pics of the Barton side of the fam too, since I haven´t seen them in awhile. haha. Jason, I want to congratulate you for that choice. We teach here in the mission field that the baptism is only the first step. It´s only the beginning. I know that you´ll turn into an amazing young man, and I want to tell you that I´m proud of you. That´s all I got for this week. I love you all!

Con amor,

Elder Barton 

Hastening the work in Mexico City

Dear Family,

     Last email of the change...it came so fast. We receive changes this Saturday. Elder Floisand and I both emailed pres. just barely that we want to stay together and open up Atlacomulco 1. It would move us closer to the church, but keep us in the same ward. We´ll see what the Lord wants! This week, we had a surprise meeting with our stake president, President Jimenez. He´s a great guy who loves the missionaries. We had to travel to Toluca to get there, which is about a 2 hour trip. In those meetings, we meet with the stake pres., Pres. Whitehead, the assistants, and us. We talk about the missionary work and how our retention process is going. Since December, our stake has a retencion pertentage of 92! The work is being hastened out here, and we are improving a lot. President Jimenez sends his gratitude to you as my family, for your support, love, and willingness to let us come out here. After that meeting, we slept over in the house of the zone leaders of Toluca. There´s a Little Ceasers out there! We bought 5 pizzas and 2 bags of crazy bread. haha it tastes exactly the same as it does in America. Also, we had interviews with President Whitehead this last week. He´s such a great example to us, especially during a family tragedy. When Elder Nash came and talked with us, he emphasized using the plan of salvation in everything. President explained how he was prepared by that for this event in his life. And is full of comfort and peace. I love the gospel! Hna. Whitehead is still in the U.S.A. with her familiy, but will be returning shortly. But an announcement came out recently that there is a mission blog. haha I´m assuming run by Hna. Whitehead. I´ll send a picture of the paper we got so you can see it. So this week was also a little frustrating for us out here. We were supposed to baptize 2 this week, but they fell through. This whole week, we couldn´t find our 2 baptisms to set a time for it. But when the scheduled day, Friday, had passed by, it was too late and they couldn´t the rest of the week...we had a rough week in the zone as well. But this month will be a lot better, and hopefully the changes bring us some more missionaries who are ready to work. I also dropped off my suit just barely to get adjusted due to my weight loss. The total was 250 pesos. (17 dollars) I´ve never done it in the states, but I bet that it´s pretty cheap!) I love you all!

Con amor,

Elder Barton

pizza place

baptism for the hermanas

mission blog