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