Week 5: September 18, 2017

Hey Family!!!!!

Well, here's to week 5!!! Almost there!!!!

So, Tuesday, we were already getting new sheets!!! (we get new sheets weekly) So crazy!!! Time is flying by so fast!!! Also, Elder White got pink eye!!!! When we went to class, I scoot my desk away, and we put the hand sanitizer on his desk. It was pretty funny! Sickness spreads like wildfire here!!! Our trio went on splits during class: Elder Mortensen stayed with the elders in the class, and I went with Elder White to the doctor. I sat down in the waiting area while they diagnosed Elder White, though it seemed pretty obvious what he had. I just read my scriptures the whole time; it was awesome! I am actually really enjoying reading my scriptures like never before. I really wish I would have had more diligence in reading my scriptures before my mission, but, better now than never!! Elder White came back. Yup, it was pink eye. He was told he needed eye drops, so we were told to go to the BYU pharmacy later that day. So, we went back to class and studied until it was time to go to the pharmacy. When we left to go to the pharmacy, we were told just to walk outside of the MTC straight to the BYU pharmacy. It was outside of the MTC and a pretty decent walk from the main entrance. It was really weird walking outside of our little sheltered world. It was strange that they trusted us so much to walk to the area we did. As I walked around with my companion, it hit me. I'm a missionary. This is the first thing people see now. People would walk by and say "Hi elders!" That was different, but I liked it. We had an awesome devotional from Elder Kearen of the 70. He talked about how thankful he was that we were serving missions and that we can choose to make the most of our missions and be happy. I really loved his talk. He also told us about how much truth we can learn from primary songs. I never really thought about that, but those songs are basically what we are teaching. Super neat!!! We later had a devotional review. I loved it. Everyone in our district has such strong testimonies!!! I feel like we were supposed to be together. We all build on each other and act like a family! It's such a blessing to have the influences I have at the beginning of my mission.

We woke up extra early the next morning to do a service project. Our companionship got to clean the toilets. awesome. We later taught our new investigator, Ednei (Brother Davis). We really tried to teach to the needs. Afterwards, he told us we did a great job, but one thing he would have done, just a Brother Davis thing, was talk about baptism and make sure they were committed. When I first heard that, I thought that was crazy. He was telling us that when he served in Brazil, in the first lesson, he would ask them if they wanted to be baptized. I think this might be a Brazil thing since there are so many people he had references to. But, after I thought about it, we are carrying the greatest news ever! It's called the "Gospel" for a reason. If people feel the spirit and are able to listen, I dont see the problem with doing that. But, in Portugal, it might be more of a persistent thing rather than moving around to a bunch of different people. We also got to do Skype TRC that day, which meant that we would be talking to someone really from another country somewhere around the world! We got to talk to a young lady from Brazil. I was super nervous before, but as we started talking, it was awesome!!!! If i listened and tried to process every word, I couldn't understand, but if I listened generally, like skimming over a paragraph really quick, I could understand the general idea of what she was saying, and we could respond. She spoke in Brazilian Portuguese which was a little different but still understandable. She kept using voce verb conjugations, but I was so used to using tu conjugations, so after some failed attempts of using voce, I ended up just saying stuff in the tu form that whole time; I hope that didnt bug her too much. The gift of tongues is real though!!!! At night, we decided to study outside in our pday clothes since we didnt have much time to study. It was so peaceful! There was a street lamp looking sort of light above us, we were facing the trees, there was a slight cool breeze that rustled the leaves, I was playing Olin's piano music in the background, I had some hichew and water right next to me, and I was at peace reading the scriptures and feeling the spirit; it was ideal for studying!!!! What a blessing! 

Thursday was awesome! We started teaching each other where one companionship would teach and the other have one investigator and one member, and then they would switch. Since we are a trio, Elder White and
I are investigators at the same time since our characters are extremely similar. I loved it!!! I chose to be someone that I used to teach with the missionaries that I went out with. Our first group was with Elder Pehrson and Elder Rogers. When I was the investigator with Elder White, it was so neat! I realized the importance of what we are teaching and how much every word means! It feels like I am repeating myself when I teach because I can only say so much in Portuguese, but When I was being taught, it meant something different to me every time! The spirit was so strong! The next people we were paired with was Elder Robinson and Elder Elingson. They are awesome missionaries! When Elder Mortensen pretneded to be an investigator, he decided to really get into character. He got into a small room that we were going to teach him in; there was a see through window on the door. We came back to enter the room, Elder White and I being members with Elder Robinson and Elder Elingson, and Elder Mortensen had taken his tie off, untucked his shirt, flipped his collar up, and sunk his head back deep in his collar. When we looked at him through the window, and turned his head and had a big grin ear to ear. We were laughing so hard! When we went in, he put his collar down just so we wouldnt laugh and we could feel the spirit; though the spirit was long gone before that moment, haha!!! I promise; we are good missionaries!!!! We can be a little goofy sometimes though. We had the same type of study as Wednesday night. It was awesome! We shared with each other some of the things we learned afterwards which was super cool!

Friday was an awesome day!!!! Brother Davis taught us how to do door approaches. It was super fun surprisingly. If you did a good job at the door, he would let you in. But, if you did a bad job... well, you got the door slammed in your face! We watched each other and laughed though! It was all good fun!!! Everyone knew we had a net to fall on. It was super funny though. When Elder Elingson and Elder Robinson were at the door, Brother Davis answered. Elder Elingson said, "Como estas?" They chatted for a bit, then they introduced themselves as representatives of the church and asked if they could share a quick message. Brother Davis didn't let them in, he told them they could do it right there at the "front door." Elder Robinson and Elder Elingson looked a little confused. They looked at each other, then right back at Brother Davis. And then, in all seriousness, Elder Elingson looked at Brother Davis and said, "Como Estas?" Then Brother Davis closed the door on them. It was so funny and everyone was laughing! Elder Elingson was so funny!!! They tried again, and Brother Davis let them in. He had us compare our success and our failures and see how we did better. It was actually super helpful!! I learned a lot! We practiced with each other, and Elder Mortensen and I would think of funny ways to mess the other elders up. It was pretty funny, but they actually did a really good job!!! Each person in our district is going to be such a great missionary! We also had an activity where my companions and I walked around and told random people in the MTC about Joseph Smith in Portuguese. One of us talked about the history of Joseph Smith, one of us bore testimony, and one of us translated what each person was saying into english. We had an awesome experience with an older gentleman we taught. When we approached him and were about to tell him about our activity we were gonna do, he pretended to be an investigator and asked us some funny questions. He told us things like "you dont believe int he bible, right?" Or other things a nonmember would ask. It was pretty funny. We answered his questions and then told him what our teacher had assigned us to do. We started talking to him, and he could understand what we were mostly saying!!! I didnt have to translate that much!!! haha!!! He later told us that he served in Peru and told us some stories and had some pictures he showed us. He told us one story about his mission in Peru where he was referred to an older lady. Other missionaries had talked to her before but could never commit her to baptism. He went to her house. She had a dirt floor. They sat on the floor, and he held both of her hands. She was blind. He asked here if she wanted her family to live together forever and be happy for all eternity. She said yes. Then he commit her to be baptized the very next day, like she was baptized the next day!!! super cool!!! That was only the first story! Then, he told us his conversion story. He said that when he was about 14, the missionaries came by. He had good standards and agreed with everything that they said. He then told us about one thing that really converted him. They told him that the priesthood was a responsibility for the men to uplift the standards of the women. He then had us make an oath right there on the spot that would would uplift the young women and never lower their standards. It was super neat. He told us to do that with all of the young men/boys that we met. He then told us about how he was in the army in Vietnam. He said how he was in his bed, and that he had gotten up to unzip his backpack to grab a snack. All of a sudden, a mortar dropped right in front of him. He watched it go off. He told us he should have died. He said that he went down into his fox hole while the bullets and mortars where flying overhead. He said he then heard a still, small voice that said something like "You have been protected because you have been true to the commandments you have made with your God." (that's not exactly it word for word and he said a few other things). We then said our goodbyes and he walked off. We gathered as a class, and I got to share our experiences. That was a crazy story!!!! I'm probably never going to have an experience like that, but it really got me thinking about my conversion to the Lord and how important keeping the commandments is to me. That night I also got your guys' package!!! WOWWWWW!!!! Did not expect to get that!!!! Thank you sooo much for that pants!!! I did not expect that!!! Those squish balls were a hit too!!!! People in our zone were coming by just to play with them!!!! The popcorn and pretzels are delicious too!!! Lastly, the sees candy.... words cannot describe the joy I felt eating those!!! I just sat there in bed and ate a few chocolates. It was like heaven!!!!! Those sees candies always remind me of Mom. I felt right at home like she was sharing some of her candies giving me an excuse saying that she didnt want it because she would feel sick later, but I knew she was just being extremely nice!!!!! Best of all, I got to read all of your letters!!!! Your letters are so nice and make me feel so much better!!!! The pictures are fantabulous, the jokes are comedeically funny, and I love catching up with you guys!!!! You all are such a huge part of me!!!! I always take a moment each night to look at the picture of you guys and just think about how awesome you guys are!!!! I dont know what I would do without you guys!!!

We taught Elder Robinson today. We worked really hard beforehand making sure we were prepared and that we could feel the spirit. It was probably one of our best lessons!!!! When we finished, Elder white had tears in his eyes and gave me a big hug!!!! Sister Schill was also listening in and called us the Dream Team!!! I also got to read your guys' emails about the BYU game and see those awesome pics!!! So cool!!! sorry about the loss. If it makes you feel better, when we figured out the score, Elder Mortensen gave me such a hard time about it! haha!!! Elder Gockeritz actually came up to me just to tell me that BYU lost 40-6!! haha, that was not fun to hear!!! It was all fun laughs though!!! I've also been realizing the importance of fasting!!! I've been able to see some blessings for things I've fasted for while on my mission!!! Fasting is awesome and a great opportunity for me to show Heavenly Father that I really care about who I am praying for.

Sunday was super neat!!! We got to have a member of the MTC presidency, President Weidman, come to our leadership council in the morning and attend our sacrament! President Dansie, president of our zone, said that that has only happened once or twice in the past 3 years!!!! We walked to the temple, and I talked a lot with Elder Pehrson! He told me a lot of funny stories!!!! It was awesome!!! We both feel like we would have been super close friends if we went to the same high school. We went to choir later that day. Brother Eget, the director, told us that we should do a really good job on the song we were singing, he kept hinting that someone pretty important, like 12 apostle important, was coming tuesday! Fingers crossed!!! Brother Eget is awesome!!! He knows so many neat stories and always has a way of relating them to the song we are singing!!!! He is one of the reasons I love going to choir! Afterwards, we had a devotional from the Provo temple president, President Livingstone, and he told us about conversion. His talk was an answer to my prayers about being converted to the Lord. Afterwards, we watched a video, "Legacy," in Portuguese. It was crazy fast and super hard to understand. But, it felt like something I would get used to. I felt better and more comfortable near the end, although I barely understood any of it!!! haha!!! Afterwards, I check emails. You guys look like you're doing good! I'm so happy that you guys are going on those walks!!! It looks like so much fun!!!

We just went to our last temple session for about 2 years!!!! It was a great session though!!! I'm gonna miss the temple!!! 

I miss you guys so much!!!! You guys are so awesome, and I love hearing from y'all!!!! Thanks for all of your support and love!!!!

Love,

Elder Barton