Hey family!!!!!!!
All is good here in Provo! So, yes, that temporary assignment change was pretty crazy huh!!! Boise Idaho!!!! I'm super excited about it! Although, I packed for Portugal, so I might get a little cold in Boise haha!!! I thought this last Monday was going to be the last time going to the temple, but nope!!! We got to go today!!! It was awesome!!!
Tuesday, we got to hear a talk from Elder Cook!!! It was super neat, and he bore testimony of Christ that, "I have heard his voice, and I have seen his face." Wow! It was such a specific description of witness! We also started in field training, and we talked about setting goals. The whole time, I thought about dad teaching me how to set SMART goals and all that kind of professional stuff. I loved it!
Wednesday, we got to do hosting for new people entering the MTC. In other words, we picked them up and took them to their rooms and classes. Our district signed up because we wanted to host really bad. I really enjoyed it! I could tell the new elders where just overwhelmed and anxious! I tried to make them feel as comfortable and at home as possible! It was hard watching them leave their families. I had some flash backs of leaving home; that made it difficult. But, I think it motivated me to help the new elders more. Oh, I also met a brother that served in our Santa Clarita in the Stevenson Ranch ward!!!! His name was Brother Adams. I gave him a huge hug when I found that out; it was a neat moment!
The next day, we got the news. This was what I already sent to you guys right when I got the news: "So this morning, we found out that our visas didnt come in. So, as you might guess, that means we will temporarily be serving somewhere else until we get our visas. It wasnt until lunch that we got our calls, well temporary calls. When I got the mail, I handed out everyone's mail, making sure not to peak at our new assignments. We all got together and had each person read like we were all getting our mission calls for the first time. I made sure to get pictures; I'll send them to you later. We went one person at a time. People were reading their calls, and everyone was getting super excited when they read.
It got to my turn. I flipped it open. I read it out loud: "Dear Elder Barton, at this time, we have not received your visa to travel to your mission. You will be serving a temporary assignment in the Idaho Boise Mission." Wow! Crazy! Woodwards, here I come!!!! I am super excited!!!!! " Later that day, one of the members from my district gave me a talk to read titled "The Fourth Missionary." It was a great talk! One thing I learned was to "Be Intelligent!" If you read the talk, you'll know what I mean. I've been passing the talk around to other members in my district; it's a great influence!
Friday, I got a lot closer to the members of my district and to my companion. I did some awesome studying with Elder White conjugating portuguese verbs on the white board. Oh, and God gave me one of the greatest tender mercies ever while here at the MTC... the MTC put up CHRISTMAS LIGHTS on the trees!!!! Christmas lights are one of my most favorite things in the entire world, as you guys probably know.
Saturday, we did an activity where we walked in the halls of one of the main buildings and looked at pictures of Christ. We walked around and picked a picture that we liked, sat by it, and studied our scriptures. Then, after a little bit of time, we shared why we chose the picture and our testimonies of Christ. The spirit was so strong when everyone bore their testimonies. That day, I learned what they meant when they said in the scriptures that the "words pierced their hearts." Also, it has been super rainy here. I was walking with Elder White and Elder Mortensen because that day was technically their pday to get everything done for when they were going to leave to the Washington Spokane mission on Monday, 2 days earlier than me. Anyway, we were walking outside, and, suddenly, I felt like I got a wiff of Washington. The air was cold and fresh from the rain. I was looking up and down as we walked and all I could see was a gray sky, a gray sidewalk, and a gray reflection on the sidewalk rain puddles of everything else. Not gonna lie, it was kind of depressing. No wonder we moved to California! The one thing I really like though was the snow on the mountains right next to us. I love snowy mountains!
Sunday was the last day of district 20c. We woke up extra early for our leadership council meeting and only had good reports for our districts. We all felt very good about what our zone had accomplished. I for one know that I could not have made it through the MTC the way I did without the people there. We had an awesome testimony meeting at the end of our church session; the spirit was super strong. We went to a departure devotional and then our Sunday devotional. Suddenly, it was becoming all too real; we were all about to go out and serve! It is getting more exciting the closer it approaches. We saw the "Testaments" film afterwards, and the spirit was super strong (the spirit is always strong here!). When I saw the part of Christ being crucified, I saw God's anger as the whole world shifted and storms erupted. That part hit me so hard! How terrible that must have been! The end of the film was awesome too! If you have not already seen the film, that last part is always super awesome! Afterwards, we said our goodbyes. We took pics, and a lot of people were getting very sad. Change is hard; better get used to it, that's a big part of missionary work.
That brings us to today. My companions were leaving super early in the morning. They had the be THERE by 3:50 am. All the elders of our district got up early with them and walked them to the shuttle taking them to the airport. We gave each other big hugs and said goodbye. It was pretty hard to have any emotion that early in the morning, and plus, we're guys, so it was a pretty simple goodbye. We got back to our residency. Our companionship was a trio, and we were the only ones in our room, so I was alone in my room. I didnt want to sleep alone, so I knocked on the next door where the other elders in our district were and slept on the floor. It was awesome, and surprisingly comfortable. We got up again at 6:00 am and got ready. The rest of the elders in our district were leaving at that time. I am the only elder of our district that is still here! It's pretty weird, but right now I am with the other 2 elders going to Boise with me, Elder Clark and Elder Marrow. They are awesome! We sent the other missionaries off, there is pretty much no one in our zone now, and we went to the temple, as I have already said earlier in this email. We've pretty much just been doing chores all day. I'm gonna be bunking in with the other elders now, so I'll have a bed to sleep on which is good. Love you guys sooo much!!!! Thanks for all the love and support!!!!
Love,
Elder Barton
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| Everyone gathered together before we opened our calls. It was awesome!!! our zone made it a super neat experience!!! |
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| Everyone with their temporary assignments!!!! |
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| All the elders and sisters going to Boise!!! Starting from the left, that's Elder Marrow and Elder Clark, they're my temporary companions right now;) |
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| Christmas light photos!!!! It was so cool, I had to take a picture! It's not even Christmas and the lights are up, tender mercy! |
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| One of my teachers, Brother Davis. He is super awesome and super funny! Definitely feel like he was meant to be our teacher!!!! He served in Brazil and had some awesome stories! |
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| This is Sister Schill, another one of my teachers!!! She is super awesome!!! She is really good at helping us to feel the spirit. She was also for sure meant to be our teacher!!! She served in our mission, the Portugal Lisbon mission and told us a bunch of stuff about Portugal!! Got me so excited!!!! |
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| This is one of the elders from Brazil. He talked really good english, but his first language was portuguese. Sometimes we had conversations in portuguese!!! it was awesome!!!! |
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The snowy mountains!!! Looked super cool. It was raining on us and snowing in the mountains.My companions where laughing when I took this pic because I was acting like a total Californian! haha!!
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| this is Elder Salinas. He is awesome!!! He is in our zone and just left to Cape Verde. He was one of my running buddies and told some of the craziest stories! He grew up in a crazy area in New Mexico, he was super fun to talk to. |
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| This was another one of my running buddies. He was also in our zone and also heading to Cape Verde. He was super fun to talk to and had an amazing conversion story of why he came on a mission! |
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| This is Elder Alder! He and I got really close the last few days here. He was also in our zone and got reassigned to the Ca Ventura Mission!!!! That mission nearly boarders our house!!! So crazy!!! If by any chance you see him, say hi!!! He is awesome!!!! |
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| The lone wolf of room 307. My stuff is still there but my bed sheet stuff is in the room nearby where my new companions are. |
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