Week 12: November 6, 2017 - LAST WEEK IN BOISE

Hey Family!!!

What a week it has been!!!! So crazy!!! I found out  Wednesday that we got our visas! So exciting!!!! We leave today, and I am just sending a quick email before I head to the airport! I am going crazy in my mind right now! There is so much going on in my head! To be honest, I thought I would not ever really feel like Boise would be a home for me. As soon as I got the call that we got our visas, I got excited and sad. I realized Boise was my home for a while. I'm getting really sad thinking about the people I am leaving. I'm really going to miss them. I really feel like we were just getting started!!! I really wish I could have seen some things play out. Another time or another place perhaps.

We had a great week!!! Preparation day, we got to go see the capital! It was so pretty!!! we walked around the whole inside and I got some sweet pictures! That night was a packed night. We had a ton of visits. I'll just tell you about the more prominent ones. We got to teach a 12 year old the restoration. She has had a lot of contact with the church and her parents, who are not active, decided to let her take the discussions. Her name is Chloe! Good name right, Chloe!!! She was super shy! We taught her at another member's home. They were super nice, and I'm really seeing the importance of the members. None of that would have happened without the members. I think she would not have listened to us or gotten anything out of it if the members were not there. We needed them. They are the key to her membership in the church. The members have such a huge responsibility! I look back now and see the times I went out with the missionaries to go teach people. They put a lot of trust in me! I did not realize how big of a deal it was and how much it meant to the investigator and the missionaries! Other missionaries are going to teach her now. I'm very sad that I dont get to see how it goes, but I am still happy that I was a part of it and that she will continue to grow closer to her Heavenly Father. Later that night, we visited with a couple who are not married because of legal issues, and one of them is investigating the church. We came in, and they were not having a good time together. I'll put it like this, they were angry at each other and the spirit was not there. Elder Degiuli and I looked at each other a bunch of times while they went off and had no idea what to do. We tried and tried to get a word out or even try to leave, but it was all for nothing. eventually, Elder Degiuli just started talking and using long pauses to keep them from arguing. We actually brought the spirit back in and we were able to bear our testimonies. I dont know whether we should have just got up and left, but I had the chance to bear my testimony about the happiness that sharing the gospel brings. I told them that all of Satan's happiness tears us apart, but God's happiness brings us together. I told them how happy Elder Degiuli and I are after a good day of missionary work and looked at Elder Degiuli and told him how much I love him. I gave him a side hug and started tearing up. It was a testimony builder for me. they started back at it again after we ended, but we were able to leave a challenge and get out quick. I made sure to tell them how much I loved them no matter what as we left. I really do care about them. I know God loves them and I can feel only a part of God's love for them and still love them no matter what. I also realized that the spirit will always abide with you, even in times where it seems like the spirit cannot abide. You just have to be doing your best, keeping a Christ centered mind and heart, and following God's commandments and he will bless you with his spirit.

I had three exchanges in one day! Elder Degiuli has really not been feeling good. We went to the doctor's office on Tuesday, and he is going to try some things to try and feel better. As a result of this, I did a lot of exchanges on Thursday, approved by president of course, just so I could get the chance to go out and do some work in our area. I went with Elder Clark in the morning. He is so much fun! We seriously love each other! We talked to a lot of people, and it felt so good to be out with him. He is seriously such an amazing example to me and such a great missionary! It felt very natural with him. I had a list of people to visit. most of them were not home, but most of our work done was street contacting. Strange, street contacting in a neighborhood area. I tend to run into some of the same people which is funny, but there are usually different people which is super neat. Later that evening, I got to go with Elder Carlsen. He has been out the longest of the four of us. He is super nice and sensitive! I always felt like he was my grandpa trainer because he trained my trainer, Elder Degiuli. He is a super great missionary! I have learned a lot from him. We were out in the rain too which is super cool! It was really neat when we looked out at one moments and say the hazy orange sunset and the water specks dripping through the house lights around us. I was in love with it! It felt like an adventure! That night, Elder Degiuli and I did exchanges with our district leader. Elder Degiuli went with Elder Stolper and I went with Elder De Simone, he is from Italy. He is so funny and such a great missionary! He practiced Portuguese with Elder Clark and I and it was so much fun! The day after that was even more amazing! Elder De Simone and I did our normal morning routine. He is seriously so amazing! I love him to pieces! We got to go out and visit some more people I had contacted the day before. It was great. He is so good at talking to people and he taught me a lot just from our less than a day time we had together. I seriously learned a lot from him. I could write a whole other email about that. We mostly street contacted because no one was home. It was good though. We came back and the zone leaders told us that we were able to go to the Meridian Temple Open House with them and one of their investigators!!! I was so excited! We reexcchanged with the district leader and went to the temple with the investigators. It was so neat!!!! I loved the temple and could feel the spirit so strong!!! I felt so lucky and so blessed to be able to go!!! It's pretty neat that I get to start my mission with the meridian temple and end with the lisbon temple being finished in 2019! We had such a great time! I couldnt thank the zone leaders and the investigators enough for letting us go with them! When we got back, we did some more exchanges with the zone leaders because Elder Degiuli was still feeling sick. Elder Towers and I got to go and have dinner with a recent convert. I learned so much from him! This week has been such a neat learning experience!!! Seriously!!! It went super well! We kept up our exchange going for as long as we could. I went through my list I had made for the day and one person stood out, so we called him and he said we could meet in 30 min. Great! Then, I thought of the family that lived right next to them. We visited, they welcomed us in, and we talked about their neighbor, Gurpreet. We were able to bring Tyler, a member of their family with us. He is a returned missionary for Kentucky! He is so awesome and super nice! Gurpreet welcomed us in to his house! He was super nice and super welcoming! He is Sikh too (I think that is how you spell it), and he had a turban on and a clothing pressing his beard. It was pretty sweet. We got to talk about the temple and the plan of salvation. It went great! He was super open and asked us questions back, and they were perfect questions! Tyler and Elder Towers were great! I felt the spirit so strong from them! Tyler was such a good friend too and so on top of everything with inviting him to the temple. Gurpreet said he would for sure go. We all got to leave him with our testimonies of the Book of Mormon as we gave him one.

I bore my testimony of the savior and felt the spirit so strong. It was such a great experience. We left and Tyler told us how great of a job we were doing at our mission. He complemented Elder Degiuli and I for our hard work. He said that he was impressed how we went out to contact him a while back about Gurpreet and how when we left, he passed by us a few times as he was out and about driving and how he saw us talking to people every time on the street. He was super nice, and I gave him a big hug! Elder Towers told me how that was so great and so perfect. He said we had gained the members' trust. He went on to tell me a lot about how that was part of my purpose here and there was a reason for me having Elder Degiuli as my companion even though he was only out for a transfer (6 weeks). I got a glimpse of why I was out. I'll have to talk more about that another day, but he said he was telling me just because I was leaving. It was such a neat experience! I loved it here in Boise and I will never forget it! I'm so thankful for everyone here and all that they have done for me! Next time, I'll be in Portugal!!! Love you all!!!!

Love,

Elder Barton