Week 18: December 18, 2017

Hey there party people!!!!

You all sound so good!!! Love the Christmas pics!!! You look like a pretty good looking family! Love all the Christmas decorations in the house too! Super fun! 

This week was super fun! We had a Christmas conference with a lot of the missionaries there. It was so much fun! Sister Tavares even got me a bag of gluten-free treats especially for me!!!! We got hear president and sister Tavares speak, and we got to participate in and watch some acts performed by the missionaries. It was super fun and super funny! Each district just did some acts making fun of some of the worst situations that could happen in missionary work. We also got to hear some of the missionaries play some instruments and sing. It was awesome, and the spirit was super strong at that moment.

There have been a lot of moments where when I feel my mind is in the right place or that I am ready for something that God needs me to do, something awesome always happens. There was one point we were on the bus riding to go visit someone, and I just thought how much I cared about the people around me and how much I wanted them to know of all the joy that they can have through the message the Christ has for them. Then, a lady out of nowhere asked to see my plaque. She said she had never seen one before. We got to talk to her a little bit and last second at our stop give her a card with our contact info on it. It was super neat!!!! I´ve seen that with the lessons too. When I have studied them super well and I feel ready to teach them, God puts someone in my path to teach. Elder Barrios has taught me a lot about this. Missionary work is not walking or even contacting. Missionary work is teaching. We have found a lot of success through the members. That is seriously the best way to work. We have a few people on date right now and some others with complicated situations that want to be baptized, but have other things they need to sort out first. Missionary work is seriously so amazing! I´ve never seen God´s hand this much in my entire life! God´s always been there, I feel like right now it´s just easier to see it. We´ve had some super neat experiences working with less active members too! We met this one guy who is super nice and showed us some of his music stuff that he is working on. He is super good and it was so much fun to see him play right in front of us! Sunday, we got to go to a member´s home and have a huge lunch with them. They are super nice. We got to go out with the dad of that family. He is seriously one of the greatest people I have ever met! Elder Barrios tells me over and over how he wants to be like him when he grows up. We visited some less actives with him. He is super good at talking to people and knowing what to say. We taught this one huge less active family with him. He taught so well and the whole family was super engaged and so happy to have him there. One person in their family had just had surgery and asked us for a blessing. I gave the anointing and Elder Barrios gave the blessing. The spirit was super strong. When we finished, the family got so excited and a few others jumped right in the chair to receive a blessing. It was pretty funny and super neat! We gave two other people blessings of comfort. There was a strong spirit in that home that day. Oh, also, Sunday, I had my fist translating experience!!!! There was a German family that came to our sacrament. It is actually super interesting what they were doing. In Germany, when they have a baby, they get a whole year off from work and work still pays them, just a little less! Turns out, tons of Germans like them, take that time to go around and explore the world. There and then, they were exploring Portugal, and they told me that they never miss church which is super cool! They spoke English and not a bit of Portuguese. I got to talk to them and make them feel welcome. Before sacrament, Elder Barrios came over to me and told me I had to translate for them for sacrament. There were some other people that spoke both Portuguese and English in our ward and could translate way better than I could, so I thought no way! But, Elder Barrios said that I could do it, so I tried. I think I totally butchered it. hahaha! I would listen for a while to what they were saying and try to get the general idea of what the speaker was saying and then translate. There were a few moments where I would start translating, and then the speaker would start speaking faster with a thicker accent or use big words and I would just say, "uh oh." It was pretty funny. We laughed a few times just because of that! haha! It was fun though and I think they enjoyed church that day which is good. they were a huge inspiration to me of just going for it and going to church no matter where you are. Takes a lot of courage to go to church and know you probably won't understand what they are saying. But, the most important part is that they partake the sacrament and feel the spirit. Super fun week!

Anyway, love you all tons!!! Best family ever!!!!! Think and pray for you every day!!!!

Oh ya, I will also be staying in Linda-A-Velha with Elder Barrios for another transfer!!!!! Super excited!!!!

Love always,

Elder Barton

Elder Barrios and I at the Christmas Conference

Stuff I got from the Christmas Conference

Got a super sweet haircut today! only 8 Euros!!!!