Week 25: February 5, 2018

Ola e boa tarde Família!!!!

The beginning of this week was a sad send off for Elder Barrios. Let me tell ya, he did not want to leave this area. We ate our last meal at mcdonalds in Alges. We got these free cards to eat at mcdonalds from our neighbor and decided to use them as our last meal. It was funny, this whole time together, we got to know each other so well!!! Right as Elder Barrios sat down, I was still standing. We both paused for a moments, and right before I said anything, Elder Barrios said, "tem que usar a casa de banho?" and I said, "sim." haha! I have to got to the bathroom a lot because I drink a ton of water throughout the day. It was pretty funny that he knew me so well. We dropped him off with a member. It was super sad to see him go. When we arrived, we instantly started looking for our new companions. I had heard that my companion was a little shorter. When I saw an elder that was a bit shorter, we both stopped and instantly looked at each others name tags. I read, Elder Beltran, and then we both started saying, "ohhhHHHHH!!!" with increasing tone and then gave each other a big hug. I lifted him off the ground and started swinging him around. A bunch of people started staring at us. It was awesome!!!!! hahaha!!!  

We have already seen a ton of miracles together! 

On Sunday, we woke up and went out to gather a bunch of investigators to go to church with us. We had super high hopes that we would have a ton of people at church this week. We went out and literally no one was home, or they cancelled on us! It was a huge bummer. we knocked on a less actives door to see if she could go to church with us. The mom of this less active opened the door. She was one of our investigators. She had said that she wanted to be baptized a few times and then changed her mind the very next day and acted as if she completely forgot what we had taught her multiple times. She was an older person and didn't have a leg. We asked her if her daughter was there; she said no. We then asked her if she wanted to go to church with us. She said yes and she then started getting ready super fast. We had like 30 min until church started! and it took us 30 min just to walk to the area we were in!!!! I instantly started calling tons of members trying to see if we could get a ride. Finally, one member said he could do it, and he sped over super fast. She got ready and then we rolled her out on her wheel chair to the member´s car. the member was understandably stressed and thought we wouldn't make it to sacrament. He sped us over and we got out of the car and walked super fast to the church. It was perfect too because President and Sister Tavares were there in our ward! When we walked in the back doors, I thought I was done for!!!! Haha!!!! It was actually super neat!!! We literally made it just in time to take the sacrament. Minutes later and we would not have made it!!! Afterwards, I apologized to president and he said it was totally fine and that we were doing our job. He is seriously so awesome!!!!! In between, Elder Beltran and I had prayed a ton. We had fasted this week for our investigators with baptismal dates, and though non of them showed up, the LORD still answered us with our one investigator that we brought to church. 

Elder Beltran is super awesome!!! Love having him as my companion already!!!! He and I are both Cali boys, so, ya know, its a missionary cali party!!! hahaha!!! Im already learning so much from him!!! He is super spiritual and I am learning how to really gain trust from the LORD. As we walk on the streets, all we talk about is our investigators, and we do tons of practices. Ive noticed how we have taught a ton of people and seen a lot more blessings because of it. We really do have to prepare to prepare other people!!! Its such a blessing to be here in Linda-A-Velha again with such a great companion!!!

Well, short and sweet this week!!! Love y'all tons!!!! You're all the bomb!!!

Love,

Elder Barton