Week 29: March 5, 2018

Dear Family,

Hey there party people!!! You all sound like you are all doing really well!!!! I love all the letters I´m getting from you all!!! You all are seriously so kind and just the best family ever!!!!

This week was awesome! I´m gonna call this week judgement week!!!! Ya, I learned a lot this week. On monday morning, we went out to teach one of our investigators marked for this saturday. She expressed some doubts and was still apprehensive about baptism. Continuing throughout the week, we called her every day and visited her every day we could. She seemed to be doing fine, but we were a little worried about her. She should have been baptised last sunday, but she wanted to put it off until saturday. One thing I learned about being a missionary is that opposition is real, and if you don't choose a side, someone or something else will choose for you. When we mark someone for baptism or we even mark a visit with someone, we are pretty urgent, and from the other side, it looks really pushy, but we do it out of love. We know that giving people time gives more time for opposition to work against them. Thats why I think Alma says to be baptized this day in Alma 7:15. It then came to friday. That morning, I had really thought about the letter our president wrote to us about serving an effective mission. I prayed super hard that morning that God would change me to be better. I´ve also noticed how the things we pray for with real intent and faith, God always responds, almost immediately! 

We went to go teach her with a member and two other missionaries. When we taught her, it didn't go well. She threw at us some new doubts that Elder Beltran and I had not prepared for. I was lost at words during the lesson. The other elders and the member taught super well. To be honest, I sort of felt like trash during that lesson. To make it all even better, I had a super runny, stuffy nose! Haha! We left and she had decided that she didn't want to be baptized the next day. I felt super sad after that. We walked back to our house and we had forgotten the keys, so we were locked out. The mission office couldn't help us till the end of the day. 

We were pretty hungry and decided to go to Pingo Doce, a grocery store nearby, and eat there. I got a quinoa salad, and a fruit cup. To be honest, it was super delicious! haha! Afterward, we went out to our appointments. It was raining super hard and super windy that day that as we were walking, my umbrella was completely destroyed in seconds after a large gust of wind. There was a trash can nearby, and I just stuffed it in and kept walking. We got into an apartment building and it was just pouring outside. The less active member we were going to visit wasn't there. Almost all of our appointments had fallen. We then started making a bunch of phone calls to see if we could teach anyone. 

I remember just standing there and feeling so much happy energy inside me. I saw that Heavenly Father was changing me for the better and had changed me after just a fourth of the mission. I was just full of so much joy and happiness to be there in that moment knowing that I was doing the best work there is. I felt so much confidence in the presence of opposition. I know other people have faced much much worse opposition than what I faced in that moment, but I just felt a taste of the happiness we can feel in the midst of opposition with the LORD. After that, things just went uphill. We found a couple new investigators, and they all look like they will progress in their relationship with God. The next day, well yesterday, we had one of the greatest days ever!!!! 

Sunday afternoon, we went to visit a neighbor who always helped the missionaries before us. She helped me send the Christmas package to you guys. She was super happy to see us that day. We sat down and started talking to her. I had had a few promptings before to talk to her about the gospel, but I hadn't listened or was interrupted. That time, I just went for it. I asked a few inspired questions and she began opening up to us a little more about religion. Elder Beltran and I were in sync and just began pulling out pamphlets and teaching her. She seemed to be super interested. There was then a moments where I invited her to e baptized, and the spirit was just soooo strong. I could tell she felt it. She began to cry and just started pouring out her heart to us. She said how she had never felt such peace with any other missionary than with me. She was in tears as she said this. I always carry a picture of one of our family Christmas pictures in my Book of Mormon, and I decided to show it to her. She looked at it and just admired it and said that my family had so much light and was just such a bright influence for others. She said that she could never have a family like that. We both testified of how the gospel has blessed our families and how she could have the same thing in her family. She then began to talk about how her family was destroyed and how she thought it could never be. 

I told her the story of Grandpa and Grandma Barton joining the church and how thankful I was for what they had created and started for me and how she could do the same thing. For the first time ever, she said that after all the invites to church, she wanted to go to church with us this sunday and that she wanted to learn more. It was amazing. 

We were then walking to another appointment with a part member family. We brought a little demonstration to teach them about the atonement: the clean the penny thing with ketchup and detergent. this family really liked the elders before and after the elders left, they became inactive. We wanted to give them a little jumpstart and do something fun with them. We did and it didn't go super well, haha, but as we taught, more and more of this family kept showing up. One lady named Mara lena showed up, we had never taught her and she had never talked to the elders before. We were with 2 adults and literally 8 little kids in one apartment, it was chaos!!! hahaha, but it went super well at the same time. Elder Beltran and I were in such perfect sync. We literally just started going back and forth teaching her. Every question she had led to the next point to!!!! It was literally one of the most amazing moments of the mission. 

As we taught it too, one of the little kids named Sara, she is 7 years old, got upset. we taught her the last time we were there and we taught her the first vision. We showed the picture of the first vision and she pointed and said, "that´s Jesus and God." and then she pointed and said, "that´s Joseph Smith!" and then she said, "he was also a prophet." It was one of the coolest cutest things I had ever seen! We both high-fived her. She was happy after that. 

I hope you all are doing super well and super happy! I love you all soooo much!!!! You all mean so much to me and are such huge inspirations for me!!! 

Love always,

Elder Barton