Week 31: March 19, 2018
Hey there family!!!!
This week was awesome!!!!! Birthday was super boss!!!! Literally the day of transfers, my bday, I got the bday package with the st patty´s day pjs!!!! hahaha!!!! Loved it!!! thank you thank you thank you!!!!!! I also got gma and gpa barton´s letter!!! Thank you soooo much!!!! What a miracle!!!! Loved all the letters and the goodies!!!! You all are the bomb!!!!!
The new area is fantastic!!!! Love it!!!! We are in an area called Almada, as you already know, and it is super huge and super pretty!!! My new companion is Elder Davis; he is soooo awesome!!! He is super loving and super patient. He laughs at everything too and is just super upbeat!!! we became pretty good buddies instantly!!! Honestly,
he acts a lot like Beau which is super cool!!!! The area is B-E-A-utiful! There are tons of nice people here and our church building is huge!!!! We also room with two other elders, Elder Van Wagenen and Elder Vigne. They are soooo awesome and so much fun to be around!!! Its pretty weird being in a house of 4 again, not gonna lie,
but it is super fun.
I feel like there is so much more I can learn from all the elders. Im already seeing things that I need to learn
from each one of them. When we got here, Elder Davis and I immediately started making some goals together, what we wanted to accomplish together.
One thing we wanted to get really good at was doing contacts on the street. That was something I struggled with in my other area because we were always going from one appointment to the other. Elder Davis and I immediately changed that. We literally talked to everyone we could find. When Elder Davis or I were making phone calls, the other was talking to people on the street as they passed by. I felt that force, or strength, that is talked about in D&C 24:12 after talking to everyone I could find in all places and in all times. It was super neat!!! We managed to mark a ton of return appointments and get a ton of contacts! It was definitely a miracle!!! While doing
contacts, Ive also seen how the LORD literally places people in our path everywhere we go!
It was later at night when we were heading back to our apartment and we contacted this lady that was walking by us. She just poured her heart out and started talking about this other experience she had with the missionaries and how it made her feel so much better. She said we were totally welcome the next day. we visited the next day. Right when we entered, she said that she had been awaiting our arrival and then got all her family together in a room
with a bunch of chairs in a circle. She wanted us to continue a lesson she was having with her kids about Noah in the Bible. We respected that and said that we also wanted to share a message that we had prepared for them. We talked about Noah and tied it in so that it set up the lesson of the restoration perfectly. To be honest, she sort of
dominated teaching the first part about Noah. She was part of another church and her husband was a pastor. To be honest, I couldn't tell if she was really sincere about learning or just wanted to have another bible class or something, but when Elder Davis and I taught the restoration, the adults of the whole family were super interested. It was super neat! The pastor lady even commented about Joseph Smith before we even brought up Joseph Smith. I guess she had already known a few things about the church. As we taught, they asked questions about baptism and how we know which church is the true church. It was super neat!!! Elder Davis and I were pulling out scriptures to back our answers up and the pastor lady kept saying, "Vai la meu filho, vai la!" It was a little strange, but awesome!!!!
The person that had the most sincere interest there was actually this other lady that had not yet been baptized. She told us about how she had already had some experiences with God and that she had just recently started trying to
quit smoking!!! I was getting so excited thinking we found an elect investigator!!! We left them with a baptismal invite and an invite to church. A few of them were more or less in, but many of them accepted. We went to their house the next day to accompany them to church. They were already ready and super excited about church! Church went super well!!! The members are all super nice, and Im sooo excited to get to know all of them!!! Later that day, we found that one lady who had not yet been baptized walking up the street. We went up and talked to her
and she said that she loved church and would be there the next Sunday!!! It was soooo neat!!!!
With Elder Davis, I'm already learning so much from him!!! He teaches in a super loving, patient manner. As a missionary, you have to be super bold. Ive been trying super hard to master that. With my other companions,Ive learned a ton and Ive been stretched to be more forward and bold in my invites to come unto Christ. It is one of the coolest things to see how God literally is placing me with the people I need in the moments I need to grow the way He wants me to grow.
Im super happy to be in this area right now and feel super blessed to have the companion I have! Thanks to much for all you guys are doing to support me and keep me going!! I loved reading all of your letters!!! They meant so much to me!!!! You all are so thoughtful and I feel so blessed to have you as my family!!!! Thanks for the AMAZING Bday week!!!!
Love ya tons!!!
Elder Barton
This week was awesome!!!!! Birthday was super boss!!!! Literally the day of transfers, my bday, I got the bday package with the st patty´s day pjs!!!! hahaha!!!! Loved it!!! thank you thank you thank you!!!!!! I also got gma and gpa barton´s letter!!! Thank you soooo much!!!! What a miracle!!!! Loved all the letters and the goodies!!!! You all are the bomb!!!!!
The new area is fantastic!!!! Love it!!!! We are in an area called Almada, as you already know, and it is super huge and super pretty!!! My new companion is Elder Davis; he is soooo awesome!!! He is super loving and super patient. He laughs at everything too and is just super upbeat!!! we became pretty good buddies instantly!!! Honestly,
he acts a lot like Beau which is super cool!!!! The area is B-E-A-utiful! There are tons of nice people here and our church building is huge!!!! We also room with two other elders, Elder Van Wagenen and Elder Vigne. They are soooo awesome and so much fun to be around!!! Its pretty weird being in a house of 4 again, not gonna lie,
but it is super fun.
I feel like there is so much more I can learn from all the elders. Im already seeing things that I need to learn
from each one of them. When we got here, Elder Davis and I immediately started making some goals together, what we wanted to accomplish together.
One thing we wanted to get really good at was doing contacts on the street. That was something I struggled with in my other area because we were always going from one appointment to the other. Elder Davis and I immediately changed that. We literally talked to everyone we could find. When Elder Davis or I were making phone calls, the other was talking to people on the street as they passed by. I felt that force, or strength, that is talked about in D&C 24:12 after talking to everyone I could find in all places and in all times. It was super neat!!! We managed to mark a ton of return appointments and get a ton of contacts! It was definitely a miracle!!! While doing
contacts, Ive also seen how the LORD literally places people in our path everywhere we go!
It was later at night when we were heading back to our apartment and we contacted this lady that was walking by us. She just poured her heart out and started talking about this other experience she had with the missionaries and how it made her feel so much better. She said we were totally welcome the next day. we visited the next day. Right when we entered, she said that she had been awaiting our arrival and then got all her family together in a room
with a bunch of chairs in a circle. She wanted us to continue a lesson she was having with her kids about Noah in the Bible. We respected that and said that we also wanted to share a message that we had prepared for them. We talked about Noah and tied it in so that it set up the lesson of the restoration perfectly. To be honest, she sort of
dominated teaching the first part about Noah. She was part of another church and her husband was a pastor. To be honest, I couldn't tell if she was really sincere about learning or just wanted to have another bible class or something, but when Elder Davis and I taught the restoration, the adults of the whole family were super interested. It was super neat! The pastor lady even commented about Joseph Smith before we even brought up Joseph Smith. I guess she had already known a few things about the church. As we taught, they asked questions about baptism and how we know which church is the true church. It was super neat!!! Elder Davis and I were pulling out scriptures to back our answers up and the pastor lady kept saying, "Vai la meu filho, vai la!" It was a little strange, but awesome!!!!
The person that had the most sincere interest there was actually this other lady that had not yet been baptized. She told us about how she had already had some experiences with God and that she had just recently started trying to
quit smoking!!! I was getting so excited thinking we found an elect investigator!!! We left them with a baptismal invite and an invite to church. A few of them were more or less in, but many of them accepted. We went to their house the next day to accompany them to church. They were already ready and super excited about church! Church went super well!!! The members are all super nice, and Im sooo excited to get to know all of them!!! Later that day, we found that one lady who had not yet been baptized walking up the street. We went up and talked to her
and she said that she loved church and would be there the next Sunday!!! It was soooo neat!!!!
With Elder Davis, I'm already learning so much from him!!! He teaches in a super loving, patient manner. As a missionary, you have to be super bold. Ive been trying super hard to master that. With my other companions,Ive learned a ton and Ive been stretched to be more forward and bold in my invites to come unto Christ. It is one of the coolest things to see how God literally is placing me with the people I need in the moments I need to grow the way He wants me to grow.
Im super happy to be in this area right now and feel super blessed to have the companion I have! Thanks to much for all you guys are doing to support me and keep me going!! I loved reading all of your letters!!! They meant so much to me!!!! You all are so thoughtful and I feel so blessed to have you as my family!!!! Thanks for the AMAZING Bday week!!!!
Love ya tons!!!
Elder Barton
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