Week 33: April 2, 2018
Dear Family,
How y'all been?!?! You all look so good in your pics that you are sending me! Seriously such an awesome family!!!!!
It was an amazing Easter week this week. This week was sort of taken over by meetings. We spent almost an entire day at a zone conference.
It was actually super neat. Im really loving all the meetings we have to learn and become better missionaries. One thing that our mission is really focusing on right now is boldness. Its actually something I really need to learn. Our president is amazing! He speaks to us with a lot of power and authority. He told us that boldness was not being
annoying or even forceful, it was teaching the gospel with clarity and firmness. He said the way to develop that was be first, believing in the gospel, then having faith, then repenting, then feeling the Holy Ghost, then continuing with the process. It was basically the gospel of Jesus Christ. I thought it was interesting how he said that we had
to believe first before having faith. Speaking of faith, I actually saw a really neat thing happen earlier this week. Ive been struggling a bit to figure out how I want to study every morning and what I want to study. I think I´m starting to get a system down, but one thing I really love is reading the Book of Mormon every day. I´ve gotten a good system down for how I want to study the Book of Mormon. I´ve really studied in hope that I´ll find things that our investigators need to hear. To me, that seems the best way to receive unrestrained revelation.
We taught this one lady later that day who had had a terrible accident. She had been paralyzed in the legs and chest and so she could mover her head and her arms a little bit. She had been a long time investigator and had told us that she didn't believe in God until this happened to her, and then she started looking. Elder Davis
and I were inspired to talk about faith. Elder Davis was actually the one that really inspired me to study the Book of Mormon the way I do.
Elder Davis was teaching her and pulled out a scripture that he had studied that morning and had her read it. It was perfect, and I could tell she really thought about the words she had just read. Then, as we were teaching, a scripture that I had read that morning came to my mind. It was in Nephi which basically explained how we grow our faith, by diligently and humbly seeking God. This lady still had doubts about God. She loved reading and had studied the scriptures a lot, but we explained to her how if we don't seek humbly, not thinking that we will submit to the will of God when we get an answer, we will never get an answer. Its interesting how there are a lot of people
that we have taught that have sought God, but humility seems to be a huge difficulty. I know for me personally, I still need to be super humble! The moment I say that I´m humble or even think it, I´m already long gone.
That's another interesting thing I´ve seen. Sometimes when I think about things too much, it gets too complicated, and I actually go in the opposite direction. Its like doing a backflip, I feel like I´ve already used this analogy, but when I think too much about doing a backflip, it seems impossible, and I cant do it! Carter probably knows what Im talking about. I was too chicken for such a long time!
hahaha! Its been the same here. When there are people nearby us on the street or in public transportation that we need to talk to, it's really scary when you think about it too much, but when you have faith and just go for it, its actually super cool and we have seen a lot of miracles from it. Faith has certainly been a huge blessing in doing
missionary work!
But, you also have to be careful when doing contacts on the street! There was this one lady that we talked to that started speaking english to us with a pretty thick accent. She said she had gone to England a few times. I spoke English back to her just because I think people pay more attention to what I say sometimes when I speak English, but there are times for everything. But man, when I tried to speak english back to her, I couldn't do it! It was so hard! I was making a ton of switches back and forth between English and Portuguese just because it was so much easier in Portuguese! I was also saying things very strangely in english. I don't speak very good Portuguese at all, but it was still super weird! haha!!! We talked to her super quick before leaving the metro. I said we had to go, but
then she said, "oh, but before you go, can I give you a kiss???" I freaked out a little bit in my head and said, "oh no, I'm a missionary." Then she went back and said, "what?!?!?! that's not normal!!!!" hahahaha!!!! It was super funny!!!!
We didn't get her contact info, just left her with a card, so don't think we'll be seeing her again! hahaha!!! My companion and I have had a lot of funny moments with the Portuguese people, but the mission is super awesome!!!!
I also loved watching general conference this week too!!! It was such a neat and powerful General Conference! When we were are lifting our hands to show our support for our new and previous leaders of the church, I felt the spirit so strong! I know they are called of God! Its also super neat to see the importance of sustaining our leaders
and continually recognizing our support for them. It was also neat to see all the changes in the ways we will fulfill the doctrines of the gospel. Thats the way I saw it. A lot of times on the mission we will not work harder or less to be better missionaries, just work in different, smarter ways to bring about God´s purposes. It seems like the same thing with these new changes they are implementing. It was also super interesting to see how many of them all brought up the second coming! It reminding me how I always have to be prepared for that incredible event!
Also, got the valentines day package!!!!!! holy cow!!!! love it sooo much!!!!! thanks so much for your love and support!!!! I got the "are you serious Clark" socks on, Chloe´s paintings up in my room, Ellie´sbook mark stalking my books, and all your sweet letters in my head! that was super nice of you all!!! Loved the letters and thoughts sooo much!!! The American goods were a fantabulous delight as well I might add. Haha, thanks so much!
Hope you all have so much fun on the Hawaii trip!!! Party like you mean it!!!! Have a great day!!!!
Love always,
Elder Barton
How y'all been?!?! You all look so good in your pics that you are sending me! Seriously such an awesome family!!!!!
It was an amazing Easter week this week. This week was sort of taken over by meetings. We spent almost an entire day at a zone conference.
It was actually super neat. Im really loving all the meetings we have to learn and become better missionaries. One thing that our mission is really focusing on right now is boldness. Its actually something I really need to learn. Our president is amazing! He speaks to us with a lot of power and authority. He told us that boldness was not being
annoying or even forceful, it was teaching the gospel with clarity and firmness. He said the way to develop that was be first, believing in the gospel, then having faith, then repenting, then feeling the Holy Ghost, then continuing with the process. It was basically the gospel of Jesus Christ. I thought it was interesting how he said that we had
to believe first before having faith. Speaking of faith, I actually saw a really neat thing happen earlier this week. Ive been struggling a bit to figure out how I want to study every morning and what I want to study. I think I´m starting to get a system down, but one thing I really love is reading the Book of Mormon every day. I´ve gotten a good system down for how I want to study the Book of Mormon. I´ve really studied in hope that I´ll find things that our investigators need to hear. To me, that seems the best way to receive unrestrained revelation.
We taught this one lady later that day who had had a terrible accident. She had been paralyzed in the legs and chest and so she could mover her head and her arms a little bit. She had been a long time investigator and had told us that she didn't believe in God until this happened to her, and then she started looking. Elder Davis
and I were inspired to talk about faith. Elder Davis was actually the one that really inspired me to study the Book of Mormon the way I do.
Elder Davis was teaching her and pulled out a scripture that he had studied that morning and had her read it. It was perfect, and I could tell she really thought about the words she had just read. Then, as we were teaching, a scripture that I had read that morning came to my mind. It was in Nephi which basically explained how we grow our faith, by diligently and humbly seeking God. This lady still had doubts about God. She loved reading and had studied the scriptures a lot, but we explained to her how if we don't seek humbly, not thinking that we will submit to the will of God when we get an answer, we will never get an answer. Its interesting how there are a lot of people
that we have taught that have sought God, but humility seems to be a huge difficulty. I know for me personally, I still need to be super humble! The moment I say that I´m humble or even think it, I´m already long gone.
That's another interesting thing I´ve seen. Sometimes when I think about things too much, it gets too complicated, and I actually go in the opposite direction. Its like doing a backflip, I feel like I´ve already used this analogy, but when I think too much about doing a backflip, it seems impossible, and I cant do it! Carter probably knows what Im talking about. I was too chicken for such a long time!
hahaha! Its been the same here. When there are people nearby us on the street or in public transportation that we need to talk to, it's really scary when you think about it too much, but when you have faith and just go for it, its actually super cool and we have seen a lot of miracles from it. Faith has certainly been a huge blessing in doing
missionary work!
But, you also have to be careful when doing contacts on the street! There was this one lady that we talked to that started speaking english to us with a pretty thick accent. She said she had gone to England a few times. I spoke English back to her just because I think people pay more attention to what I say sometimes when I speak English, but there are times for everything. But man, when I tried to speak english back to her, I couldn't do it! It was so hard! I was making a ton of switches back and forth between English and Portuguese just because it was so much easier in Portuguese! I was also saying things very strangely in english. I don't speak very good Portuguese at all, but it was still super weird! haha!!! We talked to her super quick before leaving the metro. I said we had to go, but
then she said, "oh, but before you go, can I give you a kiss???" I freaked out a little bit in my head and said, "oh no, I'm a missionary." Then she went back and said, "what?!?!?! that's not normal!!!!" hahahaha!!!! It was super funny!!!!
We didn't get her contact info, just left her with a card, so don't think we'll be seeing her again! hahaha!!! My companion and I have had a lot of funny moments with the Portuguese people, but the mission is super awesome!!!!
I also loved watching general conference this week too!!! It was such a neat and powerful General Conference! When we were are lifting our hands to show our support for our new and previous leaders of the church, I felt the spirit so strong! I know they are called of God! Its also super neat to see the importance of sustaining our leaders
and continually recognizing our support for them. It was also neat to see all the changes in the ways we will fulfill the doctrines of the gospel. Thats the way I saw it. A lot of times on the mission we will not work harder or less to be better missionaries, just work in different, smarter ways to bring about God´s purposes. It seems like the same thing with these new changes they are implementing. It was also super interesting to see how many of them all brought up the second coming! It reminding me how I always have to be prepared for that incredible event!
Also, got the valentines day package!!!!!! holy cow!!!! love it sooo much!!!!! thanks so much for your love and support!!!! I got the "are you serious Clark" socks on, Chloe´s paintings up in my room, Ellie´sbook mark stalking my books, and all your sweet letters in my head! that was super nice of you all!!! Loved the letters and thoughts sooo much!!! The American goods were a fantabulous delight as well I might add. Haha, thanks so much!
Hope you all have so much fun on the Hawaii trip!!! Party like you mean it!!!! Have a great day!!!!
Love always,
Elder Barton
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