Week 58: September 24, 2018 - Upbeat and Confident in God's Plan for Me

Dear Family,

Well, another week in the Azores gone by. We had an amazing zone conference this week! We got to fly down to Lisbon and everything! On the flight down, I read a talk that President recommended that I read in his weekly email to me titled "Truth - and More" by Presidente Nelson. It was an amazing talk and made me want to be a more courageous defender of the truth. It also taught me  how truth should be linked very closely with love and mercy. I thought that was super interesting; that talk made truth seem much simpler to me. I really liked it. 

Zone conference was incredible! Seriously, the spirit was so strong. There was a part where they talked about having a mission accepted by the Lord. I have stressed a lot about that. I am trying my best, but I still feel like I fail a lot, like I'm not living up to the Lord's expectations. They said how we just need to do what we are asked and trust in God. If we get so focused on ourselves and our perfection, we end up turning inward rather than outward and making things worse. They talked a lot about how God changes us little by little and we need to be patient; it's not going to happen all in one moment. We need to trust in what God has asked us to do and do our best and God will make up the rest. I think I have been lacking faith in God's plan for me and what He has in mind for me. I need to be more upbeat and confident in my failures and my growth, even with the criticism of others. I need to know that the most important person to please is God, not other people. It was a super neat moment, and the spirit was super strong. I love how close I feel to the spirit on the mission. Its such a huge blessing and such a strong comfort. 

We flew back from the zone conference and got back at like midnight in our area! We got to use the mission car in our area to ride back. Elder Fogg drove. Its supposed to stay with the couple missionaries or the zone leaders, but the couple missionaries went back to the US for some family stuff and the zone leaders stayed another day for a leadership meeting. President gave us permission to use the car. Lets just say, it was awesome!!! Elder Fogg got some good practice driving before he goes home! hahaha!! We used it the next day to go to our other areas. Not gonna lie, felt pretty cool to roll up in a nice air conditioned car playing some awesome beats...not like that, you know, church music beats of course - and then visiting everyone. Elder Fogg kept walking around swinging the car keys in his hands. It was pretty funny! We were feeling pretty classy that day;)

We also got to go on splits with the zone leaders on Saturday. I got to go with my trainer, Elder Barrios!!!! It was so much fun to be with him again!!!! I had been wanting to do a division with them for so long! I wanted to have a day to lead in our area and see if I remembered where everything was and if I knew everything. I always get so worried when my companion leaves me to be in charge of the area. I want to make sure I know everything and can be auto-sufficient. Elder Barrios brought back so many memories! I could actually understand everything he said this time too, so that was different and way more fun! We always have neat miracles when we go on splits. We found a huge family that has a ton of interest and tons of potential! So excited!!!! Elder Barrios teaches with so much energy and enthusiasm. I feel like a lot of times, I am a robot missionary. I asked him how I could be better about that. He told me one thing I could do was forget time. Unless we had to go to something else, or we weren't being productive, I just needed to live in the moment and not rush things. He said how a robot missionary thing is just to sit down and get into the lesson rather that get to know the people and show interest in them. I thought that was super good to know and something that I will try to be better at. 

One thing our mission is working really hard at doing right now is strengthening the church. That is a huge focus of our president. Its a lot of fun actually, and I really want to keep this focus for the rest of my life. There is a lot of joy and blessings that come from this work, even when things don't work out the way we expect them to. I feel so happy and so blessed to be out here serving the Lord. I am so thankful for you all for for Mom and Dad giving me the opportunity and the strength to serve a mission. I love you all sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much, and I hope you all have a wonderful week!!!!

Love,

Elder Barton

ps I also got the package you sent me!!!! Loved it so much!!!!!! I'm loaded in runa and protein powder!!!! hahahaha!!!! Loved all the 4th of July art!!!! Loved Chloe's arts!!!!! It's the best and my favorite thing to put up in our apartment!!!! you all are the best!!!!!!!