Barton Family News

Hey there family!!!! HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!!  From what I heard, sounds like Dad had an amazing birthday!!! And sounds like you all are doing super well;)  A few highlights of the week: We went taught a less active named Tania. We have been visiting her for the last while, and we had an amazing visit with the couple missionaries in our area, Elder and Sister Mann. I loved it when Elder Mann taught her!!! You could just feel the pure love of Christ radiating from him. You could tell he was just following the spirit. It was so awesome!!!!  I've noticed how in missionary work, I'm never doing anything alone. I always need help and God always puts people in my path. Tania called me Sunday morning saying she would need a ride. She had originally planned to use the bus, but something happened. I told her no problem. We got to church and one of the members, Bernardino, was out in front sweeping some leaves away. We asked him if he could come with us to take someon...

Dear Family, How you all doing!!!!! Loved reading your letters and hearing how you all are doing!!!! A few neat things happened this week: We went to Rabo de Peixe this week, a little town in our area, to visit this one family we hadn't been able to talk to in a while. We got to their front door and the husband, Eduardo, opened the door. Right when he opened, he looked back at his wife, Ana, with laugh. He said how they were just talking about us when we knocked on the door! So cool! We had a super neat lesson with them. They both love their family and just want to be happy together. It's super neat. Elder Ray is having a lot of miracles here too!!! He says he is understanding people here better than any other area!!! This is supposed to be the hardest area to understand people too!!!! So cool!!! Whenever Elder Ray teaches, I look at him and the first word that pops into my head is, "Apostle!!!" I seriously think he will be an apostle in the future!!! He is so good a...

Dear Family, First off .... HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love you to pieces!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Second off... This week was pretty full, not gonna lie. We had tons of traveling! We left on Monday to go to Lisbon and stayed there the night with the elders from the mission office. We also got to see an elder in the ward there open his mission call. He was called to the Montevideo Uruguay Mission!!!! I told him how that was where Dad served. It was pretty cool.  The next morning, Elder Barrios, Elder Lewis, and I went in Elder Lewis´ new mission vehicle for the new area he was serving in and we went to see the temple being built in Sacavém. I was so excited to see the temple! I absolutely loved it! I felt so comfortable there and naturally happy. It's pretty neat to me that I started my mission opening the...

Dear Family, Well, another week gone by. You all sound like you are doing well. That always makes me so happy. General Conference was incredible! The spirit is so strong when all the speakers testify. I loved watching it this week.  I've seen a lot how God is always looking out for us even in our personal lives out here on the mission. He really cares about us. My companion's last pday last monday was awesome. I hadn't planned anything, but I did pray that this last pday with him would be one of his best pdays and that he would be super happy. Everything ending up working out perfectly. The other missionaries called us the other night to do something together. We ended up changing our minds last second and all just went out to eat at a restaurant. We ended up just asking him about his mission and just making him feel special. It was awesome! We all left and went back to our areas at the end, and he asked me if I had planned all of that. I told him, "no, God did that....