Week 68: December 3, 2018 - Elder Barton ... the washing machine?

Dear Family,

Elder Ray is feeling a ton better!!! He's been on a special diet called a BRAT diet. He seems to have more energy which is good. We got to go to the other side of the island to be with the other elders for a while. It was actually tons of fun! I got to go out with both elders, Elder Zamora and Elder Harper. I learned lots of stuff from both of them. After that division, I felt like I needed to be more auto sufficient and learn to be able to solve my own problems rather than bucking them up to the top. I really want to be capable and dependable. 

We also got to spend time with the branch mission leader in Ponta Delgada. He was so awesome and took us out to get sushi!!!! He's a returned missionary and I asked him what he thought of his mission life compared to where he was now. He said he would totally go back to his mission life if he could and how much better it was just worrying about the work of the Lord and not paying bills and other life stuff. After talking to him, it made me think a lot more about this precious time I have to serve a mission and how much I should take advantage of it. 

Elder Ray and I also did some more visits with the members in our branch, Bernardino and Maria da Paz. They are so awesome!!! We always eat dinner at their house before we leave to go visit people with them. I always feel so bad eating and then seeing the dishes all dirty and stacked over on the table. We've always offered to help but they've always said no. They started getting ready to leave, and I told my companion that I was gonna just go for it and start washing the dishes. Probably was a bad idea now that I think of it, but I ran up, and just started washing as fast as I could before they got back. Some of their older kids were with us in the room just messing around on their phones. I started getting into my Barton dish washing machine rhythm when, all of a sudden, she walked in right behind me and started screaming!!!! She told me to stop, wash my hands and sit down at the table! It was so funny!!!! I learned why I shouldn't do that now!!! 

But, after we had some awesome visits!!! We visited a family with a less active son. We talked to the mom a lot, Vera. She has a disabled daughter. We listened to her and gave her comfort. It was so awesome to see Bernardino and Maria da Paz in action. We also did some service for a member this Saturday. We painted the inside of her house. We had Bernardino, Amélia's son Abraão, the member's son, and our recent convert, Mário. It was pretty fun actually!!! She gave us lunch after, and we might be able to help more later this week.

I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week!!! Love you all tons!!!!!
Elder Barton

1) Handsome Elder Barton and his paint brush at Amélia´s house

2) a crazy bug we found!!!!

3)Elder Ray made me dinner yesterday!!! He´s such a super star!!!!! so thankful for him!!!!