Barton Family News

Lots of work in the office this week. We had so little time to leave and visit people! Its very different being in the office. Its a different kind of work. I feel like it is a great opportunity to learn. I'm learning a ton from my new companion and the other missionaries in the office with me. They are so amazing!!!! They are seriously such great examples to me! Elder Hawkins is super awesome!!! I love how patient and loving he is. You can see how much love he has for the work and the people by the way he treats others.  We got to leave yesterday and visit a member family and an investigator. When we got there, they were so nice to us, and the member family had invited another neighbor to be there. It was so cool! they all said they'd go to church and all. As we were leaving, the member, Cordêncio, stopped us and and told us to come with him. He then presented us to another family that lived by! The family said they'd go to church too!!! Super exciting!!! This memb...

Hey there!!! Surprise!!!! So, now that I'm working in the office, that means we don't have pday on Mondays; it'll switch each week. I hear it is usually on Fridays or Thursdays. Sorry about that.  It was an interesting week. Of course it was just Monday a few days ago, but there were still some pretty cool things that happened. Before I left the Azores, I called as many people as I could, pretty much the whole branch and some investigators, and thanked them for all they had done for me and encouraged them to keep being the awesome people they are. It was pretty sad; I'm not gonna lie. That island had been my home for a while. I had grown to love the people there. Our recent convert, Tiago, got to do a video chat with us and his member girlfriend, Inês, the second to last day I was there. We taught a lesson about the priesthood. At the very end, I told them the news that I was going to another area to serve. It got really quite and they both got super sad. Tiago wa...

We had a super neat week. When we had district council, Elder Carter gave us a little training. He told us how we could magnify our calling as missionaries and the importance of union. He told us how were were going to make the Azores the Cinderella of the mission. He got me super excited. Later that day, we called someone to confirm a visit we had scheduled with her. Her name is Juciani, she is form Brazil. When I started talking to her, she started sobbing on the phone. I asked her if everything was ok. She said that things weren't ok, made me feel sort of dumb asking that question :/ but that she was going to be ok. I just started telling her how God loved her and that He had a plan for her. She said thank you and we agreed that I'd call later.  We later were walking by her house another day and the thought came to me to call her. I did and she started crying again on the phone. I offered to say a prayer with her at her house. We got there within minutes. She came to th...

Hey Fam!!! Happy New Year!!!!!! So, for new years, we went and had dinner with a family in our branch. They were super nice. They have a son that returned form his mission not too long ago and another that is going on his mission next month. We shared a message about the atonement and how it helps us change and invited them to make goals that would allow them to become more like Christ. It was pretty neat. We contacted this super neat lady one morning. She had a super interesting question that I had never heard from anyone before. She asked why Christ would suffer for her. We gave her Alma 7 which explains what Christ suffered with the intent of explaining more about Christ's atonement and telling her about the Book of Mormon. She said how she had talked to the missionaries before at her friend's house about 20 years ago. I thought it was so neat how she could remember 20 years ago a short conversation like that. It goes to show how powerful being touched by the spirit can...