Barton Family News

Dear Family, First off, my prayers go out to Aunt Darci and Christian. I hope they are doing well and that they are able to make a full recovery. We had a huge conference this week. The whole south part of the Portugal mission met up in Oeiras... so, what would have been the Portugal Lisbon mission before they combined was all in one chapel.  We went up to hear from Elder de Feo. Elder Haper and his companions Elder Erikson and Elder Powell came and picked me and Elder Terron up in their mission car. We all crammed in and drove up for a few hours. It was fun to talk to Elder Harper. He was telling me how much he felt that his mission has changed him. I thought it was so neat. It made me want to work harder and get that same sort of change within me. Conference was packed with the spirit. A few things stuck out to me: comparison is the thief of happiness our faith should first be in Jesus Christ, not in our determined outcomes, we should trust that He has a better plan fo...

Dear Family, Another week flew by here in Portimão. Things are going great here though. I'm loving it here! We have a few people scheduled for baptism, some still need time to prepare. We had a pretty awesome visit with one of our investigators, Rafael.  A member picked us up and we went over to his house. He and his wife, Aline, made us Brazilian hot dogs! We had an interesting lesson with them. Aline is very catholic and isn't being super supportive of Rafael's decision to be baptized. We taught with a returned missionary named Martins. He is such a beast! He told us before the importance of helping her look at her faith from an outside perspective. He explained how her faith shouldn't come from the catholic church but from her relationship with God. We told them the importance of the family to God and of being united and keeping a gospel centered home. It was something different for me. Usually, I would just go straight for the money and teach the restoration...

Dear family, Sorry, this email will have to be quick. I don't have very much time today. I feel like the biggest highlights were talked about in our video call yesterday for mothers day.  It's been awesome here. I am super happy to be here in Portimão!!! I love my companion, Elder Terron. He is from Miami. I'm so happy to be able to focus 100% on helping others come unto Christ.  I know this is a very special time in my life that I will treasure forever. I'm so so thankful for that. I want you guys to know how much I love this gospel and how much I love what I am doing. Thank you for the continued love and support! I feel so blessed and thankful! Love always, Elder Barton

Dear Family, I hope you are doing well! I love you all soooo much!!! I can't say it enough! It seemed like the theme this week for me was simplicity. I heard once that it is the simple things that bring us the most joy.  I feel like I've seen that a lot in the mission now that I think about it. I've noticed that it applies to all things, even the things that I would not have expected, like simple conversations, simple study topics, simple dress, simple food;), simple moments, etc.  I feel like God is super simple. He uses simple and small things to make great things come to pass. I notice a lot in my teaching or even when I talk to people. If I go overboard on anything, it almost feel like the spirit departs. Even just when talking to people, there is a moment where I feel like that's enough. Of course there's the complete opposite though which is not saying enough. But, that was just something that was on my mind recently.  There was a neat moment this week wh...