the baptism, the phone call, and other

hey family sorry i am writing a little early elder huaracha likes to come to the cyber early and write his family so i am writing early and i figured i talked to you all 2 days ago and it doesnt make that big of a difference anyway. you all sounded super good and sounds like life is just flyin by at the barton house it felt kind of weird like it was just like a normal chat to talk to you guys and it felt like we were just having a normal conversation as if i was at home just at a friends house or something haha but ryan man that super sucks the hair just left ya, ya gotta get some cream or something, take care of your self a little more haha mary ultimate frisbee i think thats super awesome haha sarah is just now a little hawaiin, carly just becomin miss popular in highscool and is lovin every second of it, i loved highschool haha heather lookin like your shredding it up in your new job and i am sure the principal is going to extend your contract and megan i hope christmas was fun at your....in laws haha and more than anything i hope you all ate a cinnamon roll and breakfast caserole for me i woke up on christmas morning and just thought of cinnamon rolls and breakfast caseroles haha...delicous. so yea i got to my new area yesterday right after the baptism we got in presidents car and picked up our stuff from the house and we left just like that, i was kinda mad a member invited us to have lunch with them and mari a little luncheon type deal but president couldnt and he was our ride but its ok president has given me permission to go see mari 1 or 2 a week so thats super cool!! ummm but the baptism went super well we had another visitor along with president heaton, the temple counselor showed up with his wife haha he was out of town and looking for a church to go to and found ours so he just walked right in and was there for the baptism haha super cool not a better way to spend christmas morning than with a baptism. so my new comp is elder hauracha from lima, peru. he is a cool guy really relaxed and really just is willing to work which is all i can ask for really. my area is huuuggggee maybe if you wanna look it up on google or something you would have to put paso molino and you will see some pretty good stuff i imagine haha like i said there are areas i cant go into at night as well as i have been adviced to walk around with a watch haha and a crappier tie and without money, basically i am suppose to look as bummed out as a missionary can get haha. but i was walking around it yesterday and there are some pretty nice places here thats for sure and im excited, i hope to be here for a long time i hate moving around i thought at the beginning of my mission that i wanted to move around a lot but after time its just annoying i just wanna stay in one place for a long time haha. but yeah so the baptism turned out to be a huuggge hit mari cried and it was pretty cool!! ummm i dont know what else to say haha just yeah this week is just gonna be getting to know a lot of people my comp, members, my district. so im pretty excited im just excited to get settled in and know wthe best way to work here haha. thank you for the soduku books and everything i love them as well as the candy its all good good stuff. so yeah i think thats about it thank you all so much for everything you ahve done for me and i love you all sooo much have a good new year if your going to little america hope you enjoy it!! so yeah talk to ya next week!!! -elder barton

cambios, la navidad, BAUTISMO

friends and family another change has happened. and this is probably my weirdest one yet haha so president heaton has decided to close rio de la plata for missionaries for a while he doesnt have enough missionaries and the place is a disaster haha so i have been called to cerro 17 the most dangerous area in the whole mission haha sue dont worry elder harris just got done being there for 4 changes and got out just fine haha but something pretty awesome is that me and elder hall have a baptism this sunday...christmas!! its pretty awesome she is great and really is a good person, she has asked me to baptize her and so she is getting baptized on christmas morning! so i am going to go back to rio de la plata on sunday morning and baptize her and watch her get confirmed it will be the first baptism the area has had in about 2 years...miracle and president heaton and hermana heaton have both decided to come to the baptism so that is pretty awesome!! but it also complicates things a little bit for the phone call i am gonna be pretty complicated on sunday i dont know if i will be in my house here in playa pascual or in my cerro 17 house so i am planning to call you guys at about 4 here so i think thats like 12 there unless you want me to call later??? and from there i will tell you guys the number and you guys will call me right back so i dont have to pay just like we always do :) but yeah so my week was pretty good just teachin mari everything she got an awesome revelation that the book of mormon and just smith was a prophet so its super awesome to feel like im just really doing my job as a missionary and it makes my testimony grow so much more of the church and the growth the church is having worldwide. my new comp is elder barracha i have no idea where he is from to be hoenst with you i think he is from peru but i am not completely sure i am really excited to have a latin comp i think its so much fun to speak spanish day in and day out i really love spanish and am gonna miss speaking it day in and day out. definately something i will keep up when i get home, but yeah i am super excited to talk to you fools on sunday i hope all is well hope you guys have a good dinner and santa clause comes full with presents i cant believe i am about to go through my second christmas as a missionary its a once in a lifetime thing and both mine have almost happened to me, i now know why the lord sends us kids out here to serve him you just learn so much about everything and its just so weird to see also how the lord prepares us for the people we are going to teach before the mission. mari, the lady that is getting baptized on sunday is a sheer latina twin of you sue it reminds me of you so much everytime i talk to her and she always has her kids and kids of her friends running around the house she loves singing, she has the same blunt sense of humor and everything and i really think just i was sent to teach her just cause of the mom god gave me its all pretty crazy and something really really cool to watch happen before my eyes. but yeah thats about it from me i will TALK to you guys on sunday! i will call at about 4 o´clock here and i am excited to here your guys voices and i might have a little skype connection we will see when i call i will tell you to get on skype or just call me!! :) alright fools peace!!!! -elder barton

Christmas Miracle

hey family! so not gonna lie this week was the best week of my time here in playa pascual as well as one of the best of my mission haha. it all starts with saturday, we had service with an investigator so we went and did service with him which i love service here on the mission haha and after he wanted to give us chori pan (mark maybe you remember what chori pan is i dont know how to in english) but we had a cita with an another investigator already so we told him we would be back in an hour, so we went to our next investigator who is a gourmet chef that use to live in the united states and he made us bagel sandwiches with bacon (sue you know how much i love bagel sandwiches) so we eat those and go running back to our service guy to eat chori pan, so we go we are just running on the ruta haha we were so late like an hour just me and elder hall books of mormong only in our hands running down the side of the ruta it was hilarious haha so than we eat some delicous chori pan and go to the lunch appointment we had with a member and ate milanesas (a food of uruguay that i love) so we basically just pigged ourselves out haha so walking stomaches absolutely llenisimos we get back to the house. we recieve a phone call from a member that she has a friend that wants to know the church and wants us to give her a church tour at 5...sweeeeettt. so we go give a family of 4!! a church tour and they love it! so we invite them to church and everything the next day....they came!!! so now we have a lesson with them on wednesday and we are going to invite them to get baptized and everything!!! and on top of it all the investigator we did service for came to church and a contact we made in the street came to church...haha pretty awesome stuff!! so basically to say saturday was one of the busiest days of my mission and me and elder hall came home and fell asleep while giving our pray to start planning haha but it was totally worth it and im totally stoked for this cita on wednesday. but yeah im doing pretty good anyways haha im excited to talk to you guys on the PHONE i decided i just cant do skype i think it would destroy me to see you guys haha so we are gonna keep it old school.im thinking about calling you guys here at like 3 or 4 so i thin thats like 11 in the morning there if thats a problem just let me know and we can switch it around!! sorry elder barton is a loser i know haha so yeah this family we are planning will get baptized on beautiful christmas day haha just like that talk about the lord just handing you a baptism a fruit of labor that i have needed for a while haha but yeah i hope you all are doing good the snow is treatin ya well, sarah gets to come into town thats awesome. but yeah so it was an awesome week down here in the guay for elder barton, i love you all and will talk to you next tuesday but this week are changes!! keep it krispy, love you all, un besito ;) -elder barton

some beach soccer

waaaatttttt uuuuuuppppp!!!! hey guys how are you all doin!!!!!???? hope it was a good week, sounds like its getting pretty cold up there that mega sucks but ay what can ya do right haha. my week was good, it is just getting hotter and hotter. It was a kinda of a typical week in terms of missionary work here in rio de la plata, lots and lots of knocking doors probably did about 9 hours work of just sheer contacting and knocking doors, its about the only way we can find investigators here and investigators that we desperately need haha had one really really cool experience actually, so it was saturday night and we had been contacting ALL day we had no set citas we had no set anything and we needed to find desperately new people to teach so we put down x-investigators from the area book and everything and literally everything fell. i think we did a total of 50 contacts, so its about 830 at night and im just ready to go by food for the next day and go home for the day when elder hall just being mr. talk to everyone haha says lets just get this one more house so me being exhausted and quite frankly a little bit of a bad attitude follow elder hall and we knock this door, we talk to this guy and he lets us in and we find a family of 6 people....miracle haha we had a pretty good chat with them about what we believe and they accepted the book of mormon! said they are going to read it! and soo we will see what goes down with them when we go by again. ummm also today p-day we went to the beach as a district and then these 2 guys asked us to play some soccer with them, so we played some beach soccer with them for a good hour and it super made me miss soccer and playing with my friends haha but it wwas absolutely beautiful loved every second of it after they took a picture of us they loved how we were all from different parts of the world, honduras, puerto rico, usa and everything so it was fuuunnnn!!. and yea so things are pretty welll chillin here just workin hard prayin for a baptism haha but i know im giving it my all and i hope thats all the lord can expect of me haha and i least i go to bed every night just exhausted so i dont feel to guilty haha but yeah thats all from elder barton keep it krispy peace -elder barton

chau November

another months has come and gone! and I am currently sweating like crazy here in this cyber right now haha it is sooooo hot!!!!! and with the ocean right there it is just humid and you cannot escape the humidity haha. this week was good we really worked hard to reach our goals and just be the best missionaries we could I feel like at the end of the week in terms of reaching our goals we didnt have the best but i can honestly say I gave it all I could me and elder hall were both just drained and practically fell asleep in sacrament meeting and sunday school haha the stake presidency came in and really dropped the cane hard on the rama saying that this rama has more potencial than what its showing and that we need to fill the chapel every sunday haha so hopefully that motivated the members a little bit to get up and magnify their callings, i dont know why but the lord certainly loves giving elder barton tough little ramas to work with haha but its all good i have learned a lot and i know the will only serve me for my good in the end. december is here and that is pretty crazy i remember my last phone call last christmas that doesnt feel all that long ago and I think I will be talking to you guys before I know it haha but yeah we have zone conference this week and i will get to see elder harris there i havent seen him in like 9 months so it will be fun to see him he has exploded to be a great missionary and is really having a lot of success on his mission, and the competitve michael barton is getting nice and competitive i never thought i would get competitive during my mission but you know michael barton when the competitivie blood gets going haha its something I really need to work on but i really am happy for him he really deserves it he is a great guy and a great missionary and deserves it all. so yeah school ended this week which makes it nearly impossible to find people at home EVERYONE is at the beach and no one is home haha watching people come and go from the beach not gonna lie kinda makes me trunky haha and i cannot wait till i can go to the beach haha but its ok in time in time, so yeah thats just whats going on here SUMMER is in full strike school is out and me and elder hall our sweating/working like crazies out here in playa pascual haha but yeah i hope you all had a good week and that everyone had a good thanksgiving i love you all so much thank you for the prayers and everything they are definately needed. love you all with everything i got. -elder michael barton

the low down on playa pascual(rio de la plata)

word. so apparently i didnt give a very good update on my new area haha. i live in a house with just my companion my district is about 1 hour away from the rest of the zone...so im kinda out in the middle of no where again but not really haha my area is basically 3 little towns playa pascual, santa monica and another city about 25 minutes away called libertad. its a tiny rama that hasnt had a baptism since last march and have only had 3 baptisms here this year, all of which are inactive haha so it seems that president heaton has yet given me another challenge in terms of an area thats a really good baptizing area but its all good nothin but learning and challenges haha we are not riding bikes we are walking all of it and it is starting to get really really hot again i cant believe 2011 is over its pretty crazy to think about! haha and yes after a couple days i did finally get my voice back haha so thats always good but yeah so thats really the area but so far i like the area and the members are pretty good, my only true complaint is president, he kinda knows us as missionaries come and go and so he doesnt really show the est effort to try to get to know us or try to help us in anyways something that i never really liked on my mission just members that make you feel so temporary and so not of value haha never really thought of it like that before the mission but its true we do come and go as misionaries but he can still make somewhat of an effort to try and help/get to know us haha but yeah thats really about it from here its just getting hotter and hotter im loading the pictures on to the pendrive right now and sending it off this week so you guys will get to know salto elder jones young with elder terault and elder brown hope you enjoy them! and november is flying by ha its prettycrazy christmas is right around the corner! but yeah i hope you all are doing good and enjoying life thats something i have learned here on hte mission just to enjoy life haha and take it for what its worth i see people that just work from 6 am to 10 pm and that just does not look fun to me haha and it looks like they are miserable so yea enjoy life and live it for all its worth! have a good week talk ot ya soon! peace keep it krispy -elder barton

playa pascual

alright so I am here in my new area and so far so good I really like it a lot its just a little beach town down here in the department of san jose its not much of a beach but igual its a beach and its pretty cool I really like it a lot haha. its a little branch going on down here with about 25 to 30 people showing up every week. not a whole lot of support we have from the members but once again thats just the story of my mission haha the branch president is really cool, really rich haha he has a pool at his house he has a daughter that studied at byu for 4 years and speaks perfect english haha and his son is off to chile next month to serve his mission! there are some other families in the ward that our really cool there is a member that looks like a huge hawaiin guy and acts like one too he always says to up whattssss uuuuppp elders haha and its just about the only english he knows haha he is pretty cool, elder hall is in his third change and has just about as much excitement to speak spanish and work as anyone i have ever seen haha sometimes he doesnt have any idea what people say and he just goes off haha and gives a complete opposite answer to the persons question haha its funny so it should be a good change with elder hall. this week i had a tragedy happen. i lost my voice haha. i showed up here to playa and i literally couldnt talk so its kind of a problem when your just is to talk to everyone you can and you cant haha so i was a little frustrated the last couple days not being able to talk to anyone. also elder hall doesnt know the area quite as well as he should and we kinda walk a little lost and often walk innappropriate circles and back track a lot its a little annoying but we are both getting to know the are little by little haha i dont really like changing areas its kinda annoying i wish i just knew the area now but with time it will come i know so yeah thats just about it from me just got to the playa and working hard and its starting to get nice and humid here by the beach. but thats about it for now i will catch ya´ll later! peace

SUMMER TIIIMMMMEEEE and IM ON THE BEACH

family and friends of elder barton changes have once again come and i have the information to tell you what is now happening to me. I am headed down to MONTEVIDEO. in a area called rio de la plata or its known in the mission as playa plasqual. so its gonna be interesting to be more in the city and not have horses around me when im outside we will see how it goes! and the bonus of it all is elder peterson was just there for 5 changes haha and he informed me that the beach is about a 10 minute walk from the apartment...hmmm elder barton and the beach and summer time, it could be a good one haha my new comps name is elder hall he is in the same group as elder brown so elder brown met him in the MTC and says he is a really funny outgoing kid so it looks like i scored in the topic of companions once again i have really been blessed in my mission to have good companions obviously i get along better with some better than others but for the general i have gotten a long with them all so im excited to work with elder hall and get to know montevideo a little bit! but yeah these last couple days were just going around saying bye and giving thanks to everyone as hard as young has been for me its so bittersweet leaving here i got to really love the people and all of them have taught me something that i want to apply to my life when i get back no wonder the lords sends 19 year old kids to do his work. that god he sure is a genious. but yeah so its pretty crazy me and elder browns time is done it went by so fast and i feel like he trained me more than i trained him. he is an awesome guy and i think we will stay in touch for a long time so yeah i will send the pendrive off with pictures and you fools will have some new pictures to look at in a couple of weeks you guys will know salto, elder jones, young, elder terault elder brown and a lot more people that have changed my life for the good. umm so yeah i dont know if i look fat or skninny in the pictures you will have to tell me i have hoenstly looked over them and i think i look the same! haha so yeah thats basically all thats going on with me is im going over to deo and we will see what goes on there! i hope you all had a good week and i will be writing you fools before you know it on monday! haha word peace, keep it krisp - elder barton

gosh danget my pants!!

wassss suuuuppp family feels like yesterday i was sittin here writin to you fools but here we are again! so this next week are changes but they are weird changes so i wont be emailing until next thursday is what they tell me...haha it could be a long week 10 days without a p day haha but we will see how it goes down. but yea this week was good we have a really good investigator that we found as well as found 2 incompletel families one with like 5 kids and another just his wife isnt a member so its pretty exciting thats always the best way to get baptisms is through those less active members and stuff so yea but unfortunately thats all in the 2nd branch so the 2nd branch is all stoked on missionary work and they are really supporting us and its really awesome but on branch 1 we got nooottthhhiiinnn haha so we are gonna try and get that side of town runnin a little bit more this next up coming week and we will see what goes down. but yeah it kinda sucked cause we had a really good week in terms of lessons in stuff but one lady had to go to montevideo to see her friend that has cancer so she didnt come to church nor did anyone else so we had the most lessons that i have had here in young but come sunday we failed haha but its all good we are working hard its kinda crazy that my time with elder brown is coming to a close and that it was 2 changes. looking back it feels like it was just a day haha but yeah so my pants....we went to go knock a door and something had to me that was pretty bad....a dog devoured my knee just came up and bit me nice and good shredding the pants haha so i was than forced to walk the rest of the day with my torn pants seeming as we were about a 45 minute walk from our house so i looked pretty stupid and than on top of all that i got the hick ups (dont know how you spell that) so here is this gringo walkin down the streets hickuping with torn pants haha i could have only imagined it was quite the scene and in the moment it was quite funny haha but yeah elder brown is doing super good his spanish is mad improving and he is breaking out that shell to afraid to talk to people and talking more and more which is great but yeah so im thinking my time here in young is winding down and im off to another area which is crazy cool and im pretty excited to see if i reap in some of my blessings from young in my next area it has been quite sometime that i have seen one of my investigators get baptized haha and its gonna be awesome when it does happen finally haha so yea i hope you all are doing well and that school isnt kickin everyones trash but yeah i love oyu all and i hope ya´ll be keepin it gangsta, with all my heart haha elder michael barton

POR FIN!

yo what up family, so in terms of pictures i am going to wait till the end of the change which is in 2 weeks to see if im leaving or staying young and if i leave young i will be taking lots of pictures and than i will put them on the pendrive and if i stay in young for another change i will just send the pendrive off without most the pictures from young and you will have to see them later but yeah so im waiting so that if i leave young you guys dont have to wait to see the pictures from here. ummm yeah it was probably my most successfull week here in young to be hoenst with you, we have an investigator with a bautism date!! my first one in young haha it was pretty cool she came to church with a member yesterday and i thought we would be having sacrament first but actually we show up and president changed it to the last hour but our investigator had told us previously that she could only stay for the first hour so i was pretty pist haha so after relief society she leaves and im pretty bummed but than all the sudden she comes back and just says i can actually stay a little longer..hmmmm (spirit?) haha and she turned out to stay the rest of the 2 hours haha!! it was pretty cool she is a really shy kidna timid person and she doesnt really talk a whole lot so its kinda hard to knock what she is thinking and feeling haha also after church she left immediately and i have yet to talk to her to see how church was!! haha we are gonna run over to her house tonight though. i gave a talk in sacrament meeting, just about jesuscrist and about KNOWING him not just talking about him but feeling his love and power of the atonement in our lives and i just invted everyone to look to know jesuscrist i think it turned out pretty good and i proved to my self im still the same....a baby...i cried. haha so yeah it was pretty awesome but unfortunately for me with my michael barton bad luck this change is only 5 weeks long due to some leader conference that president heaton has to go to so if i leave young i will not be able to see her get baptized...theme of my mission haha elder brown is doing super good his spanish has mad crazy gotten better haha and he is just learning to enjoy himself more and more elder brown isnt much of a talker or neither just he like to open himself up to people haha but lately he has really been opening up to people and talking it was funny last wednesday we went to go get our laundry from a member and i just said to him alright elder brown im not gonna say a word and you are gonna have to do alll the talking elder brown says 2 words to the sister clothes and thank you haha i talked to him how we gotta be a little more nicer than that as missionaries haha so than we had to go look for a member to bring to a lesson and i told him again im not gonna say a word and your gonna have to ask how her day was and all that haha it was pretty funny. we also had a pretty experience with another member we were gonna go on divisions with the branch 2 on friday so we are sittin there waiting at the church and only one member shows up....a crazy guy named barufaldi haha and we are just like oh gosh so we went and did his visiting teaching with him and just it was quite the funny experience haha me and elder brown are convinced that he will be bishop when the 2 branches combine so we always joke with each other every time we see barufaldi saying uh oh here comes bishop haha but the guy was just doing his priesthood duty it was awesome. but yeah that is really about it this change only has 2 more weeks in because of the shortness so that is pretty crazy weird, feels like it just started yesterday. and i think i will be leaving young as well, young has byfar been the toughest area for me but i have also learned a ton and have really learned to love everyone here and everything but i guess we will see what happens in 2 weeks! hope all is well with you guys and the time is going by fast for you as it is for me i feel like october just barely started, and we are already halfway done with it...crazy stuff alright fools thats all from elder barton hope you all keep it gangsta like a true barton would, love you all thank you for everything. elder barton

one year

BARTON FAMILY!!!!!! whats crackin gangstas!!! im doing suuupppeeerrr good down here in young. as we all know i hit my year mark this past week....kinda trunky i know but i am proud of my accomplishment haha.
and along with all that we have found 2 pretty dang good families to teach here in young!! we have lessons with them tonight so i am super stoked to see what happens tonight!! but yeah i hope they are the blessings we have been waiting for haha ummm yeah and i dont know its super weird i LIKED the mission but ever since i hit htat year mark i just LOVE the mission now haha one its like i have gone half way i might as well finish it now and 2 i dont know its just like a light just flicks on or something haha me and elder brown had a slight little party that included 2 cakes and a pet frog.....yeah it was pretty whack crazy haha to be hoenst i dont have a whole lot of time so this message is kinda brief i know i suck but things are just getting warmer and warmer down here in the guay as well as young i think is starting to really turn around its just the greatest to pass trials and see the fruits right away haha. i hope you all are doing good happy birthday megan what more could you ask for than a husband haha i still cant believe your married thats craazzzyy and than yeah i hope the NBA doesnt play this year so i dont miss 2 seasons haha but i hope you all have a good week i gotta run!! love ya all and keep it gangsta krispy!

Conference

what up gangstas, i hope you all enjoyed conference and found some type of counsel or advice that you all can apply to your lives I most certainly did seeing how a lot of it was on mission work and what better place to apply that than on the mission!! haha so yeah i learned a lot and i really enjoyed it. me and elder brown got the conference all to ourselves haha it was pretty funny everyone else was in the chapel listening in spanish and the chapel gets an internet connection so me and him were in the primary room listening to it alone in english haha it was pretty funny kinda cool experience. yea other than that with changes and conference this week the week flew by we actually had some second visits with some so so investigators and we were pretty pumped to finally get a second lesson with somebody that is only about the 3rd time that has happened to me and elder brown haha so yeah ummmm other than that not much happened, i was thinking of sues breakfast caseral when we had to wake up at 7 am to catch a rerun of the priesthood session haha and i wanted nothing more than a nice little bit of some breakfast caserol so i hope you all enjoyed it and ate a couple slices for me! and yeah as im sure you all know in 2 days i hit my grand year mark! the year has gone by pretty fast but looking back on all the events it definately has been a year haha just like every rm explains the time in the mission goes byfast but it has definately been the time it has been haha so im pretty pumped to start off the second year and i hear the second one goes by pretty fast so i guess we will see what happens with that i will be putting pictures on one of these pendrives pretty soon here probably send it off next week and you guys will be getting it in about 2 weeks and i know you guys love pictures but to be hoenst as my mission goes on i just am lazy and dont take a dang picture or forget my camera but you guys will enjoy the ones i have taken to see my comps a little bit of salto you guys havent seen salto yet and a little bit of young, so yeah thats just about it things i think are starting to turn around here in young i can feel it i think me and elder brown have now past our trial of faith but we will see what really happens pretty soon here!! but yeah i hope you all have a good week with studys and im sure sue is makin up a cake for thursday when ihit my year mark jaja word love you all, keep it gangsta, keep it barton status. thanks for everything!! Elder Barton

just as expected.

word. so just as expected and its almost guaranteed for every trainer. I stayed with Elder Brown here in Young for another change.they are not bringing in 2 other elders so that means that we will be running Young again. Which I am totally pumped and excited for, I feel like the trial of our faith is starting to end and we are gonna start to see some fruits of our labors here pretty soon...i hope haha it seems like week after week we just work harder and harder and we still have yet to find any real solid investigators so i guess all we have to do and all i know to do is work harder haha i dont know if the lord is tryin to test me or something but i have definately been tested it seems like my whole mission finding investigators was just easy for me and my companions we could find 10 people easily every week and now here we struggle finding 6 haha but i do know next bautism i get or anything i am not gonna take it for granted haha i am gonna love that baptism with all my heart haha i wrote andrea, the lady that we helped quit smoking in rivera this last week and she wrote me one of the best letters i have ever recievedfrom anyone in my whole life haha just saying how i am an angel to her and stuff it was pretty awesome to recieve a letter like that and it just inspired me even more to work hard. so yeah thats my change stayin in young with brown and im excited we are becomingbetter friends every day.so yeah i was up on divisions this last week with elder baugh our zone leader who is finishing his mission he is really cool we are good friends and it was just fun to talk to him about his mission he gave me some really good advice and stuff that i will always remember. ummm this next week coming we dont have to much planned just same old same old we will see if we can finally find some good investigators. so yeah josh poo hicks got his call to here that is soooooo sick!!! i hope i see him do you know if it is my mission or the other mission. remember im in the west mission. that made my day when i heard that he wrote me an email i will write him up a letter ASAP but yeah so everything is chillin down here in the guay i hope you all are doing good. oh one more thing haha it is getting freakin hot here i think i forgot how hot it really was last summer these last couple days have been killers haha but its greeat super better than the cold haha but yeah peace fools alma 13:24 preach the gospel

this week.

well folks feels like i was just saying this yesterday but another change has ended and so i will not be emailing you until next tuesday!! haha sue you can mark that off your on your trunky calender haha. so yeah this week was good, I really really really wanted to meet our goal of finding people this week and so i tried to kinda take it into my own hands haha seeming as how the members arent helping much and we just knocked about every day for 3 hours but to little success we still didnt meet our goal haha we definately cleaned out the area nice and good which i guess is good but we defiantely havent recieved the fruits of our labors yet haha but we will see what goes down this week, im staying up here in paysandu until thursday with elder baughn the zone leader just for divisions and elder brown is gonna go down to young and work see what luck divisions can bring us now haha, we had a zone conference last wednesday about faith and how faith is just what its all about not only in the mission but just in life haha than we also had stake conference this sunday and after all of young went to a park in paysandu and ate lunch it was nice to just kidna of kick it back with the 2 branches together and take a 2 hour lunch without feeling bad about it haha cause our bus to get back to young didnt leave till 230 so yea just enjoyed some nice milanesas with the branches and played ninja in the park haha, elder brown is doing good i like to think im helping him haha his spanish is getting better and better and he is starting to crack out of his shell a little bit with me and learn to enjoy himself a little bit more which is always good,, so all in all this week was good filled with lots and lots of doors getting shoved in ourfaces haha but we will just see what happens to us this week!! but i love you guys all so much thanks for everything! i miss you guys and hope you are all adjusting well to the changes life has brought the barton clan! peace elder barton

mission

hey family so yeah you better believe it another week has come and gone just feels like I was emailing all of you fools yesterday!! But I mean just another typical week here in Young, very little people wanting the message haha Young has definately been my toughest area thus far in my mission and I cant help to ask myself what I am doing wrong, but at the same time I know im trying my hardest and thats all I can ask of myself and so I guess its all good haha. Being a trainer definately makes you have to elevate your game and elevate your ability as a missionary especially when your comp cant talk to anyone yet haha but I know elder brown is tring hard and he is constantly studying its just a matter of time and he will be speaking better than me im sure. So this week I went on divisions with elder rodriguez from el salvador and it was a good time divisions are always fun just to change up the routine and see how other people work, and I got to meet elder rodriguez a little better he is a super cool kid. this week coming we have zone conference up in paysandu so i think we will go up to paysandu on tuesday night and spend the night with the zone leaders in their house and have zone conference that next morning zone conferences are alright kinda boring and long but its always nice just to see other missionries and have a nice from the hermana heaton haha ummm so yeah oh yeah the bikes also kinda got abandoned seeming as elder brown is 6 foot 7 i soon realized it might just be easier for him to walk they really dont make stuff that big down here in the guay haha so yeah we have been rockin young by foot and young has been kickin our butt i dont think i have ever been so tired my whole mission a greeny comp and a whole city bad combination for elder barton haha but its all good it makes the days go by super fast. but yeah sooo thats just about it from elder barton, i still have a full head of hair, and still relatively the same weight so mark take that im not getting fat and with summer kickin in here its just more likely that i start to lose weight here in a bit thats right i survived the winter without gaining weight haha its definately starting to get hoter and hoter here and it just seems like i tackled last summer and now here it is around the corner but hey its good haha i think christmas is gonna be here before we all know it and that will be insane. but yeah so all is relaxed from here down in the guay with a full head of hair and the same stomach i left with haha. i love you all and thanks for everything you do for me! definately could not be doing this whole mission thing without the prayers and thoughts from you guys, this has definately been quite the journey and one of the hardest things i have ever done but yet the funnest haha. so yeah peeeaaaccceeee -elder barton

happy birffffffffday....

alright everyone happy birthday to mark to start offf biigggg ol´ 5-2 haha that is crazy fool!!! happy birthday big guy. my week went well, just kinda worked liked crazy haha come saturday night and neither of us could even stay awake, we were hungry from our fast, tired from the day haha and both dying of sleep it was funny haha still not the biggest fan of fast sunday...what can i say i like to eat haha but yeah me and elder brown worked pretty hard and elder brown is starting to crack his shy shell so thats good we are getting a long better and better each day.we were invited by a family this past week to attend their church on saturday and if we went to their church they would come to ours, so saturday for about an hour we went to this church called church of god, it was a fine meeting just all normal i think a little part of me was waiting for something crazy weird but in the end it was totally normal and cool haha and i just realized how similiar our church really is to other churches, not to much different but i just realized between it all is who has the authority to do all these things, which comes from our man j-money smith (joseph smith) and how he truly was a prophet and god really did give him the priesthood so yea that was kinda of the lesson i learned this week that everyone that goes to church is sincerely trying and worship in very similar ways but just like everything else it just falls on the book of mormon and joseph smith. so yeah that was fun i guess to go to another church and just see what other people thing of god. this week i believe im going on divisions with my district leader elder rodriguez from el salvador, should be fun elder rodriguez is a super good guy and good missionary im excited to learn from him. so yeah me and elder brown are traveling up to paysandu tomorrow it will be nice to see some other missionaries it feels like i havent seen anyone but elder brown in a while and i guess it has been like 2 or 3 weeks which is quite a bit of time i dont know haha. im gonna be honest i dont really have to much to say just that same as always just working pretty hard with my new greeny comp haha and trying to help him out, make sure he is having a good time.its weird to see someone in the same position i was in just a couple of months ago which feels like yesterday but he says he is having fun which is always important just to have fun. the weather is starting to get hotter and hotter here as summer slowly comes our way...thank goodness im getting pretty dang sick of winter and waking up to a freezing cold house its actually descent weather to wake up to now days and i realized how white i am from being covered up all the time haha so im excited to get a little tan and hopefully lose some weight, i dont think i have gained any weight but i definately have lost just about all my muscle im doing pushups and stuff in the morning but i dont think its serving me much haha. but yeah i hope you all are doing well and that everyone is adapting to new things are home, you better now throw away my couch i will kill someone and so yeah keep it krispy and real gangsta talk to ya next week. elder michael barton

August is over.....WHAT

wow so this week agust is over and it feels like yesterday I said to myself wow its august 1 now it is nearly september 1st haha buuut yeah this week was fun, I am really enjoying in being a trainer and seeing the progression in elder brown, even in the last week he is speaking better spanish and his teaching is getting that much better as well. and I am just glad to know I can help on of the lords servants become a better tool, elder brown reminds me a toonnn of chase, in the sence that i will catch elder brown doing things when he is alll by himself and i will just say to myself what in the world is going through that kids head haha he is a true farmer and not to rag anything on farmers but just not the brightest tool in the shed. and its pretty awesome i kind of just wake up every morning and say to myself man what in the world is elder brown gonna do or say today, haha the funniest thing that happened this week is elder brown just forgets he is a spanish speaking world, we were in the grocery story and he was buying his groceries and he just starts talking to this lady in english for a good 30 seconds while this lady is just giving him the blankest look and as elder brown stares at her waiting for her to respond the both are just bewildered one cause elder brown is wondering why she isnt responding and 2 she doesnt understand what just happened haha. we went out of the store and i tried to hold it in but i just bursted out laughing he laughed about it too so now i kinda crack a joke whenever he goes to talk to people just saying to him now remember elder she doesnt speak english haha so yeah but in terms of the missionary work....YOUNG IS TOUGH. haha i was talking with one of the branch presidents yesterday at church and i wanted to reassure him that we were working hard for his branch i mean we have yet to have an investigator in church and he was just all yeah i know its tough and i can see you guys are working hard, so thats always good just to know that the im working for see´s that im trying my hardest haha my last 2 areas it seemed so easy to find a good 10 new investigators a week but here in young the most i have ever broken is 6 and its just been a definate change for me to having relatively good success in finding people to teach and lessons a week to having very little succes and when we find someone its just the biggest miracle haha so yeah young has been rather tough but im getting use to it and im having fun still which really is what goes down to it if i can come home at night and say i gave it my all and i feel good about myself thats all i really care about haha and so for i can say that i have given it my all haha. but anywho school started this week that is pretty freakin crazy summer is already over but not gonna lie im glad its over that means i only have one more summer to miss without boating, and doing whatever i want haha i was super nervous going into summer scared i was gonna be trunky the whole time but it flew by so thats just fantastic haha. but yeah i hope everyone is doing well with the new changes with their lives, school, moving out, the barton house is basically empty.....WEIRD. so yeah i guess my year mark here in the mission is getting closer and closer and they say that the second year goes by faster than the first but the first one has gone by pretty fast so im kinda scared to be honest with ya. but yeah thats the report from elder barton this week just working hard with my big ol idaho farmer buddy in the middle of no where in uruguay. hope you all have a good week and i will talk to ya later!!! peace, keep it krisp.

I'm 20.....

well whether you want to believe it or not....your son/younger brother/older brother/friend elder michael barton is 20 freakin years old haha. i still feel like im 15...i am not longer a teenager i think im having a quarter mid life crisis haha its suuupppper weird im 20 years old. but i guess life has to keep moving on and keep living haha but i will be hoenst i am grateful that i am barely turning 20 and i almost have 11 months on the mission i am super grateful i just left as soon as i could and the time has absolutely flown by. but updates so i am training this change...a 6 foot 7 inch farmer from idaho, elder brown. not gonna lie he isnt the brightest bulb in the bunch but he really has good desires to do good and serve the lord which is all anyone can ask. but i have loved having some type of responsibility in the mission, you really feel appreciated and it really just gives me motivations to be that much more obedient and work that much harder to know that president is trusting me with one of his new missionaries so its a pretty good feeling and im scared/excited cause it makes the time just absolutely flllyyyy by. these last couple days with us having to know a whole other side of the city have just felt like minutes and that is always good haha but yeah as for elder brown he is pretty cool everyone is just in absolute shock at how tall he is they wonder what we eat in the united states to get so big.haha but yeah as for my birthday down here in the guay i didnt really tell anyone it was my birthday a lot of people struggle here as it is to put food on the table and the last thing i wanted was to bug people with my stupid birthday to give me a cake haha maybe i will tell some people tonight. ummmm so yeah i think school starts this week i hope everyone gets off to a good start...suckas have to study haha rybart that is pretty sick about moving out and sarah im sure is off to hawaii by now. thank you all for the picture that is the first picture i have seen of you fools since i left, carly has chaned the most and looks alll grown up its kinda creepy, and ryan is rockin a sick shirt. but yeah so this past week i went to montevideo to get elder brown from the temple we ate lunch with president and just enjoyed our selves i saw elder peterson for the first time in 9 months so thats always good and also one of my other good buddies elder morris that i lived with in salto is training so i got to see him he has turned out to be one of my best friends. than after that we had to do a bunch of stuff getting the bikes and all that jazz so this week was a lot of getting to know what was going down in the other rama as well as getting elder brown from deo super busy which is good oh we also had to go up to paysandu for district meeting but all that is over so this next week is pure working and pure hard work and i know elder brown is excited and that makes me excited i really want to give elder brown his first baptism, and so yeah with all this new missionary stuff it also includes an hour of study extra which kina sucks but it has actually helped me personally a ton just to practice and study more always helps and the extra hour absolutely flys by. so yeah thats the story with me just mad chillin with elder brown in young solo and this week the change really gets going so yeah. peace out keep it real from your 20 year old son and brother and friend haha peace

a kid, a bike, oh and a city

heeelllllooooo family!! so I recieved my change last night and its definately the biggest change in my mission. the president has called me to train a missionary as long as he is taking the other 2 misisonaries out of young...yes me and my kid will be the only missionaries here in young running 2 branches out in the middle of no where haha. luckily they are giving us bikes to stomp young down with the gospel. all in all I am super super super pumped now I am gonna be out here in the middle of nowhere on a bike!! with a kid that is just gonna be so ready to work his butt off and be the farthest thing from trunky!! I am nervous whether he will be a gringo or a latin, I would love to have a latin just for the fact of practicing spanish and speaking spanish all day long but also having a gringo would just be grade A fun to see where I was, go to his homecoming help him out with the spanish and just all that jazz haha so yeah who figured my gift from president heaton would be a city, brand new comp, and a bike!! haha so i will probably be spending this next week getting to know the rama 1 and we leave tmrw morning at 3 for montevideo to pick up my kid from the temple and all that jazz so busy busy week for me and it should just be a busy change which is absolutely fantastic i have really been feeling lately i have to get more lost in the work and thats when the time goes by fast, and just this last change the desires to work werent there and when we did work i just didnt feel worthy to recieve help from the big guy up stairs so i am just stoookkkeeeddd for this next change and feel pretty lucky that president trusted me with a kid and a city haha. but this past week was really sloowww with my elder tereault finishing up his mission it was just a slow week haha but there is always something you can learn and after i have killed 2 people on my mission i have vowed never to be like that when i am finishing my mission haha so yeah thats from elder barton i am training i have 2 ramas to take care of that means 6 hours of church on sunday!! you fools could barely get me to church for 1 hour back at home haha look at me now!! but yea the rama 1 is super cool lots of coool families and nice people that i have already met a little bit but i will get to know even better now that i am actually working with them.so yeah that is absolutely crazy everyone is moving out of the house!!! hwaii, downtown, provo the little barton clan is getting all grown up but no i am super happy for you guys i know ryan has been wanting to move out and sarah going to hawaii is crazy and heather probably getting an upgrade from her ghetto pool haha and i cant believe summer is over already!! i have definately learned a lot about change on my mission since im basically just living out of a suitcase there is just always something we can pull out of change, problems and all that so yeaaaa learn and progress from these changes!! figure out what you really want in your life and who you wanna be tmrw. wow that was pretty deep someone should write that down haha. but yeah i love you all make some pumpkin pie for me for my birthday!! i cant believe im turning 20 i still feel like im 15 haha i only have one more week of teenage living.....:( little mb is growing up!! but yeah i love you all talk to you nexxt monday this week is gonna fly by for me haha take care gangstas.

changes!

welllllll nother change has come and gone!!! yes this next week i will be getting a new companion and obviously staying in young which i am slowly and slowly starting to like and learn to love the people, sa i get to know them more and more our branch president is an absolute stud. i went on divisions with him this last week and got to know him a little better it was fun. elder terault got sick this weekend...so we ended up going home early on friday saturday and sunday. this change has made me realize yea its easy to just chillin in the house but the time just flies when your working hard and it might not feel like it or be the easiest thing to do but its the best, i feel beed when we do contacts now and stuff just because i know as a companionship we are not going everything we can be doing and i dont feel worthy to have the guidance of the spirit so im excited to kinda of get a fresh new start here in young, and im thinking im gonna be senior comp this next coming change so im excited to have things a little more in my hands and we are gonna work like crazy haha. its just the best when time flies. so yea that is pretty much what is going on on my side of the world. just gotta fight through another week of a trunky companion and hopefully i can get him to work a little bit harder for his last week in his mission i guess we will see what happens to us..haha yea that is crazy austin left the mtc this week feels like he just barely got here even though im sure to him it feels like a lifetime haha and thomas is finishing up the mtc with a birthday thats pretty cool im super happy im 10 months into my mission and its just barely my mission haha starting off the mission just sucks haha! but yea tomorrow we have a branch activity and i think elder tearult is playing the guitar and im singing...solo haha i will be sure to take a video and you fools can laugh at me when i send it home in 2 months haha but to be honest latins sing terrible and anytime there here a gringo sing with the slightest potencial of music potential they love it so im thinking im gonna be a start if i throw in a little bit of michael barton magic...with out dancing. haha so yea changes and a solo singing this week thats all i have to look forward and im tryin to sneak in a chance to milk a cow with a member but every time i go over there for lunch he is at work so he cant take us to milk the dang thing. but sarah i hope your surgery goes well and i hope megan gets well soon, heather finds an apartment and suckas!!! schoool is startiinnnggg haha tht blows just one more shcool year and im home its gonna fly haha. alright take care i love you all!! have a good week. my birthday is soon coming!!! chau chau elder barton

finishing winter

family, so yeah you all got surgeries, plans for school, plans to move out. I hope all went well with megans surgery and that she doesnt have to go back in december that would suck!!! and ryan i hope you move out with friends cause that would be sick!!! but what the heck am i gonna do when i get home i got no one to live with haha. and thats crazy the realities of sarah moving to hawaii are getting realer and realer thats pretty awesome haha. my week went good. elder terault every day gets trunkier and trunkier and the desires to work get less and less but i made a little deal with him, haha that we can pass by less active members and see what we can do through them. and it actually worked really well just cause we already have the relationship with the people and its not as casual more casual. so we found quite a bit of people to teach through that. and i always knew thats the best way to get baptisms and find is through members but also knocking is necessary. so im thinking we are gonna be doin that for another 2 weeks till the change ends. than me and my next comp can hit the streets hardcore and get our knock on. see if the lord has any miracles waiting for us....but yeah thats basically how my week went just trying to get terault work just the same as all my other emails haha but thats basically the story of my change with elder terault. he said he might be getting a little sick to so i think he might try to pull some bull with me this week to stay in the house...but it aint gonna happen haha. so yeah thats about it from here winter should be ending pretty here seen in about or week 2 and you bet yo bottom dollar that its ending strong, these last couple nights have been freeeezzzziiinnngggg haha feels like every morning im camping. but its all good its all part of the experience of the mission and just more blessings...i hope haha. yeah i honestly dont really have anything to say to you all. this email is super short and super boring i know. i guess i could say to you guys please do your church callings. just for the missionaries sake if people actually did their church callings we could have a lot more baptisms and bring lots more children of christ to him through baptism so do your visit teaching cause you never know who needs you in that moment and the lord can only work through you when your out and about doing what you know your suppose to be doing. and something that i have discovered that i have a couple of experiences about is there is not a better feeling in the whole world, when someone is glad to see your face, when you make someone feel good, or just all in all your an answer to someones prayers. what an awesome feeling it is to be able to change someones life, week,day hour, doesnt matter what it is. it just feels awesome. i love you all and keep it gangsta this week......my birthday is soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!! just so you all know. haha

uruguay no mas

hey family, greetings from uruguay another week has just flown by here in the guay. this last week we had interviews with president so we traveled up to paysandu to have our interviews and to talk with president to see what he wants from young. its always good to talk with president hear he just has a way of getting your spirits up and getting you motivated. things with elder terault are the same...just gets trunkier and trunkier as the big date comes for him to leave. his desires to work just get lower and lower everyday and when we are out and about its kinda just him following me around. its kind of like the part in the best 2 years where the older guy is just all takin pictures while the other one is working super hard and just all by himself. its kind of how i feel just im trying to get lost in the work trying to make something happen here in young and my comp could care less and is just leaving the house to work cause he knows he is suppose to leave. so im hoping these next 3 weeks will just go by fast and i can have a new comp and we can perform miracles here in young. i really feel like its primed up for one. young has been my toughest area the people are hard to love, and so its hard to serve them haha so in that sense its been super hard for me just to love the people and be excited to serve them. I gave a talk yesterday in sacrament meeting about faith hope and patience i think it went pretty well i shared the story of abinadi and just what faith and pacience he had with everyone and because of him alma was converted which resulted into a good boatload of people converting to the church than just how with the patience at times we dont see the fruits of our labors but one day we will see them and that is just one of the best feelings ever. and than if you guys dont know....uruguay won the copa america!!! the game started at 4 here and we have church from 2 to 5 so it was pretty funny the people that showed up which were very little, where just on cell phones texting friends and neighbors tryin to find out what happened haha. after church we went to a less active members house that we are pretty good friends with and watched the 2nd half. its sooo much fun to watch games with uruguayos they are just so patient and love the sport so much it blows my mind. after the game there was a huuuuuggggggeeeeee party in downtown young we went just to see how it was, i took a couple videos and it was pretty crazy i cant wait for you guys to see them haha. people down here know how to party. and so yeah they beat paraguay 3 to 0 you best believe i will be writing a letter to carter and cam rubbing it in their faces haha. so yeah thats just about it from elder barton, trying to help time fly by and with the win of uruguay yesterday afternoon it was pretty insane haha but yeah i saw pictures from the wedding at the temple looks pretty cool!! thhat was the first time i have seen you guys in pictures since i left so that was cool to see you guys you all look older (except for the beautiful exception of sue =) ) so yeah dont be growing up to much on me barton family! but yeah im out of here! love you all! have a good week and enjoy that summer sun! chau -elder michael barton

Wedding

hey guys its nice to hear that everything went good with wedding. to
be honest i didnt get a whole lot of info about the dang thing just
that everyone had fun and everything went smooth. so yeah i guess
there is not really much to tell when it all goes down nice and smooth
haha. i hope someone danced for me and ate some four cheese ravioli.
wednesday i went on divisions with elder cerna from honduras and i
spent a good amount of the time thinking about the wedding and hoping
it was everything our little princess megan wanted her wedding to be.
so yeah my week was alright just kinda of pushing elder terault along
these last couple weeks, but he is pretty trunky and pretty set on
talking about home and his restaurant he wants to start. which is all
good and stuff but i dont know home is just a topic i dont really like
to talk about it just makes me trunky haha i forgot how hard it is to
kill people off in the mission and lucky me i get to do it twice haha.
but yeah the time goes fast and we are already going into the 3rd week
of the change...halfway!! so yeah just gota plug it out till the end.
young is hard its an area with very few less active members as well as
active members to work through so basically its all the missionary
just knocking doors and hoping for a miracle. which it sucks cause as
im sure ryan known knocking doors sucks and the time goes by super
slow haha. so yeah really not anything at all to report from here.
just glad you guys had a good time at the wedding and mark got to go
to lake powell. why do you guys say its raining all the time but
whenever my friends write me they sayitss sunny....haha weird but yeah
thats the report from elder barton this week and young not much at oh
yeah we have interviews with president this wednesday up in paysandu
so that will be fun to talk to president its always fun to talk with
him and let me know what he thinks about me and stuff. so yeah peace
out have a good weekk!! talk to ya next monday

I will talke a 4 cheese ravioli

yo yo yo yo family hows it crackin in the 801!!! wow the wedding isfinally here it feels like i got the letter of megan just the otherday saying she was engaged and now here we are 2 days away from thebig day!! how are we feelin? nervous? excited? scared. its foreternity haha. i hope the temple didnt freak our little miss megan outhaha hahah i remember my first time i felt like i joined a newreligion haha so yeah i got to young safely. and i soon found out mycomp is going home early for school and so this is his last change inthe mission. i have the lovely opportunity to be his last companion.elder lopez all over again, talks a lot about home, doesnt necesarilyhave the strongest desires to work and just that kind of stuff. aftertalking to my zone leaders i guess president thought i did a good jobwith elder lopez with him finishing strong he wants the same for elderterault, soooo here we are im killin another missionary, but there isalways something you can learn from every comp and i am just going tomake sure we work. on top of it all young is known to have reallyreally disobedient missionaries just because it is clear the heck outhere and there is no one watching them and so they think its ok, so ishowed up and they literally did not work last change which means verylittle investigators haha starting all over from scratch in thataspect. in terms of the branch its a tiinnnyy branch we had 20 peoplenot including us in church yesterday and about 14 of them are oldladies above the age of 70 haha so lots of work to be done here inyoung, but its all good the area is huuugggeee and there is a lot ofdoors to be knocked and a lot of opportunities to find people. justgotta get out and find them! i gave a talk in sacrament meeting atlast minute the branch president just announced that i had a talk insacrament meeting without giving me any type of notice haha i guess ishould have known better since i am the new missionary here. butluckily we are here with 2 other elders. elder mace from st george andelder cerna from honduras. its kind of funny we hold our districtmeetings just in our kitchen and its just us 4 always together whenwere not proselyting. so yeah thats where elder barton is right now,middle of now where with a trunky companion and no investigators hahaits all good i love a challenge and there is no where to go for youngbut up haha president wrote me and said that he wants me to fix upyoung nice and good so i will see what i can do in that aspect ofthings. but yeah so i hope everything is good with you all and thewedding i cant believe its already this wednesday. sue save me adance, rybart dont get to skanky out there. hope you all enjoyyourselves, its a once in a lifetime opportunity just eat a piece ofcake for me. dont worry about your son and brother im mad chillin herejust tryin to keep it krispy myself. chau chau

The Ups and the Downs, The Smiles and Frowns.

alright well another change has officially began and i am now going into my 6th change. pretty crazy how time flies. so to hear the most absolute fantastic news!!!!!!! the 2 families that we are teaching came to church!!!!!!!!!! haha it was quite the story, we do sacrament meeting last and no one had yet to show up and i was just thinking there like nooo way this is about to happen again to me and elder jones we worked so hard this week and not less than 24 hours ago both of the famliies said they were going to go right to our faces. so we were sitting there in sacrament and it was about to start when i saw a glimpse of a little baby all bundled up through the window and I said to myself if that was a normal member they would just have came right in to the sacrament room, so i of course when outside to see if it was really them...and sure enough the little baby i saw was little milagros or they call her mili for short. and the rest of the family was sitting right there in the front of the church!!!!! heck yeah i was unbelievable stoked out of my freakin mind so we go sit down they had already met the family piedad so we sat next to them and were having a good time me and elder jones were just lit with joy. than about 15 minutes later a member comes up to me during the meeting and tells me someone asked for me outside. so i go walking outside....and their is the the other family!!!! who had missed the omnibus to get to church so they came by foot which is a good 45 minute walk easy...WOW you can only imagine how good that freakin felt!! so there we are in sacrament sittin with 2 families and wow it was pretty phenomenal. after the meeting all the members came and greeted them and they were super excited. after they left we had to stay for a meeting after church and just the whole ward was so excited to see 2 new families in the ward that day and just a spark of the missionary work that me and elder jones have been trying to get was just sparked later we passed by both families that afternoon and they both absolutely loved it!! and our getting baptized on the 22nd of this month!!! me and elder jones had worked so hard and it felt good to see the fruits of our labor and what a beautiful day that will be on the 22nd.......whoever is there with elder jones. im leaving salto. not gonna lie i am pretty freakin pissed off haha i dont even care if i had to do another change with elder jones if it meant staying i would definately do that in a heart beat. it has been super hard to say bye to the people i love here, i feel like with every area im just going to love the people more and more and more and i absolutely love salto. it sucks saying good bye i hate it. i realized i get far to attached to people haha. but yeah as for me i am off to a city called young, its in the department of rio negro, but it is the only city in the whole department and its a tiny branch out in the middle of no where it belongs to the stake of paysandu, but i wont be in the actual department of paysandu probably for the whole time im there. and i think i will be sittin there for a pretty long while to be honest. my comp is called elder terault, he is from ogden i believe and he only has this change and the next change on his mission left. so i imagine he will be finish his mission with me...yeah. i dont know maybe president feels like im really good at helping people finish their missions strong i honestly have no idea im not really lookin forward to it to be honest but i will see what kind of work we can get done down there. and i imagine after elder terault i will be bumped up to senior comp. i am kinda confused elder harris is off to train and elder miranda and peterson all got bumped up to senior comp this change, so everyone in my group except for me got moved up. one can help but to ask what am i doing different than them haha. but just one of those things you learn on the mission humility. and i guess its in the lords arms. i decided the lord has just chosen me to be a fixer uper on my mission, la pedrera was filled with terrible missionaries me and elder tippets and elder hernandez cleaned that up and when i left they had 5 baptisms, salto obelisco my ward now was known to be the worst ward as far as the missionaries goes in the whole mission, me and elder jones cleaned that up and he will have a minimum of 6 baptisms this next change. and young as well because it is out in the middle of now where has a really bad rep for having bad missionaries that do nothing cause "no one is watching them" so i am off to clean up young it looks like haha. but yeah thats the update from elder barton, 2 families in church obelisco is exploding right now and im off to do the lords next project for me, young. i love you all megan good luck at the temple!! just remember it still is the mormon religion haha mark be careful with that shade bra "worlds smartest dumb guy", and i will talk to you all next week i love you all! take luck!

change numero 5

barton family and whoever else is reading this email, things went super good this week things absolutely flew by and it feels like i was sittin here just the other day writing to you guys, we had lessons with all of our investigators this week and we talked to all of them about going to go church.....watched the joseph smith movie, shared testimonies, brought members just about everything preach my gospel tells us to do. we did. and sunday comes around...no one shows up. haha i just have no idea at all what to do anymore me and elder jones have been thinking for a long time and really hard about what we need to say, do , tell them and we feel like were doing it. the hardest part is we are not even inviting them to church anymore. they say they will go before we even invite them again. haha it blows my mind, but hopefully our hardwork and obedience will kick in here pretty soon for the next change for whoever stays. thats right changes are next week already, so i will not be emailing till next tuesday next week. im really excited for changes being with elder jones for 9 weeks has been good but its definately that time for us to seperate, now the little things are starting to drive me absolutely bonkers haha i sound like a huge prick i dont know what it is but yeah its definately time to get a new comp haha. we did have a cool experience though, we were walkin on the way to lunch and a lady stopped us on her vespa and asked us if we knocked some ladys door yesterday that we had knocked and so we of course responded yes and she said she wanted us to come back so we went back that afternoon and it turns out her 19 year old daughter had died 3 months before and wanted to know where she was. and she always saw us in the road but we never knocked her door and she always wondered why haha. so we went by had a prety dang good lesson with her and i guess we will see what happens with her! i have been thinking alot. the mission is just a 2 year scavenger hunt you have to be patient and patient and patient doing what you know what you should be doing as a missionary and than when the moment comes its awesome, there is no greater feeling than being a living instrument in the lords arms or being an answer to a prayer or something its pretty awesome feeling. so yeah this week the last week with elder jones hopefully flies by and hopefully we get our peeps to church this next sunday haha. so yeah im glad to hear people are busy with different kinds of camps and just work summer is in the air over there. wedding plans are getting nice and official and its only 2 weeks away, wow that is pretty crazy!! so yeah i hope all is well with everyone. have a good week. keep it nice and gangsta

hello and happy fathers day

family and friends, i have attached a photo to this email just cause i thought it would be good ol´fun it is the statue of artigas here in salto. artigas is the founder of uruguay and everyone absolutely loves that man haha. but yeah things are going good down here with me. me and elder jones had another week of hard tough work and when sunday came around no one came to church. 1 was because it was raining, i dont know why but when it rains here the whole country just shuts down. not even the members come to church so that was one of 2 things and the next thing is. it was a holiday it was the date when artigas the founder of uruguay was born. and all the kids have to perform a play in all the schools and it is required to do. unless they get a ticket....so parents and kids were all at their own seperate schools doing that. so yeah in priesthood corum we had us 4 missionaries and one other member there....haha solid haha. so that makes me feel a little bit better about the whole not having investigators go cause not even the members came haha. the house recently bought the board game of risk from our nearest super market and have been delightfully entertained by that for the past couple days and we just have a battle raging countinually so hey thats always good to have that little change. haha we also had a zone conference with 3 other zones salto, paysandu and mercedes. so we traveled down to paysandu this last weekend which required a good ol 5 o clock wake up time which was not to fun. ut the conference was with president foster of the 70 and he just talked about ways to be a better missionary and i really really enjoyed it he is a super good guy and a super good teacher, it was also nice to see the other missionaries and my friends that i hadnt seen in a while as well as it is always a pleasure to be in the presence of president and sister heaton they both are absolutely studs and everytime i talk to president he just makes me laugh. he is such a stud to be dealing with all that he does and to do it with a smile on his face the dude works sooo hard. fyi i never want to be a mission president haha. so yeah thats about it from me this week. this change is flying by which is kinda good the whole elder jones scene is kinda getting old, now its just the little things that start to bug me haha after 9 weeks the start poppin up haha but we will be seperated before i know it haha. so yeah things here are mad chillin. that sucks that its still raining there, summer kinda gota slow start people are now being their summer activites, camps, cruises whatever it may be. thats always good. the weather down here was suprisingly warm i rocked a short sleeve shirt everyday. woow so yeah happy fathers day mark keep being a gangsta and doing what you do best think so hard that you make everyones brains hurt. haha hope the spirit is with you guys always keep it krispy and gangsta represent our family name. elder barton ;)

summmmeerrrr tiiimmmmmeeee and the livin´s easy

family and friends, this week was suuupppeeerrr good. me and elder jones worked super super hard. we had some really good lessons and found some good people to teach. we found a family of 4 the family cuña and the mom of the family her sister is already a member of the church in another ward and has always had an interest in the church. so yeah we had 2 lessons with them last week and they were super good and we answered some questions the mom said she has had for yeeaaarrrsss. me and elder jones are pretty convinced they are going to get baptized here in july. buuuttt just like everything else in missionary work there is a downfall. they live a good 45 minutes from about everything, so haha we walk a good 2 miles to 2 and half so its quite the walk. but i already love this family and so its definately worth the walk. man im such a softy haha. also we found another family this week!!!!!!!!! but your not gonna believe this their a good family of.....11 haha yes. we only had one lesson with them this week but like the family cuña, they were super interested and we answered some questions about life in general and they seem to accept it right away. me and elder jones super wanna baptize them. that would be quite the baptismal service haha. but yeah so things are going super well with me. this change is flying by and im super scared that i might be bouncing out of here. its pretty dang likely. and i really really really dont want to at all. i love salto. and it feels like me and elder jones are barely starting to see the fruits of our labors. and if i leave i will be suupper sad haha. but thats what happened to me in my last ward. me and elder hernandez worked super hard i left and they just baptized all of our investigators haha and im kinda thinkin thats whats gonna happen to me and elder jones. im gonna bounce and him and his next comp are just going to baptize all the investigators we have now. which im totally cool with...but im still human i get jealous haha. so yeah the mavericks won!!!! thats crazy psycho. poor lebron haha. but i hope all is going well and everyone is getting a nice hot start to the summer and take the glastron out!! or aka "forever a piece of crap" haha i love you all so much keep it nice and gangsta. -elder barton

I'm Freezing...

the barton clan. down here in the guay it is FREEZZZZIINNNGGGG. i know i have no room to talk cause ryan served in canada and stuff but mark was right. you just cant escape it. there is no central heating of any type and the only time you are warm is when your in bed. the afternoons are tolerable but its so humid and windy since were right next to a river and the wind just penetrates you like a ninjas sword killing someone haha. so definately been throwing on more layers. and the worst part is we get to the apartment thinking it will be a little warmer and nope its just as cold haha so literally from the moment i wake up to going to bed its just cold. but a saying that me and elder tippets always said that i kind of like is well it sucks in the moment but after there just stories haha. so yeah enough whining from elder barton other than that things are going good winter is just steady approaching and it kind of took me by suprise. me and elder jones this week had to drop literally every investigator we had cause after a month of not going to church we just decided to do it. so this coming week we are basically starting off at step 1 and with a new plate. i guess we will see how everything pans out. so yeah president arnold officially dropped kane on the misssion. sports have been offically taken away from the mission he thinks we dont have time for sports on p days and we need to focus more. and since there is no sports we now have to walk around on p days with a shirt and tie......yeah that kind of sucks haha also we will never meet as a zone ever again. we just meet as districts in different chapels every week. they think if the districts are tighter there will be more baptisms. but hey i guess if these new rules come from from an apostole they come from a profet and which they come from the lord. so i guess we will just. me and elder jones with the little success have really been asking what were doing wrong. there are missionaries in this missoin that it just seems like they have to talk to people and their baptized mean while me and elder jones are obedient working our balls of and nothing is happening. we just came to the conclusion if we can come home at night and know we worked our hardest other missionaries in the future will enjoy the fruits of our labors,and we are content with that just as long as i know im working hard im content its just hard for me being competitive and all to work work work and than at the end of the week on paper have nothing done. i guess its all in the lords time and not mine and i just hope the lord is content with me right now haha and i know the lord will bless us for our work somewhere down the road. maybe not tmrw or next week maybe not even during my mission but somewhere he will haha. so yeah that sucks about toby and his teeth!!!! poor guy. there is a golden retriever that lives in our neighborhood i think of toby everytime haha but yeah i guess summer is now here!!! lucky fools enjoy it. hope wedding plans are going smooth with little fighting!! haha but yeah love ya all keep it real. elder barton

chau May

another month has come and gone. im sad to hear the weather up there is not changing worth a crap. you guys are gonna have a crazy busy summer filled with sun. and before you know it elder barton will almost be gone for a year!! haha thats pretty crazy seems like i just barely got here yesterday still. happy birthday to heather the big ol 26 thats pretty crazy fool. carlys shredding up the roads of the 801 with anything that has a motor and wheels it sounds like. hahaha thats awesome but be careful!! thats super sad to here about that baby but im glad you can provide some service and bring a little sunlight into a situation of darkness and mystery. my week was good down here in the guay. days are getting colder and colder the bed becomes more and more a pain to get out of cause the aprtment is so freezing in the mornings haha. and im just super warm in my bed. feels like every morning im camping haha. me and elder jones had a pretty cool experience this week. we were just walking down the street the other night and we had absolutely noooothing to do all of our appointments fell through and it was just about time to head back to the house. so we just decided to stop by this less active family to see how they were doing. we knock the door and the mom of the family greets us unusually welcoming haha we were both super confused we just sat there and chatted for a while shared a scripture typical thing and right before we were about to leave she just says elders i have a confession to make. and we just thought ooohhh boy haha she told us that 5 minutes we knocked the door she was praying to know if she should come back to the church and than we clapped. pah talk about crazy eh. me and elder jones just simply didnt have anything to do that night and we just decided to visit them. i think a lot of times as members we try to hard to work through the spirit and wonder what we can do to have the spirit with us. when all we need to do is just live the way were suppose to and do the things were suppose to be doing.me and elder jones were just being obedient doing what we were suppose to be doing and the lord worked through us. pretty awesome story. so yeah thats basically the talk of the town with elder barton here in the guay just had that really cool experience. were still working with this family emanual and ana and their 2 kids, milagros and manuel. they know the church is true and have seen a difference in their lives and they always tell us there going to go to church but they have yet to come pretty frustrating. we will just keep working hard i guess with em. so yeah school is ending, weddings bells are in the air, hope you all enjoy it. i love you all so much enjoy the beginning of summer. elder barton

changes, birthdays, farewells

so the big news...is not so big news at all. me and elder jones are staying together. as well as elder butler and elder morris. so the house is all staying together for another 6 weeks......kinda sucks but its kinda of good. just cause as a missionary changes are about the most exciting thing that come your way and since nothing happened it just kind of feels like a huuggee big change now haha. but hey its all good i guess nothing i can do. just keep working hard. as for austin and well the rest of my friends that are leaving here soon its super weird. just about the weirdest feeling on planet earth to be seeing these guys leave and are going to experience what i have already experienced these last couple months. they have no idea what there getting into, the mornings laying in bed thinking there is no way i can get up and work, the desperate prayers for strength. the hardest 6 months of my life i have ever been through that i dont think i would pay a dime to go back. all though i look back on it and just see good times and flowers i still remember those days. im pretty sure i spent the first 3 months out here in uruguay praying to get sick and get home haha. but its something that i think all of us as members have to go through a true test of faith a true trial. im so excited to see how they all handle it. and although being a missionary is at times nerdy, it definately weeds out the men from the boys and who can really hack it. i never thought the mission would be so physically challenging but that it is haha. than birthdays. carly happy birthday wow big 16 years old i had someone ask me yesterday how old you were and i said 14 haha than i realized nope today is her birthday she is 15 nope she is 16 haha woooww to me you will always be that little carl, take of the red phantom i give it to you unvoluntarily she drives well i hope still. so yeah as for my week went well. we had a couple of spiritualy lessons. we had a couple investigators that wanted to drop us this past week just cause they didnt want to or complete some of the principles of the gospel and it was really fun to be a tool the hands of the lord and listen to the spirit and say something and they just responded saying you know what your absolutely right i can do this. and the lessons turned from i can do this principle to i want to complete this principal and i will.so that was cool.the mission is making a lot of changes here. they took away our sports on p day yeahhh its gonna be a struggle. as well as just minor things with district meetings and such but thats the big one no sports on p day for this coming change. ha haha but yeah thats it from elder barton this week staying with elder jones for another 6....happy birthday to carl.....good luck for the first 6 months of the mission to austin and michael it feels like a life time haha i love you all and youj all are always in my prayers. good luck planning the wedding peace. keep it krisp

Change 4

Family and friends whoever is reading this another change has come and gone in the mission and due to this i will not be emailing until next tuesday. but things from the `guay are good. we had zone conference this last week. and i really enjoyed it we talked about the plan of salvacion and familys. as well we had stake conference and the temple president spoke and president heaton. and i really really enjoyed both talks very much. but yeah than we worked really really hard this week. things with elder jones are going fine. he is the comp that i get along with the least right now in my mission. he is a good kid we just dont have to much in common. and he is a little number hungry and a little to strict for me haha. like im an obedient missionary but he is the type of kid that freaks out if we were at a members house for 45 minutes or at lunch for 1 hour and 4 minutes. i dont know its different me and my comps have always been obedient but in a relaxed manner haha we are obedient but he is super strict haha. but anywho so yeah for changes i hope i get a new comp but i would love to stay here in salto. predicions in the zone say im going to the offices.sue we will find out if your prediction is right. but yeah we are actually teaching 2 families right now that im really excited about and we are teaching this lady and her daughter in law. it is a really long story between them and their family. and she told us this week she has felt a difference in her life since we started chatting with her and was really grateful so ya know its nice to see as a 19 year old piece of nothing im making a difference in someones life its pretty cool. but yeah im glad to here things at home are all good. and everyone is getting excited for wedding bells and summer. weather here is really hot during the day but it gets dark at like 630 and is reallly cold. but i have a feeling next change its gonna get nice and wintery up in here. obviously not snow or anything but nice and cold during the day. we will see what happens. so yeah sorry this email is so short. everyone be safe and have a good week. enjoy your warm weather. pull out the boat. its crazy the school year is already ending. wow. how fast does that time go by huh haha so yeah i love you all thanks for the support keep it krispy

mothers day.

so yeah seeming as how we talked just yesterday. there really isnt that much to tell and i forgot to bring my camera to send some more pictures so you will just have to wait. but yeah im glad you all enjoyed those pictures. and you guys can see the people that i met in rivera and kinda of funny having a horse staring into your kitchen as your eating dinner haha. umm so yeah you all sound a lot older and its only been 7 months everyone is growing in their own disitnct ways. it was super good to here from my homeboys austin and thomas. why didnt taylor loomis say hi to me!!!! thats kinda jacked but whatever. so yeah its weird that i have been gone for 7 months and there just barely getting out of there and its funny to know exactly what there gonna be going through these next couple months. the mission is the hardest, most tiring, at times dangerous thing on planet earth. i never thought it would be just quite this hard. but i have never had a challenge in my life and i definately need these 2 years. elder jones brother told me something cool he said. the mission wasnt the best 2 years of my life but it was the best 2 years FOR my life. and obviously im just getting started but thats soo true. i have already learned how i knew absolutely before the mission and how little and stupid somethings are but as a teenager you think its your entire world. so yeah the mission is the best, funnest, life changing experience ever. the key is just to recognize the little miracles and blessings everyday. thats something i have a hard time recognizing until someone says it or i reflect back on it and say wow that really was a miracle. so yeah all is good with me i love being a missionary, time is flying by. and i love you all take care of yourselves!! talk to you next week. your brother, your son, and i hope your friend. keep it krispy. elder michael barton

Mothers Day

hey family, so before i forget to tell you all. we need to arrange this i was going to tell you last week but completely forgot. so i will be calling at 8 o´clock MY time here in uruguay. I have no idea what time it is there I think its like 5? so yeah I am leaving that job up to you fools to figure what time that is there and also I will call like i did at christmas give you the number real quick and you guys will just call me back. I dont know what you guys have to do to call me back if you ahve to put numbers or whatever so yeah you all can figure that one out as well you all figured it out on christmas you can do it again haha. so yeah next sunday 8 o´clock guayan time. ummm what else yeah elder morris he saw real salt lake playing on tv and his dad told him all what was go ing on with them with the tournament and everything that super sucks!! but thats tight they are mad balling it up. i also heard the jazz got rid of d-will?? thats psycho crazy. but yeah all is nice and fally here in the guay nights are starting to get really cold the sun goes down at about 7 and it is nice and chilly. nights are starting to get colder and colder i might have to pull out the sleeping bag here in 2 or 3 weeks. I pulled out the good ol´ thermals yesterday thats how cold it was haha well i guess it wasnt that cold but it was definately nice to have them on. i also found out 3 days ago that 4 of our investigators that me and elder hernandez had in rivera got baptized on saturday so that was waaayy awesome to hear about those 4 people that i helped teach get baptized. but yeah things are just kinda going whatever with me and elder jones. we are complete opposites during p-day he is the type of kid that just sits there and doesnt wanna play any type of sport and i just feel bad cause im out playin soccer or whatever and just look over and see my comp sitting there i feel bad. so its just weird cause all the comps i have had just love sports and thats all we talk about and all that jazz haha but with him there is not much to talk about so i mean were friends and all and things are going bad at all but its just kinda of like a whatever relationship and i dont know he is kind of an akward kid haha in lessons and stuff i kind of have to take charge cause he just doesnt talk that much and so thats kind of different too. but hey its fine it could definately be a lot worse. so yeah things are all good with me i didnt really here from a lot of you today. im assuming your just all waiting for sunday. so yeah im super excited to hear from you all. it will be weird it definately feels like i just called you guys yesterday on christmas. but yeah how was everyones spring breaks? how is the weather looking in the good ol´ 801 starting to get warmer? pullin the boat out soon? mark im glad to hear all is well with you and your bike thing went well i can see you now scorching through the streets of new york with your front belly zipper on your biker suit chest hair soaring through the wind like a chickens feachers how magical. but yeah i love you all so much. thank you for the support. i will TALK to you sunday at 8 my time and who knows your time. wait for the call. keep it real keep it krispy.

members of the Barton family

dear family, hi, how`re you doin? fall here in uruguay it as full swing and i love it. the trees are different colors, the weather is a tad bit cooler during the day, and startin to get respectably cold during the night. but i love it. i couldnt think of being in a better place right now. i love salto i love the ward the only thing is we dont have anyone to teach as of right now. which is kind of a struggle and we spent a lot a lot a lot a lot of time clapping doors with little to no success. i hate clapping doors haha but i did realize this week how much of a miracle it is for someone to let 2 gringos that barely speak the language into their house and alk to them openly about god. i did realize this week how much i love teaching. in rivera we were getting about 30 lessons a week and i took teaching for granted. and now me and elder jones are teaching about 15 lessons a week. and i realize how much i love teaching and just talking with people in general. so yeah this week was just a lot of nothing but im still having a blast i love the other 2 elders in our house and i have just about half the ward convinced that i am from germany and dont know how to speak a lick of english haha. as well as everyone thinks im 30 years old....everytime i ask why they just tell me "i dont know their is just something about your face" haha but yeah we spent easter with a family called the family piedad they are a really famous family in the mission. the mom is known for being a "mom" amongst the missionaries and so she cooked up a lovely meal for the holiday. but yeah fools, hows spring in utah goin? brighton soccer how they doing? nba playoffs are goin in right now i walked into the terminal the other day and celtics were playin the knicks i believe. why isnt anyone filling me in on sports (mary) but wow april flew by fast and sarah will be graduating high school before we all know it. than uhhh megans day...haha than school will be kickin back in and i will hit my year mark haha but yeah thank you all for the love and support i love you all very much. mark tenga suerte with the 42 mile bike ride. the farthest you have ridden is 21 miles?? mark you have to ride double that...get it in gear fool. but yeah i dont have to much to say. love you all elder barton

Salto 2

famiy whats up sorry about last weeks email i was super busy and so yeah. elder jones has been out for a year and a half now and this is his first time being senior comp he is from mesa arizona and like i said he is just really book smart and just really likes to study and on the side of grammar he speaks spanish perfectly., we live in a apartment with 2 other elders, elder morris who went to woods cross high school and he played soccer and we know a lot of the same people in the soccer community so thats good and elder butler from price utah he has one change less than me and he is a super good kid. its interesting to see a lot of the members say i speak really well, sometimes better than elder jones which is a nice shot to the stomach for him haha. and none of these guys have had a latin comp before and im really starting to see the blessings of living with 3 latins for the past 4 months so thats pretty cool. so yeah salto, my area reminds me a lot of logan utah, its a small residental area with 2 busy streets and its really laid back. so i definately like it a lot different from rivera, as for traveling my area has the terminal in it so i never have to pay to the terminal also our district meetings our in our chapel so i definately wont be doing much traveling in this area. and since president heaton knows me all so well your not gonna believe where my house is located....right stickin in front of a high school. every morning im trying to study and i have some high school girl waving to me. yes elder barton. haha but hey its all good. so we had 2 funny stories this week. we were teaching this lady and her kid and we were talking about profets and i just asked do you know what a profet is and the little kid responded no but i know what a prostitute is haha i had to cover my face i just about died of laughter haha. than the other story one of our investigators went to church so after we went to his house and i guess his mom is super evangelic and so he comes out and is just all hey can we go to the bus stop so we were all yeah sure why not. so we had a descently good lesson with this good and at the end he was all hey can i give the prayer and we were just all absolutely you can give the prayer that would be awesome. so before he says it he asks for our names and i was sayin to my self wow this is gonna be good. so he is praying and my eyes are all closed and head bowed not knowing what was gonna go down i feel this hand on my head.and this homeboy was blessing me and elder jones with whatever power he thinks he has and this was right there on a freakin busy road i was just hopin somebody wouldnt come by and see some mormon missionaries being blessed by some homeboy on the side of the road haha. so yeah those were my experiences for this week. and as for the homefront. i feel like i have so little on the mission and everyone is changing and im gonna get home and not know or recognize anyone. megan is gonna have some homeboy, heather probably too, rybart who knows where you will be at. sarah will be all hawaii hooked, carly will be some mega sweet babe in highschool driving the cars and boys crazy, and mary is gonna be some ripped super star along with mark and his bike ;) and so thank you sue my true friend your not gonna change :) but yeah so anywho i guess change isnt bad i guess we will just see i still just feel like im little boy michael barton and you all will be grown up haha. but yeah im outta here i will TALK to you soon only like 3 weeks away. crazy. have a good week. take care of yourselves. keep it krispy.