Busy week coming ahead.

hey fam hows it goin up there in the 801??? things down here are going well, the weather is warming up so i cant complain, we went down to mdeo this last week with all the zone leaders me and elder gonzalez presented what we are doing in our zone and it turned out really well i had alot of missionarys tell me they liked it and learned a lot from it so thats always good to give a helping hand when i can haha, we also had another baptism this last weekend, his name is martin, he is the young mens president nephew, it was super awesome and the young mens president was super excited, martin is a goalie for his soccer team and we play soccer together every night and i told him i was a goalie as well and he thinks im just the most legit goalie there is out there haha he wants me to take him out the field one day and teach him more stuff haha i see a lot of myself in that kid its pretty awesome he is a super good guy. a lot of his buddies went to the baptism as well in cluding his mom, so we are hoping that the mom will now get baptized, and than all of his friends love going to church haha there is about a group of 5, 15 year old kids that just like going to church and playing soccer so its super cool the young mens class is just filled every week with investigators haha ummm this next coming week we have a lot going on as well, wednesday the senior couple is coming here to tacuarembo and we are talking them around to every missionarys house to do house cleanings haha makin sure that all the houses are clean and all that jazz. than thursday president heaton is coming with elder nygard my x comp, to do interviews, it will be my last interview with president heaton out here in the field so it will be interesting to see what he has to say to me haha i hope i have been a good missionary. i am sure he will just want to talk about the zone haha. so yeah thats whats going on here, i am glad everyone is hoppin into school good and that things are nice and normal back at home. the days are few now and i hope sue you can hold out till the end, i am trying my hardest haha. so yeah thanks for everyything love you all. keep it real. elder barton

23 months done 1 more to go

September 3, 2012 family whats going on???? all is going good down here in the guay entering into september my final complete month here as a missionary for the church, how crazy is that time has flooowwwwnnn by. the zone is looking fairly well for this month and according to my old comp elder nygard (asistant) he tells me that we have the best zone in the whole mission haha. but you all know me, elder barton i hate losing with a dirty dirty dirty passion so its better that i am in control of the best zone in the whole mission haha.this week all the zone leaders are getting together in montevideo and elder nygard asked me to talk about 20 minutes about how to be a zone leader and what we have to do in our zones so that everyone has success, not gonna lie its just one more thing i have to do and i dont want to but i guess i got no other options haha so we will see how that goes. we had a baptism this last week, she is the aunt of the bishop, she is a super cool lady mom of 9 kids we have baptized 3 of them but the rest are big and have their own families and live in the middle of no where here in tacuarembo like 2 hours from the city haha. so yeah the bishop was super happy and its nice to feel like i am completing my role as missionary bringing families together forever. we have also been teaching the bishops cousin, for about 2 months now she cant get baptized because she is living with a guy and they are not married, she got up and bore her testimony yesterday and talked about how bad she wanted an eternal family and how she has hope one day that her husband with want to come to church one day or for the least get married, it was super sad but at the same time super awesome to see someone really understand the gospel she has 2 little girls as well one we baptized and the other is just a little thing she has 2 years.other than that things are going good we had 13 investigators in church yesterday so we are expecting about anothe 10 baptisms this month and its not a bad way to finish the mission haha so i am pretty stoked sincerely just trying to work my tail off so that i dont get to trunky even though i think i am on the verge of death cause of how tired i am, when i am home i think i am gonna take about a 3 day nap haha i am BEAT. but i gotta do it for one more month than i am done haha i wouldnt want it any other way. so yeah tahts the news here from the guay, i love you all so much thank you for everything you do for me, keep it krispy. hast luego. elder michael barton

change 16

August 28, 2012 ok. family and friends i am now entering into my final change out here in uruguay and it turned out to be not a change. haha i am staying in my area with my same comp haha which is alright i am totally cool and down for it i have no problem, we have a lot going on in our area we are expecting about 9 baptisms so its awesome. this next change i am just really gonna focus on the missionarys and their areas and let my comp take care of our area. i have found that when i am helping others the time goes by a lot faster, so i am gonna be doing changes every week outside of my area just to try and get some of these companionships that got nothing to do...something to do haha. i am super pumped though cause my kid, elder brown, is coming to tacuarembo! so i am gonna be able to hang out with probably the coolest comp i ever had and i will get to see how much he has progressed in his mission so thats super awesome i am super pumped for that, the weather here is going crazy sometimes its freezing cold the next second its roasting hot haha so its kinda confusing and from what they should it should be that way until october, or until the end of my mission so all my clothes are getting a good nice last run haha even though just about all my white shirts are now yellow and all my pants are extremely faded from the sun that it looks a little ridiculous but hey what can ya do haha. so yeah this week went well just a normal week the assistants came into town or elder harris came into tacuarembo and gave the missionaries a training it was super good elder harris has become a freakishly good missionary haha and mom no from what he has told me his parents arent coming to get him we are gonna be walking home together in the airport haha "the walk" as we call it haha. umm than the rest of the week was just work work work tonight i am gonna be at the terminal until 3 o´clock than i have to go back at 5 o´clock haha it sucks but hey its the life of a missionary/zone leader. very little sleep i guess you could say i am use to it haha. so yeah all in all i am doing well, with plans to finish the mission strong. thank you so much for everything. i love you all and we will be in contact next week. thank you. peace. mad crazy love from a crazy wanna be uruguayan. elder barton

Birthday.

August 20, 2012 for those that are reading this letter, to be honest i have no idea who reads these emails anymore haha. my week went fairly well changes are next week so before i forget i will be writing you next tuesday haha president has been calling like a mad man to us about changes and what he is going to do in the zone and all that jazz, it looks like i am the only one from my group that is going to die as a leader elder harris is getting droped down from assistant after 6 months and elder peterson as well from being zone leader after 6 months, so for there last changes they are going to be getting bumped down and things would appear that i am staying as a zone leader to die...huh it will keep me focused haha. this week went fairly well it rained alll weekkk and the rain isnt to fun with a bike, but it just makes me appreciate the days when its pretty outside haha, the worst thing about the rain on the mission is just everything is wet and you cant put it outside to dry cause its raining so everything just stays wet until the rain stops haha so i have basically just been running around wet all week haha. we had 2 baptisms though one of the baptisms is the husband of a recent convert, he had to quit drinking and we helped him out with that and he finally decided to get baptized and the other one was a daughter of a less active member who we reactivated, its a single mom of 9 kids haha yeah the oldest has 14 years and the youngest 2 years so yeah its a pretty rough life she has got goin and it was nice to help her get back on jesus team to get some good ol classic jesus help. so yeah its my birhtday this next wednesday....crazy i am 21 years old i can now gamble, buy some booze and other things which of course we all know i wont do, but i could if i wanted to haha. like i said before in this email changes are this coming week, i am pretty sure i am staying with my comp to enter into my last change and i am hoping to finish my mission strong i have been around trunky elders on their last change and it really isnt the funnest thing to be around so i have plans to just work hard and finish strong until the end. i hope i can complete that goal. its crazy how fast these 2 years have gone by i cannot believe i am going home soon, i have seen so many missionarys come and go and i feel like it will never be my turn but reality is starting to kick in a little bit. i am gonna make it home one day, the battle has been long and rough but i am about to win haha. i am glad everyone is starting school up again, my last summer missed thank goodness and next time we get on that boat i will be present i cannot wait its gonna be awesome haha, the picture is absolutely awesome, even though its the same paper as last year haha. carly i cannot believe how much she has change that is absolutely insane!!!!! she is a little lady now and as for everyone else really you look all the same haha so thats good i havent missed to much. other than mark looking like he has got some gray hairs creepin in. watch out old man. so yeah thank you so much for the picture it has been a while since i have seen an updated picture of you guys, i think my last birthday was the last time haha so yeah enjoy school, work hard, be the best, and i will be talking to you gys next week. mad love, elder michael barton

the last testimony, and my 1974 green bullet

August 13, 2012 hey family and friendssss,,, so this week was my last and final...zone conference. yes. haha i dont know why i have never been the biggest fan of zone conference i just cant sit down for that long haha but it was super good i was in charge of lunch and all that jazz so i was pretty stressed out haha we as zone leaders had about 1 hour to teach our zone something so me and elder gonzalez decided to invite some recent converts and share their testimonys with the missionaries and tell them thank you, it was super awesome and everyone was crying haha we than talked about sharing our testimony with everyone and the story of brigham young and how he was converted to the gospel through a simple mans testimony. than later on in the conference as tradicion the missionarys that our finishing their missions give their last testimonys. and it was my turn haha kinda weird seeming how i am missing 2 months still haha so yea that felt really weird and trunky haha i still feel like i am missing a ton, but we will see. other than that the week went well worked pretty hard a pretty funny story happened, my companions bike broke so we went to go get it fixed but we had an appointment about 8 kilometros from where we were so we needed a bike instantly the bike guy loans us a bike that is from the year 1974 and glow in the dark green, seeing the rather worried look on my companions face i gave him my bike that ran a lot better and i had the huge privelage to go on the green bullet as i called it, here i am going in the mud in the mountains of uruguay on a bike that has one change and is on the verge of braking just pedaling with all my might haha. it sucked haha i got home that night just about on the verge of dying haha but my companion was very grateful for the sacrafice that i made so i guess that was worth it...only on the mission haha than after that their was a huuggge rain storm here on sunday and it killed all of us basically no one had people in church haha and yeah i really dont know what else there is to say just still working hard haha. i hope you all are doing well school should be starting up here pretty soon in the follwing week, that sucks haha. so yeah not to much more to say, i love you all thank you for everything..keep it real peace. elder barton

a looonnnggg time since that has happened.

Monday August 6, 2012 hey family and friends i hope all is well with everyone. things here are going well things are getting a little warmer in terms of weather so i am getting happier haha. this week waas good not really to much to tell i got 2 main key storys. the first would be, we had 3 baptisms on saturday!!! all of them are the cousins of the bishop so the bishop baptized them it was pretty awesome and now the mom of them or the aunt of the bishop wants to get baptized!! they were a reference from him and so it was pretty awesome, he later on told me that it says in his patriartical blessing that he would have the opportunity to share the gospel with his family members, so it was prety awesome he gave me a big hug and thanked me, it was pretty cool not gonna lie haha the bishop in our ward is an awesome guy him and his mom are the only members in his family he was baptized when he was 15 all by himself and when he left on the mission his mom got baptized so he has gota super strong testimony and we are hoping that there will be a chain effect on the rest of the family!!! nothin better than baptizing the family members of hte bishop haha. the next story would be my comp...elder gonzalez, got sick..super sick. and i spent 2 days in the house while he was sleeping....holy cow i almost died of boredom haha that when me missing music and tv really kicks me in the butt haha i have never had a desire so bad to jam out to some taylor swift haha i was on the verge of going insane, but he is getting better little by little and so hopefully we can work everyday this week. tonight the president is coming here to tbo for zone conference tomorrow, he is taking us out to dinner tonight with his wife to talk abot the zone and what is goin on. and also tomrrow in the conference me and elder gonzalez have about 1 hour to share something with the zone, i have invited some recent converts some not so recent converts to come share their testimonies with the missionaries and tell them thank you for the sacrifice they are making by leaving their houses and all that jazz, it is something that always pumps me up and i hope it does the same for the missionaries here in the zone. i guess we will see. i will tell ya about it next week haha. that is super crazy about taylor and his mission call leaving super super quick, lucky guy doesnt have to wait, and oklahoma that is like football city he is gonna love it there, i am pumped for the guy i wish i could see him before he leaves, maybe the next time i see him will be with my wife hahahahahahahaha JUST KIDDING. so yeah thats whats up with me, i love yall thank you for everything, if you need anything just let me know ok. and i will do what i can, take care, mad love. elder michael barton

Bein' the big Boss Dawg

July 30, 2012 hey family and friends hows it goin for ya´ll out in the 801!!!!!!!! here things are going pretty well i am enjoying my time with my paraguayan companion and i am kind of realizing that my time of speaking spanish is running out...pretty sad i really really like speakin another language haha. but yeah things this week went well, Workin like crazy i am starting to feel the diference of bein Zone Leader 1 than 2, its weird to be known as the big boss dawg in tacuarembo. i went off divisions and i had a bishop call me that haha super weird but its awesome this little town of tacuarembo just knows me as the bigg stud of the missionarys which is a load of crap, thats why its hilarious haha. so yeah all is normal here really nothin to new just workin my tail off. i got to take that missionary out that i wrote about last week and i just wooped him on the bike it was a blast. than the next day we went to another town about 14 miles away that a missionary hasnt been there or about 1 year haha it was super fun, we found a really awesome family and i hope they progress in the gospel. the bike is really sticking to me i think i am really gonna get into it when i get home, plannin on doin a trip from SLC to st Geore on the bike. that would be pretty awesome haha. but yeah its gettin a little warmer here but not really, the day is fine but the night is freakin freezin haha. so yeah thats really about it from here. I hope all is well over there i didnt really here much so i am just assumin people are busy with activitys with the summer and doin all sorts of fun things. its gonna be awesome to live with ryan i cant wait i am stoked haha. so yeah i love ya all thank you for everythin. keep it krispy. hasta luego. elder barton

changes

July 23, 2012 hey family and friends so here is another quick update on what happened this week my new companion elder gonzalez from paraguay is awesome he is super awesome and really relaxed guy and i have already learned a lot from him we get along super well and i am pretty sure i am going to be finishing my mission with him prettty weird to think i have gone through all my mission companions that the lord has chosen for me haha i hope i learned what i was suppose to from them. mom you had a couple questions, the pig was from the elder corums he has like 12 and we killed the biggest one, we just fried the meat and i cant remember the other question you asked haha.this week went fairly normal with changes i was in the terminal until 5 o clock in the morning than i had to work all the next day i was pretty beat haha took a lovely nap today cause of it. so yeah tomorrow i am pumped a new elder came into the zone that is pretty dang prideful he is from costa rica and is 23 and doesnt listen to anyone i guess i am gonna bring him with me tomorrow and work him into the ground haha i cannot wait its goin to be fantastic and we will see if he gets humbled up and gets things going in his area. other than that all is good july is flying by the 24 is tomorrow that is super awesome i hope you all go to cottonwoodheights and wach some fireworks, time is flying by. so yeah that is insane everyone is moving out there at home and that is fantastic that ryan is gonna wait for me haha we are gonna kill it with our own apartment i cannot wait. so yeah other than that all is good and dandy here in the guay, and time is flying. hope you all are doing well and are enjoying your summer. elder barton

I am officially a man

July 17, 2012 well this wednesday i took one of the biggest steps in being a man. we went to our elder corums house and we helped him pay for his trip to the temple....how did we do this....we killed a monster of a pig. yes with a knife and an ax. yes we hit the pig with the ax in the head to stun the daylights out of it than we stabbed it right in the throat while it was stunned...i am a man, i personally than had to carry the dead big pig over my back to the place where we would skin it. we boiled up some water and would throw water on it essentially burning the hair and taking the rest off with a spoon haha yea than we shaved it and all that jazz. we than continued on to skin it with a knife, that was new i learned how to skin an animal and it was actually relatively fun, later i had the grand privelage to help fernando, elder chorums president, to gut it out we opened up the body and just cleaned the sucker out completely haha. and than he gave us some of the meat to take home and cook...it was delicous haha it was really cool though he told us that the money he earned from selling the pig was the just perfect amount to get him and his family to the temple and he was super super grateful for us and what we did for him. ok that was the cool story of the week. now changes......i am going into change 15 (second to last) elder nygard is getting out of here and i am staying and going up as zone leader 1, yes the big boss dawg. my new companion is elder gonzalez from paraguay, i met him once he is a really really good guy and it would appear that he will be my last companion here in this great adventure in uruguay. i have the goal to work my tail off until the end of my mission as well as learn guarani with my new paraguayan companion haha. but yea this week all in all went really well, we made the zone breakfast this morning we made pancakes and little sandwiches with eggs and bacon than we played dodgeball and soccer all in allthe zone really enjoyed it and they had a lot of fun. so it was good. i am sorry to hear the trip to bear lake didnt really go as planned but its still always nice to get out of the house for the weekend, i thnk it rained cause you all went without me haha. other than that it sounds like everyone is super busy with their summer time and everything is going well. thats awesome i am super glad. i hope it goes by fast. thats about all i have to say to yall, thank you so much for everything and we will be in contact next monday. mad love. elder barton

Barbeque Chicken

July 9,2012 hey family so yeah another has come and gone and i hate to break it to you but i got nothing new to tell ya haha. this week we went down to montevideo again to have our grand zone leader conference and it was really good i learned alot it was also the fourth of july so all the americans sang the nation anthem as well as sister heaton cooked barbeque chicken and we had root beer probably the best meal i have had my whole mission haha it was awweeesssooommmeee. so yeah than it just got freezing cold here its fine during the day but when it is night time and you are on a bike it is freeezzzsing cold haha and waking up in the morning isnt the easiest thing either haha....i feel like im camping, in my famous words haha. so yeah we had a super good week interms of investigators and stuff we took the bishop and his wife to a lesson with us and it was super awesome and when the investigator was leaving church yesterday she said she was gonna get baptized she was off and on about getting baptized due to the law of chastity she had a long time boyfriend of 11 years haha and than she was praying to know if she had to get baptized she caught her boyfriend walking out of a house with another woman so she dropped him super fast and now she can get baptized but she still feels like she is not ready but when we had the chat with bishop and his wife she realized that you dont need to know the whole world to get baptized just need the desire, thats cool olivia gloeckner got baptized tell her congrats and yeah sounds like its time to buy a new boat(cough cough) rebecca coligan wrote me that was super awesome to hear from her i love the colligans haha so yeah thats really about it for my part i hope you all are doing well and yeah love ya and miss ya all, keep it gangsta. elder barton

giving a helping hand to the children

family friends and loved ones of elder barton hows it goin.....things are going good down here in the guay, and thisweek was just full of giving a helping hand to the children aka the missionarys haha me and elder nygard went on a total of 5 divisions this week just trying to teach the missionarys...how to be a missionary haha. as bad and terrible as it sounds one of my favorite parts of being a missionary is bringing a missionary into my area and just working him till he cant even stand haha i do it with love of course but its just so fun to show missionarys what working your tail off is, and i love hear them saying, man i could definately put a lot more work into my area haha just making them realize that there is another level of working hard that they have no idea about haha, and thats exactly what i did this week about 5 times just worked the lights out of the missionarys haha. thats what being a missionary is all about, the lord just cares about out mentality and if we are ready and able to work for him, he doesnt care about the knowledge we have or the experience, just that we are willing to give everything we got for him. we are really starting to focus with the missionarys on HOW to do the things in stead of just WHAT they need to do, just treating them like children and molding them into what we want them to be haha. i never thought i would find myself like this on the mission just people looking up to me and my teachings and what i do as a missionary, super weird but a super good feeling when i say something or do something and a missionary just goes wow or thats a really good idea haha super intersting. but yeah thats whats goin on with me just working my tail off haha. i hope you all are doing well, soakin in that summer sun, the 4th of july is coming up here, i hope you guys get the neighborhood gang together and get lightin some fireworks haha. so yeah thats all from me and the guay i am still the same, and still have hair. i love you all so much, thank you for the support and love. mad daps. elder barton

back to normal

well family and friends i am writing a little early today because president is coming to tbo and i dont know if i will have time later to write so here it goes. this week was really really really nice and good it was a normal week, and from what i have seen as a zone leader you hardly ever get a normal week. haha so it was nice to feel like a normal missionary again. we had 2 baptisms this week fabricio who is 30 is the brother of a member and bruno who is the brother of a recent convert. they were super good baptisms and the ward was super pumped to see them. we also made the bishop a really happy man haha we brought his aunt and 7 of his cousins to church and he was super pumped to see his family members in church they will all be getting baptized here in the next monrth....awesome. there wasnt really any cool stories to be honest this week just a lot of working hard and i am starting to love the bike more and more i am thinking about buying one when i get home and going from salt lake to st george on it, it would be a blast i am cranking out about 25 kilometros a day on the thing so its helping me get back into shape haha and i am super pumped to get back home and start training me for my tour to st george haha. so yeah president heaton is coming tonight he has to do interviews tomorrow so he is probably gonna take us out to dinner tonight with his wife and we will talk abot the zone there and how things are going and what not. i always learn a lot from president heaton when i talk to him so i am pretty excited. so yeah all in all the work here is going good and i am definately excited to be here. i cant believe june is already over before we know it its gonna be my birthday again haha. the big 21 crazy. so yeah i hope all is well with you guys hopefully you are planning a trip to bear lake or something for the 4th that would be super fun but i dont know do what you guys want with your summer haha. so yeah i really dont have to much more to tell. i love you all and miss you guys and hope you guys are enjoying the summer sun. thank you for everything, i have the best brother, sisters, mom and dad i could ask for you. keep it gangsta. elder barton

loooonnnngggg weeeeekkkkk

hey family, so this week not gonna lie was probably the longest week of the mission haha. i will tell you what happened now. so on monday we met with the stocker of the sister missionary here that is a member and we had a little intercourse with him and in the mean time while i was playing soccer outside someone seem to have stolen some of my things from my backpack that was inside of the church, bad day number onehaha, tuesday we had to get up at 1 in the morning cause the sisters called us scared and crying cause they thought the stocker was outside of there house and so the following day we had to see the sister missionary off to her new area cause she was just to freaked out by this guy and didnt feel comfortable here anymore, it sucked losing her in our zone, bad day number 2. wednesday we had to get up at 2 am to go to montevideo and have our meeting with our the zoneleaders that was a good day other than we got home at 12 pm dead and had to get up at 630 the next morning haha thursday, we did divisions i had to go to an area where they had absolutely no investigators and not very good plans to find investigators, that was a long day haha. friday was normal and saturday was just stressfull cause no one could listen to us. yesterday was sunday i gave a talk in sacrament meeting about how all are called and few are chosen, it went rather well, than we had a meeting with all the bishops in the whole stake and we gave a 20 minute presentacion to them, talk about feeling pretty insignificant haha i never thought i would find myself standing in front of 7 bishops and the stake president, telling them what to do so that was pretty stressfull haha and than last night it POURED ran and we couldnt get into a single house haha so we rode around on our bikes from 6 to 9 in the pouring and freezing rain. great way to end a terrible week. haha so yeah me and elder nygard are both feeling it today and just got done taking a loonnngg deserved nap and we are hoping that this week will go alot better as of right now it should be a pretty normal week. but it never is as a zone leader haha. so yeah thats whats up with me i cant believe we are already halfway through june it has flown by and i hope you guys areo ut and about enjoying the summer sun, i gotta run but i love you all so much and thank you for all the support. all the love in the world. elder barton

changes.

hey family barton, so this email is gonna be quite short i am running really really short on time haha but yeah this week was good we had changes and on tuesday night i had to live at the terminal i was there from 11 at night till 5 in the morning making sure missionaries left here and arrived safe here so yeah haha it was quite the long night than we had to go out and work a full day so yeah it was pretty rough on the eyes. haha really i cant remember a whole lot of what happened this week it was a tougher week full of trials and working hard and not having a whole lot of success, there was a cold wave that came through here in uruguay and it was freezing all week i pulled out the sleeping bag haha, but they say that its gonna get a little warmer and today was quite warm so thats always good. you guys know me i dont like the freezing cold at all hahaha. so yeah just worked really really really hard trying to be the example for the zone and all that jazz, we had kind of a sad experience we are teaching the mom of a recent convert and she loves us she takes the book of mormon to her work and everything, but she told us that some of her work buddys and her boyfriend of 11 years they have been making fun of her quite a bit for talking with "the mormons" but we had a great talk about how there is an opposition in all things and that after trials comes blessings so she was really grateful for the chat and just loved us more for it haha she is for sure gonna get baptized. so yeah more than that i cant really remember about the week. mark and sue congrats on the big 25 that is awesome, hope you did something special. rest of the fam i hope you enjoy the warm weather, go to the beach or beating or something fun for me. love you all thank you for everything. elder barton

Change Night.Stake Conference. Wedding Bells

Tuesday, June 5, 2012 hello barton family and friends it sounds like the weather is getting warm out there and ya´ll pulled out the boat for the first time to do the infamous osbourne barton day of boating, and my last one that i will miss haha so yeah change number 13 has come and gone and now i enter into number 14....3 more to go. mychange is...im staying haha me and elder nygard are staying as zone leaders here in tacuarembo. so yeah not to exciting there haha. so the big 2 headlines of this week were one we had stake conference this last weekend, president heaton went and spoke along with the temple president and his wife, the tempe president is a stud 100% i have heard about 4 of his talks now and they are unbelievable haha so stake conference was awesome after the conference me and elder nygard organized a stake baptism, 7 people were baptized and there was a baptism from every ward except for one in the whole stake so wholefully that pumped up the members to help us a little more with missionar work here in tacuarembo. we had a baptism her name is marta she is the neighborhood ofthe elders quorum president, she has been an investigator for about 4 months now and hasnt missed a single sunday, she had to wait 4 months cause she wasnt married....so we helped them get married they both got married on friday and she was baptized on sunday, the husband, lazaro, has to stop drinking grandpas old cough medicine (alchol) and he is gonna get baptized on the 23rd and they already have the goal to get to the temple so its pretty freakin awesome.than the other story happened last night.......so it was about 845 at night and we were heading to the house about to call people with there changes when we get a phone call from a sister missionary crying....some guy ( a member) followed them all night and claimed his love for the sister and wanted her nametag or something like that, the sister got prettyfreaked out, so she called us and we were about 25 minutes away from where she was and we just got hallin, we started bookin it to downtown and we got there in about 10 minutes but the hermana gave us the wrong direction she we went about 1 mile to far from where they were we finally found them on the street with the hermana with tears in her eyes, so we walked them back to their apartment and made sure they got home safe, than took them some hot chocolate cause it was freakin freezing outside it was a pretty good experience, i love serving others and helping people feel better and letting them know that its all gonna be alright. so yeah it was a pretty special, fun, full of hard work week for elder nygard and I but i am super grateful for every experience i learn a ton from them. so yeah i hope you enjoy this email i feel like it was one of my funner ones haha but yeah thank you for everything you do. i love you guys so much, thanks for the support, see ya later fools. elder barton

families and boating

Monday, May 28, 2012 well this week went by ridiculously fast haha me and elder nygard were super busy with all sorts of things, first we had to give a presentation to the zone and teach them some things to make their missionary work more affective so we held a zone meeting on wednesday morning and did that than the next morning we went to seminary at 6 in the morning and taught the youth here how to share the gospel with their friends and invited them to come to church on sunday, i am really glad i never had seminary at that time haha. than on we also had a baptism this week. so super cool story we found this kid through some recent converts he is about 14 and his name is cristian, he is friends with a group of recent converts and they are all pretty strong in the church, so we find cristian and we get teaching him and than we thought to ourselves we need to try and find his parents, so we went over to cristians house and talked to his mom and 4 brothers and grandma and we left them with the book of mormon challenge to read and find out if it was true. so that went well than the next time we went back to their house the mom had read the part in the book of mormon and absolutely loved it haha later on we asked her to give the closing prayer to end the lesson, she did so and while doing so she began to just burst into tears...wow. she said she couldnt make it to church cause of work but she was going to get out of work to come see the baptism of her son...she came to church just intime to catch the last bit of relief society and saw her son get baptized. she cried during the baptism and said it was so special to see her son getting baptized and later cristian said in his testimony that he wanted to see his mom and brothers get baptized and he wanted to be a missionary one day. fahh it was pretty awesome haha now the mom and the family is pretty dedicated to being baptized and going to church. so yeah that was a super cool experience that i highly highly enjoyed and am really excited to see what happens here on this next coming week with that family. this week should be filled with stuff like that as well as its the last week of the change and we have stake conference this weekend, we are going to do a baptism as a zone cause we have 10 people getting baptized all from different wards here in tacuarembo so it should be pretty awesome and an awesome way to get the zone pumped and a great way to end the change. this change went by crazy fast. well memorial day is coming up i hope you guys have warm weather to go boating with the osbournes and you guys enjoy yourselves. you guys just gotta suffer through one more summer of boating with out me and before you know it i am back in action haha so yeah thats all here from the guay have a good one, love you all so much. elder barton

workin hard with a change of heart

Monday, May 21, 2012 family and friends so another week has come and gone out here in the guay. this week went really well, president came for zone conference man being a zone leader and having zone conference in your zone is stressfull we spent all monday organizing the food getting tables set up cleaning and all that jazz but i highly highly enjoyed zone conference both the sister and president heaton spoke of conversion and the importance that it is to be converted and how if we are converted we will reach our full potencial and a change of heart. it was really awesome something that i have been actually for the past 4 months just about having a pure heart and reaching my full potencial as a disciple of christ. me and elder nygard also had time to talk to our zone about what we wanted we chose to talk about walking with christ, we used the example of enoc in moses 6:31 to 34. it went quite well along with some other scriptures that we shared just about knowing what the lord wants us to do in our missions with our companions as long as us as people. after zone conference it was just a normal week of working crazy hard just to catch up on 2 lost days of work in our area we activated 2 families this week and one family brought some friends to church and now they are getting baptized, missionary work is just so easy when the members are involved haha so yeah i hope you all had a good mothers day and a good week with school finishing up and everything i cant believe we are already going into june and boating season is right around the corner, the last one im gonna miss haha ummm sue you asked me if i had any sisters in the zone we do we have 4 sisters in the zone 2 work crazy hard and are really good missionarys the other 2 just bug and annoy me haha i dont have the biggest testimony of sister missionaries yes i am racist haha but yeah so thats really all i can think of this next coming week is completely normal and a week just full of hard work hard work and a little more hard work, i have never beeen so tired in my wholelife haha i am exhausted i get home every night and just die haha i dont know how i am getting up and working everyday well i do its the spirit and the power of my calling and man i am gonna really miss that when i get home i am really excited to get home and just work crazy hard if thats anything i have learned on my mission its just that just when you think your done, beat, to the ground you can always get that little bit out of you and go that much farther and be that much better. its so awesome to see people grow and see the lord just build his kiindgom down here i love you all so much thank you for everything you have done. i love you all so much have a great week. elder michael barton

the phone call

Monday, May 14, 2012 hey family it was super super super awesome to talk to you guys yesterday even though we didnt have the best internet connection it was super awesome seeing you guys and it kinda sorda made me super trunky haha but thats all good it just reminded me of us always sitting in that stinkin living laughin our faces off. heather i am digging the hair cut and the new job way to go what a blessing. megan looks like a mom and just has life undercontrol just the way she wants it, even though trent didnt really talk to me i can tell that he makes her really happy, rybart, same haircut, same schooling, not much change there haha but that is actually super awesome i am excited to go hangout with thesame brother i left behind haha sarah, you look like a superstar pretty much thesame but a tad bit older and more mature which is awesome that probably naturally happens when you pack up and move to hawaii haha carly...WOW holy bonkers she is a little woman taking high school by the horns i am sorry you didnt enjoy prom thatm uch but you still got next year so dont even worry about it!!! and mary......the most changed with her huuuuggggeee looonnnngggg blonde hair haha she looks like a mini megan and is just shredding things up on the lacrosse field. mark, lost some weight??? get on that bike a little more. and the quueeeennn of them all sue...i was so excited to see you, your still my best friend and you are still the same gangsta as when i left. all in all it was a great phone call and i really enjoyed it. even though sue killed me with the question about going to school. i dont feel like i am old enough to go to college yet i am still growing up i have so much more to learn haha. so this week is basically a normal week tomorrow we have zone conference with the zone of rivera they are coming down here so me and elder nygard have to get the chapel set up tonight for that tomorrow as well as president heaton is coming up here and he is gonna take us out to dinner and talk about the zone a little bit with one of the assistants elder glenn. so tonight should be prettty fun president heaton is just the coolest man on planet earth and i love spending whatever time i can with him i learn so much about him everytime i talk to him or hear him speak he is just the man. and than after that tomorrow its just back to work. so just nothing new going on here just work work work work being a zone leader you always got a bunch of little things to do and it keeps you super super busy and you can never rest so the next 5 months here are gonna be really tiring ones and probably really really fast ones haha so yeah thats basically the update down here in the guay. i love you all sooo much thanks for everything you do. i love you keep it gangsta elder barton

MOTHERS DAY IS HERE!!

hey family hows it all going. so we are running super behind right now so this email is going to be super super short haha. not much updates with me this past week we went to montevideo and had a big meeting with all the zone leaders and president heaton it was super fun i learned a ton from president heaton. i also got to see elder peterson and elder harris my compps from the mtc so that was super awesome first time i have seen elder peterson in about a year haha so that was a blast. so yeah this sunday is.......mothers day!!!!!!!!! and yes we are going to skype it i am going to find a computer and i will make it a good last phone call to home haha. so i am planning to get on skype at a8 o´clok at night here so i think thats like 4 or 5 there i dont know i will call you a little before and confirm hopefully you guys have a good skype set up. so yeah im doing super good no need to worry about me here in the guay just working like a crazy mad animal me and elder nygard today had to take a 5 hour nap cause we were so whiped out haha so yeah i will see you guys on sunday!! love you all. keep it krisp. elder barton

first week in tacuarembo....and ryan martin??

hey family and friends so i am here in tacaurembo!!!!!!!!! so far things have been pretty good i got here on wednesday morning and things have been going crazy non stop ever since than, with meetings in the stake, meetings with the missionaries, teaching the investigators, meeting the members, and all that good stuff so its pretty been good but pretty dang exhausting all at the same time. so like i said last week my new comp is elder nygard he is from washington, and he is a work horse haha we are gonna work crazy hard together, we set a goal for the zone just to be the hardest workers in the whole mission and we set a companionship goal just to be the hardest working missionaries in the whole mission so its gonna be pretty exciting haha. elder nygard is awesome we get along great. so yeah tbo is definately different than deo a lot more relaxed and even though i miss allthe people i met in deo i dont really miss the city life all that much haha. umm so the biggest story of the week would be i met my bishop on wednesday night we had a meeting with him, he asked me a little bit about my self and where i was from when i told him i was from sandy he tells me that he had a companion in his mission from sandy he told me his name....yup you guessed it RYAN MARTIN haha haha haha haha i told the bishop that he lived about 2 blocks from my house and that his family and my family were really good friends i guess ryan and my bishop had a blast together and had a lot of success, later we had lunch with the bishop last saturday...yea i saw an album full of pictures of ryan martin on his mission haha it was a little funny to see. other than that all is normal down here just chilin working hard trying to get use to the life as a zone leader even though its not that much more different its still the same work but there are a little few changes i had to make in myself to be a better zone leader. so yeah i hope all is good over there that the weather is treatin ya good and that everyone is getting excited for school to end. sorry this email isnt very long i dont really know what to write haha but i love you all. talk to you soon in about 2 weeks!! keep it gangsta. elder barton

a first time for everything

hey bartons and hoffheins and friends. this week down here in the guay was one of the most spiritual weeks i think i have ever had on the mission it was pretty insane begining with the first experience, so as we were planning on monday night we decided to try and go to an investigator of ours that is kinda falling, her husband is a member and she is aventist and she wasnt really denying the church but she wasnt really excepting it. so she was not progressing and just falling so we just decided to give her one more shot and we gave her a phone call to see if we could pass by the next night. so we called her and she didnt answer and we didnt really think to much about it. than the next day right before our district meeting started we get a phone call and she just says that she wants an eternal family......we were just like what haha she went on to say that her brother died, he was 23 years old, and the whole family was devestated. and she said that she wanted us to pass by as soon as possible. so we show up her husband had already explained to her about the temples and baptisms for the dead and everything so we show up and there is just this whole family the parents, 2 sisters of this kid that just recently died. it was a really humbling experience to see this family in such a time of need and they looked to us for help and when i say us i say 2, 20 year old punk kids. it is absolutely amazing that the lord trusts in us to do this work. than we kept going to have one of the most amazing conversations i think i have ever had in my whole life about an eternal family and temples and all that jazz.....they loved every word that came out of our mouth. they came to church last sunday and all are going to get baptized on the 12th of may. they also asked us to do something that i have never done before.....dedicate a grave. so me and elder morales went to the grave with the family and we dedicated it so that it would be a sure place of rest until the resurection i had never done anything like that before. it felt kinda weird at first but than the spirit took over and it was so strong when we got done the spirit was just there and it was incredibly insane. experience 1. now experience 2, shelly one of the people that me and elder morales baptized here in this ward is a daughter of a x less active member while baptizing shelly we activated the mom, the mom got super into drugs and all that jazz has 4 kids all with a different dad i think i already told you guys about her. so yeah anyways as the atonement has taken over her life she felt the impression to get married......so we went to her wedding on friday and not only did we go but we were witnesses of the wedding me and elder morales got to sign a piece of paper and everything. so yyeah that was pretty gangsta to help out these 2 families this week just get that much closer to heavenly father by following his commandments. so 2 first timers for elder barton dedicating a grave and being a witness at a wedding haha.and so yeah changes are this upcoming week and one of us is for sure leaving since we now have 2 changes together. im kinda thinking its gonna be me with talking to president and all and how this area has exploded with success i have no idea where im gonna go nor where i want to go i guess we will see. my time here has been good its crazy that i have already been here 3 changes, and it looks like my next area is gonna be my last one with only 4 changes left. thats pretty crazy haha. so yeah thats about it from elder barton, i hope all is well with you guys back at home may is right around the corner time to pull out that boat ehhhh. so i will be writing you guys next tuesday. have a great week. love you all. keep it gangsta. elder michael barton

Baptism and Easter

hello family and friends. i hope you recieved the pictures i sent out of the baptism and my easter egg that i got here on the mish haha the baptism went super well luis and griselda were super excited, there nephew came from karasco he is a bishop out there and he came to the baptism and confirmacion and thanked me and elder morales for all that we had done for him and his family. just one of those moments that makes the mission really worth it. elder morales baptized both of them and he did a really nice job doing that. other than that the week was normal we went to a members house yesterday and celebrated a little bit of easter with an exchanging of chocolate eggs, i ended up with the smallest one...i always do haha. we also had interviews this week and president heaton really just thanked me for my hard work and asked me what i thought about my mission so far he said í am in the last parts of it and i gotta finish strong its kinda weird he said that it still feels like i just got here haha. but yeah it was nice to be recognized for the hard work i am putting in nice to know not only the lord sees it but my boss right now sees it haha other than that thigns went great this week there is nothing innormal just hard work again looking for some more baptisms we have another that should be getting baptized on the 28th she went to conference and to church yesterday so she is doing super good she listened to the missionaries before when she was about 10 haha and now she is 65 talk about planting a seed haha she is part of a religion right now called christian scientists i think thats how you say it in english haha and she is just realizing how are church is so much better like she says haha so its pretty funny, other than that i am just chillin i think my time here in 17 should be running out soon changes are in 2 weeks so my time with morales as well will be running up. kinda excited kinda nervous i just kinda got use to the kid haha but yeah tahts it from elder barton.
peace keep it real. elder barton

conference with a cowboy rodeo

barton family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! whats crackin. not gonna lie heather told me that spring break is this next week and that got me super super jealous haha but its all good i only gotta miss one more. little sacrafice. i hope you all have a fantastic spring break and go do something worth while. my last couple of spring breaks i was stuck doing 2 a days with brighton soccer so its all good anyways haha. my week went well not as much work cause of general conference it kinda of gives us a weekend of just sitting in the chapel and hanging out haha. we had 2 investigators go to general conference and they absolutely loved it and thought thomas monson was just the man, its super funny cause at home i wasnt necesarily the biggest fan of general conference (im not gonna lie haha) and its just weird to be in a position now where im trying to convince people that conference is sooo awesome they have to come haha and than they come and love it. just a huge testimony builder to me of how real thomas monson and his apostles are and the power they have being special witness of christ. buuutt on sunday it totally sucked the chapel didnt have a satelite connection to watch the first session so the whole stake sat in the stake center for about an hour and a half waiting for them to fix it haha but we caught the last 30 minutes, guess i will have to read that one in the liahona haha.so yeah griselda and louis went to conference they are 2 super awesome investigators we have that are getting baptized this saturday thats coming, louis played soccer professionally and played with diego forlans dad and knows a lot of pretty big names so its pretty fun to sit with him and talk about futbol haha so yeah i am super stoked to see them get baptized this saturday, they were a reference from the bishop so hopefully the bishop and the rest of the ward are pretty excited as well. also the big news of this week is we just got back from a rodeo!!! haha yeah its the semana santa here down in the guay or la semana de turismo and so the gauchos (super cowboys) came into town and so the zone leaders elder pope elder jimenez and elder morales and i decided to go and have a good time it was pretty fun we didnt have a whole lot of time but we watched some horses buck some people around and than did a lot of shopping it was basically a flee market there as well and there was a lot of cheap cool stuff. so yeah pretty fun. this week we have interviews with president heaton so it will be interesting to talk to him and see what he thinks of me as a missionary and if i am making him happy. i remember the advice ryan gave me about my mission that the key is the mission president has to like you and so far i think me and president heaton get a long just great. he is a really awesome guy. so yeah thats about it from elder barton this week. i have a pretty busy week ahead of me. i hope you all be good and be safe. peace out. elder barton

baptism, barbeque on the beach

hello lovely and loving family and friends, another week has come and gone out here in urugay. elder bartons week went fairly well, i started off the week by heading out on divisions with elder olivares from peru. it was a good division and elder oliverares is a super cool and good guy and dont mean to be racist but one of the few elders from peru i like haha i know im terrible. so yeah that went down there than the week was all fun and games just working hard. we had a baptism this last saturday she was a lady that me and my old comp found and we finally got her to get to church and get excited to get baptized haha it was really cool cause throughout the week i was a little nervous to baptize her but as we kept going by she just kept on showing us signs of the light of christ she has and her whole character changed she went out and bought her some new clothes for the baptism and than after invited us over to her house for a little party it was super fun, anayr lives in the middle of a bunch of drug dealers haha so it can be a little sketchy to go by her house and she is pretty dang poor but she promised us she was going to go to church everyday by foot and really thanked us for all that we did for her helping her get to know jesus christ so it was just another one of those moments that made me feel like i was doing my job as a missionary. a little funny story while we were getting the baptism ready she started to fill up the baptisimal fount and so while it was filling we decided to leave and work....and yup you guessed it when we got back about 1 hour and a half after it had overflooded haha not to bad though we just ran in there stopped it and started mopping up where it had spilled into the hallway haha so yeah definately learned to keep a better eye on the baptisimal fount when i am filling the darn thing up haha it wasnt to big of a deal but it definately was a funny experience and just one of those things that brightens up the week. things with me and elder morales keep going good, he is kinda getting obsessed over me haha like when i am hanging ot with other missionaries he says he gets jealous and i have caught him taking pictures of me, he says its just one of those things he does when he thinks people are cool he admitted that it was weird haha but he just says he likes to do it, so yeah i dont know haha. thank just barely i took my district to a beach nearby here in montevideo and we made ourselves a little barbeque as mark should know an "asado" so that was super fun a little windy but its alright. things are really cooling down here in the guay, at night it gets a little cold and gotta start putting on 2 blankets so i am beginning by 2nd winter....not to excited i hate winter down here in the guay and on the mission but its just one of those things i gotta learn from i guess haha . so yeah i hope everything is good with you guys, i didnt really hear from anyone but sue haha but i am sure things are doing great. talk to ya´ll next week. keep it real. be good, elder barton

the 17

hello family and friends of elder michael barton how are you all doing i hope your week went well with more warm weather and trying to look cool by braking windows and getting cool scars...thats an awesome story. my week went fairly well it went all the same seeming as how i did not change areas nor companions so all was normal for me haha i actually like being with companions for 2 changes it doesnt stop the work from progressing and the second change always flys by haha me and elder morales get along suprisingly well we share a lot of the same ideas of the world and music and just how life is so its pretty cool im still kinda pushin him a little to work harder cause he has so much more potential as a missionary but he will get there i am pretty sure of it we actually had a fantastic week in terms of the work here in uruguay we had a ridiculous amount of lessons with members and just about all of our investigators came to church. including we got a text from the assistants saying way to go haha so it was a really super good week and a great way to start off the change we are expecting about 9 baptisms this change if everything goes smooottthhh so thats always a mega plus. i got the shoes thank you so much i guess even though i didnt need them i gave them to a member and he was super happy and excited to recieve a new pair of shoes so thank you for your service sue haha you will reap in some crazy cool blessings for that one haha. but yeah really i dont know what to say everything is good i am expecting another awesome week and just waiting for general conference to roll around it seems like the other day i was sitting in young watching it with elder brown but another 6 months has come and gone. elder morris left the mission this last week he is a super good buddy of mine that i met out here and lived with in salto so i hope to run into him when i get home and i was super sad to see him go not gonna lie haha but what can ya do. the weather here is still fairly hot at night it gets a little chilly but no complaints coming out of my mout. and yeah so i guess we will see how this next week goes we are expecting a baptism from a lady that just really accepted the gospel super well and is really excited to get baptized she has a crazy amount of faith in jesus and shows it every sunday by walking about 18 blocks to church haha so that she be a pretty awesome baptism this next saturday but yeah thats about it from elder barton i hope all is doing well i love you all, keep it real. be humble. elder barton

Mr. Mean as well as Mr. Bean

hellooo family barton. how are you all doing. sounds like everything is going well there especially in the side of winter...i always enjoyed me a good ol utah spring. things here got really cold haha it was daylight savings this past week which meant an hour extra to sleep on sunday night but now it includes it getting dark at 7 o´clock and finding me and my comp around people that i would not like to be found with when its dark haha as rybart always said "i would hate to run into him in a dark ally" haha so tahts kinda where we find ourselves everynight haha but nothing happens in the end so need to worry. this week i hate the lovely privelage of playing bad cop. president heaton has given us the huge blessing in this message to have dvd players to watch videos to help us become better missionaries. but the lovely missionaries that there are took it where to far. there were some elders in my district who were watching some movies that they shouldnt have been watching haha so me being the district leader was ordered by president heaton and by the zone leaders to go and retrieve the dvd players and take them back to my house hah. so tuesday morning i went over there walked into the house and got the dvd players while they were quite upset with me i simply explained it was under the order of president heaton and the zone leaders. after that moment i waas on the way back to the house i felt soooo sad i didnt really realize how much i loved these elders but i have realy grown to love them and taking away those dvds and them getting mad at me just absolutely killed me and shredded me apart for about the next 2 days. i later went on divisions with one of the elders that was in the house that was being obedient and was the only among the 4 not watching the movies he was sad and depressed and was just really going through a rough time so i just decided to be a light for him and just tried to show him the time of his life in my area i bought him pizza and ice cream brought him to the best people i could to make sure he felt the spirit and it was just like taking about my kid that got a good grade our something haha. ummmm so yea thats really all that went down this week. my change....im staying here in la teja and me and elder morales are staying together, elder harris got bumped up to assistant and elder peterson is a zone leader...here i am still a district leader haha shows how good of a missionary i am haha but i realy am working hard so dont be dissapointed in me haha. but you guys know how i am just being mr competitive, and well as of right now im definately losing to my companions haha i guess i gotta step up my game one more level and crank out some baptisms. we are looking at having about 6 to 8 baptisms this month so i am really excited to be staying here and we will see what happens in these next 6 weeks. thank you all so much for your prayers i need them i love you all so much, keep it gangsta and keep being awesome. -elder michael barton

stake conference, gold gold gold gold

hi barton family hows it going. my week was quite good rather busy just doing what i do here in the guay week after week haha.this week went well we had zone conference on wednesday and president heaton and hermana heaton talked about the book of mormon and the importance it has in missionary work and it getting our investigators to truly know this is the true church, president heatons son and 4 grandchildren came to the guay and so during the zone conference i had to sit with them and translate the conference for them into english. it was super weird seeing a little kid speaking perfect english to his mom and dad haha i havent seen anyone below the age of 19 speak english in a long time haha i think thats gonna be super weird to get home and just here everyone speak english its almost like english is a secret language down here in the guay that only 19 to 21 year old boys speak haha. umm yea than wednesday through saturday were all normal days and sunday was stake conference. stake conference they talked about missionary work and president heaton also spoke there as well and its just crazy the revelation the leaders of the church are getting just for a super push in missionary work in the church it just really makes one think of how super super soon the second coming is haha i also so mary (my convert from playa pascual) at the conference as well she did go to the temple and did some baptisms for the dead and absolutely loved it and is just waiting for the next time to go back, i talked to a conselor in the bishopric from playa a good buddy of mine and he said that the baptism of mary has just sparked something new in that branch and more less active members are coming back and the branch is working a little bit harder so it was cool. he thanked me for the work i did there and its awesome to see that mary is now starting to be a worker in the church instaed of just a recent convert (afterall it is a working church its not a church where you go everyonce in a while
haha) so that was super awesome to hear that. after stake conference we had a stake baptism and we had an investigator that got baptized named shelly she is 12 her mom is a member and really wants her to be a part of the young women and have a good and safe teenage experience and after the baptism shelly really was feeling the spirit and was just on cloud 9 she was a little nervous before the baptism but she did just great. so thats always good having a baptism definately feels good to feel like im really serving my purpose as a missionary. i have really been trying to work a lot smarter than harder this change by finding my investigators through the members by teaching there family members, neighbors and whoever else there is and its super fun just cause i have found about 10 people by doing that and instead of just knocking doors for 2 hours everyday im just going to members house to members house teaching all their friends and it has really got the excitement in the ward built up just cause the members really feel like their a part of the work and they are seeing the progression in there very own friends and family members so its super cool and a little bit easier on the feet haha so i raelly dont wanna leave this area now haha just cause i got a good thing going here and im really starting to love it down here in deo. but at the same time i wanna get back out into the farm where its nice and quite and peacful haha.
alright last story for the week. so the bishop gave us a reference on thursday and it was some parents from a member in another ward. so we went on sunday and just had an absolutely fantastic chat with them haha we sat down and the very first 2 questions she asked was why do they call us mormons and why are there so many churches if god is the same for everyone haha. just what we as missioanrys share in the whole world haha and during the whole lesson she just thought it was beautiful and finished by saying she wants to be mormong along with her husband they just a wonderful beautiful couple find and i cannot wait to go back to them and see how their reading in the book of mormon went. wow that was a pretty big email haha. but yeah it was a pretty good week. i hope you all are doing well and that things are being nice and gangsta in the barton house, i love you all and miss you all keep it awesome. elder michael barton

chocolate milk with the patriarch

hey family and friends how is it going i hope its not to cold up there and everything with school is going just great. this week was good and super super interesting haha. first cool rather funny story was one of the elders in my district had a baptism this week so i had to go do the baptisimal interview the guy passes the interview just perfectly than as we are sitting there talking one of the elders asks who he would like to baptize him, your not gonna believe who he says....me haha i just barely met this guy and he tels me he wants me to baptize him it was quite a shock and suprise but i was honored that this man wanted me to baptize him haha so i had to make a couple adjustments to my schedule and i went to the baptize the next day and i performed it haha than after the baptism he gave me a hug crying saying thank you and he wants to me to go over to his house someday and eat pizza haha i barely know htis guy but it seems like we have been friends forever to be hoenst with you haha and than after that baptismal service i had to run over to another baptisimal interview and do that. so it was a plenty busy day. hhaa and than yesterday we stopped by a members house who is the stake patriarch haha super super super cool guy and way awesome member we went over there just to ask for a little help with an investigator and he offered us some chocolate milk so i spent a lovely hour with him sippin on some chocolate milk and sharing some good ol stories haha it was pretty funny after i kinda realized what happened just said to my comp. hmmm nothin like chocolate milk with the stake patriarch haha. i cant really think of to much that went on here this week it has been really hot with waves of rain kinda of weird weather but i think its gonna start to cool down here little by little and my second winter here in the guay is coming my way...which i am not looking forward to at all. i dont know why elder morales has been telling me a lot about the new music and tv shows and it just barely hit me this week how long i have really been gone haha i have been gone for a really long time we were in a house the other day and a song was on and elder morales says oh this song makes me trunky and i asked who it was and he named some artist and song name that i had never even heard of haha so all the music that i listen to now doesnt even make me trunky cause i dont even know it haha i am gonna have quite the time catching up on all my music when i get home gonna last a good 2 weeks of good hard dedicated work haha. but yeah not much more from here going on. just chillin time is flyin we are already half way done with this change and the last couple weeks of the change always go by the fastest and iw ill be hittin that year and 6 month mark...crazzy haha we have zone conference this wednesday as well i always enjoy zone conference it always gives me just a new boost to go out and work my tail off. thats all the lord expects from each of us is just the attitude to work and be available to do his will. he doesnt need us to be anything more than that. i love you all and thank you so much for all your love and support i definately would not be able to do what i am doing with out all them prayers. have a good week. love ya all. keep it gangster. elder michael barton

pajama partys, long sidewalk talks...annnndddd the temple?

well hello there family and friends that are reading this email from elder barton. i had a pretty descent week this week getting to know elder morales a little bit more and trying to find more people to teach. first you ask...pajama parties? elder morales got super trunky this week because his friends all make deserts and had a huuugggeee pajama party together (guys or girls yet to be determined) and as i continued with the conversation i soon discovered that this was a very common occurence in elder morales life before they frequently had pajama parties and made cookies and other pastrys together it appartently included all of his friday nights.....hmmmm a little bit interesting i might say haha never met anyone that did that frequently with his friends on weekends haha. now long sidewalk talks, we went to a members house the other day to see if she could come with us to a lesson the next day as we were there elder morales goes to the bathroom and as we are leaving the house he has a look on his face like he is on the verge of tears...i ask him if he is alright and if he is going to cry he tells me that when he just got done crying in the bathroom and yes wanted to cry again so i sat him down right there on the curb in the shade and asked what was goin on and if there was anything i could do he said no and they he would be ok the next day. 2 days later he is walking behind me with this looonnnggg sad face on and just looks super desanimated so i ask him again whats goin on and sit him down on the curb in the shade and just starts balling his eyes out right there in the middle of hte afternoon and i kept asking and asking whats wrong and he had no idea to this hour he still has no idea whats wrong each of these sidewalk conversations covered about 1 hour haha definately one of the most sensitive guys i have ever met and think that i will ever meet in my whole life haha and now the great fantastic news i went out to see mary the convert in playa pascual today to see how she was doing and all that jazz she lives about an hour in omnibus from where i live so we went out there and she is just doing fantastic she is doing all of her family history work and is going to the temple this friday to do the baptisms for her family members that have died...wow super super super cool and i guess she has gone out with the missionaries to lessons and she gave her testimony and now the missionaries are finding a ton of people through mary and her friends and she alone has really turned that place around. so yeah that brought a huge smile to my face. i told her that iw as coming back in november with mark and ryan and she said she will have her cup of mate and asado waiting for us for when we come haha super awesome. so yeah that basically covers this week of the life of elder barton. just chillin here trying to work hard and not waste the lords time here in uruguay. i love oyu all so much thanks for your prayers each one of them has been felt. i love you all, keep it gangsta -elder barton

Change 11

hey family and friends, so yeah a new change has begun and my new
companion is.....elder morales from puerto rico, and i am almost 99
percent sure he is gay haha he cooks for me, cleans the house the
first night iw as laying in my bed and he laid down with me and gave
me a hug and has tried to do so every other night haha ummmm he has
offered many times to offer me foot massages haha so its definately
definately interesting but to be honest all in all he means well and
really wants to serve others. i honestly have no idea how this change
is gonna go haha he really is a nice kid just is a little flamer haha
he tells me daily that im hot haha and yeah dont need to go into to
much more detail i just accept thats how all of puerto rico is haha
but our week was pretty good other than the changes we are really just
trying to focus in on teaching through members trying to teach their
friends, neighbors, family members that arent members and what not i
was looking at all the baptisms i´ve had and they have all gone
through such things and at times we just knock doors to find people
and not to baptize them so really i just found myself trying to get
the number than baptizing them, so now we are trying to find to
baptize and not only to find just to find people to teach i am really
gonna try to lay this strategy out with my district and i thinkwe will
ahve a lot more success teaching incomplete familys and what not and
also the members just get more excited when your teachin a family
member instead of just some random person that no one knows. so yeah i
gota list of all the families that have non member kids, aunts, people
that are living with them and we are just gonna pass by all of them
haha i hope it works out, and that way we will just be teaching inside
the houses of members and instead of knocking doors to door we will
just be going from members house to members house and the days will be
a lot more efficent and a little less hard on the feet haha. so yeah
thats basically all thats really gonna on just hangin out with my semi
gay puerto rican comp elder morales and trying to go about a new of
doing the lords work. i hope you all had a good week filled with cold
winter should be kinda ending by now right this summer here went by
super fast it should start to cool down in about 3 to 4 weeks i am
pretty grateful its my last summer here in the guay it can get
freaking hot and pretty miserable haha but yeah thats basically it
from elder barton down here in south america i love you all so much
thank you for your prayers and tell everyone i say hi. love you all,
elder barton

change 11

hello family and friends so elder barton is now going into change 11 in this crazy adventure down in uruguay and his new companion is......elder morales from puerto rico ha little strange but ay i am excited he is another really young missionary here in the mission going into his 3rd change haha but i am excited to get to meet him and see how he is elder peterson told me he is a little desanimated and missin home a little bit...nothing a little bit of hard work cant fix haha, but yeah i am staying here in 17 and i am stoked i love it here so much i want to finish my mission here haha i could honestly do 6 more changes here haha so as of right now i am stoked for my change me and elder huaracha didnt really get along the best haha but we will see if i wanna be back with huaracha when i meet elder morales haha but my week was good some of our investigatores went to church this week and it looks like we are going to be having some baptisms here in the month of february january absolutely fly by and seeming as how february is even shorter i imagine that february is gonna go by fast as well haha. but yeah i hope everyone else is doing good doesnt really sound like there has been much change just the same old same old sports, school and work . isnt life just full of that kind of stuff haha its pretty crazy i am finishing up my 2nd summer here in uruguay and not gonna lie its a pretty relieving feeling thats its my last and i dont have to do anther one haha man it gets freakin hot down here with very little resources to escape the bloody heat haha buts its still hot it wont start to cool down until about mid febuary but yeah i am doing super good just doing my thing down here in the guay i really dont know what to say this week was just typical work week and elder huaracha is leaving and elder morales is coming on down to kick it with me in cerro haha well i love you all so much hope you have a good week and i will be talking to you all next monday!! peace out gangsters, elder barton

changes

hey fam, hope all is well with you guys and i hope you just had a fantastic week in the freezing cold. even though it doesnt really sound like its that cold out there. my week to be honest wasnt anything spectacular just kinda the normal day to day stuff me and elder huaracha had a lovely nice long talk the other dayfor about 1 hour about how we can get along better and we resolved a lot of things and we are getting along better now so thats nice haha changes are this coming week, this change went by relativelyquick and i cant believe im going into my eleventh change out here in the mission field im started to think im stuck here forever and there is no end haha but january has already flown by!! thats awesome that carter is doing good we write every once and a while but its been quite some time, about 6 months since i last heard from him, i need to write him ASAP. we found really cool investigator this week her name is micaela her mom is a member and her mom is really super supportive of her listening to us and really wants micaela to get baptized she didnt come to church this last week cause it rained and when it rains here the whole country shuts down everyone takes it for a legit excuse not to get up and go to work...how beautiful is that right? but she basically is already baptized haha she has friends in the church, whole family is members, she asked us about the clothes yesterday and how that al works haha so she is basically baptized haha. and obviously i am staying here for transfers and elder huaracha is leaving, thats how it should go atleast. ya never know with president heaton haha i love this area and its HUGE as well i honestly good finish my mission here so im planning on staying here for much much longer haha i decided i dont really like to move i hard starting things all over again, with the members, memorizing streets, bus routes and all that jazz haha its nice to have a set routine and have people know your name and know who you are and stuff its super nice. its notreally cool to be hopping around no one knows who you are and your personality haha so yeah thats where im at super stoked to stay another change here just hope i get a better comp, latin. i love speaking spanish all day haha but yeah i dont really know what else to say it is crazzzyy hot down here definately in the middle of summer and it is just suupppeerrr humid haha but in about 2 weeks or so it should al start to calm down and we will be in fall!!!! fal is fantastic here haha but yeah thats about it from elder barton. love you all. keep it nice and krispy, have a good week, enjoy this wonderful life that god has given us its just a beautiful one haha
peace out elder michael j barton

a mexican and facebook

hey family and friends. hope you all had a great week filled with snowed, being cold and everything else to do with winter haha my week was full of the complete opposite it has beennn hooootttt here 45 degrees celcious i dont know what that is in farenheit and humid like no body´s business. we havent been sleeping good the last couple nights just cause its so miserably hot i took a shower in my garments and laid on the cold floor and tried to sleep like that the other night haha i was dying. but our week was fine we found some pretty good couple and had some pretty good lessons...but we also had a complete miracle happen to us haha now here is where you will understand the title of this email, a mexican and facebook. we were sitting in the chapel about the 2nd hour just hangin out ya know and all the sudden the doorbell of the chapel rings hmmm interesting we go and answer it to see whats up, its some guy named julio who wants permission to take a picture of the church of course we gave him permission and he took about 8 pictures of the church and just loved it haha i thought this dude was super weird but as he keeps talking to us he goes on to say that he has a friend on facebook from mexico that told him about the church and sent him the video of jose smith and julio said he just loved everysingle minute of it and has watched it like 4 times since haha and than he goes on to say that later this mexican on facebook tells him about what we do in the temples, baptisms for the dead. and he just thought that was the most absolute brilliant idea on this planet earth haha so we set a cita to go over to his house in the afternoon and he accepts it with open arms.so we go over to his house that afternoon and he explains more of the story of what his friend had told him and they had been talkin for a couple months now so we gave him a book of mormon which he already knew what it was and everything and he accepted to get baptized on the 12th of febuary straight it was a cool miracle. i remember ryan tellin me that the lord will just people right in your lap that get baptized all i have to do as a missionary is be there and that has been so true in my mission so far all my baptisms were just handed to me just cause i was out and about doing the right thing haha. so yeah that pretty much was the big highlight of my week it was super cool. we truly do have an amazing blessing of being in this beautiful gospel, i have no idea why the lord chose me to know the gospel cause i really sometimes dont feel worthy but all i can do is just be grateful that he made it happen and take advantage of every blessing i can recieve. so i invite you all to look for chances to share the gospel with friends and neighbors whether it be on facebook, msn, work, school this is now the second person i have come in contact with that knew the church threw facebook haha so the lord is up to date on things haha. but yea so look for chances they are out there. help the lord build his kingdom here on the earth cause its a sure darn beautiful kingdom. so i love you all hope you have a good week, and everything goes well with school, work, boyfriends,girlfriends, and everything else there is. peace ouuuuttttt. elder barton

oh ps thomas looks like a super oro missionary in his pictures haha

Dia De Reyes

family barton and anyone else who finds themselves reading this email. well another week out here in the ´guay has come and gone pretty crazy its 2012 i will be coming home this year haha as well as i completed 15 months out here so i am now down to single digits in terms of months haha. This week was pretty normal me and elder hauracha are on the hunt for new investigators haha we have NO ONE to teach right now. so the week was full of just talking to random people on the street and knocking doors. contacting truly isnt very fun for me as well as its the least affect way to go about the work but ya gotta do it. but its always interesting to contact some where along the line you run into some crazy people that have had some crazy experiences or just have weird ideas about god and just stuff like that and i swear thats really what this week was, just listening to some weeeeiiiirrrrdddd people talk about their lives and what they think about god and what not haha so even though we didnt find anyone this week all that good we definately talked to some weird people haha also this week was the dia de reyes its a tradition they have here in the guay that we as north americans do not have. its basically a second christmas haha in fact i think everyone gets bigger gifts the dia de reyes than they do on christmas haha. and because of this holiday the city was dead!! do you remember in the movie you me and depree when owen wilson says "i went to argentina for a week and everyone was just sitting around, and it was the most beautiful thing" thats exactly what goes down but unfortunately its a missionaries worst enemy because noooo one wants to hear from you people just wanna sleep and take full advantage of the free day off of work. haha so that went down on friday and saturday here and the city was literaly a ghost town. but its all good this week is gonna be a fantastic week i am going on divisions with an elder named elder lopez from el salvador and so its gonna be nice to get away from huaracha for a little bit haha and than there is a super stud member here named noemi and she is literally a walking area book she always comes out and works with us she is a stud. and on saturday she is going out with us all day and she is taking us to every x investigator that has been in this area for the past 4 years haha so im pretty excited and grateful for her. but yeah the ward is really growing on me i like it a loootttt there is a ton of families and its definately the biggest ward i have had my whole mission we had about 100 people in sacrament yesterday!! and i dont know if you guys remember my x comp elder lopez, well he is now living in the ward with his wife and its super weird to see my x comp kissing his wife and stuff haha it kinda makes me feel like wow i have been here forever haha he was my comp a year ago and i still have so much more to go haha but its all good, i am gonna make him work pretty hard with us! so yeah the area is good im nice and safe there are definately some sketchy parts that we have to be careful in but other than that its good. as soon as i get a new comp i will be looking fantastic haha. i hope you all are going back to your normal routine now that the holidays are over and its time to get back to work. have a great week!! be good, be obedient. love you all. con mucho cariño -elder barton

Feliz ano nuevo

family and friends happy new years!!!! i cant believe its 2012..i go home this year!!! haha how trunky was that haha i really cant believe that 2011 is over it is incredible how fast it went by no more christmas or new years as a missionary for elder barton thats kinda sucky haha. so apparently i left out some details of the baptism last week, her name is mary and i literally think i was called to uruguay just to find her she is absolutely fantastic super awesome and accepted the gospel sooo easy and fast and apart from it all it was the easiest baptism i ahve ever had haha i met her one saturday and 2 weeks later she was baptized haah pretty awesome president heaton and hermana heaton came to the baptism as well as the counselor in the temple gave us a suprise visit haha mary in the end gave her testimony and cried and said after she just felt the biggest feeling of peace come over her it was something very nice to hear and i felt like i was really completing my objective as a missionary, we didnt have the best member show up like 8 members showed up but only about 12 were in sacrament so i guess it was a good show up haha. i heard from tim loomis which totally made my week i was super happy to hear from him and all the loomis are doing good they are truly a second family to me. so yeah my new years was good we had a barbeque at the bishops house and it was super good and than we watched fireworks and it felt like i was in a war zone just explosions on all sides of me and really loud haha it was pretty hilarious.ummm so yeah this week was actually a pretty bad one haha me and elder huaracha dont really get along that well he is really weird and seeming as i dont know the area i kind of have to follow him around until i know it but he has the weirdest ideas to do and i kinda get mad at him haha and apart from it all we have NO investigatores and its either i am getting to know members or knocking doors haha just one of those many weeks out here in the guay, we are basically opening the area elder huarahca doesnt know it worth jack haha and he has definately been my hardest comp until this point in my mission...peruvians haha but yeah thats really about it im glad you all had a good new years and that it all turned out good and hope you all ajust back to REAL life with work and school and all that jazz haha suckas. but yeah i dont really know what to say to be honest with you guys hah i love you all so much thanks for everything you have done for me and for your testimonies and examples. everyone of you has helped me so much. a little prayer for me could be nice this week so that i can know my area and elder huaracha follows me and i dont knoww him haah cause when i get to know this place we are gonna do some serious beyond serious work haha alright well im out peace keep it krisp.



ps i know im writing early these days elder huaracha likes to come to the cyber early so just plan on me writing this early from now on haha