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