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