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