August is over.....WHAT

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

I'm 20.....

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

a kid, a bike, oh and a city

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

changes!

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

finishing winter

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

uruguay no mas

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

Wedding

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

I will talke a 4 cheese ravioli

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

The Ups and the Downs, The Smiles and Frowns.

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

change numero 5

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

hello and happy fathers day

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

summmmeerrrr tiiimmmmmeeee and the livin´s easy

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

I'm Freezing...

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

chau May

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