stake conference, gold gold gold gold

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

chocolate milk with the patriarch

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

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

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

Change 11

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

change 11

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

changes

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

a mexican and facebook

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

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

Dia De Reyes

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

Feliz ano nuevo

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



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

the baptism, the phone call, and other

hey family sorry i am writing a little early elder huaracha likes to come to the cyber early and write his family so i am writing early and i figured i talked to you all 2 days ago and it doesnt make that big of a difference anyway. you all sounded super good and sounds like life is just flyin by at the barton house it felt kind of weird like it was just like a normal chat to talk to you guys and it felt like we were just having a normal conversation as if i was at home just at a friends house or something haha but ryan man that super sucks the hair just left ya, ya gotta get some cream or something, take care of your self a little more haha mary ultimate frisbee i think thats super awesome haha sarah is just now a little hawaiin, carly just becomin miss popular in highscool and is lovin every second of it, i loved highschool haha heather lookin like your shredding it up in your new job and i am sure the principal is going to extend your contract and megan i hope christmas was fun at your....in laws haha and more than anything i hope you all ate a cinnamon roll and breakfast caserole for me i woke up on christmas morning and just thought of cinnamon rolls and breakfast caseroles haha...delicous. so yea i got to my new area yesterday right after the baptism we got in presidents car and picked up our stuff from the house and we left just like that, i was kinda mad a member invited us to have lunch with them and mari a little luncheon type deal but president couldnt and he was our ride but its ok president has given me permission to go see mari 1 or 2 a week so thats super cool!! ummm but the baptism went super well we had another visitor along with president heaton, the temple counselor showed up with his wife haha he was out of town and looking for a church to go to and found ours so he just walked right in and was there for the baptism haha super cool not a better way to spend christmas morning than with a baptism. so my new comp is elder hauracha from lima, peru. he is a cool guy really relaxed and really just is willing to work which is all i can ask for really. my area is huuuggggee maybe if you wanna look it up on google or something you would have to put paso molino and you will see some pretty good stuff i imagine haha like i said there are areas i cant go into at night as well as i have been adviced to walk around with a watch haha and a crappier tie and without money, basically i am suppose to look as bummed out as a missionary can get haha. but i was walking around it yesterday and there are some pretty nice places here thats for sure and im excited, i hope to be here for a long time i hate moving around i thought at the beginning of my mission that i wanted to move around a lot but after time its just annoying i just wanna stay in one place for a long time haha. but yeah so the baptism turned out to be a huuggge hit mari cried and it was pretty cool!! ummm i dont know what else to say haha just yeah this week is just gonna be getting to know a lot of people my comp, members, my district. so im pretty excited im just excited to get settled in and know wthe best way to work here haha. thank you for the soduku books and everything i love them as well as the candy its all good good stuff. so yeah i think thats about it thank you all so much for everything you ahve done for me and i love you all sooo much have a good new year if your going to little america hope you enjoy it!! so yeah talk to ya next week!!! -elder barton

cambios, la navidad, BAUTISMO

friends and family another change has happened. and this is probably my weirdest one yet haha so president heaton has decided to close rio de la plata for missionaries for a while he doesnt have enough missionaries and the place is a disaster haha so i have been called to cerro 17 the most dangerous area in the whole mission haha sue dont worry elder harris just got done being there for 4 changes and got out just fine haha but something pretty awesome is that me and elder hall have a baptism this sunday...christmas!! its pretty awesome she is great and really is a good person, she has asked me to baptize her and so she is getting baptized on christmas morning! so i am going to go back to rio de la plata on sunday morning and baptize her and watch her get confirmed it will be the first baptism the area has had in about 2 years...miracle and president heaton and hermana heaton have both decided to come to the baptism so that is pretty awesome!! but it also complicates things a little bit for the phone call i am gonna be pretty complicated on sunday i dont know if i will be in my house here in playa pascual or in my cerro 17 house so i am planning to call you guys at about 4 here so i think thats like 12 there unless you want me to call later??? and from there i will tell you guys the number and you guys will call me right back so i dont have to pay just like we always do :) but yeah so my week was pretty good just teachin mari everything she got an awesome revelation that the book of mormon and just smith was a prophet so its super awesome to feel like im just really doing my job as a missionary and it makes my testimony grow so much more of the church and the growth the church is having worldwide. my new comp is elder barracha i have no idea where he is from to be hoenst with you i think he is from peru but i am not completely sure i am really excited to have a latin comp i think its so much fun to speak spanish day in and day out i really love spanish and am gonna miss speaking it day in and day out. definately something i will keep up when i get home, but yeah i am super excited to talk to you fools on sunday i hope all is well hope you guys have a good dinner and santa clause comes full with presents i cant believe i am about to go through my second christmas as a missionary its a once in a lifetime thing and both mine have almost happened to me, i now know why the lord sends us kids out here to serve him you just learn so much about everything and its just so weird to see also how the lord prepares us for the people we are going to teach before the mission. mari, the lady that is getting baptized on sunday is a sheer latina twin of you sue it reminds me of you so much everytime i talk to her and she always has her kids and kids of her friends running around the house she loves singing, she has the same blunt sense of humor and everything and i really think just i was sent to teach her just cause of the mom god gave me its all pretty crazy and something really really cool to watch happen before my eyes. but yeah thats about it from me i will TALK to you guys on sunday! i will call at about 4 o´clock here and i am excited to here your guys voices and i might have a little skype connection we will see when i call i will tell you to get on skype or just call me!! :) alright fools peace!!!! -elder barton

Christmas Miracle

hey family! so not gonna lie this week was the best week of my time here in playa pascual as well as one of the best of my mission haha. it all starts with saturday, we had service with an investigator so we went and did service with him which i love service here on the mission haha and after he wanted to give us chori pan (mark maybe you remember what chori pan is i dont know how to in english) but we had a cita with an another investigator already so we told him we would be back in an hour, so we went to our next investigator who is a gourmet chef that use to live in the united states and he made us bagel sandwiches with bacon (sue you know how much i love bagel sandwiches) so we eat those and go running back to our service guy to eat chori pan, so we go we are just running on the ruta haha we were so late like an hour just me and elder hall books of mormong only in our hands running down the side of the ruta it was hilarious haha so than we eat some delicous chori pan and go to the lunch appointment we had with a member and ate milanesas (a food of uruguay that i love) so we basically just pigged ourselves out haha so walking stomaches absolutely llenisimos we get back to the house. we recieve a phone call from a member that she has a friend that wants to know the church and wants us to give her a church tour at 5...sweeeeettt. so we go give a family of 4!! a church tour and they love it! so we invite them to church and everything the next day....they came!!! so now we have a lesson with them on wednesday and we are going to invite them to get baptized and everything!!! and on top of it all the investigator we did service for came to church and a contact we made in the street came to church...haha pretty awesome stuff!! so basically to say saturday was one of the busiest days of my mission and me and elder hall came home and fell asleep while giving our pray to start planning haha but it was totally worth it and im totally stoked for this cita on wednesday. but yeah im doing pretty good anyways haha im excited to talk to you guys on the PHONE i decided i just cant do skype i think it would destroy me to see you guys haha so we are gonna keep it old school.im thinking about calling you guys here at like 3 or 4 so i thin thats like 11 in the morning there if thats a problem just let me know and we can switch it around!! sorry elder barton is a loser i know haha so yeah this family we are planning will get baptized on beautiful christmas day haha just like that talk about the lord just handing you a baptism a fruit of labor that i have needed for a while haha but yeah i hope you all are doing good the snow is treatin ya well, sarah gets to come into town thats awesome. but yeah so it was an awesome week down here in the guay for elder barton, i love you all and will talk to you next tuesday but this week are changes!! keep it krispy, love you all, un besito ;) -elder barton

some beach soccer

waaaatttttt uuuuuuppppp!!!! hey guys how are you all doin!!!!!???? hope it was a good week, sounds like its getting pretty cold up there that mega sucks but ay what can ya do right haha. my week was good, it is just getting hotter and hotter. It was a kinda of a typical week in terms of missionary work here in rio de la plata, lots and lots of knocking doors probably did about 9 hours work of just sheer contacting and knocking doors, its about the only way we can find investigators here and investigators that we desperately need haha had one really really cool experience actually, so it was saturday night and we had been contacting ALL day we had no set citas we had no set anything and we needed to find desperately new people to teach so we put down x-investigators from the area book and everything and literally everything fell. i think we did a total of 50 contacts, so its about 830 at night and im just ready to go by food for the next day and go home for the day when elder hall just being mr. talk to everyone haha says lets just get this one more house so me being exhausted and quite frankly a little bit of a bad attitude follow elder hall and we knock this door, we talk to this guy and he lets us in and we find a family of 6 people....miracle haha we had a pretty good chat with them about what we believe and they accepted the book of mormon! said they are going to read it! and soo we will see what goes down with them when we go by again. ummm also today p-day we went to the beach as a district and then these 2 guys asked us to play some soccer with them, so we played some beach soccer with them for a good hour and it super made me miss soccer and playing with my friends haha but it wwas absolutely beautiful loved every second of it after they took a picture of us they loved how we were all from different parts of the world, honduras, puerto rico, usa and everything so it was fuuunnnn!!. and yea so things are pretty welll chillin here just workin hard prayin for a baptism haha but i know im giving it my all and i hope thats all the lord can expect of me haha and i least i go to bed every night just exhausted so i dont feel to guilty haha but yeah thats all from elder barton keep it krispy peace -elder barton

chau November

another months has come and gone! and I am currently sweating like crazy here in this cyber right now haha it is sooooo hot!!!!! and with the ocean right there it is just humid and you cannot escape the humidity haha. this week was good we really worked hard to reach our goals and just be the best missionaries we could I feel like at the end of the week in terms of reaching our goals we didnt have the best but i can honestly say I gave it all I could me and elder hall were both just drained and practically fell asleep in sacrament meeting and sunday school haha the stake presidency came in and really dropped the cane hard on the rama saying that this rama has more potencial than what its showing and that we need to fill the chapel every sunday haha so hopefully that motivated the members a little bit to get up and magnify their callings, i dont know why but the lord certainly loves giving elder barton tough little ramas to work with haha but its all good i have learned a lot and i know the will only serve me for my good in the end. december is here and that is pretty crazy i remember my last phone call last christmas that doesnt feel all that long ago and I think I will be talking to you guys before I know it haha but yeah we have zone conference this week and i will get to see elder harris there i havent seen him in like 9 months so it will be fun to see him he has exploded to be a great missionary and is really having a lot of success on his mission, and the competitve michael barton is getting nice and competitive i never thought i would get competitive during my mission but you know michael barton when the competitivie blood gets going haha its something I really need to work on but i really am happy for him he really deserves it he is a great guy and a great missionary and deserves it all. so yeah school ended this week which makes it nearly impossible to find people at home EVERYONE is at the beach and no one is home haha watching people come and go from the beach not gonna lie kinda makes me trunky haha and i cannot wait till i can go to the beach haha but its ok in time in time, so yeah thats just whats going on here SUMMER is in full strike school is out and me and elder hall our sweating/working like crazies out here in playa pascual haha but yeah i hope you all had a good week and that everyone had a good thanksgiving i love you all so much thank you for the prayers and everything they are definately needed. love you all with everything i got. -elder michael barton