Elder Barton coming in for dat weekly report!!! Sorry I didn't have a chance to talk to any of you guys last week! It was Brazil's day of independence and everything was closed on Monday! And didn't get the chance to do email another day...
But these past two weeks were truly awesome!!! I ended up never receiving a new companion as promised... haha he ended up going to the São Paulo Interlagos mission haha! So I am going to stay in a TACTICAL TRIO with my homeboys elder hurd and elder rodrigues!!! Stoked that I get to be with these guys, they are such awesome missionaries and I have already learned so much with them!!
So grateful to be here in Baronesa, I am loving this area so much!! We are doing splits with the members every day to go visit investigators and they are all so stoked and willing to help us out with the work here in this area!! We are having the privilege to teach so many great people in this area whom have been prepared to receive this gospel. Wanted to talk about a man named James real quick... He is a recent convert that was baptized 4 weeks ago by Elder Hurd. He is an American from New York and moved here because of some problems he was having in the states. He came here with nothing, and didn't speak a lick of Portuguese. He was sitting on the side of the road one day when Elder Hurd passed by and decided to talk with him, they went directly to his house and shared the restoration with him and was baptized 9 days after. He is such a special guy, and was willing to do whatever it took to follow Jesus Christ. He is a man with soo much faith and has already received the Aaronic Priesthood and has been wanting to visits with us everyday to share the gospel haha! He is such a stud!!!! When we teach, he bears his testimony and says prayers in broken Portuguese but brings the spirit sooo strongly its incredible! The people understand him, and are so moved by what he has to say. Hes been in Brazil for 4 months and plans to try and get married here and start a family. Just so grateful for this opportunity I have had to meet Big James, he is such a special guy and I know that he will help so many people find the gospel here. I wanted to talk about him just because I am so grateful for his humble and obedient example to follow Christ. I want to be more like him, and I know there are more people just like him waiting to receive this gospel!
I know that Heavenly Father will put more people like him in our paths when we pray for opportunities to share the gospel and are obedient. I love ya guys SO much, and want to talk about everything incredible that happened in these 2 weeks but I will write a short novel if I do! haha, so ill just keep it at this for now, but thank you guys all soo much for the support you give me. I am so grateful to be serving my mission and absolutely love what I am doing! Hope y'all have an AWESOME week!!!!
Love,
Elder Barton
PS I went on an epppppic adventure to the highest mountain (its more like a hill) in São Paulo last pday called "Pico de Jaguará" and saw sooo many monkeys and exotic furry creatures!! it was sooo sick!!! ill attach some pics!
*elder b was bummed that his pictures wouldn't send from the computer he was using... maybe photos next week!?
