"2" Sept. 27th, 2016

OLÁ FAMILIA!! Holy cow FALTAM DUAS SEMANAS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Its weird cause looking here at the "2" and thinking that I seriously only have two weeks left in the mission field. I feel like I want to cry, jump up and down, have to change my trousers, and scream all at the same time. I honestly don't even know how to explain what I am feeling. These have been the best two years oh man. But lets  just not even talk about that...

THE WEEK:

This week was a super great week. We are finding so many great people and having so many awesome experiences. We were able to do an  awesome FHE with Rení which was a super cool experience, we invited a few other widows from the ward and held the FHE at that awesome families house from Rio Grande do Sul (renís neighbors) And watched a video about the importance of faith during the hard moments in our life basing the message also off of Helaman 5:12. Only one widow was able to go, Irmã Edilene who's a super awesome lady! She bore such a powerful testimony about her faith in Jesus Christ and how it helped her when her husband passed away (a couple years ago) The spirit was way strong that's for sure! And we were able to commit Rení for baptism this week!!!! She went to church and everything this week and oh gosh we felt soo blessed!!!!! We sang "Lord I would  follow thee" In sacrament meeting and i was next to her and could tell she was really feeling the spirit, at the end she looked at me and said "I liked that one" with a smile on her face. She truly is progressing well and we are going to do everything we can to help hr be baptized on October 9th! Were going to visit her with another sister from the relief society tonight and take another widow and bishop too  this week! 

We also met a super awesome couple this week from England!!!!! A good ol buddy of ours named gleidilson (one of the black guys with dreads) met another black guy with dreads through a language learning social app and his name is Deen. He decided to move here, and came with his "wife" (they need to get married) called Rhianna. They are such awesome people haaha oh gosh their all artsy and talk with the British accent and everything haha and are so sick!!! THEY WENT TO CHURCH TWO WEEKS IN A ROW! They are currently living with Gleidilson and his wife and looking for a house to live in! We started teaching them and they have lots of potential cause they are wanting to start a family and planning to get married and all that good stuff so we are super stoked!!! I feel so dang blessed and have been able to strengthen my testimony so much recently that Heavenly Father knows all things, feeling a little bummed recently cause we were feeling like we were working a ton and not seeing much results. But the thing is, theres always results. What i learned so much during my mission is that its not all about baptisms, our success isn't measured with just  baptisms. Its our conversion that's the most important thing. I know that if we just do all things cheerfully, the Lord will always do His part. Always. In His time.

I love you guys all so much and am soo GRATEFUL for yaaaa!!! 

HAVE AN AWESOME WEEK 

Elder Barton

D&C 123:17

 17 Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully doall things that lie in our power; and then may we standstill, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.

"3" 9/19/2016

Opa! 

Man, this week was a pretty rewarding and awesome week!!! 

I feel like this week we were able to really have some great things happen! WE have been working like crazy and feeling a little bummed because not much has been happening. But this week we had some really great things happen and some awesome spiritual experience that really strengthened my testimony! I was able to do an exchange with my beloved son Elder Guimarães to do two baptism interviews and during one of them, I had a way cool experience. He was a Japanese man named Jerry, and it was way cool to see truly how ready this man was for baptism. He told me a little bit about his story and how he came to know the church. In another area outside of our zone, he has some great friends whom are members of the church. He has known them for quite a while but never went to church or sparked any interest, but one day, he just had a huge desire out of nowhere to read the book of Mormon. He requested one on the Internet and the missionaries started to visit him. My good Friends Elder Dhonal and Elder Alves were the ones who started to teach him (at his work in the other area) They showed him a video of Christ being baptized and in the part when the holy ghost descends upon Christ in the form a dove Jerry felt the biggest feeling of like heat and just a good feeling come upon him. He even told elder alves and elder dhonal to stop the video because he wanted to know exactly what he was feeling haha! It was way cool, his testimony definitely helped me to strengthen mine! I also met an incredible woman named Jucicleide that elder Guimarães is teaching who is a really special person with a strong desire to follow christ. It was cool to learn with my own son and see how he has progressed so much! He is training a freshhhh american named elder olmstead... haha my grandson! 

Also in our area, we found lots of awesome people this week and we are being able to work a little more effectively with the members getting some referrals and what not! We also stared working in a different area to mix thing up a little bit! We received a referral from an awesome family from Rio Grande do Sul (an awesome people that eats a lot of BBQ and drinks lots of chimarrão)  haha we visited there neighbor who is a little sweet old lady named Rení and just barely lost her husband less than 40 days ago! She is soo ready for the gospel! Poor little thing is so beat up, we just sat down and talked to her for a while and heard her out teaching a little bit about eternal life and eternal marriage. We watched a video with her called "expressions of love" that talks about eternal marriage. We testified that its not over, and that she can have this eternal marriage also if she does whats right here in the earth. The spirit was very strong, and she thanked us a ton for the visit, she is such a sweet little lady. I know shes ready. We also found lots of other awesome other people this week. Daniel and Sheila still aren't wanting to cooperate. haha but I am so glad to know that Heavenly Father is in charge. I love Him so much, and feel His presence so much in this work. I am grateful for everything that my mission is helping me to learn, and the experiences you have on a daily basis. I'm not gonna get too trunky here haha i don't even want to think that it's coming to an end so lets just wrap it up! I'm gonna keep giving it my all and I know Heavenly Father will take care of it all! I love you guys so much and thanks for your support! Have an awesome week!!!!!

Elder Barton

FOUR!

Olá meus amiginhos!!

This week was awesome because we were able to participate in a "helping hands" service project which was such a neat and humbling experience! Our whole zone went as well as some youth from each ward, and we went to a humble, small and run down center for people with disabilities and dang, was it an awesome experience!! We went and just hung out with the people there, playing with them, painting, talking, helping them eat, and helping the workers there clean the facility. 

Gosh they are such special and happy people oh man, by the time we left the facility, we knew the names of almost all the people haha! We were talking with the owner a little bit in a small group of missionaries and one missionary (elder M. Souza) asked her what she had learned most working at the center. What she responded was something that was way cool and I will never forget. She said "I learned most that when I'm here, I'm not helping them as much as they are helping me" talking about the people with disabilities. I know that's true, and I felt that so much there! They are such pure, and innocent happy people. I felt so helped by them and left that building thinking "Did I do anything to help these people?" I just felt like I had been helped, like my spirits were lifted. It was so cool, and at the end was one of the coolest parts, we went out into the parking lot, all of the volunteers with their yellow jerseys on and the owner and we all got in a circle and sung "I am a child of god" and said a prayer, as we sung, I looked at the owners face and I could see that she had been touched. We had various missionary opportunities and I know that the spirit was present! I feel grateful for these special people that Heavenly Father puts on the earth to help us and lift our spirits! 

Other than this awesome experience, the week was super good! We had an opportunity to do an exchange with some missionaries in our zone, translate for an American senior couple of missionaries that came to our ward yesterday, and some other tough things that happened with investigators becoming a little soft and what not but its all good! I am so grateful for the small opportunities that I have to serve each day and am trying my hardest to GIVE IT MY ALL here at the end!! I don't wanna think about it haha! 

Thanks for all the supportive emails!! I love you guys sooooo much!!!!!!

ELDER BARTON

5 weeks until return...9/05/16

Heyyy everybodyy!!!

This week was pretty sweet! We had mission council meeting which was awesome! We learned a lot about the importance of working with members and the ward leadership to be able to better "establish zion" In our areas! It was super cool! We watched a video that I really like that shows how beautiful it is when the missionaries work together with families to teach the gospel! Its something that can be so simple, if we let it be. I know that if we all pray for opportunities during the day to share the gospel and if we are worthy, the Lord will bless us with these opportunities. Elder Neil L. Andersen gave us this promise 

"I promise you, as you pray to know with whom to speak, names and faces will come into your mind. Words to speak will be given in the very moment you need them. Opportunities will open to you. Faith will overcome doubt, and the Lord will bless you with your very own miracles."

I know that if all of us just try our best, and pray for specific opportunies we will be blessed and will be capicitated by the Lord to share what we know with those we know. I bear my testimony of these things and invite all of you to look and pray for these opportunies. I bear my testimony that this is the best work in the world. I dont want to stop doing it, i love my Savior and am grateful that its His work, and not ours. So we just need to do our best and be obeidient and he´ll take care of the rest! 

heres that video, super awesome!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jbRUXWVMlw

LOVE YOU GUYS AND HOPE YOU HAVE AN AWESOME WEEK!

Elder Barton

PS also this week president chose Elder Bartling and I to do visits with some reporter guy from the University of São Paulo that is making a documentary about the church and wanted to stay with us during the day filming us haha! I felt pretty dang cool, not gonna lie walking around with a guy recording us haha! But it was also a little wierd haha. Hes gonna interview us also on Wednesday about a bunch of stuff! We were trying to teach him the whole day as we walked haha he already has a pretty good understanding of the church cause he's interviewed a bunch of people and talked with a bunch already! he's gonna go to church in a couple weeks he said in another ward! haha pretty sweet!!!

g