Weekly Update 7/6/15

Whats up everybody!!!

This week was pretty solid.... Transfer is starting to wind down and we are starting to find some awesome people to teach!! 

The plan with "Nosso Resgate" that I talked about last week is going super well. It is such an awesome experience to be able to visit all of those who are in need of a rescue, and to be able to hear their stories and experiences with the gospel. It is super cool also because we are being super blessed finding new people to teach while doing so!! We have been doing lots of exchanges with members in our ward also and has been super awesome to invite all of the less active members to go to church!

My testimony is being strengthened so much in this area... I am learning so much that I never though I would learn here. I know that Heavenly Father was aware of that and that's why he sent me here! So very grateful to be here serving my mission. The people in Brazil are absolutely incredible, and I feel such strong love for them its amazing. I also feel the incredible amount of love that my savior has for me and am so grateful to represent his church here on the earth for this short time! 

I love you all so so much and am so grateful for your support! sorry his letter was a quick one!  Thanks for everything and until next time!!! 

Elder Barton

NOSSO RESGATE 6/29/15

Hello everybody!

Another week down here has passed by! time is flying!

This week was a super good, productive week! Our mission president gave the whole mission a project to start working on called "Nosso Resgate" Which means "our rescue" super sweet! What he wants to do is try to help rescue all of the members of our church whom have fallen and need help. He talked about a talk by Henry B. Eyering and he tells a story of two American soldiers who were fighting in Somalia and risked their lives to save two other soldiers who had crashed their helicopter. The situation was super dangerous because they ha to be dropped off in the middle of the battlefield to rescue their fellow comrades whom had fallen. They asked permission to be inserted into the battlefield to help rescue them but were denied permission two times.  It wasn't until the third time they asked that they were permitted to be dropped off. They fought there way through gunfire and rugged terrain until they reached there comrades and rescued the life of one of their soldiers and returned back to base in safety.

The talk continues to talk about how it is the same thing with us as members of the church and missionaries. We need to always seek to help our fellow comrades who are down and in need of help. Whatever the cost. Our president testified of this and invited the whole mission to participate. So this will be Elder Cabral and Is new goal. We aren't having much success with finding people to teach, so we will help those whom are wounded and in need of help! We got a list of all the members in this area and visited all of them this week to invite them to our ward conference. It was awesome, it felt super good to visit everyone and we even found new péople to teach while doing so. It was awesome! I am so grateful to be able to participate in this awesome work. I know that i have a purpose here in Granja Viana, Cotia. It has been tough to not have much success, but I am so grateful for the members I have had the opportunity to visit and meet. And for this opportunity to start "NOSSO RESGATE" and am confident that there are people in this area that are in need of the gospel, or just a simple invite to come back to church! I love my mission so much, and I'm learning a ton!!! I love this gospel, my savior, and all of you guys soo much! Thanks for everything and have an AWESOME week!!!

Elder Barton

                                        1. Elder Cabral and Elder Soares on the onibus, love these guys

                                       2.Lunch with Maria do Carmo!!! solid strogunofffffffffffff

                                        3. Super sick park we went to today!! Those little dirt mounds 

                                          all over the place are burrows from some animal,

                                          not sure which but super sweet!

THE COMMANDER

WEEKLY EMAIL 6/23/15

Elder Barton here reporting liveeeee! 

Whats up everybody!! This week was a solid weeek!!! I had the opportunity to go to the temple today which was such an awesome experience, Always is. Super grateful that we have the São Paulo temple in our mission because we get to go so frequently!! We also had a a Multi Zone conference this week which was sooo awesome also! President Del Guerso is such a stud.. He is such a powerful guy and always gives such great trainings!! I'm really beginning to love our mission president and Sister del Guerso. They are such awesome people, and help out all the missionaries so much! I also had the opportunity to talk with them a little bit in the celestial room of the temple today which was an awesome experience!  These past couple weeks have been a little crazy, we have been having a few difficulties just trying to find new, solid investigators to teach but its all good! We have been being extremely blessed for our efforts and we will continue to work hard!!! I absolutely LOVE being a missionary, and do not want my mission to end. So grateful for my savior Jesus Christ and the opportunity i have to represent his church and kingdom here on the earth! Sorry this email is a little shorter, but I just wanted to let you all know I'm alive and so grateful for all of your prayers!! I truly feel each and every one of yours love and am soo grateful! Hope you all have an awesome week!

Elder Barton

                                                         fluffernutter!!!!!!!!!

                                   Solid purchase of some marshmallow fluff that is only 

                    sold in the Deseret book store here!! and some of dat PB that my awesome family sent!!!

Elder Cabral Birthday celebration!!!!! 19 years old!

This morning at the temple with my main brotha!

Weekly Email!!!! Granja Viana Thuggin 6/15/15

YO yo yoooo whats up my people!!! 

Wanted to start of today will a hugeeeeeeeee shout out to my main man COLE HERNDON FOR RECEIVING HIS MISSION CALL TO GUAM!!!!!!!!!!!!! congrats man your going to KILL it!!!!!

This week was an awesome week!! These last couple weeks have been a little tough, not gonna lie! But we were super blessed this week! I have been getting a little down on myself these past couple weeks because we haven't had much success bringing people to church and having investigators progress!! We had planned super well to bring a bunch of people, visiting them during the week several times, and calling them to confirm but then no one would show up! It was super tough!

This week we had planned to bring 6 people to church... We did the same thing throughout the week, visited them and called them and were super on top of it. 5 of the 6 dropped out Saturday night and Sunday morning... We were super bummed. We were waiting in front of the church with hopes that the last person would show up, an older lady named Aliede. She had come to church once before with us, but then got super sick and couldn't come for a while. She had told us that she was going to go to church but would show up a little late (20 or 30 minutes) We were waiting and 30 minutes passed by, then 40, 50, and we started to doubt and get discouraged that we wouldn't have anyone again. I said to Elder Cabral "lets wait 5 more minutes and try to exercise our faith" still with doubt lingering in the back out my mind... I said a silent prayer that she would be able to come to church, and about 30 seconds later we saw her coming down the hill!!! It was truly such a blessing for the faith that we showed, even though it was only a small amount of faith that I had. Heavenly Father will bless us and give us what we need when we have faith, even if it is small. But we have to ACT and believe that he will answer our prayers. I have had so many experiences like this already on my mission, and I truly know that heavenly father hears and answers our prayers when we act in faith. So very grateful for this experience I had, and for my loving heavenly father! Aliede loved the visit at church also, and wants to come back next week! Such a blessing!! True miracles happen each and every day, and I am so very grateful for my Father in Heaven and how he continues to bless me!

2 Nephi 27:23

"For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles; and I will show unto the world that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and I work not among the children of men save it be according to their faith."

Have an awesome week!

Elder Barton

Fancy american style hamburgers!!!! We talked to one of the top guys that works there on the street and he ends up being a MEMBER!! hooked us up with free food at "The fifties" superrr good too!

HittIn dat SHOPPING

Last P-Day

Da BALL PITT

Hittin does mcflurrayssss

REVIEVED 3 BIRTHDAY PACKAGES FROM MY AWESOME FAMILY!!!

SWISS ROLLSSSSSSSSSSS

Also helped Aliede paint her house this week! 

and destroyed Elder Cabral with paint haha!

another transfer down - June 1st

Hey Everybody!!!!

Its been a little while since I have sent out a weekly email... Everything has been going awesome here! Busy!! 

Elder Cabral and I have been working hard to find new people to teach cause we've been having some tough times with investigators not keeping commitments and stuff... Its been pretty frustrating not gonna lie! But i am so grateful for the patience that I'm learning to have haha! 

We had some crazy experiences this last week including a fight with a large animal and a tree almost smashing us! haha. i will start with the tree.... So we were walking to lunch one day this week with Elder Soares and Elder S. Nacsimento (the other elders who we live with) on a road full of giant trees... We were all happy strolling along conversing as normal when all the sudden we heard this super loud cracking noise, we looked up and there was this FAT tree branch breaking off the tree right next to us! Elder S. Nascimento and I were the closest to the tree and it was SO close to hitting us!!! Especially Elder S. Nascimento! We literally had to sprint out of the way to avoid getting hit! It was insane!!!! It definitely would have badly hurt us if it landed on us! the thing was HUGE!! haha but thanks to our cat like reflexes and the Lords protection, no harm was done... That very same day, when we got back to our area after lunch the beast striked....

Elder Cabral and I went to visit a less active member named Rocky... We got to the front gate and he  told us to enter... Elder Cabral first, and I was behind. There was a pretty good sized dog laying in front of the front door, pretty calm just laying there doing nothing. AS soon as Elder Cabral set foot in the gate he striked!!!! He charged Elder Cabral and bit him right on the leg!!! It was insane! Rocky hit the dog and he ran away into the back. It happened so fast!! I was in shock haha... And so was Elder Cabral. It wasn't too serious, but he was bleeding a little bit so we had to go to the hospital and make sure he didn't need a vaccine or anything because there's a super dangerous disease that dogs have here called Raiva... But hes all good and still has his leg haha... It was a crazy experience!! I'm keeping my eye out for the dogs now on the street! Super insane, and action packed day that day! haha

But other than that, the week was super good! We found two awesome people Diva and Celha to start teaching and are looking forward to this week! Also had transfers, but nothing changed! Ill be here for another 6 weeks at least!! Until next time!

Elder Barton

5-26-15 Email

Elder Barton didn't have time to write a formal email about the week... I did get a few replies from emails that I had sent last week and I copied and pasted them here.  Thank You to all of you who emailed him birthday emails!  He LOVED them!  -darci

My b-day was awesome momma!!! thanks sooo much! i haven't gotten anything yet... :( but its all good! it was super awesome my zone threw a huge party for me in district meeting on Tuesday!! had food, signs and the whole deal!! It was AWESOME!!! My zone leader is gonna send me some pics cause i didn't have my camera! It was a complete surprise!! super awesome! ill send ya the pics once i get em :) we also had a little party with the other elders in our house at night!! ordered a few pizzas :) ya know, the USUAL!!!
BUT gosh sorry i didn't have time to respond to the girls or dad, ryan, gramps and grams and a lot of others!!! haha! and don't worry about the package!!! it will come!!! my bday was AWESOME! i felt your guys love all the way from there! haha man sorry i had like no time today.. this week was crazy! Until next week when i have more time haha! be sure to tell the girls and everyone that i LOVED there emails and am sorry i dint have time to answer!! haha crazy crazy! but love ya sooo much and have an awesome week mom! gotta go! thanks for all the pics and everything! hope ya know how much i loveee ya!!! 

elder b

                                                                 Gecko in da houseee

São Paulo $3LFI3

São Paulo thuggin

fREE birds

The crew from our house

ZONA COTIA

​SOLID lunch today

Weekly REPORT 5-18-15

Whaaaat up yaaaal in the American continent!!!!

This week was killllerr!!!!! It was awesome being soo pumped from the skype call all week... After receiving words of encouragement from my fam and getting to talk to them!! That was so awesome!

I am so grateful for my family!! Truly have the BEST FAMILY IN THE WORLD!!!!

I wanted to share some cool experiences that happened on Saturday with ya guys... Saturday was a super epically planned day... Elder Cabral and I had 7 marked teaching appointments, with some super awesome investigators and plans to do exchanges with 2 members to help teach them!!! We were super stoked!! 

Every single one of those plans that we established fell through haha.... Literally EVERY one of them!! Even the plans with the members... It was crazy and super super frustrating... Everyone that we went to visit was either sick, not home, or having some kind of emergency...

Elder Cabral and I started getting pretty frustrated and wanted to give up. Elder Cabral had an idea to say a quick prayer and attempt to restart the day.. (being about 6:30 at night) We stepped of the road, and said a quick prayer on the sidewalk. We then started heading to our last and final marked appointment that we had for that day... A man named Emmerson, his sister is a member of the church and we talked with him for about an hour one night just visiting... he said he would love to hear our message for another day, super cool guy. When we got there to his house, his sister Maria do Carmo (the member who just started coming back to church after being less active for a little while) answered... She told us that he wasn't there... And had just barely left and wouldn't return until late. I felt super bummed at first cause that was the 7th appointment that fell through that day,

She invited us in, and i could tell something was kinda bothering her... Or that she just needed to talk to someone. We went into her house and ended up talking to her for over an hour.... She really opened up to us and started telling us some difficulties that shes going through... She talked about how shes really having a hard time wanting to lose weight. She said that she really wants to go to the temple, but feels really self conscience when she goes because the chairs are smaller and she feels like she gets stuck... It was super sad. She said she wouldn't go back to the temple until she loses weight. I had studied Ether 12:27 that morning during my study and decided to share it with her... It talks about our weaknesses that heavenly father gives to us so that they can become strengths. I testified that heavenly father will bless her for her efforts to go to the temple and that she will able to lose the weight with heavenly fathers help. It was a super cool experience,i felt the spirit super strongly... And i really felt like that was a huge blessing from heavenly father after a super tough day. Maybe all of those appointments fell through because we needed to talk to her at that very moment and wouldn't have worked out otherwise... I'm so grateful for Heavenly father, and how he knows everything that we go through... No matter what the circumstance... And when we show our efforts, he will bless us. Just like he blessed us after Elder Cabral had the idea to pray... Truly an awesome experience!! It was an awesome week!!!!

Elder Barton

​the newwwww crew other elders that live inour house! celebrating with some pizza