MY FIRST BORN SON!!!!!!!!! 9/28/2015

Hello hello everyyyyboday! I am coming at you live with some great news to announce the birth of my first SON in the mission field!!! (i had Elder Viera also for about a week) but i am pleased to announce the birth of Elder Ferreira!!!!!!!!!

haha i don't actually have a son, don't worry but everyone on the mission calls the person that they train their son/daughter for those of you that don't know!! We received a call last Monday night saying that i would receive a new comp and train him on Tuesday! His name is Elder Ferriera and he is from Belém, Brazil! He is waiting on his visa to go to Orlando Florida and hasn't even gone to the MTC yet!! I had the opportunity to go to the temple with him also on Tuesday for him to receive his endowments! He is fresh of the vine haha! He is a stud, and I'm super stoked to be with him! It was hard to leave the tactical trio also, but I'm super stoked i have this opportunity to learn with Elder Ferreira! 

This week was a super awesome week, we cut our whole teaching pool in half because of the tactical trio split up (i took one half and Hurd and Rodriguez took the other) and its been going pretty well! One of our investigators João that we were teaching was baptized on Saturday by our bishop! And it was super super cool, a very spiritual service! I don't think I had ever mentioned him, but he is such a special man! He is an older guy, and was super catholic but really liked the messages we shared with him and joined the church! It was incredible to see the Lords hand work in his life because he was super addicted to smoking and coffee but was able to quit within a week!! We are also going to begin teaching his daughter and grand kids! Super stoked!!! He always says he wants to be the next bishop haha its so funny! He is a stud!!! Also Rafeal and Joana (the couple I mentioned last week) are progressing super well!! They went to church again and loved it and we will bring them to a family night with some members tonight also! They are super excited to get married and feel the spirit at church! I feel so blessed to be able to meet these people are in need of the Gospel. I can see more and more each day how everyone is need of the restored Gospel and truly how it blesses and changes lives. I know that this is the only church on the face of the earth that has the complete, and restored gospel with everything that Jesus Christ established in his church. I know that he is the head of this church and not any man. I am so grateful for that and am so happy to be serving my mission and sharing this good news with others, that that same church Christ established is here on the earth in these last days.

I am so excited for conference next week to hear the words of the living prophet and apostles! I'm so happy and grateful for all of you guys and the support you send each week! Hope y'all have an awesome week and until next time!!!

FALOU!

Elder Barton

Weekly Report BIG JAMES BALLIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 9-21-2015

Heyyyyy everybody!!!!

Hows everyone up there in civilization??! Haha, this week was super awesome... had some really cool stuff happen and Heavenly Father is truly blessing the tactical trio down here in Baronesa!!

We had our multi zone conference this week and it was super good to see all the ol pals on the mish! We also had some super awesome trainings given by our President and mission leaders INCLUDING my two homeboys elder hurd and Rodriguez!!! They gave a training and it was super super good! KILLED IT!

One of the days when they went to give the training (to the other half of the mission where our zone wasn't participating) I had the opportunity to take our man James to the temple and do baptisms!!!! Man, that was such a neat experience... It was his first time to the temple and he absolutely loved it!! He is so firm i the gospel already and is just absolutely loving it... After the temple haha, we went to the chapel next door where the zone conference was being held to eat lunch and have him meet President Del Guerso... As part of one of the trainings they did an activity where we shot 3 pointers, and James (being a BALLER) was invited by president to take some shots, and in front of everyone he DRAINED two perfect 3 pointers haha with soo much swaaaggg haha it was the sickest thing I've ever seen everyone was cheering so loud and soo stoked for him haha! It was the coolest thing ever hes such a stud...

Other than big James, wanted to talk about an awesome couple we found this week named Rafeal and Joana. They were a referral we received from a member of one of the wards in our stake and are such awesome people!! They are super young, 20 and 19 years old and moved here from the North East of Brazil from a place called Piaui. They are here looking to start a family and have God in their lives... They went to church yesterday and loved it!! We have taught them the Restoration and asked them if they have a desire to get married. They said YES and want our help to get married. We went over last night after church with the member who gave us the referral and he testified to them about how marriage is a blessing and a commandment of God. The member Roney had close to the same situation as them and so it was perfect how he helped them to realize how marriage will bless their lives. They agreed and Rafeal asked Joana to marry him in front of us haha it was so cool! Its so cool to see how much they love each other and want to start a family. We are going to go to the government place this eek to help them pick out a date to get married. SO stoked. They are seriously so awesome and we are so blessed to be teaching them! I know the gospel will bless their lives so much and will one day be sealed together forever in the Temple! 

I am feeling soo grateful to be here serving my mission and witness miracles each and every day. I know that Heavenly Father truly puts these people in need in our paths when we work our hardest to serve him. I am learning so much in the tactical trio with my comps elder Hurd and Rodrigues and am loving my mission and this area soo much! I'm so grateful for all you guys and your support! Hope ya know how much I love you all and thanks for everything!!! 

This church is true and Jesus Christ is the one who leads and directs it!

HAVE AN AWESOME WEEK!!!!!

Elder Barton

Weekly Report TACTICAL TRIO..... BARONESA - 9/14/15

Whaaats up everyyybody!!!

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!?

Weekly Report BOA TARDE from BARONESA 8/31/15

Hey hey hey everybody!!!! I'm comin atcha live from my new area Baronesa!!!! Its super awesome here, I truly loved my first week!

So this last week I was with an Elder named Elder Viera, who was a new missionary waiting for his visa to the NEW YORK NEW YORK NORTH MISSION!!! the same mission as my main man BIG RYFRY ALPHA!! His visa arrived, so he headed out yesterday.. I will miss him, truly learned a lot with that kid in just one week! He learned so quickly and is already such a powerful missionary!

I'm currently in trio with my Zone Leaders Elder Hurd and Elder Rodriguez... They are studs. We live in the same house and I will go to the mission home tomorrow to grab my new comp! He will be a short time missionary I think, so it should be awesome to be able to show him what its like to serve a mission! I'm stoked!! Its gonna be a little crazy cause I don't know the area too well yet, but just gotta charge it haha I know Heavenly Father will help me out!

I have really loved this area and the ward that I am serving in so far! (its a smaller ward with about 90-100 people) And the people here are soo humble, and the members are all always soo pumped to help the missionaries and participate in this awesome work! We gave a training in the ward yesterday also about missionary work and how the members can be more involved, they were all STOKED! I already have made some awesome friends here, and know that I will learn A TON in this area!! This is gonna be a shorter email his week, but just wanted to let you all know that I am doing awesome and am so grateful for all of you guys and your support!!! Every day i am coming to love my Savior more and more and am so grateful to be here. Love y'all sooo much and hope you have an awesome week!!!

Love,

Elder Barton                                





                              Elder Barton LOVES Food!  We get photos of his meals each week! 
                                               He is one blessed Elder! 

weekly email TRANSFERS!!!!!!!

Hello everybody!!!! Elder Barton coming atcha with some news that I will be TRANSFERRED!!!!!! I am headed to an area called Rochdale which is in Osasco. Where i was in my first area!!! But Osasco is huge so i will be pretty far from where I was! I will be opening the area (again!!) and training a part time missionary who will only stay for one transfer! I'm scared, but excited also!!

This week was a super super awesome week.... A perfect last week here in Granja Viana!! The first awesome thing that I COMPLETELY FORGOT to tell everyone last week is that ELDER NEIL L. ANDERSEN came to visit our mission!!!!!!!!!!!! Holy cow soooooooo awesome!!!! It was the coolest thing ever, I feel so blessed to have had that opportunity to receive an incredible training about the Atonement of Jesus Christ from him! I felt the spirit soo very strongly in that room as he testified as an Apostle of the Lord to each and every one of us! Most of the time, he was speaking in Portuguese!! haha it was sooo sick!! He speaks Portuguese, English, french, and Spanish! And he was speaking Portuguese soo well! It was incredible!! But his training was seriously so good. He talked about the Atonement the entire time, and how it applies to us as missionaries and how it can help use have a stronger desire to share the gospel when we understand our Saviors sacrifice for us. It is only through the Infinite Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ that we can return to live with him forever and have happiness here on this earth. And when we understand that, and feel that love that he has for us, we will want to share this gospel with the whole world so that they can feel the same thing and have the chance to return to live with God!! Sister Andersen was also there, and gave an incredible talk about Honesty and how Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are our perfect examples of honesty. When we are honest with Heavenly Father, trying to use the Atonement of His Son more and more each day we will have the Holy Ghost with us more abundantly each day. "We have to do this if we want the Holy Ghost with us. We simply wont have it any other way!" is what she said, and I loved that! Its soo true, Heavenly Father wants to give us the company of the Holy Ghost always, so that we can have him to lead and guide us but we have to do our part and be honest, using the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ! It was so soo awesome to be there and receive such great trainings from such incredible people. I want to write so much more of what they said but also don't have much time haha! But all I will say is that my testimony of the Atonement grew so much this week, and want to study it more and more each day better understand the Sacrifice that my Savior suffered for me!

Also wanted to talk about the baptism we had with Tiago on Sunday! It was awesome to receive that training and then see Tiago putting the atonement to use the following day. He is such a stud, he is the kid I talked about last week, that told us he wants to serve a mission! It was crazy to see how fast he was prepared by the Lord and the testimony he received through prayer! I had always known him, Elder Cabral and I met him the first week here in Granja Viana but he was never quite ready... He went to church a couple times but wasn't progressing much. All of a

sudden these last couple weeks he started having Incredible experiences and desires to follow Christ! It was such a special baptism, he is such a stud and I am so grateful for that Opportunity I had to meet him and learn from his example! He is only 16, and hardly has any support from his family. It was super sad no one from his family came to watch his baptism, but the young men all welcomed him in so well and he had a lot of people there from the ward to support him! Hes awesome! Also Sergio is progressing sooo well! He was there to watch the baptism and loved it.I will definitely come back on the 13th to watch his baptism!! I still cant believe how much this man has changed!! It is incredible how the ATONEMENT of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon can change people!! I have gained such a strong testimony of that here in this area. Because it happened with me! 

This area was super tough, but I truly learned soo much. I grew my testimony so much in this area and am so grateful for the things I have learned, and blessings which I have received! Sorry this letter is soo long today, but I just want to let you guys know that I know without a doubt that this church is true. That the power of the Atonement is real and truly changes people and their desires. I am so grateful to be serving my mission and for the support which I feel from you guys! Couldn't thank you enough! Hope ya all know how much I love ya and have an AWESOME WEEK!!!!!! 

Until next time!

ELDER BARTON

                                                       Tiago's Baptism Photos... 

                                         Pizza celebration APOSTLE and BATISMO!!!

The last supper with Maria do Carmo!!!! :(

                                  (elder b is fed well! we never have to worry about that! whew!)

Sergio!!!!!! (pay attention to the paintings that he painted

 in the backround! sooo sweet!) PICASSO IN THE FLESHHHH

Weekly Report 8/17/2015

Opaaaaaaa Bom Dia todo mundo!

Elder B comin atcha to give a report of the awesome week!

This week was truly full of miracles, miracles, and more miracles!! Had some super awesome experiences and learned some great things this week!

I wanted to start off talking about my main man Sergio who I talked about a couple weeks back.... Or maybe last week? haha times flying some I'm not sure which week it was! But he is the older man who is having awesome experiences with the Book of Mormon.... So he doing super super well! He went to church again yesterday and we marked him to be baptized on September 13th!!! I cant believe it! We visited him last night and talked about baptism and he told us that he is wanted to change his life and be baptized! I still am kind of in shock, haha because he was so dang stubborn earlier and didn't want anything to do with our church. And now he is ASKING US if he can be baptized and what he needs to do to prepare! It is so incredible how the gospel and Book of Mormon literally changes and transforms lives. I have been able to grow my testimony about this soo much these last couple weeks.

Also have an awesome Investigator named Tiago who we have been teaching for a long time but he was never really progressing. He is 16 years old and we almost stopped visiting him a lot of times because he wasn't able to go to church. But we felt that we should keep visiting him and inviting him to church. He went last week, and absolutely loved it! He told us that he said a prayer when he went home and asked if the church was true, when he prayed he felt super happy afterwards and that he wants to SERVE A MISSION!!!!! he also told us he wants to be baptized and we marked him for next Sunday!!! I couldn't believe it, truly these are miracles that are happening. And I don't even know how to react, except to just feel grateful. This area has been super super hard, we have never had much success in this area and it is 7 months without a baptism. I questioned Heavenly Father a lot of times why i am I here in this area, why am I not having success, why is it so hard? But I have come to learn that He has control over everything... He knows what he does with each and every one of us and I am soo soo grateful for the things which I have learned here in this area. The transfer is about to end, and I am wanting to stay here just to be able to learn more!

I am learning so much with my companion Elder Inocencio and am so grateful for the spirit i feel and awesome experiences I have each day. I know I say the same thing every week, but I am truly loving my mission. I am so happy and grateful to feel my Saviors love each day! This church is true, and miracles are real! I hope ya all have an awesome week and thanks for everything!

Elder Barton

(FROM AUG 3rd email)  

We just had an exchange with the traveling APs the whole week. It was sooo awesome! learned so much from them, they are great missionaries! They are constantly traveling to help out other areas. STUDS!

1. Burger at THE FIFTIES last pday! ohhh gosh so good!

2. Bday party for Sister Almeida this week in district meeting!

3.PIZZA WITH THE ASSISTANTS!!!!

(Last WEEK)

Lil exchange pizza celebration with my Zone Leader Elder Norambuena!!!

WEEKLY REPORT 8/10/2015

We had lunch with the SeCama family this week haha oh my gosh sooo much food! it was amazing I ate cow stomach and this super good cake!!

​This is the cow stomach!!! pics are super bad, but it was danggg good!

a little bit of the JUNGLES and favelas  in COTIAAA!

HAND MADE SUSHI that an awesome Japanese inactive member made for us last night!!!!!!! HOLYYYYYYY COW SOO GOOD!

​Tereza and Paulo SeCama, such an awesome awesome family!!!! Paulo is famous for karaoke competitions in Brazil and Japan haha and has like 200 hundred trophies in there house haha! we are trying to help them go back to church, they always make a bunch of food for the missionaries.... Such an awesome family!!!

Heyy heyyyy whats up Everybody!!!

Solid week this week, it was one of those tougher weeks where Satan was working a little bit in the hearts of the people but turned out to be a great week!

I wanted to start off talking about the power of The Book of Mormon, and the ability it has to transform hearts and move lives! We have been teaching a man named Sergio for a while now. He is an older man that is about 74 years old and first came in contact with the sister missionaries here in this area. He is a very smart man, and is constantly studying hundreds of books about religion and all sorts of stuff. He is also super good at painting!! Hes like Picasso haha his paintings are soo abstract and sick! But we have been visiting him a lot talking about the Book of Mormon, and answering all of the many many questions that he has. He is a great friend of ours, and has always had a lot of respect for us but has previously said to me that he never wants to be a member of the church. We kept visiting him, (usually him showing us his books and paintings) but always inviting I'm to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and we would come back to answer his questions. Last Monday, he gave us a call and asked if we could come over. We did, and he told us that he spent almost 3 hours reading the book of Mormon Monday morning because he couldn't stop. He then prayed, and said he felt the most powerful, indescribable and happy feeling come over him and began to weep. He then told us that he didn't know what it was, but said he wants "to try and be the best Mormon that he can" haha. We testified of the power of the Holy Ghost and how he testifies of the truth. Sergio was super happy and came to church with us this Sunday after having many dreams and other awesome experiences with the Book of Mormon during the week. It was incredible, I couldn't believe it! We are planning to invite him to be baptized this week... We wanted to last week, but something just wasn't feeling right! We are so stoked, and I truly grew my testimony soo much about the power that the Book of Mormon has to convert souls and change our lives for the better! 

 The Book of Mormon is true, and it testifies of the Immense love that our Heavenly Father has, and always has had for each and every one of us. So grateful for that, and these experiences I was able to be apart of this week. I invite all of you guys to read, and pray to know the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon because it will bless your lives so much! I'm grateful for this restored gospel and the PLETHORA of blessings that I have! Hope yaaalll have an awesome week!

ELDER B SIGNING OFFFFF