Faith & Photos 4/25/2016

We grow most when we are truly stretched beyond our abilities or understanding.  It is at that point that when we have to trust or believe in something that we can't control or don't have the ability to do on our own that we really understand faith.  That is a miracle.  We need to stretch ourselves to really grow  to really experience the meaning of faith.   I have this quote on my desk below and I always related it to work but it made me think about faith today.  "Unless you do something beyond what you have mastered you will never grow." - Ralph Waldo Emerson ( from, Chuck Dad Barton)

We just had transfers and I found out that I will be staying here with Elder dos Santos until he heads to New York  on May 30th. I will also pick up another new missionary tomorrow and we will be in a trio. I began to get super stressed that I will be training two missionaries at once...  but what you just said is so true. it is "beyond my understanding" this transfer. and i just have to trust that its all gonna work out and that i can in fact, do this!  (from, Elder Beau Barton)

Soccer Museum Photos

Pres. Del Guerso

Sao Paulo Soccer Stadium

Companions

Elder Barton Loving these Families!

WEEKLY REPORTIN 4/18/2016

Heeeeeyyyy Yallllll

Another great week this week!!! Something pretty sweet that happened was that I got to go to a soccer museum with President Del Guerso haha!!! A little while back we had that 100 contact and 3 baptism challenge and this week he took all the people that did it to the museum haha it was soo sick!! We even ate a lil hot dog with president after ;) I learned a bunch about how soccer started and got to see a big soccer stadium in São Paulo! I took a bunch of pics that ill send to ya guys!! 

We were also able to help Erika and Emily this week to be baptized which was SOOO AWESOME!!!!! They are such incredible people holy cow! The baptismal service was soo special and super spiritual. Like I said last week, the member (Irmã Jo) who brought Erika to church is soo awesome! She helped us out so much this week, calling us seeing if there was anything that she could bring to the baptism to help or call Erika, send her a message or anything that she could do to help. We were really working as a team and it was awesome because Erika and Emily felt so special at their baptism! Irmã Jo gave a talk also at the baptism and it was super awesome, they were all crying a ton haha and it was awesome. So grateful for them. Erkia said that "this is only the beginning of my happiness" and she is just such an awesome lady after all that she has had to go through in her life!

We also were able to find some awesome other people, a family of less active and nonmembers that just showed up at church last Sunday! Rony, Ivonete, Daniel, Sandra, Antonio and Susana whom are such an awesome family! Ivonete (the mom) Daniel, and Susana arent members and the others are all members but have been inactive for quite some time. We visited them a bunch this week and are super excited to go back to church and to get baptized! Daniel especially is such an awesome kid, he doesn't have arms or legs because of an accident that he suffered and has such a sweet spirit. He is 13 years old and is just such a stud! He always has the biggest smile on his face and is always ready and eager to learn. We went there on Wednesday and he said the most special prayer, and stared crying during it. Not gonna lie, I shed a few tears also haha and it was just such an awesome lesson! This kid is such an awesome example, the whole family. Rony is the oldest brother and takes care of all the siblings because the Dad doesn't live with them, they have such an incredible story. Each and every day i feel more and more grateful for the blessings and family that I have. There are so many people in this world who have it so hard and are so happy. I realize that I need to be so much more grateful for all of the incredible blessings I have. That's something that my mission teaches me more and more each day. That we need to be grateful. Always. We always need to have a smile on our face and just be happy like Daniel is. I love how the gospel helps us to recognize these things and love how much I learn with these incredible people. 

I hope you guys all have an awesome week and know how much I love ya!!! 

Elder Barton                                                         

                                                                     

Sao Paulo Soccer Stadium

Weekly Report 4/12/16

ELDER BARTON WILL RETURN ON OCTOBER 11TH!  JUST GOT THE NEWS TODAY... 6 MONTHS TO GO!

Opaaaaa meus queridos!!! BOA TARDEEEE!

Wanted to say sorry that I wasn't able to shoot out an email last week, especially about General conference. I am so grateful for General Conference and to have a Prophet of God on the Earth who passes the pure will of Heavenly Father for us during these last days, and what He wants us to return to His presence. I felt so strongly in this conference that President Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God, and I am so grateful. I was definitely spiritually FED!! haha, I hope all of you were as well and felt the powerful spirit that I felt. 

This week has been a super rewarding and tough week. We have been incredibly blessed to have found a woman named Erika and her two little daughters Emily, and Ana. They came to know the church in a different ward close to where Irmã Erika cuts hair. She cuts hair super close to the temple and one of her clients is a member who works in the CTM. She talked with her about the church about 2 years ago, but never really sparked any interest. But recently she really has had a huge desire to progress and get to know the church better. She went twice in the ward close to the temple and watched almost every section of general conference!!! My main man Elder Uchytl (who is in that area) called me up and ´passed us the referral and she is AWESOME! My beloved son (elder dos santos) and I have been so blessed to be teaching them and they will be baptized this Sunday. I am so grateful for these people. I don't know why I am so blessed to meet these people. It is truly incredible to see how many people the Lord prepares for his missionaries. I just feel grateful.

It has been a little tough with Luis Carlos and his family. The problems and temptations unfortunately have taken over a little bit in their lives recently and they haven't been able to stay strong. Mikaella gets super sad, wanting her family to change but they won't. Us too, haha its crazy! We just keep have to remind ourselves that God's children have and always will have their agency. Mikaella is incredible, she went to church all by herself on Sunday and stayed to watch a baptism of the sisters and she said that she felt the spirit soo strongly and came up to us after and said, "okay!!! I think I'm ready!!!!! You guys are right, the 24th is the day!" "I think I want to do this!" It was incredible hearing her say that. She is such a great example for her family and we feel super strongly that this example will help out her family a ton to go to church and follow Christ. I just am so happy to be meeting these people and to have more sureness each day that Christ lives and guides His church here on the earth RIGHT NOW. I love Him so much, and just love my mission, I couldn't be happier, and I thank you all so much for the support!! Hope you guys are all doing good!

I also had my last interview with President Del Guerso this week (before he goes home in June) which was super weird and sad but also way good. He is such a special man. Sure do love that guy. Haha gave him a huge hug at the end of the interview and almost cried haha oh gosh! Crazy that he is gonna leave soon... 

Love ya guys soo much and hope you have an awesome week!!!

Elder Barton                                      

                                                                                 Acai bowls :)  (YUMMY!)

Jentry & Olin sent him a package

Pizzas for days

Moving Families 

Zone Meals

Talent Show

Erika & Emily

Elder Bartling

Heloisa Baptism

1 year & 5 month pizza

Alexandres Baptism - sister missionaries

25 de marco (shopping P-Day)

delicccccccccccccccoiussssssss cake that Mikaella made for us

March 14th - 29th Elder Barton Emails

FELIZ PÁSCOA homies!!!!  3/29/16

Yoooooo whats up everybody!! Happy Easter to all of ya guys!!!!

What a pleasure it was to be serving as a representative of Jesus Christ during this special week and to have felt his presence so strongly. To feel that he LIVES!

It was a super awesome week to be able also to receive my NEW SON with open arms!!!!! O GRANDE ELDER DOS SANTOS!!!!!!!!!!!! Has BORN AND LIVES WITH DIGNITY!!!!!!!!

Haha this guys is such a stud!!!! He is from São Paulo and is here waiting on his visa headed to NEW YORK NEW YORK NORTH cough cough shout out to biggggggggggggg B the mission of my beloved BROTHER AND COMRADE!!! my second son that will be headed to New York New York North Mission!!! Soo sweet!!! He already lived in Provo for 5 years so he speaks English perfectly! haha he is a super funny kid and we get along super well. STOKED!!!

Its an incredible experience to train a missionary, it is truly one of my favorite things on the mission, to see these elders with such strong testimonies and desire to share the gospel!!! I learn so much each time each time I train, and am so grateful! Yesterday especially, we had an awesome day!!! 

We have been superrrr worried about Luis Carlos and his family... They have a ot of pretty serious problems and has been frustrating cause we really want to help them but they are being a little difficult haha! They have flaked out several times with going to church, family home evening and even President del Guerso! We invited President to teach them with us on Saturday night to be able to help them out a little bit and they weren't at home. We marked everything with them all set up perfectly to visit them at 7:30, and even confirmed with them a couple hours before. We met up with president at the chapel and went over to their place just to find an empty house! It was pretty frustrating, Alexandra has A LOT of problems with drinking and always goes to her friends house on Saturday night and drinks. She fell in the temptation again and went to her house. I was expected president to be a little frustrated maybe because his kids were in town and left just to visit this family with us. But he is the most incredible man ever, just gave us a pat on the back and said "Elder, I was a missionary. I know how it is. If everything worked out perfectly in life we all would just be too happy" haha then we said a prayer with him in his car and prayed for the well being of Luis Carlos and his family. Learned a lot in that moment. That sometimes it just doesn't work out. But we always need to just be grateful. Thank Heavenly Father for everything we have and try again. 

Yesterday, Alexandra invited us to visit her friend with her (the one who always drinks with her) we went there and left a message with her and her family. We were there with Luis Carlos and his family and the whole other family. There were probably about 15 people there, and we testified of the savior and how he can help us through whatever problem we face. The spirit was so strong, in the moment i felt that he LIVES. That this Easter, we celebrated a LIVING Christ not a crucified one. I am so grateful for that. Unfortunately this family lives in the other ward so sent their address to the other elders. I know that it will all work out. I am so grateful for my mission. I love it, I love the people, I love the gospel, I love Brazil, I love the Savior.

Hope you all have an awesome week! 

If you haven't had the chance yet, watch this video that the church sent out about the LIVING savior who loves each and every one of us! 

Hallelujah: Celebrate New Life through Jesus Christ | Mormon.org

#HALLELUJAH

Elder Barton

                                                  Photos from Elder Dos Santos :) 

DAT WEEKLY UPDATE 3/21/16 TRANSFERS

oLAAAAAAA my Friends!

Just received some sad news last night that my main man Elder Bartling will be heading out to another area on Tuesday!! he will be going to Munhoz Junior which is super close to where I was in Baronesa! I have done a bunch of exchanges there n stuff so I know he will love it! But I am bummed that he will be going... This guy is a stud!

I will be staying here for a little while longer and will receive another SON!!!! hahaha my lineage is getting stronggg! I don't know if he will be an American or Brazilian, but it would be pretty sweet to train an American!!! I'm stoked!

This week was super awesome, I was able to learn alot with good and bad experiences. We were able to help Heloisa to get baptized who I'm not sure if i talked about her yet, but she was the only person in her family who isn't a member and she is super awesome! she almost got baptized a little while back, but felt that she wasn't ready and wouldn't be doing it for herself. We started teaching her about 3 weeks back and she got super excited to prepare herself for baptism! She feels truly converted now, and knows why she was baptized. It was way cool to hear her bear her testimony about why she wanted to be baptized and was an awesome baptismal service! 

We also had a ward talent show this week on Friday night which was pretty epic!! Haha my comp SANG!!!!! This kid sings opera like a BOSS!!!!!! haahah he sang some song from le miserables that was EPIC!!! I took a bunch of pics and videos but unfortunately I baptized my camera with Heloisa yesterday hahahahaha i left it in my pocket during the baptism and am super bummed! I'm lettin it SIMMER in some rice so lets see if it will work again! I sure hope it does! I think that i will for sure be able to rescue my memory card at least! So sorry about that i am going to try to send pics ASAP! 

But other than that, the week was awesome. Luis Carlos and his family are having some pretty serious difficulties and we are praying and fasting that we will be able to help them! I know that it will work out. Last night we had a super cool experience with Mikealla (Luis carlos´s daughter) who expressed her desire to follow Christ and be baptized, but not knowing how to help her family and the problems they have. We invited her to keep being an example and to have corage to what she knows is right. She is awesome!

Grateful for the week that i had, and for the things I learn each and every day as a Representative of Jesus Christ and his church! Love you guys soo much and thanks for the support!!!

Elder Barton

Weekly REPORT 3/14/16



Helloooooo there everybody!!!

Last week threw out a small novel for y'all haha so Ill try to keep short and sweet this week!!

We were really to able to help Luis Carlos and his family get a lil more comfortable with the members of the ward and get to know the chapel and everything which was awesome! We had a super awesome activity on Tuesday that we organized NBD and played human battleship!!! 

haha it was epic we threw up a curtain and made two teams that threw water balloons on the other side to eliminate the people haha it was sick! In the end, a bunch of people ended up going INCLUDING LUIS CARLOS and his family and was perfect cause we did a lil tour of the chapel and introduced them to a bunch of members!!!! They loved it and all left a lil soggy from the water balloons with a smile on their face haha! We also did a FHE with them also on Friday night with a family in the ward who is perfect for them! they have almost the same amount of kids with all the same ages and stuff so it was soolllid!!!! We followed up with them on Saturday about church and everything was all set and ready to go...

On Sunday, we were all stoked waiting at the front door waiting to bring in the whole fam super stoked. Mikealla (the daughter) sent us a text saying that they would get there a little late, all good. 9:30 came around and they still hadn't gotten there, we began to get worried. A little bit later, we saw Luis Carlos and Mikealla enter the front gate. Alexandra ended up drinking a lot on Saturday night and got super sick and wasn't able  to get up and the kids also. We got super bummed and worried about how we are going to help her and why this happened. But then i remembered of the other two 4 people who went to church and two progressed towards baptism. Remembered that we need to be grateful for what Heavenly Father blesses us with. That Satan always tempts and always will tempt all of us. And sometimes we fall, but the important thing is that we get up and have the desire to change after. We ate lunch with them after church, and Alexandra woke up when we were almost leaving. We talked with her about the importance of repentance and being an example for others. We know that she will be able to conquer the addiction that she has. We are gonna invite  president Del Guerso to teach this family with us this  week to see if he can help this family out a little bit. I'm so grateful for them, and am grateful that Luis Carlos and Mikealla went and loved church. So grateful to be servant of the Lord and learn so much everyday. 

Love you guys all so much and have an awesome week!!!!!

Elder Barton

WEEKLY UPDATE 3/7/2016

Alllllrightttt everyone... this week was super super awesome!!!

Started off awesome with a good ol' Multi Zone Conference where I was able to learn a ton!!! Every time we have these conferences I am able to realize how inspired of a man President Del Guerso is!! I learn so much with him and Sister Del Guerso and I am so grateful! He gave the whole mission a challenge for the month of march "MARÇO CINCO" which will be DOPEEE! haha he challenged each companionship to baptize 5 people in the month of march. Haha its super awesome, hes finishing up his mission and going out with a BLAZE!!!! I know that we will be able to do this. Because it was a revelation from the Lord and I am gonna work as hard as I can to achieve this! We also refocused a lot about the basics like planning effectively, effective companionship study and some other things which will help out alot! It was an awesome CONFERENCE!

Then elder bartling and I had some super awesome experiences this week that made us realize truly MARÇO CINCO was inspired from Heavenly Father. We had received a call last week from our bishop saying that he received a referral from a man who is a temple worker on Thursdays in the São Paulo temple and wanted us to visit his Friend who lives in our area. His name is Luis Carlos, and is personal driver for this man who works in the temple, He has known them for a very long time and knows a little bit about the church. We talked with him last week and told us to pass by on Wednesday of this week at 7;30. We went over and met him and his family. He is married legally to a woman named Alexandra and they have for kids. 18, 17, 10 and 5 years old. They also live with a woman named Rosa who is an older lady and helps them take care of the kids and house. We taught them about the Plan of Salvation and was an incredible experience. They loved the message. We figured out that they have some problems in their marriage, and a few difficulties getting along. We promised them that through our message, everything would become better. We challenged them to say a prayer in family that night and also for Luis Carlos and Laexandra to pray together alone before sleeping, Asking  Heavenly Father if our message was true and to help them stop fighting. We left and marked to back on Saturday, already seeing a difference in the family and the parents relationship. On Saturday, we received a text from Alexandra saying that it wouldn't work out for us to visit them on Saturday but that they would for sure go to church on Sunday. Being a little bummed but not discouraged, we said OK and waited for them at church. Waited, and waited, called, no answer, called again, no answer, waited more, and never got there. Feeling now discouraged and super bummed I began to think "why did this happen? they loved the message and PROMISED that they would come! why aren't they here?" Elder Bartling and I were fasting especially for them and that they could stop fighting and have a happy and united family, but to have that, they needed to come to church!!!! We finally talked to them after church was almost over and said they had slept in. We marked to pass by at 5;30 to go and teach them and to see what happened. I began to get frustrated and have the selfish thoughts that Heavenly Father didn't hear our prayers or recognize our fast. Super said and not understanding why. 

We ended our fast, ate lunch and visited a few other people and then went to their house. We went with a member Paulo, and when we got their we could tell that they were feeling a little guilty because they didn't go. We started talking again about the message we left last time and asked if they prayed. They said they did, and that it helped them alot. We started to teach them again, and all the sudden Alexandra started BAWLING out of nowhere.... We didn't understand what was happening. We waited a little bit, everyone even her family confused looking at her and at each other... After she calmed down a little bit we asked her what happened and she looked at us and said "I know that if I go to your church, I will stay there!" She explained that she had a dream on Sunday morning 3 times of seeing us at the chapel waiting in front for her and it woke her up 3 times and felt that she needed to go to church but couldn't get up. She told us how bad she felt that she didn't go, and that she knows we were sent from God. The spirit overtook the room completely and I just heard immediately my own voice saying "why did this happen?" "did Heavenly Father recognize the fast that we did?" and I felt so grateful to know that Heavenly Father hears and recognizes our fasts. Everything happens in HIS time and according to HIS will. He did answer our prayers, and pleadings. But people have their agency. He woke her up three times, and heard each and everyone of our prayers. The whole family apologized  and said that they will be there next Sunday for sure. We testified that this was Heavenly Father, and that his church is here on the earth once more.We invited each and every one of them to be baptized on the 27th of march and they accepted. This was one of the most powerful moments I have ever been on on my mission. I felt the spirit so strong and am so grateful to know that Heavenly Father loves me so much. I am so happy to represent his Son and his church her on the earth.

When we left, Luis offered the prayer and we all said it on our knees. He thanked Heavenly Father for sending two angels into his life. I cant describe how this felt. I am so happy to know that the spirit is the teacher in all things. I want to do everything I can to be worthy of that spirit so that he can teach these incredible people whom we meet. I love this gospel and love my Heavenly Father and his Son Jesus Christ, I testify that He lives and loves each and every one of us! 

I hope you all have an awesome week,

Love you guys soo much!

Elder Barton                                                  

                                                        My companion, Elder Barling and Sister Guerso

Elder Bartling's one year mark