October 3, 2011-To Live Would Be An Awfully Big Adventure

Dear Family and Friends,
They say you grow on the mission. In my case that's not true. I'm much less of the man I was when I got here. I've lost 40 lbs. and at least 4 pant sizes.
I used that now, so I won't use it in sacrament meeting.
When thinking about this email, I thought I would send a normal email. But I want to take this email and dedicate it to....You All! This email is to my mom, my dad, my brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, friends, etc. For everyone that was a part of these wonderful two years.
Thank you for your letters, cards, but most important, thank you for your prayers in my behalf. These two years have been very hard and without divine help, I would have been done a long time ago. In the moments when I didn't have faith in myself, you all did. Thank you all, and I hope God has blessed you for your love for me.
I have heard a lot of remarks about how I am "dying" on the mission. I like to think that if ending my mission is dying, then I hope it is how a seed dies for the plant to grow, or how the prologue of a wonderful book ends, giving way to the story. I had many opportunities that I didn't take advantage of, many times squandered, but the little I did, I'm grateful the Lord let me.
How do you sum up two years? I can't. There was so much that happened, both good and bad. Times so hard I cried, and other times so good, I cried. Moments when you think you can't go anymore, but the Lord takes you a few more steps.
I remember the first time I understood a joke in Portuguese and laughed along, no more feigning that I was understanding. That is happiness.
I remember courageous men who threw away pornography and women who threw away cigarettes to follow the Savior by baptism. That is happiness.
I remember walking side by side with my companion, talking about how we could help others, both of us determined to do what is right. That is happiness.
To think that I will be home sharing this with you all leaves me so very happy; but to think to leave the people I have learned to love, leaves me so very sad. How can I leave? I might never see them again. Who will be there to help them? And yet I find the answer in Alma 26 with the report of Ammon, in verse 7 "For they are HIS". They aren't Elder Barton's, but they are his Master's.
Conference was wonderful. We saw all the sessions. President asked us to watch all sessions possible. I was really excited to receive the news of the 2nd Provo Temple and I loved all the talks. To be honest, I have planned almost nothing about what will happen here in 1 week, so I have been feeling a little anxious. But I received valuable guidance about what I need to do. I loved President Packer's experiences with World War II, Elder Christofferson and Repentance, and Elder Cook about doing our best, even with tragedy.
Luciana has pneumonia, and didn't go to Conference and so Gabriel will probably be baptized this week.
Goal-Read the Book of Mormon from front cover to back cover, in Portuguese, from Brasilia to Salt Lake City.
Today we had a zone activity and I gave a training about study. Then we played soccer and volleyball. It was fun. I had originally planned to go to all the monuments, but I decided that being with people is more important than buildings.
With Love,
Elder Barton

September 26, 2011-Viva la Portugal!

Fano has been called to serve in the Portugal Lisbon Mission! His mission president, Moroni Torgan, is from Brasilia, Brazil. We are so excited for Fano!

Dear Family and Friends,
HOLY COW!!!! He's going to speak Portuguese!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not alone! I'm really, really excited for you, Fano!
Moroni Torgan is actually famous among members here. He worked in the government (I think he was a deputado federal) and worked really hard against drugs/organized crime. He put one of the biggest crime lords in jail, the leader of the PCC-Primeiro Comando do Capital, which is in Sao Paulo. He is supposed to be one amazing man. When I served in Sao Sebastiao there was a sister called from there. I'll have to ask what her name is for him to ask. I'm so excited for him.
This week was okay. On Sunday everything that could go wrong, went wrong. So this week we are back to the drawing board. We also have a great opportunity with General Conference, but it also makes it a little harder with people committing to leave at 11:00 in the morning and arrive back at 8:00-8:30 at night. But the investigators who go, are baptized. No one tops the Prophet and the Apostles when it comes to teaching. No one.
The rain returned, which is always depressing. I don't like walking in the rain. No one wants to talk with you. 5 months and 3 weeks passed without rain here.
We are helping Gabriel, Luciana's son prepare for baptism this week or next week. She is also having some hard times with some personal issues, so if you could pray for them, it would really help.
I have a question. Do you think I should try to send home my piranha teeth by mail or do you think I can take them on the airplane?
Another question with baggage. I'm wanting to leave almost everything with clothes/missionary supplies. My companion and the other Brasilians could use them, because their stuff is pretty beat up, even only after 1 year. But at the same time, I don't want to have to buy stuff at home if money-wise it's not a great time. I have no problem with bringing back clothes to help out back home. Please feel free to leave your opinion.
I'm really excited to work this week because everything is centered around Conference!
Love,
Elder Barton

September 19, 2011-Mail Strike!

Dear Family and Friends,
The biggest news of this week is the nationwide mail strike. The entire mission is paralyzed with fear and mourning. How I am grateful that I had the opportunity to learn how to wait for mail. They think the strike won't end until October.
Today I took out money. I bought my last memoir of Brasil, the national jersey! See picture.
This week was much better. I'm feeling 90% and doing better every day. This week we worked a lot with Luciana. We are working a lot with the Liahona and it is helping the recent converts a lot. We are also teaching her son, Gabriel. He is 12 and really smart. Tonight we are going to watch "Os Testamentos" (The Testaments). Church movies are so great to help invite the Holy Spirit. I would recommend every missionary to bring a DVD library. Problem with the Restoration? Watch the movie!
I really appreciated the thoughts that Dad sent me about how to fight the good fight until the end. I'm doing what President Pizzirani told missionaries when they left. I have 15 minutes before I leave the house to put down goals and then after that, I don't think about it. I have my goals in several categories-family, education, work, spiritual and physical. It's helped so that I can think about the most important things I want to focus on. Perseverar ate o Fim!
Only problem is that the other elders already knew that I would end the mission and told all the members. But they are all really supportive, especially those that have already served missions.
That's fun about the car (Dave drove a silver Porsche for the homecoming royalty). It must be nice to ride in a car.
I'm really, really excited about Fano receiving his call. I don't remember what I guessed. But tell Cody-Mui bueno! (Fano's friend, Cody, was called to serve in the Guadalajara Mexico Mission).
I hope Mom had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa. I really appreciate the email they sent. I hope I leave the bugs behind too.
With Love,
Elder Barton

September 12, 2011-Independencia ou Morte!

Dear Family and Friends,

This past week was Independence Day...in Brasil! 7 of September! The Sunday before we sang the national anthem in sacrament meeting and President Gaertner let everyone go into Brasilia to see the parade. It was really fun seeing the soldiers and tanks. Brasilians admit that the U.S. Army is the best, but they are very proud of their elite jungle troops. They say not even U.S. Special Forces can take the training (you'll have to ask Eric about that one). We also saw the Mirage jets fly over, which was really cool. They also had the "Smoke Squadron" which made some fun designs in the sky and even made the shape of the national cathedral. They would stall and come out of it and use it to do some crazy stuff.

We didn't have as much success this week. Luciana is doing great, yesterday we talked about Lehi's Dream. She has a lot of opposition, but she is focused on living the gospel. Sandra and Lais are not reading like they should, so progress is really slow. We need to focus on finding new people. We have a lot of less-active members.

My companion is from Fortaleza, Ceara. He is an only child and his dad is the bishop there.

The ward is great. I was really sick this week. On Monday night I was on the bus stop and I wasn't feeling so great, so I threw up all over my shoes. Then I went behind the bus stop and continued. One of the members was coming to the bus stop to go with us to the FHE and she (her name is Zoria, she served her mission in Idaho) ran to the pharmacy to get some medicine. We call her Zo and she takes really good care of us. If lunch falls, Zo knows and gives us lunch. If we are sick, Zo knows and knows what to do.

There is also the family of Alfredo. He and his wife Iraci, are amazing. They are involved in anything and anytime you have an investigator in church, they come to help. He speaks English and is helping out Elder Robinson, who is being trained here by Elder Manzanete. We love to talk about Brasilian history.

Love,

Elder Barton

September 5, 2011-Sobradinho Deja Vu

Dear Friends and Family,

I opened up my email today and it had my itinerary for the ride home. I had already survived one week of everyone telling me I stink because I'm dying, and I'm sure it will only continue.

This week was good because we were able to work a lot, get to know the investigators, the area and the members. Sobradinho I and Sobradinho II share the same chapel, so I had a great time on Sunday seeing a lot of members that remembered me. I received a lot of invitations to go to churrascos and dinners before I leave. We are teaching Luciana, who was confirmed on Sunday, Sandra, who is an active member of the Seventh Day Adventists and Lisa, who is a great girl who is a friend of another recent convert.

I am a little sick (isn't that how almost all my emails start?), a little bit of diarrhea, but other than that I'm doing well. Brasilia is a lot cooler than Tocantins, so I am very much enjoying the cold here.

This past Saturday there was a wedding in the church and I played the piano accompaniment with Elder Manzanete, my district leader. I love playing the piano and the mission has really helped me feel confident of giving my best. It's never perfect, but it's my best.

I wouldn't say I was crushed by the news about BYU, but I was a little upset, and last night I was thinking about it and I started to get angry. Freakin' beard banning, daisy pickin', pinko commies......

But then today I was reading in the Liahona of May 2011-President Eyring's talk about "Learning in the Priesthood of God". At the end he talks about how even if we don't have our formal education from a prestigious university, the most important learning we can attain is the learning we receive when we serve in the Priesthood. And then I heard it-"I'm the gardener here" (see Elder Christofferson, same conference about being reprimanded).

God matters very little what I make of myself, but matters what He cam make of me. The past few months I have been worrying more about what I think I can make of myself. So this is a great lesson about how these next few months I need to let go of the wheel and let the Lord make the course changes I need and then follow them. How I am grateful for moments when the Lord doesn't give me what I want.

With Love,

Elder Barton

August 29, 2011-Transfers-The Return to Brasilia

Dear Family and Friends,
I'm back to Brasilia, in Sobradinho II. It sits right across from Sobradinho I, where I pretty much started my mission. I'm with Elder Pereira. He is from Fortaleza, Ceara. He has a year and 3 months on the mission. I'm also senior again, which makes me really happy. I asked President to put me down to senior again because I wasn't doing so well with the pressure. So I'm excited for a transfer of work, work, and work.
This past week we went out to Gurupi, TO, where we did interviews. The city is 4 hours by bus and it always makes my head spin to think how big the mission is. And then to think about how big Elder Ray's mission in Russia is. It's pretty nuts.
Congrats to all the football players. That's fun that everyone is having opportunities to play. I really want to play futsal after the mission. Less running and more time shooting.
An Elder gave me a Book of Mormon in Spanish, so I'm reading it in my spare time. I think I'll take up Spanish after the mission as well. A lot of it is similar to make it fun, but different to make it a challenge. As well that everyone back home speaks Spanish...and not Portuguese.
Well, now we know about BYU. Let's start looking at UVU. I'm not really crushed, just confused. But I'll leave it alone. I didn't really pray about BYU, I just went for it. I wasn't supposed to go after the mission, so it seems there is something else out there. Whatever happens, my beard comes back ASAP.
That's about it. We need to clean the house, so I'll talk more next week.
Love,
Elder Barton

August 22, 2011-Piranhas...in my Freezer!

Dear Family and Friends,

This last week was pretty full of activities. The Assistants came up (Elder Przybyla is going home today and so he came up to say goodbye and have a training) so we had a day full of training and the afternoon of soccer. It's amazing how you can play soccer in 98-104 degree weather with enough water. We were moving a little bit slower from the soccer and hiking, but now we're feeling great.

We worked really hard this week, but things didn't come quite together how we wanted and the zone only baptized 5. But we are still here.

Next Monday is transfers, so the email will probably be short.

don't have time to go fishing, so I bought some piranhas from the dad of a member, who is a fisherman. So we're going to fry them up for lunch after this. So the pictures are of the piranhas. The other one is from my birthday when the Elders woke me up and threw water and flour on me at midnight.

That's exciting with all of the school starting stuff. Good luck to Fano at college, Caleb driving and dating, Jared at junior high and Timo at football.

I hope Calvin is feeling better. What is everyone up to these days? How is RSL?

The river I'm on is the Tocantins River. It divides the state and flows into the Amazon River (it's a tributary).

The past two weeks everyone who finds out we are Americans always comments "How is the U.S. now that the dollar dropped?", to which we respond "We've been here for over a year, you tell us". Everyone here loves any news of another crisis, because it gives them something to talk to us about. At this point in my mission though, other than WWIII or the 2nd Coming, doesn't' phase me. I've been here through Haiti, Japan, the death of Osama bin Laden, etc.

With Love,

Elder Baton (that's not misspelled-that's how he spelled it)