week 55

New Testament will be so much fun to learn and teach, I absolutely love it, I just finished reading Matthew and it's brilliant, you can feel Christ's love for the people in the way he teaches them. 

Things are pressing on.  We really don't have anybody to teach, we have one pretty good potential but she is out of town this week so we can't teach her.  We are just finding all the time and trying to find the elect.  Yesterday we had this guy come up in our face and say "show me God!"  We were like well the earth is a creation of God.  He was like "no! show me God!"  We were like mate I can't show you physical proof.  He says let me show you something, so he takes of his sunglasses and drops them, "there is gravity, proof"  I wanted to say, show me gravitiy!  I want to physically see gravity.  You can't show me gravity just like I can't show you God.  It takes faith that gravity is there just as much as it takes faith God it there.  But I didn't, I just walked away because he was too angry and hard-hearted to listen to anything I was gonna say. 

So we didn't have church yesterday, that's the second time that's happened on my mission.  Since the chapel isn't built yet, we are renting a hall and they called and said they were doing construction on the hall so it would be out of use Sunday.  I was like wow the same time we meet, and have met for like 30 years, rubbish.  So we went around and gave the sacrament to some people--it was an interesting day.  

The Lord puts these trials in front of us to help us grow and build.   I've learned to perservere and to be happy and that there is no point being down and sad because it's only causing yourself misery, so be happy!  The best lessons are learned the hardest ways.

Bike Ride on the way to Broad Haven

week 54

We had a heat wave the past couple of days, it's supposed to roll into this week, but right now it's looking pretty cloudy.  So we will see.

The teaching pool is negative 5 right now, no I'm mucking about. We don't have any proper investigators, we have a couple of good potentials that we are trying to get to new investigator status but we are just not sure.  We are speaking to everybody.  Some days it's good and others no one wants to even say hello.  The sun kind of helps a little so I like it!  We did some painting for this one bloke, who is having us around tonight!  So that looks promising.  We are just speaking to people, doing service and just trying to have faith in Jesus Christ and hope that everything is going to work out for the best.  It is rough some days when no one says hello, not a door opens, but it becomes all worth it when you keep pushing through and you meet someone really cool.  

So a dodgey story: we were biking home from church, which is about 8 miles, and we were cruisin' down this hill.  We get to this roundabout, a tiny one, and there is no one there but one car in front of us and the car is slowing down and then it stops completely.  I'm behind it and I pull the brakes and I'm getting closer to this car, and my back tyre slides out and I go drift onto the footpath.  Elder Brewer is cruising down and screams to me elder b my brakes dont work move, so I scooted like an inch and he whizzed by.  in the meantime this lady is still sitting at the roundabout so we bike off.   Thanks to Heavenly Father and good brakes we got away unscratched and alright.

(I had asked Michael about a word I read in a newspaper article--whinging and this was his response: "yea they use that and these words too

minging-gross

muckin about- messin around

gobsmacked- shocked

lad/bloke- man"

All is well here!

week 53

I have been a missionary for 1 year now.  It is absolutely crazy how fast it has gone, and how incredibly fast it will continue to go.  I have learned so much over this year and now comes the application part, I need to apply what I have learned and that's when I can become the best missionary I can be. 

We have been working so hard and everybody has dropped, about 99% of our teaches flogg us, it's just been difficult. I am so grateful for my mission and the experiences and opportunities I have had because even though many have been hard, a lot have been joyful.  And 1 joyful experience balances out with 10 bad ones.  But all these experiences, bad and good, have shaped me and helped me to become a better person.  I am so grateful for that because of those experiences I have learned a little more about the Saviour and how he works with me and how through him I can find happiness. 

One lesson I have learned that means more to me than anything is God is our loving Heavenly Father.  What is important to us BECOMES important to him.  The things that we want and need, he wants to give to us if we work for it.  We just have to be patient and trust in God.   We are just working hard and trying to trust in God a little more than we have been. God works in mysterious ways but if we just give ourselves to him the mysteries of God will be unfolded.

week 52

The sky on the way home from Zone Conference

We had Zone Conference and interviews with President Rasmussen.  They have a son on a mission in Nashville Tennessee, and I realised that I know their son Tyler!  We went to BYU-I together and I had a class with him.  I feel President is going to be fairly strict. At Zone conference he whipped out the white handbook and told us some things he feels are important.  He seems like a good, loving man.  At interviews we had a good chat and he just wanted to know more about me and things and he said I'm glad you have a year left we can get to know each other really well.  He told me "Elder Barton the Lord has big and great things for you to accomplish in this next year so keep working hard and you'll see the blessings."  Here is a little fact for you, at the moment 60% of the mission has been out under 6 months.  We are such a young mission. I'm probably in the top 20% if not higher.  It's crazy, so I have a feeling that this will be my last transfer in Milford and I'll get moved to another area with a younger missionary because President wants to spread us around and take advantage of the older guys.  It will be good.

Unfortunately I have sad news about the family we were teaching.  The husband completely hardened his heart toward the gospel.  The tithing thing really stuck and he wouldnt let us read from the Book of Mormon when we saw them last or anything, so we won't be seeing them for the time being.  We are going to sit back and let them figure it out and we will pop by in a couple of weeks to see what's up.  So back to the drawing board.  We are finding loads which is hard because your results are pretty slow for a while, but then suddenly boom 20 new investigators.  We have a couple of teaches tonight and then tomorrow from noon til 1730 we have a teach every hour hahaha we will be packed with people.  I have faith that they will all keep their appointments!  

As we study the gospel we gain knowledge, but I've learned the best and quickest way to gain a testimony of the gospel is to live it.  As we live the principles, we come to know they are true.  That is why, as missionaries, we invite people to do things to build their faith. Because even though reading will help, if they live a principle it means more and lasts a lot longer.  And as we live a principle we gain a piece of the puzzle and slowly our puzzle starts to form around the edges and then we fill in the middle pieces because those are a lot harder to get. 

The rain is still coming in (wettest June in history!).  Right now it is like a really thick blanket of mist so I feel like you get wetter that way, but its all part of the experience.  We are already getting tourists down from all over the place because Pembrokeshire is so beautiful.  There are alot of caravan parks here so we usually have some tourists.  And since it's supposedly summer, the surfers are here and the caravan parks are full and people are coming for the Olympics!  It's gonna be crazy!  

A castle in Aberystwyth

Another castle in Aberystwyth

week 51

It's gonna be sad this transfer because in August one of the families is moving to Canada:(  they are really awesome as well!  The family we have been teaching is doing alright I guess.  They were told a lot of anti-Mormon things by their "friends".  They were told you had to show your p60 (end of the year summary of all your earnings) to the bishop.  That got them, they don't like that; but we have told them millions of times its not true, we even had the branch presidency go over and tell them, but they are stuck on it.  We are praying for them and hoping that they will realise that it's not true. 

We are finding a couple of people but it's challenging. We managed to give out 8 books this week.  It was a struggle, but were not letting that get us down at all. We're pushing through it and keeping our faith and looking up. 

It's a busy week.  We have zone conference tomorrow in Rwbina, which is down in Cardiff.  Then Thurdsday we have interviews in Swansea.  Then Friday Elder Brewer has his driving test so we have to drive up to Pembroke for that.  Then Saturday we are going to New Castle Emlyn for a baptismal interview.  Whew, busy busy busy!   This week will go by really fast!  Plus I'm going on exchanges this week with Aberystwyth so that will be sweet! 

I'm excited to meet President Rassmussen and also nervous.  I don't know what to expect.  It will be fine, he was called to the EBM for a reason, so we need to help him to feel welcome.  President Ogden was loved and we need to show the same love to President Rassmussen. 

For obvious reasons we will not be celebrating the 4th of July, we will do that in private hahaha.  I wish it was warm like at home.  We have just had the wettest June on record and so far are having the wettest July on record hahaha.  Not much of a summer. 

I have some fun pictures this week!

so this advert was the coolest thing I've ever seen so I had to get a pic!  hahaha

pandas!

Attack of the Meerkats!  hahaha funniest pic EVER!!  We saw this garden when we were tracting and I was like hold a sec I have to take a pic of this!  hahaha  This is like a film picture, When Meerkats Strike!  lol