In the Field!

     I'm officially in the England Birmingham Mission, or the EBM, which stands for Earth's Best Mission!! haha  We woke up at 5 on Wednesday and we drove to the mission home in Birmingham.  Here we met the President who is awesome, to say the least; and the greenies got some hazing lol. We stood on a wall and introduced ourselves and everyone cheered and stuff.  We then went in the transfer meeting to meet our trainers.  My companion is Elder Dahl.   I'll be with him for at least one transfer, so 6 weeks; and even possibly 2 transfers.  We then rode the bus and train to my first area --Swindon, which is the southernmost part of the mission.  Pretty small area--way awesome though. 
     But anyway the language is awesome everyone is like, morning mate, alright mate, oh bless, he's so dodgey.  It is awesome.  I don't have an accent yet, but my companion does when he talks to local people haha. It's so cool how it turns on and off like that. 
NEW ADDRESS TO COME SOON!

week 3 part 2

We went proselyting in Manchester!  We caught a train to Manchester and proselyted for about 3 hours.  We contacted 14 people and got rejected by . . . . all of them.  Oh well, lots of good experiences and real stuff, gotta keep pushing forward!  Like Elder Helski says, "each rejection is another brick in my palace".  I love this so much, but get distracted sometimes, I'm working on staying focused.  There are "testimony shaker" days but you pray more and push through.  Elder Bednar said that "moving forward is all we can do in those times."  I'm so excited to just get out in the field and do the work.  My testitmony has grown so strong since I've been here.  I know this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ.  He atoned for our sins and because of that we can return to him again.  He loves us so much and wants us to be happy by following him and being baptized.  I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. 
P.S.  Tell all the peeps to write me and send pictures--that would be nice!

week 3

 Michael and his MTC instructor (left)  The Helaman District (right) 

Today is my last day in the MTC. We have a transfer meeting today, and leave bright and early tomorrow morning.  The bus ride to Birmingam (I'm going to type it how it's said) is about 2 hours, so I'll be in Birmingam by 10 am which is awesome! Maybe I'll get to do some contacting on my first day, and even a baptism! (haha optimistic but I like it!) I"m excited and scared at the same time to get out but it will be good.

Well my next email will come from the field, and I will be living the missionary life with a bike and what not!

new address

Michael is leaving the MTC this week.  His new address is:

Elder Michael Barton

England Birmingham Mission

187 Penns Lane

Sutton Coldfield

West Midlands B76 1JU
England

Week 2

Thanks for all the letters, they brighten my day!   I can't believe I have been here for 11 days now. The days go slow but the weeks go so fast!

We played soccer with the English guys yesterday and they weren't really all that good, which surprised me because, well, they're English haha!  The food is great, so I've gained 5 to 6 pounds already hahah I'm gonna get fat which is awesome!!   

I am just teaching like crazy and studying about 12 hours a day.  I've basically adjusted to the schedule of waking up at 6:30 am and working straight til 10:00 pm,  its a lot but I know it is helpful.  Classes are pretty long but breaks and p-days help a lot.  I'm slowly learning and the spirit is so strong everyday.We taught an investigator yesterday, we bore our testimony and he started crying a little.  We asked him to be baptized and he said yes!! He is getting baptized in 4 weeks!! I love it so much here! The experiences are amazing and the freinds you make are unforgetable.  We are going out to Manchester tomorrow to go street contacting and I'm really excited but really scared at the same time.  We went on a church tour on Sunday to different sites where Heber C. Kimball served his mission and the spirit was so strong all day! It was really great.  We went to the temple again, it was so cool, we did some contacting there and handed out some pass along cards.  An Area Seventy came, Craig Wright.  He is an amazing man!  He loves us so much and I finally realized that loving is really easy and I'm starting to get better at it.   

I love this work!  I know this is the true gospel.  I know Jesus Christ is our Savior and he died for our sins.  Thomas S. Monson is our prophet and he leads and guides this church.  Because of the faith of Joseph Smith we have recieved the restored gospel upon this earth today.  If we believe in Christ, become baptized and endure to the end, we will be able to live with Christ again and be eternally happy.  I know this is the true gospel and I love it with all my heart. 

Week 1

I'm doing great!!  The MTC here is so small.  There are 38 missionaries, pretty small compared to Provo.  The food is amazing here. I realized when you're really hungry you will eat just about anything.  Everyone that works here is from London and has awesome accents!  My companion is Elder Helski.  He is from Finland and he will randomly speak in Finish and I have no idea what he is saying.

When I first got here I was scared out of my mind.  So much went on and I couldn't keep track.  The MTC President, President Walker, is so cool-- we always see him.  He is an amazing man. He always has some inspiring thing to say to you to pick you up when you're feeling discouraged, which is after all the lessons you have to teach :).  The days are really long! we wake up at 6:30.  Have breakfast at 7:30 and have classes from 9:00 am until 9:30 pm.  It is really draining physically, mentally and definitely spiritually.  When we finally get back to our beds, most of the time I just pass out. 

Sundays in the MTC are the most spiritual days of my life.  We watched Joseph Smith: the Prophet of the Restoration and I have never felt the spirit more strongly in my whole life than at that moment.  We also do choir practice and hearing 38 Elders singing "Called to Serve" is a beautiful picture and an amazing sound. 

P-day is fun because we get to relax.  Which now, is weird to me.  We played ultimate frisbee and had an awesome time together. It was so fun to hang with the guys in a different environment. 

We went to the Preston temple today and it is gorgeous! The grounds are amazing here!  We were at a conference and Sister Walker, who is Gordon B Hinkley's daughter, told us this "Your mission isn't just about what happens to your investigators, its about what happens to you." Amazing talk--it is so true, a real transformation happens and I believe in that.     

  

I know that Jesus Christ lives, he loves us more than we can ever know.  He is our Savior and Redeemer.  Jospeh Smith was a true prophet of God and because of a question he had in his mind we have the restored gospel on this earth.  I love missionary work it is the greatest experience and man or women can have in their life and I would not trade it for anything!

Made it to the MTC!

This is Michael's mom :).  I'll be updating his blog for him while he's away, including excerpts from the emails he sends home about his experiences.  Michael left San Francisco yesterday at 6:00 am.  A very early trip to the airport! 

He arrived in Atlanta where he met up with some other missionaries for the flight to Manchester.  We had been told by the church that we should assume that he made it there ok, and that "no news was good news".  But this morning we got an email!

"I'm at the MTC safely.  Its actually sunny not rainning, weird I know!  So our P-Day is on Tuesdays.  It's been a really long day, and I have slept most of the day so im probably not gonna sleep tonight.  I was pretty discouraged and wanted to come home when I was all alone, but then I met up with the missionaries and they are all really nice.  Today we have nothing planned so we can just relax and unpack and everything.  It seems so unreal that I'm actuallly on a mission.  But I'm in Engalnd, weird.  Orientation is almost over and so we can just kick it. I love you guys and miss you."