week 11

I have mission football (soccer) practice today, so I don't have much time to write.  It will be fun being with all the elders!  We have mission football next week. 

 

Our investigators are doing well.  Some are very interested and committed to know if this is true.  We are visiting with a lot of members and building the trust of the ward as well, so that's really cool .  We are trying to get the members excited and more involved in missionary work. We just hope as we show them we are serious they will want to be as well. 

 

We go to Cheltenham to watch conference.  We will sleep over at the Cheltenham elders' flat and conference is Saturday night and Sunday.  The time change makes it weird. The only one we see live is the Sunday night one.  Its all jumbled around and I'm not even too sure, but at least we get to watch it. 

 

I don't know if I'll be transferred this time.  Transfers are on the 26th of October.  Usually greenies stay with their trainers for 2 transfers.  It could go either way because next transfer will be Elder Dahl's 4th in Swindon, so honestly I have no idea.  Our District Leader thinks I will get moved, but President decides so who knows.  So if you want to send mail make sure to send it so it arrives here before the 26th--just in case!

 

We are working hard and staying busy!

 

 

week 10

This week was long because it was transfer week.  I didn't think I would get moved just yet, and I didn't so I'll be here for another 6 weeks.  We have a new elder, he is new to Swindon but he has been out 18 months.  He's our new district leader and his name is Elder Stoddard.  

Our investigator who we committed to baptism, got baptized . . . in Long Beach, California :(  All that matters is that he got baptized (and that he is bringing us back oreos haha just kidding).  He is a way cool guy.  I'm so proud that he made this step in his life.  He texted us after his baptism and he said it was the best decision he has ever made and he is excited and happy.  That made us happy, so we celebrated by getting a battered Mars Bar.  What is it?  A Milky Way candy bar, battered.  The first time I had one I smelt it and I'm pretty sure my heart stopped, but they are really good.  

It isn't summer anymore. Fall has officially hit.  Its clear blue skies but freezing!!  I don't even know how thats possible.  From inside the flat it looks like a hot summer day and you step outside and you turn right around and grab a jacket.  I have a feeling it is going to be a cold winter.   

 

We are starting to get a couple more dinner appointments,  but the ward feels instead of feeding us they just give us bags of cookies.  PLEASE FEED THE MISSIONARIES IN THE MODESTO 1ST WARD EVERY DAY!!!!!  We manage though, we have rice and chicken almost everyday for every meal and we throw burgers in sometimes.  I'm not too sure but I think I've gained weight.  I would weigh myself but no one has a scale in England, so I'm on the search for a scale. 

 

Town is way fun!  There are a lot of shops.  Primark, Subway, ASDA, which is like Walmart.  Madalans, which is a really cool place (cool clothes but well good suits).  

   

We are teaching loads of people, about 7 people or so.  Some are Less Active Members or Recent Converts.  We are teaching a woman and her daughter who are amazing!! I love them and they seem interested, they just have a lot of questions.  We are working on getting them to church on Sunday.  

 

Were staying busy and working hard! 

 

week 9 (transfer week)

On top of the world!



Sorry I didn't write Monday.  It is transfers this week and so on transfer weeks our P-day is moved to Wednesday.  So here I am!!

Transfers are today and 13 new missionaries enter which means a couple things:

1.  I made it through my 1st transfer!

2.  We're not the newest missionaries anymore!!

Our district is getting all moved around so we should be expecting some new faces at the next district meeting.  Should be way good. 

Man oh man!  Made it through my first transfer!! Crazy I've been out 2 months today!  We are working hard and teaching people.  Our investigator is still in America, so we dont know when or even where he will get baptized.  We are going to go crazy!!  We're teaching some other people and some are progressing and some are not unfortunately. 

It is fall in England and the leaves are dropping along with the temperature.  Right now it's 13 degrees so I don't even know if that's cold or not because im horrible with the conversion stuff lol!

Out of the mission in Oxford!



As a mission we were blessed to hear from Elder David A. Bednar of the twelve.  Elder Bednar was AMAZING!!  He is inspired and called of God.   He came in and we all went up and each of us got to shake his hand.  He said,  "If we know who we are and we know our purpose for being out here, we don't need numbers or events to justify our mission."  It's so true though---numbers don't matter one bit.  If you are out here working like crazy and you do all you can, then you were successful.  He had some great stories and insights, and he bore his testimony and I'm pretty sure the whole room was filled with the spirit and everyone had tears in their eyes.  It was an amazing weekend.  Starting the new transfer and setting goals so we can be successful but happy and also have fun.  I know this gospel is true.  If it weren't there wouldn't be 150 19-21 year old boys out here teaching and preaching.  This gospel brings happiness to all those who embrace it in their lives.  I know that being out here on a mission will change my life in more ways than I can imagine.  You feel it everyday and you know what you're doing is right.  I was talking with my companion and we said if you believe in the very basics, the rest will come.  Have faith in the small things, bear testimony and then your faith will grow in the big things.  I love this gospel and I love this work.  I love being a missionary!

And for my primary friend:  What do I love about missionary work?   I love meeting new people, teaching people about Jesus Christ, and sharing my testimony with others. 

Thanks for all the letters and cards and pictures you send me. 

(Michael is at the same address for at least 6 more weeks)

Elder Michael Barton

59 Helmsdale

Green Meadow

Swindon SN25 1RA

England

week 8

Here I am in Swindon, almost through my first transfer!  Crazy to think.  Next transfer we are getting 13 new missionaries!! Thats an insane amount of missionaries. 

We're teaching our golden investigator, and he is moving to L.A :(  sad times for us.  He wants to get baptized with the people that first introduced him to the church.  I'm fine as long as he stays strong and gets baptized.  But then he called yesterday and said he might just get baptized in Swindon because it would be easier. He gets back from LA in a couple of days and he said he would let us know where it will happen when he returns.  This guy is awesome!! He called us up and was like hey I'm gonna bring you back something, what do you want?  We were like uhhhhhhh whatever you feel is good.  He was like okay I'll bring back some double stuffed oreos hahahahaha it was awesome"

Other than that investigator, we are teaching a woman and her daughter.  They are awesome and have been taught by a long line of missionaries, they have questions and concerns but I feel that they have been prepared by the Lord.  They are interested, they just want answers to their questions, which sometimes is hard.  

We have done some GQ'ing (Street Contacting) and we met a couplpe of potential investigators that we are going to meet.  We are focusing on expanding our teaching pool.  Its a good goal that I know we can reach if we just trust in the Lord and put our heart into it.  

Oh yea guess what?  My bike seat cushion got knicked(stolen) by some Chavs(gangsters) ahhh!!!!  We were in Park North, super ghetto place, and some chavs came up to us and started talking and i got distracted and forgot to put it in my bag and they knicked it when we left.  ahhhh!!! oh well lol

T-Minus 5 days until David A. Bednar comes to Birmingham! I'm so excited!  We each get to shake his hand.  I'm gonna take a picture and send it home because it will be awesome!!!  I cannot wait for Saturday!

Lower Lights District

We had a trainer trainee meeting a couple of days ago.  That was cool i got to see some of my MTC buddies and hang for about an hour.  It was a fun time seeing them and seeing how much everybody has grown in these 4 weeks out. 

   

I love being a missionary.  Sharing the gospel and watching people accept it and grow is an amazing thing.  I wouldn't trade this for anything in the world because it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to serve a mission as a 19 year old.

Week 7

I've been in Swindon for about three weeks and I'm pretty sure I'm directionally challenged because I have no idea where I'm going, I kinda just follow Elder Dahl around like a lost dog.  But, I'm starting to get a little better. 

The view of the road from the top of a double decker bus

(because I ride them now haha)

The weather here is LOVELY!!  can you hear the sarcasm?  of course not.  It is the most bipolar weather ever!  It rains, then it's sunny, then it pours, then overcast, and so on. Ugh its gonna take some getting used to.      

View of a street corner

View from Penn Hill

We went to church on Sunday and the sound system was broken, so we did the whole sacrament meeting with no sound!  To top it all off we brought an investigator to church--we couldnt hear anything at all.  I'm serious, NOTHING!! After Sacrament Meeting we joked around with him, and asked him what his favourite talk was, he liked that.  We were biking around Saturday night and I got asked if I could be a backup speaker in case one of the speakers fell through.  My first thought was, "does this happen often?".  Of course I hesitantly said yes.  And its not like at home where you have all day to prepare a talk.  I'm a missionary, so I have about 30 minutes of free time and that consists of going to bed early, so I wrote my talk in 5 minutes, never thought that would be possible! 

We are working hard and teaching an investigator who is progressing at the speed of light.  This guy loves what we teach.  He reads, prays and desires to learn more.  We committed him to baptism on September 17 and he accepted!!  He is reading and praying and waiting for an answer.  I love him-- he is a joy to teach and  to be around.  Tonight we are going over to an investigator's house and having family home evening!  That will be way fun.  I'm excited for that.  Missionary work is so fun! You have the funniest moments and meet the craziest people, but I love it.  I know this gospel is true!

week 6

Things here in Swindon are going great!  We have three dinner appointments this week and we had one Sunday as well!! I am excited.  We are teaching a lot of people and our goal is to get an investigator with a baptism date this week. Well everyday we ride around and see some potential investigators, former investigators, and less active members.  We went tracting and got 2 return appointments but 1 already fell through.  We're working hard and just trying to reach our goal. 

Today we have flat check, we cleaned our flat sooo good! It is way clean haha.  The cleanest flat gets the clean flat award at the end of transfers so we are working to get that!  We will win, I know it, our flat is spotless.  haha

We are working everyday really hard and seeing people.  I'm tired almost all the time haha but I get used to it pretty fast.  All I can say is when I get home I'm gonna be ripped because we workout and bike so much haha. 

We had district meeting on Wednesday and we had Sister Ogden's paninnis for lunch and they were amazing!!

Other than that no exciting news this week.  Just a normal week. 

Week 5

 As for here in Swindon, England. The rioting hasn't hit Swindon hard at all. Tiny little riot one night so we stayed in our flat that night.  Nothing to worry about at all. I went on exchanges with DL(District Leader) Price and that was well...scary (haha).  He is a really good missionary and he talks to everyone he sees.  I got out alive though so everything is all good.  Halfway through the day my bike chain snapped, haha joys of missionary work! My fault since the bike was cheap (lol). It's alive again though, the store fixed it for FREE!!  Amazing word to hear.  About my bike--My bike is good. PLEASE SEND MY BIKE CUSHION. My butt hurts 24/7 when I ride that dang thing.  Bought it for £79.  Fetching steal.  We bike so much here lol.  Everytime I think of a bike my thighs automatically hurt.  Funny stuff--we were at district meeting and we got all this stuff we had to take home so I strapped up and put it all on haha.  Gear, a dvd player, a fire exstinguisher, first aid kit, area book, and all my stuff.  Then we had to bike home,which is about 3 or 4 miles haha YES!!  

It is my 1 month anniversary though! I've been on a mission for 1 month and it has gone by slow, but at the same time really fast!!  Crazy to think about.  We did some tracting yesterday, which I learned don't tract on a Sunday because no one wants to be bothered and so they just don't answer, and if they do they are pretty angry lol.  Oh well brush it off! As for investigators we are working with 4 potentials.  They are all way cool and excited to learn more about the gospel. Keep them in your prayers.  I witnessed another baptism Friday.  It was amazing, a 16 year old girl who absolutely loves this gospel.  She is amazing and the spirit was so strong at that baptism.  Oh guess who is coming to our mission to speak to us in September?  DAVID A. BEDNAR!!!  I'm so excited! An apostle of the Lord is coming to talk with us! How amazing is that.  I'm so excited I can't even explain.   

Missionary work is hard, I'm not gonna lie.  Its tiring and draining.  I come home everyday knackered(tired).  But we keep pushing foward and we will find those who are prepared to hear what we have to share.  I was telling Elder Dahl yesterday that when they don't listen it makes me feel sad.  We are acting in the name of Jesus Christ so they aren't rejecting us, they are rejecting Him.  But you brush it off and find those few ready to receive.  I love this work.  Its draining and its fun.  Everyday wondering who will we find.  I love this church.  We were talking with someone and they asked us, "why do you do this?".  I said, "that is a good question.  Im 19 years old, I could be in college, hanging out with mates and enjoying life, but I have given two years to help you.  I have happiness through the gospel of Jesus Christ and I want you to have the same thing because I know it can make you so much happier."

Michael's address to his flat:

Elder Michael Barton

59 Helmsdale

Green Meadow

Swindon SN25 1RA

England