Ivanildo & Leticia (I can't rotate the picture)
Elder Fillmore, Leticia, and Elder Barton
Elder Barton close upDear Family and Friends,
This week was a good week. We baptized Yasmim, Ivanildo's niece on Sunday. It was a very nice service. Reverence is a bit of a problem here, but it went really well. Her mom attended and she was pretty nervous about Yasmim being baptized. But she seemed to calm down a lot after the talks about baptism that some of the members gave. Ivanildo baptized her and it was really, really good. She has been attending seminary and is already memorizing scripture mastery verses. She and Leticia are becoming really good friends and so it's really cool to watch them grow.
They both bore testimonies in church Sunday and they both did a great job and Yasmim invited the ward to her baptism in it. It went really well. Because it was night my camera had problems so I'll get the good ones from Elder Fillmore and send them.
Oh, yesterday we were in Asa Norte for a conference with Presidente so I didn't have Preparation Day until today.
It was a really good conference. To be honest, he was disappointed by our lack of progress and really gave it to us. But how he did was so amazing. He used Jacob 5 and moved the words around, instead of master of the vineyard or Lord, he put in presidente of the mission and instead of branches he said missionaries and instead of corrupted or bad, he said lazy or disobedient. It really was a wake up call and I know I wasn't doing what I was supposed to. I was taking a few more "5 minute breaks" than I should have and I wasn't looking for opportunities to teach. So I'm going to change that now, because if not here, when?
Yesterday was Brasil's Independence Day so it was cool to go through Brasilia with all of the buildings. I love Independence Days. Go New World!
I was looking at my calendar and this Saturday will be September 11. I won't be home in time for the 10 year anniversary next year, but I was remembering a little about 9/11 (you can take the boy out of the library, but you can't get the history out). I think the thing I remember the most, especially traveling back East so soon after, is the feeling that you had. It was something you could feel. It didn't matter what color you were, where you were from, what political party you supported, we were all Americans. Republican, Democrat, white, black, none of it mattered. For a few weeks we were all Americans, united in a common cause. I recently read a talk by Elder Wirthlin that he gave to mission presidents about "Band of Brothers' (it's amazing what great talks you find in old Ensigns in the apartments). He talked about how a united group can do anything and gave examples of the "Band of Brothers" in Stephen Ambrose's book and also about Band of Brothers in the Book of Mormon-Moroni, Helaman, Lehi and Teancum in the war in Alma and about the early leaders of the church-Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Parley P. Pratt, Heber C. Kimball, Hyrum Smith and how they all overcame obstacles together. It's something I really want to apply in my mission and in my life, that whatever group I'm in-mission companionship, Elder's quorum, work, or as a married couple, to be a "Band of Brothers".
That sounds like the bbq went really well. I'm glad that everyone had a good time. Yesterday at the Conference of Zone, I saw everyone from my MTC group-except Elder Huff and I also saw Elder Weatherby, Elder Hamilton and Elder Young. It was really great to see how good everyone is doing. It was such a great feeling to see people you have grown close to.
As for pranks, I was only really involved in the Koolaid shower attack attempt on Elder Hamilton. Very funny, except he's the type to turn on the shower before he gets in. As for any other pranks, I wasn't really involved......
As for pranks, I was only really involved in the Koolaid shower attack attempt on Elder Hamilton. Very funny, except he's the type to turn on the shower before he gets in. As for any other pranks, I wasn't really involved......
I could use some more razors (as always), 2 garment bottoms-mesh please, 2 pairs of socks. I think that's about it.
I think I might buy a new suit. The suits here are only $50 with the trade rate, and mine is really big, so I'm thinking about it.
The pictures are of Leticia's baptism, Ivanildo is the larger guy-he used my baptismal pants and the other is a close up. Who do I look like? (kinda like his dad when he was on his mission!)
I told some of the Sisters about Natalia, so if she is comps with Sis. Christensen or Sis. Franca, they'll already know who she is.
Love,
Elder Barton
No comments:
Post a Comment