February 15, 2011-District Leader

Dear Family and Friends,
Happy Day after Valentine's! I hope everyone enjoys the cheap candy. Thanks for the package, the candy was great, the new cd is very fun (Men of the Tabernacle Choir). I still can't believe that the Provo Tabernacle burned down. Did they ever find out what it was that started the fire?
Well, Dad asked a few questions about being District Leader, so I'll answer those. So, the night I found out I would be a district leader, I thought there was a mistake with the transfers, so I called the Zone Leaders. Elder Ramalho told me, "Yeah, he told you wrong, you're going to Sao Sebastiao, not Sao Antonio dos Discobertos." I felt relieved. "So I'm going to be the senior of who?" "You'll be District Leader and companion to Elder Funk." No mistake in the being district leader part. Enter Panic Mode, which had a lot to do with fault of confidence on my part. I have to do trades, district meetings and baptismal interviews. But later I remembered the phrase of Joseph Smith-"Deep water is what I am wont to swim in and like Paul, I glory in my tribulations." or as in the film Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration-"Better deep than shallow." So we're learning to swim these days, but the Savior is a great lifeguard when it gets a little hairy.
My district has the Sisters of Lago Sul (so I don't do trades)-Sister Marshall (Holliday, Utah?) and Sister Tsukuda (Londrina, Parana, Brasil) and the senior couple missionaries-Elder and Sister Swallom (Utah). They are all absolutely great and are very patient with my being very new. I actually don't do much. I receive the reports from the Sisters, talk about problems, goals, etc. and give the district meeting. What I'm doing is using a combination of the new trainings, Preach My Gospel and a lot of scriptures. We talked about receiving revelation through prayer and so we read through the First Vision to see how Joseph Smith qualified to receive an answer. (I'll let everyone read it to see how). Then we have 2 hours of practices, teaching how to pray, how to correct the memorized prayers of investigators that frequent another world-wide church and how to invite people to kneel down at the end of the first lesson.
One thing that is new, is on demand revelation. Before, I was starting to get used to receiving revelation, when it was convenient for me to receive it. Now, I'm needing it 24/7. For example: Which doctrine do I need to share? What is lacking in my area? The Sisters work in the hardest area of the mission-Lago Sul is where the really, really rich people live. It's the Newport Beach of Brasil. How do I help them? What do I need to do NOW? I've already had some very good learning experiences about how we can receive revelation about anything. For example, last night the Zone Leaders asked me to have something ready to implement that would help the district and it had to be something new, never done before. So I prayed, wrote down a lot of ideas and finally, when I was out of ideas, the right one came and entered my head. It made sense, was measurable and would make a difference. After I presented it, I found out that they don't need it right now, but to hold on to it. But it was revelation, which gave me more ideas and fulfilled my assignment. Really amazing how God is ready to mold us when we let him. Good experience all in all. Also, now I can ask-Dad, were you ever a district leader or zone leader? I was afraid to ask this before because I thought I would always be a junior, but I can ask now.
Elder Funk is from Little Roy, Colorado. He went to BYU before the mission. He is great, and looks like he is 15. All the sisters of the ward like him a lot. His parents are mission presidents in the Bangalore India Mission. Really great guy who knows the area and is always ready to work.
Sao Sebastiao is a poorer area that wasn't really planned, so the addresses are a little different (which means they don't really exist). But the people are nice and the branch here has 93 people. The branch meets above a department store so church is really noisy. The baptismal font here is a swimming pool-the blue plastic type. The branch president is a BOPE (SWAT), so I'm excited to meet him when he gets back from the temple this week. Really great people here. The city sits behind Lago Sul-all the people work there or in Brasilia. District meeting is in Lago Sul, so we get to ride over Ponte JK Bridge and past the congress every week, really cool.
That's about it this week. I'll send photos next week.
Love,
Elder Barton