Season 3 Episode 11: Another 6 weeks!

Well, Can't believe another week is already gone! We are almost out of March and I feel like we just started the New Year haha! Alright, lets get started with the week!

Saturday was pretty awesome! We were able to baptize Pepe and Sale! I was able to do the actual ordinance for them and that was a pretty spiritual experience. Mainly, because this past week has been pretty rough. To say the least I feel like Satan has been trying very hard to do all he can to hinder the work here in LufiLufi. The day before the baptism I was sitting in our little house and I was just questioning a lot of things. Then I decided that instead of thinking about MYSELF I would focus on the baptism of Pepe and Sale. I prayed very hard to Our Father in Heaven to allow me to feel his love for his two children when they entered into the water of baptism. Well, all I can say is I remember seeing Pepe enter in the water and I as raised my arm to give the baptismal prayer I glanced at Pepe and she was crying. It was another experience where I can't explain the Pure Love I felt for Pepe and Sale. It was so strong I almost forgot the Baptismal Prayer. It was a very unique experience and it taught me a lot. The main thing I learned this week is I need to stop thinking about myself! Because, when I start to think about myself I tend to start to do things my way. And when I do things my way it ends up in bad experiences. Funny how we have to learn the same lesson over and over again. 

As for Transfers.... Looks like Elder Shum and I will be staying here in LufiLufi for the next Six Weeks! I am super excited for these next Six weeks and to see what the Lord has in Store for me and Elder Shum! I love this area and these people! Can't wait to continue the work here in LufiLufi and try and better myself each and every day!

As for the Work here in Lufilufi. Things are going well. We are working with Loni still and we are hoping that we can get him married and do his baptism in April. Do you guys remember my email about Becca, Fanene, and Malia? Remember Malia said that her Preacher banned Becca and Fanene from taking the lessons? Yeah, turns out Malia was lying! So, starting tomorrow we will resume teaching Becca and Fanene! Fanene and Becca just randomly showed up to Church on Sunday and we were super surprised and we asked them why they were at church because we thought it was Fa'asa. Anyway, super happy we can start teaching them again!

Also, we got bikes this week! Brand New Bikes! I think God was looking out for me because as of late I have been really missing our biking trips to Moab. The Bikes are pretty nice and it makes traveling a lot easier but, a lot more sweaty! Can't complain though! I am pretty sure we look pretty hilarious riding around the village in our church clothes and helmets haha! 

I am so grateful to be out here doing what I am doing. I have learned so many things from our Father in Heaven. I think the biggest thing we all need to remember is no matter what we have done in our life, no matter where we are in our life, no matter our situation, GOD LOVES YOU AND HE IS PLEADING TO HELP YOU. We just have to be humble enough to swallow our pride and allow him to help us. I have learned this over and over in my mission. I am so grateful for our Father in Heaven and His Son, Jesus Christ. Love you all so much! Have a great week!

Love, Elder Barton 

Season 3 Episode 10: Poisonous centipedes and eating dog.

Hello Family!

Well, this week was one full of some very unique experiences! Things have kind of slowed down relating to our investigators. This week Elder Shum and I focused our efforts on finding new people to teach and strengthening the Less active members! We were able to pick up a new investigator Loni! We were able to teach him the first lesson and it went really well. He seems like a promising investigator and I am praying that things will continue to go well with him. We also have the chance to baptize our investigator Pepe and her son Sale this Saturday! We are super excited for that! Pepe is super solid and I have loved watching her spirit grow! 

Alright! So, Last week Thursday we had our District Meeting. After the District Meeting we all got in the Zone Leaders car so they could take us back to our Area. For some odd reason I just reached under the seat to see if anything was underneath. Random, Right? Anyway, I pulled out some food wrapped in tinfoil. The rule here in Samoa is you share everything. So, I asked Elder Daley what was inside of the Tinfoil and he told us it was Dog! No one believed him but, luckily for us we have a Tongan Elder in our District and just in case none of you know Tongans love to eat dog! As soon as the Tongan Elder opened the Tinfoil he had the biggest smile and just started saying "Malie! Malie!" (Dog) Well, to make things short.... I ATE DOG!!! Not going to lie it was pretty delicious! It is kind of like Roast Beef but, spicy! lol, don't tell Gus! 

On Friday we were coming home for the day and we saw our next door neighbor with his family doing an Umu. We decided that we would go over and help them! Turns out they were cooking a pig! So, I was able to see the whole process of them cleaning the pig and cooking it! Pretty impressive and pretty gross as well!

Saturday and Sunday was our Ward Conference! Something about Samoan people is they have so much respect for there Leaders! One way they show there respect is through food. They ended up giving the Stake Leaders 3 Giant Pigs, Lobster, Fish, Boxes of Corned Beef ,Boxes of Canned Tuna, Luau, and a bunch of other food! It was so different from how we do our ward conferences haha! 

I don't know if you guys remember me sending you the picture of the Poisonous Centipede called an Akualoa! Well, Last night we had just finished the day and it is pretty normal for the ward members to come over and talk with us a little bit before we go to bed. Anyway, we were talking and all of the sudden one of the guys yells "Sole, Vaai Aukaloa!" (Dude, Look Poisonous Centipede) I thought they were just going to kill it but, the Seminary Teacher stood up and grabbed it and ripped off his teeth so he couldn't bite anyone and started playing with it! Elder Shum ran into the house because he is completely Terrified of Akualoa! However, I have kind of just built up this mentality that I will probably only be in Samoa one time so I held it! I was 1000% Terrified if any of you know how much I hate insects this should be pretty hilarious to you! If you have ever seen the video where the butterfly is on the little boys face and he is laughing but, you can tell he is super freaked out, yeah, that is how I felt! You will see when I send the Pictures!

Anyway! It was a great week! Love this Area! This Sunday is Transfers though so I may or may not be leaving! Also, another thing about transfers is we all get transferred on p-day which means if I do get transferred I probably will not be able to email next week! We will see though! Honestly you guys I love this work so much and I love sharing my testimony with the Samoan people! I testify that this is the work of the Lord! I miss you all like crazy but, I am so thankful for each one of you and how much you have influenced my life! I really do have the best family in the world! Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Barton 

Package from the Promise Land,

My Soa and I

Eating Dog

Holding Dog

Aukualoa! (If you look really closely you can see I am actually about to pee my pants oh and you can see Elder Shum Hiding inside with the door locked!)

Season 3 Episode 9: No Email for 2 Months!

Hello Everyone!

Well, I had a pretty great week this week. Last Wednesday after we ended our email we helped our investigator Larry fill up rice bags with Sand so he could have enough cement for his new house. We also were able to baptize our family of 4 and TJ on Saturday! That was literally such a cool experience. I loved seeing there smiles after they came out of the water. We also confirmed all of them members of the Church on Sunday! Oh! Also on Saturday we helped Larry build his new house! It was pretty fun and pretty hard work. The cool thing about Samoa is they just live off the land. Well, most people do! It is a really humble lifestyle out here and everyone helps everyone! It was super fun helping him build the house it also brought back a bunch of memories of Dad and my brothers working together so that was super nice! 

This week, we have been looking for new investigators! Haha I am trying to think of what else to say but, that is literally what we did this week! We found two potential investigators Loni and Gloria. We are going back to teach them next week. So, hopefully things will go well with those two. 

I guess sense this email is so short I will include a pretty neat experience I had this week. Every Thursday we have our District Meetings and Once a week the Zone Leaders go over business concerning new rules, or just about the mission. Well, Elder Daley (Zone Leader) was going over the business and he told us that because some missionaries have been misusing email, email was going to be forbidden for the month of April and May. When I heard the news I was pretty upset. 1st because Mason and Julies wedding was in May and 2nd Why do I have to be punished for other missionaries mistakes. We ended up having a pretty open discussion about our feelings about this new rule. While the other missionaries were talking I had a pretty unique thought pop into my head about the time Jesus Christ was a boy teaching in the temple and Mary and Joseph were looking for him. Do you guys remember the response Christ gave to his Mother? "And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" Even Christ was just a little boy he understood the divinity of his calling. Completely leaving behind everything. Even his family to do the will of his Father. Now, I am in no way comparing myself to Christ but, it made me think about how committed I am to my mission. Just like it states in my call letter. I am expected to devote all my efforts to the work. Elder Daley ended up telling us that the rule was fake and was just meant for the lesson. It was a very powerful lesson and made me really thing and evaluate how committed I actually am to the Lord and his work! Loved the lesson and I learned a lot from it!

That is about it for this week! Sorry it is lacking in detail but, that is just how some weeks go haha! I love you all so much and hope everything is going well wherever you all may be in the world! Always know that I am praying for you all! More importantly, know that God lives and he cares for you! I testify to you all of the truthfulness of this church! I know that it only brings happiness to those who are willing to give up the natural man and follow our Savior Jesus Christ with all of our Heart, Might, Mind and Strength.

Elder Barton

Don't know what it is with these people lol!

Here is the family and Tj we baptized on Saturday Ruth, Tamara, Tj, Euini, Joseph

didn't mean to send that photo but, artistic

Lychen a super delicious fruit out here.

Season 3 Episode 8: Boils are no fun!

I can't believe February is already gone and we are working on the month of March. Time sure is going by super fast! Well, let's get started with the week!

Well, we have been teaching a family of four and we are going to be baptizing them this Saturday! Along with Tj! I know I really haven't even introduced these people! But, I don't know times are just super crazy on the mission and it is hard to keep you all up to date on everything! I have grown to love all of them and I am so grateful to be able to help them start there journey inside of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! I will be sure to include pictures of the Baptism in next weeks email!

We had a ward Siva (Dance) this week! Because our Ward mission leader and his Wife are moving to NZ! Oh my gosh I wish you guys could see the Samoan people dance! It could make the meanest person in the world smile! I love these people! They dance just like how I dance! Actually, probably even crazier! They throw chairs while they dance haha! Man I love this ward! They are so helpful with my Samoan even if they joke around about my Samoan all the time haha! They are all so willing to help us out in anyway!

Alright, so you all remember how I had a boil in American Samoa? Well for some reason the boil decided to attack me again. But, this time instead of attacking my leg, it decided to attack my left buttocks.... I can't explain how badly this boil hurt. Every time I would sit down I would try my hardest to make it look like nothing was wrong but, I pretty sure everyone new something was wrong. I am also pretty sure it looked pretty hilarious when I sat down and stood up! Good news is I popped it on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Today! I Finally got Antibiotics for it Yesterday! But, all is good now! Doesn't hurt! Just have to keep popping it haha! I have no idea why I got another one! However at the rate they reoccur I should only have five boils in my mission! Meaning I can live with that lol! I will not be sending pictures because I am almost certain none of you want to see pictures of that grossness lol!

I have gained such a firm testimony that God lives and he cares for all of us. I know each and everyone of you are a child of God and he is aware of you and he truly does care for you. Never listen to the voice that tells you he isn't there. That voice comes from the most miserable creature known to man. This Gospel has brought me so much happiness and I have been so humbled to see God work with his Children as we deliver this message! I have also been so blessed to see the Lord work with me and my Weaknesses. I have truly seen his power in helping me overcome temptations and trials. 

We also were able to go to our investigator Pepe yesterday. I had kind of lost hope in her progression  because we had finished all the lessons and still didn't have a baptismal date. We had mistakenly thought that we hadn't taught her lesson 5 due to a poorly kept Area book. So Yesterday we went to teach her lesson five. To our surprise/embarrassment we realized we had already taught her lesson 5. However, we were able to talk a little bit and it ended up in setting a baptismal date for the 18th of March! Could we say that the Lord works in Mysterious ways? Yes.

Love you guys! So grateful for all of the support and prayers! I am grateful for every single one of you! Have a great week and may God bless you all!

Elder Barton

P.s.

Shout out the Fa'asavalu and Sefuiva family in American Samoa! So sorry it took me forever to get you in the group email! Love you guys and hope all is going well! 

Paradise 3

Tj Afualo

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Some peeps from the ward, Vanu (Ward mission Leader) and his Wife

More homies from the ward