Email Update: May 23, 2011

Cory was sick on Mother's Day and could not carry on a conversation with us so he received permission from his mission president to call us on Sunday, May 22.

Hey family! It was great to talk to y'all yesterday and see how everyone is doing without being on my death bed! Well I just e-mailed y'all some pictures from the baptism! woot woot! 

Well I was thinking about the comment Dad said last night about how Elder Burrow's talked about how home teaching is really close to missionary work and it is and it really does work! For example in my last area of Bear Creek as you know Johnny Manes was baptized.  Well there were a lot of things that lead up to that point. Flash back to about a year ago when I was first a greeny with Elder Conrad. We were sitting in Johnny's house teaching him but he was not really interested whatsoever!  So I gave up on him because I thought we were wasting our time there! But shortly after we stopped visiting him his Home Teacher, Brother Martin, had been visiting him and his family (they were less active)  continually for a long time before I even showed up and he never gave up on them. So flash forward to a couple months ago when I was in Bear Creek.  Brother Martin one day gave Johnny a priesthood blessing and Johnny was deeply moved and this sparked huge desire to join the church so as you know we showed up taught him and he was baptized. It was an awesome experience but I am deeply ashamed that I gave up on him but I am overjoyed that Brother Martin was faithful and diligent in fulfilling his calling . He showed me why I should never give up on anything and more importantly someone who is a child of God and who is my brother! I will never make that mistake ever again! I love y'all.

-Elder Cory Barton

Email Update: May 16, 2011

Well we just had transfer calls and Elder Tobchan and I are staying for another transfer. This is President and Sister Hansen's last transfer. We tracted into 2 teenage boys who are 19. We are starting to teach them but they aren't really solid. I hope the Lord changes their hearts. Besides that we have no investigators so we are still finding our butts off - just the average life of a English missionary I suppose. Just some days are really frustrating when it's really hot and humid and everyone just keeps saying NO! I just don't want to get rejected for once in my life but hey, life is still good just need to keep my head up high.

Well we had a fantastic rain storm this past week! The drought finally ended but Elder Tobchan and I were biking that day and it hadn't start raining yet but we see this huge wall of blackness heading our way. We were hoping that we could beat the storm and make it to someones house so we start biking.  About halfway there the temperature suddenly got freezing cold and windy and Elder Tobchan asked me about the sudden change and I told him we just entered the storm.  Shortly after that we were still biking when we got hammered by 20+mph winds going side ways to us so we are getting blown off the side walks and are just going every where! And Elder Tobchan looked backed at me and said "For Elder Barton's Sister!" (I told him that Deanna wants to be a storm chaser and he kept referring to that the whole ride in the storm it was so funny!) So we are snailing our way on our bikes when the rain just starts to pour buckets on us! We tried to find a place to stop at and we see a Walgreen's and decide to go there but before that is an intersection light. Just before we get there the power goes out and Texans have no idea what to do with no street lights! SO we some how manage to make it across that hectic mess and camp out at the Walgreen's.  We were there for about an hour and a half trying to wait out the storm but it wasn't letting up at all so we decided to ride back to our apartment to wait out the storm which is almost 30 min away. But half way home is our chapel and we see a missionary's car there and thankfully our buddies gave us a ride home so that was exciting! I wish I could have gotten video of that but I sent my memory card home so look out for that!

Elder Barton

Email Update: May 2, 2011

Man that is so crazy that Osama Bin Laden is dead I totally forgot about that guy! 

Well today I just got back from playing tennis at a country club because there is a member who is a tennis coach there but man he whooped Elder Reidhead, Chadwick, Tobchan, and I! But Olivia, the 9 year old girl was baptized on Saturday, and her family came down and it was super awesome.  This kid was so so excited to get baptized! We originally had Idalia scheduled to be baptized that Saturday too but we changed it to this Tuesday so her husband can be there.  I will also be confirming her which I am nervous about because I haven't confirmed anyone a member before so I hope all goes well with that.

Well this coming Sunday is Mother's Day so I will be calling y'all! I don't think I will be calling y'all in the morning then I have church from 1-4 p.m. and we also have a dinner appointment that day and on Sunday's we usually do it right after church so I might be calling y'all any where from 5-9 p.m. your time so be ready for a partay! I will talk to y'all soon

-Cory

Email Update: April 25, 2011

Glad to hear about every ones Easter went well. Here is my update for the week.

Monday- P-day went to the Katy stake center and played basketball the whole time.

Tuesday-  We did service at Lone Star College in their theater department. Did a lot of tracting. Had dinner with the Naranjo's who are an awesome family and we had steaks which were delicious. We then were biking to our appointment with Idalia (She is a Part-Member Family so is a solid investigator) when we ran into Sister's Amundsen and Gavilane's  who are the Relief Society President and Secretary. So we thought it would be a brilliant idea to invite them to come along with us to our lesson and they gladly accepted.  I taught Idalia the Law of Chasity, Elder Tobchan taught about keep the Sabbath day holy, and Sister's Amundsen and Gavilane's both taught Follow the Prophet and it was a super awesome lesson the spirit was there and we got Sister's Amundsen and Gavilane's stoked about missionary work. Also sister Amundsen was a missionary and it brought her back some good memories.

Wednesday- We had interviews with President Hansen. I then talked with Sister Hansen and finally saw a picture of the New Mission President and his Wife and sister Hansen gave us a post card to write comments to the new president and his family to send to them. Then met with the AP's and Elder Scorsby from my MTC district is the new AP. We then tracted. We then were biking and we came across Quinn. (He is someone we tracted into - not really interested in the gospel but supports what we are doing. He is also super super buff.  This dude used to be a boxer he has a huge legit poster with him on it and apparently there are YouTube videos of him boxing.)  He was walking home from work and we started to talk to him and he asked Elder Tobchan in his thick Louisiana accent if he could ride his bike with Elder Tobchan on the front handle bars so he could get home. So he does and it was the funniest sight at this same time school was getting out so all these kids had the funniest looks as we rode by.  I wish I could have taken a video or a picture of it. We then met with this guy named Davey he is a LA.  His parents served a couples mission but he isn't to into the church, he is more on the science side of things. But something happened in his life where he needs to start hanging out with good people. His parents suggested the missionaries so we came over and met with him and find out more about him and tried to tie in the gospel but he wasn't too thrilled with that. But we then got on the topic of music and we all found common ground because he used to be in a band and he loves music and Elder Tobchan and I love really chill music. So he brought out his acoustic guitar and he played us some songs then he handed the guitar to Elder Tobchan and asked used to play/sing a song. So Elder Tobchan played and sang and I just sang but the song we played was Your Guardian Angel by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus (That is for you Jessica haha) so that was fun. We then left him with a assignment to learn how to play Banana Pancakes by Jack Johnson. Then we talked to his dad on Sunday at church and he said he is really working hard oh learning that song and he thanked us for becoming his friends and giving him that assignment to keep him busy rather than doing bad things. So yeah we didn't have a spiritual lesson at all but I think when we are super close to him that we will be able to bring up the gospel again.

Thursday- Tracted all day. Elder Fisher had his surgery this day and he had it done here in Houston and his nose looks good. We then went and had a lesson with Olivia about the Gospel of Jesus Christ then we had dinner with her family.

Friday- Tracted all day but only got 2 ITL's! It was a tough day

Saturday- Went to the Ward's Easter Egg Hunt we then went to District Meeting. Then tracted all day and had a lot more success with ITL's. Idalia was also interview for baptism and she passed.

Sunday- Had an awesome day at Church, a lot of good talks and lessons were given! Olivia and Idalia also came to church.

So this coming Saturday both Olivia and Idalia are going to be baptized so Elder Tobchan and I are super stoked for this weekend!

Email Update: April 18, 2011 (Boys will be boys whatever the age)

Hey family! I hope all is well! Something crazy happened this past week on Thursday. So Elder Curtis (Our DL) and his companion Elder Fisher (he has been in Houston for only a week at this point) came to our apartment to drop of a bike for me to use because my stupid tire tube got 6 holes in it in one day. So while they were over Elder Tobchan was talking about how he took Muay Thai for a while and Elder Fisher talked about how he was an orange belt so they start playing around with their different styles on each other. So if you don't know what Muay Thai is it is a form of kick boxing. So there came a point where Elder Tobchan accidentally opened a can of Muay Thai on Elder Fisher's face. And instantly you could tell it was broken and a rush of blooded started to come out of his nose. So everyone is trippin out, Elder Tobchan is freakin out and trying to call President and Sister Hansen. All Elder Curtis does the whole time is stand there in shock and doesn't say a word. But no one is helping Elder Fisher who is holding his bleeding nose so I take him and lay him down on our couch and grab him a rag for his bleeding nose.  Then I grab a bag of ice for his nose and I get a wet rag and start cleaning the blood on his face and hands.  While I was doing that I had a thought of when I am a father and I am taking care of my own kids' injuries I felt pretty good about myself. After that I pulled up a chair and started to play the "Get to know you" game with Elder Fisher and I got to know him pretty well :) Well we finally got a hold of Sister Hansen and she told us to take him to the ER so we gave him a priesthood blessing then we took him to the ER. We later found out that his nose was shattered his nose into 8 pieces. So yeah I wanna learn Muay Thai now haha. Elder Fisher has to see an ENT but  surgery is the only way to fix it and they don't know if they are going to be doing that here or back home. Elder Tobchan feels so so so bad! Bless his little Thailand heart

I love y'all take care

-Cory Barton

A great quote from Elder Henry D. Moyle "I shall go to my grave saying that missionaries generally speaking never rise in their entire life above the stature they carve out for themselves in the mission field"  This is why I care so much about the quality of my service as a missionary.