Email Update: March 26, 2012

Hey family! 

Tell Dal Pal to keep his head up and tell him we are gonna kick it when I get home.

 

Thanks Dad for your words about me running cross country. I actually tie in a lot of those running experiences when I am giving a lesson. Running cross country surprisingly gave me an outlook on life and spirituality like I have never experienced and I totally didn't expect that coming out. Good thing I joined cross country for a girl huh ;) 

Sorry to hear about Brother Tew but sounds like he was ready and knew what God wanted for him.

I don't have much to report this week except we keep tracting, visiting less actives, and members. I am definitely getting my tan on my bike in this Houston weather. Summer is definitely around the corner. But it seems like the relationship between the ward and the missionaries is kinda distant and I found out that the last missionaries didn't make some wise decisions that the ward found out so it is pretty distant, but turns out it has gotten better over the past couple of months. So Tobchan and I are just gonna keep trying to let the ward know that we are here for them and want to serve them. Because having a friendship with the members is so important! It makes or breaks an area.

That's all I got for now. 

Tell Deanna sorry I haven't written her back yet. I love y'all!

-Elder Cory Barton

Email Update: March 19, 2012

Hello Family!
So I forgot to mention I am in a half car, half bike area. This past week was a pretty good week overall. Tobchan and I have been hitting up the less active members in our area and so far we have weeded out a good chunk of the list.  So far we have found that 5 of the families have moved and 1 wants there name removed, so it makes me wonder how long have these people have gone unvisited by the missionaries in this area. I don't blame them, before they split the whole Westfield area between two companionships, only one companionship had to cover the whole Westfield area, which is huge! But this is part of missionary work, finding those who are here and not, and reporting whether they are here or not, so that church headquarters can find out where they are now. But we did get to meet with two families, so that is good. We did a lot of tracting, in fact, we tracted all day Friday so it's just like Wheatstone all over again, but it was good.  We got two potentials out of it, one of which looks like lil wayne. Then Sunday I got the lovely surprise of meeting Corinne Shiver and took a trip down memory lane talking about how she used to babysit me and how small I was back then, it's so crazy! I mean she has two kids now haha. Also on Sunday it was Elder Tobchan's birthday so we partied up his 21st birthday by having a dinner with a member, it was a lot fun and a lot of laughs. 

During this week Tobchan and I were at the bishop's storehouse and we walked back to our apartment when we got a call from the senior missionaries at the mission office that a man just came in and wanted a blessing so we biked back down there and talked to this man who is trying to get a steady job which isn't working and he his having family drama and just a lot of stress in general. He was such a nice man so we took him into President Pingree's office where I gave him a blessing of comfort.  It was such a peaceful thing and enjoyed getting to know that man and giving a blessing. Well that's what happened this week! Tell Dal Pal to get better!

Love
Elder Cory Barton

Email Update: March 12, 2012

Hey Family I got amazing news for ya! So we had transfers this past week and I got transferred! So I showed up on Tuesday for the transfer meeting to see who would be my companion and what my new area would be. So drum roll please!....................Elder Tobchan is my companion! I was totally shocked! I mean 2 times together this is totally sick plus we both go home at the same time so we might be each others last companions......hopefully. And here is another shocker, Tobchan and I opened up a new area, we are in the Westfield South. So we are both new to this area and we had a hard time the first couple of days since we didn't know anyone at all! But it's starting to pick up now especially after Sunday since we got to meet the ward. There are 4 missionaries in the area, Elder Sleet (former comp) and Elder Rodriguez cover Westfield North and we also live in a 4 man apartment with them. So it is a lot of fun since, well enough said with Tobchan and I, plus with Elder Sleet we just have so many inside jokes and good stories and already know each other

Oh and I live right by the Mission office so you can send mail there. I am seriously right down the street. I love y'all!

Email Update: March 5, 2012

Hey family! A big "Ouch" to Dallin that doesn't sound fun at all. But you can tell Dal that I played Rugby for the first time this past week on Monday. I went up to College Station and played on the rugby field there on campus and can I say Texas A&M has a huge and beautiful campus. Man it is something else, but I had A LOT of fun. I got to see Tobchan and Ulugia. So we played Rugby and we had about 5 or 6 poly's up there and they kicked my butt all over that field. I think they decided to have mercy on me since I had no idea in the world what I was doing so as soon as I got the ball I would pass it immediately haha. We eventually played flag football which I did A LOT better at! I mean, 4 caught TD passes, including the game winner. Yeah a lot better at football than rugby, so I need Dallin to teach me whats up.

So nothing exciting happened this past week. We spent the whole week moving and cleaning our apartment. Because if the apartment people had to clean or fix something they would charge the mission office which in turn they would charge Kelly and I so we didn't want to cough up any money so we spent the whole week cleaning and fixing our apartment. Trying to fix and clean 15 years of missionaryness haha, it was not easy or fun or productive at all, but we had them check the apartment on Saturday and they cleared it, so we didn't get charged at all so I guess it was worth it haha.

Well we got a ton of referrals this past week so hopefully we can go contact them this week. Sadly that's all I got, I know nothing to fun or exciting. Oh we have transfer calls on Tuesday so I may stay or go who knows. I think I am out but we will see. 

Oh also, on Wednesday night we played basketball with the ward to relieve ourselves of the stress of cleaning the apartment all day and in the very first game I rolled my darn ankle and I was even wearing my braces too, so that was a first. Then 10 min later a member and a good friend of mine, Brother Bennett, rolled his ankle too but turned out he actually broke his foot! So that was crazy I hope to sign his cast. He is always telling me that I need to teach him my Ghetto Memphis Basketball that I apparently do haha whatever that means. 

Oh also, Mom it's ok that you can't pick me up I wanted to fly home anyway so it works :) Alright I love y'all tell JJ to keep up the good work.

-Elder Barton