6.22.20: UM ANO kind of

Well, technically June 19 was the day I got to the CTM in São Paulo, and it has been an entire year since then. So crazy to think about all the places I have been this year (that I literally never knew existed) and all of the amazing people I have met. Also learning Portuguese and having a 2 month surf break were definitely highlights. 

This week I also finished reading the Book of Mormon em portugues for the first time! It is so cool to read it in a different language and understand things in a slightly different way because of the translation. 

Last p day we went to a really pretty island called Newport. It just has a bunch of mansions by the beach and we did this really pretty walk between mansions and the ocean. It looks so different than CA but in this mission you are allowed to put your feet in the water and walk on the sand so that was awesome. Driving around here is so nice and everything is super green right now. 

A member of the English ward invited us over for dinner and we definitely weren't supposed to go but she convinced us (very easily) that we would eat on her back porch which didn't actually happen (more like indoors). It was SO NICE to leave our apartment and go somewhere else not on a p day and she gave us lots of good beach and hike recommendations!
We had a lesson w/a recent convert named David and he was asking all sorts of questions about how we want the 2nd coming to happen. We kept on telling him that we don't really get to choose at all but he was having so much fun imagining it, haha. He is super awesome and we are trying to teach him about family history to get ready for the temple to reopen!

Romans 12:21 be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good
^PREACH 

K this is really long but PLEASE READ THE WHOLE THING (: 

"However, it was nevertheless a fact that I had beheld a vision. I have thought since, that I felt much like Paul, when he made his defense before King Agrippa, and related the account of the vision he had when he saw a light, and heard a voice; but still there were but few who believed him; some said he was dishonest, others said he was mad; and he was ridiculed and reviled. But all this did not destroy the reality of his vision. He had seen a vision, he knew he had, and all the persecution under heaven could not make it otherwise; and though they should persecute him unto death, yet he knew, and would know to his latest breath, that he had both seen a light and heard a voice speaking unto him, and all the world could not make him think or believe otherwise.

25 So it was with me. I had actually seen a light, and in the midst of that light I saw two Personages, and they did in reality speak to me; and though I was hated and persecuted for saying that I had seen a vision, yet it was true; and while they were persecuting me, reviling me, and speaking all manner of evil against me falsely for so saying, I was led to say in my heart: Why persecute me for telling the truth? I have actually seen a vision; and who am I that I can withstand God, or why does the world think to make me deny what I have actually seen? For I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it, neither dared I do it; at least I knew that by so doing I would offend God, and come under condemnation."

I LOVE reading Joseph Smith History because his testimony is undeniable and so powerful. Sorry for the super long email but I want everyone to know that you will NEVER REGRET reading the Book of Mormon, and if you aren't I invite you to start today! 

Grateful: the world, the ocean, technology (usually), 2nd exercise time, the sun (: Joseph Smith, my family, sis Lawlor, salad in a bag that someone gave us, family search, Bob Ross painting tutorial (actually the most hilarious thing ever), MY DAD! If you know him you know he does everything...like actually.

Tchau!
Sister Barton 


Pics:
Me and my comp, Sister Lawlor. Random fb post I had to make. Pday exploring. Honorary father's day shout out to my grandpa Rulon who apparently I "look like." 








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