"Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah."

Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 2:8

Monday, November 29, 2010

What I Would Give to Have Just One Slice of Apple Pie Right Now!


Hey family! Chan xeeril? (how did you watch yourselves?)

How are all of you doing? Sounds like from your emails that you are all doing really great.
Ok so let me talk more now about the actual work I'm doing since I haven't told you all very much about that. This week was not very good in terms of the work because of what's been going on and because Elder Lopez was sick. But generally things are going really well! We have 3 youth that we are working with to get baptized that all want to be baptized. They are Carlos, 14 years old, Gilberto, 17 years old, and Yasmin, 21 years old. There's just one tiny little problem: their dad has 7 wives. So they live in a house where the dad lives with 7 other women all in the same place. We talked to President Torres about this and because they live in a place where the Spirit can't be, it's going to take longer for them to get baptized and he is going to have to come and interview them and their parents in order for them to be baptized. And they have to all be baptized at once or not at all is the deal. 

Then we also have Carlos and Yuli Rax. They are a funny couple and are really ready for baptism. Neither of them speaks Spanish as their maternal language but she doesn't speak Q'eqchi', so they have to speak in Spanish to each other. Honestly they are very simple people with very simple minds. We have to teach them like little children because they just don't understand things very well, but they have really strong faith and really want to get baptized. They have been investigating the church since before I came here but haven't been able to get baptized because they haven't been able to get married yet. Here you have to take your identification papers out from a civil registry to get married and she is only 14 so she's a minor. To make things worse she didn't really know her full name or her birthday for sure, so we had to guess on some things to be able to take her papers out. But we were able to go to the civil registry and work things out with them. So the plan is to get her papers on Thursday and from there we're going to see how soon we can get them married and baptized! We think definitely in the next month or so, maybe even next week. So that's pretty exciting. 

With Elder Lopez, we've mostly only worked in the center and in the playa which is close to the center and where most of the people speak Spanish. We haven't been teaching hardly at all in Q'eqchi' even when the people understand Q'eqchi' better which isn't good. Elder Lopez says that he would rather just teach in Spanish, so I'm going to try really hard to help with that so we can teach more in Q'eqchi'. This past week our branch president was made district president (like stake president, only for branches) and we got a new branch president. Our new president is really great and has already given us references and I can tell that he is going to help us out a ton. So I'm excited to get to work with him. We have a ton of inactive families here. There are about 500 members here and only about 70 come to church, so we're going to work hard to try and reactivate some of the families here. I promised one less active family that if they came to church 4 times in a row I'd make them a cake. They have 3 times coming to church in a row, so I'm getting a little nervous because I have no idea how to make a cake. Looks Like I'll have to get the help of a member here haha!

Q'eqchi' is coming along really really well. This past week I've learned a ton of Q'eqchi'. I started reading Lix Hu Laj Mormon and tinxtenq'a chi tzolok lie q'eqchi' (it will help me to learn Q'eqchi'.) It takes forever to read because I analyze everything grammatically and try and figure out what everything says literally and what it means and I have to look words up all the time. But It's really helped me a ton. I write down all of the words I don't know that aren't in the dictionary in my little notebook and I write all of the things that I want to know down and I've been having members help me figure out what they mean and how to say things. This week I've really felt like I've learned a ton and I feel like already I can talk more and can say more things. There is truly a power in the Book of Mormon with languages that I can feel.

Well it sounds like you all had a fun Thanksgiving. Glad to hear that Harry Potter wasn't a disaster like the last one. I can't tell you what I would give to have just one slice of apple pie right now. I would give a LOT. I'm sorry I wasn't there to help you finish off the pies. It's crazy that Christmas is coming up so soon right? I'm excited for Christmas here even though it will be hard without you, the members are great and I know that they'll take good care of me. I think that my packages are already both here so I should get them by next week at the latest. I haven't read kinzie's patriarchal blessing yet but I am going to print it off and read it today. Same with Matt's talk actually. Sounds like Matt gave an awesome talk and long too! Haha way to go Matt. And let me know how FF 13 is haha. And Kinzie, Dad told me about the "waldo rapist" stroy haha. I think you were thinking of the "where's waldo rapist" which is completely different haha =P.  (There is an area of Kansas City called Waldo, and they have been trying to catch a rapist there.  McKinzie thought that he was called the Waldo rapist because they were having such a hard time catching him, just like Where's Waldo.  We all got a good laugh out of that!)

Well shoot, I'm pretty much out of time, but I really love and miss all of you. Thank you so much for your support and your love that I feel every week. I couldn't do what I do here without you to lift me up and keep me going. I love you all tons and I'm so thankful for a family that is so strong in the Gospel. I can't wait to talk to you all in a month! Love you all tons!

Love,
Elder Norton
Loq'laj Kaqi Wiinq

Monday, November 22, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey Family!! Happy Thanksgiving!!

How are all of you?? Thanks for all of your great emails that I got. I always feel so uplifted and supported when I read all of your emails and your testimonies and insights strengthen me so much. So thank you. I want you to know that I am thankful for all of you. Every day I thank my Heavenly Father for you and for the love and support that I feel from you and for all of the happiness that you all have given me. I really can't express very well over an email how much I am truly thankful for you, but just know that the thing that gives me the most happiness is thinking about living with all of you forever with our Heavenly Father. I know that we are going to be together forever if we just stay on the path that we're already on. You all have such strong testimonies of this gospel and I know that as a family we will all be able to make it through this life and move on to eternal happiness and blessings in the next. I want you all to know that I know this church is true. It is the only completely true and living church on the face of the earth and I am so thankful that we are a part of it. I know with all the feelings of my heart that this church is the church of Jesus Christ. I'm thankful for the innumerable blessings that we have received from our Heavenly Father and for all of His tender mercies that He has given us. Just thinking about things like our car accident and all of the miracles that happened in that moment and all of the tender mercies that we have had since then, I can't thank the Lord enough for his mercy, protection and love. I'm thankful for Jesus Christ. I have come to know more now than I ever have before His love for me and for all of us. I know that he has already paid the price for us to be able to repent. I know that he has suffered every thing that we have suffered or felt or will suffer or feel. He is truly our kind, loving, and perfect friend. I know that he has mighty power to heal and to forgive, and I have personally felt that power in my life.

It sounds like all of you are doing really great which makes me really happy. I want you to know that I'm doing really great too. Things are hard at times of course, but the hardest times are the times when you know the Savior best a lot of the times I think. As I was walking one day in the heat, I was suffering pretty badly. I was thinking about how the sun is supposed to represent the Savior and I thought "That metaphor doesn't fit in this case. I can see the sun right now, but I'm suffering a lot and so it doesn't fit." But the Lord taught me something that I needed to learn. Many times, the times when we see the "sun" are the times when it's hottest. Our trials and afflictions and temptations are what help us look to the Son more, and we are cleansed and made pure through the "furnace of afflictions."

That's awesome about Kinzie's patriarchal blessing! I really wish I could have been there! For sure send me a copy of her blessing so I can read it. I just want to tell you Kinzie how proud I feel of you. Thank you for your email that you sent me, it really meant a lot to me. As your older brother, I want you to know that I love you and I am proud of the decisions you have made to follow the Lord and I'm so proud of your strong testimony that I could feel in your letter to me. Keep doing what you're doing. You sound like you are doing absolutely great with seminary and with school and with the church. I know that the promises you recieved in your blessing are real and that like you said, they are based on your righteousness. Just like the Liahona in the Book of Mormon, the things in your patriarchal blessing only work according to your faith and your dilligence. Always strive to be righteous and to keep improving yourself to become more like the Savior. I'm so glad that I've been able to do something right and that I've been able to have somewhat of a good influence on you. Always try to think of what the Savior would do. =) I love you Kinzie.

Jack- hey buddy I just wanted to write you really quickly and let you know I love you. I hope you're doing well and that you are having fun in school and everything still. As you prepare to receive the priesthood in a couple of months try your best to think about how big of a responsibility it is to hold such a powerful and sacred gift. The priesthood is power from God that he gives to us to do things in his name, and to do things that he wants us to do. John the baptist had this same power when he baptized Jesus. So just remember how important this will be in your life and try to make decisions so that you'll always be worthy to hold this gift. Try now to follow the Spirit. Follow what you feel is right in your heart. Kind of like your conscience. Never do anything that you don't feel in your heart is right, even if your friends do or if you want to. Keep up your good work hermanito :) Love you.

Mom- you are the best! I am really excited for my 2 packages that you sent. I was at a district conference yesterday and talked to Sister Torres who told me that you had written her to ask her about sedning me things. She told me that she could tell that I had an awesome mom who really cared about me and supported me. I told her she was right :) You are really the best and you are so thoughtful. I'm thankful for your guidance and love that you have given me all of my life and for your choices to follow the Lord and his example. Hopefully I'll get my packages in a couple of weeks at our Christmas conference. If not I don't know when I'll get them. Be sure to make some especially delicious pies for me this year. And don't worry, I think Matt will be able to cover my share of the pies pretty easily. Love you mom! :)

Dad- Thanks for your advice about companions. I have a feeling that I'm going to need that advice soon. I am so thankful for the best example and Dad I could ever have. You're the best dad. I love you so much!

Well sorry but I'm out of time and I have to go, but I love you so much!!! Happy Thanksgiving! I'll talk to you all soon!!

Love,
Elder Norton

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Little By Little I'm Learning Q'eqchi

Lin junkab'al! Ma sa sa' eech'ool?

Well another week has passed here in the Polochic and I am into my second change here in the mission. My new companion is a latino from El Salvador. Elder Lopez xk'ab'a. He is super friendly and a really nice guy. He's a convert to the church and is the only member in his family, so I have a lot of respect for him because of that. Things are a little different than they were with Elder Wixom in better and in worse ways. I feel good about our companionship though and I feel like we are going to work well together. It's a little difficult though because I'm still not used to talking in Spanish all of the time. But I'm getting used to that pretty quickly. I don't understand near as much when it's not about the Gospel haha. Elder Lopez isn't quite as worried about being really obedient and things like that, so I'm just going to have to try my best to be a good example for him and show him love to help him. He was in the Polochic 8 months ago for 3 changes but got transferred to coban and then to the cap. So he learned a little bit of Q'eqchi', but he's forgotten a lot. He can understand a little more than me and I can talk a little more than him. So for now it's working out ok. But I really feel pressure and motivation to really learn Q'eqchi' and really devote all of the time I have to learning it, so hopefully I'll be able to learn a little quicker now. During the week I was on divisions with Elder Gutierrez and we got along really well. He speaks 
Q'eqchi' really well so I took him up to San Jose concepción where Elder Wixom and I had a lot of lessons and contacts and everything. We didn't have nearly as much success when we went up there. There weren't that many people there and all of the kids just followed us around and made fun of us and annoyed us. The problem is that there is a church up there and people don't want to have to walk all the way down to the center just to go to church on Sunday, so they just go to the church up there. If we had a church building up there I know we could baptize at least half of the aldea. So hopefully someday that will happen. There are tons of areas like that in my area. Our area is so big and has so many aldeas and hardly any of the people that live in those aldeas will progress because going to church is so hard. So I think that I need to really focus my efforts on the parts closer to the center and strengthen our branch so that the church can grow here. We had a ton of people at church yesterday which was good. We had 80 people there which is about 20 more than we would have on a good day. Part of that though was that Elder Wixom was coming back to visit. With all of the people we wanted to come to church I told them that it would be their last chance to see Elder Wixom, and it worked with some people haha. It was actually kind of hard to see him with his parents there at church because, well, first of all it made me think of you guys picking Matt up and secondly it made me think of when you will come to pick me up. And I refuse to be baggy when I only have 4 months! But it was cool to see them and everything. I gave Elder Wixom a little package to send home to you guys once he gets home. It's not much just my pictures from this last change and then letters for everyone. Also his parents took some pictures and I gave them your email so that they can send everything to you. So you should be getting an email with some pictures from them soon. And they also took a little video of me to send to you guys so hopefully Matt will be able to help you guys open that and watch it. This week was a pretty good week though all in all. The only bad thing is that we haven't gone out to work in the morning since Wednesday. Thursday when Elder Lopez came to Tucurú he said he had to wake up at 4 in the morning and that he was really tired so he was going to take a little nap. Well he ended up sleeping until after lunch almost, so that was kind of lame. Then Friday we had to do our weekly planning session in the morning since we didn't get to Thursday. Saturday we had service that took all morning. And tomorrow we are going to have service all morning too. So I'm excited to be able to actually go out and work in the morning. Things are a little more challenging than before now. I'm the one who has to plan and keep track of our dats and things like that. So that's a little bit hard because I still feel like I don't know the area too well. But I can feel even more the Lord's hand helping us and guiding us to where we need to be. And Q'eqchi' is still really hard, but timil timil yookin chi tzolok li Q'eqchi'. (little by little I'm learning Q'eqchi')

Elder Jordan Smith did get transferred to the Polochic, and as a matter of fact he is in my district. He's a really cool elder and I'm excited to get to know him better and everything. He's really nice so we already get along really well. Plus we're both the new ones to Q'eqchi' and everything so we can relate. He's in a pure Q'eqchi' area and it's really mountainous there too so I'm sure it's difficult. But I can already tell that he'll do really well and that he'll work hard to get the language. So yeah it's fun to be in a district with him and everything.

Well I'm really happy that Matt is home and transitioning really well and enjoying his time with all of you guys. I'm glad that Kinzie and Jack haven't killed him yet. (just kidding!) I'm happy to hear he hasn't changed too much from his old self and I hope that he won't change too much from his old self in the next 2 years. I'm also mad that he didn't write me! Now that he has all the time in the world to write and doesn't have any kind of time limits the least he could do is drop me a line! Just kidding Matt I'm sure between Mom, Dad, and the kids, they are all keeping you busy. I hope you're having fun and enjoying the cold weather there in Kansas! I'm going to DIE when I have to go back to being in cold weather again. Matt, you should open a facebook account so you can socialize more! Mom and Kinzie can show you how to use it!

Well it's really hard for me to not be there with all of you guys, but I know I'm here for the right reasons and that time is just going to fly by now that Matt is home. So Don't worry I'll be home before you know it! I love all of you so much and I can't wait to get to talk to you all for Christmas. Sorry that I didn't get to write all of you more individually, but next time I will for sure! Nekexinrah chi anchal inch'ool. 



Love you!

Elder Norton

Friday, November 12, 2010

A Great Week in the Polochic!

Ooooh!

(This is the sound we make when we are standing outside of someone's
house. Kind of like an owl haha. Speaking of owl, just a fun fact
Tucurù comes from the words Tukur and u which mean owl and face, so
Tucurù is supposed to mean face of the owl.)

Well I am feeling really, really weird right now. I can hardly beleive
that Matt is done. The parallels between Matt and Elder Wixom have
made it even weirder for me too. The same kinds of things happened
with Elder Wixom. People loved him a lot and they all gave him food
and gave him shoutouts in their testimonies in church and everything.
I feel so proud of Matt that he has made such a profound impact on so
many people and that he has grown so much. I can just feel from your
descriptions that he is in the best shape of his whole life. I'm so
proud to have him as my brother and right now I miss him more than
ever. I wish more than anything that I could be there with you all to
pick him up and I feel sa ut ra sa' inch'ool (happiness and pain in my
heart). I'm so happy for him but it's so hard to not be able to be
there with you guys. But I'm more happy than I am sad haha. I'm
excited for him to be home with everyone! Be sure that you guys have
an extra fun time in Cali for me ok?

Alright well, I'm actually not in the capital. They made some changes
and so I just stayed here in the Polochic and am on divisions with
Elder Gutierrez whose companion is also going home. So I have all of
that money that I took out but no camera to buy. I heard that I can
just talk to Sister Torres and have her pick one up for me or
something like that. So I'll figure that out. I got my package today
because we are in Telemàn with the ZLs again. Thank you so much! I am
so excited to be able to eat real american candy haha! The junior
mints are kind of a mess though haha. But as always mom, your clever
and creative packaging and labels never cease to amaze me. So thanks.
:)

Regarding changes: So I'm definitely staying in Tucurù and my second
trainer is supposedly going to be Elder Howard which makes me really
excited! We don't know for sure, but he is supposed to be my new
compa. He's been in the Polochic for something like 7 months or
something like that and is a really fun elder. He is an AMAZING artist
and has really funny stories haha. So if it's him I'm really excited
for my next change with him. I'm a little nervous because I have to
take on a lot more responsibility for the area now since I'll be the
one that knows more about the area. But I'm going to rely on the
Lord's help and we're going to have a really great change. He is
really good about studying for Q'eqchi' and has made some verb charts
and things like that that a lot of elders use, including me. So I'm
excited for that, but I'll let you guys know for sure what happens
next week!

This past week was the best week of our change. We worked the hardest
this last week that we ever have. We had 131% animo, which is
basically a standardized statistic to show how well elders are using
their time. Elder Wixom says that he's never seen anyone get over
115%, so I guess we broke a record somewhere probably. So it was a
really great week.

We were working in an area called San Julian which is pretty far up to
the west on a mountain. Basically all of our appointments fell for the
day until 6 at night, so we had about 3 hours of time where we didn't
have anything to do. Elder Wixom had heard that there was an aldea
called San Jose-Concepciòn somewhere fairly close to where we were, so
he asked how long it took to get there. They all told us about 20
minutes, so we decided to go up there and check it out.  An hour and 20
minutes later we got to San Jose-conception. It took forever!! We
walked up the steepest and longest road I've ever walked on and it was
raining pretty consistently and everything. We were up in the clouds
and so we couldn't see anything basically, so we kept thinking that
"maybe it's just around this turn" and we didn't turn back. We found
out that missionaries had never been up there before and were able to
spend about 10 minutes there contacting before we had to go back. To
give you an idea of how hard it was, when we got to the top and it was
still raining, I was literally steaming, and it wasn't cold. That was
last Friday I think. So then this week we told them we'd come back. So
we left early one morning to go up again. This time was much harder
than the last time. It was really sunny and really hot and I forgot to
bring water with me so I was dying! But the rewards were sweet. We
taught 8 lessons, had 25 new investigators, and had 67 contacts in 4
hours! It was crazy. So that is what really boosted our animo so much.

So it was a great week. The people in Tucurù really loved Elder Wixom
even though he was only here 3 months. Members fed us all day Sunday
to honor Elder Wixom, and one family went all the way to Coban to
pick him up a pizza on Saturday night. It was really cool to see and
inspired me to work really hard here and gain the confidence and trust
of the members and nonmembers here to have the same kind of love and
confidence that Elder Wixom had.

Alright well the only other thing that I can think of that I need to
say is that I definitely need a family picture as soon as Matt gets
home. And also some pictures of the house because people always ask to
see that here. And I was wondering if you could get that picture that
Siter Cockriel took for the ward bulletin that one time of all of us
and send that to me? I want one of all of you without me and then one
with me :)

Matt- well I figure you'll have more time now to read my "mass email"
and since you won't be using your other email now, I'll just give you
a shoutout here. You talked with people who were from Guat??  That's
awesome! I have to find Guat people when I come back so I can talk to
them about this great country haha. Do you know if they spoke another
language or anything? Thanks for your advice about the Testigos and
about their family. We're going to just keep showing them love and go
by the spirit to keep them in the church and to help them out as best
as we can. Well, I'm so proud of you bro for your hard work and
service. From what Mom and Dad told me I know that you gained the
hearts of the people in California and that you were such an influence
for good there and throughout your mission. I can't tell you how proud
that makes me feel of you and how happy I am for you. I know that your
testimony has grown so much and that you have changed a lot on your
mission. Thanks for being such a great example and thanks for your
dedication to the Lord. I love you and can't wait for when I get to
see you in 2 years. Don't worry about the transition back into the
real world. You'll do great. DATE LOTS OF GIRLS. At BYU its pretty
easy haha. Have a fun time there and just keep the habits you've made
on your mission to keep growing and serving the Lord. We will swap
mission stories in 2 years! Love you bro.


Alright, well my time is up, so I've got to go now. But I love all of
you tons. Have fun in California and let me know about all of the
things you guys do together. Thanks again for the package and for all
of your support. I love you guys!!!

nekexinrah chian yal inch'ool,
Laj Elder Norton

Monday, November 1, 2010

Things are Going Really Well For Me Down Here in Guate

Hola familia! How are all of  you? I'm sure you're all really baggy about Matt coming home next week! Haha  that's so awesome and really weird for me. It's hard to believe I haven't seen him for so long. And even harder to believe that I won't see him for another 2 years. You need to all have an extra fun time with him for me and let me know how everything goes.

Well I'm here in El Estor today for pday with my district and our neighboring district. The other district was going to El Estor, and since we just have us and the hermanas we decided to go too. So once again we left yesterday and went to Teleman to stay with the ZL's. We've stayed at  their house the past 3 sundays in a row! But it's fun to get to be around some of the other Elders. They really are great and I love all of them. Anyways, this morning we came up to El Estor and we are going to spend the day here. It's a really nice area of the Polochic and is in the valley so it's pretty hot here. It's probably not all that nice to you americans, but it is way nice for me haha. I don't know it very well because we just barely got here, but it seems really cool. But things are going really well for me down here in Guat. Elder Wixom is preparing to go home and everything so it's kind of fun because it makes me think of Matt going home. We talked yesterday and he told me that for the first 4 weeks of the change he was kind of mad and upset that he's going home and so he was saying he didn't have the best beginning 4 weeks but now he's accepted the fact that he's going home and is a lot happier. So that's good. We're planning on having our best week this last week of the change and are going to work really hard. And no, he's not related to her, only Elder Rasband.

Ok so let me just get out some things that I need to tell all of you first.

For my Christmas package there were a couple things that I thought of that I would like. I really want a frisbee actually because soccer and basketball are banned here, but ultimate isn't so I need one to be able to play a fun sport. You can just get one from Walmart or  something just make sure that it's an ultimate disc not a cheapo kind please :) Also I'm dying for some American candy, especially Starburst and Swedish fish. And that's all I can think of.



Now I should probably let you all know more about the shooting and everything about that. I'm pretty sure that we weren't actually very close to being in any danger. Some people told us that the shooting happened right after we left, but it really happened more like an hour after we left. So no need to worry, it really is safe where we are. No one is 100% sure why the shooting happened, but we think it might have to do with something one of the sons did. Apparently he went to the capital and got involved with some gangs there or something and brought some of  his problems back with him. I guess that he got beat up really bad by them a while ago and things like that, so some people think it's because of that. But really the shooting was probably just to try and scare them. I don't think that they were actually trying to hit anyone. But they two girls are fine. They were both back home after a couple of days and are doing great. The girl that got hit in the ribs  is doing better than the other girl. The bullet isn't in her side and she can walk and everything. The other girl still has both of the bullets in her: one in her knee and one in her hip. The doctors didn't take them out because, well this is Guatemala and the doctors here do things differently than in the states. So the only thing to worry about is infection. She can't walk because of her knee, but she can move her knee ok which means that she will be fine eventually. Thanks for all of your prayers and thoughts in their behalf. The thing we are worried about now is keeping them in the church. They were already pretty inactive in the church when we started working with them and now because of this they probably won't go to church at all for a while. (Q'eqchi's are really weird about stuff like this. for example: if someone has a baby, they believe that they shouldn't go out of the house for 40 days, even for church.) Plus with all of the excitement of what happened, every church in all of Tucuru has been sending pastors and members to "pray" over them and things like that. Their way of praying over them is to all start praying at the same time outloud and yelling their prayers. The pastors and their members usually don't even say anything, they just repeat the name of the Savior and just say weird things. Some Jehovah's Witness missionaries are visiting them a lot and are teaching one of their youngest girls. We're a litle worried about her getting confused and being led away, so we're trying to help her out.

Ok so now that that's out, let me give some shout outs:

Mom- you're awesome! Thanks for being an awesome mom. I haven't gotten my pacakge yet but  I should be getting it next week when we go to the capital so I'm very excited to get it!  I actually have been trying lately to try and stand up straigter. So there =P  Pero timil timil junelik. Q'eqchi' is going ok. I don't feel nearly as lost as I did when I first got here. I can usually always tell what they are talking about now and I can pick out words that I know usually, at least when Elder Wixom is speaking.) I'm still not really able to teach in Q'eqchi', all I can do is read things out of the preach my gospel that I have in Q'eqchi' and read scriptures and things. I have the pronounciation (I think that's the word in English, but I can only think of the word in Spanish, pronunciaciòn haha) down pretty well I think. I can read things pretty well, and Elder Wixom said that I can read better than he can. So that helps that I'm getting the basics of that. But I still can't speak at all. I'm just now starting to understand how to use the verbs. Conjugating verbs is a LOT harder to do in Q'eqchi' than Spanish and is different, so it's hard, but I have a few cheat sheets to help me out with that. I'm glad you got to see the pictures of Zone conference! I see Elder Hexom all of the time because he's in the neighboring district so I get to talk to him all of the time. He's an awesome Elder and he's from Pennsylvania so we talked about how Dad served there. 

Dad- don't worry things are really safe and everything is great! Yeah I'm a little bit worried about my next change. It might be really hard because it's possible that my next comp won't speak Q'eqchi' very well either, but I guess I have no idea. There's one Elder that a lot of the elders here think will be my new companion. But we'll see. I will for sure be the one who knows the area and will have to take a little more responsibility with setting appointments and know where to go and things like that, so that will be challenging. But I think that that will be the best way to learn and to grow. Even if my new comp doesn't know Q'eqchi', it will make me learn a lot quicker I think, so I will just go with whatever the Lord wants me to do. But I for sure will remember to be patient and humble about everything. Thanks for your awesome advice and also for your great example. You are my role model and my hero. Thanks for being an awesome dad. And for the camera I'm not sure about the price or anything. I would like to have a decent camera that takes good pictures because everything here is so beautiful. I want to have good quality pictures to look back on. So I think it will probably be between 100 and 150. I'll look around though and let you all know.

Matt- I saw Naruto in Spanish the other day in a little store and thought it was really funny and thought of you haha. Love you bro, you are going to adjust just fine and are going to love BYU and everything. Just always remember what's really important in life and remember the Lord always. I know you'll do great things. I can't wait to be back there with you and to be able to hang out together. Work hard your last week and make it your best week of your change! Thanks for being such a good example to me. Love you!

Ok well all of my time is up now so unfortunately I have to go. I'll try to tell you more about the actual work I'm doing next week and I think I'll send some hand written letters home sometime soon. But keep staying strong in the faith! Read scriptures every night and pray together always! I know that you're already doing that. :) Good luck with everything back home. I love you all tons and I can't wait to talk to you on the phone pretty soon! Love you all! Nekexinrah!!

Loq laj kaki winq
Elder Norton