"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

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Baptisms, Christmas Presents, and Getting Kicked Out of Our House

Chan xeeril lin junkab'al?? How is everyone doing? Sorry that this email is a little bit late, but our pday changed because of the Christmas conference in Coban. It turned out that we weren't going to have the conference until this week. So yes, right now I'm here in Coban for pday and I have to say I'm pretty exahausted. We had to wake up this morning at 3:00 to get on a bus to take us to Coban so that we could be there by 6:30. Once we got here, we walked around a LOT shopping for things and getting food and everything. It's actually legitimately cold here in the mornings and the nights. Not as cold as there of course but for us chapines it's cold. But it's chab'il.  This morning I saw Elder Dixon who is my good buddy from my BYU ward because he's here right now in Coban and it was a joyous reunion. AND his companion this change is one of my best friends from the CCM, Elder Underwood! I thought that he was still in the capital, so it was really good to see him. They are both doing really well. it was kind of funny that they are companions because they are 2 of the people that I wanted to see most here haha. So that was fun. Also, another elder from my group got an emergency tranfser up to Senahu this past week, so there are 3 of us now here in the Polochic which is cool.

A LOT has happened since the last time that I wrote. We baptized familia Rax this past saturday and they were confirmed into the church on Sunday!! I was really happy that we got everything taken care of and that we could get them married and everything so that it would all work out. We had a nice little service for them and had some of our investigators come to their baptism too, so it was a neat experience. And yes, I know she really is a child, but he's so much worse! and he's 21!  He is the one that really has the mind of a child haha. But we love him all the same, and he's a good guy.  I didn't end up baptizing them because our branch mission leader knew them really well so they wanted him to baptize them. But it's all good because I'm going to baptize someone this Saturday because we have another baptism with Alma!  She has been to church 3 times and is really pilas (intelligent/cool/goodd/awesome- these are all words that we associate with "pilas") so our DL, Elder Howard came down this Monday and interviewed her and she's all ready to go for this Saturday. So that's really exciting! Divisions with Elder Howard was awesome. He is really good at Q'eqchi' and is a really fun elder, so we had a lot of fun. We actually taught in Q'eqchi' too, which was good. With Elder Lopez, we haven't taught hardly at all in Q
'eqchi' because his policy is if they understasnd even a little bit of Spanish (which most everybody does) he just teaches in Spanish. And we haven't worked hardly at all outside of the center and the surrounding areas that are really close. So with Elder Howard we went to an area further up on a mountain and we contacted and taught some in Q'eqchi'. He taught me a lot while we walked and everything, so it was really helpful and I learned a lot. ALSO, we set another fecha this week for the 25th of December with a man we call Tio Nino. He is the brother in law of one of our most active and pilas members here and he is living with her family right now. We weren't teaching him at all (I didn't realize that he wasn't a member I don't think..) and we went to their house on Sunday, and as soon as we walked in they told us "Tio Nino wants to get baptized!" So that was a bit of a surprise, but a pleasant one for sure. So we taught him and talked to him for a while and set a fecha for Christmas day since he's been to church before. Ubando will probably be baptized in a couple of weeks, we just have to wait until he has 7 times in church and  to get permission from his parents, so things are progressing well there. We also found out that Gilberto and Carlos, whose dad has 7 women, live in a house apart from the others. Or in other words, only them and their mom live in their house, not all 7 and their families like we originally thought. So we're going to talk to President Torres tomorrow to see what we can do and when they can get baptized. Out of all of our investigators right now, Carlos is the most pilas. He really wants to be baptized and he understands all of the things that we talk about. He is just a righteous spirit and he has so much faith. So I really hope that they can get baptized soon. Maybe next change. The work is going well here despite problems we've had. The only bad thing right now is that we are getting kicked out of our house. The owners of our house are going to remodel , so we have to have a new house by the first of January. This wouldn't be that big of a deal, but there are literally no houses left in Tucurú now. There was once, but the mission didn't approve it. So if things don't work  out, it's possible that President will take missionaries out of Tucurú for a while, which I definitely don't want! So we'll see what happens. 

Alright, now to get out a few things I need to say, (I am just about out of time.)

Loved the packages that i got. I have to admit I opened them all. Sorry mom :) (We sent him the 12 days of Christmas, but apparently he just had 1 day of Christmas!  Little Stinker!) But everything was great and I really loved it all. Thank you all so much for everything! But the only thing that I could ask for more is a more recent picture of all of you when you get the chance the next time. :) you're all the best. Also, I beg to differ that I am in fact gaining weight based on the fact that my shirts are all a little bit big, so you just can' t tell that's all.
Also I saw someone wearing a BVN shirt.  (That is Jace's high school here in Kansas.  Isn't that crazy!)

Well I have to go, sorry but I love you all so much,. Don't know the deets about the call, I'll find out. Just let the moms tell you what it is. Love you all so much!!

Chab'il ralankil! (Merry Christmas!!!!)

LOVE YOU!!

Elder Norton

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