"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

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

16 Months and 16 New Investigators!

Today I am completing 16 months being on the mish. That's weird because that means I've only got 8 months left which is weird because 2 months later it will only be 6 months left which will mean I will be 3/4 of the way through my mission. It is such a weird thought! I'm not baggy, just kind of freaked out! Today it has been surprisingly cold here in Salama. You guys would probably feel great in this weather but us Salamatecos feel the cold quite a bit. But the good news was that it was nice weather for playing soccer in the morning with a bunch of youth from the branch and the other elders. 

Anways, sounds like you all had a great Thanksgiving week. Hope you are all a little fatter from the big Thanksgiving meal. You'll have just enough time to work it all off by the time the next big meal comes at Christmas and then you'll all have a reason to get back into shape for your new years' resolution. (Speaking of working out, I've been using my perfect pushups and have been doing other stuff to work out pretty much every day for a few weeks straight now. My back's getting stronger and it doesn't hurt quite as much now. I'm going to try to really get into shape so that you will all be surprised when you see my Arnold-like build. I'm going to buy some protein this week to start bulking up. There's a gym really close to our house with a ton of workout machines that I've been thinking about starting to go to. We have permission to go to gyms, but we have to pay for it using personal money so that would be the issue...We'll see.  I know you're all laughing right now, but as the scriptures say, "fools shall mock, but they shall [be crushed by my huge muscles!] (you know the accent.. =P )) Anyways, I'm glad to hear it was a good week for all. I'm jealous that you got to eat Fernando's delicious cooking without me! We definitely have to go back to Dallas before I go back to BYU in the fall. 

This week was a pretty good week for the most part. We really saw some great blessings from the Lord. This week we found 16 new investigators to teach with 6 families which was amazing! We usually don't hardly find any new people to teach, so it was a huge blessing. Now we just have to work hard with all of them to help them progress. We have another couple that we are working hard with that are both pretty cool people. They are Camilo and Brenda Galián. We're helping him to give up drinking for good and trying to get them both to come to church. Next Sunday we set the goal of bringing 27 people to church with us (four families) because if they come for the Christmas Devotional it counts as an attendance in church. So we are going to work really hard this week to get people to come. Hopefully you guys will invite some friends to come with you to the devotional too! We're still working with Danilo and Reina to get their papers. Thanks for your prayers in their behalf and keep praying and fasting for them this week! We're also working with the Poqomchi' family that I told you about and are working a lot with the dad, Pablo. We had a lesson with him for  the first time this week and he seems like he wants to change. But from what we're told, he goes out to get drunk for 15 days at a time sometimes. So we figure if he doesn't change it will be really hard for anyone else in the family to change (since Julia and Cecilia didn't come to church this week... =/ ) So please pray for them too. 

Things are going really well with me and Elder Contreras. We get along really well and we have a lot of fun together. Of course he's getting to the point where his body is tired of getting up at 6:30 every morning so what he'll usually do is get up and pray with me and then lay back down while I exercise and shower. Then he'll get up at around 7:30. But he's not too baggy yet. The bad thing is that with Christmas coming up it's pretty much impossible NOT to be baggy. But we're still working hard. I won't let him slack off too much. Next week is concilio in the cap which will be good I think. I have to go to the dentist again next Monday because I have a tooth that's killing me recently every time something cold touches it. We are also going to have some other fun stuff coming up the weekend after this weekend with the dedication of the Temple in Quetzaltenango. You guys should see if you can watch the cultural performance on Saturday night (the 10th) at 6 or 7 at night. Our investigators won't be able to come to church the 11th because it's the dedication, so we are going to bring investigators Saturday. We also should be having our Christmas zone conference sometime between the 19 and the 24th of December. So it should be a really fun month.

A kind of funny experience of this week: this less active family in our branch invited pretty much everyone in the branch to come to the birthday party of their daughter who was turning 15. They are a VERY poor family of about 9 children and live in a tiny little house made of wood and a lot of tarps. So when they invited us, we were obviously thinking that it would be more of a small family gathering with a lot of members there as well. We thought it would be a really good opportunity to help the branch get involved more with their family and help them all become active again. So it was pretty surprising when we got to their house and it was pretty much a discotech. They were playing pretty wordly music with HUGE speakers, some pretty fancy lights and a disco ball and everything that they had set up on their very large piece of land that they have underneath the hill where their house is. We definitely felt uncomfortable. But don't worry we didn't dance...too much...jaja just kidding. We ate the food they gave us, said congrats and booked out of there. It was a weird feeling.

Here's some quick personal comments: 

Dad- I'm glad that you enjoyed the holiday week and that  you guys had an enjoyable and peaceful time. I'm sure we'll all be together for the next Thanksgiving which makes me super excited!  Anyways, thanks dad for all you do. Sorry for taking money out today but I need to buy a new backpack, a machete and a few other things. Love you!

Mom- hey mom thanks for the email. I'm glad you guys had a good time with everyone there. It's cool you guys got to see Carson. I hope she's doing well. Tell her I said hey for me.  And thanks especially for being so thoughtful about my investigators. Also yes I was referring to the red ones. Or if they have flavored colored ones other than black I'd take that too. Anyways, I'm trying to get buff so anything cool you could send me to get ripped would be awesome. Maybe not this package but for the future..There are some people here that have pullup bars that are just bars that you put inbetween two walls or a door post and you just tighten. But that's for later. Love you mom, you're the best!

Alright well times up so I've got to go. But thanks for the emails. Love you all tons and I'm thankful for your prayers. Love you!

Elder Norton

Monday, November 21, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!



Happy Thanksgiving (feliz día de acción de gracias) to all reading this!

I write to you all from good old Salama. Saturday night we got the changes and it looks like Elder Contreras and I will be staying together another change here in Salama! Woo! That means a few things: 1) I will be Elder Contreras' last comp and will be the comp he spent the most time with  (up to this point in my mission he will be the comp that I have spent the most time with too...just as a side note, I told that to Elder Gutierres when I thought I was going to stay with him too and then the next day fell in a river...so you never know haha.)  2) We will both be here for Christmas. 3) We will be baptizing a family in December! (more on that to come.) 4) I will most likely be in Salama at least one more change after this next change (or in other words until February or possibly more.) and  5) my chances of going back to Polochik are getting much slimmer...BUT we are both pretty excited to get the change to work together his last change here in Salama!

This week we put 4 baptismal dates with a family and two other people. The family are Danilo and Reina. They are our most pilas investigators. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned them a lot but they are the ones that always come to church and are more faithful than a lot of members. Anyways, there's been some problems with their paperwork since he's from nicaragua and he's and ilegal immagrant here in guate. BUT, we are exercising our faith and we put a baptismal date with them for the 24th of December (we're dreaming of a white Christmas..) We have to be VERY diligent in order for this to work and we need a lot of prayers and faith in their behalf. So I'm asking all who read this to remember Danilo and Reina in their prayers and also for me and Elder Contreras to get all of the paperwork done that we need. Fast sunday we are going to do a fast for them and I'll probably remind you all and ask for you to help out as well in that fast. The other 2 people are daughters in a really big poqomchi' family that we got as a reference here in Salama. We're trying to help the whole family prepare for baptism, but as for right now only the 2 daughters, Julia and Cecilia, have accepted a date. So please pray for them a lot too. They are familia cun cho. And we are still working hard to get more opportunities to teach Familia Morales  who I've mentioned before. They are really great and I'm sure they will get baptized someday but we just need to find them more. So please pray for all of them!! 

Well, this week is Thanksgiving and I can honestly say that I'm pretty sure I won't be eating things near as delicious as mom's meal and pies. But it was kind of funny last week because we went to the house of the family of our two most recent converts and the dad made us turkey with stuffing. Definitely wasn't the same as the original American kind, but I was still really surprised and it was pretty good. I should have taken a picture but I forgot to. Anyways, it's all good because I still am able to get in the Spirit with the EGG NOG that I found in the little store here. It's not as good, but it's good enough haha. But I want to say that I'm thankful for all of you! Thanks for all that you have all taught me my whole life and for helping me to be where I'm at today. I'm thankful to awesome parents who have taught me all that I know and have set a good example for me in everything they do. I'm also thankful for 2 wonderful brothers and my amazing sister who have always been there to be my friends and who always make me smile. I'm thankful for my grandparents who are converts to the church who had the courage to change their lives to live the Gospel so that I can be here now. I'm thankful for Jesus Christ who makes every good things possible and I'm especially thankful for all that He has suffered for me so that I won't have to if I can put my trust in Him. I'M THANKFUL FOR MY FAMILY :) You guys really are the best. Eat lots of good food for me, epsecially apple pie and ice cream. 

On to the shoutouts:

Dad- haha reading your email made me baggy. I have good memories of those feelings of this time of year, but mostly it just makes me anxious and excited for the many more memories to come. Thanks for the advice about giving it my best. I was talking today to another elder about how it's much easier to work out when you have someone there that keeps telling you to do one more pushup or to keep going. I think that pretty much sums up giving our best to the Savior as well. When we let him be our "trainer" He's always there to encourage us and give us the strength neccesary to do even more, but we have to invite him to be with us to help us. I promise that I'm going to really try hard in the months that I have left in my mission to let the Savior really be my personal trainer and to keep telling me "you can do it" when I feel sure that my strength is all used up. thanks for helping me understand that more. I'm glad you are feeling the real Spirit of the season and that you want to make Christmas really special this year. I really am not too sure how to make Christmas even more special than we always did by doing small acts of service. But I always think about the story that President Monson tells about the little German family and their apartment that he helped to make really nice for them. If you want Christmas to be really special, do a really special service for another family in need. We'll have lots of fun NEXT year when I'm home for the holidays! alright, enough of being baggy. Love you dad!

Mom- hey mom! :) I think I forgot to tell you that I already got my Halloween package. Thank you so much! All of the candy was delicious as usual and most imporant, American. You are just the craftiest person ever and that's why you are the best mom ever. My wife better love you! Anyways, thanks a lot for being so "creepy" with crafts haha. There was a nationwide stake conference here yesterday that we watched by satellite and they talked a ton about getting ready to receive the blessings of the temple since they are going to dedicate a new temple in Quetzaltenango in a few weeks. It was great and Elder Holland spoke spanish a little bit for his talk which was really funny and great haha. So I'm glad you are doing your part there in KCMO to get ready for the new temple. I'm really excited for it to be done! Matt's wedding will be awesome there haha. (mine too for that matter.) By the way I loved your description of how to pronounce Kilinoe haha. You are so funny. Well I'm definitely going to miss you and your cooking a lot this week, but I'm thankful for you mom. The only other thing that I thought of that you could send me for Christmas- some Twizzlers, and lately I've been craving Reeses. I don't know, I'll be satisfied with whatever you send haha. But I actually could use a new belt. The black plasticky stuff on both of my belts is coming off. I think that's it. But I'll be happy with whatever you send :) love you mom!

Kinzie- HI! ok just to respond a little to you last email, I heard from Jack beforehand that you were thinking about switching to Blue Valley high. (I would too if the choir teacher was that horrible. Maybe I'll come back and teach choir at BVN...hahaha no way. BVN is going downhill...but don't worry BYU will be awesome! :) We'll get to go together for at least a year or so! Love you tons and I'm thankful for you! Have a good week! :)

Jack- sorry to hear that the play is really lame..but it happens sometimes. I'm excited for you to play baseball though! Baseball was one of my favorite sports to play as a kid so I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun. I'm sure you'll be able to get into the "swing" of things (did you catch the pun?) easily enough. You are a great athelete. But the most important is just being a great deacon! Which you are, so just keep up the good work and you'll be fine. Love you and I'm thankful for you!

Matt- my times up, but you know I'm thankful for you too! Tell Kilinoe I'm thankful for her too for putting up with you! haha just kidding. Eat lots of pie for me. 

Alright, times up. I love you all and am thankful for all of you. Hope you have a great week and that you all can show your gratitude by serving one another in the house. I'm praying for you all!

Love,
Elder Norton

Monday, November 14, 2011

The Message of the Restoration of Christ's Church is Important Enough for us to do Anything to Share it With Others!



Hey guys! Hope everything is going well there and that you are enjoying the fall weather. (it's HOT in Salama.) I recently got back from Guate for another dentist appointment with my comp. He's doing pretty well but he's got some TMJ problems. His jaw is locked up on one side (like what happened to me for a while on a couple of days.) But it's fairly unusual since it's been like this for a couple of weeks now. So he was pretty worried about it and really stressed because of it. So we got permission to go to the cap today to check things out. We left yesterday afternoon and got to the cap last night and came back this afternoon. So it was kind of fun I guess to get to go to Guate again but I would have rather stayed here since the dentists couldn't really even do anything anyways. They just told him that it was normal and that he had to keep eating bland foods and do jaw stretching exercises. But oh well, he feels a litle bit relieved now so that's good.

This week was good since we were back in our own area again. It was a little hard at first since we didn't really have any set appointments because we weren't there so long. But we were blessed a lot. The assistants came and stayed with us for a couple of days and we went on divisions with them to work and we had a lot of success. It was really nice to have the extra pair of missionaries and we were able to have some great spiritual experiences. My companion and Elder Williams went to an area pretty far away and contacted a woman who said her husband worked every day from 7 to 9 and that the only time to come would be at 6 in the morning. So my companion scheduled an appointment for 6 the next day. He told me that night and I was convinced that he was out of his mind. I was actually surprised at 5 in the morning the next day when he actually got up and started to get ready.  At first I thought about just staying in bed and pretending like I was asleep so I wouldn't have to go, but he was way ahead of me and put the alarm of the phone next to me so that I would have no excuse not to get up. I got up and prayed and asked for the Lord to give me a positive outlook on the appointment and to help me to have a good attitude about it. So I got up and felt much better, got ready and we left. We found a bus to take us to her house and went to knock on the door. The guy who answered had definitely been sleeping right before and was pretty surprised that we were there. But he eventually let us in. In the end, it doesn't really seem like that couple will ever progress very much, but that lesson was really important for me and for my testimony. I just felt in my heart "the message of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ is important enough for me to go to someone's house at 6 in the morning to share it with them." We knelt to say the opening prayer and I was having trouble fighting back the tears because I felt the Spirit so strongly. So just remember, that the message of the restoration of Christ's church and gospel is important enough for us to do pretty much anything to share it with others.

We also did something kind of new this week as well. We have a really great family that we are trying really hard to help progress and we gave them both a copy of The Book of Mormon. They said that they hadn't read it because the husband drives a lot to Guate and can't read while he drives. So we decided to go to the internet shop and had them download all of The Book of Mormon in audio on disc to give to them. They were really happy when we went over to give it to them. He told us now that there wasn't any excuse not to read and listen to the book of mormon and so we're hoping we will get to work with them more now. Their names are Mynor and Karina, so be sure to keep them in your prayers. 

Alright time's almost up so here's some quick shout outs

Dad- thanks a lot for your email. it really helped me out a lot. It's so true that if you think about obedience in terms of circumstances or situations that it is REALLY hard to be obedient. I need to apply that more to my life and help my zone to apply it as well. haha Don't worry too much about Matt with his new girl. He's got to learn sometime! And now is a good time. He'll be just fine. That's sad to hear about the two missionaries in Texas. I know you always pray for me, but this week if you could say a few special prayers for me I would really appreciate it. Sometimes I have trouble overcoming my own self. It's just hard sometimes for me to push myself to do my absolute very best sometimes. I want to do my best but I've just never really ever exerted myself beyond my limits in my life to this point. I'm trying to change that and kill off the natural man in me. So if you could remember that for me I'd really appreciate it. I'll always remember you guys in my prayers too. I love you!

Mom- hey there! Glad you liked the pictures I sent! and just so you know, the artistic photos were all by Norton Photography inc. (I should have been a photographer...=P) yeah, I really like the new suit. It's REALLY fit to me though which means it's a bit tight sometimes. I just have to not gain too much muscle weight so that it will still fit when I get home and I can wear it to church. =P Working out has helped my back out quite a bit and I'm getting stronger little by little. Thanks for the talks you sent, I really liked the idea of Pres. McMillan's talk. Love you!

Alright, well times up so I gotta go, but I love you all tons!

Love,
Elder Norton
With Elder Lusty in our new tailored suits made of the exact same fabric. 

Another artsy pic with me and Elder Lusty!


Tuesday, November 8, 2011

A Little "Vacation" to Tactic

Elder Norton looking good in his new Guatemalan made suit!
Hey Guys!


This week has been a pretty crazy week. But it has been pretty great. It started off with concilio which was awesome. It was really spiritual and I received a lot of revelation. I learned a lot about gaining the Lord's trust. The Lord loves every single person on the earth, but He can't trust everyone. I just really felt during the concilio how truly precious and important His children are to Him, more important than anything else in the universe. If we as missionaries (or as parents or members) want to have success in finding people to teach and help bring to baptism, we have to first gain the Lord's trust so that He knows that we won't let His children fall- that we will do everything we can and everything in our power to bring them back to Him. It was a really strong impression that I felt from the Spirit so I am going to try to work really hard in everything I do to gain the Lord's trust so that He knows that He can trsut me with His children. 

Anyways, the concilio was awesome and really fun. I spent a lot of time talking with Elder Fadel about the NEW BOOK OF MORMON IN Q'EQCHI'. I totally forgot to tell you guys last week that I just got a copy of the new triple combination in Q'eqchi' with a new and better translation, with the new orthography and normal sized! It is SO cool! We just talked a lot about all of the new translations and how cool they are. For example, the new name for "Doctrine and Covenants" in Q'eqchi' is "Li Tzol'leb ut Sumwank" which translated means "learning tool (doctrine) and faithful existence (covenants)" AWESOME! So I'm really excited abou that and it just makes me want to go back to Polochik even more because the people understand the Book of Mormon and all of the scriptures much better now with the new translation. I hope I go back soon! 

After that I went to a doctor's appointment to just get some advice about my back  (nothing too serious, just since I was already going to be in the cap and it's a new doctor I thought I'd go see him.) Mostly I just feel a lot of pain after waking up so I was kind of expecting some kind of special pillow or something like that, but he just told me I need to get buff. He said there's nothing really to do at this age other than get ripped and work out every single day. It's apparently really common among a lot of good atheletes who have just had to become really muscular to fight it back. He's a great doctor so it was nice to actually get some real good advice. He also gave e some advil for the pain at night. Anyways, so I did that. Wednesday my comp got 3 wisdom teeth taken out and he was really suffering a lot. They didn't put him to sleep or give him any powerful drugs. Just advil. So he was in a lot of pain and couldn't talk or eat for a while. In the end I ended up leaving my comp in the capital and coming back with another elder whose comp also got his wisdom teeth out and we left the sickies there in the cap. So right now I'm back in good old Tactic visiting and waiting for my comp. I've been here since Thursday night and it's been cool to see how everyone's doing. The Lord has a purpose in everything that He does so it's been cool to see that. One quick story: back when I was here a member family gave us a reference of a neighbor family of theirs. We went and taught, and the mom was a litte more receptive but the husband ended up rejecting us in the end. Well when I went to church in Tactic yesterday the member family told me that the husband of that family had been murdered a couple of days ago in Coban. I felt really strongly that we needed to go visit the wife so we did. We ended up having a neat lesson and some great new possibilities for the elders in Tactic. 

I have been using my Poqomchi a lot more since coming here. All of the members that speak it just try to speak to me in Poqom to test me now. I can understand some things but it's still hard. But I have to say I'm surpised at how much I can still remember. Anyways, I found a Poqom family in Salama recently who also had someone in the family pass away. It has been cool getting to teach them. I went back to Salama Saturday just for a couple hours to do some stuff and to teach that family. It was a cool lesson. But, on a bad note, the whole zone pretty much had the worst week ever. It was kind of sad to see how hardly any areas have investigators that are progressing. So the work is kind of hard here right now. I'm struggling a little bit to know how to best help the zone to get back up and to keep working hard. But I know the Lord will help me and give me revelation for what I need to do.

Alright, quick personal stuff.

Mom- LOVED the vocal point song!!! It's so AWESOME! I am trying to put it on another elder's usb right now so that I can have it. BUT I would really like for my next package any religious vocal point songs you can find on a disc (and any other a capella songs that are religious too as a matter of fact.) They are going to win for sure if they are singing like that! But if they win it will be really hard to get in when I get back...well it will still be hard to get in no matter what happens. Anyways, thanks for the really cool story about that lady from Africa. I am going to use that and teach that to our zone to find new families to teach. I'm glad you had a good time at Time out for Women, but I have to say I am totally down with the idea of Time Out FROM Women. Tell dad I'll back him up with that idea haha. My package is still in the cap because I didn't get the chance to bring it with me, but I should have it tomorrow when my companion gets back. Love you!

Dad- hey dad! Yeah everything's resolved with my comp. It wasn't a huge deal really just kind of discouraging at a bad time. But now everything's back to normal and I'm feeling great. Thanks for all of your support. Yeah I think it's definitely a good thing to be concerned about. Something that my MTC teacher taught us from alma 5.30. He talked to us about sarcasm and how we really need to eliminate it in every way. We're always sarcastic with each other and everything, and it's not a huge thing, but if we were just always sincere and loving to each other our relationships would be a lot better with everyone. Hope that helps a little bit. But you are a great example for everyone dad, so don't worry too much. I know you're doing all you can to receive revelation from the Lord. Love you dad.

Well, sorry guys, time's up but I really love you guys tons and I miss you all! Hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Norton


Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to everyone back in the states, and feliz día de los muertos para todos los latinos. Halloween is VERY different here and it's called the day of the dead. It's kind of neat because everyone goes to the graves of their loved ones and they paint them bright colors and then fly kites. (All of the graves here are above ground) So there are a LOT of people with kites and the graves all look pretty cool so colorful and bright. We wanted to go to a graveyard and just start contacting people about eternal families and vicarious temple work, but we will be here in the cap almost all week so that's a bummer. 

I'm writing you from an area in the capital with a bunch of other elders from zona molina. We got together today and played basketball in an indoor court of a chapel here (that's one of the good things about the cap.) I also picked up my suit today which is pretty good looking if you ask me. I like it because it's fitted pretty nicely for me. Apparently it's the exact same fabric as Elder Lusty's new suit that he got, but we didn't plan that. I'll have to take pictures tomorrow and send them next week. This week is probably going to be a little long and boring for me since I'll be here in the cap until at least Thursday and probably until Friday. Elder Contreras is getting all four wisdom teeth out on Wednesday and he will be out of it for at least a couple of days, so we're thinking we probably won't even get back until Friday. But I'm excited for concilio with President Watts and It will be nice to eat good food and take really nice showers for a while. 

This week has been a pretty good week. The Lord blessed us (and me) a lot this week so that we had a good week. We had an actual full, normal week of work which was really nice and it helped us to get a lot of work done. Things with my companion are great, we've talked a lot and worked everything out. But it's still very likely that I'll be getting a new companion next change. It was never something between us and it wasn't anything really too bad. But it was just a pain to have to deal with it. But it's all over now and in the hands of the Lord. He's a good guy though and I love him. 

The cousin of Gilsa and Nieves that had a baptismal date said that he can't get baptized anymore. He talked to his family about it and they all got mad at him and told him that he couldn't, so he felt bad and said he didn't want to anymore. We encouraged him to keep praying about it and keep going to church and said that we would go and talk to his brothers and his grandma about it. His parents live in the states and have lived there since he was 1. So we're not sure what will happen with him. We've also got the older sister of Nieves who told us that she wanted to get baptized but wanted to know if she could still go to her other church. So we've got some work to do, but I think that eventually that they will get baptized. We also received a reference this week from a really great member named Moisés and it turned out to be a cool experience. He took us to their house and I immediately noticed from the way that the women wore their corte that they had to either speak 
Q'eqchi' or Poqomchi' so I asked her where she was from. She told me she was from Taktik which meant that she spoke fluent Poqon. It was really funny to see how surprised they were when I started saying things to them in Poqon. They just laugh and cover their faces and think that it's great. And I think it's great too haha. I really like Poqomchi' and wish that I had had more time to learn it better. I still can't hardly understand anything even though I can speak a little bit. But it was because of that little connection that the whole family just opened up to us, let us come in and teach them a lesson, and made them feel comfortable. They are looking forward to another appointment for this next Saturday. We'll see how things turn out with them.  Another interesting story: We were talking to a lady that I had contacted beforehand and wanted to go into her house and teach her but her husband wasn't home. We explained that we couldn't come in unless the husband was home. She told us that the husband didn't like to listen at all and that it would be very hard to come over at a time where he would be there. So we started to walk away when all of the sudden a guy comes riding up on his motorcycle and calls us back. It turned out to be the husband, which was a surprise. He invited us in and told us that he really like us- that we were really great guys. He said he wanted us to pray with him and that one day he wanted to invite us over for dinner and eat with him. He was also very drunk. But I'm going to hold him to his word about the dinner with his wife as my witness, even if he doesn't remember anything. 

We also had a funny experience when we found a possum digging in the trash outside the house. After kicking it a few times (my comp did that) I tried to hit it with the broom but it just ended up running past me into the house which we had left wide open. After that it was about a 10 minute ordeal trying to get the darn thing out of the house and then to get it to leave the small garden in the front yard. All of the people here that heard about that story told us that we should have caught it and sold it since possum is a delicacy here in Guate. I also went on divisions this week with Elder Vestal which is always a good time. 

Alrighty, well that's pretty much the best parts of the week. Now on to some personal stuff!

Dad- haha as we say here, that girl is "mala onda" (it's kind of like saying "that's messed up") for dressing up like you and making fun of you. But you'll just have to call on her for every question from now on haha. She'll regret her decision someday. Loved Will's costume hahaha.  Thanks for all the advice dad I really appreciate it. You always know how to encourage me and help me do what's right. Things are fine with my companion now, but yeah sometimes it's easy to get discouraged when someone who should be doing what's right messes up. But the important thing is treating your companion like an investigator and helping them to move on and change. Thanks for everything! Love you dad.

Mom- first of all I'm really happy to hear about the baptism in the ward! I can't wait to get back there and work with the missionaries and help the missionary work in the ward. It will be fun. ok before I forget, I honestly don't remember if it was snowing or raining. I just remember that it was REALLY cold, that I got REALLY wet, and that some guy gave me $5 in the bathroom haha. (that sounds weirder than it actually is.) But anyways, sounds like you are busy! I know the feeling. I haven't gotten your package yet, but I should be getting it tomrrow at the concilio. I will be eating LOTs of candy this week :) Thanks for always praying for me mom and for caring so much about me. I know that I am supported so much by you and by everything that you do and for your love and confidence in me to do what's right. Love you tons and I'll talk to you soon!

Matt- man, you are just a ladies man these days! I'm glad to hear you're doing really well and I'm really greatful for your letter man. It means a lot. Good luck with school and with everything you are doing there. Love you bro!

Jack- thanks for the email bud I love you tons! You sound way too old so quit growing up! It's freaking me out!

Alright, well I'm sorry guys, I don't have any more time. I love you all tons and I'll write and send pictures next week. Love you!

Elder Norton