"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 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


No comments:

Post a Comment