SEE YOU NEXT WEEK!!!

Well guys my time is quickly coming to an end here in Guatemala.


Before I let myself get ridiculously baggy let me just give an overview of the week:Tuesday I was on divisions with Elder Rodríguez in Saqsuha' and we had a good time. He's a great elder and a good friend. He cooked me every meal we ate and was super nice. I learned a lot with him. I learned a little bit in my studies on Wednesday morning about things I need to improve. Wednesday we had district meeting and we talked about having the spirit. It didn't really turn out how I thought it would to be honest, but it was still a good meeting. After that E. Salazar and I came back to Saqsuha'.  We talked for a while throughout the day, just small talk, and we worked together. Then that night we got caught in a HUGE rainstorm. We were about 30 minutes away from the house walking and it started pouring after we had walked like 2 minutes. It was already dark so we decided to just keep going. It was a little bit nerve-wracking for someone who about a year ago fell into a river in similar circumstances but it turned out to be fun as we pretty much grabbed each other by the hand when lightning struck close haha. It was fun. 

Thursday we went to La Tinta to get all of Domingo and Rosa's paperwork figured out and then came back and worked for a while in the center. Friday we cleaned the house to prepare for a house inspection to be given by Elder and Sister Spradlin (the missionary couple in Senahu) which took us all morning. After that we kept working with our investigators with a baptismal date and went to a little place by bus to teach a family (who by the way ended up coming to church yesterday for the first time! Woo!) and then went back. Saturday the Spradlins came and inspected the house. They didn't chew us out too much. After that we went to church to help them translate to do geneology work with the Q'eqchi'. Not too many people showed up but just enough to help some people out and get some names ready to take to the temple. Then we went and had a few appointments with our fechas and a couple other people. Yesterday we went to Palomar after church which was, as always, very tiring for my comp. I didn't hardly feel it at all. Then we came back and taught our fechas again. So as you can probably all see, most of the work we are doing right now is just getting our investigators ready for their baptism this Friday. I'm VERY excited to marry and baptize another part member couple. 

Today we went to Tukuru to have our pday which was fun. First I saw my convert, Alma. She is doing well and told me she is really active right now in church and has a calling which made me really happy. I guess she had gone through some hard times and wasn't going very much to church. Then we played some soccer there with a few of my converts and with some of the other youth that I knew in Tukuru. They are all doing well and are still active at church.  After that Elder Dilworth and I went to go and say goodbye to a few families (E. Dilworth came to Tukuru in my place when I left and was there for 7 and a half months so we knew a lot of the same families.) I got to see a couple of people that I didn't see in the district conference in Saqsuha 3 months ago. And I got to see my convert, Brenda, who, from what I've heard, has been fairly inactive with her family. It was good to see her family because I really love her mom and dad a lot. They are great people. The dad is still active but the mom says her leg hurts too much to go and Brenda is going to go to a police acadamy to be a police officer where she won't be able to go to church for 6 months...but I encouraged her to keep trying to go to church and told her that I would pray for her. It was good but kind of sad to have the reality hit me that next week I won't be here anymore...But the excitement of being home again outweighs the sadness! I am ready and excited for another phase of life. 

ON TO THE BAGGY!
hahaha I really can't even describe how baggy I am right now thinking about the fact that next week I will be home. Next week we'll start our vacation. There's still a little bit of time before I'll see you all again, but when you think about it it's really nothing at all. It's NEXT WEEK! It seems to weird to be true. But it is!

Questions that I have before I forget:1) Mom, what ever happened with me supposedly going to speak at the post office lady's church? I've been thinking about that lately and I think it would be a great opportunity and would like you to find out what you can and let me know what you find out please? :)2) Speaking of speaking, am I going to have an assigned topic for my homecoming talk or do I pick my own topic?3) I think it might be good to go to the Chiropractor too...walking up and down mountains with a mildy heavy backpack, alyways having to slouch to get into people's houses, and sleeping on cruddy beds for 2 years hasn't been the best on my back.

Ok I think those are most of the important questions. Here are some comments:-I'm SUPER excited for our vacation. Hope dad doesn't fall in Fall River (or me for that matter. haha just kidding.) -haha I can't even remember what the whole "those were elk" thing was about. -I'm also VERY excited about my phone. It will be good to be able to leave my number with some people. So If anyone starts calling and asking for me and they are Q'eqchi' just say "mawa'o laj Elder Norton. Toj maji' nachal arin." haha and it will be good. And don't worry about distributing my number to single girls in the ward. I'll take care of that. -Horseback ride to a steak dinner and back sounds awesome.-About the massage:  an hour long massage sounds heavenly. -Yes definintely much better to have just the fam at the airport. I just didn't know how the airport scene normally goes. -As for the open house Saturday: I think that's fine. I don't know if any high school friends could come..you'd have to invite everyone now.  But for church friends definitely yeah. And yes to Mark, Jordan, and my combined open house the 12th. That will be cool. What day does Jordan leave exactly? I really want to hang out with him before he goes.-About money, sorry if I'm spending a lot dad but there are a few more things that I want to get as recuerdos for the fam from Guate so I might use whatever money is left over for that. I also have to print out a lot of photos still to give to people which is a little bit expensive. But I'll let you know next week when I write about anything else.

ALRIGHT well folks, this will most likely be the last time that I really write all that much. If I say too much next week I won't have much to tell you when I see you. All I know is that I will see you all NEXT WEEK!!

Love you all tons,Elder Norton