Yo Estuve Enfermo

Familia!!! 


Que tal?  First of all I just want to say that I miss you all and I think about how awesome you all are every day. Ok. So this past week was a little bit rough for me because yo estuve enfermo! (I was sick) Saturday night I woke up in the middle of the night and got really sick and was sick all of Sunday and Monday.  I am pretty much fully recovered now though. Suffice it to say I'm pretty sure that was the sickest I've ever been! (And I get sick a lot =P)  But anyways, Elder Glenn was really great though.  I woke him up that night that I got really sick and he gave me a blessing with my other roommate, Elder Wadsworth, and stayed up with me all night and then stayed in the room with me almost all of Sunday and fasted for me.  I am really grateful to have such a super companion that takes care of me and is just really nice to me. He really is awesome and I'm glad to have him as a companion. By Monday, most of the bad stuff was gone, but I was just too weak to go do anything. There were actually quite a few other elders here in the CCM that got sick with the same thing and so there were a couple other Latino Elders that are good friends of mine that stayed in sick with me on Monday and I talked to them and we just laid in our beds talking which was fun to do.  I was pretty mad though because my district went proselyting in the central park in Guatemala city on Monday and because I was too weak, I didn't get to go!  I was pretty upset that I missed that.  But everyone said that it was a ton of fun and that all of the people here are really nice, for the most part, and will talk to you even if they aren't remotely interested in the church they are still really nice to you.  So I'm pretty excited for that.  When I was sick all of my Latino hermanos came in and made sure I was ok and asked if they could do anything and talked to me and gave me a ton of support so it was just really neat to see all of them coming to help me out and being my friend when I needed them. My gringo companions and friends were really supportive too and the Elders in my district gave me a card so that was really nice.  And I was given gatorade and crackers and soup while I was sick, so I was well taken care of.  So don't worry about a thing.  And I feel great now and I know the Lord is giving me strength daily, physically and spiritually. 


Next week will be fun and sad because all of the Latinos will be leaving on Monday to go out into the field, and none of them are going to Ciudad Norte, so I won't see any of them for a couple years. But we're all giving each other emails and facebook so we can keep in touch and I can come visit them when I come back and do a tour of Central America in a few years (hopefully!) But then we get to go on our little tour and go into the city, to the market, a museum, and a few other places so I'm really excited for that!  I've already gotten some cool stuff here, mostly just a few covers for my scriptures and  a bag.  I already got something for McKinzie and for Jack too so I'll hopefully send you a package right before I leave the CCM!  Our teacher said that we should probably bring about $100 and I'm pretty much out of quetzales as it is right now, so I just want to make sure  that if I go on Monday I will be able to take out about $100 from an ATM.   I'm pretty sure I can, I just want to double check. 


Last night we had a fireside with Elder Clark who is the area president here in Central America. He started speaking and he was talking about learning Spanish and he asked "who here thinks it's easy to learn Spanish?" and nobody said anything. Then all of the sudden one of the elders from my district who's going to my mission (Elder Tolley) yelled out "Elder Norton!" and I immediately turned bright red and tried to hide, but Elder Clark said "Where's Elder Norton?" I was too scared to answer but he asked probably about 4 times, so finally I raised my hand and he made me come up to the front of the room and was giving me a hard time and saying we coulnd't all be like me and stuff so I was thoroughly embarrassed. Then throughout his entire talk he kept singling me out!  Haha, it was funny and embarrassing at the same time. He'd say "who here has read preach my gospel all the way through?" and I haven't yet, so he pointed at me and said "you should have read through it already since Spanish is easy for you!" which was funny, but also kind of made me feel a little bad that I haven't read it through it all the way. So I'm going to read through it all now, haha.  But at the end he talked to me and told me he was just joking around and he didn't mean any offense or anything so it was funny. 


I'm glad to hear Sister Beatty is doing better, but I'm worried about Brother Stevenson. I'll be sure to keep him in my prayers and remember him and his family. Keep me updated on how that goes please mother! Thanks for all of your emails!! I really love them. And thanks to everyone that has written me dearelder.com letters here and in Provo. I really appreciate them and can feel all of your love and support and prayers in my behalf. So thank you very much for that. Mom- I'm glad you liked the pictures! I tried to take a lot for you! Here I haven't taken as many because we're only allowed to take pictures on Pday, so I'll make sure to take as many as I can though and send it along with my package. I especially designed the boy band picture, haha so I'm glad you enjoyed that. Elder Meyer is one of the first people I've ever met that is actually skinnier than me. He doesn't look that young in person haha but he is great. Dad- thanks for your email and your advice. I really love how you always give me advice that relates to scriptures and stuff and it really helps me. So please keep doing that! I definitely agree that just showing my love for Guate and the people will have the same effect and help me to get to the hearts of the people here.  They all have great hearts here. We got to talk to some people at the temple a few days ago and they are all so friendly and humble and kind.  You can tell when you look in their eyes that they have a great capacity for love. Well, I only have a few minutes left, but I want you all to know that I know without a doubt that this church is true. The more I teach and study, the more the Spirit bears witness to my heart that this work is true and that Jesus Christ lives and that this is His Church. I'm so excited to get out into the field and get to work. I hope to hear from some of you soon and I love you all!!  


Con mucho amor, Elder Norton