Ooooh!
(This is the sound we make when we are standing outside of someone's
house. Kind of like an owl haha. Speaking of owl, just a fun fact
Tucurù comes from the words Tukur and u which mean owl and face, so
Tucurù is supposed to mean face of the owl.)
Well I am feeling really, really weird right now. I can hardly beleive
that Matt is done. The parallels between Matt and Elder Wixom have
made it even weirder for me too. The same kinds of things happened
with Elder Wixom. People loved him a lot and they all gave him food
and gave him shoutouts in their testimonies in church and everything.
I feel so proud of Matt that he has made such a profound impact on so
many people and that he has grown so much. I can just feel from your
descriptions that he is in the best shape of his whole life. I'm so
proud to have him as my brother and right now I miss him more than
ever. I wish more than anything that I could be there with you all to
pick him up and I feel sa ut ra sa' inch'ool (happiness and pain in my
heart). I'm so happy for him but it's so hard to not be able to be
there with you guys. But I'm more happy than I am sad haha. I'm
excited for him to be home with everyone! Be sure that you guys have
an extra fun time in Cali for me ok?
Alright well, I'm actually not in the capital. They made some changes
and so I just stayed here in the Polochic and am on divisions with
Elder Gutierrez whose companion is also going home. So I have all of
that money that I took out but no camera to buy. I heard that I can
just talk to Sister Torres and have her pick one up for me or
something like that. So I'll figure that out. I got my package today
because we are in Telemàn with the ZLs again. Thank you so much! I am
so excited to be able to eat real american candy haha! The junior
mints are kind of a mess though haha. But as always mom, your clever
and creative packaging and labels never cease to amaze me. So thanks.
:)
Regarding changes: So I'm definitely staying in Tucurù and my second
trainer is supposedly going to be Elder Howard which makes me really
excited! We don't know for sure, but he is supposed to be my new
compa. He's been in the Polochic for something like 7 months or
something like that and is a really fun elder. He is an AMAZING artist
and has really funny stories haha. So if it's him I'm really excited
for my next change with him. I'm a little nervous because I have to
take on a lot more responsibility for the area now since I'll be the
one that knows more about the area. But I'm going to rely on the
Lord's help and we're going to have a really great change. He is
really good about studying for Q'eqchi' and has made some verb charts
and things like that that a lot of elders use, including me. So I'm
excited for that, but I'll let you guys know for sure what happens
next week!
This past week was the best week of our change. We worked the hardest
this last week that we ever have. We had 131% animo, which is
basically a standardized statistic to show how well elders are using
their time. Elder Wixom says that he's never seen anyone get over
115%, so I guess we broke a record somewhere probably. So it was a
really great week.
We were working in an area called San Julian which is pretty far up to
the west on a mountain. Basically all of our appointments fell for the
day until 6 at night, so we had about 3 hours of time where we didn't
have anything to do. Elder Wixom had heard that there was an aldea
called San Jose-Concepciòn somewhere fairly close to where we were, so
he asked how long it took to get there. They all told us about 20
minutes, so we decided to go up there and check it out. An hour and 20
minutes later we got to San Jose-conception. It took forever!! We
walked up the steepest and longest road I've ever walked on and it was
raining pretty consistently and everything. We were up in the clouds
and so we couldn't see anything basically, so we kept thinking that
"maybe it's just around this turn" and we didn't turn back. We found
out that missionaries had never been up there before and were able to
spend about 10 minutes there contacting before we had to go back. To
give you an idea of how hard it was, when we got to the top and it was
still raining, I was literally steaming, and it wasn't cold. That was
last Friday I think. So then this week we told them we'd come back. So
we left early one morning to go up again. This time was much harder
than the last time. It was really sunny and really hot and I forgot to
bring water with me so I was dying! But the rewards were sweet. We
taught 8 lessons, had 25 new investigators, and had 67 contacts in 4
hours! It was crazy. So that is what really boosted our animo so much.
So it was a great week. The people in Tucurù really loved Elder Wixom
even though he was only here 3 months. Members fed us all day Sunday
to honor Elder Wixom, and one family went all the way to Coban to
pick him up a pizza on Saturday night. It was really cool to see and
inspired me to work really hard here and gain the confidence and trust
of the members and nonmembers here to have the same kind of love and
confidence that Elder Wixom had.
Alright well the only other thing that I can think of that I need to
say is that I definitely need a family picture as soon as Matt gets
home. And also some pictures of the house because people always ask to
see that here. And I was wondering if you could get that picture that
Siter Cockriel took for the ward bulletin that one time of all of us
and send that to me? I want one of all of you without me and then one
with me :)
Matt- well I figure you'll have more time now to read my "mass email"
and since you won't be using your other email now, I'll just give you
a shoutout here. You talked with people who were from Guat?? That's
awesome! I have to find Guat people when I come back so I can talk to
them about this great country haha. Do you know if they spoke another
language or anything? Thanks for your advice about the Testigos and
about their family. We're going to just keep showing them love and go
by the spirit to keep them in the church and to help them out as best
as we can. Well, I'm so proud of you bro for your hard work and
service. From what Mom and Dad told me I know that you gained the
hearts of the people in California and that you were such an influence
for good there and throughout your mission. I can't tell you how proud
that makes me feel of you and how happy I am for you. I know that your
testimony has grown so much and that you have changed a lot on your
mission. Thanks for being such a great example and thanks for your
dedication to the Lord. I love you and can't wait for when I get to
see you in 2 years. Don't worry about the transition back into the
real world. You'll do great. DATE LOTS OF GIRLS. At BYU its pretty
easy haha. Have a fun time there and just keep the habits you've made
on your mission to keep growing and serving the Lord. We will swap
mission stories in 2 years! Love you bro.
Alright, well my time is up, so I've got to go now. But I love all of
you tons. Have fun in California and let me know about all of the
things you guys do together. Thanks again for the package and for all
of your support. I love you guys!!!
nekexinrah chian yal inch'ool,
Laj Elder Norton
No comments:
Post a Comment