First of all, you might notice that all of the exclamation points in my email will be upside down and that's just because the key for the regular exclamation point doesn't work on my computer..so instead of not using any and having a boring email, I'll just put them in upsdie down.
How is everyone doing these days? I hope you guys are all in good health and happy in spite of BYU's loss. and KU's loss too I guess.. Oh well, life goes on¡ I just want them to do well when I get home. That's awesome about the KC temple too¡ That makes me excited to be able to come home and go to the temple with EVERYONE since Jack is old enough now too¡ We need to do some family history work too and go to the temple and do work for some of our ancestors. That will be a lot of fun.
Alright, well this past week was pretty lame I have to admit. We didn't get back up to Yalijux until Thursday night again. We had to take up two big box springs to go underneath our beds up in Yalijux and so we were a little late getting to the place where the cars going to Yalijux leave on Tuesdays. We only ended up finding a car that took us to San Francisco where we waited for a car, but nothing came. We stayed there Wednesday and waited and nothing came still. So finally we decided just to leave the darn things in San Francisco and just walk up to Yalijux. To add insult to injury, right when we got to Yalijux, a car was also coming in from Senahu that we could have taken us with our box springs and gotten to Yalijux the same time. So that was pretty lame. We were with the Elders from Chijolom who were working in San Francisco, so we weren't completely alone, but it was slightly boring. Friday we went to San Antonio las Puertas to visit the family that lives there who are members. It's about an hour's walk completely uphill if you walk fast. So we went there all day and found a new family there and were able to contact a lot of people and find some potential new investigators and things like that which was good. Then Saturday we had our weekly planning which took out the morning and around 4 we went to go to a meeting of a bunch of church members in a less active member's house. So we didn't really have a ton of time to work which was kind of lame. And this week will be General Conference which means we will have to come down on Friday. But I love General Conference, so I'm ok with that.
So we didn't get to do a ton of working, but I did have a neat experience. While we were waiting in San Francisco I decided to read the new Liahona that I had just gotten. I read one article about a family in Puerta Rica who were trapped in a flood and about how they all prayed to be saved from the flood. I thought it was a cool story and was thinking about it when all of the sudden I started thinking about when we got in our car accident. I had forgotten a little bit of what had happened, but I'm really glad now that the Lord helped me to remember exactly what happened because it was an experience that looking back now has helped me out a lot. I remember that we got in the accident and Mom jumping out of the car and all of that stuff and I remember being really scared and confused. I was only 11 years old, and to make things worse, as you guys know I was a huge worry wart about everything. But I remember a lady coming to the window to help us out of the car. She told me to come over to the window and she would help me out. I told her to wait and that I wanted to say a prayer first. So we all said a prayer and I thanked God for His Son, Jesus Christ and for everything He had given us. Then, I desperately asked Him to please help us so that we would be ok. Looking back now at all of the blessings that the Lord gave me personally and to us as a family, I know that God answers prayers. For someone who was such a worry wart and who always was afraid of dying and weird things like that, once we had all gotten out of the car and the ambulances started coming, I was unusually calm and didn't really feel scared. I didn't think too much about it in the moment, but looking back now I know that the Lord blessed me with His Spirit to help calm me down and comfort me. Not to mention the miracles that we witnessed too-- the first highway patrolman on the scene was a faithful member of the church. He was able to call his Stake President who sent one of his counselors to the hospital we were at. I remember the stake presidency member's wife, or at least I think it was, who stood by where I was strapped down waiting for exams and everything and how she talked to me and kept me company. Not to mention that everyone in our family was ok in the end, even though Dad and Matt had fairly serious injuries. The whole experience was a miracle for our family and I had forgotten a little bit how important that experience was for our family. Looking and thinking back on that experience, there's no way I can doubt that God answers prayers. Sometimes I have prayed to God to feel confirmation of His love or the truthfulness of this church, and have felt at times like I haven't exactly felt an answer. But when I think of this experience I can't doubt that God is there, that this is His church with real priesthood power, and that He loves and watches over me. Now I truly understand what the Lord meant when he said to Oliver Cowdrey that he needed to think back on the time when the Lord had already answered his prayer. I need to let go of day to day doubts or fears and think back to experiences like this one to 'know that the Lord is God, and be not afraid.' So that's just a thought for all of us to consider and to be thankful for continually.
Alright now on to your questions a little bit:
Dad- hahaha I laughed so hard about your Q'eqchi' words that you added to your email¡ I didn't know that 'sik' meant paralyzed, but thankfully Elder Larsen was next to me to tell me haha. He told me ' man, your dad is hilarious¡' haha so thanks dad. I love you for being the kind of dad to do stuff like that. Nakatinrah chi anchal inch'ool, at inyuwa. Thanks for being a fun dad. Haha and thanks for all of the bloopers, they were pretty dang funny. Stinks that you didn't get to go to the temple to see them put up Moroni, but that's still cool about how the temple is progressing. Too bad about BYU, but oh well they had a good season again. So here's just a random question that I had been thinking about. Terry Sexton was in the marines right? I was just curious as to what he did like if he went to a military school before entering, how much time he served and just stuff like that. I don't know why, I was just thinking about random stuff like that when I was waiting in San Francisco. How's bicycling coming? I'm going to start working out as much as possible every day so I won't be so dang skinny when I get back haha. Love you dad¡
Mom- hey¡ Thanks for the email. I know you're bummed about BYU losing but I'm just glad that my family is cool enough to be so into college basketball. Tell McKinzie that I'm sorry if her bracket didn't work out haha but she should keep doing it to be cool. Sounds fun about the Relief Society brithday party thing. I'll be watching General Conference here in Senahu and I guess I could watch it in whatever language I want, but I think I'll choose English. They will have a room for Spanish, and room for Q'eqchi', and a room for English for the missionaries, so I'll watch it in English. But my last conference I think I might try and watch it in Q'eqchi'. As for the pillows, there's actually a pillow up in Yalijux that I've been using and I left the pillows you sent me in Senahu where I sleep Mondays since there's no pillows there. In San Francisco I just use blankets or a hammock for my pillow haha and it works out. I don't have to sleep there too often though so don't worry. I have had the opportunity to sing in special musical numbers in pretty much all of the zone conferences that we've had and I got to direct the hymns when Elder Martino came, but other than that I haven't done anything especially not solos or anything like that. But it's better that way haha. As for my birthday package the only thing I can think of that I really want is the perfect pushup things and a bungee workout cord thing with handles so I can workout better. I need to work out a lot and I want to do it consistently haha. Other than that, and other than an ipad, anything you send me would be fine haha. but PICTURES would be nice. I want a whole bunch to show to other missionaries and all of the people. So send me a bunch please.
Alright, well my time is up, but I love you all tons and I hope you all have a really spiritual week as you get ready for General Conference this week. I know it will be an awesome spiritual experience¡ Make sure to tell me what you thought of the conference next week. Love you guys tons¡
Love,
Elder Norton
No comments:
Post a Comment