Some impressions that I felt- I need to be aware of the path up the mountain that I still have to climb, but I should always look down to see how far I've already come which will give me the strength to keep going. (I don't have my notes with me so I don't know who gave that talk..) I also learned a lot about personal revelation from Sister Thompson which is something that I really needed to learn. I loved President Eyring's talk about being converted as well. Elder Callister's talk was great because I've used the "dot and line" example a lot here in the mission. But most of all I loved President Monson's talks about prayer and listening and following the Spirit. I loved the simple examples that he used, especially about when he felt to call on the brother to speak that wasn't even in the meeting. I really want to develop that kind of relationship and trust with the Spirit of the Lord so that even when it's illogical, even when I don't see how it would even work, that I can just have the faith to follow without hesitation and trust in the Lord. I felt a lot of inspiration about our indentity as children of our Heavenly Father and how strong our relationship can be with him through prayer and scripture study.
So now, I need to keep reviewing and studying what I learned and felt during the conference and need to start applying it into my missionary work and into my life. I was praying for all of you during the conference so that you would all receive the messages that God had for each of you. I kept thinking about all of you during the talks that could help each of you out and prayed that you would learn from the Spirit. I know that the Lord helped to answer that prayer and I'm thankful that I have a family that puts so much importance on the words of the prophets. I just love you guys!
Well, this week has been BUSY. Definitely the busiest of the mish so far. It started out with a division that we started Tuesday. I went to a place called Val Paraíso which is in the same district as Tactic and is about 5 minutes away from there. It is PURE poqomchi' there so it kind of made me jealous that I never got to serve there to learn the language. But I was really surprised how much I learned/ rememberd from Poqomchi. All of the people were all surprised when I could carry on little conversations with them. The elders there have to have a translator with them when they go to certain areas because they don't speak spanish. So I really liked it a lot. But it made me think about the Polochik which made me homesick for the mountains of Yalijux. Anyways, we ended on Wednesday and I went back to Salama. We had to plan Wednesday for some presentations that we had to do during two district conferences that President Watts and the assistants came to. Thursday we had a conference from 11:30 until around 4:30 and only had the chance to get one lesson in that night. Friday we had the other conference from 9:30 until around..3:00 but then we all went to go eat lunch and didn't end up getting back to the house until around 4:30. Then we had the conference all weekend long. So we didn't actually work all that much in terms of teaching lessons. BUT, we were able to get the two girls, Gilsa and Nieve, that we had baptismal dates with before, to go to the conference on Saturday and Sunday! And because of that we were able to put another baptismal date with them for the 22nd. We also had another girl come to the conference who is a friend of Leticia who we baptized a few weeks ago. So that was cool. Her friend is cool and has some good questions, but she scares me sometimes...She told me the other day to tell her when I finished my mission...and that she liked the way I talked...but I have on the armor of God so that her fiery darts won't pierce me. (we watched that seminary video like twice in the past couple of weeks haha.) Anyways, it has been a busy week. And tomorrow we're going to Guate for the zone leader conference with President Watts. I'm excited for the conference and the food, but not for the travel and the time. I was supposed to have my suit ready for today, but I didn't pay any down payment so when I called him today he says he won't finish until I give him some money. (even though he told me it would be fine if I just paid him all at once today..that's Guat for you.) So hopefully soon. But I was meaning to tell you guys- dad, you told me that you saw that I took out the money for the suit, but I still hadn't taken anything out at that point. Today I took out the money for the suit. So I don't know what that's about. Hopefully no one's stealing from my account...
Anyways, I'm glad you guys all had a good week and weekend. Now for some personal comments:
Mom- hahaha loved all of the pictures. Thanks for keeping me close to your heart...or at least an image of me. The pictures were kind of dark though. Are they pictures from your iphone? or maybe your ipad? Speaking of technology I really liked Elder Bednar's talk about family history work. It made me want to start doing family history work! I also thought about how my patriarchal blessing says some stuff about that. So get some stuff prepared for me so that when I get home I can get started! I was really excited to hear about the new Provo Temple too! I was completely surprised as well since I sang it the Provo Tabernacle a couple years ago and I would never have thought that it could ever be a temple or anything. But cool because now there are 2 temples to go to for us BYU students! Speaking of temples I'm excited for the KC temple! I wish I could be there for the dedication. I'm praying for some kind of delay... :) Thanks for all you do and for your prayers for me. I pray for you and love you more than you can know!
Dad- hey dad! glad you enjoyed your birthday week long reign. I was thinking about you on Friday especially and praying for you to have a good day. But man, conference is probably the best gift ever for your birthday weekend! Did you like the priesthood session? I really liked Elder Holland's talk and a lot of others too. I hope Jack paid attention to some of the things said! I miss priesthood session with you. Looking back on things, I wish I hadn't been so stupid in choosing a dance over going to priesthood session with you! But, there will be many more priesthood sessions together with all of us kids and you to come. I was especially thinking about you when Sister Dalton spoke. It also made me think about me being a dad someday. Yikes! Although after the conference I got to thinking about out of all the girls that I know at this point in my life. Out of all of the girls that I know right now, I'm convinced that the only one I could actually see myself marry, the one who would be the best wife spiritually and who I would be happy with..would be ...(Not to be revealed on this blog : ) BUT, don't get me wrong. There are a lot of girls that I still have to meet and date. Any new insights about the old testament? I want to start finding the jewels of truth that Elder Scott talked about in his talk! Love you dad and I'm praying for you. (ps- a mission would be awesome! but always be prepared for the unexpected...like being a mission president! I was thinking about how you would be a great mission president with mom! :) love ya ) (Mike and I laughed at this comment!)
Alright times up! Love you guys all tons and can't wait to hear from ALL of you again next week :) Love you all tons!
Elder Norton
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