A Close Call Fall in Tambayal

Hola querido familia mia! Ma sa sa' lee ch'ool?

I hope you are all doing well and that you are having fun together! I'm glad that you got all of my letters and my pictures too and that you guys enjoyed all of that. It's not much, but I thought I ought to at least do something special for you for Christmas. So I'm glad those got to you and everything. Also, I got my packages! I am so excited for them and thank you so much for sending them and for being such great supportive parents. I just got them today so I haven't opened them yet, but I'm sure that I will love what's inside. :) Well Elder Wixom's parent's took a video and some photos of me to send to you guys so I wonder why you haven't gotten them yet. They're probably just as busy as you guys with their son coming home too. So hopefully you can get that soon so you can have a video of me to watch. I'm glad that you liked all of the pictures I sent. Tucuru is beautiful huh? I love it here a lot. I told you that it's so mountainous! But really pretty everywhere. I will try and send you some pictures to show you how dusty it is here too. I really love the families here too. They are really diverse though. Some people live in concrete houses and are fairly well off, and others live in huts and have nothing. Then there are some people that live in huts with satellite tv. So yeah it's pretty diverse here, and my area is really big so that's part of it too. But regardless, everyone here lives a simple life. The husbands usually work and the rest of the family just stays at home and kids are always walking out in the streets, lighting firecrackers and playing soccer all the time. It seems kind of boring compared to the kind of lifestyle that we have in the states, but the people here are all generally happy and just live their lives. Sometimes I think I would like more of a lifestyle like that. The thing that I really like about some of the families here is that they all live close to each other. They are always doing things together and they go to church together, some of them, and just things like that. I definitely want that for us! We should just all live in Kansas and do fun stuff together with all of our families all of the time. That's what I'm planning on doing at least. =P

Wow time is passing by really quickly here! This change has been going by so fast it's almost hard to believe! I thought for sure it would be a really slow change, but the Lord is definitely helping me out a lot and helping me to work hard and to keep having a positive attitude here in Tucuru. Elder Lopez is still my companion and therefore didn't have an emergency change. Although, up until Thursday he was really worried that he would have an emergency change. But apparently the ZL's told President Torres everything I told them and I guess that it's not time for Elder Lopez to leave yet. I guess maybe one of the safest spots for Elder Lopez to be is with me since I guess President Torres knows now that he can trust me to keep my leaders informed on things he does. And Elder Lopez has changed a little bit I guess. So I'll just have to keep being a good example to him and keeping an eye on him to make sure that he doesn't do anything that he regrets. But in all honesty, he needs to not be here. He's told me a lot that he doesn't want to be here anyways, and because of that he doesn't study Q'eqchi' at all and just tries to study English. He said that he was going to tell President Torres at the Christmas conference that he doesn't want to be here anymore. So I guess we'll see if he's still here next change. But other that that, things are going pretty well here. The work continues to go on, and things are going really well with our investigators. Familia Rax is going to be baptized this Saturday hopefully! They were only waiting on their paperwork to be able to get married, and we got all of their paperwork this last week, so now all they have to do is get married! The only problem is that she's a minor and therefore she has to have a witness, or someone who's responsible for her in order to be able to get married. Her family abandoned her and she's been living with a member in our ward for some time now, so we're hoping that this Sister that she's been living with can be her guardian. So hopefully we'll have their baptism this Saturday! Other than that we have a lot of youth that are investigating the church pretty seriously right now. We have one 13 year old boy named Ubando whose family was investigating the church 11 years ago supposedly, but stopped because they were offended by a member. But he's awesome and treats us like kings every time we come over. He will hopefully get baptized really soon, we just have to figure out what else we have to do with him. Then we have an 18 year old girl named Alma who has come to church twice and asked us when she can get baptized. We've only taught her twice though, so we have to teach her a lot more, but hopefully she can get baptized soon too. Then we have Gilberto and his brother Carlos who I think I already explained their situation. Their dad has 7 wives that all live in the same house, so they are going to probably have to wait a while and come to church a LOT before president Torres authorizes us to baptize them.

The highlighting cool experience this week happened in a place called Tambayal which is up on a big mountain basically. There is a pretty nice little path that goes up to Tambayal, but it's super steep and pretty long. The path goes up in a zig zag pattern so that it's not quite as steep. It had been raining earlier inthe day and with all of the mud and everything the path was extremely slippery. We made it to the top without any problems and talked with a family there and had a good lesson with them. Then on the way down, I was walking normally and came to a particularly slippery patch on the path. I started to slide and couldn't stop myself and so I veered off into what I thought was just a little patch of grass off the the left. It turned out that the little patch that I thought was grass was really just some weeds and rocks. So I tripped on one of the rocks there and started to fall as if I was going to start rolling. I knew that where I was falling was where the path dropped off onto the path underneath and was abouth a 4 foot fall at least. So as I fell I tried to stop my self by grabbing some of the weeds which of course just ripped out. I really have no idea what happened, but somehow I came out of the roll and landed on my feet on the path below without a scratch. So I called it my "close call fall in Tambayal" which I thought was kind of clever.  It was actually kind of fun haha. (Xintane' sa' Tambayal = I fell down in Tambayal.)  Elder Lopez saw the whole thing happen and told me that I was really lucky because I shouldn't have landed on my feet in the first place, and if I hadn't I would have kept going off the steep incline just a couple feet away. So I knew that the Lord had protected me and kept me completely and perfectly safe. And it makes for a good story haha.

What did you guys think ofthe Christmas devotional last night? I really liked it a lot, even though I only got to watch it in Spanish, it was still really meaningful and there was a lot of awesome things in it. I liked a lot how they related the Christmas season to the restoration of the Gospel, and how Christmas should be a time where we think about the birth of our Savior, but also the restoration of His church. I liked how President Uchtdorf talked about how we need to remember Christ's life, and then obey his commandments all the more especially in this season. Love was definitely a central theme and is something that is so true. We have to have love to have Christ's spirit, which is the spirit of Christmas. Think a lot about the things in the devotional and apply them as a family and I promsie you'll have a fun and spirit filled Christmas (even though I'm not there mom =P)

Kinzie- I read your patriarchal blessing and WOW it was cool! You really are really special (and not just in the way that Dad means that when he tells you that =P) but of course I didn't need to read your blessing to know your potential. Remember that your blessing isn't so much who you are right now, but more who you have the potential to become with the Lord's help. Always work hard to be the person in your blessing. Always read your blessing and follow every thing written in it with exactness and you'll be so blessed. Love you!:)

Jack- Hey bud I heard you tried out for A Midsummer Night's Dream in your school! That's awesome. Whatever part you get, you'll be awesome and steal the show. Good luck and let me know when you find out your part. What do you want for Christmas this year? What are you going to ask for from Santa *wink wink* =P Write me an email when you have some time, I'd love you hear from you an Kinzie both.

Matt- how's home life? Heard you have been house sitting for Hayley? Lucky you, that's the best job in the world. Make sure you're keeping your mission habits up and don't just play video games all the time! Help mom out for me as much as possible with Christmas stuff. She needs some help this year. Serve her and others as much as you can while you're home and you'll have a really good experience this Christmas. I love you bro and I can't wait to room with you in BYU!

Dad- Thanks for all of your advice about Elder Lopez and everything. When at first I was deciding on whether or not I needed to tell some one, I thought about what you would do, or what you would say if I asked you what I should do. So thanks for being the kind of Dad that has raised me right in everything. I really can't thank you enough for helping me to be who I am and for wanting to be obedient like you. You're the best. Make sure to root hard for BYU basketball for me and let me know how old Jimmer is doing. You better have a pretty good workout plan lined up old man =P I want to go on some cool bike rides with all of you when I get back.

Mom- I miss you a ton too especially during this time of year! Everytime I listen to my Christmas music I miss you a lot and think about you! Especially songs that we sang in ward choir! Thanks for helping me have great Christmas memories with you. Even though I won't be there this year, you will all have a really fun Christmas. It sounds like you're really busy with everything, but just worry more about the Spirit of the season and providing service for others and spreading love, and then the real spirit of Christmas, the Spirit of Christ will come and help all of you to have an awesome Christmas. Decorating and presents and everything else will come, don't worry. Thanks so much for my packages and don't even worry about little mistakes, it's all fine :) You're the best mom and I love you!

Well I'm out of time, but I sure love all of you guys and miss you tons. Even though I won't be there for Christmas, just remember that I'm thinking about you and that I'm spreading the knowledge and joy that comes from a knowledge of Christ's life. I love you guys and I'll talk to you all soon!! Can't wait!

Love,
Elder Norton
Loq'laj Kaqi wiinq

 

People Are So Poor, They Don't Eat Anything on Sunday So They Can Come to Church

All of these kids came running up to us when we got to Vina Roz.  It was awesome

These kids in Chulac really wanted us to take a picture with them.

Me and my city, Tucuru, from up above.  

The dirtiest I have ever been!

My shirt was surprisingly dirty.

No idea how that happened!

The clothes of a hard working missionary!

Hola mi familia!  Como estan todos?  I love and miss you all tons!  I hope everyone is doing really well and that you are all happy and having fun with life.  (As much as is reasonable without me at least : )  I hope you like all of the pictures.  Well, I've had a good change here and its gone by really fast.  If every change gets faster and faster, I'll be done before I even realize it.  I love Tucuru a lot.  Its really a great place and I love the people here.  I'm excited to stay here for a while and really help out this little branch here.  It's weird how much of a difference the little things make.  You don't know how important home and visiting teachers are until you don't have them.  I never really realized how lucky we are to have such a great ward in Kansas.  Some people here have to come from really far away.  A lot of the people are so poor that they don't eat anything on Sunday so that they can come to church.  They have to pay for rides to church, so they can't buy food.  There are some people here that literally don't have an income, and yet they pay tithing every week, and more than 10% too. Its just been really easy to take everything I had back in the states for granted and coming down here I've realized how important every little thing in the church is.  We really are blessed.  So keep that in mind!

I've never done so much walking in my life ever!  I wish I could show you on google earth how far we walk on an average day.  My legs are seriously going to be "molten lava-hard" when I get home.  And Tucuru is really mountainous all over.  There's never a day when we're not climbing up, then going back down good sized mountains.  But like I said, my legs will be in great shape.  Speaking of health, I'm pretty sure I'm gaining weight.  I don't have a scale or anything, but just by looking I'm pretty sure that I am. (We all laughed at this because he looks as skinny as ever in his pictures!)  All of the walking we do makes me extremely hungry and I'm usually never full.  I'm not going to lie, I eat a lot of junk food.  I buy a lot of chips and cookies, and corn tortillas also supposedly make you gain weight.  So maybe I'll be normal sized when I get home!

The lessons we teach are always fun.  People usually give us something to eat when we go, or something to drink. They always share what little they have. Our schedule is a bit different than missionaries in other parts of the world.  It gets dark really early here, so by about 6:00 it's night time, so we don't take an hour for dinner at 6 and we work until usually about 8:00 and then go in for dinner.  We have had a lot of lessons in the dark here because no one (Q'eqchis) usually has any bright light, just little oil lamps or fires is all.  It's also a bit difficult because so many people here don't know how to read.  More people know how to read Spanish, but not very many people can read Q'eqchi.  So its a lot harder to use the scriptures as much with a lot of people, but I don't think that's a good excuse to not use them.  I need to try harder to use the scriptures, especially The Book of Mormon more during lessons.  Now, when its dark AND they don't know how to read, then its pretty hard.  But its great.  I really love it here.  Q'eqchi is going pretty well.  I know the Lord is really helping so much with this language.  There are some days where I get really discouraged and feel like I don't know Spanish or Q'eqchi.  But I know the Lord is helping me learn Q'eqchi and I'm understanding a lot more now.  I still have troule speaking, but I just have to put in my part to really be able to speak well.  

So just for your information, I'll give you a little Q'eqchi lesson.  With Q'eqchi there isn't any kind of verb that means "to be".  That verb is just implied with the adjectives you use.  So for example, the word for "I" in Q'eqchi is "La in" (Lah-een), but it also means "I am".  This is where it gets kind of weird.  The word for man is "Wiinq" (kweenq - the Q is like making a k sound but back in the throat as if you did it with your mouth really wide open.)  So, in Q'eqchi to say "I am a man" you would say "wiinqin"- the "in" at the end of the word is a pronoun that they attach to the end of the word to indicate the verb "to be".  Pretty crazy huh?  Its a tough concept to handle since in both English and Spanish there is a verb for "to be".   

Alright family, I love you all tons.  I think about you and pray for you all the time. Thanks for being such an awesome family and for being such a great support for me. I miss you!  Chexrosob'tesi li qachoxahil Yuwa'  (May our Heavenly Father bless all of you).  Nekexinrah chi anchal inch'ool (I love all of you with all of my heart).  Itexwil sa' jun may po! (See you all in 20 months!)

Con mucho amor,

Lee ralal junelik,

Laj Elder Norton

What I Would Give to Have Just One Slice of Apple Pie Right Now!

Hey family! Chan xeeril? (how did you watch yourselves?)

How are all of you doing? Sounds like from your emails that you are all doing really great.

Ok so let me talk more now about the actual work I'm doing since I haven't told you all very much about that. This week was not very good in terms of the work because of what's been going on and because Elder Lopez was sick. But generally things are going really well! We have 3 youth that we are working with to get baptized that all want to be baptized. They are Carlos, 14 years old, Gilberto, 17 years old, and Yasmin, 21 years old. There's just one tiny little problem: their dad has 7 wives. So they live in a house where the dad lives with 7 other women all in the same place. We talked to President Torres about this and because they live in a place where the Spirit can't be, it's going to take longer for them to get baptized and he is going to have to come and interview them and their parents in order for them to be baptized. And they have to all be baptized at once or not at all is the deal. 

Then we also have Carlos and Yuli Rax. They are a funny couple and are really ready for baptism. Neither of them speaks Spanish as their maternal language but she doesn't speak Q'eqchi', so they have to speak in Spanish to each other. Honestly they are very simple people with very simple minds. We have to teach them like little children because they just don't understand things very well, but they have really strong faith and really want to get baptized. They have been investigating the church since before I came here but haven't been able to get baptized because they haven't been able to get married yet. Here you have to take your identification papers out from a civil registry to get married and she is only 14 so she's a minor. To make things worse she didn't really know her full name or her birthday for sure, so we had to guess on some things to be able to take her papers out. But we were able to go to the civil registry and work things out with them. So the plan is to get her papers on Thursday and from there we're going to see how soon we can get them married and baptized! We think definitely in the next month or so, maybe even next week. So that's pretty exciting. 

With Elder Lopez, we've mostly only worked in the center and in the playa which is close to the center and where most of the people speak Spanish. We haven't been teaching hardly at all in Q'eqchi' even when the people understand Q'eqchi' better which isn't good. Elder Lopez says that he would rather just teach in Spanish, so I'm going to try really hard to help with that so we can teach more in Q'eqchi'. This past week our branch president was made district president (like stake president, only for branches) and we got a new branch president. Our new president is really great and has already given us references and I can tell that he is going to help us out a ton. So I'm excited to get to work with him. We have a ton of inactive families here. There are about 500 members here and only about 70 come to church, so we're going to work hard to try and reactivate some of the families here. I promised one less active family that if they came to church 4 times in a row I'd make them a cake. They have 3 times coming to church in a row, so I'm getting a little nervous because I have no idea how to make a cake. Looks Like I'll have to get the help of a member here haha!

Q'eqchi' is coming along really really well. This past week I've learned a ton of Q'eqchi'. I started reading Lix Hu Laj Mormon and tinxtenq'a chi tzolok lie q'eqchi' (it will help me to learn Q'eqchi'.) It takes forever to read because I analyze everything grammatically and try and figure out what everything says literally and what it means and I have to look words up all the time. But It's really helped me a ton. I write down all of the words I don't know that aren't in the dictionary in my little notebook and I write all of the things that I want to know down and I've been having members help me figure out what they mean and how to say things. This week I've really felt like I've learned a ton and I feel like already I can talk more and can say more things. There is truly a power in the Book of Mormon with languages that I can feel.

Well it sounds like you all had a fun Thanksgiving. Glad to hear that Harry Potter wasn't a disaster like the last one. I can't tell you what I would give to have just one slice of apple pie right now. I would give a LOT. I'm sorry I wasn't there to help you finish off the pies. It's crazy that Christmas is coming up so soon right? I'm excited for Christmas here even though it will be hard without you, the members are great and I know that they'll take good care of me. I think that my packages are already both here so I should get them by next week at the latest. I haven't read kinzie's patriarchal blessing yet but I am going to print it off and read it today. Same with Matt's talk actually. Sounds like Matt gave an awesome talk and long too! Haha way to go Matt. And let me know how FF 13 is haha. And Kinzie, Dad told me about the "waldo rapist" stroy haha. I think you were thinking of the "where's waldo rapist" which is completely different haha =P.  (There is an area of Kansas City called Waldo, and they have been trying to catch a rapist there.  McKinzie thought that he was called the Waldo rapist because they were having such a hard time catching him, just like Where's Waldo.  We all got a good laugh out of that!)

Well shoot, I'm pretty much out of time, but I really love and miss all of you. Thank you so much for your support and your love that I feel every week. I couldn't do what I do here without you to lift me up and keep me going. I love you all tons and I'm so thankful for a family that is so strong in the Gospel. I can't wait to talk to you all in a month! Love you all tons!

Love,

Elder Norton

Loq'laj Kaqi Wiinq

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey Family!! Happy Thanksgiving!!

How are all of you?? Thanks for all of your great emails that I got. I always feel so uplifted and supported when I read all of your emails and your testimonies and insights strengthen me so much. So thank you. I want you to know that I am thankful for all of you. Every day I thank my Heavenly Father for you and for the love and support that I feel from you and for all of the happiness that you all have given me. I really can't express very well over an email how much I am truly thankful for you, but just know that the thing that gives me the most happiness is thinking about living with all of you forever with our Heavenly Father. I know that we are going to be together forever if we just stay on the path that we're already on. You all have such strong testimonies of this gospel and I know that as a family we will all be able to make it through this life and move on to eternal happiness and blessings in the next. I want you all to know that I know this church is true. It is the only completely true and living church on the face of the earth and I am so thankful that we are a part of it. I know with all the feelings of my heart that this church is the church of Jesus Christ. I'm thankful for the innumerable blessings that we have received from our Heavenly Father and for all of His tender mercies that He has given us. Just thinking about things like our car accident and all of the miracles that happened in that moment and all of the tender mercies that we have had since then, I can't thank the Lord enough for his mercy, protection and love. I'm thankful for Jesus Christ. I have come to know more now than I ever have before His love for me and for all of us. I know that he has already paid the price for us to be able to repent. I know that he has suffered every thing that we have suffered or felt or will suffer or feel. He is truly our kind, loving, and perfect friend. I know that he has mighty power to heal and to forgive, and I have personally felt that power in my life.

It sounds like all of you are doing really great which makes me really happy. I want you to know that I'm doing really great too. Things are hard at times of course, but the hardest times are the times when you know the Savior best a lot of the times I think. As I was walking one day in the heat, I was suffering pretty badly. I was thinking about how the sun is supposed to represent the Savior and I thought "That metaphor doesn't fit in this case. I can see the sun right now, but I'm suffering a lot and so it doesn't fit." But the Lord taught me something that I needed to learn. Many times, the times when we see the "sun" are the times when it's hottest. Our trials and afflictions and temptations are what help us look to the Son more, and we are cleansed and made pure through the "furnace of afflictions."

That's awesome about Kinzie's patriarchal blessing! I really wish I could have been there! For sure send me a copy of her blessing so I can read it. I just want to tell you Kinzie how proud I feel of you. Thank you for your email that you sent me, it really meant a lot to me. As your older brother, I want you to know that I love you and I am proud of the decisions you have made to follow the Lord and I'm so proud of your strong testimony that I could feel in your letter to me. Keep doing what you're doing. You sound like you are doing absolutely great with seminary and with school and with the church. I know that the promises you recieved in your blessing are real and that like you said, they are based on your righteousness. Just like the Liahona in the Book of Mormon, the things in your patriarchal blessing only work according to your faith and your dilligence. Always strive to be righteous and to keep improving yourself to become more like the Savior. I'm so glad that I've been able to do something right and that I've been able to have somewhat of a good influence on you. Always try to think of what the Savior would do. =) I love you Kinzie.

Jack- hey buddy I just wanted to write you really quickly and let you know I love you. I hope you're doing well and that you are having fun in school and everything still. As you prepare to receive the priesthood in a couple of months try your best to think about how big of a responsibility it is to hold such a powerful and sacred gift. The priesthood is power from God that he gives to us to do things in his name, and to do things that he wants us to do. John the baptist had this same power when he baptized Jesus. So just remember how important this will be in your life and try to make decisions so that you'll always be worthy to hold this gift. Try now to follow the Spirit. Follow what you feel is right in your heart. Kind of like your conscience. Never do anything that you don't feel in your heart is right, even if your friends do or if you want to. Keep up your good work hermanito :) Love you.

Mom- you are the best! I am really excited for my 2 packages that you sent. I was at a district conference yesterday and talked to Sister Torres who told me that you had written her to ask her about sedning me things. She told me that she could tell that I had an awesome mom who really cared about me and supported me. I told her she was right :) You are really the best and you are so thoughtful. I'm thankful for your guidance and love that you have given me all of my life and for your choices to follow the Lord and his example. Hopefully I'll get my packages in a couple of weeks at our Christmas conference. If not I don't know when I'll get them. Be sure to make some especially delicious pies for me this year. And don't worry, I think Matt will be able to cover my share of the pies pretty easily. Love you mom! :)

Dad- Thanks for your advice about companions. I have a feeling that I'm going to need that advice soon. I am so thankful for the best example and Dad I could ever have. You're the best dad. I love you so much!

Well sorry but I'm out of time and I have to go, but I love you so much!!! Happy Thanksgiving! I'll talk to you all soon!!

Love,
Elder Norton

Little By Little I'm Learning Q'eqchi

Lin junkab'al! Ma sa sa' eech'ool?

Well another week has passed here in the Polochic and I am into my second change here in the mission. My new companion is a latino from El Salvador. Elder Lopez xk'ab'a. He is super friendly and a really nice guy. He's a convert to the church and is the only member in his family, so I have a lot of respect for him because of that. Things are a little different than they were with Elder Wixom in better and in worse ways. I feel good about our companionship though and I feel like we are going to work well together. It's a little difficult though because I'm still not used to talking in Spanish all of the time. But I'm getting used to that pretty quickly. I don't understand near as much when it's not about the Gospel haha. Elder Lopez isn't quite as worried about being really obedient and things like that, so I'm just going to have to try my best to be a good example for him and show him love to help him. He was in the Polochic 8 months ago for 3 changes but got transferred to coban and then to the cap. So he learned a little bit of Q'eqchi', but he's forgotten a lot. He can understand a little more than me and I can talk a little more than him. So for now it's working out ok. But I really feel pressure and motivation to really learn Q'eqchi' and really devote all of the time I have to learning it, so hopefully I'll be able to learn a little quicker now. During the week I was on divisions with Elder Gutierrez and we got along really well. He speaks Q'eqchi' really well so I took him up to San Jose concepción where Elder Wixom and I had a lot of lessons and contacts and everything. We didn't have nearly as much success when we went up there. There weren't that many people there and all of the kids just followed us around and made fun of us and annoyed us. The problem is that there is a church up there and people don't want to have to walk all the way down to the center just to go to church on Sunday, so they just go to the church up there. If we had a church building up there I know we could baptize at least half of the aldea. So hopefully someday that will happen. There are tons of areas like that in my area. Our area is so big and has so many aldeas and hardly any of the people that live in those aldeas will progress because going to church is so hard. So I think that I need to really focus my efforts on the parts closer to the center and strengthen our branch so that the church can grow here. We had a ton of people at church yesterday which was good. We had 80 people there which is about 20 more than we would have on a good day. Part of that though was that Elder Wixom was coming back to visit. With all of the people we wanted to come to church I told them that it would be their last chance to see Elder Wixom, and it worked with some people haha. It was actually kind of hard to see him with his parents there at church because, well, first of all it made me think of you guys picking Matt up and secondly it made me think of when you will come to pick me up. And I refuse to be baggy when I only have 4 months! But it was cool to see them and everything. I gave Elder Wixom a little package to send home to you guys once he gets home. It's not much just my pictures from this last change and then letters for everyone. Also his parents took some pictures and I gave them your email so that they can send everything to you. So you should be getting an email with some pictures from them soon. And they also took a little video of me to send to you guys so hopefully Matt will be able to help you guys open that and watch it. This week was a pretty good week though all in all. The only bad thing is that we haven't gone out to work in the morning since Wednesday. Thursday when Elder Lopez came to Tucurú he said he had to wake up at 4 in the morning and that he was really tired so he was going to take a little nap. Well he ended up sleeping until after lunch almost, so that was kind of lame. Then Friday we had to do our weekly planning session in the morning since we didn't get to Thursday. Saturday we had service that took all morning. And tomorrow we are going to have service all morning too. So I'm excited to be able to actually go out and work in the morning. Things are a little more challenging than before now. I'm the one who has to plan and keep track of our dats and things like that. So that's a little bit hard because I still feel like I don't know the area too well. But I can feel even more the Lord's hand helping us and guiding us to where we need to be. And Q'eqchi' is still really hard, but timil timil yookin chi tzolok li Q'eqchi'. (little by little I'm learning Q'eqchi')

Elder Jordan Smith did get transferred to the Polochic, and as a matter of fact he is in my district. He's a really cool elder and I'm excited to get to know him better and everything. He's really nice so we already get along really well. Plus we're both the new ones to Q'eqchi' and everything so we can relate. He's in a pure Q'eqchi' area and it's really mountainous there too so I'm sure it's difficult. But I can already tell that he'll do really well and that he'll work hard to get the language. So yeah it's fun to be in a district with him and everything.

Well I'm really happy that Matt is home and transitioning really well and enjoying his time with all of you guys. I'm glad that Kinzie and Jack haven't killed him yet. (just kidding!) I'm happy to hear he hasn't changed too much from his old self and I hope that he won't change too much from his old self in the next 2 years. I'm also mad that he didn't write me! Now that he has all the time in the world to write and doesn't have any kind of time limits the least he could do is drop me a line! Just kidding Matt I'm sure between Mom, Dad, and the kids, they are all keeping you busy. I hope you're having fun and enjoying the cold weather there in Kansas! I'm going to DIE when I have to go back to being in cold weather again. Matt, you should open a facebook account so you can socialize more! Mom and Kinzie can show you how to use it!

Well it's really hard for me to not be there with all of you guys, but I know I'm here for the right reasons and that time is just going to fly by now that Matt is home. So Don't worry I'll be home before you know it! I love all of you so much and I can't wait to get to talk to you all for Christmas. Sorry that I didn't get to write all of you more individually, but next time I will for sure! Nekexinrah chi anchal inch'ool. 


Love you!

Elder Norton

A Great Week in the Polochic!

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

Things are Going Really Well For Me Down Here in Guate

Hola familia! How are all of  you? I'm sure you're all really baggy about Matt coming home next week! Haha  that's so awesome and really weird for me. It's hard to believe I haven't seen him for so long. And even harder to believe that I won't see him for another 2 years. You need to all have an extra fun time with him for me and let me know how everything goes.

Well I'm here in El Estor today for pday with my district and our neighboring district. The other district was going to El Estor, and since we just have us and the hermanas we decided to go too. So once again we left yesterday and went to Teleman to stay with the ZL's. We've stayed at  their house the past 3 sundays in a row! But it's fun to get to be around some of the other Elders. They really are great and I love all of them. Anyways, this morning we came up to El Estor and we are going to spend the day here. It's a really nice area of the Polochic and is in the valley so it's pretty hot here. It's probably not all that nice to you americans, but it is way nice for me haha. I don't know it very well because we just barely got here, but it seems really cool. But things are going really well for me down here in Guat. Elder Wixom is preparing to go home and everything so it's kind of fun because it makes me think of Matt going home. We talked yesterday and he told me that for the first 4 weeks of the change he was kind of mad and upset that he's going home and so he was saying he didn't have the best beginning 4 weeks but now he's accepted the fact that he's going home and is a lot happier. So that's good. We're planning on having our best week this last week of the change and are going to work really hard. And no, he's not related to her, only Elder Rasband.

Ok so let me just get out some things that I need to tell all of you first.

For my Christmas package there were a couple things that I thought of that I would like. I really want a frisbee actually because soccer and basketball are banned here, but ultimate isn't so I need one to be able to play a fun sport. You can just get one from Walmart or  something just make sure that it's an ultimate disc not a cheapo kind please :) Also I'm dying for some American candy, especially Starburst and Swedish fish. And that's all I can think of.


Now I should probably let you all know more about the shooting and everything about that. I'm pretty sure that we weren't actually very close to being in any danger. Some people told us that the shooting happened right after we left, but it really happened more like an hour after we left. So no need to worry, it really is safe where we are. No one is 100% sure why the shooting happened, but we think it might have to do with something one of the sons did. Apparently he went to the capital and got involved with some gangs there or something and brought some of  his problems back with him. I guess that he got beat up really bad by them a while ago and things like that, so some people think it's because of that. But really the shooting was probably just to try and scare them. I don't think that they were actually trying to hit anyone. But they two girls are fine. They were both back home after a couple of days and are doing great. The girl that got hit in the ribs  is doing better than the other girl. The bullet isn't in her side and she can walk and everything. The other girl still has both of the bullets in her: one in her knee and one in her hip. The doctors didn't take them out because, well this is Guatemala and the doctors here do things differently than in the states. So the only thing to worry about is infection. She can't walk because of her knee, but she can move her knee ok which means that she will be fine eventually. Thanks for all of your prayers and thoughts in their behalf. The thing we are worried about now is keeping them in the church. They were already pretty inactive in the church when we started working with them and now because of this they probably won't go to church at all for a while. (Q'eqchi's are really weird about stuff like this. for example: if someone has a baby, they believe that they shouldn't go out of the house for 40 days, even for church.) Plus with all of the excitement of what happened, every church in all of Tucuru has been sending pastors and members to "pray" over them and things like that. Their way of praying over them is to all start praying at the same time outloud and yelling their prayers. The pastors and their members usually don't even say anything, they just repeat the name of the Savior and just say weird things. Some Jehovah's Witness missionaries are visiting them a lot and are teaching one of their youngest girls. We're a litle worried about her getting confused and being led away, so we're trying to help her out.

Ok so now that that's out, let me give some shout outs:

Mom- you're awesome! Thanks for being an awesome mom. I haven't gotten my pacakge yet but  I should be getting it next week when we go to the capital so I'm very excited to get it!  I actually have been trying lately to try and stand up straigter. So there =P  Pero timil timil junelik. Q'eqchi' is going ok. I don't feel nearly as lost as I did when I first got here. I can usually always tell what they are talking about now and I can pick out words that I know usually, at least when Elder Wixom is speaking.) I'm still not really able to teach in Q'eqchi', all I can do is read things out of the preach my gospel that I have in Q'eqchi' and read scriptures and things. I have the pronounciation (I think that's the word in English, but I can only think of the word in Spanish, pronunciaciòn haha) down pretty well I think. I can read things pretty well, and Elder Wixom said that I can read better than he can. So that helps that I'm getting the basics of that. But I still can't speak at all. I'm just now starting to understand how to use the verbs. Conjugating verbs is a LOT harder to do in Q'eqchi' than Spanish and is different, so it's hard, but I have a few cheat sheets to help me out with that. I'm glad you got to see the pictures of Zone conference! I see Elder Hexom all of the time because he's in the neighboring district so I get to talk to him all of the time. He's an awesome Elder and he's from Pennsylvania so we talked about how Dad served there. 

Dad- don't worry things are really safe and everything is great! Yeah I'm a little bit worried about my next change. It might be really hard because it's possible that my next comp won't speak Q'eqchi' very well either, but I guess I have no idea. There's one Elder that a lot of the elders here think will be my new companion. But we'll see. I will for sure be the one who knows the area and will have to take a little more responsibility with setting appointments and know where to go and things like that, so that will be challenging. But I think that that will be the best way to learn and to grow. Even if my new comp doesn't know Q'eqchi', it will make me learn a lot quicker I think, so I will just go with whatever the Lord wants me to do. But I for sure will remember to be patient and humble about everything. Thanks for your awesome advice and also for your great example. You are my role model and my hero. Thanks for being an awesome dad. And for the camera I'm not sure about the price or anything. I would like to have a decent camera that takes good pictures because everything here is so beautiful. I want to have good quality pictures to look back on. So I think it will probably be between 100 and 150. I'll look around though and let you all know.

Matt- I saw Naruto in Spanish the other day in a little store and thought it was really funny and thought of you haha. Love you bro, you are going to adjust just fine and are going to love BYU and everything. Just always remember what's really important in life and remember the Lord always. I know you'll do great things. I can't wait to be back there with you and to be able to hang out together. Work hard your last week and make it your best week of your change! Thanks for being such a good example to me. Love you!

Ok well all of my time is up now so unfortunately I have to go. I'll try to tell you more about the actual work I'm doing next week and I think I'll send some hand written letters home sometime soon. But keep staying strong in the faith! Read scriptures every night and pray together always! I know that you're already doing that. :) Good luck with everything back home. I love you all tons and I can't wait to talk to you on the phone pretty soon! Love you all! Nekexinrah!!

Loq laj kaki winq
Elder Norton