A Fun Day in Se'muq Champey

HELLO!

Hope you aren't all as tired as I am today!

This morning we woke up at 3 in the morning to head out for a zone activity to these cool pools of water called "Se'muq Champey". We were waiting outside the zone leader's house at 3:30 for the big cow truck to come and take us all up to the place. We waited and looked for 2 hours and finally found the guy at 6:00. We headed out on the 3 hour long drive in the back of a big truck used normally for transporting cows or horses (and in Polochik, lots of people...). It was a crazy and fun ride. Most of us rode kind of on the top sides of the truck and since the path we took wasn't the most traveled by, especially by big cow trucks, there were a LOT of branches that were low and we would have to duck and cover our heads with our backpacks to sheild us from the whipping branches of the trees. It was a lot of fun. Once we got there we semi- met up with the 2 other zones that also went today to the same place (Zones Verapaz and Coban). It was good seeing some familiar faces and other elders from my group. I got to see Elder Lemus, my old comp because he is still zone leader in Verapaz. So it was fun seeing him. We went up this pretty steep hike to a "mirador" (look out spot) where we took pictures of the green, cristaline waters. It's a pretty awesome sight. 


While at the top we ran into a couple different groups of people. The first was a group of 4 whiter girls that were speaking in what appeared to us to be German. They asked me to take a picture of them (in English..they spoke English very well almost without hardly any accent) so I took advantage of the opportunity to ask where they were from. I was pretty surpised when they told me they were from Israel. I wouldn't have guessed that I don't think. They were speaking Hebrew but were all fluent in English. I told them that I was going to study Hebrew when I got back because it had a similar structure to Q'eqchi'. They were really friendly and said that I definitely needed to come and see all of the great Christian sites in Jerusalem. So that was pretty cool. After that we found an American couple from Colorado and talked to them for a while too. Anyways, we got some good pics and painfully watched other people swim in these cool pools and then headed back in our cow truck. It was a good time with some good quality talking time with the other elders during the ride and some good laughs. But one thing's for sure, I'm dead tired.

Well, this past week has gone by in the blink of an eye as well. We got a reference of a young man who is brother in law of an ex missionary. We put a baptismal date with him already because he has already been talking with his brother in law for a while. We put the date for August 4th...I don't think I have to explain to you why the thought of that made me pretty baggy.... (he comes home August 2nd!)

Other than that we had a great lesson with Domingo and Rosa. We had the inspiration to talk to them about "True marriage" as instituted by God to Adam and Eve. We explained that when God married them, there was no party, no caldo, no new corte, no inviting friends, no nothing. Just Adam, Eve, and God making a promise to be faithful to each other and keep God's commandments. They took the lesson really well and we taught as well with a member who didn't do anything special or traditional for his wedding. They were pretty convinced and the only question they have now is about what will happen with their personal ID's after getting married. So we're hoping that within the next couple of weeks we'll see another white weekend.

Alright time's almost up. Here's some personal shoutouts:

Mom- haha that's fine with me whatever you want to write on your calander. I'm sorry to hear that your shoulder has been killing you lately. I hope that you start feeling better soon. Speaking of surgery what ever happened to McKinzie and her supposed imminent surgery? Anyways the Q'eqchi' choir has only been published by me and my companion in Saqsuha. It's not too well publicized yet. But don't worry the Q'eqchi's will know. Thanks for always motivating me to keep doing the small things. I'm helping my companion a lot to learn that as well. He's suffering a little bit, but we all do here. I don't like to complain so I usually don't say anything about the heat or the pain or the tiredness. Being here has toughened me up a lot. I think I'll be ready to play lacrosse when I get home as well with Jack now. If not I could probably get into rugby. =P Anyways things are going well. Thanks for all mom. Love you and talk to you next week!

Dad- hey dad hope your case went well with the psycopath lawyers. Too bad that you couldn't schedule in some time to meet with the president. I'm sure he was disappointed not to have been able to see you. I'm sure it will be big news to see who will be the new seminary teacher. You'll have to let me know when they call someone. Yeah Satan always tries to make us prideful huh? But if I ever knew a humble man, it's you dad. I know you won't ever let youself be lifted up to pride. And I know you'll be great in your new calling. As for the NBA I heard about the thunder and the heat. GO THUNDER! Kevin Durant is the man. Root for them for me will ya? Love you dad thanks for all you do. Talk to you next week!

Jack- that's awesome about lacrosse! You are awesome Jack. That will be awesome going to camp at BYU. Have a good time there and keep working at it to get better. Sick jersey and pads. You already look professional. I don't have much time to write right now but I'll try to write me next week. Love you tons bro!

Ok guys, well my time's oficially up. Love you all and I'll let you know next Monday about changes. Take care!

Love you,
Elder Norton

Time Keeps On Slippin'

Hey!

Wow, well I got a lot of emails today from friends and family which is great. So thanks guys for all of the emails and all of the great news.

Well, as the subject titles of this email says, time keeps on slippin'. I feel like this past week was about 7 hours instead of 7 days. Things are just going by way too fast to even comprehend. We had interviews with President Watts which was great. I had a good talk with him about things I need to do to finish the mission strong and to make these last weeks of my mission the best. It was good. And also baggy. But I don't feel hardly baggy at all yet. My companion has been struggling a little bit to keep working hard. He has a hard time with all of the heat and with the walking we do. Yesterday I took him to Palomar where I baptized my convert Alicia and he almost threw up quite a few times haha. Poor guy. But he's got a good heart and he wants to work hard. His mom told him if he lost weight that she would stop smoking (his mom's less active..) so we're working hard to get his "wata" (as they say in Chile) smaller. Q'eqchi' is still hard for him but he's starting to learn more. He just has to pretty much make a fool of himself for the next three months trying to speak and he'll learn quickly. He's just got to speak it even when he doesn't know how to say things and learn that way.

So anyways, things are going well. As far as investigators go, we talked to President Watts about how we need to focus more on those who are ready to progress. It's hard because I love most of our investigator families so darn much. But we're working with the people who are actually ready to be baptized in our time here and letting the others have their time with other missionaries. It's really a hard concept to master to be honest but it's what we have to do as missionaries. We don't forget about them, we just don't focus on them as much. So anyways, Erlinda and Carlos didn't come to church which was sad. They said they they had to go to Teleman because their son was sick but I'm not so sure. The good news is that Rosa, the mom of the three kids that I baptized, is coming to church again and is recovered from her child labor. This Sunday they blessed their baby and officially gave her her name (which they made Elder Escorcia and I choose.) Her name is Sara Dámaris Xol Chub. I picked out the named Sara and my comp picked out Damaris. I tried to name her Susan or Susy as they normally say here and then Kensy after Kinzie, but they didn't like those names very much. So it just ended up being Sara haha. But it was a neat experience to name a baby. Anyways, Rosa and her husband Domingo are thinking about marriage right now and I'm sure they'll get married soon. They are such a great family and I love them TONS.

Alright well that's pretty much it on the info for the week. Let me get some personal comments in now:

Dad- wow that's awesome about the new calling!! That will be such a great opportunity right now because I'm sure there will be a lot more interest in the church in the general Kansas City area with the temple and everything. The Lord put you there for a reason for sure dad. You'll be great. I'm not exactly sure how the high council works in regards to missionary work since well frankly I've never even been in a ward in my mission. But I'm sure it will be fun to work with the missionaries and to take more part in missionary work. Like you've always told me, it's all about listening to the Spirit. I'm sure though that you are just the man for the job and that, just like all of ther other callings you've had, you'll do a great job and bless the lives of a lot of people. I just want to thank you again dad for having taught me so much as my seminary teacher. I wouldn't trade those experiences for anything in the world. The things I learned from you and the testimony that I've always felt as you've taught has been one of the biggest things that helped me to get out here on my mission and has supported me through hard times here. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. Love you dad. Let me know how your new calling goes! Love you!

Mom-well I'll talk about the sad things first to get them out of the way. That's horrible about Cody.  I will pray a lot for him. I really hope that the Lord lets him spend his time in juvenille.  I'll remember Kim and her family in my prayers too. So you said in your email that the stake president wanted to talk to you too? For a minute I thought you were going to get released too! haha. That's exciting about the basement and about Les Mis! I'm very excited to see it with you guys! And yes we'll have to go and plant corn next year! that would be super fun! I'll find out all I can about how to do it and everything and we'll go pure Q'eqchi' style haha! And you'll make caldo!! I would really love that hahaha. We'll have to do it :) Alright well I love you! Another Monday bites the dust!!

Ok guys times up. Love you all tons and I'm so grateful for having the best family I could ever ask for. Thanks for supporting me and for all that you do for me. Write you all next week!!

Love,
Elder Norton

Wib' Po Chik (2 Months Left)

Saludes to everyone from down here in rainy Polochik.

This week has been RAINY. Saturday night was the worst with a big storm that passed through and took the power out for about 15 hours during the night. My companion didn't hear it but I swear that a bolt of lightning hit the house. Nearly scared me to death while I was trying to sleep. My companion's a VERY heavy sleeper though. He usually talks to me or at least someone in his dream all night haha. It's kind of funny. Anyways then yesterday there was another big storm during the night and it rained quite a bit. Today it was HOT and really sunny in the morning while we played soccer but right now it's raining a lot. We went back and played some good old Monopoly where I dominated the board. I'm starting to like Monopoly a lot. It's a fun game.

This week was also a week with lots of "auk" (planting). We went twice to go and plant corn with two members. It's fun the traditions that they have here for when they go to plant seeds. They usually call family members and friends to come and help them. In return for their work the wife of the person that is planting makes a really big "caldo" which is just soup. Here they mostly make soup with chicken (in Yalijux they always made it with beef). Its a soup with a huge chunk of chicken or a huge chunk of cow and lots of tortillas and "poch" which are like tamales of corn dough. They also eat a lot of bean tamales before going out to work, so it is a lot of fun. The first time we went to go plant corn it was on the side of a REALLY steep mountain and we weren't able to do very much. The second time it was completely flat and the guy that we went to plant with made it super organized and measured with a little rope where we had to plant each seed. It was just a little rope that he tied knots in through the whole thing a certain distance apart. So that was fun. I thought to myself "it would be cool to plant corn in Kansas."

Anyways, this Sunday was great because we had 9 investigators come to church! Erlinda, who is the wife of an inactive member named Carlos, came to church with her daughter and her husband too. It made me super happy because I've really come to love that family a lot and they always tell me that they are going to cry when I leave because "they are accustomed to see my face and hear my voice" already. So we went with them on Thursday with a member who is really great and likes to help us. We committed them to come to church on Sunday, they accepted, we went to go get them Sunday morning, and they were already on their way down the mountain. It felt great. We also started teaching a gospel principles class with our mission leader with all of our investigators and it turned out well. We are working a lot with our branch president to start up a new branch mission plan. We are dividing the area into 3 areas and calling members to be coordinators and ward missionaries for each area to direct some family home evenings and "Mormon nights" as they say here. Our branch president says that next week he'll be extending the calls so we're excited to start working with that. This week we are having interviews with President Watts which is always something to look forward too. Not to be too baggy but it will be my last interview with President Watts before my exit interview...

Speaking of baggy, today I officially complete 22 months of being out on the mission. You know what that means. This weekend is possibly the most baggy weekend for me in my whole mission because I have a lot of great memories of family tradtitions, especially Celebration at the Station and Worlds Of Fun. I MISS YOU GUYS! haha ok well the good news is that I will never miss Celebration at the Station with you guys again. I hope it was fun. Send me pictures next week!!

Alright well here are some personal comments:

Dad- haha yeah dad I was actually just thinking about how I miss watching manly Memorial Day movies with you. I didn't really watch too many with you other years but I just thought about how I really wanted to watch some good old fashion war movies with you while eating some Minute Made lemonade popsicle things or Luigi's lemon ice. We'll have to do that with Jack and Matt when I get back. Things are going well with my companion. Honestly learning Q'eqchi¡' just takes time haha. But I really want to leave him knowing Q'eqchi' really well. He just has to put in a LOT of his part now and hopefully he'll be a Q'eqchi' master. WOW..that's pretty ridiculous about the shoving lawyers. You should sue them. Did you tell the guy to "TAKE IT EASY!" (Nacho Libre accent) ? And ok well I guess if you count today as well it would be 10, but I don't count today. So to me 9 Mondays left haha. Alright dad thanks. I love you a lot dad. I'm really excited to have some good fatherly son bonding time when I get back. Love you tons!

Mom- haha I'm glad that the weather was perfect for the concert. I'm super jealous! What a great family tradition. We should make more family traditions!! haha don't worry mom. Your suffering and afflictions will be but a small moment before I get home and we can make secret trips to eat fast food together and escape from the "nasty hobitses". haha. Yes, you'll have to show me all of your new BBC classic movies. I'm excited for that. BUT we have to go out and do lots of fun things too and just spend good old quality time together. That really is stupid that BVN didn't participate in those awards! I could have gotten famous! Oh well I guess fame isn't all it's made out to be. =P Wow. I'm kind of mad that I didn't go to Blue Valley too! It sounds like it is overall a much better school for the things that I liked to do and everything. Oh well. I'll make my kids go there and live out my dreams through them haha. Yeah we are mostly working with people to convince them to get married. It's hard because they just have silly little things that keep them from getting married like "well I want to have money to buy my wife a nice new set of clothes (about Q1000 sometimes)" or "I need money to be able to pay for the transportation for my wife's family to come see the family" or "to make a big meal for everyone". So it's mostly with money. But we just promise blessings and try to help people understand that it really is a grave sin and that if they die in their sins it will be pretty hard to get into heaven. Alright well I love you mom and I can't wait to see you soon!!!!

Alright folks. Time is up on yet another Monday. Thanks for the emails and for all of your prayers and support. Love you all!! WIB' PO CHIK! (2 months left)

Elder Norton

Ch'ina Kub'iha' - A Little Baptism

Hello!

Sounds like you are all doing well and enjoying the last of the school year. Things here are going pretty well. We had a little baptism (ch'ina kub'iha') last Saturday of Reyna (the daughter or less active parents) and another little boy who just turned 8. It was a low key baptism and pretty much only about 30-ish people came to see. I baptized both of them which was neat and lots of fun. So that was nice. Both of them were confirmed yesterday. Other than that we found a new family that looks like they might be some great possibilities. They don't go to any church right now and before they used to go to the Catholic Church. The dad knows a member from a nearby branch that used to take him to church with him sometimes when they were younger. We've taught them twice now and we have another appointment Tuesday, so please pray for them. We also found another inactive family that just barely came back to Church for the first time in a while a couple of weeks ago for the District Conference. They have a little daughter that is 9 years old that wants to get baptized, so we put a baptismal date with her for next month. Her name is Yessica. We also are teaching a girl named Margarita. Her husband (or I should say future husband since they aren't married yet) is a member and his family are all pretty active in the church. We talked to them and he told us that he is decided on getting married in June, which means that Margarita should be able to get baptized next month. We are also still working with Rosa, the mother of the 3 kids that I baptized with elder Escorcia. She is recovering pretty well from child labor and we are hoping to help them get married by the end of next month or the beginning of July. Please pray for her that she'll be able to recover rapidly. That's a little summary on who we're teaching right now. There are a lot of people here that we need to visit and it's actually getting kind of difficult to visit all of them. But things are going really well.

Today we all got together here in Teleman (me and my comp, the elders from Panzos, the elders from Canlun, and the zone leaders) where we played soccer on the little soccer/basketball court at the Church. It was pretty intense playing. We played 2 games and both teams won once so we played a third tie-breaker game. The last game we played to five. It was tied at 4-4 and was pretty intense. I ended up scoring the winning goal which was fun haha. It was a lot of fun but pretty tiring. We played for about 3 hours almost. One of the elders that was playing on my team actually threw up because he was so tired. He's fine now though haha. Then we all went and played pool and Monopoly at this little hotel place with a pool table. So it's been a really fun p-day to say the least.

Well that's pretty much all I've got to say. Things are going well and the work is still moving on. My companion is learning Q'eqchi' pretty well. It's a lot harder that I thought to teach someone Q'eqchi'. It's hard for me to remember that he doesn't understand anything that we say when we speak Q'eqchi'. He struggles a little bit in the lessons even though I translate for him everything that is going on. It's just hard to keep the "flow" going. But I'm working with him to be able to teach small parts of the lessons in Q'eqchi' even if it's just reading things from Preach My Gospel or the scriptures. He's still excited about learning it though which is the most important.

Alright here's some quick comments:

Dad- ok first of all, if you are going to be baggy with writing the numbers next to your emails, you have to put the right number. I will be writing you 10 more times after today. just fyi =P Thanks for finding the creative writing class. I think I should be able to get in by the time school starts. I'll figure things out a little more the month before I go into school. YIKES! I'm really excited though to be back out at BYU. It really is a great place. It will be a ton of fun being there again. My only question now is about food. When I first went to BYU I can't remember the name of the plan I got but I remember that it was probably a lot more money than I need. I'm so used to eating pasta, beans and eggs that I could probably live off of pretty cheap food haha. So let me know about that will ya? How's work going for you lately? still pretty busy/ stressed? Any biking these days? Thanks for the sports update. I'm excited when we can talk more sports in person. I might have to get you into soccer!! Well love you dad, thanks for all you do. See you soon!!!

Mom- hey mom! First of all, thanks for writing E. Escorcia. I know it really means a lot to him. He's a great elder. Sounds like you are having a good time in the new temple! That's great that you are contributing to the temple. I read the talk from Elder Bednar recently about doing family history work and I really feel like I need to do a lot of family history work while I'm at home to keep me active and busy in good works and keep me from falling back into laziness/ old habits. So let's become intense family history nuts! :) That's exciting about getting the basement back and the new popcorn machine haha. It will be fun watching movies down there with the fam. (speaking of which when we went to go play pool there was a tv there and we happened to walk in right on a little preview thing on The Avengers...I'll just say I'm very excited to see it. it looks SICK. haha. ok enough of that.) That's a cool story about a little miracle. Little miracles are the best because they really help us to understand how much Heavenly Father loves us and how much he really cares enough to provide those little tender mercies just to show us that he cares. Heavenly Father is the best! As for your question about the youth, we have a good 15-25 youth that come pretty normally to church. We have usually been the ones to teach Sunday School for the youth but we are going to be changing that soon so we can teach a Gospel Principles class. They are good youth for the most part. They have seminary once a week but they don't show up a lot of the time. Wisconsin sounds good to me with a quick little pit stop in Chicago. I would be totally fine with that. Let me know any other ideas. Love you tons mom. Thanks for everything!

Alrighty well thanks for the emails. Love you all and can't wait to see you soon. Keep strong in the faith and low on the bagginess =P.

CHI SEEB' TINCHALQ!

Elder Norton

Good Talking to Y'all!

The Polochik Zone

HELLO!

Well guys it was greating talking to y'all yesterday! I have to admit that it made me SUPER BAGGY for the rest of that day. But I'm back to work and it's hard work that we're going to be doing, so don't worry. I'm really excited for this new change with my new companion. He's really fun and we get along really, really well. He may be my best companion of my whole mission. His mom is less active and has some problems with the Word of Wisdom, his older brother doesn't believe in God, and his sister just barely got reactivated into the church. His dad passed away a while ago it seems like. So I respect him a lot for being out here and he's a really hard working and motivated missionary. We're ready to work hard and we even found him a cool nickname in Q'eqchi' which is "laj sak'a" which means "the hard worker". I feel good about being a "dad" and it's fun to train someone in Q'eqchi'. It's kind of hard because it just doesn't occur to me that sometimes my companion has no idea what's going on at all. But it will be good and I'm really excited for this opportunity. 

Elder Norton and Elder Salazar

I also met today an Elder Hansen from Sandy, Utah. I found out that he went to the same high school as Mark Johnson (home of the Beat Diggers) and that he was probably in the same seminary class as him. He doesn't exactly remember, just the name, but he says that it sounds familiar. I think Mark's sister is two years younger than him so he might know Mark's sister. So that was just an interesting little thing that happened.

My district for these last two changes will be us and then Canlun and Panzos which are probably the hardest 2 areas in Polochik right now. Canlun is just starting to pick up a little bit in terms of assistance and everything. Panzos has about 14 active members and they are having a lot of problems right now. So it's my job to oversee things a little bit and work with the elders to help the areas out. We have a really great district and I'm mostly just really super excited to be with Elder Dilworth in the same district. Even though we both entered the Polochik together, we haven't ever been in the same district and have never really had hardly any time at all to hang out and talk together. But in spite of that we're really good friends. We just have a bond I guess you could call it from both being born in the Polochik. So I'm excited to hang out with him more.

Some quick personal stuff:

Mom-I'm super jealous for Memorial Day! It's actually the time of the year that I miss you guys most just for the traditions that we've always had as a family. Especially Celebration at the Station. I really love that event and I'm glad that this will be the last time that I miss it. But tradtitions make everything funner. It's really weird that the kids are finishing this schoolyear already. You know what that means...anyways that's exciting about the temple. I am fine with going to the temple when I get back.  I think that would be awesome! I'm not sure if I'll have to renew my temple recomend right when I get home or a little bit after but I can get that taken care of. I plan on going to the temple very often during the time that I'm home. I will need it to keep the same spirituality with me until I can get up to BYU. I also want to do some family history work while I'm there too. So set that up for me will you! :) Love you tons mom, thanks for everything.

Dad- thanks dad it was great talking to you too. I'm excited to hang out with you again. haha it was really funny what you said about Grandpa Jack wanting to write a book. Sounds kind of like me in a lot of ways haha. Sounds like the red hair wasn't the only thing I got from him. I want to learn moe about him and about his life. Does he have more journal entries and stuff that I can read when I get back? Anyways yeah please look up a creative writing class for me will you? I really think it could be a possibility. But then what would I major in? English? Linguistics? There's still time to figure all that stuff out. I guess really you don't have to have a degree to write books. You just have to do it and write stories interesting enough to sell. Anwyays we'll see. Who knows. Yeah don't worry dad, it's pretty much inevitable. I just have to use them for all of the right reasons and not let myself get attached to them in anyway. But I'm honestly excited for the new technology. It will be handy for classes and everything. That'll be a pretty big change in calling for you I guess huh? Maybe you'll work with the young men? Or knowing you, you'll probably get called to be in the stake presidency. Who do you think will be the new seminary teacher? Is Sister Hirschi going to still be teaching/ helping out? Well let me know. Love you tons dad, thanks for all you do for me.

Well guys not too much else to say for now. I don't think there's anything that I forgot to say. I'm excited for the new chapter in life that I'll be starting. Keep strong in the faith and low on the baggy! Love you all tons!

Elder Norton

Phone Call This Week!

Elder Norton with his birthday package!  He turns 21 on May 10th.

Hey guys!!

Wow, sounds like an awesome weekend. (This weekend was the Kansas City Temple Cultural Celebration and Dedication.) I thought a lot about you guys and wanted to be there with you. But I'm sure that it was an awesome experience and we'll all be able to go when I get back. Good job to Kinzie and Jack for representing our stake! I wasn't able to watch the video but I saw the photos so that's awesome. Good job and enjoy the temple these next 3 months.

First of all before I forget, thanks for the package!!! I got it this past week and have already started to enjoy the nillas, the nutella, the Swedish fish and Sour Patch Watermelons. (And of course the cake, the toothbrush, and the Nike Elite socks- thanks Jack :)  So thanks guys. You are the best. Oh and LOVE the tie haha. It's super great.

Other important info for this week: we got changes last night and E. Escorcia has a change which means I'll be getting a new comp. I won't be training though so it looks like I'll never have a "kid" in the mission. But I'm hoping that I can train someone at least in the Chik. Elder Ware got a change to Coban which is going to be super sad. He's the only Elder that got changed out of the chik. So that means that one new person will be entering into the Chik and I guess it's possible that the new person could come with me. But whatever the case the odds are looking like I'll probably be getting another Latino elder. I was kind of hoping for a Gringo because I feel like I'd be able to help him more to learn Q'eqchi', but I'd be ok with a Latino too. Whatever happens it will be good.

This past week was a pretty good week. We found a new family that accepted a baptismal date the first appointment which was cool. We came back the next day and taught again and they said they were going to come to church the next day. They didn't end up coming and we think it's because the pastor from the church below his house (who happens to be our branch president's brother) went and talked him out of it...so that was kind of lame. But we're going to go back this week and see if we can't get them back on track. We've also got Reina who is a 9 year old daughter of less active parents. They have been coming to church recently with all of their kids so they are doing well and Reina is on track to get baptized the 19th of May. Juana, our other investigator who hasn't gotten baptized because she and her husband haven't gotten married. We're still reading the Book of Mormon with them but it's still hard to get her husband to want to get married. We also found another new family of a man who's been sick for a few weeks and all of the churches in the entire village are going to his house and praying and trying to get him to come to their church. So we're seeing if we can help out and teach his family the Gospel.

Alright well I won't say too much else because we'll be talking on the phone soon anyways :) I'm actually not exactly sure how things are going to work out for the phone call...we actually don't currently have a phone...haha. But we'll either borrow a phone from other missionaries or from a member or someone here in Saqsuha. It's pretty certain that I'll be calling Sunday. I think what I'll end up doing is calling you guys to set things up on Wednesday since I'll be in Teleman with the ZLs waiting for my new companion. So we'll plan on that. I'll call Wednesday to set things up and then I'll plan on having you call me on Sunday. So make sure you get your phone card or whatever figured out so we can talk!!! Hopefully the service and everything will be good.

Well, thanks for the emails and for your thoughts and comments. Love you all tons and I appreciate all you do. Can't wait to talk to you all soon!!!!!!!!!

Elder Norton

Oxib' Po Chik

Well,

Last Saturday I hit 21 months of being in my mission. It's hard sometimes because I can see the end coming. Sometimes I get discrouaged because I feel like I haven't changed as much as I need to and I don't have very much time left to be able to do it. But I know that the mission is just the beginning of a lifetime's worth of changes. The mission in the MTC of life, right? So I've still got a long ways to go. But at the same time I feel sometimes like my weaknesses are still pretty weak. I was hoping that my weaknesses would become strength, but right now it pretty much feels the same. Change is hard! But I'm not giving up. That's what the gospel is all about. Everyone has to change and be born again. For some of us it takes a lot of falling down and getting back up and falling down again to make the change. But the point of the Gospel is that you can get back up and you can keep going. The difference between those who make it to heaven and those who don't is that the ones that make it to heaven get back up when they fall and keep going. The ones who don't make it are the ones that fall down, accept the fall as their destiny and then allow themselves to keep falling without trying to stop. Like when I fell in the river. I took a bad step that led me to fall and be sucked into a tube and shot out the other side. When I came to and realized what had happened I knew that I had fallen and felt the pain of falling, but I didn't say "Well, I guess I might as well keep going down the river since I've already fallen."  I held on and sat still waiting for the help I needed and calling out to be rescued. If I had just let myselft keep going I would have fallen down a waterfall to my death. What I'm getting at is that that is the miracle of the Gospel and of Christ's love. No matter how many times we fall into the river, if we hold on and call out for help, Jesus Christ always comes to pull us out. That's why He's the Savior. So I'm not giving up even when I've fallen so many times in the same river. At the same time, you can't just jump in the river and say "Well, I know He'll save me". That's like driving your car off a cliff saying "Well, I know there's a hospital and doctors that can save my life if I do this!"  It's just life. It's hard but we just have to not give up, seek the help we need from those that can help us, and keep moving on. The hardest part is that there are times in life where we have to cross the river and we do take a bad step and get sucked in. But I love the words from the hymn "How Firm a Foundation" in Spanish. I'm not sure if they are the same in English. They say:

Y cuando torrentes tengáis que pasar, (and when you have to pass over the rapids)
los ríos del mal no os pueden turbar, (the rivers of evil cannot disturb you)
pues yo las tormentas podré aplacar, (because I will be able to calm the storms)
salvando mis santos, salvando mis santos, (saving my saints, saving my saints)
salvando mis santos de todo pesar (saving my saints from all sorrow)

Well, I guess I kind of poured out my soul a little bit there but that's what I felt to write. Hopefully it can help some of you as much as it helps me.

Alright well my times almost up. Here's some quick shoutouts

Kinzie- GREAT JOB!! On your ACT score! Wow that's awesome! Looks like you will break the family record!! Really good job sissy I am proud of you :) Now that we all know you are intelligent you have to keep up on your studies and homework. Being intelligent doesn't mean you don't need to study or do your homework. Intelligent people are SMART when they do their studies and their work. Work hard and you'll be at BYU soon enough with me! :) Love you!

Jack- GREAT JOB!! too with your ACT score! That's a great score for only being in 7th grade! Wow. You have to work really hard and you'll be a star athelete at BYU! Keep it up buddy. See you in a few months! :)

Dad- hey dad sorry about the money shortage again...I'm trying to be more financially responsable but because of some activities that I ended up having to pay for and stuff and because I still haven't been reimbursed for some things here in the mission I'm completely out of money. Thanks a lot though dad. I promise that after my mission I won't be such a money sucker. I'm going to work and work HARD for myself and my family. I promise. To answer your question they are going to tell us changes this Sunday. So next week I'll let you guys know if I have a change or not. I'll also know by next Monday if I am going to train or anything like that. Thanks for the bball update. Too bad about Derek Rose. I kind of wanted them to win. Anyways, thanks for your prayers dad. Please keep praying for me. I am going through a rough patch as I come close to finishing the mission. It's a hard thing to do! Well, Love you tons dad. You're awesome. Talk to you soon!

Mom- thanks for the pictures! :) What a beautiful temple. Can't wait to go there with you guys!!! Thanks for the package :) I should be getting it maybe this week since the zone leaders just went down to the capital this week for concilio. Don't worry I'm not looking for anything too special, I'm just excited to talk to you guys on the phone. I'll let you all know next Monday exactly when and what time but it will be NEXT WEEK!! It will most likely be either Thursday or it will be Sunday. So I'll let you know next Monday the deets. I'm so Happy! (King Cuzco) haha wow that IS baggy mom. That makes ME really baggy! WEIRD! Alright love you!

Alright folks well, oxib' po chik (three months more.) (if you are like me you are probably singing the song "One Day More" from Les Miserables in your head with the words "Three months more!" haha :) ) Love you all tons and I'll talk to you all next week!

Love,
Elder Norton