"The Spirit is an interesting friend .... He guides us, literally at times, and sometimes we don´t even realize it." (Sam)

Hello family and friends!

I hope you all had a great week. Mine went toooo quickly.. but it was good.

   Transfer week went... smoothly... kinda. :) It actually did go really well and we were very efficient and wise about the whos wheres whens and hows of everything. I think I mentioned last time but to give you an idea imagine 21 missionaries coming from all parts of spain to malaga, 19 missionaries coming on train from madrid to malaga, 1 missionary flying into malaga from the states, 1 missionary flying into malaga from argentina, residency and legal paperwork to be done for all of them, assignments and trainers to be decided, 8 missionaries going home, and the whole time, almost 60 other normal missionaries are moving or opening new areas.... that all happens between monday and thursday. It is honestly the craziest and the most fun week of the transfer. And I say that being completely honest. I love it. I know there are people that don´t.. :D but I love it.

   I did hear about the train wreck that took place up in the madrid mission and although I didn´t know the missionary that was involved in it I still feel connected to him in a way. I consider myself to be a trusting person but I have realized that I trust even more those that wear the same nametag I do. I don´t know the missionary that was in the wreck, in fact I´ve never even seen a picture of him, but I feel like we´re brothers or like I´m his trainer or companion. Its probably from working with and watching over the groups of new missionaries as they come in and out. I would not be surprised to find out that I worked with missionaries that were probably in the madrid MTC with this Elder. We´re all one big team and to hear about something like that, especially so close, is stomach twisting... You wanna hear to coolest part?????

   Our branch president in the International English Branch of Mijas (our current area) is named Pres. Shaun Tyndale-Bisco. His son Jack served in the Madrid mission and actually served as the AP for a while. He finished his mission just over a year ago and is still in contact with some of the missionaries that he met that are still serving. He spoke with the mission secretary who is in charge of planning and buying the travel of the missionaries. We were told that this mission secretary that bought the missionary´s ticket, uses this train quite a bit. Jack later said that he´s been on this same train over 30 times. The mission secretary said that when he buys seats on this train he always buys tickets in car number 4... meaning of the 8 cars connected together to make the train, he always puts the missionaries in car 4... but that day, when he bought this missionary´s ticket, he simple changed his mind and bought the ticket in car 8. He said it wasn´t a spiritual prompting or experience, he simple chose to put the missionary in car 8... What significance does this have?... if you go back and look at the video... which cars fall and hit first????? and which cars end up catching fire?? and where did most of the casualties happen?... Cars 3, 4, and 5. The Spirit is an interesting friend. And I´m glad and comforted to be able to put ´´friend´´ as his title. He guides us, literally at times, and sometimes we don´t even realize it. I´m sure you´ve heard more than I have about it, we honestly don´t hear about anything in the mission... :\ but last i heard the Elder is doing alright. He´s currently in the mission home I believe. Huuge relief.

   In other news, R was baptized! He was the hermanas investigator and he´s doing well. I saw him today at church. I think he was confirmed today in the spanish ward. The APs had a baptism the same day as R and so the little girl got confirmed too. Its fun to see baptism. Fuengirola baptizes a lot.

   Nate, Kevin, Clay, and I have an email stream between us! Funnest thing ever! The bummer is that their p-day is monday, and they are more or less in the same times zone, and my pday is saturday and i´m like 8 hours off of them... haha.... so i got all of the emails in their email stream... the whole conversation... but by the time I got on they were all gone. Haha whatev, still fun to hear from them. Ryan Fonseca is currently in the madrid mtc. He´s gonna serve in the madrid mission. Nate´s got till october...... which means like 2 transfers... WOWOWOW. and clay´s currently serving along the laurent river up in canada. Doing well. And Kevin´s in some really hot part of brasil. He said close to the equator. A member in one of the Málaga wards got called to the France Leon mission. I wanna room with Will after the mission. Him and Sam Johnson and a kid from my mission named elder walker. :) That would be a fun group.. plus Will and Sam could teach me french. I am honestly more set than ever on learning french after the mission... I guess we´ll see.

   The new AP is really cool. He´s from Idaho and his name is Elder Keller. Great kid. We all get along really well in the office. We´ve got a great group.

   Yesterday we had a youth activity in the english branch that we had to start earlier than planned and that´s why we weren´t able to email. It went really well and everyone that attended the activity, member or non member, attended church today. We´ve not been able to get in touch at all with the estonian family recently. The two sons were going to come to the activity yesterday and I think the mom was supposed to come to fuengirola today but we haven´t seen or hear from them. We´ve (us and the branch) have been calling and texting and emailing.. :( no luck. We´re hopeful. We haven´t been able to meet with our german friend that we set a baptismal date with.. :\ we met with him late last week and he told us he wasn´t gonna be able to come to church.  We told him we´d swing by on monday, he wasn´t there, we tried another day as well, he wasn´t there. He didn´t come to church today. The hard thing is that he doesn´t have electricity so he cant charge his little old phone. He leaves it off all the time so the battery doesn´t die... and so we can´t ever get a hold of him. Anyways, we´ll keep trying...

We´re good here in the office! I´m loving the mission and love hearing from you all! Hilary, you´re una máquina! No sé si dicen eso allí también pero aquí es como.. ¡eres lo mejor! o ¡eres una máquina! como ¡eres asombrosa! tus emails me asombran cada semana... te quiero y oro por tí cada día! ¡Sigue siendo una máquina y nos veremos dentro de poquito!

I love you all! Dare you to pray for 10 minutes tonight... :) it´ll make your conversation a little more REAL. Tell me about it in your next emails.

Élder Norton

Learn more about the Spirit HERE

"the fight with the shower" (Hilary)

La Lucha con la Ducha 

The week went really well for us here in Iñaquito. D was baptized Saturday and confirmed Sunday and we actually had some good support from the ward here. Her mom and sisters are coming back to church and they were really excited Saturday for the baptism.

We have found a few good investigators this week and a couple attended church Sunday. I know they will progress, but it might be slowly. C was introduced to the church in the United States but was sent home (to Ecuador) a few weeks ago and found us street contacting. He approached us and really has the desire to learn and come closer to Christ. J also attended church and really enjoyed it. He has attended a few different churches and was invited by a coworker (who lives in another stake) to attend this Sunday. He showed up by himself. When we taught Lesson 1 he was really interested in knowing if what we said was true and if the church has the authority. He offered the closing prayer and I felt a confirmartion as he asked if the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the correct church and if Heavenly Father would help him to know if these things are true. Those moments are worth more than gold for me and I feel blessed knowing that Heavenly Father is willing to answer EVERY sincere prayer (1 Nephi 10:17-19)(I recently started the Book of Mormon over again and have been reminded of the truthfulness of this church and the doctrine contained in the Book of Mormon).

Wednesday we did divisiones with the Hermanas in El Eden (Hermana D and Hermana G). We were able to fulfill a few goals and help them get things going in their new sector. Also, I think it helped a lot for Hermana D after having a couple of difficult weeks.  Hermana D is very strong and has been so strong through the whole experience. It was neat because we were actually able to help a few people who were going through some difficult moments and Hermana D (without mentioning what had happened to her personally) was able to give counsel and comfort and share scriptures that helped for those members while they really came from her heart because of what she had experienced. I learned a lot from her that day and I feel blessed to be able to work with all these sisters. I have been praying a lot for her.

Our apartment is where all the sisters stay the night when they have a meeting or conference or they don't have their sector assigned yet or something. For example this week, all the new sister that arrived stayed two nights while they were receiving training. It is neat being in the "hotel;" I really enjoyed getting to know all the new sisters that arrived this past week and I could feel how excited they all are for the work. All our lives we have been waiting for this time, to be serving a full-time mission. Every day I am reminded of the importance of taking advantage of every moment and really working with all my energy (D&C 4).

 I love the thirteenth article of faith because it reminds us that we don't endure some things; we endure ALL things. Developing charity and patience means doing everything within our reach, exhausting ourselves in the Lord's work, and really losing ourselves in the service of others.

I have been feeling a lot better health-wise this week! It has been such a huge blessing!  Oh, and We don't have hot water (hence the title of this email). 

Yesterday at church right after sacrament meeting I fell and it was a terrible fall and everyone saw and it was so hilarious. Will I been awkward all my life? I used to pray that one day I would grow out of it... But here I am at 22 and I continue to be clumsy.

I bought a couple things today, mostly two pairs of shoes because mine are getting worn out and have holes. I will send pictures! They are cute. 

Okay, time to go. I love you all! Thanks for your support and prayers. Keep choosing the right! You are all examples for me!

Hermana Norton

Wondering about the Articles of Faith? Go HERE

Pioneer Day 2013 "Happy day ... All is well!"

"Not Alone" by Minerva Teichert

Come, come, ye Saints, no toil nor labor fear;

But with joy wend your way.


Though hard to you this journey may appear,


Grace shall be as your day.


'Tis better far for us to strive
 Our useless cares from us to drive;


Do this, and joy your hearts will swell—
All is well! All is well!

Why should we mourn or think our lot is hard?


'Tis not so; all is right.


Why should we think to earn a great reward


If we now shun the fight?


Gird up your loins; fresh courage take.
 Our God will never us forsake;


And soon we'll have this tale to tell—
All is well! All is well!

We'll find the place which God for us prepared,


Far away in the West,


Where none shall come to hurt or make afraid;


There the Saints will be blessed.


We'll make the air with music ring,
 Shout praises to our God and King;


Above the rest these words we'll tell—
All is well! All is well!

And should we die before our journey's through,


Happy day! All is well!


We then are free from toil and sorrow, too;


With the just we shall dwell!


But if our lives are spared again
 To see the Saints their rest obtain,


Oh, how we'll make this chorus swell—
All is well! All is well!

go HERE to read the story of the beautiful painting above 

"Just being in Spain makes you better at soccer... gotta be something about the air I think." (Sam)

The mission is the best! My list in preach my gospel of people my companionship has baptized is about a fourth of the length of the list of people that I´ve taught but that were baptized after I left the area...... Either way, S AND F WERE BAPTIZED! Wooooh! I´m just happy that they finally made it there. :) No importa quien. No importa cuando.

   Well things here are great. Yesterday we drove out an hour to visit the estonian family. They´re doing great! :) the mom is a great example and is encouraging her kids to listen and learn without forcing them. The second oldest son asked me a question when we finished the lesson and were about to walk out... he says, "what can I do so that God gives me a sign? Can I ask him for that?" :D 

YES YES YES... is what I wanted to say... but I just smiled and re explained prayer and what we say and how. Its SO fun helping people that WANT to learn through a learning process:

We explain it ... they think about it

We show them through example ... they may worry that they won´t know how

We explain it through the scriptures ... they think, try to imagine a prayer and what they'd say 

We ask them to finish with a prayer ... they're all nervous

We help them along ... and then we get an awesome investigator that just 'gets it' and says 

"So I can ask God for a sign to know this is true??? 

Haha those are honestly the best moments. Tough situation with this family... but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Its a very complicated long story but basically this family is related one way or another to a member the attends here when he can and the branch president is trying to find a way to help this family come to chruch since they are related to a member. Pray with us!! They will be able to come! We know it.

   

We played soccer this morning in Málaga. Gonna be fun to play back home with all my soccer buddies. Just being in Spain makes you better at soccer... gotta be something about the air I think. :) I was wearing a v neck shirt and now i´ve got a big pink V on my chest... forgot that that skin hadn´t seen sunlight for a while.. haha. Tonight President and Hermana Deere are giving a fireside in the Spanish ward, afterwards I´m going to interview one the Fuengirola hermana´s investigators (I may have mentioned him before... R... great guy that elder butler and I met at the church and showed him the baptismal font..) And then we have our correlation meeting with the ward mission leader and the other missionaries.

.........what you read there is normal missionary life stuff that we´ve been doing... now i´m gonna go over the last couple of days of non normal missionary life stuff we´ve been doing............. hah

   La búsqueda de pisos va bien... In the 9 weeks that i´ve been here I have rented 24 apartments. WOW. And in the next 6 weeks I have 14 more to rent. WOOOW. Wow. Right now with the 24 that i´ve rented, i´m at just over 2 and a half apartments rented a week. At the end of these 6 weeks i´ll have rented 38 apartments in 15 weeks. SIIIighh. :D

   Yesterday 13 missionaries came in from all over the mission came to Fuengirola to finish residency papers, place fingerprints, and pick up their D.N.I. card.. basically their residency cards here in Spain. They´ve been in the field 6 weeks and sometimes it honestly feels like herding sheep............ haha that sounds horrible!... but they are the youngest group in the mission and its funny how much two years can change you. :) Not to mention they were in the Provo and Madrid mtc´s together... they´ll obviously be happy to see each other... but when a group of happy young friends don´t know really what they´re doing or where they´re going, you get to the point where you just start herding them out or in doors and around the city. :) Now with that being said, this Tuesday, a group of 20 come from the madrid mtc... down to the mission office... and their trainers, 20 missionaries from all over the mission, will be coming in as well. So the last week now we´ve been planning every minute of this Monday through Thursday... preparing financial wise, travel wise, and schedule wise. My companion is a beast, he´s been buying the travel for the 20 trainers to come in fuengirola and also the whole rest of the mission considering transfers happen this week. The office is SO different. And we feel so helpful, its the best!

   Oh other side note, just wanna brag a little.. hah its interesting how office elders can really affect productivity of the mission in general. I could take this paragraph a lot of different ways but what I was going to mention is the fact that depending on how thoroughly an office elder does (or can do) his work effects the later office elders a LOT. There is a one page paper that can be easily looked over by the financiero or by the apartment owners that allows me to make ALL the payments to a specific owner through a program the church uses instead of through handwritten bank transfers or online payments systems. I´ve been really pushing the owners I rent from and the owners of the apartments elder Berrett rented to fill it out and get it to me. I´m excited cuz its already paying off! If you are just bold and tell them that the system is changing and they have to fill this paper out so that we can continue pay them they say... ´´oh well.. ok sure. Send it to me.´´ :) I´m excited to get a better hold on the apartment payment situation.

   Anyways, that was a lot of thoughts in my head right now.. I hope you enjoyed this weeks episode of The Office. Tune in next week for more details on how Transfer Week went down. Love you all! I´m proud to be a Norton and I´m proud to wear the Lord´s name on my chest. Don´t forget that we´ve all taken that same name upon us. Be proud of it even if you don´t wear it.

Élder Norton

"The Lord is aware of all the details" (Hilary)

"Rescue of the Lost Lamb" by Minerva Teichert

Hi everyone! I love you all very much! I absolutely love hearing from you all every Monday. It is so exciting and it makes me so happy! Monday morning I sit on my bed (after having printed the emails) reading everyones emails smiling and laughing and my companion does the same.

Okay, I think a lot of my emails from last week arrived much later then I sent them. Like, I finished emailing Monday around 5:30 and they didn't show up for some people until like Tuesday... I don't know what that is all about, but just clearing things up so there aren't any questions about obedience. 

This week went really well. It was exciting and difficult starting over in a new sector. My companion was much less familiar with the area that we thought she was. But we have learned a lot about the sector geographically and are working hard to pick up the pace. A couple things we have been doing to work more effectively are 1. Planning Noches de Hogar (Family Home Evenings) with members and having them invite others, whether they are members, converts, less-actives, or investigators. It is helping us to get to know more people and helping them to build closer and stronger relationships here in the ward. It is a great tool. 2. We are also going through the carpeta and planning visits with all the recent converts. I have a strong testimony that when we feel the blessings of the Atonement and the Gospel in our lives, we want to share them with others. Converts are always a great source for references. This ward has been doing a great job of involving them, as well. The majority have callings and assignments, which is something I have always suggested in other wards. I remember studying a message by President Packer when he spoke about helping less-actives return to the church. We need to put more confidence in converts and less-actives than we do. There are a few families of less-actives we are also trying to help out. Thursday in the District Meeting we talked about how we have been called with the objective of "Invitar a las personas a venir a Cristo..." (invite people to come to Christ) and that does not exclude those who already are members.

The investigators are doing well. The Hermanas' investigators were slowly progressing so we are doing what we can to help them and find new people as well. D is a young girl whose mother and sisters are less-actives. The whole family attended church yesterday and really enjoyed it. Another investigator that attended church yesterday is a reference we received this week. His girlfriend is a member and they are planning to get married. She has been a good support and helped by bearing her testimony. We have talked about the temple and they have that as a future goal.

This week we did divisions with Sister Marca and Sister Galdame. It went well, although we weren't able to spend the whole day with them. We accomplished goals and helped to encourage them and today when we saw them in the offices they looked like they are doing great. I absolutely love that part of this assignment and I have really felt grateful for all I get to do here.

One thing I have loved to do as a missionary is help others recognize their divine potential.

I have really felt Heavenly Father's love for me 

and I think one of the primary ways I can fulfill my assignment and objective 

is start out by helping others understand their divine potential.

Okay, a couple little things.

I am feeling a little better. I have gotten to the point where I can work, it is just uncomfortably. So, I will just do all I can and keep praying. I thank you all for your help! I loved reading about cute Adam. He is incredible. I really miss him a lot.  Fun to hear about Amanda! I love her! Hope they are all doing well!

OK, there was something else, but I can't think of it. Love you all! Thanks for everything!

Hermana Norton

´´minor side affects may include, drowsiness, minor headaches, loss of sleep, minor back pains from sitting at a desk all day, reduced morning study time, accelerated hearing degeneration from constant phone calls, little to no lessons taught weekly due to ´TO DO LISTS´ the size of spain, etc.....´´ (Sam)

Hi Blog followers! Because of family vacations, etc I got behind a week with Sam's emails as well.  Below I'm posting one from last week and then this week's.

Jon bought this t-shirt for Sam...
Elder Samuel Parker Norton

July  6, 2013

What a week!!

   I hope you´re all doing as well as I am! Its been a craazy week but things are great. The older AP thats here right now goes home at the end of this transfer aka in 2 and a half weeks and I had forgotten how different it is living with missionaries that are so close to going home.... haha he´s a great elder and his not slowing down or anything, (he actually teaches TONS of lessons especially for being AP) but today we ended up going to a mall and to a bunch of clothes stores cuz he´s buying all of his clothes for home here...... super weird! 

   You guys remember how a couple of weeks ago I had the ´´busiest week of my mission´´?? That was transfers week...... Aaaaaaand, we´re already closer to THE NEXT TRANSFERS WEEK than we are to the last one. ITS COMING BACK TO HAUNT US! :) The truth is though, that´s what we´re here for... I´ve been having a little inner lucha against myself about what is required of us here in the office/how we´re supposed to work here in the office. The truth is that we may never know exactly, and I don´t think we´ll never completely agree as an office staff either, but my take on it is that we have been called to... how would you say it?... save or protect... the rest of the mission´s time. WE (the office missionaries) have to do the not-so-fun, too-hard-to-do-so-i´ll-forget-about-it-for-now kind of things that missionaries don´t want to think about... for example..... residency, looking up/buying travel stuff, apartment finding, paying rent and bills, phone bills and problems, money refunds for cost of living, scheduling and daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly planning for the mission......... are all things that any normal person in the world would have to think about. THE REASON office missionaries exist, is so that street missionaries DON´T have to worry about that stuff, and so that they can ONLY focus on the people.... Cool right? Yes. ´´minor side affects may include, drowsiness, minor headaches, loss of sleep, minor back pains from sitting at a desk all day, reduced morning study time, accelerated hearing degeneration from constant phone calls, little to no lessons taught weekly due to ´TO DO LISTS´ the size of spain, etc.....´´ :D haha but THAT is why I´m here right now.

   I´m out of time but thank you so much for your emails and support. I´ll be fasting with you! Those of you out there that have written me letters, I WILL WRITE BACK! Mama, I got my international drivers permit and the spanish songs cd. That was the one I was looking for! Thank you! I´ll let you know next week if anything else comes. Thanks! Love you!

Élder Norton

Financiero

La Misión España Málaga

La Iglesia de Jesucristo S.U.D.

(^ what I put on each of my emails that I send out from the office..... :D)

July 13, 2013

Heey! Great to hear from you! We had an awesome week here. Its starting to get pretty hot here too!

Well the week was actually quite eventful, so i´m gonna go in chronological order...

Our car broke down exactly two weeks ago and last week I think I mentioned that we took a taxi out to the dealership to pick it up and it was closed so we had to walk all the way back.. hah so this monday morning we went and picked it up. Monday mornings are probably the busiest day for us cuz we have a meeting with president in the morning that we have to get everything ready for, its the rest of the mission's pday and we have to get the mission bulletin and message and stuff ready and just for being the first ´work day´ after the weekend everything just starts back up on monday.. So anyways, we got a ton of work done on monday and I got a bunch of huge pieces of apartment rents done too. It felt really good.

Tuesday morning was normal office work and tuesday night and wednesday morning was district leader training. I´m district leader her so elder butler and I were able to go attend that meeting. It was really fun to go see a bunch of people again too.. elder núñez was there, a buddy named elder hooper, a bunch of people, so that was fun. We learned in the conference about why and how we should use the Book of Mormon in our teaching. and then that night we were actually able to put it into practice with one of our less actives thats struggling. Really cool to help him feel the spirit again.

Thursday we drove out to a morning cita about 45 minutes from the office and the family wasn´t there. :\ ...... It was family of one of our Filipino members and we were going to meet up at a spot to then go to there house but when we got there they were already gone... :( huge let down. That afternoon the hermanas here in fuengirola had a baptismal interview set up with one of their investigators. They met with him at about 5:45 and the interview was going to start at 6:45. My comp and I got there at about 6:35, and waited outside the room for them to finish. A man walked up to the church about 6:55 for the english classes the hermanas were gonna do at 7 and when he presented himself I recognized his name as another one of the hermanas investigators. It was nice to meet him and we talked for about 15 minutes outside and then we realized he didn´t really know how a baptism would happen so we showed him the baptismal font. We walked in the room and you could just feel his interest.. and that he was intrigued. :) The spirit was really strong there and my companion and I were very pleased to be able to show that to him. The hermanas walked out of their cita and started their class and my comp and I walked outside to our car. The hermanas investigator left the building the same way and we got another really good chance to just stop and talk with their investigator. Great guy with a really hard life. Trying to get things figured out and I think a simple conversation with some simple Q and A´s with us really helped him. Its interesting how the work is changing with so many new sister missionaries. Almost ALL the areas that are open now either have or will have at least one set of elders and at least one set of sisters by october. It is a huuuge blessing. What president is doing (he is so inspired) is encourage teamwork... meaning, the elders come and visit once with the hermanas so that the investigator meets more members/missionaries. Or things like doing a contacting activity all together in one of the areas to help specifically that area and all the contacts from both companionships go to that companionship. Anyways, things that build unity and friendship. Things that help us remember we are all a team. And for the most part, its working! I love meeting the hermanas investigators... and the hermanas know that we aren´t gonna try to take their investigators or anything and so they actually want us to meet their investigators too! So its fun. The work is moving well.

Friday morning we had a short, sweet, and powerful district meeting. I have the best district! (Elder Castillo, Hermana Castillo, Hermana Ramsay, Hermana Theobald, Elder Butler, Elder Norton, Elder Estrada, and Elder Góchez) Friday evening we went out to a town about an hour from fuengirola to visit the family from estonia. Its been soo hard to visit them for 

1) cuz they are so far from the office and 2) just because of the sheer demand of the office work. But we finally got to visit them and Elder Castillo came! He´s soo awesome! He´s actually really funny too! I don´t know if you could get that over the phone but he is hilarious. Ex-drama teacher btw. We talk drama and shows all the time. Anyways, the family is doing great. The mother, oldest son, and second oldest all accepted the baptismal invitation. The youngest two are not 8 yet.. but the only problem is the distance... and money. They have no way to get to church.. cuz its basically 14 euros a person to and from church... and if all 5 go.. 70 euros a sunday..... imposible. So we´re praying... and they´re praying... pray with us please! After that cita, Elder Castillo took us out to dinner....... :D and we went to a cool restaurant that had everything in english, spanish, and german... just cuz there are so many different types of people that come through. I think we had Russians on our left, English in front of us, and Scandanavians to our right.. the waiters were Spanish and we were Americans. 5 nationalities at one restaurant. :) fun night.

Saturday! P-DAY. The AP´s went with my comp and a member this morning to malaga to play soccer with the missionaries there and I went with the Spainhowers (the missionary couple that let us use their skype at christmas time) to go golfing! :D They finish their mission in a week and a half and I mentioned that i wanted to go golfing and they said well lets go before we go home cuz we haven´t golfed yet!.. I invited president too cuz I think he´s been itchin to go but he couldn´t make it so I said, ´´we´ll go another time´´ and he goes ´´good cuz I want to go!´´ :) I mentioned it to justin, presidents son and he said, if you guys go i´ll go! So I´m gonna go golfin with my mission president and his son!! :P I´ll attach you some pictures from today. It was suuuunny! We had fun. The course was really small, basically a chip and putt course.. (I used a 52º and a putter the whole time........ and the one time I used a 7 iron a overshot the green and hit it into the street... hahah :) but I played all right for so long without playing.

Elder Spainhower and Elder Norton

A couple of interesting things going on in the mish! just to finish up...

- Khaki pants are now allowed.... as well as sweater vests, tie pins, and a couple other random things...

-They are starting to ask that we don´t use backpacks... interesting...

-They are suuper downgrading the phones we buy for missionaries to use....

hmmmmmm the work is changing! I think the last one is cuz one day iPads will be used here.. and the only thing the iPad won´t do is call so they just want the cheapest gadgit that can do the job.. (might as well just go back to smoke signals though.. they suuuper downgraded the phones.. look up the nokia 100 if you wanna see what we have to use now.. haha)

Anyways! Thats it for now! That was a really long email! Sorry.. Love you!

Élder Norton

ps. Elder Castillo relayed your message back to me and I couldn´t wipe the smile off my face. :) Love you.

"Fighting the Good Fight" (Hilary)

Hi Blog followers! I somehow got behind a week with Hilary's emails so below I'm posting one from last week and then this week's.

JULY 1, 2013

Wow, what a long week. It is weird how the weeks seem to fly but at the same time I feel like SO much happens. I feel like I have had a good amount of time here, but really it has been so little. Today we had to say goodbye to Hermana Cooper. She is so great. It has been such a privilege to get to know her and work with her here. She is a beautiful person inside and out and I have learned a lot from her. We already miss her!

Tuesday we helped out at a training meeting. It went really well. I have so much respect for the Ghents. I am excited to be in this position where we are working closely with them. I am learning so much. It was really sweet though; as we were leaving Hermana Ghent pulled me aside and congratulated me on the assignment and everything. She got a little teary-eyed and was just like, "When President told me that you would be the next Hermana Leader, I felt a confirmation that it needed to be you. ..... You are a light for this mission." and on and on. It was so sweet! It is so nice to have her here!!! Sunday Hermana Cooper had her last interview with President at the mission home and meanwhile we just chatted with Hermana Ghent. It was like a thirty minute break from the mission. I feel so lucky to have her here. I guess now she is not my mission president's wife, but I will keep you all updated for how things go with sweet Sister Richardson.

Which leads me to my next point. We are in Ecuador Quito North Mission, with the new President Richardson and his wife. We met them today in the offices. They seem so great!

Okay, what else? I hesitate to tell these things, but I am sick again. For about nine days I have had a really strong headache and it has been going for 24 hours a day. I know things will get worked out. The nurse here is a sweet girl and she wants to help. It is a bummer because it is making work really difficult. I have tried a few different pills and nothing has helped. Can you all keep praying for my health? I only have like 20 weeks left! I can do anything for 20 weeks! The transfer dates and everything are being changed here in the new mission, so I think I will be getting home mid November. Like the 18 or 19. Enjoy the trip you take in October! And have fun in New Jersey/New York this week! I love you all and miss you so much!

Okay, no time left! I am so bad at this! I love you all! THanks for all you do for me!

Hermana Norton

JULY 8, 2013

Dear Family,

It has been a crazy week! I have so much to write and very little time!

First things first, although I would prefer to write in Chronological order. Another emergency transfer! I am now in IÑAQUITO, aka, the center of the city! A companionship of sisters in Otavalo were having some issues in their zone and President Richardson sent them to PUSUQUI, and sent us to IÑAQUITO and sent the sisters that were here in Iñaquito to the sector in Otavalo. A huge triangle mess of transfers. It was crazy and we spent the weekend doing divisions por aqui por alla trying to get everything worked out. Needless to say, the area book will be my best friend this week. It is a great sector! My companion and I have both received confirmations that we need to be here. President is great. I love my assignment. Working with the hermanas and helping them out in different ways has really been a big help for me this week to remember why I love this work so much and why I am here.

Friday was the first "Consejo de Lideres" (leadership council) that I have attended and I left enlightened and excited. I was really impressed with the "charla abierta" and capacitaciones and the comments of all the missionaries. There is something to learn from everyone and I feel blessed to work in an assignment where I can learn from other leaders and work on improving and developing better skills and qualities as a representative of Christ. I was really nervous going into it, but just left really loving life and the mission and everything. Every month we have this meeting as all the leaders of the mission. President and the assistants train every month, WE train EVERY MONTH, and a pair of zone leaders trains every month. In other words, the responsibilities just keep building up and up. Love it though.

Well, I feel so grateful for what has been happening lately and just wanted to let you all in on things. For over two weeks now I have had a headache that is unbearable and that has not let up. It is all the time. I wake up and open my eyes and just feel so much pain. It has been so weird and nothing has helped. I have had many other problems, but we just haven't figured out what is up. Sunday was hard for everything that we had going on. I just felt awful. But this morning I woke up feeling completely fine, after two weeks straight. It was really exciting and it seemed like a miracle. I remember laying in my bed hearing my alarm go off and just thinking... "Wait, my head doesn't hurt." When I read my your emails, I cried. I am not 100%, but I am amazed at the sudden difference and SO INDEBTED to you all for you prayers and fast. THANK YOU SO MUCH. I care for you all so much and can't express how grateful I feel. All the little things really build up and have great outcomes. I am so grateful for the principle of fast and every prayer that Heavenly Father hears and answers.

I have had a couple moments of reflection this week and have meditated on the Savior's Atonement. I am so grateful for His love that offers and the happiness we receive through Him. I struggle to grasp how great everything is and really how blessed I am. I just want to share my testimony of the Lord's plan. Really Heavenly Father wants the BEST for each one of His children. He offers us so many opportunities and has shown us the way. He offers us the best: His perfect Son. But as God, He has to leave us to choose for ourselves. If we choose to follow Him and keep the commandments, we will be happy HERE and in the next life, with those who we love most! The gospel is so beautiful.

Okay, gotta go! Love you all so much! Thank you once again for your fast!
 

 Can you buy me and send me a CD by Daniel Beck with "God Be With You Till We Meet Again" and "Amazing Grace" and "The Prophet's Prayer" and all that?? I love it! Send pictures of the whole trip, please! I am excited to see! Also, Stacia told me about what the Elders did to trick her! How funny! I hope you are all doing so well.

Hermana Norton

P.s. The address is the same, just have to write "Casilla: 17-07-9921" instead of the other "casilla."

P.s.s Some converts and members from Calderon are going to come visit me this Sunday in the ward over here!