"AND WE HAVE A BOOK THAT HAS ALL THE DETAILS" (Sam)

January 27, 2014 

Hello everyone! 

Things keep moving forward here in Jerez. Poco a poco we´re gathering momentum and seeing the fruits. We are loving missionary work right now. ITS HARD but we are loving it. We are seeing the important things in the work and balancing and organizing our time and our work. Between the three companionships in Jerez, it has been established that mine and Elder Crandall´s area has the least members, is furthest from the church, and is the richer, more closed off side of town.. With that being said, we´ve picked up where the area was left off and we´ve established really good relationships with the members in our area and the leaders in the ward. We are feeling their confidence and support a lot more now and its allowing us to create good consistent work. Once you get an area in a grove, things start too flow without you manually making things happen. That´s what we´re seeing. 

The three main people we are working with are Jo, J. J., and H.. Jo. is a former investigator that got married to the woman he´s been with for the last 20 years to be able to be baptized. Up to that point everything was going great but because of the pressure of everything all at the same time, they got married and then kind of disappeared. We were able to find him again and start from scratch and he´s been making incredible progress. He´s dropping bad habits and replacing them with new, edifying ones. His family is sadly closed off to the situation now but with his progress, we´re seeing them open up more and more. He received an interesting blessing last week.. they called him to go to work down in Algeciras that is several hours away from Jerez from monday to saturday and some sundays...... so his family is staying here and he will be gone most weeks. He´s excited for his time alone because he has made good habits and knows that he will be able to continue reading and praying. When he has a free sunday, he says he´s going to come back to Jerez and attend church here. We´re happy that he was able to get more work but it obviously throws a wrench into things. Guess we just need some patience

J. J. is also a former investigator that is basically un miembro seco.. a dry member. He and his girlfriend were both basically active members but couldn´t be baptized cuz they weren´t married. Just recently there was a problem in the relationship which caused them to separate for a time. They are back on good terms but J. J. has made the decision to be baptized instead of returning to live with M.. We´re working closely with the bishop and getting him completely ready for baptism. We´re thinking he´ll be baptized middle or end of February.

H. is a spaniard. He is in a relationship with a woman who moved to spain without getting divorced from her husband. She was in a really bad situation and just left.... which is obviously causing tons of problems now. The last lesson we had with H. he RE-realized what the BoM was.. haha He kind of flipped when he really realized what we had been teaching the whole time. Those are the memorable lessons... when someone really comes to a realization of the fact that Christ visited the ancient inhabitants of America directly following his resurrection and time with his apostles.... AND WE HAVE A BOOK THAT HAS ALL THE DETAILS!! Ahh what the world doesn´t know.

Anyways, that´s a quick update. I did get your package and although I don´t really need anything else in the birthday package, some small american treats would be greatly appreciated. :D Thanks!

Thanks for the update on Jennica! I had very very little idea of the situation! We´ve been praying for her. Keep us in the loop.

I love you all! Talk to you soon!

Élder Norton

"I know it without a doubt" (Hilary)

Hi all! Hope everyone is doing well! So fun to hear from everyone!! Also I love seeing pictures! Thanks for keeping me in mind! Lots of missionaries mention that there is a time during the mission that people forget to write them, but luckily I have been blessed with the greatest family and friends that never forget to write.

The week went well. We did a lot for the assignment, which is cool. It is always neat to know that when something is going wrong, people turn to us for help. Also that President trusts us. I really feel grateful to have this assignment. My companions are doing well. They have been such a huge blessing to me at this time. I really love them with all my heart and I am seriously going to miss them.

I just finished the Book of Mormon and, as I do every time I read it, kneeled in prayer afterward to confirm my testimony of the truthfulness of the book. It was a really special experience for me that I will never forget and I am very grateful for the challenge we were given to read the Book of Mormon in less than 90 days. It helps us to grow closer to Christ, strengthens us to understand our purpose in life and our duties, and motivates personal repentance. It definitely builds my testimony that this is the true church. 

I know it without a doubt. 

I have always loved verses 32 and 33 of Moroni 10 :

32 Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him,

and deny yourselves of all ungodliness;

and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness,

and love God with all your might, mind and strength,

then is his grace sufficient for you,

hat by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ;

and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ,

ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

33 And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ,

and deny not his power,

then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God,

through the shedding of the blood of Christ,

which is in the covenant of the Father

unto the remission of your sins,

that ye become holy, without spot.

And I always love the phrase that says that if we serve Him with all of our might, mind and strength, THEN is His grace sufficient for us. I have a firm testimony that even after doing ALL we possibly can, the only thing that could save us is His grace and mercy (2 Nephi 25:23 is one of my all time favorite scriptures).

23 For we labor diligently to write,

to persuade our children, and also our brethren,

to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God;

for we know that it is by grace that we are saved,

after all we can do.

It is a humbling acknowledgment and it makes my gratitude grow everytime I ponder on His saving Atonement. I know I am very weak. But I also know that when I do my part, my Heavenly Father is willing to give me strength and save me.

Got a letter from Sam this week! TE QUIERO. Te voy a escribir muy pronto. Cuando yo ya esté en casita.

Dad, I got your email last week. Thank you so much. It was really encouraging and motivating for me. Thank you so much. I think with the housing, I will just ask for your help when I get back. Is that okay?? I have a feeling there will still be opportunities.

Okay, I think that is all for now. Write me if there is something else! I am on for another half hour.

Love you all! Hermana Norton.

P.s. Mitch mentioned that finishing the mission "should be like Olympic runners... As they approach the finish line they SPEED UP instead of slowing down. Not only that but the LEAN FORWARD dedicating themselves even more to winning. My philosophy is if you don't finish your mission EXHAUSTED you probably did something wrong haha." I love that and I am speeding up right now.

 Love you!

Are you curious about the Book of Mormon? Click HERE for a free copy

"I'll go where you want me to go, dear Lord, I'll be what You want me to be" (Sam)

Most productive week of my life.

Hello!

Wow, incredible week this week! Really.. I have honestly been seeing the Lord´s hand and the talents he has given me working together in preparation for this transfer. That may sound boastful but hear me out! :D So last transfer, as you will remember, it was a group of 37 missionaries that came in.......... which is the largest group of new missionaries the mission has ever seen. EVERYTHING was crazy. Preparation was not just normal preparation.. it was preparation times three....... just because of the mass numbers. What President ended up doing was instead of spreading ourselves too thin when that big group of missionaries came, he decided to form quite a few trios of missionaries to compensate for the high influx of missionaries and then the outflux of missionaries that will be happening this transfer and the next. That actually relieved some stress off of me because instead of creating more two somes and needing more apartments, three somes were made.

This transfer, those trios are all separating, and we have a group of 12 coming in.. and what early on seemed like a relatively normal transfer for the things I´m in charge of, has expanded and hit all at one time. Last transfer I was given quite of few (probably 7 of the 15) of the areas that were going to open up about 9 weeks in advance so that I could start renting the apartments early on. Then I received the other areas as the transfer got closer.. that also relieved a little pressure. This transfer, we all expected things to be a lot more simple.. hah but as I explained.. about two weeks ago, President realized how many areas would have to be open due to the trios changing to duos and whatnot............. so basically what I´m saying is.. that within the last 2 or 3 weeks, I have had to do almost exactly what I did in about 9 weeks last transfer.. that is, rent 14 apartments..................................

Now... go back up to the top of my email and read that first line........... I wasn´t boasting.... I´m just stating what I´m seeing. :) I just hit 3 and a half transfers here and I´m realizing that The Lord Prepares Who He Calls. I really have seen everything come together reeally really miraculously this week. Almost every day this week has been full of effective consistent work. I get home aaaabsolutely exhausted.. :) but from the time I get up till the time I walk in our apartment at night, I´m doing something productive. IT FEELS GREAT.

Its interesting the things that the mission teaches you. I have learned a lot of things here.. but one that has really jumped out at me lately is that the more you require of someone, the more they will give. The bigger ´´the shoes you have to fill´´ are, the more you will fill them. I´m excited for a lot of things in my life head of me, but one thing I´m really excited for is hard, effective work. Whether it be at school, at work, at church, at home, wherever.. I understand hard effective work.

I hear elder Crosland went by and visited!... :D thats cool! He said you weren´t home mom. I can not believe he is home. I can´t believe it. Elder Jeremy Jensen is finishing in a couple of weeks and I think elders harding and harris go home the first couple weeks of november. Elder Harris broke his right arm and might have to have surgery. :///

President called me last week while in a meeting at the mission home with the APs. They were finalizing transfers and the changes that were going to happen and he needed to ask me about how I felt about staying in the office a little longer. I think it had something to do with the january transfer that was moved up several weeks to fall before Christmas. Because of the change it falls right in the middle of the transfer and he was wondering if I would be willing to stay not only to the november transfer but till the middle of december. I told him I would and I think that means I´ll be here till like the 17th of december. Happy to be where the Lord needs me!

I did get your letter and I´m glad you got my SD card. Empty it off onto the computer if you can and send it back in the package. :) Thanks! I actually do have a couple requests before you close it. Mint or double stuff OREOS :D. Cool, upbeat, or musical CDs that missionaries could listen to. Maybe a christmas one or two.. If you could look up some of these names you might find something good... Kalai, pianoguys, vocal point, eclipse.. or whatever else you think I might like. :D we have some music here but it gets old.... and especially the christmas stuff we have. Might as well ask for it now and get into the Christmas spirit early! :P Thanks!

Just one more thing! I love seeing pictures of you guys! And stuff you do or things you see or the family or the house. Like dads arm for example.. no surgery or anything right? Those would´ve been cool pictures. :)

I love you all! Thanks for your prayers! Keep praying for the missionaries but pray that you too can find missionary opportunities. I hear somewhere recently that most members DON´T pray for personal missionary opportunities because they are scared they will recieve one! Ha! D&C 100: 1-8

 Therefore, verily I say unto you,

lift up your voices unto this people; 

speak the thoughts that I shall put into your hearts,

 and you shall not be confounded before men;

 For it shall be given you in the very hour,

 yea, in the very moment, what ye shall say.

  But a commandment I give unto you,

that ye shall declare whatsoever thing ye declare

 in my name, in solemnity of heart,

in the spirit of meekness, in all things.

 And I give unto you this promise,

that inasmuch as ye do this

the Holy Ghost shall be shed forth in bearing record

unto all things whatsoever ye shall say.

LOVES

Élder Norton

Mom, we as a mission have just started the Book of Mormon again. President has challenged us to read it before Christmas and I´m doing what you´re doing. The only thing I am highlighting this time is the ´´happenings´´ the places, actions, and storylines.. to get the same overview that you were talking about. If you haven´t grabbed a new blank BoM to read I challenge you to. Its soo much better than reading in the scriptures that already have markings and notes, cuz it makes you pay attention. :) your choice but i´m sure the missionaries at home would have an extra blank copy lying around.... :D