"Oh, What a Beautiful Morning!" (Hilary)

 

"Oh, What a Beautiful Morning!" 

 

  Happy Monday everyone! We have another week ahead of us. How cool. Time is flying by.

All is going well here in Calderon.  

I think I say this every week, but

 I love this sector and I love my companion and I love this work. 

I found a good quote 

the other day. 

 

"Success is not the key to happiness. 

 Happiness is the key to success. 

If you love what you're doing, you will be successful." 

I can't necessarily say that we are having a hundred baptisms every Saturday, but I can say that I have seen a difference in the results we have had lately and I am recognizing the causes... 

obedience, diligence, a personal conversion, 

and really loving what we're doing.

Okay the phone call. Is it okay if we call 3:30? There aren't any members that have offered to help, so I think we'll just end up calling from an Internet place nearby. It will be by Skype, because I have not seen an Apple in Ecuador. I'll call from the "Hermana Norton" account.

Thursday and Friday we had training and conference and interviews with President and the assistants. They're great. I really look forward to those times because I feel like they are a really great help, knowing the challenges of our mission and really what we need to know and do here at this time. Plus, Hermana Ghent always reviews the area books and she was so amazed at our book. Ha, she was pulling out all the progress reports and showing people and telling all the elders what they need to improve on and showing them ours as an example. It was cute. She is really sweet. Haha it made us feel good. She said the Lord would be pleased if he were looking at our area book. Hahaha. Anyway, since the trainings, Hermana Rodriguez and I have been teaching Lesson 1 a lot more often and finding a lot of success in that. It helps the people to recognize what are the differences in our church and others, and to understand our objective as missionaries. We have been teaching a few people recently who are really catching on. I hope to be able to see their future progress. Transfers are in two weeks and I really really hope that I get more time here!

Saturday/Sunday we had another really great fasting experience. We had a lot of investigators attend church Sunday and they all had positive experiences! This Saturday, A will be baptized and the following, Y. They're both doing really well.

Something I have seen a bit recently is the blessings of the guidance of the Spirit during the lessons. My companion and I have really tried to obtain his companionship, and during the lessons we are always able to see his guidance. He has helped us to know how to answer questions and what to teach in certain lessons. I am grateful and humbled. We have had a few lessons recently with Jehovah's Witnesses or Christians or Catholics that have really strong beliefs and we have been able to teach the doctrine and respond to their questions without things turning into a debate and without losing the Spirit of the lesson. I am really grateful, because I know there is no way we could do any of this without Heavenly Father's help.

A couple weeks ago I wrote about E. She won't read/listen to/look at the Book of Mormon and it is so painful. My poor companion wants to keep trying because apparently her ex-boyfriend had the same problem and she says to me, "I am going to write a chapter in a letter and give it to her." and things like that. As much as I want to keep trying, she won't accept it and she can't progress without it! It's tough.

Today we crossed paths with C (the woman we helped when her husband was beating her). She looked so different and happy. I don't know if I mentioned it, but when we arrived that day her head/face had a couple big goose eggs and was all blue and bruised. She was so excited to see us. It was cool. (for the backstory, see post "It felt like an 'Ammon moment" from April 16, 2013)
Okay, this is a really long email, I apologize! I love the photos you all send! Thanks for keeping me updated.

Tell the elders I say congrats on the baptisms!! How exciting! We also do what that Elder was saying. It's called the "Charla de Oposicion." It is the smartest way because then they know what to expect and they this is what happens when we are trying to do what is right.

Thanks for helping Hermana Masquez.

Tell Adam I love him!

Mitch, I love you!

Until Sunday!

Hermana Norton

"It was hilarious ... later that day we were ... just crying because we were laughing so hard" (Hilary)

Family,

Well, another week came and gone. Where does all the time go? I hope after the mission I feel really satisfied in the eighteen months I spent serving, because at the end of the day, sometimes I feel like I have hardly scratched the surface of all there is to do.

I haven't finished reading everything that you all wrote me yet, but I just want to say thanks. Thank you so much for writing. Sometimes I get a little sentimental (sp?) when I write ya'll on Monday... I just can't really express my gratitude for you guys.

Well, we had an extremely eventful week.

Yesterday were transfers, but thankfully, we're both staying. Hooray! I love Hermana D. She is hilarious. She has an attitude and it is really funny. The other day she was telling me about how she calls her sister's boyfriend her "keychain" because he is smaller than her. JAJAJA.

I KNOW that President Ghent receives revelation for his missionaries and for the mission. I know that what he says is what God wants him to say and what we need to know and do. Interviews were Friday. They went well. We traveled to Otavalo for ours, so I was able to see Hermana Marca (LOVE HER) and some other missionaries there. That was cool. We played a memorized scriptures game and I won. And they bought us a really tastey lunch that included green salad (something we hardly ever get) ! Yum.

Wednesday I fell as we were crossing a big, busy street. I literally fell flat, lying down on my face. I was all scratched up (legs, hands, face) and so sore the next day. It was hilarious. Hermana D and I later that day were telling A1 about what happened and just crying because we were laughing so hard.

Speaking of A1, she was baptized Saturday! It was a really cool baptism and she is just so amazing. I am going to attach a picture. Or two or three. Her baptizm was scheduled to start at four. We were all waiting and waiting and waiting and dying of anticipation. She has had a bit of opposition come from her family and they were the only ones answering the phone calls and just were saying, "Oh, she's not going to be able to go." Finally, we said a prayer as a zone and two elders offered to take a taxi to go look for her. They returned after about forty seconds and she had just been entering the chapel. It was really cool. Obviously she had been traveling beforehand to get to the chapel, but it was just neat - the timing. God, knowing we were going to say that prayer, sent her so that she arrived just afterward. We are so dependent on Him.

We have been working with the mom of Ax.and she has been really off and on. Some days she is so excited to be baptized. Others she won't attend church. She had her interview and we were planning on her being baptized Saturday but Thursday she asked us to come talk to her at her work. She told us she wouldn't be baptized and showed us this book that she found and told us about this video she saw - all anti-mormon stuff. I felt so bad. She was so concerned. She had a thousand questions that I think maybe had just been building up. Anyway, we worked through a few of them Thursday and Saturday we went back with our zone leaders. The lesson we had so amazing. The spirit was so strong and they knew exactly how to address her questions. We learned so much from them and their examples. At the end of the lesson, A2 told us again that she wants to be baptized. It was one of those moments were the spirit testified to her heart, and that triggers the conversion. Afterward she was so comforted and she really understood. She is a skeptic, but she has learned to recognize what comes from God. She will be a strong member if she keeps progressing.

Well, that is all for now. I pray that we can all keep growing. I am so grateful for Christ's in God's plan and I don't want to be in vain. I want to change and I want to reach my potential. Keep growing. Keep changing little by little to become who God needs you to be!

Hermana Norton

LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU LIKE CRAZY