"Ha! I need a good humility slap right now ..." (Sam)

HERE COMES THE SUN!

   Hello! We´ve got some cool news this week!

   The transfer ended yesterday and president told us we are getting another elder in our ward. Elder Vergara. He is colombian, has about 6ish months in the mission I think, and he is coming from the ward in Huércal-Overa! My first area! It´ll be super fun to be able to catch up on everything going on there.

Other news.............. Three people in Alcoy that Elder Pascua and I taught FINALLY got baptized! :D Sooooo good to hear! A girl named J from Ecuador ... her mom wouldn´t let her get baptized for a loooong time... but because of her diligence and prayers and a fast that she did, her mom finally said yes. :)  And a father and son from Bolivia. The mom was less active and she got reactivated when her husband and son were baptized. :) YAAY.

   It hit 95º the other day here in the pueblos of Sevilla. Sevilla is by far the hottest part of the mission. I don´t know about the rest of Spain but I wouldn´t be surprised if it was the hottest place in the country. It gets up to 50º celcius. Go look that up for some clean internet fun..... :)

Hmmm, I'm not sure I'm as proud of this photo as he is

Oh haha, that picture of the car? YEAH. Welcome to spain. In three weeks, I learned to drive stick, in a busy european country, and parallel park like that. :) Ha! I need a good humility slap right now....... put that picture on the blog though, I wanna see it again. :) Thanks!

   I´m gonna get the passport pictures, the photocopy of the front and back of the drivers licence and the mission office address today, and send it all to you in a letter. Elder Larios has learned how to drive and has his own permit and stuff so its not urgent urgent. When you get the letter just get it done when you can and then send it to me. Thanks mama!

  Thats funny that Ryan Fonseca got his call to Madrid! he´s gonna have the true spanish zeta!! :)

   Hey i´m running out of time. We had a good week. We have three very solid investigators ... Each has their own situation ... working towards baptism. They will all be baptized... just with time. We´re just trying to balance our work between supporting them and keeping them excited about being baptized one day and finding new stable investigators. Pray for them please! :)

   I love you all! Write me letters! My new address is

c/ Convento #42, 3ªA

41950, Castilleja Cuesta (Sevilla)

ESPAÑA

   we are living in the same building complex.. just a different apartment. We already moved........ hah they gave us like 4 days of notice... ITS A GOOD THING WE´RE MISSIONARIES OF JESUS CHRIST AND WE´VE BEEN DEVELOPING THE CHRISTLIKE ATTRIBUTES OF PATIENCE AND LONG SUFFERING........ :) just kidding... hahah

Love you all! SEE you soon! MOTHER´S DAY IS THE BEST.

-Elder Norton

Monday morning traffic jam...?

Sometimes here in Utah we see this: 

Or this:

But I've never seen this:

"Don't let His suffering and death go in vain" (Sam)

HELLO FAMILIA,

   Woooah! Whole new look at the mission. Loving having my "child" or trainee and enjoying DL so far. I love working with people and being able to work with people and serve people and although no one has to wait till you have a calling to serve someone, I feel almost like a greater desire or a right or something to be able to serve the district. :) I´m excited.

   My new companion is awesome! His name´s Elder Larios and he´s from California. His mom´s from Mexico and his dad is from El Salvador so they speak spanish in their home. Its great to have a companion that speaks BOTH languages PERFECTLY. :) It takes a little load off your back. We are teaching well together and actually finding a lot of great people to work with. We are helping the Gospel to become part of these people´s lives and that is what I love. We were working with two investigators the other day, E and F, with a member there as well. They (investigators) said.. "We feel weird now when we don´t pray before bed or when we´re not in church on Sunday. I often find myself just reading the Book of Mormon now."  :D Soo great! F has a fecha for the 21 of april. He´s rreeeeeally looking for his answer. Pray for him. and E please.

   I sent the memory card home. Sorry it took so long.

   We are loving the area and the car! We were playing basketball and soccer today in the stake center in Sevilla with a bunch of elders and when we finished up we all walked outside and everyone started walking away and we got in our car......... O.o :D so great! We sat down and my comp was like... "We´re so blessed to have a car"  :) and then we high fived. Hahah  and Aljarafe actually has very little south americans or people from other countries. Its almost aaaaall Spanish and I love it. You just have live their culture. You have to live it and eat it and speak it. :) Its fun.

   Thanks everyone for your emails and whatnot. Love hearing from you all. I will write you all back!

   ADAM. Keep tearin it up on the court or on the field or whereever you are. :).. but don´t tear it up when you read the scriptures..... you´d really regret that later. :)

   I´m good on camera cards mom. The camera I have only takes the little ´´mini´´ cards and I have a converter thing so I'm good. For example, I moved all the photos and videos from the little mini card to the card that I sent home to you guys no problem so we´re good.

   Anyways, its been short and swe...... not even that sweet. :) Love you all!

   Don´t forget, this week especially, that Jesus Christ, 

your older brother, died for you. 

Don´t let His suffering and death go in vain. 

Spend a little more time on your knees tonight to demonstrate your gratitude and to ponder on the things the Atonement can change for you. 
Repentance is Change. Change every day.

-Elder Norton

Watch this beautiful EASTER message    

"see the fruits of working with the members?" (Sam)

Alma 27

17   Now the joy of Ammon was so great even that he was full; yea, he was swallowed up in the joy of his God, even to the exhausting of his strength; and he fell again to the earth. 

18   Now was not this exceeding joy? Behold, this is joy which none receiveth save it be the truly penitent and humble seeker of happiness.

¡Hola familia!

   Hello! from the other side of the world!

   Things are great here in the mission. Teaching a TON... constantly on the run... but thats what makes it fun..... RHYME......... no more rhyming and I mean it! Anybody wanna peanut?

   Bueno.. :) Yeah things are great. We get to our apartment everynight suuper exhausted almost not wanting to do planning, just ready to jump in bed. We wake up with energy pumped for the people we are going to visit and the lessons we´re gonna teach. Its great. Its how the work should be! We are teaching on average, 3-4ish lessons a day. And its interesting.. in the last two weeks, we have taught 48 lessons... in 45 of those 48 lessons, members have been involved.  I´ll explain it to you....... many think, as well I as I have always thought, that "missionary work" is going to those who don´t know about the church to help them to know more about the church (aka knocking doors, talking in the streets, etc.). What I have realized in the mission especially recently, is that the mission is a lot more productive and you have LONGER LASTING SUCCESS when you work with those that already know about the church to take initiative and act on what they know. The majority of those that already have knowledge about the church have learned it through friends or family that are members. We use those same members in our lessons to teach their friends, but also to help build the member´s testimonies and teaching abilities. 45 of our 48 lessons this last two weeks have had to do with members because we visit less actives, recent converts, part member families, and we bring members to the houses of the non members. We actually rarely visit houses of all active going members. We obviously can if we want, but there are more productive ways to work. Its fun to compare and combine experience in the companionship because we always come out knowing a little bit more than we knew before we met. I'm learning a lot from Elder Blanch... How to work with the members effectively being one of those things.

   Mom, the week has been great. I am happy, healthy, and busy. :) I´m... getting more and more familiar with the area.. Its really big. Go to google map..... search Sevilla...... now look to the left of Sevilla on the coast and you´ll see Huelva. Our District Leader is in Huelva with his comp so our area is basically starting at Sevilla and going halfway to Huelva.... all of those pueblos ......... so its significantly different than other  "areas" in the mission :) Cuz we´re not trying to memorize names of streets or the fastest path to take to the church... rather..... "am I driving noorrrrth....? or south......? OPE... just missed my exit.... Ooooooooo just took it from 5th gear to 4th gear instead of 5th to 6th.... ope! just missed the next exit I was gonna take..." Those are the things we worry about now... :D haha But really, things are actually going super well. I´m learning my way around. :) What I don´t know is if my international drivers license is going to expire soon or not. I´ll check and update you. 

   WE HAD A BAPTISM YESTERDAY! :P an awesome guy named J! It was a guy they were teaching here in this area when I got here. He´s an awesome country guy that lives waaaay waay out in these little ranches with his mom, his wife and her mom. His wife was less active and that's how they found him and she has since been reactivated and he was baptized yesterday afternoon! (see the fruits of working with the members??? ... baptizing the husband, re-activating his wife... and now J´s mom wants to be baptized...  :)

   Mom! ¡No te des por vencida! Don´t give up! :) If I could only tell you how many times I have drawn completely blank trying to answer people or even understand them! That´s what harder for me.. understanding everything.. but anyways, just keep going. Little by little. Just try to constantly be thinking Spanish. Say what you can say in spanish. for example, a recent convert here in this ward knows ONE WORD of english...... and she LOVES saying it! "YES. YES! YES!" She knows the word "yes" and she loves saying it! its hilarious. She is a great example to me of being grateful for what I have and know instead of being sad about what I don´t know. She is amazing!

   Anyways, I have writen a lot of blaa nada but its alright. I hope I´ve gotten my message through. I love you all and I will see you all soon enough! Go be missionaries!

Love you!   -Elder Norton

"Are you from here ... Spain?" (Sam)

Wooooah!!! Hello!

   The mission is a big whirlwind right now! So many new missionaries and soo many changes.. its awesome! There´s a picture on the blog of all the missionaries that are serving in Málaga right now and they are like all missionaries that weren´t even there when I was there! Its crazy how fast changes happen and how in 4 or 5 months all the missionaries that we in one city can be changed out.

   Elder Jones, my papa in the mission, was serving as Zone Leader in Sevilla when I got there.. I don´t know if I mentioned that earlier.. so that was super fun to see him again, but there there were other mid transfer changes cuz of new missionaries getting the mission so he left..... TO MÁLAGA. :) Kinda fun. He´s in the area of malaga that is right next to my old area. He´s zone leader there right now... and then right after he left, I left too... hah.. I will be honest... it stinks getting changed so much! Haha cuz its hard to really help people make changes in their lives in 3 weeks, or 5 weeks..... but, its not hard to get close to them and to start a good friendship with them.. so my last two areas have been... arrive, get to know all the members, memorize all their names, visit their houses, get to know all the investigators, look and look and look and find new people, start to explain them about the church.. and then get pulled out........ and have to say goodbye to everyone........ :\.. BUT! If we are obedient, and this happens, we know we´ve done all we could. I just hope something I have said or done has at least made a little difference in the lives of the amazing people I´ve met. I could honestly do this my entire life.

   I got a huuuuge compliment yesterday!!! WOW I was flipping out! Yesterday, we went and visited this member that wasn't in church to check up and see if there was something we could do. She is an older woman and her husband is older as well and very sick. Turns out her granddaughter was sick and she couldn´t leave the both of them home sick and come to church, which is understandable... but anyways, when we first walked in, she started to just talk talk talk with my comp, Elder Blanch, (EVERYONE HERE ADORES HIM) and so I was pretty quiet for the first 15ish minutes before we could even have a prayer or share a message.. so anyways, we just there listening and listening. Then we said, ´´alright well can we have a prayer and share a message?´´ And she was like ´´ohh sure! ummmm lets see.... how bout your new companion. Can he give us the prayer?´´ talking to Elder Blanch (like I wasn´t going to be able to understand her or something... :) gotta love it ) so he was like... "sure." So, I say the prayer, say this, that, the other...  and then I end the prayer and the first thing she says when she lifts her head up from the prayer is... ´´¿Tú eres de aquí?´´.... or...... ´´Are you from here (Spain)?´´....... HAHAH! :D and I was like.. ´´No...... I´m from the United States..´´ and she was like ´´Wow, ¿que bien hablas español!´´.... or....´´you speak spanish really well!´´ Super happy and relieved about all my spanish studies and stuff..... D: anyways.. just kind of a fun compliment!

   Our area is huge!! I don´t remember what I wrote you guys last week and what I wrote in my journal but I´ll re-explain it real quick. Our area is called Aljarafe... and the truth is I don´t even know if thats a city or the region or what... but our area consists of like 25 different pueblos... like 25 different towns and cities and suberbs of sevilla. We are right next door to Sevilla.. actually we are in sevilla right now doing emails.. cuz we had to come here to drop something off to a missionary here.. So anyways, we´re close. We live in a little town called Castilleja de la Cuesta.. but we have a car and we visit aaaall over around here. We visit the pueblos.. camas, santiponce, gines, san juan, bollullos, olivares, san lucar, etc.. etc... hah so i keep getting mixed up cuz Elder Blanch just drives me all over the place between pueblo and cities and all over the place. Its crazy. Pray for me! I have to learn them all in the next 2 weeks!!

   Yes, Elder Blanch is leaving in two weeks. He is already over his two year mark but ended up extending his mission a little bit. When he finishes, he will have been on his mission 25 months. He´s from Missouri and is going home to his girlfriend to get married! Amazing story! They almost got married before his mission and then received a super bold priesthood blessing that changed his mind. Since then, he has served a mission and his girlfriend served a mission to Argentina. She has been back several months now and is just waiting for him to get home so they can get married. :) She is Elder Blanch´s first convert. Yup, thats right, he baptized her. :) I´m super pumped for the kid! He´s amazing!

   MY NEW ADDRESS............

       c/ Convento #42, 1ºH

   41950 Castilleja Cuesta, Sevilla

               ESPAÑA

Thanks for the mission call updates and everything! Ahhh! So much is going on back home! Its probably crazy! Tell everyone hi! and congrats from Sam <----WEIRD. MY REAL NAME....... :) Tell them I say... ´´Book of Mormon and Preach my Gospel. Book of Mormon and Preach my Gospel. Book of Mormon and Preach my Gospel.......´´ :)

Anyways, I´m out of time. Thank you for everything in your emails. I have read everything even though I haven´t answered back. Thanks again, I love you all!

-Elder Norton

"I´m thinking about making my own verse to that hymn" (Sam)

Hello! It is great to hear from you!

   Things are going really well here in Sevilla. I think I may have mentioned the capilla here in Sevilla... its really big in comparision to all the capillas her in spain.. Like really big.. its basically the size of our stake center in.... but with two floors... O.o kinda cool. :).. and the best part is that its right on the corner of one of the buisier (busier?) (more busy......?) corners in the city.. so eeeveryone knows it. Its actually a lot more helpful than you´d think because there is a lot of good creyente people here but they just need a bump in the right direction to find the truth.. so when we mention that thats our church they say ´´ooh really?? I´ve always wondered what its like there. I always see it when I go over there..´´ so its kinda fun. :)

 

.................................... WOAH... acaba de llamarnos Presidente Deere............. O.o that means... President Deere just called us... I´m getting moved....... Hahah! Wow...

 

   Explanation... long story , edited ...What has been decided is that Elder Martínez is going to ´´Puerto de Santa María´´ to be with two other elders and I´m going to a place called ´´Aljarafe´´........ hah and I know like nothing about it! I´m pumped! I´ll be with a missionary thats about to end him mission at the end of march.. his name´s elder Blanch. His comp went home yesterday because he broke his foot and had to be operated on.. :/ he´ll come back in a couple months when he gets better. The area i´m going to has a lot of pueblos and therefore........ WE HAVE A CAR. :D :D :D I'm actually super pumped!

   President told me that in the next two days, we have to transfer all the investigators that we have back over to the Zone Leaders here in Sevilla because they are staying here and we are both leaving....... :\ its a bummer that we have to do so much changing but I know that there are so many things for me to learn in the next couple months! I´m am surprisingly excited!

   President also mentioned something about all the new missionaries and all the changes constantly happening and he said, ´´If you could see all the changes going on here you would be proud of how little i´ve made missionaries move and change areas. BUT there are one or two exceptions... one of them is Elder Norton´´. :) He knows and recognizes that I´m moving a lot.... haha I was basically emergency transfered from Málaga to Alcoy.. I was in alcoy for one transfer and then I left, and I´ve been here three weeks and now I´m leaving.......... Ha! Its crazy and he recognizes it. He told me sorry but I don´t worry about it. It doesn´t bug me.

   Anyways, I´ve gone over on my time today.... :( haha so I gotta go. Just know that I am doing great and I am loving my mission.

 I know that my Mission President is the Lord's servant and that I am just an instrument in the hands of the Lord.

 "I´ll go where you want me to go"..... 

even if you want me to leave right after 

I get there....... :)

 I´m thinking about making my own verse

 to that hymn. :D

   I love you all! I actually had ZERO idea that there were 58 newly announced missions........... así que, FILL ME IN. WHERE? WHEN? HOWWW? :) Love you!

-Elder Norton

 ps: I´M SO PUMPED TO TALK WITH ALL OF YOU ABOUT MY MISSION! We´re gonna have a million stories to tell you guys when we get home! Missions are the best!

-Elder Norton