"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

"Blessings from The Lord for wanting to attend church!!" (Sam)

Hey hey!

This week was really great. We´ve seen some cool blessings lately and the more I think about them I keep feeling like they were just that little-cherry-on-top-tender-mercy-right-in-the-moment-I-needed-it kind of a thing. Funny how that seems to keep happening... :)

We´ve been teaching more this week. Feels good to be out and about among the people. Relationships between members and investigators and people are getting tighter and closer. I really have seen a difference now that i´ve been in this area for a long time. That´s one thing that President tries to do so that the missionaries can really create trust and a good relationship with the members. Once that´s established, they feel more comfortable presenting their friends to the missionaries. My first......... well every area but here.. I was in for basically 2 transfers or less... (down to 3 weeks in one of them)... and its been kinda rough trying to really connect and gain the confidence of the members. I´ve been here since the end of may.. so I´ve already passed 4 transfers here.. and so people are starting to come out of the wood works.. a chilean family has called my companion and me over several times and just a day or two ago she called me and said.. "I want my son to be baptized but I want it to come from him.. can you come over and teach about the priesthood and how baptism is a prerequisite to having the priesthood??" :) So she´s reactivating, pulling her husband back too and encouraging her 10 year old son to learn and have those desires. I think there were some others that were really pushy with them before but we´ve been able to connect and just be a support (we helped them move) and they´re really progressing now.

The situation here in Spain is really hard.. There is zero work. The two sisters from the philipeans that were baptized several weeks ago had a huge upset at their work and haven´t been able to come since their confirmation... :\\\\ They are now living about 40 minutes from each other in separate houses basically as cleaning maids.. and S, the mom, just has terrible terrible hours. Literally like 7 am to 2:30 am... straight.. no breaks.. no days off, not saturday not sunday, not holidays.... and the scary thing is that can´t say or do anything cuz there are hundres of other people looking and searching for work. S´s work is a good hour drive from the church building and from where we live and we´ve only been able to communicate through texts and calls. We spoke with Elder Castillo the other day and we all decided that it had just been too long. Someone that new to the gospel can not go that long without having some kind of priesthood presence shake her hand or give her a smile or a church magazine or whatever! So elder Crapo and I just got in the car thursday evening and went on a little road trip... we called her on our way and said... "we´re coming to see you!!"  and she goes.. "well you won´t be able to come in! They´re very strict!.."  and we just said.." don´t worry! when we get there, just decide to take out the trash or something and we´ll be waiting by the trash bin!." :) So she told us what the place was called.. we put it in the GPS which ended up taking us 15 minutes further than we even needed to go.  We asked someone and they sent us somewhere else...  we asked again for directions and they sent us somewhere else...... in total we asked 6 times and got to her work around 9 at night! She was able to sneak out and basically just cried (out of gratitude) the whole five minutes we were with her.... It really was great! We left the october Liahona with her and she was happy to receive it. She told us she had a really hopeful interview this sunday at a different work with some other people. Pray for her! And that these people are way nicer and give her time off and sundays off and whatnot. Blessings from The Lord for wanting to attend church!!

Anyways, my comp is ansy now so we gotta head. I love you all!

What day does Hil get home????

We can´t go to the temple.. its in the madrid mission. We went weekly in madrid in the mtc but we can´t now. I will go weekly if not more with you guys! I´m excited for that!

Love you!

Élder Norton

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"I hear roaring laughter and run back in to see that she has sat on the cake!" (Hilary)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HILARY!

Hi everyone! Hope you have all had a great week! Thanks for writing!

We have had a really great  week and I am feeling much better than I was last Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. I mentioned to Sister Berrett (the new mission nurse) that I had been struggling a little emotionally for all that had been going on with my health. There have only been little problems, but I have felt sad and frustrated at times. But I have seen a few little miracles this week and I feel that the Savior is aware of my small problem and helping in my situation. I have really felt that He is lifting the load and that He is also making me stronger to be able to bare. I recognize that my problems are so small. I know there are others that are working through SO much more. I am just grateful that Heavenly Father knows me and is willing to provide me with the challenges and the solutions that I need to grow.

I have always felt very strongly that Heavenly Father puts certain people in our paths so that we can grow and learn. I love the quote by President Kimball that  says, "God does notice us and He watches over us. But it is usually through another person that He meets our needs." I have felt that Sister Irepan has been an answer to a silent prayer. I am so grateful to have this time with her and I know I will be able to finish strong and happy. She is an excellent missionary. She knows what she is doing and she is thoughtful and obedient. I am grateful to have her as my companion. Each one of my current companions has been a huge blessing for me at this time. The other day an elder mentioned that if I were still in the other mission I would be getting home this week. Later Sister Irepan mentioned that and was like, "These two extra weeks of your mission are like a gift to me! I know there is so much I need to learn from you." It was really cute.

We had a stake activity this week for our investigators and it turned out really well. A lot of people showed up (many more than we were expecting) and everyone seemed to enjoy it. We are working hard as a zone to be able to have a "Noche Blanca" this month and have been seeing the fruits of our labors.

Friday Sister Bastidas and I did divisions with Sister Ortiz and Sister Palau. It went really well. We had very little time because of their mini-conference, but we were able to accomplish so many things and it was a real testimony to me that when we do things the Lord's way He helps to accomplish much more than we could ever do on our own.

This week we have a family of investigators that are progressing which is a blessing to be able to see. The Pillajo family has a baptismal date for the 16th of this month. We have been fasting and praying sincerely for this family and I know we will see miracles.

Okay, my birthday was so great!! I received three cakes, so I think Ecuador likes me. I will send pictures. So much fun. One of my companions had a birthday last month and we did a lot for her so I think there is now this mentality that we have to do bigger and better every time. My sweet companions did so much for me this week. On my birthday at midnight they woke up and got out of bed and  brought in a cake and balloons and a little gift and were singing happy birthday. It was so hilarious because I was so tired and confused at first then just felt really grateful. We were all laughing when I set the cake down on my bed to grab my camera in the other room. As I am searching for my camera I hear roaring laughter and run back to see that Sister Irepan had sat on the cake as she was trying to set up her camera. Hahahaha it was soo funny. She was just so tired. Anyway, that day we had our District Meeting/Mini Zone Conference and after the meeting the zone leaders came in with a giant cake and a card that everyone from the zone (of like 30 missionaries) had signed. The tradition here is to "bite" the cake and people always shove your face into it as you are biting it. We enjoyed that as well. I know if I have skin problems this week it is because of all the icing and sugar that had been smothered all over my face again and again. Then we had lunch with a super great family (last name Ocarez) that is from Chile. Sister Ocarez cooks really really well and had invited a few people over that shared the same birthday. So we had an awesome lunch and it was so fun. That day was the stake activity for our investigators from the whole stake and it turned out really well. A lot of people showed up and we had a lot of fun. I will attach pictures with explanations.

Sounds like you are having a lot of fun with "Yasu." I laughed out loud when I read the story about what he and his friend said to Adam. Haha Adam is a good sport. I am glad he has a brother/friend for a week. Tell Adam I can't wait to see him in a couple weeks! I hope he and I can hang out a lot. He is the greatest.

Sister Maza got the packages and she loves everything. She is so grateful. 

Okay, I have a good amount of time left. Respond if you can! Love you all!

Sister Norton

And now for a SUPER, MARVELous Halloween recap....

Off to save the universe...

Batman and Wonder Woman

Caden as Spiderman

Branson as Clark Kent / Superman

Sienna as Captain America

And last but not least ...
Adam as a Harley biker, Yasuhiro as an Alien,
and Jacob in an 80's flashback getup

"Love my mission president" (Sam)

Group Hug?

Hi there, I think I´m emailing a little early this week.. though I think you are in New York right now so we might not overlap at all today. No problem. We´ve had another good week. Things are pretty cooled down from the transfer and we´re basically caught up here. Its going to be interesting to watch what happens here in the office now that the big ´´wave of missionaries´´ has hit and is integrated into the field and not lingering over our heads so to speak.. :) I for one have definitely felt the impact of soo many more missionaries. One of my main jobs has to do with accounting/´´journaling´´ its called all missionary purchases that are not food basically... haha so missionaries will save all of the receipts they get from things like travel, butane (that some apartments require to heat the water), paper copies they make, or furnishings for the apartments, and they send them all to me and I do ´´a journal´´ or basically account for/declare all the purchases and then I refund them all that money. You can imagine... we´ve hit I think 220 missionaries.. and last week alone I did this process for 108 of them... I counted. :) hah My drawer that I normally keep all of the receipts and the documents in is filling like super fast. Haha

My companion is feeling it too cuz one of his main jobs is keeping each missionary up to date on their residency in Spain. Basically in each city you live in you have to tell the city hall or ´´ayuntamiento´´ where you are living.. Who you are living with.. you have to show them your european residency card that we get for the missionaries, and you have to show them the apartment contract. I´d say about a third of the mission (or more maybe) gets moved each transfer.. so right now, thats about 75 people... and Elder Crapo has to keep up on each of them and help them through that registration process.. and then we get all caught up and the next transfer hits... :D

Anyways, the good (bitter sweet) part is that the growth of the mission is kind of leveling off. The size of the groups going home are more or less the same size of the groups coming in. That eases a lot of stress off of the situation actually. Its going to be really interesting to see the changes made in the near future.

Every monday morning at 12 we have our weekly ´´Staff Meeting´´ with President Deere, Hermana Deere, the APs, Elder Crapo and I, the Castillos, and the other senior sister thats working here in the office named Hernana Chantrill from wyoming. This past monday, we had our normal meeting, we finished with a prayer, etc.. everyone gets up and walks out, and president turns to elder crapo and me and is like, hey can I have a work with you too?.. so we sit down, he´s in his mission president seat, hermana deere stays in the room but kinda moves over to the side and sits in a chair......... and we totally had like a heart to heart with president! :P Hah it was basically just president wanting us to hear some of his thoughts about the future of the office and him wanting some of our input..

It was actually a really great little conversation we had. One thing I love about President Deere is that he really looks into the future and always has high hopes for the future. Not necessarily specific goals.. and not really like ´´you´re doing this and I want you to be doing this´´... but more like.. He recognizes the past.. learns from it.. and then talks about his hopes or vision of the future. And just by giving us that idea.. that vision, we can work together better because we have the same end goal.

He was really appreciative of my work. It really felt good. Don´t mean to be mushy but I felt his appreciation for what I´ve been doing. I´ve known it all along.. but its easy to doubt your success or effectiveness if no outside opinions give you words of thanks or encouragement. He said something that really stuck with me.. he was talking about what Elder Butler and I have done over the last 6 months.. and he turned to me and goes.. ´´I recognize that we as a mission have basically sacrificed you here in the office.´´ Just that. Then he kept talking and went on.. but that really stuck with me. He recognizes that I´ve kind of been here without being able to go to misisonary conferences.. never being about to dedicate all my time, energy, or mind to missionary work on the street.. having to sacrifice study time, language time, meal time sometimes.. sleep time especially. He recognizes it. Anyways, it was like a weight off my shoulders. My mind was saying ´´okay so all this time i´ve felt disobedient for not studying as much as I should or not getting exactly 8 hours of sleep, or not having 20 lessons a week... all that he understands and isn´t disappointed´´. Good feeling. Love my mission president.

P-day we went to the Deere´s house and played volleyball and dodgeball in their backyard, and then went inside and had baked potatoes for lunch and play NERTZ after. :D Reminded me soo much of sitting around our dark stained wooden table playing cards and settlers and ´´the bean game´´. :D I hope you all still play!! or are at least ready to play when Hil and I are home!!

I just saw your email mom. I´m gonna go read it and reply if there´s anything I missed. Love you all! I love seeing pictures and/or videos if you have em. you all have big fancy nice smart phones now so it shouldn´t be too hard to send them ;P don´t worry, i´m gonna want one too when I´m home. Ha!

Love you all!

-Élder Norton