April letters

April 4

I probably won't have time to write a family letter so I'd like to at least write you! So we had a great week. Just the regular administrative stuff that we have to do. It's a blessing to serve others. I love it! So we just finished our college class. It was fun. I was dang nervous. I don't know why. The thought was just intimidating to me. I prayed for comfort and direction and went into the class. Immediately when we were called on to speak to the students and we stood up in front of me, all of those feelings disappeared. The thought was in my head, (God made my nervousness disappear!) Home alone the kid says I made my family disappear. That was the thought but with those words :) Sorry I'm a goof. It was a great experience though. Conference was awesome! I enjoyed a lot of the talks. Had some Q's answered that I just came up with a couple days before just to say I came up with them and they were answered in the first couple talks. It was really cool! Crazy that it is my last conference. I miss you a lot mom. It won't be long though. I'm dang grateful the Lord answers our prayers when we need him to. Glad he came through for you. I don't know where or what I'd be without you mom. You've really helped me to have confidence in myself. I love you so much. I hope I can write more next week. We have a conference call in 10 minutes. Hope you have a wonderful week. I'll talk to you soon.

Love
Elder Norton#2

April 11

Dear Family.......

WOW!!!!! I haven't left the office in like 3 days!!!!! Ok that's a little exaggerated but it feels that way. So the beginning of the week on Tuesday is when we had zone leader council. I won't lie I was pretty convinced that I would be staying at least one more with Elder Robbins in E-town. Well at the end of the council President interviewed all of us just to have a little get to know ya better and see what our goals are for the remainder of the mish. Well I was the last one to go and at the end he told me that I would be his new assistant. I was pretty blown away. Had no clue what to think. He basically told me I would be the transition assistant that would fill the new mission president in on everything when he arrives here. My new comp Elder Davis goes home at the end of this transfer and so President Glende told me I am going to have to learn quickly. Learning how a whole entire mission functions and knowing every missionary by name and knowing where all the areas are and where everything is in 6 weeks....... cake right! So yeah I won't make mention of my new concerns anymore I just ask that you pray for me to learn "quickly!" I'll have a new comp next week to train and a new MP to show how to run things! I am stoked!

So yeah new missionaries come in.....about 3 hours. We're going to the air port to pick them up and then the rest of today and half of tomorrow we'll be with them. Elder Murphy is definitely coming to the mission. Thursday night the assistants picked me up and ALL day friday we sat in a room with President Glende and Sister Glende and worked out the transfers for the upcoming week. It was a lot of fun. Seeing all of the missionaries throughout the mission all on one board. It feels like I just got off the plane, and now I am going to be picking up the new Elders and Sisters. Hard to believe. Saturday we worked on transfer information all day again. We went down to our meeting in e-town in my old apartment. I still get to teach on Ft. Knox so that's cool. The first female ever was baptized yesterday on Ft. Knox. Her fiance is going through basic so she's been coming. He was baptized 3 weeks ago and baptized her yesterday. It was pretty cool. I'll send pics.
So, when did you know Elder Murphy's parents? Was it in Georgia? You said Utah? You didn't go to high school in Utah did you mom? Or was it while you were in college? But you said seminary? Fill me in on that. President did tell us though about his father's reputation so that was cool. I'll talk to Elder Murphy about it today.

So it was neat to be back in the Louisville 7th branch.(singles branch) Most of the people that attended there have moved on but the Branch presidency is still the same. President Mortensen was happy to see me. It doesn't feel like I ever left. There's a couple kids that were there when I first got there that are still coming so it was good to see them. I'm stoked to be back. So yeah tomorrow is transfers. It will be a fun time. Lots to do. It's crazy how much really goes on behind the scenes! I guess my new calling plays a big part in that. Welp I am going to try hard not to get into the routine of short letters, but I don't have a lot of time today. Other day should be better. I love you mom for all you do. Hopefully I can talk to you more later. Thanks for the pic of Joseph. I wish I could spend some time with him. Keep me up to date on how his mish prep is coming along. I gotta run. Have to get a lot of zone info from the zl's. Love ya tons! Hope you have a great week!

Elder Norton#2

April 18

Dear Family,

It has been a great week. Busy, but great. I guess it started last monday with picking up the new missionaries. That was a blast. It was an interesting feeling seeing the missionaries walk off the plane. I still can't really understand how I am the missionary they first see when they get off of the plane. That means that I'm old. I still remember seeing the AP's in the airport and all I could think was that they were perfect. Hair was parted, shoes shined, President had his arm around them. I wonder what the missionaries thought when they saw me? It's weird to think about being on the other side now. I definitely am not perfect. I don't know if my hair was parted and I am pretty sure my shoes weren't shined.....Ok my comp actually shined them that morning so that one I did do. It was a great experience though. So once the missionaries get back to the mission home and get there things all situated, we have dinner and then a little testimony meeting devotional with them. So before the testimonies start the assistants always prepare a little skit. We're supposed to portray the first day in the life as a missionary. Obviously it's a little goofy and it's supposed to help them ease up a little bit. So in preparation we were practicing our little skit. We pretended to smash our alarm clock when we woke up first thing in the morning. We didn't have a real alarm clock so we were just smacking the floor around us like it was dark and we were trying to get the alarm to stop. Well in the process of that I was smacking the ground and rolled over and the angle I hit my hand on the floor just made my finger pop really loud. I thought right then that I broke it. I won't lie I was pretty dang scared. It was about 30minutes before we actually did the real thing. I played it off like nothing happened and that I didn't hurt it but it hurt SO bad! The joint ended up swelling pretty good but it didn't bruise or anything. I think I just jammed it pretty bad. At the time it seemed like a pretty dang stupid thing to do, but we laugh about it now. My finger is still a little tender but it is healing :) So yeah that was the first day.

The next day was transfers. That was an enjoyable experience as well. It's scary to be sitting up in front of all of the missionaries looking like you are important. We basically are just the errand runners. We take care of all the behind the scenes stuff that happens with transfers. So, probably the best part about transfers was right before the meeting started. I walked in from the bottom entrance and right as I opened the door, there he was............Rxxxr Pxxxr was standing in the doorway to the hall looking right at me. I was so surprised to see him! I dropped my stuff and ran up to him and gave him a big hug. He started sobbing. I won't lie it was a pretty emotional reunion. It has been about 6 months since I have seen him. Txxxxa wasn't with him so that was a bummer but I worried and worried and worried about the Piper family ever since I left. I was afraid I didn't teach them enough or didn't help them enough before I left and that they might fall away. That's terrible to think and definitely a lack of faith on my part. Well they haven't! They're as strong as ever! I actually just got a letter in the mail from them yesterday too that said how excited they were to go through the temple in Salt Lake next October! I can't wait! Anyway it was such a blessing and a strength for both of us to see each other! As I was hugging Rxxxr this verse came into my mind "And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!" Let me tell you my joy was great when I saw him! There's just so many special people to me that the Lord has allowed me to be a part of. I am so blessed! I can't imagine what it will be like to see Brother Pxxxr and his family in the Lord's kingdom. Definitely humbling!

After transfers was all taken care of we had some time this week to go and proselyte. We found Axxxxxn, Txxxxxa, and this guy named Ixxn that I taught when I was first here. We're going to try to start working with them again but we really want to focus on those who are prepared and are willing to act. I feel like I spent too much time working with people that were just willing to listen when I first arrived here. No time for that. Too many people prepared now and needing the gospel. Txxxxxa came to church yesterday so that was cool. We're going to see her this next week so we'll see how that goes. We spent a lot of time on campus talking to students. There's definitely plenty of people to talk to, it's just hard to find the right ones. We're not going to have a lot of time the rest of the transfer to find people to teach and so we're really trying to find the people who are ready to act now. It's crazy how much the campus has changed though since the last time I was here. I'm humbled to be able to work in the singles area again. So far this is the only area I haven't baptized in and so that is one of my goals here. Can't wait.

I think really the only big highlight of the week was Ft. Knox yesterday. We taught the 1st lesson this week and had a new class of soldiers. Ten of them that were in attendance were because of a soldier who is a member invited them all to come. He is excited about the church and isn't afraid to share the gospel and because he opened his mouth and invited them, they came. Now, 4-7 of them are going to be baptized. It was such a prepared class. Elder Thompson has been transferred to the other zone leader area that comes down with us to Ft. Knox so it will be a blessing to be able to work so close with him. Elder Robbins is doing a great job as well. It was a bummer to leave him after 6 weeks. It went so fast. Elder Davis and I only have 6 weeks together as well. I'm glad the transfer started off great. The Lord blesses me so much! I am very excited to see how this transfer plays out. It is going to be great. The Lord has prepared so many people for Elder Davis and I to bring into the church. This area is just ripe. Thanks for all the positive influence you've had on me mom. It is so hard sometimes positive out here. Every time I start even thinking about being down on myself your positive attitude always comes back into my mind! I can just imagine you cheering for me on the sidelines like it's a big game. Maybe I just missed a shot but I am going to make the next one. Things like that just always come into my mind. You've helped out so much mom! I love you!

Well, I'm sorry that each of these long paragraphs are so scattered. I am trying to put everything in my mind in the email. Hope you all had a great sabbath day. Mine was great. I am really trying to have better Charity. I am terrible with that. To see people the way God sees them. To treat people the way the Savior would. Judging is something that I do way too often. I need to be better. Reading about the Savior in the scriptures truly does help. I have a lot of imperfections. I need to repent daily. I make a lot of mistakes, even as a missionary, but it's a blessing to know that if we will simply try our best and repent, the Lord will help us through. My goal as a missionary is to become something better then what I was before I left. Hopefully I can become completely converted to the gospel. That is definitely going to be a lifelong process. I know that the Savior will be with us throughout that process as long as we let Him. It has been a humbling week. Share the gospel with someone, it will bring a lot of joy, regardless of the outcome. That is the blessing of the gospel, sharing it brings happiness. I love it. Thanks for all you do family. I love you all very much. Hope to hear from you soon!

Love, Elder Norton#2

April 25

Dear Family,

I had an eventful week! Rumor has always been that the AP's never work, at least proselyte. Not that they don't, just don't have time. We had plenty of time to do that this week. So about a week and a half ago President Glende called us and asked Elder Davis and I if we could go teach a world religions class at a private Christian Academy high school. It's one thing to just teach high school students. It's another thing when it's all students who have been raised with a protestant belief and so anything and everything you say will be questioned. It was definitely a great learning experience. We taught on Tuesday and Wednesday. 6 different classes one after another all day long. It was tough. I don't know how school teachers do it. Lot's of standing and talking. Anyway, the first day we taught the Restoration. Sure was an eye opener for some of the kids. Prophets on the earth? Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are two separate people? More scripture? BLASPHEMY I TELL YOU!!!!!! haha It was interesting to see the faces of students when we brought up those topics. I think some kids didn't know that those things were even an option. So for most of the first day classes there wasn't a whole lot of time to let them ask questions. So the second day we came prepared to share the articles of faith and explain to them our basic beliefs. Well about half way through the first class the teacher said that the students could just read them on their own and then opened it up to Q and A time. So, for the rest of the day we were drilled and hammered with every question you could think of from "was God really a man," to "do you really wear holy underwear?" It was frustrating I can't lie. The teacher gave each of the students a paper front to back with our "basic simple doctrine" on it and it had tons of misquoted things from previous prophets to anti statements that say Joseph Smith will judge us at judgement day. I am happy that we could clear some of that bogus up for these students. There definitely were a lot of inspired questions that I believe will lead some of them to meet with missionaries further down the road. It was interesting though that a lot of the questions were started with "why do you think God would do this?" or "what do you think God was thinking when he did that?" A lot of the answers we gave them were, I don't know, but I know he did. To be honest there were a lot of things that I didn't know. The teachers brought up a lot of things that Brigham Young said that I have never heard about. The teachers would try to set us up sometimes to make us look retarded in front of the class. I am so grateful for the Holy Ghost. When things were questioned or questions were asked that really wasn't for any other reason then to question, it gave us the opportunity to bear simple testimony. I love bearing my testimony. I know it's simple, but it gives the students the opportunity to feel the presence of the Holy Ghost. There were students who would come up after with their scriptures and try to show us how things we taught had to be wrong. We would simply tell them what we know through testimony, and invite them to find out for themselves. It frustrated a lot of them. We made it too easy. I think some of them expected us to be blown away by the scriptures they brought up to us and that we would completely deny the faith. I don't know if they are taught to pray and ask for guidance. Either way, it was a great experience to share our beliefs with our Christian brothers and sisters. They are wonderful people and it makes everything better when we have an understanding of each other. It was cool because the second day when we were leaving a lot of the buses the kids rode drove past us and when they saw us in our vehicle they all were hanging out the windows waving goodbye to us. A lot of them thanked us for coming as well. I believe the majority of the students we taught were sophomores. Jefferson is a sophomore right? Sheesh! He's getting old.

So after that experience the next two days we went and worked with a couple of the newly called Zone Leaders. We first went to Lexington to work with Elder Fielding and his new companion Elder Johnson. It was good to be with him again. We had a lot of spiritual experiences when we were together in E-Town. I really look up to him. It actually is the first time I have been to that side of the mission. Lexington is beautiful! Green hills and horse farms everywhere. It is definitely different then anything I have experienced so far. The next day we worked down in E-Town with Elder Robbins and his new companion Elder Todd. It was just a blast this week to work with my recent previous companions. Ft. Knox was great also. We had some soldiers that were hesitant on being baptized next week but we're still working with them. We will have 2 for sure though. Saturday I felt like a complete moron. We had a lesson scheduled with Txxxxxa and we got caught up in doing reports for the zone leaders and completely forgot..........I FELT SO BAD! So yeah she wasn't at church. Totally my fault. We saw her last night though and set up another time to teach her. Hopefully she will progress. We also found an investigator last night. We hadn't found any this week and last night we were praying to be able to find someone. Long story short, we felt prompted to go to one set of apts and then when we arrived we felt like the ones down the street were the ones we were supposed to go to. We knocked 3 doors and a guy came out and talked to us. He wasn't interested but referred us to a friend a few streets down the road. The address didn't exist but the apts that we ended up at we tracted and found someone who was interested!!!! haha It was pretty cool how it all just fell into place. It is a cool feeling knowing that someone has been prepared for you. You HAVE to talk to everyone because you don't want to miss that person. So, we are searching hard because this week we will be traveling throughout the mission all week for zone conferences and then the next 2 and a half weeks we will be traveling again throughout the entire mission for interviews with President Glende. So not a lot of time to proselyte our own area. Heavenly Father is going to drop someone into our hands who is prepared to be baptized! I know He will! I can feel it. We're stoked. Everything is going great!

So mother. To answer your Q about food. Yes we have food, but no there really isn't anyone to feed us and yes I have lost weight. Idk sometimes we skip meals because of the schedule and things we have to do and so we just wait until the next meal comes. It's funny because basically every missionary who has been out as long as me or longer and is within the 6 months of going home is trying to lose weight. I am the only one I think that is trying to gain weight! I guess I am in the wrong part of the country to have the same fill-in effect that Drew had. I am pretty sure I don't look any different then when I left, I just am so dang skinny. It is what it is though I guess.

I am definitely glad that your decision to stay in Duncan is final. Parents moving while kids are out on the mission is not cool. Obviously if it was what the Lord wanted, I would support it, but I don't know how happy I would have been. Don't need to worry about that though. Glad to hear that EFT has helped with the experiences that you have had mom. To be honest though, I don't really care too much about what is going on with the Duncan schools. You give me enough details to know that there are problems but don't give me enough to know what is going on. So I am left to just wonder about the whole thing and if it really is or isn't as bad as it sounds. So I guess if you don't mind just leaving the D-town stuff out until I get home then we can have all the conversations about what is going on that you want. I definitely am interested in what is going on, but don't feel it really matters right now. It is good to know though that you could possibly make it on the school board. I guess it helped to fill me in on those things so I could know how you got to that point. So if I sounded mean when I wrote the first part of this paragraph I apologize because I didn't mean it that way. I love you :)

So Drew's truck is up and running right? How's Jobo's transportation going? Did he ever get his bike back? How's his singing career and fame on EA? Is he getting his papers started? Did Rustin report to the MTC already? I guess I should probably check up on the missionary monthly letters you send me more often. I just run out of time on these computers and don't really have reading them on the top of priorities. Sorry about that. So does the family have any summer plans? Any around the home projects besides the kitchen stuff? Did President Graves ever call you guys about the soap business? I remember when I was still in Carrollton that he was wondering about it? Idk. The Sxxxxxo's hit their year mark on the 17th this april. I don't remember if I told you that? They hopefully will be going through the temple to be sealed sometime this transfer! I am so stoked! I'll keep you updated on that. It seems like everyone else is doing well. I found out Rxxxxa removed her name last week from the church. I was pretty sad. I know I can't beat myself up for it but the thought of what more could I have done always comes to mind. I just hope one day she'll come back, and that she will have another chance to completely accept it.

Welp I think I am draggin on this letter. We just finished up all of our computer work for the day. There were some minor mistakes that we had to spend a little bit fixing. I don't know what I am going to do once Elder Davis is gone. I'll probably forget my head on my pillow and walk on out the door. Just keep me in your prayers. I hope everyone has a wonderful week. Mine should be just about the same thing every day. 4 straight days of zone conferences here we come. WAHOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I love you all greatly! Hope to hear from you soon! Hurrah for Israel! :)

Elder Norton#2