May letters

May 2
No letter from the little SCRUB.

May 9

Dear Family!

Well it was great to talk with all of you yesterday! Sure went by really quickly. Oh mom I forgot to tell you, Olivia says that she is the first one that gets to hug me! I guess you'll have to fight it out with her! I just didn't want to discuss it over the phone :) haha She is so cute! So something AWESOME happened this weekend. So, do you remember Cxxxs and Kxxxn Bxxxxy? They were two young men that I baptized in Carrollton. Well, their younger brother Cxxxy and sister Kxxxa were baptized in Carrollton this last Saturday! BOOYAH! Now all that is left in the family is the parents. They have some struggles with some things but I know they'll make it! It just makes you feel so good to see families being brought into the gospel! I love the work. The Lord blesses me so much! Even after I leave I still get to see fruits from my labors. I was in another area for interviews with president but the missionary serving there called and let me know.

Whoah! One of my old zone leaders just walked into the mission office with his family. He went home months ago. He was dressed like a civilian. Happy as can be. Parents proud and beaming! That was neat. Ok. So I think you asked about people baptized recently mom. I told you a little bit about Bro Jxxxxxs that we baptized Sunday on Knox. The week before he said he didn't want to be baptized yet. So, we just told him to keep reading and really praying with a sincere heart and that he would desire to be baptized. Well sure enough the next week he showed up wanting to be baptized. When I was talking with him before his interview I asked if he had been reading the Book of Mormon. He said yes and as he prayed and read more he just knew that he shouldn't wait and that it was what the Lord wanted him to do. AWESOME! The spirit is amazing. We just have to listen. The week before we had another baptism. Brother Hxxxxy is the soldiers name. I believe I sent you the picture of that one. There were three soldiers baptized. He was the shorter one in the middle with blonde hair. His wife is a member back home and he really wants to go to the temple. It is amazing what one will do for something they want. When we taught him the commandments he said he would give up anything to be baptized. It interesting when there are some who still question why they can't drink tea or coffee. He truly has a testimony. It made me think of King Lamoni and his father. They said they would give up their kingdoms to have eternal life. It is so important that we have our own personal testimony and nourish it daily. If not, we will be washed away spiritually when the rains and floods come :) So the success on Ft. Knox is going great!

Zone Conferences were great two weeks ago. It was a new experience conducting at meetings. I would say something and then sit down and would forget to say something and have to stand back up and correct myself (what a doofus!). It's a good learning experience. All of the missionaries who will go home before the next zone conference get the opportunity to share their testimonies. It was President and Sister Glende's final zone conference and so they shared their testimonies with all of the missionaries at each one. It was a blessing to be able to hear them share it all week long. Definitely a spiritual week. Also, during one of the zone conferences a district was assigned to perform a musical number. They sang joseph smith's first prayer to the tune of if you could high to kolob. It actually fits together really well. Anyway, I felt the spirit so strong as I listened to the words they sang. As they neared the verse where Joseph shares his experience, I said a silent prayer to myself to confirm the truth of the experience they were singing about. I wrote this down in a notebook, and will probably share more in detail with you when I am home, but as they sang about the Father and Son speaking to him, I had a wonderful feeling come over me. I can't describe it but it was neat. I have had many witnesses from the Holy Ghost that the first vision is true, but it is a blessing to know that Heavenly Father will always confirm your testimony if you ask him to. I know that Joseph Smith's prayers were answered in that quiet grove.

Interviews have been great as well. Visiting every district has allowed me to spend more time individually getting to know each missionary. While President has been doing the interviews we set up a little jeopardy trivia game that goes over Preach My Gospel and other church related things that we have been playing with each district and it has made it very easy to learn and spend time with the missionaries. I am definitely being very observant as we have been traveling and meeting with other missionaries. I am trying to learn all that I can. I don't know how well I am doing but I know as I continue to do my best that the Lord will make up the difference.

In our own area we are working hard to find those who are prepared to be baptized. The people that we are currently teaching are moving slowly but surely. No one we are teaching right now is looking to be baptized this transfer. I really want to baptize someone in the branch with Elder Davis. It is going to take a miracle but I know the Lord can do it. We had about 20 RM's move in the area the last couple weeks who will be doing sales throughout the summer, so our little branch will be big for the summer. We are trying to work with members to find people to teach. To be honest it is a lot easier that way and it seems that the ones that are usually prepared come from the members. That's why you tell the missionaries who all your friends are because it just might turn out that one of them have been prepared by the Lord to receive the restored gospel! You never know! Anyway, we are hoping and praying and working to baptize someone this transfer! Ft. Knox we should have a couple more before it's up but we really want to help the branch grow in Louisville.

It is going to be a great week this week. We have interviews all this week and then next week is our last week to proselyte and then I get a new companion and Elder Davis goes home. YIKES! Today is our personal interviews with President. I am excited. Hopefully won't be my last but we'll see. He has helped me through so much. I honestly feel like part of the reason I was called her was because of him. I needed him to be my mission President so I could learn and grow the way the Lord needed me to. I love President and Sister Glende so much! It's been such a blessing to work so closely with them the last 4 weeks. Again thank you for talking to me yesterday. It was so good to hear all of your voices. I hope the week goes great and everyone finds joy and success in what they do. Tell Noah HAPPY BIRTHDAY for me again. The next time we talk will be in AZ baby! haha I am not trunky I promise. I love you all and look forward to hearing from you soon! Hurah for Israel!

Elder Norton#2

May 16

Dear Family!

HELLO!!!!! Well it has been an eventful week. We traveled again around the mission doing interviews with President and Sister Glende. It is such a blessing to be able to spend so much time around them. They are so wonderful! Righteous, humble, servants of the Lord! I have learned so much from them the past 20 months. I hope when I am older I can be such a good example to so many! They have really helped change my life, and I know the lives of many others.

So, we started off by having our own personal interviews with President. That was good. Then we traveled up to Evansville, Indiana and visited all of the missionaries there. I had a migraine on Wednesday night. We were working with the zone leaders there because we were staying over night and so it was a bummer that it slowed me down. We visited this one lady who claims she is the "momma of the mormon boys." She was mad at me because I was out working and not laying in bed. She said that if I don't tell you that I need migraine medicine that she is going to hunt me down. haha She was so loving. So yeah mom I don't feel like I need medicine. If I have a migraine I just take some ibuprofen and just tough it out until I can go to sleep at night. I think I only get them once or twice a month tops. So don't worry about it. I'll be home in a couple months so we can deal with it then :)

Ft. Knox was tough for me this week. We taught a really great class of soldiers but no one was baptized. I am trying so hard not to compare myself. The previous missionaries who have served here baptized hundreds of soldiers. We are not doing nearly as well as they did. I feel like I am not doing enough. I really want to focus on becoming more spiritual. President Glende in zone conference a couple weeks ago gave us 7 points to be more spiritual as a mission and individually. I really am trying to work on them. The first point is to study PMG chapter 4 which talks about how to recognize the spirit. Second is record spiritual experiences in your journal every night, or record how you felt you were led by the Lord. Third was to clean. Keep you apartment and cars clean so that they can be inviting to the spirit. It is crazy how something as small as cleaning can increase your ability to feel the spirit. The next one is obedience. He shared the scripture about the stripling warriors who were exactly obedient to the Lord and the things their mothers taught them. HURRAH FOR MOTHERS!!!! Next was music. The music we listen to is so crucial to the ability we have to feel the spirit. This is not just as missionaries either. What kind of music are we listening to back home? Does it invite us to do good? Does it bring us closer to the Savior? I have really tried hard to make sure that the music I listen to invites the spirit. The 6th was Language. The words we speak really does have an affect on the spirit. Even if it is not swear words, we can still dismiss the spirit if we are not using good language. The last one was a combination of study, pray, and attend church. President focused on how we are always at church, but we really need to focus all of our thoughts and attention at church on the sacrament. That is our personal time to be alone with Savior every week, to have a spiritual experience. If we take our minds off of the world for just 20 minutes during the sacrament our spirituality would increase. These are the things President is trying to help us do better at. I know it can definitely help me. We have talked about how missionaries in the scriptures taught with so much power that, regardless of whether or not they followed them or the teachings, they couldn't doubt that it was true. I want to be able to have that ability. I have been struggling spiritually I feel. I have some weapons of rebellion that I need to bury. I hope I can finish off these last few months strong. I am trying to be the best that I can. I have a lot to work on. I am grateful for the time I have been given to "wrestle" with God and put the things of the world behind me.

Yesterday was an unusual Sunday. We had stake conference but it was a broadcast from SLC to the Kentucky area. Elder Ballard and Elder Eyring spoke. At least that's all I caught of it. We watched it in E-town because it started right as Ft. Knox ended. So we were a little late but from what I caught it was amazing. Elder Ballard talked a lot about missionary work and how as members and missionaries we can do better. I really appreciated that talk. He read a poem at the end of his talk that hit me really hard. I loved it. I don't know what it is called. It was about the wind and an oak tree. I don't know but if somehow you come across it and find it somewhere send it to me because I thought it was awesome! Elder Eyring gave an awesome talk as well. He talked about being a wise optimist! I thought about you the whole time mom! He talked about how being optimistic will bring success. I need to be more optimistic that is for sure! It was a good experience though.

So Elder Davis and I were tracting the other day and met Satan! We look for young single adults. That's who we're over and who we teach. So we're at this apartment complex and this guy gets out of his car and invited us into his apartment. He seemed super nice so we were like ok cool. He definitely wasn't a young single adult but we thought maybe we could give a referral to the other missionaries. Well I am not going to mention what church or congregation he is from but he was a leader in one of the churches he attends and basically tried to teach us a lesson from the book of revelations and the end times and all this other stuff that wasn't relevant to anything. Some member I guess gave him some papers on doctrines of the church and so he used that as a lure to try to get us to answer his questions. It was ridiculous. Anyways, the thought has probably come to you why am I even telling you this. To be honest I don't know why I am telling you this when I just finished talking about optimism. Oh the IRONY! Anyway, I don't know if I should have done this or not or if we should have just rudely got up and walked out, but I tried to pretend like I knew nothing and put my shoes in those of our investigators. I tried to listen with my spiritual ears instead of my physical. As he spoke, I heard and felt nothing. As he blabbed on and on about a million different scriptures and how the Bible is mistranslated and all this other nonsense, I just felt like I should bare my testimony. Well, that's when I draw the line, when I try to bare my testimony to someone and they just interrupt by asking questions or stop me. That is frustrating. He had such a calm voice. He was smiling and acting very calm. He was asking simple questions trying to catch us in a lie. I totally felt like I was sitting in Satan's presence! Super nice, soft spoken, had a ton of random knowledge, but the words he was speaking were misleading. So yeah, I just didn't feel anything from him. There was no testimony, no spirit, nothing. I am grateful for the power of prayer and personal testimony! Take that SATAN!

Well that about wraps up my week. In three more days I'll have another companion. It won't be until next tuesday that Elder Davis will peace out and go home but it will definitely be an exciting week! It is good to hear about Joseph and Drew with their jobs. I hope that works out for them this summer. I felt like I had some other things to share but they left my brain at the moment. Anyway, I hope everyone has a great week. Again it was such a blessing to talk to each one of you last week. The time is about to kick into light speed. Summer is going to be the shortest one of my life. I won't talk anymore about that. I love you all. Hope you have a great week. Look forward to hearing from you soon!

Love,
Elder Norton#2

May 23

So today I have been teaching Elder Thompson a little bit on how to collect and record all of the info from around the mission that we recieve each week. It took a little longer then I wanted. We go and pick up the new missionaries in 2 hours. We have a skit and a training for tonight and tomorrow morning that we need to prepare so we're going to do that right now. I will write a real letter tomorrow after transfers when things aren't so crazy and my mind is at a little more ease. I guess I am starting to feel the weight on my shoulders with Elder Davis leaving tomorrow. Crazy stuff. Anyway all is well. I am so excited to be working with Elder Thompson. It is something we have "dreamed" of our whole missions so it will be a blast. Remember when I told you a few months ago that president pulled us both aside...Funny how a few months later he and I are serving together. All I know is that is all we are going to do.....BAPTIZE! Love you mom. Thanks for all you do and your positive attitude about everything. It really helps me and keeps me going. I'll look forward to writing you a better letter tomorrow. We have some really good stuff going on for us right now. I love you and will talk to you soon.

May 30

It has been a wonderful week. Elder Thompson and I are having a great time together. He is a very spiritual person, but goofy like me, so we have a lot of fun. I could not have asked for anyone better to serve with for the last few months of my mission. I just feel confident in myself around him. He's a great example to me and to the missionaries. Everyone looks up to him. On Ft. Knox the soldiers love him! On the 12th of June we are going to have quite a few soldiers be baptized. We're excited. It is amazing how far showing a little bit of love will go. We have concentrated on letting the soldiers know and feel that we truly do care about them and love them and that that is why we are even here is for them. I have never enjoyed church more then when I am at Ft. Knox. There's a lot of good things happening there! Elder Davis is home so I guess you could say I am running the show..... Elder Thompson and I are learning together lets just say that :) We have some wonderful people we are teaching in the singles branch also so things are going great!

I am trying to remember what I told you last. That is terrible. I really shoot myself in the foot when I don't write. I know you are agreeing with me right now mom. I guess the last time I wrote I didn't know who would be my new comp. That was an interesting week. Remind me to tell you about my experience with being "told" that Elder Thompson would be my companion before I was actually told, when I get home. I don't really feel like I should share that over an email. It is nothing huge or major but I'd just rather share it in person when I get home. Anyway, it has been a blessing being able to serve with Elder Thompson so far. He is a perfect example of what a missionary should be. I have a lot to learn from him. I definitely am bummed that Elder Davis is home. He was a blast to serve with. It almost seemed unreal seeing him go home. I felt like he was just going on an exchange and would be back the next day, but he never came back! I really learned a lot from Elder Davis. I guess we could say he was a "dark horse" assistant. Basically what that means is everyone thought they knew who the next few assistants would be before President Glende went home and he wasn't expected to be one of them. I am so grateful that the Lord is in charge! Elder Davis is an amazing missionary and really taught me a lot about the gospel. He has such a strong testimony as well. I had the opportunity to hear him bare his "final" testimony about 3 or 4 times and so it was a spiritual experience for me. He finished his mission with no regrets. He knew that he served with everything he had and so it really wasn't tough at all for him to accept his fate haha It probably was but he didn't show it. He served his two years and was excited to go home and see his family. I hope I can finish strong like he did. The Lord has just blessed me with so many wonderful brothers to serve with! Every one of them I needed right when we were assigned to serve together. Sister Glende always tells us that this is the greatest mission in the world, for you! I have a testimony of that! I have struggled and struggled and struggled. I still struggle. I thought to go and come home on a mission that you would be perfect. Well maybe it is just me then, hopefully not, but I definitely am not perfect. I know when I go home I still will have temptations and struggles, but overall I feel like the mission is all about who you become. I am trying to become who the Lord wants me to be. As a missionary and as a son of God. It's scary how fast it goes.

We picked up the new missionaries last monday. I told them to cherish this memory because in a second they'll be getting back on the plane! I don't think they believed me :) We had 3 Elders come in Monday and one sister had a flight cancelled due to the weather and so she came in later that night. It is so amazing to see the missionaries come out of the terminal when we greet them. Many people come walking out looking depressed or lost. Really most of them don't look happy. When those shining missionaries come out they look like servants of the Lord. Full of purpose and desire. I wonder what I looked like when I was picked up? It was definitely a small group but they all are amazing! I can't believe how much better prepared the missionaries are! I felt like I didn't know anything when I arrived here in Kentucky! These missionaries are already better then I am now! I am so pumped for the success the GKLM is going to have. (great kentucky louisville mission, I have used that before right?) President Woodbury and his wife are being brought to a great part of the vineyard! I am grateful I will be able to spend some time with him before I go. The meeting we have the night we pick up the missionaries is always spiritual as well. They all shared their testimonies and they all sounded like they had just served two years already. They are amazing! Transfers were crazy. Everyone came up and were asking all sorts of questions about what do they do and who do they talk to and on and on. It was funny because I asked Elder Davis a lot of the questions the missionaries had and he said, "sorry chief but you're the leader now" and then just walked off..........HAHA I was pretty dang stressed last week. It was funny because President Glende talked about the new mission president coming and he said "well when he gets here we'll tour the house with him and show him where the light switches are and then we're off." He has such a funny sense of humor. I really am going to miss them. They have been my parents these last two years and I have really grown to love and trust the council they have given me. It will be hard to see them leave.

Lets see what else? We are teaching a young single adult named Axxxxa. She is amazing. We were introduced to her by a less active member named Hans. He is amazing as well. Member work is the best. We have been teaching her and she just loves it. We set a baptismal date for the 11th of June. This last week unfortunately we have lost complete contact with them because of phone problems. Hopefully we can get in touch with them quick. We are also teaching a young woman named Wxxxxxy! She is great! We have been teaching her and it is just clicking. Her family is baptist and so there definitely isn't much support from them. She has been to church the last couple weeks and has really enjoyed it and so everything is going great with her. We are on campus a lot trying to talk with students. The quantity of students has really decreased because of summer but there are still a lot of summer courses going on and so it still keeps us busy. Besides that we're trying to work with members to find people to teach.

Ft. Knox is amazing like I mentioned before! Last week was Elder Davis' last Sunday and it definitely ended on a good note. We were teaching this soldier who the week before didn't feel like he could ever be baptized. He didn't feel like he was good enough or sure if he should do it. Well, we invited him to really sincerely read and pray about the Book of Mormon every day until the next Sunday and that he would know what he should do. The next Sunday came and he came running in telling us he was so excited to be baptized. So he was interviewed and baptized about 20 minutes later! He is an amazing person. We sat down with him and asked him what changed. He simply said that he read the Book of Mormon every night and prayed and never felt so sure in his life about making the decision to be baptized! That is two weeks in a row for us that a soldier came wanting to be baptized because he sincerely read and prayed about the Book of Mormon. If people would just be sincere! Anyway we are really close to the soldiers we teach and there's a good number of them that want to be baptized together on the 12th! Hopefully everything works out for that day!

Well the next two weeks we will be traveling around the mission again to leadership trainings. It will be President and Sister Glende's last time traveling around and seeing all of the missionaries. It will be very spiritual! I am grateful to be able to experience all of this with Elder Thompson. We get along so well. I am stoked to know that I will be able to serve with him for longer then a transfer too. It feels like a dream serving with Elder Fielding, Robbins, and Davis. It probably won't slow down at all either. I feel like I am riding down a monstrous hill with no breaks! It's like I am hitting the brakes as hard as I can but nothing is happening. AHHHH! I am trying to make the most of it. I definitely am enjoying every minute of it though that is for sure! I believe I have updated you on the most important things. There are always little funny things that happen or spiritual things that I forget about until the next week. And then I don't write completely and forget so I apologize for that. I say I am trying to get better but I don't have a lot of time left to improve :) I will do better though mom! Elder Rapier goes home in 6 weeks huh!? Wow! Are the Rapier's excited for that? I am sure they are! Crazy that our whole lives we look forward to this point and now it is basically over. What do we look forward to next? We had a combined class in Priesthood and Relief Society in the Branch yesterday. The lesson was on marriage. YUCK! JK But seriously though it was awkward for us missionaries. Oh Elder Kastendieck is in the singles area where I used to serve so we're in the same branch. He came out with me. Was my DL in the MTC. It is neat to work around him so close and see how he has grown throughout his mission. He is from Canada. It was funny because yesterday we sang America the Beautiful in church. Haha we gave him a hard time about it. Anyway I think I am just blabbing now. I hope you all have a wonderful week. Keep me updated on the summer life. It is sure going to fly by. I love you and look forward to hearing from you soon.

Love, Elder Norton#2