Dear Family and Friends,
I am really excited about things that are happening this week. Yesterday I had a really good day. After church, my companion and I decided to stop by a few former investigators to check-up on them. We stopped by three houses and were able to get in contact with someone at all three places and make plans for appointments. Then, at dinner we got a referral from the Sister missionaries in the Spanish Branch to teach someone that they had just contacted, so after dinner we stopped by that person and set up an appointment with her for this week. She sounded really excited and eager to learn about the gospel, though a bit suprised at how quickly we responded to the Sisters' call (afterwards we ran into the sisters who were still knocking that street). And then when we ran into the sisters, one of them, Sister Clawson, told me about an investigator who we had passed off to her when I was in the Heritage Ward. You might remember me mentioning a Jordan Cohen in one of my e-mails from then. She is Jewish, but her boyfriend, who is a member, had told us that she wanted to take the lessons. She was doing well, but our lessons were always very far apart and we had only been able to teach her three times out of the two transfers I was there. We started teaching her when we found out that she lived out of our area, so we had Sister Clawson and her companion start teaching her. Well, Sister Clawson told me yesterday that Jordan was baptized a while ago and that she is super solid in the church. I was so happy to hear how great things were going with her. I feel so blessed right now even just thinking about it. The Lord has truly granted me many great blessings, and I see so clearly how I would have accomplished nothing on my mission without His help and grace. Well, I have to go now. I still haven't written my letter to President Pike yet, so I have to do that before I run out of time. Thank you so much for everything that you do. I pray that God will continue to bless and watch over all of you.
Love,
Elder Norton
Monday, August 30, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
A Few Changes!
Dear Family and Friends,
Things are going better this week than they did last week. We have a ton of work to do here, so my companion and I are being kept very busy. Most of the work is trying to contact all of the referrals that we have been given from headquarters, but we have finally been able to actually meet the people that we are trying to reach, so I am very excited. We have a new person that we are teaching. His name is Carlos, and he is part of a less active family. His oldest sister is the only active member in his family, but we are trying to re-activate his whole family as well. We also are starting a new policy in our mission. Starting in September, we will not be having any more meals with members. We will be responsible for all of our meals now, and not just for breakfast and lunch. The whole purpose for doing this is to free up that prime time for finding new people to teach. I think that this is going to help the work a lot, but it is going to take a bit of getting used to for the missionaries and the members as well. Well, I have to go now, but I will write again next week. Thanks for all of your love and support.
Love,
Elder Norton
Things are going better this week than they did last week. We have a ton of work to do here, so my companion and I are being kept very busy. Most of the work is trying to contact all of the referrals that we have been given from headquarters, but we have finally been able to actually meet the people that we are trying to reach, so I am very excited. We have a new person that we are teaching. His name is Carlos, and he is part of a less active family. His oldest sister is the only active member in his family, but we are trying to re-activate his whole family as well. We also are starting a new policy in our mission. Starting in September, we will not be having any more meals with members. We will be responsible for all of our meals now, and not just for breakfast and lunch. The whole purpose for doing this is to free up that prime time for finding new people to teach. I think that this is going to help the work a lot, but it is going to take a bit of getting used to for the missionaries and the members as well. Well, I have to go now, but I will write again next week. Thanks for all of your love and support.
Love,
Elder Norton
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Another Great Week!
Dear Family and Friends,
I am really excited this week for a lot of reasons. I am really happy that my brother Jace is heading out on his mission. I am so proud of you Jace for this decision. I know that you are going to be a great missionary. Good luck and do your best out there!!! I am also excited because we just started teaching a lady named Karin. She has been coming to church the last two Sundays with her grandmother and with her four daughters. We taught Karin and her oldest daughter, McKayla, who turns 8 this August, last Wednesday and they both want to be baptized.
We have been keeping very busy here and I am really looking forward to the next couple of weeks. I got to do a baptismal interview this week and it was very special to me. I felt the Spirit so strongly during that time. I am so thankful for all of the blessings I have been given and for everyone's support back home. I can't wait for next week to come so I can write you all about it. Thanks again for everything.
Love,
Elder Norton
I am really excited this week for a lot of reasons. I am really happy that my brother Jace is heading out on his mission. I am so proud of you Jace for this decision. I know that you are going to be a great missionary. Good luck and do your best out there!!! I am also excited because we just started teaching a lady named Karin. She has been coming to church the last two Sundays with her grandmother and with her four daughters. We taught Karin and her oldest daughter, McKayla, who turns 8 this August, last Wednesday and they both want to be baptized.
We have been keeping very busy here and I am really looking forward to the next couple of weeks. I got to do a baptismal interview this week and it was very special to me. I felt the Spirit so strongly during that time. I am so thankful for all of the blessings I have been given and for everyone's support back home. I can't wait for next week to come so I can write you all about it. Thanks again for everything.
Love,
Elder Norton
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
An Exciting Week
Dear Family and Friends,
A lot of things happened this week that makes me really excited. This week we had that special training that was done all week long. During that training, President Pike explained that the reason for the training was emphasize improving how we teach. It is a special training that is being applied to all of the missions around the world and then into the training done at the MTC. It was really cool. I learned so much from it. It is also really cool because during that training, I found out that President Pike has been making changes in our mission to allow him time to go out with individual missionary companionships, especially with district leaders in order to follow-up with how we are implementing all of the things that we learned into our missionary work. It reminds me of how in my blessing from President Ross, it said that I would have the opportunity to work side by side with my mission president, and I feel that this is a fulfillment of that blessing. I don't remember if I mentioned it last week, but we started teaching a new investigator named Cheri. She is Jewish, and some other missionaries found her and gave us a referral to go visit her, so we started teaching her. I think that it is so cool to be teaching her because of her specific connection to the Book of Mormon. She sounds very eager to learn more about the church, but she says that she is not looking and that she does not plan to convert, so we will have to see what happens. We are also going to start teaching a new person named Karin. Her grandmother is a member, and Karin had been coming to church a long time ago, but she decided not to get baptized because she did not want to be baptized without her husband, so she stopped coming to church, but now she feels that she doesn't want her husband's choices to keep holding her and her family back, so she has been coming to church the past two weeks and she wants to take the lessons and become a member. I am so thankful for all of the blessing that the Lord has given me, and I am very excited for everything that is going to take place in the next few months. I'm doing my best to make every minute that I have left on my mission count. Thank you all so much for your love and support.
Love,
Elder Norton
A lot of things happened this week that makes me really excited. This week we had that special training that was done all week long. During that training, President Pike explained that the reason for the training was emphasize improving how we teach. It is a special training that is being applied to all of the missions around the world and then into the training done at the MTC. It was really cool. I learned so much from it. It is also really cool because during that training, I found out that President Pike has been making changes in our mission to allow him time to go out with individual missionary companionships, especially with district leaders in order to follow-up with how we are implementing all of the things that we learned into our missionary work. It reminds me of how in my blessing from President Ross, it said that I would have the opportunity to work side by side with my mission president, and I feel that this is a fulfillment of that blessing. I don't remember if I mentioned it last week, but we started teaching a new investigator named Cheri. She is Jewish, and some other missionaries found her and gave us a referral to go visit her, so we started teaching her. I think that it is so cool to be teaching her because of her specific connection to the Book of Mormon. She sounds very eager to learn more about the church, but she says that she is not looking and that she does not plan to convert, so we will have to see what happens. We are also going to start teaching a new person named Karin. Her grandmother is a member, and Karin had been coming to church a long time ago, but she decided not to get baptized because she did not want to be baptized without her husband, so she stopped coming to church, but now she feels that she doesn't want her husband's choices to keep holding her and her family back, so she has been coming to church the past two weeks and she wants to take the lessons and become a member. I am so thankful for all of the blessing that the Lord has given me, and I am very excited for everything that is going to take place in the next few months. I'm doing my best to make every minute that I have left on my mission count. Thank you all so much for your love and support.
Love,
Elder Norton
Baptism!!
Dear Family and Friends,
This has been a really good week this week. We had a baptism yesterday for Nick, our 15 year old investigator that I mentioned earlier. He wanted me to baptize him, so this makes my third baptism that I have performed on my mission. It was also really cool because we had gotten a referral from other missionaries to go and teach this one person named Cheri, who is Jewish, and she came to the baptism and afterwards we had a really great lesson with her. We are also still teaching Victor, but he is in Las Vegas right now, so we will not be able to see him for a while. This week, however, is going to be really different than usual. There is going to be some special leadership training this week for all missionaries that have leadership assignments each day starting tomorrow until Friday from 9am to 3 pm, and since I am now a District Leader, I will be going to that all this week, so it will be very different. Well, I have to get going now. Thanks for everything. Have fun in New York.
Love,
Elder Norton
P.S. - I'm OK with flying back home with you mom and dad if that will work better for dad.
This has been a really good week this week. We had a baptism yesterday for Nick, our 15 year old investigator that I mentioned earlier. He wanted me to baptize him, so this makes my third baptism that I have performed on my mission. It was also really cool because we had gotten a referral from other missionaries to go and teach this one person named Cheri, who is Jewish, and she came to the baptism and afterwards we had a really great lesson with her. We are also still teaching Victor, but he is in Las Vegas right now, so we will not be able to see him for a while. This week, however, is going to be really different than usual. There is going to be some special leadership training this week for all missionaries that have leadership assignments each day starting tomorrow until Friday from 9am to 3 pm, and since I am now a District Leader, I will be going to that all this week, so it will be very different. Well, I have to get going now. Thanks for everything. Have fun in New York.
Love,
Elder Norton
P.S. - I'm OK with flying back home with you mom and dad if that will work better for dad.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Happy 4th of July!
Dear Family and Friends,
Happy 4th of July!!! I will appologize in advance for the length of this e-mail, but I do not have much time left on the computer. First I will answer some questions and tell what happened for transfers.
1. What is your companion’s name and where is he from? I don’t think you ever told us.
His name is Elder Richins and he is from Hennifer, Utah
2. How long does he have left?
He has about two months more than me left
3. Did you get a new bike yet?
Funny you mention that. One elder was going to give me his bike this transfer because he is finished with his mission, but then I was told yesterday that his bike got run over by a car this last transfer before he could give it to me, so I am still bikeless. I will probably try to see if the office has an extra bike. I don't feel like getting a brand new bike with only 4 months left.
Now, as for transfers, I am staying in the Pasadena Ward and with Elder Richins. I did, however, get a new assignment for this transfer. I was assigned to be District Leader, so I have a few more responsibilites than before that I am going to have to get used to. Other than that, nothing much has changed since last week. We are still teaching Victor, our Chinese investigator, but we are still probably going to have the Chinese Elders start teaching him. Well, I have to get going now, but I will write again next week. Thanks again for everything.
Love,
Elder Norton
Happy 4th of July!!! I will appologize in advance for the length of this e-mail, but I do not have much time left on the computer. First I will answer some questions and tell what happened for transfers.
1. What is your companion’s name and where is he from? I don’t think you ever told us.
His name is Elder Richins and he is from Hennifer, Utah
2. How long does he have left?
He has about two months more than me left
3. Did you get a new bike yet?
Funny you mention that. One elder was going to give me his bike this transfer because he is finished with his mission, but then I was told yesterday that his bike got run over by a car this last transfer before he could give it to me, so I am still bikeless. I will probably try to see if the office has an extra bike. I don't feel like getting a brand new bike with only 4 months left.
Now, as for transfers, I am staying in the Pasadena Ward and with Elder Richins. I did, however, get a new assignment for this transfer. I was assigned to be District Leader, so I have a few more responsibilites than before that I am going to have to get used to. Other than that, nothing much has changed since last week. We are still teaching Victor, our Chinese investigator, but we are still probably going to have the Chinese Elders start teaching him. Well, I have to get going now, but I will write again next week. Thanks again for everything.
Love,
Elder Norton
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