Christmas Testimony 2013

Hey everyone! At this Christmas time, I want to bear my testimony about what I believe and why I do what I do every day. 

I believe in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. I believe that He came to earth to live a perfect life and to die a perfect sacrifice so that we can have the chance to have eternal life. I believe in being obedient to His gospel. I believe scripture study and constant prayer. I believe in being kind and giving service. I believe that if we plant the seed that Jesus Christ is real and truly want to come to know Him, we will find happiness and peace in this life. I believe in the remission of sins and in the fullness of the gospel. I believe that God loves us and speaks to us through personal revelation and by calling an authorized prophet on the earth today. I believe that missionary work is the most important calling in this life. The last thing that Christ told his disciples is to go into the world baptizing in His name. I love the Lord and I love serving Him. I love sacrificing for the things I love and love the things I sacrifice for. Keep Christ in Christmas. Take time for just you and Him. Learn from Him and ask to feel His love and you will. Merry Christmas, all.

Love,

Elder Norton

December 16 2013

Hello everyone! I apologize for the missed email last week. It's been crazy busy here, trying to juggle everything. But the Lord has never turned away His help! In the last two weeks, not too many crazy experiences have happened. We did end up teaching someone who I swear was a vampire. He was at least 900 years old and was missing his front teeth so we just saw fangs! He talked our ears off about Noah's Ark or something, then refused a Book of Mormon and refused to pray with us.... So we left. Bummer. He's a vampire, though! 
We had a wonderful opportunity to baptize a man on Saturday. He is 67 years old, has extremely poor health, sleeps about 18 hours a day, but he's been waiting to get baptized for a long time. When we asked him about it, he said "If it's good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me!" What a wonderful attitude. It was a small but sacred event. I felt the love of God for this man and for all of us. After the baptism he said that he felt clean. He made a joke about taking a bath every day, but this kind of clean was different. He had entered into a covenant with God and received a remission of his sins. What an amazing experience. Thank you for your prayers. I'm learning tons here. I know without a doubt that God is with us. He comes in the fourth watch of the night to deliver us when we have no where else to turn. I love him with all my heart and I am so privileged to consecrate my life to Him for this short time. Love you all! Keep the faith!

Elder Norton

December 16th 2013

December 9, 2013

We have our first baptism this Saturday!!!!! Please include Michael Rebar in your prayers. He's a 67 year old man with really poor health and so many things could go wrong as we prepare for this. He could have to go to the hospital or his will might break and he may smoke again. It makes me so nervous. He asked me to baptize him. What an honor. I know the Spirit is going to be SO powerful. This is an amazing work that we're in. It's the work of truth and salvation. I keep getting reminded of that over and over. 

It is cold here, but those gloves and hat save my life! I'm doing much better. I'm getting to know what I'm doing. I love this ward. I will hate leaving it, I know it. Both last week and yesterday two members in the ward commented in their talks that the missionaries have been a blessing to them. I got an overwhelming sense of peace that my little contributions are doing something. I want so badly to help everyone. I wish I could be like you and get everything done all at once! You're the best ever. I've laid back on the stress. Elder Gutierrez is really helping me out with that. He's such a goof ball and reminds me a lot of Nate! It's such a blessing to be able to laugh and have a good time. I didn't get that much with my trainer. I'm getting better and starting to understand what missionary work is all about. I love you so so much. Give the kids extra hugs for me!

Love,

Matt

Christmas Messege

Please write Matt a letter he can open for the holidays:)

Painting- service project

December 2, 2013

Yes, this week I saved an old Russian Man's life! We'll get there....

So it started off with transfers. Tuesday morning I got a new companion! His name is Elder Gutierrez and he's from Iowa. Super awesome guy, tons of fun, we're going to get along great. He's been out about as long as I have, although he came out in July. How does that work, you ask? He crashed on his bike and had to go home for 2 months for physical therapy. Lesson learned: don't talk on the phone while riding a bike!

Being senior companion is HARD. All of a sudden, I really had to know what I was doing. And since I'm still super new and so is he, we're making tons of mistakes and learning even more. The best part about it is that when we allow the Spirit to guide us, our faults and mess ups are taken care of by the Lord. I've learned that the Holy Ghost should always be the senior companion. Let him lead and guide, and you be as obedient as you can. He'll make up for the difference. 

Now, about saving a man's life.....

We were walking through a neighborhood doing the missionary thing. There's a canal that goes through it for when the rare flash flood comes and a couple bridges over it. Pretty cool. But as we were walking, we saw an old man sitting on a bench with a baby in a stroller next to him. We, being missionaries, went to speak with him! We approached and introduced ourselves. He stood up to shake our hands. He didn't speak English like at all, but he told us his name was "Erokoli" (think E-broccoli without the b) or something. He pointed at the sky and said "God." We nodded and said "Yes, we are the representatives of God." Right then, 

BANG!!!!!

No, not gunshots. Nor was it thunder and lightning. No, the bench that he had been sitting on suddenly broke! It somehow snapped one of the bolts holding it together and rolled backwards down a little hill! If he had been sitting on it, he would have fallen backwards and smashed his head against the fence that ran along the canal. 

Okay, so it's not as cool as like diving in front of a car to save a child, but it was still a crazy experience! Technically there was nothing we did that saved him, but if we hadn't stopped to talk, who knows what would have happened? This is one of those mission stories that will go down in history and turn into a legend that has no actual fact in it. That's the point of mission stories, right?

Thanksgiving was awesome. LOTS of food. We had a fried turkey! FRIED! I didn't even know that was a thing! I'm so grateful for so many things at this time of year. In Luke 17, we read the story about the 10 lepers. The interesting thing about this that I didn't pick up before is that a few verses earlier, the apostles ask the Lord to increase their faith. Then, when the one leper returns to give thanks, the Lord says "thy faith hath made thee whole." It occurs to me that one reason we give thanks is to increase our faith. When we look back and see the ways the Lord has influenced our lives in the past, it prepares us for the ways that He will work in the future. So in this holiday season, give thanks for the trials you've experienced. Doing so will help you take the next one. We've all experienced the hand of the Lord. Watch for his patterns in your life and I promise you that your faith will increase in Him. I am a witness of that. May God bless you all and keep you safe during this holiday season. Love,

Elder Norton