March 30, 2015- *Please Read*

Hey everyone! Just want to share a quick miracle with you all. It starts almost a year and a half ago.....

I was still in my first area, with my second companion. I had recently been made senior companion, so mostly all the decision making was up to me. I worked hard for sure! But didn't have a very strong ability to understand the Lord's will. In fact, I'm still working on that.

So one evening I was feeling pumped up. I told the Lord that I would give it 110%. I was going to be everywhere I had planned on time and full of energy. I was feeling good and it was going to be a good night. Then, as things always do, my plans changed when my bike broke. BANG! chain off, gears messed up, somehow got 2 flat tires. Seriously, it was a weird combination of things that happened for absolutely no reason. And when you're a missionary, you depend on your bike like oxygen. My enthusiasm deflated almost as quickly as my tires. (poetic, huh? :)) I was so frustrated. We were far from home and walking back would have taken about an hour. The only choice was to find someone to help. The only one close to where we were was a family who were members of the church, but hadn't been in a while and didn't really have a testimony. We had spoken with them a couple times at the doorstep, but nothing really had come from it. But when we asked them for help, they were more than willing. Still, the repairs took a LONG time and pretty much messed up our whole evening. I was upset, for sure. I couldn't understand why the Lord would have my bike break when I was so motivated to do His work. We had a good conversation with the family as we worked on the bike, but it didn't go anywhere and I didn't feel like it was productive at all.

Got it? Part one complete.

Part two:
This last week our bishop called us and asked if we had been praying lately. We said" ...... um, yes Bishop. All the time, actually." He said that a family had moved in to the ward and were willing to have the missionaries by. They were a part-member family. The parents were members of the church, but they had 2 unbaptized children. Of course, we were SO excited. That's like Christmas for missionaries. And, even better, they moved in RIGHT NEXT DOOR to us. True story!!!!!! So we went to meet them as soon as we could. When the lady answered the door, we introduced ourselves. She looked at me funny and said
"I know you. You're that missionary that had all those bike problems, aren't you?"

WHOA!! This was the family!! They had moved away from that house that I knew them at and up to Utah. They started taking the missionary lessons and wanted to keep them up! Their 12 year old daughter wants to be baptized and we did a little celebration dance. Because I had met them before, it was incredibly easy to start interacting with them and teaching them. It felt really comfortable. Who would have guessed that what seemed to me as a complete waste of time was actually a really important step in a miracle that would happen 15 months later!!! I love the Lord!!!!! This Church is so true. He is watching over us and has a plan for all of His children. So if things aren't going how you'd like it, just remember that there may be something much bigger at work. Trust in the Lord and He'll reveal to you His plan. It's masterfully made.

Love you all!
Elder Norton.
P.S. This is "Fifi." the last B-29 bomber still in flight. This was the same type of airplane that dropped the Atom Bomb in WWII. We have a small airport in our area and we got to sneak some pictures :) We don't know what kind the little one is

March 9, 2015

Hey everyone!

This week has been great. The weather is warming up and it's beautiful here. It should be in the 80's by the end of the week. It sounds great now, but since it was such a warm winter it's going to be brutally hot in the summer. 

I got a new companion this week! Elder Kilgour from Australia finished his mission and I now have Elder Gould. Elder Gould started his mission 3 weeks after serving in the Army for 4 and a half years. He was station in Louisiana, but spent a year in Afghanistan as infantry. He's an awesome guy. Hard worker! Surprising, huh? We really get along well. In fact, he was in my district in North Las Vegas this time last year. He's a goofball and we've had a lot of fun and seen a lot of miracles. He still jumps at sudden noises and I almost got punched in the face when I accidentally scared him. If I send home pictures of black eyes, you'll know why ;). He's the real deal. In fact, the Green Berets were trying to recruit him before his mission. So yes, I'm serving with Jason Bourne. It's pretty cool. And his birthday is one day after mine!

This week we definitely saw miracles. I have a strong testimony of prayer. On Tuesday night we had planned to see an investigator family when, as is quite common, they had to cancel. We had a member of the ward with us and so we really wanted to make this time a good experience. We had planned as a back up to go see a less active sister. So we prayed together that we might be able to share the love of God to this sister and have the Spirit with us to teach. As we walked to her apartment, we street contacted a man smoking at his car. We introduced ourselves and he immediately told us that he was looking for a church. He is LDS, but hasn't been active at all for a while. He and his wife had just moved here last week. We went into his home and met his wife. Dustin and Tasha are awesome. I feel a friendship with them already, even though I just met them. They're taking the missionary lessons now. 

Cool, right? Well, it gets cooler!

Right after we left Dustin and Tasha, we got a text from our Elders Quorum President asking if we knew where apartment 2216 was in the apartment complex across from the one we were in. I remember thinking "hmm... that's a funny coincidence. We just left Dustin and  Tasha in apartment 2216 in this complex." But I didn't think too much of it. We met with Bishop the next night to introduce Elder Gould and report on this family we found. When we said their names, he lit up and said "That's them!!" Tasha's grandfather had called Bishop to request that someone from the ward go find them. He had assigned our Elders Quorum President to find them that night (Tuesday). But he had given them the wrong address, so they were looking for them in the wrong complex. 

SO! My point is that the Lord wanted these people found. We found them out of circumstance right at the exact time when our ward leaders were searching for them. Even though they had a wrong address, the Lord used us as tools to make sure that these people were found. I love prayer! I love being a servant of God to find the lost sheep and experience miracles like this one. I love you all! Remember that prayer works!
Love,

Elder Norton