Thursday, September 24, 2009

Cultural Night

hey que tal?

thats cool you guys are doin good with sports. what position did sarah play in the game?

but this past week was pretty tough im not gonna lie. we got reinforcements from our feet and got bikes. so we've been biking everywhere and are getting good exercise everyday climbing hills and everything. id say we go about 10 miles average a day, but i could be exaggerating a bit im not sure. but the funny thing with the bikes is we have sweet helmets like your guys' and lights on the bikes too. so at night when we're cruising around and theres people outside, they sometimes yell POlice. and when we approach people theyre all oh man i thought you guys were the police, and theyre all nervous too. but thats been fun riding around, my butt muscles were sore the first two days but its all good.

we had zone conference on tuesday and it was sweet. Elder Robbins from the 70 came with his wife and talked to us. they were really smart and helped us out alot. it was really cool to meet him and shake an apostles hand.

but thanks for the package, i got the cookies and the FHE ideas that was awesome. because of the humidity over here the cookies stayed soft a lot longer than over there so that was cool.

but this past week was great and we were able to grow a lot. the spanish is great and we have no trouble communicating or understanding the language because what i dont pick up, bateman will pick up and what he doesnt get ill get so its pretty cool. we teach good together and found some cool investigators.

but the coolest thing that happened this past week was on friday the branch had a Culture Night at the church. and we brought all the investigators we could to it, it was a hassel riding around to each of their houses but we got it done. but at the church there were tables for each latino country that members were from. they made a bunch of their native food and so we just went around and ate and tried a bunch of crazy stuff. we just stuffed ourselves, talked with everyone, watched some of the members do native dances and stuff and left. it was a great time.

but thanks for everything and you dont need to send a package if you dont want to. just send a copy of my Patriachal Blessing and Raymons email address. also my address is 1100 Wyomissing Road 18B 19611 West Reading. but thanks for everything and i love you guys. take care.

norman

Thursday, September 17, 2009

First Transfer- West Reading

hey guys,

so i got transferred and it was only to the other side of reading. we live in a town called wyomissing and have the west side of the area and my old companions have the east side. so my new companion is a greenie like me and so we are learning together. i wouldnt say im the senior companion but when it comes to decisions about what to do i usually have to make the final vote cuz i know the area and the people.

but its a really different area that we are in right now. we have half the inner city but then the whole rest of west reading and everything west of 5th street. but the fun part is we dont have a car and so weve been walking a ton everyday. also we have bikes so that is awesome. we didnt have them the first day so that sucked but the past two days weve been biking a lot and getting good exercise in. the first night we were riding back home from our appointment and it was so cool flying down the sidewalk and street, it was like moutain biking a little bit because the side walks are so jaggedy. but its funny cuz all the people say "oh cops" when we come cruising by cuz of our nice helmets and bikes.

our apartment is really cool. it is really nice and we have the whole set up of kitchen, living room, porch, bathroom(theyre fixing the ceiling though because it leaks), and another room for storage. its really sweet and the area is a lot nicer than before.

my companion is from bountiful ut and his name is Elder Bateman, and no hes not related to the batemans in our ward, but hes really cool guy and works hard so thats good. he likes to hunt to and play some sports too so i think its goin to be a good transfer.

but everything is goin great and the spanish is coming great. we had a really great week before this transfer so things are goin good. one funny story and then i got to go but so we have this family from puerto rico who is awesome and they are progressing really well. there are five kids a mom and a wife to one of the kids who all live in this house. but so they have had a lot of crazy stuff happen to em and weve had to help them through these but on tuesday elder merrill my old trainer calls me and is all guess what happened to brendas family? cuz me and elder bateman dont teach them cuz theyre not in our area. but so he tells me and at their appt it was just chaos the whole time. the son brian whos 18 was fighting with his wife and she ran out the door, he was freaking out and grabs a baseball bat as he goes out the door to find her, he grabbed the baseball bat because some gangsters are looking for him and want to fight him and he didnt have his pistol on him right then so he needed to grab the bat for protection. but the elders found out that the other son whos 12 and another daughter whos 15 are both on parole and the mom brenda wants to move to philly. so it was drama the whole time and they just sat back and tried to help but nothing really happened except a closing prayer. haha so that was pretty funny.

so thanks for your letter and i got the package slip but i just have to go pick it up somehow. my new address is 1100 Wyomissing Rd Apt 18B West Reading 19610. thanks for everything and keep working hard.

love you guys
norman

Thursday, September 10, 2009

hola.

sounds like you guys are doin pretty good and school schedule is startin to set in. we had a great past week and things have been goin great. weve taught a lot of lessons and had some cool experiences with people on the streets.

our trainer left us alone the other day cuz he went on transfers with the other elders in our district so elder munson and i were solo for a day. we did really good and were able to teach a couple lessons but we had an experience with a guy who talked in the new york style accent and was pretty rough that we met on the street walkin back to our car. he was really cool and we started talkin to him and he kept askin us to preach to him and so we sat down and started talking about Christ. it was cool sitten on his porch with the sunset, sirens in the distance and crazy people walkin by. but we had a great conversation and talked about the restoration and gave him some pamphlets and stuff and he really liked talkin to us. he had kind of a change of heart cuz at first he was sayin the f bomb every other word and then after we talked he was totally different and you could tell he felt the spirit and could tell something was different about us. but then we said a closing prayer and he started crying, we talked a little more and then left. it was really cool and my first experience with people who have grown up with a hard life and you can see how much they need the gospel in their lives.

but ya that was cool, and also i gave my first blessing on sunday to a 10 year old girl so that was neat. i was nervous cuz i almost had to give a blessing to a guy in spanish but they chose my other companion. that guy did have an ankle brace on for probation or something so i guess that wouldve been pretty cool if i'd have done it.

thanks for everything and keep doing good. ill be moving addresses this next week but i dont know where yet so ill let you know whats goin on after we find out on monday. we are getting 6 new spanish missionaries in the mission so my trainer is going to get either one or two new ones. so either ill be moved on the other side of reading with elder munson and our trainer will have two newbies or ill be on the other side of reading with a newbie and elder munson and a newbie will be with our trainer. so im looking forward to this next week and how its all gonna be layed out.

but peace potato land and whats good in the hood.

elder Normandy

i got some extra time cuz im waiting for my companion to finish writing but we had a lesson this last week where right after we said the opening prayer and were beginnng to talk about whatever, a fleet of fire trucks came flying in and parked right outside the house where we were, and we were in the front room and the door was open. so it was crazy but we kept talkin and had the devil was working against us but the firetrucks left and everything was somewhat quiet again and the lesson continued and they are now some good investigators. so hope you guys have a good week and stay out of trouble and do your best in sports.

chase

Thursday, September 3, 2009

September 3rd~ Three Months In

hey family, this past week was awesome, we had a ton of success and are looking to close this transfer on a high.

but to answer your questions the best food ive ate so far is the mexican tacos at this members house that was the bomb. we go to bed at 1030 and wake up at 630 everyday, right after we wake up we exercise for thirty minutes and then get ready for studys at 8.

mom you need to stop giving me gossip blogs about people in boise cuz i really could care less, actually only if there is some chick that told you she wants to write me.(Bad missionary mom of the month. Sorry for trying. :D( -W) im cool with that kind of stuff. but i was wondering if you guys could find a cool quote from an apostle, coach or someone that is uplifting so i can have a quote for each transfer.

we had a ton of rain this past week and it was crazy, like a downpour of water that made there be little rivers on the side of the road. it was like the city was being baptized. also i gave a talk on sunday, in spanish, it was cool and everyone said i did a good job.

funny story is we helped this family carry a whole crate of cement bags into their basement and i asked if we could share a message with them. they said yes and so i ran out saying, ok necisito sacar mi cuchillo primero, espero me. and when i said that they got all scared and worried cuz cuchillo is actually knife and i ment to say muchilo which is backpack. so that was funny, also we had to bless a house a few days ago that was possesed and that was a crazy experience.

but things are goin good and we're working a lot and having success so all is well in reading, pa. thanks for everything. love you guys and have a good week.

norman