Monday, August 30, 2010

Even a Popsicle Needs a Home

Hola,

Things are going great. This morning we went to City Hall in the center of the city to get the marraige license for Sandra and Dennis who are getting married this weekend and then baptized so it was exciting. So things are going good and we have Zone Conference this week so it will be great. But with the addresses, I give the Broomall address to everyone else to write too but you guys can have my home address. I get your letters every thursday at our apartment on allegheny and thats because you guys are consistent. Everyone else I have no idea when theyre going to write me so I give them the Mission office address and i get it about every two weeks. so thats that.

blake if i were you i would just try and have fun with the situation you got in football. I remember I hated my 8th grade season of football at first but then afterwards I just accepted the fact that I was a wimp and couldnt play Heavyweights so why not show these other lightweights that I am the man.

I dont need anything though thanks anyways mom, but I got a box today from USPS so ill probably send it to you guys this week with some gifts. But things are going great and we have only a few more weeks of hot weather and then otono viene (autumn). Yesterday after church we contacted a guy that we met at an activity we had at the church that was friends of a member. We show up to his address and his house was a popsicle factory. He is this guy from Mexico who has a popsicle business here in philly. So we taught him in his little popsicle factory and ate popsicles. It was sweet. Well I hope you guys have a good week and work hard and play hard. I wrote a letter to Arnie and Sunny today, and no i havent got any letters from them. But have a good one and recuerdate del amor de fily.

norman

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

New P-Day

hey que lo que? soy tu myjimbe.

So i forgot to tell you last thursday but things are changing. we now have p day on mondays and thursdays are our District Meetings and weekly planning. so things are going down right now in the mission. we have had an awesome time since thursday. ill just tell you about yesterday.

we had stake conference and it was in Spanish translation and english, but the speakers were great. President Schafermeyer and Sister Schafermeyer both gave good talks about missionary work and the need we have right now to prepare ourselves for the Temple. Then President and Sister Tingey, who are the Presidents of the Washington DC Temple, talked about the blessings of the Temple and how important it is that we go. It really hit me in the talk by Sister Tingey how she said we need to learn from the Temple and then put into practice those things in our homes. I was thinking about that and how I have always known about the Temple and can remember going to Temple Square when we were younger and watching the Legacy movie in the Joseph Smith Building or some place around there. We are so blessed to know these things and have this knowledge and joy in our lives. But it was a great Stake Conference and we had 5 investigators there so it was good.

Then in the afternoon we went on an exchange and I stayed here in Philly and my companions went to Reading to do a baptismal interview. The member I was with was interesting and it was a good learning experience for the both of us. After that exchange and my companions got back into town we went to the Elder's quorum Presidents house and it was a mess. His wife is in active and his teenage daughter is getting into bad stuff. So we talked about the Book of Mormon and answered their questions but after about 10 minutes it became an attack on each other and the husband and wife were basically coming to us for counseling. So we told them we cant be here and do this kind of stuff but we can teach you. So we got out of there and we're going to have to start teaching them from the basics now, the Stake President is coming with us too. It was a good lesson to learn of how important it is that we read the Book of Mormon as a family on a consistent basis and how we must always endure to the end.

So I hope you guys have a good week and have fun in the sun. Its pretty nice over here, some of the trees are already starting to turn colors so its been 70 80s the past two weeks. les quiero y espero que disfruten su ultima semana libre de responsabilidad. love you guys

norman

oh i heard from a guy the other day that boise state is playing virginia tech, number 3 in the nation against number 5, over here in redskins stadium. thats pretty cool. i dont like this time of year as a missionary because you hear things about college football and you get excited but then you remember that you arent going to see any of it. do good in practice brooks and blake.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Open House at Church

Hola amigos,

everything is good and the same. I went and bought the Elders in the Southern area of NOrth Philly two tires and a tube because they were jumped on tuesday becuase they were walking and not on bikes. they didnt get hurt or anything just lost the phone and 30 dollars. but they dont wnat to ride the bikes becuase one of the bikes has a flat tire and its tires are really bald. so they were waiting on the service elders to give em tires and a tube but the mission is over budget and doestn have any extras so i just went and bought em for em yesterday.

but the weather here is awesome. its been like october weather or fall weather, just nice and cool and not too humid. we dont have to wear our suits until General Conference so we still have time. with transfers and everything just the zone leaders make suggestions as to who could be where and then the APs and the President make all the decisions.

so on monday we had our transfers meeting and it was good. Elder Azero and I are still here in the same area but we got a third companion. Elder Munson is our new companion and he was my companion about 3 months ago in South Philly. He is struggling right now so they put him with us to try and help him find more joy in being here.

Sorry about the texts from Hno Falconi last week. we helped him out one day with painting and he took pictures of us so he's been wanting to send em to you so i gave him your number. but dont text him anymore.

its been a great week though and we had a lot of great experiences. On Saturday we had our open house activity in the church and it was great. Saturday was uplifting and spiritual high all day long. we woke up at 430 to go put the finishing touches on the church and then at 8am we had a meeting in Broomall with Elder Pearson from the 70. It was a group of about 40 missionarys from the Philadelphia and Valley Forge areas that he talked to and it was awesome. it was one of the best meetings i have had on my mission and it really inspired me to do more and study more. then we got back to philly at about 1030 and there were members there getting stuff ready also. we then had some people come and we gave them tours of the church and everything. it was an awesome experience and we the mormon messages from the internet really touched people. but all of saturday was just a big smile and a lot of bonding time with the members. After the open house there was a dinner in the ward for a family leaving so we were in the church basically all day helping people out.

But things are going great and this month is flying by. Happy Birthday Blake. I got a package for you that ill try and send this week, if not then the next. but have a great week you guys and enjoy the time you have before school starts.

philly love

norman

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Patience, People and Philly Love

hola amigos,

well sounds like you guys are having a lot of fun and doing a lot of stuff so thats good. this past week has been pretty good and flown by. we have been having to plan a lot of stuff for the end of transfers and also figure out where the elders are going and whether theyll have cars or not. so its been a big test of my patience because my companion likes to sit and ponder things and then gets thinking about things that dont even matter, all the while im sitting there waiting and trying to get this stuff done. I realized that i dont like being a leader in missionary work as much as i liked being a young missionary out trying to do the work and not worrying about training other missionarys or what we're going to do in the zone.

this week though has been great. we were in Reading on monday and all my sweet memories of Reading came back to me as we drove through town and saw places that were familiar. I was able to see a family that i re taught after their baptism and they were really excited to see me so that made me feel good. but they are going to the Temple this Saturday so that is awesome. Also we were able to see other members that i was good friends with and they were really excited to see me. one of them was hoping i would come back and play baseball with him again. it was great though to be in Reading and feel the joy and love of people from your hard work. it was really cool and i am grateful for the things i did in Reading.

Yesterday we went on splits and i was with my buddy Hno Morales from Puebla, Mexico. He is like my uncle and i look forward to being with him more than the investigators. we always have good talks and last night we were able to teach two people together and then talk about things in between lessons. he always asks about you guys and how you are doing and whats new in your lives. but we were able to have a good lesson with a guy that we just started teaching and the guy really wants to change his life and figure stuff out. his wife left him temporalily and he doesnt have much guidance so we were able to talk about the Book of Mormon and he loved it.

Things are going great though and we have an activity this saturday at the church, we're going to have an open house and all the ward members are bringing friends and stuff. Also an Elder from the 70 is coming to Philly saturday to talk to us so we'll see what happens. Also this morning when we went to the church to clean our car, the police were there becuase someone threw a brick at the window of the front doors to the church and shattered the glass, they didtn break in and steal any thing though so that was good. you guys are awesome have a great week.

philly love

norman

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Delaware-NASCAR/Maryland-Corn Fields

Hola,

well sounds like you guys are doing good and workin a lot. thats cool brooks that you got your wisdom teeth out and blake i bet youre already a better driver of stick shift than Sarah.

well this has been an awesome past week and the fastest, seems like two days ago i was here writing you guys. but so the trip to maryland was awesome and i was able to go to a house that was surrounded by corn fields and sit on the porch and teach a less active and think about how i want to farm when i get back. delaware has a lot of agriculture by the way. but we drove through Dover and there they have the nascar track and it is huge. its right next to the road and is huge.

but then we had a great sunday and had a lot of investigators at church. but the biggest thing was monday we had zone training. its a meeting that the zone leaders train the zone on things for about 3 hours. so last week we planned a lot for it and monday was game day. i was a little nervous because President was going to be there and the new elders from new jersey so about 40 missionaries and everything in spanish. so the thing that helped me the most to just go and do it was thinking about you dad always telling me to not think about the game and just go and do it. so that was good, also to start the training i had everyone get in a circle and we all linked together and did kind of like a unity/football motivation talk with me in the center. it was pretty neat and helped us to get rid of the weird feelings between the two different missions.

so up til now we've been teaching a lot and yesterday i was on a split with a member from nicaragua for 4 hours while my companion went to a meeting in north philly with the stake president. we had to many lessons and wont be in our area for much time this week so we decided to do the split and it was great. we taught a hand full of people and i was able to learn about nicaragua.

thanks for the bread it was great. my companion had never heard of it before but he liked it. we are going to atlantic city this afternoon for an exchange so this is going to be fun, maybe stop by the boardwalk or win something, no not really. but things are going great and sounds like you guys are doing great. tell kendal and peggy adios for me and that they need to start learning spanish.

thanks for the email about the temple thats pretty cool, we learned that yesterday too. also here in philly the church is going to start putting billboards up on the trains and buses and on tv and radio and they are sweet advertisements. so they are preparing a lot for the Temple. also i saw a picture in the mission office on tuesday of what the Brigham City Temple is going to look like. it is going to be sweet, you should check it out on the temple website. but go to boncom.com/mormon and check out the new advertisements they have. take care you guys and be safe with all that machinery blake.

love you guys. adios

norman