Monday, October 25, 2010

Traveling and Training

Hola amigos,

This was a great past week. It might have been better that going to Henrys Lake and fishing. We had a great meeting on tuesday and all the Elders really enjoyed it. We had a lot of training on spanish and also on finding people. The greatest part was at the end President Schafermeyer gave his testimony in spanish and it was so powerful. When he started speaking in spanish everyone just went silent and there was that powerful presence of the Spirit. Then we went up into the northern parts of the mission and it was great. I took some pictures of the trees for you mom so dont worry. But it was a really pretty drive and the trees are looking great. I was able to go on an exchange in Easton with Elder Glover, the Elder I trained, and we had a good time. Hes one of my good buddies here in the mission so we were able to get some stuff done in Easton and talk about the mission. Hes a stud though and really has grown a lot. But the best part of the week was we went to Reading on thursday and friday and it was my old area. I was able to go and see some of my old friends and the look on their faces when they saw that it was me was priceless. I really felt loved by these people and when their faces lit up and they came over to me and gave me a big hug. It was awesome. One family that we taught, that is going to be baptized soon, we visited and when we got there the kids were outside and I didnt think they would remember me but when the girl of about 13 years saw me she ran over and gave me a big hug. It was really neat and I thought, " man I guess I did good work while I was here." So it was a good time to be there with the people and also show that Elder other parts of the area where there are hispanics.

So it was a good week and we had a lot of success here in our area also. But yesterday I was studying a little in the Temple Ensign from last month and I was thinking about how we should share this magazine with everyone and how beautiful it is for the family.

Also the package you sent got here Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday so I was out of town and wasnt able to get it. They might send it back I dont know but Im going to try tomorrow to get it because we wont have time today. Thanks you guys and have a good week. Keep up the good work.

El Amor.

Norman

(everyone is pretty sad right now here in philly about the Phillies losing to the Giants)

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

New Jersey: Bridgeton, Vineland and Atlantic City

Hola Familia Nielson,

We had a good past week. I havent heard much about the Phillys because its not as big up here in North Philly as it was down in South Philly. The people up here are more focused on other things than baseball. We were in New Jersey and had some good exchanges with Bridgeton, Vineland and Atlantic City. We were able to teach a lot and help these Elders out with their areas. A lot of stuff is going on right now and we are always having to plan stuff out. We have a spanish training tomorrow that we will be doing and it will be about 6 hours long. It took us a whole afternoon to plan it and I about killed my companion because it took so long. But we got it done and tomorrow is game day. We have all the Spanish Elders in the mission coming to Philly and the focus is on Spanish and how we work as spanish missionaries.

On Saturday our ward took a trip to the DC Temple and my companion went with another Elder because they taught one of the guys who got his endownments. But also the family that we baptized last month went to the Temple and it was a really good experience for them. Also there was one of our investigators that went and she really liked it so it was a good uplifting experience for all. So things are going good and time is flying by with all these exchanges that we are doing. I dont really like it that much though because youre not immersed in the work and your area. You dont always have personal study time because youre on the road and its harder to keep in contact with your investigators throughout the week. Its fun but on the other hand its kind of a burden. I would much rather just be in some area with a little branch and we have to walk five miles everyday. But we'll see what happens and if President keeps us as we are right now. Thanks for the pictures, those are pretty neat and you guys look good, except for that kid with the braces. No you guys look good and keep up the good work. Good luck this week in your race Brooks and Sarah you should go to Utah State so that you can learn how to ski from me.

Have a good week, el amor, Go Phillies

norman


Hola otra vez

Raymon wrote me and said that the food you sent him really helped him out and that you guys were awesome. So thanks for doing that it encouraged him. But Sarah I cant be your friend on Facebook until you find someone that we can teach. If you can get us hooked up with Brady or some non member that is interested in learning about the gospel then we can be friends. But Im not going to be your friend until you find someone that we can help. I might be getting rid of the facebook account anyways because I hate it. Its such a waste of time and I have to write a blog about Church stuff too. So its good and all but I would rather do something else than write about what I think about a gospel principle. Have a good week though and let me know when you find someone we can teach. El Amor

norman

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Coco Juice, Yellow Rice & Beans=Dominican Republic

Hola,

Thats a pretty good looking picture "Brooks." No thats pretty cool that you guys did that and had a good time. I was wondering though about that other four wheeler in the picture with the 400, did you get another one? That might be a good idea.

But this past week was pretty good. Yesterday we couldnt write because all the libraries were closed and we had to go play some b-ball. Last week we went on exchanges in Allentown and Reading. It was really neat being in Reading again because I was able to show the Elders there were some of the people are and less active members that they didnt know. Those Elders havent been in the area for too long so they had no idea who people were. I was able to see some of my old buddies from the ward in a meeting we had and that was really good. The family that Elder Bateman and I baptized last November, the dad was there at the meeting and he is on fire. They are going to the Temple soon to do their Endowments and have already been a few times for Baptisms for the dead. It was really cool though to see them and made me feel good for the work that I have done on my mission.

Nothing really has changed, just we had a great past week and I was able to have a good time. I went on splits with a member of our ward last week and he's an older guy from DR and is basically my uncle. But we had a great time together and taught a lot of our investigators in about five hours. I was able to learn a lot about his life and also about the DR. For you guys to get the full Dominican experience you got to get some Coco Juice or Coco Agua that has the little chunks of fresh coconut in it and then have yourself some yellow rice and beans, then some meat on top. Just a little greasy but man just makes you feel good. But things are going good and time is flying by. We have three exchanges this week in New Jersey and once again I'll be going to Atlantic City so it will be fun.

Have a good week and practice your basketball skills. I played for the first time yesterday in about two months and it was rusty at first but then it loosened out. I love doing stuff like that here because it helps me relax and not become so missionary robot like and take my mind off of all the things we have to do. So all is well, I got to play some basketball and show people that Idahoans can shoot a ball. Have a good one and remember the little things that mean so much: family prayer, kneeling as a family, family dinner, family scripture study, family home evening, and following the promptings of the Holy Ghost. You guys are awesome and have a good week. Adios amigos les quiero mucho

normandy

Monday, October 4, 2010

Pretty Good General Conference

Hola,

This past week was pretty good and ya it rained a lot, so much that a town out in West Philly was flooded and so we were driving last Friday morning to go to a meeting we had in Broomall and it took us forever because all the roads were diverted into one and the traffic was really bad with a lot of sirens. I am not sick, havent got sick at all so dont worry. I found a bottle of Airborne that I saved from last winter and so I used that last week. Sister Schafermeyer is having all the missionarys in the mission get flu shots so I will get mine this week or next week from CVS or somewhere.

We were able to have a pretty good General Conference. It was the first time I watched the whole thing in Spanish. The last two times we didn't have members that came to the Church to watch so we just watched it in English. So it was interesting but still I was able to understand basically everything. Some of the jokes from President Monson werent translated correctly or not at all so it was a little disappointing but still great Conference. I loved the talk by President Monson about Gratitude. That was a sweet story that he shared about the family on the farm without electricity and his wife washing clothes and dishes all the time. Also I really enjoyed the talk from Elder Scott and how we can develop our Character. I thought that the Conference was great and that right from the get go it started running. With the Welcome from President Monson I was really impressed how he talked about missionaries and how we all need to prepare ourselves to serve missions. It put things in perspective for me how the mission has really helped me and how lucky I am to be here right now. I thought about how I did a lot of stupid stuff earlier and how I always was able to know through others good examples, that I needed to go on a mission and that I needed to go to the Temple and that I needed to keep the commandments and read the Book of Mormon. I felt really bad though for those of my friends that weren't able to experience this stuff for themselves. Steven Gabrielsen for example, I thought how hard that must be for him to be home and know that his friends are out here on missions. So serving a mission is very important and we all must have the mentality of getting ourselves or our kids or our friends on missions.

I am going to make a facebook account this week, so Sarah I might be your friend. But this does not mean that we can talk and see how each other is doing. One of you guys, and I can all be in on a chat or something and talk about the gospel and send each other links to mormon messages or something. This is the goal but remember its not for keeping in contact with each other, so dont tell other people. My area is the whole world so I can be friends with anyone. So think about people we can help and then we'll try and figure it out to start teaching them through facebook.

You guys are awesome and I hope you have a good week and go ride some four wheelers or something. Sarah I hope you didnt get your first kiss from Connor Johnson because I'll give you a hard time about that for a long time if you did. Brooks you look skinny man, I hope you dont get mad when I get home and whip you into shape. Have a good week.

Love

norman

(A member told me that Utah State beat BYU. Thats awesome)