Email 5/29/11

Dear Family
Sounds like everyone is doing good I'm glad the girls had a good time in Iowa (I'm sure Mattie in particular loved the Tornado warning). I'm ok, its been a kind of rough week. Mostly with my comp but other things as well, we had our traveling zone leader Elder Morton from Australia stay with us on Tuesday and Wednesday which was fine but at the end of it I felt pretty crappy because he pointed out a lot of things we should do differently but I don't really know how to change with my companion. And we didn't have a baptism this week our district leader wanted him to be reinterviewed but the guy who was supposed to interview him never came, I feel bad for the kid he seems really ready and really wants to get baptized but things weren't really handled the best. Hopefully we can get things worked out for him this week. One cool thing that happened this week was the Tarawa East Stake had there yearly dance festival on Friday. All the wards and and branches competed in traditional dance or mwaei (I don't know if I spelled that right). It was really cool to watch, we didn't see all of it because we had to leave before 9 and it was only half over but we did see our branch, they came sixth. Bikenibeu 1st ward won. The picture of the kids is from that. They're wearing the traditional dance costumes. I took a lot of videos so the card you sent is almost finished but my other ones have a lot of room left I will get a couple of those sent out soon.The other pictures are our last baptism and the other one kind of random I know but in the new conference issue there is a picture from the young women's conference that has the theme for young woman in kiribati. I don't really know what else to write not much has changed this week. Mom to answer your question there is nothing I need at the moment and I haven't tried yet to get money from my account. If I have a problem I'll let you know, thanks. Just one thing, if other people want to email me they can just throwing that out there. I love you all, till next week.
love Elder Norton

Email 5/22/11

Dear family
It sounds like there are some fun things people are doing. I hope the girls have a fun time on their trip, have them tell everyone back there mauri from me if you talk to them. I hope everything goes well with dad's job there. Sorry there are no pictures this time but I forgot my cables for my camera in the house. How is Grandpa Norton doing, is he over completely his sickness? I hope everyone is doing good back there.
I'm doing alright, its been a little rough this week with my companion, I don't really get him but I guess I just have to try harder to have patience. We did have a baptism this past week, a younger boy, his name is Tanentoa, that was good, we have actually had a baptism every week since April 23rd its been pretty cool and we should have another one next week. I think the reason why we have so many baptisms here is because everyone here in Kiribati believes in God and they rely on him a lot. So if you can get them to actually really pray for the truth they will probably be be baptised. We do have some problems with less actives here. I'm always a little worried baptising people if they will be able to endure, but if the wards and branches do their part to really welcome people who are new they usually do, but getting that to happen can be a problem. Lately I have felt really good about our people who have been baptised, that they where ready and they have had pretty good fellowship from the branch.
Sorry that was a random tangent I'm just really grateful that we have had so much success lately. Other than that baptism nothing all that exciting happened this week, just keep on going on i guess. Oh, one thing when Mattie gets back could you tell her that I may have found her a pen pal so if she could send me a new letter I wll give it to someone (her other one got wet and is pretty old). Other than that not much to say this week hopefully next weeks email will be better, love ya all

Love Elder Norton

Email 5/15/11

Mauri au utu
Thanks for the email, I'm glad people have gotten over there sickness. I hope everyone stays healthy. Its exciting to hear about everyone, tell Wendy, Meabo, and Tressa congratulations from me if you see them, that's all really cool. As for me I'm doing great, P day last week was really good the sports that were played were rugby, basketball, and some people even played tennis (it was at Moroni high school so there were plenty of options) but I didn't really play anything, you know sports aren't really my thing. I mostly talked with people I hadn't seen in a while. And then after that on Wednesday we had zone conference. Elder Nielson of the seventy came for it so everyone came in for it, we have two elders staying with us in Buota until they can get back out to Makin. One is Elder Tiree my comp from Marakei and ones name is Elder Normon (everyone mixes up our names) he is from Pleasant Grove. They should be leaving this Wednesday. Anyways zone conference was awesome, I learned heaps as always from everyone who talked, after Elder Nielson talked he gave us time to ask any questions we had and that was really cool. Afterwards we had a nice lunch from the senior couples and I had an interview with Elder Nielson which was really short, he just asked if there was anything the general authorities should be worried about in the mission, and about living conditions. He was only here for one full day and then was going to the Marshall side i think. I didn't get transferred and I still have the same companion. I was kind of hoping for a change of comps but I guess that wasn't the plan.
One thing that was really cool last week was that we had a baptism and it went really well. The lady that got baptised is actually our branch president's mother. Her name is Baneawa, she was really strong in the Kiribati Protestant Church or KPC and before that she had been Catholic or maybe the other way around I'm not sure but anyways she is a really smart lady has lived all over the world (her second child was born in Scotland) which is particularly strange for Kiribati, and knows the Bible really well. So when we started teaching our hopes weren't too high, she seemed interested in what we had to say but wanted proof from the Bible and always compared our teaching to KPC and Catholic beliefs. But things changed, I had some doubts up to the week of her scheduled baptism date if she had a testimony then she bore her testimony and when she talked I got tears in my eyes as did she and she never seemed like a lady to cry, but she knew. Of all the people I have taught and baptized she was the most complete change, it was so cool being able teach her. And then the actual baptism went really well. Our last baptism before hers wasn't very well organized and not many people came so I really wanted to change that and it went really well. We couldn't get her son to baptize her but he did confirm her the next day (in the group picture her son is on the far left). That isn't a very good explanation, I cant write everything that happened while teaching her and I can't express how I feel about it but it was really cool.Anyways I'm good, I'm healthy, missionary work is awesome not easy, but awesome. I love you all, I hope everyone is doing good. Two of the pictures are from Baneawas baptism and one from our baptism up in Tabituea then just me. I'm very happy my camera is waterproof, I hope you like them.
That's it I guess, I wish I was faster and could say more but until next week Tiabo.

Love Elder Norton

Email 5/8/11

Dear family,

It was great being able talk to and see everyone, I'm sorry that everyone is getting sick I hope it's a quick thing. I'm sorry that I was probably pretty boring, I'm just not very good at describing things, I was so happy to see you but then I didn't really know what to say, it's the same with letters and emails there is a lot to say I just don't know how to say it.
This won't be a long email, I don't really know what else to say and this is our one P-day a month that all the missionaries can get together for sports, and this week there is a zone conference with elder Nielsen from the area presidency so all the elders came in from outies. So it will be good to see everyone today and I'm sure it will be a great zone conference.
Well I'm gonna get this sent hopefully the pictures will go with it these are some I took with the new camera. I love you all thank you all for your prayers.
Love elder Norton

Mother's Day Call

We were all able to talk to Spencer on Mother's Day via Skype. It was nice because we were able to see him and talk to him and he was able to see us. He told us the story of how his camera got ruined. Him and his companion were crossing a bridge when they saw someone they knew so they stopped to talk to them. When Spencer put his foot down it was over the edge of the bridge and he fell off into the water with his bike. His camera ended up getting wet and was ruined. The worst part was that it happened the same day that he had eaten octopus and his face swelled up.
It was good to see him and talk to him and hear how he is doing. He seemed to be doing well and now we will all be looking forward to Christmas when we can talk to him again.

Email 5/1/11

Dear Family
First off I'm sorry about last week, when we got to store where we email they had taken down all of their computers because they are redoing the store so I couldn't email last week, i was really sad. I'm glad to hear that everyone had a good Easter (even though you made me hungry from your explanation). I was sad to hear about Emily and Matt's kids and Grandpa. I hope they all get better soon, let them know I said hi and get well soon. I have actually already gotten the Easter package you sent but the camera hasn't come yet, I was surprised. But anyways, thank you so much mom for everything you sent it was really exciting to get, hopefully the camera comes soon (its kind of been killing me not being able to take pictures of some of the cool stuff I've seen).
I am really looking forward to talking to you all in a few days my time is Sunday at 8 in the morning for me so that will be Saturday for you at I think 1 in the afternoon but you'll want to double check the time difference because I'm not sure. I know this is mom's call but hopefully everyone will be able to pop their head in for a minute I'm excited to hear people (and see them). I just want to double check, is dad's skype address eric.david.norton I'm not sure, I know I have written it down before but I haven't looked for it yet. If you could just send an email with all the info before Saturday so if there is a problem I can check that. And one other thing I have forgotten my pin # for my debit card so if you have that available mom you could let me know on Saturday.
The past couple weeks have been really good mostly because we had baptisms each week. On the 23rd Tabera got baptized but the other two ladies who where supposed to get baptized had things come up that prevented their baptisms. Nei Tuhe went to an outer island for her son's school so hopefully when she comes back she will be baptized. And Nei Anna had someone from her family show up at her house that morning and insist that she come to Botaki for a birthday in the family (she had already told them no earlier in the week) but she was able to be baptized on the 30th. Both baptisms went pretty well Tabera was baptized by her cousin who is the second councilor in the branch presidency and I got to baptize Anna. It is always awesome seeing someone be baptized but the actual baptismal service is definitely different from back home. They're sometimes pretty hectic it can be hard getting people to come and they almost never start on time (Anna`s baptism started 45 min late because we needed another witness) but it's still awesome.
The rest of our work is doing well we only lost three people because of the Catholic missionary, hopefully they will want to continue being taught in the future. But in the meantime we have a lot of cool people we are teaching and we should have some baptisms next week and in the weeks following.
I think I will close things now, if things don't make sense i guess you can ask me about it on Saturday. Until then I love you all and tiabo.

Love Elder Norton

P.S. I'm really sorry I haven't sent pictures I will do it, it just seems like there is so much to get done on P day I just never get to it, I'm sorry. I'm going to try sending some with the email

Email 4/17/11

Dear family
I don't know if I can remember everything from that other email, mostly I just talked about a couple of people we are teaching. One I mentioned was Nei Tabera, we just started teaching her a few weeks ago. She was a referral from her brother who is the 2nd councilor in the branch presidency. It's been cool teaching her, she seemed really interested from the start, she is 19 and has really good fellowship from the YSA in the branch. She should be baptized this Saturday along with two other people. Ones name is Nei Anna, her husband is a member but is less active. She always comes to church with their kids, they have four. The other that should be baptized is Nei Tuhe she was taught with her husband by the elders before but a week after I got here her husband went to work on a ship, he will be gone for I think one and a half years but they both seemed ready to be baptized before he left so she should be baptized this week. We have some other really cool people we are teaching as well but i'm too slow to tell about all of them.
This week has been pretty good for the most part, stake conference was really good. We had Elder Hamula from the Area Presidency here, he met with the missionaries on Thursday which was really cool. He started by asking about general conference which led to a really cool discussion on hearing the voice of the Lord and then gave us timeto ask questions which was cool, I wish we had more time with him. Afterwards the senior couples had made a really good lunch for us, some kind of casserole (it tasted like something from home), with chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert. Then on Sunday morning there was a special mtg for recent converts and investigators(and the missionaries) with Elder Hamula and the Stake President. They both talked about how they knew the church was true, the Stake President, President Tunei came in contact with the church as a teenager while in Tonga attending the church school there, he was actually in large part resposible for the church coming to Kiribati. It was a really cool meeting especialy because we had some investigators come. The general session was also great. Other then that it was a pretty normal week. One really annoying thing happened up in Tabetuea the part we walk to, it actually happened a little while ago. Anyways we went up there to to teach one day and
apparentaly the Catholic missionary went around to some of our people and bubuti'ed them to stop having lessons and all the people he went to told us they didnt want lessons so that was really sad. We have heard from members up there that the church is not really liked there. But this past week we actually found a few more investigators up there so hopefully things will change. I think that is all for now. Thank you so much for all you do mom, don't say you aren't good at things, you're
the best. I love you all until next week ti a bo.

Love Elder Norton