Well, hope there is more time this week!

Oh my gosh! The time goes by soo fast! Especially when you only have less than an hour to write everyone!

Ok, so to start off, I will tell you the story about the lady and her son that we baptized last week! It is the family of Michael, the young man that we baptized about a month ago, and we had always wanted to put a date on his mom so that she could get baptized too, but everytime we wanted to and prepared a lesson to ask her, she always went off on really weird tangents. So on one appointment, we were at her house and she was giving us hot chocolate, and we were just visiting for a minute. She told Elder Lugo and I that she needed to ask us for some advice, even though we were just some young men. I responded that yes, we are young men, but as missionaries, we are set apart to help others with their problems. She gave me a little bit of a confused look, but said nothing. The next day was the interview of her son, Jordy, and she was there with us, and we asked her what she wanted to ask us, but again, she ended up not telling us. So Friday morning we wake up, we are just doing our normal stuff, and at 7 O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING we get a call from her. She told us it was an emergency and she needed us to be over there in a few minutes; we ended up getting over there at 7:30. Her sons weren't at home, and so, with us sitting on one couch, and she on the other, she explained to us the problems and difficulties she has been having trying to raise her three sons (17, 15, 12)  on her own, and that she had other relationship stuff, and she just told us all of the stuff that was going on with her, and through tears, she paused, got really calm, and quietly told us, "I know it's my time to be right with the Lord, I will be baptized TOMORROW!" Elder Lugo and I were shocked to say the least of our emotions, and then suddenly the both of us broke down in tears, and in between tears, we just asked her "Seriously?" and "Really?", and I had never experienced such joy for someone in all my life. She has such incredible kids, and she really does want the blessings of God. I really just couldn't believe what happened! I was SO HAPPY, and really you guys can't understand!

Ok, so Elder Lugo and I have been excercising, but not in a normal way. I get up everyday and do my normal stuff, but because Elder Lugo's apendix burst about 5 months ago, he can't do anything to strenuous. So what did we decided to do????? That's right............. ZUMBA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I know you can all see it now: Me in stretchy pants and hoodie dancing to who knows what in our living room a couple mornings each week haha and also, I didn't really explain what happened in central. There is a huge skyscraper that is called the latin tower (torre latinoamericana) and from the top, you can see the ENTIRE CITY OF MEXICO! It is crazy! There are also a ton of really old temples and cathedrals that you can enter, but it's really weird because you can take pictures. What's weird is that Elder Juarez and I walked into one, took a couple pictures, and then we looked at each other, and at the same time said " The spirit is not here" They are incredible buildings, but it's incredible how much more the spirit can be felt in a simple, loving home, rather than in an enormous catholic cathedral. 

This morning, I am putting my clothes up on the roof to dry, and I here the song "dancing queen" coming from somewhere. I wonder where it's coming from, until i here my companions Elder Lugo's voice coming out of the window! haha It was so funny! 

We have 11 investigators, and they really should all be baptized. We just need to keep working and helping them feel the spirit so they can realize that it is the right step to take in order to follow the example of Jesus Christ. 

This church is most definitely true and it's incredible how the simple things can mean the most when we really get to thinking about it and how much the Lord is involved in our lives. The big topic this week has been plan of salvation, and I can honestly say that I cannot wait to be with my family, in a state of eternal happiness, forever to continue to learn and love one another. I truly love recieveing your emails each week, and you guys really do give me so much strength and support.

I hope you all have a good thanksgiving, eating turkey and watching football. I will probably be eating tacos, and talking to investigators, but It's is totally worth it! Hope you all have an awesome week and I love you all!

Elder Nathan Norr

baptisms! isabel and Jordy

Hey mom, I don't want to freak you out, but that tostada that I'm eating is made from cut up pig's foot cartilage!!! haha Have a great day mom! LOVE YOU! and I didn't eat all of it, it was gross! and that big colorful white palace thing is the palace of beautiful arts! It's really cool!

Miracle & A Suit

Ok, so i literally have 20 minutes to read all of your letters and respond because we went to the center today! CRAZY! It was soo sweet! But we have done pretty much nothing but that all day, and it has been crazy! I got to eat my first ice cream cone in 4 months, and we had to go to the offices today to drop off all of our baptismal sheets and stuff.

I really do have an incredible story to tell you guys about one of our investigators named isabel, but I really don't have time so you will all have to wait to see what happens next week on "mexican dreamin by Elder Nathan Norr" haha, but some other stuff that has happened this week is that we had 3 baptisms in our ward, and this really has been a good week of hard work and fun. I love getting all of your emails that you guys send me, and I promise I will respond to them this next week. 

Ok, so the scale has now become my best friend. When we went to the offices today, it was the first time I have seen a scale in 4 months. The last time I weighed myself at the mtc, I was 135, and this time, I stood on the scale. looked down. and BAM! 150!!!!!!!!!!!! YES! Finally, i gained 15 POUNDS! Its feeling good. I can almost feel the back fat coming now haha but seriously this week has been awesome, and I have got to do so many incredible things.

Black Friday1 Except for here it is 4 days and everything is dirt cheap. With my new found weight, my suit got a week bit snug, and short. So today while we were at the center of mexico, I BOUGHT A NEW ONE! today is the last day of "buen fin" which is their black friday, and I went into a super nice custom suit store, and all of their suits were dirt cheap. So i bought a custom fit solid black really classy suit for... 1000 pesos (75 dollars) and I also got a sweater and stuff, but I just love it here! The people are starting to be more open with me, and I try to bare my testimony often to them as strong and I feel I can. The language is growing, and I can't believe that thanksgiving is almost here.,

No, Mexico doesn't celebrate thanksgiving, but we are going to have a thanksgiving dinner and turkey bowl anyway!

I have to go to a meeting in the stake center, but I hope you all have an incredible week, and I hope you can all really understand how incredible the gospel is. No matter how good our lives may already be, it will always get better with the gospel. I love this church, and I hope this letter finds you all safe, sound, and happy!

Love

Elder Nathan Norr

Hey mom, I took this last monday, but couldn't send it! Love you lots and hope you have an awesome week mom!

LOVE YOU!!!! :)

Yay Mexico

Well hello there everyone! How are you all doing this wonderful day?! I know I have been doing fantastic on account that I have pretty much chilled all day because all of my errands are done, and I am now chewing on melty, chocolately goodness known as an American Snickers bar. OH YEAH! Life is good! And also, this week has been really good as well. I don't know why, but I really struggle with being bold with people. I guess I am afraid that what I say will do more to prevent the lord's work from progressing than helping it. But I am done being complacent. I realized, especially yesterday, that we aren't just teaching lessons to people; we are helping them find the correct path that leads to eternal salvation with their families, and I will not look back and wish that I had done more.

But anyways, this week has been a pretty good one, but I really just can't believe how fast the time goes. I legitimately cannot remember what happened this week, and the stuff I remember, I'm not sure if I should write because I'm not sure if I already wrote about it last week, but here we go. I will do my best. This week went well, we had quite a few investigators to talk to, but there really just wasn't enough. I just feel like we could be doing soo much more, but we are just going to less actives, actives, and recent converts, and the investigators don't seem to realize the importance of our message, and most of our appointments with them fall through... :( 

Ok, so I will jsut talk about the stuff i remember. First off, THEY HAD THE HUGE BREAD AGAIN!!!! This time I got a doughnut instead, but i ended up not eating it because it just wasn't hittin the spot, but really, that bread is so incredibly huge it is insane! I wish we had pan (bread) like that in the U.S. because everyone would buy it! So we just happened to be walking by that place that sells the pan because we had an appointment. Luckily they were putting the bread in the cars to leave. We asked if we could buy it from the cars, but they said that if we wanted to, we were welcome to go into the place and buy it. So, we walk in. You would have thought we were there to either arrest them or shut them down because everyone in there looked at the two dudes (good-looking dudes too if i might add) and froze. Then we asked with pan we could buy and they went back to doing their stuff, but that place makes such good bread, but i'm pretty sure no one knows they use it. 

Also, this crazy dude tried to get me to marry one of his daughters. So, after we drop the pan off at Schaap's house, we have an appointment. we walk by this family who has a little tienda (little store to buy everything) and this guy just yells at me "Yerno" which translated is son-in-law. I just look because he was obviously yelling at me. I say "buenas tardes, como están?" and he just yells at me, here is your future wife, come talk to her, or if you want, I have another daughter!!!!! I was like "dude........ PSYCH! No! and we took off. Sad part is that he lives by a lady that we teach quite a bit, and there is no way that we can really avoid him, but we are going to try to get him to at least not call me his son. The next time we visit Hermana cruz, we'll just do it like seal team 6. Do some covert ops and stuff. Lugo will take the back door, and i will hide behind the mobile taco vender until I can get close enough to james bond, arnold swartzheneger (who knows how to spell that) army dive through her cement opening to get into her house. I can already see it now. Operation BOM. Initiative: get in. Preach the gospel. Give a blessing. and get out. We hope for no fatalities, but who knows haha

we also have a rather intersting story. We have a couple baptisms this week, but what's funny is that our investigator Jordy had his first communion on saturday (how to become initiated into the catholic church) and this saturday he is going to be baptised into the LDS church! His mom made him do his first communion even though she loves the Mormon church and I know she is going to be baptized. She said that jordy had been preparing for almost 8 months when we starting teaching them, and she said that he had to do it. He wanted to do his first communion in the morning, and his baptism in the night, and even though we thought that would be awesome, we decided to do otherwise. however, we did get to go to his little fiesta after his first communion. we walked in. Silence... I could almost here their thoughts "what is this white dude dressed in a shirt and tie with a name tag that says JESUCRISTO doing in our party" well, the answer is easy. I'm here to convert you all! haha not really, but really yes!

We talked a lot to them, and they wanted to know what we believed and why were were in mexico. We explained to them that we are here to teach about the gospel of Jesus christ, and we are here for 2 years. They actually grew to like us I think.

SURPRISE!!! Christmas came early!!!!! Not really, but seriously. I got all of my packages for christmas today.... Not sure what I'm going to do for the next 7 weeks before christmas, but I refuse to open them! I will wait til christmas. I already bought wrapping paper so I can wrap stuff up that I buy for myself so my christmas can be more exciting haha :) But hopefully the last package shows up in about a month because I can't handle having all of them here early. 

I do want to share one last story before I finish. I was with my nephew elder juarez last night, and we went to a lady's house at about 7:30. She hadn't talked to the missionaries in a couple months because her daughter died two months ago after having surgery. we started just getting to know her and started to talk to her. Like a freight train, I got hit with the words "Plan of salvation, eternal families, where her daughter is" We bore our testimonies about what our church really believes, and elder juarez gave me the look of "hey, it's your time to talk". he handed me the plan of salvacion pamphlet, and I started to cry. I felt so terrible, and I couldn't even imagine losing a daughter, even though i don't have any. Through my tears, I bear my testimony about the plan of salvation. I promised her that I knew where her daughter was and that, someday, they would be together again in a state of happiness. I also asked her if she would please read the pamphlet so that she too could understand why she lost her daughter and understand the plan that god has for her. She agreed, and we gave her a blessing. I have never felt the spirit so strong during a lesson, and she promised me that she would read the pamphlet with a huge smile on her face! I am so excited to go back and visit her again. it was one of those moments when I really understood what it meant to be a missionary of Jesus christ. 

I truly know that this church is true, and that someday we will all be together forever with our families. I know that God truly does love each and every one of us, and worries about us, but also, helps us through all of our trials. I am so grateful to have the gospel in my life that helps us have the answers to so many hard questions in this life. I truly do know that the spirit will guide our words, and that we will be able to touch not only the hearts of people, but their souls too. I love you all!

AND MOM, you are the most incredible woman in my life, and I hope you have an INCREDIBLE BIRTHDAY TOMORROW! I will be thinking about you. Stay looking young! All of my companions and elders think you are my sister haha LOVE YOU!

Love, Elder Nathan Bill Norr

 I guess we worked harder than I thought. The last thing I remember was reading my scriptures haha

 That huge guy is my nephew elder juarez. That doughnut was dope, and the little kid is Jordy (our investigor) it was his 12th birthday.

Classic Rock and Penalties-3 Months Out

Well hello there Family, and all you other people who read my emails too... haha just kidding. I hope you are all having an incredible week because I know that I am. This week has been LOCO!!!! We don't just celebrate halloween. we celebrate 6 days of alters, and day of the day candies, breads, sugar skulls, and all that stuff. It was so different, but it was so incredible to see the culture that they have here and how they really get into it. 

First off, we got a ton of new investigators this week. We got 11!!!!! Yep. The lord is truly allowing us to teach 11 of his incredible children! We are so lucky! But it was also pretty sad because the 11 people are 3 families, and 2 or our appointments fell through... that sucked, but we will continue to pray for them because I know that they will progress in the gospel. 

I really can't explain how fast the time goes here. I swear. I go to write you guys, go to bed, and the next day.... I'm writing you guys again! it is just so weird how the more we work, the faster the time goes. 

Ok, so for the weird food... i don't think I have anything. yes mom. You are welcome :) but we did get SOOO MUCH FOOD! So many of the members gave us food, and it was soo good. I really am starting to eat a lot of food now. On sunday, we ate with Michael's house (our recent convert) and schaap ate 11 tacos (he played football for byu) and I ended up eating 13 TACOS! that's right! I ACT those tacos, and guess what??? Didn't get sick! Who's the man? ... no really. Who's the man? We need a new guy to teach haha 

Ok, so now that I talked about a lot of stuff already, I will now tell you why I titled my email "classic rock and penalties". First off, dad, I gotta give it to ya. You definitely got some good taste in music. I have noticed that all the songs that I just randomly sing or have stuck in my head are ALWAYS songs that we listened to when you were working out in the garage, or when we were riding in your car. I have developed a rather impressive air guitar solo that I randomly bust into as I think about a song and there is absolutely NO MUSIC ANYWHERE AROUND US haha. But also, not that you guys didn't already know this, but Mexican's love their soccer. So we just happened to walking past a nieve store. it's a lot like ice cream, but it has the texture of slightly freezer-burned ice cream. Who doesn't care. ME. I LOVE ICE CREAM! I NEED MY GALLON BACK!  but anyways, we were walking by, and the Mexico v. Brazil game was on, and it was already into the penalty kicks. Both teams had already went 6 and 6 and they were on the 7th PK. The mexican goalie blocked it. The ice cream shop got pretty excited. then the mexican player made his PK. Oh SHOOT! I have never felt so much energy anywhere. It was like the country shook with the raucous chants of spanish. and this one dude ran down the street while stripping in excitement. Actually that last part didn't happen, but he did run down the street and freak out. 

Sometimes in the scriptures when it describes the earth as feeling like it was going to part asunder, it really just meant that Mexico won an important Soccer game. yeah. it's that crazy!

I loved getting all of your emails this week, and I know that I didn't write a whole bunch this week, but this week wasn't too crazy. I did get to take a picture with an awesome altar (not sure if that's ok to say) and I got a HUGE BAG of cotton candy. The pictures will be on the blog, but I hope you are all doing incredible! This time really is flying, and before we know it, it will be christmas. One question. Please tell me there isn't anything perishable in the packages you guys sent me, because I am going to wait til christmas to open them. 

Anyways, I will end with my testimony. We taught about the anti-nefi-lehites this week, and I had never really got into it, but now that my spanish is better, I start getting really animated in my lessons. I just always read it and wonder how it is possible to have that much faith and conversion. they were willing to go to war, simply to meet their enemies while sitting on the ground praying. They truly were converted to the gospel. I know that we, each and every one of us has the ability to become as the anti-nefi-lehites, and that if we are willing to put our trust in god, he will never let us down, and will help us with moments that will help us strengthen our faith. This church really is true, and I know that for all the problems we have, God loves us and want to help us. I know that someday, we will all be together forever in happiness and peace with our father in heaven. I love you all, and hope you have and incredible week!

Love Elder Nathan Norr :)