Tis the Season!

Date: December 16, 2013
Area: Lake Stevens, Washington
Companion: Sister Fishburn

Hello beautiful Norton family! first things first.. I AM SO SO GRATEFUL FOR THE PACKAGE!! THANKS FOR ALL THE LOVE!!

   If I could I would write novels to you all..... but sadly I just can't but just know if I could I would... there is so much too say but I am going to try to hurry and write this so I can write everyone back!

Oh what a week it has been. Missionary work is crazy and I am really starting to wonder when it will all start to hit me that I am actually on a mission.. it was funny just the other day fishy and I were riding our bikes down this big hill and what not and she just turned to me and said..."hahahaha WE ARE ON MISSIONS!!!" it was so funny and we were just laughing and laughing. The area I am in is ummm wonderful and hard but I love it! I am in the Cavalero ward and the area like I have said has so many hills. On to the next thing... We had a wonderful relief society thing on Tuesday night and I felt like I was back home in good ol Utah... the women in the ward are great and there was about 8 babies there... CRAZY!! all I want to do is just hold one... but I cant.. hahahah oh well! Then we sang wonderful Christmas music and I just love this time of season.. it is so weird without snow.... SO WEIRD! it doesn't feel like Christmas at all... which makes me and fishy not as homesick so that's good! SO lets see... Brother Krick.. aka GRANDPA he actually told me to call him that and I about started to cry because I truly feel like he is my grandpa... he fed us Omelets on Wednesday night and It was so much fun and we just chatted and chatted and he kept feeding us and feeding us and but the end I swear I couldn't eat anymore... and finally he gave us the BIGGEST piece of PUMPKIN pie and I just looked at it and about threw up.. but thankfully I almost ate all of it... and then his wife looked at me and said.... "sister Norton, are you okay" "YOU DONT HAVE TO EAT ALL OF IT" ahahahahah it was so funny! then I just stopped... oh good times on the mission... then we shared with them about our Christmas traditions and talked about what Christ has done for us in our lives... SO AWESOME!! Then I went on exchanges with our STLs and lets just say it was alright... I mean I was in car for that and it was so weird! and it made me realize how grateful I am for the worlds best trainer and I'm so glad we get along... blessed.. so so blessed.

   ARLIGNTON NATIVITY!! the worlds coolest thing. Oh my gosh... So Elisabeth is our wonderful investigator... and we had met with her on Tuesday and we always have super awesome lessons with her and she is so open with us and I love it... and more than anything I always learn something from her... and so we wanted to ask her to be baptized in that lesson and we were talking with her and committed her to read the book of Mormon and to pray and know that it is true and she said she would then we asked her to come to church and she was iffy and said a couple things and wasn't so sure... then her phone rang and she got up real fast and we had the chance to talk really fast and we both looked at each other and we just knew that it wasn't right for us to ask her to be baptized... THE SPIRIT tells you great things.... then we invited her to A nativity festival.. well the Ewing's did.. the Ewing's are a SUPER awesome family in our ward... and I wouldn't be surprised if Brother Ewing is actually reading this on my little blog thing... HEY well anyways they invited her and got her to come! and we went with her, and at the nativity festival  they have a room that is just full of pictures of Christ and it is so powerful! and she just absolutely loved it and we loved it and it was so awesome.. they had so many nativities set up and it was so cool I love the church!! so that was great and then that night we had lamb... oh yummm and then we talked about the lamb of God with the family... hahah kind of awkward but super cool

this is one of my favorite quotes that I just found this week...

"The savior knew life from every side and every angle, both above and below. He who was the greatest made himself the least the Heavenly Shepherd became the Lamb."

I love that!! It is in the Ensign called... "come let us adore him"

anyways.. next thing is next...Saturday we had a ton of meetings which is so fun!!

 

then SUNDAY!!! yayayayaayy the best day of the mission so far.. me and Sister Fishburn were standing there welcoming people and then all of the sudden Fishy turned to me and said.... UM... is that Elisabeth!? holy smokes! SHE came to church!! she came to church! we both just started to cry and I loved the feeling that overcame me. She walked in with her 8 year old daughter and the ward just welcomed her in and it went so well.. umm slash that.. it went perfect! we didn't have to do anything because the ward was awesome with her! then ummmmm we went with her to gospel doctrine and ummmm what was the topic.. BAPTISM! how perfect was that. the lord truly does know perfectly the way things need to go and it was so important for us to listen to the spirit while we were teaching her. i know the church is true! its wonderful! She stayed for all 3 hours and then that night she came to our Stake Christmas concert which was super awesome.. i love all the wonderful Christmas music!

family. you are all too great!

romans 13:12

hastening the lords game plan... pretty neat talk;)

i love you all so much!!

love your dearest sister Norton!