the ocean, the trees, all the wonderfulness!!!!!!

For the beauty of the earth.....

HELLO! fun fact. I am not dead I am actually alive!

   Quick. We weren't able to email yesterday with it being Memorial day and what not but we were given a little bit of time to email today so don't mind me because my brain is just a tad bit ALL over the place and I don't know where I should even begin. SO many wonderful and crazy stories to share with all of you. Last week I mentioned a little bit about the man who yelled at me and my companion who told us he did not want to know ANYTHING about the Mormons but he really wanted to learn about our church... and then we told him we were the Mormons. Well we were actually able to see him again and we had a lesson with him and his name is Lenard he is from Africa and he really is into what it is that we are teaching which is super awesome, and to think that we found him by tracting. SUCH A BLESSING! He is really opened to learning more and we are excited about that.

ONE POWERFUL EXPERIENCE COMING YOUR WAY. Okay so here we goooo. COOL story for the week. We went to go see a guy that we had never met before and we knocked on his door and I heard him vacuuming and he heard us knock and then stopped and continued to vacuum. BUMMER! we decided to knock again and this time I was a little nervous.. didn't know what to expect. He opened the door and we told him who we were and he looked very mad and not happy to see us. He was about to slam the door and we asked where he was from and it turns out he's from Kenya.. so I quickly try to tell him that my sister has been there and that led us into a greater conversation and then we had such a powerful crazy experience with this man right on his doorstep. We chatted about what he believed in and he told us that he thought we were crazy for believing in MORMON.. what the?  I then had to ask him some questions to see what it was exactly that he thought we believed... we then cleared everything up.. Sister Millett and I were so bold in the best way possible and it was right then where I realized that everything I was saying was totally and completely by the spirit and it flowed so perfectly and sister Millett and I worked so well together and it was a moment that I will never forget. After we talked he looked at us and said. "tell me more" I want to know more.. SO AWESOME I loved it. We continued to talk and he looked at me and said.. YOU.. you would make a great politician! (ha. what the heck is that supposed to mean).. then he said to sister Millett.. you would make a great mother. it was pretty funny... then he said a prayer with us.. it was incredible.

moving on... yesterday we were able to go to the beach and it was so beautiful. you all need to explore Washington. its amazing. the beach we went to was so pretty.. so many evergreen trees and then just OCEAN. It was a lot of fun to run around for a little bit we really enjoyed it.

last but not least.. Eric and Kathy and Nikki- some of our investigators, they are doing awesome and really starting to progress. One of the best moments happened yesterday when we had a family home evening with them. We sang "love at home" and as I sat there singing it and watching this family together sitting on the couch I almost began to cry BUT I didn't because I was so happy. I thought about our family and all the countless family home evenings that we would have just laughing and being together. The gospel is true, and it brings families so much closer together. I love being a missionary.
 Its one of the most life changing experiences anyone could have! Thank you so much for all that you do! The church is true!!

 I know it I know it I know it!!!










love, your dearest Sister Norton:)

 

i love washington

hello hello!

 

 Each Monday I get so excited to come to the library to open up my email and read from many of you each week. I am so grateful for all the LOVE and support that I receive from you and for all the countless prayers. I know that many of them are answered and each missionary really appreciates them. I know that I need as much help from my Father in Heaven that I can get. I would not be able to do this wonderful work without His help. I am often brought to my knees with so much gratitude. This week I had a very overwhelming experience... well I actually had a few that I will share. The first one was.. this past Monday we had a Family Home Evening with our investigators and a family in the ward. It was wonderful to be able to feel of the spirit in the members home and for our investigators as well. That is one of my favorite parts about being a missionary. I have MANY favorite parts but this is one of them. The next would be this week we were out on our bikes and it had been a VERY long and tiring the day... the sun was out and it was pretty warm and I just felt WET.. it's not too humid here but it's different than Utah that's for sure. We biked past one of our investigators house and Sister Millett thought we should go see her, so we did. She lives in a RV with about 5 HUGE dogs that just bark and bark. As we walked down this dirt road the dogs were barking and barking and I wasn't so sure of what was going to happen. Wendy.. walked out to yell at her dogs to be quite and noticed we were there.. she then said hi and walked over to us and we began to talk. She shared with us some of her concerns and then we talked to her about how this is something life changing but this is something that God wants for her and it may be a little scary.. as dogs were jumping up on me and sister Millett I noticed that Wendy looked down and we sat in silence just for a moment.. she said.. " I want to take this slow". we agreed and told her that was alright. We said a prayer with her and at the end of the prayer we looked up and tears filled her eyes and she said to us... PLEASE pray for my daughter... we told her we would... I looked at her and said don't worry your daughter will be alright and reached out to just hug her.. as I embraced this stranger in my arms she began to weep and at that moment I felt the love that our Father in Heaven has for each and every one of us. Gods love is perfect and he LOVES everyone NO MATTER what. I know this to be true.

  Another experience that I had this week went a little like this. We were tracting and ran into a man that seemed quite interested and he said we could come back later... so we did! you learn how to be persistent with people on your mission. he was shocked we came back but when he opened the door he said we could come in.... sadly we couldn't because he was the only one home and we cant do that. He got a little upset about that and as I tried calming this man down to tell him about why we cant he just got even more mad. UGH. right then I just wanted to leave. this man is yelling at me and my companion and I was not happy.. we continued to let him yell at us and then I just told him we would be more than happy to share our message with him on his porch and he said no. then he said but I do want to learn more about your church! WHAT?! I was so confused. he started talking about how much he loved the bible and then I pulled out the Book of Mormon.. and he said NO NO NO I don't want to know about the MORMONS.. I want to know about your church... the latter day saints.. HAHA. I laughed and said... "well... WE ARE THE MORMONS" he looked quite surprised. we then began to tell him it was a nickname and he was shocked. it turned into one of the best moments on my mission. he said... please come back and share with me more... 

I love this gospel... and I know with all of my heart that it is true. I know that Christ lives and loves us. I love this chance that I
have to serve the lord with all of my heart, might, mind and strength. WHOM the lord calls he qualifies. At times I am so tired but its so worth it.. just for those tiny miracles.

Last night I was able to see Sister Fishburn and my last investigators from my last area.. it was too much fun and it made me realize how much I love my mission.

funny moment to end with: we were eating with one of our members and they looked at sister Millett and said..(talking about me.) is she always like this" hahah it was funny.

church is true. love you all!!

love Sister Norton:)

p.s. Sister Millett and I have matching rain coats. twins!! different color though.

forgive me for being all over the place..:)

bliss!

BEST DAY EVER! It was so good to see all of your lovely faces and I thoroughly enjoyed it way to much. I was way to happy to just see you and talk with you. It was a great MOTHERS day. Mom. you rock. I love you lots and you are awesome. so glad to call you my mom. As I woke up this morning I got to thinking… oh shoot I think I may have told all my funny stories to you all and all I don't have much to say today.

 I apologize for the short email today but I want to say just a few words. I am grateful to be a Norton. I am also so grateful for the family that we are. I know that Heavenly Father wants us to be CLOSE and i know that we can succeed. 

President Monson gave a wonderful talk this last conference talking about LOVE and how it is the essence of the gospel and I know that as we love EVERYONE around us we will be able to feel of Gods love more abundantly in our lives. This is something I know that everyone can work on.. We may get frustrated with others, impatient, and just sometimes mad. lets not forget that Satan wants to pull us apart. As we live the gospel we will be blessed. I know that this is true. After we skyped yesterday we went to go teach a less active family in the ward and we taught them about the importance of families and it was really eye opening to me. I LOVE you all so much and I would do anything for you. I love how close we all are. I know this is the true church. I am looking forward to this week, it is going to be FULL of sunshine and just pure wonderfulness and i just can't wait! you are all great and I

love you all so much. stay good:) 

 

Love Sister Norton!

CINCO de MAYO..transferssss!

Mi Familia!

hola.

as for the Spanish... no comprendo, I stink at it..

HAPPY DAYY! I will be staying in my area with Sister Millett!:) I am super excited about it because they have been getting missionaries in and out of here and the work has slowly been decreasing so I am hoping that we will see a big increase and this next transfer is going to be AWESOME! It is really great when you have a companion that you just get along with and you have the same idea about how it is that you want to get work done. I love it and I am SO blessed!

  This week was wonderful and super busy and to say the least I have never felt SO ALIVE in my entire life but I have never been so tired. That makes complete sense.. right? okay good I am glad you all understand. We had absolutely gorgeous weather for 3 days and I actually got a tan line from my shoes! How crazy is that. The sun was out and we were loving it. When the sun comes out here the people are just a little bit more happier so we always pray for SUN. fun fact about Washington. they say summer doesn't come til july 5th. THEY all say that.. and hardly anyone has AC here. dad you would go crazy. but I guess they are right because as of right now its raining,. again! you just learn to love the rain and you adapt.

  HIGHLIGHTS: found a new investigator through tracking, café rio opened up here and we went! (not as good as Utah though), some little 4 year old shot a bb gun at me.. that was hilarious, ward chili cook off where the yw auctioned off desserts for girls camp and people buy chocolate cake for 100 dollars NO JOKE, a Jehovah witness let us in her home... and so much more!

I am so excited to Skype you all and that will be happening next Sunday around 5:30 your time. I hope that works.. I have meetings and lessons and we have church from 1-4... so we are going to hurry and go to a member right after church and we shall talk and catch up about LIFE and just everything that is going on. I cannot wait!

We had a really cool lesson with Hannah who is from Egypt and she really wants to be Mormon and she loves all the Mormons. she said you can just tell when someone is Mormon. That really got me to thinking this week and that has been on my mind a lot. We as latter day saints all represent the lord and we need to show it no matter what because people can see and they want what we want. we have so much happiness to share with everyone! the gospel is good news!

another quick story... we had a lesson with a part member family and we watched "because of him" and at the end the non member said "I just got all tingly" AWESOME! the spirit works in so many different ways!

I LOVE WASHINGTON. I LOVE THE RAIN. and I LOVE being a  MISSIONARY.

love you all so much. and I will see all of your faces next sunday where I will share EVERYTHING! be sure to have questions to ask so we can have the best time ever!

love sister Norton.