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..:)