"rain..rain..mist..and SUN!!

Good MORNING!!!

 TRANSFERSSS... I am going to be staying here in Monroe with Sister Loose. 6 more weeks here we come! I seriously cannot believe that I have already been here for 6 weeks. Where oh where has the time gone. Time is just going so fast it blows my mind. This week was quite an interesting long week. It rained for 2 days and it was so cold that I had to pull out my winter boots! It made me so grateful for the sun.  Luckily the sun finally came back out and all was well. Everyone was saying that we really really needed the RAIN.

 I will just start with the bad news first. Sadly Lynn called us this week right before one of our appointments and canceled... she canceled everything. her baptism and coming to church. OUCH. another dagger to the heart. It was so so sad and as sister loose and I sat across from eachother we weren't so sure how to take the conversation. We listened and then that was all that we could do... keep her in your prayers. We are going to give up quite yet and neither are a couple of the members here in the ward. THE CHURCH IS TRUE.

Happy Pioneer DAY! Wahoooo. I am so grateful for the pioneers and for everything that they went through. I read a talk this week given by Uctdorf and he talks about the trials that they went through and yet the sang "ALL IS WELL".. he goes on to say.. im pretty sure everything was not well with the pioneers but yet the were grateful in there circumstances. He also talks a lot about what is it that we are doing in a result of what the pioneers have done for us?

funny story of the week.... on Tuesday night i think it was we were in a lesson with an investigator and it was getting to be a little late... and we needed to hurry and get going in order to be in home on time. We had been on foot all day. SO we left and started to run back to our apartment which was about 2 miles away... I began to think how funny this moment was... and couldn't image it to get even better.. BUT it did. as we were running i looked up and across the street from us saw a man in a wheelchair that seemed to be struggling.. i looked at him and waved and said hello! before i knew it.. sister loose and i were pushing this man the opposite direction from our apartment... i just started to smile as i was running with his dog... he kept saying thank you thank you so much! he just needed to go to his house that was a little bit down the street. when we finally arrived he said "god bless" to us and then said... WAIT ARE YOU LADIES MORMON? we laughed and said YEP! then he said.. well me to! where's the church around here? MIRACLE! it was pretty cool.. Every day my testimony is strengthened just about how Heavenly Father is so AWARE of us in all of our circumstances.

I love the gospel so much and i know that it is true! Mom... you asked a question and i thought i would answer it:) The biggest change that i think has taken place in my life... well besides EVERYTHING.. i have  come to understand how the atonement is so readily available for each person and that it is through Christ that we can be fully healed.. i think i have also learned how important it is to understand that EACH person we meet.. or see has a background and is going through something and that they have a story and that we must love them because they are our brothers and sisters. oh and also that if i have a question i can pray to my father in heaven and ask and he will answer... sometimes not in the way i want but in the way that i need.

"Understanding the saviors freely given atoning love can free us from self imposed, incorrect, and unrealistic expectations of what perfection is."

 Moroni 10:32 32 Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

I LOVE WASHINGTON!!!!!!!

LOVE you all to pieces!

Love. Sister Norton
 

GOLDEN....

The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.. this is what President Bonham says and it is something that I am working on. WORK WORK WORK. this week there was a lot of that. We are doing a lot of finding in this area which can be a tiny bit tiring.. but that's okay! The weather has been SO SUNNY and so HOT.. but yesterday it finally rained.. and by rain I mean it was MISTY and it was so nice. It defiantly cooled things down quite a bit. Lets get started... I just have a few stories that I would like share and to talk about so in advance... like always I may just be all over the place:) ding.

The first thing to talk about is... I learned this week that communication with your companion is KEY! and that goes for any relationship or friendship. Especially with Heavenly Father. We need to communicate with him and that way he will be able to answer all of our questions. Sister Loose and I had a good conversation and we were able to figure so many things out and it went super well!

So a lot happened this week and then I feel like nothing happened at all. Sometimes that's how weeks go and its completely normal. Or at least I hope it is. the hard thing about a mission.. hmmm there are a lot of hard things but on e hard thing would be that you are working hard and good things are happening but the problem is that it just may not be showing. One day this week were had been out all day long walking around knocking on doors and trying to talk to people.. the only thing that was keeping me going was the fact that we had a lesson that evening that I was excited for. As we were about to head over to our dinner appointment we had planned to see this lady named Heather... we were told to go see her when her husband wasn't home.. I am pretty sure I've talked about her before... but we were close to her house and the door was open and her husband was home.. WE AWKWARDLY turned around hoping that they wouldn't notice as we started to walk away we heard someone open the door.. AHHHH my heart starting racing and all I was thinking was oh crap... what should we say! when we turned it was heather.. her husband and their son. PHEW! she asked us if we would like a glass of water..YAY! we talked with her and had a good conversation. then we went to dinner with her neighbor and told her all about it...her neighbor was thrilled and then later that night she talked to heather and told her about what it is exactly that we do as missionaries and now she wants to have us share the lessons. WOOT WOOT. that was such a miracle. as we were walking to meet with our investigator after dinner she texted us to cancel. I was so bummed:( I hate when that happens... we continued to walk to go see some other people around the area... when out of no where is younger guy came up to us asking us for money... (don't worry mom.. we are completely SAFE).. we told him we had none and then he kept walking.. I looked up and mumbled out the words.... uhhhhh well.. WHERE are you going? he turned around and started to talk to us about the rough situation he was in and I felt so bad for him... he had no where to go and all he wanted was drink of water. as our conversation went on he finally asked us who we were.. we told him and he said.. "well I would like to serve a mission".. Sister Loose said well you would have to be a member.. surprisingly he said... "actually I AM" my mouth dropped! WHAT! he then told us how he needed to find his light again and how we wanted to go back to church and on and on. WOW! so COOL! we were in the right place and the right time and it was awesome.

The next would be that we were able to go to a pioneer day activity in my first area.. it was so weird to be back there but also very fun. We went with Julie who is a recent convert.. the one I talked about last week. She laughed when sister Loose said.. "oh I hope there's ROOT BEER here and when I said.. OH ME TOO! There were so many fun activities and what not. LOVED IT. Then I was able to see one of the families that I got really close to in Lake Stevens and that was a blast! Then later that night we had planned to see Jean who was being taught in Seattle and then moved in with a member.. we went over and she was happy to see us. We were having a great conversation and it was going so well. Then we brought things up about the church and it was going even better. She was so receptive and eager to learn more.. she said she loves what the Mormon church has done for her son.. I was so excited and so pleased with how things were going... then out of no where she looked at us and said.. well. ya know what.. I think your church is great but I will never convert... it was like a dagger to my heart and as I looked at her I literally had to do everything I could to not just completely break down in tears right in front of her face.. It was hard to hear that but she invited us back over and I asked her if we could just read the Book of Mormon with her and she said maybe in the future.. I am hoping something will happen.

 I was reading this week in Alma 26... I love this chapter.. Ammon is talking about how he will not boast because he is an awesome missionary but its because of the lord that he can do all things and it just has been really sticking with me. I am serving a mission to serve god and to represent Jesus Christ... it is because of them that I can do all things. I love the gospel.

I love this quote... "the more you come to know him the easier your life will become" I believe that. and I know that's true.

Scripture of the week would have to be Alma 15:18

the reason I love this so much is because Alma is a wonderful companion to Amulek and helps him and most importantly strengthens him in the Lord. I know that we must each strengthen one another.

I feel so lucky and so blessed that Heavenly father trusts me with so many of his children. I love the people here and no matter how hard it may get at times. I absolutely love it. I know that we are only given things to make us stronger. Love you all!

Love,

Sister Norton:)

oh and p.s. someone gave us crab this week. YUM! for free

His GRACE is SUFFICIENT

  Oh the things that you learn on your mission, the experiences that you have and the things that you go through that strengthen and build your testimony!  When Monday comes I think.. How in the world am I going to tell my family all of what has happened these past 7 days. This week was a long climb and I am just ready to start a brand new one! There were so many cool things that happened and things that I was able to learn! That is one of my favorite parts about a mission...

 We received a call from the Salt Lake mission telling us about a less active that they wanted us to go see who lived in our area.. the weird thing about it all was that the previous day we had tried to go see her and she just wasn't home! We then decided that we must go back and see if she was home.. as we pulled up to this beautiful house out in the middle of no where we saw her come out. She looked at us and said.. "oh hold on!" we waited for a moment and came out and we began to talk.. she asked us how much time we had... we only had about 20 minutes and so she told us she would talk fast! She told us that she was baptized last November and started to tell us her conversion story... it was a moment that I will never forget. As she told us about the things that she had to go through my mind and thoughts were drawn back to the talk that I had read last week. " His Grace is Sufficient and how we must have the grace change us and not just save us. Her story is remarkable and I will spare you all the details... long story short though.. She was raised a member and then served a mission and was married in the temple. then she had her name removed when she was in her 30s and she hated everything about the church... she tried to pull as many people away as she could, she is a patrol officer and was in charge of a womens case who was a member. SHe told us that they would often argue about religion and one day this lady told her to just go to temple square and walk in the vistors center and to touch the back wall and then walk out then she promised that if she did that she would never argue about it anymore. (sorry I hope this is all makin sense) so she said... okay that's easy I will do it and just get out of there... as she walked in the vistors center she proceeded to touch the back of the wall and walked past the sister missionaries who just smiled and waved.. she said... it was so easy and then as I was almost out the door another set walked in and said to me.."did you find what you were looking for?" she kinda laughed in their face and said well I wasn't looking for anything.. the sister missionaries tried to engage her and she wouldn't buge.. then they asked her to just walk through and look at the pictures on the wall of Christ... so she agreed. she told us that as soon as she got to the picture of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane... she completely lost it.. she went on and on and I am going to run out of time... the point to the story is that her story is remarkable and has changed my life. SHe is a new person and I love that chance that I have to be able to work with her. To be able to see truly how the atonement works and to have this front row seat at it is remarkable. Christ lives!

Next subject... We had to move our investigators baptism date to august 23rd..which was sad but its okay because shes still on board for everything and is super thrilled. we aer working with her to quite smoking. Pray that she Lynn will stay on date and continue to progress towards baptism!

 We were also able to meet with Corbin who hopefully will be getting baptized in September. He is 9 and we are trying to reactive the whole family... the dads a little hesitant and wont sit in for the lessons we hope that he will allow his son to be baptized. Its challenging working with people who for some reason have got offened by someone.. the church is perfect... just not the people. We must lovely love EVERYONE... just has Christ would. no matter how hard it may be. It was awesome though because the kids and the mom FINALLY came to church. WAHOOOOO!! That is a good feeling when you are in sacrament wondering who is going to come and then something like that happens! I love it.

FREEEEEE SLURPEEEEEEE DAYYYYYY. the best. HAPPY 7-11. Sister Loose and I had to go get one during our lunch hour. it was the best ting ever. first slurpee in 8  months.... wow!

 last but not least.. Washington has a BAZILLION spiders. they are everywhere and the worst part is that I walk through spider webs on the door and on the staircases and sister loose just laughs at me. This week one went in my hair.. that was fun.

Church is true! love you all to pieces!

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK!!!!

Sister Norton:)

sorry im just all over the place!

 

amurica....Happy 4th of JULY!...

 This week was so great. So many tender mercies from the Lord and so many small miracles that occurred that helped me to keep going! We were able to find 2 new investigators plus a lady that was being taught by the Elders in our neighboring ward has now moved into our ward and we will start teaching her and another awesome plus would be that she is getting baptized on July 19th! We were able to go over and meet her last night and the Elders gave her a blessing. Her name is Lynn and she has such a sweet spirit about her and is literally counting down the days for her baptism. Ohhh geeee I am really getting ahead of myself....

 Lets begin. We have been praying and praying and pleading with the Lord to help us in this area and to help us find new investigators and to start teaching more. Also to help the members in the Maltby ward help us as missionaries. MIRACLE! We received a call from a member on Monday and she told us how she has a friend who she had given a book of Mormon to and she was going over to her house to help her pit cherries and she wanted us to go so we could get to know her. hip hip hooray from members being awesome. We went over and had a wonderful time and Heather is an amazing women who goes faithfully to her church but has a lot of questions. She didn't open up that much but the cool part was after all was said and done we were about to take off and she said to Sister Loose and I. Please come back any time.. I don't mind! We are excited about that and are hoping that she will let us in:)

 Then Wednesday we had interviews with President Bonham. It dawned on me that I haven't really said that much about him. HE IS AMAZING! Such a wonderful mission president, I feel so blessed. He is so clever and witty in everything that he says. He will usually start off the interview and ask if we have anything that we want to say.. this time I had so many questions and we had a lovely interview. He has such a wonderful spirit and you just know that he has been called of God. He has to time our interviews due to all of the missionaries that he has to interview so we usually get about a 8 minute interview and when the timer goes off we have to wrap up! This time when it went off I said... "WAIT no... ONE MORE question" and he just laughed and said.. Sister Norton... I am going to pray now. he is great. Love the guy!

 Happy FOURTH OF JULY! I love the fourth so much.. and we had quite the crazy day. It was funny to be with a Canadian celebrating AMERICA! I made her where red white and blue:) We had a ward breakfast that we attended, then we visited some people and had a lesson with one of our investigators who we put on date on the fourth of July. WHAT! It was so cool. She is 16 and she's been on date before. We went to go see her on the fourth and had a lesson and she pulled out this piece of paper with her testimony written on it and told us she wanted to share it with us. SO cool. after she read it, we looked at her and said... When do you want to be baptized? We talked a little bit more and were able to set a date for her! Pray that she will stay on date!:) Im really excited about her. We had lunch with some members and then dinner and then this other barbeque with a part member family and I swear I was about to die with so much food that everyone wanted us to eat! It was worth it though... ahah. We had to be in by 7pm  We some fireworks but not many. IT WAS SO LOUD all night long. crazy Washington.

Then last but not least JEAN. she is great and her son married a member and then he got baptized and she has so many questions about the church and about what we do as missionaries. She did say the funniest thing to us.. she said.. "ya know I never used to see you missionaries but now its almost like I see you everywhere!" and I live in the basement of a MORMON. She

  is so prepared its awesome. I feel as if I had said awesome way to many times. Excuse me for being all over the place. I love missionary work and I love representing my savior Jesus Christ. I read a talk this week called His Grace is Sufficient. Everyone needs to go read it. I could go on and on about how... "awesome" it is but I don't have that much time. the gospel is so true! I love you all!

"conversion is a process, it is not an event, it is not a race... It is a way of life!"

Love, Sister Norton!