HAPPY EASTER!!! well almost

Holy smokes... This week was just GREAT! the sun was out for a couple days and there was NO RAIN! I was out and about on my bike just loving life and to my surprise I actually got a little sun on my face.. probably because I haven't seen the sun FOREVER! but we did so much finding this week and we had SO MUCH SUCCESS. Sister Millett is so great! super humble and so loving and quiet and I think to myself.. DANG. why am I so crazy loud. That's okay though we make a perfect companionship! Its great. Spring is here and everything in Washington is so so beautiful. I always feel like I am in a forest with all of these crazy HUGE evergreen trees. I LOVE IT! and so would all of you! (dad there are dandelions EVERYWHERE they grow here like CRAZY,, and I think that you would go crazy if you saw all of them. at times I am tempted to go get some weed killer and help all of these people out)

 

Here we goooooooooo. I LOVE MY LIFE. no but really. The mission is HARD! but everyday I am so grateful that I am out here serving and I am so glad that I have this opportunity. SUCH a blessing. I love this church. Its great. I love my savior Jesus Christ and I know that he lives. 

 

This week we had a media referral given to us that we went to go check out and they let us in and so we just had a lovely conversation and what not and then we started to teach them but all of a sudden they looked at us and said.. well we are Jehovah witness's. WHAT!? panic. I can defiantly say this though.. what mom would say. " a character building experience" I learn something every single day..

 

 So I said this at the beginning but we did a lot of finding this week and we received an awesome referral from the ward and it was a tender mercy from the lord that we were even able to find this house because there was no address and we had to look at this drawing that they member drew for us. It was great though because I wanted to give up but sister Millet thought we should try one last place and when we did we totally saw them outside and I just asked if they were Jeff and Wendy and they were. I am so grateful for a companion that pushes me to go the extra mile! I can honestly say that the lord places certain people in your path for a reason. we talked with them and they told us a little bit about themselves and that they were sorry because they couldn't meet right then but they wanted us to come back! hip hip hooray!:) I love when people talk us. We then found a lot of others who are soon to be investigators. It's going great here in good ol'  Washington!

 

I am praying that the weather will stay nice so then more people will be out and that means more people to talk to and usually when the sun is out EVERYONE and I mean EVERYONE is smiling. I LOVE it. Also... it is staying lighter and lighter a lot later at night.. mom. no need to worry we are so safe that its ridiculous.

 

I just want all of you to know that our Heavenly Father is counting on us to SPREAD the gospel to everyone that we come in contact with. YOU CAN DO IT. be brave and be bold and as you pray for opportunities the lord will bless you with so many. I love you all and I hope that you have a wonderful Easter:)

loveee Sisster Norton:) 

CONFERENCE!!! :)

 

 

 Hi Family!

 

 I LOVE YOU ALL SO much and you all came to my mind a lot this past week with it being conference. My first conference away from home and let me tell you it was so different but I LOVED IT! I love that we have conference every 6 months. SUCH A BLESSING. don't cha think?!

 

Things are kind of crazy right now. I am no longer a STL. and that is okay with me. Here is what happened. A Hermana had to go home because of health reasons and so last minute my comp had to go Spanish speaking and I had to get a new companion last Monday. We got the call about this last Monday telling us about the change. I was first a little scared to get a new companion but also so excited! He said to me.. "now sister Norton I want you to know that you didn't do anything wrong as a stl but you were only one for a week so I would hope that you wouldn't have done anything wrong" ha. he is such a goofy guy. HE'S GREAT! we went back to our apartment and packed and cleaned all day long and then late that night went to the mission office where I met my new companion and said my goodbyes to sister Simental. Sad.. but its okay!:) because my new companion is super awesome. her name is sister Millett she is from Kingston UTAH and is so different than I am that we just work super well together. SHE is so cute and quite and we all know that I am not. I think my loudness may scare her from time to time and she just giggles at me. We both have the same way of doing missionary work and we both just like to go out and get the job done which makes life so much better! She is wonderful and things in our area have started to just move along. I LOVE LYNNWOOD. This week we were doing a lot of finding and we were able to see so many miracles! I can truly say that the Lord has blessed me so so much. I think it is so crazy that he trusts me with so many of his children. I know that when I am exactly obedient to the mission rules he blesses me even MORE! and trust me the more blessings the better. I have been working on improving on my street contacting and this week I tried really hard to do that and with the Lords help I did and by doing so we were able to find 2 new investigators!

I love being able to just go up to people and tell them who I am. so great!

 

Also I LOVED CONFERENCE! there is so much I would love to go over but I will just talk about a few things that I loved. I loved what Jefferey Holland talked about. I COULD relate, there are those times when people yell at me and I just want to go back and say something to them.. BUT I don't! I love how he said being a messenger isn't easy but if we are strong it is all worth it. I know that to be true. I KNOW its all worth it. I also love how he said that Christ like love is the greatest love. It truly is. I feel like a lot of conference was talking about becoming true disciples of Christ. I know that we can each change some things that we do in our lives to become better disciples of Christ. I am going to be changing some things this week and I challenge all of you to do the same:) I love how President Monson talked about LOVING EVERYONE! true. we need to! Henry B Eyring talked about how when we choose to make a covenant with God we choose to be changed. I also loved a lot of what Bednar said about our "loads"... as we live the gospel I know that we will be blessed in many ways weather they be big or small. I loved conference and I love you all so much.

 

this church is true.

Love Sister Norton:) 

Lose Yourself

 Dearest everyone.... 

HI! how are you all? Washington update. It has been rainy and sunny this week. "rain, what rain?" 

I cannot even believe that it is APRIL! April fools day is tomorrow WATCH OUT.. Mama Norton probably has something up her sleeve. anyways.. this week was a little crazy and just a little bit stressful.. trying to manage my area and then handling being the STL. We will be going on exchanges after exchanges  after exchanges. This last week we went on just a couple of mini exchanges with a couple of sisters who were going through a rough time. WE HAD A BLAST. I went with a sister who is 30 and she is awesome. I felt a little out of my comfort zone mostly because i felt SO YOUNG... but it went SO WELL! 

 

The general relief society broadcast. 

  AMAZING!!!!! Oh my goodness. I loved every word that was said. It truly made me feel so loved and i hope every women that was able to watch or listen was able to feel the love that their savior has for them. I loved pretty much everything that was said and i am trying to think of exactly what it is that i want to tell all of you. I cant quite seem to put my thoughts into words today. SO SORRY! my mind is just thinking of too many things at once. 

here are some things that i really loved and i want to share with all of YOU!

 -WE are daughters in his Kingdom

 -when we are baptized we are changed forever. alrighty.. lets just think about that. when we are baptized we are changed forever?! what does that mean. Well to me it means that we change ourselves and TRY our very hardest to align our will with his. This is something that I will be working on this week. TRYING my hardest to change to become more like Jesus Christ and to truly become a disciple of him.

- "OH HOW WE NEED EACH OTHER" i loved loved loved this line. This life is not easy but if we come together we are UNSTOPPABLE. We truly do need each other and i know that to be true. I cant do it all on my own. That is why we must all work together and serve one another. ITS SO IMPORTANT

- as we serve we truly do become like him. 

- perfect= complete. 

- "look at your mom" dearest Mama Norton. I was totally thinking of you and i thought of all my sisters. Erika. Mackenzie and Natasha. I love you all so much. Thank you for being such an example to me throughout my entire life. thank you for helping me with everything. thank you for taking care of me. 

- I also loved when she had all of the 8-11 year olds stand up and they sang and then she had us join in and sing with them singing "come little child and together we'll learn"
 

- and i LOVED everything Eyring said about Eve. also he did give a little SHOUT OUT to sister missionaries receiving leadership and at that moment i felt like he was talking directly to me and answering my prayers. i needed that. I felt so much love being with the women in the church and feeling so UNITED.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud7Ae1mjPcg

 

I know that I was truly uplifted at that conference and i know that Jesus Christ is our savior and i know that as we listen we will be able to receive our very own revelation. 

OH HOW I LOVE THE GOSPEL. It is wonderful. OH so WONDERFUL. I love being a missionary and i love being able to share with people about the GOOD NEWS. 

love you all to the moon and back!
 

LOVEEE sisssyyy norton:) 

p.s. Thanks for the cute little gift from Brother Goodwin. hahah i was so confused when he gave it to me. he said it was ALL THE WAY FROM SALT LAKE!YAY

 

thank you so much for all the love and support. Thanks for all the prayers. LOVEEEE YOUUU:) 

have a wonderful week

transfers......Ding!

The good news i am staying in my area and with my companion. wahooo the crazy news... just wait for it....This week was probably one of the most interesting weeks I have yet to have on the mission. SO MUCH and SO LITTLE happened. I have a ton to say and then NOTHING at all. It's just pure craziness and all there is left to say is i have a ton of faith in the Lord and i trust him.

 

  We receive leadership calls on Thursdays to see if we will be training brand new missionaries or become Sister Training Leaders. Thursday came and Sister Simental and I had completely forgotten about calls and just fell right asleep. The next morning while we were out we got a call from our STLs asking us if we had received a call. We looked at each other and laughed because we had just forgotten and said... ahahah NO. We are clear. We went on about our day and then to our surprise we received another call and it was from an unknown number. Sister Simental answered and it was our mission President. what? we both freaked out a little bit. He then asked for Sister Simental and didnt have the greatest news to give her. Her grandma is in the hospital and isn't doing to well. My heart ached for her as i watched her receive this awful news. She then was given permission to call home and say her goodbyes. talk about hard. PLEASE KEEP HER IN YOUR PRAYERS.

 

  Then here's the crazy story. Everyone was thinking Sister Simental would leave and i would stay because that is what has happened with all the missionaries in the past. ITS TRADITION they say. for some reason i just felt like we were both going to stay.. Then Saturday came we were out in between appointments and then we got a call from the APs. They told us that we needed to come to the mission office to get something and that we may be getting a car because our area is so HUGE. Sister Simental was so excited! but i love being on bike so i wasn't so sure what to think... we got to the office and then the APs said to us... "Go in President wants to talk with you" ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! my thoughts: (oh man, what did I do? are we getting in trouble?) The APs followed us in and President Bonham told us to have a seat. then we were handed a packet with the words... "SISTER TRAINING LEADER". I looked down at it.. looked up and laughed. I LAUGHED. then President said.. "sisters will you accept this call to be the new Sister Training Leaders". MY MIND was going 100 miles per hour.. i had no idea what to think. My companion and i were literally speechless. we then muffled out the words... YES. he then began to tell us that he had been trying to figure out transfers for the past four hours and something wasn't right in his head or in his heart. He then changed some things and called us as Sister Training Leaders. Its going to be a super crazy transfer. BUSY BUSY BUSY. going on exchanges all the time which will be quite the adventure. I am excited and nervous for what lies ahead. I know that this is an opportunity that has been given tome to learn and to grow and i know that's what will happen. CHANGE. the gospel is all about CHANGE. and that's what i love.

 

CRAZY!!! so much to tell you all but so little time. STAY GREAT! love you all so much. keep me in your prayers this week. please and thank you

 

love love love you:)

loves sister Norton:)

Attitude of GRATITUTE Oh HAPPY GREEN DAY :)

 The mission. Too say you can put it into words is not possible at all. Its everything and NOTHING of what you think it could or even would be. To say the least I am so unbelievably SO grateful for this opportunity that i have to serve the Lord. It really hit me this week. I don't know why but it just did. I remember receiving my call and thinking.. "oh my heck.. is this real life" am i really going on a mission? then i remember thinking okay this will probably hit me when i am on the mission. ahhhhhhh to be honest.. IT hasn't hit me yet. Each morning… i get to wake up and put on a name tag saying that I represent Jesus Christ. How great is that. I am grateful. I am pleased to say the least that I can dedicate the next 14 months of my life strictly to Him and helping bring souls to Him.  its just great! I feel at times that my head is going 100 miles per hour.. learning, growing, and stretching and giving everything i can in the pouring rain! Its a blessing:)

 This week was crazy busy. I can"t believe it is already week 6 and the end of the transfer in this new area. WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE? literally. TIME FLIES. crazy. Funny story. On Wednesday i think it was.. we were ya know out and about doing our thing.. talking to the people of Washington and we were riding our bikes to go meet someone. We were flying down this huge long  hill. I of course was loving it and going probably a little too fast… (oops) but here's was happened. While going super fast i went to hit my breaks and noticed that they were not working at all. AHHHH i went into panic mode and looked ahead and noticed this hill was never ending and i had no idea what to do. I pulled back my breaks as tight as i could and still no luck whatsoever. BREAKS GONE. YIKES. soooo i am freaking out maybe just a little bit and a look to my left and see a patch of grass so i begin to ride my bike on there so i can slow down.. and i put my feet down to help me stop. WAHOOO it totally worked. i looked like a complete goof but i didn't die. It was on 164th which is a super busy street. anyways. thought you all would enjoy a funny moment. 

Moving on. HAPPY BRITHDAY to the worlds best MOM!  MOM. i love you so so so much and i hope you have a great birthday! you are 40? right? heheeheh. 

 

 

 This week my companion and i really tried to take what we learned in Zone Meeting to the test. We FOCUSED on our GOALS. We set goals every single night and sometimes don't worry too much about them but this week we tried really hard to focus on them and as we did we were able to see MIRACLES and it was awesome. WE FOUND 3 new investigators this week. 

  Last but not least. I want to end and say that this week i was truly strengthened by the thought that i  have the ability to repent and try better each and every day. I know that i have so many weaknesses and things that i need to change about myself. and i know that we all do. I know that the lord is willing to help us through this challenges and ultimately we come out so much stronger! 

GO read 2 nephi chapter 4.  and then REPENT! hahah crazy missionary right now.

I love you all so much. I am grateful for EVERY SINGLE person in my life. YOU. all have impacted me in ways that have made me grow so so much. This gospel is true. It makes me happy and blesses my life each and every day. 

I SEND YOU ALL MY LOVE!:)

loveeee sisterrrr norton:)

4 Monthsss? Wowzaaa!!

Hello!

 

Huh?? I promise you all I just left home. Or so it feels that way. Funny story. The other day I was talking to someone and he asked me how long I had been out and I said oh just a couple months... and then my companion looked at me and said.. hahah shes been out for 4 months! and then all of a sudden it hit me. WEIRD!

 

Let's begin. I love this gospel.. so so so so much. I have learned that we have been given so much in this life and my testimony of the book of Mormon has truly been strengthened for a couple of reasons. 1. because this last week I was able to see the Book of Mormon change one of our investigators lives. It was such a cool thing to experience. We went to a lesson for Eric and Kathy and Eric loves loves loves the Book of Mormon. He has just finished 1 Nephi and loves the story line.. although he did get a little frustrated with the writing style and I couldn't help but laugh. ooops. But I can relate to him so its all good. While we were teaching he opened up to us and told us where he was at and where he sees all of this going. He said.. "either Joseph Smith had to be a complete genius or this book was truly written by God" and he's right. I have a strong testimony of Joseph Smith. I know that he was called of God to restore this church. I again couldn't help but laugh while he was saying this, you all have to understand how this man thinks. In a way he is just like Papa D. very logical. and very smart. we have a good relationship so I am able to laugh at him and say certain things. He said, I WANT TO BE BAPTIZED! wahooooo!!!  Now the next step is to get him and his girlfriend married. they have been together for 13 years. We will be working on that. I know that families can truly be together forever and that is something so wonderful to know. The PLAN OF SALVATION. ahhh its just wonderful. I love it.

  I think I mentioned in one of my emails about a man who we knocked on his door and he yelled at us but we were able to have a good conversation. We met with him again and he is great. He talked to us for a little while and it was such a great conversation and towards the end he looked at me and said. WHAT SIZE shoe are you!? ummmm I told him I had big feet.. and he laughed and said well I have some boots for you! what! he gave me red cowgirl boots. His name is Bill and he is great!

  Saturday was a great day and it rained and it rained and it rained. We were soaked all day long on our bikes and it was great. love the rain! We were able to talk to a lot of people and we went to a part member families house and we asked the 10 year old if he wanted to be baptized and he said yes... we will be working with them and hopefully the dad will let us teach him. he's
the one that wasn't so sure.

  We went to Cottage meeting yesterday and that is just a meeting that is held at the mission presidents house and we can invite investigators to listen to others testimonies and about their conversion story. It was super awesome and I was able to see Sister Wright. It was so good to see her!

 

Well so sorry that I have been all over the place. THIS WORK is crazy and awesome and so true. I love this gospel and the happiness that it brings to others. How wonderful it is to know that we have the ability to repent and to turn ourselves to the savior. I want to leave you all with a scripture.

D&C 1:19-24

I love this. To know that I am weak but can do great things.

love you all so so so much!
Love Sister Norton:)

Miracles... All the day long!!

HOLY SMOKES!

 

   Hi there familia. How goes it down there in good ol Utah?! Well this may be short so I am so sorry about that! but. Lets begin.

 

  We had a crazy week.It was actually SUNNY for 2 days this week. "here come the sun" its was FANTASTIC and exactly what i needed.. ya know just a good little boost. LOVED IT. Then the rain came down and the floods came up.. but that is oh so normal... alright. it didn't FLOOD. hello i am just being maybe a little bit DRAMATIC. you know me.

  SO in my last letter I think I talked about the Iranian man who we are trying to teach English to.. yes we did that and it was quite the experience. Long story short the next thing I knew we were eating all of this Iranian food! We ate and we ate and then we ate some more... I thought I was going to die but I said a little prayer and ate the "entire confection" hahah they are great people and we invited them to a ward social and they totally came. AWESOMENESS!!! and then hello I finally had some of my very own teriyaki chicken and man was it good. I can now understand why Todd loved it so so much. It was delicious. YUMMMM!

 

Okay and here we go. Eric and Kathy.. our investigators. man oh man. powerful lesson. They are great but they sort of don't really understand things and I mean that's okay but we had no idea what they needed so we prayed... we prayed and then we umm prayed AGAIN! and then bam it hit us.. okay Eric and Kathy need to be able to realize that their prayers are being answered and that they can receive revelation for themselves. and that my friends they did. what a blessing it is to know that we have a Father in Heaven who loves us each so much and he wants to be able to help us out but we have to act and we have to call upon him and he have to have FAITH in him. I KNOW that he answers prayers. As we began to teach them about revelation through prayer he was able to answer theirs. and they said that they realized they had been receiving answers all along but they just hadn't noticed.

 

I just want to end and say this. WE had ZONE CONFERENCE. whoa!! It was one of the best things I have ever been to.. For all of you people that know the District 2.. the men in charge came to my mission and did a special training for some of the mission but then President Bonham was able to teach it to all of us and it is a brand new teaching method. Very different. but very powerful. 

We are to teach directly out of the pamphlets that we have had for a while and we are to teach by only using the pictures of the pamphlets and open it up to them and have them be doing most of the talking. My mission president used an analogy saying often times these people have a teacup with them that they are willing to have be filled and often times as missionaries we go in there with a fire hose and they cant take it. I agree. So by doing this they are able to receive answers for themselves and teach themselves. We are now having them read the entire BOOK OF MORMON. not just the introduction, then 3 Nephi 11 and then Moroni... which if you really think about it... um that makes no sense at all. WHY IN THE WORLD and how would someone gain their own testimony to know if it is true if they only read parts of it. We want them to read it from front to back and to introduce it in a way that actually makes sense. BOOM!

so after we got trained for 6 hours we had to hurry off to a lesson with a less active member... we had no practice whatsoever as a companionship but we got in there and decided that we would try it out.... and we did. We just taught from the pamphlet using the pictures asking her what it was that she saw. and it was POWERFUL. after we had finished we are to ask them to pray and to ask for themselves if what they have learned is true. and we asked her to pray and she wouldn't then we told her we would pray and then she could pray... she said that would be alright.. so we did.. then looked up and she said she was just too afraid... then we asked her what it was that she would want to ask Heavenly Father... she poured her heart out to us... and then I told her I would pray for her and say everything she had said.. umm I cant even tell you what I said. I don't know how but something happened and after the prayer we looked up and sat there in silence. The spirit was so strong and piercing. You could feel it. She looked up and said "I CAN FEEL HIM" she began to weep. It was incredible. This new style of teaching is going to bring so many miracles to the mission I just know it. I also went on exchanges this week and taught with the pamphlets and once again saw many many miracles. its crazy!
the WEM Washington Everett mission is great and changing so many things but change is good! 

 

I love this gospel and I love the happiness that it brings to others, to be able to share it with other people is truly amazing.

sorry this email is so scattered. But in all honesty,  I can't even begin to describe the feelings that I have felt this week. YOU can't put missionary work into words. It doesn't work that well. I love you all so much. I love this gospel and I love my Savior.

 

love Sister Norton:)