Happppppy THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you believe it!? its that time of year again. Oh how I seriously just love the Holidays! As a missionary it has been quite the different experience but I still can't help but just LOVE it. What i love most is being able to see so many different families interact with each other and see the importance of families. It makes me so GRATEFUL for my family. I am so grateful that I know we will be able to live together forever. What a blessing that truly is. I love to see all of the families different traditions and see how they like to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

 These past couple of days i have really been thinking what am i thankful for besides my family, the gospel, food, clothing, a place to live, the list could really go on and on. What i am truly thankful for this week is the plan of salvation and the scriptures. Man did i used to take this for granted. We taught the Plan of Salvation this week and for some reason it hit me harder than it ever has before and it was probably because of this. We are teaching a man named Victor who is 28 and is dating a member in our ward. He has a basic belief of Jesus Christ and is wanting to really know what the "Mormons" believe. We have taught him a couple times and will be able to see him tonight! While we were teaching the Plan of Salvation he asked so many great questions that really got me to thinking about some things. I don't know everything, but there are a few things that i do know. I do know that there will come a time when we will be able to see our savior again, and oh what a joyous day that will be. I want to stand before him and take me by the hand and tell me that i did a good job and i want to be welcomed into his kingdom. I think Enos states it best when he says: d

 27 And I soon go to the place of my rest, which is with my Redeemer; for I know that in him I shall rest. And I rejoice in theday when my mortal shall put on immortality, and shall standbefore him; then shall I see his face with pleasure, and he will sayunto me: Come unto me, ye blessed, there is a place prepared foryou in the mansions of my Father. Amen.

I know that this scripture is true and when i read it i get chills. There is a place prepared for us after this life and we have so much reason to rejoice. That is why i am so grateful for the scriptures. I really used to think of reading them as a chore and just that if i read them i was done and good for the day. I look at it so much differently now. I LOVE to be reading them and although i don't always understand everything i read it is Heavenly Fathers way of answering my questions because it can be quite hard to speak over my loud voice. haha There have been so many times where i will be reading in the scriptures and i find EXACTLY what i need. God does hear us. That is something i know. I am grateful for the Book of Mormon. it has changed my life and if you have not read it... READ it.. and if you have then read it again. I promise there is something in there that you can and you will benefit from!:) 

This week! We have been working with Elizabeth who is doing so great! She is progressing so well and is so ready to make these changes in her life. Its amazing to see. She has given up smoking and this past week she gave up her coffee. This women has strength, i want to be more like her. She has no support whatsoever from her family and yet she keeps going. She knows the lord is on her side and so do i! 

Jennifer our recent convert is just so funny. It has been such a joy to work with her and to see her continue to progress and learn after her baptism. 

We got so lucky this past week. We had been out on our bikes all day and ran into this man who had met with missionaries in the past and he began to talk to us and tell us how he really needs to make time for god and then he asked for our number. YES! it was so awesome. 

We are working closely with the ward and to our surprise it has done wonders. The ward here is great and so willing to come out with us! We have been so blesses in so many ways. We have been trying to push every member a missionary and to get them more and more involved. I love it up in Ferndale. I know i have said that a couple times. but its the truth. Its great! 

We have our preparation day on Thanksgiving this week and we will have to be in by 6. We were just given a hour to email today:) We will most likely be going over to a members house for dinner and then who knows!

I love you all!! oh and real quick. The funniest and most ironic thing happened this week when we were knocking on doors. We walked up to a house that was playing the song. "ya gotta have faith" (not sure of the title) but it was funny because the women who answered told us she was a non believer and it was something that i was really not expecting.. okay.. i think you really had to be there for this one. it was funny. i promise. 

I am thankful for all you! i am thankful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the support that you each give me. I love you all so much and i wish you the HAPPIEST THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!! 

Love Sister Norton:)  

Charity is all you need

hello:) 

Oh how lovely it is to email all of the people that you love so dearly. I have finally gotten the swing of this thing that you call missionary work. It has defiantly been a marathon of learning and every day is a journey, but i wouldn't trade any of the experiences that i have had for anything else. I have learned first and for most how to trust in my father in heaven and to rely on my savior Jesus Christ. He really is my best friend. I come closer to him through reading the Book of Mormon. As i was reading this week i was in 2 Nephi... oh which can be rough.. especially for me because i am trying my hardest to really understand Isaiah and it is HARD. BUT it was really cool because each morning right before i read i would pray and ask Heavenly Father to just show me one thing that i could learn and he totally did. Awesome!  I know that god hears and answers our prayers. 

 This week we were blessed with miracle after miracle after miracle. It was the craziest thing.  was filled with the love for this people more than i had ever before felt. I truly felt like Nephi this week. In 2 Nephi ch. 33:3 we read 

But I, Nephi, have written what I have written, and I esteem itas of great worth, and especially unto my people. For I pray continually for them by day, and mine eyes water my pillow by night, because of them; and I cry unto my God in faith, and I know that he will hear my cry.

yep. i have felt that this week. its been really neat but also really hard. I so wish that every single person could just grasp on to the gospel and would listen to us. But it really isn't that easy. We were out the other day and we had the neatest experience. Lets begin. We came to a door and Monica answered. She began to tell us that she went to local church around here and that she had already tried to listen to the Mormons before and that she just wasn't interested. all of a sudden the next thing i knew was that she asked for a phamplet and wanted to learn more. Its moments like those where you just know that it wasn't you talking it was the spirit and those moments are priceless. it makes up for all those hard days. those 5 minutes when someone listens, it turns your whole world around. 

Elizabeth. WOW SHE DID IT. She quit smoking. She is amazing and is on track to be baptized in the first week of December. It is the coolest thing to work with someone who has all these outside forces that are working against them and yet they know that this is the path they need to take in their life.

Silver family. wow. Saturday For the past couple of weeks we have been trying to see this family in the ward who are less active. We decided to see them on Saturday and to our surprise we got in! don't know how that happened but we did and we were able to teach their son who is not a member who is 10 the restoration. It was the neatest thing because as we taught we saw the light turn back on in this mothers eyes. When we got to the picture about Joseph Smith this little boy got quiet. For a moment i thought he had stopped listening. Then he sat there for a moment... looked up at us and said. "wow.... so this really happened to him?"  the spirit filled the room and we were able to testify to him how we had come to know and how he could do the same thing. We then had him say our closing prayer and it was the first time this little boy had prayed. such a sweet prayer and right after the mom invited us back over next Saturday

i have been a little bit all over the place in this email. SORRY! I want you all to know how much i have been able to see how the gospel of Jesus Christ truly blesses families. it is so much fun to be able to go into different homes and see how families work. oh the things you learn on a mission. Its life changing and i have no clue where i would be without this experience. Its been an amazing year! i know that with the Strength of the Lord i can do hard things. 

i love missionary work. Let us all try a little harder this week to reach out to those that are in need. become TRUE disciples of Jesus Christ. 

love you love you! 

Love sister Norton.. 

p.s. we wear this vest at night so we don't get run over and it gives us a way to talk to more people! 

Brrrrrrrrr....WASHINGTON

Oh the joys of being a sister missionary, riding a bike in a skirt, and then being in Washington!:) Its great! We have heard that this week some crazy cold weather will be coming in from Alaska. That will be fun. We are still seeing some BEAUTIFUL DAYS! I love when we see the gorgeous blue sky and the sun hit the evergreen trees in the right way. Its beautiful up here in Ferndale. I LOVE IT! 

 SO many wonderful things are happening here and i don't even know where to start! First. Elizabeth. WOW. That's all i want to say. This women has so much faith its so amazing. We were able to teach her the stop smoking program this past week and she agreed to ALL of it. She told us that even though her family is making fun of her she knows this is something good for her, and even though her family thinks she has to give up her favorite things she told us that she knows she is changing her life for the better. Day 4 without smoking. GOOOO Elizabeth. We were able to make some fun signs(picture attached) for her to hang up all over her house. The best feeling was when she walked into church this past Sunday and we were talking with her and she told us... "yeah i was outside yesterday and there were people smoking and it smelt GROSS and i couldn't believe that i used to do that" Oh i just started to laugh. I know that Heavenly Father is answering our prayers and hers as well and is continuing to give her the strength that she needs to overcome her addiction. It's something else to be able to witness right before my eyes someone completely changing their lives for the better. The atonement is real. That's all for Elizabeth. SHE is doing SUPER! 

The Carlson's. Oh my goodness. This family is a tender mercy from the Lord. They are grasping on to the gospel. The parents are returning to activity, Rosa is trying to teach my companion and I Spanish, which is hilarious. She is now becoming the driving force for the family when just a short 3 weeks ago she wasn't so sure about it all and now she is loving it and wanting to feed us and its to fun!:) We were in a lesson with them the other day and one of the boys ran out, and I looked at the dad and asked if we should wait.. and so we sat there for a second.. then this little boy comes out with loads of gel in his hair and we all just started laughing... oh i guess you just had to be there. BUT one last funny story about them. we were talking about when they should get baptized and then the 2 boys and Rosa started talking in Spanish (not fair because we have no clue what they are saying) BUT my junior high classes paid off and listening to Natasha and Dad becasue then one of the little boys said.. Deciembre FRIO!! i looked at them and said.. "WAIT did you just say its going to be COLD in December."? yesssss. I laughed and told them they wouldnt have to get baptized in the ocean! hahah to funny. They all were able to come to church this week and stayed all three hours. I love to see investigators and returning members take the sacrament for the first time. It's an overwhelming experience for them and for me as the missionary. i cant even begin to describe how cool( i should really find a better word) but really how cool it is to see the gospel change peoples lives. To be apart of the transformation is a blessing.  I have so much love for this people. It's so comforting to know that the savior freely gave himself for each of us. I know that his atonement is real. I know that he lives!

Lastly the other night we were out knocking on doors, and it was pouring rain and i was just a little bit cold, and it was pitch dark. we said a little prayer and knocked on a coupld doors and no luck. Then we went up to the second floor and knocked on a door where this little boy answered. We asked for his mom and she came and we starting talking and told who we were and so on.. then come to know she looked at us and said... Yeah. well. ... im actually a member. WHAT. She told us more and then it ended with us getting all her information and she wants to meet with the bishop. WHAT!? The miracles come when we have worked for them. I would love to say that i see miracle after miracle after miracle, but i see the miracles when i have struggled and tried my hardest... its at those times that heavenly father trusts us and blesses us with people who are ready to receive us. its truly amazing. The work of the lord is hard, but so worth it. I really wouldnt want to be anywhere else but here. LOVE YOU ALLL!! 

Love sister Norton:) 

p.s. sometimes people think i am the girl from the dugger show?? great.

oh the journey...happy 1 YEAR!......

Oh the things you learn as a missionary. They can be life changing and so wonderful. It probably sounds cheesy... but its so true. The gospel is... true, worth it, deep, SIMPLE, hopeful, peaceful, comforting. The list could really go on and on. Something that I came across this week that I wanted to share is this. It's a quote from Elder Bednar... and it says. " One of our principal purposes of our existence is to be spiritually changed and transformed through the ATONEMENT of JESUS CHRIST"  This week I gained a stronger testimony of my Savior Jesus Christ and how he lived and died and suffered for me, so that if I follow his example and strive to keep his commandments I can one day inherit the KINGDOM OF GOD and see my Father in Heaven. How awesome is that... If we really just think about it.. ITS AMAZING. There has been a plan created for us to be able to do it! I think the reason I say all of this is because we were able to teach the plan of Salvation a couple times this week and it really has been sticking with me. We offer people the ability to change.. which can be hard. BUT it is possible thorough our Savior Jesus Christ.

  We are working with a women named Elizabeth and it has been so cool to be able to see how she is so ready to find the true church for her and her kids. This week we were able to sit down and plan a day when she would commit to stop smoking. This is one of her setbacks and we are going to be working with her and praying our little guts out to help her overcome this addiction. Please keep her in your prayers as well!:) It was a tender mercy to see her accept the things that we taught.. ALSO.. she came to the ward trunk or treat this past week which was great. We actually had 4 investigators there and it was a great event for them to get comfortable with ward members. Then Sister Garn and I thought it would be funny if we dressed up as Elders... yeah it didn't work out too well..  people thought we were students at Hogwarts... oh well. it happened. 

 I love the ward, the people we are teaching, and the area that I am serving in. I love it here in Ferndale!:) It is so much fun and we have truly seen so many tender mercies of the Lord this past week. One neat thing was that the whole Carlson family was able to make it out to church.. HUGE MIRACLE! we have a lot of great things going on here and I feel so blessed to be apart of this wonderful work..I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week! remember that when we serve others we are serving God :) He will bless us as we do the simple things like reading our scriptures, praying and specially praying in our families and going to church! 

Love Sister Norton

"liquid SUNSHINE"

 The subject in this email pretty much says it all. We had a wet week you could say. Summer is defiantly gone which is super sad:( but FALL is wonderful and the rain is on its way for the next couple months. That's it for the weather forecast. We had such an amazing, eventful week in Ferndale. So many wonderful people to talk to and meet, and we are in the stages right now of trying to build more and more of people to teach. Door to door we go and there have been so many large and small miracles. This is the Lords work and he knows the hearts and minds of this good people in Washington. For instance this week we were able to meet with Elizabeth who a couple weeks ago no longer wanted to meet, but for some reason she changed her mind. We were able to teach her about the Plan of Salvation this week and it was powerful. At first we were sort of just going through the motions of teaching and then it slowed down for a second, a question was asked and the spirit filled the room with her response and from that moment on we had an amazing lesson with her. It ended with her asking if we could now come back twice a week! WOOT WOOT. total miracle. Then later that week we had a church tour with her where we were able to commit her to a baptism date! I have such a strong testimony about the spirit that is in the church. It is there where we are able to receive guidance from our father in heaven, but it is our choice to listen. Which is something that can be hard at times. We have so much going on in our daily lives that we are quick to forget and to listen to what it is that God would have us do or say. Every day I rely fully upon the spirit because without it I really could do nothing.

  Thursday night we were able to meet with the Carlson family with our Bishop. I don't know if I had had the chance to talk much about the bishop in the Ferndale ward... but Bishop Clark is AMAZING. He is so willing to help us out, and gives us such great advice in order for us to become better. We are here in this life to continue to change and to grow and that requires us to stretch a little bit and sometimes that may be challenging, but that is the time when Heavenly Father is allowing us to become something greater and something better! Anyways, he came with us to our appointment with them and it went great. We were able to finally sit down with the whole family.

 Last story that I wanted to share. HIGHLIGHT OF MY ENTIRE WEEK!!!!!

 Here we are late Saturday night..7:30 hahah okay not really that late but it was dark, and pouring rain and we were out biking. We were biking to our last person to see that had canceled on us the night before. It had been a very long day and we were drenched from head to toe. I could no longer feel practically anything and it got so bad that my skirt was so heavy that I had to continue to ring it out! We hurried and biked over there.. we were stopped at a stoplight and we turned to each other and just started to laugh. WE LOOKED RIDICULOUS I prayed and prayed that something good or just something would happen. WE locked up our bikes and ran to the small apartment where we hoped Layla would be. we knocked.... nothing happened. NOOOO I thought to myself... then we waited. Patience. She swung the door opened and to our surprise she looked at us and said.... "YES I was HOPING that was you 2"! it led to the best lesson every with her. She began to tell us that she prayed about what we had asked her to pray about and she had the best 2 days after she had done that!

I just want you to all know how much I love it here. Every hard moment, wonderful moment, refreshing moment, spiritual moment is all so worth it. It is for certain that I wouldn't be able to do any of this without the help of the Lord. I know he lives and it is a honor to represent him. I love you all. Thank you for all that you do!

love Sister Norton:)

p.s. I read a really good talk this week by Elder Holland and I wanted to share just a little something from it.

"The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane and on to Calvary. The only way to eternity is through Him"

LOVEEE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUU ALLLLLLLLLL

October....the beautiful colors:) It's still green here

Hello hello! This week has been quite a roller coaster of just everything. We went all the way down to the mission office for transfers on Tuesday to say our goodbyes and receive our new companions. drum roll.... here we gooooooo

SISTER Garn. She has been out for 8 months, is from Springville UTAH and went to Utah State. so...... she knows Erika and Erik. yep. Things like this ALWAYS happen. I guess they were a big deal up at Utah State or something:) haha 

 We were so blessed with so many awesome tender mercies this past. Little miracle here. Little miracle there. The Lord has been blessing this area and these people so much! As we continue to do our part he does his and its amazing to see! I love it. On Wednesday we were maybe just a tiny bit spoiled by our mission president. We were having Zone Conference and it was super great and then our mission president got back up to instruct us again and he paused for a moment and said... "we will now have the honor to watch.... MEET THE MORMONS" jaw dropped. A MOVIE? what the... It was so great and it also felt just a tiny bit weird but I loved it. It was cool to be in a room full of missionaries watching it together. It was a spiritually exhausting day. That's how I would like to put it. Feeling the presence of the Holy ghost and the love that heavenly father has for us. Gods love is perfect and it is so individual to each person. ISN'T THAT AWESOME! 

 This week we had the coolest opportunity to teach the Carlson family. I am pretty sure I talked about them last week, but this week we were able to tech them a couple times and it was POWERFUL! The dad is a returning member and his children are not members. as we were teaching them this week.... ahhhhh i really just cant describe the emotion and power that was in the home as we taught about the restoration of the gospel and the book of Mormon. It was a moment and experience that will always hold a special place in my heart. Franklin and Matthew are the best. They are so engaged in our lessons and they want to learn more and more. It was even cooler when the dad got up I the middle.. grabbed his scriptures... flipped them open and started looking through them. As he became more and more engaged the spirit became more present. 

  We attended a CSFY(come see for yourself) fireside last night. is put on by our mission President in different areas of our mission. It was so neat because it gives non members a perfect chance to come into our building and to see what we are all about. There are a couple speakers, some short video clips and then a couple musical performances. my zone actually sang in it. It was cool to look out and see everyone that was there. There were about 200 people! The church is true. I know it. I know that conversion is something that we must continue to work on. Scripture study is important and it can and it will draw us closer to GOD. I love the scriptures. I love this gospel and all that it entails. eternal life! 

love you all so much! 

love sister norton:)
 

miracle after miracle after miracle and.... transfers :(

soooooooooooooo saddddddddddddd. Tomorrow Sister Davis and I will have to say goodbye to each other. ROUGH. She is going to be getting transferred and  I will be staying. Saying goodbye to companions. Yeah.... it's not the funnest thing but it does create new opportunities and windows for you to grow. Like anything... It will be a "character building experience" just as mom would say.

  ENOUGH of that. On to the great, amazing, eventful, powerful, spiritual, exhausting week that we were able to have as our last week of companions. It has seemed to us that as we have continued to pray for Heavenly Father to pour out his spirit here and to have our faith in Jesus Christ increase.. IT HAS and we have seen blessing after blessing and miracle after miracle whether they be large or small. God has a plan for us and for the people that we talk to, and we have also been working on developing more and more charity for Gods children:) I love the people here and I want to do all that i can to help them know what it is that we have to share. This work is hard but so LOVEABLE. 

 Layla. Such an awesome experience. We have seen so much happening with her and it is interesting to see that when someone is seeking for righteousness that Satan tries his hardest to pull them the opposite way. We were able to FINALLY teach her the word of wisdom which we had been a little worried about, but just before we brought it up she randomly said to us... Now.. I just want to let you guys know that i want to stop smoking. WHAT!? mind blown. We then taught her and she told us that she is going to quit but she really needs our help. TODAY is her day and i know that she will be able to do it with the Lords help. She has such a desire to know truth and that is where it all starts. DESIRE. we have to find those who have the desire to know. 

 Jennifer Michehls baptism. What a wonderful joyous day that it was this Saturday and Sunday Jennifer got baptized!! Wahooo. it was so great. She was so ready and the ward was so supportive and so on top of things. It was a spiritual experience for anyone that was there. I did want to share one thing. all we were worried about was the water being cold for her. We didn't want that to happen. Welllllll Brothers and Sisters. We failed. As she was walking into the font she looked up and said.. "OH its CHILLY" dang! but she did it. and after she came out of the water i swear i have never seen someone so happy in my life. Her face immediately was glowing and she had the worlds biggest smile and she looked totally and completely clean. She is just at the beginning of her wonderful journey and can't wait to go to the temple in one year.:) 

 MIRACLE. We were able to find a member who hasn't been to church in a while and his 2 sons who are 11 and 9 aren't members. BUT they came to church this week and it was great! WE are so excited for them and will be meeting with them SOON. 

I just want to end with saying how truly grateful i am for the love and support that i feel. I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true. I know that we are loved no matter what weve done or who we are. Gods love is always there for us. I know that god hears and answers our prayers... but we really do need to listen and that takes work. We must have the desire. 

LOVE YOUUUUU ALLLLLL!!!!!! 

Love sister norton