Well my fellow friends and family! I want everyone to know that I love my mission and hate the weather!! However, with all the snow we have been getting we have had some awesome opportunities to shovel. Last week my companion and I decided to borrow some shovels from some members and drive around and find some people to help shovel and clear some driveways or parking spots etc etc. We had some cool experiences and everyone we helped just loved it and so did we. However, I think my greatest joy came when we saw this young girl and a lady that seemed like it could be her mom shoveling snow. My comp and I ran up and began helping them. The girl Sophia is in 8th grade and the other lady Antoinette was her aunt whom Sophia had been living with since she was 2 days old. We talked and shoveled, laughed and shoveled and had a really good time chatting and telling them who we are and what we do. When we were done we got their information so we could come back to share a message with them. We started walking to our car and we heard someone say "Hey, wait!!" When we turned around it was Sophia asking if we were going to shovel more people and that she wanted to come. We were so happy she started walking with us and we walked around the entire complex trying to find some people to shovel out. Keep in mind we probably looked crazy because it was snowing even more as we were looking for people to help shovel out. As we walked with Sophia she told us her life story and told us the things she had gone through as a child. She has gone through a lot more as a 13 yr old than most people have their entire lives. Sophia was just a neat girl. We are excited to meet with her sometime this week. We spent about an hour just walking and shoveling. It was great. When we finished we went home to change and headed to the Washington Dc visitor center with Phuong and two members of the church. It was just amazing. We asked her how her reading in the Book of Mormon went and she said that it was very difficult to read because of the language. Then (take note, this is why i love Visitor Center Sister Missionaries) the Sister who was giving us a tour went and got a copy of the Book of Mormon in Vietnamese. It was the coolest thing watching Phuong's face light up. She said she felt like God knew her personally and was so excited that he speaks her language. We read 2Nephi31:3 with her about how the Lord speaks to us according to our own understanding and in our own language. It was just awesome. We then watched the Joseph Smith movie and the Spirit just filled the room even more. When we were done we went out in to foyer and if you have not seen the LDS Washington DC Temple i suggest you google it because this is the sight that we were looking at. As we stared at the temple and taught her a little about it Phuong turned and said "you know... a year ago I would have never thought I would have this opportunity. Now I'm learning and growing so much." It was sooo amazing to hear her say that. That's exactly how I felt when I met Daniel. I was learning and growing so much that it was almost impossible to even believe it. The gospel is just great. So this Sunday at church was just awesome and crazy. Aleyda and Phuong were at church and as we were sitting there Aleyda got up to go to the restroom came back, sat down beside me and said... "umm my water just broke." Put that on your top ten things not to tell a missionary. WHAT IN THE WORLD WAS I SUPPOSE TO DO!?!!? They did NOT train us for that at the MTC. I was like "uhh, uhhh let me go get someone." As I'm pacing back in forth in the hallway I finally come to my senses and realize "what in the world you are in the ward where EVERYONE goes to Johns Hopkins!!" So we go find a sister in the ward who is an OB/GYN. And she is pre-coaching Aleyda through, asking her how she feels and if she's having any contractions. She then said she wasn't hurting but just felt scared. Well to make a long story short we have one of the sisters in the ward who just loves Aleyda to death take her to the hospital. Now for the best part the sister who took her has 3 boys and the middle one when he found out they had to leave early thought he was being punished and started crying and saying "but mama i don't wanna go home, I'm sorry. I don't. i don't wanna go home. please I wanna stay" It was soo sad but funny and awesome that it was a "punishment for this little kid to be taken from church." Oh man this was soo good. I can't make this stuff up. So all this happened in the first 2 hours of church. As I go back in finally getting my head clear My comp and I walk into joint meeting Priesthood and Relief Society and the lesson was over missionary work. Our Ward Mission Leader, Bro. Cheung, is doing a phenomenal job and asks us and the Elders to get up and share some interesting things about ourselves. When we all sit down I finally calm down from all the stress of the morning and Bro. Cheung is talking to the members about feeding the missionaries and says "And everyone, if you have not had the pleasure to have Sister Norris in your home you better do it soon because she leaves next month!"
I near about lost it!!! You can put that in the top 10 things never to announce in meetings. I almost feel out of chair. I was thinking "You know, no one may be able to eat with us because I'm gonna get sent home early for killing my Ward Mission Leader." It was probably the funniest thing ever. However, I wanted to die. I jokingly told Bro. Cheung after the meeting that I was going to kill him. He kept the secret from me about my family moving and couldnt hold water when it came to me finishing my mission next month. Gotta love Bro. Cheung, eh? Well, all joking aside Bro. Cheung is just one of the greatest men I have had the opportunity to meet and work with on my mission. I love him and well... I love this work. Its great. I am excited to keep seeing miracles and helping the Lord.

Ps. Aleyda went to the hospital and it was defintely false alarm so we are still anxiously awaiting little Noah Josiah any day now.

Hey friends and family I didn't have much time to write so i copied my president letter and sent it off. Enjoy people. love you all!!!

PRESIDENT PRESIDENT PRESIDENT!!!

Oh my goodness I am with you... what is this trunky business!?!?! This work is awesome. This week we had a SLAMMING WEEK!! So I must back up. Normally I don't share these experiences because they are really really close to me but I got the urge to share this. It is quite interesting actually. The day we met Phuong (pronounced Fu) I just immediately felt connected with her. When I opened the door something told me "you know her, and you know her well." When she came in she told me she was a BYU applicant and I asked her her name. She look at me and said Phuong. Well as we were walking across the chapel the feeling and words came to mind again "Sister Norris you know her... this is your friend." When we went to the room to get my planner to write her name and info down I said "you said Phuong right?" and she said "yes" Then I looked at her and said "and you said your last name is Nguyen, right?" And she looked at me for a second with the look of astonishment and said "I never said my last name, but yeaaa, that is it." We didn't make too much conversation about it at all but President I tell you I KNOW HER. I've never met her in this life. I know that. But I know her and I love her. When she came to church we didn't get a chance to talk to her about it so we called her on Tuesday and asked her how everything went and she said she love it. We couldn't even get the words out before she self committed to come to church. She is just awesome. We set up an appointment to meet with her on Fri and took our recent convert Christina. When we got there Phuong had made food for us and we introduced her to the Book of Mormon and she was just sooo ready. She loved every minute. Since she wants to go to BYU she knows the standards and is ready to live them all. We committed her to baptism and she accepted. TELL ME THIS WORK ISN'T TRUE!!!! She said when she came to church she loved the way everyone called her sister. And she offered the closing prayer. SHE IS MORE THAN GOLDEN!!!! So we were excited. This Sunday we went to church and unfortunately did not see her. We were so worried because she did not answer our texts we sent her. When we got out of church we called her and she sounded horrible on the phone. She said she woke up for church and felt horrible. So she went back to sleep. She said "but you all still coming Tues right?" She was still excited. I know that she really was sick and that she really will keep these commitments. I have a set my own personal goalsand will accomplish them even if it kills me. I know these people are ready. What non-LDS person in their right mind would LOVE the standards of BYU unless they were ready to be members. COME ON. President, I love his work. Tell people to knock off their trunkiness... In your very own words..."THAT'S MICKEY MOUSE BUSINESS!!" Tell these missionaries to Grow up, work hard and STOP looking at the thermometer<<
President, I love you and I love this work.

Alright i know everyone defintely hates me right now and I am indeed sorry for not updating. I seriously been so busy that my emails to everyone have been really small. So lets get down to business shall we. This week was PHENOMENAL!!! Well wait let me back up a moment. Last week starting with Monday we got Move calls and were told that my companion Sister Lin would be transferred. So it started off pretty sad. We have learned sooo much from each other and spent a long time together, longer than any of my other companions. 18 weeks we were together. But the truth is we needed that long. Neither one of us were happy with the first transfer and hoped to stay together for another to really be the companions that God wanted us to be. The second and third transfer were great. We grew a lot. It just reminded me of the scripture in the Book of Mormon Helaman 3:35 which says "Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the santification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God." This work is the Lords work. We must all understand that. We grew sooo much. Anyway, after we found that out we just worked our faces off the last two days she had in the area. When I got to transfers I found out I was getting Sister Waldron. She came out after me and actually trained Sister Lin. Our week together has been great. So for planning on Thursday we decided "you know what lets text everyone in our phone that we don't know and see who they are." For those of you who are unfamiliar with missionary work or who served when they did not have cell phones (which was NOT forever ago) then I will explain why this is necessary. Every area that you serve in has a cell phone. This cell phone is normally full of numbers from people who were taught or met by the missionaries who served there previously. So when you get to that area its quite common that you a have phone with about 300 or 400 contacts and only 25% or so are people you know or that are in the ward. So this weekly planning session I went through and texted every person I did not know (since my comp had only been there 1 day she didnt know any of them). We had a ton of success. We were able to delete some people that moved and even schedule some appointments. We knew it would be a shot in the dark but we did it and the results were awesome. We even had one guy text us back who was being taught by the missionaries before and say yea I'm free this evening I get off work in a few hours how about then? Man, it was great. We agreed and set up a time to meet him at the chapel. When we got there something told me "give him a building tour!!" I was like what we havent even invited him come to church or taught him anything but i followed it and decided ok lets do a building tour. My comp was just as confused as I was. When we began the building tour, I for some reason wasnt really taking my time and kinda rushed through didnt really show all the classes and I'm just thinking to myself "SLOW DOWN... YOU ARE GOING 90 TO NOTHING RIGHT NOW" But something wouldnt allow me to slow down. Finally we get to the other side of the building and as were giving the tour i look out the door and there is a little Asian girl walking from the building door to get in her car. When she turned around i waved and she was kind of hesitant because she didnt know what to do so she waved back and I just kinda motioned her to come back. My comp at this time is still giving the tour and I go out to talk to this girl at the door and she says "oh im sooo sorry to come so late but I am a BYU applicant and I needed an interview with the Bishop here. I asked if she was a member of the Church and she said no. She was the sweetest girl ever. She said she just randomly googled good schools in the US and BYU came up and now she's adamant about going. So i took down her information and told her that she should probably just come to church on Sunday because Bishop is pretty busy but that I was surrrrre he would be probably be able to get to her interview some time within the 3 hour block. She was so excited and so was I. When we were through I went back to my comp and finished the building tour and then began to teach him about the Book of Mormon. It was an awesome lesson. On sunday we saw her at church and she loved it. We will be calling her today to see if we can get teach her. I just love her. I sat with her the whole time and she just listened and really appreciated all the talks given and the sunday school class. Well, people to be honest i have heard the word trunky and i just dont understand it. How could you ever be trunky doing this work it is amazing. I love it so much. I will try to post a story every week until I come home. I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!