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!!!!

I know I have been called of God...
This past week we had Zone Conference where we receive special training from our leaders and listen to President and Sister Belliston. It was amazing!! During Zone Conference President Belliston told us the story of how he received his mission call to serve last February in 2009. He said he received his call and later had an interview with President Uchtdorf (an apostle of the Lord). He said as his wife and he sat there President Uchtdorf told them that they would be called to an English speaking mission and they would know where in 2 weeks or so. President Uchtdorf then got quiet looked at President Belliston in the eyes, looked down at his paper and back at President Belliston and said "You have been assigned to the Maryland Baltimore Mission." Confused President just looked at him because he had just said they would let them know in two weeks. Nevertheless, President and Sister Belliston accepted their call to serve. Before entering the MTC in the latter part of June President and Sister Belliston did what every couple/person does when they are called to serve a mission. They began to put their ducks in a row. President said he went in to FINALLY get a surgery that doctors had told him he needed a couple of years prior. He said when he went in for a check up he found the situation was worse than he thought... He found out he had Cancer. President made a few phone calls and continued to prepare for his mission. OK now let me pause for anyone who doesn't know President. He is probably the healthiest 63 yr old I have ever met in my life. On P-days when he plays sports with the elders and they are breathing hard and in need of a water break President is just staring at them asking why they need water and then will say something along the lines of "Boy I tell ya they don't make young men like they use to." He has the energy of a two year old. He is, in the words of my mother "as healthy as an ox." But anyway, not to take away from the story. This news shocked President seeing as how he had been healthy his entire life. "I've never been sick a day in my life," President told us. After the shocking news he went to visit some people and all went well. He then came to Maryland on his mission which made it possible for him to get surgery from the best doctor in the states at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He underwent 38 days of radiation treatments every morning last year around this time and didn't tell anyone. He said last week "I didn't tell you all because I didn't want you all thinking I was going to die and get trunky on me." That is my Mission President! As he told these stories I recalled the times in December of last year when he was late to certain appointments or conferences and never thought anything of it because he was a busy man and was always on the go. But we found out last week what the reason was. He was undergoing radiation treatments. He has been cancer free for a year now. I love my mission President. Last February, President Belliston didn't know that he would be diagnosed with Cancer. Nor did he know why he was immediately called to serve in the Maryland Baltimore Mission just seconds after being told that it would take two weeks. But I do know that now he knows the reason for being called here. It was not only to touch the lives of those around him but to undergo a stressful procedure by the best doctor in the US. I testify to you that President Uchtdorf is an apostle of Jesus Christ our Savior. I testify that they receive revelation for us and are literal mouthpieces for our Heavenly Father. I also testify that at times they say things we may not understand but we are to be obedient and at some time in the future when the Lord sees fit He will show us the reason behind it. I know that I too, (just as President Belliston) have been called of God to come to Maryland Baltimore Mission. To touch the lives of others and to have experiences to impact my life just as drastically and vitally. I know this work is of God. There is no other work that has the ability to change hearts and lives the way I have seen it. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ has been restored and that just as the church in ancient times we have living prophets and apostles on the earth today. That as we listen to them we will gain a greater peace and happiness in our lives. And this I do testify of in the name of our Beloved Savior Jess Christ. Amen

Happy Thanksgiving

Well folks its that time again... Another Thanksgiving away from my mom's great homecooking. But sometimes you have to sacrifice the good for something better. I never thought I would say that but I know I must put the Lord's work first. My companion and I have been seeing so many miracles I dont even know where to begin. We have been really trying to just talk to everyone. The other day we found this stack of papers from 06 to 09 where people had once upon a tme ordered things online. So my companion and I said well what the Hay why not check on them. It's a shot in the dark but at one point in time they were interested in hearing the message. So Sister Lin and I went to check on one guy and low and behold he didnt live there anymore (it was from 2006) but we met a guy and asked if we could share a message with him. He let us right in. For some reason we always try to share a message but something kept telling me to set a return appt and leave. So we did. On the way out I told Sister Lin how strong the impression was that I got for us to leave. We both thought it was a little wierd but we just followed it. On the way to our car something hit me again and said lets walk to our next appointment. It wasnt to far but we hadnt originally planned to walk but we headed there on foot. So as we were walking we started to cross over this McDonalds parking lot. In doing so we crossed paths with this girl who appeared pregnant (but thats never a question you want to ask unless 100% sure) and she was pushing a heavy kid in a stroller. She looked like she was struggling a bit. We started talking to her and helped her push her stroller almost all the way home. She was phenomenal!!! She is 24 yrs old from El Salvador originally, but grew up her. Her name is Aleyda. As we were talking to her it was sooo evident that she needed the Gospel as everyone does of course. And not only did she need it but she was ready to receive it. We were on our way to an appt so we set up a time to come back that same night after some appointments that we had. When we went back that night she was so excited to see us, as were we. We taught her and then set a time to come back the next day. Needless to say we have taught her everyday since then. We commited her to come to church on saturday and she agreed. after our dinner appt we got an Voicemail from her saying something came upa nd she couldnt make but we could stop by and talk to her about it if we wanted to. When we got there she said she had just put her last diaper on her son and she didnt know how she was going to get more and how she could make it to church. We then asked her two questions "what size diapers does he wear and is that the only thing keeping you from coming to church?" She answered us we didnt say anything else we got up made a trip to walmart got her some diapers and a few other things headed back and she was in tears. Aleyda came to church on Sunday and loved it. Satan was not going to win that battle. She is sooo excited to keep learning and embrace the gospel and it's teaching we are so excited to continue teaching her. I love this work. Miracles like this make it so easy to do. It's worth it. When you see the blessings and the friuts of your labor, it's impossible to not work harder and harder. I love it. So I know my mothers Thanksgiving food will fill me up really well but these memories will fill me up for a lifetime. I will always reflect upon them and they will continue to strenghten my testimony of the truthfullness of this Gospel. I love you all and i love this work... HAVE A HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!