go, go ahead, read some books

Halo. So the MTC changed their schedule entirely. On our last week here. It's rotting my brain. There is no longer ANY MDT time. Companionship study is with a teacher. Two hours of personal study (I'm not complaining about that part...it's just hard to keep from going crazy because I usually break things up into half hour segments to stay focused and awake in MDT. Basically, this resulted in an interpretive dance being created for the First Vision. It was quite moving.) Last night Sister Jensen and I were discussing what passage to have our Juni (progressing investigator) read next time we meet with him. She suggested Moroni 7&8 so I turned to "Moroni" 7&8. I was slightly baffled that she wanted our investigator who just accepted the baptismal invitation to read this chapter but I kind of just hinted that maybe we should find something else. Five minutes later I realized I had been reading in Mormon 8. Hell fire and brimstone baby. This schedule will be the death of me. I promise I'm not this dense, I'm familiar with Moroni. I was just extremely tired. And then to make things even more awesome, the cafeteria is under construction so there's one option of deep fried food every meal :) I've never been so excited for airport food in my life.

I think I already told you, mis padres, but I got my flight plans! We leave next Monday at about 5 something and fly to San Fran where we have a 6 or 7 hour layover and then we fly straight to Singapore! On Singapore Airlines! 18 hour flight! Ohhhh baby.

It's only been a few days since I last emailed so I feel like there really isn't much to say. It's not like my best friend got married or anything. I hope everyone starts sending me some pictures stat. I bet she looked so pretty! I bet it was beautiful!

We had an Easter egg hunt on Sunday! It was the best, I loved it. And then a sweet sweet fireside. Stephen Allen spoke to us. He's been in charge of the old Mormon adds on tv for a long time so we got to watch the awesome old ones from the 70's and 80's and related the messages about family to missionary work.

Oh, also this week, Sister Jensen and I were picked to demonstrate how to begin teaching in the new missionary orientation on Wednesday night. So basically we're just missing class left and right this week. I'm not really a fan. I need to speak Malay ya know?

I don't know what else to say to you. I have nothing. I leave for Singapore in 6 days. I'm stoked. It's snowing right now. I'm so glad I will never see that again for a year and a half. Good riddance. But I love you all. Send a letter to Singapore sometime if you want. I'll make sure to get my Malaysian address to you once I get it. Looove you!

Sister Norton

HFI

you go, glen coco!

Selamat pagi!! This is my last Thursday to email from the MTC! The schedules change next week and my pday will be on Tuesday, so expect to hear from me then. And then I'm basically out of here. In 11 days. Finally.

Jenna Eve Morgan. I can't believe you're getting married on Saturday. I love you so so much and I will totally be there in Spirit mmmk? YOU'RE GETTING MARRIED!!

So, surprise surprise. Cool things are still happening at the MTC. But before I get there, let me just mention that church on Sunday was the Sister Norton show. I led all the music, gave a talk (about your cherry trees, daddy!), and the closing prayer. And Sunday was such a sublime day. Seriously, did anyone look outside??? It was gorgeous! We went on our temple walk at about 1 and the flowers were so pretty and everything was green and it was sunny and we took some sweet jumping pictures. It was one of those days where I was in such a good mood that I was writing stuff like this in my journal: "There is seriously never an ordinary day here. How can there be when I'm seeing miracles everyday and everything is so beautiful! You get to talk to amazing people everyday! Life is the coolest gift."

Tuesday was the raddest though. Elder Scott came to speak to us and it blew my mind. Seriously. He answered so many questions that I've had for a while. Then he bestowed an apostolic blessing on all of us learning languages to have the gift of tongues. My friends, apostolic blessings are pretty awesome. The whole time I've been learning Malay, my Mandarin has just slipped, slipped away. After the devotional on Tuesday night, I was showering and phrases of Mandarin just kept coming to my mind. Here's where it gets really cool though. I was a host for new missionaries yesterday, and the sister that I hosted was from SHENZHEN! Shenzhen, as in the place I'd go to church in China. Right next to Zhongshan, my hometown. Sister Yue Gao. And she's the sweetest thing ever! She speaks English but not extremely well, and it just happened to be that all the phrases that I had remembered the night before were the ones that I needed to be able to communicate with her and help her find everything she needs. She was so impressed with my Chinese and I think I was even impressed! It shocked me. I have no doubt in my mind that it was the Spirit because frankly, I seriously fail at Mandarin now. It was the coolest experience.

Also, in the past week I've eaten dinner with President Brown, President Nally, and President McIff...the MTC presidency. It's like every time we sit down to eat one of them pops up and sits down next to us and just wants to chat the whole time. It's been cool getting to know them, they're amazing men. They were shocked to find out that we're an all sister district. Apparently they've never seen it while they've been in the presidency.

I think that pretty much wraps everything up. I have the coolest family in the world. Both sides. Thank you all for writing me this week, Aunt Traci, Stoney, Grandma Dionne, Aunt Shawna, Mom, Dad, Dax. I love you so much and will try to write you soon! I miss you and pray for all of you every day. (Dearelder.com you are seriously so cool! Thank you.)

Have such a happy Easter this Sunday! I know that our Savior lives. Seek Him every single day and I promise you His peace and love will come flowing into your life.

Dengan kasih,

Sister Norton

HFI

(Note from mother ~ Mikelle loves to read comments to her blog ~ I send them to her ... so please leave them if you feel so inclined to. Thank you :)

di sini senang, di sana senang, di mana mana hatiku senang!

Apa khabar! Isn't that the sickest song? I'll sing it for you all someday. It just means I'm happy wherever I am basically.

This morning Sister Jensen walked into a wall. While I was laughing and mocking her, I walked into a door. Evenly matched companionship.

I can't even really remember what happened this week very well, the days are all blurring together. And I get my flight plans in less than a week! 18 days left here! If you're going to write me, you might as well do it now because we all know it probably won't happen once I'm in Malaysia ;)

We taught in Malay at the TRC for the first time last week! All of lesson one! It was sick! A little bit more frustrating than English...but I know it's coming along.

Sister Jensen suggested that I start keeping track of my daily "miracles" this week, and it's been incredible to just pay closer attention to how much my Father in Heaven cares about me. The first tender mercy was on Sunday night. It was an awesome day as far as learning goes (and I had been worrying about how I can get people to understand the importance of this message...of course everything was pointing to D&C 84:88 that day. I just need to teach, they'll know because God will go before me.), but my Malay was hitting a brick wall and I just wanted to hug someone and cry pretty much. When I walked into the fireside that night, I saw these familiar blue and yellow striped ties and then the Men's Chorus badge on a bunch of jackets. BYU Men's Chorus did the whole fireside and I swear everything that was said and sung was just for me. And then....I got to see Ricki!!!!!! It was just what I needed.

Then I was thinking about a friend of mine from China and how in the world I could get her address here in the U.S. so I could write her. I prayed about it and literally the next day got a letter from Abby talking about her and how she thinks we should write. Same wave length here, baby! The Spirit is so cool. Thanks for paying attention to it, Abs.

On Tuesday, Elder Rasband came and spoke to us and just tied everything together for me. It was on the Spirit, surprise surprise. I must have a really thick head because it's taken me till now to realize that pretty much everyone speaks on the Holy Ghost. Maybe it's like an important subject. It was great. And then he testified that we are divinely appointed to our missions. I meet sisters going to Taiwan and Hong Kong and all that all the time here and there's not a bit of jealousy anymore. I'm going to go chum with the Malays and Ibans! Those are my people and I have a work to do there. With all these miracles and tender mercies, whatever you want to call them, it helped me realize that if Malaysia is where God needs me to be, I've got a lot more coming my way. Here in the MTC, it's like I'm in a play pen ya know? Like for a toddler, yes I am using this comparison. His ultimate care and protection isn't needed that much yet. (Ignore that I just stated children don't need care when they're in a play pen. I will be a good mom, I promise.) I'm stoked.

Ohhh here's something funny. I rolled my other ankle yesterday. Just find me a Hercules already (for after the mission of course). It wasn't really my ankle though, it was the same spot that I sprained my foot on the acorn last fall. I felt super smart. I iced it though and it's fine. No set backs just a little swelling.

I want you to know that Jacob Watson is in my prayers and I'll be fasting for him this Sunday. It's been amazing to hear about the ward pulling together to support the Watsons at this time. I know that the priesthood is the authority and power from God and that their family will make it through this time with its blessings. Let them know how much I love them! And I love you all too!

Dengan kasih,

Sister Norton

HFI

tengok. tengok, kitab mormon!

So I've discovered that I love speaking Malay in a Southern accent. Book of Mormon is more like KEETAB MOORMOHN that way. It's so entertaining.

Has it seriously been another week since last pday? You'll only get three more emails (after this one) from me while I'm at the MTC. I should even get flight plans soon, baby! Tidak masuk akal. We had another no English day yesterday...and I didn't want to die by the end of the day. Progress! It's so amazing to me. I've tried learning other languages (Mandarin, Spanish..) and I can have short, limited conversations in them, but I never believed I could ever speak in another language without feeling restricted, for the most part. It seriously blows my mind. Saya berterima kasih atas kurnia lidah lidah :)

Our Malagasy elders left this week. The hall feels empty with just the four of us sisters and the two Mongolian elders in our zone. We're getting the new Malagasy's though. Your brother is included in that, Natalie! They came in yesterday and the other sisters met him, but I haven't yet. I'll give him a hearty handshake when I do. The Mongolians are here for 12 weeks, we're 9, and we leave at the same time...we're both getting sick of watching groups, who came after us, leave before us. Our day will come. And yes, we're still the only sisters in the branch.

So, there's a clothes give-away bin for the sisters here, and I saw a ridiculously sick long green skirt and a matching Tommy Bahama top, so you know I had to grab it and wear it on April 1st. Everyone took it way to seriously. Luckily I ran into someone I know from the outside world, Bryant, so the shame didn't go to waste.

Last night, we learned that there is an abundance of lizards and cockroaches in Malaysia...in our apartments. I was expecting the cockroaches, but lizards?! I was shrieking when I heard that one sister had a huge lizard fall on her when she was sleeping once. I don't know how I'm going to handle this. It was hilarious though. Sister Kubota and I are bound to be comps in an area with them because we're the ones that were freaking out. And I mean that neither of us could put our feet on the ground, and Sister Kubota was convinced that one was in her hair.

Wendy Morgan, you are wonderful! Thank you so much for the care package!! You're the best second mom ever!

OH, guess who graduated from rehab?? Yours truly! So I'm back to volleyball, but all I really can do is serve and play back row ds...it gives me the heebie jeebies to even watch people jumping at the net. I hope I get over that.....but you could send me my ankle braces Mommy :)

Now let me get to my favorite part. I hope everyone watched/listened to conference. Even if you're not LDS, go to lds.org and read the words of our prophet and apostles. They're not just for the Mormon church, they're called of God to lead ALL of God's children and I know that there is a message in them for ALL of God's children. By their fruits ye shall know them, check it out. I loved Uchtdorf's, Bednar's, and Robbin's talks. Ok everyone's really, but it was just comforting to hear the way Elder Bednar described revelation and the Holy Ghost. It went perfectly with Elder Uchtdorf's talk in my mind. I needed to hear that I'm not failing here at the MTC because I haven't seen a vision (don't worry, I wasn't expecting one...I mean I just haven't had any crazy powerful experiences), but it doesn't need to be that. I'm learning line by line. Jangan risau. I had a list of seven questions and every single one of them was answered. I promise you that you can find answers in their words as well. Now go, read!

Mmmk...I think that's all! I hope you all have a fantastic week and I love you!

Dengan kasih,

Sister Norton

HFI