amen, joseph smith jr.!

I'm not an apostate missionary, I promise! The reason I'm emailing on Saturday this week is our pday was changed so we could help with the 20 missionaries leaving the mission on Tuesday and the 19 new missionaries that came in on Wednesday. New blood! It's weird not being the youngest anymore. Which means we also know about transfers obviously...they already happened. I'm still here in Singapore with Sister Howard and loving life :) Sister Kubota is a mommy! Training before her training is even finished! Crazy. She'll do so great though. So, because we were so busy helping, we got a little reward from President, today is our pday and we get to go see THE LION KING!!! Oh my goodness we're so excited. I saw it in London, but it's supposedly got some Singlish in it here, so it should be grand. I'll let you know next week.

Thank you for sending Jillian...uhh Sister Hicken's posts, Mommy. They're great!

One of the sisters in our ward treated us to fish spa last week for pday! It was the weirdest feeling ever. I couldn't stop laughing.

So here's a little review of the very long week. We met with NG twice and she's still on date to be baptized next week. I love her so much! We had an awesome lesson on the Plan of Salvation at a member's house last Thursday night and then taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ on Sunday night at a different member's house. Basically we just like showing off how adorable she is to all the members. Jk! But they love her and she loves them, so it works! She prayed for the first time in our lessons finally. The prayer was in Korean so I obviously couldn't understand it, but she just broke down in tears during it and then gave us a big hug after she ended it, so we're taking that as a good sign. We could all feel the Spirit so strongly. You can just feel Heavenly Father's love for her and how happy He is that she is coming closer to Him and our Savior.

B (uhhh I can't remember what I've called him in the past...) is getting closer and closer to baptism, it's just still this tithing problem. He understands everything, he wants to be baptized, but he's convinced that he can't afford to pay tithing after he's baptized. We really don't know what else we can do. Every lesson is on faith now. Keep him in your prayers please (even though you don't have his name, I'm pretty sure God will know who you're talking about).

We met with TT and she shared some awesome news with us. She's pregnant!!! That baby is going to be adorable. We're so happy for her! We taught her about the Restoration of the Gospel through the Prophet Joseph Smith. I wouldn't say she was skeptical at all, she's so believing by nature, but she didn't accept it without question. Which is what we want of course. We never want people to believe what we teach them just by hearing our words, we want to introduce an idea to them and let them take it straight to our Heavenly Father in prayer. He will teach and testify of the truth. So, we just hope that TT can follow through with that now. With how much she's searching for truth, I know she'll find it in this gospel. She took off for China for a few weeks though, so it's hard to know that we won't have contact with her for so long. Another one to just keep in our prayers.

Y and I. Y is the awesome Muslim guy who we met at Harbour Front a while ago and I is his friend that he brought along to learn. Meeting with them is the highlight of our week. It's really a miracle. It was a miracle the night that we met Y. It's a miracle that he brought I. It's a miracle every time we're able to meet with them, because of certain circumstances, they can't arrange times to meet with us ahead of time. Whenever we're able to meet up, it's because everyone had plans fall through, every single time. It's so blatantly the hand of God in the work. They're hilarious and so earnestly seeking truth, which is why they've found it! I is on date for baptism in August! Y is in a bit more difficult situation, he knows this is true but there are a few big obstacles for him. I have so much respect for how far he has come and how willing he is to follow God. When I think of the situation he's in, it just breaks my heart a little bit. But I know that we can't give him advice on what to do, it's not our place and I wouldn't even know how to begin giving that advice. He just needs to continue praying and fasting for his answer. (You're probably reading this right now anyway, haha. I know that you'll get your answer. God has led you this far and He doesn't plan to desert you now when you need an answer. He'll show you which way to go. You're in every single one of our prayers, day and night! We know Heavenly Father has an extremely special plan for both of you. He loves you!!)

N. He didn't come to church unfortunately. But we invited him to be baptized again and he half way accepted...he's just scared of what his family will think. So, we're going to try and meet with them all next week. Hopefully they'll open their hearts to the message he's been learning about and realize that it will bless their whole family.

Oh goodness. The other sisters met an Indo girl on the MRT who is a student here right now. We'll call her A. She and her friend S were passed to Sister Howard and I and we all went to their hostel a few nights ago, she has about ten friends that she wants to learn with her. Maybe more. Incredible.

For all of these reasons and more, we're just going to call August our "Expect Miracles" month. We couldn't be more excited for all the work that's in store. It's about time we got the Singapore First Ward rolling!

As for my papa's letter. Reeeaaal funny, Daddy. It took me forever to crack the code and figure out how to read your letter. But you know I loved it. Thank you so much for the pictures and details about Cody's wedding. I loved hearing about and seeing all the family! I love you and miss you all! Lily had a skirt for the wedding?? Wasn't it enough that a dog was the flower girl? The women in this family have cracked. I'm so proud to be an Andersen ;) Wasn't there supposed to be a letter from a brother of mine? Apa hal abang saya?! Saya mahu surat dari kau! Kirimlah!

I think that's enough yeah? Thank you all for sending messages to my mommy so she can forward them to me, I love hearing from you! I hope you have a great week. The worst part about actually making an effort for this email is I'll have to top it next week.

Love you all!!!

Kasih,

Sister Norton

HFI

It's kinda like what you wanted, except opposite.

My kawan is so wise.

I just came from the top of the Marina Bay Sands. Holy smokes. That place is crazy. I'll try to send some pictures. We have some amazing people in our ward who took us to the top for free! Gotta love the expat ward.

It's been another roller coaster week. Being in this city is so frustrating sometimes. I miss the mountains and real beauty. We were walking along the boardwalk in front of VivoCity mall the other night as we were contacting, and there were so many people sitting there, staring out at Sentosa Island (a man-made amusement park island), either on their iPhones, iPads, or just listening to music. Everyone is so plugged in! It would be great if the networks failed for even one day here. "National Take-Your-Headphones-Out-Of-Your-Ears Day." That's what I'm pushing for. There might be some serious separation anxiety...but maybe they'd realize how beautiful this island is and how many amazing people are surrounding them. Oooohhh frustration.

It was great for teaching though. We met this man yesterday in the park who asked, "Me??" after EVERY SINGLE question we asked him. I was trying so hard not to laugh. But he wants to meet us again! Happy happy. We were able to meet with N and teach him the Plan of Salvation. He loved hearing about the plan that God has for us and our families, in this life and after. He's finally decided to try coming to church! Then there was NG, when we met with her on Wednesday, she told us she'd heard about not drinking coffee so she was trying to stop. We hadn't even taught her the Word of Wisdom yet and she was already trying to follow it! Luckily we were able to talk about that and help her understand that awesome counsel we have to keep ourselves healthy to help her want to follow it even more. We also had a great lesson with K. It was really neat because during that lesson, I was reminded once more of the strength and power behind my calling as a missionary. He was so surprised by my conviction when we were discussing the gospel of Jesus Christ and how vital it is to our salvation. I do know that it is the only way that we are saved. I was shocked by my own conviction as well. There is only one name by which we are saved, and He requires more than just proclaiming faith on that name. There is a path to follow Christ. It's marked and it's definite. And it's absolutely fair, that's why my calling is so important as a missionary right now. I'm making sure more people hear about it! I love my job.

In other news, I was proposed to once again. You know the conversation isn't going anywhere good when it starts out with, "Sister Norton, may I ask you a personal question please?" So the relationship with that investigator might be a bit awkward now. I also had two terrifying encounters with cockroaches this week. One in our kitchen and one in the church building. It landed on me and ran down my leg which caused a complete meltdown, as you can imagine. Also, be looking for the Singapore Youth's musical in the upcoming issue of the Liahona! Errrr the New Era maybe?? Just look for it :) I know pretty much all of the youth mentioned in the article. They're the best lah!

I love you all and hope you're healthy and loving life! Sorry I don't have time to write more, Mommy. Maybe you can just go watch Harry Potter again with all the extra time I saved you ;) Stinker.

Kasih!

Sister Norton

HFI

Atop Marina Bay Sands … breathtakingly beautiful!!

View from on top looking down.

take a swim ....

or shop ...

... all I can say is if you make it to Singapore,

you won't want to miss this place :)

hey you guys... where's bob?

We were on the MRT the other day and the handicap seat was open, so I told Sister Wong to take it because she has skin tags. She told me to take it because I'm white. There's so much love between us.

Happy "BDay" Alison!!! Best month ever, right? :) (Alison has now been a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for over a month!)

It has been such a great week! There are possible transfers coming up at the end of this month and I'm getting a little worried that things are so great here right now that either Sister Howard or I are going to get shipped out to Malaysia...it just all seems too good to be true. I can't remember if I mentioned NG last week (I've decided on a special abbreviation, so I can remember who I'm talking about without actually disclosing names, sneaky huh?)...she's a young girl from South Korea and a member in our ward invited her to come to church a few weeks ago. She's been coming every Sunday since then and we finally got to meet with her last Thursday. We taught her about the restoration of Christ's true church and asked her how she felt and she replied, "Well it must be true. It happened almost two hundred years ago and it's only been growing since then, I think that means it's good and it's true." Although we were plenty pleased with that response, we told her that she doesn't have to follow something just because so many other people do, that she could have an answer for herself that it's true, directly from God, that we'd actually much prefer that over her trusting our faith. It was so cute when she got so excited to know that she could have that, an answer from God. We're meeting with her again tonight and she's on date to be baptized 30 July :) I love it!*

We taught TT on Friday again as well. We focused on the plan that our Heavenly Father has for all of us to live with Him and our families forever. It meant so much to her as her mother passed away almost three years ago from cancer. She's incredible. We showed up to her house and she pulled out her Plan of Salvation pamphlet with a page of notes, questions, and impressions she had taken down while reading it. Every question that she had just led us into the next part of the plan that we wanted to share with her. She was so engaged in the lesson that it was just a conversation, which is what we always want. When we told her that we know about the entirety of this plan through modern revelation and a living prophet, she was instantly interested in how she could know for herself that he was really a prophet of God. Amazing! So obviously we're excited to see her again this week.

So much more happened but I'm out of time! I love you all and hope you're doing well! You're always in my prayers!

Alex, I got your email and I'll write you a letter today!! I love you so much, sister! Miss you!

Kasih,

Sister Norton

HFI

*Saejin, if you read this ever, she reminds me so much of you!! I wish you could be here to share your conversion story with her! I miss you and love you and hope you're doing well!

selamat hari merdeka!

Of course they would loosen up firework restrictions once I'm out of the country. Reeeal nice. I hope everyone had a happy 4th! Any firework accidents? No burned limbs? No burned down ancient Buddhist shrines? Hope not. This was my first Independence Day outside of the U.S. ... so weird. I studied the Captain Moroni chapters that morning and we sang the National Anthem :) I am so grateful to be an American. I love Singapore, I love China, I love all the cultures that I've been exposed to and I have so much respect for all of them as well, but I'm an American and I love that. That's all.

We picked up a new person to teach this past week! She's so wonderful. She's from China and one of the members in the ward has hired her to teach her kids Chinese, so she introduced us to her as well. We had a wonderful lesson on faith. Knowing with a surety vs. faith and what people sometimes call blind faith. That's an issue that has been coming up a lot lately, everyone wants to see something to convince them. There's this wonderful quote from Joseph Fielding Smith Jr. that says, "When a man has the manifestation from the Holy Ghost, it leaves an indelible impression on his soul, one that is not easily erased. It is Spirit speaking to spirit, and it comes with convincing force. A manifestation of an angel, or even of the Son of God himself, would impress the eye and mind, and eventually become dimmed, but the impressions of the Holy Ghost sink deeper into the soul and are more difficult to erase." That's exactly what I've found to be true. I felt that convincing feeling in my heart that this gospel is true. It is the Restored Church of Jesus Christ. And feeling that testimony given by the Holy Ghost is more powerful than anything I could ever see. It's something that's inside of me that no one could ever tamper with. It's my own and that's what I trust. Now, it's just helping other people to understand that and to have the desire to find that for themselves. My words will never convince anyone, they have to find it for themselves. I love that. I hope that this woman will be able to find that inner strength as well.

SARAH LOVE! Sarah is going on a mission to Canada if anyone hasn't heard! I'm so excited for you! When I got your letter this week I just wanted to give you the biggest hug in the world! Obviously I'll write back soon, don't you even worry :) I love you!

In other news? We're still teaching a few people from the open house, still working with a few people towards baptism dates at the end of July :) Sorry, I've got to work out a way to tell you about the awesome people we're teaching without actually disclosing so much info on them. Maybe I'll give them alias names. I'll think on it. Hope you all had a great fourth of July! I love you all!

Sister Norton
HFI