and then there were three

TRANSFERS! We are now a trio here in Singapore, my companions are Sister Howard and Sister Ferguson. We're setting a little bit of a record for the mission...as our one companionship is covering five wards. Pray that we don't kill over. I can't believe how much I'm going to miss Sister Wong, who is now in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah in East Malaysia ...with Sister Jensen!! Two of my favorite people together at last.

It was really hard first hearing about transfers, I'm not going to lie. I don't think I've been that depressed on the mission yet. I pretty much wasn't talking for a day and a half...I think I was just completely overcome by fear that I'm not doing enough here in Singapore so I may not be help to stay here longer and also by the fear that I'll never have a chance to really learn the language if I'm in a place where they don't really speak it for the first 2/3 of my mission. It was really awful. One of my favorite verses in D&C is section 6:36, "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not." I was reminded that fear and the Spirit do not work well together and I felt that void during that time and just completely surrendered in prayer. I think it's a little sad that I have certain prayers that I can remember in my lifetime where I felt like I was really turning myself over, they should probably all be that fervent, but this was one of them. And through prayer I came to trust in the decision in transfers and know that it was inspired, to know that I do still have much more that I can do here in Singapore but I do need to pick up my pace and start working harder. I have always hoped that I'll be a good missionary, but what's hope without work, right? So, I think I have a renewed commitment to work harder this transfer. And I know that even if I don't see results from it until after my time in Singapore, the resulting happiness that I will feel knowing that I gave my best will be enough. And I'm already feeling happier about that decision.

Anyway, here's my week starting with last Wednesday night :) We met with L&E for the last time as L&E, because L is now back in the Philippines! I cried a lot. I'm a baby. It was a nice evening though and I think they really felt our love for them as we bore testimony of The Book of Mormon and our love for it. I will miss her so much, but she was talking about maybe skyping into our lessons every Wednesday night with E. So hopefully we'll "see" her tonight, and eventually get her to continue learning from the missionaries in Cebu.

Thursday night we met with a young married couple from China and Singapore, ZY & SL. Quite an interesting lesson as ZY is Muslim and SL is a free-thinker...but they're still interested in hearing more about why The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is different. So we'll be happy to share :)

We've met with YL twice since I last wrote and her understanding that's developing of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon is astounding. She's an incredible person and she wants good things in her life so she can do good things. It's so interesting to teach her and to answer the questions she has about the readings from the Book of Mormon that we give her every week. The only problem that we're seeing is that she sees these chapters and stories from the lives of Jesus Christ and his prophets as fables...that the morals learned from them will lead her to do good to others, but she's still not believing that there's a God or that there's life after this life. So it's a slow process, but I really think she'll start to believe as she continues to read and pray and do her part. Someone with that much sincerity has got to receive the answer that she's looking for, as long as she's looking for it. That's the only problem.

Sister Wong and Sister Ferguson had a wonderful baptism on Saturday! This woman is the sister-in-law of an area authority of the Church here in Singapore and her learning about the gospel has been 30 years in progress. Her husband and daughters are supportive of her decision but still aren't opening up to the message and the invitation to learn for themselves. I got to sing at the baptism and it was so much fun to be there for her!

D is still staying strong to his baptismal date at the end of October and he's bringing so many people to church and to learn with him! His friend, A, is now also on date to be baptized the same day.

We have a family that we're teaching!!! I couldn't be happier about that. They are from China but have been living here in Singapore for over ten years. The mom, J, is a very strong Christian, but was intrigued by her coworker's beliefs (a member of the Bedok ward) so she brought her family to church. We met with them on Sunday afternoon and now have a standing appointment for every Sunday afternoon. W (the father) is also Christian, but only for a year now. They have differing beliefs...J sees things like baptism in the bible and notices that Christ was baptized by going into water and wonders why there are now many different ways to baptism, where W thinks that it's all technicalities and doesn't really matter as long as you have faith in Christ. J said something that made me think about something I've never really realized as a blessing. She feels like she has no room to doubt in her religion. Not that she has perfect knowledge, but that she literally isn't given the privilege of doubt. She feels like if she were to question some practices of her church, she wouldn't be able to explain them and it would result in a loss of faith. One of the reasons she wants to meet with us and learn more about the Latter-day Saints is so she can go through her doubts and voice them with someone. I never realized how much I've had the opportunity to doubt in my life. I think I even look at doubt as a good thing for myself. Every principle of my religion that I have ever doubted has led me to study and to prayer and my faith has only been strengthened through that. As I study the things that were once confusing, I see that there really is no hole in God's plan, nothing missing from the restored church of Jesus Christ, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I believe it so strongly. I know that the things I'm teaching people are true and I only hope that they can take the initiative to find out for themselves if they're true. And I know that hope is brought through that process. And that hope destroys all doubt. I'll keep you updated on the W family. For now, just know that they're awesome and I love them. They have three children, the 18 year old is not interested in religion at all, but the 9 year old and the 4 year old love coming to church. And the 9 year old, SR is such a smarty. Man I love them.

I also love the Lai family so much! I was in the MTC with Elder Lai and now I'm serving in his home ward, so Sister Lai is spoiling us rotten. She makes amazing food. I love Singapore.

Here's the cherry on top of this week. I had a surprise visitor from the Forest Bend ward on Monday (well only surprise until I found out he was coming on Saturday when President approved the visit). Brother Bonham from my home bishopric hand-delivered a package to me from mom and dad! I thought it was going to be so weird to mix these two lives, but it was great. I got to show Brother Bonham our new chapel here in Singapore. We're all so proud of it. And I sent a letter home with him, so if any of you reading this are my home ward members, there's a letter for you all on its way! THANK YOU BROTHER BONHAM!!!!

My companion is now the oldest sister in the mission, Sister Hite left the mission today...we're going to miss her :( I think my companion, Sister Howard, (I’m not going to lie, I really like to call her Sister Howie…not sure why), but she's a little freaked out about how fast the time is going. She's only got seven weeks left now! Oh man.

I am stoked for Conference, to answer your question, mommy! It just won't be aired here until the 8th and 9th of October, instead of this weekend. You guys are just way too far behind us in time, sheesh. Have a safe trip to Lake Powell, mom and dad, and enjoy watching Conference in that beautiful setting!

I love you all so much and hope you're happy and having a great week :)

Sayangi!

Sister Norton

HFI

Just though you might like to know...

Me and Sister Wong

and a nice dying present she left for me on my desk.

Sooo sweet...

One of my very favorite families.

he's not the brightest pea in the pod

THANK YOU FOR THE BIRTHDAY WISHES, EVERYONE! It was one of my most favourite birthdays yet. Starting with the picnic with F on Wednesday, then teaching some awesome lessons on my actual birthday, and getting so many nice cards and letters from everyone in the mail! I have the best ward back home! I promise I'll be writing you all back, it just might take a while, please be patient with me :) ... Thank you! You made my day and I love you!

I guess we'll start where last week left off. Last Wednesday, we met with L&E again to read Alma 32 together and talk more about faith. Before we could even start, L told us that she has decided to move back to the Philipinnes because she can't find a job here. She told us with tears in her eyes, it's been so hard on her here, so then I just started crying and it was all down hill from there. We all kind of just ate in silence and then pulled out The Book of Mormon to read. It's been very slow teaching these two because of the negative opinions they've had of the Church in the past. When we got to verse 28, I lost it again, trying to explain to them how this verse has come true for me. It says that the word "beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me." I have recognized that so much as I've been reading The Book of Mormon more. It enlarges my soul. I understand who I am as a daughter of God when I read that book. And I really do just crave it in my life now. It finally got through to L&E. I don't know what it was about that chapter, but they both agreed that it's beginning to be delicious to them too :) In those exact words. So it was a bittersweet night. We'll get to see her one more time, tonight.

We had a bit of a surprise on Thursday. The elders gave us a referral of a man they met, so we called him while planning our next week to set up an appointment and he said that he wanted to meet that night. So we did! We'll call him D, hoping that we don't already have one of those. He is the most adorable man ever. He's in his 70's and I think he's just beautiful. He told us that we were his angels and we talked about God. Good night! And after yesterday he's getting baptized on 22 October!

Friday was another great lesson with YL and we finally got to the Restoration of Christ's gospel. She was eager to pray about what we told her and understood the importance of what the message meant for her if it is true, so that's always a good sign. She was planning on going to Indonesia for a visa chop that night and wasn't sure if she would make it back. We have kind of a bad history of people just leaving the country on us, so you better believe we prayed hard that night for her and were so worried when we didn't hear back from her until yesterday when she finally made it back in the country. But she made it back! And she told us she's excited to meet again this Friday. So things are looking good.

Friday night was another great faith find. We only had about twenty minutes at Harbour Front so we prayed and went to work trying to find someone who needed us. We found R, the third person we talked to. He also told us that he thinks we're angels sent to him. (Hearing that repeatedly in a week starts to give you the feeling that you must be doing something right.) We met with him on Saturday and had an awesome lesson with the help of Alison and then he came to church on Sunday! Praying really is the only way to go.

Speaking of Alison....I love her! She made my birthday! You should see the cutest gift she gave me! I'll try to send pictures, mommy. It was so great to be able to see her and also to have her come teach with us that day. I love you, Alison!

The other sisters also did so much to make sure I had a great birthday, including getting me the tackiest blanket in the world (desired), because they know how much I don't like the air con at night. And the birthday call from Y was so nice, thank you! (Have you had a chance to look up the CES Fireside by Elder Oaks yet? It should be on lds.org.) I think that's it. I tried to come up with something inspiring to write, but I'm out of time. Sorry, next week eh? I am so thankful for all the cards and letters this week! You all make it so easy to be out here serving and having this incredible experience. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Dengan kasih,

Sister Norton

HFI

Sister Norton & Alison :)

Sweet!

guess we're not going to the beach today

We had plans to go to east coast park today to have a picnic with F for my birthday, but a huge thunder clap woke all of us up at 5:30 this morning. Three of us sat up in our beds at the same time and just sat there quietly until Sister Wong said the plans were not looking so good. It was a huge storm! So now, seeing as it's too "cold," we're going to have the picnic indoors. I'm still excited though.

It's been a rough week but there's been so much love coming in the mail...it made it a lot easier. I got a birthday package from mommy, daddy, and daxy and it was so great! I know you guys miss birthday month :) It's low key this year anyway, we'll resume in 2012. The emails from Jillian were such a blessing. I love that girl. I'm so happy that one of my best friends is out here with me. And Sarah is joining the ranks today! Then I got a letter from Sister Jensen that just made me bawl. She's incredible too. I also got an email from my Grandpa Merlin telling me happy birthday...and it made me cry even more. Oh, and I got a birthday card in the mail from my Grandma Dionne and Grandpa Riggs. It was SO sweet. Thank you everyone for remembering my birthday. It really meant a lot to me! Basically I just have awesome people in my life. They're all angels.

The expat ward is officially split, giving us three wards to work with. It's going to be crazy busy. But we were reminded that the split put us one step closer to a temple here in Singapore. I was thinking about that a lot this past week. We're trying to build the Lord's kingdom out here, and bringing people to the gospel is wonderful, but we need a temple. The temple is like the crowning glory of all the work. The temple is what will seal families together for eternity and endow the members with priceless knowledge. Knowledge really is power in this life. We come across a few very skeptical people that kind of approach religion the same way Marx did, "an opiate for the masses," but I'm coming to realize that just the knowledge of what our purpose is in this life, what will happen after it, that's enough hope to get me through anything. Joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will not take away your problems. Your life will still be hard because that's the only way we can grow. But the knowledge given us through the gospel sustains us in our trials. And I believe that it gives reason to hope and have immense joy in this life too. I'm so grateful that I do know that.

I've really been struggling lately, feeling like I don't have the same passionate testimony that I used to. Sister Howard and I were talking about it yesterday and basically compared it to a relationship...it's fireworks at first, but once it calms down and matures, there's a deep love and that isn't anything less than the excitement at the beginning. That's how I feel my love for my Savior is becoming. I used to be quite emotional about it even, but I'm not very often anymore. I don't follow the path that I'm on because I'm controlled by emotions or caught up in any hype (although that may have been a starting point for me), but I follow it because it's the only logical thing to do. I know the plan that God has for us is real. Why would I not follow it?

We are teaching a new girl from China, YL. She is so hilarious. And so smart. It's such a treat meeting with her. We were talking about faith yesterday and we showed her a scripture in Alma 32:21 and she flipped out saying that's exactly how she would describe faith. It was cool. She likes The Book of Mormon. So we're happy about that :)

Still haven't seen NG :( B is still on date for 8 October. We'll meet with L & E tonight. N finally realized the magnitude of the message that we've been sharing with him for months, that we do have a living prophet. He was taken back a bit, but he wants to pray about it and gain that answer for himself, so that's progress.

It's crazy to think that Jilli, Kimmy, Jenna, and I were all living together this time last year. Now one is in Texas, one in Provo, one in Denver, and one in Singapore. 2012 will be such a fine reunion. I love you all! (Kimmy...I NEED to hear from you soon. Love you!)

I think that's it folks. I love you! I'm going to go party for my birthday now. Thank you all for the love!

Sister Norton

HFI

I froze Sister Ferg and Sister Wong's nametags

because they put my bed on my desk

then they decorated my door for my birthday :)

that's not what I meaned!

I actually said that this past week. Along with telling Sister Wong that I can speak Engrish. Rosak sudah. I don't know what's happening to me.

We had zone conference last week and it was amazing! It was just here in Singapore this time...because that's where our zone is...:) Elder Perkins and Brother Osguthorpe came to visit us. President gave an awesome training on the excuse-of-a-phrase "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak." I love President Clark. He doesn't beat around the bush with anything. It was all about one of the greatest gifts that God has given us as His children, our agency. We have the power to control ourselves. He gave some examples like King David, and related it to modern-day examples like pornography, with some people thinking that the natural man is more powerful, that the flesh will win over. But he turned it around like this, "the flesh is willing but the spirit is weak." We can't blame anything on the natural man. It's all about desire. If the desire is truly there, then the flesh will do what it's told. It was awesome, so empowering. For me, it really brought more sense to fasting. Show the flesh who's in charge!

After the conference, the Toa Payoh ward had a BBQ for Hari Raya. (It is a Muslim holiday, but everyone was off school and work, so why not?) L & E came!! It was a blast. Tons of food and games. Plus I won a new tube of toothpaste and I was running low.

This is almost all of the Singapore zone ... welcoming back Elder Schone!

We're kind of having a hard time with investigators being worried about having their souls taken lately. Don't know what the deal is...so it was timely that we had that training from president so we could know how to address it. A few people that we're teaching were asking if it's possible for someone to take your soul. So we just said no. You'd have to give it. Ended that nonsense.

N came to church! He only stayed for ten minutes, but it's a start! We taught him about the Word of Wisdom on Monday and committed him to that, so now he's going to quit smoking. It's something he's been wanting to do for a while, so we'll kick it for good this time.

B shared his testimony with us when we met last week and picked a new baptismal date for himself. 8 October! Please pray for him, tithing is still the issue. But it's happening this time.

We met with Y&I too this last week and were able to talk a little bit about temples. I can't wait for the day when they get to go to the house of the Lord. Saya tahu bahawa kamu dua akan sayangi bait suci itu! Ada banyak untuk belajar tentang Tuhan dan Allah di sana.

SARAH KATHERINE. You are going to be so wonderful. Good luck heading to the MTC next week. You better get me an address soon. I love you!

I'm out of time. Sorry! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Sister Norton

HFI

(A note from Mikelle's Mom ~ Mikelle's birthday is next week, so anyone wanting to leave a comment to wish her a happy day can do that and I will relay ALL comments to her. You can also send a birthday card if you wish, using the Singapore address to the right ... on Bukit Timah Road.) Thank you ♥ Chris