gray hairs

This area is going to give me a million of them. I'm here, Penang! It's not quite like all of those pictures you're probably seeing, but it's fun. We don't have a phone yet, so it kind of seems like we're stranded and it takes almost two hours by bus to get to the city. We live in a really nice complex and we have a view of the ocean...amazing storms every night. And it's been an interesting week. We need your prayers.

Before we flew out of Singapore last week, we found out that our district leader here, Elder Dass, fell down the stairs on his crutches, was in the hospital, and they were proclaiming him paralyzed from the chest down. I flipped out and started fasting and praying for him immediately. We've been to visit him a few times since we got here and it really is a miracle. Slowly he got feeling back, then started moving his fingers and toes, then tried standing, and now he's walking. I know that that is the power of prayers and fasting. He'll make a full recovery.

We live by Universiti Sains Malaysia (University Science Malaysia) and we're really trying to focus on the students here, which is hard...because so many are Malay. But there are others, I know we'll find them. We've been doing tons of faith finding and one of the miracles that's turned up from that is F, from Nigeria. Thankfully Bro. Maynes taught me a little Nigerian Pigeon in the MTC so we caught his attention with a "Hey, how fa!" Boom. Got his number and he wants to come to church with us. Last night we set some very specific goals for our faith finding. We wanted a family with a mother, father, and at least two kids. We found one with four kids. Only the daughter is interested so far, but I know that the Lord helped us get to their door, so I'm sure the miracles aren't over with yet.

My Malay is a lot better than I thought it would be, I can chat it up with the locals pretty easily and we're making a lot of friends. Sister Wilkes has pretty killer Malay too, she's on fire! I'll write more about her next week. Have a happy Deepavali!! And Landon...I got your letter before I left, no worries! I'll write back asap. Alison, I miss you! I hope you're helping out lots, they need you in Singapore! Keep me updated on everyone, ok? I'll write you soon. Love you!

Dengan banyak kasih,

Sister Norton

HFI

Watching a storm roll in one morning.

Sister Norton with her new companion, Sister Wilkes.

I'm Michael J. Fox

What timely emails from you, Mom & Dad. You must have known that I would need that extra support this week...because I'M GOING TO PENANG. I am sitting in a cushy chair in Singapore right now, because today I'll go pick up my GREENIE from the airport, and then we'll be in training and fly out to Penang tomorrow, to OPEN AN AREA THAT SISTERS HAVEN'T BEEN IN FOR ALMOST 15 YEARS. So yeah...I might have a few butterflies in my stomach. When I found out transfer news last weekend I think I experienced my first panic attack. Woo! I thought that President was maybe off his rocker. No offense if you ever read this, President :) But the more I learn about Penang and hear of the inspiration that led to this call, the more excited I am to get there.

The funny thing is there is an advert for Penang in the MRT station that we always pass through. It's a pretty island in West Malaysia, up more by the Thai border. Every time we see it, I say, "Wow, I want to go to Penang!" So...careful what you wish for eh? The island is bigger than Singapore, but right now there is only one set of elders there. There's one branch. (Island bigger than Singapore...one branch...Singapore has nine wards...I think we'll work on splitting that baby.) So there's a lot of work to be done. Sister Wilkes and I will be going into a part of the island, out of the city, that hasn't ever really had missionaries before. No pressure. I'm SO excited :)

As I've been thinking about not wanting to die there...the phrase "faith can move mountains" keeps popping into my head, with this reasoning...not that I don't believe that mountains can literally be moved with faith, but I just imagine the mountain being moved by climbing it. If it's under you instead of in front of you, I'd say that's moving. Plus it's a better view at the top. So, that's my motivation for Penang. There are going to be lots of "mountains." (Literally too :) Ohhhh I've missed them. And I'll be biking them! But with faith and WORK, we'll be on top of those mountains in no time. And that, to me, is more of a miracle than moving it to walk on flat ground. So let the miracles roll :)

Although I'm stoked for Penang, leaving Singapore is slightly breaking my heart. There are so many people I will miss here. People that I have grown to love so much. They are my family! I will miss the members here, they're so strong. I will miss my dear dear Sister Howie!! I couldn't have had a better trainer. At least I know I'll see her at BYU next year. And I will miss the incredible people that we've been privileged to be teaching. YL accepted a baptismal date last night, and I know she'll follow through with it. She brought me a beautiful jade bracelet for a going away gift and all I had to give her was my testimony that this is true. It was such a nice, though slightly tearful, lesson. K is still on date. He is the sweetest and it's awesome to see as he begins to understand why we are truly here as missionaries and why I'm leaving now, but the best is he's excited to continue learning because he feels the Spirit urging him on. E still has a growing love for The Book of Mormon. S & I, it's so good to hear that you're still doing well. I want you both to know that you're still in my prayers. Our Heavenly Father has not forgotten you and will never give up on you. There will always be missionaries here, you know where to find them. PLEASE keep learning. Please keep drawing closer to your Savior; He is the only unfailing source of peace, love, hope, and knowledge in this world and in this life. I know He lives! Saya sayangi kedua kamu seperti abang abang saya. Harap Allah serta mu selalu sampai kita jumpa lagi.

I'm out of time! Please hold off on sending me letters or anything until I can send my Penang address next week! I love you all so much and hope you have a wonderful week! Thank you for your prayers, we need them!!

I'll tell about Michael J. Fox and answer questions and send PICTURES next week :)

Sister Norton

HFI

Lots of rain = lots of green. Beautiful Penang!

Hopefully they eat the mosquitos ...

democratic one, not communistic. wait...is communistic a word?

Hey I'm still alive!! And in Singapore! It could be different by next week, transfer news will come out this Saturday. I'll probably stay in Singapore though.

So we found this new friend to teach! It's so crazy....I've run into him in China before too, he's this red-headed guy from the states. We got to read the Book of Mormon with him last week on a park bench. It was pretty cool. I'll send a picture.

CONFERENCE! Aiyo! I think it was meant just for missionaries this time. Sorry to be selfish, but every single talk blew my mind. You know the feeling you get when you're walking out of Disneyland, or boarding a plane to go home from a vacation that you don't want to end? That's how I felt during the closing hymn of the Sunday session. Six more months!?! I loved it. It answered every single question that I've needed help with over the past few months. Seriously, direct answers or at least I was given the help I needed to make some decisions on my own. I love this Church. I love that it's led by Christ and his LIVING prophets, seers, and revelators. It's amazing!! I think my favourites were Elder Callister's (http://lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/the-book-of-mormon-a-book-from-god?lang=eng), President Monson's (http://lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/stand-in-holy-places?lang=eng), and President Packer's (http://lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/counsel-to-youth?lang=eng). Basically all of them but you get the picture. Watch it if you haven't! That means you, Y&I! You can find it all on lds.org, I know you'll find that some of the talks were specifically for YOU.

We haven't had much progress with E, but she did end our lesson with a prayer and she prayed to continue learning about the things we're teaching her, so at least we know that she still wants to be meeting and listening to what we have to say.

B did not get baptized last weekend...he's on date for Christmas day now...it's hard with him. He's reached a stand-still because there's not much left to do for him to act other than just be baptized, but he won't take that step until he knows. I just wish Bandana was here to tell him about her conversion and the role that Ether 12:6 had for her. We're trying and still praying for him though.

K is awesome!!! He came to every single session of conference, including priesthood. TEN HOURS OF CONFERENCE! And still wanted to meet with us yesterday. If that doesn't let you know the church is true I don't know what will ;) He had so many great questions for us and we were able to talk about the Restoration and The Book of Mormon and give him his own copy in Japanese and English. And he's on date to be baptized on Christmas! It seems far away, but I really think he'll want to move it sooner as he gains a greater understanding of God's plan for him and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We met with N on Monday and talked to him about the reality of a living prophet. It turned into him telling us about Singapore's standard of "tolerance" which made a few things pop up in my mind...

http://lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/the-divine-gift-of-repentance?lang=eng

http://lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/stand-in-holy-places?lang=eng

It's so hard here. No one understands the whole concept of authority. So...we're again at a loss with him.

D & A are still on date to be baptized at the end of this month. Everything is going well with them.

I LOVED President Uchtdorf's mention of the weak things of the earth preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Conference was such a great reminder to me that I am weak and really can't expect to do anything out here unless I realize my complete reliance on the Lord and the Holy Ghost in all I'm doing. I don't think I'm getting the point across enough of how much I loved conference.

I love you all and hope you're having a great week. KEEP WATCHING AND READING CONFERENCE :) Man I loved it.

Love!

Sister Norton

HFI!

New red-headed friend from the states.

(It looks as though she's not lost her sense of humor!)

oh wow...if you frolic you can really feel it in your legs!

We've started the 30-day shred. It's intense. And it doesn't help that we are busy out of our minds so we're just exhausted all the time :) It's now been a week with this trio companionship business. We're covering the same amount of work that three companionships would normally do...so I'm kind of tired. But I am actually really enjoying it. I fall asleep really fast at night so that's good :)

I just got back from a funeral service at the Mandai Crematorium for Alison's granny :( It's been a hard few days for her since she passed away on Sunday night, but I'm so glad that I've been able to have her with me on splits and then be able to be there for the service this morning. She is so strong! It was a really nice service and we got to sing a hymn at the end. I just hope that Alison remembers all the things she's learned about the Plan of Salvation and all that she knows about where her granny is now. We got to go to dinner last night and talk about all of her memories with her. It was nice. I just love her so much!

Going back to last Wednesday...we finally got to share the message of the Restoration with E. We talked about Joseph Smith and the questions he had and I think E felt very close to that. She has SO much faith in the Lord, but she feels so confused about how to be following Him. It was nice to be able to share my testimony with her that God doesn't want her to feel confused and she can pray to find out for herself if Joseph Smith was a prophet and the peace that that should then bring her. We'll see how it goes again tonight.

B cancelled his usual appointment on Thursday while we were on the way to meet him...I was maybe a little disappointed because we haven't seen him in so long, and we were at the office, so we just asked if there was anything we could do to help there since we were already out. We ended up volunteering to go to the post office to refill the stamp supply for the office. There's a Sing Post just down the street on Bukit Timah, but we decided to go to Orchard instead. We wandered around in Ion for a while because we've only been to that post office once before and then finally found it. Guess who pranced on in? D! It was so cool. He was elated and told us that he had prayed to see us again soon just that morning...uhhhh glad we decided to go get some stamps :) So we went to lunch with him and had a nice talk about prayer.

We had two awesome appointments with YL this week also. The first one was finishing up The Plan of Salvation and what happens to us after this life, and the next was about prophets and General Conference this weekend. She wanted to come, but left for Indonesia for a week yesterday, so we decided to watch President Monson's address from Sunday morning with her. Man, I love the prophet. He talked about inspiration and recognizing the Holy Ghost, exactly what YL had been asking about before we turned on the computer to watch it. So, we were so excited to hear after that the more she learns about this church, the more she has a desire to be baptized...and she thinks she would like to do that before the end of the year! We're going to figure out exactly when that will be as soon as we meet with her next week :)

We met with this new guy (to Sister Howie and I at least - Sister Ferg had already been meeting with him), T on Thursday night. It was....interesting. We learned that banana trees and babies can be easily taken over by Spirits...and how to sell salt to ghosts before 6 am in a graveyard. I don't even know what else to say about that one.

Saturday was awesome. For the 75th anniversary of the Welfare Program, the Singapore Stake did a "Mormon Helping Hands" project at the Bukit Brown cemetery, one of the oldest cemeteries in the country. We were basically just cleaning off headstones and caring for the graves that have been abandoned. After cleaning for about 45 minutes we started to hear thunder. Then it started pouring and we all got soaked. Like I thought there was a point where you couldn't get any more wet, because you're already drenched...we were wetter than that. And I was freezing! But it was so much fun! YL came too and had a great time.

That night was another highlight. We went to visit a member whose husband recently passed away. Her two sons are no longer active in the church and she just started coming again after quite a while of not attending. We all sat in a circle in their living room and asked if we could share our favorite scriptures. It kind of turned into a mini testimony meeting and the widow started crying while we were sharing the scriptures. It was amazing to me to see the gospel being applied to someone’s life like that, to see that she was actually using it to give her comfort, and to get a reminder that every person I meet with is real, they all have their own trials in their life, and the gospel of Jesus Christ can help every single one of them. The Spirit was felt so strongly in that room. I think it's one of my most favorite experiences that I've had on my mission so far. At least it was until we met with another less-active member last night and just sat there crying and bearing testimony of the power that the Atonement gives us to forgive people. I thought I had maybe overstepped the line when he told us, "If I would have known this would make me so emotional, I wouldn't have come tonight." We all kind of just sat in silence and then he started thanking us, so I guess it turned out ok. It was just a draining week as you can see, but I will never forget those moments.

Sunday was mad. We had to attend all five of those wards....so we went on lots of splits with members. And we made it to them all :) We also made it to meet with J and her family and two friends that they brought along. We talked about the Restoration through the Prophet Joseph Smith and it went really well. Plus the two friends want to learn more too! So that was good.

On Saturday, the office elders met the coolest Japanese guy I have ever met in my life and then referred him to us :) His name is K and he's from Nagoya! He is so incredibly adorable (in a completely appropriate way for me to say that), just very proper and so desirous to learn about Christianity. He told us that there are many Christians in Japan that are famous scientists and doctors and authors and he sees that they do good things so he thinks there must be something to it all. Sweet. I can't wait to keep meeting with him! And he's coming to both sessions of conference on Saturday, and then going to Priesthood session! Bah! I love teaching awesome people.

We taught D & A the Word of Wisdom yesterday and they're all for it! So that's still on track :)

I think that's about it...sorry it's a bland one this week. I hope you're all doing well though! Would love to hear from that lovely sister of mine...:) Have a great week everyone!

Sister Norton

HFI