I keep praying to God, I want to be a tree!

Our bus driver yesterday told us of his disappointment that God hasn't answered that prayer yet. Adoi.

Things are really starting to pick up here. I like Penang :) It's a bit quirky. Something I never thought I'd say...I LOVE knocking doors and faith finding. It really can be so much fun. Yesterday was the best example of that. Here's the sequence of events for the night: First we went to see an Indian family that said we could come back and share more the other night. They were still busy...but we'll try one more time. Then we ran into the most beautiful family I've ever seen, from Nigeria. They were so kind and invited us to come in, but we couldn't teach them anything because of their religion. They were very disappointed by that...they wanted to know what message we were sharing that seemed to be so important that it brought us all the way from America. They said they know the sacrifice of leaving home so they appreciate what we're doing, but they still wanted to know. It broke my heart a little. I promised him that I would email him when I get home next year.

Next we ran into another Indian family and they were amazing! Invited us in, TURNED OFF THE TV, wow. So good. We're going back on Saturday night to share more with their two daughters.

The next house was an Indian man that came to the door saying, "I English one no so good lah! I don't want go to church, I go to temple!" He was funny and we got to kacau him for a bit but not too much interest.

Then this adorable little Indian/Malay boy appeared out of nowhere, showing off his Boliwood moves. We chatted a bit about his sweet dance skills and then he became our shadow for the rest of the night. I snuck a picture of him and before we left he said, "Auntie! Besok?" Which means tomorrow haha. It really broke the ice when we were knocking on doors with him right behind us though. Everyone thought it was adorable. He followed us for four floors of flats! Oooh he was so cute.

Then we were invited in by another really nice family from Pakistan but couldn't teach them, again, because of their religion :(

The next fun one was getting Malay and Mandarin mixed up at another door. I was mixing them so bad...usually I can kind of flip the switch in my head from one to another but this time it was bad. But the Chinese couple (who spoke both but no English) thought it was hilarious. So, it was just a fun night. We're finding lots of new people to teach.

The highlights of the week were teaching J and F. J is from Indonesia and married to an Indian man, they have the most adorable son. We had our first lesson with her on Monday and we'll see her again this Sunday. She's amazing, so so sweet. We talked about baptism last time and she was excited. F is that awesome Nigerian neighbor I told you about. We taught him about the restoration and got to know him last week. He has had an intense life, but his faith is amazing. He wouldn't stop thanking us for the Book of Mormon that we gave him and he's already started to read it :) We'll meet with him again tonight, so more news next week.

I was thinking a little bit this morning while listening to some EFY song about being an example of the believers...it said something along the lines of our gift being the way we live, and it brought back memories of so often hearing that just living your standards is enough for spreading the gospel (and hey, I'm pretty sure it even says something along those lines in my mormon.org profile...) but I really don't think it's enough. Yeah, we need to be an example of all the standards we claim to have, but that seems pretty simple to me, that's only the beginning. I was thinking of it like this: say you have the recipe for the world's best cookies, and you want everyone else in the world to have it because they're so good and you know they'll make everyone happy. These are genocide/war-stopping cookies, ok? I think the former example is like making those cookies, taking them around for people to try, but not giving out the recipe...just expecting that people will ask for it if they want it. What if those people don't know that you know how to make those cookies?? They might think they're store-bought! It's not enough to be doing that. You've got to hand out the recipe! That's what the gospel of Jesus Christ is. A recipe for happiness AND world peace. Stop being so shy lah. Start giving out the recipe. Enough of this "You don't even need to invite your friends to church, you don't need to share your beliefs, just be a good example." How about do both?! That would be the best. Come on, people! The world needs these cookies :)

Ok I'm off my soap box. And I hope that all made sense. We'll have news of an upcoming baptism next time we write :) I love you all and appreciate your prayers!

Alison, a letter is on it's way with the AP's next week! Love you!

Sister Norton

HFI

A new day in Penang!