south side

We biked to the southern beaches of Penang last night...we had no idea that's where our appointment was going to take us, and no idea it would be as long of a ride as it was. I don't know what they look like though, it was dark :)

This week has been leaps better than last. I've just decided I'm going to be happy and I'm not giving up without a fight. Dad, your email about the relationship you've developed with our Father in Heaven did so much to help me evaluate the relationship that I have with him. And I know He doesn't expect me to just give up now, it's just a few friendly curve balls. I'm still in the game.

We had a great lesson with D&D last week, teaching them the Restoration of Christ's Church. When we asked them how they felt about it, they said it made them feel like Christ is still near. We testified that He is very near, that He leads this church, and invited them to be baptized, which they accepted once they get a chance to first pray about it. We'll go back tomorrow night.

We still hadn't heard from the first J for a while, the young Indonesian mom, so we just decided to stop by her flat and let her know we're concerned and we love her. I was so glad that we did, even though it let us know that she's maybe beginning to give up hope. She has no ride to church and her husband won't take her, so she's starting to feel like she shouldn't learn any more because she knows she won't be able to have it as part of her life. It made me so sad for her. We've got to find her a way to get to church. At least she now knows that we're not giving up yet.

So J&S, our awesome Nigerian friends. We taught them about the Restoration and after that, J's concern came out...she doesn't think there was enough music and rejoicing at church. I immediately thought of something I wanted to show them on mormon.org, Alex Boye's profile. Turns out his mom was from Nigeria! There was an immediate connection with that. Then S wanted to show us some music that he listens to every day, and he turned on the Mormon Tabernacle Choir! I told them about my love for music and singing and S even made me sing with the Motab recording. I loved it, so much fun. They are so full of passion and love for the Lord. I tried to bear testimony of music and it's power, that we believe it to be a prayer, but there's right music for the right time, and during sacrament meeting is the time for reverent music to help us remember our Savior and not chase away those sacred moments we have to reflect on what He did for us. It helped, but they're still not sure I think. We'll see them again tomorrow also though.

Last night was crazy. We had an appt. with a friend of someone who is learning about the Church in Singapore. We biked out to their place, which took about a half hour longer than we expected and got there just dripping in sweat. She asked us to pray for her mom and her family because her mom has diabetes and there are some other problems in the family. From what most Christian churches are like over here, I assumed that she wanted us to "bless" her mom, something that we, as sisters and not having the Priesthood authority, can't do. They are all Hindu and didn't invite us over with the intention of learning more about Jesus Christ or His church, but just to get some added blessings. That is definitely faith, I am not doubting that. But we explained to them that we didn't have the power to heal or give them blessings, we could only pray with them and teach them how they could pray for themselves. We taught them about how faith works, and how prayer needs to be followed with faith in Jesus Christ and a desire to follow Him. Then we all knelt together and we taught them how to pray. They invited us to come back and teach them more about Jesus Christ. They even want to take us to their cousin’s house to teach them for Christmas! THEN we were told we weren't done and we still had to go to the mother-in-law's house and pray for her and teach her about prayer because she has cancer. Luckily they took us in the car for that one. That's what took us down towards the beach. I guess I shouldn't say we biked all the way there :) It was such an awesome night just going around teaching about something so simple as prayer and helping others to begin developing that personal relationship with our Father in Heaven. Nights like that make me love missionary work.

I got TONS of letters last week from the ward! Thank you so much to the Peterson's for sending them and to all the Young Men and Young Women in the ward, and also to the Bonham's. You guys are awesome! I love you all and hope you have a great week and a wonderful Christmas!!

Dengan kasih,

Sister Norton

HFI