gong xi fa cai

Happy Chinese New Year. It's a killer for missionary work! Fireworks going off till four in the morning...no one's home and if they are they get mad at us for interrupting all the eating...but it has brought one good thing: lots of visits to members of the branch that no longer come to church. We went around with the Elders Quorum President and his wife all afternoon yesterday, just visiting a few of the less-active members. The EQP may just be the one holding this branch together. As we were thanking him for all his help he said it's his job that he promises to do every week as he takes the sacrament. Then he assured us that it wasn't putting him out at all because he gets blessings for it. Nice understanding of the gospel from a member of less than four years. They told us that they look at us as their daughters anyway so they enjoy helping. Ahh I love them. Last night I was thinking about how much love I felt and realizing that's how I feel the Holy Ghost most of the time. God is love. When I feel the Spirit it's just like a ton of love rushing around in my heart. And I like it.

We had an interesting lesson with A&D (from Indonesia) last week. When we were asking how their reading of the Book of Mormon had been going, A brought up how much it talks about the House of Israel. He was intrigued because his wife is a descendant of Judah. He asked us if we're part of Israel too and we smiled and told him yes, we're both from the tribe of Ephraim. Little things just keep pulling him more and more into finding out about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They're in KL now so they couldn't come to church on Sunday (these are the ones that go to the church depending on time for their kids...) but we'll meet again on Friday.

DA gave up on waiting to "bump" into us again and called us to meet. We had a good discussion and he's on date to be baptized at the end of March. He's still not sure if he believes in God, so there's a long way to go, but I know that it will happen fast once he can just climb to his knees and try praying sincerely. There's not much we can do until he chooses to do that.

Two amazing lessons with D this past week, members helped teach both of them! We taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Word of Wisdom, and the Law of Tithing. It was sweet to here her tell us that before we started teaching her she had no direction in life and now she feels like she's on a path. We got a call from her yesterday after she turned down some tea because she remembered "the five words of wisdom." It was cute. She's excited for her baptism next Saturday! Please pray for all of us that it will go through without a problem.

Funny story of the week? I had a sweet lady from Brisbane, Australia come up to me on the ferry yesterday and ask for help in buying a ticket for her and the rest of the travelers with her. As we were standing in the line to change for shillings, she looked at my nametag (that I happened to be wearing in English because I had left the flat without putting on my Malay one), and began to scold me and everything we "Mormons" believe in. At that point I didn't feel like telling her that my brother had served his mission in Brisbane :) She asked me how we even get to teach all these people that don't speak English and I told her it's not a problem because we speak Malay. She expressed her disgust in the work we're doing and told me it was bold of me to be here, so I smiled and said thank you. Sheesh. Some people just have really happy lives eh?

1 Nephi 7:12 continues to amaze me. I've been thinking a lot about it this past week. One morning while I was getting ready, I just started thinking about all the miracles in the Old Testament that I'm starting to read about. It could be easy to think that these miracles are just things that God causes to happen to show His power. Which they are of course, but I think we miss the view of the faith of the men through which God performs His miracles. If Moses didn't have the faith to part the Red Sea, it wouldn't have happened. Sure, the Lord can do all things according to his will for the children of man, but there's a pretty big condition on that..."IF it so be that they exercise faith in him." Faith is a power that will open the windows of heaven. Too often I expect things to just be miracles wrought without the workings of my own faith. It won't happen like that. So let us be faithful to him, and do our part.

I love you all and hope you're doing well! Enjoy that snow...I never thought I'd miss it but the thought of it is seeming pretty nice right now...

Sister Norton

HFI

Mikelle, Sister Wilkes and an investigator ...

Yum Yum ... this is just the way it's done.

i teach good english

We had our first successful English class this last week. I learned that it's easier to teach English in Malay than in English. The best part was steamboat following class :) (See the picture below.)

I GOT TO GO TO SINGAPORE! I thought my heart was going to explode. It smelled so good. It felt like going home. My visa was up, so on Sunday night we hopped on a bus and got into Singapore around 9 on Monday morning. It was Sister Kubota's birthday, so we surprised them at their apartment and then I got to go on splits with her and her brand new greenie all day. We got to go visit one of my old investigators who they're starting to teach again and it was amazing to see how the seeds have worked in her and she's more ready to learn now. We also had dinner with a family in my old ward and had an incredible lesson with them about sharing the gospel with others. Before we left to go out for the day, I asked Sister Kubota what she wanted me to bring in my bag for the lesson and she handed me a Family Proclamation to the World and a Book of Mormon. I looked at it and wondered why the proclamation, but didn't question her. As we met with the family that night, Brother W said that he had a friend he has been thinking about sharing the gospel with, had even written a letter, but had never given it to him because it wasn’t complete. I pulled the Book of Mormon and Proclamation out of my bag and when he saw it his eyes filled with tears and he asked if he could have it. Apparently the reason his letter wasn't complete is he wanted to give his friend a Proclamation with it. Sister Kubota didn't know why she had brought it, but it was good to find out why. It was a special experience for me to be there and see that family as they asked their kids if they knew how the Holy Ghost speaks to them and we all shared experiences of listening to the Spirit. It was such a boost … a boost that I needed. Leaving Singapore was a little too hard...I cried as we sat down on the bus to leave and the little old Chinese auntie next to me didn't know what to do, so she just gave me some mints and patted me on the hand. Sweet. And now we're back in Penang, ready to work!

We had six investigators at church on Sunday. D and her father, and M&P and their daughters. It was wonderful. Everything is continuing forward with them.

I don't have time to write anymore, but I love you all and hope you have a very happy Chinese New Year! Year of the dragon. Rarr!

Kasih,

Sister Norton

HFI

Steamboat! Awwww .... :)

the king of fruits

The durian. I've now tried it twice. It was a little more bearable this time...but I'm still not a fan. All the elders got a nice video of me whining while trying to eat it, so I'm sure that will end up in a zone conference soon.

We're still in Penang! Both of us. Some big transfers happened, and we were the only sisters in the mission that were untouched, so we must have some big work that still needs to be done. Plus a Chinese New Year to be celebrate in "The Pearl of the Orient." I might die if I hear any more Chinese New Year music though.

D is still doing well, she was at church on Sunday, and still getting ready for her baptism at the beginning of February.

We met with A&D again. We hadn't seen them since about the end of October or November. He's the one that knows about the church because his dad was a "Mormon missionary" in Jakarta. It was an awesome lesson. I can't believe how much easier it was to understand the language this time versus the first lesson. We'll see them again this week and hopefully do a better job of explaining the Priesthood authority that is in this church through the Prophet Joseph Smith. Right now they say that they'll just go to whatever church is late enough in the day for them to get their kids awake...

We had five teaching appointments lined up for Saturday and had confirmed them the day before...all but one fell through. And the one that we did meet with was a first and last appointment, as her parents forbid us from coming back. Apuh.

We do have some great families we're teaching now though. M&P are still awesome. We taught them about the Plan of Salvation on Sunday. They're a Hindu family and they asked us to bring them a picture of Christ, so we gave that to them on Sunday also. Yesterday morning we got an SMS saying, "Good morning sisters. I already put frame for Jesus. We are praying with Jesus. Family is very happy." So that was good to wake up to :) We invited them to be baptized and they accepted, but had a hard time picking a date, so we'll work on that this next time. I love them!

This past week I've been in the first five chapters of the Book of Mormon, paying close attention to the differences between Nephi and his brothers, Laman and Lemuel. It never ceases to amaze me that Laman and Lemuel saw an angel of the Lord, were rebuked by him, and immediately after started murmuring and doubting the Lord's ability to help them do what He had asked. But I've noticed that I've been maybe doing a bit of that here in Penang. "Everything is so hard." So? I know the Lord was aware of the challenges that lay ahead of us when Sister Wilkes and I were put here. He still asked us to try though. So I need to quit my murmuring. Bah always to easy to say.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you!

Sister Norton

HFI

I'm acquiring a taste for durian ...

... as long as it's chased down with pizza.

My neighborhood :)

selamat tahun baru!

I of course didn't expect to be awake when the year changed to 2012, but we live on a hill and there were maybe ten huge firework displays below us, so it woke me up right at midnight and I got to see some of them before falling back asleep. So happy new year to you all!

Maybe holidays are just tough here for the work, but we have not been able to hold onto many teaching appointments over the past two weeks. We have full days, maybe 3-5 appointments and then they fall through, one by one. So it's back to full days of knocking and trying to find more people to teach :)

A few great things happened though: D is getting baptized! She asked her parents and they said that it would be ok. We're looking at the first weekend in February. Last week we watched a film about Christ's life called "Finding Faith in Christ" and she liked it so much, she asked if we could leave the DVD so she could watch it more and then return to us at church on Sunday. So sweet.

We've been working on the goals for the Penang Branch, both with the leaders in the branch and as missionaries on our own. The elders and us (that sounds like bad English but I don't know how to fix it...good thing we're teaching an English class tomorrow night!) have a lot of hope for what can happen here this year, we're in a good place. This year the branch is focusing on The Book of Mormon and reading it every day, so I've started another read-through, but I figured if I have the whole year, I want to really study it, so I'm only reading about two pages a day (in addition to six pages of the Old Testament a day so I can finish the rest of the Bible by the time I go home) and I'm already finding so much that hasn't called my attention before. I love the Book of Mormon, I know it's from God, and I know that what Joseph Smith said about it is true, a man will get closer to God through reading it than through any other book.

We have an awesome new Indian family, M&P. We taught them about prayer on Sunday night and when we called yesterday to see how it was going, M said that he had written out the instructions of "how to pray" for all of his kids. Then he asked if we're vegetarian because they want to cook for us when we go this week. Also can!

The highlight of my week was one of the members of the branch here. She's a recent convert of only a few months and Sister Wilkes and I have been lucky enough to teach her the post-baptism lessons. On Sunday, she bore her testimony about how the sisters had taught her how to give herself CPR :) go to Church, Pray, and Read the scriptures! It made me so happy to hear that and to know we don't have to be worried about her and to know that we've been able to help even if just a little while here in Penang.

We rode bikes into the city today to get some mean banana leaf curry. Sedapnya! I'm fried now though...too long biking in the sun.

I love you all and hope you had a good start to your 2012! Want to make it better? Pick up the Book of Mormon :)

Dengan kasih,

Sister Norton

HFI

Try riding your bike down these streets ...