who's lori sewa and why does she put her number everywhere?

My dear companion makes me laugh sometimes. A lori is a truck. Sewa means to rent. I almost fell off my bike I was laughing so hard.

This week has probably been the best week we've had here in Penang. I am so happy. We worked our butts off and are really seeing the results from it. D will be baptized tomorrow before the branch CNY party and she'll be confirmed on Sunday. We have an appointment tonight in which we hope to begin teaching her parents also.

President and the Assistants were in town last weekend and we got a time to sit down with them as a district and address some concerns coming from this area of the mission. I cried in front of the whole district (poor elders) but it was good. Church was on fire on Sunday. I have never felt the Spirit that strong at the Penang Branch. Attendance was at 60 something from our average of about 45. There were members there that haven't come in a while who we were afraid we had lost. We were able to visit one of those sisters this last week and try to help her address some of her concerns and what's been holding her back from coming. It broke my heart to here that she just doesn't feel the same love at church that she feels when she reads the Book of Mormon. We had a good talk about the perfection of God's plan, Christ's Atonement, and His Restored Church, and the imperfection of all of us. Then we asked her to help there be more love at church and promised we'd do the same. We're going to turn this branch around. She'll be there on Sunday.

There was a baptism on Saturday night in B-worth and we decided we had work to do so we wouldn't be able to attend. About half way through the afternoon I remembered how much we would try to always attend all the baptisms in our district in Singapore and decided we should go. We had already set some lofty goals for the day though and didn't want to go home without reaching them, so we set off on a mad rush to make them or not make it to the baptism. The branch president from B-worth drove past us in Georgetown and asked if we wanted a ride in his car and we told him no, we hadn't reached our goals yet. When we got everything except one new investigator, we had to leave in order to get to the next ferry. I think both of us were a little on edge knowing we had done so much and had to stop just before completing all of the goals. On the ferry, a younger women, JC, saw our name tags and wanted to know what we were doing. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and invited her to learn more and she said we could meet on Monday. Ohh Heavenly Father helps us so much. And the baptism was amazing. Something we couldn't have missed. We had an awesome lesson with JC on Monday also.

We taught A&K on Sunday and invited them to be baptized. It was quiet when we asked how long it would take them to know the things we were talking about and the Book of Mormon were true. I thought maybe we were habis when they all started mumbling in Tamil to each other, and then A looked up and said "a month." Also can! They're set for 10 March.

We ran into DA again...he's reading the Book of Mormon! And really enjoying it. He still hasn't prayed about it though so we promised him that it will never make sense whether or not it's true unless he just gets on his knees and asks.

Our Nigerian friends, J&S, have accepted a date to be baptized at the end of March. They'll be at church on Sunday.

Sister Rinet and Sister Kubota have been assigned to be "Quarterly Traveling Training Sisters," so they came to see us this past week. That's why pday is today (Friday) and wasn't on Wednesday. I love my Sisters here. It was so great to go on splits with them. We learned a lot. We got so much work done. It brought my sister and I closer together. It helped me to realize how special our assignment here in Penang really is. One night after we finished our planning, Sister Kubota and Sister Rinet started telling us that they have never felt "this" way in any other area of the mission. They feel the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. They feel surrounded by His protection here. I think I've just been to scared out of my mind to realize that but I've been paying attention to it the past few days now and I feel it too. This is an incredibly special call we've been given. I feel like I owe so much to the Lord for entrusting us with this area. We're trying to pay it back now.

I love you all, hope you're doing well. Happy Thaipusam! Penang is going to be insane this week...apparently all the Hindus in Malaysia like to come here for it. Aduh.

Sister Norton

HFI