hard-boired eggs

Fourteen hours on a bus = hard-boired eggs...man r's are so hard to say. Oh, that's an L huh?" Sorry. Too many languages in our heads.

Sister Song and I had to go to Singapore this past week! She only gets 30 days at a time here in Malaysia, and there's nowhere for me to go if she isn't here, so I got to tag along. I always love Singapore of course, but it turned out to be such a headache. We left Sunday night around 10:30 on a bus that was not so clean, had the coldest night of our lives, got harassed at the border and told we'd never be let into Malaysia again, got into Singapore around 10 in the morning, went out working with the sisters there on Monday, slept on rug in their apartment Monday night, then took a bus back across the border with SO MANY PRAYERS they'd let us in. And they did. It was the first time they haven't even said one word to me at the border. I believe in prayers. President and the AP's were praying for us too, so I guess Heavenly Father wanted both of us to get back here to Penang. It was good for me. I owe more than I've been giving for the help I'm getting back. I'm glad I still have time to try and correct that. After we made it through, we got on a bus bound for Penang. It should have been about 9 hours from that point, but 7 hours later we were stuck in KL on a broken bus (it should only take 4 or so to get there). So we ended up being on that bus for 14 hours. BUT we did get to teach two lessons to a loan shark and a tour guide. Can.

So J (not the one that just got baptized....different one) has been meeting with us for about two months and has just been so reluctant about everything. She met with us last week and after we taught the lesson, we talked more about the Book of Mormon and her reading. She told us that she had planned on dropping us that day (she was going to tell us she didn't want to meet anymore), but I think she must have felt something different and I am almost positive it's the Book of Mormon that's keeping her. She is still so confused by things she hears from people at her work and church, but she's hanging in there. That's the power of the Book of Mormon. She's going to try to come to see what church is like this Sunday and we're meeting with her again tomorrow.

Our branch president introduced us to one of his friends last week, Ms. S, and we were able to meet with both of them. Ms. S then gave us two referrals and we're planning on meeting with all of them! The lesson was awesome, in Mandarin so I couldn't contribute much, but I could understand her questions and see the things she was understanding. Ahhh I love when members help us :)

J (Nigerian J) is gone...we don't know if she'll be coming back. We went over for an appointment and her roommate told us she'd left for KL. Bummer.

MS is still doing great but we're having trouble with the fact that he's a teenage boy and wants to stay up late playing computer games so then he sleeps in and misses church. What to do with this boy!

I don't remember if I've talked about N before, she's a friend of a member in the Butterworth Branch from Indonesia. She came to church three weeks ago and we invited her to be baptized and she accepted. Well....we went to go teach her again two weeks ago and she wasn't at home for the confirmed time. We thought we had lost her because she maybe felt shy or in the wrong for not being there and she wouldn't answer our calls or SMS's for the next week. On Saturday we were on our way home and I thought it was time to try calling again and she answered!! Everything is fine now and we went to teach her this morning. After we taught about the Book of Mormon, she got this huge smile on her face and almost started laughing like a little kid does when they're excited about something so I asked her how she felt about what we had taught. She hugged the book and said, "I can't wait to start reading this book." Ahh the feeling in the room was so great. I love the Book of Mormon.

Church on Sunday was awesome. We had two inactive families we've been working with come, one of them hasn't been for years. AND one of our investigator's sons came to church too. M is waiting for him to be baptized with him but he hasn't been making any progress. I think there's still hope!

I hope you all enjoy conference this weekend! Don't spoil it for me...I won't see it till next weekend. Maybe longer if I get transferred next week. It's such an awesome opportunity we have twice a year to hear from living prophets and apostles. I've been reading the Old Testament lately and it's given me such a greater appreciation of the Lord's chosen leaders and what a big deal it is to have them leading us once again. I hope we can all have the humility and faith to listen to them and heed their counsel. I love you all! Have a great week.

Sister Norton

HFI