oishi

We were at the bus depot in Georgetown the other day and had some time to kill waiting for our next appointment, so we decided to just blitz the whole station and talk to as many people as possible.  After talking to a few people, I sat down next to an older gentlemen who turned out to be from Japan.  His English was not so good.  His Malay also not so good.  He retired here because it's cheaper than Japan and he lives up in fancy fancy Batu Ferringhi.  I spoke the few Japanese phrases that I know and broke the ice a little bit.  Maybe a bit too much though....he told me I was oishi (delicious) and tried to bite my arm.  Sister Song saw from the next bench over and I could see the look of panic on her face.  Turns out he's not so interested in God.  Oh well, I tried.

Sister Song had to go into Singapore for a couple days, so I'm staying with the senior couple here in Penang in their sweet condo.  Stunning views of the ocean.  It was a peaceful personal study indeed this morning out in the open-air living room.  

Such a hard life... Anyway, the second we dropped Sister Song off at the airport last night I felt like I was in a vacuum.  So weird to be companion-less!  I keep feeling like I need to go run around and find her because she must be lost.  I don't like the feeling.  That might be a hard one to overcome in a few months.  I love Sister Song so much.  We had such a cool experience this past week while reading the Book of Mormon together.  We had just gotten to Jacob 5.  Now in the past I have dreaded this chapter, but I just studied it about a month or so ago and fell in love with it.  Sister Song was feeling the same way I used to but I promised her we'd spend as much time as we needed to understand it and I'd try to explain some things that I've learned.  She started reading in her annoyed voice (I know it well...) but by about verse 47 it had all melted away and I saw she had tears in her eyes as she read, "Who is it that has corrupted my vineyard?"  She looked up at me and said, "Sister, He loves His trees so much!"  I couldn't help laugh because she was crying and the way she said it was just so pathetic, but it was such a sweet moment.  We were both in tears in verse 75 when we read the Master's words, "...he called up his servants, and said unto them: Behold, for this last time have we nourished my vineyard; and thou beholdest that I have done according to my will; and I have preserved the natural fruit, that it is good, even like as it was in the beginning. And blessed art thou; for because ye have been diligent in laboring with me in my vineyard, and have kept my commandments, and have brought unto me again the natural fruit, that my vineyard is no more corrupted, and the bad is cast away, behold ye shall have joy with me because of the fruit of my vineyard."  It made us both agree that we want to be those servants who He can look on and say "Blessed art thou."  I love Jacob 5!  It's such an incredible insight into the Saviour's long-suffering and diligence to bring us home.

Sunday was a bust, no one that we're teaching came to church this week.  Still having some problems in the branch and after seven months here I still don't know how to fix it.

We taught MS last Friday and again a few days ago.  He drank tea again!  Apooo.  So his baptism is pushed back to 12 May.  He's doing ok though.  While teaching him about tithing (which he willingly committed to pay) we asked him to think of some things that God has given to him.  He said, "the opportunity to repent."  He's 16!  Such a mature answer.

Since the elders are still not back in Penang, we've still been watching over their investigators.  We had an amazing lesson with one of them last Sunday.  I wish he was ours forever!

We met with one of our new investigators on Sunday and talked a little about the purpose of life and baptism.  She wants to learn from us so badly, but when it comes to converting to Christianity, she says, "God made me Indian, so I can't not be Hindu."  Uhhh ok, "So if you found out that these things that we're teaching you are true and felt that God would want you to be baptized and follow Jesus Christ, would you do that?"  "No, I'm Hindu."  Apoooo, woman!  Culture getting confused as religion is a real problem here sometimes.  We had a second repeat that same day when we met with two Buddhist teenagers.  They rehearsed a nice spiel I'm sure they're heard their parents say a million times: "We are Buddhist but we believe in all gods and all religions, so it's no problem to learn, it's good to know.  But we don't get too serious on religion."  Sister Song had some bold questions for them that ended up with them admitting they don't really know anything about Buddhism either.  Again...culture, not religion.  So difficult.  I'm praying for patience :)

And then there's our dear B...(apparently I'm still not going to use their full names), who is Buddhist but is totally willing to follow Christ because he feels good when he prays and wants more of that feeling.  He called us distraught a few nights ago because he told his parents (who are in Nepal....and he's 24....) that he was going to be baptized and they flipped out.  His mom started crying.  So now the poor guy doesn't know what to do.  We're still going to be meeting with him though.  There's got to be a way.

We met with H again also, he's so good!  He has such well-thought-out questions for us.  It's good to know some people listen and are involved when we teach.  He still hasn't accepted the invitation to be baptized yet, but we're getting there.

I was reading the Book of Mormon this morning and wanted to share one of my favourite promises in scripture.  (I've been focusing on things that are promised to us if we do certain things...whether good or bad).  It's in Mosiah 4:11-12.  So we're told that we should always remember that God is great and we're nothing, but he's still so good and patient to us even though we're nothing, humble ourselves by remembering that and call on Him daily in sincere prayer, stand steadfastly in our faith, and then we get this in return ... "ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins; and ye shall grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which is just and true."  It's so good!  I love that.  We can always rejoice if we just remember God and our relationship with Him, plus we can keep learning more about Him and everything that He is.  I know that that will fill us with His love.

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!  Good luck with Women's Conference, mommy!!

Sayang daripada

Sister Norton

HFI

dang, american!

We were biking back from visiting an investigator the other day when these Malay kids appeared out of nowhere on their bikes and started biking with us. We toasted them and one kid shouted, "Dang! American!" in a totally American accent. I almost fell off my bike trying not to laugh. I don't know what movie/tv show he got it from, but good accent, kid.

So yes, the earthquake/tsunami scare was really just a scare. We definitely felt the earthquake and had to leave the building we were in, but no harm, no damage. We had so many people looking out for us and making sure we were in a safe place for the rest of the night. They said the tsunami would hit around 9 pm and when it was getting close to that time there were so many people getting nervous. We met this family in the elevator of our building; they live closer to the shore so they had come to their aunt's house because it's on the hill and they seemed frazzled. I wasn't worried at all. I knew we were on higher ground :)

I can't believe it's only been a week since that all happened! It seems forever ago. A lot has happened. Our dear Nelly has moved back to Indonesia :( She was so awesome. We just sat in her living room crying the day she flew back. She's already called us to say hi and let us know she's ok and we're sending her number for the missionaries there to meet her.

Jenny (J-yeah, I'm using names now, it's a private blog...might as well!) is amazing. We just met with her and she shared such an awesome experience with us about how much she felt Heavenly Father's love on her baptism day and how she used to be scared of the afterlife but now she doesn't fear it at all. She wants to go to the temple so bad! We were teaching the Plan of Salvation and when we got to the kingdoms of glory, she practically cut me off to tell me about the celestial kingdom, who lives there, and how she wants to be there with us and her son and mom and brother, etc. I love her!! And she's in 3 Nephi now. I think I'll be here long enough to see her finish the whole Book of Mormon. Amazing!!

We went knocking on Saturday and a man answered the door in a thong pretty much. I never thought I'd have to see such disturbing things as a missionary...come on man. If someone knocked on your door, chances are there's going to be someone standing there when you answer it. Don't act so shocked.

We had a great lesson with Ming Sin (MS) about "the Lord's side vs. Satan's side." We talked about different activities and things in his life and whose side of the line they put him on. He's solid. Now if he could just make it to church on time...

We have been doing a lot of contacting recently, trying to build up our investigator pool. Monday was amazing. We got over half of our goal for new investigators for the week in just a few hours. Then, we found out that Penang island is now ours for the next week at least because the elders had to go to Singapore and won't be back for a while...so now we're busy busy with their investigators too. Busy is good though so tak apa.

Buddha! Our new shining star. He's a friend of a member of the church here and he's from Nepal. We met with him on Monday night and taught him about God and prayer. He wants to get baptized! So we're meeting with him again tonight and things are looking good.

Everything is good. I hope you're all good! I love you! Thanks for the thoughts and prayers.

Sayang daripada...

Sister Norton

HFI

The Lim Family ... one of Mikelle's favorite "member" families.

Sister Norton & Sister Song with members

- Sister Lim and Sister Joanne

And here is an added little story from

Mikelle's Mission President

that we loved and wanted to share.

Dear Elders and Sisters,

Last week we started a Malay Group in Sitiawan and I'm confident it will become a branch within a few more months. Elder’s Kwok and Alexsius have been called as the Group Leaders and they are doing an awesome job! I wanted to pass on one great story from their first week. As they were contacting to invite people to the new group only days before the first meeting, Elder Kwok and Alexsius met a woman that was from Sarawak. She said she was Anglican but had not been to Church since moving to Sitiawan about six years ago. She told them she was still trying to be close to God and that she faithfully read from her Anglican Bible Reader every night. She said she was closer to God now than when she was going to Church. She went and got her "Anglican Bible Reader" and showed the missionaries a well-worn book, where she had marked and read every night for the last six years. To their amazement, it was the Book of Mormon! She had been reading the Book of Mormon every night for years and thought it was her Anglican Bible Reader! It was one of the old Ketab Mormon’s that didn’t have the introduction at the front. When they taught her about the origins of the Book of Mormon and how it was brought forth by a modern prophet, she wanted to know more. They are teaching her this week. Unknowingly she testified to the veracity of what the Prophet Joseph declared, that a man could get closer to God by reading from the Book of Mormon than any other book on earth!

Love,

Pres. Clark

(Great story we just wanted to share.)

Have a wonderful week!

change to private blog ...

Hi Everyone,

I received an email from Mikelle this morning that told me her mission president has asked that all of their mission blogs go private. It seems that their visa runs are getting increasingly more and more difficult and they believe the government there has been monitoring their blogs. So as of today her blog will be private. If you know someone who has been following this blog and they would like to continue, please leave me a message and their email and I will add them to the "ok" list. You can also email me at chrissynorton2001@gmail.com .

Thank you!

Chris

kena earthquake

So about an hour ago we were in a less-active members home visiting when the building started to shake. At first I thought maybe I was just dizzy, but then I looked at Sister Song and by the look on her face knew she felt it too. So then we sheepishly asked them, "Hey, do you guys feel that shaking?" Hoping we weren't just crazy. They did too. Then car alarms started to go off and we looked out the window to see a bunch of people looking up at the building we were in, we then realized everyone was walking down the stairs, exiting the building. So we got out too. We've had a billion phone calls from zone leaders and district leaders and ap's and President and members and we're ok :) Still don't really know what's going on, but they said there's a tsunami warning so we're going to go get to some higher ground :) We will be totally fine where we are in Penang, we live in BUKIT Gambir. Bukit=hill. So don't worry about us. We'll email again tomorrow just to let you know we're safe and everything is ok.

Can skip all the other stuff but I just have to write about this real quick because it was an awesome weekend with Conference. It was also Easter memang, but no one really knew about it...(again...Muslim country here.). While we were watching one of the Saturday sessions I had a really cool experience. While Elder Bednar was speaking and I just got this overwhelming feeling that, "Wow. He is a prophet of God. He is speaking things that are authorized by Jesus Christ for him to speak." Duhh...I know I've realized this a million times, but it was so cool to be sitting there realizing it again. The scripture "This is life eternal," just popped into my head as I was hoping that I could feel that feeling forever. It makes sense, we can know the one true God and His Son through their prophets, seers, and revelators. It was so beautiful to have such a quiet Easter compared to many of the churches here in Penang. While they were celebrating on Easter Sunday, we were listening to President Monson, the living prophet. What better way to celebrate that Christ lives than to listen to His living words?

I love this gospel. And I love The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that provides the structure and organization for it. I know that Christ himself leads it. Go listen to those words again. Study them. For this is life eternal :)

I love you all and hope you have a good week! And stop worrying, Mom. We're ok :)

Dengan kasih,

Sister Norton

HFI

black out

Yesterday we were sitting in the apartment doing our language study and the fan went off. We tried the lights and they wouldn't turn on. Everything out. We don't have a fax machine to send our energy bill to the mission office right when we get it; we have to wait till we meet with the elders and they can send it for us, so our bill was a little late last month and that was the first thing that ran through my head. We freaked out for a few seconds thinking about trying to get everything done and get ready for bed that night when we'd get home to a pitch-black and HOT apartment, but then it came back on. Prayers work.

So transfers came and I'm still here in Penang! I think I'll still be here for a while. Maybe it will be my last area. But I'm happier knowing that than waiting to find out if I'm staying or going. So that news came with a strengthened resolve to pick up the pace and finish strong. Obviously something isn't masuk-ing my akal here. So I need to figure it out, more to learn. More work to be done. I'm happy though. I love the branch here, I love Sister Song, and I love our investigators. So it's not bad lah.

Speaking of investigators...MS brought two friends to church on Sunday! He's awesome. The least flaky person I've ever taught. He reads what we ask him to read, he keeps all of his commitments, he comes to church, he tells us when he needs to reschedule appointments (ohhh how many hours would be saved if everyone did the same...), and I'm pretty sure it's all because he sincerely wants what we're teaching him about. It's awesome to see that motivation.

N is still so sweet but not as reliable. Didn't come to church on Sunday, but her friend did. We taught her about the Plan of Salvation last week and the spirit was so strong, I know she felt it too.

J is still doing awesome! Her little one wasn't so bad on Sunday. She even made it to Sunday School for about 10 minutes and then tried Relief Society for about 5 before he had a meltdown and had to leave. Sikit sikit lama lama....

We finally met with A&K again! They're the Indian brother and sister who we were teaching a while ago who were on date to be baptized but we fell out of contact with them. They're doing good, reading the Book of Mormon, and back on date.

D is the golden new of the week. She's incredible. She's about 18 years old and was baptized as a Christian about 6 months ago. She has a mixed background with culture and religion, her dad is Chinese and her mom Indian, but she speaks Mandarin better than anything else, so we teach her in Mandarin/Malay. The first lesson with her was so awesome, hearing about all the miracles in her life that have led her to believe in Jesus Christ. She's a very independent girl. Like she intimidates me a lot. She doesn't take anything from anyone. It was so refreshing to hear her response when we invited her to be baptized by someone holding the priesthood power from God. She said, "Yes, I'll do whatever to follow Him the right way." When we warned her that she might hear different things about The Church of Jesus Christ, she said, "I only trust God, not other people. Even my friends ask me if I love them and I tell them, 'I only love the Lord.'" So we're pretty excited for her.

A member of the church from California comes to Penang on business trips every 4-6 months and always takes the missionaries out to eat at this fancy sushi place. I was here last time he came so he was surprised to see me again also. The food was sooooooooooo good! So much fun to spend some time with him and the elders. Sister Song had a little bit of a stark realization though. We left the restaurant and she looked bothered by something so I asked her what was the matter and she said, "I just realized back there that you're white." We both started laughing so hard. Apparently I don't act too "white" until I'm around other white people. I don't know. It took her a month to realize this...

We have some new goals coming up for the month of April and May that I'm so excited about. During April, we're doing mission fasts and studying Christ-like attributes to help us develop a better relationship with our Saviour. This is one thing I've actually been thinking about lately. I feel like I have such great access to my Heavenly Father because I pray to Him, but how do I draw closer to the Saviour? It made me think about how often He beckons us to follow Him. I love this quote by Elder Oaks:

“The Final Judgment is not just an evaluation of a sum total of good and evil acts—what we have done. It is an acknowledgment of the final effect of our acts and thoughts—'what we have become'. It is not enough for anyone just to go through the motions.“ Christ has told us what we need to become, even as He is. I think that is how we draw closer to our Saviour, become like Him. Study about Him and follow His ways so that we will recognize Him when we see Him again, and He will recognize us because we will be like Him.

Second, we have a challenge to read the Book of Mormon between next Monday and 31 May. He gave us the option to read it on our own or as a companionship, so Sister Song and I chose to read it together. I am so excited for this opportunity to grow closer to the people that need to be the most important in my daily life right now, my Heavenly Father and Saviour, and my companion. I love Sister Song and the faith that she brings to our companionship. Just yesterday she was writing a letter to our Elder's Quorum President for his birthday and needed a nice pen to write with. I was using the only nice one I had, but had another one that had stop working because it didn't have ink left. She took it and started writing and I warned her it might stop at any point. I thought it was so little and cheesy, but she stopped right then and prayed about it silently, then I watched her write the whole letter without any problem. Her every action shows faith. It's such a small thing to pray about, but it made me question how often I involve the Lord in my every action like that. I need to, even the small things. Even if that pen would have worked without the prayer, she still showed faith and an eye single to the glory of God. I'm grateful that I get her example for this part of my mission, however short or long it's going to be.

I hope you all loved conference. I can't wait to see it this weekend! And Happy Easter to you all! Thanks for letting me know it is this Sunday, Dad. I would have had no idea otherwise. I don't think the members of the church here know either. Shoot, they were Buddhist four years ago, can't blame them. I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Sister Norton

HFI