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!