rain's back

When we first got to Penang it was the end of the rainy season. So much rain everyday. Then it stopped and it was dry. For Malaysia at least. Then everyone said it would get ridiculously hot for Chinese New Year. And it did. And now it's still that hot and it's raining a ton again. I hate biking in the rain.

We met with A&D last week. A's father was a member of the church but we recently found out that he and his wife and A's older sister have all passed away. We felt like they needed to know about the blessings of the temple and the connection between that and the spirit world that we taught them about a couple of weeks ago. I took a really awesome temple edition of the Ensign and we had a great lesson. Tonight is kind of our last chance to invite them once again to be baptized and be a part of the true church that his father found so many years ago.

We had such a great lesson with JN last week, but now she's moving back to KL! I was impressed with her understanding of what it means for us to pray about the Book of Mormon with a sincere heart and real intent. That's how she'll get an answer. Luckily we are going there next week for a zone conference, so we're trying to set up a time to meet her there and introduce her to the missionaries so she can continue to learn.

English class was even more of a success last week, we had a whole five in attendance. It's growing lah :)

On Saturday morning a member took us on a hike with a university classmate of his. Ummm … Penang is SO beautiful! I wish I wasn’t so frustrated with this island so often so that I could really just enjoy it a little more. The hike was good and the friend had some interesting questions, but we weren’t able to get a return appointment with her yet. We’ll see.

J came to church again! We naik bas together. Got some cute pictures of her little boy. It's going well.

We got a referral to go visit a family that lives near our building so gave him a call on Sunday and tried to get a confirmation on the address. No street name, just the building name. Problem, there are two complexes with the same name in our area. Another problem, people here don't know directions, if you said south of Georgetown, no one would know what you're talking about. So he said "after USM." Ummm after USM coming from where? North? South? He doesn't know. I can't speak Tamil. So we've yet to be able to make it there. Aduuuuh. Terus cuba.

S&Y? Apa khabar? Masih baca ini? Saya rindu kedua kamu! Ada jumpa dengan Sister Kubota? Ada cakap dengan Sister Wong atau Sister Howard? Harap kamu sihat dan gembira!

I can't hear people. I think I'm going deaf. It makes me want to cry sometimes.

S&J. We've got a sad situation here. We had another good lesson with them, just talking about what it means to be a disciple of Christ and the sacrifices they'll need to make if they really want the witness they're looking for. They're in this time, I hope. But S's visa is up next week and the government is giving him a really hard time with it. If he doesn't get it renewed, he's back to Nigeria and I think I'll cry. I understand that there are problems here with people from his country, but I know he isn't involved with those problems, and I hate the racism he's facing from the stereotype. Please just pray for these friends of ours.

Hopefully I'll be able to email next week from KL. I love you all.

Sister Norton

HFI

third time's the charm

Well, D was baptized! Three times...Most memorable baptism of my mission for sure. And I don't think I'll be able to top it in the next six months. I don't like it when Heavenly Father makes me learn through experience, can't I just read it in the Book of Mormon?

The baptism was wonderful on Saturday, great talks given, I sang and an elder who is an excellent piano player accompanied me, and the baptism itself seemed fine, except one thing, the elder baptizing her said her full English name. Once she came out of the water, I turned to Sister Wilkes and said ''I think it needs to be done with her full Chinese name.'' I started asking around everyone in the room and just had this feeling that it should be done again with her full Chinese name, just in case. She was in the font, it wouldn't be any trouble to just have it done one more time. I ignored that feeling. I felt uneasy about it for the rest of the evening. I talked to my District Leader when I got home, got passed on to the Zone Leaders, and then to the Assistants who said they would ask President, but he'd already gone to bed so they'd let us know in the morning. Eight o'clock am on Sunday morning, we got a phone call saying she needed to be re-dunked. Aduh. She was on schedule to be confirmed and receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost during Sacrament Meeting, so it would have to be done before church at 10. The font takes 90 minutes to fill. It takes us 90 minutes to get to church by bus, 45 minutes by bicycle, and 15 by taxi, but we had to meet J and take a bus with her to church. So how? We called the elders (they live about five minutes from the church) and they rushed over to start the font for us. We tried to call the Branch President but his phone was off. About a half hour later we got a call from him, asking why the font was running when he got to the church. We tried to explain but he seemed to think it didn't need to be re-done, so he turned off the water. We couldn't get a hold of D because she has her phone off on Sunday mornings. So we ran to get J and then took a taxi with her and her son to church. We got there and the font was maybe 1/4 full...at 9:10. So we turned on the hoses out in the yard and brought them into the font, and our dear elders started filling buckets outside and dumping them into the font. So it was full in record time. Then D showed up to church and we explained the full situation to her, asking to see her IC card so we could know what her name is on all her records. Sure enough it wasn't the same name by which she had been baptized. She was understanding, but her father was far from it. I got chewed out big time. Like went upstairs and cried haha. Finally he agreed to let her be re-dunked and we got everything ready. It's ten minutes till church starts at this point and we have two families of investigators just sitting alone in the chapel. I'm so thankful that the Branch Presidency recognized that the Spirit wasn't there, and things were too crazy to have a baptism, so they decided to make it a part of the Sacrament Meeting. We started out in the chapel, and then the whole branch moved out to the font for D's baptism. That was nice. Only three members had come to the baptism the day before. I overheard one member commenting that this was probably the first time the whole active part of the branch had attended a baptism, and that's the way it should be. So it all worked out. It was a great baptism, but her hair was out of the water the first time, so they even had to dunk her a third time. So, hopefully it was a lesson learned. When the Spirit tells you something, you don't ignore it. Heavenly Father is so patient with me. He even makes my mistakes turn out for the best.

So, as said above, J was at church! She was a little nervous on the way there, but looked at me and said she's getting baptized on the 24th of March, so she needs to start getting herself ready. I love her! Her boy wasn't even that naughty during church! I just had to keep reminding her that it will take adjusting, but they'll get more and more comfortable at church. In an extra effort to help her feel comfortable, I bore my testimony in bahasa, first time from a pulpit! (Hard to find opportunities when I've only served in English and Chinese wards/branches...gearing up for East Malaysia!) One dear member started talking to her in the nursery when she dropped off her son and they hit it off. This member bore her testimony of the Church and how happy it's made her family, and it must have affected J because she invited us to meet with her and her husband next time. On Saturday is the plan.

M also came to church with one of his daughters and then we went to teach the whole family that night. It is so hard to help people understand the authority of the priesthood when they don't have a Christian background (or even when they do...), but it was still a good lesson. P made us thosai after and I thought I was going to lose it because we had to eat so many. Once again I had to rescue Sister Wilkes by grabbing food off her plate when they weren't looking....I stood by the side of the road for about five minutes thinking I was going to throw up on the ride home. Memories I'll cherish :)

Last week, Sister Wilkes and Kubota met a woman in a flat they were knocking, right before they were leaving to come home. She had a cross on her door but explained that she wasn't Christian, just learning, but her husband is. She was eager to hear more from us when they told her that our purpose is to help others understand more about Christ and how learning about Him and following Him can bless our lives and our families, so they set up a return appointment for last night. We walked in and could immediately feel something so special about their home. Their little 3 year old son was so sweet, everything was so clean, and they just looked happy. We all sat down and they pulled out the pamphlet we had given them about the Plan of Salvation. We had an amazing lesson with them and invited them to begin praying together as a family daily. They would be coming to church this Sunday but will be in KL, so we won't be able to meet with them for a little over a week. I just pray that God takes good care of them between now and the time that we get to see them again. There's just something very special about them. Oh, can call them A&W.

So that's all. It's really hot here. I hope you're all enjoying winter... I love you and am so thankful for your words and support. Oh ... and before I leave you for the week I would like to say a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY ABANG! I love you Dax! I hope you have a really great birthday! We'll celebrate when I get home. Till next week...

Dengan ikhlas,

Sister Norton

HFI

The beginning of another BEAUTIFUL day in Penang!

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

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 ...