mana kari saya??

I miss my West Malaysia food!  There's an elder serving here who is from Butterworth (near Penang), so we daydream about curry together.  Poor kid is Indian and hasn't had curry in almost five months.  And I thought I was dying.  Hopefully that doesn't sound too racist.  I'm not.  I love my tambi.  

Ok ok so here I am in Kuching!  I LOVE KUCHING!  I already feel so comfortable here.  And I have two great companions, Sister Lor and Sister Parker.  Sister Lor is Hmong and Sister Parker is from Salt Lake.  Sister Lor was trained by Sister Wong who I lived with in Singapore so I'm happy every time she does something to remind me of her :)  I just love it.

There's a lot of good things going on in our area (Stampin).  We're teaching a lot of people and I can't believe how many new people we find to teach every single day.  People are so easy to talk to here. So nice and friendly.  And everyone is Christian! Or at least it seems like it's the majority.  Everyone is Iban.  I'm still not so good with speaking Iban....because I can't really speak any at all.  But my Malay is finally to the point that I've been waiting for for my whole mission, I don't really need to think much about what I'm saying, just talk.  So I'm grateful that I got the help right when I finally needed it.

So yeah, we just walk from appointment to appointment in the kampung (village) and stop and talk to everyone on the way. Senang saja!  I can't believe the kampungs though, I've never seen people live in conditions like these.  In some parts, they don't even have electricity.  But they have such good hearts!  So yeah, things are going well here.  Hopefully I can give you some more details or stories when I write next week.  I hope you're all doing well!  Enjoy the pictures of my newest area.

Love you!

Sister Norton 

HFI  

is the ground moving?

another earthquake?  nope, just a delirious companion.

it's been a crazy week.  now i understand why they don't tell you transfer news until just a few days before you're moved.  rewind real quick to last week....i knew there was a transfer coming up this week, but it was just an elder transfer so none of the sisters expected anything.  i felt like i was going to be moved though.  i told sister song about it and told her i thought i'd be going to kuching to join sister lor and sister parker and that sister wilson would be coming to be with her in penang.  friday night, we get a call from our district leader and it wasn't even a surprise.  exactly as i had predicted.  freaky.  so i was all stressed friday night thinking about leaving (turns out i really love penang and the people here), then the next morning the ap's called to tell me i wouldn't be leaving on tuesday as is the norm, but i would leave on friday so sister wilson could stay in singapore long enough for zone conference.  it's been twilight zone all week knowing i'm leaving but not leaving yet...i wish i wouldn't have known a week before i'm actually leaving.  torture.  but it's given me a lot of time to spend saying goodbye to members and recent converts and investigators.  we've had to eat unreal amounts of food this week.  unreal i tell you.  i think they maybe liked me here.

it was so good to talk to you, family!  sorry the microphone wouldn't work and it was a crappy camera.  but i'll see you soon anyway.

i'll just tell a story real quick and then i need to hurry off to run some more errands.  i think maybe i told you all a week or so ago about L, the guy we met in the elevator who was so interested in hearing our message.  we finally met with him last thursday night.  we had dinner and the conversation started out nice and hopeful with him talking about all these grand life and religious questions he has.  then he started talking about all the things he knew about mormons, turned and attacked us and our "naive faith," then went on to counsel us, because "he too used to be young and confused like us."  goodness it was a long hour of a lack of faith.  i was crushed when i got home that night.  i mean crushed.  i don't know why, i just felt so sad for him.  but i went to bed thinking about how grateful i am for eyes that see the light when it's right in front of me.  i was grateful for yet another opportunity to stand up for what i believe in, testify of it, and feel the calm assurance that it is true as the words are still coming out of my mouth.  it reminded me of president monson's talk from last fall, "dare to stand alone."  i know this is the right path.

i am excited to send you some updates from kuching next week!  i'll try to get some good pictures for you all.  i love you and hope you have a good week!

sayang,

sister norton
hfi 

 jenny and her kitab that she just finished reading!

 me and shobina, meethra & treesha,

daughters of our newest family on date to be baptized in penang!

me and iswari with her girls, hillary & danielle. 

wonderful members who are excited to meet my family

and make sedap curry when we come back! 

me and ming sin (ms) who will be baptized on the 26th!

kia haal hay

I have a new love for everything Pakistani.  The food is incredible, the people have hearts of gold...did I mention the food is amazing?? I got to visit a member in KL with Sister Jensen last week who is from Pakistan.  It was so nice.  Mom, Dad, we have an invitation to his house when we come back to Malaysia in a few years.  He insisted.  He taught us some Urdu and the guards at our building are from Pakistan, so we've been having a grand old time trying it out on them.  I think it means so much to people when you make an effort to learn their language.  

It's been a long week, lots of bus rides to and from KL last week (with cockroaches on the bus...) and to and from Ipoh yesterday for a zone meeting.  I think I'm done with buses now, thank you.  KL was so great.  It was so good to see Jensen.  I'm so proud of her and the work she's doing there!  It was really inspiring for me and helped me get some fire back, once again.  I think we take turns boosting each other up when we need it.  And zone conference was incredible.  It was tailor-made for me.  Ahh so emotional though, the AP's and President and Sister Clark all gave their "dying testimonies," because this is their last zone conference before they go home next month.  

Here's some other highlights from the past week:

My recent convert, D, gave her testimony in church for the first time on Sunday.  I couldn't believe what I was hearing as she stood up there and encouraged the members in the branch to believe in God and know that He loves them.  Absolute fulfillment right there. I couldn't have had more joy.  Then after church we went to visit J (other recent convert) at her house with some members.  She's almost done with Ether now!!  We both gushed over the story of the brother of Jared and it just completely filled me with light to know that she loves the scriptures and she understands them and applies them to her life.  It's a missionary's dream come true :)

We met with P once we got back from KL and she's still doing well. She said she had shared some of the things we had taught her with her family and they were so happy to hear about it, so we're going to visit them all on Saturday morning!!  This could be the family I've been praying for for seven months.  I'm so excited.

Oh and finally....my Mandarin name tag is on its way!!!!  Meet the first, non-native-Mandarin-speaking-sister in the Singapore Mission! Ever I think.  Anyway, President approved it, so it's done.  I'm still a Malay sister, but now I get a special name tag so the Chinese can notice my name tag and speak to me :)  It's coming along ok I think.  Dax better be there when I call on Mother's Day so I can show off.

I think that's about it.  Sorry, things are getting boring around here it seems.  But it's still good I think.  I'm still happy.  I hope you're all well.  I love you.

Sister Norton

HFI 

Penang.

 The tall building in the background on the right hand side

is where the Butterworth Branch is located.

 Sister Song and Sister Norton with Darla, who is in Mikelle's

grandparents stake in St. George, Utah.

(... such a small world!)

 A glimpse of Sister Norton's world ... downtown Penang,

 ... and more of downtown Penang.

kena pick-pocket

Saturday was a rough day for us.  A member in the branch wanted us to meet her friend who cuts hair, so the logical thing was apparently to have her cut our hair.  As I was sitting in the chair, she and Sister Song were conversing in Mandarin and I overheard her telling her that she learned how to cut hair from a book.  She reassured me that her hair was "curly" also.  (The ponytail twisted a little bit.)  So things didn't go so well.  Sorry, Amy.  I'll need a haircut again when I get home.  A year of growing out my hair (it was more than half-way down my back when it was curly!), down the drown.  Or more like all over the floor of her "salon" in her flat. I was maybe a little bit down.

Later that night our phone was stolen.  How?  Let me share with you the usual procedure for getting on a bus in Penang.  The bus pulls up and hoards of people gather around the door in a clump.  The door opens and the shoving begins.  I'm not afraid to make my way through as long as it's not an old auntie or uncle.  There's no concept of a queue so you have to act fast and don't mind if your personal space is invaded.  So there you go.  We had the phone before we got on the bus, we didn't have it after.  It was so awful of them.  We needed all those numbers, this is peoples' salvation we're talking about!  The worst is MS's number had just changed and we hadn't updated it in our area book, so now we have to wait for him to contact us (hopefully before his scheduled baptism next weekend), because we have no way to contact him.  I was so bummed.  

Other than that we've had a pretty biasa week.  Oh, except that the whole island of Penang is now ours and we have two apartments from which we can choose to stay in.  The elders are gone.  There's a shortage of missionaries right now so they pulled them out and put them in different areas.  Twice the workload for us, but we're excited to attack it.

So updates on people...hopefully MS will still be on for 12 May.  We met an awesome potential on Monday, L.  He was in an elevator with us and saw our name tags so he took us to get a drink real quick and talk.  He's been on a journey lately "finding God," so we're going to meet with him once we get back from KL.  Sounds promising I think.  We met with another Jehovah's Witness yesterday and I think we scared her to death because all of the stuff she usually uses to tell Christians they're on the wrong track we agreed with, then taught her the Restoration.  There was a look of, "Shoot, what if they're right?" on her face.  Hopefully she'll let us meet again.  And that's about it. We're in Kuala Lumpur now for Zone Conference.  Maybe I'll have more exciting stuff next week.  

I love you all.  Have a good week!

Sister Norton

HFI

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