Well, this was
a good week! It felt weird, a lot of things fell through and a lot of
interesting problems came up with some of our people, but it was good overall.
I'm just going
to go in order of what happened this week.
Monday was a
really weird P-day because we ended up helping Sister Wright with a big
luncheon she was doing for her 3rd graders at her school. It ended up
being a lot more involved than we expected so we were there for quite awhile.
But it was good to help her. She was stressed and has been really sick.
Those little Thai kids are just sooooo cute! And soooo excited to speak with us
falangs!
Also, on
Monday, Bia called us to tell us that she had several orders coming in
and would be too busy with work to meet for the whole week! She's been keeping
commitments, praying, reading her scriptures, etc... and she gets blessed with
more work, but those blessings distract her from meeting with us and
keeping her commitments. So, we stopped in to visit with her a
few times, but she never could actually sit down and have a lesson.
President Senior suggested that we teach "Keep the Sabbath Day Holy"
and share a scripture from Matthew with her. We were excited to do that, but
she can't meet. So, we're hoping when we drop by tonight she'll let us teach. She's so close to baptism but just gets distracted so easily. It's kind of been
a pattern. But, I really think she'll get baptized, it's just probably not
going to be when I'm here (unless I stay!).
A week or so
ago we were talking with a pharmacist at his shop and a man walked in to buy
something. He saw us and said that he'd learned from elders years ago! We went to
find him at the market on Tuesday. His name is Brother
Nai. He sells treats at the market and has a small family. He has a Book of
Mormon. We basically just introduced ourselves and gave him a scripture to read
and reminded him about prayer. We'll meet with him again and maybe he'll start
learning again!
Also, while we
were at the market people kept randomly giving us samples of things! We left
the market with a huge bag of treats that had been given to us. People are so
generous and love to make falangs happy! In fact, the other day we were out
contacting and we were talking with a lady selling a sticky rice banana thing
at her house. A man bought some and then motorcycled away. But then a few
minutes later he returned and handed us a few of his sticky rice things. He said,
"We must take care of the falangs and let them experience things," or
something along those lines. Anyway, people are just so friendly all the time.
So grateful!
On Wednesday we
went to teach Sister Du. When we got there she had prepared lunch for us
without telling us. How sweet and kind! She'd made this really good bean sprout
dish and was excited to serve us. I love her! And then we had a great
discussion about President Monson's Conference talk from last conference about
obedience.
Also, yesterday
we went to visit sweet Sister O. She's way cute and has been
inactive for quite a while, ever since her dad passed away years ago. Yesterday when we were at her house she kept asking us if she
could go buy us treats because she would receive a lot of "boon"
especially since we are teachers/ missionaries. Basically, in Buddhism you keep
yourself in balance if you do more good than bad. So, to make up for the bad
you receive "boon" by doing good acts... such as buying falang missionaries
candy, or giving sandwiches to dogs on the street, or giving soda to statues.
She prays to Buddha a lot to get over some health issues she has. Yesterday we
taught that it is God that we pray to to receive blessings, help, etc... And it
is only God that we must worship.
On Wednesday we
went out to a bonog to find a lady that we'd contacted into last week. We found
her as well as her younger sister! We introduced prayer and the Book of Mormon
to them both. The original lady was not too interested, but her sister was!
Once we handed her a Book of Mormon she would not put it down. She just kept
reading it and saying, "good reading!" (that doesn't really translate
well! haha) Anyway, we're hopeful that she'll become a new investigator!
On Thursday the
Zone Leaders came to share with us what they'd learned from their training with
President Senior about goal setting. It was really great! As we set goals they encouraged us to start with the end in mind
and work backwards to really assess what we need to do to make those goals.
This week we
taught Y. and Cream. We committed them to reading the scriptures and praying
together. We also committed them to come to church. They didn't, but hopefully
they've been reading and praying. We'll see them in the next few days to teach again.
Okay, so here's
my small miracle of the week: We, along with the elders, planned a finding activity to
replicate Lehi's vision in a nearby park. We were in charge of making popcorn
balls to hang from the tree to look like the fruit from his vision. Popcorn here
is hard to come by and very expensive. We weren't really sure what to do because
we didn't want to spend too much money or time on the popcorn. So, Friday
morning we were finishing our studies and Sister Chuanphid randomly showed up
at the church with a HUGE bag of popcorn. Not sure if she planned on giving it
to us, but when she saw us she excitedly handed us the bag! Wow! Thank you
Heavenly Father. We are so blessed, even if it's just small things that help us
not waste time and money!
And that finding
activity turned out really well. We hung the popcorn balls from the tree, made
an iron rod, and a sign that said, "This way to the tree of life."
haha Then we invited people to follow the rod to the tree. It was way fun and a
whole bunch of members came with us to help. We got to talk to alot of
people and get alot of phone numbers.
General Conference
was awesome! And we got to see it all, except for the last session, in English!
So great to hear from our leaders. There are so many I could talk about, but I
loved Elder Ballard's challenge to reach out and share the gospel with just one
friend before Christmas. How awesome if everyone does that!
We watched the
last session in Thai because one of our investigators came to it. It was cool
to hear it in Thai, and one of the translators was Brother Goodman (my mission prep
teacher at the Y!) So cool!
Also, this made
me laugh. We were out biking past a wat and two 12- 13 year old monks saw us
and started yelling about how cute we were. That is sooo against monk rules!
haha
Okay, that is
the bulk of this week. We shall know tomorrow probably who is going to stay and
who is going to move. Wahoo! Can't wait to find out.
I love you all
sooooooo much!
Love,
Liz
