Hellooooooo familia!
I'm so jealous
of the snow! I bet it's so pretty!!! I keep forgetting that it's snowy season.
It just feels like the middle of summer... as always. I don't mind it, but
Thanksgiving and Christmas season needs to have snow to feel complete. This week
the weather's been okay. Not terribly hot or humid. Two weeks ago was an oven,
though! Being in Thailand will definitely help me cope with summers in Utah.
haha I remember always complaining about how hot the weather was the first
month or so of school at the Y. Never again. I have now gained an entirely new
perspective!
This week was great and I feel like we were truly blessed! On Tuesday we received some training from our Zone Leaders. Right now the mission is all about contacting off of baptismal commitments. It is soooo fun! I absolutely love it! We were already doing that a bit, but the training sort of re-energized us and we're way into it. We pretty much just walk around busy areas for 2 hours and talk to literally everyone we possibly can. Sometimes we'll strike up a bit of conversation, but lots of times we'll just ask them if they are familiar with baptism (they’re usually not), explain it, and then commit them to baptism on a certain date. I feel like this is a much more effective, aggressive way of contacting and it's really helping me become more confident and bold, and it's also helping my language skills. I love it! It's also causing us to get way more "other lessons" (teach a principle, commit, get a number/address). Normally we'd have a goal of about 15-20 "other lessons" a week. This week we got 40 "other lessons" by contacting this way. It's seriously so fun. I LOVE Dan Jones-ing now! So, from our contacting, we got about four people who were interested this week and agreed to meet with us. We'll see where that takes us! We also got some new investigators from English.
By the way, in
Thailand it is year 2556. An interesting fact that I only figured out about a
month ago. I was always so confused why dates ended in '56. Now I
understand!
On Wednesday we
had some pretty fun contacting stories. I'm used to people always yelling
at us about how white, falang, or pretty we are, but sometimes people take you
by surprise. So, we were out contacting and a man about 50 years old ran up to
us and started speaking English with us. He explained that he has been to
America to give training on something (I didn't understand) and that he has
been to Hollywood. He told us we look like the people at Hollywood. Thank you
very much. I think I kinda like this guy! haha Then he shook our hands and gave
us his business card. It made me laugh when I read his name: translates to
"Power Lion." The best. So, we walked away and then there was a man
sitting on his motorcycle and blatantly taking a picture of us, so I pulled a
face and waved at him. Then a little farther down the road we ran into a guy
who asked us if we were married. Umm... we'll just say, yes, we are. He told
Sister Crocket she was beautiful and asked us where we live. Bye bye, time to
go. haha Made us laugh. We feel like celebrities here sometimes.
This week we
had some great lessons with B. At the end of one of our lessons she asked if
she could share her testimony about prayer and receiving answers. She really
has a testimony, now she just has to make the decision to be baptized. We also
met with both of her daughters! Last week we met P. for the first time.
She's way cute. This week we finally met B. She is 20 and loves to bake so we
asked her to come make brownies with us (for Cream's bday). She couldn't, but
we ended up meeting her at her mom's school one day by chance. We had a really
good conversation and she is willing to meet with us again! So happy!
Cream’s
birthday was on the 14th so we brought her those brownies, pictures from her
baptism, and some little hair things. She was excited. Sunday was the
primary program and she gave an awesome talk! She's so cute, love that girl!
And the primary program was adorable. There are 6 or 7 primary kids and they are
so cute. As I was sitting in sacrament meeting listening to those kids and
looking around the room I felt so happy! I just love Mahasarakham, I love the
people I am surrounded by, and I love being a missionary. I feel like it's
definitely taken time for me to feel comfortable here, but I really do now. I
absolutely love it! And I really don't ever want to leave!
Oh, this week
we went and harvested rice again. No injuries this time! haha Fun times! It's
kind of relaxing being out in those fields!
On Saturday we
visited and taught N. I don't know if I've talked about her or not. We
contacted into her months ago and were never really able to get a hold of her
after that. A few weeks ago we were by her house and she happened to be there.
She let us in and we helped her shred basil. We've been coming back on
Saturdays and she always has a little project for us. This last Saturday we committed
her to baptism. She agreed, however, she had back surgery and can't hardly
leave her house, let alone be baptized. So she has a goal for next year! On
that day her husband asked us to help him string together these little flower
necklace things. I was having a great time, and then I realized they were for
putting on the Buddhist shrines. haha Maybe a little counter productive?
Happy about N., though.
Okay, so there
really seems to be some holiday, crazy market, festival, etc... every weekend
here. This weekend was the Loy Grathong (่ลอยกระทง) festival! Loy means "to set afloat" and grathong
means "banana leaf cup/ boat."
So, they make these fancy little boats out of banana leaves and flowers and put
candles and sparklers in them and set them afloat on the river. It's a Buddhist
holiday where they ask for forgiveness and set their little offerings on the
water. So, Sister Oy made us some grathongs and we set them on the
water for fun! It was quite the gathering! They had a huge market going with
people performing traditional dances and music. And there were people selling
the little boats everywhere. It was so fun to see all the different
styles. Super fun and cultural!
So, I feel like
this was an awesome week!
I LOVE YOU ALL
SOOOOOO MUCH!
Love,
Lizzie!
