Monday, January 27, 2014



Dear family!

First of all, Daniel, I want to thank you so much for fasting for me. You have no idea how much that means to me. When I read that you had decided to fast for me this morning I started crying and now I can't stop!  You are just the sweetest and I know that your prayer and fast made this one of the best weeks of my mission! Seriously, so many amazing things happened this week.

First of all, we got five, yes, FIVE new investigators this week! That's unheard of in my book! And they all are actually interested in our message and are progressing! It's a miracle! 

Let's start with Brother S! He's a 75 year old man that I contacted into last week. He came to church last week and we started teaching him this past week. We've met with him about three times. He's just the friendliest, happiest guy and loves coming to the church. He's become friends with the Bishop and a lot of the members. He reads from the Book of Mormon every night for an hour before he goes to bed and feels "sabaijai" (really good) when he comes to church. He also likes to practice his English on me. Fun!

Next, we have Brother L. He came to English class this week and wanted to learn more about what we teach. We've taught him about four times. He's probably the most earnest seeker of truth I've ever met. When we first met him he said that he wants to be Christian and he wants to believe in God, but he's just not sure. When he prayed in the lesson he asked Heavenly Father to open his heart so that he could know for sure that He exists and that our message is true! Amazing! He also has been studying in the Gospel Principles manual and said he's found answers to his prayers from his readings. He came to church yesterday and had a really great experience!

Another new investigator is Brother Sd. We contacted into him on a songtao. He's in his 70's and pretty much just takes care of his 90 year old parents. So, he has a lot of time to meet. He really likes to learn! However, we decided to let Elder Jensen and Elder Heras teach him. They don't have many investigators right now, and they'd probably connect with him better!

Sister P. is from English class and she was interested in Christianity and prayer. We have only met with her once so far, but it was a good lesson and she had a lot of really good questions. Hoping that we'll be able to meet with her often and help her understand and progress well!

Lastly, Sister Ch. She's a friend of a member and she came to church on Sunday and we taught her briefly. She also came to sports day on Friday. We'll be meeting with her this week. She's interested and has already made a lot of friends at church!

Also, our investigator Sister Opal is progressing well. She's sixteen and her mom accompanies her to all the lessons. They are learning really well and I really feel the spirit when we teach them. She really wants to get baptized.

Yesterday Sister Namleg was confirmed at church. She was so happy! She also was asked to give the closing prayer in sacrament meeting. She was so nervous, but she gave a really awesome prayer and a lot of people complimented her. She felt really pleased. So glad!!

Other great, funny, interesting things that happened this week:

On Monday we had lunch with President Senior! So much fun! Our whole district headed down to Asoke and we ate pizza with President and Sister Senior, the office elders, the AP's and some Asoke Elders. It was awesome to see all these amazing people. Elder Chelson and Elder Beuhner randomly showed up, too! So great to talk to them. They are doing great! Afterwards our district met with Pres. Senior in his office and he gave us some counsel. He read from Mark 4 about the parable of the sowers. He talked about our recent converts and how we need to protect them. This is interesting: He also said that the Area Seventy have been asking him how many new missionaries he's going to want this year. He told them "Judges 7:7." Meaning, we have enough, don't send any more! That's quite a change from last year when we had a huge influx of missionaries. He said that the missionaries he has are getting the work done. We don't need more, just enough to keep the number of missionaries here balanced. So, it looks like we won't be having lots of new missionaries now at transfers. In fact, just one sister is in the MTC right now. So, that was interesting to find out! After lunch with President we went on a shopping spree at the Distribution Center! Fun!

Last Monday the Elders needed a haircut. There's a haircut place attached to our apartment complex, so Sis. Sawangwong told them to go there. A couple of guys own it and they went to town on the Elder's hair. It was the funniest thing ever. We were supposed to start FHE at 6 and they still hadn't come. They called and said their hairstylists were still doing their hair (2 hours later) and wouldn't stop. When they finally showed up to FHE they had the craziest missionary haircuts I've ever seen! haha They literally shaved off the sides of E. Clarke's head, and left a huge fluffy poof on the top. I can't really explain it, but I could not stop laughing and the poor guy was probably so embarrassed to show up to FHE. Anyway, made my day. After that Sis. Sawangwong wouldn't talk to them for a few days because she was so embarrassed that she suggested they go there!

Also, the other day I was contacting and I walked up to a lady waiting for a bus. She reminded me of Grandma Pat so much that I started crying as I was inviting her to learn about our message. She was probably way confused. I couldn't talk well, so I just wished her a nice day and left!

This week we were teaching a recent convert about tithing and law of the fast. She talked about how it was hard to not eat and she usually just prayed to not be hungry. So, I explained that when we fast we need to have a purpose or a reason, otherwise we're just going without food. I started telling her that this week our family is going to fast for Uncle Drew. As I started explaining the situation and the strength and support we feel as we fast, I started crying and could not stop. So, S. Sawangwong took over the lesson. I am so grateful for fasting and the blessings that it brings. When I fast here I notice blessings immediately. It really is amazing. And I definitely saw the blessings from Daniel's fast this week.
  
Anyway, I'm not usually a very emotional person, but this week I was for some reason!

Okay, I love you all so much! Picture time!

Love,

Liz