Hello familia!
Thank you all
so much for the wonderful emails and pictures! Looks like a lot of fun times
skiing! Wahoo!
So, this was a
great week! Lots of good things happened!
Last Monday we
went to FHE at a former investigator's house. She's friends with a member, but
not so interested in learning right now. It was a lot of fun and we all had a
good time!
Okay, so this
is a first: a few days ago I got asked on a date! haha We went to go work out
at the fitness place and there was this guy from Cameroon working out too. As I
walked by him to go hop on the eliptical I said hello, which then he in turn
started quite the conversation. He asked about what I was doing in Thailand. He
then asked if I was free that night to go out to dinner. I thanked him, but
explained to him that I am a missionary and I am not able to date because I am
devoting all my time to serving God. I think that just confused him because
then he asked if maybe I'd have time to just go for a walk. haha I refused,
explained that I do not date at this time, wished him a nice day and then left.
Made me laugh so hard. Now whenever we see someone from Africa, Sister
Sawangwong will point and say, "Hey, there's your bf!"
Hey, have you
ever tried this: a member here said she loves to buy avocados, split them in
half and then put a scoop of ice cream in each half and eat it like that. Never
thought of doing that before. If you're ever feeling creative maybe you could
give it a try!
So, one thing
here in Thailand that pretty much does not exist is home teaching and visiting
teaching. It's always a struggle and pretty much never gets done. The Bishop
wants to work on this problem so he asked us missionaries to put on a skit
about home teaching. So, the other day we worked on making this skit that we'll
perform next Sunday. It was completely ridiculous and I have not laughed that
hard in a long time.
On Friday we
had a switch-off with Sister Steele! Sister Steele came here to Bangkapi with
me, and Sister Sawangwong went to Sapaan Suung with her trainee. It was a
really fun day and I learned a lot from the switch-off. She'd just come from leadership
training with P. Senior and she shared a few things they learned. Zone Leaders
will come teach everything soon. But, we had a good time contacting and got a lot
of potential investigators. Teaching went really well, too! We taught
Brother S. the Plan of Salvation with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It flowed really well. When we got to earth life in the Plan of Salvation we
were able to easily explain the gospel of Jesus Christ and help him understand
that that is what we need to do while we're on earth to live with Heavenly Father
again. We asked Brother S. to
share what he already knew about Adam and Eve. He explained pretty well, but
then finished by saying in English, "Eve soooo stupid! So stupid!"
haha Well, we tried to clear things up a bit and defend Eve! Anyway,
S. is doing so well. He has a baptismal date for the 16th! I feel like I
finally found my Thai grandpa!
Sister Ch.
is doing pretty well, too! She's 18 years old. She's a referral from Sister
Janti. She takes things a little slower than normal, but she loves coming to
church, she loves the members, and she wants to be baptized. She just wants to
get her parents' approval. She's going to pray and then ask them. Follow up
with her today.
Sister P. is
doing so well also! We got to teach her a few times this week and she came to
church on Sunday! When we taught her on Sunday we taught P.O.S., Gospel of
Jesus Christ, as well as the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity. It went so
well! I think she really felt the spirit because she has a bit of a problem
with tea and coffee, but when I committed her to keeping both of those
commandments she said, "Well, I've got to!" In her closing prayer she
told Heavenly Father that she was so happy and glad that she learned about
these laws and wants to follow them. Gave me a huge boost!
Here's a cool
story that I don't think I've shared yet. A few Saturdays ago Elder Jensen and
Heras contacted into a lady named Fon. She's a 25 year old law student. The
next day she came to church. In that week she learned all the lessons. The next
Sunday she was baptized. Literally within 8 days she was baptized and she is
probably one of the most solid recent converts I have ever met. She comes to
every church activity, she helps us go street contacting, she helps us teach,
she's already read to somewhere in Alma in the Book of Mormon, and she has such
a strong testimony! It's so amazing! I love this girl! Just goes to show that
God really has prepared people out there to receive the Gospel!
Oh, this was
funny. We got a referral from the Office Elders. So we got a member to go ride
out to this lady's house with us to help us find her. We got completely lost
and when we finally found the place I figured out why we couldn't find her- she
literally lives at the land fill! There's a little group of about 15 or so
people that live in huts on the back side of a land fill. That was probably the
craziest place I've ever gone teaching. Turns out the referral wasn't there,
but we got to talk with her grandma for a while. Sounds like they have quite
the time out there at the landfill. They have a big party every Sunday and all
their friends come gather together and they eat, play games, play music, etc...
So, we'll hopefully see this referral this week.
The other day
we were contacting on a big bridge with tons of people. I did a little math and
figured that we had literally talked to about 2000 people in those two hours.
Pretty crazy! EVERYONE needs to hear our message.
Also a few
nights ago I had a dream that I wanted to go see Harry Potter at the movie
theater. However, in order to get a ticket I had to give an impromptu 5 minute
talk on Nephi and then the ticket guy would decide if it was good enough for me
to receive a ticket. haha
Have a
wonderful amazing week! Be safe with all the traveling!
Love,
Liz
