Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord

Well, this was one awesome week here! Sister Su was baptized and that was definitely a miracle. I think we definitely got a lot of help from a certain someone's special fast. Daniel, thank you so much- you truly bring us miracles every time you fast for us. I love you sooooooo much! :) On Monday I called Su's sister, Bua, and she excitedly told me that their mom signed the paper! She said the three of them prayed and then went and asked their mom to sign the paper again. Su explained what the permission slip was and why it was important to her and then her mom signed it! Amazing! She came to church yesterday dressed in a cute little white outfit. She was soooo nervous and excited. Everything went flawlessly and she was so happy. Yesterday was just amazing. Now those three adorable sisters are all baptized and members of the church. They are going to be a great support for each other. Love them all so much!

We have a new investigator named A. She happened to come to church on her own last week to see what it was like. She keeps meeting with us; however, she is still not sure that she wants to change religions. She seemed really sincere about learning, and she's been praying, but she does not have the desire to be baptized at this point. She did not show up to church yesterday, but hopefully we'll be able to meet with her soon and see if she is going to progress or not.

We had another new investigator come to church yesterday named S. I contacted into her on Thursday at Fashion Island and she wanted to come to church. She said that when I contacted into her she felt different. Normally she would reject, and no way would she normally give out her number, but she felt like she should. She came to church and really loved it all. She said she felt so good and welcomed. She also stayed for lunch and the baptism. After that we taught her. She likes our teachings and wants to study it out. She said if she gets an answer she will be baptized. Praying for her. She's really nice and sincere! Also made some friends! 

So, Facebook is going really well! I finally found a whole bunch of people from Mahasarakham, including Cream!! Soooooo excited!

On Thursday we had switch-off's with Sister Steele. She came here and I stayed. Sister Peterson went to Saphaan Suung with Sister Ferrence. It was a good day. We did lots of contacting and got a combined 29 phone numbers. Which was really good because after Thursday we were not allowed to go street contacting just for safety precautions. Anyway, around 7:30pm or so we were heading back to Saphaan Suung to switch back. However, since there's a curfew now, they want all missionaries to be inside before 8 pm. So, we ended up having to stay the night in Saphaan Suung. The next morning we headed back to Bangkapi. On Friday they asked us not to go outside unless we had appointments just so they could feel out the situation. We then got the go ahead to leave, we were just asked not to go street contacting so as to not attract any unnecessary attention (which is funny... normally that's what we're trying to do! haha). Anyway, now we can go street contacting (thank heavens!) and we only have to be in before 8pm. It is completely safe here in Bangkapi. We've seen no sign at all of unrest. We're in a safe little pocket here for sure. So don't worry about that at all.

Lately Sister Peterson and I have been making up songs on my guitar. haha A while back S. Peterson bought a notebook that had this ridiculous poem on it. It makes no sense at all, but we decided it needed music to go with it. So, we've taken up song writing in the evenings after planning. So funny.

Yesterday we went to church in Lad Phrao because Sister Peterson had never been before. There were literally like 6 or 7 of us total. So we ended up being the speakers. We basically just gave testimonies. It was a nice experience. I really felt the spirit in that little room. It just really was a testimony to me of how it does not matter how nice of church you have or how many members there are, the Spirit will manifest itself and teach us a lot! Was a really great meeting! 

Yesterday Sister Eve got her mission call to Thailand!! She enters the MTC on July 4th! Way excited, I'll still be here when she comes into country!

Here are a few verses from my scripture study from this week that I really like:

2 Timothy 1 
7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

8 Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partakers of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;

12 For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

This is Paul writing to Timothy. It really was motivating and reminded me of all the awesome conference talks about defending the Gospel of Jesus Christ and standing up for what we know is true! When we take a stand, God gives us power and the ability to share our beliefs boldly and with joy. I love the gospel and I love sharing it! I hope I always have this desire to let everybody know about our happy and essential message!

Okay, I love you all so much! Thank you so much for your love, support, prayers, and fasts!

Love,

Sister Stevenson

 Love these girls!

Stuck in Saphaan Suung...haha

 Sister Noy teaching how to make pepper/shrimp sauce with fried pork floss

 Buun, Su and Bua. They are so cute!

 Sister Eve opening her mission call!

Happy Day.

"spreading goodness" and eating cheesecake

Hello everybody!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA LYNN! I hope you have a wonderful day and get a lot of great flamingo gifts! :)

Well, this was quite the week! It was pretty stressful, but a lot of good things happened, too.

So, last P-day we went to Minburi Market and I got us all a whole bunch of elephant pants. haha I hope you want elephant pants because you are getting them!!

On Tuesday we had a really fun lunch date with Sister O. She invited all of us missionaries over, as well as a few members (Sister Janti, Sister Jan, and Sister Es). It was so fun to spend time with them and to share some thoughts about being a disciple of Christ. These are amazing women and I love to hear their testimonies!

Okay, so Brother Jacky got baptized on Sunday. He is E. Black/Gettavong's investigator from Nigeria. He was so happy, and he brought his two little kids. They are 4 and 6 years old. He's married to a Thai women, so they speak Thai better than they speak English. They are ADORABLE!!! He's bringing them to English class to help them speak better. Love those little kids!

Oh, so this is sort of big news: we now use facebook as missionaries! I think it's going to be really helpful. We can get on three times a week for an hour or less each time. We are only using facebook for members and investigators in our areas, though. So we don't add anybody else. But, I think it will be really useful in contacting people that are hard to get a hold of. Way excited for this!

So this last week there's been a really fun "ancient" market going on at Fashion Island. We were there one day for lunch and I started talking to two ladies that were shopping. They were just so excited to chat and thought it was so awesome that we are here in Thailand "spreading goodness" that they insisted on buying us cheesecake. haha Turns out these two ladies are women monks (I'm not sure what they're called). So, we got taken out to eat by monks this week. That's a new experience for sure. It was interesting to talk to them. Apparently for about 3 or 4 months out of the year they will go live at the Buddhist temples. They were so cute to talk to and were also really interested in our work. They said that we are their new friends and they are going to come find us at the church. So, you never know, we'll see what happens with them! 

Sister Su has a baptismal date for this coming Sunday. She's so ready and wants to be baptized so badly. She's 15 so she has to get parental permission. I think we'll go out and visit them with the Bishop. Praying really hard this works out! She wants it so bad!!

On a high note, yesterday Sister Nadia was confirmed a member of the church. She was sooooo happy! After the meeting she ran up to me, gave me a big hug, and said, "I've found my answer!" She just loves the gospel so much and she has such an amazing testimony already! So so so happy!

At church we had a random new investigator show up. We also had a Chinese family come to church that is interested and found us online. We taught them all and I think they'll start progressing!

Also, yesterday we had a lot of fun going to a member's house to teach a couple of referrals! This lady's husband owns a Harley Davidson repair shop and it was quite a funny crowd of people we got to meet. They were all way nice and funny. We ended up teaching a friend of this member and her younger sister. They were receptive and willing to keep on meeting! Way exciting!

So, I'd say those are the main events of this week! It was a little crazy because we're trying to accomplish our mission goals, and it's cutting it really close. I'm a little nervous and stressed out, but I've definitely seen many miracles from Heavenly Father in the form of new investigators. We'll keep giving it our all and pray our hardest! 

I love it here and I love this work! I'm still on a high from getting to talk to you all last week!

I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOOOO MUCH!!!

Love,

Sister Liz Stevenson

Lunch at Sister O's

 Some fun displays of the floating market

Going to Minburi Market...

that lady on the left is the only one that doesn't look too excited about it.

 These mini Japanese bikes are pretty popular here

 Sisters Nadia, Nat and Jane. Love these three so much!

 Elder Gettavong is very strong. haha

 Out to cheesecake with women monks!

 The closest thing I've found to a pumpkin pie. Pretty good!

Our view eating dinner one night at Promenade

Yipee Skypee Day!

Oh my goodness! That was the best thing ever! I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOOOO MUCH!!!

So, it's been a great week!

The most exciting thing was that yesterday Sister Nadia was baptized! I love this girl so much! She finally made it back to Bangkok to be baptized and she was glowing! She was so happy. I think it was a huge blessing that I got to stay one more transfer and see her get baptized.

We've had a few new investigators this week from inviting.

 All I can say is that Family History Work does wonders in motivating people. Awesome!

Okay, honestly, there's not a whole lot more to write about. It's been a great week, especially since we SKYPED today!

Love love love you!

Sister Liz Stevenson

 Bridge and khlong path

 Nadia :)

Some of my Bangkapi family

 Rainy season has begun!

 Baptism day!