Cool bug
Banana trees
Monday, November 11, 2013
"The field is white (yellow) and ready to harvest."
Hello Querida
Familia! :)
Sam, way to go
on your buck! That's way awesome! And SNOW! I keep forgetting there's actually
snow back home! It does not feel like winter at all here! Yesterday in church
they sang Christmas songs (!) and I thought that it was pretty strange because
I thought we were so far away from Christmas. But then I remembered that we are
already well into November! haha Crazy!
I'm so sad for
all those people killed in the Philippines and their families. That is just
awful.
We haven't felt any effects from the typhoon out here in the Esan, or anywhere
else as far as I know.
So, yes, I am
the pianist. There are two youth that can play about as well as I do. So we
switch off. It'll be good, maybe I'll get better at the hymns! Also, yesterday
at church we gave a "special" musical number. E Chelson was asked to
play his violin, but he must have chickened out (or didn't practice enough
haha) because he roped us all into singing "Redeemer of Israel"
instead. It was not very good, but it was fun!
Also, Dad,
thank you for the latest letter! Always so exciting! Elder Chambers told me I'm
worse than the elder on Best 2 Years that is always getting mail. haha
You
asked about the food here and it's pretty good. To be honest, I like American
Thai food that I’ve had better. Sad. I think I just haven't really found
good places here, and a lot of the food is Esan, which is not what I think of
when I picture Thai food. But I really like Som Tam and there are some really
good noodle places, too! I have had durian in all its forms! It definitely
smells bad, but when you eat it fresh it's okay. It is not, however, very appetizing when they make
it into a paste to eat with a spoon.
Last Monday was
way fun! Sister Ud rented a song tow and took us to see a few places around
Mahasarakham (out in the bonogs). Sister Wiganda (her daughter who just returned
from her mission), Sister ChuanPhid, and the Elders came also. First they took
us out to this really pretty river and mini wat. Then we went to the
fish sanctuary! (we went there on accident a couple of weeks ago but didn't
look around too much because we were contacting) It was really fun. There's a
little mini zoo there with rabbits, guinea pigs, cows, birds, and MONKEYS! The
monkeys are pretty aggressive. I was trying to get a picture of one of
them and it reached its hand through the bars and smeared banana all over my
camera. Gross! It was fun to spend some time with the members. We had a
little picnic, too. It was such a relaxing, fun day.
Also, one reason
things may have been extra slow this week is because there was a huge annual
market (gniw) that pretty much the entire city goes to. Waaaaay fun! We went
and shopped around a bit on Monday, and then returned a few times during the
week to eat food and jaag eggesons.
Also, Sister Nok went and got me a ring
with my Thai name engraved on it. So sweet of her! I don't remember if I’ve
ever written about this, but Sister Mullen's Thai name is Tadsanee, and Sister
Nok's real name is Tadsanaa. So, Sister Nok (a couple transfers ago) gave me
the name Tadsaneeya! (ทัศนิยา). Fun! She got us
each a ring with our names, and got one for Sister Crockett that said CTR
in Thai (ลสด).
Okay, so it's
been a long time since I’ve really talked about Sister Bu. But we stopped by
this week and had a great lesson on faith and prayer. I really felt the spirit
in the lesson and I think she did, too. We shared Alma 37:37 (which always
makes me think of Gma Lynn) and she was really touched by it. She even
highlighted it!!!
Tuesday English
class was pretty fun! We ended up taking about 8 new college students who are
about to graduate in accounting and help them prepare for job interviews!
Also, warning
to anyone traveling to Thailand: lettuce is a sure way to get sick. Learned
that lesson the hard way one too many times this week. haha
Oh! This was
way fun! On Thursday we went to harvest rice! We went to the same member's rice
field that we went to a few months ago. When we helped the first time back in
August we were just plucking the rice out to replant it. But this time we
actually got to harvest it. The Elders, Sister Nok, and I went out to the rice
field to help. We each got a sickle and went to work cutting down the rice and
putting it into piles! It was fun, but also a little dangerous. Both Elder Chambers
and Sister Crockett sliced their pinkies pretty good on the sickle, so Sister Nok
had to go buy alcohol and bandaids. They're fine. Besides that, it was really
fun!
This week we
also had some nice lessons with B. She's been taught everything, but is
still waiting to get baptized because she wants to finish her Buddhist
ceremonies for her husband. However, I don't know if she feels good about doing
that or not. We taught about prayer and faith, with her also. And Sister
Crockett pointed out that the best possible thing that she could be doing for
her husband would be to get baptized, then help him by doing his work for him.
We also finally
met with her daughter, P! She's 16 years old and is a radio host. We
found her at her work and she is adorable! We only talked for about 15 minutes
with her, but I already love her to death! I am really hoping we'll be able to teach her. Her mom wants her to be baptized, so that will help a
lot if they can support each other! So happy!
So, the dog
laser- doesn't work super well with dogs, but little lizards love to follow it.
We had a lot of fun with it one day while we were waiting for an investigator
to show up to a lesson! haha It's provided a lot of entertainment!
Yesterday we
had some really good contacting! We extended 6 baptismal commitments (none of
which were actually accepted) and got one new investigator. It's so fun! I am
actually starting to like contacting more and it's becoming a lot more fun! I
feel more confident about it and I LOVE sharing this gospel!
So, those are
the main events of the week! Just so you know, I FINALLY found a good souvenir
place! Christmas shopping, here we come!
I love you all
so much! Thank you so much for your love and support and encouragement! I hope
you all have a wonderful amazing week! Picture time!
Love,
Liz :)
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Monday, November 4, 2013
A 'Cream of the Crop' week
Oh my goodness,
thank you for the awesome emails and pictures! I think everyone in this
internet place probably thinks I have problems because I couldn't stop laughing
at your emails and pics! Thank you! Totally made my day!
Sounds like it
was such a fun week back at home! I can't believe the snow! Crazy! Right now
it's technically "cold" season, but it's been blazing hot and I'm
finally for realz getting a tan... in fact this morning the lady at 7-11 told me I
have brown skin (which is not pretty to Thai people... haha). So, yesterday I
asked Sister Nok if "cold" season is usually this hot and she
affirmed that cold season in the Esan is usually hotter than hot season. What??
Ahhh! haha It's okay, I still like it better than the rain!
Anyway, Dad,
the weather is definitely way hot, but we literally have not had rain for
almost 3 weeks now and that's all I really care about! As far as the language
goes, I feel like I'm improving for sure! I feel like once you get out of
training you kind of blossom a bit more I guess. Since I was the one leading
this area and I was the one who knew all the people, I have spent a lot more
time leading lessons, arranging things over the phone, etc... It's really
helped me be more confident in my language. I LOVE THAI!! I feel like I can
communicate pretty much anything I want to in lessons, and I can get my point
across in most other situations. Huge blessing! And I can understand things way
better than I used to. So, there's definitely been progress! As missionaries we
mix English and Thai all the time when we're talking to other missionaries.
Some things are just easier to say in Thai. I feel like when I come home from
the mission I am not going to make any sense... haha. Anyway, love the
language, improving slowly but surely. However, if I was to sit down and start reading Harry Potter
in Thai I would probably have no idea what's going on. I feel like I don't have
a huge vocabulary out of my everyday activities and gospel words. So, I need to
start expanding that now that I'm feeling pretty comfortable with the language
in what I have to do.
CREAM GOT
BAPTIZED! Everything went so smoothly and she was so happy! Yesterday was an
AWESOME day! On Thursday Cream had her interview and passed. On Saturday we
went to visit, teach and help her prepare her testimony that she would share.
She was so cute, she wrote it all out and practiced it for us. Anyway, on
Sunday she and her Mom, Yuwi came to church a half hour early! Cream went to
primary and had a good time. Afterwards we all had lunch and brownies (in
Cream's honor) and then we had the baptismal program. I played the piano and
gave a talk on baptism (pretty much gave the same talk that Grandpa gave at my
baptism) and a Young Woman named Drong gave a talk on the Holy Ghost.
Then Elder Chelson baptized Cream!!! After she got changed she shared her
testimony! It was such a special day and everything went so well. Everyone was
so happy!!! BEST DAY! Also, Sister Nok ordered her a fancy Book of Mormon and case
and had all of us missionaries write her a note in it. It was a perfect day!
That's
definitely the biggest news of our week!!!
So, other
things:
Our zone
is getting close to qualifying to be a stake! Basically, the goal is for
it to be a stake by February. That is way exciting, but super daunting, too.
That is going to take a ton of work, faith, and miracles. But I definitely
sense excitement from the missionaries and I’m excited to get going on this!
As far as
investigators go this week, it was a bit rough. We weren't able to hardly meet
with anyone because of working situations and other things. So, we're really
trying to evaluate where we're at, what we can best do to help our
investigators progress, and find new investigators.
This week the
universities started back up from a 3 or so week break. We are excited because
hopefully we'll be having a lot more people at English class. One day we decided to go out to Rajabat University to go
contacting. We thought since school had technically started it would be a
successful day of finding. However, it was pretty dead. But we did get some
really good coco yen! haha
Also, this week
we went out to visit Sister Cham at her rice field. We ended up teaching about
tithing and she shared an awesome testimony about her experiences with tithing.
It's always so awesome to hear the members share their testimonies. Definitely
helps mine.
Right now Elder
Chambers is in the process of turning Les Mis into a musical about missionary
work in Thailand. He's a way good writer, and the songs that he's re-written
lyrics to are way funny. He performs them for us whenever he comes up with a
new song. We're always excited for the next installment!
Also, we've
definitely been having fun with the dog laser. Still working on my aim, but
I've enjoyed trying it. Also, cats here don't fall for it at all. I try to make
cats follow the light and pounce on it, but they just sit there and act like
they're too smart for that game.
Other big news:
we bought a blender! We now have a new appliance in our room. So, we celebrated
by making homemade peanut butter and coconut banana chocolate smoothies!
Wahoo!
So, yesterday
our branch president was sick and didn't come to church. Sister Nok asked us to
go with her to go visit him (and the elders, too). I don't think our visit
really made him feel better because the elders broke his Rubiks cube and then
we got forced into sharing silly talents to make him laugh... funniest visit ever.
Pretty sure his headache reached migraine status after that! haha
Okay, listen up
Samuel and Daniel. PRACTICE THE PIANO! Because when you end up on your missions
being the best person in the branch that can play you're going to wish you
practiced! haha I'm now the official piano player and I only have like 10 hymns
that I can play well (and half of those aren't even in the Thai hymn book). So, I try to practice whenever we have an extra minute at the church! haha
Anyway, those
are the main events of the week! I love you all so much and miss you all so
much! I'm loving Mahasarakham as always and Sister Crockett's doing
great!
Thank you for
your love, support, encouragement, prayers, and entertaining emails.
Have an awesome
week!
Love you!
Love,
Liz
Obviously baptisms don't happen here too often...opened the font to find a nice layer of slime.
Elder Chelson was a saint and cleaned it out!
Elder Chambers trying to fix the font drain.
Happy Halloween! A member gave us these old sweaters
so we could dress up as KhunYaays (grandmas).
so we could dress up as KhunYaays (grandmas).
Bamboo
Here's a little inspiration from the Liahona.
I think it really applies to our mission. haha
I think it really applies to our mission. haha
Cream's baptism
On our way to the Branch President's....
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