Elephants, tigers and Liz, Oh My!

Dear family,

Mom, THANK YOU SOOOO much for the Valentine’s Day package!  We've already decorated the apartment and we're going to make cupcakes this Friday! I loved the card, too. It's so funny, I thought people here would like lizards because they're all over the place. But people are scared of them- even the little ones. People always laugh and think I'm weird when they ask me what my favorite animal is and I say it's a lizard. However, after this week, I may have a new favorite, or at least a close second: ELEPHANTS!!!! 

DANIEL, this week I rode an elephant!!! I’ll get to that in a second, though.

Yesterday was an amazing day because Brother Somgiad was baptized! He's our 70 year old investigator that is so awesome! He is one that willingly keeps commitments, loves to come to EVERY activity at church, and loves people in general. I'm pretty sure he knows everyone in the whole ward by now. haha He's definitely one of the "elect" that we're being encouraged to find. So, yesterday he was baptized, which we weren't expecting. On Friday we taught him all the remaining commandments that he hadn't yet learned. He originally had a date for the 16th but he was unsure because he had a whole bunch of concerns with work that were weighing on his mind. I promised him that if he got baptized and then received the gift of the Holy Ghost his problems would only get better and he'd have the help that he needs to deal with all those issues. I told him that he'd learned everything and that he was ready to be baptized. I invited him to interview for baptism and he agreed! So, then I had to go run and find E. Clarke to interview him. haha He passed and he was way happy. He said he felt peaceful and was happy he decided to be baptized. I feel like the Holy Ghost was definitely helping him realize that he was ready for baptism. 

It was such a special day yesterday because two of the Elders' investigators got baptized as well. So we had three in all, they were all very happy. We also had 20 investigators at church among our district!! Unheard of for me! Seven of our investigators came to church. That was a complete miracle because it was completely unexpected. We are very, very grateful! So, to say the least, yesterday we were way blessed! Gave us all a huge boost!

So, that, of course, was the highlight of the week!

Second highlight: I RODE AN ELEPHANT! Last Monday our district went to the crocodile farm. We saw a crocodile show, an elephant show, and then rode an elephant, as well! It was way fun! 

After the zoo we decided to go to the ocean as well! First time I've gone since I've been in Thailand! We went to this pier in SamutBragan that has a TON of seagulls. Really pretty! That was probably my favorite p-day ever! Also, Dad, on the way back from the ocean I was sitting on the bus next to a Korean guy. I said hello and thank you to him. That's all I could remember! haha Except kimchee... but that was not relevant at  the time. I need to learn some more Korean phrases!

Our investigators are all doing well!

Sister Pat has a baptismal date for the 23rd and she is really progressing well. It really is amazing to see people accept the Gospel. Makes me so happy! This was funny, though: on Saturday we had a lesson with her. On Friday Sis. Sawangwong had assigned her to read 3 Nephi 11 about Christ visiting the Americas. She mixed up the books because when she asked her what she thought about the reading Sister Pat said, "Well, I read it all, but I don't really understand it." When she opened the scriptures we realized that she had read Alma 11, which is where the Nephite coinage is set forth. I literally could not stop laughing after that. Poor lady was probably so confused as to why we assigned her to read about the Nephite's money system! haha Made my day!

Sister Ch. is doing really well. She's ready to be baptized, she's just worried about telling her parents. Luckily Sister Jane and Fone helped us teach and they shared their own similar experiences with her. I think it helped a lot. I seriously am so impressed with the recent converts in this ward. They are so with it and so willing to help. They know the doctrine and they live it! I love it! They really are inspiring!

We got quite a few new investigators from street contacting. Haven't taught a lot yet, I'll let you know next week.

 I LOVE YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH!

Love, Liz :)

Welcome to the Crocodile Farm!

Crocodile show

 Water monitor. These things are all over the place. They live in the klongs.

 Here's my elephant!

 Leave it to the Elders to not actually get the elephant in the picture. haha

 Albino peacock!

 It's a real tiger! ahhh!

 Welcome to the ocean!!!

Brother Somgiad's baptism

I can't date, but I might eat ice cream in an avocado

Hello familia!

Thank you all so much for the wonderful emails and pictures! Looks like a lot of fun times skiing! Wahoo!

There's definitely been a lot of fuss over the elections with the opposing parties, but I feel completely safe. I haven't seen anything happen here in Bangkapi. Yesterday, to be safe, President Senior told us to not leave the church or apartment. So, it was a long day at the church. I was excited for the break, but it actually was pretty boring! We watched a lot of mormon messages and made phone calls and taught people who were willing to stick around. We've been really blessed to not be near all the action going on with the protesters. 

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

 Welcome to FHE

 On our way to the landfill

 At the referral's house

 District photo shoot

 Our failed jumping attempt

 YW running through the sprinklers

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