The Hills

Our amazing Elders

The District!

Wild Flowers

Sister Ying is in the pink and she is a member. Her mom is next to her and was baptized about two months ago. They are from a hill tribe far away. Her mom only speaks their hill tribe language, so Ying has to translate. They are the sweetest people in the world!
I love them so much!

 Heading back to Lampang with Sister Maughan.

Sister Anne

Primary kids

Sister Fai

This is Sister Nim. She is 23 and was baptized the first or second week I got here. 

She just got called to be RS president for branch one. She is AMAZING!

Where can I take you today?

Holding High Notes

Hello amazing family!

Well, this was a great week!

It started off on a really high note with an awesome district meeting lead by Elder Klein. He

asked all of us to come prepared to share a favorite scripture and our testimony about the Atonement. It was one of the most powerful district meetings I have ever experienced. Everyone shared powerful testimonies and gave wonderful insights. I felt the Spirit so strongly in that meeting and I just felt so full of joy and gratitude to our Savior, Jesus Christ! I am so happy and so honored that I get to represent Him and share His joyful message with the world!! I also just love the people that I serve with. Sister Ference and all of the elders in our district are just amazing and have such burning testimonies and awesome desires to give it their all in this work! It's so amazing to be serving here with them all. I am so blessed! 

So, I'll update you on a couple of investigators:

First of all, Sister Fanta was baptized! She has amazing faith. She's had quite a few obstacles to overcome, including her disapproving family and her terrible fear of water. She decided she wanted to be baptized, no matter the sacrifice, and then had a dream that confirmed her decision. So, Saturday between conference sessions Sister Fanta was baptized! It was a little traumatic, she was literally crying because she was so scared of the water, but she was just fine, and came out of the font so happy. She described the experience as "beautiful" so I think it went well. And she gave a wonderful, sincere testimony afterwards. Such a happy day! Also, on Sunday each of the elder companionships had at least one baptism. So, there were six investigators baptized this last weekend and we are all so happy and so grateful. All of these people are so solid and have such great faith. It really is so amazing. We were so happy. So happy in fact, that we tim tam slammed last night, as well! It is so humbling to see these people accept the Gospel, change their lives completely and make the necessary sacrifices to become a member of this church. It is such a testimony booster to me to see the people feel the Spirit and follow Him. I love being a missionary so much!

Brother Manid is doing sooo well! He has a date to be baptized on the 26th (because he's going to be out of town next week for a wedding). He absolutely LOVED conference, especially President Monson's talk. Brother Manid is 80 years old, but he is up to date with his technology! With every speaker at conference he would look up their biography on his iphone on lds.org. Then in between sessions he sat in the chapel, plugged in his earphones and watched mormon messages on his phone. He is so awesome. He's the sweetest man. So happy for him!

We have other investigators that are progressing, but I’ll write more about them once we get to teach them more. Oh, I’ll tell you about this one guy named Boat really quick. So, Sister Ference contacted into him and he agreed to meet with us at the church. When we called to confirm the appointment he asked if the church was beautiful and we told him it is very beautiful. He showed up to his appointment all dressed up, make-up, hair and all, ready to take pictures for college graduation. So that day we had both a photo shoot and a first lesson. haha Went pretty well, he wants to be baptized. We just need to teach him the commandments so he knows what he's committing to. Anyway, that's brother Boat!  

On Wednesday night we got to go to the farewell of Sister Pookie and Brother Bow. They are siblings both heading to the states on their missions. They both left yesterday to go to the MTC in Provo. Sister Pookie is going to NYC, and Brother Bow is going to San Diego! I am so excited for them! It was so fun to go spend a little time with them and with the members of the ward. They've got quite the adventure ahead of them! I hope they adjust to the states well. Yesterday they were practicing listening to conference in English. Can't wait to hear how they're doing!

On Friday we went to Chiang Rai to do a switch-off with the sisters! It was so much fun. I went with Sister Sawangwong and Sis. Ference went with Sis. Barber. It was so good to spend time with Sister Sawangwong. I really have missed her, but I've been lucky to have lived with her again in Khon Kaen, and to serve together here in the Chiang Mai zone. Anyway, we did a lot of inviting and visiting less actives, which turned into a fun little adventure out in the boonies! So, Chiang Rai is quite different than I expected. I thought it would be much more mountainous. There are definitely mountains, but they are way out in the distance. Chiang Mai is much closer to the mountains than Chaing Rai. Where we went out to find LA's it was very lush and jungley. Soooo cool! I tried to capture some pictures. Honestly, it reminded me of the Isaan, but a little prettier. 

We met with a 14 year old less active named Chompuu. Her mother was there as well. Her mom used to be a Thai dancer and I was asking her about it. She let me try on her fake nails and then taught me how to dance. Sis. Sawangwong videoed it, so I'll show you when I get home. It was way fun! I've always kind of wanted to do that! The only reason Chompuu wasn't coming to church was because she couldn't wake up. So, she agreed to let Sister Sawangwong call her and wake her up on Sundays. 

Anyway, it was so fun to meet members in Chiang Rai. We had a great time and I learned a lot from Sis. Sawangwong and Sis. Barber. Love the sisters in our zone! They are all such amazing missionaries! Lucky me I get to serve with them all.

This weekend was absolutely wonderful! I just loved conference so much! So many amazing talks. I feel like I really felt the emphasis on following and sustaining our dear prophet and being obedient to the commandments. Amazing conference, I'm excited to go back and study it. And it was so good for our investigators to hear. They all really loved it!

This week was amazing. So many blessings and miracles. I am just so happy and I love my mission so much! I love this Gospel and I love my Savior. I am so grateful for this time to share his message and help people have happier lives and receive salvation. Does it get better than that?! 

Thank you all so much for your love and support and encouragement and prayers. I love you all so much!

Have an amazing week! 

Love, 
Liz

 Cool Temple

 We made cookies!

 Brother Supagit went around sneaking up on people with this buddha mask. haha

 With Sister Fanta! Sister Ariel is on the left. She's a member that helped us teach

 This guy plays out at the wall every day. love it!

In Chiang Rai

 This was the scene our entire bike ride!

On the Road Again

 Dear family and friends,

 I'm glad that you had a great week, with General Conference to top it off! We'll get to see it next week! Cannot wait!

Also, I really hope we get to see the "Meet the Mormons" movie! That sounds awesome! I hope it's really good!

Well, this has been a crazy, amazing, awesome week! 

Tuesday night we headed out to Bangkok for Missionary Leadership Council which was held Wednesday morning at the Chaengwatna chapel. It is just the biggest boost to meet together with missionaries and receive instruction and guidance for the mission. I LOVE MLC! Elder and Sister Meeker are the cutest. They prepared a delicious pancake breakfast for us. Afterwards, we started our meetings and had a really great training. Lately we've been trying to focus on being "all-around" missionaries, that not only find, teach, and baptize, but also retain and activate. Of course, this is so important, but sometimes it's overwhelming to do it all. So, two of our zone leaders in Bangkok, Elder Quinn and Elder Delagarza came up with a new verb for the mission: BRAFT-ing. It stands for just those things: baptize, retain, activate, find, teach. So, now we are supposed to ask ourselves every day if we are BRAFT-ing, what can we do to BRAFT better, etc... haha.  Kind of funny, but really great! In the training we focused on each of these elements and how we can be efficient in all areas. Every day we should be doing all of these things, so we learned how we can help the missionaries be better BRAFTing missionaries, and therefore better all-around missionaries! Everyday I'll go through my planner and write a B, R, A, F or T, next to each activity we have planned and then I can see what we may be missing. Really, it's nothing we didn't know already, but hopefully it will help people organize better. A big focus of finding was asking for referrals and involving members better. Also, we're now not going to have companionship baptismal goals, but rather district baptismal goals. We want more unity in our districts. This also takes away the competitiveness that sometimes happens. I think this is all so inspired and I love it! So, amazing training! I just love the missionaries in our mission so much. They are all so dedicated and so willing to do what the Lord wants. I am so inspired by the people that I serve around. What a blessing to be serving! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

After the training we ate a delicious chili dinner prepared by Sister Senior and had some time to chat with everyone! What an awesome day!

So, after training on Wednesday we hit the road to Pittsonulok to go train the Elders that are in Gamphaengphet and P-Lok. It was fun to go see a new area that I’ve heard so much about but never been to. We stayed in a cute little hotel by the church that night, went for a nice adventure run the next morning, studied, ate lunch at a cute little cafe, and then presented the training with the zone leaders that afternoon! So much fun! The elders there are just awesome and so excited to apply the training.

After that we headed back on the bus to Chiang Mai, about 6 hours. Longest bus ride ever! haha They like to play these really obnoxious soap operas on the buses, so we just try to sleep through it. haha But, the seat that I was on was a little sketchy. I was lying against the window and reached down to grab something from my bag at my feet and my seat unbolted from the floor and I nearly fell off. There were three soldiers sitting in the row behind me and they tried to grab my chair and all looked way concerned. haha

Anyway, we made it back to Chiang Mai on Thursday night and the next morning we had a training here for Lampang, Chiang Rai, and Chiang Mai. They all met here, the training went really well. Pres. Senior came too because he had come up to do interviews for the upcoming zone conference (I didn't get interviewed, I will at ZC on the 17th).  Anyway, that was really fun to see everyone! They're all doing well!

Right after the training we had to run. The government officials that we teach English to had scheduled a lunch date with us missionaries here in Chiang Mai. So, all eight of us got picked up in a government vehicle and were taken to a hotel for a delicious lunch. It was so kind of them. They are very gracious people and wanted to show their thanks by taking us to lunch. The editor of the newspaper was there to take pictures as well so we should be in the upcoming edition of Chiang Mai News (or whatever it's called)! Kind of a neat experience. It's been a really neat thing to work with these people, and apparently, one of the officials might be interested in learning with the Elders! 

 As far as our investigators go, Sister F. was doing pretty well. She had learned everything and really has the desire to be baptized. She has passed her interview already and will be baptized! The plan was for yesterday. However, her mom is very opposed to all this and wouldn't let her go. We've talked to her and we're going to try to go visit the mom. I really think things will work out okay in the end. F. is so awesome and has so much faith. She just wants to do what's right and I know she'll be able to be baptized this week.

We have another few investigators that are really great: Brother Th. and Sister O. They are boyfriend/girlfriend and are so cute. Sister O. is Christian, Brother Th. is Buddhist. They want to get married and he wants to raise his family Christian. They love church, they love our restoration message, and they will be baptized. We can only meet them on Sundays, so it may take a little while. We're just so happy that they are so humble and excited to learn and follow Jesus Christ, and that Sunday is their day off.

Brother Md. is progressing very well! He's quite the faithful church-goer and we're hoping he will be baptized this week. He's been out of town, but he's back now and so hopefully things will work out for this week! He's just so great. We have more new investigators but I'll write about them more next week once we get another chance to teach.

So, this has been one amazing week! So much happening and it's so exciting. I love serving in Chiang Mai with Sister Ference. We are seeing a lot of miracles and feeling so blessed! I love this area and I love the people we work with. I love sharing this Gospel and seeing people accept it into their lives! Life is sooooo good!

Love,

Liz

 The Wararot Market. We like to go inviting here, and shop on pday.

 Caught in a rainstorm

 This is called a รถแดง (rot daeng= red truck) and it's how people get around here. 

It's a song tao, but acts like a taxi and takes you where you want, doesn't follow a route.

 Not sure if this is interesting, but sometimes it's fun to know the day to day things.

 This is a tea/drink truck. You can get really good iced chocolate drinks.

 Beautiful clear skies! This is the front of Wat Phrasing close to our church!

 One of the district's favorite little restaurants

 Our Smoothie Man!

 All of our bikes

 On our way to Bangkok!

 MLC breakfast

 Missionary Leadership Council

 Waiting for investigators to come to church!

 

 Wat Phrasing

Jungle Journey

Hello amazing family and friends!

Great things happened this week!

Last Monday was way fun because we got to spend the day together as a zone and go to a really pretty waterfall. It was super tall with many levels. If we weren't missionaries we could have climbed up the waterfall. They have ropes attached to the rock under the waterfall that you can grab onto. So pretty! I kind of felt like I was a Nephite walking through the jungle! 

So, this last week we've really been preparing Brother Suthep for his baptism, which happened yesterday!!! He has a lot of faith and he travels an hour to come meet with us. He is in his late 20's and is from the mountains. Anyway, he was raised Christian, but was never baptized. As he learned more with us he came to develop his own testimony and really wanted to be baptized. However, he's definitely had some times of uncertainty or worry. He understands how important it is to keep the commandments and he was worried about breaking them, such as not being able to make it to church every Sunday because he lives a little ways away. In the end we helped him understand that it is his choice and that if he wants to come to church every Sunday and keep the commandments, then he can. It's up to him, not anything else. He decided that he would make that commitment and he was baptized yesterday! It was such a happy day. He gave a wonderful testimony and later in the evening after we had already returned home he gave us a call to thank us for helping him. He said that if we had not encouraged him he may not have decided to be baptized because he was scared. He said that now that he is baptized he is so happy! What a miracle. Such a happy day! I am so excited for Suthep. He has such strong faith in God and wants to do what's right. He's such a great example to me!

Another one of our investigators, Brother M., is progressing very well. He's in his 80's and has been coming to church and keeping commitments well. He loves to read the profiles on Mormon.org. So cute. We'll have to make him one! He takes a little more time to teach, but he's doing so well! So excited for him!

We also have another investigator that has a goal to be baptized this coming week. Her name is F. She's in college right now and she is one that also has great faith. Her mother is very against her investigating the church, but she still comes. The only other big concern she has right now with getting baptized is that she's deathly afraid of water since she almost drowned as a child snorkeling. So, we've been trying to comfort her, and one member at church is a swimming instructor and offered to take her swimming to help her feel better about the water. I'm so grateful for amazing, willing members who are so dedicated to help us and I think that's going to make a big difference with F. She's such a sweet girl. Very quiet and thoughtful. I feel really blessed to be teaching her right now!

A few days ago we met with a recent convert that is now less active because of a temporary job. Her name is Sister I.C. She is absolutely amazing. She is working right now to support her parents and siblings, but is going to be getting Sundays off asap. She has a powerful testimony of Jesus Christ. She wants to be a good person so that others that see her will know she loves Christ and is representing him well. I was just blown away by her testimony and I felt the Spirit so strongly when she shared it. 

I think this week I just had so many spiritual experiences learning from the amazing investigators and members here in Chiang Mai. These people have so much faith and are so dedicated to the Gospel. It's so inspiring to me and I just feel so blessed that I was sent here. The members here just radiate with love for one another. They are always serving each other and just have this really special light about them. Truly disciples of Jesus Christ. I am so happy here!

And I just love serving with Sister Ference! She is an absolutely amazing missionary and person. She's so focused and works so hard and is extremely organized. She's an excellent teacher and just so much fun to be around. What a blessing to be serving with her! 

So, for the last week and a half we've been running for thirty minutes every morning and then doing an additional 10 or so minutes of strength training. I feel so good! I've missed running! So glad that Sister Ference is in shape and loves to work out!

Well, these are the main things that happened this week. There's more, but it's in my journal and I’ll tell you when I get home!

Just know that I love you all sooooo much!

Love,

Liz