Dear family,
I am sorry if this letter is
slightly short or rambling.
Important/interesting things that
happened this week:
- We went to the hospital yesterday to visit our investigators’ mothers (2 different investigators). Everyone was sooo excited to see a white person. My companion is Asian so she had fun doing show-and-tell. Yeah. But hospitals in Thailand are actually quite terrifying. I am so grateful for American hospital: privacy and cleanliness.
- I got some adorable letters from the Young Women this week. I am working on responding but I am also still working on writing thank you notes to Amanda and Sister Bristol so yeah … Young Women, don't hold your breath. :) I learned a lot of things from them about Mormon prom and the upcoming priest-laurel conference. They also told me that Mom tells the seminary class that my grammar is shot. Gee, mom. (well, it kinda is) Thanks a lot. Also, one of them said that they hoped I had fun at my yogurt place. I didn't know I had a yogurt place so I'm kinda confused about that. Also. Amber Woll adorably told me in her letter that she recently watched The Best Two Years and her perspective of missionaries is confused. I remember when I was a kid, I always thought missionaries were these perfect people. Now that I am a missionary, wow have my eyes been opened. It's kinda funny. Don't worry, Amber. There are still some amazing missionaries out there that are totally focused and fantastic. One of them happens to be living in Udon, Thailand. Haha. :)
Question. When you talk about
missionaries "contacting" people, what does this mean? Does this mean
teaching new investigators or just getting phone numbers? I guess missionary
work is really different here from there. We stand outside of 7-11s a lot and
ask everyone if they want to be cleansed from their sin. It really hits home
for a lot of them because Buddhist culture teaches them that they can't be
cleansed from their sin.
I love how Heavenly Father knows
everything that we are doing and uses it all for His good. We were at the mall
on a certain day because we had to buy something and we ran into a less active.
He was soooo excited to see us and to read the scriptures with us.
Unfortunately he hasn't answered his phone since then but that is actually
quite normal for Thai people. A lot of them aren't great at the whole answering
the phone thing.
I love how, in life, crazy things
happen but then God gives us blessings to remind us that He loves us. Sister
Yim and I have been teaching this amazing man that has a wife and four kids. He
wants to be baptized here. His wife has felt the Spirit strongly during lessons
but had been going to a Protestant church before she met us. We had been trying
to help her overcome her feelings of obligations to that church and
come to our church on Sunday instead of the other church. Yesterday we
called them and the husband said that he was at the other church, supporting
his wife as she got baptized there. But then he set up an appointment with us on
Tuesday because he knows our church is true. It just hurt hearing that even
though we did all we could, it didn't work. But, then we had 5 really good
other investigators come to church. Some of them are super humble and so good.
God loves us and if we do our best, He will make up for the rest. He is such an
amazing Father! :) And, she can always still get baptized here. Yay Priesthood
power. :)
A lot of people have been asking us
why we are here trying to teach people about Christianity. "The Thai
people already have a religion and they are doing fine. Why are you trying to
ruin that?" These people are also really hard-hearted so I don't try to
reason with them (I just smile, nod my head, and tell them that they are
entitled to their opinion). If they would listen, this is what I would say:
Imagine for one second that everything I am saying is actually true. That would
answer your concerns in a heartbeat. We believe that God is our loving Heavenly
Father. He loves us so much and it wouldn't make sense for Him to make a
hundred different religions and say that they are all okay and will help you
equally. Yes, every religion teaches you how to be a good person but it is more
than that. If God truly is the same today, yesterday, and tomorrow, then it
would only make sense for Him to have one truth and therefore one religion. We
believe that this religion has a fullness of the truth and while every religion
teaches some truth, this has all the truth. Why wouldn't we want to share it?
We believe that in order to return to live with God, we must be cleansed from
our sins. We believe that the only way to be cleansed from our sins is through
baptism by immersion through the power and authority of God. We believe that
this power and authority is called the Priesthood and was lost when Christ and
His apostles were killed but then was restored by the Prophet Joseph Smith. If
everything we say is true, then we would be selfish and mean if we didn't share
it. And the only way to know if what we say is true is via reading the Book of
Mormon with an open heart and real intent and then praying and asking our Maker
and Loving Heavenly Father.
I'm almost out of time. I'm sorry. I
was writing my friend that is apparently engaged. I will prepare a longer
letter next week. I LOVE YOU ALL SO VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY
VERY MUCH!!!!! =D
PS: I sent this to [a friend]
when she asked me how my mission is:
I LOVE being a missionary. My first
companion put it very well: you feel your highest highs and your lowest lows.
It's so true. You feel the Spirit so strongly. Like EFY, times a million. There
is a power when you invite others to repent and change their lives to follow
Christ. It's exhilarating when you feel the Spirit telling you to make a
promise to your investigators that you know is from God. Of course, these are
only special instances; it is not like this all the time. You also feel your
lowest lows. You get soo invested in the investigators and the members here
that when you move or when they make a decision that you know is not the right
one, oh my, it is devastating. Your heart just drops. I have learned sooo much
more about the gospel and about the atonement as a missionary. Haha I feel like
I really didn't know much pre-mission. I mean, I knew stuff but I didn't
understand it fully. I understand it so much more now. It's so hard to describe.
It's so much more real now.
PPS: In another email, Sister Slaugh
sent this.
So I'm adding more to my letter
because I felt super bad about it being so short. (She was writing to a friend
that recently got engaged.)
This week has been really good and
fun.
Zone Conference was amazing. President
Senior focused on looking at the long term goals of missionary work. He even
mentioned how his mission blessed his marriage life. That was weird, thinking
that marriage is the next chapter. Kinda scary. Anyway, he also taught us a new
teaching method: promise and testify of the blessings that are attached to the
commandments before teaching the commandments. It's actually a pretty cool
method. It's been helping people understand that commandments aren’t just
barbed wire to keep us caged in but are the requirements to receive certain
blessings. I actually love commandments. Haha :) Sister Senior talked about
raising our expectations and redoubling our faith. The book Jesus the Christ talks about how our
faith is increased and shown by our obedience and our diligence (not a direct
quote, I simplified the language). Obedience. It's great. It's the first law of
Heaven and that is how we receive blessings. If we love God, we will keep His
commandments (John 14:15). Also, we played a scripture game. Think seminary
jeopardy games. It was all about scripture mastery (without calling it
scripture mastery). Yay for paying attention during seminary. Haha. President
Senior wants us to become better scriptorians. So yeah, Zone Conference. It was
great.
The Zone Leaders were in charge of
the food for zone conference and they bought ice cream cakes. After Zone Conference
was over and everyone returned home, there were still two cakes left over. So …
we the last 8 missionaries sat around talking and eating the cakes with spoons.
It was fun but by the end, we were all like "never again". So much … too
much ice cream. But it provided for some nice time to talk to the other
missionaries and get to know them more. One of the Elders (from Canada) and I
have a mutual friend which was super random but nice. Yay huge colleges where
you meet lots of people.
The weather in Udon has been crazy.
It has either been super hot or actually pretty chilly. Because of the heat,
there have been a lot of wind and lightning storms - not really any rain. Fun
to watch but hard and probably slightly not safe to work in. But yeah, fun to
watch. :)
Um...yeah. I LOVE YOU SOOOOO
MUCH!!!! =D
Last P-Day was dressing up in
traditional Thai clothing and getting our hair and make-up done. The pictures
are so ridiculous. I'll send some next Monday. :)
I absolutely love my companion.
Sister Yim is so much fun and great to talk to. She has been soooo loopy this
past week which has been absolutely hilarious. She teases me all the time
(which, in all honesty, isn't abnormal. Everyone does) which is fun. She is a
convert of three years and has so much faith. It's just a blessing in lessons
because she is able to understand the investigators so well.
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