Area 5: Bangna. I am back in the
city, in the Bangkok East zone. Bangkapi and Srinkarin were both also in this
zone. In the bus ride to transfers, I had a thought that I could return to
Bangkok and that kinda scared me. Chiang Mai and Udon are less crazy. But now
that I am here, I absolutely LOVE Bangkok again! There are sooo many people to
talk too!
My companion is Sister Embley. She
is on transfer #3 but is sooooooo good! She is so diligent and so good at Thai.
She works soooo hard. I'm sooo excited for this transfer. We sent goals for
this next week and while they are still realistic, they also push us a lot. I'm
soooo excited. We are just going to work like crazy, see tons of miracles,
and nothing is going to stop us. We've already seen tons of miracles in
the past three days. Solely through God's grace and
miracle-making-ability, Sister Embley and I got balanced (which is 1 baptism
-investigator of the previous sisters, 12 lessons, 3 daters,& 3 at church)
in three days.
We had 8 investigators at church - 5
of which came from our contacting on Friday and Saturday.
We have 3 daters, two of which are
really solid and absolute miracles. One is a Chinese man (Xuo) we met
Saturday morning. He told us that he was looking for "เยซุ." เยซุ is Jesus. He can't speak Thai
and his English is limited but Sister Embley is really good at teaching via
pictures. She also used to speak Chinese (though her Chinese is kinda like my
German - shoved in a corner because Thai took over). And, miraculously, a
member here had a Chinese Book of Mormon that we could give him on Sunday. He
is getting baptized this upcoming Sunday.
The other dater is named Toffee. He
has been learning off and on for about 2 years. When we met him Saturday we
asked him what was keeping him from being baptized. He said that he wasn't
positive he could come to church every day due to work. Yesterday we had a
great lesson all due to the Spirit. We had to split so I taught Toffee while
Sister Embley taught our other dater Mana (and apparently that lesson had the
Spirit really strongly too - it's nice that Spirit can be in more than one
place at once). It was SO cool. I know for a fact that none of the words I said
were my own. I asked Heavenly Father to tell me what to say because I had
literally no idea how to help him as he had already learned everything and was
not progressing at all. Heavenly Father totally came through, as per always. 1
Nephi 3:7 and 3 Nephi 13:25-33 (a scripture that Sister Embley and I had talked
about during comp study the previous day for a different investigator) came to
mind with a question, "How important is this to you?" "How
important is God to you?" The Spirit told me to remind him that the
purpose of this life is so that he can return to meet God. Nothing should ever
get in the way of that - not work, not family, nothing. Toffee is getting
baptized this upcoming Sunday. We are fasting with him this Tuesday so that he
can know what he has to do to be able to come to church every Sunday.
So yeah. Bangna is great. I know
that we are going to see sooo many miracles this transfer and I am sooo very
excited.
DUDE!!! The twins!! That's sooooo
exciting! Send pictures when they are born!!! :)
That is soooo absolutely amazing
that the primary children went to go visit the temple. Being on a mission,
being soooo far away from a temple, and working so hard to get Thailand a
temple has truly taught me so much about the importance of temples. I am soooo
happy they are getting a head start of going to at least visit the temple. It
will guide them sooo much in their life.
That is also sooo cool that you are
trying to help the youth prepare to go on missions. Literally I will never
regret this decision. Never. I couldn't even if I tried. What I have learned here,
what I have experienced, what I have felt, what I have seen, the people I have
met, is infinitely greater than anything I could have been doing in New Jersey
or Utah during May 2013-November 2014. This is more than school. This is more
than work. Granted, this is not for everyone. Better put, everyone has a
mission and for some people, their mission is not a full-time mission with a
name tag. Examples: Delsa. She has an amazing family with two amazing children
with two more on the way. Rachel and Audrey have soooo much faith. It is sooooo
humbling to hear about them. The church would be a better and stronger place if
every member had the same faith that Audrey and Rachel have.
Barbie. She has had sooo many
missionary experiences during this year it is astounding.
Kim. Kim, in a few short months,
will be married in the temple for all time and eternity. That is sooo
exciting.
For me, personally, a mission was
for me. I needed this. I have grown so much, in knowledge, in faith, in trust,
in reliance to God, in testimony, in love, in everything. I will forever be
changed and bettered.
Everyone needs to prepare for a
mission. Even if they don't end up on a mission, that preparation will better
their life.
So I'm almost out of time. I have
some pictures to send next week about transfers (how we fit two bikes onto a
taxi).
I love you all soooo very
much!
Oh. When is Mother's day?
Sidenote: It
is terrifying that I hit my year mark soon. Terrifying. Utterly
terrifying.
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