Monday, April 14, 2014

Udon Letter--April 14, 2014

CONFERENCE WAS SOOOOO GOOD! =D

Our adorable 15 year-old investigator—Yii—stayed for all 5 sessions (they showed the General Women's Conference the same time as the Priesthood session). Granted she and Toey (a member; they are now best friends) both fell asleep during parts of it but hey, at least she was there. Also, I know when I was younger I fell asleep during Conference too, so it's okay. Yii has such an amazing understanding. She is soooo cute! :)

What I loved in Conference is thinking about everything they repeated. The hen gathering under the wing story was in there twice. So was Martin losing the 116 pages. There were a ton of scripture masteries thrown in as well. I don't have my notes with me but I'm pretty sure there were other repeating things too.

One thing that my companion and I do every day that I love is that we study a Conference talk every day in companionship study. I love making Conference a year-round thing and not just a one-weekend thing.

I loved Holland's talk. He is always sooo good.
I also loved Oak's talk in the Priesthood session. SOOO GOOD! It's cool to hear that I have priesthood authority. I approve. haha =D

Yesterday was the official start of the nation-wide water fight. As it was Sunday and because we are missionaries, we obviously did not participate yesterday. Well, we tried to not participate. But... on the bike ride from the church to our home, we got drenched. People just stand on the side of the streets and throw buckets and buckets of water at you. They also have hoses. Luckily water balloons are not allowed on the streets. They also put flour or baby-powder on your face. It was actually really funny yesterday as we were trying to get home: some people would throw water on us but other people would actually get in front of us and tell us to stop so that they could drench us. Soooo funny. "Happy Thailand New Year." Dude. I think for the 4th of July we should start doing this. So much fun.
I was going to bring my old camera with me to take pictures but...you get sooo soaked so fast. Sister Yim and I bought water-proof bags like a month ago but the zippers aren't actually water-proof. The phone was in Sister Yim's bag and is now no longer working. Oops. We'll have to get a new one tomorrow maybe...or Wednesday because we don't know where would be open during the water-fight. So maybe we will just take before and after photos.
This is definitely a holiday that would be fun to come back for.

I don't know what else to report. Conference. Water fight. Most of our investigators have not been answering their phones. The really good investigators are probably not answering because of the water fight. That's understandable. Gavin and Putta have not been answering for like 1.5-2 weeks. It's really sad. They were both soooo good but I mean, if they don't answer their phones or call us back, we can't do anything. It's disappointing. Oh well. New weeks are always good fresh starts.

All of our mission leaders here are really focusing on us being happy. We answer 5 questions every night (they've changed the questions) and the last one is "Did you find joy in the work?" This past week the two traveling-assistants to the president (we have four APs - two stay in Bangkok and two got called two weeks ago to be the travelling APs) came around the mission just to train us about finding joy while contacting. I guess it's a serious issue. I know of a lot of missionaries that are just sooo stressed. This is hard work and we work long hours. We work and work and don't always have a lot of success. And going around asking everyone if they want to be cleansed from sin and having person after person reject us isn't always fun either. But, I don't know. I guess I am insanely grateful to have a naturally happy disposition. I always try to smile because if I don't, I don't feel happy and I don't like not feeling happy. It's actually really that simple for me (this obviously probably does not apply to other people). I don't like frowning. I just don't. I've done it and I much prefer smiling. It's more enjoyable. Smiling, even when I am not happy, makes me happy. I remember in high school, someone once told me that I was being fake or "denying my emotions." I'm not denying my other emotions. I'm just choosing which ones I want to focus on. Happiness is best, in my opinion. But I definitely understand the feeling when you just get sooo stressed that it is hard to smile and all you want to do is cry. That's why President Senior has asked us to check ourselves - to make sure we are finding joy in each and every day. President Senior is an amazing and inspired man. I am so very grateful that he is my mission president. :)


I hope all is well with you. I love you all so very very very very much!!! =D

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