I am feeling quite excellent today.
This week has just been really good. And not good in the sense that you would
think—meeting lots of people and that kind of stuff—but good in the sense of
just being happy, having fun, seeing little miracles, and getting lots of
answers to prayers.
First, the house looks weird. Not
weird in a bad way, just different. It's taller. I like it. I also like how
the-car-which-I-drove is still there. I'm looking at the before and after
pictures and comparing the two. The front door, meaning the front entryway, has
changed. More windows. I am very glad that the trees are still taller than the
house. :) Overall, I like it. :) I approve ... not like it matters but still. I
like it. :)
Yay Seminary! That's super exciting.
Hmm ... what would I like to say? Oh. So on Saturday Elder Allen (the head of
the Missionary department) and Elder Funk (Seventy) came to speak. They kept on
asking us if we had certain scriptures memorized—scripture mastery scriptures.
I mean, they didn't mention that they were scripture mastery but they were.
Also, a ton of the scriptures in Preach My Gospel are scripture mastery scriptures. It is
literally so important to know these scriptures. They make being a missionary
sooooo much easier. It really really really truly honestly really comes in
handy (and is necessary) to know the scripture masteries. God chose these
scriptures Himself which means that He thinks they are important. And whatever
God thinks is important, I would say is probably pretty important. :)
So yeah. Also, one of my
investigators is also attending seminary. He really likes it.
Also, doing your reading ahead of
time is sooo important. If you want to get more out of seminary, do the reading
beforehand. Mom isn't the only one that needs to prepare for these lessons.
Seminary has the ability to change your life, but only if you let it. It
gives you an amazing opportunity to feel the Spirit and receive spiritual
strength that is utterly necessary for daily life. God won't force you. It's
your choice whether you will do the preparation and pay attention. I am so
eternally grateful for seminary because it got me though high school. I didn't
just "survive" high school but I flourished and loved it ... because
of the daily spiritual strength I got from reading my scriptures, praying, and
participating in seminary. Try it out. :)
So the fun stuff from this
week.
One, you know the random words I've
been learning (cleaning stuff, house terms, family terms, body parts, etc.)?
They have been coming in handy. It's cool how literally everything relates back
to the Gospel and everything can help you draw closer to the Gospel.
Also, the Gospel is true. Want to
know why? Because it helped me learn about English grammar: gerunds. One of my English
students asked me to teach about it tomorrow so I've been trying to prepare
this past week (like a little in the morning). First, let us all feel bad for
people in Thailand learning English because either their teachers are Thai (who
can't speak perfect English) or people like me who haven't studied English in a
year so yeah ... good luck. But anyway. So one book we have about English talks
a little about gerunds (and I faintly remember it from high school) but still,
I didn't feel confident enough to explain it or to make my own examples. So
what did I do? I started reading the Liahona and found examples so I could
figure out how to teach it. Haha. It’s a really silly experiences but it works.
:)
Let's see. Oh. Friday.
Last Monday we were told that we
(and the Elders) were going to be teaching a lesson on Friday at 4pm (we had to
provide the investigator ourselves) and that Elder and Sister Allen and
President and Sister Senior would be assisting (the wives in our lesson and
husbands with the Elders). Why? Because the Allens and the Funks were in town
and wanted to see how lessons went in Thailand. So Sister Senior and Sister
Allen helped us teach an investigator named Earth. It was a really good lesson.
I was struck at how much love these two Sisters had for him. They just really
really really wanted to help him. It was so amazing to feel of their utterly
sincere love. We talked about fasting. At the end of the lesson, both Sister
Senior and Sister Allen said that they wanted to fast with Earth this Sunday
and that they would have their husbands fast too. Like me tell you, that fast
was definitely answered. A mission president and his wife and a general
authority and his wife fasting for a 17 year-old boy's family to feel God's
love—how could it not be answered?
Sunday morning Earth runs up to me
and tells me—very excitedly—of his experience with prayer—that he knows that
God loves him. Also, he had been hinting for a while that when he prayed, he
also prayed for a certain "cherry" on a cake. I was pretty sure that
it was for love because was worried but I was also pretty certain that he had a
crush on one of my male RCs. So yesterday he told me that God gave him the
cherry but it was different than what he originally wanted. Originally he
wanted a red cherry but what God gave him was a white cherry without a seed—completely
good. So ... I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure that he got an answer to his
prayer for love but it is now in harmony with the law of chastity. So yeah. Two
very obvious miracles that occurred in response to fasting. Also, we also were
finally able to meet his mom yesterday and she was very friendly with us so
things are looking a lot better on the family end now too. Yay! He is on
schedule to be baptized this upcoming Sunday. He is very excited. :)
Saturday (jumping up and down and
back and forth and feeling bad for everyone at home trying to make sense of
these emails. Hopefully you have your hands on a Urim and Thummin or something
like that. Don't use google translate—it is soooooo hilariously bad at Thai-English translations).
I was asked to attend MLC Saturday
morning. MLC means missionary leadership council and is for zone leaders and
sister training leaders. So yeah. President Senior hasn't said anything but I
think it might be that I will be a STL this upcoming transfer. I'll let you
know how it goes.
But anyway, Elder Funk and Elder
Allen lead the MLC this time and it was sooo good. At the beginning Elder Allen
asked us if we wanted his message to be straight-forward or sugar-coated. We
obviously all said straight-forward. And straight-forward it was. Blunt. so
very very blunt but sooooo good too. Like someone stabbing you with a knife but
it's okay because they need to cut something bad out. It answered sooooo many
questions that had been floating around for quite some time. Like ... you are
taking a really nice nap and someone wakes you up with freezing ice water but
it's okay because you were driving a car and were about to crash if you
didn't.
After MLC, all the missionaries in
Bangkok gathered to hear more words from them. Same. Blunt but soooo good.
And all the time, you could really
feel God's love. Haha. Kinda comical and weird but so true. God
truly chastises those He loves. If He didn't love you, He wouldn't
try to help you become better. God truly loves us and wants to help us. He
doesn't tell us to repent because He hates us. He tells us to repent because He
wants to bless us and He can only do that if we repent and keep the
commandments. On the same topic, He doesn't give us commandments because He
wants to restrict us but because He truly utterly absolutely adores us and only
wants our happiness and our salvation and He knows that only by following the
commandments can we truly be happy and blessed and safe in life. God loves
us.
In comment to Mom's talk about
commandments, one of my favorite verses in D&C is in 1:17. "Wherefore, I the Lord, knowing the
calamity which should come upon the inhabitants of the earth, called upon my
servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and spake unto him from heaven, and gave him
commandments." God knows what will
help in this life. That's the reason why He gives us commandments. To help us.
Because He loves us.
I love you all very very very very
very very very very very much and am grateful for your prayers. :)
Stay safe. Pray sincerely. Share the Gospel. Love God.
~Sister Slaugh
(ซิสเตอร์ซลอ in Thai)
No comments:
Post a Comment