#thaipride

1. Sister Yanisa and I know how important prayer is. Sometimes we pray while thai squatting.

2. Me and Gato, the six-year-old son of our favorite family.

So this week I've started doing this thing called the Superman Prayer. It's where I tell Heavenly Father that I'm not superman but I need to be able to do superhuman things on any given day. And man does Heavenly Father just qualify me beyond anything I can do on my own! Especially this week, Yanisa and I have both been sick. And my voice was in and out on Saturday and Sunday. How can you be a "challenging and testifying missionary" if you can't open your mouth and preach? Use sign language?

Well, I don't know thai sign language, and Heavenly Father doesn't need me to learn that right now, so he provided a way and opened my mouth/vocal cords so I could say and do everything I needed to do despite feeling pretty crappy all week. He always provides a way when we trust Him. And our weaknesses are just a really awesome opportunity to take the Lord's hand and start walking on water.

This week was as great as every other week here. We somehow managed to get lost in our area (I've been here for four months, Sister Yanisa for three and se's a native to Bangkok), we had a lesson with our Laotian investigators and brought a Laotian Elder to help us teach (through speakerphone haha). We learned that one of our investigators hasn't really been getting anything we've been teaching him and so we need to start over and teach him everything even though we've already taught him a lot...but instead of getting mad, Sister Yanisa and I felt grateful that we finally figured out why he wasn't progressing. It was like a breath of fresh air. A new start.

And it poured rain a few times. No faster or better way to make my day than to make it rain. Heavenly Father knows me so well!

When one of our investigators, Sister W, got baptized this weekend, she got up and bore her testimony after. Most people stumble through their first testimony because they're just overwhelmed from the day or they don't know how to yet, but Sister W just said that she was grateful to her Heavenly Father for the opportunity to turn a new leaf and expressed her desires to remain steadfast. I almost cried. Proud tears. I'm so proud. And I didn't even do anything to help teach her! She flipping taught herself. All of it. One time a week or two ago we were talking about a concept in the gospel and she just burst into tears. At first I was worried something was wrong, but it quickly became apparent that she was just feeling the Spirit really, really strongly. After that, she progressed so quickly! God has prepared the hearts of His children here and is leading us to them (or them to us!).

3. Baptism! Sister W, a laotian sister, and all the people who have helped teach her/fellowship her. I've never seen anyone make friends in the church as quickly and easily as Sister W. She is so cute!

I feel really repetitive, but this is truly the greatest work we can be involved in. I love being a missionary so much, especially here in this choice corner of the world. Helping people enter the waters of baptism is such a special privilege. I love life!

I love you all!

Sister Z.

With His love to guide the way, we will carry on

1. Baptism!

2. Celebrating my 6-month mark with ice cream :)

So...we're on transfer week again! hopefully we'll get a call sooner than later to avoid some of the chaos that was last transfer...but frankly I think it'll be just as chaotic as it always is. I love the culture of this mission and the missionaries...I know Heavenly Father wanted me here, in this mission, with the people I've had a chance to serve with.

Tuesday was Zone Conference! We went caroling at the BTS (Bangkok Transit Service...or something like that) station...which is Thailand's hi-so fancy equivalent of the el train in Chicago...we had people taking pictures and videos of us left and right. I imagine we made quite a stir, but more than that, I hope we brought some of the Spirit with us and that that spirit stayed in the hearts of those who heard us.

At Zone Conference, President Senior shared with us one of their family Christmas traditions: they take Matthew 25: 34-40: "For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me." And then they cut up the phrases and stick them in a bag and every person in the family takes a slip of paper and that's their Christmas challenge to be like the Savior, to feed the hungry or visit the sick. And President extended that challenge to all of us this season.

So. I've been sick for about two months now. This is a bad thing. But through a lot of the pain and sickness I've had to deal with, I've been able to see the Lord's hand in my life, and I've experience so many acts of selflessness and kindness. I went on a switchoff to Bangkhen last Wednesday with Sister Downs, whom I adore. It was a super fun day, but I was in so much pain that I had to lay on a makeshift-bed for almost three hours at the church building because I was dizzy and nauseous and in pain. And Elder Hill, along with Elder Bush, my nong, bought me food and refused to accept me paying them back. And then they visited with me when they could have been running around contacting like every missionary usually does in this mission. They chose to spend their dinner hour talking to me and helping me get my focus off the pain. These Elders have already fulfilled their challenge to serve others like the Savior, and I am so touched and grateful for the missionaries in this mission. I believe it was President Thomas S. Monson who said that we will never be able to measure or estimate our ability to do good

And then on Sunday, I was freezing cold and so was everyone else, but my district leader, Elder Lingard, gave me his suit-coat to wear, even though he probably needed it more with his thin Arizona blood...and I wore his coat the whole day. He and all the Elders in my district here have been so nice to me in the midst of pain that has been making me feel like a very crappy missionary. And of course I can't forget my companion, Sister Ellis. There isn't much anyone can do to help me feel better, and it's been hard for her to not be able to help, but she's wonderful and supportive and at least helps me feel better about my ability to work (or lack thereof).

And we had a baptism! This time, a nine-year-old boy. He has the attention span of a squirrel but he loves reading the Book of Mormon. He's way cute. He was a miracle investigator and a miracle baptism...his grandma just got baptized last week and he wanted to get baptized so bad..and he's already best friends with all the boys in primary in that ward.

As for the rest of the week...well, it's crazy here. We invited a homeless guy to church and he ended up coming! Shocker. That almost never happens. We ended up giving him to the Elders because we weren't sure if he was being creepy or not. Turns out he's awesome. He wants to get baptized! But...so on Sunday, the Elders walked in on him making his own cigarettes in the bathroom. They had to dispose of the pot themselves. And then they taught him the Word of Wisdom. #classic

I love being a missionary!

Sister Z.

He who says he can, and he who says he can't, are both usually right.

1. Our baptism! Elder Smith, Sister Aae (our newest Lao investigator), Sister Khiaw, Sister Ellis and me!

2. The view from Sister Somjit's apartment after our lesson. I love Thailand!

3. Only in Thailand do we find a wild herd of zebra statues on the street.

This week. Well. There were lots of good things happened this week, but the most recent event was at 1:30am this morning when I woke up to violent food poisoning. For almost three hours. Well, I guess I'm a real Thailand missionary now that I've had food poisoning. Fun stuff. ;)

The highlight here in Don Muang this week would have to be our baptism. Let me tell you about Sister Khiaw. She is a beautiful Laotian working here in Thailand with some of her friends. We met her because she was dragged to church by her neighbor Sister Him, an old Cambodian woman who we just love. She came up to us and said "Sisters, I brought you new investigators!" And one of them was Sister Khiaw. While she almost forced to come to church that first day, she had sincere interest in the church and in baptism. She had trouble reading the Thai materials we had for her, but we got a hold of some Laotian scriptures and she started progressing like CRAZY. Being baptized was the natural next step for her, we barely had to ask her if she wanted it...we knew.

The Lord promises that if we are faithful to covenants and obedient, He will open the windows of heaven such that there will not be room to receive the blessings he will pour out upon us. And He did that for us by blessing us with Sister Khiaw. We've also been teaching Sister Somjit, who is best friends with Sister Khiaw, and last week Somjit invited us to her home to teach her husband, too, and asked if missionaries could teach her mom in Laos...and then on Sunday Khiaw brought a new friend to church. All because of this one Cambodian sister in our international ward! We have a ton of Laotian investigators...enough that we're going to start skyping with the Elders in Laos to have them help teach the lessons!

This work happens one by one. One person at a time. When people come to understand the blessings of the gospel and the covenants they can make with our Heavenly Father, it is only natural for them to want to share it with their families and friends. We never had to ask Sister Him to invite her friends to church, and we never had to ask Somjit or Khiaw if their families wanted to learn...it was only natural to them that they all wanted to share the joy the gospel had already brought them with the people they love most.

Missionary work isn't scary. Sometimes, the thought of going out and asking complete strangers if they want to go to church isn't the most appealing thought in the world. This work is hard and it takes everything we have to give to it. But it's not scary, because we're just inviting people to share in the happiness that has changed our lives. That's it.

Our email time just flies by every week...definitely not enough time to talk about all the miracles and funny and embarrassing things that happen on a daily basis here. The worst is that in Bangkok, there are a ton of Americans and Europeans, and sometimes I accidentally invite them to be baptized in Thai instead of English...I'm so much more comfortable sharing the gospel in Thai, haha. I had to give a short testimony/talk in the international ward this week and it was pretty weird. But way good. The Church is true no matter what language you can express it in.

Love you all! Have a week! :)

Sister Z.

Cue the end scene from The Breakfast Club, when Judd Nelson puts his fist in the air, and the opening chords of "Don't You Forget About Me" by Simple Minds

1. Flooded parking lot. So. Happy.

2. They have ice cream on hot dog buns here. With rice. And peanuts. And condensed milk. 

It is so very Thai and it's really good :)

3. Highlight (or lowlight...): We moved a bookshelf out of our apartment (the one that had black mold on it) and we found mushrooms growing out of the side of it. #baller

4. The actual highlight: two baptisms!!!!!!!

This week was my first two baptisms in Thailand!!!!!!! and icing on the cake: it was a family, a single mother and daughter, แนน and น้ำ. AMAZING. Just awesome. The two of them have been so spiritually prepared and they have so much faith and they love the gospel. They just fell into our laps, literally they just walked up to the church building a month ago because they were new in the area and wanted to go to church. And now they're our newest members here in Kalasin.

Well...it didn't rain as much this week, but it poured on Friday, enough that a few streets and a parking lot flooded! So. Cool. I loved it. My companion did not. Shoutout to her for putting up with my ecstatic response to biking through pouring rain and six inches of water!

This week beat me to my knees in a lot of ways, physically, emotionally, and mentally. Tuesday I woke up just feeling awful (I don't think it was food poisoning, but it was pretty intense and painful, almost puking...all that good stuff). Then most of the week was hot and the sun just beat down and I really don't think I'm going to like the hot season at all haha...we worked our butts off this week and by a series of miracles we made all of our goals, which hasn't happened once yet this transfer. And then Sunday we had baptisms! So it was all worth it...I suppose. I've really been looking at this mission, and every day, and every week, with a long term perspective -- in the long run, all the work that I put in is making a difference. Our work here is worth it, in the long run, even if it doesn't feel like it. I come home every night knowing that I gave it my all and I know that when I can come home I can do so with my head held high, knowing I did it! I served God with all my heart, might, mind and strength. And it feels good.

Don't really know if that made much sense...

In personal study this week I was reading in 3 Nephi, when Christ is expounding the words of Isaiah and other prophets to them, and I thought, "how cool would it be if I could sit down with Christ and listen to Him expound the scriptures with me?" And then I stopped. WAIT. He expounds the scriptures to me every time I read them! When I'm reading and a thought hits me that I haven't had before, or I get a new insight, or get an answer to a question by reading, that is God helping me to understand the scriptures! How cool is that? We all have the ability to ask for that and have that greater understanding.

Also, for Sunday night dinner we made french toast. It was amazing and so, so American. aka...perfect.

Well, I feel like this weekly letter was a little lacking and a lot all over the place. Oh well. This week can really be summed up in a single moment from yesterday, when we were coming back from meeting with our final investigator and we'd met all of our goals for the week, we'd just had two baptisms, and I put my fist in the air, Judd Nelson style, as the end of "The Breakfast Club" played in my mind, knowing that we did it! We did everything we wanted to do. We couldn't have done any of it without God's help, but we believed and we worked and we saw miracles!

Thanks for all the support and all the emails. I love hearing updates from everyone! Have a great week!

-- 

Sister Zoller