A week of miracles!

July 11, 2010

Ok. This week has been quite awesome. Lets start with the expected and then we will move to the unexpected. Remember Chanita - the lady who wandered into church last week and said she had promised God that she would get to know him? Yeah - she is just as amazing as we were hoping. When we taught her for the first time, we explained what the Holy Ghost felt like and she got all excited and said that that was how she felt at Church in America even though she couldn't understand. She said that she stopped feeling it for awhile and then felt it again when she walked into our Church building. She hung on every word of the lesson and then said the closing prayer. When she finished, you could tell she was feeling it. I just said "how does it feel?" and she started bawling. She told us that it was the first time that she had ever prayed in her own language and from her heart. She cried for a good while. It was a really cool moment. Of course Sister Larson and I were crying as well. It was just one of those moments that makes life make sense - you know? She came to church again yesterday - stayed for all 3 hours and loved it. She loves that senior couple (the Rempps) and so hung around them a lot. The branch was really good to her as well - she had a lot of friends right off the bat. It was really cool. We were excited to see that.

Other good but not really unexpected news - Pim passed her baptismal interview. She is so ready. She picked her grandpa to baptize her and the primary teachers to be the speakers. She was so nervous before her interview. It was really cute. But we weren't worried at all. Like I said - if she failed, no one should ever pass. She truly has a testimony. So she is getting baptized on the 18th - right on schedule. Now for the unexpected good news. Remember New and Kim? They are getting baptized on the 18th as well. We talked to Pres. Smith about them in interviews and he said that the Bishop needed to talk to their parents and show them the young women program and tell their parents that New and Kim are expected to be at church every week. So we tell Kim this and she brings her dad to church yesterday. Her dad loved it - Sacrament Meeting was PERFECT - it was about being honest, fulfilling our different duties, and being all around good people - like any dad would like to teach his daughters. He talked to the Bishop and gave permission. The elders were all over him trying to get him to learn but he doesn't actually live in Bangkok - he lives somewhere else and comes in town when he has business here. Kind of a weird situation. But it was perfect! Everything fell into place. We called Elder Teppitack and he came and interviewed them that night. They have been ready to get baptized forever and now that we have permission we don't want to wait. They are excited and ready to go. So unless anything happens, they are getting baptized as well. (But we all know many things can happen. So pray hard.) We are just really happy for them - Isn't it kind of funny that I have baptized three people my whole mission and now I am in this limbo area for 6 weeks and am going to baptize three people? Obviously I don't really care about the numbers, it is just funny/cool - it is obvious why we needed to be here, however random it is.

- we were walking past a guy and he invited us to drink beer with him (a typical experience) so we weren't going to talk to him - I set a pass along card on the table and was going to walk away but he stopped us and said that he was a member. We didn't really believe him - I mean he was drinking beer. But he went through his whole story - that he had been baptized 15 years ago and he told us about the missionaries who had taught him and everything. He said that he had been active for 11 years but then moved to Bangkok, married a nonmember, and fell away. He said that he wanted to go to church but didn't think he was a member anymore - we assured him that he was. He also said that he wanted to confess his sins. It was just a cool experience. Pres. Smith said that there are 15,000 members in Thailand and there are 5,000 that we have no idea where they are. I bet this guy was one of them - they move and we lose track of them. But Heavenly Father is looking out for this guy. He said he is going to come to church next week. We gave his number to the elders. Cool experience. I hope he is there next week.