Thailand is really on the verge of something big.

Hello everyone!

This week has had some craziness. Mostly good craziness. I will start with telling you about all the investigators you have heard about. Saeng is still doing great. But someone in her family died this week so she has been at a funeral. We haven't taught her since Wednesday and she wasn't able to come to church yesterday. But she is still great. we aren't worried. We just miss her because she is so darn much fun to teach. I love teaching people who keep every commitment and pretty much have a spiritual experience every week to share with us. Yay. We have a new investigator that has a baptismal date - I told you about her last week. She was the one that basically invited herself. We walked up and handed her a pass along card and she was like "when are you coming back"? She is awesome. (Her name is Lang, by the way). She loves what we teach, has already read a bunch in the BOM, and has a baptismal date. We are really excited about her. We went out and visited May last week (she is the one that was going to get baptized but then didn't). She still has an incredible amount of faith. She also came to church on Sunday. She has to ride a bus for an hour to get here. I don't think she will ever cease to amaze me.
So we have a whole slew of new investigators again this week. We were out inviting one day and this lady stopped on her motorcycle and started talking to us - she basically said that she wanted to learn and before we could even say anything she gave us her phone number and address. We taught her on Saturday - she has four kids. We asked her why she had stopped us and she said that she had a good feeling when she saw us. Pretty cool huh? Her family is adorable. She has a son and three daughters. - age 17,15, 13, and 11. They all were there for the lesson and we are so excited. Sister Christensen and I tend to be a little optimistic - we are already planning their baptism :). But it could happen. They were quite promising.

I love you all! Have a great week! Carlie - good luck at graduation. Stop getting old. And stop getting prettier. It just isn't good for my heart. "See" you all next week!

Sara

The political unrest has been pretty crazy.

I know I have already told you about Saeng. Let me tell you again. She is absolutely amazing. She was at church again last Sunday and saw the Elder's investigator get baptized. She said that she felt strongly that she needed to get baptized too. She also said that since she met us she is happier. She is so awesome. We are meeting with her three times a week so we should be able to get through the lessons and get her baptized - she loves going to church and is already friends with all the members. She is really attached to a little baby in the branch - she carries her everywhere. It is just really good to see because the members fellowshipped her really well and she stays at church forever just talking to people and enjoying it. And that is great because she is from Laos and her family is there so I think she gets kind of lonely here. So church is really great and she loves it and she wants to get baptized and I am so excited and I love her and I could write forever and ever but I should probably stop.
I taught a lesson in a casino the other day. We invited a lady and then went back and taught her and we were sitting in her house and she told us that she runs a casino out of her house - so we look in the corner and there are all these game tables. I guess we will tackle the gambling issue when we get to that point. She was pretty legit though. Her name is Nong.
The political unrest has been pretty crazy. There has been a curfew country wide - nobody is allowed out of thier house after 9:00 until 5:00 am. We are in by then anyways but we have been coming home at about dark because we don't want to run into any problems. There really haven't been a lot in Korat. The day we were on Lock down someone burned a building down town, but since then we haven't seen anything - we have been safe. But we see tidbits on the news and see the blown buildings and it is crazy. All the missionaries are out of like four Bangkok areas and have been moved elsewhere. But I hear it has calmed down a lot. We had a fun time in the house that one day. Our house is TEENY so we were going kind of crazy.
We had a member in our branch get her mission call this week. She is going to be serving in Thailand. It was kind of funny though because the call letter and the handbook were all in English. We met with her and tried to help her translate it. In case you were wondering, I don't know how to say measles in Thai, or insurance, or briefcase, or any number of things. It was really funny. We had to look up every other word. But hopefully we helped a little bit. She is adorable. She has been helping us teach a lot and even came inviting with us the other day. I don't think anyone will ever say no to her - she is just too adorable and sweet. She has been a member since she was eight - one of the few in Thailand. I am excited because I will still be here when she comes in the mission.
I love you all to pieces and I will talk to you next week. It should be normal time - P-day will be back to normal. I love you!

Sister Webb, Sister Christensen, and Sister Hulme

OK. So news for the week. I don't remember how much I have told you, but we have a new investigator named New. She is about 30ish and has two kids. she is married to a German but he is actually her same age and speaks Thai so it isn't creepy like most farang Thai marriages. Anyways, We have taught her four times now. Last time we asked her to pray about Joseph Smith and when we went back and asked how it went she said "I didn't see anything but I could feel it in my heart". She is awesome. She didn't come to church yesterday. Church is the bane of my life. Why won't people just come to church? But I think we will get her there soon. A great little member family helped us teach last time and they brought their kids and they are already great little friends with the investigator's kids. So we will get her there. She has a baptismal date as well. Great stuff. Her kids are adorable. They are huge fans of us. Last time we were there they showed us every photo album they had. We were looking at pictures forever. I think we got their whole family history. The kids just really wanted us to see it, I guess.

It also seems that we have found our golden investigator of all golden investigators. I told you a little bit about her last week. Her name is Saeng and she is from Laos. We have only taught her three times but she said she believes it all and came to church yesterday - that was the first time she could have come. THe members were great and she had tons of friends and she stayed after church forever. It was great! She has read a lot in the BOM and prays every day and is fully planning on getting baptized. The Elders have a baptism next week so she will get to see one. We are way excited about her. It is crazy how you find people - I just talked to her at a bus stop for 15 seconds and got her phone number and all the sudden she is our strongest investigator. She is really humble and sweet. You can hardly hear her when she talks. She is just adorable.

Funny story of the week comes to you from Sister Christensen. She was teaching this cute little old lady about the fall. So we read the verse in 2 Nephi 2:20 - And they have brought forth children. Yay, even the family of all the earth. Then Sister Christensen asks "So what did Adam and Eve do together?" (You know - trying to be a good missionary and review the scripture and see if they got it). The little old lady bursts out laughing and then it occurs to us how bad that sounds. Dirty minded little old lady. We have been having a good laugh about that one. Sister Christensen and I are still having a blast. We just laugh all day long. She is one of the funniest people I have ever met. We are pretty sure that we will be together two moves, so that is exciting.

Korat is ROCKING!

Sister Webb with the man she sings to -- who pats her head
(which shows he feels like she is his child.)

Korat is ROCKING! ..... I have a new companion. It is....drumroll please....SISTER CHRISTENSEN! I pretty much love her. A lot. She is a huge high school musical fan so we hit it right off. She is from Orem and is in her 9th moves. We are having a lot of fun so far. I know I say that all of my companions and I are the same person but it is true again - I just think that most of the sisters here have similar personalities in a lot of ways, which is probably why we are called to the same mission. We are really having a blast!!
We taught Phii Boo who is still doing really well. She gets mad at us because she wants us to spend tons of time at her house. We try to tactfully say that we really have to go. She is crazy. But still golden. We did a lot of inviting and have got 11 potential investigators (meaning they gave us their phone number - most won't go anywhere) but we think some of them have promise. We got a new investigator named Sara - she grew up in America and has an English name. See, the fourteen year old investigator I told you about, finally came to church! And she loved it! She was all scared - it was fast and testimony meeting so she kept asking me if she had to get up and speak. She was sure we were going to make her do something scary. But there were two members there that are around her age and they really stepped up - they have both helped us teach in the past and they were what finally got her to church. It ended up being really good and we don't think that we will have a problem getting her there in the future. See has become one of our most promising progress-ers.
On Sunday Sister Hulme's family came to church - it was really fun. They are a great family. It was just her parents and her twin. They did a little musical fireside and it was good. Then today they took us to that national park and that was a blast. After the national park, we rode elephants! Carlie - eat your heart out. It was amazing. I rode on its neck so I was actually sitting on the elephant. All I could think about was how jealous Carlie would be. And don't worry - I am sending lots of good pictures. It was raining so it was the full Thai experience - on an elephant in the jungle in the rain.

Korat is on fire!

Phii Ow's Baptism April 25, 2010

Korat is still on fire - we have ten progressing investigators and tons of new ones that have promise.
Phii Ow's baptism went off with out a hitch. It was perfect. There were members there and investigators and the font filled in time and the speakers were good - just a great baptism all around. We were worried because she can't use her left arm (she got in a car accident a couple of years ago and cut a nerve) but the branch president was aware and did a perfect job of baptizing her. She was so happy. She got a day off for her baptism - she has never had a day off before and she just happened to get one on the day of her baptism. She did not think that was coincidence and neither did we. She bore her testimony afterward and was adorable - she said that she believes in God (that will never cease to be a miracle to me - she didn't two months ago). Her testimony was short and sweet and then she turned to sit down and remembered that you are supposed to say in the name of Jesus Christ amen but she got a little flustered and said "in the name of the Holy Ghost". She realized it and fixed it. But it was really adorable. I love that lady.
The bad news is that Phii May didn't get baptized on Saturday. There was a certain leader in the ward who was concerned that she hadn't really left her boyfriend and he managed to get it postponed. He just doesn't know the whole story and it's too bad he had anything to say about it. President Smith is stepping in to help out and hopefully her baptism will happen really soon.
Phii Boo is still amazing. We have already taught her the first three lessons. It is weird to move so fast - we usually only teach 2-3 principles in a lesson. But she already has a great background and has read the BOM and all the pamphlets so it is basically review. She didn't come to church on Sunday and we were a little worried but we found out that she went to her old church to tell them that she wasn't going there anymore. She is really "full speed ahead" if you know what I mean. She brought two friends with her to the last appointment and they both became new investigators. I think she is going to turn into a referral machine. She is telling everyone about us and bringing all her Christian friends and telling them about the BOM. It is really a huge miracle.
It's time for Sister Hulme to go home. I'm sad because I'm really going to miss her. We have had so much fun together. She promised to keep in touch and I know she will, so that will be fun. The two options it looks as though she will be replaced by are both awesome, so it will all be great!

A crazy, wet Thailand

I think I must start with the water fight. I have never seen anything like it in my life. We went out Tuesday morning in our shorts and t-shirts and got a bucket of water dumped on us a couple feet from the house. It was still getting started at that point. We went to a member's house who lives on a busy road. They had a huge bucket of water with a hose running into it and then we each had little buckets that we would fill and throw at people. You throw water at all the motorcycles and bikers and walkers. Then people come by in the back of trucks and you have little wars - they stop for a minute and you throw water at each other. Some people were throwing really cold water. That felt good though - it is after all the hottest month of the year. I can honestly say that my entire body was wet within about 5 minutes of this. And then people will get out of the car and smear baby powder on your face. That freaked me out the first time. They usually ask permission and then just smear away. Because we are farangs we are instant targets. People really want to get us. It is so much fun. After a good couple hours of this, we met up with some other members and bought water guns at 7-11. Mine broke the first time I used it so I traded it in for a bigger and better one. It had a backpack that held the water and if you held a little button down there were two nozzles that sprayed two ways. It was a pretty sweet water gun. We just walked into the center of Korat and got plastered. I have never had so many people touch my face in all my life. We just got hit with buckets of water over and over again. It was so much fun. We wanted to get in the back of a truck but there were no members doing it and we figured getting in a truck with someone we didn't know wasn't a great idea. Man it was fun. Everybody has work off and is just partying. Fortunately the first day (the day we played) is usually the most tame - after that it gets a little too crazy - a little too much alcohol. The second days we made sure we had long things to do. One day we went out to a members house and pretty much watched the elders help them build a house. We weren't much help there. But we taught their daughters (they are recent converts) so that was good. We managed to stay dry until the way home - from the church to our house (about a five minute bike ride) we got about 9 buckets of water dumped on us. We were completely soaked. It was crazy! Luckily we had study right then so we got in pajamas and hung our clothes out to dry. After that we got a taxi and went out to meet a new investigator. Taxis are a good idea because people can't throw water at you. They try to get you to open the door. But we don't

Ok. Now for the truly exciting news of the week. WE HAVE TWO BAPTISMS THIS WEEK! Phii May has officially split from her husband and passed her baptismal interview with flying colors. She is getting baptized on Saturday and getting the Holy Ghost on Sunday. Then she is moving to Bangkok. She has more faith than I have truly ever seen. She has nowhere to live and no job. People keep telling her that she is going to have to crawl back to her boyfriend and she told us that she tells them that they don't understand that she has God on her side and that with Him she can do it. I honestly think she has more faith than anyone I have ever met. We still don't know what she is going to do. But she is definitely getting baptized. She has been investigating the church for five years now and has such a strong testimony. I just can't believe I get to be a part of it. Elder Parkinson is going to baptize her and it is on his birthday. Isn't that just wonderful?

Phii Ow also passed her baptismal interview with flying colors. No surprises there. She truly is amazing. She is getting baptized on Sunday. She stopped coffee cold turkey and agreed to pay tithing and truly has a testimony. I love her so much. She just never ceases to amaze me and never ceases to be adorable. She is really ready for this.

A cool little tender mercy - my favorite hymn in the world, as you may know, is How Firm a Foundation. Particularly verses three and seven. (It actually might be four and seven in English - the verse about Fear not I am with thee) Anyways, When we were setting up the baptism programs, both Phii May and Phii Ow picked that hymn. Isn't that cool? We decided it was not a coincidence. After we set up the baptism program with Phii Ow, we were riding away and getting sentimental about our week and the miracles and then we got attacked by a stupid little yippy dog that scared us to death and ruined the moment. Typical Thailand.

There is a really cute old man that lives across the street from us. He sits on his porch all day. Sister Hulme started going to visit him and singing to him and we have been going over every couple days since I got here. We just stay for about five minutes - we chat and then we sing a hymn or two. It has become the high light of his life. He gets really excited when we see us and the lady that takes care of him said that he is only in a good mood if we come. He also told her that he wants to be a Christian because we are Christian. He is the most adorable thing. He is in his 80's and definitely shows it. A couple days ago he patted our heads. This might not mean much to you. But you must understand - you don't touch people's heads in Thailand unless they are your children. So him patting our heads meant that he considers us his children. we pretty much cried after that. He has really become a special little friend. I have a picture of him to send next week too.

We met Phii Boo - she is the lady that ran into the Elders and said she already has a testimony of the BOM. We were having a really hard time getting a hold of her. We decided to try and find her house - she had drawn a map and written directions, which we couldn't read, so we went to what we thought was the general area and started asking people. After asking about 12 people for directions, we found two little kids who knew her. They let us follow them to her house. We called her and she didn't answer so were going to leave and then the two little kids started screaming into the window. Finally a little girl popped her head out and said her mom was asleep. Naturally we were going to leave - the two little girls told the girl to wake her mom up. Turns out that was divine intervention. Phii Boo came to the window and screamed when we told her who we were. She talked about a mile a minute for a good half hour. She showed us her BOM - it is completely marked up and she has read the whole thing. She came to church yesterday and told us that she felt really good and knew it was the true church. Whoa. That doesn't happen super often. She wanted a Doctrine and Covenants and wants to get baptized. We were like, well, we can arrange that. But we have to teach you first. I think she is a pretty promising investigator, if you agree.

Our whole world is getting turned upside down because of Son Kran - the big water fight. We basically can't do any work - we are just trying to line up service projects and we have to get inside the house early. Tuesday is the first day of Son Kran so they made it our P-day and we are working on Monday. It is going to be crazy. Son Kran just really throws life off here.
We also got two other new investigators this week - they were from inviting. One lady has lupus and when she found out I was a "nurse" she went and got all her lab results to show me. It was really cute. She just really opened up to us and really responded to our message. She needs Jesus Christ! (Just like everyone else). When we were biking away we were just like "holy cow - I love her." Her name is Dew (like the rain in the morning). Our other new investigator also has potential - she lives alone and has expressed the need for religion to comfort her. She already believes in God because she says that she can feel someone when she is alone and someone told her it was God and she believes that. Heavenly Father really is preparing people all over the world! We just have to find them.
We have a recent convert named Mint that plays the violin. I told her that I do too and she wanted me to play it for her. I played a couple of hymns and I have now been recruited to play in a fireside tomorrow. Apparently there are a couple of members with extra violins lying around. Random. Then it turns out that Elder Dearden is a violinist as well. Small world. It was actually really fun to play the violin (even though it was a pretty crappy violin). I miss the violin and it felt good. One member really freaked out about vibrato - violinists aren't common here and he had never seen that. He kept asking how I did it. Pretty funny.
Get this! I am doing switch offs in Lopburi this week! With Sister Mark! Korat and Lopburi always switch off - I am just really lucky that I get to go back to my old area. We are going to eat at my favorite restaurant and visit Phii Ruay and I am so excited I can hardly stand it! I will tell you all about it next week!
I love you all so dearly. Thanks for all the emails. You are all fantastic!
Sister Webb