Another week in paradise!!

Today we woke up and the whole house had no water - we couldn't flush toilets, wash dishes, or do laundry. When it came back on, all the water was brown and disgusting. We had to wait for like three hours for the water to come back on and be a normal color before we could shower. Then I had to use S.J.'s shower because my bathroom is still completely waterless. It was quite fun. As for the heat, it is actually the cold season right now. It finally came. It is not that hot - actually quite bearable. I mean it is definitely still hot but not nearly as much. Last Sunday it was actually a little bit nippy. That was shocking. S.J. almost died. It was pretty funny. But apparently the cold season only lasts for a couple weeks so we are trying to enjoy it while we can. I miss snow. The cold season also makes showering very rough - the water in our buckets is FREEZING! And the morning are a little nippy, so we basically die every time we shower. Last week though I had TWO days in a row with a hot shower that actually came out of the shower head and not out of a bucket. It was a miracle. I doubt that will ever happen again.
Funny story. S.J. and I went to eat dinner the other day and we picked a restaurant we had never been to. Apparently we picked the local drunk hangout. We sat down at our table and this hopelessly drunk man comes over and starts talking to us. He tried to sit next to Sister J. but she wouldn't let him, so then he just moves the chair back and sits behind her and starts playing her a song on his guitar. He sang all sorts of stuff. My favorite was one in English - the words were "Does it bother you Nicole?" It was pretty funny. He read our name tags so he called us Webb and Josephson, but he eventually shortened Josephson to "Josie" - I guess Josephson is a little too long for a hopelessly drunk man to remember. Eventually, he went back to his own table but then he would occasionally yell out random things like "Josie! I love San Francisco!" The owner of the restaurant would periodically yell at him and be like "Can you be quiet for five minutes?" Then when we went to pay for our dinner, he payed for us! So basically we went on a pseudo date with a crazy drunk man. It was pretty fun. Then that same day we got hit on by a cross dresser at the store. Pretty funny place, this Thailand. I LOVE it!"

It was a day full of miracles!

This is me at McDonalds at that huge mall in Bangkok I told you about. I think this is a pretty sweet picture. There were Thai people in the window laughing at us. They must get a huge kick out of watching white people take pictures with this Ronald McDonald. But hey - I like the picture and I am glad that I could be the means of their entertainment.
So random tangent - I think I should explain the deal with Thai names. You are probably confused. The word "Phii" is a title that means they are older than you. You put that word in front of their name whenever you are addressing them. Nong is a title for someone that is younger than you, but it is the same deal - you call them Nong and then their name. The other thing is that all Thai people have a real first name that no one knows - they all have a nickname which is what they go by. Phii Ed, for example, is actually named Supanid Tangmeesang. But no one calls him that. Your parents pick your real name and your nickname. And here, when they say "Brother so and so", they use their first name, not their last. So the Thai missionaries that are here are Elder and then their first name. So I would be Sister Sara.
This last week for long planning, we dropped like a million investigators. We have to really have faith to drop them. One we dropped was our investigator named Phii Id. I don't know if you remember her, but she was a really promising investigator. Anyways, she got a new job and works 7 days a week and said she couldn't learn with us anymore or go to the Church. It was really hard for S.J. because they are really attached. But the story gets really good here. After this planning session, we were a little distressed because of our very small investigator pool - we dropped two people with a baptismal date and decided that if another didn't come to church this Sunday, we were going to drop her as well. So we only had 2 strong investigators. But then Heavenly Father poured in the miracles. We went out to work and our first appointment was with Ruay, the woman who we met in the market a while back. We committed her and her two kids to Baptism! Yay! We are so excited about them. Then during the lesson, the phone rang and S.J. turned it off but noticed it was Phii Id - we were like "why would she be calling us?" So we called her back after the lesson and she announced that she was going to come to Church tomorrow and wanted to start learning. She came to Church and met with us after and set a new baptismal date. Wow. It was awesome. It was totally out of the blue. Then, the woman (named Adjan Tee Waa) that we were on the verge of dropping, had this brilliant aha moment that night. She was like, I have been worshipping the God of Buddhism and your God at the same time. I need to make a decision. Then she was like "And I can pray and ask, right?" She said that before, she has only been praying and asking for blessings but has never straight up asked God a question. And guess what will happen when she does! Woohoo! Then she came to Church the next day for the first time in forever and our members were awesome - they were all hugging her and talking to her. So she is progressing again. This all happened in one day! It was a day full of miracles!
Phii Ed received the Holy Ghost this week. He was so happy. He just sat in the chair for a minute afterwards and smiled. You could tell that he was feeling the difference - feeling how awesome of a gift this is. He is getting interviewed for the Aaronic Priesthood this Sunday. I can't even begin to describe how much I love this family. He is an awesome member. He makes really good comments in Sunday School and helps us teach. He is a powerhouse when he teaches - he has a strong testimony that he really had to fight for. Him and Sister Baew are really a huge help to the missionaries. Man they are awesome. They are the happiest family I have ever seen. Which is really awesome because they haven't always been a happy family. This Gospel really turned them around. Yay! I love the Gospel! It is so amazing!
Sister Sara

"Yippee!!"

"Thanks for water" celebration

Phii Ed's Baptism

November 11, 2009
"Yippee! It was amazing! He was so happy. After, he bore his testimony and it was awesome - he has never been super great at expressing how he feels, but you could feel the Spirit like radiating off of him. His family was thrilled too.
I told you last week about our new investigator named Ruay. We met her again and we are super excited - she prayed and asked if God was there and she said that she felt like there was someone all around her. Her two kids also read the pamphlet we left and the daughter whipped out a question about the priesthood - that is when you know they actually read it. Pretty sweet. She is reading the Book Of Mormon a ton and said that she would ask God about the things we were teaching - she already really seems to get the concept of asking God questions - she already believes in Him because of that experience. Both Sister J. and I really love her. She is just really real and fun to talk to and be with.
The sad news is that we lost Som. She just started saying that she wasn't ready for her interview with President Smith and then announced that she is moving six hours away to a town that doesn't have missionaries or a church. She has been living with an aunt and her mom wants her to come home. Then she didn't show up to three straight appointments. We aren't really sure what happened. It was really tough - S.J. talked to her during weekly planning last Thursday and I pretty much cried through the rest of planning. But I have come to believe that it is just not her time - she believes all of this and just has to be ready to change. When she is, Heavenly Father will put her in the path of missionaries again.
So now for my tidbit about why Thai people are so nice. I got my skirt stuck in my bike the other day - like really bad and I couldn't get it out. Within 60 seconds there were three Thai ladies there all trying to pull it out. We finally did get it out, but not before it was ripped to shreds. Then as I was leaving they gave me clothespins and helped me pin it so it wouldn't get stuck again. People here are so awesome.
Oh! Important bit of news -- both S.J. and I are staying in Lopburi another move. That is good. We are excited!
I love you all tons! Good bye until next week!"
Sister Webb

I thought I would die I was so happy!

November 4, 2009
So, Phii Ed's baptism was awesome. When he got dunked in the water, I thought I would die I was so happy. He has really just been amazing and overcome so much to get here. This family is just amazing. They are going to be such a strength to the church. They have been giving us rides places lately and we just laugh the whole time - Phii Ed is really one of the funniest people I have ever met.
As for Som - she is still doing well. She was a little discouraged last week because I think President Smith really intimidates her. She doesn't want to waste his time if she is not ready. But she had a good interview with President Nurag and he really encouraged her, so the interview with Pres. Smith is on for this Sunday.
Pim is still doing well as well, although it looks like her big trial has finally reared its head. Her dad has forbidden her from going to church and has forced her to sign up for special classes on Sundays. She is really sad about it. We don't really know what to do. We are going to try to go over and teach at her house so he can see us and maybe meet us and know that we aren't scary or wierd. But I don't really know what is going to happen with that. Honestly I think Pim might just keep coming at the risk of their relationship - she really wants to come to church and really wants to get baptized. Dang Satan is good though. I hate him.
Other than that, our week was a little dry of investigators, to be honest. we got tinged by a couple and everyone was really busy with the holiday (it is a three day holiday). We did a lot of inviting. We did find one really promising new Investigator named Ruay. We met her at the market and have already taught the first lesson. She seems really interested. She prayed at the end of the first lesson and said "Dear Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ amen" We had to remind her to put something in the middle. It is such a foreign concept to them. But we went to the market the next day and she had already ready two chapters of the BOM. That doesn't happen often.

I love you all! Have a lovely day. The church is true.

"Best Week Ever!"

October 28, 2009
Ok. Best week ever. I am so excited to write this email. First of all, Phii Ed passed his baptismal interview with flying colors! He is getting baptized this Sunday.
So now for the completely unexpected news of the week. Som interviewed for Baptism on Sunday too! We went over the questions with her and her answers were awesome - she was like "Yeah - I know there is a God because I prayed and asked if there was one and He answered me. I did the same thing with Joseph Smith" You have to realize how out of the blue this was. She was not going anywhere two weeks ago. Then we met with her and set some goals and she started reading the Book of Mormon everyday and she is a completely different person. She is happy. Two weeks ago she was one of the saddest, loneliest people I have ever met. Not any more. After we met with her she wanted to come inviting with us. She was following us on her motorcycle and I heard her singing to herself. It is honestly that God just reached down and scooped her out of her sadness and is guiding her through life. It is a complete transformation. Let me express how I feel about this. YYIIIIIPPPPPPPEEEEE! YYYYYYAAAAAAAAAYYYY!
HHAAALLEEELLLLUUUJJAAAAHH!! That is me screaming in delight.
Pim continues to be just awesome. Everything we tell her is like ok. I don't really have a testimony about that but I will go pray about it. Then she comes back and is like "check. got an answer about that one. What's next?" She is so awesome. She is still moving toward baptism. She has a day set for December 6. She doesn't want to move it sooner because I think it is her birthday or some sort of special day.
Anyways. I love you all. In case you were wondering, being a missionary is freaking awesome. This week was the best. I am so excited for Sunday. So I love you all, the Church is true, God's hand is in this work, and I think it should be mandatory for girls to go on missions. Just saying.
Sister Webb

"Oh Budda!!"

October 21, 2009
Funny story – we totally had a lady get up to say the prayer in Relief Society and pray to Buddha. The whole prayer was great except she opened it “Oh Buddha” instead of “Heavenly Father”. The Church still has a ways to go here, I think. Honestly I think she might of just forgotten or it came out automatically. But it was pretty shocking, to say the least.
Phii Ed has his baptismal interview this Sunday! He never did get one giant answer, but he finally put all the little answers together and realized that they were an answer. We are so excited. It is really cool. We are so excited for his interview. He is going to be such an awesome member. He is the funniest guy ever. He can't stay serious for very long - he keeps us laughing all the time. Most of the time I don't know what he is saying but I know it is funny, so I just laugh too. When I do understand, I laugh really hard.
We went inviting the other day and very possibly found ourselves a family of nine to teach. Wouldn’t that be awesome? Like five of them were sitting outside and we were passing out English fliers but Sister Josephson invited this girl and she said she was really interested. She started telling everyone around her that they were going to go to learn English and about Jesus. The whole family wants to come to English and we are going to try to set up an appointment to teach them. That would be like the best new investigator number ever. That will be tonight. I hope they are still interested. We had a cool experience this week – a member called and said that he wanted us to come teach his relative, who is 78 years old and has been Christian all her life. We went and taught her but we didn’t really know if we should continue because she speaks Isan (“country” Thai) and we don’t, and she really didn’t seem to understand anything, and she can’t go to Church because she is too old, and she can’t read, so we were debating what to do, and decided to go see her again, and she was at a neighbor’s house who listened to our lesson and wants to learn more – she was really interested and really liked what we taught about prayer. So we are going to teach both of them together – that way we can continue teaching the older lady and see if she can progress but we also have this new investigator who can understand and help her and learn about the Church herself. It was awesome.
So I have already gotten better with spicy food. We ate at the Church after meetings and it was way spicy (the members called it a little spicy) and I was able to handle it with only one water bottle. This week was another great adventure. I showered with my bucket and cup five out of the last seven days. It is freezing. But I like it because it is the only time I ever get to be freezing! The air conditioning actually works really well in our apartment and gets the room cool enough to sleep. For the most part I sleep really well here. I am already to the point of liking my bike. It is nice to just ride around and think and get a breeze.

The attack of the killer monkeys

A monkey's welcome to LopBuri, Thailand

October 14, 2009
So I went and played with monkeys last Wednesday. They are CRAZY! Sister Josephson bought some food to give to them and she got attacked while we were still out in the street and this evil monkey stole the whole bag. So then we go inside and this monkey comes, climbs up my dress and sits on my shoulders and starts looking for bugs in my hair. That was all fun and good. But then another one comes and does the same thing, but I couldn’t get him off. I kind of shook my shoulder to try to get him down and he started swinging from my bangs. No joke. I finally got him off, but not before he scratched my face pretty good. I feel pretty proud that I got scratched by a monkey.
As for our house: don’t let the picture fool you. It is not nice. I officially showered with a bucket and cup this morning because our showers died on us. We swept 10 cockroaches the other day. One of our favorite pastimes is spraying cockroaches and running around and trying to get them before they die and screaming if they come at us. It is quite the adventure.
I ate fish with the skin and face still on it yesterday. I am officially cool. Most of the food is really good but I have definitely had some nasty stuff too. As for the real Thai food, they rate the “spiciness” on a scale of 1-10, so when you order food you choose the dish and level of spiciness. I ate a 0 yesterday and almost died. I am definitely not a Khon Thai. The members have noticed and now make fun of me for it – we all had lunch together in between conference sessions and I was trying to hide how much my mouth hurt but they noticed that I went through like 2 water bottles in 5 minutes and all started laughing. Good times.
I still don't understand Thai. But we are working on it. One day I will have a conversation with someone. That will be exciting.
I have never sweat so much in my life (which by the way, I found it we are in the middle of the COLD season. I am in for a treat when the hot season comes around.) But I love it! It is great! And I love all of you! Being a missionary is amazing!