Hey! Inviting is fun!

November 14, 2010
So we had a good week here in Srinakarin. Let me tell me about my new philosophy for my mission. We don't have a lot of investigators. Or at least we didn't at the beginning of last week. So one morning I say to myself, "self, it looks like there aren't going to be any baptisms before you die" So I ponder that thought. Well, honestly it was a little sad, but i think to myself that we have been working hard and freakish things keep happening to our investigators, so it is not like I am super down on myself. So then I tell myself, Well, I have another six weeks before I die. I am going to tell as many freaking people as possible that families can be together forever. After that, I am not going to worry - I am going to stop worrying about number of lessons we teach and how many investigators are progressing. Obviously I still want them too, but I am not going to worry about it. So that is my new philosophy. Armed with that in mind, we hit the streets. Turns out it works. We got six potential investigators two days in a row - the normal is 2 or 3. Yesterday was epic - we taught five lessons and got six new investigators, including a cute little family where the dad was glued on our every word and excited to try family prayer. Other new investigators included two older women, a young mother who seemed quite willing to try something new to find "true happiness", and a friend of two investigators that we were already teaching. It was a sweet day. We taught all day.
I told you about Boot last week - she walked into church with her friend Taw. They are both great but Boot is really really great. She has prayed every day, read the scriptures every day, and was at church again yesterday and already joking with the members. She feels right at home at church. She readily accepted a baptismal date - she was really cute - I was like "Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and get baptized" you know - the whole spiel and she was like "I don't have any white clothes". I take that as a yes. After we explained that we provide the white clothes she was all over it. Her friend Taw is a little slower but we have her to thank for all of them being at church.Yesterday she told us that she has passed by our church hundreds of time - daily - and that she never thought she would go in. Then one day she decided to go to church. Seriously. That was it. Then they were two Sundays ago. Yesterday they brought a friend and another little girl. They said they are working on Boot's older brother and trying to get him to go. Seriously - they are referral machines.
So anyways, we had a really good week - lots of new investigators. A couple of new investigators from last week showed some signs of progression - have started praying and reading. We are working on getting them to church - the perennial problem.
Have a great week! I love you all!

Lucky Ducks

November 7, 2010
We have had a great week this week! We actually taught the gospel a little bit. That was great stuff. Lets start with our sweet new investigator - a lady named Wanna. We invited her last week and it was one of those really easy invites - hi we are missionaries. Do you want to learn more? Yes. Ok. Can we come back on Tuesday? Yes. Ok. Sounds lovely. So we went back on Tuesday and this lady is adorable. She is in her 40s and single and she lives with and takes care of an older couple. She was all over the first lesson - so in the second we committed her to baptism and she accepted. She is awesome. We might have a bit of a problem with church of course. She takes care of these old people who have doctors appointments like every 2 minutes. So yesterday she had to take them to the eye doctor but she said she can go next week. Anyways - she is pretty cool. We are excited about her. We also had another cool experience that day - we were inviting and a girl said that her friend really wanted to be Christian - and that she would be at her house the next day. So we went back the next day not really knowing what to expect. We honestly weren't really expecting anything, to be honest. But she was there and really excited. She is a Burmese refugee but she speaks Thai. She has believed in Christ for a really long time but hasn't known how to become a Christian. After all this excitement we found out that she actually doesn't live in our area. Bummer. But we gave a really sweet referral to the Asoke Elders. Lucky Ducks.
Yesterday at church we had three "walk-ins" - people just wanting to check it out. That happens a lot here because the church is out on a huge street - prime location. These three are AWESOME! We taught them last night and I am really excited about them. They are relatives of some sort and live in the same house together. One had their little grandson with them. Their names are Taew and Boot. I really think they will go somewhere - Taew said that she has been invited by missionaries several times but had never let them come back or gone to church, but then when her friend (Boot) said she wanted to go to a Christian church, she knew right where one was because the missionaries had told her. Sounds like they are being prepared to me :) Neck was also at church - she is so sporadic. She is the funniest lady. I love her. I just wish she was a little more consistent.
We got some sweet new investigators - One of them is a lady that has been learning with the sisters on and off for a long time. She is really awesome. She is from Laos and has a problem with her visa so she couldn't get baptized but I guess that is going to be all cleared up in January. She still has some other stuff to work through but she is really cute and I already love her a lot. Her name is Toy. After that we taught some other new investigators. One wasn't really interested, but the others were good. The last ones were a mother and daughter that I really like - they seem pretty interested. So Saturday was a really good day.

The new Thai BOM came out yesterday - it is really sweet. They have a triple combination all nice and gilded. The new translation is interesting. They used words that no one knows. Trying to make it more formal I guess. It will be an interesting transition. We all have to re-memorize D&C 4 and the first vision - they both changed a lot. The new book is a lot nicer - the font is a lot easier to read. So that is nice. Everyone at church was freaking out yesterday. Fun day.

We can help with that. Really we can.

Sister Eyestone with "Hopper" the frog.

October 31, 2010

We got two really sweet new investigators this week - a mother and daughter. The mom is named Pim and the daughter is Mook. Pim said that she has always wanted to be Christian because she loves watching movies about Jesus but has never been sure where to go or how to become Christian. We can help with that. Really we can. She is already "soft committed" to baptism - meaning she said she would get baptized but doesn't have a date yet, and is firmly committed to church - she practically committed herself - she was like - I have always wanted to go - and now that I know you, I won't be scared to go. So we are excited about them.
As for other investigators - Nok and her family are still doing well. Well, Nok is doing well. The rest of the family is falling off a bit. Last time we taught, I asked if Nok believed in God. She said that ever since she had started reading the BOM, she believed - that she could feel Him while she read. And she said "So now I can say that for sure - I believe in God." It was really cool. The dad and son haven't been praying. The dad is kind of in and out of lessons - the little twins make it hard for everyone to stay focused. They didn't come to church again yesterday. Bummer. We are working on that - Nok is really worried because the twins are still breast feeding and they are a little hard to handle because there are two of them. So it is understandable. We are meeting them again tonight. Yay.
We also got another sweet new investigator yesterday - a lady called in the middle of the week and wanted to know what time our church was. She came yesterday and we talked to her for awhile after and she said that she wants to know the "details" of our church and that she wants to come every week. She really liked it. She has been Christian for a year and just moved to Bangkok from the Isan. She lives with her younger sister. Her name is Ann by the way. We were going to teach her after church but then her sister called and said that she had forgotten her keys so Ann had to leave and go let her in the house. Bummer. That is ok because we are meeting her tonight. Yay! So she is awesome too. We figure we can get her baptized pretty quick. : )
So as for sweet news of the week. They are opening VIETNAM to missionary work. Can you even believe it? They are going to start sending young missionaries there - but only people who are of Vietnamese descent. And it will be like Mongolia - they can't proselyte. They will just work through the members to get referrals and teach English. But I think that is pretty sweet. One of my zone leaders is 100% Vietnamese and so when Elder Perkins came for a mission tour he told him about it - said that if he had gone on a mission a year and a half later he would have gone to Vietnam. I think that is pretty crazy. Who would have ever thought that we would get missionaries into Vietnam? The Gospel is true people! And it is moving forward!

I love you all to pieces

October 25, 2010
So this week was pretty interesting. Our little family is doing ok. We taught just the mom and the son last week and it was a really good lesson. We taught the restoration and you could tell she was feeling it. She also told ust that she loves the scriptures - that when she read at first she didn't understand but then she prayed and she understood - she was like - I can't explain it - I just get it. It was cool. She even has a favorite scripture- the one about the iron rod being the word of God and leading to the tree of life. I have never had a Thai pick up on that symbolism on their own - she is good. And she loves the scriptures and she prays every day. The son is awesome too - he loved church last week and really wanted to go again this week. They said they would be there but then didn't go. I don't know why. We are teaching them tonight so we will see. The dad wasn't there last time we taught and the 17 year old daughter wouldn't sit down - she was taking care of the little twins. But we can get them. Nok (the mom) really is doing awesome.
Other than that, the week consisted of a lot of inviting. We got dropped by most of our new investigators - one girl who was promising said that her parents wouldn't let her learn. Another is moving, and a whole host of other excuses. Kind of discouraging. But that's ok! We just invited a lot! We got a lot of potential investigators but we are having a hard time turning them into real investigators. We did get one yesterday - a cute lady with two really cute little kids. When we were inviting her, I asked her if we could get her number and she was kind of thinking about it and her little 7 year old son started giving it to me right away. He is really cute. He was all over the lesson - wanted to look at all the pictures of Jesus that we had.
Yesterday was the primary program! Yay! It was adorable! The primary in our ward has five kids - three of which are from one family. They had a cute little girl conduct and they sang songs and they all gave talks. It was the cutest thing ever because you could tell their parents wrote the talks for them - they would get up and be like "I am grateful that the bishop has asked me to speak today". One little boy, who is six, bore his testimony and started bawling. It was the cutest thing ever. When they sang the songs, they all had their own songbook and they had a cd that played the music and they would all get ahead of the music and you could barely hear them because they were buried in their songbooks. I wish I could convey how adorable it was. Just know that it really was adorable and it made me really happy. One of the girls just turned 12 so now we are down to 4 kids in the primary. Well, occasionally these two African kids show up - no one really knows where they come from or who there parents are - they just come and go to primary and run around wreaking havoc. Pretty funny.

I'll "die" in Srinakarin . . .

This week we got a couple of new investigators. We had some success inviting. One lady was really cute - when we went back to visit her for the second time she told us that she thought she could only pray once a day and she was nervous that she would mess up so she didn't pray. After we clarified that, she said she was going to pray "many times a day" to practice. It was really cute. She pulled out a Jesus pamphlet someone had given her years ago - illustrated stories from the New Testament. I actually really liked it. It wasn't from our church but it looked like it did a pretty good job and stuck to the King James Version. She loves studying about Jesus but is still Buddhist. Her name is Soy by the way. She is adorable. There was also a girl that called off a pass along card - she is 15 and said that she lived right by the church and had been given a pass along card and wanted the BOM. That was pretty cool. We tried to get her family to sit down but they wouldn't - which was a bummer because it will be hard to teach just a 15 year old girl. But we can work on them. She was a really cute girl.
The other good news of the week is that our little family is doing really well. They had family prayer every day! They always have the 11 year old boy say it so they had him say the opening prayer for the lesson. It was hilarious. He recited verbatim the "how to pray" section in the restoration pamphlet. I was impressed - he had it all memorized. I liked the part where he said "Ask Heavenly Father about things you are wondering or things you are confused about." Pretty funny. Apparently I really need to be more clear when I teach prayer. They are just so used to reading something for their prayer. I figure Heavenly Father is just happy that they are talking to Him. The mom of the family has read 20 pages in the Book of Mormon - we were talking about all the different people just to help her understand and I was talking about the family - "there are two good brothers and two not so good brothers" and she was like "yeah! Those two older ones are so annoying." It was cute. You can tell they have been reading when they are able to pull out the name Lehi on their own. We are excited about this family - it looks like they could be going places.
I didn't move this last transfer. I am excited. This area is awesome. We don't have a lot of investigators but the members are really fun (like the ones in the photo) and I have some really good friends and so I wanted to stay here. There are some awesome members here in Srinakarin that I just love with all of my little heart.
I love you all! Have a great week!

That is not how it works, silly!

Add Sister Supansaa for a week

10/10/10
We have a new companion for a week. The Thai missionaries arrived from the MTC last week - one week before moves, so all the sisters in Bangkok now have threesomes for one week. Our new friend is named Sister Supansaa. She actually went to BYU Hawaii for the last year and a half so she speaks English WAY better than I speak Thai. She is a lot of fun. Basically I forgot how nice it is to not be the only one talking. She speaks Thai, you see, so she talks some too. So nice. I don't want to give her up. But we only have her until next Wednesday - when she will get her actual trainer and move somewhere. Her sister served a mission here and just finished about four months ago. They have an awesome family - all members, all have served missions, and all have been to the temple. Pretty rare in Thailand. Her family converted when she was two.
We have an investigator named Lek who we had a good week with this week. We went to go see her and she said she had been praying every day. She is a taxi driver and she said that she has been having a hard time finding enough work and that she prayed and got more customers. She is adorable. She talks really fast and honestly I only understand about 50% of what she says to me. But I try really hard and hope that if it is something really important the Spirit will tell me. She calls me Tiffy. I have no idea why. I am not really sure how you get Tiffy out of Sister Webb. But I like it. I have always wanted a nick name and I have never really had one. So I guess Tiffy works. She was praying at the end of a lesson and she said "Thanks that tiffy and 'What's your name again?' (At this point she was looking at Sister Eyestone, talking to her in the middle of the prayer) but then she just said "and tiffy's friend could come here today." She is hilarious. I love when people panic in the middle of the prayer - they will be praying and then they will look at you and say "I don't know what to say" or "how do you close again" or "what is your name again"? It is pretty funny. It is so new to them. Anyways - the lesson with her was good. We taught the restoration and I asked her what affect it would have on her life if it was true - she was like "well, I guess I would have to follow these teachings". Why yes. Yes you would. It is always good when someone understands that - sometimes they are just like - I will have more good in my life and I can start worshipping Christ after I finish worshipping Buddha. No! That is not how it works silly!
We had a really good week of inviting and new investigators. We started teaching a family of six! It was awesome - we invited the mom and she said that she would talk to her husband and see if he was interested. I kind of thought that meant no - it usually does - but she gave us her phone number so I called her and asked her and she said that her husband was interested too and that we could come over. When we got there, the whole family was there! She has four kids - two of whom are really small twins that are really cute. They also had a niece and nephew there. The dad was probably the most interested of them all - and that is half the battle. It is a very patriarchal society - so if the dad learns, they all learn. It was awesome - but still very early - we have only taught them once. We are going back tonight. We had an appointment yesterday but she called and moved it to tonight - also a good sign that she is willing to call us instead of just not being there. They are a really cute family and I really want them to get baptized. I will keep you updated. The little boys walked out with us and they were ahead of us practicing prayer - it was really cute.

Inviting all day leads to some interesting experiences . . .

October 4, 2010
We can start the week's email by saying that I have never been so wet in my entire life. This week the weather has settled into a quite predictable pattern. And that is that it rains every evening. VERY HARD. Let me tell you a story. Last week we had companion exchanges. I am an idiot and left my umbrella in the basket of the bike I was borrowing. So I am wandering around on Wednesday, heading towards an appointment but we are walking and inviting on the way. We are looking at the ominous looking clouds and Sister Eyestone says "But I think it is moving the other way". Literally two seconds later, drops start to fall. Then it is raining so hard that we can't really see. This is all while we are out in the wide open with one umbrella between the two of us. Sister Eyestone is wearing a white shirt. So she wins the privilege of using the tiny umbrella. We try really hard to get to a seven to buy an umbrella but by the time we get there it is completely pointless. It is literally like I just got out of the bathtub. As we were walking, Sister Eyestone says "I think it is lightening up". Why does she say such things? Right as she was finishing her sentence, there was a huge crack of thunder that made me scream. Yes. I screamed. Just a little bit. But it was REALLY LOUD. So anyways, we finally get to a 7 and I buy an umbrella and then the rain stops. Gotta love life.
So apart from being wet almost all of the time, it has been an interesting week. Ma Nit still seems to be pretty golden. We taught her on Friday and watched the Restoration DVD. Ma Nong was helping us teach. Ma Nit said that she felt confused like Joseph Smith - that she had joined Christianity and then gone to her old church and they were dancing and doing all sorts of weird stuff and she was like "this isn't right! This isn't how it is supposed to be!" So she made appointments with other churches but all these things started popping up to stop her from going there and the whole time she was driving past our church every day and she felt like she should go in. Then when she walked in she felt like it was the right place to be. We asked her to pray about Joseph Smith and she said "I already know - it is true." We asked her to pray for confirmation. She said she would. She is awesome. When we are teaching she will be like "can I say something?" She is adorable. She is very excited because her baptismal date is in November and that is the month she was born. So she is doing well.
Other notable events - we were inviting yesterday and we came upon a group of people who were about to go somewhere. There was a lady standing off to the side holding a baby. So the natural course of action would be to go to the lady with a baby - you know - families and all that. So I say to Sister Eyestone "lets pick off the one with a baby". (Yes my language sounds suspiciously like hunting when we are inviting). So we start walking towards her. She sees us coming and turns around and goes inside - doesn't want to talk to us. The funny thing was that when she turned around, it turns out that she was holding a dog. I think my brain has been fried from sun exposure. I REALLY thought that she was holding a baby. I valiantly tried to invite the other people that were right there but I was on the verge of laughing the whole time so I don't think it was very effective. We had a good laugh about that one. I am kind of glad she walked away - if I would have started inviting her and THEN realized that it was a dog and not a baby, I would never have made it through the invite with out losing it. Also in the area of awkward inviting - we saw a girl sweeping inside her gate. We walked up and said hello and she literally dropped the broom and RAN into the house. We thought it was pretty funny. Apparently we are quite terrifying. She was well trained in what to do if she saw strangers. But she was probably 16 years old - a little old to be running away, I think. Gotta love inviting! So much fun!