Wow, Thanksgiving time again! Ah, and life is just so good. I seriously can not understand how the Lord can possibly bless me as much as he is doing right now, I am happier than I have ever been. I just keep asking myself, Does it really get better than this? I never think so and yet it always does!! There is so so much to tell you all! I will get started.
First off, no, no one here celebrates Thanksgiving. Most people haven't even heard of it. So we are going to a restaurant owned by a Swedish man who is having a Thanksgiving special (we'll see how that works out) But it's all good because yesterday at Zone Conference we had chicken (I don't think they eat turkey here...) gravy, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin and apple pie. It was amazing!! :) And the conference was incredible! Elder Pratt of the Seventy came and gave us great counsel on the importance of praying on our knees and asking investigators to offer a kneeling pray at the end of the lesson. He also recounted some facts from church history and I felt so grateful for all that the early saints did! My favorite part of the day was the drive home when Elder Lilly, Elder Milton, Sister Hulme and I had an amazing discussion of the things we learned. Gospel discussions are always great on the mission, but this one felt especially amazing because it really motivated me to conquer some of the weaknesses I have in my faith and let the Lord strengthen me to preform his will.
And speaking of the Lord using me to preform his will... WOW I am so blessed. It's incredible. OK so Friday... we go to teach Sally. Sally is Em's wife, who we have been teaching for a while. We gave her a baptismal date and when it came she said she wasn't ready. We died, we thought, oh no, we must have rushed her into it. The next Sunday she didn't come to church and we thought she was lost... But on Friday when we taught her, the lesson went really good and we could tell something was on her mind. Sister Hulme asked if she had any questions and she said, how long do I have to wait before I cant get baptized... WHAT?! oh man, we were so happy!! So she might wait until December 13, which is when her 2 daughters will be ready to be baptized, or maybe December 6th with Penapah!! (BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!) PLUS Khana, the little 8 year old girl passed her interview and will be baptized this Sunday. So this will be the first investigator that I have taught the whole way through who will be baptized! A glorious day! Then Penapah, then Sally, then her girls, then Mint (hopefully if her mom will sign the paper) then Waree who is totally ready but says she wants to wait for the new year... SO basically the Lord is just POURING out blessings in the way of baptisms.
And really the lesson I learn from this is the power that comes from both faith and love. Everyone of these people who are getting baptized I can honestly say I love with all my heart. Everyone of them had their own specific set of obstacles they needed to overcome, but in every instance I placed my tremendous faith in them and in the Lord that he would prepare a way and how amazing is it that he has! He really has! Friday night after Sally, Ooy and Eve accepted to be baptized I couldn't sleep because I was just so incredibly happy! I got up at 3 in the morning and studied humility and learned that a humble person accepts that everything they do in life is not of their own strength and power, but of the Lords. There is absolutely no way I could have overcame these things to help these investigators receive baptism by myself, NO way. All of it was the Lord. And it was all dependent on the Faith I put in him. The faith I had to do and say the things he would have me do and say. And after I felt sufficiently humble, I read Alma 26 and just gloried in God. Yes. I am so blessed and love my life.
OK, I know you're not going to believe this, but it actually gets better!! (YES REALLY!) So it's friday night and Penapah calls us to say that we can not go to her house the next day to teach her son and neice and nephew (who also wants to get baptized!! the blessings are seriously getting unreal- in a good way) because she has to go harvest rice on her older sisters farm. Bummer! After Sister Hulme got off the phone I got some inspiration. I said, wait, we have done that before... why don't we call and tell her we will come and help. Basically she was ecstatic. They really needed the help. We arrive the next morning and Penapah is practically jumping out of her skin in excitement that we were there. Her sisters were really nice and kept saying "God sent you to us!" It was cute. :) Well, little did we know, the next day in church Penapha breaks into tears in relief society and tells everyone about how her sisters weren't all that supportive of her Christianity but because we came and served them, they not only accepted the Lord, but now they want to come to church also!!!! OH MAN! The Lord truly does take our faith and makes miracles happen. AMAZING!!!
AND what's more, on Sunday, because we have so many people to teach, we went on splits with two members of the ward who are 19 and 20 Sister Lek and Sister Daa, and I led the lesson for Penapah's kids for the first time ever!!! Luckily the elders sat in and helped some (because they will be the ones teaching the kids all the lessons... they already said they wanted to be baptized... Penapah has so much faith!) But it was a great experience for me to actually teach and not just testify of what Sister Hulme teaches. I still have a lot more to learn, and because I was nervous, my grammar was all messed up... but the lesson went great and I already have so much love for Luugtan and Mak (her niece and nephew... Penapha's son wasn't there)
OK last story because it was just too good to not tell. On Saturday we taught Sister Dim, who is the less active we have been trying to reactivate, and her daughter Mai. It was really an amazing lesson and it really felt like a turning point for me, because I was able to really express the love I have for their family and how I surely know that the Lord, through his missionaries, is reaching out in love to their family. They have a son who died at age 5 who is now sealed to them for time and all eternity who is waiting for them to come back to the straight and narrow. I KNOW it will happen. I have all the faith in the world. AND I see the correlation between having true Christ-like love for someone and being able to speak the language to communicate those feelings. I TRULY had the gift of tongues that night. It was incredible.
SO as you can see... I am so good right now. Those were just the big things that happened this week. That's not to mention all the tiny little miracles that happen every single day here! My challenge to all of you who love me enough to get to this point of my email, is to really look at the miracles the Lord blesses you with every day and thank him for them. Put your faith in him because he WILL provide! I know because I am seeing that in my life now.
I love you all and would LOVE to hear anything about everyone! Write me!! :) I miss you every day, but wouldn't want to be anywhere but right here.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!
Love Always,
Melissa
PS Happy 16th Robert! Hope it was awesome! :)
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
I Love My Life!
Friends and Family,
I'm kinda thinkin' life just doesn't get better than this!! I have a new companion. Her name is Sister Hulme from Houston, Texas and she is AMAZING!! We really have so much in common, both big time planners. Our nightly planning sessions are incredible. It's great how much we just instantly clicked! The other cool thing is that Sister Bradfield and Sister Hulme just switched places, so now Sister Bradfield is in Bangkok with my MTC companion Sister Young!! There will for sure be some awesome reunion parties after the mission!! :)
OK so moves meeting was awesome! It was SO good to see Sister Young, Sister Akagi and all my elders again... FINALLY! It's funny how the MTC seemed SO long ago, and yet once I saw everyone it seemed like it was just yesterday that we parted ways! As for the home front, (home being Korat) I can't even tell you how much I am being blessed. I was worried about leading the area... knowing everyone and everywhere to go... but I feel so much closer to all of the members now that they only know me and we haven't gotten lost at all! I really know my way around this place! I am talking on the phone and setting up appointments, which has always really scared me! I'm just doing way better than I thought I would be. I know the Lord is answering my prayers and yours too! Thank You all SO much! :)
OK. I just need to tell you about the amazing experiences we had on Monday when in district meeting Elder Lilly told us that President Smith wanted us to get off the bikes and start walking more so that we can invite. I'm not gonna lie, we don't do a lot of inviting because we are so busy teaching all the time, but we decided to walk to the church instead of riding our bike and it was so inspired! First off, this song came into my head that reminded me of this great investigator we have that we haven't seen in a while, Fern. We don't see her a lot because she doesn't come to church. But I thought, we need to call her and set up an appointment. She was very happy that I called and we made an appt. for Friday. About 10 min later as we were walking down the street, we see Fern on her motorcycle! (everyone drives motorcycles here) She told us how grateful she was that we called her and saw her because her daughter had drank lighter fluid and had to go to the hospital and Fern was just having a hard time. She told us how she prayed for her daughter and how much it strengthened her testimony to know that Heavenly Father would help her! She is so great! We never would have seen her had we not walked!
THEN!! We were inviting a woman with a baby on the side of the street and a man pulls up next to us and says (in English) Are you mormons? And I said yes! And he asked where the church was and for our number because his friend was coming from Australia and she is LDS and wants to come to church while she is here!! His name was Will and her name is Mary and she will be coming in about a month or so! He said I saw the guys with the ties riding thier bikes last week but I couldn't keep up with them! Haha. I just know that was right where the Lord needed us to be. I have such a strong testimony of following the spirit because as a servant of the Lord, if you will only be worthy of his spirit he will always lead you where he needs you to be!
Well life is just so good here. I miss you all so much! I wrote Robin! I am so excited for her!! AHH. The MTC is just great! I really really miss Brittany. (hope she is reading this!) How is William!? I want pictures! And I love how Tony and Eric write me (NOT)!!
Haha, ok until next week. Life is good. The gospel is everything.
Love,
Melissa
I'm kinda thinkin' life just doesn't get better than this!! I have a new companion. Her name is Sister Hulme from Houston, Texas and she is AMAZING!! We really have so much in common, both big time planners. Our nightly planning sessions are incredible. It's great how much we just instantly clicked! The other cool thing is that Sister Bradfield and Sister Hulme just switched places, so now Sister Bradfield is in Bangkok with my MTC companion Sister Young!! There will for sure be some awesome reunion parties after the mission!! :)
OK so moves meeting was awesome! It was SO good to see Sister Young, Sister Akagi and all my elders again... FINALLY! It's funny how the MTC seemed SO long ago, and yet once I saw everyone it seemed like it was just yesterday that we parted ways! As for the home front, (home being Korat) I can't even tell you how much I am being blessed. I was worried about leading the area... knowing everyone and everywhere to go... but I feel so much closer to all of the members now that they only know me and we haven't gotten lost at all! I really know my way around this place! I am talking on the phone and setting up appointments, which has always really scared me! I'm just doing way better than I thought I would be. I know the Lord is answering my prayers and yours too! Thank You all SO much! :)
OK. I just need to tell you about the amazing experiences we had on Monday when in district meeting Elder Lilly told us that President Smith wanted us to get off the bikes and start walking more so that we can invite. I'm not gonna lie, we don't do a lot of inviting because we are so busy teaching all the time, but we decided to walk to the church instead of riding our bike and it was so inspired! First off, this song came into my head that reminded me of this great investigator we have that we haven't seen in a while, Fern. We don't see her a lot because she doesn't come to church. But I thought, we need to call her and set up an appointment. She was very happy that I called and we made an appt. for Friday. About 10 min later as we were walking down the street, we see Fern on her motorcycle! (everyone drives motorcycles here) She told us how grateful she was that we called her and saw her because her daughter had drank lighter fluid and had to go to the hospital and Fern was just having a hard time. She told us how she prayed for her daughter and how much it strengthened her testimony to know that Heavenly Father would help her! She is so great! We never would have seen her had we not walked!
THEN!! We were inviting a woman with a baby on the side of the street and a man pulls up next to us and says (in English) Are you mormons? And I said yes! And he asked where the church was and for our number because his friend was coming from Australia and she is LDS and wants to come to church while she is here!! His name was Will and her name is Mary and she will be coming in about a month or so! He said I saw the guys with the ties riding thier bikes last week but I couldn't keep up with them! Haha. I just know that was right where the Lord needed us to be. I have such a strong testimony of following the spirit because as a servant of the Lord, if you will only be worthy of his spirit he will always lead you where he needs you to be!
Well life is just so good here. I miss you all so much! I wrote Robin! I am so excited for her!! AHH. The MTC is just great! I really really miss Brittany. (hope she is reading this!) How is William!? I want pictures! And I love how Tony and Eric write me (NOT)!!
Haha, ok until next week. Life is good. The gospel is everything.
Love,
Melissa
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
and she that thrusteth in her sickle...
FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!
Wow, life is so amazing! So many great and amazing things have happened this week!
First, I will address the pictures! SO that is right, in Thailand, right now, the fields are white, already to harvest. And lo, Monday the most amazing district Korat has ever seen thrusted in their sickles with ALL their might that we may continue this marvelous work that has come forth among the children of men! We Kiewed Khaw (harvested the rice) and it was so much fun! I will send more pictures home, but basically, we got down in our scrubbs (bare foot) and cut the rice from the rice patties! I even bought a sweet rice harvesting hat!! :) The whole process is very labor intensive and we were so tired after!
After we were done we went to the branch presidents house (he’s the one who is a rice farmer) and had one of the best lessons I've had on my mission. He is an amazing, humble man. The next picture is Sister Brad and me with Noah, Prataans son. We sat on this bench while we had an amazing gospel discussion about Faith and Hope. As tired as my body was after kiewing khaw, my spirit was so energized and I really understood so much of the conversation, pretty much the whole thing! My confidence is really growing in the language. But still some days are better than others.
The last picture is of me and Sister Brad last week holding a snake. It was way sweet! :)
OK. Are you ready for the best news in the world: PENAPAH IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! November 22! The best day of my mission! haha. The Lord is finally pouring out blessings to her and William and the branch in Korat will never be the same because she has the fire baby! And is ready to share the gospel with everyone! We are going to her house on Saturday to teach her son and niece and nephew! OK so here is what happened. William and Penapah are amazing and have been ready to be baptized for a while, but because they don’t have enough money and because William couldn’t ride the bus because of a knee problem they could never come to church and couldn’t get baptized. They prayed incessantly and had so much faith. When they couldn't make it to church last month to get baptized, I was crushed, but knew this was the time to not give up, but double my faith. I have prayed and prayed for them to find a way to get baptized. Well, finally the prayers have been answered and William got a way to go back to England, to raise some money, and come back to Thailand to start up their farm again which failed before. And because William is gone, Penapah can now come every week on a bus. It would have been so much better to see them both baptized together. But William is very excited to share the gospel with his sons and mother in England and will get baptized there. It will also be nice for him to go to church in a place where they speak his own language, even though Elder Lilly translates for him here. So they are both getting baptized and are so, so very happy. We taught an amazing lesson to William about the prophet Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and his faith is the strongest it's been. We were in tears as William offered a sincere heartfelt prayer thanking the Lord for allowing them the opportunity to be baptized and get their money situation back in order, they have suffered so much from their losses, but found the Lord in the midst of all their trials. Penapah then told us about a great lesson she learned from the Book of Mormon that involved taking money from corrupt people who were trying to buy their vote. She said she didn't feel good about the money and read in Ether about the corruption of men in the government and felt that it was an answer that she should not take that money. She stood up for virtue and she chose to not support corrupted people. I was so proud of her! She is amazing!! :)
OK, so that was definitely the highlight of my week. But other good things happened too. We have been teaching Waree, the woman who came to church on her own and loves it. We were worried at first because she just was not understanding what we were teaching her. But on Tuesday we taught an amazing lesson with Sister Tuu (who just happened to be at the church when we taught her) and we ended with Waree offering an amazing prayer asking forgiveness from the Lord for not being able to attend church this week. OH man, she is amazing! Life is so good.
I just can't believe how incredibly blessed I am to be serving the Lord in, quite literally, the best mission in the world. Seriously! What an amazing chance it is to be immersed in this amazing culture with some of God's most humble, giving people in the world. My life has changed.
OK, so moves. Its tomorrow, so I don't have a new companion yet, I will tomorrow. But she is so lucky whoever she is because we have two baptisms coming up for sure (Penapha and Khana- the little girl) and we will be giving Waree a date the next time we teach her, probably Dec 16 and then Sally, (Em's wife who just got baptized) will hopefully be ready too! The work is on FIRE!
But the other sad news is that Elder Blaustine is moving too. We totally weren't expecting it. He has been here since I have and it just won’t be the same without him!! But, I guess that's just the way mission life is! OK, so more news next week as the work continues in Korat!! :)
Finally I just want to end with my testimony of how much the Lord really does hear our prayers and answers them when they are according to his will. I had an amazing amazing experience this past week of the Lord answering my prayers. I will write it in snail mail and send it to you.
OK well, I love you all so so much and am grateful for each and every one of you!! :)
I love you,
Melissa
Wow, life is so amazing! So many great and amazing things have happened this week!
First, I will address the pictures! SO that is right, in Thailand, right now, the fields are white, already to harvest. And lo, Monday the most amazing district Korat has ever seen thrusted in their sickles with ALL their might that we may continue this marvelous work that has come forth among the children of men! We Kiewed Khaw (harvested the rice) and it was so much fun! I will send more pictures home, but basically, we got down in our scrubbs (bare foot) and cut the rice from the rice patties! I even bought a sweet rice harvesting hat!! :) The whole process is very labor intensive and we were so tired after!
 |
| From Melissa's Mission |
After we were done we went to the branch presidents house (he’s the one who is a rice farmer) and had one of the best lessons I've had on my mission. He is an amazing, humble man. The next picture is Sister Brad and me with Noah, Prataans son. We sat on this bench while we had an amazing gospel discussion about Faith and Hope. As tired as my body was after kiewing khaw, my spirit was so energized and I really understood so much of the conversation, pretty much the whole thing! My confidence is really growing in the language. But still some days are better than others.
 |
| From Melissa's Mission |
The last picture is of me and Sister Brad last week holding a snake. It was way sweet! :)
 |
| From Melissa's Mission |
OK. Are you ready for the best news in the world: PENAPAH IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! November 22! The best day of my mission! haha. The Lord is finally pouring out blessings to her and William and the branch in Korat will never be the same because she has the fire baby! And is ready to share the gospel with everyone! We are going to her house on Saturday to teach her son and niece and nephew! OK so here is what happened. William and Penapah are amazing and have been ready to be baptized for a while, but because they don’t have enough money and because William couldn’t ride the bus because of a knee problem they could never come to church and couldn’t get baptized. They prayed incessantly and had so much faith. When they couldn't make it to church last month to get baptized, I was crushed, but knew this was the time to not give up, but double my faith. I have prayed and prayed for them to find a way to get baptized. Well, finally the prayers have been answered and William got a way to go back to England, to raise some money, and come back to Thailand to start up their farm again which failed before. And because William is gone, Penapah can now come every week on a bus. It would have been so much better to see them both baptized together. But William is very excited to share the gospel with his sons and mother in England and will get baptized there. It will also be nice for him to go to church in a place where they speak his own language, even though Elder Lilly translates for him here. So they are both getting baptized and are so, so very happy. We taught an amazing lesson to William about the prophet Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and his faith is the strongest it's been. We were in tears as William offered a sincere heartfelt prayer thanking the Lord for allowing them the opportunity to be baptized and get their money situation back in order, they have suffered so much from their losses, but found the Lord in the midst of all their trials. Penapah then told us about a great lesson she learned from the Book of Mormon that involved taking money from corrupt people who were trying to buy their vote. She said she didn't feel good about the money and read in Ether about the corruption of men in the government and felt that it was an answer that she should not take that money. She stood up for virtue and she chose to not support corrupted people. I was so proud of her! She is amazing!! :)
OK, so that was definitely the highlight of my week. But other good things happened too. We have been teaching Waree, the woman who came to church on her own and loves it. We were worried at first because she just was not understanding what we were teaching her. But on Tuesday we taught an amazing lesson with Sister Tuu (who just happened to be at the church when we taught her) and we ended with Waree offering an amazing prayer asking forgiveness from the Lord for not being able to attend church this week. OH man, she is amazing! Life is so good.
I just can't believe how incredibly blessed I am to be serving the Lord in, quite literally, the best mission in the world. Seriously! What an amazing chance it is to be immersed in this amazing culture with some of God's most humble, giving people in the world. My life has changed.
OK, so moves. Its tomorrow, so I don't have a new companion yet, I will tomorrow. But she is so lucky whoever she is because we have two baptisms coming up for sure (Penapha and Khana- the little girl) and we will be giving Waree a date the next time we teach her, probably Dec 16 and then Sally, (Em's wife who just got baptized) will hopefully be ready too! The work is on FIRE!
But the other sad news is that Elder Blaustine is moving too. We totally weren't expecting it. He has been here since I have and it just won’t be the same without him!! But, I guess that's just the way mission life is! OK, so more news next week as the work continues in Korat!! :)
Finally I just want to end with my testimony of how much the Lord really does hear our prayers and answers them when they are according to his will. I had an amazing amazing experience this past week of the Lord answering my prayers. I will write it in snail mail and send it to you.
OK well, I love you all so so much and am grateful for each and every one of you!! :)
I love you,
Melissa
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Sabai Sabai
Hello Family and Friends!
What a great week it has been! I can't believe it is November already! How crazy that a year from now I will be getting ready to come home. Don't worry, I am definitely not trunky. I'm loving every minute I have here! OK, so much to talk about! First off, I moved! President Smith didn't like us living right next to the Elders, so we moved into the cutest house ever!! It is quite a bit smaller than our last house, but it is brand new and SO nice! It's pretty standard for America, but for Thailand it is way way nice. Because of the weather all the houses I have ever been in have been... not dirty, but not, well... i dont know, it's not that bad, just not that good. But this house is brand new! and so cute! We aren't quite moved in yet, but when we are, I will for sure send pictures! We moved on Halloween and I was pretty bummed because I didn't see anyone celebrating it!! :( oh well. We were elders for halloween! haha. It was fun. We wore white shirts and black skirts and ties :) It was fun.
The real fun was the festival on Monday, I don't remember the name of it, and I couldn't spell it either... haha. It's a festival commemorating the end of the rainy season and everyone gets these really pretty little boats made out of leaves and flowers and floats them down rivers (or in our case the lake) and there are fireworks and food and ahh! it was so fun! AND! to make things all the better, the weather was amazing!! It was windy and at night, it was actually kind of, sort of a little bit COLD!! It totally feels like fall! Which is my favorite season! So yea, God really loves me because he gave me the fall I was missing at home! It's probably getting chilly in Sacramento by now huh? But yea, the weather has been very pleasant.
Sunday was SO amazing! We had 8 investigators come to church, 8!!! And two of them were William and Penapah!! (The two that live very far and can't make it to church or they would have been baptized already) They found a way to come for now, so we will see if they can get baptized. Oh boy am I praying for it!! :) 3 others were Em, who got the Holy Ghost this week, his wife and 2 girls who are doing really well and will be getting baptized when they learn all the lessons! :) Another was Mint who is 16 and can't get baptized only because her mom won't sign the papers yet. But we taught a way sweet lesson to her on Monday and she thinks she can get baptized on Christmas day!! What a great Christmas present!! I just hope I am still here!!! :) I should be. Waree was another investigator who is crazy! But in a good way. It's hard to discribe Waree, she is just so fun and enthusiastic about the gospel! I love her so much!! :) :) We are going to eat dinner at her house tomorrow. And lastly we had Khanna who is the cutest little almost 8 year old. We teach her every Saturday night, the cutest lessons! It's really preparing me for being a primary teacher! She has improved so so much! When we started teaching her she never wanted to go to church and wouldn't pray. Now she gladly prays and is very excited to get baptized on November 29th! We made a count-down for her, one with the links :) it's cute. the Sunday links are a different color to remind her that she needs to go to church and there is a special one for her birthday, but the nicest one is her baptismal date. :)
So basically the work is going great!! I am loving life! We had the greatest district meeting too on monday! Well, actually our district meetings are always amazing! Elder Lilly is an amazing teacher and we are always just so motivated to get out and work hard afterwards! We got to share our testimonies in this meeting and it just felt so good to share the very strongest testimony I have ever had that this church is true and this is the greatest work there is! :) ahh, life is so good. I miss you all tons, but am very happy.
Take care! Write me! :) PLEASE!
Love Always,
Mel
PS I cant believe I almost forgot! Today I held a huge boaconstricter!!! (snake) It was awesome, pics to come!! :)
What a great week it has been! I can't believe it is November already! How crazy that a year from now I will be getting ready to come home. Don't worry, I am definitely not trunky. I'm loving every minute I have here! OK, so much to talk about! First off, I moved! President Smith didn't like us living right next to the Elders, so we moved into the cutest house ever!! It is quite a bit smaller than our last house, but it is brand new and SO nice! It's pretty standard for America, but for Thailand it is way way nice. Because of the weather all the houses I have ever been in have been... not dirty, but not, well... i dont know, it's not that bad, just not that good. But this house is brand new! and so cute! We aren't quite moved in yet, but when we are, I will for sure send pictures! We moved on Halloween and I was pretty bummed because I didn't see anyone celebrating it!! :( oh well. We were elders for halloween! haha. It was fun. We wore white shirts and black skirts and ties :) It was fun.
The real fun was the festival on Monday, I don't remember the name of it, and I couldn't spell it either... haha. It's a festival commemorating the end of the rainy season and everyone gets these really pretty little boats made out of leaves and flowers and floats them down rivers (or in our case the lake) and there are fireworks and food and ahh! it was so fun! AND! to make things all the better, the weather was amazing!! It was windy and at night, it was actually kind of, sort of a little bit COLD!! It totally feels like fall! Which is my favorite season! So yea, God really loves me because he gave me the fall I was missing at home! It's probably getting chilly in Sacramento by now huh? But yea, the weather has been very pleasant.
Sunday was SO amazing! We had 8 investigators come to church, 8!!! And two of them were William and Penapah!! (The two that live very far and can't make it to church or they would have been baptized already) They found a way to come for now, so we will see if they can get baptized. Oh boy am I praying for it!! :) 3 others were Em, who got the Holy Ghost this week, his wife and 2 girls who are doing really well and will be getting baptized when they learn all the lessons! :) Another was Mint who is 16 and can't get baptized only because her mom won't sign the papers yet. But we taught a way sweet lesson to her on Monday and she thinks she can get baptized on Christmas day!! What a great Christmas present!! I just hope I am still here!!! :) I should be. Waree was another investigator who is crazy! But in a good way. It's hard to discribe Waree, she is just so fun and enthusiastic about the gospel! I love her so much!! :) :) We are going to eat dinner at her house tomorrow. And lastly we had Khanna who is the cutest little almost 8 year old. We teach her every Saturday night, the cutest lessons! It's really preparing me for being a primary teacher! She has improved so so much! When we started teaching her she never wanted to go to church and wouldn't pray. Now she gladly prays and is very excited to get baptized on November 29th! We made a count-down for her, one with the links :) it's cute. the Sunday links are a different color to remind her that she needs to go to church and there is a special one for her birthday, but the nicest one is her baptismal date. :)
So basically the work is going great!! I am loving life! We had the greatest district meeting too on monday! Well, actually our district meetings are always amazing! Elder Lilly is an amazing teacher and we are always just so motivated to get out and work hard afterwards! We got to share our testimonies in this meeting and it just felt so good to share the very strongest testimony I have ever had that this church is true and this is the greatest work there is! :) ahh, life is so good. I miss you all tons, but am very happy.
Take care! Write me! :) PLEASE!
Love Always,
Mel
PS I cant believe I almost forgot! Today I held a huge boaconstricter!!! (snake) It was awesome, pics to come!! :)
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