Family and Friends,
Amazing things happen when you serve the Lord in Thailand. Like getting called to serve in Pakkret!! I'm not gonna lie, I was a little disappointed when I didn't get to go up to Chaing Mai to serve with Sister Lo before she dies next moves. (that means she's going home next moves, she is from my Stake in Sacramento) BUT Sister Lo served in this area right after Korat just like me! So we don't get to serve together, but we will at least have the same area in common to talk about after the mission! :)
So basically... Pakkret is AMAZING. I already love it. The members are so tight!! They have planned this amazing Christmas program with singing and a nativity scene and I am singing in the program! I love it!! A lot of them speak English... but actually an amazing thing happened. I got here, and I could just speak Thai... it's so weird/amazing. The members ask me questions and I understand them and can answer them! When we contact people on the street I can have conversations with them. My Thai is just doing so well! I love it.
We live in a high rise condo on the 26th floor and have an amazing view!! On our street there are about 10 high rise condo buildings all next to each other and the street is lined with palm trees. I kinda feel like I'm in LA sometimes. I've only been here for 3 days, but from what I can tell, Pakkret is kind of like the Orange County to LA only its about a 25 minute taxi ride into Bangkok, so a little closer. There are a lot of nice houses and some not so nice areas too. But overall it's very safe.
This is the area the office is in... so I get LOTS of perks. I get packages whenever they come, my mails comes a lot faster, AND on Monday President and Sister Smith are taking us out to dinner! Basically that means that everyone should send me a package! :) We also go to church with the AP's, the office elders and the regular proselyting elders so we have a big district, which seems like it will be fun. I like all of the elders serving here so far. OH! and I got a letter from elder Gneme and his cousin is one of the office elders! Elder Westwood!! So that's cool! Tell Elder Bryson I tried to find Elder Degrafendry, but I never saw him at moves. I'll try next moves...
Ok, and best for last is my new companion... Sister Neilsen!! It was hard to leave Sister Hulme because we worked so well together and and such a good time. But Sister Neilsen is just FUN! I have been laughing my head off since I have been here. We work hard, we really do, but it's just a party every day. Partying in the gospel! :) She is from South Jordan and her name is Jessie and she is a track star! She has a scholarship to Utah State and she is a STUD! We run every morning and she bikes SO fast!!! I love it though. I have a feeling this transfer is going to go by so fast!
OK! well, I don't have much to say because I am still just getting used to everything here and meeting everyone. But I just know everything is going to go up hill from here and I love it! I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas, and can really know the true meaning of Christmas. And of course a happy happy birthday to Aunt Shirley on the 24th! :)
Until next time!
With love,
Melissa
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Saturday, December 19, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
THE INEVITABLE!
Well Friends, that is right, the inevitable has happened. I will be leaving Korat tomorrow. I can't even tell you how bittersweet this parting is. So Heavenly Father blessed me so so much by allowing me to be on a members switch off (it was actually only my second one ever) with Nok. I feel like my emails have not sufficiently expressed the deep love and friendship i have with her. She is without a doubt my best friend in Thailand. She has been with me since the very beginning and has helped me so much with Thai and just feeling like i have a place here. I love her so much.
So we took a bus out to Chok Chai which is a good 45 minutes away. It was so fun to just have Nok and I together! Coincidentally we were just talking about how I wasn't going to be moving for a long time. I have compiled pictures in an album for her and told her i would give them to her when i moved and she said, no i don't want them, because you aren't going to move. So we went to teach Mae, she is the single mom who has the problem getting baptized, I talked about her a few weeks back. The lesson was going great, Nok was doing such a good job filling in the parts I couldn't because of the language, when Mae's phone rang, it was Sister Hulme. She told me that Elder Milton was moving and that Elder Lilly was training, and I was like, cool! But then she said, You're moving. My heart dropped.... Sister Hulme was balling! She said, I'm not ready for you to move! You can't go! and I was just in shock. Well, the conversation was in English so Nok and Mae had no idea what happened but knew something was wrong. I could barely even get out a feeble, sister tong yay (I am moving) and then I had one of the sweetest moments I have had on my mission. The three of us just sat there and wept together. Bittersweet tears of joy for the time and the spirit we have shared together and sadness that it would be coming to an end. Mae broke the silence by saying she didn't want the people who taught her to move and Nok just didn't speak but cried. Saying bye to Mae was so hard! I hated it. But I know that's just the life of a missionary. :(
So after that I had the greatest blessing of my life to be able to spend the whole bus ride home just talking to Nok, reminiscing on our good times and crying because we both knew life would never be the same after this. I am so close to her. She will truly be my friend forever.
So by the time we got back, Sister Hulme wasn't crying anymore but was still really sad that I am leaving. We had a final sweet experience at Sister Dims (the less active family that I met just a few weeks into coming) and it was so good to be able to really express my love for the gospel and for their family to them. I felt like it was just a culmination of the area. It was so sweet.
OK so that was all just a few hours yesterday!! I still have the whole last week to talk about!! So first off, I just need to say how absolutely incredible my last Sunday in Korat was!! Three baptisms, one confirmation, 4 of our regular attending english students, who we want to teach SO bad, but are not interested coming to church, and 10 investigators total. Wow, I dont think it gets much more amazing than that!! Especially since 2 of those baptisms and the confirmation make 1 eternal family. What a blessing it has been for me to see the way the gospel has bless the lives of Brother Em, Sally and their daughters Ooy and Eve. It will be hard to tell them I'm leaving. I have seen the whole family get baptized since I have been here. My favorite part has to be the fact that Em got to be the one to baptize his wife and daughters and he was so nervous!! He messed up twice with Sally and then with Eve her foot popped up, but Ooy only took one time! It was really cute. :) I love that family. Ahh, how sweet this experience has been!
OK. so the final thing I want to share with you is first how much the Lord is truly with his missionaries and secondly how much the atonement is truly applicable in our lives. I had a really great experience to actually live what I teach and rely on the Lord during a time of much hardship. So Saturday, I don't know what I ate, but it did not agree with my stomach. About 3:30 we were taking the bus back from SiKu and it was packed. my stomach was upset and I thought it was just being on the stuffy bus, but when I got off it didn't get better. We still had 3 more appointments. As we went to the first one I was feeling worse and worse. I thought, well I could be a baby about this, complain a lot and ask to go home, or I can stick it out and pray a lot. I chose to pray! As we went throughout the night it only got worse, but I can't even tell you how much my testimony grew as I literally felt the influence of the spirit in my heart and was able to teach and travel despite my weak condition. Angels were carrying me through that night. So I basically had the worst night of my mission, bathroom at least 7 times and throwing up once (but I made it count) I woke up the next day still sick. It's funny because I wasn't feeling good during church, but looking back now, all I can remember is the amazing spirit that was there and the incredible love I felt for everyone. After the baptism the ward practiced singing and there was just no way I could sing with them. Sister Hulme had to play the piano so I went into the corner by the piano (basically under it) and slept. It was a great nap! OH and then if that's not enough, on Monday, when I was better but still really weak, I burned my leg on the exhaust of a motorcycle! It's pretty bad. I took pictures but this internet place won't let me upload them, sorry. next week. so yea. it was kinda hard. but I promise you all, the Spirit kept me going the whole time and I am truly a better person because of it. I love the way God works in our lives!! :)
OK. I feel like there is still so much to say, but I guess all good things come to an end, like serving in Korat, and this email. Special Birthday shout outs to Uncle Ed and Uncle Gary who by some amazing circumstances are actually getting younger every year! Good job guys. Love you both!
Well, until next week when I tell you where I go (I am REALLY hoping for Chang Mai with Sister Lo... But will go where the Lord wants me to go) Sawatdiiiiiiiiiiiii Kha!
Love you all,
Melissa
So we took a bus out to Chok Chai which is a good 45 minutes away. It was so fun to just have Nok and I together! Coincidentally we were just talking about how I wasn't going to be moving for a long time. I have compiled pictures in an album for her and told her i would give them to her when i moved and she said, no i don't want them, because you aren't going to move. So we went to teach Mae, she is the single mom who has the problem getting baptized, I talked about her a few weeks back. The lesson was going great, Nok was doing such a good job filling in the parts I couldn't because of the language, when Mae's phone rang, it was Sister Hulme. She told me that Elder Milton was moving and that Elder Lilly was training, and I was like, cool! But then she said, You're moving. My heart dropped.... Sister Hulme was balling! She said, I'm not ready for you to move! You can't go! and I was just in shock. Well, the conversation was in English so Nok and Mae had no idea what happened but knew something was wrong. I could barely even get out a feeble, sister tong yay (I am moving) and then I had one of the sweetest moments I have had on my mission. The three of us just sat there and wept together. Bittersweet tears of joy for the time and the spirit we have shared together and sadness that it would be coming to an end. Mae broke the silence by saying she didn't want the people who taught her to move and Nok just didn't speak but cried. Saying bye to Mae was so hard! I hated it. But I know that's just the life of a missionary. :(
So after that I had the greatest blessing of my life to be able to spend the whole bus ride home just talking to Nok, reminiscing on our good times and crying because we both knew life would never be the same after this. I am so close to her. She will truly be my friend forever.
So by the time we got back, Sister Hulme wasn't crying anymore but was still really sad that I am leaving. We had a final sweet experience at Sister Dims (the less active family that I met just a few weeks into coming) and it was so good to be able to really express my love for the gospel and for their family to them. I felt like it was just a culmination of the area. It was so sweet.
OK so that was all just a few hours yesterday!! I still have the whole last week to talk about!! So first off, I just need to say how absolutely incredible my last Sunday in Korat was!! Three baptisms, one confirmation, 4 of our regular attending english students, who we want to teach SO bad, but are not interested coming to church, and 10 investigators total. Wow, I dont think it gets much more amazing than that!! Especially since 2 of those baptisms and the confirmation make 1 eternal family. What a blessing it has been for me to see the way the gospel has bless the lives of Brother Em, Sally and their daughters Ooy and Eve. It will be hard to tell them I'm leaving. I have seen the whole family get baptized since I have been here. My favorite part has to be the fact that Em got to be the one to baptize his wife and daughters and he was so nervous!! He messed up twice with Sally and then with Eve her foot popped up, but Ooy only took one time! It was really cute. :) I love that family. Ahh, how sweet this experience has been!
OK. so the final thing I want to share with you is first how much the Lord is truly with his missionaries and secondly how much the atonement is truly applicable in our lives. I had a really great experience to actually live what I teach and rely on the Lord during a time of much hardship. So Saturday, I don't know what I ate, but it did not agree with my stomach. About 3:30 we were taking the bus back from SiKu and it was packed. my stomach was upset and I thought it was just being on the stuffy bus, but when I got off it didn't get better. We still had 3 more appointments. As we went to the first one I was feeling worse and worse. I thought, well I could be a baby about this, complain a lot and ask to go home, or I can stick it out and pray a lot. I chose to pray! As we went throughout the night it only got worse, but I can't even tell you how much my testimony grew as I literally felt the influence of the spirit in my heart and was able to teach and travel despite my weak condition. Angels were carrying me through that night. So I basically had the worst night of my mission, bathroom at least 7 times and throwing up once (but I made it count) I woke up the next day still sick. It's funny because I wasn't feeling good during church, but looking back now, all I can remember is the amazing spirit that was there and the incredible love I felt for everyone. After the baptism the ward practiced singing and there was just no way I could sing with them. Sister Hulme had to play the piano so I went into the corner by the piano (basically under it) and slept. It was a great nap! OH and then if that's not enough, on Monday, when I was better but still really weak, I burned my leg on the exhaust of a motorcycle! It's pretty bad. I took pictures but this internet place won't let me upload them, sorry. next week. so yea. it was kinda hard. but I promise you all, the Spirit kept me going the whole time and I am truly a better person because of it. I love the way God works in our lives!! :)
OK. I feel like there is still so much to say, but I guess all good things come to an end, like serving in Korat, and this email. Special Birthday shout outs to Uncle Ed and Uncle Gary who by some amazing circumstances are actually getting younger every year! Good job guys. Love you both!
Well, until next week when I tell you where I go (I am REALLY hoping for Chang Mai with Sister Lo... But will go where the Lord wants me to go) Sawatdiiiiiiiiiiiii Kha!
Love you all,
Melissa
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Fa la la la la la la la la
Sawatdii Family and Friends!
Another great week in Korat has come and gone. The highlight of the week was definitely the baptism of Sally, Em's wife. Their two daughters Ooy and Eve just passed their interviews last night and are scheduled to be baptized this Sunday along with another 10 year old girl named Kanoon. I just feel so blessed to be a part of this families conversion. After this sunday I will have seen all of them get baptized and become an eternal family. I have such a strong testimony of eternal families and the way the gospel blesses families. I got the chance to bear my testimony of the love and strength I was able to receive by having parents who raised me in the gospel. It is so great to see the way Sally loves her husband and children and just makes me think of how grateful I am for a mother who loves me the same. Ah, I miss you mom!
Well, you may notice that I only say the baptism of Sally and not Penapha. She has struggled with a smoking habit which is not completely ended yet, so she will have to wait longer before she can be baptized. I would have thought that would have totally bummed me out for her to not get baptized, but it actually did not at all. She has such a strong testimony and has already been through so much to get her to the point where she is able to go to church, now this trail is just one more step the Lord needs her to take to show him how committed she really is. She is so incredible. One of my favorite lessons I learned in the MTC was that the Lord will put specific trails in our lives so that we will gain a specific spiritual quality that we could not have had had we not gone through that specific trial. I know that the Lord is carrying Penapha through every one of her trails, she knows it too. The day she gets baptized will be incredible. I know it. I just don't know when that day is.
The spirit has been helping us so much this week. Friday was an incredible day. I had a recent convert, Sister Wan, on my mind for a while and felt prompted to go visit her. Well, she lives 2 hours away. She wasn't answering her phone. But I know where she works and felt like that is what we needed to do. Even though it was uncertain what would happen, I felt a very peaceful assurance from the Lord that that is right where we needed to be. That is always good! So we get out there and it turns out she changed her number. She wasn't able to go to church because she had been sick, but was still reading scriptures and praying and was doing very well! Well, as we taught her, our bus went by. They said another should come, but weren't sure and we needed to get back for some important lessons in Korat that night. Because we had to wait for the next bus, we had the time to teach her neighbor who got goosebumps because he said he felt like what we were teaching was true. He is an amazing guy! His name is Somchai. Sister Wan wants to share the gospel with all her neighbors! So as we waited for the bus we started to get worried, but I knew the Lord would provide. Somchai ended up giving us a ride about a half hour into Korat and right as we turned the corner to the place where the bus would pick us up for the rest of the way, the bus was right behind us!! It was a miracle. We made it back JUST in time to teach Kanoon who could not miss the lesson we had prepared or else she would not be ready to be baptized this Sunday, and then made it to Sally's to finish teaching Ooy and Eve so they can get baptized this week too. The Lord got us right where He needed us. We even had time to teach Nok! :) It was an amazing day and I just know the Lord was with us that whole day.
I love this gospel. I love that I am a witness of Christ and his true church on the earth today. Life is so good.
Thank you for the love and support you all give to me. It means everything to me! Please keep writing me!! :) It does make a difference!!
AND a big birthday shout out to my wonderful Grandpa who is 81 years old today!!! :) I love you Grandpa and am so grateful for your choice to accept this true gospel which has blessed my life, my family's lives, including my aunts, uncles and cousins, plus many generations to come! It's amazing how one persons choice can effect so many other people! I know we ALL love you Grandpa! You're the best. And we love Ginny too! :)
โชคตี!!
Love Always,
Melissa
Another great week in Korat has come and gone. The highlight of the week was definitely the baptism of Sally, Em's wife. Their two daughters Ooy and Eve just passed their interviews last night and are scheduled to be baptized this Sunday along with another 10 year old girl named Kanoon. I just feel so blessed to be a part of this families conversion. After this sunday I will have seen all of them get baptized and become an eternal family. I have such a strong testimony of eternal families and the way the gospel blesses families. I got the chance to bear my testimony of the love and strength I was able to receive by having parents who raised me in the gospel. It is so great to see the way Sally loves her husband and children and just makes me think of how grateful I am for a mother who loves me the same. Ah, I miss you mom!
Well, you may notice that I only say the baptism of Sally and not Penapha. She has struggled with a smoking habit which is not completely ended yet, so she will have to wait longer before she can be baptized. I would have thought that would have totally bummed me out for her to not get baptized, but it actually did not at all. She has such a strong testimony and has already been through so much to get her to the point where she is able to go to church, now this trail is just one more step the Lord needs her to take to show him how committed she really is. She is so incredible. One of my favorite lessons I learned in the MTC was that the Lord will put specific trails in our lives so that we will gain a specific spiritual quality that we could not have had had we not gone through that specific trial. I know that the Lord is carrying Penapha through every one of her trails, she knows it too. The day she gets baptized will be incredible. I know it. I just don't know when that day is.
The spirit has been helping us so much this week. Friday was an incredible day. I had a recent convert, Sister Wan, on my mind for a while and felt prompted to go visit her. Well, she lives 2 hours away. She wasn't answering her phone. But I know where she works and felt like that is what we needed to do. Even though it was uncertain what would happen, I felt a very peaceful assurance from the Lord that that is right where we needed to be. That is always good! So we get out there and it turns out she changed her number. She wasn't able to go to church because she had been sick, but was still reading scriptures and praying and was doing very well! Well, as we taught her, our bus went by. They said another should come, but weren't sure and we needed to get back for some important lessons in Korat that night. Because we had to wait for the next bus, we had the time to teach her neighbor who got goosebumps because he said he felt like what we were teaching was true. He is an amazing guy! His name is Somchai. Sister Wan wants to share the gospel with all her neighbors! So as we waited for the bus we started to get worried, but I knew the Lord would provide. Somchai ended up giving us a ride about a half hour into Korat and right as we turned the corner to the place where the bus would pick us up for the rest of the way, the bus was right behind us!! It was a miracle. We made it back JUST in time to teach Kanoon who could not miss the lesson we had prepared or else she would not be ready to be baptized this Sunday, and then made it to Sally's to finish teaching Ooy and Eve so they can get baptized this week too. The Lord got us right where He needed us. We even had time to teach Nok! :) It was an amazing day and I just know the Lord was with us that whole day.
I love this gospel. I love that I am a witness of Christ and his true church on the earth today. Life is so good.
Thank you for the love and support you all give to me. It means everything to me! Please keep writing me!! :) It does make a difference!!
AND a big birthday shout out to my wonderful Grandpa who is 81 years old today!!! :) I love you Grandpa and am so grateful for your choice to accept this true gospel which has blessed my life, my family's lives, including my aunts, uncles and cousins, plus many generations to come! It's amazing how one persons choice can effect so many other people! I know we ALL love you Grandpa! You're the best. And we love Ginny too! :)
โชคตี!!
Love Always,
Melissa
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
It's beginning to look a lot like Chirstmas!
Hello and Sawatdii Kha!
Life is so good over here on the other side of the world. It is "cold" aka the weather is perfect. As much as I know I will miss Christmas at home it sure is nice to be in this great tropical weather!
So first a recap on Thanksgiving! It started with Sister Hulme and I running a 5K! (I forgot to tell you last week!) Gotta keep the tradition. I saw the pics you sent of Dad and Jake running it. Too bad Scott had to work! You KNOW I was totally thinking about you and wishing I could have been there. Last year was the best to have all 4 of us kids there. That won't happen again for a long time again. Anyways, we ran the 5K in 28:19! Pretty good I think. It was fun and SO beautiful because we got to watch the sunrise (and we're in Thailand...) Then for dinner we had the Thanksgiving feast at a European restaurant, so it was a little different, but still way good!!
OK, so I HAVE to tell you about the cRaZiEsT dream I have had since being in Thailand. It was mostly crazy because it felt SO SO real. I seriously have never felt so much emotion in a dream before in my life. I really think it was a blessing though. OK so in the dream, President Smith called me and told me I was going home, and next thing I know I am at home and it was the HAPPIEST homecoming ever. Seriously. Mom and Dad, Kurtis Scott and Jake were there and everyone was just filled to the brim with joy that I was home. We were at the house and everything was exactly as I left it. I can't even describe how completely happy I was to be home. It was incredible. So then I start thinking about talking to some friends and I think, oh, I'm gonna go get on Facebook and tell people I am home (sad... i know...haha) and THEN it just hits me like a ton of bricks, I DIDN'T FINISH MY MISSION... I fell to the ground in the living room and was just sobbing like crazy because I knew I needed to get back to Thailand to finish my mission. I asked dad what I had to do to get back and it turns out that because there is going to be a shortage of missionaries in Thailand, dad had to send someone or else I couldn't go back. (haha) So dad said he knew someone he thought could go but I just knew it wouldn't be the same. I had already come home. I can not even express how utterly dismayed I was. It was terrible. And SO SO real. I honestly had no idea I was even dreaming. Well needless to say, I have never been so happy to wake up in my bed still in Thailand, still serving my mission. And I think that dream was such a blessing because, first of all, I got to see my family! I got to hug them and rejoice with them (which will come one day) and then I got to have the motivation to really not take this time for granted. I promised myself that I would work my very hardest now so that when I do return home I wont be distraught, but so happy because I did my very best. Ah, I will never forget that dream.
Well as for my week... It has been SOO good! The highlight was definitely the baptism of Khana. I am not sure how much I have told you about her story. She just turned 8, so according to mission numbers we didn't have a convert baptism this week, but for me personally, she was. When I met Khana back in August she did not want to go to church, refused to pray, and was not the most obedient child. Her mother, Sister Duan, who is actually her adopted mother, was in tears as she explained that Khana would go to church when she was younger, but when Sister Duan's mom got sick, she stopped going for a while. Khana got out of the habit and then refused to go. Sister Duan said there was so much she could not do for her daughter, not being her real mother and all, but one thing she knew she did want to do was give her the oppurtunity to have the gospel in her life and the eternal blessings that come from it. I could tell through her sincerity that her mom had been praying earnestly that Khana would soften her heart and accept the gospel. Well, it was a very slow process. She was not always easy to teach, but slowly slowly, she started to pray. Then she would read scriptures, and two weeks ago, for the first time, she went to primary and stayed for the full two hours. She began loving the lessons we prepared for her and even wanted to pray. To see that little girl in white on Sunday, being baptized by her father with a big smile on her face, made me feel like life was just complete. Like I had fufilled my purpose, more importantly God's purpose. This is truly the work of angels. I feel so blessed to be a part of it.
Lastly I want to tell you about an amazing woman named Mae. Again, I am not sure how much I have told you about her. She is living a really bad situation. Her husband cheats on her openly and beats her. They have a son together and because she is not tecnically a Thai citizen, she needs his money to take care of her son PJ who needs medicine for his heart. She has the strongest testimony and is on her second time of reading the Book of Mormon. She loves Nephi because he struggled like she is now. Her problem is because she is not a Thai citizen yet, she can not be legally married and thus can not be baptized. She is in the process of getting citizenship, but even if she does, she doesn't want to go through the legal process of marriage if she will just one day get a divorce, just to be baptized. So on her own, without us challenging her, she fasted last week for a way to get baptized. Please pray for her. She has such a hard life, but loves the gospel so much. She told us once, through all the pain Pj's dad puts her through, God is always there for her. I had a huge grin on my face Sunday as one of the speakers finished their talk "In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen" and her son Pj, who is only a year old said loudly, AMEN! He has such a good mother and I just want with all of my heart to see her make it through these hard times and just be happy in life! She deserves it.
OK, well I hate ending these messages because I just feel like there is so much more to say. But I love you all and would sincerely love to hear from all of you. Thanks so much for the recent letters! You'll be hearing back from me soon!
Love Always,
Melissa
OH! and congrats to Kinner for being pregnant with baby # 3 :) Babies Babies Babies!! :) Especially boy babies! Congrats Chris and Annie on your son!! I can't wait to see them all when I get home! I loved the pictures from the cabin! Everyone looks great! Miss you all!
Life is so good over here on the other side of the world. It is "cold" aka the weather is perfect. As much as I know I will miss Christmas at home it sure is nice to be in this great tropical weather!
So first a recap on Thanksgiving! It started with Sister Hulme and I running a 5K! (I forgot to tell you last week!) Gotta keep the tradition. I saw the pics you sent of Dad and Jake running it. Too bad Scott had to work! You KNOW I was totally thinking about you and wishing I could have been there. Last year was the best to have all 4 of us kids there. That won't happen again for a long time again. Anyways, we ran the 5K in 28:19! Pretty good I think. It was fun and SO beautiful because we got to watch the sunrise (and we're in Thailand...) Then for dinner we had the Thanksgiving feast at a European restaurant, so it was a little different, but still way good!!
OK, so I HAVE to tell you about the cRaZiEsT dream I have had since being in Thailand. It was mostly crazy because it felt SO SO real. I seriously have never felt so much emotion in a dream before in my life. I really think it was a blessing though. OK so in the dream, President Smith called me and told me I was going home, and next thing I know I am at home and it was the HAPPIEST homecoming ever. Seriously. Mom and Dad, Kurtis Scott and Jake were there and everyone was just filled to the brim with joy that I was home. We were at the house and everything was exactly as I left it. I can't even describe how completely happy I was to be home. It was incredible. So then I start thinking about talking to some friends and I think, oh, I'm gonna go get on Facebook and tell people I am home (sad... i know...haha) and THEN it just hits me like a ton of bricks, I DIDN'T FINISH MY MISSION... I fell to the ground in the living room and was just sobbing like crazy because I knew I needed to get back to Thailand to finish my mission. I asked dad what I had to do to get back and it turns out that because there is going to be a shortage of missionaries in Thailand, dad had to send someone or else I couldn't go back. (haha) So dad said he knew someone he thought could go but I just knew it wouldn't be the same. I had already come home. I can not even express how utterly dismayed I was. It was terrible. And SO SO real. I honestly had no idea I was even dreaming. Well needless to say, I have never been so happy to wake up in my bed still in Thailand, still serving my mission. And I think that dream was such a blessing because, first of all, I got to see my family! I got to hug them and rejoice with them (which will come one day) and then I got to have the motivation to really not take this time for granted. I promised myself that I would work my very hardest now so that when I do return home I wont be distraught, but so happy because I did my very best. Ah, I will never forget that dream.
Well as for my week... It has been SOO good! The highlight was definitely the baptism of Khana. I am not sure how much I have told you about her story. She just turned 8, so according to mission numbers we didn't have a convert baptism this week, but for me personally, she was. When I met Khana back in August she did not want to go to church, refused to pray, and was not the most obedient child. Her mother, Sister Duan, who is actually her adopted mother, was in tears as she explained that Khana would go to church when she was younger, but when Sister Duan's mom got sick, she stopped going for a while. Khana got out of the habit and then refused to go. Sister Duan said there was so much she could not do for her daughter, not being her real mother and all, but one thing she knew she did want to do was give her the oppurtunity to have the gospel in her life and the eternal blessings that come from it. I could tell through her sincerity that her mom had been praying earnestly that Khana would soften her heart and accept the gospel. Well, it was a very slow process. She was not always easy to teach, but slowly slowly, she started to pray. Then she would read scriptures, and two weeks ago, for the first time, she went to primary and stayed for the full two hours. She began loving the lessons we prepared for her and even wanted to pray. To see that little girl in white on Sunday, being baptized by her father with a big smile on her face, made me feel like life was just complete. Like I had fufilled my purpose, more importantly God's purpose. This is truly the work of angels. I feel so blessed to be a part of it.
Lastly I want to tell you about an amazing woman named Mae. Again, I am not sure how much I have told you about her. She is living a really bad situation. Her husband cheats on her openly and beats her. They have a son together and because she is not tecnically a Thai citizen, she needs his money to take care of her son PJ who needs medicine for his heart. She has the strongest testimony and is on her second time of reading the Book of Mormon. She loves Nephi because he struggled like she is now. Her problem is because she is not a Thai citizen yet, she can not be legally married and thus can not be baptized. She is in the process of getting citizenship, but even if she does, she doesn't want to go through the legal process of marriage if she will just one day get a divorce, just to be baptized. So on her own, without us challenging her, she fasted last week for a way to get baptized. Please pray for her. She has such a hard life, but loves the gospel so much. She told us once, through all the pain Pj's dad puts her through, God is always there for her. I had a huge grin on my face Sunday as one of the speakers finished their talk "In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen" and her son Pj, who is only a year old said loudly, AMEN! He has such a good mother and I just want with all of my heart to see her make it through these hard times and just be happy in life! She deserves it.
OK, well I hate ending these messages because I just feel like there is so much more to say. But I love you all and would sincerely love to hear from all of you. Thanks so much for the recent letters! You'll be hearing back from me soon!
Love Always,
Melissa
OH! and congrats to Kinner for being pregnant with baby # 3 :) Babies Babies Babies!! :) Especially boy babies! Congrats Chris and Annie on your son!! I can't wait to see them all when I get home! I loved the pictures from the cabin! Everyone looks great! Miss you all!
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