You got 'em Sis...

Imagine this, it's about 8:45 on a pleasant Thailand evening. You're racing home from an awesome appointment alongside one of the many narrow canals that are all around Bangkok. Along the waters edges are exotic plants and trees alive with birds and insects all foreign to us Americans. Cars are speeding by on the narrow road, and you are forced to ride single file. Two motorcycles pull out in front of you and are going at a good pace, though unusually slow for the typical motorcycle on the roads. Behind you, your companion, an athlete who usually rides her bike ridiculously faster than you can but is now forced to stay behind you because of the narrowness of the road, quietly says under her breath: get the motorcycles. You aren't quite sure if she was serious or not, but know that she often sets targets and pushes herself to get to them and here is a perfect target right in front of you. The adrenaline starts pumping through your body as you push yourself harder than you ever have before. You pedal faster and faster and the cool air blows through your face and suddenly you are on the top of the world! You have never felt so alive! The motorcycles pick up speed a bit, but by this time you are going so fast, the goal is obtainable! Now you are going so fast that you can even pass the motorcycles! You feel great! And right when you get to the motorcycles, your companion, in a very deep, serious, proud voice says confidently:

You got 'em Sis.

Wow, I've never felt so good to hear those words from her. After all the times she has to stop and wait for me because she is riding her bike so fast, and I just can't, this time I can. And I did. We both laughed and now it's a joke between the two of us, "You got 'em Sis." I still laugh when I remember the experience. That actually happened a few weeks ago, but I thought about this experience yesterday and compared it to being a missionary. Sometimes as you are riding along on the journey of being a missionary, it can get hard to stay motivated. As amazing as the gospel is, preaching it every single day can get, well, old and sometimes you just want your old life back. But among the many things I have learned from Sister Neilsen in our 6 weeks together, one of them is found in this little experience, and that is setting targets to get to those things that are obtainable, but will push you.

A lot of what is done in missionary work is found within the missionary themselves. God provides the miracles when we have the desire to see them and then make something of them. I have found that there are about a million excuses to keep you from working hard and it is really easy sometimes to give in. But I also realized last night as I prayed for the motivation to keep going that by my working hard in times when I would rather not be is a true sign of my faith. The faith that the miracles will come, even when I am not expecting them. And interestingly enough the word in Thai for goal is also the word for target, so I am now setting some targets to shoot for, and just like those motorcycles that night on my bike, these targets are obtainable, but I will have to push myself. I have seen how attaining my goals and seeing results gives me that awesome, I'm-on-top-of-the-world feeling that I felt that night and that is what I am looking forward to. This work is so good.

As for this week, it has been truly awesome. We had a great zone conference on Monday where we talked about the Book of Mormon and President Smith gave us all a new copy of the Book of Mormon and asked us to read it and mark in red, every reference, including pronouns, to the Savior. I am already on 2nd Nephi 25 and I LOVE it. I am seeing the Book of Mormon in a whole new light. The cool thing too is that we got to listen to a talk from the New Mission Presidents seminar (which was given while I was in the MTC, but I wasn't present for the talk) by Quentin L. Cook and he talked about how his mission president had him do the same thing. I also learned that he and Jeffery R. Holland were companions!! It was so cool! Both of them bore testimony on how the experience helped them to testify with power of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, and after last conference, we all know that means a lot more coming from Elder Holland! :) So that has been a highlight of my week.

We had some special visitors too! Sister Lo (who is from my Stake in Sacramento) and Sister O'Neil had to renew their visa's so they surprised us on Tuesday morning! And Sister Marks is moving up to Loperi with her companion Sister Webb who is coming back to the mission after going home because of a tragedy in the family (her sister died :( ) So she spent the day with us on Wednesday before Sister Webb's flight came in. We are doing switch-offs with them next week, so I will let you know how she is doing. These are just the perks of serving in the area with the office. :)

The work is going great too! พี่ Sea has a baptismal date for March 7th! :) She has a problem with work and coming to church, but she has a lot of faith so I know it will get worked out. น้อง Pim is as cute as can be and we are going to get her a date next week too! :) Our miracle พี่ Pear (she is the one who came to the office and said she wanted to start coming to church) is progessing now! I had an awesome experience with her on Thursday. We had an appointment and taught the 1st lesson. It was going kind of rough, and Sister Neilsen was about to end it, but the spirit told me to ask her if she had any questions and to just testify. She had a lot of questions about answers to prayers and I bore my testimony of how God answers prayers and the spirit was very strong. Then she said the closing prayer and it was pretty incredible. Pray for her! :)

Well family and friends, thank you for being a faithful reader of my emails. It really means a lot to know that you are still interested in my life all the way around the world. I really do miss you all and wish you could be experiencing this with me. Hopefully my emails help you to know what I am up to and that I miss you all.

Until next week!

Love,
Melissa.