Family and Friends,
Thank you all for your prayers and love. I am really feeling loved by you all this week. It has been a pretty awesome week. We had interviews on Monday and then Zone Conference on Tuesday so that was a great boost of motivation. My mission president has a lot of faith in me and we mostly talked about my language and how I need to improve while I have a Thai companion for when I will train. I think about it a lot and to be honest it really stresses me out, because there are still a lot of times I don't understand questions and I still feel like my teaching is choppy. I rely a lot on Sister Amnuaychoke to correct my bad grammar. I'm not sure what I will do when everything is on me to lead the lesson and understand the needs of the investigator. President Smith says that the gift will come when I need it and I really trust him.
The new thing we are focusing on is getting new investigators. We are working really hard and already have some potentials! I'm excited to see them progress. As for our progressing investigators, Pim's baptism is postponed until March 14th so her dad can be there, which is a really big deal. AND we aren't sure yet, but he may even be able to be the one to baptize her! That would mean he would be much closer to be back into full activity. It was such a blessing on Sunday when he came to church and two of the people who spoke mentioned how happy they were to see him. I see the way their family is being so blessed, and all because of that one phone call!! Miracles! :)
I also had a really cool experience this week where I felt the Holy Ghost really confirm the Book of Mormon is true. It was a really special experience, one in which I know I will remember my whole life. I wrote the experience in my study journal and have it forever! Great advice from Lyndsay!
Well the time is short. But I am staying busy and working hard and having the time of my life!
Love you all! Love to hear from you soon!
Love,
Melissa!
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Happy Chinese New Year!
Family and Friends,
Another Amazing week to report!
I know I am not in China, but a lot of Thais have Chinese heritage so Chinese New Year is a pretty big deal here. Everything is decked out in red and we hear firecrackers popping a lot. Today we are going to the mall to celebrate Sister Amnuaychoke's birthday tomorrow (yes, it's on valentines day :) and we are going to join in on some of the Chinese New Years festivities! :) They do celebrate Valentine's Day. Wan hang khwaamrac (Day of Love) So it's a very special weekend.
The work is going great right now! Monday and Tuesday were like every missionaries dream for us. We had a full day of appointments scheduled and they all went through! We taught some amazing lessons and even went on an adventure when we got lost on our bikes for a little bit. Luckily we were out of the city where it was just beautiful! So being lost wasn't bad! Plus it gave us a reason to stop and ask people how to get where we were going. Pim is doing so good and I just love teaching her. Her baptism is still on schedule for the 28th.
The real miracle this week, however happened on Thursday. We had so much success Monday and Tuesday, but Wed, Thur and Fri weren't as good as far as people keeping their appointments, but Thursday made it all worth it... So พี่ Sea, I'm not sure if you remember, was the investigator that called the office and asked for the missionaries to come back. We started teaching her and she had a lot of faith but said she couldn't come to church because of work. This is a very typical scenario for the missionaries. We want everything for our investigators to have the faith to sacrifice to be able to be baptized, but it's all on their desires and willingness to make those sacrifices. So on Monday we taught her and I was really scared about being too abrupt and asking her to sacrifice in order to get baptized, but we watched Finding Faith in Christ and I felt the spirit urging me to talk about sacrificing. So I pulled out True to the Faith in Thai and had her read a very straight forward quote about how we are expected to sacrifice worldly things to show our love for God. On Thursday we taught about baptism, covenants, ordinances and the gift of the Holy Ghost and at the end of the lesson she said she was going to ask her boss if she could come into work late so that she can come to church and get baptized!!! Desire! Faith! Sacrifice! I was beaming. She still has a lot to overcome, but I have the faith that she will make it! :)
So I am happy and healthy! This week was a little more on the trunky side because I got an awesome package from home with pictures of my family and realized that life is really going on without me! My brothers look so much older! It was fun to see the pictures from Joe and Courtney's wedding! Congrats again to the newlyweds! You look great together! :) And Ashley looked so cute dancing with Kurtis! Ah, wish I could have been there!! Of course I was there in spirit though. It was also nice to get some letters from some friends who haven't written in a while! Tony and Mike. :) And it's always nice to get letters from Lyndsay! She sent pics from her Utah trip and looks absolutely Fabulous!! So a lot of thoughts have been drifting toward home near the end of the week, but my goal is always on the Savior and His atoning sacrifice and making this time as a missionary worth every minute! I love it! I love life! I love the gospel of Jesus Christ!
You are in my prayers... now write me. ;) hehe.
Love,
Melissa
Another Amazing week to report!
I know I am not in China, but a lot of Thais have Chinese heritage so Chinese New Year is a pretty big deal here. Everything is decked out in red and we hear firecrackers popping a lot. Today we are going to the mall to celebrate Sister Amnuaychoke's birthday tomorrow (yes, it's on valentines day :) and we are going to join in on some of the Chinese New Years festivities! :) They do celebrate Valentine's Day. Wan hang khwaamrac (Day of Love) So it's a very special weekend.
The work is going great right now! Monday and Tuesday were like every missionaries dream for us. We had a full day of appointments scheduled and they all went through! We taught some amazing lessons and even went on an adventure when we got lost on our bikes for a little bit. Luckily we were out of the city where it was just beautiful! So being lost wasn't bad! Plus it gave us a reason to stop and ask people how to get where we were going. Pim is doing so good and I just love teaching her. Her baptism is still on schedule for the 28th.
The real miracle this week, however happened on Thursday. We had so much success Monday and Tuesday, but Wed, Thur and Fri weren't as good as far as people keeping their appointments, but Thursday made it all worth it... So พี่ Sea, I'm not sure if you remember, was the investigator that called the office and asked for the missionaries to come back. We started teaching her and she had a lot of faith but said she couldn't come to church because of work. This is a very typical scenario for the missionaries. We want everything for our investigators to have the faith to sacrifice to be able to be baptized, but it's all on their desires and willingness to make those sacrifices. So on Monday we taught her and I was really scared about being too abrupt and asking her to sacrifice in order to get baptized, but we watched Finding Faith in Christ and I felt the spirit urging me to talk about sacrificing. So I pulled out True to the Faith in Thai and had her read a very straight forward quote about how we are expected to sacrifice worldly things to show our love for God. On Thursday we taught about baptism, covenants, ordinances and the gift of the Holy Ghost and at the end of the lesson she said she was going to ask her boss if she could come into work late so that she can come to church and get baptized!!! Desire! Faith! Sacrifice! I was beaming. She still has a lot to overcome, but I have the faith that she will make it! :)
So I am happy and healthy! This week was a little more on the trunky side because I got an awesome package from home with pictures of my family and realized that life is really going on without me! My brothers look so much older! It was fun to see the pictures from Joe and Courtney's wedding! Congrats again to the newlyweds! You look great together! :) And Ashley looked so cute dancing with Kurtis! Ah, wish I could have been there!! Of course I was there in spirit though. It was also nice to get some letters from some friends who haven't written in a while! Tony and Mike. :) And it's always nice to get letters from Lyndsay! She sent pics from her Utah trip and looks absolutely Fabulous!! So a lot of thoughts have been drifting toward home near the end of the week, but my goal is always on the Savior and His atoning sacrifice and making this time as a missionary worth every minute! I love it! I love life! I love the gospel of Jesus Christ!
You are in my prayers... now write me. ;) hehe.
Love,
Melissa
Sunday, February 7, 2010
SO Aroy!
Well Family and Friends,
This will be a short update today on the life of your favorite Sister missionary. :) We are in a really cheap-o Internet cafe (we wont be coming back to this one) because it only gives us a very short time.
So, exciting updates this week are, first off we are going to have a baptism!! :) Pim (the 10 year old girl with the less active parents) is getting baptized and her family is coming back to church again! This is such a huge blessing for their family and I feel so blessed to have seen the transformation. I really love this family with all my heart! Teaching her is always the highlight of my day because we prepare fun lessons for her and she really gets into the games and comparisons we prepare. She understands very easily and is just a joy to be around. I was thinking yesterday that she is someone I will always want to keep in touch with and see what great things she does with her life. She is so smart.
Planning this week was awesome! We have some great plans to make this area rockin'!! I love serving with Sister Amnuaychoke! She is hilarious. OK, so I do this thing every moves. I like to come up with a name for each transfer. The tradition started my second moves when Elder Blaustine was trying to say there are goods and bads, positives and negatives, but accidentally said there are goods and positives. We all laughed at his slip of words and decided to call the moves "The Goods and The Positives" So naturally the next moves, we needed a name too! We named it "Increase Mightily" because we have lots of baptisms (5 in 5 weeks). When I moved to Pakkret in the 6 elder, 2 sister district, the elders didn't get into the naming of the moves like my district had before in Korat, so just between Sister Nielsen and I, we named the moves "Drive through it, Strive through it, Thrive through it" which was a quote from her mom to help her through her homesickness. And we did just that! It was a great moves. So this moves (it is a new moves because I have a new companion) I was trying to think of a good name that will characterize this area, and yesterday I came up with the perfect name:
SO Aroy!
Aroy in Thai means delicious, as in delicious food and is something that Sister Amnuaychoke says a lot. :) So after having Sister Nielsen who wasn't a fan of Thai food, I was ready to eat Thai food again! So I made a list of all the Thai food I wanted to try out in this Thai travel book in English. So I asked her what everything was and literally every dish I told her about she would say, very exciting, "Oh man, that one is SO aroy!" I loved her passion and love for Thai food. Since she lived in Hong Kong for the past 10 years, Thai food reminds her of her childhood and so it is very special to her.
So like all of the names I pick for my new areas, I want it to also be centered on the work. I think of feasting on the words of Christ and how food that is so delicious can make you so happy, like it does for Sister Amnuaychoke, but once you have had good food you don't just stop eating because you have already tasted it. We feed our bodies everyday multiple times a day, and we should be feeding our souls as well with the good word of God. Our focus this moves is on the Book of Mormon and we have had some awesome lessons with members and less actives about the importance of the Book of Mormon and how it blesses our lives. So when I think of how the Book of Mormon has played a role in my life personally, like Sister Amnuaychoke remembering her childhood memories through Thai food, I can say "Oh man, those words are SO aroy!"
I love you all, I am so happy to be here and working hard for the Lord. You are all in my prayers.
Love,
Melissa
Happy Birthday to Tia and Kyle!!
This will be a short update today on the life of your favorite Sister missionary. :) We are in a really cheap-o Internet cafe (we wont be coming back to this one) because it only gives us a very short time.
So, exciting updates this week are, first off we are going to have a baptism!! :) Pim (the 10 year old girl with the less active parents) is getting baptized and her family is coming back to church again! This is such a huge blessing for their family and I feel so blessed to have seen the transformation. I really love this family with all my heart! Teaching her is always the highlight of my day because we prepare fun lessons for her and she really gets into the games and comparisons we prepare. She understands very easily and is just a joy to be around. I was thinking yesterday that she is someone I will always want to keep in touch with and see what great things she does with her life. She is so smart.
Planning this week was awesome! We have some great plans to make this area rockin'!! I love serving with Sister Amnuaychoke! She is hilarious. OK, so I do this thing every moves. I like to come up with a name for each transfer. The tradition started my second moves when Elder Blaustine was trying to say there are goods and bads, positives and negatives, but accidentally said there are goods and positives. We all laughed at his slip of words and decided to call the moves "The Goods and The Positives" So naturally the next moves, we needed a name too! We named it "Increase Mightily" because we have lots of baptisms (5 in 5 weeks). When I moved to Pakkret in the 6 elder, 2 sister district, the elders didn't get into the naming of the moves like my district had before in Korat, so just between Sister Nielsen and I, we named the moves "Drive through it, Strive through it, Thrive through it" which was a quote from her mom to help her through her homesickness. And we did just that! It was a great moves. So this moves (it is a new moves because I have a new companion) I was trying to think of a good name that will characterize this area, and yesterday I came up with the perfect name:
SO Aroy!
Aroy in Thai means delicious, as in delicious food and is something that Sister Amnuaychoke says a lot. :) So after having Sister Nielsen who wasn't a fan of Thai food, I was ready to eat Thai food again! So I made a list of all the Thai food I wanted to try out in this Thai travel book in English. So I asked her what everything was and literally every dish I told her about she would say, very exciting, "Oh man, that one is SO aroy!" I loved her passion and love for Thai food. Since she lived in Hong Kong for the past 10 years, Thai food reminds her of her childhood and so it is very special to her.
So like all of the names I pick for my new areas, I want it to also be centered on the work. I think of feasting on the words of Christ and how food that is so delicious can make you so happy, like it does for Sister Amnuaychoke, but once you have had good food you don't just stop eating because you have already tasted it. We feed our bodies everyday multiple times a day, and we should be feeding our souls as well with the good word of God. Our focus this moves is on the Book of Mormon and we have had some awesome lessons with members and less actives about the importance of the Book of Mormon and how it blesses our lives. So when I think of how the Book of Mormon has played a role in my life personally, like Sister Amnuaychoke remembering her childhood memories through Thai food, I can say "Oh man, those words are SO aroy!"
I love you all, I am so happy to be here and working hard for the Lord. You are all in my prayers.
Love,
Melissa
Happy Birthday to Tia and Kyle!!
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