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