Friends and Family,
Oh man... what an amazing week it's been since I have written you last!! Great things always happen on Thursdays because I have to wait a whole week before I can write you about them! So Thursday started off pretty unproductive. We were long planning and then got a call from an investigator Annie, who is great, that we haven't talked to for a long time! We were so excited and went to a restaurant to see her and her friend. It turns out her friend was this Australian guy who has had a way crazy life! We got into conversation and ended up staying way too long. We had correlation at 5 and then nothing really to do at night... This girl who lives by the church, whose name is Fern, is Korats eternal investigator. She has been investigating for years and no one can just drop her because she has a great testimony, but just won't be baptized.
So we decided to go visit her, and oh what a blessing that was! She was way happy to see us and told us that she had been praying and got answers to her prayers and knew that God loved her. She was so happy! We asked her, "Fern, why aren't you baptized?!" and she said, "I want to be!" She has to wait for her boyfriend to move out, because she knows she can't get baptized if she is living with him, so when he goes off to be a soldier she is going to get baptized! When he comes back they will get married!! We were so pumped!! And it was funny because right before we went to teach her we were saying, she just has to get baptized one day... maybe it will take someone special to do it. And now she is!
So that was great, but honestly, Sunday was the best day of my mission and one of the best days of my life!! First Saturday, we had a whole day planned out and everything fell through (the life of a missionary) but President Smith and Sister Smith came and we visited Sister Dim and her family (the one I wrote about a few weeks ago) It was great...President Smith boldly invited them to come back to church... he was kind of weary about coming back because he feels like he has lost his name and doesn't think he is worthy of his priesthood anymore. (He was the former branch president) But on Sunday THEY CAME!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was amazing! Only for the third hour, but it was him and his wife, his daughter and one grandchild! It was so special!! :)
So that was great, but what really made Sunday special for me was that WILLIAM AND PENAPAH CAME TO CHURCH!!! (remember them?) OH man I wish I could just bottle up the smile she had on her face as she walked into the church, she was radiating!! She sat down in the chapel and just wept as she prayed a sweet prayer of gratitude to her Heavenly Father. Words can not describe the joy it brought to me just to see that. She was thanking Sister Brad and I the whole time! And Relief Society was just an amazing, life changing time for me. I am sitting there with Penapah, feeling so happy, and in walks Sister Dim and her daughter, back to church for the first time in 8 years, and Sister Smith tells this amazing heart warming experience about a time she felt the love Heavenly Father has for Thai people in the Hong Kong temple... Sister Brad translated and everyone was in tears. Penapah and I just sat there and cried! My life felt complete! I felt like every choice and decision I had made in my life, all the times I went to church and church activities and chose to follow the Savior, led me to this amazing experience in my life!! I will never forget it as long as I live! I felt true joy!
This past Sunday we had 11 investigators at church and 7 of them have baptismal dates for October 18th! We will see how things work out!! Oh man, I just love this work!
Yesterday was pretty awesome too. I want to go into great detail, but am running out of time. basically we road our bike really far and really fast (i dont really know how far, but I was beat after...) and met a 17 year old girl who told us she wanted to be a member of the church and asked what she had to do to be one... WHAT?! Who asks that! hahah. Love it! She is a great girl. Her name is Som. I am so excited to teach her!! :)
OK... so some shout outs! First, Ashley thanks so much for writing me! I really appriciate the words of encouragement from a fellow (former) sister missionary! I'm so happy that you are getting to know my family. They are awesome! Hope you and Kurtis have a great time at Conference!! Give him a hug for me!
Oh yea, Conference... we don't get to see it until next weekend, so this is just a regular week, but we do get to watch it in English.
Eric Sawyer... thanks so much for asking about me! Sounds like you're doing awesome! The best way to write is dear elder.com. It's .89 cents I think! I get mail once a week, but haven't received many letters since being in Thailand.
Lyndsay, you are amazing. Thanks for all the support, I love you so much! All the letters you wrote me at the MTC are at home, but I can send you the one you sent here.
Everyone else, my wonderful family, Grandpa and Ginny, my awesome aunts, uncles, and cousins, and of course my great friends, I love you and miss you and cannot wait to hear from ALL of you!! Hope you all have a great week!
Love,
Melissa!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment