Wow, life is so amazing! So many great and amazing things have happened this week!
First, I will address the pictures! SO that is right, in Thailand, right now, the fields are white, already to harvest. And lo, Monday the most amazing district Korat has ever seen thrusted in their sickles with ALL their might that we may continue this marvelous work that has come forth among the children of men! We Kiewed Khaw (harvested the rice) and it was so much fun! I will send more pictures home, but basically, we got down in our scrubbs (bare foot) and cut the rice from the rice patties! I even bought a sweet rice harvesting hat!! :) The whole process is very labor intensive and we were so tired after!
 |
| From Melissa's Mission |
After we were done we went to the branch presidents house (he’s the one who is a rice farmer) and had one of the best lessons I've had on my mission. He is an amazing, humble man. The next picture is Sister Brad and me with Noah, Prataans son. We sat on this bench while we had an amazing gospel discussion about Faith and Hope. As tired as my body was after kiewing khaw, my spirit was so energized and I really understood so much of the conversation, pretty much the whole thing! My confidence is really growing in the language. But still some days are better than others.
 |
| From Melissa's Mission |
The last picture is of me and Sister Brad last week holding a snake. It was way sweet! :)
 |
| From Melissa's Mission |
OK. Are you ready for the best news in the world: PENAPAH IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! November 22! The best day of my mission! haha. The Lord is finally pouring out blessings to her and William and the branch in Korat will never be the same because she has the fire baby! And is ready to share the gospel with everyone! We are going to her house on Saturday to teach her son and niece and nephew! OK so here is what happened. William and Penapah are amazing and have been ready to be baptized for a while, but because they don’t have enough money and because William couldn’t ride the bus because of a knee problem they could never come to church and couldn’t get baptized. They prayed incessantly and had so much faith. When they couldn't make it to church last month to get baptized, I was crushed, but knew this was the time to not give up, but double my faith. I have prayed and prayed for them to find a way to get baptized. Well, finally the prayers have been answered and William got a way to go back to England, to raise some money, and come back to Thailand to start up their farm again which failed before. And because William is gone, Penapah can now come every week on a bus. It would have been so much better to see them both baptized together. But William is very excited to share the gospel with his sons and mother in England and will get baptized there. It will also be nice for him to go to church in a place where they speak his own language, even though Elder Lilly translates for him here. So they are both getting baptized and are so, so very happy. We taught an amazing lesson to William about the prophet Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and his faith is the strongest it's been. We were in tears as William offered a sincere heartfelt prayer thanking the Lord for allowing them the opportunity to be baptized and get their money situation back in order, they have suffered so much from their losses, but found the Lord in the midst of all their trials. Penapah then told us about a great lesson she learned from the Book of Mormon that involved taking money from corrupt people who were trying to buy their vote. She said she didn't feel good about the money and read in Ether about the corruption of men in the government and felt that it was an answer that she should not take that money. She stood up for virtue and she chose to not support corrupted people. I was so proud of her! She is amazing!! :)
OK, so that was definitely the highlight of my week. But other good things happened too. We have been teaching Waree, the woman who came to church on her own and loves it. We were worried at first because she just was not understanding what we were teaching her. But on Tuesday we taught an amazing lesson with Sister Tuu (who just happened to be at the church when we taught her) and we ended with Waree offering an amazing prayer asking forgiveness from the Lord for not being able to attend church this week. OH man, she is amazing! Life is so good.
I just can't believe how incredibly blessed I am to be serving the Lord in, quite literally, the best mission in the world. Seriously! What an amazing chance it is to be immersed in this amazing culture with some of God's most humble, giving people in the world. My life has changed.
OK, so moves. Its tomorrow, so I don't have a new companion yet, I will tomorrow. But she is so lucky whoever she is because we have two baptisms coming up for sure (Penapha and Khana- the little girl) and we will be giving Waree a date the next time we teach her, probably Dec 16 and then Sally, (Em's wife who just got baptized) will hopefully be ready too! The work is on FIRE!
But the other sad news is that Elder Blaustine is moving too. We totally weren't expecting it. He has been here since I have and it just won’t be the same without him!! But, I guess that's just the way mission life is! OK, so more news next week as the work continues in Korat!! :)
Finally I just want to end with my testimony of how much the Lord really does hear our prayers and answers them when they are according to his will. I had an amazing amazing experience this past week of the Lord answering my prayers. I will write it in snail mail and send it to you.
OK well, I love you all so so much and am grateful for each and every one of you!! :)
I love you,
Melissa
No comments:
Post a Comment