HELLO FROM THAILAND!!

Well, I made it! I'm alive! We left on Monday, and got to Thailand on Wednesday in the late morning. I don't really know what happened to Tuesday.

I won't talk much about the travel, because that's boring, but I will say that the plane we took to Taiwan was the NICEST plane I'd ever been in!! SUPER fancy. There were paintings on the walls. That is all.

OK So we got to Thailand! And nothing bad happened. No one got lost or forgot/lost important papers. We just hopped on through to the baggage claim- and we had all our baggage too! Phewwww! So we grabbed all that and then headed out to the... shopping area of the airport? I don't even know. But Pres and Sis Senior were there with some elders waiting for us!! They took us straight to the Church office in Asok which is what is called the "beast" or "heart" of Bangkok. We took a very awkward picture there.

OK So Thailand is VERY hot and VERY humid. Buuut.... it's not as hot as I thought it would be. That probably means it's going to get worse now, but I'm doing fine here. I drink a lot of water and I'm doing OK!

Anyway, my Mission Pres and his wife are just amazing. They're hilarious, but they're here to work and make sure we're here for the same reason. They really took care of us in Asok! I'm excited to work under them.

After we took the awkward picture we ate some street food that the office elders picked up. SO GOOD! The food here is a definite blessing. And then we ran some errands with the Assistants to the Presidents! I had to get my blood drawn. :( Blahhhh BUT we like... talked to EVERY ONE in that little health clinic. It was was so fun! One of the AP's even committed some random guy to baptism and he accepted! Seriously, the people here are so ready for the Gospel.

Aaafter that we did the "Dan Jones" activity, which is where they give the greenies a book of mormon and companion and tell them to go give it to someone. I got two companions (big surprise)! It was two of my Phii Thais from the MTC!!!! Sis Steele and Madsen! So awesome. Well, the first guy that I saw when we walked out was sitting on a curb next to his motorcycle reading a newspaper. We walked past him, but I really felt like I needed to talk to him, well, turns out that's how Sis Steele and Madsen felt too! So we went back and started talking to him. I didn't understand ANYTHING! They did most of the talking. Haha But I testified about the BoM and he took it and gave us his number so that he and his sons could learn more! AWESOME! Every one else I talked to weren't interested until we ran into some students at the university. We talked to them and ended up giving the first lesson basically! So crazy! We got their numbers too. Not bad for my first day, I'd say!

OK So the next day was when we got our new companions and areas. Elder C got called to the Issan, Elder Wahl got called to the Issan, Sis Barton got called to the Issan, and I got called to........

BANGKOK!! I'm the only one that didn't get called to the Issan! I'm serving in an area called Don Mxang. My trainer is Sister Reedy. She's only been out for 3 1/2 months! She's so awesome. We're white-washing in Don Mxang, which means that the Elders before both left so we don't know ANYTHING about this place, but she's only ever served in the Issan. It's been fun trying to figure out what the heck we're going to do here.

We inherited 4 investigators, and keep getting a ton of referrals. There is a LOT of work to be done here in Don Mxang. There's so many people!

Bangkok is wild. Thailand is wild! There are motorcycles and dogs EVERYWHERE. It isn't uncommon to see 5 people on one motorcycle.

Let me describe my first lesson: It was at a member's house. She lives in this odd cement building thing. We sat outside on a mat, and waited for the investigator to come. Her husband recently died, and she's struggling to make ends meet, because she has to pay the monks to take care of her husband's spirit (what?). She's had a hard life, and needs the Gospel!! Anyway, she showed up, and we tried to give a lesson, but Sis Phaa's son is autistic and was NUTS. First off, he was naked and just ran around like an animal. He punched SIs Reedy in the face, peed all over the floor, and then pooped in the corner.

...It was an interesting lesson.

Thailand is crazy. haha At church yesterday this new girl showed up. She got in a taxi that morning and asked him to take her to a protestant church. He dropped her off at ours. LOL! We gave a quick lesson afterwards and she was like, "I want to get baptised!" Also- this one random member decided to help us teach and he was ALL over the place saying so many random things. We were trying to teach about prayer and the BoM but somehow he took it to the word of wisdom....? Luckily this girl is AMAZING and was like, "I can do that! I wanna get baptized!" So crazy. Too bad she doesn't live in our area so we have to give her to someone else. :(

Anyway. I love Don Mxang! The branch is amazing. I'm still suffering from some culture shock, but I'll get over it soon. I'm just excited to be serving this people. The people here are so nice. I've never been told "you're pretty" more in my life than in the 5 days I've been here. haha! I love them. These are hard working, humble, KIND people. Love 'em to death!

Talk to you next week. 

Sis Zaugg

She's On Her Way!

We talked to Sister Zaugg while she was at the airport, and a nice mom (Sister Hawkes) saw them getting ready to  leave and kindly took a picture of them and sent it to their families. There are truly wonderful people in the world.

Sister Zaugg will be stopping in LA, Singapore, and then finally make it to Bangkok, Thailand. It's going to be a loooong couple of days for her.

My Last Email From the US!

Guess what. This will be my LAST email from the States for 16 months!!!!!!! I'm leaving for Thailand on Monday!!!!!!!! We got our travel plans last Friday! We were pretty sure that they would come on Thursday, but we were disappointed when our mail boxes were empty. : ( So we weren't really sure when they would come, until Friday afternoon at lunch Sister Melton and Chii Stephens of the cambodian and vietnamese districts came running to our tables squealing and waving their travel plans!!! My district all freaked out and rushed to the post office and found ours there too!!!!!! We have a 3 hour layover in Taipei, Taiwan!!! The Cambodians leave the day after us on Tuesday and stop in Hong Kong. SO COOL!!!! It was actually really hard to focus that day, but we pulled it together and maintained some form of composure!

My zone (minus the nccng thais)

 And then on Monday our name tags came!!!!!!! Like- the ones that have our names in Thai! That made is SO real for us. Like... we're actually going to Thailand. And we're going to be speaking Thai and serving Thai people. Wow. You know, I'm really not that nervous. I've worked hard here at the MTC. I've learned a lot, and I know I'll learn a lot in Thailand. Mostly I'm just ready to go and work work WORK! I just know they're going to have us place a Book of Mormon as soon as we get off the plane, and I'm so PUMPED FOR IT. I'm gonna like drag whoever my companion is around and talk to whoever I can. Even if they can't understand a thing I say, they'll see how much I love that book, and hopefully they'll want to check it out. Haha! I just want to run around Bangkok and tell every one I make eye contact with, "GOD LOVES YOU!!!" That would probably be un-productive though, so I'll refrain from doing that.

Sis Duplessis and Sis Stack

We will miss our nccng Thais! We don't know all of them that well, but there's been a few that I've really come to know and love. Our mini-me trio and Sis Duplessis and Sis Stack are just my absolute favorite! They're all so cute and we adore them. Sis Stack is probably the cutest Sister on the planet. I feel like every time I look at her she's smiling at me or one of my companions. It makes me feel so loved. <3 I will be sad to leave our nccngies, but I'm PUMPED to be reunited with my Phii Thais!!!!!!! I miss them so much. I can't wait to see them and see how far they've come in the last 6 weeks.

Mini-mees! 

This Friday my investigator, Sam gets baptised! We're so excited. He's the only one of our investigators who's getting baptised before we leave. And he's getting baptized on his birthday!! We asked Brother Phan (who plays Sam), "Is Friday really your birthday?" And he said, "Yup!" So we're planning some kind of.... birthday... type thing.... We're not sure. It'll prolly just be a card that's filled with love. Haha! We love our teachers.

My district at the temple!

Last day at the temple!  

Yesterday we went to the dentist again! Sis Ng needed a re-filling this time! But we went to a different office this time around. It was suuuuper fancy! We felt weird not having to swipe our security cards to get in and use the elevators. Haha. So while Sis Barton and I were trying to study Thai in the waiting room, a woman and her daughter came in, and we heard that the daughter was a soon-to-be missionary, so we asked the woman where her daughter was going, and she said, "estonia", and asked where we're going.  

When she found out we're going to Thailand she was like, "oh! My daughter just got back from Thailand!" And we were like, "what's her name??" And she said the name of the same sister who has been coming to TRC for the last 6 weeks!!!!!!!! We FREAKED out!!!!!!!!! We LOVE her! We have the funnest times teaching her. We laugh, and feel the spirit, and she shares her experiences in Thailand and we actually understand her when she speaks!!! That was really fun. Also, there was  a whole commotion in the dentist's office because they just recently got a little nemo fish in their tank, and all the other fishies were attacking it and they were trying to save it. We kind of just sat there and yelled,  ""save the fishy!!!!!!!!" I hope they were able to find it a better home. : ( ...Anyway. That was my fun dentist trip.

So for having not had any contact with any sort of media in the last 2 months, I haven't really had any cravings for tv or music. There's only been 2 things that I've thought of fairly frequently (like once a week): Pride and Prejudice and SPONGEBOB. I was talking with Elder Calderon in my district last night about Spongebob and I realized how.... important... Spongebob has been in my life...! That feels really weird to say, but it's TRUE! My family totally bonded over that cartoon, parents included. I swear half the stuff that comes out of Eliza and my mouth when we're together is some form of a Spongebob quote. Hahha! Who knew. Missions force you to realize deep, deep, stuff.

One, more important realization that I've had here at the MTC is that part of the stress I've had that's contributed to discouragement is that I haven't been evaluating my success/performance according to the Lord's standards. I admit that I'm kind of a perfectionist when it comes to some things. I know that my mission is a serious, serious, thing. I am the Lord's servant. I DO NOT want to waste any of his time. I take it very seriously, and I've gotten into this habit of thinking that if I'm not a perfect missionary, I'm a waste of time. But that's not it at all! Bro Phan actually has been trying to help me through this the whole 8 weeks I've been here. Last week he shared a quote with me. It said: "I have often said one of the greatest secrets of missionary work is WORK! If a misisonary, works, he will get the spirit; if he gets the spirit, he will teach by the spirit; and if he teaches by the Spirit, he will touch the hearts of the people and he will be happy."

nccng thais and all the sisters that came in the same day as me!

So, yeah! I do have to work! I have to work my rear off! More than I ever have before! But I'm supposed to work so that the Spirit can work through me. I can't measure my success as a servant of the Lord by how many rules or bullet points I can check off of my daily list, but by whether or not I am filled with the Spirit, and have joy in the work. That was something that took me 8 weeks to figure out, and to be honest, I'm still trying to understand it. But I'm better than I was before. It's hard, wanting to be a good missionary, because sometimes we end up doing things our way, instead of the Lord's, when we were trying so hard to do it His way in the beginning! But that's what repentance is for. :) I do it every day, and it's kept me sane.

So, yesterday was my LAST Tuesday devotional! And guess who came.

....

....

....

Elder Russel M. Nelson!

Can you BELIEVE it?? I have heard from TWO Apostles of the Lord here at the MTC. Some people don't even get to hear from ONE, let alone, TWO. I am so incredibly blessed and spoiled. What a special experience it is to hear an apostle speak. He talked about how ancestors of us and our invetsigators will be with us as we bring them closer to Christ. He talked about how family history is a very important tool in misionary work. I really believe now that family history will be a great tool in my mission! I'm so greatful to have been able to hear Elder Nelson speak!

Well, I'm running out of time, so I'll just express my testimony and gratitude for the MTC! The MTC is HARD! But it's amazing. I was forced to grow and learn in capacities I've never done before. I know for a fact that I was called by God through His prophet. I can feel that my calling is divine. I know that missionary work is hard because it's supposed to be. Elder Holland said, "Missionary work is hard, because salvation is not a cheap experience. Why should it be easy for us, when it was never easy for Him?" I have to cry, sweat, and hurt to help these beloved children of the Lord, because Christ did that and so much more for me- AND them. I am so grateful for Him and His atonement. That's why I'm here. I am so ready to go to Thailand. I'm ready to work with these people, and share Christ's love with them. I am so privileged to be a missionary. There is nowhere I'd rather be right now.

My companionship and
a Cambodian companionship

Well, next time you'll hear from me I'll be in Thailand! I hope life is just dandy for y'all! 

Love you lots!!!!!!!! Talk to you soon!!!!!!!

Sister Zaugg

Sawaddii from this week!

First, I apologize sincerely for the whole email fiasco that was super frustrating. But good news: I get a whole hour for emailing now! Or so says my branch presidency... the little timer is still up but I have faith that they told me the truth! I'm not even sure if I have an hour worth of things to say. Haha We'll seeeeee

 

So the nccng thais came! We were suuuuper excited. TOO excited. We came up with an excuse to talk to Bro Phan (he's teaching one of the other districts as well) just so we could go see them! We stopped by their classrooms, but turns out Bro Phan wasn't teaching that day, but Bro Burges and Shipley are AWESOME so they let us fxg (practice) a little bit with the new arrivals. I must say, they looked absolutely terrified! That must have been what I looked like! It was such a confidence booster talking to them in Thai. I was like.. "Heyyyyyy I actually speak Thai a little bit!" It's so great! They ask us how to say things ALL THE TIME, and I know how to say them MOST OF THE TIME. Although, guess what: yesterday my companions and I had a 

My companionship and one of the Cambodian
 companionships, whom we absolutely adore.

full conversation in Thai THAT WASN'T ABOUT THE GOSPEL. At the end of it we were like... "Was that all in Thai? That was all in Thai!" It was an exciting day for us. :) ...Aaanyway, we were kind of afraid that we had overwhelmed the nccng thais the first day, because us and the Cambodians kind of swarmed them and fawned all over them. Buuuut, they all talk to us now and say how cool we are, so I think they like us! It makes me feel fuzzy inside. I was so lucky to be the Sister Training Leader when they came! I got to show them around campus and tell them how to do stuff and how they should study. It was awweeeesome! But then I got released. :( Sis Melton and Chii Stephens are awesome STL, though! I just really miss my calling. That's okay! I'm really grateful for the opportunity I had to serve! So, yeah, long story short, I love my nccng Thais, and it's weird being a Phii Thai. I remember my Phii Thais seeming SO COOL. They knew everything! I really don't feel that cool. But, I will serve my duty with honor as a cool Phii Thai. :)

 

So last week I left the MTC. :O Crazy, right? We went to the...... dentist! Sis Barton had to get a filling, so Sis Ng and I planned a lesson in a dentist's office listening to soft rock. Hahaha It was actually really productive! I think the weirdest part was being in the van. I was like, "Whoa. I haven't been in a car for 6 weeks." Odd. In two weeks I'm going to be on a van again! And then on a PLANE.

 

TWO WEEKS. Actually.... TWELVE DAYS. I leave for Thailand in twelve days. I can hardly believe it! I have really come to love the MTC. I have learned so much! I have learned to give my heart to the Savior. I've learned to serve my companions, I've learned to love my investigators, and they aren't even real!

 

Hey! Big news! One of my investigators committed to baptism!!! We're so excited for him! We're not sure when.... but we're just glad he said yes! It was kinda frustrating, because all of the Cambodians' invetsigators have already all been baptised, and we're just now getting all of our investigators to even believe in Christ. But you know what? I think our teachers are harder on us than the Cambodians. Our teachers aren't golden investigators. They don't just believe everything we tell them. If we don't teach with the spirit, they don't learn anything. It's great! It's forced me to really go down to the basics and just rely on the Spirit.

 

My district and two of my teachers!

 I love my teachers. I'm probably going to miss them the most out of everything here at the MTC. They care for us so much, and have pushed us and laughed with us and scolded us and eaten candy with us! They're awesome. We actually kind of have 3 teachers... or like... 4... the zone resource teachers come in a lot. So it's just a lot of fun. One is a Laotian speaker, but Laotian is very similar to Thai, so we can talk to him. Elder Calderon and I really like Laotian! We like to talk like Brother Harper and pick up random phrases from him, much to the dismay of our "real" teachers. Apparently Laotian is considered like... hick language to Thai speakers. haha! I hope I get sent to the Issan so I can learn it!

 

Our Taiwanese roommates have left us. : ( They're gonna do so great in Taiwan! Our room is just very quiet now....

 

Oh, so the newest gym craze is soccer. We love being outside, but honestly, the foursquare kind of stinks outside. The ball is really hard and the pavement isn't level, so the sisters have moved to soccer! I was super bummed about it at first, because the last time I've played soccer was in.... like... second grade, and I had bad memories from that, but turns out I'm not TERRIBLE at it. I can play! We've enjoyed getting to know the nccng thais better by running into them and kicking soccer balls at their heads. :)

 

Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr So I feel like a lot has happened, but whenever I go to type up emails it all just all disappears! The MTC fries your brain. The only things I can think about are Thai, the Gospel and food. Food is important. I'm super excited to eat legit Thai food IN Thailand!

 

I'm even more excited to share the Gospel! As I've been preparing to teach each of my investigators I've really had to focus in on how the Gospel and the principles of the Gospel is going to help each of them as individuals. And it turns out, living the restored gospel of Christ helps everyone NO MATTER WHAT! I knew that already, but seeing it applied to my investigators with each of their struggles has really confirmed that to me.

 The Gospel is true! Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. He loves us. He died for us! He's restored His Gospel on the Earth. Right now we're focusing on getting our investigators to have faith in Christ through reading the Book of Mormon, because the Book of Mormon truly testifies of Christ. I love that book. I have found so much peace and love by reading it every day. Don't take advantage of it! Study it EVERY DAY. You will find your faith deepening, and your desire to serve Christ grow. It helps every one, no matter their nationality. A convert from Thailand comes every week to be taught by us, she has such a love for the Book of Mormon. It's helped her and her family and she is using it to help her prepare for her own mission! I'm so excited for her.

 

Anyway, hope all is well! I'm doing great.

 

Love,

Sister Zaugg

Sawaddiiiiiii From Last Week!

(Sister Zaugg had a computer malfunction and it wouldn't let her send her letter last week, so here it is this week.)

Guess what: THE NCCNGIES ARE COMING!!!!! TODAY!! In like.... 10 minutes, the first batch will be arriving on campus. We are soooooo excited! We even made little welcome cards to put on their doors!! We're slightly tempted to just stalk them all day, since it's our P-Day, but Bro Pahn is one of the new district's teacher and we had a feeling he might throw something at us if he saw us snooping around. So we are (im)patiently waiting to ATTACK them tonight! I remember our first night with our Phii Thais all came to our room and just fawned all over us. We were terrified. This time however, there's only three of us, and 11 of them, so I'm hoping that we won't be (as) overwhelming.

Sister Cloud (the COOLEST PERSON EVERR)
 and I, the night before she left for Cambodia!

The rest of our Cambodian roommates before they left!

So, I was eating my dinner yesterday when I realized we only have like..... LESS THAN THREE WEEKS LEFT! Whaaaaaaaaaaat?? Ok, first off, I'm really excited, but second off, I'm JUST NOT READY. I like.... don't really even speak Thai! I mean... I do! Kind of! But not enough! Ohhhhh goodness. It's okay. Pen pay day! I can do this! But man. Really, when did 6 weeks go by? I'm really gonna miss the MTC! It's so awesome here. Where else am I gonna sing "Called to Serve" with 2,000 other missionaries every Tuesday night? : (

Hmmmm... well, the plague came and totally wiped out my zone. We were sooooo sick. It was pretty gross. We're recovering, though!

Also, we moved back to our old classroom!!! Yes!!!!!! We missed it so much. After we moved everything back in I kind of just hugged the wall for a little bit. Seriously, our classroom is the BEST. It has a window. The chairs are comfy. It has a window. We can write on the desks with marker, but most importantly: it HAS A WINDOW.

Sister Barton and I at our desk.

So, funny story time: at the beginning of every class we sing, pray and give a spiritual thought in Thai. We have a schedule as to who does what every day. Problem is, we never actually look at it until like... 10 minutes before, so we've been having very... interesting spiritual thoughts. Well, one day it was Sis Barton's turn, and she kind of just giggled through the whole thing. It was interesting. At the end, Bro Olsen just smiled and said something like, "Baankhrang khun ruusxg ???" Sometimes you feel ????" And we were like, "what?" And he's like, you don't know what "???" means? And we were like, "no! What it is it?" And he just laughed and was like, "it's nothing!" Sis Barton was like, WHAT DID YOU SAY ABOUT ME??? But he wouldn't tell us! Sooo, like, an hour later Sis Barton says, "Bro Olsen, how do you say awkward?" And he turns red and says, "???" which was ee aad. HE CALLED HER AWKWARD. It was hilarious. After 

 that she's been super determined to have like, perfect spiritual thoughts. I love my teachers. :)

Hmmmmm During TRC last week I taught a person from Thailand!  It was awesome!!

Can't think of anything else to say! I feel like I'm particularly scatter-brained today. I apologize for that. 

I love everybodyyy! And I love Thai and the MTC and am excited to get out there and TEACH!

<3 Love,

Sister Zaugg