My first transfer... OVER??

Whoa. I remember at the MTC after 6 weeks I'd felt like I'd been there for SOOO long, and I was so cool, because I was one of the seasoned older kids, but  in Thailand I still feel like a clueless greenie and that it's been just a blink of an eye!

As far as the language goes, I've seen a marginal improvement. Sometimes in contacting situations, Sis Reedy and I will split up and talk to different people (within sight and sound, of course), and I can usually hold up a conversation. It's pretty one sided though. I ask a question, they answer something I don't really understand. They ask a question that I try to make up an answer to that might be relevant. So far I haven't gotten TOO many weird looks. But I do understand more than I did 6 weeks ago! It's great. Maybe in a year and a half I'll speak Thai. :)

 A lot of our contacting looks like this!
Also, there's my bike.
I named it Starshine Moonbeam. :)

So this week at District Meeting my District Leader informed us that Pres Senior wants two hours of street contacting to be the priority of our schedules. We're supposed to schedule everything else around the contacting! I have to say, Sis Reedy and I have found a lot of success in doing this! It's really scary, and kind of makes me tired thinking about 2 hours of street contacting every day, especially since I'm not confident with just striking up a conversation with someone in Thai and then somehow relating it to Christ in a way that would touch them, but as Sis Reedy and I have hit the neighborhoods, marketplaces and other random places of Bangkok, we have seen an improvement in our Thai, our conversational abilities (ie: not being awkward farangs), sensitivity to the direction from the Spirit and abilities to bear our testimonies powerfully. We have met A LOT of people who are potential investigators. The stressful part is that we keep finding all these people, and we have to weed out the ones who are actually prepared by the Lord, teach them, teach our current investigators, visit our less active members, and everything else that we have to do in a week.

 That is a cat that always likes to sit under my skirt
 when we eat at this one food ran by hour house. LOL

For the first time our stress isn't about trying to find something to do, but it's that we have TOO MUCH TO DO. President Senior told me a couple weeks ago that if we would keep working hard and being obedient, the Lord would bless us. Well.... he has! Maybe even a little too much!! hahaha OK, we can never have too much work, but MAN WE ARE BUSYYYY. The work here has just EXPLODED. We are just harvesting all day every day!

  Doraemon Sushi

We got 3 new investigators this week. The first one is named My Heart.

Yes.

His name is My Heart.

We got him as a referral foreverrrrr ago! Like, my second week here or something. But, when we contacted him, he was like, "Yeahh I live by the airport, and I'm only free in the evenings, so if we meet there at 7 I can show you where I live." And we were like, "Ehhh...... maybe not."

 Chaengwattana (about 20 minutes from
our house- still in Bangkok)

But then we got him as a referral a SECOND time, so we thought, "Maybe he actually is interested!" So we called him up again and set up a time during the day to go visit him with a member from our branch. She picked us up in her cute little asian minivan. :) haha Anyway, we thought he was kind of older, 'cause the Elders who referred him said he had a wife and kids, and he sounded older on the phone, but when he and his wife/girlfriend/fiance came to show us where to go, he was super young! Like... in his twenties! We were like, "Whoa." Anyway, they took us to not their house..... but his snooker ran? Like, a place where a bunch of mechanics play pool and hang out. ahahhahahhaha Apparently they live in another part of Bangkok, but own the snooker in Don Muang, and spend more than half of their time there. It's interesting.... Anyway, we just sat in a corner of his snooker and ended up talking to him, his wife and his parents! They're all (minus the wife) Christian already, and were interested in going to Church and our English program. So we gave them a Book of Mormon and said we'd meet them at church on Sunday. Turns out, though, that My Heart goes to school in the morning and so they have to go to the other branch. It's weiiird, but we gotta get them to church somehow! Anyway, turns out that he isn't in his 20's he's only 19!!!!We were so shocked. He's like, wayyyy grown up. Anyway.

They all came to church, except for his wife. His dad came!! We were super excited about that. They missed sacrament meeting, so we took them to Sunday School... turns out Pakkret branch doesn't have a gospel principles class so they were talking about some deep doctrine and they were really confused. ahahahha So we decided to not have them stay for 5th Sunday Forum and teach them the restoration instead. They loved it!! After talking about the First Vision, we were like, "Do you think God and Jesus Christ actually appeared to Joseph?" And they were like, "YEAH! Miracles happen!" 

This is me and Scooter.

Ohhh my gosh, we love these people so much. They're like..... soooo romantic. In an Anne of Green Gables kind of way. I mean- they named there son My Heart to begin with. They're Christian, which is a wayyyy weird thing to be in Thailand, and the parents hold hands all the time- which is WAY weird for Thailand, especially for people their age. They are sooooo sweet and willing to learn. We're excited to teach them about the temple, 'cause they're gonna LOVE IT!!!

The only problem teaching them is that it's kind of hard to talk/pray about them with a straight face. "My Heart isn't here!" "Please take care of My Heart." I love it! Best name ever.

This is a hilarious picture of me
and Sis Reedy going home-
a bug flew in her eye and she was trying
to get it out and I was just being annoying.

The other day we stopped by to visit Mali, and I noticed that she has the wimpiest little sign for his sausage stand, so I'm making one for her today. Hahaaha She gave my a very detailed explanation of what she wants. hahahahahah It's so cute! I hope it gets her more business.

So yeah! The work in Don Muang is going great! I'm exhausted all the time. I hit the pillow and I'm out, and then I wake up and say, "It's morning ALREADY??" But I get the strength I need, so it's alllll good.

Yesterday two guys on a motorcycle passed by, the one on the back was resting a giant wooden dinner table on their heads and both were laughing hysterically. Funny enough, I wasn't that surprised by it. 

Love you all! Please send me emails! I'd love to hear from some friends. C:

Love,

Sister Zaugg

One More Week in Thailand

Hellllllooooooooo!!

Per usual, MUCH has happened this week. It was a great week! Even if Sis Reedy and I have both been feeling really sick through it all. I think it was a mixture of icecream and some bad Thai food that we had last Monday. haha

This week we got two new investigators! One of them is a referral from a recent convert in the branch. He's in the army and she's his captain. LOL So cool! Her name is Ammy. She's been buddhist her whole life, but has always wondered why there are so many Christians in the world, so she wants to try it out. We're a little bit confused about her, because she's really willing to learn, but when she came to church yesterday she was sooooo attached to her phone, it was a little ridiculous. She was treating church the way a farang (white person) would treat a Buddhist wad. She was taking pictures of EVERYTHING, including the speakers during sacrament meeting and posting them on facebook. Uhhhhhh Yeah. She was feeling sick, too, so she went home before the 3rd hour.   She seemed to like it, though... just for the wrong reasons. lol Next time we teach her we'll suggest turning the phone off and listening to the spirit next time instead. :)

The next investigator is named Ben. Sis Reedy and Steele found her during the last companion exchanges at a 7/11. Sis Reedy and I gave her a call a week later and she was up to meet with us. We met her at a park near our house. 

A little detour for a second: this park by our house is hilarious. At first glance it looks like a normal kiddy park with colorful play structures and stuff, but REALLY it's like... a geriatric exercise park!! LOL If you look closer the play structures are actually exercise machines in disguise. hahahahaha In the evening a bunch of old people gather there and use the structures, flail around and/or lay about and don't actually do anything. 

Anyyyyyway. So we met up with Ben at the park. She's our age and has a real desire to learn about God and Christ! After we prayed, she was like, "Hey... you like, asked for blessings in your prayer.... can you do that?? Do you ever get them??" ANd we were like, "YEAH!" She's amazed by the fact that God and Christ love everybody and that you can have a personal relationship with them. She's a normal personal with normal person concerns, and she really wants to feel like there's someone who loves her no matter what! She's great.

Ew hasn't progressed much since last week, mainly because she works sooooo much, we only got to meet with her once this week. However, she still really wants to learn. She feels guilt for some things in her past and wants to have a better family life and get help with her financial situation, so she wants to know how God can help her with those things. She prays every day. :) Turns out that the random member that we took with us to help teach her sells across from her so they already knew each other! Perfect! So yeah, we won't get to teach her this week 'cause she has to sell out of town, so she wont make her baptismal date. haha Slowly but surely.

Sis Mali is doing GREAT! We have seen maaaaany miracles with her. First, we taught her tithing and she was super excited about it!! She said she would pay it! A couple days later as we were riding to a less active member's house, I felt like we should go say hi to Mali, so we stopped by her little sausage stand. She was super happy to see us and had us sit down so that she could tell us something important. She said that that day she had been really stressed out and depressed, because she was thinking about her debt and the fact that she wasn't going to have enough money to pay it that day and buy supplies to sell the next day, and that she really wanted to go to church, but her debt was making it impossible for her! She was justing praying her heart out and after she finished her prayer, ten minutes later her younger sister called and asked her how she was doing. She told her about her problems, and later that day her sis came over and gave her 10,000 baht!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's almost all of her debt!!!!!!!!!! WHOA. She was SO happy and astounded. She told us, "God really DOES help us! He saw my faith and blessed me!!" She said that she had already bought 3 new skirts for church that day, 'cause she's never owned one before. :)))))))))))))) 

Wow. What a miracle. I think the thing that astounds me the most is just the truth that God truly does love ALL His children. Like, I didn't even know about Mali until 5 weeks ago, but God did. He's been taking care of her all this time, loving her and preparing her for the Gospel. I can feel His love for her and it's so amazing. Makes me love her even more! Not exactly sure when she'll be baptized, maybe the end of next month, it really just depends on if she can get the last bit of her debt payed off. If she keeps paying her tithing she will. :)

We had another random miracle happen this week, too! One night we were teaching Sis Lek, and we had to go to a meeting 'cause we were going to be late, she offered to let us leave our bikes at her house so we could get there on time. It ended up working out that we had to leave them there over night so we could get home on time, so the next morning we went to pick them up. Well, we got there and went to unlock them, but the combination wouldn't work! Somehow when I was locking the bikes up I changed the combination, and we had noooooo idea what it was!! We spent like, 10 minutes just trying random combinations, but nothing was working!!!!! We were about to give up and call someone when Sis Lek randomly is like, "Hey, isn't there a 6 in it?" And we were like, "What?" And she was like, "Yeah, I think I remember seeing a 6 in it yesterday!" So SIs Reedy just randomly switched one of the numbers to 6, and CLICK! IT UNLOCKED!!!!!! All the numbers were totally random, and she just happened to choose the right one to switch to some random number that Sis Lek thought she remembered seeing. Hahahahhahaha WHAT?!?! We were soooooooo grateful!!! God does take care of His little missionaries. :,) That seems like a small thing, but really, when you think about it, THAT WAS A BIG MIRACLE. How many possible combinations are there for a 4 number lock? A looooooot. Wow. Every time I think about it I just can't even believe it. haha

So those are the big things that happened this week. I'm still a greenie, and I'm awkward 'cause I cant understand any one still and no one understands me. lolll It's hard, too, something I've learned about Thai people in general is that they looooooooove to talk! You ask someone a question and they just launch into this monologue about everything but the question you asked that goes for ages and agesssss. And they never seem to notice that no one is listening either! hahahahah Oh dear.

Sis Reedy and I have started naming all the dogs that live on our street. So far we have Scooter, who is the crazy one. He's my favorite, but I try to keep my distance from him. Most dogs in Thailand are super lazy and just lay around all day, but he's always running around doing stuff, I'm not sure what. Sometimes he gets scared by his tail and just starts wigging out. Sometimes we pass by him and he's sitting with just one hind leg raised for no reason. Yeahh... Then there's King James, who is this dog with a really long dreaded tail. We think he looks kind of regal in a sad stinky dog kind of way. Then there's this short little torpedo of a dog who we just come up with a new Mexican name for him every time we see him. Yesterday he was Francisco.

Yup! This transfer is coming to a close. One more week! Pres Senior called us and asked how we  feel about trios..... euuuuhhhhggggg....... I'm not really sure what's going to happen. :S 

Anyway, the work is really picking up here finally! White washing is such a lam baag (burden) but finally we're starting to get somewhere here! Haha took 5 weeks! But we made it!! Yeahhhh

Love you all!

Sis Zaugg

A few extra pictures...

 Here is a little neighborhood in Don Muang. I thought it looked interesting! I haven't had an opportunity to teach anyone there or do tracting... probably never will. But we pass it sometimes going to visit less active members.

 A drawing I did to help teach a less active family about the 2000 Stripling Warriors and their moms!

Here's the picture of the family. The girls are so cute! They read the scriptures and pray together every day. If only their mom would take them to church!

:)

One month in Thailand!

Wait- what? I've been here for almost a whole month? Sooo much has happened! Wow. I love Thailand!! I'm so grateful for the chance to be here for another 13 months!!

So this week.. Where do I even start?

Happy Birthday to me!! It flooded

I guess we'll start with my birthday! So I turned yisip!!! Crazy thing about it- I will never be 20. I will only be yisip, because everyone who asks me how old I am will ask in Thai! hahahaha Weeeiiird. My birthday was great! It was the day before zone conference so we had interviews with Pres Senior. I really enjoyed having my interview. He helped me feel less worried and stressed out, and helped me see that I'm doing just what the Lord wants me to and to be happy!! He told me to keep working, and the miracles will come. Also, Sis Sahagun, one of my Phii Thais from the MTC is in my district, and she made me chocolate cake. Super fun! Also, all the Elders in my zone found out I'm a gamer so they spent a half hour just quizzing me on my game knowledge. hahah I think I passed. Every one was so thoughtful of me! One of my students at English made a clay rose, one of my investigators gave me donuts! They were all so nice!! Definitely felt the love. I also bought myself a piece of cake, which I thoroughly enjoyed. :)

My mini birthday celebration.

The view from Sis Wiganda's apartment.

So Zone Conference! AWESOME!!! I definitely needed some spiritual nourishment. Learned a lot about desire and diligence. Also found out that we were going on companion exchanges and having a full day of dan jonesing! WHOA. My new companion for the next day and a half was sister Wiganda. Every time I told people that, they would just give me a weird look and say, "Ooooohhhhh...." I was super freaked out!! And then I met her and I understood. She's CRAZY!!!! She's a khon Thai, but she's absolutely nuts. It didn't help that she kept looking at me and saying, "You're going to die." I was a little nervous. haha 

For lunch at zone conference we had subway, ice cream, cereal and chocolate fondue. Weird. But amazing!! After Zone Conference I reluctantly said good bye to Sister Reedy and headed to Srinekarin with Sis Wiganda, Sis Sahagun and Sis Itri. It's a cool area! I like it. They don't ride bikes there, just songthaws and taxis. Anyway. I ended up having a great experience. Sis Wiganda is nuts, but she works hard. We actually didn't have a full day of street contacting, the AP's allowed her to teach that day. We taught 3 lessons to investigators and one to recent converts! It was really nice watching her style of teaching. I got to contribute, too! I think I said relevant things. 

Our random temple display we used to lure people in
 when we had to spend a whole day contacting. haha
Please observe the huge storm that was just about to break
 and Tesco Lotus in the background.

When it came time for street contacting, Sis Itri had the idea to take this giant styrofoam cut out of the SLC temple and take it to the business area of Srinekarin and proselyte there. We somehow fit it onto a song thaw and found a place to set up.

Cool clouds!!

I was pretty scared about this, because I'm terrified of street contacting! I don't know how to talk to people!! Especially when I'm doing it in Thai!! But I prayed for the strength to open my mouth, and even though I wasn't perfect, the Lord placed people in my path to hear my message. I got three phone numbers for the Srinekarin sisters!

I think the biggest thing I learned was that I can have fun AND be a missionary at the same time!! Before I was so stressed and impatient with myself. But being with Sis Wiganda taught me that the Lord wants this to be a happy experience, and I can't be a good missionary if I'm way stressed and unhappy all the time. So I've really changed my view on things, I figure, I'm not going to be perfect RIGHT NOW. But I can be if I take baby steps every day. That way I can be happy and do hard work! 

Sis Reedy and I taking cover in a phone booth,
waiting for a taxi to come in poooouring rain.

Even though I was only gone from Sis Reedy for a day and a half, it felt really weird getting back to Don Muang! haha But we got straight back to work with new goals and attitudes and it's been awesome!!! We stop and talk to more people than before. Instead of relying on our English pass alongs we rely on the ones that have a picture of Christ and our own testimonies. It has been much more fulfilling that way! Yeah, we get rejected way more, but we have met some great people that way too! Like this one family by one of our investigator's house! We met them 'cause one of the little girls came out to feed her fish and Sis Reedy started talking to her, eventually the whole family came out and invited us in. We shared The Family: A Proclamation to the World with them and they said we can come back! Yayyyy

Riding a songthaw in the raiiiiiiin!

Our street floods every other day.

Also, we have a new dater! Her name is Ew! She is the mom of Donut and Cheetoh! One time we were teaching the house lady and she came. I think I talked about this already. Anyway. We taught a lesson at her house, and she was SUPER into it. She really wants to learn about God. She reads all the pamphlets we give her, and she even took the house lady's Book of Mormon and has already ready 17 chapters. In that first lesson we invited her to be baptised and she accepted! Yayy!! June 30th!!

Sis Mali is still struggling to come to church. She has a large debt to pay. We've been really wondering what to do for her. We called Pres Senior and he said, if she has money problems, teach her the law of tithing. It's true! It's weird to think that if you give up money to the Lord, you end up with more money in the long run, but when does the Lord ever weird in forward ways? So we're going to teach that and pray that she will be receptive to it!

Here is a dog just hanging out in the middle of the street....
Just staring.

We have a new investigator named Ran. He's 13 years old. He just walked into church yesterday! He's super sweet and diligent!!

The election is overrrrrrr!!!! FINALLY!!! So happy.

Sister Muk's baptism!!! We love her so much.
 She's gonna be so amazing.

OH! We had a baptism this weekend. Her name is Muk. She was the Elder's investigator. She was pretty worried and nervous, but after the baptism she was so relieved and happy and peaceful. I love her so much!!! All of us Don Muang sisters cried. haha

Also, there is a rockstar in my branch! He has a single out! It's really awesome. When we went to teach Ew his song was playing on the radio. You can look him up on Youtube!

Look up: "Ake Surachet Thailand Tee Ruk"

The food ran we usually eat at

Well, that's kind of it for today! I'm much happier than before, and I've been seeing a lot of miracles already! Hopefully we'll see some more in the near future. 

Love ya!!

Sis Zaugg

Week 3 in Thailand!

Sawat dii khhaaaaaaaa

So I haven't quite been here for 3 weeks yet, but according to my training schedule I'm on week 3 so I'm just going by that. haha 

So this last week the rainy season really started to live up to its name. It rains every day, reaaaally hard! Last Monday it rained so hard that a lot of the streets in our area of Don Muang flooded, including our little Sirisug (a neighborhood in Don Muang that we live in). That afternoon we decided to walk to the 7/11 down the street for a quick lunch, and the water was mid-calf in some places! Our quote for the day was: "Are you sure this water is sanitary? It looks pretty questionable to me!" I try not to think too hard about what kind of stuff is in the water here. I will say, though, that ever since the flooding there have been big trucks with pipes trying to fix all the drainage systems in the streets. 

Sometimes it starts raining when we're riding our bikes, so it's always an adventure going out every day! Sometimes we show up to appointments soaking wet. :) 

One of the things that causes me the most grief here in Thailand is riding my bike. I have a slight fear of bikes, coupled with the fact that there really are no traffic rules in Thailand, we have to ride in the streets, PLUS Sister Reedy rides like a bonafide khon-thai and it's scary trying to follow her weaving in and out of traffic, so I'm always stressed out. So far I've only bumped into a pole or two, so it's been OK so far! I can definitely feel the protection of angels when I'm riding. 

I love my branch president and his wife!! They're HILARIOUS! Their English is pretty good, but they still say some really funny things. This week they've told me that I look like Mandy Moore, a fairy and Legolas (who they at first thought was called Lazarus). One night they were dropping us off from FHE, and Prataan Thawit told us that if I were in a movie, I would be in a Walk to Remember, and Sis Reedy would be in a horror film. He then proceeded to explain each of our parts in our movies in extreme detail. Sis Reedy almost gets killed, but escapes, and I die of cancer. Darn!

On Saturday we went with the Branch Presidency and Sis Mui to dedicate the house of two sisters in the branch. They live with their aunt who is Buddhist and hasn't been letting them come to church. Apparently she'd bought a 'witch doll' at a market several years back, and thought that it had an evil spirit. She threw it out, but felt the spirit was still there. She had tried to have monks come and cast it out, but it hadn't worked, so she was allowing some priesthood holders to come. Prataan gave a prayer of comfort, blessed the home that it would be a place of safety and happiness and closed the prayer. Simple, but powerful! Afterwards the aunt said that she felt much better and felt a lot of peace! It was a good experience, because the next day Phlccy and Phxan both came to church! Yayyyy! Priesthood is awesome. :)

Thursday was interesting, because Sis Reedy left the keys in the house and locked the door. We tried to pick the lock, but were unsuccessful. We had to take a taxi and spend the night at the Pakkret sisters' apartment. During this whole experience we decided that instead of getting grumpy about it, we were going to be like Ammon from the Book of Mormon and look at adversity as a way of sharing the Gospel! We tried to talk to our taxi drivers, but they were too tired and grumpy. The next day we got our bikes and tried to find a locksmith. We ended up at a market. In front of the 7/11 there are are a ton of vendors. Next to a clocksmith there was a stall for a locksmith, but he wasn't there. So we went around and gave English fliers out and talked to some people! The vendors next to the locksmith were really nice. We talked to them and I even worked up the courage to share a BoM story with on of them. :) Eventually the guy came, but he couldn't help us! But, since we had become friends with the vendors, they called their other friend, who... is like... a professional lock pick or something. And he broke into our house for us. Kinda sketchy, but the land lord was fine with it. I guess it's common here in Thailand? Anyway. We got back into our house!! Yay!! That was an interesting day. And we were blessed for our good attitudes and efforts to teach while we were out. 

Yesterday we got two new investigators. The lady with the kids, Donut and Cheetoh, and her neighbor. Actually, Donut and Cheetoh are the neighbor's kids! We've taught a few laid back lessons to the house lady, but yesterday we we really serious about it and set up an appointment to come teach again! Her neighbor seemed way more interested than she was, and she's coming to learn more next time too! I'm excited, because we've been praying for a family to teach! This might be it! We'll see.

Anyway, I don't have much else to say! The work is hard, but there really is not reason to be sad. God blesses me everyday and I'm becoming a better missionary every day!

Sister Zaugg

Week 2 in Bangkok!

HelllooooOOOoooo. Well, I haven't even been here for two weeks, but it feels much MUCH longer than that. Missions are weird like that.

Thailand is stillll crazy. Right now it is just pouring outside. The thunder is SO loud. It's really funny, actually, Thai people HATE rain and are TERRIFIED of lightning. One time Sis Reedy and I were trying to find the apartment of a member here, and it was raining. She called us and was like, "You can't come!! It's RAINING! You'll get hit by lightning!!!" haha

So remember last time when I said that we had a lot of investigators from the Elders before us? ...Well... we still only have 1 1/2 now. I don't even know what happened! The 1/2 of an investigator keeps canceling on us, plus she moved to another part of Don Muang randomly, so we're not sure if she still wants to learn. The other two I'm pretty sure just liked the Elders so now they don't want to meet with us. Our full investigator is Sis Mali. She's the one that I had my first lesson with. We had a second lesson with her and she committed to baptism! But then we went to visit her at her food cart and she's too afraid to go to church, 'cause she thinks her landlord will kill her if she doesn't make enough money on Sunday. Noooo!!!!! Also, she asked to change her baptism date to another day, 'cause the election is on that day and I guess there will be a lot of people milling around and she wants to sell. Nooooooo!!!!!! But that's okay! Just means that we really have to work on her relationship with Christ! 'Cause if she trusts Him more than she trusts us, then she can have the faith to keep His commandments!

So we kind of also have this maybe prospective investigator. His story is actually really awesome. One day we were out inviting. We were trying to find less actives' homes and talk to random people. Eventually it got to be time to catch a taxi to go teach English. A bunch of free taxis kept passing us, but finally one pulled over really awkwardly across the street. So we got in and started driving! Turns out this taxi driver spoke English! He taught himself by watching movies and reading books!!

 So after talking about that we got a little quiet, and then he randomly asks us, "How do I get an Old Testament and New Testament combined in one book?" We were like... "Uhhh... We're not sure, but we have some thing better!" And then we told him about the Book of Mormon. He told us that he had one once, but that he lent it to his friend and never got it back! We were like, "no problem!" and gave him the only one that we'd been carrying. (Small note: we had accidentally left it at a 7/11 earlier, but one of the workers chased us down like... and hour later and gave it back!) He was SO shocked. He was like, "You're... giving this... to ME?!?!!" And we were like, "Yeah!" He just SMILED and said, "This... is my dream." And then he hugged it and said, "I will take care of you." SO SWEET!!! He was so excited about it!!! And then we taught him about Christ and God. He asked us how Christ could help him. and then how he could help Christ. And then when we told him that he can pray always, and that God wants to listen to him. He looked at us with the most amazed expression and said, "You mean..... I can pray to God in my taxi?! And that.... he wants to listen to poor old man like me?!?!?!" And we were like, "YEAH!!!!" This man was so overwhelmed with joy. He'd get quiet, pondering on the things we'd said. And then look at us, and then just beam. When we got to the church he said, "How can I learn more?" and we exchanged numbers. When we tried to pay him he refused it. He said, "You have given me the most wonderful gift. I can't take your money."

After he pulled away, SIs Reedy and I just hugged each other. That man had been searching for this all his life, and the joy he had when he found it blew me away. It made me think about my attitude about the Gospel. I need to be more like him!

So yeah. That was an amazing experience. But we've been trying to call him every day and his phone is like... out of service. Like he hasn't paid his phone bill in a while. We know the number works 'cause he made us call him to make sure that it worked, 'cause he wanted to learn more so badly. So we're really hoping that he's OK! We want to teach him SO BAD!!

Speaking of other Book of Mormon experiences, that same day we met the taxi driver we were walking around passing out English Class fliers. We always give a flier that talks about Christ and the Book of Mormon with them. We stopped by a little fruit stand, and passed out fliers there. The fruit lady was like, "Oh, you teach English? Buy some fruit." hahah!! She was so funny.

Well, several days later we were visiting a less active in that area. We were also praying for direction to find people to talk to, and as we were riding home, Sis Reedy was randomly like, "I want to buy fruit!!" So we stopped by the fruit stand. The fruit lady saw us, and then started waving the Christ flier at us. She was like, "I want one of these!!!" So we gave her a Book of Mormon and she was like, "Thanks! Now buy some fruit." ahahhaha!! We did. We're gonna go back and read with her!

So there's an election coming up here in Thailand. They put signs for it EVERYWHERE. But the weirdest thing they do here is drive these big trucks around that play loud obnoxious music. There's people that stand on the top with loud speakers and talk about.. I dunno. I can't understand them. But they do it ALL DAY. So annoying! Although, one time, we rode past them on our bikes and one of the guys was like, "Ohhhh Hello!! You Mormon, chay may?" hehheh

A couple days ago we went to a wedding! Somehow the Branch President wrangled me into singing at it.......... That was awkward. Particularly because I think he just wanted me in the group for my face! LOL He and his wife think I'm the most proper, cutest thing on the planet. I don't know why.

Thai people are funny like that. They say and do the weirdest stuff. They're really open with their bowel movements, too. They talk about tong sia (broke stomach AKA diahhrea) allllll the time. For example, at coordination meeting yesterday, a member came to sit in on it. One of the zone leaders was like, "Hey, where've you been? Haven't seen you all day!" And the member said, "Yeah, I had tong sia." And every one was like, "OK." It's completely normal to talk about it in public! hahahah!!

Also, they give their kids the WEIRDEST names. One day we were contacting in a neighborhood near our house and ended up hanging out with these two ladies and their kids on their front porch. The kids' names were, 'Donut' and 'Cheetoh'. LOL! I don't even know.

Sooo yeah. White washing is hard. Also, being a missionary is hard. There are so many things I have to do to be better! Sometimes it's overwhelming. But as long as I continue to make new goals and ask for help from the Lord, I'll improve and become the missionary I want to be.

Sorry there's no pictures. Last time I tried to attach pictures the computer deleted my pictures.... so I'm not risking that again!

Love y'all!

Sis Zaugg