Heyo!

Howdy everyone!

This week was really good, despite some setbacks. We had fasted earlier in the week that we could help an investigator overcome her fears of baptism and help her decide to be baptized last Sunday.  We were using EVERY last ounce of faith that we had! For me I've felt like I've been doubting things really easily lately. Just 'cause in the past I've prayed for and worked for certain miracles that have never really come to fruition, so I worked extra hard to push away any doubt or fear that came up. :) In the lesson that we had with her we asked her about her fears, and then read in the scriptures what allllllllll the blessings of baptism are. At the end I just looked her in the eye and said: "I know it, and you know it. You're ready." And she was like, "Yeah." :)))))))))) She's so sweet!! I think she just needed a new face to just tell her that she was gonna be OK. She also worked up the courage to ask her boss to give her Sundays off. We'll see tomorrow if he did or not!!

I'd say our fast was successful! It was a tiny miracle and it helped boost my confidence. 

This week Sis Hughes and I have been working on being more bold in our finding. The Elders in our District are NUTS!!! They are so focused on baptizing. They literally talk to everyone about baptism. So many nights I've seen them standing outside of 7/11's just asking people if they wanna be baptized. It's a little excessive, if you ask me. We're taking more of the approach of having a conversation with someone first and then leading it into the benefits of baptism and THEN inviting them to be baptized. It's still putting us out of our comfort zones, though, but as a certain MTC teacher of mine once said: "There's no growth in the comfort zone." 

Our district made a goal for 20 baptisms in the next 8 weeks. That means each companionship needs to get about 7 baptisms each. haha Well, I'm not gonna say it's impossible. We may very well find a family or two who wanna be baptized before Christmas. 

I don't think it was coincidence that I got thrown into this baptizing-crazy district when I'm the missionary who's stopped believing that she can baptize. If this doesn't help me overcome my block, I dunno what will! hahah

Well, last P-Day Sister Hughes came down with a bad cold which carried over to Tuesday. She slept all day Monday and a good portion of Tuesday. It was way sad. :(

And then on Wednesday we went to this little Italian Pizza place for dinner (it's actually owned by an Italian man) and ate pizza!!! That was way fun... except for Thursday morning we were both SO sick!! We're pretty sure it was the pizza. We were sick all day and had to go to Big C to buy crackers and soda 'cause that was all that we could eat. At one point in the day we were waiting at the church for a recent convert to come and Sis Hughes was in the restroom and I was just sitting on the floor outside sipping on a Sprite. When the member walked in she was like, "Oi! What's wrong with you?" Sis Hughes walked out and was like, "thong sia :(" and the member was like, "both of you???" hahahahhahah She was confused why americans medicate sick tummies with soda and crackers. She said we needed to eat minerals.

And then on Friday I came down with Sis Hughes' cold and had to sleep for most of the day before having to take the sky train to down town Bangkok for another dentist appointment. That was an interesting experience. The appintment went late so we had to rush to find a taxi that would take us to the sky rail. The taxi driver got lost and dumped us in a way sketchy neighborhood in the heart of Bangkok at night. We asked a vendor how to walk to the station and he was like, "Oh! Just turn down this street and walk through five intersections!" We looked down the street... and it was very dark with sketchy people and lots of neon lights. There was no way we were doing that. So we hopped on a little tuk tuk and he zipped us over to the sky rail. 

Oh dear. We were both so miserable this week. However, we got balanced key indicators and found 6 new investigators which is AWESOME!! We found a family who wanted to know the answer to the questions of: "What is our purpose on Earth and where are we going after we die?" So we taught them the Plan of Salvation and they're gonna keep learning!! Yay :D

Also, we went allllllllllllllllll the way out in the boonies to teach a recent convert who lives alone with her crazy mom. We taught her about expressing gratitude every day 'cause she's going through a rough period, and then at the end she was like, "I'm gonna paint your nails!" So now I have pretty nails. They're pink and sparkly and ridiculous. I LOVE THEM!!

Last Sunday we had a baptism! A kid name Khaw. He's 14 and has been investigating for about 2 months. Kids under 18 have to go to church for 3 months before they get baptized, so at first the Elders had to tell him that he had to wait. He was CRUSHED!! He just sobbed and sobbed. He was like, "But Elders!! What if Jesus comes TOMORROW??" The kid has already read all of the Bible, Book of Mormon and is half way through Doctrine and Covenants. He helps the Elders find investigators, gives Book of Mormons to every one and apparently preaches against Buddhism at school. He also has his own missionary daily planner that he takes every. LOL He just wants to be baptized is all! Last week the Elders asked President Senior for special permission to baptize him now, and they got the go ahead! Awww it was so cute. This kid is so serious. You wouldn't be able to tell he was happy unless you talked to him. He doesn't smile, but when you talk to him, the corners of his mouth perk up and he just goes on about how happy he is. :))))))))

In other news, I ate yellow watermelon and my District Leader ate som taam with 20 of those SPICY Thai peppers. He's nuts. I can do 3 at most.

Well, that's all I've got for today!  Fight fight!

Sis Zaugg

I MOVED!

This week was nuts!! So much happened. For one: I got TRANSFERRED!!!!!! But more on that later.

A crazy guy on a bike

Last Monday for P-Day we still didn't know who was being transferred (minus Elder Appleyard who was dying and Sister Sahagun who's been in Pakkret for like, 7 months), so we decided to have a last meal as a District. We ate Muka Tha (?). At a Muka Tha place you have hot plates that they stick flaming pots under, and then there's a buffet of raw meats, noodles and veggies that you throw on the hot plate and cook up. I was pretty sketched out and way confused, but the missionaries who've done it said they've never gotten sick doing it (still... yikes) and had a grande 'ol time watching the rest of us start throwing random food on these flaming plates and just being lost in general. It was way fun, and I think my food was cooked... enough. To be honest I spent more time just watching food cook than eating. haha But we had such a good time! I loved my district so much! 

At the end of the night Sis Downs and I had to leave to get to an FHE appointment at a member's house, so I went to grab the phone to give them a call..... except there was no phone! I'd left it in the taxi that we took with the sisters! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I was so mad at myself... and afraid to tell Elder Jones who takes care of all that kind of stuff. He already thinks that I'm so helpless. haha So we dejectedly took a taxi back to Don Muang to try to find this member's house even though we only vaguely knew which area it was in, we were late, and Sis Downs ate something that was making her sick. Luckily a neighbor who lived in that area was home and he directed us to the other member's house. When we arrived the WHOLE family was waiting for us outside and were yelling, "SISTERS!!!! THEY FOUND YOUR PHONE!!!!" We were like, "WHAT?!"

Apparently Sis Sahagun had the number of the taxi driver and he found our phone and was meeting them at a gas station to drop it off! About a week ago Sis Sahagun had made the goal to get a phone number from every taxi driver, and she'd gotten it from the one that took us to dinner! Ahhh She's so good! I want to be like her.

So anyway, even though Sis Downs was like, "We need to go home... I feel sick." The members forced us in and fed us mango sticky rice and played Uno while we waited for the sisters to come bring our phone. Sis Downs felt better pretty soon. :) At one point during the game, the member's son jumped up with his hands in the air when he won and shattered the chandelier above us and showered us and the fruit on the table with glass. lol! His younger sister the whole time was like, "NOT THE FRUIT!!!!!!!!!!" hahahah

So we were expecting the sisters to show up in a taxi since Pakkret is fairly far from Don Muang, so we were SHOCKED to see them ride up on their bikes with Brother North red, out of breath and dripping! They were like, "Brother North LIED to us!!! He said that you guys were close to Central!!" They biked soooo far! Ohhhhhh it was so sad but so hilarious. Sis Sahagun thought it was funny but Sis Tilly was way flustered. Brother North was just sheepish. I'm not really sure what he was thinking. So that was our last Monday in Don Muang! It was one to be remembered for sure. :)

On Tuesday pretty much everyone was just DYING to know what was gonna happen at transfers. We were all so anxious! We kinda just came to the conclusion that we prolly weren't gonna know until Wednesday, but about an hour before English class the Zone Leaders got the call, and let me tell you: this was the craziest transfers EVER.

Elder Watts and Elder Tanner: moving

Sister Zaugg AND Sister Downs: moving

Elder Terry + new zone leader: move to the don muang house (my old house)

Sister Sahagun: moving

Sister Tilly: training and moving to Sis Mac + Sis Jackson's house

Sis Mac + Sis Jackson: moving to Sis Tilly's house and becoming the new Don Muang sisters

Whaaaaaaaaaat the heeeeeeck! If you didn't understand that, basically half of us moved out and the rest just switched houses. Yup! We were all freaking out. I was particularly freaked out because Sis Downs and I were white washing out and being replaced by ELDERS!! I was way scared that Foam was gonna hate the Elders and stop learning. BUT on Wednesday night we went out to dinner with her and she was really sad but prepared to learn with Elders. :))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) Also, we met her boyfriend who wants to learn with his mom!!! Ahhh it was so awesome. I miss that girl so much! I've pretty much known her about as long as I've been in Thailand, and I've seen her grow so much and I just can't express how happy I am for her and how much I love her! I'm sad that I can't be at her baptism, but I'm so glad that she's sticking with the Gospel.... even if her missionaries aren't around anymore. :,)

Saphansung at night!

So then Thursday was TRANSFERS! Sis Downs was way scared. She was afraid of moving to the Issan, which is the last place she wanted to go. I was pretty calm. I knew that it was time for me to go. I was in Don Muang for 5 months. I loved it soooo much! But it was time to take the things I learned there and apply them somewhere else. So, after introducing the new missionaries and pairing them with their trainers, they started the rest of the transfers! And starting with Bangkok East Zone in Saphansung was Sister Zaugg and Sister Hughes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First awkward companionship picture!
 Sis Hughes is holding toilet paper because
 I gave her a cold and she's been stuffing
 toilet paper up her nose for the last 2 days.

I'm still in Bangkok!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I'm with SISTER HUGHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've always thought that I would love being her companion. And I do!!!!!!!!!!!! She's so amazing.

So Saphansung  is just wonderful. It just turned into a ward so it has a bishop and everything!! Also, it has old men and ping pong.

There are these three old men that are just the cutest thing on the PLANET. My first day here we went to the church to see who was around and there was this man wearing home-made suspenders playing ping pong like a CHAMP. He greeted us with a fist bump and a "Seeeesterrsssssssssssssssss!" His name is Brother Geua. Then there's the other old guy who's this teeeeeeny tiny veteran who's pretty much blind but still reads the Book of Mormon using a jeweler's glass. He just buries his face in the book and squints through it. It is adorable. 

The other old guy of note is Bro Suchad. He joined the church when it was first brought to Thailand! He was in a library one day and found a Book of Mormon in English. Even though he doesn't speak English he translated it into Thai, knew it was true and joined the church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Soooooo cool! Yesterday at zone conference I was sitting behind him. We so happened to sing all the songs that I know the alto line to, and so after the meeting he turned around and said, "You can sing alto! JOIN THE CHOIR." When I asked Sis Hughes about it she was like, "This guy gives everything he has to the church. We're gonna do whatever it takes to serve him." So now I'm in ANOTHER choir. How does this keep happening?!?!? I swear I've never NOT been in a choir since I've been a missionary. I hope this isn't a sign or something.

Anyway. This branch also has two international families. One family is from America just having a Thai experience. It's awesome!! They have the two CUTEST daughters. I love that they're not living with the other expats but are living in a Thai neighborhood and have Thai friends and go to the Thai branch. :D The other family is probably the most amazing family I've ever met.

 Eating delicious Bumi!

Sis Isrin and her husband Bro Brian. Sis Isrin is Bro Suchad's daughter, but she went to school at BYU Hawaii so she speaks perfect English. Bro Brian is from the Marcatian Islands (I don't know where or what the is so I don't know how to spell it) and speaks French and English with a French accent. They met at Hawaii, got married then started their family with 3 little boys in the Marcatian Islands, so the boys only speak French, but now they're in Thailand and are just the most adorable, odd-ball family EVER. Sis Isrin is gorgeous and looks like a Thai Belle from Beauty and the Beast, and Bro Brian is HUGE and French and looks like Gaston. When I mentioned it to them they both broke out into Gaston's song. It was perfect. Their boys are sooo cute! They run around and get into all kinds of trouble and speak in French and it just kills me.

Thai Ronald McDonald wai-ing

So basically I'm in love with Saphansung, and Sis Hughes and I have made all kinds of goals and are planning to just be amazing and have all kinds of miracles this transfer. Don Muang was way hard and I had to learn a lot of stuff, and now I'm ready to rise. Amazing things are going to happen here. We're gonna start it off by fasting to help a current investigator be ready to be baptized this coming Sunday. We got a really good feeling when we thought about her for this weekend, so we're going to be using all our faith to accomplish it!

So this is a beast of an email, and I'm not even finished. I'll just impress upon your minds even more how amazing this place is by saying that yesterday I got waied by a dog in 7/11 and afterwards I jumped onto a moving song thew. It was amazing.

Love you lots!

Sister Zaugg  

Hey hey hey!

Heyyyyyy!

Well, this last week was another fine week. :D We got balanced key indicators AGAIN!!! Woohooooo!

And we saw General Conference which was SPLENDID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Words can't express how much I loved conference. Thankfully we got to watch it in English! We got a special room for English that all us missionaries, international members, and Thai members who speak Thai sat in. One of our investigators went, and he decided he wanted to try out the English conference. I'm not sure how much he actually understood... which is too bad 'cause one of the talks was literally directed to him. It was Elder Oaks talk that pretty much touched everything we'd taught him the night before. haha! Awesome. :) One of my favorite quotes was: "God does not consider weakness the same as rebellion. He always deals with weakness with mercy."

This week I've been preparing Sis Downs to be able to lead the area in case I get moved out since transfers is on Thursday!! We won't know if I move until tomorrow, though. I'm always going between, "I've been here forever! I'm ready to move!" And, "I love everyone so much! I can't move!!" It'll be nice to finally know what's gonna happen. 

Yesterday we went to teach the coffee shop people again. I was pretty nervous about it, 'cause I wasn't sure how interested they were gonna be, and was kinda expecting them to be like, "Yeahhhh. We actually just want some white people friends, not to learn about Jesus." But to my surprise, they had really thought about what we taught last time, had prayed,

and had lots of questions! It was awesome! We've been taking the rockstar and his wife to help teach. It's funny 'cause yesterday they were like, "We didn't recognize you last time, but know who you are!! We love your stuff!!!" He's kinda like Maroon 5 where everyone knows his name and music, but no one knows what he looks like. lol He's awesome, and his wife is amazing. I thought she'd been a member forever, but she hasn't even reached a year yet!

Uhhhh I feel like I don't have much to tell this week! I'm feeling pretty good about the work right now, and I'm kinda ready for a change and looking forward to seeing what happens at transfers. :O

Love,

Sis Zaugg

Sup

Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

This week was great! First off..... we got BALANCED KEY INDICATORS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For the first time since Sis Reedy left!!!!! It felt soooooooooooooooooooo gooooooooooooooood! Like, it's nice to achieve the "numbers" but it's nicer that those numbers reflect how we're helping people come unto Christ 'cause balanced numbers means there were two investigators at church, two investigators preparing for baptism and a lot of other things. My purpose as a missionary is to bring others to Christ, and it just feels so great when I'm fulfilling my purpose. :)

So probably the craziest thing right now is that this is the last week of this transfer. Transfers is next week! I'm not sure when or how that happened, but my 'lil Sis Downs is almost all growed up! I feel like my first 9 weeks in field was wayyyyy longer, but maybe this was how Sis Reedy felt... I'm really not sure what's gonna happen at transfers. My zone leaders are like, 90% positive that I'm moving, but I dunno! There's a definite possibly that I could stay in Don Muang longer. I try not to think about it... 'cause it isn't really relevant. I try to always remember President Uchtdorf's talk about not waiting to be happy:

"We shouldn’t wait to be happy until we reach some future point, only to discover that happiness was already available—all the time! Life is not meant to be appreciated only in retrospect. “This is the day which the Lord hath made … ,” the Psalmist wrote. “Rejoice and be glad in it.”⁶

Brothers and sisters, no matter our circumstances, no matter our challenges or trials, there is something in each day to embrace and cherish. There is something in each day that can bring gratitude and joy if only we will see and appreciate it."

Lately I've been really enjoying spending time serving with the members of my branch. I've really learned to love these people SO much as I've taken them teaching, taught them, and found ways to serve them. It's ABSOLUTE truth that the best cure for feeling down is to serve others. 

Sometime during last week we had zone training! The focus was on our decision to take the Lord's work seriously and to never waste a minute, because right now this is His time, not ours. The people we serve here will face judgement someday.... but so are we!! At first I was getting kinda freaked out and I was like, "oooooOOOHHHH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" But then I realized that I don't have to be scared 'cause I'm already taking this seriously and I'm always striving to be better. The Lord knows my weaknesses, too, and that's what the Atonement is for. What really struck me the most in that meeting was when they started talking about "inflection points", which I guess is fancy math language for a certain point that a line that's moving in a certain direction must choose which direction it's going to change: up, or down. Right now in my mission I feel like I'm at an inflection point. I feel like pretty much my whole mission I've been struggling with self-criticism, little to no success, and fear. It's been hard to have faith that things will get better when they really never have. And now I'm at the point where I have to decide: am I gonna keep letting my faith dissipate and give up in the end and fall, or am I going to choose to walk with faith and rise above the challenges I face every day? I decided to choose the latter. I'm not sure when or how things will change, I just know that they will. That's the great thing about faith. haha 

Ammon's story in the Book of Mormon has really bolstered me up lately. When he and his brethren went to teach the Lamanites they didn't really have any success at first..... In fact it was kinda miserable for them. They were spit on, cast out, stoned and thrown into prison. Eventually they were thinking about turning back, but they had their own inflection point when the Lord commanded them to go back and teach. So they did! They didn't know what was gonna happen or how things would turn out, but they chose one day to have faith in God and keep going. They knew that the Lord didn't call them to fail. 

 27 Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to^aturn back, behold, the Lord ^bcomforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with ^cpatience thine^dafflictions, and I will give unto you success.

 28 And now behold, we have come, and been forth amongst them; and we have been patient in our sufferings, and we have suffered every privation; yea, we have traveled from house to house, relying upon the mercies of the world—not upon the mercies of the world alone but upon the mercies of God.

 29 And we have entered into their houses and taught them, and we have taught them in their streets; yea, and we have taught them upon their hills; and we have also entered into their temples and their ^asynagogues and taught them; and we have been cast out, and mocked, and spit upon, and smote upon our cheeks; and we have been ^bstoned, and taken and bound with ^cstrong cords, and cast into prison; and through the power and wisdom of God we have been delivered again.

 30 And we have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our ^ajoy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some.

I don't know who I'll help on my mission. Maybe my only convert will be myself, and that's kinda the attitude that Ammon and his brethren had in the beginning. In the end they converted almost the entire Lamanite nation, which is SO COOL! I don't think that I'll convert all of Don Muang. haha But this story still helps me feel that I still have time to see success in my mission. Granted.... I don't know what kind of success, but it gives me hope. :)

OK Sorry that I just wrote a talk..... moving on.

We've had some cool experiences contacting after that zone training. One day we had an hour to go contacting and felt that we needed to go to the giant park that we used to teach a former investigator at. The weather was sooooo nice, but the only people that were there were creepy guys fishing..... But we decided to walk about the giant pond anyway. haha After a while we were pretty reisnged to the fact that there was just no one that we felt safe talking to, until we crossed a bridge that one random lady was hanging out on. We nonchalantly just stood next to her and pretended to watch the kids below trying to fish with really long branches that they'd fashioned some string to. She seemed to be avoiding eye contact and it was kinda awkward but we were like, "We haven't talked to ANYONE so we gotta at least try." I ended up making conversion about fishing.... I don't know how because I've never studied fishing vocabulary before... She was actually pretty friendly! At the end I was reaching to grab a picture of christ to give to her and I noticed that Sis Downs already had one in her hand. It was a picture of Christ being baptized- one that we neeever use. I was like, "uhhhhhh oook!" Luckily we were at a pond so we we kind of related the picture to that. But weird enough she was interested and we taught her about baptism and she said she wanted to learn more! Crazy!

Yesterday we were waiting outside of a giant apartment complex for some members to show up so we could visit some less active members. This homeless guy came up to us and started speaking perfect English. Apparently he'd worked in America for 26 years as a plane technician until the company was forced to close and he lost his job. Things started to get sketchy when he started to swear a ton and demanded that we name the 10 commandments. We were like, "uhhh... we have to go" and then he gave us his card which was a note card that he'd written on. He said he's a consultant for everything in the world, only he used more colorful language. haha So we got out of there pretty speedily and ended up sitting next to a girl smoking on a bench. I was about to start a conversation with her when her mom came over and started talking to me! They said they'd be interested in learning and made us check out their coffee shop which is ADORABLE. It's like... a real restaurant! You never see those in Thailand. We got a return appointment for tomorrow and we're gonna teach them and they're gonna feed us hot chocolate and pizza. YEahhhhhhhhhhhh :D

In Thailand we have to wait a whole week to watch conference so that they can translate, so I still haven't seen it! I can't wait! They actually have a problem getting members to watch conference here, which is so sad!! I love conference.

Love y'all!

Sis Zaugg