Helllloooooooooo!!!!

There's something about Buddhism
 and red Fanta....

Hello everyone! For anyone wondering if the typhoon in the Philippines affected us, I didn't know there was typhoon until just now. It's been mostly dry here the past few weeks. It rained a couple days ago but it was pretty tame. That was actually a pretty fun experience. Sis Hughes and I were waiting for a teaching appointment at the church and were pretty hungry and so decided to go out to the neighborhood night market to find some grub. Luckily, I had been carrying an umbrella around all day and so when it started pouring we were well prepared. Others were not so fortunate and there were a lot of people coming off of buses and song thews who were caught in the rain. Sis Hughes and I took it as an opportunity to serve and chased down people and offered to walk them home in the rain! Unfortunately.... only two people could fit under the umbrella, so Sis Hughes sacrificed herself and got totally soaked. I think she secretly loved it. That day was really funny, actually. We were cold alllllllllllllllllllllllll day! The weather was super cool and we almost wanted to go home and get sweaters! Apparently it was in the 80's that day. Oh dear.

more of a glimpse of what thailand is like hahahaha

Some good things happened this week! We'll start off with last week's P-Day.

Me and a baby tiger!!!!!

All the sisters in the zone went to this magical place called the somutbrakarn crocodile farm. It. Was. Fantastic. Let me tell you about it. First we found ourselves in this little area with baby tigers, big tigers, baby leopards, and baby monkeys. All of which you could hold!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I held a baby tiger. ...It was more like a kid tiger, but it was still the most adorable thing on the planet. Unfortunately you don't get to hold them for long, just long enough to get a few photos, so I pet that thing as much as I could before they took it away! It was huge and soft, and it just made me so happy. :))))))))

This was the picture that they took and printed for me....
 It's not good quality here but it's my favorite
 of all of the ones that I had taken.

Then we went to the crocodile wrestling show. :O That was fun. It was basically a bunch of guys pushing around some crocodiles and sticking their hands and heads in their mouths. No big deal. 

 I almost hit myself with that fish head.

If you go past the crocodile show you end up on a big bridge... porch thing... that's above a swamp that has like... hundreds of crocodiles. They're HUGE!!! They were all sitting on the bank with their mouths hanging wide open. 'Cause there you could pay 20 Baht (less than a dollar) to get a giant fish head on a stick and feed the crocodiles! When crocodiles snap their jaws it makes a funny popping noise. It was way amusing. :) 

"Follow me and I will make ye fishers of men."

Next we went into the zoo portion of the farm and saw all kinds of fun animals. It wasn't very big, and soon we found ourselves at the elephant stadium. We had about 40 minutes before the elephant show and we weren't really sure what to do with ourselves.... but pretty soon we found the backside of the stadium where they had some elephants and a baby elephant chained to a wall. The interesting thing about this place was that even though it wasn't a very nice looking zoo... all the animals really liked people. I think it's cause in Thai culture you have to respect animals and treat them like you treat people. So as we were waving at them they all started reaching for us with their trunks!! haha 

We held hands with the baby elephant for awhile. After that the other sisters got bored and left, Sis Hughes and I were still playing with the baby elephant when the care taker came and took the baby elephant out for a drink and let us take pictures with him! We felt super special. :) 

At the end of the elephant show we all took pictures with the elephants and Sis Hughes and I ended the day with ice cream. It was awesome. If I stay here for another transfer I'm for sure taking my new companion there! Next time I wanna hold a baby leopard. :D

So that was really fun and took a really long time to explain. After P-Day was over the social media elders from Asoke came over and asked if they could film our companionship street contacting. That was fun! We felt really brave and talked to tons of people and even found some who were interested! None of them actually came through on the appointments we made, but it was still a good experience. There's some changes being made in the mission about the way we do missionary work. Pres Senior really likes the way that our district does missionary work (or more like, how the elders do it, we're still learning) and wants the whole mission to do it! Basically it consists of talking to as many people as possible about baptism and teaching faster, with more faith and confidence, and helping more people be baptized! We have a culture here where we tend to be really timid about baptism and thinking that it needs to take a long time for someone to be ready and a lot of us only expect to have maybe 1 baptism, if that, a month. Pres Senior is trying to get us to think like the missionaries in Brazil who just wait at the church and help every one who walks in learn the Gospel and receive the saving ordinances that they need! It's pretty exciting... but scary. haha Anyway, so the elders made some training videos on contacting and Sis Hughes and I had the privilege of being the only sisters in it. hahahahah Oops

On Tuesday we had a big Halloween party. At the end we had a pinata. I'm not sure where the pinata came from, but the elders showed up with one and it was the highlight of the evening.  Mostly because Elder Barfuss was the one who actually broke the pinata and he totally whacked Sister Benny, a recent convert in her 50's in the stomach. LOL She was fine, but she kept saying, "Elder B is so strong!!!!!"

Making som taam with sis naa

On Wednesday we got a call in the morning from an older sister who we visited last week. She said, "I'm gonna teach you how to make somtaam today OK!" So we rushed over to the church and made somtaam with Sister Naa! She's crazy and forced hand fed us fruit.

 

Waiting.... waiting.... waiting....

Later that day after visiting with the Relief Society President we waited at a bus stop in the middle of the wilderness foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Another day we wanted to try exploring a bit and wanted to see what was on the other side of a wad that's across the street from the church. So we decided to cut through the wad. BAD IDEA. We were in there forever!!!!!! It was the wad that never ended!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We couldn't even proselyte cause you're not supposed to proselyte at religious spots. Oh, it was terrible. Eventually we popped out on the other side in a way ghetto area. We wandered around for a bit before turning back to the wad in shame. Wasn't the best idea in the world. 

Sister Becky, the American, somehow seems to be a super member missionary despite not being a khon thai, 'cause she gave us a referral last week! Her name is Mala, from Myanmar. She speaks about as much English as she speaks Thai. It's so-so. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and it was soooo good! She told us that she's always believed that there is a God and that He loves her. She prays to Him every day! She said one time her husband got thrown into jail of no fault of his own and she had no way to contact him and she didn't know what was gonna happen. He was there for a long time and one day she just went in her room and sobbed and prayed. As soon as she finished her prayer her phone rang and it was her husband saying he was coming home!! She said, "So I know that there is a God." We all cried and she committed to be baptized! Only problem is she and her husband are here to work to support their family, so she works on Sundays..... it will take a miracle to get her to be able to keep the Sabbath day holy. It's possible!

One of our other investigators, Jim, hasn't really been progressing. She's just super wishy washy about keeping commitments. Her son got baptized a few months ago, so we want them to be able to go to the temple together! She loves the church and is always there... but she never goes on Sunday and wont quit doing Buddhist stuff. We decided to meet with her one day and find our what's keeping her back. We learned that she actually does wanna be baptized and keep the commandments, she's just afraid that if she stops being Buddhist her husband will kick her out! We asked if we could teach her husband and she said yes! We both had a really good feeling that soon this whole family will be partakers of the gospel. And on Sunday Jim brought her dad to church! Yay!

Yesterday a less active member who we visited on Saturday came to church! When we saw her we asked if we could teach her mom and she said yes. So she brought her to church! It was awesome!!! We taught her after church. I think her mom is pretty unsure of it all.... but I dunno. We'll keep praying for her!

So yeah! A lot of good stuff is happening! Sis Hughes and I have really been pushing ourselves to talk to more people and be more bold. Today we're gonna try street contacting like the elders in our district do... it's intense. haha Kinda scared but good things will happen if we do it. Fight fight fight!

Love everyone!

Sis Zaugg