Miracles in Pangnaa

 Me and sis Adams at the Christmas devo!

I hope every one had a great Christmas! My Christmas was fantastic. I got to skype my family, then Sis Adams and I went to a mall and ate Japanese food and bought ourselves a blender (And then two days later discovered that the apartment already had one. Oops). 

Christmas dinner at a Japanese restaurant.
I decided to be a walrus for this picture for some reason.

After our P-day ended we met up with the Elders in our district and went caroling at the sky train station! We took turns talking to people while the others sang. We found a few people who were interested, but then we got told that we couldn't carol there so we decided to go caroling outside of Sis Adams' and my favorite 7/11. We found even more people there. hahahahah We ended the night with visiting a member family. The wife is inactive, so we shared a message about Christmas and why it's important that Christ was born. It was awesome!!!!!!!!!! It was an excellent Christmas. 

Soooooo cold!

Supposedly the week of Christmas is rough on missions because every one gets homesick and productivity decreases, but Sis Adams and I went even harder after Christmas. We had sooooo much  to do! And we really reaped the blessings from our hard work. At church on Sunday we had four investigators at church, one of which is a girl who is preparing to be baptized next Sunday! We found her mom outside of a supermarket, and her mom brought her to the church on Saturday. The mom isn't so interested, but her daughter, Noon, is SO excited!!! She's adorable. We're way excited about her! Our Elders had a lot of people at church too. We had a total of 9 investigators, which was the second highest total in the zone (after Saphaansung) and we're the smallest district in the zone with only two companionships! Awesome.

So that was a miracle.

My little chancho!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And his uncle.

Yesterday my investigator Les from Saphaansung was baptized. Sis Steele, the sister training leader who took my place in Saphaasung took such good care of him. :))) We talk to her a lot so I've been so blessed to get to hear about my little chancho (Sis Hughes and I nicknamed him chancho... you know... like from Nacho Libre...). He was such a miracle!! On that day when we met him, we had randomly decided to take a song thew instead of a bus to get to the church... if we hadn't had taken the song thew we wouldn't have met him! And then he wouldn't have followed us to the church, and then he wouldn't have gotten a Book of Mormon and left his church orphanage and moved into his Islam family's home and gotten baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently he brought his uncle to his baptism. There is no way that that was all just a coincidence. He was so ready.

 After the baptism he went contacting with the Elders. :))))) SO MUCH HAPPINESS.

My first bug!

Not so bad.

Random baby elephant walking down our street.

So we've been trying to do some exploring and trying different places to contact, but we've found that the area around the church is just filled with people ready for the Gospel. One night we spent an hour in front of a big mall and got rejected up the whazoo! NO ONE wanted to talk to us (well.... a few people did... but not many), and then in the last 30 minutes of the night we went to our favorite 7/11 and got two new investigators who agreed to baptism!!! We've vowed never to contact anywhere else. lol

 How many trash dogs can you count?

Speaking of that 7/11, yesterday Sis Adams and I had planned out like 4 hours of contacting and had just tried to do some neighborhood contacting which did not bring any fruit... so we were really hoping that our 7/11 would pull through for us. It was just way hard because New Years is a HUGE holiday in Thailand and everyone has literally gone back to their home towns so no one was out!! While I was trying to get to know the food vendors (it's kind of awkward when they just watch us talk to people for an hour and judge us... it's more fun when we're friends with them and they just expect us to be there, lol) Sis Adams tried to talk to this deaf guy... so she gave up on that. But we both noticed that he was watching us, so we showed him a picture of baptism and he got really excited. He communicated to us that he'd seen it before and was going to a church the next day (don't ask how.... I don't even know myself). We pulled out a restoration pamphlet and he said that he has one. His friends wanted him to learn. He showed us on a bus card where he was going... wayyy far away! We told him that there was a church around the corner. He got way excited! So we set up an appointment to meet on Sunday because this week he's busy.

So basically we had a deaf Thai conversation.... I don't know how it happened but it did. So he's wayyyyyyy excited to learn! And we're wayyyyy excited to teach him! How are we gonna do it? I HAVE NO IDEA! But it's going to be sooooo sweet. I can't wait!

So that was another miracle.

So many miracles are happening! Pangnaa is so ready to change. The Lord is hastening His work. :DDDDDDDDD

Happy New Years! Or: Sawatdii bii mai!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't believe it's 2014 already!!!!! What the heck?

Love,

Sis Zaugg

I GOT MOVED AGAIN

Helloooooo every one!

Well, big news: I GOT MOVED. AGAIN.

It was actually way sad. On Monday the AP's called and told us that we were both training and that Sis Hughes was moving. I was way glad that I wasn't, cause we had a ton of investigators that I didn't want to leave and I just love Saphaansung SO much. BUT THEN. On Tuesday we went to District Meeting and the Zone Leaders said that they had urgent news: "Sister Zaugg is moving too." I said, "Haha." And they said, "No seriously." 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I was pretty ticked at first. I didn't want to accept that I was leaving. PLUS Some one was like, "Hey, maybe you'll go to Paangnaa" And I was like, "NOOOOO. I want to stay here!" 

The ward put on this way nice going away party for all the moving missionaries, and then afterwards we went out to ice cream with Phloy and Jeep. THAT was hard. Every one was so shocked that we were both leaving  and were all crying and super sad! It took everything I had to not cry. But then I just gave in as we were riding home on our bikes and just cried for like an hour straight as I hung up all my laundry. I kept saying: "I don't want to go to Paangnaa!" So I had to rush pack in time for transfers meeting on Wednesday.

Also, there was a girl who was supposed to be in my MTC group but didn't come because she got engaged (hence the reason why we were a trio) but news got around that she called off the engagement and was coming to Thailand!!!!!!!!!!! Everyone was speculating who would train her. I thought it would be funny if I trained her, because we were supposed to come together.

Well, guess where I moved to and who my new companion is.

So here I am next to sister Adams, who was gonna be in my MTC group in Paangnaa. lol

I've really come to terms with it now. I know that this was a calling from the Lord. This area really needs missionaries that believe that it can be just as good as Saphaansung. It's gonna take a lot of work, but SIs Adams is AMAZING. She is so excited for the work. I took her contacting on the first day and was like, "So you can follow me or you can split off and do your own thing. It's up to you." And she just ran off and got 4 numbers! She's brilliant! She pushes me to be better. We're going to do amazing things here in Paangnaa! So far it's been pretty slow since we white washed in and there weren't really any investigators from before.... but it'll start picking up in no time. It was slow in Saphaansung in the beginning, too. It's just a matter of time!

So yeah! It doesn't really feel like Christmas to me. It just feels like any other day. Thailand doesn't celebrate Christmas. Tonight we're gonna go caroling and visit some members so that'll be fun. :) It's a privilege to be spending Christmas the way the Savior would. It's a rare experience.

Well, I hope every one has a WONDERFUL Christmas! Remember why we celebrate it and try to do something good for someone else (besides giving a gift)! It'll make the day that much better. I promise. :) 

Loooovvvvveeee y'all!

Sis Zaugg

TRANSFER OVER

My fourth transfer ended a day ago. Sister Hughes and I are SHOCKED. We were literally just taking pictures together with a roll of toilet paper... and now on Wednesday we have to say good bye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This has truly been a transfer of miracles. SO MANY THINGS. For me the biggest miracle was the change in myself. I was kind of broken when I got to Saphaansung. I had no confidence in myself, and was beginning to lose confidence in the work and the Lord. But coming here and being put with Sis Hughes, who was kind of broken herself.... it changed us. I don't know what it was- but we worked so. hard. We threw everything from past transfers away and started over. And we hit our inflection points! I baptized people! I never thought I would say that. We keep finding people who are prepared of the Lord, and it's changing the ward. The older members are catching the spirit, and so is the mission.

Saphaansung started something in that mission. Our district has been baptizing every week, and have gotten balanced key indicators every week. President Senior saw that and started spreading it. The the training video that we were in came out and President Senior made a goal for ever companionship in the mission to get one baptism in the month of november. The goal was for 86 baptisms and we got 110. YEAH! That hasn't happened in.... who knows when! The whole mission is changing. Before the expectation was to get a few baptisms in your mission, but President Senior has had enough of that. He's set a goal for January to get 200 baptisms. The whole Asia Area has never hit more than 160. And you know what? We're gonna do it! The Lord is hastening His work. Man. I get chills thinking about all this! And it all started in our District (really it started with Elder Campbell and we just followed suit)

 I just want you to see these
magnificent old men.
 I can't handle it.
They're such good friends!

There's a lot of pressure on Sis Hughes and I, now. haha We're kinda leading the sisters right now and paving the way. It means there's a target on our back, but as one of our Zone Leader's said: "It's good. We want to keep it that way." I'm not really sure why I was chosen to be a part of this, but it's an honor. I'm going to keep it up! I'm excited to see what happens in the future.

This week we were in Asoke a looooot because we were a part of a big Christmas production. We were there from Thursday to Saturday pretty much. It was fun! We still managed to teach 13+ lessons and get a few new investigators. 16 year old Thai girls went to town on our faces with makeup and we were pretty scary looking... but every one else seemed to like it. haaha It was a major blessing to be there, because a lot of my favorite members from Don Muang came to see it, and Baw, my investigator who got baptized after I left was there!!!!!!!!!!! I was so happy. What an amazing Christmas gift. :)

Dear's baptism!!

On Sunday our investigator Dear was baptized! She was so excited. Afterwards she just cried on Sis Hughes' shoulder for a couple minutes cause she was so sad that she's leaving. I'm sad too!! I love Sis Hughes so much, I'm going to miss her. A lot. 

So I got to pick up my packages on Thursday! We had some time before the practice in Asoke so we went to the office. We went into the office elder's office where they normally keep the mail. We were like, "Hey... can we look through the packages?" They laughed and said, "Heheh There's a whole room of them upstairs." They took us to a room that had a giant table with 200+ packages stacked on it. They said, "Good luck!" And left. LOL We spent a half hour unpiling it all and piling it again. But we found them!

In other news, at English meeting last night Sister Hughes randomly decided to tell the entire Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer story and didn't realize what she was doing until the very end. LOL We all died laughing. I said, "Funny thing about that was we were all listening." Elder Engle said, "It was like when an investigator talks... you just wait until it's your turn." LOL I hope he was kidding. :P

Anyway, things are great! Miracles are happening and the Lord is preparing Thailand... and the whole Asia Area for amazing things!

Sis Zaugg

Hello, Again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I'll start with the best news! We had another baptism! It kinda sprung on us, actually. Last week during weekly planning we decided to make a goal for zero baptisms this week because we had no investigators that had been to church enough times to be baptized... but I had an impression to make a goal for one baptism. We talked about it but in the end still set it for zero. But then on Monday we were talking to one of our investigators who is always causing drama and we never really know what to do with him, but on Monday he said, "SISTERS. I will be baptized on the 15th for sure with Gift!" And we were like... "WHAAAA?" Gift is an investigator who has been around longer than Sis Hughes. She's 14 and has wanted to be baptized since the beginning of this year, but her parents were making her wait for her 15th birthday, so we were expecting to not ever see her baptized since she had to wait for February and we would both have moved by then. So we called her and were like, "You can get baptized?!?!?!?!" And she was like, "Yeah!" And we were like, "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US." So we were like, why have her wait for the 15th! Let's get her baptized this week!

Her baptism was awesome! She got baptized with 4 other people. Every companionship in the district had a baptism on Sunday. Awesome! Before Gift went into the font she was super excited!!!! She kept saying, "Finally!" I almost cried when she was in the font- I was just SO happy for her. She's been waiting for this for so long, and she finally got to do it. :))))))))))) Happy day!

OK So now for the next best news: we have the best new investigator in the whole world. 

Two Thursdays ago we went to visit Sister Ooy, the lady who has no money and a crazy mom who won't let her work. Every time we go out that way Sis Hughes and I get SO mad! The mom is absolutely nuts and can't be reasoned with. She never leaves her house and just watches the news and sees how there are riots in certain parts of the country and thinks that the whole country is like this, so she wont let her daughter go out and work.... which means they have no money for food. It's always very hopeless and super annoying whenever we go. 

We found a Santa with a sax..... Huh. 

So we were heading back from that on a song thew pretty ticked. It was crowded 'cause it was rush hour and we were surrounded by a bunch of teenage school boys. One of them heard Sis Hughes speaking Thai and was like, "You speak Thai??" And they had a conversation. He said his name was Les and turns out he recently converted to Christianity and was curious about where our church was. Also, important note: he had purple glasses on. hahahahah She told him that we were stopping at the church and invited him to go with us. He smiled and was like, "Oh... uh. That's OK." BUT When we got to our stop.... he got off with us!!!!!! So we took him to the church and taught him the Restoration. In the end we told him he needed permission from his guardians to keep learning. He was like, "Well... my parents are Muslim... so I don't live with them anymore. I live at a church and the pastor is my guardian. I'll have to ask him."

 We were like DOY! So we invited him to come again and waved good bye thinking, "Well, we're never gonna see this kid again." Christians here are pretty anti-mormon.

CHRISTMAS SWENSON'S!!

The next day was Zone Conference.... and at the end when we were going to our various interviews, GUESS who was at the church? LES. I would recognize those purple glasses anywhere! We were like, "You came back!!!!!!!!!!!" And he was like, "Yeah, my pastor said I could check out your church!" We were like, "Sweet!" So we've taught him almost every day since then. He came to church two Sundays ago, but was like, "I can't come again cause I have to go to my church." He had a lot of questions and we really had to study the Bible and Book of Mormon together to answer them. He had some doubts at first, but he kept saying, "God lead me to this place, so I need to keep studying." ....But then a few days later we were teaching him and he was like, "BTW I can come to church every week now cause I left my church and moved into my uncle's house. I know it's true." 

Yeah. Also, he was like, "sisters.... why do I have to wait 3 months to be baptized (it's a rule that kids under 16 have to come to church for 3 months straight before baptism)? What if Jesus comes TOMORROW?! I have to be ready!! I think He's coming soon." So we asked Pres Senior and he cut it down by 2/3's so Les can be baptized on the 22nd! He's still really antsy, though. Haha Yesterday at church he was looking at a painting of Moses ordaining Aaron as a priest and I was telling him how he'll get the priesthood after he's baptized. His eyes got SO big and he said in Thai, what could only be translated into English as: "Oh that next week were the 22nd!!!"

Les and Khaw

What an amazing kid! He has become best friends with the Elders' recent convert, Khaw, the kid who has basically the exact same story. They are just the biggest turds together. They chase each other around and always have their arms around each other. GAH. Sis Hughes and I can't handle it.  One day after teaching Les, we got a call from the Elders saying to go to the Pakistani's house cause they invited the whole district to go for dinner. So we got on a song thew with both Khaw and Les cause they live out that direction. Les got off at his stop, but khaw was like, "Sisters, where are you going?" "Uhh... to a Pakistani's house." "Oh. I'll go with you." "Khaw, they don't speak Thai." "It's OK. I'll protect you from the cars. :)" LOL So we showed up at their apartment with this little Thai kid. We were like, "Uhhh... Hey we brought Khaw too. :V"

Next week our investigator, Dear gets baptized! She's 17 years old and the cutest person in the whole world. She is SUPER excited for her baptism. We are too!

So basically right now we're just baptizing all of the high schools in Thailand. haha! We're hoping to find some adult investigators soon... The ones we keep finding don't stay around for very long. :/

Me drawing in a park.

One more story! A couple days ago we decided to go to the airport to visit Jeep, who has been working SO much and we only get to see her on Sundays. So we went to go surprise her.... well, that was the worst idea we've had since the wad fiasco. Turns out the Thai airport is the STUPIDEST place in the whole world!! It is so hard to find anywhere there!!!! Their escalators are not systematic at all. Some go up, some go down, and sometimes you just can't find any that are going the right direction that aren't blocked by guards. And then the elevators don't even go to all of the floors and it's sooooooooooo confusing. Eventually we made it up to the 4th floor where the Dairy Queen that Jeep works at is. It was then that we realized that the Dairy Queen is in a place that's restricted only to those with boarding passes! ARGHHHHHHHHhhhh We called her to let her know that we were there and she felt good that we at least had made the effort to go see her. lol

Sitting on the floor cause my back hurts.

After that we tried to find the Krispy Kremes that was supposedly on the second floor.... but it took forever to even get to the second floor, and eventually we just gave up, got Subway and went home defeated.  The taxi driver on the way home asked us if we our sandwiches were good and asked if we wanted to try the leaf that he was eating. It was literally a leaf that he had picked off a tree and was eating. We were like, "uhhh... no thanks...." hahaha On Sunday an investigator's dad brought krispy Kremes so we still got to eat a donut! Yayyy :)

This is Sister Hughes' last week in Saphaansung! This weekend we're going to be in Asoke doing the big choir thing, so we're gonna have to work really hard to get balanced key indicators!

Things are great! Being a missionary is awesome. Especially when it's in Thailand. :)

Sis Zaugg

Happy Thanksgiving!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING AND BEGINNING OF DECEMBER!!!!!! Not sure how we got here, but apparently it's the last month of this year. Okay. Just take a deep breath and try not to freak out!

So here's the news on àºÃÕéÂÇ: We got a hold of her on Monday and she was PERFECTLY fine. We always freak out over her when we always know that she'll be OK. haha Anyway, we met with her and she even helped us teach some investigators! She came to a District Meeting with some other recent converts to explain why she decided to be baptized and what her conversion was like. This is what she said: "I would always see these white people talking to people at the market and I couldn't tell if they were crazy or not. But one night the sisters talked to me and I followed them to the church." Then Elder Barfuss asked: "Why did you decide to follow them?" She said: "Their smiles. They looked like they were happy and I wanted that." Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! She was scheduled to get the Holy Ghost on Sunday, until we called her on Friday and she was like, "Sisters! I'm not in Bangkok! I'm on my way to Chiang Rai (wayyyyyyyyyyy up in the North of Thailand) for work! I won't be back until Monday!" WHAT. That's when we started freaking out again. So we got permission to have her be confirmed in Chiang Rai. We called the Chiang Mai Zone Leaders and got it all set up. So then on Saturday we called her to tell her the plan and she said: "sisters! I won't be in Chiang Rai on Sunday! We're actually moving to Nong Khai on Sunday!" WHAAAT. So then we had to call the Chiang Mai Elders AGAIN and were like, "Hey... can we cancel that order for the Holy Ghost up in Chiang Rai?" And had to call the Nong Khai Elders and tell them that they were getting a new RC on Sunday. @_@ So she has to wait another week to get confirmed. This girl will NOT let me rest in peace. On Sunday we fasted that she would settle into the Nong Khai branch alright and get confirmed. Ohhhh dearrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

So our pirate has set sail.

I'm gonna miss that girl. :(

So now I'm going to jump into a really great story, but I have to set it up first. A couple English Classes ago a Pakistani couple came to our class. They were pretty obnoxious. haha They would answer all the questions before any one else could and were kind of overbearing. We were like, "sheesh who are these people?" We didn't think about them again until they showed up with their two daughters and son on Sunday for church! We'd just assumed that they were Muslims, but apparently they were Christian! So we all had to translate for them in all of the classes. The daughters are my age and they were SO sweet. It was such a pleasure to translate for them. They told me that their family are refugees from Pakistan because the fundamentalist Muslims were trying to kill them for being Christian. :O So we didn't see them again until the next English class when the dad came and was like, "Sisters. We want to have you over for lunch. My daughters, they too much like you."haha  Soooo cute! So the next day we took a taxi to their apartment.

We could tell that this was a rich family, so we were a little surprised to find that they lived in a pretty dumpy apartment complex. And this is why: their WHOLE family is here. EVERY ONE. They have an entire floor of the apartment building rented out for their whole extended family. There's like, 30+ of them. They were SO good to us! They treated us like guests of honor and fed us amazing Pakistani food. I encourage you to find Pakistani food as soon as possible. It is amazing. They wouldn't eat with us.... so we ate while they all watched....it was pretty awkward. haha And they kept piling food on our plates. Hahahahha We ate so much. I thought I was gonna die. The dad told us his story: in Pakistan he was an attorney for Christian people. In Pakistan there is a law called the Blasphemy Law. It means that anyone who strays from fundamental islam can be killed. So there's a lot of persecution in Pakistan, and he was a big proponent for the repeal of the blasphemy law. He pulled out all of these news clippings of him and all the protests that he led. One day as he was leaving his office he was shoved into a van. He said he was hanged and tortured for 3 days,and when they were done they just dumped him on the side of the road and left him for dead. Some one found him and he recovered in the hospital for 7 weeks. After that he took his whole family and fled to Thailand. They're here until their visas run out and then they have to go somewhere else.... who knows where!

The dad said at one point, "Pakistani Christians are the strongest Christians." I have to say that I don't disagree. That's NUTS. His family has such amazing faith. They told us that they really like the "mormon church" and ever since coming to our church they've quit drinking tea and coffee because they know we don't do it. Amazing, right? So after the meal, we shared the message of the Restoration with them. They laid out a mat for us to sit on (our "stage"), and then laid mats in front of us and gathered the WHOLE family into that tiny room. So basically we were sitting before 30 of the most beautiful people I've ever seen waiting to hear us teach about the Book of Mormon. It was amazing. They gave us pillows to place our scriptures on, because they give respect to them by putting them on high places, and all the women wore head scarves 'cause they wear them to worship.

That was the first time I'd ever taught the Restoration in English. It was simple, because the dad had to translate every few sentences into Urdu, but man, it was POWERFUL. There is nothing like testifying in your own language. It was an amazing experience.

Unfortunately I don't think we can keep teaching them because they're refugees, but maybe someday when they've settled somewhere and it's all worked out they can get baptized. I love that family SO MUCH. I just can't even tell you how much they inspire me. I'm so grateul that I've had this opportunity to get to know them.

We've found a few new investigators who are all excited to be baptized! They all have to wait until after the 15th, though. :( Sad day. One girl has to wait for February because she's 14 and kids have to come to church for 3 months before they can get baptized.

For Thanksgiving we went to Brother Dominique and Sister Becky's house with all the Elders. There was turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, vegetables, and a cheeseball!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They got it all from this big American restaurant in Bangkok. It does a Cajun-ey twist on American food and it was sooooooooooooooo good! I got full really fast, though. I forgot that American food is more filling than Thai food. haha I had an excellent Thanksgiving!

This year I'm grateful for my family, even though I can't be with them right now. I'm grateful for the opportunity I have to serve in Thailand and especially for the opportunity to serve ÊоҹÊÙ§, which has taught me SO much! I've grown a lot as a missionary since coming here. I'm grateful for President and Sister Senior and all that they do for Thailand. In November we had a big push to get the mission unified by having every companionship get one baptism each. We normally get 30-40 baptisms each month, and there are around 80 companionships. We were expecting 80 baptisms, but we got 109. That was amazing. The Lords work is picking up in Thailand! Amazing things are happening.

But most of all I'm grateful for Jesus Christ, and His atoning sacrifice. I've seen His grace and mercy change my family and many, many people here in Thailand. It's amazing!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! Mine was awesome!

Sis Zaugg