Hello~

This week had some fun stories. ....Let's see if I can remember them.

We get so sweaty that we've started a game
 where we sneak up on each other and stick
each other in the forehead with a card. lol

Well, first of all, we had a baptism!!!! .......In Korat. hahaha It was Tong. Her uncle, Bro Noke went to his home town, Korat this week to go vote, so he took her with him.......... and she ended up getting baptized down there! I'm sad that I wasn't able to see it, but I'm super happy that she finally got baptized! She'll get confirmed up here in Nong Khai. :) She's SO CUTE! I love her! 

Also, other news: WE GOT 212 BAPTISMS THIS MONTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's another milestone for the mission! Soooo happy!

Sis Maughan getting a drunk guy's number.

Okay.... let's see..... on Friday we did a "Lehi's Vision" activity for our Book of Mormon class. We made a huge obstacle course upstairs with yarn, and at the end we had an old christmas tree and donuts for the Tree of Life. :) The members had to hold onto the yarn and if they let go, they had to go to the "repentance room". haha We were so ghetto, we didn't have blindfolds so we used trash bags.

On Sunday a member took us to go see 3 members who didn't show up to church.... and we ended up seeing everyone and their dog EXCEPT for those three members.

Catching chickies!

At one point we found ourselves sitting in a huge abandoned construction site while we waited for a member to come meet us there (because I guess she thought her house was too dirty for us to go to?).... and then later we ended up at another member's house and caught chickens.... and then at the end, when we were getting dropped off the member who took us in the car was like, "Hey, do you have a fridge?" and then shoved a whole dead fish into Sis Maughan's hands! She was like, "Yeah, it hasn't been filleted yet, so you're gonna have to do that." uhhhhhhhhhhhh......... 

We're saving it to prank our Elders with on April Fools. hahaha

I don't really have much else to write about this week! Hopefully I'll have some more next week... I'm going down to Bangkok again! Yayyyy :)

Love y'all!

Sis Zaugg

Wuddup

Well, another rough week for us people in Nong Khai, but we keep pushing on!

 "Jerry Cake"

On Monday we went to go teach Tong, that one member's niece. We got there and he was like, "Surprise! It's my birthday! You're going to eat with us." So we quick taught her a lesson, but it was supes awkward, because the brother had a bunch of friends from work over and they all just kind of sat awkwardly in the corner and listened.... we tried to include them but they wouldn't have it. haha So then we followed them over to the river where we ate a weird assortment of fried chicken on matts. Before we had to go home Bro Noke pulls out his "birthday cake". We were like, "What kind of cake is it?" and they're all like, "Jerry cake!" ...huh? And then they took it out of the box and we were like, "Ohhhhh...." It was a cake made of jelly. Only jelly. It. Was. Disgusting. I kind of just chopped it up with my spoon and made it look like I ate it. haha! 

One of the friends who was at the dinner has investigated before, so on Tuesday morning we rode our bikes to Bro Noke's office. He teaches Japanese! Sometimes I try to say something to him in Japanese and it fails miserably. It always comes out in Thai. :/  Anyway, so we taught the friend in his office. It's pretty cool, Bro Noke just takes in wayward kids who don't have much going for them and teaches them Japanese and a job helping teach his students. You can tell that they really respect him.

The lesson went alright.... I don't think we'll be teaching him again, though. There's a reason why he's been dropped 4 times already. haha He's just not ready to commit!

Sweaty back!

This week we had some SUPER HOT WEATHER. I diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeed! I totally forgot how hot it was when I was a greenie. One day we biked out to Tesco and I saw my back in a mirror in the bathroom and I just couldn't help but laugh. I was sooo sweaty! There was a cleaning lady standing in the doorway (they sit and wait to mop up the floor after people). She must have thought I was crazy, but I was like, "Hey, I am not a normal person." and invited her to be baptized. She accepted and we taught her at the church that night! She was soooooooooooo cuuuuuuuute! Except she didn't go to church on Sunday, so I dunno if she's that interested. :( Darn.

On Thursday we went to Udorn for Zone Conference!!!!!!!!! I LOVE Zone Conference! My district totally destoyed the zone at scripture jeopardy because turns out Elder Sae Dan is a scripture GENIUS. We were getting crushed at first only because he didn't understand the clues, but at one point he just got fed up with it and shot his hand up, got called on, then turned to us and was like, "What does it mean???" and STILL got the point after we translated for him.

We got to see pictures of Pres. Senior from his mission in Japan, and he just gave us a lot of encouragement and love. I felt really inspired afterwards.

Switch off with Sis Tilley!

After that I left Sis Maughan in Udorn and took Sis Tilley back to Nong Khai for another switch off. I've always wanted to be companions with Sis Tilley, so it was really fun! 

On Friday we had 6 appointments set up and 5 of them fell through, but an older man who I'd contacted a few days ago came to Book of Mormon class. He's in the army and is way interested in becoming Christian!

These dancers were gathered across the street from our
house.It started pouring like, 2 minutes after this picture
was taken. lol!

On Saturday it RAINED. It hasn't rained in forever! At first I was way excited, but then I quickly remembered how annoying rain is when you're a missionary. We were riding our bikes when it started, so we bought some rain ponchos. Good thing we did, because we got splattered all over with mud from our bikes. When we finally rolled into Tesco Lotus, we were a mess. Wearing ponchos covered in mud, hair all frizzy, makeup running, legs covered in dirt.... as we were walking to the bathroom to clean up I said, "We do NOT look like representatives of Jesus Christ." and Sis Maughan said, "No. We look like homeless people."

When we contact there's usually 1-3 vendors
that are always there and just laugh at you
while you contact, and you get back at them
by inviting them 3 times a day. This is the group
of vendors at our favorite spot at Tesco.
One is a less active member. Anyway,
I thought this was a really funny picture of them.

After contacting at Tesco we changed into our exercise clothes for branch sports night! It was at a high school that's closed for the summer. They have a big building up on stilts made specially for volley ball. To give you an idea of how weird this sports night was: Elders Smith and Wheeler brought an LA that was higher than a kite on pot, there was an entire volley ball team of teenage girls just sitting and watching us play, and random street dogs had climbed up into the building and were wandering around, doing what? I have no idea. Eventually the high guy kicked me off the team because I'm that terrible, and some of the teenage girls hopped in. It... was ridiculous.

After that we raced the district leader back to the church for Tong's baptismal interview! She passed...... BUT SHE DIDN'T GET BAPTIZED.

Sunrise!

We called them Sunday morning to remind Bro Noke to bring his baptismal suit, and she was like, "I don't feel well, so I'm not not going." uhhhhh WHUT? Later that night when we were contacting at a 7/11 they showed up and bought stuff and she had obviously gone and had her hair died somewhere and we were like, "Uhhh.... So why didn't you get baptized?????" And Bro Noke was like, "Well, I felt weird that Elder Sae Dan was going to baptize her, and I think I should do it so we didn't go." Whaaaaaaaaat? We were like, "...... Who said Elder Sae Dan was baptizing her..... we thought you were!!!!!" We were soooooo confused! And obviously he was upset that we just didn't tell him right upfront that he was going to be the baptizer. I never even thought to tell him that he was baptizing his own niece.............. I thought that was implied!! But it ended up making her miss her own baptism! During the heat of our conversation Sis Maughan randomly was like, "HEY! Why are you buying stuff on Sunday!?!!?!?" At the point I was like, DOI! Now we're done. She's never getting baptized and he's gonna go inactive because he's offended. But for some reason that cooled him down. He was like, "OOPS!!! Well... uh..... I don't drink tea or coffee!!!" -__- So maybe it's good that she isn't baptized yet... we can go over the Sabbath with BOTH of them before. hahahahah At the close of the encounter I was like, "Hey, your hair is cute, Tong." and Bro Noke was like, "It was only 300 baht- GASP. THAT WAS SPENDING MONEY ON THE SABBATH." He was so embarrassed. lololololol Well, I'm glad that it ended up alright and nobody is upset, but man. What a pain.

Beautiful rice fields. :)

No one in our district had any investigators to church on Sunday... except we had that soldier go to church in Udorn. hahahaha It was a rough day....... But we survived! And we have a new week. All is well.

This week we get to teach the Young Women how to make cookies. That'll be fun!!

Love,

Sis Zaugg

Heyyy

This week started way awesome but ended on not the greatest note. Agency, I tell ya. It's the hardest thing about missionary work. 

We had a couple of investigators who really wanted to get baptized on Sunday, but both had some pretty big problems get in the way, and in the end, they just didn't have enough faith to push through them. :( This week we didn't get balanced, even though we worked SO hard, and taught SO many people and had SO many people say that they would go to church. But it's OK. We're just turning a new page and starting over. We still have one investigator with a date for baptism, though! Her name is Tong. On the day that we pretty much just had to drop everyone, we were riding to the church when a guy on a motorcycle waved us down. Turns out it was a member and he said, "Hey, my niece is gonna live with me for a couple months. I want her to get baptized. Will you come teach her today?" And we were like, "Uhhhh.... YEAH!" So later we taught her at his home. She's 12 and super shy, but she's a sweetheart and she's at a point in her life when I think being a member of the church will really help her. It's hard, because she's a kid and it's kinda hard to help kids see just how AWESOME and NECESSARY the Gospel is.... so that's been a challenge, but still! Tender mercies of the Lord, I tell ya. :)

Our church has a mouse problem,
so E. Wheeler and Smith bought a mouse cage.
One day we were there when they caught their third mouse.
We asked, "What do you do with them?"
They said, "Chuck 'em off the roof."
So we watched them chuck it off the roof....
and it HIT THE GROUND RUNNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We were all so shocked and E. Smith said it perfectly:
"That's stupid."

Last week we bought a washer!!!!!!! Wahoooooo! but then we realized that we didn't have an extension cord so that was a bummer. hahah We got one a couple days ago. Yay for no more washing laundry by hand!

On Wednesday I went on a Switch Off with a companionship in Udorn. It was my first one as the sister training leader! I was pretty nervous. I've just kept wondering, "What on Earth do I have to teach these sisters??" I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to help with anything.... particularly because this one companionship has been struggling. Basically me and Sis Yim (Sis Ng's big-me from the MTC!) just contacted all day in Udorn. We got lots of numbers and return appointments! More than I've ever gotten in one day. I really enjoyed it, and I hope that Sis Yim got something out of it, too. :O

Saturday night after a long day of teaching and contacting, 

we went to 7/11 to buy some stuff for Sunday.... 

and somehow I ended up with sooooo many drinks. 

I didn't know that I was so thirsty! 

The best part was when one of the Elders' investigators 

ran into us, looked at us with all of our bottles and said: 

"Kin Nom" (drink milk) and then walked away. LOL

Here's a fun contacting story: One night we were just biking down a street and stopping to talk to every person we passed. We stopped at one little shop that had some people inside and yelled, "Hey! Do you wanna wash your sins?" And the guy inside was like, "Next time!" Sis Maughan pointed her finger at him and was like, "Ok! Next time!" So the next day we showed up and were like, "Hey! Look at that! It's next time!" And he just laughed and was like, "ok ok Come in." So we taught a bit about Christ and how He can help us no matter if we're happy or sad. The guy made a return appointment so that was pretty awesome!

This week is zone conference!! We haven't had a zone conference since I trained Sis Downs. I'm suuuuuuper excited!!!!!!!!!!

Have a great week!

Sis Zaugg

Watdiiiiiiiiiiiii!!

Watdiiiiiiiiiiiii This week... well, let's see if I can remember what I did this week. haha.... I am SO exhausted. It was so crazy! This week there was MLC (Missionary Leadership Council) in Bangkok on Wednesday. Because I'm a sister training leader Sis Maughan and I had to leave Tuesday night to get on an overnight bus with our zone leaders to get to Bangkok on Wednesday morning. We got to the mission office at around 5AM. The gate was open, but the guards there didn't have authority to open the office for us, so we just camped out on the steps until President Wisan from Don Muang came and opened it for us at around 6:30. We got served pancakes and sausage for breakfast and it was way fun being able to see all my friends from around the country! It's always the best when I get to hang out with Sis Reedy. :) All we do is ride bikes. This meeting was all about taking the way we contact and stepping it up a notch. Pres Senior said that we've found a miraculous way to find and baptize people that more than doubled our numbers, but now we're looking to redouble those numbers, so we need to redouble our efforts. We've been hearing rumors around the mission that the Elders in Asoke are just going ham over there- literally running around screaming repentance and baptism. Well.... it isn't a rumor! They showed us a training video. They literally invite every person they see to be baptized. When they don't have time to talk to people, they just run through the crowds and yell: "laang baab" which literally translates to: "wash sins". And guess what............. IT WORKS!! One time when they were running around a lady stopped in the crowd and was like, "WAIT COME BACK!!!!" so they booked it back and she was like, "Last night I decided that I wanted to be baptized... but I didn't know where, so I prayed. I just heard you guys yell "lang baab". How can I be baptized?" And she got baptized two Sundays later! That's Laos! The Isaan is different from Asoke in that there aren't a million people milling around, but that's the cool thing; the Elders over there can't talk to every one, because they can't! But here in Nong Khai..... we can literally ask every single person here if they want to be baptized. haha It's possible. So that's what we've been doing! We've pretty much thrown out any sense of shame/self-consciousness. We'll stop our bikes every couple minutes, run up to someone, ask if they want to get baptized, get their number and an appointment if they do, or run and get back on our bikes if they don't. We talk to them in 7/11's, at the Post Office, EVERYWHERE! One time I walked past this like... office... thing? There were a ton of people sitting at computers. I just walked in and was like, "IF ANYONE WANTS TO GET CLEANED FROM SINS RAISE YOUR HAND!" No one did, but we all laughed and it was a good experience. :) We've found some people, though! We've got two baptisms lined up for this Sunday, and at least one for the Sunday after that. It's amazing!! I really feel like a prophet of old... like Lehi or Abinadi. It's a way cool feeling. Uhhh So yeah. After MLC I had to go to Udorn to help the Zone Leaders do some training, and then did it again in Nong Khai. Monday through Friday was suuuuuper busy! We didn't have a lot of time to do actual proselyting and teaching. But we managed to get balanced this week!  We love our little cambodian girl! This Sunday our district had 3 baptisms! We each got one. Ours was the little half cambodian girl who kind of got thrown on us. On Saturday we rode our bikes to her neighborhood to go over the logistics of her baptism. Basically to find her you just have to ride around and scream her name until she pops out. She is sooooooooooo cuuuute! We just want to take her home to America. Love her! After we talked to her and her mom, she and her little brother hopped on a bike and took us to another member's house in the nieghborhood who is a recent convert. It was super fun riding around with our favorite little cambodian girl. :) We got to the member's house, but had to wait for her to buy food for her dad. There were a bunch of people hanging around her house so we were just asking who was who. The conversation went like this: "I'm her Dad." "I'm her cousin." "I'm also her cousin." "I'm drunk." That guy is our Branch Mission Leader... just passing by to get to the construction site that he works on! Uhhhh.... hahahahahah! He was reeaaaally drunk. This shirtless guy sitting on a mat on the ground. At one point he got into a staring contest with a really scary rooster. And then he passed out and I was afraid that the rooster was going to eat him! That was a fun experience. So yeah! Pen (the cambodian girl) got baptized! She was so cute! She prepared a little talk and everything! The District Leader's investigator for some reason wanted to get baptized in the river........ So she did! That was kind of cool.  So Sunday was pretty awesome. We got a baptism and got balanced! We had to work SO hard to get it, though!  Baptism in the river! That's a fun story. After church yesterday we were counting up our numbers and realized in order to get balanced we still needed two more lessons and a dater for baptism. Our third person didn't come to church so we were short one. We also still needed to contact for one hour to be completely obedient. After the baptism in the river a member was like, "Hey, I'm gonna go see a member who hasn't been to church in a long time. You wanna go too?" And we were like, "Perfect?" So we hopped on our bikes and she hopped on hers, and we took off in the direction of our house (ie. the countryside). I was like, "cool! we get to see what's down this road!" Here is where I learned my first lesson about the Isaan: When going to visit LA's, always ask how long it takes to get there on bike. My first clue should've been when the member was like, "You know, I thought about riding my bike with you guys, but I decided the motorcycle was better." It wasn't until about 45 minutes later when we were riding in the jungle and through rice fields that I was like, "Sister..... how far away does she live????" And she was like, "NOOOOOOOOON!" which means "wayyyy over there!" So we get there, teach a lesson. And then still had to ride allllll the way back!!! It ws getting late and we still needed one more lesson, a dater and one more hour of contacting! We asked if there were any other LA's on the way back. She took us to one home... but they weren't there! Then she took us to another home and they weren't there either! By then we were really almost out of time before it was time to go home, and Sis Maughan was DYING. She's had a nasty cold all week bu she refuses to rest... and the bike ride pretty much did her in. We were wondering, "She we just give up and let Sis Maughan go home and die?" But then we were like... "NO! WE WILL GO ON!!" and we found an LA who was home, read the Book of Mormon with her, and then climbed back onto our bikes and started hobbling towards the 7/11 by our home. The plan was for me to contact the last hour while Sis Maughan passed out on the steps. But then the DL called us and told us we needed to send him all our goals and stuff which required us to go home. PHEW. So we went home and called the dater who didn't go to church... turns out she accidentally slept in but still wants to get baptized, so in the end we got balanced!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Elder Sae-Dan's brother and sister came to visit him because they're about to leave for their missions and got permission to say bye! But get this: to get balanced you need 12 lessons... and when we added up all our numbers........... WE HAD 13!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Somehow we had counted wrong earlier. @_@ We killed ourselves over that extra lesson. hahahhahahaa Ohhhhh dear. Well, it was a good lesson, regardless! I don't regret it. But man I'm tired. I've been doing all the teaching, contacting, and phone calling this week because Sis Maughan hasn't had a voice. I'm POOPED! That's OK, though. It's all worth it! The Dream Team Uhhh SO yeah! That was my week. Nong Khai is awesome. Even though that  bike ride was like a million miles long, it was GORGEOUS! Bangkok has got nothing on this place. Some future P-Day we're gonna go back a\out and take lots of pictures. We tried to on our bikes but they weren't very good.  Have a great week! Sis Zaugg PS Fun fact:  Total number of 7/11's in Nong Khai: 3 Total number of wads in Nong Khai: 1,000,000+ (no joke)

Kickin' It Isaan Style

Well, this week lasted foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! It was a way good week, but man it was long! haha Okay... there's a lot of stuff to talk about.....

On P-Day we got permission to move into the house that we found. So we have a house now! Yayyyyy But we have no washer... no desks.... no records.... no area book... and currently I'm sleeping on couch cushions that we put on the bedroom floor. We're waiting for more money to get sent to us so that we can start turning this place into a real missionary home.

As for the district... it's GREAT!!! Our district leader is Thai, and he is so good.His name is Elder Say Dan. He isn't necessarily the best DL I've had in terms of leadership, but he's a way good guy and sometimes he speaks to us in English and it's the most hilarious thing in the WORLD. I think at first he was way stressed about having sister in his district so for the first couple nights he made his companion do nightly follow up with us. haha... For district meeting last week he basically just drew a map of Nong Khai on the board, had us talk about our personal studies and was like, "OK. Let's go eat ice cream." I thought he was kidding, but noope! I guess that's what we do every week for District Meeting. We've also got Elder Wheeler who was in my district in Don Muang, and he's training a way awesome kid named Elder Smith. Our district is way boss. :)

As for the area, it's soooo awesome! The Isaan is beautiful! Some neighborhoods remind me of Oregon. I love it! Our house isn't in the city part, it's a little out in the country, but it's only like a 10 minute ride from the church so it's perfect! Our house is right on the river. We get to say good morning to Laos every morning! Elder Say Dan told us "not to swim in the river or the snipers will get you"

We bike EVERY WHERE. I've never ridden a bike more in my life. I'm exhausted. hahahaha Also, I'm getting the biggest thighs. I'm gonna look like those speed ice skaters by the time I'm done here.

At first I was worried about contacting here... because it's such a small town! But we've actually found some people! No one has really stuck.... most of our investigators are this one 10 year old girl that the Elders passed on to us, a former investigator of Sis Maughan's from Udorn, and a girl from English... we're trying to work with some part member families and get recent converts to get more referrals, but we're really hoping that we'll start picking up some solid investigators from our contacting!

Speaking of that former of Sis Maughan's, he got baptized yesterday! It was pretty crazy. The sisters in Udorn called and were like, "Hey Sis Maughan! Brother Roong is going to be in Nong Khai for a couple weeks! You should teach him!" SIs Maughan found Roong in Udorn, but he doesn't live there. He travels around the Isaan selling traditional Thai clothing, and whenever he would go back to Udorn, she would teach him. But he would also go to church in other provinces and get taught there... so when he got to Nong Khai he was like, "Sisters! I want to get baptized!" And we said, "OK!" So he was baptized yesterday! He's awesome. He reminds me of a pirate. hahah Yesterday was pretty much a disaster though. When it got time for the baptismal service I realized..... WE HADN'T FILLED THE BAPTISMAL FONT. Yeah. I've never had to fill a font before! Our Elders always did it for us.... So we post-poned the baptism so that the branch could have branch council while we desperately stuck hoses in the font and filled buckets of water to dump in. Eventually the font was filled, council was finished and Roong was baptized! All was well, but boy did I feel stupid. It won't happen again next week when that girl gets baptized!

Yesterday the Elders told us that there was a big walking street that opens on Saturdays and Sundays, so we decided to go to it last night.... except there was hardly anyone there!!! We decided to go somewhere else, but I decided to talk to this one lady before we left. She was walking along the river with her husband and two daughters. Turns out that they've both been to the church in Udorn but have moved here and want to learn more!!!!!!! The whole family!!!!!!!!!!!! We set up an appointment for this Friday. This is a FAMILY!!!!!!!! It's been my dream to teach a family. I really hope that they will pull through. They are sooo sweet and I can just see them in white at the temple! I'm gonna pray for them every night 'til we meet them. haha

I really do believe that this place was prepared for sisters.... we're finding lots of investigators and lots of members are giving us referrals! Sometimes I feel like, "Okay.... where's the catch? When does it get hard?" Because it just seems too good to be true! Nong Khai is amazing. I love it here! The only set backs are that there are sooo many LA's and it's ridiculously hard to find som taam around here.... we're in the Isaan!!!! Why are there no Isaan food places here??????? Food is such a bother to find. I've been eating at an Islam place because I can't find actual Thai food! Bother.

Well, in other news I learned how to ride my bike with no hands. That's about all I have for this week!

Love you all!

Sister Zaugg