Finding Joy in the Journey

Well, hello again everyone! It seems weird to be emailing again so soon, but A LOT happened this last week. But let's first start with the most exciting part: BAPTISMS!!!!

In total there were 7 people who were baptized. Sis Stewart and I had 3, Adams and Tilley had 3, and the ZL's had 1. There were SO many miracles involved with each of these beautiful people.

We had Oi, Jin, and Tom. Oi, the woman next to Sis Stewart in the picture walked into church last Sunday. She said she was Christian already and had come to the church 10+ years ago. The other sisters asked if she wanted to be baptized but she said "no". But then after the baptism, Sis Stewart asked her (not knowing that she'd been asked already) again, and Oi said "yes"! So we started teaching her. Turns out that she's kind of strange... she came to church one day acting way weird. She said that she had a demon of some kind for many years and that she felt empty and sad and that she needed help. She would shudder and make weird noises and burp (sounds weird but it was pretty creepy). We had some members give her a priesthood blessing, and the next day she said she felt MUCH better and finally felt like herself and could see the light. The other weird thing about her was that she said that she knew she was baptized, but she wasn't sure which church she had been baptized into. She also already knew all of the discussions... like... she taught us the Plan of Salvation and the law of tithing perfectly. It was kinda weird. We looked her up in the records to see if she was baptized, but she hadn't... so she must have been an investigator a looooooong time ago and somehow still remembered it all! Crazy. She was SO ready to be baptized. She gets the scriptures and LOVES them. She's so sweet! I'm so happy for her. She really wanted this. :)

This is the chasm river thing that Jin lives by.

Jin was a miracle in and of herself. She is the woman who gave the prayer that blew me away. She went to church on Sunday and then went out of town and we couldn't get a hold of her for a loooong time! We were kind of freaking out, so Thursday afternoon we dropped by the noodle shop that we found her at. The owner pointed us across this chasm... river... thing... to a grouping of houses where we found her! She was wearing the white Buddhist clothing and looked reallllllyyyyy sad. Apparently the reason we couldn't get a hold of her was because she had gone to a wad to meditate and try to ease her pain (she has family problems).... but obviously it hadn't helped. She looked a million times worse than how we found her. We asked if she'd prayed and she said 'no'. We were kinda just standing outside of her house awkwardly, but we weren't just going to leave her! We asked if we could pray with her, and she lead us to this courtyard behind her house and we sat on this shabby little table thing and prayed. I prayed SO hard for her and that she would feel God's love. When we opened our eyes she was quietly sobbing and we kind of just sat in silence for a while. Before we left I asked if I could give her a hug and she just fell into my arms and sobbed. We taught her everything the next day and she was baptized! She just seems so full of hope and light now! I will never forget Jin. That experience at her home just made me remember the reason why I'm here in Thailand doing the things I do. The Atonement heals!

Tom is awesome! He was so proud of himself all day. He smoked his last cigarette that morning and was so happy!!

We were long planning and somehow
a baby ended up in my planner......

I'm so proud of ALL of them. :))))) Sis Tilley's and Adams' investigators had to go through a lot to be baptized. They're all awesome. Bowing was cute, because TIlley and Adams are OBSESSED with lipstick and are always waltzing into the church touting new bags of lipstick that they'd just bought, and they found this little round woman who is always wearing BRIGHT pink lipstick. hahaha I love it!

OK So on to the less-important stuff.

There's the keys.

Monday an hour before P-Day ended, we realized that SIs Stewart had LOCKED us out of our house. We called the handy-dandy lock-pick man, and in the mean time tried to see if we could break in somehow. We discovered an open window in the back- but the problem was that all Thai windows have bars over them. 

We almost died laughing watching Sister Stewart 
try to get the keys with that broom

BUT we could see the keys on the table maybe 5 feet away from the table, so we broke into the Elders' house and stole their broom and tried to make a reaching contraption to try and grab the keys from off the table. In the end we just knocked a glass off the table and shattered it, knocked the keys even further away onto the floor, and looked like a bunch of loonies. The man came and unlocked the house and we had a good laugh.... but we're not planning on doing it again.

This is what I walked into after
he unlocked the door

NEVER AGAIN SISTER STEWART

 Siiiiiinging in the rain!

Tuesday afternoon we were contacting at Central, the big mall in town and were about ready to head out to meet Oi at the church. We ran into Elder Burke and Tanawat, and they pointed outside. It was POURING. Like... you couldn't really see outside at all it was pouring so hard. And it was windy, too! The rain was falling sideways! I was thinking, "well...... I guess we'll just hang out 'til it stops" and then Tanawat was like, "Hey, your investigator was at the church when we left." And so Sis Stewart took that as an excuse to run into the rain and ride back to the church. OH I WANTED TO KILL HER I literally could not see in the rain! The wind almost knocked me off of my bike twice! We showed up at the church soaked. And guess what, the investigator there wasn't even OURS. Ohhhhh I was ticked in an I'm-not-really-man-but-boy-I'm-wet kind of way.

Hip-hip for companionship unity rings!

I went to Nong Khai for switch offs on Friday. I went for a walk down memory lane with Sis Downs. That was soooooo long ago that we were companions! It was fun. The best part was that I got to teach an RC lesson to Tii. Have I ever mentioned how OBSESSED I am with this kid?

Taylor Swift is coming to Bangkok!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Uh... what? *cough* How did this get in here?

So yeah! This week has just been full of crazy 4-sister-house adventures and awesome investigators. I got in another motorcycle accident. It was a hit and run, but somehow I landed on my feet so all is well. 

I've been trying to open my eyes up to the beauty
that's all around in Thailand
so here are some pictures I've taken!

The work is good and Udorn is FUN. We played ultimate frisbee this morning with our elders for exercise. Looove it! The other morning Sis Stewart was listening to "Finding Joy in the Journey" by President Monson and it made me remember to enjoy just how good it is here. 

"This is our one and only chance at mortal life--here and now. The longer we live, the greater is our realization that it is brief. Opportunities come, and then they are gone. I believe that among the greatest lessons we are to learn in this short sojourn upon the earth are lessons that help us distinguish between what is important and what is not. I plead with you not to let those most important things pass you by as you plan for that illusive and nonexistent future when you will have time to do all that you want to do. Instead, find joy in the journey--now."

Sister Zaugg