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

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

One month in Thailand!

Wait- what? I've been here for almost a whole month? Sooo much has happened! Wow. I love Thailand!! I'm so grateful for the chance to be here for another 13 months!!

So this week.. Where do I even start?

Happy Birthday to me!! It flooded

I guess we'll start with my birthday! So I turned yisip!!! Crazy thing about it- I will never be 20. I will only be yisip, because everyone who asks me how old I am will ask in Thai! hahahaha Weeeiiird. My birthday was great! It was the day before zone conference so we had interviews with Pres Senior. I really enjoyed having my interview. He helped me feel less worried and stressed out, and helped me see that I'm doing just what the Lord wants me to and to be happy!! He told me to keep working, and the miracles will come. Also, Sis Sahagun, one of my Phii Thais from the MTC is in my district, and she made me chocolate cake. Super fun! Also, all the Elders in my zone found out I'm a gamer so they spent a half hour just quizzing me on my game knowledge. hahah I think I passed. Every one was so thoughtful of me! One of my students at English made a clay rose, one of my investigators gave me donuts! They were all so nice!! Definitely felt the love. I also bought myself a piece of cake, which I thoroughly enjoyed. :)

My mini birthday celebration.

The view from Sis Wiganda's apartment.

So Zone Conference! AWESOME!!! I definitely needed some spiritual nourishment. Learned a lot about desire and diligence. Also found out that we were going on companion exchanges and having a full day of dan jonesing! WHOA. My new companion for the next day and a half was sister Wiganda. Every time I told people that, they would just give me a weird look and say, "Ooooohhhhh...." I was super freaked out!! And then I met her and I understood. She's CRAZY!!!! She's a khon Thai, but she's absolutely nuts. It didn't help that she kept looking at me and saying, "You're going to die." I was a little nervous. haha 

For lunch at zone conference we had subway, ice cream, cereal and chocolate fondue. Weird. But amazing!! After Zone Conference I reluctantly said good bye to Sister Reedy and headed to Srinekarin with Sis Wiganda, Sis Sahagun and Sis Itri. It's a cool area! I like it. They don't ride bikes there, just songthaws and taxis. Anyway. I ended up having a great experience. Sis Wiganda is nuts, but she works hard. We actually didn't have a full day of street contacting, the AP's allowed her to teach that day. We taught 3 lessons to investigators and one to recent converts! It was really nice watching her style of teaching. I got to contribute, too! I think I said relevant things. 

Our random temple display we used to lure people in
 when we had to spend a whole day contacting. haha
Please observe the huge storm that was just about to break
 and Tesco Lotus in the background.

When it came time for street contacting, Sis Itri had the idea to take this giant styrofoam cut out of the SLC temple and take it to the business area of Srinekarin and proselyte there. We somehow fit it onto a song thaw and found a place to set up.

Cool clouds!!

I was pretty scared about this, because I'm terrified of street contacting! I don't know how to talk to people!! Especially when I'm doing it in Thai!! But I prayed for the strength to open my mouth, and even though I wasn't perfect, the Lord placed people in my path to hear my message. I got three phone numbers for the Srinekarin sisters!

I think the biggest thing I learned was that I can have fun AND be a missionary at the same time!! Before I was so stressed and impatient with myself. But being with Sis Wiganda taught me that the Lord wants this to be a happy experience, and I can't be a good missionary if I'm way stressed and unhappy all the time. So I've really changed my view on things, I figure, I'm not going to be perfect RIGHT NOW. But I can be if I take baby steps every day. That way I can be happy and do hard work! 

Sis Reedy and I taking cover in a phone booth,
waiting for a taxi to come in poooouring rain.

Even though I was only gone from Sis Reedy for a day and a half, it felt really weird getting back to Don Muang! haha But we got straight back to work with new goals and attitudes and it's been awesome!!! We stop and talk to more people than before. Instead of relying on our English pass alongs we rely on the ones that have a picture of Christ and our own testimonies. It has been much more fulfilling that way! Yeah, we get rejected way more, but we have met some great people that way too! Like this one family by one of our investigator's house! We met them 'cause one of the little girls came out to feed her fish and Sis Reedy started talking to her, eventually the whole family came out and invited us in. We shared The Family: A Proclamation to the World with them and they said we can come back! Yayyyy

Riding a songthaw in the raiiiiiiin!

Our street floods every other day.

Also, we have a new dater! Her name is Ew! She is the mom of Donut and Cheetoh! One time we were teaching the house lady and she came. I think I talked about this already. Anyway. We taught a lesson at her house, and she was SUPER into it. She really wants to learn about God. She reads all the pamphlets we give her, and she even took the house lady's Book of Mormon and has already ready 17 chapters. In that first lesson we invited her to be baptised and she accepted! Yayy!! June 30th!!

Sis Mali is still struggling to come to church. She has a large debt to pay. We've been really wondering what to do for her. We called Pres Senior and he said, if she has money problems, teach her the law of tithing. It's true! It's weird to think that if you give up money to the Lord, you end up with more money in the long run, but when does the Lord ever weird in forward ways? So we're going to teach that and pray that she will be receptive to it!

Here is a dog just hanging out in the middle of the street....
Just staring.

We have a new investigator named Ran. He's 13 years old. He just walked into church yesterday! He's super sweet and diligent!!

The election is overrrrrrr!!!! FINALLY!!! So happy.

Sister Muk's baptism!!! We love her so much.
 She's gonna be so amazing.

OH! We had a baptism this weekend. Her name is Muk. She was the Elder's investigator. She was pretty worried and nervous, but after the baptism she was so relieved and happy and peaceful. I love her so much!!! All of us Don Muang sisters cried. haha

Also, there is a rockstar in my branch! He has a single out! It's really awesome. When we went to teach Ew his song was playing on the radio. You can look him up on Youtube!

Look up: "Ake Surachet Thailand Tee Ruk"

The food ran we usually eat at

Well, that's kind of it for today! I'm much happier than before, and I've been seeing a lot of miracles already! Hopefully we'll see some more in the near future. 

Love ya!!

Sis Zaugg