this week. wow. this week has been a bit of an interesting one.
i am so very blessed this week... with a lot of learning, a lot of humbling... a lot of joy, stress... and smiles.
sister brown and i decided that we were going to do what president asked us to do: become "all-purpose" missionaries. still trying to work out the exact recipe for that one... i'll let you know when this french baker (oh wait - that's whitney... aka sister ellis #2! shout out for the soon to be missionary!!!) figures it out. but it seems like i bumble into a lot of good things. god seems to lay the path out before me as i do what i feel like he wants me to. i seek the inspiration, i try to follow the spirit... but i feel like he knows how little i know and how hard i am trying. and he helps to make up the difference.
you ready for a story? i love stories!!! ;)
we decided that we were going to find some less actives this week. didn't know a thing about finding them... other than walking around... asking people if they knew where this street was, were this house was... yada yada yada. well. we knew that our houses were around the mall, so we planned to eat lunch there, then to head out and find our people! but stuff happens. (you know how that goes...) we walked out of our house. talked to some people. got to the mall later than planned (at which point we were getting pretty dang hungry)... and as we were waiting for sister browns blizzard at dairy queen, we see a member frantically waving at us from next to the pond that's right smack dab in the middle of the mall. so we ran over to talk to her. i love this member so much. she's the one that prepares all of the baptism suits for sundays. we started talking to her, and she introduced us to her husband. (who i've never seen before.) turns out... he's a less active. she invited us over this coming week to meet her at her house. (i sense a scheme coming on here... ) and then she told us that there is a less active woman that lives down the street from her.
wow.
essentially... all the time that we had planned to go find "our LA" was gone. we had to sprint back to the church for a lesson. but... i was taught a very valuable lesson. god knows who he wants in his church. he knows the people that need the help. and if our intentions are good. if we are doing what we need to be doing.... he fills in the gaps. he gives us success. the thing that has astonished me more than anything is the amount of blessings that i seem to receive... for not doing more than getting up at 6:30 in the morning.
i went on a switch off this week with sister jax. i love that girl! she is like me... in din deng. only better. (i don't know if she feels the same way... but i'll tell it to the whole world! she can retract it later if it is untrue...) it was really fun to change it up. it always is. it was a wonderful day of learning. of remember what it was that i love about missionary work. you see... because i had been stressin. a lot. trying to figure out what it was about missionary work (the BEST work in the whole world) that i wasn't completely and utterly happy with. that was frustrating me. the fact that i wasn't completely loving everything.
but i found answers. in the scriptures. through prayer. and through (as usual) perfectly timed companion exchanges. it was wonderfully revelatory! and i came back home so excited for the work. so excited for the next day. no matter what was going to happen.
i am so grateful for a heavenly father that loves me so much. and i think it gives me a little bit of a glimpse at how much he loves each one of you!
just a little one.
another crazy lesson we had was with mama. we've been meeting with her for a while, but it was always more of an "acquaintance" level. she told us that she wanted to learn english... we told her the only way we could teach her was to teach her the gospel too. so we planned a lesson. tried to use as many english things in it as we could... but about halfway through the lesson... english was forgotten. and the real concerns came out. i feel like there was a lot of interest in the gospel hiding under the disguise of learning english. i could feel it in her telling us about her problems. she wants something more to believe in, something to give more meaning to her life instead of "rice in the morning, rice at night." (a saying here) it means there is never any change. and i realized! wow! this gospel - it gives people a meaning to their lives. sometimes... we pretty much have to work every single day. but how is it then that i am the happiest i have ever been? i still haven't figured that one out.
all i know is that it is true.
saturday we decided to be total americans. and make somtam.
while contacting.
it was hilarious!
all the thai people were walking around, laughing at the "farangs" making somtam. you know it!
lots of pictures taken. i'm a star! not really... just a spectacle. and i'm so happy doing it.
the thing i learned - we look different. whether or not we're a white person in thailand making somtam, or a member of the church keeping the law of chastity when the rest of the world says it's ok to do otherwise... we look different. and people will stop and ask why. and then we point them to jesus christ and tell them why.
i love you all!
keep pointing to jesus!
sister ellis
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| fhe in thailand. |
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| this is nothing like playing the piano!!!! |
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