weird.
some updates and thoughts on life:
at district meeting on tuesday, elder lingard talked to us about our "pattern of prayer". this is also the same district leader that calls us for follow up at nights and tells us about his attempt at "postitive thinking"... he said "it was the worst day of my life!" but that's a whole other story... ;) so. about the power of prayer. we talked about how we are doing in our ability to prayer. we read a quote from a general authority about his experience counselling those people who came to him with problems. he said that he would begin by asking them about their "pattern of prayer". most of the time they would respond... well... maybe. or kind of. and then say, "but about my problem." as they were seeking a solution.
then it occurred to me. the brilliance of the leaders question. it should and always should go back to our prayers. if our prayers slack... the work, our happiness, our ability to do the things that god wants us to do... decreases. if we want to fix our problems.... PRAY! we can't wait for someone else to fix it for us. it totally depends on our relationship with god. and nothing else will be able to take the place of that.
other things that we've been doing: took a loooooooooooong ride in a bus to go and find an investigator... finally taught her. (had a not-so-secret desire that she'd get baptized this sunday... but... but not yet.) hour there. hour back. she's so awesome... she just wants to wait until school is done. agh. i very must greatly terribly dislike school. i'm glad i never have to deal with it again... ;)
a cool experience of this week was realizing how much a little time is worth. we called a recent convert and asked if we could meet with her. (since i've moved back i haven't had the opportunity to meet with her.) but we decided we were going to try and see ALL of the recent converts here. so we met with her after she got done with work. we didn't talk about too much. we read out of 2 nephi somewhere... i don't even remember. but she told me about her family. about her conversion. about her life. her son. then she went home.
but the cool part of this story - after just a 30 minute talk, i made a friend. i didn't know her before this week... but seeing her one saturday, and sunday... she walked up to me and gave me the biggest hug! and i knew in the moment what this work is about. it's about THAT woman. it's about every single one of us. coming to know that we are important. that someone cares. and that most importantly, GOD cares. he is aware of every single person on this earth. and he will help them to find happiness and joy and peace in this life - as long as they are looking for it.
now on to thanksgiving. (now comes the story of the tiny chicken...)
thailand... doesn't have turkeys. and IF it does... they are WAYYYYY too expensive for a verrrrry poor missionaries. (it would take up a significant chunk of my monthly fund.)
so we opted for chicken. (our real thanksgiving dinner was to be saturday.) but we still wanted to have our own thanksgiving on thursday. so we invited a few recent converts. a few less actives. and we had thanksgiving! those cute little elders... showed up with a chicken was was soooo small. so we ended up ordering kfc. (they deliver! thailand. so great.) so all...was well. we had a great experience teaching the thai people about our crazy american traditions of eating food until we are stuffed... i still don't know if they understand.
saturday we had the CHRISTMAS PARTY! take 2 for me. i was here last year when they had this program here too. they don't mess around with this program. they plan this thing for MONTHS before. and it always turns out fabulous. i started crying during the first song... oops. it was just really sweet to feel the spirit of all of the people that came to remember and think about our savior, jesus christ.
it's amazing. i'm so excited. i love christmas. but more than that - i love CHRIST!
i hope you all keep that spirit with you during this season.
he is the reason. he IS the season.
i love you all!
sister ellis
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