A Call to redoubled diligence

i keep wanting to send "good letters"... and i realize that i am running out of things to say. 

still have miracles.

still working.

still tired? (yep. it's totally a thing.)

nothing really new has happened since last week... since i sent my email AFTER the adventure. this week has just consisted of a trip to bangkok (for mlc - night travel on a bus, meeting, more bussing to plok, training, more travel home...) essentially it means NO sleep for a week. is it weird that i find that fun? who needs sleep anyways??? 

oh. just wanted to add a thought. spent all night on the bus listening to the wonderful man in front of me snore. how would you like to be that guy? the one that everyone else on the bus hates... but i think he got a decent nights sleep... good for him. 

this week president encouraged us to testify more. to find a way to testify to EVERYONE. so we made a list of all of the people that we talk to. from investigators, members, family, friends, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, people on the street, former investigators, less active members, cashiers, bus attendants, ladies selling omlettes on the side of the street..... i think my list is a little more inclusive....... 

we see SO many people every day. do i testify to most of them? probably not. but we have been trying to change that. to find a way to find something in what they say that we can link back to the gospel. because it is always there! so whether it is a teaching situation, talking with a member after church, meeting someone on the street, getting my coco ban (aka chocolate smoothie... i need to go on a diet...) or whatever other humdrum day-to-day business we have... we can always find a way to talk about what we know! of course it's awkward. i don't think i've lived a day in the past 18 months that wasn't... but is it worth it? yes. 

twice this last week we've run into members. it's funny. i don't think i've really ever been in an area where people are like "hey, it's the missionaries!" it's happened TWICE this week. which i find funny. it's funny to think of what we must look like. two REALLY tall white girls... that don't look like tourists. with a name tag and some really big smiles. sometimes riding bikes. a little bit of an odd sight. talking to everyone. with (i will say so myself) really good thai for two white girls.

but more importantly than our thai... is what we look like to everyone else. i kept thinking this week, "if you don't stand out, you aren't doing something right." that if we just looked like two more tourists... there wouldn't be any point to having us up here. there is a reason we don't wear sabay pants and tank tops. it's so that when people look at us they can think - wow! that person isn't just running around here for two weeks. they mean BUSINESS. (or religion? ha.) i know that it is more than what we wear though. it's everything about us. and the more that we portray what we believe through... everything... people will see a difference.  

one of my favorite things about the training for this week was the "call to redoubled diligence"
it comes from d&c 127:4
And again, verily thus saith the Lord: Let the work of my temple, and all the works which I have appointed unto you, be continued on and not cease; and let your diligence, and your perseverance, and patience, and your works be redoubled, and you shall in nowise lose your reward, saith the Lord of Hosts. And if they persecute you, so persecuted they the prophets and righteous men that were before you. For all this there is a reward in heaven.

what i loved about this scripture was this: he didn't say that we had to get double the baptism, or double the results of what we are doing... instead he simply asks us to redouble our diligence, our perseverance, our patience, and our works. 

it isn't a matter of the end result. as long as we are working hard, god will work through us to make "his righteous purposes" come to pass. that's it. that's all that matters. 

life is good! 

ging is getting baptized next week! (she finally got permission from her parents!!!!!) 

pray that we'll find a family to teach. (that's one of our goals for this transfer.) 

i love you all!!!

ps. they had a "flower festival" here in chiang mai. it was a photo-taking extravaganza! 

i love asia.