what. a. week.
so. i'm going to work backwards. otherwise my brain might explode.
yesterday. (was a sunday here)
we had two of our investigators confirmed at church! (the same one who got stabbed the day before his last baptismal date...) they are so stinking cute. last night we had a fireside... which was so amazing. i had to sing a solo. less than amazing. but the pianist made up for it all... so i think that all
those people will still come back to church.
Saturday was crazy as well. we went to go meet the parents of one of our investigators that is 15. so she needs her parents permission to get baptized. apparently they are fairly buddist. and as of yesterday she can get baptized... when she's 18. which is better than last time apparently. (the answer then was never...) we had boat and lipi's baptism. it was so great. lipi got up to bear his testimony and i couldn't understand a single thing he said except for "tin ten" which means "excited". (i can't ever understand him for some reason...) but his smile and the spirit that i felt made up for the lack of understanding. they know it's true. they've changed a lot for the gospel. i came into their story at the very end... after they had stopped smoking, drinking, drinking coffee and tea, started living the law of chastity... and taken out all of his 5 earrings. they changed everything for the gospel. and i am so grateful that i got a chance to be even a little bit involved in their story! they are so great.
so. we have officially been "those sisters" this week. my companion, sister tilley, got sick on Saturday night. she woke up up Monday with a fever. so the official mandate from the powers that be was "let her sleep". i got in trouble for letter her sleep too late... i knew my real orders though. ;)
we got back home on Tuesday night... calling the elders to bring her some gatorade. since there was no way we were going anywhere. they show up at 10:00. yup. someone's going to be late home... they gave her a blessing... and although she didn't get up and start running around... i know it helped. her dad came on tuesday. he was here for business, and normally... family just doesn't show up in thailand. so we got to eat dinner with him. they basically adopted me as family for the night. it was a good homey feeling.
tuesday we went crazy. it was one of those days when all of our plans fell through. we literally had nothing that we could do other than contacting. so we did. and it turned out great! we ended up seeing three of our less actives and having another 7 lessons. don't even know where they came from... but it was a great day.
Thursday we got to meet with our good friend puja. have i told you about her yet? she is from nepal, teaching english to business students at one of the colleges. she came to english to see how we taught english to thai people. and of course... we did what we do best and invited her to come unto christ. and because she's international... we get to teach her! she's awesome. and so spiritual. she just seems to soak in the things that we teach her. it's so great. we had an amazing lesson with her, and felt the spirit so strongly... then we went and got lunch with her afterwards. she's one of those people that i want to be friends with forever. whether or not she wants to get baptized or not. but i want her to soooooooooo bad!!!
we had dinner with the nelson's on Thursday night. i'm really soaking the international stuff up... because i'm probably going to go to the boonies later... where they speak NO english at all. so i'm going to live up eating the american food and speaking english...as much as i possibly can. our investigator called us up at 7 (our appointment was for 7:30) saying that he was already at the church. the problem with bikes and thailand... is that you don't get anywhere fast. it took us another 15 minutes to get to the church. sometimes planning is a blessing... and sometimes planning... is just hopeful thinking.
on the way home from our lesson... i'm cruising along on my bike and... it feels weird. i look down... and my front tire. is flat. like absolutely no air. at all. dead. (or sia cheewid as you say in thai) so we walked about 2 miles home. good thing that it was on one of the busiest streets ever. and good thing i look like a thug. no one would even try to beat me up.
that's one of the funniest things here. people don't have a problem telling you you're fat. or that that you have man-hands. (that happened AGAIN!) the first thing most people ask is "are you an atlethe?" yes... i am an "ATH-lete." they can't say it right. they do give it a good try though.
other things i've learned:
i need to work on staying WITH the peloton... i'm not trying to be in a break away... (i get so focused on beating the wind... i forget to stay close to my companion some times...)
making chocolate chip cookies is difficult when you do not have measuring cups.
you can finish the book of mormon really fast when you read it for an hour every day. you also tend to find it like reading a best-seller. what's going to happen in the next chapter??? is this the one when shiz's head gets chopped off? my favorite!
9/5(c) + 32 = fahrenheit
it still feels like i'm breathing water.
God prepares people to receive his gospel. every single day. in thailand even. even when they are sitting in their shop where they sell coconuts and you drive by and decide to stop and talk to him. he looks at you like you are nuts. you ask him to be baptized. and he says yes. (stunned look at companion - this actually happens???) alright then.
it's a great work.
i am so lucky to be here and to be able to serve.
keep up all the good work wherever you are called!!!
love you all!
sister (jess) ellis
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