oh what a wonderful week to write about! hopefully i can make it somewhat entertaining...
so. yesterday was my birthday! if you forgot... you have time to repent, since it is still technically my birthday on that side of the world...
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| my birthday cake (from a member) tasted like old bread covered in butter. and dowsed in sugar. yummmmm. it's the thought that counts right? |
i can't think of a better way i would have spent this birthday, or a single thing i would have changed. from being able to listen to the women's session of general conference (we're a week behind here...)
to a BAPTISM! of a wonderful couple of investigators. their names are james and บิว (sounds like biew) ages 18 and 19. they are also now best friends with all of our cute little RCs. i think that was the biggest miracle of all. to have them so completely accepted into the ward. makes the change... so much easier. i remember kind of sarcastically/flippantly saying that a baptism on my birthday would be the best present ever. who knew that heavenly father actually gave presents on birthdays too? that was a nice surprise...
oh. and brother sutep (our unit leader) breaking out into an opera-esque solo at the end of the thai version of "happy birthday" woah. won't experience that one again. for sure!
we spent the rest of the day doing pretty regular missionary stuff. eating with the members. baptizing people. (they were both baptized by RCs in the ward that have been members for about 3 months. so cool!) pepsi said that he was going to go home and practice baptizing with a teddy bear... (as you can probably guess... it took a couple of tries....)
i invited a christian guy to come to church. it's always weird when you find one of those. "i'm christian already! oh sweet! you wanna come to church with us? and have you been baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of god? that one usually gets us some good looks.
then we came home and guess who had a surprise birthday party on the roof? it was actually a surprise... despite my companions protestations that "i'm always there!" well sorry... i was just trying to follow the white handbook! ;) it was probably a little my fault... i kept saying i was going to take a shower at night... but then always felt too lazy. he. he. he. next time? the look she gave me was priceless.
this week was just filled with all of those little moments that make life grand. like when we told our invesigators that we were going to clean the church... and they volunteered to stay and help. and while we were just sitting at the church calling all the people in our planners to tell them to come to church... we had a bunch of random people walk in and ask us about when we taught. i'll take walk-ins any day! even if they think that it's an office and not a church...
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| the church. |
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| the church parking lot. |
our investigators being nervous for their interviews. passing. being so excited for their baptisms. me almost dying because they were late for church...
buses in thailand. ALWAYS an experience. whether it's a VIP bus to chiang mai... or the school bus pack from zone training in pitsanulok.... (you know... the one that floorboards are missing and you can see the road moving underneath the bus?) always fun.
in zone training we talked about the miracles that are happening here.
this month (march) was one of the first months that a country in south-east asia got over 200 baptisms! it was awesome! and they keep building.
they also talked about finding joy in this work. because sometimes... during inviting... you feel like a robot. it's easier than feeling like a human sometimes. because being rejected is hard. i actually think i've now been rejected more times than i was ever rejected by boys...
but you can always find joy. in the fact that i can now ride without hands on my bike...
when it rains... and all other thai people run for cover... there's the tall blonde farang standing there in the middle of the street.
i'm always an oddity here. and no matter how long i stay here... i don't get any less strange to these people. one day i'm going to wake up and think i am thai... then look in the mirror and be shocked that there's a white girl looking back at me.
if there is one thing that i've seen over these last few months... is that baptism... and the gift of the holy ghost... empower us. not just when we receive them when we are eight... or for a few months after converts get baptized. they change us for the rest of our lives. i've watched people as they are baptized, and their growth... just accelerates. a member that was a shy, awkward kid comes to church and asks us if he can have a book of mormon to give to his friend. the gospel changes us. it makes us into fearless, strong, capable people. we really can do all things through christ. he gives us the power that we need to do his work. on a mission in the field or throughout the missions of our lives. it doesn't matter where we are.
oh. one last thing. mormon message trivia anyone? i will eat a chicken foot if anyone can get this one: "filter out the static" and hint: "glitzy"
love you!
sister ellis
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