Siam I Am: it's a good day

March 30, 2014

so i don't know how much everyone knows about what us missionaries in thailand actually do. and i don't know how different it is from other missions in the world. so i will elucidate. (i have to try and remember BIG words in english... i'm afraid i will lose them all!)

basically it starts with contacting. we have a mission rule to go contacting for at least 2 hours every day. when sister mullen and i started in KPP (kamphaengphet) - spelled like กำแพงเพชร (you wouldn't believe how long it takes me to find these letters on the keyboard...) - we had NO investigators. only a bunch of RCs of about 2 months. if that. so.... we contacted. all the time. if we didn't have plans... it was a whole day full of... (shudder) contacting. it's actually not that bad. since we really can't go door-to-door... we end up going to places like markets or big C and talk to people as they go in and out of the doors. we get kicked out if we go inside........

so we run around. hey - how are you? do you recognize baptism? yes. that is literally what i say. if they stop... i then say, 'this is a way we wash our sins.' 'do you want to wash your sins?'

i get several responses. one. complete denial of my existence. this one is always fun. because then i throw the last comment out and it seems to hover there in the air as they walk away...

two. giggling. usually happens with a group of teen girls.

three. "i don't have sins." or really? everyone has sins. and through jesus christ you can get rid of them.

four. a person trying to tell me how to get to the church. ugh. i'm blonde and american. not lost!

five. you can speak thai?????

six. occasionally. rarely. almost unbelievably. someone will stop. and talk to me.

seven. even more rare. someone interested in long-ing their bob! (washing their sins)

the focus our mission has had over the past few months is increasing the numbers of baptisms that we have - and finding those people that are "ready". it's crazy. but the even crazier thing is that it works. we are finding people that are ready to be baptized... in a matter of weeks. we met a few of our investigators just a few weeks ago. they would have been baptized yesterday if they had come with us to chiang mai. unfortunately... their moms wouldn't let them come. they were even willing to sneak out... we urged them against that decision. but they are getting baptized this coming weekend!

the problem with going to chiang mai... is that our pday is pretty much toast. we slept in, emailed, studied... and finally got out of the house at 3. lame. our pday (which consisted of me buying a ukulele!) and annoying my companion with that for the rest of the week. i only got a limited number of chords... so the playing... was probably a little monotonous. even though somewhere over the rainbow is a great song... you can only listen to it a million times before it starts to get annoying...

tuesday. english. district meeting. all that fun stuff. more contacting.

wednesday. i almost hesitate to share this experience... because i probably should be less... i don't know. anyway. we had switch offs. and i wasn't excited. not one little itty bit. i thought that it was an excuse to come and judge me and my thai... and i wasn't having it. so i was thoroughly miserable most of tuesday night. i wasn't going to be happy. wednesday morning i realized how childish it was. so i prayed. a lot. just to help me to have a good day.

i didn't expect anything. especially NOT the fantastic day that was in store.

and it wasn't anything super special. it was just great. i loved the sister training leader that i went with, we had a great time, and i learned so much about being myself during contacting and about being fearless as well. (this sister positioned herself by the speed bump and stopped every single car that passed.)

needless to say i had some repenting to do that night. and she said my thai was good. ok. i know i still have some work to do... but i was so good to hear a missionary that is close to finishing tell me i'm doing ok! (elders just don't give compliments like that.........)

she told me something i loved. from a t-shirt she'd seen. my new motto:

IT'S A GOOD DAY TO HAVE A GOOD DAY.

nuf said right?

oh. and we got 21 numbers that day. no big deal.

on thursdays we teach a scripture study class. for our recent converts (since most of them have never read the bible, let alone the book of mormon!)

we were talking about the story of lehi finding the liahona. and how it led them through the wilderness. we were trying to show them that with god, all things are possible! so we had them do a puzzle. all of them figured it out... except for one. when they would get it, they would say something like "i'm smart - like nephi!" poor kid that didn't figure it out... "he's a sam."

hahahaa. i shouldn't laugh. but it was funny.

friday we were supposed to do double the normal amount of contacting. 4 hours. it's not the 4 hours that's hard...... it's the fact that it is 4 hours... in the worst weather of the year. it's miserable. we often treat ourselves with a trip into big c for an ice cream cone from dairy queen.

later that night we were teaching our investigators the plan of salvation. and we had 3 different people stop by the church. it was nuts. we had a lesson going in thai, and a lesson for a couple of ladies from cameroon... one in thai and one in english. it was so strange teaching it all in english again!

saturday was a special day. the day we clean the church. i don't understand where all the dust comes from. but it just...... appears out of nowhere! and we have a mouse in the church somewhere.....

sunday - BAPTISM! not ours... but the elders baptized 3 of their investigators! they were soooooooooo cuuuuuuuuuuuuute! i died.

it was so great.

i love it here. i love this work.

it's crazy.... not the missionary work that i expected... but it is the missionary work that i love!

this picture. makes me laugh. river baptisms.... they are a dangerous, epic endeavor. ;)

ok. this is already too long - but i want to thank everyone for their prayers - we've seen so many miracles this week, i know that we're getting sooooo much heavenly help! we must be stacking up prayers somewhere.... ;)

thank you all! i love you so much!

keep up the good work!!!!!

pictures!!!!!