so what happens when you are halfway across the world for general conference?
you watch it a week late. in a room with no air conditioning... full of a bunch of recent converts... that may or may not really understand what it is or why they are there (it was almost comparable to the figeti-ness of their first fast sunday) with the thai version blasting on the TC. (YES! we ACTUALLY have a TV.) and the 4 of us missionaries crowded around a laptop listening to the english. the english version may or may not have cut out halfway through the saturday afternoon session. hello language study!
so. quick recap of my week (i've been hearing reports that weeks back at home have been crazy busy as well!)
monday. sukothai. way too much fun to even express. time with all my favorite missionaries, seeing old ruins... missionary work can't get a whole lot better here.
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| sukothai = "old ruins" |
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| me and sista pete |
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| cool little statues in a cool tree by a cool wat |
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| some random wat by our house |
and the hour and a half song-tow ride... will never be forgotten. (i want you all to imagine 10+ people crammed into the back of a pick-up truck with some kind of cage welded to the top. yes it has seats... but they are not backside-friendly... and yet it is the preferred method of travel here in thailand. go figure. i would PAY for air conditioning...)
tuesday. we had district meeting. we talked about our expectations in coming on a mission. me: learn the language like a boss, speak like a native, and have super crazy amounts of scriptural knowledge. i took a few minutes to reflect on that. i don't speak very well. i still got lots of weird looks when i'm speaking... and i know the scriptures ok. but then he told us to think about the things that we have REALLY learned on our missions so far. that was a better thing to think about. i learned that i have learned to LOVE far more people than i ever thought possible. and that i have learned SO MUCH about service. and how selfish i was before. so our commitment for district meeting: to keep trying to reach our initial goal. and to DOUBLE on the real things that we have been learning. if i had to say that is where my priorities should have been in the beginning... i'd be right. and it just proves to me AGAIN that the lord (and not me) is in charge.
wednesday. we started visiting teaching. the weird thing about starting a unit (we aren't even a branch yet... but guess what? we're officially recognized by the church now! woot woot!!!) is that you have to start... everything. it's easy when you just have to teach a young woman what visiting teaching is... but it's weird when they just learned about joseph smith 2 months ago. it puts everything into perspective a little bit. about the importance of loving those around us. about helping each other build up the ward/branch/UNIT... wherever we are in the world. we all have something to give.
thursday. we taught a new investigator. the shirtless man. we didn't know if he was a creep or not... but apparently he actually DID try to come to our first appointment... but his phone was 40 minutes late. so he showed up... and we were teaching english. and he was afraid to come in. lucky that we decided to do the wander-style of contacting. or we probably wouldn't have met him that second time. it's soooo not me in charge.
we decided to start a piano class here. (well... my companion is teaching... i'm.... observing.) we made a bunch of cute little pianos (LITTLE is the right word) for everyone to practice on, since we only have one piano in the whole church. probably in all of kamphaengphet. and we taught them a song. so we had four people at a time squished onto the piano, learning how to play. hopefully a little more music theory will help them to be able to read some music... so i am not conducting for the rest of my life. that would be nice.
after piano class we had scripture study. our mission started it as a way to help all of the RCs that we've had finish the book of mormon within this next year. we decided to read about enos this week. teaching them what it really means to want an answer. so we read the story, and did an activity on "how bad to you want it?" we had everyone start by standing on one leg. i should have known thai people would have great balance. not as quick as i thought. then we had 2 people put their feet in ice cold water, to see who could stand it the longest. they.... never took them out. their feet were ice cold when they took them out later... guess they wanted it pretty bad? and finally... the best/worst part of the night. (just going to preface this... was NOT my idea.) we decided to have everyone chug a 1.5 liter bottle of water. ummmmm.... they did it. but everyone also ran out of the church to throw it all up as soon as they were done. ha. ha. um.... probably not an activity we will be using in the future. at least not with RCs, whose testimonies are still young saplings... ;)
friday. i have to admit i'm not really a believer in asking contacts for referrals. it's just.... not a thing. they reject you, then they decide that they don't want to listen any more, so they just keep shaking their head and waving their hands.......... usually it doesn't work. but a few weeks ago, someone was like - hey! my daughter likes this stuff. ok..... can we have her number? sure. we got the number. called...... and she was in bangkok. she said she'd give us a call when she got back. suuuuuuuuuuuuuure.
but she called. last week. said she had just pulled in... and that she wanted to meet us on friday. welllllll...... i can't really say exactly how i felt at the moment. i think i probably blacked out for a second. but we went through ALL the commandments. everything. she's good. and wants it. wants to be baptized. again and again. i'm not in charge here.
CONFERENCE! i know this is old news to the rest of the world - but it was AMAZING!
after conference on saturday we went out to eat dinner with the crazy cop. at a "steak house"... it was funning realizing that a "hi-so" place here.... probably wouldn't pass a health inspection back home. i want you to imagine not a texas roadhouse... but an apartment with a kitchen in the back. playing the titanic theme song, george strait, and "she don't know she's beautiful"... i was in heaven. and the chicken "steak" was pretty tasty too. haven't died yet... so i think it's ok.
the ONLY problem with conference weekend in april... is that it falls on one of the biggest "holidays" of the whole year. songkran. so.... we didn't tell them they couldn't play... we just told them not to invite the missionaries to play on sunday.
but guess who gets to go play today???????
pretty excited.
this weeks mormon message trivia (i spent a lot of time of this one...):
"help build robots... and stuff."
i just love this work so much! even in despite of the heat, the rain (yes, we have had that too this week), the smells, the weird creepers... it is the Lord's work, and it is such a blessing that we all have to take a part in it!
3 nephi 5:13 behold, i am a disciple of jesus christ, the son of god. i have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life.
i was amazed at the answers that i got from this conference... even if they did come the conference AFTER the one that i was praying for. we are disciples of jesus christ. we have the opportunity to share the things that we know and the happiness that we feel with the whole world. and if we have courage, he will make us into the best disciples, into the peters and johns... the people that are able to work miracles.
i love it so much.
and i love all of you!
i hope this week (hey! next week is easter! eat some candy for me k? they don't even know what easter is here....) finds you all well, and that you will take a few minutes to remember the reason that this life here is happening, and the hope that we all have in eternal life.
it's good stuff.
loves!
sister ellis
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