Hey everyone!! How's it going? This week was crazy...as usual.
At the beginning of this week, Sister Lam and I received a note in our gate written in broken English, telling us to go visit a member of the church from the states in the Chiang Mai Ram hospital. We had no idea who put the note in our gate, or where this hospital was, so we just headed to our usual district meeting. After district meeting, we were going to go inviting in one of the malls. On our way there, we pass none other than the Chiang Mai Ram Hospital. So,of course, we go in and hunt the girl down. She'd just had her appendix out, and seemed to be doing fine. It also turns out she wasn't a member of the church, but had a lot of Mormon friends. She was so happy to have us visit her, as she was traveling alone when it happened. It was seriously a miracle to be able to find that hospital...and to befriend her. I hope she will find the gospel when she returns home to the US!
Tuesday night we took a bus back to Bangkok, as the Zone Leaders and Sis Lam had a meeting with Pres Senior. We spent 9 hours on that bus, during which Sis Lam was bitten by a ton of mosquitoes. Her lip and face swelled up so much that we had to go to the hospital in Bangkok to get her a shot so she wouldn't get some crazy disease. After that, we went to the meeting and then immediately turned around and went back to the bus station. We had to go to P-Loog, one of the other areas in the zone, so that they could do training with some missionaries there. We then spent another 7 hours on this really gross bus infested with cockroaches...it also had Thai soap operas blaring on the screens. It was a really interesting experience to say the least. We got to P-Loog at like 2 am and made our way to the Sister's house to sleep. We were so tired and they didn't have any more beds, so we literally just slept on the floor. The next day they did some training... a bit of a switch off- and then we were back on the bus (another 9 hours) to Chiang Mai. We finally arrived back home to Chiang Mai at like 3 am. The bus driver had to wake me, Sis Lam, and The Zone Leaders up, but he waited for so long that everyone was off the bus before he woke us. Elder Black had a funny comment on the situation, saying that the bus driver was probably thinking, "Oh look what we have here, there is a Chinese girl, a white girl, a quarter Thai guy, and a half Chinese guy all in fancy clothes....possibly all dead?" hahaha...It was so funny. Thailand is seriously always an adventure.
The main thing I learned from this whole experience is that, "A day without a shower in Thailand, is like a year without a shower in America." -me
Seriously though, we were all so gross, as we had slept 3 nights on buses, without showering, and had only eaten 7-11 food. Good times. It was actually pretty fun.
Anyways, when we got back to Chiang Mai, we were unsure if we would be able to get balanced, as we had been away for most of the week, but we saw miracles and were able to get our work balanced!
On one of the switch-offs with another sister in the zone this week, we went to the mall to invite. We invited some lady who was talking on her phone. She put the phone down shocked, saying she had just broken an appointment with some missionaries in Bangkok because she wanted to go shopping. She saw us and said she felt the spirit, and as such agreed to meet with us right then and there, and went to church yesterday!
At church one of our daters still said she hasn't received an answer that this is all true, but she keeps coming every week because said says she feels so good at church. I know she feels that it is true, but she just isn't ready to act on it yet. However, this week she brought a friend and her friend accepted a date for baptism the second week in April! Thrilled, her friend told us, "this is exactly what I have been looking for!" It was so cool. Sister Ooy didn't end up getting baptized this Sunday, as she started a new job, but we are hoping that we can meet with her this week so she can be baptized next Sunday! I really hope she has time.
On Sunday I also saw Sister Ellis one last time before she heads back to Idaho! Her and Sis Lam taught one of our investigators together, while I went on a switchoff with a member to teach the "restoration of the gospel" to another investigator. I was super scared as I had never taught that particular lesson alone. I prayed that I would be able to know what to say to help our investigator. The beginning of the lesson was a little rough, but as I was able to clearly testify in Thai about how the gospel blesses families, and how each point of the restoration can help families, I knew that Heavenly Father had helped me!
Sorry for the lengthiness of this email, a ton happened this week! I just want to close with a quote that struck me this week by Anthony D. Perkins, "You will experience greater joy in life as you eradicate adult onset pessimism and substitute childlike optimism." I know we must choose to be happy, no matter how crazy or stressful the circumstances may be. There is fun to be had every single day, and if we pray to see miracles and the Lord's hand in our lives- we will recognize it, and with that our perspective on everything will change.
Love,
Sis Rem
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