Monday, February 22, 2016

"When We Keep The Commandments We Are So Happy" - A Visit From Elder Stevenson (and giant snakes)

Hey everyone! How's it going? 

First of all MyLdsMail was being weird last week, so a lot of you didn't get my emails. Know that I still love you, and hope it works this week!

This week was busy! We worked really hard, which is always good. 

The week started off by Sister Parin and I going to hold giant snakes at a snake farm... It was fun, but really gross too.  I will send pics, they are super hilar! There was also this one girl who was watching the show who was really scared of snakes so she kept screaming....which was kinda funny. 

It was also Sister Parins Birthday this week! We celebrated by going to grill some meat/seafood at this grill place she likes. (Sorry Mom, I still didn't eat the seafood :) We also put some Birthday candles on some tim-tams and she slammed them! It was a fun day! 

I found out that I will be giving a talk in the Thai ward this Sunday....for 15 minutes!  I am a bit nervous, but it should be okay. 

This week I was feeling a bit like I was starting to get into too much of a routine, so one day I decided to do everything differently....go a different way out of our apartment, invite in a new place, and eat new food for lunch; it was fun! So if any of you feel like you are in too much of a routine, I invite you to do the same. 

There was a celebration this week to CELEBRATE THAILAND BEING DEDICATED FOR THE PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL FOR 50 YEARS!  And an apostle and 70's came! A recent convert even told me she was so excited she, "couldn't sleep, I have met royalty but I COULD sleep the night before that." So ya it was pretty great. 
 It was such a cool meeting in which they reviewed the dedicatory prayer, and how it has been fulfilled. It was cool  to think that I was here for the temple announcement, at the meeting for the formation of one of the 3 stakes, and all in all,  just to know I have had the opportunity to share the gospel here for 1 and a half of those 50 years! The Thai people really are like the pioneers. In the meeting they asked all the first generation members to raise their hands, and like 95 percent of the people there were first generation members. The church is relatively new here, and yet it is amazing to see peoples faith.

There were a lot of really great talks from the meeting, but two that really inspired me were the one by Sister Gong (Elder Gong, who I think is in the presidency of the 70's wife), and one by the new apostle, Elder Stevenson. 

In Sister Gong's talk, she spoke of looking to the good in the future, and how all of the missionaries and members need to promise each other they will all remain worthy to come back to attend the temple in Thailand with their families one day. It was cool to think that one day Thailand really will have a temple, and that I will have the opportunity to come back here with my family and be able to tell them of all the great experiences I had as a missionary, and introduce them to the people I came to love. 

In Elder Stevenson's talk he said a couple of things I really liked:

"The future is so bright!" "When we keep the commandments we are happy! So let's keep the commandments!!"  He said all of these things with such excitement and conviction! He testified of those small and simple things we can all do to build our testimonies as well, which were to read the Book of Mormon and pray. If we just do these simple things we can receive a witness that the rest of the gospel is true, that this is the only true church, that Joseph Smith really was a prophet, etc.

However, what I will always remember from this historic meeting is the feeling I had. I was feeling a bit down this week, but after I went to that meeting I just felt so happy and energized again, as I truly felt the Spirit witness to me that all they said was true. 

I just want to close this email with my testimony. I know that Jesus Christ lives. I know God is our Heavenly Father. The Book of Mormon is true. 


Love,

Sister Remington 


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