11-03-13 I love it here so much!

11-03-13

Sawadii Kha! Sabaydii may kha?

Things are doing well in Thailand. I love it here so much. The members are SO nice and I love that they are all so friendly and love to laugh. Like, this last Sunday, the members wanted all the missionaries to practice for their Christmas Program. So, everyone just sat on the floor and made lots of jokes and teased me about my lack of Thai skills. It was all in fun though. It's just so cool to see all these adults sitting cross legged, laughing, teasing, and singing Christmas songs in English. Haha!

 It's hard though because it's a mission goal to have every companionship to have a baptism this month. I know the Lord can help us and he can provide miracles, but at this very moment, none of our progressing investigators are ready and or they don't feel ready. Like, Biya, she likes learning about the Gospel and she has the faith but she doesn't think she's ready and doesn't see why she should be baptized right now. But her little sister decided to join the lessons which is suuuper awesome! She is so sweet, and I love her already. We have to get permission from her parents to teach her since she is only 14. So, we will see how that works out. Our investigator Faang really likes learning too and he takes notes when we teach! It's so cool! And, we always have to have a member with us when we teach since he can't understand our Thai. He originally speaks Chinese, so hearing farangs (foreigners) talk slow Thai is like someone learning English and trying to understand an Australian accent. So, every time we speak, a member clarifies what we say and he's like, "okay, okay, okay. Let me see if I have this down right..." and he tries to make sense of everything we say! He's so cool. But he keeps saying that he isn't ready and that he doesn't want to upset his grandparents by breaking tradition. So... we shall see. And the dater we have for baptism doesn't seem ready since he doesn't come to church regularly. He understands everything and he said he "wants" to get baptized but I don't know. Oh, and Goong (the lady I thought was homeless) totally pitted on us. (didn't show up to an appointment) and I felt bad for the member we invited to help us teach. She sat there for an hour with us :( 

I have been having a hard time lately though. I am struggling with the language and the prospect of leading an area in a few short weeks. It's so daunting! Ah! But, somehow I will make it through. I know that the Lord will provide for me if I do the work and have an immense amount of faith. Anything is possible. Right now, I am trying to memorize all the "milestones" I have to do every week for training. It's a little hard but I am determined to have it all memorized! 

So, yesterday, (Sunday) we had plans to teach an investigator and a less active. Neither showed up to church and so that was a little disappointing. We were also fasting that day for a baptism this month and so I was feeling weak and faint from not drinking enough water and not eating any food. Don't worry though! I was totally fine. It was just so nice to eat something after not eating dinner or breakfast! The first thing I ate was a bowl of fresh corn with butter, sweetened condensed milk, and evaporated milk. It was SO good! And then they had this whole bustle of coconuts and they cut one up for me. It was the tastiest coconut I have ever had. It had SO much coconut water in it! It's so good. The fruit here in general is just super good. 

But, later, we were called by a member to meet with her. She didn't tell us why or anything so we were a little confused. We ended up at a less active's house and they fed us SO much! It was all super good, but we had had plans to make dinner from the food we bought the day before. Haha! We still made food for the Elders (since we all eat together on Sunday nights) and for Atigan (Bishop), his wife and Maanong. They all helped out and it was such a nice, wonderful Sunday evening. 

I am so excited though! I am going to go to the Crocodile farm today and it's going to be a blast! I will write about it next week! :) 

I love you all so much! 

Love, 

Sister คาร์ทอร์

These are of the Song tows I ride on everyday. They are super crazy since they fly over speed bumps and anything else in the road! I love it though. 

The food is of some super yummy sticky rice and mango I got from this sweet lady. She was selling them to me and I was standing in the sun and she said, "Come here! Don't stand in the sun! Stand in the shade!" Ah, I love Thai people!