serving in the land of smiles: A Case of the Crazies

Andee and me. This girl is the best. She loves to link arms when we are walking and during
Relief Society she breaks out the candy. We were meant to be friends. Ha ha.

Dear the world.

I had the craziest week of my life this week. This is stuff you can't make up; I promise it's all true, every last piece of it. I sure do love this place :)

Crazy things that happened this week. Let's see:

On Tuesday, the sister who normally teaches the children's room at English class wasn't there to teach, so Sister Zaugg and I went on splits with some members and I taught all the little kids how to sing "Frosty the Snowman" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." I have videos of them singing. There are really only 4 of them who actually sang, but the other kids look cute, so that's fun.

On Wednesday we went to an investigator's house to teach her her second lesson. It turned out she wasn't there...so we taught her little sister (or cousin, I'm not really sure, there are 3 families who all live in the same house and there's really no way of knowing how everyone is related exactly). Her sister loved the lesson we taught. The first time we taught her sister (or cousin), she was too shy to join us, but she listened to the whole lesson from across the room. Anyway, we taught her again and she loved it.

About halfway through the lesson, I felt like someone was watching me. My back was to the door, so I turned around and standing on the front porch was an interesting guy. He was wearing this pink and black turtle-neck sleeveless top and women's jeans. He had on bright pink lipstick. He was just staring at me. He very slowly and very seriously waiied me and then plopped down on the porch and listened to the rest of the lesson. It was all I could do to maintain my composure; it was so surprising and strange.

The next day we were back in the same neighborhood to pick up Joy (who we had taught the day before) and take her to the church. We showed up at her house... she wasn't there, but the crazy guy was. Haha. He kept saying "You wait you wait you wait" over and over and OVER again. He sat down on some garbage in the street and crossed himself. I gave him a pamphlet about the Plan of Salvation. He stood up really quickly and his plastic cup of iced coffee started veering wildly. It crossed my mind that he was going to throw it on me. Sister Zaugg must have had the same thought because I saw her tense up. I thought, "Bring it on, it's just coffee." Haha. Then he grabbed Sister Zaugg by the arm and kept saying, "madam" over and over again. Then he shook Sister Zaugg's hand and then out of the blue pulled her in for a kiss. She expertly dodged him. I completely lost it. I was laughing so hard I was crying. I felt so bad—all I remember is trying to control myself to comfort Sister Zaugg and then I would lose all self-control and laugh again. We went to 7-11 for some ice cream.

The story ends well; we found Joy and took her to the church.

Another exciting thing from this week was visiting Sister June, a member in the ward. So Sister Zaugg and I got in a taxi with Sister Gaew and pulled up in front of a dog-grooming salon. Turns out, Sister June owns it. We walked inside and there were about 10 dogs all barking and running and jumping around. I have not seen so many tame dogs since I don't even know when haha. There was a bulldog named Doctor Kit that I pretty much killed me. He reminded me so much of Homer! He was all snuffly and fat and wiggly. BAH. There was a poodle with purple ears and pink feet. There was a little Chihuahua with lazy eyes that were bugging out of his head. He was wearing a little duck onesie thing. There was a little tiny Pomeranian puppy and I got to hold and he was so fluffy I almost died. And then there was a fennec fox in a cage (?!what the heck?!) and a lame husky. Sister Zaugg and I were so overwhelmed that we just giggle/snorted for about 5 minutes before we could even talk to Sister June about the scriptures. Bah. Good day.

This week when we went to Sister Oi’s house, we got super lost on the way and had to take a super sketchy tuktuk ride. That was fun. I took videos of it. I wish I could send videos home...too bad they won't attach.

Last night there was a festival called Loy Krathong. It's an annual festival where the Thai people put lanterns with candles and incense on the water to ask forgiveness for the dirty water and to make the water beautiful again. We (the missionaries) went with a group of recent converts and got to see the lights all on the water. Sister Zaugg and I had bought a lantern on Saturday that we set off on the water. It was so pretty. There were even a few lanterns that people set off in the sky. We're talking Disney “Tangled” lanterns, people. Sister Zaugg and I have had “Tangled” stuck in our heads for hours and it's killing us. I keep trying to sing "Redeemer of Israel" but it's not working too well. Ha.

Anyway, things are going really well. I feel like I'm changing and becoming more of the missionary that I want to become. And it's so cool to see that change happening. Sometimes in life, you have periods of time where you go about, doing your thing, and then at some point you remember to look back and you see how far you've come. Other times you can see yourself changing at every step of the way. I'm currently experiencing the latter, and it's kind of amazing.

On Monday while contacting at the street market in our neighborhood, Sister Zaugg and I met a 19 year-old girl named Som (or Briaw, if you are a close friend). As I was talking to her, I said, "Do you know what baptism is?" She said she didn't. I told her it was how to wash away sins and feelings of guilt through Jesus Christ. I asked her if she wanted to do that. She said something to the effect of, "Boy, do I ever! I've got a lot of sins I need to get rid of!" And she committed to be baptized in front of a noodle stand. It has been a miracle to watch her grow this last week, and to see the miracle of change in her. It’s been a blessing to see how being bold does work to find people to teach this message of healing and peace. It's incredible how ready she was for the gospel and how willing she is to live it. She's so cute. I love that girl!

This week I found a new favorite scripture. Well, I'd known this scripture before, but this week I just found some new meanings in these verses. Here it is: Romans 8:35-39.

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

My favorite favorite favorite part is when it says, "in all these things we are more than conquerors." I've been trying to figure out what it means to be more than a conqueror. I think that it has to do a lot with our attitude—a lot with how we handle the situations we are in—what we bring to the trial rather than what we let the trial do to us. It's not just conquering the trial, but how we conquer it. Through Him that loves us, we can face our trials with patience, hope, and even joy, because the only thing that can separate us from the love of God is ourselves. If we are centered on Jesus, we will never be lost and we will be more than conquerors. Cool, huh?

So that's my week in a nutshell. Good things are happening! I love you all! You're in my prayers all the time.

Love,