serving in the land of smiles: “The secret to Thailand is to not breathe too deeply.”

Dearest Family, Family Dearest,

This week's email may be somewhat short as Sister Speas and I are both sick. Ha. Such is the life of missionaries in Thailand.

Last week for P-day we went to Nakha, a silk village! Lots of beautiful stuff. And I saw Laos. So that was fun.

Philip is doing great. He calls us all the time just to chat and he has downloaded the LDS Scripture app onto his phone. :) This week we found like 600 new investigators. We have so little time that we don't really eat any more. Missionary life is crazy and good!

This week our sweet little investigator, Jupe, got baptized. I'm pretty sure I mentioned her last week—the one who reminds me of Bam. She is a member’s younger sister, and she understands the Gospel so clearly. When she bore her testimony at her baptism, she said, "I know the Word of Wisdom is true because I lost 2 kilos by keeping it. Also tithing is true because I've seen all the blessings my sister has received." She's so cute.

We also work with an older man named SriThai. Oh, he is so great. He is a recent convert of about 1 month (he was baptized the week before Sister Speas and I got here) and when we teach him, it's actually about 5 minutes of us teaching a principle and 40 minutes of listening to him talk and giggle at his own stories. If we ever need to call him, we plan on each phone call taking 10 minutes. It's actually the highlight of my day when we get to see him. This week he got to Skype Sister (Emma!) Zaugg from the Brown's home after we taught him about the Plan of Salvation. It was the happiest thing ever. We had just taught him about Family History and he was so excited about it that he stayed up until 1 am working on it. While skyping with Sister Zaugg, he asked her if she could go through the temple for his mother and older sister. It was so sweet. He then told her, "I am a full fledged priesthood holder. From now on, I will be called 'Joseph SriThai'!!" (Joseph Smith is his hero.) The old men I work with. They bring me so much joy. :)

This week Sister Speas and I have been really focusing on helping our investigators come to love Christ. And helping them begin to understand what they need to do to show that love to Him. It has been a really wonderful experience, teaching people why the Savior loves them, and taking the time to listen to their new testimonies and this new love that they are developing for Him. We love to use Moroni 10:32 when we talk about this:

“Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.”

We show Christ we love Him through our actions. That is how we thank Him. We love Him by keeping his commandments—denying ourselves all ungodliness—and by keeping them consistently. In return He gives us more than we could ever give to Him. He gives us grace and mercy, and we become perfect in Him. It's a little overwhelming and I am so grateful.

I love you, family! So very much.

Love,

Sister Hughes

Quotes of the Week

(In a lesson with an unfocused investigator)

Me: First you will...

Inv: Read the Book of Mormon.

Me: Then you will...

Inv: Pray!

Me: And you will ask God...

Inv: I will ask God, 'Why do we have hair?'