Testifying in Thailand: 1/25/15... I got transferred to PITSANULOK people!! (Possibly Sarah's best letter yet!)

with my CUTE new khuu at Que Pasa!

Hey hey hey!!

It sounds like everyone is doing so great, as always!

So its like when you have way big news for someone.... and then they already know, kind of ruins it but you will never guess.... I got transferred to PITSANULOK people!! Can you believe it?!

Sister Nethercott and I are opening a second Sisters area here, so there are still 2 other Sisters, Sister Alley and Sister Burbank, then just 2 Elders now instead of 4, Elder Calderon and Elder Chamberlain.... we are so excited! The branch is pretty small, and there is a lot of "clean up" work to do, plus lots of room for growth. Its going to be a great transfer for sure.

I seriously feel like 1,000 things have happened since my last email, so here goes for the updates:

So last Monday night, Sis Herrmann and I get home and I go to flip the light on and OUR POWER GOT TURNED OFF!! We may have not known/forgotten to pay the bill... oops, that is what happens when you have 2 greenies together who have never done house money before, also what happens when all of the mail is in Thai... haha learning experience I guess! So we are laying there in our hot box trying to sleep with no air conditioning, and we get the call that SISTER MORGAN IS MOVING and he also gave us permission to sleep at the church. Haha so we "slept" at the church which isn't as fun as it sounds...kind of creepy actually, and there wasn't much sleeping going on with all of the thoughts "Where the heck am I moving?! Who will be coming here!?" oh what fun..........

Coming home from sleeping at the church... And Sister Herman got hit with a water gun!

The rest of the week kind of flew by with lots of lessons and preparing to leave. I can't really describe the feelings of knowing you are leaving your area... there is that tinge of excitement for the unknown that lies ahead, there is that worry for leaving the work you planned on being able to continue, there is that sadness for leaving the people you have come to love so much- the ward, your companion, your district, your RCs, your investigators... So much to take in! On Wednesday night the ward had a little goodbye party before BOM class for the 3 of us moving, Elder Williams, Elder Davis and I and I am seriously going to miss these people so much! They will be my family here in Thailand forever, it was where I was "BORN" and I have made so many fun lasting relationships. They literally showered me with goodbye gifts and it was just a good time. It was especially tender with a few of my RCs.... ahh that bond you have when it is the gospel that brought you together is so so cool. I really feel like there were very specific things I was sent to Bangnaa to accomplish and also to learn, I will forever be grateful for my time there. Bangnaa was too good to me!

the Bishop thinks hes a tough guy, but really he is such a softie!

with my GIRLS

With Sister June... going to MISS her and her sass!

SISTER BOY is literally CRAZY, what am I going to do without her?!

It was definitely hard saying goodbye to Sister Herrmann. She was seriously SUCH a good companion. I learned so much from her about loving others and making missionary work FUN. We had Christmas together, we ate chicken everyday together, we laughed HARD together, and we totally "Baptized the world!" together. Such a great 6 weeks, I will love her forever!

So then Thursday was Transfers and seriously... Transfers in this mission are TOO fun. It is like a party that everyone wants to get invited to, even if you and your companion arent transferring, you are hoping to find some reason, any reason at all to go... its THAT good. The Seniors are THAT good. haha! It's so fun seeing your MTC group and catching up... it was crazy how many people from my group were getting transferred, there were lots of changes made! But yeah, I got moved to P-Lok!!!!! It was such a surprise, and everyone has said either "You will LOVE it... best area!" or "YIKES that is literally the hottest place in Thailand!" haha But then Thursday night we waited FOREVER at the bus station, our bus didnt leave until 9:30! Then we didn't get to the house in P-lok until like 4:30 AM.... crazy! It is so funny cause all I have ever known is living in Bangkok, I just take a nice 40 min taxi ride to the church where we have Transfers and we're all set... I had no idea how much of an ordeal it is for all of the missionaries in the north and in the Isan! ALSO-- got my cutest Valentines Day package ever!!!! Again... you are the best, everything and more that I could have ever wanted! You are too good to me. :)

sitting, waiting, wishing at the Bus Station FOREVER!

So now we are here in Pitsanulok and it has been SO good! Sister Nethercott and I have already seen so many miracles, here are just a few:

Living with Sister Alley and Sister Burbank... they have been seriously the best, showing us around everywhere, helping us get to know the ward etc. Not to mention the fact that they had totally gotten our house all ready (changed the sheets for us and everything) since we had to switch houses with the Elders since there are now 4 of us. Haha speaking of the house... It is charming, especially from the outside, but I think the only way to describe the inside would be like that creepy page from the I Spy Books you check out from the school library in elementary school that are of the old house with a ton of eclectic junk that you almost don't want to take the time to find the things on that page cause its mostly creepy dolls and teddy bears and old roller skates.. That is our house! haha. I will maybe take pics one day... maybe not though

Our cute house!

The fact that I have not died riding a bike yet! We totally got my bike and it is SO CUTE!!!! Highlighter with hot pink... seriously when I saw it... I was like yeah I am getting that one. Plus also the pop of turquoise helmet... So cute. It is harder than you think riding in a skirt though... especially maintaining a little bit of modesty when its a super flairy skirt HAHA, so I got some of those big black paper clips and they are working wonders. I have decided I am probably going to lose all of my Bangkok cuteness here but I am ok with it, if it's for the the work of the Lord, I can handle it! hahaha

The Church here is an old townhouse!!

We were literally left with a little bit of a mess to come into... no progressing investigators and hardly any records or anything... but we have people we are teaching right now and 2 that should be baptized on Sunday and another on the following Sunday. So fun! We have been doing lots of inviting and making lots of calls.. There were some investigators and potential investigators in the phone so we have been calling all of them... So all of the potentials have "PI" at the front of their name, so I am calling all of them... and I call one and ask if he is still interested in Jesus Christ/learning with us, and he is like "Ummm this is the Branch President...." hahaha I dont know if the old Elders were trying to play a practical joke on us or what, but that is one way to get to know the new President! He is way cool and I am excited to work in this branch.

The other miracle would be having the best district training with Pres and Sister Senior here in P-lok yesterday... such a treat! That was why I emailed today instead of Monday.. sorry if you were nervous... I have memories of Ty doing that and us thinking surely he had been kidnapped or died or something! (She knows me all too well...that is exactly what I was thinking!!)

But seriously I just love everything we talked about... One thing they touched on was diligence in obedience. We talked about how the word diligence in anything denotes 100%, it doesn't mean adherence some of the time or when it's convenient it means a concerted effort to be that way all the time. In a sense it means perfection...

I have been thinking about this concept of a standard of "perfection" as I have been reading in 3rd Nephi when the Savior is teaching the Beattitudes and in my reading about the Sermon on the Mount in Jesus the Christ.. The Savior teaches us through these accounts that unlike what the world invites- to retaliate when someone fights with you, to give only to those who have given equally to you, to pray publicly to be seen of men- The gospel invites us to a new standard of diligence and perfection- to turn the other cheek when someone fights with you, to give freely to those who would take from you, to pray secretly and be rewarded in Heaven.

I think it is the most simple invitation/ reminder that the Savior leaves us with at the end of Chapter 12 in 3rd Nephi: "Therefore, I would that ye should be perfect, even as I, or your Father in Heaven is perfect."Surely the Savior ins't implying here that he expects perfection out of us, but I love the invitation to anxiously engage in diligence and "perfection" in the areas that we can control.

Here is to a week a little more "perfect" than the last.... for all of us!!

All of my love, Sister Morgan