2/22/15... Perfect Love Casteth Out All Fear

Switchoff Selfie in Lampang

FAM!!! Such a good week here in P-Lok!!!!!

This week literally flew by, but as always here are some of the details:

So part of the reason it went by so fast was that we went on a switch off to ลำปาง Lampang (further north)  at the beginning of the week which was so fun! It was like a 6 hour bus ride on Tuesday, then we worked for the day with them there on Wednesday and then got on a bus at night and headed home. It is always cool going to new areas, working with different missionaries-I got to work with Sister Larson who was with me in the MTC, she is so great! So we taught this family that they have been teaching for a while, it is like two brothers who are grown and their mom, seriously they are hilarious. If I was to try to give you a description of them I would say the mom is like a classy version of the grandma on Napoleon Dynamite and the older brother is to a T-- Bob Wiley. Obviously we hit it off. hahaha. Other side notes from the trip would be that their house in ลำปาง (Lampang) looks like a Disney princess cottage (seriously too fitting if you know these Sisters.. I imagine that on p-day the animals help them with their chores as they sing) and I saw my first water buffalo. Altogether ลำปาง(Lampang) was a success! 

Then I am just going to give you some details of all of the MIRACLES of this week... there were TOO MANY! 

So this week we started teaching this guy บระสงค์ (Brasong) who I met at the train station the other day, totally all decked out in his Buddhist necklaces and stuff. Well it turns out he used to be a monk! He is seriously SO amazing, Sister Nethercott and leave our lessons with him and are just on a little high because the Spirit is so strong and his understanding and desire to know are just so there. When I call him to follow up he just talks about how grateful he is that we are teaching him these things and how good he feels when he prays. He has a date to be baptized the 8th, but is really nervous about going to church on Sunday with lots of people etc. Please pray for him to have the strength to do the things required as he receives a witness that this is the truth! 

So we taught ฟลูค์'s (Fluke's) dad again at their house... I love love love this family! We taught the Plan of Salvation which is always such a special lesson in the light of families. บุญธรรม (Fluke's dad, Boontaam) totally came to church this week which was HUGE, ฟลูค์ (Fluke) got the priesthood, and we have a goal for ฟลูค์ (Fluke) to baptize his dad next Sunday. Please pray that all goes according to plan and this happens!

So now I am about to go into one of those stories that might be kind of hard to follow.. but I seriously can't leave it out! So a few weeks ago I invited a guy by the river and when I called to see if he wanted to learn with us he said no, he already has his religion pretty decided. So I move on, then like 2 days later he calls back and says there is a girl that works for him named Guitar who is interested... what?! random referral from someone who isn't even interested... YES! So we meet with her and she is AWESOME and we get her a baptismal date. The only problem is that she doesn't have a car or a motorcycle and works all the time! She hardly ever answers her phone but we finally got another appointment to go visit her at her house when she would get off work at 5 on Friday. So we tell her we will call her Friday night and have her explain to a Tuk Tuk driver how to get there, and we were going to have Bro Gep meet us there on his motorcycle to teach with us. So the Tuk Tuk driver explains to Bro Gep how to get there and we are all set (seriously sometimes we are so helpless when it comes to directions etc! haha)  By this time it is like 5:30 and the Elders had a baptism that night too, and Bro Gep was the one who was going to baptize the person, so he didn't have tons of time. Well we get there, and I call Bro Gep to see where he is, and he says he can't come cause the Elders need him to stay. I am just standing there like.. "Ok Heavenly Father what are we going to do?" and right then Sister Som, an RC from the ward rides literally RIGHT INTO MY FACE on her motorcycle and just says "Sisters is there anything I can help you with??" She helped us teach and it was SO good. Sure we could have taught the lesson without a member present, but what an instant answer to a prayer and such a testimony that Heavenly Father truly is in the details however small they may be!

Ok so one more... we have been trying to go visit this less active member named Glass for a while and finally made an appointment to teach her and her family Friday morning. So we get to their house and she is just SO adorable. She is about 16 and just has such a close cool family. She told us her parents were pretty set into Buddhism, but we had the BEST lesson/conversation with her dad and little siblings. We just bore testimony and shared scriptures, and the look on Glass's face was just so shocked but so happy. Her dad invited us back anytime, and I KNOW little by little we are going to help this family accept the gospel. AHH it was awesome.  

Anyways, we were able to teach her for a little while before her dad came in too and she just expressed how excited she was that we came to see her. She talked about how she had no idea there were Sister missionaries because she learned with Elders and said every time we had called these last few weeks it was right when she needed a little pick me up. It left me thinking about how divine our calling as SISTER missionaries is.Fast forward to Sunday and I am talking with this cutest girl in the ward, Sis Mint, and she just pulled me aside and asked me how she could start preparing to be a missionary and had all sorts of questions about it. It really made me reflect on my time as a missionary and my decision to serve a mission in the first place. 

With these experiences with Sister Glass and Sister Mint this last week I have just been overwhelmed with gratitude for my calling as a full time Sister missionary to represent Jesus Christ. I just finished the Book of Mormon this week, and the scripture that has been stuck in my head all week is from Moroni Chapter 8, short, simple, and so true.."perfect love casteth out all fear." I have been thinking about that in the light of being a missionary and I am grateful for this period of time where I can really practice having perfect love for ALL, and in the end my fears and doubts about anything are being cast out. What a cool concept that we can apply no matter if we are missionaries or not... PERFECT LOVE=FEARLESS

Now I am about to break out into Fearless by Taylor Swift..... yikes 

haha just kidding, but I hope this letter was somewhat understandable, kind of lots of tidbits but just know the work is moving forward and I am so so happy!

 I love you guys so so much, 

Sister Morgan

Me riding like the wind.....check it out people!

Hour long foot massages by the river for Pday!?  YES!

WATER BUFFALO!

The Disney Cottage in Lampang

Like how cute is their walkway?!

2/15/15... Sometimes I have to remind myself that this is real life... I RODE an ELEPHANT!

Family of mine, I am so glad everyone is doing well and hanging in there. Literally it is so crazy to me to think the boys are snowboarding right now... what even is snow?!

Hahaha the sun is DEFINITELY shining here in P-Lok. Life is so good! Here is the lo-down on the week...

So we have been teaching like crazy this week, such a blessing that we have so many investigators right now. I will keep you posted on them, but with some of them it is kind of a slower process... only being able to meet once a week, going out of town until next month etc. But seriously so many cool people who are no doubt ELECT. Like for example, our cutest neighbor lady, she works/lives right next to the church and is an accountant.. (you know we talked debits and credits and financial statements for a while! haha accounting has my heart...) She goes to Bangkok for work weeks at a time with a pretty inconsistent schedule, but in the Lord's timing it will happen! Or there is this most adorable family (I think they are the family I have been PRAYING to teach!!) from English who can only meet with us on Tuesdays after English class.. so again, just trusting Heavenly Father and His plan for each of these individual people.

So probably the new investigator that we are just SO excited about right now though is Bro ฟลุค์'s dad! After our training last week about looking for investigators from within, specifically families of recent converts, we called ฟลุค์ and set up an appointment to meet with his parents at his house, which he assured us wasn't very far. So we are just so stoked and he comes to pick us up at the church, as in he is on his motorcycle and we are going to follow him on our bikes. Well we get going and I am pretty sure we biked like a good portion of the Tour De France at a speed comparable to Lance Armstrong (yes I am going there with the comparison hahaa), but in the end SO WORTH IT!! I like hang my helmet on my bike handle, then look up and there is this teddy bear identical older version of ฟลุค์ walking up to us with just this biggest smile... seriously his dad is adorable! We taught him (his mom was sleeping or something?) and he has a date to be baptized on March 1st. Seriously the coolest thing to see your recent convert testifying to his dad about how he knows the Restoration is true. Such a cool cool experience and I am just endlessly grateful to Heavenly Father for this vision of helping the FAMILIES of Thailand progress.

Speaking of families.. probably my favorite experience of this week. So we get done teaching เมธ์ on Saturday, and are just sitting there waiting for the Elders to come for her to be interviewed for baptism and we are just chatting. She starts telling us more about her family, she had mentioned before that her mom and little sister live in Lopburi (Bangkok) and we are like "Oh yeah, there is a church in Lopburi!" totally so excited at the possibility of her mom learning the gospel too. And seriously this girl... She goes "Yeah, I know! I told my mom about the church and she actually met with the Elders on Thursday and is going to church tomorrow!" I sat there for a minute.. a little speechless, my heart about to explode I think. How AWESOME IS SHE?! that little missionary.....

เมธ์ and บระสิทธ์ on their baptism day! So special :)

 So yeah we had 2 baptisms this week, เมธ์ (May) and บระสิทธ์ (Brasit)!! Oh my goodness, with both of these people it was such a testimony of the fact the only Heavenly Father knows who the prepared are, and as His servants it is not our job to try and figure out who they are, but just to open our mouths to EVERYONE. When I invited เมธ์ at the train station, she was with her friend and at first they were like ehhh no thanks... then she came back up and was like "wait I think I want to know about this!" So I set up an appointment for like 4 days out when she was free and kinda thought she might just kinda forget/wasn't way interested. Well I was so wrong. I can't fully describe just her humility and faith and love for what she has learned. I feel like I write something to this affect every week, but I am seriously continually humbled at the opportunity to play a part in introducing His children to the truth that as they open their hearts, feels so familiar to them. It is SO beautiful. 

But yeah, such a good week, one for the books for sure. Especially with our adventures last P-day.. SO MUCH FUN! Some of the members rented this big van and took us up to see another waterfall... then took us to an ELEPHANT RESORT... your eyes are not deceiving you.. you just read ELEPHANT RESORT, who knew those existed?! They do...... we played with and rode elephants and it was just such a good time! Sometimes I have to remind myself that this is real life.. the "hey I am riding an elephant right now and it actually really hurts and is kind of scary especially on the downhill parts and when the one you are riding keeps bowing its neck as it steps down" selfie is not something everyone gets to take in their lifetime and I am so grateful. I love Thailand, I love being a missionary in Thailand, but most of all I love this work!  

Thats all I have for this week, I love you all so so much, lets make this next week a good one!!

xo Sister Morgan 

The waterfall of the week.... soo good

ตุยนุย "Thooey Nooey" and หมิว "Meeow" love them

The ELEPHANT RESORT... which is also a human resort, family vacation?!

"hey you, come here you elephant you!"

"wait no come back, I love animals..."

"I just want to hang out..."

this pic is for dad's enjoyment!  (--It is in 'the flower on the head ballet costume pic' family)
...I think I had just been holding its trunk then it breathed on me or something.. hahaha

he eventually came around!

then he let me get on him!

next thing you know we are riding off into the sunset together... these elephants man

the Selfie

this one is also for dad... your next patient?!

didn't you know thailand is famous for its dinosaurs?? hahaha when you find a random field of huge dinosaurs you stop the van and climb them!

district fun, can never pass up these head hole pic opportunities..... 

2/8/15... About P-Lok... It is AWESOME. Literally this place is perfect.

My district... we love picture timers!!

FAMILY!! Oh my goodness, thank you so much for the emails, I LOVE LOVE LOVE hearing about everything going on.. You are all doing so awesome! Mom and Dad, I'm glad the trip was so great (your pics are soo good!! THANK YOU!) and I am glad that all the boys survived! 

So today a member is actually taking us on some adventure and we don't have tons of time to write, so this week it is going to be kind of short... I will make up for it next week, I promise! :)

Here is a run down of this last week and hopefully I can answer some of your questions too:

About P-Lok... It is AWESOME. Literally this place is perfect. I would say the closest vibe I can give you on this place is North Shore Laie. Sometimes we will be riding our bikes and I feel like I am there! There is a river, rice fields on the outer parts, but like the town part is way good. I wouldn't say I feel like we are out in the middle of nowhere, but it definitely isn't Bangkok!

So this week we have been working like crazy with our new investigators... there are 7 of them! We are SO SO excited about all of them. We are still working with "Rung-Rad" then our new investigators are "Mate", "Brasit", "Odd", "Baam", "Tooaddchay", "Anon", and we have 3 more that we are meeting with this week "Guitar", "Newey", and "Youey". WOW, we feel like the Lord has answered our prayers tenfold to find people to teach. I wish I had more time to write about each of them, but they are all VERY different, so awesome, and we are so excited to keep working with them. 

Also this week we had the best training from our Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders! I love how refreshed I feel every time we have training. There are now 2 new key indicators to achieve balance for the week-- we need to get 2 referrals and teach 2 part member family lessons. When we first heard this, we were thinking how can we do this every week?! But it is totally the vision that Thailand needs. We had 2,000 baptisms this last year, and to help retain these people and help them progress in the gospel, what better way than finding people to teach, than from within from their own homes? Their moms, dads, siblings, grandparents. To me this just says, PREPARING THAILAND FOR A TEMPLE. Please pray that we will find part member families to teach! 

Lunch with our CUTEST Sister Training Leaders!!!!!!!

Ever since our training and just this past while, I have been thinking a lot about change. A mission essentially involves constant change- learning new things, moving areas, switching companions, helping investigators change their lives- The list goes on and on! I love one thing our zone leader said when he introduced the new key indicators, "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten." I love that thought, that when we want to change something, we need to be active about the way we go about it. It literally applies to every aspect of life. I have been thinking a lot about how it applies to conversion and consecration. I am grateful for a knowledge that we are not cast in stone. That all things in Heavenly Father's plan are in our favor to change and constantly become more like Him. 

Well that is all I have for this week, I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH!! 

Please know:

PJ, I still love you even if you go to Kamiakin. I might even wear some red and yellow to your games

Brad, I wanna see a pic of your hair! I bet its so CUTE

Ty, send me a video of the dessert eating HAHA literally died when I read about that

Mom and Dad, I am glad you had so much fun with Rob and Kristy! And I will raise my bike seat....

Also!! Random Miracle for the week: Sister Herrmann let me know that this Sunday "Githey" got baptized! He this guy we started teaching in Bangnaa right before I left that I invited on the street while he was buying corn (I don't know any other way to explain him than to say, literally the most HILARIOUS gay guy that we were a little unsure about to be honest) She said he is so happy.. I am so HAPPY (/a little in shock to be honest!) This work is too too good. On top of that.. His family is from P-Log... you see what I am thinking here?! 

have a great week people!

Githey's baptism

We went to the coolest waterfalls for P-Day last Mon!

....pondering

Sister N-cott!

by the waterfall... I think we need to have our family reunions here!

Check it out.

 

2/1/15... Sister Nethercott and I are starting to feel like we are getting a handle on P-Lok

Sunsets by the river....... so good

Family!!

So glad to hear you guys are just living it up as always, Mom and Dad enjoy the Maui sunshine--I am still convinced it is the best sunshine, although I am starting to feel like Thailand sunshine comes pretty close!! :) haha 

So to be honest, this week has been a little uneventful, but still so good! "Opening" an area, kind of white washing in is definitely a challenge, but Sister Nethercott and I are starting to feel like we are getting a handle on P-Lok and the branch and everything. I am absolutely loving working with her.. she is such a good missionary, way positive and fun. 

How cute is this SISTA???

Probably the biggest news of the week was that  ฟลูค์ (Fluke), the investigator we met on our first night here got baptized on Sunday! He is way good, he already has the gospel library app downloaded on his phone and everything. We are especially excited because in a few weeks he will be able to get the priesthood and this branch NEEDS priesthood holders! It was actually so cute, the other Sister's RC, Brother Guitar just got the priesthood on Sunday (he was baptized just two weeks ago) and he was the one who did the baptism! He was SO nervous, but it was such a cool, cool experience and thing to witness. How blessed are we to have the priesthood in its fullness restored to the earth today? Do not take for granted having a ward full of priesthood holders, here in Thailand it is sometimes hard to come by! 

ฟลูค์'s Baptism!!

The week was filled with LOTS of inviting and I am so grateful for Heavenly Father's guiding hand in our trying to find those prepared. We found lots of cool places to invite, which was definitely a blessing because we just kind of rode around on our bikes since we don't know the area way well.. we went to Central and Tesco, two huge shopping centers, then found the COOLEST markets. Sunday night we found this flower market and it was so perfect because there were tons of FAMILIES out together. We were able to get 62 phone numbers this week and are really hoping and praying to get some progressors in this next week. It is going to be a GREAT week :)

Ever since our training with President Senior last Monday, I have really been trying to work on my testifying, sharing my bold, heartfelt witness as a representative of Jesus Christ. It was really perfect to be doing a lot of inviting this week, because it gave plenty of opportunities to do that. I have been trying to look people in the eyes, see them as the children of God that they are, and invite them out of LOVE... it gets so easy to just go through the motions, or to get distracted at the markets HAHA (Sis Nethercott and I both love shopping :)) But I have had SO much more joy in my inviting as I have focused it on testifying and loving. I just made this little picture booklet thing with all of these way helpful pics (plan of salvation, godhead, Christ, the Prophet, temples etc), and I have had a few chances to show the pic from my baptism (Thank you so much Mom, its PERFECT!!) and show the pics I have of the temple to testify of eternal families. So good, and seriously so fun!

Haha like the other day when we were at Central inviting, we actually got kicked out by the security guards and they wanted us to go talk to the guy in charge, so we were in his office and it set up yet another opportunity to testify out of love... Just telling him, "hey, we aren't here to interfere or disrupt business, we are just here because this is the most important thing in life, and we want to share it with EVERYONE."

So that's where we are at people, sharing the message of Jesus Christ and his Restored gospel with EVERYONE... I hope P-lok is ready for what is about to hit them this week!!!

I know Jesus Christ lives, this is His church and his gospel is restored to the earth in its fullness today.

Have a great week and please pray for our investigators "Tues" and "RoongRode" who we are hoping will be baptized on Sunday!

Life is SO good, love you ALL SO SO MUCH!!!!!!!

Sister Morgan 

Super cool wat here in P-Lok from P Day last week!

More wat action...