thanks for all the fun news and updates! I am so stoked on the AZ trip, sounds like you are having a blast, and I can feel it, there is good stuff around the corner for BIG B.........
I would attribute Brad's good playing to the advice I threw in at the end of my last letter, but ugh you guys DIDN'T EVEN GET IT! :/
so sorry about that!
so here it is, round two on your updates from me today, hopefully it is not an overload for you guys.......
It was seriously another great week! I think the craziest thing for us right now is that it is actually COLD outside, or cold for those of us who have forgotten what real cold is like. haaaa YIKES. Dreaming of the sunshine at night while we listen to the rain fall... but not just fall, not just pour, it like ROCKETS from the sky. It sounds like when the dryer is on the final spin and is just rapid throwing the clothes around to get every bit of moisture wicked off of them.... that is the rain on our house in the middle of the night these days. CRAZY! kind of cool but kind of UNREAL!
also kind of unreal that I remember the sounds of a dryer considering that no one has dryers in Thailand.
so check on the weather update, check on the Thailand tid bit, but you want the good stuff, the miracles , and I've got them people don't worry...
I will start with a little update on Brother Brayoon. He has been SO busy lately with work so we have been just giving him a little space, but the other day Mags and I decided we couldn't take it anymore and we needed to go see him! We went by, and he was in the middle of getting an order of fruitcake or something ready to deliver, but when he saw us he just like lit up! He grabbed some stools for us to sit and talk while he put the finishing touches on the cake. There is something different in his eyes these days, and it was so cool to see that although it may be a little bit of a rough road back (the details are unimportant) he is beginning to feel the HOPE that only comes through the Savior and his Atonement. No one is ever too far gone and I really think he is awakening to that. Other cutest part-- he totally had made Sister Stoker's carrot cake and was so giddy to have us try it! He just like cut us both these ginormous slices and was just waiting for our reviews.. It was way moist and actually good, but bless his heart I don't know what he did but for some reason it was like WAY dark brown, like it looked chocolate. Regardless of the cake, he is so rad and he said he is pretty sure he will be coming for the District Conference this weekend but he's not making us any promises.................
last time he pulled the Im not making any promises one, we got Pres Johnson in on it and BOOM he melted. Definitely not afraid to go there again.................... ha, we sure love him!
Ok so another hilarious, precious, soooooo funny update, Brother ไบร์ท (Bright) is doing so good. He is just best friends with Elder Stoker these days and has gotten a copy of every single "teachings of the prophet so and so" book that the church has ever printed + every other church manual offered as well. He loves to study, I mean this is a kid who's life was devoted to gospel study to become a Priest (I imagine those nuns had a pretty rigorous schedule for him HAHA nacho libre running through the mind) so now to have all of these new study materials-- he is in HEAVEN! He still has some teaching commitment at his old church teaching the kids and he let us know he has been teaching them from the Book of Mormon and has stocked their library with pamphlets on the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity etc for, and I quote "in case one of the kids has a question someday and can't find the answer, he will find these and know the truth." Haha, he really has the most pure intentions and just wants to help all people come unto Christ. I have been SO impressed with his understanding and testimony of prophets. The other day we were really wanting to review and solidify on the Restoration with him and for part of the lesson we watched Anderson's talk from last conference "Joseph Smith". We gave him the homework to take the challenge and record his testimony of JS on his iphone, he was thrilled. There is a huge YSA retreat coming up this week and he is all nervous practicing how he is going to talk to the girls and stuff. PRICELESS
AHH ok this leads me to another PRICELESS happening this week. Remember how I said ออย (Ooi), an RC here that we work with brought her daughter to church last Sunday? Well this week, we totally taught her. You guys, it was so special, I can't even tell you. Can't even tell you. We taught the Plan of Salvation, and given the background that we knew about her.. that she has been suicidal, depressed, just so so sad, we really taught it in the light of the hope of the Atonement. As we talked about our purpose here on earth, that the most important thing that has ever happened is that Heavenly Father sent His son, and that because of this, we can be made whole, light filled her little frame and tears streamed down her pale cheeks. She basically jumped from her seat when we taught about baptism, and I think my fav part of it all was from the corner of my eye seeing Sister ออย's expression through the whole thing. The Spirit and the love in the air was tangible, because as Elder Holland put it last weekend, "No love in mortality comes closer to approximating the pure love of Jesus Christ than the selfless love of a devoted mother has for her child." It's true people, I've felt it from my own mom, and I saw it with this mom this last week. They came and watched conference all weekend and she will be baptized at the end of the month. YES
Other coolest experience with one of our investigators this week........ So เปิ้ล (Buun!) cutest lady we started teaching last week is just doing so good. Well we had a lesson scheduled with her this week, confirmed in the morning all is well, then right before, she calls and is like, "Sister! I can't come! There is a huge car parked in front of my driveway and I can't leave!" I told her to say a prayer, that Sister Mags and I would say a prayer, and that we would wait and see her at the church soon. We quickly went in the other room, said a prayer.... not 20 minutes later, she comes walking in the door! She was beaming and so responsive all during the lesson on the Plan of Salvation. At the end she shared with us just how special/ amazing it was for her to see that her prayers worked! That she asked Heavenly Father to make it possible for her to come, and He really DID. I love more than ANYTHING in this world seeing investigators have personal experiences with the Spirit and with Heavenly Father. YAY. Our challenge to her this week: Bring your husband to learn with us... because after all, is heaven (aka Celestial Glory) really going to be heaven without the ones we love there too?
I think we all know the answer to that one!!!!!! She accepted with a smile.........
This week has been a little funny in that EVERYONE is สอบing ("sobbing" aka TESTING at school) right now so lots of our investigators/ RCs just can't meet at all. I'm not kidding, you hear one word in Thailand as a missionary.... "sobbing" and you know it is goodnight, lights out, they CANNOT MEET with you right now. it is CRAZY. I remember in my greeniehood Sister Croft telling me about when the mobs were going on here, at the same time everyone was testing too so they would always just say everyone's "MOBBIN AND SOBBIN" haha no mobbin, but it has definitely left us in our planning just doing what the Spirit leads us to do.
And the Lord literally DID just lead us SO many times this week to places that maybe we wouldn't have gone if we were just doing the "norm". That was the case Wednesday night/Thursday. For some reason I had this thought that I needed to text Sister Brinlee (the lady from Texas that I LOVE) and see how she was doing/ just let her know we love her. I send the text, and she responds two seconds later, "I just got home from running errands and my entire main floor is flooded, do you know anyone that can help me?"
I quickly called her home teacher, the Elders Quorum Pres and Brother Chambers and they rounded up a team. In the morning we received a message from her saying that never in her entire life had she had such a quick response and outpouring of love as she saw the night before. I am not kidding you guys, the members here are AMAZING. They are amazing. They were at her house right away, cleaned it all up, Sister น้อย (Noi, the one who's house we went to and learned how to cook a few weeks ago, her husband is the EQP) brought her food and goodies and just like that, a member in a time of stress was relieved.
I think of Elder Christofferson's talk (LOVED SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!) about why do we have a church? well this is one example of why. My mind flashes back to all of the many times our own family has been on the receiving end of a generous unexpected helping hand from ward members etc and no doubt the Savior uses His church to help and look after the Lord's children.
We really felt like we should go visit her the next day, and not completely sure why, we felt like we should share Bednar's words on "The Load". With tears in her eyes she told us of the timing of that message and thanked us for following the Spirit because she really needed to hear that at this time. Its like I said last week, as a missionary, a lot of times you are thinking, "I don't really know this person's EXACT needs, how can I help them?" But that is the most important part. As HUMANS we will never know. But Heavenly Father does and He will give His servants (aka ALL OF US), if we seek it, a portion of the Spirit so we can KNOW.
How grateful I am for this time on my mission to learn the ways of the Spirit.
Which leads me to my favorite part of this week. this week I had an awakening, a realization, a saving, an actualization of feelings that maybe already existed but were not very clear. like OH MY GOSH YOU GUYS, the Lord just like laid it out before me, "Sister Morgan, this is what you want. This is what I need from you. This is what life is ALL about."
you are wondering, right? what happened?
What happened was that I was thinking back to the summer before my freshman year riding in the car with Paige back to Grandma Phyllis's house from EFY. I thought Paige was the COOLEST funniest nicest cousin in the world and we were just talking about life and boys and everything and I remember she mentioned to me that one of her favorite talks is this one video on YouTube called "advice from Elder Busche". It became one of my favorite videos in high school, but this last week it just came into my mind and I knew I should see if I could print it out.
What I didn't know was that it is actually a TALK that Elder F. Enzio Busche gave in 1996 at BYUI or something and that it is a lot longer than the video. It is called "Unleashing the Dormant Spirit" and it has changedddddddddddddd my world!
PLEASE READ IT.
I would love to dissect the whole thing for you........ but you have to do it for yourself. I guess what the realization was, the awakening, the change, was that I am learning that of all things I desire in life, the thing I desire the most, is to feel the Spirit, to have the Holy Ghost as my constant companion.
To have His Spirit with us always has greater implications than I think we realize, or that I am just starting to realize in the slightest. Fears are dispelled, greater trust and closeness is felt between us and the Savior and Heavenly Father, we are upheld in our efforts to overcome weaknesses, trials are seen in their true light, we are filled with a perfect brightness of hope as we endure to the end..... it goes on and on!
That being said, I was ECSTATIC to hear the repeated theme throughout several of the talks this last weekend of having the Spirit to be with us. I think my fav fav fav talks were Elder Lawrence's and Elder Eyrings. I could have cried. I think I did cry. I feel like the Lord prepared my heart for this conference in the most perfect way and I left as we always desire to, ready to be better, move forward and continue in becoming perfected in Him...
jeeeeeeeesh the gospel is so good. Mags and I are happy and loving life. So excited for this coming week with all of the fun ahead... Starting Friday we have Mission Tour with Elder Funk, then District Conference with everyone from the North coming up here (aka I get to see all of my P-Log people!) and then Monday President and Sister J are going to stay here for our P-day.......... I am hoping we get to play some basketball with him aka take down the president in bump HA!
I think maybe they decided to extend their stay in ChiangMai to Monday cause word got around to them that OCTOBER 19th is one of the best days of the year???????????????? I don't know, there is speculation that that is the case.
HA!
I sure love you guys and I hope you have the BEST BEST week
xoxo Sister Morgan
ps this week I got stung by a bee, and we also waxed my arms. haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa yikes
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| so apparently this is the only picture I took this week.......... we show up at FHE and what do we see? The navy blue shoes that were Sister Pecks that we accidentally gave away.. HA!! part hilarious/part we are the worst
SO sorry I didnt take more. I will get more from the other sisters and send them next week
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