Since we didn't go to transfers.......
here are some from the first day of last transfer traveling up here to ChiangMai...BLAST FROM THE PAST
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| train station....... right before the madness of loading luggage and bikes for 8 missionaries onto a train in like 4 minutes! |
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| on the train... its a mess! |
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| sleepin on the sleeper train |
.....this is why we were totally fine to miss out on this transfer meeting... the traveling is CRAZY!
FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!
hey hey hey.......... so stoked on all of the updates, especially that Grandma and Grandpa are up living the high life in Kennewick for the week! And you know you are far from home when spell check says "Kennewick" is spelled wrong! haha I hope you take Grandma to Country Mercantile for me and take lots of pics too (especially document any/all Floyd chronicles which you know are my absolute fav.)
**thanks mom and dad for both including tidbits already... the golf commentary, the iphone incident. SO CLASSIC. Grandpa Floyd I love you more than life! all of you actually!
This week I have been doing lots of thinking. I keep thinking about my cute cousin/one of my very best friends who is about to enter the mission field in two days..... thinking about how EXCITED I am for her and just thinking about my experience as a missionary and all that it has meant to me... reviewing the good, the bad, the in between
I guess what I want to say to you today is that in the words of Love you Long Time....... "I've got a secret." (LYLT reference for you there Tyler cheeeeeeeeee)
On my mission, and especially recently, I have had lots of people- members, emails from friends serving in other missions, letters from people back home, companions, my Mission President, and even you, my family- say to me something like,
"Sister Morgan, how do you have so much enthusiasm for missionary work/ for the gospel?"....or some version of, "How is there so much energy in your letters... it can't always be the BEST WEEK EVER like you say it is week after week.." or from one of my companions, "Seriously if you call our investigator one more time to follow up, they will get a restraining order...."
HAHA I really can't help myself... I love this work!!
And the secret to loving it is really no secret at all.
No the secret is not that you just need to serve in Thailand where everything is perfect and there are countrywide water fights, good food, cool transfer videos posted to Facebook, and elephant rides on P-day.
The truth of the matter is that it is NOT perfect here-- there are sorrows, embarrassments, disappointments. Oh are there sorrows! I can't begin to describe the all encompassing pain of heart when you are sitting on the curb, eyes filled with tears after a visit to dear investigators, who in a trial of faith have decided that they "just can't come to church anymore.", digging deep past the hurt and confusion, arm around companion, saying a prayer to find peace. Yeah, that happened this week! Or the disappointment and sadness that come from the coolest walk in investigators suddenly blocking your calls, leaving you wondering, "what went wrong?" That one happened too. Not to mention the rejection of being told we have to leave the street market by angry police officers and being told by those we invite- in perfect English- "we thing you are weird." haha yes, that happened!
These seemingly awful, way bad things happen- but the secret to it all is this:
I learned early on in my mission the peace and joy (enthusiasm, love, energy, excitement, all of those things) that come from having one principle always in my mind, and choosing to let it RULE MY WORLD. It is the principle that the Lord teaches Joseph Smith while he is in prison:
"If thou art called to pass through tribulation; if thou art in perils among false brethren; if thou art in perils among robbers; if thou art in perils by land or by sea; if thou art accused with all manner of false accusations; if thine enemies fall upon thee;... And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather in blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my [daughter], that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good. The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?"
By remembering this always, essentially I choose EVERYDAY to myself, write the story of my mission, of my life. It is the "You are Special" by Max Lucado (that book that everyone is familiar with about wooden people) concept. When we choose to be like Lucy (or is her name Lexi? I don't remember!) and only let the 'gold stars', the good stuff, the miracles stick, we ultimately invite the Atonement of Jesus Christ to take affect in our lives- because it is only through Him that the 'black dots', the bad times, the "unmiracles" can be forgotten.
It is through the Atonement that all that seems unfair or not right about missionary work or life can be taken away. And what's more, to on occasion weep somewhat as he wept, grieve somewhat as he grieved, and pray somewhat as he prayed, is to come to know him, our Savior. And that my family and friends, is the greatest honor, and my-our- life's work.
So here I find myself again, sitting n front of a computer, looking back on the week... and like always, all I have to say is, it was seriously the BEST WEEK EVER!
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| kick us out from inviting in the street market and we will just buy some friendship rings to ease the pain... whoever said money can't buy happiness??? HAHAHA jk, but really, how cute are these!? |
In each of those above sorrows, embarrassments, disappointments, oh what blessings, victories and joys were they surrounded, if not surpassed by. To give you just a taste:
To start off the week, Mags and I got the news that we will be staying in Chiang Mai together for another transfer!! We were both relieved cause we both feel like we just got here and have so much work left to do in this place! We had a fun send off FHE with the YSAs for Sister Peck and Elder Davenport who left us. Gooooooooooooood times for sure
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| gonna miss this cute girl-- SISTER PECK! don't mind that this is the grossest pic in the world HAHAHA |
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| yum |
Then this entire week we have been on a mad rampage/ campaign to spread CONFERENCE FEVER, aka get the members so excited to hear from the Lord' s representatives this coming weekend, and if I do say so myself, their mouths are watering for the good stuff coming their way in a few days!!
We have been watching talks from past conference sessions with investigators RCs and LAs and I am definitely not one for "one size fits all" kind of teaching, but I guess you could say Heavenly Father just helped us SO much in knowing the exact talks to choose, because for each of the different people we were working with, the talks had such a cool, personal, inspired effect.
The talk we watched with several of them was "Living the Gospel Joyful" from President Uchtdorf in the General Women's sesh from last October... sooooooo good.
Sister อาร์ม (Arm) our investigator who had just gotten the divorce before we started teaching her really understood so much better from watching it that we sacrifice blessings Heavenly Father wants to give us so badly when we are disobedient. She LOVED all it said about how much He loves us too. That was one of my favorite things to hear her say, was that since coming to church/ learning with us, she loves herself so much more than she ever has. Also, best thing EVER... later in the week when I called to make sure she was coming to church, she said she wasn't sure if she could cause they had no one to watch the dog. I told her to pray and to keep in mind what she watched about obedience and blessings etc. Sure enough, I look out the glass door from the sacrament room and she is tying her dog to the leg of the sofa chair in the waiting area.... HAHAHA. She comes right in, sits right by me and doesn't say one word. We shared a little laugh when there were faint barks heard as the deacons opened the door to pass to those sitting in the overflow... She left promptly after Sacrament, seriously it was the funniest/ most precious thing ever.........
For Sister ออย (Ooi) one of the RCs we take care of who is a single mother, the reminder that HF is not concerned with our income or appearance or amount of friends on Facebook was so spot on. She was glowing after... and then, this SUNDAY, an answer to her prayers and ours, she came to church! She finally was able to switch her schedule and the most special part of it all-- her 14 year old daughter came!! (Her daughter has some severe social problems, like has been suicidal and will not allow anyone to their house etc... for her suddenly to be WANTING to a. leave the house, and b. learn about the gospel is nothing short of a MIRACLE) YAAAAAAAAY
Sister ฝน (Phone) another RC that we LOVE, again just rang out so much with the message of a loving Heavenly Father who is there for us always. We drew a 5 year plan for her life, and to our surprise, the very first thing she drew was the TEMPLE! We felt prompted to watch another video with her after, "Is not this the Fast I have Chosen?" by President Eyring....... in tears she thanked us over and over for helping her understand why HF wants us to fast, something she has never understood. So grateful for those little whisperings to act even when you don't know why...
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| it wouldn't be Thailand if the members didn't bring you their random snacks and goodies... Mags indulging in a ginormous wafer? HAHA |
That was the case on Saturday night too. We were watching the General Women's session with the Relief Society Sisters, and in walks the investigator we had planned to meet with! She didn't answer the phone that afternoon when I called to confirm, so I kind of figured she must have forgotten... nope! She came in in the middle of one of the talks that was kind of heavy on chastity etc and I was just thinking "Ok crap, this is maybe too much! We don't want to scare her!" But then I just had this peaceful assurance, "Sister Morgan, you don't know her, but I do. Do you not think I sent her here at this moment for a reason?" We finished the rest of the conference, and were able to teach her too. She loved it, told us it made her think a lot about different things in life that she has never thought about before, and she wants to be baptized!
SO yes.... his week I am just like filled to the BRIM with gratitude/ thanks /love for LDS.org. I would send them a cookie bouquet if I knew who was behind the whole operation HOLY COW it has been the best thing ever to get these talks, have our investigators download the apps, and to be able to navigate it all so easily in different languages. It changed our world this week....... especially when we were teaching in CHINESE
I will come out and say it, Ming, our Chinese investigator, is the COOLEST. He is doing soo good, the only problem is, he is only free in the mornings and afternoons, and ALL of the Chinese speakers in the branch are only free at night. So serious miracle early this week, Brother Paul, this guy who has been here for about a month with his cute family and is a Chinese professor at BYUI, taught with us! Such a fun lesson and I think my favorite thing that Ming said after we taught him some of the commandments was "I can't wait to tell my wife about this! She will be so happy." So good. Well then we are meeting with him later in the week, Brother Paul and his fam have since left, and there we are, NO TRANSLATOR..... but that is where LDS.org saved the day!!! HAHA I printed out all of these pages in Chinese and labeled them at the top for us to remember which was which ("tithing", "fasting", "Family Proclamation" "BAPTISM" etc) haha it was like hand him paper, he reads it, speak broken Thai to confirm understanding, hand him next paper etc. haaaaaaa. He has such pure desires and has the apps all downloaded to watch some conference this weekend and has a date for baptism around October 19 (A WAY SPECIAL TIME OF THE YEAR IF I DO SAY SO MYSELF) so excited!!!!!!!
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| Ming and Brother Paul with the MANDARIN Plan of Salvation that I drew! I think I want to learn Chinese! |
so yeah....... good stuff in the works over here!! We are working hard, setting lots of goals, and laughing probably more than we should........
especially when stuff happens like I make the mistake of asking an LA we are working with if her boyfriend we meet with to start teaching if he is her nephew.... as in her little sister's son.. YIKES!!!!!!!!!
goodness gracious.
I sure love you guys and am so thankful for the prayers and loves,
have the BEST WEEK!
xo, Sister Morgan
AND GOOD LUCK in AZ BIG B!!!!!!! Throw it fast and throw it hard is probably the best advice I can think of to give you
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| I LOVE the Hmong stuff here in the North... it is Anthropologie to a T. I have to restrain myself from buying it ALL!! fun market shopping on Monday (I didn't buy anything just so you know) |
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| like this pillow that the Chambers have at their house... SO cute right? iwillfindone |
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