April 29, 2013

dearest family,

first of all, congrats to migwig and shaun! MARRIAGE!! :) so happy for them.

funny language story for the week: i was calling a member to confirm for our appointment for the day, and hello is 'sawadii kha!' and apparently i had a slip of the tongue and said 'sawadii khii' (literal translation: basically i said hello s***). cool. hahahaha the sisters overheard it and were laughing at me for a while. i don't think i'll ever live that one down. sis. wiganda told everyone in our ward about it too. also...it's super normal to talk about 'thongsia' here (diarrhea) because everyone has it because of the food. people will say it all the time, say it over the pulpit in sacrament meeting, etc. anyway, this week the food finally got to my digestive system, and sorry if this is TMI, you're just gonna have to embrace the thai culture for a minute. we were riding on the songtaw, and we still had a ways to go, when i realized i probably wasn't gonna make it to the house we were going to. i had to made the thing stop at the church (because thongsia tends to hit you at the most inconvenient times. and when it's time to go...it's time to go). anyway, everything was ok. and that's all i'll say about that.

this week we were street contacting and sis. madsen and i were told to go out and find people by ourselves. Just go talk to people! which meant we wouldn't have anyone with us who knew the language. so...i was rejected by 5 people in a row, and the first guy i talked to actually jumped away from me. i think he was probably scared of the tall white girl who was walking toward him with jesus pamphlet. so that was a bummer. but then the next person i talked to, i went up and said hello how are you in thai, and she said, oh i don't speak thai. and i was like, Good! neither do I! so she was from the phillipines and was here working. she said she would like to come to church and english class. i felt like elder calhoon on the best 2 years...the one person that finally wants to listen speaks English! woooo! haha. another cool experience i had this week was on the songtaw (not the thonsia..i'd like to forget about that one). but i was sitting next to a man, and i kept thinking i should talk to him. but i was scared because i didn't think he would understand me. but finally i got up enough courage and asked him his name. we talked for a while and i gave him a pamphlet and an english class flier, and his contact info! and i was so glad i decided to talk to him instead of looking down at the floor the whole time like i wanted to do. So yesterday (Sunday) we had 2 baptisms! it was so cool to see this cute little couple baptized! we got to be the musical number for the program, and we sang 'if the savior stood beside me'. one of our investigators (sis. Nuun) said that she felt really good watching them get baptized, and half of her heart wants to be baptized, but she's scared. basically she's just super stubborn. she said she would be baptized on july 6, her bday. but sis. itri and I are determined to have her ready before then, because we'll probably leave this are before then! and she's totally ready! she just needs to take that leap of faith.

Favorite scripture of the week: Alma 26: 12-16. i'm loving this missionary work stuff. but sometimes it's hard. and discouraging. and as hard as i try, i can't do this by myself. 'i know that in my own strength i am nothing, but in His strength i can do all things'. i know that's true! By small and simple means, God will bring to pass great and marvelous MIRACLES.

i ate thai pizza the other day. grossest thing i've had since i've been here. basically a bun with half a cup of mayonnaise on it, with some nasty crab chunks. ew i wanna throw up just thinking about it. but of course, we tell the members that everything we eat is yummy!!! mango sticky rice: new comfort food. i eat so much of it! well i should probably go now. love you all!

sis steele

 Couple baptized this past week

They sell Halls cough drops like candy!