hellooooo

where to start?? i don't really know. because i didn't really have time to get all my thoughts down last week, so i feel like i have so much to talk about. but then i don't even know what to talk about. ok. ummmm...a few cool things from last week:

Ping is doing so well! and we were talking to her mom the other day, and she said that at first Ping was learning with the Elders, but wasn't interested, and too shy to learn with them. that was about a year ago. so she went and kept working at the 7/11. then she finally moved back in with her mom, and her mom said she prayed really hard for sisters to come into the area so they could teach Ping and she would feel more comfortable. and then we came. i know that i was called here to find specific people. and even if it was for just that one person, Ping, i feel happy. 

we had zone conference, and the theme was desire and diligence. it was so good and made me want to me better. as part of our conference, we were challenged to go out the next day and to testify of Jesus Christ every minute of the day, and to keep track of how many times we bore testimony of Him. aka we street contacted ALL DAY LONG. it landed on the day that we did companion switch-offs, so i was in Don Mueang with Sis. Reedy, who has only been here 2 months longer than I have. we had a really good experience that day though. even though it was hard, and there were times i was hot and tired, and not sure i wanted to keep talking to every single person i saw, it was such an eye opener. every time i wanted to quit i just thought of the reason i was there, the reason i'm here, i thought of Christ. He never gave up on any of us. we must have talked to over 100 people and walked for a lot of miles, and maybe 5 people that day were truly interested. but those 5 were worth it. and it helped me to be so much more confident and bold in sharing what i know about Jesus Christ! they wanted us to have this experience so that we wouldn't be afraid to talk with EVERYONE throughout our day. the very next day i started talking to a lady on the songtaw, who i probably wouldn't have normally, but since we just spent a good 15 hours talking to people, i thought i probably should. and she was Christian! i tried to give her a pamphlet, but she was like, "no i just want a Book of Mormon! where can i get one?" so that was awesome. i'm so glad i opened my mouth.

we've started teaching a cute 14 yr. old girl named ploy. i love her so much. i called her the other day and was about to hang up phone, and she was like, "wait! sister, i finished reading my verse in the scriptures for the day already!" :) i told her that even if she didn't have a lot of time, even if she just read 5 min. each day, she would be happy. she's the cutest thing ever.

we had FHE with M33 nong last monday. she helps us out a LOT with teaching, and is like our second mom. she taught us how to make somdam! (papaya salad....tastes a lot better than it sounds).

we ordered McDonalds the other night. yes, they deliver. so we had it delivered to the church. ....7 boxes of fries later....yum.

in sacrament meeting, the bishop was going through the program, and then announced that we would be hearing a special musical number from the missionaries....and that was the first we had heard about it! hahahaha. we all met on the back row and frantically tried to figure out what we would do. luckily i already had my violin there, because sis. madsen and i were doing a number for the baptism after church. so we got up and did 'i am a child of god'. pretty sure my violin wasn't even in tune. haha.

that's pretty much all my news. or all i have time for anyway. my prayers go out to Millie's family. I know they are strong and that they will be just fine, because they will see her again. i know that Heavenly Father just wanted His sweet little angel back with Him. there's a purpose and time for everything, and i'm so thankful that God has a plan. a plan of happiness. i know this gospel is true because it just doesn't make sense to have it any other way. i love you all, and thank you so much for your prayers this week, i have definitely felt them.

peace and blessings,

sis. steele

Yes, they have McDonald's in Bangkok...and they deliver!

Emily actually got to go biking alongside all the taxis in this flooded area.  Yikes!

Sister district with Emily's district

Sister M33 Nong (not sure what that means) teaching the sisters how to make somdam (papaya salad!)

Sister Steele and Ping, a recent convert, at Stake Conference

Sisters Waganda, Madsen, Steele, Itri, and Yeo

Emily's Uncle Erwin (also her bishop) went to Bangkok on business.  He also
delivered some packages and got permission to take them all to lunch!

Enjoying Thai cuisine

June 3, 2013        thailand is still treating me well!

this week was a little bit slower, and a few of the days this week were super hard to find work. i blame the rain 100%. people here are scared of the rain, and won't go outside/won't answer their phones either, because they're afraid if they do, they'll get shocked...so we had a really hard time making and keeping appointments. there was one day where we had 5 people cancel on us, and it was so frustrating. but then the end of this week picked up, and i've decided it all about quality, not quantity. because the lessons we did have this week were really good, even though we didn't have any new investigators. 

on the bright side, sis. nuun has been doing so good! other than she's a stubborn bum and won't keep the commandments. it's really hard to get her to come to church because she says she gets tired and bored. well...me too! and i don't even understand half of what's going on at church! but i go because that's where god wants me to be. and...i'm kind of a missionary so it might be a good idea if i go to church. anyway, we've been texting her a scripture every day so she actually "reads" her scriptures every day. you do what you gotta do. and we talked to her yesterday and she said she's been praying really hard and feels good about getting baptized on the 7th of July (her bday). i'll take it! lessons with her have been going really well lately, and she's believing more and more. Bro. F is getting baptized on the 16th of this month, and even though he's really hard to get in contact with, he  is one of those golden investigators that's totally ready to be a member. he has so much faith, and we are planning on meeting with him one more time this week, and then he will be interviewed on Friday. 

remember the black guy from africa i told you about? the one we met at the mall and he asked us to go do shots with him? well he totally came to our english class last week! hahaha his name is Jude. and so we referred him to the elders in the international ward (because Jude doesn't speak Thai.) anyway, the elders had to come to our area to teach him, but there was so much traffic that they called and said they couldn't make it...and that we would be teaching Jude that day. haha. so sis. madsen and i taught Jude. in english. it was kinda weird not teaching in thai, but it was most weird teaching someone who is already Christian. he has a lot of faith though. he met with the elders the next day, and even brought another friend with him to learn! and apparently they were really disappointed that the sisters weren't teaching them again hahaha. his friend even came to church yesterday! this week we also taught another investigator who was a referral from one of our RC's. it's her boss, and he's also Christian. his name is Jackie and he's the one i mentioned a few times ago that is a crazy little man and took us to all his friends and called us angels from heaven. ok when i say we taught him i mean we sat and listened to him go on and on and on about how he's so much better than everyone else because he belives in god. he tried showing us this weird/creepy/chinese video about his beliefs. he gave us a ton of money to donate to our church, and he kept insisting that he doesn't need to read the BOM because he already knows everything. during that whole "lesson" i wanted to reach out and punch him in the face. idk why, but i was so mad at that little man. i think it's because he wouldn't even let us get 2 words in. and i realized that i was mad because he was saying that every church is the same, every church teaches us to be good. that all of it just teaches about god, and we don't have anything different in our church. it really made me think about what i believe, and what i know. we DO have something different. we have the fullness of truth. and i know it's all found in the Book of Mormon. how cool is it that we have a living prophet that will tell us what God wants us to do. well, before this gets super long and boring...i'll say goodbye now.

love sister steele (the monster steele)