Thailand Bangkok Mission ... สตีลน้องสาว: Why is the food sooooooo good?

guess what???

I have now been a missionary for 6 MONTHS. wow i can't even believe it! 1/3 of my mission. it's kind of a weird thought.

so this week has been crazy. so much has happened and i'm pretty sure all the days just blur together. my bike is currently...fixed. but i've been to the bike shop a total of 5 times in the past week. there was one day when i realized my bike tire was flat...again. but it was right before we had to meet a member at the church to go to an appointment. we were running late, and the appointment was really important, so i rode as fast as my bike would allow me to with the dumb flat tire, and by the time i got to the church, my legs were jello. the whole time i was cursing satan, because i knew he was just trying to make me mad and frustrated. what a bum. ha i guess he was doing a good job.

we went out to the house of a little family we've started to teach. it started out with just the 12 yr. old daughter, but then her dad said he would learn with us if he had time. and then at this lesson, we got to the house, and her older brother came and listened! he said he would pray about a baptismal date for this month. and Bah, the 12 yr. old girl, accepted a date for November! (she has to wait 3 months if she's a minor.) the spirit was awesome as we taught about the restoration, and Bro. Nok was the one that came to help us teach, and he's doing so well. it really all started with him. just 2 weeks ago, he was less active, and now he's helping us teach all the time. so great.

there's an area called nong waeng that we visit a lot, because there's a family out there that is so far they can't come to church a lot. but they're so strong. it takes almost 2 hours to get to their house, so we go out there about once a week to share a lesson, and to go inviting in the area. pres. senior said that if we can get 10 more people baptized in that area, they could start a new branch out there! so cool! so we've been working on getting that started.

highlights for the week:

one of the five times we were waiting for our bikes to be fixed/change tires, etc. this random guy came over and gave us...some sort of drink. and said the guy across the street had bought it for us. we asked what it was and it was coffee. so we went and thanked him for it, didn't have the heart to say, "thanks, but no thanks." so instead we talked to him about Jesus and got his number to go teach him again. we can't wait to get to the word of wisdom lesson and have that awkward moment where he'll be like, "wait, what did you do with the coffee i bought you that one time??" haha.

sis. stack and i both crashed our bikes yesterday. there's a first time for everything! we stayed at the park too long talking to people, and then it starting POURING rain. we had to ride back to the church, and at one point i guess our tires lost traction, and so some lucky guy got to see two dumb white girls eat it. we're both ok so no need to worry.

sorry this one is so long. yesterday we also got to go to the funeral. a buddhist funeral. very interesting. it involved a lot of monks chanting, and a bunch of stuff i didn't really understand. anyway, it was a cool experience, just because it made me think about where we go after this life. and that there are SO many people that don't have the truth. they think that this person who just died is going to be reborn as a different person. I am so thankful for the perfect plan of happiness that Heavenly Father has prepared for us, because this life is not all there is. in fact, "it's just a small blip on the screen" as mom would always say. and if we endure it well, we will be exhalted on high. i can't wait for that day!

i love you all so much!

sis. steele