IT'S ALMOST DECEMBER!

hello!

well, there wasn't a lot that happened this week, so this letter might be kinda short. i've been kinda sick this week, so that's been fun. food poisoning again. it took me a little longer to get over it this time, and it's probably because i didn't really have any time to get over it. plus we went on companionship switch-offs in the middle of the week, which meant i spent 8 hours on a bus one day, and 7 the next. i think i'm gonna stay away from buses for a while. especially the bouncy ones. 

Miracle for the week: we had an investigator, May, pass her baptismal interview on Saturday. She's getting baptized on the 30th! we celebrated by making two pans of brownies.

I can't really think of a lot more that happened this week, so here's some random thoughts that are going through my head...enjoy....

i'm really hungry right now.

sis. phavadee and i made up a rap to remember how to say 'we are forbidden from looking at pornography in any form.' thai is really fun to rap to.

i finally bought some multi-vitamins this week, and i've already seen them work wonders.

we were at a market this week and a random drunk guy made me stop so he could sing and do a dance for me

i think i have a total of 20 mosquito bites on one leg

it's about to rain, and i'm very upset about it

i found the christmas CD 'joy to the world' at our house, and i've been playing it over and over, just so i can listen to the music..(yeah i'm starved for entertainment)

i really miss waldo, but i think it's going to take me a while to like dogs again. the ones here are infested with fleas and they like to chase me on my bike. the other day, one jumped out of the bushes and caught me off-guard, causing me to scream out loud and swerve my bike into on-coming traffic. don't worry i'm ok.

well that's about all i have for today, but i can't wait to send pictures of May's baptism. It's truly a miracle, and i'll tell you more about it.

love you all! oh and happy thanksgiving! i'll probably be having a KFC feast that day.

Sis. Steele

I GOT TO SEE THE LIGHTS!

Hello hello hello

This week has been soooo good. oh and just before i forget, i forgot to tell you that for my half mission anniversary, i got to go to Bangkok because sis. phavadee had a meeting for THai and Laos missionaries. so i got to spend a day in Srinakarin! my first home:) i got to visit some of the members, and see some of my RC's, and we all met at the mall and had dinner together. ah it was so good to see everyone again. plus this time i could actually kind of communicate with them because i had a few months to work on my Thai haha.

so we have an investigator that has a WOW problem...can't stop smoking. but yesterday he went a whole day without smoking! we were so proud of him. he probalby gets super annoyed because we call him a few times a day to check up, encourage him, etc. and bless his heart he wants to be baptized right away, but he has to quit first...annnnddd his understanding isn't quite there. he's the one who thought the BOM was a prayer book. he's come a LONG way though. but he still gets a super confused look on his face when we introduce anything new. we went to his house every day this week, and it's been a little bit exhausting. he likes to talk. A LOT. so half the time is spent just trying to get back on track after his tangents. love him to death though.

We met with one of our RC's and she had collected a bunch of her old clothes and was getting ready to go to the market and sell them for 10 baht a piece. We helped her take her huge bag of clothes to the market, and asked her what made her decide she wanted to do this. She said that she knows how important paying tithing is, and that she will receive blessings if she pays 10 percent to the Lord. She doesn't have a job, so she doesn't have any income. So basically, she went out and sold her clothes to earn money IN ORDER TO pay her tithing. She only made 90 baht that day, but I'll never forget how happy she was, just to give 9 baht to the Lord. And she knew that she could declare she was a full tithe payer in her tithing settlement interview the next Sunday with the branch president. Whenever my faith is tested, I can look around me and see the strength of these faithful members, and how much they are willing to sacrifice to follow Christ. They truly do LIVE the gospel. 

i got to live my dream yesterday. in thailand they have a holiday that's kind of similar to Christmas...Loy Gratrong...that's a terrible translation of how it's really spelled. FLOATING LANTERNS. we went to our favorite park (which is HUGE and people go there to exercise all the time...it's great for contacting). It has a HUGE lake in the middle too. we went with some members and one of our investigators, and the other elders. we had bought our floating lanterns already, so that was good, because it was SUPER crowded at the park. Everyone sends off there floating lights at different times, and it's either in the sky, or across the water (huge decorative floating candles that they would send off into the lake). I can't describe it with my limited vocabulary, so i'll send pictures. and even the pictures don't really do it justice, because my camera is kinda less than awesome. anyway, i basically felt like i was in the movie Tangled.

They don't really have Thanksgiving here, so happy Thanksgiving, happy eating, happy Turkey bowl, etc. i love you all!

sis. steele

Loy Gatrong Celebration

Reunion in Srinakarin

I'M EATING PINEAPPLE RIGHT NOW!

heyyyy

greetings from Korat. yes i am still here. It's so weird because in some moments i want to see other places and serve other areas, but then at the same time i CANNOT imagine leaving this place. it's seems like YEARS ago that i first came to Korat, and had no idea where anything was, or what i was doing. And now i know exactly where the best fruit stands are, which members will cook the best food, and which buses to take, etc. 

so we have an investigator (the one we found at the bus station) and he is determined to get baptized this sunday...but he still doesn't quite understand everything all the way. like when we asked him to give the closing prayer in our lesson this week, he was like, "ok, what chapter?" i guess he thought that the BoM was a prayer book, and he needed to read his prayer. hahaha. and then we followed up on his reading and he said he had prayed til page 5. oh man. so basically it just told us we need to explain everything SUPER clearly for him. we have an appointment with him every day this week, because he really is set on getting baptized this week. i have a feeling we'll have to move his date back though, because he needs to come to church a few more times.

a few random things i'm grateful for before i forget:

Koko Krunch. it seriously saves me every morning, and sometimes i can't stop eating.

Oreo smoothies. i'm not even gonna try and remember how many i ate this week.

the basket on my bike. it really comes in handy.

'hymns made easy.' where would i be without it?

sis. phavadee. oh man i love her.

sunday was a good time. sister sunshine, who is from the philipines, and doesn't speak thai, asked me to be the translator when she gave her talk yesterday. she was assigned to speak on Elder Clayton's talk: Watch and Learn, about marriage. so i had a fun time trying to translate words like: transparency, self-evaluation, and self-refinement. so after i totally slaughtered her talk for the congregation, i resumed my place at the piano, where i plunked out the right hand of 'our savior's love' for the 'special' musical number....it was...special. i've been learning a lot lately about my imperfections. even though i wish i was perfect at playing the piano, or speaking thai, or teaching the gospel, i'm thankful for these opportunities to learn to be humble, and then to be better. and whether i'm awesome or not, i feel so much love from these people, and from God. and that's what this gospel is! through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, our best is good enough. as long as we're striving, struggling, and desiring to improve, that's what God asks of us.

bye bye now.

sis. steele

ANOTHER WEEK IN KORAT! It doesn't get better than this!!

well hello.

this week was so good. Obaw was confirmed yesterday along with 3 other people. Our branch is growing so fast! Our branch president is probably frustrated that we can't baptize anyone but teenagers...haha. but they're some of the only ones that are accepting and will listen. so bring on the babies. yesterday we taught one of our new investigators, her name is Peace. She's 10, and we think her mom will start learning with us soon too, because she comes and sits in on the lessons and it actually really supportive and excited for Peace to learn. she told us yesterday that she would bring Peace to church next week. after our lesson (which included drawing and coloring the plan of salvation...oh man i love teaching children haha), she stayed for a little while and we played games and then made somdam. yes i made it all my myself. we taught her at one of the members houses. Her name is Cat. And we go there ALL the time. because she's hilarious. if i'm every having a bad day, i tell sis. phavadee we either need to go eat an oreo smoothie or go visit Cat. 

Yesterday was also fast sunday. we usually start our fast saturday and then break our fast around lunch time on Sunday after church. so we had already started our fast on saturday, and then we went to a member's house that night (s. Gop) who we also visit a lot. we usually help her with her work, which is stuffing fireworks into little bags and then stapling them to colorful cardboard. she buys them in bulk, sorts them, and then sells them. so we went over there saturday night, and then she told us we needed to eat with her. we told her we were fasting, and she said if we didn't eat we couldn't go home. she's usually a joker, but at the same time, she'd be one to get offended if we turned her food down. we finally decided we would eat with her and fast all day sunday instead. and then i think that decision came back to bite us the next morning. our stomachs kinda freaked out with all her spicy food, and the next morning was not fun...sis. phavadee spent our whole time before church taking turns in the bathroom. i guess that's what we get for telling god we were gonna fast, and then being like...oh, just kidding!

i think the rain has pretty much stopped, and it's been sunny the past week or so. I LOVE IT. it's been pretty hot some days, but for the most part, the weather in Korat is perfect, and always has a breeze going. oh and just a random fact: i am now halfway through my mission! weird. well it's time to go now...miss you and love all of you!

sis. steele