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