What. It's almost Mayyyyy. Already?

HEYYY

this week has been crazy! last monday right after i got done emailing i found out that both sis. holmes and i would be leaving สะพานสูง. that made me sad. i was kind of expecting it, but then when the moment comes, it's so SAD. noooo i can't leave this place and these people. so we went about our day, preparing for a white-wash (when both missionaries leave and two brand new ones come into the area and have no idea what's going on in the area). basically, i've gone into areas white-washing and training every single time so far, so i felt like that would probably be happening again soon. anyway, we got everything taken care of, and then we had FHE that night at the Bruso's house (the american family in our ward). while we were there the A.P.'s called and told me i'm actually NOT moving. mixed emotions. i'm SO happy to still be here, but then at the same time, i had already wrapped my head around moving. but mostly i'm relieved that i get to stay and introduce the area to the next sister that comes in so we don't have people fall through the cracks, especially with all our recent converts. 

so transfers meeting. sis. holmes is going to Chiang Rai!!! that lucky duck. she'll do so good. i'm really gonna miss her. my new companion is sis. ference! she's amazing. she's from Holladay, Utah, and she's been out in the field 8 months so far. first time ever that i haven't trained! weird. she's so gOOD at everything. i'm really glad i have the chance to be her companion, even if it's just for a short time. (i have a feeling i'll be moving sometime in the near future). oh, and she's super good at going running every morning. and so begins my long and painful adventure of getting back into shape. oh. my. word. my legs hurt so bad, and i basically hobble around for the rest of the day. it's awesome though. we get to go running through a beautiful neighborhood called 'Perfect Place.' ironic. it's so perfect. hopefully my running will start to show results, because yesterday at church one of my RC's told me i had gotten fatter. so honest and blunt here haha.

on sunday (yesterday) Acare got baptized. and we started teaching another girl named Earth. she's pretty much perfect. there's so many prepared people here. and then there's those that reject us hard core. like the lady i talked to yesterday who told me she wasn't ready to have eternal life. or the man who was quite certain he had never sinned in his life. (which he told me as he smoked his cigarette). i'm thankful that i know what i know. i am thankful that i know about Jesus Christ. I am thankful that I know that He lives. not only does He live, but His teachings will make bad men good, and good men better. He knows the way, because He is the way. and i LOVE testifying of Him each and every day.

sis. steele

Sister Steele and Acare, who was baptized April 27, 2014.

The bike/running path

Happy Easter

hellohello.

well today my time is really limited, because my to-do list is miles long. the day of transfers is upon us, which means for the next few days i'll be running around like a chicken with my head cut off. plus we have a dying missionary in our midst (don't worry, she's not really dying, that just means she's done with her mission in 3 days. don't be alarmed). yeah, sis. kittima is near the end, so there's a bunch of random things we need to do. despite all of the that, the work goes forth. two of our investigators, Bowii and Gift, were baptized on Sunday! and their cousin, Acare, will be baptized next week. They're the cutest girls ever.

since i don't have a lot of time, plus the fact that i'm getting lazier and lazier in my writing, i will grace you with a few highlights from this past week:

Songkran: i have never been more wet. and i have never been shot straight in the eyeballs with a powerful stream of water soooo many times. by the end of the day, i couldn't see anything but cloudy white stuff.

Sis. Earth taught us how to make PadThai. OHHH my goodness. so good. i will definitely be making that when i get home. it's really not even hard, it's just about finding the right ingredients.

The Easter program: We have been practicing for this for months now. and the night finally came. the day of the performance we went to Asoke and then practiced about 4 times in a row....WOOF. i was ready to collapse. it was a really good program, and a lot of time and preparation went into it. the choir was....great. we tried to sing our little hearts out so that the altos could hear the part, but alas, it was still a little rough. the lighting people thought it would be cool to keep changing the color of the lights shining on us too, so i felt a little bit like i was at some weird dance party. when it came time for the actual final performance, all went well. The last note, HOSANNA!, I seriously could not hold it, because one of the tenors (probably a little deacon, bless his heart) belted out the last note COMPLETELY off-note. and i just smiled. really big. trying not to laugh. i loved the whole program, and so did everyone watching. and it wasn't because we were so super talented, or because we were perfect singers. it was because the saints of Thailand had gathered together to celebrate the Resurrection of Christ. He LIVES. whether on tune or not, these sweet people sang with all their hearts about something that they KNOW. and I know it too. Christ died for us. But He LIVES for us now.

Sis Steele

Sis Steele, Bowli, Gift, Sis Kittima, and Sis Holmes

This is one way of ensuring your customers use deodorant!

Happy New Year! Thai Style...

Happy Songkran!

First just let me say that I absolutely LOVED general conference, and every single talk (no, not just exaggerating) hit me right in the face. BAM. there's your answer. I was blown away. and i really liked how a big theme of this conference was JESUS CHRIST. i mean, i guess that makes sense, since this is His church and all. but i couldn't help but think of Helaman 5:12 as a theme, especially for the first day. i love that we can go right back to the basics. if we just look at Jesus Christ, and how he lived, we will know exactly what we need to do to be happy. ahhh loved every single minute of it and i'm sad it's over already. Oh guess what. Boo got baptized on Saturday! Bishop said she was good to go after interviewing her another time, just to make sure there were no more thoughts of building a church left in her mind. haha. She really was so happy too, after she was baptized. i explained that she would be asked to bear her testimony afterward, and based on her last testimony-sharing experience, i told her she could just keep it short, and just share her feelings. as she got up, i was still wringing my hands and biting my nails. but all was well. she was indeed a changed person. she talked about finally finding the right path, and that she knew she had been baptized in Christ's true church on the earth today, by the proper authority. her testimony was amazing, leaving me relaxed and happy in my chair. home run, sister boo.

This time last year was one of my first days in country, and I was lucky enough to be greeted by the annual water festival...or in other words the Thai New YEAR. Now that it's been a year, and I actually know what's going on, and what people are saying, I'm super excited to go out and play today. I even bought myself a nice flowery shirt. It's tradition. In case you forgot, Songkran is basically an entire 3 days (or more, for those die-hard people who can't give it up) of throwing water at each other, and smearing chalky paste all over everyone's faces. yesterday (sunday) we were trying to make it all day without getting terribly soaked. and we knew we had to be home before 7pm on these next three days. So we headed home from the church around 6:45, pedaling our bikes as fast as we could go. but then we went down the market street. big mistake. we passed a man with a big huge smile on his face as he threw a huge bucket of water at us as we rode by. drenched. haha welcome to Songkran. then we got home, inside our gate, and sister Kittima told me to lock it up....while she then grabbed the hose and sprayed me down completely, laughing hysterically the whole time! so then we had our own little water fight, right outside our door. we're so cool.

have a great week!

sister steele

Conference Time!

happy monday! or sunday, whichever day it is that you read this.

so i know we're a little behind the times here as far as general conference goes. we have to wait a week for the broadcast, and then we all get to go to the church and watch it. CAN't WAIT. Call me a typical missionary, but general conference is like Christmas. except it comes twice a year. oh and just a sidenote, i don't know if anyone noticed, but they called Elder Konnakam to be an area authority of the 70. He's from Thailand! tHis is the first EVER from Thailand. So cool!

this week was really good. we were crazy blessed and saw a lot of miracles. throughout the week i kept thinking..'crap. nobody's going to come to church, because we haven't found anyone in this heat that wants to talk to us.' along came saturday, and after calling everyone in my planner we had around 17 investigators confirm for church the next morning. not all 17 of them showed up, but 14 of them did! it's like God just shook the earth a little bit, and golden, prepared people just fell out of the cracks right into our laps. the field is white, and so ready to harvest, and we're seeing the fruits of the harvest. we have an investigator that's planning on being baptized this next weekend. she was actually gonna get baptized yesterday, but then we decided she needed to wait a week so she could understand what we taught her a little better....she thought she could just go out and build a church. she has great intentions and isn't trying to be apostate or start a new church or anything, but she really did think that she could use her 40 acres of land and just build a church in a city where there isn't any churches right now. to make things more interesting, she got up in testimony meeting and announced to everyone that this was her plan. she just needed some help from the members, etc. WOOF. that poor, confused woman. i just wanted to crawl in a hole and hide, especially when she mentioned my name 3 or 4 times. hahaha. i think the second she sat down, bishop hurriedly pulled her out and sat down and had a good talk with her. we met with her after church too, and reviewed the restoration. we talked about God's authority, and how these kind of things have to be decided by God, through His prophet. Not by sister Boo. i think she understands now, because now it seems like she's trying to be extra good, and prove that she's really ready to get baptized next week...the rest of the day she was singing extra loud and almost yelling 'amen' to show her enthusiasm.

today we had a zone sports day. i haven't played basketball for....a long time...actually probably since the last zone sports day haha. wow. i'm way out of shape. and my body let me know that so graciously. whenever we have a sports activity and i end up soaking wet, i just tell people it was raining. it might as well have been. that or i just took a sweat shower.

this is about all i can think to say, so until next week, have a wonderful 7 days.

love you!

sis. steele