THON BURI

greetings from THON BURI!!!

yes. i moved. wow! i thought i just might finish out my mission in Saphansung...which would have been quite lovely. but i knew a change was coming, and i knew there was one more destination i needed to see. this week has been CRAZY, and kind of a blur...so i might not be good at getting to all the details. but i do want to tell you everything. because i've had some great adventures. so maybe i'll take it day by day...

monday (last week): last pday in Saphansung. Sis. Ference and I braved up and got hair cuts. i made sure they only took of a teeny tiny bit. you can hardly even tell. success! we went to our last taco night at one of the member's houses. their family is AMAZING, and is such a good example for the church here. they were the first family from thailand to be sealed in the temple in the Phillipines. we had an awesome FHE, and sis. ference and i serenaded them with our violin duet (which we practiced...once)

tuesday: food poisoning. again. up all night in the bathroom, so that was fun. but the show must go on. we taught a sweet girl named Earn that i had met at the market. she had come to church on sunday, and was very willing to learn and to change her life. i was kind of sad that would be the last time i taught her... (spoiler alert...i just found out she got baptized yesterday!!! I am so HAPPY!!)

wednesday: last day in saphansung. i had to go renew my VISA in Asoke, and then we just contacted at the market one last time. on tuesday, one of our stellar investigators, Babe, got permission from pres. senior to be baptized earlier than her scheduled date. she would have had to wait a month, because she's underage. but this girl was DYING to be baptized, so we had pushed for her baptism day to be a few weeks earlier. she's 16, and the cutest girl ever. when she found out she could be baptized, she cried, danced, and jumped around the room. if that isn't a sign of true conversion, i don't know what is. anyway, she was baptized on wednesday, my last day in saphansung. she's so amazing. and she'll be so strong in the church. she actually reminds me a little bit of sis. Phavadee. always smiling and always happy. after the baptism, the ward had a little party for the two young men in our ward that would be leaving on their missions the next week. they're going to be serving in THailand!! so maybe i'll see them around! that night was a good night, and it was good to see/talk to everyone/say goodbye...at least for now. i'll be back here for sure! this place is too good to be true.

thursday: TRANSFERS. you will now be reading exclusive information that hasn't even made it into my journal. don't get too excited. that just means i'm way behind on my journal writing, and i've be so busy i haven't even written about my current area yet. haha. anyway, I am now in THON BURI!!!! with sis. sahagun as my companion. she's from my same group in the MTC. Thon buri is another area of west Bangkok, closer to Asoke. i really thought i would be moving out of Bangkok, but now i'm actually really glad i stayed. there's SO many people here and i'm SO excited to turn this area around. when they made a second stake, they also made a new district, and i'm in that district now. the branch i've been assigned to used to be a ward, and our goal is to make it a ward again, and to help this district become a stake. this area is definitely different than my last, but i just can't wait to get things going and to find those that are ready to be baptized here. 

friday: soooo we are currently homeless. we house-hunted pretty much all day. woof. this area hasn't had sisters in YEARS. so we're basically opening up the area and setting everything up. like a house. i guess that's kind of essential. it's kind of crazy starting completely from scratch. fun though! the members are ecstatic that there are now sister missionaries in the branch. and they are all so ready and willing to take us around to look for a house. right now we are staying at a...hotel...if you could call it that. haha it has a bed. and a bathroom. all i need! we've also been sort of living in the church library, because that's where all our suitcases are stored.7/11 is a blessing. good thing there's one on every corner so we don't have to look too far for food. such adventures we're having.

saturday: house hunting. again. i think i got a sunburn.

sunday: CHURCH!! yay! i love sundays. this branch is so cute. we had about 40 people come to church, which was a pretty good turn out for this branch. they currently don't have a branch presidency, so they're in the process of calling one. so now sis. sahagun and i just have a joke when we go out contacting that we're out looking for a good branch president. we just have to find him and baptize him! we also did some more house hunting, and actually had some success this time. we're hoping to get moved into an apartment by tonight. so cross your fingers! or better yet, maybe say a lot of prayers :)

oh and last night we found a lovely surprise at the church. i saw the biggest scariest spider i have ever seen. and i'm not usually one to be scared of spiders. my pre-mission self would have killed little spiders with my fingers. but this one was not little. it was probably as big as my hand, and it was big and brown and ugly, and i screamed. i threw a few hymn books at it, but it didn't die. so then i slid one across the floor, trapping it in the corner. it still didn't die, but i managed to get some of it's legs ripped off in the pages of the hymn book. gross. finally sis. sahagun smashed a good one on it, and then we had a curled up spider body, a few appendages, and a good load of guts all over the hymn book. success.

i'm sorry this letter is so long, and if you made it to the end...thanks for reading! even though i only mentioned all the craziness, know that we are still seeing miracles. know that i am alive and well, and extremely happy. God is taking care of us, and I know there's a reason for the increase in missionaries in this area. God has great things in store for the faithful members here, and i can't wait to see it all. keep the prayers coming! love you all!

sister steele