I believe in miracles!

So you're all probably wondering about the military coup that happened this week and how it affected the mission. Hopefully I can ease all of your minds! We are safe and sound, and it really didn't affect us too much...except for maybe more traffic? President informed us that if we did not have any scheduled appointments we were to stay at home and try to work from there. Luckily, us international sisters are pretty good at stacking up our appointments every day, so even with the military coup we were allowed to go to the church and teach! Good thing too, because we saw 2 baptisms yesterday from our appointments this week!!! Such a miracle!!

Brought our shopping cart full of our 72 hour kit home (cuz of the coup)...yup literally rolled the cart into our kitchen ha

We all got matching nighties!!

Yesterday we saw the baptisms of Brother Allen from Oregon, and Brother Zsolt from Hungary! These men were just super prepared souls!! Although it was a bit of a struggle teaching Zsolt because of a large language barrier, the spirit was always very strong in our lessons. And I found Allen on the subway and just quickly in passing gave him a card with our phone number on it. and guess what, he used it!!!!! He texted me saying he was interested to learn more, and was baptized within a week!!!!! God truly does prepare His people!!

Our investigators, the 2 in the middle (Allen and Zsolt) were baptized yesterday!

And today in my studies I came across and awesome scripture, which reads, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches; he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing." (John 15:4-5)

And this is so true!!! Without God, we can do nothing!!! These 2 miracle baptisms could not have been possible were it not for the guiding force of God's hand in the lives of these 2 men! God truly prepares a way for us to teach and serve His children!! Don't forget to be missionaries guys! Even though you don't wear the tag, you can still help the work progress!!! ok, sorry I'll get off my soapbox now ha!

I almost broke the office laminator...woops

My companions wanted to see if I could fit in this suitcase...I did...

Love you!!! Hope you like the pictures this week!

Sister Lam

Miracles!

Brother Jim Calvin got baptized this week!!!! So here's his story...He's from the U.S., works at Deloitte, but is here in Thailand on medical/possible retirement leave cuz his wife is from Thailand. He contacted us via the church website. And when we called to see if he was interested, he told us he wanted to be baptized!!! yup, sooooo soooo golden!!! It was just an amazing experience teaching him and his family! His family will hopefully be following his lead soon by being baptized!

Our investigator Jim Calvin was baptized on Sunday!!

But sadly, this week we also had to turn down 2 very prepared souls for baptism. Geebo is from Sierre Leone and Desmond is from Cameroon, and both these guys learned everything from us and even passed the baptismal interview, but we found out last minute that they do no have long-term visas here. And because Thailand has that rule that people on tourist visas, asylum seekers, refugees, cannot get baptized, we had to tell them that they could not join Jim in the baptismal faunt this past Sunday. It was literally one of the hardest things I've ever had to do :( But I know that everything goes according to God's will, and when it is their time to be baptized it will happen! Hopefully I will be there to see it, but it's up to the Lord!

The sketchy prison-like apartment complex we live in

On a brighter note, the work here in Bangkok is still moving! We're teaching a ton of people every day and we're finding those golden souls God has provided for us! The Church is true!! Oh and crazy thing that happend, this past sunday a group from the BYU Marriott school came to our ward, and my 2 friends Casey and Bryan Briggs were in that group! It was so fun seeing faces from my "previous life" haha. Such a good week!!! Hope all of you at home are doing well!! Miss you!!!

Saw Casey and Bryan Briggs from BYU in our ward today! Craziness!

Celebrating Elder Lucas' birthday at Sunrise Tacos! yup Mexican food in Thailand! yum

Love Always,

Sister Lam

Happy Mother's Day!

Got the chance to Skype home this morning...so weird. I can't believe time flies by here so quickly! I feel like I just had skyped home, but that was like 6 months ago! Craziness. But things here in Asok are going so well!!! this week we found 6 new investigators, and this coming Sunday we should be seeing a few baptisms!!!! It's amazing how much faster the work seems to be flowing here in contrast to my last area! But Thailand is seriously truly blessed!

These are some of my favorite elders ;)

This one time we went to the airport to drop off this Laotian sister for her mission in England!..kinda weird since I haven't been to the airport since I came into the country and wasn't expecting to go back until I left...

This is Sister Carter...o ya story time...she had to get her appendix out this week!!!

Spiritual snack for today, "Do not pray for tasks equal to your power, but rather pray for powers equal to your tasks." (Elder John H. Groberg). I love this quote! So I'm currently reading this book by President Monson when he was just a general authority and not the prophet, called "Pathways to perfection." I recommend it!!! It's soo good, and he just shares his experiences as well as other peoples. And this quote from Elder Groberg is from this book, and it just really made me think about how so many times we complain about our trials...aka tasks. And instead of asking for divine help with these tasks, a lot of the time we just pray for easier tasks...or not trials at all. But the beauty about prayer is that we can directly communicate with our Heavenly Father and ask for His divine help! And with His help, we can do anything! It just requires us to rely a little more on Him and less on ourselves!

I hope all of you mothers had a wonderful mother's day! I'm happy I got to skype all of you at home!!!! 

Love always,

Sister Lam

The Power of 3

Being in a trio is such a blessing!!! I don't think I would have said that as easily after my experience in a trio in the MTC, but Sister Barber and Sister du Plessis are the best companions I could have asked for. And I feel like we really balance each other out. So Sister Barber is very calm and just go with the flow, Sister du is just straight up crazy and off the walls but in a lovable way...like Giselle from the movie Enchanted :), and I'm the overly-organized perfectionist. So we just work so well together. When Sister du loses something...which happens every day ha, I know exactly where it is. And when I stress out about not having updated records, Sister Barber calms me down and we get to work! It's awesome. Not to mention teaching with 3 of us. 2 is awesome because you have your companion to support and testify, but now there are 2 other people that can support and testify, which I have found just brings in the spirit so much more!

Me and my beautiful companions!

Yup, 5 of us cram and live in that tiny room

Iceskating on P-day!

So if you didn't notice...I love being in Bangkok as an international sister! We teach so many amazing people from around the world every day. Something though that I wasn't quite aware of was the amount of asylum seekers and refugees there are here from places like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, and many other places. They all are so humble and have come here for their religious freedom and for a better life for their families. And many of them have found that through our church! But because they are asylum seekers and refugees, they cannot be baptized without the proper visas, etc. It breaks my heart after we have so many amazing lessons with these people who have so readily accepted Jesus Christ in their lives as their Savior, but they cannot follow His example and get baptized because the law here in Thailand won't permit it. It seriously kills me :( But I know that this is only the beginning for them. We have planted the seed and helped them find their testimonies of the true gospel of Jesus Christ, and someday they will be able to enter into the waters of baptism!

My first 7/11 meal (quickest food on the go)

I also found out this week that Thailand is the highest baptizing mission in Asia!!!! It's been such a blessing to serve here! And not only that, but by the end of this transfer in June, we will have about 1000 baptisms, which is completely unheard of here! And hopefully by the end of the year we will have 2000!!! God has truly prepare the people here to accept the gospel!

 Part 1 of my huge district

Part 2

And if that wasn't enough of a spiritual boost, here is a quote from our beloved prophet, Thomas S. Monson that I found this week. "We must refuse to compromise with expedience; to maintain the courage to defy the consensus; to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong. By doing so, we will not detour, but rather ever remain on the way to perfection."

"The past is behind--learn from it. The future is ahead--prepare for it. The present is here--live in it."

The gospel is true!!!!  I'm so grateful for the opportunity to serve a mission here in Thailand. Not only do I get to serve people every day, but I have truly come closer to my Savior in the process. I hope if any of you have the chance to serve a mission that you grab it! It will change your life. I know that my life has forever been changed just in these 6 short months.

Love always,

Sister Lam