MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

It's weird, cuz I just got to talk to a bunch of you over Skype, but I guess it's only fair that I send out an email to the rest of you who I love so dearly!!! Merry Christmas everyone!!!! I can't believe that I have been in Thailand over a year already!!!! It's weird that my second Christmas here has come so quickly! But sad to say...nothing really too exciting goes on here on Christmas...so me and the other missionaries will just be hitting up a buffet to celebrate together haha. Skyping home though is really what makes Christmas for missionaries here I feel like :)

Ice Cream for Elder Opad's birthday :) the Senior couple the Moleff's were nice enough to treat us all out!

District Sunday Dinner!

And we were lucky enough to see a little bit of white this Christmas...hahahahaha ok sorry the worst pun ever. But our investigator Brother สมษักดิ์(SomSag) got baptized!!! He finally overcame is coffee addiction and felt ready and prepared to enter into the waters of baptism!!! He's such a cute old man! He always calls us to tell us how he's doing and to tell us how he hasn't drinken any coffee. he's the sweetest :) And on another happy note, our other investigator Sister พา (Pha) figured out how she can come to church now on Sundays and so she too will be baptized this upcoming Sunday :)!!!!!! The Lord has definitely been blessing me and Sister Belnap this season, even though Christmas is the HARDEST time to find people to teach because everyone is always going out of town for the holidays. so yes, we feel very very blessed!

Brother สมษักดิ์(SomSag's) Baptism!!!!

I hope you all have an amazing Christmas!! I don't want to take too much of your time cuz I'm sure you're all enjoying time at home with your families, but I just hope that you all remember the true reason we celebrate Christmas :) It is because of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, with whom without, we would not be able to live, overcome our sins and return to live with our Father in Heaven again. So during this season of giving, try and give your time, talents, abilities, anything you can really and help others in need. Christ has done everything He can to help us in every thing, so I know that we can all sacrifice a little too and give back since He has given us it all.

I love and miss you all so so much!!!!! Hope to hear from you next week!!! and just a headsup, I'll be emailing again on Thursday..which means wednesday night your time because of the New year.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

Love always,

Sister Lam

TRAINING!!!! :)

Yup, well if you couldn't catch it from the title of this email... I'm training a new missionary!!! Her name is Sister Belnap and she's from Arkansas, fresh off the plan this week from the MTC :) But honestly, you wouldn't think so with how amazing she already is at the language. Honestly, she's been making my life SOOOOO easy because of how good she is at just about everything!!! I definitely lucked out with this one!

Branch Christmas party and Elder Davis was Santa hahahaha

My old companion Sister Ladle finished her mission :( miss her

And so far, our first week together has started with a bang! We had Sister พลอย (ploy's) baptism yesterday!!! So her story is, she started learning with the Elders and she definitely faced a lot of trials getting to this point. Then her elders moved...so initially, she had a goal of getting baptized like 3 weeks ago, but after she started learning with us, she lost her job and got evicted...tough right? Satan definitely strikes hard when you are trying to do the right things. But after some serious fasting and praying through faith, the Lord gave her a miracle job that provided a free place to stay!!!! So this past Sunday, she was finally able to enter the waters of baptism, and I literally don't know if I've seen anyone smile as much as she did that day. Literally beaming from ear to ear, she smiled the entire time, even when she had to be dunked multiple times into freezing water...ya we let one of our new greenies baptize her...and let's just say he was pretty nervous! But it's ok, cuz she got baptized!!!!!!! And this branch welcomed her in with open arms, to which I am so grateful for. It really just is a testimony each time that members really do make the difference!!!! They are what keep people active and feeling loved!

Sister พลอย (ploy) got baptized!!!!!

New District!

So something that struck me from zone training this past week was a quote by President Senior. He said, "I would rather hope for the impossible and be wrong than not hope and be right." Hope, is something I've been focusing a lot of my studies on lately. We have this one investigator that just has lost hope because her mom is so against her learning. And because her mom is the only family she has, she hates to see her mom upset. Literally, she has just been torn apart because she knows the church is true, but doesn't want to disobey her mom...rough situation right? So I've been praying for her, and this quote really just stuck with me. As missionaries, we HOPE for the impossible every day. We hope that people will accept our message and come unto Christ. And to be frank...we get a lot more no's than yes's....which really can tear you apart inside. But that hope, keeps me going; the hope that I will meet someone who accepts our message every day, the hope that God has prepared specific people for me and my companion to meet, and the hope that we will help Thailand prepare to receive a temple! So even though right now our investigator has lost hope, I have not and will never lose hope for her. If she truly believes this is the true church of Jesus Christ restored on the earth, God will prepare the way for both her AND her mother to be baptized!!!!

NEVER LOSE HOPE!

Ever upwards,

Sister Lam

Sister Nattaya from our branch got her mission call to serve in Australia!!!!!

The end of another transfer already?!?!?!?

It still baffles my mind how quickly 6 week transfers seem to fly by now for me. But this was definitely a pretty amazing transfer with Sister Brown, especially since we went out with a bang and had a baptism our last Sunday together :)

Our last dinner together as a district :(

Yup, yesterday, Sister เจน, our 18 year old investigator joined the fold of God through the waters of baptism!!!!! She is seriously such a miracle story! At first she came to the church specifically to learn English. But once we started teaching her, we started to see how the Holy Ghost works within people! The day we taught the Plan of Salvation is the day that everything changed for her I believe. At first, ya, she wanted to learn and was interested in the things we had to say...but the day we taught the Plan of Salvation is the day the spirit truly worked within her because it answered every question she had, and by the end of the lesson, SHE was the one that told us she needed to be baptized :) And after her baptism, she bore such a strong testimony of how the Holy Ghost works within us to guide us to the truth. And ya, that's so true!!!! She was definitely a miracle for me this past transfer!

Sister เจน's (Jane) baptism

Trying to fill up the font with a hose from outside.

Other events from this week....oh ya we had zone conference, which included the fanciest buffet I have ever been to!!!! So that was a nice bonus. And it was just nice to join together as missionaries and celebrate the birth of our Savior, especially now during this Christmas season!

All of the Bangkok missionaries together for our Christmas zone conference!!

Well...that's all I got for this week! We find out tonight whether or not we're moving or staying for this upcoming transfer...so until then!!!

The public transportation we take in Thailand every day...haha

for my Spiritual thought this week...watch this video!!!

http://www.mormon.org/christmas?cid=HPFR112814529

Love you all!

Sister Lam

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!....and happy December!!!

Yay for Thanksgiving!!! And this year, our thanksgiving was actually pretty good :) We celebrated it on Tuesday actually, but the Senior couple that is in our District invited us over to their apartment for a real homemade American Thanksgiving! So save it to say...it was amazing to get some good American food for once haha. Our District was definitely spoiled :)

Thanksgiving lunch at the Moleff's apartment :)

In addition to that amazing blessing though, we had the awesome opportunity to see 5 of our recent baptisms receive the gift of the Holy Ghost in Sacrament meeting yesterday!!!! it was amazing to hear all of their promised blessings!! The one that hit me the most was the blessing of Sister Bee, who was baptized last week! Her blessing talked about how she would be a missionary to many and it would be her life mission to help others find the truth. But it also promised her blessings of an eternal family sealed in the Temple of our Lord!!!! ya....serious blessings right?!?!?! It just made me even more grateful for the things we get to do EVERY day as a missionary for our Savior. We get to see people change their lives as they decide to follow Christ, and then they share those blessing with others!!!! The Lord truly does hasten His work through His chose vessels!!!

This week, as we have been preparing for an upcoming zone conference, I've been also studying a lot about pushing through trials with a forgiving and repentant heart. One talk that I really loved from this past general conference was from Elder Klebingat. He said, "Acknowledge and face your weaknesses, but don't be immobilized by them."..."Often trials and tribulations are allowed to come into your life bcause of what you are doing right." (Glenn L. Pace). 

This week was a little harder in terms of finding new investigators to teach. We saw a few setbacks...and to be honest, we got discouraged.Hhowever...I know that God does not give us any trial that we cannot handle. Yes, we might get frustrated when things don't work out, but we should not let those set-backs immobilize us. It is for these trails and tribulations that we came to this Earth. We chose to come here to learn and grow, and what better way to grow than through our trials put specifically there for us to learn from?

So this Thanksgiving, I am very very grateful for my trials. It is from them that I've learned the most about forgiveness. It is from those trials that I truly learned of the healing hand of the Lord's Atonement specifically for ME and specifically for YOU as we chose to repent and enact this saving grace. And I am also grateful for all of you who have helped me on this path :) I seriously love all of you so much, and especially now during this holiday season I challenge each and every one of you to reflect on those things that you are grateful for that have truly shaped the person you are today!

With love,

Sister Lam

We went to Wat Arun (huge tourist attraction here in Bangkok) last week for P-day!!!