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!!! 

Craziness!!

Went to find a new investigator...whose house happens to be in this random jungle in Bangkok! sooo fun! 

So this week was just a week of miracles! I'll start by telling this amazing miracle story. So last week while I was on switchoff's with Sister Beuchter, I found this amazing contact at the mall, this 18 year old kid named Wud. However, he informed me that his phone was broken so there would be no way for us to contact him...yup, bummer right?!!?!? so I set up a return appointment with him for the following Thursday, and I told him I would be there waiting for him at the church so he had better come! We prayed SO SO HARD!!!!! I've never prayed so hard for miracles!!!!! And guess what...Thursday rolls around, and me and my companion get so caught up in long-planning, we show up late to our appointment...and who is there sitting on the couch at the church when we arrive....Brother Wud!!!! The guy I contacted the week before waiting for our appointment :) Not only that, but he arrived an hour early because he was so afraid that he would be late!!!! yup...we felt pretty bad for being late, but only by like 5 minutes, and there he was, SO PREPARED for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. He accepted a baptismal date on the spot!!!! The only problem now is, that he needs to get work off on Sundays so that he can make his baptismal date goal...we're praying really hard that he has the courage to talk to his boss about it cuz he definitely is more on the shy and passive side like our last baptism Brother Ja. But with God, anything is possible, and I know God will provide the way for His children if we show faith and diligence :) I have no doubts that Brother Wud will be blessed and will be able to enter the waters of baptism in the near future!

Second miracle! Our recent convert Sister Duangamon who was baptized last week gave us a referral! Her name is Sister Doy, and she and Duangamon were friends from when they were members of the Hope Church. So we trecked out about an hour away to find her house, which happend to be in the middle of a random jungle in Bangkok, and boy was this lady prepared for us :) She knew that her last few churches were missing something, and the second we brought up the Priesthood and how we need proper authority, you could just feel the spirit. It was exactly the message she needed that filled in the holes that every other church could not! I have such a testimony of the restoration!!!!! and now, she too, has a baptismal date goal :)

Miracles are such an amazing thing we are entitled to receive when we enact our faith in the Lord and in His plan to hasten his work here on the earth! I feel so blessed to be a part of these experiences while here in Thailand!!!!

Another miracle...Sister Bee (one of the Elder's investigators who we love and adore) got baptized on Sunday after District conference! This girl literally beamed from left to right as she came out of the water, and I was lucky enough to help her in and out of the baptismal font. She won all of our hearts as missionaries, and it was just a beautiful site to see as the members rallied around her as well to support her in her decision to become a disciple of Christ! She not only won our hearts, but she really brought us together as a District as we appreciated the true reason for us being here: to help others come unto Christ. It's not about the numbers or the statistics, our job here as missionaries is all about helping others. And that is just what I love to do!!!!

Sister Bee got baptized!!!!!!!!!!

Yup...sorry for the lengthy email...it was just such an incredible week, and I wanted to share these miracles with you!!! I know as we help one another, God will bless us with miracles! So i encourage all of you to help one another, serve one another, but most importantly  love one another :)

Love always,

Sister Lam

Went bowling last P-day for Sister Her's birthday :) (yay for the selfie arm i used to take the pic)

Giant FHE selfy arm pic hahaha

The Church is True!

We had a double baptism!!!!! Sister ดวงกมล (duangamon) and Brother จา้ (Jaa) entered the waters of baptism yesterday and I am so grateful I got to help them along on their journey towards the celestial kingdom!!!!

We just had a miracle week this week! 2 of our investigators that we found when I moved to this area 2 weeks ago entered the waters of baptism yesterday! Brother Jaa is this cute awkward and suuuuuuuuuuuuper shy 17 year old, but he was just so prepared. and the amazing thing about him was that after he was baptized, he changed!!! He bore a beautiful testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, and seriously, it was the first time any of us had heard him talk so much! He seriously became a completely different person!! It's amazing how the gospel of Jesus Christ and the healing power of the Atonement really can change people :) He's a stellar guy and I'm way happy and grateful I was here to help him find the true gospel!

And Sister Duangamon was a referral from a long-time member actually. They've been friends for the past year, and she had taught Sister Duangamon everything! So when she met with us, it was really like she was teaching us :) It was incredible. She was beaming sooo soo brightly when she came out of the water, and her testimony was just as touching. She explained how she knew that the Gospel of Jesus Christ had to be RESTORED in its fullness and that no other church has what we have. So for her, the decision was easy! 

It was literally a miracle Sunday! Cuz not only did me and Sister Brown see baptisms, but so did some of the elders in our district as well! We had actually set a goal as a district to see church attendance pass 100 this transfer (cuz we're usually at around 70 or 80), and yesterday we saw 103 in attendance!!!!! 25 of them were investigators that we had found too :) Prayer and faith seriously work!!!!! We had the faith that we could accomplish it, and we accomplished our goal in less than 2 weeks!!!!!!

Yup, it was a pretty spectacular Sunday here in Bangkhae! yay for District baptisms!!!

The longer I've been here, the more and more I am amazed at the hand of God in our lives here as missionaries. As long as we are willing to be obedient and follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost, Heavenly Father will guide us in all things. We just need to have the faith and we need to truly call upon God to help us cuz we cannot do His work by ourselves!

I love you guys!!!!! 

Sister Lam

Found this at a random market hahahahah! The church is so true! God does love us!

November...

I feel like being a missionary has sometimes sucked the creativity out of me...in terms of email titles that is. But hey! I am alive and well here in BangKae and loving my new area and companion! Seriously, the work here has been amazing!!! We're finding lots of cool new people to teach, and the ward is doing their best to help fellowship everyone! Seriously, what more can i ask for :) I just feel way blessed!

This week was also the Lantern Festival...not exactly the floating lanterns you're all probably thinking about like from Tangled. But it was fun none-the-less...i actually heard that up in the North they do the floating ones...but sending them off in the water was just as fun, especially since we got to do it with a lot of the ward members :)

ลอยกระทง (Loy Gratong) aka the Lantern Festival in Thailand was this week. So I got to send off this flower lantern thing into the water :) pretty fun stuff

More of the Lantern Festival!

This week we've also seen just a ton of miracles!!!!! We have 2 baptisms scheduled for next week!!! one of them was like totally out of the blue too! Her name is Duang, and she was a walk-in in Asoke actually, so they sent her to us since she lives in our area, and she has a really good friend who's LDS who's been teaching her the Gospel for like the past year! So she came to us and told us all about how she NEEDS to pay her tithing but that she needs to get baptized first of course. haha I died. But don't worry, she's not getting baptized just so that she can pay her tithing...don't worry i checked cuz i was kinda worried about that. But God has just truly prepared her. So yay miracles happen!!!!!

District Dinner Selfie :)

Me and Sister Brown outside the church building her in BangKae...yup it's like a temple it's so beautiful!!!

And I know these miracles were made possible because of our prayers of faith and our strict obedience to the commandments. So if any of you are struggling, I just tell you to turn to prayer cuz our Heavenly Father knows what's best for us and will guide us in all things as long as we are obedient :)

Love you all!!!!!

Sister Lam

Back in the Big City

Yup...it's official...I've been transferred....AGAIN!!!! But this time, I'm only follow-up training, so I'm not as stressed...but I mean it's always kinda stressful moving into a new area and trying to remember everyone's names right?! But luckily Sister Brown is a trooper and she's been leading this area like a boss!!!!! I've been so blessed to be with her :)

Me and my new companion Sister Brown!!!!!

And we've already seen miracles in this area!!!! The other day we were teaching this 17 year old boy Brother จา้ (Jaa) and he agreed to be baptized on the spot!!!!! But because he's under 18 he needs to wait 4 Sundays, but he's already come twice and has come to EVERY activity thus far (which there are always a ton at this church) so I'm way excited to see how he progresses these next 2 weeks :)

Our new district...yup there are 8 of us in 1 branch....craziness!!!!!!  

Sorry this email is so short, pressed for time! I love and miss you all! 

Thought for the week:

"Do not pray for tasks equal to your abilities, but pray for abilities equal to your tasks." (President Monson)

Me and Sister Ladle tried to get adventurous and try this Thai delicacy....yup....eggs with partially formed chicks in them....it was gross...don't recommend it.

Then also tried these fried frogs hahahahaha...not terrible