The picture's a bit fuzzy-it was getting dark, but we wanted to show you our backup when Karyn's bike had a flat tire!
We have seen miracles in the Lord’s work this week. they have made us cry in gratitude and smile with joy. Our branch has struggled with contention and pride that has made it hard for new converts to be fellowshipped and for members to be strengthened in serving each other and feeling the spirit guiding them. The branch has not grown, it fact it has been shrinking. It seems after a few months of hard work and persistence on the part of all of the four of us missionaries laboring here and in the great faith of some members, the Lord has begun to pour out blessings here.
This is the first Sunday since our arrival 5 months ago that I felt the Spirit so strongly in Sacrament meeting and witnessed investigators received with such love and fellowship. A new student from our english class come to church unannounced and dear sister M enfolded her with smiles and friendship. This student, after the 3 hours of meetings, stayed to begin learning the gospel with the missionaries and has accepted the invitation to be baptized next month. In fast and testimony meeting, one sister jumped up to the pulpit to bear her testimony. She told the congregation through tears that this was the first time she had done this in her 18 years as a member. She wept as she told of her struggle to let her husband serve as a leader in the church. She had resented him taking time to study his scriptures and serve, as she said she was more interested in him working and making money. She has begun studying the scriptures herself, and feels their power in her life. It is a struggle for members to become converted after gaining a testimony. It is a regular occurrence in Thailand to have a leader that does nothing for various reasons. There are so many changes to make in their lives. This member’s powerful testimony allowed the spirit to teach us all and other meaningful testimonies followed.
The Young Women's Day that I helped plan for the district was another miracle. On Saturday, young woman travelled from our 5 branches to meet together for the General Young Woman’s Meeting, one week after the actual meeting because of translation time.
I had no idea when planning, what the theme of the General meeting would be. What a blessing when I watched the broadcast in English the day before our event and realized that my inspiration was perfectly in line with their emphasis. I felt impressed to have Jim help take a picture of each of the girls and Photoshop it in front of a temple of their choice. I also planned that the girls would make a white temple dress hanger with a poem attached to remind them every day when they see the hanger that they will one day hang a temple wedding dress there. This will encourage them to choose modest clothing, and persist in their righteous standards. I had a lot of difficulty finding supplies for this project and decided that we would abandon the project and just go to the aquarium in the afternoon. When I talked to the district young women's president and heard of how excited she was to do this project I made one more effort. The Lord blessed me with a fantastic helper. I reached a milestone while working on this project. I made a phone call myself to Sister Nida without having Jim translate!! We celebrated with high-fives. Sister Nidaa helped me find supplies, and together we designed a beautiful hanger. The girls were ecstatic to have their picture in front of their favorite temple. Very few of them had seen a temple in reality. They love the Temple dress hangers which they made themselves.
As a climax to the day we watched the general young women's meeting where we heard about Standing in Holy Places, and saw a video of a young woman getting up early, going by train and bus to go to the Temple alone. We also watched the video The Miracle of Personal Progress. Jim was able to put Thai subtitles over the English ones.
Yesterday as I met with my young women's presidency and a recently called class president and counselor I was delighted to hear of the plans these young women had to perform acts of service, visit less active members, and have fun activities. I asked them to come back with suggestions in a week-they left the room and burst into the room in half an hour their faces glowing with excitement. They said their brains were overflowing with ideas. They couldn't wait to tell us. I told them that this is how the Holy Spirit works, and that they had experienced inspiration. Sunday evening I made a call to my recently called second counselor and she told me that she is going with the class president to visit a less active girl who came out to the activity on Saturday.
Friday when we had preparations for the young women's Day on Saturday largely completed we scheduled time to cycle out past the ring road to invite Sister Yaa to come to the young women's day. This was our second long ride of the day and it had been 40°C. When we arrived at the home where Karyn had visited in December the house was closed and no one was there so we called her. Her mother said that they lived on the south side of the river in Warin. Since we were about 8 km from our house in the wrong direction we said there was no way we could make it to visit them that evening and we extended the invitation over the phone. Yaa asked if sister Toffee was going to be there. When the answer was no she decided she wouldn't come because she wouldn't have any friends. We told her that Phed and Plohy could be her friends, she agreed to come. It was dark and cool as we started to bike home laughing at our worst navigational error so far. When a dog came out of the darkness and snarled at my feet I was terrified and screamed and screamed. I made plans to buy some pepper spray or something that I can attach to my handlebars to chase the dogs away. This has happened before but I have never been as terrified as I was this time because in the dark I couldn't see how big the dog was or how close it was. We never did find out how big it was because my screams scared it away. I decided I liked the “dogs on leash” bylaws that we have in Canada.
The funny part was that the next morning when the branch president went to pick up Yaa at the address we had been given, the girl he picked up was Taa not Yaa. Taa is a young woman whom I had never met but was less active and she had a good time all day long. I know the Lord wanted to have her there but it illustrates the difficulty we have in working with the member information we have. All the lists we have from the computer system of the church have people's full names. Very few people use these names and we know them all by their nicknames. Jim has worked for months and finally found a way that we can put the nicknames into the computer and print lists that will avoid this kind of mistake in the future.
Yesterday after church one of the young men came up and told me that he liked when I played my violin at the baptism Saturday evening. I replied that I liked the way he shared his testimony. Unfortunately what I really said was, "I like the way you shared your bicycle. " Everybody we told about this has a good laugh!
This Wednesday we have 32 new missionaries arriving in Thailand. This is a larger group of missionaries than have ever arrived in this country before and includes the first of the wave of younger missionaries who have responded to the Lord's invitation to serve earlier. They are bravely coming here with less time in the MTC to learn the language. We are privileged to watch over them and serve with them.
We have been praying for more senior missionaries to come. We see and are told how essential what we do is to the Lord’s work here. A new senior couple arrives Wednesday as well. The husband served in Thailand before Jim.
I noticed on Facebook that someone in Calgary was excited about the weather being 19° and planned to wear shorts. Here it was 40° and I can't wear shorts!
Karyn
After a fun Family Home Evening
