Do you wanna get baptized?

Soooo.  This week was a good week! :)

This month in the Thailand Bangkok Mission (TBM - The Best Mission) we've all been working towards the goal of having one person get baptized in each companionship!  We also... received some new training about how to contact and invite people.  This is how we do it... we ask everyone we talk to if they want to get baptized right on the street!  We've been told to extend a date even!  It takes a lot of boldness to ask everyone for 2 hours if they want to get baptized.  Buuuuut.  It's exciting to meet with people afterward who know exactly what their goal is.  Baptism.  Who have come back because they want to learn more about the gospel, and they want to be clean from their sins!  I think it'll take a little bit of work to get better at it... but! It's exciting!  All of everything working towards having a temple here in Thailand! :)

Ummm... what else from this week.  In Thailand this week... there is a festival... that's name... always escapes me.  Some kind of festival!  Which involves lanterns, and little flower candle boats.  It was really beautiful actually... Saturday and Sunday at night there were tons of little lanterns in the night sky!  :)  And the river was all decked out with lights.  Sister Sararat and I went contacting on this really long street of food/clothing/everything for this festival.  We met some really cool people!  I'm always amazed by how many people I meet that have already met with missionaries!  It's incredible... I dunno if it's just a lot of the people that I talk to... or if there are really that many people who have gotten a chance to meet and learn!  What awesome proof that God is aware of us, and that even though it takes maybe... multiple contacts with the gospel... they can still accept the gospel!  Hooray! :)

We are still teaching some of the people that we've been working with in the past!  That mom who came to church last week is interested in getting baptized!  Hooray!!!  I really love seeing this family together... and how amazing would it be... to see them all get baptized!  To see them sealed together in the temple! :)  Hooray! :)  We're workin' on it!

This morning I've been thinking a bit about... Eternal Life! :) And alllll that that entails.  As a missionary... you face a lot of rejection... I think that the hardest ones for me are the ones who have felt to sing the song of redeeming love... but for some reason or another... they've forgotten!  The less active members sometimes... just tug at my heart strings, and I just wish I could clear the confusion and the distractions that are difficult to avoid in life, and help them see the Plan of Salvation with clarity.  The pearl of great price!  That thing which would cause them to sell everything they own.  I was reading about the Father of King Lamoni this morning.  I will ALWAYS love his heart felt questions to Aaron, after he learns of the Plan of Salvation... "What shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?" and his sincere pray... "I will give away ALL of my sins to know Thee."  I wish I could just make them understand that really really the Plan of Happiness.  Is a Plan of Happiness.  That Heavenly Father knows them.  That He loves them... when I was younger I used to get confused about why the Savior was always telling people He was the Savior, and why He was always saying "Come unto me"  (I don't really know why that confused me... but I didn't really get it!)  But I think if we could see things with the eternal and all knowing perspective of God... we would understand and feel the urgency and pleading and pure love in the call "Come unto Me."  The Savior asks us to come unto Him, to find rest for our souls, to find healing, to find help!  He knows the gift, which is the greatest of ALL gifts.  And that is His work and His glory.  To bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man!  Man that's amazing.  And even though it's difficult to not be able to MAKE anybody feel or understand anything.  I know I'm blessed to have the chance to extend love!  To bear my testimony, and try to help these people!  Dear are the sheep that have wandered.

I love you so so much! :)  Annnnd I hope that you have a wonderful week this week! :)

Love,

Sister Croft

P.S. Pictures.  Haha... I ate this at that festival.  It was like... some kinda chocolate smoothie thing.  With bread/cake, cereal, and red... things.  I don't even know.  I think it had chocolate sauce on it too.  Don't worry... I shared it with my companion.  I didn't even notice the golden irony of the large bucket that it came in.  Eating Healthy. 

SukoThai. Bangkok. A flat tire. The Works

Dear family,

It was nice hearing about all of your weeks this week :)  I hope that everything continues to go well! :)  It's crazy... I'm sitting here sweating typing this email.  And you guys are starting to get really cold.  Weeeeeird :)

But.  First of all... last week we went to Suko Thai!  That was fun... it was warm.  We rented bikes... and we got to drive around and see all of these incredible and intricate.  I'm not sure what to call them.  I think a lot of it was parts of temples that you could still see.  Isn't it amazing that it seems like no matter where you go in the world, or how far you go back in time... humans always have the desire to progress to create, and very often they create things that are beautiful and intricate.  It's just cool... it reminds me of that talk by President Uchtdorf!  Just feast your eyes on the beautiful... SUKOTHAI.  It makes me want to make something pretty.  My love of texture was definitely fed on Monday.

In other just technical and unimportant news... we went to Bangkok this week for a meeting with all of the Thai missionaries... of course being Half-Taiwanese doesn't really qualify me to go to that meeting... so instead I got to go on switch offs.  Which was exciting! :)  It's always cool to get to study with and meet new people and see some of the awesome things that other missionaries do!  

Other than that... this week... Man... I don't even know what to tell you about this week!  IT was kind of a crazy one! Going to Bangkok sometimes took up multiple days.  But.  We're still working with a lot of the investigators that we were working with before.  It's been cool to see them progress and grow a little bit!  To see there hearts open up as we meet with them more often!  Sometimes I just love getting to talk to so many different people every day!  The challenge is not to just talk to them... but to invite them to learn with you!  To learn more about the restored gospel and the truthfulness of it!  And I'm seeing a lot of different things that I can do to helllllp people more and more. :)

Just kind of a fun story from the week.  Soooo.  My tire went flat randomly.  This is the second time that's happened to me :)  IT actually went flat on Saturday... and then while we were walking to get it fixed someone close to our house offered to fix it for us!  They filled it up... couldn't find a hole... and so we went on our merry way.  Then we went to leave for church Sunday morning and found that our tire was flat.  Awwww nuts.  At about the same time and member who lives close to us rode by on his bike.  His mom and brother had said that they were coming to church and we were SO excited!  Buuuuuut it turns out they didn't have a motorcycle like they thought they would... so... they weren't going!  Noooo!  But.  Since we had to walk anyway... we walked ourselves over to their house and invited them to walk to church with us!  It's true that we MAY have gotten to church a TINY bit late :)  but I was so happy because we had this member's mom with us!!  Hooooray! :)  I think we also got to meet a lot of people we wouldn't have met just because my tire was flat.  Sometimes a flat tire is a blessing.

I'm not really sure what else to say about this week... sorry that this email is so short and boring!  Hopefully the pictures will make up for the lameness. :)

I love you so so much.  And I hope that you have the BEST week!  EVER.

Love,

Sister Croft

I love Thailand.

This week was a good one!  I'm pretty sure several times while we were just biking around I just couldn't help but grin... Thailand is AWESOME! :)

This week.  Oh man... what all happened it's hard to remember.  Sorry that this email will probably be short and not very good!  Haha.  Well...Just for a fun fact.  We went to the hospital three times this week (hospital=doctors office here.) Once because my poor companion scratched her eye.  And twice to visit an investigator.

Another fun fact.  I have officially been "footed."  Eeek.  :) We had a kinda unique experience in the park this week... where someone really didn't like what we were doing!  So I've officially seen someone do the equivalent of "telling someone they're number one" in America! Ahhh :)

  

Also.  This week was Halloween! :) I hope that you had a thrilling time at home! :)  Haha... probably the usual hanging out at home and eating candy.  But I'm sure you could be wondering what Halloween is like in Thailand.  In Phitsanulok we had a Halloween activity, complete with donuts on a string (who knows where that even came from) toilet paper mummies, and other such Halloween festivities!  It was an activity planned by the youth... so it definitely had a lot of energy and excitement! :)  But it was awesome to see quite a few random people come (we invited tons of random people on the street!)  Sometimes... I think you just gotta know that entering the church isn't a scary experience!  We can have fun :) and the members are people too! :)  I'll attach a few pictures from the activity... unfortunately I only took a few.

I'm not sure what else to tell you about this week...we're still working hard with members and investigators, trying to help people come back to church, or even come to church for the first time!  With so many sometimes overwhelming concerns of both individuals and groups... this week my heart has turned again towards charity.  The words from "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go" pop into my head so often... "Perhaps today there are loving words which Jesus would have me speak."  I'm really trying to make that one of my biggest goals in visiting less actives and meeting with investigators, that they can feel my love for them, as well as our Heavenly Father's love for them as we meet with them and invite them to do things.  Everything that the Savior did was out of love.  So I'm trying to make that the driving force behind everything that I do as well! :)

Annnnd.  Just some thoughts from my personal study this morning.  As I was reading in Alma 5.  This phrase popped out at me.  "And now I say unto you, all you that are desirous to follow the voice of the good shepherd, come ye out from the wicked, and be ye separate..." I'm not sure why that stood out to me so much.  But.  It did :) so you get to hear about it I guess!!  Isn't it amazing sometimes to look around you and see that we literally are in the last days?  Wow.  It's crazy!  It seems like the faster time rolls onward, and the more the world gets polluted with the philosophies of men, and the temptations of Satan, the more we have to consciously decide to follow the voice of the good shepherd, and BE YE SEPARATE.  Sometimes that requires courage.  But because it's true :) it's worth it!  And Heavenly Father will strengthen us as we try to follow His voice, and respond to His call as our Shepherd.  

I love you all! :) I hope you have a Thairiffic week :)  The gospel is true.  No doubt about it!!!  It is worth every "sacrifice" and every effort.  

Love,

Sister Croft