Miracles

This was a really good week.  Sorry I'm emailing early :)  I gotta go ride some elephants.

When I stop and think about this week.  I'm sure that there are a million miracles that happened that I don't even know about.  But all of it cammme together in one great Sunday.  We had 3 people get baptized in our branch.  One of them was named Nam, one was named Rat, one was named Nano.  They are all incredible.  I'll just tell you some more about them.

Nam.  Is awesome.  She is the one that walked into the church and who went to a catholic church more than she went to Buddhist temples.  Man she is awesome.  She is someone that God definitely prepared to get baptized.  When she bore her testimony she told us about how she first started to be interested in the Lord when she was like 14.  Ad that led her to the catholic church... and then eventually led her to the fullness of the gospel.  She prayed that she would be able to find the truth, and she found this church!  She really is incredible, and it was awesome to see her get baptized this week.

Brother Rat is amazing too! :)  He is such a funny guy.  He's such a sincere and nice person.  When you teach him he looks very intently at you, and then he reads the scriptures with a desire to understand and learn from them.  He is so funny.  He met some challenges with his family in getting baptized, but I am so proud of him for making the decision by himself to get baptized this week.  He is amazing and I am so happy for him!

Sister NaNo, wasn't our investigator, but Sister Mac and I got the chance to talk with her and teach her several informal lessons to help her prepare for baptism.  She is awesome.  She was a little bit nervous about being baptized.  But she had courage!  And I can tell that she sees a light in the gospel and in the people at the church that maybe she hasn't had a lot of chance to see other places.  I'm so happy for her too!  :)

The church is true!  I'm so grateful to know that.  I'm grateful for the commandments.  I'm grateful for the Savior, and I'm grateful for the Savior's promise and plea to us to let Him help us.  He says He will gather us as a hen gathereth her chickens.  He says "will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?"  He is our Savior.

I love you all :)

Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Croft

Another good week in Bangkok

It was a good week here in Bangkok.  I'm flipping through my planner trying to remember everything that has happened and everything I've learned this week!

We've been working with several different people.  And it's cool to be able to see their faith grow and progress.  To see them learn more and then try to help them through challenges that they are facing.  Our investigator who walked into church is progressing so well. Wow she is awesome!  She definitely has an "easiness and a willingness to believe", and she is so ready to accept everything that we teach her.  She is buddhist, but when she first met us she told us that lately she seemed to go to a Catholic church more than she did Buddhist temples!  She really does have incredible faith, and she is one of many who God has prepared to accept the gospel.  Wow she is awesome!  

We have another awesome investigator who is so awesome!  At church a couple of weeks ago he received a Joseph Fielding Smith book for Sunday School!  He is so funny.  He's read several chapters from it, along with his Book of Mormon reading.  He is also one that is so easy to believe.  So ready to accept the teachings, and so willing to keep the commandments.  He is great!

Something that I've been thinking about this week is the Savior, true repentance, and the role of the Savior in all of that.  I've been thinking about repentance and baptism and becoming truly clean from our sins.  It's interesting to consider several different beliefs about "becoming clean from our sins," and how that happens.  I've been thinking about why repentance is the way it is.  And I think it's amazing how repentance really is more than "being clean,"  it's a process, through which we can gradually become more like the Savior!  Through the power of the Atonement we not only receive forgiveness for our sins, but we change and improve.  We become a saint, we become like a child, but that can only happen through the Atonement of Jesus Christ!  I had an interesting conversation with a man last night when I invited him to be baptized.  He told me he had a lot of sins, and it was cool to be able to confidently tell him that he could be come clean, and he could change.  It was something that I noticed in a lesson with a wonderful less active lady in our ward.  In several verses I saw the word for "change."  Have you experienced a change of heart?  Our hearts can be changed through the Savior's Atonement.  

It was good to hear from each of you today! :)  I hope that you have a wonderful week this week!

Love,

Sister Croft

What language was that?

Wow, again.  I don't even know where to begin.  Except that... I feel like the Lord is pouring out His blessings on Thailand.  And there is no room to receive it!  I can't even describe it to you well.  :)

Whereeeee should I start... I don't even know... this week... has been CRAZY.  The Lord has been blessing us so much.  As we've been trying to find new investigators... and trying to prepare others for baptism, we have been so amazed to see how the Lord literally... just... hands us blessings sometimes.  There is a scripture that keeps coming to mind...

"Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed"

I honestly... feel like we are watching the arm of God be revealed.  We had an opportunity to leave our area on one day this week to help with a youth fireside in another area where they have no sister missionaries.  We tried our best to use the travel time effectively.  Annnnnd.  We also talked about how the Lord would bless us and our area, even though we wouldn't be there!  When we were about 5 minutes from the church, on our way back from the activity thing,  we got a phone call from the Elders... someone had just walked into the church and wanted to learn!  You would be amazed... if I had enough time to relay all of the amazing miracles that happen.  It's insane.  But it really is the arm of the Lord being revealed.  It's incredible!!  

This week... we were so blessed... to get a lot more investigators!  Wowza.  As people have been getting baptized we've been trying to find and find and find!  We still do our 2 hours of inviting people to be baptized every day!  Annnnnnd.  Again.  It's just amazing the blessings the Lord has poured out on Don Mueang.  We had so many investigators at church.  Man.  It was kinda stressful :)  Buuuut in the best way possible! :)  I'm so excited for all of these new investigators!  

The BEST part of the week.  Was definitely Sunday!  When Brother Day, a really awesome investigator, got baptized!!  Wowza.  You guys he is so cool, Sister Mac and I decided he should get his own "I'm a Mormon" video... haha... Brother Day is... a boxer?  Some sort of boxer.  But, he is Thai... but usually lives in Australia.  He was back here for a couple of months... and in that time... he walked up to some missionaries who were inviting.  Annnnnd... learned with us.  And got baptized!  Wow.  He has amazing desires to know the truth.  He reads and studies, and really tries to understand everything.  I think he may have studied for his interview a little bit!  Haha... even though we told him he didn't need to study anything!  But.  It was an awesome day to be able to get to see him baptized.  Wow!!!!!  I hate that I'm so bad at describing everything!  It really was amazing though!  

Just a funny story from Sunday too... afterward... our Branch president was talking to our companionship and Brother Day!  He mentioned that my singing sounded good (I did a musical number for the baptism)  and Brother Day turned to me and said "Yeah, that sounded beautiful Sister Croft.  What language was that?"  Haha... I think I maybe made a crazy face and then repeated the question.  Our Branch President laughed and said... "It was in Thai" and then he said to us in English "I like this guy, he's innocent!"  Hahaha.  So maybe my Thai still needs a little work.  But if it was perfect... I'd never have any of these golden moments.

Another funny thing.  Yesterday someone was again talking to me in English and said "I like your hair color Sister Croft.  It's not like... gray... it's more like... green."  I love Thailand :)  I really really do.  It is the BEST! :)  

The church is TRUE!  Wow.  I wish you could know all of these awesome investigators and members.  They are wonderful.  Wow.  We are INCREDIBLY blessed.

Have a wonderful week!  I love you all!

Love,

Sister Croft

Blessings.

Wow!  This week was incredible.  I don't even know where to begin.  I hope that it was the same for you guys! :)

I feel so blessed you guys.  We are so blessed!  I don't even know... first.  I feel way blessed to have Sister Mac as my companion.  She is so good at being a missionary!  She is a really selfless example, and she really stretches me to be better every single day!  Haha... yesterday I told her that I feel a little bit rebuked by her example every day!  Definitely in a good way... I see ways that I can improve, ways that I can do more to strengthen the members, to think about other people more than I think about myself.  Ways that I can use my time better!  She's just an awesome example!

Other blessings.  We are so blessed to have President and Sister Senior as our mission president and wife!  Wow they are amazing! :)  Before my mission, Jessica's 1st mission president told me that he was the hardest working mission president in the world!  He is both the stake president of a bunch of almost stakes.  And the mission president over missionaries scattered all over the country.  I can't even imagine how it's possible to do everything that he does.  He is really stretching us and helping us prepare Thailand for the blessings of a TEMPLE.  Since I've been here the mission has accelerated and changed a lot!  We are setting goals and working as hard as we can... and then the Lord is blessing our blessings!  In some ways I'm not even quite sure what we're doing differently.  I feel like our prayers have gotten more sincere.  We kneel together every morning at 10:00 and pray for each zone individually.  And we also pray all day every day :)  We go inviting people to be baptized for 2 hours every day.  And the Lord is helping us achieve our goals.  This month... we have a goal to have... 200 baptisms in Thailand!  It's DEFINITELY gonna take some stretching.  But the Lord is blessing us in every way.  He blesses me when I get discouraged in inviting.  He blesses us when we don't know what to say.  He prepares those we are teaching.  And somehow... through miracles!  More and more people are getting baptized!!

This week we were blessed to have physical evidence of how the Lord is blessing us.  Sister Pet received the gift of the Holy Ghost in sacrament meeting!!  One of our investigators, Brother Fame, got baptized along with three other investigators.  How incredible!  I am seriously stunned.  The Lord is hastening is work!  And I feel so incredibly blessed to be able to see it happening so closely.  I honestly... don't even know how to describe it.

Oh my goodness.  Wow.  Ahhh.  I wish I could reach out and shake you all by the shoulders.  I just got an email from Sister Peterson, in Phitsanulok.  She told me that Brother GAP is getting baptized.  I don't know if you even remember him.  But.  He has been an investigator for 2 years.  And was expecting to have to wait for another 3 to get baptized. Wow.  I am so stunned.  That is incredible.  I had a feeling I might hear about that soon... but I had no idea how.  That is absolutely incredible.  If you hear some angels singing on the 18th of January. It'll be because Brother Gap finally got baptized.  I think he might die of happiness.  I am so happy!

I love you so much!  Wow.  I am still stunned.  I hope that you have an incredible week!  God is so aware of us.  This life really does have a purpose.  Miracles really. REALLY do happen.  This is God's work.

Love,

Sister Croft

 

Wow!

Wow!  This has been a really good week!  It's kinda funny it felt long... even though... last time I talked to you... we talked skype to skype.  Weird stuff.  But.

Some things that happened this week... just some good old hard work!  My new companion, Sister Mac.  Is awesome!  I was impressed by her planning and dedication when we served together before.  But.  It has been awesome to get to serve with her!  She's just awesome!  So we've been working with quite a few investigators!  One of them, is a boxer?  I'm pretty sure he's a boxer.  We taught him the word of wisdom and he said that he didn't feel like he could quit because all of the boxers drink coffee and tea in the mornings to keep them going.  Buuuut.  When we called him a few days later he told us he hadn't had it for 3 days.  Hooray!  Man, I was SO happy!  Another investigator is making an effort to not work on Sunday, after we talked about what FAITH really is.  Faith is ACTION.  It is taking what we know and doing it.  I love all of the kind of "object lessons" that go with that principle of action.  I saw one missionary hold a pen in her hand and say "try to take this pen out of my hand without reaching for it" haha... it's just such a simple truth... it's kinda funny!  You can't have faith and not act on it.  It's knowing the path... and then not walking it!  

The highlight of this week.  Was DEFINITELY Sunday.  When.  Sister Pet got BAPTIZED! :)  Hooray!  She is awesome!  She is such a sweet girl, she's kinda quiet, but her faith is LOUD! :)  I'm amazed by how much faith you really can see when you look at the choices that she has made!  She's faced some opposition, but she is committed to God!  After her baptism, she told us that she felt like she had been born again!  Wow.  She is just amazing!  We also got the chance to share our missions goals and vision for baptisms in Thailand in Relief Society/Priesthood this week.  We had the chance to listen to several of the recent converts in our branch stand and bear their testimonies.  I just can't help but feel excited and happy for the future that they have as members of the church.  I can't help but think of people close to me who have accepted the gospel, and how the course of their lives have changed!  It's incredible to see that baptism is just the beginning, and how the doors to the Celestial Kingdom really do open when we make that choice to follow God.

Just a thought that I had this morning as I was studying!  We really do live in the last days before the second coming of Christ!  It's true!  The world really is moving quickly away from the truth.  It's heartbreaking to see Satan's temptations and falsehoods taking over people's hearts!  I am becoming more and more certain that we have to make conscious efforts to draw nearer to God in order to not be swayed by the changes that take place in the world!  God is constant.  His truth is eternal, and when we consciously seek His guidance, through reading the scriptures, going to the temple, through prayer!  We will find safety.  When we heed the words of prophets.  When we consciously decide to ALWAYS keep the commandments, we really will find peace.  No matter what is happening in the world.  No matter the temptations that come.  And the temptations will come... I think of Helaman 5.  WHEN the devil shall send forth his mighty whirlwinds... it's going to happen.  Everyone in Lehi's dream experienced the mocking finger, the negative comments on facebook, the accusations, or taunting.  And those who heeded it... feel away!  But we can choose to heed them not.  To hold fast to the iron rod.  And not be ashamed of what we know to be true.  I dunno!  Just some thoughts :)

I love you so much!  It's almost 2014.  It's so weird!!!  I hope that you have a Thairiffic week this week :)  You guys are the best!

Love,

Sister Croft