Sawadii khaa khrab khrua!
What in the world? You guys. I'm in Thailand. Yep. Let that
sink in a little. I'm in Thailand. It's night time for you. It's
daytime for me. Weird huh? :) Hahaha. Oh my. I don't even know where
to begin. So much has happened since I got here.
First. The end of the MTC was super! I love that group of kids so
much. SO SO much. And hopefully we'll stay in contact with each
other. Our mission president promised us that we would! :) But...
then... we got on a bus. And then got on the trax, then got on a plane,
then got on a plane, and on one more plane. And theeeeen we were in
Thailand. And we were exhausted! (The typhoon just made it so we had
to go in for 2 landings :) we went down for one... and then pulled up
really quick. And then circled around and came down again. And then we
were cancelled and then delayed :) fun for our mission president who
had to wait for us!) We were honestly like babies that fall asleep in
their high chairs by the time we were eating dinner! But it was so
good! My mission president and his wife are AMAZING! President and
Sister Senior are so fun and so spiritual! And I just love them
already, and I'm sure I will love them even more the more I get to work
with them and get to know them!
Hmmm... What is important for you to know? :) Thailand feels SO
much like Taiwan. Honestly... SO much like Taiwan. Except here I can
pick out maybe a couple words of what people are saying, and then I can
tell people "I'm so sorry, I can't understand you!" :) Haha. It's
hot... though not unbearably so (except I think I've had some abnormally
cool days here!), though I have done a good deal of sweating and
drinking lots of water! It's rained... only once? Though when it
rained. It poured a lot! :) Um... I have about 11 mosquito bites
(a.k.a. disformed arms and legs but oh well! :)) My first real Thai
meal from a cart... was slightly harsh on my stomach. But :P Oh well
again! :) Haha. Annnnnd. The food here CAN be pretty spicy. I don't
even know the half of it. We went to a restaurant place one day... and
everytime they start a new dish the spice would like travel through the
air and choke us to death. That's spice you can feel before you even
get the meal! :) It's lots of fun though! It's kind of exciting and
new and very good! :) It is taking some adjusting! But it's good
adjusting! :)
Also. Riding a bike in a skirt is reallllly hard. The first day
my skirt was just good I guess... because it wasn't too bad. The second
day Sister Stewart and I rode our bikes for about 25 minutes. I'm sure
you can picture me doing this quite well. Haha... it was
me...frantically trying not to lose my trainer. Annnnnd. ALSO. Trying
to hold my skirt down (but I was failing) annnnnd. I was also trying
not to die. Because from what I can tell... you just kinda do what you
do in Thailand traffic! You go... and then people go. And that's how
it works! :) It was a super embarrassing hour in total (we had to ride
home too!) Haha... but. I'm working on inventing something to prevent
that from happening.
My trainer's name is Sister Stewart! She is so sweet and patient with me, and super chill. I like her a lot!
Now on to the more important stuff. The people of Thailand! First
you should know I'm in an area called Phitsanulok, which is interesting
because it's a HUGE area apparently. It's also not Bangkok. And not
the country area. And not Chang Mai. It's Phitsanulok :) And the
members here are great! There are a bunch of youth that we see and work
with frequently and they're just great! Our branch is smallish and
we're about 20 or so people away from having a real church building!
Some of the amazing people that I have met... first. Brother
Gap. Brother Gap is awesome! He's like Jared's age... and he is such a
wonderful person. When we met with him one night to teach him, I asked
him what he liked to do and he said "I like to help people, if there's
anyone that's sad or they need something, even though I'm not a
member yet, I like to help them in anyway I can!" WOW! :) And he really
follows through. He shows up to everything way early, and he's ready
to work, ready to help, and he's so nice. Haha... he also told me in
that lesson that I didn't need to be shy! (I'm working on it :)
sometimes I really don't know what anyone is saying... so thennnnn... I
don't know quite what to say! But I'm getting better) He's
just amazing! He's been investigating the church for a long time, and
he basically is a member, but he has to wait for a bit to be baptized.
But I am so amazed by his faith! From what I know of him, he's just a
really Christ like person!
Another amazing person. So, remember the bike ride I just talked
about? Well we were going to see an investigator with a baptisimal
date, she works at this gas station and we can go talk to her at work!
We got there, and I'm not quite sure what she was doing, but we got
talking with this lady who works there too. Her name is Erng. And
Sister Stewart was saying that she was from Las Vegas (I get asked where
I'm from/what race I am all the time. I'm mastering telling people
that I'm a "Half child, Taiwan people" or something of that sort if you
translate it literally. It's kinda funny!) Annd then she mentioned
that they have lots of Casinos there, and Erng said that something to
the affect of that she wouldn't enjoy that because she's Christian.
(which... now that I think about it... do Christians even usually not
gamble? I dunno!) But. We started talking to her... and eventually it
developed into this full blown explanation of what she believes. WOW. I
can't understand everything. But honestly Sister Erng, basically knows
the whole gospel. She may have even quoted Preach My Gospel a couple
of times. She said like... God is our Heavenly Father he sent us down
to Earth, he sent the Savior so we could repent, and find peace in this
life. Just EVERYTHING. I was blown away! Honestly. She basically
knew the whole gospel, and I'm not sure how! She has a Bible that she
studies, and I guess that's where she learns everything? But. There
was another crazy moment when Sis. Stewart brought out this picture of
the Godhead, and we started talking about it. And for a minute I was
super scared, because both of us thought the other person was saying
that the Godhead was all one person. But Sister Erng was like "no...
that's not correct, lots of Christians believe they're the same person
but they're not!" Which was kind of a relief to me :) And amazing! I
just can't even describe it! She's incredible! And so kind to us!
Yesterday she wanted to meet with us, and we ended up having to leave
right after we got there because someone needed us, and she was so
nice. We have an appointment with her on Tuesday
though! Part of me is nervous that she won't be receptive of our
message and she'll get hung up on something! Buuuut. I'm trying to
have faith that the spirit will testify to her! She also mentioned how
she knows its true, and even though it's hard and her family doesn't
understand... she is Christian because she knows it's true! Wooooow!
Sister Erng is amazing!
I'm not sure what else to put in here! :) To be honest, sometimes
I'm like... man... :) Heavenly Father probably has to send this whole
squad of angels to protect me from my own craziness (see... crazy bike
ridng... or like... a number of other dumb things I might say or do!)
sometimes :) I'm half expecting a letter that says "Heavenly Father has
decided that you are costing him too many angels and blessings for the
amount of output you're giving! So... we're gonna have to let you go!"
:) Buuuut. At the same time... when I pray and tell Heavenly Father
how I'm feeling, and when I'm scared I'm gonna die on my bike :) He
patiently teaches me to have more faith in Him even if my own abilities
are kinda iffy. Honestly my abilities don't matter, even though it's
hard to remember that sometimes :) Haha. Like when I accidentally say a
random english word in my testimony in sacrament meeting "Seestee rusxg
kaatanyuu mag samrab EXAMPLE. Oh... hehe... duayong." (actually that
stuff just makes me laugh usually... the language is hard... and I wish I
could understand people! But it mostly just makes me laugh, and then
study more vocab! :)) Heavenly Father can make up the difference no
matter how big it is! His grace is sufficient! This morning I feel
like I was taught out of Alma 2. When the Amlicites/Lamanites gang up
on the Nephites. And there is a verse that says "they were numbered
almost like the sands of the sea" or something like that! :D And I
imagine like... Mulan, when they all pop up over the ridge of the
mountains, or Lord of the Rings or something. Cue the dramatic music,
and the smoke, and the armies. And then these Nephites, who HAVE done
there best... preparing weapons, and captains, and then spying on them
and all that... just pray. And trust in God to strengthen them against
the threat of death! Wowwwwza. But the thing is. Heavenly Father
heard that prayer :) and He hears mine, and He hears YOURS. And Christ
knows how to succor us perfectly. Most importantly from this email :)
hopefully you know that much! That the gospel is TRUE! :) It really
really is. Christ is our Savior, Heavenly Father hears our prayers!
And as I'm re-taught every day... His grace is sufficient! And He
really does work with people and prepare them to be taught. See Sister
Erng or Brother Gap as an example! I love the gospel so much! I felt
so grateful to take the sacrament, to know that it's the same everywhere
because it is TRUTH! :) Woohoo :) Here is to another week in
Thailand! It's awesome, and hard, and out of my comfort zone! But so
good and definitely worth being stretched a bit! :) The gospel is TRUE!
:D
Have a Super Duper Week. So good that it requires random capitilization. :)
Kap Khwaamrag mag mag mag,
Sister Croft
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