First. Lets talk about Sadang. Sadang is awesome! :)
She is an investigator that we got from English class. We teach
English every week, and the first week everyone comes we do a little
intro, and invite them to come learn with the missionaries! So,
apparently Sister Sadang and her brother were interested in learning
from the beginning. They are buddhist, but they go to a Christian
school, so they have some Christian background. It's kinda hard to find
time to meet with Sadang. Buuuuuut. This week we got the chance, and
it was awesome! :) Even though this was our first lesson with Sadang,
she had a Book of Mormon and she had a read a little bit of it (okay.
Back story to the back story. She has a Book of Mormon because the
other sisters have an investigator who is currently reading the Book of
Mormon and LOVES it. It is one of my favorite things to see him ride up
to the church, whip out his Book of Mormon and carry it around with him
like it's his prized possession! At an activity, they were sitting by
each other and he just started telling her about how sweet the Book of
Mormon is, and she was like "I want one of those!" Yeah. Way to go
Brother Mii (the other investigator). She definitely got a Book of
Mormon!) So... she has a Book of Mormon, and we only have a few minutes
to teach her... so we got a chance to tell her a bit about the
Restoration, and how this is the only true church, and this book is
evidence of that! We taught her about how she can know for herself that
what we're saying is true! She thought that was so cool! Which... it
is! How amazing is that? There is only one true church on the Earth
and you can know if this is it. It's AMAZING. Ahhhh. I love the
gospel. I'm so excited for Sister Sadang!
Okay. Nexxxxt. Let's talk about church. This
week... Sister Stewart and I had a plan... where... I asked if I could
do a musical number in church (Yeah... I know! Volunteering myself to
perform... sounds like me :P) and then we got to give people a tiny bit
more motivation to come to church! We were hoping to be able to get
some of the Less Actives that we go visit to come to church!! As the
week rolled on... we had so many people commit to come to church.
Amaaazing. Then Sunday
rolled around... annnnnnd. No one was there. Sometimes that makes me
laugh... a bit of a frustrated laugh. But. We can't do more than
invite them! :) It was definitely sad though... but... I still had to
do the musical number... so right as I stood up to go sing... Sister
Waan walked in the door with her niece and daughter! Wow! I was
thrilled!!! :) It was kind of a blessing that she had these two, beyond
cute, little girls with her! Because... everyone loved them. I wish
more than anything that I could take a video of her niece saying
"Sawadiikhaa" and doing a beautiful way. It melts. My heart. Haha...
yep. It's one of those things that makes my voice go really high, and I
can't even control it! Oh man. Buuuut. Anyway! :D After sacrament
meeting we took these two little girls up to primary, and Sister Waan
stayed in there with them! Also a blessing. The primary president just
happens to be Sister Mink, the member we took with us to teacher Sister
Waan. Sister Waan had a good experience at church though and said she
was coming back before anyone asked her I'm pretty sure! Wow! :)
Annnnnd. Finally... I just want to share something I
learned in personal study yesterday preparing to go see that less
active family I talked about last week. (These are just my thoughts...
which hopefully aren't blasphemous or anything :P) I've been learning a
lot about love out here. Specifically, charity, the pure love of
Christ. As I was sitting there... trying to figure out what we should
share with them... I tried to think about what the Savior would say if
He were going to their house to visit them! I wasn't totally sure...
we've been there a lot. They are an AWESOME couple. They've done a lot
for the church. I can see that they know it still... but... something
is stopping them from coming back. We've shared scriptures...we pray
for them, we invite them. But, ultimately... it's up to them to do the
actual coming to church! A lot of times it seems like agency can be a
point of frustration for missionaries. You just want them to make the
right choice!!! Because you KNOW that they need to come back to church.
You know that we receive blessings from coming to church! You know
the blessings offered in the temple! You know the blessing
ultimately... of eternal life! You see the goal and hopefully you want
them to come back for all of the right reasons. ... but you can't force
anyone to choose. So I flipped to Moroni 7, which describes charity.
And... actually... just flipping through the scriptures randomly I kept
opening to scriptures that talked about love. "Perfect love casteth
out all fear..." "Love your enemies" "God is love..." "That ye love
one another" Apparently... I have a lot to learn about love! :) But...
these are some of the thoughts that came to me. Charity is long
suffering. God's perfect love for us is manifested in the fact that we
have agency. We have the freedom to choose! His work and His glory is
to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man! We are His
work, we are His children, and He wants more than anything to have us
return to Him, and to have us have what He has. He knows the blessings.
He knows what "All that the Father hath" entails. He knows our
potential, He loves us a lot more than I love our investigators or
members! A lot more even than parents love their children! But still
He allows us to choose. While it must be agonizing to watch us choose
wrong. Just like it's hard for a missionary to be dropped by someone...
but times a million! It must be unbearable to have His children not
come back to Him! But... He does everything that He can for us... He
provided a Savior. He chastens us. He is patient with us, in our
weakness. But still the choice is ours! I don't know how to explain
that over email! But... it's just amazing to think about... and kind of
not what it seems like at first! I have SO much to learn about love!
Buuuuut. Just some food for thought... if you can even see where that
train of thought was going! :)
I love you family! I'm excited for another week in
Thailand... Time already feels like it's going too fast! And I bet it's
just gonna keep on rolling faster and faster! Noooo!
Have a GREAT week!
Love,
Sister Croft
We had some rainy days this week. Where we got SOAKING wet. Also. We
road a bus on one of those rainy days... and... then this weird...
motorcycle with like... a pushy... cart. Thing in the front where you
ride. It was windy. Like... boating. But more pleasant :) I liked
it. Haha... and apparently. I couldn't open my eyes because it was
tooooo windy. Haha... maybe not an attractive picture. Buuuuut. Oh
well. It was fun! :)
That's all.
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