Christmas

Dear Family,

It was the best Christmas ever!!! I loved seeing all your faces. It was a nice lil Christmas miracle we got all those technical difficulties worked out. I was way worried there for a minute my skype just kept saying that Dad had muted me. So sad. Nick's song was my favorite. Thank you so much for the graham crackers! They are really good dunked in hot chocolate justin case you were wondering. After we skyped, we went and had brunch and the Hart's (Senior couple) I ate funeral potatoes and orange rolls. So yummy! After brunch we went Ice skating with Sister Tilley and Sister Her. (It's so much fun living with Sister Tilley again) So the ice skating was at Central (local mall). We got there and there was this terrible rap music playing that we endured for an hour before thinking to ask if they had any Christmas music. They laughed when we asked and turned it on and it was way more Christmasy feeling and fun. As soon as we left they changed the music again, it was funny. We went caroling and contacting the rest of the night, it was so cold! I never ever thought I would be cold in this country. 

Happy New Year! Tis the season for everyone to disappear and go far away for long periods of time and stress out us missionaries! Just kidding but that's kind of what it feels like. Thursday and Friday were kinda rough. All of our investigators are leaving for the New Year going back to their home towns to be with their families in different provinces. So lots of canceled appointments and unanswered phone calls. Sister Maughan and I have been trying to meet with this girl Gasinee again, she's from Vietnam we met her at English class, and she's missed the last two appointments because of work. She's learning Thai and English right now. Christmas miracle, we had two people in our branch that speak Vietnamese so they can help us teach her! One is actually our branch mission leader and the other is this cute Sister Lan . We were a lil stressed because her baptismal date was this Sunday! Thursday, she didn't come. Friday, no asnwer. AH!!!! Lots of prayers for a miracle and trust in Lord's timing brought us to Saturday. She finally answered her phone and met with us at the church! We taught her a final lesson, she got her interview and was baptized on Sunday!!! Christmas Miracle! I'm so happy for her! It was such a good day. This whole week was not anything I ever would have planned for myself. Every time we asked Sister Lan to hep us teach, Gasinee would cancel. She speaks better Vietnamese and I just kept thinking "Isn't this how it should be working out? Sister Lan should be helping us. Gasinee would understand better." or "Gasinee should show up today and we'll teach a nice simple lesson." and then turns out Sister Lan isn't the one helping when Gasinee actually comes and then we teach all the commandments and the gospel in one lesson. So much! There were just so many little things that I never would have chosen to happen, but it wasn't until I stopped worrying about what I thought was best that things started working out. As soon as I let go of my plans and committed to doing whatever the Lord needed me to do to hep Gasinee things worked out. He knows much better than I. I hope I never get in the way of the Lord's plans. This really is His work. 

Christmas miracle! We had 4 investigators at church! Even with all this crazy ปีไหม่กลับบ้าน new year going home-ness. We watched the Christmas Devotional in Thai. Loved it. The branch President gave me a box of beng bengs (yummy rice krispie chocolatey treat) for finishing the Book of Mormon. The Relief Society President did a lil sketch of me during the devotional and kept scolding me for wiggling. 

I keep saying that everything is a Christmas miracle and Sister Maughan just laughs at me. It really is though! I loved President Monson's talk from the Christmas devotional. You just drop the last syllable and it's the Spirit of Christ. These are Christmas miracles! They are miracles that come because of our faith in Christ. I love you! Have a wonderful week! 

Love, 

Sister Sahagun

A White Christmas in Thailand!

Christmas Eve Skype

Family! It was so good to talk to you! Merry Christmas!! :) I hope you like all the pictures I sent! I'll write you a great long letter next week! I LOVE YOU!! Also, I sent you a package...I hope it gets to you soon! :)

Love, 

Sister Sahagun 

Mittens from the Branch!

Christmas Pajamas - A tradition even in Thailand

My Nativity Cookie

The Christmas Story

Santa Duck

Sheperd

Ice-skating on Christmas Day!

12-16-13

This letter was written after Heather heard the news that her Aunt Kathy passed away. The gospel is a source of peace and hope and Heather is sharing that peace and hope with others. Her Aunt loved the Savior and would always ask how my missionaries were. She knew Jesus Christ as her personal Savior and had a beautiful testimony of His gospel.

Dear Family,

I'm really missing you all right now. I'm so grateful for the plan of Salvation. I'm so grateful to be out on missions sharing this gospel with the world. I know it's true. It feels so good to know that this really is God's plan. I remember talking to Aunt Kathy right after Uncle Jordan passed away I think we were talking about all the flowers in her house or something and I had never thought about how just flowers could bring so much comfort and she told me to not say "just". She appreciated and enjoyed all the simple things. There's no just about it. She was such a good example of gratitude. I've learned so much from Aunt Kathy. She was such a strong example of faith and trust. I love her so much.

Thank you for sharing that poem that Katelyn wrote. I loved it so much. I know that Jesus died for us and that gives us great reason to rejoice! 

Here are some goings on of the week. It rained so much this morning and I'm sitting here in my cardigan and my poor lil purple toes are cold. I shouldn't even complain. You have real snow. How bout this: Alma 37;41 -- and they were slothful and forgot to exercise... not me! :) Recently the morning power walk has been a fav. Have I told you of my cereal obsession? I've been eating this Museli stuff with chocolate in it for pretty much every day for 8 months. Is that enough randomness for you?

Hymn selections in Thailand are quite entertaining. You know the song In Our lovely Deseret the one that talks about tea and coffee we despise? It's our branch mission leader's favorite and we sing it all the time. It was most recently sung at a baptism. Not really baptism related but I guess all hymns invite the spirit. There is this way cool recent convert that always plays Lincoln park and Evanescence on the piano and it makes me think of Dad and Nick and Tyler. I love it so much. 

I'm really excited to see your faces! It'll be December 24 in America. I hope you'll all do the nativity still. Traditions must be carried on. Pizza too. I told the other Sisters about our Christmas Eve pizza and it's going to happen. I'm so happy. Right now we have a Charlie Brown branch tree thing in our house. It was cute for about a day and then the leaves started getting gross. We'll have to find a new branch before Christmas. 

On Tuesday we had our English showcase. We gave each group a Christmas item and they had to do an advertisement for it. Then for the spiritual thought we were going to tie it all in by explaining the symbolism and talk about the real meaning of Christmas- Christ. I don't really know what happened but the Elders just didn't quite seem to catch on to our vision and they planned something else. It's probably better that way though because Sister Hart tried to look up some symbolism for us. I don't even know what to say about them. The gingerbread one was definitely my favorite. "Like us, gingerbread people are not immortal. They are destined to be eaten and thus to unite with their creators. God does not eat us, but our mortal bodies, like that of the gingerbread man's will not live forever." We ended up watching the bible video of the Nativity. It was perfect.

I love this Christmas season. I know that Jesus Christ was born for us. And yes like the gingerbread man we are not immortal, but because God is our loving Heavenly Father, he has made a way for us to return to live with him again. Jesus Christ is our Savior. I know that families can be together forever. I love you so much. Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Sahagun

ฃิสเตอร์ ฃาเฮกัน

12-01-2013

Dearest Family,

This week was wonderful!! We had mission tour on Wednesday and Elder and Sister Wilson came and gave us the most wonderful inspired message about how to better use The Book of Mormon in our teaching. Have you ever read the first chapter in 1 Nephi looking for the principles of the restoration? I never had until they asked us all to prepare a talk on it. I love that all in that first chapter we learn that the gospel blesses families, God is our loving Heavenly Father, and God calls prophets in every dispensation. Like Joseph, Lehi saw a pillar of light. God uses patterns and things that are familiar to us. I'll let you find the rest of the principles of the restoration on your own. Anyway, I just want to be the kind of missionary that does everything they can to help investigators read and apply the Book of Mormon to their lives. I know that when we read the Book of Mormon our testimonies are strengthened and we become truly converted. 

Thanksgiving day was so much fun! We went to the market in the morning to do our contacting and ran into this huge parade! It had absolutely nothing to do with Thanksgiving, but I just pretended that's what it was for. There was a bunch of cool floats and high school aged kids dressed up in traditional Thai clothes dancing and celebrating something...I tried to ask this man what was going on and he just really wanted to impress me with his English. It was a very struggly conversation with both of our limited language abilities. Basically what I learned is that it happens every year and it's a cultural thing. I'll try to learn more about that. We taught some great lessons, started reading in the Book of Mormon with our investigator (YES!) and then went to dinner at the Harts. Elder and Sister Hart are wonderful. We had turkey and mashed potatoes, stuffing, rolls, and some ส้มตำ. It was perfect. Sister Hart made this delicious drink of something cinnamony I don't know it was just Thanksgiving in a cup. I felt like I was at home with all of you :) wish I could have somehow saved that smell. I'm so thankful for Holidays and forever families and this wonderful gospel. Still working on the gratefuls list.

Big news. Too many missionaries are getting hit while riding their bikes. Maybe I was one of those. Not a big deal, now we just get to wear these reflective vests. It say's I'm a mormon on it in Thai and has the mormon.org website on it too. They're pretty sweet! Some things you only get to do as a missionary - like wear cool vests and look like traffic cop. I'm thankful for these vests.

Sister Maughan informed me this morning that I talk in my sleep. In Thai. I feel so bad, she is the lightest sleeper! I've had some way weird dreams lately too. 

Yesterday we had all three of our new investigators at church! Miracles! Our mission had 109 baptisms in November. More miracles! I love this time of year of Gratitude and remembrance of the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. My favorite thing is at the end of the day to think about all the simple ways that God has blessed my life that day. In all the busy moments, He is there and ever so aware of us. Remember Him and give thanks! Have a wonderful week! I love you so much!

Love,

Sister Sahagun

ฃิสเตอร์ ฃาเฮกัน

12-8-2013

Thanks for the pictures! Amber's wedding looked beautiful! Penelope is adorable! This week was the King's Birthday. It's also Father's Day in Thailand. Quite the holiday. There were parades all over. We joined one of them and drove through another. We got cool yellow King flags.

 Sister Phelps and I ate a cricket and a silk worm. The cricket tasted like a french fry and the silk worm exploded something gross in my mouth. It was a fun day. 

The branches started practicing for the Christmas program. I've been given a reading assignment. Excited about that. I love singing Christmas songs in Thai. This week I've been mixing them all up and keep singing everything to the tune of Oh little town of Bethlehem no matter what the words are. It usually works out okay. The members are so fun, they have rally been getting into acting out the nativity. Brother Sam (recent convert) has been chosen as the angel Gabriel. He has this great speaking voice and bleached blonde hair. I'm pretty sure it was the glowing hair that got him the part.

Christmas is coming! I will be skyping with you on Tuesday the 24th your time. I have an hour we can talk whenever is best for you guys. Hopefully we can coordinate everything with Nick again too, that was the best. 

We have this Vietnamese investigator that every mission has contacted and set up an appointment to teach. That was crazy figuring out who was actually going to teach her. So we all met her at English class. Her English isn't that great and neither is her Thai, so we're trying to find someone 

There were 4 baptisms yesterday!! I love Sundays and baptisms! It was so perfect.

I love being a missionary. Sorry this is so short. Have a great week. You're in my prayers.

Love, 

Sister Sahagun

ฃิสเตอร์ ฃาเฮกัน

11-25-2013

Dear Family,

Happy Thanksgiving!! Sister Maughan and I have been working on our list of things we're grateful for. The goal is to have 500 by the end of the month. It's going great. I feel so very blessed. I'm so grateful for all of you! I'm grateful for the gospel, for Hymns, bike reflectors, English class, The Book of Mormon, seven eleven, Sister Maughan, waffles, mormon messages, tiger balm, dictionaries, the restoration, microphones, rubber bands, and sheet protectors. And also my planner. Which I regrettably forgot to bring with me last week so I forgot to tell you all the good stuff that happened, but it sounds like you heard from Sister Painter's Aunt. Small world. We had a companion exchange last week. Sister Maughan and I locked our bikes in front of seven and took a train to Kong Khan. From there Sister Maughan went to Roy Et with our keys to the bike lock. Sister Painter and I didn't figure it out until we were back at the Seven :(So many things went wrong and fell through that day, but it was so wonderful! We learned so much together. There's this awesome mormon ad with Elder Holland I think it's called By way of B and it just fit that day so perfectly. Sometimes the only way to get from point A to point C is by way of B. Everything was by way of B. We had to cut the bike lock. This jolly Thai guy came with his huge sheers and just chopped it off. It was such a good day. Not what I expected, but by way of B we were able to learn what we needed to.

On Monday we sang Nearer My God To Thee at a Buddhist funeral. That was really cool. We were at this really pretty Wat and it was just the saddest most empty feeling. As we sang I watched the people sitting there and felt hope. It felt so good to share a little bit of our faith with them through music. I know that we are Children of God. I am so grateful for the plan of Salvation. I know that Our Savior Jesus Christ died so that we might live again. We went to another funeral on Wednesday. Wish we could have sang or done something at that one too.

The work is hastening!! We had a bunch of first lessons this week with new investigators which means lots of first prayers! I love it! It's so sweet to hear people pray for the first time who before didn't know who God was or that He is even there to hear and answer our prayers. 

I was trying to explain to one of our new investigators how to get to the church and he was just really confused so I turned to the Elder's investigator ต้น who was just standing there in the hall and asked him to help me explain better. He gladly took the phone and the first thing he says is "Do you have faith in Jesus Christ? Come now!" and proceeded to teach him about God and Joseph Smith. He was speaking pasa isan and our poor investigator was just so confused. Turns out our investigator is Vietnamese, but he speaks great Thai. ต้น got baptized on Sunday. He just has so much excitement for the gospel it's wonderful. 

HEY! I'm really excited about all these new cousins okay! I can't believe I keep forgetting to say something about it! The picture I got from Quinn and Courtney is way cute and I just got an email from Chad and Barbara too their family is adorable! Katelyn and Cody sent me a super cute picture too!! Keep the pictures coming! Jessica sent me a cute picture of her with the Popes at Grandmas. Looks like fun! I think I might actually still have orange rolls this Thanksgiving. We're eating with the Harts, our wonderful senior missionary couple.

I request that you all eat some stuffing and lots of that spinach dip in remembrance of me this Thanksgiving season. But more importantly, count your blessings and I know that you will find joy in gratitude. I miss you! Have a wonderful week! 

Love, 

Sister Sahagun 

11-18-2013

สวัสดีค่ะ (<----That is a labor of love)

Hello! I love you all! Thanks for the videos!! That was so fun! I loved it! I loved hearing from Grandma and Grandpa too! You can send me videos anytime. Tyler sounds like a man. That is weird. Jessica has braces! So fun. How are your classes doing? Has it been snowing a ton? Winter is not a thing in Thailand. It's just hot. I like it. The times when I've been cold are every Sunday feels like we're in an igloo, the church is always freezing. And every morning during studies I wear socks and a cardigan. The air conditioning works great.

BBQ Frogs!

Sister Maughan and I passed these intense bikers (stretchy pants and all) they were going way slow. We were just humming/singing I love to see the temple cruising on our merry way. Then after about a minute after we passed them they zoomed ahead. Didn't want to get passed up by some white girls in skirts. 

At English class we hid some candy for everyone to find at the end and everyone was going crazy! If they asked the missionaries for hints we were allowed to help them. We made a comparison to prayer and searching for answers and how if you ask God He will help you find answers. If only these people knew how much better the gospel is than candy. Spiritual thoughts at English class are so great. We find a lot of investigators that way.

Mom. I found out that my release date is August 29. Also, that is the first day of school. Moroni 10:4-5 is the one. There are so many other good ones. Why do they make us pick just one? 

We've been doing a lot of contacting a 7 lately. I love 7Eleven so much. On Friday I stepped in front of this guy on a bicycle, he had headphones in and I just invited him to be baptized and we had a great lil lesson. Sister Maughan met this guy that speaks great English and we taught him on Saturday with his two friends that he brought! They are going to be great missionaries!

This weekend was district conference it was awesome! We had dinner with Sister Senior Saturday night. It was so fun. I love her so much. During the meetings this weekend they talked a lot about temples. I miss the temple so much. Thailand needs a temple!! It's probably going to be 2 or three years before this district become a stake. Everyone needs to take part in this work!! 

Last night was ลอยกระทง the Lantern festival!!!!!!!!!! Words can not express the joy and beauty. I've attached some pictures and potentially a video. Hope that works. If not, just go watch Tangled and turn on some Thai music in the background. It was lovely. We just talked to everyone that was there, it was the best time for contacting :)

I know that God answers prayers. I know that miracles happen when we believe! Have a wonderful week! 

Love, 

Sister Sahagun