Miracles in Thonburi

Dear Family,

It actually feels like I just emailed you yesterday. And yet somehow all this stuff happened in between yesterday and today and now here I am emailing you again about all these miracles that are happening here in Thonburi.

The best thing that happened this week was the miracle of Sister Taufan's baptism. Lil background for you. Taufan is 12. She is the lil Sister of Sister New (20) that was baptized two weeks ago. She came to church last week, leaned over to New and said "I want to be Christian." Then New told Sister Steele and Sister Steele told me and we were so excited to teach her!!!! So we taught her the Restoration and the Gospel after church. Then Taufan got really sick and we weren't able to teach her all week til Saturday. This week was just really crazy lots of really solid people just dropped off the face of the earth and we didn't know if we would be able to teach Taufan or not, and then it all worked out. Her mom was so supportive and dropped off Taufan at Swenson's where New works and let us take her to the church. Sunday was such a happy day! New is the best member missionary I have ever met my entire mission. She invites everyone to come to church, and her mom came to see the baptism! Not sure if she's really interested in learning, but she's supportive of her daughters and it's really exciting to see their happiness spread. 

Sis. Steele and I sitting calmly on the roller coaster bus!

Every day we take a Roller Coaster bus #40 or 56 to the church. It's somewhat terrifying. I wish you could just be here to experience it with Sister Steele and I. I'll try to paint a lil picture for you. First, we walk to this four way intersection and flag down the bus at our self proclaimed bus stop. The bus flies over and comes to a jolting halt and we run to get on. There are no seats. We stand and hold on for dear life. Only one hand is available though because Sister Steele has to get out the house money to pay 16 baht for the two of us and I'm following up with the world to make sure that everyone gets to the church on time and without getting lost. The bus starts moving forward before I even have both of my feet on the bus. We are driving at unmentionable speeds and about every 2 minutes the bus driver slams on his breaks, throws everyone to the front of the bus and 20 more people cram on the bus. It's fun. It's more fun when we're actually sitting down for the roller coaster ride, but standing up is a nice lil work out and we just invite everyone around us to church and make quite the scene. Two tall white girls speaking Thai that can't stand up on a bus that want everyone to go to church. I love it.

I love the members here so much. Our Recent Converts there are sooo adorable. Sister Suni is the sweet older lady that got baptized with New. She comes to church and stays to the bitter end. Sundays usually go something like this: Heard everyone into Sacrament, Investigator Class, Relief Society, Baptism, eat with the members, and then learn with us :) Yesterday Sister Suni asked us if we had another movie to show her. She likes watching the movies because it helps her remember. We've already watched The Restoration and Finding Faith in Christ...We better find some mormon adds in Thai to watch with her! Nuay that Radio announcer guy is like my grandpa here. He is so sweet. I have at least a hundred moms here in Thailand. In this ward it's been Sister Pongsi, Sister Bun, Sister Phone, Sister Cherry, and now Sister Suni. Yesterday Suni just kept telling me my hands were cold and that I needed to eat more vegetables. I am so spoiled here.

My companion is Sister Steele. Sorry I never really gave her a proper introduction. I don't really think I have with any of my companions. Sister Steele is wonderful. She is from Orem, Utah and we went to the MTC the same day. We were in different districts, but still knew each other and had a great time. About 3 months ago we inception-ed President Senior for us to be companions and here we are! Happy as a dappy! (That is something Sister Tilley said all the time) We are really similar and just work hard and have so much fun and I don't know what more to say. It's really easy being a missionary with someone else that feels the same way about the work. I feel really spoiled and so grateful to be serving with her.

Our investigators are all doing great. It feel like everyone we've met recently has serious problems with the Word of Wisdom, like they're addicted to everything except for illegal drugs. We're teaching mostly men right now and excited and hopeful that they can and will be baptized and be priesthood holders in this branch.

I love this area so much. I just want to be here longer! There's been so much growth in this short amount of time and I'm so excited to see it progress even more!

Hope you all have a wonderful week!! I love you!

Love,

Sister Sahagun

P.S. Last week I copied part of my letter home to send to President Senior for my weekly letter and I forgot to change part of it...so I sent:

Love you most! 

Sister Sahagun 

So embarrassing. It's okay. I really do love the Seniors. They are so wonderful. 

New and Taufan and Mom :)

Thonburi Branch Growing

Family!!!

I love Thonburi so much.

Yesterday Brother Nuay got baptized!!! He is this sweet very talkative older man that we met across the street from our house. He's a radio announcer, loves to talk, and is so hungry for knowledge. He shows up an hour early for his appointments and sits in his car and reads the Book of Mormon. That speaks volumes to me of his desires to come and learn. No one shows up early let alone on time. He has just made this a big priority in his life and I feel pretty spoiled to be teaching him. His testimony yesterday was probably the most dramatic I've heard. He has made some big changes and is continuing to study. He's buddies with the Branch President, it's adorable. I love seeing this branch grow.

 Brother Nuay with his Best buddy Branch President Bunchai

I can't believe it's Monday again. This week went soooo fast. Learned some good lessons. Don't teach lessons at McDonalds. We don't usually do that and this experience just confirmed why. The music is way too loud and your investigators don't take you seriously. 

It's been really hard to meet so many wonderful people that are so prepared and show a desire to follow Christ and learn of Him, but then do nothing to make a real change. It's really really sad! 

We met this guy วิว (Wiw) two weeks ago and finally had a lesson with him and he brought a friend!!! Those are my favorite investigators. Well, they've both believed in Christ for over 10 years and just never knew where to go or what to do. I love these prepared people. We taught them the restoration, and they both got answers and told us they wanted to be baptized! They both smoke, so I told them to start by throwing away their cigarettes. They both pulled out their packs of cigarettes and gave them to me. Yay! So I threw them away, they said they'd come to church, and we were so excited! They didn't come. We have two other daters that are also a bit flakey that didn't come. They sometimes act like they want to change, but something is still holding them back. I want so badly for them all to come and learn and feel of the truthfulness of the Atonement that we all so desperately need. 

There have been a lot of things happen this week that have strengthened my testimony of Jesus Christ and reminded me of why we're here and how important this work is. We all need Jesus Christ and his merciful, forgiving, cleansing, healing, restoring atonement in our lives. This gospel has changed my life and helped me to know what truly matters most. I am so grateful to be a missionary here teaching these people about the Plan of Salvation and our Savior Jesus Christ. There is much much more than just our life here on this earth, and that is why our time here is so important. 

I love every day of my mission and all that I'm learning.  I hope you all have a great week! 

Love you most, 

Sister Sahagun

Thonburi Baptisms

FAMILY!!

You are all so wonderful and it sounds like you're all doing good. I'll keep Grandma and Grandpa Sahagun in my prayers. Mom you are a great missionary. Thank you for always being that good example to me. Dad, I'm really excited to hear your talk for the single adult fireside. I know that it will be awesome. You and mom are wonderful speakers.

Something that made me laugh this week was when I spilled blueberry yogurt all over myself during personal study one day. That was quite the mess. There is a lot more yogurt in one lil container that you think!! 

On Tuesday in English class, we were talking about words that start a sentence that make it a question... Are/Am etc. and we asked this boy to give us an example. He stood up and said to Sister Steele, "Are you beautiful?" That was great. 

I ate some mango sticky rice for the first time in a long time this week. So yummy.

I love Thonburi. It feels so good to have this kind of a fresh start here where we can get organized right from the start and move the work forward.  

Yesterday we had miracle baptisms! สุนีย์ (8:59) and นิว are so faithful and excited to be members of the church and follow Christ. We keep finding the most wonderful people to teach. They're everywhere.

Announcement from the missionary department: We are now teaching Lesson 5 before and after baptism. I love teaching lesson 5 before baptism. I feel sad that I haven't been doing this my whole mission. It just makes so much sense. It's helped our investigators have that vision of the temple and I can already see a deep conversion beginning in each of them. We told sweet สุนีย์ (8:59) that she had to wait a year before she could go to the temple and she was sad for a minute and then just said okay so there's 4 Sundays in a month...12 months...I'll go to church 48 times and then I can go to the temple. I felt so much joy teaching that lesson and seeing her determination to get to the temple and set goals and make plans to get there as soon as she could. It helps me as the teacher too to be reminded of the covenants that we make with God and to feel the spirit testify that baptism is not the end. I miss the temple so much. 

I love being a missionary. 

Love you most, 

Sister Sahagun 

Thonburi

Dear Family,

We're still just so spoiled over here in Thonburi. This week was wonderful. So much has changed in this one week. Yesterday at church there was just so much energy and excitement! I am so grateful for the Seppis (senior couple) for taking pictures of all the members. We have the greatest zone leaders that are way on top of life and got all the stuff for the name tags for investigators and recent converts and they just made it happen. It was so fun to see all the members walk into church and help them feel like they were a part of something. Sacrament attendance was amazing. Completely different from when Sister Carter and I first started coming here. The week before Sister Steele and I moved here there were 43 people at church. Last week there was 63. This week there were 80 people in sacrament meeting. I feel so spoiled to be here. I love these members. I want to be here longer. 

Yesterday a new branch president was called! YAY! It was the most wonderful fast and testimony meeting I think I've been in my entire mission. One sister shared an amazing experience about tithing and trusting in God. Someone else talked about the Priesthood and supporting their husband in their calling. Everything was just so good. Pure simple testimony.

We had such a good lesson with one of our investigators that came to church. She is a 57 year old woman that we met contacting Friday night at 8:59. We had decided that we weren't going home until we found one more person. So at about 8:57 I started walking towards Sister Steele thinking that she found someone and along the way we met this woman สุนีย์. She is a miracle. One of a hundred that I wish I had time to you all of them. There are so many elect people here waiting to be invited! So we had 3 Sisters help us teach สุนีย์ (we call her 8:59). All the members that helped in that lesson were about her same age and probably haven't had an opportunity to help teach with the missionaries in a really long time. It was one of my favorite lessons because those sisters wanted to share how the gospel had blessed their lives. One of them was a recently returned LA. It was so exciting to hear them share experiences, not have to ask them to give input and to see them being missionaries and fellow-shipping 8:59. It felt like a help group kind of. Lots of mmhhhh and reassuring Thai sounds from everyone. 

I just feel like I'm finally getting the swing of things. Still far from perfect, but I feel like Sister Steele and I have figured out a healthy balance of accomplishing everything that is missionary work. I just want to stay two more transfers, but I'd be willing to barter for just one more.

Other random odds and ends of this week:

We celebrated the 4th by eating a Krispie Kreme Donut and some KFC. 

We came home Saturday night to find that Elder Meeker had left a fridge in front of our door for us. YAY! 

I almost fainted while we were out contacting and instead just sat on the flaming hot sidewalk and felt like I was going to throw up.

Last Monday we didn't have mattresses or blankets so I used a stack of t-shirts for a pillow and one of my skirts as a blanket. We now have mattresses and blankets. Hooray! 

Everything is just so good here. Inviting is a dream. We are expecting miracles and they are happening all the time! 

Love you all,

Sister Sahagun