Dearest Family,

Hello! Thanks for the birthday happiness! Yesterday was wonderful! We had two of our investigators at church, testimony meeting was lovely, and my favorite part was the prelude music. This member was improvising on the piano all these hymns, it was so calming and peaceful. The spirit was so strong. I turned to one of our investigators and bore my testimony about the power of music and how we can feel God's love through His spirit in words or music or places of reverence. Heavenly Father is helping me so much with the language it's amazing. 

I've been playing the piano in Relief Society. That's been rough. I really need to practice. I love playing, I'm just really not that good. So all of you that have musical talents, keep perfecting them and sharing them so that you can be useful in bringing the spirit and building the kingdom! That means you Jessica and Tyler. Keep practicing the piano!!

Last week I was chased by a dog on my bike. For real. It was so terrifying, but I was just so shocked that it was actually happening that I just nervously laughed and kept pedaling. That mean ol dog (we named it sweetie, we see it every day) bit the bottom of my shoe! No injuries here, just a lil shook up. Missionaries really get chased by dogs.

So last week at our zone conference, we received instructions to stop looking for new investigators and start focusing our efforts on the members and less actives. They want us to have 20 lessons a week besides our other lessons. We are focusing on retention and reactivation. There are 26,000 members in Thailand and only 3,000 active. So sad! We are also working towards building two more stakes here and ultimately a temple. There is an apostle coming on May 18 to see if Thailand is ready for a temple!!! We are so excited! 

I love being here. Our new focus on the members is wonderful and definitely a challenge. Our lil branch of 30ish needs help! The addresses that we have for everyone are pretty confusing and most of them are incomplete, but we are really working on having the faith to go forward with the information that we have and to just trust in the Lord.

I love you all. Have a wonderful week! The church is so true!

Love. Love. 

Sister Sahagun

P.S. I've been eating yogurt for the past two weeks. 

 Dearest Family,

I love you! Thanks for all your emails! IT's really so good to hear from you! They changed the rules so now anyone can email missionaries, it's great! I just wish I had more time to respond to everyone! 

I love Thailand soooooo much! It is so green and beautiful and there are so many random color buildings and the people are so nice. The Thai is coming along. I can read a lil faster now and I understand the members okay...ish. Gospel terms are more familiar ya know? My companion and I had a Thai day on Friday where she only spoke Thai to me. I loved it. It is so great to be a missionary. Right now a huge part of our focus is on strengthening the branch. We have about 35ish people there every week. We have adventures every day trying to decode incomplete Thai addresses and then figure out how to get there. Taxi and motorcycle drivers are our friends :) They help us orient ourselves. 

I ate the most delicious Pat Thai on Friday. SOOO Good. Some of the food at these markets still scares me. I used to think I liked fish. I'm not so sure anymore. I'm still trying to get over all these smells.

Last week, we went to visit this cute lady and her daughter that work at a noodle shop. We have given them a Book of Mormon and taught them how to pray, but they are a lil slow progressing. I love them, I love that we are friends! The daughter is my age and she is so cute! So after we talked with them for a minute, we invited her daughter to come to the church and play sports with us and some of the members. She said she needed her help with the restaurant and wasn't going to let her come, so we insisted on helping with the dishes. It was so much fun! The mom kept saying no don't worry about it, but we did it anyway and then the daughter was able to come with us! I was so happy! I love serving these people. 

Mother's Day is coming! I get to skype on May 12, I think that's Sunday night for you, so I guess just be on Skype? Be available? Sorry I don't have more info I told Nick too. I think it would be cool if we coordinated some thing. Yes. Let's try for that.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSICA!!! So excited for you to be 12!! Yes, we are all getting old. Nick will be 19 and I'll be 21!!! WOOT! So pumped for this week. Also, sorry I haven't sent any pictures. Maybe I can't find my camera cord...or my charger...AH!!! I'm a little bit freaking out but it's fine. I'll work it out. :)

Thank you for all of your love and support! I miss you! Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Sahagun

Dearest Familia,

Hello!! I'm in this little internet cafe with my companion and a bunch of little boys that are playing weird role play games with each other. We even take our shoes off to come in here. So yeah, I am loving being a missionary. It's hard and wonderful. I don't understand most of what people say, but I'm constantly listening for those precious words that I do know. I'm so grateful to be here in Bangkok where everyone speaks Thai! There are so many different languages like in the Isaan and in the mountains people have different languages. Anywho, even though I don't think anyone speaks clearly, this is the best place to be learning Thai.

Last Tuesday Sister Carter and I were looking for this man who was a potential from before I got here. We found his house, and he was busy working. His wife is super Buddhist and was not interested in our message either. As we were saying goodbye, her neighbor approached us and invited us in his house! It was such a miracle! We taught him about prayer and the importance of families. He accepted our message and said it would be okay to come back. We rode our bikes around the corner to pray and evaluate, and this man and his girlfriend approached us and said Hey! We're Christian too! Miracle number two! We invited them to church and they said they were actually looking for a new church to go to! Yesterday, the girlfriend came to church and stayed for all three hours and also stayed to eat with the branch! (They have food every Sunday after church! Yes mom, food at every meal ;)) The man who invited us to his home also came and brought his two daughters and two of their friends! I know that there are people prepared to hear our message! They even sometimes come to us!

Most random activity of this last week: We went to a hospital and a coffin store to inquire if there was a list we could put our names on to be available for people to call and consult us if they are in a crisis. This was the last bullet point suggestion in our planner under finding activities. We laughed so hard about that but decided to try it out anyway. So the lady at the coffin store was so confused about this weird request but she wrote our number down and was happy to talk with us and be our friend. We sat down with her and ate watermelon while we shared with her that God is our loving Heavenly Father and that we are all his children, brothers and sisters. When we told her that she said it gave her the chills! She has a 6 month old baby that is sooo adorable. We shared with them the Family Proclamation to the world. I'm so excited to go back and teach her more!

I don't know how Sister Carter does it, but she never gets us lost. Thai addresses are INSANE! Also, it's been really hard to remember peoples' names. Everyone has a nickname that they go by. They only use their real name for official documents or at church to announce if they are speaking or saying a prayer but everyone knows each other by their nick names. So we try to know both names. It's crazy. We tried to meet the relief Society President yesterday, but she left so fast and no one  knows her address or has her phone number. I'm not sure how that works out, but we'll track her down.

I love being a missionary. I'm so happy to be here. I love sharing simple truths with everyone I meet every day. I am so grateful for Preach My Gospel. That book is inspired! I read this today in my personal study:

 " Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said?- If ye will not harden your heart and ask me in faith beleiving that ye shall receive with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you." (1 Nephi 15:11)

The lord wants to help and bless us ! We simply need to have faith in him, believe that He will help us, and work diligently!

I love you all! The church is so true! Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Sahagun

Dearest Family!!

I'm in THAILAND!!!The flight felt like an eternity! I'm so happy to be here! I'm serving in Pak Kret with Sister Carter! Our apartment is adorable. We have a cute yellow couch and a tiny lil fridge. It's hot and humid. I love it. Seriously. This has been an exciting first few days in Thailand! Our first day, we had our blood drawn at this random hole in the wall doctors office. That was quite the experience. The nurse asked me how much I weighed and I started telling her in thai...one hundred..and she just burst out laughing! In Kilos, that's like 200 pounds! oops! Then she asked me how tall I was and I said 5'8". Wrong again! So she just weighed me and measured me herself. We both laughed so hard. I went Dan Jones-ing and placed a Book of Mormon with one of the Sister Missionaries! It was great, the girl we gave it to understood me and gave us her information to come teach her more! I love President and Sister Senior! They are so wonderful and just down to earth. We have the most adorable senior missionaries too! 

Today is Sonkgran! Yeah, I'm not really sure what to tell you. It's so fun! Everything is closed for the Holiday. People started celebrating Thursday? and it goes until tomorrow. We went to the church this morning at 7 to help set up decorations. It looked kinda like a Hawaiian Luau. They had traditional flowers (they smell SOOO good) and other decorations. I'm not giving this holiday justice, I'm so sorry. So Sister Carter opened up this area 4 weeks ago. Our huge group of 28 new missionaries kinda threw off the whole transfer schedule. Anywho, there is a lot of work to do here. We need to find our investigators!I am a lil overwhelmed with everything I want to tell you. I can't thing straight.

Riding a bike in Bangkok is insane! We cross all lanes of traffic I'm pretty sure everyone just drives as fast as they want. Anything goes in Thailand. It amazes me, but somehow it works. I think because everyone is so sabi and chill things just work themselves out. I love it. Bangkok is smelly. Like so many different smells all happening at the same time. Some good some bad some terrible. That is going to take some getting used to. There are dogs everywhere. It's a sin to kill animals so they just roam free and no one has a problem with it. Thai people love plastic bags. They put everything in plastic grocery bags. I love the food! So far so good. I had some spicy curry that was pretty good. I tried something with this fishy sauce kinda flavor that I was not a fan of. There is fruit everywhere! So delicious! The grocery store is like a mall. There are random kiosks everywhere. My second day here, we went grocery shopping and I was completely overwhelmed. I can barely handle grocery shopping in America. I also rode in a tuk tuk my second day. We piled four sister missionaries into one, it was so fun. We took a bus the other day - it had no air conditioning and wooden floors. So funny.

I loved being able to hear the talks from general conference again.When I watched it in Provo, I had a lot of questions about what was expected of me here. I learned that the most important thing is to be exactly obedient, love the Lord, and love the people. While watching conference here in the beautiful church building, it was freezing!! I thought I would never be cold again! I added some questions to my list. I want to know what the Lord wants us to do in this area. I want to know how we can find these people that the Lord has prepared. Sister Carter and I fasted on Sunday and I feel like an answer that I got during conference was during Elder Holland's talk. There are so many things that I don't know, and things I don't understand because of the language, but I can hold fast to what I do know! I am excited to walk by faith and press forward trusting in the Lord. There are a lot of potential investigators from English class (we get to teach English every Tuesday!!) that have expressed a desire to learn more so I feel like that is the first place that we should start! I am ready to work hard and find these people. The Lord will help guide us and correct our paths if it's not right. I'm so grateful that my Heavenly Father is patient with me and my imperfections. Imperfect people is all he has ever had to work with! I loved that talk by Elder Holland so much. I know this church is true! I am so excited to share this message of Jesus Christ with the people of Thailand! I'm here!!! Have a wonderful week! 

Love,

Sister Sahagun

Sister Sahagun has arrived in Thailand!

MTC Week 8

Thailand Sisters

My Dearest Family!!!

Happy Easter!!! I know that my Redeemer lives! We had the most amazing Easter here in the MTC. Sacrament meeting was kind of a historic deal. There were 3,000 missionaries that all took the sacrament together. It was so incredible to see 100 Elders passing the sacrament to us all. I can't even explain the beautiful spirit that was in that meeting. Bishop Causse (Presiding Bishop) and his wife were the speakers at our meeting. It was so incredible. I feel so blessed to have been at the MTC for this long. I've learned so much! Our Devotional speaker on Sunday night was Sheri Dew!!! Ah, I just love her. All day there was this amazing theme of the Atonement. Sheri Dew told us this story about a time she and her brother were stranded in last chance Colorado and were rescued by their dad. She talked about how the Savior can help us in similar ways. He's not our last chance, He's our only chance!

 

We moved classrooms this week! That's not really that exciting to any of you, but it's a big change for us! It's not as hot and stuffy in our new room. It's also nice to have a new perspective for our last week. AHHHH!!! It's our last week!!!!! We got our travel plans last Thursday and I wouldn't let myself look at them until I finished memorizing Joseph Smith's first vision in Thai. Well, it's still pretty rough, but I've got it and I'm soooo excited! We'll be on the plane for 47 hours or something I'm just kidding I don't really know I'm still trying to figure out how long it is since we're losing a day whatever. You all can figure it out and write me about it. We leave Monday at 4:30 in the afternoon. SO glad I don't have to leave early in the am. ALSO!!! We got our new name tags that have our names in THAI!! AH! It's just so cool. I do need to send some stuff home. That would be so helpful if Stacy could pick some of that up! Send me her information in a dear elder please and I'll work that out with you. Thanks for the cute Crocs!!! ( said no one ever...until there were cute mary jane ones that are perfect for missionaries!!) I can't wear the open toed sandal ones, but the mary janes are great! Wore then to the temple this morning in the rain. They'll be perfect for Thailand.

 

I'm sorry this isn't that great of an email. I left my sticky note of things to tell you in my residence...I know there was so much more I was supposed to tell you! And if I haven't told you before, this is always the most stressful 30 minutes of my week. I type so slow and I never know how to fit all the good stuff in.

 

Yesterday Sister Mullen and I taught one of our investigators, Bukkhi. After the lesson our teacher just said,"Sorry I have to be Sister Roper for a minute"..."How do you do it? What do you think about when you teach? " She just told us that from day one she could feel the love that we have for her. Our first lesson with her actually she cried a little bit and yesterday she told us that she never cries, but during that lesson she just had this thought of "I can't be in Thailand to teach, but they  can and they'll be amazing vessels for good." Ah, it was just the nicest best feedback I could have dreamed of from our teachers! We're definitely not perfect teachers or perfect at Thai, but our investigators can tell that we love them and that God loves them.

 

Have a wonderful week!!!

 

Love,

Sister Sahagun

MTC Week 7

Dearest Khrccbkhrua, (Pretend like the c's are backwards...it makes the awh sound)

 

Hello I love you! Happy Easter!! Thanks for the package! I just love this time of year! They are planting tulips here at the MTC and I really hope they start to bloom before we leave. How is everyone? I got an email from Nick this week, it sounds like he's working hard, loving his companion, and just being a good missionary. I am so excited to see Aubree here!!! And Conference is coming up! AH! I just can't wait!

 

So, I was asked to be a coordinating sister...like a week and a half ago. I check in with the senior companions, make sure everything is good with the khuu-ship and give support and love to all the Sisters. It kinda feels like a visiting teaching coordinator thing. I love getting to know everyone. The coordinating sisters before me used to come around every night and check in and chat and it was always such awkward timing because everyone was getting ready for bed, writing in their journals and winding down from the day - not much time ya know? I really felt like I didn't want to do that. There were a couple things I wanted to differently actually. Last night, we (There are 2 coordinating sisters) decided to write down a scripture on a sticky note and doorbell ditch it on their doors. It was so much fun! I hope this can be a way to show our love and support without taking up everyone's night time. Maybe I'm just thinking way too much about this. Anywho, love these sisters, learning how to be a better leader and serve the sisters around me.

 

I am leaving April 8th. I am not counting down. I'm doing my best to be in the middle. Go read the talk about that from Elder Uchtdorf. Love it. I am so grateful for the time I've had here in the MTC to study the scriptures,  study the language, and learn the fundamentals of teaching. I honestly feel like I've learned more about how to be abetter teacher in these 7 weeks than I have learned in a whole semester of Education classes at BYU. My teachers are AMAZING. I'll tell you all about them someday.

 

This week I've thought alot about faith. We read Alma 32 together as a distric and it was so wonderful to hear everyone's insights. I really loved verse 22. It reminded me of God's love for us. He wants all to believe on His word. His message is an invitation to all to come unto Christ so that His mercy can be extended to all. I just love that He is so powerful and merciful all at once. He truly loves us. I wish I could better express my thought better.

 

Have a wonderful week! Happy Easter! Hide some eggs for me to find in a couple years!

 

Love,

Sister Sahagun