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

FAMILY!

I am so happy! We had a sweet zone training about how we do our contacting. We've been studying about baptism and it's so wonderful! I feel really purposeful and productive, the most I have on my mission and that makes me really happy. There's a lot I still need to work on (like asking for referrals) so we'll take it one step at a time and keep on keepin on.

The sticker says  Choose the Right!

Sister Maughan and I were riding our bikes to the church and this old white man on a motorcycle rode by and sang/spoke "beautiful girls all over the world". It was kinda creepy but I couldn't stop laughing. He's probably a nice guy. I don't really know what to think about all these white men here. There are a TON. We counted 49 in one day. Weird. 

The language is pretty good, every now and then I'll leave out an important word or two on accident and end up asking for someone's phone instead of their phone number. That was awkward. We just laughed and moved on. I'm so glad Thai people are as nice as they are. l I know that the gift of tongues is real, and whatever these people are understanding from me is all because of the spirit. 

I hope you don't mind the randomness of this email. I'm trying to make this fun for you. Also, I kissed a baby Elephant. It was so cute!!

We had so many miracles this week! First: Our investigator Yong does this Taro card reading stuff for her job and we didn't really know ho to address it. We asked the Relief Society President to help us teach. (Random side note: The RS Pres drives this adorable red wagon motorcycle thing I'll send a picture next week. It  just makes me happy.) So we start teaching the lesson, and Sister Gulap just asks her what she does for work, doesn't really react to the taro cards and just offers her a new job. I had no idea she was going to do that. Everyone was soooo happy. Yong is the cutest lady. She's about 36 but looks like she's 17. She has a 5 year old daughter named Lilly and is always so happy when she comes to the church. The last time we taught her she told us that she took off her fingernail polish because she thought it was bad and also that she wasn't going to wear make-up anymore. NO!!! I hope she didn't make these assumptions based on our sad appearance. We cleared up all the misunderstandings and I think maybe I should paint my nails or something. 

Sand and I

Next miracle. Sister Sand got baptized!!! She is wonderful. She was kind of nervous about her family not supporting her, but we met with her and helped her have confidence in her decision. She has a testimony of Jesus Christ because she has read and pondered the Book of Mormon. She has a desire to show her faith and that's exactly what she did on Saturday!! 5 people were baptized! It was the most beautiful warm happy day! Not like the heat of Thailand warm, but just real joy. We are having another baptism for 5 more people this weekend! The work is hastening! I'm so grateful to be a part of it!

Baptisms are the best!

Our mission has a goal for every companionship to have a baptism this month. It has really helped unify us and help us fulfill our purpose of inviting others to come unto Christ.

 Mosiah 18:21 

"And he commanded them that there should be no contention one with another, but that they should look forward with one eye, having one faith and one baptism, having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another."

I'm so grateful for my leaders. President Senior is amazing! We are developing the faith to bring forth great miracles. I'm so grateful to be in Thailand right now. We are building the kindgom of God here and will soon be building a temple! Thanks for all your prayers and support! I really feel them and I love you! Have a wonderful week!

Love, 

Sister Sahagun

(no subject)

Family! I love you!!! 

This week FLEW by. And we had some wonderful miracles. Our investigator แซน (sand) has been learning with missionaries forever and ever since we got here we've been trying to figure out what her concerns are and why she is putting off baptism. She always will say yeah I'm getting baptized next year, laugh, and just wait for me to react. She thinks it's pretty funny to watch me get all serious but really it's kind of a serious thing. We call and or see her every day, and were fasting to help her have confidence is being baptized on the 17th. So yesterday during sacrament meeting the Branch President came us to us and asked if Sand would be getting baptized this coming weekend on the 9th with the Elder's investigators. We told him that we'd be so happy if that worked out, but that we didn't want to push Sand too much.Then two hours later when church was over, she walked up to us and said Sisters, I'm getting baptized on the 9th okay? YES!! I'm sooooo happy for her! She is so ready and I know that when she's confirmed she'll receive so many blessings from having the holy host with her always.

Sand has taught me so much. Last night we went and did some contacting at หนองประจักษ์ this gorgeous park that I will never stop talking about. We saw her selling ice cream and went over to talk to her. At first I was a little hesitant to ask why she was working on Sunday. I didn't know how to bring it up, but I just decided that I love her and want her to receive all the blessings that come from keeping the commandments. I simply asked her why she was selling ice cream on Sunday and we had such a good conversation about prayer and repentance. I know that when we go to the Lord in prayer and tell Him our desires and ask him to help us that He will. We can overcome our natural man and truly become new creatures in Christ. Especially when it is our desires that we want to change, it is because of the Atonement that we can be truly changed. There are a lot of things that I want to improve on as well. As I was talking to Sister Sand I thought about a lot of things that I want to change in myself. We both grew from that experience, I'm so grateful for the spirit and the atonement. Repentance is such a wonderful gift from our Heavenly Father.

Halloween in Thailand was funny...the two branches had a combined activity. The scariest thing that happened was when this little boy ripped a gigantic moth in half. It was so gross. I dressed up as Sister Maughan (we switched name tags for the activity) It wasn't funny, everyone just thought that was really my name ha no one can remember Sahagun. Everyone gets me and this Elder mixed up. Hunsaker and Sahagun. Not even close, but it's way funny when they try and say ha-sa-gun. The missionaries set up some fun games - the traditional fishing for candy, donuts on a string and bobbing for apples. The water for the bobbing for apples was so gross! They members loved all the games though, they really got into it.

Today we are going to a cake buffet for p-day. I'm really excited and really hungry. I love the people here so much! There are so many cool young single adults. Mostly women actually...we're trying to find some decent guys to marry these girls. It's good work.  The language is pretty good, every now and then I'll leave out an important word or two on accident and end up asking for someone's phone instead of their phone number. I know that the gift of tongues is real, and whatever these people are understanding from me is all because of the spirit.

Mom, I love hearing about your experiences on your mission!! Thank you so much! Please share more. I have been thinking a lot about gratitude the past month, and I love those prayers of gratitude. I'm so excited for the holidays! We have the most wonderful senior missionary couple serving here in Udon and they really just spoil us. Every Sunday night Sister Hart brings over a bowl of waffle batter and a bottle of syrup. Elder Hart has helped us know the area and find some less active member houses. Tonight we are having FHE with them and all the young single adults. Thanksgiving and Christmas are going to be wonderful!

As far as the plaque thing, can I tell you the scripture next week? I think I want Moroni 10:4-5 but there's just way too many good ones. If you absolutely need to turn it in this week just put that one. It's the Thailand Bangkok Mission. You can put my full name. What's the point of a middle name if you never use it, right? I have no idea when my release date is. It's probably getting changed. I think I'll be coming home in February 2015 with Nick. Just jokes I'll find out and let you know. As for a picture...most of the ones I have are of me and my helmet. I trust you to pick a good one. Or just find the one I sent in for my papers.

I love you so much! Have a wonderful week! Send pictures!

Love, 

Sister Sahagun 

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