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 

Transfer to Thonburi

FAMILY!!

Good-bye Sis. Sararat

Change has come! I'm in a new lil internet cafe in TONBURI. I kind of expected this but not really. I feel kind of silly actually. Transfers were Thursday. I feel like there's so much I keep forgetting to tell you,  like a month ago the AP's called and said that President had this special assignment for us to start going to Tonburi for sacrament meeting. We were told to follow the spirit and be back in Asoke for sacrament meeting at one. The AP's just made it sound way intense. So we went on this weird secret mission. Nothing happened. We got to know some members and it was just routine to be going to Tonburi on Sundays. I guess I just thought we were there to support the ward. Why did I not think this through and start really preparing to come work here. At first I was scared that President was going to move me and Sister Carter here and take us out of Asoke. I'm so glad I was able to serve in Asoke for two full transfers. I love that place. So Tonburi's church is kind of tucked away behind this wat. It's not the best, but unfortunately this building location won't change in my lifetime. Their church attendance is pretty low, and actually at this last big meeting when they created the new stake Tonburi was moved into the District and became a branch. So long story short, there hasn't been sisters in this area for ages, and we are now opening this area. The Zone Leaders also got moved from Asoke to here so now there are 6 missionaries instead of two and we are so excited to turn this place around and get church attendance up and find all the prepared people and teach them!!! I love Bangkok. There are so many people everywhere. It's so exciting.

Hello Sis. Steele

This week was crazy. I don't even remember and this hasn't even been recorded in my journal yet so you are privileged to be receiving this update.

Monday was crazy we had dinner with some members หมูกระทะ not as yummy as in the Isan. It was bitter sweet, we got the moves call and I knew I'd be moving. I had this random meeting with President Senior and all 3 APs that was kind of intimidating and weird but after that I was pretty sure I'd be coming here to Tonburi.

Tuesday we had our last district meeting, Tim Tammed Slammed, invited a ton, and got two new investigators! Luckily, I'm still in the same zone and I'll be able to hear about how everyone progresses :)

Wednesday I renewed my visa. Woot! Then we had this wonderful miracle! This taxi driver was being really kind of annoying and know-it-all ish and we didn't really want to talk to him more than was necessary to get us to the church, but he was curious why I spoke Thai and it led into a lil discussion about the gospel and his countenance completely changed. We talked about faith in Christ and repentance and how you can really change your life and he actually shed a few tears. He listened, and by the time we got to the church he agreed to come in and look at the chapel and the baptismal font and we set up an appointment to teach him! Then the international sisters ended up taking that same taxi out to their next appointment and they hadn't heard what happened, but just asked him why he came to the church and followed up with everything we had just taught him. It was so perfect! I'm so excited to hear more about his progress!

Our possible new apartment and Sis. Apple

Thursday TRANSFERS!!! Sister Steele is my new companion! We are from the same MTC group. I feel so spoiled. She's amazing and we are having so much fun and have a great vision for what Tonburi will be and helping this lil branch become a ward again. I just felt this great urgency to do the work and not waste any time while we were in that meeting. There are no burn outs with the Lord. The work is hastening and it's never going to slow don. Ever upwards!

Friday we house hunted all day and invited. We are homeless. While we were inviting we ran into this group of punk teens and decided we'd talk to them despite their youth and rambunctious-ness and wow we are so glad that happened. One of the boys went home and asked his mom if they could go to church on Sunday.He's Catholic. His mom, Rose, if from the Philippines and was baptized in Asoke last year and went less active but has started reading her scriptures again and wants to come back but didn't know where the closest church was. This was a huge miracle for her and for us! It was that lil boys birthday and he told his sister that it was his birthday wish that they all go to church as a family!! AH!! So happy. I think that Bangbuatong is actualy closer for them, but we'll see. I'm just so glad they're coming back and that her kids will be able to learn with the missionaries and get baptized too!! The members here are so kind and so eager to help us. They took us all over to try and find an apartment. We're really excited to have our own place, be independent and get into a real routine.

Saturday we are homeless.  

Sunday about 40 people total at church. I had to translate for Sister Senior and Sister Seppi. That was a lil nerve wracking and hilarious (รู้จักหน้า). We had 3 investigators at church and got 3 new investigators!! Can't wait to get a full week's worth of inviting in. After church we taught the new investigators, ate with the members, invited and went out with another member and I think we found the place for us! YAY!

 We walked in the rain back to the church and found this ginormous beast of a spider in the Relief Society room.

At first I tried to drop a big English Hymn book on it, but it didn't fall straight. We screamed. Then Sister Steele slid another one across the floor and got some of its legs off. I grabbed another hymn book, smashed it, and it's huge body fell to the floor. Poor Soda cleaned up our mess. Soda is not a drink, but in fact she is a cute young woman in our branch. Love her. 

We're currently staying in the swanky RD Hotel. The first night was freezing, last night was hot. We're just a bunch of Goldilocks without a house. All is well. We really are happy and today should be a very productive preparation day.

The church is so true!! I hope you all have a wonderful week!! Miss you!

Love,

Sister Sahagun

Mission Miracle

Dear Family,

I miss you!

This week was my favorite week of miracles. This picture contains the miracles of the week.

Pictured left to right:B. Ronny, พร (new investigator. Referral from จะรูน believe it), จะรูน, มิ้น, สุรี, รันทร์เพญ LA, and mom of มิ้น

Here's a lil background for you all. Brother Ronny is the best Ward mission leader ever. When Sister Carter was still here, he referred us 3 Less active/part member families to work with. One family was the family of Sister Mint (12 year old that got baptized in this picture). We went once and the mom wouldn't let us in. Not a good time. Along the way of finding these families, the member that was with us took us to the house of Sister Jaroon(flowery shirt left of Mint). The tiny lil lady is Sister Suri. She had been bringing Mint to church every week. She also went with us to visit Sister Janpet (bright pink right of mint). Suri is the real miracle worker in this story.

I don't even know how to tell this miracle! We talked to Mint and Suri at church one Sunday and set up a time to go teach her at her house. When we got there her mom was so welcoming because she knew Sister Suri! She was so happy to hear that her daughter would be getting baptized. She happened to have that day off for work and was so excited to go to church. Then Suri told us about Jaroon and that she would want to go to church if Mint was getting baptized. All these people in this little girl's life that were effected by her example and desire to be baptized. Mint had a near death experience almost drowned a couple years ago and that's when she knew that God was real. I don't even know if this is making sense to you, but it was the most amazing thing to see Mint be such a strong example to her mom and these women in her life and make the decision to go to church every week and be baptized. I'm so grateful to sister Suri for being such a good fellow-shipper and for being such a great example as well. Still lots more to do to serve these women and help them be strong. She loves these women so much. I love them all!

So long story short (Mint)มิ้น GOT BAPTIZED!!! AND จะรูน came to church and spoke at the baptism! AND มิ้นs Mom came and said the opening prayer and this other LA we never got to visit but S.สุรี took me and sister Sararat. And Jaroon gave us a referral and brought her to the baptism! Wow. Seriously so spoiled. I love being here. I know that this is the Lord's work. I know that our example no matter how young or small our testimony is we can make a difference in the lives of others. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week!!

Love you most!

Sister Sahagun

Asoke

Dear Family,

I LOVE YOU!

Daddio! Happy Father's day! I LOVE YOU!! It didn't feel like Father's Day here in Thailand. Father's Day is the Kings birthday (Dec 5) and you're not here so it just wasn't the same. I miss you!!! I love your emails. I love that I can tell that you're using some form of high-tech-ness to get these words in an email because of the typos. Love you so much. I can't believe Mom cut her finger open AGAIN!!! I miss avocados. Was it the same finger? 

Are you okay? Did you take a picture of it? I'll see it. Also, that's cute that you have all the missionary moms over for brunch. 

This week was amazing!! I just feel so spoiled. So spoiled to be a missionary. So spoiled to be in Thailand right now with all the growth that is happening. So spoiled to be serving with Sister Sararat here in Asoke. So spoiled to have such wonderful leaders. I loved Zone Conference. I learned a lot. Spoiled by the spirit. Just so many blessings. So spoiled with great investigators right now. So much too much! Not really too much, but It just makes me want to work harder and be better. 

I loved what we talked about in Zone Conference about becoming. Our potential to change and become is I think my favorite part of the gospel. I've been studying more about repentance and trying to find ways to teach it more clearly and powerfully. We did so much of everything this week! So much inviting, so much teaching, so many new investigators, and ended the week with an amazing district conference and a baptism.

A new stake was created and also a district!!! Now there are 2 stakes and 5 districts in Thailand! I love being a part of this great work! 

Hope you'll all have a wonderful week! Love you lots. Faith. Prayer. Happiness. Repentance.

Love,

ซิสเตอร์ ซาเฮกัน

Sister Sahagun