Dear fam,
I wish the subject title was talking about investigators, but unfortunately it is referring to weird-things-that-slow-down-mission-work-and-are-no-fun.
It all started, well truly we've just been on a decline with investigators, and lessons - and everything's been a little hard right now. And then on Wednesday we decided we were going to go to this college and ask about service opportunities, or maybe even teaching a class on Mormonism. So we got there, and the campus was huge, and we had to walk everywhere, and I started to feel sick. But I'm a missionary, so you suck it up and keep going. So we were on the other side of campus and we had walked probably the equivalent of 2 miles just trying to find places, and it's hot and I felt so bad, we decided to take a taxi, because there's one more building we wanted to go to, and it was all the way on the other side of campus. Wo we were in the taxi, and suddenly, I knew I was going to throw up. I clapped my hand over my mouth and looked at Sister Stack. She saw and understood, but she didn't know how to say throw up, so she just said "Here is fine, pull over. And the cab driver didn't want to because more moneys for him, so Sister Stack said, "Stop! She's not well," and mimes throwing up. He finally got it. he pulled over; before he stopped, Sister Stack was out of the car, and I was right behind her, and it all came out. Good times. Then we got back in the taxi and kept going. Sister Stack wanted to go home, but I felt a lot better. so we kept going.
After that we went to the church for our lessons and I wasn't feeling so hot again. Our first lesson didn't show up, so I rested. Our other lesson was crazy good. We were teaching this sister that is always kind of quiet and seems not very interested, but I felt the spirit so strongly. I also felt that I was going to throw up again. But I testify that prayers work, because I prayed so hard to not have to run out of that lesson, and I didn't have to. But we did literally say the closing prayer, and I went to the bathroom and emptied my stomach. After that we went home, and I slept, and I slept in the next day. I woke up at 7, and Sister Stack made me go back to bed.
After that it was quiet for a time. I felt fine, but we just weren't finding anyone even remotely interested. Then Sunday rolled around, and we thought we were going to have maybe two investigators at church, and I can't even tell you what blindsided us because it's not my story, but it was bad.
And then we had a meeting with our ward mission leader and in the middle of it Elder Gilley just said, " I think we should stop this right now, because we don't have the spirit" which was so true. And then Elder Gilley and Brother Jo (ward mission leader) had this huge long argument that all revolved around us just wanting him to turn his phone on, or return our calls, and Brother Jo literally said, " If I'm happy I'll answer my phone." He apparently said we were horrible missionaries ( I missed that part) but I did catch when he told us our job is basically to make people feel good. No, no, it's not. It's to call people to repentance. It was a mess. And I felt our meeting helped nothing. Sigh.
BUT we had two investigators at church. And we have a new sister in our ward who was baptized in England. She's Thai, but she lived in New Zealand for 3 years, and traveled to England for 5 months where she was baptized. She is so sweet, and nice, and so good about helping us teach. It was really cool to see how excited she was to hear the gospel in Thai for the first time.
Yep, that's the highlights from my crazy, crazy week.
CULTURE TIME: Thailand has no sidewalks on side roads. For big roads there are sidewalks, but on the side road I walked down to write this e-mail, no sidewalks. So you just walk as close to the side of the road as you can. If cars come on the side you're on they just go around you, but if there are two cars coming from opposite sides, you have to wait, because the roads are NOT wide enough for you and the two cars.
BONUS ROUND! People love to give us fruit. I am going to include a picture we took of all the fruit people gave us.
I love you all!
Sister Barber
I wish the subject title was talking about investigators, but unfortunately it is referring to weird-things-that-slow-down-mission-work-and-are-no-fun.
It all started, well truly we've just been on a decline with investigators, and lessons - and everything's been a little hard right now. And then on Wednesday we decided we were going to go to this college and ask about service opportunities, or maybe even teaching a class on Mormonism. So we got there, and the campus was huge, and we had to walk everywhere, and I started to feel sick. But I'm a missionary, so you suck it up and keep going. So we were on the other side of campus and we had walked probably the equivalent of 2 miles just trying to find places, and it's hot and I felt so bad, we decided to take a taxi, because there's one more building we wanted to go to, and it was all the way on the other side of campus. Wo we were in the taxi, and suddenly, I knew I was going to throw up. I clapped my hand over my mouth and looked at Sister Stack. She saw and understood, but she didn't know how to say throw up, so she just said "Here is fine, pull over. And the cab driver didn't want to because more moneys for him, so Sister Stack said, "Stop! She's not well," and mimes throwing up. He finally got it. he pulled over; before he stopped, Sister Stack was out of the car, and I was right behind her, and it all came out. Good times. Then we got back in the taxi and kept going. Sister Stack wanted to go home, but I felt a lot better. so we kept going.
After that we went to the church for our lessons and I wasn't feeling so hot again. Our first lesson didn't show up, so I rested. Our other lesson was crazy good. We were teaching this sister that is always kind of quiet and seems not very interested, but I felt the spirit so strongly. I also felt that I was going to throw up again. But I testify that prayers work, because I prayed so hard to not have to run out of that lesson, and I didn't have to. But we did literally say the closing prayer, and I went to the bathroom and emptied my stomach. After that we went home, and I slept, and I slept in the next day. I woke up at 7, and Sister Stack made me go back to bed.
After that it was quiet for a time. I felt fine, but we just weren't finding anyone even remotely interested. Then Sunday rolled around, and we thought we were going to have maybe two investigators at church, and I can't even tell you what blindsided us because it's not my story, but it was bad.
And then we had a meeting with our ward mission leader and in the middle of it Elder Gilley just said, " I think we should stop this right now, because we don't have the spirit" which was so true. And then Elder Gilley and Brother Jo (ward mission leader) had this huge long argument that all revolved around us just wanting him to turn his phone on, or return our calls, and Brother Jo literally said, " If I'm happy I'll answer my phone." He apparently said we were horrible missionaries ( I missed that part) but I did catch when he told us our job is basically to make people feel good. No, no, it's not. It's to call people to repentance. It was a mess. And I felt our meeting helped nothing. Sigh.
BUT we had two investigators at church. And we have a new sister in our ward who was baptized in England. She's Thai, but she lived in New Zealand for 3 years, and traveled to England for 5 months where she was baptized. She is so sweet, and nice, and so good about helping us teach. It was really cool to see how excited she was to hear the gospel in Thai for the first time.
Yep, that's the highlights from my crazy, crazy week.
CULTURE TIME: Thailand has no sidewalks on side roads. For big roads there are sidewalks, but on the side road I walked down to write this e-mail, no sidewalks. So you just walk as close to the side of the road as you can. If cars come on the side you're on they just go around you, but if there are two cars coming from opposite sides, you have to wait, because the roads are NOT wide enough for you and the two cars.
BONUS ROUND! People love to give us fruit. I am going to include a picture we took of all the fruit people gave us.
I love you all!
Sister Barber