Dear Fam,
You will be excited to hear we have two "Daters." How this happened is really a miracle. Last week I think I talked with two people about the gospel besides the members. That is a little bit of an exaggeration (but only a little bit). And one of the people was named Phon (it means rain in Thai). She goes to our English class and she is so sweet and helpful when I speak Thai with her. If there's ever anything I don't understand she will try to explain in English. any way. We taught her, and she was our first Dater. I think she may be a golden investigator. We taught her about Restoration and how important it is to read the Book of Mormon, and the next day she came to us and said she had a question. She asked about when Nephi kills Laman (because in most eastern religions murder is a horrible sin) and we were able to help her understand.... er Sister Somboonni was able to help her understand. But she had read 4 chapters! And she had underlined where Nephi says the Lord will provide a way and other verses. I was like, "Why is the Lord blessing me with such a fantastic person?"
But the blessings don't stop there. Phon has a friend Rin that one of the elders gave a Book of Mormon to and she is interested too, so guess who is our second dater? yups. And they both went to church this Sunday. All three hours! There were about 40 people at church this week. and six of those were missionaries and about ten were investigators.... we have enough members to have a ward, but they do not attend. grr. So we have lots of less active work to do here on top of finding.
My trainer is wonderful. She is super helpful and a great example of correcting with love. When I talk with her and a say a tone wrong or a vowel wierd she will correct me, but not in a rude way. One day I hope to have this skill.
I have once again forgotten my camera in the apartment. Shame, because I have about a thousand pictures I want to send you. We are working hard. our area is LARGE. Dan Jonesing (street contacting) is still pretty high on my list of things that I do not like, but Sister Somboonni is helping me with that. She also does not care for it, so I guess you could say we are growing together. The language is still hard, but I am progressing more and more.
Oh so here's an interesting fact: telling the age of a person in Thailand is impossible! You may think by that I mean it is hard. NO. I mean it is impossible. You must add ten years to however old you think they are, unless they are under the age of 20, and then you subtract about two years. I thought our investigator Phon was like in her early twenties. no. Try late 20s and Tanya, an investigator I also thought mid-twenties. no. 40. What! So I stopped guessing ages. it makes my head hurt.
We finally had a day that it didn't rain. It has literally rained every day that I have been here except one. Every day. And I am not talking about light showers either.
Other than our Daters, this week has been pretty quiet, just missionary work, teaching, and trying to Dan Jones. yeah. Hope you are all well. I love you all! On my MP3 player y'all put "Home is where the Heart is.... I think it is a plot to make me homesick. It won't work, but it does make me think "Wow, I have an awesome fam that are all halfway around the world. Good thing God's promised to take care of them!" Enjoy Halloween!
Love,
ซิสเฅอร์ บาร์เบอร์
You will be excited to hear we have two "Daters." How this happened is really a miracle. Last week I think I talked with two people about the gospel besides the members. That is a little bit of an exaggeration (but only a little bit). And one of the people was named Phon (it means rain in Thai). She goes to our English class and she is so sweet and helpful when I speak Thai with her. If there's ever anything I don't understand she will try to explain in English. any way. We taught her, and she was our first Dater. I think she may be a golden investigator. We taught her about Restoration and how important it is to read the Book of Mormon, and the next day she came to us and said she had a question. She asked about when Nephi kills Laman (because in most eastern religions murder is a horrible sin) and we were able to help her understand.... er Sister Somboonni was able to help her understand. But she had read 4 chapters! And she had underlined where Nephi says the Lord will provide a way and other verses. I was like, "Why is the Lord blessing me with such a fantastic person?"
But the blessings don't stop there. Phon has a friend Rin that one of the elders gave a Book of Mormon to and she is interested too, so guess who is our second dater? yups. And they both went to church this Sunday. All three hours! There were about 40 people at church this week. and six of those were missionaries and about ten were investigators.... we have enough members to have a ward, but they do not attend. grr. So we have lots of less active work to do here on top of finding.
My trainer is wonderful. She is super helpful and a great example of correcting with love. When I talk with her and a say a tone wrong or a vowel wierd she will correct me, but not in a rude way. One day I hope to have this skill.
I have once again forgotten my camera in the apartment. Shame, because I have about a thousand pictures I want to send you. We are working hard. our area is LARGE. Dan Jonesing (street contacting) is still pretty high on my list of things that I do not like, but Sister Somboonni is helping me with that. She also does not care for it, so I guess you could say we are growing together. The language is still hard, but I am progressing more and more.
Oh so here's an interesting fact: telling the age of a person in Thailand is impossible! You may think by that I mean it is hard. NO. I mean it is impossible. You must add ten years to however old you think they are, unless they are under the age of 20, and then you subtract about two years. I thought our investigator Phon was like in her early twenties. no. Try late 20s and Tanya, an investigator I also thought mid-twenties. no. 40. What! So I stopped guessing ages. it makes my head hurt.
We finally had a day that it didn't rain. It has literally rained every day that I have been here except one. Every day. And I am not talking about light showers either.
Other than our Daters, this week has been pretty quiet, just missionary work, teaching, and trying to Dan Jones. yeah. Hope you are all well. I love you all! On my MP3 player y'all put "Home is where the Heart is.... I think it is a plot to make me homesick. It won't work, but it does make me think "Wow, I have an awesome fam that are all halfway around the world. Good thing God's promised to take care of them!" Enjoy Halloween!
Love,
ซิสเฅอร์ บาร์เบอร์