Elephants and the Glories of Heaven Week #38

If anyone knows Brecklyn, it has been a dream/bucket list item of hers to ride an elephant. One of the things she was looking forward to most about going to Thailand. This letter makes me so sad for her, but amazed at her understanding at the same time!

Hello everyone! I hope you have had a good week! It was a great one here in P-Lok. 

For my letter this week I am just going to share what we call here a เบรียบเทียบ (briabtiab: it kind of means comparison). This comes from my activities of last p-day. So we went on an adventure with the members... Surprise, we got to visit elephants!!!

Here is my understanding of the kingdoms of glory in Heaven.

1. Outer darkness: not even knowing elephants exist

2. Telestial Kingdom: being able to see elephants

3. Terrestial Kingdom: being with elephants and getting to sit on an elephant

4. Celestial Kingdom: Riding an elephant

So we go and visit the elephants. Next thing I know, we get to ride them! So as someone is getting on they ask me to take some pictures. Well before I know it, I turn around and everyone has already claimed their elephant and they are climbing on. Turns out, there weren't enough elephants for everyone to ride. So they handed me a rope connected to this elephant and said, "she is too old to ride. But you can walk her." So last week, I got to experience my version of the Terrestial Kingdom. Ha ha You are happy because clearly being with the elephants is better than not. But you can see everyone else having the joy of riding the elephants in front of you. Honestly, (yes this is very childish of me) I wanted to cry a little watching everyone live my dream right in front of me. It just made me think about making it to the Terrestial Kingdom. You're so close and you know there is something so much better than what you have. Yet you are just short of obtaining it. Ha ha I know kind of silly and a very missionary thought process. Now I am over it and I just laugh at the fact I got to walk an elephant through the forest in Thailand on a leash. Ha ha But it really got me thinking. The atonement is such an important thing in our lives. We need to make sure that we are repenting and applying it. I never want that feeling of walking instead of riding again. And that in comparison to eternal glory is nothing. So because I love all of you, I guess I am calling all of you to repentance! ha ha I am so grateful for the blessing and the gift of repentance in my life. I know I am not even close to being perfect, but that doesn't matter if I am trying to improve each day. I can improve and progress only through the atonement of Jesus Christ my Savior. 

That is my "comparison" for you all today.

Beyond that, this week we had two miracles of baptism! Sister Mate (with a silent t) and brother Brasit got baptized yesterday! They are both so good and solid. They were so open and accepting of everything we taught. I know the Lord has been preparing them. I am just lucky to have played a part in His work.

I hope this week you all enjoy yourselves in whatever life brings you!

-Sister Nethercott

The baptism!

 The waterfall

 More elephants and our ride there. Actually that is us hiding. They like to over charge farrangs to see the sites and the members bought the tickets so they had us hide. Ha ha

 Me with the elephants!

Here is me walking my elephant... It was actually really annoying. It kept stopping to eat the trees. Then he'd rip the trees out of the ground and whack me in the face with them. ha ha

 Part of my P-day adventure

 The primary activity. There were 2 kids.... But they made this yummy treat! Ha ha

Still working hard! Week #37

Ok I am keeping this pretty short because a member is taking us somewhere today. I am not exactly sure where, but I think maybe more waterfalls. Ha ha

So this week was really great! We were able to get a lot of new investigators. They all seem to be potentially strong investigators too. I am really excited about them. I just hope the investigator we have been working with since coming here to P-lok will progress, He was supposed to get baptized this week but decided to go to Bangkok instead... But thats ok. Right now we are teaching quite a few men. It makes me really hopeful we can get more priesthood holders to help out in this branch! They couldn't function without Elders right now. Our DL is in the branch presidency. So hopefully God has prepared these men to come learn, gain a testimony, get baptized, and help the branch! 

So this week was just a lot of teaching and in our spare moments we'd get some contacting in. So it was pretty busy!

We have been working hard and seeing some miracles here from it! I hope we can keep up with the pace the Lord has set. We are now supposed to get 2 part member family lessons in each week. This is a little harder because a lot of the members have already tried to share the gospel with their families are seem a little scared to try again. So please pray for the hearts of the families to be open and accepting of the gospel! The gospel is centered around families, not just individuals so we need their families to come to know the Savior too!

This week we had zone training. It sounds like they are cutting down a little. Sorry that the facebook page was banned. But hey, now I can actually surprise you when I move and you won't already know where I am! Ha ha

I have been reading the Thai Book of Mormon side by side with the English. This week I was reading in Mosiah. I never realized how much I love King Benjamin. I would recommend everyone to go read his words. He has such a strong testimony, knowledge, and understanding of the Savior. Which is kind of crazy when you consider the fact Christ hadn't even come to the earth yet. What a great example of faith. I just want to emphasize what is said in Mosiah 5. Only through Christ can our sins and our transgressions be blotted out. We must take upon ourselves His name to be seated at the right hand of God. This doesn't just mean when we are baptized we are done because we have taken upon ourselves His name. It means everyday we should be relying on Christ and His atonement. We should be progressing to be perfect even as He was perfect. We don't have to perfect in all things. Pick something today and start there. Through Christ we are able to overcome all. Lean on Him.

I hope you all have a good week! Love you!

-Sister Nethercott

 Last P-day

 This waterfall looks bigger in person than in pictures. Ha  ha

 Just SOME of the creepy knick knacks in our apartment as you requested mother. :)

A baptism in P-lok! Week #36

Hello everyone! It's been a great week here in P-lok! 

I guess I will start with the exciting news of the week... We had a baptism! Fluke is so great. We met him our first Saturday here. He had already downloaded the gospel library app on his phone. I guess he was looking into different churches. He described what he felt sitting in sacrament like this, "buub (touches the back of his head) it felt good." He was really prepared. It was funny, before the baptism we took the picture and he didn't like it. We said, "no you look perfect." And he said, "no not yet." And nodded toward the font. It was funny. Great guy. It was also pretty special because Guitar who baptized him had just gotten the priesthood that day. It was only his 4th week at church! But he did it so perfectly. He was so nervous before it was cute. But he was excited. Its pretty special he got to use the priesthood the very day he got it.

This week consisted of a lot of contacting trying to get an investigator pool started up. We got the missionaries kicked out of central for good (good thing it is a little farther away). Ha ha But we were able to get a lot of numbers this week so hopefully some of them are actually interested. Sister Morgan and I are starting to get a handle on the new area and how it works here. It is a really good area though. Really pretty and also really hot! The best part is, the hot season hasn't even begun. Ha ha

Well I don't have much time because we are heading to some waterfalls today! But I want to leave a spiritual thought. Today I studied the section in PMG about praying often. Phaadii wa, Sister Morgan studied the section in Recognizing the Spirit on prayer. Made for a good companionship study. Ha ha So I want to share this, make sure you are praying often. Prayer is really a blessing for us. Heavenly Father already knows all things, but through prayer we are able to feel closer to Him. Remember that prayer has no meaning unless it done sincerely. Sincerely pray to your Father in Heaven about all things. I know that you will be able to feel of His love more abundantly in your life.

I hope you all have had a great week! Love you!

-Sister Nethercott

Last p-day we went on a bike ride and stopped at this wat 

Really its like a mix of Southern Cal and Hawaii here... But with a strong feel of Thailand.... Ha ha 

 We went contacting by this flower market last night. So pretty!

 A random sign I found... A little random? It made me think of your trip here. Ha ha
When we went to Thailand (Koh Samui) over Christmas break was when the Asia Air flight went down. It was a little un-nerving.

At the house

Our bike ride last Pday

Sister Alley must be pretty talented at riding a bike while taking selfies!