Headed to Bangkok to meet Elder Holland! Week #64

We got this letter 2 days before the bombing in Bangkok. Normal P-days are on Monday but it was switched this week because of Elder Holland's visit. 

Sorry we don't have much time to email today but since Elder Holland is coming we were given permission to email for a little. 

Here is an excert from my companion Sister Brown's email. I don't think I could tell it as good.

"That same day we taught brother Jan and his wife. His wife has begun to express some doubts, so we're going to work with her on those and give her more time to understand how the atonement can help her before she is baptized. But brother Jan was just trying to preach to us the whole time we were at his house. We would go over prayer kinda like this, "We know that as you pray, you will... 'I LOVE PRAYER, I PRAY EVERY DAY AND EVERY NIGHT, AND BEFORE I DO ANYTHING, YA KNOW WHAT ELSE I LIKE? KEEPING THE COMMANDMENTS. SOME PEOPLE THINK IT'S HARD, BUT IN MY OPINION IT'S A LOT EASIER THAN HARVESTING RICE AND YOU GET SO MANY MORE BLESSINGS!!!' yes brother Jan, as you pray you will receive many blessings."' 

This is a story from the day we taught Paa Maa. They are still adorable. I hope that as we pray for Maa she will grow in faith and feel ready to be baptized with her husband. 

This week was crazy busy trying to get everything ready before leaving to Bangkok to meet Elder Holland. We are leaving in just one hour and will spend 2 nights in the city before coming back. Monday won't be a pday and Thursday is already transfers! We have no idea what to expect here from just whitewashing in. Last time this happened, both my companion and myself left the area. Ha ha

This week we just visited houses and taught people. It was so great. I love watching peoples faith and trust in Christ and His atonement grow. It is very simple steps to grow in faith too. All you have to do is read your scriptures daily, pray daily, repent daily and you will increase in faith.

I want to invite all of you to do these things. I promise as you do so, you will feel so much more peace in your life. You will learn to trust God and His plan for you.

Sorry this is so short this week. My computer is yelling at me in Thai telling me I am out of time.

I'll let you know what  happens with transfers next time I email!

Love you all!

Sister Nethercott

 I want Moses to come to Roiet... He would get a kick out of it.

 Someone showed up with a baby kitten... That is Elder Gage (who is about to finsih in a week) obsessing over the thing like it is his first born child.

 This is my egg white green curry omlet... I love the guy that cooks our food. He is an artisit for reals.

 It was mothers day. These are the Maa's that always take care of us here. :)

 This is outside of the wat by a members house we went to visit. I never want to เที่ยว a wat again. I don't know what that word means in English... 

You can google translate it if you'd like. :)
Google translate เที่ยว =  scout around

That is out front of our awesome investigators house!

Nothing else could possibly bring anyone more joy than serving others and helping them come unto Christ. Week #63

Sister Brown just turned to me while writing her email and said, "Was it this week that we went everywhere like all over Thailand? That was this week right?" We have gotten to the point where going from Roiet to Bangkok to Korat to Roiet to Udorn and then back to Roiet is becoming forgetable. So yes, it was another great week out here but not just in Roiet... All over Thailand. Ha ha

We had MLC this last wednesday so we were able to get trained and then take it to the zones that we are over. But we planned it well and made sure we would get back in time for our ward pioneer party on Friday night. We literally walked in during the opening song. 

So I guess I will re-wind. This week was so cool! It started with Tuesday. We made an appointment with this lady who apparently is an "investigator". She has been coming to church for a long time now but will leave right after sacrament meeting and won't let the missionaries teach her. Most people think she is just a member. So we cornered her and set up an appointment at her house. She lives way out in the rice fields. We drove out there and come to find out, she wasn't even home. She was still at work. But her adorable old parents were expecting us. I guess in her time of coming to the church she had brought home some of the pamphlets we teach with. Her parents had been reading them! They really wanted to read the Book of Mormon but because they are old their eyes aren't good enough to read the small font. They said their daughter would read it to them sometimes. They were so excited to be invited to church! They had already started keeping the commandments that they knew about. They had switched from drinking coffee to oveltine already. They were just so prepared and ready to learn. It was amazing! They came to church this Sunday and loved every minute of it. It gets even better because the Elder's investigator was baptized yesterday so they were able to stay longer and watch a baptism! I seriously love them. They are adorable. Its funny because even though they came and stayed all through church, through the baptism, and let us teach them after, their daughter still ran out right after sacramnet meeting. Maybe her parents will be a good example to her. Ha ha

Training was really good. They had a clear focus and a process of how to accomplish it. What I took out of it is, we are now stake builders. We need to be doing whatever it is in our area that will help it become a ward or prepare for a stake. They have such a big vision but I know with hard work on the missionaries part and divine help from God, it will be accomplished. 

Sunday we had the greatest guy show up to church. He was invited by the sisters that were here before us. He just moved from Bangkok... from my old area! He reminds me of two of my favorite investigators (who both happen to be from that part of Bangkok). After we taught him the first lesson after church on Sunday, we all went out in front of the church. He pulled his cigarrettes out from his pocket. Crunched them up in his hand and threw them away with the lighter. It was so amazing! 

Seriously, I love being a missionary. Nothing else could possibly bring anyone more joy than serving others and helping them come unto Christ.

This is a scripture that we read and talked about during MLC. พอดิว่า I also read this chapter while studying this morning. The verse is 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 guess I am just inviting you all to love eachother this week. Have your hearts knit together in Christ. It doesn't matter how different someone may be, they are also a child of god. They are your brother or your sister. Love them.

I love you all! Hope you have a great week! 

(I won't be emailing next week because p-day is moved to Saturday in Bangkok because ELDER HOLLAND IS COMING!!!!!!!)

-Sister Nethercott

 On the road again

      For the pioneer activity we played a clip from 17 miracles where the pioneers crossed the icy river. To help them better understand we filled buckets with ice water and had them put their hands and feet in the water while they watched. I have never seen people more committed to come to church while it is raining than after that activity. (For those of you who don't know, Thai people are like way afraid of the rain and won't do anything even if they only think it will rain. Its rainy season... it rains every day).

 This member took us to her favorite shrimp place. It was good. I didn't even know I like shrimp. Ha ha She is also the member that has been driving us out to Pa Maa's house. She is only in town for a little bit because she is perfect and goes to medical school in Russia.

 Pa Maa

 The mothers day activity at the church. (There were so many activities this week!)

 This is our travel route that feels weekly. Luckily not quite.

 Pa Maa's little farm front yard.

Pa in the back of the truck on the way to church.

I made it to the Celestial Kingdom! Week #62

So this was the first email we got, early evening our time. We immediately knew what it meant- that she was going to ride an elephant. (See week #38 by clicking on this link:
Elephants and the Glories of Heaven) I was hoping we'd get another email since she just sent pictures last week. Fortunately we woke up in the morning with a little more in-depth letter! 

Hey I get to enter the celestial kingdom today!!!! So I might have time to write you after the adventures are over. Sorry if there isn't time. :)

Love you!

-S. Cott

Hello everyone! What a great week! For some reason this week seemed a little crazy. We had a bunch of random meetings. But it was still so good!

Wednesday the แม่'s (moms... old ladies) of the ward took us around finding LA's. They are over 70 years old and they rode this motorcycle while we followed them around on our bikes. It was so fun! And super tiring to ride that fast. Ha ha One of the greatest experiences I had as a missionary happened that day. We went to this members house who is less active. When we first got there she was really closed off and didn't seem too excited to see us. We got her talking about the missionaries that taught her. She slowly began to open up. We asked her what it was that really interested her to get baptized. She talked about the plan of salvation and eternal families while opening up even more. Then Sister Brown shared the scripture in Mosiah 24:14 which says, "And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions." She was reading it aloud to us and then started crying. She couldn't continue to read aloud and finished reading it to herself. She sat and cried for a minute then looked of from the Book of Mormon and said, "I am coming to church this Sunday." I have never seen a scripture touch the heart of someone more than in that moment. The spirit was so strong. Sunday she wasn't able to come to church like she wanted but we went and visited her again. She seemed like a changed person. She was so happy and started telling us she started reading the Book of Mormon over again. We read from it a little with her and again the spirit was so strong. You could see the light in her eyes. It was amazing.

Friday we had a switch off with Korat. We left Thursday night to head over. Coincidently the elders planned a switch off there the same day. So we ended up riding a bus down together. When we got there, it was after ten and raining. The bus dropped us off on the side of the road with our bikes. We had no idea where to go. So we call up the missionaries, the elders were unwilling to meet us out there and gave poor directions (no suprise ha ha). So we called the sisters and got step by step instructions on how to get from the bus station to the house. Apparently the bus station was compleletly on the other side of town from where they live. So we drove around the entire city of korat in the dark cold rain. I am just glad that Sister Brown's and my original plans fell through of getting there at 2 in the morning. People say Thailand is hot... Well after P-log and then Bang Khae during the hot season, I have been really cold out here in Roiet of the Issan. I don't know how cold it actually is, but it does get really cold here! 

Today for p-day.... We rode ELEPHANTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So much fun! It was definitely worth the wait for this experience. We even got to ride a famous elephant (I guess it has starred in a few movies). Our driver had an awesome mustache. And our elephant tried to dunk us in the water. It was so incredibly fun! I stand by what I say about it being the celestial kingdom. 

Well I hope all of you had a great week!

-Sister Nethercott

No explanation of pictures but most are pretty self-explanatory.