Another week in Chiang Mai

August 26, 2013

Another week in Chiang Mai is finished!!  It's been fun, exploring and trying to find our way around.  It's also been stressful trying to figure out how to get to places on time.  We are so blessed here in Chiang Mai,

though.  The missionaries are so protected, for one thing, and also the members are amazing.  We have received several referrals for people to teach upon our first time meeting some of the members.  They are so stoked for missionary work in the area and we are too!  They support us as well as the people we teach and they are the perfect little branch for the missionaries to work with.  It's so amazing.  We feel like there are just people jumping out at us with friends or family they want taught.  Even our investigators call us asking to make appointments!  The people here are SO ready to receive this Gospel.  The whole country of Thailand has been prepared and I can't wait to find the people the Lord has been working with and preparing to meet with us.  We see people every day on the streets, working so hard and just living their normal everyday lives.  I think about what I have to share and perhaps what it might mean to them individually.  When we first started to go contacting/inviting (we basically just pick a place and find people to talk to and invite them to church or tell them about the Gospel or about English class) I was preoccupied with finding people that might be interested in what we have to share with them.  I was stressed because I really wanted to find those people that really needed it.  Then one day I realized that everyone needs it whether they know it or not.  While I am busy looking for people to accept the message we have to offer, I was missing opportunities to plant seeds in the hearts of many.  Even if they are not interested, someday they might think back on it and think it would do them some good at that point in their lives.  There are people everywhere - tourists, natives, missionaries - EVERYWHERE.  And the best part about this Gospel is knowing that no matter their situation, there is a God that loves them and wants them to live their lives in a way that will allow them to return to Him one day.  No matter where they come from or where they are going, they all have something in common.  They are never alone and they never have to be.  What a wonderful message it is that I am called to share with the people of Thailand!

My new name tag all in Thai!

   

The language is still pretty intimidating.  I understand maybe 15% of what everyone is saying if I am lucky, and that may even be stretching it.  It is so hard, but I am so blessed with the abilities I already have.  I know that even if people don't understand everything I am saying, they will hopefully be able to feel the Spirit of my message, because the language of the Spirit has no limitations or boundaries.  I try to speak slowly and clearly, emphasizing my tones, but I'm sure it is still difficult for them to understand.  They don't really do the same for me, but when I look at them with a confused look as I'm trying to understand, they just say that

Sister Ng and I

they talk in Thai to help me understand more and they don't want to say it in English so I get used to hearing Thai.  It really will help, but sometimes I feel bad when I can't understand them.  Poor Sister Ng does a LOT of listening and talking.  I simply try to focus all of my attention on listening, but its easy to let my mind wander when I have absolutely no idea what they are saying.  Then a lot of the time I think I understand what is going on and then when I ask later it turns out to be something completely different.  But I try my hardest, and that's what matters right? :)

I love our investigators.  They are all so perfect and ready to receive baptism.  They all have their concerns, but our favorite thing is when they ask questions.  They all seriously talk so much.  It is good because they are always talking about something that highlights points of doctrine that we can expound upon, but sometimes it isn't so good because we get off topic.  They just like to talk, and I like to listen so it all works out right?  We are teaching a 20 year old girl named คูกก๊้  (Cookie).  She has a friend who referred her the first time we met her.  We met with Cookie on Tuesday night after English class and she had a lot of questions about the Plan of Salvation.  She asked us about her purpose here on earth, where she will go after she dies, and where she came from in the first place.  She said that she always felt alone when asking these questions - like no one ever asked them before or that no one has the answers she desires.  WE DO!  We are teaching her again tomorrow. :)  She is seriously the cutest girl.  We love her and I feel that she is so ready to receive what we have to teach.

The biggest thing I have learned this week is that I will never have a bad day in Thailand.  Of course there will be days that are hard and rough when your appointments will fall through or when contacting will not go as well as you hoped.  But there are so many tender mercies of the Lord that we will experience.  I have to remind myself to look for them daily, and I am so much happier when I do.  There are people waiting for me and I can't afford to be in a bad mood, because then I am no longer looking for those small but tender mercies that I will experience when I share what I know to be true.  

Beautiful lanterns

Last experience for this week.  We found a new investigator!  Well, we are teaching her this week.  I am definitely not confident in my language abilities, so I am usually afraid to talk to people.  Saturday, I decided to try to make small talk with a shop owner.  I did, she understood me, and we have an appointment with her!  That was definitely a tender mercy.  It is definitely the little things that remind me that Heavenly Father is aware of me in every situation I am in.  He constantly blesses me with these little boosts of energy and love that help me to make it through each day, and I am positive that they will carry me through the rest of my time in Thailand!  :)

 

I love you all, and don't forget to look for the tender mercies that show God's love for you.  

Love,

Sister Norrell

P.S.  Emails are easiest, communication wise.  I will appreciate letters too, just know that they will take quite a while to get to me.  Also, as far as DearElders go:  I have heard from several sources that they are not super reliable.  I know Thailand is on the list, but I wouldn't use it just in case.  :)

We are off to enjoy Chiang Mai for the rest of our P-day! :D

1st letter from Thailand!

Hellooo from Thailand!

Let the rumors be confirmed that I am indeed in Chaing Mai, and it is beautiful.  :)

We got to Thailand around noon on Wednesday (I'm still not really sure where Tuesday went...) and since we were late, our plans were shuffled and accelerated.  We had paperwork and orientations to do, and they had to take my blood :(  That part wasn't too much fun.  But they fed us Thai food so that was good!  It was definitely much appreciated.  And delicious.  Food isn't good unless its spicy right?  By the end of Wednesday, all 22 of us looked like zombies hanging out on the couches in the mission home.  I literally could not keep my eyes open, and I'm sure we all smelled like roses after being on a plane forever.  Getting us to eat dinner was a chore.  Sister Senior joked about how we were like little children having to be coaxed to eat their dinner.  It wasn't Thai food this time - it was KFC.  So I guess its about the same wherever you go!  We stayed the night in a hotel in Bangkok.  They are really nice and super cheap.  There were 2 people to a room, and our room only had one bed and a floor palate.  I took the floor, and it was the best sleep I have gotten in a long time.  We slept pretty much all night with two lamps still on because we forgot to turn them off.  Yeah, we were only a little tired.

Thursday was transfer meeting day.  We started out with breakfast in the hotel (it reminded me why I love breakfast that is not MTC breakfast), then we took vans through Bangkok traffic to a different church building.  We loved seeing Bangkok!  It is so cool to me that Thailand is my home for the next 16 months.  It is amazing.  When we first got off the plane, I just thought "Welcome home, Sister Norrell!".  The traffic is kinda crazy, but the people are so generous and road rage doesn't exist.  There are really only normally 2 lanes, but somehow there are 4 lanes of cars, and then motorcycles weave in between...it's really different.  But that's why its exciting, right?  So we got to transfer meeting and we introduced ourselves, then we got put into our companionships!  Everyone was cheering, and it all happened so fast!  It was hard to remember where you were even going because we were all being swept to different areas and out of our comfort zones for sure.  I think most of the people in my MTC zone were going to Bangkok areas, some went to Issan and Ubon areas, and I think 3 or so went to northern areas like Chaing Rai.  I wish I could remember them all, but I can't!  Oh well.

My trainer is Sister Ng.  She's from New York City and is super sweet.  She's only been in country 3 months, which means she just barely finished her training not too long ago (training is 12 weeks).   She was in the MTC with my Phii Thais, and her previous companion was a Khon Thai so she is so good at speaking Thai, which I am definitely thankful for.  She is so patient with me and I couldn't ask for a better trainer!  We got called to go to Chaing Mai to whitewash the area.  So I'm still not exactly sure what whitewashing is or why we do it, but basically a set of missionaries is replaced by a brand new set in the area.  (Normally, one missionary would stay and another would come in from a different area).  So Sister Ng was previously in Roi Et (in the Issan) so we are both brand new to Chaing Mai!  Everyone told us how lucky we are to be here and I am so excited!  Our bus to Chaing Mai left Bangkok at 7 pm and we arrived at 4:30 am.  We had our District Leader and his companion with us thankfully so they got a rotdaang that took us to our house and helped us unload all of our stuff.  We are living with two other Sisters:  Sister Zatarain and Sister DuPlessis who was one of my Phii Thais in the MTC!  So we have 3 generations of MTC in our home.  :)  Our house is interesting.  Its a little run down and needs quite a bit of work, but it was a quick purchase from when they went from having 2 sisters to 4 sisters in the area.  The showers are kinda sketchy, but I haven't seen any nasty bugs or spiders yet, so I'll take it! 

We had to do a lot of adjusting and getting settled in, especially since we are in a brand new area that we are not at all familiar with.  It's been interesting to say the least.  We've only gotten lost a couple times... but we always find our way back home!

Saturday we saw our first baptism in our branch!  Sister Aom was taught by the Zone Leaders and she is a super sweet lady.  They asked me to lead the music for the baptism... so just imagine me, still jet lagged and getting sick from lack of sleep and a weakened immune system, trying to read Thai fast enough to sing it in time, remember the tunes and notes and the speed of the music, nervous because this could be my first impression to many of the members...it was interesting to say the least.  They may have been better off with no one leading the music, but I tried so that counts right? :P But seeing this baptism was a really neat experience.  First baptism in Thailand and my mission in general!

Sunday was...interesting.  I can say I understood one talk during sacrament meeting!  But that was because a member gave it in English while a Thai member translated it into Thai.  But I understood it!  I was asked to bear my testimony so that was fun and nerve wracking.  I just hope they understood my Thai! After Sacrament Meeting I went to Gospel Principles class - 3 of our investigators came to church this week!  The teacher, who is also the branch president, referred to me as Snow White the entire lesson.  I'm still not exactly sure why, but I don't really understand anything that is going on around me most of the time.   I think the worst is when people know that you don't understand much Thai so they practice their English on you.  Sometimes I can't even understand that very well because I'm listening for Thai and it doesn't sound like Thai because its not Thai!  It's actually pretty embarrassing, haha. I think I had a flu/cold so my first church experience in Thailand wasn't super enjoyable because I was trying to stay awake and alive while trying to get something out of what was being said during the meetings.  It's hard to be social with the branch when you're sick.  Hopefully I didn't ruin all chances of them liking me because of that!  

It's been a little discouraging because its been hard to get into the work.  Sister Ng and I are both new to the area so we really have to lay our foundation work carefully but quickly.  The language is hard to understand and I just hope that I will become more comfortable speaking it soon.  I can understand the gist of a conversation that someone else is having, but when they turn to talk to me, I get so confused and I'm lucky if I understand 3% of what anyone is saying.  But I'm coming to realize again that the language doesn't matter.  The Spirit will guide me in the work that I need to do and what I need to say.  I'm coming to remember more and more of how much the Lord is definitely involved in this work.  I had forgotten that and had relaxed how much I rely on Him.  But that's what it's all about - relying on the Lord and letting him guide you to where you need to be.  I'm so glad to be in Chaing Mai and I know that I am exactly where I need to be, doing exactly what I need to be doing.  I am excited that the Lord knows that I have specific things to offer the people of Chaing Mai to help them and strengthen them and to know that there are people here who are ready to hear the Gospel and to learn about Jesus Christ.  It's going to be an adjustment, but I know it's nothing I can't do without the help and support of my loving Heavenly Father.

I love and miss you all,

Sister Norrell

It's the final countdown!

Ashley Peterson and Forrest Scoggins, this email title is for you. :)

So I'm kinda short on time because we had temple service this morning and didn't get back to the MTC until noon.  We cleaned some of the chandeliers - we had a couple mini heart attacks taking them down.  But they were so beautiful and just being in the temple was something I have missed.  As soon as we walked into the temple, I was overcome with peace and happiness.  I'm going to miss going to the temple for the next 16 months, but I am so grateful for the witness that I have that the temple is the house of God and that His Spirit abides there abundantly, even when construction and maintenance is going on.  We are praying so hard for the permission to be able to go one more time when it reopens on Monday since it will be our last time doing temple work for 16-22 months.

Just a few items of business:  I am leaving Monday night, so after then I will no longer be able to receive letter to my MTC address and I will no longer be able to receive dearelder.com.  This is a service mainly provided through the MTC and is not available for my mission so if you use it, I will never know.  :)

Well, this week was actually kind of uneventful.  We got our travel plans and that was exciting!  We'll be in Thailand on Wednesday (Thailand time) after leaving Salt Lake City Airport at 10 pm.  There are 22 Thais total in our party and we are on ALL the same flights.  Let's just say I feel sorry for any passengers who are uncomfortable with missionaries!  It's going to be fun time for sure :) 

Another exciting thing that happened this week was that I got to call home in order to avoid getting my blood typed!  All 22 Thais were called up to the travel office at the same time.  All I could think is that I did NOT want to get reassigned.  It turned out not being that big of a deal - we just had to fill out paperwork that we already did with our visa applications, except for some reason they needed our Blood Type on our Work Permit sheet?  So pretty much all of us got permission to call for 5 minutes to see if our parents knew what it was.  So yep, I got to call home!  It was exciting after the nervousness and desire to cry from excitement passed, I realized that there was nothing to worry about and then I had no idea what to say on the phone!  But it definitely made my day. :)  So the lady in the travel office still wanted me to get my blood drawn, but I talked the nurse out of it.  Sister Downs just knew I was going to try my hardest to keep all my blood in my body, and I succeeded!

I saw a couple of people I know this week!  I was Elder Brown again for the last time on Saturday, and I also saw Jon Belyeu in the cafeteria when he was taking his break from working grounds crew at the MTC!  It was a nice surprise :)  Cat (the khon Thai from Issan that we taught in TRC a couple weeks ago) now lives in our building!  She got here on Wednesday and is going to California on her mission!! We enjoy seeing her and learning random Thai phrases from her when we get ready for bed in the bathroom each night.  One of my favorites is "Phayayaam thii nii, sambra thii nan" or "try here, succeed there". :)

Another great moment:  A random elder came into our classroom asking if we knew a different Elder.  All of us turned around and said "May!"  which means no in Thai, and then we all realized that he looked so confused because he doesn't speak Thai.  Oops! 

A thought I had on Sunday when watching a Joseph Smith video on lds.org:  When he went to the Sacred Grove to pray about what church to join, he knelt on the ground and as he started to offer his prayer, he was seized upon by an unseen dark force.  It took all his strength to continue his prayer, and that is when God the Father and the Son appeared to him.  If he had not first felt the darkness, would he have really felt the same when the light came?  Can we ever really know happiness until we know darkness first?  How much sweeter is the light when we have been wading in darkness before?  I am constantly reassured in life that we have trials for a reason - that everything happens for a reason.  That the people who come into our lives do not do so coincidentally.  I do NOT believe in coincidences, because I know that God is in the details of our lives, no matter how insignificant we may think they are.  I know that each of my friends and people in my district, and even my family are people that God knew I needed and they are all people I can learn different things from. 

Another thing I learned this week is the importance and power of a specific prayer.  Monday Sister Downs and I were having trouble preparing our lesson for Phii Dxg and we just weren't seeming to get anywhere.  So we went to a different room, knelt down and prayed.  We told Heavenly Father what we were thinking about teaching and we told him that we really just wanted to teach what Phii Dxg needed to hear and learn about.  We ended our prayer, got up and looked at the pamphlet we were teaching from and the thing that we both agreed on in about 20 seconds was the Atonement.  We narrowed down our topic and we taught a very spiritual lesson Tuesday morning.  The language aspects of it were not quite so good, but the spirit was definitely there regardless of our language abilities.  We found some concerns of his and we found out that his wife had died 2-3 months ago from cancer.  I was overcome with such love for him and I was so glad that we had already prepared a way to explain to him that there was hope because even though she did not accept the gospel in this life, she will still have the chance to learn and choose for herself even though she is no longer on this earth.  All of this is possible because of the great atoning sacrifice of the Savior.  I loved every minute of that lesson because I felt that we were helping him come to know Christ and I could see the hope and joy in his eyes as we tried to explain to him that he could be with his family forever.  It was our last lesson with Phii Dxg, and I was so glad that it ended the way it did.

Also on prayer, on Sunday we had mission conference and as one of the speakers was talking about specific prayers, I had a thought that basically said something along the lines of "Do you not have enough faith in God to believe that he has the ability to perform miracles in your life as a result of specific prayers?"  It was almost a reprimanding thought, but it always seem to be the stern impressions that really get the point across for me.  God does and will answer specific prayers.  He already knows what the desires of our hearts are, but when we express them, we become more aware of how they are truly coming to pass right before our eyes. 

On Sunday we also had a devotional from Jenny Oaks Baker, a world famous LDS violinist.  She talked about spiritual gifts we are given, and my favorite quote from her was "All gifts should be administered through charity".  We are each given spiritual gifts that benefit us and that will help us help others.  I love thinking about all the gifts I am given and all the ones I may receive for the benefit of others, and when we share our talents and gifts, we are showing Heavenly Father that we are thankful for our gifts.  I am running out of time, but remember to always share what you are given. 

This is my last email from the United States!  I do not think I will have a chance to email or write letters next week because we will be getting there in the middle of the week, but know that I love you all and would love to hear from you once I get to Thailand!  Well,  I am out of time, but know that I love you all!

Love,
Sister Norrell