October is here!

Hello world!

I can't believe that a year ago yesterday the announcement that changed my life was made.  We were just sitting at church and I realized that Conference was this past weekend.  (For us it is next weekend because we have to wait for it to be translated into Thai...).  I started thinking about this past year.  I think it was the shortest one I have ever experienced, and also probably the most important one to date.  Right after that, I started preparing to be a missionary, and now here I am - 4 months into my mission.  Living in Thailand.  Teaching people every day about how the Gospel can bless their lives.  Always wearing a skirt.  Speaking Thai to the point where if we talk too long to a stranger in English, my brain starts to hurt.  It's better than anything I ever imagined, and also so much harder.  Looking back on this year, I can't think of any place I would rather be right now than in Thailand.  I'm exactly where God needs me to be and I can't imagine being anywhere else.  I think about where I will be in another year - 2 months from coming home from Thailand.  I hope this year in country doesn't go by quite so fast.   I like to savor every moment I am given, and I hope that I am always using Heavenly Father's time wisely.  

At times this mission business is so hard.  This week was full of joys and also disappointments.  But we know that where there is good there is opposition, for there needs be opposition in all things.  However, the good always outweighs the bad, and God will always defeat Satan.  This week was extremely hard.  People have their agency, or ability to choose, and there's nothing I can do about that.  This week we wanted to give up and just cry, but as we took time to kneel in sincere prayer and supplication to Heavenly Father, we were washed over with a sense of peace that only He can give.  It truly is a time that we look forward to, that sweet hour of prayer.  We could imagine ourselves out of the world and in the temple, in the sacred house of God where nothing else matters and you can just bask in the glory of his love.  We long to go to the temple.  We long to feel that peace and serenity.  But through it all, we just know that we are doing what Heavenly Father would have us do.  After praying we just sat there in the quiet.  There were other people in the church, but somehow in that little room, it was just us and Heavenly Father - nothing else mattered.  It didn't matter that we felt crushed by rejection and that Satan was trying his hardest to attack us and our investigator.  It didn't matter that we wouldn't have a baptism next week.  It didn't matter that we felt like we had just hit a brick wall over and over again.  We knew that we did all we could and that Heavenly Father was proud of our efforts.  We knew that He still loved us even though we felt devastated.  Nothing else mattered.  It truly felt like we were in the temple again and we loved it.  We left that little classroom feeling rejuvenated and refreshed and I knew that we just had to keep on pressing forward.  I knew that we just had to keep doing what we were going.  We don't understand everything that the Lord has planned for us, but we don't have to as long as we have faith in Him.  He loves us and will always keep His promises as long as we keep ours.  Satan can try all he wants, but the Lord is on our side, and with Him, we will always prevail.

I just know I am going to miss being a missionary.  It's a long way off, but sometimes the little things about missionary work that I love come to mind, and I just know that someday I won't have those exact joys anymore.  I won't have little girls on motorcycles with their parents yelling "Sister, Sister!" as they wave at us.  One day I won't have this tag to wear, and people know forthrightly that I am a representative of Jesus Christ. One day I'll have to be okay with sharing the Gospel in English instead of Thai and I'll have to pass them on to the missionaries.  But until then, I'll cherish every moment I have as a missionary.  I'll cherish every joy and sorrow that I have because I know that it is by God that I am granted this opportunity.  There are people here that need me, and that are prepared to receive what we have to offer, and for now we just have to go forward with diligence and do the work I am called to do.

I love you all!

Sister Norrell

Pictures: The first picture is of a little girl that we teach.  They talked about missionary work in Primary and she had her own little missionary badge!  She is seriously our little ray of sunshine. 

The second is of me eating mango sticky rice for the first time in country!  (I know I'm late, but mangos were out of season when I got here.  This lady had ripe ones.  It was delicious and worth my 40 baht! :)