She has a dream!
Well, I did see the floating lanterns gleam. I'm in Chiang Mai. What more could I ask for? Oh yeah. A baptism! This week was my lucky week!
Well, first things first. The logistics of this past week. Sister Zatarain, the Sister Training Leader for our Zone finished her mission this week. We've been working together since I first got to country! She is the best. (Don't worry, her legacy continues. We are all so thankful for the clothes that she left behind for us to sort through and wear like new! Hehe :) Anyways, so that left us with an odd intermittent transfer. No one was coming into country, and she was the only one leaving. So her companion didn't have a new companion. She got two! That's right we are a trio! We are working in both branches in Chiang Mai. Sisters without boundaries! We are also referring to ourselves as the "Three Muses", courtesy of Hercules (the cartoon). Yeah, we have a TON of fun together. Plus its odd because we are a trio of 3 generations. We all had overlapping MTC times. SO FUN! Sister Slaugh (from New Jersey...no Utah people still - WOOT!) and I were pretty close in the MTC as well. I love Chiang Mai and being in a trio is pretty fun. Looks like I might be cursed with it from now on though. Sister Ng and Sister Slaugh were both in trios in the MTC and Sister Ng was also in one in her greenie area part of the way through her first transfer. I guess only time will tell if the trend will continue or not! 
Last P-Day we went to Doi Intanon - supposedly the highest mountain in Thailand. It was sweet! Apparently it is more like a tourist destination for Thai people and not so much for...furongs. (White people). It was super fun! We loved getting out of the gross polluted air and into the cool fresh mountain air. It only made me realize even more that I am going to die my first winter back. Oh well!It's actually pretty nice. We get to in multiple places at the same time as long as there are female members present (which is nice since we are taking care of both branches. 6 hours of church is killer). Plus, if we have overlapping appointments, it is possible to teach multiple people at the same time! I think it is all going to work out really well!
In other news, we are currently trying out a new contacting method we got trained on this week! Basically we take baptism pass-along cards, go to heavily crowded areas, and talk to everyone. We introduce baptism and then extend a baptismal date for them to accept right then and there. When we first got trained on it on Tuesday, we Sisters were a little skeptical. We thought it sounded more appealing and easy for Elders to do than Sisters. That's just not really the way I work. Granted I do understand the reason behind it. We are not called to give fluff and be friends with people before getting our purpose across to them only for them to reject us. It just seems weird to me to not have any established relationship with people before getting to the good stuff. We tried it out quite a bit this week! Like every day since Tuesday. For 2 hours each day. It honestly goes by relatively fast. The ultimate goal of this style is to sift through those that aren't prepared and find the ones hungry for truth.
So far so good! We love it! We are still trying to figure it all out, but so far so good! We are getting phone numbers, but the hardest part for us right now is seeing if the people that agree are actually sincere and not doing it because they feel bad saying no. It feels good to do this kind of contacting. I love getting our purpose across and not wasting time with people who aren't ready. We went on switch offs with the Lampang Sisters on Wednesday and when Sister Ference and I went contacting we saw some pretty good success. We got quite a few numbers, and I really enjoyed seeing how she did things (since she and Sister Reedy had a little more experience with it). Sister Ference and I finished our two hours but then still had about 15 minutes before we needed to leave for the church. In those 15 minutes we decided to keep contacting - we got 2 more phone numbers in that short time that we remained diligent. Granted, both the appointments we made with them fell through, but we are going to keep trying. Even if they aren't super prepared, we can always put them in the area book for someone else to contact later down the road!
Right now we are working on getting more comfortable with the thing we face most as missionaries, especially in this new method of contacting: REJECTION. Sometimes I can just tell that people aren't interested in the message I share with them. But usually instead of saying they don't understand, they either look at you funny, or say they don't understand (when you can tell they really do, but they just don't care and want you to go away.) I have found that telling people to just tell me straight or that they don't need to feel grangjay about it, it makes them more comfortable. (Especially when there are three of us standing there looking at them waiting for an answer). One guy in particular that I talked to listened for a little bit, then told me he "didn't understand". I could tell he did, so I responded "meaning you're not interested, right?". He chuckled and nodded his head. His wife starting talking to me about how her husband is a Buddhist teacher. I told her "Perfect, I am a teacher from a Christian church!". We laughed and I gave them an English card, thanked them, and left. I find that just talking to people makes me so much more comfortable. Ultimately I am trying to give them something of great worth, but I hate feeling like a robot or a salesperson with no emotion and the same recited phrases to tell them about baptism. So I'm going to make it my own! God called me for me and I'm going to keep smiling even when I get rejected. I want people to think of us missionaries as personable people and not people that they never want to meet again. I want people to like the missionaries and feel comfortable with them, that way one day when they are interested, they will remember that the missionaries are people who are happy and smile, and actually care about PEOPLE. So that's my personal goal - to not be a baptism-hungry robot missionary.
In other news, we had a baptism yesterday! Brother Ford, a 16 year old boy who was so so SO prepared. That kid has the best testimony. He had to go to a special thing at school in the morning so he was going to come at 12 to get baptized then go to the second branch. However, as 11 rolled around I was feeling so stressed and nervous. I couldn't focus on anything and the feeling wouldn't go away. No one else seemed stressed that he wasn't there yet, but I couldn't shake it. I prayed so hard, but it wasn't going away. I could find no comfort. I tried calling him again (for the 5th time since that morning before church) and he still didn't answer. I was pretty much freaking out. I tried telling myself that he would come, but he still hadn't showed up. I talked to one of our RC's who he is really close to, and we prayed together in the back of Relief Society together but silently. Then after it was over, we went out and she tried calling him again. The first time: nothing. The second time he answered! Apparently there was a misunderstanding and he thought he was getting baptized at 3 and not 12:15. I'm not really sure why. I bet that gave him quite the shock! Sister Dao and Brother Nick went to get him from school, he got baptized, and everything worked out just fine! He told us later that he had his phone on silent and even know that we called, but he was sitting in class and had the feeling to check his phone. Prayer really does work! We were praying so hard. We waiting so long for this day and we weren't going to let it pass without Brother Ford getting baptized. It had such a good turn out since it was in between Branches, and I am so glad he had so much support. I can't wait to get him more involved in the Branch. After that, we all ate and talked together, and we felt so loved by the members. This weekend we are so incredibly blessed to be in Chiang Mai. This weekend is the Loi Gratong festival - or floating lantern festival. It's the best. Like real life Tangled! Yesterday we were so fortunate enough to have members who love us and want us to have fun too! They got all the stuff for us and we have a ton of fun! We made water floating things out of banana tree stalks, leaves, and flowers. Thai people are super crafty - it's awesome! I hope it will rub off on me ;) Then they helped us send off the floating lanterns! Good thing too - they know how to do it! Plus, I feel so much better doing these touristy things with Khon Thais. That way I don't look completely like a tourist. :) It helps that we speak Thai too!
Guess what! You're lucky and I finally have pictures to send! :D Have a great week everyone! (Weird, Thanksgiving is really soon. How did that happen? They have Christmas decorations up here already...which is odd considering everyone here is Buddhist. Oh well! )
Until next week!Love,
Sister Norrell
Sister Norrell
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