21 แล้ว

Hello!
So besides feeling a little more creeky around the joints, being 21 is good!  Not too different, but good.  Thanks for all the birthday wishes!
This week was full of wonderful birthday surprises.  It all starts with Monday when Sister Ellis and I were minding our business on a song taew, eating our half of McDonald's fries, when the phone rings.  Sister Ellis answers and at first I think she is just talking to our English investigator, but then she is acting too happy for it to be him or the Zone Leaders, or the Elders, or the Sister Training Leaders...so who in the world is she speaking English to??  And then her face changes, and she looks confused and concerned all at the same time, while still trying to keep face.  Then she says "Wait?  Who is moving?...Yeah, she's right here" and hands the phone to me.  WHAT?  The screen lights up and I see who called.  The Big Man himself:  President Senior.  He says "You are getting a new companion.  Sister Ng is going to come tomorrow morning to be with you."  I was so confused - where is Sister Ellis going?  Turns out, Sister MacDermott is coming from Chiang Mai to be her temporary companion, for about 10 days.  No one is moving, technically.  He says "There will be 4 of you.  Can you make it work?"  I must have sounded unsure, because then he says "good, because you are going to have to make it work!"  We go home, prepare our house for 2 more Sisters, try to figure out what the heck is going on...no one knows.  The other Sisters call to confirm plans.  No one still knows.  The Assistants to the President call, and they are asking us for information.  Absolutely no one knows what is going on!  
My thoughts:  Do I need more monitoring?  What did I do wrong?  What is going to happen?  Where are we going to sleep?  Way too many thoughts and lots of confusion. But it is good confusion, because I get to be with Sister Ng again!  :)
Tuesday comes, and we are all together!  The other 2 run off and do their "Top Secret Mission" errands.  We come home and they are packing and getting ready to leave.  They said they'll be back in a couple days!  Since then (Wednesday), we haven't seen them.  We kinda know where they are, but overall, we are all just really curious as to what is going to happen this next transfer!  :P 

This week, it has been nice to have Sister Ng around to help balance me out.  I feel like there are several reasons we are together (I had a feeling we would be companions again last transfer!).  But as to what those reasons are, I really don't know.  :P  But all of it just worked out way too conveniently.  I was supposed to move last transfer, and I didn't.  She moved to the international branch in Asoke, which is like 1 hour away from where I am.  There are lots of little things that are just too coincidental to be coincidence.
It is fun being together again.  It is like my greenie times, except I am not so green anymore.  And she is going home in just 6 weeks!  But it is funny that we still cherish the same things we did when we were in Chiang Mai - good food and lots of talking - from morning to evening we are talking, and eating only the best food.  Which means I will be broke, even sooner than I was last month!  But it is worth it to eat good  :)
This week I learned a little something about our potential. We learn in D&C 93:29 that "Man was also in the beginning with God."  
We lived with God before the world was, and before we lived here with our bodies, our spirits were with God.  We can't remember that time that we spent there, but surely we grew in light and knowledge, but it could not be complete without coming to earth to gain a body.  
In the latest General Conference, President Uchtdorf talked about our potential: "We are truly sons (and daughters) of the Most High and are endowed with unspeakable potential. We are designed to soar freely through the heavens. We are not meant to be shackled to the earth, imprisoned in straitjackets of our own making." He also spoke about a young man who, when he received his patriarchal blessing, saw himself as the valiant and influentially righteous person he was in this premortal existance.  How can we really forget?  But we do!  We can't remember, but this short time in mortality is the time for us to learn and realize it and also to live up to it. This really made me think.  I know that once we die, and stand before the judgement bar, we will remember everything - all our joy and all our sin.  No one is exempt.  Yet, in this life, it is nearly impossible to see and live up to our potential and all that we are actually capable of.  Our flesh makes us weak, and though we are constantly battling to overcome it with the help from Christ's Atonement, we will not reach our full potential until after this life - until after we prove ourselves faithful.  

As I was studying this morning, I came across a favorite scripture in Alma 37, verses 6-7. 
" 6 Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.
 7 And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls."

I think that all too often we sell ourselves short.  We think that perhaps we don't have the power to make a difference, or we may see our circle of influence as something minuscule and insignificant.  But that is not true!  God knows what we are capable of, and if we come unto Him we will be shown what we can really do.  It doesn't have to be anything large, and I think that is what I struggle with.  I want to see all the results now, or I want to see that I am doing a good job now.  I want it to be immediate, but then I forget that sometimes I need to focus on the people that did show up instead of the ones that didn't show up.  Or sometimes I just need to remember that the foundation we are building is not one that you will see immediately.  It takes time.  But through our small but not insignificant efforts, the Lord doth confound the wise and bring about the salvation of many souls.  Isn't it an amazing work that He does and allows us to take part in? :)

Love you all!  Transfers is this week, so we will see where I am next week!
Sister Norrell

Pictures:
Birthday pictures!  A member bought me a swenson's ice cream cake that we chowed down on after English Class. 

My friend...he must like me because he doesn't run away! 

My present from Sister Ellis.  How does she know me so well? 

Me and Sister Nat with our rambutan mustaches. 

We went to Sunrise Tacos in Terminal 21 after a meeting in Asoke.  They had an "All you can eat" deal going on...  this is a picture of Elder Hartung before he ate his last taco... #24 and 2 pieces of Pie.  Sadly, that wasn't even the record!  The real record was 39 tacos and 9 pieces of pie - by a girl.  But according to all the missionaries, he was the new record!  We want to get is started in the mission news letter...  haha 

We found a cup stacking competition.  Lots and lots of kids, and lots and lots of cups.  I didn't know it was that intense of a sport... but this is Thailand... 

Me and my "new" companion, Sister Ng!