taryn 3.29.10

Hey!
HAPPY 16th BIRTHDAY SMELL!!! i hope it is an amazing day today. i cant believe you are so old. youd better tell me all about it, and also about your first date!!!
Im emailing in khonkaen right now, we are down here staying the night in the hotel for zone conf and interviews. ha president said he sometimes wishes he could have sisters as APs:)
We had a busy, crazy, and good week this week. Just normal in a missionaries life! Im really loving it here in Udon, lots of work to be done. life is good right now. I finally feel like our efforts and prayers are really starting to get the area rolling! last week we found quite a few new hopefully awesome investigators and are trying to harvest those that have been prepared for us by the Lord. Lots of inviting (tracting) in the mornings, which is a neat experience seeing thai life in the mornings, so much more alive than the desolate afternoons, and even nights. mom, i think you would love it here, life is pretty shut down by 8-9 at night, everyone sleeping except for the men that all sit outside their houses and drink every night. speaking of crazy thai people, the red shirts are still all in bangkok! ha there were even quite a few members not at church yesterday, they are all having a party in bangkok!
here is a list of a few of our investigators/new converts and their updates and adventures:
apple: she is an amazing new investigator who we met through teaching english class. we went to her house last week, it is 'high-so' (what thai people say for very fancy--high society..) i think i went through a little culture shock. she is an unmarried 40 year old who designs houses. i was in america for a minute. super contemporary. i didnt know those kind of houses existed in thailand! im so used to teaching in little shacks, it felt really funny. she had really good questions like how do you get a testimony? and what else does your church teach besides God and prayer? im excited for the future with her
iang and two daughters: still trying to teach prayer for the 5th time. she still cant grasp it. she just reads the paper that explains prayer every time we ask her to pray, but her daughters are awesome! we finally took a member over and she tried to explain it in essan- the east thai dialect/laoation. still didnt work. not sure what to do, but she absolutely loves us, always wanting to feed us her crazy fish that looks like it just came from the pond.
bui: a previous investigator that we just picked up again, in perfect time too. her husband just left her, she is pregnant, took her 2 year old and wont let her have any contact with her. she just cried on my shoulder for a long time, and then we taught her about prayer again and the love of Heavenly Father. its nice to have a little insight in the whole missing someone so much that you just cant think straight, i knew some of what she was feeling and was able to help her some.
guy (means chicken): awesome new investigator who has a cute 1 yr old boy, whos husband is living in israel for the next year for work. this is pretty common, i think they sign a contract and gets lots of money for it, usually it is harvesting peppers.
ploy: 14 yr old girl who lives way out in the boonies. i love going out there and teaching underneath her wooden thai house raised on stilts, the neighbors walking by staring at us, wondering why we are there. it has probably been years since they have seen a white girl. she has a baptismal date and we are even starting to teach the mom and best friend. soon this will be an eternal family!
A: has a little 5 yr old girl and the one who showed up drunk to her baptismal interview. she is still drinking in the mornings, but atleast we know now and we have set a goal with her to quit by the 3rd of april, though this is going to be really hard considering songkran is in 2 weeks, the biggest thai holiday. its basically a huge waterfight for three straigh days. all the stores are selling waterguns, buckets, and hawaiian style tshirts. we pray lots for her and are trying to help her in every way. she also has to decide whether she wants to legally marry her abusive husband or leave him. goal for that decision is the 19th of april. bap goal: 2nd of may
Ah: our recent convert who has no idea what she has gotten herself into. she moved into a mans house who offered her a room in his house for extremly cheep and is closer to her work because she doesnt have enought money for transportation. we went to visit her on friday night. my eyes were opened to a whole new world. when we walked in i had an instant scared feeling come over me, but i didnt know what it was. then we walk back behind the house to a little room like place on the back porch. it was a room used for bad stuff. a wooden bed that we sat on. so gross. pornography on the walls, nasty sayings in thai, alcohol everywhere, im not going into and more details, but we tried to teach her here. i couldnt speak thai, i could hardly pray when we closed. it has been so long since i havent had the spirit with me, but He definitely couldnt reside with me there. she isnt totally all there, she gets a lot of things, just socially awkward. she has no idea what she is living in or what his intentions are. we have to get her out of there soon. hah, i had 191, the emergency number and the elders number all ready just in case anything happened. the thing that really scared me was that the man was so incredibly nice. out on the street i would have thought him to be a really good guy. its so sad, he has a cute 15 yr old girl. when we returned home the feeling of fear was still with me, all i could do was pray and read the scriptures trying to get the spirit back. i am so so grateful to the life that Heavenly Father has blessed me with the incredible life that i have.
out of time again. i wish i could go on about our others, we are being really blessed right now (ha except they cant seem to make the sacrifice to come to church yet!)
oh ya, my ankle is way swollen right now. we were at the park again this morning so my comp could watch me run around it. i tripped like a fool on the broken up stone ground, embarrassing. i hope its nothing big.
well, i love you and miss you. you are all so so amazing! thank you for your love and words of encouragement every week!
i love the BoM. i have one chapter left that ill finish tonight. it is such an incredibly true book and so amazing to see it change the lives others and myself.
love, sister young