taryn 7.12.10

Hello Family!
Weve had an awesome week this week- well half of it.. My companion was sick for the first few days of the week. It was nice for the first hour or two, but then after that i was just antsy for the next day or two to get out and do the work of the Lord. I did a lot of cleaning and studying which was nice though. The remainder of the week we saw miracles that could not have happened without Heavenly Father's help.
We have been teaching a 13 year old girl (Nin) and her mom (Saa) for a few weeks now. I met Nin one night that we were pretty discouraged, we had gotten rejected harshly quite a few times that night. It was about time to go home, but I decided we should stay out for the remainding minutes. We had the prompting (though we didnt know it at first) to turn back the way we had just came. We didnt find anyone. We started to head home. As we were biking through a dark little narrow street (like most of the neighborhood streets in Thailand) my companion passed a young girl walking home from her extra learning (which almost all kids do here. they go to school and then do special learning all day long!) I had the prompting to stop and talk to her. We ended up walking her home and then she is the one that showed up to church a few days later. That week she had been telling her mom she wanted to go to a christian church and then we stopped to invite her. Her mom was fine with her changing religions, but would always say that she herself is Buddhist. Over the past week we have seen her 180. Earlier during the week she became more interested and started opening up more, i thank the members who have been helping us teach, they are amazing! they became friends with her and made her feel comfortable so that we could get to her heart! The miracle really happened when they came to the Elders' baptism on Saturday night. They told us they were both coming, but for some reason she just dropped Nin off and then waited outside. We sent sister dang (red) out to get her. She came in right before the ordinance. While they were changing the elders taught about God and also about baptism for the investigators there. I was sitting in front of her, i heard her sniffling and turned around to her crying. After the baptism she kept saying how she felt like she had finally come home and how she had never felt that way in a Wat (a buddhist temple). She felt so silly because after the baptism she was all red faced and swollen from crying. She didnt understand why she was crying. I explained how everyone feels the Holy Ghost differently and (sorry mom) i told her about mom and many women who cry usually when they feel the spirit strong. We set baptismal dates with her and her daughter for the 29 of August! Nin wants to get baptized sooner, but we told her it would be best to get baptized together.
Missionary work is amazing. It seems that most of our investigators speak thai as a second language. lots of people from hill tribes and a few from Buma (i cant wait for the day that burma opens for our mission, it is going to boom!) We are teaching a cute lady named kham who is getting her masters degree here but is from Burma. It would be so awesome if we could get her strong and then she can go help strengthen the branch there! they need some good english speakers so they can get more books like the book of mormon translated. the second time we met with her she hadnt tried praying or hadnt read anything. we decided we would give her one more chance. We really emphasized prayer. Then i got a call later in the week, she was very excited and told me that she got an answer. she has been trying to defend her thesis since april and things keep going wrong. she was hoping to defend last week. the night before she was supposed to defend she couldnt sleep. she decided to try out prayer and got on her knees and poured out her heart. the next day she said she actually got to defend, and said that the words just poured out perfectly and the judges?? we very impressed. she knew it was not just her. She told me this as we were sitting waiting for sacrament meeting to start and we both got the chills. It was fun to sit with her. She doesnt speak Thai so she had translator headphones on (we get a lot of visitors and also have a few members that live here from america.) i got to sing the hymns in english!its been so long. they sound so wierd in enlish, it was hard! all the words came to me in thai. the hymns at church are a little crazy because we have both languages singing at the same time.
I was reading this morning in Helaman 10. What a powerful chapter about the labor and great blessings of missionary work! Its amazing how the scriptures are understood so differently at every period of your life. The Spirit brings out and helps us understand the things we need for that time. It is amazing being a missionary. I am grateful for this special time.
It sounds like jord and morg are doing awesome as well! so cool that we are all out here together in different parts of the world spreading the message of true happiness! they are lucky enough though to get to be there for a little longer then i. the time is flying.
I got some awesome packages this past week. thank you so so so much courtney and barb! it felt like christmas and my birthday combined!
well, weve got to go a little earlier today, an investigator family is picking us up to go FHE at sister beantong's house..
i love you and miss you. stay safe, stay healthy, and choose the right!
love,
sister young