taryn 8.16.10

CONGRATS CHRIS, LISEL AND DAD!!! what an exciting week! We had a pretty good week here as well It started with a call from President Smith on Monday night. It is always a nerve wracking thing to see his name on the screen. He called to thank us for our hard work and to say how impressed with us he was. He was happy with all the people that we had at church, and also commented on how we were one of only 2 companionships in the mission that reached at least 20 lessons that week. That was something very rare for him to do, i appreciated it a lot! It isnt about the praise at all, but it is good to hear from someone like that, that he is proud of us. I know 100% that it is not me or my companion. Heavenly Father is blessing us SO MUCH!

We had a lot of rain this past week, a few times during the day, and almost every night we had huge thunderstorms with thunder that sounds like bombs. so loud! one night the power was out, that was a hot night with our one in-room AC not working, and also the water works on electricity so no showering either.. i love the rain so much, but Thai people + rain= no good. lots of cancelling appts or not showing up. the week was still very busy, full of lessons, and trying to find time to study!
We are teaching a family from a far away hill tribe that has come to live here, three sisters and their families that all live in one tiny wooden shack. we havent gotten to the husbands yet, but the three sisters are doing well. bo is christian already, but hasnt been able to attend church because she just had a baby last week! my poor companion isnt used to seeing women with their shirts off breast feeding in front of you, old ladies naked, or men walking around in their towel or boxers. she will soon. the other two sisters have never studied christianity before, tum is really progressing, she has come to church with her 9 year old niece (who is from another sibling that doesnt live there) several times. tum cant read, but is way involved in the lessons. the cute little girl (khawfang) asked us for her own copy of the book of mormon to take to primary. i feel bad, for the past two weeks the whole mission has been out of BoMs! we will hopefully get some this week, it has been crazy with the new translation of it coming out soon. it is hard because the Book of Mormon is the keystone and its hard to convert people without it!
We finished reading the Book of Mormon today, we started last monday. it was actually much easier than i thought! what an incredible book. every time i read it i gain more faith in Christ and a stronger tesimony of the power that the Book of Mormon contains. Reading it fast like we did this week was neat because the storyline came much more to life and proved to me even more that like President Monson's dad said, there is no way that a man could write it unless through the power of God. i love the book of mormon. i am grateful that i have the blessing of reading it every single day for the rest of my life! it adds so much power into our lives, and every time we read it we get new insights from heavenly father.
we taught the cutest lady yesterday who is from the Lahu tribe, her thai is pretty choppy. we saw her cleaning the little park on the side of the street, her job.. i passed her and kept having the thought to go back. ha, we went around the one way streets around the block and invited her. we followed her to her her house yesterday, a little dirt pathway off a small street that opened into a whole neighborhood of Lahu people living on the side of the river. we crossed over scary wooden skinny bridges (that i would never cross except that we we following a motorcycle that could do it) and along a tiny dirt path as everyone was staring at us-i think were the first white people to ever go there. we taught under her wooden house with two other very old ladies that dont speak thai. i would speak to her in thai, which she isnt the greatest at, and then she would translate into lahu for them. such a cool language! it was one of the moments of my mission that i will never forget, sitting on the side of a jungle river under a house on stilts teaching three of Heavenly Fathers children. missions are the greatest.
i hit my year mark in country last week. i cant believe it. we went out for ice cream and my cute companion pulled out a candle to stick in the top of it for my "first birthday" in thailand. i wish we had hours to write to you, but i guess all the other stories will just have to wait a few more months! i love you and miss you SO much! you are amazing. all of you. thank you for your support and love.
until next week,
sister young