Livin' on a Prayer (Ch 9)

Posted by Sarah April 09, 2018

Livin' on a Prayer (Ch 9)

Sawadii Khaa, everyone!

Wow. This has been the most crazy, most awesome week ever! I LOVE Thailand. It's so beautiful, the people are so nice, and the food is so. good. Seriously, I'm pretty sure they eat just Thai food in the Celestial kingdom.

We started off the week with a long travel day! We left the MTC at 3:50 on Monday morning and arrived at the airport a couple hours later. We flew to LA, then Hong Kong, and then Bangkok! We got in around 1:00 on Wednesday morning. It was so nice to finally meet President and Sister Johnson! They are so great.

We made it to Bangkok!

We stayed in a hotel that night (next to the mission home) and the next morning we took pictures with the Johnsons on the roof of the mission home. After that, we all took the subway to Lumpini Park, where President Hinckley dedicated Thailand for missionary work in 1966. We read President Hinckley's dedicatory prayer together, and then we were given time to go pray and recommit ourselves to the work! There were these water monitors (they're massive lizards or something--not totally sure) just prowling the park near the water the whole time. Welcome to the jungle and stuff!

With President and Sister Johnson

Thursday was a big day for us! We got assigned to our areas and our trainers. We were waiting all morning to find out, and they finally told us. I am serving in Bangkapi (a suburb on the eastern side of Bangkok) with Sister Tukuafu! Sister Tukuafu is from Melbourne, Australia-- I just can't shake these Australians! Kidding. I love Sister Tukuafu so much already. She is one of the nicest people I've ever met, and I feel lucky to have her as my trainer.

With my trainer, Sister Tukuafu

My first few days in Bangkapi have been kind of a blur. I'll hit the highlights!

LANGUAGE

Okay, so do you remember in Kung Fu Panda when Po is going to demonstrate his Kung Fu skills and he asks to start at level zero? And Master Shifu says, "There is no level zero" but then Po goes through all the equipment and it's a total disaster and he asks Master Shifu how he did. Master Shifu says, "There is now a level zero." Welllll, that's about how my language is going right now haha! I have created a level zero. I have no idea what anyone is saying to me, ever. Sister Tukuafu told me to practice speaking to this guard in the park one day while she talked to some other people, so I did. I asked him all these questions, and he answered me back. I did not catch a single word of any of his answers-- except the word "fruit," actually. When I caught that, I did a little charade and pretended to bite into an apple. He had no idea what I was doing. The whole thing was a funny little mess. I said, "bye" and got out of there soon as I could when Sister Tukuafu was done!

Inviting in the park!

Inviting!

FOOD

The food here is so good. I'm getting emotional writing this. No, but really it's pretty amazing. It's mango season here and I have had mangoes and sticky rice three times since Wednesday. It's like I've never eaten food before. I'll send some pictures of some of the things we've eaten because they're worth 1000 words.

Check this out.

Mango & sticky rice and food from the market near us!

FUNNY

We've gone contacting in a park in Bangkapi a few times. It's really fun, even though I can't say much. So, one time, we saw this one man kind of meditating near the water and decided to approach him. We asked him if we could sit down and he said yes. Sister Tukuafu started teaching him the Restoration lesson and he was listening. All of the sudden, all of these pigeons started flying towards us--dozens of them. Sister Tukuafu and the man didn't even flinch but I was like, "ahhhh!" I managed to keep my cool, though, even when I felt something hit my head. Yep, it's what you think it was! Thanks, bird, for welcoming me to Bangkapi with such style!

SPIRITUAL

I have felt God's love for me and for all His children so strongly this week. I look at everyone and I think, "God knows these people personally and he wants them to know Him personally." It's so amazing. I know God's love is what has been sustaining me through a long week full of firsts. I got to watch General Conference round 2 this week, and I testify that President Nelson is truly a prophet of God. We are so lucky to have living prophets! This church is true. It just is. I hope everyone gets the opportunity to know that for themselves, and gets to experience the joy that this knowledge brings.