Life in Bangkapi (Ch 11)

Last week for PDay we visited the King's Palace - amazing!

สวัสดี​ค่ะ, everyone!

Sorry there was no update last week! I wrote the whole thing out and then the computer shut off and I lost it. I was too lazy/didn't have time to rewrite it. Sad day! Oh well. 

So, this week was pretty cool. Every day it becomes more obvious to me that this is the Lord's work and that we are just instruments! For example, this week, we called a woman that we met in the park, named Sister Gaew. She has been reading the Book of Mormon and said we could come to her workplace (she's a preschool teacher) and meet with her! When we got there, she actually had a referral for us. We ended up meeting with her Christian friend (who is also preschool teacher) and sharing with her about the Book of Mormon. We also showed her the "Because of Him" video (re-watch this one if you have the time! We use it in TONS of lessons. It's so powerful. I've seen it hundreds of times and it still gives me chills every time I watch it.) She cried through the whole thing and told us that she had prayed to God and asked Him how to know if she was forgiven for her sins. She said that she knew God sent us. The whole time, she was asking questions and saying things that I knew could be answered with restored gospel principles. She is ready for the truth. It's amazing that we got to meet her so painlessly... I know God sent her to us! Miraclesss.

We met the cutest group of elderly men at the park this week. They were kind of lukewarm about our message, but they were more than willing to talk with us! They had just finished their evening walk and were chatting together on the park benches. One of the older guys actually spoke English! Well, some English. His subject material was a little limited. He talked to us for probably 20 minutes about how to cook the perfect steak. (In case you were wondering, it should be medium rare.) Buuut long story short, they said we could meet them again on Tuesday! We're going to try and bake brownies in the church early Tuesday morning and give them to our new pals. Maybe bribe them into hearing a message, you know? We shall see.

Other things I learned this week: the rules of UNO are not universal, you get bragging rights based on the number of peppers you can handle in your food (apparently 2 is super wimpy. Let me tell you, though... 2 had me in tears and ready to breathe fire), if you want to exterminate the rats in your church building, make sure you warn the members beforehand so they don't open doors and allow the rats to escape the barricade, the marble steps in front of wats ARE slippery when it rains (and you might go down hard if you're not careful... Mmm-hmm), and if you ask Thai friends for help with language study, you might end up with a list of swear words instead. So, yeah! I'm still learning tons every day! And having a great time, actually. This work is so good-- so meaningful, so exciting, so overwhelming, so humbling, so fun. I love it.

The thing that makes missionary work the very best, though, is the opportunity we have every day to talk about--and try to represent--Christ. My respect and love for the Savior grows every single day here. I can't fully wrap my head around all He did for us, but I know that I could serve 100 missions and never even come close to repaying Him. Something I've learned from my short time on the mission is that the enabling power of Christ's Atonement is real. If we have a real desire to develop a Christlike attribute (or to become like Christ in any aspect of our lives), we can pray to access a power that is higher than our own. It's amazing. I've been working on developing some Christlike attributes in my life, and I've noticed that when I earnestly pray for Christ's help I receive power and vision that is definitely not from me.

I love this Church. It's an unimaginable blessing. Don't take it for granted! I love Thailand and I'm so thrilled to have another 15 months here, even though I miss you all very much! Have a great week! Sending you all my love.

Best, 

Sister Harris

Cleaning the church - just like old times at home

More from the King's Palace

A little piece of heaven!