Fishers of Men (Ch. 15)

สวัสดี​คะ, ​friends and family!

We had Zone Conference to kick this week off. It was so good! The Johnsons do a great job. One of my favorite insights that was shared was from Sister Johnson. She told a story about a relative who was a smoker. One day, this relative visited a doctor who told her that if she couldn't give up her smoking habit, she would die within the year. The relative quit smoking that day and never looked back. Sister Johnson asked her how she had done it. She replied, "Sometimes I had to pray every second of every minute of every hour." I loved this answer. Prayer is the secret to overcoming our bad habits and character defects! If we pray and petition the Lord for help, we triumph over the natural man much more quickly and completely. Sometimes that might mean we need to say one hundred little prayers a day. Luckily, the Lord will hear every one of them!

Zone Conference was definitely inspiring. Sadly, this was our last one with the Johnsons! I'm going to miss them. I'm excited to meet the Hammonds, though! 

Zone Conference with the sisters

Our zone with President and Sister Johnson

After Zone Conference, we had a pretty normal week. I got to try coagulated pig's blood, which was a highlight. Here's the thing: I can kinda read words in Thai at this point, but I don't know what they mean. So at lunchtime, if we're at a stand or a place that has a menu, I find a word that I can read and I just order whatever it is. Sometimes, this turns out fine. Other times, I order myself a steaming bowl of coagulated pig's blood soup. (which by the way, isn't that bad. It's pretty flavorless. I don't think it'll become a staple for me, though... ) It's all part of the adventure! 

Other things that happened this week: a member from a different area came to our church last week and brought a friend. Her name is พัต​ (Pat). We got her number after church and scheduled an appointment for this week. We met with her on Tuesday and it went so well! She was really touched that the missionaries would take the time to call her and ask how her experience at church had been. We taught her about the Restoration and prayer. At the end, we asked her to say the closing prayer. She did--and she just started crying. She could barely get the words out. When she finished, she said, "I think I've found something special. I think this church is going to help me grow in a way no other church could." Which, of course, is great insight! The whole purpose of this life is for us to progress towards perfection. Our church is the only one that gives us all the necessary tools to do that. I'm excited to be working with พัต!

My new companion, Sister Chappel - love her!

Our other investigator, ทอม, is still doing amazingly but can't go to church because he works on Sunday. He's asked us if he can go another day, and we had to tell him no. We're hoping that as he continues to learn he will get to the point where he's ready to take a leap of faith and change his Sunday schedule. He's so awesome. For real. One of the questions he had for us the other day was, "Why does it say in the intro of the first chapter of the Book of Mormon that Lehi's family is Lehi, Sariah, Laman, Lemuel, Sam, and Nephi? Where are Jacob and Joseph?" I mean... This is his first time reading the Book of Mormon. The guy is so observant!

Other parts of the week: we were sitting down to do our weekly planning at the park, facing the water. All of the sudden we hear this fwhttt noise and we look over and there's this shirtless dude emerging from underneath a bridge on the side, up to his stomach in water. He was going fishing, apparently, and had just cast his line into the pond. We're at this park a lot, and I know for a fact that there are signs on the side of the pond that say, "Don't go in this water! It's highly toxic and possibly electrically charged and if you go in it, you will produce three-eyed children!" Or something to that effect. My Thai's not very good. But this fearless warrior was not afraid of the consequences. He was there to FISH. It was hilarious. He cast his line a few times... I tried to take a picture of him, but I was too slow. Sorryyyy. He taught me a great lesson, though: we, as Fishers of men, can't pass by the fish that have been raised in a toxic environment in search of an easier catch. If we're going to really fulfill our duty, we've got to get waist deep in electrified water and try to catch every last fish because every fish has value! And that's my attempt to add value to an otherwise completely irrelevant story from the week. To be honest, I just thought the bridge dude was funny. 

Well, there's another week! I'm absolutely loving being on a mission. I love this gospel. It's the greatest blessing in the world. Don't be afraid to share it! The worst thing people can say is that they're not interested, and if they are, you'll change their lives forever. 

Have an amazing week, everyone! I love you so much! 

Sister Harris

Inviting at the park one day and it just started pouring

Pouring, I tell you!

Seriously, the best food - well, except for the coagulated pig's blood...