The Rise of the Hammonds (Ch. 17)

Posted by Sarah July 06, 2018

The Rise of the Hammonds (Ch. 17)

สวัสดีค่ะเพื่อนและครอบครัว! Hello everyone!

This last week was transfers. Here's my very exciting report: I'll be staying in Bangkapi with Sister Chappell! We're determined to make some magic happen here this transfer, though. Bangkapi is about to get rocked!

The biggest event from this week was our meet and greet with the new mission president, President Hammond! He is awesome. Seriously, they're sending their best to Thailand. The Johnsons were incredible and the Hammonds are, too. I'm excited to get to know them more. I can already tell that they're deeply good people, and I'm grateful for their willingness to sacrifice time, money, and other opportunities to carry out this great work.

This week has been gooood. We've gotten to do a lot of LA work and inviting. Here's a thing I've been learning (in real time) from my visits with less-actives: falling away from the church doesn't just happen. When members spend time in their scriptures every day and make sure they're communicating with their Father in Heaven regularly, they stay strong. The trouble comes when those habits are brushed aside. When we read our scriptures and pray daily, we choose God as our guide. We are sensitive to light and truth, and we are more easily able to recognize danger and evil for what it is. When we forget to pray and read, we leave room for the voices of the world to enter in. Our perspective will always be clearest when we read and pray daily. It's the little things--it'll never ever not come back to the little things!

New mission president and his wife - President and Sister Hammond

So, in other news, here are some of the more special moments of the week: On our way to Asoke for the meet and greet, we took the khlong monster. I don't know if I've explained this yet. Shame on me, because it's a wonderful form of transportation. Basically, it's a boat that rides along a sewage river. And, to be clear, not a river that smells like sewage (which it does.) Not a river that looks like sewage (which it does.) No, this is actually a sewage river. It's where people dump their sewage. It's about as gross as you think it is. So this boat rides along this river of filthy water and is always crammed with more people than should be humanly possible. Anyway, so we were headed to Asoke for our meeting and the boat pulled up to the dock. Sister Chappell hopped on, but I went to the back of the dock to try and find a spot with more room. All of the sudden, the back of the boat started swinging out like it was going to leave. I totally panicked. My companion was already boarded. I didn't know what to do, so I took a flying leap for the side of the boat. Here's the problem: it's also long skirt season, so my dress was down to my ankles. It left me a pretty small radius to move within. I missed my target, but managed to grab on to the rope on the side, narrowly avoiding a watery death (that might not be quite accurate. I have my doubts about how much of this river is water.) My knees smacked into the side of the boat and everyone gasped but I managed to crawl over the side and board safely. It was super embarrassing. The worker at the dock got a pretty good laugh out of it, and there was this random African woman in the back of the boat who kept saying, "Child, you almost missed." So, that's a fond memory from the week.

Other things-- we manually drained the baptismal font again using trash cans, our Relief Society president taught a beautiful lesson this week using diarrhea as an analogy (it's not a taboo subject at all here--it's actually a common excuse for people missing appointments, coming late, etc.), and we taught the Elders' investigator the Siamese Cat song from Lady and the Tramp. As we were walking home, he drove by on his Vespa singing it. Radical!

Missionary work is the greatest. Before my mission, I would ask missionaries what they did every day, and I never felt like I got a clear answer. I get it now, though. Every day is so different. You hit the highest highs and the lowest lows and all the in betweens throughout 24 hour periods of time. There are crazy moments and I've learned to pretty much expect the unexpected. But, oh man, it's the best. I love what I'm doing. Every day is amazing. Every day contains miracles. This is God's work. I promise each and every one of you that it is.

In closing, I just want to bear my testimony of prayer. When we pray, we communicate directly with our Heavenly Father. There is no one--nothing--standing between us and the God of the Universe. He has a personal interest in our lives, and every word we speak is heard and received by Him. Every single word every single time. Allowing myself to believe this and reminding myself of these things when I pray has made my prayers more meaningful, and, in turn, made my testimony of prayer grow stronger. I love this gospel. It is the source of true happiness.