We'll Gain the Kingdom Inch by Inch (Starting With the Street Vendors on 86) (Ch. 25)

Hi y'all.

Okay, first of all. Big news. Great news! Our investigator, Sister Peerasa, is getting baptized on October 7th!! I'm beyond excited.

Here's Peerasa's story:

We met her at Church, actually. We went to investigator class (after Sacrament meeting) about a month ago and there was a woman and her daughter there. The elders assumed they were our investigators. We assumed they were theirs. You know. But, we thought we should check, so at the end we asked the Elders and they didn't know either of the women. It turned out that one of them was a less-active member and the other woman was her mom, who was not a member. They left pretty quickly after investigator class, while we were still helping other people, so we weren't able to get any contact information. Later, we asked one of the members who they were, because we had seen her talking to them. She didn't really know, but she thought she might be Facebook friends with the daughter. She found the daughter's Facebook and we added her. Then, we messaged the daughter, Parisara, and talked to her about how she was doing, how she had liked church, etc. Eventually, we asked if she thought her mom would be interested in learning with us. She told us to ask her mom. Sure thing. We asked if she could send us a number, and she said yes. After a while, though, we got a little impatient so we went through Sister Parisara's Facebook and found that she had listed a woman, Peerasa, as her mother in the "About" section. We messaged the mother's account and just flat out asked if she was interested. She responded quickly, saying yes. And so things began. 

Since we started teaching her, Sister Peerasa has showed up to lots of our missionary activities. She's a traditional Thai medicine woman by trade, and for the past two weeks she's made weekly sports night very interesting by leading a "stretching class". On one side of the room, there are people playing some super intense ping pong, and on the other side, there's us and Sister Peerasa, breathing deeply and finding our inner zen and releasing toxic thoughts. It's awesome. 

Anyway, as far as her progress as an investigator, Sister Peerasa is doing great. She has known about the Church for while now, so she's read a good part of the Book of Mormon and has a testimony of it. She really understands the Nephite Pride Cycle and wants to avoid that in her life. Here's something cool, too. In our last lesson, she talked about how she wanted to get baptized and become a member. We tried to extend a baptismal date, but she said that she didn't feel quite ready yet. This Sunday, though, she came to church and during Relief Society the entire lesson was about covenants and baptism and the temple. One of the members bore her testimony about baptism, and about how she hadn't felt ready at first, but she went ahead and has been richly blessed for her decision. It was the perfect lesson, tailor-made by a loving Father in Heaven. After church, before she had to leave for work, Sister Peerasa said that she wanted to be baptized on October 7th. It was one of the days we had initially extended for her goal date. I am thrilled and grateful to Heavenly Father for filling in the gaps in our well-intentioned-but-imperfect teaching. Now, here's hoping I somehow get to stick around and be a part of Sister Peerasa's special day!

Other than that very exciting news, things are same old around here. Wonderfully same old. 

The other day, we saw a food stand close to our apartment as we were coming back home. Sister Rogers was trying to figure out what they were selling so she walked a little closer and said, "Are those MUSSELS?" I flexed for her and said, "Yes they are, thank you for noticing." After that, I laughed til I cried. Doesn't take much here.

We've made friends with the street vendors on our road, actually. In the morning, we can buy fruit and หมู​ปิ้ง​ (grilled pork on stick) from two very nice older women and at night we can buy even more fruit from a different stand! The night fruit guy is a little moody and, more often than not, pretty drunk. I'm always worried he's going to hurt himself while he's using his knife. We're going to get him with our message someday and then he'll be happy and safe! Next to him is a very friendly, very drunk guy who sells fried bugs. He gave us some free samples the other day, a couple of delushus crispy grasshoppers. They weren't too bad, actually. We gave him some M&ms to say thanks, and told him to mix them in with the bugs. In my opinion, that would probs be tasty. 

To close things a little more neatly, I want to echo the missionaries who are encouraging their families and friends to read Saints. Do it! It's a great read on many levels. To start with, it's entertaining. It relays Church history in story form. What's not to love? After that, though, it's powerful. The stories of the sacrifices of the early Saints are humbling. Last night we were talking as a district about ways to help our ward grow. There are lots of great things going on, but we've got our share of less-than-perfect to work with, too. Right when the conversation turned a little negative, we started talking about Saints. We talked about the brave men and women who, with the help of the Lord, built the Kingdom of God again on the earth. They needed to trust in the Lord, humbly follow their leaders, and give the Church time to mature into the amazing, powerful body of Saints it is today. The Church here in Thailand is still young. We are working with pioneers. They are incredible, and I have no doubt that growth of the Church here in Thailand will continue to mirror the growth of the early Church, and become an absolute stronghold. I'm grateful to Saints for helping me see this journey with more perspective!

I love you all! I hope you have amazing weeks! Thanks for all you do. 

Love, 

Sister Harris