Well... last week when I was leaving my "three-o" in Tall Bridge, i jokingly told them I was just going to the city of monkeys to vacation for 10 days before moving again.... And, little did I know was that I literally would have a "vacation" of sorts from missionary work. Like I mentioned, last week, my sweet new comp, Sister Josephsen, was sick. I thought maybe it'd last a day or so, but.... on day 3 of sick comp watch, I wrote a bunch of letters. On day 4, I "scrapbooked" and day 5, I made of new song... and on day 6 and 7 I wrote more letters. ( I sent all 20 off today... including your Christmas present Jenny, so sorry if it's a bit late. I tried to send it off earlier, but it was the Kings birthday, so they were closed). I now know Sister Jo, from the Ho (Idaho) VERY well. We are tight like unto a dish. So as far as missionary WORK, work is.. i don't have much to report for the week... (but actually, I don't think i really write a whole lot about it ever....which doesn't make any sense... that's all i do out here... BUt i guess because it's all i do, I just assume you all know that every week is full of teaching and finding and hence use my time telling you about other ridiculous things. However, I shocked by how quickly you can fall in love with a place and the people who live there. The members here in Thailand never cease to amaze me with their kindness, charity (and humor) towards the missionaries. There is this one family (a mom and dad and two awesome kids) who I JUST LOVE already... they are hilarious. And when I found out they have only been members for 3 months, my mind blew up a little bit. I couldn't believe it. I really thought the kids were born and raised and the parents were lifelong member, too. The gospel is INCREDIBLE. To see what it did for this family in such a SHORT amount of time is just....incredible... i can't even describe it. It's a common story I've heard from my time here.. A woman would start learning about the gospel and when the missionaries taught her about eternal families she laughs and says " i don't even want to be with him now, why would I want to be with him forever?!" Then eventually the whole family would be baptized and this couple (and family) becomes inseparable! And they are alll the most humble, charitable, loving people ever. Wow... The Church is true.
So... lets see, what else? This city really does have monkeys everywhere. I haven't seen much of the city, but yesterday we went to go visit this member at her smoothie shop. I sat inside drinking a delicious shake while I watched the monkey steal my water bottle from my bike basket. I forgot my scriptures were in there too, but he didn't get away with it ( I just have monkey hand prints all over it) This city is beautiful too. Sooo mysteriously ancient and enchanting. (Oh, this is random... but today while I was printing off pictures i noticed a news report, and I thought they were talking about a dead body... but really it was just a Buddha head and feet... it was strange. I know I'm not explaining it right... but i was relieved to see it was a real decapitate head they were showing, but rather just a Buddha decapitated golden head. However, I think they would show a real head on TV or newspapers here... We've seen ALL kinds of crazy things)
In other news, I discovered the coolest man alive.. (ok.. Not discovered, I did go to his school, and he's not alive...but)... Do you all realize how COOL Brigham Young is?!? I spent this whole morning reading The Teachings of Brigham Young.. He's....wow. I''ve been thinking about that book all day. I also spent a good portion of the day just cleaning.. We're moving out.. aka... closing the area for sisters. Thailand will be going for 150 missionaries to 92 missionaries by April.. Tomorrow we lose another sister... which means were down to 19 or so... So areas will have to keep closing. Sad!
OK, well, I better go. Sounds like you're all doing great and getting ready for Christmas! yay! I love you all. Thanks for the love and support, always! I'll be writing again next Wed.
The church is TRUE.
Farewell to Manzanar,
Love, Sister โอนีล
No comments:
Post a Comment