Transfer calls came this week and I will be staying in Phuket. Elder Manwaring finished his two years and is heading home and my new companion is Elder Tusieseina! I'm so glad to still be in Phuket and to serve with Elder Tusieseina and I'm so grateful for the chance I've had to serve with Elder Manwaring. He has taught me so much! Elder Manwaring taught me how to love the people and work so hard in their behalf that you break the seat off your bike for them. (His bike seat snapped off a few days ago while he was biking) He has literally given everything to the Thai people and I hope he feels satisfied with his service to the Lord.
This week was really great! We got lots of food because all the members wanted to feed Elder Manwaring before he goes home. An awesome miracle from this week came from a temple square referral! Her name is sister Chat and she lived in America on an exchange program for a few years. While there she had a friend invite her to go to Temple Square and she went and loved it. She went to church there and met with the missionaries there. Eventually she moved back to Phuket where there isn't a church so she stopped going and stopped reading the Book of Mormon. Several years passed and she started to feel a little sad about her life and started to remember her time at church and how good she felt. Then she had a dream that she met the missionaries in Phuket! She called up Temple Square and asked to meet with the missionaries. We showed up and she was so cool!! She was so happy to meet with us and she remembered everything the missionaries taught her! She has a crazy work schedule so she's a little worried about getting to church on Sunday but she is so cool! A crazy miracle that Heavenly Father has been watching and preparing for several years. I know He really does have a plan for each of us and wants us all to have joy in this life!
Sunday night we went to visit the Martins, a Filipino family. They love Elder Manwaring and wanted to send him off well. After dinner they told us about their friends who needed help talking to their Thai landlord so we got to help them translate. After a long and sort of pointless barter session we helped settle the business. After that the Martin's friends graciously gave us peanut butter sandwiches and while we ate we started a gospel conversation with them. They all had different beliefs but we were able to teach them about the restoration and they all seemed pretty interested. One guy was on his phone looking for scriptures to prove he was right and after he shared his scripture Elder Manwaring whipped out 3 more verses that were so perfect! It was awesome. The Spirit was for sure leading that whole situation! I'm excited to keep teaching them.
This week our investigator who was supposed to be baptized came to us and said she didn't want to because she decided she wants to stay Buddhist. It was really sad to have watched her learn, and see miracles, and find the truth and then leave it all. But, in my studies I found a great little story about a boy and a baseball from conference that helped. Here it is: "With the desire to become the next mighty ballplayer, he decided to go outside and practice. He held the baseball in one hand and the bat in the other, and he threw the ball into the air. With a wish to hit the ball as far as he could, he took a great swing, but the ball fell to the ground without even touching the wood of the bat. Not to be denied, he went at it again. As he was about to throw the ball in the air, his determination grew as the thought of a powerful hit came into his mind. But alas, the results were the same. The ball lay on the ground. But as any good ballplayer knows, you have three strikes before you are out. He concentrated even more, threw the ball in the air, and gave the mightiest swing he had ever attempted. As the ball again fell to the ground, the tears began to swell in his eyes. Then all of a sudden a great smile appeared, and he said, “What a pitcher!" I love this story and the optimism of the little boy. So many things happen in our lives that are hard. Even as we try our very very best we seem to come up short sometimes. Optimism can change all that and can turn trials into times of our greatest growth. My mission has for sure been full of times where I sadly watched the ball fall to my feet but I'm grateful to know that all things work together for our good and all my failures will turn into successes in the future.
I love you all so much! I'm so excited for this new transfer! Have another great week!
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