This week Sister Athena was baptized!! It was a really great day! She is from the Philippines and has a really strong testimony of Christ but she always felt that something was wrong with the church she went to growing up. Once she moved from the Philippines to Thailand she stopped going to church. In her testimony yesterday she told us she had an experience where it felt like God was shaking her and asking why she wasn't going to church. She didn't know where any churches were but she knew some of her colleagues and friends went to church so maybe she could go with them. The friends she asked were two members of our branch. Once Athena came to church she felt a really special peace there and wanted to learn more. We were able to teach her and her friends helped so much! We would teach at the member's house and the member's would offer support and pick her up for church on Sunday. She always had such great questions about the scriptures and loves reading them. At the baptism the friends that referred her gave a talk and in the talk she talked about how she has been a member for 16 years and has referred all her friends and family but sister Athena is the first one who got baptized. It was really special and there were not many dry eyes in the room! It was an amazing experience to be a part of her conversion process and to help her learn more about the restoration.
Thai name of the week: Mormon
These last two transfers we have witnessed multiple miracles from following our stomachs. We taught an investigator at McDonald's and then ate lunch there. As we were getting ready to leave Elder Tu noticed the man sitting next to us had bought one of those pie things but hadn't eaten it. Elder Tu wanted the pie thing so he decided to talk to the man to try to get the pie. When he started talking to the man it turned out that he was really open hearted and really wants to learn more about religion so we got an appointment with him for next week! Then Elder Tu asked if he could eat the pie thing but the man said he was going to eat it so we just sat there kind of awkwardly for a second and then got out of there. Haha meeting him was a miracle for sure!
At the baptism we sang "I am a Child of God" and I noticed how many people were getting choked up while singing that song. In conference someone (sorry, can't remember who) shared a story about a young girl who experienced an accident and as part of therapy she was counseled to say "I am a child of God" ten times every day. At first if was really difficult for her but there is power in knowing your divine identity and eventually she overcame her challenges by focusing on who she really was which is a child of God. If there's one thing I've learned on my mission it's that God truly is our Father and each of us are beloved sons and daughters of God. There really is power in singing and saying that you are a child of God, because if is true!
Some fun Thai culture we experiences this week: we stumbled upon a small field with about 30 or so men gathered around several bird cages that were hanging with birds inside them. I guess a popular "sport" here is to buy a bird and then take if to these competitions where they count how many times your bird chirps within a few seconds and the birds who chirp the most win. Thailand is awesome! Another one happened at the hotel where we meet for church. There was a huge auction going on and they were auctioning off licence plate numbers. There is big time superstition on getting lucky numbers so people were paying ridiculous amounts of money for these licence plate numbers. Members were telling us that some went for 3 million baht (a little less that $100,000). I thought it was pretty funny. We noticed a few members slip out during Sunday school to go check on the event too. Haha! I love this country!
Hope you all are doing well! I'm very grateful for all your prayers! I know this is God's work and I'm so happy to be a small part of it! Love you all!
Pictures:
Ministering with the Elders Quorum
Here is the field with the bird cages
Athena's baptism
No comments:
Post a Comment