Tessa in Thailand: 11/23/14

Every week there are always miracles and always disappointments! This week leaned a little more towards the disappointments but it is OK because miracles happen and we have to have opposition in all things, right?! This week I am going to write using something I used to do with my family at home called, “highs and lows”!

I will start with the lows so I can end on a high note! Remember the investigator I told you about last week named Nuie who came to our lesson drunk? Well we tried teaching him a bunch of times but he canceled a lot! Finally we got a chance to teach him with Brother Bay (who used to drink too). We tried teaching him but he just wouldn't listen and would say the most random things! At one point he was talking about abortion and how he had an abortion once and then he was all, "Praise the Lord, hallelujah." After the lesson Brother Bay told us that he had a hard time understanding Nuie because he had drunk so much that it had affected his brain...ahh, it is so sad. We had a lot of people cancel on us this week. Our golden investigator, Nuk, said that she got a new job and has to work 24/7. One of our other investigator’s parents forbid her to go to church. We have this other investigator who seemed pretty good but when we brought up the word of wisdom he said, "Oh I can't stop, it is just part of the culture of Thailand. I only drink a little with my friends. I know it is bad for me but I have to because of my friends..." We are working with him and trying to help him!! And the last low would be that one of our less active’s said that her daughter won't come to church because she is a "lady boy" and her siblings tell her she is not allowed there. We obviously told them that she is welcome and can come to church but she is scared of being judged.

OK, now to the HIGHS! We got the best news this Saturday morning about our investigator, Saiya, who is 11 and is so awesome. She wants to get baptized so badly! We taught her the other day and we told her, "You have to get permission from your mom to be baptized." She was so crushed because of her situation. So on Saturday we called President Senior. We explained the situation to him and he gave us special permission for her to get baptized!!!! We were freaking out we were so excited!! We called her right away and scheduled a date for the 30th! She was so happy!!

We also got 3 new investigators who are so awesome! We have a 50 year old guy named Brasut who already has so much faith! Our RC, sister Yoo, brought her friend Ying who is really interested and knew everything already and on Sunday a soon to be RC's little brother wants to learn with us! He is 9 and so cute!!! He has been to church 3 times already and is so fun to teach! We asked him, "Do you believe in Jesus?" He answered and said, "Yes, he is my Savior!" SO CUTE I ALMOST DIED! We have been working a lot with less active's this week and yesterday we had 2 LA's come to church! One has been working with the missionaries since before I came to Thailand and she finally came! I was so happy!

We had a really fun FHE last Monday when the ward got together and just talked and played. They really are my family!! And lastly, I just LOVE how nice these people are. One night I was upset about investigators bailing and we were contacting and I got talking to this one lady. She was so sweet and finally said, “Here, I am going to buy you some corn" and right then and there she gave me 2 corn on the cobs and it literally made my day!

Some funny things happened this week!! I went on a switch off this Friday with Sister Maughn. We were riding our bikes down a dark street at night and all of a sudden this dog starts chasing me and biting at my legs so I screamed which usually makes them go away but this time it didn't work! SO, I accidentally took out Sister Maughn, jumped off my bike and finally the dog went away! AHHH, I felt so bad! She was really nice about it and just laughed. Another funny thing happened when we were teaching our recent convert, Brother Nooy and he had a question about the scriptures. He was reading in 2 Nephi 9 where it says, "the uncircumcised of heart." He asked us what does “uncircumcised” mean. I tried looking it up in the dictionary but it wasn't there. We told him it was a comparison meaning, “a bad person”, but he would not take that so he was stuck on that subject FOREVER! After 10 minutes he finally let it go! It was really funny!!!

This week's studies were really cool, like always!! Don't think I am weird but my companion showed me the meaning for the devil in the bible dictionary. "He is miserable in his situation and stirreth up the children of men unto secret combinations of murder and all manner of secret works of darkness. He tries to imitate the work of God by transforming himself nigh unto an angel of light. He is also a worker of miracles, by which he deceives many upon the earth. In fact, the scripture says he deceives the whole world. He can cite scripture to make his point seem plausible. All of this is his scheme to make man miserable like himself." Satan is a very sneaky one that is why we have to follow the counsel of the prophets! A little farther on it says, "Protection against the influence of the devil is found by obedience to the commandments and laws of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The message of all the prophets and apostles is that truth, righteousness, and peace shall in the end prevail over error, sin, and war; the faithful shall triumph over all their afflictions, enemies, and shall triumph over the devil. There shall be a complete and lasting victory of righteousness over wickedness on this earth, which will be done by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ." I thought that was so interesting!!

I was also reading a talk about repentance this past week that was so good! A lot of times people think of it as a checklist, "ok, I repented of this and that…looks like I am good!" NOOOOO! In this talk it says, "Repentance must be understood as a fundamental change of direction in life and a transformation of character! It is essential to achieving ones divine potential to becoming the kind of being that can live with God in his heavenly kingdom...Forgiveness of sins however is not the sole object of repentance. Repentance is the pathway to perfecting our obedience therefore development of a Christ like character." After reading this it really changed the way I have been teaching repentance! It has helped investigators see that repentance is more than just forgiveness and essential to our purpose of this life! Last thing that I really loved this week was in 3rd Nephi 16 verse 5-6. "And it came to pass that when Jesus had thus spoken, he cast his eyes round about again on the multitude, and beheld they were in tears, and did look steadfastly upon him as if they would ask him to tarry a little longer with them. And he said unto them: Behold, my bowels are filled with compassion towards you." I immediately think of the song, "Savior Stay this Night with Me". It brings to mind a scene of us pleading with Christ to comfort and stay--it is one of my favorites! I know there are times when I am having a hard time and at that moment I feel that Christ is right there to lift me up and comfort me.

I am so grateful for this church and the chance I get to share the gospel with everyone! It is such a blessing! Even though sometimes being a missionary is hard, the good ALWAYS outweighs the bad. The miracles are worth the disappointments! There is nothing better than seeing people come unto Christ and be changed through him! Have a good week everyone! Thanks for all your support!

Sister Herrmann

PS Cold season started and it is like the PERFECT weather!