clown cars and Bow

My dear Family!!

Hey! This week I picked up your package from the office! :D So tempting! Thank you so much! I'm so excited for it.

 

This week was chilly! With no house heat or particularly warm showers, I'm dying in the mornings all bundled sometimes! So it goes to show I was not meant for Ukraine, Russia, or Armenia...

 

The week started off with a good fence painting. We did that and then suddenly realized, well, oops. Kinda got it all over ourselves. No big deal, it's washable. OH WAIT NO IT'S NOT. I still have paint all speckled all over my arms since last Monday evening. A full week. It turns out the paint wasn't even paint-- it was Anti-Rust paint-solution... stuff. So let it be known, I won't be rusty for a while....

 

And it made for a lot of "Painter" jokes throughout the week.

 

This is my favorite awkward moment of the whole week: HOW DO YOU ASK A DEAF WOMAN IF SHE IS PREGNANT??

Okay, so our investigator was looking a little plumpy yesterday at church. So what better to do then to try to figure out where this baby could have come from-- seeing as I don't know her family because we struggle in the communicating area. So we try a lot of sneaky ways of asking, none really work. So pretty much... yeah, I'm pretty sure we called her hardcore fat? I still don't even know if she's pregnant..... Note: Do not ask deaf women if they are pregnant if you cannot speak adequate sign language.

 

This week I took some travels to Bangkok and Kalasin, one for my MLC meeting and the other for an exchange. MLC was way inspiring-- we are so pumped for the future of the mission. And so then later when the meeting was over, President was like, "Oh just kidding, we're not done. We have an activity for the last visual lesson. But we'll need pants, socks, and an ice rink." ...... So we went ice skating for like 30 minutes. Hahahaha. Oh President. I love him and Sister Senior so much.

 

So the craziest thing. It gets to church time-- there's like 4 minutes until it starts... Uhm, where is everyone? We saw the Elders outside, praying together to find someone to bring into the church. Just as hope was about to be lost at the idea of having investigators there, or even members really, it was like the doors opened and tons of people flooded in! In fact, a member brought 9 KIDS OVER 8 to come learn! I was like, "Are you serious??" And then new investigators just burst in the doors every 3 minutes-- all friends of the youth, who had participated in our now very effective sports night. They ALL came! The church was filled with kids-- almost 11 on the front row, and then the back was filled with teenagers. Just... WHAT! It was nuts.

 

I even taught some of our investigators violin this week. Hahah, it was so cute. They were freaked out about performing 2 Christmas songs at their school because they just started learning a month ago... and so we taught them the gospel, AND violin. It was so precious. The first sounds were wretched and ear-busting. But by the end it sounded way good! I was like, "Did I just teach some Thai's... in Thai... to play violin? Where am I?"

It was a really cool experience though, because they called me and just told me they wanted to play for us first to show us what they had been working on. Bambi said: "I actually found out God was real through playing violin. I tried playing this so so many times and couldn't get it, but then I prayed that God would help me, and the very next try I got it all right! He must be real." Oh, heart warming. I could just squish her in a big hug.

 

Kalasin was really busy and fun-- we actually had a miraculous 15 minutes with a girl there named Bow. From what the sisters had heard, she was uninterested and not coming back, so they didn't ever try to go see her. But Sis Broeder was like, "I'll give Sis Painter a go at it while she's here." just to see if it was legit or not. So we get there and we had the most lifting and real sit down with this girl-- I have NO IDEA what everyone was talking about. She is fully ready to come back-- she knows her faith was waning and she so wanted it back. I felt God's love for her so much it was insane. As we were walking away, I could hardly remember what I had said, because it just felt like the words spilt out, not from me, but a direct message from a Heavenly Father that was pleading for that moment to help her come back. He was so invested in THAT MOMENT that I was about in tears telling her that all was not lost, she was not lost. The Holy Ghost was blazing out of us as we testified to her of her worth.

It was in that 15 minutes that I realized how involved God is with the finding of His lost lambs. Her home was in a dark alley outside the city. We came in the night, shined in our bike lights and called for her. She came out, confused but suddenly open with us knowing who we were. I will never forget how I felt when I realized this girl, in a hidden corner alley, was a daughter of a Supreme God, who LOVED HER with all His heart. He was so happy, just so happy, that she was found. It's a miracle that I even got to be a part of it.

I love you all. Life is good!!!!! Happy Christmas Season!!

Love,

Sister Painter