Bangkok - Of midgets and men

Dear Family and Friends,

So as a fair warning, this email's gonna be candid! ...Okayyyy, they all are. Let's be honest with ourselves. When have I left much out?

This week, I got to use a nose-inhaler. We call it, "the menthol-nose-sniffer-jobby". Why? Because I got a COLD in Thailand. Are you kidding me? Do you know how hot it is in Bangkok? Anyway, they're super popular in Thailand, EVERYONE is addicted to using them if they're sick or not. One sniff of that little thing, and it's peppermint vertigo down to your inner trachea!

Anyway.... So let's talk about men.

Everyone we're teaching is a guy. Super weird, because I've literally taught only females since the dawn of time, it would seem. But now we have a range to rock the nations: we are literally teaching a hardrock, Harly-Davidson policeman, down to a socially loud but sincere 14-year old, to a grown-man who is also... a midget.

 

Let's review.

 

Our dear friend the cop. His name is Sergeant Airborne, or "Brother Air". He is over 50 years old, and if I were to describe him accurately I would have to say he is a man who literally wears his sunglasses at night while he rides his deep-pipe 'chopper'. He's got tattos, ganster shirt, hat on backwards, and a hard smoker. He introduced me to his motorcycle as his son.

 

But here's the thing! We found him outside of his house, and he'd seen missionaries before. He wanted something more. He had heard of the Book of Mormon, and he wanted one. We set up an appointment, and he came. 3 days after this first meeting, he had read to 2nd Nephi chapter 28. That is unreal. He had prayed but wasn't sure if he was doing it the best way, so he asked if he could kneel to do it. He cut his cigarette intake from 20 sticks a day to 10. He looked for opportunities to serve. And his biggest concern? Not understanding the strange language when he studies the scriptures because he wants to understand so badly. He said: "And Zion shall say, 'All is well.'" .... then a silence for a second, followed by, "I read that and thought, 'What the crud?'"

As for the other two. Arm is the young boy who now wants to come to every activity the church will ever offer, and while he has lots of questions and needs a lot of attention, he's entirely sincere and ended up asking yesterday, "Hey Sister, how can I be a member here?"

 

Grarog is our midget with the fear of eating the sacrament bread, because he just doesn't like bread. Hahaha. Oh dear.

 

These were the stand-outs from the week.

 

Anyway, Brother Egg had an amazing lesson this week to which he uttered his first sincere prayer for truth. I was beaming at the end to see how much his heart had been expanded in 45 minutes.

 

This week I had a tender moment out inviting-- an activity specifically hard and hot and not fun for someone who is sick. Usually inviting motorcycle taxi drivers is useless because they are snarky and never want anything to do with us, but this particular time passing them I asked everyone except one man. He had one arm, he was dirty, and he looked particularly ill. Then I thought, "Wait wait wait. Remember the one."

 

I turned back, sat down next to him where he was blatantly smoking a hand-made cigarette. He looked miserable. I heard myself say, and ONLY these words:

"You can stop smoking. I can show you how."

 

He turned his head, looked at me baffled and tired, and said, "It's impossible." I shook my head, "I promise you that you can. I will show you how."

 

He went to take a puff, looked at me, then his miserable cigarette. He turned around a little towards the canal behind him, and tossed it to the water.

I testify, that Christ can give even the hopeless a reason to change. I watched the embers of that cigarette go out with my own eyes. And the next day, that man, having no cell phone or way to remind him of our appointment, rode his motorcycle to the church, with one arm.

I believe in Christ.

Love,

Sister Painter

singing at transfers with the violin accompanying me Feb. 18th

We Need A Temple HERE!

Sister Steward and myself. She was my MTC companionDear Family & Friends,

This week at zone conference, came the inspired question:

"Can God make a burrito so hot He can't eat it?" - President Senior.

With that smack in the face question to head this email, I'll begin on explaining the week and let you ponder over that one a little more later.

 

Last P-Day I learned to make some Thai food, and went to my Branch President's house for dinner. I was so impressed, to say the very least. It was truly a home built and centered on Christ. Their bookshelf was filled with about 50 Liahonas, 12 Gospel Principles books from over the years, and pictures of the temple, Christ, the iron rod. You name it. But it was also a home, not just Deseret Book. It was warm, comfortable, and you could tell real people with real lives lived there.

I was further surprised to here the Branch President rat out his wife; that she wakes up every day at 4:30am and makes him a lunch before he goes to work. That is a real love, and real charity.

Did I mention my Branch President is only 30 years old?

 

In other news: President Senior finally broke down (over a lost game of Skip-Bo with Sis Senior) and now we can listen to anything that is in the Hymn Book sung by anyone! Not just Mormon Tabernacle Choir! MERRY CHRISTMAS to me. Last night I played Jenny Oaks Baker's violin CD and was merry indeed.

 

For zone conference we also had MEXICAN FOOD. Oh, I can honestly tell you I cried like a child. Sister Marvel, a senior couple missionary, was just as out of sorts as me in our excitement and we literally held each other crying we were so happy to see real mexican food, chips, and salsa. We were laughing so hard at ourselves that we were having such an emotional moment over mexican food that I guess you could say we "Marveled" so to speak. Haha. And it was so good, let it be known. Que Pasa.

I so love all the recent converts here. There were about 18 of us in the new member meeting we held on Sunday, and it was just unimaginable and totally "impossible" that this many people came into the church within two weeks of learning the gospel. The work has hastened so much, that very many of the members were baptized in under 3 weeks of meeting the missionaries. That's nation-wide.

 

Before in the mission, the usual was about 40 people being baptized a month. It never really had a chance to grow, because that's just where it had always been. With the usual ebbs and flows of people dying, moving away, or leaving for various reasons, the church just never grew here.

 

Until now! And it hasn't gone unrecognized by Salt Lake, that's for sure!

 

When I was a greenie, I sat down with my trainer for one of my first companion ship studies. We were still having a hard time understanding one another, because she was Thai. I was raised by sweet Sister Pannida.

That day she turned to me in her chair and with tears forming in her eyes she said, "I want Thailand to have a temple. We need a temple here."

 

Her words were powerful in her broken English. I have never forgotten that moment. As I have since grown and she has since finished and returned home, now almost one year since she picked me up, I remember her words: "We need a temple here."

So when I work each day on the hot streets, I'm tired and sweaty and just about done for a minute, I think of why I do what I do. I do it because I love the Thai's. I do it because I want them to have what I have-- the gospel of Jesus Christ, and finally, a temple they don't have to use their life's earnings to fly over to attend.

As a last testimony, I know that God is invested in his work, in his missionaries, and in the efforts to get a temple. As I was riding my bike down to the church this week, and a small lady saw me (as she was situated on the back of a motorcycle taxi) and she pointed her hand all the way out and say, "That's her!!" and flagged me down. I stopped. "You were the one I saw teaching about Jesus once! I'm lost and on the way to your church!"

The work has progressed and moved in ways we cannot describe. A Thai woman recognized a Mormon missionary in the Buddhist country of Thailand.

What was once impossible for this country has met the reality of God.

Love,

Sister Painter

Where is my Cornelius?

Dear Family and Friends,

This week's email is going to be hard to write, and harder to condense my feelings into comprehendable words! I've made mention before that I have seen miracles and the Lord's hand in an innumerable quantity. I echo John's account:

"And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written." -St John 21:25

In that is real truth and applicable in all aspects to my mission. My emails gives glimpses of the reality but never a truly full and accurate account of what has happened.

We had 4 new people come to the church during this week that had never seen the sacrament room before. We felt prompted to show them, but knowing it would be locked as usual, approached the door uneasy, but hopeful. "I hope it's unlocked." Sis Croft said. To which I said, "Let's pray it's unlocked." to which I actually did.

"Please unlock this door for us." (As it is typically and always, locked.)

Sis Croft reached to open it and I prayed with expectation- she took the handle, turn- click! I don't know if it was locked before this prayer, but it should have been. We opened the door. Lights off, no one inside. "Uh oh" Sis Croft says. "That's not good." (that it had been left unlocked.)

I like to believe it hadn't.

Now as to continue, I'm not talking specifically about miracles that relate to numbers and concourses of people rushing the doors of the church, but in that I have seen a personal miracle in the change of myself.

My first week in the city (Don Muang, Bangkok), as many have inquired of me, has been entirely tiring, fast-paced, and above all, specifically and personally eye-opening in regards to where the rest of my mission is going to go from here. I will say that a very special general authority made his way here, even the Presiding Bishop of the Church to whom called all of us Bangkok missionaries into the Asok chapel downtown to meet with us.

Yesterday started as a "fast" (fasting from food) sunday, as we had a mission wide fast for the work and goal we have of each companionship successfully bringing 2 souls unto Christ this month. Yesterday I continued in my search of understanding Christ's life and understanding the Bible stories. With the context and visual scenery, the Bible videos made by the church have enhanced my understanding of context by 300:1. I've come to find that by understanding Christ's life, I cannot help but love Him so tenderly in gratitude and wonder.

I was particularly touched by a couple specific stories this week. One of those was Christ as "The Bread of Life".

I honestly will have to wait until I get home to sit down and talk about all the moments I've felt the spirit so strongly and specifically. But on this particular 'fast sunday', as I broke my fast across the street from the Asok church, with our meager "humble food" packed in a sack. Oddly enough, all I had was bread. Literally that was it. But a set of two Elders walked passed us-- one to which Elder Yuen had trained himself, and I knew was a supreme person. He saw us, and his eyes light up amongst the tire and exhaustion in his face. He looked so tired.

What would be only one of many tender moments of yesterday, I stopped this Elder and said, "Would you like a croissant?" and called back his companion as well as I pulled out the sack. His eyes spotted the roll in my hand and his expression was pretty undefinable. He said entirely sincerely and quietly with awe, "I haven't had a croissant since.... since America." His humbleness in taking the bread was moving.

As they left with real gratitude, I thought to myself, I offer bread to hundreds every day with our message. I have seen hungry and tired eyes like that searching for the real Bread of Life. My croissant would be eaten, and they would hunger again. But what those missionaries I fed will go out and give to other people-- the gospel-- will quench the thirst of all those spiritually hungry and thirsty for the Living Water, and the Bread of Life-- even Jesus Christ.

Remember that when you take the sacrament this next week at Church.

So now I've gone on a'rambling here. Oddly enough I had no intention on even bringing that small experience up, considering the mountains of spiritually enlarging experiences that followed it.

So back to the miracle I first mentioned. I was entirely prepared for this Presiding Bishop's arrival. His timing, most perfect in the retrospect of circumstance for me personally, had an impact I cannot explain in this medium. He said things that literally were direct answers, direct confirmations of previous promises, and all of it, completely relevant to me and where I was, with regards to what I have left to do. I don't feel I'm at length to explain-- Email isn't worthy of it.

But I will say this: I came to Thailand to find specific people, whom I know I had to have once known in the life before this. I testify, that I am about to find them.

Peter searched out Cornelius, as he was sent for. I too, was sent for. And I am now searching for those who called me to Thailand. With my last spanse of time, I will look high and low for my Cornelius.

Love,

Sister Painter

Where in the world? Burma Too!

Dear Family and Friends,

I'd like to announce that I have LEFT the farmfields of Thailand and got thrown into the fryer of BANGKOK. Just so everyone is caught back up to speed, I have been in the Eesan for over one year. As I am rolling into my 5 months left mark, I have stumbled into what is probably one of the most populated and traffic congested places this side of Asia!

I serve in the Don Muang branch. On a map, you could probably look up the name Pakkret and there it is. That's where I am.

I literally switched places with Sister McDermott. Hahaha! Crazy! So now she is in RoiEt, where we joked she would go, and I am here in her apartment in the middle of Bangkok. I definitely cleaned out the apartment before I walked in the door, though. (Sister Mac, if you ever read this, you have to throw away empty peanut butter jars!!)

Anyway, so I'm now with Sister Croft! She is what Thai's call a "Half Child" haha. Meaning her mom is from Taiwan and so she's 1/2 foreign and 1/2 not. She is a hard worker and a diligent one too. Which is good because I only have 5 months left and that's not a lot of time! She is really funny and, weirdly enough, the first companion I've ever NOT trained. So she works entirely individually and functionally! It's full-on 50-50%! It's like a huge stress relief in that way, knowing she's got my back and we just bounce off teaching between the two of us. She came in with Sister Packard's group. She's a total boss, and a Salt Lake City girl.

Working in Bangkok is Aladdin's "Whole New World". People have aspirations and there are a whole lot less crazies. They are a busy bunch, that's for sure. Definitely not the "boonies" over here. Our apartment is nice and safe, and quiet too! Who knew "sound proofing" was a thing. My bed and the couch are probably tear-forming topics for me, as they are so comfortable and not a box spring. I bought a little plant for my desk which we affectionately named the thai word for "cobweb"... our methodology being opening the dictionary and choosing the first word. And we have a washing machine that I don't have to manually wind myself!!!

To be honest, I feel like I just landed back into country again because I am so unfamiliar with this side of Thailand. Traffic is insane: my first experience was 8 lanes across going both ways at night, with 1000's of cars, U-turning, all while having EGGS on my handlebars from the grocery store. Tried not to get hit by anything. Only one egg get a chip.

Inviting people is a brand new experience. You actually get rejected pretty straight-forwardly! It's nice cause it saves time, but it's kinda like, "Oh. Wow, okay." Which is funny. I honestly take no offense at all, in fact, I start laughing with every person that's a flat out no. I make inviting a good game, where I make the rules. Haha. So I always win.

I'm still the Sister Training Leader, but now I'm over North Bangkok: Rangsit, Pakkret, Don Muang, and Bangkaen. My MTC companion is now in our zone, and apparently only like 20 minutes away, so we're getting lunch today! It's super weird to be anywhere where I see OTHER areas so closely.

Yesterday at church I got a good share of really nice compliments. Apparently my language is impressive at this point. It's kinda really nice to understand 99% of what everyone is saying. So I am having a greenie experience but with the ability to understand everything. It's definitely strange. Everyone has been super kind to me in my branch, and hopefully they've like me! Little girl in big city here!

We had a "Sisters Conference" which was entirely inspiring and wonderful. The spirit was so strong that I was fighting tears and hoping nobody was watching me struggle with them. I was asked to prepare a talk, my topic being "The power of faith as a missionary". From all the miraculous things I've seen, it was a topic I could testify of confidently. The theme of the meeting was "Faith is the Power, Obedience the Price, Love is the Motive, Spirit is the Key, and Christ is the Reason." I was so powerfully touched by that meeting and it was a real lucky thing that we could have one! All the sisters from the mission got to go, and we met in the Asok building near the mission office.

 

Our branch building is actually the biggest church building in Thailand. It's where we have transfers each time. So it's been quite the adjustment to be actually going to church in it, because I've always associated it with transfers. So now everybody leaves from transfers and I'm like, "Oh. I actually live here."

 

Before I get ahead of myself, let's talk about transfers. President Senior does a good job of keeping poker-faces, making boldly hilarious comments, and keeping transfers move like an unexpected TV show where the "Ooo's and Ahh's" are most plentiful.

But this time was a little different. After what was the usual, I came across a sight I'd never seen! I have never sat in a more quiet transfer meeting, as President Senior announced the baffling and emotional news that the country of Burma, in particular, Myanmar, had been opened for the building of a branch and missionaries had been sent there for over two months now. Elder Steiner, who you will no doubt recognize through my early mission photos as a dear friend of mine from my MTC district classroom, and Elder Fronberg, from my very first in-field district in Udon, were called last transfer on a secret assignment to serve in Myanmar, where they had been the very first missionaries in history to go to spread the gospel. In November, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland had personally given the okay for the word of God to move to the last country in our mission's boundaries.

The work is hastening, my friends! I never thought I would be here in Thailand when such news made it to reality. One of the tiniest asian cultures in the world now has the opportunity to be blessed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I really love it here. After one year I have left the Eesan and entered the borders of Bangkok. I've only got a little bit of time, so it's time to get busy. Something I've really wanted to work on for the remainder of my time is ensuring that I turn out to be the person Heavenly Father would like me to be by the end. So my like 6 months here will be a move from not just changing behavior, but changing nature. It's time for consecration of thought, will and motive!

 

With the thought of my dear friends Elder Tatton and Yuen just barely leaving, it reminds me that my time is limited. When my sweet and cherished time is through, I hope to hear, "Well done, my good and faithful servant."

So here I go! Stepping out onto the street, opening my mouth, and trying not to get hit by a bus. I love Bangkok so far. The pro's outweigh all the con's. And the best part? There are people here waiting for me to find them.

Love!

Little girl in the Big City  Sis. Painter



 They are sending me to the big city.
 

What did I just eat?       Goodbye Roi Et!

 

90 years from now

Oh Family! Hello! Sawadii!

So Valentine's Day was eventful. And by that, I mean it reminded me how single I really am, because me and my companion couldn't even comfort one another seeing as we were sick as dogs!! All day! From 6:30am I woke up thinking, "Uh oh. I ate some baddddd fish." And then shortly after, poor Embley hits her pillow again with similar groans and we were so drained of energy from being sick all day super bad, that by the time people brought food to us by 1:00pm, we shrumpled (not a word but a good description) to the front door, the member says: "Oh, man, that's too bad." upon seeing me, I take the parcel and slip back into outer darkness. We put the bag on the table. I take one whiff. I make a face only described by "It's not happening." and then Embley starts crying on the spot. It was so funny. Then, as a slip of the tongue, Brother Tongmuan accidentally thanked me from the pulpit for missing the Valentine's Activity. It became the joke of the entire day, "Thank you to Sister Painter, who didn't come to the Valentine's Activity.... and uhhh... well."

Two RCs are speaking at another one's baptism this week. That's way cool. So lots to smile about.

But also some things to be totally disappointed by. Not in terms of work, but it terms of truly heartbreaking circumstances. Sister Embley and I had an appointment to visit Nang's home and be with her family for dinner and finally get to teach her husband as she's wanted for so long here. He is the key to her being able to be baptized. So the food is being prepared (somehow) and we're all sitting and somewhere in the mix, the husband disappears looking really frustrated (they live in their shop, and the work there is tiring and stressful). Anyway, he disappears and Nang really wants him to be there. She realizes where he must have gone, and it's away to go drink. When he's frustrated and angry, he drinks.

So we have dinner. It's okay. That is, until her small 10yr old son Got realizes what has happened and his dad is not there and nowhere around. We eat somewhat solemnly as his mom teaches him that he has to use wisdom in all he does. He can't do what his dad is doing, doing without thinking of the consequences. I was literally sitting there hearing a mother teach her son doctrine, in a real life situation that is hard.

He didn't eat much. Then he slumped on the bench. A family came to buy some things and Got's mom was selling a few feet away, so he slumped all the way down on the bench. A little 5 year old boy came into the store and patted him in dismay, "What's wrong with Got?" The little thai boy frowned, terribly troubled over his friend, and the family left.

Got got up and perched himself where he could see the road better, as if he'd be the first to see his dad coming back home. He was heartbroken. I watched tears fall down. It tore me up. I called him over to my bench at the table, and eventually he came reluctantly. He sat down by me, and still looked far off. I told him,

"When I feel down, I sing. Do you remember the songs from church?" to which he nodded quietly. I said, "Are you a good singer?" he shook his head. "Do you like to listen?" he nodded.

I smiled and said, "I really like this one, it always makes me feel better." and I sang him 'I'm a Child of God'.

It made me really think. Do we know what our actions have on everyone else? Especially to all parents. That influence goes for both good and bad. I saw the righteous teachings of a parent vs. the actions of an irresponsible parent.

There is power in the prayers of a righteous mother. And there is consequence in poor examples. I see such light in that little boy Got that I am thankful every day for his mother.

“The Echo” by C. C. Miller

’Twas a sheep not a lamb

That strayed away in the parable Jesus told,

A grown-up sheep that strayed away

From the ninety and nine in the fold.

And why for the sheep should we seek

And earnestly hope and pray?

Because there is danger when sheep go wrong:

They lead the lambs astray.

Lambs will follow the sheep, you know,

Wherever the sheep may stray.

When sheep go wrong,

It won’t take long till the lambs are as wrong as they.

And so with the sheep we earnestly plead

For the sake of the lambs today,

For when the sheep are lost

What a terrible cost

The lambs will have to pay

In regards to everything else in my life, I feel spiritually happy. I feel at peace and want to work even harder than I have. I'm also pretty antsy! I've been here for 6 months so it's pretty for sure that I'm moving. I've been here for so long it's such a foreign thought to me that I'll actually ever leave RoiEt. And as my last full week here came to a close, I got to bear my testimony in the branch. When I sat back down, Sister Party was in tears. That's when I knew my time was used for good.

It will be so hard for me to leave this place. It has been my home. These are my closest friends. It is where everything about me changed.

90 years from now, I will be able track my testimony of tender, pure doctrines back to these moments of my mission. It will be tracked back to Plungjit road in RoiEt, Thailand. I will sit down with my picture books, journals, and scriptures and tell in a scruffy old woman's voice: "This little town changed my whole life."

And I'll know it just as well when I'm 90 as I did when I wore the tag.

Love,

Sister Monica Painter

I did good!

Dear Family and Friends!

Let's talk about Joe.

My most tender moment of the week was watching Joe on his baptism day. He is my testimony of why we go out walking the streets talking to everyone. We ran into him by a means of "chance" one day at the local park, the day before "Children's Day" (yes, it's an actual national holiday, recognized and celebrated by the general peeps of everyone here, which involves a large carnival for kids... pretty much in every city, for free.)

So the day before Kid's Day, we had 30 minutes before we had to be elsewhere. We decided to talk to everyone we could, including a group of over 25 or so students in a group. At first, english is an easier message, right? We teach english! .... But we feel like it's time to be brave. We now have the attention of all 25 of them, looking on the spectacle of 2 white girls standing before them speaking their language.

"Yeah, and this is baptism!"

We stood there and taught all of them about starting over and washing away all their sins. Eyes and ears intent. And as people are in what would become a LINE to tell me their names and phone numbers, an unassuming boy tugs on Sister Embley's arm. He asks her a lot of questions. I hear him, but I'm busy. He keeps asking, as if it could be his last chance he sounds so intent on the answers. He asks about the bible, whether we believe it, where's the church, this and a number of other questions. I finally turn to him, Sister Embley looking pale in the face as she catches her breath from trying to answer all his life-searching questions.

He tells me his name is Joe and that his grandmother was christian. He tells me she meant everything to him, and she has since passed. I tell him we won't forget him and that he should come on Tuesday for english and we'd make an appointment with him then.

He doesn't disappoint. He rides his bike, (which he later proudly explained that is self-paid for as he saved all the money her could to purchase said old bike) to the church-- what would prove to be a ONE HOUR RIDE. He arrives huffing and puffing.

He attends church in his brown pants and grey sweater. He stays for choir to watch. He eventually gets the lyrics and is singing along quietly in the back of the chapel, and before I know it he's up with the men in the choir in their row, singing with them. He later tells me it was the moment he felt the spirit the most significantly in his beginning seeds of conversion-- singing in a tone-deaf choir in the chapel.

He learns with us, and in our appointments, we find out about his hard life. Through his humble and meek words, we hear of the circumstances of his life-- and how all who he has loved and cherished have either passed away or abandoned him, and now he was living with someone who doesn't even really supply lunch money let alone love. But he said confidently with a smile, "But it's okay. Because the Lord has never left me. He's never left my side. Sometimes, when I don't have food or money, I'll pray and a miracle happens and I get to eat!"

..... I was humbled to the very core. His smile showed he was serious. He was grateful for every morsel and every blessing that ever landed in his path. He has never ending thanks for the Savior's never-ending care.

He believed in the Bible from the start. Then he finally began reading the Book of Mormon, and I asked him if he had received an answer. He said he did. But then carefully added that he wouldn't be telling me what it was just then, with a smile. It was enough for me to know that it was sacred to him and to reveal how he felt wasn't necessary.

So yesterday I saw him all in white. As we walked down the hall together I asked, "Are you nervous?" to white he looked me squarely in the eye and answered, "Only happy. I've waited a long time for this day."

I watched him be baptized, walk up the stairs with a smile on his face, and then we handed him his Spiderman towel. (Naturally.)

He sat on the stand, dressed again in his suit. He had saved such dress clothes for important situations, and his style is always remarkably hipster wonderful. White pants, white shirt, black and white necktie and a black suit coat. Classy. I see him carefully considering what he will share with the congregation for his testimony after the ceremony. As he went up and spoke, he vocally thanked the Lord over 15 times in the spanse of 15 minutes, for Christ's tender preparations and care for him in his life, a grandmother who had told him "Don't forget the Lord" as her dying words, and of course, for the sacred experience he had in asking "Is the Book of Mormon the word of God?"

He told the congregation with certainty that he had received a witness for himself. It wasn't God's voice right in his ear, but it was an overwhelming feeling that was beyond description.

He sat down, and what would be one of my most cherished and heart-moving moments of my mission, Joe turned his head back towards me, and sent me a glowing, radiant smile of perfectly clean innocence. In his most sincere and warm way he asked with two raised eyebrows, in all perfect meekness, "Did I do good?"

I could only hold back my emotion through a sincere nod of approval. "Yes, Joe."

So to quote Oliver Cowdery, I repeat: "I shall not attempt to paint to you the feelings of this heart, nor the majestic beauty and glory which surrounded us on this occasion."

And so the work moves forward to seek out the elect.

Love,

Sister Painter
 It's my one year swensen's ice cream celebration.  Happy one year to me!!

 

ONE YEAR MARK

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, if you want stories of car-crashes and explosions, this week is less on the fiery booms but more of the warm-wow's.

Yesterday the branch soared with a congregation of over 125 people searching for seats. I was incredibly stressed trying to keep a tally of who was an investigator and who was a less-active, and so on. There came to be 26 investigators in that room yesterday!

This week as I hit my one year mark, I got a little sentimental last night as I glanced around the dinner table at Sister Dograk's. house. When I arrived into RoiEt, it was me and 5 other missionaries at the table of food, which this kind sister would prepare for us each week and not linger to eat with us.

Last night I took account for how my time in Roi Et has been spent. How have I taken care of my part of the vineyard?

So as I went to leave last night from the home of this long-time-member family, I took a count of who was present. Six recent converts, active and sublime. Six investigators, all anxiously anticipating their baptismal days. Three very less-active members, one even graciously receiving his very first calling which as he came back into activity as a brand new priesthood holder, had prayed fervently to receive. An old family, a brand new member family, an investigator's mom, and a guitar.

All of these stalwart people, 6 months ago, had no reason to know each other. Last night they were a large family. 6 months ago I ate sweet and sour chicken by myself. Last night I took a large group photo (even some missing in it) after we had a full-on bar-b-que. We sang hymns to the guitar, there was infinite smiles, and one investigator texted Elder Trabing last night, "This was the happiest I think I've ever been in my whole life."

I could not contain my smile. I have loved and served these people with my whole heart. As my mission-prep teacher Brother Goodman (once a mission president in this mission) once said, resonating in my ears since he said it: "Oh, I love the Thai's."

I will take the opportunity to echo his profound and simple statement: Oh, I love the Thai's.

These are my friends. These are my family. They came from all stages and places of life and we rejoiced together at one big dinner table. They welcomed in our newest members, including sweet Dom who was just baptized on Friday, and her daughters, and her loving and supportive husband. At her baptism, a special musical number was given by Sister Dograk and her family: including her husband, daughter, and son: Fittingly, the song- "My Heavenly Father Loves Me."

No other thing could bring people together like the gospel does.

So when I think of my accountability towards a loving Heavenly Father: "How did you take care of my vineyard all this time?" I think to myself, this table wouldn't feel right if any of these people were missing.

"No man hath greater love than this: to lie down his life for his friends." I love these people, and I plan to spend the rest of my delicate and valuable time in their service. And while my days in RoiEt tick-tock off the clock, I'm still optimistic of what other portions of the vineyard need a good garden hose and a dollar-store shovel.

I've learned very well to trust "The Gardener Here".

Love

Sister Painter