Merry Christmas, Baptism New Year!

Christmas was enchanting. The greatest part about missionary work that we are actually secretly celebrating Christmas every day, you know because our work is centered on Christ.

Arthur baptized

Arthur has finally gotten baptized! He is a spiritual giant already! I am so grateful to have witnessed him exercise his faith by entering into the covenant of baptism. I've been rooting for him since our first meeting when he asked lots of extremely difficult questions. Since then, we've had the opportunity to drill faith into his brain, so to see him using a concept we helped to teach has been a joy. I think I am finally understanding exactly what the great missionary Ammon was saying in the Book of Mormon when he shared in Alma 26:11-12:

"I do not boast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God.

"Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever."

Happy New Year! May everyone be blessed with good bowels and happiness.

Love,
Sister Smith

Merry Christmas

Happy New Year!

Kao Soi and Journey to Bethlehem

Well guess who also had kao soi now! We went to the Khanakams house for FHE last week and had some and it was great! Elder Khanakam (I have no idea if I'm spelling it right) is an area 70 and he is so nice! His family is so sweet. They live in one of the wards we attend.

Also, this last week as missionaries, we were part of Journey to Bethlehem, this huge nativity production where they turn the church into a giant nativity scene and you can walk through to hear the story of Jesus. It was so great because the last place that the groups would end up was the cultural hall, which was then set up for the missionaries to contact and receive referrals from everyone's friends that they brought and teach a little bit more about what they saw. It was way stressful but overall, very productive.

That is so amazing to see the miracles that the Lord provides. I have noticed that in order to receive miracles, we just have to open our eyes a little more. They are always happening. Whether or not we feel like we are seeing miracles depends on whether or not we are looking.

Since it's Christmas season, I thought I'd share with you a quote I loved that was from the Christmas devotional. It's by Elder Clayton and it says: "The transformative power of the Christmas spirit is rooted in the redeeming power of our Savior Jesus Christ."

I am so grateful for the Savior. He is the greatest miracle of all. No matter how hard of a week I have had, it's all worth it to bring others closer to Christ.

On the Subject of Missions

This week was a busy week

I'm reading in the Book of Mormon in 2nd Nephi chapter 16. Besides the fact that I know Nephi and I fan-girled over Isaiah in the pre-mortal life, I appreciate how ตรง Isaiah writes, especially verse 11 in this chapter as I liken it unto my service. As the days roll by like years and weeks pass as seconds, I have wondered how long it will really feel like until I am finished serving.

"Then said I: Lord, how long? And he said: Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate."

[Face palm.]

Folks, the work is never over. We must serve God all our lives to the end of time. Full-time missionary or not. Every scripture I am applying to my life as a missionary is just as applicable to my experience outside the name tag. As Jeffery R. Holland has said numerous times to missionaries throughout the world, we must never go back. Our mission is real life.

I'd like to add on by saying, not only is a mission real life, but our whole lives are our mission. Work hard. Serve hard. Mission it 'till the end.

This week can be summed up in photos. All in all, it was a good week.

Ate at Snoopy Burgers

Went to Krispy Kreme's

Gorged ourselves at an all-you-can-eat
Japanese restaurant (at last!)

BAPTIZED!

Around town in Pakkret

Slammed

And then we took a bunch of weird pictures while we decorated our baby Christmas tree.

Thank you, Sister Forte

Sister Smith has the tinsel job

Sister Forte is on pine cone duty

Sister Forte and Sister Smith (and baby tree)

Out.

Love, Sister Smith

God, who has been mindful of wanderers in a strange land

A member named หนิง took us to the lantern festival.

This is หนิง. I can't speak a lot of Thai, but I love her because of the light she carries in her life. She is a testimony of the work we do here. She is truly elect. She also took us to the lantern festival down by the river in Pakkret this last week. It's really cool except for in my area we can't light off any lanterns into the sky so that was unfortunate, but we lit some floating water thingies into this canal which they call a river near us.

A street in Pakkret

Pakkret is super, super city here (busy, urban), but surprisingly everyone is so nice. Even the people that reject us just smile and wave us off. I still get discouraged and nervous though talking to people--that's a continuous thing I'm working on.

Church meetinghouse in Pakkret

In other news, we lost an investigator this week. Although "taken away" is a better way to put it. Our investigator that flagged us down a few weeks ago came to meet with us at the church for a lesson. He was supposed to show up at the church at 1:00 pm but when we called him, he said he was sleeping so he couldn't come until later. We left to go make better use of our time and invited behind the church, hoping that perhaps he might change his mind for God. At 3:00, it did. He called us and a few minutes later we returned to find him waiting at the church for us. Just as we were opening up the gate to teach a lesson, a bunch of police officers came and arrested him right in front of our eyes. Apparently they were immigration authorities and our investigators passport expired three years ago. So we think he's in jail now.

Me and my companion, Sister Forte

We had an awesome Thanksgiving! We went to a family in the international ward and dinner was amazing! Who knew the name "Anderson" would show up in Thailand? I am getting to know the international ward better and better and I love it.

An American Thanksgiving, in Thailand!

The Andersons made us really delicious traditional everything thanksgiving, turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, yams, pumpkin pie, it was so, so, so good and made me miss Mom’s food.

The only christmas-y things here so far is they play christmas music at the mall near us and they put up some lighted signs at the mall too. Oh and our ward is doing this thing called "Journey to Bethlehem", it's this big pageant thing where the whole community is invited and we turn the church into a "passage of time" where they go through and witness all these different biblical events leading up to the birth of Jesus Christ. Then outside the church they turn it into this festival with food and music and you exchange your money at the door for rocks and pay for everything at the festival with rocks which is interesting but cool. I saw a rehearsal the other day and it's gonna be pretty cool! They've put a lot of time and money into it.

If you haven't taken a look at Alma chapter 26 before, do so. It is perhaps the greatest scripture of thanksgiving I've read yet, and it's changed the way I look at things serving here. My favorite verse is the last two verses, 36-37, which reads:

"Blessed be the name of my God, who has been mindful of us, wanderers in a strange land. Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever."

I join my voice in unanimous harmony with this scripture. Although I am a wanderer far from home, God has been mindful of me. How great it is to see that God loves all his people. I give my thanks to Him for this opportunity I have--to share His love and mercy to the people of Thailand through my service.

Now for some answers to Mom questions...

We don't really have dryers here but I think that saves my clothes haha. I don't have a bike yet, we just walk and get into these white vans that are like buses but smaller and they stop just about anywhere.

I'm definitely getting to know the ward members better! I love them so much. Although they are way different than Thai ward members--I attend both the English ward since it's the ward we are over plus a Thai one to help me with the language. We talk about [a variety of] things in sacrament meeting, basically just all the same stuff as in our ward back home. The Thai one is different and I can't put my finger on it yet because I don't understand the language but I will let you know when I do. Oh and everySunday the Thai wards all bring tons of food and we eat it together. That's pretty nice. :)

Sleep is okay, I usually wake up a few times in the night but I go right back to sleep. My bed is really, really, really hard haha, but I'm getting used to it, and I forgot what a soft bed feels like.

Challenges, Miracles, Noodles and....Pumpkin Pie--3 times!

This week was HARD. I'll start it off with the fact that our brand-new fancy missionary phone broke after charging in a puddle of water on our counter. Now we have a backup phone.

Backup phone! Yes that is me.
No, I'm not sure why it
looks like an x-ray

We received about 40 new numbers from people on the street, but no one wanted to meet with us. Investigators cancelled on us. I didn't understand a single thing that was going on in the lessons that we did have.

But this week was a MIRACLE. Since I've been working on likening the scriptures to my life, I'd like to point out that it's true, what Aaron says to the king about faith in Alma 22:16.

"Call on His name in faith, believing that ye shall receive, then shalt thou receive the hope which thou desirest." 

It's been a little less than two weeks since I've been out [of the MTC]. But so far this is what I've learned: the times that were the most hopeless were the times I had no faith. When I didn't believe that inviting on the street would bring us to find investigators, we didn't find anyone actually interested. This last week I poured out my heart to God, asking him to help me believe in this work. And then we went out and invited. Some people listened, most didn't. My attitude was different though. Every time someone waved their hands at me and walked away, I thought back to my prayer and felt comfort and faith.

Saturday we received five new investigators. Two were walk-ins. We found a lady who practically begged us to teach her and her friend. We met a Palestinian Christian who loves God and wants to learn more. His Muslim wife bought us a bag of grapes. The only two white women we have ever met on the street (besides ourselves) both wanted to know more about our church. The next day, seven investigators showed up to church. We didn't even know what to do with ourselves. We taught eight lessons in two days after teaching only one the whole week--I still don't understand much during the lessons in Thai--but the Spirit is evident.

The work is good here. I've never been so busy, but it's a good kind of feeling.

I've been pondering 1st Nephi 8:30 this last week. It talks about always progressing and holding on to the rod. I have a lot of weaknesses here and reading this and praying to improve keeps me always on the track of progression. Like Brad Wilcox says in his talk, "His Grace is Sufficient", we are not earning heaven, we are learning heaven.

I hope you all have a good week. Let the Spirit guide you-- And if you're not sure whether or not it's the Spirit, check out Alma 5. Interview yourself with the questions in versus 14-17. If you can't answer those questions with rejoicing, make some changes to your life and the Spirit will help. Also, read verse 41, and if what you seek to do brings forth good, do it. Anything good is following the Spirit. If it's not bringing forth good, try again. It goes back to that continual progression.  I'm still trying to follow my own advice, but I know it works when I do it!

In other news:

Found Pho...sort of. It's called ก๋วยเฅี๋ยว (Guay-Thiaw), and I've yet to get all the correct portions of ingredients and flavor that I like. It's kind of hard to do that in Thai. But I won't stop until it's home. In doing so I've been eating a lot of it lately. The first one we tried at a market and it was probably the best one. But it had pork and I went a little too crazy with the peppers so my digestive system was flaming that night. The next time I tried it at the mall, but I accidentally ordered the noodles that are the consistency of embroidery thread. It was a weird experience.

Stringy version of ก๋วยเฅี๋ยว (Guay-Thiaw)

It kind of got worse from there--because the next time we ordered it we unintentionally got the fish version and THAT was weird. The broth tasted like fish oil.

Fishy version of ก๋วยเฅี๋ยว (Guay-Thiaw)

Anyway we're thinking about trying some from a market that just got set up by our house--it's only 12 baht. We might call the mission medical lady first though, to determine if the setbacks of really cheap sketchy food is worth it.

Also, I had pumpkin pie last Wednesday. And again on Saturday. And we are having it again this Thursday. The Church is true!

Sister โพธิ์สวัสดิ์ left us on Thursday which was so sad, we will miss our trio! She will do amazing things though, she was such a good example to me.

Sister โพธิ์สวัสดิ์ heading out
to the Phillipines MTC!

Why Sister โพธิ์สวัสดิ์ is going straight to the
celestial kingdom--she insisted on giving us
a pedicure before she left.

We found the Mystery Machine

My greenie badge

Brownies, Being One of the Lord's Tender Mercies

Well, นิกาย's, Sister Smith made it through (almost) a week in Thailand. THAILAND: the land of good food, sweet people, and lots of work to do. So my trainer and I have "whitewashed" in to Chaing-Wattana--meaning that we both have no idea what we're doing. Yet. It's an interesting experience, not knowing anyone and me not knowing the language... Just kidding. We are over an international ward, so that's in English.

Thailand is awesome! I love it. These past few days we have done a lot of inviting, making phone calls to recent converts and less-actives in the church, ward members, etc. I live in an apartment that's kind of small. The toilets here are not the same as in America. But mostly the same. Also we tried calling four black guys from the Ivory Coast to set up an appointment but their first language is French, so it went more like the following dialogue:

• "Alloooo?"
• "Hi this is the Sister missionaries, when are you free so we can meet with you?"
• "I am not sure where you are, but I going to play futbol now."
• "When can we meet you?"
• "Oh like Tuesday or Thursday or something."
• "Okay Tuesday at what time?"
• "Oh I am not meet Tuesday. Probably not."
• "Ok Thursday at what time?"
• "Ok you come to game futbol Thursday see."

I love international ward.

Sister Forte is amazing! She is so sweet and really cares about me. She has all the good qualities needed to take care of a blag-o like myself.

Sister Smith and her trainer, Sister Forte

We're in a temporary trio for a khonThai sister that was just set apart yesterday. She'll be serving in Thailand after going to the MTC in the Philippines.

Me, our temporary companion, and Sister Forte

We taught our first two lessons on Saturday. I take back knowing the language already...there are still lessons we teach in Thai to investigators we find when we invite around our area. Both were very sweet. One is a driver for a family in the international ward. He came with us to the adult session of stake conference that night too--and loved it! So I am excited for him to get baptized, he already has a date set. The other investigator is great too...but he loves coffee...so we committed him to stop drinking it and if he can keep that going for 2 weeks then he can get baptized too!

They closed down the road because the king's son was driving through. Also fun fact: out of respect, we have to stop and wait when he passes by--learned that the hard way.

Road was closed for the King's son passing through

These first few days have been hard but rewarding. I have learned to be grateful for all the tender mercies of the Lord: hugs from members, air-conditioned church, personal scripture study, larger calf-muscles already, and oh, those delicious brownies the falangs made for us!

The last supper (actually breakfast) with my district sisters <3

Last Week in the MTC!

Hey! Can't wait to go serve some people! I am so excited, heading out for Thailand real soon, this Monday. I hope things are going well! Love you so much and can't wait to be out in the field! And by field I mean airport, because literally that's our first area!!!! gotta preach the gospel to everyone on our flight. Wish me luck! 

Our MTC District

Can't wait for Thailand!

I'm not going to lie, life is SUPER unexciting here at the MTC, like literally nothing has happened haha. Other than my testimony has grown so much stronger over the days. And that I'm ready for Thailand!

Also it's getting a little cold in the mornings here, so we get a little creative.

Can't wait for Thailand! Get my flight plans this friday. :) :) :)

Our District

Well we have 3 more weeks to go until we leave--it's so crazy. This last week was super weird, so many ups and downs. I've never wanted to serve more than ever and I've never wanted to go home more than ever. Weird how quickly it switches throughout the day like that.

I LOVE being sister training leader. I seriously need it. They are honestly what I care about the most. I just want to talk to them all day and make them feel loved and help them build their testimonies and feel the Spirit.

As much as TRC is so stressful, somehow the Spirit happens. This last Saturday, we taught two lessons to some returned missionaries from Thailand. My goal for these lessons--like last week, was to basically stare at the investigator as much as possible. Elder Holland promised that if we looked deeply into their eyes we would know their needs and we would be able to help them. Whilst staring very slightly creepily at my investigator, I felt the need to share a pesonal experience about how the sacrament helps us receive personal revelation. Unfortunately, I can't really speak Thai and let's just say by the end of the personal experience my grammar was so bad I confused myself in what I was trying to say, and I got a little teary eyed and at that point was like, "God, I can't even understand myself--I just want to be a good missionary and bring in the Spirit."

After the lesson, we received back an evaluation that surprised me. Our comment from brother Chris was: "Clear, purposeful, well-planned. They knew how they wanted to say it and they did. Most powerful spiritual experience I've had in a while. Thank you."

The Spirit is so real. It's easy to forget what the spirit can do. I testify to you that the words coming out of my mouth were NOT clear. I can guarantee that. But I know for a fact that when we have the Spirit with us, God will carry the message directly into the hearts of others. It reminds me of 2nd Nephi 33:1.

I am SO excited for Evan to leave, he will be so great. We love getting foreigners here at the Provo MTC, and so I'm sure the same goes at the Peru MTC. Hope you all are doing well. Today I went and did initiatories at the temple. We have a bunch of family names (like 60) that a one of the Cantonese elders left for us to do. He's a convert to the church so he had a lot of work. Next week we are planning on doing some sealings, so that will be fun, it will be my first time for that! Our goal is to get all the work done for this elder's family before we leave. Also, this last week I got to host new missionaries! I loved it so much and we get to do it again this week! Makes me excited for Evan, he is in good hands.

Our district (left) and the new Thais

Teaching Phii Boh Plot Twist

HALLO!

It's been a good week but yesterday I definitely missed you guys a lot. We watched "Meet the Mormons" video and when the story about the missionary mom happened everyone was like laughing at how true half that stuff was, and we were all crying. It was a mess to see. :')

Well my face has been a nightmare to work with haha. It's so dry here and all the stress is insane so I'm hoping my skin gets better as the weeks go by. Haha there is a funny quote from a video we watched about stress during class: "Without stress you're dead." Not sure how I feel about it.

I love hearing about everything, even the small stuff! I like how I got multiple updates from the fam about the leaky toilet being fixed. I'm so glad to hear it's okay now, I was worried haha.

[re: Mom's question] Eating well is a pretty relative term. But no worries I'm eating mostly healthy meals. MTC cafeteria is basically like Cannon Center but with less food, no applesauce and more canteloupe. And they keep running out of mint choc chip ice cream! We eat in the cafeteria for lunch and dinner but breakfast we get up and get a sack breakfast and then eat it on our floor of our residence hall. Today we just figured out where the vacuums are stored...our floor was getting pretty gross. Oh! also when we were in the gym during gym time we found 2 bats! They were sleeping on the wall, I have no idea how they stuck to it. I thought they were dead then I remembered bats sleep in the day.

[re: a question about workout options] There are other workout classes! The other day we were super pumped to go to a relaxing yoga class only to find out it was this crazy ab workout, still fun though.

I'm getting more comfortable teaching, although thai still has plenty of room for improvement haha. I'll figure it out one day.

My schedule here is extremely the same. Today is P-day so we've just been chilling out. We did laundry, went to the temple, ate food, watched the Phii Thais play soccer against the Canto district--they lost I'm pretty sure but we left during their half time. The next thing on my schedule is dinner and then we have class this evening, planning, and then bed time. On not P-day, days are different only by the order we do things but we do the same things: breakfast on the floor, gym, get ready, personal study, comp study, lang study, lunch, class, add. study, dinner, class, add. study, planning, and then bed time. Tuesday nights we have a devotional instead of another block of class, and Thursdays our comp and lang study are cut short because we do service, but other than that, I feel like an episode of Monk. On Saturday's we are supposed to start doing TRC but I don't know what that is yet except some say it's fun, some say it's stressful, and I'm guessing it's a bit of both.

Okay now for the good stuff: So we had our last lesson teaching Phii Boh which was really sad because he committed to baptism and church on Sunday! But he said he was "moving back to Thailand" and he wanted to meet with the missionaries there in Roy-et. He even made a video for us, thanking us for letting him feel the spirit and learn about prayer and Jesus Christ. He even learned how to say "Thank you very much" in English for us. Seriously brought tears to my eyes.

PLOT TWIST!

The next day Phii Boh showed up in our class as our teacher!!! Which also brought tears to my eyes. His name is actually Brother Yeun, he's Taiwanese not Thai, and he is from Cali and he just got married to another teacher at the MTC. And seriously he is the best!!! I'm so glad he's teaching us now. Also he's a huge Lost fan.

On Sunday, Lloyd Newell came and did MTC and the spoken word--it was awesome! I was in the choir too so it was super fun and spiritual :) His message was so great: with the Lord's power, love, and a sound mind, we can conquer fear and do anything the Lord has in store for us. Wish I could say more but I'm running out of time, so I'll just share what Bro Newell's favorite scripture is: 2nd Timothy 1:7. Look it up! I love it.

Me and my comp! :)

The other day when we were teaching Phii Boh (now Bro Yuen) we wanted to give him a Book of Mormon, but we didn't have a Thai one, so me being all brilliant, I took a piece of paper, wrote "Book of Mormon" on it in Thai, and wrapped it around a Portuguese one. We all got a kick out of it during the lesson! Brother Yuen brought it back to us when he came to surprise us as our teacher so now we keep it in our class for old times sake.

Our makeshift Thai Book of Mormon

Miss you all, and I look forward to hearing from you!

First Week in the MTC

It's so good to hear everything that is going on at home. Yes I made it to the MTC safely. I met some really nice people on the plane and there were 2 other missionaries on there too! One is going to Barbados. Oh! After the plane we took the shuttle and I met some awesome sisters--2 are from Guatamala (but moved to Texas) and are going to the same mission in Modesto Cali, and one is going to the Everett mission! I told her to look out for some Smiths! Since I've been here, I've also seen Elder Perkins, Sister Parry (she's Mariah's cousin going to the Yakima Spanish speaking mission), Elder Proffit, and Elder Pexton.

As far as life at the MTC goes, there are lots of ups and downs and there is honestly nothing quite like it. It's so stressful but I love it. There are 5 sisters in my district and 1 elder. Since our elder (Elder Blad) is a "solo" missionary me and my assigned companion are his companion since he can't actually be by himself. The other tripan are 2 sisters from Utah, and one from Myanmar. (Sister Black, Sister Parker, and Sister Htwe).

The new Thai district at the Provo MTC

FACT: Sister Htwe (pronounced Tway) is the 3rd missionary from Myanmar ever!! History in the making! She is the sweetest. Today we got to go with her to the temple for her first time. It was the best!

At the Provo Temple with our district

Teaching the gospel is really intense at the MTC. The first night here, we went into these rooms and had a workshop where all the missionaries would be introduced to a practice investigator and if you felt inspired you could stand up in front of everyone and start teaching. One of our investigator's name was Vick and he didn't believe in prayer or Christ being the Savior. It was really hard for everyone to teach him, and we kind of lost the spirit because everyone started arguing with him how it was important to pray and stuff. Then out of nowhere I just felt inspired to stand up so I did and I told him to forget about what everyone's said, and to forget about prayer. Then I invited him to church with me because I wanted him to learn more about what I believed and if anything he could go to feel good. Right after I said that he stopped arguing and told me no one had ever invited him to church since he'd been there which was since May. Well these investigators are just actors, but right then the Spirit told helped me to feel my true purpose here as a missionary. I have been so nervous about Thailand but in that moment, I was like, "no matter what I have to go through, bugs, heat, whatever--I need to get to Thailand to share the message of Christ and to invite people to feel the Spirit whether that's church or teaching them to pray, whatever."

Sister Kwak (pron. Kwok) and I get along really well--she's so great! She was born in Korea but grew up in Canada and studied there for 5 years in Toronto. We make lots of funny jokes. One morning we went to this sister's only gym time, where we did Cardio kickboxing. It was so weird and fun and we also did Tai Chi in there too but not sure how it was related. Now during break times for class we "stroke the crane" and "push the wheel" (rather relaxing tai chi moves).

At choir practice with my companion, Sister Kwak

Speaking of class: Okay so the first the thing happened when we got here is they shipped us to a classroom where our teachers only spoke Thai (and still only) and we had no idea what was going on (and still don't really most of the time). Our teachers are awesome though--one of them (we have 2), Sister Painter, makes the best sound effects whenever she teaches its so hilarious.

On Sunday, we watched an old devotional of Elder Bednar called "the Character of Christ". He said something I love, and we often quote it here at the MTC: our purpose as missionaries is to get out of the way so that the spirit can take over. I've certainly began learning what that is like--to get out of the way for the Spirit.

The third day Sister Kwak and I taught our first practice "investigator" lesson to Phii Boh and our whole lesson didn't go so well...we weren't listening to him or each other. Also at the beginning, we couldn't find his classroom. But the next day, I actually prayed really hard to have the spirit. And we made goals to listen to each other better, and to pray before our lesson, and to not look down at our Thai phrases but instead just look at Phi Boh and try to understand him and oh man it worked. We were able to teach a lesson, and I bore my testimony in Thai, and we taught him how to pray and the Spirit was so intense.

This church is SO true and the gift of tongues is real. I can pray in Thai now, and share my testimony, and it's only been 5 DAYS since I've been here.

Well, now for the random stuff:

• Everyone loves popcorn shrimp here. 
• The first 2 days are so long, but then it goes quick...at least that's what everyone says. 
• Temple walk is the best! 
• We inherited a bunch of play-doh from the Lao's (who just left for Cali). 
• Sundays are only slightly stressful because the Branch President randomly picks people to speak while he's up there, so everyone has to prepare a talk (but it's only 3-5 minutes so not too bad). 

On a temple walk

Arrived at Provo MTC!

Sister Sabrina Smith entered the Provo Missionary Training Center (MTC) on September 9, 2015.