Things I did this week that I would never have done in my whole life:

2 March 2014  Week 20 in Thailand.  Things I did this week that I would never have done in my whole life:

1.  Sing into a microphone, in front of any, let alone an auditorium of Khon Thai's.

2.  Eat things that I can't identify without asking what it this (It’s definitely better not to ask!)

3.  Walk around asking complete strangers if they want to wash away their sins.

4.  Teach a class in a foreign language that I don't quite understand.

5. Ride a bike…everyday experience.

6.  Ride a bike through Thailand traffic (equivalent of live Frogger).  An everyday experience.     

7.  Clear out pigeons nests from the Church house.

8.  Play charades with workers at Big C (equivalent of Walmart here).

Blessings I've received as result this week:

To numerous to count!

Here are a few, brief but sufficient explanations of the aforementioned tasks.

Tuesday, like everyday this week, we invited a lot of people to be baptized and received a lot of rejection, as well as the blessing of getting two new investigators!  #3 in the List above.

Before English class, a sweet member taught us how to make somtom/สมฅำ, which is quickly climbing the charts of my favorite Thai dishes!  I also learned that somtom plaa, somtom that is really fishy (tasting and looking), is gross and I should never eat it!  cing cing  It is somtom that is in black sauce, instead of red, and has random body parts of sea creatures mixed in with it.  #2 in the list above. 

Wednesday, my companion and I were in charge of finding balloons for the mutual activity.  When we got to Big C, we realized not only did we not know the word for balloon, but we didn't have our dictionaries with us.  Thus we began a game of charades or pictionary with the workers at Big C.  After several hand motions and attempted drawings, a worker took us to an air pump section.  Tired and creatively dry, we decided to go look for ourselves.  Tender mercy!  We ran into a member who found them for us and we were able to make it to the church and have a way awesome activity!  #8 from the list above.

Friday, the other Sisters had a baptism so we deep-cleaned the church.  It also, just needed some love.  We ended up destroying a few pigeons nest.  Pigeons had discovered unused nooks and crannies in the church.  We cleaned out a lot of pigeon poop but the church looks beautiful.  It’s like when you clean anything, it just that much better when its clean and the spirit was definitely stronger as a result.  #7 from the list above.

Saturday, The Elders had a baptism!  We made a lot of phone calls to members who hadn't been to church in a while and invited them. Sunday, we saw the fruits of our labor when four of them came to church! Yay!  Sundays can be stressful as a missionary that is when all your responsibilities come together and you have to deal with them all in a foreign language.

This Sunday, Sister Jackson and I had to teach a class during second hour, which was really hard because, A.  We hadn't prepared and B. We are the two youngest sisters in our area (our phii's were translating).  Even though I’ve been in country for almost five months, my understanding is…not that good compared to my ability to talk.  LOL  So as we tried to understand question of our RC's and investigators,  we were also trying to read the said lesson plan from a manual in Thai.  LOL  It was kind of crazy but we survived Thanks to the help of the awesome RC's in our ward.  Daa and Kwan, who basically taught a really simple and inspiring version of everything we were trying to say and answered everyone’s questions like the bosses they are!  Made me so happy!  #4 from the list above.

For the Grand Finally of the Week: 

We ended our Sunday stalling at charity function, for donating wheel chairs, while the Senior Humanitarian Missionaries and the other LDS charities representatives were racing to get there.  They had gotten delayed from their previous donation function in Chiang Rai.  Originally we were just supposed to go for support but then the people MC-ing the event (from Rotary Thailand) were like, hey you speak Thai, come up and talk to everyone while were waiting.  Somehow one of the representatives remembered us and said, you guys should sing (because we helped with music at the Christmas event at the orphanage).  We whipped out our hymnbooks and Sister Jackson started playing her violin,  (which was good) but my singing was not.  LOL  So awkward but a great memory which is a blessing in and of its self.  The Senior couple and everyone were really sweet and appreciative, which also made it a better experience.  #1 from the list above. 

I definitely feel like my tolerance of doing uncomfortable or awkward things has grown since becoming a missionary and I’m sure that I will have many more growing experiences.  LOL

Well until next week,  Love you all!