So apparently I'm Asian Now.

Hello family! So this week was a little crazy/weird/i don't even know how to explain it! haha So It started with the whole emergency transfer thing. So now I am in Bangkok, with a new companion, S. Carper, who goes home next week, and then our Mission President told me that I will be moving again and then my old comp. and S. carpers will both be coming back here once we both leave but right now they are working in the office trying to get better b/c one has a broken ankle and then the other they are still trying to figure out what's going on! AH! So yeah a little crazy! But as for this area i LOVE it! It is so great! The ward here is amazing! And just so willing to help us with anything we need! I feel like i've been here forever b/c of how quickly they just come up to you and just love you! its so great! The only thing that has been a little weird is the fact that they all say that I look like S. Church, My companion in the MTC.. EVERYONE is like OMG you look exactly like S. Church! And ok i know that a lot of the time we say all asians look alike, so naturally they would say all white people look alike, but here's the thing... S. Church is half thai!!!! So apparently i look like I'm twins with an asian. But that's great b/c I want to be thai anyways so cool! I'm Asian now! WOO! But ya it was so funny... one lady at church yesterday literally thought I was S. Church and had just come back to visit, and said how she missed me and stuff... but then she realized I wasn't her! hahaha I love it! Inline image 2 What do you think? are we twins or what!? haha Everything else is going so good too! We have some super solid investigators that are going to be awesome! It's a little weird b/c i just got here, but i will be leaving in another week so we are just basically "babysitting" the area for a bit, but it's fun! We are super excited to get it set up for the other sisters! I am sad that I won't get to stay and see some of these people progress to baptism, but that's missionary life right? once things start to get good and ready to go, it's time for a change! So yeah! It will be interesting to see what happens! But I am super excited to be here! I love it so much already, i've already thought of protesting President and telling him i don't want to leave! hahaha but i really just hope that maybe in the future i will have the opportunity to serve in this area again! It was interesting this week also, since it's Christmas time, we decided to study up on the Christmas story, and as we were, we started asking some members and a few others what they know about christmas... and its crazy to see how little they do know... members will say it's Christ's birth, but then don't know anything else about it, they don't know the story at all! it's sad! So we are going to try and teach it to members the next couple weeks. And then everyone else who's not a member thinks it's about Santa Claus or what they call "wan dek" or "day for kids" So yeah interesting to see! I am so grateful to know of the birth of our Savior! And for the true meaning behind Christmas! I hope that I can help people here understand it too! Well, that's about all for this week! I hope everyone is doing great and excited for Christmas! Love you! Love, S. Itri

Christmas in Thailand

Hi Family First off Happy Birthday Jon! Hope you had a great day! Things here are great! This week was a little crazy though because we had a big stake party thing here in Bangkok. It was 2 nights and we were performing in it as well. And oh my Heavens I have never seen a Christmas party like this before! Thailand knows how to throw a party! haha So they had like a million booths outside, with postcard making, reindeer hands, and like a million other things. Then they had a bunch of food, and then there was a big stage outside, with a band, and then that's where we performed our song. Our Zone sang/acted the song "I'll Find you My Friend" not sure if you've ever heard it, I hadn't until i got here, but it's weird in English, it sounds much better in Thai! haha So yeah we performed that, and then another Zone had this like full on production inside the church! I can't even describe to you how good it was! They hired actors to do this play and then had a choir and then like those Bible Video things going along with the musical... i don't even know how to explain it! haha But they seriously just go all out here! It's crazy! That's one thing i love about here, it is such a missionary country! Everything here was geared towards helping our investigators and such! They had like a huge banner advertising it outside the church and like flyers up everywhere. It is like a full on production! But everything was so fun! There really is nothing like it anywhere else... and all i have to say, is america needs to step up their game with throwing christmas parties! ha! At the party i also got to meet one of my investigators from Ubon's older sister who is a member, so that was way awesome! And another member from Ubon was there too! It was nice to see them! But overall the 2 nights were just so good! And on the second night our mission president was there and then he surprised us and had us all come out after the party and we lit off the "tangled" lanterns with all the missionaries! It was soo cool! But then right as we all had lit them, someone came out and yelled at us and we got in trouble, b/c i guess we aren't suppose to light them off where we did b/c it's close to an airport. WHOOPS! But by that point we couldn't do anything about it! haha Oh yeah and we had Zone Conference this week which was so goooooooddd!!! We started off and our mission president took us all bowling and we did some fun little competions and such so that was awesome! Then we went and had the actually "training" portion of it and talked about how to find new investigators and what were some good ways to do that, so that was fun! And we applied one of them, as we were on our way to go out to dinner we were on the subway, and we decided to sing carols for the whole subway w/ about 26 missionaries! hahaha! It was soooo fun! We got some great reactions it was awsome! And even our mission president was singing with us! But then we went out to the most AMAZING dinner ever! it was this suuuppperrr high-so hotel and we had an amazing buffet! Oh my goodness it was excellent! And it was so fun to spend time with our mission president and his wife! Ah it was just a great day! Also this week in regards to investigators, one of ours, Pat, has a goal to be baptized next month! She is so cute! She has been working really hard to figure out her work situation b/c she works on sundays right now, but she made a decision and found a new job! YAY! So we are just waiting for her contract to end at her old job and then she will be able to get baptized! She is so cute and just so excited to get baptized. Anyways this week has been a little crazy with Christmas stuff and also my companion is going home this week too so she's been a little stressed out, and I'm moving again tomorrow so ya crazy week, but a wonderful one! And I will get to skype with you all next week! AHH!!! So I think we will probably skype at about 9 am. here on tuesday which will be 7:00 pm. on monday for you, so i guess just plan on that for now... I don't have all the details at this point b/c i don't know where or who i will be with but ya i guess just plan on leaving monday night open and being home! i will probably just use my skype account which is just jenitri so you can figure that out and figure out who's you want to use. But plan on that! Love you all can't wait to talk to you next week!!!! AHH!! Love, Sister Itri

Surprise

Hello Family! Sorry I didn't email yesterday, but it's b/c we had a bit of a change go on! So as you know, my companion has been sick and the medicine she was taking didn't help, so our mission president was really concerned about her, so originally she was just going to be emergency transferred to Bangkok by herself and come to the Drs and what not, and i would stay in a 3-some in Ubon, so that was our thought all last week... Well then we got a little surprise Sunday morning. We got a text from our President that said this... "Sister Itri needs to say her goodbyes as well today, she will be coming to Bangkok tomorrow too." AHHH!!! So it was a pretty crazy day and not expected at all! haha So anyways, yesterday I was on the Bus all day to Bangkok... and that was a whole other experiecne! Let's just say, make sure the bus your on is reliable before you go! What was suppose to be an 8-9 hour bus ride, turned into a 13 hour bus ride! It was crazy! So yeah, lesson learned to always take a more reliable bus! haha Anyways other than that, last week was the Major Thai Holiday with all the floating lanterns and boats and stuff, so we got to go to that! and this time we were able to light off a lantern and send off a little boat thing... it was so fun! I don't even really know what else happened this week, because everything was just so crazy! But right now i am in Bangkok, and i will be serving in Bangkapi for at least the next 2 weeks until we have official transfers. So who knows?!? I hope everyone is doing good! Christmas is coming up soon... sooooo weeeeeiiiiirrrrdddd!! I literally feel like it is still the middle of June! So yeah very werid that there is probably snow at home! I hope you are all enjoying it! Love you all! Love, S. Itri

Brazillians have Thanksgiving

Hello Family and Happy Thanksgiving! Well this week was a little crazy! So last week i mentioned that my companion was sick, well we went to the specialist here in Ubon, but they were no help, so we were instructed to go down to Bangkok to go see the Drs there. So we left for Bangkok wednesday night and then went to the Dr. Thursday morning, and then we had to go pick up the new missionaries that just arrived! So we did all that and then we ended up going to Thanksgiving dinner with some other sisters that serve in the International Branch in Bangkok. It was so fun! We went to this members house who was Brazillian! and she had a few of her friends over that were Brazillian as well, and they weren't members! So it was a great teaching opportunity as well! We were laughing about the irony of it all afterwards though, b/c we were the only americans, and yet they still prepared us a traditional american thanksgiving, turkey and all! And they even through in some amazing Brazillian food too! It was so fun! they were all just so loving and great! I feel like I am already best friends with them! haha After the dinner, we ended up staying the night in Bangkok, b/c we needed to go to the Dr. again on Friday, so we stayed with my old companion from the MTC! S. Church! It was so fun to just catch up with them! Then we were running around all afternoon going to the office, picking up some things from there and then we had to go back to the Hospital! We almost missed our appointment thanks to crazy Bangkok traffic! But we just barely made it so that was good! Then we were off to the train station to head back to Ubon! It was an adventure! When we got there they said that there were no more beds on the train only seats, and that would have been miserable so we were about to go to the bus station instead, but one lady helped us and then we found out there were 2 beds left in "first class" So we were like SWEET! and we bought them, come to find out when we get on the train, the 2 tickets werent next to us, and we were in completely separate rooms! Which those of you who have served a mission know that that is against the rules! So we were freaking out, it was already about 8:00 at night and we just wanted to get back and didn't know what to do, but thankfully we were able to explain the situation with the people that were in the 2 rooms and they said they would be willing to switch so that we could be in the same room! Whew! That was a miracle for sure! So anyways we got back to Ubon finally and then we got another surprise! So we now have 4 sisters here and so the other 2 were suppose to open up a new area, but the district and zone leaders decided to throw us a curve ball and now me and S. Skalla will be opening the new area and the other 2 will be taking the area that I have been serving in the past 2 months, so it's going to be a little weird! I was not expecting that at all, but oh well! Here goes! I am a little sad/disappointed b/c that means that I will no longer be able to teach my investigators that I have been working with, but if this is what the Lord wants me to do, then that's what I will do! Anyways that's about it for the week, very weird but it was fun! I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving in Florida! Love you! Love, S. Itri PS. Today in my personal study i read in 1 Corinthians 13, now one of my new favorite chapters, so you should all read it :)

Always be Prepared

Well this week was a little weird. I honestly don't know what happened! haha My companion right now is sick with something that we aren't sure what it is.. so we have been in and out of the hospital all week and trying to figure out what she has. So we had to go on some splits a few times b/c my Comp. couldn't leave the house so it was just a lot of just being at the house. We also had to start preparing for our new sister that comes in on Thursday! So we started moving furniture around and cleaning... OH MY HEAVENS it was DISGUSTING! You could tell no one has cleaned some places for like 10 + years! So we started that... then after we were done we called the office to tell them that we would need to get air conditioning for one room and he said that it might be better if we just went and looked for a new house entirely! AH! So that's what we are going to be doing today is looking for a new house or apartment! I'm excited to do that! The house we are in is just really old and dirty! haha This week we also had Mission Tour. Elder Watson of the 70 came and spoke to us! It was way good! The theme of the conference was the Book of Mormon! Could you get a better topic?!? But ya it was super awesome! Last week all the missionaries were assigned a character in the Book of Mormon to talk about for 2 min. at the conference, Mine was on the Brother of Jared. So i prepared my talk and was ready for it and then when we got to the conference we were told we needed to give it in Thai! AH! So i was not prepared for that at all, so i had to do some very quick translating and some of it did have to come out in English b/c i was reading out of a talk, but overall it went ok! haha It was a good learning experience, that's for sure! Always be prepared for the unexpected! haha So that was a fun day! But as far as teaching this week, we didn't get to do a whole lot, but we had a couple of great lessons! One with Champoo, we taught about baptism and why it was necessary and then gave her the goal to get baptized on Dec. 1st! And she wants to! So we are soo excited for her! She already has such a strong testimony in Christ and just wants to follow him! She is so awesome! I am so excited for her! Well I hope you all are doing good! Have fun in Florida! Happy Birthday Jason! Eat lots of Turkey... I won't be! haha Love you! Love, Sister Itri

Already???!!!

Sawatdi kha Krabkrua! So this week was transfers again! AH. I cant believe how fast things are going! Please slow it down!!! AHHH!!! But it was another crazy week b/c our mission president decided to wait to the last minute to tell us if we were moving or not! AHHHH!! So we found out on wed. at about 2 that my companion was moving. :( And we also found out that they would be opening another sisters area here in Ubon and that we would have to prepare our house for 2 more sisters to come in! AHHHHH!!! then we found out there were no buses free to go to bangkok that night so we had to book it to the train station, we got there at about 4 and then train left at 6:30! AHH! So we had about an hour to pack all of my companions stuff try and get our house in semi working order for 4 sisters, and get back to the train station! It was soooo nuts! I am still not sure how we did it! It was a little stressful, but we managed ok. ha. I am way sad that my comp. moved, we just barely seemed to get things in working order here and started getting some progressing investigators and such, but of course once you get comfortable, that's when change happens right?! haha So when we were on the 10 hr train ride to bangkok, we were just chatting and then heard some other people speaking english... and thought, hm that's weird. Turns out it was some elders! haha One of them was moving as well and we all ended up on the same train together! ha It was fun to have some people we knew! haha Then we finally got into bangkok on Thursday morning and when we got off, we found out that my companions bike got off about 4 stops before we did! AH! So we had to book it back to the other train station where her bike was, then we had to book it to transfer meeting!! It was soo nuts! Once again, not sure how we did it! haha But it sure was an adventure! As far as transfer meeting, it is always so fun to see everyone! It was a little bitter sweet b/c me and S. Guildner got along so well, and you never know who you're going to end up with. So Like usual president had it all dramatic and had pictures of everyone and their areas, and it came up to Ubon and i found out my new companion would be S. Skalla! She is great! I am so excited to work with her! And then we found out that we would actually be in a 3-some for a couple weeks b/c the new companionship would be training, and one of the missionaries is still in the MTC in the Phillipines and won't be here for 2 more weeks! So right now we also and S. Malin who is thai! I have my first native companion (kind of) ha. But she is so great! So far it's been way fun and helped me have to speak in Thai all of the time! And i can't wait for one more to come! It's going to be soo much fun! Other than that not a whole lot happened. Transfers pretty much take up our whole week, especially when we are so far away from Bangkok! But i am way excited for this transfer! We have some awesome work ahead of us here! Our mission president wants to be able to split this Branch here soon so that will be awesome! Things are growing fast here in Thailand! I love that I get to be a part of it! This truly is the Lord's work! I love every second of it! Hope everything is going well at home! Sounds like you just had a snow storm? That's fun! It's still like 85 degrees and humid here all the time! haha Love you all! Love, Sister Itri

The Lights

Hello!! Well this week was so good!!! We were able to teach Praewa and she is doing awesome!! When she came for her first "real" lesson she came with, 1. Triple combination (BoM, D&C, and PGP), a Bible, a YW personal progress book and a for the strength of Youth Pamphlet!!! She was so prepared! It was awesome!! haha So we started with the Restoration, and just helped her to understand who Joseph Smith really was, b/c she had said she heard his name a lot, but didn't know really who he was. Then at the end of the lesson we asked if she believed that Joseph Smith had this experience and she basically responded, "Well yeah, of course, other wise we wouldn't have any of this" (referring to her stack of books) AHH!!! So awesome!!!! So she is doing so great! She has said she will get baptized when she get's her answer but hasn't yet accepted a date, so we are going to work on that more this week. But she is doing so great! I just love her to death! Then we had 2 new girls who came to English class this week, came to church as well! Their names are Champoo and Yong. They are ADORABLE! One of them is already Christian and seems sooo interested, she really just wants to learn more! And the other, Yong, isn't quite as interested, but she is still coming to everything, so that's good! So I am way excited to continue to teach them! This week I had the best opportunity ever to go see the floating lanterns!!! Like in Tangled!!! AHHHH!!!! It was sooooo coooooolll!!! It was some festival, i forget what called, But it was way awesome! They had tons of the floating lanterns and then there were fireworks going off and these awesome boat things! Ah it was just way cool! We didn't have much time so sadly i didn't get to send one up myself, but it was still so cool to see it all! Then this week we also had a halloween activity!! It was sooo fun! No one here really knows what we do for halloween, so we just played some random halloween games with them. 1st we had them all "make jack-o-lanterns", they don't have pumpkins here so we had them just color them, then we bobbed for apples which was hillarious! They loved it! And then we did doughnuts on a string which was also way fun! Over all it was soo fun! It was such a great way to get our investigators and members to get to know each other and build relationships outside of church! So it was awesome! It think that's about it for this week! I love serving and just being a missionary! It's so fun! I love helping others come unto Christ! It's so amazing to see people change! AHH! Anyways, love you all! Hope all is good! Love, S. Itri

Be Prepared

Hello family! Sounds like you had a fun week gambling this week???? hahaha glad to know my fam is keeping up good standards :) haha But sounds like you all had a good time so that's good! Well things here are going so good! This week was a little different than normal... me and my companion are really trying to do things a little different and experiment with ways of doing missionary work, b/c the standard of what normally goes on we just feel like hasn't been very effective, especially for how sisters have been working in this area for a LONG time... So we are changing it up a bit! This week we worked on organizing a bunch of activities and focusing again on English class and focused on going and just serving the members in our branch. And we have been trying to just find those people who are truly prepared to hear the gospel. So, as we were doing all this work and kept praying to find someone prepared, we got hit with the most prepared person i think we could have ever met! Especially in Thailand! So we started this activity night on thursday nights, and after it was over this week one of the girls who came to English on Tuesday came to our activity night, her name is Praewa and she started talking to us in English tonight and she was SOOOO GOOODD at English (which is very rare here) and so we asked her where she learned, and she told us she went on an exchange program last year and lived in America for a year...and she then tells us she was with a Christian family.. we just figured cool, that's better than most thai people so we got excited... but then it gets better... she then tells us she was with and LDS family!!!! AHHH!!! Then goes on to say that while she was there she not only went to church every week, she went to mutual every week and to seminary every morning, oh and she went to girls camp... oh and on trek... oh and she went to Utah to General Conference!!! Heard the prophet in person... has been to the Salt Lake Temple.... she toured BYU and BYU-Idaho... pretty much she is just awesome!! and soooooo prepared!!! Oh and one more thing... she lives around the corner from the church here!??!?!?!! WHHHAAAATTT?!?!?! Me and my companion literally were soooo stumped as to what to do with her! hahaha But she is soooo great and we are just sooo excited to work with her! Although, despite doing all of these things her understanding of the gospel is still very little... so we are sooo excited to have the chance to teach her in her native language.. it will help so much! Anyways that was like the biggest highlight of our week! She is just going to be sooooo awesome!!! Heavenly Father truly does prepare people for the gospel! :) This week we also began helping teach english at Ratchatani University and we were able to meet a bunch of new people through that too! I am just sooo excited to see all of these little efforts come together! AHHH!!!! I feel like we are soooo close to just having an explosion of stuff happen here! I just can't wait!!! We are really working on our patience right now!! haha Well, I hope everything is great at home... James you need to cut your hair..... Love you all!! Love, Sister Itri PS does anyone have some good object lesson ideas or ideas for like FHE things??? it really helps to use them here to help them understand things better so if you have any please let me know!!! :)

Coco Yen

Hello! This week was another good week! We went on switch-offs which was way fun! I went to Roiet with S. Rodriquez who was in the group ahead of me, so we were in the MTC together for a while! I love her to death! It was way fun to be w/ her, but sadly we weren't able to get much teaching done when i was there, because of course the day i went was the day they decided to get air conditioning installed into their house! They just moved houses there and didn't have any AC so we had to stay home the whole day and wait for the AC to get put in. When we asked their District Leader what we should do in that time, he joked around and just said, just sit in your hammocks in drink some coco yens (which are just a chocolate drink thing here) so... we had to do a little of that! haha But we were able to help get things a little more organized for them! They are white washing in Roiet, so neither of the sisters really know anything so we just went through and called some formers and stuff, so that was good! It was fun to be there! My trainer served there for 6 months and she always talked about how great it was there so i was excited to have the chance to go there! But i should tell you about the most MISERABLE bus ride I have ever been on! So on buses here they don't care if there are no more seats. So they just sell as many tickets as they can and let as many people on as possible! So we got stuck on a 2 hour bus ride, standing with like inches of room between us and it was just hot and muggy and when people had to get off they just push through! Ah it was sooo bad! But it was definitely an experience! haha I hope that i never have to do it again, but now i can say ive done it! haha Having switch offs really helped our area here in Ubon though! the sister who came here had served here like 6 months ago so she was able to show my comp. a bunch of formers and members/LAs houses and stuff so that was awesome! One of the LAs she showed us is somewhere where we pass ALL THE TIME! and I remembered one day we were passing and someone yelled SISTER! and thought, ok we need to go back to that house! and it turns out it was an LA who is ADORABLE!! shes 16 and just kind of got lazy but she came to church this week and i think it will just take a little push and she will start coming back regularly from here on out! This week at church we were in the middle of singing the opening song and the power went out, so that was fun! we got to go through all of church with no lights, no microphone, and no air!! it got way hot! haha but they were doing some work in the city so they had to turn the power off i guess. then we had extra time in sacrament meeting, so guess who they decided to ask to share their testimonies?! the missionaries! yay!! as much as i love bearing my testimony in front of everyone, it is just not as fun when you have to do it on the spot and in thai! haha but it was good! Oh yeah! This week when we were going to a members house my bike decided to break! AGAIN! AHH! so i was just riding and the whole back side of my bike that holds my basket just fell off! So to fix it we had to use hair ties to hold it together, now it is being held together by zip ties! haha Always a new adventure! My bike has already gone through so much! My pedal fell off the first week in country, then about a week later the chain fell off, right now it makes this awful screeching noise and my brakes squeak and now its put together with zip ties! I love the life of a missionary!!! haha This morning was way fun! one of our investigators invited us to go watch her school group perform a skit in english! It was SO GOOD! They were sooo cute! and their group won!! i guess it's like a competition all over Thailand! Each school is judge and then the winners will go on to compete again and eventually go on to compete against the top groups in the country in bangkok! It was so fun to watch! Oh and this investigator, her name is Ploy, she is sooo great! She is basically already a member, but can't get permission from her dad for her to get baptized, but this week we made somewhat of a breakthrough with him! It was way funny too! So we just stopped by her house to see if she was home, but she wasn't, so we ended up talking to her dad for a bit and we always joke around with him about going to church and stuff (b/c if we try and be serious he gets upset and won't listen) but as we were joking around with him we started talking about the Book of Mormon and how he should start to read it, and we happened to have a reading chart thing, you know the ones where you color in after you read a chapter, any ways so i gave it to him as a joke and was like ok you need to read everyday and color in when you do! And he accepted the commitment to read!!!!!! AHHH!! It was so great! and we've already followed up a little and he has started!! We are sooooo excited!! But we just laughed so hard at the fact that the thing that finally convinced him, the most stubborn man in thailand, to read was a coloring chart for kids!! hahaha But we are really hoping this changes his heart and that not only his daughter can get baptized, but he will too!!! Oh yeah! This week when we were going to a members house my bike decided to break! AGAIN! AHH! so i was just riding and the whole back side of my bike that holds my basket just fell off! So to fix it we had to use hair ties to hold it together, now it is being held together by zip ties! haha Always a new adventure! My bike has already gone through so much! My pedal fell off the first week in country, then about a week later the chain fell off, right now it makes this awful screeching noise and my brakes squeak and now its put together with zip ties! I love the life of a missionary!!! haha Anyways, that is basically my week! It was way good! I love everything and everyone here! Things are going so good! Hope everything is going good at home! Love you all! Love, Sister Itri

Pictures

Hopefully this works! i tried to send these in the big email but it didn't work, but heres some pictures Pictures! 1: Transfer meeting 2: Gift from B. Gap (mentioned in last week's letter) SOO CUUTTEE 3: Investigators, Members and Missionaries from P-Lok! 4: S. Baw and Bang! cute members from P-Lok

Do you Love Me?

WHOAA!!!! CONFERENCE WAS SOOOO AMAAAZZINNNGG!!!!!! I have never appreciated conference as much as i did this conference... i feel soooo stupid for taking it for granted all those years! I'm such an IDIOT!!! haha But seriously though... we have a LIVING prophet, and LIVING apostles! How amazing is that!!!!!!!! And they are all soooo brilliant! I can't get over it! But this was the first question i have actually WRITTEN a question down and looked for an answer and guess what... it was ANSWERED!!! hahaha imagine that right? But it was soo good just to know that Heavenly Father really does want to answer us and gives revelation through the leaders of his church! As for what i like most, I don't even know where to begin! But i will start with Holland.... WOW!!! It really made me think, Do I love Christ? and Do I truly put him at the center of my life?! I love how straight forward he was and just made it so clear that we need to focus on Christ! I feel like often times we get caught up in the little things of the Church and forget the why we have the church in the first place! we are the church of JESUS CHRIST of latter day saints! I have especially noticed it here, testimony in Jesus is a lot harder to develop b/c the concept of the Atonement can be very hard to describe to people with no Christian background. But it is possible! haha I do want to try and improve on my teaching and focusing it more on Christ though. So that is my goal from here on out! I also loved Ballard's advice to make sure we pray every morning to find someone to serve and than constantly be looking for that person/people to serve! Which leads into Oaks' talk and serve kids! AHHH!! His talk was so eye opening right??? It made me sooo sad! But we do need to focus on those people who can't help themselves and make sure that we can serve them! And then as we do all these things we will be able to have more opportunities to serve others, like Pres. Monson said.. As we start to listen to the Holy Ghost and find the little ways to be answers to others prayers, we will be able to have those opportunities more often and they will be revealed to us b/c Heavenly Father trusts us and knows that we will act on them! So my commitment to you all is to do all of these things! Pray to find someone to serve. Seek those opportunities during the day. Follow those promptings and just do it! Don't make any excuses or justifications just DO IT!!!! Ok so that is my commitment and i really hope that you all do it! I am working on it to! But i know that if we do we can be the answer to other people's prayers! and that is so important! This week we had an investigator ask us, Why did you sacrifice to come here? You're not getting paid, so what do you get out of this? That really made me think, and i decided i really hate the word sacrifice and relating it to missionary work. Because it's really not a sacrifice at all! I have gained sooooooo much more as a missionary than i could have ever gained in school, or dating, or marriage, etc. etc. I have grown closer to my savior personally and i have been able to see others grow closer to their savior as well! And that's what we get out of this! We get to have more faith, and we get to see the happiness and joy that comes to others as they gain faith and recognize the blessings of having the gospel in their lives! Anyways it just really made me think of what I have gained here and if this is a "sacrifice" I will gladly sacrifice forever! Because i really have gained more in the past what 7 months? than i have in the past 21 years of my life! Anyways. This week was awesome. I love Conference! I hope everyone got as much out of it as i did! Love you all! Love, S. Itri

Road Trip

Sawatdii Kha Krabkrua!! (Hello Family) How was conference!??! I still haven't got to watch it yet so i have no clue!! We will watch it this weekend b/c it needs to be translated. But i heard some crazy stuff that now Elders can go when they are 18 and sisters when they are 19!?!?! WHHHAAATT?!?! That is sooooo craaazzyyy!!! But super exciting, b/c that means we will be getting lots more missionaries here pretty soon!!! AHH!!! But anyways, this week was sooo good!!!!! Right now in our mission we are focusing to doing LA work and getting members to return to church, so this week as a companionship we decided to really push for getting some LAs to return to church. We started off with just asking a member to help us figure out who they knew and who we could go visit. Well when we went to her she decided that she would go with us the next day to help us find some of these people. So we figured we would just go to like 2 houses of some LAs, well that was not the case. This member and her husband sacrificed their whole day to take us around and we were able to go visit about 6 LAs and 4 other members and just help strengthen our branch! It was sooo good!! It was really like a road trip! haha we had bathroom and snack breaks and just were in the car all day! hahaWe met them at 1 pm and then we were driving all around until 8 30 at night! They are so great!!! and on sunday we had 5 people who hadn't been to church in over a month+ show up! it was soooo amazing! Heavenly Father truly blessed us. And it wasn't even all the people we went and saw, some were ones that we had just talked about seeing, but didn't end up getting the chance too, but Heavenly Father prepared them to come back! It is truly amazing!!!!! Another thing we focused on a lot this week was on using the Book of Mormon in our teaching! We talked about the importance of it and how we need to apply it in our teaching and how important it is to stress the significance of the BoM to everyone we teach! It truly is an inspired book and can help us through any trials we have! One of the members in my last branch showed me this picture/quote thing that i really liked, it had a picture of a really old, marked up and used set of scriptures and then had a quote "A person who's Scriptures are falling apart, means their lives aren't." or something to that effect. That is soo true! We need to make sure we are studying the scripturesEVERYDAY!!! So that's my commitment to you... make sure you study everyday and get the most out of everything you read! Don't just read to read... read to understand!!! Ok!? Another thing that i did this week is i read the Special Edition Liahona/Ensign all about the Book of Mormon, so if you can get a copy of that you should read that too!! (i think it's like Oct 2010) but it is soo good! Something so adorable that also happened was with our 11 yr old investigator, Bombay, (we are teaching his mom too) But we were over in his neighborhood the other day and ended up inviting into one of his friends randomly, but then we went over to teach Bombay yesterday and he ran and got his friend and was like, "Sister, Sister! My friend wants to be Christian too!!!" AHHHHH!!!!! SOOOO CCUUUTTTEEE!!! So we immediately gave them another Book of Mormon and told them to start reading together! and they were both just soo excited to start reading!!! haha!!! I love it!!! So we got a referral from an 11 year old... SO AWESOME!! haha Other than that this week we pretty standard, I'm still settling in a little bit here in Ubon and trying to figure things out, but everything is soo good! I love missionary work!! I especially love doing work with LAs! It is soo great to see them come back and remember the reasons they were baptized in the first place, to follow Christ!! AHH its just so great! Love you all (even if you still don't write me :) ) Hope everything is going good still!!! Love, Sister Itri

EASAN

WHAT A CRAZY WEEEEKK!!! and HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES!!! Ok so first off S. Na passed her interview and was prepared to get baptized this past saturday!! YAY! Now craziness... so it was moves week and usually we get a call on Tuesday afternoon to tell us if we are moving or not, so all day tuesday I was on edge b/c i really didn't want to move... so we were waiting and waiting and NOTHING! So then the rest of the night goes by and we don't here anything... we were sooo confused! b/c normally they tell you either way if you are moving or not... so we called our district leader, he called our zone leader who hadn't heard anything, so called the AP's and apparently President was still working on it at 10:30 at night!!! AHHH! It was soooo nuts so we had no idea if we had to leave or not...and its not like we could just find out last minute b/c we had to leave wednesday to make it to Bangkok on time so we were all like... well do we need to buy bus tickets or not??!!? AHH... So then Wed morning comes around and sitll nothing after we were done studying... then finally the Zone Leaders called but all they told us was you need to buy 2 bus tickets!!!! GAHHHH!!! so we still didn't know who was moving but we knew we were going to bangkok! So we go about the rest of our day and we were teaching and we had to call the Elders to give our investigator a priesthood blessing, well they had just gotten called and told us who was moving... and it was me :( I was sooooo bummed! I may have welled up a little bit.. b/c we were with our investigator who is suppose to get baptized in 2 weeks and is just so great and we have so many great investigators that i was just not ready to leave... but i didn't really have a say in the matter! So anyways I was suuuuupppperrrr bummed out but then the rest of the day was a mad dash to get everything ready! First off we had already made plans to go help a member who had a flood, so we went out and did that, but then i wanted to say bye to a bunch of members and investigators so we were just calling people and seeing who was free and in the midst of all this I had to pack! AHH it was soooo nuts! but i was able to teach my one RC b. Ooh and while we were teaching we had a bunch of members/ other investigators show up to say bye, so it basically just turned into a party! haha But my one investigator, B. Gap is soooo adorable, he got me a present and was just sooo sad that i had to go! and i was soo sad too! He was the first house that i had invited on my own when i first got here and he is just so great! But ya so he got me this adorable stuffed duck.. i attached pictures.. but anyways so that was the end of my time serving in Phitsanulok! I am still a little heartbroken b/c i know that sooo many great things are happening there right now and it's just growing so fast and i am sad i don't get to be more a part of that, but i am excited for a change! Ok now for transfers! I was like positive since i was moving i was going to be in Bangkok for sure! But as we were going through all the zones and the companionships, we got through all of Bangkok and my name wasn't called! so that meant i had to be going to the Easan or the East of Thailand! AH! So we go through and then finally my name got called and I got called to UBON! My new companion is S. Guildner who was my companion in the MTC, S. Church's trainer! So I am way excited to be with her and we already get along soooooo well! So it's going to be way good. So now i am in the easan where not only do they speak thai they speak easan which is basically laotian b/c we are really close to laos! AH!!! So it's going to be a fun adventure... and who knows maybe i will be ab le to pick up some Laotian while I am here! But the first couple of days have already been way good. They have a super nice church building here which is such a WEIRD change! Although i will miss my little rented building in P-Lok, it's nice to have a real building again! The branch here is way good and i am soo excited to serve here! they have so many good programs and things seem to be functioning really well here so that's way good! And I have already got to meet a bunch of investigators and members here and i can tell things here are going to be awesome as well! Anyways, things are going good. I love being a missionary! The work here in Thailand is AMAZING! Love you all! Love, Sister Itri sorry no pictures it's not working... and i am out of time

LOCK YOUR HEART

Hello Family! So this week a lot of things happened! Some good, some bad, some just crazy! haha So apparently there was some movie made in America that was really derogatory towards Muslims right? Well I guess there has been lots of rioting and attacks on Americans by Muslims all over the world now.. Scary! We have been told that we should be careful right now b/c there was an attack in Chiang Mai and Bangkok on some Americans... Super crazy! But apparently it isn't as serious here in Thailand as it is in other places. So no major concerns, especially if we are just doing missionary work and not doing anything stupid! ha But anyways, first off the sad thing that happened was with our dater, Gap. He is soooooo ready to be baptized and we were actually hoping to have his service this week, but when we talked to his parents about it, he told them that if he gets baptized he can no longer buwat prat... which is going to be a monk for like 2 weeks when you turn 20 so his parents said he could no longer get baptized!!! :( We were sooooo sad when this happened b/c he is so ready! So we tried talking to his parents again and they then said he can get baptized... but not until after he buwat's! AH that's another 4 years away first off and he doesn't believe/want to do it! So we are going to keep trying to work with his parents to see if they will change their minds. It's sooo weird b/c at first his mom and sisters all were preparing to be baptized too! They have slowly stopped wanting to learn but Gap is still doing so good and he is gonna keep fighting until he can be baptized. We are going to hopefully explain to his parents this week that he can go on a mission instead and they will be blessed way more than if he buwat's. So we'll see! It's really hard just b/c it is not only a religious ritual it is very engrained in the culture here to have their son buwat and ya it's just going to be really hard. We also have another investigator, B. Chode who may have the same problem.. he is 17 and the only son in his family.. he is already Christian.. but his family isn't, so he is nervous that they may not let him either.. but we are praying really hard that they don't have a problem... he really wants to be baptized as well and is already preparing to be a missionary! haha He is sooooo great! But yes this whole going to be a monk thing is going to be soo hard! But I know Heavenly Father will prepare a way for all of these people to be baptized! Ok so now Lock your Heart! This week we had lots of Lock your heart experiences! haha So if you haven't read the talk by Pres. Kimball called Lock your heart you can read it.. ha but That it is a running joke in our district for several reasons.. but one that happened this week occured w/ Elder Bennett... So we have this investigator, i think i may have mentioned her before... her name is Dang and she is already Christian, but she is very bizzare and just a very loud personality... well this week we had an activity at the church and she came and apparently she has a crush on our dear friend E. Bennett here.. right before she left she slipped a note into his pocket and was like, it's my number... well it was her number and also mentioned that she is single, lives alone and is free a lot! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! Mind you, she is in her 50's.... poor elder Bennett! hahaha So we had to make sure Elder Bennett has locked his heart..... hahaha Then this week we also taught B. Ooh and the topic... ETERNAL MARRIAGE! hahaha so we go through the lesson and he is like super interested asking a bunch of questions and what not... at one point he turned to me and was like... S. Itri.. if you had to choose someone who you loved, loved you or was perfect, who would you choose? hahaha he always comes up with the most interesting questions... but anyways after that my companion was saying she was a little marriage trunky and she just wanted to go get married! haha so when we told this to our District leader, he immediately brought over the talk by Pres. Kimball for us to read! hahah Then, of course the next day as I was doing my studies, i turned to where i was in Matthew.. and guess what is was about... MARRAIGE!! hahaha oh heavens! So needless to say we have had a lot of marriage talk this week, but don't worry my heart is locked! haha So other that that our week was pretty standard! I am a little stressed out b/c transfers is this week and there is a chance that I will be moving, but i reallllllllyyyy don't want to! And I won't find out until tomorrow if i do or not so i have just been stressing over what will happen if i have to leave! But other than that everything is going so good! I love being a missionary! I know the gospel is true! Hope everyone at home is doing good! Love you! Love, S. Itri

Switch offs

Hello Family!!! Well things this week were a little crazy!!! We had switch offs this week and then we had district conference in Chiang Mai! So I guess I will start with switch offs. I stayed in Phitsanulok and S. Stolworthy came down from Chiang Mai on Thursday. It was a lot of fun to see her again! She came in a transfer before me so we spent some time in the MTC together so it was fun to work with her! But it was also SOOOOOO nerve racking b/c neither of us are super good at the language and i knew that i would have to be leading the area and teaching the majority of the lessons b/c she doesn't know any of the investigators and such so I was scared! But it ended up being way good! I did a lot more than I thought I could. Everything was very simple and basic but it we got through it! haha And we were able to set a goal for B. Jack to be baptized! YAAAAYYY!!! I am so excited for him! It was also a suupperr crazy day on friday b/c we were trying to get some of our members and investigators to go up to chiang mai for district conference and it was just such a head ache trying to figure seats in the van and such, b/c chiang mai is a 6 hr drive we had to make all sorts of arrangements.. But we have this one LA we have been working w/ who wanted to go, but didn't have anywhere to stay and she didnt want to stay alone so i was calling around to everyone trying to get something figured out for her b/c i wanted her to be there soooo baadd, i made over 70 phone calls to try and figure it out! Which was SOOOO much!! I had such a headache after that! and the end result was that she wasnt going :( so i was super sad! but we were able to get 3 of our investigators to go so i was sooo stoked about that! We taught Gap again this week and we are just about finished w/ all our lessons for him, but at the end of the lesson we talked about baptism again and he was like sister, i'm ready to get baptized, like now.... then our member B. Art turned to me and was like come on sister we need to move up his date! hahahaha sooo fuunnnnyyy!! but yes we are going to hopefully have him interviewed in like a week or 2 here! So I am sooo excited for him!!! yay! We also called another LA, B. Boy to try and teach him, but he said he wasn't free that night but he might be free on Sat morning, and that he would call us if he was... which to us meant... no way will i be calling you! hahaha but turns out he called!!! WHHAAATTT !?!? that doesn't happen... like ever... but then we had to find a female to help us, but EVERYONE was gone to chiang mai already or couldn't help!! AHHH SOOO frustrating! So we ended up just having the Elders come and teach him and we kind of just sat in on the lesson with them... hahah but it was a good lesson and i think we are really starting to make progress with him so that's good! Ok now i will move to Chiang Mai! So we had district conference and it was sooo goood!! We had E. Gong of the 70 here and he was just way awesome! we got to spend some good time with him after the meetings were over, but he just was so great. sounds like him and his wife are doing some great work here in asia! This week was sooo good and I just love everything here!! I am starting to get nervous thought b/c there's only about a week 1/2 left of this transfer and i reaalllyyyy do not want to move, but I am scared i am going to have to move and i really don't want to!! i feel like i just started to be able to understand everyone and really get to know the members and such and AHHH i just don't want to move!!! hahaha But we will see!!! Well i think that's about it for this week.... I still don't have any pictures of austin.... just sayin!! But I hope everything is going good w/ you all! Love you!! Love, S. Itri

another week

So I am a little disappointed that i find out I have a new nephew but have NOOOOO pictures!!!!!! Come on Family!!! there's 6 of you at least ONE of you should be able to send some :) But yay!!!! I am soooo excited to have a new little nephew little Austin John!!!! That's sooooo exciting!!!! Congrats Jon and Dani! Anyways, this week was a pretty standard week other than we had investigators CALL US!!!! WHAATT?!! that never happens, and they called to set up appointments b/c they just couldn't go longer w/o us teaching them!!!! AHHH!!!! So ya that was pretty awesome! We had 3 investigators do that with us this week! It was so bizzare but i LOVE it! But ya I don't really have much to write about this week, we have awesome investigators and members and everything is just going great! We also have 3 investigators that are going to be going up to Chiang Mai w/ us this week for District Conference which is nuts as well b/c it's a good 6 hour trip to go and they are all just so willing and want to go for conference! How cool are our investigators!?!?!? One of the ones who is coming to Chiang Mai hasn't even had the chance to come to church here yet but wants to go to Chiang Mai! Soooo coool!!! Yesterday it rained so church attendence was pretty low... I don't know if I have told you yet but Thai people are afraid of the rain so if it is raining they typically will not go out and some turn off their phones and such b/c they are afraid of lighting etc. etc. so ya rain really slows things down for us here, but we still had 4 of our investigators show up so that was awesome!! We had a pretty good lesson with Eve this week. We discussed authority and such again b/c she was just not understanding why she needed to be baptized again, and it clicked finally, but she is still unsure. She got really scared, 1. because she is terrified of water and 2. she is happy and comfortable at her other church and i think she has pressure from her aunt to stay where she's at. But I think she knows that eventually she will need to be baptized and make this change and that's why she is so scared. We do however need permission from her aunt b/c she is only 17 so we are hoping we can get that! She did come to church w/ Eve yesterday which what AWESOME! But she only stayed for sacrament, so not sure what she is thinking, hopefully we will figure that out this week! Other than that things were pretty standard nothing super exciting but we have a lot of people who are progressing and on track to be baptized so I am super excited! I love this work so much and I know that God is truly preparing these people for the gospel and wants them to be a member of the church and receive all the blessings that come with that! Being a missionary is awesome! Hope everything is going well at home! Sounds like everyone is having a fun weekend for Labor day! Love you! Love, S. Itri Here are some pictures so you can count your blessings of having a nice church building and make sure not to take it for granted! This is our rented building in Phitsanulok and we have been working on removing the mold and making it look a little nicer! ha The group pictures are us @ the school where we have been helping teach english at.

The Jing Joak in our toaster

So first off I have been gone for SIX MONTHS!!!!! WHHHAATTT?!?! I don't believe that at all! I just went to the MTC yesterday didnt' I? And there is no way that I have been in country for over 3 months now?!?! It BLOWS my mind! Missionary time is SOOO weeeeiiiiirrrrdddd!!! I don't like it! haha Things are always just moving so fast and so slow at the same time! It just doesn't make any sense!!!! But anyways just a random thought! Can't believe it has already been six months! Ok so now for something way more exciting.... BROTHER OOH WAS BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!! YYYYAAAAYYYY!!! It was sooo greeat!!! the service was PERFECT! Other than the fact he stressed us out a bit by showing up 20 minutes after we asked him too! (but we had a feeling he would be a little late so we asked him to show up 30 min before the baptism! haha) When he got there though we were very relieved! But we were said at the same time b/c the reason he was late was b/c he went to pick up Biim, but she ended up having to work and wasn't able to make it! That made me really sad, b/c I really wanted her to be there! But his mom was able to come which was awesome!!! She is so cute! As far as the service went, the 2 speakers were AMAZING, first was S. Nid, a recent convert who talked about the sacredness of baptism and such and just did awesome, then S. Mink spoke and just rocked it out too!! AHH it was just so great! The spirit was so strong there! Then he was baptized by our Branch President and then he bore a very good testimony.. he went off a little bit about some story about snakes... i didn't quite catch it all, but it was cute! and then just shared a few other experiences so that was awesome! This week we also talked to him about missionary work and he is praying about possibly going to serve a full time mission! He was really interested in it and said he knew it would make his life better if he did, so that is so awesome!! YAY!! I am soo excited for him!!!! Ok other good news is we have a few more investigators with a goal to be baptized!! One is Naa and we gave her a date on the first lesson with her! She is so ready and willing to accept the gospel! and man is she a fireball!! She just talks and talks and talks!!! But I love it she is so great! and she already gave us a referral and brought a friend to the baptism!!! She is great!! and then we have Tukda who is awesome! She is so excited too! After the baptismal service she just felt the spirit so strong and she will be a great member as well! The first time we met her was at English class and one of the Elders turned to us and was like, yep she's gonna be baptized (w/o even talking to her) haha but she is so great and she really is so prepared for the gospel! We also taught this one lady, Mone who we met off the invite a month or so ago and just went back to check up on her and turns out she has been praying every night, and then we gave her a Book of Mormon and she started reading immediately! She is really good, but she is afraid he family may have issues if she converts, so we're working on that! But it was soo cute, we were teaching her about Christ's Ministry and her grandson was there and as we were showing pictures we got to the one of Christ coming in the clouds and immediately he came to the picture and started kissing it and just throwing his arms up and got super excited!! IT WAS SOOO CUUUTTTEEE!!! and I know it's because he remember's Christ and showing the picture just got him all excited! AH it was so great! haha And now for a last little random note... so the other day we go into our kitchen to make some dinner and we turn on the light and all the sudden this little Jing Joak (small little creepy pink lizard thing) pops up and runs into our toaster!! Scared us to death!!!! those things are everywhere here and we probably have about 10 of them in our house that hang around, but they scare us all the time!! We were way afraid to use the toaster for a day b/c 1. we didn't want to fry the Jing Joak and 2. we didnt want it to pop out at us, but eventually we did use it again and it was jing joak free! haha Welp that's about my week for ya... sadly i have no clue what's going on at home b/c i got 0 news from anyone (hint hint) So I hope everyone is doing well! (PS has baby Topango come yet!?!?) Love, Sister Itri

Busy Week

This week was a busy one!!! At English class this week we had like 15+ new people show up that we needed to teach gospel intros to and it was crazy!!! We had to split up and take a bunch at a time! But we got some really great new investigators from it so i am way excited! Like half of them already have a Christian background, which is SOOOO WEEEIIRRDD!! we had to completely change up our teaching style when we found out b/c normally our fist lesson is just explaining who God and Jesus are so it's been interesting to try and switch things up a bit! But it's been fun! This week our investigator, B. Ooh had his baptismal interview and passed!!! YAAAAYYY!!!! He will be getting baptized this Saturday and i couldn't be more excited!! He has completely changed his life around and we have just seen soooo much progress with him! And he now wants us to start teaching his brothers here really soon, which is so great!! I am soo excited for him!! Ok so this week we are trying to help get some activities going for our YSA investigators and members so I need some ideas for fun games, activities, etc. to help get things going!! Most of our investigators are all in the YSA range but it's so hard to get them all to be friends w/ the members the same age and such so we are just trying to make it so they can all at least meet each other and have friends in the branch when they come to church and stuff, so any ideas are helpful!! :) This week we taught Eve the Word of Wisdom and it was soooo funny! We were explaining to her that we had a law for our health and such and the first thing she said was "can you not eat pork???!!" Sooo concerned, and getting us mixed up w/ islam.... but that's ok... the best part about it though, was her aunt had just given us some food that we were eating... that had pork in it!! hahaha But she is sooo cute and she is so willing to do our commitments! Now for Gap... he is SOO GREEATT!! we went over and taught him this week and he is now in 2 Nephi.... for the THHHIIIRRRDD Time!!!!!! AHHHHH!!!!! I seriously just cannot believe this kid! He is so ready to be baptized! We are still just working on getting his whole family up to speed, but he is being such a great example to them! I love it! They are all so great!! We also have a new investigator B. Jack, and he is SOO GOOODD!! We met him teaching english at the technical college and i have wanted to teach him since we met him like 2 months ago but now we are and he is great! he came to church this week and just loved it and ya he is just awesome! Well I love being a missionary!! It's the best thing ever!!! Hope everything is going good at home!! Love you all! Love, S. Itri

Trains, Buses, taxi's, mafia and more!

Ok so this week was a little crazy! TRANSFER WEEK!!! AHH!!! And since this was my companion's last transfer it wasn't really a normal week b/c here on our last week we can switch our P-day to the day before transfers and go basically explore bangkok for the day and such so that's what we did! It was fun! we just went around to all the little shops and then explored some malls and such. Now for the story of getting to bangkok! It was AWFUL! So first we had tickets to go down by train... we got to the train station at about 11 at night and they told us our train was going to be 4 hours late!! So then a member ran to the bus station and said we could get on a bus so we returned our train tickets to get on a bus in the middle of the night for a 6 hour bus ride to Bangkok! Then when we get there we had to get a taxi to take us to one of the sister's houses in bangkok so we get to this area w/ all the taxi's and they were trying to charge us 1,000 baht to get to this house (which is SUUUPPPERR expensive for a taxi ride, normally and hour taxi ride is about 2-300 baht) But at this point we were exhausted and we could only get them down to 900 baht and they wouldn't turn on the meter and they were the only taxis we saw and we had a bunch of luggage and stuff so it was a mess! So my companion and i just said whatever and got in... then as we were driving, our driver apologized saying that he couldn't lower his price anymore b/c his boss was part of the thai mafia!!!! AHHHHH!!!! later i found out from some other sisters that apparently that area is really sketch and especially in the middle of the night and such... so lesson learned! hahaha Anyways that was our craziness of travelling! But the rest of the week was really good! We had a lot of goodbyes with my comp. S. Maxwell and then i got my new companion S. King!! She is really great and i think we are going to be able to do some awesome work together! I am way excited! And also mom you may or may not have served with her mom in philadelphia?! Her maiden name is Gee... so did you ever serve w/ a Sister Gee?? It sounds like she would have been there around the same time as you! Anyways super random when we found out that! Ok now for some investigators! B. Oh is doing soooo great!!!! He is right on track to have his baptisimal interview this friday and be baptized next saturday! YAY! He is so great and just so ready for the gospel in his life... this week he shared an experience with us of how he had come to our english class like a year or 2 ago and wasn't really impressed and what not but then a few months ago he just had God and religion and stuff on his mind and he was saying how he jsut wanted to know if God was real and stuff, so he would just repeat over and over in his mind God, God, God, etc etc. And then he decided to come try english class again and that's where we met him and have been teaching him ever since!! It's seriously been sooooo amazing to see him progress and just completely change his life around and i am sooo excited to see him continue to progress! He is AWESOME! This week we also began teaching this kid Jack... We met him about a month ago from teaching english at this College close to us that we were asked to help and so we have seen him a bunch but this week he came to our english class that we teach at the church and said he was interested to learn more about the church too! I am suuupppperrr excited b/c from the 1st week we taught english at his school I have wanted to teach him b/c he is just so adorable! But I think he is going to be great! He knows B. Art our recent convert (they go to school together) So having his testimony will be awesome! I can't wait to see him progress as well! Other than that, this week has been just kind of random trying to show my new companion around and just kind of getting used to how she teaches and such.. but i am officially done w/ training!! WHOO! Even though i still feel like I need another 6 months with this crazy language before i will be confident with it! haha but i am no longer a greenie! haha But that was my week! Love you all and thanks for all the letters this week! Sounds like things have been pretty crazy w/ kyle getting home and i guess kent leaving?? (no one told me he got his mission call.......) but ya that is super excited! hope things are going well for everyone!! Love, S. Itri Ps... sounds like you haven't been able to get my pictures so i guess i will try and fix that! sorry

i'm gonna date him before i leave

HAAPPPYYY BIIIRRTHHDAAY LIIINNNKKIIIINN!!!!! (and J.Dee and Carly too :) ) Is link really 2 already!??! I don't believe that at all!!!!!! I hope you have a great b-day party for him and i want pictures!!! haha and Hope J.dee and Carly both had great birthdays too! :) Anyways so this week was another great week in Thailand! I will start with brother Ooh. He. is. awesome. So first off we were able to move his baptismal date to Sept. 1st :) yay!! he is soooo ready to be baptized, if it were up to me he would be baptized today! haha But this week he also introduced us to his mom so we have been able to teach her too! And she is just as awesome as him! Its funny b/c when we begin teaching her she just looks so tired (b/c she works all day) but then by the end of the lesson she is so alert and just excited asking a bunch of questions and such! and we committed her to be baptized as well! I am sooo excited for them and their entire family! There are 2 more brothers that we still haven't had the chance to teach yet but we are hoping to meet with them here in the next couple weeks! I just love seeing how much the gospel helps people! Ooh has just progressed SOOOOOO much and you can just tell he is so much happier to know these things! We also mentioned a little bit about missionary work w/ him and i think he is interested in serving a mission too! not positive, but he kept asking questions about it and such, so we'll see! He would be such a great missionary! Last night we were teaching his mom and i was struggling SOO bad (i am a little under the weather) so when his mom couldn't understand me he would just explain everything and do it way better than I could!! haha He is just so great! And his girlfriend Biim is still doing good, she is not progressing quite as fast as Ooh and we still need to get permission from her mom to baptize her, but she is still so great! She comes with great questions and he faith is definitely building :) Ok now for Gap! WOOW he is awesome too!! So we visited w/ him and were just catching up on his reading and such and we asked him, so where are you in the BoM... and he was like Mosisah 20 something.... so we got all confused b/c last time we talked to him he was in Alma... so then he was like, "oh yea i finished the whole thing already... i'm on my 2nd time through!!!" WHHHAAAATTT?!??! Who is this kid right!?! Goodness he is sooo great!!! He just loves to learn and wants to be baptized! And although he wasn't able to make it to church yesterday (it was thai mothers day) he asked us if we would come over after church anyways b/c he wanted us to teach him!!! AHHH!! Now we just need to get the rest of his family progressing as fast as him!! hahaha But they are all still doing good! This week we talked to B. Art about missionary work and it was so good! He has some concerns about money and such but I just know he is going to go! He has been helping the Elders teach like every single day and they keep telling us how great he is and that he just has the best advice and is just so helpful! I know he is going to be such a great missionary i can't even wait!!! This week is my Companions last week in Thailand so we have also been spending lots of time w/ members and less actives and such and it just makes me so happy b/c we really just have the best members and investigators and just everything here is soooo great!!!! It's really weird to think i am going to be getting a new companion on thursday... and a little bit scary! I am semi terrified that I am going to get a thai companion and we aren't going to be able to communicate at all... b/c although i have learned a lot the past few months.. i am still lost 65% of the time! hahaha But i know whoever i get will be what i need! haha Now for the funny/awkward moment of the week... So me and my companion were talking to S. Harris (the senior sister in our district) and we were talking about our member, S. Mink and her parents and how they just need to be baptized... so we were talking about her dad and i said... ya i'm going to date him before i leave ! (as in give him a baptism date) but S. Harris just heard it as in i want to date him before i leave and just went off saying "Well S. Itri, I don't think that's too appropriate is it?" hahaha the best part is she is from England so now picture that with a British accent and you have one of the funniest moments this week! haha I dont really know what else to say other than i just LOOOOVVEEE being a missionary!!! and even if i don't understand everything all of the time I can just feel the testimonies of all these amazing people and see their desire to change and it is just so awesome!!!! Hope everything is great at home! Love you! Love, ซ. อิตรี

"If I didn't have faith I wouldn't be on this stupid bus!!!"

Hello Family! This week was good! A little bit hectic b/c we had Zone Conference so we had to go up to Chiang Mai again so there were some long bus rides involved but it was really good. Zone Conference was great! I'm really excited about our new mission president and for the things he has planned for Thailand! One thing he mentioned is that we can start to basically get as creative as we want in our finding new investigator tactics... apparently a few Elders tried the Dan Jones, Soap Box method just standing out there on one preaching! hahaha... sounds like that one wasn't too effective but I would love to hear some ideas from everyone! What were effective finding ideas on your mission? Or ideas you had but just never did! Let me know! Be as creative as you want! :) Ok so now back to the bus ride, as i think i have mentioned before to get to Chiang Mai is about a 6 hour bus ride of no leg room, blasting Thai music w/ obnoxious music videos to go along with it...So as we were on our journey's the senior couple were sitting by us talking about gospel stuff and faith etc. etc. and then as they were talking i hear the Senior elder, Elder Harris just say to his wife, "If I didn't have faith I wouldn't be on this stupid bus!!!" hahahaha he doesn't like buses much..... ha Another funny story... i don't think i've told it but the other week we were teaching these 2 guys and we were talking about baptism and showed them a picture, and so one asks, "why is his arm up?" and the other investigator instantaniously says.. "it's so he can whack him duh" hahaha so we got a kick out of that and it got brought up again this week so i thought i would share it. ha This week we began teaching some new people who have a Christian Background and man is it hard! You would think it would be easier than teaching a bunch of Buddhist that don't even know who God is, but nope! They are really great and they know their stuff, but when we tried to give them a baptismal date and explain to them about it they just kept saying, "we've already been baptized though...." AH! and then we went to authority and they just said their preacher had authority too! So they are going to be a little more difficult than we expected, but they are great and came to part of church yesterday so that was awesome! This week we also set out as missionaries and some awesome branch members to clean up our rented church building b/c it was DISGUSTING!! The room we had to teach in had stains all over, the paint was cracking and chipping and as we were cleaning we found mold of every color and variety so that was fun! White mold, yellow mold, red mold and more! But we were able to clean things up a bit, fix some leaks and paint it and it looks a million times better now! On Saturday the mission president and his wife came into P-lok and were able to come teach with us (president w/ the elders and S. Senior w/ us) and it was so good! S. Senior is so great and just really gave our investigators some great advice and such! Then on Sunday they were able to come to church and while Pres. was speaking he may have announced that he would begin to search for land for us to get our own building here in P-Lok!!!!! YAYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We couldn't even believe it! We are sooooo excited and i think that is really going to help the work here progress, b/c right now we can't even fit all our members and investigators in this little tiny building, it was funny afterwards President was like, I realized you needed one when every time someone came up to bear their testimony and go sit back down and everyone was playing musical chairs trying to find a place to sit!! hahaha So needless to say we are so excited to see how much this branch has progress and will continue to progress! After church yesterday we also were just hanging out talking to some of the members and one of the Elders had given our new Recent convert B. Art his Missionary White Handbook to read, and afterwards he was like so what do i need to do to save money to go on a mission, etc. etc.!!!! AHHHH why is he so great and so ahead of us? He like just reads our minds of the next thing we are going to teach him and just beats us to it!!! So this week we are going to talk to him about missionary work and help him prepare to serve a mission hopefully!!! :) So, we have come to the conclusion that our investigator, Ooh just is trying to stump us! He just comes with the best questions! haha This week he had "Why did Nephi's bow have to break, he was doing everything right etc. etc.?" and his other question was "do we believe in coincidences?" so what are your thoughts on these things? I know what we said but I want some other view points :) Well I think that is the gist of my week here! This week is my last week w/ my companion S. Maxwell, and she will be heading home next week! AHHH!! It's going to be soo weird! But ya hope everything is going well. Commitment: bring one non-member friend to church. Our mission president said if every member could just bring 1 person think about how great that would be! Our wards (branches) would DOUBLE if everyone just brought ONE person.. So that's what I will commit each of you to do :) Hope everything is going great! Love you all! PS you should all probably right me b/c i only got a tiny bit from J.dee this week. Ok that's all :) Love, S. Itri

Muangbaromasugakasem!

So this week was kind of slow... it just seemed like EVERYTHING went wrong! haha We had like everyone cancel our lessons, and half our investigators are out of town, so that was kind of a bummer.. We also went out proselyting but had 0 luck at all. We are claiming its b/c we are in a Book of Mormon shortage here and it's really hard to teach the restoration when we don't have any BoM's to hand out! Even at our English class we had 0 new investigators which we normally get at least 2-4 so that was a bummer! But oh well, hopefully we can get some BoM's soon so we can continue to teach!! But we did have some great lessons with Ooh and Biim this week! They are soooo great!! They are scheduled to be baptized October 6, however we think they will be ready before that! They just have a few more things they need to work out. They did mention that they may want to get married so who knows?! It was funny this week we were talking about the spirit world and paradise and prision and the word for paradise in thai is "muangbarmasugakasem" (say that 10 times fast) and when we said it they didn't recognize the word so we explained that it's basically heaven or "sawan" and Biim was like... "well why didn't you just say that then!" hahahaha But ya they are both still doing so great! Then we taught Guy's family again and they are all preparing to be baptized on Oct. 13th! We are super excited for them! they are such a great family and will really help the branch here i think! We were able to teach the plan of salvation with them and I think that really helped them realize what their purpose in life is and gave them a good goal to work for. We also have a new investigator that seems like he is going to progress great! His name is Daow, we've only met with him once but he seemed really excited to learn. He has previously been a monk but he felt like things were just super corrupt in the way Buddhism is set up so he is just looking for something that makes sense! So this week we are going to teach him the restoration and see where it goes from there! But he is so great! I have been soo impressed w/ how much these younger people are interested in religion and such.. he is like 21/22 or something like that and he just wants to know the truth! and most of our investigators are about 20-27 so it's been super interesting to see them grow and learn! I love it! Other than that, this week has really been slow, even with hours of proselyting and trying the best we can, just not a lot of luck :( Hopefully once we get some more BoM's to hand out things will pick up! By the way it is WAAAYYY hard to teach the Restoration w/o having one to hand out! hahaha We have been tempted to go make some pirated copies (there arent any copyright laws here) b/c we just don't know what to do! haha Committment: Be on time to all your appointments and don't cancel on anyone!!!!! :) and bring a friend to church while you're at it! Anyways, hope everything is going good at home! Love you! Love, S. Itri

Serve, Serve SERVE

So this week was pretty much AMAZING!!!!! We had a lovely baptismal service for the most golden investigator ever!!! B. Art is soooo great!!! He was just so happy and excited to be baptized (and confirmed) haha we like to joke about the confirmed part now since we had our whole fiasco w/ B. Woot. But ya everything went great!! I don't even know how to describe how great brother Art is but he's just awesome!! And the elders here are already getting him ready for a mission!! Yesterday.. less than 3 hours of being a member they had him come help them teach... and then they called him again to help them later that evening!! Poor kid!! haha luckily we have already prepped him a little about service... but i don't think he realized that he will basically be the missionaries best friend from here on out... especially b/c the elders need a male member to help teach females.. and since there's about 10 male members in this branch he's about to get a whole lot of service in!! hahaha But he is so great and so willing to help! Other news for the week is we got permission from Biims mom to teach her!! YAY!!! we are sooo excited her and Ooh are just so great and love learning... I cant remember if i mentioned it already or not.. but they Biim moved out so they could keep the law of chasity which was a HUGE leap of faith for them.. especially b/c she moved back w/ her mom who she hadn't talked to in forever before this! We are just so proud of them! They have so much faith! We were talking to Ooh and asked why he wants to be baptized and such and he was soo cute and just said simply that he wants to show that he can be a better person and be a good example to his family! AHH!! So stinkin cute!! But ya they are so great and we are so excited for them!! This week we also taught Wan and gave her a baptism date!! She is scheduled to be baptized on Sept 22! She is so great! She just wants to find the truth! She is already christian so she's a little hesitant still b/c she really wants to have a solid confirmation that these things are true, which is so great and i think she will get an answer here very soon! This week we also began teaching Bing's dad.. Bing is cousins w/ Gap Giik and Goy and has already come to church for about a month but this week we were able to talk to her dad and it is going so great!! He is so open and he just wants to be happy and make sure that his daughter is happy! Mom lives in Brunei? Not sure where that is, but it's not in Thailand! haha But hopefully we can figure out if there are missionaries wherever she is and get her learning too! But Bing is soooooooo adorable! When we were teaching dad to pray and stuff she just went off teaching for us... "you have to bow your head" "start with heavenly father..." etc. etc.! GAH! We just have the mooosstt adorable investigators everrrrrr!!!!! She even helped us explain baptism and they said that when they know these things are true they will be baptized! yay!!! :) We also taught Guy Gap Giik and Goy and they are soo great too! Gap is like superman flying through the scriptures!! He's already on Alma 33!!! WHAAATT?!?!? He is so great!!! and the rest of the family is doing great too!! Goy actually took her BoM over to Bings house for a sleepover and they studied the scriptures together!!!! HOW CUTE ARE THEY????!?!? AHH!! I don't even know what else to say other than we have the BEEESSSTT investigators in the World and i just love being a missionary and helping them get excited about the gospel too!! ANYWAYS... That was my week in a nut shell! I just don't even know how to explain all my excitement and happiness for all the people we are teaching/baptizing :) Everything is great! Commitment this week: go help the missionaries teach... 2ce in a day if you can :) and just be as awesome as B. Art! :) Love you! Hope everything is going good! Love, ฃ. อิตรี

Can I Get a Woot Woot

Ok this week was a little crazy, but first i just want to say I'm sad to hear the Terry's dad passed away. I hope the family is doing well. How's his mom doing? Anything I can do!? As for everything here, it is going GREAT! I love being a missionary! We had one of our investigators, B. Art get interviewed for baptism and he passed so this week he will be baptized on Saturday!!! YAY!!! He is soooo great!! We have only been teaching him for about a month now but he is just understanding everything soooo well (which is very unusual in thailand b/c of all the Buddhist background) And he is just so ready to be baptized!! Which brings be to a question he asked... so he was reading in Jacob 5 and asked why is there in olive tree in a vinyard? (in thai in translates to grape garden, which makes it a bit more confusing) So that is my question... why is there an olive tree in a grape garden??? haha But he is so great! he has such a strong testimony already and we are hopefully going to be able to teach his family here soon! he told us he wants us to, they just live about an hour and a half away, so we just have to work that out as to when we can get out there (b/c that is still our area technically) haha it's funny we were talking about our area boarders and figured out that basically our area is all of central thailand... YAY! But we are so excited that he wants to share the gospel with his family too b/c that tends to be a VERY sensitive subject here. Then we have Ooh and Biim who are just as adorable as ever, except we have been forbidden to teach Biim by our zone leaders b/c we haven't gotten specific permission from her mom (who she hasn't spoken to in over a year +) so we are still trying to figure out that, she is trying to reach her step dad and work that way, so hopefully that will happen really soon! But they are still so great! they came to our activity this week and were at church yesterday.. which we were a little nervous that they wouldn't b/c we also sprung the law of chastity on them... but it all went really good! They are so cute! This week they also planted a little garden along the street we live, which about a couple months ago was a DUMP that the senior missionaries cleaned up a little bit ago and have been planting flowers and stuff, and so our cute investigators wanted to help out and plant some too!! HOW GREAT ARE THEY?!?! And now we have a new dater!! It is Gap! The cute 16 yr old boy (who reminds me eerily of James)! He is soooo great!! We gave mom a date too, but she is still struggling with the idea of coming to church on sunday.. and we were going to give the girls one too but they weren't there when we were teaching (b/c when we called Gap answered and said we could come w/o making sure the rest of the family would be there....hahaha) But ya we are so excited for him... and guess where he is in his reading.. oh ya he is in 2 Nephi 31.. and further now b/c that was on saturday.... WHAAAATT!?!? We just gave him a book of mormon like 2 or 3 weeks ago!!!! He is so great! and the rest of the family is reading together and just doing so great!! They were at church yesterday and they just fit in so well and they love coming! I am just soo excited for them!! And hopefully this week we will be able to date the rest of the family and get mom to come to church... We are hoping they can all get baptized on Oct. 13! But ya they are awesome! Ok so now can i get a Whoot Whoot?! This week was SUUUPPPERR confusing... so we have been teaching this guy Whoot, that was referred to us: the one who was baptized and not confirmed right? Then this week in District Meeting we were asked to show some of the less active work we were doing, so we brought the records and we were going through them and there was a record for Whoot... and a picture and it was the same Whoot we were teaching but it said he had been baptized like 4 years ago and had the priesthood, so we were SUPER confused thinking well did he get picked up again by missionaries last november with out them realizing he was already a member and they just baptized him again!? Like how on earth did things get that apostate right?! and the teaching record even said something to the effect of, we met whoot while inviting and it was super weird b/c he let us right in and was suupper accepting of the message and willing to keep all the commitments... and it was strange how easily he accepted it... So then we were thinking, well ya apparently he is already a member!!!?!?!? WHAT?!? and then to add to the confusion in one of our lessons w/ Whoot we had a member with us and he said he remembered baptizing Whoot so we called him and he said that that was just under a year ago that he did that! but in the picture we had it looked like it was an Elder that baptized him b/c they were both in all white. AHHHH!!! So trying to figure this all out, to make sure we didn't baptize the same Whoot twice we had to call in some help from S. Mink and we got it all straightened out.... there are TWO Whoots with almost exactly identical stories of why they went inactive and were avoiding calls from missionaries and such, and we were in fact teaching the LA Whoot thinking he was the "investigator" Whoot! AH! But now that we have straightened it out we are looking for the real investigator Whoot and will hopefully be able to teach him real soon here! hahaha So that was a bit of our craziness here in Phitsanulok for the week! I love being a missionary and i feel SOOO lucky to have such AMAZING investigators that are sooo ready to here the gospel... this week between us and the elders we had 17 investigators and church!!! YAY!!!!!! That is a new record I believe! So We are really excited to get the work to keep moving here! We were actually overflowing during sacrament and had some people in the hall and others in this little back room it was nuts!! Pray for us to get a church building here b/c we desperately need one!!!! But ya other than that things are awesome! My commitment for you this week is to be as awesome as all our investigators here... :) Love you all! Hope everyone is doing good! Love, S. Itri