BAPTISM SQUARED

Nook (On the left by Me) and Praew's (On the Right by S. Zatarain) Baptism!! 

The Young Men; Half of them are RC's, Two investigators and and Less Active members that came back!   

Branch Activity at the Waterfall   

Hey, it's almost March and that seems so unreal. How was everyone's week? Is it warmed in Utah yet? It's started to get really, really hot here. Lately, we go through more water in a day than we have in a week. 

This week was crazy! I've been trying to think about what to write because most of the events happened towards the end of the weekend. I had some health issues on Wednesday and had to stay home for a few days; therefore, we didn't get to do as much work as we had planned. The Elders gave me a blessing and now, I'm just about back to normal. Nothing to worry about! Nook and Praew's baptism was also another miracle because I feel like every obstacle that could have been thrown at us came our way. 

We found out that Sister Nook needed a second interview so we had it all set up on Tuesday but then we found out that she hadn't told her parents that she was getting baptized. She had just told her older sibling who is like her second guardian and that sibling and said it was okay. We told her that we would like to go meet her parents and just get to know them and provide encouragement for them to support her in this decision. She was a little shifty in letting us meet her parents because "they're never free." It was really difficult to meet with them plus I couldn't really leave the house for more than a few hours. Thursday night we get a phone call and this lady told us that she's the mother of Nook and she gives full permission for her daughter to get baptized. She said Nook told her (the mom) that she really wants to get baptized so she is okay with it. Friday comes around and that is when she was scheduled to be interviewed again but we had already left the night before for Chiang Mai for training. We made so many phone calls and our branch president and young women's president plus her daughter; Sister Bang helped out so much. She passed and so the next tricky part is planning the baptism. We needed clothes, they asked Sister Zatarain and I to give talks and we needed to arrange things according to when the members would be home from the ward activity at the waterfall. 

The next morning, we went to the church and set up, clean up and turn on the water and managed to find enough white clothing for the girls. When we got back to the church, the next concern is the pressure of the water. Since everyone, including the missionaries were going to the activity, no one would be there to monitor the water flow so Elder Harris said we would have to turn it to half volume. The branch activity was great and so fun. Members, less actives and investigators all went. It was interesting because Sister Praew told the branch president that she was having her time of the month and she wasn't sure if she could get baptized. Sister Zatarain and I thought it was ironic because she was playing in the water at the waterfall the whole time. We figured it wouldn't be a problem if she was already soaking wet. The cool part was, at one point the branch president, Elder Harris and us missionaries talked about baptizing the girls in the river since all the members were already there and everything. The final decision was to do it at the church. When we got back to the church, it's about 1pm and the baptism is supposed to start at 2pm because the girls needed to get to school by 3pm. We looked in the font and the water is only half way. This isn't the first time it's happened so I wasn't too worried but we were more so worried about time. We asked the girls if it could be at 3pm and they agreed. Apparently, their class started at 4, but they told us 3pm to give themselves enough time to get to school. We rushed home, changed and tried to look somewhat presentable ourselves, then went back and it all worked out! 

This week, we are going to go try to find more people to teach! We need a huge boost in our teaching pool. Please pray for those who are ready to open their hearts and the members as well. Just about every baptism here has come from member referrals and English class. In other news, Brother Guy received the Aaronic priesthood yesterday!! He was so happy. We also went to meet his mom and for some reason, in my mind it made me nervous because we had heard that they were upset that he spent so much time at the church. When we got there, his mom welcomed us with a smile, took us by the hand gave us water and talked to us for an hour. She was just being a good mom when she expressed that she was concerned about what Brother Guy was doing for so many hours away from home. She would call him and he wouldn't pick up his phone and sometimes, he would even turn it off. Honestly, it made me laugh, I told her I used to be like that; I won't answer mom's phone calls because I was having fun and didn't want to come home yet. Then, we shared with her that the message we teach and have taught to Brother Guy is about change. Then we all can be better and improve and the gospel makes us happier. The lady needs the gospel! You just look at her eyes and can tell that she's tired, but she has so much love for her two children and all she wants to do is give them happy lives and success. She's so cute and sweet! 

Lastly, I've been reading in Alma and this past week I came across chapter 5; a well-known chapter. This time I loved how much it talks about how the Lord, "changed their hearts". One of my friends talked about the talk given by Elder Christofferson in May 2011. "As many as I loveth I rebuke and chasten". It really hit me this week because at one point in the talk he says (something to the effect of) though it (chastening) may be hard to endure, we should rejoice and be grateful that the Lord thinks we are worth the time and trouble to correct. I loved that because ever since the start of my mission I've had a hard time with not being the perfect missionary because I know I have my faults and many of them too. But God doesn't expect us to be perfect all at one time. It's a constant change of our hearts and that we just need to try. The goal still is to be perfect but we definitely need His help if we are to understand how to become. It set up a perspective for me. Our lives are not necessarily on a time scale in the sense that we don't know when we will die but our missions are. It is specifically for 18 months or 2 years. It's a mini measurement of progression and how for the rest of this life we will never be done working towards perfection.  The scriptures are great! 

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful, wonderful week! 

I love you all! 

Always, 

Sister Yeo 

BAPTISMS!!!

Mission Photo

Sister's Conference Photo 2013

Funniest day!! :D

Such a happy day!

A very happy kid

Went to Sukothai today 

Look how much our branch has grown in 5 months!! 

Sister Zatarain and I 

Look at the Elders we have to deal with ... haha Just kidding. He's awesome. 

Riding around.

Being silly.

This email will be really short! Sorry but we have a family home evening in about 40 minutes and we need to run to the store and grab some treats! How is everyone this weekend?! Did you all have a happy Valentines!?? It made me giggle last week when mom said that I don't particularly like Valentine’s Day; which was absolutely correct, but this year was ok. All the sisters in the mission got together for a conference [no Elders :)] and we heard some really good talks and ate a lot of good treats…and vegetables. 

Then this week we had a BAPTISM!! Brother Guy is the funniest person I will ever meet in my life. Saturday was nothing but happiness and lots of laughs. He's totally a goof ball too! He's about as tall as Trina so the Elders that brought clothes for him are about 2 feet taller than him. The clothes were soo huge. All was well though and it worked out in the end. The cool part was that Brother Jack; who got baptized exactly 2 months ago from Saturday was the one who baptized him. I've never been so happy as I was on Saturday. As always Satan tries real hard to frustrate our work because when we met with Brother Guy on Friday he was concern because his family had issues with him changing religions. Brother Jack again shared the most powerful experience and such a strong testimony about the gift of the Holy Ghost and facing trials with faith in the Savior. The spirit was so beautiful in the one hour and it was a special moment for the two of them. I'm so happy that I've been able to stay in this area for so long and see such real growth in various individuals as well as the branch. Sunday, Brother Guy showed up really late for church which made us worried because he needed to be confirmed to have a complete baptism; but don't worry he was confirmed and welcomed into the branch. He sat by Brother Jack and I and he said, "I slept in because yesterday, I was so happy after being baptized that I slept the best that I have in a while." It was such an awesome thing to hear. 

The branch here is growing. I think I tell you this every week but it really is and the members are all "putting their shoulder to the wheel". I don't want to leave!! ah. 

Not much else to report. We are happy and healthy and going to Chiang Mai on Friday. Elder Gong is here and it will be fun to see him and his wife. I'm sure you remember that she was my Chinese teacher at Provo High…so I'm hoping we don't try to speak in Chinese because I've forgotten it all and every time I come across a Chinese speaker, I answer them in Thai. Anyway, this Saturday our two other investigators are getting BAPTIZED!! Yeahhhh Sister Nook and Praaw passed their interviews yesterday and it will be another fantastic weekend. 

All our recent converts: Brother Oh, Sister Na, Sister Deng, Brother Art, Brother Jack Brother Taow and Sister Dukda are all doing well. Almost every week we see all of them at church... going strong and preparing to go to the temple. The gospel is beautiful! 

This week there were 2 people that walked into the church and walked out essentially wanting to change their lives. We had the Elders meet with them because the first guy had a lot of family problems and was about to take his life. The second was addicted to alcohol and wanted to get rid of the addiction. The Harris' (the senior couple) decided they will spend 2pm - 5pm at the church for people to walk in and get tours and we put a sign up welcoming all visitors. 

I don't have the capacity to explain how exciting the work is!! But I know with all my heart that Heavenly Father is right here in P-lok laboring with us. Caring for every detail and preparing the way for us. So many miracles! 

Well I guess this was longer than I expected but sorry I won't get around to emailing you all personally. 

Love you all!!! 

Love 

Sister Yeo  

Camping and Miracles and Happy Valentines Day!

Brother Guy!! 

Branch Service Project 

Happy New Year 

This week has been so fun! OH, my gosh! I love P-lok SOOO much!! First, the interesting news and then the awesome news. In terms of camping, the water at our house was turned off. :P We've been “camping” since Friday. One of my former companions here forgot to pay the water bill so they finally cut us off. The funny thing is, they never came and followed up with us; which is why it still hadn't been paid yet. Not to worry, I called the land lady and things are squared away. They'll turn on our water tomorrow. We took our showers at Sister Harris' house. Elder Harris was kind and left the house while we were over and went to the grocery store until we were done. It's been fun and the experience helped us to appreciate the simple things in life, like plumbing. J

Now the good news: Brother Guy is getting baptized on Saturday!!!! :D He passed his interview yesterday and this weekend Brother Jack (who got baptized two months ago, also the friend that referred Brother Guy to us) is going to baptized him!! :D :D :D 

Jack is literally one of my favorite people.  Right before the interview Brother Guy was really nervous and so they (him and Brother Jack) went outside and stood on the balcony of the church and just talked and I think it helped him feel calmer. Anyways, we are going to meet his mom tonight when we will invite her to the baptism and also invite her to learn the gospel! 

Yesterday, we had another miracle and this week, it is Brother Oh. He is another recent convert (RC) but started to go less active shortly after his baptism. We kept an eye out for him a lot; especially, since he lives down the street from us. He and his girlfriend were living together even though we seriously taught him everything, committed him to prayer, and committed him to do something to get back to keeping this commandment. Last month Sister Zatarain and I committed him to fasting. When we followed up with him, he said he wasn't sure if he got an answer yet. He fasted that his younger brother will be interested in learning the gospel. Well, for the last few days he has been incredible happy and we were sure why. Then he told us that three days ago, his girlfriend moved out of the house!! Yesterday night, his brother came to learn with us and he accepted a soft commitment to get baptized!!! It is really the happiest I've seen Brother Oh in the 5 months that I've been here. It was such a great week!! 

Church attendance is at 70 and we are just so close but not quite there yet. I feel like a huge part of the branch has “caught the fire” and wants to have their own building but there is just a little bit more that we need to do to reach our goal. Somehow, we are always missing random people on Sunday and it seems like we can never get everyone together on one Sunday. I was telling Sister Zatarain that I feel like our week just builds up to Sunday and we just need to have the faith that our work for the week was what the Lord wanted us to do and then when Sunday does come, He will take care of the rest. Every Sunday morning when church starts, we have 40 people and it’s so heart wrenching but then 10 minutes later everyone shows up. Guess it’s just church culture to always be 5-10 minutes fashionably late. Hmm? 

Our two other investigators, Nook and Praaw came to church as well!! They are doing great! They are both getting baptized next Saturday. They still have a little more to learn and still need to be interviewed but right now, they are progressing towards that goal and we are helping as well. This week, we have a lot to solidify with them and we are a little pressed for time because we are going down to Bangkok for a “Sister's Conference" with Sister Senior and all the other sisters in the mission on Valentine’s Day. It should be fun and we are both excited but it's taking two of our work days out instead of one. However no complaints, all will work out and it will be great! The youth group is really growing here and these three people getting baptized have really been prepared by the Lord! It's been neat to teach them and see how much it impacts them as well as the branch. Like that talk from General Conference; we are seeing REAL GROWTH. 

I hope you all had a fun Chinese New Year and ate a lot of yummy food. Ironically, we ate American food yesterday. However, in honor of my Chinese heritage I did wear red! J  What's the temperature over there now? BTW, Sister Harris showed us a video of students from Olympus high school in Utah that opened their mission calls and we saw three of the new missionaries coming here to Thailand. Two elders and one sister from that video. In April, we will have around 18 missionaries finish their missions and 32 come in!!! It's so sweet! A large part of our mission will be in training and are very young! 

Well, all is well on this end of the world. Sister Zatarain and I are loving it up here and she's great and we're learning a lot of things together. She hilarious, I'm pretty sure I tell you every week but we are always laughing about something.  

Oh yes… 

Happy Valentines Day! <3

Love you all so much <3   

Sister Yeo 

History In The Making

At transfers with President and Sister Senior

My MTC District

Still in P-lok with Sister Zatarain!! :D SO happy!!

The four elders who are going to Laos

So much has happened this week that I'm not sure where to start! How's everyone doing over there? Hope you're hanging in there with the cold weather. Things in P-lok are starting to heat up. Yes, I am still in P-lok and serving with S. Zatarain!! I was sooo happy when we found out I wasn't moving. By the end of this transfer, I will have served in this area for 6 months and in the “North Zone” for 9 months…so about half my mission. I love it up here and I’m so grateful that I've spent my time in this part. So many cool things happened this week, I think I'm going to start with the bigger scale and come back down to P-lok. 

All the missionaries went down to transfers on Thursday. It was so fun to see everyone and President Senior made some pretty big announcements. New areas were opened and four missionaries were sent to Lao! However they are not allowed to proselyte. President Senior has given us instruction to share the following: 

“By invitation, the Thailand Bangkok Mission received approval to have four young service volunteers to labor in Vientiane, Laos.  These service volunteers will work with Deseret International Charities under the direction of the Senior Couples who are located in Vientiane, and will be involved in a variety of humanitarian and educational service opportunities, including clean water projects, hygiene, neo-natal education and English language instruction.  The young volunteers will also support the Branch activities of the Laotian Saints in Vientiane, Laos.  The Church is not yet officially recognized in Laos and this recent activity is for the purpose of providing additional educational and humanitarian service.”

They are not teaching the gospel yet but only giving service so that one day in the near future, missionaries will be allowed to teach members there. There is currently a small branch in the area.  Last year, there were 40 baptisms and a few months ago, a copy of the Book of Mormon was published. Big things are happening in our mission. It brought tears to everyone at transfers. The picture I sent home are the first four missionaries to go. I served in the same district with all except one and they are such good missionaries. 

Also new sister areas are open! They opened up my last area, Bangkhae again!! They also opened up the area where we have transfers meeting. So who knows where I'll go next?! 

It was really nice to get back to P-lok after that day. Being away from the area is really weird and even though we aren't gone for long, I missed it for the 24 hours. Our investigators are all progressing. They'll be getting baptized next weekend and one more the week after that. Yesterday, we taught Brother Guy the rest of the Plan of Salvation. It was interesting timing because at church he told us that his aunt just died. In the middle of the lesson he got up and he started drawing on the whiteboard what he understood from what we just taught and it was the cutest thing! He understands everything so well. It'll be so great to see him be a missionary in the future too! 

Our other investigator, Sister Praaw (not sure how to spell her name in English) is also on the same track. She is very quiet but she has a glow in her eyes every time we teach her and she just love it all. She keeps every commitment and she's been to church every week since we've started teaching her. 

I feel really blessed being in P-lok this long because I've seen it grow so much. Yesterday, we had another full house of 70 people and we are closer to our goal of 80 and getting a new church building! It was encouraging yesterday seeing 70 people and knowing we are so close. When I first got here there were about 40 people coming consistently. It been way cool to see the Lord touch the lives of the people here. The youth are so amazing and they have a special place in my heart because that is where I've focused my personal purpose in P-lok. Big things are happening here and we are determined to help this branch become a ward. Our new district leader is my Phii (the group one transfer ahead of me) so we are a really young district but everyone is hard working. Our senior couple is still soo awesome. P.s. they were in the news and we'll be in the news this month too. I forgot to bring the website address with me but I'll write it down for next week. 

Well, I love you all!! Thank you for all your support! Till next week 

Love always, 

S. Yeo