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