Thailand/Korat- week 10 I realize I could never do any of this on my own! He truly is involved in every detail of our lives. I've always believed that, but now I know it!

My week was good!

Things are good here, we have transfers in two weeks which is crazy.

Sister Mamea and Sister Alley had switch-offs this week in Udorn so me and Sister T were companions for a couple of days. She's one of my Phii Thai's so it was really fun! Although it was hard for the both of us when we didn't understand. So I just do what I usually do, I just smile and nod my head like I understood everything haha! Anyways, when we were going back to Roi-Et for me to get Sister Mamea, I had to go to the bathroom so I go into the bathroom at the bus station and all there is is squatter toilets. I vowed to never use one of those so I go back out and say I can hold it for four hours till we get to Roi-Et. Yeah right! I was dying, and finally I said I'd use the bus bathroom. Again I walked in and then walked right back out saying I couldn't do it. I was being so stubborn about it! But by the time we had 45 minutes left I knew I couldn't hold it any longer and used that gross bathroom.  It literally was the grossest bathroom I've ever used. And then 10 minutes later we were in Roi-Et. I was so mad! But yeah, that's my sad bathroom story. 

Something we've been working really hard on this week is getting new investigators. We've been calling formers and potentials and inviting and nothing has really come of it. But this last week we called this guy (Bro. Tuu) we'd contacted a couple of weeks ago and we taught him at a pizza place. He'd met the missionaries before when he lived in Washington (he's a lawyer, but you'd never guess he was a lawyer!). They'd given him a BOM but he'd never gone to church and so now he said he wants to make up for it and try to help us. He's been giving us his friends numbers and comes to help us clean the church. It's so great! He likes to feed us a lot too, it's funny.

We had another cool experience yesterday. Sister Jenny has a friend she really wants us to teach. Sister Jenny is great too, she tells all her friends and co-workers about the church and if that doesn't get them she tells them about English class. She's a great missionary! Anyways, that lady was kind of shocked and was saying that right then she was too busy. So we walk back out and we see this guy working on his bike. We decided to talk to him and it turns out his mom had just died and she came to him in a dream. And in that dream he saw two American missionaries like us. We told him, "Hey, that's a sign!" He said he really loves learning about Christ but doesn't know which church to join. But he's interested in learning about ours! So we're going to teach him sometime this week. It's amazing how things like that happen. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time!

Me and Sister Mamea tried this new thing. We call RC's or LA's every single night and share a spiritual thought with them. We've been really trying to focus on LA's lately. There's a lot here because it becomes really hard when a lot of their family is Buddhist or they live too far away from the church or just stuff like that. The church is just really young here. But instead of a spiritual thought, we started singing hymns to them in Thai. We figured that we both love music and it always brings the spirit in. We sang Nearer My God to Thee to one guy. We've never met him before but he says he lives too far away to come to church. His whole family are members too and they don't come. But he said that when we sang to him, he remembered how he felt when he used to go to church. He didn't come to church last Sunday but I think just even bringing a remembrance to his spirit about those things is so important. We love singing to everyone now, and everyone that we call loves it. So we'll probably be doing that a lot!

Things here in Korat have been so great though. I'm still waiting for this hot season to be over. Or who knows, maybe it is over and I just can't tell! It only rains at night, which annoys me. I want it to rain during the day! But I guess that would just be too easy for me if it rained everyday while we were out proselyting haha. The language is getting a lot better. I try not to let it hold me back as much. I just talk and usually they know what I'm saying. But it really is getting easier! I tend to think in Thai now or translate things into Thai in my head. It's so funny how that happens! Every little bit of Spanish has almost vanished out of my head. I'm really sad! But it's ok, that's not what I'm focusing on right now. I'm trying to learn how to write in Thai now though. And read! Reading has gotten so much faster for me. I get lots of practice since everything is written in Thai anyways. Days and weeks are so short. Before I know, the weeks are just gone. My biggest struggle has been with the heat! I get super bad headaches from it. It really gets so hot here that I feel like I'm going to throw up! I try to remember what it was like to just go outside and not feel overwhelmed with heat. I can't remember haha! Heat at home is nothing compared to this. But it's amazing how much the Lord sustains and helps us through it. I don't think my body could take what it's taking now without the help of the Lord. I don't know how my body does it, especially because I'm so tired all the time! Waking up is the hardest thing for me to do. I have no idea why because I used to get up early at home. The other day I literally just could not move. My head was killing me and I could barely open my eyes. So I just rolled over and said my prayers and told Heavenly Father I needed His help because I couldn't do it. I was still half way asleep but I swear, I felt arms pick me up out of my bed. It was just such a testimony to me that Heavenly Father really is here with me. I don't expect this to be easy at all, and it hasn't been. I've been so humbled though. I feel like everyday I just become more and more humbled because I realize I could never do any of this on my own. He truly is involved in every detail of our lives. I've always believed that, but now I know it! 

Well I hope you guys have a good week! Love you!

-Mais 

My scripture of the week: Romans 8: 38-39

Happy Father's Day Papi!!

Selfie with Sister Siri!  She's my Fave!!

We were viting at the bung and there was a ton of people there just taking pictures. We thought they were taking pictures of the moon and were like, haven't they ever seen the moon before?? They had telescopes and everything. Apparently they weren't looking at the moon, but Venus and Jupiter. They looked really bright up in the sky, can't believe we didn't notice them! in

This is a bee hive that's on a tree outside the church! Scary! These bees are massive too! 

 

This couple in the ward thinks I look like this Thai celebrity. They tell me every time I see them! They made me pose like her and took a picture of me. I don't think we look alike, but I don't know. What do you guys think? haha.

This is a house right in front of the church. I don't think they had enough Buddhist statues.

I also think that they probably really want to be baptized! haha! 

They don't just have extra large. They have extra, extra, extra, extra, EXTRA large! 

You just got married, where are you going to go? KFC!

 Sister Mamea and I had a hay day with this!

Thailand/Korat- week 9 If we're not experiencing trials, then we should be worrying. We need trials in order to learn and to grow!

Hey Mom! 

My week was really good! It went by super fast because we were in Ubon from Thursday until yesterday for Zone Conference and District conference (now officially STAKE CONFERENCE!). I love Zone Conference! I got to meet a lot of missionaries that were in my zone and the Ubon zone (which included Sister Hayes and Elder Wertz!). We get randomly picked to go up and speak, I didn't have to speak but I had to give the opening prayer. I'd rather do that than give a talk haha! It was so good though, President said basically everything that I needed to hear. A lot of us have been struggling and he just mentioned that this is our own Gethsemane. If we are to be more like the Savior and know Him personally then we are going to have to experience some of the things that He did. If we're not experiencing trials, then we should be worrying is what he basically said. We need trials in order to learn and to grow. To know the Savior is life eternal. I thought that was so true! It really helped me a lot, gave me lots of perspective. I don't think I'm experiencing all these hardships for nothing. I know that Heavenly Father is trying to build me up from it!

So Zone conference was on Friday and then we didn't have meetings until Saturday night so us missionaries went and picked up trash off the streets (there is a lot of it!). This one lady saw us cleaning up and called us into her yard to come start cleaning it. We were just like ok! It was funny haha. People came up to us and told us thank you though and one lady even said she'd come to church because of our good example, which is awesome! 

The meeting that night was for all the members in the Roi-Et and Ubon zones. It was fun to see our Korat members there. Two of the sisters in the ward just got their calls to the Bangkok Thailand Mission and report in November so I'll be serving along side of them, so excited! Hopefully I'll be able to train one of them! The meeting was at this really nice hotel. It was so funny, I had two khon Thais come up to me and ask if they could take a picture with me. It's so funny! Anyways the area president, President Gong, was there and so was President Senior. When President Gong spoke he had everyone that had been baptized in the last month and the last year stand up. It was so amazing how many people have been baptized. There was a lot of them. We just wanted to cry. So many miracles happening in Thailand and so many being brought unto Christ. It's the best thing in the world to be apart of this work! The next day though, Korat officially became a ward instead of a branch! This will be the third stake created in Thailand. We're all so excited! 

Well this week we taught Brother Teerawut. He's been one of our investigators for a long time but we haven't been able to meet with him much because he's always working in Phuket! We had a date for him to be baptized on the 21st. Some sad news though, he's going to Phuket today and won't be back until August! We were really sad. But he was so great, he just told us that we should be proud of ourselves and that we brought him to Christ and he'll be baptized when we he gets back. So the next sisters that come in will have a dater right when they come in, if I'm not here still. Also some awesome news, Elder Mayo sent us a picture today of Brother Kim getting baptized! He got baptized yesterday! Yay for Brother Kim! 

Everything is great here in Thailand though! I'm starting to get kind of sick though and losing a lot of my hair. If you can could you sent me some vitamins or something? The food here just has nothing nutritious in it, and my body is starting to shut down from it! Don't worry though, I'm going to call the office about it sometime this week. 

There are dogs EVERYWHERE here just walking around the streets. It just makes me so sad because they live such a sad life on the streets. There are so many weird breeds of them here. Really I think they should either put them in a pound or put them down because some probably don't really want to live anymore. As horrible as that sounds that's how bad it is for them! But it's illegal to kill animals here. They think that they are their families reincarnated. It's weird. 

Well I hope you guys have a great week! Miss and love you all! 

-Sister Carrillo 

2 Cor 12: 9-10 My scripture of the week!

Stake conference was held in this nice hotel

Got to reunite with my MTC group and the Nongs!

And Sister Hayes!!

Selfie at our amazing hotel!

Roi-Et zone t-shirts! 101!

Me and Sister Mamea in our hotel room

Picking up some trash! 

Cleaning up Thailand one street at a time!

We are the hands of the Lord!

Last selfie with Sister Senior! :(

They will be leaving in the next couple of weeks.

President Senior and President Gong

serving us ice cream at the ice cream social!

They are SO awesome!

Sister Siri, one of my favorite people in the world,

lets me play with her hair all the time.  HAHA!

This spider was on our wall!  Sister Siri came in with

a broom and hit it off. Then she figured out that I was

terrified of it and chased me around the house with it!

I had to scream threats at her and I locked myself in the bathroom!

She let it crawl all over her!

Thailand/Korat- week 8 There are so many miracles happening here in Thailand. The Lord's hand is definitely playing a big part in all of this.

Hello!

This week was such a good one! We were traveling and going back and forth everywhere. It was really tiring, I have the hardest time sleeping on buses but it was fun! Sister Mamea had MLC down in Bangkok on Wednesday so we went Tuesday night and stayed the night with some of the sisters down there. Sister Mags (from the MTC) was in that house and we both screamed when we saw each other. I miss my MTC group a lot! While Sister Mamea was in her meetings, all of us who are companions with the sisters in the meeting just worked in the office. Sister Beckstrand and Sister Johnson were there too. It was a fun little reunion! We went out and handed out Thai Liahona's for free and invited people to come to church. It was really fun. I really love Bangkok! I thought I wouldn't really like that city because I'm so not a city person but it's really Americanized so it feels like I'm home. I don't feel like such a foreigner there. I got to eat a lot of American food too but I discovered that my stomach is not accustomed to our food anymore. Thai food isn't very filling but American food is and I'm so not used to it anymore! It made me sick, but it tasted so good so I ate it haha! We came home on Wednesday night and had training on Thursday. We have training at least once a month. I always love it, this last time we were trained on how to overcome trials. We had a goal last month to have four baptisms and everyone was so pumped for it. But no one realized the trials that we would meet in that because Satan definitely doesn't want us to meet that! We did pretty good though. Last month there was 175 baptisms in this mission. That's about a baptism per companionship. But we set the goal this month to get 4 baptisms per companionship again. We're ready for this month!

On Friday Sister Mamea had to train in Roi-Et so we spent the day there (it's about 4 hours away). I really love Roi-Et! On our way back though we took a bus and we thought we were going to die. It all of a sudden started to smell like gas and we started getting light headed. We were like oh my gosh we're going to die, they're trying to gas us! They would stop the bus and go out and look at something and the smell would disappear. And then it would come right back. We just pulled our clothes over our noses because we didn't know what else to do. No one else seemed to be bothered by it. We were too scared to fall asleep. It was ok though, we survived. The Lord still has work for us to do! It was really scary though. 

We're still trying to find investigators. We have some but like I've said before, they're just all so busy! We taught Brother Thongdii on Thursday and it was quite the lesson. He really likes to just sit and talk, and I had noooo idea what he was saying. Neither did Sister Mamea. Luckily the members help us in lessons or else we'd be lost. But apparently he's into the Hindu religion and he says that for his job spirits go into him and they talk to people through him. (What?). And he wanted to see if he could have the spirit of Christ go into him. It was weird! We're going to teach him commandments next time and if he's not willing to keep them we're going to have to drop him. He's already said he's not really willing to give that up because it's his way of living. It was crazy though, I've never heard of that before. 

Anyways, since we haven't been here basically all week we're trying to catch up with everything. Including inviting! Because we really need new investigators! We invited a lot on Saturday at the Buung (the big huge park with the lake). I love inviting there because there's always so many people running and walking around the track. And we go the opposite way than everyone and invite them. They're so nice. Even though we're totally going the wrong way, we are in their way and have probably already invited them a million times already, they still just smile and say no and keep going. I'd be so annoyed if someone was doing that to me. I give props to them for being nice! Plus this is important because it's their salvation we're talking about. They all know who we are though, it's so funny! 

This week we'll be traveling again. We're going to Ubon for Zone Conference. I'm excited, it's my first one! And there will be food! It will be our last one with President since he leaves next month. Our new president comes in next transfer. It's very bittersweet! We'll also be there for district conference because they're making a stake! The Roi-Et zone (the zone I'm in) and the Ubon Zone are going to be a stake now (which is crazy because we're about 8 hours away from Ubon). I'm so excited for the people here and that I get to be here for this. There are so many miracles happening here in Thailand. The Lord's hand is definitely playing a big part in all of this. Right when we came into the country, President asked us if we thought that the Lord had ever visited Thailand before. We said yeah, sure He has! And then he asked, "Do scriptures to back that up." We all just kind of stared at him and then he quoted the scripture from the D&C (Im sorry I can't remember the reference off the top of my head!) where it says something like, "I will go before you and be one your left and right and my angels round about you." It says that the Lord has been here before us. I know that He has! I know that He loves these people here so much because I feel that love for them every single time I talk to them. It's an amazing feeling. You just love them and you want them to have what you have so bad. You want them to know who they are! I'm grateful to be apart of this work, how lucky am I to be a servant of the Lord! 

I hope you guys have a great week! I miss you guys a lot, I think about you all the time. It's been hard but before we know it, I'll be right back home! Love you all! Take care!

-Sister Carrillo 

Found this scripture while I was reading the New Testament. It's a goodie! 

Luke 4: 18-19

Out inviting with Sister Beckstrant

and Sister Witawee in Bangkok

The mall in Bangkok is amazing!

It has 7 floors!

We found Buzz and Woody at the mall! haha!

Giant Cupcakes!

Don't mind the photo bomber in the back!

I love Bangkok!

On the MRT (subway)!

Sorry its fuzzy, the train was moving,

but this gives you an idea of how many people

squish onto these things!

Our Elders washing the dishes for a member.

Look how excited they are. 

The sunsets are gorgeous here!

Took this while we were inviting at the Buung.

Thailand/Korat- week 7 It's amazing how close I feel with Christ and Heavenly Father now!

Hey!

My week was so good. It literally went by so fast. I feel like I say that about every single week haha! Last week for Pday we went to Khao Yai which literally looked like Ecuador to me. I did not want to leave! The waterfall wasn't as big as we thought it was going to be just because it hasn't rained a ton. We didn't go at the right time. But it was still so fun! Sister Plcc took us (she's from there) and was pretty much our guide. They took us to see the elephants and sadly we couldn't ride them because they were sick but me and Sis Mamea are planning on going back. It was a fun little trip though!

We also found out that day who from our district was going to move. Luckily me and Sister Mamea didn't leave but we lost four people; Sister Beuchter, Elder Mayo, Sugi and Wager. Sad about Wager, he was my Phii Thai! We all went down to Bangkok for transfers Tuesday night. We had dinner with a bunch of the members before we left at a burger place. The members here are so great! They are definitely what I will miss most when I have to leave here. We got one new sister, Sister Johansen and one new elder, Elder Bingham. We only have two elders here in Korat now. Don't know why but we were sad! Transfers was so fun though, I saw a lot of my Phii Thais and saw some of the people from my MTC group. I saw Sister Johnson! I was so excited to see her! 

 So Brother Kim moved on Sunday. It was kind of sudden. We came back from transfers and called him on Thursday and he said he's moving back to Bangkok to reconnect with his son. Which is great! But we were sad because we love brother Kim! We asked him if he wanted to still get baptized and told us he didn't. We were so confused about all of it because we know he has a testimony and he reads like five chapters of the BOM everyday. We just didn't understand. So we made an appointment with him to say goodbye and just clear some things up. We came to the conclusion that he's still going through the repentance process and he really wants to show God that he's committed. I felt good about it. We did everything we could and now he's in the Lord's hands. Heavenly Father comforted both me and Sister Mamea and we knew that it would all be ok. He's going to go to church in Bangkok and Elder Mayo is there now so we're going to call him and tell him to take care of Brother Kim! We have a bunch of investigators that come to church it's just hard to get them during the week. And it's hard to keep them committed to stuff! Trying to contact as much as we can. We need more investigators! 

Things are going good here in Korat. I really am starting to love it here. When we came back from Bangkok I was so relieved because I felt like I was home. The language is STILL coming. I understand a lot, and I try and speak as much as I can because I know if I don't, I'll never learn. One of the members said I speak a lot more in lessons that most greenies do. That made me feel better! 

Yesterday we went to one of the members house that are from the Philiphines (there are a lot of them here, that teach English!). Their food was so good! I really like Philiphino food or at least the food they made. It was a nice change from Thai haha. I'm starting to kind of get used to Thai food. I've accepted that there are just some stuff that I will not ever like but there are some things that I really do like! It's the curry I think I have a hard time with but if there's just a little then I can eat it. I LOVE their fruit though, it's literally better than candy. It's delish!

Well everything is great here in Korat! Some days are really hard but I know why I'm here. I tell myself that someday this will all just be a memory. And I want it to be a good memory! So even when I'm so tired or just can't take the heat here anymore I always just say a little prayer and Heavenly Father somehow gives me the strength to keep going. It's amazing how close I feel with Christ and Heavenly Father now. I thought I was close before but now I completely let them guide and direct my life. I've learned so many things that have become a blessing for me out in the field, things that I know I will be able to use later. It's hard to overcome things like getting music or thoughts of home out of my head. It's not that they're necessarily bad, it just distracts me. I've almost been here two months and I've learned so much. I can't imagine what it will be like when I'm almost done with my mission! I'm still learning how to overcome myself that's for sure but I only feel weak when I try and do this on my own. The atonement has helped me overcome a lot of my weaknesses and struggles, but I had to learn how to give it to Christ. Every week I feel stronger and better and I know that it's all through the enabling power of the atonement. How grateful I am for my Savior! My love for and respect for Him continues to grow each day! 

Hope everything is well at home! Has Aubrie gotten my letter yet? Did you get the package I sent home from the MTC? Love you guys! 

-Sister Carrillo

This is the national park where the waterfall was in Khao Yai

Sister Plcc was our guide for the day! 

She was awesome!

Hiking to the waterfall

The Jungles here are beautiful!!

We took Lots of pictures!!

Found it!

 

We Saw Elephants!!

I want one!

And we saw Monkeys!!

Elder Wager climbing a vine! 

Having a goodbye dinner with the members!

I have no idea what these are called but this fruit

is the most delicious thing I have ever tasted!

If you guys eat anything when you come to

Thailand I will make sure it is this!!

Drinking Cocoa Yen and Cocoa Bons!

The most delicious things ever!





Hi Dad!

It's still so hot here. It should be rainy season by now so it should be starting sometime. I hope that it gets cooler. Honestly I really don't know what it's like anymore to walk outside and not just sweat. It will be a nice change when I come home haha. A lot of the members ask me if Idaho is hot. I say its hot but not like Thailand. 

I hope everything is well at home! How's work going? Are you using my money? I saved that for this you know! Have you seen any other good movies? Jurassic World comes out soon, the boys will love that! I saw a poster for that somewhere. 

Well I'm good here! Some days are extremely hard but I just try to push through it. It's hard not thinking about home! I think I'm so lucky though that I had such a good life that I miss it so much and I have people that I miss this much. I feel very blessed for it! Love you Daddio