Thailand/Korat- week 15 We have to learn how to endure and stay faithful to Heavenly Father, even when it's hard. We learn line up line and precept upon precept. I've learned that a lot just being on my mission!

Hello! 

This week was a very crazy week as well as a really big learning week for me. For P-day we went to Phimai, which is an ancient Cambodian city/temple. It was way cool! You'll see how cool it was from the pictures. 

We taught A LOT this week. Had some new investigators. One's name was Brother Dong, he's this guy that always comes to English class every Tuesday and nobody had ever taught him before so we grabbed him right after class and taught him. It was a really interesting lesson. He said that Christ had appeared to him and he kept on talking to someone while we were teaching him and he kept saying that Christ was telling him what to do (like if it was alright if he read the scripture we were having him read). It was weird. He also said he sees Buddha and the pope and all these other people. He said he still wants to learn with us though. (Elder Baldwin told us to have him read D&C 129, that's a really interesting chapter about spirits). The second lesson with him went a lot better! He didn't really talk about that stuff and he had read the pamphlets we had given him. He's really smart and remembered a lot of the stuff he had read. I taught him the Plan of Salvation yesterday and he pretty much helped teach with me (me and Sis. Jo had to split so we could teach two people). The lesson went pretty well, I gave him the commitment to be baptized and he said that he still wasn't ready yet and didn't want to commit until he knew for sure. I asked him if he'd prayed about the things we'd taught yet and he said no. So I told him to go home and pray about these things and promised him that He would receive an answer if he did. I think a lot of investigators think that they have to know everything before they can get baptized or sit there and wait for a sign that all this is true. But all you need when you get baptized is a broken and contrite spirit, a willingness to follow Christ and keep His commandments (as it says in D&C 20). Nowhere in there does it say that you have to know everything and understand it. All God requires of us to a willingness to submit and give ourselves over to Him.

 So as I said before, I learned a lot this week! I was being super down on myself on Tuesday and Wednesday just because I've been frustrated with the language and I feel like I just don't contribute that much to the work because of it. But on Wednesday morning, we went met with an RC/LA who went back to Buddhism right after she got baptized. She'd told the missionaries to not call her anymore but we ended up calling her and she wanted to meet with us. Her name is Pinky! And Pinky has a very crazy life. It's almost like a movie, that's how crazy it is. Just hard things going on left and right. So we met with her and talked to her about stuff that was going on (she speaks English, that was a score!). At the end of talking about everything, we asked if she had prayed at all lately. She said she hadn't so we talked to her about prayer. I bore my testimony to her about the power of it and how Heavenly Father loved her and would would help her through the things she was going through. She said she'd pray that night and was even super excited to pray! She's been praying everyday now since we've met with her. After that we went to visit an RC, Sister Muk at her work. She's given up a lot to be a member of the church, I just think she's an amazing person! She has a daughter that's about 4 years old and is a single mom who has to work all day everyday. I had been praying to know that morning of what I should share with her and I just thought of the scripture that I'd found in the MTC that I loved. To me, it just shows how much Christ really loves us. I shared 3 Nephi 17: 19-22 and she started crying in the middle of it. She said it was something that she really needed to hear since she was struggling at the time. It was a way cool experience! That day was such a big reminder to me of what I can do, how much good I can do if I don't hold myself back. I think I'd forgotten how I have an ability to help others, I felt like I didn't have any knowledge at all. But I've helped two people that I really cared about and it made me so happy! I felt like Heavenly Father was telling me that I needed to have more faith in myself, reminding me of who I was and what I was doing. It's taken me a lot to get to this point. I was reading Pres. Uchtdorf's talk Continue in Patience and it just talked about how sometimes we expect things to come right away. Like being able to play an instrument right away or getting an answer to a prayer right then. But he talked about how Heavenly Father knows that we wouldn't grow if we were just handed everything. We wouldn't have that experience of the struggle and the humility that comes with it. We wouldn't know how to work hard for something that we want. We have to learn how to endure and stay faithful to Heavenly Father, even when it's hard. We learn line up line and precept upon precept. I've learned that a lot just being on my mission! I've struggled with this stuff for three months and I've watched as the power of the atonement has helped me to overcome a lot of it. Nothing has changed, I'm still in the same place and speaking the same language, but my abilities have been able to increase because I was persistent and didn't let myself give up. I could go on and on about this just because giving up is something that I think I've struggled with my entire life but it finally clicked. And it's amazing to look back and see how much the Lord was helping me all the way through it. We really are never alone! 

Overall, it was a great week! I love being a missionary so much! Not only am I helping change lives and bringing others closer unto Christ, but I also am being changed as well. It's been a hard experience but it's been so great. There's really nothing like being a servant of the Lord! I feel so privileged to be able to be apart of this work and have the opportunity to have a closer relationship with my Heavenly Father. I have such a great love and respect for Him. 

Well I loved your guys pictures from Ireland! I want to go so bad! That's really cool Aubrie got to talk! I'm sure she did great! So about the piano, since Sis. Mamea left, they've made me play the piano for all the meetings (not sacrament thank goodness). Which makes me wish I would've practiced hymns more, I just really hated practicing hymns at home. I don't know why, but I wish I would've practice more! 

So for my package, could you possibly get me jerky, fruit snacks, some trail mix and the level after alpha for T25? I have alpha but I want to do the other ones too! Only if you have time to get it for me though, if it takes too much time it's fine! 

Love you guys! Praying for you all! 

-Sister Carrillo

 D&C 78: 17-18

This place was amazing!!

Awkwardly laughing while looking at each other!

Gotta have one of those pictures!

Aren't we Cute?!

Headed to Phimai!!

I always have to make an ugly face, just for you mom! :)

Selfie with the temple!

Sister Plaa, I will miss her dearly when I leave,

she is one of my favorites!!

This is what happens when I go to the market!

I spend, spend, spend!

Thailand/Korat- week 14 I'm working towards that day when I can meet God again and hear Him say, "Well done." How great it would be to hear Him say those words to us!

Hello! 

This week was such a nice week! It rained almost every single day. And when it rains here, it rains! You could get a full on shower by just walking out for 2 seconds. I love it though! We were biking from the church and the street was flooded up to my mid calves and we have to bike through it. It was awesome, except I was afraid of what was in the water. There were cockroaches and bugs floating around everywhere. I was afraid a snake was going to come up and bite me! But since it's been raining a lot, I feel like I've been seeing a lot more bugs than usual. I had a great experience with one while I was in the shower. I felt something on my leg, and I thought it was just my hair or something so I didn't really pay attention but then it started going up my leg and I look down and it's a centipede! I smacked it off my leg and managed to not scream. But then I was freaking out because I couldn't find it. I was looking everywhere for it and finally looked at my hand and there it was. Then I screamed and Sister Jo had to come and check on me. it was so gross! The rest of the day I felt like there were bugs crawling all over me! 

Since it's been raining a lot though, and other reasons such as work, a lot of investigators have canceled appointments with us. They're afraid of the rain, they just really don't like it. I asked one of the members why they don't like it so much and they said because they get wet and they're afraid they'll get sick. I think it's funny. But anyways, it's given us a lot of time to go out and invite! Which has been fun, I've seen a lot of white people. I usually like to go and talk to them because they seem to have more of an opinion about stuff (since they have that Christian background) and I like to hear what they have to say. I always think it's so interesting. So let them say what they have to say and be respectful about it and then I share what I have to say and always end with they'll be able to know for themselves if what I say is true if they pray sincerely about it. I don't know if they ever do it, but I always like to invite them to pray. I've really enjoyed talking to them though, it gives me a good view on what I want to study during personal study. 

I really love personal study! Probably my favorite part of the day and I get to start off my day with it! An hour just never seems like enough though. I've been reading a lot about the plan of salvation lately. Last week, I actually had a dream that I was reading in the doctrine and covenants and it was a section somewhere in the 70's. I skimmed through that during my personal study the next day and section 76 caught my eye. Which talked all about the kingdoms of God and where we will go in the next life depending on who we were in this life. Just studying that and the POS really has made me think about my life. How incredibly short it is and everything I do here determines what I will ultimately become. Which makes me want to try so much harder. I'm working towards that day when I can meet God again and hear Him say, "Well done." How great it would be to hear Him say those words to us! To know we did all that we could to stay faithful and give our hearts to Him. 

We had some training this week! We're going to really try and focus on working with RC's and LA's. There are a lot of LA's here in Thailand! We're working on retention so we've been having meetings with the leadership in the ward to start working with the LA's and finding them and getting them back to church. We want them to feel loved and like they have a friend at church so we've talked about giving members certain LA's to call for activities or to go and visit and just be a friend to. Us missionaries are also going to work on our teaching such as really teaching about faith and repentance. Because if they have that strong foundation of faith, they'll have that foundation when the storms of the world come (Hel. 5: 12). And I think repentance is definitely something that sometimes I don't focus on enough. Repentance isn't an easy process but it's also something that we shouldn't be ashamed or afraid of. It's such a blessing for us to be able to repent! Without it, we would have no way of overcoming our natural selves or to be able to change our hearts. Repentance is what helps us to become more like our Savior, something we should be doing everyday. But repentance is how our investigators are really going to have that personal conversion. I really liked the training, I think it will help us to be better missionaries and help the members become missionaries as well. 

Elder Holland is coming next month as I mentioned last week! But we get to actually meet him on the 15th! That day he's going to have just a session with the missionaries and then on Sunday, all the members and missionaries get to go listen to him speak. I'm so excited! So lucky to be able to listen to one of the apostles of the Lord! 

Well that's all I've got for last week. We have a lot of great investigators! I love teaching them and being able to share my testimony of the gospel with them. I'm still trying to improve myself on not getting frustrated or holding myself back because of the language. That has been one of my really big struggles is the language. But I get better each week! I just have to look at how far I've come! I've only been learning it for 5 months, which isn't very long!

Ireland looks so cool! I really want to go there someday. The history would be so cool! I forwarded Lauren some of the pictures! 

Hope you guys have fun in Ireland, love you both!!!

-Sis. Carrillo 

2 Nephi 2 - it's a really good chapter they had us read for training this week! 

Sister Uuray got baptized! :) I was lucky to get to teach her these last couple of weeks. The last lesson we taught her was about the temple, which is one of my favorite things to teach. Her sister (who is not a member) said she'd do whatever it took to get her sister to the temple. 

 Our usual get together on Sundays at Sister Gop's.

She made something I could actually eat last night, chicken and rice with this really good soup,

which made her happy so hopefully she makes that again.  Haha!

A swamp from all the rain!

There's all sorts of creatures in there.

I can never see them, I just hear them!

I've seen so many people do this.

Instead of outlining their yards with rocks and that kind of stuff that we use,

 they use liters of pop (obviously filled with water inside). So funny! 

Thailand/Korat- week 13 New week, New Companion!

Hello!

Well this last week just felt like the weirdest week ever. We went to the 3D Museum for p-day. It was way fun! You guys would definitely love it! We got the call right after we were emailing though of who was going to move. Only Sister Mamea was moving, which we thought was super weird because Sis. Siri and Elder Baldwin have been here a long time. I was surprised on how disappointed I was. I think because if Sis. Mamea was moving, then I wanted to move too. I was fine with everything until Wednesday morning when the AP's called and said Siri was going to move too. I was afraid of the big change that was about to happen. I'd finally gotten used to everything and now the people that I'd been with since I'd got into country were going to leave me. We got on a bus at 12 am Thursday morning and then got to Bangkok around 4:30! Everyone in my group was there! We had to all renew our visas. It was great to see everyone! It was weird because the last time we'd all been together was two transfers ago when we were just babies. The only one that was moving was Sister Johnson. Which she was really sad about because she loves Asoke! The rest of us stayed in our areas. Transfer meeting started at 11! Me and Sister Mamea started panicking because we really didn't want to leave each other. She knew she was going somewhere in Bangkok though. And Sister Mags's  (from my MTC group) district had been praying for her to go to Bang Khaen. If she went anywhere I wanted her to go there to take care of Sister Mags! And that's where she got called! Sister Siri went to Bang Kapi with Elder Mayo and me and Sister Jo got put together. So now we only have two sisters in Korat! :( It was funny because when I was saying goodbye to Sister Siri I started crying and she kept telling me to stop because I was making her cry! (I seem to cry a lot now, my mission has turned me into a baby I swear!). But hopefully we'll be able to be companions sometime! It was hard to say goodbye to Sister Mamea too. I got really lucky with her, we just meshed really well. It was weird going home to the house, now it feels super empty. I keep wondering where people are! I like Sister Jo a lot though. We're really different in some ways and at first it bothered me but I'm learning to just love her and not be selfish. She's really great, she's a hard worker! It's just a change and I always struggle with change. Hopefully after my mission though I'll be a pro at this stuff. Because it's been really hard for me! 

Well, we got home and got right to work! We combined two areas so we have all mine and Sister Mamea's RC's and Investigators and now all of Sister Jo's and Siri's. It's been crazy! But with all the hard work we've been doing and with how things are going, we are hopefully going to have five baptisms this coming week. We have a lot of investigators come to church yesterday! It was definitely a miracle. I always get so excited about that. And then it reminds me of why I'm here! I'm not here for myself, I'm here for them. And it just amazes me all the time how much others happiness automatically makes me happy. Which is how it works with all of us! Heavenly Father really helped me to realize this week that the thing that makes me the happiest is when I'm serving His children and helping them come unto Christ. I really have the best calling in the world. It's exhausting and sometimes so frustrating but I am so different than I was before. Because the past three months I've had absolutely nothing to lean on to for support. I didn't have my music, my movies, my books, my piano, my family. Anything to distract or help me run away from reality. All I've had is Christ and Heavenly Father. It's taken a lot of giving up my pride to handing everything over to them. Patience and charity has been the key to my surviving. And with that, I've seen how the atonement has made me so much stronger over this time. So now, when I say I have a testimony of the atonement, I really do have that testimony of how it has the power to help us overcome. I'm so grateful to be able to share that with the people here! That there is so much more to life than what they believe and know. It was such a blessing to me to grow up having a knowledge that I was a daughter of Heavenly Father. And that was one of the things that drove me to coming on a mission. Everyone deserves to know about Christ and what He did for them. And that each and everyone of us is a child of Heavenly Father. 

Some exciting news! Elder Holland is coming next month! August 15th, right before transfers! Everyone in the mission gets to go down to Bangkok and listen to him speak. I'm SOOOOOO excited!!! 

So you guys are in going to Ireland this week?! That's crazy! I remember you planning that trip last year! Don't forget to get me something :) 

Whens the reunion? I can't believe it's the middle of the summer! I was thinking about it yesterday and it's been a year since we went to Canada. I hate doing that to myself because it just makes me upset. It's weird that that was so long ago. By the time this transfer ends, it will almost be fall again! 

Also you need to send me pictures every week! I don't want to be in shock when I come home and you all look different! Dad might have gray hair! Send me pictures!! I don't care if it's just Carsen watching tv or you eating breakfast. I want pictures!! 

Have a great week! I love you guys! Have fun in Ireland!

I'll be over here enjoying the Thai/missionary life. It's a crazy life but it's awesome! The church is true and this is the Lord's work! 

-Sister Carrillo 

Alma 32 : 27

Sister Mamea! Love her, she'll always be one of my best friends!!

Transfers!  Some of the old Korat sisters,

and then some photo bombers!

My new companion Sister Johansen!

Sister Beckstrand!  Hopefully someday I

will be able to serve with her!

The 3D Museum was amazing!!

Thailand/Korat- week 12 Transfers are this week! I'm pretty much done with my greenie stage which is so weird. I felt like I'd be a greenie forever!

Hello! 

It was another good week, once again it just flew by! 

So last P-day we went to the Zoo! The boys would love the zoo here because literally the animals are right there. Kind of sketchy but it was awesome! Sister Plaa was once again our guide and took us there. We just rode bikes around the zoo all day. It was a really fun! 

This week we also got to meet our new president! So weird that President Senior is gone but I really love President Johnson and Sister Johnson already. They're so chill and just laid back. I'm excited to get to know them better! 

Sister Namtan and Brother Ohm also had their wedding reception this week. It was a really fun reception! They had salad, which I almost cried because I was so excited (I know, I'm so lame!) and this crepe cake that was really good! They're so funny, they love to involve us missionaries in everything and introduce us to all their friends. They're the ones that think I look like Thai celebrity (I think her name is Margie or Maggie?) so they call me Sister Margie all the time. Which I'm fine with haha! 

Brother Miit got baptized this week! We finished teaching him with tithing and fasting and he was already doing those things! He'd heard about it in priests quorum and started separating his money so he could pay tithing. We were super impressed. I know I talk about this a lot but it's amazing to see how much the Lord prepares His people! And Brother Miit was definitely prepared! Us sisters sang at his baptismal service (sister Nang, the Elders investigator, got baptized too!). We sang Nearer my God to Thee in Thai. It was great! So much fun! 

So we didn't do anything special for the fourth. Me and Sister Mamea went to Sizzlers. We go there a lot! It's really big here which is funny because it's not really a big restaurant back in the states. But we did go to Brother Jared's and Sister Andi's for dinner last night in honor of the fourth (they're the couple from the Philippines). His sister made us spaghetti and this pork stuff. And Elder Bingham bought fireworks (we're talking like big fair fireworks!) and went to this field to shoot them off. Yeah, people that lived around there were not very happy, so us sisters were freaking out because we didn't want to get sent home over it so we ran to the car and had Brother Jared's sister take us home. So that was my fourth of July that I will never forget haha! 

So I finally made it to Romans in the New Testament! Paul is literally one of my favorite missionaries. I've had so much fun reading about him because he's exactly the type of missionary I want to be. He went through a lot of hardship but none of it hurt his faith. His stories is one of my favorites. I'd never really known about him until I started reading it though. There's a lot of good stuff in there! 

Transfers are this week! I'm pretty much done with my greenie stage which is so weird. I felt like I'd be a greenie forever! We'll get the call today though on who will be moving. I hope I won't move. I love Korat and I feel like I just started getting the hang of it here! But we'll see, I'll go wherever Heavenly Father needs me to! 

It was a great week! Can't wait for this next coming one! Love you all, have a great one! 

Sister Carrillo 

Chapter of the Week: 1 Corinthians 13 - talks about charity, it's a great one!

I finally visited a Wat!  So Cool!!

We always have to do a selfie!

This is the street we live in!

Brother Mitt and Sister Nang got Baptized!!

 

Two of my favorite people Brother Ohm and Sister Namtan got married!

(more like had an official wedding reception)

Brother Ohm and sister Namtan's reception

 

Our P-day at the Zoo was awesome!

We got to ride bikes around the zoo!

BFF's

Sister WanMai! She's a recent convert and so awesome!!

I found this cool wall while I was out visiting!

Thailand/Korat- week 11 I'm just enjoying the place where I'm at right now. It's really amazing how much my mission has changed me!

Hey!

This week was a really good week! For one, it was overcast like all week and a lot cooler, like the coolest it's been since I got here. But it's still hot haha. But I haven't wanted to die everyday from the heat, so it's been really nice. We have switch-offs with the Mahasarakham sisters, so that was fun! I got to go with Sister Mcknight, I love being able to meet new sisters! 

We got some new investigators this week! The guy I talked about last week that we met on Sunday, Brother Miit, he's set to get baptized this Sunday! He's so prepared! We taught him Law of Chastity and Word of Wisdom yesterday and he already keeps them. Those are usually the hard parts, so that was great! He's excited though, he really loves learning about Christ. Sister Jenny also introduced us to more of her friends. She's just bringing them all to church! Brother Tuu, we're not sure about him because all he seems to like to do is feed us but we're still going to teach him and just see where he wants to go with this. We have a lot of really good potential people though. It's just a matter of getting them to church at 9:00 on Sunday. 

My love for inviting has really grown this week though. Really it's how we get our investigators and I just want to teach everyone! Plus I love talking to everyone. I think a year ago if I thought I'd be doing this, going up to people and just talking to them and inviting them to learn about Christ, I would've thought, "I can't do that." I've never been that type of person! But I'm getting over that fear of talking to people though. I enjoy it a lot now! They're so nice here too, I just love talking to Thai people! We invited at Yamo on Friday night where they had all the street markets. That was pretty cool, they have all this stuff to buy. Sometimes it gets distracting but it's nice because I go up and look at stuff and then they'll come talk to me and want to know why I can speak Thai. And then that's how I catch them haha! I'm kind of starting to get the hang of teaching too. It's been hard because the language holds me back so much. I feel like if I could just speak in English, I wouldn't struggle so much with teaching because I know what I want to say, I just don't know how to say it in Thai. But I just decided that I'm going to say what I can and feel as best as I can. It really works though, all you need to do is testify. And they always understand! 

This week President leaves :( But our new president is President JOHNSON! Is that the people that you were talking about? He comes this Wednesday and we're going to Khon Kaen on Thursday for a meet and greet with him. I'm excited to meet him! 

I saw the same-sex marriage thing on LDS.org yesterday. Me and Sister Mamea were like what?! I was just shocked because I forgot that stuff was happening back home. I feel so out of the loop, I have no idea what's going on! But it's ok, I feel like that's one of the really big reasons I needed to go on a mission. I think that it's preparing me for what's going to come in the future and what I'm going to face when I get home. Which, I can already feel myself strengthened. Before my testimony was strong, but now I have such a more eternal perspective on things. The world could be following apart but I have faith in Heavenly Father and His plan. And I know what I believe and what's right and as long as I'm doing those things, I don't need to worry what's going on. I just need to keep my testimony strong! That's crazy that that happened though! 

I'm getting a lot better, kinda. My hair is really thin, it freaks me out! I just need to go buy vitamins somewhere, and eat more apparently. Which is weird because I'm pretty sure I've gained weight! I'm trying not to worry about it but it's hard!

I'm really happy here! It's weird because I'm always tired and hot and sweaty and never get time to myself and getting rejected and eating food I hate and not speaking my own language but I have honestly never been so happy. It's just so crazy to me how that happens! How when you're on the Lord's errand and serving, there's no greater joy like it. I've really learned how to be happy in a place that I really didn't like up first and thought I could never love. It's been such a great thing for me, especially since I've always just rushed my life, wanting to go from one thing to the next. But here, I'm just enjoying the place where I'm at right now. It's really amazing how much my mission has changed me! 

Your guys week sounds like so much fun! I would've loved it, I love hiking.

I'm sad that Grandma and Grandpa are going to move! I love that house! I never got to take Lauren out there! Where are they planning on moving to? That's sad, but I guess they've been there forever. So, it's ok! 

Have a great week! Love and miss you guys! 

-Sis. Carrillo 

Scripture of the week: Words of Mormon 1:7

Just a stroll in the rain!

We were out inviting and this lady we were

talking to ran back inside and got us umbrellas.

We were like no it's ok!

She made us take them because she was afraid we would get sick!

So nice!!

Thailand is so beautiful after it rains!

House visit at Brother O's and Sister Duu's!  Love this family!

We were playing around in their garage!

Just taking some pics after church!

We were about to leave the church when it started pouring.

So we just had to hang out til it stopped.

Oh the life of a Thailand missionary!

Switch-off with Sister McKnight!

 Somtam, this is probably my favorite thing to eat here! 

 It's like a papaya salad with tomatoes, carrots, and nuts. 

 I can only eat it with one prick, but it's so good!

Sister Bon braided mine and sister Jo's hair, and we were matching!!

This is my new bike!  Isn't it cute?

It's a greenie just like me!

 I don't remember what this is called but it's pretty

much a fried crepe with chocolate and milk sauce on it.  It was so delicious!