Sister Maisie Carrillo: 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