President Nelson!

This weekend President Nelson, an apostle of the Lord came to visit our mission! The whole mission gathered together to hear him speak to us and it was amazing! I know that God has called him to help lead Jesus Christ's true church on the earth. The spirit was so strong as he talked to us. He talked to us a lot about the Book of Mormon. He asked us what we would lose if the knowledge of the Book of Mormon was taken away from us. For me, I would lose my sense of belonging. Because of the truths found in the Book of Mormon, I know why I am here on earth and what I have to do to get back to live with our Heavenly Father. I would lose my understanding of God's great Plan of Happiness for us, the knowledge that we will get to be with our families forever if we follow God's commandments. The Book of Mormon helps us understand the Bible, and understand what God wants for us. There's so much more I would lose if we didn't have the Book of Mormon, but I am so grateful I have this knowledge and no one can take it away from me! 

Another thing that President Nelson talked about was when people leave the church. He talked about how if we are doing everything we are supposed to, reading the scriptures, praying, increasing our testimonies, we will get to the point where we know with out a doubt, that this is the true church, but if we stop doing those things, our testimonies will decrease until we know nothing. He said that a young couple he is very close to has decided to stop doing the things they should be doing and he asked them, "Are you happy?" And they said, "yeah we're happy." And he told them, "The kind of happy that you get when you jump out of a plane without a parachute. It feels good floating through the air for a while, but eventually you're going to hit the ground." So many things that are popular in the world right now, seem fun in the moment, but if you think about the bigger picture and what's really important, none of it seems worth it to me. But I know that whatever mistakes we make and how far off of the path we get, we can always be forgiven. The Book of Mormon teaches us how we can repent and be forgiven of our mistakes. Don't let that amazing blessing go to waste! 

Anyway, it's been a bit of a crazy week. Last Monday we were playing soccer in the rain with the elders and some random kid came and wanted to play, so of course we let him. We had been playing for about 10 minutes and the random kid kicked the ball and it hit Sister Fine's hand. She was in a lot of pain so I took her to urgent care... and her arm is broken! How the ball hit her hand and broke her arm, I don't know, but it did! If you're having a bad week, just think, "At least I didn't break my arm getting hit with a soccer ball." Love you all!

The whole mission with President Nelson!

Sister Fine at urgent care getting her splint! On Wednesday she will get a hard cast. 

Brooklyn sent me a fun Mother's Day gift and card.

 I've added it to our "Brooklyn Shrine" hahaha  Everyone knows we LOVE our missionary!

Mother's Day

Brooklyn didn't send out a general e-mail this week, so I'm going to write about Mother's Day and at the end include some of my letter from her. Face timing and Skype have got to be the best inventions ever for missionary mothers! What a wonderful blessing and the best Mother's Day gift to be able to talk to our Sister missionary, Brooklyn!!! Her smile, laughter and love filled our home as the cherished "phone call" session went on for an hour and a half. (Don't tell anyone! I think the handbook says it's suppose to be only 40 minutes). Everyone in our family except Eric and Kelly (It was Kelly's birthday and they were in Park City) had time to talk to her.

During the session she told us she'd been given ice cream 9 times that week! I don't think she was complaining. Almost as soon as she told us about it, a whole carton of ice cream with a spoon popped up beside her. The family whose house she was at brought her some more! hahaha

I made Brooklyn laugh by showing her my LOVE and support for Minnesota! I wore this shirt in honor of her!

We had google mapped her apartment building and she told us which room was hers. In the picture below it's on the third floor, third from the right with the aqua colored curtains. This is an old picture, she said the curtains are a different color now. 

Brooklyn and her companion, Sister Fine at an Asian Market.

Standing in front of the Mississippi River.

Brooklyn pretending this cat is Candice and Shane's new baby, Noelle. She's really bummed she won't be able to hold her as a newborn. She also found out she is allergic to cats after this! No more cat cuddling for her!

Here's a little of her letter to me:

It was fun to Skype yesterday! I love getting to talk to you guys. It's always fun! I love and miss you all so much! Thank you so much for everything you do for me. I'm so grateful for you and the example you are to me. 

I'm so jealous that you will be going to Costa Rica so soon!! You better take lots of pictures! I'm sure it will be super pretty!! (We are going to Eric's Wedding in Costa Rica soon)

I'm so excited for Candice too but sad I won't be there!! I think Noelle will wait a while before she comes! (I told her I'm worried Noelle will come while we are gone.)

I'm scared to see how hot and humid it gets here! But I'm sure I'll make it through just like I made it through the winter!!

Sister Fine always talks about how she's not going to have children until she's graduated from college and well established, and then I read my Patriarchal blessing and it talks about how I will hold many high and holy callings in the wards and stakes of Zion, but it talks sooooo much about how my greatest calling in life is to be a mother. That makes me excited to have children! Also makes me not worried at all to wait until I get college done or anything until I have children. I love kids so much. They're the one thing that I've been very passionate about my whole life. 

Love you!!!!

Karen Moo's baptism!

Karen Moo got baptized on Saturday! It has been so cool to see her change. She has so much love for the gospel, it's amazing! She's so mature and wise for a 14 year old. Unfortunately Moo Eh didn't get baptized because her husband isn't very supportive right now. She has so much faith though. She told us, "Just like my parents weren't going to let Karen Moo get baptized, we prayed and God softened their hearts. We just need to pray that my husband's heart will be softened and God will answer our prayers." I know that God is a God of miracles, He will answer her prayers!

The Lice Project Update: Last P-Day we spent 7 hours trying to treat 3 people for lice. It was nuts. The members who asked us to help realized it's going to be a waaaay bigger project than they thought. That night Sister Fine and I couldn't sleep at all because we had been picking lice out of hair for so long, our brains were paranoid! I never thought I'd be doing this on my mission! Haha! 

I love the gospel so much! Being able to see it change people's lives every day, and feeling it changing my life, has been the greatest blessing for the past 8 months. I know that this is Jesus Christ's gospel restored to the earth. I know that the gospel will help and bless ALL who accept and live it. Jesus Christ is always waiting for us to let Him help us because He loves us so much!

 Sister Fine, the Elder's convert Hser Kee La, Karen Moo, Me, and Sister Heath (she served there before Brooklyn)

Sister Heath brought her companions to the baptism and had them wear some of her Karen clothes so it was fun to have 5 sisters all wearing Karen clothing!

Karen Moo's dad, Moo Eh, Karen Moo, and their mom.

My mom sent me a hammock stand so I could use my hammock in our apartment, I took down my bed and replaced it with my hammock! The best part is that I never have to make my bed!

Since the weather has been so nice we have been biking a little bit. This was the very first day we biked and we had just biked 6.5 miles, which shouldn't have been hard, but I am not in the kind of shape I should be hahaha gotta love biking in a dress. 

Mom notes: Brooklyn sent us a picture of a tiny 2 week old baby. I asked her if it was hard not being able to hold babies. (Missionaries aren't allowed to hold them for liability reasons) She said "I always say that's the hardest part of a mission. He started crying and his mom wasn't around so I had my hands under him bouncing him a little bit." It makes me sad Brooklyn won't be here to help Candice when Noelle is born in a few weeks. 

A picture from their "lice project". I'm used to seeing Brooklyn helping girls with their hair, but when I think about what they're doing it creeps me out a little. Good for them and I hope they have success!!!

She finally received her new name tag. They don't make them in Karen, so it's in Burmese. Closest language they can print them in. I'm hoping she will talk to us in Karen when we get to Skype with her this Mother's day. Counting down the days!!!!

The Lice Project

This weekend was super crazy. We had so many random things that we had to take care of on Saturday and Sunday, we didn't know how we were going to do it. Friday night Sister Fine was laying in bed listing off everything we had to do and I told her not to worry about it because God would help us. Then Saturday was insanely busy just running from one place to another and doing so many things. On Sunday we looked back at Saturday and realized every single lesson and other random things we had planned worked out. Everything went exactly as planned. It was super cool. Heavenly Father has definitely been helping us extra this weekend! It reminded me of this scripture in 1 Nephi 3:7, "And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them."

God will always provide a way to achieve the things He asks of us. He's not going to ask us to do a ton of hard things then leave us alone. He will always help us do the things we need to, even if it's hard. (Brooklyn doesn't know how much her wisdom this week has helped me. I have some changes in my church calling coming up that I've been stressing about and she has helped me feel so much better about it, reminding me of this simple truth!)

Karen Moo is still planning on getting baptized this Saturday! Moo Eh Wah might be getting baptized too, she just has to ask her husband first. We are super excited for them and for Saturday! The Elders have a family getting baptized on Saturday, and a couple other people as well, so it will be a big day!!

Most of the refugees here have lice. Most of them have had it since they were in Thailand as well, so it's become just a normal part of life. They just deal with it. We use oils and stuff to prevent ourselves from getting it and that has proven to be pretty effective so we don't worry about it too much. However, some of the English members in the ward found out about the lice problem and are determined to put it to an end. Yesterday we had two emergency meetings about it to make a plan to help all of these people get rid of their lice, and learn how to prevent it. I don't think they realize how big of a project this is going to be, so I'm calling it "The Lice Project" hahaha

Knowing how much Brooklyn HATES bugs, I'm pleased she can laugh about this! Her brother, Jeff got bed bugs while he was living in Thailand last winter and it about drove him crazy. Hopefully she will be blessed and will not get lice or bed bugs while on her mission! 

Random smashed cars on the side of the road. (She always tells me they live in the "ghetto"! haha)

This is at a Karen kid's birthday party. So much food!! This wasn't even all of it!

(Look at all the pizza boxes on the left!)

One of the things they were busy with this weekend was helping at a Stake Activity Days. They taught different groups about missionary work. Here the girls are doing companionship study. She said they looked so cute!

This picture is with a little Karen boy named, Friday. Brooklyn said they choose random English words as names. She's wearing a Shaka (shirt) and a member is making her a matching skirt to go with it.