2018!

Happy New Year! It’s so crazy to think that another year of life has gone by. 2017 was definitely the fastest year of my life! Sorry I haven’t emailed in a couple of weeks, it’s been crazy with holidays and stuff! 

On Saturday, a Karen member from our ward went through the temple for himself! He is the first Karen member from our ward to go through the temple. The elders translated everything into Karen for him so he could understand the promises he was making with our Father in Heaven. It was such a spiritual experience! He was so happy the entire time and just beaming! I know that temples are God’s house on earth and I’m so grateful for the blessings we receive from the temple. 

Something funny that happened, we went to a Karen New Year celebration and there was a ton of people there. They were doing different dances and performances in the front, and right to the side of where the performers were, they had a table with a ton of food that the dancers and stuff would get to eat at. We were just standing watching and a Karen guy came up to us and asked us to go eat up there! So us, 7 white missionaries in traditional Karen clothing, all go in front of the whole audience, right next to the live performances, and eat rice. At one point I turned around because our backs were towards everyone, and there were like 10 people standing taking pictures of us haha. During the whole celebration people were coming up to us and asking to take pictures of us or with us. It was weird, but a good way to contact people! Hahaha we found some pictures that people put on Facebook of us at this event, I’ll put them at the end of this email. 

Now I want to share a little experience I had that left a big impact on me. I’ve been a little bit sick the last couple of days and a couple of nights ago I could not stop coughing. It was the kind of cough that just feels like you’re coughing up shards of glass in your throat. I could not fall asleep for the life of me. I’m glad Sister Hicks fell asleep and didn’t wake up to my coughing, because I was up coughing for at least 2 hours. I was so exhausted and just wanted to sleep. As I was laying there being frustrated, I had a thought to say a prayer. So I prayed and told Heavenly Father that I was tired, my throat hurt, and I just wanted to sleep. I asked him if he would help me fall asleep. Almost immediately after saying amen, my throat felt so much better. It felt soothed! The next thing I remember is waking up to our alarm. I woke up and just had an overwhelming feeling of how much God loves each of his children and really cares about every aspect of our lives. It seems silly to pray to God to ask for help falling asleep, but he doesn’t think it’s silly. He loves us so much and cares about us more than we can even imagine. He wants to help us in our lives, sometimes all we have to do is ask! 

Love you all! I hope you’ve had a good holiday season!

A picture we found on Facebook of us eating rice!

The stuff on Elder William's face is thanakuh. It's Karen make up/face treatment. They wear it for fun, or as sunscreen, acne treatment, etc. I wonder what the ingredients are?!

Two of my favorite people! (Mae Paw and Sis. Hicks)

All of us with another one of my favorites! Da Da!

Mer Ler moved to Texas this week. :(

I had to add a picture of our Christmas Skype. I LOVE technology that allows us to see and feel her sweet spirit. I also love that our missionary countdown was down to 100 on Christmas day. We are now in the double digits!!! 

 Her view of us wasn't as sweet! hahaha 

 The picture below shows the items Brooklyn sent us for Christmas. She made the ties herself! They bought a tie at a Thrift store, cut it up to use as a pattern and the material is from a Karen skirt. She made them on P-days with some help from their Bishop's wife. I was so impressed! She bought the other items at a Karen market. The cute larger bags were for all the girls and the smaller bags were for all the grand daughters. The little red dress is for Noelle to wear at Brooklyn's Homecoming and the little white onesie with the sewn on tie is for baby Eric to wear! 

P.S. Brooklyn translated what she had written on the outside of the box for us. It said "from your favorite daughter" and a few more phrases that pretty much meant the same thing! hahaha

 I thought this was interesting. These are the name tags Brooklyn has used on her mission. In order: English, Mandarin Chinese with Sister Woo and Sister Ching, Burmese and then Karen since Burmese could be considered offensive to the Karen people. Crazy, huh?!