Sister Phelps: The Land of Smiles: Hola

**From Mom: Emilee sent me a little side note. She wanted to let us know she is safe. She got a free bike from the church. She had to touch it up a little with a basket and got a helmet. Now she doesn't have to spend the money for a new one. She said she doesn't have time to email back and to tell everyone she is sorry and will write as soon as she can. I told her not to worry about and we don't expect her to! She has to email the mission president and says emailing is a little overwhelming. She's been sick for the past 24 ours so her letter seems a little scattered :) it's amazing to read her letters and see the changes in her!

What up khrab khrua?

HEY I'm still in thailand! Craazy right? I have a TON of pictures to share today and not a lot of time to write! But I was like, did Erika have her baby yet? I was so excited to find out that I will have to wait another week!!! I get to see her next week! Oh Erika I love you and miss you. I hope you are doing well.

THERE ARE MIRACLES IN UDON! Oh my gosh, God loves Udon so much. I cannot begin to tell you the things Sister Carter and I were able to see this week! I am so happy to say that white washing has been successful and frustrating like a mission should be. We had nothing to start from. So what do we do? Go out, and Dan Jones the area trying to find new people. The Thai people are SO willing to listen to anything we say even if they are hard core Buddhists.... But we love them anyways because they are children of God right? I will skip the long story but we have a baptismal date for this month and two for next month already. In one week. You guys, I can't even begin to tell you how great it is to be a missionary. We have an investigator named Nam and she is so solid, just met with her this week after finding her and telling her about who her Savior was, and right away she wants to be a missionary like us. We are like, hold on we have to get baptized first haha. So she is golden. But back to being a missionary and how great it is is this...... The first time someone communicates with God through prayer...... That is the MOST amazing part about being a missionary. Sister Carter and I experienced Nam praying to her Heavenly Father for the first time in her whole life. She couldn't get passed her first sentence without starting to bawl her eyes out. I'm like, this is what I live for. Anyways.... It was amazing. Just think how Heavenly Father feels. Like I was thinking out loud with Sister Carter and was like, just think. It's like when we get on the plane to go to Thailand. Our parents are always thinking of us.... Wondering if we made it safe. And then Pday comes and it's overwhelming for you guys to hear from us. Right? God feels the same.... The first time his children communicate with him after YEARS! Ahh. It's so good. I love it. Just remember to pray as much as you would want to talk to me (that better be everyday) haha. I love you guys....

Thailand! Missionary!! Amazing!!! Just I can't even begin to describe everything in this short amount of time! So I'm sure you would like to know what a normal day is for me. We get up at 6:30 and exercise. Yes, I know.... I hate it too.... And Sister Carter is fit as a kit so she whoops my butt. Then we get ready and start personal study at 8 am.... Then at nine we do companion study and training until 11am... Yes that gets a little long. Then at 11 we do language study and at 12 we eat lunch usually at home.... then at 12:30 we leave for the day.. at one we usually start our 2 hours of dan jonesing for the day. Which I feel the most like a missionary. Sister Carter and I like to go to the park and approach people and just be friendly give them a pamphlet or a card and just continue our day.... :) It is great! we had this awesome experience dan jonesing that we came across this group of college students and they were so fascinated that we were american and one of the girls could speak a little english so we went over there and they had their Thai mats out under a tree and we asked if we could share a message about God and Jesus Christ. Oh my flip. It was the coolest. They were asking all the perfect easy questions and we invited them to pray with us and all of them were soooo into this trying to receive answers from God and they all wanted pamphlets and they were just so great and receptive and now almost all of them are new investigators! How awesome!!!!!!!!!! Great experience. After 2 hours it's usually 3 o'clock and we go visit less actives, teach lessons, help members with whatever. Then we usually eat on the streets.... I try to stay with safe things because the sanitation is pretty bad in Udon. But yes..... Then we go home, wake up and do it again! With meetings here and there through out the week!

So yesterday was the craziest day in my entire mission!!!! Okay we wake up, go to church and we had investigators at church with us. We were in sacrament meeting and then out of no where someone slams into the pew and starts convulsing and seizing, and within seconds everyone is out of there chairs being not church like at all to help this man, who was actually sister Painter's investigator that came to our sacrament meeting. But foam was coming out of his mouth. The children were so annoying like standing around him while people are giving CPR and all this stuff. I thought he was dead... No joke. The Elders come in and start giving him a blessing and Sister Carter is on the Phone and I have investigators to explain what the freak is the elders doing, and in the weird Aseon Thai language that I know, I'm telling them that the elders are pretty much from God using this thing called the priesthood to help him feel better, and they take him out of the room and I had to have one of my members who spoke english take care of my investigators because all the missionaries had to go to the hospital to help this old man who was dying. We race to the hospital which is like a 25 minute bike ride. And no big deal it was my first time just riding bikes next to cows walking down the streets of Thailand..... So we get to the hospital the investigator is on life support. And that moment when we walked into the GOVERMENT hospital is when I realized that we are in a third world country.... It was bad. people on stretchers left in the hall. Cinder block walls. The room to the people who were on life support was just opened some bloody man came in on a stretcher spilling blood everywhere and no one cleaned it up. It made me so grateful for America. I don't want to go on. It was just not somewhere anyone wants to be. Sister Painter rode in an elevator with a bloody guy who was dying.... It was just... Scary.

Anyways. Then we rode back to the church and back to the hospital three times to check on our investigators while it's pouring rain haha. Then I stayed with our investigators at the church with another missionary because Sister Carter had the best Thai to speak to the hospital with, and so after church we had this big feast like usual. Anyways......We go back to the hospital to find out he had a severe stoke. Actually, I'm not sure what kind of stroke it was. But then we were just waiting for the man's family to come and Sister Carter and I left and went back to the church for a missionary meeting with some members. And we got out of the church and It was 7:30ish and we are like, well i don't know what else to do.....and I was just not feeling the best. I was like, not telling Sister Carter about me not feeling well because as a missionary and with a day we just had you just don't say that.... I was like, okay it's a 15 minute bike ride home. I was like uhhh sister carter, do you mind riding behind me because I'm pretty sure I'm going to barf. Hahaha. Then she was like, yeah. Then about half way home I see some grass. I'm like, okay time to pull over as we are getting a call from the mission president's wife. I just start throwing up on the side of the road. It was a funny conversation Sister Carter had with her. She was like well, "Sister Phelps is currently throwing up her lunch" Meat in Thailand, family, is SKETCHY. Members food especially you don't know how long it has been sitting out. They never refrigerate their meat. But anyways. Yes.... We get home. And I am trying to act like I just didn't ride 3 hours of biking and ate spicy tainted meat. And we are planning for today and I'm like, okay... Sister Carter, Can you get me a barf bucket? haha. She runs and grabs one.. I just yes, you get the picture. It was bad. Because. It was just as spicy going down as it was going up. I've never experienced worse sick pain. hahaha. Yeah. So I had food poisoning all night. And here I am........... That is all I have for this week. I'll tell you more about the culture next week!!! Love you all.

-Sister Phelps