This Week in Thailand

"I ate some bugs, I ate some grass, I used my hands to wipe my tears." -If you can name me this movie. YOU WIN

    But really family. I forgot to tell you last week. I ate some mealworms and grasshoppers. Oh. It was really foul. I don't like eating bugs. They taste like flavored french fries. But they are bugs. I have some good pictures of it. ahha.... Me and sister Sahagun. Blah. Grosssss... It was also the kings birthday! It was sooooooo cool. Just everyone in the state of Thailand goes out with flags. huge deal to sing for the kings birthday......

    So my companion broke the Word of Wisdom this week. Hahaha it was funny. We went to seven right before nightly planning and we both wanted apple juice. So I got some and she got a different kind. But obviously in Thailand you need to do some reading before drinking mysterious apple drinks because the Thai's love their tea. Anyways. I'm set. I get the same apple juice. Sister Her gets her's. Haha classic "her" anyways..... We are planning she is like this apple juice is so good. Try it. So I sip it "ruining my salvation" and of course after I try it I look at the bottle sitting on her desk and in big Thai letters it reads "White Tea" hahaha. I'm like! YOURE BREAKING THE WORD OF WISDOM. We had a good laugh. The Lord had a sense of humor. Anyways. I've repented. And I took the sacrament. haha All is well.

    So my favorite thing about baptisms are the song choices. Thailand haha. Our last baptism we sang "Angels we have heard on high." and the closing sunday was "God be with you till we meet again." Hahaha. The person getting baptized obviously didn't see his funeral coming soon. They are just so random. "In our lovely deseret." That is the WORST song ever to sing period. It talks about making sure your children keep the word of wisdom (obviously parents you didn't sing that enough with me) but we sing that almost ever baptism. They are so random songs.... It's just so funny. Thai people kill me haha. 

    This week was really cool. REALLY COOL. My companion is way cool. Did I tell you she speaks HMONG? anyways. We got a call last thursday to teach FOUR FAMILIES over skype in Hmong. It was honestly the coolest experience. The spirit was so strong when my companion was speaking to them. It was sounding so asian. I was asking her if when she spoke hmong did it sound asian. And she said no because Thai just seems way normal and not asian to me. I wonder how it works.... I was like. I wonder if my family will think it's a weird language. haha. I don't know. It's a way cool language though. You'll see next week. I decided I have to sit next to a khon thai and try to invite them to be baptized so you can see. Haha. just kidding. that would be sweet though.....

    To you remember Takies? Though hot cheetos type chips. I dreamt about those so much this week. Oh so delicious...... My companion and I may or may not have bought some for 120 baht this week. Whoops. Merry christmas to us haha. We decided that we will never grow out of fake foods. I ate a can of speggetios yesterday. We just had a huge trunky conversation about fake foods we missed. Haha 

    This last week my companion and I have really actually become close friends. We were always companions and not really close but this last week we just laugh so hard together. I think she finally understands that my jokes are actually funny. Haha. Anyways. This week was good. FOund a couple new people to teach and then they dropped. But we are teaching this Hmong family over skype that lives in Bangkok. It's way sweet. Special experience.....

    Today it started POURING RAIN out of no where just a monsoon came at like 3 oclock in the morning. I was so scared with the thunder and lightning haha. Classic me. But I woke up sister Her and she was like. Cool sister. and went back to bed haha. I thought she would be excited for her first crazy thunder storm in the middle of the night. It was legit. And scary. But this morning she was like. SISTER I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU WOKE ME UP TO TELL ME IT WAS RAINING. hahaha. It was so funny. I was laughing....

     All is well in Udon. It's transfers this week. I'm definitely ready to see somehting else. If I don't transfer I will be in my area for 8 months. Pretty long. But we will see. I do love it here. I won't be mad if I stay. I just love the members and the children here. BUT WE WILL SEE. I hope everyone has a happy christmas!!!!!!! I will talk to you next wednesday! We don't have pday next monday! JUST A REMINDER!

    Make a list of questions to ask because I know I haven't nearly answered all of Mom's questions. It just takes to much work over email aha. I want a conference call! Make it happen. Remember be at your computers always..... I'm thinking christmas eve anywhere from 6-8 your time. Get your children on a sleeping cycle. I command it. I have to see them. Or I will be forever sad. Your choice :) 

LOVE YOU SOOO MUCH I CAN"T WAIT YOU HAVE NO IDEA! Till next week when you can see my fat face <3

Sister Emilee Nicole Phelps 

me and my companion eating hot pot.

the beautiful sky and cool buildings right by the church.

Me eating bugs

King's Birthday!

Howdy ho Ranger

    Hello! I'm still in Udon. Transfers are next week! I'm wondering what happens. I am way excited to find out! Thanks for everyone that emailed me:) I felt the lovvvvveeeeee.!!!

    Our investigator was baptized yesterday. Sister Jan. OH MY GOSH........I love her...I can't describe this lady. She is from a christian church. The hope church. Which mumbles as loud as they can to express there love for God. We started teaching her. She has been an "eternal investigator" And she is about to marry the old branch president. Sister Her and I were so nervous to start teaching a christian lady because we have to change all of our lesson plans instead of introducing who God is, we straight away bear testimony of the book of mormon and jospeh smith. I'm assuming that's how it is in America. But anyway we were just nervous because we thought we would get a lot of questions in Thai that we weren't going to be able to answer because we don't know how to use the Thai bible. It's insane. haha. But we get into the lesson. Set our expectation of her getting baptized and bear our testimony. She looks at us she was like. I will get baptized. We set it for 2 weeks later and she was baptized yesterday. It was just crazy that she never had the expectation of baptism. It was an honest miracle. She prayed that night and told us the next day that this was the only true church. THE CHURCH IS TRUE.... She is such a strong member. I asked her if she had any friends we could teach and she pulls out a book of 12 people. She was like, I've already been sharing the gospel with these people. haha. It was awesome. The Lord prepared her......

    Elder Wilko, who is my district leader wrote this to his family about sundays. Sundays are literally the most stressful thing as a missionary. Making sure your investigators go to all you classes haha. It's so funny. But this is what he wrote to his family. I support him. But I won't take his credit for this golden paragraph. This is what happened yesterday after our primary program sunday........ "Let me tell you how Sundays in Thailand work.... Well all the cattle gather together in the barn at around 1 pm (on a good day) for sacrament meeting then because the primary program gets done 25 minutes early they open the fence and all the cattle go runnin every which way. Some stay in the barn/go to class , some go outside to graze in the pasture/eat some grub, some high tail it out of dodge to take their second removed cousins grandson to school. Well around 2:20pm farmer Wilko and farmer Osborn wonder where oh where have the cattle all gone and then for the next hour and a half we play woody's round up and make sure all the animals get safely back to the barn."

    So time for some fun stuff. This week I ate TWO all you can eat meat buffet. Oh my gosh. One of them was so high so. It had a convayer belt in front of us going around constantly and an all you can eat sushi bar. A little cooker in front of you. oh my gosh. I slept sooo well that night. It's called Oishi. If you want to look it up. Coolest food ever.......After that I went wtih some of my recent converts to eat another meat buffet. SO Good. I have pictures...... mmmmmm. I'm hoping sister Her wants to eat there for lunch. Way pricy. 350 baht. 1 hour and 15 minutes to eat all you can eat... Usually meals in thailand range from 30-60 baht..... 30 baht equals a dollar..... So freaking cheap here. Last monday all my district played sports at the church for pday. We got tonns of pizza. 6 huge boxes and it filled all 10 of us up so quick for 1000 baht. about 30 dollars for all ten of us to eat. So rediculous. It was was nice pizza too. It's like California pizza kitchen pizza. Nice pizza!

    NICKNAMES KILL ME.... This week I was just falling in love with the dumb nicknames. This week we taught a girl her name is, "My mind" Literally.... That is her name. When we do accountibiltiy we are like. "How is my mind doing" "Oh my mind didn't accept baptism this week" "Oh darn, my mind just needs a little more motivation." Haha not really but stuff like that. It's funny. We also taught another girl. Her name is "nasty." These poor children! Hahaha. They don't even know..... I've met a cheetoh. And a donut. And a Talent. And a Farm. These names just kill me..... Arm, Some names in Thai are like bee(which means year in thai) I just don't get them. "Hey brother Cheetoh will you help me teach tonight." hahaha..... Oh jeez.. The funniest thing happens. When someone tells you there name is "bun" Because thats how the pronounced it. I'm like, how do you spell that? In English he was like. K-L-E.... We are like... What the crap? haha KLE does not say "bun".. It reminded me of Brian Reagan.. "Yeah just throw a q and a 7 in someones names and pronounce it John." Classic... Erika better understand that one......

    The weather is so cold at night. It's like 60ish degrees. I start shivering! I'm sooooo spoiled! Haha. The cold season is miserable. Everyone is in mittens and scarfs. It's way hilarious. hahah That's like a good day in Utah..... but I guess I need to suffer a little.

    Funny. Last week we played sports. And one of the dumb Utah elders that is so innocent, probably still hasn't realized it. But he kicked my poor companions butt. Literally. This isn't figuratively. Like he was laughing so hard from something she said and he just gave it a tap with his foot. ahhaha. We could not get over it this week! Utah Elders crack me up. The first week Sister Her was in Country the same elder saw a spider on her chest hahahahaha and totally goes to smack it off hahahahahahahahahah. I'm dying right now. He is currently sitting next to me. It's so freaking funny. Oh Utah.... Elders... Innocent.......

    No worries..... I may be amongst the asians. But I found a beautiful son of God from brazil last night......very hot.... It was very refreshing to see a cocky smile. He plays soccer in thailand and asked us, "Haven't you ever seen me on TV." what a classic.....But... He obviously wanted baptism. It was SO hard speaking in english about the gospel. I was struggling not throwing in Thai in there. hahaha. Oh language.... 

    That's all I have. The church is true! My pday is Christmas in Thailand in 2 weeks so don't expect emails on monday! LOVE YOOUUUUUUU

The cute old lady near death I talked about last week. I love her so much. Can't live my sundays with out her. Everything I say she just says "Amen Amen" Haha. Such a cutie old lady.

Our investigator that got baptized yesterday! 

This Week

This week was sooooo long..... I'm so tired. Haha. I can't wait to go home and hibernate for years..... But over all a sucessful week! We had mission tour. A member from the asia 70 came and we had a giant zone conference on wednesday. We had A LOT of training on the Book of Mormon. It was seriously sick and awesome. Thanksgiving lunch. President Senior. Elder Proctor and Elder Astle. It was a serious party! There is just so much that I learned about the Book of Mormon. Like 1 Nephi chapter 1 is all about the restoration. It was way weird to read the first chapter of the book of mormon and likening it unto Joseph Smith and Chapter 1 of Preach My Gospel. I can't get enough of it. Too cool. Personal study for everyone. Check out ch. 1 in Preach My Gospel and relate it to 1 Nephi 1. FUN. It was awesome. I loved wednesday. 

Thursday! Thanksgiving. The senior couple made us some awesome thanksgiving! MMMMM Turkey. I had no idea there was such a thing in thailand! But mmm so delicious. And stuffing. And of course. Som Tom. Papaya salad. Can't go a day in thailand without seeing that stuff. I didn't get a picture though. We were in such a rush. But no pie. Oh well. :) 

We have an investigator getting baptized on sunday! She is 63 and just knows the church is true! It's way sick and legit! Old people either are just "don't talk to me little young white girl." or they are like "It's all true." It just depends. They are awesome. We have this old lady in our ward. On a scale from born to death, I think she is near the end. I'm not sure how old she is. But she is crippled. BUT OH MY GOSH. I love her so much. Every time I see her she burps. Tells me I'm beautiful and anything that I say she says. "Amen" In the cutest squeekiest thai old lady voice. I need a picture with her next week. Thats my mission.

So we got some new clothes..... RELFECTIVE GEAR. Yeah. get out of town. from 5 at night till late we have to wear these tacky yellow vest that say "I'm a Mormon" In thai. It's way hilarious. Got to love the Lord's sense of humor. But the funny thing is that the same day we got the tacky wear, we saw a little boy in his school uniform and we were just matching. So we took a picture with this adorable fat boy in a tacky yellow vest..... I look pooped but the little boy is adorable. We will send that over! Man.......

Also this week we got our christmas present from the seniors...... Hahah It was a pretty bad christmas CD.... But then we got a CD from BYU Vocal point. I was like a school girl getting it. So happy. It gets rough listening to mormon tab everyday. Even if it's blasting in the house and you're sweeping the floor. It's just... you know mo tab. But now we dream about vocal point. It's way great. Best Christmas present ever....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MCKAY. SORRRRY I MISSED IT :( BUT I REMEMBERED. FREAKING 3 YEARS OLD. THEN ERIKA HAPPY BIRTHDAY THIS WEEK! I HOPE PEARL HARBOR DAY IS JUST NOT AS GOOD AS YOUR BIRTHDAY. BECAUSE YOU DESERVE THE BEST BIRTHDAY A MOM OF TWO KIDS. SUCH A SOCCER MOM NOW. AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY LITTLE SISTER CARTER TRAINER WHO IS NOW AT HOME AND GAMLANGJA GET MARRIED. 23 IS WAY OLD MY DEAR. STAY SAUCY AND KEEP THAT EYE CREAM NEAR..

LOVE YOU ALL AND CAN'T WAIT TILL MY SECOND MOM GETS MARRIED NEXT YEAR! yayyyyyyyyyy

-Emmers

classic

Man I look way bad in both of these hahah. But here are our beautfiul vests....

We travel in style:) Sister Sahagan and I on a 7/11 trip. so nice.

Got to love thailand and their squats.

This is classic thailand. Huge mall with a bunch of shacks next to it.

What is up on the other side of the world?

Hey. Just realized. Mom has 4 kids. Hahah. Dad told me mom. No need for embarrassment but you should be ashamed that you forgot about a child.

Anyways. I cut off my toes this week. JUST KIDDING. My letters I feel like are just boring lately. Nothing exciting happens! Haha. Right now I'm living the dream though. I had some lady send me a cocoa milk shake in from outside. Now I'm living the dream. 

A week! A successful week. Finally. Our numbers are going up. We have some investigators with baptismal dates for this month and they are solid! We are excited. Keep our investigators in your prayers! I'm way excited about this new work we are doing. We've had baptisms every week in Udon from it and the members are slightly getting sick of all the baptisms haha but if they want a temple in Thailand the numbers are what they need. They are great and really supportive though. Very lovely.

Last week we dressed up as Classic thai Sisters...... I lvoed it! I looked so gross and thai. Asian just doesn't fit me.... I'm glad to say....... My companion looked great though! She was asian ....typical. 

It's thanksgiving this week! I'm thankful for my family! And turkey which they don't have in THailand! Sad. But the senior couple is having us over for dinner with a classic thanksgiving. I'm grateful for them. THey love and spoil us so much! 

Man. I'm really grateful for my savior. He helped me alot this week. My companion and I had one day this week where we were at each others throats last tuesday. But thank goodness everyone in our district applied the atonement in our lives. The savior works miracles. We are fine now. And we are happy. 

THis wednesday is Mission tour. It's like a zone conference. I'm way stoked. President senior is coming to udon again. Everyone else from our zone and khon khan zone is coming so it's pretty much like a party. Except right now i'm preparing a talk on lessons learned from the last days of moroni. SOOO MUCH AWESOMENESS. Those ten chapters in Moroni are soo powerful. So much witness of christ. Such a stud. If you have opportunities to study this week. I reccomend those chapters. The gift of disernment is totally in our lives. We are smart people. We can find out that the scriptures are true by a simple prayer. Easy. ANyways! 

I don't have anything else! I'm sorry! Not much but working working working! I love it. I will always love it. Less than a year baby! 

Love my Family. Eat some turkey for me

-Sister Phelps

bahahaha. Last week..... We dressed up in thai outfits and took pictures... I was too fat to fit in the pretty skirts.... But seriously hahaha. I ripped a skirt so they gave me an ugly skirt. Such a shame.

 I loved this bike ride. So serene. Way peaceful. I love the Aseon. 

They gave my Companion the Thai menu and me the english menu. Boy do the thai people just not understand that my companion is american haha.

 I love teaching and being a missionary. So sweet. Who teaches gospel principles on a mat. On a porch. In Thailand. Also. This lady spoke Aseon. Could barely understand her haha.