Howdy

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA PHELPS! It looks like a party at disneyland! If I could eat 12 disneyland corndogs right now I would! I hope your day was a special special one! Love you grams!

    Seriously. Chiang Mai food. I just have the runs too much haha. Oh well. This area is a dream. I'll deal with it. 

    I don't have much to report on! We found some people that are so prepared for the gospel. This one lady walks in the church for a baptism. And was like. Sweet. When can I get baptized. We are like. 2 weeks too fast? She was like "ได้ได้ได้ได้ได้ได้".. (yes yes yes. i can yes) We were like. Okay. awesome. See you at church. But then she couldn't go to church that day. Too frustrating. Oh well.... She said that every sunday for the rest of her life she could except last sunday taking care of her mom or some rice fields. To be quite honest. I don't really know still to this day. Haha, I don't speak thai. Just kidding.

    This week sister somboonit and I got sick. That's always fun. Except it is actually fun when we both woke up at 6 am and told each other we were feeling sick and then next thing we know is our district leaders calling us at 5pm. holy cow. We were out for a whole day and we both didn't even know it. Companion Unity is all I"m saying.

    Today we went and hiked to a waterfall.... an elder "accidentally slipped" into the water..... I was jealous.... but I got to stand under a waterfall. Felt like heaven in the hot season. Definitely worth it. At first we were going to go ride elephants and play with monkeys but then every one bailed except me and another sister. haha. I was so bummed at first. Everyone was like. ride elephants? Eh lets go to a waterfall. I'm like. DO YOU HEAR YOURSELF... you are freaking crazy.... haha. Oh man. oh well the waterfalls were way sick and it felt good to hike and feel healthy.

    We are finding some sweet investigators. THe people here in chiang mai are so christlike and nice it's so easy to convince them to learn about mormons. It's a weird concept I still haven't wrapped my mind around.

    I have some really good news. I found the best cocoa shake in town. 20 baht only. I get one more often then I'm proud of. It's fine. I still have one more month till my 6 months to get sexy plan.

That's all for this week! I love you all! The church is true. The book is Blue.

Sister Phelps

I also forgot to tell you that I think Thailand is closer to a temple than we thought. Cambodia is about to have 2 stakes and Thailand is about to have two stakes. Together that makes 4 stakes. YOu only need 4 stakes to make a temple and it's only like 1-2 hours from cambodia. How weird is that... Another exciting news is our mission had 212 baptisms this month. A record in thailand history. So awesome....

This is my life this morning. Hiked to waterfalls. Got stinking drenched. I wore some pants (My fat pants.....which are too small now) And you know. Just chillin in Chiang Mai. I don't think getting drenched by a waterfall is against the rules right? it felt AMAZING. I can't wait to go swimming for reals.

Ups Ups and More Ups

    Holy cow. I have finally reached the point in the mission where myself is completely forgotten. I never thought I would be this way. It's crazy to have a senior companion again that is so tiny she eats nothing. So what happens when I forget about myself? It's nine o'clock and totally forgot to eat since breakfast. I can't believe how much the mission is changing me. Also I'm skinnier. I won't complain....  But I heard the harder you work the hotter your husband is..... Freak. I better have a saucy husband is all i'm saying.... 

    I LOVE THE WORK IN CHIANG MAI. Seriously. They weren't lying when they said it's heaven... I've beat the record in my mission(personally) in how many new investigators we can get in one week......crazy crazy. So so busy. We also were busy with District Conference. Zone Conference. And a million missionaries coming to stay with us. REmember I had zone conference inBangkok? Then here in chiang mai? Haha. too funny. I got it twice. But yes.. Crazy crazy busy busy week.

    Oh and we had a baptism on top of that:) Tat.. Such a cutie. We got here. She was an eternal investigator but haha. A couple hours changed that. We got her in the water within a week. She is amazing and brought her three friends to learn with us after her baptism yesterday. Too funny. Now her 3 friends have a date to be baptized next month haha. 

    Something really sad hit me this week. WE were in a car on the way to some place when we saw a dead mans body on the side of the road. It hurt my heart. THe ambulance was there and the guy had a sheet covering half his body but the other half was exposed. He looked like he was in a motorcycle accident without a helemet. It was weird no on was doing anything. like putting the body in the ambulance. It was gross. and scarring. It was really sad. I will always wear my seatbelt and helmet. Don'[t want to be a dead missionary. 

    Can I just take a moment to express my love for my companion. It is so hard to serve her because she is serving me like every second of the freaking day.. She always tells me in english "Sorry. It's my culture" ANd then continues to serve me. Oh man. We get along so well and I haven't laughed harder or felt the spirit more than when we are together. We are powerful. She is THE BEST. She teaches me everyword I ever want to know in Thai if I can explain it in thai first.. Haha. So I obviously now know the word for "wedgie" and "bum" yeah... She is the best. And obviously. Since the mission hasn't changed me too much. I teach everyone the word wedgie in Thai. She laughs so hard. She is like why did I teach you that? Did I tell you she is sooo good at english. she spoils me and only speaks thai. But we say the word "Suck" all the time. haha. It's so funny to hear the word suck in an asian accent. 

    So this is the funniest thing that has ever happened to me a missionary. So we taught this one less active on saturday and started preparing her for the temple. And she is way less active. Told us it's hard for her to keep commandments. She is a little strange anyways. But we go to district fireside saturday night and there is this old crazy crazy lady that just will start laughing and talking and standing up. It's really a hilarious site. ANd then as we are watching her we see our less active take a swig of alchohol.............................. IN THE SACRAMENT ROOM. Me and sister Somboonit turn to each other and just start laughing soooo hard we are like OH NO. hahahahaha. THat was SO crazy! we couldn't control ourselves I felt so bad. Oh my gosh. I don't think i've ever seen a member in the sacrament room during a meeting take a swig of alchohol hahaha. Oh too funny.

    We just taught a freaking lot this week. Tore up our area. It's been a blessing to be here in CHiang Mai. I am so happy here. I love the work. I love talking about temples more (thanks to my legit brother). It sucks that I could have been going at this speed the last little bit in my mission. But oh well:) 

    I love you all. The church is true. I just want to share it for the rest of my life. I know god loves his children and is waiting to bless them:) Just ask. <3

Sister Phelps

This is our relationship. She writes in her journal and I come and rub my belly on her bed while talking about life. 

I saw sister ellis:)

4 awesome sisters

baptisms are fun

I MOVED! TRANSFERED. CRAZY. SUDDEN.

    Thursday. I get a call. "Sister Phelps you're moving. pack your bags and leave. " It was literally so weird. Not expecting this random call. No transfers meeting nothing. A couple other girls moved too. But woah. I was NERVOUS. I was like. Worried about everything. Crazy.........

    Well. I'll get it out. I'm in the"heaven" every missionary calls it that because it's the most desirable place to go. One the work is fun. The people are nice and it's the best best for tourists. SO many fun things. Play with tigers. Ride elephants. Everything touristy. So many hippies. Yes I'm in CHIANG MAI. So freaking lucky and excited. I'm also in a district with all natives. My language is absurdly terrible. Haha. but it's improving a ton! I am so grateful I understand everything being said to me FINALLY just saying and expressing myself fully is harder than having food poisoning on the way home from utah. 

    MY COMPANION. Sister Somboonit! I know you with hack that name. Haha. She is the coolest! my favorite companion so far. We get along so well. She is from Korat. I went on a companion exchange with her in sagonakon for a day and then I went on a comp exchange in korat with sister Stack! She somboonit is a freaking hoot. Right before I got on a 10 hour bus ride to come here I stopped by the office first to get our phone and things because we reopened this area and I ran into president. He like was excited to see me and drags me in his office and we have a legit interview. He loves his missionaries SO much. But he was telling me how lucky I was to work with sister Somboonit and how she was a treasure to his mission and knows these last 6 weeks are seriously crucial and recieved insipation that I needed to be the one to kill her. haha. How freaking weird. I feel way special. I don't know how I got so lucky. We are a BOMB in Chiang Mai. We are seriously killing it. We go everyday contacting and we have found more people in one day that I have in more than 2 weeks time. It is incredible. Chiang Mai is a dream!

    Sister Somboonit grew up catholic hard core. Never was Buddhist and then her parents converted and 3 years ago she was baptized. She is so strong. Huge testimony. She is 24 years old. Such a boss. She is about as short as Landon! Haha she is soooo small. I look like a GIANT compared to her! SOoooo crazy... She was companions with a native before me. I can tell that I will be her favorite. And this will be her favorite area. President told me to work her hard. So. What else to do than hit the pavement:) SOoo cool! As you can tell I'm loving my life right now....

    We have had some awesome laughs already. She saved me from walking in a mens restroom. She teaches me slang in thai. It's awesome. It's just so weird having to talk about brushing my teeth in thai. Because I've never had to learn those words. Just some funny things on a side note The other day I saw an 'obama 08' sticker. That was funny. So something funny in thai is single people in thai literally translates to "fresh people" That means no matter how many times Meagan says she is awesome. She is not fresh because she ain't single:) Our house is also soooo freaking old. Just the only downside to Chiang Mai. haha.

    I have a new calling in the branch. Since chiang mai is so populated I'm the official translator for all the english speakers. It's insane. There is nothing harder than translating an entire hour of sacrament meeting. I feel so bad. Sometimes the speakers just read out of a manual so I'll either just make something up or I will just say. Sorry guys I don't understand. Haha. It's so funny and frustrating. Also because my companion I only speak thai with when I was translating would say a word in Thai and just like get stuck because I don't know how to translate it. haha. I'll get better I hope.....Sucks being a white person.... The real challenge is translating from english to thai...... Had to do that too. I'm terrible TERRIBLE at it. haha. Oh man. I hope my language booms from this.....

    Coming in Half way through the month, opening an area, and having to get 2 baptisms a month.... I was stressed the whole bus ride thinking abut that because my last area was SET. Oh I missed my RC's baptisms. Oh weell. But Since I've gotten here. I just know that the lord loves me and SIster Somboonit and we are already at a comfortable spot after 2 days. We have a lot of faith. Not a lot of time together. But we are stoked out of our little brains. I can't believe I have 7 months left. Thats just gross. haha I love my mission too much. So amazing! 

    Thats all for this week. This morning we hiked a mountain to a beautiful garden. So awesome. We also passed by a giant garden named "Pooping Palace." That will never get old. NEVER... Next week we are planning on playing with baby tigers:) So stinking sweet. 

I love you all! 

Sister Phelps

Yeah. This just happened... it's a great story

a girl who is in our branch that is leaving to san diego on her mission this week. She is so cute!

me and my companion in a truck

These are stairs i climbed up this morning. soo freaking legit... i was dead by the end

Today we went to a hmong village...

...and played in a beautiful garden... 

...and the coolest wats ever.

Alright, alright I have pictures... stay tunedThe Elders Came to my rescue.... The Elders Came to my rescue....

    Alright. I'm getting my fill of movies. Count of Monte Cristo..... Classic? That scene where he is sitting in the prison and hits to rocks together and the bounce off of each other and he says. It's physics. With action there is just as much reaction to any given object. And then the two rocks bounce off each other. Well there is no difference in MISSIONARY WORK.... When there is opposition there is just a reaction to that am I right? Says it in the scriptures. 

    OKAY OKAY. I do not know what happened. Okay obviously I do. It was God. BUT THIS WEEK BOOMED. I just want to cry.. The Lord has blessed us so much. We threw out so many dates and have a grand number of people to be baptized this month. One of our miracles "BookBeek" I'm not sure how to spell that in english but she is the most prepared person I've ever met. We gave her a baptism date for the 16th and she is loving the gospel. As missionaries we try to teach all the major commandments on the first lesson (Word of Wisdom, Law of Chasity) and usually thats the end of it. But BookBeek just accepted them with open arms and had absolutely no problems. She loves church. She loves the members. She is 22 years old and just ready to take upon herself the name of Jesus Christ. I'm so excited for her. Miracle. Found contacting. I'll kill her she is too cute. Beautiful too. So she is getting baptized this week. :) Hurray. The Lord's hand is really in this work. He is VERY AWARE. Of what he is doing. I understand baptizing people fast might not have the best retention rate but it's the fastest way to get a temple for Thailand. And that's or goal as a mission:) TEMPLES!

    Soooo lets see. Yesterday zone conference. Spiritually uplifting. The only really new thing is they lifted the music rule:) We can listen to ANYTHING in the hymn book by different composers not just mormon tabernacle. But to be honest I just want to listen to like EFY music. But i'll take it. Instrumental music is going to be exciting.... 

    Something funny. Everyone is like introduce yourself and say something cool that no one knows. This poor elder that just got into country. Was like, I'm elder so and so and I... I have diarrhea. hahaha I feel so bad... I remember when I first got into country. I honestly thought I was going to die at any second. Hahahahaha. I'm dying. Okay... Also something weirdly funny happened this week. Working in an international branch has it's perks and obviously in Thailand speaking english is not a perk when I'm trying to be fluent. We had a Thai lesson one morning then and english lesson than a thai lesson than dinner with an english family and then a thai lesson in one day. Freak. My thai.... My english. I don't even know what I was speaking in every lesson. My poor companion looked at me so many times like. Get ahold of yourself and speak the right language hahaha. Oh man. It was a struggle just speaking that day. I wanted to die in a corner but I just laughed. Everyone else thought it was funny too. AHH. 

    I have probably my most embarrassing moment of my mission field experience. Sister Ladle and I went tracting in neighborhoods one day. Well it was really freaking hot outside so I was sweating a bunch but thankfully I had water... anyways. I'll make it a short story. I saw a ball of flowers and I thought "what better way to entertain myself than drop kick this ball of flowers and see how far it goes." Wrong. I'm an idiot. my shoe flies with it over a fence with spokes on top to keep intruders out and it had a big gate. So I'm screwed. The ground in pavement(poorly paved...3rd world country) and the people weren't home. So I made the embarrassing call to our district leader that I needed shoes because mine flew over a fence so they come like 10 minutes later with giant elder crocs. You know the dumb ugly ones. I wore those for the rest of the day.... too embarrassing. Good thing Thai people don't give a crust of what you wear.... so english i was teaching in over sized ugly crocs... classic.....

    But I just have a lot of positive feeling from this last week. I can't really put them on paper. I probably thought about home the least this week and really just enjoyed the miracles from God. Just awesome. I'll definitely keep you updated next week:) I love you all and your prayers are definitely answered... Thank you :) Have a great week! 

PMG "God’s whole purpose—His work and His glory—is to enable each of us to enjoy all His blessings."

Sister Phelps

Guess who I saw last week!? AOM! And Maa Huang. Oh my I love them soooo much. Sister Huang the mother in the picks I worked with so much in Udon. She unfortunately less active but hopefully her daughter going on a mission 

Udon reunion in Bangkok:)

The Elders Came to my rescue.... 

now my comp and I have the same shoes. How adorable.

we had just gotten off our 4 mile bike ride to our house. shoot me so hot and sweaty haha

Whats Good

Okay Marie. Obviously Elders got me hooked on saying whats good. It's stuck with me. I honestly don't know how to get rid of it out of my vocabulary.... 

Some news I'm pretty sure I've never shared before is that absolutely no native thai can say my last name. Somehow they always get an "R" sound in there and I legitimately just always except whenever someone tries to say my name and looks to me for approval. Fart. frit. Fet. Failt. Yeah... They cant say the "ps" sound for the life of them. Hahaa when i really try to get a kick out of my own name I try to make them say it over and over again until they get it right. They get so embarrassed when they try to speak like a white person... haha... but... My most recently favorite one was Sister Breakfast. Don't ask me how that happens.... I still don't know haha. But mostly I'm sister Fart. Bless their hearts.

Not much has happened this week. We are working hard in our area but not too much progress. We think this week will be a good week. Sister Ladle fell off her bike for the first time. It was hilarious. I felt a little bad but not at the same time. I taught her how to do the "harry potter" on the bike where you put your legs behind you like you're riding a broom and before she even tried she lost control, hit the curb, and then fell off because she almost hit me... hahah It was too awesome. I love her.... Bless her heart. She also had the flu for 2 days this week. I was cabin fever. But i'm so aware that God lives because McDonalds delivers:) Yeah. That was fun... I felt bad... I've had the flu once so I patiently waited on her needs. It was good feeling of charity.

I'm loving my companion. She is soooo good. We both are at the same level of thai so if one of us doesn't understand the other one doesn't either. It's pretty cool. Asian languages are hard. Still working at it.....

Yesterday the Presiding Bishop of the WHOLE Church came to explore Thailand and called a meeting for all the missionaries. It was a last minute meeting in Asoke and we had to cancel an appoitment with a potential investigator to go. And it was fast sunday. And we weren't going to be home till nine. .. Anyways...... I slightly just wasn't feeling the meeting. Hearing President senior talk about how much he loves his missionaries was a huge highlight and I just love him sooo much and the Bishop stevenson talked about how we need to have a continual flow of investigators and telling us things that we just like common sense to any missionary. Anyways. I turn to sister Ladle and I'm like. I'm feeling totally bad but it's 830 and I want to go home and eat and I've heard all of this before plenty of times. And then she writes to me "Reptition is the best teacher." Definitely humbled me and then I stayed attentive... Still really dry but it was a better learning experience for me. for sure. so my lesson to everyone is that if you think something is repetitive. Just think that reptition is the best way you'll learn something.... Especially learning another language. It also works with Basic doctrine.... 

Anyways. Nothing exciting I'll get back to you next week on our many miracles we are expecting:) I love my mission. I love my savior. It's all true.

Sister Phelps