Sister Phelps: The Land of Smiles: Oh Babylon Oh Babylon

CONGRATS SECOND MOM :) momma julie got murried..........

Alright... There is some serious Mainstream music playing in the background.... and I'm pretty sure its all from just dance 3.... And I'm just doing some of those motions... whoops. American Music is so hard to avoid here. ANYWAYS.

I'm going to not get into the work right away because last pday was so freaking legit. Talk about riding Ostriches. That was the hardest thing I've done ever. When they run you like squeeze your legs tight so you don't fall off... my legs hurt sooo freaking the next day haha... Oh man it was like riding a bull. There was two ostriches in the pin and the put me on the wild one first and I stay on like for 20 seconds and just fly off. I was freaking scared hahaha... I was the first missionary to go because I thought I was tough.. But holy crap. I never want to ride a bull in my entire life... But yes they totally put bags over their heads so they stop going crazy.... but freak. riding a bird. CHECK.

Then there were elephants we rode. which was freaking legit. We went into this huge river and they just pooped and pooped and pooped. Obviously legit. Met some legit monks that accepted us to take a picture with them...Then you know. Just holding a giant anaconda. That was heavier that crap ohhh my gosh. I was again the first missionary to go because I have no guts and they thew it on my shoulders. I'm like "Ahhhh ไม่ ไหว ไม่ ไหว." Which means like physically i can't carry this snake. In this picture i was fine until the guy let all the weight on me and I thought i was going to fall over haha. Soooo stinking heavy. And then the lady put the face by my face and it slithered its tounge on my neck and it WIGGED ME OUT hhaha. I have a picture of that too..... Then we hiked up to a waterfall in a skirt... That was fun....and sweaty. Then just some sweet wats around here. I think we are going to a monkey cave today..... The coolest thing is i spent probably in total about 400 baht last week which is like 12 dollars..... Thailand is so cheap. <3

Okay. Now that I got that worldly stuff is over... Oh crust. Meagan.... Do you know what song just started playing? The club can't handle me right now.......... I probably should go ask them to turn it off. haha. Okay anyways. The work in Chiang Rai is sooo fun. And it's even more fun when you have an amazing companion to share it with..... Sister Holmes is a STUD. Never feeling like she does enough but we contact hard on the streets. In fact we have 3 of those contacts getting baptized the 25th this month.... It's really a miracle.... But it's just so fun to like have your companion as a best friend and just hit the streets it makes the work that much more fun. We got some seriously legit training last which made us want to work harder..... so before sunday we had 25ish people tell us they were going to church....... But this was the most depressing part of the week. JUST ONE SHOWED UP. Oh man. I wanted to kill haha. I was so mad at lazy people......That was a stressful day yesterday.... But we are still tearing it up even though we dropped 3 of our daters... We just have 3 daters left. haha. Oh well. We love our investigators we are teaching. I don't know if i've told you bust a ton of people aren't Thai here. They are Acca. They sort of look thai but speak a totally different language but living in thailand they have learn thai. But 2 of our daters are Acca natives. It's pretty much the mountain people. So it's interesting... and Exciting.... I love this area. The people just are way receptive to the spirit. It's like we don't even have to convince them..... we are like okay here is the water just walk. haha. just kidding but i'm so happy here.

Did I tell you anything about sister Holmes? She is from Sandy Utah. She is 19 YEARS OLD. My first companion that is younger than me haha. I have been waiting for this day. She just graduated high school in 2013. I'm like FREAK i'm old. She is a stud. I can't say it enough. She has amazing language skills and really doesn't even feel like she is just barely not a greenie... we have sooo much fun together. Laughing at all the people that turn us down so awkwardly and she can come tour with me all over chiang rai and love it... just so fun.... She is so fun. OH I almost forgot. She got to flu so bad last thursday. We thought she had something seriously wrong with her. Just throwing up all the time. I felt so bad.... It was so sad. I like made the elders come give her a blessing because she oculdn't even walk haha. And bring her all this stuff like medicine because we are on the 3rd floor and I can't leave the house without her and it was a mess. I call them and the are SUCH Elders haha. They are like. Well. We are eating man. And we have an appoitment across town man. I was like. Oh my. you are eating sushi too? haha. Oh my then they FINALLY get to our house. My poor companioon is dead. They are like. alright man. We forgot the oil. DOn't get mad hahaha.... Then the elder was like oh man. I don't know how to start this in English so he starts in thai. But forgets to ask her name hahaha. Elders will always be elders... Bless their hearts. But they are great missionaries. And we just love them......

One last thing I want to leave that has brought seriously chills is in our training President Senior gets a call from Elder Holland and Elder Holland has told President that SALT LAKE has noticed the growth in Thailand. .... I literally. FREAKed. out... it was such a testifying feeling that the work we are doing is getting to our vision of Thailand getting a temple. We are working SO hard for that but sometimes the vision is hard to see. I'm so grateful for a mission president that has that mindset. I am not sure if you know this but Thailand is killing it. We started this inviting technique to invite directly off baptism. Sucess. Guess what else. 6 other missions have copied us in the east asia. And Someone emailed my comp and was like. Hey we saw your missions video for our training. haha. We are a huge example for the missions around us. AND salt lake city has noticed. In president seniors training in hong kong they show all the missions and their rates. And there is one mission that just has a status line that just shoots straight up. And president Holland points it out as our mission. Like freak. President senior. He knows what he is doing. The biggest genius of us all........ I'm so grateful to be here in this mission at this time. I feel sad my time is getting shorted out because of the sucess the mission is seeing. I'm a proud missionary. I should be more humble. But I literally have the greatest mission with the greatest missionaries that have one purpose. Bring others unto christ through baptism!

THE WORK IS HASTENING! I love my mission.

Kill it at home. I love you all!

-SISTER PHELPS