Goals

WOO hooo. We made our goal for july:) 4 baptisms! We had our last two yesterday. It was a sweet experience. Our legendary motorcyle man baptized his own daughter yesterday. What a sweet experience. My goal from the begging was to baptize a family and with help from sister holmes and the Lord we did. He is way excited to go to the temple to baptize his wife and be sealed to her. His daughter that lives in Chiang Mai went to church yesterday. She is getting ready to be baptized next Sunday.  What a special special day. Ahhhhh just sooo much love.

We had our 17 year old investigator that has been going for 4 weeks got baptized too. She was so cute as well. The person who baptized her was just baptized himself a couple months prior. So 2 newly ordained priesthood holders were able to baptize and we got to watch! Woo hoo!

We are planning for two baptisms on saturday. and one on sunday.... Cross you fingers. Do a little dance and pray. I'll just eat ice cream and pray because i'm fat. But Yes... just more miracles... Yay for miracles!

On saturday we had switch off's with the sister training leaders and of course when they come and visit every appointment falls through. Classic. But Sister Tilley perfectly just moved to chiang mai to be an STL a week prior and she of course chose to be with me because she missed me. We were pretty sure that was against the white handbook but holy cow did we have fun together. FREE preztel day at auntie annes too. And it was the ALMOND kind. And it was fresh. It wasn't the crappy salted ones. No.. best preztel of my life..... I love free things.... Like free salvation. You think it would sound pretty good right???? But in the end we got a little stressed out because we were talking about going home and it sounded too stressful to have to make your own decisions and worry about yourself.... But I loved working with sister tilley. Just brought happiness to my day. She has the biggest most hilarious personality ever... She always talks about you mom and dad and how you gave her a pillow in the air port.... Such a champ....

I actually wrote some things in my planner to say today because I just forget what happens most weeks. This week was the first AND LAST time we taught a lesson in a park... because you know.. in thailand they do free arobic classes in the park... Most distracting thing of my life if I do say so myself...They were playing that aqua song. "Dr. jones jones calling dr jones dr jones dr. jones get up now (wake up now)" Yeah that one. As we are teaching the 10 commandments I start having a bounce in my foot and rythm in my body. Anyways.... Distracting... won't happen again. Oops. ka. 

Also.. my most favorite thing is first prayers... Especially most thai people that are buddist have never prayed before.... This is what happened with one of our people getting baptized on sunday. "Hello heavenly Father, This is Goosone, your son, i've tried to be a good son, but i mess up and i'm sorry." It's literally the most enjoyable experience of any missionaries life.... It brought me back to udon when my first convert prayed for the first time and it was just an awesome experience! I love it.

I'm pretty sure I was funnier and cooler 15 months ago. Now I have dreams that I'm singing to dora the explorer's "map" song. "I am fat, I am fat, I am fat, I am fat " You get the picture. but it's fine. I love food.... And I'm always happy when I'm eating.

Yesterday the branch did a SICK Iron rod activity (my idea hah) And we have 4 stories in our church so we had a fog smoke machine going up the stairs. Talk about insane. The smog was so thick you couldn't see in front of you. I was supposed to be an angel helping people the whole way... but then in the end. I ate the cake. It was too delicious..

Alright. That's all i remember. I love you all! Chiang Rai is boss. I'll spend my whole mission here. I love sister Holmes. Pretty much my best friend. That is all i could ask for.

-Sister Phelps

pics of the apartment...... pretty high-so... we love it..

Pictures of the miracle baptisms... and the elders had one too :)

I literally don't remember what happened to time

Hey everyone! Sorry this will be short. I don't know what happened to time today. But I love you all. This week was super exciting! We had an 11 year old get baptized. And then the miracle set in stone. After he got baptized his mother called us and told us she moved back to chiang Rai from Bangkok and wants to be baptized here and said it was god's plan for her. Talk about miracle. She has a date set in stone for this Sunday. Also our two 16 year olds that have been going to church for 4 weeks are getting baptized on Sunday. Also our legit motorcycle man brought his daughter to church yesterday and he blessed the sacrament and is baptizing her next week too. Talk about another miracle. Just because we threw our bodies in front of his motorcycle his life is changed. It makes me sad to think if we hadn't been worthy to head that prompting. So obedience bring success. EXACT obedience brings miracles. And we are seeing those flow out in CHiang Rai. Thank you for your prayers... They are answered. I love this work. I love being busy. Our Elders are killing it too. Last transfers was our refiners fire and now we came out on top thanks to the Lord. 

The rainy season keeps us on our toes at all times.... Mostly because we can't see in the rain so we just walk everywhere:) It's pretty legit being in a tropical storm constantly. 2 more weeks in the transfer and then I'm the oldest set of sisters left! Talk about weird. 

Happy Birthday Grandma Petersen! Love you soooo sooo much! 

Sister Phelps

last week we went for a swan ride... it was exciting

this one with our feet is very naughty with our thai culture... the members got a laugh out of it

 lunch with members in a tiki hut

lunch..... Spicy firid squid nuts? no thanks....

Pictures of the Baptism last monday! :)

Sister Kwan my favortie sister in the branch made us little crochet us's aren't they freaking legit!  

Inviting no one in the middle of no where.

Dairy queen take home for sister Holmes' half way mark.

These little bananas kill me soo cute.

Family and Friends

Hey what's up,

Super exciting news. Our two new RC's got the priesthood yesterday. This little branch is just growing! besides yesterday. It poured and it showed how many people had a testimony. just 48 our of 70... and 8 of those were our investigators. Seriously a miracle that we had investigators want to come to church yesterday in the pouring rain. That's so not thai of them... But it was legit. We gave the elders 2 of our investigators and they are getting baptized next week and we have 4 of those getting baptized in the next two weeks! Pretty legit. I don't know why this transfer is so much different than last... helps a lot! 

Well, We are having a baptism tonight! :) We are way excited! Our little 11 year old baptism super exciting. It was the funniest experience teaching him haha. We are like teaching him the word of wisdom and he finally got it down. Couldn't understand tithing for the life of him haha. we even brought candy to use. But yesterday at church we are like. GOW GOW! What are you going to do tomorrow? He was like. "OBEY THE LORD" haha and he was so excited. We are like, close. What else. He was like, "Not drink coffee." haha we were dying. Almost Gow gow.... One more guess. haha He never got it. We are like baptized duh. and he was like. OH! YES! I'm so excited and he starts dancing around haha. Such a cute kid...

Last week I struggled with the culture. I crossed my legs in front of an old lady and she snapped at me... i totally forgot it's super disrespectful. and then I waied someone to high... Yeah. i got chewed out again haha. Oops.

So the whole thing with President we went to dinner with him because he lost a bet with me. It was legit. In an interview he told me that no sister's wear dresses and I told him yes they do. So he made a bet that if at zone conference there were 3 sisters wearing dresses he would owe me dinner. I was like. DEAL.... so I obviously won because sisters love dresses. We get a call on tuesday night saying to plan 3 hours with President senior in your area. We were stressed we had nothing to do. haha so we planned to just take him to a market and go contacting. Thankfully the next day he showed up and had meeting. phew. but after he took the missionaries to dinner and it was soooo fun. He just ordered everything off the menu and it was hilarious. Our mission president is seriously the coolest. Can't stop laughing around that dude.....

Alright. I don't have much else to report on,. Love my area.... Love my mission love my life. จบ

Love everyone and thank you for your support.

Sister Phelps

We went to Jerlene's house (our RC) and his house was legit.... his house is concrete floors a couch. tin roof. a tv. It's literally the most adorable unique thing ever. 

like an hour song tow ride to our RC's house which was beautiful because it's flooded and there is mountains i was scared to stick my head outside...

Dinner with President Senior. That was stressful and exciting. 

Baptism!

ANOTHER ONE:) Jerlene was baptized. You know. The 55 year old man we met 8 days ago. Yes. He was a miracle. Just riding his motorcycle by the church and we had the guts to go stand in front of the church and stop his moving motorcycle...and because of it his life is totally changed. It was a really a moving experience teaching him. We taught him the word of wisdom and he had been drinking this weird alcoholic drink with his friends all the time but after we taught him he stopped completely. He said he felt sick thinking about it after that and since he stopped he said his body had more strength and he could remember things better. He was the cutest old man ever. Just a miracle.His wife died 3 years prior and It was soooo cool teaching him he can live with her again... After he was baptized he had the opportunity to bear his testimony. He talked about how now he really has found himself and felt like a child of God. These are the moments to keep us going.

That last transfer was so hard. The goal this month is for everyone to have 4 baptisms. Right now we have 2 people lined up for next week... It feels like such a blessing to be an instrument in the lords hands. Yesterday we went to a funeral for our brand RC Nung's aunt. Brother Nung had no idea how to go to a buddist funeral and be christian. He was stressed because you have to Wai and stuff like that and so we had some members and us go help be an example for him. Apparently there is an exception to go do buddist stuff as long as you have a prayer in your heart. So that was definitely culturally interesting. Nung is seriously the cutest RC ever haha.After the funeral he took us to his "garden" in his backyard. It's literally a jungle. It's beautiful and him sister Holmes and I were trying to catch as many chickens as we could haha. All the member just love him and his mom. We are trying to work with his mom. She has been to church as many times as nung and loves it. haha she just won't accept a baptismal date haha. She is crazy but all the members love them... I love them too. I can't wait for mom and dad to come and see it here. 

Yesterday they took a "priesthood picture" at Jerlenes baptism and it was so moving to watch this little branch grow with strong priesthood holders. It felt way good to be apart of it too.. With little nung and jerlene in there and the eldeers just baptized an old man. My thoughts are weird to think "why now is the mission baptizing all the melk potential priesthood holders." Just a crazy awesome experience.....

I LOVE chiang Rai. I could die here and be totally fine... We are currently teaching an 11 year old getting baptized on sunday. He is really cool and cute. definitely a first of teaching a child. But it's so rewarding....

AHHH i love my mission. Wouldn't trade it for the WORLD.... Thailand is literally about to get a temple. We are getting texts about it all the time. Something is up and I'm so excited to be apart of the coolest time! Whatts good.

I love you all. I'm definitely excited to see you. 

I'm also learning a new dialect in the north.... It's pretty fun...

Sister Phelps

love these thais

fish sticks anyone?

bugs in thailand

baptism from last week

the teeniest puppy ever

just live in a wilderness

just a legit bike ride scenery 

we have goals to take a picture a day.... just randomness

riding a bike int he rain

found reeses in thailand whats good.... 

baptism from this week

caught chickens

walking through Nung's "garden"

Miracle Baptism หนึ่ง's

WE SURVIVED TRANSFERS.... none of us in Chiang Rai moved... we kind of wanted a new district leader because he is just not fun to serve with but whatever... We all survived AND I got mommas package! woo hoo... Star wars shirts are bosses... 

A little shout out to the babes that finished the half marathon a couple weeks back. I can barely make a block without dying.. i can't imagine 13.1 miles.... You are my hero tyler and Jess.... Also I keep forgetting every week to mention but how the trash is conner 2 already? I swear I was just holding that little chicken nugget and playing with his hair!

Literally. The Lord loves us SO much. Except I have the runs right now... I don't know why.

Remember this from last week? "Found one new investigator walking around central last week. Most prepared person of my entire mission. Loves the things we teach. Loves the gospel. Loves everything. Yesterday he calls us that morning and asks if he needs to wear white underwear for his baptism. We had to remind him it was next week. It was so crazy how we found this guy. We were both going to get a dairy queen ice cream because we are fat and we were tired. And this guy walks up to the side of us and we both said. "Hey want to wash away your sins?" and he was like. Woah. Yes. Where when? Then we met with him and he is just gold. 30 years old. Great opportunity for priesthood. We are too happy.  He also brought his mom on sunday and she is just as golden as him. We are just in awe of miracles pouring out in Chiang Rai." ?????

Yeah... this guy... Brother Nung got baptized yesterday. He was the most prepared person I've ever met. We went to his house on friday with members and cooked with his family. His aunt was sooo intrested and his mom was just pure gold as well. This kid has given us so many refferals... Just by going to get some ice cream at dairy queen 10 days ago this guy was baptized yesterday. Just amazing. And his family is forever changed by it. He gets the aronic priesthood on sunday and probably will baptize his mom after church is over... It's literally just a miracle. Blessing and a miracle. We are going to go up to his house and convert his entire village. Buddist but because of Nung they all are intrested in Christianity.

Another SERIOUS miracle. When an investigator is late to an appointment you usually go and contact while you wait for them. Well chiang Rai is just the tiniest area and the church is by no where. So we don't really do that. Well the other day there was tons of traffic in front of the church and so we decided to go and stop motorcycles that were passing by....dangerous? the members thought so but it was fine because yes......... I was in front of sister HOlmes and she was behind me and we were just trying to stop anyone that was willing to listen... well in about 1 minute flat a guy pulls over for both of us. (Also he was the last dude in the line, NO one at the end of the line accepts what you say because just a million people rejected you) anyways. He pulls over. He tells us he is already christian. (Only in chiang Rai that ever happens) And he tells us he lives like 40 minutes away and we were like. well. okay... but we wanted to really just teach someone because we love it. And so we drag him into the church for a 5 minute church tour. Thankfully we had a member there. He tells her he is already christian.. yeah yeah yeah. No worries. Don't care just follow us. Haha. so we take him to see the baptismal font and ask him if he has been baptized. He tells us he hasn't. We bear this insane testimony of the truth of our message and tell him WHEN he gets baptized and stuff like that. And give him a date for the 6th of July... And then he turns to our member and tells us he thinks he will go to church tomorrow with us. We are pumped. He accepts the baptismal date. Shows up at church yesterday. LOVES it. Has so many friends.... and he is getting baptized next week..... MIRACLE

Last week we did yard work for an LA.... Refferal BAM another baptism next week. he is there family and he is 11.... and that little boy went to church. We also had some more miracle babies at church yesterday.... We are just soooo excited... I don't want to jinx it but we are hoping this transfer is the transfer of miracles.... 

We are excited to be here again.... 5 and a half more weeks to blow up the area.... super excited. I also almost got railed by a motorcycle this morning..... That was insanly scary. haha. i don't know how I missed that... But angels have wings... Made my heart beat a bit. But oh well. Now i'm here....with the runs.....

Other than that. I love my life... Seriously.... Miss you all... I hit my one year mark in country.... I'm pretty much dead..... but I've come to accept it and just you know... sprinting to the end untill I fall dead..... Love you guys alot.

Sister Phelps

Udon...good times on the squater

หนึ่ง's baptism