Familia (Had you fooled. I actually speak Thai not spanish)

What a week What a week.

I'll start with the biggest news first...... TRANSFERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But The best news from transfers is they OPENED MYANMAR. HUGE HUGE HUGE HUGE HUGE DEAL. We have 3 countries in our mission. Thailand, Loas, and Myanmar. 1 year ago President sent missionaries to Loas and last week the first ever missionaries were sent to Myanmar. Holy trash. So they went through the normal transfers. (Yes it affected me but I'll get to that in a seconed) And transfers are litterally a freaking PARTY. The new missionaries come in. We sing called to serve in THai as fast as we possibly can. Listen to President and Sister Senior speak with whoops and hollars. Clapping. It's a slight place for the spirit haha. But the coolest thing was they had EVERY missionary come to transfers so we new something huge was gunna happen. They use slides on a powerpoint to do transfers and where they go and then the "last" slide said The End. But there were people that didn't have places to go still. Then the power points go on. Opening Chang Rai and Nong Khai for SIsters. Which is such a HUGE deal. Opening new areas. ANd then a flash of the word Myanmar and the missionaries go CRAZY.... Then when president starts talking the sound of a pin can be dropped and heard. It was dead silent. Everyone had there cameras recording. People crying. It was so spiritual. Last november Elder Holland gave President Senior permission to send the first missionaries to MYANMAR. Soooo amazing..... Anyways. Long paragraph

Everyone I saw. EVERYONE. Told me I look so much skinnier and they wanted to know my secrets. Haha. I really felt booming. It felt good....

SOme other exciting news is I stayed and have a new companion Sister Ladle! I love her. I've been super blessed with companions lately. THe lord just knows. You know? I was actually in the MTC with her. SHe is only 6 weeks younger than me and had a native trainer so our THai is seriously on the same level.. Oh my gosh. YOu don't understand the stress that takes off. I don't have to train anymore! I don't have to sit in a lesson and tell them to talk about something because we are both experienced and just bounce off each other! Oh man. It's great. We both are so excited and Getting along so stinking well.... It's going to be a beautiful transfer:)

Sister Ellis opened an area with a sister who is half thai but grew up in the states. THe area they moved to all her family is from and there is like 10 membvers or something crazy like that. anyways. THey have seen a ton of success already and they baptize people in RIVERS. So crazy. Sister Her is right next to me in Ban Bua Tong. I love her to death. 

Crazy. They closed an area in my area so now we only have 4 missionaries instead of 6. We had a baptism yesterday....... exciting....

SOme other exciting news! The Elders from my group in the MTC are TRAINERS! WOOOO. I cried a little when I found that out. I just love my elders so much. Elder Winsor is training a native thai too. I'm so way too excited for them. Training is the best and the worst all at the same time..... They are going to be great. And more experienced than I was.... WOO HOO. Go MIssions

I had soo much fun at transfers. Seeing everyone. I miss them alllll

I have 4 transfers left... the fourth transfer meeting i'm a dead missionary..... makes me... sick thinking about it..... I haven't seen enough success to almost be dead! But we are going to kill it this transfer.... I just know it...... I'm really not a senior companion or a junior companion. We both are going to extend commitments and both talk on the phone the most! I'm sooooo excited! 

Wish me luck! I'll talk to you next week!!!!

Sister Phelps

Just for funsies

MTC COMPS...

You know you are obeidient when you have feet tan lines.... some others have it worse... but these are pretty good.

Talk about likening the scriptures unto yourself. 1ne. 19:23

JST: JesSikiah Translations

Excerpts from the missionary Jessikiah's translations of the Book of Emilieya. Short excerpts are provided after verses. Longer excerpts are not provided because there are better things to do with a missionaries time. 

Chapter 1

1. I Emilieya (Nickname sister) Having been born of goodly parents, therefore i was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father and having seen many afflictions in the course of my days, nevertheless, having been highly favored of the lord in all my days yea, having a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God, therefore I make a record of my proceeding in my 9 month, 2 week mark in the state of Thailand as senior companion with Jessikiah as my truested fruit of my loins(I am her second mother)

2. And it came to pass, In the 4th year of the reign of Obama I make a record of the course of my dealing in Thailand over the last week. As I was tarrying in the large freshly cut field of grass  in the park of Pak kret Prophesieying unto the people that they must repent or the great spirit they possess will be destroyed. I recieved a call from an aquantance.

3.Wherefore it came to pass that my acquaintances, the elders, went forth and prayed unto the Lord yea, even to know which direction of the changwattana street to go on, they came across a man, whose stature was average among the rest, whose asian eyes were no smaller than the next, and they cried unto him saying: "Behold, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,"

4.And It came to pass that this man, thus overcame with the spirit did not understand the language thus spoken, He said unto the Elder, "Woah be unto you, you see that I am Asian amongst the THais but nevertheless I speak only the Language of my fathers, which is chinese and some english."

5.And after this manner, elder thus said unto the chinese gentile do not fear god is with my sister missionary i will callest upon them.

6And now, I Emilieya do not make a full account of the things which the elder spoken unto the chinese gentile for i hath written many things unto the multitudes of people in america concerning these things. And after many days of learning from the missionaries. Jay had come to know of these things for himself and he thus rejoiced and his whole heart was filled.

           JST: and it came to pass that they said unto him: behold, here are the waters of pakkret (for thus was the font called) and now, as ye are desirous to come unto the chaengwattana branch, and to be called a brother, and are willing to obey the word of wisdom, come to church every sunday, obey the law of chastity and pay your tithing...that ye may have eternal life? now we say unto you, if this be the desire of your heart, what have you against being baptized this sunday at 4:00? and now when jay heard these words, he clapped his hands for joy, and exclaimed "this is the desire of my heart!" 

mosiah 18:8-11

8 And the people did mock him because of the believings of him. Jay said unto a pharasee "Everyone believeth what they knoweth, i will praise my god forever, let us eat some lunch and be friends." but the trouble pharasee rejected him....

9. Meanwhile I emilieya suffereth from a pinched nerve, therefore, i make a record of my proceeding in my bed. The lord alloweth me to take the taxi and the song tows but I must not ride the bicycle until further tomorrow. But I will go and do the things which the lord hath commandeth me. For I know the Lord giveth no commandment unto the children of men save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.

10. There fore jay suffereth for his country hath no freedom in religion and was concerned for his future, he debathath whether the promise with thy god is the right path. But I knoweth that the lord will not give a commandment that his children can not keep. therefore jay trusteth the lord with all his hear and leaned no to his own understanding in all his ways he shall acknowledge him and he knoweth that   god will direct his path.

11. ANd it came to pass that for the space of 12 hours jay cried unto the GOd and looketh upon lds.org for answers to his soul. 

12. And it came to pass that I sister did cause a lot of heartache for i did care so much about jay. And after 1 dinner and 1 breakfast we did call upon the chinese gentile and did talk with him for the space of many minutes and he shareth his concerns for his country of the problem. We understood him not for we were put in the promise land since birth but we did exclaim unto him the dsires of our hearts.

13. And it came to pass after the space of many minutes jay explained to I , Emilieya and my companion Jessikiah that he will not partake of the blessings from God this week. For he hath saith unto us "Verily Verily, I will think upon the desires of my heart because I know these things are true, I don't want to change myself just yet."

    JST-and we spoke unto jay, and now remember, rememeber our brother, behold, you are free; ye are permitted to act for yourself; for behold, god has given you this knowledge and he has made you free. He has given unto you that you might know good from evil...

helaman 14:30-31

14. The lord hath called us to labor for his work. He saith unto us, "The field is white already to harvest go out with you sickle and gather mine elect."

15. Therefore with this counsel we found the Elect with thy god. But didn't baptize many nations (Even CHina)

16. Now when our hearts were depressed and we were about to turn back behold the lord comforted us and said, "Go amongst thy bretheren, the asians, and bear with patience thine affliction, and I will give you sucess."

17.And Now behold, we have come, and been forth umongst them and we have been patient in our suffering which consists of pinched limbs, sore necks, and hurt bums, yea, we have travelevd from house to house, park to park, grocery store to grocery store, relying upon the mercies of the world alone but up one the mercies of God.

18. And we have entered into their houses and taught them, and we have taught them in their streets, yea, and we have taught them upon their hills, and we have also entered into their temples and the mosques and taught them (Just kidding about that one.) and we have been rejected, and mocked, and called beautiful by crazies, been chased, and we have been laguhed at, and were told by the many multitudes "Behold, i am buddah" (true story people can't say i'm buddist in english so they say i'm budda) But through the power and wisdom of God we have been delievered again.

19.And it came to pass that preperation day came near and we rejoiced and prepared for TRANSFERS that cometh on Thursday. Jessikiah and I await patiently....

    JST and now, because i am a farang (a white person), and have spoken unto you the words which the lord hath commanded me, and because it was in poor thai, and you like worshipping little gold statues... you thought that you could just walk by me and not listen to my message! but ye SHALL hear my words (for i will follow you) for this intent have i come upon your bridges, and your sidewalks, and your malls... and your 7-11s... that ye might hear and know of Jesus Christ and of baptism. (helaman 14:11-12)

yea, i say unto you, that the more part of the missionaries are doing this, and they are striving with unwearied diligence that they may bring the remainder of their asian brethren to the knowledge of the truth; therefore there are many who do add to their numbers weekly. yea, they did wax strong in their knowledge of their God, in their faith, and in their ability to speak thai. (helaman 15:6)

JST: JesSikiah Translations

Excerpts from the missionary Jessikiah's translations of the Book of Emilieya. Short excerpts are provided after verses. Longer excerpts are not provided because there are better things to do with a missionaries time. 

Cross References (1 Nephi 1, 1Ne. 3:7, D&C 29:7, D&C 4, Alma 26:27-29, Proverbs 3:5)

I also LOVE the rain<3 And my new comfortable dress<3

Selfies<3. Bazinga..... I love life.

Happy Birthday MEAGAN!

    I guess I'll get to my big email! Don't you get tired of hearing from a missionary? I get bored of hearing myself through emails! 

    The weird thing about having so many siblings is I almost forget birthdays. But HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEAGAN. You're my favorite...shh dont tell the others..... 

    Lots of progress this week:) our investigator pool is too exciting.... 5 investigators at church. The transfer is drawing to the end. We are going out with a boom! Ching chong. (Our chinese investigator) I finally just started calling him "Jay" and it's stuck with the members and everyone calls him Jay now. haha. I feel pretty cool for starting that. But this whole week sister Ellis and I can't say his chinese name so we just called him Ching Chong. We have some great names for our investigators names that we can't remember. Saturday night the district leader call us and is like okay. Tell me the names of your investigators going to church so I can pray for them. (It's just a cute district thing we do. praying for each others investigators.) And me and sister Ellis start off with, Emmanuel, Dow, Ploy... then the names we forget "Pray for ching chong, toothless man, lady on the bridge." haha. He replies "Sister You KNOW I'm going to pray for these people." TOo funny. I really like our district leader. Most humble kid EVER. He dies next week. It will be sad to see him leave. That's for sure.

    Good news! Sister Ellis' little sister is going on a mission.! Too cool. And I'm talking to my MTC Companions right now. I love them so much. I get to see them next week. After Transfers there is a huge Sisters meeting for valentines day. Definitely interesting but I get to see Sister Her again and my mtc buds! I miss them all so much... Sister Her emails me every week. When we were companions we loved each other and got along most of the time but now we just love each other so much more... So weird how companionships work. I love sister Ellis. I think she will be out of here though. She has been here for 18 weeks now. Time for her to chagne. I'll be WAY way sad if I have to leave. that is for sure.... I love this area and I love my international investigators. Ugh. If I leave. I will definitely shed some tears haha. I've been debating to email president and tell him i'm not moving. Haha. I just love it too much.... Anyways. There is a good chance I'm staying though... 

    Yesterday at church there is a little fat boy probably around a year old. in the international branch trying to reach a gummy bear under the pews but his poor little fat cheeks were stuck on the bench while he was reaching for those gummy bears hahaha. During the sacrament prayer sister Ellis and I could NOT stop laughing....we were sooo disruptive. We probably forfeited a few referrals from the members about how much we were laughing. But holy cow. I miss little chubby babies. Lyla does for now. :)

    Last week we taught ching chong, "Jay" and taught him with 4 languages flying across the table. English, mandrain, cantanese, and thai. It was honestly the coolest experience ever. You will never get that opportunity anywhere else....seriosuly. Definitely the coolest opportunity serving international. You work with such a wide variety of people..

    One awesome thing that happened was we ordered some food at this restaurant. Then we sit and wait for the food and this waiter goes up to the cook lady which is about 5 feet from me. and He was like what the heck are these white people doing here. And when someone throws out the word "farang" You know they are talking about you because you are the only forgiener in sight. haha And talks crap and the cook lady was like. You better watch yourself becasue they speak thai. and He turns around and I'm like. Yes I speak thai. ANd he gets SO emmbarressed and turns red. Sister Ellis was a little confused haha. But i got a little prideful calling out a khon thai on my abilities to speak thai. Definitely rewarding. 

    This week I wrote more of stories that happened throughout the week instead of the actual work..but. It was alot of fun. Had a good week. I'm so exhausted all the time but I really see the blessings of all this work. Never felt more at peace than in my entire life.....

We are hoping for a baptism this week. Keep us in your prayers:) I love you all.....

Sister Phelps

Hey Hey

    Okay okay. I'm sorry. No elephants. But I do have some SICK pictures of the area. Lot's of cool culture stuff you never would see in America. We rented a song tow (a truck with a hood over the bed of the truck and we sit in the bed) for about 10 ish missionaries. Super fun. Lots of ruins. Wats. Definitely cool....

    Good news. The mission had 164 baptisms in January. So proud. So awesome. We in fact had a baptism of our own yesterday. For Charisa. A phillipina. She is so cute. First baptism in the international branch since june last year. The branch was excited. Then the elders gave us a referral of a chinese man named asdfghjkl(Obviously you understand I can't pronounce his name) But he was just the best. He came to church and just loves the thought of God and Jesus. He speaks sooo little english but the cool thing about an international branch we have a family who speaks chinese with him. Tonight we are going there for FHE. We are really excited. He is the sweetest and the Chinese family is the sweetest... High faith for him. Keep ching chong in your prayers<3

    So this last week Thailand is in a state of emergency. So we had a lot of texts telling us to keep 72 hours worth of food storage especially since yesterday was the election. But we are like."3 days of food storage? Check. Mcdonalds delivers." haha just kidding we have food storage. We weren't having any problems in our area but I heard downtown it was getting pretty serious...But yesterday we could only go to church and then home. So we were home at 5 till the rest of the night. We zonked early haha. There is only so much to do at home before your missionary exhaustion catches up:) But good news. I'm safe... I just have the runs... oh thai food.....

    I decided I will be that awkward missionary when I get back.... you know. The one that can only talk about their mission. I'm seeing that as I communicate with other missionaries. The mission is all we are familiar with haha... It's so funny. Before we go to bed sister Ellis and I just chat about our investigators haha. It's just too funny. Can't get enough. I think I'll sign off here. Not too much happened. Just taught and found. I LOVE MY JOB...It's definitely better than working in customer service. That's for sure. Better blessings.....

i'll just send lots of pictures instead. Thanks for listening... Tune in next week.:)

Sister Phelps

This is a letter that Emilee recieved from one of her converts in her last area:

Hey Sister Phelps!How are you? I'm Nam in Udon Thani .I miss you so much. Tomorrow is the last time party at Sister and Elder Heart's house haha i might spelt their name wrong.I'm sorry that i didn't sent email to you since you left here.Do you get my latter? I thought I'll miss them so much and everyone loves them.I love to go to the church and sunday too.Now I'm a youth teacher in Udon Thani branch 1,I love it.Next monday is my birthday.There are 5 people were born in this month;Elder Wilko's 6,My is 10,Brother Jack's 12,Sister Mukmic's 14 and Sister Bee's 16.We'll have a big birthday party.I looked back on my days and my past just review what did i do last 1 year and I knew I got a lot experiences thanks God.I really want to see the temple and I plan to go to Hongkong Temple in next Chirstmast wish i can go there.Last friday night i had piano show,everybody who are Sister Heart's students,we had members from Nongkhai and Kumpawapei to show the piano at Udon Thani.Thank you so much to tough me to know how much father loves me and the last I wanted to said "I love you" Wish to see you again ;]♡

our LA gave us doctor masks to wear around. So asian. So classic.

My recent convert Nam<3 Love and miss her soo much:)

GIant buddahs and Ruins. Can't get much better than thailand.....

This is what you get when your room is a freezer and you need to pray. Pray under the blanket of course!

1This sign says Thai people 10 baht. Forienger 50 baht. I was trying to talk them down. I was like. Yo i can read this sign. I get in for 10 baht right? haha. It didn't work...... Bummed.

ayuttya is way cool.

Song tow with all the missionaries.... Me and sister ellis were standing on the back....

Just a bunch of monkey

White budda worship wat. Pretty sweet

This sweet place with ruins.....

my cool comp.

cool picture.

I'm pretty sassy missionary in this one.

our district. Love them to pieces <3 Yes mom i do love them btw. We just live years away from all of them...

This sweet Buddha lady laying down.

This hole I was sweating to death down there. I couldn't breath at all haha. Soo steep down this giant ruins building. The stairs were like a ladder... I'm glad elders were in front of me haha.

Charisa Got Baptized! :) I also got a sweet skirt. Asian.

Hey Family

Hey Family

    It's early I know. We are going to Ayuttaya today... It's a city of ancient ruins and Budda statues and wait for it... RIDING ELEPHANTS...... Yeah. My district is going. We are pretty cool. Pretty stoked. Last week for Pday we went biking around this Island (You think i would get sick of biking but...I don't) Anyways it was sooo beautiful. Very buddist with lots of wats. Oh man. Wats are litterally the weirdest things. Now people thing mormons are weird. Worshiping idols is way different. There is a giant budda with a disco ball on it's head. Lot's of insence and a TON of red Fanta soda for their anscestors (THe believe the red fanta keeps the ghosts away). But on top of that the have people wai ing the statues and doing crazy sand scrit chants and lifting boulders above their heads. I just guess I will never understand it. It's just weird but hey. I respect that they go to the temples and cherish their ancestors.. But anyways. The island was BEAUTIFUL. So many Thai Pottery things. Just a beautiful island with lots of dogs. Best part is taking the little ferry over there with our bikes. :) I have pictures.

    This week we spent 20 minutes on the phone with a member figuring out what we wanted for dinner. I love white people. Seriously. I'm in the right place. 

    THIS WEEK. ANyways. I won't say to much. Still a little stressed. I felt the spirit in our work a ton more this last week though. Something that I feel like prayers were answered on that part. I'm loving this baptizing stuff. But I think the pressure is more for the elders to be driven. None of the sisters really get motivated off of numbers. We get motivated off of getting a temple in Thailand. Numbers definitely concribute to that but I heard a story about 3 stone cutters for the temple and a reporter asked each one of them what they were doing. The first said he was cutting stone. The second said he is earning 3 pieces of gold everyday. And the last one says, "I'm building a temple of god." That story was in our investigator class haha. But I'm pretty sure it was for me. I'm building a kingdom of God. Not baptizing every asian I find. haha. But don't get me wrong. Still teaching towards baptism every chance we get. 

    Our pool of investigators is amazing. We found 2 of Gods elect this last week. They are ready. we are excited. One is a chinese girl who speaks very little english that was atheiest before she met with us. After she told us she knows she is closer to Jesus Christ. And she KNEW without a shadow of a doubt she is supposed to be baptized. We are working with her getting her visa first. But. Oh man. What a cool experience.....

    Yesterday. We had an investigator named Mongkhon that we gave over because he was in the other branch. But the sisters that are teaching him right now called us last night and was like Mongkhon prayed yesterday and said inhis Thai/English prayer: "Bless my best friends sister Ellis and Sister Phelps for helping me find the God."........It's those moments that keep me going:) Too great. Awe. Love it.

I'll send some pictures from my island trip last week! Love you tons!

Sister Phelps

Also. This is my chat with President last week. I feel better haha. Plus I'm hilarious when it comes to analogys.

"Hey president!

This week was definitely stressful. Definitely a lot of pressure from the zone leaders. We are seeing miracles but unfortunately our miracles end up in the other branches area. So we are working through them. We had some miracles show up yesterday at church. We are hoping they will be baptized on sunday! Pretty fast. But if there is one thing SIster Ellis and I have learned this week is that we are NOT in charge. At all. The big guy upstairs is pushing the shopping cart of his own work. We just are the little kids that are riding in the basket throwing our favorite cereal in the cart but then he obviously reminds us that there are better cereals out there. He just laughs and put our nonsense back on the shelf and continues to push his work the way he needs it. We just get to ride along enjoying the time we spend with him. What a good dad right? I hope that analogy was making sense just a little bit haha! Thanks for this month. It has really shown my potential as a missionary!"

-Sister Phelps

Dear Sister Phelps,

Great shopping cart analogy!  Don't stress to much about pressure from Zone Leaders.  A little bit of pressure is good in my life, as I seem to work better under it with heightened mental and spiritual acuity. But it should never get in the way of our ministry as representatives of Jesus Christ. I know that you will maintain a proper balance.  Have a great week.

President Senior

Island "Ko Kret" I am a fan of that tree picture. Too cool

Fhe last week... 

This is our Less Active Nam. She is so small

I killed the clown at the park

This hilarious Cafe you're just like. What? haha

My legs get FILTHY in Bangkok.... Oh soooo gross.

This is how we do it. Ice cream. FILTHY legs. Phone calls and planners at 9 oclock at night... Too fun.

This is a thai named YOK. She reminds me exactly like Maddie from college. Acts like her, super stylish and cute. Gosh I miss that maddie girl! haha. 

It's Okay. I'm alive.

    MOBS IN THAILAND. They are fun. No worries. They are harmless. Just are really loud and cause traffic. But it looks like they are celebrating for something. Obviously being a missionary I'm out of the loop on basically everything...... This morning we walked to the internet cafe and we knew that the 13th it was going to be weird with the mob. But we start walking and bam. Huge groups of motorcycles just start block off this intersection and start cheering. Lots of flags. Lots of Asians. And a lot of rice. Haha just kidding about the rice.... But me and Sister Ellis had no idea what was happening so we jump behind this giant cylinder haha. Just for like 1 minute until we decide that we wanted a picture and it seemed harmless.....  And it was really harmless. Just a bunch of happy asians...... But we are in Pak kret. I wonder what is happening down town. Anyways.....

    Merry january. I have some really good news. I taught someone named "Poo"..... He obviously didn't want baptism but it's fine. Having poo in the baptismal font is just not a good idea to begin with:) Just kidding. Gosh. I'm immature. But i think Tyler understands me...... This is why we love the Simpsons. Speaking of which I love my simpsons pillow case. Still gives me a piece of my life....

    Well This week. Ugh. Full of Miracles and Full of disappointments. Definitely ended on the latter part. But our mission every companionship needs 2.6 baptisms this month like no exceptions. And we had 6 daters at the begining of last week for this month. We were like. Ok. Thats fine.... Then we taught the family:) I've never felt more successful as a missionary and I knew god was behind it all. They were ready to walk into the water. They are so excited. Then we found someone else whose name is mongkhon. He was actually a referral from Sister Hughes my MTC companion in CHang Mai. But he was AWESOME. jUst ready to walk into the font too. But then we had 2 daters we ended up dropping because they weren't keeping commitments then we found out the family and this mongkhon guy are in the other branch so we had to give them to the other missionaries and then another dater pitted. So yesterday we were left with one dater. We were so upset. On top of that I had a fever saturday and yesterday. We went to church and on the way there. There was this dumb perv that was on a motorcycle and grabbed my companions butt and she was ticked. I was ticked to until he wouldn't leave us alone and grabbed my butt and I'm on my bike and shove this idiot and he just drives off. I'm like you've got to be kidding me. We were pissed. Ticked beyond belief. I almost chased this dude down. But I had a fever so whatever. Then as we are crossing the street to get to church this idiot decided to speed up in the last lane of 8 lanes. Almost nails me. my comp stopped behind me thankfully and the dude swerves and causes an accident. Like this guy was so dumb. But we were pretty shaken up about it. Then we get to church and the dumb elders tell us they have a golden referral for us and then totally forget her before they got to church. I'm like. Elders. Please just have a brain! But yeah. It ended on a bad note. I went to sleep last night at 5 pm and woke up this morning at 8. Definitely feeling better. But we are stressed this week! We are praying for a miracle....... Pray that we will get a miracle.

I got back into my kick of chocolate milk shakes.... They are just too good. No more coagulated blood for me..... 

I also miss my car. Send a picture of her please...

This is Sister Phelps. Signing off.

What's good

    Happy New year! It's good to see wesley is a banana and Owen and Jacob are just adorable as ever!  I come home this year. I feel totally sick thinking about it actually. 9 and a half months..... 2 weeks I will be half way done with my mission.... THAT'S insane. Seriously...... I swear I was just in the MTC so innocent and knew nothing about missionary work. And now I'm in North Bangkok training... i've just changed so much in 9 months. We received this awesome talk about the 10 gifts you get to take home from your mission by president Hinkley and I just like sat and cried( what else is new? I just cry all the time haha) But I was just really really grateful for what a mission has done for me and how much of a better daughter, mother, sister I will be. Feels like a good accomplishment.

    Like most of you. I have a new years resolution to get skinny. I have a plan to be sexy by the time I get home. It's a good thing sister ellis and I run every morning on treadmills.... Yeah. I'll be sexy. Can't come home fat. Can't happen. But also I am going to read the Book of Mormon in Thai. That will be hard. Although I am in 2nd Nephi. I just don't understand everything everything ahaha. 

    OH this is hilarious. There is a joke flying around. They save if you serve in the States you go back home a scriptorian. If you serve Spanish or French speaking you come back a linguist. And if you go to an Asian speaking mission, you just come back. Hahah. I sometimes think. Will I ever understand everything? Spanish missionaries have it so easy.... What's establish? Establicion.... Yeah. owned. Asian language is hard.... Love it. But I don't think I'll ever be perfect at it.. haha. Oh well. I'm pretty good now..... I'll be patient.....

So I love my comp. She is adorable. And I found out why we love each other..... Because.... BAM her dad is an appliance dealer owner store man. Hahah We bonded pretty hard over that.... Except he owns a small sears store...... but yeah. Pretty sweet.... She was also valedictorian. So she is freaking smart. It's weird haha......

My gag reflex ever since the coagulated blood has been a little flimsy. I'm like. you have got to be kidding me. I was getting pretty good for a while. I was eating mushrooms. Sketchy sushi. All which were delicious. But my reflex yesterday eating a squishy mushroom was a little rough. haha.... Oh well. I'll get good again....

    Yesterday! Miracles. FAMILY WE HAVE A FAMILY TO TEACH. It's honestly a miracle. Sister Ellis and I fasted for this and guess what happens at church. A family shows up wanting to change there lives to meet God. It's there new years resolution. Guess what else. I contacted the wife at this soup restaurant. And guess what else. I do not remember it one bit. I usually get several phone numbers in my planner and I will write a small bio about the people I receive and this time. No bio. Nothing just a number. So I was so confused and just couldn't remember this number. The following week this lady calls me and I have her name connected with the phone number. But OH my gosh. I don't remember talking to this lady. I swear the Lord just put her name in my planner because he prepared their family to hear our message. Anyways. We are really really really excited. It was a huge miracle..... HUGE miracle.... Goes to show that talking to everyone is a huge deal. I can't believe I barely talked to one person at home. Now I'm talking to about a hundred in a couple days. haha.... gosh.

    Also I ran into another man at the park invited him to church. And he wants it so bad. It was way cool. So solid in the gospel. We handed him over to the elders because they didn't have a lot of people to teach..... We miss that guy haha. He is sooo cool. But when I contacted him I just really didn't feel like a necessity to talk to him. It was just a normal contact but it just really is amazing who the Lord puts in you path. 

    I'm stinking tired. Our English program in Bankok is out of control. SO many students. At least like 200. We have 12 teachers (some are thai students) But It's crazy. Our class rooms are filled. It's sooo much fun. We love it. Sister Ellis and I teach Intermediate students. They are pretty good at english. Know vocab well just aren't fluid speakers..... Last week in class we showed a picture of a skyscraper and someone (confidently) Said LOOK IT'S A SKY CRAPPER. Hahaha. the Missionaries were dying..... Oh we lost our selves... We are so innocent and awkward anything works haha....

    I had a really good personal study again. In Phillipians 4:11-13. Talks about being content will your life and how we are always needing to be hungry and full(spiritually) all the time and finding strength through Christ. I must admit, it's been a heck of a journey with how hard it is. But I'm living these scriptures. I'm totally content. I don't need things in life. It's just a thing. Maybe an iphone 7s but nothing else :) haha. But really

    This week was way good though... I can't believe it's 2014. I can't fathom it. I swear this last year was the fastest year of my life. I had a dream i was back at the singles ward and someone asked me about my mission and I told them it was the fastest year of my life and I was balling in my dream so upset my mission was over. But then I woke up and was so freaked out ha. I was like. That's exactly how it's going to be. This mission is a time warp. I'm loving it! I don't want to leave Bangkok. It's where i need to be haha. President senior just pops out of no where all the time. It's just excellent.... I love it. I'm loving life..... Old things are done away with in 2013. Time for a fresh start! Next new years I will be miserable about to start school. I'll always want to be back in Thailand haha. LOVE YOU ALL..... 

Sister Phelps

one of my less actives lives on a sweet island. Definitely the coolest..... 

We got new name tags. I will admit. I'm a huge fan.

And a small pic of our apartment......