Monday, May 30, 2016

Week 29 in Field!



This past week was the last full week in this transfer!
That makes 5 whole transfers in-country!!
Next week, on June 9th, I will be hitting my half-way mark in my mission...
Time has flown by and it's been so busy these past few weeks that I haven't really had time to reflect on all the things I've been learning.
I'm going to make sure to find some time this upcoming week to really reflect on the past 9 months of my life. 
In the meantime...here are some of the highlights from this past week:


Treating this wonderful RC Family for their service!
I am amazed at the conversion of this family. 
They have truly turned their lives around to serve the Lord. 
They are ever so willing to help the missionaries in the Work of Salvation and so full of love!


We've been getting thunder rainstorms almost every single day! 
Rainy season in Thailand seems to be upon us...
On Tuesday evening, there was a city wide black out (not the first time it's happened here).
Fern was a trooper and still did her homework in the dark.

As for English Class, we still had that too. 
A little darkness doesn't scare us away from English Class! 


And then, a miracle happened. 
The faithful prayer of Kii, one of our RCs, was answered and the lights came back! 



Thursday was my companion, Sister Sattatip's Year Mark on her Mission! 
The night before she asked, "Is it an important day?"
Of course it's an important day! This Sister has sacrificed her own time to serve the Lord.
She has already served Him for a a whole year! That's no short amount of time. 
Celebrating her one whole year of service to the Lord is something to rejoice over! 
Not because missionaries are great beings, but because we are able to have a little tiny part in the miracles that happen in bringing people to Christ through faith and diligence. 
What's not to celebrate about the Great Work of Salvation? 

Fun Fact: Her name means Divine Faith! 


We celebrated by going to a dessert cafe and eating to our hearts' content! 








Sister Booyi's Family Goals for to keep the Sabbath Day Holy and their Tree of Life! 


The most valiant church goers! Chutchee, Kii and Fuk! 



Khunyaay Brapit and Sister Fone! 



Khunyaay Brapit's Baptism!! With her baptism, three people in this family of four have been baptized!
I hope that there will be a way for the missionaries in Ubon to teach Sister Fone's daughter over there, or for her to come learn about the gospel in Sisaket!
I know that the gospel will be a true blessing in this family who has so little, as they are faithful to the doctrines. 
I am so grateful that all three of these lovely people have now been baptized so that they can be each other's supports in the gospel!




Our weekly visit to the Bishop's house was little special this time around...
The Elders' wish of wanting to wear skirts came true!!
We were soaked to the bone as we battled through rain and mud to get to their home, so the bishop's family offered us a change of clothes...


Sisters can now wear pants in the Mission...so Elders can wear skirts now too, right?! 






Fruit of the Week!



Next week, I'll update you on what happens with transfers!
President Johnson just sent us an email clarifying instructions in his handbook... it's advised to transfer missionaries as infrequently as possible! 
So, it'll be interesting to see what happens! 

Monday, May 23, 2016

Week 28 in Field!





There's really special family here in Sisaket. 
This family consists of a deaf grandmother, her two daughters, one of whom is mentally disabled, and this disabled woman's 19 year old son. 
From the perspective of this 19 year old boy, his life is definitely less than ideal. 
His mother is mentally disabled,his father is an alcoholic and not around, his grandmother is deaf, and his aunt who takes care of the family is a little weird...socially awkward to say the least. 
From the perspective of his aunt though, she doesn't exactly have it easy either...
She's left to take care of her deaf mother and disabled sister pretty much on her own because her nephew is rarely home, and when he is, he's not much help.
In fact, this boy seems to live mostly in the cyber world, eyes always glued to his iPad. 
I don't really blame him for taking such measures to escape from reality...
It's an easy way out. 
But, it breaks my heart to see him waste his life away like this. 
Even with the gospel's presence in his life, he seems to be missing something crucial. 
What he needs most in his live right now is love and direction.
He's a good kid, but there's a stark contrast between him and his friend, who is a year younger than he is.
This friend of his has grown up in a unified family, with both of his parents and an older brother. 
I am quite convinced this has been a critical influence in shaping who this boy is now. 
Unlike this 19 year old boy, this 18 year old jumps up at the first signs of someone needing help and lends an aiding hand.
It's the little things like not playing with his phone during meetings or when he's helping us teach, that sets him apart from his older friend. 

All I've been able to do for this poor 19 year old boy is encourage him to use as much time as possible with the missionaries, in hopes that serving the Lord will spark something in him.
What else can I do?
There's only so much a missionary can do.
I'll be honest and say, sometimes I wish I wasn't a missionary so I could not worry about rules regarding opposite gender relationships and just be his friend...but then again,if I wasn't a missionary, would I ever had the courage to talk to him? 
If I had never become a missionary, and come as far as I have come now, would I have just let this situation slip by? How much love would I have had for this boy? 
I know that my capacity and ability to love right now is greater than it has ever been before because of the things I have seen, felt and learned on my mission so far.
A big part of me wants to adopt this boy and others like him as my younger siblings and take them home with me to give them a fresh start in a home filled with love...to help them see that there's miracles that surround us each and everyday...
To help them understand our divine nature, that as sons and daughters of a God, we have great potential and we can accomplish so much in this life. 
But, maybe that's not the answer...
What would you do? 

******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

I was down with a fever for several days at the beginning of this past week. 
As you can see in the next couple of pictures...my face is quite ugly from being blown up with a fever for a long period of time. 
Last Monday, we were at our regular internet cafe, writing emails as per usual, when we had a huge rain storm! 
There was a black out, and so we left to fight through the rain to get to our safe house, Sister Booyi's home!
I already had a fever to start with, so for fear of it getting worse, quickly changed into some of Sister Booyi's clothing...
Fuk and Fern soon had three moms! ;) 

After being drained of energy with the virus that had given me a constant fever, we decided to go get pizza. 


My favourite Thai Students!!^^ 



Lucky, Fuk and Jared, all in their Sunday Bests! 
Don't they look sharp? :) 



Lucky and Sister Laud's Baptisms!


Lucky is the 10 year old son of Sister Fone, who was baptized a couple weeks ago!
It's a huge miracle to see the members of her family join the fold of Christ, one-by-one! 
Fone's mother, and Lucky's grandmother, Sister Brapit has a baptismal date for next Sunday, May 29th, and Fone's daughter who studies in a different city is interested in learning more about the gospel as well. 



LOVE LOVE LOVE
The air is filled with LOVE! 







Our Little Missionary, Fuk on a Sunday afternoon, going out to serve the Lord with Elders Hunt and Davis!^^
Fuk: "Hello, I am a missionary! Are you interested in learning about Jesus Christ?" 




The biggest surprise this week...
Uhhh......HUH?!?!



That's right...Sister Missionaries in Thailand are now allowed to wear pants when proselyting...
Let that sink in for a little while.... 




Monday, May 16, 2016

Blessings all around! :D <3

Hello friends! I was rushing this morning so I forgot my pictures. I'm sorry im terrible! But im really repenting and trying to make my blog posts better so heres some highlights from this week!

Monday: We were browsing around the Brookfield mall during preparation day and we bumped into the Waukesha elders ,Elder Helco and Elder Andersen . We also pumped into a nesting goose outside. Random right! We had dinner with the Burtenshaw family this week. They are members in the blessed Milwaukee First Ward. They have the three cutest little kids: Ashlyn, Brogan and Jaycie. They have so much energy! We played catch and at for them for a bit before dinner and boy was I tired after that but I loved every moment of it! We had a lesson with our investigator Janice and her fiancee Ronnie. Ronnie made us ice cream but wasnt too good at that so Sister Soifua helped him out. My ice cream fell on my shirt! Yay me!

Tuesday: We had zone training meeting and it was so good! We talked about different ways that we can find families to teach using the tools that the Lord has given us like The Family A Proclamation to the World and family history. We also talked about the different levels of motivation for missionary work. Right after zone training we tracted into this awesome family! The Walls family! And guess what we shared with them? Yes! The Family Proclamation. Our leaders are definitely inspired! We met with Sister Brown whos less active. We talked with her about how she felt at her baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. She has so many super cool experiences about promptings that shes received from the Spirit. I myself im still working on recognizing the Spirit.

Wednesday: We moved apartments today. I never wanna move again in my life! We had to completely empty out the old appartment and needless to say missionaries have alot of junk in their apartments haha. We also moved into an elders apartment. Needless to say this germaphobe has come along way haha. No its not so bad though they were good elders! The senior couple the Shumways and Waukesha came to help us which was really a blessing. Then we had our first lesson with our investigator Tiffany. We taught her the First Vision and then she offered the cutest closing prayer. She was grateful for us coming at that time because she was in a depression. WE had dinner with the Willes family. I was really excited to get to know then better. Sister
Willes has the best red hair ever! And she plays rugby! Lets just say that we had great fun together! Her husband was busy at med school as is the case with lots of the awesome faithful sister sin the ward. I ate tofu for dinner too and it was actually really good! Then I went on exchanges with Sister Wise in Milwaukee One.

Thursday: Sister Wise and I went to help serve food to some seniors at a residence. I love it so much! They are all the cutest! We went to go say bye to one of our investigators Cherry whos moving to Illinois also. WE read some of the Book of Mormon with her because she was going a little crazy with stress from packing and all. I love her though. She has the cutest grandchildren living with her. I just love kids! We were working near an investigator that we were trying to contact and met this awesome woman name Latoya. She was telling us about how she survived lupus with the Lords help. We had dinner with a family the Hutchinsons in the Brookfield ward. They are so funny! Brother Hutchinson just came back from Sherbrooke university for a work trip. My heart was oh so happy to hear about home! We also got a Book of Mormon referral named Jen. Those are so precious and rare!

Friday: We went to visit Roz and Delores who are the funnest less actives ever! It was Delores birthday so we had cupcakes yum! Sister Stier took us to this delicious restaurant named P.K Chang and I had this divine banana dumplings dessert!

Saturday: We helped this family move who we used to teach. The members even got her a uhaul truck. They are really just so charitable which is actually the attribute of Christ that im studying this month. We visited Sister Stier and she gave us some patterns that she had made. Then we went to the Condiffs house so Sister Soifua could practice her departing song. We met with our super solid investigator Michelle. Words cannot explain how much I love that woman. She mad  e us tacos too shes really sweet. WE talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ and she just has so much faith and like just eats up all that we teach her.  Shes working towards baptism next month which is exciting. We had dinner with the petersons. They are lovely! We helped this less active sister jensen put together some picture portfolios for her daycare. Shes from Columbia. She made us some arripas and cacao. So good!

Sunday: Church is the best always! GAbby Fuhriman gave her farewell talk because shes going to the London ENgland mission this week. She will do great! She is so loving and bubbly. Alot of medical students are leaving this summer so were going to have a bit of a mass exodus sad :(. But the new year brings new med students so all is well! WE had dinner with the
Brownes whos our ward mission leader. WE had tacos so good! They have the cutest chunkiest baby girl ever! WE went to visit a less active Sister Carter with the bishops wife Sister Chaplin. Sister Chaplin is the best! Always ready and willing to serve everyone. Sister CArter has so many antiques its cool!

Well life is great! I feel super duper blessed to be out here serving the Lord! I wish time would slow down! Thank you so much for all your love and support! Lots of love! -Sister Mansfield :D <3

Week 27 in Field!




Sister Booyi! 


Sister Fone and her mother's birthday celebration!

District Meeting

A bunch of kids came to play soccer in our chapel yard...
We decided to make a proposal that if they were to use our field, they would have to learn one discussion with the missionaries.
Elder Bundy and Elder Earl played their best to befriend these kids and had a fantastic lesson afterwards! 


A little friend came to visit Sister Booyi's home... 


Sister Booyi's Family and Sister Fone
I am so grateful for Sister Booyi! If she hadn't befriended Fone, and helped us teach, I'm not sure if Fone would have been baptized when she was. 


SERVICE at the Bishop's Parents' House
In Thailand, you use powder laundry detergent to clean just about everything....including this stone floor...
This is the closest I'm going to get to playing in the ocean while I'm on my mission! 




No matter how old you are...you're never too old to race using toy trucks...
25 year old Biw and 19 year old Ddon...


This...is a lizard tail...sometimes, they just leave them behind... 


We had a switch off in Roi Et on Friday with our STLs!
I'm so privileged to have both my trainers as my STLs.
This time, I got be companions with Sister Hayes, my Mama!
I hadn't seen her since my very first transfer in country. 
It was interesting to reflect on how far I've come in the past 3 and half transfers we've been apart. 
I understand the language so much more than I did in those first five weeks in country and I have become more confident in doing the work.
I still have a long way to go, but was good to realize that I have changed, and I will continue to change throughout this mission.
It was such a blessing to serve with Sister Hayes again, even if it was for only one day. 


Being in Roi Et also meant that I got to see Sister Parker!!!
I think this was only the second time I got to see her after coming to Thailand!
It's weird because we can both kind of speak Thai now...

I also got to see Elder Smith, our Phii from the MTC! 

Mama and Auntie! My two beautiful trainers who have been such a wonderful blessing in my life!
We're all sweaty and gross...but happy because we're on the Lord's errand :)




Brother Aut, hard at work, hand-carving designs into brassware 


We got the chance to go to a wedding this week!
My first Thai Wedding! 


This has got to be the most atrocious thing I have ever done at a wedding...Life as a missionary...
I must say though...there were other people in even more casual clothing....




Fun Fact: I know every single dancer! They are all youth/YSA in the Sisaket Ward.
How fun is that? 






I have come to the conclusion that all 10 year old boys in Thailand (at least the ones in Sisaket) look alike...
Short, chubby hooligans! 
This is Jackpot (member) and Lucky (investigator) !



On Sunday, both Sister Sattatip and I were feeling a little under the weather..
Look at how tiny Sister Sattatip is! 


The past couple days, I've been down with a fever...
When we went to visit Sister Booyi today, she decided that she was going to nurse me.
She said I didn't need to miss my mom right now, because she would take care of me ^^