Jan 25: UDON

OH MY HECK FAMILY.

This past week... I'm tellin ya! HA

TRANSFERS.

OH MY WORD.

Okay are you ready?

Really quick-

mon: Didn't really know it but it was my last night and last FHE in Saphan Suung. But at the same time I did know it.. I had this feeling. And HF did too. It was really nice though. And sad at the same time. My word I love my district and those Saphan Suung people. We all had been waiting for the call from the office ALL day long...Seriously we were so anxious all day... the call usually comes in the afternoonish... But it has also been known to come the day before transfers or the day of transfers, etc... So we left FHE, finished planning for the next day and had pretty much given up hope on the transfers call WHEN... The phone rang. It was Elder Burke. He said... One person is moving..... Sister Coates..... Wow.. I was really... Heartbroken. I knew it was coming. But there was that little hope inside me wanting to keep that little band aid on... Sapaan suung was my last greenie band aid that needed to be ripped off.. I am a full fledged missionary now. Ha! :P

Tues: Renewed my VISA.. Was way nice to spend time with my district and see people from my MTC district. Have I ever mentioned that I love Elder Burke and Elder Hall? Well... I do. :) I will really miss them!

Wed: Last district lunch @ Ploy's today. Packed my suit cases... Not sure how this happened but I have way more stuff now than I did at the beginning of the transfer... Said good byes to my wonderful members and RC's... Both Sister Brown and I could not fall asleep that night.. We pillow talked for a long time. I will miss her! She is a sweet heart.

THURSDAY: oh my gosh. ARE YOU READY?  Okay her it is: I'VE BEEN TRANSFERRED TO UDON!!! In the ISSAN. What does that mean? It means... I am no longer in Bangkok.. Most definitely not in Bangkok anymore. I am in the country. As in there are... Trees.. And people live in sweet shacks and cook food outside in fire pits.. etc. It means there are MOTHS. And other bugs that.. Are just wow. I knew I was going to the Issan. I KNEW IT. Also.. The Issan means an entirely new language. Issan. Good thing saying "cing law"(whoa are you serious?) works for just about everything! :P My new companion is SIster Embley!!! YAYAYA! She has 3 more months on her mission.. Which is way weird.. Because as of tomorrow I will have been in Thailand for 3 months. Wat? Oh I am so excited to serve with this sister. Will talk more about her in a sec..... Later that day- almost every single missionary at the transfer meeting went to Que Pasa- one of the few mexican restaraunts in Thailand... Oh glorious mexican food. After dat! We packed all my suit cases in a taxi and headed out to the bus station.. For a SEVEN HOUR ride to Udon. 7 hours.... Before getting on the bus though... haha The taxi driver locked my suitcases in the trunk and didnt have the right key to get it out.... Oh everyday is an adventure. Can you guess how may khon Thais and missionaries it takes to get 2 suit cases out of a taxi? A lot.

Fri: We arrived in UDON @ 6:00... I unpacked. We had studies. We went inviting. we had a lesson out in the BOONIES. Oh my I failed to take pictures of this place... Because I was seriously in shock. I am not in Bangkok anymore. nope. Also new for me.... I rode a bike today for the first time in.... Years.... oh boy family. Bikes are hard hahah! I am going to lose a LOT of weight. I think I have already lost 4 lbs. Honestly I can't even remember the details of this day because it was insane we were running on like 4 hours of sleep. That night though... I slept soooooo good.

Sat: I purchased a bike!!! For..... 12,000 baht!! It's a shiny little red bike with a big basket in the back. It's name is Nong Dang.. Translates to.... Little Red... :)

Sunday: Oh man it is so different from Saphan Suung. So we are pretty much at church ALL day long. Which is way awesome! All day long BECAUSE... Instead having just one ward like in saphan suung... There are 2 branches. The little branch starts @ 9 and the big one starts @ 2. I've been to a few wards now here in Thailand.. The layout, the buildings, basically everything in each place i have been to is SO different.. However one thing has remained the same... And it still amazes me. The memebers here are INCREDIBLE. They are amazing amazing people. And oh my word there are GOOD people here just like there were in Saphan Suung. I am so excited for all the friends I will make here. I already have so many. Ah. God is so good. Udon is SO good! So, our goal here is to increase the size of branch one so that we can turn Udon into a STAKE!!!! Oh you know we are going to make that happen! I am so excited and ready to work hard... Which is TOTALLY POSSIBLE with my new wonderful companion sister Embley:

--->Whoooo-eee! Do I already love sister Mebley. Oh my goodness she works so hard. Whisch is what I have praying for. Oh I am learning so much form her already. She is from Ohio and has pretty much lived all over the world. She graduated from high school the same year as I did.. And then the following fall she left on her mission! So the same as jessica! She is an awesome awesome missionary. Is so good at the language.. I am so excited to learn more from her. God has blessed me with companions... I have learned so much from ALL of them.  Oh I can't even tell you how stoke I am to work so hard this transfer with her! She only has 2 transfers left.. So i could end up killing her in the mission... :) Possibly in Udon as well! We will see. :)

Home: We live in a way nice town hour. WAY nice. Furnished by Ikea. It is a 4 siter house. The other companionship is Sister Samitra (who is this sweet, gorgeous and wonderful khon thai!) and sister Tateouli (from my MTC group and whom I adore. She is sweet!). So are little house is way fun. 

UDON: Is huge. We live in the city center sort of.. So there are 7/11's and Big C's... There is even a little mall! Out side of the little town... There are trees.. And fields... And shacks... And scary creatures!!!! And trees.... And the only things that out number the amount of trees are the MOSQUITOES....So. Many. Mosquitoes. I can't even count the number I have on my legs. Thank heaven for 7/11 though.. Their bug lotion stuff really works.. You just have to remember to put it on. Ha! We live 2 houses down from the Elders and 5 houses down from the Senior couple!! Elder and Sister Brown! Oh They are so good. They feed us EVERY SUNDAY!! Oh my heart was so happy <3 last night we have french toast... :***) God bless Senior Missionaries.. Amurica and French Toast.

Our Elders are SWEET:

Elder Ankham- He is from Laos. And is the most boss missionary.. Oh I am so excited to serve with him is a Zone Leader with...

Elder Crump!!!- Ohhhh my I already Loooove Elder Crump. He is so awesome! And was way good friends with Sister Jackson! When we found out we were going to be in the same district.. We both said what! Sister Jax is going to freak! :P He is way way good. And Anny.. He has read every Harry Potter book (and listened to on Audio) SEVENTEEN times.

Elder Wolfey- is our District leader! He seems way awesome! His Thai is awesome!

Elder Darby- Is my Nong from the MTC (the thai group that came in after me).. He is Canadian and proud of it! Haha and he also looks EXACTLY like Prince Hans from Frozen. Will send a pic sometime.

Conclusion: This is going to be an awesome transfer.

Funny/Sweet moment.. We were inviting with a cute RC named Brother Cake. Here is our convo:

Me "Bro Cake would you want to be a missionary?

Cake: "Oh for sure!"

Me "You'll be a great a missionary!"

Cake: "what state are you from?"

Me "Utah"
Cake: "Oh I love Utah!"

Me "Oh really? Have you even been?"

Cake: "No.. But I've seen 17 Miracles"

Bahahaha Oh my goodness he is SO sweet! Good good people.

The scriptures = SO cool. We visited an RCLA last night and shared 2 Nephi 25:26 to help her have a better understanding of why the scriptures are so important.. The people who wrote the scriptures knew the things in the scriptures were so incredibly important so they wrote and sacrificed so that their children could know as well. What is it in the scriptures that is so incredibly important? They testify of Christ... Why is that important? Because in this life.. Our goal is to become like him and to return to him.. How can we become like him? Learn of him. Where can we do that? The scriptures. In the scriptures.. it literally tells us the way to return home. Oh the scriptures are so sweet. I will talk more on that later.. Because... Wow. I could talk about them for hours and I don't have a lot of time left.

Gift of tongues.. It comes exactly when I need it. And it leaves when things aren't really necessary to my purpose. We were sharing a scripture with an RC... Who started talking about how someone had wronged her.. As soon she started talking about these things.. I could only understand that... Someone had wronged her and she was offended because blahhhh idk idk idk "issan...issan.. issan... issan".. Which is all we really needed to understand in order to help her. But it is real.. I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to say before we shared the scripture.. But then we did.. And thoughts were put into my head in English and then they came out in Thai. God is real.

In the same meeting with this RC @ her little house.. We were all sitting together on a mat in the middle of the room when this HUGE FLYING BEETLE landed on sister Embley- then it flew into the center of the mat where the RC then SMASHED IT WITH THE PALM OF HER HAND!!??.................. I am not in Bangkok anymore! Hahaha oh the adventures. And I didn't even write half of them.

I love being a missionary.
I am sad to leave Saphan Suung but excited to get to know this new area. 

I cannot believe how much God is really in the details of our lives. Like how the Temple Square sister missionary Sister Gow taught Brittany last week how to massaman and who had stayed with the marvels- And how that SAME sister Gow IS FROM UDON and will be back THIS THURSDAY! Whaaat. We do everything here with Sister Gow's mom, Ma Pon! It was so cool opening up Brittany's email and reading: I sent a little something with Sister Yui and SIster Gaw---> I hope you get sent to Udon! 
I. Am. In. Udon.

God is so good.

Family I love you. 
Keep praying.
Keep CTR.
Keep going to church. 

Good will come.

Love you all.
Sister Coates

Baptized cute sister Ning on Sunday! She had been learning from the Elders and Sister Embley and I for only one week before getting bapized! She was so ready! Her dad was going to be baptized on the same day but is struggling with quiting smoking. Please keep brother Samyot in your prayers!