Nov 20: Shining People

Shout out: My partner in crime just entered the games everyone. the dating games. >:) hahaha HAPPY 16th BIRTHDAY ANNO BONANO THOMAS!!!!!

I love you so much. & Happy 1st birthday to little Charlie who I still haven't met! <3

Oh I am seriously loving Asoke and Sister Remington. She is fabulous. Asoke is fab. It is all too good to be true. 

Monday: Took Sister Rem to Siam. Yes again. Can't get away from that place it is SO COOL. Bangkok is seriously such a cool place I love it. Later that evening we had a great meeting with the leaders in our zone. We are exciting for this new transfer. Preparing Bangkok West to become a stake. It's going to be a thing. We can feel it!

Tuesday: Sister Remington and I are working on a 40 day fast together. We've been trying to add and subtract things from our lives... One thing we've started to add is memorizing a quote and /or scripture daily. It has proved... way useful, inspiring and fun. A perfect way to keep thoughts at a higher plane. Our quote for the day: "Let us show to the world tat we have talent and taste, and prove to the heavens that our minds are set no beauty and true excellence, so that we can become worthy to enjoy the society of angels." - Brigham Young

Wednesday: We got a call from Sister Hatch in Bangkapi who had been going through some older member records and making calls. She called a sister named Nuan that she had never met or seen before. Sister Nuan answered her phone and reported that she hadn't been to church for a while because she had moved several times to locations where there was no church. But was now living with her children in Asoke! Sister Hatch made an appointment for us and sent us her number (such an awesome missionary!). This past Wednesday we went on an adventure to find this sister's house which turned out to be just a few BTS stops away from the church! We meet her. She is SO nice. Come to find out, she hasn't been to church for 10+ years. She explained that she has been wanting to come to church for a while now but was never able to find where the church was and didn't have any friends that could tell her where to go. In short, Sister Hatch was prompted by the spirit to call this sweet sister. After sitting with Nuan for a little while, getting to know her and introducing ourselves, we shared the message of the gospel. And there was a sweet magic in the air for real! As we bore our testimonies at the end she had quiet tears rolling down her cheeks. It was an incredible visit! I have never met with a less active member who recognized to avidly that she wanted to be brought back to the fold. She was on the same page with us the whole visit. We are excited to introduce her to the Asoke branch and bring the gospel to her and her family's lives.

Thursday: This week has seriously been such a miracle... it was hmmm... About on sunday when all of our investigators dropped.. All the pakistani. denmark. every nationality. except kinda Frank. And then it was today... That we are being blessed ten fold. With an entirely new fold of investigators and daters and referrals. All of which are khon Thai. We are SO excited. And are on our knees constantly thanking heavenly father. 

Friday: Today I realized just how different we really are... How much we really stand out here. Just as a background.. There are A LOT of faraangs here in Asoke. AKA.. foriegners... AKA white people. And for lack of a better word... white trash people :( Trash because of their choice of clothing. Many people are scarsley covering their bodies.. and if they are... they are dressed very sloppily and over casual. This is the typical faraang in thailand. That all the khon thais see every single day.... For a long time.. I always that we looked the same as these other faraangs... until today we were coming out of the MRT... and I see one faraang girl who looked about our age... She was neatly and modestly dress. and her hair was done. She looked so out of place! Both sister reminington commented that we had never really seen anyone come to thailand... that was our age... that looked like she did.... And how shocking it was to see her! She really stood out... We then got on the next train...  we were surrounded by khon thais and other faraangs.... we looked at ourselves in the dark window reflection and realized that we were shining. We were seriously shining. And just like this other the other girl we had seen. We totally stood out.... It is really true what they say. We- and not just the missionaries... have lights in our eyes. all around us. The holy ghost is a real thing. 

We are teaching like crazy over here. That is blessing from god. 

We are seeing miracles like crazy over here.

Saving little prateedthai. 

The church is oh so true. Read your scriptures you can know to. 

Heavenly Father is real. I have come to know him better than I ever have before. He has our back over here on the other side of the world. You can know him better too... My ponderize from this week tells us how: 

13 For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?

Serve him. 

I love being a missionary.

Love,

Sister Coates 

Nov 15: S-poiled

Herler

Oh where to start?

Well. I killed Sister Alley. She is dead! It's official. And she died in the greatest way. She worked to the bone till the last second. Such a good example! So proud of her. It was a bitter sweet goodbye! We really had a great transfer. We worked SO well together. But I was happy that she gets to go on the next chapter of her life and apply. And it was just weird to think that it won't be too long until I see her again! So. There is that. :)

Last Sunday: Last dinner with the district at the Granges! Love the Granges. 

Monday: Went to visit Synthia and Sylvia (our Pakistani investo's).... It was the coolest thing. We ad given Synthia te assignment to keep reading in 1 nephi. So we ask her how tat was going... not expecting too much because her english comprhension isn't te best (okay this key board is killin me... te "H" won't work unless i pound on it... so for te sake of time... just insert an "H" whenever it doesn't make sense.. aha).. So we follow up... And se tells us it went good. And ten proceeds to give us a PERFECT summary of the 1st 5 chapters of the book. And then what se LEARNED from it. Whoa... It was way cool. I pray that er living condition can become better so one day she will be able to get baptized. ... The end of tat visit though turned WAY sour... Because in Pakistani culture apparently it is WAY rude if you 1 turn down food and 2 dont eat all your food.... Seriously... Sylvia gave me like... 7 chuck-a-rama plates full of this terrible rice stuff.... And I ate it.. until I wanted to die. And wanted to die several continuing hours after that as well. #forthekingdom 

Tuesday: Amazing miracle. Sister A and I set out in the morning to try and find this member that had disappeared from the face of te earth... All we had was a name and a wrong address.. So we set out. And it was way fun. We were like detectives.. knockin on doors.. asking tese people if they knew a pakistani woman with four kids (oh we knew tat too ha). So we finally find er appartment... Wich was in a pretty sketchy area.. and the secretary person was not there. So we prayed... And desided we would go inside and knock on all the doors tat had little kid shoes outside te doors.. So the first door.. nothing,... We continue to walk down the halll... when we stop in front of a door.. because we could hear talking... we waitied to see what language it was... we heard thai... so we started to walk a away.. but i had a feeling to just stay... and then a couple of seconds went by... and i hear tat the thai was coming from TV and that te actually people were not speaking thai!! So we knocked on the door to find.... It was HER..... Turns out she's totally not pakistani but sri lankin. It was amazing. She didn't speak very good english.. But when we showed her te name of who we were looking for she pointed at herself and said "me". One of heavenly father's sheep was found. 

Way cool ting about Asoke.. It was food from all over te world. And it is all legit. All so amazing. Today we ate at a splendid italian pizza joint with Sister Johnson and Grange as a goodbye for sister Alley! We almost ordered a 1 meter pizza... ahaha language barriers... 

Wednesday: Way fun.. We got to prepare the new missionary lunch and take them out Dan Jonesing! (inviting).. It was so so fun... And a strange flashback.. to just a little over a year prior.. being in those very same shoes. What an adventure it has been. That evening we met wit sweet sister Robyn again for sister Alley's last time. And wow. We were spoiled. We went to an Argentian steak house. No need to annunciate on that. It was a crazy hi so restaraunt.. To which sister A and I brought a bottle of milk with Tim Tams so we could teach Robyn how to slam.... First class everyone. SO fun. I am excited to teach you how to slam one day!

Thursday: Sister Alley was died. And I took her place as the A. S. S. Assistant to Sister Senior (now sister Johsnon... but te A S J just doesnt ave the same ring to it... :P).... Hahah not really it is just for funnsies. Sometimes it feels tat way though with all we do in Asoke.  And to Asoke i brought the greatest greatest greatest new khuu! I am SO excited. My new companion is Sister Remington from Alberta Canada. She is SO cute. And such a great missionary. I can't even tell you how SPOILED I FEEL! Or as Anny would have put it... "richly blessed" :) We are so excited to work together. o!!! At transfers also so my sweet sister Olsen. She is doing so good! I am so proud of her. She will be training a khon thai mssinoary and opening a new area for sisters!!! I will be a grandma in the mission! Wooohooo. :) In the evening sister Smith (my old mtc companion) came and did a trio with us for a while! That was fun to reminsce wit her. we were invited to dinner with the bishop from the international ward. So tat was a change! Way fun. 

Friday: Crazy days begin. Introducing Sister Remington to Asoke.. We were running and running. We love it.

Saturday: SRI LANKIN SATURDAY! Way sick day. Sister Remington and I went with some members from the international ward to meet with this LA srilankan member! It was such an amazing experience. Won't go into details now about it.. Because their situation has lots of legal funsies incorporporated. fun. Later we went out to another member's restaraunt.. that happened to Sri lankan as well! it was prettty goood stuff. Much better than pakistani food right now. :) That afternoon we got to teach a french guy tat randomly walked into te church! Turns out Sister Remington is way good at speaking french. Okay. So that was fun. His name is Pescal. Is that te name of te chemillion on tangled????

Sunday: Nutty... per usual. but so good. So fun to see the LA's tat we've been working with come to church. And so wonderful when tey bring friends. Missionary work is real. The best way to help the missionaries is to open your mouth and invite your friends. And do your calling as a member. Fellowship. That evening we had a district dinner wit the Johnsons! It was a lovely dinner that ended with probably one of the most embarrassingly funny mission or even life moment of my life. I'll save that one for another day. ;)

Everyone Heavenly Father is oh so real. It was so humbling this week to see prayers answered concerning which sisters were called to this Zone.. I know it is God's will to make the Bangkok West Zone a stake. And I am so glad I have been able to serve in it these past 3 transfers.  The kingdom is coming forth.

I so love being a missionary.

Love,

Sister Coates

PS... P days are actually staying saturdays... This was just a one time ting tis transfer.... so see you at the end of this week!

pics: 

me and the best sis O

Alley on the death couch. she's the coolest 

Sri Lankin BEAUTIFUL FAMILY

My gorgeous companion

Nov 6: break through

Happy Birthday to Sister Jackson, Reagan and Serena!!!! <3 Love you all.

Saturday: Turned out be a scary halloween after all! Hair cuts!!! The guy that cut my hair.. haha was awesome. His taste in music will describe him perfectly: Metallica. I had to fix my hair later at home.. But for the most part. He did okay :P

Sunday: Met a cool new investigator named Julie from Denmark. She lived in Utah for a year as a foreign exchange student and lived with a mormon family. She said that she has always loved the feeling of church. That it just feels like such a big family. On moving back to Denmark she was able to sneak to church 4 times, as her parents were strongly against it. And is excited to now be in Thailand able to make her own decisions..... I smell miracles! :) The English ward ward amazes me every week. People who actually do their calling. The church in Thailand is till pretty young. And the Asoke branch- although it was the first branch in Thailand.. it is struggling for sure. 

Monday: Pakistani Mondays.Got to read in 1 Nephi 1 with Synthia. It was so cool She doesn't speak very good English so she ahs a hard time understanding the BOM.. & she can't read/write in Urdu so we have stopped after reading every single verse and explained it to her. She loved it. I noticed while Iw as reading and explaining that I was so incredibly happy. i was so happy to be reading and sharing out of the BOM. That book is so special. Went to visit Samaya and Aamir. They are so special. Prayers for Samaya. She is very sick.

Tuesday: cool moment today. Some gril randomly walked into the church as we were  about to leave and asked if we could answer a few questions regarding the church's stance on gay marriage as she was preparing a report for a religion class. i was so impressed while she asked questions taht we were able to answer every single one and back it up with scriptures and words of modern day prophets. It was a testament to me that God's plan really is central to the family. Starting w/ Man and woman. Her last question was - will the church's stance ever change? Andre was a strong spirit in the air as we explained that God is the same, yesterday, today and forever.

Wednesday: MLC happened again! I love President Johnson. The meeting was one desires. "when we have a vision of what we can BECOME our desire and our power to act increase enormously." Dallin H Oaks. There were many answers to prayers during that meeting. Some of which came not even through the words that were said.. But because the spirit was so strong. And because we had been preparing for the training.

Thursday: Taught Bro Frank.. He is our only khon Thai investigator.. We are making some break throughs with him. Little by little. :) Got to go to Bang Khae to train! Nothing has changed over there! It was so strange to go int he church.. Feels like I was just there yesterday. Where has 6 weeks gone? We got to skype Julie! As she lives in Chon Buri.. 4 hours away. She is way cool. 

Friday: Another training. Something learned this week: Big picture in life is sometimes lost in the fret of little things that pile up around us.. My ponderize this week helped inspire me to remember just how little our "piles" are.. Mosiah 4:9

Believe in God ; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom , and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend. 

Saturday: Today is sister Alley's last P day. Next week = transfers. When did that happen?

The work is true.
I love being a missionary.

Love,

Sister Coates

Also forgot to mention we had the cutest lunch date EVER with Sister Johnson and Sister Stoker at The Hatter... coollest place eer.

That sick fat dog.

fro yo is still a thing.
get real.

 

Oct 31: This is Halloween

Hello! Yay for Halloween in Thailand!

Thailand doesn't even need to wear a costume. :P

This week was good. My companion is awesome. Every single day I feel like the worst companion ever because she is constantly serving me to NO END! Oh is she is the best. This week I was very grateful that she was there to experience the highs and lows. I am so grateful for her example of charity and loyalty. I have learned so much from her. I know that we will be friends long after the mission. I know she was someone that I needed to meet with in my life. I can't believe that in 2 weeks she is going to DIE & go HOME!..... missionary talk......

Most interesting thing that happened this week.. Hmm which one should I choose? OH.. How about the one where this guy calls and says that he is a new member of the church and wants to meet at the church. We do.... And he starts to tell us his story.... Let me just first put this into perspective.. He is a khon Thai. He is probably aroun 30 years old? He looks more on the low class scale... Based on a lot of things... Okay. So his story. He had just gotten back from living in Spain for 6 months where he taught English. The man can't speak a lick of English or Spanish. He told us the word for "english" in spanish was "englishies"... He proceeded to tell us that he is married to an american from Ohio.. He has quadruplet daughters age 8 and twin sons age 4 months....... That his wife is in america preparing to go to korea.... After lovely story.. He started sharing a spiritual thought saying that in the scriptures Alma liked to talk with the apostle john................. And then ended there in the name of JC amen. Ohhhh boy. :) 

In short. It was a very strange week.

Still something strange: teaching in English. ESPECIALLY when the people you are teaching have a WAY thick accent. That is one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. Trying to speak English and NOT mimic their accentsssss!

One way high from this week was teaching a Pakistani family together! It started with one girl, Synthia, who watched a mormon friend of hers and decided that she too wanted to be that way. She told her family that she wanted to come to church. They supported her. Next week at church she and her sister came and told us they wanted to be baptized. Next day we are visiting at their house all of a sudden their whole family is sitting in too. All listening intently and asking questions. There was a cool spirit of discovery and love in the lesson. Which continued to expand when they met us at the church the following evening. Synthia's older brother told us that he really appreciates the feeling of true love he can sense from within our church members. -I love that this is the doctrine we teach. To love.- He told us how thankful to us he was that we came to his home. Calling us a "blessed people" as his and his family's lives have already started to change. He said that his younger and wayward brother- who had been sleeping in the corner during our visit- had actually not been sleeping at all but had been listening to everything. As soon as we had left he started to ask questions and has started to consider coming to church. 

Whoa! Miracles. I am excited to see their lives be filled with the light of Christ. Excited to give them a new and real hope. As they sitting in some hard situations. I am grateful to know to God in Heaven loves his children and has a plan for each one. 

My ponderize scripture for the week seemed to fit perfectly "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God."

I know that to be true.

I love being a missionary.

Love,

Sister Coates