Email 11-05-08 - NOOOOOOOOooooo

I wrote this huge heartfelt letter for the last hour and a half and it all got lost! I'm soooooo sad. Oh well...

Dear Family (we're all family),
Hello,
I'm so grateful for all of your prayers and stories. It's always good to get a boost from home.
Basically (since I used all of my time already) My flight was Long and had crazy neat Chinese ladies wearing green Uniforms who served us Chinese Dog food or tuna fish or something and reminded me of Diana for some reason (we would have had so much fun on that flight). Then I sat in front of two Thai ladies on the way to Taipei and being a MTC certified missionary, I took full advantage of the situation. We talked about fruit and Thai food and I bore my testimony and I was very grateful that they spoke English too (except one of them was harder to understand in English than in Thai).
By the way Spencer, I couldn't understand anything the announcers in the plane were saying but I could tell that it was Thai!

I can view the pictures you sent. I can get packages from united postal services and have no extra fees but most other regular companies will charge a ton. And I can listen to most church music that is uplifting and that's about it.

President Dodge is very great and loving. The missionaries who greeted us were all way overdressed with custom pin striped suits and different colored interiors. Apparently all of the missionaries take advantage of the cheap suits so it's kind of an eventuality... Any suggestions? :p
My companions name is Elder Ewing and we are serving here in BangKhae. My companion is awesome. We make a great team. The Traffic here is great. Everyone pushes their way through the white and yellow lines and the speed limit are "more like guidelines than actual rules." It's super humid and rainy here so sometimes we will be riding in the rain (we try to avoid that) and we will be riding in between cars and weaving around traffic. Then the jam lessens and the cars fly around us. I'm grateful that I am doing the Lords work and am in His Trust. The Taxi drivers are the worst. Then there are the Song thaos which are mini trucks that load tons of people in them and drive them around. And more motorcycles than you've ever see in your life.
Right now we have 17 investigators with a baptismal date. That is a ton. I want SOOO much for all of them to progress and make their baptismal dates and move along the plan of salvation! And I still want to get more.
The work is HARD.
I'm surprised by how much I'm able to understand and pick out words that I know. The problem is that I don't know enough words. I can teach the gospel and testify but I can't small talk at all. Which is actually very important to open the hearts of the people who are talking to us strange farangs (foreigners, also means guava).
Since I'm a greeny and I have a great excuse to fail at Thai I've asked my companion to let me do all of the talking. If he starts talking (and he's way good) then they will either think that I'm good too or I can't speak at all. Then I start talking and they assume I know exactly whats going
on and I probably don't. But If I start talking then they lower their standard more to my level and then I can get experience and my companion can save me. :) That's my plan at least, we'll see how well I do!

I got really lucky with my house, I think I have the biggest house in the mission.

Another blessing is that the Thai tastes so good and I haven't gotten sick yet. Yet. Dad's Chili has indeed prepared me well.

I need to go I used a lot of time but I am SOOO grateful for you guys and your prayers. The scriptures say that If we keep the commandments and believe we will receive and ask in faith then we will receive. This is what we ask of our investigators and It's how they are able to change their hearts. There are 70 members in my ward and they sacrifice soooo much to make it work. I can honestly say I already Love the Thai people (I think I said that before but It's true!). So Keep up your prayers of faith!

Love you guys,
Elder Lilly
Side Note: Whats better a black suit or a grayish one...