Reporting in

Dear Family,

This Morning our hair cut took about two hours long. That is including the hair washing before and after the cut. I feel like my hair is cut so evenly that it could take the scrutiny of a Hollywood camera up close. And it smells good.

Yesterday we enjoyed sharing experiences with each other at our zone lesson in Mahasarakham. One of the main topics of discussion was about prayer. I feel amazed as I look back at the multiplicity of my prayers that were answered in the past year. The Spirit really can direct our prayers and we are sure to get an answer. Our prayers really can be a spiritual experience, especially when accompanied by scripture study and pondering. I am reminded of the story of Enos whose soul hungered. He was brought to pray all night and all day until the voice of the Lord came into his mind. But then he was not satisfied with his own salvation alone but he prayed for his brethren the Nephites. The answer he received was that the Lord would bless the Nephites according to their diligence to keeping the commandments. Enos let the answer to his prayer increase his faith, and his soul was still not satisfied. Finally after the third time the Lord grants an answer to Enos' prayers according to Enos' desires because of his faith in Christ. What I find to be especially interesting is that Enos' desires were that if the Nephites just happen to be destroyed and the Lamanites not, that God would preserve the records so that they might bring the Lamanites to faith in Christ--which is in history what actually happened. How in the world did he know to pray for that? His prayers must have been directed by the spirit.

The more I read the scriptures the more I feel the truths of the Gospel sink in to my soul. So often I will be talking with Elder Blaughstein and we will be discussing about simple truths that we learned from the scriptures. And the truths seem so much more evident. Then what we discussed from our personal studies together has so often been the exact topic that those we teach needed. Then the spirit confirms the things that we talked about from that morning one more time in the lesson. As we leave from that appointment I feel the need to say a prayer of thanks and I can't help but smile at my companion in amusement and feel grateful that we had the spirit with us in our studies that morning. These kinds of experiences are very special to me. And I feel obligated to work harder for being blessed with them. One of the impressions that Elder Blaughstein and I feel to do is to pray for service opportunities. I hadn't thought to do that before. All our work is service. But serving as you're serving on a mission is even better.

Thanks to the simple advice of my oldest brother from when we lasted talked on the phone together, Elder Blaughstein and I had another special experience. We separated into different rooms with a list of over 30 names of all the brethren in the Branch. Then we prayed to find three names of people who God would have us teach. When we came back together and looked at the names that we prayed about separately, two of the three names were the same.

I love you all!

Love Elder Lilly

P.S. We found a house and the Sisters are going to move in. Then we will move to the sisters old house. Also our neighbor is crazy!