21°C weather all day and night for at least 2 weeks!!!

Stocking up on supplies! 

February 24, 2020

Hey this week has been full of many wild events!

Quarantine info:

I'm sure most of you are aware of our inability to leave the house at this time for at least two weeks, but that won't stop the work!!

Corona won't get us down

Some of you may be wondering that the heck we are going to do with not being able to watch tv or read books, or scroll mindlessly through social media! Well Sister jensen and I are déterminéd to make it productive so it's going to be awesome... Hard, but awesome.

We have a lot of things planned to keep the work moving! We will still teach our people through video call :) if they don't have a smart phone then we are getting a member to go over there and call us in! It's going to be different but I'm excited.

We are also going to take this chance to get to know our members here! Thai people LOVE talking on the phone so this is a perfect opportunity ;) we are super excited to learn about their conversion stories and see the amazing things they will do to help further the work!

We will also really pump up social media, Thai people are also addicted to Facebook so Woah look!! ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY!

Making our video!! 

We also have a miracle board as of 1 day ago to help keep us motivated and we really do plan on seeing just as many or more miracles in this time!! We already have 3 miracles up there so things are pretty great.

Also since sister jensen and love to have fun, we also have so many fun things planned that consist of, taking a lot of exercise breaks (we are going to Get ripped just saying), dance parties (to appropriate music ofc) (also my favourite one on the list), learning to cook some good food, getting to know each other maybe a little too well, practicing our singing (that'll need a lot of practicing so it's perfect!!). I have the perfect companion for this rn we already love each other so much and are besties!

Sister jensen already going crazy, like look at that outfit

Random air guys in our apartment, it was so weird to have them here

All this being said though it is going to be super hard. I acknowledge that... We are both really outgoing people who love to talk to other people so this is going to be hard, and it will get boring, and we will go a little crazy, but NOTHING will stop us from doing the best that we can in this moment! We are called as full time missionaries of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints whether we are inside the house or not. We will not stop sharing the very thing that brought us here...Our love for God and for all of his children. Now it's just time to take it to the streets of social media instead of the streets of Thailand  thank goodness for technology amiright

A girl we are teaching made us food and came to church for the first time on her own!!! 

That's really all I'm going to say today, this past week we saw a lot of miracles, people coming together, and had a lot of fun! We had zone conference on the last day before the quarantine and it was soooooo good. President Hammond is awesome! 

I love you all so much!! We need all the prayers we can get right now over here as it's going to be a really trying time :) even if you've never prayed before don't let that stop you!! God hears everyone :)) 

Love you, 

Sister clement 

OH yeah and I also have to fly to Bangkok tonight to do my visa so it'll be great to get out of the house! 

Posed picture for my visa application (I need one of me teaching English) 

(mom's note: Rachael had to fly to Bangkok yesterday for one day to renew her VISA.  Can't say I'm excited about her being on a plane but I'm trusting that all will be well as she does what she needs to do.  It will be a minimum of 2 weeks for the quarantine.  If it is longer than that, they could be reassigned to different missions.  That will break their heart but they know it will be for the best.  They are only allowed to leave their apartments to go to church for an hour on Sundays, to get needed supplies and to exercise.  They are not allowed to talk to anyone in the street, to other missionaries, no group meetings.  This is going to be a challenging but necessary course of action to keep them safe.  They are starting out with a positive attitude and want to serve the best they can no matter the circumstance.  I am grateful that she is being looked after by inspired leaders and we continue to pray for the safety of all)

BYU bound 😎

Okay WHAT A WEEK!! So so much happened in such a short time, the mission is going by way too fast! First off, I LOVE my companion. Doing missionary work with a best friend is the best thing ever!

Funnies:

I learned a very valuable lesson this week... Never eat yogurt in a tuk tuk. Made that mistake once, will never make it again. 

we got invited to an appointment with a member, turns out it was in a school and so all the kids were shook when 2 white girls came and sat down at the lunch table and started eating food. This member goes there to eat all the time bc it's only 20 baht lol but it was so uncomfortable  so many people were taking pictures and video

There is this one 19 year old boy in our branch and elder Gregory told him he looked like a rapper and he hasn't stopped rapping since. English class was an interesting experience with that phase 

P-DAY:

Look at the super sketchy boardwalk on the side of a cliff. It was so wobbly too, and the person said that a lot of people have fallen through so it was a tad scary 

Random tidbits:

I got into BYU!!! We were so excited and we are going to eat shabushi tomorrow to celebrate! (it's this shabu and sushi buffet sOoo good) - (Mom's note: BYU = Brigham Young University)

Got into BYU !!! (thanks to the person that gave me that shirt ;)) 

We went to teach a really cute grandpa who can't really walk and there were 5 other guys there half of whom were drunk and they were so weird with us. We still had a super good lesson but everytime we'd say Christ's name they'd just start yelling it and say they know him. Then these two young boys wanted to come and take a picture with both of us on either side of their arm we were like yeah no haha. Such a weird situation and a little scary tbh. We had a member with us so it was chill tho

That same grandpa, พ่อสักดา​ came to church on Sunday for the first time and climbed all the stairs by himself even though half of his body doesn't work! It was amazing and he loved church too :)) he's the cutest human ever.

Valentine's dayyyy!!! We made Caramel and chocolate pancakes and it was so good. And then the super cute girls that we are teaching gave us little gifts and we did gifts for them too! It was so fun. Plus it was sports night that night so it was just such a good day.

5:30am pancakes! (oh yeah we changed our schedule as a district this week to get out earlier so that xo sister of waking up at 5:30 every morning instead of 6:30...sooo rough)

Our super cute friends with our Valentine's day gifts

Valentines day lunch :)with mango sticky rice for dessert 

Selfie with one of the members! (she makes AMAZING food

At one point we were walking on the side of this highway and it was kind of sketch and I'm sure everyone was so shocked to see two Falangs in the middle of nowhere walking along the highway. These two girls ran out of their work and were like, "where are you going?!" they were so worried for us aha and turns out they are interested in learning about Jesus Christ so it was such a win!!

A random walking pic 

Poor sister jensens new skirt, we got matching skirts, it got stuck in her bike so we had to cut it out :( she didn't even wear it for 10 seconds 

Matching skirts!! (we are going to wear this same outfit one Sunday, do our hair the same, and switch nametags and see if the members can tell us apart haha. They all say the only know I have the straight hair and sister jensen has the curly hair lol

The work:

Honestly we are working so so hard and having so much fun everyday. I am so dead at the end of everyday but feel so fulfilled!!we have found so many new people who are dedicated to learning and people that God really has prepared for us. It has been AMAZING. I seriously love being a missionary. It is the best thing ever. Seeing people have hope and really having more light in their lives and finding true joy makes every hard wake up, every sore muscle, every cancelled appointment, the emotional stress and days where I am just so exhausted SO WORTH IT!! We really are just here to love people.

Spiritual thought:

We taught a lot about heavenly father this week because a lot of our people are new and it was so simple and just such powerful truths. No matter who you are, where you've been, where you're going, if you believe or not, God still loves you so much and KNOWS you. He wants every single one of his children to come back home, to live with him forever, and with their families forever. He is the perfect father. The one who will always listen to our hardships, our good times, the things we need, and everything in between when we pray to him. He understands, and he has amazing things in store for each one of you :))

I love you all!!

Sister เค็ม

Faith, Miracles and a Little Bit of Fun.

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY IN THAILAND

February 10, 2020

This week was soooo amazing!

more food pics!

Somdham (papaya salad) a very esaan meal 

Dinner at a members house! 

Random tidbits:

We got new beds!! We'll not really new but we switched ours with the elders extra ones and so now we just have super springy mattresses but it's so much better than our rocks! Everyone was looking at us so funny because we had to carry them through our apartment building to a tuk tuk and then drive them over. It was a whole ordeal. 

The bed fiasco

We went to this really big market for pday (preparation day) with all of the missionaries it was so much fun! SOoo many Thai fabrics, so beautiful! 

We worked so hard this week and may have had some nightly dance parties just the two of us in our tiny apartment, it was awesome. Sister Jensen is a way good dancer. 

Also Sister Jensen and I are going to get ripped this transfer. We've been working out hard every morning. I was so sore this week 

Everyone thinks sister Jensen and I are sisters too. I think it's just because we both have brown hair and are white but whatevs

This really old grandpa came to church again with his little rubber snake. 

The work:

This week was FULLLLLL of miracles. We found 6 new people to teach and they all came by us following the spirit! There were so many times when we thought we should go somewhere even though it wasn't the plan and we'd find someone! We have started leaving more time for when we bike to have time for miracles like that to happen and it had been working! God really does prepare people to listen to our message! 

The language:

I'm at the point now that I can pretty much understand things in Thai and maybe 50% for Esaan (North Eastern Thai). So the language is coming slowly but surely. I've said some wack things too but it just makes everyone laugh so I'm just spreading joy! The tones are so hard though not going to lie. And reading and writing are super hard for me. And speaking is still a struggle but it's okay because I get so much help from heavenly father it's nuts!! 

Spiritual Thought:

This week I was studying faith a lot. And how faith always proceeds miracles. There is ALWAYS a trail of faith before God pours out his miracle upon you. This was evident in just the people we found. Every single time it was never the person we approached the first time to talk to, it was always some near by or the second, or 14th person. But we found people. We do live in a time where miracles can happen everyday if we exercise our faith, and ask heavenly father for them! God is a God of miracles!! 

Love you all, I probably forgot a ton of stuff from this week I'm sorry, 

Sister เค็ม

A Trip to Bangkok

 I don't know how to say this meal in English but it's super good! You grill meat on the grill part and then there is a broth that you can cook meat, and vegetables and other stuff in too! So fun! We had it at a members house before we left

Hello hello hello!!! What a crazy and amazing past 5 days!

Funnies:

I was laughing really hard in the the taxi in Bangkok and my little mint popped out of my mouth, and sister jensen thought it was my tooth and she got so scared!

Our tuk tuk driver called us at 5am to make sure we woke up for our stop when we were on our way home from Bangkok! I think he feels like he's actually my dad and needs to take care of me now that sister yamma is gone he had everything organized and arranged for us when he got there. He even asked about members and interested people we needed to go visit too. He's so cute!

Sister Jensen is practicing her Canadian! She already says out, house, bag, cutlery all in the proper way! She said she's going to be fluent by the time this transfer is over 

The only picture I have with sister jensen and my eyes are closed. I promise we will take more

Random Tidbits:

Okay my companion is superrrrr awesome. She's been in country for over 10 months and her Thai is so good! We are on the same page about everything and really want to work super hard so I know this transfer will be so good. Also she's super cool and we get along so so well! I'm so excited for the miracles we are going to see in Udon this transfer! 

The trip to Bangkok was exhausting! We took the night train Wednesday all night and arrived at 6am in Bangkok ready for our meeting and our new companions! It was so fun to see a bunch of people from the mtc! Then we had to wait for the evening to take another night train back to udon! We got home in at 5:30, showered, she unpacked and we got to work! We were soooo dead. 

 After a rough night on the train lol

At the train station with the members sending sister yamma and elder butnon off! 

MTC reunion!

The work:

Our mission president is calling the month finding February! We have a goal to find one new person a day. Someone new who is either interested in learning or is already a member but that we don't know about. We have reached that goal everyday and it's so amazing! We have seen so many miracles already. 

Spiritual thought:

The power of prayer is amazing. When we tell our father in heaven our goals, the things that we need, everything that we are grateful for, and anything else that is going on, there is real power in that. He will direct us for good when we reach out to him. And he will always be there with us in all that we do. And sincere prayers really do make a difference in our lives. I promise that as each one of us reaches out to Him, He listens and he will answer us in His time. 

Have a great week! I'm sure I will have so much to say next week as we are planning on doing soooo many things!! 

Love you all, 

Sister clement