First week in Seattle!

Hello everyone!

I can't believe it has been a week since I got to Seattle! I really do enjoy the weather in Seattle so far. It has been sunny all week and cloudy just a little bit. My first area is Seattle YSA2. We mostly focus on the University of Washington. The place that we always go is called Red Square. There are so many students walking pass that area and I met a lot of Chinese students, my people!

First thing that I want to say on this weekly updated is there are so many MIRACLE  that the Lord has shown to us. First of all, Last Sunday, we went contacting after we had lesson with a member. However, none of us had enough pass a long card so we decided to go back to our apartment and get some. While we were walking back, I had a weird feeling that we should go back to the institute (where we have church) first to get our stuff. When we got all of our stuff, we started walking home the different way that we walked back from the university. We ran into 3 Chinese girls, we talked to them a little bit and found out that they were looking for Church!  I was like whoa! you three ran into the right person! Because it was around 4pm, so there was no church service. We gave them the overview lesson about our church, Jesus Christ, and God. We were able to get an appointment back with them so we will meet them again this Saturday. The cool thing was one of the girl who is Christian, Betty, she said that she was praying to find the true church and someone to help her friends understand more about Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. When they got out of the bus, they ran into us! I truly believe that it wasn't a coincident but it was the Lord's plan!!

I feel like I've learned something everyday, little by little. Charity and love were something that I've learned this week. We ran into a homeless guy and started talking to him. At first, all I wanted to do was to go back to the apartment and find something to eat since it was already dinner time. However, as I was talking to him, I found out that Joel, his name, was a super great guy. He was an active Mormon back in his 20's and he was trying to reactivate himself again. He asked us to talk to his father on the phone because his father is an active member and loves missionaries. While my companion was talking to his father, I had a chance to get to know him a little bit more. He told me that he wanted to start his life again and improve the quality of his community (the ave. next to our apartment where homeless people live) He also asked us if we could help (preach the gospel) his friend that is in jail right now because she needs the gospel in her life. While we were talking, he searched his backpack to give us a dream catcher. He said that it will protect us and help us to have a good night sleep.I couldn't believe that he could be so kind to us. He is homeless and has no job but still think about other people. This guy did completely change how I think about other people. We are all children of God and we should think and look at other people like the way God and Jesus Christ would look at us. We shouldn't judged other people based on their appearance but we should look into their hearts as we speak with them.

By the way, my trainer her name is Sister Olson from Idaho. She played basketball in college so my morning exercise is really interesting. Every two days, we go to the Red Square and she would run around me as I do my little cuties stretching.  

Ps. This is her second transfer so we are growing together

Here is a picture of us!

Sister Watanawongworakula

Washington Seattle Mission 

10675 NE 20th St. 

Bellevue, WA 98004

Lessons from the MTC

Hi everyone

This is my last week at the MTC! The time went by so fast! I love the MTC, my class and my companions. After all the things that we have been through together, we are more connected, united, and love one another. The MTC does soften my heart and teach me so many things.  I also learn more about patience and humility. Having companions is really hard since we have to do everything together. Sometimes we may not agree on the same things or think about ourselves before others.  It was really hard when we had a problem because those problems effected our lessons.  I am not perfect and sometimes my attitude isn't that great. I prayed to the Lord with my sincere heart to ask for his help. I asked him to soften our hearts and help us to understand one another more since we were all different. After the prayer, we were able to talk openly about our problems and try to understand one another's personalities. One of many things that I learned from, that problem was  was selflessness. It is one of the hardest things to do but as we keep doing it continuously, we will be able to be like Christ in one day.

This week I had an opportunity to teach Arisa (TRC.) She came from Japan to learn English at BYU. She met missionaries before and knew a lot about our church and the gospel. While we were teaching her, we found out that she had no faith in Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. I was really worry after the first appointment because having faith wasn't something that I could tell someone to have but they needed to earn that by themselves. However, as we went to teach her again, the spirit did soften her heart. On the last appointment, she said yes to us when we asked her to get baptized. I was really happy! There was one thing that she shared with us, she said that praying was very hard for her but as her kept doing it daily, she felt more comfortable doing it. I just want to say that we may find something difficult to do, but as we keep doing it everyday, that thing will become easier. Like when I read scripture, it is really hard for me to stay focus but as I keep trying, it becomes easier to do.

By the way, my district got to go the Temple Square last Friday, it was really fun! I went there so many times but this time was different. I have a name tag on my blouse! Woohoo.

Lots of Love,

Sister W.

Arisa is on the right side.

My favorite teacher, sister Limperle.

Teach by the Spirit!

I just want to share a short message of what I've learned on this one. 

I have learned that teaching is not as easy as I thought it would be. It requires us to listen and observe others. Moreover, I have to let the spirit guide me while I'm teaching. I didn't realize the fact that we pray a lot. We pray before we teach, when we teach, and after we teach to invite the spirit to be with us. After we teach, we always do the companion inventory. Not only we can understand each other more, but we also can strengthen our weaknesses. Preach my gospel is my good friend since I have to read it everyday. I've learned that in order to understand investigator, we need to listen and observe the body language. I like the quote from Elder Holland that said about being a good listener, he said that we shouldn't be worry of what we are going to say when we listen to the investigator, but to just listen and the spirit will helps us. I tried it and it worked very well! 

I want to invite everyone to pray more often and take your time to pondering about your prayer. Sometimes the answer might not come right after but be patience, the lord will answer your prayer like he always does 😁

Lots of love,

Sister W