here is a story:)
 
We were biking...just lost like 4 investigators in two days..by our own choosing because it was just too hard to feel the spirit around them, even though they were nice, and they weren’t keeping commitments and it stung to see something so beautiful like the Book of Mormon not get the respect or attention it deserves. So I couldn't take any more of it, and the field is white already to harvest for real. So we tried to have faith that there were some people out there that needed our time and efforts more than they did....people we had not yet met.
 
Anyway so I was hot and had a headache and satan was trying to make me discouraged so we stopped and prayed and my companion almost cried. After we prayed I decided the only reasonable thing to do was pray again...and then eat something delicious so we stopped for an Ovaltine banana shake and there was another customer waiting and she looked shy but really nice and older than 18. So I started talking to her and she was way surprised that a farang  (foreigner) was talking to her....so she smiled and once she realized that the words coming out of my mouth were actually my attempt at speaking Thai...she listened a little more intently and we started communicating.....:) Anyway she was the one Heavenly Father wanted us to spend more time on:) she said she loved Christianity and had a good friend who she would go to church with who had moved and now she didn’t know where to find a different church or how to learn more.. She felt sad about it and missed it. She couldn’t wait to come to church with us on sunday. After we left my companion Sister Wikanda asked me what her story was and I told her and then told her that she was getting baptized and going to the temple next year, too:). Good thing we’re not in charge of this work or it would go nowhere. Heavenly Father knows so much its crazy. Like that women (Fon) and us both like Ovaltine and that we needed her and she needed us. She loved church on Sunday:) and said she felt like she'd come to a place where the warmth of real love  is:).
 
The Gospel is so great, so true. We’re so little and it’s so big!!! I love being a part of it and having it be a part of me.

We have some wonderful investigators right now. for example, we walked into eat ice cream a few weeks ago and now the three girls working there are learning and progressing and gettin close to baptism. They are from hill tribe type communities in northern Thailand where most people there are christian, I think catholic specifically, and just very good and pure people. Just missing a few parts of the fulness of the Gospel and the priesthood, but already living most of the commandments. The spirit has been so strong in almost all the lessons. they get so full of emotion and gratitude each time they talk about Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon. They read so much of it every day and they thank us so much and Heavenly Father in front of us for sending us to them...to “give them the pieces of pure truth that they've been looking for their whole lives".  So sweet.  Their names are May, Mamiaw, and Plooy. They are so sweet and I sincerely love them.
 

 
i love you
 
sister roper

Happy 4th of July!!

BaaaaaaaAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!! So many things are happening on your side of the earth. Happiness and love and excitement! Please know that I love and miss you all!Another something funny....from Sister Wikanda (my companion, who is Thai) I'm learning a lot more about Thai culture, and some things are suprising. LIke this week she told me that I walk really loudly. What does that even mean? Haha we just started laughing because I didn't get it and she could tell I couldn't get it....I was like, "Shoot! Sorry! Why? What does walking loud even mean?" She's like, "When you walk down the stairs, you can hear your footsteps from outside. My mom would whack my ankles with a stick if I did it that loud." Hmm....so I've had a change of heart about the way I walk:). I still have sooo much to learn about sooo many things, including Thai culture:). Every day is such an adventure with a khon Thai companion. I LOVE it and never want a farang again (Sorry Lauren, too lazy to find the Thai letters).

But I never want to leave this country:).

Our new mission president came this weekend. LOVE him already. President Smith did SO much for Thailand, and now President Senior (the new one) I feel like, is going to do SO much for the mission and for the missionaries. He gave a wonderful fireside last night. He and his wife were called to be Presidents in NC first but two months later got a call from Salt Lake changing their call to Thailand. What purpose and divine guidance is in that one. Sooo cool. He bore his testimony in Thai last night, after being in the MTC for only eight days so of course we respect him huuuge for that one:). We all (about 60 missinonaries) had the chance to speak with him for a few minutes. This was our conversation:

President Senior: "Sister Roper! The pianist! Thank you so much for playing tonight.... Where are you from?"

Me: "New Mexico, have you heard of it?" (Everyone here thinks I'm from Mexico lol)

President Senior: "We're from AZ so yes. And...how long have you been here?"

Me, literally having to think about it lol: "MMMMmmmm a year in September."

President Senior: "And how do you feel about Thailand and your mission."

I'm writing this in my email for the next part, becuase I felt so happy when I said it and felt so grateful that I could mean every word and want you to know how I feel, in case anyone's wondering.

Me: "I love it. I love it so much. I'm happier than I have ever been and I don't want to leave."

And then he teared up:) and said I made him cry haha. Oops. But I meant it:).

Friends and family we are so imperfect and sooo unequal to the task before us. But when we try our hardest and do our best, Heavenly Father guides us and makes up for the difference. And then He makes us really happy along with it:). I'm SOOOO GRATEFUL TO BE A MISSIONARY:). I've never been so happy.

I love you all so very much,

Sister Roper

This is my new address: (the office moved):

1645/6 New Petchaburi Road,

 Makkasan, Ratchathewi, Bangkok 10400

It's raining, its pouring, and we are still working:)

-This morning I was singing along with Holst's "The Planets" and Sister Wiganda looked at me after a few seconds and said, "Freaky." Hahahaha I laughed. She's so funny and honest. I love it.

-Also this morning I opened an umbrella and there was a frog inside, and luckily I saw it before raising the umbrella over my head...and allowing the frog to fall right on top:).

-Also there was a spider the size of my hand on our back door this week. Siiiccck.

-I sang hymn 273 this morning before personal study. Usually when I saw the title, "Truth Reflects the Inner Senses" ...or something like that, I thought, "I don't even understand what that means....better not sing it." But today I felt like sight reading. Oh my ....SOOO GOOOD! It talks about how we can't point out the motes in others eyes, especially because there are beams on our own. Sometimes that's hard for me because I'm accidentally pretty opinionated and observant. But President Uchtdorf's talk about how the "merciful will obtain mercy" and Mosiah 4:19 and this hymn have got me thinking a lot this past week. About how we all depend on the same Being, we are all beggars. We are giving weaknesses to be humble, and we are given strengths to serve Heavenly Father....not to be better than anyone else. Not super related to missionary work, but important to me this past week nonetheless. 

Okay I love you all!

Sister Roper

 President and Sister Smith before they left for home.

 Breanne and her two sisters that she has 'trained.'

P-day activities

 Visiting ruins with the branch president

first train ride :)