Story told by Krittiya (Interview written by Janelle)


Mormon Woman: Krittiya

“Seal to me.”

Three days after my husband’s death, I looked at his picture in our bedroom. While looking at the picture, I heard my husband’s voice say to me, “Seal to me.” My husband had taken me several times to the Visitor’s Center at the Oakland Temple, and to the Sacramento Temple Open House, he had been my very first missionary and had taught me what happens in Temples. I knew what he wanted me to do.

My husband converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1985. At the time, he was at a critical time in his life. He lost his home, all his money, was in the middle of a divorce and was losing his family. He had his first heart attack during that time. A Mormon friend gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and asked him to study it. The Book of Mormon changed my husband’s life.

I met my husband years later online. I traveled a lot for my job as a TV producer in Bangkok, Thailand and only had Internet access one day a week. Several times when I came back to the office I would see ads for Match.com on my computer screen. I wondered what it was and filled in my information. My husband-to-be also traveled extensively for work, but upon returning from a business trip to his home in America, his computer screen declared he had a match and on the screen was my profile. We started corresponding. After 6 months of email and phone calls he came to Thailand to meet me.

On his trip to Thailand he told me he knew I was the one, and asked me to marry him, but he said, “Don’t answer until you visit me in America.” I came to America and felt like I had come back home. We courted for two years, and after asking my family’s permission we married in 2002.

I did not know while we were dating that my husband was a Mormon. After we started our life together he took me to the Oakland Temple Visitors’ Center often. We watched movies about the Church. He frequently invited the missionaries to our home. I was raised Buddhist in Bangkok, but attended Catholic private schools all through my life and was acquainted with Christianity. But on the first day I went to Catholic school my grandmother pulled me aside and told me “Don’t convert.” Although I enjoyed the messages my husband and these videos were sharing with me, I thought I did not need to convert to Christianity to be a good person.

On May 7, 2007 my husband had a heart attack in our home. My next-door neighbor, who happened to be LDS, rushed over to help give my husband CPR. He died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. My neighbor called the Bishop of my husband’s church and the Bishop and some other members of my husband’s ward met me at the hospital. I did not know them, but I knew my husband did. It was well past midnight, so I was surprised people would come and visit me. When the Doctor confirmed that my husband had passed and there was nothing left to do I was lost. Bishop Beck said, “Don’t worry. We will walk with you and help you through this.” The Bishop and another ward member gave me my first Priesthood blessing that night at the hospital and I felt better.

The next morning, someone knocked on my door. It was the Relief Society President from the ward. She knew I did not have a driver’s license, and told me she would make herself available to give me rides anywhere I needed to go. Members of my husband’s congregation started delivering food that day.

Bishop Beck called the funeral home and assisted me with all the details of the funeral. We had a memorial at the church and since my husband was a veteran, he was buried at a military cemetery. Bishop Beck helped me arrange all the details with the Veteran’s Association. There was so much paperwork!

I was so surprised. These people didn’t know me, but they knew my husband and wanted to help. My husband’s message to seal to him was fresh in my mind when, after the funeral, I talked to Bishop Beck and said, “I am ready to discuss with the missionaries.” For five years missionaries had come to my home and I would not listen. I was ready to listen.

I was baptized on June 23, 2007. On my baptism day, a brother in my ward came to me to apologize. “I’m so sorry Krittiya, I have misspelled your name on the program.” But when I looked, it was the same way my husband had misspelled my name. I knew he was with me.

After baptism, I talked to my home teachers and visiting teachers about getting ready to go to the Temple. I took a Temple prep class and prepared myself spiritually to go to the Temple. On June 27, 2008 I went to the Oakland Temple and was sealed for time and all eternity to my husband. I cried the entire time. I knew my husband was there with me. He was very happy too.

I know that through the sealing powers offered in the Holy Temple my husband and I can be together forever, and that gives me peace.

Mormon Temple in Oakland, CA

LDS_TH_LogoKrittiya grew up in Bangkok, Thailand. She attended Catholic private schools before graduating from Thammast University, Bangkok, in journalism. She had never met a Mormon in Bangkok before meeting her husband, but had read in a magazine that Donny Osmond was a Mormon. She did not make the connection between the word “Mormon” and the Thai translation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints while growing up in Bangkok. Krittiya now realizes that every Friday night, the LDS missionaries would host a TV show in Bangkok. We wanted to provide that translation so others could make the connection between the word “Mormon” and the Thai translation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

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