March 28th Letter

The street outside our house during the floods.

Mom and Dad,

So some good news, this week we had another two baptisms. Way exciting. It has been so awesome to see how much one branch can get excited about missionary work. We didn't find out until Saturday night that we were able to baptize them on Sunday. It is always quite a surprise for the branch when we have baptisms, but they are loving it. The two that were baptized this week was Oiy (i can't spell it in English) and her son Gang. Oiy is Pawns daughter and Gang is pawns grandson. It is so cool to baptize families, especially these guys. They keep bringing more people to learn and get baptized. This week we are going to start teaching Oiy’s brother and he should be able to get baptized in about four weeks. That is pretty awesome. Oiy’s baptism was pretty difficult actually. It took 4 times before they got it right. She just could not get her whole body under the water. Way funny, but she was a good sport. She didn't seem too shaken by the experience.

My companion and I didn't baptize any of these people. The President Smith has asked us not to baptize people because it is a good opportunity for priesthood holders in Thailand to use the priesthood. Last week with Pietune we needed to have someone hold him in the water while the other brother baptized him. Elder Merrill stood in the water and I had to stand outside the water to carry him in and out, but It has been the members the whole time that have been doing the baptizing. I am personally really grateful for it. The day we called up a brother too ask him to baptize. He said he had just prayed and asked how he could help the elders baptize. How amazing is that. I'm pretty sure that is what it feels like to be an instrument in God’s hands. I don't feel like I'm doing anything. I just feel like the Lord has done it all himself and has just put us here because we have to be here.

This week has been a really good week though. We had a bunch of lessons and taught a lot of new investigators. I can remember one lesson in particular that I really liked. We started to talk about how their reading was going and their praying. They started to say how they hadn't done things like we had been asking them to do. So I started to explain that our purpose is to come to them to help them change there lives so they can be pure enough to be baptized, and that is called repentance. I told them the story in Ether chapter 2 how the brother of Jared repented for not praying, and that he had to repent because it was a sin not to pray. I also told them that after he repented he continued to pray because he could sin again. I then committed them to repent and pray always, it was such a good lesson. I am way happy with this family, but they can't go to church because they work so if you wanted to put them in your prayers you are welcome to, their names are Mee, Pat, Pierat, and Priaw.

Ok, One of the movies this week is outrageous I have no Idea. The guy in the theatre, but the other one is the Saint. I love that movie so much.

How cool is the sports illustrated. You didn't comment on my Jimmer joke. I thought it was hilarious. I got my package today. Man, I'm so excited to eat all the food in there. It all looks so good. I don't know if I’m leaving yet, I will find out tomorrow morning. Everyone thinks they are going to whitewash this area; however, I don't know. Thank you so much for your stories. I loved them all. It will really help me to help investigators start keeping the commandments. If you two can think of any more over the next year be sure to send them, plus I like to hear.

I am going to be sending a mothers day gift home for you mom. Don't open it until Mother’s Day. I think you are really going to like it. At least I hope so.

Please tell Maren sorry. I have very little time today so I won’t be able to email her back. But I thought about her and Andy and Judd and Jessie and Riley.

The picture is of Oiy she is the one all in white, and then Gang is the little one in white. Brother Surat is the one who baptized.

3 generations are now members of the church.

March 21st Letter

Hey mom and dad,

So I guess I will just start by telling you about the baptisms. They were so sweet. We had three people that got baptized on the 19th, a cute little family. They were so excited. It was on a Saturday which usually isn't the best idea because a lot of the members won't come. Usually they are on Sunday and everybody is already at church so they stay for the baptism; however, on Saturday we had a pretty good turnout. About 15 people came to see this family get baptized. It was a really good experience for them! They really felt good and when they bore their testimonies you could really feel their conversion, the Spirit was so strong. I hope they never forget how they felt that day. T hen surprisingly enough, we had two other baptisms on Sunday. We had only planned on having one, but we surprised ourselves and got another one. We baptized Pawn, she really is the most incredible investigator. She keeps surprising us at how strong she is. I have no doubt in my mind that she will stay strong forever. She keeps seeing miracles in her life, especially since she started taking the lessons. She was interviewed on Tuesday but the district leader asked her to meet with a member of the mission presidency on Wednesday. It was so good. I think it really helped her feel that she had repented and that she was worthy to get baptized. I'm very grateful for her. She has also brought all of her family in to learn too. WAY GOOD!!! Right after Pawn was baptized we baptized Pietune. Remember, he is the guy who is paralyzed on his right side. That was an interesting experience. We had 2 people stand in the water. One held him and the other was the person who baptized him. It was a really cool experience to be able to do that!

Sorry that last week my letter was short. I'm always looking for more things to tell you guys, but some weeks are just more boring than other weeks. This week was kind of exciting though. The weather in Thailand has been a little messed up for some reason. This past week was the coldest week since I’ve been in Thailand, and it is the hot season. I think it has something to do with the natural disasters that happened. Anyway, it rained one night all night long, and when we woke up Samut Prakaan had been flooded – I’m not even lying. Every street had tons of water. It was absolutely amazing. I couldn't believe how flooded it was. I'm still a little surprised by it. Anyway, after that it was way cold for a couple of days but now it is back to hot all the time – Pretty cool though.

The next transfers is in a week from Thursday. I think I will probably be the one moving because I have been here for 3 transfers already, but nothing is for sure. We know that one of us has to move because nobody stays together for more than 2 transfers. I'm pretty excited to see what is going to happen.

These are the pictures of the baptism; the first is of Peitune and his wife. They are just cute, and now both are members. The second picture is of the family that got baptized on Saturday. The little girl is so cute, huh?! And the third is of Pawn, she is the one in white, and the rest of people are family members. The family members will be getting baptized in the next few weeks. I think I might not be here to see it. (tear)

Hey I wanted to ask you guys for some experiences, about keeping the commandments. Like specific instances in where you kept a commandment and saw it bless your lives (for instance; Sabbath Day, Tithing, Word of Wisdom, or anything).

The movies this week are Transformers, I think, and I was also thinking Jumper, but I'm not for sure on either of them. These were hard.

Anyway, I love you guys. Have a great week.

PS.
1. I was baptized by jimmersion.
2. I still haven't received the last package you sent.
3. I have made it a full year.

March 14th Letter

Dearest family,

So I have some pretty great news from this week. We had our family of three get interviewed for baptism yesterday, and they passed. It was pretty awesome! They have decided to get baptized on Saturday and then get confirmed on Sunday. I am not sure if you are aware of this, but they can't be baptized and confirmed on the same day, but they want to get confirmed in the same week, so they decided to get baptized on Saturday. This is so exciting. Pawn isn't getting interviewed until tomorrow, but she will pass with flying colors, so that is no biggie. She wants to get baptized on Sunday so we will have baptisms on both Saturday and Sunday. I'll let you know next week if everything went smoothly or not, but I'm pretty sure it will.

It was also cool that this week we found a new family that we started teaching. It is this lady (her name is Mee) that comes from a Muslim background, but she married into Buddhism so has just considered herself a Buddhist. I don't think I have ever met someone who looks as sad as she looks. I think it is because she has no hope in her life, but when we teach her she brightens up. I don't know what it is, but she listens so intently. She is kind of slow to understand, but she wants to know. Her husband is way good( his name is Pirate). He understands everything! He also believes it right after we teach it. They are a cute little family. They have two kids about our age who don't talk a whole lot, but they learn as a family and are so open. I love teaching them.

I think this next week is going to go by really fast. We have some trainings and what not, plus the baptisms, plus all our regular stuff that goes on. I just can't believe how much faster time has been going lately, even when it is a really dull week time just up and flies by.

The movies this week are kind of difficult. I know one is Taken; however, the other one is a little bit more difficult. I can't believe you stumped me. I really can't figure this one out. You will have to tell me what it is next week, although I think I am going to throw out a guess – maybe Vantage Point. I don't know...

Ok so this time I put up some pictures of our house. The first is of our living room, yes it is empty; second is of the kitchen; third is of our bedroom, my bed is on the left; fourth is of our study area, right now it is kind of a mess because we don't study at our house we study at our church, and the last is of the outside.

I love you guys. Have a great week.

March 7th Letter

So Family,

It sounds like from your letters that your week was about as short as mine. Seriously, this week I felt like we skipped a bunch of days. I just can't believe how fast time flies – every day!!! I wish I had some really sweet stories to tell from this week, but there just isn't a whole lot. We had a sweet week when it comes to missionary work. We had a bunch of new investigators start learning. It seemed like every day new people were letting us come into their house to teach them, that is WAY AWESOME. We even had this one lady who called us up, and was like “I want to learn about the gospel.” She said that she was having some problems with her teenagers and she thought that learning about Jesus would help her. I love that because she was a lady who in the past had come to learn English with the elders and then when she started to have concerns and what not in her life, the seed (of faith) was there. She knew she needed to turn to Christ for help. So awesome!!! It also helped that the spirit was also really strong when we taught her, and she felt so good. You could just tell that she was filling the confirmation of the Holy Ghost that the gospel is true, such a cool experience. I guess that is a testimony that if you are working your hardest you don't even need to leave your house to find people. God can pick up the rest.

Another cool lesson we had was with Pawn (the lady who had a vision). This week she invited her daughter and two grandchildren to start learning too! Oh my gosh, it is the best family in the whole wide world – I’m not even lying. Pawn’s daughter has been introduced to baptism by two different churches, and both times she refused. As soon as we taught her about baptism she said, "I know that God has helped me wait to get baptized here, where it is real!" How cool is that? I'm not sure if you guys know this, but that is not a normal response! Holy cow these people have just been so prepared. If you would have told me 6 months ago that I would be teaching people like this, I would have told you that you were crazy! It is an absolute miracle.

As for some of the cool mundane information, I forgot to take pictures last week so I will do it today. But I can tell you a little bit about our church. It is so weird. We are still in a rented building. We don't have a real church yet. This building is 5 stories tall, and two rooms wide. (it is really difficult to describe so I will take pictures of it too). The chapel is on the first floor, it is shaped like Utah, just upside down. And it has a support beam right in front of the speaker – so funny! The second hour of church, everybody except for gospel doctrine class goes up to the 4th floor (no elevator), it is quite a hike. The third hour of church, women are in the chapel and men are on the 3rd floor. The 2nd floor is a regular floor, but somebody added about 3 extra feel to the ceiling of the chapel so really the 2n'd floor is a 2/3s floor so nobody use it. Too funny huh!

The movies this week are Failure to Launch and Star Trek. I can't figure out which one was supposed to be hard. JK - Man I miss Star Trek so much. I can't believe it has been so long since I've seen it, but I'm hoping they will be coming out with another one by the time I get home. That Temple trip was awfully sweet too. It has been a while since I have thought about that. I can't wait to be able to go to the temple again. Thanks for sending another package. I will probably get it in three weeks at transfers meeting.

I love you guys. I am grateful for your support every week. Have a great week.