Mom and Dad +family

This week has been pretty good, really fast though. Not too much has happened. We have just been doing the work that is missionary work. I have a feeling that the next few weeks are going to be a little longer. We have seen a lot of our progressing investigators stop progressing and pretty much quit, way sad!!! Three of the people here that had answers to their prayers and accepted baptismal dates have just stopped learning. They seem like they have no will to go any further, it is too bad. But that is ok because no we have a lot more time for finding new investigators (families) to baptize.

Right now we have one lady that has a baptismal date. She is such a nice lady. She is 43 years old, she is quiet and I feel like she is just lonely, but she is so ready to be baptized. In all honesty I wanted to get her baptized yesterday because she is ready, but we are going to let her wait a week or two to firm up her testimony. I feel like she will be the next one baptized in this area. I really like this area, I haven't really learned how to do street contacting here yet though. In Samut Prakaan it is very different, everyone lives in houses and you just invite in neighborhoods all day. Frankly, it is very easy. That is probably why that area is doing so well. Here in Thonburi you have to invite really fast and it is usually to people who are working or what not. I still feel like I have a long way to grow. Other than that the area is very cool. The city is very busy and huge, sometimes I still get turned around. It all looks the same to me, but then again I've only been here for 3 weeks. I'm sure after 5 months it will all be familiar. A lot of people here are well off when it comes to money, so that also changes how we need to invite. Missionary work is so much fun. It is so simple yet sometimes so difficult. If you just listen to the Spirit on everything, if you are guided by the spirit 100 percent of the time, everything goes so smoothly. Unfortunately, I let the natural man get in the way. I love how easy it is to recognize when you are doing what the Spirit is telling you to do. You can totally tell a difference from when you are not.

My companion in those pictures is the tall one with the green shirt. I don't know that much about him to be honest. He is just a really nice guy, and very easy to get along with. Neither of us have talked about our background very much. I know he ran track in high school, and I know that he did wrestling too, but that is pretty much all I know about him. We get along just fine, we seem to just talk about what is going on around us. The one picture that is just two of us is Elder Shipley (yellow shirt). He was in the group under me in the MTC. But yeah those shirts are what most people wear around Songkran. I know it looks like only the white missionaries wear them but really the Thai's do too, and it is very convenient, you just buy them on the side of the road for like 150 baht, 5 bucks. And no, my garments will never be white again. Neither will the shirts that I wore for those two days either. But that is ok, I don't need anything special and will wear off white shirts – whatever.

This week I got Judd’s package and TJ’s package. Tell Judd and Jessie thanks for me, would you? TJ sent me a shirt from off the military base he was serving. He said it looked manly and he thought I would like it. It was really nice of him.

Alright movies. I want to say:

How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days
U.S. Marshals
And the one with Morgan Freeman I have no idea. Are you sure I've seen it.

This is the number you guys will call me on. They want you to call on your Mother’s Day because that will be my p-day. I don't know what time you will want to call. I'm not sure if everyone will come over this time or not. Maren and Andy may need to be at Farr’s for TJ's phone call so just let me know next week what time you think would be convenient to call. We wake up at six in the morning so anytime after that will be good. Just let me know next week.

This week I don't have any time to write my siblings, so sorry. Tell everyone happy Easter for me, and tell Andy that I said congratulations and I'm proud of him.

And mom, this week I got all of your letters, sent from the i-pad and the computer, so whatever you did, it worked.

I love you guys. Have a good week.

View from our apartment

Happy New Year

Hey family, what’s crackin?

It sounds like this last week has been pretty intense. I can't believe that the house flooded. How terrible is that? And, the snow hasn't even started melting yet. I hope it doesn't happen all over again. Maybe you should prepare beforehand this time. I'm really glad you decided to make the right choice by the way. That would have been terrible having to live with a lie forever. How crazy is that about TJ?!? What a sweet adventure, man talk about intense. I'll bet he is loving being MR save everybody. That is a sweet experience that he will get to remember. I haven't gotten any packages, but that doesn't mean it isn't in Thailand, I'm sure it is here, I just have to go and get it. I will try and find out soon.

Ok, as for my sweet holiday. IT WAS CRAZY!!! I swear I have never been so wet for so long in my life. I have also never been touched so much. The main point of the water fight is to get people wet, but they also have this stuff called Bang. It is like gold bond but thick and mixed with water (kind of like putty). Anyway, everyone wants to cover you in it so they are always touching you to put it on. I swear I was probably touched by 2 thousand people last week, it was outrageous. It was 3 days straight of being soaked to the bone. SO MUCH WATER! I can't even explain it. But it was also dirty. They were using water from right out of the swamps so the clothes I was wearing for those three days got pretty dirty. You should see the garments. They have completely changed colors. Way crazy, but way cool. For the three days that everyone was playing Songran hard they changed our schedule to go inside early. We were supposed to be in by 6 o’clock (due to drunken people). Because we had to be in early my companion and I made balls of this bang stuff and threw it out of our window at people that were playing on the street below us, it was way funny. They had no idea were they were being hit from.

My new area is sweet. It isn't as big as my last area but there are a lot of people here because it is in Bangkok. Our area is pretty much just one very long street, probably 5+ miles long. There are just so many people because everyone lives in apartments. Our church building is actually the very first in Thailand. This is pretty much where the church started in Thailand. It is a lot cleaner environment here (physically and morally).

The guy you talked to on face book never gave me a hug, but he did talk to me about talking to you so I called it good. He actually served a mission in Salt Lake – did you know that?

The movies this week are House Bunny and He’s Just Not that Into You. I think you are getting soft on me. They seem to be getting easier and easier.

Mom you didn't send a letter this week. I was just curious to know if you opened the package or not.

These pictures are just of us playing water. The white stuff on our faces is Bang. I tried to get pictures that showed the amount of people playing also. The two of the city were taken from our room. We are on the 13th floor of our building. It was so cool throwing those things out the windows. We also have a pretty sweet view of all Bangkok. I hope you enjoy.

I love you guys thanks for your letters. Have a great week.

p.s. I totally thought of something I could use. DayQuil and NyQuil My companion and I were so sick last week I really wished I had some, and you cannot buy that here. So if you could send some that would be sweet. I'll be prepared for next time.

April 11th Letter

Mom and Dad,

So, what do I have to say for this week? I feel like this week has gone by faster than the other weeks because I feel like I still don't know anyone in this area. We still have investigators that I haven't met with, I fear that they won't be considered investigators much longer. This last week was way sweet with general conference and all. Man I was so excited to watch it. I thought there were so many good talks given. A lot that the members here needed to hear, but unfortunately most of them didn't hear them. It is the week before songran so most of the members just took it as a week off, SO SAD! I'm getting so excited for this thing. Everybody has been talking it up so much. I am jazzed to go get wet. We are going to go play with some other Elders in Bang Khae (the area right next to ours). There is a really popular road in our area that most people like to play on it is called Kaw Saan, but we have heard it is pretty inappropriate so we figured elders probably shouldn't be there.

I am sorry this week I didn't bring a camera to send pictures because today isn't a p-day, we are just taking an hour to email because everywhere will be shut on Wednesday. Also some bad news, I didn't send any pictures home in the box. So you won't be able to look forward to that so much, but I will make sure to send some home soon. That box was so cheap to send. I totally found some loop holes so it saved me about 70%. How awesome is that? I guess you can open it whenever you want but I didn't write any explanation of the stuff that was inside so you will have to wait until when I call for Mother’s Day to know about it. Or I guess I could always tell you in next week’s email. It's up to you if you want to open it or wait.

Your new toys sound pretty fun. I can't believe mom is going to use one. Talk about learning some new tricks. I guess that is a myth. Now you just have to figure out some way of using those to share your testimony, then President Uchtdorf will be uber impressed. Guess what the members made this week? So imagine this – A beautiful thick and chewy brownie, Mixed with caramel and all kinds of goodness. Then add cheesecake on the top of it. Yeah, I'm not lying. The bishop’s wife here is a baker so she just makes all kinds of desserts all the time. And then she brings them for the elders to eat. T hey just keep bringing me lots and lots of great things. Last week, I got a whole sheet of lemon bars. Yeah, It is amazing. And my companion doesn't have much of a sweet tooth. So I get to take the fill for both of us. Man I am so lucky.

I have a funny story about an investigator we taught yesterday. It is a lady she is about 40 years old her name is Nong, anyway she had convinced herself that the Book of Mormon was able to tell her, her future. So like as she was reading it she likened it to her life. But how she did it was to take on a character. She decided that she was Abinadi, and she read in the part where he was killed. So she took that to mean that she is going to die. Oh my goodness!!! That was a hard one too explain to her. We finally helped her understand that it wasn't a fortune telling book, that it was a book about Christ. It was CRAZY!

The movies this week are A Walk to Remember and The Princess Bride. Were you going easy on me this week?

Anyway I don't have a lot more time. But thanks for writing me. I am sure that next week I will have some awesome pictures to send. I love you guys. Have a good week.

March 4th Letter

Dearest mom and dad,

How was conference? I haven't had an opportunity to watch it because it is a week behind here, due to translating. Because of this I will start watching it next Saturday at 10am, I really can't wait. I love listening to the prophets so much. I am especially happy this time because I will be able to understand what they are saying. Last time was not quite up to par; however, this time it will be so nice.

I guess you are probably wondering where I am. I moved to a place called Thonburi. I love it here so much. It is in Bangkok, but kind of on the west side. It is a ward, and it has a real church, my first of both. I think the members here really like me. I'm the oldest elder that has served here in the last 6 months, so they were pretty shocked that I could speak Thai. I seemed to impress everyone; however, the bar was set so low for me. This is a great blessing. This ward is really struggling though. They only had 33 people at church yesterday. That is less then Nong Khai. Apparently Thonburi has been split twice, and after the last one a bunch of people fell away and it just really hurt this ward; however, the members who do go to church are so strong and so great. There are about 5 families that are holding this place together. I really am excited to serve here. I feel like maybe I can help this place.

My new companions name is Elder King. He was Elder Merrill’s favorite person in his MTC district. We get along great. I really do love this kid so much. He will probably end up being my favorite that I'll have. He is such a Christ like person, and funny too. He just makes me laugh all day long. He is optimistic all the time which really helps everything go by easier. He is from Mesa, Arizona. As I look back I have been blessed with some really great companions. Even Elder Nelsen was good for me I. I guess sometimes we just need to be away from someone to see the blessing they have been on your life.

Just to help clear up for mom, I had a cute family of two in Nong Khai and those are the only two that were baptized, Yoo (husband) and Jid (wife). Then my second week in Samut Prakaan I baptized a family of three, Su (wife) and Wang (husband) and Baylay (17 year old son). Then just 3 weeks ago I baptized that other family of three, Rin (wife) and Neroot (husband) and Spy (little girl). Then you guys should know the next four. As for last names they do have them, but They are uber difficult. I'm not actually giving you their real names. They have first and last names but they are hard and long so every Thai person has a nickname given by the parents also. This makes it so much easier.

I will think about doing that thing with my testimony; however, typing it on the computer would probably take the whole hour because typing in Thai is not the same as English. It might take a very long time. But i will think about what I can do.

The movies this week are Weekend at Bernie’s and I think you have stumped me again. I recognize it but I cannot remember the movie. SO Sad!!! Anyway.

I love you guys and hope you have a great week.