July 25th Letter

Hello family,

Happy Pioneer Day!!! I didn't even remember that today was a holiday until I read your emails. It is kind of funny that in the ward at home they only talked about the pioneers and in the ward here they didn't even mention it. But we did have a couple of good talks. One was about a convert in China who was beaten by his family after he was baptized because he changed religions, but stayed really strong in the church after because he knew it was all true. The other speaker just read a chapter out of the gospel principles book and then said "in the name of Jesus Christ, amen." That last talk was a bit boring, but very informative. I had a pretty sweet experience yesterday, once a month the Zone Leaders in Bangkok get to go and meet with the stake president and talk to him about the concerns that the missionaries see in the wards and branches. It is kind of a big deal because Thailand only has one stake so he is pretty much the leader of the church in Bangkok, and he is such a nice guy. He has a deep leadership voice (which is rare for Thai people) and he is just beaming with love. It was kind of a fun time.

This last week we did a zone training. It was the first big zone gathering that I have had here, it was a lot of fun, but it isn't the same thing as a Zone Conference. We only have Zone Conferences 4 times a year, and all the other months we have these zone trainings which are almost the same thing; however, they are shorter and we focus on one principle of the "teaching curriculum" (the church puts these out). This month was about revelation through church attendance. It was really a great meeting, Elder Larson and I taught about the importance of helping our investigators get to church so they can receive this revelation. If you ever want a good read, you should open up Preach My Gospel and read in the Commandments Section on Sabbath Day Worship. It has some really great promises about keeping the Sabbath Day holy.

This next week seems pretty simple. We don't have to do anything big, we may do a couple of switch offs if we have some time. This next week is the last week of the transfers so nothing big is going on, but I don't think anything is changing here. I think Elder Larson and I will be together for another month; however, your next week sounds pretty exciting. Can you believe that it is already time for Maren and Andy to leave? That is funny how Aunt Leslee gets to come back to Utah to sit in a car and go to Las Vegas. What are you guys going to do down there, anything special? I kind of miss going down and hiking in red rock, that is something I will want to do when I get back.

As for something new that I ate this week, I had pumpkin yogurt – Oh man it was so good. I can't even explain to you. It sounded weird at first because it isn't a fruit, but it turns out to be really sweet and good. The relief society did a cooking activity on Saturday and we ate the results of that on Sunday. So we had some pretty interesting food.

Well, the movies this week are 1)Princess Diaries 2)Gone in Sixty Seconds 3)I Am Legend. I can't think of how these are related at all. The only thing I can think of would be the Ford Mustang – is that it?

Anyways, I love you guys, Have a great week. Be safe driving down to Las Vegas.

Howdy family,

I totally forgot to tell Judd happy birthday last week so this week will have to do. Let him know I said happy birthday. I actually forgot until last night when I was laying in my bed thinking about the date and then I remembered that the 17th is an important day, but at least I remembered. How cool is it that those fireworks are now legal, what brought on the change? I was thinking about what I need, but I can't think of anything. I was thinking about maybe a watch because the watch I brought with me has decided to stop working and the really cheap one I bought here isn't waterproof so I can't wear it when it rains, which is everyday! So if you are constrained to get me one of those I wouldn't complain. Yes I still have the sunglasses, I don't find a ton of time to wear them; however, on sports days I am able to wear them.

I'm glad you got my memory card. That is all the pictures from the last half of my mission so I would have been sad to lose them. Other than those I don't have any pictures. I have been really bad at taking pictures for the last little while, so I don't really have any to send home. I will try to start taking some more pictures. I really do want to, but it just seems to difficult.

Yes of course Elder Larson is a BYU fan, He did a year of school there before his mission. Man you guys should hear this guy. He is so smart in the gospel. It is like he has every talk from the prophets memorized. I've never learned so much about our church in this short of time. He is like an encyclopedia of church information, I love it. I'm not sure what that has to do with BYU but it is something really cool about him.

I'm trying to find time to write in my journal but as of late, the night time has been pretty busy. We usually don't get home until the very last second and then between planning and talking to people on the phone, the night is gone. I've set goals and made plans to be better, so I'll let you know how that goes. I think it is something weird that just our mission does but every night we collect results for that day, like how many lessons were taught, how many new investigators were found, and what not. I think it is ridiculous and a waste of time, but I guess the missionaries in this mission are just a little lazy and because they report everyday they feel like they have to work harder.

This week was a pretty good week. We are seeing a lot of progression with the missionaries in our Zone. In the previous weeks and transfers there have been a couple of companionships/areas that have not been getting balanced results (another piece of apostasism (note from Mike: I am not sure what he is going for here, so I am just leaving it.) from our mission but it will take too long to explain so you will just have to believe me) but these areas/companionships got balanced results this last week, and that is really good, that is what we are hoping for. We have been working really hard with the Distirct Leaders to get them moving and it is working.

That is really cool that Ryan is looking for a job at Deseret First. Has he adapted back to home life? I'm sure he has grown so much over his mission. Hey when is he getting married?

About the candy. It is all gone because the Elders and Sisters that are in my district here love candy so it all went very very fast, like 2 days and it was gone! I think it was really good for the two Thai Elders, it turns out that they love American candy.

As for the Elders in the boats, the rule in the white handbook says no private boats, but if it is a transportation boat then yes you can take it - I think, but that is what they were doing. Here we call those boats khlong monsters because the water that you ride in is uber disgusting. so so gross. That girl that was in your mission dad, is a handi for sure! Who does that really? (He is referring to a sister missionary on my mission that wore a sun dress on the beach.)

I think that is all. I love you guys, thank you so much for your letters, as for Jessie and her emails I haven't gotten any. This week I am a little stretched on time so I probably wont have time to send one but next week for sure I will send one. Tell Maren and Jessie I love them both and sorry that I have no time, and that I think Grey and Riley are cute as a button.

Also the movies this week are James Bond (Goldeneye?) and Fools Gold but I can't think of the theme. How come the guy that plays 009 (in the picture) always plays the bad guy?

p.s. - The word zed is dumb, all the Thai people call it zed because most of the English teachers teach it that way (they are from Europe, but usually not native speakers). Anyway, I've never heard a Thai person call it zee it is always zed. I always correct them and say they are wrong - 555555 (yes I always recognize the funny things you do but sometimes I forget to comment).

Well พ่อเเม่ (Father and Mother)

I just can't believe another week has flown by. This week was a lot of fun, I felt very busy, but I probably wasn't. This week everything didn't go exactly as planned, we were only able to get to two of the switchoffs we had planned because we had to interview somebody for baptism with very little notice, so we didn't do switchoffs that day. This interview for baptism because the person that was being interviewed was somebody that I found down in Samut Prakaan - Yeah way cool!!! Elder Larson interviewed her and said it was really well, so that is really exciting. Also church this last week we had about 80 people there. That branch is progressing so well. Other than that nothing else exciting happened this week, but even though we were out of our own area for almost 3 days this last week, we had really great results here too – so that is good.

As for your questions: No nothing was really wrong before, it just wasn't great either, and I feared it would get a lot worse, but everything is spectacular now. Hey I had a question, did you ever get my memory card in the mail, because I sent that like 3+ weeks ago? I did get your guys package this last week, and all the candy is gone. It took a long time to get here because the Thai customs had to open it up and look in it to make sure it didn't have any thing bad in it. I guess they didn't like your explanation of the contents: "candy- $20.00". I thought it was funny.

That movie (17 Miracles) sounds way good. How about that, all those missionaries get to go see a movie. This mission has a strict no movies rule! Outside of "The Testaments" and "The Restoration" we can't see anything. Those missionaries are so lucky, and you know what, they probably don't even know it. Man it is so hard to notice blessings until you don't have them any more. I liked both of your little stories. I'm not sure whether I will have an opportunity to use these or not, but I sure do like getting them at least for me.

Other than that there really isn't much else that happened. except for yesterday in Sacrament Meeting I translated a talk for a guy that is in the high counsel but he is white so he doesn't speak Thai (he is a senior couple missionary). When he comes to speak we have to translate for him. Anyway It was wicked difficult. This man is a retired buisness man, so he was using a pretty intense vocabulary. It is hard to translate English words into Thai when you don't know what they mean in english. But I got through it pretty well and all the members said that they understood.

I really have no other stories. This weeks movies are Dukes of Hazard and Starsky and Hutch, and the theme is the red muscle car, i think it is charger. ใช่ไหม (Is that right?)

Well guys I don't think I have any questions for you. But I sure do love you guys and i'm grateful for your letters everyweek. Have a great week and I love you.

Hello mom and dad,
 
This week was way good. I had a switch off with our new AP and it was absolutely terrible; however, it helped me see how much of a blessing it is that I am companions with Elder Larson (first name Spencer), sometimes it is hard to see the good. My eyes have been opened and I think he is such a great guy. Ever since that switch off we have gotten along so well. As for the AP I am less than impressed, but who am I to judge. This next week looks like it is going to go by so uber fast. I have a specialized training meeting tomorrow at 9:00 and then we teach English tommorow night, then Wednesday I have a Zone Leader Counsel, and then do switchoffs with the district leader who is in Samut Prakaan. (yeah I get to go back and visit, it should be fun. I get to teach one of my old investigators too). Then Thursday another switch off and Friday another switch off, Saturday we'll have to do the long planning session and then it is sunday again - man how time flies. But this week was also good in my area, we found some really good new investigators and I went through and called all the former investigators and we are starting to pick up the success. The last Elder that was here wasn't the hardest worker so the work slowed down quite a bit.
 
As for elections I don't really know anything. It seems to not be a big deal. Maybe it is just because I have been busy but it appears nothing is really happening here. I guess everybody just cooled down and decided to do things the correct way through voting, which was apparent through church attendance. The vote happened to take place from 8:00am - 3:00pm, and just like in America you have to vote in a certain place (depending on where your house is). Most people had to go to a different part of Thailand to vote so most people weren't able to attend church, both investigators and members.
 
Its way cool that you guys are getting the house really close to being finished. All the pictures look really good, it sounds like a lot of hard work - more blessing that I recieve for coming out on a mission.  BTW Happy 4th of July, you should let me know what you guys end up doing. I miss the good old holidays, the holidays in Thailand don't really mean anything to me, I guess that is because I wasn't raised her so I have no memories of them but the American ones I do. Did the group do anything like they usually do? Hey you should do me a favor and tell Ashley happy birthday for me, her letter isn't going to make it there on time,. I am such a terrible writer.
 
The movies this week are the Dark Knight and The Hulk. Maybe the theme is they were both comics, I don't know? A good one would have been Iron man and The Hulk though, because they are in a comic together. Iron man makes a suit called The Hulk Buster.
 
Hey mom and day, I love you. Have a good week. Tell Grandma and Grandpa thanks for all their letters, I appretiate everyone of them.

June 27th Letter

Mom and Dad,

So this week was really good. How did yo guys already know that I am in Sinakarin? I really like it here. The ward is so great. On Sunday we had 86 people at church, that is a huge change, and in this area there are three companionships in the one ward - so great. This is the first time I have been in an area with more then one companionship. So this is kind of fun. My companions name is Elder Larson. He was in the MTC with me but in the group before, it is so fun. He is a really good missionary, a real Christ-like individual. It is really cool to be companions with him. He is from Utah - Springville.

I went and looked for the package at the moves meeting, but it wasn't there. I'm sure if it is taking a while to get here or what, but maybe I can get it next week or something. Every month we have to go and do a Zone Leader Counsel with President Smith; hopefully, I will be able to pick it up. As for people in my Zone that were with me in the MTC, I have sister Harris, and Elder Seymore. Yes Sister Harris was just in my District, we both moved here. We shoud have to do splits at least once a week. In our Zone we have 10 companionships so that makes 20 missionaries, but a lot of them are sisters. Half of the sisters in our Mission are in this one Zone, so there are quite a few.

As for next week I am pretty sure we are still having church, there will probably just be less people there, I don't know. I reallly like those things you have been sending me. I haven't had an opportuninty to use it yet but I assume I will so don't be shy, send as many as you can.

I think that answers all the questions, except for the one about all the 5's. That is because in Thai the word for five is HA. Funny right? Now you can use it and everyone else will be งง!!!

Other than that, missionary work this week has been pretty slow. My last area was doing much much better then this one, which was kind of a shock because this was a Zone Leader area, but that is ok. I will just have to work a little bit harder. I don't see any reason why this area shouldn't be having at least 15+ lessons a week, but who am I to judge. I think this week will be much better. How did things run in your Zone in England dad? What did you guys spend your time doing? How many swithch offs would you do a transfers? did you have to do a lot of Zone work or did you spend most of the time working in your own area?

I'm happy to hear that work is going well for both of you and that the house is getting closer and closer. I can only imagine how you both feel, but then again my last two apartments have been smaller then our living room so you still have it kind of good. I am running out of time so I probably wont have time to email anyone else. Tell everybody that I love um and thank them for the letters, I really love getting them.

The little guy is really cute, I'm glad that he is happy and healthy.

I love you guys. have a good week.

PS Movies: How to Lose A Guy In Ten Days or Less, and He's Just Not That Into You.

The theme: I don't know it could be a million things. I want to say it has something to do with man gets heart broken from evil woman, but I don't know. Am I even close?