November 28th Letter

Hello family.

This week has been way fun being back in my own area. It was actually a very successful week with missionary work. We only taught about 7 lessons but that is what we expected. We were able to get a lot of investigators to come to church and a lot of members came back as well. I guess everyone did a good job of spreading the word about church being open again, and we were able to give 4 people baptismal dates. 3 of the 4 are a family, they are Cambodian. We gave them a date just yesterday. They have been waiting over 4 months to get baptized, and they have come to church every single week for 4 months straight (that is better then most members). There is kind of a prejudice against Cambodians in Thailand because in the past a lot of them joined the church looking for financial support. Sometimes that is why they come into the church. Anyway, in order to baptize a Cambodian in Thailand you have to wait a few months and then get special permission from President Smith after you check all there visa work. Well, we did that and we got special permission from President Smith to give these guys dates and everything. So last night we did, and they were so happy, but then this morning we got a call from the APs telling us that President Smith isn't going to let any Cambodians get baptized for another 2 months, just to make sure they aren't wanting financial support. I see why we need to do that, but for some reason I still don't fell good about it. I don't know how to tell this family that they have to wait longer. They were so so so excited to finally get a baptismal date. It is like giving somebody a really great present and then taking it away from them. I know that if they use there faith they will endure and just wait to get baptized, and I believe they will. I fear that they or other Cambodians (right now there are about 4 families in the mission) will look at this and it will cause them to lose faith in the church or the leadership of the church. In all honesty they are just like babies in the gospel so they can't be expected to have the strongest most perfect faith. I feel like we are trying to make it harder for them to become members, just because they are from a different country. We haven't decided how we are going to tell them yet, but I’m sure we will think of some way good.

Other then that this week has been all service, and it is turning out to be really hard. Nobody wants our help. All the members and investigators say they are not ready for our help, they say probably in 2 weeks. So, right now we are kind of left hanging. We are trying to just walk around and help people, but we have a rule that we can't even step into water without permission from President Smith himself each time we want to do it (it can be dangerous). It is really hard to walk around and help people when you can't even walk to there house without calling President Smith. We are trying to find stuff to do on dry ground but the only areas that are dry are the Big streets (highways and what not) and there really isn't anybody to serve along there; however, we will keep trying. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks some of the neighborhoods will start drying and we will be able to get in and help people clean their houses.

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun this year all those people are just members of the international ward here in Thailand. I don't really know anybody well, just from being introduced as we ate food with them. None of them are in my area so I don't ever talk to them or work with them, but it was a very delicious traditional meal. Although, nothing compares with our own parents cooking.

As for this week I think this is all I have except I was talking with Elder Furr last week and he was wondering if I was planning on going to BYU after I get home because he wants to room with me. So I was wondering if you guys could look into that for me. I'm not sure if I could get in or not, but I would like to if it were possible. I'm not to sure what is necessary to get in an application.

I love you guys have a great week.

Movies. Johnny English and Austin powers the theme is British Secret Agent.