January 9th Letter

Sawasdi Crap!

Oh boy this was a pretty exciting week, I guess.... We found a lot of way new sweet investigators, plus we started to see some of our other investigators a little less. We are trying to spread it out so everyone gets taught equal amounts, but we found some way cool people. When one of our new investigators prayed for the first time they cried because they felt the Spirit so much and what not. This is a really experience that we have with our investigators because for the most part when a Thai person prays for the first time it is literally their first time. They have never heard of it or seen it or done it before so it is pretty sweet.

Other than that we didn't really do anything else this week, just teaching and what not – nothing uber exciting. This week we taught that lady about tithing again and we finally got her to except that she needs to pay tithing, so good. She now is going to be baptized on the 21st but that means she will be interviewing this week so I will let you know how that goes.

Wow, I can't believe Ashley has already gone to Taiwan, that is just crazy. I wonder if she will get done doing that and then serve a mission. พอดี (remember this one?) (Note from Mike - it means "Coincidentally") she will be 21. I sent her a letter, I wonder if she is going to write back.

It sounds like you guys are having a great time with Aunt Leslee and everybody. I can't believe that grandma is still going strong, she might even make it to April who knows.

Anywho, this letter is short because I have to go into the city today to go cut a suit for Elder Ackerman. So don't feel bad that it is short.

No, Moves will be after next Monday so it isn't going to happen before I talk to you next. I don't know anything, so don't even bother asking.

The movies this week are Casino Royale, and Oceans 13. Theme: Gambling. Elder Ackerman likes this game too.

I love you guys have an uber week.

P.S. I figured out what I want to do when I’m older. I want to be Famous.

January 2nd Letter

Ok family... Was up?

Man, everyone's letters were pretty simple. I guess talking on the phone took care of what everyone had too say - Thank heavens, I really wanted to have an easy emailing experience today.

This last week was really great. I can't remember everything that happened, but I did switch offs with Elder Lesueur. That was fun because we taught really effectively together. We gave a family of 4 dates to get baptized in February. I also interviewed a lady for baptism up in his area, she is way ready. She has a strong testimony too. I think she will be a pretty sweet member. The day of her interview she brought a referral to the church to learn also, how cool is that? Anyway, after switch offs Elder Ackerman and I just came back to our area and worked the rest of the week. Our area is pretty much back to normal. We taught the same amount of lessons this week as we were teaching before the flooding happened, and we had more people at church this week. So I think this area is just going to sky rocket; however, two of those people I was telling you about that had dates to get baptized coming up, Were dropped. Well one moved to a new area so she is learning with those Elders. The other one has a problem with tithing, she isn't ready to pay.

Well I got some news this week. My companion and I had to go to a Zone Leader Council and while we were there President Smith asked Elder Furr, Elder McDonald and me to be trainers next transfers. So I will be moving next transfers and I will be a trainer again. I'm going to get another ลูก! I hope he is as good as my first.

In the truck picture it goes as follows (left to right). TOP: Elder Ackerman and me BOTTOM: Elders. Senalai, Wantupthai, Kunz, Grover, Alstrome, KNEELING: Elder Clark

Well the movies this week are Valkarie (I think) and Eagle Eye. Yeah you are right. I have no Idea what the theme could be... sorry 

Anywho I love you guys. Have a good week.

December 19th Letter

Hey Family,

So this week was really good! I'm not exactly sure what to talk about, it all went pretty fast. We didn't seem to have anything really big or special happen, but it was still a fun and successful week. In the Zone we are going to be having a lot of baptisms next week, so in the last week we were doing a lot of those interviews - There are so many prepared people. Something else that was cool that happened was Elder Ackerman did a special training for all the missionaries in the Zone about the role of the Holy Ghost in conversion. I thought it went really well, but the cool thing happened after the training. President Smith had us all sing Christmas songs and then he and Sister Smith talked about their favorite Christmases as missionaries. This is their 5th Christmas in a row as missionaries, they served in Hong Kong before coming to Thailand. Anyway, their stories were really nice. It got us all excited for Christmas and put us in the Christmas spirit. I'm not sure if you remember talking about it last year, but it is really hard to get into the Christmas spirit due to the whole no snow thing and lack of people that celebrate it; however, I feel like this year is going to be a whole lot of fun. This year a few of the missionaries have a role in the district (stake) program. We are having some VIPs come to the Christmas program so they wanted to have a bigger choir so it would be really good. So, they asked for 8 missionaries to come and participate, Elder Ackerman and I are going to go sing in it along with a bunch of other people from our Zone. Elder Larson will be playing the organ - cool huh?

Yeah! how cool is that, Elder King is coming back. I actually found out last Wednesday, man I was so excited to hear it. He doesn't know it yet but he is probably going to be in my zone. So that will be way sweet I will be able to see him soon.

As for the whole skype thing; whenever you want to do it is fine I think that 9am here (7pm utah) would be best because Elder Ackerman needs to do it too (at the same time) so that way it wouldn't be so late for his family which is an hour ahead of you. I need to have you guys set me up an account on the skype thing then send me the USERNAME and PASSWORD. I think it should work just fine, all the little internet places here have the equipment and the elders that have been doing it say it works really well. Just in case you guys have the phone number.

Anyway I only have แค่นี้. I will talk to you guys next week.

Movies: US Marshals and Cast Away and I'm going to say the theme is plane crash - OH boy i'm sooooo good.

Love you guys. tell Grandma I love her. Who knows, maybe she will make it one more week.

December 12th Letter

Hello Family,

Oh boy... this week was a pretty good week. We had transfers, and I got a new companion. His name is Elder Ackerman. He is from Minnesota, I'm not sure what part though. It felt really weird to get a new companion because even though I've been in this area one transfers already, I was really only here for two and a half weeks. I feel like I really don't know the area that well and I haven't met half of the investigators that they were teaching before the floods came, but all in all it is ok - I know enough to get by. Plus I have a really good relationship with most of the members due to the fact that it is a small branch and I have been helping them clean their houses and what not for the last week or two. It has helped us really get to know the members, and it is already paying off. Last week people were introducing us to their friends and what not. We also met some less active members. This morning we went out and cleaned the outside of a home of a member that hasn't gone to church in over 10 years, and I got a return appointment to go see him next weekend. I really hope that this experience brings people closer to Christ. It is pretty much the same as with grandma. I hope that this brings some of the people in our family to understand the importance of Jesus Christ and turn closer to him (I think in the scriptures it uses the simple phrase "humble themselves"). I think the pride cycle is so interesting, we are warned about it so much in the Book of Mormon (keep commandments = prospering in the land / brake commandments = be cut out of gods presence). Even people who have read and understand the Book of Mormon find themselves in the latter half. I think that is so interesting.

Anyway other then serving people and transfers we really didn't do that much this week. We had a few good lessons with some investigators, I have an investigator who is really willing to do everything we ask. She does it all, but for some reason she still isn't being converted and I can't figure out why. I have seen the process now many times. When investigators keep commitments they gain a testimony (they progress), even though some are slower then others. This lady seems to be at a stand still and I can't figure out why. I guess I am just going to have to be patient with her and see what happens. I have had very few investigators who are as good as she is at understanding and applying the scriptures, but I think there is something else missing.

As for our Cambodian investigators. One is about to finish the Book of Mormon - probably today actually, which is impressive because just two weeks ago she was only in 2nd Nephi. The other family of Cambodians are all in Alma, which is pretty good for them too. They read it as a family every day and personally, but their kids read really really slow, and this family works so they have a lot less time. It all seems to be going really well, they should be able to be baptized next month some time.

I'm glad to hear that grandma is still kickin strong. She is such a trooper and always has been. I know that Maren will be really grateful if she is able to hang in there for Friday.

Please keep reassuring her of my love and prayers, she is always in them.

Christmas, I thought you guys were going to want to skype with me. If we skyped it would be most convenient on my Monday morning which would be your Christmas night, probably at about 7 or 8 (am) my time which would be 8 and 9 (pm) your time - I think!!! If that doesn't work we can still do it another time, the only problem with my Christmas Day is I will have church so it would probably not work until really late your time, and then here we have Christmas activities on the 23rd and the 24th, and I'm not sure when those will be. Let me know if Christmas night will work for you guys and if not we can talk about it next week.

I love you guys. Have a good week. Take good care of grandma na!

Movies: Independence Day and National Treasure, Book of Secrets. Theme: Secret underground government stuff. Maybe even just government secrets. Right?

December 5th Letter

This week, the letter was a little different. I was concerned about the news he would get in the email so I stayed up until he got on his email – the following is an email exchange that we had:

Chris:
Yo... dad never sent me a letter so let me know what’s up?

Mike:
You still there?

Chris:
Yeah... I got the letters about the winds but I didn't get a detailed letter about grandma, except for Maren’s.

Chris:
Is she still alive? Can she get my letter?

Mike:
Yes to both. I sent you an email, I will resend it now. I will never miss a letter, I love you too much to not write, I forgot to hit send. Luckily nobody touched my laptop and was still sitting there ready to send.

Chris:
Good

Chris:
It seems that Maren needs a lot of comforting. You know that she doesn’t handle these things very well.

Mike:
Mom and I are talking to her a lot and Maren was able to skype with grandma today.

Chris:
This is an email that I was typing before I got your email.

Hey,
What in the world was that about? I got a bunch of really short letters that had no detail about anything. They all just hinted at the fact that grandma was in trouble. Luckily Maren is really good at explaining her feelings. I'm really sorry to hear about grandma. I hope she isn't in too much pain or anything. I'm just really grateful that as a family we know who we are and that there is more then just this life. Just having the knowledge about the Plan of Salvation is such a great gift. I hope other then that news this week was a good one. It sounds like it is pretty interesting with the wind storms and what not. I hope nothing else falls down or gets knocked over. Those pictures are pretty crazy, there is just stuff happening all over the place lately.

I don't really have to much to report on this week. We just pretty much did what we have been doing the last little while – Serving, teaching a little bit, and then helping our branch president. It was a good week. I learned a good lesson about doing what your mission president says. As soon as we saw Brother Tan (Cambodian father), we told him he couldn't get baptized on his day. He got really sad but then told us that he was willing to do what ever it took to get baptized. And now we are seeing a lot of progression. In just 3 days he read from Jacob to Alma-ish. (We told him he needed to finish the Book of Mormon before he gets baptized. Anyway, it was a real blessing to tell him he needs to wait. Now he is working really hard and doing everything he can to prepare. Obedience always pays off.

Other than that I don't really have to much to say, this next week is transfers. We aren't sure yet what is happening, but it is likely that one of us will move so I will let you know how that turns out.

I love you guys. Have a good week. Please express my love to grandma and grandpa.

Mike:
It is 2am- good night. Now that I know you got the letter and know what is going on, I will be able to sleep. Grandma had a great day today. She was singing songs with us that we used to sing on trips. Terry and Joan and some kids, Kevin and Becky, Lee, Mom and I and Judd and Jessie were all there visiting with her. She said it was a lot of fun.

Good thing I waited for your letter this week. Have a great week, I love you.

Chris:
OK, you have a great week too. I love you, take good care of her.

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.

November 21st Pictures

Great opportunity for service, but the pictures break my heart.