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.

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.