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.

February 28th Letter

Ok family,

This week was uber sweet. So on Tuesday morning we had a surprise. Our zone leaders showed up unannounced. They decided to do some special training and what not. Apparently President Smith has decided to start up this knew thing that leaders are to surprise visit people and then either switch off or train them how to be better. We were his guinea pigs or something like that. Anyway, we stayed inside and learned from them all day. It was way useful. At first I felt like it was a waste of time, but then after that day everything just started to be really great, not that it wasn't pretty good before; however, since then it has just gotten better. It was nice to learn from some of the guys who are about to go home about what they wish they would have done their entire mission. This week we have seen a lot of progression in our investigators and in our area. It’s going pretty great.

Yesterday we took 4 of our investigators to see a baptism in Bang Na. It was so awesome. It got all of them really pumped to be baptized. One of them, after we walked out of the church, was like, "That was so spiritual, when I get baptized I know I am going to cry!" I took it to be a good thing. But she is way jazzed about being baptized. We also took that family of 3 to see it. Turns out they have been waiting a long time to see one and want to be baptized way bad. They are so cool. Anyway that is some of the cool things that happened this week.

Something else is cool starting tomorrow – we start studying in the afternoon. This is now “Hot Season,” and I mean HOT!!! During the middle of the day it is really hard to work hard. Also, Thai people don't really like to be out during those hours anyway, it just gets so hot. So now we will study during those hours. This will make it so we will be out during the cool parts of the days. AKA the "still hot, but not as hot!" part of the day.

I was just thinking, if you haven't sent that package yet, there are some things I would like, 1) fireballs and 2) deodorant. I think fireballs would be funny to give to people because they find them very spicy! They are not accustomed to cinnamon spice.

The movie this week is pretty difficult. I want to say The Guardian, but I am also thinking Annapolis. I can't decide. I think I am leaning towards The Guardian – let me know.

Mom, you asked for some mundane knowledge of my life in Samut Prakaan. Our house is terrible; we have mice, other rodents, and tons of cockroaches. We live far from the church and far from and inviting places. Nobody knows the name of our street so we always have to describe how to get there for the taxi drivers. But I figure it is the perfect house for two young missionaries! I'm not sure if I have told you or not, but we don't ride bikes very often. That is a nice thing about Samut Prakaan, but I kind of miss riding around.

Anyway, I love you guys. I am grateful for your love and support. You have been good examples to me.

February 21st Letter

Mom and Dad,

This week has been pretty good. I'm not exactly sure what to say about it. It just seems like it went by way to fast to mention. It has been fun with the teaching and what not, we have some really sweet investigators. We should have a bunch of people getting baptized on the 20th of next month. I'm not sure the exact number but it should be at least 5. I'm pretty excited because these will be the first people that I found and then led all the way to baptism, SO cool – right? I've heard there is nothing more rewarding than that. But just helping anyone get baptized is enough at least that is what the scriptures say. We are teaching this one lady, her name is pawn. She said she wanted to get baptized, but she had to find her birth certificate to know what her real name is. Anyway, she said that when she prayed she asked God to help her find it. That night she had a vision of where it was. In the morning she went and it was right there. She is one of the 5 people that is going to be baptized. She said that it was God telling her that she needed to be baptized in our church.

I ate the cheesecake, it was interesting. Not as good as the real thing, but I had no problem eating it; however, I don't think that is saying a lot. As for Makaboocha's day, I have no idea what that is. Maybe if you could spell it in Thai I might know. It is really hard to pronounce Thai words with English spelling. But I don't think I will know what it is.

The movie this week is Chuck and Larry, this one was a little harder.

I think someone forgot to tell me that Rachel Kime is serving a mission. That is really cool but I had no idea. I'm glad Lee and everyone else are doing all good. It is almost time for Ryan to be headed home, right? When did he go into the MTC? Elder Merrill and I just found out last week that we will be together for another six weeks, which is pretty cool. I think after that, I will be leaving Samut Prakaan - maybe. I sure like it here but I don't really want to be one of those missionaries who only has 4 areas because he did six months in each one.

You want to hear a joke. What did the "0" say to the "8"? Hey! Nice belt.

So that is pretty much all I have for today. I love you guys. Have a great week. I think I will end like you guys. I know that our Savior loves me and you too. He watches over all of us. I know that He knows each of us personally, and that if we trust in him and obey him completely, we will have happiness that is true and eternal.

P.S. I love Jimmer!
And for mom – For the most part Thai people like Edward (Twilight t is a huge fad over here)m they love his white skin.

February 14th Letter

Hi,

So, it is good to hear from ya'll. It is so cool that Maren is having a boy; I'm going to have another nephew how nifty is that. These little tikes are going to like me one day. When they go through that, I can't stand my parents stage, they are going to hang out with Uncle Chris. That is some really cool news though. I've been looking forward to finding out what it is for the last week.

I have a pretty cool story to tell you. I always wanted something way cool to happen on my mission so that I could tell other people about it and they would be shocked. So this is the closest I’ve come. This last week I was on switch offs with one of the elders in my district, he is native Thai. We had had a pretty good day and we were nearing the end of it. We had just gone to their house to grab my bag of stuff and then we were going to come back to Samut Prakaan and switch back. Anyway, as we were walking out of our neighborhood onto the big street to catch a taxi we heard a gunshot. All the cars on the other side of the road had stopped, and there was a huge traffic jam, then we hear like 4 more gun shots and then this guy runs up and starts pounding on this car in the front and yelling at him to drive. We started asking everyone what was happening, and it turns out that it was a shoot out between 2 undercover policemen and a criminal of some sort, we are not sure why. In the end nobody was shot, they tackled the criminal and put him in hand cuffs and then shoved him into a taxi and drove away. It was way exciting! It was one of the undercover police officers that was pounding on that guy's car to move because they needed a taxi to take this guy to prison, and no cars could get through. It was super intense but so cool!

Something else sad happened this week. A couple of our investigators, Sam and Jackie, are living together outside of wedlock. We decided that we had to teach them the law of chastity. Anyway, it was a really great lesson the spirit was really there. We started off by telling them that everyone makes mistakes, and when we make mistakes we have to repent and live clean lives in order to receive baptism. Then we told them that living like they are living is a sin. That was when the sweet timid girlfriend was like, "So pretty much you are telling us to repent." We told them that yes and they said, "ok, we will have to talk about this alone." Sam has a wife in America and he can’t divorce her because he is here in Thailand. Anyway, we weren't exactly sure what was going to happen with them but we weren't seeing any progression so we had to tell them. That was Saturday night, and we checked to make sure they were still going to go to church on Sunday. Then Sunday rolled around and they didn't ever show. We think they don't want to learn anymore. Way sad, they loved learning so much. Jackie really wanted to be baptized, it is such a shame!

Anyway, those are all my stories. I hope you have had a good week. I didn't get your talk mom. So send it next week ok? The movie was ringer. Although I don't think I've ever seen that part of it.

I love you guys have a great week.

P.S. HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!! Do something fun together.