Monday, January 26, 2015

1-25-15 Weekly Email 6 Picture 4

1-25-15 Weekly Email 6 Picture 3

1-25-15 Weekly Email 6 Picture 2



Trip to the hospital. We took a whole group picture, but for some reason I never got it yet.

1-25-15 Weekly Email 6

Dear Mom,

Thank you so much for all of your thoughts! I love hearing what you have to say and it really does amaze me how much strength your words give me!

Sometimes when I do my hair, the members compliment me. I can't tell if they're just being nice or genuine, but they're all really nice anyway so I'm not super worried about it. I just need to make sure I remember to get hair cuts.

Thank you so much for sharing your personal experiences and example. It really does make me think and apply it. We have great social events, but we have to always remember what the focus of them needs to be.

The Book of Mormon class was missionaries, too. We just had transfers so we'll probably end up having to change a lot, but thank you for your ideas. We should be able to figure somethings out for this transfer. Elder Davis was very good at planning activities and stuff.

The pictures were drawn by some long time investigators of Elder Davis's old area. They're super helpful and really nice, but they're just not quite interested in learning or baptism yet. I hope that continued exposure will spark interested in them learning about Christ. They definitely have had great examples of people in the church.

Overcome discouragement with humor, that's great! I love our Stake president.

I so love that you've been having Ashley over and the missionaries, and the neighbors, too. That's awesome! Little Nathan sounds like a great kid! Ashley chocolate chip cookies, those sound so good right now! I hope you can develop an appetite for spicy foods in the next two years because when I get back I plan on eating Thai food all the time! I'll see if I can learn how to cook before I get back.

The transfer meeting video was so fun! That bucket of cookies was given to us from the members in Bangna! 

If you'd like to send me music, a flash drive, SDcard or something like that would be best. Is there anything else I've been missing...not really. I can't think of anything. Other than your great cooking. There have been some random things, but nothing that's important. Thanks so much for asking! Anything would be great!

This week has been crazy with transfers and stuff. I don't have much time, but I'll share the synopsis. I got a hair cut on Monday and the barber that cut my hair came to church on Sunday! He gave me a kind of military cut and later that day all the members were saluting me and it was pretty funny.  He's pretty skilled and they even used a straight razor to straighten out the sides and stuff. All for only 80฿ which is around $2.49 - super cheap. We printed pictures for really cheap, too and we also found out who would be moving from Bangna. Sister Morgan, Elder Davis, and Elder Williams were moving. This was almost just like a miracle for me because I felt like I really didn't want to move. I know that I'll have to move eventually, but I felt like if I could just stay one more transfer I could do so much more here. When I found out I wasn't moving, it was like an answer to my prayers. -learned who would be moving and finally got pictures.

Tuesday was a loaded day with district meeting and everything else. We watched some great Mormon messages and we each shared a small testimony about something we had learned from this transfer. It was a really neat meeting. Some thoughts were: we are all different and we contribute in our own special way. We change not to be something different than we are, but better. Someone gave the example of a 2-cylinder engine becoming a bigger engine not trying to be a 10 or 12, but working to add a few cylinders at a time. We are on the Lord's time and He has a plan for each of us. Things happen according to the Lord's time for investigators. His plan for us will be seen as we see past the trials or the good in the moment of trial. We visited a member in the hospital in the afternoon, taught English class and then met with บ. ออฟ afterwards. We've all been kind of distraught the best couple of days with transfers and everything. -Awesome district meeting, I like snickers

On Wednesday, we had a going away party, packed for transfers, and had a big Book of Mormon class. We took a ton of pictures and said some goodbyes. We ended the crazy day with teaching บ. ออฟ again. We had several other missionaries staying with us for transfers so the whole day was kind of just crazy. -people sad for leaving, บ. ออฟ is pretty awesome and should be baptized on the 1st.

Thursday was transfers day. Everything felt so, so weird because Sister Morgan, Elder Davis, and Elder Williams left and because at the very last minute, my companion got switched and it was really unexpected. The second transfer seemed really hard, but after a few days, it seemed to be alright. I was sad to be losing some great people, but Elder Astle seemed really awesome, he was Elder Williams trainer. Then it got switched and now my companion is Elder Lodwick. He's great, too though. -Sad to leave, excited for change, sad that companion changed last minute, excited to have a new one still

Friday we invited a lot and taught a bunch, too. We taught บ. ออฟ and a few new investigators. -change is weird and hard at first, but eventually you adapt.

Saturday: Part of finding joy in the journey is creating your own. We invited for a few hours, all of our appointments fell through today, we had a meeting with Bishop and ฃ. พิฌ. We had sports night again. I was super fun. We didn't have as many people as last week, but we still had a lot of fun and had several RC's there to help them make friends with the ward, but we didn't have a lot of people there. Soccer, basketball, badminton. We also helped clean and setup the church for Sunday. -ward meeting, ฃ. พิฌ landed in a bush

Sunday: Baptism! The sisters had a baptism and I had the opportunity to teach a group o RCs/LAs with the new sister, Sister Hatch. It was my first experience teaching in a big group and it was interesting. We had four investigators at church, too. We also went to a meeting and learned about a special program the church has to help members further their education and become more self reliant.  Also, right before Elder Williams left, he gave me a bunch of pictures he had. He was pretty close with the ward and had a whole bunch that I'm excited to go through. We also went out inviting and got a few kids to help us. It was quite hilarious! We weekly planned and then we found out that we missed a birthday party for a member. I was devastated. We didn't even know about it. -church is always a highlight of Sunday and even better when we have a baptism! I also love getting to talk to people - the members are awesome, so are RC's and stuff.

Today we've planned to go golfing with some members. It should be a lot of fun.

I write a ton in my journal so I'm sure there'll be lots of great stories to share that I didn't email about. There are always miracles everyday, but it's hard to recognize them sometimes.

Elder Suphan and Elder Lodwick are going to start a Thai class tomorrow with ฃ. พิฌ, so I'm going to have to try to teach English class by myself. Yikes!

Elder Sun


Look at my hair!?!

1-25-15 Weekly Email 6

Dear Mom,

Thank you so much for all of your thoughts! I love hearing what you have to say and it really does amaze me how much strength your words give me!

Sometimes when I do my hair, the members compliment me. I can't tell if they're just being nice or genuine, but they're all really nice anyway so I'm not super worried about it. I just need to make sure I remember to get hair cuts.

Thank you so much for sharing your personal experiences and example. It really does make me think and apply it. We have great social events, but we have to always remember what the focus of them needs to be.

The Book of Mormon class was missionaries, too. We just had transfers so we'll probably end up having to change a lot, but thank you for your ideas. We should be able to figure somethings out for this transfer. Elder Davis was very good at planning activities and stuff.

The pictures were drawn by some long time investigators of Elder Davis's old area. They're super helpful and really nice, but they're just not quite interested in learning or baptism yet. I hope that continued exposure will spark interested in them learning about Christ. They definitely have had great examples of people in the church.

Overcome discouragement with humor, that's great! I love our Stake president.

I so love that you've been having Ashley over and the missionaries, and the neighbors, too. That's awesome! Little Nathan sounds like a great kid! Ashley chocolate chip cookies, those sound so good right now! I hope you can develop an appetite for spicy foods in the next two years because when I get back I plan on eating Thai food all the time! I'll see if I can learn how to cook before I get back.

The transfer meeting video was so fun! That bucket of cookies was given to us from the members in Bangna! 

If you'd like to send me music, a flash drive, SDcard or something like that would be best. Is there anything else I've been missing...not really. I can't think of anything. Other than your great cooking. There have been some random things, but nothing that's important. Thanks so much for asking! Anything would be great!

This week has been crazy with transfers and stuff. I don't have much time, but I'll share the synopsis. I got a hair cut on Monday and the barber that cut my hair came to church on Sunday! He gave me a kind of military cut and later that day all the members were saluting me and it was pretty funny.  He's pretty skilled and they even used a straight razor to straighten out the sides and stuff. All for only 80฿ which is around $2.49 - super cheap. We printed pictures for really cheap, too and we also found out who would be moving from Bangna. Sister Morgan, Elder Davis, and Elder Williams were moving. This was almost just like a miracle for me because I felt like I really didn't want to move. I know that I'll have to move eventually, but I felt like if I could just stay one more transfer I could do so much more here. When I found out I wasn't moving, it was like an answer to my prayers. -learned who would be moving and finally got pictures.

Tuesday was a loaded day with district meeting and everything else. We watched some great Mormon messages and we each shared a small testimony about something we had learned from this transfer. It was a really neat meeting. Some thoughts were: we are all different and we contribute in our own special way. We change not to be something different than we are, but better. Someone gave the example of a 2-cylinder engine becoming a bigger engine not trying to be a 10 or 12, but working to add a few cylinders at a time. We are on the Lord's time and He has a plan for each of us. Things happen according to the Lord's time for investigators. His plan for us will be seen as we see past the trials or the good in the moment of trial. We visited a member in the hospital in the afternoon, taught English class and then met with บ. ออฟ afterwards. We've all been kind of distraught the best couple of days with transfers and everything. -Awesome district meeting, I like snickers

On Wednesday, we had a going away party, packed for transfers, and had a big Book of Mormon class. We took a ton of pictures and said some goodbyes. We ended the crazy day with teaching บ. ออฟ again. We had several other missionaries staying with us for transfers so the whole day was kind of just crazy. -people sad for leaving, บ. ออฟ is pretty awesome and should be baptized on the 1st.

Thursday was transfers day. Everything felt so, so weird because Sister Morgan, Elder Davis, and Elder Williams left and because at the very last minute, my companion got switched and it was really unexpected. The second transfer seemed really hard, but after a few days, it seemed to be alright. I was sad to be losing some great people, but Elder Astle seemed really awesome, he was Elder Williams trainer. Then it got switched and now my companion is Elder Lodwick. He's great, too though. -Sad to leave, excited for change, sad that companion changed last minute, excited to have a new one still

Friday we invited a lot and taught a bunch, too. We taught บ. ออฟ and a few new investigators. -change is weird and hard at first, but eventually you adapt.

Saturday: Part of finding joy in the journey is creating your own. We invited for a few hours, all of our appointments fell through today, we had a meeting with Bishop and ฃ. พิฌ. We had sports night again. I was super fun. We didn't have as many people as last week, but we still had a lot of fun and had several RC's there to help them make friends with the ward, but we didn't have a lot of people there. Soccer, basketball, badminton. We also helped clean and setup the church for Sunday. -ward meeting, ฃ. พิฌ landed in a bush

Sunday: Baptism! The sisters had a baptism and I had the opportunity to teach a group o RCs/LAs with the new sister, Sister Hatch. It was my first experience teaching in a big group and it was interesting. We had four investigators at church, too. We also went to a meeting and learned about a special program the church has to help members further their education and become more self reliant.  Also, right before Elder Williams left, he gave me a bunch of pictures he had. He was pretty close with the ward and had a whole bunch that I'm excited to go through. We also went out inviting and got a few kids to help us. It was quite hilarious! We weekly planned and then we found out that we missed a birthday party for a member. I was devastated. We didn't even know about it. -church is always a highlight of Sunday and even better when we have a baptism! I also love getting to talk to people - the members are awesome, so are RC's and stuff.

Today we've planned to go golfing with some members. It should be a lot of fun.

I write a ton in my journal so I'm sure there'll be lots of great stories to share that I didn't email about. There are always miracles everyday, but it's hard to recognize them sometimes.

Elder Suphan and Elder Lodwick are going to start a Thai class tomorrow with ฃ. พิฌ, so I'm going to have to try to teach English class by myself. Yikes!

Elder Sun


Look at my hair!?!

Monday, January 19, 2015

Weekly Email 6 1-18-15 Picture 3

Weekly Email 6 1-18-15 Picture 2

1-18-15 (Weekly Email 6)

Dear Mom,

I'm so sorry to hear about Sister Richman's father. I love it that his example and life were so great that it had an impact on the nurses and I'm sure that it still has an impact to those that love him!

Tell the Featherstons and anyone that asks that I'm loving it and it's all going great!

I don't have a lot to say this week. We didn't do a lot because we were all sick pretty much all week. On Tuesday, my companion and all of the other Elders were sick and were recovering on Wednesday and then I got sick on Thursday which kind of threw a wrench in all of our plans. I'll just share a quick bullet with the highlight of the day after each day.


On Monday evening, we opened a members mission call to Australia! It was super exciting! This and all the other little things added up to make it a great day! It was a p-day and we didn't do much but explore around the Mega Bangna mall again, but we still had a good day taking it easy for the day.The highlights for sure were opening the call, hanging out at Mega, and I did manage to contact a few people while we were traveling around. -People are most beautiful when testifying with the Spirit (Elder Dallin H. Oaks)


We were sick Monday night and didn't really have a Tuesday until around 18:00 where the Sisters, Elder Suphan, and I taught English class. It was great! We had more people there than ever before and I think everyone had fun. We had a bunch of new people come and members, too. It was interesting because the Sisters ended up feeling sick too and couldn't help teach so it was just Elder Suphan and I, but since he's a khonThai he couldn't really teach a lot either so I had to try to teach almost by myself. I can usually only remember a few things from each day, but overall, the days are great, if that makes sense. Haha. -"What is said is not as important as what we hear and what we feel" -Elder Robert D. Hales, "In fact, I hope you forget what is said" -David A. Bednar, MTC devotional

My hair was also a subject of a lot recent events because I've been trying to do it recently which doesn't usually turn out very good. -Joy in the journey. 


Wednesday: We had district meeting this day instead of Tuesday and we talked all about recognizing and understanding the Spirit. It made me think about ways that we prepare ourselves to better receive and then heed the promptings from the Spirit. I always learn a lot from our meetings and two things that stuck out to me were that experiences with the Spirit come naturally and that humility is like the catalyst for good. When someone experiments on the word, they are sure to have experiences that support it (Alma 32). Conversion is not a one time event or an overnight things. It takes time and when we allow the experiment to take root within ourselves, spiritual experiences will follow. I thought that this insight from PMG Ch.4 was something that stuck out to me and can really apply to our investigators and ourselves. By small things are great things brought to pass and by seeming small, frequent spiritual experiences are great conversions brought - both with the people we work with as missionaries and with ourselves. We are trying to help investigators have spiritual experiences and sometimes we think only about big turning points or specific experiences that will change them quickly. Sometimes it's hard to find the balance between looking for people who are ready to accept the gospel by immediately making changes and continuing to work with people who may need a little more time to become converted. What are your thoughts on this?

The second thought, humility, is that when we truly humble ourselves, we begin to put others first and we seek to do the things that Christ would do. We begin to do good and humility truly is the catalyst for good. I can't remember what from district meeting sparked this thought, but I remember feeling this resonate with me. The catalyst for good is humility. I wish I could remember more, but there was just so much great stuff.

We also had a great Book of Mormon class session. Everyone was involved and had a good time. We read a chapter together, discussed any insights or things that people liked, then split into teams and had a race to answer ten questions about what we just read together. We're not super creative when it comes to planning games and stuff for activities, so if you have or hear of anything good, let me know!

 -Spiritual experiences come naturally.


It was right after BoM class that I didn't feel very good and I spent Thursday mostly resting. I was able to get up and move around, but it was a rough night. We made a lot of calls and did some planning, my companion ate at the church with the district as I slept on floor of the kitchen. I don't think I really ate anything that day and everything I ate the day before came up already, so I really didn't have any energy. From all this, I just remember how great and awesome everyone was around us. -Joy in journey, we can do hard things, turn outwards


On Friday I felt better, mostly a mix of dehydration, malnutrition, lack of energy and no appetite - just the usual sick stuff. Drank a lot of water and ate some rice and felt better. I was mentally good, but by that evening I was pretty much exhausted and went to bed early. -I'm not sure. I enjoyed eating rice. My new favoritest food. Hang in There by Lori S. Dawson


Saturday and Sunday were great days. I felt a little sick Saturday morning with an upset stomach and that constant feeling of throwing up, but after studies we taught in the morning and then went out to lunch with two people from my companion's old area. They're super nice and it was actually the first time I ate sushi - more than half a piece. It was pretty good and I was super glad that I was even actually able to eat! Later that evening we also had sports night at the church. It was super fun and was the first time we actually had a great turnout around the time that we started. It was another great day with nothing super specific, but it was just the general feeling of the day and all the little things that helped make the bigger things even better. -I believe it's less what you do, but more about your attitude while you do it, how you do it, and who you do it with. Kind of related and the first result from LDS.org Gordon B. Hinckley

On Sunday we had a baptism program! It was super amazing, like every time! But before that we had regular church, too. We didn't have a tone of investigators or anything, but it was still great! (see above). Two people were baptized and they both are super cool! One was an investigator for 6 months and the other for 4 years, wow! -Baptism, talking with members, I love the bishop's family, kanoms (treats)


Elder Sun

Monday, January 12, 2015

January 11, 2014 Picture 2

January 11, 2014

Dear Mom, people back home, and to whom it may concern,

This past week has been great as always! One of the highlights was definitely last P-day. We went to a zoo called Crocodile Farm. They had a ton of crocodiles and we got to hold and feed baby tigers! They were so cute! We also saw an elephant show and got to feed elephants! It was super fun. We went with our district, a neighboring area, and a few members. Watching people's reaction to the baby tigers pretty much made my day. What impressed me from all of these fun experiences was the truth of the teachings of Heber C. Kimball when I studied about why are LDS people so happy. Some people are so cheerful, pleasant, lively, good-natured, and light-hearted and we can keep this nature when we remember even the simple doctrines of what we believe. This Gospel is a glad message. Our Heavenly Father's plan is so often called the great plan of happiness. I recently read John Bytheway's book 'How to Become an Extraordinary Missionary' and I found this talk all about happiness. Whenever I think about people who I think are often extremely happy often wonder why and the answer always comes back to it's in our nature and "men are, that they might have joy" (2 Nephi 2:25). I loved taking some time to study about happiness in my personal study time. -"Happiness lies in living the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ" President Gordon B. Hinckley.

After our farm trip, we taught a new investigator, บ. แฃมป์ (not to be confused with the บ. แฃมป์ that is an RC or the บ. แฃมป์ that we contacted this week). He's someone that I contacted and is super cool. We taught him a simple first lesson about prayer, the Godhead, and got to know him. We also said he felt good. We taught with ช.พิณ again and he responded well and seemed genuinely interested but doesn't have any Christian background or knowledge so he asked a lot of questions as we went. ช.พิณ helped to explain a lot of things. -Teaching with members is very helpful - especially in a foreign language.

Something I noticed in that lesson is that we used what we call 'weekly language milestones'. Some of the things we do and the rules seem kind of silly or not useful, but I realized that nearly always right after being tested on them earlier (in this case just that Morning), that I would always use them and would be so thankful that I did know them. The milestone was teaching prayer and that day I tried to do just that. Last week it was How to Begin Teaching points from Preach My Gospel and we also taught those. Everything we do is totally connected, even though sometimes it doesn't seem like it. All the experiences and unique individuality will enable us to help people in ways that no one else can. -The Lord is preparing people to hear the message and He is also preparing each of us to share it.

Every Monday night, we also have a Family Home Evening activity at the church. We'd love to have members have FHE with their own families, but since a lot of people can't, we hold an activity at the church. We always invite all of our RC's and have a good time bonding with everyone there. Sometimes it feels like we should always be out inviting and working, but what's great about missionary work is that no matter when or where you are, you can always being doing it. Missionary work isn't just inviting, contacting, and teaching, but it's also important to strengthen the members by sharing spiritual thoughts and uplifting them in whatever it is we're doing. By doing so, we can build strong relationships of trust and love when we balance going out and staying in. -We can do the work wherever we are and like in Alma 25:26, people can be converted in the wilderness and can be taught anywhere.

Some great experiences have also come when we were inviting. On Tuesday, we were supposed to teach a few lessons, but no one showed up. We were super disappointed, but in the end, it was almost kind of blessing. We were able to go out and invite where I had the most success inviting yet. We didn't have a lot of time, but I was feeling great and when we went out, we were so blessed. I had a goal to invite as many people as I could and to not stop. I ended up with a record amount of phone numbers from one day and had gone through several stacks of inviting cards from my pocket. We only had a short time and yet we were able to accomplish so much! That itself was a tremendous blessing. As the session drew to a close, my companion said it was time to go. After every stack of cards, I'd make a new goal to get rid of it, but I had one more card left still. I really wanted to get rid of it and accomplish my goal, but every person I talked to wouldn't accept and we were running out of time. I remember saying a simple prayer to help me accomplish my goal and the very next person I talked to accepted it and gave me their number. This simple experience was a small miracle of the day. -Prayers are truly answered according to our desires and on the Lord's time.

In the district meeting on Tuesday, we learned about service and how when we serve others, it's truly how we can turn outwards. -As we focus on others and forget ourselves, we truly find ourselves (there are a lot of scriptures on this...somewhere).

Another great example of the Lord's hand in our lives and the work is when another person did not show up to their appointment with us, we were disappointed and didn't know what to do for sure. We went out and invited but also stopped at a little copy/print shop on the way. There we met a nice worker who was interested in learning about our message. This was a great example of finding prepared people who are put in our path. On Wednesday, we had a great time inviting. I remember this experience because the first three people I talked to were all interested and gave me their numbers. Usually people just say 'no' and keep walking. As we came back to our apartment for the night, we realized we didn't have keys and had to wait outside the door. It was a little inconvenient, but as we waited, the neighbor who lived just across from us came down the hall. We had never invited or seen her before and when we did, we was super nice and responsive. If we had not been waiting there or acted on the prompting to try to invite her, we would have missed out on a great opportunity to find someone. I'm always impressed at the blessings and opportunities we have because of the way somethings just work out. -The Lord is literally putting putting people in our paths to find and is leading us to them. 

We met a ton of people, some really cool and some kind of sketchy. Apparently being ลูกครึ่ง (Luug khrueng/half-child) is very attractive in Thailand and I often run into people who I want to be interested, but I don't think they're interested in the message or meeting for the right reason. We had someone who we called invite us over for dinner and was obviously a little sketch. We told her we have rules and she said 'Oh, no. Don't worry. I just want to be your friend." This was on Thursday and as we were inviting down the street, a youngish woman runs up to us and asks if we needed any help. We probably looked a bit lost, two ฟร้่งs (farang/foreigners) talking to everyone. She spoke English very well and we told her we were inviting people to come to church. She was a little hesitant and first and kept listening to us because she was impressed at our language ability. She eventually asked the basic conversation questions like were I was from and such. I'm not sure where the conversation was going, but she said "You're handsome. Very handsome". It was quite awkward and since I didn't know really enough of the language, I just went back to talking about the Gospel. At first I was quite impressed and that she was very nice to come over to help us and was going to be interested. We ended up getting her number. Later, I thought about how we are encouraged to have the Spirit with us so strong as to "shine in our faces" (Mosiah 13:5) and perhaps when people see something about us, it's the Spirit that makes us look different. 3 Nephi 2:15: the curse was lifted and their skin became light. Perhaps it wasn't a literal change, but a spiritual lightening. Also had an investigator at church do the same thing. I would just keep talking about baptism and not really say anything about it. -when we have the Spirit and are striving to be righteous, people will see it.

Friday's highlight was a coalition meeting where I still don't understand much at all, but it was a good period of time - before and after the meeting. -look for something good in all that you do and you'll find it for sure.

On Saturday, we didn't go out much. We spent a lot of time at the church teaching and making calls to invite people to come to church on Sunday. We taught some great people and I'll say again how I just love all the people here.The members are great and helpful. Oh, and Saturday was วันเด็ก (wandek/national children's day). Being a new missionary, I'm often called my trainer's (or phaa's/father) child (or luug). There's a lot more, of course, but not enough time, sorry. The highlight of the day and Sunday was another great experience with prayer and how prayers are answered, similar to my MTC experience. We had district dinner and since the end of the transfer is soon, we shared photos and I didn't have many. It was great learning about everyone and we're called to serve not just investigators, but also members and other missionaries, too. The thoughts for Saturday and Sunday would be -We need to work hard, but also with the Lord (not always working harder, but sometimes smarter) -When we focus on others rather than ourselves is when we can actually utilize the Atonement (if that thought isn't confusing).


กับรัก, (With love)
เอ็ลเดอร์ ชัน (Elder Sun)

Sunday, January 11, 2015

December 14, 2014 Picture 3



January 4, 2015 Picture 3

January 4, 2015 Picture 2

January 4, 2014

Dear Mom,

It's time for another weekly letter! Excited! We had a good week, even though it's only been four days from the previous email. I'll start out by answering questions and responding to comments.

I don't remember much about my own baptism, or most of my childhood from that many years ago, but I bet it was quite similar to my experiences here. Something I've learned is that we can have those experiences again such as through baptisms for the dead. I reflected on how people who are baptized when they're older have to make more changes. They have such strength and they can also remember their experiences like baptism better. Just yesterday I wrote about how it impressed me that one of the first people at church was a recent convert, ซ.โช . She is an amazing example. She likes coming to church so, so much and has a great strong testimony. I still love it here and I'd say the highlight of my entire experience so far was our baptism - my first baptism. Actually, it was last week, but I think it's still okay. Just today, I heard someone's thoughts on baptism which were "I don't even know how to describe it or how to put it into words". It was actually an RC who baptized a friend - it was his first baptism, too. He said that he didn't know how to explain the feeling because it was just good. It does help your testimony. Not in a way that you can put it into words that you can actually say this happened or this happened. You just know you feel different. You feel warmer. You feel more at peace, more calm. It just made them happy, peaceful, and wonderful. That's actually exactly how I feel/felt.

It sounds like you've had a great holiday! That's awesome! All the little cousins are growing up so fast! If we want some dates to put on it, I can let you know all of the baptism dates we have. It's super exciting!

My time flies when I'm working, just like Kelton. He's such a great เด็ก เด็ก. When I put my mind (and heart) to a task, it feels like no time has gone by at all. For example, when we go out inviting, we can either just go through the motions or really desire and put all of our strength into finding people. When we do, inviting for hours on end go by fast and we have more success because our focus is in the right place. I have my journal now so I'll expound a little bit and say two things.The first is from that district meeting again about desires. Elder Klein said that we've all had the experience where we haven't had a lot of time, but we went out thinking about and focusing on inviting and have found success. I had that same experience just a few days earlier. We had less then an hour, but I had a lot of people I gave inviting cards to and a lot of people give me numbers. This was just after the baptism we had on Wednesday. He then contrasted this to when we may have a lot of time, invited a ton of people, gave out a lot of cards, but no one actually accepting. He explained how our desires/thoughts while inviting play a big part in our success. If we're thinking about back home, a TV show we wish we were watching or anything else, we're not fully into the task at hand. The second thought is that it kind of reminds me of the scripture about losing your life to gain your life. When we forget ourselves in the service of others or what we need to be doing, we will find ourselves or be able to put our whole soul into it instead of just one part (heart, mind, strength, etc).

That's so true about Christmas. It is such a great opportunity to remember the Savior. Christmas here was so weird not having any snow or special festivities. It didn't quite feel like Christmas, but we don't need any of that to remember the Savior each day. We had a super fun time bowling, but emphasis needs to always be on Him.

It sounds like Diana and Tygan are doing well, people ask me about that and when/if she's going to get married. Frappe! I totally miss that right now. We have members who are in their late twenties and aren't married, and because they're Asian they don't even look that old.

I'll do a quick synopsis of the highlights in the past few days:

Thursday: Passed a super drunk guy who was really loud.

Friday: Made a lot of calls. A miracle was we were supposed to teach someone last minute, but didn't have anyone to help us. We, along with the sisters, called a lot of people and we were a little worried about it. Just as we were in the height of worry, we found/remembered an LA, บ.เบส (B. Base) who worked near by. We were able to ask him and he helped us teach. บ.เบส is a cool guy. The sisters told us he has an interesting past of fighting and stuff but is actually a tender hart. We should be able to meet with him and help re-activate him. In our lesson, Elder Davis drew a small diagram to explain about the Bible and Book of Mormon and บ.เบส held it up to his arm to see if it would make a good tattoo. He's a funny dude.

Saturday: We ran into an interesting lady while contacting. She was basically bashing on our beliefs and when we tried to get away, she kept poking and wouldn't let us leave. It kind of soiled my companion's day a little and we weren't sure what to think about it. I just told her I didn't understand Thai, but I could speak it alright so if she wanted to just listen, she could. We had a coalition meeting with the bishop and ward missionaries. I honestly didn't understand much at all, but ช.พิณ (S. Pin), a really nice member who actually ended up being the Bishop's daughter - I found that out just a few days ago - helped translate for me. I thought the meeting was good/fun, even though I didn't understand anything. I wrote down that sometimes meetings feel kind of boring or pointless, but the work is important and the meetings are a part of the work. We played some Monopoly to close the day.

Sunday: Super good mix of things that I wrote in my journal about Sunday and Saturday. We helped บ.กาลู (Gaaluu), the member in the wheelchair, get ready. He's super awesome and we went over about and hour and a half early before church to help him. At church, we talked to two super awesome potential investigators that we have appointments with later this week. The first, we taught a mini-lesson to and committed him to be baptized in two weeks. He's super nice and we taught him with บ.กาลู. The second I sat by in sacrament meeting. He was also so nice and put up well with my lack of language skills. I gave him a brief rundown of what I new how to say about baptism and he also accepted to be baptized in two weeks, after we help him get ready. He had a Christian friend and knew that Christians were good, but just never came to church before. We taught two RC's who also came to church and we had another good district dinner. I'm sure you'll have a fun time reading my journal and hearing about more stuff if you want. I either write very little, or a lot of pages a day.

Now we will go to a zoo type place and hopefully be able to hold some monkeys and baby tigers!

Wish you the best of the new year! สวัสดีปีใหม่ (Happy new year),

January 1, 2015

Dear Mom,

I love you so much! Sorry for not writing on Monday, our P-day was moved to Thursday last minute. I want to let you know that I love it here, doing the Lord's work. The scriptures that say the greatest joy is found in sharing the Gospel (DC 18:15) and we find our lives when we lose our lives (Matt 10:39) are so, so true! I love it so much here - everything about being a missionary. The places, the people, the teaching, the Gospel, Jesus Christ, I could go on for a while. The highlight of the week was by far the baptisms we had on Sunday and yesterday. I felt the Spirit so strongly. I honestly have a hard time trying to think of a happier time than in those baptism services. Whenever I think about that experience, the people, and everything and all the things they are and can be, I just get super excited and emotional. I'll try to send some pictures maybe next week. ซ.โช and บ.แจ็ข were baptized on Sunday and it was an amazing experience. We had a bunch of members there, all showing support, and I can't even describe it adequately in words. It just made me really happy and excited. I totally understand now why people say that baptisms are so great and why it's so emphasized among missionaries and at the MTC. (Mosiah 18:30). Baptism, the place too, brings back feelings of beauty and joy.

Later that day, we went to ซ.โช's house and celebrated her daughter's birthday.
With my limited vocabulary, I said that that birthday party was probably the best one I've been to and today was a very good day, the best day, and with my limited understanding I think ซ.โช said it was hers too because she was also celebrating her baptism. This helped put the icing on the cake and it make me really glad. We took a lot of selfies, ate some good food, sang happy birthday, and ate a birthday cake. We then had a district dinner prepared by Elder Suphan who is a very good chef. We also had another baptism service yesterday for Bro. Thompson. It was another exciting day, and it was so great to have those two recent converts there and so many investigators, too. When Bro. Thompson was baptized, you could tell that ซ.โช and บ.แจ็ข were super excited, too, because of what they had felt just a few days before at their baptism. We also taught on of those investigators that day who is planning on being baptized in two weeks. Bro. Thompson and ซ.โช were friends and she was on the edge of her seat as he was baptized. There's nothing quite like seeing a friend be baptized and feel the same way you felt when you were baptized. I am always so impressed with the faith and strength of our investigators who make changes in their lives to accept and follow Christ. They are sometimes the only one around them who know of the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and are the only examples for their families and friends. When we were baptized at eight, we did not have an as difficult decision to make than all of the people who we are teaching now. I have such respect and love for these people. Even the members.

We have members who seem like they've been long time members who are super strong, but they are great examples and have amazing testimonies even though some have only been members for a few years, one year, or only a few months. It's amazing the amount of character these people have and just how great they are. Members really are the key to missionary work.

On Christmas, we also went bowling. It was my first time in awhile and I didn't play very well, but it was super fun. Some of us went ice-skating instead, but I figured bowling would be less of a disaster because I still haven't learned how to ice-skate, maybe one of these p-days I will.

I had my first taste of Thailand rain on the 27th. It was in the evening, after we had returned to our apartment, and it just suddenly started pouring down rain. We saw some lightning and heard a little bit of thunder, then the power went out in our building and the rain poured down. It was super exciting! People keep telling me to not wish for rain because after you're in it for a short time, it's as if you jumped in a pool. It rained so hard and it looked like the roofs of buildings were just big swimming pools.

The Monday after Christmas, some amazing people from my companion's old area brought us some Christmas gifts. It was so nice of them. They make my companion feel guilty because they're always doing nice things for the missionaries - taking them out to eat, etc. They also help out at activities, but they're still not interested in learning. Maybe someday they will - they'd be such great members!

On Tuesday, we had an amazing district meeting. I use words like amazing, awesome, great, etc a lot, but it's true. We have so many amazing, awesome, wonderful, great, happy experiences. Because the neighboring district is so small, we've decided to combine for district meetings. We traveled to their area and their district leader led it. Elder Klein, Elder Davis's MTC companion, is a really awesome guy and a great example. He's on of the people that make you want to say "I want to be like that some day". Anyway, he shared some great thoughts on the topic of goal setting - specifically about our desires. He gave us a great talk by E. Maxwell entitled "According to the Desires of [Our] Hearts". It really made me reflect and I got a lot out of that meeting. I felt the Spirit strongly in that meeting and we watched a cool video that was the theme of the TBM for November, I'll try to sent it to you somehow. The district meeting would definitely be a highlight. People shared great thoughts and experiences. Elder Hinckley told us about a goal board he had where he would write all the goals he's had and has completed and Sister Herrman shared about miracles and how our desires influence the miracles we receive. We then ate ice cream at a very fancy ice cream place - the fanciest ever and are now in the string of days of the New Year Holiday. On Tuesday night, we had English class and President and Sister Senior joined us. It was interesting because we were teaching 'conversation' English (basically slang/slurred words) which was really 'real' English. President Senior got up and helped us teach. In the end, he said forget everything that we just taught in the part of the lesson and we moved on. It was a funny experience.

KhonThais don't do a lot for Christmas, but they do a lot to celebrate New Years. Everyone is out of town and when we went out to invite or on a taxi ride, there's hardly anyone out. The roads were super clear and we made record time while traveling. We celebrate New Years Eve by having a baptism service. It was super cool and fun. The Spirit was strong and earlier I was wondering if the law of diminishing marginal returns applied to baptisms. I learned from that experience that every baptism is as good as the first. I also had the opportunity to teach and lead a Book of Mormon class where we read the Book of Mormon together. Even though I couldn't understand what was being read and had a hard time reading, I knew that what we were reading came from God and that when we read, we will be filled with the Spirit and it's through the Spirit that we can understand (1 Nephi 1:12).

Today we had a zone sports activity at an international school that a farang member works at. We played some mean tennis. Afterwards, on the way back, we fit ten full-size farang Elders in a car. It was like a clown car and we also had one person in the trunk.

I hope I shared enough experiences to entertain and uplift you. If I had my journal and a card reader, I'm sure I'd have even more - I'll just have to save some for later. It's only been a few weeks and it feels like we've done a lot, and we still have a long time left and even more to do. I'm so excited to see what the future holds and to have the opportunity to make the most of it. Just remember that what we desire and what we believe has a great influence on what we receive and ultimately what we will get out of anything we do.

I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church and that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored through Joseph Smith who was called to be a prophet of God by God and that he translated the Book of Mormon by the power of God. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that through it - through reading and "[feasting] upon the words of christ", pondering in the heart the message it contains, and then praying to God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, with faith, if the book is true - we can know, through the power of the Holy Ghost, that the Book of Mormon is true and will receive a witness, even a divine witness, that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. I know that as we keep our focus on the Savior and always remember Him, we can be strengthened and guided in whatever our desires may be.


Elder Sun

December 24, 2014 Picture 3

December 24, 2014 Picture 2

December 24, 2014 Picture 1

December 14, 2014 Picture 7