Tuesday, March 31, 2015

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I almost forgot, yesterday we went back to the Crocodile farm.

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3-29-15

Dear Mom,

The emailing was broken yesterday, but we can email a little bit today. I'll figure out how to send you some recipes next week. We don't get to use Facebook yet, maybe when the new mission president comes in about another month or two. Maybe by the end of year we'll be able to. Sometimes members use Facebook. Thailand is a pretty plugged-in country. Bangna also has a ward Facebook page. See if you can find it. Charity, faith, optimism; I love it! Wow, it sounds like you had a good Spring Break! We'll be able to watch conference I think two weeks after it aires. Easter is coming up and we're sharing the Easter video with everyone that we can! Easter, conference, it's an exciting time! Last week we went bowling, it rained really hard, we had a good English class, we saw an awesome candy maker, we had another baptism (บ. พง), the ward had a huge Book of Mormon reading marathon where they read the entire Book of Mormon without stopping. It took over 30 hours! The first counselor is also moving so we had a good bye party for him. The work is continuing to progress. Transfers is on the 16th which is a ways out, but I'm not too excited to leave, haha.


#เพราะพระองค์ทรงพรชนม์

Monday, March 23, 2015

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Dear Mom,

Thanks for the advice on temples! I definitely still need to work on my cooking skills. I'll send some Thai recipes home so you can try them out. I love thinking about each day as a new start and focusing on one day at a time. I'm not sure what to write other than the work is continuing to progress at its own pace and we have a few people that we are focusing on.

Elder Sun

Highlights:
We made our two bunkbeds into a triple. Barely fits.
Having RC's share the gospel.
Cramping people into cars.
Baptism on Sunday! ซ. ญา

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Monday, March 16, 2015

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Dear Mom,

Ugh, smiling. It's so hard! Thailand's favorite sport is definitely soccer, but I've heard a lot of people like volleyball, ping pong, and badminton, too. We have a member, ซ. กวาง, who works in the sewing business and she can make scripture cases and ties. I'm glad you mentioned temples. How do you think you could get people really hyped about temples? The work here is still super excited about baptisms, but we also want to have a huge focus on temples. I find it a little weird still talking about temples on the first visit with an investigator, and there's not anyone in the mission yet who has found out a good way to work with families with a focus on temples. It's still a new thing that our mission is trying. We want everyone in Thailand to hear about our message and we want all of the members, investigators, families, RCs, missionaries, and church leaders to be as excited and hyped up on the work.

I did get a package last transfer! Thank you so much! The pictures were useful for my family book, too! Thanks for the snow! I won't be seeing much of it for a while. We did have these weird Singapore snow cone things one day.

For my birthday...I want everyone to find one person they can invite to church or meet with the missionaries. Every night as I lie in bed, I think about who and how I can help build in their relationship with God, get baptized, and go to the temple. Mosiah 28:3 I think this is my new favorite scripture. It didn't help me in a time of distress or anything, but when I came across it for the first time in personal study, it struck me and caused me to think. "Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble." It literally made me tremble and really sad when I read this verse. I care for these people so much that even as I write this, I start to tear up thinking about it. I told my companion last transfer that if I could give my life to save someone else's, I would in a heartbeat. And that is what I'm doing now. I love this work and I seriously feel sad if I think about going back home. I've only been out a short time, I still don't know the language, I feel like my teaching sucks, some days seem soo long, there's not a lot we can actually do, but through Christ we can do all things. This isn't our work, it's His work. We are only instruments in His hands.

Here are some scriptures from the Bible.

"He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." (John 12:25.)
"Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it." (Luke 17:33.)
"He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it."
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13.) 

Elder Sun

3-15-15 More pics

For transfers, we had a mini party and ate cake. We didn't have time for plates or anything.

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I thought about getting a book for Diana in Thai. This is our district leader. We made way too much spaghetti.

Monday, March 9, 2015

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Pakistani Hand Art

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Dragon Fabric



 

3-8-15

Mom,

Thanks for the updates! When the weather gets nicer over there, the weather will get scorching here. Haha.

There are so many things that have happened that I've never mentioned. On Thursday, we had transfers, too, and I'm still in my greenie area. I feel so blessed to get to stay. I'm so excited for what I'll get to do next. Last transfer, I didn't do a whole lot - I was still in my 12 weeks of training. Now it feels like I'm going to have to do a lot. We have RC's and Investigators that I now have to look after especially and I don't quite feel up to it. Yikes! I want everyone to come into the church, stay active, and head to the temple, but I'm the only one there for them. With the Lord's help, I know it'll all work out.

On Monday, we went to a rare/secret fabric store and picked out some cool fabric to make ties out of. We also found out who would be staying. E.Suphan, Lodwick, and S. Herrmann would be leaving. This last week, we've met with nearly all of our RC's and investigators one last time to tell them to keep coming to church, to keep learning, and that I would stay and look after them. We woke up early on Tuesday to renew my visa, had district meeting, and taught english class. We visited the Pakistani family again and spent some time packing. My new companion is Elder Luker and Elder Bingham's new companion is Elder Christiansen who only has two transfers left of his mission!. Sister Hatch is training a new missionary, too. Our district is so, so young!

We've been taking it really slow the past couple of days-we've played life, worked on family books, not much - but tomorrow we're going to jump head in! We're going to focus even more on families and try to really see families become complete. We had sports night and a pretty good Sunday. Each new transfer is almost like a new beginning, except I didn't move so yea...We had district dinner again, too.

That's really about it,

Elder ดวงอาทีตย์

Monday, March 2, 2015

Hello again! Picture 3

Oh, and I forgot the first rain day that happened last Sunday.Inline image 1

Re: Hello again!

 



On Monday, March 2, 2015 6:51 AM, Tonya Symons <trs_love3@yahoo.com> wrote:


Dear Mom,

I'll start out by saying I love you so much and I can't believe (actually I can) that Diana is engaged! That is probably one of the most exciting things I've ever heard! Other than baptisms of course! This Sunday we had four people get baptized and they're all so great! Even better is that my companion had worked with someone for several months, trying to get her baptized. In Thailand, everyone is like one big family and everyone you meet you refer to as 'mother', 'father', or sibling. In the culture of the Thailand mission and of Thailand, we have a trainer who is our father, but we also have a Thai family that we get 'adopted' into. These families are super close and the person my companion was working so long on was his older sister. He had baptized her younger sister (whose name is actually Sister Sun), and was trying really hard to work on his older sister. He said when he first met with her, she was super unwilling to learn and was very Buddhist. She ended up moving to Banga and we got to teach her and meet with her. She was at first unwilling still, but after a while, she eventually accepted and it was really a miracle! Her little sister came to her baptism and the whole process and story is so amazing! When she called us to say that she had received an answer, it was all true, she knew Christ was her Savior, and she wanted to get baptized, we were soo excited! It was such an amazing experience! We also had a Christian lady, a young boy (an RC baptism), and a young girl get baptized. The young girl's mom wasn't accepting, but we bet that because her daughter got baptized, it won't be too long until she does, too. We also have an investigator who's a really tough nut to crack, but last Sunday she finally came to church and accepted a date for baptism!

Thank you so much for keeping me up to date on what's going on back home! You've had a lot of conferences! We had a fireside that we went to Sunday night and we talked a lot about temples. We were all so excited for them to announce a temple in Thailand, but it never came. I'm super excited for that day and right now, we're working on preparing Thailand for that day.

We ate a bunch of pizza for District meeting, had a crazy, ridiculous lip sync at the end of English class, had my first dinner at a member's house, had a fun sports night, and of course baptisms on Sunday!

That's pretty much the week summed up and the highlight was the baptisms! Miracles happen everyday and I'm seeing them more and more. Everyday there are things that seem to work out and there's no doubt it's due to divine intervention.

Thanks for all that you've done and do, and keep me updated on Diana. I'll try to smile bigger and more often, too!

Elder Sun



Hello again! Pictures 1 & 2

District meeting/lunch
Inline image 1

Some days are tiring and quick naps are necessary.
Inline image 2

Hello again!

Dear Mom,

I'll start out by saying I love you so much and I can't believe (actually I can) that Diana is engaged! That is probably one of the most exciting things I've ever heard! Other than baptisms of course! This Sunday we had four people get baptized and they're all so great! Even better is that my companion had worked with someone for several months, trying to get her baptized. In Thailand, everyone is like one big family and everyone you meet you refer to as 'mother', 'father', or sibling. In the culture of the Thailand mission and of Thailand, we have a trainer who is our father, but we also have a Thai family that we get 'adopted' into. These families are super close and the person my companion was working so long on was his older sister. He had baptized her younger sister (whose name is actually Sister Sun), and was trying really hard to work on his older sister. He said when he first met with her, she was super unwilling to learn and was very Buddhist. She ended up moving to Banga and we got to teach her and meet with her. She was at first unwilling still, but after a while, she eventually accepted and it was really a miracle! Her little sister came to her baptism and the whole process and story is so amazing! When she called us to say that she had received an answer, it was all true, she knew Christ was her Savior, and she wanted to get baptized, we were soo excited! It was such an amazing experience! We also had a Christian lady, a young boy (an RC baptism), and a young girl get baptized. The young girl's mom wasn't accepting, but we bet that because her daughter got baptized, it won't be too long until she does, too. We also have an investigator who's a really tough nut to crack, but last Sunday she finally came to church and accepted a date for baptism!

Thank you so much for keeping me up to date on what's going on back home! You've had a lot of conferences! We had a fireside that we went to Sunday night and we talked a lot about temples. We were all so excited for them to announce a temple in Thailand, but it never came. I'm super excited for that day and right now, we're working on preparing Thailand for that day.

We ate a bunch of pizza for District meeting, had a crazy, ridiculous lip sync at the end of English class, had my first dinner at a member's house, had a fun sports night, and of course baptisms on Sunday!

That's pretty much the week summed up and the highlight was the baptisms! Miracles happen everyday and I'm seeing them more and more. Everyday there are things that seem to work out and there's no doubt it's due to divine intervention.

Thanks for all that you've done and do, and keep me updated on Diana. I'll try to smile bigger and more often, too!

Elder Sun