Sunday, August 16, 2015
Early Email this Week
Dear Mom,
--
Due to all of the hustle and bustle from Elder Holland, we were told to send an email to our families on this day instead of the regular Monday and also our p-day is going to be in Bangkok. Not a lot has changed from the past few days this week. However, I'm very overjoyed because of the recent baptism we have had and for several of our investigators who are making good progress.
I hope all is well with you. I need to apologize for not saying happy Mother's Day earlier, but Happy Mother's Day! Also, thanks everyone so much for all of the letters, candy, and good thoughts. I'm keeping all of the letters I receive, but I ate the candy already.
One investigator that we're working with is Sister Nuum (นุ่ม) has a lot more faith than she thinks. We met her at Big C, where she works - Skippy Wonderland is the name of the place. We ate next door one p-day last transfer there. It was at the very end of the p-day right before we were going to go back to the church, and we were inviting a long the way as usual. We stopped to get drinks at a drink stand and invited the drink worker to learn about Christ. Right after we were done and started to head back, Sister Nuum walks up to us and asks us what we were doing. We invited her to learn and got her number, but she would always say she's very busy. We met with her maybe once a few weeks later, right after she was done with work. It was around 8pm and we weren't sure she would be coming. She learned with us, said didn't know much, but was interested to learn - but never had time. Another several weeks went by and when we called she finally met with us again. We've meet with her a few times since then and she even came to church. We met her again on Tuesday. She said several good experiences she's had with prayer. She said how it was wonderful - everything she prayed for, came true. She would always say how her work is very tiring and stressful, but when she prayed that work wouldn't make her tired, she wasn't tired at the end of the day. Ever since meeting with her, she has met more, and more frequently. We bring up baptism with her, but she says she wants to learn more first. When we taught the plan of salvation on Tuesday. She asked a lot of questions. She has a very good desire for Gospel knowledge. I know she'll definitely continue to progress until she's ready to be baptized because all this time when she's turned the challenge to be baptized down, it's just because she doesn't fully understand it (spiritual understanding). She actually accepted a date for baptism and we told her we would help her to prepare for that date, but with us going to Bangkok, I'm not entirely sure how, but she'll receive a witness as she prays, reads, and truly wants to know. She reminds me a lot of another investigator that we me and taught last transfer. That person unfortunately has lost interest..she progressed very far and we taught her a lot, but she never received a spiritual witness and so eventually stopped coming. That person made it all the way up to her baptismal date though. Sister Nuum also has to work on Sundays. She came to church, but left right after sacrament. She said she can get one day off each week, but her boss usually won't let it be on a Saturday or Sunday because that's when work is busiest. She's afraid of what her boss will say if she asks for Sunday off. She can do it for sure, but we are going to work on building up her faith first so that she can be sure for herself first.
The 13 and 14 year olds (Benz and Nook, เบ็นส์ and นุ๊ก) we are teaching are still doing well. They're reading, praying, come to church and activities, and we're just anxious to meet them again. And their families.
Sister Uum (อุ้ม), is also doing great. She was one person that we met near the beginning of last transfer who a met with once or twice, then never had time to meet again. For two weeks we didn't see her, until finally she came back. Now she's willing to meet pretty much every day and has come to church, activities, and also the baptismal service we had yesterday - which was a really good service for being on a weekday. We've taught her all of the lessons already, but she says she's still not very confident about whether she wants to be baptized or not. I think so, but she also has school on Sundays and we're worried that if she gets baptized while also having to learn, she won't receive the spiritual strength from keeping the Sabbath and will fall away. If she builds up the faith enough to ask for Sundays off of school (which she should be able to do), she'll be ready. She said she's the kind of person that once sets their mind on something, will do it for sure, but right now she's not sure if she wants to be baptized or not.
The baptism was a great service yesterday. We, the four missionaries, sang How Firm a Foundation for the special musical number. We were pretty sure the baptism wouldn't start on time because people usually come late to things and some of them would be coming straight from school and probably late, but I was very surprised when we actually started very on-time. The first investigator came at 2pm for the 5pm service, and the other came at 4pm. Everything went smooth, and because the church doesn't have any suits, we went out and bought some so they all wore matching suits, haha. Each of them shared great testimonies and we didn't have any big disasters, the church had water, the font wasn't any more green than usual, no screaming kids ran around, and nobody had to be rebaptized more than twice. One of them shared more of a talk than a testimony, but the Spirit was strong. At first, one of them said they weren't very excited, kind-of so-so about it, but as they got up and right after they came out of the font, they said they wanted to change their answer because they felt really good and really excited. There are a few interesting things that happened though. Recently, we've had a lot of people not show up for appointments, one investigator who had quit smoking for several days now, fell again and actually showed up at the church drunk, too. He said he had a rough day, it was mother's day (Happy Mother's Day!!!! In Thailand, August 12 is Mother's Day) and he just showed up right before the baptism. He wasn't too lucid so we had him stay on the third floor until after the baptism was over. Actually he came down before the baptism was over without a shirt on, but it wasn't too big of a distraction. It was very sad to see him in such a state, but I know that his heart is good because, even while drunk, he prayed that he could quit smoking and drinking. We took him home afterwards and plan to continue to help him. One thing that struck me was that he said that very few missionaries who taught him, would continue to teach him for as long as we had (about three transfers now). Usually when people have a hard time progressing and you're not sure if they have a real desire or not, that's when they get dropped. I'm not sure if it was because he was drunk or not, but he shared his life story with us and said he would continue to try.
Also, that day (Mother's Day, baptism day), was the birthday of an RC of ours. Right after the baptism, we had cake and ice-cream for her. It was a great time. We ate the leftover cake from zone training.
Except for all of the paperwork and records, it was a good past week.
ขอแสดงความนับถือ, Sincerely,
เอ็ลเดอร์ ซัน Elder Sun
ผู้สอนศาสนา Missionary
ศาสนจักรของพระเยซูคริสต์แห่งวิสุทธิชนยุคสุดท้าย The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
คณะเผยแผ่ กรุงเทพฯ, ประเทศไทย Bangkok, Thailand Mission
Another week
Dear Mom,
It's great to hear from Cindy's kids! I remember how cute and nice they are, but I'm sure a lot has changed since I last saw them. You'd probably also be surprised how cute Thai babies are. We also play a lot of soccer. Tell Zoey and Tayton we'll play for sure. I want to know what monstrous contraption Kelton can come up with.
I also love the words Sister Sun shares in her emails and the challenge she issued everyone to experiment with virtue. She's much more elegant than I could ever explain, but I definitely agree that what comes out of us, starts within us. In order to truly allow the Atonement to change us, it must start with the desire of our hearts and must change the very nature of who we are. We had zone training this last week and we talked about desires. A desire is much more than just a want, it's a deep, lasting, passion. In order to change our hearts and desires, we not only must stop negative things, but we must replace them with good things. Must be anxiously engaged in something positive or we will flatline in our eternal progression or, even worse, start moving in the wrong direction. I would recommend reading this talk by Elder Maxwell about the desires of our hearts: According to the Desire of [Our] Hearts.
This Saturday and Sunday, Elder Holland is going to be coming to Thailand. All of the missionaries will have the opportunity to talk with him. I'm excited to have the opportunity to hear from, and meet with an apostle of the Lord. As I thought about how I could prepare by reading the scriptures passages and coming up with questions, I also realized that perhaps a good way to prepare to meet him would be to read more about his life and experiences. As we prepare our hearts and minds to receive inspiration from an Apostle of the Lord, it just makes me think about how we should be constantly preparing to receive revelation from the Spirit every day.
Sorry for the cut off sentence. Sometimes my thoughts run much faster than I am able to even understand. At first, she was very strong in the other church. She didn't really seem to accept very much and seemed stuck to the other church. When she started to open up a little bit and came to our church, the minister at the other church called her and asked where she was. It was a critical decision making point and she said how she didn't go to any church one week because she didn't know. She then went back to the Hope Church for a week. She felt bad for leaving the old church. We were worried that we had lost her, but we kept meeting without, despite how inconvenient it was sometimes. We would meet her at her restaurant which was kind of loud and would have a lot of people there sometimes. But, now she has a lot of faith, has really opened her heart more and seems very willing and accepting. She is even going to close her shop so we can have a baptismal service this Wednesday.
This week was a very fantastic week. We've seen continual success throughout the week as we've tried to always work more diligently. It's easy for my companion, he's very diligent, but at times I feel it is difficult to place the most important things first and balancing all of the things that need to be done, but I feel that it's almost a blessing when one is too busy as opposed to having too much idol time.
For the most part, we've been very busy each day and have had many blessings in the work. On Monday, morning we met with the parents of a long time member and hope to share the gospel with them to open their hearts. We also met with other new investigators on Monday. They are so good and nice! They were very, very shy at first and were interested in learning English, but we've meet with them numerous times this week and they even came to church. They read everything we give them and have so much faith already. They're willing to learn, change their lives, and have made friends at church very easily and have said that they want to be baptized. However, they're only around the ages of 14 so they're pretty dependent on their parents for rides to and from church, but every day they're so willing and as they continue to grow in faith, they'll be strong members for sure.
One investigator that we've been working with for a while has had a problem with smoking for as long as we've known him (for nearly over 10 years he's been coming to church), but just this past week he says he hasn't smoked once. He's quit for a few days in the past, but would start up again, but I believe that this time his heart has truly changed. He was always a nice guy, but just didn't have any confidence in himself that he could do it. We've been trying to help him build up his faith and rely on the Lord.
For the three investigators that are going to be baptized very soon, they're all still good. Even though with all of the stress, business, and crazy things that come up in their lives, they're still willing to make the Lord the priority in their lives. They all came to church on Sunday, met the Branch president, and continue to grow in understanding and testimony. The zone leaders who interviewed them even said that they were impressed.
One of them was unfortunately unable to be interviewed before the zone leaders had to leave, but they came to the church as soon as they possible could. They live far from the church, but was one of the first ones at church on Sunday, too. We've met their mom, and little sister. She would tell us how she would talk to her friends about this religion and her beliefs, but her friends wouldn't understand. I also love hearing the stories of faith that these people would share with us. All we do is introduce it, but when the people we teach take it, apply it, and have a true desire for it, then the miracles and spiritual experiences happen.
One, reoccurring theme that I've noticed in the work and as I've been reading around the end of the book of Helaman is how diligently Satan works to stop people from seeing, accepting, or finding truth. We've been trying to get everything set up and prepared for the baptism service with interviews, clothes,etc, but something always seems to wrong. We've had a meeting in Buriram, then in Bangkok, and several over obstacles come up whenever we've tried to plan something. Also, the interviews didn't go as expected, but faith and diligence always prevail.
We had a large English class on Tuesday, and a lot of investigators come too! One investigator who we had bet with before, but lost contact with, also came back. They apologized deeply that they were so busy and had to go out of town, but they said they had much more free time now and was willing to meet. This person also came to church on Sunday despite also having to go to school immediately after Sacrament. It's so amazing to see the desire and faith that people have. This person's mom is also interested and we were told that as the mom would read, she would ask many questions that our investigator didn't know and would then ask us. We first met this person near the beginning of last transfer. She recently became Christian because her mom was Christian. We taught her a few times, but then she stopped answering her phone. She would say she's busy, and couldn't meet, but then I would almost also call it a change of heart that caused her to want to meet more. She said she hadn't read the BoM much because not long after we gave her it, her mom asked to read it. She also came to English class, sports night, and church. I believe that she will be baptized.
We also met with two other new investigators who we street contacted. I think the majority of the time, it's very hard to get people contacted on the street to agree to meet and make a specific appointment, but these two kept it and are over the age of 18 this time. They showed good interest when they came and I can very much see them progressing well. They had to also learn on Sunday so couldn't go to church, but that day before we met with them, they said that they were too busy and couldn't come, but as soon as they found out they could, they called us back and said they could meet. They came on time, they listened well. Like many people, they didn't have much knowledge of Christianity. We had a good lesson with them and they accepted well. Their names were Lettuce and Ant.
This past Sunday, we may have had more investigators at church than I have seen in a very long time. On top of that, most of them they came on time. The funny thing is that they were all investigators that we've been working with for a while - none of the people who we had called the day before who said they would come came. One of the investigators to get baptized, S Aam, didn't come on time. It made me extremely nervous. I remember that I felt very anxious and worried. Also with S Gaew (Cup). If they didn't come to church, they wouldn't be able to be baptized on their dates. But they did come, and stayed for all three hours.
This next week should be full of much fruit to harvest that have grown from this past week. I'm very excited for all of our investigators right now and I know that the Lord allows us to be partakers of the joy in the fruit of the harvest as we exercise faith in Him by working diligently according to the Spirit.
Thanks for your tremendous, stupendous, and literally unbelievable example you wonderful mom. Your son,
Elder Sun
I have a great desire to write and share the amazing stories of all of the people we're working with because of how much I love all of them so much and am truly impressed at the changes that some of them have made in their life, but there's not enough time and no way to begin to explain about them. The small details are less important, but the true conversion that takes place in the hearts of the people is what matters most.
ขอแสดงความนับถือ, Sincerely,
เอ็ลเดอร์ ซัน Elder Sun
ผู้สอนศาสนา Missionary
ศาสนจักรของพระเยซูคริสต์แห่งวิสุทธิชนยุคสุดท้าย The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
คณะเผยแผ่ กรุงเทพฯ, ประเทศไทย Bangkok, Thailand Mission
This week...
Dear Mom,
The first thing I want to say is please tell Bro. Nichols that he will be in my prayers a lot. I hope it's not super serious. I know that the Lord gives the toughest challenges to His most diligent people (for example all of my companions have to deal with me).
I hope all is well with you. Here this past week it has rained nearly every day. The streets are all flooded and my scriptures get soaked. Investigators don't show up for appointments when it rains and people, nearly everyone, say they are sick during the rain. BUT I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!!! I love being a missionary and I love all of the many, many amazing things that I've been able to see the Lord do through His servants. I love all of the people we meet, every last one of them and I love all of the things that we get to do.
This week has been so amazing, to sum it all up, it looks like three people will be getting baptized this Sunday. It really makes me think about how the Lord works. He is a God of miracles, mercy, and is often said to work on a 'last-door' basis. We've worked really hard these past few weeks, and are now about to see the fruit of that labor through the miracles that the Lord has mercifully given us. I continually see miracles everyday and it feels like the weeks go by so quickly. I'm very excited for the upcoming week.
As for prevalent miracles: We had an investigator we met with several weeks ago who stopped answering their phone come back. One day they called us back and came to church, it was so cool. A lot of people seemed to like her, too.
To follow up with some investigators; they're all really good. Whenever we meet with them, they have read a lot, have good questions, and are super willing to learn, but not only that, but also have a desire to share. We had the opportunity to visit the parents of one of our investigators at their house. It was a great visit and they are very friendly people. It's easy to see what makes these investigators so great when you just take a look at the people who raised them. It makes me even more grateful for my mom who raised me.
We also found out the the grandmother of another one of our investigators is in the hospital. She's pretty old and not very well. The grandmother of this investigator is pretty much her mother and she doesn't have anyone else to look after her. We've visited her in the hospital a few times already. She also has a little sister that we were able to meet. When we talked to her about her desire to be baptized and her faith, she told us how she was confident that she could help the rest of her family get baptized, too. She had already invited her sister to come to church, too. Her sister then came to church last Sunday, too, and we taught her the Gospel. When we showed up to visit her grandma and her at the hospital, she was reading and studying in the BoM.
These two have already made several friends in the Branch. It was great to see the Branch grow in just overall atmosphere when people come into the church, too. Usually, we only have two youth come to church every week, but with that LA family back, and these new investigators and their family, we had a large group of young adults this last Sunday. So much youth and energy in the church that Sunday. It was a miracle Sunday afternoon when we called the AP's to ask permission for these two to be baptized. We weren't sure whether or not we would get permission. If not, they would have to wait until the 23rd to be baptized because on the 16th, Elder Holland is coming and we're having a special meeting in Bangkok. We also have transfers again on the 20th and it's likely I'd be moving. We were super excited to hear the AP's said they could be baptized. We gave them the permission forms for their parents to sign, they went home, and came back later that day with the form signed - super fast.
Another investigator that we've been working with, recently accepted a baptismal date. At first they were very unsure and refused, said they wanted to learn a lot more first and needed more time, but by the end of this week, they have changed a lot and have accepted a baptismal date for this week. She's the person who was a member of the New Hope church that I think I talked about before. She was very much
We also just met the parents of a long time member this morning; it was so great to be able to meet them. We have an RC who is going to be receiving the priesthood next Sunday as well and as we keep moving with faith, even more miracles will continue to appear.
I'd like to share Helaman 5. Especially the latter half of the chapter when the Lamanites were encircled by a cloud of darkness. They were greatly afraid, but one of them remember the Savior, they prayed, repents, and the cloud dispersed. Not only that, but instead of darkness, they were then encircled by fire and light that had surrounded Lehi and Nephi. Whenever we feel like we're surrounded by darkness, we can pray, repent, and feel "filled with that joy which is unspeakable and full of glory" which we will then desire to declare it as the Lamanites did. This was one of the turning points for the Lamanite people and is a great story I'd encourage everyone to read.
These are just some of the super awesome things that we've got to see this week. I'll keep it short for this week. There's plenty more, but I'm forgetful.
Fast Sunday was really good. I loved the testimonies that everyone shared and I also cried a little during mine.
Elder Sun
ขอแสดงความนับถือ, Sincerely,
เอ็ลเดอร์ ซัน Elder Sun
ผู้สอนศาสนา Missionary
ศาสนจักรของพระเยซูคริสต์แห่งวิสุทธิชนยุคสุดท้าย The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
คณะเผยแผ่ กรุงเทพฯ, ประเทศไทย Bangkok, Thailand Mission
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