Dear Mom,
--
Happy Mother's Day! I am so infinitely grateful for Mother's, especially my own. I think one thing that has stood out to me the most from the last few sessions of general conference is the frequency that the speakers talk about families, mothers, and love. Love of God, love for God, and it of course makes me think about how great the love of Mother's is. I believe that the thing that gives God the greatest joy are His children and we are the thing He loves the most. He has given us families so we can feel of a type of love that He has for us for ourselves.
This week has been so great with special training and a whole slew of other things. We are getting moved in and more settled with our new teaching arrangements here in Don Mueang. It's been a rough transition, but is now looking way up. All of the members are on board and everyone here is so willing to help out, help teach, and have us visit them. We had a day this week where we spent around 9 hours serving, talking with, and visiting members with our Bishop. He is such a cool guy and wants to see the ward grow and progress. An interested principle that I've heard is to help fix a problem, we have to chop at the roots and not just the surface problem. We have to dig down and find the source of the problem if we are going to see real change and progress. I've thought about how we can do this without just addressing a problem in a 'too straight forward' kind of way.
The work here in our area is doing good. When we buckle down and focus on a goal, we seem to be able to achieve it. We have two investigators who are progressing well and have goals to be baptized this week - S Uum and B Best. We have a few others that are also progressing that we're working with. With all that we do, helping people come unto Christ is by far the most rewarding thing. Seeing the change in people's lives as they come unto Christ and begin to realize how much God loves them is for sure the joy that is mentioned in the scriptures. I am so thankful for the opportunity to be a missionary and help others come to know of His love.
During this period, we are again refocusing on working with members and continuing to seek referrals. Just from talking to a few members and the Bishop here, and in other areas, church leaders seem to really like this new way of working. I think it is really just an essential new understanding of the importance of families, love, and how we help members with their missionary work. I like to think that as we come to understand the love of God, it will generate a desire in us to share the Gospel with those whom we love - friends and family - and we as missionaries are simply here to help members know how to share and to invite all to come unto Christ. I am excited to be able to work with members, but it is still something that I have not yet 'mastered'. We still need to find a good balance in the work and within our relationships with members. We are to help members have an enthusiasm for the work, but we meet to do it in a loving way and in a way that is appropriate to our callings. It's a balance that I have not yet figured out. We help them to see and realize, remember the blessings they have received, then encourage them to share with others. Just like investigators, we can't make them or force them to do anything, but we can kind of help nudge them in the right direction. Sometimes I feel like we just try to 'get referrals' or 'milk the members' instead of genuinely trying to 'help' them. I feel like sometimes we say more 'you need to share the gospel' and 'give us referrals' more than 'we genuinely care'. It's a hard balance.
I am confident that we can effectively work with members as we make it a priority to love the members more and remember the importance and significance of the calling that we all have, to share the Gospel. It's definitely not a chore, or a burden, but something that must come from a sincere, genuine heart/desire. Having that desire is step 1, but the steps after that are important too. Do everything with love and by the Spirit. That's the key. We'll work on applying these principles this week and I'm excited to see how it'll go. I would love to know how you are all sharing the gospel. If it's true that all members are missionaries, I think that that would mean that members are the best missionaries.
Picture: we had a wedding at the church last Saturday. It was way cool.
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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