Dear Mom,
This week was a really good week. We're still seeing miracle after miracle day to day. We didn't have very many investigators at church this past week or any baptisms, but our investigator pool is still growing and I guess it's just time to really help people progress. We've been taking it slow with people, but we have several people with dates for baptism. A lot of people, actually. It's been a slower week, but not short of miracles.
We have many young investigators and they usually they aren't super interesting in learning about the Gospel (because they are usually more interested in us.... #missionprobs as Sister Sun says), but one group of friends definitely felt the Spirit at church when we taught them and they are accepting well. It's a miracle, really. We first met with the friend of a member last week while inviting at a market. She said she was friends with a member at our church so we invited her and her group of friends. She is really interested, understands well and wants to be baptized, but she doesn't have parent permission. She brought several friends to FHE Monday night and it was super fun. We had a lot of investigators come for FHE. More people there were non-members than members. We then met with some more new investigators from this group of friends. It's really cool seeing how small the world is and how the influence of peers can have such a strong affect. We met with some more people from this group again in a Gospel lesson-type setting on Thursday. We introduced more about prayer, baptism, and really just got to know them better. We committed them to prayer, but we weren't sure how interested they really were. Then another miracle happened. We called and invited them to play sports with us on Friday, but they said they had gotten into a car accident Thursday night and had a friend in the hospital. We went and visited them on Saturday. It was a really humbling thing to see. This person, an investigator and friend of ours, would probably never be able to walk again or without extreme difficulty. When we talked to them over the phone, they said that they had prayed to return home safely and were wondering if this was a sign that what they were starting to learn was bad. We assured them it wasn't and this experience, I feel, actually really strengthened their faith. The person who had prayed before the accident didn't have any serious injuries. When we visited her friend in the hospital, we learned that they had prayed together right after the accident, too. They had also prayed together in the hospital. It was so great to hear about their feelings about prayer, and it was only the second day after we had introduced them to prayer. When we asked her friend if she wanted a Priesthood blessing, she confidently said yes she did. Such faith without even having learned much. We then met with two other of her friends at church on Sunday. They accepted baptismal dates with enthusiasm and when we shared our testimonies with them, you could tell that they really felt the Spirit. That story, even though I didn't share it very clearly, is one of the amazing miracles I've felt this week. The Lord is really preparing people, no matter what age, what background, or who they were in the past. They told us that that night they were talking about what we had told them that Thursday about prayer and baptism. It was a miracle to hear about this experience and the feelings that they had. The faith of these people is so strong. The person driving the motorcycle/scooter had a large part of their foot cut away, down to the bone. They showed us pictures, it didn't look very good. Attached is a picture from FHE and English class.
We ran into another friend of an investigator as we were inviting. It was another miracles to hear that he, too, said that he wanted to be baptized. He told us about his hopes, dreams, and how he wanted to change his life, he wanted to be a missionary like us in the future and things like that. Several of these younger investigators have told us similar things. It's really great to see the change in people's lives. Now we just need to lead them to baptism.
We also met with an older lady who we found out is from the same church as another RC. We visited with her with this member and she is accepting well. She said she has prayed, but doesn't feel that this is true. The miracle her is that she is still progressing, reading the Book of Mormon, and has committed to come to our church this Sunday. I'm confident that if she will open her heart and mind all the way, she will feel of the Spirit.
We also have been able to work with a very special family referral. Surin doesn't have very many families (especially strong ones), but this family came to us and told us that on of their friends wanted to learn with us. He's a 12 year old boy and at first we thought maybe he was learning because of his friends, family, or something like that, but we met with him and he is completely willing to come on his own. He told us he felt like he needed and wanted to be baptize and is very excited for it. He's been friends with this family for a long time and has come to church numerous times. This Sunday, he'll be getting baptized after he learns all of the lessons. He has a lot of faith and has really progressed all on his own up to this point.
On Thursday, we also had an appointment with a new investigator, but they never showed up. We were very disappointed and we really didn't want to go out and invite for only a really short amount of time to just come back to the church because we had another appointment afterwards. We called people and were actually able to meet with another new investigator who had a lot of questions and was interested in learning more. They spoke clear English with a really thick southern accent. It was a humorous first visit for my companion because while he can understand and speak English very well, he had an extremely difficult time understanding a southern accent. This investigator also brought a friend with her and they both said they really want to come back and learn more.
Most of our weeks start of slow at first with P-day and district meeting on Tuesday, but by Sunday we can see the fruits of our labors. Like my trainer once said, it's like a cycle that repeats every week and Sunday is judgment day. I've seen this pattern in the past couple of weeks as we start out each week and each day with a new fire and passion. This past week was companion switch-offs week so this week was a little slow, but a good opportunity to work with other missionaries.
Elder Sang is such an amazing example. Probably the best thing is his true, sincere love for everyone we meet and his desire to help them no matter what it is. He may not know the mission rules, Preach my Gospel, or have a focus on Baptism, but he has such a rich, intense love that all of our investigators and people we meet and feel the sincerity and desire he has. I'm definitely at least a little bit concerned that we'll lose some investigators once he's gone, but I'm going to do my best to develop the Christ-like love that he has to help the people we work with more.
The miracles are so great and the people are so awesome. I love being a missionary and I love the Lord. I feel like one thing I've learned this week is that in order to invite the Spirit into our lives, into our teaching and testifying, we really need to just open our mouths and trust that the Lord will lead us to say what we need to.
--
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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