Dear Mom,
This past week was another pretty good one. Sometimes, there are days where we feel more tired and exhausted than others, but it is all swallowed up in in the joy of Christ.
We had an absolutely amazing, life changing, spiritual visit with the Bishop on Sunday night. His wife makes some pretty great spaghetti and they invited us over. What neither of us knew was that the Bishop's LA older sister and husband would also be coming over. We had a great visit with them and simply talked about their past and conversion stories. The Bishop's wife had been LA for many, many years and it was great to see her share her testimony. Bishop told us she hadn't had much of any opportunity to talk about the Gospel or share about the gospel in over 10 years. We also shared a simple message of Easter and the hope of the Atonement with them. There were many points during the hour where she was brought to tears. Each time, it was in reflection of the love of Christ and of her own previous experiences. I, myself, was brought to the brink of tears during the lesson. The Spirit was very strong in that house and it helped me to see that power of a simple, plain, message of the Atonement and of the love of God. The conversion story that the bishop shared along with his sister made me think of the stories of other converts that I knew. She didn't believe at first. She was against her younger brother learning at the start, until she, herself, decided to try it out and she secretly prayed one day. She explained how her heart was gradually opened and she was more and more willing to try out the things the foreign missionaries asked her to. She was eventually baptized just a month after the Bishop was. It was just a really, really cool story that I can't translate and relate back adequately, but there's little better than being able to hear and see how people's lives have been blessed by the Gospel.
Another amazing experience we had this week was the baptism of a little 11 year old niece of a member. This member was the only member of the church in their family and had just gotten back from their mission. She had helped her little niece learn for a number of weeks, but the mother of this niece wouldn't give permission for her to be baptized. After some time passed, that permission came almost all of a sudden when the mom was willing to try to get an answer through prayer herself. I'm not sure what the full story is, but what struck me the most was the testimony of this little 11 year old girl at the end of the baptism. Even though she was only 11 and may not have been able to fully understand all of the 'complexities' of the Gospel, her testimony was so simple and sweet and genuine that the Spirit was so, so strong. She bore simple testimony of how she knew that God loved her and how she came to know the church was true. It was such a powerful experience. What started out as simply curiosity as to why her cousin was going to church each week, gradually grew into a testimony.
This past week was also Easter. We had a stake Easter activity last Saturday. I felt that it was super powerful, too.
We've seen a great desire to share the gospel amongst some of the members here, especially the new members. I feel like that is one of the greatest indicators of the 'depth' of someone's conversion. When they have changed themselves and desire to see the change in others through a sincere, genuine, motivation of love.
A very short letter this week to make up for all of the times I've said I'd write short, but didn't.
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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