Ties in Thailand: The last week of the transfer...

Dear Mom,

I hope everyone is doing great over there. It's the last week of the transfer here, and we're not sure who is moving. There is always some great excitement that comes around transfers time.

Our Bishop has asked us to tell you how much he is grateful for you. He thanks you for your great example and for your success in raising great kids. Our Bishop is very impressed with my companion and me and wants us to tell you he'll look after us well.

This week was especially good with Stake Conference and working with ward leaders. We continue to try to build up trust with the members and continue to see a great desire from the members to take part in missionary work. I feel like the next step is working with the members to direct this new desire and fire.

The church at Stake Conference was so packed! There were 560 people in attendance. We were so surprised and excited to see so many people come. So many traveled from other areas at 560 is actually one of the highest attendance we've seen in the zone. There is so much great work happening all over the zone. There were people crowded in the church all day, it was so hectic and crazy, but it was also just awesome to feel the good atmosphere and feel of the Spirit. We were so busy, we didn't even get a chance to eat yesterday, but we were able to talk to, see, and teach so many people. We had eight investigators there and were able to teach several of them who are continuing to progress. We were also able to interview a candidate for baptism, she was a really sweet, old lady in her 90s who has so much love for God. In the evening, we had a baptismal service. One super great miracle from that is the story of Sister Jane. Elder Curtis and I had actually taught her at first, but after a few months, we gave her for the Sisters to teach. A few more months later, she is now baptized with such a big change that has happened over that time.

A super amazing miracle that happened this week is the progress on the parents of an RC. This RC has been a member for around four months, and ever since they were baptized, they've been working on sharing the Gospel with their family. Missionaries and members have visited them fairly often, but it didn't look like the parents were making any solid progress. We had stopped focusing on them for this reason, but this RC still never gave up and continued to read and pray with them. The parents weren't ever against the church, but never saw the importance of it. They were completely fine being Buddhist. One day, we called this RC up and asked if we could meet with their parents again, and they said they were sitting talking about it and decided that they were all going to become Christian. We're not sure exactly what happened yet, but from what it sounded and looked like was the persistence and example of this RC as well as other members who never gave up on them had had a strong influence with these two parents. We were also able to teach an older sibling of this RC a while back. Their older sibling lives where there is no church and we were able to unexpectedly meet them because they were visiting that day. We found out that this RC's sibling has since read the BoM everyday and has started to go to a christian church every week and is now a declared 'Christian'. This family of miracles is such a great story that shows the importance and power of members doing missionary work. It just so happened that the day we had told them we were going to visit and teach them again was the same day an area 70, Elder Meredith, had planned to visit their home as well. So many things have seemed to line up well for this family and it has been such a blessing to get to work with them.

Our English class here is growing, slowly but surely. We've gotten several new investigators from it - it's such a great resource that we are still trying to implement better. We just went out with the Bishop and several other members to go inviting at a market on Friday where we handed out flyers and talked to a bunch of people for English class. We had so many people interested. We only went out for not even an hour and talked to so many people that were very interested.

We also went on a switch off with the Pakkret elders. I was with Elder Stevens and I was much impressed with his sincerity and genuine concern for everyone, whether or not they were interested in religion. He also asked people if there was anything they needed help with and established a good relationship with people so quick. I honestly feel that it is missionaries like him that we need in order to build up good trust with members, investigators, and everyone. We were able to meet many people who accepted us back because they could feel of his love and His love.

Two things I've learned from this past transfer are the importance of being genuine in who we are and also in our efforts to follow Christ. When we honestly and earnestly strive to become more like the Savior, we will have more charity, more love, more patience, and we will experience a chance wrought by the Atonement. After this, we can then be able to have a positive influence in the lives of others. Others will be able to see our example and our love and will be led to Him as well. If we wish to have more love for others, look to the Savior. There is no more powerful motivator than charity, the pure love of Christ. This requires us to be upright and firm in who we are and what we stand for.