Week 17 Chiang Mai 10 Months in Thailand

Dear Friends and Family

This past week was a week full of miracles! Let me explain. This one investigator that we have been teaching for the past two weeks had great faith. We met with this lady just about everyday. It was great to see how she changed from day to day. At first she didnt pray or really read the scriptures. After about the 3 time she started to read. She even started to highlight and underline them as well. She has shown great improvement over the last weeks! This last Sunday was the day that she was going to get baptized. She started to say that she wasnt ready or something to the affect of her sister and her friends didnt want her to change religions. Elder Watkins (another one of the Elders in our area) and I talked to her. Elder Watkins and I a few days before taught this lady and I shared a scripture from Lehis Dream in 1 Nephi 8. I think I shared verse 11-12. We explained to her that there would be people there to mock and to point at her. Also that she was not to be afraid. We told her that the fruit that she was going to eat this Sunday was baptism. She Elder Watkins asked the lady a few questions. Do you know that God is real? Do you know that He loves you? Do you know that Jesus Christ is real? Do you know that this is the church on the earth? All of her answers were yes. So we told her to go and pray about her decision and she came back before she was baptized and told us that she was going to get baptized! She was nervous but I told her dont worry your just going to get all wet for about 2 seconds and thats it ha. After she gave a great testimony and told us about how she had a dream about Jesus Christ. She said when she was in another church she never had a dream about Christ. The other day she had 2 dreams about Christ and I think this strengthen her testimony!  

The other miracle was a girl that we have been teaching for the past month! She has been really receptive to what we have been teaching her. She at first was like, "Why do you want me to learn about this" we told her because God loves you!! He wants you to join His church. I remember one day we were outside teaching her about the Plan of Salvation. She didnt really ask about questions. She later told us that she went home and prayed about what we taught and then she read in her scriptures. After reading and praying she found her answer! She knew that she had to get baptized! The only thing was that she was 17 years old. She had to wait to turn 18 because her parents wouldnt let her get baptized. Good thing her birthday was one day before she got baptized. Now what a miracle. A girl who wanted to get baptized just had to wait just a little while to make her "OWN" decision. She came to church and you could just see the smile on her face! She was so happy to get baptized! These two girls are good examples of faith and miracles! 

I have to tell you one thing. I was met this week by a white guy. I was walking to my bike to go back to the church from inviting and I just waved at people like I normally do. He stops his motorcycle. Now take into consideration that I dont know this guy at all. He just starts going off of me. "Why dont you take your BS and take it back to the Bible belt. If they want to learn about Jesus they will come find you. You dont have to shove it down their throats." This guy was just going off on me. All I did was wave at him. Elder Tamang is a fighter and he walked up behind me and he was ready to fight the guy if he made a move. That guy didnt even give me a chance to respond. Elder Tamang told me dont worry about that guy. Elder Tamang said, Just know that you stand with Christ. I remember riding back to the church and thinking, they couldnt find the church or find us if we not here in Thailand. I dont force anyone to do anything. It made me really sad. I know that Mormons get a lot of persecution. I know that we dont bash on other religions. I just dont understand why others bash on the Mormons sometimes, not all the time. 

We also taught a lady from Burma the other day as well. She speaks a little English and Thai and most Burmese. I tell you what, I wish you couldve been in that lesson with us. We had a member who can speak Burmese translate for us. Now that is a Asian language. It was amazing. Chinese and Japanese dont sound Asian anymore ha. 

Well I tell you what the Books Helaman and 3rd Nephi give a lot of insight of what will happen in the last days. I am currently studying these and they are blowing my mind! I also read D&C 84 about the oath and covenant of the Priesthood. I suggest that you read that section. Elder Watkins introduced me to a talk from, Tad R Callister called: What are the Blueprints to Christ Church. Oh boy is it mind blowing. Look into it for sure. A investment worth making! 

Till I write again! 

Love Elder Hinckley

Baby elephant following mamma!

Those are rain clouds up ahead!

Traffic in Chiang Mai!

Week 16 Chiang Mai

Dear Family and Friends,

This last week was a great week with a few miracles! It was a great booster for me. Things are going well her in Chaing Mai. I will start off with a lesson that we had with one of our investigators. This girl has met with us a few times already and she was telling us how she hasnt really been praying. We tried to really explain how prayer is the way to get answers to anything and to really communicate with our Father in heaven. We had a member in that lesson and what he told this girl was something I really liked. This member told this girl to pray but not only to talk the whole time but to wait and listen. You can talk the whole time thats fine and then get up and go on. What he said made me really ponder about prayer. What he said was that when you are done talking to your Heavenly Father, keep your eyes closed and wait for Heavenly Fathers response to your prayer. He said sometimes when you get done you will miss out on what is trying to be related to you. As soon as you open your eyes you could miss out on a special answer. Imagine Heavenly Father reaching out to you with an answer right as you open your eyes. I hope that made sense. It really made me think how I will pray from here on out. 

Another miracle this week was a girl from English. This last Tuesday she comes up to me after we gave our spiritual thought and asked how or what do I have to do to go to church? I said just come at 9 or 1. She said okay, I will come at 1. I said I would call her Saturday and just remind her. Well she came and she said that she felt the spirit so strong. That isnt the miracle though. About 2-3 months ago a spiritual thought was given about the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chasity. At the beginning of all of our English classes we teach everyone who to pray and we pray. She was telling us how since that day she has been praying with her friend to know the truth. She has been praying for the last 2-3 months on her own. Her friend is not a member either. She even skipped her class at school just to come. She only had time for Sacrament. She asked what I have to do. We said you have to get baptized. We will be teaching this girl from here on out. The Lord is truly preparing many of God"s children everyday! 

About two Tuesdays ago a lady and her boyfriend came to English. This lady was contacted by my companion and called us about 2 Tuesdays ago. She came to English and I gave a spiritual thought about baptism and how everyone needs it. She said in the middle of my thought," Yeah Ive been baptized". It was interesting. After it was all over she came up to me and said this is my boyfriend, will you teach him? I asked the man, How would you feel if we taught you? Would you feel weird? The man said, No. Okay lets teach you. So we taught him about Temples and baptism in the first lesson. He accepted a date and we have been meeting with this man on a constant basis. This man is very willing to follow the example of Jesus Christ. This man will get married to his girlfriend in a while, I dont know when. The thing is in the first lesson we asked if he wanted a eternal family. He said yes I do. I said baptism will help. This man was baptized just yesterday. You should have seen the smile on his face when he came up out of the water! JOY! He will be able to go to the temple in just a short while and get married to a lovely wife. This man has made the single most important decision in his life, which will bless him for the rest of his life. 

The other miracle was that we met with a girl who we met just "randomly" from another member. She has come to church before. We asked if we could teach her and she said yes. When we explained baptism to her and asked her if she would follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the authority of God, she said yes I am ready! Boom! Yes right then and there she made the decision. At that moment she may not fully understand what she just said what she would do but in time she will! We had great success this week and I am proud. I know that none of this is possible without the Lords hand in the work. I can't do this alone or just with a few other missionaries. We need Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and the Spirit to bear testimony! She was baptized yesterday as well!

I do want to say one other thing before I go. In the scriptures how long does it take to build a kingdom? Day, months or years? Rome wasnt built in a day, right? No it wasn't. It took a long time, much patience and many hands. Now what about God's kingdom? With the help of 84,000 missionaries we can build it faster and stronger! Imagine 84,000 missionaries in ONE country! How would the work go? I bet it would go fast and much work would get done. Am I right? I dont know. In my mission I think we have about 150+ missionaries. I really wish we could double that number! We need all the help that we can get. It is not a easy work. First you need to clean up and make a strong foundation. I was privileged to work at a store in down town Burley. You might know what I am talking about. It was a place that needed a lot of work. It took a few weeks to get things cleaned up and looking good. It took a long time, many hours and few hands. I learned many lessons from that experience. As soon as we were done the next step is the design. What are you going to execute or how are you going to do things. I know my great designers out there that can do great things, but just start with the basics and then go from there. Don't rush or things could get sloppy and fail and your might have to restart. That is not the same with missionary work. When missionaries get a task it gets done the right way and in the right time. We are on the Lords schedule so we must keep pace to build the kingdom His way and on His time. I know that all hands are needed to build. If you don't know whether to serve a mission or not pray about it. If you are young or old, pray about it. Moses was pretty old and I'm sure he still did work even when he was old. 

Have a great week. 

Love Elder Hinckley

I rode another elephant today!! Ha!

Week 15 Chiang Mai

Dear Friends and Family

To start off I will say Happy Mothers Day to my lovely mom! I love her so much! She is a great example to me in all that she does. I tell you what I wouldnt know what I know or know how to do what I know how to do if it wasnt for my mom! Thank you mom I love you! To my grandma who will be reading this email thank you for raising my dad. If it wasnt for you I wouldnt know how to work. Do you see how much work mothers do not only for their families but for there generations! Thank you to all the moms who have ever helped me! I really appreciate it! 

I want to tell you about a few experiences that happened to my companion and I this week. So the Zone Leaders and the Sister Training Leaders went to Bangkok for some training so Elder Tamang and I were in Chaing Mai all along. So some how we planned a lesson for just about every hour of the day. This last Tuesday we taught so many new investigators and progressing investigators it was unreal. Then in the middle we had to teach English Class for the next hour and then after that we taught another lesson and then we went home. Not even enough time to eat. Then the next day we did the same thing. We had a lesson for just about every hour. We taught until about 5 or 6 in the evening. When we got done with our last lesson for the day I walked to the couch and collapsed on it and didnt get up for 10 min. I was so tired of teaching and speaking! Oh it was hard but it made me feel good to teach many of Gods Children. Then after that we went inviting till we had to come home. 

The day we taught English a man and a lady came. This lady was contacted by Elder Tamang and she came with her husband to learn English. What I wasnt expecting was that the lady was already a member and that she had been baptized many years ago. I talked to the husband after and I asked what would you think about learning about Jesus Christ and this Church? I said would you feel weird? He said no I think I will try it out. This guy if amazing! He has a date for this Sunday and his wife is supporting him. This lady said I have forgotten a lot of what I should be doing so it is like we are teaching 2 investigators. They are both great! We taught him about an eternal marriage and the temple. This man is a great blessing to us. He is a person who was prepared by Heavenly Father. Just yesterday this man said I want you to come and visit one of my friends. We said okay and went with him to this ladies house. 

He told us that his friends needs a lot of help. When we first got to the house I smelt cigarette smoke, then saw a white guy and then heard a really loud scream. I thought what is going on?! Next think I know is this lady, the friend of our investigator, says I am so glad you are here and tries to hug and kiss Elder Tamang and I! It got real weird. I will just say this, this lady was hung over!! She asked if I wanted a beer or some wine. I said no thats bad for my body. This lady started to tell us all shorts of stories but none of it made sense because she was drunk. We gave her a Book of Mormon and tried to tell her to read it. We just had to get out of there. Other things we going on too that I cant really talk about but lets just say that if we meet again we will meet at the church. 

Anyways our investigator is a really good guy. He says I worry about my friends. He told us that he has a lot of other friends that he wants us to meet as well. I believe this man will be a great asset to the church. 

We met with one of our investigators this week. She is only 17. She asked the question, how old do I have to be to be baptized without permission from my parents. I said 18. She got this huge smile on her face! I said what are you thinking. She said I turn 18 on the 23rd. I said no way! I said you can get baptized on the 24th. I said it would be a great birthday present and a day that you will never forget. Right now her parents dont agree with her getting baptized. I know this is a miracle for her as well as for us. I know that Satan will stop some from getting baptized because they are under age. I guess all those kids under age will just have to wait. I am so happy for her and cant wait for her to be baptized!

I was talking to someone this last week about the church because they are Christian. I asked them, Hey if God was to give us another book of scripture would you read it? These people we like no. I said well why not? They said well the Bible is enough. I said that is where you are wrong. There is another book of scripture called the Book of Mormon. It will tell you everything you need to do in preparation for the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. These people did not want to accept the fact that there was another book of scripture. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that everything in it is true! I encourage you all to read it more if you havent had time lately. It will bless and impact your life. I promise.  

I just finished Alma this last week and I loved studying Alma! There is so much mission related things in there and it is great! I love it. Something I really liked from this last week was Alma 56:17,47-48. It just talks about the stripling warriors and how those sons gave Helaman great hopes and much joy. I feel as if we, all that are serving as missionaries, are making our parents have great hope and much joy. I hope I make my parents happy while I am our here serving. Then if you jump over to chapter 57:19-21, 27. I will want you to read it. This is what I got from it. We have 84,000 missionaries give or take and we are just a little band right? But we are administering to all the people of the world. We are missionaries who are FIRM and UNDAUNTED and OBEY with EXACTNESS. That is exactly what we are doing. Then verse 27, They are young and do put their trust if God continually. Have you ever wondered why we are young when we serve. Just 18-21 right. Why are we so young. When I get asked how old I am they are shocked. Some people guess 25 I say no I am 19. I dont know why we are asked to serve at such a young age. Whatever the cause the young people will keep the church going. Once those young people experience the things that they do on their missions they will raise their families according to what they learned. All I know is that I am a young Stripling Missionary on the front lines of this battle field fighting for my Lord. I am here to take the hits and get hurt just so that many will be blessed. I know that serving a mission has changed my thoughts and ways I do things. I am so happy to be serving a mission! 

Have a great week! 

Love Elder Hinckley

I destroyed this fish and ate it! It was so good!  

 

We went back to Chiang Rai for our P-day,

Ostrich Farm in Chiang Rai.

Lizard with long tail.

The fish on the platter.

I love my mom!

Doesn't this dog look exactly like our Cinder.  Maybe this is a tender mercy.

 

Week 14 Chiang Mai

Dear Family and Friends

This past week was really good. We have our ups and downs but it is okay. I think it is what I learned this week more than what I did. 

This week I just tried to do the best that I could. On Sunday it got hard. So for Chaing Mai we have a lot of tourist people or people who speak English come to the church. So we usually have a translation machine that we speak into, and the members will wear headphones. So we will only have one person translate or two people just so they can take a break. The last two Sundays I have had to translate for people who speak English. I tell you what it is a lot harder than it looks like to listen and then translate it into English. I do have to say that my language ability is not the greatest in the mission. I can understand only so much. I do try my best to learn the language but it is hard to know the tones on words. Anyways I had to translate for a none member last week and a member yesterday. They both after sacrament meeting said thank you very much. I told them I didnt understand a lot of what they said. The youth who get up to talk are easier then the older people. They say very simple things that I can understand. It gets hard when you get the older members get up there and they say really big fancy words that I have never heard before. Oh it was a test and I dont know if I passed but I did the best that I could to understand and deliver a good message to the people I was translating for. I think that listen and then speaking are hard but possible. 

Just like when we are teaching we need to listen to them, listen to the spirit then speak. This past week we met with one of our recent converts. She was telling us how she finds herself talking to herself and how she reads the scriptures and then forgets what she reads. She said that she was having a lot of stress. So we sat her down in a very calm way and we just talked. She told us everything that was going on. Elder Tamang was like I think if she reads the scriptures for one hour every morning that reading will help her. I told her about my experience and how I told my little brother to read the Book of Mormon and it will help him. I know that the Book of Mormon has powers that we cannot understand. I know it can heal. We ended the lesson and then I told her something I will never forget. I said something totally directed by the spirit. I said to the member go home and kneel down and say a prayer to Heavenly Father. I said that he wants to talk to you or tell you something. I didnt know where that thought was going but all I could think about was that it was directed by the spirit. I know that the spirit has directed me this week. 

Look for ways that the spirit can direct you. 

I am sorry this is short but I will tell you more next week. 

Love Elder Hinckley

 

A water hole for swimming!

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The missionaries from our district in Chiang Mai.

The Gold Temple.

The White Temple.

Chiang Rai, Thailand.

Elder Hinckley at the Ostrich Farm.