Dear Family and Friends
Last week in Chaing Mai. Tuesday in English class Elder Tamang gave a spiritual thought that I liked lot. He talked about how we were missionaries and how we do missionary work. He then had all the people that we had baptized stand up along with all the people that we were teaching stand up as well. It was amazing to see, more than half the class was standing!! Oh my gosh! Did we do this, I said to myself. I know we wouldnt have been able to have success like we did if it wasnt for our district and the Lords hand in the work. I was so happy to see the other peoples reactions when this happened. I think it sparked something in our investigators that we were currently teaching. Last few days in Chaing Mai and it was sad to say the least. I took time to write a small letter to all of the people that I taught over the last 4 1/2 months there. I was happy to see that they all had smiles on there faces when they got these letters! It was hard to say goodbye to these people! Lets just say that I was not crying ha. When you serve in an area for a while you grow to love the people that you teach and find. I really love those people there in Chaing Mai!!
Well the packing took a little longer than expected. We had to rush just a little bit and make it to the train station on time. Let me just say that we had 20 min to get across town and onto the train on time. Well we made it with about 2 min to spare! We have some great members to say the least. The train ride to Bangkok took about 14 hours. We rode on a sleeper train so I got to sleep for about 10 hours.
This was Presidents Seniors last transfer meeting here in Thailand. Next transfer we will have out new mission president. It was a great transfer meeting. One Elder who served here a few years ago,who does a lot of video for the mission, made a video for President Senior from a lot of the missionaries. It was great and a lot of statistics where said about President Senior. I was pretty shocked with all the numbers. I cant explain them all to you now but lets just say it was amazing.
I got a new companion at transfers. His name is Elder Tew and he is from Idaho as well. Hes 25 and he entered the mission about 5 months ago. We got put in an area called Buriram. It is in East Thailand near the boarder of Cambodia. So all I need to do is get on my bike and ride to the border and meet up with Elder Cook ha!!! Now that would be a story. Well I have to tell you what, there is nothing here in this area. I mean there is plenty things but its small. It reminds me of Idaho and desert. We went and ate with some members in their backyard and I will say that it made me miss home. I saw the wide open sky with clouds puffy and white. I saw fields for farming and a few trees here and there. It was really hard not to think of home. Hey its all good, no worries.
The day after we got here we got asked to come do service at a members fathers funeral. It was stranger then my last funeral. We had to serve water to all the people. That was totally fine. The weird thing was at the funeral there was laughter, loud music, fire works and the throwing of candy and money. It was not a a normal funeral. I would say that is how they do it in their culture. They burned the body as well. I just would have thought that a funeral would be more spiritual and respectful. Now Im not saying that all funerals are like this. It was just very different.
I was able to bare my testimony yesterday at church in my new branch. It is a small branch that I know that we can help. It has about 50-60 members each week is what I hear. They have a total of 180 members. So we are going to help a lot of members come back. We also have been inviting for a few extra hours each day because we dont have any investigators. Dont worry they will come.
I know that most of you know that L Tom Perry passed away a few days ago. I know that this man was called of God! I know that we will see him again thank you to the Plan of Salvation. I know whoever is to come next will fill the seat and teach and testify just like the Savior. I know that the Savior called each and everyone of us! In D&C 138:53-57 it talks about how there were people to lay the foundation and then we learned with many others our first lessons and they will continue to preach. Take a second and read these few verses. I know that many prophets, apostle and bishops were to lay the foundation. I know that it is our responsibility to build up the kingdom. We have a responsibility to preach repentance and help those that are in darkness. I know that we were prepared in the world before. I like verse 56 a lot! I was prepared with many others that are not members yet. I have to find those people and help them to remember. It may only take just a hello or a simple message but when they hear what they need to hear they will remember. I know that we were together before this life and learned a lot. We need to find those that we promised we would find. Please go the extra mile. You will never know what a conversation or act of service will do for someones future.
No comments:
Post a Comment