Karsten's Adventures in the Kingdom of Thailand: Week 2 Bang Khae

Sorry if this didnt get to you last week.

Dear Friends and Family,

At English class this last week we had a new lady show up that had never come before. After English we asked her if we could sit down and talk to her for a little bit. This lady has a daughter how has cancer and while we were teaching our lesson we told her that this restored gospel would be able to heal her daughter. Now we were not able to explain all that we wanted to in that first lesson but we will meet with her again and finish teaching. Now we have to understand that her daughter being healed us up to the will of the Lord. I am really excited to meet with this lady again. There is so much we can help her know. I truly believe that we can help change the way that she views things right now. So I have a lot of faith with this lady and her daughter.

As zone leaders we have to get training from President and the assistants once a month. So we were traveling down to the office the other day when I saw something that you dont normally see here in Thailand. The morning was cold and I saw this mother preparing her daughter to go to school. She made sure she had her jacket on and her pant legs pulled down. She just started to love her little child. She hugged and kissed her repeatedly. You dont see that here. It wasnt out of control or anything, I just thought it was awesome. As I have been here in Thailand I have seen probably a lack of parenting and love for one another. This is not all people. I know that the world is getting away from the family or love within the family. Abuse, fighting, a spouse leaving the family and so much more. Ill make it a long story short. The family is most important. It is where you grow up, learn and make family relationships. I know that that mother loved her child very much. I felt like if that was the last time they saw each other the mother would want the child to know that she loved them. I feel like we need to say love, show love and love our family! A lot of families dont have the love that should be there. I know that I could have spent more time with my family when I was younger. I regret that. Well I will change that. I know how important family is. I learned about family since I was little and I hope to be better. Do you love your family? Is there anything that is stopping your family from time being together? How are family relationships? Why do you want a family? I testify that families can be together forever. I know that is true!

During our training with President Johnson and the assistants we were greatly trained on some good things. Ill just explain part of the training. He wanted to know why we were serving missions. As we gave our answers he said that those answers were all very good. So next he opened the scriptures to Matthew 22:36-39. He said," Why should we do missionary work?" The next big question he asked was,"Why do you do what you do?" That is a great question. It really all came down to whether or not we love God. Why do we go to church? Why do we do home/visiting teaching? Why do we do missionary work? Is is because He just asked us to do it? or do we do it because we love Him? What is your motivation? We should do all things to please the Lord. We should do all things because we love Him.

Then they talked about inviting with real intent. A story was shared how one Elder said," I am so fake! I only do it out of duty or because I was asked it. I am so fake when I invite. I talk to people everyday but I am soo fake with my inviting." I think you can see where this will go. Well we opened up the scriptures to D&C 60:2-3, 7-8. It explains it quite well. I thought those scriptures were pretty bold. I found a great scripture this morning, Philippians 1:14. Part of the reason some wont open their mouths is because of fear of man. Well dont think about what others will think if you are to talk about Christ on a bus, train, on the street or in a restaurant. If you get kicked out so be it. Just know that you did the will of the Lord and proclaiming the gospel and about His Son, Jesus Christ. I am not afraid to open my mouth to anyone anymore. I was afraid before. I just dont care what others think. All the foreigners that I see, yeah I invite them too. Do it with real intent or I guess you could say, dont do it at all. Are you going to give it 100%? Something I will suggest is that you need to do it with a smile on your face. People open up to people who are happy, so give it a try.

One investigator came to the church and when asked why he came he said,"It is peaceful here." Well that is great! The church is a great environment to feel at peace. I thought can we make our homes that way as well?

We met with a less active this last week. He has been less active probably since he was baptized, so sad! He told us that when we was learning the people who baptized him really persuaded him. So even though he was not ready to get baptized and that he didnt understand everything, he got baptized. We expressed our apologies to him. We told him that we would teach him everything again, slow, to his needs and to his understanding. Make sure those you teach are ready to make the next step before they take it not looking.

This guy came to church yesterday. I invited him this last week and told him to come learn about Christ. Well he came. Now I am judging the man but to my best knowledge he is not all the way there mentally or he was drunk. He came in and sat down. I kept my eye on him the whole time. I said a prayer that his man wouldnt be disruptive. Well he stood up and started to do something with his pants and then he almost took off his shirt. Well I ran over to help that man sit down. He would talk to himself and point at people. I felt like everyone was looking at us and thinking, "Who in the world invited that man?" Well I did. At one point I thought he was going to start smoking in the church. He got up and we followed him out. He left after that. The branch presidents first counselor told us,"Some people would not have accepted him, but I am glad that you did." I know that all people are different but all people need the chance. Christ can make a difference in anyone's life.

I talked to a man on the way home last night who I would say was in the world. As we talked he said," I am not free to come learn about Jesus. I have to work and get money." He explained all this other worldly stuff he has to do. I asked him," What if Jesus Christ came tomorrow what would you do?" He said, "I would follow Christ." I told him,"Well it could be too late. You need to repent and follow Him now!" "I have a job. I have to get money. My boss said that I dont need to worry about God." I said,"You can sacrifice! Why, because Jesus Christ sacrificed everything for you, so you can sacrifice time or a job. I know people who have quit their jobs to follow Christ." "If I quit I will not have money to eat," said the man. "The Lord will provide." and the man just laughed at that. This man was like just me, Ive been living a while I know. Well I dont have to live a long time to know that what I am telling you is the truth. I wasnt yelling or fighting with this man. As I talked to him I learned a few things, The scriptures are true, for sure!! There is a lot of pride in the world. I gave him the change to accept what I was telling him because we cant force anything on anyone. Well I told him this is your choice and then he walked away. Well give everyone the chance to accept or reject.

Elder Chamberlain and I are still looking for some investigators here. Please pray that we will be able to do the Lords will and find those searching for His gospel.

Love

Elder Hinckley