AIT #25: May 14, 2003

Rainy season started a few days ago and it's not quite as hot anymore. :) Today we went to Sukothai (the old capital of Thailand, 700 years ago) and visited some of the old ruins. Pretty neat, as usual. We got back with not much time to spare and so this will be very short. The work's going well. Our two main investigators, Root and Boi, will be baptized within a few weeks. School is starting (a lot of schools have already opened) and so there are students everywhere again. This moves period has gone by very quickly -- only two more weeks left. (It's a short moves period, but even then it still flew by.) Tuesday was Elder Burin's birthday and we threw a little party for him at FHE. The work here is very hard, mainly because retention is exceedingly difficult. If I didn't know beyond doubt that this gospel was true, I certainly wouldn't spend two whole years wasting my time here to promote a less-than-worthy cause. But this gospel *is* true and so no matter how hard it is, no matter how many people are sifted by Satan and fall by the roadside, no matter how many investigators reject the message, we must press onward, ever onward.

Here's a scripture I like: Alma 44:4 (no time to type it in). I know that this Church is true and that Joseph Smith really did see God and Jesus Christ. Because it's true, the gospel is the single most important thing in life. Nothing else even comes close, though the world tries to make us think otherwise. Christ lives and through following His example we will find happiness in this life. Do you want to be more happy? Love more. It's that simple. The divine mandate is to love God first and foremost, so much that we won't have any desire to break His commandments, and then to love His children. The Book of Mormon is the word of God and if we cling to it, we'll never fall too far astray. Make daily scripture study a habit that you absolutely won't break, the appointment you don't dare miss. President Gordon B. Hinckley is God's living prophet on the earth today and we can trust him as God's mouthpiece. Isn't it wonderful, that all the signs and gifts of the Church in olden days are here with us today? We have the power of God in our midst. This Church is true! :-)