AIT #28: June 28, 2003
Moves has come and gone. Wednesday night we went to the train station, as did about twenty of the members. They bid farewell to Elder Bevell and Elder Burin and we hopped on board the train. As I looked out the window at the members waving goodbye, it felt like I myself was moving and I almost burst out crying. It will be soooooo hard to say goodbye to these people. I never want to leave here. :)
We tried to sleep on the train but without much success. A loud snorer bunked above me and I think I woke up over 30 times that night. :) At five in the morning we arrived at the Don Muang airport in Bangkok. Other missionaries filtered in over the next two hours and we all got on a bus to go to the Pakkret church for moves. Elder Bevell moved to Bangnaa and is the ZL there. He's with my friend Elder Matt Turner. Elder Burin moved to Chiang Mai and is with Elder Nebeker. Elder Vue moved to Thonburi. Elder Pettit moved to Bangkapi and replaced Elder Frischknecht. Elder Serrao and Sister Aemon (along with a handful of others) joped (finished their missions). I talked with Elder Serrao a bit and he said Nat goes to church whenever she feels like it and Chaad isn't very active, but Bunying and Tu are really strong. The only missionary in my MTC group to move is Elder Hamblin, who finally left his greenie area and moved to Nong Khaem. All of the sisters in the group before me went senior or co-senior (Sister West is training a Thai in Udorn), but none of the elders did. So it'll be another two or three moves (three or four months) before my group goes senior. My new companion is Elder Jon Haase of Washington (but his family is now moving to Florida). He turns 21 tomorrow and graduated from BYU in History. For the last three months he was in Roi-Et with Elder Nelson (my trainer). He just went senior, so I'm his first junior.
The rainy season is definitely here. On Monday we taught Loogkit and her daughter (Brother A came with us) and committed them to baptism. They're sooooo good. :) Twenty minutes before we finished, it started pouring. We still had to go to Sister Gittiya's for family home evening with her three sons, so we took off in the torrential rains and boy was it fun! :) Better than Disneyland, to be sure. ;) I think I picked up a cold, though. The field outside the church was flooded a little bit when we got home that night, as was the soi to our house. There were tons and tons of frogs singing melodious sonnets. :) Tom told me yesterday that last year it flooded the church, about a foot deep. Apparently several dozen frogs clustered in the bathroom, and during sacrament meeting a two-inch thick snake slithered into the room. I can't wait to see what it'll be like this year. :)
We taught a man, Wirat, last week. When we taught him about God and Christ he said that the other day he was meditating and saw two gods, one Thai and one farang. The farang god was Jesus, and he claimed to have gone up and touched him, so he thoroughly believed in Christ. But he said he forgot to ask Jesus if God the Father was real, so he doesn't yet believe (he said he'd ask the next time it happened, though :)). I wonder just how much reality there is to visions/dreams like that...
Yesterday we went to city hall and borrowed a large (2x3 foot) map of the city, 83 pages long, and then photocopied it for 1275 baht ($30). It's extremely detailed and we're going to map out where all our members are, including the less actives. We have several addresses of less-active members but we weren't sure where exactly they lived (trying to find places can be extremely difficult here), so this morning we went to the post office and asked them to go through the addresses and show us where they were. It took a lot of smiling and patience but we were successful in the end. I was surprised at how well those postal workers knew their addresses. :)
Our investigators are doing decently well. Ohe has a few obstacles that will take time to overcome. Chaloemchai is the landlord of the dormitory on our soi and is a good honest seeker of truth, but he still hasn't received an answer. Loogkit and her daughter are the closest to baptism right now. (We're teaching her husband and son on Saturday -- we'd hoped they would be there on Monday but they didn't show up.) We do a lot of member work here, since the branch is so small.
"I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect." (3 Nephi 12:48) Through daily repentance we will indeed achieve that perfection, most likely not in this life but surely in the life to come. We can't jump straight up to perfection in one grand leap but instead must take the journey one step at a time, line upon line, precept upon precept. It's a long road, but the Savior will lead us, guide us, walk beside us if we let Him. Let the kindly light lead your life amidst the encircling gloom and come, follow Him.
We tried to sleep on the train but without much success. A loud snorer bunked above me and I think I woke up over 30 times that night. :) At five in the morning we arrived at the Don Muang airport in Bangkok. Other missionaries filtered in over the next two hours and we all got on a bus to go to the Pakkret church for moves. Elder Bevell moved to Bangnaa and is the ZL there. He's with my friend Elder Matt Turner. Elder Burin moved to Chiang Mai and is with Elder Nebeker. Elder Vue moved to Thonburi. Elder Pettit moved to Bangkapi and replaced Elder Frischknecht. Elder Serrao and Sister Aemon (along with a handful of others) joped (finished their missions). I talked with Elder Serrao a bit and he said Nat goes to church whenever she feels like it and Chaad isn't very active, but Bunying and Tu are really strong. The only missionary in my MTC group to move is Elder Hamblin, who finally left his greenie area and moved to Nong Khaem. All of the sisters in the group before me went senior or co-senior (Sister West is training a Thai in Udorn), but none of the elders did. So it'll be another two or three moves (three or four months) before my group goes senior. My new companion is Elder Jon Haase of Washington (but his family is now moving to Florida). He turns 21 tomorrow and graduated from BYU in History. For the last three months he was in Roi-Et with Elder Nelson (my trainer). He just went senior, so I'm his first junior.
The rainy season is definitely here. On Monday we taught Loogkit and her daughter (Brother A came with us) and committed them to baptism. They're sooooo good. :) Twenty minutes before we finished, it started pouring. We still had to go to Sister Gittiya's for family home evening with her three sons, so we took off in the torrential rains and boy was it fun! :) Better than Disneyland, to be sure. ;) I think I picked up a cold, though. The field outside the church was flooded a little bit when we got home that night, as was the soi to our house. There were tons and tons of frogs singing melodious sonnets. :) Tom told me yesterday that last year it flooded the church, about a foot deep. Apparently several dozen frogs clustered in the bathroom, and during sacrament meeting a two-inch thick snake slithered into the room. I can't wait to see what it'll be like this year. :)
We taught a man, Wirat, last week. When we taught him about God and Christ he said that the other day he was meditating and saw two gods, one Thai and one farang. The farang god was Jesus, and he claimed to have gone up and touched him, so he thoroughly believed in Christ. But he said he forgot to ask Jesus if God the Father was real, so he doesn't yet believe (he said he'd ask the next time it happened, though :)). I wonder just how much reality there is to visions/dreams like that...
Yesterday we went to city hall and borrowed a large (2x3 foot) map of the city, 83 pages long, and then photocopied it for 1275 baht ($30). It's extremely detailed and we're going to map out where all our members are, including the less actives. We have several addresses of less-active members but we weren't sure where exactly they lived (trying to find places can be extremely difficult here), so this morning we went to the post office and asked them to go through the addresses and show us where they were. It took a lot of smiling and patience but we were successful in the end. I was surprised at how well those postal workers knew their addresses. :)
Our investigators are doing decently well. Ohe has a few obstacles that will take time to overcome. Chaloemchai is the landlord of the dormitory on our soi and is a good honest seeker of truth, but he still hasn't received an answer. Loogkit and her daughter are the closest to baptism right now. (We're teaching her husband and son on Saturday -- we'd hoped they would be there on Monday but they didn't show up.) We do a lot of member work here, since the branch is so small.
"I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect." (3 Nephi 12:48) Through daily repentance we will indeed achieve that perfection, most likely not in this life but surely in the life to come. We can't jump straight up to perfection in one grand leap but instead must take the journey one step at a time, line upon line, precept upon precept. It's a long road, but the Savior will lead us, guide us, walk beside us if we let Him. Let the kindly light lead your life amidst the encircling gloom and come, follow Him.
posted by Ben at 8:21 PM
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