AIT #29: June 11, 2003
It's been an interesting week. Last Thursday was Elder Haase's birthday. While we were teaching English, Sister A and Muy went out and bought a cake, and after English we all sang songs together. The members here are sooooo incredibly nice. Once we were done, I had to answer a call from Mother Nature. On my way out of the bathroom, I looked down and saw a black scorpion on the ground, alive. Sister A put it in the cake box and then Brother Boi picked it up by the tail and we took pictures. He lifted it up over my mouth and I posed for the picture, but just when Tom pressed the button, the scorpion's glistening mouth wiggled and my nerves failed me, so I freaked out and darted away. Should be a pretty good picture. ;)
Last week we were searching for a lost sheep (old member who's fallen away from the Church and whom we've lost contact with). We couldn't find the member's house, but I kept going down a tiny road, expecting it to turn back onto the main road soon. It still didn't turn, though, and several times I was about to turn back and go the way we came, but then suddenly we heard someone call out, "Elder!" It was an old member, Brother Tuy, who was baptized 12 years ago and now is into drinking and all sorts of bad stuff. He was in an old hollowed-out house with seven or eight other guys who were also drinking and playing pool. He invited us in; at first I was a little apprehensive (places like that are often dangerous), but I realized that the Lord is on my side -- what need I fear? We went in and collected all the information we could about him and then left for our next appointment.
For the last couple of months we've been visiting an old member family, President Padoongsak and his wife Phanii. They've been members for 25 years or so, and Padoongsak was the first Thai branch president here in P-lok, and then the district president. They fell away ten or so years ago, though, and so we've been going over to their house each week to help them feel the Spirit again. Last week we got a referral from the office -- the sister missionaries in Bangbuathong (Sister Jones and Sister Skidmore) have been teaching a 17-year-old girl named Ao, and Ao recently moved back here to P-lok for school. She's learned through the 4th discussion and had a baptismal date for June 1st, and her two older sisters have been members in Bangbuathong for two years now. She lives 50 kilometers away in Bangkragam, though. Padoongsak and Phanii offered to drive us there, so yesterday they picked us up and off we went. Forty-five minutes later we arrived at Ao's school (which is where she arranged for us to meet her). We expected that we'd go over her reading in the Book of Mormon and perhaps teach her a fifth, helping her prepare for baptism. Well, she said she had a few friends who were interested in the gospel and led us upstairs to her classroom. I walked into the room and found 30 students, all 16 or 17-year-olds, and only five or so were boys. Ao wanted us to teach them all, though, so I started teaching about God and the plan of salvation. It actually turned out pretty well, even though it was a teaching situation utterly unlike all others I've been in before (as a missionary, that is). At the end, Ao raised her hand and asked if she could bear her testimony to the class. She's a really good investigator but her parents won't let her get baptized yet. She's most likely going to be baptized in Bangbuathong when she goes back in October.
On June 1 the new mission president, Scott Hansen, will arrive. He served here back in 1969-70 or so, and he was the one who opened Chiang Mai for missionary work. He is a doctor by profession and was actually Elder Leggat's doctor back home. It'll be kind of weird getting a new mission president, but I'm looking forward to it.
The work's going fairly well. Loogkit and her daughter committed to be baptized, and a few other investigators are close as well. Lately we've had trouble getting investigators to come to church, though. Charoemchai has been reading the Book of Mormon and is through 2 Nephi 6 already. The other day I was buying fruit (I've been eating tons of mangoes lately -- it's my favorite fruit these days) and the lady asked me if I have a girlfriend back home (a typical question). I told her I don't. She then said, "Do you want a Thai wife?" That happens often, quite often. :) But it's always fun to say, bluntly, "No, I don't." ("May aw" if you can read phaasaa elder.) I'll miss Thailand. ;) Seriously, it's such a wonderful place here. The thought of having to go back home someday is a sad one. Speaking of home, nobody's really said much about the war lately, so I guess it's settled down. The only thing I've heard about it in weeks is that the Iraqis tried to bomb an American army camp (some lady walked in with the bomb, or something like that).
Well, that's all I have for today. This afternoon we're going to Wat Yai.
Elder Keenan, the ZL, is coming down from Lampang for a special DDM tomorrow. Stay strong in the faith. Take care! :-)
Last week we were searching for a lost sheep (old member who's fallen away from the Church and whom we've lost contact with). We couldn't find the member's house, but I kept going down a tiny road, expecting it to turn back onto the main road soon. It still didn't turn, though, and several times I was about to turn back and go the way we came, but then suddenly we heard someone call out, "Elder!" It was an old member, Brother Tuy, who was baptized 12 years ago and now is into drinking and all sorts of bad stuff. He was in an old hollowed-out house with seven or eight other guys who were also drinking and playing pool. He invited us in; at first I was a little apprehensive (places like that are often dangerous), but I realized that the Lord is on my side -- what need I fear? We went in and collected all the information we could about him and then left for our next appointment.
For the last couple of months we've been visiting an old member family, President Padoongsak and his wife Phanii. They've been members for 25 years or so, and Padoongsak was the first Thai branch president here in P-lok, and then the district president. They fell away ten or so years ago, though, and so we've been going over to their house each week to help them feel the Spirit again. Last week we got a referral from the office -- the sister missionaries in Bangbuathong (Sister Jones and Sister Skidmore) have been teaching a 17-year-old girl named Ao, and Ao recently moved back here to P-lok for school. She's learned through the 4th discussion and had a baptismal date for June 1st, and her two older sisters have been members in Bangbuathong for two years now. She lives 50 kilometers away in Bangkragam, though. Padoongsak and Phanii offered to drive us there, so yesterday they picked us up and off we went. Forty-five minutes later we arrived at Ao's school (which is where she arranged for us to meet her). We expected that we'd go over her reading in the Book of Mormon and perhaps teach her a fifth, helping her prepare for baptism. Well, she said she had a few friends who were interested in the gospel and led us upstairs to her classroom. I walked into the room and found 30 students, all 16 or 17-year-olds, and only five or so were boys. Ao wanted us to teach them all, though, so I started teaching about God and the plan of salvation. It actually turned out pretty well, even though it was a teaching situation utterly unlike all others I've been in before (as a missionary, that is). At the end, Ao raised her hand and asked if she could bear her testimony to the class. She's a really good investigator but her parents won't let her get baptized yet. She's most likely going to be baptized in Bangbuathong when she goes back in October.
On June 1 the new mission president, Scott Hansen, will arrive. He served here back in 1969-70 or so, and he was the one who opened Chiang Mai for missionary work. He is a doctor by profession and was actually Elder Leggat's doctor back home. It'll be kind of weird getting a new mission president, but I'm looking forward to it.
The work's going fairly well. Loogkit and her daughter committed to be baptized, and a few other investigators are close as well. Lately we've had trouble getting investigators to come to church, though. Charoemchai has been reading the Book of Mormon and is through 2 Nephi 6 already. The other day I was buying fruit (I've been eating tons of mangoes lately -- it's my favorite fruit these days) and the lady asked me if I have a girlfriend back home (a typical question). I told her I don't. She then said, "Do you want a Thai wife?" That happens often, quite often. :) But it's always fun to say, bluntly, "No, I don't." ("May aw" if you can read phaasaa elder.) I'll miss Thailand. ;) Seriously, it's such a wonderful place here. The thought of having to go back home someday is a sad one. Speaking of home, nobody's really said much about the war lately, so I guess it's settled down. The only thing I've heard about it in weeks is that the Iraqis tried to bomb an American army camp (some lady walked in with the bomb, or something like that).
Well, that's all I have for today. This afternoon we're going to Wat Yai.
Elder Keenan, the ZL, is coming down from Lampang for a special DDM tomorrow. Stay strong in the faith. Take care! :-)
posted by Ben at 6:40 AM
1 Comments:
I find this page very interesting and I have been reading it for quite a few months, do you think in you next blog you could inform people about volunteer oppertunities for the summer in Utah for people in the UK. Thank you
Sarah
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