AIT #34: July 16, 2003
Well, I'm not moving. Nor is Elder Haase. Nor is Elder Pete. But Elder Jorgensen is, to Bangkok, where he's going to be a zone leader. Elder Haase is now the district leader and a new senior (one who's turning senior this moves) will be moving up here tomorrow. Nobody in Lampang moved. Elder Jorgensen and I will leave on the train tonight at 10 p.m. and I'll come back tomorrow with Elder Pete's new companion. I get to go to Bangkok again! :) It's somewhat of a surprise that I'm not moving -- I rather expected it -- but I'm glad to stay here among these wonderful people for another month and a half. That means I'll be here to see Loogkit and Ao be baptized. :) We taught Loogkit's other daughter (Ooy) and Ooy's boyfriend the other day. Loogkit bore her testimony of how the gospel has changed her life, made her faith firm and has given her peace of mind. It was awesome. :) I was reading Alma 5 earlier this week and realized that this change of heart is really what true conversion is. That's what we're aiming for here: for the gospel to change people's lives, to bring hope and light and love into people's lives, which will lead them to Christ. Thinking of it that way made a huge difference in my perspective on missionary work and has really helped. At times we invite people who look like there's no way they could be candidates for baptism, and it's hard to have faith that they can change. But when you look at teaching as a way to help people change, then it doesn't matter what the person is like before, because the gospel will change them into what God wants them to become. There are my thoughts for the week in a nutshell. :)
The branch got a new piano last week but they haven't opened it yet. Water floods the church from time to time, so they may wait till we move to a new chapel. I went on switchoffs with Elder Pete last Friday, on Saturday we had an elders quorum activity, and on Sunday there was a baptism (Em, Elder Jo's investigator). Oh, on Saturday we were introing a man when a ten-year-old girl ran up to me and asked my name. She was half-Swedish, half-Thai, and we'd seen her a few days earlier when we introed a man in her neighborhood (she was playing with the man's daughter). I told the girl I was called Elder and she asked if I knew Lef. I couldn't think of anyone I knew with that name and told her so. She seemed fairly insistent, saying that he worked nearby and that he'd said he knew us. I asked if he were a farang or a Thai. She said he was a farang, and then the light clicked on in my head and I asked if the man was her father. She assented and wanted to take us to go see him. So we followed this little ten-year-old girl down the road, turned the corner, and found her Swedish father sitting at a table in front of his house. She jumped off her friend's motorcycle and ran to the gate, exclaiming, "Papa, Papa, they're here!" He spoke to us in English, saying that his daughter Emmely wants to be Christian and he wanted to give her a chance. We're going back to teach them (at least the kid and probably the parents too) on Saturday. We went back the other day to get their phone number and the dad (Lef Thomas Svensson) said that his wife had taken their two daughters to the wat (last week there was a Buddhist holiday), and that Emmely did *not* want to go. Quite interesting. :)
Sunday was my birthday and so after church we ate some cake that Tom and A gave me. Being 20 doesn't seem much different from being 19, to be frank. :) Oh, last week we taught a 27-year-old crippled man about baptism and committed him to be baptized, and then picked him up in Brother Bunmii's pickup on Sunday for church. His name is Aab and he's really good.
Yesterday we had quite a neat experience. We had planned to go out to Bangrakam to see Ao, but she wasn't free, so we had the whole day free (till 5 p.m.). At 4:30 or so we decided to go look for the house of an old member who had apparently moved away. Another member had drawn a map to the house (house number #267) and as we approached the area, we saw a few houses with 426 numbers on them. We've been looking for a 426/44 for a while and decided to go look for that house first. Well, after a few minutes of searching, we came to the place where 267 was and voila, it had now changed to 426/44. :) We said hello and a 20-something girl came out. We asked if she knew a Sister Gamrai; she replied that it was her older sister and that she was now in Sweden, but that she'd come back in a few months. Then we asked if she knew Sister Namphoeng. She said, "That's me!" Turns out she was baptized 12 years ago but moved to Phuket and wanted to go to church there but there isn't a branch, so she's been going to some other church. She's back here for a few months and we visited, singing "I Am a Child of God" and sharing a few verses in the Book of Mormon. She still has a testimony! :) We invited her to go to English and the family home evening an hour later and she came! She said she's going to come back to church, too. It was the highlight of the week and quite the unexpected blessing. We called up a bunch of old members from 15+ years ago as well, but they were all uninterested in coming back to church, so it was nice to find a less-active who still loves the Church. :) :) :)
That's about it. Life's going well and so is the work. Keep the faith and share the gospel! Don't keep your light under a bushel. Take care! :-)
The branch got a new piano last week but they haven't opened it yet. Water floods the church from time to time, so they may wait till we move to a new chapel. I went on switchoffs with Elder Pete last Friday, on Saturday we had an elders quorum activity, and on Sunday there was a baptism (Em, Elder Jo's investigator). Oh, on Saturday we were introing a man when a ten-year-old girl ran up to me and asked my name. She was half-Swedish, half-Thai, and we'd seen her a few days earlier when we introed a man in her neighborhood (she was playing with the man's daughter). I told the girl I was called Elder and she asked if I knew Lef. I couldn't think of anyone I knew with that name and told her so. She seemed fairly insistent, saying that he worked nearby and that he'd said he knew us. I asked if he were a farang or a Thai. She said he was a farang, and then the light clicked on in my head and I asked if the man was her father. She assented and wanted to take us to go see him. So we followed this little ten-year-old girl down the road, turned the corner, and found her Swedish father sitting at a table in front of his house. She jumped off her friend's motorcycle and ran to the gate, exclaiming, "Papa, Papa, they're here!" He spoke to us in English, saying that his daughter Emmely wants to be Christian and he wanted to give her a chance. We're going back to teach them (at least the kid and probably the parents too) on Saturday. We went back the other day to get their phone number and the dad (Lef Thomas Svensson) said that his wife had taken their two daughters to the wat (last week there was a Buddhist holiday), and that Emmely did *not* want to go. Quite interesting. :)
Sunday was my birthday and so after church we ate some cake that Tom and A gave me. Being 20 doesn't seem much different from being 19, to be frank. :) Oh, last week we taught a 27-year-old crippled man about baptism and committed him to be baptized, and then picked him up in Brother Bunmii's pickup on Sunday for church. His name is Aab and he's really good.
Yesterday we had quite a neat experience. We had planned to go out to Bangrakam to see Ao, but she wasn't free, so we had the whole day free (till 5 p.m.). At 4:30 or so we decided to go look for the house of an old member who had apparently moved away. Another member had drawn a map to the house (house number #267) and as we approached the area, we saw a few houses with 426 numbers on them. We've been looking for a 426/44 for a while and decided to go look for that house first. Well, after a few minutes of searching, we came to the place where 267 was and voila, it had now changed to 426/44. :) We said hello and a 20-something girl came out. We asked if she knew a Sister Gamrai; she replied that it was her older sister and that she was now in Sweden, but that she'd come back in a few months. Then we asked if she knew Sister Namphoeng. She said, "That's me!" Turns out she was baptized 12 years ago but moved to Phuket and wanted to go to church there but there isn't a branch, so she's been going to some other church. She's back here for a few months and we visited, singing "I Am a Child of God" and sharing a few verses in the Book of Mormon. She still has a testimony! :) We invited her to go to English and the family home evening an hour later and she came! She said she's going to come back to church, too. It was the highlight of the week and quite the unexpected blessing. We called up a bunch of old members from 15+ years ago as well, but they were all uninterested in coming back to church, so it was nice to find a less-active who still loves the Church. :) :) :)
That's about it. Life's going well and so is the work. Keep the faith and share the gospel! Don't keep your light under a bushel. Take care! :-)
posted by Ben at 4:33 PM
1 Comments:
I'd like to share some ideas for missionary work, specifically for finding people to teach.
I like to give out foreign language Books of Mormon to people who speak those languages. I've given out over 700 books to over 400 people in over 50 languages. Check out my blog at:
http://indybooks.blogspot.com
It's my way of flooding the earth with the Book of Mormon
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