been here over a month already allayy whaa?
this week ive had the coolest experiences and seen the craziest miracles so far fersure.
first things first i love you guys and i feel so #blessed to have grown up where i did with the people i did.
so i guess ill start with the first miracle - and then the dissapointment that came (which tends to happen a lot out here haha). i was praying to find a new super golden investigator bc our teaching pool right now, a lot of them are not progressing super well, skipping appointments, etc and so its like were not tryna waste our time out here and i remembered words from a letter that elder calderon had me read earlier, that "the field is white already to harvest, and we are called to harvest, to baptize, to bring people unto christ." and there are a lot of people who are prepared and ready to keep commitments, and to follow christ, they just havent met him yet kind of a thing. so basically its a commit or drop kind of thing. so heres the miracle: on tuesday while contacting i met this guy who already had a book of mormon from missionaries a long time ago- he has read it, knows its true, knows joseph smith is a prophet, and wants to get baptized, and im like dude why arent you at church? and apparently he has school on sundays. so he is super ready and stoked to get baptized- we meet with him the next day, set a date to get baptized that sunday (if he comes to church which he said he could), and then he's like can i just get baptized tomorrow? and so we were like yeah sure hahah. he had already been to church a few times in the past and then he passed his baptismal interview and everything was set up perfect. then that night he called us and said that his mom thinks he should wait until after he is a soldier- for two years... so we meet with him to go over his concerns, talk about how helpful to him it would be to have the holy ghost with him in these next crucial years of his life, etc. and hes like okay ill think about it. he calls us that night and says that his mom told him he was born buddhist and thus should just stay buddhist. other than the fact that thats the worst excuse ive ever heard, i was bummed to see someone so ready, so prepared by God to just throw it away. we'll see what happens with him- he has a book of mormon, has our number, knows the truth, its just up to him to really pray to God and find out for himself what he should do. so yeah that was a bummer- but again im super grateful for the mentality Elder Calderon has helped me to have out here to "just flow dude" as he always says. when you just flow with it, dont stress, trust God, and just serve, things always work out. its the lords work and people have there agency so theres no need to get all super dissapointed when things dont go the way you think they should- God has a plan!
so a dopppee story of just goin with the flow this week- actually yesterday.
sunday we had an appointment with brother manat, hes about 60 and the only member in his family but just such an awesome humble man. and we had a couple appointments after him as well. so on our way to his house which we had to bike to (pretty far btw) elder calderon's bike tire popped again haha. a little frustrated we walked around looking for someone to fix his bike, and we finally found someone that could do it. so we get to brother manats house and learn that elder calderons tire is flat again haha. so because of this incident (but really not God knew what He had in plan), we showed up a little later to brother manat's house and had no bikes to ride. there we were able to teach his grandson, boo, whos a stud and said he wanted to come to church this week and on top of that brother manat told us he has a friend that always sees him going to church and wants to come too. so that visit was super solid. now because we were late to that appointment (and cant take our bikes to get anywhere) and on top of that it started POURING like super insane out of nowhere haha- sister nancy a member was gonna pick us up. she called us and said she couldnt- which worked out for the better because then brother manat offered to take us in his truck and visit the other families with us. perfect. brother manat, a new member of a couple months, who wants to share the gospel but says he always feel like he doesnt know enough, will be coming around to teach with us, strengthen his testimony, build friendships, etc. so the drive to brother hua's house (our next destination) was a little sketchy bc brother manat's truck's air conditioning and heating was broken so the window was WAY fogged up from the rain and the stuffy air in the truck, and so we were like wiping the inside of the window with our hands as he was driving so he could see more than just the headlights of the other cars hahah. pretty sketch. anyways we finally make it there, and becuase we were late from the bike incident, we were there visiting brother hua at just the time that his wife (nonmember) came home. she sat down with us without us even inviting her, we taught her about prayer, and simply the godhead, and invited her to church. She said shes always really wanted to go to church but hasnt been able to because her kids have school at that time that she is busy with but that ends this month. so she'll be coming in march. and i see a baptism following a couple weeks after that ;) she is super awesome, and the gospel is gonna bless there family so much. we closed with a prayer and brother hua's wife (her name is oi) invited her kids to come pray as a family. it was a sweet experience to see her do that. we left that visit feeling confident that the lords hand was definitely in everything that had happened thus far, and went visit one last member, and brother manat came as well. moral of the lesson: just FLOW haha. elder calderon said that should be the sixth principle in the gospel of jesus christ along with endure to the end. so grateful for the things hes taught me hes a stud. and yeah he goes home this next week. he says it hasnt hit him yet and he feels like hes just always been a missionary. i think he is getting pretty excited though. but he doesnt show it haha- glad he isnt getting trunky and lazy- he still works hard even in the last days before he goes home.
hmmm lets see. so i also was asked to give a talk at church in sacrament meeting this friday haha. at first i was like yo theres no way haha- but calderon, like usual, just reminded me to just flow, and so i prepared a few things on the topic of the great two commandments: love god, and love your neighbor (i didnt even know how to say neighbor in thai yet haha), and spoke in sacrament sunday. to my surprise not only was i able to talk for more than 2 minutes which i thought would end up happening haha, i was up there for 15 min somehow, throwin down doctrine, scriptures (which i just had elder calderon read so my talk would flow better), and testimony. got to share my favorite scripture John 14:15 "if ye love me, keep my commandments" and then talked about blessings that come from each of God's commandments, and pretty much taught lesson 4 from prech my gospel. the gift of tongues is so real... i sat down after the talk and was like wow- i just felt powerful, like super filled with the spirit, and was like dang that was intense. i thought maybe the thai ladies were just being super nice to me after sacrament meeting saying that i "phuud gang!" (speak skilled) but my comp confirmed that it was super legit- no credit on my part, because i obviously am not super skilled at thai haha, but the lord definitely strengthened me and helped me to teach with the spirit that day.
alright so last super cool experience this week. on thursday we got a call from elder meeker from the mission home that we need to check our email. we did, and learned that there is this member named elizabeth living in utah right now who's grandma is super sick very suddenly. she wants to be able to make it home in time (a week from now) to see her grandma still alive, and asked president senior if he could send missionaries to give her a priesthood blessing. her grandma is in a hospital in pichet about an hour and a half from pitsanulok where we are, but we are the closest missionaries to the area. so we take a train friday to pichet to do awesome missionary things and bless this lady. we get there and calderon tells me that elder meeker said we are the first missionaries to ever be in this part of thailand. so thats a super cool... one of the grandmas (named branahm) other daughters was there to lead us to the hospital once we got there. i had learned how to do the annointing in thai and so i did that and elder calderon sealed it and gave the blessing. it was suuuuchh a cool experience and the spirit was strong. the grandma (branahm) who could really talk nodded and said she believed she could be healed. faith is all thats required, and so we read a scripture with them and than headed out. while in pichet waiting for the train we were able to take some pics at a dope huge buddha statue too which was cool.
our boy brother bing got baptized saturday and is just such a stud haha we love him so much- ill send a pic at his baptism.
everything else is just continuing on as normal. i love being a missionary- every day is a challenge but so fun and rewarding- and i feel like a learn so much. time FLIES here its crazy ive already been out a month. the language is coming slowly but surely. im happy and well, and so grateful for the opportunity to be able to serve the lord, especially in an area as this! i love it here. i love and miss you fam and hope you are well!
final thought- i loved elder holland's conference address talk "are we not all beggars?" definitely a powerful message and i love his thought he shared about president monson right at the end of his talk. god is so real.
read alma 30: 40-44
everything proves the existence of God! i am so grateful for this beautiful world we live in.
Love you all, and god be with you til we shall meet again!
elder chamberlin
p.s. did anyone else see that kathrine chavez's family (from ladera ranch) is on mormon channel.... whhaaat? super cool
Week 4 in Thailand - Only 2 more weeks with Elder Calderon
family whats good! i cant believe its been another week already!
its wierd that like this is my life haha
tuesday at lunch elder calderon didnt think i could eat an earthquake (8 scoops of icecream) at swensens so we had to go there to prove him wrong. after finishing it i learned about the thailand challenge that apparently only one person has ever done which is eating the earthquake, a large pizza, a box of tim tam slams (these like chocholate straws) with a liter of milk, which just sounds impossible. my district tried to get me to try but yeah i probably wouldve died on the pizza. so that was the start to a great week here in phitsanulok!
yeah mom ive been eating a lot more rice haha probably every meal. my personal favorite right now is khay jiaw muu which is basically a a big egg omelet with sausage on top of rice with some chile sauce ohhhh its so good ill probably get it after i email.
Homesickness hasnt been too hard yet but ill try not to jinx it- i think it helps that im just so busy all the time theres honestly not really time to think about it. like even going to bed i feel like dad, because i get into bed and am all the sudden asleep. so thats a pretty fun trait ive picked up.
right now we are teaching brother gang and his wife kanuhy (their baptismal date is this sunday) and we gave him a priesthood blessing this last friday to help him overcome his smoking addiction. their little family (1 son named glaa) is way cute. right before we gave him the priesthood blessing, we were talking a little about the priesthood to help them understand it more, and bro gang said that he knew the power of God was real, because his mom used to be in a wheel chair, she couldnt walk, and through a lot of prayers she was healed and recovered from this disease she had or something. obviously i didnt understand everything he said but elder calderon told me about it after. so that was a cool experience.
we are teaching sister blaa who also has a date to get baptized this sunday- shes a funny lady and like to call elder calderon gay for some reason haha. but shes been falling thru on alot of our appointments lately which definitely helps me learn patience fersure haha, but shes awesome and is stoked to get baptized.
through meeting barni (the guy that got baptized last week) we met his friend Jay who is super awesome, and then met another guy from camaroon africa named henry. we've taught jay once or twice and he's come to church once- has a lot of faith, and is reading the book of mormon and still has to pray about it to know if its true or not. hes super legit though, in our last lesson with him he started talking about how he wants to know if this really is jesus christs true church because if it is he needs to go home and tell his family all about it, tell his freinds about it, etc. haha he said he wants to be a missionary like us so he's super cool. and then henry we havent taught yet he's been in bangkok since we met him at a 7/11, but should be meeting up with him today or tomorrow so we will see how that goes.
nattipa is a girl that we contacted at a night market, and the first time we met at the church, she asked if she could bring some friends, and so of course we said yes. haha we showed up to the church and she was there with 3 of her friends that were very excited to meet with us haha so the sister missionaries were making fun of us for that- but nattipa is actually super solid, and has a baptismal date for next sunday. only one of her friends lives here in phitsanulok and she was pretty hesitant to accept the goal for getting baptized next week, but they all are praying and have a book of mormon to read to know if this church is for real or not. so they are doing good.
i think it was on friday or saturday that after a looong day of a lot of dropped appointments and inviting people without really anyone being interested we had a sweet miracle. its a testimony to me that when we are exactly obedient and work hard even when things seem hard and like we are wasting time bc no one wants to talk to us- God will bless us. i think sometimes when we go through hard things he's trying us to see what kind of a disciple we will be for him- what he can trust us with, and what he can trust us to do for him. so anyways that night we get back to the church and one of the members, sister จริง จริง (jing jing), who hadn't been to church in a while was there and had brought a friend too that wanted to take lessons. and if we hadnt been working hard all that week, using our time wisely and calling recent converts like sister jing jing to come to church that last sunday, and if she saw us like lazy and hanging out at the church just not working, then she wouldn't have been there and wouldnt have trusted us to teach her friend. her friends name is นั้ม (nam) which means water, and she is so awesome. she has a date to get baptized feb 8th, bc shes out of town, but she has super sincere desires to learn about christ.
other than that we are busy visiting recent converts, less active members, and inviting people all the time. its easy to get in the mindset that no one wants to hear about religion or jesus christ becuase you get rejected alot and honestly i dont blame a lot of the people for saying no, because i probably would do the same in their situation, so definitely blessed to have been raised in the gospel thanks guys. but again its all about just trusting in christ and always opening your mouth. last night inviting along this street with just tons of food carts and mini shops, we normally invite people sitting and eating at tables because the food vendors sometimes will get mad, but i felt like i really should invite the people at this next table, and they said no, and the next group said no, but then the last table in this little area i invited this couple and their kid and they said YES! so i was stoked. dont be afraid to open your mouth about the gospel! its so funny to me that when we ask these people like "hey do you want to be clean from sin?" or "hey do you want to go to church this sunday and see how christ can bless you life?" and people say no or they dont have time its like WHAT?!?! if you could really be clean from sin, or have the peace and happiness that comes from the blessings of the gospel of christ, how could anything else taking up your time be more important?! but yeah thats how it goes- so missionary work this week has been a blast.
yeah soo everything is good, we have like 2 weeks until transfers and my boy elder calderon heads home. crazy! but i love it here. life is so different and the people, the culture, the food, just everything is such a change from home but i really do love it and am so happy and feel so blessed to be able to serve God in this beautiful country, and to serve these wonderful people.
i know god lives and love us! his hand is in our lives everyday we just have to look for the miracles. i know families can be together forever. this gospel of jesus christ really does change lives and brings a joy that money cant buy. i love you guys!
elder chamberlin
p.s. i have grown to really love the time we have set apart each morning to study scriptures, the language, etc. thai is coming slowly but surely, and my love for the scriptures has grown so much. i loved reading Elder euchtdorf "lord is it i?" talk from last general conference. never forget the power of daily scripture study and prayer! we are never too busy for either. i loved how elder calderon put it to a recent convert when the convert said he hadn't been reading the scriptures because he has been to busy, and then calderon was like did you eat today? "yes..." your spirit needs to be fed just as much as your body does. you should definitely read that talk^! alright love you all!
My Boy Pioneer---I'll continue to love him like my own
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| this is my boy pioneer. he hangs out at the church a lot. he likes belly scratches and learning about jesus. i thought he was mine until last night when the neighbors that live next to the church came home and grabbed him. i was pretty sad. but ill continue to love him like my own. |
Brother Barney's Baptism --- Week Numba 3 Boiii
another week out here in the lords vineyard! its hard to know where to start.... this week was so amazing but i feel like i say that every week. they honestly get better and better though ahha.
so i guess starting with the adventures of last P-day, our district (me and my companion, and 4 sister missionaries) cruised to some cool waterfalls and i felt like i was in like disneyland at some points and like the shacks or the little log bridge or different things werent real- haha but they were so that was a good time. ill just send a lot of pictures to talk about my experience there. it was way fun.
soooo hmmmm. i guess ill just start with the best part of the week sunday. our boy barnie took his first steps of coming to christ by getting baptized this week. i was lucky enough to have an english speaking homie from cameroon (africa) be the first person ive ever baptized not proxy. it was a super cool experience and he is such a stud. he is already stoked to go home and share the gospel with his family, and he invited his roomate to the baptism and church. his friend is now taking the lessons too. his names jay and they are both such studs. its crazy how God works- a kid from california, and florida are in thailand and God guided Barnie to come to thailand and teach english (but really for greater reasons barnie just didnt know yet) to run into missionaries here in thailand and learn about His Gospel- here and now. crazy.
another miracle that happened this week was our experience with this deaf lady named phuu bay. my comp can only communicate with her through writing thai and she can write back or like make gestures of apporovement or disapprovement. we started teaching her this week, she had already been tochurch before, and she passed her baptismal interview (still not sure how they did it) and she got baptized this sunday too. so awesome.
i feel like this week was super pivotal for me too in understanding more fully like what im doing out here. idk how to explain it but like understanding my calling as a servant and representative of Jesus Christ. on tuesday elder calderon shared a talk/ letter with me that is super hard to get apparently but he got it from another missionary. its a letter of a missionary who served in france and he is writing after his mission to a friend just starting his mission, and sharing experiences and lessons he learned from his trainer. His trainer was named riccardi and was a super bold guy who would always say things like "fear no man". and this elder recounts all the seemingly crazy things he would do from preaching in the streets (what seemed super embarassing to this missionary) or be bold in inviting, or teaching. idk its super hard to remember the details and summarize it- but i remember one thing it said was that boldness will never be overbearing if the people know its in love and care for them. i guess long story short some things i took from it are to be bold, to not be afraid of sharing this message of jesus christ, becuase its true, its changed my life, and it can change other people's lives too. so when im at like a huge plaza where theres tons of people walking by me in every direction (like this last sunday night for example) and doubts like "oh they wont be interested anyway" or "there just gonna laugh at me" or whatever the fear that satan is putting into my mind might be- to open my mouth and let the Lord work through me. it was such a miracle and a testimony to me that night when i was inviting that through talking to every one, regardless of if it was a group of teenagers or an old couple wearing buddhist necklaces to invite people, and just say SOMETHING even if i embarass myself because of my thai. what i found was that i was able to speak wayyyy more fluently than i ever would have thought, i understood people, and invited according to what i could discern (or the spirit discerned) as their needs. i think on average our mission said something like it takes 90 people to find the one that will say yes. one last thing i learned from the letter, was that rejection is a good thing. for the next two years my purpose is to bring people unto christ- but this two years is also the time that Christ is testing me and seeing what kind of a servant i am going to be. will i always be obedient? will i work even when things get hard? will i trust in him with ALL things and rely on him? so yeah this two years is to help other people but its just as much to help me grow and prove to God the disciple that i want to and am striving to be for Him.
we had zone leader conference this week which was awesome. we got some news of the new mission goals. for this next month our goal is for every companionship to get 2 baptisms, the next month is 3, and the month after that is 4. to get that though we are working a lot with members, especially part member families. our focus on family and temples is so awesome- family history is becoming a larger part in the work, and they also stressed the benefit of referals in the training. ah theres so much more i want to talk about but it probably wont make sense and its hard to write it all so i will leave it at that haha. i love having the mission wide goals it gives sucha greater sense of purpose and drive and unity knowing that we are all working towards the same vision- a temple in thailand (and preparing the people for it).
the days have really been going by so fast its crazy. ive already been here for 3 weeks whaaaat?!
a quoute i liked from our zone training this week was "if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten" - kind of cheesy but pumped me up to want to step up our game, and work more effective.
there are so many awesome things about thailand and being on a mission in general that i guess i would just say you've gotta experience it yourself to know how truly fun and amazing it is. it changes you in ways that i didnt even know i needed to be changed in.
hmmm welll time is short i gotta go ride some elephants today yieww- i know christ lives, he loves us, and knows each of us perfectly. through christ we can all become better. "the purpose and central blessing of life is change. it is to be changed to become more like Jsus Crist. it is to incorporate into your character, the qualities of His character. It is to move from one degree of intelligence to the next, and from there to the next, until you see God face to face and know Him as He knows you." i know that through jesus christ we can all change and that this is central to God's plan for us. He loves you, i love you! life is so good! happiness comes from obedience its so true- obedience to God. it seems to easy, or maybe it seems restricting, but it really is so simple and true. There's a lot of things that can make us happy in this life- but the way to true joy and eternal happiness is in and through Christ! He is such a homie! So grateful for him. Love you guys and keep lovin life over there in the states- it really is such a blessing to live in the beautiful place we do, dont take it for granted.
much love, Elder Chamberlin<3
p.s. favorite scripture for the week: 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
"1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing."
we can do a lot of great things- but if we only serve (talking about a mission specifically but it applies to all aspects in life) with our might and strength, we are missing out on the blessings for ourself. Serve with all your HEART might MIND and strength- and let your whole character change too. <3
Service is like addicting! Super rewarding.
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| Out in the street puttin in work |
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| Here in the gaming lab haha emailing |
February 2, 2015 letter from Phitsanulok
Haha fam what is good! Talyon's
mission call is so exciting-- someone give that kid some love for me. That’s
sweet I’m stoked for him!
This week has been so much
fun. I’m gonna have to pull out
the journal to remember all the good stuff ;)-
So last week elder Calderon and I
cruised to central plaza- this giant mall place- to go contacting and find
people who want to learn about Jesus and be baptized. Clearly it was inspired
bc we ran into one of our investigators Nayana, this cute little Thai lady speaks
English and is a casino black jack dealer in Vegas for 6 months out of the year
haha. She is super cool though, and has a baptism date for this Sunday the 8th,
so we'll see how that goes. Then
elder Calderon took me to this heavenly place in the mall where there’s just a
bunch of massage chairs and so we took a nice hour nap in the chairs. It felt wayyyy good haha except it got
weird when I would open my eyes every once in a while to see Thai girls on the
floor above like staring down at us hahahaah. Cereal here is different so I’m pretty bummed about that,
but I found Nutella the other day so I’ve been having Nutella peanut butter
honey and banana toast which has been bomb. Some of the Thai food here is
definitely different, but my companion’s been pretty nice to me so far. We only have gone to eat at a member’s
house once so far and she fed us spaghetti haha so nothing unusual yet.
We taught English Tuesday night and
it was actually super fun haha playing like little games with all the Thai
people they are so cute. Some super good news this week: I finally bought my
new bike and it is capital D- Dope!
I fly around Thailand now.
We started teaching a new girl this
week who was a walk-in, she came into church kinda randomly on Sunday and said
she wanted to learn so that was sweet. Her name is sister Fish- she is a nice
little lady. She’s excited to get
baptized this week! Oh we also did
our first like service type activity for one of our investigators earlier this
week on probably the hottest day this week but it was so worth it! Service is like addicting! Super
rewarding.
So our guy Paa Noy (his name means
little) was progressing super well this last week but on Friday he told us
about this dream he had and he had like some demon tell him that he can learn
and get baptized but he CAN NOT receive the laying on of hands and receive the
gift of the Holy Ghost. And so he
was like, "I’m just really confused and don’t know what to do the whole
time," and he wouldn’t accept any advice from us, and then he didn’t want
to come to church and a bunch of stuff, so were gonna visit him one more time
to try and help him out, but otherwise he's getting dropped which is sad-- He
would've been so awesome and its sad to see how small things and small
decisions are gonna affect him so much for the rest of his life. There’s always a super freaky zombie
looking dog that roams around literally like a zombie and has bugs eating at
its flesh in front of Paa Noy's house so it’ll be nice to not have to be riding
and dodging that scary thing anymore I guess. I’ll try to get a picture of it this week haha. There’s a lot of super nasty mutty dogs
here with like tumors and all sorts of weird things going on.
I was checking out at the grocery
store and someone said something to me in Thai I didn’t understand, so I just
smiled and took my change after paying for the goods, and after my companion
told me that this person called me cute. Very weird- I wasn’t sure how to
react.
We went way hard on inviting and
finding people this week and its been super fun inviting people to be baptized
like just as passing on the sidewalk or stopped together at a stop light. Surprisingly or not surprisingly, I guess we have found a lot of new
people to teach so that’s been super cool this week and a testimony of the
importance of talking to EVERYONE- its been cool following Christ's example and
command to invite all to come unto him "and ye see that I have commanded
that none of you should go away, but rather have commanded that ye should come
unto me, that ye might feel and see; even so shall ye do unto the
world..." (3 Nephi 18:25)
OH! we also found this aweeesommme
investigator named Gang. He is a
cool 30 or 40 yr old dude who investigated for a while in the past but never
got baptized bc he couldn’t quit smoking.
We found him while calling thru random numbers on our phone and asking
people to come to church haha and he was stoked that we called and was way
excited to meet with the missionaries again. He still has a super bad addiction, but our lesson went
really well. My comps dad quit
smoking after being addicted for 30+ years and was able to give Gang a lot of
hope and so I think he’s been sober for a little over 24 hours right now. Stoked to see him really change through
Christ. He has a beautiful little
family and it was a tender mercy bc his wife wasn’t at all interested in
learning about Christ the last time the missionaries taught this family- but
they have a baptismal date for this Sunday, and have been praying and reading
the scriptures together as a family so if things go as planned this cute little
family will be getting baptized and be sealed in the temple which we're tryna
get here in Thailand.
Alright last miracle in finding
investigators this week: so after inviting foreverrr at Big C we had gotten the
numbers for two people who seemed slightly interested and I was starting to get
frustrated bc so many people were saying no to the golden question of "do
you want to be clean from sin?" and how could anyone say no to that?!?!?!
so anyways we got a call from missionaries in Bangkok who told us they had just
met a guy who actually lives in Phitsanulok and wants to go to church that
Sunday. So we were stoked, we met
him Sunday morning before church to take him over to the church, and he is this
black guy from Africa, speaks mainly English not much Thai, and is honestly
wayyyy sick. So it was testimony
meeting this Sunday and I sat next to him to translate while my comp sat on the
stand bc he’s the counselor in the branch presidency (and i barely understand
anything in church anywaays hahaha) so my companion told me who cares if I
understand what’s being said... its a great opportunity to just testify to him
and teach him all the lessons hahahahah. So I just taught him just about everything through the
slightly accurate translating of the testimonies hahahaha. It actually went really well and we
teach him for the first real time tonight. My comp said it would be dope if my first baptism that i
actually have in Thailand is from Africa, and I agreed. His name’s Barney. Such a stud. Stoked for him.
So last p-day we didn’t end up
going to do anything too adventurous but we are going to apparently the coolest
waterfall in Thailand today so that should be a good time.
So stats for the branch I’m serving
in: we have about an average of 60 people at church each week (10 or so recent
converts, 5 or so investigators) on average. Our goal is to get the number hovering around 85 by the end
of the transfer through baptisms, strengthening recent converts, and rescuing
less actives. Our zone goal is to
focus on unity, obedience, and repentance. President Senior has challenged the
mission for this month of February to be absolutely 100% obedient and to see
the miracles that come from it.
All in all this week has been
awesome and it went by pretty fast. I can’t believe I’ve been a missionary for over 2 months. It’s like whatttt? So exciting being out here though.
As for investigators with
baptismal dates this month dad: My
comp and I have 6 and I think the district has close to 12. Our goal for the transfer is 20.
Last thing- we went to visit a less
active member with brother Gap (a stud 19 yr old kid in our branch who I think
we are trying to get called as the branch mission leader bc we don’t have
one. He comes to help us teach a
lot.) and sister Nancy. Anyways we went driving out to her house
while we were sitting in the back of sister Nancy’s super cool little truck
haha i think i might have a pic of it. and we had to drive WAYYY out of the
city and i felt like i was really in a jungly crazy tropical country for the
first time. it was wayyy cool and so beautiful. so stoked on that.
alright well this is the end. love
you all! its been a great week im doing good and it sounds like everyone is
awesome at home! much love from thailand!
elder chamberlin<3
ps. favorite scripture for the
week: either alma 26:35-37 bc its just dope and gets me pumped to do missionary
work or mosiah 16:9 "he is the light and the life of the world; yea,
a light that is endless that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which
is endless, that there can be no more death" and connected with it 3 nephi
18:24 "therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world.
Behold i am the light which ye shall hold up-- that which ye have seen me
do..."
สู้ๆน่ะ! (suu suu na) fight on boiii thai people love the saying
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