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!
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