hellooooo<3
every week just flies by its ridiculous. filled with the good days and not so good ones haha
tuesday in my journal i wrote "today was just so rad... these are the kind of days i live for" and then by thursday "its so hot its ridiculous... haha kandun popped his bike tire twice today" and then friday we left the house after studies and both my tires to my bike were flat some how too haha. then one popped again later that day. BUUUTT we made the best of our situation and got quite a lot of inviting time in while we were walking around. i was so wrong when i thought i wouldnt get close with kandun bc of the language barrier situation- i love him so much he's the funniest little thailand man.
this week really was amazing though filled with a lot of miracles, dissapointments as well, but i like to focus on the miracles haha. this morning i studied in alma 17 about the sons of mosiah as they were setting off on their missions and i love the attitude they went out with. they were courageous, trusting in God, and they knew the work they were setting out on was a great one, and of God.
so tuesday: i don't think ive ever sweat more on my mission haha- we biked to brother flug's house (he is a recent convert that baptized his dad i think i talked about them last week), but yeah we're teaching his mom now too. and so we get there and even tho we were both (elder kandun and i) sweating waterfalls, the lesson went so well. Kandun had me lead the lessons throughout the day, and it just seems like everytime i think i can't do something, God shows me i can. The spirit was there and his mom is awesome. she DID have a baptismal date for the 22nd but that happens to be one of the dissapointments of the week- she didnt come to church. after that lesson we biked across thailand to get to brother hua's house and teach his wife and kids. again the lesson was SOO good, her 9 yr old daughter said the opening prayer and 8 yr old son said the closing prayer. her son (aan aan) read some of the scriptures a loud for us which was super happy for the mom to see bc he struggles reading, and doesnt like being around other people- so yeah anyways really good lesson- and then we stopped by later in the week and had another awesome visit. this family is like so solid- have baptismal dates for the 22nd as well, and then yes... they also didnt come to church. haha praew and ayy, our two investigators that got baptized last week were taught next. super good lesson about joseph smith and reviewing the restoration, super solid throughout the week, and then they had to go out of town so werent there at church this sunday to get confirmed and recieve the HG. we had 43 people at church this sunday from the usual 60. so elder kandun and i have been doing some hardcore praying, brainstorming, and planning on how to help this branch have more strength. we've got some pretty good ideas so we'll see what happens this week with our big goals.
i think one of the funnest parts of the week was our new approach to inviting. we've been flagging down people driving by- cars and motorbikes alike- holding a big picture of a temple and a happy family. to attract their attention and get them to stop (on top of the rad picture of the temple) elder kandun taught me this funny dance/ move/ idk even know what to call it that people do in south-eastern thailand when they are trying to get people to buy stuff from them/ inviting them into their store. hahaha ill try to send a video next week i think a member was making fun of us and videoing us bc it waaaas pretty funny haha but effective. one top of the 5+ numbers we got in that hour, we found a guy interested in going to church- so he came in right then and there and we taught him the restoration haha. so rad.
a cool project that we are starting too in order to help the branch have more unity is translate the Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration movie into thai and have a movie night at the church with old members, new members, investigators, etc... the new super sick one. we called president senior and he was excited about the idea- so that'll be fun working with the members doing that this week.
we also had zone training this week and had the zone leaders stay with us which was exciting.
ive had 3 missionaries tell me im probably gonna be a ZL in a couple transfers (complementing my thai and im sure my testimony ;) ) which of course was helpful for my confidence. i think thai is really the most frustrating when we are in a lesson, and like i think of a super rad analogy or story to share to help answer the guys concern- but like know half the words. so thai is coming surprisingly super well and i love getting the compliments from thai people that im super "geng" (skilled) but i think thats just bc most white people dont speak thai at all haha so the fact i can talk about jesus is pretty impressive. still working on all the different foods- i can only order my khay jiaw mu and khay pad kay, which are both way good so im ok with that.
we had 2 more baptisms in the branch this week, so yeah rad. we've changed around how they have baptismal services here- bc when we first came they were like so unorganized and just like ask people to speak the morning of, like maybe have a special number, invite a member to be the person to baptize the morning of or day before, etc. so anyways you can be at peace bc we mixed it up- and they are way solid now. still tryna get like family members to be speakers and to participate in some spiritual/special performance, but yeah most of the time people getting baptized are the first in their family- which is finna about to change ahhh yeahh.
oh last miracle i just thought of- was at the beginning of the week elder kandun and i set a goal for 50 "other lessons taught" which includes getting numbers from new potential investigators and an invitation to come to church that sunday (because we can follow up on our commitment) and so anyways i thought that was ridiculous bc the most i had had with calderon was probably in the 20s. anyways we set the goal in faith and determined to work hard this week, and even though we fell short we got 33 other lessons taught, which is quite the miracle. its nice having a big group of new potential investigators/ new investigators to work with, and it keeps us busy.
alright yeah so awesome week- but next week is gonna get even better so get excited.
i love you guys and i love serving the lord in thailand its SO RAD! being a missionary is the coolest thing, and brings so much joy.
with much love, your favorite missionary,
Elder Chamberlin<3
P.S. for ben- i got the numbers of a cute family from malaysia that were traveling in thailand. hahaa i love asian people they all just love me/ probably white people in general.
i think im gonna miss feeling like a celebrity and getting all the waves and big smiles from strangers as im just riding or walking around haha- and the random people you meet that jsut want to take a picture with you. good times. love you!
