probably the coolest thing that went down this week was the baptisms of 5 of our districts investigators this last saturday, and having 6 people (1 one got baptized last week) all get confirmed in sacrament this sunday. Such an awesome day- with tons of little miracles within it- from our investigator nikki who got baptized, her mom who originally was just happy to see her daughter happy as she prepared to be baptized but wasnt really interested at all. she showed up to the baptism and then to church the next day too- and brought her other little daughter and told me that she wants her younger daughter (who is just 6) to be a missionary- haha, and nikki actually told me that night that she wants to be a missionary- shes 26 and i wasnt sure if there was an age limit for sister missionaries, but it turns out theres not! so she is way excited to prepare to do that. she speaks english and french and obviously thai straight up fluently so she is gonna be a boss missionary. elder wolfley had a way cool experience of seeing one of the people he baptized early on in his mission leave on a mission right as he was going home from his- and i was thinking to myself how sweeeeet thatd be, and so im pretty stoked for nikki too, itll be way cool to help her prepare and see her grow, she is one of those golden people that nana told me to come find.
last pday was a good time we traveled out to the boonies in a members truck and went to a place that we thought was a "floating market" but it turned out to be a really really random zoo / garden place haha- but i ended up surfing an elephant, and riding a waterbuffalo is it was worth it.
i cant believe its september already!?! where did the months go.... little recap for the week- english class was way good- i love teaching- so much fun. we went out visiting a lot of LA's this week as well with bishop and other members which is such a great thing- a lot of times all people need is some encouragement and love to come back to church. That has been a focus of ours this transfer is for every baptism its gotta come with an LA rescue and our little disctrict has a goal for 16 of each- and this last week was a sweet step towards our goal. but i think my favorite part of the week actually mightve been on friday. we went out to visit this lady who had been an investigator some 5 or so months ago, that we had found in our area book and called up. turns out she wants to go to church way bad, but its super hard because she feels she needs to work becauase of this massive debt her family has. she is so awesome though- she has twins- a daughter and son that are 9, and they wanna get baptized way bad and be christian. she told us that her son used to love coming to the church to learn english- so much so that when she would take him to the buddhist temples/ schools her son would be like "no mom, i want to go to jesus' church- im christian not buddhist" and it was the cutest thing seeing this little kid feel such a close relationship with jesus christ, in a country where it is the "normal and right thing" to be buddhist. anyways the best part of our visit with them though was that we went just expecting to teach them, but after a series of miracles of running into people that led us to her house, we got there and learned that they had justbought this new house/plot for their store, and it was just a straight mess- so we got to serve them for the next couple hours and get there place livable, and it was just a great reminder to me of how much i love serving people. theres no better way to find joy than in giving yourself, your time, and talents, in improving the lives of others. and then afterwards we sat down and shared a thought and left. it felt so good- i love being a missionary and im excited to see them as they grow and become more like christ. i think elder joyem put it best on saturday when he said- "theres nothing more fun than being a missionary... baptizing people is the best feeling in the world!"
one ongoing miracle throughout the week has been that we have been running into members everywhere that end up leading us to the place we need to go. whether it is to the hospital this week, or to find someones house, there was like 4 or 5 instances this week where it seemed like God just dropped this member in our path to guide us. so that was way cool.
we had some cool miracles of members who brought tons of their school friends to church throughout the week as well to come learn with us- unfortunately they didnt come on sunday haha- but the first time we met with all these school kids around 17-18 years old, we threw down a way spiritual lesson about jesus christ and how he has changed our lives and how he will change theirs. so i was pretty bummed they didnt show- but it was a solid teaching experience for me and the homie joyem.
as for my thai, it feels like it has just improved soooo much its crazy. its so nice being with a thai companion. he loves teaching me thai and i love teaching him english so it works well. my son is just a straight boss! its been fun training- even though a lot of times in lessons i feel like he is training me as im just soaking in new words and phrases he uses.
Well it has been a joyful week in korat, i hope its been the same back at home. i love you guys so much!
a lot of my studies this week have been focused in memorizing scriptures from the book of mormon- so ive been going thru finding all the scriptures that i like or think are powerful and putting them in that memory. my goal is to beat ben in any scripture game when i get back- and probably luke too im sure he is gonna have scripture mastery down by the time i get back.
but here is one that i really like- 1 nephi 17:13 "And I will also be your light in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led."
He truly is our light in our lives- in the good times and in the bad. He lives and the happiness and joy that comes from following Him is so real. The church is true
elder chamberlin
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