Elder Joyem and I are lucky enough to be staying together in Korat! which we were both way stoked about because of the way sweet people we are teaching right now.
Well i forgot my journal today but we'll see what i can remember-
On friday i called one of our investigators, Montira, who lives way far out of the city, and we usually just teach her short messages over the phone, she told us on friday that she wanted to be baptized, and she had her mind set on getting baptized this sunday- so we met up with her on saturday and just reviewed EVERYTHING. we straight up were learning together for 3 hours plus because she had such good questions- and then she had such great faith in seriously everything. like we went over tithing and fast offerings and she was honestly just like thanking me for explaining such a great commandment, and after seeing the form she told me how she felt so strongly that this is from God. and i just saw her trust and faith in him as we taught each commandment. Her story is such a cool one i- im just gonna tell you it.
so a litte over a year ago she was at the mall, and a missionary had ran up to her and told her that he felt inspired to tell her that Jesus Christ wants her to come back. It turns out she used to be christian but at the time she didnt really believe in anything. Apparently the experience hit her really hard, and the missionary, according to the story was going to give her a book of mormon but didnt have an extra one on him, and so ended up giving her his own thai copy that was marked and worn. He told her how special and valuable it was to him, and told her to read and study it. She left and i think the missionaries taught her over the phone for a while, but then she moved to a different province and lived way far from any church. Eventually a few months later she moved back to Korat but there was no contact with the missionaries. We had found her name in the former investigator lists in the area books at our house and had called her one of our first days in the area. Recounting that first call we gave to her, she told us that she had been reading the scriptures and praying daily- but had started to think that God had maybe begun to forget about her.When we called her she said she had been praying that the missionaries would get back in contact with her and she explained that it was like an angel coming and telling her that God is still there and does still love her. I actually think the first scripture we shared with her was 1 nephi 21:15-16 about how a mother can't forget her sucking child, and that even moreso the Lord can forget us- he has engraven us upon the palms of his hands. anyways we continued to stay in contact with her and it wasnt until last week that she was able to come to church for the first time- and there was so much joy as she explained the peace she felt at church. This sunday she got baptized, and her testimony was wayyy powerful. I was actually the one to interview her for baptism on saturday since i had never actually taught her face to face up until that day. At the end of the interview i shared my testimony and invited her to share hers and im gonna be honest i've never felt the spirit stronger as she told me of her whole experience, her whole story, of coming to Christ. It was powerful- and i felt strongly of the love that God has for his daughter the returned home to his fold this last week.
Another one of our investigators that we've been teaching these last weeks- Pearl and Pink, the girl i had met at the mall 2 weeks ago-ish have just been straight bosses this week. I talked with the ZL's this week about their situation because normally if your under 18 you have to wait a couple months to get baptized, but i asked for special permission for them, and they were just so stoked to hear the news that they could get baptized next week. I had never set a baptismal date for them because i didnt know how long they would have to wait- but even without a date they were the ones that asked me for the parent permission forms to take to their parents and get signed. They have invited 4 or 5 of their friends to come to church now already, and all of them are just soaking in the teachings of Christ. It makes me way glad that i was there at the mall at the right time, talking to everyone- and that i ran into pearl- it has led to meeting with so many great people. They taught one of their friends, Hann, how to pray, before we taught him for the first time- and so when we asked him if he knew what prayer was, he said yes, and then he said that he prayed with peal and pink already. He said it was the first time, and that he got goosebumps from it, and he didnt know how to explain what or why but he just felt super peaceful from it. And from the start he is just a boss investigator and has been soaking in and understaning everything with such ease. It is a testimony to me that once people have a personal experience with the spirit, the rest is easy. I think of other investigators who we teach, i try so hard to ask great questions for understanding, and to help them feel the spirit and grasp onto it, but by the end of the lesson sometimes they leave as if they didnt learn a thing. and its so clear that you can teach knowledge and information all day but until someone has felt the spirit, thats all it is, is information... and in the end they really dont learn anything. But as for Hann he just soaks it up like a sponge, and he loves it, because he knows its real. So anyways that was a great lesson this week.
We went down to transfers this week, and i got to say some "see ya laters" to some of the dying missionaries- especially to arne<3 and to Slabaugh who just got transfered out to another country Burma hahah. So he is gonna be learning burmese now for the last 8 months of his mission, and helping the church grow there which is way sweet and he is way excited for. Burma has 6 missionaries now- and Laos is a similar deal- they have 6 missionaries i think right now too. so i said see ya to those fellas and then we got to cruise back to Korat with our new district member, sister nitaya, shes thai and way cool. so now our district is half thai half white which is pretty sweet.
I met a cool guy named Jay that is from korea but grew up in australia, and served a mission in japan, and speaks chinese and i think a couple other langauges. He is here in Korat while hes traveling the world tryna start up some business.
All 7 people that got baptized last week were at church to get confirmed which was a miracle considering some of the crazy obstacles that Sister Faa had that morning. They are all so cute, i love them so much. And yeah this week was just way good, and full of teaching and being a missionary. Im sure there was more, but my weakness of having a pretty bad memory hasnt become a strength yet.
I love you guys! The church is true, and i am so grateful for the guidance of our prophets. I am excited to hear from them this coming weekend. And i was way stoked to hear the Elder Renlund is in the 12, because his talk from last conference about Shiblon was by far one of my favorites.
I hope you guys have a fun conference weekend, and if your up in utah you get to cuddle up in the cold weather- its still nice and hot here in Korat :)
much love
Korat DL,
elder chamberlin ;)
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