Udon Lantern Festival Week - November 30, 2015

Hey family<3

This week was awful

hahaha gotchya it was actually way great as usual. At the beginning of the week, we had a special visit from president johnson, and he wanted to show up for district meeting. he said something to the effect of "i wanna see you in action" haha so there were high expectations for a way good district meeting this week. i was a little stressed about that the night before, BUT it turned out to be the best pump-up, spirit-filled district meeting i've seen so i was way stoked to start the week off with that. we had interviews with pres. johnson, who is just such a great guy. i loved working with him in asoke, what seems like yesterday but i guess it was close to 4 months ago now that i left the office. It was fun having president here, and that day also just so happened to be the lantern festival. The purpose is to say sorry to the River Goddess or something like that, for all the dirty stuff that gets put into it. and so they light these little floating things and float them off into lakes and rivers all over thailand, and some places they light them off into the air. it was fun having that, but the better part was the insane amount of people that gather at the Nong Pracag lake here in Udon, so the inviting was very prime. i wanted to get permission from pres to stay out all night inviting because it was so good- 

miracle- our investigator Mac. turns out he got a job and he is living like 2 hours outside of the city, but he made it to church on sunday, and told he that he still wants to get baptized next week, even though we hadnt been able to contact him for like 4 days. he got a new job and is way busy which is a good thing. but it is sweet to see his faith as he still makes the sacrifice to come to church and partake of the sacrament. so he is way good.

we had lots of cool finding miracles go down as well- one that i love was early in the week when we were going out to visit a returning LA, we get lost, and one thing leads to another and we meet this lady who said she was down to meet with us again. at first, she didnt seem that golden, but we came back and visited her with the boss member, sister Pon, and just had such a good first lesson with her it was awesome. She wants her daughter and her whole family to come to church, and so i was bummed when this sunday they couldnt come because they were harvesting rice, but she said next week fasho- so thats sweet. A way cute little family, with tons of extended family living in that neighborhood, so miracles awaiting. 

One of the sweetest miracles that happened was on sunday. an LA that none of us missionaries recognized, she came to church, and introduced us to this lady and her daughter that she brought to church. i start talking with her and learn of how much God has prepared her (sister Bom) long story short, she already has a powerful testimony of prayer, and she has 5 kids. her husband is from america but is gone most of the year working. she came to church for the first time, loved it, and so we are meeting with her this week to go teach her family, and the LA that brought her wants to be involved in teaching her the gospel. So way excited to see the miracles of this family getting baptized and this awesome sister nang be reconverted to the gospel along the way. such an awesome miracle, words cant describe

well lets see- i got a picture of two investigators, some of the sickest people ever, that i taught in Korat, get baptized. so i was wayyyy stoked to see that- a way great feeling seeing the influence you have even after you leave. i love those guys so much- han, and mild. brother Taw got baptized the other week too- ah so good. 

this week we have a lot going on. the ZLs are crazy busy and have to go down to bangkok for training stuff, so we are teaching some of their people, i have to go over to Gumpawapi for another day this week and do a switch off there, (really i should say i get to beacuase its gonna be way fun), and we have zone conference stuff happening this week as well. another cool miracle from this morning- we went to go do some exploring in gumpawapi today with some of the members (one of which is an RM from temple square, one an RM from thailand, and one who has a call to serve in oakland CA) and we ate dinner with the grandma of the two RMs (there names are Geng, and Gaew which sounds way wierd but their cool thai names and super awesome people i love these guys) and anyways we eat at their grandmas house, and i sit down with the gma after we ate our quick lunch, and i talked to her for a bit, got to know her, and shared a scripture with her randomly. she said she would be happy to have me come again and share more about this message- she even yelled over to one of her daughters that lives with her, that i shared a scripture with her, and how she loved it, and that shes having us, the missionaries, come back on wednesday (when i have the switch off here in gumpawapi) to teach them. After this whole thing happened Gaew told me about how miraculous it was how much her gma's heart opened up, and so shes way excited to come teach her with me. The branch here in gumpawapi is way small, and the 2 missionries serving here just re-opened the area this transfer, and are apart of our district. anyways- it was all way cool, and i guess in summarizing, God is truly preparing people. He loves each of his children and I know that he loves each of us. Theres nothing greater than the joy of bringing the gospel to familes. families are forever ;)

its gonna be another way full week- im stoked for it. i love you guys, and i love being a missionary. i love udon and i love the amazing people i get to meet and serve and work with each day. it makes me think of mosiah 18:21 and then i think 22 as well. let us be knit together in unity and love. i love you family and friends you guys are awesome- strive to makes someone's life better this week. thats where true joy is found! much love from the other side of the world over here in Udon Thani, Thailand. 

Elder Chamberlin<3

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