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| My son - Elder Joyem |
Pictures from Korat
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| Visited Ancient Ruins |
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| Teaching at the schools out in Khonburi |
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| Me and the comp kickin it at the wedding this week. |
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| a great new member from sweden. we play soccer with him in the mornings. |
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| some district photoshoot shenanigans- |
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| 16 fingers for the 16 baptisms and 16 LA rescues going down this transfer babbbyyy |
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| Brother One and his wife at his baptism |
Week 2 in Korat
This week was UNBELIEVABLE in the words of Joyem
Not much time so im just gonna jump into the miracles.
miracle #1 Brother One
Brother One is this awesome guy who has been investigating the church for about a month now. He was invited from his coworker to come check it out, and i loved his testimony at his baptism. He spoke of the incredible change in his life as he has learned about Christ. He was so grateful for his friend that invited him, because he had always been looking for something more in life. The the happiness in his life was so fleeting- it came and went, but he testified of how amazing the last two weeks has been as he has had a hope and a constant light in his life. He is a boss and has so much faith. The miracle about him was that when we first got here and continue teaching him (he had already learned a bit before joyem and i got here to korat) his wife would come occassionally but would just wait outside the church and wasnt at all interested in talking to us. On the day he interview for baptism, while he was talking with the Zone leaders, my companion and i went outside and sat and talked with his wife. and she shared how at first she wasn't really interested, but as she has seen the complete change in her husbands life, her heart has opened up to the message, and now she wants to get baptized, following her husbands example, in two weeks. miracles
miracle #2
On tuesday Elder Joyem and i went out to Khonburi. It is a small city way far out of Korat, about an hour drive. But there is a less active member that is living there, she is actually a returned missionary as of 30 some plus years ago, and she is there teaching english, and hasn't been to church in who knows how long. We had called her last week to try and meet with her and she invited us out there to help teach english- to a couple schools and a group 80+ policeman that she teaches. So we went out there not really knowing what to expect haha but it was such an amazing experience. Going to the schools was the coolest thing ever- i can see why some people decide to just dedicate their lives to going and teaching children in less developed countries and areas. We got there and i honestly felt like a celebrity- all these cute little school kids were soooo excited to have us come. Meeting the police force group was pretty sweet as well. The whole day was way awesome, a lot of driving, but by the end of it i had a small feeling of like, "was this the best use of time?" I felt a ton of love for these people but also just the stressing goals that joyem and i had for investigator lessons, etc. I felt like the day didnt help us progress in any of our goals i guess if that makes sense. After the whole experience, the less active member called us and told us about how one of the teachers at the school posted a picture of us on facebook and said "these two missionaries love teaching about religion, but today they came out to teach our kids english for free" and apparently tonnnss of people asked for where our church was, who we were, etc. Pretty cool miracle. this is in an area where missionaries have never been before, but in not long the gospel will spread through Khonburi as well. Cool miracle.
Miracle #3
to piggyback with #2, this miracle came from english class. i was stressin a little before because i wanted to make the class way good in the sense that it was super fun for everyone that came, but that everyone learned as well. And since the two sister missionaries were going to split off in another class and teach the kids, it was up to me and my thai companion to teach everyone else. So i made a couple calls to senior couples in the mish, my homie elder arne, and tried to prepare a way solid english class. It was probably thee best class i've seen, i was way proud of it. The miracle part- someone who had come for their second time, who is not a member of the church, she ran into the bishop in our ward that she recognized and knew as one of the leaders in the church, and she thanked him for having such an amazing english program, and told him how the class was so amazing that she was planning to bring her whole office from work (30 plus people) to come next week. So that was a blessing, an answer to prayers, and a cool miracle as well.
As for other miracles there were tons i wish i could write more but theres no time. Korat is a gold mine of miracles. As we have been working really close with the members and leadership in the ward there has been incredible blessings come forth. I love the people here so much and feel so lucky to be here serving them! My son, elder joyem is a straight boss. I honestly probably learn more from him each day- my thai is gonna be fire after my time with him! love him a lot- and our district is sweet. oh there was also a wedding that went down this week which was awesome. the bride is a member, but the groom isnt and is now taking lessons. ahhh yeahhh love you guys so much! Miracles are real :) and lets follow Nephi's example because he is a boss-
1Nephi 7:12 - "...the lord is able to do all things according to his will for the children of men, if it so be that they excercise faith in him. Wherefore let us be faithful unto him"
1 Nephi 18:16 "nevertheless i did look unto my God and i did praise him all the day long; and i did not murmur against the Lord because of mine afflictions"
love you guys!
elder chamberlin
Sam is now in Korat - I'm a Dad!
Hey whats up everyone sorry its been like over 2 weeks since i've talked to you all haha- no it has nothing to do with the bombing. Ahh these last two weeks have been so awesome it will be hard to try and write about it all.
I'll just start with Holland from last Saturday and Sunday- he got fired up it was super good. All the missionaries in the mission, even from Laos and Myanmar came together for the meeting and it was sick having everyone together- people that I haven't seen for 4 months+ and what not. So we all shook Holland's hand before the meeting started, and he later told us that that was our "interview", and that when he shook our hand he was looking in our eyes to see into our souls. haha it was pretty intense, but his talk he gave was even more so. It was pretty much themed on "Don't Miss It" in reference to our short time on a mission, "No going back", "never walking away", etc. He talked about how his mission meant EVERYTHING to him, and he just couldn't imagine how a someone could go out and serve a mission for 2 years, and not be converted to the gospel, to the point where they could fall away afterwards. I was way happy he started getting fired up like he does in his talks if you nawmmsayin. He talked about how some missionaries will say that after there mission they are gonna adjust back to "real life", and then he raised his voice and was like "THIS IS REAL LIFE, capital R, capital L, this is as real as it gets!" He talked about how as missionaries we want our investigators to repent and change, and compared that to us and God, and how God wants US to repent and continue to change. How frustrating it can be when an investigator doesn't keep commitments and grow when they say they want to and will, and how God must feel that same frustration with us, but somehow in his perfection He is always there guiding and leading us forwards and upwards. There was a lot of good stuff, it was a solid pump up for the whole mission. He said one funny thing that reminded me of you dad haha, he was asking us if we thought that he would just be wasting and tiring his life away for a cause he didnt know was absolutely true. He said that old guys of his age, and the other apostles, should be somewhere out in palm springs with a nice lemonade in hand, kicking back and relaxing, and then he is like, "I didn't just fall off the turnip truck!" hahaha, typical big papa saying. It was way fun having him here, unfortunately i didn't get to drive him around, or hangout with him much, but it was way fun sitting right in front of him as he bore powerful testimony of the Savior- super cool weekend.
So after all the Holland stuff was over, we had a lot of stuff getting ready for transfers, and that week is mostly a blur- but all of it in a short summary, I'm out of the office and now serving in Korat! I felt the responsability/mantle of the office come off, but now there's a new one haha. We white-washed into Korat, which means me and my companion both came in together and don't know the area. I'm also the DL for the first time which has been a sweet experience, and i'm training a new missionary, which makes me a dad. A dream com truee ayyyyyee! I told president, that if i could choose what i could be the rest of my mission it would be to train all day errday- and he came thru! I'm with the homie elder Joyem, he is thai and is the coolest kid ever. He is such a solid missionary. President said he has got some big expectations for Korat. We have a lot of exciting goals for the transfer as a district, and It is gonna be way fun.
This transfer started off with a lot of nice little challenges to test us right off that bat- and it started with one of my bags disappearing right after trasnfers meeting. We were looking all over the church for it and after a few hours i decided to just go to Korat without any clothes so we could get there and sleep a little before we had to work the next day. So we grab a taxi and as we start loading up the taxi with our bikes and stuff the rain little just drops out of the sky like a blanket it was insane. So we were 100% soaking wet and trying to tie up our bikes on this taxi, we finally get everything in and squeeze in the taxi, and take off to thebus station, and then realize we forgot the wheels to our bikes, and the traffic was insaaaane so it took like 45 minutes to get back. The two sister missionaries in our district were already at the bus station and had bought us tickets for a bus to Korat, and we literally made it to the bus station just in time to walk onto the bus as it took off. We slept on the bus in our wet clothes haha which wasn't too comfortable. The first two days here i had two where the same G's and the same clothes. Fortunately it really didn't smell that bad, tender mercy. We got to the house and it literally looked like a tornado went through it haha. Our excercise the first morning was just cleaning, and we got together 5 huge black trash bags full of stuff. Needless to see the house is beautiful now, and im grateful for my house cleaning skills that always seem to come in handy out here.
Elder Josh Wolfley is no longer with us, he has died and gone home which is sad, but it was super fun serving with him. I think thats the biggest thing i miss from serving in Asoke is being with him, arne, and slabaugh, all such great guys. However, in Korat the ward is just awesome, literally our first sunday we just had members on members coming up to us telling us that they wanted us to go teach their friends- it is gonna be a good transfer ;) a lot of people recognized me as the guy on TV a while ago too somehow haha.
So as District Leader i interview the people in our district for baptism, and so i interviewed twice on saturday, for the first time, and im not gonna lie, i was pretty nervous and wanted to make sure it was an uplifting experience for the people i was interview, and they turned out way good. I love getting to sit down with the people and listening to them and their story, and testimony, and faith in Christ, its an awesome experience.
I'll share a quick story about a cool family we taught this week, and whose son got baptized. We go to visit them on friday, and we had to have a member drive us out to there house way out in the boonies. The family is pretty much all members, except for a few. They have "family home evening" every night together, like the WHOLE family, where they come together and read the scriptures together, eat, and have a good time. They are way awesome. We were just going over some of the commandments for our investigator, B. Yo, and it was cool to hear the strong testimonies of everyone in the family. His dad had joined the church after quiting and overcoming different drug and alcohol addictions, which his son said "i never thought he would or could." and that is one thing that helped our investigator have a change of heart, until yesterday when he got baptized and shared his story and testimony of the change that occured in his life, very similar to his dad's. It was a day to rejoice.
Korat is a beautiful little place out in the eastern section of Thailand. East Thailand is called the "Esan" and they speak like partly Lao language here which is pretty sick, it's almost the same as Thai, just a lot of extra sayings to learn. Korat is called the "Door to the Esan, or the Mouth of the Esan" something like that. Its sweet to be back in a smaller area, a big transition from Asoke for sure.
Well i have a lot of stuff to catch up on bc i didnt email last week- but i love you all. My pday is mondays from now on again.
Jesus Christ lives and the church is true! I feel blessed with knowledge of his restored gospel. Okay much love friends and family, work hard this week, and remember the good stuff in life :) there is so many reasons to be happy
Love your boy,
Elder Chamberlin
Pics from this week
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| Taking the Khlong Monster |
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| Brother Dong |
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| Street Performer |
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| Elder Arne and our new Security Guard |
August 7, 2015
well hey howdy hey whats up crew how was lake powell!? i could go for a nice early morning glassy sesh with some U2 goin': bum bum, bum bum, bUM BUM ba dummm , oooooh, oooo- its a beautiful dayyyyyyYYY don't let it get away- pretty jealous but thailand is cool too ;) did luke get up on the wakeboard?
our week in thailand was a ton of fun- whats new... and this next week is gonna be even crazier, elder holland shows up friday so there will be a lot of fun stuff to do in preparation.
this last sunday was chaotic it was so stressful haha but in a good way. Elder Slabaugh had to interview 3 people that were getting baptized that day, and so i went on splits with my napalean RC and taught in the time period between the International Ward and the Thai ward. (international is in english at 9am and thai starts at 1.) There was a lot of investigators that showed up, and people that needed looking after bc they had never come before, and then other people who wanted me to go to teach the investigator class in english but then we had thai investigators that were tryna get taught, and then i was getting calls from people trying to find the church, etc., all while my companion was interviewing people- so yeah it was a pretty stressful morning. We had 20 investigators at church though- such a cool miracle from God.
One of the cooler stories from this sunday was a member from a branch in north bangkok- she had invited 6 of her coworkers to come to church who lived in our area, and came down to come to church with them. It was also fast and testimony meeting- she went and bore powerful testimony, and then testified of the joy that comes from sharing the gospel. she said at first she was way scared to even bring it up to one friend, but then after talking to one, all the sudden she had invited 2, then 3, 4, 5 and finally 6 of her friends to come- and they all came! it was a super good experience, and a good opportunity for the thai members to see the joy and blessings that come from missionary work. You don't have to have the name badge to be a missionary.
Four baptisms this sunday- it was a super happy day. One of those who was baptized, she actually lives in Egypt and will be going back there. After finding the church for her over there, she realized it would be a 5 hour drive there each sunday, but she said it like "yes only a 5 hour trip! i can make it every sunday!" she has so much faith, and has been an awesome example to those around her.
Another girl that got baptized this week was baptized after her dad's experience in another part of thailand. He met with the missionaries, was able to completely change his life of addictions and full of issues, and saw the blessings of following his Savior. He called his daughter here in Bangkok and told her about what he had found, and his daughter was baptized two weeks later, testifying that "i never thought my dad would or could ever change his life around, so when i heard that he did, i knew it was true." They were all so great it was a way spiritual sunday.
Our monday miracle: the sister missionaries (sister alley and sister T who i actually served with both of them in Phitsanulok a couple transfers ago they are way awesome) called us monday morning and said that there was a girl that wanted to meet at the church at 3 that had randomly called them- and they wouldn't be free. So we were out and about doing our officely elder duties, taking a sister a missionary who had just arrived to get her blood work done, and get pictures taken etc. (stuff we hadn't planned on doing that day) and it was sweet to see the Lord's Hand in our day as we had to pass by the church at around 1:30 on the way to the photo place, and ran into the potential investigator who had just arrived at the church. The sisters had said that it didn't sound like she was going to come- but we ran into her and shortly after taught her- and she is SO GOOD! She is here from nepal as well so i practiced my nepalese (namastay) haha, She has been so prepared. after watching the "Bacause of He Lives" video, i don't think i've ever had an investigator get so emotional. Like she broke down into tears and could barely speak, so my companion and i waited, and she finally said that she has gone through so many hard bad things in her life, and that she had felt so alone, but that she now felt so strongly of his love. She is one of those prepared investigators that you don't even have to ask them how they feel in lessons, she will just tell us that she feels so warm inside, a feeling she can't explain. We told her that she could have this love and light of Christ with her always- that first step is faith and repentance unto baptism. She was so excited to accept a baptismal date. The next time we met with her on wednesday she asked if she could just get baptized this sunday! She is way golden- the type of people nana was telling me to find right before i left.
At FHE with the members on monday we played some scripture golf and it got pretty competetive especially between slabaugh and I, ahah im sad to say i lost to slabaugh- i'm forgetting alot of the memorized scriptures that i don't use very often- and so losing has inspired me to work harder to memorize scriptures. Scriptures are so powerful. The scriptures have the answers to literally every concern. It's interesting that pretty much all the time- the investigators and even the recent converts who don't progress are the ones that we find out aren't studying the scriptures regularly. It's rare to find an investigator that keeps that commitment and doesn't progress towards baptism. The Book of Mormon is such a powerful tool in missionary work and is so true its ridiculous
We had some late nights preparing for MLC (mission leader training stuff) on thursday. We caught up with a few old investigators, 2 of my favorite from China who are just so good and will be coming to church this sunday, A lot of cool stories, i wish i could write them all but we got some big plans for today- its Wolfley's last real P-Day here in Thailand. crazy... i'll share them another day.
Oh one last thing! A new family came into the international ward the other day from San Clemente, and they will be living here from now on. They are actually from australia but are just the coolest people. They invited Arne, wolfley, slabaugh and i all over to dinner a couple nights ago. There house is a little far away but in thee most beautiful coolest part of Thailand. Like is you google search "cool thailand pics" you will find pictures probably taken off their huge building. it was way fun going to visit with them, and really funny talking about their experience in san clemente while they were there for 3 years haha. They actually were here for a little while a year back when Elder Clarke was an AP, and they said it was funny how everytime they come here they meet people from home. Anyways a way cool visit and they are gonna be a powerhouse family in this ward.
Slabaugh and I and doing great, i love the kid so much, he's a stud. I have been way blessed with such great companions.
Yeah thats all i got. Love you and hope you all had a fun week at powell, and that jake threw a backflip ;)
Oh also i would invite you all to look back on past journals or read from past spiritual experiences you have written. I did that this week in some of my studies, from some stuff back in the MTC, and it is just so powerful man. Journals can be pretty sucky to keep at times, but it's so worth it. a couple quotes i can still remember from Elder Bednar and different speakrers that i had wrote about in the MTC...
"The most spiritual part of prayer is what you do after you say amen"
"Trials are opportunities to build our faith and turn to God." This one reminded me of the "Refiner's Fire" mormon message- so intense and so good. There were a couple others but i can't remember them right now. God is real and He loves us so much it is insane! His arms are always stretched out open to us- and i know that is true more and more as i serve His children.
Elder Chamberlin
July 31, 2015
What's up crew!
>
> Bangkok is full of mysteries, wonders, and miracles- it's too much fun.
>
> We had dinner at the Ure's house (senior couple) last sunday which was way sweet of them. They are the most hillarious couple i've ever met. We had a nice discussion about "the signs of the times" hahaha.
>
> Monday was my favorite day this week- it actually started off bad getting stuck in traffic for an hour, but after that there was just so many great experiences. Probably my favorite is this girl named Joy from Khon Kaen (eastern thailand). She has been an investigator over there for just over a month, but it down here in Bangkok for some errands or something. While down here her heart condition got way bad, and her heart rate spiked up ridiculously high. She was in the hospital, and called an elder from Khon Kaen, who then called us to go meet with her and give her a blessing. We get there and as she is sitting in the hospital bed her heart rate was 160+ bpm. She was super happy we came though and had asked us to bring her a book of mormon because she left hers at home. After talking with her for a bit we blessed her, shared a scripture, and then planned to meet with her again friday. Then friday came and she had the health/strength to travel and meet us at the church- and she told us of the miracle of her healing. She said that after we had left her at the hospital, she had this sense of over-powering calm, and when the nurse had again taken her heart-rate, it was back down at the normal 80bpm or something. I feel like we see and experience so many cool things like this while serving the Lord, it's impossible to mark it off as coincidence. God's healing power is so real, physically, spiritually, and emotionally.
>
> Then after that on monday, we went and met up with our friend Justin one last time before he heads home. Justin still had concerns with different proof or evidence that proved the book of mormon was true or that proved it was false, and he said the more he googled and researched for evidence pointing one way or the other, the more confused he got. We had a solid lesson, reading a lot from the bible and the book of mormon, and Justin finally came to the conclusion that he needs to read the book of mormon to know for himself if its true or not. I love watching and seeing investigators like really truly ponder a question, and that's definitely what we saw in Justin. So we'll stay in contact with him and help him meet up with some missionaries over in Tennessee. He is so awesome- i know God is gonna use him for good in the life of a lot of young thai people. His conversion from buddhism to christianity was a cool one.
>
> Anyways, we also taught this 14 year old girl that says the cutest prayers, and then our last visit of the day was with our boy Renny. We went over to his house and Carl (the preacher from northern thailand) was still in town so we had a way fun lesson. We got into "The Laying on of Hands" and the "Power of the Spirit" a lot with Carl. He was way caught up in the fact that Jesus had prayed for his disciples and it said in those verses in the Gospels that the spirit descended upon them. And of course there's verses all over the scriptures that invite us to pray for the spirit to be with us, etc. and so he thought the laying on of hands was just a nice plus, but not at all necessary, becuase he already had the spirit. And so it was a good discussion, until i found the verses in Acts 19 or something where theres a group of disciples who exclaim to Paul that they have been baptized, but yet don't know of any "Holy Ghost", and then it goes on and Paul lays his hands upon them and it says they recieve the gift of the holy ghost. and then Carl's idea like slowly started shifting until eventually he's like "you know i think we are on the same page here, we believe the same thing", and so i agreed and asked him if he would be baptized and recieve the gift of the holy ghost by laying on of hands, and he said "all i need is baptism, i alreday have the holy spirit in me!" haha and then we asked him again if the laying on of hands was essential and he said yeah, but for some reason thought it was only essential for those who don't have the spirit in them. Anyways those lessons are always way fun.
>
> Tuesday night, Slabaugh and I were home alone- the AP's went out to do switch off's with Zone Leaders up in the north. RIght as we were about to go to bed a HUGE explosion sound went off, and all the lights in our house and the buildings we could see outside our window went off. Then everything started to come back on and then PSHH it all went out again, and we saw like an orange gleam on the side of our building, which looked like a fire had started, so we got dressed and rushed out of the building, and it turns out the the rain storm had like blown the electrict circuits. Fortunately the fire was super tiny and went out in the rain haha, but we had to sleep with no air that night which brought me back to memories of having to sleep at the church in Phitsanulok. I also found my Daily Planner earlier this week! i had lost it last sunday and turns out i just left it in my suit jacket. It made me realize how relient we are on our planners as missionaries its crazy.
>
> It's been way rainy lately which is actually way nice. Especially on tuesday night when we teach english class, it always seems like its ridiculously stormy on those nights, so all the people that came for english and up just hanging around in the church waiting for the rain to stop, which is perfect because then we just sit down with a bunch of people, watched sweet short Jesus videos, testify, and invite. My favorite part of lessons, especially like the lessons we had tuesday night, is seeing some of our new recent converts bear powerful testimony, and invite their peers to open their hearts to the message of Christ, and let it fill them with light and joy. So much faith in the saints over here man, i love it!
>
> Slabaugh and I started has a blast this week. It was so much fun. We started feeling a little fat in the middle of the week, from just eating 7/11 food, little pork sticks off the street, and smoothies from our favorite smoothies place. We were feeling pretty sick wednesday so we decided we gotta commit to doing T-25 every night. which is just one of those typical crazy workout dvds haha. It's actually been way good though- I'm looking way big so watch out when i get home you probably won't recognize me. ;)
>
> Another successful week in The City of Angels. As for my thai, i'm not tryna brag or anything but i'm basically pro. hahaha kidding, but it's good- the members are so great, and you can trust that they won't hesitate in fixing your grammar or tones. I am actually super grateful for that though. i love the thai people so much, they are just SO GOOD! I love you family<3
>
> Cheers!
>
> Elder Chamberlin
>
>
>
> Bangkok is full of mysteries, wonders, and miracles- it's too much fun.
>
> We had dinner at the Ure's house (senior couple) last sunday which was way sweet of them. They are the most hillarious couple i've ever met. We had a nice discussion about "the signs of the times" hahaha.
>
> Monday was my favorite day this week- it actually started off bad getting stuck in traffic for an hour, but after that there was just so many great experiences. Probably my favorite is this girl named Joy from Khon Kaen (eastern thailand). She has been an investigator over there for just over a month, but it down here in Bangkok for some errands or something. While down here her heart condition got way bad, and her heart rate spiked up ridiculously high. She was in the hospital, and called an elder from Khon Kaen, who then called us to go meet with her and give her a blessing. We get there and as she is sitting in the hospital bed her heart rate was 160+ bpm. She was super happy we came though and had asked us to bring her a book of mormon because she left hers at home. After talking with her for a bit we blessed her, shared a scripture, and then planned to meet with her again friday. Then friday came and she had the health/strength to travel and meet us at the church- and she told us of the miracle of her healing. She said that after we had left her at the hospital, she had this sense of over-powering calm, and when the nurse had again taken her heart-rate, it was back down at the normal 80bpm or something. I feel like we see and experience so many cool things like this while serving the Lord, it's impossible to mark it off as coincidence. God's healing power is so real, physically, spiritually, and emotionally.
>
> Then after that on monday, we went and met up with our friend Justin one last time before he heads home. Justin still had concerns with different proof or evidence that proved the book of mormon was true or that proved it was false, and he said the more he googled and researched for evidence pointing one way or the other, the more confused he got. We had a solid lesson, reading a lot from the bible and the book of mormon, and Justin finally came to the conclusion that he needs to read the book of mormon to know for himself if its true or not. I love watching and seeing investigators like really truly ponder a question, and that's definitely what we saw in Justin. So we'll stay in contact with him and help him meet up with some missionaries over in Tennessee. He is so awesome- i know God is gonna use him for good in the life of a lot of young thai people. His conversion from buddhism to christianity was a cool one.
>
> Anyways, we also taught this 14 year old girl that says the cutest prayers, and then our last visit of the day was with our boy Renny. We went over to his house and Carl (the preacher from northern thailand) was still in town so we had a way fun lesson. We got into "The Laying on of Hands" and the "Power of the Spirit" a lot with Carl. He was way caught up in the fact that Jesus had prayed for his disciples and it said in those verses in the Gospels that the spirit descended upon them. And of course there's verses all over the scriptures that invite us to pray for the spirit to be with us, etc. and so he thought the laying on of hands was just a nice plus, but not at all necessary, becuase he already had the spirit. And so it was a good discussion, until i found the verses in Acts 19 or something where theres a group of disciples who exclaim to Paul that they have been baptized, but yet don't know of any "Holy Ghost", and then it goes on and Paul lays his hands upon them and it says they recieve the gift of the holy ghost. and then Carl's idea like slowly started shifting until eventually he's like "you know i think we are on the same page here, we believe the same thing", and so i agreed and asked him if he would be baptized and recieve the gift of the holy ghost by laying on of hands, and he said "all i need is baptism, i alreday have the holy spirit in me!" haha and then we asked him again if the laying on of hands was essential and he said yeah, but for some reason thought it was only essential for those who don't have the spirit in them. Anyways those lessons are always way fun.
>
> Tuesday night, Slabaugh and I were home alone- the AP's went out to do switch off's with Zone Leaders up in the north. RIght as we were about to go to bed a HUGE explosion sound went off, and all the lights in our house and the buildings we could see outside our window went off. Then everything started to come back on and then PSHH it all went out again, and we saw like an orange gleam on the side of our building, which looked like a fire had started, so we got dressed and rushed out of the building, and it turns out the the rain storm had like blown the electrict circuits. Fortunately the fire was super tiny and went out in the rain haha, but we had to sleep with no air that night which brought me back to memories of having to sleep at the church in Phitsanulok. I also found my Daily Planner earlier this week! i had lost it last sunday and turns out i just left it in my suit jacket. It made me realize how relient we are on our planners as missionaries its crazy.
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> It's been way rainy lately which is actually way nice. Especially on tuesday night when we teach english class, it always seems like its ridiculously stormy on those nights, so all the people that came for english and up just hanging around in the church waiting for the rain to stop, which is perfect because then we just sit down with a bunch of people, watched sweet short Jesus videos, testify, and invite. My favorite part of lessons, especially like the lessons we had tuesday night, is seeing some of our new recent converts bear powerful testimony, and invite their peers to open their hearts to the message of Christ, and let it fill them with light and joy. So much faith in the saints over here man, i love it!
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> Slabaugh and I started has a blast this week. It was so much fun. We started feeling a little fat in the middle of the week, from just eating 7/11 food, little pork sticks off the street, and smoothies from our favorite smoothies place. We were feeling pretty sick wednesday so we decided we gotta commit to doing T-25 every night. which is just one of those typical crazy workout dvds haha. It's actually been way good though- I'm looking way big so watch out when i get home you probably won't recognize me. ;)
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> Another successful week in The City of Angels. As for my thai, i'm not tryna brag or anything but i'm basically pro. hahaha kidding, but it's good- the members are so great, and you can trust that they won't hesitate in fixing your grammar or tones. I am actually super grateful for that though. i love the thai people so much, they are just SO GOOD! I love you family<3
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> Cheers!
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> Elder Chamberlin
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