Saa blaa-ing today was a blast- a way good final hurrah before Bunker and I part ways. I love this dude so much he's such a consecrated, obedient, and hard-working missionary. Someone once told me that you become best friends with your comp when you first become a ZL- we both went ZL at the same time and i can say its true i love this dude to death! its sad to see him go- but my new comp is gonna be Elder Webb, another missionary that i was in the MTC with, hes actually in the same group as elder bunker. good guy- way excited.
Our P-day last monday was mostly just filled with teaching because we would be out of our area on tuesday to cruise down to bangkok. We left here on monday night, and got to Don Muang airport at about 11pm, and crashed at the home of our favorite Elder Davenport (we were in the MTC together) and Elder Wannasee (brother cake who i served with in Udon when he was a member). That morning we went to renew elder bunkers visa and get all that stuff done- so i had a nice little brunch date with elder curtis (served in the same house with him in udon), and then we headed over to the Office in Asoke to meet up with the APs. Turns out it was elder Rogers birthday, so we went to get lunch with president and sister johnson and the beloved senior couple that i love that works in the office, the granges, and then the APs were still way busy getting transfer stuff ready and meeting with president so they just had us do our switch off with the office elders instead haha (which turned out good, it was elder rogers birthday wish ;) haha). We went to visit a couple of my RCs from when i served there and then visited an LA, with many hours of inviting inbetween, and it felt so good. I love inviting in Asoke- literally anywhere you go is crowds of people to invite. The cool thing about the LA that we went to visit- she has actually been to the San Diego temple- had a way good lesson with her, and our english class we put on that night was a hit. Once again i love the english classes in Asoke because there are just tons of people that come just off of the internet advertisements for a free english class. AKA new investigators babyyy!
So tuesday night we had to figure out how to get back to Roi-et, and we somehow had procrastinated trying to figure it out- and plane tickets were crazy expensive, so we took the bus route instead. We bussed home that night and showed up in roi-et at 6am, and got back to the house at 6:10am. hahaha i thought we would probably just shower and get ready for the day because we literally had 20 minutes before we would have to wake up anyways, and as i was gettin ready to shower i turn around to see elder bunker flying up onto his top bunk and throw his blanket over himself as he is still fully dressed hahaha. thats one thing im gonna miss alot about him too- its practically everynight at 10:25 that he realizes he has 5 minutes to get ready for bed, and his bag is still over his shoulders hahaha so he somehow flies all over the place and gets ready in time. So yeah needless to say wednesday was a long day- it was one of those days when after every appointment its like ahh we only have another 8 hours til we can go to sleep! haha but because we had a way packed day it also turned out to be one of our best days this week. Our investigators are way awesome- they've got cute families, and i just love teaching people about Christ.
Good lesson of the week- If you want your investigators to progress... get them to read the Book of Mormon! Sometimes its surprising how little some people progress, seems they are the ones that never make time or put effort into reading the book of mormon. This week we met with our investigator, brother Janya, and i have met with him once before on a switch off and one more time with elder bunker. So this was our third lesson and he came in and said he had read up to 1 nephi 16. I asked him about what he liked and what he understood- and somehow Lehi's dream came up. Our lesson ended up being focused on Lehi's dream, and the meaning of it all, and Janya, this 45 yr. old man, just got it. He had developed so much faith in christ that as someone in the lesson had mentioned buddhism, that he responded practically in the perspective that he was already christian. He asked me what commandments God wanted him to keep so he could be on that straight and narrow path, and so we taught word of wisdom first, and he was caught up on a couple parts of it, but when i asked, "Janya, will you repent and begin keeping this commandment?" he just answered "Well i've got to if im gonna get baptized!" and his answer was just as full of faith that he could overcome his addictions and past life, trusting in God. So i continued to teach other commandments like the law of chastisty and 10 commandments, and there was no doubt in his mind that he knew he could and would keep the commandments. It was just so awesome to see how much of a change had occured in him- i know it was the power of the book of mormon. I have seen it so many times on my mission- its crazy- almost supernatural- but its not- its just from God. A cool quote that Elder Bunker's friend sent him that a convert to the church had said... "When i read the bible, it touched my heart deeply, and helped me become a better person. When i read the book of mormon, it touched my soul, and changed my life forever."
Some other great miracles that happened this week will just be summarized with my feelings of serving in roi-et during easter time- hallelujah! I hope you all have opportunities to use this easter initiative. Very good stuff- well, we have lots of shenanigans to go and do. But know i love you and think about all you beautiful people often, mostly when i testify about families. Families are forever, and they are the key to deep and everlasting joy. No family is perfect- but that is why Christ taught us his gospel, because the gospel blesses families. It prepares us for eternity. It's true. I love you!
Elder Chamberlin
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