Monday, December 27, 2010
Sup.
So Saturday was a lot of fun guys.. thanks for being there. You guys are right and i didnt even think of that way.. it was exactly like BYU with a bunch of people walking in an out haha.. Komgrid and Tawid are NOT usually that shy i swear! And Bon usually cant keep his mouth quiet long enough before a bad word comes out haha. But really, it was quite special.
So what happened in these last 2 days? A butt ton. Sister Apple passed the interview.. with flying colors i might add. But more than that, she got baptized on Sunday. Yeah, yesterday. Why? The Branch Presidency decided to do it that way 2 minutes before sacrament started. Short notice eh? Yeah.. a little bit. The members were a little weirded out because it was so short notice (and then Elders from another area had to rush over too), but all in all it went fairly well. Sister Apple chose me to baptize her and i was willing, but then i changed my mind and told her if she really wanted me to baptize her, then whatever, i would. But i told her that this was her only time in her life to do this and so i introduced the idea to have Fluke, her son baptize her. She immediately said ,"yeah.. thats a really good idea that i was just thinking too." So yeah.. fluke ran home and got their white clothes and then got back and memorized the lines and what not and baptized her. Sweet.
And then we had a bunch of lessons after the baptism and we got Bon to commit to quit smoking. Awesome. We wil see if he actually keeps the committment but he said he WOULD, instead of trying. We will meet again today in like an hour and hopefully hes doing good. BUt unfortunately they are going back to Au's house for like a week or so so we wont meet for a while. Kinda blows. But whatever.
Today we just got baack from Ayutaya.. the old capital of Thailand. And it was so much fun. I have so many pictures but theres no way im taking the time to upload those all in emails.. im trying to set up this "Picasa" account thing but its hard.. every time i try to change the language to English it goes back on me! Can you set one up for me so i dont have to read all these stupid pop up thai messages. You gotta see these pics. Ill get a few out though :)
Love ya guys. This Christmas was interesting but way good none the less. Missed ya, and got a little trunky on skype.. but only a little! Hopefully ill get my packages tomorrow but never know.. if not this week, then probably next. Thanks for the support and the cool pictures of Christmas.
Love, Elder Gudmundsen
So what happened in these last 2 days? A butt ton. Sister Apple passed the interview.. with flying colors i might add. But more than that, she got baptized on Sunday. Yeah, yesterday. Why? The Branch Presidency decided to do it that way 2 minutes before sacrament started. Short notice eh? Yeah.. a little bit. The members were a little weirded out because it was so short notice (and then Elders from another area had to rush over too), but all in all it went fairly well. Sister Apple chose me to baptize her and i was willing, but then i changed my mind and told her if she really wanted me to baptize her, then whatever, i would. But i told her that this was her only time in her life to do this and so i introduced the idea to have Fluke, her son baptize her. She immediately said ,"yeah.. thats a really good idea that i was just thinking too." So yeah.. fluke ran home and got their white clothes and then got back and memorized the lines and what not and baptized her. Sweet.
And then we had a bunch of lessons after the baptism and we got Bon to commit to quit smoking. Awesome. We wil see if he actually keeps the committment but he said he WOULD, instead of trying. We will meet again today in like an hour and hopefully hes doing good. BUt unfortunately they are going back to Au's house for like a week or so so we wont meet for a while. Kinda blows. But whatever.
Today we just got baack from Ayutaya.. the old capital of Thailand. And it was so much fun. I have so many pictures but theres no way im taking the time to upload those all in emails.. im trying to set up this "Picasa" account thing but its hard.. every time i try to change the language to English it goes back on me! Can you set one up for me so i dont have to read all these stupid pop up thai messages. You gotta see these pics. Ill get a few out though :)
Love ya guys. This Christmas was interesting but way good none the less. Missed ya, and got a little trunky on skype.. but only a little! Hopefully ill get my packages tomorrow but never know.. if not this week, then probably next. Thanks for the support and the cool pictures of Christmas.
Love, Elder Gudmundsen
Monday, December 20, 2010
MERRY... what time of year is it?
Yo sup. Gangster.
So this week was way sweet. Had a butt ton of lessons with members and had some serious progress with everyone. First off, Sister Gade.. yeah, shes getting baptized on wednesday.. woohoo! She passed everything and we got the service set up for this wednesday. We wanted to set it up for this tuesday right after english class so all those nuggets could see it, but Gades son wouldnt be able to go.. he needs to be there. He said he can make it on wednesday. She was so sweet this weekend.. she was literally brighter than a christmas tree and church and when she passed her interview? wow.. never seen someone with her age so happy. For Flukes Mom, Apple, she is almost done with everything. She learns faster than anyone ive ever met. And, it helps that fluke pretty much teaches everything for us already.. we didnt need to teach the sabbath day, the law of chastity OR the word of wisdom cause Fluke explained all of that to her when he was baptized. So, we will finish everything and then proceed with her baptism on the 2nd. On to Au and Bon... pretty sweet week. Bon is opening up to us more and more every day. He knows these things are good for him and hes starting to make the change.. first with repentance. He said something kinda funny.. in thai he said "Heart hot...'' i think you can figure that out.. i heard it and was like.. hmm... thats gotta mean hot head. It does. He gets mad pretty easily and he wants to change that. I love his questions.. he doesnt hesitate to ask either.. i love it. For Au.. Wisid and Superman had her come over to their house and they had a talk about how to treat her kids.. because she has a habit of treating them with disrespect.. not completely her fault because they dont treat her with the most respect either.. but it was necessary. Yesterday there was a big difference when we taught.. these 2, mother and child, are really starting to get along like family.. instead of enemies. Its the same change that happened with Fluke and his Mom.. the love there is so great. Oh! And Sister Gade came and helped us teach them too haha. Im afraid we wont have enough time to baptize them before this transfer is over.. everyone thinks i am moving! I will be... "sad", to censor myself a little bit. Hopefully i will stay longer.
So this week we had exchanges.. Elder Olive and I had some fun over in rangsit.. hes a great missionary.. his thai is absolutely terrible.. harsh right? Not so. I say it cause he said it first. Thats why hes so great.. he knows he straight sucks (hahah) but he doesnt let it get in the way.. he charges every lesson, every investigator, and every time we invite.. Its quite inspiring. And it was a good experience for me to lead lessons again. We had one investigator who was pretty.. "peeved" at the idea of only men getting the priesthood.. i heard it, understood her question and was just like.. dangit! I can never answer this question adequately.. but surprisingly she accepted my answer just fine. Her husband aint interested but she goes to church a ton.
I dont have a scripture of the week or a phrase.. but i do have a thought for everyone.. Reach out and help a less active member. This past sunday we had a less active who was calling people to try and figure out a way to get to Church.. but he doesnt have any money... we had nobody who could help him.. and we as missionaries cant. It was aggravating, frustrating, and agonizing to have to say no because its a rule that its the responsibility of the members. Its different here because we have maybe 2 or 3 members who have cars.. and they are usually full. We have no excuses back home. Its probably not a problem like this for less actives, but they have problems too.. be the ones to reach out and kick the butt to church to partake of the sacrament! Something i plan to fix when i get home.
K so this is all i got for now.. but i look forward to this Christmas more than usual. Yesterday i was called up to speak in church about Christmas back in the states.. Well.. i said it was the best time of the year... to say the least. There was a video by President Monson about the Sprit of Christmas (hey whaddyaknow! i got a phrase of the week): drop the last syllable and we have the Spirit of Christ. This season REMEMBER to FORGET yourselves.
Merry Christmas!
Elder Gudmundsen
So this week was way sweet. Had a butt ton of lessons with members and had some serious progress with everyone. First off, Sister Gade.. yeah, shes getting baptized on wednesday.. woohoo! She passed everything and we got the service set up for this wednesday. We wanted to set it up for this tuesday right after english class so all those nuggets could see it, but Gades son wouldnt be able to go.. he needs to be there. He said he can make it on wednesday. She was so sweet this weekend.. she was literally brighter than a christmas tree and church and when she passed her interview? wow.. never seen someone with her age so happy. For Flukes Mom, Apple, she is almost done with everything. She learns faster than anyone ive ever met. And, it helps that fluke pretty much teaches everything for us already.. we didnt need to teach the sabbath day, the law of chastity OR the word of wisdom cause Fluke explained all of that to her when he was baptized. So, we will finish everything and then proceed with her baptism on the 2nd. On to Au and Bon... pretty sweet week. Bon is opening up to us more and more every day. He knows these things are good for him and hes starting to make the change.. first with repentance. He said something kinda funny.. in thai he said "Heart hot...'' i think you can figure that out.. i heard it and was like.. hmm... thats gotta mean hot head. It does. He gets mad pretty easily and he wants to change that. I love his questions.. he doesnt hesitate to ask either.. i love it. For Au.. Wisid and Superman had her come over to their house and they had a talk about how to treat her kids.. because she has a habit of treating them with disrespect.. not completely her fault because they dont treat her with the most respect either.. but it was necessary. Yesterday there was a big difference when we taught.. these 2, mother and child, are really starting to get along like family.. instead of enemies. Its the same change that happened with Fluke and his Mom.. the love there is so great. Oh! And Sister Gade came and helped us teach them too haha. Im afraid we wont have enough time to baptize them before this transfer is over.. everyone thinks i am moving! I will be... "sad", to censor myself a little bit. Hopefully i will stay longer.
So this week we had exchanges.. Elder Olive and I had some fun over in rangsit.. hes a great missionary.. his thai is absolutely terrible.. harsh right? Not so. I say it cause he said it first. Thats why hes so great.. he knows he straight sucks (hahah) but he doesnt let it get in the way.. he charges every lesson, every investigator, and every time we invite.. Its quite inspiring. And it was a good experience for me to lead lessons again. We had one investigator who was pretty.. "peeved" at the idea of only men getting the priesthood.. i heard it, understood her question and was just like.. dangit! I can never answer this question adequately.. but surprisingly she accepted my answer just fine. Her husband aint interested but she goes to church a ton.
I dont have a scripture of the week or a phrase.. but i do have a thought for everyone.. Reach out and help a less active member. This past sunday we had a less active who was calling people to try and figure out a way to get to Church.. but he doesnt have any money... we had nobody who could help him.. and we as missionaries cant. It was aggravating, frustrating, and agonizing to have to say no because its a rule that its the responsibility of the members. Its different here because we have maybe 2 or 3 members who have cars.. and they are usually full. We have no excuses back home. Its probably not a problem like this for less actives, but they have problems too.. be the ones to reach out and kick the butt to church to partake of the sacrament! Something i plan to fix when i get home.
K so this is all i got for now.. but i look forward to this Christmas more than usual. Yesterday i was called up to speak in church about Christmas back in the states.. Well.. i said it was the best time of the year... to say the least. There was a video by President Monson about the Sprit of Christmas (hey whaddyaknow! i got a phrase of the week): drop the last syllable and we have the Spirit of Christ. This season REMEMBER to FORGET yourselves.
Merry Christmas!
Elder Gudmundsen
Monday, December 13, 2010
Wow
i have so many pictures this week its retarded.. its gonna be hard to send these tonight... the charge from today was for a mini hard drive.. 250 gigs.. why so big? Because the next one under it was 16 gigs... for 1000 baht.. i bought this 250 one for 1500 baht. would have been stupid to buy the other one. my card is full already so im dumping everything onto this hard drive so i can take more pics.. got any more cards? i have this 4 gig one, and the 8 gig one that i cant use.. ill explain that later.
Hello!
Sups. yeah.. i know, sup isnt spelled with that extra S but i kinda liked it after i erased it.. what of it.
So.. what a sweet week! We hit a butt ton of lessons.. but in the process got no good potential investigators OR new ones... suck! OH well.. we are working on that haha. The big event this week was the Christmas Stake activity.. hahaha it was SO much fun! Since we had pretty much every investigator going we got permission to go too.. and, upon getting there, i got enlisted to sing. The activity had a way high so performance inside, about the birth of Christ, put on by the members and what not.. way excellent. I only got video of it but it was seriously so good. But on the outside of the church they had a bunch of performances that were much more up beat and fun for the public... that was the one i was in. I got to the church at 530.. they said, "hey can you play the drums? you can? k youre singin with us in an hour." Woot. We sang first at 630.. we sang hark the angels sing, come all ye faithful, white christmas, rudolph, and feliz navidad.. hahaha why feliz? I dont know... maybe cause its super awesome? I added a few touches in for feliz navidad.. but unless someone finds a way for me to send video home via email, you will have to wait until i get home :) So yeah that was way fun, and they we had to go back the following night cause the activity was a 2 nighter. But, even better than that, we had investigators go both nights too! I seriously want you all to see the inside performance.. it was so good. Some reallly, really excelent singers. Kinda made me miss home though a little bit.
K so on to investigators.. everything is still pretty good.. we had so many lessons with members! Flukes mom is incredible.. she understands everything so easily.. and we met her every single day! We still plan to get her baptized on the 2 of january.. Fluke continues to impress me... his mom asks him questions all the time and he answers.. correctly. Even about the PoS! He also got the Aaronic priesthood yesterday.. so he will help us teach every day! Hes got nothing going on and what better way to prepare him to be a missionary than to take him out with us! Yeah. its sweet. Bon and Au are progressing pretty nicely.. if a little bit slow.. but she said a sweet prayer last night that was.. encouraging to say the least: "please help us as we change religions...." and then i didnt understand the rest and up until now i have forgotten to ask Elder Komgrid what else she said... hang on a sec.. ok, so she is worried about not being able to pray to buddhist idols.. shes pretty buddhist by the way.. dont remember if i have said that before, but yeah.. she is. So with Bon.. hes got awesome questions.. he doesnt wait to ask questions.. like, at all. I love it.. instead of sitting there waiting for us stupid missionaries to shut up and ask if they have questions, he just butts right in as says em.. cant get better than that. oh and they are good questions too! YOu can tell they are questions that he has been wondering for a while. On to Gade.. shes solid as ever.. didnt get to meet very much with her, but i mean shes solid. Wud, the Laotion dude.. we committed him to the 9th of January.. so far he is on day 4 without smoking, and day 5 without coffee.. not much longer and that crap is gone.. but really its gone already. All in all, these people are so ready to change.. their testimonies are growing and the members are being such an amazing hlep to us.. its kinda ridiculous how much more stoked they are on missionary work.
K so i am out of order.. phrase of the week! Been a while eh? This weeks actually comes from Krista Oakes... i thought it was amazing and i want everyone to see this.. in fact i cried right in this internet cafe. "I was taught long ago that there are counterfeits for everything except the peace that is the hallmark sign of the Holy Ghost. Within the presence of that peace it is impossible for fear and doubt to abide. There are many good feelings and emotions, and I've experienced those, too. Feelings of love and relief and joy and hope and wonder, and so on. But when there is spirit-to-spirit communication with the Lord through the Holy Ghost, it is unmistakably and undeniably set apart from these other feelings, and it becomes the only reliable source of confirmed truth. My greatest desire is to live long enough to help my children learn to access and recognize this for themselves." One of the best ways of explaining the spirit ive heard in a while.. one day her kids will read that and know, if they dont already, how do recognize the spirit for themselves. It really is true though.. the Spirit is the key.. to everything.. there cannot be anything done without the spirit.. i dont know if i have shared this scripture before, but ill do it again if i have.. 3 Nephi 11: 31.. i think thats what it is.. Jesus says that he testifies of the father, the father testifies of the Son, and the Holy ghost testifies of them both... this is pretty good on its own right? Right. But look deeper.. who is speaking in that chapter? Jesus Christ himself... he is IN FRONT OF THEIR FACES... yet he still calls the holy ghost to testify of the truth.. he descended out of the sky, and everyone saw.. yet he still said to let the spirit testify of truth. How else can you put this? Once we are able to recognize the spirit.. holy crap things get going. Its been something ive been working on in teaching.. most of the time it comes right down to shutting up, and listening.. not just listening to the investigators but also to the Spirit.. listen to what he wants to say.
K so this is all ive got for now.. sorry this is kinda late.. but you probably havent even gotten up yet.. old people! This week was an excellent week of many more to come.. i bear witness that this work is true, and if you dont have the spirit you will not work. Hope everything is all fine and dandy back home.. love you all and thanks for your support... pray for my companion.. hes taking 2 english tests on wednesdays and if he doesnt pass he has to leave the mission and be a soldier.. pray, pray pray! Hes gonna do great.
Elder Gudmundsen
So.. what a sweet week! We hit a butt ton of lessons.. but in the process got no good potential investigators OR new ones... suck! OH well.. we are working on that haha. The big event this week was the Christmas Stake activity.. hahaha it was SO much fun! Since we had pretty much every investigator going we got permission to go too.. and, upon getting there, i got enlisted to sing. The activity had a way high so performance inside, about the birth of Christ, put on by the members and what not.. way excellent. I only got video of it but it was seriously so good. But on the outside of the church they had a bunch of performances that were much more up beat and fun for the public... that was the one i was in. I got to the church at 530.. they said, "hey can you play the drums? you can? k youre singin with us in an hour." Woot. We sang first at 630.. we sang hark the angels sing, come all ye faithful, white christmas, rudolph, and feliz navidad.. hahaha why feliz? I dont know... maybe cause its super awesome? I added a few touches in for feliz navidad.. but unless someone finds a way for me to send video home via email, you will have to wait until i get home :) So yeah that was way fun, and they we had to go back the following night cause the activity was a 2 nighter. But, even better than that, we had investigators go both nights too! I seriously want you all to see the inside performance.. it was so good. Some reallly, really excelent singers. Kinda made me miss home though a little bit.
K so on to investigators.. everything is still pretty good.. we had so many lessons with members! Flukes mom is incredible.. she understands everything so easily.. and we met her every single day! We still plan to get her baptized on the 2 of january.. Fluke continues to impress me... his mom asks him questions all the time and he answers.. correctly. Even about the PoS! He also got the Aaronic priesthood yesterday.. so he will help us teach every day! Hes got nothing going on and what better way to prepare him to be a missionary than to take him out with us! Yeah. its sweet. Bon and Au are progressing pretty nicely.. if a little bit slow.. but she said a sweet prayer last night that was.. encouraging to say the least: "please help us as we change religions...." and then i didnt understand the rest and up until now i have forgotten to ask Elder Komgrid what else she said... hang on a sec.. ok, so she is worried about not being able to pray to buddhist idols.. shes pretty buddhist by the way.. dont remember if i have said that before, but yeah.. she is. So with Bon.. hes got awesome questions.. he doesnt wait to ask questions.. like, at all. I love it.. instead of sitting there waiting for us stupid missionaries to shut up and ask if they have questions, he just butts right in as says em.. cant get better than that. oh and they are good questions too! YOu can tell they are questions that he has been wondering for a while. On to Gade.. shes solid as ever.. didnt get to meet very much with her, but i mean shes solid. Wud, the Laotion dude.. we committed him to the 9th of January.. so far he is on day 4 without smoking, and day 5 without coffee.. not much longer and that crap is gone.. but really its gone already. All in all, these people are so ready to change.. their testimonies are growing and the members are being such an amazing hlep to us.. its kinda ridiculous how much more stoked they are on missionary work.
K so i am out of order.. phrase of the week! Been a while eh? This weeks actually comes from Krista Oakes... i thought it was amazing and i want everyone to see this.. in fact i cried right in this internet cafe. "I was taught long ago that there are counterfeits for everything except the peace that is the hallmark sign of the Holy Ghost. Within the presence of that peace it is impossible for fear and doubt to abide. There are many good feelings and emotions, and I've experienced those, too. Feelings of love and relief and joy and hope and wonder, and so on. But when there is spirit-to-spirit communication with the Lord through the Holy Ghost, it is unmistakably and undeniably set apart from these other feelings, and it becomes the only reliable source of confirmed truth. My greatest desire is to live long enough to help my children learn to access and recognize this for themselves." One of the best ways of explaining the spirit ive heard in a while.. one day her kids will read that and know, if they dont already, how do recognize the spirit for themselves. It really is true though.. the Spirit is the key.. to everything.. there cannot be anything done without the spirit.. i dont know if i have shared this scripture before, but ill do it again if i have.. 3 Nephi 11: 31.. i think thats what it is.. Jesus says that he testifies of the father, the father testifies of the Son, and the Holy ghost testifies of them both... this is pretty good on its own right? Right. But look deeper.. who is speaking in that chapter? Jesus Christ himself... he is IN FRONT OF THEIR FACES... yet he still calls the holy ghost to testify of the truth.. he descended out of the sky, and everyone saw.. yet he still said to let the spirit testify of truth. How else can you put this? Once we are able to recognize the spirit.. holy crap things get going. Its been something ive been working on in teaching.. most of the time it comes right down to shutting up, and listening.. not just listening to the investigators but also to the Spirit.. listen to what he wants to say.
K so this is all ive got for now.. sorry this is kinda late.. but you probably havent even gotten up yet.. old people! This week was an excellent week of many more to come.. i bear witness that this work is true, and if you dont have the spirit you will not work. Hope everything is all fine and dandy back home.. love you all and thanks for your support... pray for my companion.. hes taking 2 english tests on wednesdays and if he doesnt pass he has to leave the mission and be a soldier.. pray, pray pray! Hes gonna do great.
Elder Gudmundsen
Monday, December 6, 2010
baptism...
Pretty sweet eh? Fluke is awesome! Oh and last pday we had some fun at the rink haha.. yes, we ARE allowed to do it.
Why hello clarice
So another week has already passed by.. woot woot! Kinda crazy how fast everything is starting to go... i swear it was literally 24 hours ago that i was emailing.
So first things first... yesterday was fathers day in thai.. kinda interesting: Fathers Day is always on the Kings Birthday.. and since he has been King for almost 70 years now, its always been in December 5th. Its the biggest event for Thailand.. above all other festivals. So, since it was fathers day, Sister Superman would not let me leave Church before i committed to tell my Dad that "He has an AWESOME" son... i mean, i know you all already know that, but she made me commit to say it again ;)
K with that said and done, Fluke got baptized! Up until saturday we would ask him everyday, "are you nervous?" and he wouldnt respond, "not really." Then on saturday hes just like... "ah! so excited/nervous!" But he did great.. Fluke chose Brother Tawid to baptize him and it was quite special.... lets just say i need to repent.. for some reason i keep doubting my investigators: Sister Blessing, Bii, and now FLuke.. for some reason im always worried that their testimonies arent going to be "powerful" or "life changing" for some other investigator listening.. like im worried they dont REALLY have a testimony.. man have i been wrong for all 3 people so far.. i already told you about Bii, who by the way is doing just fine.. he got a calling to be the ward greeter (hey! like me at BYU!) and... well theres a lot more but ill get to that later. Anyway, for Fluke, we didnt even have to push him to get his family there.. when i asked if to invite his family he said he already did. And whaddayaknow.. his Mom went! When you see the pictures you will think she was getting baptized too haha. Anyway, his testimony.. holy crap.. i dont think there was a person in the Chapel not holding back tears.. President Pitsanu (branch president) was one of the people UNABLE to hold them back.. he was weaping openly. Fluke got up and was really funny explaining how before he was kind of just a zombie.. wouldnt do anything and was just kind of no one.. but then people started telling him that hes changed.. "i dont really think ive changed.. im still stupid!" That part was way funny, but then he got serious... he explained, "before, i was like that.. but then i really developed a relationship with my savior.. i also learned what the meaning of Baptism was finally (cause the baptist church didnt explain it.. they just baptized him in 1 day). Now i do believe i am a changed person... from what the missionaries introduced to me, i followed it and have repented from all those stupid things ive done before. Because of it I will keep the commandments, repent daily for the rest of my life.. Today i am sad that my dad and little brother werent able to come.. but am Happy because my Mom did.. and i realized that she has always been there for me.. and she wont go anywhere. She has always been an amazing mother but i havent been an amazing son. From this day forward i want to be a better son to an AMAZING Mom..." Are you guys crying yet? If not, you should be... if only you guys coulda been there! I dont think i need to say anymore..
K so with our other daters... we lost 2. Top, Flukes friend.. everytime we met he would just space... and then Nat keeps giving us stupid excuses... weve tried to get him off the bench long enough but hes clearly not ready.. Not a problem.. we both kinda saw this coming already. So we are down to 3 baptismal daters right? Wrong! Fluke got baptized but Wut came back! Remember him? Hes the Laotion dude? His wife said she had a dream about me once? Anyway, he went back home to Laos and finally got back on Saturday.. and hey! He has the correct visa and can learn with us and get baptized legally! We set a date for the 9th of January.. he didnt accept very easily though.. had a lot of concerns that have clearly been eating him up about the law of chastity and the word of wisdom.. but i think we asked him "AFTER all those things are cleared up, with you be baptized?" about 9 or 10 times! We committed him to quit smoking and stop drinking alcohol THAT INSTANT. We are praying that he will be able to have the faith to quit.
On to Au and Bon... still good. Au is pretty much golden.. her prayers are so sincere.. every time! Bon is a little difficult and we almost lost him.. he told us straight that he promised his Grandmother (who has passed already) that he would be a monk.. but Elder Komgrid bore sweet testimony about a similar situation with his Grandmother and that they will meet them again, but only through Jesus Christ. Bon said he was willing to set aside time monday through friday to learn but asked if we could not have appointments on the weekends so he could rest and chill with friends.. no problem! Oh by the way.. i made him cry hahah! How? You'll just have to wait another year and a half to find out haha! Au is just going up and up.. she saw fluke and told Elder Komgrid she wants to see her son like that.. well.. who knows, in 2 years he could be a missionary eh? We were kinda teasing Bon, but being serious at the same time, saying stuff like, "Ah.. we can see it.. a black name tag with 'Elder ------' written on it." I forgot his real name cause its WAY long. But it was funny.. if we get Fluke and Bon excited about missionary work, they could enter the MTC at the same time! How cool would that be?
Gade is still golden.. we meet her every single day after tuesday and shes totally gonna be ready by the 26th.. we only ahve the commandments left which we will definitely finish this week, and then reviewing! We had a sweet chance to meet her son again who didnt have work on saturday, and his fiance as well. Wow did we waste a lot of time! We were there for seriously about 3 hours! First, they both work for the same company (which is all Mormon by the way) and they were telling us all about it! Its called Tahitian Noni.. ever heard of it? Its kinda like that Acai juice stuff.. but more "high so" or something.. like 50 bucks a bottle. Anyway, they explained how they work, and we were just like.. "hah! You're missionaries! We work the same way!" When we finally got them to sit down and listen, his fiance had like a million questions! Normally we dont get people like that so we were just amped to be able to pop the Book of Mormon open on EVERY question and answer it.. was way sweet, but not exactly "using time wisely" haha. Anyway, she kept asking, "how can i know?" We read Moroni 10 4 and 5 about 8 times.. she kept asking.. so we kept answering with the simplest explanation possible haha. They both went to Church, but we havent had the chance to meet again since. She is kind of impatient and wants to SEE results "quickly." Oh, and Pet, Gade's son, is crazy! During his schpeal of how he works he said, "i have a uniqe gift of seeing peoples sincerity in their eyes.. i work with Mormons and non mormons and i can see the difference very easily." About an hour after he said that, I was in the middle of testifying and he started to smile.. then he said, "he speaks truth.. i can see it in his eyes.." WHOA! I dont really know how to respond to that, but hey.. i aint gonna disagree! We really want to get these 2 TOGETHER to be baptized.. but i think after he sees his mom baptized he will have a bigger desire. They are also pretty buddhist.. like hard core.
Ok so what else... oh yeah.. President Wisan hilarious.. his daughter was bearing her testimony and Wisan was up on the stand writing something down on a piece of paper.. so his head was down not looking at her.. while she was bearing it, she kinda had a loss of words for about 30 seconds.. President Wisan, still not looking up but continuing to write: "In the Name of Jesus Christ, Jope (finish)." hahaha and she did just that haha!
Okay so that was just a random that i just had.. and now im out! This week was way fun and Fluke is so just so awesome.. i forgot to mention that his Mom is a progressor now.. kinda interesting.. Her and Sister Nooy (Wisans wife) know each other quite well already.. forgot how, but they are friends haha. In fact, Flukes Mom knew many people at Church. We are pretty sure we can baptize his Mom this month.. she understands way easily and is home all day, like her son ahah! K so yeah im seriously out now. Love you all and i want you to know that this week had a lot of... interesting things that made me think a lot about home.. not because i miss you or anything (hahah.. sting?) but just "things." Just know I love you all I know that this work is true and is being led by Jesus Christ, Heavenly Father, and the Holy Ghost. It is so true..
Elder Gudmundsen
So first things first... yesterday was fathers day in thai.. kinda interesting: Fathers Day is always on the Kings Birthday.. and since he has been King for almost 70 years now, its always been in December 5th. Its the biggest event for Thailand.. above all other festivals. So, since it was fathers day, Sister Superman would not let me leave Church before i committed to tell my Dad that "He has an AWESOME" son... i mean, i know you all already know that, but she made me commit to say it again ;)
K with that said and done, Fluke got baptized! Up until saturday we would ask him everyday, "are you nervous?" and he wouldnt respond, "not really." Then on saturday hes just like... "ah! so excited/nervous!" But he did great.. Fluke chose Brother Tawid to baptize him and it was quite special.... lets just say i need to repent.. for some reason i keep doubting my investigators: Sister Blessing, Bii, and now FLuke.. for some reason im always worried that their testimonies arent going to be "powerful" or "life changing" for some other investigator listening.. like im worried they dont REALLY have a testimony.. man have i been wrong for all 3 people so far.. i already told you about Bii, who by the way is doing just fine.. he got a calling to be the ward greeter (hey! like me at BYU!) and... well theres a lot more but ill get to that later. Anyway, for Fluke, we didnt even have to push him to get his family there.. when i asked if to invite his family he said he already did. And whaddayaknow.. his Mom went! When you see the pictures you will think she was getting baptized too haha. Anyway, his testimony.. holy crap.. i dont think there was a person in the Chapel not holding back tears.. President Pitsanu (branch president) was one of the people UNABLE to hold them back.. he was weaping openly. Fluke got up and was really funny explaining how before he was kind of just a zombie.. wouldnt do anything and was just kind of no one.. but then people started telling him that hes changed.. "i dont really think ive changed.. im still stupid!" That part was way funny, but then he got serious... he explained, "before, i was like that.. but then i really developed a relationship with my savior.. i also learned what the meaning of Baptism was finally (cause the baptist church didnt explain it.. they just baptized him in 1 day). Now i do believe i am a changed person... from what the missionaries introduced to me, i followed it and have repented from all those stupid things ive done before. Because of it I will keep the commandments, repent daily for the rest of my life.. Today i am sad that my dad and little brother werent able to come.. but am Happy because my Mom did.. and i realized that she has always been there for me.. and she wont go anywhere. She has always been an amazing mother but i havent been an amazing son. From this day forward i want to be a better son to an AMAZING Mom..." Are you guys crying yet? If not, you should be... if only you guys coulda been there! I dont think i need to say anymore..
K so with our other daters... we lost 2. Top, Flukes friend.. everytime we met he would just space... and then Nat keeps giving us stupid excuses... weve tried to get him off the bench long enough but hes clearly not ready.. Not a problem.. we both kinda saw this coming already. So we are down to 3 baptismal daters right? Wrong! Fluke got baptized but Wut came back! Remember him? Hes the Laotion dude? His wife said she had a dream about me once? Anyway, he went back home to Laos and finally got back on Saturday.. and hey! He has the correct visa and can learn with us and get baptized legally! We set a date for the 9th of January.. he didnt accept very easily though.. had a lot of concerns that have clearly been eating him up about the law of chastity and the word of wisdom.. but i think we asked him "AFTER all those things are cleared up, with you be baptized?" about 9 or 10 times! We committed him to quit smoking and stop drinking alcohol THAT INSTANT. We are praying that he will be able to have the faith to quit.
On to Au and Bon... still good. Au is pretty much golden.. her prayers are so sincere.. every time! Bon is a little difficult and we almost lost him.. he told us straight that he promised his Grandmother (who has passed already) that he would be a monk.. but Elder Komgrid bore sweet testimony about a similar situation with his Grandmother and that they will meet them again, but only through Jesus Christ. Bon said he was willing to set aside time monday through friday to learn but asked if we could not have appointments on the weekends so he could rest and chill with friends.. no problem! Oh by the way.. i made him cry hahah! How? You'll just have to wait another year and a half to find out haha! Au is just going up and up.. she saw fluke and told Elder Komgrid she wants to see her son like that.. well.. who knows, in 2 years he could be a missionary eh? We were kinda teasing Bon, but being serious at the same time, saying stuff like, "Ah.. we can see it.. a black name tag with 'Elder ------' written on it." I forgot his real name cause its WAY long. But it was funny.. if we get Fluke and Bon excited about missionary work, they could enter the MTC at the same time! How cool would that be?
Gade is still golden.. we meet her every single day after tuesday and shes totally gonna be ready by the 26th.. we only ahve the commandments left which we will definitely finish this week, and then reviewing! We had a sweet chance to meet her son again who didnt have work on saturday, and his fiance as well. Wow did we waste a lot of time! We were there for seriously about 3 hours! First, they both work for the same company (which is all Mormon by the way) and they were telling us all about it! Its called Tahitian Noni.. ever heard of it? Its kinda like that Acai juice stuff.. but more "high so" or something.. like 50 bucks a bottle. Anyway, they explained how they work, and we were just like.. "hah! You're missionaries! We work the same way!" When we finally got them to sit down and listen, his fiance had like a million questions! Normally we dont get people like that so we were just amped to be able to pop the Book of Mormon open on EVERY question and answer it.. was way sweet, but not exactly "using time wisely" haha. Anyway, she kept asking, "how can i know?" We read Moroni 10 4 and 5 about 8 times.. she kept asking.. so we kept answering with the simplest explanation possible haha. They both went to Church, but we havent had the chance to meet again since. She is kind of impatient and wants to SEE results "quickly." Oh, and Pet, Gade's son, is crazy! During his schpeal of how he works he said, "i have a uniqe gift of seeing peoples sincerity in their eyes.. i work with Mormons and non mormons and i can see the difference very easily." About an hour after he said that, I was in the middle of testifying and he started to smile.. then he said, "he speaks truth.. i can see it in his eyes.." WHOA! I dont really know how to respond to that, but hey.. i aint gonna disagree! We really want to get these 2 TOGETHER to be baptized.. but i think after he sees his mom baptized he will have a bigger desire. They are also pretty buddhist.. like hard core.
Ok so what else... oh yeah.. President Wisan hilarious.. his daughter was bearing her testimony and Wisan was up on the stand writing something down on a piece of paper.. so his head was down not looking at her.. while she was bearing it, she kinda had a loss of words for about 30 seconds.. President Wisan, still not looking up but continuing to write: "In the Name of Jesus Christ, Jope (finish)." hahaha and she did just that haha!
Okay so that was just a random that i just had.. and now im out! This week was way fun and Fluke is so just so awesome.. i forgot to mention that his Mom is a progressor now.. kinda interesting.. Her and Sister Nooy (Wisans wife) know each other quite well already.. forgot how, but they are friends haha. In fact, Flukes Mom knew many people at Church. We are pretty sure we can baptize his Mom this month.. she understands way easily and is home all day, like her son ahah! K so yeah im seriously out now. Love you all and i want you to know that this week had a lot of... interesting things that made me think a lot about home.. not because i miss you or anything (hahah.. sting?) but just "things." Just know I love you all I know that this work is true and is being led by Jesus Christ, Heavenly Father, and the Holy Ghost. It is so true..
Elder Gudmundsen
Monday, November 29, 2010
Sup!
Hello everyone!
K so im not even gonna waste any time getting into the nitty gritty! We've got 6.. count em SIX baptismal daters! Fluke passed his interview so hes getting baptized THIS SUNDAY! Woot woot.. he got his divorced parents to commit to go to.. and Tawid got him excited about serving a mission as well. Awesome. Hes a sweet kid and this sunday is gonna be huge! He gave us his friend as a referral who is also baptist.. did i tel lyou about him yet? His name is Top. We committed him for the 2nd of January 2011! He accepted.. its gonna be troublesome with him cause his grandmother literally forbid him from going to church yesterday to help his mother sell crap.. but he had the desire.. just gotta work harder. So then we have Gade.. she is ALSO christian already.. the one i told you is like Joseph Smith? Confused as to why there are so many christian churches? Anyway, we had her committed for the 26th of December, but after meeting with her this past week, and yesterday, we told her we felt we could move it a week earlier to the 19th of December.. she is so sweet. She "wais" (the little bow thing) everytime we testify or do anything that she lieks.. which is a lot. She is determined to do as much as she can on her own without people asking her.. like going to Stake conference yesterday.. kinda far! But she said she would get a taxi and be there by herself. And hey.. she did. And she loved it too. Ill talk more about stake conference later. So after Gade... brace yourselves... AU, BON, NAT! All three in one appointment! BEEEYAAAAHHH!!! Just to put it simply.. Au accepted it like CANDY! Im going to write her words exactly after stake conference.. she said this to Komgrid while i was talking to Tawid about what we were about to teach them for yesterday: "When you missionaries first contacted us i didnt think the things you were teaching us were THAT important.. i thought they could definitetly help my kids.. but now its more than that. Today i saw and felt things that made me want to start reading from the Book of Mormon every day, pray every day, and have family home evening. I saw kids my sons age and families like ive never seen before. I want that. If im going to know these things are true, i need to do these things." Snap. Crackle. and Pop. She said this before we even got in the lesson so we both knew we were gonna get that committment out there.. so shared more feelings and we just got it right out there.. all three of them for the 2nd of January 2011! Bon took a little more effort but not much.. he followed his mothers example and is willing to sacrifice time for us, and Nat kinda followed Bons example too. We will see where it goes.. but we are very excited cause they should all have the opportunity to go see Flukes baptism this sunday.. including Flukes parents and little brother. Should be a good week. All in all, we are teaching more in unity and things are just awesome.
By the way, in case you didnt figure it out yet, i didnt move. Neither did Komgrid. But, we did get to participate in the Dan Jones activity that i did the first day i was in country.. did i tell you about that? Well, its where the office calls in elders to take these new greenies out on the streets for an hour and get them inviting.. was really fun AGAIN except this time i wasnt the greenie :) Got me fired up again seeing newbies come in and how far ive grown.
So.. thanksgiving.. ah it was so great! First off, we had a little dinner thing at the Church with out branch.. yeah, but not thanksgiving.. noodles? Cmon. It was really awesome though cause Wisan invited people to come up and share testimonies of thankfulness and what not.. and he picked (on) me to speak too. So.. after i was done speaking things of no interest whatsoever, and sat down, Elder Komgrid told me Wisans son cried.. uhhnyuh. This kids been having some problems lately and his parents have told us that they dont think he will serve a mission.. little bit of a turn around eh? Then, and heard this from Tawid, their son Win, spoke in stake conference.. i heard maybe 5 times from different members that everyone in the room was just astonished at how different he was.. that he wants to serve a mission and will prepare to serve it next year.. BEEYAH! Was a sweet day for him.
So we did have a sweet AMERICAN thanksgiving dinner.. so.. awesome! Oh yeah... they know you too hahaha. Yeah, they are Koreans.. they told me i looked asian as well... told em that i was half korean, but we didnt speak more than that because they were about to bless the food. After, i asked them where they were both born. She said something that i dont remember and the father said Taegu.. "oh no way, my Moms from there." "Really? Whats her name maybe i know her?" "Boon---" Both of their faces lit up brither than the Christmas tree behind them.. he stopped me before i even finished your name mom and they just freaked out.. "No way! Your Mom is Song Boonseon..." and then whatever your whole surname is.. its long (ish)! Anyway, i ate so much i wanted to die.. thats how it should be right?! Right. Elder Komgrid ate so much too.. loved American Thanksgiving. It really felt awesome that they were willing to open their house to us missionaries and feed us an amazing meal.. even more than that was the fact that i am so far away from California (and Korea for that matter) and i some how meet a family that we know?! Yeah huh... coincidence right? This is the first time theyve had Thanksgiving at their house in a while cause last year they were way busy.. but he made the decision months ago to make sure he would be home for the missionaries this year.. then even more than that, he barred 4 other missionaires from coming cause they had 12 on the list, but cut it down to 8.. lucky we didnt get cut right? Right. I dont actually know their first names hahah.. but they are brother and sister Kim. Really nice family. Hes got 3 daughters and 1 son who is planning on serving a mission next year.
Hey so other than this, i dont have anything haha.. but i just want to leave you with something Tawid said at conference (yeah he spoke): he talked about 3 important things - Daily scripture study, daily prayer, and family home evening... DO THEM. Those werent his words, but pretty much. They are so easy! Go open Alma 37: 6.. or is it 7? I dunno.. whatever, its good. Small and simple things people. K well i love you all. thanks for your supoort. I will talk to you next week!
Elder Gudmundsen
K so im not even gonna waste any time getting into the nitty gritty! We've got 6.. count em SIX baptismal daters! Fluke passed his interview so hes getting baptized THIS SUNDAY! Woot woot.. he got his divorced parents to commit to go to.. and Tawid got him excited about serving a mission as well. Awesome. Hes a sweet kid and this sunday is gonna be huge! He gave us his friend as a referral who is also baptist.. did i tel lyou about him yet? His name is Top. We committed him for the 2nd of January 2011! He accepted.. its gonna be troublesome with him cause his grandmother literally forbid him from going to church yesterday to help his mother sell crap.. but he had the desire.. just gotta work harder. So then we have Gade.. she is ALSO christian already.. the one i told you is like Joseph Smith? Confused as to why there are so many christian churches? Anyway, we had her committed for the 26th of December, but after meeting with her this past week, and yesterday, we told her we felt we could move it a week earlier to the 19th of December.. she is so sweet. She "wais" (the little bow thing) everytime we testify or do anything that she lieks.. which is a lot. She is determined to do as much as she can on her own without people asking her.. like going to Stake conference yesterday.. kinda far! But she said she would get a taxi and be there by herself. And hey.. she did. And she loved it too. Ill talk more about stake conference later. So after Gade... brace yourselves... AU, BON, NAT! All three in one appointment! BEEEYAAAAHHH!!! Just to put it simply.. Au accepted it like CANDY! Im going to write her words exactly after stake conference.. she said this to Komgrid while i was talking to Tawid about what we were about to teach them for yesterday: "When you missionaries first contacted us i didnt think the things you were teaching us were THAT important.. i thought they could definitetly help my kids.. but now its more than that. Today i saw and felt things that made me want to start reading from the Book of Mormon every day, pray every day, and have family home evening. I saw kids my sons age and families like ive never seen before. I want that. If im going to know these things are true, i need to do these things." Snap. Crackle. and Pop. She said this before we even got in the lesson so we both knew we were gonna get that committment out there.. so shared more feelings and we just got it right out there.. all three of them for the 2nd of January 2011! Bon took a little more effort but not much.. he followed his mothers example and is willing to sacrifice time for us, and Nat kinda followed Bons example too. We will see where it goes.. but we are very excited cause they should all have the opportunity to go see Flukes baptism this sunday.. including Flukes parents and little brother. Should be a good week. All in all, we are teaching more in unity and things are just awesome.
By the way, in case you didnt figure it out yet, i didnt move. Neither did Komgrid. But, we did get to participate in the Dan Jones activity that i did the first day i was in country.. did i tell you about that? Well, its where the office calls in elders to take these new greenies out on the streets for an hour and get them inviting.. was really fun AGAIN except this time i wasnt the greenie :) Got me fired up again seeing newbies come in and how far ive grown.
So.. thanksgiving.. ah it was so great! First off, we had a little dinner thing at the Church with out branch.. yeah, but not thanksgiving.. noodles? Cmon. It was really awesome though cause Wisan invited people to come up and share testimonies of thankfulness and what not.. and he picked (on) me to speak too. So.. after i was done speaking things of no interest whatsoever, and sat down, Elder Komgrid told me Wisans son cried.. uhhnyuh. This kids been having some problems lately and his parents have told us that they dont think he will serve a mission.. little bit of a turn around eh? Then, and heard this from Tawid, their son Win, spoke in stake conference.. i heard maybe 5 times from different members that everyone in the room was just astonished at how different he was.. that he wants to serve a mission and will prepare to serve it next year.. BEEYAH! Was a sweet day for him.
So we did have a sweet AMERICAN thanksgiving dinner.. so.. awesome! Oh yeah... they know you too hahaha. Yeah, they are Koreans.. they told me i looked asian as well... told em that i was half korean, but we didnt speak more than that because they were about to bless the food. After, i asked them where they were both born. She said something that i dont remember and the father said Taegu.. "oh no way, my Moms from there." "Really? Whats her name maybe i know her?" "Boon---" Both of their faces lit up brither than the Christmas tree behind them.. he stopped me before i even finished your name mom and they just freaked out.. "No way! Your Mom is Song Boonseon..." and then whatever your whole surname is.. its long (ish)! Anyway, i ate so much i wanted to die.. thats how it should be right?! Right. Elder Komgrid ate so much too.. loved American Thanksgiving. It really felt awesome that they were willing to open their house to us missionaries and feed us an amazing meal.. even more than that was the fact that i am so far away from California (and Korea for that matter) and i some how meet a family that we know?! Yeah huh... coincidence right? This is the first time theyve had Thanksgiving at their house in a while cause last year they were way busy.. but he made the decision months ago to make sure he would be home for the missionaries this year.. then even more than that, he barred 4 other missionaires from coming cause they had 12 on the list, but cut it down to 8.. lucky we didnt get cut right? Right. I dont actually know their first names hahah.. but they are brother and sister Kim. Really nice family. Hes got 3 daughters and 1 son who is planning on serving a mission next year.
Hey so other than this, i dont have anything haha.. but i just want to leave you with something Tawid said at conference (yeah he spoke): he talked about 3 important things - Daily scripture study, daily prayer, and family home evening... DO THEM. Those werent his words, but pretty much. They are so easy! Go open Alma 37: 6.. or is it 7? I dunno.. whatever, its good. Small and simple things people. K well i love you all. thanks for your supoort. I will talk to you next week!
Elder Gudmundsen
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Sup
Yo. Elder again.
So i dont have a whole lot of time this week, so i gotta write fast. This week was WAY sweet. We had a zone conference last tuesday, which was way awesome, and about the area book. Suffice it to say we blew through our area book looking for previous investigators who may be interested in learning again, and whaddyaknow... found like 4. Havent met yet but they are interested. Other than that, we talked about companionship unity and lets just say Elder Komgrid and I are making sure we are in line together.. dont worry nothing happened we just want to be more in tune. It was way cool to see some other people in my zone cause there are some way sweet people ( went bowling with 2 of them today). Other than that it was just a way good time.. nothing really more to share about that.
On to the companion exchange.. yeah! I went to Rangsit again with Elder Cline right as the zone ( but really the whole mission) introduced this new goal; this was definitely the highlight of this week by far! We have been told to give the baptismal invitation ON THE INVITE... it makes so much sense! What are we trying to get out of inviting people? Its not "potentials" thats for sure... its baptisms. We dont need to beat around the bush.. just ask right away if after they know these things are true with they follow this example and be baptized.. whats even cooler is that it actually works. We got many people who said yes. We had a first lesson later that night with a family and 20 minutes in we asked them the question.. haha, we popped the question right? Yeah, anyway... they kind of hesitated but said mostly yes.. the father then asked what our purpose was.. why did we come back. I paused.. Elder Cline wasnt speaking so i just said," To baptize you and your family." I think Elder Cline was a little surprised but why dodge it.. i literally stated the "Purpose" we memorize as missionaries: "Inviting others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gosepl through faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, Repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost ,and enduring to the end." Of course i explained that more after, but it was pretty much that. We havent met again yet, but thats what we are doing.. dont need to lie. This was a funny appointment because at one point they asked how long we have been in Thailand because i spoke more clearly than Elder Cline.. we both looked at each other like, "Uhhh.. do you want to say it or should i?" Elder Cline said a yea rand a half and i said three months.. hahaha. was way funny (another time inviting i had a guy say i spoke like good music to the ears.. something like that.. doesnt translate perfectly). Anyway, the exchange was awesome because i got to find out that i know WAY more thai than i thought.. and i can hold conversations, lead lessons, speak to people without my companion right next to me etc... was kinda weird but a lot of people are noticing.. the zone leader asked if this was my 3rd of 4th transfer in country.. he was surprised at it only being my 2nd.
Okay enough bragging for one day.. we have a sweet investigator (Mother of a former investigator who we never got to meet with) who is pretty much Joseph Smith.. she is Christian and she is so confused as to why "christianity has so many sects who all claim to believe in Christ yet argue one with another and speak so differently." She wants to know the truth and while i was in Rangsit, they gave her a baptismal date for the 26th of December.. yeah! So we got Fluke on the 5th and her on the 26th. We have yet to give Au a date, but we will soon.. speaking of which.. she FINALLY got to Church! And i think she loved it.. she told us she "liked" it but there is way more than just this... she is pretty crazy sometimes... in a good way. Her prayers are always so sincere and she is such a role model for her family... her 2 kids just play games and speak rudely to her, and her husband comes home from work and drinks beer all night. Last night was this huge festival that is like.. A HUGE DEAL for buddhists and none of her family went with her.. so we did. Her dad stayed home and watched 2012.. i know right?! If you are going to skip out on your wife AT LEAST watch a good movie right? I know, my thoughts exactly. Anyway.. he is a good guy.. i know he is.. but he has got some serious problems.. Au really appreciates us trying to help and when we told her we could be moving she asked if there was a way she could make sure we didnt hahaha. Well.. guess her wish was granted eh? Hopefully we can get her a baptismal date tomorrow or wednesday.. dont know yet. Oh haha on wed. i have to go back to the office to do that dan jones thing with my noongs noongs haha... so wed. will probably be a little busy too.
k well i have so much more than this to say but time is up already... and i have to go haha. K well sorry this one was so short, but i love you all the same.. i hear Cade got married right? Congrats bro! To the rest of you.. go look for referrals for your missionaries! They always need them! Find one for me too haha.. might be hard eh? My commitment to you haha. K gotta fly. Peace, love and a happy thanksgiving! Thankful for all of you and the fact that i even know you... been a blessing to think of the strength of our ENC ward and try to help branches here be like that. But that will be a while right? Yeah right. K peace!
Elder Gudmundsen
So i dont have a whole lot of time this week, so i gotta write fast. This week was WAY sweet. We had a zone conference last tuesday, which was way awesome, and about the area book. Suffice it to say we blew through our area book looking for previous investigators who may be interested in learning again, and whaddyaknow... found like 4. Havent met yet but they are interested. Other than that, we talked about companionship unity and lets just say Elder Komgrid and I are making sure we are in line together.. dont worry nothing happened we just want to be more in tune. It was way cool to see some other people in my zone cause there are some way sweet people ( went bowling with 2 of them today). Other than that it was just a way good time.. nothing really more to share about that.
On to the companion exchange.. yeah! I went to Rangsit again with Elder Cline right as the zone ( but really the whole mission) introduced this new goal; this was definitely the highlight of this week by far! We have been told to give the baptismal invitation ON THE INVITE... it makes so much sense! What are we trying to get out of inviting people? Its not "potentials" thats for sure... its baptisms. We dont need to beat around the bush.. just ask right away if after they know these things are true with they follow this example and be baptized.. whats even cooler is that it actually works. We got many people who said yes. We had a first lesson later that night with a family and 20 minutes in we asked them the question.. haha, we popped the question right? Yeah, anyway... they kind of hesitated but said mostly yes.. the father then asked what our purpose was.. why did we come back. I paused.. Elder Cline wasnt speaking so i just said," To baptize you and your family." I think Elder Cline was a little surprised but why dodge it.. i literally stated the "Purpose" we memorize as missionaries: "Inviting others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gosepl through faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, Repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost ,and enduring to the end." Of course i explained that more after, but it was pretty much that. We havent met again yet, but thats what we are doing.. dont need to lie. This was a funny appointment because at one point they asked how long we have been in Thailand because i spoke more clearly than Elder Cline.. we both looked at each other like, "Uhhh.. do you want to say it or should i?" Elder Cline said a yea rand a half and i said three months.. hahaha. was way funny (another time inviting i had a guy say i spoke like good music to the ears.. something like that.. doesnt translate perfectly). Anyway, the exchange was awesome because i got to find out that i know WAY more thai than i thought.. and i can hold conversations, lead lessons, speak to people without my companion right next to me etc... was kinda weird but a lot of people are noticing.. the zone leader asked if this was my 3rd of 4th transfer in country.. he was surprised at it only being my 2nd.
Okay enough bragging for one day.. we have a sweet investigator (Mother of a former investigator who we never got to meet with) who is pretty much Joseph Smith.. she is Christian and she is so confused as to why "christianity has so many sects who all claim to believe in Christ yet argue one with another and speak so differently." She wants to know the truth and while i was in Rangsit, they gave her a baptismal date for the 26th of December.. yeah! So we got Fluke on the 5th and her on the 26th. We have yet to give Au a date, but we will soon.. speaking of which.. she FINALLY got to Church! And i think she loved it.. she told us she "liked" it but there is way more than just this... she is pretty crazy sometimes... in a good way. Her prayers are always so sincere and she is such a role model for her family... her 2 kids just play games and speak rudely to her, and her husband comes home from work and drinks beer all night. Last night was this huge festival that is like.. A HUGE DEAL for buddhists and none of her family went with her.. so we did. Her dad stayed home and watched 2012.. i know right?! If you are going to skip out on your wife AT LEAST watch a good movie right? I know, my thoughts exactly. Anyway.. he is a good guy.. i know he is.. but he has got some serious problems.. Au really appreciates us trying to help and when we told her we could be moving she asked if there was a way she could make sure we didnt hahaha. Well.. guess her wish was granted eh? Hopefully we can get her a baptismal date tomorrow or wednesday.. dont know yet. Oh haha on wed. i have to go back to the office to do that dan jones thing with my noongs noongs haha... so wed. will probably be a little busy too.
k well i have so much more than this to say but time is up already... and i have to go haha. K well sorry this one was so short, but i love you all the same.. i hear Cade got married right? Congrats bro! To the rest of you.. go look for referrals for your missionaries! They always need them! Find one for me too haha.. might be hard eh? My commitment to you haha. K gotta fly. Peace, love and a happy thanksgiving! Thankful for all of you and the fact that i even know you... been a blessing to think of the strength of our ENC ward and try to help branches here be like that. But that will be a while right? Yeah right. K peace!
Elder Gudmundsen
Monday, November 15, 2010
More pics
so this... yeah.. beautiful right? outside our house... is that cat drinking? or drowning itself?
Dinner time
this is a less active member.. i dont know why he is less active.. he knows his stuff and he is way into it at Church.. and if anyone walks in anywhere who doesnt have a seat he jumps up faster than anyone else to help. and dinner from Wisit and Superman.. in cute heart shapes and christmas trees! delicious
Aloha
Hey.. me again.
So i wont waste anytime.. Bii got baptized! Yeeeee soooonnn!! Seriously.. it was so awesome. We met with him a little bit this past week.. actually almost every day.. and reviewed things with him and read together that way when he was baptized he would continue to see the importance of reading. Also, we had him come and help teach with Au.. even though her kids werent home. Half way through she asked Bii a bunch of questions.. "Bii.. you were buddhist before right? What changed you?" This was TOP NOTCH.. he was like, "well the Elders came by and invited me to learn and i was just like, whatever.. why not. As they kept coming back i just liked it more and more and realized that it was changing my life... although they were the teachers, i was the one that had to accept it and change myself.. they couldnt do that." How sick is that?! Was like.. the most perfect answer he could have given at that time.. and she totally dug it. Anyway.. Au was unable to make it to the Baptism.. but her son Bon was able to go.. with his friend Nat... Nat is the one in the pictures acting like a model.. usually next to me.. Bon is the one smiling regularly.. and kind of lazily i might add haha. Fluke was there too as well and Brother P (the golden investigator with the problems with being baptized).. and it was a way good experience for them.. for priesthood Bon, Nat and Fluke went with Tawid (there are 2 pictures of him and his wife being weird) and Elder Komgrid and i stayed with Bii and P. We had planned to teach, or at the very least review what they were going to see in the baptism, in between the end of the third hour and lunch.. so i walked into their room.. BOOM. holy crap something changed.. like, its hard to explain and i dont even know if it will be fruitful, but man.. Bon was in the middle of speaking and his facial expressions, his tone, his posture.. his whole countenance was different.. in a really good way. Elder Komgrid told me that they all 3 opened their hearts a lot with them. So anyway.. the Baptism! Solid. I dont think Bii likes water though hhah.. after he came back up he was still holding his nose... and not just holding it.. like, making sure not even the slightest amount of AIR would enter it.. for at least 10 seconds hahaha... Was way cool. There was a special musical number from the 4 missionaries that were there: Myself, Komgrid, Olive (my noong) and Elder Cline.. but really? It was only Elder Komgrid and Myself.. holy crap! Elder Olive has an excuse at least.. he cant read thai very well (and josephs first prayer is hard in thai) but Elder Cline. cmon! Seriously.. you could hear a pin drop when he sings. And then.. Biis testimony.. ive never heard a more sincere, heart felt testimony than this one.. hes one of the most shy guys ever and you could tell that he was nervous as crap! But he got right up there and shared how he came in contact with the missionaries.. guess who.. Elder Crowley (by the way he says hi.. talked to him last night)! He shared how Elder Crowley said that they would come back the following day and share how Christ could help him in his life.. he expressed that he didnt believe them.. he didnt believe, "that someone who had died already could help him at all." Then he listened.. and he listened.. and he learned to change his life for the better and that Christ really could help him.. did help him.. and still helps him. This whole time by the way, you could tell he didnt remember what he prepared to say.. it was COMPLETELY from the heart, right then and there. After his testimony.. to close he actually said, "this is my testimony." and finished hahaha. Was way sweet and he was glowing. Its awesome cause hes already an example for 3 young kids... 2 of which are close friends (oh and Flukes Mom.. yeah she knows him.. dont know how, but she knows him). Bon wanted to go cause it was Bii, but didnt want to go without his mom.. so he got Nat to go. Even better. Speaking of Au.. she really wanted to go. she expressed that everyday.. but she had to go to school to dosomething for the staff or something like that... we commited her to go next week.. and spoke very boldly saying, "commit now and be ready to tell anyone who wants you to do something next sunday that you already have an appointment somewhere else." She said she would. So.. all in all.. yesterday was pretty sweet.. oh yeah, we also made an appointment to visit Bon and his family around 7 pm.. but when we got there no one was home... we were only there for 10 seconds when Bon came speeding back saying "sorry sorry im late! uh! wheres my mom?!" hahaha this time it was the MOM not home and he was actually dilligent about being home when we asked him to. And he went and picked up Nat to bring him back over. Pretty sweet right? Lets hope he continue this way right? So yeah.. good stuff.
So for other things this week... had a pretty sweet experience with the Spirit.. lately we have been biking past this one street to get to another part of our area.. every tim we pass it im like, "whats down there? ive never invited there." but since then.. about 3 weeks already, i havent gone down it. well, last wednesday we had a home teaching appointment at 5 pm.. i knew where she lived and we had about an hour to invite before the appointment.. i told Elder Komgrid where we would invite and we started biking there... as we were biking i remembered we forgot to pray. so we pulled off and did so. we started biking again.. i remembered a street we would pass by that we could invite for a while, that would eventually pop us right out at this members house (if you take the right path.. its a neighborhood short cut). so i turn off on this street... Tawid calls and says she canceled.. so we have pretty much the rest of the evening to invite here. after we invited that area for 3 hours, we had an appointment at Au's house... we continued down this one street looking for a way out, and guess where we popped out.. that SAME street we had passed by for 3 weeks where i thought "where does that go?".. it lead to this neighborhood where we got 16 new investigators. how good is that? yeah.. whats the moral of the story? listen to the spirit. do it.
Of those new investigators is a woman and her boyfriend who are experiencing problems.. they dont know whether to get married or not. she already has been, but he hasnt. they know its a big decision, but dont know what to do.. this came up about half way through our first lesson.. when we were talking about prayer. This is where you come in Staley.. I assume you have read at least one of my emails right? Anyway, i told em "i have a friend back home who is about to get married next month.. like you just said, its a huge decision... but i know shes prayed about it because as members we pray about everything.. thats what prayer is for. when we need help and guidance we pray and we know Heavenly Father will answer. Shes getting married, which means she got an answer to her prayers. You 2 want to know if you should get married or not? Start praying today.. ask if its right." Guess what? They have been praying since... usually when we follow up, investigators say, "no i havent prayed yet.. i dont have time." She said she prayed 3 times so far. Pretty sweet eh? Hope you dont mind me speaking for you Staley.. was i close? Too late haha.
So anyway... in other things this week.. i went on an exchange with Elder Olive.. my noong.. yeah... a greeny and just-under-2-monther... not too bad actually. Being with a thai companion is RIDICULOUS.. im so lucky. seriously, my development as a missionary has sky rocketed... it was good to experience what it might have been like 50 years ago when missionaries didnt have trainers that could say everything for you if you didnt understand what someone said. We didnt do too bad... and it was funny to hear people making fun of my companion for not speaking well instead of me. Oh, and people practically have a heart attack when i say ive only been in thailand for just under 3 months.. its all because of Elder komgrid.. and the Lord :) we had a woman yesterday who wouldnt stop asking me if i was kidding about being here for 2 and a half months... we were late to get to wisits house haahah.
K well i think this is all i got this week... love you all and i love being here. Almost done with 2nd transfers... WHAT?! How did THAT happen?! Church is true... can only be done through the spirit.. "if you dont use the spirit ye shall not teach." Its not an if thing.. its more of a commandment.. if you dont use the spirit, the Lord is DECLARING that we WILL NOT teach. Thanks for all your love and support.. sup ENC.
Elder Gudmundsen
So i wont waste anytime.. Bii got baptized! Yeeeee soooonnn!! Seriously.. it was so awesome. We met with him a little bit this past week.. actually almost every day.. and reviewed things with him and read together that way when he was baptized he would continue to see the importance of reading. Also, we had him come and help teach with Au.. even though her kids werent home. Half way through she asked Bii a bunch of questions.. "Bii.. you were buddhist before right? What changed you?" This was TOP NOTCH.. he was like, "well the Elders came by and invited me to learn and i was just like, whatever.. why not. As they kept coming back i just liked it more and more and realized that it was changing my life... although they were the teachers, i was the one that had to accept it and change myself.. they couldnt do that." How sick is that?! Was like.. the most perfect answer he could have given at that time.. and she totally dug it. Anyway.. Au was unable to make it to the Baptism.. but her son Bon was able to go.. with his friend Nat... Nat is the one in the pictures acting like a model.. usually next to me.. Bon is the one smiling regularly.. and kind of lazily i might add haha. Fluke was there too as well and Brother P (the golden investigator with the problems with being baptized).. and it was a way good experience for them.. for priesthood Bon, Nat and Fluke went with Tawid (there are 2 pictures of him and his wife being weird) and Elder Komgrid and i stayed with Bii and P. We had planned to teach, or at the very least review what they were going to see in the baptism, in between the end of the third hour and lunch.. so i walked into their room.. BOOM. holy crap something changed.. like, its hard to explain and i dont even know if it will be fruitful, but man.. Bon was in the middle of speaking and his facial expressions, his tone, his posture.. his whole countenance was different.. in a really good way. Elder Komgrid told me that they all 3 opened their hearts a lot with them. So anyway.. the Baptism! Solid. I dont think Bii likes water though hhah.. after he came back up he was still holding his nose... and not just holding it.. like, making sure not even the slightest amount of AIR would enter it.. for at least 10 seconds hahaha... Was way cool. There was a special musical number from the 4 missionaries that were there: Myself, Komgrid, Olive (my noong) and Elder Cline.. but really? It was only Elder Komgrid and Myself.. holy crap! Elder Olive has an excuse at least.. he cant read thai very well (and josephs first prayer is hard in thai) but Elder Cline. cmon! Seriously.. you could hear a pin drop when he sings. And then.. Biis testimony.. ive never heard a more sincere, heart felt testimony than this one.. hes one of the most shy guys ever and you could tell that he was nervous as crap! But he got right up there and shared how he came in contact with the missionaries.. guess who.. Elder Crowley (by the way he says hi.. talked to him last night)! He shared how Elder Crowley said that they would come back the following day and share how Christ could help him in his life.. he expressed that he didnt believe them.. he didnt believe, "that someone who had died already could help him at all." Then he listened.. and he listened.. and he learned to change his life for the better and that Christ really could help him.. did help him.. and still helps him. This whole time by the way, you could tell he didnt remember what he prepared to say.. it was COMPLETELY from the heart, right then and there. After his testimony.. to close he actually said, "this is my testimony." and finished hahaha. Was way sweet and he was glowing. Its awesome cause hes already an example for 3 young kids... 2 of which are close friends (oh and Flukes Mom.. yeah she knows him.. dont know how, but she knows him). Bon wanted to go cause it was Bii, but didnt want to go without his mom.. so he got Nat to go. Even better. Speaking of Au.. she really wanted to go. she expressed that everyday.. but she had to go to school to dosomething for the staff or something like that... we commited her to go next week.. and spoke very boldly saying, "commit now and be ready to tell anyone who wants you to do something next sunday that you already have an appointment somewhere else." She said she would. So.. all in all.. yesterday was pretty sweet.. oh yeah, we also made an appointment to visit Bon and his family around 7 pm.. but when we got there no one was home... we were only there for 10 seconds when Bon came speeding back saying "sorry sorry im late! uh! wheres my mom?!" hahaha this time it was the MOM not home and he was actually dilligent about being home when we asked him to. And he went and picked up Nat to bring him back over. Pretty sweet right? Lets hope he continue this way right? So yeah.. good stuff.
So for other things this week... had a pretty sweet experience with the Spirit.. lately we have been biking past this one street to get to another part of our area.. every tim we pass it im like, "whats down there? ive never invited there." but since then.. about 3 weeks already, i havent gone down it. well, last wednesday we had a home teaching appointment at 5 pm.. i knew where she lived and we had about an hour to invite before the appointment.. i told Elder Komgrid where we would invite and we started biking there... as we were biking i remembered we forgot to pray. so we pulled off and did so. we started biking again.. i remembered a street we would pass by that we could invite for a while, that would eventually pop us right out at this members house (if you take the right path.. its a neighborhood short cut). so i turn off on this street... Tawid calls and says she canceled.. so we have pretty much the rest of the evening to invite here. after we invited that area for 3 hours, we had an appointment at Au's house... we continued down this one street looking for a way out, and guess where we popped out.. that SAME street we had passed by for 3 weeks where i thought "where does that go?".. it lead to this neighborhood where we got 16 new investigators. how good is that? yeah.. whats the moral of the story? listen to the spirit. do it.
Of those new investigators is a woman and her boyfriend who are experiencing problems.. they dont know whether to get married or not. she already has been, but he hasnt. they know its a big decision, but dont know what to do.. this came up about half way through our first lesson.. when we were talking about prayer. This is where you come in Staley.. I assume you have read at least one of my emails right? Anyway, i told em "i have a friend back home who is about to get married next month.. like you just said, its a huge decision... but i know shes prayed about it because as members we pray about everything.. thats what prayer is for. when we need help and guidance we pray and we know Heavenly Father will answer. Shes getting married, which means she got an answer to her prayers. You 2 want to know if you should get married or not? Start praying today.. ask if its right." Guess what? They have been praying since... usually when we follow up, investigators say, "no i havent prayed yet.. i dont have time." She said she prayed 3 times so far. Pretty sweet eh? Hope you dont mind me speaking for you Staley.. was i close? Too late haha.
So anyway... in other things this week.. i went on an exchange with Elder Olive.. my noong.. yeah... a greeny and just-under-2-monther... not too bad actually. Being with a thai companion is RIDICULOUS.. im so lucky. seriously, my development as a missionary has sky rocketed... it was good to experience what it might have been like 50 years ago when missionaries didnt have trainers that could say everything for you if you didnt understand what someone said. We didnt do too bad... and it was funny to hear people making fun of my companion for not speaking well instead of me. Oh, and people practically have a heart attack when i say ive only been in thailand for just under 3 months.. its all because of Elder komgrid.. and the Lord :) we had a woman yesterday who wouldnt stop asking me if i was kidding about being here for 2 and a half months... we were late to get to wisits house haahah.
K well i think this is all i got this week... love you all and i love being here. Almost done with 2nd transfers... WHAT?! How did THAT happen?! Church is true... can only be done through the spirit.. "if you dont use the spirit ye shall not teach." Its not an if thing.. its more of a commandment.. if you dont use the spirit, the Lord is DECLARING that we WILL NOT teach. Thanks for all your love and support.. sup ENC.
Elder Gudmundsen
Monday, November 8, 2010
Nov. 8 pics
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| Elder Komgrid knows a lot of people and these are like his second family or something |
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| our new house... its so nice |
hey.. its me
Sup. It's me.
Well.. this week we had a sweet district meeting.. the focus? Families, families FAMILIES. We teach that this gospel will bless families.. "so why are there so many converts coming in by themselves?" Our leaders have told us that teaching families is the only way we will be doing this from now on.. of course there are circumstances that will be different, like if their family is in another part of the country, or dead.. or whatever else. For everyone else, its families. If we contacted a mother who has kids.. we WILL NOT teach her unless her family is there too. Contacted a kid? We WILL NOT teach him unless his family is present too. If we have to wait 10 minutes for someone to get him.. we will. If they wont be back tonight, we will come back tomorrow. This leads me to my scripture of the week: Ether 1: 41. Read it and tell me what you notice.
So this District Meeting was on Friday and that same day we had an appointment with "AU" and her family.. her son was playing Dota.. of course. And her daughter was kinda playing too. We didnt start. We just sat there waiting for her son and daughter.. they finally finished and we taught a pretty sweet lesson.. Bon is a nice kid but he needs to get his priorities straight... we hit him hard that night and you could tell.. it struck deep. Oh.. yeah, by the way dad.. SUCK ONE. All those times i played Dota? Yeah.. i incorporated that in the lesson. Told him that we wont teach unless its together as a family.. "Its like Dota.. your family is your team. What happens if 2, or even 1 person leaves the game?" Josh.. what happens? It was a no brainer and he really understood why families were so important. Just kidding about the suck one.. i love you :) hahaha. This family is way sweet.. i think if we exercise patience we can really get them off the bench.. how? Well it just so happens that their neighbor is Brother Bii who is getting BAPTIZED ON SUNDAY! Nice. He passed his interview this past saturday and is on schedule to be baptized this coming Sunday.. ho yeah! The interview may have taken almost 3 hours, but hey.. if thats what was necessary, its cool. So "AU" has been really curious as to what Church is like.. she has yet to be able to go, but last night she said like 5 times "i WANT to go to Church next week.. i speak truthfully.. i really want to go." When this woman speaks.. its truth.. she doesnt beat around the bush. So.. Church is an amazing experience for anyone who goes.. but, right after Church will be Bii's baptism.. if we can get her and her family to Church and SEE her neighbor make this commitment with Heavenly Father, we will for sure have them with a date this coming sunday. I am sure of this.. So... If we get AU, we will get Bon and his Sister.. if we get Bon and his Sister, Bon's friend Nat, will follow as well. Nat has kinda fallen off this past week.. never met with him once. He is addicted to friends and everytime we ask him to go to a church thing he asks, "is bon going?" You can hear it in his voice.. he wants to go, but not without Bon. If Bon goes, Nat goes.. if Bon has a baptismal date, Nat will too. Im really excited for this week. Don Muang is really excited too.. their first baptism in over a year and a half. We have a solid baptismal date for Fluk.. although it will have to be moved.. his date is stake conference.. plus i wanted to move it anyway.. further. Not that he isnt in to it, but now that we are enacting Operation Families Only, we gotta get his Mom and little brother too. Luckily, this is proving to be too hard. Yesterday, Fluk opened his heart a ton in Church.. Komgrid and i split for priesthood and komgrid went with him, and i stayed in Elders.. Komgrid said he opened it a ton about things he wishes that he never did with his mom.. things that made her feel bad. Later that day we went over to watch Finding Faith in Christ and Fluk was like, "hey.. i want you to teach me little brother and mother too." HAH! Hes totally Lehi-ing it! "Hey.. give this fruit to my family too!" Awesome. Its not working out too well however hahah. His Brother's got serious A.D.D....D.D.D.D.D.D, and his Mom is one of those where she understands it but doesnt think its important or applicable to her. But Fluk.. man.. hes getting it. When we went into his house he didnt even realize we were waiting for his Mom to finish going to bathroom.. he took the remote from me and pushed play.. i was like "wait a second! We want your family too." "no its okay they're coming! I want to watch this." Maybe im getting too excited about it, but it was sweet to see him practically begging me to start the lesson. The ONLY little problem is his stupid girlfriend.. holy crap! She calls every 2 minutes.. drop her man! What was that thing that Elder Holland said in the April conference? IF a relationship is getting too serious at a young age SEVER IT. Yeah.. something like that. He needs to. Or get her involved. Hey! All you little nuggets from ENC ward with girlfriends.. LISTEN UP. This next part is for you. seriously, if yo girl is going to get in the way of anything that is more important (like a mission.. or your family!) drop her. Sur'sly. Heres my phrase of the week.. my own personal one that i didnt even plan on using today, or in this way: "Drop em before you care too much." As missionaries you will have to prioritize who is progressing and who isnt, and "drop" those that arent. And if you wait too long, you will care too much and you will only get angry when THEY drop you.. like my investigator 2 weeks ago. It applies here too.. if you are starting to get serious with someone, you gotta stop. Lets be frank.. you cant do anything more than be "girlfriend and boyfriend" and you cant get married cause you HAVE to go on a mission.. so yeah.. date her and have some "fun" and then seriously.. GET RID OF HER. It sounds awful and i probably sound like a degenerate.. i dont mean to be.. but its the easiest way to say it. Be gentlemen of course, but have your priorities SET. What are those priorities? Exactly what i told Bon on saturday night: Family. I was actually about to say more than just 1 word, but if you analyze it.. your families are centered in the gospel.. your parents are more wise than you and they wont lead you astray.. what do they tell you to do? Get an education and get on a mission. So.. by simply saying family, it sums it up. I say this from experience because too often family was not my priority.. and now that im out here teaching about families i regret the fact that i didnt make them more important. Good to hear Whitehead sharin an experience about school and drugs. To you my young friend.. KEEP IT UP. To everyone else who hasnt had that experience yet.. be ready for it. Be ready to laugh at the cigerette or bottle of bear shoved in front of your face and say NO. Hold to the rod that Lehi described and dont be ashamed when they start laughing at you because you are different.. laugh at them because they are ______ stupid. Ok sorry that was quite the tangent.. felt like i should say it though. ANYWAY. Fluk.. hes an awesome kid. Nuff said.
Okay so thats it for our investigators.. our pool of potentials is pretty small.. we didnt get much inviting time this week because we had to go down to Komgrids university to make sure he doesnt get enlisted in the army.. such a stupid rule.. every kid at the age of 19 has the possibility of being a soldier.. you know like those big bingo games where there is a cage of balls and some guy spins it around and around and then ball that pops out is the next number? That is LITERALLY how it works for this draft.. everyone has their name on a ball and if your ball comes up.. you have to be a soldier.. no questions, no time to say goodbye.. you pack and leave. So dumb. Luckily, there is some kind of testing thing where if you do well enough you can get your name out of the cage for a while. And he passed his tests. So we have to wait only 6 weeks before he has to go again. Oh and we had to move houses.. so that took a while and we had no time for inviting. This week is gonna be a complete turn around.. gonna invite a ton and get some serious commitments out there. This was our slowest week across the board but we will turn it around this week for sure. Well.. we will see.. we are doing exchanges on tuesday and wednesday.. hahaha Elder Olive and I will be together in Rangsit and Elder Komgrid and Elder Cline in Don Muang.. Elder Olive is my Nong! Hahahaha hes been here for 3 weeks. We gonna get stomped.. just kidding.. gonna be so fun to experience what the missionaires 50 years must have experienced. OH! Almost forgot.. the new translation of the Book of Mormon.. heck, the whole 9 yards... came out! Its amazing... they finally have triple combinations and a font that everyone can read... new pamphlets are out.. new pass along cards.. new everything! They wont be sent out for another 2 weeks, but we had interviews with the president and i got to hold them.. ooooooo so nice! K well i just ripped a huge fart in this internet cafe so i should probably go now hahahah.. everyone looks really confused and im trying not to laugh and look confused as well.. And this is all i got this week.. love ya all! Even though we are both sick (again!) i feel strengthened! Im sending home my ipod today with all my song choices.. plus whatever else you want to give me... Not sending home the Christmas stuff yet cause i aint done. Love you all! Church is true yadayadayada! K talk to you all next week! Peace ENC
Love
Well.. this week we had a sweet district meeting.. the focus? Families, families FAMILIES. We teach that this gospel will bless families.. "so why are there so many converts coming in by themselves?" Our leaders have told us that teaching families is the only way we will be doing this from now on.. of course there are circumstances that will be different, like if their family is in another part of the country, or dead.. or whatever else. For everyone else, its families. If we contacted a mother who has kids.. we WILL NOT teach her unless her family is there too. Contacted a kid? We WILL NOT teach him unless his family is present too. If we have to wait 10 minutes for someone to get him.. we will. If they wont be back tonight, we will come back tomorrow. This leads me to my scripture of the week: Ether 1: 41. Read it and tell me what you notice.
So this District Meeting was on Friday and that same day we had an appointment with "AU" and her family.. her son was playing Dota.. of course. And her daughter was kinda playing too. We didnt start. We just sat there waiting for her son and daughter.. they finally finished and we taught a pretty sweet lesson.. Bon is a nice kid but he needs to get his priorities straight... we hit him hard that night and you could tell.. it struck deep. Oh.. yeah, by the way dad.. SUCK ONE. All those times i played Dota? Yeah.. i incorporated that in the lesson. Told him that we wont teach unless its together as a family.. "Its like Dota.. your family is your team. What happens if 2, or even 1 person leaves the game?" Josh.. what happens? It was a no brainer and he really understood why families were so important. Just kidding about the suck one.. i love you :) hahaha. This family is way sweet.. i think if we exercise patience we can really get them off the bench.. how? Well it just so happens that their neighbor is Brother Bii who is getting BAPTIZED ON SUNDAY! Nice. He passed his interview this past saturday and is on schedule to be baptized this coming Sunday.. ho yeah! The interview may have taken almost 3 hours, but hey.. if thats what was necessary, its cool. So "AU" has been really curious as to what Church is like.. she has yet to be able to go, but last night she said like 5 times "i WANT to go to Church next week.. i speak truthfully.. i really want to go." When this woman speaks.. its truth.. she doesnt beat around the bush. So.. Church is an amazing experience for anyone who goes.. but, right after Church will be Bii's baptism.. if we can get her and her family to Church and SEE her neighbor make this commitment with Heavenly Father, we will for sure have them with a date this coming sunday. I am sure of this.. So... If we get AU, we will get Bon and his Sister.. if we get Bon and his Sister, Bon's friend Nat, will follow as well. Nat has kinda fallen off this past week.. never met with him once. He is addicted to friends and everytime we ask him to go to a church thing he asks, "is bon going?" You can hear it in his voice.. he wants to go, but not without Bon. If Bon goes, Nat goes.. if Bon has a baptismal date, Nat will too. Im really excited for this week. Don Muang is really excited too.. their first baptism in over a year and a half. We have a solid baptismal date for Fluk.. although it will have to be moved.. his date is stake conference.. plus i wanted to move it anyway.. further. Not that he isnt in to it, but now that we are enacting Operation Families Only, we gotta get his Mom and little brother too. Luckily, this is proving to be too hard. Yesterday, Fluk opened his heart a ton in Church.. Komgrid and i split for priesthood and komgrid went with him, and i stayed in Elders.. Komgrid said he opened it a ton about things he wishes that he never did with his mom.. things that made her feel bad. Later that day we went over to watch Finding Faith in Christ and Fluk was like, "hey.. i want you to teach me little brother and mother too." HAH! Hes totally Lehi-ing it! "Hey.. give this fruit to my family too!" Awesome. Its not working out too well however hahah. His Brother's got serious A.D.D....D.D.D.D.D.D, and his Mom is one of those where she understands it but doesnt think its important or applicable to her. But Fluk.. man.. hes getting it. When we went into his house he didnt even realize we were waiting for his Mom to finish going to bathroom.. he took the remote from me and pushed play.. i was like "wait a second! We want your family too." "no its okay they're coming! I want to watch this." Maybe im getting too excited about it, but it was sweet to see him practically begging me to start the lesson. The ONLY little problem is his stupid girlfriend.. holy crap! She calls every 2 minutes.. drop her man! What was that thing that Elder Holland said in the April conference? IF a relationship is getting too serious at a young age SEVER IT. Yeah.. something like that. He needs to. Or get her involved. Hey! All you little nuggets from ENC ward with girlfriends.. LISTEN UP. This next part is for you. seriously, if yo girl is going to get in the way of anything that is more important (like a mission.. or your family!) drop her. Sur'sly. Heres my phrase of the week.. my own personal one that i didnt even plan on using today, or in this way: "Drop em before you care too much." As missionaries you will have to prioritize who is progressing and who isnt, and "drop" those that arent. And if you wait too long, you will care too much and you will only get angry when THEY drop you.. like my investigator 2 weeks ago. It applies here too.. if you are starting to get serious with someone, you gotta stop. Lets be frank.. you cant do anything more than be "girlfriend and boyfriend" and you cant get married cause you HAVE to go on a mission.. so yeah.. date her and have some "fun" and then seriously.. GET RID OF HER. It sounds awful and i probably sound like a degenerate.. i dont mean to be.. but its the easiest way to say it. Be gentlemen of course, but have your priorities SET. What are those priorities? Exactly what i told Bon on saturday night: Family. I was actually about to say more than just 1 word, but if you analyze it.. your families are centered in the gospel.. your parents are more wise than you and they wont lead you astray.. what do they tell you to do? Get an education and get on a mission. So.. by simply saying family, it sums it up. I say this from experience because too often family was not my priority.. and now that im out here teaching about families i regret the fact that i didnt make them more important. Good to hear Whitehead sharin an experience about school and drugs. To you my young friend.. KEEP IT UP. To everyone else who hasnt had that experience yet.. be ready for it. Be ready to laugh at the cigerette or bottle of bear shoved in front of your face and say NO. Hold to the rod that Lehi described and dont be ashamed when they start laughing at you because you are different.. laugh at them because they are ______ stupid. Ok sorry that was quite the tangent.. felt like i should say it though. ANYWAY. Fluk.. hes an awesome kid. Nuff said.
Okay so thats it for our investigators.. our pool of potentials is pretty small.. we didnt get much inviting time this week because we had to go down to Komgrids university to make sure he doesnt get enlisted in the army.. such a stupid rule.. every kid at the age of 19 has the possibility of being a soldier.. you know like those big bingo games where there is a cage of balls and some guy spins it around and around and then ball that pops out is the next number? That is LITERALLY how it works for this draft.. everyone has their name on a ball and if your ball comes up.. you have to be a soldier.. no questions, no time to say goodbye.. you pack and leave. So dumb. Luckily, there is some kind of testing thing where if you do well enough you can get your name out of the cage for a while. And he passed his tests. So we have to wait only 6 weeks before he has to go again. Oh and we had to move houses.. so that took a while and we had no time for inviting. This week is gonna be a complete turn around.. gonna invite a ton and get some serious commitments out there. This was our slowest week across the board but we will turn it around this week for sure. Well.. we will see.. we are doing exchanges on tuesday and wednesday.. hahaha Elder Olive and I will be together in Rangsit and Elder Komgrid and Elder Cline in Don Muang.. Elder Olive is my Nong! Hahahaha hes been here for 3 weeks. We gonna get stomped.. just kidding.. gonna be so fun to experience what the missionaires 50 years must have experienced. OH! Almost forgot.. the new translation of the Book of Mormon.. heck, the whole 9 yards... came out! Its amazing... they finally have triple combinations and a font that everyone can read... new pamphlets are out.. new pass along cards.. new everything! They wont be sent out for another 2 weeks, but we had interviews with the president and i got to hold them.. ooooooo so nice! K well i just ripped a huge fart in this internet cafe so i should probably go now hahahah.. everyone looks really confused and im trying not to laugh and look confused as well.. And this is all i got this week.. love ya all! Even though we are both sick (again!) i feel strengthened! Im sending home my ipod today with all my song choices.. plus whatever else you want to give me... Not sending home the Christmas stuff yet cause i aint done. Love you all! Church is true yadayadayada! K talk to you all next week! Peace ENC
Love
Monday, November 1, 2010
Happy Halloween!
K so Halloween doesnt really hold special value half way across the world.. they dont do anything! No little kids scaring younger kids.. no trick or treating.. no decorations.. AHH! Dont really like it.. not.. one... BIT.
Scripture(s) of the Week: 2 Nephi chapters 7 and 8 (cause thats as far as i got.. its actually more than that). I know what you're thinking.. "hey AJ wait a minute.. those are Isaiah chapters.. how can you like those?" I know, i know.. ive never liked them before cause they are so difficult.. but for some reason, this time i understood them! And i love Isaiah.. he just verbally slaps everyone across the floor! Seriously.. when i was reading a felt a beat, a rythym! People say "rappers" are lyrical geniuses.. ever read Isaiah? This guy wipes the floor with them! Just read 'em again.. SLOWLY, and you will feel it too.
This week was interesting.. had a lot of ups and downs... First.. we lost Daa and Phet.. well at least Daa. I havent had the chance to call Phat, but Daa told us straight up she isnt interested.. that she was "interested for her kids.." But now they no longer want to, she doesnt want to learn anymore, and she likes buddhism more. If phat says that he is lying.. straight up.. no way will i believe that. He knows hes felt something before.. i know he is. Ill call him later. We got Fluk to commit to baptism for the 28th of November.. so that was an up. He is pretty in to everything and he says he prays everyday at least twice a day... you know you have a good investigator when he knows the 3 commitments we want him to keep: Church, reading and prayer. It made me really happy when we asked him to read for only 5 minutes everyday and he said, "oh i already do more than that." He didnt get to go to Church on SUnday, so that was kinda sad, but it was because his parents got in a fight.. wouldnt let him leave. Hes a sweet kid though. Oh big thing.. Sister Blessing was baptized yesterday! Yeah, thats kind of a big deal. When i first got here, she was one of the first, if not THE first investigator i met.. soon after, we had district meeting to come up with a "vision" that we want to see by the end of the moves.. for me, i made a vision for the whole mission: "I see myself sitting in the baptismal services of my investigators listening to them testify of how the gospel has truly changed their lives, and saying to myself, 'yeah... they got it."' Yeah.. she GOT it. It was funny.. it was a Don Muang baptism at Bang Khen.. bitter sweet haha. Just kidding.. doesnt matter where she was baptized.. actually some thing she said in her testimony was just that.. "i didnt want to move to bang khen.. i have friends in Don muang.. i dont want to move. but Elder Crowley helped me remember that no matter where you are, its still the same 1 loving God". I teared up a little in her testimony because she told her conversion story rather quickly.. she was contacted by Elder Crowley at English.. she said "whatever! I can learn.. theres no problem in learning.. its just another religion." And she told how all of that changed.. She also shared her first experience with the language of the spirit.. she felt it first, or recognized it first, at testimony meeting.. my first sunday in thailand.. from something i said. I felt honored to be a part of her conversion even though i didnt get to see her through to the end by teaching.. but it was a very sweet moment and she was GLOWING with happiness and joy. Loved it. Bii is still going for the 14th.. ive really come to love this guy.. he is very humble because he is not very good at anything.. hes kind of lonely and his social skills arent the best.. but his desire is what matters here.. we are reviewing everything with him to prepare him for the interview this friday, and when we ask him, he says.. "i can remember.. i know i can, but i cant put it in to sensible words." Hes probably one of the most humble guys ive seen.. and he doesnt even know it. I hope he can be ready. His neighbors.. HEY! Brother Ball.. you had concerns about names here? Well this kid is named "Bon"... or, translated, Ball. Hah. Lawls. Yeah anyway, so he is 17 and a neighbor of Bii.. his Mom is name Augh.. thats the only way i can right it.. sorry Ball... Brother Ball that is.. anyone confused yet?! Anyway.. she is a way sweet Mom and one of the most respectful thais ive ever seen.. the Wai.. its the little clasped-hand-to-face-greeting-bow thing... when she does it, you feel the respect and the importance of what she is doing. She is really trying to do what we ask even though she is pretty deeply rooted in Buddhism.. but we've seen the change in her prayers.. the first time we asked her if she had prayed, she said no.. so we had her pray after that lesson.. next time we came back we said it at the beginning, "ok.. Mom.. we will open with a prayer, but at the end you will be the one to pray ok?" She was very shy and laughed and didnt want to.. these last few times? We same the same thing and she is totally ready.. she just says "OK" without hesitation. She opens her heart to us every time and even Tawid.. remember him? Member? Awesome? Anyway, even HE, a thai person whos already been a mish, said that hes never seen a person like her... im not sure what it is about her, but Thai people know each other and they both say she is different.. in a good way. Hopefully we can do work. Then, there is "balls" friend "Nat.." Or if that is too hard for you.. it translates to"Appointment." Hes a sweet kid of 14 years.. looks like hes 20. He has a problem... he has a pretty steady job.. but hes 14.. he hasnt finished middle school.. thats a crime on the heads of the parents.. so he needs to get back to school quick or she will send him to another part of the country.. We had a long talk with them last night, and although we made head way, especially in helping him to quit smoking, with him and his Mom.. although his Mom needs to talk to him with more respect.. she shows no respect, no love, no nothing for him.. kinda sad. But he went to Church yesterday, AND the baptism.. and he wore church clothes and everyone though he was a member hahah. Elder Komgrid was telling him that he should probably quit his job and go back to school... we hadnt really "started" a lesson because we didnt open with a prayer.. but i the Spirit was like, "HEY! He still understands prayer already! Bring it all back to the Church!" So Elder Komgrid was in a sentence and I, rather rudely i might add hahaha, interrupted and said "Nat.. you already told us you belive that prayer helps us.. so pray. Ask what you should do.. Your Father in Heaven will answer what you should do here." We are trying to get him to FHE tonight.. speaking of FHE.. Wisid asked if we should continue it.. if its really effective.. i immediately said Yes.. because of you Mommy.. loved that story. And thats pretty much all the investigators we have.. oh we had that Grandmother who had to go back to her home.. she wants to be baptized but she had to leave.. GAH! She may come back later, but i dunno...
K so what else this week.. oh, Komgrid and I had a sweet companionship inventory.. he kinda ______ me off this week... haha but dont worry.. we resolved it all.. and now we work together better than ever.. gonna DO WORK! We found a new house.. way nice and for the same price.. sweet! I will get to be the first to use it before Elders come after me and destroy it! We have to move this Thursday.. this week may not be very effective hahaha... plus Komgrid has to go take a test or something required of Thais.. dunno. We are supposed to have exchanges on the same day, which is 1) inconvenient for the move, and 2) our DL wants to swap my Comp with his.. who is my Noong from the MTC.. yeah real smart! Put a 2 monther and a 2 weeker together... we shall see.
K well i think thats all i got this week.. Thailand is great.. the language is coming along nicely and the weather is nice! like.. NICE. (Ask josh about "nice.." you will understand better). Hey, i heard Taylor Swift got a new CD? HAHA.. its playing behind me. K love you all! Thanks for all the support i feel day by day.. This gospel is amazing.. im so glad i got to see it change Sister Blessing.. everyone could see it.. that change only comes through this gospel.. OH. One more thing she said.. "Elders asked me to keep the Law of Chastity and i said yes. Next time they asked again and i was so confused cause i already accepted.. then they asked again..whhy? I realize now, its because if we dont constantly remind ourselves of committments and the things we need to do to remain strong in the church, we will easily fall away, like the Lehis dream." From AN INVESTIGATOR!! AH! Loved it. K gotta go. Say hello to the Ward.. give them bean dips credit cards.. you know.. the whole nine yards. JK. But seriously. Peace!
Elder Gudmundsen
Scripture(s) of the Week: 2 Nephi chapters 7 and 8 (cause thats as far as i got.. its actually more than that). I know what you're thinking.. "hey AJ wait a minute.. those are Isaiah chapters.. how can you like those?" I know, i know.. ive never liked them before cause they are so difficult.. but for some reason, this time i understood them! And i love Isaiah.. he just verbally slaps everyone across the floor! Seriously.. when i was reading a felt a beat, a rythym! People say "rappers" are lyrical geniuses.. ever read Isaiah? This guy wipes the floor with them! Just read 'em again.. SLOWLY, and you will feel it too.
This week was interesting.. had a lot of ups and downs... First.. we lost Daa and Phet.. well at least Daa. I havent had the chance to call Phat, but Daa told us straight up she isnt interested.. that she was "interested for her kids.." But now they no longer want to, she doesnt want to learn anymore, and she likes buddhism more. If phat says that he is lying.. straight up.. no way will i believe that. He knows hes felt something before.. i know he is. Ill call him later. We got Fluk to commit to baptism for the 28th of November.. so that was an up. He is pretty in to everything and he says he prays everyday at least twice a day... you know you have a good investigator when he knows the 3 commitments we want him to keep: Church, reading and prayer. It made me really happy when we asked him to read for only 5 minutes everyday and he said, "oh i already do more than that." He didnt get to go to Church on SUnday, so that was kinda sad, but it was because his parents got in a fight.. wouldnt let him leave. Hes a sweet kid though. Oh big thing.. Sister Blessing was baptized yesterday! Yeah, thats kind of a big deal. When i first got here, she was one of the first, if not THE first investigator i met.. soon after, we had district meeting to come up with a "vision" that we want to see by the end of the moves.. for me, i made a vision for the whole mission: "I see myself sitting in the baptismal services of my investigators listening to them testify of how the gospel has truly changed their lives, and saying to myself, 'yeah... they got it."' Yeah.. she GOT it. It was funny.. it was a Don Muang baptism at Bang Khen.. bitter sweet haha. Just kidding.. doesnt matter where she was baptized.. actually some thing she said in her testimony was just that.. "i didnt want to move to bang khen.. i have friends in Don muang.. i dont want to move. but Elder Crowley helped me remember that no matter where you are, its still the same 1 loving God". I teared up a little in her testimony because she told her conversion story rather quickly.. she was contacted by Elder Crowley at English.. she said "whatever! I can learn.. theres no problem in learning.. its just another religion." And she told how all of that changed.. She also shared her first experience with the language of the spirit.. she felt it first, or recognized it first, at testimony meeting.. my first sunday in thailand.. from something i said. I felt honored to be a part of her conversion even though i didnt get to see her through to the end by teaching.. but it was a very sweet moment and she was GLOWING with happiness and joy. Loved it. Bii is still going for the 14th.. ive really come to love this guy.. he is very humble because he is not very good at anything.. hes kind of lonely and his social skills arent the best.. but his desire is what matters here.. we are reviewing everything with him to prepare him for the interview this friday, and when we ask him, he says.. "i can remember.. i know i can, but i cant put it in to sensible words." Hes probably one of the most humble guys ive seen.. and he doesnt even know it. I hope he can be ready. His neighbors.. HEY! Brother Ball.. you had concerns about names here? Well this kid is named "Bon"... or, translated, Ball. Hah. Lawls. Yeah anyway, so he is 17 and a neighbor of Bii.. his Mom is name Augh.. thats the only way i can right it.. sorry Ball... Brother Ball that is.. anyone confused yet?! Anyway.. she is a way sweet Mom and one of the most respectful thais ive ever seen.. the Wai.. its the little clasped-hand-to-face-greeting-bow thing... when she does it, you feel the respect and the importance of what she is doing. She is really trying to do what we ask even though she is pretty deeply rooted in Buddhism.. but we've seen the change in her prayers.. the first time we asked her if she had prayed, she said no.. so we had her pray after that lesson.. next time we came back we said it at the beginning, "ok.. Mom.. we will open with a prayer, but at the end you will be the one to pray ok?" She was very shy and laughed and didnt want to.. these last few times? We same the same thing and she is totally ready.. she just says "OK" without hesitation. She opens her heart to us every time and even Tawid.. remember him? Member? Awesome? Anyway, even HE, a thai person whos already been a mish, said that hes never seen a person like her... im not sure what it is about her, but Thai people know each other and they both say she is different.. in a good way. Hopefully we can do work. Then, there is "balls" friend "Nat.." Or if that is too hard for you.. it translates to"Appointment." Hes a sweet kid of 14 years.. looks like hes 20. He has a problem... he has a pretty steady job.. but hes 14.. he hasnt finished middle school.. thats a crime on the heads of the parents.. so he needs to get back to school quick or she will send him to another part of the country.. We had a long talk with them last night, and although we made head way, especially in helping him to quit smoking, with him and his Mom.. although his Mom needs to talk to him with more respect.. she shows no respect, no love, no nothing for him.. kinda sad. But he went to Church yesterday, AND the baptism.. and he wore church clothes and everyone though he was a member hahah. Elder Komgrid was telling him that he should probably quit his job and go back to school... we hadnt really "started" a lesson because we didnt open with a prayer.. but i the Spirit was like, "HEY! He still understands prayer already! Bring it all back to the Church!" So Elder Komgrid was in a sentence and I, rather rudely i might add hahaha, interrupted and said "Nat.. you already told us you belive that prayer helps us.. so pray. Ask what you should do.. Your Father in Heaven will answer what you should do here." We are trying to get him to FHE tonight.. speaking of FHE.. Wisid asked if we should continue it.. if its really effective.. i immediately said Yes.. because of you Mommy.. loved that story. And thats pretty much all the investigators we have.. oh we had that Grandmother who had to go back to her home.. she wants to be baptized but she had to leave.. GAH! She may come back later, but i dunno...
K so what else this week.. oh, Komgrid and I had a sweet companionship inventory.. he kinda ______ me off this week... haha but dont worry.. we resolved it all.. and now we work together better than ever.. gonna DO WORK! We found a new house.. way nice and for the same price.. sweet! I will get to be the first to use it before Elders come after me and destroy it! We have to move this Thursday.. this week may not be very effective hahaha... plus Komgrid has to go take a test or something required of Thais.. dunno. We are supposed to have exchanges on the same day, which is 1) inconvenient for the move, and 2) our DL wants to swap my Comp with his.. who is my Noong from the MTC.. yeah real smart! Put a 2 monther and a 2 weeker together... we shall see.
K well i think thats all i got this week.. Thailand is great.. the language is coming along nicely and the weather is nice! like.. NICE. (Ask josh about "nice.." you will understand better). Hey, i heard Taylor Swift got a new CD? HAHA.. its playing behind me. K love you all! Thanks for all the support i feel day by day.. This gospel is amazing.. im so glad i got to see it change Sister Blessing.. everyone could see it.. that change only comes through this gospel.. OH. One more thing she said.. "Elders asked me to keep the Law of Chastity and i said yes. Next time they asked again and i was so confused cause i already accepted.. then they asked again..whhy? I realize now, its because if we dont constantly remind ourselves of committments and the things we need to do to remain strong in the church, we will easily fall away, like the Lehis dream." From AN INVESTIGATOR!! AH! Loved it. K gotta go. Say hello to the Ward.. give them bean dips credit cards.. you know.. the whole nine yards. JK. But seriously. Peace!
Elder Gudmundsen
Monday, October 25, 2010
Funny Stuff
So this week sounds pretty eventful for all of you eh? Mom hitting a car, Josh passing out while trying to relieve himself.. what movie did he make you miss haha? Seriously, what happened with that? Did you hit your head Josh or what? Everything ok?
K as for me.. I have a very short scripture of the week.. its in 1 (or maybe 2nd?) Nephi somewhere but i forgot to write it down. Basically it says, "Behold, thou art little." Well first of course, i thought of you Mom.. teehee. And laughed.. but then i thought.. yeah, thats pretty true. I think this was Lehi talking to Jacob and telling him to hearken unto Nephi's words... well, we are kinda like Jacob right? We are just little people who need to hearken unto the words of those smarter or more wise than us. Its funny and deep.. beeyah!
Ok so this week was kinda crazy. There was some big leadership conference for the whole mission for about 3 days.. every district and zone leader was there to be trained or whatever.. so we had 2 extra people stay in Don Muang on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.. apparently up in Pitsanulog, Elder King and Merrel were companions hahaha.. bet that was fun.. 2 missionaries who've been out for less than 3 months. In Don Muang we had 2 greenies.. Elder Thompson (Chucky, from May hall) and Elder Bitupon from the Manila MTC. Went on splits with them, me with Bitupon and Komgrid with Chucky. Fun stuff... for a short time we had 4 missionares Don Muang.. work was done! Basically Komgrid and Thompson taught lessons all day, and Bitupon and I invited.. all day. We've got a couple of new REALLY promising investigators.. Bii's neighbors really opened up to us last week, and most specifaclly the Mother of that Family.. she talked about how her lifes been pretty tough and her parents passed away when she was little, and she wants her kids life to be better. Her (names like the "au" sound in "taught"), her son Bon, her other son Nay, and their friend Nat, had the opportunity to go to Wisits house for FHE... all of them are opening up more and more, and they have all quit smoking.. a lot of that goes to Bii and his example.. awesome! They should be going again tonight. We have another woman who came out of nowhere.. her names Nud. She wants to be baptized already. We can meet with her so often, which is great, and she is really into it. We watched the Joseph Smith restoration vid, which by the way is hilariously horrible in thai, and i think it did work for her. Wud, the Laotion man, should have a better visa and we should be able to teach him this week, legally. He wants to be baptized and he came to Church yesterday without us asking.. oops.. maybe not the best sign cause that means we forgot to ask, but hey.. he still went. He gets back on Wednesday and we will start teaching him too. Fluk, the 17 year old baptist (oh wait! Hes 18 now.. birthday on Saturday), is way cool. He is kinda quiet sometimes but I (we) have been able to open him up more by being more than missionaries.. i guess technically being "less" tha missionaries and joking around with him.. depends on how you look at it i guess.. i say more :) Anyway, he has to leave this week, but we made some good progress with him and I like that he actually asks good questions.. like for instance, "why does God love us so much? More than himself?" Seriously.. thats a good question right? With my broken Thai i couldnt really answer it that well, but i tried to explain that thats just the way God is.. he wants us to be happy and if hes selfish, we probably wont be super happy. I said, "hey fluk... if i just go around telling everyone how great i am and dont do anything for anyone else, are people going to like me? No of course not. They wont feel my love, because im not showing it." We can say we love people, but unless we show it, no one will believe it. Love this kid. As far as Pat and Da... not too much progress.. we wanted to meet with them this weekend but its some big buddhist festival so they didnt go to Church. Pat was home one night when we thought we would only be teaching Da, and he expressed that he likes what we are teaching, who we are and what we do.. but "there is something blocking his thoughts." SATAN! Jk. But seriously. He wants to find out this is true, so we will keep pushing. As far as Bii goes.. hes still going. I think he will be ready for the 14th. Brother Pii should be starting up the lessons again cause he will be able to be baptized in November.. November will be a big month.. hopefully.
K i dont have much else this week cause i forgo to write things down as the week went on. Other things that happened.. we have to move haha. The Landlord came over to inspect the house, as requested from the office, and then said he was going to move back in with his family.. hah so we gotta house hunt. What else.. dunno. Gotta peace though. Love hearing from you guys this week.. josh try not to do that thing anymore.. thats not a good activity. Keep up the faith everyone! Saw you in the back of a picture Whitey.. you look nice and fat :) Church is true... datta datta dah, you know the drill.. haha, how irreverent i know but thats what it is. Love you all
Peace!
Elder G
K as for me.. I have a very short scripture of the week.. its in 1 (or maybe 2nd?) Nephi somewhere but i forgot to write it down. Basically it says, "Behold, thou art little." Well first of course, i thought of you Mom.. teehee. And laughed.. but then i thought.. yeah, thats pretty true. I think this was Lehi talking to Jacob and telling him to hearken unto Nephi's words... well, we are kinda like Jacob right? We are just little people who need to hearken unto the words of those smarter or more wise than us. Its funny and deep.. beeyah!
Ok so this week was kinda crazy. There was some big leadership conference for the whole mission for about 3 days.. every district and zone leader was there to be trained or whatever.. so we had 2 extra people stay in Don Muang on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.. apparently up in Pitsanulog, Elder King and Merrel were companions hahaha.. bet that was fun.. 2 missionaries who've been out for less than 3 months. In Don Muang we had 2 greenies.. Elder Thompson (Chucky, from May hall) and Elder Bitupon from the Manila MTC. Went on splits with them, me with Bitupon and Komgrid with Chucky. Fun stuff... for a short time we had 4 missionares Don Muang.. work was done! Basically Komgrid and Thompson taught lessons all day, and Bitupon and I invited.. all day. We've got a couple of new REALLY promising investigators.. Bii's neighbors really opened up to us last week, and most specifaclly the Mother of that Family.. she talked about how her lifes been pretty tough and her parents passed away when she was little, and she wants her kids life to be better. Her (names like the "au" sound in "taught"), her son Bon, her other son Nay, and their friend Nat, had the opportunity to go to Wisits house for FHE... all of them are opening up more and more, and they have all quit smoking.. a lot of that goes to Bii and his example.. awesome! They should be going again tonight. We have another woman who came out of nowhere.. her names Nud. She wants to be baptized already. We can meet with her so often, which is great, and she is really into it. We watched the Joseph Smith restoration vid, which by the way is hilariously horrible in thai, and i think it did work for her. Wud, the Laotion man, should have a better visa and we should be able to teach him this week, legally. He wants to be baptized and he came to Church yesterday without us asking.. oops.. maybe not the best sign cause that means we forgot to ask, but hey.. he still went. He gets back on Wednesday and we will start teaching him too. Fluk, the 17 year old baptist (oh wait! Hes 18 now.. birthday on Saturday), is way cool. He is kinda quiet sometimes but I (we) have been able to open him up more by being more than missionaries.. i guess technically being "less" tha missionaries and joking around with him.. depends on how you look at it i guess.. i say more :) Anyway, he has to leave this week, but we made some good progress with him and I like that he actually asks good questions.. like for instance, "why does God love us so much? More than himself?" Seriously.. thats a good question right? With my broken Thai i couldnt really answer it that well, but i tried to explain that thats just the way God is.. he wants us to be happy and if hes selfish, we probably wont be super happy. I said, "hey fluk... if i just go around telling everyone how great i am and dont do anything for anyone else, are people going to like me? No of course not. They wont feel my love, because im not showing it." We can say we love people, but unless we show it, no one will believe it. Love this kid. As far as Pat and Da... not too much progress.. we wanted to meet with them this weekend but its some big buddhist festival so they didnt go to Church. Pat was home one night when we thought we would only be teaching Da, and he expressed that he likes what we are teaching, who we are and what we do.. but "there is something blocking his thoughts." SATAN! Jk. But seriously. He wants to find out this is true, so we will keep pushing. As far as Bii goes.. hes still going. I think he will be ready for the 14th. Brother Pii should be starting up the lessons again cause he will be able to be baptized in November.. November will be a big month.. hopefully.
K i dont have much else this week cause i forgo to write things down as the week went on. Other things that happened.. we have to move haha. The Landlord came over to inspect the house, as requested from the office, and then said he was going to move back in with his family.. hah so we gotta house hunt. What else.. dunno. Gotta peace though. Love hearing from you guys this week.. josh try not to do that thing anymore.. thats not a good activity. Keep up the faith everyone! Saw you in the back of a picture Whitey.. you look nice and fat :) Church is true... datta datta dah, you know the drill.. haha, how irreverent i know but thats what it is. Love you all
Peace!
Elder G
Monday, October 18, 2010
Bah
Whats up. Crowley moved.. WOW! Ive had to step up a little more cause ive had to know where everything is.. guess what, that thing you said i always had Mom.. what is it called... memory? yeah, serves me well in thailand too. We havent gotten lost once yet.. oh yeah my new companion is thai! Fastest thai speaker ive ever heard. He is about 22 and a 2 year old member. Elder Komgrid. Speaks pretty good english.. loves to say a few words that im not sure he knows hes not supposed to say.. kinda funny. Great guy.. just kinda charges everything. So last Thursday was epic.. we have moves meeting and pretty much the entire mission was there. Our whole district was there too from the MTC so i got to see Elder Merril and King too... the mission was completely changed.. districts expanded, zones changed, moved and dissolved, and missionaries who have been in thailand for only 6 or 7 months are trainers already.. my phii thay got put with his phiithay, and another phiithay of mine is with someone from their district.. crazy stuff. Elder Wagstaff and i got thai elders.. yeeah! Got to see our nongs too... they speak way good already too.
Okay so i actually dont have a phrase or word of the week.. but i do have scriptures. K get out your D and C's everyone! Gonna do some flipping... K so lets start at D and C 1 verse 38.. "whether by mine own voice or the voice of my servants, it is the same." K we all know this one.. head to D and C 29 verse 7: "And ye are called to gather mine elect [who] hear my voice and harden not their hearts." So.. the elect hear the Lords voice and listen intentely. D and C 68 verse 4: "whatsoever they shall speak when moved upon by the Holy ghost shall be scripture.. shall be the will of the Lord, shall be the mind of the Lord, shall be the word of the Lord... shall be the VOICE of the Lord." So.. when you speak to anyone.. member or non member, and you have been doing what you are always supposed to be, it is SCRIPTURE. Yesterday was evidence of this.. in sacrament meeting we had 7 investigators there.. i said the opening prayer and asked to bless the speakers to help those who will listen (although whether me or someone else it would have been the same had they invited the spirit). Every speaker spoke about something that i wanted our investigators to hear.. and then some. President Wisan spoke about why we dont have crosses on our churches or around our necks.. yesterday night we met with Phat and Da and Phat said, "i went to church and wanted to ask why you dont have crosses.. wisan answered it already for me." So, remember, when you get up to speak in Church, or open your mouth to a friend, and testify with the Spirit, it is scripture, and it WILL help someone.
So.. speaking of investigators.. Bii had more trouble with smoking.. this was a nice experience this week. We told him about fasting a priesthood blessings.. asked if he understood both of them.. then we asked if he wanted to do a special fast on sunday. He immediately accepted, and also wanted a priesthood blessing from Wisan after church on sunday. Fasting was hard as usual.. but it was for a good cause. But the real deal was the blessing.. this was the first ive given since.. well, you Josh.. and i felt the power of the priesthood flowing through me once more.. it was surreal again! And Wisan has a way sick voice too.. especially when he does prayers.. like normally, his voice is hilarious cause he speaks so fast.. but when he does special things, its epic. It was once again, a privelege to be able to perform this blessing... in thai. Brother Bii says he feels much better and even uplifted.. and lets just hope and pray that he prepares himself for the 14th of november. Bii is our only dater.
So this week we have 8 new investigators.. next to Bii is a family with 2 kids.. a couple days ago we were early to Bii, so we went over to talk to these 2 kids, 14 and 17, smoking outside their house (then another one of their friends came over too.. hes the one who tells me to go to Hollywood). We were just talking with them and made friends with them and asked if we could come back and share the message with them.. also to help them quit smoking cause they said they want to.. kind of. Simple enough we said, "just stop.. its not hard." They said we could come back... it was actually pretty funny.. 2 of the kids said yes, and their friend said no cause he was Islam.. I was about to say, "so what, they're buddhist" but the other 2 kids got to it first.. one of them hit him and was like, "what a dumb excuse! we're both buddhist!" I laughed. the kid still didnt accept, but he will.. cause the other 2 are into it and went to Church. By the way.. way to go Bii! We met with him after them and asked him to help them get to Church on Sunday.. sure enough, Bii pulled through.. he took them on his bike! Awesome. The 2 kids mom made sure we came back too, cause she wants them both to be better people.. haha. She is sort of interested too.. going to Wisats FHE tonight. Mom im emphasizing FHE more because of your story.. thanks for that. So that should be a good experience. Their names are OO (mom) Nat (14 year old) and Bon (17 year old). Who else.. we got Fluk (prounce the "U") who also has some problems.. not with doing what we ask.. but family wise.. his dad is like.. a playboy.. he has 3 wives.. so he missed Church yesterday cause his Dad isnt around usually, but he was yesterday. We went by their house to see if he was there, but he was out with his dad, but his Mom was there to tell us so much.. about how he was going to die when he was born, and hes a very reserved kid.. didnt really see that that much. Also, she has to go to school with him for some reason.. dunno. She was way cool. She said she would go to Church with him.. BEEYAH!
So phat and Da... gosh.. finally met with them last night.. went a little over time.. an hour and a half. Phat knows these things are important, but not enough.. he knows enough where he said, "i dont have a lot of time, and i know you cant come over if im not here, but i still want to ask you to teach my family even if im not here.. because i am the only one the works and i HAVE to provide for them.. can you still teach them and maybe teach me once a week?" For now weve accepted that.. last night we made big strides.. corrected a bunch of wrong ideas and answered so many questions.. and hey! i explained the need for a restoration by myself.. WOOH! So yeah.. we plan to meet with them at least once a week (phat anyway) and then meet with the rest of the family as much as we can. We got the baptismal comittment out there, but it isnt solid.. next time we meet we willl stress the need for more time, and that the Lord will provide as he makes sacrifices to meet with us.. cause the Lord will provide for sure.
Okay well i think this is it for now.. Can you make sure this gets to Brother Atkinson? My seminary teacher? He served here.. i want to know where you served! Anyone i may be able to visit? lemme know. One more thing from Elder Crowley.. it was about 3 am one night and i woke up for whatever reason.. think i had to pee or something.. i get back in bed and Elder Crowley ripped the biggest fart ive heard him do.. so epic. remember the movie Holes? like the first night stanley is trying to sleep and he cant, and that one kid is sleeping and just rips a nice one? Exactly like that. So loud. Crowley woke himself up from it.. cause he was actually asleep. Good times. K thats it for now.. ill try to think of more stuff that i need, but dont worry bout it. Sorry if i missed anything.. to Encinitas... give the missionaries referrals! Just find people for them to teach! And open your mouths to your friends.. whoever. Love you all, the Church is true for sheezy! Another week in Thailand goes by.. Peace!
Elder กุดมันต์เซ็น
(Wow that was hard to write)
Okay so i actually dont have a phrase or word of the week.. but i do have scriptures. K get out your D and C's everyone! Gonna do some flipping... K so lets start at D and C 1 verse 38.. "whether by mine own voice or the voice of my servants, it is the same." K we all know this one.. head to D and C 29 verse 7: "And ye are called to gather mine elect [who] hear my voice and harden not their hearts." So.. the elect hear the Lords voice and listen intentely. D and C 68 verse 4: "whatsoever they shall speak when moved upon by the Holy ghost shall be scripture.. shall be the will of the Lord, shall be the mind of the Lord, shall be the word of the Lord... shall be the VOICE of the Lord." So.. when you speak to anyone.. member or non member, and you have been doing what you are always supposed to be, it is SCRIPTURE. Yesterday was evidence of this.. in sacrament meeting we had 7 investigators there.. i said the opening prayer and asked to bless the speakers to help those who will listen (although whether me or someone else it would have been the same had they invited the spirit). Every speaker spoke about something that i wanted our investigators to hear.. and then some. President Wisan spoke about why we dont have crosses on our churches or around our necks.. yesterday night we met with Phat and Da and Phat said, "i went to church and wanted to ask why you dont have crosses.. wisan answered it already for me." So, remember, when you get up to speak in Church, or open your mouth to a friend, and testify with the Spirit, it is scripture, and it WILL help someone.
So.. speaking of investigators.. Bii had more trouble with smoking.. this was a nice experience this week. We told him about fasting a priesthood blessings.. asked if he understood both of them.. then we asked if he wanted to do a special fast on sunday. He immediately accepted, and also wanted a priesthood blessing from Wisan after church on sunday. Fasting was hard as usual.. but it was for a good cause. But the real deal was the blessing.. this was the first ive given since.. well, you Josh.. and i felt the power of the priesthood flowing through me once more.. it was surreal again! And Wisan has a way sick voice too.. especially when he does prayers.. like normally, his voice is hilarious cause he speaks so fast.. but when he does special things, its epic. It was once again, a privelege to be able to perform this blessing... in thai. Brother Bii says he feels much better and even uplifted.. and lets just hope and pray that he prepares himself for the 14th of november. Bii is our only dater.
So this week we have 8 new investigators.. next to Bii is a family with 2 kids.. a couple days ago we were early to Bii, so we went over to talk to these 2 kids, 14 and 17, smoking outside their house (then another one of their friends came over too.. hes the one who tells me to go to Hollywood). We were just talking with them and made friends with them and asked if we could come back and share the message with them.. also to help them quit smoking cause they said they want to.. kind of. Simple enough we said, "just stop.. its not hard." They said we could come back... it was actually pretty funny.. 2 of the kids said yes, and their friend said no cause he was Islam.. I was about to say, "so what, they're buddhist" but the other 2 kids got to it first.. one of them hit him and was like, "what a dumb excuse! we're both buddhist!" I laughed. the kid still didnt accept, but he will.. cause the other 2 are into it and went to Church. By the way.. way to go Bii! We met with him after them and asked him to help them get to Church on Sunday.. sure enough, Bii pulled through.. he took them on his bike! Awesome. The 2 kids mom made sure we came back too, cause she wants them both to be better people.. haha. She is sort of interested too.. going to Wisats FHE tonight. Mom im emphasizing FHE more because of your story.. thanks for that. So that should be a good experience. Their names are OO (mom) Nat (14 year old) and Bon (17 year old). Who else.. we got Fluk (prounce the "U") who also has some problems.. not with doing what we ask.. but family wise.. his dad is like.. a playboy.. he has 3 wives.. so he missed Church yesterday cause his Dad isnt around usually, but he was yesterday. We went by their house to see if he was there, but he was out with his dad, but his Mom was there to tell us so much.. about how he was going to die when he was born, and hes a very reserved kid.. didnt really see that that much. Also, she has to go to school with him for some reason.. dunno. She was way cool. She said she would go to Church with him.. BEEYAH!
So phat and Da... gosh.. finally met with them last night.. went a little over time.. an hour and a half. Phat knows these things are important, but not enough.. he knows enough where he said, "i dont have a lot of time, and i know you cant come over if im not here, but i still want to ask you to teach my family even if im not here.. because i am the only one the works and i HAVE to provide for them.. can you still teach them and maybe teach me once a week?" For now weve accepted that.. last night we made big strides.. corrected a bunch of wrong ideas and answered so many questions.. and hey! i explained the need for a restoration by myself.. WOOH! So yeah.. we plan to meet with them at least once a week (phat anyway) and then meet with the rest of the family as much as we can. We got the baptismal comittment out there, but it isnt solid.. next time we meet we willl stress the need for more time, and that the Lord will provide as he makes sacrifices to meet with us.. cause the Lord will provide for sure.
Okay well i think this is it for now.. Can you make sure this gets to Brother Atkinson? My seminary teacher? He served here.. i want to know where you served! Anyone i may be able to visit? lemme know. One more thing from Elder Crowley.. it was about 3 am one night and i woke up for whatever reason.. think i had to pee or something.. i get back in bed and Elder Crowley ripped the biggest fart ive heard him do.. so epic. remember the movie Holes? like the first night stanley is trying to sleep and he cant, and that one kid is sleeping and just rips a nice one? Exactly like that. So loud. Crowley woke himself up from it.. cause he was actually asleep. Good times. K thats it for now.. ill try to think of more stuff that i need, but dont worry bout it. Sorry if i missed anything.. to Encinitas... give the missionaries referrals! Just find people for them to teach! And open your mouths to your friends.. whoever. Love you all, the Church is true for sheezy! Another week in Thailand goes by.. Peace!
Elder กุดมันต์เซ็น
(Wow that was hard to write)
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