WHAT THE....

WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING JOSH!!?? TAKE MY SHOES OFF! What's mine is not yours just because im on a mission you little thief! Also... kinda random with Disneyland? looked like a lot of fun though.
Ok with that aside... hello thur! This week was pretty fun.. kind of interesting but went by pretty quick. Scripture of the Week: Alma 31:36 - Hope i havent shared this one yet, but basically... we have a clap-on ability! You know what im talking about right? Like, Bruce Almighty when he claps on the lights? Yeah, well in this verse, "he claps his hands and the spirit" does work hah! Awesome. Its kinda true though... essentially when we want to use the Spirit we can cause we have the gift of Him.. so by clap on, just start doing the right things! The phrase of the week.. is just so awesome. You know our phrase, "last one there is a rotten egg?" Well the teenagers here have a nice "last one" phrase: "last one gets a hot girlfriend..." HAH! Im gonna be the last on at everything!.... when i get back of course. Sweet huh?
Okay so what went down this week... well i finally found some sweet fruit smoothies.. and when i say fruit smoothies i literally mean fruit.. i watched her cut open a pineapple and put in the blender, then get watermelon and the do the same thing. Delicious (aroy). So Josh, not only is every kid playing dota again in this cafe, theres a chick too! Last week after i got off the computer, i was lurking some kid playing mirana and i was like, "dude shoot the arrow! you coulda killed him!" hahaha.. Elder Chaiyawat pulled me away :) Then, on Saturday we were in the park and Elder Crowley saw 2 dudes a little ways off who he already knows, so we went to say hi... super chill kids. They are kind of interested but they are going off to army camp soon, so i dont know if we will be able to do anything with them. Anyway, one of them, นืง, (number 1) was telling us, "you know, its weird.. it just seems like every thai kid and teenager now does nothing but play video games all day.. no ambition." For one thing, how mature is that? He spoke like he was like 30 or something but hes only 20. But then he friend started laughing cause hes one of the kids hahaha... he asked us if we played computer games.. hahah now THAT i understood in thai. He asked if i played dota.. HAHAHA. Oh boy that made me laugh... but dont worry, i said on i mission i cant play cause i dont have time cause theres work to be done.. he was like, "aw man i was gonna ask you to come play with us." Bummer, haha. Another day.

Everybody will like this.. ever wanted a seat AND a toilet? Yeah, i saw a commercial for one hahaha! No joke.. its like a leather seat that can lift up to reveal a toilet seat! Josh... Idiocracy? Yeah.. its totally happening! I thought that was hysterical. I want one.

Mom and Dad, i am surprised by your response... you think the city looks beautiful? hahaha i guess i should take more close up.. this place is disgusting hahaha! Don Muang especially.. so ghetto! For example, we watched a owner taking his dog for a walk... when we walked up to contact him, the dog was already peeing... we contacted him for 3 and a half minutes while the dog continued to pee.. yeah.. disgusting. But like i said last week.. its beautiful in a very strange way. Speaking of Don Muang though.. the members here? Kind of a big deal. President Wisid for example is a member of the presdidency.. he was also the first stake president of Thailand. Epic. His fellow counselor, President Wisan, oversees the Thailand service center, and was Wisid's first counselor in that same Stake Presidency. Our good friend Brother Thawid, works at the Mission office so everyone knows him. Brother Bithupon trained pretty much all the Thai Elders that i know when he was a missionary here. Mom and Dad you will both be happy to hear that Wisid and his wife "Super man" take good care of us.. every time we come over, which is quite often, she has a different home made fruit juice for us that are DELICIOUS! Saturday afternoon Wisid invited us over for lunch and we had some sweet curry. Love it! By the way, shes called super man cause her name in Thai sounds pretty much exactly like it. So when she first introduced herself to me, thats how she clarified its pronunciation.
Ok so how bout some investigators eh? So we only have 1 baptismal dater.. Brother Bii. Hes doing well.. accpeting everything, believes everything, and is trying to get the knowledge for himself. His biggest problem is smoking... he cant kick it yet. We will call him today to check up, but he didnt smoke yesterday, but he smoked HALF of one on Saturday... how? Dunno. Anyway, last tuesday we met with him and asked if he smoked... he said twice.. after the lesson i told Crowley to tell him, cause i didnt know how to, that we were taking his cigarettes and throwing them away. Elder Crowley's face was like.. terrified. "What?! Why?..." "What do you mean why.. so he cant smoke. Tell him were helping him..." "Ive never done that before!" "Well, now is the time to start." HAHAH. He asked Brother Bii to throw them away, very weakly... it was so funny cause Elder Crowley was shook up for the next hour for whatever reason.. i thought it was so funny. So anyway Bii is doing well.. he should be baptized on the 10th of October. Yesterday we had a sweet turn out at Church.. only 4 went, but it was still better than last week. We had the wife of an investigator, who came into the discussions late, go to church WITHOUT her husband who was the intial contact we had with the family. She also brought her son, and i think they had a really good experience. Now we got to get the OTHER son and the husband up to speed with them too. We had a guy named "mod" as well go to Church... we met with him on Saturday when we committed him to go, and its a good thing we had President Wisan with us.. we started explaining Adam and Eve (which i always hate explaining by the way) and he was just totally lost.. President Wisan just came in and started dhiarreaing (i know its not spelled right.. shut up!) off so many words, so fast.. i couldnt keep up. But it cleared it up for "mod" and he was like.. "when the Missionaries come back can you too?" Face palm... we suck! Whatever.. thats members are for. what else.. we had a lesson with a family and it was pretty standard first lesson... at the end we had the mother pray, and in it, all she said was, "cause my kids to be grateful for me.. amen." HAHAH. So weird. But hey.. she did pray right? I cant actually remember who else we taught.. oh theres Nat and Juy, who i told you about last week... hes blind and doesnt want to be a burden at church? Yeah, met with them yesterday... still kinda reluctant. But we asked if they could go to family home evening at wisids house tonight, so lets hope for that one. All in all... things were kinda slow this past week. We did a lot of inviting.. which was kind of discouraging.. especially cause i tried with this one old guy who told me to stop talking cause, "ใม่ ช้าด (may chaad - doesnt speak clearly). Yeah.. what a jerk right? Was kind of in a bad mood after that. I think my favorite experience of the week was the park that i mentioned earlier... where i met those 2 kids going to army camp? Before them, we had been making some calls to see who we had going to Church.. after a little while we started walking over to the bathroom and saw a man sitting by himself reading.. we walked over and after barely saying hello, he scootched over and had us sit down. He started listening.. we told him we wanted to come to his house on another day and share a brief message.. he said why not now? Sweet. Said an opening prayer and taught him the first lesson. He liked it. Said it sounded true and he believed it... also he likes reading so we gave him a BoM. He said the closing prayer and it was very heartfelt and truthful.. he asked for help in his police advancement test that he would have taken yesterday (today for you.. Sunday) and i felt the spirit at least.. so hopefully we can return and talk to him. He also asked us about our families and if you were in thailand with us.. told him all about missions. He didnt ask IF we got paid.. he just asked "how much." His face was very surprised in the response that WE pay it. Kinda cool. Hope he works out. Sooo... all in all things are going well. It was pretty cool this week.. not cool as in amazing, but cool temperature.. except today.. its blazing hot.
What else.. oh! We had the Asia Area president, Elder Perkins, come for a mission tour. Way good.. he is a SCRIPTORIAN! Pulled out like 5 scripture references in like 30 seconds. Also got to see Sister Itow and got to ask her how many times shes cried so far haha.. just once. Proud. Elder Perkins told us a funny story about explaining things to new converts or progressing investirgators.. like this one investigator when he was in Canada. He told him that they were having a Fireside at the church on a sunday evening.. the investigator was going to speak and share his testimony (recent convert this one) and when Elder Perkins showed up, the investigator was dressed up in a full parka and warm clothes cause he thought it was going to be BY THE FIRE. Lolollooolawls! Gave us some good advice aoub tasking questions... "This dispensation STARTED with a simple question. When we ask questions we tell the Spirit we are inviting him in to give us personal revelation. At every conference or devotional or whatever, have specific questions in mind, and almost all the time, you can get your answer during the meeting." Pretty cool huh? Tested it because he said, "right now, come up with 2 questions you want answered today and i garuntee at least 1 will be." Yeah, 1 was. Way cool. On thursday there were 8 thai elders about to go to the Phillipines MTC but apparently they had to come first to an area. So we got one of them and he was way nice. Spoke a little english so he could help me every now and then. Also, was funny to see how nervous HE even was during contacting, even though he can speak Thai. Kinda funny. Only had him for a day, but it was nice.
Okay well i think this is all for today... oh! Brother Thawid.. hilarious dude... had a funny comparison.. he said that "i imagine the difference between you, Elder Gudmundsen, and you, Elder Crowley, back home off of your missions, and they are very different." Lets just say.. it was pretty accurate.. hahah! And pretty much Elder Crowley got slammed! I enjoyed it hahaha. by the way did I mention he is a Ginger? I know right?! What are the odds! Hes come to the conclusion, and accepted it pretty well, that he doesnt have a soul.. but its okay.. we're working through it :)

Also, Elder Crowley thinks these 2 things: 1.) When i was younger i wasnt like other kids and i was always more interested in what clouds were, or what bark was made of.. he hasnt seen Zoolander hahah! So i let him keep believing. 2.) That I am like Mel Gibson from South Park... Josh, you know what im talking about.. ill leave it at that hahah... So one last thing.. I want to write Melissa Martutartus.. can you facebook her and ask for her address? Please and thank you!
K ill send some more pictures! We went to a temple last week and at was way cool. Love you all! Thanks for your support! Staley and Cade! Congratulations! Thats insane! Both of you within a month!? Yeah.. wow. Thanks for the email Kathy.. really enjoyed reading from you.. ill write an ACTUAL letter soon enough! Mom, my back is still hurting.. cant put a bar in the house cause its wood and we have termites.. were afraid if we put one up, the house will fall down. See what you can do. K gotta run! Once again, love you all and you are always in my prayers!
Love, Elder Gudmundsen