Dangit.. im over the hill already! *Cry*
Just kidding.. but seriously a little bit. 20 already? Thats so... old! No more teenage years? How sad.
So how are you all doing? Missing me to death? I would too.. Its ok.. fight on!
So.. Woohoo! Brother Somchay got baptized! I got the pictures on Picasa already.. saturday was a very special day.. we saved 4 souls.. booyah! The Sisters got 3 and we got 1. Brother Somchay is such a pimp.. he invited 4 of his friends to it, and i thought there would be at least ONE dude among them.. nah! He only has the women. They are all pretty interested now, but they are also all about to go home cause of the end of the semester.. actually the end of college. But.. at the very least, they got a chance to hear it. On tuesday when we were preparing him for the interview, I asked him if he was nervous.. he said no. I said, dont worry about it.. you will be friday. Friday comes around... haha he was so nervous/excited. Then saturday before he got in the water... same. Then sunday, before the Holy Ghost.. same. So great. Im pushing him pretty hard to be a missionary.. he doesnt really like the idea right now, but he at least has a little bit of an interest. I gave him a copy of preach my gospel and told him to start reading it a lot! I tease him everyday about the day he gets his tag: Elder Somchay! Sunday after he got confirmed, he went and helped us teach Brother Yong.. oh! And a new girl named Joy (that name is actually pronounced exactly how it looks.. like Joy to the World). Joy is the cousin of Yong and shes kinda been learning for a long time already... just not actually sitting down with us. She came to English last tuesday with Brother Yong so we could watch the Restoration.. it happened to be her first lesson, but since then, she has a baptismal date, and has pretty much learned everything Yong has.. which is like.. a lot. Brother Yongs totally gonna be ready! His interview is this wednesday (or thursday) and his baptism is this saturday. He totally gets answers to his prayers.. like every time.. i dont know why he gets it so easily.. his heart is just super open and he listens really well to his heart. Joy is kinda the same.. she understands way good, and she already got her answer.. she prayed once and something told her to just open the hymn book (of which she really knows nothing about) to page 145 in the thai version.. she read it and said it just hit her like a ton of bricks (not like that really.. they dont have that phrase in thai, but you know what i mean). She knows God is there and answers her prayers and that without Jesus Christ, we are pretty much doomed. This week was sweet because ive been with the Zone Leader (whos a stud), Elder Fowles, pretty much every day.. last monday for Pday, then english, then exchanges, in which we traveled to another place in our zone (the zone is exploding with baptisms.. actually the whole mission is.. we are going to get above 50 for sure.. its a record.. never gotten it in forever), then saturday we traveled again. Ive been learning a ton and am starting to teach a lot differently.. by really focusing on repentance and baptism. Its a really smart method and gets people to understand our purpose faster, and clearer. Traveling is also really fun.. but seriously? We took a train back from one branch.. 14 baht! Thats 7 baht a person.. not even 50 cents! Not even a profit.
What else is going on.. oh we got a member referral and the guy is detoxing from alcoholism right now.. like, its kinda hardcore alcoholism. He came to church with a member (he lives 60 kilos away) and he has already learned the Word of Wisdom from the member.. he knows he needs to quit but its so difficult right now. As I was teaching him, he was pretty much collapsing.. but his desire to change is so incredible. We sang i am a child of god for him, and he pretty much broke down in tears. I dont know if it was from the alcohol poison leaving him, or the spirit.. ill bet it was both. He came to Church and said that hes never felt anything like it before.. its nothing like Buddhism, and in fact he said he doesnt like how selfish the religion is.. that its all about "the 1 person" and not about family or true happiness. It was very humbling to be able to teach him.. if we can, we are going to set some time aside this week to drive all the way out there.. it will take almost the whole day, but him and his wife already said that they will be baptized, so its definitely worth our time.
Okay.. so the event of this week (besides the baptism of course) was last night: Elder Tom somersaulted over his bike! Man.. that front brake is such a problem! We were biking and as we were, the sisters came up behind us in a car so of course we were just like, "uh buh.. huh what? oh hey!" and we werent paying attention to the front.. i had slowed down up front, and Elder Tom didnt see it, so when he turned around, he met me, and flew over his bike.. haha! I thought it was hilarious... but its awesome.. totally got some battle wounds for it too. Dont worry! Hes fine!
Love you all! Im 20! Woohoo!
Elder Gudmundsen
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