Hello from Buriram

From May 23:

First full week there? Great stuff is happening in Buriram. The work has been really slow for the area because of the whole NO ELDERS IN IT FOR A TRANSFER thing.. we're seriously picking up from scratch. But its going well. And we are having fun. I dont really know whats going in with some of the members, and frankly its not entirely important, but its kinda sad.. there are certain members that tell me that when they were first baptized they were just so excited... they went out with the elders all the time and served everyone like crazy. Now, for some reason, they are just bored. Im trying to work with this one kid name Fuy (except not pronounced like that) whos about 18 almost 19. He is SUPER lazy. Straight up, he even says that to our faces when we ask for help. Luckily, my thai is strong enough that i can get on his case and he cant argue with me hahah.. hes a great kid he just needs the fire back. This, brings me to the scripture of the week: 2 Nephi 31 verse 19-21. Its not enough to simply get baptized because its not over yet. Its not enough to get baptized and simply go to Church and be a "sunday morning mormon" (like me before this fantastic thing called a mission). You gotta, "press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God" so that you want fall in this pit of "im bored of exaltation and helping Heavenly Fathers children" attitude. So, i decided that we needed to train our members. We met on saturday night with our branch missionaries (the ones that would come) and told them straight up that things need to change; and we need their help training the other members. It was quite moving, if i do say so myself, and the members are getting more excited than they already were, to get out there and help us out. Pray for us no? Its a slow process but we need these members, EVERY member, to get in on it with us.
This week we received a lot of referrals from members. In fact, half of our progressing investigators are referrals (see? So much better). We met 2 people on our own, and they are sisters! They are really sweet. We meet them on a saturday and they immediately said that they wanted, and would, go to Church. Whaddya know, they came! They enjoyed the experience and they told us that they feel that prayer has real power. Of course they are buddhists, so they explained that Buddhism has its mediation, which is kinda like prayer. Of course, thats not the same at all, but they corrected themselves before i did, and said that, "I like prayer though.. mediation you have to sit for quite some time before you feel anything or feel relaxed and comfortable.. with prayer, we prayed for only 30 seconds and i felt good, if not better." Their names are Nee and Nade. We got them their BoM's and they were really touched by the Joseph Smith story. Pray for them.. hope they can progress well and pray to know. Next, we have a woman named Blessing (yes, same name as Sister Blessing back in Don Muang.. nicknames are common). She has just converted to Christianity and goes to Hope Church or something like that.. shes kinda funny: She doesnt know anything about what she believes (hey.. that sounds awfully familiar..oh yeah! Me). She has yet to be baptized and doesnt understand the difference between God and Christ. But, she has a really open heart and appreciates our help in understanding more about scripture and well.... truth. Right now, she LOVES going to Church... BUT, for all the wrong reasons. For example: "its closer! Theres air conditioning! Theres nice clean carpets!" etc.... thats all GREAT to get her in the door, but she needs to realize this Church is better than the old church because its TRUE. It'll happen. We got her her Book Of Mormon and got her started on reading it. Her prayers are getting more sincere but she has to understand that she cant set up her OWN conditions on which she will believe with God... its His conditions, not our will. As long as she keeps going to Church, praying and reading (hey, whaddya know.. Stock answers) shell get it. Next, is the mother of a member. She has been Catholic all her life and is confused about how this Church is different. We had a Philipino member with us, who doesnt speak thai.. so we translated as she bore an INCREDIBLY powerful testimony; something ive long forgotten how to do myself in english haha. This woman is named Blessing as well! hahaha.. so right now we have pretty much only old grandmas and people named blessing. The last is a dude.. is name is Full.. hes the one i told you about (or have i yet to?) who is the exact opposite of that... not FULL up there. But, he understands right from wrong and he wants to get baptized. It will just take quite a while to help him understand what he neeeds to be baptized.
So, thats all we got right now.. we have a couple of other people with good potential to start to understand why they are on this earth, but they have a lot of trouble with time. Hopefully this week we will be able to see them again.

So thats pretty much all i got for now. Im stoked to be here in Buriram... also, im really close to Elder Komgrids family who live in Surin. Elder Komgrid gave me a hug at transfers and told me, "dude.. go baptize my family". I plan to. When i got on exchanges with Surin (thats the District leader area) i gotta meet them and get him baptized. Its going to be such an amazing day when his family gets baptized.

All i got! Today im back in Ubon already hahaha.. we have zone conference tomorrow morning and we decided to just hop on a SUUUPPPER nice bus this morning and spend our Pday in Ubon. Im hungry. And want to bowl. So we are going to go do that now. Love you guys so much. This transfer is a little surreal.. about to hit the hump day and that kinda sucks.. only a year left. As soon as this transfer is over, things are going to get super fast and thats bad! Also, this mission is going to be flipped upside down when the next group finishes... 14 people going home, 14 leadership positions opening, including Assistant to the President. People all throughout the mission are going to have to start stepping up. Thank you so much for all your support! Talk to you next week.

Love, Elder Gudmundsen

PS: Melissa, check you mail in 2 weeks.

P.P.S: Just kidding, i have nothing else :)