Mommy...................
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
you're ooooooollllllddddd :)
So.. dying to know what happened? First things first, saying goodbye to Ubon was great.. we had quite the send off from the members at the train station.. Elder Charit and I moved their together, and moved away together too :) Just the two of us went. Was sad to say goodbye to some of those investigators, and even harder to leave Sister Krisina.. when i talked to her on the phone my last day (yeah, suck right? Didnt even get to see her.. had some personal stuff that day) she said her husband was really upset and was against her again.. i havent heard anything since, but i really hope she got confirmed yesterday.. im pretty sure shell be okay.
Okay! Remember when they sent me and Elder Charit to that one place about 2 weeks ago? Buriram? Yeah thats where i moved hahah.. and no, its not far from Ubon at all. About 3 hours bus ride. Same zone too :) Whos my companion? Remember that 1 Elder that Elder Komgrid and I picked up way back when? He was with us for a couple days.. yeah hes my companion. And yes, you remember correctly: He IS thai! HAHAHAH.. yeah my 3rd one already. My MTC district was all at the meeting so they were significantly "irked" that over half my mission has been spent with Thai Elders. Elder Gambanat.. wow, theres no way to write his name in English so that you can pronounce it correctly. Anyway, hes so legit.. extremely diligent and also older than me haha. But he is younger in the mission so I am senior companion now.. woohoo responsibility! We already know each other so we hit the ground running (very fast) and we are getting along fantastic. Now, hows Buriram you ask? Its struggling. Brother Tawid once cursed me before I left Don Muang saying that my mission would be filled with troubled branches.. well, he was right. Whats wrong with it? Well, since i got here (including those 3 days 2 weeks ago) all ive heard is that members dont like the Branch President and that he shouldnt be in the position that he is. From what they were compaining about, i would agree as well. However, we talked to the Branch President yesterday (and a significant number of members) and the conclusion we have both come to is that he is doing his job. In fact, i kind of like his style... He speaks very straight up and doesnt beat around the bush at all. He tells people that they were called to a specific calling and they need to do all they can to fulfill it. Now, I do think he could show a LITTLE more love to the members, but its not my position to say that to him. There is one member that has a REALLY big problem with the Branch President and has stopped coming to Church, except for yesterday. He is also the Branch Mission Leader who didnt come to Coordination on friday night. My first week in the area and we dont have our BML? Yeah, i didnt want to take it anymore so i pulled him aside sunday after Church as he was about to book it out of Church, and asked him what was up to try and fix it as soon as possible. To put everything he said into a nice bow-wrapped-basket-o-problems, it all comes down to the principle of Repentance of which many of these members do not understand. People think repentance is all a personal thing, but if thats how you think, you dont understand it. One of the points of repentance that is necessary for true forgiveness is to forgive others. The members are trying to blame the branch president for them not coming to church, or not paying tithing, or whatever, but the fact is that they are not forgiving him for whatever wrong they think he has done. Any time we think that someone else is to blame, or that we are not in the wrong, stop that thought RIGHT THERE, and realize that you are the one thats wrong. I learned this with Elder Tom: he frustrated me a couple times and made it so i couldnt work.. so what did i do? I went upstairs to pray to ask God to forgive him for causing us to be unable to work. Not long after praying like this did i realize that nothing was happening... it wasnt getting better. Then i realized that its my OWN fault for getting frustrated; I couldnt blame Elder Tom for it cause its my own personal attitude. After that, if i ever got frustrated again, i would go upstairs and pray, just the same, except ask for forgiveness for myself for sucking at being a good companion. What it comes down to is that we are trying to have a big intervention here.. its needed so bad right now. Everyone just needs to start loving each other and realize that if this branch isnt 1 unit, if everyone is 1 together, like Jesus Christ said himself in 3 Nephi, its just going to continue to suffer and the missionary work cant progress. Seriously, if you look at the "fruits of our labors" yesterday (my term for numbers) you would see that it was pretty bad. Its cause we spent an hour and half talking to the BML and another 1 talking to the BP and another hour driving back and forth trying to contact a member referral. Fun stuff! Theres a lot of work to that needs to be done, but it nothing with start until every member starts realizing that no one side is right and no one side is wrong.. both sides are wrong.
Wow, that was quite the tangent hahah. Sorry. Actually no im not... Everyone go home (well if you are reading this you're already home arent you?) and make sure you've truly repented! None of this vendetta crap.. if thats the way it worked, Jesus Christ wouldnt have said, "forgive them, for they know not what they do" as the Romans were in the process of CRUCIFYING him.
Yesterday we had one kid confirmed. His name is Golf.. yes, thats supposed to sound like the sport. Hes about 16 years old and has a bad case of "too much video game syndrome". Yeah, dont even try to compare me to him.. his is WAY worse. But i AM better at games then him Im sure. Hes a sweet kid. We're trying to get him out of the house more to help us teach. Its kinda funny.. hes way addicted, but hes super into the whole "keep the commandments" thing.. yeah, cool right? If he knows its a commandment, he totally does it. For example, yesterday we asked about his reading and he said he slipped up a little and hadnt been reading every day. We responded by telling him to just start again and read every day. We told him that it was a commandment to read and that he would receive blessings for it.. he stopped us there and was like, "its a commandment?! Oh wow ill read every day for sure then." Kinda cool. I was a little confused at that response, but whatever.. hes great.
Other than him, we dont really have investigators. SInce Elder Gambanat was at the MTC for so long, Buriram didnt have missionaries. We are kinda white washing. No worries.. most of the members are pretty stoked about missionary work and generally excited to help us.
Okay what else happened.... Buriram has great food! There are these little food stands EVERYWHERE that sell things called "snack balls" for 2 baht a stick! People are just crowding these stands all day just having thanksgiving dinner on a stick! Its got fish balls, fried chicken balls, pork balls, and a bunch of vegetables at the stand. Just eat eat eat until you're done and then pay and go. Quite cool actually. Buriram is famous for it.
My new district is smaller than the previous ones ive been in for the past 5 transfers; only 4 people. But, the other area is Surin and thats Elder Komgrids home! He told me at transfers, "go baptize my family Elder." Heck ya. Also our District Leader is Elder McDonald.. hes a stud and he looks like Matt Damon. We decided about 4 or 5 transfers ago that I would "kill" him in Asoke as Zone Leaders.
So, all i got for today.. i love you all. Was great talking to you on skype. No it did not make me home sick.. you guys are fine! Dont need to be homesick. Having the time of my life out here! Thanks for you support and ill talk to you all next week.
Elder G
PS: Go give the missionaries referrals!
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