Monday, August 22, 2011
Baptism. Legit
So whats the only thing thats better than Kraken blinking in and ulting, bring the entire team over behind the tower, followed by tempest blinking in and ulting to keep them all from moving, followed by Behemoth blinking in, ulting- twice- and destroying the whole entire team?!
BAPTISM!!!
Yeah, Got got baptized. One of the best experiences ive had in a while.... all the work we've been doing in Buriram is really paying off now.. of course it always was (baptism is not the only thing that measures success of course) but now its just shooting up. It's amazing what one baptism can do.. and fasting.. yeah, he totally fasted on saturday (hes so legit). There were a total of 16 visitors at church yesterday.. yeah thats a ton. When we asked Got who he invited to his baptism he simply responded: "Everyone!". Although the only person that was actually there for his baptism was his father, he was happy; he did his part and "whether they come or not, im committed.". The entire day yesterday was just filled with joyous splendors.. yes i am speaking very elequant.. you like? Anyway, bottom line is, everyone had a great experience.. and the magician family made it! Its amazing how the Lord prepares people to meet the missionaries sometimes.. like, the mother. who is name Plaw, said some things that i have NEVER heard from anyone, let alone someone who has learned as little as she has: "Is there an age limit on baptizing children? I want my little guy to get baptized too" Yeah so within that statement there are couple things that should make you "astonished exceedingly".. the first of course being that she straight up said she WANTS to get baptized. The second is the age limit?! When have you ever heard anyone understand doctrince so sound like that?! I just love talking about babies with people because anyone that thinks that babies have sin are just.. well, i wont say anything else, but you get the point. Then she started talking about wanting to go to the temples and wanting to have an eternal family and wanting to have a temple in thailand and wanting to get married legally cause up until this point her and her husband havent... it just goes on! I was just exceedingly astonished this whole entire time. But hey! D&C says it: "In the ordiances of the priesthood the power of godliness is manifest". She was in the ordiances of the priesthood and was looking for answers.. so she got them. She accepted the baptismal soft committment but we will have that entire family having a date by the end of this week. Pretty sweet too because they live right by the branch president. Anyway, back to Got... he did such a good job. He was so excited and he was seriously wrought upon by the Spirit.. as he got out of the water, he was just overflowing with happiness. By the way did i mention that he finished the Book of Mormon already? Yeah he finished it last week on monday haha. So crazy... put me to shame.. here i am with my 19-and-a-half-years to finish the book of mormon.. embarassing. He was stoked to start working towards his mission too.. get this: "My mom was going to buy me a car after this year but im just going to tell her to not and just give me the money so i can use it for my mission.." WHAT?! Oh man i almost died right there lemme tell you that much. He wants to get into his mission as fast as possible.. so yeah.. thats kinda legit.
So who else saw the baptism.. well we had our Australian friend there as well.. his name is Craig. Hes a way nice guy and hes starting to see differences between us and Catholics.. not like its hard, but hes committed to reading and praying about the Joseph Smith story. Amphon was there as well.. she seemed really stressed out yesterday and so we havent gotten the opportunity to talk her yet.. but we will meet her tonight. We had to move her date because she is not showing signifcant and sufficient signs of committed... ness. No worries.. all people are different and we always ahve to go with them according to their needs.. hers take a little more time than others. She really loves us and enjoys talking.. we are just trying to get her to trust God more and just to know that as long as she keeps the comandments nothing bad with happen. She says shes not afraid buuuttt... yeah. Shes way sweet.
Okay so what else is up.. uh we had zone conference.. pretty sweet. Waking up at 245 in the morning? Although im a fan of feeling like im going to die, it was a little too much. The zone leaders, elder Furr and Elder Pimpsuwan were peeing their pants all week.. it was their first zone conferences ever! For both of them! So they were just freaking out that something would go wrong. it actually went pretty smoothly and everyone was edified. I got stuck with translating duties.. im sick of all these duties! Just kidding, it was fun. Plus i get to whisper funny things in peoples ears every now and then. Word of advice? Go to the bathroom before an important meeting. I thought i was honestly about to wet my pants as a semi-grown immature young adult. Although it would have ruined my pants, someone (everyone) would have gotten a nice laugh.. for about 5 minutes. Anyway, that was all good and fun. Interviews with President Smith- straight forward and to the point.. i like em.
These past few weeks have been awesome weeks for studying.. Elder Revelli and I have both found and received seriously awesome piece of revelation throughout our personal studies... like, seriously... to the "gushing of many tears because of the goodness of God.". Yes. that Good. Sometimes we just get overwhelming experiences as we study because we realize how SIMPLE everything really is.. God is. He loves us. Christ is. He loves us. They both Restored the truth to a 14 year old boy in a grove of trees. Done. Grasp that much and tell me it doesnt make you happy. I know its true. Thanks for you constant support and raising me in the right path to know of the truth. Love you guys. All is well in Zion and we are having a great time. Elder Revelli had a nice struggle with the language last week: D and C section 4.. memorized! He got it and President Smith praised him for how good his tones were.. *chest bump* thats my boy!
aight im oves it. Peace
Elder Gudmundsen
BAPTISM!!!
Yeah, Got got baptized. One of the best experiences ive had in a while.... all the work we've been doing in Buriram is really paying off now.. of course it always was (baptism is not the only thing that measures success of course) but now its just shooting up. It's amazing what one baptism can do.. and fasting.. yeah, he totally fasted on saturday (hes so legit). There were a total of 16 visitors at church yesterday.. yeah thats a ton. When we asked Got who he invited to his baptism he simply responded: "Everyone!". Although the only person that was actually there for his baptism was his father, he was happy; he did his part and "whether they come or not, im committed.". The entire day yesterday was just filled with joyous splendors.. yes i am speaking very elequant.. you like? Anyway, bottom line is, everyone had a great experience.. and the magician family made it! Its amazing how the Lord prepares people to meet the missionaries sometimes.. like, the mother. who is name Plaw, said some things that i have NEVER heard from anyone, let alone someone who has learned as little as she has: "Is there an age limit on baptizing children? I want my little guy to get baptized too" Yeah so within that statement there are couple things that should make you "astonished exceedingly".. the first of course being that she straight up said she WANTS to get baptized. The second is the age limit?! When have you ever heard anyone understand doctrince so sound like that?! I just love talking about babies with people because anyone that thinks that babies have sin are just.. well, i wont say anything else, but you get the point. Then she started talking about wanting to go to the temples and wanting to have an eternal family and wanting to have a temple in thailand and wanting to get married legally cause up until this point her and her husband havent... it just goes on! I was just exceedingly astonished this whole entire time. But hey! D&C says it: "In the ordiances of the priesthood the power of godliness is manifest". She was in the ordiances of the priesthood and was looking for answers.. so she got them. She accepted the baptismal soft committment but we will have that entire family having a date by the end of this week. Pretty sweet too because they live right by the branch president. Anyway, back to Got... he did such a good job. He was so excited and he was seriously wrought upon by the Spirit.. as he got out of the water, he was just overflowing with happiness. By the way did i mention that he finished the Book of Mormon already? Yeah he finished it last week on monday haha. So crazy... put me to shame.. here i am with my 19-and-a-half-years to finish the book of mormon.. embarassing. He was stoked to start working towards his mission too.. get this: "My mom was going to buy me a car after this year but im just going to tell her to not and just give me the money so i can use it for my mission.." WHAT?! Oh man i almost died right there lemme tell you that much. He wants to get into his mission as fast as possible.. so yeah.. thats kinda legit.
So who else saw the baptism.. well we had our Australian friend there as well.. his name is Craig. Hes a way nice guy and hes starting to see differences between us and Catholics.. not like its hard, but hes committed to reading and praying about the Joseph Smith story. Amphon was there as well.. she seemed really stressed out yesterday and so we havent gotten the opportunity to talk her yet.. but we will meet her tonight. We had to move her date because she is not showing signifcant and sufficient signs of committed... ness. No worries.. all people are different and we always ahve to go with them according to their needs.. hers take a little more time than others. She really loves us and enjoys talking.. we are just trying to get her to trust God more and just to know that as long as she keeps the comandments nothing bad with happen. She says shes not afraid buuuttt... yeah. Shes way sweet.
Okay so what else is up.. uh we had zone conference.. pretty sweet. Waking up at 245 in the morning? Although im a fan of feeling like im going to die, it was a little too much. The zone leaders, elder Furr and Elder Pimpsuwan were peeing their pants all week.. it was their first zone conferences ever! For both of them! So they were just freaking out that something would go wrong. it actually went pretty smoothly and everyone was edified. I got stuck with translating duties.. im sick of all these duties! Just kidding, it was fun. Plus i get to whisper funny things in peoples ears every now and then. Word of advice? Go to the bathroom before an important meeting. I thought i was honestly about to wet my pants as a semi-grown immature young adult. Although it would have ruined my pants, someone (everyone) would have gotten a nice laugh.. for about 5 minutes. Anyway, that was all good and fun. Interviews with President Smith- straight forward and to the point.. i like em.
These past few weeks have been awesome weeks for studying.. Elder Revelli and I have both found and received seriously awesome piece of revelation throughout our personal studies... like, seriously... to the "gushing of many tears because of the goodness of God.". Yes. that Good. Sometimes we just get overwhelming experiences as we study because we realize how SIMPLE everything really is.. God is. He loves us. Christ is. He loves us. They both Restored the truth to a 14 year old boy in a grove of trees. Done. Grasp that much and tell me it doesnt make you happy. I know its true. Thanks for you constant support and raising me in the right path to know of the truth. Love you guys. All is well in Zion and we are having a great time. Elder Revelli had a nice struggle with the language last week: D and C section 4.. memorized! He got it and President Smith praised him for how good his tones were.. *chest bump* thats my boy!
aight im oves it. Peace
Elder Gudmundsen
Hows it doin
Sounds like you had a pretty enjoyable week. Me too! By the way, Happy Thai Mothers Day mom!
Lets just get right into it shall we? Got passed his interview! Pretty much passed with flying colors... Elder Pimpsuwan, the zone leader said that it was one of the most well prepared people he has ever interviewed.. dont worry, thats nothing special that we did.. he just yielded his heart unto God and then the Spirit did the rest. Legit. We actually took him teaching with us cause hey! Why not. He bore the sickest testimony ever for Ampon and it made me feel like a tard because it took me 19 +years to get a testimony even close to that. Hes also in 3 Nephi already and will finish the Book of Mormon before his baptism on Sunday.. wow. This baptism on sunday should be huge.. we are going to do our best to make sure EVERYONE is there.. members and ivnestigators alike. The people of Buriram need a serious boost to remember their baptismal convenants.. yes i know, you're probably saying to yourself, "Elder Gudmundsen thats what the sacrament is for.. duh!".. this is also true. However, seeing a baptism for real is a little more of a "comfort for the afflicted" and a "affliction for the comfortable". Its like saying that a lobster pinching your rear hurts... it only has so much meaning until you actually do it and realize that it YES, its true! Its kinda like that. So we are going to get EVERYONE there.. and then Got will be on the road to being a super legit missionary. The biggest hopes i have for the people there are his family... hopefully his whole family can come and see it and realize that hes not just doing something "good" but that its a covenant.
Ampon is doing okay.. she really loves meeting us but she has a serious conflict going on within.. we are trying really hard to help answer her questions but everytime it comes back to Joseph Smith: shes having trouble accepting him for what he was, which of course was a prophet of God. We expalined the pattern of Prophets, Apostasty and Restoration again for her and she seems to understand.. this time we used the Bible to strengthen our point and she seemed almost surprised that it does support our point.. well whaddya know! Its the word of God! Anyway... her biggest concern is that a lot will have to change... change is sometimes hard.. we understand that.. but all those who just simply trust in the Lord WILL see that it works out. Its not an "maybe it will work out" its a IT WILL. Luckily for us, we are learning a lot more about asking questions and listening.. not that we DONT ask questions or DONT listen, but sometimes its a lot easier to talk a lot... but we are tyring to fix that so that its a conversation so everyone is edified. The mission is really emphasizing "teach people, not lessons" and developing good teaching skills like listening and asking questions. I dont know if I ever told you this, but we have DVD palyers now so we can fequently watch the District 2 dvds that go along with PMG during comp study. Its extremely effective to be able to see these techniques in action and its really helped us develop those techniques as well.
Speaking of which... asking questions does a lot of good! We taught that magic family again (which was really good in general.. having a member family there as well goes a long way) and the mom had read a little bit in the Book of Mormon alreayd, but not really understood it that much. The Spirit told us to ask, "why did you read" and she said, to my suprise a little, "ive been wanting to be Christian for some time now.. ive been Budhist my whole life but i dont see it doing much good for me, so i really want to do what Christianity is all about and if its good, well.. be Christian.". I was astonished exceedingly, but i dont know why.. just another testimony that God's words are fulfilled and we will be given what to say and ask when we listen to the Spirit.. it takes focus and concentration, but in the end its more effective, and actually easier. They werent able to make it Church because they had to go out of town, but they will go next week and will see a baptism. Sweet.
So, among other things, not much else haha. I dont really know what else to write anymore haha.. I guess ill just share a short thought from this mornings scripture study: its in Helaman where we learn about the Gadianton roobers being a secret band from the begginning with Cain. The highlight of course is that it says that Satan has power "according as he can get hold upon the hearts of the children of men." It means that Satan has no power over us unless we give it unto him.. we have to invite him to start working on us. We are so much more powerful than he is and in the end... all we gotta do is take a big swing and dome his head with the ban hammer of justice! Dont let him have power of you.
Okay so this was kind of a short email but im oves it. Fun week, good stuff, spiritual experience.. its been fun. Love you all. Thanks for your support and say what up to Enc 1 for me..
Love Elder Gudmundsen
Lets just get right into it shall we? Got passed his interview! Pretty much passed with flying colors... Elder Pimpsuwan, the zone leader said that it was one of the most well prepared people he has ever interviewed.. dont worry, thats nothing special that we did.. he just yielded his heart unto God and then the Spirit did the rest. Legit. We actually took him teaching with us cause hey! Why not. He bore the sickest testimony ever for Ampon and it made me feel like a tard because it took me 19 +years to get a testimony even close to that. Hes also in 3 Nephi already and will finish the Book of Mormon before his baptism on Sunday.. wow. This baptism on sunday should be huge.. we are going to do our best to make sure EVERYONE is there.. members and ivnestigators alike. The people of Buriram need a serious boost to remember their baptismal convenants.. yes i know, you're probably saying to yourself, "Elder Gudmundsen thats what the sacrament is for.. duh!".. this is also true. However, seeing a baptism for real is a little more of a "comfort for the afflicted" and a "affliction for the comfortable". Its like saying that a lobster pinching your rear hurts... it only has so much meaning until you actually do it and realize that it YES, its true! Its kinda like that. So we are going to get EVERYONE there.. and then Got will be on the road to being a super legit missionary. The biggest hopes i have for the people there are his family... hopefully his whole family can come and see it and realize that hes not just doing something "good" but that its a covenant.
Ampon is doing okay.. she really loves meeting us but she has a serious conflict going on within.. we are trying really hard to help answer her questions but everytime it comes back to Joseph Smith: shes having trouble accepting him for what he was, which of course was a prophet of God. We expalined the pattern of Prophets, Apostasty and Restoration again for her and she seems to understand.. this time we used the Bible to strengthen our point and she seemed almost surprised that it does support our point.. well whaddya know! Its the word of God! Anyway... her biggest concern is that a lot will have to change... change is sometimes hard.. we understand that.. but all those who just simply trust in the Lord WILL see that it works out. Its not an "maybe it will work out" its a IT WILL. Luckily for us, we are learning a lot more about asking questions and listening.. not that we DONT ask questions or DONT listen, but sometimes its a lot easier to talk a lot... but we are tyring to fix that so that its a conversation so everyone is edified. The mission is really emphasizing "teach people, not lessons" and developing good teaching skills like listening and asking questions. I dont know if I ever told you this, but we have DVD palyers now so we can fequently watch the District 2 dvds that go along with PMG during comp study. Its extremely effective to be able to see these techniques in action and its really helped us develop those techniques as well.
Speaking of which... asking questions does a lot of good! We taught that magic family again (which was really good in general.. having a member family there as well goes a long way) and the mom had read a little bit in the Book of Mormon alreayd, but not really understood it that much. The Spirit told us to ask, "why did you read" and she said, to my suprise a little, "ive been wanting to be Christian for some time now.. ive been Budhist my whole life but i dont see it doing much good for me, so i really want to do what Christianity is all about and if its good, well.. be Christian.". I was astonished exceedingly, but i dont know why.. just another testimony that God's words are fulfilled and we will be given what to say and ask when we listen to the Spirit.. it takes focus and concentration, but in the end its more effective, and actually easier. They werent able to make it Church because they had to go out of town, but they will go next week and will see a baptism. Sweet.
So, among other things, not much else haha. I dont really know what else to write anymore haha.. I guess ill just share a short thought from this mornings scripture study: its in Helaman where we learn about the Gadianton roobers being a secret band from the begginning with Cain. The highlight of course is that it says that Satan has power "according as he can get hold upon the hearts of the children of men." It means that Satan has no power over us unless we give it unto him.. we have to invite him to start working on us. We are so much more powerful than he is and in the end... all we gotta do is take a big swing and dome his head with the ban hammer of justice! Dont let him have power of you.
Okay so this was kind of a short email but im oves it. Fun week, good stuff, spiritual experience.. its been fun. Love you all. Thanks for your support and say what up to Enc 1 for me..
Love Elder Gudmundsen
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
yoyoyo
Hello again.. it is I, Elder G... I am comfortable!
This was a fun week.. kinda rough.. but fun none the less. There was trouble in Bangkok.. we almost got kicked out of the country! Whos "we"? Anyone whos visa was expired: 40 missionaries; me as well. It was fun. The government in Thailand just got a fat make-over and so pretty much they wanted to cut anyone who isnt "a benefit to the country" out. So they changed our visas from a proselyting visa to a working visa.. but then when we actually went to the visa place, they didnt want that many people there, so they just said "go home!". We were waiting in Bangkok for quite a long time, and in the end they still didnt allow everyone to renew them because they were "over it" - pretty much. Lucily i got mine done, but Elder Heslop didnt so he went to bangkok for no reason and he will have to go back in like a week or so haha.. President Smith was very moving about it and simply said, "in the end, we dont have to worry what will happen because this isnt our work: its the Lord's. If we go, we go. But frankly, YOU (foreigners) are NOT the strength of Thailand... these are; all thai missionaries stand up!... this is the strength of Thailand." at that point 30 thai missionaries stood up, and so did every hair on my body. Werd.
While there though, we had the first transfer meeting at a new Church buildling: EPIC! Its basically the san diego temple of Thailand in that EVERYONE sees it. Its right on a huge freeway where thousands of commuters pass it every day, all day... and usually stuck in bumper to bumper traffic... so you just know that everyone is just checking this buildling out like, "what IS that thing?!". Thats exactly why its so close to the freeway! In fact, while i was there, we had some guy just pull in and ask if he could look around.. so i took him on a tour and showed him around.. he asked me a few questions but the best was, "who chose this spot? Whoever they are.. they're way smart.". My thoughts exactly.
That took up a whole day and a half, and the day before that we had to run around and send pictures of us "working" at English class as evidence to warrant having a "working visa". Unfortunately, Elder Heslops camera has some memory card from 50 years in the future and we couldnt find any place that could plug it in! We went to every internet cafe in the city and no body could! Finally the stores told us to bike out to Big C which is about 6 kilometers from there... as we did so, we watch a mean lookin cloud slowly drift towards us.. as we made it to Big Cs entrance, it DUMPED on us. Soaked instantly. Then, after we bought the right card reader, we chased that same storm back towards the internet cafe from the start.. soaked again. At one point we almost fell off our bikes too.. came around a corner and this wall of wind just completely halted our movement. Needless to say, hilarity insued and we almost drowned from laughing at the ridiculosity. Yes, thats a word.
Okay so how bout some actually work right? Yeah Got is pretty sweet.. hes done with everything and now we are just reviewing. He has been sleeping better and made it to Church no problem. Hes got a lot of questions about random stuff but is kinda like a child.. as soon as you tell him how it is, he totally follows it.. his questions are very much like a kid who really doesnt know better, and hes just so scared to do anyting wrong. Its cool. We are getting together with him, brother Golf and Brother Bom this afternoon to play some tennis. NOBODY knows how to play except for Golf and myself, so it should be pretty funny. Im just gonna smack that ball as hard as i can haha.. hopefully its in a place where veyrone can see and laugh. lulz. Got is fully comitted to endure to the end... his faith is way strong and he is FULLY on board. crazy.
Ampon is.. progressing. We didnt get to teach her this week actually because she got sick one day, and then priesthood didnt show up on saturday.. kind of a bummber, but no big. Shes still goin towards baptism but we are trying to just start over and teach her the basics of Prohpets, Apostasy and Restoration throughout history. We did that with this one foreigner (yeah we are kinda teaching a lot lately!) named Roger and it worked pretty well.. hey! Whaddya know! its the way PMG says to do it! Hah.. cool.
We didnt get that much time to invite this past week but we did meet some new people.. they arent quite sticking yet, but they had SUCH good potential when we first met them.. really hope Satan doesnt get to them too hard... We met a really sweet family this morning actually (we switched our schedule to be able to play tennis with Golf this evening) and the father is LEGIT at magic tricks. he taught us a few and is actually kind of Christian. Hes been all over the world and he was willing to try again. Right now he changed to buddhism again because you can "prove" things about it... well we told him that that was false (without literally saying that) and introduced some real evidence of whats true: The Book of Mormon! Hes got 2 little kids and he lives with his wife (who is also a magician) and they are just way chill. At one point, he was showing us this trick and i was so fascinated that i didnt realize i was like Giselle and i literally freaked out and said, "you.. you're a WIZARD!". I giggled to myself. The Mom expressed that shes always wanted to check out church but wasnt sure where to go or what she had to do first.. we imediately told her to come to ours cause its always ready to welcome her! She wants to.
So, im done.. bored and tired. Not really, but i am bored. So i leave you with one of my favorite lines that came from one of our ward missionaries yesterday in testimony meeting: "Good morning everyone.. i just wanted to come up and share a little bit about this week and about what i heard this morning.. i was listening to some members talk about their week and how a lot of stuff was kinda bad, and i just thought to myself, 'well yeah thats great and everything, but why arent you talking to each other about who you can give to the missionaries to teach!"'. I ALMOST clapped for joy at that moment, but i held it in. Amen! That is my question AS WELL. her name is watermelon and shes becoming a super strong member, whos always looking for missionary opportunities. Werd.
Okay well im done. Thanks for your support and prayers.. i love you. Thanks for being good examples and sticking together.. Mom, Dad.. thanks for being you and stickin with it. Theres problems in Buriram with families deserting each other and its really sad to see it tear people up. Glad it never happened for us. Love you most.
Elder Gudmundsen
This was a fun week.. kinda rough.. but fun none the less. There was trouble in Bangkok.. we almost got kicked out of the country! Whos "we"? Anyone whos visa was expired: 40 missionaries; me as well. It was fun. The government in Thailand just got a fat make-over and so pretty much they wanted to cut anyone who isnt "a benefit to the country" out. So they changed our visas from a proselyting visa to a working visa.. but then when we actually went to the visa place, they didnt want that many people there, so they just said "go home!". We were waiting in Bangkok for quite a long time, and in the end they still didnt allow everyone to renew them because they were "over it" - pretty much. Lucily i got mine done, but Elder Heslop didnt so he went to bangkok for no reason and he will have to go back in like a week or so haha.. President Smith was very moving about it and simply said, "in the end, we dont have to worry what will happen because this isnt our work: its the Lord's. If we go, we go. But frankly, YOU (foreigners) are NOT the strength of Thailand... these are; all thai missionaries stand up!... this is the strength of Thailand." at that point 30 thai missionaries stood up, and so did every hair on my body. Werd.
While there though, we had the first transfer meeting at a new Church buildling: EPIC! Its basically the san diego temple of Thailand in that EVERYONE sees it. Its right on a huge freeway where thousands of commuters pass it every day, all day... and usually stuck in bumper to bumper traffic... so you just know that everyone is just checking this buildling out like, "what IS that thing?!". Thats exactly why its so close to the freeway! In fact, while i was there, we had some guy just pull in and ask if he could look around.. so i took him on a tour and showed him around.. he asked me a few questions but the best was, "who chose this spot? Whoever they are.. they're way smart.". My thoughts exactly.
That took up a whole day and a half, and the day before that we had to run around and send pictures of us "working" at English class as evidence to warrant having a "working visa". Unfortunately, Elder Heslops camera has some memory card from 50 years in the future and we couldnt find any place that could plug it in! We went to every internet cafe in the city and no body could! Finally the stores told us to bike out to Big C which is about 6 kilometers from there... as we did so, we watch a mean lookin cloud slowly drift towards us.. as we made it to Big Cs entrance, it DUMPED on us. Soaked instantly. Then, after we bought the right card reader, we chased that same storm back towards the internet cafe from the start.. soaked again. At one point we almost fell off our bikes too.. came around a corner and this wall of wind just completely halted our movement. Needless to say, hilarity insued and we almost drowned from laughing at the ridiculosity. Yes, thats a word.
Okay so how bout some actually work right? Yeah Got is pretty sweet.. hes done with everything and now we are just reviewing. He has been sleeping better and made it to Church no problem. Hes got a lot of questions about random stuff but is kinda like a child.. as soon as you tell him how it is, he totally follows it.. his questions are very much like a kid who really doesnt know better, and hes just so scared to do anyting wrong. Its cool. We are getting together with him, brother Golf and Brother Bom this afternoon to play some tennis. NOBODY knows how to play except for Golf and myself, so it should be pretty funny. Im just gonna smack that ball as hard as i can haha.. hopefully its in a place where veyrone can see and laugh. lulz. Got is fully comitted to endure to the end... his faith is way strong and he is FULLY on board. crazy.
Ampon is.. progressing. We didnt get to teach her this week actually because she got sick one day, and then priesthood didnt show up on saturday.. kind of a bummber, but no big. Shes still goin towards baptism but we are trying to just start over and teach her the basics of Prohpets, Apostasy and Restoration throughout history. We did that with this one foreigner (yeah we are kinda teaching a lot lately!) named Roger and it worked pretty well.. hey! Whaddya know! its the way PMG says to do it! Hah.. cool.
We didnt get that much time to invite this past week but we did meet some new people.. they arent quite sticking yet, but they had SUCH good potential when we first met them.. really hope Satan doesnt get to them too hard... We met a really sweet family this morning actually (we switched our schedule to be able to play tennis with Golf this evening) and the father is LEGIT at magic tricks. he taught us a few and is actually kind of Christian. Hes been all over the world and he was willing to try again. Right now he changed to buddhism again because you can "prove" things about it... well we told him that that was false (without literally saying that) and introduced some real evidence of whats true: The Book of Mormon! Hes got 2 little kids and he lives with his wife (who is also a magician) and they are just way chill. At one point, he was showing us this trick and i was so fascinated that i didnt realize i was like Giselle and i literally freaked out and said, "you.. you're a WIZARD!". I giggled to myself. The Mom expressed that shes always wanted to check out church but wasnt sure where to go or what she had to do first.. we imediately told her to come to ours cause its always ready to welcome her! She wants to.
So, im done.. bored and tired. Not really, but i am bored. So i leave you with one of my favorite lines that came from one of our ward missionaries yesterday in testimony meeting: "Good morning everyone.. i just wanted to come up and share a little bit about this week and about what i heard this morning.. i was listening to some members talk about their week and how a lot of stuff was kinda bad, and i just thought to myself, 'well yeah thats great and everything, but why arent you talking to each other about who you can give to the missionaries to teach!"'. I ALMOST clapped for joy at that moment, but i held it in. Amen! That is my question AS WELL. her name is watermelon and shes becoming a super strong member, whos always looking for missionary opportunities. Werd.
Okay well im done. Thanks for your support and prayers.. i love you. Thanks for being good examples and sticking together.. Mom, Dad.. thanks for being you and stickin with it. Theres problems in Buriram with families deserting each other and its really sad to see it tear people up. Glad it never happened for us. Love you most.
Elder Gudmundsen
Yellow
Dear Fam and... wait whats the word for close acquaintances or otherwise important people?.. Oh right, Friends.
So another week goes by and im wondering uhhbbuuhh... where did it go? Supa fast.
Lets get right into it... our Daters: Ampon and Got. They are progressingly relatively well.. Got is struggling with sleep.. he just has really bad insomnia and he almost didnt make it to Church. We called a bunch on sunday morning and he didnt answer so we figured he was asleep. We headed over to his house to wake up him and his aunt said he was just passed out. We knew we had done everything we could do, and so we headed over to Church. I gave him one last telephone call and no answer. So, the final thing? A prayer... Yeah.. prayers are powerful. As i was sitting in sacrament, Got just bursts through the door and im just like "what?! no way!" I asked him what time he got up and what happened.. he said he has no idea, but at about 835 (right after the last phone call i gave him) he just like, shot up out of bed. Yeah, and people say God doesnt answer prayers (as if Joseph Smiths vision wasnt enough). So he made it to partake of the sacrament but after he asked to go home just because when theres a lot of people and a lot of noise he feels really frustrated and gets bad headaches. We went to go see him later but he was pased out again. No worries.. hes sweet.
Ampon is struggling with the Sabbath a little. And it doesnt help much when a lot of the people she knows at Church dont keep it either. She called out her daughter in the middle of the lesson. She knows its from God and knows that she needs to just do it, but like you said Dad, sometimes its just the one step thats the hardest. but like Louis Stevens said, "sometimes you just had to take your pants off and slide on the ice Ren!". Im not sure if that applies, but im using it anyway.. just get out there! The last Liahona, or maybe not the last one but one of the last, talked about 2 boys jumping off of a cliff.. eventually you just have to do it.. there is no in between when it comes to jumping off a cliff.. the same as there is no in between when in it comes to keeping the commandments, or the truth of the Book of Mormon: it is or it isnt. You are comitted, or you are not. We are helping her jump off the cliff.. into a downy soft cloud of love from Heavenly Father. She will be okay. Tonight we are going to completely start over though.. we feel that a restoration of her belief in the Restoration would be helpful.
So other than that we dont have much going on.. not gonna lie. I was in Surin on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then Ubon all of Thursday, then in Surin on Saturday for an interview. Not much time in Buriram. We did meet this referral from Sister Watermelon.. shes a pretty diligent and strong member here.. and up until about a month ago, she was unaware that its NOT against the rules to invite people to learn that she doesnt know. She saw a professor at her University and remembered that he was from Australia, so she simply invited him to come to Church! hahaha.. so awesome.. just imagine that: a thai woman inviting you to Church in broken English.. i wouldnt know what to think. Way awesome. His name is Craig and he wants a revival of his faith. Hes someone who in thai we would say "has age" but not a lot. He has a wicked sick australian accent too. He said he would read and pray about the Book of Mormon.
The other foreigner that we met last week... well that was difficult. Satan found her way quick. She must of had some serious potential for the Church. After last sunday when we met her, she read a little in the Book Of Mormon intro, and heard a voice saying "do not read anymore in this book". So she put it down and called us to meet so she could give us the book back. I wasnt there, but Elder Revelli and Elder Heslop told her that "we dont take them back". They tried to explain to her that the voice wasnt from God.. they even shared the fact that Satan tried to stop the restoration from happening PHYSICALLY. But she had made up her mind and wasnt listening. We plead with her to just read in it a little more. My message today? Be careful of what voice you listen to. Someone said it in General Conference, i think it was Elder Packer, where "Satan is fighting against me and God is rooting for me"... its totally true. And the close we get to the truth, the harder things will get... At all times, both sides are trying to claim our souls.. make the right choice. She made the wrong choice... we did not take the Book back, but simply asked her to try reading again. Done.
One of the coolest things this week was the chance to interview a baptismal candidate over in Surin. He is a 62 year old man (adorable beyond recognition) who passed with flying colors. The experience was absolutely wonderful and it was truly amazing how the Spirit led the conversation.. it didnt take long to get on the same level with each other and although i had to speak slow, and as clear as possible cause of his age, he was totally comitted to make a convenant with God. It was pretty cool that i didnt really have to wonder whether or not to pass him for baptism because throughout the interview you can see his comittment level the spirit tells you what to do. That was a highlight of the week.
Okay so i dont have much else today.. im kinda bored and want to go home and rest and write some letters. This transfer is ALREADY over... so fast. Hopefully i dont go anywhere, but who knows.. i dont think i will. No real reason to actually. Well, i love you all.. thanks for your constant prayers that lift me up "to more than i can be".. haha that was lame.. but oh so awesome. But seriously, thanks for your support.. I know that the Book of Mormon is true... like.. dude, so true. Be an example to the believers!.... and find investigators for the missionaries.
Elder Good
So another week goes by and im wondering uhhbbuuhh... where did it go? Supa fast.
Lets get right into it... our Daters: Ampon and Got. They are progressingly relatively well.. Got is struggling with sleep.. he just has really bad insomnia and he almost didnt make it to Church. We called a bunch on sunday morning and he didnt answer so we figured he was asleep. We headed over to his house to wake up him and his aunt said he was just passed out. We knew we had done everything we could do, and so we headed over to Church. I gave him one last telephone call and no answer. So, the final thing? A prayer... Yeah.. prayers are powerful. As i was sitting in sacrament, Got just bursts through the door and im just like "what?! no way!" I asked him what time he got up and what happened.. he said he has no idea, but at about 835 (right after the last phone call i gave him) he just like, shot up out of bed. Yeah, and people say God doesnt answer prayers (as if Joseph Smiths vision wasnt enough). So he made it to partake of the sacrament but after he asked to go home just because when theres a lot of people and a lot of noise he feels really frustrated and gets bad headaches. We went to go see him later but he was pased out again. No worries.. hes sweet.
Ampon is struggling with the Sabbath a little. And it doesnt help much when a lot of the people she knows at Church dont keep it either. She called out her daughter in the middle of the lesson. She knows its from God and knows that she needs to just do it, but like you said Dad, sometimes its just the one step thats the hardest. but like Louis Stevens said, "sometimes you just had to take your pants off and slide on the ice Ren!". Im not sure if that applies, but im using it anyway.. just get out there! The last Liahona, or maybe not the last one but one of the last, talked about 2 boys jumping off of a cliff.. eventually you just have to do it.. there is no in between when it comes to jumping off a cliff.. the same as there is no in between when in it comes to keeping the commandments, or the truth of the Book of Mormon: it is or it isnt. You are comitted, or you are not. We are helping her jump off the cliff.. into a downy soft cloud of love from Heavenly Father. She will be okay. Tonight we are going to completely start over though.. we feel that a restoration of her belief in the Restoration would be helpful.
So other than that we dont have much going on.. not gonna lie. I was in Surin on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then Ubon all of Thursday, then in Surin on Saturday for an interview. Not much time in Buriram. We did meet this referral from Sister Watermelon.. shes a pretty diligent and strong member here.. and up until about a month ago, she was unaware that its NOT against the rules to invite people to learn that she doesnt know. She saw a professor at her University and remembered that he was from Australia, so she simply invited him to come to Church! hahaha.. so awesome.. just imagine that: a thai woman inviting you to Church in broken English.. i wouldnt know what to think. Way awesome. His name is Craig and he wants a revival of his faith. Hes someone who in thai we would say "has age" but not a lot. He has a wicked sick australian accent too. He said he would read and pray about the Book of Mormon.
The other foreigner that we met last week... well that was difficult. Satan found her way quick. She must of had some serious potential for the Church. After last sunday when we met her, she read a little in the Book Of Mormon intro, and heard a voice saying "do not read anymore in this book". So she put it down and called us to meet so she could give us the book back. I wasnt there, but Elder Revelli and Elder Heslop told her that "we dont take them back". They tried to explain to her that the voice wasnt from God.. they even shared the fact that Satan tried to stop the restoration from happening PHYSICALLY. But she had made up her mind and wasnt listening. We plead with her to just read in it a little more. My message today? Be careful of what voice you listen to. Someone said it in General Conference, i think it was Elder Packer, where "Satan is fighting against me and God is rooting for me"... its totally true. And the close we get to the truth, the harder things will get... At all times, both sides are trying to claim our souls.. make the right choice. She made the wrong choice... we did not take the Book back, but simply asked her to try reading again. Done.
One of the coolest things this week was the chance to interview a baptismal candidate over in Surin. He is a 62 year old man (adorable beyond recognition) who passed with flying colors. The experience was absolutely wonderful and it was truly amazing how the Spirit led the conversation.. it didnt take long to get on the same level with each other and although i had to speak slow, and as clear as possible cause of his age, he was totally comitted to make a convenant with God. It was pretty cool that i didnt really have to wonder whether or not to pass him for baptism because throughout the interview you can see his comittment level the spirit tells you what to do. That was a highlight of the week.
Okay so i dont have much else today.. im kinda bored and want to go home and rest and write some letters. This transfer is ALREADY over... so fast. Hopefully i dont go anywhere, but who knows.. i dont think i will. No real reason to actually. Well, i love you all.. thanks for your constant prayers that lift me up "to more than i can be".. haha that was lame.. but oh so awesome. But seriously, thanks for your support.. I know that the Book of Mormon is true... like.. dude, so true. Be an example to the believers!.... and find investigators for the missionaries.
Elder Good
Heroes are made in America(?)
[oops, i got behind posting. sorry!]
...How narcissistic... Awesome
So how is everyone doing today? Stellar? Saweet.
Here in Buriram all is well.. kind of. But really, we are doing great. We had a pretty stellar week and great opportunities to see people exercise.. what is that called again? Oh right! FAITH. Yeah. Its good.
Got is doing great. He of course has insomnia, which made it so he couldnt get up to get to Church haha.. but hes pretty much learned everything and comitted to everything. He had a lot of questions about Chastity and the Word of Wisdom, but we used a little technique from my good friend Stewie Griffin: "Well, I shall answer your questions with another question".... iis for fun! Seriously i cant even explain this kids faith.. i dont really understand how its so strong! But in the end, it goes back to the "diligently reading your scriptures" and giving yourself to pray and fasting.. which hes doing. Even better we also met his broseph! He told us that he would try and introduce him to us, but he wasnt sure if he would buy it. We talked to him for ten minutes yesterday and hes a way chill dude. I gave him a little advice on being brothers.. sup Josh.. werd. So yeah.. hes preparing himself nicely for his baptism and for being a missionary in the future. He actually REALLY wants to be one so thats way chill. Hopefully his brother will stick and get batpized with him (or by him ก็ได้).. would be a great support for him. His parents are separated and neither are ever at home.. he said he sees him mom maybe once a month.. thanks for being around mommy :)
After Got we have the mother of a member.. i dont think ive mentioned her lately have I? Sister Anne is a member and her mom is named "Ampon" (kind of like blessing but more high so). We taught Ampon WWWAAAAYY back in the first week that i got into Buriram. Sister Anne referred her to us on the very first sunday i got her and weve been slowly teaching her ever since. Shes one of the special cases where patience is a virtue.. not that patience is never a virture, but you know what i mean. Its almost been 3 months now since we taught her, and that includes like, nothing besides prayer and sacrifice and church, and reading (maybe a lot). She knows all about our purpose just hasnt accepted a date yet.. until SATURDAY! She had told Anne that she wanted to set a goal for baptism as a motivational thingy... and so she took it! We set a date for the 3rd of September and she agreed to prepare for that date. She will have to really exercise her faith especially when it comes to the Sabbath day, but i know she can do it. Thats the coolest thing about promising blessings is that they WILL happen! Shes way sweet and is really seeking truth.
The other eternal investigator has yet to accept a date because she wants to feel more sure first (which means a miracle). Weve told her it doesnt work like that before.... okay so the power just went out haha... some kid playing dota just yells "VERY GOOD". Hilarity insued. Anyway, we told Ann (not anne) that it wouldnt necessarily work like that because miracles work by our faith.. and miracles do not create faith; faith creates miracles (usually resulting in YOU being the miracle). We told her that if she wanted anything to feel more sure that she would need to give herself to serious fasting, praying and reading of the scriptures.. only in that way will she gain a true testimony.
So as far as other investigators, we dont have many.. we have this one super old guy that is just hilarious... he loves speaking English too. His name is Wit, and he came to Church! He enjoyed it but didnt really understand much haha. It was pretty interesting to see how powerful having members in lessons is, because before saturday we had yet to have anyone in a lesson with us. We brought the former branch President in Buriram to teach with us (fairly old too) and Wit just immediately started talking to him about EVERYTHING. It was a slap to my face to make sure that members are there more often.
The last 2 for today are both referrals (cause referrals are legit). One is from the Philipino in our branch (who is also a philipino) who has tremendous faith in Christ and really wants to know the truth, and the second is Golfs mom; Golf is a recent convert who is very quiet.. have i told you about him? Hes way sweet but very quiet. When i was in the lesson yesterday (yeah we finally got him mom to sit down with us for 10 minutes) i had MASSIVE deja vu.. like, the craziest ive ever had before in my life. Besides deja vu because of the general situation, i also felt it because of Fluke, First and Apple back in Don Muang.. its the same kind of sitch where the oldest son learned first, followed by the Mom and then the younger brother; the husband is gone as well. Golfs mom is SO cool. I would be so crazy happy if she got baptized.. wait, not IF, but WHEN she gets baptized. So then theres the philipino, from our member friend Rose... her name is Monaca. Shes a Baptist and has a lot of faith in Christ. Yesterday was the first time she had ever touched a Book of mormon and had a lot of questions. She was very open to the message of the Restoration and to reading the Book of Mormon to receive an answer about what we teach. Sister Rose has a VERY powerful testimony and she will totally be the means of baptizing this woman. What was weird? The lesson was in English. After we prayed and were about to say goodbye, Rose, Manoca and my companion all said that my English is very poor! I was very surprised, honestly, but they insisted that my grammar is pretty bad... Wow. Thats prety sad. Now that someone has said something i notice it! We actually had a pretty funny mess up when we invited a foreigner last tuesday.. before we left i asked, "is there anything we can serve you with..." hahah.. my comp and i looked at each other like, "wait what?". Lulz. Anyway, Manoca accepted the soft comittment and agreed to meet again.
So other that this, not much else happend.. we did have a nice training meeting that was SEVEN HOURS AWAY on thursday... my kid and 2 other kids up north worked one area by themselves haha! My kid led of course :) The meeting was very uplifting and gave us some really good revelation about going to Church. Stuff that will really help members and ivestigators get more out of Church.
Okay im bored of talking to you hahah.. lulz. This next week will be pretty quick.. im exchaging with Surin again and then we have a whole day spent up in Ubon for special training.. yes, back to Ubon. The interview in Surin didnt happen, but theres another one scheduled this saturday.. sweet! Im excited (again). Hope you are all swell and just glimmering with happiness (dont ask where that sentence came from). Say sup to ur'one and that i miss them.... i dont really miss you though :)
Love Elder Gudmundsen
...How narcissistic... Awesome
So how is everyone doing today? Stellar? Saweet.
Here in Buriram all is well.. kind of. But really, we are doing great. We had a pretty stellar week and great opportunities to see people exercise.. what is that called again? Oh right! FAITH. Yeah. Its good.
Got is doing great. He of course has insomnia, which made it so he couldnt get up to get to Church haha.. but hes pretty much learned everything and comitted to everything. He had a lot of questions about Chastity and the Word of Wisdom, but we used a little technique from my good friend Stewie Griffin: "Well, I shall answer your questions with another question".... iis for fun! Seriously i cant even explain this kids faith.. i dont really understand how its so strong! But in the end, it goes back to the "diligently reading your scriptures" and giving yourself to pray and fasting.. which hes doing. Even better we also met his broseph! He told us that he would try and introduce him to us, but he wasnt sure if he would buy it. We talked to him for ten minutes yesterday and hes a way chill dude. I gave him a little advice on being brothers.. sup Josh.. werd. So yeah.. hes preparing himself nicely for his baptism and for being a missionary in the future. He actually REALLY wants to be one so thats way chill. Hopefully his brother will stick and get batpized with him (or by him ก็ได้).. would be a great support for him. His parents are separated and neither are ever at home.. he said he sees him mom maybe once a month.. thanks for being around mommy :)
After Got we have the mother of a member.. i dont think ive mentioned her lately have I? Sister Anne is a member and her mom is named "Ampon" (kind of like blessing but more high so). We taught Ampon WWWAAAAYY back in the first week that i got into Buriram. Sister Anne referred her to us on the very first sunday i got her and weve been slowly teaching her ever since. Shes one of the special cases where patience is a virtue.. not that patience is never a virture, but you know what i mean. Its almost been 3 months now since we taught her, and that includes like, nothing besides prayer and sacrifice and church, and reading (maybe a lot). She knows all about our purpose just hasnt accepted a date yet.. until SATURDAY! She had told Anne that she wanted to set a goal for baptism as a motivational thingy... and so she took it! We set a date for the 3rd of September and she agreed to prepare for that date. She will have to really exercise her faith especially when it comes to the Sabbath day, but i know she can do it. Thats the coolest thing about promising blessings is that they WILL happen! Shes way sweet and is really seeking truth.
The other eternal investigator has yet to accept a date because she wants to feel more sure first (which means a miracle). Weve told her it doesnt work like that before.... okay so the power just went out haha... some kid playing dota just yells "VERY GOOD". Hilarity insued. Anyway, we told Ann (not anne) that it wouldnt necessarily work like that because miracles work by our faith.. and miracles do not create faith; faith creates miracles (usually resulting in YOU being the miracle). We told her that if she wanted anything to feel more sure that she would need to give herself to serious fasting, praying and reading of the scriptures.. only in that way will she gain a true testimony.
So as far as other investigators, we dont have many.. we have this one super old guy that is just hilarious... he loves speaking English too. His name is Wit, and he came to Church! He enjoyed it but didnt really understand much haha. It was pretty interesting to see how powerful having members in lessons is, because before saturday we had yet to have anyone in a lesson with us. We brought the former branch President in Buriram to teach with us (fairly old too) and Wit just immediately started talking to him about EVERYTHING. It was a slap to my face to make sure that members are there more often.
The last 2 for today are both referrals (cause referrals are legit). One is from the Philipino in our branch (who is also a philipino) who has tremendous faith in Christ and really wants to know the truth, and the second is Golfs mom; Golf is a recent convert who is very quiet.. have i told you about him? Hes way sweet but very quiet. When i was in the lesson yesterday (yeah we finally got him mom to sit down with us for 10 minutes) i had MASSIVE deja vu.. like, the craziest ive ever had before in my life. Besides deja vu because of the general situation, i also felt it because of Fluke, First and Apple back in Don Muang.. its the same kind of sitch where the oldest son learned first, followed by the Mom and then the younger brother; the husband is gone as well. Golfs mom is SO cool. I would be so crazy happy if she got baptized.. wait, not IF, but WHEN she gets baptized. So then theres the philipino, from our member friend Rose... her name is Monaca. Shes a Baptist and has a lot of faith in Christ. Yesterday was the first time she had ever touched a Book of mormon and had a lot of questions. She was very open to the message of the Restoration and to reading the Book of Mormon to receive an answer about what we teach. Sister Rose has a VERY powerful testimony and she will totally be the means of baptizing this woman. What was weird? The lesson was in English. After we prayed and were about to say goodbye, Rose, Manoca and my companion all said that my English is very poor! I was very surprised, honestly, but they insisted that my grammar is pretty bad... Wow. Thats prety sad. Now that someone has said something i notice it! We actually had a pretty funny mess up when we invited a foreigner last tuesday.. before we left i asked, "is there anything we can serve you with..." hahah.. my comp and i looked at each other like, "wait what?". Lulz. Anyway, Manoca accepted the soft comittment and agreed to meet again.
So other that this, not much else happend.. we did have a nice training meeting that was SEVEN HOURS AWAY on thursday... my kid and 2 other kids up north worked one area by themselves haha! My kid led of course :) The meeting was very uplifting and gave us some really good revelation about going to Church. Stuff that will really help members and ivestigators get more out of Church.
Okay im bored of talking to you hahah.. lulz. This next week will be pretty quick.. im exchaging with Surin again and then we have a whole day spent up in Ubon for special training.. yes, back to Ubon. The interview in Surin didnt happen, but theres another one scheduled this saturday.. sweet! Im excited (again). Hope you are all swell and just glimmering with happiness (dont ask where that sentence came from). Say sup to ur'one and that i miss them.... i dont really miss you though :)
Love Elder Gudmundsen
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