Merry GiveThanks (what?..)

Good week? Are you all about to burst from all the food you ate? Hope so. Go exercise! Fatties. Just kidding (but seriously.. dont get fat).

Great week over here. Lots of fun.. kinda crazy but really good. Kinda surprising at the end of the week to see that our week wasnt as bad as we thought it was going to be.. we both got pretty sick (again) and mine came back worse than before.. i was down and out for a good day and a half.. on wednesday i woke up around 5 clock.. yeah, Elder Furr was pretty bored of all the phone cals by then haha. My fever was pretty high, but we didnt have a thermo so i dont know what it was at. Im good now. Ate some antibiotics and boy! That cleared me out nicely! Never gone to the bathroom so many times in an hour! Too much info? oops

Even though we were sick since tuesday and out on wednesday we still made it out to work in the evenings as much as possible. Theres not like a ton to report but lets just go over investigators shall we? Well, Nog and Tam are doing superb as always.. so prepared, so golden. At one point we were talking and saying we were kinda worried that they might be losing interest or something like that.. nope. First lesson that we taugth them after that little concern of us.. BOOM golden responses to everything. For example.. he wants to get the triple combination and a full copy of the bible (old and new testaments) to study together because "without all 4 it just isnt complete.". Wow. I didnt even come to that realization until like.. just then! Kidding. But that was just one response of theirs. They have both started to repent already from their past sins, and they were pretty adorable about it.. they asked if they were allowed to talk to God even thought they arent pure or if they havent been baptized yet.. put it sipmly, they felt godly sorrow! They felt super bad about some of the things theyve done before and felt ashamed.. but hey! They took it and went to God with it. Perfect. Repentance is a process of hope! They read the Book of Mormon like champs and their kids? Oh my! So adorable. Mom you would have stolen these kids before they awoke in the morning.. i know you would because i want to! So cute. They are name Fino and Pheonix.. Fino just sits in his dads lap and stares at everything.. so funny. He also farted. I laughed. Pheonix is almost 2 years old and just loves to speak in her own language.. doesnt make a bit of sense but who cares right! She is super used to us and love when we come over.. she runs to the door and slams it open and says what im assuming is the equivalent of "come in!". Yeah, we are totally proud of that one.. gained her trust. They're legit. Not really any concerns.

The next woman.. wow. They just keep getting more and more prepared! This woman is named Sandy. She has a Mormon friend. Sees her once a YEAR. Said she was impressed by her and wanted to learn more. Went to conference broadcasts at Church. Told her us that she was really impressed and touched by President Uchtdorf.. yes.. you are reading that right.. she remembered HIS NAME. Like, maybe that is just us, but hearing that from an investigator on the first lesson? Never seen it before. She wanted to know about commandments (After she has already prayed and knows everything is true) so we told her about the Word of Wisdom. Actually, i take that back, we gave her a pamphlet to read after out visit.. called her the next day: "Ive quit coffee already!". Yeah. Epic. No desire to drink it. Unfortunately she is in rangsit, which is north bangkok, and she is just here escaping the water... we will teach her until she has to go back home. Water.. she will get baptized.

So other than that... oh yeah. You will notice that there are 2 pictures attached.. you may remember him and i hope you do. Its Yong from up in Warin. I got a call from Brother Ice in Ubon telling me that Yong passed away on Friday of Last week.. he went to sleep on Thursday night and didnt wake up Friday. He had been working really hard and they said that it was lack of sleep and too much fatigue. It was pretty shocking to me and i didnt really know what to say...but it was true that i wasnt that sad.. i mean i miss him and its really sad of course, but you cant just not think of Alma 40:11 or anything like it.. "all shall rise" from the dead and be brought back to Heavenly Father. I know he left this world with a testimony and he will be ready to meet God. He was great..

Love this work. Its true. It is God's. Love you all

Elder Gudmundsen

Another week

November 21:

That was a fun week. The highlight i think would have to be the zone conference we had on wednesday.. quite the spex.. for those of you scratching you head slash and or being appalled that means spiritual experience. Elder Gong is quite the disciple; very... uhh.. its hard to explain.. you just feel great in his presence. To be completely honest, the zone conference itself wasnt anything super special.. i mean it was great dont get me wrong, but nothing happened that was amazingly out of the ordinary.. it was just, good. You felt good. You left feeling uplifted and you got to see what someone was like who has consecrated their life for longer than only 2 years is like. He taught us about the saviors visit to the nephites and then Joseph Smiths first vision again.. put them together and use it in lessons in order to help investigators feel the spirit in our lessons. Pretty cool. He had us count how many times the Savior mentions baptism in 3 Nephi 11 and 12:1-3 which is 19 times.. it was funny.. he then asked what people thought about it and everyone was going off on baptism baptism and BAPTISM in the first lessons... yes, that is true, we need to be talking about baptism.. i raised my hand: "I liked how the Savior told them to 'come unto him and feel the prints in his hand' first, and then invited them to be baptized.". A little something we forget sometimes thats so important.. they need to have a reason to want to be baptized or believe first. Thats our biggest job. You can talk about baptism all you want, but until they have a reason to want to do it, whether they understand those reasons fully or not, they wont do it. After the conference, Elder Gong and President Smith only had a time for about 6 interviews and i was lucky to get to interview with Elder Gong.. ill tell you about it later, but it was incredible.

In other things, Elder Furr and i are working on things in our zone and we want to be better about using the scriptures in our lessons, from day 1. The way we were talking about it was that we know people use scriptures in teaching the Plan of Salvation and the commandments and stuff, but its a little more difficult to be using them for the message of the restoration.. but we practiced it and it works. Our goal is to be able to not say or answer any question or do anything like the manner with our investigators but only through using the scriptures. We figured that if we could do that, the ivnestigators would be touched by the spirit on their own and see the importance of the Book and would 1) stop asking us and go straight to God and the scriptures and 2) gain a testimony quicker. Its nothing thats super new because its already in preach my gospel and the prophets say to do so, but its a little more difficult than i thought. But, as a testimony and a sign that that was correct, the Lord placed someone in our path who, is quite possibly the most prepared person i have ever met. To put it simply, in the short space of 3 hours, he introduced us to someone from New Zealand, Finland, England, and Missouri.. 1 of those he had just barely met hahah. After all that, we taught him about our message and he had a bunch of questions about baptism and about prayer and being a member and life after death and since we had studied and prepared for this that morning, we answered everything by using the Book of Mormon... you know what he said? "Wow so the Book of Mormon can answer all my questions right? Thats pretty miraculous.". The things he was saying was just so.. miraculous. We were almost laughing in the lesson at how many of his responses were in direct relation to what we had talked about in study.. kinda hard not too. Turns out he has a record in one of the other ELders area books, but all we saw was a lot of previous Elders who quite frankly had no charity. To be completely honest. They said he was weird and that he just wasnt willing to do anything.. i dunno, maybe it was true then, but seriously, by their works shall ye know them, and his works say that hes prepared and wants to be baptized. We did commit him to baptism, but he didnt accept yet just because he wants to feel fully ready. He will though. Hes going to FHE tonight. LEGIT.

Other than that, stuff happened, and it was good. haha.. yeah i know that sounds bland. Oh, i was sick (still kinda am) and now everyone in both zones who were at that zone conference are now sick too hahaha.. i was the carrier! Snap. Elder Furr was hating his life this morning.. ill show you a picture of what weve been suffering later, this cafe doesnt have sd readers.. but ill tell you that it was very long, super slimy, got stuck in the sink drain, and may or may not have come from my nose...

Love you all, this work is true and the Book of Mormon is the word of God. Go give it to someone. Get it done!

Elder Gudmundsen

Sup

November 14:

So greetings from Bangkok.. all around us its flooding but right where we're at, its dry! Woot. Also its the cool season! And its been pretty nice lemme tell you.. like, way nice. Dont get me wrong, its nothing comparied to home San Diego, but it aint bad that fo sho!

Hokay.. lets get into it shall we? 2 more daters! Yay! This family that i met back in my solo project (haha.. sound like a rock band) accepted a date to be baptized on the 25 of December.. thats pretty sweet. The father is named Tam and the Mother is Nog (bird). They have 2 ADORABLE kids.. loud as crap, but adorable none the less.. the little guy just sits in his fathers lap all day ur day and just stares at us, and then the other sister loves to play with him and really only ever upsets him haha.. Its been hard to teach sometimes and stay focused, but how can you complain against that? They are kids and they are in a family thats accepting the gospel.. like, cant be a better Christmas gift than that. Tam is suuuupppppppeeeeerrrr prepared by the Lord.. not sure if i put the super long enough, but he is SO prepared. Basically when we extended the hard commitment to be baptized he just said, very calmly, "well yeah, like i said at the beginning i feel like this is where i should be going, so why would i say no?". NOw, that for sure was way sweet, but what came after was pretty astonishing. As Elder Furr and i were talking about it, we knew that Tam had a lot of colleagues who were Christian and had been talking to him already about Christ. We had some fears that some people would try to kick him off the path that the Lord put him on with anti-mormon propoganda. Well, we were right about one thing: THey did TRY to kick him off the path, but we were wrong about the other... you cant stop the TRAIN (if you play GoW you will get that)! They did show him anti mormon stuff and did try to kick him off, but like all people who try to tear us down, they really tear their own rameumptum down. Tam listened for sure, just cause hes too nice to not listen, but after just felt pretty bored and said to himself, "wait.. arent you Christian too? Arent you supposed to love people instead of bashing on other religions?" Oh how right you are Tam! Its funny how when sharing the gospel, we dont have to do anything really.. preach the gospel at all times and if necessary, use words right? So anyway, the next appointment he told us about what had happened and then continued to say that he wasnt going to stop because he believes that God has put him on this path and hes going to stay on it. Yes please! Remember, "by their works (and words) ye shall know them". Couldnt have said it better. They went to Church yesterday (way dressed up too.. including the babies), and had a great time. The kids? Wow, never seen em quieter. Nog will really like that part. We told him to go to church with a question in his head and that he would get an answer from the speakers.. every time we looked back during sacrament meeting he was paying attention and listening way focused (does that make sense.. okay sure it does). Anyway.. they are legit.. 2 legit to quit!

Nong is still doing good.. hes trying really hard to get friends to church and to english and to family home evening, but has not had much success thus far. Hes good. lazy. But good.

We had a lot of time to go inviting and find some new investigators and man did we work it. Havent had invigorating exerpiences like this in a long time. So we found this family close by where Nog and Tam are and when we invited them, we found out that they didnt have a dude home and her husband was gone. They seemed pretty interested for us to sit down, if but a little confused at first, and so we made it our mission for the next 20 minutes to find a dude that would sit down with us. We called Nong.. no answer. "Hey well be right back we are gonna go grab a friend who lives close by..''.... *walking, walking.... dangit! Hes not home. Walk down the stairs, "hey buddy.. are name is Elder. Whats yours? Sweet, will you come sit in a random house with us while we teach this family? We need a dude to sit with.. . okay see ya later!.... dangit". We were talking to every person around... "hey waht about this guy? Is he old enough? uhnnyuh... hey kid how old are you? 15?!.. Cya!... nope... AH this guy! Hey sorry this is gonna sound really weird but will you come sit with us in this other persons house for 5 minutes? We need a man to sit in with us because of rules.. promise it will be only 5 minutes... you will? Rock on, lets go!" So yeah.. we grabbed this random guy on the stairs and brought him over to that families house.. everyone got along pretty nicely and they family was way receptive to the message too. When we brought him back they asked, "oh is this your friend?" "Yeah, something like" "Do you have a clue what these two young men are doing" "Not at all mam..". Eh.. no worries. Hit 2 birds with one stone right? So epic. Pretty exilerating and we got a return appointment too! It gets crazier.. so we went back to teach them and before that we made the appointment to bring 2 people with us. I was thinking of the family and which member could go good with the daughter.. i noticed that the daughter wore those stupid "big eye" contact lenses, and that another member wears them too.. what?1 I thought it would be funny! But thats really why i called the member and wanted to bring her with us.. little did i know what awaited. We walked into the room first when we went back and then the other member followed.. "AHHHHHHHAHAHAHAHAH!" ... hit the deck! So much screaming.. loud noises! Turns out, the member worked with the mother and an office job 2 years ago and studied with the mothers daughter.. coincidence? Yeah right. No way. So all in all, that was a pretty sweet expereience.. the family didnt make it to Church because of family coming in unexpectedly, but they are excited to learn.

In other things, Elder Furr and i are stoked on life.. having a blast and finding out more and more every day that we are seriously the same person.. like, i know people say that all the time, but when i tell you what we are about to go buy from the store and why, you will laugh.. garunteed. Here you go: Ocean Spray, canned, jellied CRANBERRY SAUCE! I think you might actually cry if you heard our conversation last night about how much we love cranberry sauce. Not even joking. We gonna eat cranberry sauce for thanksgiving this year. By the can! Theres many other things, but thats the gyst of it.
As far as teaching, we are doing really well. We do have slightly different styles, but were way open and willing to listen to each other and make our teaching exactly how the Lord wants and needs it to be. Stoked. Hes way diligent and focused and we are hoping we get more than 1 transfer.

Everything else is good.. i know this gospel is so true.. live it, love it, and share it. Dont ever forget whose name we represent. Get out there and make it know!

Elder Gudmundsen

another one bites the dust

November 8:

Yay! I have a true companion for the first time in over 2 weeks! Thats kinda nice. And guess who... Elder Furr! Woot woot! We've been prophesying this companionship since way back in don muang! He was in my district then, and then we separated for about a year, and then he was my zone leader back in ubon and now hes my companion! Totally sweet. We pretty much knew it was going to happen and so we met up, without planning this, by wearing the same tie that we had bought way back in don muang. Yeah. Talk about companionship unity!

So hows everything been going right? Good i guess.. crazy as can be of course. Taught like 4 lessons last week.. that was weird. Had to pick up an Elder from out in the Easan cause hes been having weight problems.. flew in to go the President Smith's doctor and since i didnt have a companion, i got to go.. yay. That was a fun night.. actually i am kidding, it was way boring.. he had to drink 2 liters of exlax.. yeah, 2 liters! Thats a lot. He was in the bathroom for 3 hours! And then the rest of the week was running around with this person, with this companionship, with the APs.. kinda gettin old already! But hey, gotta be flexible of course. Yesterday we didnt email because pday didnt exist.. thought i was gonna pick up Elder Furr at 830 in the moring and then go have studies and pday.. yeah that didnt happen! Elder Komgrid called and put me in charge of the greenies that needed to renew visas.. haha good thing i had no clue where the place was and no idea what to do when i actually got there! Stress yayayayay!

As far as the flooding goes.. i dont really know much any more to be honest! Its still flooding all around us, but im still not seeing it in our area yet. Soon.. im sure. Asoke is central bangkok so all churches and wards around it are closed and so a lot of people are coming to asoke.. its been nice to see some familiar faces. Asoke is pretty much encamped on all sides... one district in our zone is all out of their areas and in ours again, another district is couped up in 1 house and area... the zone next to us is evacuated.. the zone on the other side is starting to evacuate.. haha! Its for fun. And next week, amidst all the craziness, we have a nice mission tour with Elder Gong. He spoke last April about the temple mirrors to eternity.. i think that was the title of his talk. It was way good. Yay! My first zone conference. Should be fun. Especially cause we dont have to do much.. Elder Gong is planned to lead a new role play and give a superb talk. Stoked.

So sorry there wasnt really that much to talk about today.. not that much happened, or at least not that much that i can remember. Apple, Ice and Nang are all confirmed and doing well.. great members and being faithful. Apple and her sister are working some kinks out.. shouldnt be very hard. Nong has his date for the 27th now and we are really pushing to get him a new place to stay. We are trying to get out and find a bunch of new investigators since we are kinda dry right now.. hahah, pun intended. Just as an update of current ivnestigators.. we met 3 really nice cambodians who came here together to study medical school... they are great. First question, not even kidding, "why do we have to be baptized?". Elder Furr and i were talking about the lesson.. pretty much every question they asked was straight from out of Preach My Gospel under the section on "The Book of Mormon answers questions of the soul." Pretty epic.
We met a nice family who are pretty young but they have 2 adorable kids.. 1 of them is super afraid of us haha.. she will cry and cry until she is taken from the room hah. The other little guy just is interested in everything and stares for a long time. Love em.. they are we nice and said they would come to church for sure.

Okay well im ove rit.. hungry and bored hahaha.. you know i love you. Thanks for your support and your prayers.. i feel em. The mission is a little crazy right now, but we are staying on top of things. Im super stoked to work with Elder Furr.. we have been fortelling this for a while.. gonna be fun.

Love you all,

Elder Gudmundsen

Dry.. มั้ง

*Note: Sorry, I'm very behind in posting. I kinda forgot.... Here's the past few.

October 30:
สวัสดีจ้า From Bangkok! Again.. its been 2 days... right? That was the fastest 2 days of my life. Seriously.. felt like a dream!

So President Smith has sent us back to proselyting full time.. kind of caught a lot of people off guard.. but hey! thats the beauty of being missionaries we gotta be flexible right? Right. So we are going back to the regular schedule for the time being.. who knows things could change in the coming week. We are still going to be looking for ways to serve and stuff, but for the most part, its back to finding, teaching and baptizing (which we were still doing while we were serving haha).

So this week admist all the chaos and the fun dirty serving.. yeah we went sand bagging.. we had a baptism! Sister Apple got baptized! She told her family.. no one came.. bummer. But she was happy as ever and it was a powerful, short sabbath at church. Only had 1 hour of sacrament and then the baptism. She gave a very a sweet testimony and it was.. well it was way powerful นั่นแหละ. She expressed extreme gratitude for the Lord and how He gave her her testimony despite the much stubborness she had given him along her learning expereience. She acknowledged gratefulness for the Elders and what we had done for her, but in the end, she knew and expressed that it was all the Lord.. exactly how it should be. The Lord is the ultimate teacher and we are just the conduit for her conversion; "who can glory too much in the Lord?". Although her family didnt come, they werent against it.. at least not vocally so that was good. But we are trying our best to get an appointment with her sister to just have a nice family home evening one night at their house.. FHE is great.. doesnt have to be long or super complicated.. just introduce her to the culture of the church and get her interested again int he family.. she has a little daughter her loves apple and actually wants to go to church really bad, just her mom wont let her haha.. But not for much longer!

Sister Nang is officially confirmed.. Ice isnt.. hahah he had to take an english test and didnt make it.. dummy ahha no worries. He made it for the baptism though and he was still doing well.. those funny slip ups are just a part of becoming a member of the church right อย่าตัดสินเขาเด้อ

As far as the rest of the service goes, everything is good. We had a lot of fun going over to this place called FROC... which stands for what ก็จําไม่ได้แล้ว i cant remember. But we got interviewed! haha.. it was on tv too. I dont know where you could possibly check it out, but everyone at church was saying that they saw it.. and a member may or may not have shown it to us already on his ipad.. (he did). Pretty handsome if i do say so myself. But it made me pretty impressed at how fast things fly across the internet these days.. that thing was on everyones facebooks by the end of the week.. within 2 days! Thats insane. I guess i didnt really realize what Elder Uchtdorf and Elder Bednar and all these otehr people were talking about with the internet needing to be used for good until now. Share those testimonies "like it!".

Okay well this one was short, for obvious reasons.. love you all. Hope everything is well on your end.. everything is mostly on this one. Except for the water, and the flooding, and the dirtyness and the heat and the.. just kidding! We are fine. President and Sister Smith are taking good care of us. You got nothing to be worried about มั้ง. Have fun. Talk to you next week.

Love Elder Gudmundsen

PS: Missed you Sessions.. hopefully you can find your way back? เสียใจอย่างแรง