Happy 1 year mark! Dang, that was fast. Seems like just yesterday that I was entering the MTC not knowing a thing about being a missionary. Funny, things dont change THAT much :) haha... Lol
Another week goes by and it was a rough one, again. We just cant get people to Church! We had about 7 people planned and comitted to going, and then Sunday morning rolls around and people just disappear! Phones turn off too. So thats always a bummer when you got no one at Church.. especially when members bear (is this how you spell it? ive never spelled it right) sweet testimony. We also had an interesting week with Sister Rain... i still dont know whats going on. So on monday we call just to check up and ask how her praying and reading was and she wasnt there.. her older kid picked up and said she wasnt home, but that she be home around 8 at night.. we said wed call back. That night, we call and the same kid picks up and says she went to Bangkok. Wow.. out of no where lets just peace it 7 hours south! Make a long story short, up until thursday we called and got the same story, of which we didnt believe, and her house is a LITTLE far.. but we needed to get out there and find out what was up. We get there and she says immediately that she just got back from Bangkok.. oh.. dang, we should probably repent for thinking evil. We tried to figure out what her real concerns were, or what happened, and she gave us the "tip of the iceberg". We dont know for sure whats up, but we think it has to do with family. They are too happy with her going places on sunday, other than work to get money. Rain wants to go to Church, but i think its pressure. We'll get her through it.
We have a new kid thats progressing really well. He is very humble and he is starting to believe. He of course started out by saying, "i have no reason not to believe, but im still not sure." He was willing to act on our promise that he would receive an answer and hes getting it. He keeps saying that its hard to believe that its actually happening, but he says that he feels like his life is changing. He cant really explain it, nor can any of us really, but he says that things are changing... its in the air! He says that hes never really been able to wake up, let alone read after waking up, but when he gets up and prays, he feels the desire to read. Hes been reading out of the Book of Mormon and feels a connection to Nephi and his example is obedience. Oh by the way, this kid is Times. He sees from the example of Nephi that when we obey, we will be blessed in our lives. So, hes decided to go for it. This week we comitted him to be baptized, and he said he would, just he wants to make sure that he can endure to the end. Also, hes keeping the word of wisdom. We told him that as he lived it, he would see the blessings in his life and therefore know that it is from God. Hes a sweet kid.. very humble and submissive.
The members encountered some, "difficulties" haha.. some of their friends took the book, but havent read it yet, and some straight laughed at the members.. sad no? One of the members gave the book to his friend and the friend just laughed in his face! The member was like, "no big deal. i felt good in sharing the gospel.". How right he is. Most of the people took the book, just have yet to start reading it. They didnt make it to Church either. No wurrs.. another week and the members should be getting it. We contacted a couple that is super cute.. they are way young, but super in love. They are "one" (kinda like God told Adam and Eve to be) and man are they diligent! They live way far from work and if they dont catch the train every day in the morning and/or at night, they walk. And thats usually what happens- they walk. They are Christians already at a Protestant church and last night he told us that the Paster told him to get baptized tomorrow (today). He asked us, "should i do it?" We tried to explain how it really doesnt matter because they dont have the authority or power to do it, but the member we were with got a little distracted. The lesson was all over the place, but they felt the spirit and honestly, Elder Gambanat and i think they called us over (yeah, they called us yesterday to meet us for the first time) to analyze our conduct. I think we passed :) and they trust us. They are even willing to go all the way up to ubon this coming sunday for District conference! Thats far. They are a referral from a member who was baptized by Brother Tawid.. yes, that Brother Tawid from Don Muang when he was a missionary. She absolutely loves him, and since he aboslutley loves Elder Gambanat and myself, she loves us hahah. Good stuff..
So this week i dont have much. Im tired.. เป็นพิเศษ and hungry. Love you all so much. Congratulations to you John! I would say i wish i could be there, but i dont hahah! That would mean i wouldnt be a full time missionary is thailand with a year left! ไม่เอา. This is going to be a quick year. Bummer. Congratulations to you too, Chase. You're a stud!
Today, i leave you with one thing.. it makes a huge difference: Smile! :) We got a new investigator last monday because although it was dark and raining, he saw us from the door of his house and saw that we were happy and smiling.. and he was confused. He let us in and although he is super Buddhist, he loved our message and is starting to realize this is truth. Remember to smile! We are members of Christs church and why SHOULDNT we be happy!
Love ya,
Elder Gudmundsen
Monday, June 20, 2011
Thursday, June 16, 2011
The Climb
I want to thank all of you for your prayers on my behalf this past week.. i felt uplifted in a really weird way this week, and now i realize i had a little help from all you. Thanks.
So, picking up from last week, which once again, was NOT the worst week a missionary can have, we "pressed forward with a steadfastness is Christ" hoping that things would get better. Of course, when i say hope i mean exercising faith.. not sitting around waiting for something to happen.
As for our daters, Sister Rain is still a dater. She didnt make to Church (in fact we had ZERO investigators at Church) but she had to go to the hospital.. good excuse. We saw her last wednesday and she is continuing to repent. She has plans to move down to Phuket after her baptism, but we emphasied that "not doing that is better". We helped her realize that her 2month old (wow im almost did it again.. ill explain "it" in a sec) child already doesnt ahve a father, and if she goes, he wont have a real mother either. Her faith is of course not incredibly strong yet, but she is still progressing towards true faith in Christ. Hey, repenting is the easiest way to feel of Christs atonement.
Thats pretty much the only investigator we had going into this past week.. actually not "pretty much", she was the ONLY investigator. We spent many a days out in the heat inviting.. and the Lord did give us success.. we met a lot of people that are actually pretty interested, just they were going out of town this weekend and we havent gotten the chance to meet again, and FINALLY.... we met some DUDES. This branch needs a serious priesthood boost, and fast (by fast i of course mean the Lords time). The guy that has the most potential right now, and is a progressor, is named "Times" as in the multipication sign (wow thats kinda cool.. i hadnt known what that meant until i asked my Companion a second ago). Our first lesson was kinda strange... we went to his house because we actually didnt have an appointment with him, but with his friends who live at the same house. His friends were "not free" so we talked with him instead. He was a really nice guy and seemed a lot different that his buddies (who are pretty much like, hooligans on steroids.. not literally(?)). When we asked if we could pray with him he was super open and told us to come right in. He shared with us some really interesting things.. i really like it.. he said hes sick of being an adult. When we asked him how he likes his life he said: "Eh.. its alright. like its not bad, but its nothing im proud of or especially like. Honestly, I miss being a kid. I want to go back to when i didnt have to really care about anything. I used to have dreams about being a famous football player, or something like that.. now its just work and im only 21!". Suffice it to say that he was pretty open to our message, and although it may not make him a football player, he can still change his life to be happier. On Sunday, he wasnt able to make it to Church, but we did meet him again and gave him a Book of Mormon. He prayed and at the end, we asked how he felt. He said. simply, "I feel hope. I feel hope that its not too late to change things". Now, for me, that was a truly unique and thoughful answer. And frankly, id never heard it before! But why shouldnt that be an answer.. we should feel hope from these things! Was really moving and we felt the spirit very abundantly, even though the sky was just dumping on us. AHH i want to baptize this guy so bad. Hes one of those that doesnt really care what other people think, but at the same time is the kind of person that WILL care what heavenly father thinks. He lives with like 8 guys from his childhood but he isnt at all like them. While they are inside the house, drinking and yelling at the TV, he was outside playing guitar in the rain. So chill.
We met a lot of many other interesting people, just no one has stuck yet. The last house we talked to last night was hilarious.. it was a very normal invite, "Hello!" "Not free" "Just 10 minutes" "Not free" "Cmon!" "NO!-------alright come on in." HAHA.. im actually being sarcastic, it usually does not happen like that. He let us in and had Lady Gaga blasting (a new song too haha) and said "okay we're sitting.. share with me!" We told him that we would take ten minutes and then leave but first the radio needs to be off. He wouldnt do it and said no problem, its fine. We didnt give in. Then his friends came home, and then he started smoking- 5 minutes passed already. "Hey man, we want to share these thing with you, but 2 things need to happen.. the radio needs to be off, and you need to stop smoking." "Seriously? Hang on a sec..." Then he started mingling with his friends - 2 minutes left... finally he came back and was like "alright well are you going to share with me or not?" "we told you, the radio needs to be off, but more than that we also said we would take 10 minutes.. now we have 1 minute, we need to go." "What?! You serious? Why?" "We said 10 minutes!" "NO! Wait! Dont leave.. hang on, you're no going anywhere.... ima turn off the radio, throw this cig out and then you are going to pray with me..." HAHAH.. he totally did it too! It was really time to go home though, so he made US commit to coming back tomorrow (today) to pray with him. Was a funny experience, but a really cool one.. he just seemed like THAT guy who would just not be interested in listening to us at all, and then just flipped completely around. Hey, it happens.
So i had the chance to exchange with my district leader, Elder McDonald (who is seriously Matt Damon) and uh.. so the 2 of us just CANT speak english.. for some reason when we talk to each other (Elder to Elder) theres no problem, but when we meet foreigners, we just cant do it! Its bad too.. like, thai mixed in, or just plain wrong english grammar.. so, with that said, we found a new neighborhood and decided to invite there all day. Guess what? Every... SINGLE... house was foreigners! Yeah, i had more trouble speaking english that when i was a greeny in thai. People look at us, and they dont speak english anyway cause they are from sweden, or france, or England (hah), and are just straight confused. They look at their thai wife, who doesnt have a clue what we are saying either, and then asks her what WE are saying in his BROKEN and impossible-to-understand-thai, to which she then looks even more confused, and then eventually everyone just says an awkward goodbye and parts ways.. hahaha we walked away laughing quite frequently.
The highlight of the work however, was sunday. We went to Church with 17 Books Of Mormon, and came home with only 3 left. We got plans from 11 members on who they will give their copy of the Book of Mormon to, and on what day. Then 3 more dont know who yet, but want to give a copy out. Its legit. When members were coming up to US and asking for a copy of the Book of Mormon to hand out to a specific friend, you gotta feel good. Legit.
ALright im done.. thanks so much for your prayers once again guys.. i feel em. Werd.
Elder Gudmundsen
So, picking up from last week, which once again, was NOT the worst week a missionary can have, we "pressed forward with a steadfastness is Christ" hoping that things would get better. Of course, when i say hope i mean exercising faith.. not sitting around waiting for something to happen.
As for our daters, Sister Rain is still a dater. She didnt make to Church (in fact we had ZERO investigators at Church) but she had to go to the hospital.. good excuse. We saw her last wednesday and she is continuing to repent. She has plans to move down to Phuket after her baptism, but we emphasied that "not doing that is better". We helped her realize that her 2month old (wow im almost did it again.. ill explain "it" in a sec) child already doesnt ahve a father, and if she goes, he wont have a real mother either. Her faith is of course not incredibly strong yet, but she is still progressing towards true faith in Christ. Hey, repenting is the easiest way to feel of Christs atonement.
Thats pretty much the only investigator we had going into this past week.. actually not "pretty much", she was the ONLY investigator. We spent many a days out in the heat inviting.. and the Lord did give us success.. we met a lot of people that are actually pretty interested, just they were going out of town this weekend and we havent gotten the chance to meet again, and FINALLY.... we met some DUDES. This branch needs a serious priesthood boost, and fast (by fast i of course mean the Lords time). The guy that has the most potential right now, and is a progressor, is named "Times" as in the multipication sign (wow thats kinda cool.. i hadnt known what that meant until i asked my Companion a second ago). Our first lesson was kinda strange... we went to his house because we actually didnt have an appointment with him, but with his friends who live at the same house. His friends were "not free" so we talked with him instead. He was a really nice guy and seemed a lot different that his buddies (who are pretty much like, hooligans on steroids.. not literally(?)). When we asked if we could pray with him he was super open and told us to come right in. He shared with us some really interesting things.. i really like it.. he said hes sick of being an adult. When we asked him how he likes his life he said: "Eh.. its alright. like its not bad, but its nothing im proud of or especially like. Honestly, I miss being a kid. I want to go back to when i didnt have to really care about anything. I used to have dreams about being a famous football player, or something like that.. now its just work and im only 21!". Suffice it to say that he was pretty open to our message, and although it may not make him a football player, he can still change his life to be happier. On Sunday, he wasnt able to make it to Church, but we did meet him again and gave him a Book of Mormon. He prayed and at the end, we asked how he felt. He said. simply, "I feel hope. I feel hope that its not too late to change things". Now, for me, that was a truly unique and thoughful answer. And frankly, id never heard it before! But why shouldnt that be an answer.. we should feel hope from these things! Was really moving and we felt the spirit very abundantly, even though the sky was just dumping on us. AHH i want to baptize this guy so bad. Hes one of those that doesnt really care what other people think, but at the same time is the kind of person that WILL care what heavenly father thinks. He lives with like 8 guys from his childhood but he isnt at all like them. While they are inside the house, drinking and yelling at the TV, he was outside playing guitar in the rain. So chill.
We met a lot of many other interesting people, just no one has stuck yet. The last house we talked to last night was hilarious.. it was a very normal invite, "Hello!" "Not free" "Just 10 minutes" "Not free" "Cmon!" "NO!-------alright come on in." HAHA.. im actually being sarcastic, it usually does not happen like that. He let us in and had Lady Gaga blasting (a new song too haha) and said "okay we're sitting.. share with me!" We told him that we would take ten minutes and then leave but first the radio needs to be off. He wouldnt do it and said no problem, its fine. We didnt give in. Then his friends came home, and then he started smoking- 5 minutes passed already. "Hey man, we want to share these thing with you, but 2 things need to happen.. the radio needs to be off, and you need to stop smoking." "Seriously? Hang on a sec..." Then he started mingling with his friends - 2 minutes left... finally he came back and was like "alright well are you going to share with me or not?" "we told you, the radio needs to be off, but more than that we also said we would take 10 minutes.. now we have 1 minute, we need to go." "What?! You serious? Why?" "We said 10 minutes!" "NO! Wait! Dont leave.. hang on, you're no going anywhere.... ima turn off the radio, throw this cig out and then you are going to pray with me..." HAHAH.. he totally did it too! It was really time to go home though, so he made US commit to coming back tomorrow (today) to pray with him. Was a funny experience, but a really cool one.. he just seemed like THAT guy who would just not be interested in listening to us at all, and then just flipped completely around. Hey, it happens.
So i had the chance to exchange with my district leader, Elder McDonald (who is seriously Matt Damon) and uh.. so the 2 of us just CANT speak english.. for some reason when we talk to each other (Elder to Elder) theres no problem, but when we meet foreigners, we just cant do it! Its bad too.. like, thai mixed in, or just plain wrong english grammar.. so, with that said, we found a new neighborhood and decided to invite there all day. Guess what? Every... SINGLE... house was foreigners! Yeah, i had more trouble speaking english that when i was a greeny in thai. People look at us, and they dont speak english anyway cause they are from sweden, or france, or England (hah), and are just straight confused. They look at their thai wife, who doesnt have a clue what we are saying either, and then asks her what WE are saying in his BROKEN and impossible-to-understand-thai, to which she then looks even more confused, and then eventually everyone just says an awkward goodbye and parts ways.. hahaha we walked away laughing quite frequently.
The highlight of the work however, was sunday. We went to Church with 17 Books Of Mormon, and came home with only 3 left. We got plans from 11 members on who they will give their copy of the Book of Mormon to, and on what day. Then 3 more dont know who yet, but want to give a copy out. Its legit. When members were coming up to US and asking for a copy of the Book of Mormon to hand out to a specific friend, you gotta feel good. Legit.
ALright im done.. thanks so much for your prayers once again guys.. i feel em. Werd.
Elder Gudmundsen
Monday, June 6, 2011
A week for the Books
Yeah... you ready? This was a CRAZY week.. just all over the place. Strap in.
First things first, Sister Blessing? Dropped. She dropped herself. Yeah, surprising isnt it? She has what Josh dubs "fake faith"- trust and love in God until you get opposition.. then throw in the towel. We taught her on Monday night to prepare her for baptism and she had to things that needed to be cleared: The sabbath, and living with her boyfriend. We gave her her options, according to the spirit (which would not let me leave until she understood EXACTLY what needed to be done), and asked her to council with Heavenly Father on what to do. What it really came down to was that she could not continue live in the same place with this man. We made it very clear that they did NOT need to break up, but that they simply needed to be in separate places until things are figured out - by that i mean, whether or not they would get married. She said she would, and when we called her on Tuesday morning to confirm our appointment, she said, "im done. its too hard and i feel like im being forced to do things. I dont like it. Im going back to Buddhism.". Surprised? Yeah i was! Verge of anger as well. She wouldnt listen to us and wouldnt even let us go over and sit and talk before she decided what to do. Actually, she DID say we could, but then when we went, she wasnt there. Purposeful. It was great! Talk about frustration and discouragement. We put it aside and went out stomping pavement to find new investigators... 3 hours of nothing. Went to the church to study and what do we get? A Church that smells like death! We couldnt find the source and instead just went upstairs to study. When we came down around 4 we decided we should probably fix that before English starts. Dead... rotting... rat carcus! Delicious. That was fun cleaning up the body along with the maggots eating it (too vivid?). Then comes english: we had hoped to have a lot of peole from the 1200 flyer hand out we did on saturday... zero people came. At least zero from the flyer hand out. A couple that had come before, and a few kids.. sweet! No help for finding investigators. By the time we went home, i think we both knew that it would be a rough week.. and so it was.
Wednesday, we continue trying to push through the utter dissapointment that came from Sister Blessings choice, and taught a few lessons to people that werent interested... or didnt listen. THe first lesson we taught on tuesday was AWESOME.... felt the spirit - both sides - but at the end, "can we come back in teach ag--" "I have no time!".. ugh... what a slap to the face. During the evening we chased down a referral from a member in Surin (not my area) and when we finally found the house, her husband wasnt home, and she had NO idea who "Elder" is. Yeah.. great! Then after that, had every appointment that was lined up fall through, with no one saying that they wouldnt be able to make it. Tried to make contact with the referrals that we received from the members on the previous sunday... nobody had made contact with any of them. We have sinced dropped every name.. members didnt understand, or we didnt explain it well enough what a referral meant.
Thursday, we met a guy from England and taught him at the Church. This, was an up. Hes a very nice guy, and very sensitive. Whenever we even mention God, he starts tearing up. Chase, you got any advice for English people? THis is your neck of the woods. Plus, i suck at speaking English.. he even Called me out on it after i said the opening prayer... "arent you American? Why does your English sound so broken?" that was amusing. "I havent prayed in English for a while!". Anyway, he has a lot of potential and he seirously needs God right now.. hes just a little hardened right now. And then he kinda dissapeared on us after Thursday... couldnt contact him, couldnt meet him. Didnt go to Church. The rest of that day was spent inviting a bunch of teenagers who were drunk, about to start drinking, or not interested... yeah, what time it was doesnt matter... 9 in the morning, or 5 after noon.. everyone was getting housed... is it a holiday? No.
Friday: epic. We contacted a former investigator that went down to the south and just returned. She said we could meet her. Her house is FFFFAAAARRRRRR away. Heres where it gets really fun. So, we biking on what might as well be the auto-bahn of Thailand (which is really any straight road that stretches out for longer than a mile) going about pretty fast.. i dont know how fast but we have 24 gears and i was on 22. Fast. As we were getting to the point where we need to turn, we had to change lanes over to the far right, from the left. I was in front, and saw Elder Gambanat changing behind me, so i started swerving over as well... okay! What happens next happens in about 3 seconds: Elder Gambanat hits the curb and almost eats it, i see it out of the corner of my eye, and dont realize im about to do the same, i look forward in front again, and my bike is already colliding with that curb.. adrenaline! SURPRISE, my hand clenches the front brake.. yeah, you see where this is going dont you? "I believe I can fly!" and boy did i ever... ejected instantly. The rest was a blur.. next thing i know, im laying on the median. I get up and have nothing but a tiny raspberry on my right palm. Ive gotten bigger raspberries from volleyball! Oh, dont forget the part where my bike got hit by a CAR! Yeah... imagine if the bike and my body switched places... done. The bike is surprisingly okay. Got up, brushed myself off, and went and taught this investigator. Her names Rain. She has a date now.. WOOHOO! Was a powerful lesson... she wasnt sure if God was there, so we asked her if she knew if the Book of Mormon was true.. she said she felt good when she read it, but doesnt know. Told her it was the key to know if hes there. Make a long story short, we had her pray right there to know.. "How to do you feel?" "Its true..." Sweet! Yeah it is. "will you be baptized on the 3rd of July?" "Yes." Legit. Spirit was so strong. THis is the real "UP" of this week: Ive felt like ive been listening to the promptings of the Spirit the MOST that i ever have. And its yielded some pretty ripe fruit. After that, well.. nothing. Bunch of close eared investigators.
Saturday: I may or may not have rabies. hahah... dont panic, i went to the hospital already. So that raspberry from the bike accident? Yeah, being the tard i am i didnt wrap it up before we left the house, so it was techincally and open wound. We were talking to a family that evening and there dog came out of nowhere and, being the 2 month old dog that it is, starting licking us and going crazy... it licked my hand. Since we were trying to listen to the family talk, we just kinda brushed the dog away, not paying attention to the OPEN WOUND on my right hand.. until a though screamed in my head: "GO TO THE HOSPITAL RIGHT NOW." Yeah.. i listened. Told Sister Smith on the way and she said, "that is absolutely what needs to be done. Go right now." They wrapped it up nicely and gave me the first of 5 shots for rabies :) Yeah.. see what i mean? Crazy week. After that we had a lesson with the other Sister Blessing... dont even get me started... suffice it to say that a member didnt understand that WE are the teachers and SHE is the one to share her testimony and be her friend. She destroyed the lesson. LIke... epicly. Shes got skills in destroying lessons. But shes so willing to help! Feel so bad to say like, "hey sister, can you shut up a little more?".. of course i wouldnt say it like that, but you know what i mean.
Sunday: wake up EXHAUSTED. Sore from falling, sore from a shot in my arm, tired and fasting, and dont forget that we're missionaries. Oh yes.. this week had suffering :) Church? Yeah we had about 7 people CONFIRM by the phone that they would be at Church by 850 in the morning... ZERO showed up. Rain went. We taught her at church, which was a very spiritual lesson in which she prayed for forgiveness, and like seriously? That spirit was insane... so thick you could cut a knife through it! Just kidding, but seirously, LOL. Then after that, about 5 hours of inviting... no one. Until the very end... went to visit one of the guys that said he would go to Church that didnt go and found his son... his son is a pretty smart kid, and already hates beer and cigarettes.. wow, what a gift. We told him about the Book Of Mormon and how it is the evidence that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God. He was having trouble believing it... and that point, i got a very clear thought that simply said, "Tell him to open up to page 321 and read the first verse his eyes look at"... uhhhhh what?! Okay, "follow the spirit no matter how crazy it seems!" was part of my answer way back in the MTC. So i did. He was super hesitant to open it and was smiling saying, "whats going to happen?!" I simply smiled... because i had NO idea what was on that page hahahah.. seriously. He opened to Alma 12:15.. good verse. He read it and was like, "uh.. i have no idea what this means." "Yeah pretty intense vocabulary isnt it... how old are you?" "25" "And YOU dont understand it? How many years of schooling have you had?" "I graduated college already." "Think you could write this?" "Not really.. i dont even know these words." "Try not finishing college, high school, or anything over 3 years and then write it." His curiosity was significantly peeked. He agreed to read and pray to know if its true. However, he wouldnt make another appointment cause his schedule is never for sure.
So.. by the end of the week, NO new investigators. Suck. As we invited on this last day, sunday, it was tough for me.. i was trying not to judge others, but lets face it.. i was pretty frustrated. People give excuses that are pretty pathetic and some even straight up say they are lazy. You just get super down because all you want is to help them yet they just dont understand. Ive cooled down since and repented for being so impatient, but it was seirously a trying week.. i didnt even write EVERYTHING that happened, but this is a nice nutshell. All in all, i had to rememer and be grateful for the amazing experience that Sister Rain had, and the answer that Heavenly Father gave her right in front of us. I had to be grateful that i didnt DIE. Thats nice. ANd i had to realize that the spirit was very strong this past week. It was a GOOD week. I found solace in the scriptures and prayer once again.. helped me get through it. MY companion is a champ and our district leader really helped to. Come what may and love it. I know that this was a growth opportunity and i am grateful that he loves me, and each one of us, to "cut us down" sometimes so that we will be more humble and more reliant on him. Everyone can always be a little more humble. A little repenting and a lot of forgiving goes a long way. I always have my family too :) Love you guys. Thanks for the support and your prayers.. really feel em.
Love you,
Elder Gudmundsen
First things first, Sister Blessing? Dropped. She dropped herself. Yeah, surprising isnt it? She has what Josh dubs "fake faith"- trust and love in God until you get opposition.. then throw in the towel. We taught her on Monday night to prepare her for baptism and she had to things that needed to be cleared: The sabbath, and living with her boyfriend. We gave her her options, according to the spirit (which would not let me leave until she understood EXACTLY what needed to be done), and asked her to council with Heavenly Father on what to do. What it really came down to was that she could not continue live in the same place with this man. We made it very clear that they did NOT need to break up, but that they simply needed to be in separate places until things are figured out - by that i mean, whether or not they would get married. She said she would, and when we called her on Tuesday morning to confirm our appointment, she said, "im done. its too hard and i feel like im being forced to do things. I dont like it. Im going back to Buddhism.". Surprised? Yeah i was! Verge of anger as well. She wouldnt listen to us and wouldnt even let us go over and sit and talk before she decided what to do. Actually, she DID say we could, but then when we went, she wasnt there. Purposeful. It was great! Talk about frustration and discouragement. We put it aside and went out stomping pavement to find new investigators... 3 hours of nothing. Went to the church to study and what do we get? A Church that smells like death! We couldnt find the source and instead just went upstairs to study. When we came down around 4 we decided we should probably fix that before English starts. Dead... rotting... rat carcus! Delicious. That was fun cleaning up the body along with the maggots eating it (too vivid?). Then comes english: we had hoped to have a lot of peole from the 1200 flyer hand out we did on saturday... zero people came. At least zero from the flyer hand out. A couple that had come before, and a few kids.. sweet! No help for finding investigators. By the time we went home, i think we both knew that it would be a rough week.. and so it was.
Wednesday, we continue trying to push through the utter dissapointment that came from Sister Blessings choice, and taught a few lessons to people that werent interested... or didnt listen. THe first lesson we taught on tuesday was AWESOME.... felt the spirit - both sides - but at the end, "can we come back in teach ag--" "I have no time!".. ugh... what a slap to the face. During the evening we chased down a referral from a member in Surin (not my area) and when we finally found the house, her husband wasnt home, and she had NO idea who "Elder" is. Yeah.. great! Then after that, had every appointment that was lined up fall through, with no one saying that they wouldnt be able to make it. Tried to make contact with the referrals that we received from the members on the previous sunday... nobody had made contact with any of them. We have sinced dropped every name.. members didnt understand, or we didnt explain it well enough what a referral meant.
Thursday, we met a guy from England and taught him at the Church. This, was an up. Hes a very nice guy, and very sensitive. Whenever we even mention God, he starts tearing up. Chase, you got any advice for English people? THis is your neck of the woods. Plus, i suck at speaking English.. he even Called me out on it after i said the opening prayer... "arent you American? Why does your English sound so broken?" that was amusing. "I havent prayed in English for a while!". Anyway, he has a lot of potential and he seirously needs God right now.. hes just a little hardened right now. And then he kinda dissapeared on us after Thursday... couldnt contact him, couldnt meet him. Didnt go to Church. The rest of that day was spent inviting a bunch of teenagers who were drunk, about to start drinking, or not interested... yeah, what time it was doesnt matter... 9 in the morning, or 5 after noon.. everyone was getting housed... is it a holiday? No.
Friday: epic. We contacted a former investigator that went down to the south and just returned. She said we could meet her. Her house is FFFFAAAARRRRRR away. Heres where it gets really fun. So, we biking on what might as well be the auto-bahn of Thailand (which is really any straight road that stretches out for longer than a mile) going about pretty fast.. i dont know how fast but we have 24 gears and i was on 22. Fast. As we were getting to the point where we need to turn, we had to change lanes over to the far right, from the left. I was in front, and saw Elder Gambanat changing behind me, so i started swerving over as well... okay! What happens next happens in about 3 seconds: Elder Gambanat hits the curb and almost eats it, i see it out of the corner of my eye, and dont realize im about to do the same, i look forward in front again, and my bike is already colliding with that curb.. adrenaline! SURPRISE, my hand clenches the front brake.. yeah, you see where this is going dont you? "I believe I can fly!" and boy did i ever... ejected instantly. The rest was a blur.. next thing i know, im laying on the median. I get up and have nothing but a tiny raspberry on my right palm. Ive gotten bigger raspberries from volleyball! Oh, dont forget the part where my bike got hit by a CAR! Yeah... imagine if the bike and my body switched places... done. The bike is surprisingly okay. Got up, brushed myself off, and went and taught this investigator. Her names Rain. She has a date now.. WOOHOO! Was a powerful lesson... she wasnt sure if God was there, so we asked her if she knew if the Book of Mormon was true.. she said she felt good when she read it, but doesnt know. Told her it was the key to know if hes there. Make a long story short, we had her pray right there to know.. "How to do you feel?" "Its true..." Sweet! Yeah it is. "will you be baptized on the 3rd of July?" "Yes." Legit. Spirit was so strong. THis is the real "UP" of this week: Ive felt like ive been listening to the promptings of the Spirit the MOST that i ever have. And its yielded some pretty ripe fruit. After that, well.. nothing. Bunch of close eared investigators.
Saturday: I may or may not have rabies. hahah... dont panic, i went to the hospital already. So that raspberry from the bike accident? Yeah, being the tard i am i didnt wrap it up before we left the house, so it was techincally and open wound. We were talking to a family that evening and there dog came out of nowhere and, being the 2 month old dog that it is, starting licking us and going crazy... it licked my hand. Since we were trying to listen to the family talk, we just kinda brushed the dog away, not paying attention to the OPEN WOUND on my right hand.. until a though screamed in my head: "GO TO THE HOSPITAL RIGHT NOW." Yeah.. i listened. Told Sister Smith on the way and she said, "that is absolutely what needs to be done. Go right now." They wrapped it up nicely and gave me the first of 5 shots for rabies :) Yeah.. see what i mean? Crazy week. After that we had a lesson with the other Sister Blessing... dont even get me started... suffice it to say that a member didnt understand that WE are the teachers and SHE is the one to share her testimony and be her friend. She destroyed the lesson. LIke... epicly. Shes got skills in destroying lessons. But shes so willing to help! Feel so bad to say like, "hey sister, can you shut up a little more?".. of course i wouldnt say it like that, but you know what i mean.
Sunday: wake up EXHAUSTED. Sore from falling, sore from a shot in my arm, tired and fasting, and dont forget that we're missionaries. Oh yes.. this week had suffering :) Church? Yeah we had about 7 people CONFIRM by the phone that they would be at Church by 850 in the morning... ZERO showed up. Rain went. We taught her at church, which was a very spiritual lesson in which she prayed for forgiveness, and like seriously? That spirit was insane... so thick you could cut a knife through it! Just kidding, but seirously, LOL. Then after that, about 5 hours of inviting... no one. Until the very end... went to visit one of the guys that said he would go to Church that didnt go and found his son... his son is a pretty smart kid, and already hates beer and cigarettes.. wow, what a gift. We told him about the Book Of Mormon and how it is the evidence that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God. He was having trouble believing it... and that point, i got a very clear thought that simply said, "Tell him to open up to page 321 and read the first verse his eyes look at"... uhhhhh what?! Okay, "follow the spirit no matter how crazy it seems!" was part of my answer way back in the MTC. So i did. He was super hesitant to open it and was smiling saying, "whats going to happen?!" I simply smiled... because i had NO idea what was on that page hahahah.. seriously. He opened to Alma 12:15.. good verse. He read it and was like, "uh.. i have no idea what this means." "Yeah pretty intense vocabulary isnt it... how old are you?" "25" "And YOU dont understand it? How many years of schooling have you had?" "I graduated college already." "Think you could write this?" "Not really.. i dont even know these words." "Try not finishing college, high school, or anything over 3 years and then write it." His curiosity was significantly peeked. He agreed to read and pray to know if its true. However, he wouldnt make another appointment cause his schedule is never for sure.
So.. by the end of the week, NO new investigators. Suck. As we invited on this last day, sunday, it was tough for me.. i was trying not to judge others, but lets face it.. i was pretty frustrated. People give excuses that are pretty pathetic and some even straight up say they are lazy. You just get super down because all you want is to help them yet they just dont understand. Ive cooled down since and repented for being so impatient, but it was seirously a trying week.. i didnt even write EVERYTHING that happened, but this is a nice nutshell. All in all, i had to rememer and be grateful for the amazing experience that Sister Rain had, and the answer that Heavenly Father gave her right in front of us. I had to be grateful that i didnt DIE. Thats nice. ANd i had to realize that the spirit was very strong this past week. It was a GOOD week. I found solace in the scriptures and prayer once again.. helped me get through it. MY companion is a champ and our district leader really helped to. Come what may and love it. I know that this was a growth opportunity and i am grateful that he loves me, and each one of us, to "cut us down" sometimes so that we will be more humble and more reliant on him. Everyone can always be a little more humble. A little repenting and a lot of forgiving goes a long way. I always have my family too :) Love you guys. Thanks for the support and your prayers.. really feel em.
Love you,
Elder Gudmundsen
hhhhallo
From May 29:
So how is you all doin? Cool.
Okay week... didnt get back to Buriram until tuesday night and had no time to do anything.. including holding English class.. yeah, bummer. So really this week started on wednesday as far as teaching and proselyting. We found some success where it really matters though: Church. Yesterday was sweet. We had another coordination meeting which was really a meeting to train the members to train other members. its working! Yesterday we got a ton of names that we are going to contact this coming week, and after Church was over, almost every member was either talking to us, the missionaries, or the members we trained about referrals and preparing people for the missionaries. Its exactly what we told the members we wanted to see. This is just the beginning.. next week we at Church we can easily get a dozen referrals from the members. Its peer pressure! Members see it happening, and so they feel left out.. yeah, take that one to the face Satan! Peer pressure works both ways!
Anyway, we're still working with sister Blessing who is progressing quite nicely. Shes met her first speed bump in the road, which is the Sabbath Day. She was so happy to have gotten some employees to help her take care of the businesses, and thanks God for it because now she can go to Church.. yeah, arent we evil though? Dash that by saying, "sorry, you gotta close the shop completely.. they dont work either". For herself, she has no problems.. but she doesnt think she can close it all together. We told her that she can of course.. but more than that, her employees are investigators! We asked, "you like church right? Of course.. so is it fair to deny these 2 people the joy of being at Church?" She kinda dodged the question... but at the very least, she understands that its a commandment. We hadnt planned to teach this commandment, but when she opened the lesson by saying, in her prayer, "I trust thee and know that thou art the highest, most powerful being", I felt the spirit telling me to bring up the 10 commandments. Its a speed bump, but like all speed bumps, the faster you go, the easier it is to clear it! HAHAH.. just kidding (but seriously, you ever tried it? If you go about 30 you wont feel it). In complete honesty, its just a small obstacle. She should be fine. Shes also starting to like Church for more than just the cool air, nice carpet, and quiet atmosphere, but for the spirit she feels there.
Next is the other Sister Blessing, the mother of a member... we only met her once, and she said shes just really confused as to why we talk about Joseph Smith so much.. we explained the Restoration again, and why it was so necessary. Explained that she doesnt need to feel confused so much, but just seek an answer and she will get one. "Its simple! The answer is in you hands! Is the Book of Mormon true, or is it false?" After that, well its easy to tell her what else the answer means. She made it to Church too, but only the first hour. Her biggest problem will be the Sabbath (what else is new) because she makes food for funeral services, which usually land on Sunday, which is almost every sunday, because SOMEBODY in EVERYBODYS family is ALWAYS dying!!! I dont get it! The death rate in this country is off the wall man! So many people going to the Spirit world too soon! Bummer. Anyway, this Sister Blessing definitely has felt the spirit.. its just coming to that realization thats the problem. Her daughter comes to help us teach, but she kinda talks... like.. A LOT. Takes up a lot of time and cant really focus in on what we plan very well.. BUT, she has good insights and its at least helping her faith and realizing that whatever shes feeling, someone has before too.
After her, we have a couple former investigators... one is the daughter of a member who has learned EVERYTHING but wont accept baptism. This was the first time i met her, and according to what everyone says, we had a pretty traditional lesson where she seems active, but then doesnt have the desire to be baptized.. I dunno, i saw it. She came to Church too. We shall see.
The other we met last night... hes a Christian and he REALLY loves Jesus.. which is nice. He actually understands most of the scriptures, and has a nice attitude about following whatever Jesus asks of him. We taught a fairly long lessons because he liked to go off on tangents and we had to keep tyring to get his focus back on track. In the end, we backed him up against the wall and said, "look man.. you havent answered our questions: Do you or do you not believe that this is the word of God?" "Uh, i believe that when Jesus says things they are true." "Thats not our question: Do you BELIEVE that the Book of Mormon is true?" He was quiet and finally said, "i dont know yet.. i think i believe..." "Well, you need to read it. After that, you must declare whether it is true, or false. There is NO in between. If it is true, and we testify that it is, you must make changes to your life. They are not changes that us 2 are requesting, but they are requests from the Lord Jesus Christ." He continued to make some excuses about why he couldnt believe it and finally, i pulled out bible scriptures to slap his face... at one point, we were all silent for about a full minute.. which, if you think about it, is pretty long... he said nothing... but his face said everything.. he KNEW that it was true. Its just accepting it that takes the time. After we starting talking again, he was like, "this is weird.. really weird." Yeah man thats called the Spirit! At the end, Elder Gambanat and I both knew that we needed to commit him to be baptized.. but Elder Gambanat didnt expect what his answer would be: Elder Gambanat: "When you know these things are true, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and baptized?" Him: "I already got bap-" Me: "will you be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God?" He went off on a tangent, not asnwering the question, and finally we said, "hey.. again, you didnt answer the question." We got it out of him! It was a powerful lesson and he felt the spirit for sure.
What else happened worth noting.. oh yeah, we passed out over a 1000 english class brochures.. this tuesday we are going to have a lot of Baptismal Candidates at English :)
So, the last thing i want to share comes from 2 different lessons that we taught.. these lessons are my FAVORITE.. its when a baby is just born, or about to be born: we got both situations. Of course, we dont like comparing religions cause it will make them upset, or something like that, but i had to ask them what they believe: "That we are born to get rid of our sins from the previous life.. that we have to do good to get good and erase our sins." This is the common belief of most people here... I asked as politely as i could, "if thats the case, the baby that you are about to have (Or already have) has sins? I ask you to look pay attention to your child after she is born.. DO, THEY, HAVE, SINS? I say they do not." Then, you open up Moroni 8 and tell them that Christ covers for them.. "that he has enough power to cover for all who do not have the law. But for us, WE are sinners.. you need to repent and come unto Christ." The thing that they will see without you having to say it, is that Buddhism, Islam, whatever else, doesnt talk about children. It just leaves them out! Kids cant redeem themselves from sin because they have none! I LOVE these lessons because it just hits you right in the heart and helps you see that these things are so true. We taught a soon-to-be-mother yesterday (who is giving birht today) that her kid has no sins... but she needs this gospel in order to raise her right, so that when she comes to the age of accountability, she will already be on the right path. She seemed really open to our message and we will visit her in the hospital this week.
All i got. These things are true. SOOO True. The longer im out here the more i realize how beautiful the Gospel is... its full, complete, and in full swing on the Earth once more.. aint no stopping us!
Love you all!
Elder Gudmundsen
So how is you all doin? Cool.
Okay week... didnt get back to Buriram until tuesday night and had no time to do anything.. including holding English class.. yeah, bummer. So really this week started on wednesday as far as teaching and proselyting. We found some success where it really matters though: Church. Yesterday was sweet. We had another coordination meeting which was really a meeting to train the members to train other members. its working! Yesterday we got a ton of names that we are going to contact this coming week, and after Church was over, almost every member was either talking to us, the missionaries, or the members we trained about referrals and preparing people for the missionaries. Its exactly what we told the members we wanted to see. This is just the beginning.. next week we at Church we can easily get a dozen referrals from the members. Its peer pressure! Members see it happening, and so they feel left out.. yeah, take that one to the face Satan! Peer pressure works both ways!
Anyway, we're still working with sister Blessing who is progressing quite nicely. Shes met her first speed bump in the road, which is the Sabbath Day. She was so happy to have gotten some employees to help her take care of the businesses, and thanks God for it because now she can go to Church.. yeah, arent we evil though? Dash that by saying, "sorry, you gotta close the shop completely.. they dont work either". For herself, she has no problems.. but she doesnt think she can close it all together. We told her that she can of course.. but more than that, her employees are investigators! We asked, "you like church right? Of course.. so is it fair to deny these 2 people the joy of being at Church?" She kinda dodged the question... but at the very least, she understands that its a commandment. We hadnt planned to teach this commandment, but when she opened the lesson by saying, in her prayer, "I trust thee and know that thou art the highest, most powerful being", I felt the spirit telling me to bring up the 10 commandments. Its a speed bump, but like all speed bumps, the faster you go, the easier it is to clear it! HAHAH.. just kidding (but seriously, you ever tried it? If you go about 30 you wont feel it). In complete honesty, its just a small obstacle. She should be fine. Shes also starting to like Church for more than just the cool air, nice carpet, and quiet atmosphere, but for the spirit she feels there.
Next is the other Sister Blessing, the mother of a member... we only met her once, and she said shes just really confused as to why we talk about Joseph Smith so much.. we explained the Restoration again, and why it was so necessary. Explained that she doesnt need to feel confused so much, but just seek an answer and she will get one. "Its simple! The answer is in you hands! Is the Book of Mormon true, or is it false?" After that, well its easy to tell her what else the answer means. She made it to Church too, but only the first hour. Her biggest problem will be the Sabbath (what else is new) because she makes food for funeral services, which usually land on Sunday, which is almost every sunday, because SOMEBODY in EVERYBODYS family is ALWAYS dying!!! I dont get it! The death rate in this country is off the wall man! So many people going to the Spirit world too soon! Bummer. Anyway, this Sister Blessing definitely has felt the spirit.. its just coming to that realization thats the problem. Her daughter comes to help us teach, but she kinda talks... like.. A LOT. Takes up a lot of time and cant really focus in on what we plan very well.. BUT, she has good insights and its at least helping her faith and realizing that whatever shes feeling, someone has before too.
After her, we have a couple former investigators... one is the daughter of a member who has learned EVERYTHING but wont accept baptism. This was the first time i met her, and according to what everyone says, we had a pretty traditional lesson where she seems active, but then doesnt have the desire to be baptized.. I dunno, i saw it. She came to Church too. We shall see.
The other we met last night... hes a Christian and he REALLY loves Jesus.. which is nice. He actually understands most of the scriptures, and has a nice attitude about following whatever Jesus asks of him. We taught a fairly long lessons because he liked to go off on tangents and we had to keep tyring to get his focus back on track. In the end, we backed him up against the wall and said, "look man.. you havent answered our questions: Do you or do you not believe that this is the word of God?" "Uh, i believe that when Jesus says things they are true." "Thats not our question: Do you BELIEVE that the Book of Mormon is true?" He was quiet and finally said, "i dont know yet.. i think i believe..." "Well, you need to read it. After that, you must declare whether it is true, or false. There is NO in between. If it is true, and we testify that it is, you must make changes to your life. They are not changes that us 2 are requesting, but they are requests from the Lord Jesus Christ." He continued to make some excuses about why he couldnt believe it and finally, i pulled out bible scriptures to slap his face... at one point, we were all silent for about a full minute.. which, if you think about it, is pretty long... he said nothing... but his face said everything.. he KNEW that it was true. Its just accepting it that takes the time. After we starting talking again, he was like, "this is weird.. really weird." Yeah man thats called the Spirit! At the end, Elder Gambanat and I both knew that we needed to commit him to be baptized.. but Elder Gambanat didnt expect what his answer would be: Elder Gambanat: "When you know these things are true, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and baptized?" Him: "I already got bap-" Me: "will you be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God?" He went off on a tangent, not asnwering the question, and finally we said, "hey.. again, you didnt answer the question." We got it out of him! It was a powerful lesson and he felt the spirit for sure.
What else happened worth noting.. oh yeah, we passed out over a 1000 english class brochures.. this tuesday we are going to have a lot of Baptismal Candidates at English :)
So, the last thing i want to share comes from 2 different lessons that we taught.. these lessons are my FAVORITE.. its when a baby is just born, or about to be born: we got both situations. Of course, we dont like comparing religions cause it will make them upset, or something like that, but i had to ask them what they believe: "That we are born to get rid of our sins from the previous life.. that we have to do good to get good and erase our sins." This is the common belief of most people here... I asked as politely as i could, "if thats the case, the baby that you are about to have (Or already have) has sins? I ask you to look pay attention to your child after she is born.. DO, THEY, HAVE, SINS? I say they do not." Then, you open up Moroni 8 and tell them that Christ covers for them.. "that he has enough power to cover for all who do not have the law. But for us, WE are sinners.. you need to repent and come unto Christ." The thing that they will see without you having to say it, is that Buddhism, Islam, whatever else, doesnt talk about children. It just leaves them out! Kids cant redeem themselves from sin because they have none! I LOVE these lessons because it just hits you right in the heart and helps you see that these things are so true. We taught a soon-to-be-mother yesterday (who is giving birht today) that her kid has no sins... but she needs this gospel in order to raise her right, so that when she comes to the age of accountability, she will already be on the right path. She seemed really open to our message and we will visit her in the hospital this week.
All i got. These things are true. SOOO True. The longer im out here the more i realize how beautiful the Gospel is... its full, complete, and in full swing on the Earth once more.. aint no stopping us!
Love you all!
Elder Gudmundsen
Hello from Buriram
From May 23:
First full week there? Great stuff is happening in Buriram. The work has been really slow for the area because of the whole NO ELDERS IN IT FOR A TRANSFER thing.. we're seriously picking up from scratch. But its going well. And we are having fun. I dont really know whats going in with some of the members, and frankly its not entirely important, but its kinda sad.. there are certain members that tell me that when they were first baptized they were just so excited... they went out with the elders all the time and served everyone like crazy. Now, for some reason, they are just bored. Im trying to work with this one kid name Fuy (except not pronounced like that) whos about 18 almost 19. He is SUPER lazy. Straight up, he even says that to our faces when we ask for help. Luckily, my thai is strong enough that i can get on his case and he cant argue with me hahah.. hes a great kid he just needs the fire back. This, brings me to the scripture of the week: 2 Nephi 31 verse 19-21. Its not enough to simply get baptized because its not over yet. Its not enough to get baptized and simply go to Church and be a "sunday morning mormon" (like me before this fantastic thing called a mission). You gotta, "press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God" so that you want fall in this pit of "im bored of exaltation and helping Heavenly Fathers children" attitude. So, i decided that we needed to train our members. We met on saturday night with our branch missionaries (the ones that would come) and told them straight up that things need to change; and we need their help training the other members. It was quite moving, if i do say so myself, and the members are getting more excited than they already were, to get out there and help us out. Pray for us no? Its a slow process but we need these members, EVERY member, to get in on it with us.
This week we received a lot of referrals from members. In fact, half of our progressing investigators are referrals (see? So much better). We met 2 people on our own, and they are sisters! They are really sweet. We meet them on a saturday and they immediately said that they wanted, and would, go to Church. Whaddya know, they came! They enjoyed the experience and they told us that they feel that prayer has real power. Of course they are buddhists, so they explained that Buddhism has its mediation, which is kinda like prayer. Of course, thats not the same at all, but they corrected themselves before i did, and said that, "I like prayer though.. mediation you have to sit for quite some time before you feel anything or feel relaxed and comfortable.. with prayer, we prayed for only 30 seconds and i felt good, if not better." Their names are Nee and Nade. We got them their BoM's and they were really touched by the Joseph Smith story. Pray for them.. hope they can progress well and pray to know. Next, we have a woman named Blessing (yes, same name as Sister Blessing back in Don Muang.. nicknames are common). She has just converted to Christianity and goes to Hope Church or something like that.. shes kinda funny: She doesnt know anything about what she believes (hey.. that sounds awfully familiar..oh yeah! Me). She has yet to be baptized and doesnt understand the difference between God and Christ. But, she has a really open heart and appreciates our help in understanding more about scripture and well.... truth. Right now, she LOVES going to Church... BUT, for all the wrong reasons. For example: "its closer! Theres air conditioning! Theres nice clean carpets!" etc.... thats all GREAT to get her in the door, but she needs to realize this Church is better than the old church because its TRUE. It'll happen. We got her her Book Of Mormon and got her started on reading it. Her prayers are getting more sincere but she has to understand that she cant set up her OWN conditions on which she will believe with God... its His conditions, not our will. As long as she keeps going to Church, praying and reading (hey, whaddya know.. Stock answers) shell get it. Next, is the mother of a member. She has been Catholic all her life and is confused about how this Church is different. We had a Philipino member with us, who doesnt speak thai.. so we translated as she bore an INCREDIBLY powerful testimony; something ive long forgotten how to do myself in english haha. This woman is named Blessing as well! hahaha.. so right now we have pretty much only old grandmas and people named blessing. The last is a dude.. is name is Full.. hes the one i told you about (or have i yet to?) who is the exact opposite of that... not FULL up there. But, he understands right from wrong and he wants to get baptized. It will just take quite a while to help him understand what he neeeds to be baptized.
So, thats all we got right now.. we have a couple of other people with good potential to start to understand why they are on this earth, but they have a lot of trouble with time. Hopefully this week we will be able to see them again.
So thats pretty much all i got for now. Im stoked to be here in Buriram... also, im really close to Elder Komgrids family who live in Surin. Elder Komgrid gave me a hug at transfers and told me, "dude.. go baptize my family". I plan to. When i got on exchanges with Surin (thats the District leader area) i gotta meet them and get him baptized. Its going to be such an amazing day when his family gets baptized.
All i got! Today im back in Ubon already hahaha.. we have zone conference tomorrow morning and we decided to just hop on a SUUUPPPER nice bus this morning and spend our Pday in Ubon. Im hungry. And want to bowl. So we are going to go do that now. Love you guys so much. This transfer is a little surreal.. about to hit the hump day and that kinda sucks.. only a year left. As soon as this transfer is over, things are going to get super fast and thats bad! Also, this mission is going to be flipped upside down when the next group finishes... 14 people going home, 14 leadership positions opening, including Assistant to the President. People all throughout the mission are going to have to start stepping up. Thank you so much for all your support! Talk to you next week.
Love, Elder Gudmundsen
PS: Melissa, check you mail in 2 weeks.
P.P.S: Just kidding, i have nothing else :)
First full week there? Great stuff is happening in Buriram. The work has been really slow for the area because of the whole NO ELDERS IN IT FOR A TRANSFER thing.. we're seriously picking up from scratch. But its going well. And we are having fun. I dont really know whats going in with some of the members, and frankly its not entirely important, but its kinda sad.. there are certain members that tell me that when they were first baptized they were just so excited... they went out with the elders all the time and served everyone like crazy. Now, for some reason, they are just bored. Im trying to work with this one kid name Fuy (except not pronounced like that) whos about 18 almost 19. He is SUPER lazy. Straight up, he even says that to our faces when we ask for help. Luckily, my thai is strong enough that i can get on his case and he cant argue with me hahah.. hes a great kid he just needs the fire back. This, brings me to the scripture of the week: 2 Nephi 31 verse 19-21. Its not enough to simply get baptized because its not over yet. Its not enough to get baptized and simply go to Church and be a "sunday morning mormon" (like me before this fantastic thing called a mission). You gotta, "press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God" so that you want fall in this pit of "im bored of exaltation and helping Heavenly Fathers children" attitude. So, i decided that we needed to train our members. We met on saturday night with our branch missionaries (the ones that would come) and told them straight up that things need to change; and we need their help training the other members. It was quite moving, if i do say so myself, and the members are getting more excited than they already were, to get out there and help us out. Pray for us no? Its a slow process but we need these members, EVERY member, to get in on it with us.
This week we received a lot of referrals from members. In fact, half of our progressing investigators are referrals (see? So much better). We met 2 people on our own, and they are sisters! They are really sweet. We meet them on a saturday and they immediately said that they wanted, and would, go to Church. Whaddya know, they came! They enjoyed the experience and they told us that they feel that prayer has real power. Of course they are buddhists, so they explained that Buddhism has its mediation, which is kinda like prayer. Of course, thats not the same at all, but they corrected themselves before i did, and said that, "I like prayer though.. mediation you have to sit for quite some time before you feel anything or feel relaxed and comfortable.. with prayer, we prayed for only 30 seconds and i felt good, if not better." Their names are Nee and Nade. We got them their BoM's and they were really touched by the Joseph Smith story. Pray for them.. hope they can progress well and pray to know. Next, we have a woman named Blessing (yes, same name as Sister Blessing back in Don Muang.. nicknames are common). She has just converted to Christianity and goes to Hope Church or something like that.. shes kinda funny: She doesnt know anything about what she believes (hey.. that sounds awfully familiar..oh yeah! Me). She has yet to be baptized and doesnt understand the difference between God and Christ. But, she has a really open heart and appreciates our help in understanding more about scripture and well.... truth. Right now, she LOVES going to Church... BUT, for all the wrong reasons. For example: "its closer! Theres air conditioning! Theres nice clean carpets!" etc.... thats all GREAT to get her in the door, but she needs to realize this Church is better than the old church because its TRUE. It'll happen. We got her her Book Of Mormon and got her started on reading it. Her prayers are getting more sincere but she has to understand that she cant set up her OWN conditions on which she will believe with God... its His conditions, not our will. As long as she keeps going to Church, praying and reading (hey, whaddya know.. Stock answers) shell get it. Next, is the mother of a member. She has been Catholic all her life and is confused about how this Church is different. We had a Philipino member with us, who doesnt speak thai.. so we translated as she bore an INCREDIBLY powerful testimony; something ive long forgotten how to do myself in english haha. This woman is named Blessing as well! hahaha.. so right now we have pretty much only old grandmas and people named blessing. The last is a dude.. is name is Full.. hes the one i told you about (or have i yet to?) who is the exact opposite of that... not FULL up there. But, he understands right from wrong and he wants to get baptized. It will just take quite a while to help him understand what he neeeds to be baptized.
So, thats all we got right now.. we have a couple of other people with good potential to start to understand why they are on this earth, but they have a lot of trouble with time. Hopefully this week we will be able to see them again.
So thats pretty much all i got for now. Im stoked to be here in Buriram... also, im really close to Elder Komgrids family who live in Surin. Elder Komgrid gave me a hug at transfers and told me, "dude.. go baptize my family". I plan to. When i got on exchanges with Surin (thats the District leader area) i gotta meet them and get him baptized. Its going to be such an amazing day when his family gets baptized.
All i got! Today im back in Ubon already hahaha.. we have zone conference tomorrow morning and we decided to just hop on a SUUUPPPER nice bus this morning and spend our Pday in Ubon. Im hungry. And want to bowl. So we are going to go do that now. Love you guys so much. This transfer is a little surreal.. about to hit the hump day and that kinda sucks.. only a year left. As soon as this transfer is over, things are going to get super fast and thats bad! Also, this mission is going to be flipped upside down when the next group finishes... 14 people going home, 14 leadership positions opening, including Assistant to the President. People all throughout the mission are going to have to start stepping up. Thank you so much for all your support! Talk to you next week.
Love, Elder Gudmundsen
PS: Melissa, check you mail in 2 weeks.
P.P.S: Just kidding, i have nothing else :)
Transfers are fun :)
(From May 15)
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!
No... WAY!
(From May 2)
So its true isnt it? Hes finally dead? Didnt think that would ever happen. About 2 hours ago we walked into a cafe to eat lunch and some foreigner saw that we were American so he asked us if we had heard the news.. of course we hadnt (who does he think we are? some people who ARENT missionaries?!pssh.. ) and he just says, "they killed Bin Laden". We were just shocked and then this guy just pulled up a video saying that its confirmed and that its not some copy cat but its for real.. WHOA! So this is really good news, but also really bad news.. probably gonna be some retaliation right? Think he will be like a martyr? what'er... big stuff
Okay! How are you all? Happy Monday the 2nd of May! Whats the occasion? uhhynyuh.. Anyway.. Brother Promise and Sister Boon : totally got baptized! Yeah, it was pretty sweet. They came to church on their own too :) Brother Had was away on a youth activity so they made sure that they could come on their own without any hiccups. This was one of the most spiritual baptisms ive felt.. i dont know what it was, but when they were standing in the water, it was absolutely silent.. usually theres some little kid talking (or someone else talking) that takes away from the spirit.. but for this one.. nope. Complete silence. Really moving. Whats that scriptures? The power of God is manifest in the ordinances? True. When they shared their testimonies, it was very short and simple.. but very powerful. Brother Promise simply said, "thank you to everyone for helping me escape the darkness and be brought into the light of Christ." He had wanted to say a lot actually, but he was pretty nervous haha. It was all good though. What really surprised me was a response from an investigator of the Ubon Elders.. it was her first day at Church and when we asked her how she liked it, she said it was great.. well, actually the way she said it was like a "yeah it was okay whatever" kind of response. That parts pretty normal. But when we asked about the Baptism, she said something that ive never heard anyone say before: "The Baptism? Oh that.. that was different.. that was excellent. That was SACRED." Of course we as members know it is, but people dont make a connection as deep as that... usually. Shes a really funny woman named Nit, and she speaks NOTHING but Easan. None of us can really speak it very well, but we can understand it.
Who else.. Brother Rag.. hes doing a lot better. He hasnt drank alcohol for 4 days now! Smoking, he has yet to quit completely, but that should be a big problem. He didnt get to go to Church because he got sick.. but he was telling the truth.. we went by and saw him yesterday and he had a pretty fat fever. Also, he was a little shaken up by his neighbor.. she talked a lot of crap about us to him and pretty much swore at us. He didnt like it very much. That was an interesting story though.. so, we met this old guy at the house next to Brother Rag, and he seemed pretty interested.. we couldnt gauge it from the first lesson so we told him we would come back.. he seemed a little surprised that we kept our word and invited us in. He had to finish eating first and so we just waited for a few minutes. When he was done, he came and sat down and right as he did, some lady that we couldnt see, started yelling from the back of the house," what business do you have?! probably better if you left!" and all sorts of stuff like this.. finally she comes out front and looks at us again saying, "what business do you have? Anything? Leave. Now.". What should we do? We didnt want to make her angry but we didnt want to lose this man who was interested.. we told her that she didnt need to listen if she didnt want to but this man wants to learn. At that point she started getting pretty heated and said, "why do you care about him? Hes a retard! He doesnt know anything! If you want to teach him leave my house first! Go somewhere else!." A member that was with us said, "why dont we go teach him at Brother Rags house?" to which she said, "if thats the case, pack your bags and leave with your friends too!" Us: "uhh.. maybe we should just leave then.. Thanks so much we are leaving already!" Super awkward but also quite amusing that someone could be closed off that hard! At the same time, it was a good experience to look back on and see how i walked away from it.. im proud to see, i walked away loving her. We told Brother Rag that although she wasnt the nicest about it, she didnt kow what she was doing.. told him he had to forgive her. Read 3 Nephi 12 about loving your enemies. Good stuff.. forgive your enemies!
Sister Krisina is doing okay.. she didnt get baptized this week cause she had to go to Bangkok.. but shes ready for this saturday and all should go according to our plans. YES! High five! Lulz.
So remember what you said Dad? About sitting those people out in the middle of nowhere down and teaching them? Yeah, well I was on an exchange with Elder Grover, my nong, and we went out there again.. Brother Promise took us over to this HUGE group of people that were chilling under the shade on prayer mats and said there were a few people interested.. after seeing the huge group Elder Grover looks at me and says, "what do we do man?" "Sit em all down and teach em! Lets put those 'prayer mats' to good use no?" We brought everyone in.. about 20 plus people, and taught them about Heavenly Father. Only about 10 minutes. It was pretty cool. It isnt the best way to teach, cause you cant focus peoples needs, but we at least had the opportunity to tell people about the good news. Also, we saw a couple of people that looked fairly interested. We'll check it out this week.
So, this is all i got for today.. love you all! The Gospel is so good.. im almost done with The Book of Mormon.. first time through it? 19 years. 2nd time? Approximately 6 months. Id say thats a slight improvement. Was pretty sweet to see how much good stuff i missed the first time though it.. i was reading in 3 Nephi 11 when Christ was administering to the Nephites and found SO much that i never saw before. Its good. BULLSEYE.
Love ya,
Elder G
So its true isnt it? Hes finally dead? Didnt think that would ever happen. About 2 hours ago we walked into a cafe to eat lunch and some foreigner saw that we were American so he asked us if we had heard the news.. of course we hadnt (who does he think we are? some people who ARENT missionaries?!pssh.. ) and he just says, "they killed Bin Laden". We were just shocked and then this guy just pulled up a video saying that its confirmed and that its not some copy cat but its for real.. WHOA! So this is really good news, but also really bad news.. probably gonna be some retaliation right? Think he will be like a martyr? what'er... big stuff
Okay! How are you all? Happy Monday the 2nd of May! Whats the occasion? uhhynyuh.. Anyway.. Brother Promise and Sister Boon : totally got baptized! Yeah, it was pretty sweet. They came to church on their own too :) Brother Had was away on a youth activity so they made sure that they could come on their own without any hiccups. This was one of the most spiritual baptisms ive felt.. i dont know what it was, but when they were standing in the water, it was absolutely silent.. usually theres some little kid talking (or someone else talking) that takes away from the spirit.. but for this one.. nope. Complete silence. Really moving. Whats that scriptures? The power of God is manifest in the ordinances? True. When they shared their testimonies, it was very short and simple.. but very powerful. Brother Promise simply said, "thank you to everyone for helping me escape the darkness and be brought into the light of Christ." He had wanted to say a lot actually, but he was pretty nervous haha. It was all good though. What really surprised me was a response from an investigator of the Ubon Elders.. it was her first day at Church and when we asked her how she liked it, she said it was great.. well, actually the way she said it was like a "yeah it was okay whatever" kind of response. That parts pretty normal. But when we asked about the Baptism, she said something that ive never heard anyone say before: "The Baptism? Oh that.. that was different.. that was excellent. That was SACRED." Of course we as members know it is, but people dont make a connection as deep as that... usually. Shes a really funny woman named Nit, and she speaks NOTHING but Easan. None of us can really speak it very well, but we can understand it.
Who else.. Brother Rag.. hes doing a lot better. He hasnt drank alcohol for 4 days now! Smoking, he has yet to quit completely, but that should be a big problem. He didnt get to go to Church because he got sick.. but he was telling the truth.. we went by and saw him yesterday and he had a pretty fat fever. Also, he was a little shaken up by his neighbor.. she talked a lot of crap about us to him and pretty much swore at us. He didnt like it very much. That was an interesting story though.. so, we met this old guy at the house next to Brother Rag, and he seemed pretty interested.. we couldnt gauge it from the first lesson so we told him we would come back.. he seemed a little surprised that we kept our word and invited us in. He had to finish eating first and so we just waited for a few minutes. When he was done, he came and sat down and right as he did, some lady that we couldnt see, started yelling from the back of the house," what business do you have?! probably better if you left!" and all sorts of stuff like this.. finally she comes out front and looks at us again saying, "what business do you have? Anything? Leave. Now.". What should we do? We didnt want to make her angry but we didnt want to lose this man who was interested.. we told her that she didnt need to listen if she didnt want to but this man wants to learn. At that point she started getting pretty heated and said, "why do you care about him? Hes a retard! He doesnt know anything! If you want to teach him leave my house first! Go somewhere else!." A member that was with us said, "why dont we go teach him at Brother Rags house?" to which she said, "if thats the case, pack your bags and leave with your friends too!" Us: "uhh.. maybe we should just leave then.. Thanks so much we are leaving already!" Super awkward but also quite amusing that someone could be closed off that hard! At the same time, it was a good experience to look back on and see how i walked away from it.. im proud to see, i walked away loving her. We told Brother Rag that although she wasnt the nicest about it, she didnt kow what she was doing.. told him he had to forgive her. Read 3 Nephi 12 about loving your enemies. Good stuff.. forgive your enemies!
Sister Krisina is doing okay.. she didnt get baptized this week cause she had to go to Bangkok.. but shes ready for this saturday and all should go according to our plans. YES! High five! Lulz.
So remember what you said Dad? About sitting those people out in the middle of nowhere down and teaching them? Yeah, well I was on an exchange with Elder Grover, my nong, and we went out there again.. Brother Promise took us over to this HUGE group of people that were chilling under the shade on prayer mats and said there were a few people interested.. after seeing the huge group Elder Grover looks at me and says, "what do we do man?" "Sit em all down and teach em! Lets put those 'prayer mats' to good use no?" We brought everyone in.. about 20 plus people, and taught them about Heavenly Father. Only about 10 minutes. It was pretty cool. It isnt the best way to teach, cause you cant focus peoples needs, but we at least had the opportunity to tell people about the good news. Also, we saw a couple of people that looked fairly interested. We'll check it out this week.
So, this is all i got for today.. love you all! The Gospel is so good.. im almost done with The Book of Mormon.. first time through it? 19 years. 2nd time? Approximately 6 months. Id say thats a slight improvement. Was pretty sweet to see how much good stuff i missed the first time though it.. i was reading in 3 Nephi 11 when Christ was administering to the Nephites and found SO much that i never saw before. Its good. BULLSEYE.
Love ya,
Elder G
หวัสดีจ้า!
(I'm behind... this is from April 25)
Sup. How is it hangin? Good? Sweet.
So this week was filled with ความมั่ว (a lot of "unorganization"!).... Right now there is an area in a zone that doesnt have a companionship because it has a Thai Missionary.. he just went to the MTC in the Philiphines for 3 weeks, so the left over companion, Elder Chapman, and his district leader are trying to watch over both areas.. it doesnt work very well. So for friday, saturday and sunday, Elder Charit and I got sent over there! Elder Charit has served there before, so he knew his way around well enough and so he went on exchanges with a member while I and Elder Chapman went else where. It was partially effective, and at the very least, we got the members to see what their branch would be like without missionaries; not good! They got a little bit of an awakening to start working a lot harder.
So it was pretty convenient to be in that area when we were.. there was a leadership training meeting at the Church and Brother Had (the friend that introduced us to Brother Promise and his wife) had to go.. so he took them as well! We taught em their final lesson on wednesday and so that saturday, we reviewed a little bit to see if they had any questions, and then interviewed them right there haha! They went back to Ubon for Church on sunday and had their baptismal service announced for next week. WOOHOO! They passed with flying colors! Usually the one interviewing has some concerns or just some minor things they want to be done before they pass them, but Elder Charit was just like, "nah.. its all good.. pretty legit." We are still going to go out their house this wednesday to find their son! By the way, i put some pictures up when we went out their a while ago.. im wearing a very stylish hat too :)
SO what else.. Krisina had a bump in the road.. since she didnt pass her interview the first time, her husband went back to anti status saying, "if its so hard, you dont need to do it then". It made her feel pretty bad that she messed up, in such a small area of the commandments, but she fought on and made quit like she said she would. I wasnt there when he gave it back, but her husband gave permission once again, and this time 100 percent, to be baptized. She has a date for the 30th, just like we planned.
As for Brother Rag, hes doing.. okay. Hes struggling, but hes getting through it. He had a hard time on friday and felt like he was about to go into shock. He called us and asked us to come over, but unfortunately i was about to get on a bus. In the time it took to get over to his house, he had drank quite a lot to be sure he didnt get destroyed. Anyway, he has the desire and hes working really hard. We will still meet him everyday this week and help him quit this crap. Im sure seeing the baptism of Brother Promise will really give him some serious encouragement. Pray for him!
Alright so what else is fun.. well i havent been companions with Elder Newman for 6 days now.. and i wont be for another 4 haha.. its crazy.. all the exchanges and all the renewing visas really puts a lot of things out of order.
WARNING: Stay away from a movie called Death Race 2.. man that movie is a skid mark on the underpants of society! And its of the devil! Man, we rode the bus down to the other area and they turned it on.. its hard to keep you eyes off of tjhe screen it when its right in front of your face! I asked the stewardice to turn it off, but she wouldnt.. her reaction was actually quite amusing. "Hey, can we please turn this movie off, or at the very least change it? Why sir? Uh, because its innapropriate, stupid and evil... and very poorly made. Sorry sir, the other people seem to be enjoying it." Yeah.. poop on a fried banana right? Seriously, its weird seeing whats on the outside world, even if for only a second... I really hope Thai people dont think that Americans are like that movie.. i mean i know we're dumb, but not THAT dumb!
Anyway, this week was exciting and we had some new ideas on teaching that are once again changing the mission. One of which is asking for referrals.. its helping a lot. So get out there and give the missionaries referrals before they ask for them!
Love, Elder Gudmundsen
Sup. How is it hangin? Good? Sweet.
So this week was filled with ความมั่ว (a lot of "unorganization"!).... Right now there is an area in a zone that doesnt have a companionship because it has a Thai Missionary.. he just went to the MTC in the Philiphines for 3 weeks, so the left over companion, Elder Chapman, and his district leader are trying to watch over both areas.. it doesnt work very well. So for friday, saturday and sunday, Elder Charit and I got sent over there! Elder Charit has served there before, so he knew his way around well enough and so he went on exchanges with a member while I and Elder Chapman went else where. It was partially effective, and at the very least, we got the members to see what their branch would be like without missionaries; not good! They got a little bit of an awakening to start working a lot harder.
So it was pretty convenient to be in that area when we were.. there was a leadership training meeting at the Church and Brother Had (the friend that introduced us to Brother Promise and his wife) had to go.. so he took them as well! We taught em their final lesson on wednesday and so that saturday, we reviewed a little bit to see if they had any questions, and then interviewed them right there haha! They went back to Ubon for Church on sunday and had their baptismal service announced for next week. WOOHOO! They passed with flying colors! Usually the one interviewing has some concerns or just some minor things they want to be done before they pass them, but Elder Charit was just like, "nah.. its all good.. pretty legit." We are still going to go out their house this wednesday to find their son! By the way, i put some pictures up when we went out their a while ago.. im wearing a very stylish hat too :)
SO what else.. Krisina had a bump in the road.. since she didnt pass her interview the first time, her husband went back to anti status saying, "if its so hard, you dont need to do it then". It made her feel pretty bad that she messed up, in such a small area of the commandments, but she fought on and made quit like she said she would. I wasnt there when he gave it back, but her husband gave permission once again, and this time 100 percent, to be baptized. She has a date for the 30th, just like we planned.
As for Brother Rag, hes doing.. okay. Hes struggling, but hes getting through it. He had a hard time on friday and felt like he was about to go into shock. He called us and asked us to come over, but unfortunately i was about to get on a bus. In the time it took to get over to his house, he had drank quite a lot to be sure he didnt get destroyed. Anyway, he has the desire and hes working really hard. We will still meet him everyday this week and help him quit this crap. Im sure seeing the baptism of Brother Promise will really give him some serious encouragement. Pray for him!
Alright so what else is fun.. well i havent been companions with Elder Newman for 6 days now.. and i wont be for another 4 haha.. its crazy.. all the exchanges and all the renewing visas really puts a lot of things out of order.
WARNING: Stay away from a movie called Death Race 2.. man that movie is a skid mark on the underpants of society! And its of the devil! Man, we rode the bus down to the other area and they turned it on.. its hard to keep you eyes off of tjhe screen it when its right in front of your face! I asked the stewardice to turn it off, but she wouldnt.. her reaction was actually quite amusing. "Hey, can we please turn this movie off, or at the very least change it? Why sir? Uh, because its innapropriate, stupid and evil... and very poorly made. Sorry sir, the other people seem to be enjoying it." Yeah.. poop on a fried banana right? Seriously, its weird seeing whats on the outside world, even if for only a second... I really hope Thai people dont think that Americans are like that movie.. i mean i know we're dumb, but not THAT dumb!
Anyway, this week was exciting and we had some new ideas on teaching that are once again changing the mission. One of which is asking for referrals.. its helping a lot. So get out there and give the missionaries referrals before they ask for them!
Love, Elder Gudmundsen
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