Okay, so even though we actually have a Pday this week, this will be a little shroter than usual. Tough luck!
So quick update on things: Phuket was way fun. Way busy, so no, there was very little sight seeing. However, after church we made it over to a near by beach for 20 minutes to smell the air (oh MAN i love the smell of the ocean!!!) and took some pics. Fun time. It was very strange to be in such a small branch, but the spirit in that room was AMAZING. It was also fast and testimony meetings which made it extra special. There was 18 people in attendance (which quite frnakly is better than some branches that have missionaries in them) and 4 were from australia, 3 from the philipines, a recent convert/return missionary from the states, and a walk in haha. very good spirit. The Australians were here on vacation and when they considered to themselves Church, they all decided that although they were tired, they needed to make it to church; upon being in the meeting they all expressed deep gratitude that they decided to come. We have 3 investigators down there and we taught each for about an hour. The thai woman named "warm" was a very sincere person. Her boyfriend is a member who lives in Utah and she was introduced to the Church about 8 ish months ago. Shes been to church every time work hasnt come up. She came to chruch too! Wilma is the next one.. she is the mother of one of the members in Phuket, Sister Roma. She is catholic and of course is a believer. She got WAY excited when we talked about Joseph Smith and that he saw God the Father and Jesus Christ (which started to clear up that confusion about God and Jesus being the same person). She didnt make it to church, and seemed way rushed when we went back on Sunday, but she has been reading the Tagolog book of Mormon that we sent her, and praying with her daughter and son in law. Really nice woman. The last is Antonio.. love this guy because i have now taught Nacho Libre on my mission! At one point he told us about his prayers.. he says them "evveery Day!". You cannot even know how much i wanted to respond by saying, "no way.. everything you said, is my favorite thing to do! Every day". Awesome. His daughter is a convert and is now serving a mission in Uruguay. She gets back next year. He seems really proud of her and she writes him every week. Antonio is a really nice man, but there is a language barrier there.. tangents are abundant too. He didnt go to church either.
Here in Pakkret we have Jiab of course.. she accepted a date for the 21 of July.. yay! Shes read to Alma already.. way good. She hasnt been to church lately because of work.. thats a problem. Also right now she is in Khon Gaen taking care of her mother.. her mom needs to have surgery. The Doctor told the family to wait because her blood pressure was too high, but they all insisted. Jiab went ahread and prayed on her own and felt that she should tell her fmaily to shut up and let the doctor do his thing. The Doctor made an apointment to come back in July. So needless to say, Jiab is starting to relaly understand prayer and trsuting the Lord. Her faith has grown a lot since we first met her too. Cool stuff.
Paulo is a very sweet man.. he has autism and loves Church.. period. Hes one of those folks that most people would kinda stay clear of, but honestly he is a way sweet guy. He calls every day to talk so follow up is no problem. Hes scared to death of sin and has read the Book of Mormon twice.. not bad. I was under the impression that he was not allowed to be baptized (just from what people have told me) but President Smith called and said if hes understanding and coming to church like this every week, lets get him baptized. So now we are working again with his family. His dad apparently is opposed to it though. Bummer. Way nice guy.. i love him to death, even if he does call at the most inconvenient of times every day.
Very busy week. Exchanges in Chiang Mai and Ubon.. ill tell you more about Ubon later, .. actually ill tell you now. I felt like i played too much, among other things. Not an area that im most proud of by any means. we baptized a lot but didnt help the branch grow. Member relationships were not the best, and retention and activation was absent. This time while i was there i got to see a lot of the same people that were baptized when i was there, and had left the church shortly after COME BACK. way good turn arounds. Also we taught 2 Less Actives, both of which i knew back when i was there. 1 of them is still very far from the church, and the other one said he would come back. That lesson was very good.. partly because he was humble to our message. Very powerful. We felt prompted to talk about the temples and it immediately hit a sensitive stroke that he responded too very well. He said he misses it all and wants to come back. Way cool.
we are finally in our area and about to go eat lunch with Brother Joy;s family, then go pick up our new suits. We gonna be fly.
We at the top of our game! Working with members really is the key to missionary work. When there is nothing else to do, well yeah we go out and hit the pavement. Either way, its the most important work we can do. Love you guys! Thanks for you constants support. Try to not get trunky ;)
Elder Gudmundsen
