Sent March 10
Well that was fast. A lot of traveling and a lot of naps... ill tell you what, ive never passed out so fast when hopping on an airplane. This past week we were in Chiang Mai on monday and tuesday, Bangkok later that night, Easan the next morning (driving for 4 hours too between flights) and then back to Bangkok. Certainly feel high-so. Spending so much time with President Smith has been pretty darn cool. Hes got so many stories to tell and hes SUPER funny actually. Countless times i was in stitches. I think i got at least a dozen quotes from him this past week.. all of them funny. And then a few that were just down right inspirationally too legit to quit. My favorite? Well i learned about sacrifice and dedication with him. As we were getting off the plane back to Bangkok there was a huge load of Porsches being loaded onto a plane nearby. We were checkin them out and President Smith knows a thing or two about cars. Anyway, he talked about how he was gonna get a beamer after his retirement but as he put it, "i traded my beamer in for a mission :) pretty good trade right?". As he explained a lot of his colleagues thought he was stupid for doing it, but obviously we know the blessings of doing such a thing.. it was clear that he doesnt regret it at all.
Okay thats it... just kidding (but almost seriously.. all we did was fly, train, fly, drive and train this week). This weeks training was for the leaders of the mission to train their missionaries on for the next 2 months. The Brethren in salt lake have apparently identified (as President Smith puts it) that the world is not finding enough investigators; or, the church is not growing fast enough. Some people think we are baptizing too fast... the prophet disagrees. All of it was straight from Preach My Gospel chapter 9, so nothing was new, but everything needed a fresh review. Everyone seemed to be super into it, and President Smith threw in a nice "best mission in the world" touch to the meetings with what he calls "The Grinder". Simply put, there are 2 rows of missionaries facing each other and we just take turns practicing 1 minute or less statements about restored truth since people are "accustomed to short powerful statements". At this point President Smith talked a little bit about how aadvertising gets that idea: "Have it your way" or "Eat Fresh" (and one Elder got that one wrong.. he said Get Fresh ahaha). The Adversary gets it too: "Just this one time.. it wont hurt" or "Nobody with think you are dumber than a wet carrot if you do that". Anyway, this activity is actually really fun and by the time it was over everyone was getting really good at coming up with their own phrases and linking it to the restoration "for that is our unique message to the world". What was really cool was that Elder Komgrid and i were in every meeting (total of 4) and every time there were parts that changed based on what was clearly revelation from President Smith. There was always something new to learn and we could tell that as he traveled from place to place he was remembering things from the past 3 years in each of those proselyting areas. Pretty cool. Felt good to be among all the mission leaders too. The upcoming months will be these trainings given to all of the other missionaries too. The other part was on repentance. Its common knowledge that the center of our purpose (or our "one word purpose as President Smith calls its) is Baptism. Sometimes it really is great to see everyones passion for Baptism and their understanding of why they are here, but its also not always correct if we only think Baptism all the time. We love to say, "okay lets go out and Baptize now!" because we get stoked off it.. but its not really true; we CANT go out and just baptize people.. its not in our calling. What we can and must do however is go out and cry repentance unto every soul that belongs to the heavenly family of God. Done.
As for our investigators right now: Well Brother Joy and his family are way good. The Mom god her answer on Sunday :) We committed her to fast and pray to know if she should be baptized with her family on this coming saturday. She did and got her answer. During the Gospel Principles class they talked about the Eternities and being together as a family. After the class was over she looked at me with a grin on her face and said, "sooo.. is it at all possible to you know.. get baptized with my family on saturday?" "Why, cause you got you answer today?" "Yes!". She was interviewed that evening and passed. So they are going to be baptized in... 2 hours! yay. Baptism!! Hah.. see what i did there? Forget it.
So there was a family that i met in Asoke right before moving here and they come to Church too! The fathers name is NooGoon (soemthing like that) and the daugher is Gukgai (dont ask). The father is another man who was perishing in unbelief because he knew not where to find the truth. He was super happy in Church and committed to come every sunday. Should be there today too.
The other investigator right now is name 1. Yeah.. just 1. Hes been an investigator for a long time and had a lot of concerns in his life, but has decided to come back to Church. His story is nice.. but ill save it for later.
Other things... uhhhh.. i love you? Ha. Im 21 in like.. 11 days or something like that.. thats weird. Lulz. I have 4 months left. Thats weird. Theres a graduation ceremony going on outside.. thats annoying. Elder Komgrid is talking on the phone excessively loud.. thats normal haha. Oh speaking of him, hes going to stay with us in August. Okay? Okay, sweet. Just thought id let you know in advance.
Okay well we're going to head over to church.. we are singing a special song for the Baptism. ill record it. Way pretty song. I wasnt kidding na.. i will sing with you Dad when i get home.
Bye! Peace! Shalom (is that right?)
Elder Gudmundsen
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