Bonjourno

Sent January 29

Well it was a very successful week.. lots of stuff went on.. lots of business, meetings, errands and other things that popped up out of nowhere. We got little to no inviting (maybe about 30 minutes yesterday night before going home).

Zone conference was a success. It was super powerful and President Smith gave a superb sermon about the Gospel of Repentance, as given by Elder Perkins from the asia area presidency. My favorite quotes: "Repentance is hard.. its supposed to be. And quite often the hardest part for all mankind is the doctrine of forgiveness; especially here in thailand. Its abroad in the church. As stated in the Doctrine and Covenants secton 64 verse 10 it is required of us to forgive all men. The lord is the judge. If we choose to forgive not all men then WE are limiting the atonement and placing ourselves as the judge above Christ. That is apostasy.". I like that.

With that lets get into some investigators progress shall we? Sandy was baptized.. woohoo! Holy stuff her baptismal service was soooo good. She was crying before she even got to the stand (and what of her friends daughters came from Rangsit which is where ELder Furr moved to so he was able to come as well). She gave a very powerful testimony thanking everyone who helped ehr and quoted her favorite speaker, President Uchtdorf. She did what she was suposed to do to: Invite EVERYONE. It was a saturday baptism so there were fewer people than a sunday baptism, but man there were a ton of people! She got her younger sister to come, friends from work, frieds from Chon Buri (which is 2 hours away) and they all brought friends too. Some were just coming out to support but werent actually interested but then others.. oh are they interested now. Sandy was incredibly sincere and her testimony was very heartfelt. Everyone there could feel of her truthfulness and love for the gospel. She also bore testimony to the pwoer of the Book of Mormon and its converting power for her. She quoted and read from Alma 37:37. OH man this woman is amazing! Shes gonna bring so many people into the church. I dont know this man, but i now know his name: Nathan Ricks. He works for NewSkin (or however you spell it) and he is the reason why Sandy (and a nother friend which we taught yesterday which i have yet to mention) were interested in the Church. He came to a meeting once in Thailand. THey invited him to go sightseeing. He rejected saying that the following day he was going to Church. They thought he was joking and he said no, hes going to Church. They didnt understand why, but they wanted to know. She thanked him too in her testimony. Elder Furr and i wrote his name down.. this man is an example of living the gospel. One day ill shake this mans hand.

So, her friend: Nice. Thats her name, NIce. Shes been to Utah, Temple Square, the temple, the tabernacle, conference hall, etc.. the works! She wants to be mormon. She put her name down in the referral media center, but has been wodnering why no one has ever brought the book! I wonder too. Maybe that systeem needs a reboot! Sandy invited her tothe baptism, but she couldnt make. However she came yetserday to Church. She doesnt look like a cryer. She cried. She loved church.. i mean LOVED church. Shes quick to observe and quick to understand. The only problem? Shes in another area! So we wont be the ones to teach her (after yesterday haha.. we taught the first lesson) but she will be coming to Church in Asoke. She also expressed that she sbeen looking for a place...a palce that feels like home and a place that will help her understand her more. She got a belief in God at temple square and finally found what she was looking for yesterday. She committed herself to read the Book of Mormon before she is baptized.. pretty insane. Speaking of which, thats a new committment for all missionaries and investigators: Read the book before they are bapitzed. Its not an actually committment, meaning if they dont do it, we wont forbid them from being baptized, but we will deifintely see who tried and who didnt. If they had 3 months to finish and are only to 1 Nephi 15, well thats a good reason to not pass them. As Ezra Taft BEnson said, "there is a difference between a convert who is built up on the rock of Christ through the Book of Mormon and stays hold of that iron rod, and one who is not.". These people need to be reading this book! We all need to be reading it more! She didnt get a baptismal date yesterday simply because.. well, someone in the lesson may or may not have talked WAY to much and we couldnt fit everything in. No wurrs.. she will have a date this week.

Speaking of people with dates, Lucky has one! She accepted it with flying colors. Her date is the 3rd of March (ill be gone already). We just taught teh Sabbath the other day and she is a little worried about it, but she believes that she will be able tod o it for sure. She just has to clear some work things and then it will be good. She brought her daughters to Church and they seemed to enjoy it. The son didnt come.. hes stubborn. We'll get him haha.

Tam and Noke are doing a lot better. We went over with Brother Elijah and talked straight up with them. Tam said soemthing scary.. he almost threw away the path he knew was right. Hes been pretty discouraged lately and felt like God hasnt been helping him when he prays and does the things he knows he should. He however didnt throw away the path because he already has faith and knows its correct. But he says hes tired (yes he usuallyd oes speak more than NOke does). We asked him why he think he is tired. He went off about work and kids and other things, and finally we just stopped him. I was just like, "look tam.. i know im the black sheep in this group and the only one without a wife, but i know why you're tired. Because everything you just said was all about yourself. YOu are tired because you are trying to lead a family WITHOUT your family. Your tired because you and your wife arent talking. You are tired because although you are doing a great job of using your faith and keeping the commandments, you are cutting one thing off: Daily reading and praying as a family. If you were to do that, you wouldnt be tired. You are tired because you dont have Noke. And Noke is clearly tired because she doesnt have you. Not only are you tired because of this, but you open the door for Satan to come in and destroy your family". Elijah shared a lot of his experiences so far and how he has "companionship inventory" with his wife everyweek. pretty cool. We committed them to do these things and to talk together about their own baptismal date. The next day we went back and Tam was reading for her! It was way cool. THey are turning around and things are looking up a lot. They have been through a lot and at this point i felt super relieved.. ive been worrying about them a lot, but realized that that doesnt help at all. They went to church and rejected his mothers invitation to go the Buddhist temple.. she wasnt very happy. But he knew it was right. AH MAN I LOVE THIS FAMILY!

Niyome is doing studdly.. hes got a lot of repentance to do. cob.

Andy is also doing way well. We havent talked to him in the past 2 days cause he went to Phuket, but he said he would got o Church there. Hope he did.

Still finding other investigators.. been rough without the time to go inviting. This week we had an Elder get appendicitis. He was hospitilized the night before zone conference and had surgery the same night. Hes been down now and wont be able to work for a few a weeks. Kinda stinks cause he only has 5 weeks left of his mission left anyway haha. We had to go exchange with him and his companion so his companion could go back to their area and get garments and other stuff.. that took the entire day after Zone Conference and so our area had nothing happen haha. Saturday.. super busy. Zone Leader council in the moring (way good.. coming out with a new way to work with the members.. im repenting) and then interviews for baptism since that Elder who got sick couldnt do them (both passed) and then back for the baptism.. So this is Bangkok and traffic was intense.. we were literally running from place to place.. came running into the baptism 15 minutes late at FULL speed.. we were busy, but it was all good things. The morning was focused on preparing people for baptism.. the afternoon was interviewing people that were already prepared for it and the evening was the baptism. Oh how sweet it is to be a missionary! After that we had a great coordination meeting.. and changed the mood of things. We asked them what the goals for baptism was for the ward for the year.. didnt have one yet. So we made a mutual goal: 50. Took it to the Bishop: 40. 40 baptisms for this year. Its totally possible. Instead of talking about investigators and all their concerns, we just talk about ways to make our misisonary goals be one with the ward goals. It works.

Okay.. cob leew (no you arent supposed to understand that). Love you all. The Book of Mormon is true! Read it. And again. Also write me letters. I want to hear about experiences with sharing the Book of Mormon. mmmm

Elder Gudmundsen