Success!

Sent April 8:

So.. we officially presented our pitch on Family History to our zone leaders.. and i feel it was much success! Everyone seemed to receive it really well and the spirit was in abundance fo sho. Werd. Moving forward will take patience but we are ready. So i might as well tell you who is going to be leading out with me for the rest of my mission.. its Elder Kampanat! You remember him? He was my companion back in Buriram. Yes, being surprised is probably a correct response because that now means that i will finish my mission having been companions with Thai Elders for 9 transfers and with Americans for 7. Can't touch this! He actually just got off the phone with President Smith haha. Im sure hes pretty nervous/excited. Its gonna be good. He's totally a machine. He was probably the most quietest yet excited zone leader of the bunch. He's on board and i think his attitude and personality will really help the mission grow, especially in this time that we are changing mission presidents in about 2 and a half months. He's been prepared and he will get it done. Our mission is Obedient; period. And he is an obedient missionary. For some reason when mission presidents change, missionaries like to think that its the beginning of "comfortableness" in the rules; not so. Some of the members are convinced thats the case too; some people will be in for an unpleasant surprise. We actually talked about obedience at zone leader council... i didnt talk much, but all i said was what i noticed on a flight coming home one evening. On every commercial flight ive ever been on, one of the first things the attendants say is to stay seated with our seat belts fastened until the captain has turned off the fasten seat belt light (among a few other things). That light as right in front of our faces. Well, one night i closed my eyes and decided to have a little fun; i wanted to see how many i would hear: *click.. click... click, click...". In one flight i counted 27 clicks before the light was turned off (most of them RIGHT as the plane came to a halt, seemingly with no possible danger). It was very simple to me, yet profound, and like Elder Holland described last conference, "the Lord has drawn lines very clearly" on this field of which we must obey. To those 27 who released their seat belt when they were told not to, i wondered what went through their head... "no big deal... nothing will happen" "the plane stopped already, why should i have to keep it on". The similarities are striking when seeing missionaries dis-obey... no matter what we may think, we are clearly told what to do, and we should not have to question that, ever. I went on an exchanged this week with Elder Hardy.. he was in my MTC phii group. Before his mission he was in the army.. boy, i find it both embarrassing and a blessing that we aren't like the army; they beat their troops into obedience, but they also don't often ask questions. President Smith called me while i was with Elder Hardy and he asked me, "why didnt you tell me that i had it set for both Elder Merrel's to be companions?!" He said it while laughing, but i simply said, "uh.. uhnnyha.. its not my board! Its your call isnt it?". Elder Hardy over heard and said that;s kinda what the army was like.. you get told to do something and you never follow it by saying, "why?". I like that. The Lord lovingly gives us reasons to certain of his commandments, but in the end we should rarely have to ask the Lord, "why?". It was a fun exchanged.. hes a great Elder and his got some amazing stories about the army.. crazy different world. Elder Hardy is 25. Im impressed with his perspective on things.. at the end of the exchange i told him i appreciated the way he respects leaders even though hes older than all of them. He looked at me and said, "i dont know why older missionaries have a hard time with that sometimes.. one, you're a leader called of the Lord, and two why should i have a superiority complex? I look up to you guys.. i admire you all for getting out here at 19 when for some reasons i had to wait until i was older. I love serving with you.". Probably one of the best responses ive heard from someone on my mission. Theres always this "culture of human nature" to jam a stick up our rear (pardon me) and put ourselves on a theoretical "rameumptom" of sorts, when really there is no place for it. Love him. Its sad hes dying in 5 days. Oh yeah.. on a funny note, when he had his own little "cell" in the army, he had pictures up of his family on the walls instead of the traditional porn.. a fellow soldier, who happened to be a woman, came in one day and looked rather perplexed.. She sharply asked, "what? Are you gay?". hahah

On Friday we had to hop on a plane and go to Ubon and then go to surin for Elder Komgrits military stuff.. that was fun. I got to sit on my butt for 4 and a half hours.. did you know that cement is NOT soft to the touch? Whouda thunk roight? No i did not spell that wrong. On the bright side i got to talk to a few people about the gospel. One of them was Elder Komgrits former class mates.. he was interested.. like a lot. i love those! Its really fun to mess with them because you know from the way they ask questions that they arent gonna leave.. so i would like read the book of mormon between his questions, like i was done talking.. and then he would just be like, "whats that?" "Oh, its a book"..................................."what's it cal---" "The Book of Mormon! wanna read it?" "Yeah!". Pretty much like that. His name was Joe. Nice guy. Probably wasnt super popular.. i base that clearly on the fact that he remembered who Elder Komgrit was and Elder Komgrit didnt remember him. Sad. He lives in Bangkok so hopefully he gets in contact with the Elders around here. I met a mother who was sitting with her son.. he was skipping out on the draft and after learning that i could speak thai fairly well she looked at him and was like, "hey, wouldnt it be cool go to America and preach Buddhism?!"... yeah, good luck.

The night before the army stuff (which would be yesterday evening.. wow thats a lot easier to say) we ate dinner with Elder Komgrits parents.. that was way nice. His dad is way cool. Got to talk to him for a long time. His mom is cool too. You can tell his Dad is super proud of him. How couldnt you be? Except the fat part.. he aint too proud a that hahah.. when he picked us up at the bus station he took one look at him and said, "wow.. you as fat as a water buffalo!" (simliar to "fat as a cow" for us).. i lawl'ed.

We only got to watch saturday sessions of conference.. SO GOOD! I think Elder Bednar was my favorite of the 3.. way straight foward and i really enjoyed learning about his father.. especially how he baptized him. Way cool. havent gotten to see sunday's yet because of the military junk. But should be able to watch it this week on the computer. Love it. So glad we have this event every 6 months. I would ask for it more often than that, but im pretty sure it takes 6 months for everyone to come up with a talk pleasing to the Lord! That would be nerve wracking. Speaking of what should be nerve wracking is translating.. which they did awful. At one point they didnt turn off the mic and we could hear them talking to each other haha.. when Elder Archuletta came on you could hear a loud whisper, "NO WAY!". At one other point we heard the translator obviously talking to the thai translator say, "i have a question! how do you read this word!". hahaha. lulz. Face palm too. I heard President Uchtdorf was nice and in your face.. not like Elder Holland, but nice and straight to the point. good.

Okay im rambling. Love you all. Hope you had a great Easter weekend and arent getting fat from eating. This week is going to be crazy.. gotta pick up those 16 missionaries from the airport and get them out tracting on their first day. Transfers week is always hectic. But i think we got our heads around it nicely. Its gonna be weird seeing Elder McDonald and Elder Furr off onto a plane.. ahh! They're dead! Also, its SongKran festival weekend.. on snap. Its gonna be insane! Im excited for playing with water though.. legit. K, much love. Peace,

Elder Gudmundsen