Date
August 28, 2018
Area
Udorn Thailand
Companion
Elder Petterson
Week 15
สวัสดีครับ!
Way cool week! This week we biked a TON trying to meet with and find LA's. It was way fun. We met with a bunch of them, and we're going to Continue to work with them all this week to help build their faith and hopefully get them back to church once again. We also met with a lot of members, trying to help and serve them with whatever they need. And, in between all that we were inviting and talking with people on the street, trying to find new people to teach.
As we went about biking and meeting with people this week, there were a few fun things that happened.
One: I ate chicken intestines. The cooked parts of it were good, but the less cooked parts were not quite so good. Lets just say they tasted like what was going through them 🤢
Two: met with a guy who uses geese to heal people. Yeah so this guy apparently believes geese help people get better from their sicknesses. So he has one that just runs around the property, and when people get sick I guess they just bring the goose to the person and they get better eventually. Way interesting.
Three: we met with a super drunk guy this week. He was the most interesting dude in the world. He kept on going on about how หล่อ (handsome)we were, and was just spouting off about random stuff as we were trying to talk to a potential investigator (the drunk guy was the potential investigator's uncle) and the whole time he was was walking around holding a little puppy dog. And every once and a while, the puppy would twist around in his arm and bite his arm, or hand, or body, and the drunk guy would just let it bite him. He would just be like "ouchhh" as the dog gnawed on him. We were all just laughing at him the whole time. Way funny.
Also this week Elder Petterson and I got a little discouraged, because we worked really hard and talked with a lot of people, but we didn't find any new people to teach. On top of that, we had a lot of people cancel appointments on us. And also, one of the people we are teaching who has a date and a desire to be baptized, can't be baptized yet, because his wife doesn't want to legally marry him. We talked with her, and she says she doesn't even really love him anymore; apparently they don't even really talk to each other ever, even though they live in the same house. And they can't really move out away from each other because neither of them really has money. It's a sad and weird situation with them.
So anyways, we had a lot of barriers and walls this week, and we're a little bit saddened the other day, until we stumbled upon this scripture in Alma 26:17 which talks about some awesome people going to their enemies land to preach to them and help them have faith in God. It says, "Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success."
After that verse, those people went out again and kept trying. They "suffered every privation... " They were "cast out, and mocked, and spit upon, and smote upon our cheeks; and we have been stoned, and taken and bound with strong cords, and cast into prison..." they went through so many trials, but they kept working diligently and God blesses them, even so much they could "look forth and see the fruits of [their] labors; and are they few? I say unto you, Nay, they are many; yea, and we can witness of their sincerity, because of their love towards their brethren and also towards us." they were blessed with success, their brethren became a more loving and kind and God Fearing people. In the end their efforts were worth it. Same here in Thailand with missionary work or in America with just regular life. If we work hard, if we work diligently, with faith and love towards God, we'll be blessed with worth while success. We'll be blessed with a better life!
Anyways that was about my week. Hope you are doing well! Have a great week!
Love,
เอ็ลเดอร์แอนเดอร์สัน
Elder Anderson