Dear Family,.
It was good talking to you all.
My companion is awesome 'possom. He is adjusting really well to missionary life. He is humble and so willing. I am confident that together we can find the Lord's will and accomplish it.
I love you all,
Elder Lilly
Dec 28, 2009
Dec 23, 2009
Dear Family,
Merry Christmas!
Our awesome and crazy neighbor, Dennis, cooks food and gives it to the missionaries. He is full of crazy stories, yet the more I get to know him the more I call see how he knows what he is talking about. He has helped a lot of missionaries prepare for their future jobs. He has a lot of connections too. Well, we made friends with him really fast and every once and a while will drop bye and say hi to him. He has always given nicknames to the missionaries. I know other missionaries who have served in Korat before. There's Jew boy, Magic Man, Red, Wimpy the hamburger man, Sister Arizona, and others. But for some reason he has not given me a nickname. He calls me Elder Lilly. Then one time one of the sisters asked him why he didn't give me a nickname and he said it was because I am so old. I don't know what that means but he respects us and is very nice to us. We were talking about clothes a couple weeks ago and he found out that I am a big fan of vests. Just recently he gave me his own "lucky" blue vest and a couple of his own Ties. He's sweet.
Right now I am in SapanSung. Tomorrow I will meet my new Companion.
I feel good. Recently I have been working on simply befriending people and being sincere with them. Most people aren't open hearted at first. They are friendly, and nice, but not openhearted. It's amazing to be able to talk to someone and befriend them. They start to talk about things that they care about and things that are on their mind. Almost everything they say can be brought to a gospel principle. But there is a balance between boldness and overbearance. The Thai people usually don't have a Christian background. Most of them look for good things and accept good things. And they can easily recognise that we are good people. But they might not understand how practical and applicable the Gospel is. Simply testifying straight out usually doesn't enter their hearts. I think there needs to be a desire to seek after the Gospel first. Ammon sought to serve king Lamoni first, then later the king opened his heart. So, hopefully I can become better and better at being more like Ammon.
Another thing to work on is using the scriptures more. I use them in every lesson, but, I can still improve. Sometime missionaries get discouraged about using the Scriptures in Thai because it uses a higher form of the language and it's hard for people to understand. But that is only a minor challenge. The Book of Mormon is our greatest tool in conversion. I believe that a large part of my own conversion came from reading the Book of Mormon. There is a lot of Power in the words of the ancient and modern prophets. And anyone who prays and is open hearted seems to get something from reading them.
Well,
I love you guys.
The best time to call me according to my schedule would be your Christmas morning or your Christmas evening. If you plan on calling during your Christmas eve evening then just know that I have an appointment to teach at a school at 8:00 am my time. Okay?
Love,
Elder Lilly
Merry Christmas!
Our awesome and crazy neighbor, Dennis, cooks food and gives it to the missionaries. He is full of crazy stories, yet the more I get to know him the more I call see how he knows what he is talking about. He has helped a lot of missionaries prepare for their future jobs. He has a lot of connections too. Well, we made friends with him really fast and every once and a while will drop bye and say hi to him. He has always given nicknames to the missionaries. I know other missionaries who have served in Korat before. There's Jew boy, Magic Man, Red, Wimpy the hamburger man, Sister Arizona, and others. But for some reason he has not given me a nickname. He calls me Elder Lilly. Then one time one of the sisters asked him why he didn't give me a nickname and he said it was because I am so old. I don't know what that means but he respects us and is very nice to us. We were talking about clothes a couple weeks ago and he found out that I am a big fan of vests. Just recently he gave me his own "lucky" blue vest and a couple of his own Ties. He's sweet.
Right now I am in SapanSung. Tomorrow I will meet my new Companion.
I feel good. Recently I have been working on simply befriending people and being sincere with them. Most people aren't open hearted at first. They are friendly, and nice, but not openhearted. It's amazing to be able to talk to someone and befriend them. They start to talk about things that they care about and things that are on their mind. Almost everything they say can be brought to a gospel principle. But there is a balance between boldness and overbearance. The Thai people usually don't have a Christian background. Most of them look for good things and accept good things. And they can easily recognise that we are good people. But they might not understand how practical and applicable the Gospel is. Simply testifying straight out usually doesn't enter their hearts. I think there needs to be a desire to seek after the Gospel first. Ammon sought to serve king Lamoni first, then later the king opened his heart. So, hopefully I can become better and better at being more like Ammon.
Another thing to work on is using the scriptures more. I use them in every lesson, but, I can still improve. Sometime missionaries get discouraged about using the Scriptures in Thai because it uses a higher form of the language and it's hard for people to understand. But that is only a minor challenge. The Book of Mormon is our greatest tool in conversion. I believe that a large part of my own conversion came from reading the Book of Mormon. There is a lot of Power in the words of the ancient and modern prophets. And anyone who prays and is open hearted seems to get something from reading them.
Well,
I love you guys.
The best time to call me according to my schedule would be your Christmas morning or your Christmas evening. If you plan on calling during your Christmas eve evening then just know that I have an appointment to teach at a school at 8:00 am my time. Okay?
Love,
Elder Lilly
Dec 17, 2009
Big Change
So,
I got the pictures. Very nice. Also, I just got a pretty sweet looking package from Crystal. Thanks so much! It would probably be easier and cheaper to send money in the mail for me to buy a camera, but that's all up to you guys. Getting packages is always fun.
Yesterday was moves day. Moves was a week early in order to allow the fourteen Elders to go home for Christmas. There are three new missionaries coming in this next Thursday. And I am called to train one of them. Also, he is a native Thailander. In mission life/language I am a dad. But now this leaves a good week without my companion. Therefore am I switching off with Elder Jolley for a week who is also training but in Bangkok. We are going to be in Korat till Monday. Then we will go to his area in Supansung. Finally we will go to Pakkret in order to meet our new companions. But the catch for me is that my companion will not have gone to the MTC to train yet. Therefore he will be trained by the Assistants to President Smith and I will take a part in helping him from ground zero. We will be back in Korat for Christmas on the twenty fifth.
As soon as this next group of missionaries goes home all of the remaining missionaries will have been under the direction of President Smith longer than President Dodge. And there are a lot of changes being made. Starting on the 28 of Dec. our preparation day will be on Mondays. This means that you will need to change the day that you write e-mails to me! There are several several more changes but they will not take effect until that day as well.
Also, the number of missionaries in the country is going to go down from 140 to 94 in the next few move periods. That alone changes a lot. I am excited to take on the challenge and to be an even more obedient missionary.
One more thing. Because I am training, Elder Milton moved to Sesagate. If I count Elder Correa who was and Elder Jolley who will be companions with me for 1 week then the new Elder coming in will have been my twelfth companion.
One more thing. A killer wale can swim up to thirty miles an hour... that's fast.
I need to go work more because today is not preparation day, but I love you all very much. And I am excited to talk to y'all soon.
Love,
Elder Lilly
I got the pictures. Very nice. Also, I just got a pretty sweet looking package from Crystal. Thanks so much! It would probably be easier and cheaper to send money in the mail for me to buy a camera, but that's all up to you guys. Getting packages is always fun.
Yesterday was moves day. Moves was a week early in order to allow the fourteen Elders to go home for Christmas. There are three new missionaries coming in this next Thursday. And I am called to train one of them. Also, he is a native Thailander. In mission life/language I am a dad. But now this leaves a good week without my companion. Therefore am I switching off with Elder Jolley for a week who is also training but in Bangkok. We are going to be in Korat till Monday. Then we will go to his area in Supansung. Finally we will go to Pakkret in order to meet our new companions. But the catch for me is that my companion will not have gone to the MTC to train yet. Therefore he will be trained by the Assistants to President Smith and I will take a part in helping him from ground zero. We will be back in Korat for Christmas on the twenty fifth.
As soon as this next group of missionaries goes home all of the remaining missionaries will have been under the direction of President Smith longer than President Dodge. And there are a lot of changes being made. Starting on the 28 of Dec. our preparation day will be on Mondays. This means that you will need to change the day that you write e-mails to me! There are several several more changes but they will not take effect until that day as well.
Also, the number of missionaries in the country is going to go down from 140 to 94 in the next few move periods. That alone changes a lot. I am excited to take on the challenge and to be an even more obedient missionary.
One more thing. Because I am training, Elder Milton moved to Sesagate. If I count Elder Correa who was and Elder Jolley who will be companions with me for 1 week then the new Elder coming in will have been my twelfth companion.
One more thing. A killer wale can swim up to thirty miles an hour... that's fast.
I need to go work more because today is not preparation day, but I love you all very much. And I am excited to talk to y'all soon.
Love,
Elder Lilly
Dec 9, 2009
Christmas in Korat (that could be a movie)
Dear Family,
Thanks for the short update on how things are going with our family. Some of the news is exciting and some sad. But truly the Lord is looking out for us. I didn't think about it before but I wrote down a seven step pattern of success that I have found in my mission (coming from me and no official source) that I would like to share with our family.
1. Envision
2. Pray
3. Study
4. Sacrifice
5. Endure
6. Show gratitude
7. Increase Mightily
Each of these steps are deep and applicable to every situation I have found myself in. Often times I find myself doing every step at the same time. I will try to explain and expound simply on each of them as they apply to missionary work.
Envision. Vision is the first step. It is the eye of faith. We need to work out our vision with God and ask for His inspiration. Our vision could be distant or near at hand but we need to be able to envision what sort of changes we want to see in our lives or in the lives of others so that we can apply our faith to making the vision become reality. My vision for Korat included an increase in happiness of each of the members, excitement in spreading the Gospel, and an increase in church attendance, etc.
Pray. Pray mightily. Don't give up after a week or two. Pray several times per day. Praying can be a spiritual experience. How do you want Heavenly father to feel? We can't accomplish our goals without God's help. The prayer of faith is how we invite the Spirit to be with us.
Study. Eat the scriptures up. Our preparedness and intensity makes it powerful. We can find personal direction and revelation from studying the scriptures. Scripture study is another way that we can find the spirit and God's will for us.
Sacrifice. Sacrifice your sins, your time, your pride, obedience, hard work, and anything else it takes. Sacrifice is a principal of power. Sacrificing is how we show our faith.
Endure. Endure through the trial of our faith. There's definitely going to be a trial of our faith. Sometimes it takes time before we get what we want. Sometimes we go on in the dark and it doesn't seem like things are going according to our plan. We must pass through the trial. That means we need to be willing to give up everything and accept God's will. After we prove that we are willing, usually God gives us according to our desires. But not always. Sometimes we can't see the effects of our sacrifice but we can be assured that God will take it and use it for good. God will prompt us and let us know that we are on the right path. That's how we know that we still need to endure.
Show Gratitude. Even if we worked really hard, really the one who really did everything and gave us the strength we needed wasn't us. It was God. Gratitude is important. It is a sin to not be grateful. God blesses us with more when we are grateful. Gratitude goes a long way.
Increase Mightily. This is my favorite step. Increase your faith. Increase your commitment, sacrifice, humility, love, strength.... God want's us to learn from our experiences. So take every trial as an opportunity to grow. And make it mighty!
Yesterday I interviewed 3 more investigators. 2 of them passed and the other will be ready before this coming Sunday. Em and Sally's 2 kids Eve and Oy will be getting baptized this Sunday. God has blessed us a ton.
When would be the best time/day for you to call for Christmas? I suppose it doesn't really have to be Christmas.
I love you all so much.
Love,
Elder Lilly
p.s. I didn't get the Thanksgiving pictures. Also I wasn't the one behind the camera for Christmas, I've been grabbing other peoples cameras and using their pictures. I would like a really nice digital camera that I can go crazy with and take a lot of sweet pictures with for Christmas. That would be the greatest.
Thanks for the short update on how things are going with our family. Some of the news is exciting and some sad. But truly the Lord is looking out for us. I didn't think about it before but I wrote down a seven step pattern of success that I have found in my mission (coming from me and no official source) that I would like to share with our family.
1. Envision
2. Pray
3. Study
4. Sacrifice
5. Endure
6. Show gratitude
7. Increase Mightily
Each of these steps are deep and applicable to every situation I have found myself in. Often times I find myself doing every step at the same time. I will try to explain and expound simply on each of them as they apply to missionary work.
Envision. Vision is the first step. It is the eye of faith. We need to work out our vision with God and ask for His inspiration. Our vision could be distant or near at hand but we need to be able to envision what sort of changes we want to see in our lives or in the lives of others so that we can apply our faith to making the vision become reality. My vision for Korat included an increase in happiness of each of the members, excitement in spreading the Gospel, and an increase in church attendance, etc.
Pray. Pray mightily. Don't give up after a week or two. Pray several times per day. Praying can be a spiritual experience. How do you want Heavenly father to feel? We can't accomplish our goals without God's help. The prayer of faith is how we invite the Spirit to be with us.
Study. Eat the scriptures up. Our preparedness and intensity makes it powerful. We can find personal direction and revelation from studying the scriptures. Scripture study is another way that we can find the spirit and God's will for us.
Sacrifice. Sacrifice your sins, your time, your pride, obedience, hard work, and anything else it takes. Sacrifice is a principal of power. Sacrificing is how we show our faith.
Endure. Endure through the trial of our faith. There's definitely going to be a trial of our faith. Sometimes it takes time before we get what we want. Sometimes we go on in the dark and it doesn't seem like things are going according to our plan. We must pass through the trial. That means we need to be willing to give up everything and accept God's will. After we prove that we are willing, usually God gives us according to our desires. But not always. Sometimes we can't see the effects of our sacrifice but we can be assured that God will take it and use it for good. God will prompt us and let us know that we are on the right path. That's how we know that we still need to endure.
Show Gratitude. Even if we worked really hard, really the one who really did everything and gave us the strength we needed wasn't us. It was God. Gratitude is important. It is a sin to not be grateful. God blesses us with more when we are grateful. Gratitude goes a long way.
Increase Mightily. This is my favorite step. Increase your faith. Increase your commitment, sacrifice, humility, love, strength.... God want's us to learn from our experiences. So take every trial as an opportunity to grow. And make it mighty!
Yesterday I interviewed 3 more investigators. 2 of them passed and the other will be ready before this coming Sunday. Em and Sally's 2 kids Eve and Oy will be getting baptized this Sunday. God has blessed us a ton.
When would be the best time/day for you to call for Christmas? I suppose it doesn't really have to be Christmas.
I love you all so much.
Love,
Elder Lilly
p.s. I didn't get the Thanksgiving pictures. Also I wasn't the one behind the camera for Christmas, I've been grabbing other peoples cameras and using their pictures. I would like a really nice digital camera that I can go crazy with and take a lot of sweet pictures with for Christmas. That would be the greatest.
Dec 2, 2009
Diesel Time
Dear family,
How was thanksgiving? For thanksgiving we went to a Farang restaurant that we reserved. They pulled out a very very European styled dish that started with smoked salmon and continued on to turkey, gravy, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. It was delicious. It was only missing Mom's rolls, jam, pie, the rest of our family, and seconds.
But I would like to express how awesome Thailand is. But I can't because it's so awesome. Elder Prat made an interesting observation when he visited us. He said that us missionaries are now sealed to Thailand. He instructed us to love the people, the place, the culture, the language.... And I am sure that he could make the same observation and give the same advice to all missionaries around the globe for their own specific missions. I am glad that mine is Thailand. There is something special about it to me personally. A mission is the greatest thing.
In another three days The Kingdom of Thailand will be celebrating father's day, the King's Birthday.
So, I am curious. I have been left in the dark for a long time. How are our cousins?
A few weeks ago I had the special opportunity to interview one of the Sister's investigators for Baptism. I read through the list of questions and asked questions to get an idea of the strength of her testimony and the sincerity of her repentance. She has a strong testimony. I felt the spirit as she testified. But then as I came to a certain question I knew instantly that there was a problem with this one. I got a sort of sad, even sickly feeling as I read it. So I asked the question and then pressed a little further to understand what the problem was and sure enough there was a problem. After finishing the rest of the questions I came back to that one and we discussed what she needed to do in order to prepare herself further. That experience was a strong witness to me about God's love for his children. He needs us to be clean, 100%. Sometimes we might have a doubt or a question that we avoid facing because we don't want to. But it's the best feeling to be able to face our fears and come out conqueror clean. When Jesus traveled through the crowd it was Virtue that came out of him and healed the woman because of her faith. Then the Savior came back to her and told her that she was clean. Virtue has power. We can be confident in any situation if we have virtue.
I love you all. Always.
-Elder Lilly
How was thanksgiving? For thanksgiving we went to a Farang restaurant that we reserved. They pulled out a very very European styled dish that started with smoked salmon and continued on to turkey, gravy, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. It was delicious. It was only missing Mom's rolls, jam, pie, the rest of our family, and seconds.
But I would like to express how awesome Thailand is. But I can't because it's so awesome. Elder Prat made an interesting observation when he visited us. He said that us missionaries are now sealed to Thailand. He instructed us to love the people, the place, the culture, the language.... And I am sure that he could make the same observation and give the same advice to all missionaries around the globe for their own specific missions. I am glad that mine is Thailand. There is something special about it to me personally. A mission is the greatest thing.
In another three days The Kingdom of Thailand will be celebrating father's day, the King's Birthday.
So, I am curious. I have been left in the dark for a long time. How are our cousins?
A few weeks ago I had the special opportunity to interview one of the Sister's investigators for Baptism. I read through the list of questions and asked questions to get an idea of the strength of her testimony and the sincerity of her repentance. She has a strong testimony. I felt the spirit as she testified. But then as I came to a certain question I knew instantly that there was a problem with this one. I got a sort of sad, even sickly feeling as I read it. So I asked the question and then pressed a little further to understand what the problem was and sure enough there was a problem. After finishing the rest of the questions I came back to that one and we discussed what she needed to do in order to prepare herself further. That experience was a strong witness to me about God's love for his children. He needs us to be clean, 100%. Sometimes we might have a doubt or a question that we avoid facing because we don't want to. But it's the best feeling to be able to face our fears and come out conqueror clean. When Jesus traveled through the crowd it was Virtue that came out of him and healed the woman because of her faith. Then the Savior came back to her and told her that she was clean. Virtue has power. We can be confident in any situation if we have virtue.
I love you all. Always.
-Elder Lilly
Nov 25, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving!
Dear Family,
I love serving the Lord. I feel like my eternal perspective has changed. Everyday is full of miracles. Every day at the end of the day I feel grateful that I had the opportunity to learn and enjoy that day. There really is no more satisfying work than this.
I love teaching too. And I love the scriptures. Everyday my companion and I just eat the scriptures up in our personal study and then have enlightening conversations about what we learned afterward.
Quoting Sister Larson: "Does it get any better than this?"
Yesterday we had the opportunity to learn from Elder Pratt from the Quorum of the Seventy and one of the overseers of the Asian sector. I was pleased to find out that we were doing most of his advice in our District already. One thing that he stressed was the importance of having a KNEELING prayer with our investigators as well as with our companions before we leave the house, and every morning and night. We hadn't really had kneeling prayers with our investigators. Usually we would be sitting down criss-cross applesauce on the floor or sitting on a chair. Right after we got back from the conference (which is three hours away from our house) we had a kneeling prayer with one of the recent convert members. He said that it was his first time having a kneeling prayer. Somehow kneeling down automatically opens our hearts or humbles us a bit. It was a good experience. I can't wait to have kneeling prayers with all of our investigators.
So, Happy birthday SPENCER!!!!!!!
and Happy thanksgiving. I really wanted to give you something for your Christmas-thanksgiving-new years-birthday celebration. Unfortunately sending things takes a lot of time. So until then just know that in the spirit of the times I'm thinking of you and celebrating for you on this side of the world.
...And I'm always praying for you.
Love you all,
Elder Lilly
I love serving the Lord. I feel like my eternal perspective has changed. Everyday is full of miracles. Every day at the end of the day I feel grateful that I had the opportunity to learn and enjoy that day. There really is no more satisfying work than this.
I love teaching too. And I love the scriptures. Everyday my companion and I just eat the scriptures up in our personal study and then have enlightening conversations about what we learned afterward.
Quoting Sister Larson: "Does it get any better than this?"
Yesterday we had the opportunity to learn from Elder Pratt from the Quorum of the Seventy and one of the overseers of the Asian sector. I was pleased to find out that we were doing most of his advice in our District already. One thing that he stressed was the importance of having a KNEELING prayer with our investigators as well as with our companions before we leave the house, and every morning and night. We hadn't really had kneeling prayers with our investigators. Usually we would be sitting down criss-cross applesauce on the floor or sitting on a chair. Right after we got back from the conference (which is three hours away from our house) we had a kneeling prayer with one of the recent convert members. He said that it was his first time having a kneeling prayer. Somehow kneeling down automatically opens our hearts or humbles us a bit. It was a good experience. I can't wait to have kneeling prayers with all of our investigators.
So, Happy birthday SPENCER!!!!!!!
and Happy thanksgiving. I really wanted to give you something for your Christmas-thanksgiving-new years-birthday celebration. Unfortunately sending things takes a lot of time. So until then just know that in the spirit of the times I'm thinking of you and celebrating for you on this side of the world.
...And I'm always praying for you.
Love you all,
Elder Lilly
Nov 18, 2009
klap Trap
Dear Family,
Yes, the pictures failed to send, and it may be a little while before I can get them back again, but rest assured that they will come.
It's weird to think that another moves has passed away and that this is the first time that I am e-mailing with my new companion. It feels like we've been companions for a long time already. I suppose a week is a long time? Well, my new companions name is Elder Milton. He was in the group after me in the MTC so I kinda already did know him. We are doing great. We are excited to work. And we share a joy in serving.
Elder Milton is from Virginia. He is the youngest of five.
Yesterday we had another service project in the rice fields. This time we bundled up rice and carried the bundles together into a huge pile. Afterward we ate grilled chicken, sticky rice, papaya salad, pork jerky, and mandarin oranges. We sat together on a deck by the water Thai style while enjoying the cool weather and the great feast. And, whose field was it? It was Elder Manop's Dad's field. Elder Manop came home to Korad. Once we were mission companions in Ayutthaya and now I got to serve him in Korad. It's fun calling him brother Manop instead of Elder. Heh heh
One thing I am glad of about having Sisters in our District, other than their openheartedness and great service is that they help me to a certain degree with socializing with females again. Ayutthaya, as I mentioned before, is full of females. Sometimes we have to be cautious and even avoid some people a little bit because they are particularly flirty. I haven't had any problem understanding Thai people for a long time, even super drunk Thais who don't speak clearly I can understand. But there was this one girl in Ayutthaya who was a new member and still didn't understand the boundaries; who was so difficult for me to understand. It must have been a blessing of some sort because she eventually backed down. I'm sure I was a little awkward around the Sisters when I first came to Korad. Now that that's over, hopefully I can remember for when I get back home. :p
Well, we continue to work as hard as we can. We see miracles every day. We see the tender mercies of the Lord every day. Just today we had the unexpected opportunity to go lift some large and heavy sheets of tin for one of the elderly men in our Branch (half way around the world and I'm still the mover). We didn't have very much time and I had only been to the man's house once. The first time I went my companion got lost looking for the house. But, today as we headed out I said a prayer and asked for help to get there in our time schedule. We headed out traveling for about 20 minutes on bike and basically went straight there. We were able to help him in less than thirty minutes and get back in time for our appointment.
I love you all very much. I'm doing great, and the work is going well.
It's a beautiful season.
Love,
Elder Lilly
Yes, the pictures failed to send, and it may be a little while before I can get them back again, but rest assured that they will come.
It's weird to think that another moves has passed away and that this is the first time that I am e-mailing with my new companion. It feels like we've been companions for a long time already. I suppose a week is a long time? Well, my new companions name is Elder Milton. He was in the group after me in the MTC so I kinda already did know him. We are doing great. We are excited to work. And we share a joy in serving.
Elder Milton is from Virginia. He is the youngest of five.
Yesterday we had another service project in the rice fields. This time we bundled up rice and carried the bundles together into a huge pile. Afterward we ate grilled chicken, sticky rice, papaya salad, pork jerky, and mandarin oranges. We sat together on a deck by the water Thai style while enjoying the cool weather and the great feast. And, whose field was it? It was Elder Manop's Dad's field. Elder Manop came home to Korad. Once we were mission companions in Ayutthaya and now I got to serve him in Korad. It's fun calling him brother Manop instead of Elder. Heh heh
One thing I am glad of about having Sisters in our District, other than their openheartedness and great service is that they help me to a certain degree with socializing with females again. Ayutthaya, as I mentioned before, is full of females. Sometimes we have to be cautious and even avoid some people a little bit because they are particularly flirty. I haven't had any problem understanding Thai people for a long time, even super drunk Thais who don't speak clearly I can understand. But there was this one girl in Ayutthaya who was a new member and still didn't understand the boundaries; who was so difficult for me to understand. It must have been a blessing of some sort because she eventually backed down. I'm sure I was a little awkward around the Sisters when I first came to Korad. Now that that's over, hopefully I can remember for when I get back home. :p
Well, we continue to work as hard as we can. We see miracles every day. We see the tender mercies of the Lord every day. Just today we had the unexpected opportunity to go lift some large and heavy sheets of tin for one of the elderly men in our Branch (half way around the world and I'm still the mover). We didn't have very much time and I had only been to the man's house once. The first time I went my companion got lost looking for the house. But, today as we headed out I said a prayer and asked for help to get there in our time schedule. We headed out traveling for about 20 minutes on bike and basically went straight there. We were able to help him in less than thirty minutes and get back in time for our appointment.
I love you all very much. I'm doing great, and the work is going well.
It's a beautiful season.
Love,
Elder Lilly
Nov 11, 2009
Giaw Khaaw Sanug Mak
Dear Family,
And so another moves has passed away like as it were a dream. And very unexpectedly Elder Blaustein is moving. That's happened to me quite a bit. I can't seem to hold on to a missionary companion for more than a single move. It's been an awesome experience working with Elder Blaustein.In order to show our faith in God for the last week and a half we have spoke nothing but Thai together. I feel like I have grown in Faith in Jesus Christ and Love for my Savior and the Thai people to a greater extent in the period of time that I have had to work with him.
Several things have happened in the past week. We have found some new investigators who we can work with who could possibly get Baptized in the next move. We gave M's wife as a referral to the sisters after he got baptized and now the Sisters are giving us Penapa's children as referrals for us as she prepares to get baptized within the next two weeks. I will probably have the joy of interviewing her this Saturday or Sunday. Her preparation for baptism has been a great trial for the Sisters. They have shown so much faith on her behalf. Aside from the district meeting that we had on faith I also let the Sisters Borrow that very same CD by Gene R. Cook that Aaron gave me. They seemed to like it even more than I did. They listened to it over and over again as they were struggling to help their investigators progress-- and especially Penapa. Thanks again Aaron!
We had the opportunity to Giaw Khaaw this week. That is to say... we harvested rice. The field is President Gosong's field. The people in the pictures include My district: Sister Bradfield (taller), Sister Larson, Elder Blaustein, and I, President Gosong, his's wife Meow, his Dad, and his' son Noah.
And so another moves has passed away like as it were a dream. And very unexpectedly Elder Blaustein is moving. That's happened to me quite a bit. I can't seem to hold on to a missionary companion for more than a single move. It's been an awesome experience working with Elder Blaustein.In order to show our faith in God for the last week and a half we have spoke nothing but Thai together. I feel like I have grown in Faith in Jesus Christ and Love for my Savior and the Thai people to a greater extent in the period of time that I have had to work with him.
Several things have happened in the past week. We have found some new investigators who we can work with who could possibly get Baptized in the next move. We gave M's wife as a referral to the sisters after he got baptized and now the Sisters are giving us Penapa's children as referrals for us as she prepares to get baptized within the next two weeks. I will probably have the joy of interviewing her this Saturday or Sunday. Her preparation for baptism has been a great trial for the Sisters. They have shown so much faith on her behalf. Aside from the district meeting that we had on faith I also let the Sisters Borrow that very same CD by Gene R. Cook that Aaron gave me. They seemed to like it even more than I did. They listened to it over and over again as they were struggling to help their investigators progress-- and especially Penapa. Thanks again Aaron!
We had the opportunity to Giaw Khaaw this week. That is to say... we harvested rice. The field is President Gosong's field. The people in the pictures include My district: Sister Bradfield (taller), Sister Larson, Elder Blaustein, and I, President Gosong, his's wife Meow, his Dad, and his' son Noah.
Nov 4, 2009
Happy Halloween, hello overcast.
Happy Birthday to Camille and Aaron. And soon to be Kate the great.
How are you all doing these days? It's barely November but our ward is already planning our super Christmas activity, and they have been for quite some time. Some new good news is that our branch just called eight new branch missionaries. Now that the fire of service and the Spirit are being spread throughout the branch we will get to focus our energies and make new sacrifices in order to help others to come unto Christ.
So I have a story. But first I must mention about our crazy next door neighbor named Dennis. He is indescribably himself, and very quotable. He is better than quoting a movie. Dennis is about 70 years old. He doesn't have teeth but remarkably he doesn't need them. He chews everything from hamburgers to steak with the bones of his gum. He has the craziest stories about fighting in wars, helping the king, and the queen, and Korat, and everyone, as well as stories about karate, being a doctor, being a guitar star trainer, building trains, and being a Templar Knight. It is also notable to say that he has pictures and other evidence to back up all of his stories. He's been working with "The Mormons" for over seven years. Mostly all he does other than smoke is related to one service project or another. He has a great heart. He just needs to completely forsake his rowdy days and come unto Christ. He gives everyone nicknames (except for me, I still don't have one). Also, he buys us tons of expensive farang food (foreigner food) for us to eat for free. He wants to take Elder Blaustein and I to go shopping for a nice suit. After all he used to be the best dressed in Thailand. Actually he still is. "They call me Old Handsome."
I'm pretty much out of time because we just got back from visiting a snake farm and watching the Snake show, but I wanted to describe a little bit of the fiasco that we had with looking for a new house. A member showed us a nice little house that she felt would work for the sisters. I, having no previous knowledge about houses or prices or contracts, desired to look at other locations so that I could at least have something to compare this house to. With some options I could make sure that I was choosing the best location. Also, Elder Petersen gave us a budget of 8,000 Baht per month for rent, and the house was only 6,000. I figured that maybe there was somewhere that was better and more fit to the sisters needs. So we went around and looked at several other houses and compared all of them. Another location looked good and the lady was willing to put the house for rent instead of sell it, so we considered that house. But it still didn't look that great to me. Another place close by was big but way old. It smelled funny when we entered. Then another option came up. This house was very new and very nice looking house. It had everything we needed. It seemed like an answer to our prayers. I talked to the landlord about the contract and pricing and asked her to put in another air conditioning system and a few other things. After figuring our the contract and rewriting it several times the landlord decided that she would like to live there and have us rent another house that was just about the same design and was just barely built. We looked at it, but I felt like her house was the better option so we asked if we could continue on with her house instead. She agreed. She was going to go to Bangkok that weekend which meant that she could buy the furnishings but naturally she needed to sign the contract first. We went to print out the contract but we ended up wasting time at one internet shop which wouldn't bring up the contract because of an illegal version of Microsoft Office. There were other stores but none of them had a printer. The last store had a printer, but it was full. We waited a bit for someone to leave and when we finally entered the store and tried to print out the contract, the printer was slow. Because that all took so long we had to change the appointment. The weekend past and we were ready to sign the contract again. However, by this time the Sisters who are the ones who are actually moving expressed that they didn't feel good about the house because of the location. The house was a little far from the church, and we heard that that area had a lower elevation than the surrounding area and thus it floods every year during rainy season. By this time we have only three more days left before the end of the month when we have to move. I had already scheduled an appointment to sign the contract with the landlord and was about to leave when the Sisters called and said that they met with a member and found another location. All along I am trying my best to follow my feelings and find the best option for the sister. For some reason as soon as they called about this new house I felt like I needed to cancel with this Landlord that we had been working a deal with for the past two weeks. So we biked over and canceled with that Landlord (she was a way nice lady too) and went to look at the new house that the sisters found with the member. We go to look at the house and lo and behold, it's the very same house that we first looked at but with a different member. Up to this time I had done well to avoid the stress from the situation and had worked things out well, but now I could feel the weight of stress increase on my shoulders. We continue on to talk to the landlord to work out a deal with her. The landlord had talked to the member whose name was Nui. Nui worked out a nice deal and the rich landlord agreed to giving us all of the furnishings that we wanted for an increase of rent from the origional 6,000 per month to 7,000. But Nui didn't do very well at correlating with me, and so when I went to go talk to the Landlord I found the most shamelessly greedy and unpleasant person I have ever met before in my life. She put on a big show. She was "stressed and "tired" from work and had very little time to work with us because she was "busy." She expressed how we were asking for too much from her and she wanted us to lower the amount of furnishings. She felt that the contract was unagreeable because of a little tax deal that she wouldn't understand because she didn't care to listen to me. She tried to push the need we had to move by telling us that she might not even put the house for rent anymore, but she'll leave it as a visitors house for when her friends come to stay. She was clearly playing the game to save money. I did my best to work with her and successfully worked out a temporary change to the contract, but did not do any signing. Then I talked to Sister Nui who's phone was off that morning and she explained to me that the Landlord was nice to her because she did something big for her in the past, and that actually 7,000 Baht is a lot for a house. Even though my budget was 8,000 she explained that her house is 3 stories and she is only paying 3,000 for it. She also explained that she had been looking to find another house all morning. Long story short, she found one. The landlord was very rich, very comfortable, and very open-hearted to accepting whatever our needs were. And the brand new house ended up being only 5500 per month and close to the church. The only downside is that it's a pretty small house. But the sisters love it, and after a little more convincing and work, she signed the contract. I feel like I learned a lot from the entire experience, and I am sure that the Lord needed me to learn a lesson from it to prepare me for the future. Last Saturday we moved the Sisters into their new house and we moved into the Sister's old house, and cleaned both places. The Lord continues to bless us and answer our prayers for more faith. I am just glad to get back to 100% missionary work again. It's the best.
I love you all. Keep reading the scriptures and following the spirit.
Love,
Elder Lilly
P.S. Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat.
Dennis is going to take is suit shopping. What is your opinion on me getting a suit?
How are you all doing these days? It's barely November but our ward is already planning our super Christmas activity, and they have been for quite some time. Some new good news is that our branch just called eight new branch missionaries. Now that the fire of service and the Spirit are being spread throughout the branch we will get to focus our energies and make new sacrifices in order to help others to come unto Christ.
So I have a story. But first I must mention about our crazy next door neighbor named Dennis. He is indescribably himself, and very quotable. He is better than quoting a movie. Dennis is about 70 years old. He doesn't have teeth but remarkably he doesn't need them. He chews everything from hamburgers to steak with the bones of his gum. He has the craziest stories about fighting in wars, helping the king, and the queen, and Korat, and everyone, as well as stories about karate, being a doctor, being a guitar star trainer, building trains, and being a Templar Knight. It is also notable to say that he has pictures and other evidence to back up all of his stories. He's been working with "The Mormons" for over seven years. Mostly all he does other than smoke is related to one service project or another. He has a great heart. He just needs to completely forsake his rowdy days and come unto Christ. He gives everyone nicknames (except for me, I still don't have one). Also, he buys us tons of expensive farang food (foreigner food) for us to eat for free. He wants to take Elder Blaustein and I to go shopping for a nice suit. After all he used to be the best dressed in Thailand. Actually he still is. "They call me Old Handsome."
I'm pretty much out of time because we just got back from visiting a snake farm and watching the Snake show, but I wanted to describe a little bit of the fiasco that we had with looking for a new house. A member showed us a nice little house that she felt would work for the sisters. I, having no previous knowledge about houses or prices or contracts, desired to look at other locations so that I could at least have something to compare this house to. With some options I could make sure that I was choosing the best location. Also, Elder Petersen gave us a budget of 8,000 Baht per month for rent, and the house was only 6,000. I figured that maybe there was somewhere that was better and more fit to the sisters needs. So we went around and looked at several other houses and compared all of them. Another location looked good and the lady was willing to put the house for rent instead of sell it, so we considered that house. But it still didn't look that great to me. Another place close by was big but way old. It smelled funny when we entered. Then another option came up. This house was very new and very nice looking house. It had everything we needed. It seemed like an answer to our prayers. I talked to the landlord about the contract and pricing and asked her to put in another air conditioning system and a few other things. After figuring our the contract and rewriting it several times the landlord decided that she would like to live there and have us rent another house that was just about the same design and was just barely built. We looked at it, but I felt like her house was the better option so we asked if we could continue on with her house instead. She agreed. She was going to go to Bangkok that weekend which meant that she could buy the furnishings but naturally she needed to sign the contract first. We went to print out the contract but we ended up wasting time at one internet shop which wouldn't bring up the contract because of an illegal version of Microsoft Office. There were other stores but none of them had a printer. The last store had a printer, but it was full. We waited a bit for someone to leave and when we finally entered the store and tried to print out the contract, the printer was slow. Because that all took so long we had to change the appointment. The weekend past and we were ready to sign the contract again. However, by this time the Sisters who are the ones who are actually moving expressed that they didn't feel good about the house because of the location. The house was a little far from the church, and we heard that that area had a lower elevation than the surrounding area and thus it floods every year during rainy season. By this time we have only three more days left before the end of the month when we have to move. I had already scheduled an appointment to sign the contract with the landlord and was about to leave when the Sisters called and said that they met with a member and found another location. All along I am trying my best to follow my feelings and find the best option for the sister. For some reason as soon as they called about this new house I felt like I needed to cancel with this Landlord that we had been working a deal with for the past two weeks. So we biked over and canceled with that Landlord (she was a way nice lady too) and went to look at the new house that the sisters found with the member. We go to look at the house and lo and behold, it's the very same house that we first looked at but with a different member. Up to this time I had done well to avoid the stress from the situation and had worked things out well, but now I could feel the weight of stress increase on my shoulders. We continue on to talk to the landlord to work out a deal with her. The landlord had talked to the member whose name was Nui. Nui worked out a nice deal and the rich landlord agreed to giving us all of the furnishings that we wanted for an increase of rent from the origional 6,000 per month to 7,000. But Nui didn't do very well at correlating with me, and so when I went to go talk to the Landlord I found the most shamelessly greedy and unpleasant person I have ever met before in my life. She put on a big show. She was "stressed and "tired" from work and had very little time to work with us because she was "busy." She expressed how we were asking for too much from her and she wanted us to lower the amount of furnishings. She felt that the contract was unagreeable because of a little tax deal that she wouldn't understand because she didn't care to listen to me. She tried to push the need we had to move by telling us that she might not even put the house for rent anymore, but she'll leave it as a visitors house for when her friends come to stay. She was clearly playing the game to save money. I did my best to work with her and successfully worked out a temporary change to the contract, but did not do any signing. Then I talked to Sister Nui who's phone was off that morning and she explained to me that the Landlord was nice to her because she did something big for her in the past, and that actually 7,000 Baht is a lot for a house. Even though my budget was 8,000 she explained that her house is 3 stories and she is only paying 3,000 for it. She also explained that she had been looking to find another house all morning. Long story short, she found one. The landlord was very rich, very comfortable, and very open-hearted to accepting whatever our needs were. And the brand new house ended up being only 5500 per month and close to the church. The only downside is that it's a pretty small house. But the sisters love it, and after a little more convincing and work, she signed the contract. I feel like I learned a lot from the entire experience, and I am sure that the Lord needed me to learn a lesson from it to prepare me for the future. Last Saturday we moved the Sisters into their new house and we moved into the Sister's old house, and cleaned both places. The Lord continues to bless us and answer our prayers for more faith. I am just glad to get back to 100% missionary work again. It's the best.
I love you all. Keep reading the scriptures and following the spirit.
Love,
Elder Lilly
P.S. Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat.
Dennis is going to take is suit shopping. What is your opinion on me getting a suit?
Oct 28, 2009
Dear Family,
Last Sunday our investigator named Em got Baptized! I forgot to mention that he passed the interview in my last letter. Oh well. The speakers called Em their brother as they spoke to him and bore their testimonies. Em's entire family came to the Baptismal service. Early on Sunday morning Brother Tahm prepared a large bouquet of flowers to be placed under the stand for Em's Baptism. Altogether the members really made the Baptismal service a special occasion. I think that the Branch in Korat is growing. There's a fire in the members. More and more we are seeing members serving each other and asking us for opportunities to serve.
I believe that in my last letter I spoke about praying for three names from a list of each of the members in order to find out God's will concerning which members we need to teach. Our aim was to teach them in order to receive referrals from them. But two of the names that we prayed about were not on eachother's list of three. So instead of teaching a referral lesson we decided to visit those two names and have family home evening with them. So last Monday we planned to go visit brother Owe. The hour before our appointment another one of our investigators called us and we met him and taught him at the church. This unexpected appointment put us behind in our plan and we therefore did not have enough time to bike over to Brother Owe's house. Instead, we called a Tuk Tuk driver to come pick us up. But we didn't call just any Tuk Tuk driver, we called our investigator named Guu. Guu is so poor. He lives or rather sleeps in a small hut. He has to pay rent on his car that he uses to ferry people around like a Taxi. Between the rent on his hut and his car he has very little money left over to spend on food and other necessities. Some days he might make good money, but then another day he might not get enough money to even pay the rent. If he doesn't make enough money during the day then he needs to drive during the night too. Usually he gets about 4 hours of sleep. So as you can tell, he rarely has time to come and learn with us anymore. But on this most auspicious of nights, he stayed. Brother Owe was just what he needed. The lesson we taught was about the power of faith. Guu has already learned all of the lessons necessary before Baptism but he is struggling with quitting smoking. Because he wasn't progressing , we set him aside for a time, and stopped teaching him. I think that this Family home evening lesson helped Guu in his need. But we might not have thought about holding a family home evening with Brother Owe had we not prayed about the list of names.
The Sister's are experiencing many mighty miracles as well. The last lesson that I taught in our District meeting was about Faith. I used several principals that I learned from a certain talk by Elder Greg Cook that I got from Aaron to help in teaching. It was a powerful lesson. The Sister missionaries said that they were filled with faith during the day when they needed it. They are teaching Em's wife named Sally. Sally has a goal to be baptized on the last Sunday before moves. She needs to meet with the sisters 3 times a week in order to succeed in her goal but her only day off is Sunday. Any other day is not sure. But, thus far they have been able to meet with Sally on every appointment. When all goes as we hope, Em will be the one to baptize her.
Love ya,
Elder Lilly
Last Sunday our investigator named Em got Baptized! I forgot to mention that he passed the interview in my last letter. Oh well. The speakers called Em their brother as they spoke to him and bore their testimonies. Em's entire family came to the Baptismal service. Early on Sunday morning Brother Tahm prepared a large bouquet of flowers to be placed under the stand for Em's Baptism. Altogether the members really made the Baptismal service a special occasion. I think that the Branch in Korat is growing. There's a fire in the members. More and more we are seeing members serving each other and asking us for opportunities to serve.
I believe that in my last letter I spoke about praying for three names from a list of each of the members in order to find out God's will concerning which members we need to teach. Our aim was to teach them in order to receive referrals from them. But two of the names that we prayed about were not on eachother's list of three. So instead of teaching a referral lesson we decided to visit those two names and have family home evening with them. So last Monday we planned to go visit brother Owe. The hour before our appointment another one of our investigators called us and we met him and taught him at the church. This unexpected appointment put us behind in our plan and we therefore did not have enough time to bike over to Brother Owe's house. Instead, we called a Tuk Tuk driver to come pick us up. But we didn't call just any Tuk Tuk driver, we called our investigator named Guu. Guu is so poor. He lives or rather sleeps in a small hut. He has to pay rent on his car that he uses to ferry people around like a Taxi. Between the rent on his hut and his car he has very little money left over to spend on food and other necessities. Some days he might make good money, but then another day he might not get enough money to even pay the rent. If he doesn't make enough money during the day then he needs to drive during the night too. Usually he gets about 4 hours of sleep. So as you can tell, he rarely has time to come and learn with us anymore. But on this most auspicious of nights, he stayed. Brother Owe was just what he needed. The lesson we taught was about the power of faith. Guu has already learned all of the lessons necessary before Baptism but he is struggling with quitting smoking. Because he wasn't progressing , we set him aside for a time, and stopped teaching him. I think that this Family home evening lesson helped Guu in his need. But we might not have thought about holding a family home evening with Brother Owe had we not prayed about the list of names.
The Sister's are experiencing many mighty miracles as well. The last lesson that I taught in our District meeting was about Faith. I used several principals that I learned from a certain talk by Elder Greg Cook that I got from Aaron to help in teaching. It was a powerful lesson. The Sister missionaries said that they were filled with faith during the day when they needed it. They are teaching Em's wife named Sally. Sally has a goal to be baptized on the last Sunday before moves. She needs to meet with the sisters 3 times a week in order to succeed in her goal but her only day off is Sunday. Any other day is not sure. But, thus far they have been able to meet with Sally on every appointment. When all goes as we hope, Em will be the one to baptize her.
Love ya,
Elder Lilly
Oct 21, 2009
Reporting in
Dear Family,
This Morning our hair cut took about two hours long. That is including the hair washing before and after the cut. I feel like my hair is cut so evenly that it could take the scrutiny of a Hollywood camera up close. And it smells good.
Yesterday we enjoyed sharing experiences with each other at our zone lesson in Mahasarakham. One of the main topics of discussion was about prayer. I feel amazed as I look back at the multiplicity of my prayers that were answered in the past year. The Spirit really can direct our prayers and we are sure to get an answer. Our prayers really can be a spiritual experience, especially when accompanied by scripture study and pondering. I am reminded of the story of Enos whose soul hungered. He was brought to pray all night and all day until the voice of the Lord came into his mind. But then he was not satisfied with his own salvation alone but he prayed for his brethren the Nephites. The answer he received was that the Lord would bless the Nephites according to their diligence to keeping the commandments. Enos let the answer to his prayer increase his faith, and his soul was still not satisfied. Finally after the third time the Lord grants an answer to Enos' prayers according to Enos' desires because of his faith in Christ. What I find to be especially interesting is that Enos' desires were that if the Nephites just happen to be destroyed and the Lamanites not, that God would preserve the records so that they might bring the Lamanites to faith in Christ--which is in history what actually happened. How in the world did he know to pray for that? His prayers must have been directed by the spirit.
The more I read the scriptures the more I feel the truths of the Gospel sink in to my soul. So often I will be talking with Elder Blaughstein and we will be discussing about simple truths that we learned from the scriptures. And the truths seem so much more evident. Then what we discussed from our personal studies together has so often been the exact topic that those we teach needed. Then the spirit confirms the things that we talked about from that morning one more time in the lesson. As we leave from that appointment I feel the need to say a prayer of thanks and I can't help but smile at my companion in amusement and feel grateful that we had the spirit with us in our studies that morning. These kinds of experiences are very special to me. And I feel obligated to work harder for being blessed with them. One of the impressions that Elder Blaughstein and I feel to do is to pray for service opportunities. I hadn't thought to do that before. All our work is service. But serving as you're serving on a mission is even better.
Thanks to the simple advice of my oldest brother from when we lasted talked on the phone together, Elder Blaughstein and I had another special experience. We separated into different rooms with a list of over 30 names of all the brethren in the Branch. Then we prayed to find three names of people who God would have us teach. When we came back together and looked at the names that we prayed about separately, two of the three names were the same.
I love you all!
Love Elder Lilly
P.S. We found a house and the Sisters are going to move in. Then we will move to the sisters old house. Also our neighbor is crazy!
This Morning our hair cut took about two hours long. That is including the hair washing before and after the cut. I feel like my hair is cut so evenly that it could take the scrutiny of a Hollywood camera up close. And it smells good.
Yesterday we enjoyed sharing experiences with each other at our zone lesson in Mahasarakham. One of the main topics of discussion was about prayer. I feel amazed as I look back at the multiplicity of my prayers that were answered in the past year. The Spirit really can direct our prayers and we are sure to get an answer. Our prayers really can be a spiritual experience, especially when accompanied by scripture study and pondering. I am reminded of the story of Enos whose soul hungered. He was brought to pray all night and all day until the voice of the Lord came into his mind. But then he was not satisfied with his own salvation alone but he prayed for his brethren the Nephites. The answer he received was that the Lord would bless the Nephites according to their diligence to keeping the commandments. Enos let the answer to his prayer increase his faith, and his soul was still not satisfied. Finally after the third time the Lord grants an answer to Enos' prayers according to Enos' desires because of his faith in Christ. What I find to be especially interesting is that Enos' desires were that if the Nephites just happen to be destroyed and the Lamanites not, that God would preserve the records so that they might bring the Lamanites to faith in Christ--which is in history what actually happened. How in the world did he know to pray for that? His prayers must have been directed by the spirit.
The more I read the scriptures the more I feel the truths of the Gospel sink in to my soul. So often I will be talking with Elder Blaughstein and we will be discussing about simple truths that we learned from the scriptures. And the truths seem so much more evident. Then what we discussed from our personal studies together has so often been the exact topic that those we teach needed. Then the spirit confirms the things that we talked about from that morning one more time in the lesson. As we leave from that appointment I feel the need to say a prayer of thanks and I can't help but smile at my companion in amusement and feel grateful that we had the spirit with us in our studies that morning. These kinds of experiences are very special to me. And I feel obligated to work harder for being blessed with them. One of the impressions that Elder Blaughstein and I feel to do is to pray for service opportunities. I hadn't thought to do that before. All our work is service. But serving as you're serving on a mission is even better.
Thanks to the simple advice of my oldest brother from when we lasted talked on the phone together, Elder Blaughstein and I had another special experience. We separated into different rooms with a list of over 30 names of all the brethren in the Branch. Then we prayed to find three names of people who God would have us teach. When we came back together and looked at the names that we prayed about separately, two of the three names were the same.
I love you all!
Love Elder Lilly
P.S. We found a house and the Sisters are going to move in. Then we will move to the sisters old house. Also our neighbor is crazy!
Oct 14, 2009
ghgg
Dear Family,
I am listening to conference right now. Heh heh heh...
I am so grateful for the opportunity to be on a mission. I have felt so happy and learned so many little important lessons that help me and will be a blessing to me for the rest of my life. I feel grateful that our family can receive blessings for my faithful service. I don't fear the future. I feel excited and humbled to do the lord's work.
Our vision for Korat is that we hope to spread the happiness of the gospel to the new converts, the less active members, and especially to the strong active members. We hope to spread the messages taught in the scriptures about giving service and following Christs example. Yesterday we taught one of the recent converts a very short but powerful follow-up lesson. He connected the principals from both lessons and as soon as we felt the spirit strongly we prayed together and left. I know that the spirit had confirmed our testimonies and had been the teacher of that lesson. I could feel it. I could see it in his eyes. I hope that he will apply what was taught.
We had a great opportunity to have family home evening with the Branch President. He is such an important person; has such an important role in the church. We ate together and read certain scriptures that were meaningful to us which spoke about trust in God together. Then we visited a less active member together. I hope of all people that he will feel of our love for him. I hope that our service will lesson his burdens.
Working with Elder Blaughstein has been really fun. Today we carefully planned out a day full of activities. This morning we woke at our usual morning hours and immediately cleaned the house up. Then we changed clothes and set out to play basketball again. We invited our investigator and his friends, our branch mission leader (he's a short Filipino guy), and a few other guys that were around who we invited to play too. It was great fun, and as usual we did very well together. Then we came home, showered, ate some food and set out to "the Mall" with one of the members named Ratana. We ate Ice Cream with him and his Nephew. It was pretty amusing to see him eat his super sweet Ice cream with a smile on his face. Then we invited him over to the "free massaging chairs" in the Mall and we just sat down for about 20 minutes getting a massage. I couldn't help but laugh as the chair started shaking Ratana back and forth. He seemed a bit out of place in such a huge expensive mall. His home is more of a shack with chickens feeding around it.
Speaking of chickens. In Zelda they have really weird looking chickens that have their back tail feathers sticking straight up. I've seen some of those chickens up here. I'm no expert, but I'd venture to say that those are Asian chickens.
To Kara, I found a package and I'm sending you the Guitar. Happy Birthday. And for Mom, I think that it's great that you are receiving a calling in the relief society presidency. I certainly understand much more about the importance of the Relief Society in the ward from my experiences here. The Elder's quorum President is like the Branch President's right hand. But If he want's to get anything done all he needs to do is give the Relief Society President a call. Then there's sure to be action.
Unfortunately this year we didn't have an opportunity to watch conference in English. We were very disappointed as we were all looking forward to conference with excitement, hoping to see it in English. The Thai is okay, but a monotone translation doesn't do justice to the conference talks. Yet even through the language barrier I still felt impressed by the spirit. But then I felt sorry for Elder Blaughstein and Sister Larson as they are both new to the country. My translating the translations back to English did not do any justice to the talks either. As Sunday came around we prepared. We printed out a copy of all of the talks in English. Then we read them together.
I love you all, I have some great experiences I would love to share with you. And We have some good investigators.
Love,
Elder Lilly
I am listening to conference right now. Heh heh heh...
I am so grateful for the opportunity to be on a mission. I have felt so happy and learned so many little important lessons that help me and will be a blessing to me for the rest of my life. I feel grateful that our family can receive blessings for my faithful service. I don't fear the future. I feel excited and humbled to do the lord's work.
Our vision for Korat is that we hope to spread the happiness of the gospel to the new converts, the less active members, and especially to the strong active members. We hope to spread the messages taught in the scriptures about giving service and following Christs example. Yesterday we taught one of the recent converts a very short but powerful follow-up lesson. He connected the principals from both lessons and as soon as we felt the spirit strongly we prayed together and left. I know that the spirit had confirmed our testimonies and had been the teacher of that lesson. I could feel it. I could see it in his eyes. I hope that he will apply what was taught.
We had a great opportunity to have family home evening with the Branch President. He is such an important person; has such an important role in the church. We ate together and read certain scriptures that were meaningful to us which spoke about trust in God together. Then we visited a less active member together. I hope of all people that he will feel of our love for him. I hope that our service will lesson his burdens.
Working with Elder Blaughstein has been really fun. Today we carefully planned out a day full of activities. This morning we woke at our usual morning hours and immediately cleaned the house up. Then we changed clothes and set out to play basketball again. We invited our investigator and his friends, our branch mission leader (he's a short Filipino guy), and a few other guys that were around who we invited to play too. It was great fun, and as usual we did very well together. Then we came home, showered, ate some food and set out to "the Mall" with one of the members named Ratana. We ate Ice Cream with him and his Nephew. It was pretty amusing to see him eat his super sweet Ice cream with a smile on his face. Then we invited him over to the "free massaging chairs" in the Mall and we just sat down for about 20 minutes getting a massage. I couldn't help but laugh as the chair started shaking Ratana back and forth. He seemed a bit out of place in such a huge expensive mall. His home is more of a shack with chickens feeding around it.
Speaking of chickens. In Zelda they have really weird looking chickens that have their back tail feathers sticking straight up. I've seen some of those chickens up here. I'm no expert, but I'd venture to say that those are Asian chickens.
To Kara, I found a package and I'm sending you the Guitar. Happy Birthday. And for Mom, I think that it's great that you are receiving a calling in the relief society presidency. I certainly understand much more about the importance of the Relief Society in the ward from my experiences here. The Elder's quorum President is like the Branch President's right hand. But If he want's to get anything done all he needs to do is give the Relief Society President a call. Then there's sure to be action.
Unfortunately this year we didn't have an opportunity to watch conference in English. We were very disappointed as we were all looking forward to conference with excitement, hoping to see it in English. The Thai is okay, but a monotone translation doesn't do justice to the conference talks. Yet even through the language barrier I still felt impressed by the spirit. But then I felt sorry for Elder Blaughstein and Sister Larson as they are both new to the country. My translating the translations back to English did not do any justice to the talks either. As Sunday came around we prepared. We printed out a copy of all of the talks in English. Then we read them together.
I love you all, I have some great experiences I would love to share with you. And We have some good investigators.
Love,
Elder Lilly
Oct 7, 2009
Hello
Dear Family,
I am very very excited about my new area. I moved out east in the Isan to a place called Korat. I believe It's the second biggest city in Thailand other than Bangkok. If you would like to take a look at it from Google earth then you would need to type out it's full name... Nakhon Ratchasima. I'm here with my companion Elder Blaughstein and then we have two sisters in our district: Sister Bradfield (she was in the group behind me in the MTC) and Sister Larsen (She is being trained by Sister Bradfield.) We are a happy district. Elder Blaughstein is a big guy. He was a serious football player back home. He has a scholarship waiting for him to get home, but he's not sure if that's the path that he want's to take. Where ever the Lord leads him, he'll go. When I said he is a big guy I meant his thick bulging muscles. He's actually about 5ft 5inch tall. Some Thai people are even taller than he is. Some. Today we romped some of our Thai friends at basketball. It was the first time I've played in a long time. Right now I'm sore. It feels good. I was the tallest.
I love Korat already. The people are different from those in Bangkok. A lot of people speak a different dialect. The members are amazing. There are a few members who are such great examples to everyone. They love the gospel, live the gospel, and serve with willing hearts. A few days ago one of the sisters in our branch fasted for more opportunities to serve God. She then came to the sisters and asked when their appointments were so that she could help teach. After she helped teach she then asked when the sisters had appointments for the next day so that she could go help again. That's the spirit.
As usual we started the moves off by forming a vision of where the work can go in the future. Do you remember when I referred to President Dodge's request for us to make a vision for our lives? How are we doing at fulfilling our vision? I am excited for ours. I hope that you are still on the path to fulfilling yours too. God certainly has prepared a mission for us to accomplish in our lives that utilizes our talents and abilities. How great God's trust is in us.
This Moves I have learned a lot about how a branch is supposed to function. We are setting plans that will heavily utilize our time with members. We will be teaching and strengthening the members that we have (and especially the recent converts) and always asking and encouraging them to take part in service and missionary work. We are going to try and have a member present in all of the lessons that we teach. We have always tried to invite a member to help us, but we will work even harder to accomplish that goal now. I realized from helping sister Pawn in Ayutthaya that it is soooo important that the investigator has a real friend that will love them, and sit by them, and help answer all of their questions. Well, now I know what kind of a member I want to be when I get home.
Another great thing about Korat is that there are about 80 people who attend church every sundaym and there are plenty of Priesthood holders.
Well I gotta go,
I am excited for conference!
And I got the paper Mom, and signed it. I still need to find a way to scan it and send it in.
Also we are looking to move our house here.
Love,
Elder Lilly
I am very very excited about my new area. I moved out east in the Isan to a place called Korat. I believe It's the second biggest city in Thailand other than Bangkok. If you would like to take a look at it from Google earth then you would need to type out it's full name... Nakhon Ratchasima. I'm here with my companion Elder Blaughstein and then we have two sisters in our district: Sister Bradfield (she was in the group behind me in the MTC) and Sister Larsen (She is being trained by Sister Bradfield.) We are a happy district. Elder Blaughstein is a big guy. He was a serious football player back home. He has a scholarship waiting for him to get home, but he's not sure if that's the path that he want's to take. Where ever the Lord leads him, he'll go. When I said he is a big guy I meant his thick bulging muscles. He's actually about 5ft 5inch tall. Some Thai people are even taller than he is. Some. Today we romped some of our Thai friends at basketball. It was the first time I've played in a long time. Right now I'm sore. It feels good. I was the tallest.
I love Korat already. The people are different from those in Bangkok. A lot of people speak a different dialect. The members are amazing. There are a few members who are such great examples to everyone. They love the gospel, live the gospel, and serve with willing hearts. A few days ago one of the sisters in our branch fasted for more opportunities to serve God. She then came to the sisters and asked when their appointments were so that she could help teach. After she helped teach she then asked when the sisters had appointments for the next day so that she could go help again. That's the spirit.
As usual we started the moves off by forming a vision of where the work can go in the future. Do you remember when I referred to President Dodge's request for us to make a vision for our lives? How are we doing at fulfilling our vision? I am excited for ours. I hope that you are still on the path to fulfilling yours too. God certainly has prepared a mission for us to accomplish in our lives that utilizes our talents and abilities. How great God's trust is in us.
This Moves I have learned a lot about how a branch is supposed to function. We are setting plans that will heavily utilize our time with members. We will be teaching and strengthening the members that we have (and especially the recent converts) and always asking and encouraging them to take part in service and missionary work. We are going to try and have a member present in all of the lessons that we teach. We have always tried to invite a member to help us, but we will work even harder to accomplish that goal now. I realized from helping sister Pawn in Ayutthaya that it is soooo important that the investigator has a real friend that will love them, and sit by them, and help answer all of their questions. Well, now I know what kind of a member I want to be when I get home.
Another great thing about Korat is that there are about 80 people who attend church every sundaym and there are plenty of Priesthood holders.
Well I gotta go,
I am excited for conference!
And I got the paper Mom, and signed it. I still need to find a way to scan it and send it in.
Also we are looking to move our house here.
Love,
Elder Lilly
Sep 30, 2009
Comings and Goings
Hello....
So, tomorrow I am moving. Where to? I have no idea. The members in Ayutthaya have been so nice. They all want to feast with me before I leave, and some of them bought gifts for me.
--------I'll be back but I need to switch places....
...so,
Today is a bit hectic. I just finished shopping and I got a hair cut. This morning I did a bunch of packing. Every sixth week on the Wednesday before moves we hold a special English class that we call showcase night. During showcase we review the things that we taught over the past six weeks, play games, and have treats. Today we are preparing a sort of scrabble type game that requires you to dunk your hand in icy water to pull out letters with which your group competes against other groups to put the letters into words. Then the winning teams will lead the next activity where the groups race against each other to answer the English questions and then eat a donut (or apple) on a string. I hope that they will enjoy it. If not, I will eat all the donuts.
I am way excited for Conference, although I won't get to watch it until the tenth/eleventh of October (happy birthday Kara!). I could never fall asleep during Elder Scott's talk, because he is one of my favorite speakers, even though his voice is so soothing.
Concerning the Guitar, I received the money, I just need to find a good safe way to send it. It will take me a bit to find a suitable... basket. Or box.
One of the interesting things about studying the scriptures is how my perspective changes after I learn more. I think that the more I learn the clearer and truer the things that I teach will be which will then create a better atmosphere for the spirit to confirm the things that I am teaching. I like to read from the Doctrine and Covenants doctrine manual on preparation days. I hope everyone back home is reading and studying the scriptures personally. I've noticed from the last conference that the prophets warned about the importance of personal revelation, how that it will be very important for us in our future in the church. Along with enduring with faith through hard times I would say that they are preparing us for hardships to come. The gospel holds a pattern for living which gives us all the strength and direction that we need so long as we follow it.
I'm excited to hear how conference was for you.
I have many more things to do...
I love you,
-Elder Lilly
So, tomorrow I am moving. Where to? I have no idea. The members in Ayutthaya have been so nice. They all want to feast with me before I leave, and some of them bought gifts for me.
--------I'll be back but I need to switch places....
...so,
Today is a bit hectic. I just finished shopping and I got a hair cut. This morning I did a bunch of packing. Every sixth week on the Wednesday before moves we hold a special English class that we call showcase night. During showcase we review the things that we taught over the past six weeks, play games, and have treats. Today we are preparing a sort of scrabble type game that requires you to dunk your hand in icy water to pull out letters with which your group competes against other groups to put the letters into words. Then the winning teams will lead the next activity where the groups race against each other to answer the English questions and then eat a donut (or apple) on a string. I hope that they will enjoy it. If not, I will eat all the donuts.
I am way excited for Conference, although I won't get to watch it until the tenth/eleventh of October (happy birthday Kara!). I could never fall asleep during Elder Scott's talk, because he is one of my favorite speakers, even though his voice is so soothing.
Concerning the Guitar, I received the money, I just need to find a good safe way to send it. It will take me a bit to find a suitable... basket. Or box.
One of the interesting things about studying the scriptures is how my perspective changes after I learn more. I think that the more I learn the clearer and truer the things that I teach will be which will then create a better atmosphere for the spirit to confirm the things that I am teaching. I like to read from the Doctrine and Covenants doctrine manual on preparation days. I hope everyone back home is reading and studying the scriptures personally. I've noticed from the last conference that the prophets warned about the importance of personal revelation, how that it will be very important for us in our future in the church. Along with enduring with faith through hard times I would say that they are preparing us for hardships to come. The gospel holds a pattern for living which gives us all the strength and direction that we need so long as we follow it.
I'm excited to hear how conference was for you.
I have many more things to do...
I love you,
-Elder Lilly
Sep 23, 2009
Marathon
Dear Family,
Diana has been married for three months already? Where did three months go? Have they had any success with finding work?
Once again I find myself sitting in an Internet shop full of rowdy teenagers playing computer games with their friends. All the noise is a bit distracting. We were eating dinner with one of the members in our branch, brother Gang, when a group of rowdy teenagers left from the table next to us in a big group. Brother Gang turned to me and told me that when he was that age he was juuust like them. I was thinking... rowdy? Then he said that whatever he did he did it in a group. He was always in a group and always following the society or social group that he was in. And when he had to go home, there was another group of people that he went with whose houses were in the same direction as his. Then he continued to explain that if he wanted to be a better person than he would have to change his social group to be with better people. Unfortunately there is a lot of truth in what he said. Even though smoking is against the rules in the Buddhist religion, people follow the society, and the society embraces smoking. There are SOOO many people who smoke here. How fortunate we are to have been raised in a society of such high standards and to have friends with such high standards. Being a member in Thailand is not easy at all.
Last Sunday Elder Panom and I successfully executed the fireside that we had been preparing. The theme was enduring to the end. It started out with a recording of me talking with music in the background (as an intro to get their attention), then another song played while the projector showed the lyrics in both Thai and English until the song got intense when we showed pictures from the scriptures up close on screen. Then we showed a short video and concluded with a slide presentation and an activity at the end. The electrical genius of it goes to brother Gang for helping put it all together. Thanks to the Church office for the projector. :) In the fireside we connected the gospel principal of enduring to the end to following the example of Jesus Christ and developing His attributes. Preach my Gospel reviews and teaches about the Christlike attributes that we should be striving for. The presentation was nice and smooth. We are going to talk to the members about which Christlike attribute they are working on and helping to encourage them in their efforts.
We are back to finding more investigators again as we just discontinued teaching a bunch of people who weren't ready. That's an interesting aspect of missionary work that I think perhaps a lot of people don't consider very often. It's true that everybody needs to eventually hear the gospel, but, there are a select few who are ready to obey it. Not that they need to be ready to obey all of it at once, but they need to be ready to accept change and exercise faith.
I thought that the restoration would be more important in a place where there were several sects of Christianity present, but I found that it's even more important here. There are people who accept multiple religions, and believe in simply being a good person. For instance the man I invited yesterday said that Christianity is good and Buddhism is good and we can live together. But Islam is it's own good and they are on their own. (They like to bash on Islam) That man said that his ancestors were Buddhist and they won't accept Christianity. He also said that we need to follow our ancestors beliefs, but we're all good, and can live together. That's just one example from yesterday.
But it is easy to smile when I look around and think of where I am and how funny the people are. Heh heh heh. So funny. You'll just have to come see for yourself. Every moment is a classical moment that I wish I could take a picture of here. Heh heh
I think that the more I get into awkward situations and go out of my comfort zone to share the gospel with these awesome people the better.
I love you guys,
Elder Lilly
Diana has been married for three months already? Where did three months go? Have they had any success with finding work?
Once again I find myself sitting in an Internet shop full of rowdy teenagers playing computer games with their friends. All the noise is a bit distracting. We were eating dinner with one of the members in our branch, brother Gang, when a group of rowdy teenagers left from the table next to us in a big group. Brother Gang turned to me and told me that when he was that age he was juuust like them. I was thinking... rowdy? Then he said that whatever he did he did it in a group. He was always in a group and always following the society or social group that he was in. And when he had to go home, there was another group of people that he went with whose houses were in the same direction as his. Then he continued to explain that if he wanted to be a better person than he would have to change his social group to be with better people. Unfortunately there is a lot of truth in what he said. Even though smoking is against the rules in the Buddhist religion, people follow the society, and the society embraces smoking. There are SOOO many people who smoke here. How fortunate we are to have been raised in a society of such high standards and to have friends with such high standards. Being a member in Thailand is not easy at all.
Last Sunday Elder Panom and I successfully executed the fireside that we had been preparing. The theme was enduring to the end. It started out with a recording of me talking with music in the background (as an intro to get their attention), then another song played while the projector showed the lyrics in both Thai and English until the song got intense when we showed pictures from the scriptures up close on screen. Then we showed a short video and concluded with a slide presentation and an activity at the end. The electrical genius of it goes to brother Gang for helping put it all together. Thanks to the Church office for the projector. :) In the fireside we connected the gospel principal of enduring to the end to following the example of Jesus Christ and developing His attributes. Preach my Gospel reviews and teaches about the Christlike attributes that we should be striving for. The presentation was nice and smooth. We are going to talk to the members about which Christlike attribute they are working on and helping to encourage them in their efforts.
We are back to finding more investigators again as we just discontinued teaching a bunch of people who weren't ready. That's an interesting aspect of missionary work that I think perhaps a lot of people don't consider very often. It's true that everybody needs to eventually hear the gospel, but, there are a select few who are ready to obey it. Not that they need to be ready to obey all of it at once, but they need to be ready to accept change and exercise faith.
I thought that the restoration would be more important in a place where there were several sects of Christianity present, but I found that it's even more important here. There are people who accept multiple religions, and believe in simply being a good person. For instance the man I invited yesterday said that Christianity is good and Buddhism is good and we can live together. But Islam is it's own good and they are on their own. (They like to bash on Islam) That man said that his ancestors were Buddhist and they won't accept Christianity. He also said that we need to follow our ancestors beliefs, but we're all good, and can live together. That's just one example from yesterday.
But it is easy to smile when I look around and think of where I am and how funny the people are. Heh heh heh. So funny. You'll just have to come see for yourself. Every moment is a classical moment that I wish I could take a picture of here. Heh heh
I think that the more I get into awkward situations and go out of my comfort zone to share the gospel with these awesome people the better.
I love you guys,
Elder Lilly
Sep 17, 2009
Sep 16, 2009
It's a beautiful season
Dear family,
I feel good today. Sister Pawn's baptism went very smoothly. She bore her testimony and it was a very special occasion. I wish her family could have been there too, but I'm sure that they will notice the changes that will occur in her life, all the happiness and joy from the spirit. I sang If You Could Hie to Kolob as the special musical number for her baptism because all of the ward members love that song even though it can only be found in the English hymn book. Elder and sister Peterson might've been the only people who understood the words but the song has such a powerful melody to it. Sister Jiw took the sacrifice and played the piano for the baptism. She is the only member besides me who knows how to play... and you know I'm no good. She was a trooper.
A few days ago Sister Pawn came to the music class that I was teaching for the ward (so that they don't have to depend on the missionaries) and I found out that she has a great voice. Her voice reminded me of mom. She's got that sweet rich alto voice. I was impressed.
So Kara was asking about foods. Thai food in general is good. The vegetables are weird. They don't really have salad. Salad is considered American food, and is expensive to buy. They do Amazing things with Beef, Pork, Chicken... Mmmm, and rice. And eggs, and they make Gangs or rather Curry soup. Eggs are in almost anything and if it's not in it then you can order it on the top. Almost always it will be fried in grease. If bread and butter is the standard for America then rice and spicy pepper sauce is the standard for Thailand. Also, like brother Trasdhal commented, they drink soda in bags and use straws to drink everything. We never use a fork and a knife to eat. We use a spoon and a side-fork to eat. The spoon is a great invention. I've eaten salty crab in pepper papaya salad, all sorts of different curry, barbecued chicken, spicy pork strips, and a bucket of sticky rice. I've tried rat too, it was eatable apart from the mass of little bones left in it. I have a tendency to run into/notice every time there's a bone or a piece of something weird in my food. A simple good meal is called Khaiasai. It's got sweet sauce and meat in the middle of an omelet burrito style. Eat that with some plain rice. It's good. From my experience people either go crazy for sushi or are indifferent about it. Most Thai people love sushi and Japanese food. What food do I miss from home? Hah, everything. Sandwiches. Real bread. There's a delicacy to making a big juicy sandwich that is just not understood nor appreciated here. And Thai candy=cough drops. If you like cough drops then great.
Also, I've got a guitar for Kara. It will cost about 65$ to send home. Do you want it? Actually I have two guitars. Does anyone want the other one? Same price.
I am going to be moving out of Ayuthaya for sure in another two weeks. In two weeks I will have been here for 6months. I'm pretty fortunate to have been able to stay in my areas for 4moves each (6months each). I got to see to a lot of progression in Those areas and I got to be good friends with the members. But at the same time, It will be nice to move.
Thanks for your love and letters (especially to Dad who writes great letters, even if he forgets what he wanted to write about once he got to the computer). I love you all. You guys are the best.
Elder Lilly
I feel good today. Sister Pawn's baptism went very smoothly. She bore her testimony and it was a very special occasion. I wish her family could have been there too, but I'm sure that they will notice the changes that will occur in her life, all the happiness and joy from the spirit. I sang If You Could Hie to Kolob as the special musical number for her baptism because all of the ward members love that song even though it can only be found in the English hymn book. Elder and sister Peterson might've been the only people who understood the words but the song has such a powerful melody to it. Sister Jiw took the sacrifice and played the piano for the baptism. She is the only member besides me who knows how to play... and you know I'm no good. She was a trooper.
A few days ago Sister Pawn came to the music class that I was teaching for the ward (so that they don't have to depend on the missionaries) and I found out that she has a great voice. Her voice reminded me of mom. She's got that sweet rich alto voice. I was impressed.
So Kara was asking about foods. Thai food in general is good. The vegetables are weird. They don't really have salad. Salad is considered American food, and is expensive to buy. They do Amazing things with Beef, Pork, Chicken... Mmmm, and rice. And eggs, and they make Gangs or rather Curry soup. Eggs are in almost anything and if it's not in it then you can order it on the top. Almost always it will be fried in grease. If bread and butter is the standard for America then rice and spicy pepper sauce is the standard for Thailand. Also, like brother Trasdhal commented, they drink soda in bags and use straws to drink everything. We never use a fork and a knife to eat. We use a spoon and a side-fork to eat. The spoon is a great invention. I've eaten salty crab in pepper papaya salad, all sorts of different curry, barbecued chicken, spicy pork strips, and a bucket of sticky rice. I've tried rat too, it was eatable apart from the mass of little bones left in it. I have a tendency to run into/notice every time there's a bone or a piece of something weird in my food. A simple good meal is called Khaiasai. It's got sweet sauce and meat in the middle of an omelet burrito style. Eat that with some plain rice. It's good. From my experience people either go crazy for sushi or are indifferent about it. Most Thai people love sushi and Japanese food. What food do I miss from home? Hah, everything. Sandwiches. Real bread. There's a delicacy to making a big juicy sandwich that is just not understood nor appreciated here. And Thai candy=cough drops. If you like cough drops then great.
Also, I've got a guitar for Kara. It will cost about 65$ to send home. Do you want it? Actually I have two guitars. Does anyone want the other one? Same price.
I am going to be moving out of Ayuthaya for sure in another two weeks. In two weeks I will have been here for 6months. I'm pretty fortunate to have been able to stay in my areas for 4moves each (6months each). I got to see to a lot of progression in Those areas and I got to be good friends with the members. But at the same time, It will be nice to move.
Thanks for your love and letters (especially to Dad who writes great letters, even if he forgets what he wanted to write about once he got to the computer). I love you all. You guys are the best.
Elder Lilly
Sep 9, 2009
Not the applebars!
Hey Family,
Pawn is getting baptised this Sunday!!
We did an all day switch-off which gave her another opportunity to interview. Elder Heiley held the interview and he said that she was so ready she passed with flying colors. Because she closed her store completely on Sunday, a bunch of customers have come and questioned her about it. She said that she has a few referrals to give us from interested customers. She is way excited. I am way excited. The next matter of importance is that her family is super super busy on Sunday. She is concerned that her sister and her husband won't have the opportunity to go to her baptism this Sunday. There's not much that we can do about that besides pray with faith for the Lord to work miracles.
That same switch-offs I was quite thankful that we had four elders in our area. We had a service project in which we hauled great pieces of car, truck, and tractor parts into a truck and unloaded the parts into their new shop. We lifted some of the worst desirable shaped and heavy objects. There were cut buckets that had no handles and a smooth surface and were too small to be conveniently held by two people which were loaded to the brim with dense bolts. Those were particularly fun. The project lasted for about three hours. We were very enthusiastic about loading everything. We came, we served, and we left. I felt very happy about our efficiency with time.
Then the next day we just happened to have another larger, planned out service project. We woke up early and travelled to U-Thai to move another two dump truck loads of dirt under sister Noy's house. This time I specifically asked permission to buy wheel barrows and shovels. It was well worth the 1500 Baht. Only this time the night before rained and when the dump trucks came they unloaded sticky clay instead of dirt. It was almost easier to lift large chunks of clay with our hands than to try ti use any tools. I soon found myself crouched under the house, making and throwing clay chunks to fill in the rest of the mosquito ridden water as best as I could. The next day was fast Sunday.
I know that this is God's work that I'm doing. A service project is easier than teaching and helping investigators. It takes a lot of prayer and focus and giving of ones self to help an investigator. Luckily in the process of learning and trying to obey God does the miracle and grants us success. I still have a lot to learn. One thing that helps is singing hymns. Not like we are allowed to listen to anything else but that's just the trick! You have to learn to love the work and the music and the people, or else it's just hard. It's supposed to be hard and fun.
Ooh I just remembered... roast marshmallows are delicious and Marshmallows weigh almost nothing. They would be good to send in a package no?
I love you guys.
Elder Lilly
Pawn is getting baptised this Sunday!!
We did an all day switch-off which gave her another opportunity to interview. Elder Heiley held the interview and he said that she was so ready she passed with flying colors. Because she closed her store completely on Sunday, a bunch of customers have come and questioned her about it. She said that she has a few referrals to give us from interested customers. She is way excited. I am way excited. The next matter of importance is that her family is super super busy on Sunday. She is concerned that her sister and her husband won't have the opportunity to go to her baptism this Sunday. There's not much that we can do about that besides pray with faith for the Lord to work miracles.
That same switch-offs I was quite thankful that we had four elders in our area. We had a service project in which we hauled great pieces of car, truck, and tractor parts into a truck and unloaded the parts into their new shop. We lifted some of the worst desirable shaped and heavy objects. There were cut buckets that had no handles and a smooth surface and were too small to be conveniently held by two people which were loaded to the brim with dense bolts. Those were particularly fun. The project lasted for about three hours. We were very enthusiastic about loading everything. We came, we served, and we left. I felt very happy about our efficiency with time.
Then the next day we just happened to have another larger, planned out service project. We woke up early and travelled to U-Thai to move another two dump truck loads of dirt under sister Noy's house. This time I specifically asked permission to buy wheel barrows and shovels. It was well worth the 1500 Baht. Only this time the night before rained and when the dump trucks came they unloaded sticky clay instead of dirt. It was almost easier to lift large chunks of clay with our hands than to try ti use any tools. I soon found myself crouched under the house, making and throwing clay chunks to fill in the rest of the mosquito ridden water as best as I could. The next day was fast Sunday.
I know that this is God's work that I'm doing. A service project is easier than teaching and helping investigators. It takes a lot of prayer and focus and giving of ones self to help an investigator. Luckily in the process of learning and trying to obey God does the miracle and grants us success. I still have a lot to learn. One thing that helps is singing hymns. Not like we are allowed to listen to anything else but that's just the trick! You have to learn to love the work and the music and the people, or else it's just hard. It's supposed to be hard and fun.
Ooh I just remembered... roast marshmallows are delicious and Marshmallows weigh almost nothing. They would be good to send in a package no?
I love you guys.
Elder Lilly
Sep 2, 2009
Today is Part of Eternity
Dear Family,
Thanks for the E-mails. It feels good to read them every time. :p
Having a Thai companion is great. It is a good opportunity to refine my Thai skills. I always try to speak as clearly and close to a Native Thai person as I can. I don't want the language to be a distraction from the spirit as I teach. But honestly with my new Thai companion I have been working on helping him speak English more than asking him to help with Thai. He can only say a few sentences but he understands English okay. I try to spend time working on vocabulary with him throughout the day. He is going to be one of the future leaders of Thailand. He could use the English skills.
Our investigator Pawn interviewed for baptism last Saturday but she didn't pass. She prayed to know if the things that the missionaries taught were true but she never prayed specifically to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. She was a bit embarrassed from not passing but she is a trooper and I am confident in her. She felt a lot better after talking to one of the members who didn't pass the first interview as well who told about her experience of having to interview with several people. Pawn is going to make it for sure!
Something interesting that changed from our last zone conference is that we will no longer be moving on to teaching lesson two or three until after the investigator has a testimony of lesson one. That is interesting because some people seem to connect to different doctrines better than others, everyone has different needs. But there is a strong power in the restoration and after an investigator has a testimony of that then the rest will follow through quickly and easily. Then again restoration includes more than just the Joseph Smith story.
So Elder Panom and I have made a vision for Ayutthaya, set goals, and made plans. We are going to hold a special fireside about Enduring to the End and about building God's kingdom. We are going to help the members set goals and work to develop the Christlike attributes which is part of enduring to the end. We will also give them some direction and help in applying the gospel principals. Also, we are going to get Sister Peterson and Elder Peterson to help us inspire all of the single females in the ward to go out and find a boy friend for us to teach. We are quite lucky in America to have so many members and Priesthood holders. These poor girls in Thailand don't have so many ready options. Their next step and responsibility in their progression in life is to raise a family! Sister Peterson was telling me about the trend that's going around the world to remain single and "free." I personally feel like as soon as I'm home, re-adapted, She's ready and I've found her then we're good to go. :p (we'll see when I get there.)
For hump day... well that day was moves day so there wasn't very many options but my companion and I successfully made it to the only Mexican restaurant in the Country and ate there for dinner. It's nothing close to Mexican food at home but it's still satisfying.
It's been interesting going out and focusing on only missionary work. It's way hard work, it really takes something out of you if you are doing it right. I've noticed how Satan can influence our thoughts if we let him. I am glad the I have a personal testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel and about life. Whenever I let a bad thought enter my head then I can recognize it's source because I am always sure of truth. Then as I follow what I know to be true (like the commandments) then I feel free to choose to be happy. Happiness is a fun choice. But if we don't obey then it's hard to make it.
I love you all and I pray for you always.
-Elder Lilly
Thanks for the E-mails. It feels good to read them every time. :p
Having a Thai companion is great. It is a good opportunity to refine my Thai skills. I always try to speak as clearly and close to a Native Thai person as I can. I don't want the language to be a distraction from the spirit as I teach. But honestly with my new Thai companion I have been working on helping him speak English more than asking him to help with Thai. He can only say a few sentences but he understands English okay. I try to spend time working on vocabulary with him throughout the day. He is going to be one of the future leaders of Thailand. He could use the English skills.
Our investigator Pawn interviewed for baptism last Saturday but she didn't pass. She prayed to know if the things that the missionaries taught were true but she never prayed specifically to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. She was a bit embarrassed from not passing but she is a trooper and I am confident in her. She felt a lot better after talking to one of the members who didn't pass the first interview as well who told about her experience of having to interview with several people. Pawn is going to make it for sure!
Something interesting that changed from our last zone conference is that we will no longer be moving on to teaching lesson two or three until after the investigator has a testimony of lesson one. That is interesting because some people seem to connect to different doctrines better than others, everyone has different needs. But there is a strong power in the restoration and after an investigator has a testimony of that then the rest will follow through quickly and easily. Then again restoration includes more than just the Joseph Smith story.
So Elder Panom and I have made a vision for Ayutthaya, set goals, and made plans. We are going to hold a special fireside about Enduring to the End and about building God's kingdom. We are going to help the members set goals and work to develop the Christlike attributes which is part of enduring to the end. We will also give them some direction and help in applying the gospel principals. Also, we are going to get Sister Peterson and Elder Peterson to help us inspire all of the single females in the ward to go out and find a boy friend for us to teach. We are quite lucky in America to have so many members and Priesthood holders. These poor girls in Thailand don't have so many ready options. Their next step and responsibility in their progression in life is to raise a family! Sister Peterson was telling me about the trend that's going around the world to remain single and "free." I personally feel like as soon as I'm home, re-adapted, She's ready and I've found her then we're good to go. :p (we'll see when I get there.)
For hump day... well that day was moves day so there wasn't very many options but my companion and I successfully made it to the only Mexican restaurant in the Country and ate there for dinner. It's nothing close to Mexican food at home but it's still satisfying.
It's been interesting going out and focusing on only missionary work. It's way hard work, it really takes something out of you if you are doing it right. I've noticed how Satan can influence our thoughts if we let him. I am glad the I have a personal testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel and about life. Whenever I let a bad thought enter my head then I can recognize it's source because I am always sure of truth. Then as I follow what I know to be true (like the commandments) then I feel free to choose to be happy. Happiness is a fun choice. But if we don't obey then it's hard to make it.
I love you all and I pray for you always.
-Elder Lilly
Aug 25, 2009
Greetingzz
Dear Family,
Once again I am writing home without having received any mail. But It's okay, it's okay. I'm still alright. Life is great and candy is sweet.
Today I am in Bangbuathong. We are doing a switch offs with our zone leaders. We also had the opportunity to go bowling this morning with all of the Bangbuathong Elders and the Lopburi Elders. We will stay the night here because tomorrow is zone conference.
Right now I'm helping Elder Johnson with analyzing his options because his parents said that they will pay for his first year of school and will either buy him a low maintenance high millage nice scooter for school or a low price car. I personally would go for the low price car but it is still a decision that takes some consideration. It's a win win situation.
I've been doing a lot of studying in Preach My Gospel lately. There's something interesting that Aaron told me before I came to the MTC that I've been thinking about lately. He said that as long as your obedient and love the people then they will see the love in your eyes and you will find success in helping them (something like that right Aaron?). But I truly have seen that and believe that. I don't know how much people remember out of the lessons that we teach but I am sure that if they felt love and the spirit then they will continue to progress and our teaching was a success. Elder and Sister Peterson who come to our Branch every Sunday are such good examples of this. They can barely speak Thai. Our members can hardly say a few thoughts in English. Yet, the members love Elder and Sister Petersen so much and so easily. I can see it in their eyes. Well, since I was considering and praying about these things throughout the week when the time came for me to prepare my District meeting with the Zone leaders present I felt like I knew what subject I should talk about. So using scriptures and Preach My Gospel and some experiences I taught about love. We came out feeling uplifted. I feel really grateful for some of the feelings that the Lord has blessed me with. I think that it would be much more difficult to teach (especially with the spirit) and it would be harder to be happy If I didn't have any love for the Thai people. I certainly have a looong way to go but I am working on it. Charity and Love is one of the Christlike attributes.
So speaking of love, I love you guys. :)
Keep progressing towards Christ and His attributes! It is such a blessing to you and to everyone.
Love,
Elder Lilly
Once again I am writing home without having received any mail. But It's okay, it's okay. I'm still alright. Life is great and candy is sweet.
Today I am in Bangbuathong. We are doing a switch offs with our zone leaders. We also had the opportunity to go bowling this morning with all of the Bangbuathong Elders and the Lopburi Elders. We will stay the night here because tomorrow is zone conference.
Right now I'm helping Elder Johnson with analyzing his options because his parents said that they will pay for his first year of school and will either buy him a low maintenance high millage nice scooter for school or a low price car. I personally would go for the low price car but it is still a decision that takes some consideration. It's a win win situation.
I've been doing a lot of studying in Preach My Gospel lately. There's something interesting that Aaron told me before I came to the MTC that I've been thinking about lately. He said that as long as your obedient and love the people then they will see the love in your eyes and you will find success in helping them (something like that right Aaron?). But I truly have seen that and believe that. I don't know how much people remember out of the lessons that we teach but I am sure that if they felt love and the spirit then they will continue to progress and our teaching was a success. Elder and Sister Peterson who come to our Branch every Sunday are such good examples of this. They can barely speak Thai. Our members can hardly say a few thoughts in English. Yet, the members love Elder and Sister Petersen so much and so easily. I can see it in their eyes. Well, since I was considering and praying about these things throughout the week when the time came for me to prepare my District meeting with the Zone leaders present I felt like I knew what subject I should talk about. So using scriptures and Preach My Gospel and some experiences I taught about love. We came out feeling uplifted. I feel really grateful for some of the feelings that the Lord has blessed me with. I think that it would be much more difficult to teach (especially with the spirit) and it would be harder to be happy If I didn't have any love for the Thai people. I certainly have a looong way to go but I am working on it. Charity and Love is one of the Christlike attributes.
So speaking of love, I love you guys. :)
Keep progressing towards Christ and His attributes! It is such a blessing to you and to everyone.
Love,
Elder Lilly
Aug 19, 2009
Fwd: Ayutthaya #4
Hey Family...
I'm glad Dad and Mike and JD got to go camping again. I went fishing too. But the fish I caught was one of those fishes you use to catch a bigger fish if you know what I mean.
Moves meeting was probably the largest it's ever been in Thailand. Every missionary from Thailand attended. My trainer Elder Ewing went home. There were about 14 missionaries leaving and 14 coming in. I am not yet training but Elder Gardener who was in the same group as I is. Also, Elder Young and Elder Schulti who were in the same MTC group as I are now district leaders. With the passing of hump day I made sure to set some new goals and planned for making changes that I want to see happen in the Ayutthaya Branch.
My new companions name is Elder Phanom. Another native Thailander! He is way good at teaching and he is a very faithful junior companion. He always wants me to choose where we eat. :p I feel honored to be with another Thai companion. His experience with converting from Buddhism to Christianity is invaluable. There's a lot that I can learn from him.
So, I made rice pudding twice already. I think that it's way good but my Thai companion just thinks that it is weird.
Because there's only Elder Phanom and myself in Ayutthaya and the members here are untrained in singing or playing the piano I have took it upon myself to share my experience and teach piano/singing lessons. I certainly am not that great on the piano (there's no time to practice!) but my ability to read the notes sure helps. I would like to say thanks to Grandma for lending her skills and keyboard to me before I came on my mission. Thanks Grandma!
Also in being the only English speaker here the burden has fallen upon me to teach the English class alone. :/ I'll see if I can train Elder Phanom so that he can help teach the grammar.
I think it is great that you guys are setting goals and finding missionary opportunities. The advancement of the church truly lies with the normal members more than the missionaries. We are just the teachers! You guys are the best finders out there.
There's so much that you learn while serving the lord.
It's interesting how much the Thai people notice skin color. I suppose that since everybody here has black hair and brown eyes that they look for something else other than size and shape but I would never try to describe someone from their skin color unless it really stuck out. But they do, a lot. Most Thai people are pretty shameless about telling you how things are. You can hear them calling each other fat or skinny or funny looking or whatever. And they have weighing scales next to the stores. Sometimes there'll be a group of girls weighing themselves on them. That would never go in America.
But I love the Thai people and this great experience. Sometimes I am so used to the place that I don't notice anything weird. Other times it feels so foreign. Then sometimes It just feels awesome to be here and to see more of God's creations.
I pray for you guys and think of you often. So many people just don't understand what a family can be or what marriage can be. We are way fortunate to have Mom and Dad as our exemplars. Keep on working.
Love,
Elder Lilly
I'm glad Dad and Mike and JD got to go camping again. I went fishing too. But the fish I caught was one of those fishes you use to catch a bigger fish if you know what I mean.
Moves meeting was probably the largest it's ever been in Thailand. Every missionary from Thailand attended. My trainer Elder Ewing went home. There were about 14 missionaries leaving and 14 coming in. I am not yet training but Elder Gardener who was in the same group as I is. Also, Elder Young and Elder Schulti who were in the same MTC group as I are now district leaders. With the passing of hump day I made sure to set some new goals and planned for making changes that I want to see happen in the Ayutthaya Branch.
My new companions name is Elder Phanom. Another native Thailander! He is way good at teaching and he is a very faithful junior companion. He always wants me to choose where we eat. :p I feel honored to be with another Thai companion. His experience with converting from Buddhism to Christianity is invaluable. There's a lot that I can learn from him.
So, I made rice pudding twice already. I think that it's way good but my Thai companion just thinks that it is weird.
Because there's only Elder Phanom and myself in Ayutthaya and the members here are untrained in singing or playing the piano I have took it upon myself to share my experience and teach piano/singing lessons. I certainly am not that great on the piano (there's no time to practice!) but my ability to read the notes sure helps. I would like to say thanks to Grandma for lending her skills and keyboard to me before I came on my mission. Thanks Grandma!
Also in being the only English speaker here the burden has fallen upon me to teach the English class alone. :/ I'll see if I can train Elder Phanom so that he can help teach the grammar.
I think it is great that you guys are setting goals and finding missionary opportunities. The advancement of the church truly lies with the normal members more than the missionaries. We are just the teachers! You guys are the best finders out there.
There's so much that you learn while serving the lord.
It's interesting how much the Thai people notice skin color. I suppose that since everybody here has black hair and brown eyes that they look for something else other than size and shape but I would never try to describe someone from their skin color unless it really stuck out. But they do, a lot. Most Thai people are pretty shameless about telling you how things are. You can hear them calling each other fat or skinny or funny looking or whatever. And they have weighing scales next to the stores. Sometimes there'll be a group of girls weighing themselves on them. That would never go in America.
But I love the Thai people and this great experience. Sometimes I am so used to the place that I don't notice anything weird. Other times it feels so foreign. Then sometimes It just feels awesome to be here and to see more of God's creations.
I pray for you guys and think of you often. So many people just don't understand what a family can be or what marriage can be. We are way fortunate to have Mom and Dad as our exemplars. Keep on working.
Love,
Elder Lilly
Aug 12, 2009
woot mail!
Dear family,
Yay I finally got the letters! I must say that not getting ANY mail for two weeks is no fun. I think there were two nights that week that our family crept into my dreams.
This week has been great! Our investigator Pawn set a date to get Baptised on the 6th of next month! She is excited to be clean and get the gift of the Holy Ghost. She's starting to tell all of her customers that she will be closing her Tailoring store on Sundays. She makes me laugh too because she is a women with a lot of attitude. But really she is all talk. She is a sweet lady. We also taught Id. As you might recall she was struggling with the faith of her past. I'm sure she felt like she was abandoning her ancestors by setting aside the traditions that she inherited. This week we taught her a special lesson. I felt good about this lesson in the planning process and was particularly excited to teach about it. The subject was Temples and Family History. I think that Id felt the Spirit in that lesson and she agreed to tryout obeying the Ten Commandments. AKA not worshiping images and giving offerings. If she follows through I am sure that she will get the spiritual witness that she is looking for.
So tomorrow is Moves day and surprisingly enough Elder Rovig who just came here last moves is going to be moving. That leaves me to lead the area for one more move period. I am very glad to stay. I am excited to see Pawn and hopefully many others on their Baptismal date. I hope that Pawn's conversion will help her crazy cool husband to start learning as well. One baptism should always lead to two!
Well, Happy late Birthday to Diana and Eli and Jennifer. Mikes Birthday is coming up too. Are we out of money yet? JK!! I hope Mike does something super sweet.
Thanks for all of the great letters. And happy mothers day (in Thailand).
Lots of Love!
-Elder Lilly
Yay I finally got the letters! I must say that not getting ANY mail for two weeks is no fun. I think there were two nights that week that our family crept into my dreams.
This week has been great! Our investigator Pawn set a date to get Baptised on the 6th of next month! She is excited to be clean and get the gift of the Holy Ghost. She's starting to tell all of her customers that she will be closing her Tailoring store on Sundays. She makes me laugh too because she is a women with a lot of attitude. But really she is all talk. She is a sweet lady. We also taught Id. As you might recall she was struggling with the faith of her past. I'm sure she felt like she was abandoning her ancestors by setting aside the traditions that she inherited. This week we taught her a special lesson. I felt good about this lesson in the planning process and was particularly excited to teach about it. The subject was Temples and Family History. I think that Id felt the Spirit in that lesson and she agreed to tryout obeying the Ten Commandments. AKA not worshiping images and giving offerings. If she follows through I am sure that she will get the spiritual witness that she is looking for.
So tomorrow is Moves day and surprisingly enough Elder Rovig who just came here last moves is going to be moving. That leaves me to lead the area for one more move period. I am very glad to stay. I am excited to see Pawn and hopefully many others on their Baptismal date. I hope that Pawn's conversion will help her crazy cool husband to start learning as well. One baptism should always lead to two!
Well, Happy late Birthday to Diana and Eli and Jennifer. Mikes Birthday is coming up too. Are we out of money yet? JK!! I hope Mike does something super sweet.
Thanks for all of the great letters. And happy mothers day (in Thailand).
Lots of Love!
-Elder Lilly
Aug 7, 2009
Yak dai Jotmai mak mak loey
Wane Gam!
It seems that my mailbox memory was full, or perhaps there was some other mischief involved, but I haven't gotten any mail in 2 weeks.
I am sad. I want to know how my family is doing.
Then I spent a lot of time trying to build a picture of how things are for us right now in Ayutthaya with only two Elders left when my computer was shutdown and my letter was lost. And now unfortunately I am out of time to explain anything other than I love you and I'm still alive. Elder Correa went back to Bangkok so now It's just Elder Rovig and I with a massive house and two proselyting areas to work with.
I can't wait to hear from you guys!
Love,
Elder Lilly
It seems that my mailbox memory was full, or perhaps there was some other mischief involved, but I haven't gotten any mail in 2 weeks.
I am sad. I want to know how my family is doing.
Then I spent a lot of time trying to build a picture of how things are for us right now in Ayutthaya with only two Elders left when my computer was shutdown and my letter was lost. And now unfortunately I am out of time to explain anything other than I love you and I'm still alive. Elder Correa went back to Bangkok so now It's just Elder Rovig and I with a massive house and two proselyting areas to work with.
I can't wait to hear from you guys!
Love,
Elder Lilly
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