Hello Everyone,
These past few weeks have been pretty crazy. I apologize for the shortness of my last few E-mails and for the certain lack of written mail. I've been pretty stripped for time. Also you may have noticed I've pulled out some more money from my account. That is because I don't have any! We still haven't gotten reimbursed for last month and there's still a week left in this month. Luckily a decently sized good meal only costs a dollar here.
My new companions name is Elder Oliger. I would describe him as fairly short, very hungry, good hearten and simple.
He showed me his I.D. from back in high school. He's gained 100 pounds since then. Ouch. But, he's a great companion. I had decided to speak only Thai to him as I mentioned before, well, I'm still doing it. It's quite difficult sometimes, but it's also a very good thing that I've tried. Specifically, because his Thai is a little unclear, and I am in a position to where I need to lead the area. I hope I can help him out with his goals and good desires for this "moves" (I think Thailand is the only place that uses the word moves instead of transfers, which has nothing to do with Thai). He's been out for about a year now and this would be his 8th moves. I am his first junior companion. I'm grateful for the opportunity for growth that this situation provides me. I know that the Lord qualifies his called. If I need to speak the language to do this, the Lord will help me for sure. Already he has!
This last Sunday was a baptism of one of my old original investigators before the two other Elders came in and split the area. His baptism was going to be before, but it ended up then. He's overcome Tuberculosis, smoking, his addiction of soda. He's come a long long ways.
This Moves President dodge announced a reallocation of the target number of missionaries in Asia. They are going to decrease the amount of missionaries in the Asia sector and increase the number everywhere else. Specifically for Thailand this means a 25% decrease of missionaries, which is about 40 missionaries. That's a huge change. But, this change does not mean less baptism or less people in Thailand hearing the Word of God. It means that the members are going to have to take the responsibility, and increased roll in missionary work. The Ideal situation for us teachers of religion is that the members will be the finders and the missionaries will be the teachers.
My district specifically are making goals to help inspire the members to a new vision of missionary work in the future. I think sometimes the things we are sooo incredibly blessed with become a bit mundane. The irony is that the primary answers are so important that we hear them all the time and because we hear them all the time we don't think about their importance. The last time that we had a spiritually uplifting experience should be the last time we prayed. In church a lot of times we teach about truths without thinking about what the truths mean, who they come from. My personal goal for my area in Thailand is to help the ward change from a school like mundane feeling to rejoicing in Christ. I hope they can remember the Spirit they felt when they were baptized and be excited about their progression!
I'm reminded of when the angel came down to Nephi to tell him about Christ's birth and gave him permission, maybe even a charge to rejoice.
Some little changes that my district is starting to do is sing hymns when we teach and before meetings, we're going to start singing hymns after church on Sunday and invite anyone to come join us learn the hymns. (The Thai people in general love the hymns and the majority of them can't read music or sing very well because they don't get trained in school like us farangs). I love the power of music. We are also going to start a missionary bulletin board at church (yeah there's a church bulletin in every church even around the world) and start missionary training as well. Those are a few changes. In general I hope to change myself to be more excited and to pray with more energy.
I would like to mention about the power of reading the Scriptures every day, mighty prayer, and going to church. There's nothing better than these to prepare us to be let by the Spirit. When anyone we teach is having a rough time and feels like they can't get over it, always they're lacking at least one of the three.
Last week I went and picked up my new pants. It feels nice to have pants designed to my body and look classy too. After that I went to a nightmarish place. It was horrible. It was a giant mall with levels underground and the most amount of everything anyone would ever want to buy, and all for cheap. Crystal would have a hay day.
And it doesn't help that I speak Thai and can ask them to lower their prices which are raised because lots of foreigners go there. I should definitely not take any females there in the future. Yeah. But the good thing is that I bought 12 neckties for less than 6$.
Well, time to go. If you have any questions about Thailand and my investigators and such, feel free to ask. I don't know what to talk about, I just tell you my feelings.
Thailand is awesome. You all are awesome-er!
Love you all,
Elder Lilly
Jan 28, 2009
Jan 20, 2009
Good Morning
Dear Family,
Well, I hope you enjoyed the silly comparisons in my last E-mail. Even though the members are indispensable because of the friendship and support that they provide (much more than the Missionaries), I can never forget the power and authority of the calling of the Missionaries. The Lord truly invests a lot in the missionaries.
Today is the last day of this "Moves." All of the Elders and Sisters in Bangkok will meet together and wish the departing missionaries farewell, introduce the new missionaries and then find out where we are going and who our new companions are. Lastly, the departing missionaries will split up and share some good advice. Then it's good-bye and off to work with the new changes.
My companion, Elder Ewing, is moving tomorrow. The other three Elders in Bangkhae: Elder Miles, Elder Blackhurst and I are staying here for another move. We won't find out who my companion is or where Elder Ewing goes until tomorrow. Until then, we've got a lot of preparation and packing to do today. This move is especially chaotic with one of our senior missionaries going home; specifically the one who managed the money transfers.
Monday was our district meeting as usual. Elder Ewing, being the senior missionary in Bangkhae, is the district leader. This particular meeting was very memorable. We started the meeting by reviewing the progress and experiences that we had from the subject of the week before, namely: how we can find a way to improve our use of the scriptures when we teach and invite; the scriptures being the word of God, the key stone of our religion, the source of testimony, the difference between those who progress and those who don't, and so forth. Instead of having a prepared lesson to teach us all, Elder Ewing opened the opportunity for each of us to do a personal study of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We can never truly understand the Atonement. Because of that, we may not even try to understand it. But, we can never understand the atonement enough. We spent about twenty minutes alone in study. When we came together again we didn't share what we learned personally. Even though I bear testimony every day, for some reason it's different sharing in a small group as we were in as a family of missionaries. That morning I think we rejoiced in Christ the way we should do. After we bore our testimonies and gave thanks, we sang. It was such a great experience, and a good reminder of why we are here and what we are helping people to achieve.
I would like to recommend listening to the music from Michael McClane (Mcclain?) It's a musical play called The Garden. It's about the Atonement.
I'm very grateful for your prayers and Love. Good luck to Diana with her Tonsils (and friends looking at the lack of thereof) :) Reminds me of when we got our wisdom teeth out.
I need to go but I might come back this afternoon.
Love you all!
Elder Lilly
Well, I hope you enjoyed the silly comparisons in my last E-mail. Even though the members are indispensable because of the friendship and support that they provide (much more than the Missionaries), I can never forget the power and authority of the calling of the Missionaries. The Lord truly invests a lot in the missionaries.
Today is the last day of this "Moves." All of the Elders and Sisters in Bangkok will meet together and wish the departing missionaries farewell, introduce the new missionaries and then find out where we are going and who our new companions are. Lastly, the departing missionaries will split up and share some good advice. Then it's good-bye and off to work with the new changes.
My companion, Elder Ewing, is moving tomorrow. The other three Elders in Bangkhae: Elder Miles, Elder Blackhurst and I are staying here for another move. We won't find out who my companion is or where Elder Ewing goes until tomorrow. Until then, we've got a lot of preparation and packing to do today. This move is especially chaotic with one of our senior missionaries going home; specifically the one who managed the money transfers.
Monday was our district meeting as usual. Elder Ewing, being the senior missionary in Bangkhae, is the district leader. This particular meeting was very memorable. We started the meeting by reviewing the progress and experiences that we had from the subject of the week before, namely: how we can find a way to improve our use of the scriptures when we teach and invite; the scriptures being the word of God, the key stone of our religion, the source of testimony, the difference between those who progress and those who don't, and so forth. Instead of having a prepared lesson to teach us all, Elder Ewing opened the opportunity for each of us to do a personal study of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We can never truly understand the Atonement. Because of that, we may not even try to understand it. But, we can never understand the atonement enough. We spent about twenty minutes alone in study. When we came together again we didn't share what we learned personally. Even though I bear testimony every day, for some reason it's different sharing in a small group as we were in as a family of missionaries. That morning I think we rejoiced in Christ the way we should do. After we bore our testimonies and gave thanks, we sang. It was such a great experience, and a good reminder of why we are here and what we are helping people to achieve.
I would like to recommend listening to the music from Michael McClane (Mcclain?) It's a musical play called The Garden. It's about the Atonement.
I'm very grateful for your prayers and Love. Good luck to Diana with her Tonsils (and friends looking at the lack of thereof) :) Reminds me of when we got our wisdom teeth out.
I need to go but I might come back this afternoon.
Love you all!
Elder Lilly
Jan 13, 2009
Let's Make Like a Tree and Get Out of Here
Dear Family,
I'm still doing good.
The day before the baptism of Sang and Naa, there was a fight. Perhaps a combination of hormones from pregnancy and the work of the adversary brought Sang and Naa to tears. Naa threatened to quit. Leave. Forget everything and get an abortion. Families are much more difficult to teach because of the split focus between the needs of the people. But in this case the miracle of family came through. Sang assured Naa that on the morrow they were going to be reborn and start a new life. Families can pull each other together where the missionaries would be useless. The same goes for member friends. If Sang didn't have Naa he wouldn't have made. If Naa didn't have Sang, she wouldn't have made it. Yet they both pulled through and supported each other. Now they are doing awesome, happier than ever. With brother Auri helping teach and befriend them... well, let's just say he's like the artillery behind the front lines, the air support behind the infantry, the siege tank. We're just there pecking at the enemy while the big guns tear them up. He's pretty indispensable. And while we're gone with our other investigators, or returned to base sleeping, he's still there up all night, firing away, answering all of there questions.
Yeah, he's awesome.
Then there's President Typ. He is so good at explaining doctrines to understanding. We bring him to the most desperate situations. If someone just doesn't understand or if they are starting to waver in their conviction, that's when we send him in. By the end the investigators are enlightened. You could compare him to our yamato cannon... our golden gun.
Something interesting about Thai people in general is that they understand through comparisons. That's one of the reasons why President Typ. is so good.
I have some more experiences I'd like to share but like that guy that failed at Jeopardy, I'm just out of time.
Love,
Elder Lilly
I'm still doing good.
The day before the baptism of Sang and Naa, there was a fight. Perhaps a combination of hormones from pregnancy and the work of the adversary brought Sang and Naa to tears. Naa threatened to quit. Leave. Forget everything and get an abortion. Families are much more difficult to teach because of the split focus between the needs of the people. But in this case the miracle of family came through. Sang assured Naa that on the morrow they were going to be reborn and start a new life. Families can pull each other together where the missionaries would be useless. The same goes for member friends. If Sang didn't have Naa he wouldn't have made. If Naa didn't have Sang, she wouldn't have made it. Yet they both pulled through and supported each other. Now they are doing awesome, happier than ever. With brother Auri helping teach and befriend them... well, let's just say he's like the artillery behind the front lines, the air support behind the infantry, the siege tank. We're just there pecking at the enemy while the big guns tear them up. He's pretty indispensable. And while we're gone with our other investigators, or returned to base sleeping, he's still there up all night, firing away, answering all of there questions.
Yeah, he's awesome.
Then there's President Typ. He is so good at explaining doctrines to understanding. We bring him to the most desperate situations. If someone just doesn't understand or if they are starting to waver in their conviction, that's when we send him in. By the end the investigators are enlightened. You could compare him to our yamato cannon... our golden gun.
Something interesting about Thai people in general is that they understand through comparisons. That's one of the reasons why President Typ. is so good.
I have some more experiences I'd like to share but like that guy that failed at Jeopardy, I'm just out of time.
Love,
Elder Lilly
Jan 7, 2009
Happy New Year!
Dear Family,
Sadly this ones going to be short. Today was another zone activity. I reaaaaaaaallly wanted to write letters to ever one all day but keeping unity in the zone is more important. I'll have to write you all next week!
There's a ton of things I would like to say. Us missionaries in Thailand cannot go tracting door to door because it's against the law in Thailand. It's not just a mission rule, I discovered. Elder Ewing and I are still doing great. I started speaking only in Thai. It's been about a week now and I have almost only spoken in Thai, a task not very easy. My biggest goal for the New year,besides doing my best every day, is to follow Preach My Gospel. Preach my Gospel comes to us through the apostles and the Prophet. I firmly believe that it is the will of the Lord and the way that He wants us to do missionary work. So, to accomplish this goal I started to study Preach my Gospel and write down all of the things I need to do from it. Among those is speaking the mission Language as much as possible. So, I'm doing it. Already it's been quite the blessing. Elder Blackhurst and I switched off together yesterday. He is the MTC group behind me, so basically he's still struggling to understand much less speak. And being in my area the burden of leading and talking came to me. What a blessing it was to find that I could understand the people that I talked to and even taught the whole first lesson to a new investigator. It was Awesome. But don't think that I was the only one teaching. Elder Blackhurst is doing great (even if he does like to beat on himself) and I made sure that we both had opportunities to bear testimony. Being on a mission has certainly helped my to see clearly what is truly important in life (people).
Sang and Naa are even more awesome as members now, born again and given the gift of the Holy ghost. They told us that they were willing to go teaching with us! That is a true testimony and understanding of the gospel.
We have some new investigators too. :D
Another goal of mine is to build unity in my companionship, district, and zone, and Ward/Branch. We asked for a list of the ward members and their callings and we are working on memorizing them all. We asked for our zones investigators names. We asked for Elder Miles and Blackhursts investigators too. That we we can pray for them all and have power in our prayers. I really want to strive to focus on a section in Preach my Gospel called the Christ like Attributes. No matter how much I work on other things these are always more important. No matter how much I work on these things, I can never be satisfied where I am. I think If we truly understood the Atonement and the Love of Christ it would drive us to change and to act much more than we imagine. When you think you REEEEAAALlly love someone, it's amazing that you can always love them more.
Anyway, I am out of time and a bit beyond. Now I need to be off and teach English once again (every Wednesday eve).
I LOVE YOU ALL,
Elder Lilly
P.S. I happily removed money from my account and am working on getting some new pants tailored. Guys I've eaten too much rice, it's starting to show. Haha I meant to say guess not guys. Oh well.
Sadly this ones going to be short. Today was another zone activity. I reaaaaaaaallly wanted to write letters to ever one all day but keeping unity in the zone is more important. I'll have to write you all next week!
There's a ton of things I would like to say. Us missionaries in Thailand cannot go tracting door to door because it's against the law in Thailand. It's not just a mission rule, I discovered. Elder Ewing and I are still doing great. I started speaking only in Thai. It's been about a week now and I have almost only spoken in Thai, a task not very easy. My biggest goal for the New year,besides doing my best every day, is to follow Preach My Gospel. Preach my Gospel comes to us through the apostles and the Prophet. I firmly believe that it is the will of the Lord and the way that He wants us to do missionary work. So, to accomplish this goal I started to study Preach my Gospel and write down all of the things I need to do from it. Among those is speaking the mission Language as much as possible. So, I'm doing it. Already it's been quite the blessing. Elder Blackhurst and I switched off together yesterday. He is the MTC group behind me, so basically he's still struggling to understand much less speak. And being in my area the burden of leading and talking came to me. What a blessing it was to find that I could understand the people that I talked to and even taught the whole first lesson to a new investigator. It was Awesome. But don't think that I was the only one teaching. Elder Blackhurst is doing great (even if he does like to beat on himself) and I made sure that we both had opportunities to bear testimony. Being on a mission has certainly helped my to see clearly what is truly important in life (people).
Sang and Naa are even more awesome as members now, born again and given the gift of the Holy ghost. They told us that they were willing to go teaching with us! That is a true testimony and understanding of the gospel.
We have some new investigators too. :D
Another goal of mine is to build unity in my companionship, district, and zone, and Ward/Branch. We asked for a list of the ward members and their callings and we are working on memorizing them all. We asked for our zones investigators names. We asked for Elder Miles and Blackhursts investigators too. That we we can pray for them all and have power in our prayers. I really want to strive to focus on a section in Preach my Gospel called the Christ like Attributes. No matter how much I work on other things these are always more important. No matter how much I work on these things, I can never be satisfied where I am. I think If we truly understood the Atonement and the Love of Christ it would drive us to change and to act much more than we imagine. When you think you REEEEAAALlly love someone, it's amazing that you can always love them more.
Anyway, I am out of time and a bit beyond. Now I need to be off and teach English once again (every Wednesday eve).
I LOVE YOU ALL,
Elder Lilly
P.S. I happily removed money from my account and am working on getting some new pants tailored. Guys I've eaten too much rice, it's starting to show. Haha I meant to say guess not guys. Oh well.
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