Happy Birthday Jared

Dear Family,

Things are going well in Thailand. Yesterday we had two great baptisms, Tia and Mint. One 87 years old (going on 88!) and the other 16 years old. I had the privelage of interviewing Mint for the Baptism. That was an easy interview, she was ready.
Tia came out of the Baptismal font smiling. He knows that he was spiritually reborn. I couldn't help but smile as he came back to sit down on the stand. His son Baptized him. They both did great. Then I had the opportunity to Baptise Mint. I was happy that she went all the way under the water the first time. It all went quite smoothly.
This next Sunday is our stake conference. We will all be meeting at the church at 5:00am in order to get the conference in time. We won't get back home to Korat until about 6:00pm. Stake conference is always a good opportunity to be spiritually fed and it helps the recent converts to recognize that there really are a lot of Latter-day saints in the Church
in Thailand.  Korat especially has a lot of people. Last week there were 81 people at church. Ayutthaya was in the 40's-50's on a good day.

I am impressed at how much there is to learn from the modern day Prophets. There are 16 of them. Each of them taught pure doctrine, and lived lives as Christ's representative. They all came from different circumstances too. One had to schooling, another had no money, another was really successful finantially. Which one do we connect the most with? What can we learn from their examples? I always wondered how Christ would be if He were here in our times of modern technology. The Prophet is probably the closest to that answer.

Something else that I've been consitering is about the use faith and belief. There truly is such thing as excercizing faith and showing faith. Sometimes we need to choose how we are going to use or apply our Faith in Jesus Christ. Some people showed their faith by asking for strength in battle, others showed their faith in sacrificing war and even their lives in service in order to serve God and be saved in His Kingdom. Both groups must first believe that the Lord will help and support them in the things that they ask from Him before they go out and do it. Surely if we are worthy of the spirit and we ask by the Spirit then God will support us. One of our investigators, the name's Noeng, works as a shoe Tailor. For about three years as he worked he would listen to Buddhits priests teach. Now we are teaching him. He asked us some interesting questions. As I was consitering his needs I believed that God could and would prepare an answer that could help him. Elder Tom and I got that answer. If we didn't believe that God would help us in this way, we wouldnt've studied about it, and the answer wouldnt've come as it did. I suppose it's another confirmation of how faith is a choice and that we can indeed excersize our faith. Now I feel much more prepared to teach him.

There's a lot to learn.

Keep being the awesome people that you are, and study the scriptures! Maybe we won't have to wait for Eternal life, maybe we can enjoy it now. That sound's like a big challenge. But that's what lifes about right?

Love ya tons,

-Elder Lilly