Life is great. Candy is sweet.

Dear Family,

 

Thanks for the pictures (from Crystal). 

I was able to print the article that you sent. I really enjoyed that talk. 

 

Life as a Zone Leader is quite different from life as a District leader. Personally, I really enjoyed being a district leader. I felt like my district was like my little family here in Thailand. We were blessed with many mighty miracles in our District. As a zone leader, our influence isn't quite as personal, but we do get to switch-off with every companionship each moves. One week of being a zone leader was good. Next week will be even better. There are five districts in the Ubon Zone, and ten companionships (that's a lot).

 

Right now I am serving in Eastern Thailand which is much different than Central Thailand. The majority of the people speak Isan/Lao, which is a different dialect of Thai. Luckily most people speak the central Thai language as well.  The Isan tones are way different than the Central Thai tones. 

 

Elder Piduporn and I switch-off with other districts about twice each week. The furthest district away from us takes about four to five hours of travel time to get there. So... we do a lot of traveling.

 

I really like how that after we had set a vision for our zone, and set a vision together as a district, that immediately the atmosphere changed and we noticed how the Lord was preparing a way for the vision to be accomplished.  When we gathered together for our normal district meeting we opened with a song and a prayer. But there was a special feeling of unity and strength as we knelt together one more time and prayed specifically for help in setting the vision for our area. I feel like the Lord accepted our prayer and the vision that we set together was revelation concerning the potential of our area. Now we have a written vision, goals, and plans that we will follow. It's a good feeling.

 

The Church is true!

 

As I was studying Preach my Gospel I noticed that in the Scriptures all of the Prophets testified of Christ. Naturally, they would. But even if they were explaining another principle of the Gospel they always testified of Christ. Sometimes as missionaries when we go out and invite it's tempting to sort of advertise the Book of Mormon (which we give out for free) and miss out on the opportunity to testify of Christ. But really, without Christ the book of Mormon would be nothing. But as we testify of Christ in connection to the Book of Mormon or vise verse, then we have more of an opportunity to invite with the Spirit and with Power.

 

I am enjoying my time here while it lasts. Thailand is a great place. They call it "The land of smile." I think that's very appropriate. Especially since most people struggle to pronounce the "s" at the end of a word.

 

Keep on working hard every day. I love you all,

 

-Elder Lilly

Dear Family,

This one will be short.

So, here's the news. Firstly I must say Happy Birthday to Dad and Justin. I'm glad you all had a fun time. HAPPY BIRTHDAY. That goes to Rose too. Also, I must say thanks to Rose, I got her letter. I thought that was sweet. Also I got an unexpected package from Nanna and Aaron. YESSSSSSSSssss. Life is good. Elder Tom thought it was funny a few weeks ago when the mail came in a huge envelope and I made a show by punching my arm through it because it was empty except for the usual 24-month list. I wasn't really upset of course. It was good fun. He threatened to pray that I didn't get mail again in hopes that the envelope would suffer the same fate. I told him that he didn't need to pray. Heh heh

Now I am in Srisaket. My companions name is Elder Pituporn. Yessss, another Thai companion. President called us to be the Zone leaders over the Ubon Zone. We are working our hearts out. This will be an excellent moves. We will be switching-off with the Ubon district already, tomorrow. I have a feeling that time is going to start flying by even faster.

I love you all,

Elder Lilly

To my Loved ones

Dear Family,

Thanks for the words from Elder Busche's talk. That was an answer to my prayer for help. If you could send me a copy of the talk that would be very appreciated.

Being on a mission has helped me to maintain an Eternal perspective. It has helped me to notice the times that I am the most happy. It has helped me to prepare for the obvious difficulties that are coming up ahead. As I walk through the neighborhood I have opportunities to see all kinds of people and their life styles. I know which kind of life style I want to maintain. I know that the only way to truly be safe and receive a fulness of joy is through obeying the promptings of the Spirit.
I like Joseph Smith's teachings about revelation. He said that we need to obey the first promptings of the Spirit until a principal of revelation has developed in us. He also added that we should wake up every morning and dedicate ourselves to the Lord.

I believe that every moment of life is a trial that is pointing us to Eternal life. If we ask ourselves always what is it that God want's me to learn from this experience, then I believe our progression will accelerate much faster. I believe that the Lord can do mighty miracles. The Lord created the Earth, He created us, Through His Spirit He knows everything and has influence everywhere at the same time. Some of these things are hard to wrap our minds around, but that's okay. The Lord has given us His Spirit as our guide. That's pretty special.

I hope that our family will focus on an Eternal Perspective. Because today is a part of Eternity. And there's nothing else more satisfying, exalting, sacred, exciting our real than obeying God and His Holy Spirit.

Lets not waste time.

Love,
Elder Lilly

minakom

Dear Family,

I love cookies. Nom Nom Nom Sister Akagi's birthday is coming up this thursday. We might make some cookies to celebrate the occation.

The work in Korat is doing very well. The Lord has really blessed us with a lot of work. Sometimes we have little time to eat Lunch/dinner. Then usually we use the times that we are eating to call investigators.

I think I understand just a little bit more about the Lord's power to accomplish miracles. When we increase our worthiness, our faith, our holiness before the Lord, and our obedience to his commandments then the blessings that He gives us are, as the scriptures would say, exceedingly great.

Our lives are like working in God's Company. Everyone is a worker but our pay each day isn't equal. If we increase the quality of our work just a little bit then our pay will increase seven fold. God blesses us according to our work.

With that in mind we can ask ourselves how much money do we want to earn? How much are we willing to work?

The times when I am the happiest is when I forget myself and work with all my heart, might, mind and strength. That's when the blessings are awesome.

President Smith changed our schedule. We now wake up at 6:00am and go to bed at 10:00pm. Then we study during the middle of the day when it is the hottest outside and go out in the mornings and evenings. I like the new schedule. I really like the mornings.

Elder Tom and I have been finding a lot of success by parking our bikes at home and inviting by foot around the house and around the church. We've been walking through neighborhoods too.

Life is great. Cookies are delicious.

:Love Elder Lilly

Dear Family,

Sunday was another excellent Sabbath day. Tia and Mint were confirmed members and given the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Elder Tom and I were super busy after church preparing for ward counsel meeting and other events. During ward counsel we reviewed the progression of the five families that we selected to go out and help. As a missionary we help in teaching less active families too. But now we will no longer teach any less active families other than the ones that we receive from ward counsel meeting. That puts even more necessity to getting the system working properly because it's up to the members to visit these families first and then go with us to teach them together.

One important thing that I've learned from my mission is missionary work. I realize how uninformed I was about missionary work, missionaries role, member's roles and how the system is supposed to work.  Now I understand.  Now I can support the system.

We're pretty close to getting home teaching up and going.

After church on Sunday we went out with Brother O and taught a new family of 3. During the lesson the father and the mother set a goal to get Baptized. They are started off on the path of righteousness. That rocks.

I love after reading the scriptures and applying them in my work how applying the scriptures helps me to understand them even more. It puts new meaning to the scriptures. One thing that I've learned to do is to analyze what I did during the day and ask myself what the Lord wanted me to learn from each of the different experiences that I've had. Sometimes the investigators that we had been teaching for a while stop progressing. Sometimes that happens to the point that we need to stop teaching them completely. But after every time and every lesson when we analyze how it went there's always something that we learned from teaching them. We get better and better at analyzing and teaching.

It's been quite an adventure teaching Tia. I watched how his family helps to take care of him. They use several different techniques and tricks that help improve his memory and his health. They use an assortment of herbs such as Alfalfa instead of medicine. Their family doesn't have a job but the Lord really does take care of them. They put their trust in the Lord and they do only His work. They are good examples of applying the Gospel truths into their lives.

Elder Tom and I were were making dinner together. Elder Tom was impressed at all of the different sauces that I made from mixing ingredients that we had around the house. He started making his own. His tasted like top romin.

Love Ya
Elder Lilly